CSI:New York

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Love Run Cold

Written by Timothy J. Lea
Directed by Tim Iacofano
Starring: Robert Joy

Against the backdrop of a Buri Vodka product release party with a winter wonderland theme, the team finds that the ice queen has been stabbed with her ice scepter in her downstairs’ lair. Mac and Lindsay must keep the crime scene, which consists of an ice cave, cold if they are to obtain evidence. Lindsay finds a wad of gum, a compact and a print on the scepter. The victim’s boyfriend Liam says that he was staying with his parents in upstate New York when he returned to the city to find her dead. Another waitress Jennifer found the victim first. While investigating the crime scene, Danny finds an open safety pin with a speck of blood on it. Lindsay collects feathers from the floor, and notes that the waitresses’ costumes had feathers on them. Sid confirms that the victim’s blood alcohol level was zero percent, but her stomach was filled with vodka. The team believes she was stabbed with the scepter which was really a vodka bottle made of ice. Meanwhile, Danny questions a waiter named Colin who was apparently watching the victim from a peephole in her dressing room on the night of the murder. Lindsay finds traces of nicotine and spearmint on the gum wad and ties it to Jennifer. Jennifer admits that she went into the victim’s dressing room and fought with her hours before her death; jealous that she received the title of ice queen. However, when Lindsay and Danny speak with the victim’s boyfriend they realize that their relationship was on the rocks- much to Liam’s chagrin. Did the jealous ice princess murder the queen or is the disenchanted boyfriend to blame?

Across town, Mac and Stella find runner Owen Reid lying in a pool of his own blood next to a marathon track. There is a greasy handprint smeared with blood on his back. Hawkes confirms that the brightness of the blood and lividity of the face are classic signs for cyanide poisoning. Mac believes that someone from the aid station handing out water might be to blame. He finds a nozzle from an air canister on the track. However, Sid confirms that the cause of death is not cyanide poisoning, but perhaps carbon monoxide poisoning. Stella finds fish eggs on the victim. Stella gets a hold of a Michael Gibson who ran with Owen in the race. She found blood on his shirt when he crossed the finish line. Michael says he used Vaseline to cure the chafing on his body, and slapped Owen on the back when he passed him transferring his handprint with grease and blood. Stella and Mac also interrogate a wheelchair-bound man named Richard who participated in the race. Richard says that he was hit a few years ago and could never walk again; he also says that he fell down when in the race. With adequate research, the team realizes that Owen hit Richard and paralyzed him for life. Hawkes confirms that there are animal bite marks on the nozzle from a Sicilian wild cat. Stella finds a list of all the people who own the illegal cats. Stella questions Heather Ryan who says she had one of these cats, but he died just recently. She points Stella to the area where her cat is buried. Stella asks to dig up the cat, and notices a screen from Heather’s neighbor’s window that the cat must have scratched. Hawkes confirms that the cat’s cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning. When Stella searches the neighbor’s apartment she finds the air canister and fish eggs from sushi, proving that the neighbor killed Owen. Stella tries to detect the motive behind the crime.