Prime Suspect Episode 1.03 Bitch

It's a Tuesday night, and Jane's filling in at her dad's bar, relieved she doesn't have to attend Owen's school play with Matt and his ex-wife. One of the regulars points to a TV news story, as photos of pretty Claudia Ward play across the screen. She's gone missing, and her husband is begging for her safe return. Jane goes to serve a customer who pulls out a gun - this is a stickup! Jane empties the register with no questions asked, while the robber moves on the patrons, ordering them to empty their pockets. Without a gun, Jane tells Des that they need to keep the guy calm in case he has a partner outside. The robber herds everyone into the bathroom, then takes off. The regulars turn on Jane - thank god there was a cop in the bar.

Two hours later, the bar's full of cops. Jane isn't happy to see Detective Carolina Rivera working the room - and apparently her fellow male cops, who are falling over themselves to bring her multiple lattes. To add insult to injury, Carolina wants to question Jane by the book, regardless of the fact that they're both detectives. It's dawn before Jane leaves the bar, hoping to catch a couple of hours of sleep before her shift. Her phone rings - no dice. Time to go to the Staten Island dump to meet Calderon and investigate a dumped corpse. The missing woman, Claudia Ward, has been dumped into a pile of trash that hails from SoHo. Jane asks the unis to pull the mail out of the trash to see if they can get an address on the dumpster.

Calderon and Jane visit with medical examiner Iris Rendell to learn that Claudia has been "pounded like a skirt steak," but there's no imprint pattern to indicate a murder weapon. Jane's got the husband, Malcolm, coming in to ID the body, hoping to get a hunch off his reaction. One thing's for sure, Malcolm's a real good crier. Back at Manhattan East, 34-year-old Malcolm tells Jane and Calderon he met Claudia when she was 17 at the youth center where he volunteers. On the night she disappeared, Claudia was supposed to have art history class. Afterwards, they always met at the Grey Cat restaurant. She texted him to say she was running late at 6:42, then never showed. Malcolm's happy to have the detectives come by his place to take a look.

Jane finds Calderon in a SoHo alley, directing Blando, who's up to his neck in a dumpster. Evrard reports that none of the neighbors saw anything, and there are no cameras. Whoever dumped Claudia here was smart. Jane immediately thinks of Malcolm, so she and Calderon proceed to his townhouse. It turns out Claudia's class was cancelled, and the text she sent to Malcolm originated from the same area as the SoHo dumpster. Why would she want Malcolm to think she had class? Malcolm admits Claudia had an affair six months ago with a carpenter named David Hollister - who works in SoHo. Malcolm didn't mention it earlier because it's his private business, and he didn't want to remember stuff like that.

David's studio is chock full of tools, aka murder implements. David claims Claudia dumped him six months ago, and he hasn't seen her since; and he insists he was working in his studio that night. The neighbors heard his loud music. Why aren't they looking at Malcolm? Claudia was terrified of him, afraid he was going to hit her. Within the hour, Jane has a search warrant; Crime Scene is tossing David's studio, and Evrard's canvassing his neighbors. Later, Calderon reports that samples of Claudia's hair and fingerprints were found at David's, but of course, that could have come from when they were banging. Fighting exhaustion, Jane can't believe they don't have a murder scene yet.

Duffy takes his sweet time getting off the phone to answer Jane's repeated questions about David's credit card statements. Turns out, Duffy was on the phone with the head of security at American Express, an old buddy. Jane might be surprised to learn what a little politeness can accomplish in this world. David says he never goes out to dinner, yet there's a big charge at a romantic restaurant a week before the murder. Jane sets him to looking at Malcolm's property records, just as a very attractive and well-rested Rivera enters the squad room with mug shots for Jane. Just as Jane waves her off, Rivera starts shrieking with glee, thrilled to see her old buddy Duffy. So Duffy doesn't hate women after all; he just hates Jane... After a big hug, Duffy introduces the rest of the guys, who fall all over themselves trying to make a good impression on Rivera.

After checking out the romantic restaurant, Calderon and Jane interrogate David. Why'd he lie about seeing Claudia? Why'd the waitress say they were fighting so hard she was scared to come to their table? David explains that Claudia came to his apartment, wanting to have sex. Afterwards, she insisted on going to their favorite restaurant. When he made a comment about them getting back together, she claimed she was only there to say goodbye. David loved her, but he didn't kill her. And the last thing he said to her was that he hoped she'd never come back. Jane lets David walk.

