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Lady Heather's Box
Lady
Season 3
Number 15
Writer Josh Berman,
Ann Donahue,
Bob Harris,
Anthony E. Zuiker
Director Richard J. Lewis
Original Airdate February 13, 2003
Navigation
Previous Episode: One Hit Wonder
Next Episode: Lucky Strike

Lady Heather's Box is the fifteenth episode in Season Three of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

Grissom and Brass pay another visit to Lady Heather when one of her employees is found dead in a local club. Meanwhile, Catherine is faced with a crisis.

Plot[]

Victims: Trey Buckman, Croix Richards (both deceased)

On the case: Catherine Willows, Gil Grissom, Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown, Jim Brass

At a foam party in a club, a woman screams when she encounters a dead body under the foam. Grissom meets Brass at the scene. After the foam has been drained, they're left with the body of 21-year-old Trey Buckman, who has blood pooled around his head. Grissom notices a round puncture round in Trey's neck, while Brass finds that Trey had $3,000 in $100 bills in his wallet.

When questioned by Brass, the club owner shows little concern for the murder, as he's more concerned with losing money while his club remains closed. Brass tells him to smarten up and provide him with the VIP list for the night. Grissom notes that there's seminal fluid all along the floor of the dance pit, while Sara and Warrick recover discarded ladies' panties and shoes. They also notice the smell of strawberries, which Warrick says is from the foam. Brass informs the group that Trey was staying at the Sphere hotel. In Trey's hotel room, Warrick finds a long, dark hair in the bathroom sink; however, Trey had short hair. Grissom finds pink lipstick on a champagne glass indicating that Trey had company.

In autopsy, Doc Robbins tells a surprised Grissom that Trey's toxicology report came back clean—no drugs, no alcohol. The doc guesses that the wound on Trey's neck was likely lethal and thinks it could've been caused by something blunt, not sharp. There's also an odd mark on Trey's shoulder, which Grissom thinks could be some type of bug bite or allergic reaction.

Grissom and Warrick go over the physical evidence to see what caused Trey's stab wound. A glow stick, pen, and cell phone antenna all come back negative for blood, but when Grissom sprays a stiletto heel with luminol, the test comes back positive. Brass rounds up all females from the club VIP list, and Grissom is eventually able to match the shoe to Renée, a foam dancer.

Under interrogation, Renée is unsure as to how her shoe impaled Trey's neck. She remembers the foam rising and her heel going into something soft, which she mistook for someone's foot. A look into Renée's background reveals that she had a past relationship with Trey; however, she tells Brass that she's "relationshipped" with a dozen guys on the club circuit, so that evidence is circumstantial. Renée starts flirting with Brass, but it is interrupted by Grissom, who enters and takes a strand of her hair for a DNA sample.

Doc Robbins informs Grissom that the mark on Trey's shoulder wasn't made with a needle, but rather with a man-made, high-pressure, subcutaneous injector. The test result came back as insulin, but Trey wasn't diabetic. Doc Robbins notes that insulin doesn't make for a narcotic or hallucinogenic high, so there's no reason Trey should've been taking it.

Meanwhile, Catherine and Nick are at the crime scene of Croix Richards. His decomposed body has been found in his apartment next to a barbell. Nick classifies it as "DUNS," or "Dead Upstairs Neighbor Syndrome"—the body fluids oozed onto the floor and became visible to the tenant downstairs. Marks on the fingernails indicate that Croix was a cocaine junkie. His drawers are empty, but Catherine finds a large wad of money and a fully stamped passport. It would appear that Croix was a major drug dealer. Catherine excuses herself from the scene when she discovers her daughter Lindsey has been calling her and is in distress.

In autopsy, Doc Robbins finds a foreign object lodged in Croix's femur during an x-ray. When the object is extracted, Nick sees that it looks like the tip of a needle. Doc Robbins surmises that the tip broke off when it hit the bone.

