The Color of Death

It is revealed that JD has installed a hidden trail camera on Colm’s property and is watching the live video feed on a computer monitor. Impatient, Knox urges JD to break Larry out of jail, but JD insists that they must wait. JD explains that Colm needs to suffer before he’s killed.

As Knox watches, JD finds the king of hearts in a new deck of cards, tears it in half, places it in an envelope, and addresses it to Colm before leaving to mail it.

The next morning, Colm has breakfast at The Junction. He watches Belle skillfully handle a rude customer. Belle recognizes Colm from his last visit, and they have a friendly conversation before she gets busy. As Colm is finishing his meal, he’s confronted by Angus Greer, the brother of Rachel’s ex-husband, Macon. Angus blames Colm for Macon’s arrest. Colm calmly clarifies that he isn’t pressing charges against Macon, defusing the situation.

On his way out, Colm sees Belle reading The Scarlet Letter at a picnic table. They formally introduce themselves to each other, and she tells him that she’s a business major at Greenville Tech, the first in her family to attend college. She stays local to help care for her parents, both of whom have disabilities. Their conversation is cut short when Belle’s break ends. Colm then receives a text from Bones about a lead in Rachel’s murder case.

Travis arrives at the station, proud of his work on the homicide case. He’s intercepted by his superior, Bones, who dismisses his progress. Bones criticizes Travis for not having found the evidence in a trash can on the night of the murder and reminds him that a case isn’t solved until there’s a conviction. 

Bones gives Travis a new lead: Clint Fisher, a career criminal with a history of assault who lives near the crime scene. Revealing that Colm is like a brother to him, Bones orders Travis to watch Colm’s back. He then tells Travis to join him immediately to pursue the lead on Clint.

Colm meets his new assistant, Irene Scruggs, a highly formal and efficient woman who immediately briefs him on his schedule. She informs him of an imminent meeting with District Attorney Cindy Porter. 

In the meeting, Cindy expresses concern for Colm’s well-being after his family tragedy and announces that she’s reassigning Rachel’s murder case to another prosecutor, Dillon, to allow Colm to ease back into work. Unwilling to give up the case, Colm insists that working is the best thing for him. To end the conversation before Cindy can finalize the decision, he fakes an urgent phone call related to the investigation and quickly leaves her office, telling Irene on his way out that they have work to do.

Bones and Travis stake out the rundown Hilton Plaza hotel where Clint Fisher lives. Travis is nervous because he isn’t wearing a protective vest. Bones tells him to cover the back exit while he goes to the front. 

Bones pounds on Clint’s door, pretending to be a man demanding money from someone named “Bobby.” Inside, a woman named Destiny sees Travis at the back window and screams a warning. Clint bursts out the back door, knocking Travis to the ground. Bones pursues and tackles Clint and then subdues Destiny, who had started attacking Travis. Bones arrests Clint for assaulting a deputy.

Unable to find his burner phone, Martin starts panicking. He drives to Rachel’s salon, which is now a sealed crime scene, intending to find the recording. He’s confronted by a deputy and lies about his reason for being there, claiming that his son is a client. He leaves without pressing his need to enter the salon.

Desperate, Martin goes to the Outer Limits club to seek help from its owner, Beau Landry. In Beau’s study, Martin admits to the affair and Rachel’s threat of blackmail. He offers to use his judicial influence to resolve a zoning issue for Beau’s development project, The Shops at Willow Creek, in exchange for Beau’s help. Beau agrees and tasks his head of security, Jean Boucher, with handling the problem. Martin leaves, terrified by the deal he has just made.

In an interrogation room, Bones and Travis question Clint. Clint refuses to sign a Miranda waiver but insists that he’s innocent. Under pressure, he admits that he was near the salon on the night of the murder, visiting a friend named Lester “Mo” Jenkins. He also acknowledges knowing Rachel from high school but vehemently denies harming her. 

Bones threatens to call Clint’s probation officer unless he takes a lie-detector test and provides a DNA sample. Clint reluctantly agrees. Once outside the room, Bones tells Travis that he doesn’t believe Clint is the killer and that the tests are merely an intimidation tactic.

