One Hit Wonder | |
Season | 3 |
Number | 14 |
Writer | Corey Miller |
Director | Félix Enríquez Alcalá |
Original Airdate | February 6, 2003 |
Navigation | |
Previous Episode: Random Acts of Violence | |
Next Episode: Lady Heather's Box |
One Hit Wonder is the fourteenth episode in Season Three of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Synopsis[]
Catherine, Grissom, Nick and Warrick investigate a 'peeping tom' who escalated into breaking into women's apartments and terrorizing them. Meanwhile, Sara reopens the murder case of a colleague's husband. The bullet that's still inside her friend's body can help Sara find the killer, but her friend may not survive the operation to remove it.
Plot[]
Victim: Joanne Crooks (alive)
On the case: Catherine Willows, Gil Grissom, Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown, Jim Brass
A woman is awaken in the middle of the night by sounds of a window opening. She heads downstairs in her apartment and finds a breeze from an open window and a glass of water sitting on a table, neither of which she apparently knows about. There's also a fingerprint smudge on the light switch, which unsettles her. Next door, a woman is heard screaming in the process of being sexually assaulted.
Catherine, Grissom, and Brass arrive on the scene. It turns out the first woman, Doreen Bainbridge, wasn't assaulted because a treadmill was blocking her bedroom door. The second woman, Joanne Crooks, won't talk to anyone but a female. Catherine goes inside the apartment and gets the officers (all male) to vacate the premises. Next door in Doreen's apartment, Grissom sees face prints on the sliding glass door, indicating that someone was watching her.
Catherine speaks to Joanne and tells her all of the male officers have left. Joanne is trying to get rid of her clothes, bed sheets, and anything else that reminds her of her encounter. She also has the perpetrator's semen in her hair, and she tells Catherine that she wasn't actually raped. Joanne is initially reluctant to help with the investigation, as she just wants to move on from the ordeal; however, Catherine convinces her that any evidence recovered will help locate the guy and punish him for what he did.
Outside, Warrick finds a shoe impression in the dirt and makes a mold of it, while Grissom tape lifts a fingerprint found on one of the windows. Nick informs Grissom that he found a crusted semen stain under Doreen's windowsill, meaning that the peeper has been watching her for awhile. As he makes his way to an adjacent apartment, Grissom soon concludes that the peeper has been watching a lot of women. Nick points out that there are hedges around the apartments to conceal the peeper, giving the creep his own private show.
In the lab, Greg tells Catherine that the semen recovered from Joanne's hair was low volume and had no sperm in it. Catherine relays this information to Grissom, who's researching something on the computer. However, his hearing is giving him trouble, as Catherine's words sound muffled; he needs to read her lips in order to understand what she's saying. He then tells her he went back to the crime stats and pulled up all of the "Peeping Tom" incidents within a two-block radius over the past year. There are eight unsolved cases with very little descriptions from the women, and nobody called in any follow-up reports. Grissom says that the peeper has escalated from merely looking to breaking and entering and sexual assault. Catherine notes that it's only a matter of time before he escalates to rape and murder.
Catherine informs the team that the profiles for Doreen and Joanne are that they're both single, under the age of 30, and live next door to each other in a large apartment complex. Doreen and Joanne work different jobs, meaning their social circles likely don't coincide to have men in common. Grissom surmises that both women live in the peeper's comfort zone, so the man must live nearby. Greg interrupts to say that he found DNA in the semen stain Nick found under the windowsill; however, there's no match in CODIS. He also notes that the semen had a very low sperm count.
Warrick finds that the shoe print found outside the apartment is a size eight. Meanwhile, Catherine speaks to Jacqui Franco, who's able to reshape the smudged print Grissom lifted from the window. The print comes back to a Justin Lamond, who has a non-gaming permit. He's a pool boy at the Tangiers and just happens to live one block from the crime scene. Brass finds out that Justin spends his lunch hour every day at a nearby mall. At the mall, Catherine identifies Justin as he's riding up an escalator. She and Brass pull him aside and find a small computer hidden in his fanny pack, as well as a camera in the tip of his shoe, both of which are used to film up women's skirts. Justin is arrested on the spot.
