When a young prosecutor and a prostitute are found murdered in a car, the entire LA District Attorney’s office is out for blood.
Julie and Stark are having a night out. He asks how things are going with her boyfriend Eddie. Just as the conversation is getting a bit awkward, he is called in to work. He joins Isaac and Jessica at a crime scene, where a man and a woman have been shot; no signs of robbery. Jessica’s there; something’s up. It turns out the dead man is Dean Gorman, a Deputy DA. Jessica had hired him right out of law school. She wants whoever did this nailed. The female victim turns out to be Allison Adams, a high-priced call girl. Stark has Raina and Poe interview Dean’s wife Chloe, with Isaac tagging along. He tells them not to let her know about Allison. Chloe says that last night Dean said he had to work late on a case, something he’d been doing a lot since starting his “project.” She shows them Dean’s home office, where he has an elaborate crime board set up. Isaac recognizes a name, Carlo Acampora, as a major drug trafficker. Chloe says Dean wanted to get out of the Domestic Violence unit and move up to the Narcotics unit, but he’d been turned down twice. He wanted to prove himself.
That night Julie and Eddie are making out in her room. Julie tells Eddie she thinks she’s ready. Eddie says he can wait; he doesn’t want her to feel pressured. Julie says she trusts him, and that when they find the right time and place, she wants him to be the one. Stark visits Monica Tanner, high-powered madam. They seem to know each other well. He asks about Allison; was Dean a customer? No… what about drug dealer Freddie Hopper? Allison’s cell shows she made a lot of calls to him. Monica says she doesn’t know him. Stark asks to get in touch with all of Allison’s clients from the last week; Monica won’t give Stark the information, and doesn’t seem to think that Stark will subpoena her client list.
Stark tells Jessica and the Mayor that there’s a legal connection between Dean and Allison; Gorman had dropped her case, likely in exchange for access to information on Freddie, who has ties to Acampora. Instead, Stark theorizes, Freddie got wise and killed them both. Normally they’d nail Freddie, but then the whole story will come out and make the department look bad: a DA consorting with hookers and drug dealers. The alternative is to drop the case. Jessica opts to continue the investigation. Freddie is arrested. At the arraignment the media are banned from the courtroom. Jessica insists they need to subpoena Monica’s client list, over Stark’s objections. Raina interviews Michelle, one of Monica’s girls… or rather, it turns out, one of Monica’s former girls. It turns out Allison had set up her own business, and took some of Monica’s girls with her. She took less off the top than Monica, and if they got busted, Allison had a friend in the DA’s office who could help.
Julie and Stark spend an afternoon together. Stark says her mother made him wait before they started sleeping together. Regardless of how things later went between them, the one time he waited was the one time he got it right. Casey and Poe interview Brittany, who still works for Monica. They’re meeting her in a hotel room so Monica won’t find out about it. She says Freddie worked for Monica; she was his best customer. After Brittany leaves, Poe and Casey take advantage of the hotel room and have a quick but passionate tryst.
Stark confronts Monica, who says she lied because Freddie is crazy and violent. She didn’t want him after her. She also claims that Allison’s operation was no big deal. Monica confirms that Freddie found out about Allison’s connection to the DA’s office. Stark interviews Freddie. When Stark reminds him he’s facing the death penalty, and is up against a DA’s office that wants his blood, he wants to make a deal: If they’ll take the death penalty off the table, he’ll bring Monica down with him. She paid him to kill Allison. He had no idea there was anyone else in the car. Monica is arrested. Jessica feels guilty for Dean’s death. If she’d given him the transfer, this wouldn’t have happened. She didn’t because she didn’t want him to get hurt.
In the bullpen Casey discovers $75,000 in wire transfers between Monica and Freddie. Martin’s been studying Dean’s board; there’s a D. Miegert listed, but nobody can figure out who that is. Suddenly a report comes on TV that Monica’s client list has been leaked… and Stark is on it. Monica’s lawyer, Gloria Dent, moves that Stark be recused from the case for conflict of interest. Stark claims that to divulge the nature of his involvement with Monica would violate attorney-client privilege. Jessica backs him up, and the judge tables the motion. He warns Stark that if it turns out he did patronize Monica’s business, he’ll be disbarred. Afterwards Jessica is enraged. By withholding his history with Monica, he’s endangered the case.
As Stark preps himself that night, Julie enters. Stark swears to Julie that he never slept with Monica’s girls. Julie asks for permission to go with Eddie to his dad’s place in Santa Barbara, just for the day. She promises to be home by midnight. Stark agrees. Raina finds Poe working late on the case. Poe says she owes it to Dean, who she worked with at the Domestic Victims Unit when she was just out of law school. She was transferred up to narcotics. He asked her to put in a good word for him… and she didn’t.
On the stand the girls testify about the conflict between Monica and Allison. Dent destroys their credibility, but Stark’s okay with that. The testimony that’s really going to sway the jury is Freddie’s confession. When they get to the jail to prep Freddie, he’s dead; killed by another inmate. It turns out that the murderer is an employee of Acampora. Stark sets up a meeting with Monica and Dent, who don’t yet know that Freddie’s dead. He uses the threat of Freddie’s testimony to secure a deal: 12 years. Just as Monica’s about to sign, Dent gets a call letting her know of Freddie’s demise. Stark claims not to have known. Judge Fenton says there are security cameras and logs at the jail, and if it turns out that Stark knew Freddie was dead, he’ll go to jail. Stark’s unworried. We soon find out why: Isaac has used his pull with the police force to make the security video disappear, and persuade everyone involved to keep quiet.
In the bullpen Martin realizes that there are gaps in Dean’s crime board that look deliberate, surgical. The rest must be hidden, but where? It turns out that “D. Miegert” is a bank manager; they contact him, and open Dean’s safety deposit box, finding a computer memory-stick. The stick contains a recording, which Stark plays for Monica and Dent. The recording is of Monica talking to Freddie, threatening to sell him and Acampora out to the cops if he doesn’t do something for her. There’s no specific reference to the murders. Dean didn’t have a warrant for the wiretap, so the recording isn’t admissible evidence. Stark says he’s not planning on using it in court. He’s going to give the recording to Acampora, who will most likely have Monica brutally murdered. Monica accepts a deal for murder one, 20-40 years.
Jessica congratulates and thanks Stark, who tells her that Dean finally scored a major narcotics bust. Turns out that Isaac got the guy who killed Freddie to rat on Acampora. Later Delgado also thanks Stark; he was one of Monica’s clients, and she tried to blackmail him. Stark arrives home to a message from Julie on his answering machine that causes him great concern: there’s something wrong with Eddie’s car, and they can’t get it fixed until tomorrow… so they’re staying in Santa Barbara for the night.
17th May 10pm On Five
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