Post by cellogal on Sept 16, 2008 13:29:04 GMT -5
May 9, 1987
Suburban street, where we hear New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle .” A little boy is learning to ride his bike as his dad runs alongside him, shouting encouragement, and his mom looks on from the yard. When the boy has it under control, Dad lets go, ignoring the boy’s protests not to, as every dad has to do at some point. The boy, whose name is Clay, is doing well for a while, but then loses his balance, topples to the pavement, and scrapes his knee. Mom and Dad both run up to him, Mom asking if he’s okay, but Dad reassuring her that Clay’s fine and telling him that he’s just gotta walk it off. “I told you not to let go!” Clay yells, but Dad reminds him that this is the only way to learn. Clay protests that he can’t do it, but Dad reassures him that he can, he just needs to get back on the horse. Clay argues that, no, actually, he doesn’t, and besides, it’s not a horse. Dad promises to be right behind him and not let anything bad to him, but Clay’s having none of this. He wants his training wheels back on. Dad agrees, but reminds Clay that he himself said he didn’t want to be the last of his buddies with training wheels. Clay thinks it over for a minute, and then spies a neighbor boy on his own bike. Finally, he agrees to give it another shot, but only if Dad promises not to let go until Clay says so. Dad agrees, and they try again, this time, Mom running alongside, too. Dad encourages Clay to pedal faster, then lets go. At first, Clay’s panicky, but then realizes he’s doing it, and is soon pedaling off down the street faster than either parent would like. Dad runs after him, yelling at him to slow down.
Oh, snap. I have a sinking feeling about this. Sure enough, as we approach a construction site, we see Clay’s body buried in a shallow grave, where Clay is sucking his thumb.
Present Day
Street. Lilly asks Scotty what’s up with the fresh job, and Scotty explains that some joker took a header off a high-rise last night. Lilly’s amazed that they yanked them out of bed for a jumper, but Scotty says that Stillman’s already there. They both look up at the high-rise, and Lilly says that’s gotta be 20 stories up. “Guy’s a pizza,” Scotty comments. “If he’s still in one piece,” Lilly replies. And there goes my appetite! Scotty remarks on how considerate it was of the aforementioned joker to beat rush hour. Stillman identifies the victim as 55-year-old Harold Dixon, then lifts the tarp off the body to reveal that, yes, sure enough, Scotty’s description was fairly, revoltingly accurate. Lilly asks why they got called for a suicide, but Stillman says it’s not a suicide: the hands are bound with plastic ties. Lilly asks if he was pushed, and Stillman replies that the guy was a registered sex offender. “Aw, well, that’s a damn shame,” Scotty remarks sarcastically. No, Scotty’s not going to be taking this case personally. Not at all. Stillman gives him a Look, then hands him a note found stuffed in the victim’s pocket. Through the blood spatters, Scotty is able to determine that the doer is going to take out a piece of garbage every day until they solve the murder of his son, Clayton Hathaway. Lilly thinks they’re going to need a few more garbage bags. “Missed the dumpster,” is Scotty’s reply. Oh, boy.
Credits
Squad room. Scotty and Lilly are recapping the case for Stillman, and…oh, yay, it’s ADA Thomas! Well, this just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it? Anyway, the victim is 6-year-old Clayton Hathaway, snatched off his bike and found two days later, raped and strangled, but the bike was never recovered. The last to see was Clay’s father, Mitch, and police zeroed in on him after the body was found at a construction site Mitch was developing. Lilly adds that traces of semen found matched Mitch’s blood type, and even his wife bailed on him. Scotty concludes that the jury didn’t take long, and Mitch got life. Stillman then asks ADA Thomas what happened, and she robotically tells them that, after endless appeals, it was discovered that the original DNA evidence was contaminated. A judge ordered a new trial, but there was a lack of evidence, and Mitch was released a month ago. Lilly surmises that ADA Thomas still thinks Mitch did it, but she replies that it doesn’t matter what they think, it matters what they can prosecute. Scotty comments that it matters to her boss; he’s got a PR disaster on the loose. Stillman wonders, if Mitch did it, why he’s going around shoving sex offenders off of buildings. A valid question, I think. Lilly reads that Harold Dixon was convicted of molesting boys around the same age as Clay, and Stillman guesses that he might be pulling names off the Megan’s Law website. Lilly realizes that, if that’s his hit list, Mitch is just spraying buckshot. Scotty asks why they’re going after Mitch; he’s performing a public service. ADA Thomas thinks he’s joking. Oh, he’s so not. Scotty points out that nobody else can figure out what to do with them, certainly not the courts, and ADA Thomas argues that they can’t incarcerate them forever after they’ve served their time. “Fine, then, cut ‘em off,” Scotty suggests. “That’ll fix the problem,” ADA Thomas agrees sarcastically. As Lilly, who looks relieved at the interruption, gets summoned for a phone call, Scotty goes on to say that that sex offender website is an admission by the state that they can’t keep society from harm, and ADA Thomas argues that this means crazed vigilantes can use it as a hit list. Scotty thinks it was bound to happen sooner or later, and finally, mercifully, this contrived, chemistry-less conflict is interrupted by Stillman, who orders Scotty to talk to the ex-wife and see what she remembers about the day of Clay’s disappearance. Lilly then calls Scotty over to the phone.