Trey's credit card report shows that he had booked a room at the Tangiers, leading Grissom to note that Trey was staying in two different hotels on the same night. In the Tangiers hotel room, Grissom and Warrick find a scantily-clad woman lounging on a bed with a champagne glass in her hand. She initially assumes they're both for her "entertainment," but is horrified to find out Grissom and Warrick are with the police. They ask the woman who she is, as the room is registered to Trey. She says her name is Rebecca McCormick, and she insists that she doesn't usually do what she's doing now. The embarrassed Rebecca claims that she got a card from someone on the Strip and thought the experience would be fun.

Nick is able to get the password for Croix's computer and unlocks it, whereupon he finds a schedule listing women's names, as well as hotels underneath the names in parentheses. Every name is on a one-hour schedule. Nick guesses that with the fancy apartment and nice clothes, Croix wasn't selling drugs—he was selling himself as a gigolo. He tells Grissom that the needle found in Croix was a 30-gauge, and Grissom points out that that type of needle is used for insulin. He believes his case and Nick's case are related, as both victims were working in the sex trade. They look at Croix's employment history and find a familiar name—Lady Heather.

Brass and Grissom pay Lady Heather a visit and are told that Croix and Trey were both on her payroll. She adds that both men were good workers and highly skilled. Brass brings up Mona Taylor, who was killed a year before, and Lady Heather asks if she is being accused of anything; Grissom tells her it's merely an observation. The deceased men traded in sex—something that Brass knows is forbidden in Lady Heather's domain. That, Brass says, is an accusation. She reveals that Croix and Trey were independent contractors; they were performing online voyeurism for her website.

Nick and Warrick retrieve all of the credit card transactions from Lady Heather's website. Both Croix and Trey worked in the chat room; the CSIs have cross-referenced their clients, all of which are females. Nick notes that the victims died approximately four weeks apart. Figuring that killers don't usually stray too far from home, Warrick narrows down the search area. They get sixteen results, complete with driver's licenses. Grissom remembers that they found a dark hair in Trey's hotel room at the Sphere. When Warrick starts excluding everyone with light hair, he stumbles across Rebecca McCormick's driver's license. It would seem that she lied to Grissom and Warrick during their first encounter.

Catherine and Grissom go to Rebecca's house and speak to her and her husband, Steven. Steven admits to them that he hired Croix to dominate Rebecca; he was hoping that Croix would help ease some of Rebecca's "sexual difficulties." The problem, he says, was Rebecca's lack of experience. They met with Croix over the internet first, then in person at Lady Heather's. Rebecca reacts when Trey's name is mentioned, but the name fails to get a response out of Steven. She admits to meeting Trey on the website and that their encounters were only online. Rebecca also says that she wanted someone with more experience, which is why she was waiting for Trey that night at the Tangiers. Catherine asks Rebecca for her hair and DNA to use as a comparison; Steven angrily replies that Rebecca will provide anything the CSIs need. He's clearly agitated that his wife was seeing more than one man outside of their marriage.

Under a microscope, Warrick tells the team that, while not completely sure, it looks like the hair from the bathroom in the Tangiers matches Rebecca. Catherine notes that Rebecca lied at the hotel and in her house; Rebecca has been with Trey, and not just online. Grissom says that her husband only knew about Croix and had no idea she hired Trey.

Back at Lady Heather's, Grissom reveals the knowledge that Steven McCormick is an investor in her website; she says that this is public record. Lady Heather admits that Steven came to her for help in clarifying his need for dominance, but that he went on to marry someone who didn't understand the dominant-submissive relationship. Grissom flatters Lady Heather by understanding what goes on in her business and tells her that he values her insight. Lady Heather is able to read between the lines of their recent exchanges and guesses that Grissom is losing his hearing. The two then share a close, personal moment.

