law & order
seer (19/24)

The veteran crime drama continues its 13th season. In tonight’s episode, a young woman is murdered outside a club and her neighbour claims to have psychic knowledge of the case.

Detectives Briscoe and Green are called to an alley where an attractive young woman has been found beaten to death. There is a glove and a footprint next to the victim, who is identified as Rachel Cardwell, a graphic designer. The cops search her apartment where they meet Tim Grayson, her shy, awkward neighbour, who claims to be friendly with Rachel.

There is a message on Rachel’s machine from her friend Leanne Parks, who was with Rachel the night she died, but apparently went home with a man. Leanne is devastated by Rachel’s death: “I loved her,” she tells the cops. “We were like sisters.” She reveals that they were at an upscale club for professional women, and Briscoe and Green go to interview the club owner and bouncers. One doorman confirms that a man tried to get in to see Rachel: “There was this guy last night bothering me to let him – he said Rach had invited him,” he says.

The man left a business card with the name of Geoffrey Viceroy, but when the detectives question him they find that Viceroy is a 70-yearold man in a wheelchair. The business card from the club was from a batch of misprinted cards, which are traced to one of Viceroy’s employees: Tim Grayson. Photos of Rachel at Grayson’s desk confirm that he had an unhealthy interest in her, and he is hauled in for questioning.

Grayson admits that he stalked Rachel but also tells an incredulous Briscoe and Green that he had a psychic vision of her lying in the alley. He offers to walk Green through the crime scene and leads him to a dumpster where he retrieves the murder weapon, a metal pipe. Meanwhile, Briscoe searches Grayson’s apartment and finds shoes matching the footprint at the crime scene.

Grayson is arrested for murder, but his lawyer, Virginia Masters, succeeds in having most of the evidence thrown out because the cops did not read him his rights. McCoy is unfazed: “All we need to make this case is Grayson’s shoeprint at the scene and testimony that he was stalking her,” he says. In court, McCoy’s tough questioning elicits a surprising confession from Grayson: “Fine! I did it!” he cries. “Are you happy now?” McCoy is astonished, but Grayson quickly recants and Masters gets psychologist Dr Skoda to testify that that Grayson’s weak personality means that he confessed just to please McCoy.

In the meantime, McCoy is distracted by a discrepancy in the testimony of Leanne Parks. She said in court that she left the club alone – yet on Rachel’s answer phone she said otherwise. Leanne admits to Southerlyn that she lied in her message to impress her friend.

However, Southerlyn then realises that the glove found at the scene is a woman’s glove, and wonders if Leanne actually left the club with Rachel. “They went to the party together – it could be that they left together,” she says. Southerlyn theorises that Leanne was attracted to Rachel, only for that attraction to lead to murder. It could be that Grayson’s ‘vision’ is actually a repressed memory of the murder –but how can they get him to remember?