Under interrogation, Justin insists that what he does is legal as long as he doesn't record anyone's voices. He defends himself by saying that the girls are asking for it by dressing provocatively and says that he only engages in 'low-tech voyeur'. Justin denies knowing Doreen Bainbridge, but when he's told his fingerprint was found on her window, he admits to spying. Catherine measures his shoe print, but finds that it's a three-size differential from the one found outside Joanne's window. Despite that, Brass arrests Justin for a sexually motivated offense, indecent exposure, and gross lewdness.
Warrick summons Catherine and shows her that he found a yellow substance in the shoe mold that could be paint. Under the microscope, Catherine sees that the paint has bits of reflective glass in it; Warrick thinks it could be from road paint. He notes that road paint dries pretty quickly, which means the suspect had to step in the paint on his way to the house. Catherine believes they can narrow down where the suspect originally came from.
Catherine stops by to talk to Grissom, who's looking at the floor plans of the apartments in the complex. He finds that all apartments with "Floor Plan C" are on corner lots, have sliding glass doors, and have high foot traffic, making it easy to break in and leave quickly. Catherine informs Grissom that they're narrowing down the suspect's point of origin. She tells him the road department painted double yellow lines on Avon Avenue at 10PM the night of the assault. Based on the speed of the crew, they would be outside of the apartments at about 10:20 PM. Grissom notes that predators usually widen their comfort zone in a spiral pattern outward. When he inputs the data into the system, he finds that there a lot of C-level apartments in the area.
Grissom says that the suspect is becoming more compulsive, as he previously hit two apartments in one night. Catherine replies that the suspect is probably becoming smarter; since the news is covering the crimes, he may be wearing gloves now. Grissom believes the suspect is evolving and perfecting his crimes, as the suspect is shown entering a woman's house and attacking her.
Grissom gets a call from Brass, who tells him that the sexual assault has moved up to rape. He gets the address from Brass, but tells Catherine that she can handle it because "she looks better on camera." Catherine meets Brass at the scene. The victim is Susie Spiegel, who told police she didn't get a good look at her attacker, but that her attacker was "polite" and wore a condom. Catherine notes that this means they have less evidence to work with. Just then, a woman is heard yelling for the police. She has tackled a man to the ground and claims that she saw him in the bushes. The man is arrested.
The man, Taylor Reed, and the woman, Wendy Orr, are interviewed separately. Wendy claims to have seen Taylor creeping up to a window and, since she's trained in jiu jitsu, she was able to take him down easily. Taylor says he was simply looking for apartments; since he works during the day, he checks out available apartments at night. Catherine finds this hard to believe, as he would be doing this while there's a rapist on the loose, but he pulls classified ads out of his pocket as proof. When asked, Taylor says his shoe size is 8 1/2; however, when Catherine checks the shoes, she sees no yellow paint on the soles. Taylor denies the request to have his other shoes looked at, saying that he values his privacy.
Catherine then tells Taylor that, if he's truly innocent, he can file charges against Wendy for assault. Taylor is reluctant at first, but then decides to file. Catherine gets a DNA swab from an incensed Wendy, who can't believe that charges are being filed against her. Catherine agrees with her, but tells her that in order to catch the rapist, they need Wendy's full cooperation. Wendy relents and hands Catherine her jacket as evidence.
Greg stops Catherine in the hallway and informs her that Taylor's DNA was found at another crime scene five months ago. The crime was breaking and entering. There was nothing to compare the DNA to at the time, but now that Taylor's DNA is on file, they have a match.
The team believes that Taylor is their guy. Grissom tells Catherine that Taylor seems to be de-escalating; his area is becoming smaller. Catherine asks him if the address of Taylor's breaking and entering crime is in the zone, which Grissom confirms. The apartment broken into was a first floor apartment with a sliding glass door, and Taylor cut himself on the glass.
