The Finger (CSI)

Infobox Television episode
Title= The Finger
Series=
Season = 2
Episode = 14
Guests=
Airdate = January 31, 2002
Production =
Writer = Danny Cannon and Carol Mendelsohn
Director = Richard J. Lewis
Season list = CSI season 2 episode list
Episode list =
Prev = Identity Crisis
Next = Burden of Proof

The Finger is the fourteenth episode in the of the popular American crime drama , which is set in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Plot Summary

In this case, the team searches for a missing woman, the mistress of a real estate developer. The episode begins with the real estate developer, Mr. Logan, at the bank in a very nervous mood, who then asks for one million dollars in cash to be taken from his account for him to load into his briefcase. The bank staff are suspicious, and he becomes increasingly frantic as they discuss it over, but finally relent, and give him the money, completed over a number of hours. He is pulled over for reckless driving outside the bank, and, when the officer notes his manner and noncompliance, also noticing blood on the man's hands, the officer gets suspicious and they bring him in.

Citing lack of grounds for holding his client back at the CSI lab, his lawyer ushers him out to his car, which the attorney's secretary had driven to the lot. Catherine, after following the developer outside to his car to return the sunglasses he left behind, is roped into a long and trying experience by being forced to get into the car with the real estate developer and follow directions from a high pitched voice, communicating with them on his cell phone. The caller reveals, which is later elaborated on in the car ride by the real estate developer, that they have kidnapped his previously mentioned mistress Amanda. He gives Catherine a severed finger he tells her he came home to, which he believes is Amanda's. The voice instructs Catherine not to attempt to contact anyone, or they will kill Amanda. On command, she leaves her weapon, and pager on the ground in front of the lab, and leaves in the car with the developer. She leaves clues for Grissom and the other CSIs to follow on her way, including marking the money with some of Lindsey's face paint she has on her, and stopping at a diner Sara happens to be dining at with Hank, her EMT boyfriend, and leaves her the finger, preserved in a glass of ice. She marks the money with a glow-paint stick along the way.

Following the caller's directions, Catherine drives up to an embankment, and sees a tall figure step out of a car further away. It is dressed in a trench coat and pink rabbit costume, and orders the money handed over. Catherine protests they will need more than the person's word Amanda is alive, but the real estate developer runs up and thrusts the money into his hands. They drive to a gas station, get more directions, then finally find Amanda - dead, in a storm drain.

At the autopsy, it was revealed Amanda had been lying underwater for at least 24 hours, and that her finger was severed post-mortem. The CSI team goes to a house that the developer lent to Amanda and to the storm drain Amanda was found in. They find a cell phone call traced to the real estate agent's wife, and also found female DNA on a wine glass, along with Amanda's on a separate glass. They suspect Mrs. Logan. They find a peanut butter grease stain, and Nick remembers meeting Mrs. Logan scolding her son for eating peanut butter and jelly. They question Mrs. Logan, where they accuse her of killing Amanda, wrapping her in a shower curtain and dumping her in the storm drain, with her son's peanut butter transferring onto the shower curtain. She says she merely went to tell her to get out of the storm house. However, before they leave Brass hits the lights and the glow-paint that Catherine marked the money with suddenly appears on Mrs. Logan's lawyer's hands.

He alleges that Mr. Logan set the whole thing up, and kept the money in a townhouse. They find the townhouse empty, as well as the locker. The team gets together and puts together a situation. Mr. Logan finds Mrs. Logan and Amanda arguing, then when his wife leaves, he kills Amanda. Two days later, he dumps the body and tells his lawyer to use the helium and get the money. He attempts to set up his wife, which the CSI team sees through. Seconds after putting forth this theory, the police officer who first saw the two speeding down the highway arrests him after he finds the car. Catherine briefly confronts him (sarcastically giving him a "bravo").

References

*The rabbit costume the lawyer wears may be a homage to Frank in Donnie Darko.

See also

*

External links

*imdb title|id=0534750|title=The Finger
*Tv.com episode|id=113694|title=The Finger
*csiguide episode|id=37|title=The Finger
* [http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/csi/season2/the_finger.shtml "The Finger"] at CSI Files