Wild Life - Recap

Two young ladies are going on about the dearth of good men, when a body
falls in front of them. CSI arrives. They can't tell how far he fell,
based on his injuries. Nick questions the young ladies. One of them not
only makes jokes when she's nervous, but she also flirts. Nick walks
away smiling.

Catherine hugs and thanks a man before approaching Vartann. She tells
him that the victim is Brad Malone. He was in way over his head. Vartann
wonders how come the guy she hugged handed over all that info, but it's
not what he's thinking. The guy used to work for Catherine's dad. When
Sam died, he left Catherine a little piece of the Eclipse. She never
said anything, because she doesn't want everyone to know. He reacts to
being lumped in with everyone else, so Catherine excuses herself to fill
in Nick and Ray. They wonder if maybe he's a suicide, since Las Vegas is
the suicide capital of the world.

Nick tells Ray that the victim was about to file bankruptcy due to
gambling. As they check his room they find that his clothes are neatly
folded, and his phone and wallet are on the nightstand. Nick finds the
orderliness of it all to be consistent with suicide, but there is no
note. Ray checks the phone. Recent emails are all past-due notices. When
Nick checks the bed, there are no signs of sexual activity. It would
appear that he spent his last night alone. Ray notes that the door is
locked, and the latching mechanism only works from the inside. Nick
notes the obvious: if he jumped off his balcony, how did he lock the
door behind him? And if he wasn't alone, maybe he didn't jump. Maybe he
was pushed. They check the door for prints. Ray gets one.

Sara, Greg and Brass check out the double homicide of a couple whom the
landlord identified as Lance and Denise Irwin. Their home was foreclosed
on four months ago. The 911 was called in by the wife. All she got out
was help me, help me, and then she was unresponsive. There's lots of
blood spatter, but none on the phone. Greg asks the bird what happened.
He offers a cracker for an answer, but the bird turns his back and
shuffles to the other end of the cage. The husband is in the tub.
Lividity is just setting in. Sarah reaches the conclusion that the
Irwins were just killed an hour ago. Greg notices that Mr. Irwin has a
nasty head wound and a possible broken nose. It would appear that Mr.
Irwin was getting ready to go to his job at the corner gas station,
while Mrs. Irwin made him breakfast.

Sarah notices a family photo. It's Lance and Denise, with their bird and
cat. Sarah notes that they have seen no sign of a cat. There's an open
window, and the screen is torn. They assume that the killer came through
there and surprised Mrs. Irwin. Then he heard Lance in the shower, so he
took him out as well. But how can it be a routine robbery, if cash and
credit cards are still there. In addition, Greg notes that parrots like
these are worth thousands of dollars. He says to the bird "More, if they
can talk." The bird remains silent. Brass thinks maybe they were
targeted. He'll go talk to the landlord, see if they had any enemies.
David shows up to process the bodies as Sara and Greg catalog the scene.

Nick tells Ray that the print belongs to Malone. Ray notes that there's
only one shoe print out there on the balcony. They reach the conclusion
that he may have been pushed from a different balcony. They step outside
and look around. The room next door seems to be a possibility, as the
body landed directly under it.

Vartann informs them that the suite is registered to two women from
Ohio, Stacy and Dana. There is no known connection to the victim. Ray
notes a couple of drops of blood on the thresh hold of their suite's
door. Vartann identified "LVPD, open up!" but there is no response from
within. They key-card their way in, and find more blood. Nick eyeballs
the women in bed, and they go in. Stacy and Dana appear to be dead. When
Ray checks for a pulse, they both sit up.

Stacy is vomiting in a pail. Nick offers her a glass of water. Ray shows
them Brad's picture. They don't think they recognize him. The blood that
was all over their bed belongs to neither of them. Stacy asks if that's
his blood on them, and when the answer is positive, she becomes ill
again. Ray tells them that an officer will be taking them to the
hospital for examination.

Robbins checks out Mr. Irwin, who suffered a fractured skull and
inter-cranial bleed, which rendered him unconscious. Cause of death is
drowning. He had some healed scars on his upper body which may have been
caused by past altercations.

