- When a finalist for a popular television amateur singing competition is killed, it sheds new light on a 50-year-old murder at what was the first integrated casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
- Nightingale Kip Westerman and his domineering father-manager are the natural suspects when Kip's final-contestant in verbally abusive producer Drew Rich's popular television amateur singing competition, Layla Wells, is killed in a derelict building. CSI works out the youngsters had an affair, Drew has a dark past, and so does the building, once a world-class nightclub and Las Vegas's first casino where races mixed. Grissom insists to work out the part of the owner and a former artist in another murder committed there in its 50 years earlier, short-cut hey-day.—KGF Vissers
- Layla Wells and Kip Westerman are finalist singers in the famous TV show Overnight Sensation. When Layla is found dead and wrapped in a tablecloth, the CSIs investigate the evidences and interrogate the producer Drew Rich, Kip and his father. When Hodges finds that the material of the tablecloth has not been for thirty years, Greg and Nick go to the abandoned Casino Le Chateau Rouge, where secrets are disclosed.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- "CSI" - "Young Man With a Horn" - Dec. 4, 2008
Nighttime in Vegas. A young man and woman are singing onstage to an empty theater in a rehearsal for a "American Idol"-type TV show called "Overnight Sensation." A producer kills the playback and halts their singing to berate them. Another man, the father of the male singer, butts in and defends his son. The son starts to fight the producer and the producer says that's the passion he wants to see in the singing. And he tells the girl, Layla, not to be flat. She protests she wasn't. She begins singing again and he yells about her pitch. She freaks out, cries, and runs away.
Later that evening at an underpass, Catherine and Phillips cut open a sheet/curtain to find Layla dead inside.
Even later, Robbins, Grissom, and Catherine put her on the slab and cut her out completely. She's wearing just her bra and panties- and Catherine says Layla was her daughter Lindsey's favorite from the show. Grissom wonders if the murder was perverted idol worship, observing that she's gotten what she wished for -- since she's an overnight sensation now.
The producer is informing the rest of the contestants about the murder and that since ratings will be through the roof they should make it their best show ever in tribute to Layla. Brass comes in to interview the producer, Drew Wells. As far as he knows Layla, an emancipated minor, went to bed around midnight according to her chaperone, whom he has since fired. The father thinks his son has won the show but the producer says Ajaya, the last one voted off, is now back on to compete against the son, Kip.
Stokes and Catherine are examining the tablecloth she was wrapped in and trying to put the pieces together. One knot points to someone who had sailing experience. The tablecloth is old, dirty, and supplied by a major supplier to the strip.
Over at the underpass Riley and Greg are walking the scene where the body was found and wondering how Layla ended up at this spot -rife with homeless folks- given her posh digs across town. There are blood drops and odd wheel tracks.
Robbins and Catherine examine Layla and take pictures. Cause of death was blunt force trauma just below the rib cage, and lacerated the liver. She was standing when it happened. No indication of sexual assault. But she was 8 weeks pregnant. Catherine thinks this might be a motive.
At Layla's hotel suite Brass and Nick look around and discuss her last movements. Last in the room around 7p.m. after walking out of rehearsal. Two calls: one to the chaperone and one to her producer. On her Internet history they find searches for abortion clinics and adoption agencies.
Back at the lab we see gossip website images that imply that Layla and Kip were a couple. Hodges is baffled by the popularity of the show. He's chatting about "voting for the worst" - Ajaya- with Archie. They are looking at video from the elevator. She left at midnight. Kip left a little later.
Brass interrogates Kip about their relationship and insinuates that perhaps Layla was at that underpass for a back alley abortion. The father objects, saying it wasn't Kip's. Kip tells Brass to shut up. Brass tells a cop to take Kip away and shows the stage dad an elevator photo showing them coming back to the hotel right after the time of the murder. Brass says there's a lot of money at stake for the stage dad - who quit his job- and his kid, insinuating a murder would screw things up and that he would cover up for his son or maybe even commit murder himself. (Brass also notices a Navy tattoo and calls him "sailor.")
