Motive: The Suicide Tree

SYNOPSIS

The killer: florist Ella Rollins. The victim: Lee Ward. Lee's dead body is one of two at an attempted robbery of an armored security truck, the primary players being two robbers and two security guards. The primary surviving eyewitness, Blair Morton, one of the two security guards who happens to be Ella's husband, describes the events as follows. After returning from a coffee run, his partner, Tony Lamot, the other victim, was shot in the back from a distance with what is later identified as specialty armor piercing bullets. As Blair rushed to Tony's side to administer CPR, which is against protocol, the second gunman, Lee but who is originally listed as a John Doe, approached and was ready to shoot him. What saved Blair was that Lee just dropped dead, from what Betty is later able to identify as a massive overdose of digoxin, a prescription medication the detectives will later learn Lee was taking. The situation with Lee led to the first gunman escaping in a getaway car. Because of the specifics of the robbery, Oscar believes that Blair may have been an inside person involved in the robbery gone wrong. A break occurs in the case when they are able to locate who they believe is the first gunman, Tim Kelly. The issues in Tim's involvement and tying him back to Lee and to Blair and then Ella are that all the evidence is circumstantial, Blair and Ella do not admit to ever having seen Tim before, and a strong bond exists between Blair and Ella, which the detectives can see and have to try to use against them. At the end of it all, Betty is particularly affected by this case. Meanwhile, Angie and Oscar's investigation into Neville Montgomery hits an official roadblock. And Oscar awaits the results of tests to see what is going on with his vision.