CSI:New York

Season 3 - Episode 16 - Heart of Glass

Written by Bill Haynes & Pam Veasey
Director David Jackson

Danny, Mac and Peyton arrive at a crime scene at a high-end apartment where they find a dead young woman in a bathtub filled with red rose petals. Blood is seeping from a head injury and there is a lipstick note written on the mirror, which reads: “I love you, DL,” however the L is smeared. After searching the apartment, it is clear that their victim Diane Langston was expecting her lover as she poured two glasses of champagne. Danny believes that only one person lives at the apartment as there is only one robe, toothbrush and razor. There is no sign of forced entry or struggle marks on the victim. However, when Mac sees that there are paint flecks on Diane’s credit card he notes that she used it as a universal key to enter. Back at the station, Detective Angell notes that the apartment is leased by a DJ Melvoy who had a restraining order against Diane. However, things get tricky when Mac pulls a metal fragment from the bathtub. His first thought is that she was shot, however she has no entry or exit wounds on her body. Danny interviews DJ’s neighbors who say they didn’t hear gunshot. After interviewing another neighbor, Danny realizes that a Justin McKinney is subletting DJ’s place. Justin says he never knew the victim. Back at the lab, Peyton confirms that the victim died of a broken heart, technically called Cardiomyopathy, in which emotional stress can lead to heart muscle weakness. However, she also realizes that the victim was electrocuted. The team questions whether the victim died on accident or whether her love interest was behind the murder.

Across town, Stella and Flack investigate the death of a young music mogul who fell face first into his tropical fish aquarium. She and Flack find the victim in a mess of blood, glass shards and dead fish. His sister states that a woman that was five-foot-four, blonde and with a medium build broke into the apartment and killed her brother. A scar on the victim’s jaw dates back to a car accident that he and his sister were in. Mac arrives at the scene and takes the victim’s sister Kennedy’s prints. While processing the scene, Stella cuts herself on a shard of glass unbeknownst to the team. Later, she realizes that the victim is HIV positive. Meanwhile, Hawkes questions one of the victim’s old clients- a promising musician named Becca who traded her fame for drugs. Hawkes notices that she has cuts on her hands. However, when Flack hunts down information that says the victim had a two million dollar insurance policy that would go to his sister if he died, the team wonders if Kennedy is to blame.