CSI: Miami

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Hard Time

Teleplay by Elizabeth Devine
Directed by Deran Sarafian

A young man settles down with the latest issue of Playboy in his luxury condo, only to be disturbed by a strange sound. He unscrews the light fixture over the bed, spilling a rain of insects down on him.

Horatio and Calleigh investigate one flight up, where they find a vacant condo under construction and the body of Peg Donovan, swollen and riddled with maggots. When Alexx arrives, she mentions that the victim’s eyes aren’t cloudy. Then Horatio notices beads of perspiration - their “body” is still alive.

Medics are called in, compromising the crime scene as Donovan is rushed to the hospital. A quick search of her bag turns up pepper spray, a whistle, and a switchblade – telling them that this isn’t the first attack Donovan has survived. Horatio quickly realizes that no one is that unlucky; this may look like a random attack, but he’s betting someone just wants it to look that way.

Alexx takes it hard that as a doctor, she was so slow to realize the victim was alive, but Speedle reassures her that with the number of flies and the smell of decomposition, it was logical to go with the First Officer’s report. She points out the irony in the fact that the flies may have helped save Donovan’s life: as the maggots fed off the necrotizing tissue it may have actually kept her wounds from becoming infected.

As Horatio waits for Donovan to recover consciousness at the hospital, the CSIs tear the crime scene apart, finding a used Kleenex, blood spatter and dozens of shoe prints – including one with a distinct chevron shaped crust. Then something catches Speedle’s eye amidst the construction debris: a two-by-four with one end matted in blood and hair. A black dent in the white paint indicates the murder weapon scraped the ceiling.

When they put it together, they realize the only reason a former rape victim would willingly go to a deserted construction site, was if she knew – and more importantly - trusted the person she went there with.

Horatio has Yelina run Donovan through the system for a link to a prior rape case, turning up nothing in the state of Florida. But a search of adjacent states finds her in Georgia – a victim of a particularly brutal rape in a motel room. Her assailant, Mason Shaw was found guilty and given a fifteen-year sentence. When they realize Shaw is eligible for parole at the end of the month, Horatio has a motive - and a reason to take a drive to Georgia.

Horatio confronts Shaw face to face, keeping it secret that Donovan survived the attack. Shaw seems confident that nothing will keep him from parole this time, but Horatio knows that he’s staring a guilty man in the eye. And he won’t rest until he’s proven it.