Grissom and Lady Heather later sit down for tea, where Grissom learns that she's a Type 1 diabetic. She tells Grissom that she doesn't use a needle; instead, she changed to a pressure-point syringe. She offers to show Grissom the device, and Grissom responds that he would like to see it, but that he needs a warrant to do so. He files the warrant for Lady Heather's medical paraphernalia, much to the surprise of the betrayed dominatrix.

In Brass' office, he tells Rebecca that she lied to them—she didn't solely engage in online sex with Trey. Warrick tells her that her hair and the hair found in Trey's hotel are extremely similar. When Rebecca replies that that doesn't mean the match is conclusive, Warrick tells her that her DNA was found under the bed sheets in the hotel room. Brass brings up that Rebecca's bank records show cash withdrawals totaling $50,000—the same amount found in Croix's apartment. He also reveals that Rebecca used to work for a pharmaceutical company and dealt with synthetic insulin. Rebecca stops the interrogation and asks for a lawyer.

Brass is now questioning Lady Heather in the interrogation room. He believes that Steven invested in Lady Heather's website, and she killed the two guys that Rebecca was messing around with. Lady Heather, who seems to be aware that Grissom is watching from the other side of the mirror, already knows that the insulin taken from her kit was non-synthetic. The beef insulin she takes matches the insulin found in the two victims, and that insulin is quite rare. She tells Brass that anyone could've walked in and stolen the insulin from her. With her gaze fixed upon the mirror, she gets up and walks toward it. Despite still being interrogated and Brass thinking she's talking to him, she's actually talking to Grissom. She claims her innocence in the murders to Grissom (and Brass), but Brass tells her it's all about the evidence.

In the lab, Grissom goes over Lady Heather's medical paraphernalia and notices that one of her insulin bottles contains less insulin than the others. He brings the bottles to Greg and tells him to process them right away. Catherine interrupts and tells Grissom that there's a problem—Rebecca has been found strangled to death in her home. Her husband, Steven, is standing in the kitchen calmly pouring himself a glass of milk.

Steven tells Catherine that he was the one who found Rebecca's body. She looks at his hands, but doesn't see anything incriminating. Catherine notes that if she had found her spouse dead, she would've touched the body; however, Steven says he never did. Grissom looks over Rebecca's body and finds some material embedded in her neck wound.

Grissom tells Brass the material in Rebecca's wound was nylon thread with with fragments of ostrich feather. This points back to Lady Heather's dominion. The two of them visit Lady Heather's, where Grissom notes that he saw a "submissive" wearing a feather boa the day before. Lady Heather identifies the woman as Chloe Samms, who uses the boa as a way to control her breathing. Grissom finds black boots on the floor and notes that they have the same scent as Trey's crime scene (strawberries). Chloe is now linked to the crime scene and the two victims. However, Lady Heather tells them that Chloe quit the day before, and Brass leaves to start looking for her. Now alone, Grissom apologies to Lady Heather for believing she was guilty. She rejects the apology as "apologies are just words."

Greg tells Grissom that the needle used on Trey at the foam party had epithelials on the syringe's plunger. The DNA matches Chloe. In interrogation, Grissom tells Chloe that insulin was injected into Trey's shoulder at the foam party by her. Chloe admits to strangling Rebecca for Steven, saying that she "belonged to him."

In another interrogation room, Steven tells Grissom that Chloe had trouble controlling her emotions and that she would let things get personal. He admits to seeing Chloe occasionally outside of Lady Heather's. Brass accuses Steven of getting Chloe to kill Trey and Croix because they were having sex with his wife. He then got Chloe to kill her, as well. Steven denies this, and tells Brass that Chloe acted on her own. Grissom guesses that Chloe killed Trey and Croix in order to please Steven, and he thinks that it did. He tried to get Chloe to stop, but she killed Rebecca, as well. Grissom tells Steven that, despite Steven's time at Lady Heather's, he didn't know that the "submissive" was the one in control. Steven simply repeats that he told Chloe to stop. Chloe is arrested, and she gives Steven a wry smile as she's walked down the police station hallway.

