- Brenda and her team match wits with a sex offender's lawyer in a case involving murder and a serial rapist, and when Deputy DA Garnett forces an unpalatable plea bargain, no one is prepared for the result.
- Brenda investigates the murder of a young woman who had just recently moved to Los Angeles. The crime was interrupted by the police who were answering a prowler call. They arrest a suspect, Chris Dunlap, whom they find hiding up a tree, but he has already called his lawyer Philip Stroh and refuses to say anything. As they look deeper into the case, they realize that there have been a string of rapes of young blonde women - mostly new arrivals - and in every case, Dunlap had made a delivery to their homes. Stroh has defended Dunlap before and offers to plea bargain this time around. In return for a lighter sentence, Dunlap will identify his partner in the crimes. He also wants to see all of the evidence they have accumulated. Brenda is dead set against both the deal and letting Stroh look at the evidence but she is overruled by the DA. When Dunlap identifies his partner, it throws everyone for a loop.—garykmcd
- A police car pulls up outside a house. The uniform cops check out a prowler complaint. One knocks at the front door while his partner shouts and they start chasing someone who runs out the back. They call for back-up. They release the hounds. Teams check the house. They find a woman on the floor, naked from the waist down with a pillow over her face.
Brenda arrives, others are already there. The neighbor called in a prowler. The victim was pronounced dead. The neighbor says her name is Jessica and she just moved in a few months ago. The dog alerts on someone. He has him treed. They get the man.
Brenda and the team look over the scene. Jessica was on her laptop, paused her TV and the intruder grabbed her. Flynn re-enacts things, saying the man grabbed her by the hair, bashed her head on the coffee table and pinned her down and tore off her clothes. He used the pillow to keep her quiet. "Then why did he run?" Brenda asks as she looks at photos of the victim, smiling and happy. Tao reads the last post on her blog. It ends "Only two more weeks until...." Until her fiancé joins her, Provenza discerns from a card from her fiance. Her 30th birthday is tomorrow.
The front door is unlocked, Brenda is concerned an officer did it, which could hurt the case. Sanchez finds where the man cut his way through the screen. But he wouldn't have known the window was unlocked from the outside.
The neighbor, Evans, IDs the man, but shakily. His wife saw him, too, but she's at work. The suspect says nothing.
At the station, they ID him as Chris Dunlap. He's not speaking. He was arrested two years ago for exposing himself to a girl in a public restroom and again nine months ago for molesting a cousin's 13 year-old daughter. He wasn't convicted on either charge. Tao has a map of the three square miles around the victim's house. In the last six months there have been seven other rapes, two occurred in the last 20 days. Six match the point of entry. All blondes in their 20s living alone.
Brenda talks to the suspect, who is scratched up from climbing the tree. She tells him she thinks what happened was an accident. She shows him a picture of the victim as Chris starts to cry. He says he's sorry as Brenda takes his hand. He's about to say more when someone interrupts. His lawyer is there. Brenda meets Phillip. Flynn checks Chris's phone and finds he called his lawyer when the dogs had him in the tree.
The neighbor's wife is on her way to look at a line-up. Tao reports that there are practically no records on Chris. And he barely uses his cell phone. The autopsy confirms the victim was not sexually assaulted. There was no skin under her nails. Gabriel says they're still trying to figure out who walked through the unlocked front door. The officers never opened it, the suspect ran out the back and that's how they all entered. Phillip the lawyer walks into Brenda's crime solving space, claiming to be looking for the vending machines. They hustle him out. It's the same lawyer who got Chris's other charges dropped.
Commander Taylor reports that the attacks are getting more violent. Dunlap was a delivery man.
The Evans are there for the line-up. Gabriel asks his lawyer how he feels about representing a sleaze in so many words. The lawyer says he thinks the way sex offenders are branded upon their release means they need an even better defense. It gives purpose to his life.
Mrs. Evans looks at the lineup as Phillip watches. She looks at Chris but doesn't recognize him. His lawyer asks how tall he was, even though he wasn't supposed to speak. Brenda likes him less by the minute.
Flynn finds that all of the victims got deliveries of appliances in the days before they were attacked, that's how he knew their windows were unlocked. He did it.