Wendy is telling Catherine that the fetal cord tissue DNA didn't match Kip. It did however match someone named Marvin Flick, aka Drew Rich, the producer. (Picked up for statutory rape charges, which he beat).
We see Rich and a few others watch an "Idol"-style look at Layla's "journey" on the show. He asks for more emotional stuff. Brass comes in calling him Marvin to get his attention. His alibi is he was in his room alone, thinking. Brass doesn't believe thinking is what got her pregnant. Drew calls these kids first class manipulators and that he offered to pay for an abortion and Layla agreed as long as she won the competition. Brass says it sounds like motive. He also points out that Rich was at a motel blocks from the crime scene. Rich says he was with a hooker. Brass arrests him.
Grissom and Hodges are discussing Layla's lipstick- apparently it had some crazy antiquated sperm whale oil in it. The tablecloth also had asbestos in it. Hodges says it's like Layla found a hole in the space-time continuum and was murdered decades ago.
Stokes and Catherine are looking at a map of the strip from 50 years ago, the ones supplied by the table linen service. They find one, Le Chateau Rouge, still standing. Greg and Stokes go to check it out. Greg finds the same wheel track marks. Stokes finds pink fuzz on a chain link fence. They bust into the abandoned casino. The tables are still intact as if, Stokes says, someone yelled fire 50 years ago and nobody came back. Greg rhapsodizes about the joint's swinging, integrated, Rat Pack history. Apparently, it was the hot place for six months until the Kansas City mob shut it down since it was siphoning business from the strip. Greg finds old table linens matching the the supplier and a cart with the right track width. Stokes discovers a tablecloth-less table and blood on the floor.
The owner, played by Tippi Hedren, arrives in a chauffeur-driven Bentley and Grissom joins her in the car for a chat. Her husband built it and made it the best. She says it was magical while it lasted but it died with him. She says she hasn't been inside since he was murdered there. She didn't sell it because she couldn't bear it being torn down. She declines going inside.
Grissom and the CSIs do, however. In the dressing rooms Greg and Catherine check out old costumes and make-up tables. They find a spot -with an open lipstick- reserved for a Jasmine, possibly Layla's grandmother.
Stokes finds a cellphone. Grissom finds a recent bullet on the floor. Stokes plays a video from the phone of Layla dressed in an old costume singing on the stage. They surmise Kip was working the cellphone. She screams as a sax player enters from stage right and the recording stops. Someone seems to be watching them as they theorize that Kip killed her and then put everything back in its place. Grissom goes to investigate a noise and discovers an elderly black man (played by legendary character actor Bill Cobb) hiding behind a curtain. The man promptly faints. He wakes up in the hospital as Greg is taking a fist imprint and Grissom informs him he's in custody. He asks the man how long he's been living at Le Chateau Rouge.
Kip is explaining to Brass about how he and Layla loved each other unconditionally, unlike producers and fans. He says he tried to make her feel safe. He says that he found out about where her grandmother danced and just wanted to get a picture but Layla found her way into the casino and was crazy for the place. We see them walking around inside and Layla finding her grandma's stuff and Kip taking the video.
The storytelling shifts to the older gentleman who, clearly demented, just wanted to play sax with her and make sweet music. He says Kip was jealous charged him onstage, shoved Layla, and punched him. The man got off a shot. Kip ran away. (We see this but it doesn't look like Kip shoved Layla).
Back to Kip who says he looked for her for hours around the place but guesses she must have been inside with the crazy old man. We then see a vision of the old man stabbing Layla. Back to the man, who confesses, a little too easily.
Stokes is doing a ballistics test on the found bullet and the old man's gun. The bullet came from the gun of the Rouge owner Jules Rosenthal and they figure the old man found it.
