Cats in the Cradle (CSI)

"Cats in the Cradle (CSI)"

"Cats in the Cradle" is the twentieth episode in the second season of the American crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which is set in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Summary

When a local cat lady is found dead in her home, Grissom, Catherine and Warrick must discover how she died, and who killed her. Elsewhere, Sara and Nick investigate an explosion from a bomb in the engine of a woman's car.

Meanwhile, Marcie Tobin drives the car to a repair shop to find out the source of a weird noise in her car engine. The mechanic looks under the hood, sees a bomb and tells her to run. The investigators realize that the bomb was aimed at the driver, suggesting that it was intentional and personal, as bombs usually are. Suspicion falls on the intended victim's husband who works at a demolitions firm.

In the end, Catherine, Grissom and Warrick discover that the woman was stabbed to death with a pen by her next door neighbor, a young girl who wanted to keep one of the woman's cats.

Plot

In a run-down area, cats run around a messy home, meowing for food. There are lots of them, all eating at a body that lies on the floor. Grissom and Catherine arrive, the victim is Ruth Elliot, and was called in by the mailman who noticed the body when the mail was piling up. David tells them that she's been dead three or four days. Catherine suggests that it could have been natural causes; Grissom discovers a deep wound in the woman's chest, so the cats are off the hook.

Catherine finds shoe prints on the floor, from a high heel shoe, which wouldn't be the victim's. Warrick arrives and discovers a safe in the bedroom closet, that seems to have been forced open and is empty. Catherine and Grissom test the knives in the kitchen but they're clean. Warrick suggest a burglary gone bad based on the safe.

Nick and Sara arrive at an explosion scene. Sara questions Ms.Marci Tobin, the driver; who says she was on her way to her father's office for dinner, and she stopped at a gas station because her car was making strange noises. Brass talks to the mechanic, who says that when he popped the hood, he found a bomb. The car had been parked in the garage at home, where only Ms. Tobin and her husband would have access, and she's sure that he had nothing to do with it. Nick finds that the bomb was placed so that the driver would have taken the brunt of the blast.

Dr. Robbins tells them that the cat bite marks are all post mortem, and the stab wound in her chest went into her heart., and while it's not relevant, she had a severe staph infection. Grissom gets a call that there's a witness. Jessica Rachel (Courtney Jines) and Jackie Trent (Jennette McCurdy), two little girls from across the street, tell Grissom and Catherine that the cat lady was nice. Jackie, the younger of the two, says that they saw Mrs. Stein go into the house and she came out angry. Mrs. Stein is Mrs. Elliot's next door neighbour who had filed complaints against the victim because of all her cats. Jessica tells Catherine a secret; Mrs. Stein hates cats.

Nick and Sara examine the pieces from the explosion, and find that it was a pipe bomb. Brass tells them that Mr. Tobin, the driver's father, is in demolition, and her husband, John Claddon, works there as well. They go to talk to Mr. Claddon, who admits that he knows how to make a bomb; Mr. Tobin, the father of the woman, comes over and says that Marci suspects that her husband is cheating on her; and all his employees have access to dynamite. He's finger printed all his employees, in accordance with the law. At the lab, Greg tells Nick that it was dynamite with sawdust in it. Sara tests the bomb parts for prints, and finds one, which she matches to John Claddon. Nick says that he matched the explosive to the same type used at Tobin C+D. John Claddon has to explain why a case of dynamite that he logged out was returned one stick short, he says it was stolen. They ask about his girlfriend; he says that he doesn't have a girlfriend, he's got an ulcer and no time for an affair. He tells them that Marci has a reputation for short changing employees for overtime, and it pisses the guys off, but she's only doing what her father tells her.

Catherine goes to Mrs. Stein's house for her shoes, takes them to the lab and tests the prints; one matches. Mrs. Stein tells them that Mrs. Elliot didn't belong in the neighbourhood, and that she wanted to give her a chance to get rid of her cats before she reported her to the Humane Society. She says that the confrontation was six days ago, before she went to L.A. to visit her sister.

Nick makes a mould of the cap from the bomb, and finds tool marks, possibly from a vice-grip, so they get a warrant for John Claddon's home and Tobin C+D.

