Man Up - Recap

Greg, Hodges and Mandy are on a website which shows a dead woman in a
dumpster. Greg thinks she's really dead, but Hodges and Mandy are
pointing out proof that she's not. Nick arrives, and agrees with the
other two. He reminds them that everything posted on that particular
website is fake. Without a body, they can't prove anything. Eric bets
Nick he's right, $100. Nick takes the bet, and they head out. When they
arrive, Eric is right. There are a lot of people at the scene, and Nick
wants to see some ID. A goth-looking kid tries running, and Nick
intercepts him.

The kid was working all night at a diner. As Brass arrives, David
announces that the TOD was 4-6 hours ago.

Al says she had sex shortly before sex, and it was unprotected. This may
mean she wasn't a working girl. Nick compares the picture on the website
to the victim's strangulation mark. It doesn't appear to be a match. Nor
is the dress she was found in the same dress as online.

Archie checks with the website. Their photo was taken two nights ago.
Fireworks reflected in a hubcap prove it. Nick won the bet. She was
alive when the picture was taken.

Hodges bought a motorcycle that the seller claimed as a classic. Not
only is that not true, but there was blood on the air filter case, and
part of a thumb inside it. Ray tells him to investigate.

Nick and Eric go to Amber's and find her boyfriend. He claims she used
to hook, but she doesn't anymore. She was supposed to have been out with
friends the night before. They question what he does for living, and why
he's in his pajamas in the middle of the day, playing video games. He
says he's a consultant. Amber doesn't support him, if that's what
they're thinking. Nick suggests he get dressed and have some coffee with
the nice officer outside, while they check the apartment out. He doesn't
object, and the guys get to work. Nick finds the dress from the photo,
and they take it back to the lab where Greg goes to work on it.

He slows his results to Catherine. The hairs found on Amber's dress were
zebra hair. She thinks zebra went out with disco, but he shows her a
picture of Carrot Top on a zebra throw. She asks Greg to zoom in on his
wrist, and they see that the orange lanyard they found on Amber is on
his wrist.

Nick and Brass question Carrot Top. He knows Amber, and when he saw her
last, she was alive. They were in the back of a limo. There were a
couple of guys there, too; he doesn't remember them so much. Last thing
he remembers, Amber was starting to take her dress off. Next thing he
remembers, there were cops, lights, and laughter. He tries to remember
what the guys look like, but all he has is "preppy". They asked for
backstage passes, so he gave them and that's what they used to tie him up.

Greg and Nick go to work processing the limo where Carrot Top was found.
Greg finds some cheap piece of jewelry, and Nick finds what looks like
an emerald.

Hodges ran DNA on the thumb and blood. The blood was not a match for the
thumb. He got a hit on the blood, it belonged to an unidentified male.
There was a head-on collision between two buses, and his blood was at
the scene. Hodges thinks his bike was at the scene, despite the fact
that there is no mention of it in the police report. Ray notices that
the wreckage was hauled away by Mars Brothers Salvage, and suggests that
be Hodges next stop.

Greg tells Catherine that the stuff he and Nick found is costume
jewelry, and he's trying to find a match by checking Vegas shows online.
Catherine tells him to check the casino, not the shows, on the
Mediterranean. When he pulls up the photo gallery, she points out a
photo that she picked the costume out for: Spartacus.

Eric finds the costumed man in question and he takes Eric to where he
was robbed. He was going to the bathroom, and his gear was stolen. Etic
looks over the stall and finds some prints that he's able to lift.

Hodges and Vartann arrive at the scrap yard and check out the bus
debris. The brothers seem like good old boys, but one appears broody and
the other apprehensive once the men walk away. Hodges finds some blood
on the front bumper of one, and in his mind's eye is able to see how his
bike could have been there. He finds what may be a piece of his bike out
from one of the buses.

Archie finds a site with a twisted bucket list on it. "Kill a Hooker" is
the only act they didn't perform that night. The other three pictures
are up on the website.

The part Hodges found was from a Triumph motorcycle. The owner's
ex-girlfriend is en route. They tell her that Peter was smashed between
two buses. As she leaves, she tells Hodges he reminds her of Peter.

Archie got the cell phone numbers from the bucket list pictures. They
were all from Chicago.

Mandy brings in the fingerprints from the guy who stole the costume.
They go to a Scott Horan. He has a Maybach and a Bentley registered in
his name. Catherine's going to have Brass track Horan's credit cards. He
bought three plane tickets. CSI intercepts the three men and bring them
in for questioning. Horan is questioned by Nick, and stunned to discover
that Amber is really dead.

The men were replaying the bucket list they did ten years ago. The two
other guys use Scott, they consider him a loser. They just use him for
his money. They all swear they didn't kill her, it was a setup. When
Scott saw the picture, he freaked out. None of them put the picture of
her up on the website - so that leaves Amber. She wanted a copy, so
Hunter gave it to her. Getting the picture taken was the easiest $2000
she ever made. She wanted to show it to her boyfriend. Craig.

Brass shows the floor manager a picture of Craig. The guy doesn't like
him. Win or lose, Craig never tips. He has a "usual table", and that's
where they find him. He doesn't want to leave the table, but Brass
insists, physically. He's concerned about his chips, so Nick says he'll
handle it. He shovels them over to the next guy at the table, saying
"This is from Amber."

Hodges confronts the brothers about his bike, and the parts that were
used from the accident. Once one of them admits to not reporting the
bike being part of the accident, Vartann brings in some uniforms to
place them under arrest. Hodges turns his bike over to Vartann as
evidence, announcing he is done with the open road.

Nick questions Craig. He cleaned out Amber's bank account after she
died. He claims that she wanted to go back to work. "Once a whore,
always a whore." Nick tells him he's a real gentleman, and he says thank
you. Nick figures that Craig saw the $2000 picture and decided to go
ahead and re-create it, figuring whoever took the picture would take the
blame.

Amber had a client that night that paid her $5000. She put it in the
ATM, Craig's account. Eric and Catherine check the funds. One of the
gentlemen from Chicago's prints may be on the funds. After the specific
monies are isolated as being Amber's deposit, Mandy goes to work finding
prints. She finds one - it belongs to Scott Horan.

He remembers his friends setting him up to believe Amber was dead, and
how scared he was. He wanted to report it but figured he'd just wind up
in trouble himself. And then Amber walked in the bar. He told her he
fell for it and she said "Come on. You can't be that stupid." She told
him she was in on the whole thing. He offered her $10,000 for another
photo shoot. Killing her felt so good, to finally one-up his two
"friends." After he killed Amber, he uploaded the staged photo to the
Vegas website, and he killed their hooker. He was going to tell them on
the plane ride home, that he did it, but they were on the hook for it.
He was finally the one calling the shots.

Nick gives Eric back his $100.

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