We cut to Grissom watching a documentary-style show showing old photos from the casino's heyday and Rosenthal lying shot dead. The doc cuts to the sheriff from the time of the murder (played by Pa Walton, Ralph Waite) describing the old case. The sheriff says it wasn't the mob but an employee, a musician with a drug habit who confessed to the whole thing and whose prints were all over Rosenthal's wallet. The man, Melchior Wilson, died in prison. Grissom sends Hodges off to find alligator-skin wallets. He compares a print lifted off one in the present- complete with spaces because of the irregular alligator pattern- and the one from the 1958 case which is perfect. Grissom thinks Wilson was framed.
Grissom arrives at private club, complete with an old-timer's poker game which includes the sheriff (and Robert Guillaume), who recognizes Grissom. Grissom says he wants to talk about the Rouge case and the sheriff says if Grissom plays a hand and wins he'll talk. Grissom sits, and he gets two red 7s. The men play and talk about the bad old days before integration and the good old days of the hot chicks at the Rouge. Grissom - who now has a straight- says the Wilson case must've sent a speed record for closing a case. The sheriff goes all in. Grissom calls. Grissom wins.
The sheriff tells Grissom that Wilson signed a confession and got a good print. Grissom argues about bullying tactics and alligator wallets. He shows the sheriff a picture of his old black guy. The sheriff goes the whole "with all the crime going on in Vegas, you've got time to poke around in my old cases?" Then dismisses Grissom.
Catherine is examining evidence from the tablecloth markings. She and Stokes go to Rouge and try to figure out how she got her injury. It turns out it was an accident. After she was startled by the old man she ran off stage and full force into the arm of a very substantial chair. They wonder why the old man confessed.
Greg and Riley are checking out other musicians from the Rouge history to see if their confessor fits with any of the other guys who played horn back in the day. They use face matching software to link up their suspect with an old photo. He's Harry Bastille. Grissom visits him in the hospital to ask about the confession. Bastille says he moved the body because he didn't want anyone encroaching on his space, the one place he was ever happy.
Mrs. Rosenthal, apparently at the behest of Grissom, arrives. He asks her if she remembers Harry. She says yes --he was a musician back in the day. Grissom asks if she can identify the man in the hospital bed. She says it's not him and apologizes to the man saying, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you." Even the older man looks at her funny. Grissom calls her on it and he says he thinks Harry shot her husband. Mrs. R promises him that there's no evidence incriminating Harry. Grissom has a flash, remembering that the night he met her she was drinking fine pink champagne and that there was also a similar bottle in the room where her husband's body was found.
Mrs. R. reminisces and we see the young version of her hooking up with Harry, Jules entering, threatening them with a gun, he and Harry fighting and Mrs. R. shooting him. (This mirrors the earlier story he told about Kip and Layla: "he was jealous, he came at me, shoved her.." etc.) She gave Harry, who wanted to take the fall for her, the money from Jules' wallet and told him to run and never come back.
Grissom says that then she and the sheriff framed Melchior Wilson. She says no, she confessed. But since the town was different back then others framed Wilson, because a white woman could get away with murder but she couldn't love a black man. She looks at Harry and we go back in time to see him playing on the Rouge stage with Mrs. R watching lovingly.
We cut to Kip on the TV singing with the words "Overnight Sensation Winner" running under his face.
Catherine and Grissom walk as she talks about the difference between the people who come to Vegas to get rich and famous and locals like her who know the odds always favor the house. She asks Grissom why he came. He says he came to play cards and make money. There was a girl he thought he loved but he kept getting into debt buying cadavers and fetal pigs because he got sidetracked by science. He says poker allowed him to be a loner and still make money. He lies that he can't remember the last time he played. He says he knows to most people risk is a bad thing but in Vegas it's a good thing. Catherine, ever the optimist, says he got to pay for his pigs, he put down roots, he's got friends, and family, or at least a work family. Grissom replies, "Yeah...maybe it's time to up the ante."
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