Warrick tells Catherine that Ms. Stein's alibi checks out, but they got a hit on the print on the wall safe, and it's Mrs. Elliot's son's. They bring him in; he says that he wasn't skipping town, he was going camping. Grissom asks why he never claimed the body; he explains that he's broke and funerals are expensive. He tells them that he and his mother weren't close, he only saw her twice a month to stock her fridge and pay the bills. They ask about the safe; he tells them that she called him about a month ago, because a cat was locked in it, and she couldn't remember the combination, so he had to break it open. He adds that she had no money, only the house and she left that to a cat sanctuary.

Ms. Tobin tells Sara that she thinks the bomb was put in the wrong car. Sara asks about their marriage; Marci says that she thought that her husband was having an affair but that she'd been wrong, he was only working. They don't want any more questions. At the lab, Nick has all the vice grips from Tobin C+D, which he got without needing a warrant; Sara has one from the Tobin's house. None of them match the mark on the bomb. They go back to the car, and go over the crime, and wonder what started the clock ticking. Sara figures it must have been something Marci touched inside the car; but since it's a 60 second time frame, they decide that it must have been the hood release. Nick discovers that the latch is blown, so the hood was down, and that's not possible, since the mechanic saw the bomb. Nick figures that the mechanic didn't close the hood after seeing the bomb, and the hood couldn't have dropped, so the mechanic must be lying.

Greg tells Grissom and Catherine that the foreign substance in the wound tract was mineral oil, such as would be used to stop old knives from rusting. At the victim's house, Catherine and Grissom check for oil, but find nothing. They follow a cat from the house to the Trent's house. Jessica picks up the cat, but won't let Grissom hold it. They ignore their mother when she calls them for dinner; Grissom notes a sore on the cat's leg and wants to swab it for the girls' safety. Catherine does it; Grissom says that it might be a staph infection like the victim had.

Nick talks to the mechanic, who gives them permission to look around. They notice vice grips, and make a mould from a sandwich in the garbage; the mechanic says they're not his vice grips. They match the vice grips marking to the bomb; Sara runs the prints against Tobin C+D and gets a match to Marci. They talk to her and tell her that she put the bomb in her own car; so that her husband would be convicted and then she wouldn't have to give him anything in a divorce settlement. Brass tells her that the mechanic lawyered up; he's been convicted before and ex-cons roll fast. Nick tells her how she did it, and she just says, "So what? It's not a crime." Brass tells her that bank records show that she and her father paid the mechanic $50,000 for his help, and that's conspiracy to frame John Tobin for attempted murder.

Grissom finds that the girls' cat is positive for staph. He wonders if Rascal could have been Mrs. Elliot's cat. They go to the Trent's house with a warrant, and look at knives; Catherine finds a pen and tests it for blood, which comes back positive. They talk to the two girls with a representative present. Jackie says that she'll tell. Jessica then says "She didn't mean to do it.. .I'm sure she didn't." When Catherine asks who she means, she says, "Mommy," and tells Catherine that her mother got in an argument with Mrs. Elliot, gave them the cat and told them to run, and once they were outside the house, they heard Mrs. Elliot scream. Catherine explains about finger prints, and that the prints on the pen, which killed Mrs. Elliot, aren't their mother's. Jackie says "they're not mine," and Jessica tells her that tattle-tales burn in hell. She admits that she lied, and Mrs. Elliot wasn't nice, she was mean, and wouldn't give them the cat, so she, Jessica, handed the cat to her sister and told her to run, then stabbed Mrs. Elliot. She's stony-faced as she tells this. Mrs. Trent, outside with Grissom, says that she didn't know; she'd told the girls that they could have a cat if Mrs. Elliot gave one to them, but she knew that Mrs. Elliot wouldn't do that. Inside, Jessica is crying for her mommy.

Main Guest-Starring Cast

1. Courtney Jines as Jessica Rachel Trent
2. Jennette McCurdy as Jackie Trent

See also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes

External links

• "Cats in the Cradle" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode
• Template:Csiguide episode
• "Cats in the Cradle" at CSI Files