The Good, The Bad, And The Dominatrix

The Good, The Bad, And The Dominatrix
Season	7
Number	23
Writer
Director
Original Airdate
Navigation
Previous Episode: Leapin' Lizards
Next Episode: Living Doll

The Good, The Bad, And The Dominatrix is the twenty-third episode of season 7 of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Synopsis

Grissom becomes worried about Lady Heather when she is nearly strangled to death at a Western theme park.

Plot

After dominatrix Lady Heather is nearly strangled to death at the Old West Town saloon, she's found by the night watchman, Vernon Porter. Lady Heather claims she was checking out the Old West Town for a party with the permission of the owner, Jack Oakley, but she refuses to name her attacker. Sara photographs the ligature marks around Heather's neck, but Heather refuses to submit to a rape kit. Grissom arrives and speaks with Heather, but before he can get any information out of her, she passes out, and Grissom is puzzled to learn she didn't inform anyone at the hospital that she's diabetic. He's further perplexed when he finds out Heather was drinking and has three sets of ligature marks on her neck, meaning that she had an opportunity to get away--and didn't take it. The mystery deepens when Vernon Porter is found dead in Old West Town, a bullet in his back. At the Old West Town Saloon, Sara finds a bullet from a revolver lodged in a dummy, indicating there were two shooters present the night Vernon died.

Warrick and Nick are investigating the death of Faith Maroney, a pick pocket with multiple wallets and IDs in her purse. Robbins determines she died of blunt force trauma and hands Warrick paint chips he pulled from her wound. Nick returns to the scene to recover more paint chips only to nearly be struck by a drunk driver. He brings the paint chips to Hodges to compare to the ones from the car that struck Faith, but Hodges determines the latter are from a cab. Sofia learns that Faith had several arrests for shoplifting and was a diagnosed kleptomaniac, while Warrick has followed Faith's trail the evening of her death and located a steakhouse where she had a Blood Mary. Warrick and Nick learn the steakhouse called a cab for her, so they pay a visit to the cab company and find a cab with blood on it's front bumper. The cab driver who drove Faith, Chandru "Dru" Kambhatla, tells the CSIs he dropped her off at the MGM, but a look at the camera in his car proves otherwise, and prints from both Faith and Dru are found on his wallet, indicating that she tried to lift it.

When Hodges reports that the paint chips match a cab but not Dru's, Nick returns to the cab company and finds another cab with front end damage belonging to a man named Gus DiFusco. A look at Gus's camera reveals that he was striking Dru's cab with his own, and Nick surmises that it was Gus striking Dru that caused Dru's cab to hit Faith. Dru tells Nick he was going to turn in Gus for violating the rules, so Gus hit him, but after his cab struck Faith, he agreed to cover it up with Gus. Nick tells him his actions after hitting Faith make him an accessory to murder. Catherine goes to question Lady Heather only to find Grissom by her side, where he's been the whole night, making him her alibi for Vernon's murder. After his talk with Lady Heather, Grissom does some digging and learns that her daughter, Zoe, gave birth to a child before she died, and that Heather's ex-husband, Jerome. Grissom pays Jerome, and his granddaughter, Allison, a visit, and he tells her Heather left him before giving birth to Zoe and didn't even tell him he had a child. Jerome won sole custody of Allison, but Heather recently sent him money for the girl's college fund. Sara questions Ben Oakley, whose prints were found on the revolver case at the Old West Town. He denies taking a shot at Porter--he admits instead he was aiming at his father, Jack, after learning Jack had emptied out the company account. It was Jack who killed Porter--and nearly Heather as well. Brass goes back to Heather, having put it all together: Jack hired Heather to try to kill her during sex. Heather, who has been depressed since Zoe's death and losing custody of Allison, decided to find a unique way to end her life and make money for Allison's college fund. Brass tells Heather to get help, and Grissom brings her hope: he brings Allison to meet her.

See Also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes