- Brenda investigates the murder of a woman and the wild fire she was found in, complicated by the reappearance of Bill Croelick who is either the likeliest suspect or the best resource she'll ever have to find the killer.
- Brenda and Priority Homicide investigate the death of a woman caught in a major wild fire. The medical examiner determines she was dead before the fire started, as there was no smoke residue in her lungs and her skull was broken. He further believes she may, in fact, have been the fire's epicenter. Police have an immediate suspect in Bill Croelick, an arsonist with a history of setting women on fire. He turns himself in to the police and ably leads them to exactly where the fire began, though denying having anything to do with it. The victim, eventually identified as waitress Linda Harrell, 35, had restraining orders issued against her by different men. Brenda soon begins to wonder just how the arsonist managed to get away, given that the police and fire departments had the area locked down tight soon after the fire began. Meanwhile, Brenda also worries that her new landlord will learn she and Fritz have a cat in their supposedly pet-free rental duplex, especially when someone needs to come in and fix the plumbing.—garykmcd
- A fire rages. Fire fighters run to carry out victims. Sgt. Gabriel arrives at the fire command truck, looking for someone. He finds Brenda watching the fire on TV in the truck, looking terrified. They head outside to meet Chief Pope. He introduces Ricardo Ramos of "The Times," he's going to be following Priority Homicide's investigation. Brenda's not thrilled. She sends him off to wait by the bodies to talk to Chief Pope. Four people are dead, the fire isn't contained. The last thing she needs is a reporter following her around. Pope tells her she's not even supposed to be there. They don't even know if its an arson yet. She says it's a massive crime scene. She and Pope argue over the reporter. He says he got an order. She does not pretend to be excited about it.
Provenza tells Brenda about the victims. Two fire fighters, a female hiker and a golfer who got lost. There's a guy who could use a mulligan, he jokes. Commander Taylor introduces the reporter standing next to him. The rest of the team arrives. Another woman was found, but she hasn't been ID'd. Daniels is carrying a big cardboard box. Gabriel chivalrously offers to carry it for her. She brushes him off. Buzz, taping the crowd, sees a familiar face. Its Bill Croelick, the pyromaniac who got away in season one who likes to burn women to death with alcohol. Brenda sends someone to pick him up.
Back at the office, a debriefing on Croelick. He was arrested twice, but he was found not guilty the first time and turned out to have been framed the second time. He has a huge lawsuit against the state. The reporter wants to run with the fact Croelick might be a person of interest. Brenda tells him that will make him run. Taylor points out he can't call him anything in print because he's been proven innocent. Brenda mentions the last time she had an interaction with Croelick, he followed her home. Does the reporter want that to happen to him? Brenda spells it out: "Let's put it this way, Ricardo: You have two excellent opportunities of visiting the county morgue this week, and one of them is with me." In the morgue, they examine the victims, starting with the unidentified woman. They enjoy that Ricardo is squeamish. There was no smoke in her lungs. She died before the fire, from a blow to the head. Then she was drenched in alcohol and set on fire. The coroner thinks she's the epicenter of the fire.
Brenda stops by home, bringing Ricardo. She and Fritz have moved to an apartment, where she's trying to hide Kitty by closing all the drapes. They've been living there for six weeks and are looking. They're not allowed to have a cat.
Brenda admonishes Fritz for leaving the curtains open because someone might see the cat. They can't meet the neighbors because someone might find out they have a cat. "It's like living with Anne Frank," he says.
She wants him to call a plumber to fix the toilet, too. She generally harps on him in a big ol' bundle of nerves. Fritz calms her down with a good hug. Good Fritzie.
Brenda goes to the hospital. The fire in Griffith Park is still burning, the woman is still unidentified and Croelick is still at large, Gabriel tells her. She asks if there's anything else she should know, like maybe a problem in his relationship with Det. Daniels. He says there isn't like a man who has problems in his relationship.
They go talk to the firefighter, Tom, who found the charred woman. He points out on a map where her found her. They were looking in the small canyon where the homeless hang out. He says they chased them off yesterday because they start small cooking fires. He says he saw a guy that looked really weird. He didn't look homeless. Gabriel pulls out some mug shots, including one of Croelick. She asks how someone could have started that fire and escaped. Maybe he didn't get out, says Tom.
Back at the office, Brenda doesn't think the woman was homeless. Daniels explains that there was a rapid response to the fire. Gabriel chimes in to explain why but gets the evil girlfriend death stare of doom from Daniels. He shuts up. Awkward.
Flynn sums up the search for Croelick. The reporter is sitting in Sanchez's chair. He starts fiddling with Sanchez's stuff. Sanchez tells him to put down his mother's cross and get out of his chair.
They continue discussing how to find Croelick. Flynn says they'll find him. "Not if he finds you first, lieutenant," says Bill Croelick standing in the doorway.
Flynn frisks him roughly. He says hi to "Just Plain Brenda," his nickname for her.
He agrees to talk to her without a lawyer. Croelick says he's a little annoyed with Brenda for moving. He stopped by her house.
