The Mysteries of Laura Episode 1.21 The Mystery of the Deceased Documentarian

A bike messenger rides through a New York alley, skidding to a stop in front of a vacant storefront. He peers through the dusty windows, but whatever or whoever he's looking for isn't inside. Suddenly, a gunshot rings out and he's dead on the pavement with a bullet in his chest. Laura, Billy and Reynaldo quickly arrive at the crime scene, where they find no form of ID; all they have is a shell casing, a murse (man purse) and an envelope with the name Quinn and a phone number scribbled on it. Inside the envelope - about $500 worth of ADHD pills. Maybe the bike messenger was actually a drug messenger?

Back at the precinct, Max and Laura work on an even more important investigation - Operation Find Laura an Affordable Beach Rental. As Max shows Laura her options, Jake steps in, a bit surprised to learn Laura's boyfriend Tony will be going on the trip. Laura claims she's just following Jake's lead - getting the kids to know her new significant other. All talk of summer plans stops when Meredith announces she has Quinn's location. Billy and Laura hustle to 8th Avenue, where a bleeding crazy man is waving a knife around, causing trouble for some EMTs. But instead of arresting the crazy man, Laura arrests the EMT with the nametag "Q. Johnson"... Q for Quinn. Quinn insists he's never seen the dead bike messenger in his life. He uses the drugs so he can do his job more efficiently, and a different delivery guy brings them weekly. Now all the cops have is the victim's murse. Inside there's a next-in-line ticket, a list of traffic school websites, an Allen wrench, a cloth for polishing silver - basically a bunch of crap. The kind of crap you would pay someone to deal with... the bike messenger must have been some kind of personal assistant? Meredith looks more closely at a tracking device that was also in the murse. It has a very distinctive "G" on it - the victim was an employee of Gofer Star, a website where people post odd jobs and freelance employees, or Gofers, accept the tasks. After contacting Gofer Star, the detectives have the victim's name: Thomas Colvin.

Billy and Laura inspect Thomas' apartment, where they find a wall covered with crime scene photos and articles, dedicated to the unsolved 2001 murder of Raquel Rivera, killed outside her high school prom. Thomas' computer is missing, but there's no sign of forced entry. The killer must have taken the keys right off his dead body and stolen the laptop. Laura finds a stack of rejection letters from film festivals for Thomas' movie "Prom Murder," along with a flyer for today's local screening. Jake and Laura head to the screening, which ends with Thomas telling the audience that Raquel's brother Oliver killed her. Oliver isn't at the screening, but Jake and Laura question everyone who is - Ethan Skinner, Raquel's high school boyfriend, explains Raquel never met him at their prom. He didn't want to be interviewed for Thomas' film because it seemed too painful. Ethan's best friend, Drew, says Raquel's friends always assumed a thief killed her, because her earrings were yanked out of her ears. Raquel's best friend Brianna explains that Raquel made the earrings herself, along with a matching necklace for Brianna. Prom was supposed to be a big night for Raquel and Brianna - they made a pact to lose their virginities to their boyfriends after the dance. KC Moss, a pushy, self-proclaimed journalist who's trying to get interviews for her radio show devoted to Raquel's murder, interrupts. When Laura threatens to lock her up for impeding the investigation, KC says, "Just call me when you need my help," and hands over her business card.

At the office, Laura asks Jake to sign a form to transfer Raquel's cold case over to the 2nd Precinct. Jake refuses. Laura can review the file, but she's not to take the cold case squad's 15-year-old baggage. Laura's just going to have to sign for him... Meanwhile, Meredith and Frankie stake out Oliver's house, which has a foreclosure notice taped to the door. Suddenly a car pulls up, and a hooded person creeps into the front yard... and it's KC, again stepping on the cops' toes. Frankie and Meredith threaten to arrest her for obstruction of justice if she doesn't disappear right away, so KC snaps a few photos and mentions "police cover-up." As soon as she leaves, Frankie shows Meredith a paver that's slightly higher than the rest. Underneath the concrete lies a nine-millimeter Glock 19, which, it turns out, is the same gun used to kill Thomas.

