Synopsis  

The case of two high school students, one dead and one missing, lead the CSIs into the underbelly of streetcar racing and a tangled web of deadly competition.

Trevor Beck, a high school senior, dropped dead in the school hallway for no obvious cause. In the autopsy, they determine it was caused by cerebral menigina, however there was no injury sufficient to cause the damage. His girlfriend, Cindy Warner, has also gone missing. Cindy used to date Miyamoto Takahachi, whom Trevor punched in a fight over her.

Trevor died of an undiagnosed malformation of his brain stem which, when he was injured, caused his brain to swell. In addition, he was taking anti-depressants and an MAO inhibitor (given to him by his best friend), which worsened the condition. Cindy is found dead outside of town, thanks to the GPS on Trevor’s car. While her body appears to be dumped, there’s no evidence to how she ended up in the desert. In fact, she was hit by a car driving so fast, she was thrown the length of a football field.

Unknown to his friends, Trevor had started to race his car at the police sanctioned ‘Street Rumble’ and had been scraped by a yellow car. The car is tracked down to a street racing group called the Demons, one of whom is Mitch. However, Trevor had a classic car and only raced against other classics, and happened to beat Cindy’s best friend and locker mate, Renata Clarke, in a race. In that race, Trevor suffered whiplash, which caused his brain stem to crack and his brain to swell.

Renata got Cindy, her BFF, to ‘borrow’ Trevor’s car so Renata could race it against her own car, driven by Gus, her uncle and guardian, in an illegal street race to prove that Trevor’s car was better than Renata’s. During the race, Gus accidentally hit, and killed, Cindy. Afterword, Renata and Gus take the car to the Demons, who part out the damaged parts and replace and repair.

Review  

Sara goes to the high school to find Trevor’s girlfriend, Cindy, and works with Nick in processing Trevor’s car. Later, working with Hodges, Sara determines how Cindy died, recognizing the injuries on her legs from previous experiences .

When investigating the race, Sara flirts with the boys, talking about cars, in order to get a better look at the car. While she appeared ignorant of the ‘sacrilegious’ nature of putting an electric engine in a 1968 classic, she is knowledgeable or at least able to recall the information determined from the evidence.

Notes  

• Sara is an environmentalist.

Quotes  

Nick: Putting an electric motor in this [car] is sacrilegious.
Sara: Not a polar bears.