Her Deadly Game

Keera and JP Harrison, the firm’s private investigator, meet Vince at his house. Vince walks them through what he found when he arrived home that night, as well as his discussions with the detectives. He tells them about the air conditioning being off and then shows them to the kitchen. The crime scene remains intact except for the removal of Anne’s body. Before becoming a private investigator, Harrison was a CSI detective for the Seattle Police Department, and as he examines and processes the crime scene, Keera and Vince go to Vince’s study.

Vince tells Keera that he can’t access his security camera footage because it was removed from the cloud. Keera believes that Ambrose is behind this and suggests that Vince call the security company directly. He has a legal right to the footage, and Keera realizes that this is just another example of how Ambrose is going to obstruct her. When she returns to the kitchen, Harrison shows her a burn mark on the locked oven door that the police apparently missed and remarks that the case is becoming more complicated.

Rossi watches Vince’s home security footage. He doesn’t appreciate how Ambrose is bossing them around—the prosecutor’ rude and condescending nature is the reason most of the detectives don’t like him. In addition, Rossi doesn’t like Ambrose due to how he treated Keera—although she never made their relationship public, Rossi heard the rumors and noticed how Ambrose treated her after the relationship ended. Rossi also knows that Ambrose’s handling of this case is rooted in his resentment of Keera.

On the security tape, Rossi is surprised to see a Tesla pull into LaRussa’s driveway at 6:07 pm the night of Anne’s murder. A man with a briefcase goes into the house and then emerges at 6:31 pm, talking on the phone. At 7:03 pm, a BMW arrives. A tall, blonde woman carrying a bag enters the house and then leaves at 7:29 pm. As she leaves, her driving is erratic. Because the woman didn’t call the police, Rossi assumes that Anne was still alive when the woman left. At 9:17 pm, Vince’s car pulls in, and he enters the house. At 9:34 pm, he leaves the house, talking on his phone, and paces in the driveway until the police arrive.

Rossi and Ford decide to run the two visitors’ license plates, and Ford reflects that although the murder at first appeared to be an interesting riddle, it is starting to seem more routine. It’s beginning to look like only Vince could’ve committed the murder.

Harrison tells Keera that he doesn’t believe Anne died by suicide. He takes evidence from the scene, including a scraping from the oven door burn and a sample of the water. When Keera returns to Vince’s study, he has acquired the security footage from the company and identifies the man in the Tesla as Syd Evans, Anne’s parents’ attorney. His visit is very unusual—he has never been to their house. The woman in the BMW is Dr. Lisa Bennet, Anne’s best friend. Her visit isn’t unusual—Lisa is an oncologist and is involved in Anne’s pain and mental health treatment.

Keera and Harrison decide to visit Lisa, and Vince convinces them to bring him along. When Lisa opens her door, she is clearly grief-stricken. Lisa is surprised that the police haven’t arrested Vince. When they ask why, she shows them a manila envelope containing a series of photos of Lisa and Vince at a restaurant together, holding hands. Lisa tells them that Anne gave her the photos the night before and accused them of having an affair. Keera realizes that this gives Vince the motivation to kill his wife.

That morning, Anne’s father had called Lisa and told her that Anne contacted Syd Evans about activating her prenuptial agreement. If the prenup is activated because of infidelity, Vince tells them, the cheater forfeits their share of the marital assets.

Keera changes the subject to Anne’s treatment, which Lisa claims consisted of pain management and helping her “come to terms with her condition” (101). She and Vince met that day at the restaurant to talk about Anne’s increasing dependence on opioids and mutually decided to wean her off the opioids without her knowledge. She tells them that when Anne answered the door the night of her death, Lisa immediately knew something was wrong. She tried to deny Anne’s accusations of an affair, but Anne ignored her. Eventually, Lisa left, planning to call Vince so that they could talk to Anne together.

In the car, Keera, Harrison, and Vince discuss this new information. Vince insists that he didn’t kill Anne, but Keera knows that now Ambrose can establish both motive and opportunity. It doesn’t matter that Vince and Lisa didn’t have an affair—what matters is that Anne believed it to be true. Ambrose will argue that Vince killed Anne after she confronted him about the prenup.

When they get back to Vince’s condo, he asks about planning Anne’s funeral, but they don’t know when the body will be released. Keera also knows that Ambrose will use Anne’s funeral as a media event and Vince’s attendance as evidence of his callousness. After dropping Harrison off, Keera goes for a run and then plays a few moves against the Dark Knight before getting a strange email through her work account.

At the state prosecutor’s office, Rossi and Ford update Ambrose on the investigation. As they work through the report from the medical examiner, Ambrose notices that the examiner is new, and his attention sharpens. He also notes, as Keera did, that the question of whether Vince and Lisa had an affair is moot—it only matters that Anne believed it. He focuses on the photos of Lisa and Vince, obviously taken by a private investigator, even as Rossi reminds him that they don’t know who actually hired the investigator.

As they work through the case file, Rossi sees that Ambrose is shaping a case to charge Vince, focusing on establishing Vince’s motive and opportunity. When Rossi finally objects that a “good defense attorney will […] poke holes in our theory” (112), Ambrose points out that Patsy Duggan is past his prime and Keera is inexperienced. Having seen Keera in action in the courtroom, Rossi thinks that Ambrose is underestimating her but doesn’t say anything.

Keera calls Harrison, who comes to her house. She shows him the email she received from someone named Jack Worthing, who warns her that her life might depend on how she handles Vince’s case and warns her not to trust anyone. Keera also points out that the email references her chess experience, which isn’t a well-known fact. She tells him about her online chess game with the Dark Knight, and they wonder if there is a connection.

They decide to investigate Jack but do not spend much time on it—currently, the most important thing is finding out who took the photos of Vince and Lisa. Keera shares her latest strategy with Harrison: She is not going to waive Vince’s right to a speedy trial. It is an unusual move because it means the trial will move ahead quickly, but she is hoping to catch Ambrose unprepared. She knows that moving ahead quickly will put pressure on him. She also knows that he underestimates her since he always has, and she plans to use that against him.