After receiving the files Jake asked her not to request (whoops), Laura delves into Raquel's case. Laura finds an old photo of Raquel and Oliver in front of their mom's old flower shop. She looks closely at the picture, suddenly realizing the vacant building Thomas was killed in front of was, once upon a time, the flower shop. That must be where Oliver is! Laura, Billy and a team of armed officers swarm into the flower shop, and it isn't long before they find Oliver... hanging from a noose, dead. Oliver must have shot Thomas to prevent the film from being screened, but since the movie had already been delivered, Oliver couldn't hide anymore, so he killed himself. There's no suicide note, but Raquel's prom earrings are found in Oliver's pocket. Case closed? Not quite... Reynaldo confirms - Oliver was strangled before he was hung. The earrings were put in his pocket to frame him for Raquel's murder, and the gun was placed at his house to frame him for Thomas' murder.

Next step... find out who bought the flower shop. Answer: Drew. In the interrogation room, Drew insists it was a good business deal, but as Jake learns, there's more to it. Drew is pictured next to Raquel in every picture in their high school yearbook - he was in love with his best friend's girl. That's when Laura comes in with the lab results - the fingerprints found in the flower shop aren't Drew's, or anyone else's in the system. Laura notices a familiar face in the open notebook - a girl named Katherine Claire Mossler, aka KC. They run the fingerprints on the business card KC gave Laura, and it's a match. At KC's apartment, which is set up with the finest radio equipment, Laura lays it out: KC has been obsessed with Raquel since high school. KC fires back, insisting she didn't kill Raquel! She was the only one who protected KC from local bullies. Raquel was involved in a drug deal the day before prom, so KC posted about it on SleuthItOut.com years later. KC's alibis check out during the time of Oliver's killing, so Laura gives her a stern warning: stop digging, and leave the investigating to the detectives. With no more suspects on her radar, Laura goes back to the drawing board. She finds an email Thomas sent KC the night before he was killed - "Screening starts at 6:00 sharp, and by 7:31, everyone will know who killed Raquel." Except the version of the movie Laura watched is only an hour and 29 minutes, which means two minutes of the film are missing.

Dressed as a movie star and a security guard, Laura and Billy sneak into the Tribeca Film Festival, trying to find an unedited version of Thomas' film. After searching through 10,000 rejected films, Billy finds "Prom Murder." In the missing scene, Thomas tries to interview Ethan as he hurries to the car with his wife - who's wearing the earrings Raquel made for prom. Ethan's wife confirms she found them in his sock drawer and assumed they were a gift for her. She texts Ethan a picture of the earrings, so he'll know she found them when he turns on his phone when he's done with his live interview... with KC. Laura sends Billy and Frankie to KC's apartment right away, then calls into KC's radio show. As Laura asks Ethan questions, KC spies a fax from Laura - Ethan is the killer, don't let him see his phone. Spying the photo of the earrings on Ethan's phone, KC does the exact opposite and accuses Ethan of murder on the air. Ethan gets his hands around KC's neck and starts squeezing, just as Billy and Frankie burst through the door, guns raised. Back at the station, Laura tells KC that once he learned Raquel was in fact not a virgin, Ethan snapped and killed her.

Jake notices a family picture the twins made on Laura's desk, and assumes it's a drawing of the four of them. When he sees Tony's name next to the man, his spirit crumbles. "That used to be me," he says. Laura assures Jake he'll always be the twins' dad. Feeling bummed, Jake heads to Calligan's for a drink, where Frankie suggests the perfect boost: a Zinger - it's like Twinkie mixed with a SnoBall! Deciding to give it a shot, Jake stops by a liquor store. While he's looking for the Zingers, a masked gunman enters and points his gun at the cashier. Jake draws his gun and slowly edges down the aisle, but when an innocent girl walks in the store and screams, Jake exposes himself to push her out of the way. The gunman fires, hitting Jake smack in the chest...