They've narrowed down the epicenter to one block. Catherine believes that if they can find some piece of overlooked evidence from one of the previous crimes, they can tie it to the sexual assaults. Grissom says that if they don't know where Taylor is going, they can go where he's been. Nick and Warrick interview women in the apartment complex, while Brass and Catherine go to another apartment. They knock on the door and are surprised to see Taylor open the door. Taylor says he lives there despite the address not matching the one on his driver's license.
Catherine and Brass enter the apartment, which is full of moving boxes. She guesses that the apartment became available five months earlier, as the previous tenant was bothered by the breaking and entering incident, as well as the bloodstain Taylor left behind. Catherine then figures out that Taylor moved into the apartment he committed his first crime in. She notices a some hair missing from the back of Taylor's head and wonders if he wasn't looking for a new apartment, but another victim.
Catherine walks through the apartment and finds a piece of Taylor's scalp on the carpet, as if it has been ripped out. She opens a closet to find a woman on the floor with her arms tied and her mouth taped. The paramedics come while Taylor is arrested and put in the back of a police car.
Victim: Melissa Winters (alive), Victor Winters (deceased)
On the case: Sara Sidle
Sara enters a courtroom and watches a wheelchair-bound attorney give an impassioned plea to a jury. The attorney is Sara's friend, Melissa Winters. Melissa informs a surprised Sara that she has handed the upcoming case they were working on to another attorney because she'll be dead by the time the trial starts.
Melissa recounts to Sara the event that made her paralyzed. Someone broke into her house, shot her, and killed her husband Victor, leaving her with a 'souvenir'—a scar on her neck from a bullet. The bullet is still inside Melissa, for, at the time of the incident, doctors told her that removing it would kill her. Over the last few years, the bullet has wandered down into an artery and has caused an aneurysm. She'll be going into surgery to remove the bullet, but the odds of her surviving the surgery aren't favorable.
Sara visits Doc Robbins for information about Melissa's surgery. He tells her that for the surgery, the heart is actually stopped and the blood is artificially circulated. The objective is to decrease blood pressure in order for the aneurysm to be clipped. The neurosurgeon has just under an hour to go in and clip the aneurysm; one slip will cause a brain hemorrhage, and Melissa will die. When Sara mentions that Melissa said she was going to die, Doc Robbins says this is the case nine times out of ten.
In the hospital, Melissa's surgeon, Dr. Stewart, tells Sara that Melissa made it through the surgery. There's no change to mobility, but cognitively, Melissa will be as sharp as she was before. When asked, Dr. Stewart confirms that he removed the bullet during the surgery. He gives the bullet to Sara upon request, as it's the only evidence in Melissa's case.
Sara brings the bullet to Bobby Dawson, who remarks how much tissue is attached to it. He notes that tissue grew around the bullet to protect the body, and is able to shake loose the tissue by using the equipment in his lab.
Sara looks over the floor plan to Melissa's house, as well as the crime scene photos. Nick briefly stops by, and she notices a mark in Victor's exit wound indicating that he had to have had his back pressed up against something when he was shot. The CSI who worked the case moved back to Los Angeles. Nick remarks that there are two CSIs you don't want investigating your murder—one on their first week and one on their last week.
Bobby pages Sara and informs her that the bullet pulled from Melissa came from a gun that was used in a liquor store robbery six months ago. The cops not only recovered the gun, but they got the shooter, as well. Sara visits the shooter, Roger Wilder, in jail. Roger denies knowing Melissa; however, Sara reminds him that Melissa was the Assistant District Attorney who prosecuted Roger for assault five years ago and got him sent to jail for four. Roger was heard yelling "what goes around comes around" when leaving the courtroom. Three weeks after Roger got out of jail, Melissa and her husband where shot. Sara tells him the bullet from Melissa and the bullet from the gun in the liquor store robbery were a match. She informs Roger that if there's any bit of physical evidence that places him in Melissa's house, there's not a jury that won't give him the death penalty.
Roger admits to being in Melissa's house, as he wanted to surprise her by showing her he knew where she lived. However, Melissa wasn't home. He also admits to breaking into the house and messing it up as a "welcome home" gift. A flashback shows him messing up the apartment when a gun fell from underneath a table he shattered, and this is the story he tells Sara.
