Life Episode 2.09 Badge Bunny

Drug dealer Felix Bana lies shot dead downtown. Yards away, Kendall Shay is dead of three gunshots to her back. White powder rings her nose and she reeks of tequila. Her sweatshirt reads, "Potter Elementary," a school far from the seedy crime scene. Crews talks to Justin, Felix's supplier. Justin is more worried about his cat Fluffy, who's at the vet, than Crews asking why a schoolteacher was shot. At the school where Kendall taught, Reese talks to Heidi, Kendall's friend and coworker. Heidi says Kendall didn't do drugs and never mentioned Felix. Reese asks if she might have partied with a boyfriend. Uncomfortable, Heidi says Kendall didn't date much.

At the station, Tidwell, Crews and Reese examine the contents of Kendall's desk. Crews finds a bunch of five-digit numbers in her address book and writes them on the board. Reese spoke to Kendall's parents, who said their daughter was at a very happy place in her life. Tidwell asks Reese if she tells her parents everything. Point taken. Tidwell looks at the board and recognizes the numbers as LAPD badge numbers. Next to them are grades. Looks like Kendall was a cop groupie, or "badge bunny," as Tidwell calls it. Tidwell, aware of the potential for an internal mess, warns everyone to question the cops with caution.

After matching six cops to the badge numbers, they head to the Lucky 7, a cop bar where they're holding a wake for Kendall. On their way out, Stark tells Crews he didn't know Kendall, but to let him know if his name comes up. At the Lucky 7, Crews is a hit with the badge bunnies while Reese is mistaken for one. Crews discreetly approaches the bartender about ID-ing the men on his list. Alex, a cop, overhears and snatches the list from Crews, offering help. He stands on the chair and tells Kendall's friends to go to a back room to help Crews and Reese with their investigation. Several cops head to the back room.

Five men stand in the back room along with Alex. All say that Kendall didn't do drugs, and they all want to help find the killer. Crews asks where is the sixth man, Sean Graham. All the cops look at Alex. Alex says Sean is upstairs. Sean is lying in a woman's lap, her face obscured by her hair. Crews wants to ask Sean some questions and suggests doing it alone. Sean says it's okay, that the woman was Kendall's friend too. She looks up and they see it's Heidi.

Sean says he'd been dating Kendall for four months. Yesterday, they fought about him still wearing his wedding ring even though he's separated, and Kendall scratched him. He says forensics should find his skin under her nails. He admits to sex and drinking that night, but no drugs. After the fight, Sean says he slept at the Lucky 7. Meanwhile, Reese questions Heidi, who says she held back information fearing they'd suspect Sean. She says she was seeing Sean "a little" but not like Kendall, who wanted marriage. Heidi says Kendall didn't mind her seeing Sean and that she was home alone the night of the murder.

In his business school classroom, Ted is down from only three students to just one, Maya, who tells him that Vairam went back to India to marry a rich bride, and Ed is in the hospital, having been beaten up during the earthquake for selling water at fifty dollars a bottle. Olivia surprises him in his classroom. Ted says he called her nine times and she didn't call him back. She apologizes, and asks why there's only one person in his class. Ted says Maya's enrolled, and if you aren't enrolled you have to leave. Hurt, Olivia looks at him, and then leaves.

Crews visits Diane, Sean's estranged wife, who says that while she and Sean had problems, Sean didn't cheat on her while they were together. When asked, Diane admits that Sean hit her once when he had a tough day on the job, but never again. She asks Crews if she's a suspect. Crews tells her she knows the answer to that. Last night at the time of the murder, Diane says she was at dinner party at her sister's house.

Reese talks to the badge bunnies at softball practice to ask about Heidi and Kendall. Marie says they only date cops, living and breathing law enforcement. She tells Reese if she's looking at Heidi she'll want to establish means, motive and opportunity. When asked, Marie says that Kendall and Heidi didn't fight over Sean. They all loved Sean like a dog. Reese asks Marie if Heidi knows how to use a gun. She says they all do. She offers Reese a beer. Reese looks longingly at it and refuses, saying she's working.At the shooting range, Tidwell wants to know about Reese being at the bar. Reese curtly asks if he's her sponsor. Tidwell says no, he's her friend. Meanwhile, Crews invites badge bunnies Cathy, Marie and Kristie over to his mansion. He asks if they can tell the good cops from the bad. They can, by taste. All three kiss Charlie and determine he's a good cop. Then they strip naked and get into the pool. Ted is bemused, but Starks comes over and yells at Cathy -- who he reveals as his sister -- to get dressed and go home.

