The Mysteries of Laura Episode 1.15 The Mystery of the Alluring Au Pair

Up, down, up, down - two BMX bikers whiz through Central Park, until there is an obstacle in their pathway: a dead girl.

Jake tells Laura they're expecting a visitor: Detective Frank Pulaski will perform an internal investigation of the 2nd Precinct because someone complained about an inappropriate relationship. Could this be about Jake and Laura's make-out session in the closet while undercover, or when Jake broke into her house to grab another kiss? Laura is quick to insist, "nothing happened!" Detective Frank arrives, and to everyone's surprise, he is actually Frankie, nee Francesca. She's eager to jump right into her investigation, but Jake sends Laura to check out the Central Park corpse. Laura's free from Frankie... for now.

At the morgue, Reynaldo introduces Laura to the murder victim: a woman in her early 20s, killed by a single bullet to the head between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. There's a bite mark near her neck, which appears to be a couple of weeks old. In the woman's muddy purse, Laura finds keys, a brush, lip gloss... and a secret compartment. Hidden inside is a passport, identifying the woman as Viviana Costa from Brazil, in New York on a work visa. Two identical pictures of a young male are tucked into the passport. Looks like Laura and Meredith are taking a trip to Brazil... the consulate, that is. Meredith flashes her badge to the man behind the front desk, Marco Da Silva. Clearly this guy operates by the book, so Laura tries a different tactic: sweet talk. She notices a model KITT car from the show Knight Rider behind the desk and gushes about how much Marco looks like David Hasselhoff. He blushes - he's a huge fan of the show and even owns a Trans Am just like KITT! He caves in and gives the detectives Viviana's local address... an upscale penthouse. How could a 20-year-old woman on a work visa afford this place? No one answers the doorbell, so Laura picks up a call from Food Truck Tony, who offers to drop off fresh crème brûlee at the precinct. Laura's flattered but asks for a rain check without mentioning Frankie's investigation. As she hangs up, the elevator opens and out walks Sarah Wexler, owner of the penthouse. When the detectives flash Viviana's picture, Sarah tells them she's her son's nanny. When Sarah learns Viviana was murdered, she freaks out. Where is her son?

Back at the precinct, Frankie tells Jake that if a "certain level of impropriety" exists within Jake's squad, she'll have to transfer someone. Extreme but standard protocol. In another room, Laura sits with Sarah, who's frantically worried about her missing autistic son, Tucker. Sarah presumes her ex-husband Roger has something to do with this, considering he's an unstable junkie. Sarah suggests the police check out the studio of Roger's friend, Benno, since Roger sometimes crashes there. Billy and Meredith arrive at Benno's studio, where they find Tucker's backpack. Once Benno realizes the severity of the situation, he nervously shows the detectives Roger's stuff: photos of Viviana and Tucker taken through a fence and a paper with the number 117 scribbled on it. 117, as in bus route M117, which stops right outside Benno's place. Meredith and Billy hop on board the bus, where they find Roger and Tucker. Back at the precinct, Meredith interrogates Roger, presenting him with the stalkerish pictures of Tucker and Viviana. Roger admits that since he lost custody, the only time he sees Tucker is when Viviana picks him up from school across the street. When Viviana failed to pick up Tucker, Roger stepped in. He didn't kill Viviana, though; his alibi checks out. Back at her desk, Laura asks Sarah about the young man in the photos found with Viviana's passport. Sarah identifies him as Viviana's younger brother, who is autistic as well. Tucker gives them some insight: "Viv in gym!" Meredith checks out the New York Fitness on Broadway and 10th, where she finds Viviana's locker stuffed - not with workout clothes, but tons of cash, a cell phone and condoms. Looks like this nanny may have been a little naughty.

Meanwhile, Frankie is busy with her own investigation. She seems to be able to outsmart everyone at the 2nd Precinct. She makes Max squirm with awkwardness as he insists nothing happened between Jake and Laura. Frankie finds out about Billy's habit of drumming his hands on the desk before he sweet talks someone, so once he starts finger dancing, Frankie dismisses him without even hearing what he has to say, which is of course, "nothing happened!"

