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“I care about the dead because they can’t speak for themselves. The living are on their own.”
- Megan
We begin at night, and the camera pans over a car until there is a loud gunshot. Night melds into day and, Megan shows up and is greeted by Peter. She’s surprised to see Detective Morris and Baker again. She wasn’t expecting to work a second case with them so soon. The victims for the episode are an interracial couple; Dave and Linda. It appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder –suicide but Megan quickly dispels the theory. She points out that Dave was left handed (based on calluses and bruises on his left hand and the fact that his wallet was in his left back pocket) and since the gun was in his right hand, he couldn’t have done it.
As they leave the scene, Megan calls Lacey to see if she wanted to spend time together and they end up deciding on lunch the next day (Lacey doesn’t sound too thrilled). It doesn’t help that it seems Megan’s hands are acting up again. Megan fills Peter in on the birthday present and cake from the episode before and that she’s trying to get a life (despite Peter telling her to take it slow). Back at the lab, Kate tells Megan to bring Ethan and Curtis on for the case. Peter points out it probably wasn’t a coincidence that Baker and Morris were assigned to them. Kate figured it would be easier to keep Megan contained if she was only knocking heads with two detectives instead of the whole department. I have to say, it was probably a smart move on Kate’s part.
During autopsy, Morris is his usual impatient self. He wants the bullets so he can close the case (he’s still rooting for murder-suicide). Too bad Megan’s in no hurry. It turns out Dave and Linda were an unlikely pair. One came from a rich family and went to a prestigious college while the other came from an immigrant family and joined the navy. Megan and company determine that Linda had a previous spinal injury that .left scarring and had hair extensions that left permanent damage to her scalp. Dave wasn’t without his own story to tell. There was a rough patch on his arm. And then there’s the matter of two bullets in Dave’s head. It’s pretty impossible to shoot yourself in the head twice. They’re definitely dealing with a double homicide.
After a little digging the team finds out that Linda suffered a tragic car accident several years earlier that broke her neck in three places. And Ethan discovered signs of potential alcoholism or bulimia. Dave had been complaining about breathing issues shortly before his death. Megan dispenses Curtis and Ethan to figure out what was causing Dave’s lung issues, and Peter gets Morris and Baker to figure out where the couple’s last meal (burgers and green fries) came from. It seems our charming detectives may be on to something when Morris remembers there’s a place nearby that on weekends is crazy and servers burgers, fries and water ice.
Back at the lab, Kate is meeting with Linda’s parents. Megan joins them, and after hearing that Linda’s parents blame Dave, explains that it was a double homicide. She tries to get as much info out of them as she can, and she gets a name; Brian. He was Linda’s most recent boyfriend (even though she ended it three months earlier). He did own a restaurant that Linda worked at. After Linda’s parents leave, Megan fills Kate in on what the police are doing, and upon Kate’s direction, she and Peter go to check out Brian. He’s a total jerk. He says that he hasn’t seen Linda in months and he never met Dave. Peter tries to keep Brian occupied while Megan talks to the newest hostess, Nina. It’s pretty obvious Nina is scared of Brian. But before Megan can get much information, Brian kicks them out.
Meanwhile, Morris and Baker are following up on a lead of their own. A guy named Eric Singleton was seen arguing with Dave. It turns out Eric didn’t like that Dave was with a black girl (oh white supremacist bullshit). Eric’s mouth gets him in trouble with Sam. She doesn’t take kindly to him trash talking African American women and shoves him up against a wall and searches him (presumably a Terry frisk since it is unlikely at this point they have probable cause). She ends up finding a giant bruise on Eric’s ribs. Looks like they did more than talk. Dave landed a pretty good blow.
Peter and Megan stop off at Lacey’s riding lesson so Megan can say hi. Peter warns her that it’s not a good idea to push Lacey. After all, she’s only just starting to open up after five years of blaming her mom for the divorce. Things go horribly. Lacey is pissed that her mom showed up and rides off before Megan say anything. Family drama will have to take a back seat, unfortunately. Curtis confirms that Linda had bulimia but only for a short time (likely after she started working for Brian). And Megan proves Dave was at the restaurant the night he and Linda died. He had residue from the materials Brian used to clean his bar on his arm.