Later, Grissom is seen sitting in his car outside Lady Heather's house.

Victim: Eddie Willows (deceased)

On the case: Catherine Willows, Sara Sidle, Sam Vega

Catherine is attending Lindsey's play, Sleeping Beauty. Eddie arrives late, much to Catherine's disgust. She admonishes Eddie for his lateness and notices a perfume smell on him. During Lindsey's big scene, Eddie gets up and raises his voice at Catherine, bringing Lindsey to tears. The distraught girl runs off the stage. Catherine and Eddie comfort Lindsey, who says she just wants to go home; however, she surprises both of her parents by saying she wants to go home with Eddie.

While at a crime scene with Nick, Catherine is continuously getting phone calls from Eddie, but each call is coming in with poor reception due to the storm. On the third call, she's able to hear Lindsey screaming for help. She leaves Nick at the crime scene and rushes out.

On the phone, Lindsey tells her mother that on the way to a hospital, Eddie's car crashed off a bridge. Lindsey is trapped inside as the water is rising. Using clues given by Lindsey, Catherine is able to navigate through the storm and find where the car went off the bridge. She slides down the embankment, swims under, and breaks the car window to free Lindsey.

Det. Sam Vega asks Lindsey what she remembers about the crash. She tells Vega that a woman with pink hair was driving the car. Eddie wasn't driving because he had a stomachache; the woman was driving him to the hospital. As the woman tended to Eddie, the car swerved off the road. The woman got out of the car, leaving Lindsey inside, while Eddie drifted out of the car but never came back. Lindsey fears that Eddie is dead, but Catherine can't tell whether that's the case.

After the car is pulled out of the water, Sara notices what looks like blood on the front passenger's seat. Catherine finds a vial filled with blue liquid against the front window. Sara asks whether it could be drugs and, knowing Eddie's taste in women, Catherine remarks that it's likely the case. Sara asks for the vial, as Catherine isn't technically on the case; Catherine just stares back at her.

Vega questions Lindsey, who says that after the recital, she and Eddie went out for ice cream. Catherine asks her if Eddie had any alcohol, but Lindsey tells her he only drank water. Lindsey doesn't know where the woman with the pink hair came from. She says she fell asleep in the car and woke up when they stopped at a building, but she doesn't know what kind of building it was. Lindsey says that Eddie told her he had a "meeting" and left Lindsey in the car alone with the doors locked. Catherine is growing increasingly agitated at the events that took place and leaves the room when Sara asks to talk to her privately.

Lindsey tells Vega that the woman with the pink hair was waiting for Eddie in the parking lot outside of the building. The two started arguing, followed by a bang and Eddie running back to the car holding his stomach. Outside of the room, Catherine gets a phone call—Eddie's body has been found. Later, Catherine looks over Eddie's body in the autopsy room. Afterwards, Grissom tells her she can take time off, but she insists that she and Lindsey are okay.

Leah the lab tech tells Sara that the blue liquid in the vial came back as GHB with food coloring. Sara notes that GHB is a date rape drug, but Leah informs her that mixing it with the right stimulate creates a good party drug. In the lab's garage, Sara goes over the car again and finds a flyer tucked under the visor. On the flyer is a woman with pink hair named "Candeece." She pulls a CD labeled "Sahara Sounds" out of the CD player.

Sara and Vega go to Eddie's music studio and tell his music producer that Eddie is dead. The music producer is somewhat unfazed, claiming that that's what happens when you have a high-strung singer with no manager. Candeece is seen in a flashback recording a song; however, she flips out when she realizes Eddie isn't there. She frantically calls Eddie saying that she can't do what she's doing without his presence. The music producer tells Sara and Vega that Eddie was in it for a quick score—he wanted to cut a demo, sell a contract, get Candeece out on the charts, and ride her success. But, Eddie also saw something more in Candeece; the girl had talent—and he was also having sex with her. The producer and sound engineer become frustrated when they can't get a good take from the singer in the booth due to the jackhammer from the construction outside. Sara asks them if they kept recording after Candeece left. When the answer is affirmative, Vega tells them they're going to need to take a look at the tapes.

