Good Housekeeping - Recap

Brenda and Co. are at it again...this time there's a young girl found floating in the L.A. River. After examination, it's discovered that a blow to the head is what killed her...after she was raped.

The girl, Maria Alverez, was the daughter of Carmen Alverez, a maid working for the wealthy Phillips family. Everyone's questioned---the Phillips', their son Austin, the gardener who got Carmen the job, and Carmen herself. Austin provides a little help when he picks out a photo from a sex offender registry; it seems he recognizes the man as one who might have been taking pictures of Maria earlier in the week.

The suspect, Wayne Mathers, denies ever having seen Maria Alverez, let alone taking pictures of her. He even has an alibi---he was in a local botanical garden, taking pictures of flowers and plants, a hobby of his. What's more, both he and his mother tell Brenda and Sgt. Gabriel that Mathers' conviction and registry stemmed from a night when he was sleeping off a binge in a park and woke up to relieve himself. Trouble was, some children watched him while he was doing so, and he got nabbed for indecent exposure. Mathers' leaves to get something from his room...and within seconds, shots ring out. Brenda and Sgt. Gabriel go in to find that rather thatn be wrongly accused one more time, Mathers decided to take his own life.

Now the PHD has problems. Not only is Mrs. MAthers filing a civil suit agains them for wrongful death, but the photos they took from Mathers' camera---the ones he allegedly took of Maria---are actually of plants and trees in the botanical garden, just like he said they were. There's even a timestamp on the photos, so his alibi's solid. The team is back at square one.

Brenda goes to see Carmen Alverez and finds her packing. She's going back to Mexico to bury Maria and start over in her native country. Carmen shows Brenda a journal of Maria's, glowing with pride at her daughter's success in her American school and her studies. Brenda asks to borrow the journal, promising to have it promptly returned.

The journal proves immensely helpful. It seems Maria, who was 12, had a bit of a crush on Austin Phillips, who is 17 and the son of her mother's employer. After a second look at the Philips estate, where Sgt. Gabriel finds a bloodstain on the corner of a painting at the top of a staircase as well as several things either out of place or not adding up. Brenda is on the phone ordering a search warrant when the Phillips' decide to end their cooperation in the investigation.

After the warrant is granted, Mr. Phillips decides to confess to the crime...down at the station. Brenda takes him to the station and leaves officers at the estate to continue inthe search. After waiting two hours for his lawyer to show, Brenda gets to grill him about he particulars of Maria's death. Phillips is singing, but the tune's wrong. He keeps checking his watch and is visibly agitated. Brenda's no dummy---she threatens him with obstruction as her fears are confirmed. Phillips has been buying time for Austin and his wife to escape to Mexico.

Pope tells Brenda that he's made a call to the federales; he also hauls out two massive bottles of tequila and ofers to go with her to apprehend Austin. Brenda takes the tequila but declines Pope's offer---she's going to Mexico with Fritz instead.

Once in Mexico, They find that the Phillips' have been apprehneded, but there's a catch. Since Austin is a minor, Mexico will not extradite him to face a death sentence. Brenda then has to convince him to willingly come back to the US to face charges---something Austin's not willing to do. Brenda and Fritz threaten to have both his parents arrested on federal charges, their assets frozen, his lifelines cut. Still Austin refuses, saying there's no way he'll go to the US to be executed. Brenda is furious, but suddenly relents. She needs to close this case, and offers Austin the opportunity to stay in Mexico on the condition that he tell her everything that happened.

Austin is more than happy to oblige. He tells Brenda about how he found out about Maria's crush on him; about how he convinced her to have sex with him; about how she cried when he penetrated her and he convinced her to complete the intercourse; about how he was racing to throw her out of his father's study where they had had the sex because his parents were coming home and he didn't want to get caught. She fell down the stairs, hitting her head on the painting and dying instantly. Austin then ends his story by claiming it was an accident.

It was an accident, Brenda admits, what happened to Maria...but it was not an accident that Austin framed an innocent man for the crime, which led to his suicide; it was not an accident that Maria's body ended up in the trunk of his car; and it was no accident that her body was found floating in the L. A. River. Austin is tired of the interview and tells Brenda she can leave.

Brenda says she can leave...but Austin has to stay.

She then pulls out a piece of paper and hands it to the federales, explaining that their English is much better than her Spanish, and asks them if the document is in fact a birth certificate...for Maria Alverez, a citizen of Mexico. The federales confirm that it is.

Brenda explains that since Maria was a Mexican citizen, and he is currently being held in Mexico, the Mexican authorities can charge him with her murder...regardless that the crime took place in the US. Brenda also vows full cooperation between her team and the Mexican prosecutor's office.

"Now you can think on that for the next forty years in a Mexican jail," she says as she instructs the federales to take him away.

Austin is in shock, and begs to take up Brenda's original offer to go back to the US with her, but Brenda sadly tells him that his deal is already in place. She listens to his cries and his mothers anguished pleas for information and attempts to drown her guilt and disgust in the tequila. Fritz stops her before she finishes the bottle and suggests they spend the night in Mexico, anticipating the hangover she will have the next morning. Brenda agrees, but makes a phone call...

...to Sgt. Gabriel, who is "kitten-sitting" while Brenda is away. "That is not a litter box!" he laments as the credits roll.

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