A double homicide outside a grocery store leads to the kidnapping of a 3 year old girl. Plenty of suspects in this episode, but alas the main guilty parties are too obvious.
A woman attempts to pay at the check out in the grocery store, hounded by a complaining customer behind her and very nervous when she looks at a gang outside in the car. Lots of potential suspects in the opening as to why she was so anxious. Shots are heard and the trolley cart boy and the same woman are shot and killed. Nick's (George Eads) first comment at the CS is that he wanted to go grocery shopping too. Very out of character and irrelevant that two DBs could lead him to think of shopping. Sara (Jorga Fox) replies someone had the same idea. The DB boy, Hector has prison tattoos so could have been the intended target. Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) comments on the woman being an unlucky customer, meaning her shooting could have been accidental. However Nick comments on the GS (Gun shot) wounds and one in her left eye. Sara thinks she was the primary target.
Greg (Eric Szmanda) tells them she had a little girl with her, so she had a car and two bags of groceries also. Brass puts out a 418/427; Amber alert, thus the title. Nick questions the shop assistant, (Carlson Young) who noticed she was upset and wasn't a regular. She paid by cheque, that was hugely helpful! Archie (Archie Kao) checks her ID and hits on Christine Moore (Nicole Cannon). Her husband, Daniel Moore (Jason Butler Harner) has restricted access to his details.
David (David Berman) comments Hector was shot by a .22, which Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) says was the calibre preferred by gangsters. Leading to David 'bustin' a rhyme'. Doc Robbins: "Thanks Fifty Cents." Moore bursts into autopsy demanding to see his wife and Doc Robbins tells him that "no one should ever see their loved one like this." Something similar said by Flack (Eddie Cahill) in the episode Do Not Pass Go, of CSI:NY. Moore puts his fist through the glass and hurts his hand. Brass asks him where he was, as is routine in spouse killings. Moore accuses Ryland Gauss (Bodhi Elfman). There was a message left on Christine's voicemail five minutes before she was killed from Trent Moore (Patrick Stafford) his son from his first marriage. Gauss is a serial paedophile who shot one of his Vic's mothers through the left eye. None of the girls were ever found and his conviction was overturned on a technicality, ain't it always.
Sara, Brass and Moore enter Trent's apartment when he can't be reached and Moore proceeds to contaminate the CS. Wondering if at that point if he suspected Trent of any involvement or was he really not thinking that far ahead; since someone trying to cover would contaminate the CS, or potential CS. Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) and Nick (since there was no Laurence Fishburne for him to be teamed with as usual this episode!) enter Gauss's apartment .
Sara thinks Gauss obtained entry through the open window and Moore tells her the residue on the sill is corn starch from Gauss's cheap latex gloves. Sara tells him to let her do her job. Brass calls her a professional and that she's working as fast as she can. In the bathroom she finds an empty pill bottle for anti-depressants belonging to Trent. Greg describes Moore as a top paedophile hunter for the FBI, which Hodges (Wallace Langham) calls "ironic" as his own daughter, Holly, (Leela Newton) is kidnapped now. Greg hates it when the families of paedophiles protect them.
Catherine finds a shaped coat hanger that Nick figures out from the scratch marks on the wall, that it was used to open something. A secret panel in the wall where he discovers children's reading books. Greg comments, at the same time, that there was no evidence linking Gauss with the children but he took his Vics from the local park. Catherine tells him there is a local park nearby. Hodges says Gauss took their books. Nick and Catherine find Moore about to shoot Gauss at the park. Brass plays Trent's voice message to Gauss who claims to have an alibi for last night at a bar.
Office Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) tells Sara the Amber alert led to the mini-van being found, abandoned as it ran out of gas. There's leftover food and a sandwich wrapper with a half eaten sandwich inside. Hodges comments he doesn't know any 3 year olds but that none would like egg salad sandwiches. He superglues the wrapping to reveal prints, but there's no match to Gauss. Sara believes whoever ate the sandwich took Holly and she was right, obviously.
Nick doesn't find any evidence of Gauss in the books. Brass tells Moore when he puts Gauss away he'll stay there. Nick notices Moore wasn't upset about his wife being killed and was more concerned with catching Gauss. That was an apparent observation too, but on the other hand it could be said he was worried for his daughter. Then again if he was a suspect and I use 'if' loosely, then why would he choose to shoot Christine where and when he did, when she was with Holly. Also if he was trying to frame Gauss for the murder, then why not find a time when he knows Gauss wouldn't have an alibi. For an FBI boffin, he really wasn't that clever! Brass tells Nick that from his experience when things go bad, then the bad guy who got away is always blamed. Nick notices Moore was going after Gauss even when there was no evidence linking him to anything.
Doc Robbins spoke to Christine's sister and he says, "I gave her my best Quincy" to find the Moore's were divorcing and she was applying for sole custody of Holly and guardianship for Trent. Doc referring himself to Quincy here, cos it could be said, as I did before, that Quincy could be regarded as the forerunner to CSI, decades earlier. Catherine comments that if Moore wasn't an FBI agent then they would suspect him for Christine's murder. That's what Nick meant when he said he wasn't angry at her killing. Then why the show of rage in Autopsy, was this anger directed at losing Holly.
Brass is called to Gauss's apartment to find Moore standing over his DB with gun in hand. He denies shooting him, thus leaving only one more suspect. I could've come up with an unintentional pun here by spelling more with two 'O's. Henry (Jon Wellner) finds the pills were to treat schizophrenia; causing delusions and paranoia. The prints on the sandwich wrapping match Trent's. Then Greg comments that if Moore shot Gauss, then did he also shoot his wife. Oh they were so right in this episode, that it didn't seem much forensic work was needed, when they had their hunches to go on. But of course that wouldn't stand up in court. Greg finds a cap on the floor of Guass's apartment which belongs to Trent. Nick knows it wasn't here before.
Brass discusses Trent with Moore and comments that mental illness runs in the family. Wouldn't say Moore was mentally ill but he was obsessed with Gauss and probably other paedophiles too. A case of his work negatively impacting on his family life. All of them were killed with a .22. Trent was with Christine in the mini-van, so why didn't Moore see him and again he knew Holly was in the van too. They believe Trent killed Gauss and Christine and took Holly, but Moore insists he wouldn't hurt his sister.
Sara and Officer Mitchell check out Moore's old house but it's no longer standing. Only a shed remains where they find Trent, alone and armed. Sara attempts to comfort him and can relate to him in that she's understanding in that way. He tells her Gauss killed Christine and then refers to himself as Gauss. Hodges finds bed bugs in his cap and hands them to Nick to check out, sitting in Grissom's (William Petersen) old office, and he asks if they could have come from Hodges since he's scratching himself. Very funny Nick. Sara didn't find any bugs at Trent's place but did see bites on him. Yuk!
Catherine test the .22 gun. Brass tells Moore that his obsession became his son's delusion and he should tell him the truth and "shock him into reality." Trent says he's Gauss, that he killed them all. Moore didn't want Christine to take his children from him, so he had to have known Holly was there. Also if he was going to kill her to keep his children, it was futile since he hasn't got either of them now and how fair was that on them, taking their mother like that.
Archie found the mini- van on the traffic cam and looks for motels with health violations in the area. Nick and Brass check out a motel to find Holly in one of the rooms. Sara tells Trent about Holly and Brass gives Moore her cuddly toy, cos that's all he's going to see of her.
They've got huge bed bugs in the US, they're not meant to be visible to the naked eye, but only under a microscope, at least the variety found in the UK.
CSI:NY covered schizophrenia in its first season episode, Three Generations are Enough.
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