Later that night, Jane plops into a chair in Sweeney's office, accepting his offer of a jelly jar full of scotch. She's got no confession, no witnesses, no physical evidence and no crime scene. And a creepy husband with an alibi. Right now, all she's got is a feeling about Malcolm. Sweeney reminds her that it's never just a feeling. The next day, Blando can't comprehend why he's driving Jane back to Malcolm's townhouse. Jane explains that she wants to see the look on Malcolm's face when she tells him she's arresting David, but Blando still doesn't get it. Didn't Jane let David go? Anyway, Blando's got other things on his mind... like Carolina Rivera. When Jane asks why he cares, Blando can't figure that either. Good-looking woman with no chip on her shoulder who laughs at his jokes? Disgusting. Just like steak and porn. And by the way, Jane has the worst personality of anyone Blando's ever met in his life.

Jane watches Malcolm closely. He doesn't give anything away, but he does succeed in creeping her out yet again. Afterwards, Duffy calls, having looked into the past relationships of both Malcolm and David. All David's exes say he's the cat's meow, but Duffy came up empty on Malcolm. Malcolm does however pay rent on an apartment in Queens for its resident Susan Whitney. Blando and Jane proceed to Queens to find Susan, a somewhat deaf and cranky cat lady. Malcolm visits his mother every Sunday, but he never brings Claudia, who Susan thinks is a whore. She liked Malcom's ex Kasey Monrad much better.

Kasey lives out in Long Island, and she's not too happy to see Jane. She hasn't seen Malcolm in years, and she was only 16 when they met. Jane figures that Kasey is still scared of Malcolm, so she inserts her finger in the wound and pushes. Finally, Kasey tells her sad story. Pregnant with Malcolm's baby, she had an abortion. So he waited for her to get better before beating her within an inch of her life and, oddly, letting her go. Oh, and she won't testify to that. Jane climbs back in the car and tells Blando that Malcolm killed Claudia - now she's certain. She calls Duffy and asks him to check on any property belonging to Malcolm's mother Susan. In the meantime, Jane and Blando head to the Grey Cat restaurant to meet Calderon.

Malcolm signed in with the Grey Cat's hostess at 6:32, but he didn't start a tab until 6:57, which seems a little odd to Jane, who's got lifelong bar experience. All Malcolm's got as his alibi is that text at 6:42. Could he have driven to the dumpster, sent the text from Claudia's phone and made it back to the Grey Cat by 6:57? No way, not across town in rush hour. But could he run it? The three cops go out to the street. Jane's convinced she's going to do the running, but she barely makes half a block when she starts heaving and can't go on. Time for a new plan - Calderon, who runs too fast. Now it's average Augie's turn, which works great, because he's a splendid example of mediocre running. Blando makes it back in plenty of time to order a drink, and Malcolm's alibi is destroyed.

Jane, Blando and Calderon are just enjoying a round of cocktails to finish off their investigation of Malcolm's alibi when Sweeney calls. Regardless of the fact that the alibi isn't holding up, the DA's going to want more evidence. Evrard's got Malcolm's phone records at the station, and he's discovered that Claudia had enrolled at the University of Michigan for the next semester - so she was going to leave Malcolm. Rivera stops by, hoping to run a theory by Jane. It seems that the robbery suspect has been alternating uptown hits with hits in the village. Rivera thinks it's a pattern, but she's getting no support from her squad. Jane knows the drill and advises Rivera to pursue it, but when Rivera invites Jane to join a support group of woman DTs, Jane coldly declines and tells Rivera to just do her job.

Duffy calls Jane down to Susan Whitney's storage unit - he's already gotten a warrant and Crime Scene's there. The place reeks of ammonia, but the blue light reveals blood splatter everywhere and a pretty clear face imprint on the floor. That night, the squad gathers down at HQ to offer moral support as a ragged-looking Jane prepares to interrogate Malcolm. She takes him down the hall to an interrogation room, where she's got close-up morgue photos of Claudia spread across the table. Jane starts by informing that they've located the crime scene - and they're no longer looking at David - then goes for the slow build, talking about the University of Michigan and Kasey, until pretty soon she's yelling, getting Malcolm worked up.

Jane delivers the icing on the cake, dropping a sonogram printout on the table. Did Malcolm know that Claudia was pregnant? Did he know that he killed his son? Malcolm finally cracks. Afterwards, Jane hits the woman's dorm (which looks more like a storage closet) for a long-awaited nap. She's barely laid down when Duffy turns on the lights to ask whose sonogram Jane used for the interrogation. It was a Hail Mary, but it worked.