Colm meets Travis at Rachel’s salon, only to find that the adjacent trailer has burned to the ground. Travis reports that the fire appears accidental, caused by something left plugged in, possibly a curling iron. The fire destroyed any remaining evidence at the trailer and eliminates the possibility of a jury visit to the crime scene. Rachel’s phone had already been missing before the fire. However, a firefighter discovered a partially melted tablet hidden in a wall, which has been sent to forensics. 

Travis also delivers good news: Jen Cramer successfully enhanced the logo on the van from the surveillance video, identifying it as belonging to a local HVAC company. The van’s driver confirmed that the suspect’s car was a silver, expensive-looking two-door with tinted windows and a partial license plate: “N2G.” Pleased with the progress, Colm and Travis head to the morgue.

In his office, Beau discusses Martin with his security chief, Boucher. Boucher reveals that he has a video of Martin and Rachel having sex at the club, which he gives to Beau on a thumb drive. They debate whether Martin is guilty of murder. While Beau considers a crime of passion possible, Boucher thinks Martin is too “soft” to commit such a violent act. Beau also compliments Boucher on his work, implying the latter’s involvement in the destruction of Rachel’s trailer.

Beau concludes that the sex tape is sufficient leverage to ensure Martin’s cooperation on their zoning issue. He instructs Boucher to monitor Martin closely, suspecting that the judge is hiding something.

Colm finds it difficult to enter the morgue, as his personal grief has made such visits unbearable. He and Travis meet with the medical examiner, Dr. Ardell Sharp, who details his findings from Rachel’s autopsy. 

Rachel was stabbed 19 times with a single-edged knife consistent with the one Travis found. The official cause of death is a severed carotid artery. After Rachel had died, the killer cut off her hair and plunged a pair of scissors into her chest. Evidence from the scene includes a bloody shoeprint from a men’s size-12 Doc Martens and tissues with Type A blood, while the victim’s was Type B. The blood sample has been sent to the state lab for DNA analysis.

Bones is called to a fishing cabin where a body has been found. Deputy Michael Jenkins is on the scene and identifies the victim as Frank Hastings. It appears to be a death by suicide: A revolver lies near the body, a frayed noose is on the floor, and a note on the table details confessions of legal malpractice. However, Bones is suspicious. He finds three empty casings in the revolver and locates all three corresponding bullet holes. However, he considers this pattern strange for a suicide. He also finds the suicide note strangely specific, as if written for an insurance company. Despite the deputy’s certainty of his theory, Bones suspects foul play and orders a full forensic investigation of the scene.

Colm and Travis go before Judge Martin Weber to obtain a search warrant for Rachel’s phone records. In his private chambers, Martin unexpectedly denies their application. He claims that there’s insufficient probable cause, citing language that Travis added to the affidavit suggesting a “botched robbery” theory. Martin also argues that because the phone was owned by Macon Greer, seeking the records could be construed as forcing Macon to produce evidence against himself, violating his Fifth Amendment rights. 

Colm counters that the request is standard procedure and that the phone records are business records. The argument grows heated, with Colm threatening to use a grand jury subpoena and file a judicial complaint. Martin threatens to report both men to their superiors. Martin holds firm, deliberately obstructing their investigation, and Colm and Travis leave empty-handed.

Colm returns to The Junction, where a waitress named Maddy informs him that Belle had gone to the courthouse for some forms and that she had also bought avocados with her own money for Colm’s omelet. Touched by this kindness, Colm decides to visit Mae to talk about his grief. He reflects on Jaci’s death from sudden infant death syndrome and Ally’s death by suicide. Mae advises him to move out of his house. 

Colm then asks Mae for her professional insight on Rachel’s murder. After reviewing the crime-scene photos, Mae concludes that the “overkill,” the cutting of the hair, and the scissors plunged into the heart indicate that the murder was an act of personal rage intended to humiliate the victim.

Mae urges Colm not to abandon his career, suggesting that he take a leave of absence rather than quit. As he’s leaving, Mae gives him an envelope addressed to him that was delivered to her house. Inside is a king of hearts torn in half. Colm recognizes it as a “suicide king,” similar to cards he received after Ally’s death. He dismisses it as a taunt and deliberately lies to Mae, promising to report it to Bones while inwardly knowing he won’t.