Directed by Christopher Misiano
Written by Kathy Mc Cormick & Lynne E Litt
Two teenage girls are found dead in an abandoned building. They are identified as Jane Kendrick and Annika Ohlman; Annika was an exchange student staying with Jane's family. Their deaths are linked to a suspect named Peter Williams. Jane's sister Laura, who had been caring for the girls, is feared to be another victim of Peter. She is found severely beaten in a hospital and says Williams was responsible. He denies harming Laura, who is in fact his girlfriend. Forensic evidence places Laura being present when Jane died, making her a key witness.
With Peter about to walk free on bail, McCoy is forced to agree a plea deal giving Laura the minimum sentence if found guilty. She gives a statement that Peter forced her to drug the girls and watch as he killed Jane and hid her body. Photos found in Peter's home show Laura herself attacking Jane and Annika along with two unidentified victims. Despite inconsistencies in Laura's story, McCoy cannot prove she is lying, and there seems to be no way out of the plea deal.
In court, Peter testifies that Laura was the one who wanted to have sex with the girls; Jane died accidentally, and Laura killed Annika to keep her quiet. Nevertheless, he is found guilty of first degree murder. With Laura thinking that she's safe from trial, McCoy lures her into admitting in front of the court how much she enjoyed raping her sister. The judge rejects the plea deal and remands Laura for trial. Her lawyer agrees to a minimum 25 years if Laura confesses who the two unidentified victims were and what happened to them. They turn out to have been runaways and were both murdered. McCoy has no way of knowing what role Laura played in their deaths, but figures she can tell the parole board her story in 25 years' time.
This episode contains examples of:
- Batman Gambit: McCoy manages to get the judge at the allocution to reject Laura's deal by getting Laura to demonstrate how depraved her acts were. When the defense attorney objects that McCoy is manipulating the judge, the judge simply responds, "well, it worked."
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Laura Kendrick.
- Deal with the Devil: What McCoy has to do to get Laura's testimony against Peter Williams.
- Death of a Child: Peter and Laura caused the death of several children, including Laura's own sister.
- Depraved Bisexual: She might not truly be bisexual, but Laura raped her own drugged-up sister and several other girls at Peter's behest.
- Everyone Has Standards: After hearing Laura's allocution, the judge flat-out refuses to accept the plea bargain McCoy offered.
- Exact Words: Laura keeps whining about how she was "afraid" of Peter and so she had to do what he said. At the end of the episode, McCoy realizes that she was afraid he would leave her, rather than being afraid of his anger.
- Loophole Abuse: McCoy couldn't go back on his agreement with Laura; instead, at her allocution, he made her give such an explicit description of what she did—by telling her that the agreement is only valid if she tells the truth—that the judge cancelled it.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Laura's parents were alive after her sister's death.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Specifically, the case of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo.
- She Knows Too Much: Peter Williams alleges Laura killed Annika to keep her from telling anyone about how Jane died.
- Sibling Incest: Laura raped her own drugged sister.
- Skewed Priorities: Laura seeming more concerned with whether police found her missing earrings than the circumstances of her sister's death makes McCoy determined to put her away for as long as possible.
- The Sociopath: Laura describing everything that Peter did to her sister and the other girls in a completely matter-of-fact manner indicates that, according to the cops and prosecutors, she's even more of this than Peter is.
