CSI:New York

Season 3 - Episode 1 - People with Money

Written by Pam Veasey and Peter M. Lenkov
Directed by Rob Bailey

Starring Claire Forlani, Robert Joy, Emmanuelle Vaugier, A. J. Buckley
and Michael Nouri

Cassidy Daniels and Trey Foster head to the Brooklyn Bridge for a session of bungee sex, and unfortunately cross paths with a stab victim during their fling. Daniels and Foster make an anonymous call to the police, and the team arrives at the scene. Flack notes that the murder weapon is a ceramic statue of liberty souvenir. The team also notes that directly across from the murder scene is a high-rise with the words “will you marry me” in lights. The victim’s girlfriend is identified as Erica Lancaster. Lindsay bags a cigarette butt with lipstick trace on it. Stella finds a partial print on the murder weapon. Mac hunts down Erica for questioning. Erica says that her boyfriend was supposed to pick her up at the airport late that night, and never showed up. Mac also notices a patch on the suspect, which Erica says is to treat a spider bite. He takes prints of her ring, which is a size too small. Mac postulates that the victim bought the ring for someone else and was going to meet her on the bridge that night to propose, and then later have a “talk” with Erica. Peyton later realizes that a Danica Wade died on the bridge that same night by drowning; hours before the male victim. She also traces the lipstick mark to a pregnant woman. When the team realizes that there are traces of dynamite on the victim’s tie, Lindsay points out that dynamite is used to treat spider bites in some cases placing Erica at the scene. The team struggles to get to the bottom of the tragic love triangle. However, when Daniels’ earring is considered evidence, the promiscuous bungee jumper enters the suspect pool.

Across town, Hawkes and Messer find a young heiress dead in her upscale penthouse with what appears to be tiny throw pillows on her hands. Her best friend Margo Demme attests to having found her. Hawkes and Messer photograph the remaining party debris found in the penthouse including a bottle of tequila, and a margarita glass with salt on the rim. Danny finds blood on a woman’s coat and a large sum of money. Sid confirms that the cause of death was blunt force trauma, although the victim appears to have been beat up by someone with small hands before she died. He also finds a tongue print on the victim’s navel, and proof that she ingested acid. Danny takes to the streets, and hunts down the victim’s drug dealer who confesses to being at the club on the night of her death. Danny takes a cast of his tongue and fists. Back at the lab, lab technician Adam Ross realizes that the saliva found on the margarita glass was from two males and two females. The blood found on the jacket was not from the victim, but someone else. He also confirms that the blood from the jacket and the saliva from the glass are a match to Clarence Rome. Clarence confesses that he is Margo’s bodyguard and fought Vanessa’s bodyguard as the ladies instructed thus confessing that the blood on her jacket could have been his. Danny also hunts down the victim’s bodyguard who confesses that he fought Clarence that night in the victim’s apartment. With a few suspects on their hands, the CSIs have to prove if the killer is the victim’s friend, a money-hungry bodyguard or the suspicious drug dealer.