The Mysteries of Laura Episode 1.03 The Mystery of the Biker Bar

Laura jolts awake to the sound of breaking glass. She grabs her gun to investigate, only to find the twins aiming their new slingshots, presents from Jake, at each other. Moments later the doorbell rings, and Laura's angry neighbor Ned brandishes a baseball, demanding payment for his broken window. Laura puts on her cop hat to defend her boys, claiming they don't own a baseball. Fearing the wrath of their mother, the boys take sanctuary in a blanket fort, their so-called "safety zone." Laura's day off is off to a rotten start as the phone rings, calling her down to the wharf, where her card was found in the overstuffed pockets of a murder victim. Laura quickly recognizes the dead man as old friend Jerry Patch, patron saint of Manhattan's downtrodden, and owner of Jeremy's Tavern, Laura and Jakes' go-to bar during their days in the police academy. Laura vows to find Jerry's killer - this one is personal. When Jake shows up at the murder scene, he makes straight for Laura's arms. If it weren't for Jerry, they never would have married.

Jake and Laura proceed to Jerry's bar to interview his devastated widow Ruby, who claims they've had an anonymous code bomber, who keeps calling in complaints to the city. And there's Eddie, a homeless guy Jerry befriended, who recently went off his meds. Laura and Billy find Eddie camped out under the FDR in the midst of a paranoid episode. When he pulls out a gun, they bring him down to the station, where he keeps repeating "Birdman is watching." After Laura dispatches Max to spy on her new babysitter Sammi, she ushers Eddie inside a blanket fort - it's their safety zone. She soothes him with the story of how she met Jerry, who accepted her for who she was. Eddie can relate, but he insists evil Codename Birdman hated Jerry - and was always spying on him. After dropping Eddie at Bellevue, Laura tells Jake her gut instinct: Eddie's not the shooter. Plopping the baseball on his desk, Jake wants to know her gut on this piece of evidence. Ned has a long list of grievances against the twins, so Jake wrote him a check.

After doing some research, Meredith finds the code bomber, whose email address tracks to a bird-watching blog hosted by Cyrus Speeler - who lives across the street from Jerry's bar! Despite her distaste for the anal aviculturalist, Laura turns on the charm when she realizes he's kept a dated, time-stamped record of all Jerry's offenses, which she takes back to the precinct. It's not long before she discovers Cyrus called 911 to report a screaming argument outside the bar last week. Meredith pulls up the recording, which Jake plays for Ruby, who identifies fired waitress Faith McGowan's voice. After dispatching Max to spy on Sammi yet again, Laura and Billy corner Faith at her new job at a Brooklyn biker bar. While Faith admits she threatened Jerry because he caught her stealing, she certainly didn't kill him. Laura senses Faith is covering for a bad boyfriend, whom she spies across the room. When the dude bolts out of the bar, Billy runs after him, only to take a chain to the face. Laura quickly enlists the help of a biker to chase Faith's boyfriend, who crashes after narrowly missing a bus. Jake visits the boyfriend in the hospital to force an alibi - the guy was boosting a Range Rover in New Jersey, so he's off the suspect list.

Getting dressed for Jerry's wake, Laura dons spanx and enlists the help of the twins to jam into her old biker bar gear. Once a size six, always a size six! When the twins remark that she looks sexy, Laura blanches at Jake's bad influence. Speaking of which, the twins will each pay for half the cost of Ned's window. They try to con her into paying half too, prompting Laura to explain there's no such thing as three halves. They're about to leave when Sammi stomps in. She's sick of Laura's distrust, so she's quitting! With no babysitter, Laura's forced to bring the kids to the wake, where she's surprised to spy corporate honcho Lloyd Kramer toasting Jerry. She's more surprised to hear Ruby's thinking of shutting the bar and moving to Florida, and even more surprised to see Eddie, who's back on his meds. Ever the mom, Laura adjusts his suit, one of Jerry's hand-me-downs, the pockets still stuffed with Jerry's junk. Laura asks Eddie to empty the pockets, perking up when she finds a bar napkin scrawled with the name of infamous loan shark Flaco Navarro.

Billy visits his fellow Cuban Flaco to learn Jerry recently paid off his debt of $10,000 in cash plus interest, claiming he found a silent partner, a rich yuppie. Ruby claims ignorance, so Laura turns to Cyrus' log of complaints to find a limo parked in front of a hydrant, license plate XPD 465 - a limo owned by Lloyd Kramer! Max points out that billionaire Kramer is singularly responsible for developing lower Manhattan, replacing places like Jerry's bar with skyscrapers. So why would Kramer kill Jerry? Laura explains that since developers can only build one skyscraper on every block, they need to buy air rights from the other properties to ensure they don't build up. Air rights are now way more expensive than the price of the buildings below them.

Of course, Jerry would never give up his air rights, so Laura decides to confront Kramer in his limo. She checked with the city; Kramer filed a partnership agreement stating he bought half Jerry's air rights for $10,000 - a con, since they're worth so much more. Kramer claims Jerry wasn't interested initially, then sold half his air rights to settle his debt with Flaco. Regardless, only half the air rights are worth nothing - and now Jerry's half is part of his estate. Realizing there's no such thing as three halves, Laura proceeds to Jerry's bar to arrest Ruby for the murder of her husband. Ruby admits generous Jerry would have given away everything they owned, leaving her with nothing after 30 years of blood, sweat and tears. Back at the precinct, Laura and Jake mourn the sad end to the case and the loss of two dear friends, Jerry and Ruby. Just then, Sammi stops by to pick up her pay. Playing hardball, Laura hands her a check for six months in advance. Over time, Laura will learn to trust Sammi implicitly - but for now, could she just cut a mother some slack?