CSI:New York

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Fare Game

Written By Zachary Reiter and Peter Lenkov
Directed by Kevin Dowling

When a young man is found shot to death in front of a Samuel Cooper’s grave, the CSIs first goal is to determine the relationship between the deceased. From her initial search, Stella finds balloon remnants at the scene of the crime, but she fails to find the bullet.

Mac and Lindsay head to the victim’s apartment where they find a booby-trapped window, and a laser trip wire. Obviously, the victim was afraid of someone entering his home. Later, Mac finds a manila envelope with RIP written on it. The envelope contains four photos with large Xs written on them. While, Lindsay finds the victim’s business card and deduces that he was a wedding planner. Lindsey heads to the victim’s office and finds that it is set up as a casting office. She finds another four photos with Xs on them. Meanwhile, Stella deduces that the killer used a blank gun; at close range, the gasses from the blank generated enough kinetic energy to cause a fatal wound. Reporting on her search, Lindsay tells Mac and Stella that their victim was not only a wedding planner, but a travel agent and casting director too. Lindsay also finds a balloon in his office. Meanwhile, Flack hunts down a young girl that was at the scene of the crime. When he pins her against the wall, she confesses that both her and the victim are involved in the water gun war. With 100 participants, a supreme commander gives his cronies a list of people to gun down. The water-gun assassin with the most creative “kill,” receives $100,000. Mac and Stella realize that the gun-toting assassin they’re looking for took the game quite a bit further.

Across town, Danny and Hawkes stand over the body of Kathleen Dunley who was found dead in her bedroom; her hands bound with a bowtie. Danny notices a dark red stain on the bed sheet, as well as in the victim’s mouth. Back at the lab, Hawkes finds peanut oil traces from prints taken at the scene of the crime. After examining the contents of the victim’s stomach, Sid confirms that the cause of death was asphyxiation. Something inside the victim’s mouth blocked her airway. Sid found trauma to the victim’s tongue and two dozen eggs in her eardrum. Her stomach contained water bugs, duck fetus and whale bacon; each element points to exotic cuisine. Flour is also found on the victim’s head. Hot on the trail, Detective Maka finds a suspect who sent the victim flowers: baker Michel Hetu. It seems the victim sued Michel for food poisoning a while back. The settlement totaled a whopping $500,000.

Danny and Hawkes question Michel, and they also head to the kitchen to interrogate exotic food chef Tony Collins. The CSIs find out that Kathleen also sued Collins a while back; causing his successful San Francisco restaurant to close. Collins tells the CSIs that Kathleen dined at his New York restaurant last night and was accompanied by a rather large date. Danny concludes that Kathleen’s date could be the owner of the rather large bowtie found at the scene. With three suspects on the radar, the CSIs wonder which one was responsible for Kathleen’s revolting death.