At "Blitzkrieg," a man is shot fatally during a simulated bombing run. Patrons of the club initially mistake the sound of gunfire for part of the entertainment. The subsequent panicked exodus from the club results in a vast and messy crime scene.
From the GSR on the body, Grissom knows that the victim was shot at close range. Cartridge casings at the scene are from an easily concealable .32 automatic, which does not explain how the firearm was not detected by the metal detector at the club's front door. Under the victim's right arm, Grissom notices a partially burned photograph of what appears to be a man lying on a bloody carpet. Manny Brazil, the club owner, states that he does not know the dead man. The victim's pockets are empty except for some cash and the keys to a rental car. In the car, Grissom discovers an old-fashioned Polaroid camera and a roll of metal wire, the end of which has been clipped.
Sanders discovers the missing firearm hidden in one of the sconces lining the bar. There is a sticky blue substance on the slide, which proves to be tape adhesive soaked in toilet bowel cleaner.
Grissom enlarges the partial Polaroid to read a prescription on a bottle visible in the photo. It is for valacyclovir, an anti-herpes drug, and belongs to Ken Willard. At the Willard residence, the CSIs find Ken dead on his carpet, garroted by metal wire. The Polaroid found on the dead man at the club was of this scene. A photo in the room features Willard and Manny Brazil. It would seem as though the first dead man was a hit man hired to kill Willard, and was required to bring photographic proof that the deed had been done.
The murder weapon is registered to Brazil, who claims it was stolen from his desk a week earlier. Brazil seems surprised to learn that Willard, who owned 90% of Blitzkrieg, is dead, and denies involvement.
Grissom and Sanders find a roll of tape in one of the club's toilet tanks. Sanders lifts a fingerprint from it belonging to a waitress at the Blitzkrieg club. She is out on bail, posted by Brazil, awaiting trial for drug trafficking. She claims that the drugs for which she was arrested belonged to Willard. She called a hit man to kill Willard, who had threatened to off her if she told the truth about him in court. She then stole Brazil's gun and used it to kill the hit man.
When the lights go out at a low-rent hotel, the superintendent discovers that the problem was caused when Lance Frazer was electrocuted in the bathtub by a plugged-in hot plate.
Frazer's suitcase is neatly packed on the bed. Brown notes the presence on the bedroom dresser of a stained hot dog wrapper. A plastic lei is draped over a chair. Brown learns that Frazer won $50K the night before at the Golden Nugget casino, where big winners are given a plastic lei as part of the celebration. The manager states that this occurred at midnight, about half an hour before Frazer died.
Brown also finds a purple and orange piece of synthetic fabric adhering to the hot plate. On the route that Frazer would have taken from the casino to his room, Brown sees a hot dog stand. The attendant on duty has taken over from the person who worked the night before, who quit unexpectedly. At the home of Danny Halburt, 19, police find the teenager in possession of several expensive items. His purple and orange work shirt is burned.
Brown discovers that Halburt, who served Frazer every night, learned of his winnings, followed him home, and killed him for the money.
At Area 51, a man in an alien suit is discovered lying half buried in a shallow grave. The body is in the fetal position.
The CSIs find old paint on the tip of a short-handled shovel associated with the body. A hearing aide lodged inside the costume bears a traceable serial number.
The coroner notes that the deceased had arachnodactyly, or abnormally elongated fingers. The man's wristwatch is engraved "ET." In a pants pocket is a piece of paper with partially legible words regarding love and the cosmos. The costume is made by Big City Costumes.
At the Chapel of Intergalactic Love, Stokes and Sidle find the minister dressed in a costume identical to that worn by the dead man.
The paint on the shovel consists of black enamel undercoat, General Motors, 1960s; primer; and a top coat of acrylic pink paint.
The hearing aid is traced to Reverend Edward Thomas of the Chapel of Intergalactic Love.
Across the street is the Chapel of Burning Love, officiated by an Elvis impersonator who drives a pink Cadillac. This man turns out to be the same person who was officiating at the Intergalactic Love when Sidle and Stokes first went there. He has surreptitiously taken over his rival's business.
Believing Thomas to be dead when he discovered him unresponsive in his armchair, he drove the rival minister out to Area 51 and buried him where he thought he would want to be. However, as a sufferer of MARFAN SYNDROME, one of the characteristics of which is elongated limbs, Thomas was not actually dead but unconscious and bleeding internally. The coroner discovered dirt in the victim's stomach and upper airways and under his broken fingernails. He was buried alive.
Carl Johnson, a golf ball salesman from Ohio, awakens in his hotel room to discover that the stripper he paid to sleep with him the night before is dead of a massive wound to the head.
In the bathroom, Willows finds hair and bloody tissue on the towel rack, which has come away from the wall. There are bloody fingerprints on the bedside phone, although the hotel reports that no call was placed from the room. A urine stain is visible beside the toilet, behind which is a snapped woman's bracelet. Willows lifts a print from the rod.
Johnson claims that he remembers nothing and suspects that he was drugged by the woman. He agrees to submit a sample of his blood to bolster his story.
During autopsy, Robbins finds that the dead woman, Nicole Richards, 25, died of contusion to the brain and SUBDURAL HEMORRHAGING. The tox screen finds that her blood alcohol level was nearly four times the legal limit. Chronic drinking tends to cause a reduction in platelets, thinning the blood and making clotting more difficult, which might explain the massive amounts of blood found at the scene. Robbins also notes that one of the woman's ankles is swollen.
The fingerprint from the bathroom belongs to George Craven, an ex-con with a domestic violence record. Under questioning, he states that he was in the hotel room because he always vetted the men who were paying to sleep with his girlfriend. He states that he used the facilities before leaving, and had assumed Johnson was not dangerous. Examination of his clothes reveals no blood.
When Johnson's tox screen comes back positive for TRIAZOLAM, the team concludes that Richards slipped in the urine on the bathroom floor, twisted her ankle, snapped her anklet, and hit her head on the towel rack. Bleeding profusely she tried to get Johnson to help her, but he had been drugged. She attempted to use the phone, but passed out on the bed before she could make a call.