In the break room, Jake and Laura try to figure out if Viviana was an au pair... or a prostitute. The phone from the gym locker has only one app, a game called Sugar Slice. It seems like the worst game ever, it crashes on the first level. The phone also has a very full calendar - at least three dates a week. Viviana was clearly popular with the guys, but she only seemed to text one girl, named Sofie. The last text she sent was just this morning - "Meet me in Park at 9:30 at sculpture thingy. Have something 2 show you." - right around the time Viviana was shot! Billy and Laura make their way to Sofie, who's shocked to hear about the murder and tells the detectives Viviana never showed up at the park this morning. At first Sofie doesn't want to share details about the au pair agency that doubles as an escort agency, but once Billy threatens her with a prostitution charge, Sofie shows them how it works. She opens the Sugar Slice app, enters a sequence, and a list of women appears. The whole agency is run through a fake game! They take this information back to the precinct, where Laura fills in Jake. Charlotte Belnice, the owner of a very successful au pair agency, created the app. Men pay $15,000 for 10 dates, and Charlotte deposits $1,000 into the women's accounts for each date. At the end of every month, the app provides an address of a secret party where the men can come "get a look at the inventory." Could Charlotte have anything to do with Viviana's murder? The detectives aren't sure, but Sofie mentioned Charlotte and Viviana were arguing at the last mixer.

Laura has a plan: Billy will attend the next one of these hooker hangouts and catch Charlotte red-handed. Billy gets ready for his big night out; all he has to do is mingle and make his pick. As soon as Charlotte intervenes to seal the deal, the police will swoop in. He puts on glasses with a tiny camera; Laura and Meredith will be watching everything through his eyes. Any of the women at the party could give a motive for Charlotte, but these girls are from 12 different countries... a translator would be helpful. Max reminds them that he speaks six languages, and suddenly he's wearing the second pair of spyglasses. It's time to bring down the newest version of the world's oldest profession. Billy and Max arrive at an upscale bar filled with beautiful women and wealthy men, while Laura and Meredith watch from a monitor at the precinct. Max tries to keep it professional and gets right down to business by asking several women about Viviana and Charlotte's fight. He doesn't have much success; these women seem to be more handsy, less talky.

At the precinct, Frankie joins Laura and Meredith in the conference room and is reminding Laura about their interview when suddenly Tony knocks on the door. Laura gives him a big smooch, then introduces him as her boyfriend, explaining Frankie is investigating whether anything inappropriate is going on between Laura and Jake - which is ridiculous, since Laura has a boyfriend. When Jake walks in, things get super uncomfortable, but Tony catches on and goes along. Once Frankie excuses herself and Jake stalks off, Tony calls Laura out: she totally just used him! But he liked it. Since Laura called Tony her boyfriend, does that mean he can call Laura his girlfriend? It's official - Food Truck Tony has taken Laura off the market! Before she can get a chance to enjoy her new beau bliss, she's called back to work: Billy has Charlotte! After learning how the business operates, Billy inquires about Viviana. Charlotte says Viviana didn't show up tonight, which is when Billy shows his badge. Charlotte seems startled when Billy brings up her argument with Viviana. Charlotte claims it was only because Viviana wouldn't say why she had a bandage on her chest. Maybe one of her dates was getting too frisky? There's only one way to find out: Billy and Max must track down all Viviana's clients. Thankfully, Max has gathered intel about every guy in the room. They scan over a few - a harmless crier, a guy with a food fetish, a scarf-wearing biter - wait, Viviana had a bite mark. That's their guy! Billy flashes his badge at the biter, who instantly bolts towards the exit, using one of the women as a shield. Just as he's about to escape, he's faced with police officers with their guns drawn. It looks like he bit off more than he can chew.

