Episode 3: Siren Call
18-year-old wild child Ashley Gardela is already playing with fire by letting her little sister drink beer at a party - and things are about to get even worse. Leaving Emily to get a ride home with a drunken partygoer, Ashley heads into the city to go to a bar - but her night of fun comes to a brutal end when she steps into her Lexus to drive home and is strangled by an unseen assailant.
When Goren and Eames arrive on scene, they learn that the dead girl was the stepdaughter of Long Island cop Ray Wiznesky. "This is gonna kill her mother," he mutters grimly when he sees the body. Wiznesky describes Ashley as a "good girl" who worked hard to earn the money to keep up with her flashy city friends.
A frat boy Ashley had been flirting with at the bar seems a likely suspect when it emerges that she ditched him after he had been buying her drinks all night. The thwarted Romeo denies killing Ashley, but tells the detectives that she seemed to have another man on the go - one identified by an 'Oh Canada' ringtone. "A Canadian sugar daddy?" says a sceptical Captain Ross when he hears the theory. "You sure Ferris Bueller's alibi checks out?"
It turns out that the frat boy is indeed in the clear - and has a tip that points the cops towards Ashley's Canadian boss. Advertising executive Jason Raines had been cheating on his supermodel wife (guest star Brooke Shields) with Ashley - and his calls to her phone had been deleted around the time of her death. Wiznesky also seems to believe that Raines is involved, putting the philanderer at gunpoint and screaming, "He murdered my Ashley".
Ross, however, is not convinced that Raines is the killer. "A guy like this... I doubt this is his first affair," he muses. "Why turn to murder now?" Eames believes the trigger may have been a threatening email from Ashley, who was angry because Raines had reneged on a promise to help her career. "She was playing hardball," realises Ross. "Maybe he swung back. Bring him in."
Everything seems to indicate that Raines is the killer, but Goren wonders if it is all a set-up by someone with a grudge against both Raines and Ashley. One of Ashley's ex-boyfriends seems to fit the bill, but then the cops realise that someone closer to home is a more likely suspect. Ashley's own stepfather has a troubled past, a traumatic home life and anger towards his unruly ward - but how can Goren and Eames find out more with the tight-lipped local police force willing to do anything to protect one of its officers?
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Taking us deep into the minds of criminals while following the psychological and complex approaches the squad uses to catch them.
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