Chester Needs A New Hobby

S09E19

Cut to later, with the whole team giving a rundown of the cold case behind all this: The discovery of the abandoned body of a 14-year-old rape/murder victim named Alisa Hernandez, last seen leaving school with BFF Cecilia Cruz, who claimed they split up before any raping or murdering occurred. Fielding thinks Cecilia was lying, and more to the point, she suspects Kralik of being Alisa's rapist and killer. Munch declares that if they can prove Kralik did it, Chester's off the hook. Seems like kind of a leap, but we've got a lot to get through in this hour.

Munch follows a uniform through an evidence warehouse to a ten-year-old rape kit. It's in less than mint condition, and it already has two pending requests logged, the requestors being none other than Chester and Detective Kralik. Suffice to say that Munch pulls rank -- Cragen's rank, to be exact -- and leaves with the sample.

Fin meets Fielding in a diner so she can offer her help, provided Fin can get her the ballistics data and that fancy 3-D scan of the crime scene. Fin tells her they've got that covered, but she's not convinced that'll be enough to clear Chester in time, or indeed at all. She senses Fin's irritation with Chester for being so secretive, but when Fin asks her for a possible contact, she names his ex-partner, Wesley Meadows.

Olivia and Elliot are the ones who catch up with Meadows, a dapper fellow who agrees with Fielding that Cecilia Cruz was full of it, and was likely raped as well on the day of Alisa's murder. Not that they could prove it. But at least he gives them a lead to finding the dead girl's father.

Which they do, and he's pretty bitter about losing his family, though when they tell him that Chester might have solved the case, he perks up. Still, he doesn't believe that Cecilia was holding out on them, until Olivia says Cecilia was raped too. A surprised Hernandez wonders why Chester didn't mention this when he called him last night, asking to talk to Cecilia. Oops. Olivia and Elliot follow Hernandez's directions to a clothing design shop downtown, only to find out that Chester took her out of there the night before, leaving a fair amount of his blood behind on the floor. On their way out, Elliot sums it up: "She's now his hostage."

After the break, Olivia, Elliot, Cragen, and Fin all conference tensely into the squad room, sniping at each other. They really need an interesting clue to distract them and calm things down. Fortunately, right on schedule, Munch is waiting there with a big video display and a ballistics guy. They report, among other things, that there was a third shooter on the scene who also had a police-issued weapon. Replaying the scene, the ballistics guy demonstrates how Chester's first two shots spun Kralik and the last three hit him in the back as he was falling, which proves that Chester didn't open fire on Kralik's back. Chester then fired in the direction of the unknown shooter, who left no evidence behind other than two bullet holes clear through Chester's arm and leg. This prompts the group to theorize that Chester took Cecelia in order to protect her from the unknown shooter. So who's the third shooter? Olivia and Elliott decide to visit Kralik's widow to ask if her dead husband had any friends on the force who might be rapist/murderers/attempted cop killers like Kralik.

Fin is the one to show up in Chester's hospital room to try and talk him into giving his statement. But Chester's still not in a sharing mood, though he's a bit more flippant than he was when Elliot questioned him. Fin warns Chester to talk before he goes down for murder.

At the morgue, Warner's uncovered some pretty damning evidence from Kralik's corpse: In addition to two fatal shots, Kralik took three non-fatal bullets in the back -- all five of them from Chester's gun. Elliot's practically ready to arrest Chester himself.

Fin's found a cold case folder in Chester's desk which clarifies that first scene with Chester and Fielding. The witness she referred to in the old case was a first-responder named -- wait for it -- Ed Kralik. They're still chewing on that when Fielding herself shows up in the squad room, asking after Chester. She exposits that she and Chester belong to a group of freelance cold case solvers. Just then Cragen calls Elliot and Olivia into his office, and he doesn't seem happy.

