- A 13-year-old boy goes missing, and the more Brenda's team looks into it, the more they can't find anyone who wouldn't want him dead.
- When thirteen-year-old Serge Monroe goes missing, Priority Homicide treats it as a "Critical Missing" because of his age, until facts about the boy's violent history come to light. When the boy is found murdered, there is no shortage of suspects.—Lynne Boris Johnston
- Fritz, Brenda and the Priority Homicide squad roll out when 13-year-old Sergei Monroe is reported missing by his parents. Per policy, LAPD treats any missing child, 13 years of age or under, as a missing rather than as a runaway, but Sergei, adopted in Russia some five years ago, already has a long reputation as a problem child and has run away before. He's the terror of the neighborhood who, the investigation reveals, gleefully killed the neighbor's dog the day before he disappeared. The team downsizes the search effort only to regret their decision when Sergei is found dead. Meanwhile, Fritz has been house hunting and thinks he's found the ideal place for them.—garykmcd
- Brenda showers. Fritz joins her. With a suggestion. Not that kind. A real estate flyer for a house in Calabasas. They have good schools there.
Brenda gets a call. A 13-year-old boy is missing.
She arrives on the scene, carpooling with Fritz. The news crews are already there. Gabriel gives the update: he was sent to his room last night and wasn't there this morning. Sergei isn't answering his phone. No sign of forced entry.
They meet the parents. The parents aren't that worried. He's run away twice before. They adopted him five years ago from Russia.
They talk to his sister, Theresa. His goth, angry sister. Sergei cut her hair off while she was sleeping. He once tortured and killed her cat, she says. She says yesterday her not-brother cooked up something for their neighbor. She doesn't believe he was taken. She shows them his angry, artful, blood-drawing covered walls.
Tao has news. He takes them to the garage. There's dried blood on the bashed in car. It's Theresa's car.
Provenza takes Brenda to talk to the neighbor, Mr. Taft. Sanchez peers over the gate. Looks like there's a grave in the backyard. Pope suggests a search warrant. Brenda cries "exigent circumstances." They dig.
Something wrapped in blue plastic. The neighbor comes out. Flynn cuts open the tarp. It's a dog. Ew.
Brenda talks to Mr. Taft. He says Sergei killed his dog. He wants the kid dead. He suggests all the neighbors feel the same way. He says Sergei, the kid, drove his dog over in his sister's car. Not the first time he's driven it.
Taft says he did nothing but bury his dog and get drunk to console himself.
Sergei's best friend Jason didn't show up at school today.
But they discuss calling off the "critical missing" alert. Fritz is against calling it off. Pope, who will have both presidential candidates in town that day, doesn't want his people tied up.
Pope rules they'll treat it as a runaway, but Fritz is welcome to stay.
At the station, Tao reports the blood on the car belongs to a dog.
Sergei has a long record, along with Jason. Fritz continues to believe they were abducted.
Daniels has gotten nowhere with Jason's parents.
The Monroes show up, wanting to know why they've stopped looking for their son. They say he's never been gone this long before. Brenda isn't pleased they didn't tell her about the whole dead dog thing. They 'fess up.
Gabriel comes in and says Sergei and Jason have both been arrested at "the tunnels" several times.The team goes there. The parents beg to tag along. Brenda caves.
They drive out to the dry, deserted area over the dry river. The parents stay up top while the team goes down.
In the tunnel they find a body. It's Sergei. Brenda ups the search for Jason.
Fritz walks away. It's not a "critical missing" anymore.
With the coroner, Sergei was killed with something that leaves a waffle pattern. Hit twice with a tool. Brenda asks him to cut out the wound.
Pope shows up. The coroner guesses the kid's been dead six to 24 hours.
In the hallway, Pope admits he made a mistake. Brenda's not willing to concede he died after they quit looking. They found a cell phone and weed on him. So not a robbery.
They still can't find Jason. Pope authorizes any resources necessary to find him. But they just did.
At the interview room, Flynn says his mom knew he skipped. They found him under his bed. Sanchez had to chase him five blocks. He's not thrilled about it.
Brenda talks to Jason. He knows he doesn't have to talk. She convinces him otherwise.
He'll tell them what happened yesterday, but he wants protection - from Sergei. He made him do things. He won't be specific on how. More threats. Jason starts to tell them Sergei made advances. Jason liked it, but it was a trap. Sergei's been blackmailing him since. He got Jason to let the dog out of the gate. He's upset about watching the dog die. He didn't know what Sergei was planning. Brenda asks if Jason punished him for what he made him do. He's stunned to learned Sergei is dead. He immediately says it was Mr. Taft.
Taft screamed at Mr. Monroe, threatening to kill Sergei. Theresa came in then, when they were hammering the dents out of the car.
They go to the garage and check on the car. Brenda finds a waffle pattern that matches the wounds on Sergei's body.
Brenda listens to the messages on his phone. Angry messages from Theresa, another from Jason telling him to leave him out of it. One from Theresa telling him to quit torturing their parents with the disappearing act.
Fritz takes the house flyer from Brenda. It sold already. He mentions the schools. She wants to talk about it later.
Brenda calls Provenza with some tasks.
At work, Pope wants to know why Brenda has had Provenza arrest Theresa for killing her brother. Her parents want to observe.
In the room, Brenda tells the parents that Theresa didn't think of Sergei as her brother. Theresa denies killing him.
Tao shows them the fender, with the waffle marks. Brenda pulls out the waffle patterned piece of Sergei's skin. They understandably freak. Brenda tells the parents a witness saw her come into the garage. She mentions the angry cell phone messages. Mr. Monroe says that Theresa made those calls after Sergei was dead.
Aha. How does he know when Sergei died? They couldn't establish a time of death.
Silence.
Brenda tells the parents that someone who knew he was dead wouldn't call his phone. There were no messages from his parents. Tao escorts Theresa out of the room.
Brenda says they did everything they could to steer them toward Jason. She asks which one is the monster who killed their own son.
"Sergei was the monster," his mom says.
He stuffed his pet hamsters in the garbage disposal, stepped on baby birds, killed cats. Russia wouldn't take him back.
"There was something wrong with him," Mrs. Monroe says. Brenda still wants to know which one did it.
His dad says Sergei laughed after killing the dog. So Mr. Monroe grabbed the hammer and he hit Sergei. But then he hit him again, Brenda says. Mrs. Monroe watched. She screamed at him to stop. He hit him again as hard as he could. Then he moved the body.
He's under arrest.
Pope and Brenda confer. Pope feels better knowing they couldn't have prevented Sergei's murder. Still, he's changing the "critical missing" rules. They search for 72 hours. She agrees. Pope tells her to please apologize to Fritz for him.
At home, Fritz graciously accepts. Brenda has a house brochure. The Hollywood hills. Fritz presumes Brenda's not interested in what school district they buy into. She's not worried about schools.
Fritz digests as they don't talk about one of life's bigger decisions. They eat dinner, just the two of them.
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