Just as Tidwell and Reese start to kiss at the gun range, both of their cell phones go off. They meet Crews and Starks at the drug dealer's house. A tip came in that the gun that shot Kendall and Felix is there. Crews asks Reese if she and Tidwell drove there together and they deny it. Reese asks about the glitter on Crew's face. Crews says it came from Starks' sister. They draw weapons, and Crews notices Reese is holding Tidwell's gun and vice versa. They switch, saying nothing. Inside, the three stop short when they meet Fluffy, a full-grown Bengal tiger.

They find the gun, which has burnt skin and fabric on the muzzle, in Justin's garage. Justin says he's being framed because there's a dead badge bunny and they want someone to pay for it. They cuff Justin and bring him outside, where Sean, Alex, Steve, and a gang of cops stand waiting. Sean wants Crews to let them take him in, but Crews won't do it. There's a tense standoff, and Sean even puts his hand on his gun. Crews warns him that it's all over if he draws on him, and reminds him that he's a cop. Alex calls him off, and the gang leaves.

At school, Ted walks to his class and sees Olivia outside, smiling. He opens his door to a full classroom. Ted knows Olivia did it, and asks how. She told the guys that Ted killed a guy in prison with his bare hands. Ted asks what she told the girls, and she whispers in his ear. Olivia says she's getting married in a month and really wants Ted to be there. Ted nods.

At the station, Crews and Reese look at photos of Kendall and Sean and try to solve the puzzle. They focus on Sean, who was ready to end it all at Justin's house. They get a warrant to test him for cocaine to see if he was lying about doing drugs with Kendall. At the Lucky 7, Alex looks at the warrant and says he hasn't seen Sean. He wants them to just charge Justin. As he talks, Reese notices something and whispers to Crews. Reese pours sugar on the table and makes cocaine lines with it. Crews says Reese used to use and can tell who is using. Alex becomes angered and leaves.

Back at the station, as the badge bunnies wait in a conference room, Tidwell just doesn't want to believe that Alex is a bad cop. Crews tells Heidi, Diane, Marie, Cathy and Kristie that they're looking at Alex, Sean's partner, and want to know if any of them saw Alex do drugs. Diane is hostile toward Heidi, and then looks down when they discuss Alex. Alone, Diane admits to them that when she was having marriage trouble with Sean, Alex took her to Stubbs, a rough bar that looked like a drug place. She didn't want to be there so she left.

Downtown, Reese and Crews talk to the Stubbs bartender while he walks to work -- he says he's "going green." They show him Alex and Kendall's pictures and at first he denies knowing them, until they threaten to throw him in lockup on a Friday, which means a weekend in jail. He admits they come in the bar; Alex, who likes to be called "boss," comes in several times a week, and Kendall was in last week. Kendall was crying to Alex about breaking up with her boyfriend. He says Alex convinced her to go into the bathroom with him. The bartender kicked Alex out of the bar when he ran out of cash.

They worry the bartender won't make a good witness against a career cop, so they go looking for better ones. At Lucky 7, the cops are throwing a "Goodbye Justin" party. Crews unnerves Alex when he calls him "boss." They confront him in front of Sean about taking Diane and Kendall to Stubbs and being a cokehead. They accuse him of killing Felix for his coke when he ran out of cash, and then shooting Kendall when she ran. Alex denies it, asking Sean if this sounds like him. Sean tells them to go. Crews plugs three bullets into the wall. Every cop in the place draws their off-duty gun on Crews.

Crews points out the bullet holes in the wall to the group and notes it's a tight cluster, the way a cop is trained to shoot... and just like the pattern on Kendall's back. Sean looks at Alex, who hasn't drawn a gun, and asks him where his off-duty piece is. Reese holds up the murder weapon in a plastic evidence bag and says, "Here it is." Sean takes a long hard look at it as Alex pleads with him to tell them that's not his gun. Sean moves his gun from Crews and points it at Alex. The other cops holster their weapons.

Mickey Rayborn exits a swank club and gets in his car. He tells "Fin" to take him home, then realizes it's not Fin, but Crews driving the car. Crews drives Rayborn down a dark alley and tells him he has a photo of him from Jim Dunn's funeral, which he thinks connects him to Jack Reese, the Bank of Los Angeles shootout, Crews' murdered friends, the missing money, and his 12-year stint in jail. Rayborn accuses Crews of kidnapping him. Crews says they're just two guys talking. Rayborn smugly says he misunderstands him: "This, Detective, is a kidnapping," just as a man smashes in the driver's side window with a tire iron.