Episode Synopsis
After a long day at work, Catherine Willows heads out to a local bar, the Highball, for a little relaxation. She meets a handsome stranger there and begins flirting with him. When she gets ready to leave, he writes his number on a matchbook for her and walks her out to her car. But when she resists going further than kissing, he gets angry with her and pushes her into her car door. She pushes him away and leaves, going home to sleep. Later she woken by a phone call from Grissom and leaves her daughter in the care of her mother.
When Catherine arrives at the scene, Grissom and Detective Vartann are standing over the body of Alice Granger, who is lying dead by her apartment building, her face covered by a coat, no purse or car in sight. David Phillips determines that she was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head. Catherine is shocked when Alice's car is found at the Highball, the very bar Catherine left hours before. Catherine finds a .22 Beretta in the car before going into the bar with Vartann to ask the bartender about Alice. The bartender tells them that she called Alice a cab when she was too drunk to drive home, and much to Catherine's gratitude, makes no mention of seeing Catherine in the bar earlier. At the morgue, Dr. Robbins pulls the bullet from Alice's head wound and hands it to Grissom, who notes that it's from a .25 caliber gun, not a .22. Robbins also notes that Alice was hit at close range, and points out scrapes on her knees that indicate she was probably kneeling when she was shot.
Gil Grissom: Did you hear the one about the cop and the monkey who walk into a bar?
Catherine Willows: I'm not in the mood.
Gil Grissom: Neither was the monkey.
Elsewhere in the lab, Catherine goes over Alice's clothes and finds some particulate on her jacket, which she sends to be analyzed. Sara finds a matchbook with a phone number on it, prompting Catherine to make an excuse to rush home to look for the matchbook the man in the bar gave her. While she's looking through her trash, her mother takes her to task for neglecting Lindsay. Catherine isn't able to find the matchbook. Back at the lab, Hodges has identified the substance on Alice's clothes as metals from automotive sheet metal. Alice did work at a car dealership. Greg identifies the murder weapon as a .25 Winchester, confirming that the gun in Alice's car is not the murder weapon. The gun in the car is registered to her brother Douglas, who tells the CSIs he gave his sister the gun after her ex-boyfriend, Jeff Simon, began stalking her.
Catherine and Vartann go to the auto shop where Jeff works to question him. He claims he hasn't seen Alice since she got a restraining order against him. They ask to see his truck, and he says fine, but asks them to tell Alice that he still loves her. When they tell him she's dead, he sits in shock. In his truck, Catherine finds a laptop computer with a GPS unit on it. When Grissom finds a tracker on Alice's car, Jeff is arrested. Jeff admits to being at the bar the night Alice was killed, but he claims he was trying to look out for her, and was following her to help her. He saw her get into a car with a man, but got pulled over while following them, He says he didn't protect her from the man who was with her, whom he describes as being slight, sleazy, dark-haired and wearing a leather jacket--just like the man Catherine flirted with. Mia has run the DNA from the case, but it has become contaminated with DNA from another case. Greg tells Catherine Jeff's alibi checked out; he was indeed pulled over that night. Sara tells Catherine that the man who wrote the phone number on the matchbook has been located and is on his way in.
Sure enough, the suspect turns out to be the man Catherine kissed in the parking lot, a lawyer named Adam Novak. Grissom and Vartann question him, and he admits to buying Alice a drink after he bought a redhead a drink, and as soon as he spots Catherine, he identifies her as the redhead. While Novak recounts his night at the bar, Grissom and Catherine watch from behind the glass. Grissom asks her about the bruise on her face and Catherine tells him it was an accident. In the interrogation room, Novak maintains his innocence and leaves to get a lawyer. Catherine details her encounter with Novak for Ecklie, who all but asks her directly if she had sex with the man. She says she didn't and notes that he went back into the bar. She theorizes that he may have picked up Alice after he returned to the Highball.
Warrick calls Catherine out on another case. Thirty-one-year-old Holly Pearson has been found dead near her house, a jacket over her face. Like Alice, she, too, was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head. Catherine sees two sets of shoe prints and theorizes that Holly was attacked near her house and ran for her life. Catherine also finds a courthouse keycard for the parking garage. When the CSIs question Holly's co-workers, they learn the keycard was not Holly's, but that they were at the Highball the night Holly was killed, celebrating her promotion. Holly took a cab home from the bar. When the CSIs show Holly's co-workers a picture of Adam Novak they recognize him from the bar that night, and note that they didn't see him again after Holly left. In the morgue, Dr. Robbins tells Catherine that Holly was killed by a .25 caliber bullet, just as Alice was. He also found some surface tissue from a human tongue in her stomach. Nick confirms that the bullets are on the same gun, and Warrick traces the keycard to Adam Novak.
Catherine is stunned when she returns home and finds Adam Novak talking to her mother and Lindsey. She dials 911 on her cell and leaves it in her car, getting out to confront Novak. She sends her mother and her daughter inside and Novak accuses her of trying to set him up. When he moves toward Catherine, she pulls her gun on him. The police pull up as he swears at her. Novak is arrested. At the station, Grissom photographs Novak's tongue and notices a discoloration on the top of it. With his lawyer present, Novak tells Grissom that he drove Alice home, had sex with her in his car, and left her alive at her apartment building. He admits that he came onto Holly and that she rebuffed his advances, but insists it didn't go further than that. Grissom asks about his keycard to the courthouse, and Adam swears it's still in his card. Nick finds no sign of the keycard in Novak's car, but he does find evidence that it's been broken into.
The prints on the door that was broken into match Jeff Simon, Alice's ex-boyfriend. Catherine lays out the case: Jeff got angry when he followed Alice and caught her having sex in her car with Adam and killed her after Adam pulled away. The next night, Jeff saw Adam at the Highball hitting on Holly and came up with a plan. He broke into Adam's car and stole his keycard, then followed Holly home and killed her, leaving the keycard behind to frame Adam. Afterwards, Catherine defends her encounter with Novak to Grissom, saying she just went out after work for a little human contact. Grissom counters that this is why he doesn't go out.
Catherine Willows: Gil. I'd ask you out for a drink, but under the circumstances, it's, ah...Episode notes provided by CSI Files.
[Grissom ignores her]
Catherine Willows: OK, how long is this going to go on?
Gil Grissom: I don't know, Catherine.
Catherine Willows: Gil, it was an act of omission.
Gil Grissom: How many times have we heard a public defender say that?
Catherine Willows: I went out after work. Is it a crime to want a little human contact?
Gil Grissom: I guess that's why I don't go out.
Quotes provided by Wet Paint.