In the lab, Sara goes over the crime scene photos again, this time on the computer. Among the photos is one of Victor dead on the couch; however, Sara sees that something doesn't add up. She talks things over with Nick, who tells her to go with logic—why would Roger break into the house, shoot two people, and leave the gun behind? Nick also wonders why the gun went undiscovered by CSIs if it was in the room. Sara believes there's a hole in Melissa's story. If the husband was shot while standing up, blood would have dripped from the entry wound down to the belt buckle. However, the blood on Victor's shirt shows that he was lying down when he was shot.
Sara visits Melissa in the hospital and tells her she knows what happened. Melissa didn't find her husband struggling with a stranger. A flashback shows Victor asleep on the couch when Melissa walked up to him and shot him. Melissa got a nearly retired CSI to work the case and because of Melissa's reputation and the fact that she was shot as well, everyone decided to believe her account of what happened. It turns out that Victor survived the shooting. He sat up, picked the gun up off the floor, and shot Melissa in the neck before dying. A now-paralyzed Melissa crawled along the floor, picked the gun up, and hid it under the table; if the gun had been found, they would've tested her for gunshot residue.
Melissa tells Sara that, despite being a great attorney, she was too embarrassed to bring up a case against her abusive husband because she didn't want people to know what he did to her. Sara replies that she fell for all of Melissa's speeches about justice, but Melissa says she still believes in it. When pressed, Melissa admits that she didn't expect to survive the surgery. Sara tells her that she'll see her in court and leaves Melissa in the care of an officer. Later, in the station locker room, she confides in Grissom, who tells her that one's "best intentions are fraught with disappointment."
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- William Petersen as Gil Grissom
- Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows
- Gary Dourdan as Warrick Brown
- George Eads as Nick Stokes
- Jorja Fox as Sara Sidle
- Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
- Robert David Hall as Dr. Al Robbins
- Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass
Guest Cast[]
- Romy Rosemont as Jacqui Franco
- Gerald McCullouch as Bobby Dawson
- Elizabeth Mitchell as Melissa Winters
- Devon Gummersall as Taylor Reed
- Leslie Grossman as Wendy Orr
- Joseph Mazzello as Justin Lamond
- Jeff Kober as Roger Wilder
- Rick Worthy as Dr. Stewart
- Chad Morgan as Joanne Crooks
- Joe Michael Burke as First Officer
- Hallie Lambert as Susie Spiegel
- Frank Novak as Judge
- Ingrid Raines as Doreen Bainbridge
- Heather Charles as Last Victim (uncredited)
- Barry Sigismondi as Cruiser Cop (uncredited)
Quotes[]
- Grissom: The best intentions are fraught with disappointment.
- Sara: Emerson?
- Grissom: Grissom.
Music[]
- 7am by Dirty Vegas
Goofs[]
- When Sara is narrating her reconstruction of the shooting to Melissa, she says that her husband "...leaned up from a prone position..." to shoot her. However, in the visually reconstructed scene, the husband is lying on his back—that's supine, not prone. Prone is lying on one's stomach.
Notes[]
- Grissom begins to retreat from hands-on work as his hearing fails. He declines to come to the rape crime scene and lets Catherine handle it.
Trivia[]
- In this episode, Sara talks to Grissom about her "older brother". On the CBS bio page, it states that she's an only child. Biologically, Sara is an only child; however, she was raised in foster care and therefore had foster siblings.
- Leslie Grossman made a special guest appearance as Wendy Orr in this episode. She is most known for Popular and What I Like About You.
See Also[]
- List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes
- CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Season 3
- Category:Images from One Hit Wonder
CSI:Las Vegas Season 3 | ||
Revenge is Best Served Cold • The Accused is Entitled • Let the Seller Beware • A Little Murder • Abra-Cadaver • The Execution of Catherine Willows • Fight Night • Snuff • Blood Lust • High and Low • Recipe for Murder • Got Murder? • Random Acts of Violence • One Hit Wonder • Lady Heather's Box • Lucky Strike • Crash & Burn • Precious Metal • A Night at the Movies • Last Laugh • Forever • Play with Fire • Inside the Box |