Brenda shows the info to his lawyer and says she's going to arrest his client. He wants to make a deal for eight years. He's offering the name of the other guy.
Brenda pauses then regroups, saying they're very close to finding the name of his partner on their own. Then she goes back and breaks the news that he has a partner to the squad.
At home, Fritz tells Brenda she may not like it, but she might have to go with the deal. If there's no partner the deal goes away. Fritz says the other guy is probably dangerous, it might be the right move.
At the squad, Gabriel says they searched Chris's home and are checking his acquaintances.
Pope wants to talk to Brenda. The DA wants to go for the deal.
Sanchez says that Chris's delivery partner says Chris used to ask to use the bathroom on deliveries a lot, which is against the rules, and he liked to look at their pictures. They're getting nowhere with the victims, but one might be up for an ID. Chris lives in his mother's attic and has a lot of lingerie magazines and a wad of cash his mom said he was saving up for plastic surgery.
Gabriel rules out the last set of people who could have used the front door. Nobody used it. Brenda doesn't believe a women on her own and new to town would forget to lock it.
The DA arrives. Brenda looks at the crime scene photos, which show a trail of popcorn out the front door. The officers chased Chris out the back. There was a partner, he walked out the front door. Pope and Brenda object to the deal, but the DA goes forward with it. They meet with the lawyer Phillip. He smugly says he thought they were close to catching the partner. He doesn't like being manipulated. He now says he wants probation. He doesn't believe they have any evidence against his client. He wants to see it. Brenda refuses. She asks him to leave the room and both she and Pope explain to the DA that the investigation just got started. They want a few days, but the DA isn't willing to risk another attack.
They go over the evidence with Phillip and Chris. Phillip works his way through each case, asking what kind of eyewitness or forensic evidence they have. They have no physical evidence. Brenda tells him one victim can ID him.
Phillip suggests they'll meet tomorrow but the DA wont go for it. He has five hours. He tells Brenda it's the right thing to do, but she's still not buying it. Chris is going to get four years.
The whole team watches Brenda review the agreement with Chris and Phillip. Chris signs it.
He claims his job was to find women who fit his partner's type. He unlocked the windows and watched for a few days. He watched the street and while his partner would "be with them." He claims he didn't participate in the attacks, but he got $1,500 a piece for being a lookout. When it's time to name his partner he check with his lawyer to make sure he's supposed to. Then he points at him.
Out in the hall the lawyer says he can't represent Chris if he's being accused. But the DA won't hear it because he wrote up the agreement and he has to stay on the case for it to be valid. Brenda goes back in and gives Chris another chance to give them the name. He swears it's Phillip. Brenda is infuriated but stops when Chris says his lawyer just wanted to see what they had on him. He says he wanted to tell, but his lawyer wouldn't let him. Brenda pauses to consider he might be telling the truth. Phillip listens from the hall as Chris continues to spill and everyone starts to believe him. He did those things because Phillip saved him from jail and he gave him money to help fix his face.
Out in the hall, Phillip sits and listens as one by one, members of the squad come stand next to him. Chris finishes talking and asks if he gets his deal. Brenda calmly walks out into the hall and sits down next to Phillip, asking him if he has anything to say.
He, just as calmly, says Chris is crazy and the story is absurd. He's not upset. Almost bemused. Brenda tells the DA to leave, since he risks being called as a witness if he stays. He doesn't object.
Phillip notes Chris can't use anything he said against either of them. Even if he was the partner they'd need evidence to link him to at least one of the crimes and as he learned earlier that day, they have none.
Brenda reminds him they have one victim who says she can make an ID. Phillip decides to wait.
The victim comes in. She's a wreck. They start the lineup. She asks: "What if I know one of them?"
He stopped by her work a few hours ago. He's a lawyer and he said she might be called down there.
Brenda points out to the DA that when Phillip spoke with the victim it a lawyer legally talking to a witness.
Brenda goes to talk to Phillip, who is seething smugness and satisfaction. He apologizes for wasting so much of their time. He says meeting the victim earlier totally slipped his mind. Brenda works up into a deep, coiled rage. She tells him he's in more trouble than he can possibly imagine. She promises to hunt him relentlessly until the day he dies.
He says she must be terribly disappointed at the way things have turned out. He grabs his briefcase and says it's over. And then he walks away.
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