Once he answers, the person on the other end asks Scotty when they’re going to solve his son’s murder, and then goes on to tell Scotty that he read about Mike’s case in the paper. Mitch protests that he’s not a monster, and Scotty points out that Mitch killed a man last night. “He had it comin’,” Mitch replies. “You of all people know that.” Scotty argues that it’s not about him, and Mitch agrees. It’s about what he lost, Mitch says, and what he needs Scotty to do. Scotty encourages Mitch to come in and talk to him, but Mitch insists he didn’t kill Clay, then orders Scotty to do his job and find who did. Wow.
Squad room. Jeffries asks Mitch’s ex-wife, Tara, if he’s tried to contact her since his release. She says he hasn’t, but he must have written her over a thousand letters from prison. She says after the first one, she threw the letters out; all he said was that he didn’t do it. Kat points out that Tara never showed at the trial, and realizes she thought he did it. Tara says it was too painful, and she just couldn’t handle it; her world caved in, she adds. Kat shows her a picture of Harold Dixon; she doesn’t recognize him. Jeffries then informs her that Mitch killed Harold this morning. Tara can’t believe it, but Kat adds that Mitch promised to do it again until they solve Clay’s murder. Tara doesn’t know what to tell them; Kat asks her to tell them about the day of Clay’s disappearance. Tara says it’s every parent’s worst nightmare, but for them, it was real.
Hathaway yard, where we hear “Shattered Dreams” by Johnny Hates Jazz. Mitch is vacuuming out his car when Tara approaches and asks him where Clay is. Mitch looks around and says that he was just riding his bike around there. Tara accusingly tells Mitch that he was supposed to be watching Clay; Mitch insists he was, and thinks Clay just rode around the block. Tara argues that Clay’s not supposed to ride past the corner, and Mitch tells her not to worry; he’ll go get Clay. They split up and call for Clay, and Tara sees a teenager playing air guitar and a postman delivering the mail, but no Clay. She finally approaches some neighbors and asks if they’ve seen Clay. They haven’t since that morning. “He’s not with Johnny?” she asks, and the neighbor, Linda, asks if something’s wrong. Tara says she doesn’t know where Clay is, and Mitch comes up and says he hasn’t found Clay, either. He’s off to get the car, and Linda’s husband joins the search.
She says they found him two days later, and not a day goes by that she doesn’t blame herself. Jeffries asks her about the postman; she’s sure she saw one, and Kat and Jeffries point out that Clay disappeared on a Sunday.
Postman’s apartment. Vera tells the postman, Ernie, to explain what he was doing delivering mail on a Sunday. Ernie says he sometimes dropped off packages on his off days, if they were on his way home. “Only back then you didn’t have a record for diddlin’ boys yet,” Scotty points out. Uh-oh. No way can this end well. Ernie challenges them to run whatever tests they want, he never touched Clay. Clay wasn’t his “thing,” he explains. He preferred introverted, slightly built blonde boys ages 8-12. “I was always very specific,” he says. Charming. “Gee, I guess we’re way outta line here,” Vera gripes sarcastically. Ernie says it’s all in the past, he had years of therapy, stays off the internet, and has mechanisms to help curb the urges. “Well, that’s comforting,” Vera replies. Ernie says he paid his debt to society, but as far as Scotty’s concerned, he’ll never pay for what he did to those kids. Ernie protests that he would never kill a child. “I love children,” he smarms. Uh-oh. Scotty’s starting to get that look in his eyes again. Ernie explains that whoever killed Clay was an amateur, worried about getting caught. Vera’s intrigued, and Ernie goes on to say that, if a boy’s properly groomed, you don’t have to worry about them telling anyone. “They give you…consent,” he finishes. Ewww. Scotty’s close to the boiling point, I have a feeling, because he argues that a child can’t give an adult consent. “Someday society will come around to accept it,” Ernie smarms, and sure enough, Scotty’s next move is slamming him against the wall. Vera pulls him off, with a look on his face that suggests that this has become something of a habit, and Ernie tells them they should be going after Hathaway’s babysitter, since it wasn’t like she was really watching the kid. Vera asks what she was doing, and Ernie says it was more like “who.” He says her preppy jock boyfriend was always over there, sneaking around when the Hathaways were gone. “Always gotta watch out for the young, clean-cut ones,” Ernie adds.
