Description[]
Lilly returns to her last case from before she began solving Cold Cases as she re-investigates the brutal 2003 triple homicide of a restaurant owner, his wife, and their employee. Also, the other team members has personal reasons to closing the case: Jeffries grew up in the predominantly black neighborhood and Vera was the one assigned to the case when Det. Rush left.
Synopsis[]
This episode opens on September 27, 2003 with "Still Fly" by Big Tymers playing. A young man walks through a bad part of town at night. He calls up to a fire escape for his friend Joe and tells him he's going to be late. Joe calls the man Derek. Joe gives Derek a hard time for wearing a tie. They come across a drug deal, and Derek confronts the man buying drugs. He asks him about getting clean. They are confronted by a group of men. It then pans to a restaurant and a man sees the confrontation about to happen and tells a woman, Della, "You've got trouble." She tells her husband and cook/co-owner, Tom, to call the police if she's not back in 60 seconds. Della goes outside and breaks up the confrontation as Tom and the man look on from the restaurant window. She takes Joe and Derek to the restaurant and tells Derek to get to work busing dishes.
Later, it pans to what appears to be the restaurant empty but pans through showing the stove still hot, dishes not cleaned up, the register open. It then shows Della, her husband, and Derek shot in the men's bathroom. It appears to be the first case we see Lilly at in the pilot before she decides to work on the cold case of Jill Shelby. Cut to Detective Vera rolling three boxes and putting them on the shelves labeled "Lincoln, T"; "Lincoln, D"; and a third box.
Cut to Present Day: Lilly catches up to Jeffries in the hall of the courthouse and they're discussing testifying and he mentions that Vera is testifying at the Prelim for the triple homicide. Jeffries says they finally picked up the shooter because he had been hiding out for a year. He mentions that he knew two of the victims the owners of the restaurant, Della and Tom for over 40 years. Their daughter Nora is his goddaughter. In the courtroom as Lilly and Jeffries watch on, Vera is being questioned on the stand by ADA Kite. Vera says the day after the shooting he searched the home of Squeak Mentor (the suspect) he found a key to the restaurant, $1200 cash, and a 38 caliber pistol. A woman waves to Jeffries and Lilly confirms that is Nora. Vera confirms on the stand that the 38 was the same type of gun that killed all three victims. The defense attorney tells Vera he seems awfully sure the suspect committed the murders. He says yes because he had the key, the gun, and the money. She said she has a video confirming her client was robbing a store in West Philly that night. Jeffries, Vera, Lilly, and Kite rush out to the hallway arguing about who's fault this was and why they didn't know about this. Kite walks away blaming the detectives and Jeffries tells Vera and Lilly that they can't lose this one before he leaves with Nora.
Opening Credits
Cut to Lilly, Valens, and Stillman retrieving the evidence boxes and discussing that the suspect is getting charged for the robbery but didn't do case and that they are starting from the beginning. Lilly confirms with Valens that it was her last job before moving to Cold Case and that Vera took it over. Stillman confirms that Derek Jackson worked for Della and Tom Lincoln at the restaurant they owned for 2 years before the murders. They think Della was the target because the others were shot but Della's throat was also cut. Jeffries and Lilly go to interview Nora and Vera and Valens Derek's brother.
Derek's brother, Tre, has now joined the National Guard. He has been clean from drugs since his brother's murder. Tre tells them the night of the murder, the confrontation was gang members trying to get protection money from Derek before Della broke it up. The head gang member, Sims, threatened Della because she got in his face.
Jeffries and Lilly go to the Badlands and they see how much worse it's gotten since the murders. Nora lets them into the closed down restaurant. She states no one has been in since the murders. Nora hasn't been able to reopen it. Nora tells them that night, she witnessed an altercation with her mom and a waitress, Tyra. Nora sees the murder scene for the first time and breaks down. Jeffries stays with her because she wants to clean it up herself.
Vera is adamant that the shooter is Sims. Jeffries and Lilly go to follow up with Tyra and Derek's friend Joe. Tyra and her boyfriend Jamaal tell them about a guy named Frank who did odd jobs at the restaurant. She witnessed Frank kissing Della.
Vera and Valens have a hard time finding anyone in the neighborhood to tell them where Sims is. Vera asks Valens if he is still dating Elisa, and Valens tells him no. When Vera asks him what happened, Valens simply answers that "it was time to change." A kid on a bike gives them information.
Lilly and Jeffries try to get information about Frank from Nora. They find out he once was a popular neighborhood boxer and find him in a homeless community. Della confronted Frank about throwing away his medication. He said he confused Della wanting to help him and kissed her. Frank said he would leave, but Tom said he didn't want him to; Frank just had to understand he couldn't kiss another man's wife. He told them that Della caught Tyra covering up a bruise from her boyfriend hitting her and that's what their confrontation was about.
Valens and Vera find Sims at a bar. He's now in a wheelchair. He tells them that Joe runs the gang around there now and that's why he's in a chair from being pushed out by his own crew. They threaten Sims and tell him he's going to go down for the murders because of the confrontation he had with Derek and Della. He starts to tell them about seeing Joe the morning after the murders.
Flashback the morning after, we see Lilly arriving at the scene. Joe wants to talk to her, but she tells him to talk to the lead detective on the case, Vera. Sims confronts Joe after Lilly leaves and tells him to roll with him. Joe tells Sims he's not scared of him and insinuates he was the one that committed the murders, and Sims should be scared of him. Present Day, Sims tells them that Joe took over his crew. Vera and Valens tell them he needs to come forward or he's going to go down for the crime.
