Motive: Fallen

SYNOPSIS

The victim: street artist Perry Doyle. The killer: fourteen year old Wesley Hillridge, an aspiring street artist himself. To do his art, Wes sneaks out of the house at night. His newly remarried mother, Nina Hillridge, overcompensates in providing as much support to Wes as she feels she can and needs to in light of Wes and her new controlling husband, Lance, clashing often over Wes' art activities, legal and illegal. The dead body, initially listed as a John Doe, is found hanging by a rope over the side of an overpass, the thought being that he was involved in a hit and run with a truck as he was just about to start an art piece on the side of the overpass. Based on the art in question, the scuttlebutt on the street is that the artist in question is Contagion, one of the most renowned street artists in these parts but who chooses to remain anonymous and thus by definition is also a loner. Angie and Oscar are eventually able to identify the dead body as Perry Doyle after Brian learns that Contagion had a contract with the city through an art agent for that piece on the overpass. Besides Contagion selling out to commercialism, Angie and Oscar believe there are many contradictions to what looks to be Perry/Contagion's joint story. They will eventually find that it is this contradiction combined with an incident at Wes' home that led to Perry's death. Meanwhile, Angie and Oscar believe they have a strong lead tying Neville Montgomery to Derek Caster's murder. They just need Mark's approval to investigate further. And Betty is putting up a stoic front following her attack, but those around her can see that she is not all right emotionally from that incident.