Hathaways’ neighborhood. Ernie’s walking down the street when he hears a boy’s voice yelling at someone to cut it out. Over the boy’s crying, Ernie hears a young man’s voice telling him to quit being a baby. He finally spies the source of the voices and peers in, where we see Clay watching through his tears as a young man washes what looks suspiciously like blood out of what looks suspiciously like Clary’s underwear. He tells Clay that it’s not that bad, then distracts him by talking about baseball. The young man says his dad has season tickets to the Phillies, and asks Clay if he thinks he might like to go sometime and see the Philly Phanatic, dancing on the dugout. The Philly Phanatic rocks, by the way. Clay tearfully agrees, and the young man urges him not to tell Trish what happened. “It’ll be our little secret…just us guys.” Ernie’s heard enough and takes off.
Ernie proclaims this “total amateur hour” and is amazed at how parents just seem to offer their kids up to predators. “Guess you’d know,” Vera replies, and Ernie says that’s why he was surprised when he heard it was the dad…unless that’s all changed, he adds sleazily. “Something I should know?” Scotty merely says that they’ll be in touch, and Ernie replies by showing them his electronic ankle bracelet and saying that his PO knows where to find him.
Squad room. Kat tells Stillman that they’ve traced Mitch’s call to a pay phone outside Market East Station, and Stillman tells her to check the security tape and see if that confirms it’s really Mitch. Everybody’s favorite ADA shows up then and asks the detectives what they’re doing to find Mitch, and Kat shows her a map indicating the location of the pay phone where he made the call and the building where he pushed Dixon. She says they’re trying to narrow his location, which ADA Thomas takes to mean that they have no idea where he is. Stillman argues that every cop in the 15th District has an updated photo of Mitch. ADA Thomas looks exasperated for a moment, then asks what the red pins on the map are. Kat says they’re registered sex offenders who lived or worked near the Hathaways in 1987. “Depressing, huh?” she comments. That was my reaction. ADA Thomas realizes that their names, photos, and addresses are all listed on the Megan’s Law website. “That’s the law,” Stillman replies. ADA Thomas then declares that they need to shut down the site until Mitch is found; Stillman argues that public access to the site supersedes the risk. ADA Thomas isn’t convinced, asking if the public has a right to know that wasn’t a suicide yesterday. Fortunately, Stillman spies Lilly coming in with the young man from Ernie’s flashback and decides that he’s got bigger fish to fry.
Interview room. The guy agrees that Trish was his girl back in high school, and Stillman says they heard he used to drop in on her quite a bit while she was babysitting. The guy agrees, saying no parents is the best opportunity to get some play. “Sure,” Stillman agrees, “and then you just take ‘em out to the ol’ ballgame, right?” Lilly continues, reminding him that boys love baseball, so it’s okay, as long as they don’t tell anybody what happened. The guy looks confused and declares that sick. “No argument there,” Lilly replies icily. The guy, whose name we learn is Adam, protests that he’s married and has three kids, two boys of his own. Lilly tells him they know about the blood in the underwear, and reminds him that Clay was bawling his eyes out. Adam insists that they’ve got this all wrong. He says he was raiding the liquor cabinet and dropped a glass in the floor. Clay came in from outside in his bare feet, stepped on the glass, and cut his foot. Stillman asks the obvious question: How’d blood get on his underwear? Adam claims he just grabbed the first thing he saw from the laundry basket, which just happened to be a pair of Clay’s underwear. Lilly asks Adam if he knows how dumb that sounds, but he swears it’s the truth. Lilly tells Adam he’s going to have to do better than that, so he does: he says he wasn’t even in town when Clay disappeared, and didn’t even hear about the “horror show” until he got back. He adds that it always haunted him, and Lilly asks if there’s something else he wants to share. Adam says he was over at the house one night when Trish was sitting and saw something kind of disturbing.
Hathaway house. Adam and Trish are canoodling on the couch, and in the background we hear Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies” and the sounds of children playing. Suddenly, Trish stops, thinking she heard the garage door, and, sure enough, the Hathaways call that they’re home. Trish orders Adam to hide, which he does, in the nearest closet. Clay and another boy, the one he spied earlier on the bike, come out then, and Clay’s got a knife. He urges the boy, Johnny, that they have to hide it. Johnny asks him who gave him the knife, and the answer is mysterious. “The Scarecrow,” is all Clay says. Johnny’s impressed, and Clay says he can’t say anything, or The Scarecrow won’t give him any more cool stuff. Tara calls for Clay, and Johnny tells Clay that his parents are coming. Clay orders Johnny not to say anything, or Scarecrow will get mad at him. Johnny urges Clay once more to hide the knife, but Clay won’t budge until Johnny swears not to tell. Johnny finally does, and Clay stashes his knife in the toy box before the boys scamper off.
Adam thinks The Scarecrow was some kind of secret pal, but wonders who would give a knife to a six-year-old. Stillman asks if he ever mentioned this to Trish, and Adam says he was going to, but it took him an hour to get out of there, and then he forgot. Lilly points out that Adam remembered now, and Adam retorts that it seemed irrelevant after they busted the dad. “Goes to show you never can tell,” he concludes.
