Directed by Richard Dobbs
Written by Michael S Chernuchin
Two pre-teen boys shoplift from a corner store and the owner chases them. They hide out in a vacant lot and find a woman's skeleton. The corpse is missing one arm, and the autopsy shows that the woman was beaten to death around a year ago. Green and Briscoe trace a $40,000 diamond ring on the corpse's finger to its owner Kelly Sommers - who's believed to have died in the 9/11 attacks. However, only her arm was ever found in the wreckage. None of the survivors from Kelly's company can verify she came to work that day.
Briscoe and Green discover Kelly was having an affair with Bradley Hagen, the son of a Senator; he bought her the ring. But she broke up with him on the evening of 9/10. With evidence that Hagen has threatened other women who turned him down, he is arrested. This makes the case political because his father is a rival of Branch. At trial, the defence questions Kelly's fiancé Donald Hausman. He testifies that Kelly's bag, which was found in the Twin Towers, was the same one she used at work every day. Southerlyn knows that can't be true - it's an evening bag.
McCoy and Southerlyn confront Hausman with evidence of his hacking into Kelly's emails, and reading her correspondence with Hagen. The DAs also prove that Hausman lied about donating the insurance settlement from Kelly's death to charity. Instead, he spent it on an engagement ring for his new girlfriend. He confesses, and Branch is relieved to be back in favor with the Hagen family.
Examples:
- An Arm and a Leg: After Donald beat Kelly to death over her affair, he then cuts off her arm and places it in the rubble of the World Trade Center collapse.
- Affectionate Nickname: Kelly's nickname for Donald was "Boo-Boo". It also turns out to be the password to his computer where he had access to Kelly's email.
- Chekhov's Gun: There were at least three examples:
- The first is listed underneath Affectionate Nickname.
- The ring found on Kelly's body, an expensive and custom made ruby ring, was given to her by her lover, a wealthy and well-connected lawyer. This ultimately led to her murder.
- Also, Kelly's purse that went missing with her when she was killed in the attacks was still in police custody. At the trial, it was a satin purse which contained make-up and her driver's license. But both detectives and Serena realized that this was a mistake; if she had died in the morning, she would have been carrying things you take to work like a datebook and a Palm Pilot. Said leather purse was located in her sister's closet earlier in the episode.
- Contrived Coincidence: Kelly was murdered less than 24 hours before the building where she worked was destroyed in a terrorist attack, with nearly no chance for anyone that high up to survive.
- A Deadly Affair: Kelly winds up dead once her fiancé, Donald, discovers her cheating.
- Did Not Die That Way: Kelly didn't die as a result of a plane crashing into a tower, she was murdered by her fiancé.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title can refer both to the ring Hagen bought for Kelly (which enables the detectives to trace her), and the ring Donald Hausman bought for his new fiancée (which helps prove his guilt.)
- Everyone Has Standards: The ruling judge angrily forbade the defense attorney from using a gruesome picture of Kelly's severed arm as evidence.
- Insurance Fraud: While the direct recipients of the insurance money over Kelly's apparent death in the Twin Towers were handling the situation in good faith, they gave the entire payment to her fiancé. He, in turn, was aware of the real circumstances of her death, yet was willing to accept the money.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Having murdered Kelly, and the biggest terrorism attack destroying the building where she worked, the murderer left her arm in the vicinity of the tower's remains. Given the nature of this attack, only one arm being found was not unlike many actual victims; to anyone but the killer, it appeared that she was just st one more victim of this terrorism attack.
- Lifesaving Misfortune: Stewart Fells worked on the 89th floor of one of the Twin Towers, but was at the dentist on the morning of 9/11.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The two boys in Hell's Kitchen stealing some snack cakes from a corner store run away from the shopkeeper, hide out in a vacant lot and uncover the skeleton of Kelly Sommers.
- Oh, Crap!: Donald's new fiancée, Leah, has this reaction upon learning that her engagement ring was paid for with the settlement money that Donald got from Kelly's death, money that he claimed to have given to a fireman's relief fund and money that he was never supposed to have in the first place since Kelly was murdered by him on September 10th and he threw her severed arm in the rubble of the Trade Center collapse. Learning this news made her give out a small "oh my God", take the ring off and run out of the room.note
- Ripped from the Headlines: The episode is loosely based off the 1996 murder of Anne Marie Fahey, who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, wealthy Delaware attorney Tom Capano (much like season 11's "Ego").