He asks if they found a young woman in the park. She tries to pretend like her interest in him is casual, but he's not buying it. "Who else in that crowd would know more about fire than you?" she says. He makes her an offer: let him go back there and watch the fires end. She objects. He says either he goes or he calls his lawyer. Brenda acts like she's agreeing reluctantly, but watching from the observation room Pope says, "he took the bait." Crafty Brenda.
They take him to the park. He leads them to where the fire started, not where the fire fighter said. "So now we have to pretend he's an arson investigator?" Flynn grumbles to Provenza.
Croelick holds court over the burn site. He says he can still smell the victim. He says this is where she burned. Ricardo takes pictures. He pokes through the ashes. "Got a picture of the remains?" he asks Brenda. She says that would be inappropriate. "So judgy," Croelick replies.
She doesn't understand how the fire jumped from the camp site to the hillside. He heads for the hills. He says the park burning was a mistake, the brush was cut back around the victim. The killer forgot to make sure the woman was alone. He leans over and picks up a charred rat from the brush. It ran from the first fire and started the second.
Gabriel says Croelick described everything so well, its almost like he was here. Croelick says the lady was dead before she was set on fire and, pardon him for asking, but where's the fun in that? How did he know she was dead? "Whoops," he says. "Should I tell her? Or should you?" He looks at Ricardo. The reporter is busted.
Back at the office, the reporter gets the third degree. He called Croelick's attorney to arrange a meeting. He's taking credit for convincing Croelick to come him. Brenda is livid, saying he broke the law by telling Croelick information about the case.
Commander Taylor is almost as peeved as her. He gets in the reporter's face, telling him to shut up and offering to arrest him. He says he's going to call his editor. He apologizes to Brenda. "May I say something now?" Ricardo asks. "I wouldn't, uh huh, no," says Taylor.
Down in the morgue, the coroner has rehydrated the victim's skin in order to get a print. He makes a detective do it because they only get one chance. They need someone with similar size hands. Brenda's up. Tao slides the skin on her bare hand (it'd catch on the latex) while Gabriel tries to distract her. Tao gets the prints.
Linda Harold. Up in the office, Daniels says that Linda's ex said she was very clingy and always wanted to know where he was. Gabriel fidgets.
Pope walks in with Ricardo. Brenda wants to talk after she executes her search warrant of Linda's house. Pope says they've reached a compromise with the police and the paper. Ricardo apologizes. He'll hand over his notes if Brenda catches him up on the investigation.
After the search, Flynn says there's nothing to connect Croelick to Linda's house. But pictures had been removed and a phone was yanked out of the wall. Sanchez recreates the crime, including how he picked Linda up, using Ricardo as his dummy. That Lucha Libre moment over, Brenda goes over the evidence. It proves that the killer knew what he was doing. But she still can't figure out how he got out of the park without leaving a car or being noticed.
Fritz pops in. The landlord is bringing a plumber by to fix the toilet. He got rid of all incriminating kitty evidence, he explains as brings in cat stuff including the cat. He tells Brenda that Kitty isn't coming home until the landlord knows he lives there. She tells him if she leaves Kitty there maintenance will take him to the pound. Fritz says she could pick him up the next day. Something registers for Brenda. She starts flipping through the photos from the fire. She realizes whoever did it still has the keys to the car he left there.
She goes to the impound lot where a man is putting keys into a car. It's Tom the firefighter. Brenda pops out. She tells him they're where the LAPD towed all the cars after the fire. She points out he's holding the keys to the car that belonged to the dead woman. Gabriel reads him his rights.
Tom says they're making a mistake. Brenda says she's trying to decide whether he's guilty of murder. She presents the evidence. Tao had found Linda was trying to dial Tom's home number when it was yanked out of the wall. Daniels has found pictures of Tom and Linda.
Brenda asks him the only question that's important: Did he kill Linda on purpose? No, it was an accident. He was just trying to stop her from calling his wife.
That's all well and good, but he'll also be charged with arson plus four counts of felony murder from when the fire slipped out of control.
Brenda goes home, the plumber is just leaving. He tells her that her friend is in the living room. It's Bill Croelick. She draws her gun, he holds up his hands.
Croelick mentions that they only found the right fire point of origin because of him. She says he's completely out of the woods, so why come here? He brought her a present. Two candles in candle holders on the dining room table. He lights them.
He says he's about to settle his lawsuit against the state and take his $4 million and leave her jurisdiction forever. He says he thinks it'd be best for both of them if he regarded her as something like an "old flame." He sees himself out, her gun helps. "I will think of you often, Just Plain Brenda. I hope to see you, not at all," he says as he leaves through the back door.
Fritz comes in the front. He's impressed by the candles. Kitty is home, too. She gave the landlord a huge security deposit. Fritz has something for her. It's her big brown frumpy sweater that she thought she lost in the move. Fritz looks at the candles. Never in a million years would he have thought she would do something so romantic. She admits she didn't buy them herself. Who did? "Just someone I work with," she says.
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