CSI: Miami

Season 5 - Episode 12 - Internal Affairs

Written by Corey Miller
Directed by Scott Lautanen

Natalia enters a mansion were victim Benjamin Rhodes lies dead under the murder weapon, a granite top bookshelf.  Natalia exchanges snide words with her ex-husband -- and crime scene clean-up crew member -- Nick Townsend.  Tripp tells Horatio there was no forced entry.

 Alex finds blood on Rhodes’ pant leg that is not his own, and a blank bullet casing wound in his chest.  Calleigh and Delko link prints on the bookshelf to audio visual installer Jeff Murdock.  Jeff explains that he installed Rhodes’ entertainment system.  While Natalia waits for the pant-leg-blood test results from Maxine Valera, she warns Valera about dating her ex-husband Nick Townsend.  Valera doesn’t want to hear it.  The blood belongs to Jeff Murdock’s wife, former shoplifter-turned-psycho therapist Lauren Sloan.  Lauren explains to Natalia that Rhodes was her patient and she cut herself on a broken vase while he was in her office.

 Horatio stands over Nick Townsend’s dead body.  Horatio assigns the Townsend case to Jake Berkeley and his CSI graveyard team.  Jake arrests Natalia after discovering her fingerprints in Townsend’s house.  Valera confesses to pushing and killing Townsend, but the evidence doesn’t fit.  Jake discovers Lauren Sloan’s bloody earring at Townsend’s.  Crime scene clean up guy Philip Craven tells Horatio that Townsend stole the earrings from the Rhodes murder scene.  

 Calleigh and Wolfe link the blank bullet casing to Jeff Murdock’s gun.  Lauren confesses to shooting her lover Rhodes while her husband Jeff Murdock admits to killing Townsend.  Jeff wanted his wife’s earrings back.  Jeff and Lauren are arrested and Natalia and Valera are set free.