CSI: Vegas – Episode 9.01 “For Warrick” Recap

CSI: Vegas – Episode9.01 For Warrick
Air Date: October 09, 2008

The season begins with Grissom finding Warrick bleeding and shot in the alley. In the heart-rending way you’d expect, Warrick dies as Grissom holds him, greiving over the loss of his dear friend.

McKeen tells Brass that he came to the diner to tell Warrick that he could keep his job. He says he heard shots, and ran toward the alley where he found Warrick, bleeding in his car. He said he also saw a white male running down the alley. He said the man got into a car, and he remembered part of the plate number. Brass recognizes the car he described as Pritchard’s vehicle.
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Everyone on the team is visibly broken up, almost paralyzed. Grissom tells Conrad that the team wants to handle the case. Grissom insists on riding with Warrick’s body. At the station, Dr. Robbins tells Grissom that he’s asked the day-shift ME to handle Warrick. As shocked team members try to deal, Grissom solemnly heads to the lab, and removes his bloody shirt, and hands it to Hodges.

Nick finds a .25 shell on the ground near the sidewalk. Willows finds a .25 auto pistol on the floor of the car and a casing right next to it. “Leave the gun, take the cannoli”, Nick says, indicating also that it looks like a hit. With the front passenger window down and one shell casing inside, Willow figures that the gunman stuck the gun right into the car and fired. Gunshot residue on the headliner says she must be right. Nick asks why the passenger window was open.

Brass briefs the squad and tells the team that Warrick is their only case, and that Daniel Pritchard is the suspect. They have roadblocks up, and a list of known associates.

Grissom enters his office to find Sara, who flew in as soon as she heard. He tells how hard he tried to hold Warrick, feeling his life going; hoping he could hold him tight enough, he’d make it.

Sara: He loved you.
Grissom: I loved him.

McKeen visits Brass, wanting to get “something off [his] chest”. He wants Brass to know that he knows he was wrong about Warrick killing Getta.

Sanders and Sara gather clothes in Warrick’s apartment. They find his home not totally “moved in” looking. They also discover a letter from Warrick’s attorney, as well as a psych evaluation ordered by the judge, relating to a case to regain custody of his son. Warrick’s son!

A serial number on the .25 pistol’s grip reveal that the .25 was from a case that Pritchard worked. The judge had ordered it destroyed. Apparently, it wasn’t. Someone took it from evidence storage.

Nick finds knuckle prints on the passenger window. The stereo was turned down uncharacteristically low. So, someone knocked on Warrick’s window, and he wouldn’t have opened for Pritchard. Nick realizes it must be McKeen. He’s the one who was in the alley, and the only one who saw anything, or could have made anything up.

Sara and Grissom watch the video of Warrick’s psych evaluation. It’s yet another very touching dialog, with Warrick describing how one person taught him how to love, and care, and how to be a role model. [Get the tissues out, already!]

The team heads back to the alley, and reenacts the crime. As Grissom walks through the steps that McKeen claims to have taken. He runs to the alley, when he hears the gunshot. He realizes, though, that loud music was coming from a door in the alley. They simulate the music at volume, and Grissom cannot hear the gunshots over the sound.

Grissom and Brass talk about McKeen. Why did McKeen say that he heard the shots, when he could not have? Why did he put Pritchard in the alley?.

Brass tells Grissom about his early days in Vegas, when Jeff McKeen was a detective, who invited him and the other new guys up to his cabin. The cabin was a little too nice for a detective’s pay. Brass said he’d seen things like that in Jersey, where guys “took more than they gave.” They knew how to avoid making too much of a display and raising suspicions. McKeen checked Brass out, and told him how great Vegas was, and how things could be good for his career. Brass let him know, though, that he wasn’t for sale. That was the last barbecue he was ever invited to.

Grissom recounts that Warrick said that Getta’s mole must be high up on the food chain. They figure that the time between McKeen’s probably seeing the video of Warrick’s interview about Getta, and the time of Warrick’s death was too short to set up Pritchard, unless McKeen knew exactly where Pritchard was. Otherwise, if he was found elsewhere, he’d have an alibi.

McKeen meets Pritchard in a hotel room. McKeen tells him that he “killed Brown on the way out.” He says the murder weapon was also from one of Pritchard’s cases. When McKeen draws Pritchard’s weapon on him, Pritchard lets him know that killing him there would be messy. He then asks if that are going to Mexico or not.

Conrad warns the team that it will be difficult to investigate McKeen. They decide they need physical evidence against him.

There are no prints on the murder weapon, including the magazine, but Mandy checks the prints on a shell casing. She says they’ve never gotten prints off a cartridge as small as a .25. The partial print on one of the shells is around 4mm, just enough for a comparison. It doesn’t match Pritchard. Willows, though, asks Mandy to step out. She then compares the prints to those of McKeen. The print matches his thumb.

After getting a warrant for McKeen, the team determines that there are three calls on his phone from the same number. It turns out to be the Whisky Bend Hotel.

At the hotel, they find out that McKeen had paid cash for a room. The team finds the hotel room empty, but with ice in a glass and wet towel. So, they had just missed them.

McKeen and Pritchard are in the car on their way to Mexico.

The team finds Pritchard’s prints in the hotel room. Brass calls McKeen’s cell, and they’re able to determine his location. As the team and police close in on them, the bleep on the map indicating McKeen and Pritchard’s location stops suddenly.

They figure they either ditched the phone, or they stopped. They come upon a fresh break in the guard rail, and spot the car at the bottom of the embankment.

In the car is a .357 Magnum; and Pritchard, dead from a broken neck. McKeen is gone, but there’s a trail of blood into the woods. Nick follows the trail. Nick turns off his radio and pulls his sidearm, as someone calls him over the air. He finds McKeen, lying on the ground, bleeding heavily from his injuries, including a gunshot wound. Nick trains his pistol at McKeen. He tells Nick that Warrick had a big mouth. He fights with his desire to finish off McKeen, especially when he dares him. We hear a shot, but Nick “missed”.

Brass comes over and begins to Mirandize him.

At Warrick’s funeral, Grissom walks up and delivers the eulogy. “I’m sorry for your loss”, as they’re trained to tell victims’ family members, doesn’t offer much. He praises Warrick for his courage and tenacity, and his willingness to risk his life for what he believes in…and for holding on to those values right up through the day that he died.