Brass interrogates a neighbor Duane, typical stoner. He tries saying
that wasn't him on the call. Brass counters that it was made from his
home phone, and that was his voice. He threatened to kill the Irwins. He
finally admits he hated them and tried to get them evicted, but he
didn't kill him. He thought about killing the bird, though. It was
squawking all day and night. Brass asks if it was only about the bird,
but it wasn't. It was like Fight Club over there. They were always
screaming, fighting; throwing things. His alibi is phone sex with Betsy.
Brass wants to verify but he'll need a credit card, and $4.99 a minute.

Ray and Nick process the girl's room while Catherine processes the girls
at the hospital. She records the minor bruising on Dana. When she
performs a vaginal exam, she finds that they had recently engaged in
sexual activity. They were celebrating Stacy's divorce being finalized.
She still can't remember anything. Catherine asks if their drinks were
ever out of their sight. They may have been roofied. Their exams show
they engaged in sexual activity the previous night. Dana is visibly
upset, since she unintentionally cheated on her husband. She and her
husband fell in love when they were 16. He's the only man she'd ever
been with.

Ray finds an iron under the bed that has blood on the pointed tip of it.
They theorize that Stacy nailed Brad with the iron at some point during
their menage a trois, and Dana helped her toss the body over the balcony.

Greg and Sara find at least one 911 call a month reporting domestic
violence from the Irwins. The landlord told Greg that the window screen
had been torn for months, caused by a close encounter with Lance's fist.
Sara thinks it's possible that Lance Irwin finally killed his wife, went
to wash off the blood and slipped and fell, dying in the bathtub.

Robbins and Ray look over Brad Malone's body, their findings are
consistent with Brad having been pushed over the railing backwards. The
way the blood is showing indicates that he was alive when he hit the
pavement. He had sex close to the time of death. Ray notes that they
found a used condom in the women's bedroom.

Nick and Catherine discover that the blood from Brad's room came from
another man. Two men, two women, no waiting.

Sara and Greg go back to the Irwins and find that the parrot has yet to
have been picked up by animal control. Greg wants to bring him back to
the lab. He tries to talk to the parrot, but it's still not talking.
They have no blood in the tub to link his wife's death to Lance Irwin.
Sara has hopes that a partially clogged drain will yield some answers.
Greg finds a blood-soaked feather in the trap. It would appear that they
showered with the parrot as well. He hopes the blood belongs to Denise
Irwin. Sarah notes that their crime scene has been contaminated. Greg
doesn't see how; the door was sealed. A smile spreads across Sara's face
as she realizes that the cat has returned. Those are paw prints. He's
under the couch, purring. She takes him into custody as well.

Vartann and Catherine go over their theory of what happened with Dana
and Stacy. Dana had unprotected sex with Brad Malone, and Stacy used a
condom with the unidentified man. Vartann can't believe the women don't
remember anything. Catherine admits she was roofied one night a few
years ago after a John Mayer concert. She wasn't raped. She thought she
was. The worst part of it was having several hours of her life gone, no
knowledge of what happened.

Nick shows up with the tox reports. Stacy's alcohol level was .32.
Vartann says that's the equivalent of 13 drinks. They also had GHB in
their systems. So they were drugged. But Dana's alcohol level was only
.07. Vartann realizes that she wasn't even legally drunk. The soccer mom
knows more than she is owning. When he and Catherine interview Dana, she
tells them about the other man, Kyle, whom they met at a bar. They
brought Kyle home and were dancing with him when Brad came in to ask
them to tone things down. Dana claims that Stacy invited Brad in for a
drink and when she and Kyle went into the bedroom, Brad raped her.
Catherine notes that sex happened not only on the couch, but also on the
coffee table. Dana becomes very upset, reiterating that she only ever
slept with one man in her life, do the detectives think she's going to
willingly have unprotected sex with a complete stranger?

Afterward, she went into the bedroom where Stacy was "celebrating" with
Kyle. Kyle decided it was his turn to have a go at Dana. Brad entered,
Kyle flipped out. He ran at Brad, shoving him in the other room. He just
kept shoving him, until he finally shoved him right off the balcony. Ray
asks Catherine if that happened, why did she then go to bed as though
nothing had happened? He notes that until they find Kyle, they won't
know what happened in that room.

Hodges shows Ray trace evidence from the bedding in the women's motel
room. It appears to be a feather, but Hodges specifies that it's not
just any feather. It's a very distinct, expensive feather. He compares
it to another feather found in their room. This one leads to a bar
called the Pillow Club. Hodges knows from personal experience that this
club does sell the yard-long drinks, much like the ones found in the
women's suite. Maybe that's where they met Kyle. Ray wonders what a club
needs with pillows.

Ray and Nick go to check it out. Its like a giant slumber party pillow
fight. The waitress they talk to points them to Kyle, the bartender. He
has a bruise which matches being hit by the iron on his head. He says
the girls are lying. He claims Stacy asked for the GHB and had Dana
drink it. He had consensual sex with Stacy and offered the same to Dana,
who declined by way of hitting him in the head with the iron and running
out. Then Brad came from the next room to see what all the commotion was
about. He escorted Dana back to her room. Kyle doesn't know what
happened from then on, as he was en route to the ER.

Robbins thinks the parrot is guilty in the murder of Denise Irwin. There
are talon marks on her scalp. Sara doesn't see how, as the bird was in
his cage when they arrived. Robbins says that parrots are very smart,
and the bird could easily have gotten back in his own cage, shutting the
door behind him. Sara tells Al there is no way that that bird picked up
a knife and stabbed Mrs. Irwin ... right?

Hodges is in the lab with the cat and bird, who are trying to kill each
other from their respective cages. Sara walks in and separates the cages
so they can't interact. He suffers from an irrational fear of birds,
caused by being attacked by a flock of Canadian geese when he was young.
They were Canadian; he thought they were friendly. She tells him that Al
told her the parrot attacked Denise, and they know the cat ran through
the crime scene. That means they will both have to be processed. Hodges
chooses the cat. Sarah notes that the bird appears to have blood beneath
his wing. They fill Brass in. Mrs. Irwin's DNA was under the parrots
talons, and he's the reason there was so much blood spray in the room.
Also the cat is technically responsible for Mr. Irwin's death. Hodges
found soap on the bird, and Greg found feathers in the tub. Mr. Irwin
was giving the bird a shower when the cat attacked. The cat and bird
really hate each other, Sara tells Brass. Mrs. Irwin went to see what
all the commotion was about. Since she was making breakfast, she was
traveling with a knife in her hand. The bird was trying to get away from
the cat, and in his frenzied state, he turned his aggression on Mrs.
Irwin. As she tried to escape, she fell onto the coffee table. The cat
went into hiding, and the bird put himself back in his cage. Jim notes
that remarkably, it all makes perfect sense. The only thing they don't
know is how she called 911 without getting any blood on the phone.

Kyle the bartender's ER story checks out. Obviously Dana lied about him
killing Brad. If she lied about that then how do they know she didn't
lie about being raped? Catherine and Ray recreate what happened out
there, based on the prints they got. They weren't fingerprints, they
were toe prints. Ray says the position he and Catherine are in is known
as 'suspended congress'. Ray knows this from the Kama Sutra. Nick,
behind Catherine, announces this is his first three-way, and he's very
excited. They come to the conclusion that Brad's death was an accident.
He fell off the balcony during consensual sex with Dana on the railing.
Dana confesses and says she has three amazing kids. Not once in 15 years
has she even looked at another man. She says she and Brad had an
immediate connection, and she couldn't stop herself. She lost control -
and she's not that person. She tells Catherine that she and her husband
only have sex twice a month and it's always lights out, and only under
the covers. Catherine tells her she's not being charged, but she will
have some explaining to do to her husband.


Catherine goes to visit Vartann. She knows he's upset because he thinks
she's not being honest with him. She just doesn't think that couples
need to tell each other everything. He asks who draws the line? She owes
a piece of a casino. That's a big thing to keep from him. Catherine says
that's business: Nothing to do with them. He doesn't understand, so
Catherine goes on. She's had her fill with complicated relationships.
She doesn't want him to try to change her, and she promises to return
the favor. He asks if this is "take it or leave it", and she says "Call
me when you decide."

Sara and Greg say goodbye to the parrot. She found him a good home with
no cats. Greg tells him one more attack and he's done for. He cuts
himself slicing an apple. The parrot sees the blood, hops over to the
phone and dials 911. When he hears the operators voice, he asks for
help. Now they know.

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