Squad room. Johnny tells Scotty and Kat that it was a long time ago, he was only six, and Clay was his best friend back then. Kat comments that what happened was pretty devastating, and Johnny says it scarred the whole neighborhood, and his parents were paranoid about him playing outside after that. Scotty asks Johnny if he remembers Scarecrow, and Johnny does, saying he was an older kid, a goth freak who lived next door to them. He adds that Scarecrow’s real name was Damon Childress, and something was off with him; he was into all kinds of weird crap the boys thought was cool, like ninja stars, medieval weapons, nunchucks… “Butterfly knives?” Scotty asks, and Johnny confirms it. He says that Damon slept in the basement, his parents left him alone, and he even had his own back entrance. Kat and Scotty pounce on the fact that Johnny apparently saw Damon’s bedroom, and Johnny guesses that Damon didn’t have a lot of friends his own age; he was unstable, Johnny says. “Emotionally disturbed,” Kat concludes, and Johnny says you just had to be careful not to rile him up. Scotty asks if Damon ever came after him or Clay, and Johnny says that once, he came after both of them.
Hathaways’ street. Accompanied by The Cure’s “A Forest,” Johnny and Clay are riding bikes, demonstrating tricks and crowing about the glories of He-Man, Master of the Universe. Johnny starts to ride too far for Clay’s comfort, and he reminds Johnny that they’re not supposed to ride past their street. Suddenly, Damon comes up to Johnny and yells, “Boo!” Damon then accuses Clay of stealing the knife; Clay insists Damon said he could have it. Damon says that nothing’s free, and Clay owes him. Clay tries to ride away, but Damon catches him and knocks him off his bike, then turns to Johnny with a throat-slitting gesture. Not surprisingly, Johnny rides away.
Johnny says he went home, hid in his room, and never saw Clay again. Scotty concludes that Johnny never told his parents, and Johnny says he thought that freak would kill him. Kat asks if, in any of those trips down to Damon’s basement, he ever tried anything, but Johnny says Damon was more the type to get off on torturing cats. Well, that’s reassuring. Johnny thinks Damon even killed one that same day. Scotty asks Johnny if he saw him do that; Johnny replies that he heard something that night, so he looked out and saw Damon burying something in his backyard.
Hathaways’ neighborhood. Stillman explains to Scotty and Jeffries that the Childress family moved away several years ago, and the current owners of the house gave them permission to dig up the yard. Scotty notices the CSU waving them over and says it looks like they found something. They have: Clay’s bike. Oh, snap. Scotty’s phone rings then, and it’s Mitch on the other end, asking if they know who killed his son. Scotty assures him that they’re close, and promises him that they’ll find the killer. He points out that he believes that Mitch, but he’s not helping them by dropping bodies. Mitch argues that nobody lifted a finger on his son’s murder until now. Scotty tells Mitch this isn’t the way to go about it; Mitch agrees, saying that these guys should be burned at the stake. Scotty says Mitch has their attention, and nobody else needs to die. Mitch insists he has to do this for his son; Scotty points out that Clay’s gone, and Mitch replies that that’s only because he promised Clay he’d be there, and he wasn’t. “I understand how you feel,” Scotty answers after a pause. “No you don’t,” Mitch whines. Oh, trust me, Mitch. He does. Mitch says he lost everything, and Scotty knows, but tells Mitch he has to stop what he’s doing. Too late, Mitch says. “I already took out the trash today.” Oh, snap.
Crime scene. The body lies on the hood of a car, and Stillman asks if they got anything on Mitch’s call. Scotty says it was a blocked number; all they know is that it was a cell phone. Vera comes up then telling them the DA’s office is on crisis control and issues a Ball-Buster Alert. Sure enough, ADA Thomas is on the scene, asking if they’ve identified the victim. Stillman says they’re still trying to get prints off him. “Soon as they scrape him off the hood,” Vera pipes up. Maybe I’m a bad person, but for some reason, this makes me laugh. Vera lifts the blanket then, and all hilarity ends. He urges Scotty to come see; Scotty says he’ll pass. Vera insists that Scotty’s got to come take a look, and when he finally does, he realizes that it’s Ernie. “Special delivery,” Vera remarks. Scotty wonders how Mitch could know who they were talking to, and Vera realizes that he’s been following them. ADA Thomas is incredulous that they interviewed Ernie and didn’t notify him of the possible threat to his life, but Scotty’s pretty sure he’ll sleep okay tonight. Heh. ADA Thomas b*tches that they have a responsibility to notify anyone who’s a possible target. “Sure, why not offer ‘em all protective custody,” Scotty suggests sarcastically, and then Stillman calls him off. He reassures ADA Thomas that they’ll do their best to notify every Level 3 sex offender who fits the profile, but that’s not good enough. ADA Thomas announces that her boss is suspending public access to the Megan’s Law website. “Have a good day, Counselor,” Scotty calls after her. Heh.
