Taylor Swift adds to the mystery on ‘CSI’

Happy birthday? On Nick’s birthday, he walked out on his cake to investigate the murder of Haley Jones (Taylor Swift), a 16-year-old girl found stabbed to death in the parking lot of the motel where she lived. “I knew her,” Nick said.

365 days earlier: Nick remembered meeting Haley during a case one year ago at the same motel. The victim was Harry Steadwell, who’d hit his head on the dresser during a fall. But he wasn’t the only body. Former motel manager Dale Derney was found in the crawl space above the room. Steadwell had come to the room with some dirty money, which he stowed in the ceiling tiles. Little did he know that Derney had it rigged so that the tile would be magnetized and Steadwell wouldn’t be able to open it. Problem was, Derney couldn’t, either, so he got into the crawl space and accidentally electrocuted himself on his own contraption. When Steadwell came back, he still couldn’t open the ceiling, but he did shoot a hole through it, which caused his fall and his death.

240 days earlier: Bree Lindale was once a friend of Haley’s, but no longer. Bree had been at her bonfire birthday party, was slipped some GHB, and claimed that Haley’s father had done something to her. Mr. Jones denied it. It turned out that a boy from the party had slipped Bree the GHB, but she’d gotten away from him and simply walked back to the motel to sleep it off. Her reason for the lie about Haley's father: “I just didn’t want Haley to think I was there for a slumber party or anything,” she said. Haley’s hair was blonde in this segment and she looked a lot like Bree.

First clue: Nicole Jones, Haley’s mom, was fascinated with Bree. She reminded Nicole of her daughter Melissa, who had died as an infant. Nicole had even snuck into the party to take pictures of Bree.

177 days earlier: Haley found the body of Tanya Carrow at the motel, the victim of an apparent overdose. When Dr. Robbins showed the body to Tanya’s father, he said, “The ride up here was probably about the most time I ever spent on her. I don’t deserve any answers.” But he did leave a candle, flowers and a picture of Tanya holding a baby back at the motel. Haley took the photo.

Present-day gloom: Ray found the photo of Tanya with Haley's things and had it enlarged. Tanya had been in prison when she’d had her baby. She was in prison for killing Nicole Jones’ first daughter, Melissa. After she’d gone to jail, she offered up her own baby to the Joneses to make amends. That baby was Haley. The CSIs also realized that Tanya’s death hadn’t been an overdose after all. Nicole had given her a drink laced with meth — she’d killed the woman who killed Melissa.

One last stab at revenge: When Haley died, her hair was exactly like Tanya’s was in the photo, and that was what set Nicole off. She stabbed Haley with the scissors she was going to use to cut her hair. “I’m supposed to let the ghost of that murderer live with me?” she asked.

Kindred spirits: Nick blamed himself for Haley’s death, thinking that if he’d probed deeper into Tanya’s case, he could have stopped Nicole. Ray chided him for blaming himself. “I knew you were a fellow masochist,” he said. He told Nick that when he wanted to beat up on himself, he would go to a Web site, look up his current favorite movie and read all the negative comments that would show why he was an idiot for liking it. Ray also told Nick that he likes to get up in the middle of the night and sculpt orchids, “because it’s the only thing that will silence the voices in my head.”  He ended by saying, “Everyone keeps telling me what this job isn’t. How you feel right now tells me what it is.”

Good to hear your voice: In the Harry Steadwell case from a year ago, we got to hear Grissom wish Nick a happy birthday. We miss you, Gris!

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