CSI: Miami

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Big Brother

Teleplay by Ann Donahue & Jonathan Glassner
Directed by Joe Chapelle

A janitor works late in a high-rise office building, buffing the floors, when he sees a shadow disappearing around the corner. He tries to follow, but then notices a flickering light coming from one of the offices. As he makes his way inside he discovers two flickering candles, a bottle of champagne… and the body of Stephen Bremen, bleeding out onto his keyboard.

Horatio and Yelina arrive on scene, verifying a large serrated hunting knife as the murder weapon. Speedle stops Alexx just in time before she can move the body, explaining that with Bremen’s head coming to rest on the keyboard, they can figure out an almost exact time of death by counting the number of “J’s” that have been typed by his nose. Yelina points out a blood void where the victim’s laptop should be, while Horatio notices the even pockmarks left by spiked stiletto heels in the carpet. Then his phone rings and after a whispered conversation, he excuses himself.

Back at the CSI offices, Horatio speaks to the arresting officer, confirming that he does in fact know Suzie Barnum (CSI: Miami - Season One “Freaks and Tweaks”) – the woman who was having an affair with his brother at the time of his murder. Horatio confronts her with the crystal meth that was found in her possession – reminding her that she promised to stay clean. She claims that the drugs belonged to a friend, and that she just borrowed the car to get to her new job. But Horatio only trusts hard evidence, telling her that he’s going to need a urine sample.

Back at the crime scene, Bremen’s boss is able to confirm that there is nothing suspicious to be found on their computer network. A search of the empty laptop bag turns up a case for a wireless internet card. The team traces the signal to a nearby building with Wi-Fi access, where they uncover e-mails from Bremer to a woman named “Amanda” - asking her to meet him at almost the exact time of his death.

Meanwhile, having been cleared by the urinalysis, Horatio quizzes Suzie about her “friend” that owns the car – and she comes clean that its owner, Bob Keaton, is her husband. Horatio takes her home where he gets another surprise in the form of a little girl with red hair and a striking resemblance to his dead brother, Raymond. While Bob is hauled off for possession, Horatio gets a blood trace of the girl’s scraped knee for a DNA test, but he already knows the truth. The little girl is family. He returns to the office to get a sample of his brother’s DNA for a match, and pulls the files on Ray’s unsolved murder. For the first time he sees connections to a name that never turned up before: Bob Keaton.

With Tyler Jensen’s help, Calleigh and Delko are able to reconstruct Bremer’s internet history from the wireless connection, noticing that he was consistently visiting the same website every time he logged on: “Sorority Exposed”. They trace the site to its physical location where they discover a fake sorority set in a warehouse – where young woman are paid to live while spending time undressed in front of the cameras. And one of their most popular residents is a young blonde named “Amanda”.

But Amanda has an alibi in the form of her scheduled on-camera sessions - and a few thousand eyewitnesses logged on to prove it.