Suburban street, where we hear New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle .” A little boy is learning to ride his bike as his dad runs alongside him, shouting encouragement, and his mom looks on from the yard. When the boy has it under control, Dad lets go, ignoring the boy’s protests not to, as every dad has to do at some point. The boy, whose name is Clay, is doing well for a while, but then loses his balance, topples to the pavement, and scrapes his knee. Mom and Dad both run up to him, Mom asking if he’s okay, but Dad reassuring her that Clay’s fine and telling him that he’s just gotta walk it off. “I told you not to let go!” Clay yells, but Dad reminds him that this is the only way to learn. Clay protests that he can’t do it, but Dad reassures him that he can, he just needs to get back on the horse. Clay argues that, no, actually, he doesn’t, and besides, it’s not a horse. Dad promises to be right behind him and not let anything bad to him, but Clay’s having none of this. He wants his training wheels back on. Dad agrees, but reminds Clay that he himself said he didn’t want to be the last of his buddies with training wheels. Clay thinks it over for a minute, and then spies a neighbor boy on his own bike. Finally, he agrees to give it another shot, but only if Dad promises not to let go until Clay says so. Dad agrees, and they try again, this time, Mom running alongside, too. Dad encourages Clay to pedal faster, then lets go. At first, Clay’s panicky, but then realizes he’s doing it, and is soon pedaling off down the street faster than either parent would like. Dad runs after him, yelling at him to slow down.
Oh, snap. I have a sinking feeling about this. Sure enough, as we approach a construction site, we see Clay’s body buried in a shallow grave, where Clay is sucking his thumb.
Present Day
Street. Lilly asks Scotty what’s up with the fresh job, and Scotty explains that some joker took a header off a high-rise last night. Lilly’s amazed that they yanked them out of bed for a jumper, but Scotty says that Stillman’s already there. They both look up at the high-rise, and Lilly says that’s gotta be 20 stories up. “Guy’s a pizza,” Scotty comments. “If he’s still in one piece,” Lilly replies. And there goes my appetite! Scotty remarks on how considerate it was of the aforementioned joker to beat rush hour. Stillman identifies the victim as 55-year-old Harold Dixon, then lifts the tarp off the body to reveal that, yes, sure enough, Scotty’s description was fairly, revoltingly accurate. Lilly asks why they got called for a suicide, but Stillman says it’s not a suicide: the hands are bound with plastic ties. Lilly asks if he was pushed, and Stillman replies that the guy was a registered sex offender. “Aw, well, that’s a damn shame,” Scotty remarks sarcastically. No, Scotty’s not going to be taking this case personally. Not at all. Stillman gives him a Look, then hands him a note found stuffed in the victim’s pocket. Through the blood spatters, Scotty is able to determine that the doer is going to take out a piece of garbage every day until they solve the murder of his son, Clayton Hathaway. Lilly thinks they’re going to need a few more garbage bags. “Missed the dumpster,” is Scotty’s reply. Oh, boy.
Credits
Squad room. Scotty and Lilly are recapping the case for Stillman, and…oh, yay, it’s ADA Thomas! Well, this just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it? Anyway, the victim is 6-year-old Clayton Hathaway, snatched off his bike and found two days later, raped and strangled, but the bike was never recovered. The last to see was Clay’s father, Mitch, and police zeroed in on him after the body was found at a construction site Mitch was developing. Lilly adds that traces of semen found matched Mitch’s blood type, and even his wife bailed on him. Scotty concludes that the jury didn’t take long, and Mitch got life. Stillman then asks ADA Thomas what happened, and she robotically tells them that, after endless appeals, it was discovered that the original DNA evidence was contaminated. A judge ordered a new trial, but there was a lack of evidence, and Mitch was released a month ago. Lilly surmises that ADA Thomas still thinks Mitch did it, but she replies that it doesn’t matter what they think, it matters what they can prosecute. Scotty comments that it matters to her boss; he’s got a PR disaster on the loose. Stillman wonders, if Mitch did it, why he’s going around shoving sex offenders off of buildings. A valid question, I think. Lilly reads that Harold Dixon was convicted of molesting boys around the same age as Clay, and Stillman guesses that he might be pulling names off the Megan’s Law website. Lilly realizes that, if that’s his hit list, Mitch is just spraying buckshot. Scotty asks why they’re going after Mitch; he’s performing a public service. ADA Thomas thinks he’s joking. Oh, he’s so not. Scotty points out that nobody else can figure out what to do with them, certainly not the courts, and ADA Thomas argues that they can’t incarcerate them forever after they’ve served their time. “Fine, then, cut ‘em off,” Scotty suggests. “That’ll fix the problem,” ADA Thomas agrees sarcastically. As Lilly, who looks relieved at the interruption, gets summoned for a phone call, Scotty goes on to say that that sex offender website is an admission by the state that they can’t keep society from harm, and ADA Thomas argues that this means crazed vigilantes can use it as a hit list. Scotty thinks it was bound to happen sooner or later, and finally, mercifully, this contrived, chemistry-less conflict is interrupted by Stillman, who orders Scotty to talk to the ex-wife and see what she remembers about the day of Clay’s disappearance. Lilly then calls Scotty over to the phone.