Sara and Vega interrogate Candeece, who claims to have not seen Eddie the night before. However, Sara sees that she has a cast on her right wrist. She points out that the hospital records show that Candeece fractured her ulna, which is a common injury incurred in motor vehicle accidents due to the airbag exploding. Sara also sees that Candeece is having trouble with her eyes and tells her that airbags are filled with cornstarch or talc, which wreaks havoc on the eyes. They know Candeece saw Eddie the night before and that she was driving his car. Candeece changes her story and says Eddie drove to the studio and stumbled over to her bleeding from a gunshot wound. She got in the car, comforted Lindsey, and began to drive Eddie to the hospital.

With Catherine watching the interrogation from the other side of the glass, Sara reminds Candeece that there were three people in the car, not just her. Candeece pretends to care for everyone else, but Sara tells her that Lindsey was left alone in a sinking car and Eddie's body was found 100 yards from it. With the heroism story unraveling, Candeece says she tried to pull Eddie to safety but that "the kid" kept screaming. Sara tells her that she could've called the cops or an ambulance instead of looking out for herself. As Catherine looks on, Candeece says her priority was Eddie, not that "stupid, screaming little brat." Catherine rushes into the room and berates Candeece, threatening to kill her. Sara restrains her and pulls her into the hallway. In response to being threatened by Catherine, Candeece decides to lawyer up. In the hallway, Sara berates Catherine for bursting in. Catherine retaliates by telling Sara that she's not doing a good job with the case. Sara calmly tells her to go home and spend time with her daughter.

In the A/V lab, Archie goes over the recordings from the music studio. He tells Sara that by looking at the times the files were modified, he can tell which tracks were being recorded during the time of the shooting. Archie finds that only two tracks were recorded between the time Eddie left Lindsey's recital and the time Lindsey called Catherine. He finds a track from a drum demo and sees a change in amplitude in the sound waves. When the spike is isolated, they hear what sounds like a gunshot followed by what sounds like a motorcycle engine. They might have another witness or suspect. Vega enters and tells Sara that Candeece made six calls the night of the incident—five to Eddie and one to someone else.

Sara and Vega visit the other person Candeece called, Zed Kiner. When questioned about the phone call, Zed claims it could've been a girl he slept with, didn't sleep with, or just a wrong number. Vega points out that the call lasted for four minutes, so there was someone on the other end certainly worth talking to. Sara notices a motorcycle sitting in Zed's driveway, while Vega reminds Zed that he's on parole and is looking at two strikes. Zed admits to knowing Candeece. Based on phone records, the two of them used to speak once a day, but the calls stopped until the night of the incident. While Vega is conducting the questioning, Sara swabs a blue substance from a sink drain in Zed's garage; the substance turns out to be GHB.

Now in trouble, Zed admits that Candeece called him in desperate need of "help". In a flashback, she's shown buying GHB from Zed when Eddie interfered, wanting her to be clean while she was recording her music. Candeece and Eddie then started wrestling with each other when she pulled out a gun and shot him in the gut. Zed says he got on his motorcycle and got out of there, not wanting to go back to jail. Vega has Zed placed under arrest.

In the music studio, Candeece tells Sara and Vega that Zed is a drug dealer. However, she says that while she used to be a client of his, she isn't anymore; Eddie helped her quit. Candeece admits that she tried to call Eddie, but his phone was off because he was with Catherine and Lindsey. She was mad that she was in the recording booth while Eddie was nowhere to be found. A flashback shows the two of them arguing when Zed pulled up and shot Eddie. Candeece claims that she thought Eddie wasn't coming to the studio, but it turns out that he was just late.

