The only tangible early clues are photos of a man who had been watching the woman, who worked as a bookkeeper. The detectives also learn that the missing woman's brother had been murdered on 9/11 and his case did not get the attention it ordinarily would have. One major clue in the brother's file was that coffee dust had been found on his person, and Goren and Eames equate it with coffee dust found on the woman's dog when it finds its way home.
The detectives eventually discover the abandoned warehouse where the brother was killed, with a scent of caffeine so strong it give a very pregnant Eames 'a buzz'. The remains of torture apparatus tell Bobby it was 'a killing room". Bro had been a hitman whose turn had come. Still no sign of the woman, but some of her dog's hair was found on the premises.
The investigation now centers on the dead brother's murder as it's the major lead. His widow, now apparently happily re-married to an ex-detective with a security business, appears shocked to learn her dead hubby was in the mob.
The dead hubby's 'business' dealings provide a sub-plot that eventually explains the entire mystery. His partners in crime had included both his wife's current husband, and the man who had been photographed watching his sister. When that man is fished out of the river, the detectives realize they can close several cases by bottoming this one out.
Carver terms the case 'operatic' as there are no easily discernable glue connecting the actors, but in the end the pieces of the puzzle fit nicely. The murder of a mistakenly assassinated lawyer and the involvement of a mobster soon to be paroled and his inept son figure into the plot as well.
The finale is well done - the wife knew for some time her new hubby, the dirty cop, killed 'her one husband' and she had the self discipline to wait for just the right time to indulge in what we all know is best served cold. She had quite 'unethically' involved her sister-on-law in a tax audit of her late husband's phony companies.the act which forced the hand of new hubby, as he feared any prying into his late partner's affairs would uncover his relationship with him. But the necessity of sacrificing her sister-in-law hardly measured up to nailing the man she had married after he killed her 'one and only'.
A really interesting storyline, complicated, but never off the wall.
The exquisite olfactory sense of Detective Goren was in full play in this one, as the notorious "button nose" detects coffee dust on the doggie's hindlegs and probably WOULD have detected a cheese's Italian ancestry without the label. Pretty horrible Chinese accent tho..it's a tonal language, Bobby, and tone ain't intonation.
But OHH! An acting tidbit - Goren complements a waitress for noticing "the little things" (about the dead woman's friend)"that's the way an actor builds a character".
Don't tell me V D'O has been giving free acting lessons for five years. :)
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