Once he answers, the person on the other end asks Scotty when they’re going to solve his son’s murder, and then goes on to tell Scotty that he read about Mike’s case in the paper. Mitch protests that he’s not a monster, and Scotty points out that Mitch killed a man last night. “He had it comin’,” Mitch replies. “You of all people know that.” Scotty argues that it’s not about him, and Mitch agrees. It’s about what he lost, Mitch says, and what he needs Scotty to do. Scotty encourages Mitch to come in and talk to him, but Mitch insists he didn’t kill Clay, then orders Scotty to do his job and find who did. Wow.
Squad room. Jeffries asks Mitch’s ex-wife, Tara, if he’s tried to contact her since his release. She says he hasn’t, but he must have written her over a thousand letters from prison. She says after the first one, she threw the letters out; all he said was that he didn’t do it. Kat points out that Tara never showed at the trial, and realizes she thought he did it. Tara says it was too painful, and she just couldn’t handle it; her world caved in, she adds. Kat shows her a picture of Harold Dixon; she doesn’t recognize him. Jeffries then informs her that Mitch killed Harold this morning. Tara can’t believe it, but Kat adds that Mitch promised to do it again until they solve Clay’s murder. Tara doesn’t know what to tell them; Kat asks her to tell them about the day of Clay’s disappearance. Tara says it’s every parent’s worst nightmare, but for them, it was real.
Hathaway yard, where we hear “Shattered Dreams” by Johnny Hates Jazz. Mitch is vacuuming out his car when Tara approaches and asks him where Clay is. Mitch looks around and says that he was just riding his bike around there. Tara accusingly tells Mitch that he was supposed to be watching Clay; Mitch insists he was, and thinks Clay just rode around the block. Tara argues that Clay’s not supposed to ride past the corner, and Mitch tells her not to worry; he’ll go get Clay. They split up and call for Clay, and Tara sees a teenager playing air guitar and a postman delivering the mail, but no Clay. She finally approaches some neighbors and asks if they’ve seen Clay. They haven’t since that morning. “He’s not with Johnny?” she asks, and the neighbor, Linda, asks if something’s wrong. Tara says she doesn’t know where Clay is, and Mitch comes up and says he hasn’t found Clay, either. He’s off to get the car, and Linda’s husband joins the search.
She says they found him two days later, and not a day goes by that she doesn’t blame herself. Jeffries asks her about the postman; she’s sure she saw one, and Kat and Jeffries point out that Clay disappeared on a Sunday.
Postman’s apartment. Vera tells the postman, Ernie, to explain what he was doing delivering mail on a Sunday. Ernie says he sometimes dropped off packages on his off days, if they were on his way home. “Only back then you didn’t have a record for diddlin’ boys yet,” Scotty points out. Uh-oh. No way can this end well. Ernie challenges them to run whatever tests they want, he never touched Clay. Clay wasn’t his “thing,” he explains. He preferred introverted, slightly built blonde boys ages 8-12. “I was always very specific,” he says. Charming. “Gee, I guess we’re way outta line here,” Vera gripes sarcastically. Ernie says it’s all in the past, he had years of therapy, stays off the internet, and has mechanisms to help curb the urges. “Well, that’s comforting,” Vera replies. Ernie says he paid his debt to society, but as far as Scotty’s concerned, he’ll never pay for what he did to those kids. Ernie protests that he would never kill a child. “I love children,” he smarms. Uh-oh. Scotty’s starting to get that look in his eyes again. Ernie explains that whoever killed Clay was an amateur, worried about getting caught. Vera’s intrigued, and Ernie goes on to say that, if a boy’s properly groomed, you don’t have to worry about them telling anyone. “They give you…consent,” he finishes. Ewww. Scotty’s close to the boiling point, I have a feeling, because he argues that a child can’t give an adult consent. “Someday society will come around to accept it,” Ernie smarms, and sure enough, Scotty’s next move is slamming him against the wall. Vera pulls him off, with a look on his face that suggests that this has become something of a habit, and Ernie tells them they should be going after Hathaway’s babysitter, since it wasn’t like she was really watching the kid. Vera asks what she was doing, and Ernie says it was more like “who.” He says her preppy jock boyfriend was always over there, sneaking around when the Hathaways were gone. “Always gotta watch out for the young, clean-cut ones,” Ernie adds.
