CSI:New York

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Not What it Looks Like

Written by Peter M. Lenkov & Pam Veasey
Directed by Duane Clark
Starring Claire Forlani

Three Holly Golightly look-alikes raid a jewelry store; pulling BPS shotguns out of their “I Love NY” bags. Holly #2 blacks out the surveillance camera with spray paint while the shoppers hit the ground as advised. A prim lap dog howls, and the display cabinets burst open allowing the Holly’s to go on a shopping spree. Holly #1 and a security guard start a brawl, and she hammers him with her weapon sending him to the ground. The ladies take this as a cue to depart. Stella and Lindsay find a salesman in a pool of glass and blood; dead. Stella notes from fire marks on the floor that the death was accidental; she also notes that one of the suspects’ names is Beth. After the incident, the team questions the frightened shoppers: twenty-two year old Eve Demming, an elderly woman, a trophy wife, and an Adir Mobutu. Flack detects a broken ventilation draft that was used as an escape route by the criminals. Meanwhile, Dr. Hawkes discovers a trace on the blue glove as well as blood denoting a Holly cut herself on the display glass. Flack finds a suspect downtown that is trying to pawn off a necklace that was stolen from the jewelry shop. It happens to be Eve who says she stole the necklace when it landed on the floor next to her during the robbery, and was going to have it appraised for the upperware party (jewelry soiree). Meanwhile, Hawkes determines that the blue trace on the glove is blueprint powder; he also notes that an engineering student had looked into the jewelry shops architectural plans, possibly to plan an escape route for the heist. Flack finds the female student shot to death in her apartment. Stella finds the sine wave generator in the victim’s closet that was used to break the display cases. Sid confirms that the rust trace material in the victims’ eye is red chrome pyrope; sediment found in the rivers of Congo. Stella reminds the group that the victim was stealing blood diamonds, which are found in this location. With one Holly dead and the other two missing, the team tries to map out what happened and why.

Across town, Mac finds a mummified corpse in a condemned apartment building. He also finds a ring; while Detective Angell believes the victim is a Pauline Rayburn. Peyton postulates that the victim has been dead for three weeks exactly; the same amount of time that her husband reported her missing. Later on, Peyton determines cause of death is heart attack. Mac believes that the victim was killed and then placed in the apartment. Careful not to break the evidence, Mac and Adam collect clues from the scene. Mac lifts a print from a Sal Bovado. Sal confesses that as a favor to a friend he dropped the already dead body off in the apartment. Sal confesses that this so-called friend is councilman Michael Rayburn: the victim’s husband who is known to engage in domestic violence. Meanwhile, Peyton realizes that the victim was placed next to an air conditioner in the apartment, and then heat which caused the mummification covered up the fact that the victim was struck in the jaw and neck area. The injuries caused stress to her carotid sinus which led to her heart attack. With the evidence of her medical death under their belts, Peyton and Mac struggle to identify Michael as the killer.