Megan, Peter, Kate, Morris and Baker have a little pow wow to catch up on the case, and after Megan fills them in on Linda’s condition and the fact that Dave was at Brian’s restaurant the night of the murder, they head over to have another chat. It doesn’t really go well. They leave with a shaky alibi for Brian. He was with Nina (or so she says). Morris is still insisting their skinhead Eric is the perp, but Megan is free to continue pursuing Brian if she wants. And she will. She plans on using Peter to get Nina away from Brian. Meanwhile, Ethan’s figured out that Dave was suffering from asbestos in his lungs. He drags Curtis to Dave’s latest construction job and they scoop up some soil samples to test back at the lab. They barely make it out of there before two burly construction workers come chasing after them.
Megan gets her lunch with Lacey, but it goes about as well as showing up at the riding lesson. Lacey isn’t ready to bond with her mom and leaves. She’s kind of moody for a twelve-year-old. It seems that Peter has a way with things regarding Lacey. He was right about what Megan should get her for her birthday and he was right about not pushing things. He’s a smart guy, that medical legal investigator! As Megan sits there and wipes at her eyes, she smudges her makeup. Breakthrough! She discovers the killer closed Linda’s eyes, leaving behind gunshot residue and DNA.
Megan’s plan to get Nina away from Brian is in motion, and she needs Kate’s help to pull it off. Meanwhile, Morris and Baker have Lonnie (an associate of Eric’s) in for questioning, and they learn that shortly before they arrived the previous day, Eric had ditched his jacket with blood on it. Now that’s what you call probable cause. They find the jacket in a dumpster and match the blood to Linda. Peter calls Brian’s restaurant and tells Nina that Brian’s house is on fire. It works. He convinces Linda to go with him to the morgue. And Megan and Kate introduce Nina to Linda. They convince Nina to leave Brian and go to a shelter to get away from Brian. But the truth is, he was with her at the time of the murders. I have to say I was pleased with the increased amount of Jeri Ryan in this episode. It almost made up for the lack of Sherlock-ness on Megan’s part.
Curtis and Ethan confirm that the asbestos in Dave’s lungs came from the job site. So Megan sends Ethan and Peter to investigate while she sits in with Kate and Linda’s mom. Megan explains that they know Linda was bulimic and had hair extensions. The main thrust of the conversation revealed that Linda’s mom knew they were wrong about Dave. He showed up at their house and asked to marry Linda. They said no. Peter confronts the foreman at the construction site and says the EPA is on their way to handle the violation. Peter discovers that Dave asked his boss for an advance to buy an engagement ring. A ring that the cops find at Eric’s apartment. He admits he followed them to the murder scene but Linda and Dave were already dead. Peter asks how lunch went (and mentioned that her hand problems are probably psychosomatic). Megan isn’t pleased and gets defensive. And then she kind of breaks down when she demands to know when she gave up the right to be involved in her daughter’s life. Curtis interrupts the moment saying that the DNA results from Linda’s eyelids came back. Now they just need someone to compare it to.
While watching Eric’s interrogation, Megan has a revelation. Tears could have made the makeup smudge. Kate tells Linda’s parents they can come pick up their daughter and in short order, Megan explains that it was Linda’s dad who killed her. He didn’t mean to but he got scared and the gun went off. Then he killed Dave and then shot him a second time to make it look like a murder-suicide. I don’t know whether to laugh or not that the show has a formula already (two red herrings followed by the reveal at the end by Megan). That night after the case is closed; Megan calls Lacey and leaves her a message. She got what Lacey was saying and will give her time and space and will wait for Lacey to be ready to spend time together. Lacey hears it and it looks like Megan may have begun to rebuild the bridge with her daughter.
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