Hathaways’ neighborhood. Ernie’s walking down the street when he hears a boy’s voice yelling at someone to cut it out. Over the boy’s crying, Ernie hears a young man’s voice telling him to quit being a baby. He finally spies the source of the voices and peers in, where we see Clay watching through his tears as a young man washes what looks suspiciously like blood out of what looks suspiciously like Clary’s underwear. He tells Clay that it’s not that bad, then distracts him by talking about baseball. The young man says his dad has season tickets to the Phillies, and asks Clay if he thinks he might like to go sometime and see the Philly Phanatic, dancing on the dugout. The Philly Phanatic rocks, by the way. Clay tearfully agrees, and the young man urges him not to tell Trish what happened. “It’ll be our little secret…just us guys.” Ernie’s heard enough and takes off.
Ernie proclaims this “total amateur hour” and is amazed at how parents just seem to offer their kids up to predators. “Guess you’d know,” Vera replies, and Ernie says that’s why he was surprised when he heard it was the dad…unless that’s all changed, he adds sleazily. “Something I should know?” Scotty merely says that they’ll be in touch, and Ernie replies by showing them his electronic ankle bracelet and saying that his PO knows where to find him.
Squad room. Kat tells Stillman that they’ve traced Mitch’s call to a pay phone outside Market East Station, and Stillman tells her to check the security tape and see if that confirms it’s really Mitch. Everybody’s favorite ADA shows up then and asks the detectives what they’re doing to find Mitch, and Kat shows her a map indicating the location of the pay phone where he made the call and the building where he pushed Dixon. She says they’re trying to narrow his location, which ADA Thomas takes to mean that they have no idea where he is. Stillman argues that every cop in the 15th District has an updated photo of Mitch. ADA Thomas looks exasperated for a moment, then asks what the red pins on the map are. Kat says they’re registered sex offenders who lived or worked near the Hathaways in 1987. “Depressing, huh?” she comments. That was my reaction. ADA Thomas realizes that their names, photos, and addresses are all listed on the Megan’s Law website. “That’s the law,” Stillman replies. ADA Thomas then declares that they need to shut down the site until Mitch is found; Stillman argues that public access to the site supersedes the risk. ADA Thomas isn’t convinced, asking if the public has a right to know that wasn’t a suicide yesterday. Fortunately, Stillman spies Lilly coming in with the young man from Ernie’s flashback and decides that he’s got bigger fish to fry.
Interview room. The guy agrees that Trish was his girl back in high school, and Stillman says they heard he used to drop in on her quite a bit while she was babysitting. The guy agrees, saying no parents is the best opportunity to get some play. “Sure,” Stillman agrees, “and then you just take ‘em out to the ol’ ballgame, right?” Lilly continues, reminding him that boys love baseball, so it’s okay, as long as they don’t tell anybody what happened. The guy looks confused and declares that sick. “No argument there,” Lilly replies icily. The guy, whose name we learn is Adam, protests that he’s married and has three kids, two boys of his own. Lilly tells him they know about the blood in the underwear, and reminds him that Clay was bawling his eyes out. Adam insists that they’ve got this all wrong. He says he was raiding the liquor cabinet and dropped a glass in the floor. Clay came in from outside in his bare feet, stepped on the glass, and cut his foot. Stillman asks the obvious question: How’d blood get on his underwear? Adam claims he just grabbed the first thing he saw from the laundry basket, which just happened to be a pair of Clay’s underwear. Lilly asks Adam if he knows how dumb that sounds, but he swears it’s the truth. Lilly tells Adam he’s going to have to do better than that, so he does: he says he wasn’t even in town when Clay disappeared, and didn’t even hear about the “horror show” until he got back. He adds that it always haunted him, and Lilly asks if there’s something else he wants to share. Adam says he was over at the house one night when Trish was sitting and saw something kind of disturbing.
Hathaway house. Adam and Trish are canoodling on the couch, and in the background we hear Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies” and the sounds of children playing. Suddenly, Trish stops, thinking she heard the garage door, and, sure enough, the Hathaways call that they’re home. Trish orders Adam to hide, which he does, in the nearest closet. Clay and another boy, the one he spied earlier on the bike, come out then, and Clay’s got a knife. He urges the boy, Johnny, that they have to hide it. Johnny asks him who gave him the knife, and the answer is mysterious. “The Scarecrow,” is all Clay says. Johnny’s impressed, and Clay says he can’t say anything, or The Scarecrow won’t give him any more cool stuff. Tara calls for Clay, and Johnny tells Clay that his parents are coming. Clay orders Johnny not to say anything, or Scarecrow will get mad at him. Johnny urges Clay once more to hide the knife, but Clay won’t budge until Johnny swears not to tell. Johnny finally does, and Clay stashes his knife in the toy box before the boys scamper off.
Adam thinks The Scarecrow was some kind of secret pal, but wonders who would give a knife to a six-year-old. Stillman asks if he ever mentioned this to Trish, and Adam says he was going to, but it took him an hour to get out of there, and then he forgot. Lilly points out that Adam remembered now, and Adam retorts that it seemed irrelevant after they busted the dad. “Goes to show you never can tell,” he concludes.
