- Horatio Caine calls Las Vegas CSI Dr. Ray Langston to come to Miami when a severed leg found in the Everglades is discovered to belong to a girl who went missing in Las Vegas a week earlier.
- Miami would-be-model Ashley Tanner was murdered, as turns out carved up alive. She was tricked by fake agent Jimmy Burris, a ruthless pimp. The MO corresponds with a murder in Las Vegas, except another limb was severed. So CSI Dr. Ray Langston flies over to collaborate on the investigation. The instrument, a professional meat cleaver, is traced to butchery chain owner Nathan Cole, who is linked to Burris trough the vicious Zeta Boys gang. But it's more complicated, in fact not even limited to two murder scenes.—KGF Vissers
- A frantic middle-aged woman enters headquarters and starts screaming. "Someone help me, please!" the woman says. "My daughter is missing!" Turns out the daughter, Ashley, left a disturbing voice mail in which she begged for help. Mom gives Caine the girl's license number. Cue helicopters. Moments later, the car is found. "Let's go back to the scene and turn over every rock," Caine growls.
YEEE-OWWW! We dont get fooled again! No, no!
Cop cars and a Hummer race to the scene. It's a gas-mileage nightmare. Calleigh and Jesse photograph the car. No girl, but plenty of blood. Jesse notices a parking-lot stub. "That could be were she got the tire damage," Calleigh says. She then spots a pair of footprints in the mud. "Looks like she was fighting off a single attacker," Jesse explains. These two are quite a team. Walter, meanwhile, heads to the parking lot. "I think she ran over a spike strip," he explains to the valet, who remembers Ashley as a "hottie." The desk attendant is a bit more specific, saying Ashley had upgraded to a suite courtesy of Mr. Jimmy Burris. Ryan and Natalia head out to the hotel pool, where Jimmy is holding court with some beautiful ladies. "She's one of my girls," says the modeling agent. "She's a new recruit." Jimmy and the CSI gang head up to Ashley's room, but the girl isn't there. Natalia quickly discovers a plastic bag with a lipstick smear. "We had a little fun together," Jimmy snears. To prove it, Jimmy shows a cell-phone video of Ashley seductively sliding the plastic bag over her face. Yikes.
One montage set to strange dance music later, Natalia discovers DNA on a cigar stub in Ashley's room belongs to businessman Nick Cooper. He denies assaulting Ashley, although admits to purchasing her services. Turns out Jimmy isn't a modeling agent so much as he is a pimp. Just then, the team gets word that Ashley's credit card has been used at a nearby bar. Caine and Frank head out and discover a young couple drinking on Ashley's tab. "We found a purse lying in the grass," the girl explains. Later, Ryan and Walter discover a severed arm near where the purse was found. A birth mark proves that the arm belongs (or used to anyway) to Ashley. A few yards away, they find a leg. The only problem: it has been in the marsh for more than a week. "This leg doesn't belong to her," Ryan says. "This has gone from a missing person to a double murder." Caine breaks to the news to Ashley's mother in a slow-motion sequence with no dialogue. It's downright emotional for everyone.
Back at the lab, the tech has discovered that Ashley's arm was removed while she was still alive. Brutal. Jesse then theorizes that the bruise on the arm look to have come from a tire iron. Cut to the hotel, where Natalia quickly finds blood on a tire iron belonging to the valet. Flustered, he admits that Jimmy gave him money to flatten Ashleys tire's, but denies further wrongdoing. "He didn't want her to run!" the valet says. Caine takes both bums in for further questioning. But first, Calleigh notices a strange deposit of some sort on the severed leg. One quick test later, the results reveal evidence of salt flats and plutonium. There is only possible answer: a nuclear testing site from the 1950s. "So our girl spent time in the Nevada desert," Calleigh explains. So, naturally, she calls Dr. Ray Langston in Las Vegas. "Her name was Samantha Matthews," says Langston, who recognizes a small tattoo on the severed limb. "Her mother reported her missing 10 days ago." Both victims are from small towns and wanted to be models. "I'll be there as soon as I can," Langston says. Cue helicopter.
Moments later, Langston gets off the copter and shakes hands with Caine. Both wear sunglasses. It's something of a historic moment if you really, really, really like the "CSI" franchise. They quickly head to the marsh where the limbs were found. The two heavyweights find animal tracks. It appears body parts were dumped and animals dragged them away. "We need to expand this search," Caine growls. Back at the lab, Langston examines the leg. "We are looking for a cleaver, commercial grade," he says. "Perhaps we're looking for a butcher." Natalia quickly identifies a butcher who has restaurants in Miami and Las Vegas: Nathan Cole.
Caine and Langston pay Cole a visit. The suspect denies ever having seen the first victim -- much less cutting her up with the tools of his trade. The claim doesn't hold much water once Langston discovers blood on a cleaver. Protesting, Cole is hauled away. One montage set to more strange dance music later, Natalia discovers that the blood is too degraded to be matched to either of the two known victims. So, the team draws Cole's blood for testing. And the results? "Samantha Matthews had Hepatitis C," says Langston -- and so does Cole. It's a signature strain, so he must have gotten it from the dead girl. Caught, Cole spills it. Turns out Jimmy bankrolled Cole's first restaurant -- and the pimp still demands certain favors. "I cut her up, I did not kill her," says Cole, who claims Samantha was dead when he arrived in the Nevada desert. "She probably didn't want to turn tricks anymore." Alas, Caine and Langston believe the story, which means the killer is still out there. Which means Langston isn't leaving. Which makes Caine happy. Which all plays out very dramatically and in tight close ups.
Cut to the marsh, where Ryan and Walter search for more remains. Just then, a bear appears out of nowhere! It ROARS before being SHOT with a tranq gun by Jesse. Sure enough, the trio finds a female foot near the snoring animal. That foot is quickly sent back to the lab for a montage. One montage set to slightly more contemplative dance music later, Langston reports finding cuts consistent with a handsaw and pocket knife. "Ashley's killer used two weapons," he says. Caine suggests looking for DNA, which sets off another -- wait for it -- montage. One montage sent to oddball chorus music later, Natalia has a matches the DNA to --wait for it -- Jimmy!
Seconds later, Jimmy is back in the hot seat. In a FLASHBACK, we see him hitting Ashley with the tire iron and then cutting her up -- dripping sweat into her wounds in the process. It's gross. "You work for the Zetas, don't you?" Caine growls. "Avoid a date with the needle and testify." Jimmy explains that the Zetas run like a real business these days -- and can't be touched. Caine dismisses the man in disgust and turns to Langston. "But Dr. Ray, who dumped these bodies?" Caine growls. "It doesn't end here in Miami, does it?" With less than one minute remaining in the episode, we seriously doubt that it does.
To prove it, we cut to the young couple who had earlier been using Ashley's credit card. The girl appears scared. The boy is incredibly menacing (almost over-the-top so). As the episode ends, the girl clandestinely drops a paper towel with a note scrawled on it. It reads: "Help me. He's going to kill me." To be continued ...
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