Casey's in there, too, and she's even pissier than Cragen is about Elliot questioning Chester inside the 48-hour window. After she storms out, Cragen tells them to figure out some other way to solve the case and clear Chester. "If it were anybody else he'd already be in shackles," Cragen says. Yeah, you hear that, Elliot?

Despite this, Elliot and Olivia go right back to Chester's hospital room, and discover that he's lammed it. Elliot suspects Fin of warning Chester that they were on their way, and decides on the spot to dump Fin's phone records: "Who else would have told him we were coming?" he grumbles to Olivia, who's more concerned with finding Chester. As always, his trust in his squad mates is inspiring.

As Elliot and Olivia come back to the squad room to report that Chester is still on the loose, Fin gets in Elliot's face for dumping his phone records. Cragen separates them, and says that Chester's off their plate; it's up to the Fugitive Apprehension Team now. Fin thinks they'll end up killing Chester, who he insists in an innocent man. Olivia tells Fin about the damning forensic evidence Warner gave them, and Cragen sends Fin off to ballistics to a) have them run alternative scenarios and b) not get into a beat-down with Elliot. Alas, that's something I'd like to see. With that out of the way, Cragen wants the amateur Fielding out of his squad room, relenting only slightly when Elliot and Olivia argue that her connection with Chester and her knowledge of the old case means she might be able to help track Chester down.

When they arrive at her apartment, she's there with a bunch of cop friends of Kralik's -- Jensen, Crane, and Foster -- who just happen to be from the Fugitive Apprehension Team. There's some predictable tension, especially when Elliot asks the other cops whether they were close with Kralik in the past, employing his usual finesse (that being naked suspicion). That gets them kicked out of the apartment by the three cop friends.

Leaving the apartment, Elliot bitches about Chester not trusting them, and Olivia reminds him that dumping Fin's phone wasn't exactly a trusting move on Elliot's part, and that he needs to make it right. Yeah, Elliot. Take Fin out for ice cream or something.

Back in the squad room, the gang is discussing how to tie one of the inhospitable cops to Kralik when Munch hears from the lab that the dead girl had Kralik's DNA under her fingernails. So there you go. Furthermore, the rape kit also had a semen sample from a second donor, although it was too degraded to identify. While they're still bummed about not being able to bust someone for that, Cragen comes in to report that Chester's hunkered down somewhere in an abandoned building.

Arriving on the scene, Olivia talks the acting SWAT lieutenant into let Fin go in and talk to his partner. He walks in and quickly finds a roughly bandaged Chester, who's got the drop on him. Cecilia is also there, wearing Chester's bulletproof vest that he must have had stashed somewhere. It's not exactly a joyful reunion, and Chester quickly realizes that he's holding a pretty shitty hand here. Even Cecilia is legally an accomplice rather than a hostage for bringing Chester the bandages that are currently dripping on the dusty floor. After Fin convinces Chester that they've followed Chester's trail and proved Kralik was guilty, Chester explains that he got a call from a guy named Jensen offering information on the Hernandez case, and then when Chester showed up at the meet, the bullets started flying. Cecilia volunteers that she can identify the face of the man who raped her. Resolved already? But it's so early in the hour.

Meanwhile, Munch is telling Cragen all about Kralik's other buddy Crane, who's had any number of complaints lodged against him. But since everyone recanted, he's still on the force, specifically the Fugitive Apprehension Team, Even more specifically, as we see, he's on the rooftop across from Chester's hideout with a sniper rifle, waiting for a shot. "Son of a bitch," Cragen breathes, as though he can see this. Fortunately, Elliot can, and he and Olivia sneak up behind Crane and take him into custody before he can fire.

Cecilia testifies in court about the day two cops offered she and Alisa a ride home, and forcibly took rides of their own. She identifies Crane, sitting at the defense table, as one of the perps. After Casey finishes getting Cecilia's testimony, the defense attorney brings up Cecilia's immigration status, over Casey's objection. Yes, Cecilia isn't exactly here legally, which I guess means she didn't' get raped after all or something.