Squad room. Johnny tells Scotty and Kat that it was a long time ago, he was only six, and Clay was his best friend back then. Kat comments that what happened was pretty devastating, and Johnny says it scarred the whole neighborhood, and his parents were paranoid about him playing outside after that. Scotty asks Johnny if he remembers Scarecrow, and Johnny does, saying he was an older kid, a goth freak who lived next door to them. He adds that Scarecrow’s real name was Damon Childress, and something was off with him; he was into all kinds of weird crap the boys thought was cool, like ninja stars, medieval weapons, nunchucks… “Butterfly knives?” Scotty asks, and Johnny confirms it. He says that Damon slept in the basement, his parents left him alone, and he even had his own back entrance. Kat and Scotty pounce on the fact that Johnny apparently saw Damon’s bedroom, and Johnny guesses that Damon didn’t have a lot of friends his own age; he was unstable, Johnny says. “Emotionally disturbed,” Kat concludes, and Johnny says you just had to be careful not to rile him up. Scotty asks if Damon ever came after him or Clay, and Johnny says that once, he came after both of them.
Hathaways’ street. Accompanied by The Cure’s “A Forest,” Johnny and Clay are riding bikes, demonstrating tricks and crowing about the glories of He-Man, Master of the Universe. Johnny starts to ride too far for Clay’s comfort, and he reminds Johnny that they’re not supposed to ride past their street. Suddenly, Damon comes up to Johnny and yells, “Boo!” Damon then accuses Clay of stealing the knife; Clay insists Damon said he could have it. Damon says that nothing’s free, and Clay owes him. Clay tries to ride away, but Damon catches him and knocks him off his bike, then turns to Johnny with a throat-slitting gesture. Not surprisingly, Johnny rides away.
Johnny says he went home, hid in his room, and never saw Clay again. Scotty concludes that Johnny never told his parents, and Johnny says he thought that freak would kill him. Kat asks if, in any of those trips down to Damon’s basement, he ever tried anything, but Johnny says Damon was more the type to get off on torturing cats. Well, that’s reassuring. Johnny thinks Damon even killed one that same day. Scotty asks Johnny if he saw him do that; Johnny replies that he heard something that night, so he looked out and saw Damon burying something in his backyard.
Hathaways’ neighborhood. Stillman explains to Scotty and Jeffries that the Childress family moved away several years ago, and the current owners of the house gave them permission to dig up the yard. Scotty notices the CSU waving them over and says it looks like they found something. They have: Clay’s bike. Oh, snap. Scotty’s phone rings then, and it’s Mitch on the other end, asking if they know who killed his son. Scotty assures him that they’re close, and promises him that they’ll find the killer. He points out that he believes that Mitch, but he’s not helping them by dropping bodies. Mitch argues that nobody lifted a finger on his son’s murder until now. Scotty tells Mitch this isn’t the way to go about it; Mitch agrees, saying that these guys should be burned at the stake. Scotty says Mitch has their attention, and nobody else needs to die. Mitch insists he has to do this for his son; Scotty points out that Clay’s gone, and Mitch replies that that’s only because he promised Clay he’d be there, and he wasn’t. “I understand how you feel,” Scotty answers after a pause. “No you don’t,” Mitch whines. Oh, trust me, Mitch. He does. Mitch says he lost everything, and Scotty knows, but tells Mitch he has to stop what he’s doing. Too late, Mitch says. “I already took out the trash today.” Oh, snap.
Crime scene. The body lies on the hood of a car, and Stillman asks if they got anything on Mitch’s call. Scotty says it was a blocked number; all they know is that it was a cell phone. Vera comes up then telling them the DA’s office is on crisis control and issues a Ball-Buster Alert. Sure enough, ADA Thomas is on the scene, asking if they’ve identified the victim. Stillman says they’re still trying to get prints off him. “Soon as they scrape him off the hood,” Vera pipes up. Maybe I’m a bad person, but for some reason, this makes me laugh. Vera lifts the blanket then, and all hilarity ends. He urges Scotty to come see; Scotty says he’ll pass. Vera insists that Scotty’s got to come take a look, and when he finally does, he realizes that it’s Ernie. “Special delivery,” Vera remarks. Scotty wonders how Mitch could know who they were talking to, and Vera realizes that he’s been following them. ADA Thomas is incredulous that they interviewed Ernie and didn’t notify him of the possible threat to his life, but Scotty’s pretty sure he’ll sleep okay tonight. Heh. ADA Thomas b*tches that they have a responsibility to notify anyone who’s a possible target. “Sure, why not offer ‘em all protective custody,” Scotty suggests sarcastically, and then Stillman calls him off. He reassures ADA Thomas that they’ll do their best to notify every Level 3 sex offender who fits the profile, but that’s not good enough. ADA Thomas announces that her boss is suspending public access to the Megan’s Law website. “Have a good day, Counselor,” Scotty calls after her. Heh.