Catherine visits Sara disappointed that Sara is closing the case. Sara tells her that she has no choice, as she has two liars and no murder weapon. She can nail Candeece on child endangerment and fleeing the scene of the accident, and Zed can be charged for possession of drugs for intent to sell. Eddie's death will go down as unsolved.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

  • Melinda Clarke as Lady Heather
  • Timothy Carhart as Eddie Willows
  • Madison McReynolds as Lindsey Willows
  • Geoffrey Rivas as Detective Sam Vega
  • Leslie Bega as Leah
  • Archie Kao as Archie Johnson
  • Michael Riley as Steven McCormick
  • Amy Pietz as Rebecca McCormick
  • Elizabeth Berkley as Renée, Foam Dancer
  • Pauley Perrette as Candeece/Pink Hair
  • Sam Ball as Zed Kiner
  • Alimi Ballard as Music Producer
  • Benjamín Benítez as Sound Engineer
  • Rick Pasqualone as Club Owner
  • Shayne Anderson as Club Security
  • Kata Dobó as Chloe Samms
  • David Fogg as Lord Create DJ
  • Tomiko Fraser as Tall Party Girl
  • Rib Hillis as Croix Richards
  • Patricia Bethune as Teacher
  • Sandra McCoy as Hot Chick
  • Jennifer Gabbert as Cage Dancer (uncredited)
  • Ian Anthony Dale as Trey Buckman (uncredited)

Major Events[]

  • This episode marks the final appearance of Timothy Carhart as Eddie Willows.

Quotes[]

[After Catherine runs into the interrogation room and threatened a suspect in the case of her dead ex-husband after the suspect threw insults about Lindsey.]
Sara (to Catherine): What the hell are you doing? Do you know where you're at right now?
Catherine: I've been here a lot longer than you.
Sara: Then you should know better.
Catherine: And I wouldn't have to be here if you were doing your job properly!
Sara: There is a difference between me doing my job and you wanting to do it for me. You don't want to get the job done. What you want right now is revenge.
Catherine: You're gonna tell me what I want, huh?
Sara: Go home, Catherine. Be with your daughter; she's the one that needs you. [Sara walks away]

Music[]

  • Fundamental by Sasha
  • Darkest Dreaming by David Sylvian
  • Closer by Nine Inch Nails

Goof[]

  • Catherine breaks the car window and throws away the tool she used. From a different angle she picks up her daughter with the tool in her hand.
  • When Rebecca McCormick is seen dead on the stairs, in the first shot, her mouth is closed. In the next shot her mouth is open.

Trivia[]

  • This is the first CSI episode to run 90 minutes including commercials.
  • Each of the episode's six acts were written by six different show writers.[1]
  • In this episode, Lady Heather tells Grissom that she runs and owns a pornographic website. She informs him that the site is located at http://www.ladyheather.com/. Visitors to the site are redirected to the official CSI site.
  • This is the first appearance of Alimi Ballard as Music Producer. He also later appears as Kevin Crawford in Season 12.
  • Pauley Perrette made a guest appearance as Candeece or "Pink Hair" in this episode. She is most well known for her role as Abby Sciuto from NCIS (Season One to Season 16).
  • Elizabeth Berkley made a guest appearance as Renée in this episode. She also played Jessie Spano on Saved by the Bell and Julia Winston in CSI: Miami.

References[]

  1. Flaherty, M. & Marrinan, C. (2004). CSI: Crime scene investigation companion. New York, NY: Pocket Books.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 3
Revenge is Best Served ColdThe Accused is EntitledLet the Seller BewareA Little MurderAbra-CadaverThe Execution of Catherine WillowsFight NightSnuffBlood LustHigh and LowRecipe for MurderGot Murder?Random Acts of ViolenceOne Hit WonderLady Heather's BoxLucky StrikeCrash & BurnPrecious MetalA Night at the MoviesLast LaughForeverPlay with FireInside the Box
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