With the credibility of Casey's witness thus brought into question by fear of scary brown people without the right papers, Casey turns to Warner to ask if the partial DNA profile can prove Crane was a match. Warner thinks so, but can't support it scientifically if the defense rebuts. Casey is not happy about this, but leaning on Warner doesn't get her anywhere.

But when Warner's on the stand, and answers Casey's question about Crane's DNA in the affirmative, Crane's attorney lets it stand. Casey and Warner share a surprised look. Well, aren't we all glad that went smoothly?

It's Chester's turn on the stand. He explains that he met with Kralik, and Kralik took a swing at him when Chester snagged Kralik's discarded cigarette butt to see if there was a DNA match with Alisa's rape kit. Chester says he then requested to have the old rape kit pulled, but before he got access to it, he was lured to a meeting by a caller identifying himself as Jensen -- even though Chester later identified the voice on the phone as belonging to Crane. On cross-examination, Chester has to admit that they didn't find the gun from the shooting in Crane's possession. Worse, the defense attorney accuses Chester of being told when he first requested the sample that the it was too degraded to make a match. Chester denies it, and she pounces. Defense demands an immediate mistrial, accusing Chester of perjury and the DA's office of conspiracy. So you know they're going to take this into chambers. Crane's defense attorney is pissed, claiming that someone told Chester that the evidence was degraded. Caught, Casey claims the lab reports aren't completed and promises to have them submitted soon. The judge goes one better and says they'll be in by the end of the day, or Casey is in contempt. Oh, and one more thing: Crane's attorney is issuing a subpoena for Penelope Fielding as a defense witness.

With Fielding on the stand, Crane's defense attorney asks her about partial DNA profiles. She says they can be helpful in certain cases, but then the defense attorney reads from an article dismissing partial profiles in identifying perps -- an article written by none other than Penelope Fielding. In the end, Fielding has to admit that she can't say for certain that the second sample was a match for Crane.

When it's time to read the verdict, the foreman reports that they're deadlocked. Casey asks for a poll, which comes back overwhelmingly not guilty. And it gets worse outside the courtroom, where it appears that Cecilia's getting deported. "Don't do anything stupid, Hector," Chester tells Cecilia's father, who leaves angrily. I don't blame him. Getting told by Chester not to do anything stupid has got to sting, especially this week. Casey lamely promises to retry Crane, but she and Chester both know it's a lost cause.

As the folks in the squad room get ready to leave for the day, Fin's off to check on Chester, who isn't answering his phone. Not to worry, Fin, Chester's a pretty steady guy. I'm sure he's just absorbed in a good book. Elliot approaches Fin to apologize. Fin recognizes how hard it was for Elliot to admit he was wrong, but concludes, "You will still be the same rat bastard tomorrow." Well, glad they cleared that up. On Munch's way out, he hands Elliot a piece of paper: It's Fin's transfer request. I think we're supposed to feel bad, but maybe an abandonment complex is just what Elliot needs to mellow him out a little bit.

Casey enters Judge Donnelly's office, where she learns that there won't be any new charges against Crane. Casey's horrified that Crane's going to skate, and Donnelly says that it's Casey's fault for lying to the other judge about the lab reports. So now Casey's being called before the bar, at Donnelly's insistence. She asks Casey why she lost perspective. "Because the bad guys can't always win," Casey whispers. "He deserved to pay." "And so do you," Donnelly says. She tells Casey she's looking at censure and possibly suspension, for a year or more. "What should I do?" Casey asks? "Something else," says Donnelly. Fortunately for Casey, her beeper goes off and she has to leave before she breaks down entirely in front of the judge.

And we end as we began: Casey joining Elliot, Olivia, Fin, and Munch at another late-night crime scene, with another dead cop, and Chester being carted off again -- this time in a police cruiser, with his hands cuffed. Yep, he took care of Crane himself. 'Kay, have a good summer, everyone!

M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.