Back at the station, Stillman tells them originally forensics excluded the victims' prints from the scene but this time they didn't, and notice that Derek's prints are all over Tom and Della's shoes, like he was the one dragging their bodies. They now think it was an inside job gone bad.
Valens and Vera interrogate Joe. They tell him they found Derek's prints all over Della and Tom's feet and ask him what happened. Joe tells them at the time of the murders, he was getting beaten by his mom's boyfriend and had nine stitches at the hospital. They ask him why he confessed to the murders to Sims. Joe admits it was so all the gang members would think he was hard.
Tyra comes in because of a bench warrant. Lilly tells her she really wanted to talk to her about her boyfriend, Jamaal. Tyra denies him hitting her. Lilly tells Tyra she knows that is why Tyra and Della were fighting that day. Jamaal didn't know Della told Tyra to leave him. In a flashback to that night, Derek flirts with Tyra and tells her she deserves someone who treats her right. Jamaal saw them that night. Tyra tells Lilly she really doesn't know if Jamaal killed them but he didn't come home that night. Lilly writes her number on a card for a women's shelter, giving it to Tyra for her safety, and asks where Jamaal is.
Kite sees Lilly and Valens. Lilly and Kite talk alone she tells them they are getting close to finding the real killer. He asks Lilly if she regrets them being together. She says no, he says he doesn't either. He tries to ask her out again and she walks away.
Valens and Lilly go to talk to Jamaal. He tells them that Tyra wouldn't leave him. He denies committing the murders but he roughed up Derek that night for flirting with Tyra. In a flashback, Tre comes around and throws bottles at Jamaal to break it up, and Della and Tom come out and run him off. Jamaal gives them an alibi that he was with another girl. Lilly gets a call that Sims was gunned down.
Cut to Jeffries and Vera in the interrogation room with Joe about the shooting. He said it wasn't him, he said anyone would've done it because Sims was talking to the cops. Vera walks out. Jeffries tells him he grew up in the badlands and still came out good. Joe tells him that night after Della ran off Jamaal, she tells Tre that he needs to cleaned up for Derek. They get into a fight. She sends Joe and Tre away. Della and Derek go back into the restaurant and that's the last time Joe saw them alive.
Vera and Jeffries get into a fight about Vera messing up the case in the first place, he says it was probably due to Vera's marriage problems at the time.
Valens and Lilly confront Tre at a shooting range. They confront him about not telling them previously about seeing Derek again that night. He tells them Derek let him in the restaurant to eat some leftover food and Derek catches him stealing him from the register. They get into a fight and Tom comes out. Tre pulls out a gun and shoots Tom. Della comes out and he shoots her too. Derek is freaking out and wants to call an ambulance. He tells Derek to help him. Derek pulls them into the bathroom and says What did you do this is my family. Tre freaks out and tells him he's his family. Derek says Della is still alive and Tre slits Della's throat. Derek says he's calling the cops. Derek tells Tre he loves him and Tre shoots Derek.
"If I ain't got you" by Alicia Keys plays.
Valens and Lilly walk Tre out in cuffs. Cut to Jeffries and Valens in the interrogation room with Joe. At her apartment, Tyra looks at the card Lilly gave her and hides it from Jamaal. Nora gives Frank a cook outfit, ready to reopen the restaurant. Vera is at a bar drinking with women who aren't his wife. Cut to Della's opening back up and everyone celebrating. Jeffries and Lilly arrive, and he hugs Nora. Lilly looks over and "sees" Derek behind the bar, then he disappears and it shows a new boy who now has his job. Cut to a flashback of Jeffries as a young cop holding a young Nora with a younger Tom and Della, celebrating an occasion at the restaurant. Present Day, Jeffries turns around and "sees" Della and Tom, and they smile at each other.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Kathryn Morris as Lilly Rush
- Danny Pino as Scotty Valens
- John Finn as John Stillman
- Jeremy Ratchford as Nick Vera
- Thom Barry as Will Jeffries
Guest Cast[]
- Josh Hopkins as ADA Jason Kite
- Vicellous Shannon as Joel Moore
- Tangi Miller as Nora Lincoln
- Jesse D. Goins as Frank Morgan
- Indigo as Tyra
- Dempsey Pappion as Tre Jackson
- Harold Sylvester as Tom Lincoln
- Aloma Wright as Della Lincoln
And[]
Co-Starring[]
- Nathan Corbett as Kid
- Aaron Grady as Teenage Boy
- Kinga Philipps as Ann Walters
- Dex Elliot Sanders as Jammal
- Franklin Ojeda Smith as Old Man
- Faruq Tauheed as J.T. Simms
- Unknown actor as Squeek Minter
Notes[]
- The triple homicide seen in this episode was first investigated by Lilly, Vera, and Chris Lassing, at the start of the pilot episode "Look Again". The date of the murder was given as September 27, 2003, which put the detectives investigating the scene on the following morning of September 28. September 28, 2003 was the initial CBS airdate for "Look Again".
- This marks the last appearance, to date, of ADA Kite, although his voice is heard when Lilly leaves him a phone message in "Beautiful Little Fool".
Music[]
- Big Tymers "Still Fly"
- Shuggie Otis "Strawberry Letter 23"
- Groove Armada "Hands Of Time"
- Soul Hooligan "Soul Searching"
- Ashanti "Foolish"
- Master Source "Mine For The Takin"
- Closing Song: Alicia Keys "If I Ain't Got You"