Back at the precinct, Jake interrogates the biter, aka Doug Lowe, who explains that he actually fell in love with Viviana. He even proposed with his grandma's ring. Then he read about her on The Erotic Hubdown, a website where people post reviews about sex workers. Once he saw the negative comments about Viviana, he met her for coffee yesterday at 8:30 a.m. to take back his ring. When he left, he went straight to his doctor to get checked for STDs. So Doug may be a biter, but it doesn't look like he's a killer. Max and Meredith search for Viviana Costa on The Erotic Hubdown, where they find 23 reviews... all bad. Each of the reviews suspiciously start the same way - "I hired her, and...," so they check the IP addresses. Not surprisingly, all 23 reviews came from the same person: Chrystal Cox. Someone didn't put much effort into her porn name... Frankie interrupts with a perky wave, signaling it's time for Meredith's interview. Frankie's first question is whether she and Laura get equivalent assignments. Without a flinch, Meredith says yes, absolutely. Frankie tricks her by saying Laura feels Meredith gets better cases, and Meredith loses it. Laura definitely gets the better cases! Once Frankie sees the truth come out, she digs for more. Laura gets away with everything! When Frankie asks why Meredith feels Jake favors Laura, she very reluctantly admits, "Laura Diamond is by far the best detective here." But that better stay between them.

Meanwhile, Jake and Laura bring in their next suspect for questioning: Chrystal Cox... who is actually a podiatrist, not a prostitute. So why did Chrystal post all those reviews about Viviana? She stole Chrystal's fiance, Doug. Chrystal is shocked to hear Viviana was murdered yesterday - how could that be? She saw Viviana yesterday! Very ashamed, Chrystal admits she followed Doug and filmed him and Viviana having coffee. She wanted to show him that Viviana didn't love him; he was just another one of her clients! Chrystal pulls out the video on her phone, which shows Viviana getting into another man's car - a Trans Am to be exact - right after coffee with Doug. The man driving is the killer! The video doesn't show a license plate, but Laura knows exactly who's driving.

Eager to catch her killer, Laura drives through the streets of New York like a maniac, with Frankie riding shotgun so she can finally interview Laura. In the midst of asking questions about Laura and Jake's dynamic, Frankie also offers some information about herself: she has never been in the field in New York, only in Wisconsin, and she too is divorced. Many swerves and sharp turns later, they arrive at their destination: the Brazilian Consulate. Instead of going to get the bad guy, the bad guy is going to come to them. It's technically Brazilian soil inside the consulate, so Laura needs to lure the killer outside, where she can legally arrest him. Laura smashes the windshield of the Trans Am, the car alarm sounds and Marco comes running out. He reaches for his gun, but before he can raise it, Frankie has her gun pointed toward him. Laura cuffs him and takes him to the precinct.

In the interrogation room, Laura tells Marco that ballistics matched his gun to the one used to kill Viviana. He picked her up after her coffee date and shot her, but why? Marco tells Laura that Viviana was bribing him: she offered him $20,000 to falsify a permanent visa for her brother. When Marco saw how easy it was for Viviana to get the money, he raised the price to $50,000. Viviana freaked out; she was going to turn Marco in for accepting bribes. He killed her because he would have been sentenced to 10 years in jail in Brazil! He doesn't have to worry too much about that now, since he'll be serving a life sentence in the U.S.

Not one, but two investigations have come to a close as Frankie finishes her report. She tells Jake that she has found several acts of impropriety that will require a personnel change: Jake and Laura's relationship is far from resolved; there's lot of flirtation between Meredith and Billy; an administrative assistant was working in the field. What she's also found is unparalleled teamwork, whip-smart sleuthing and a record number of closed cases, even while being understaffed. As for the personnel change... Frankie wants to join the team! Jake gathers everyone at Calligan's to make the big announcement: Detective Frankie Pulaski is the newest member of the 2nd Precinct. Not everyone is thrilled about the addition. Laura actually likes her new co-worker, who tells Laura she knows who wrote the complaint - it was Laura! She submitted the complaint about "Captain Man Child" five months ago, two days after he was transferred in. Whoops!