17. Vacancy

In mid-winter, two bridesmaids, Alice ( Emily Bergl ) and Megan Cole ( Kristin Vogelsong ), are stranded in New York and they stay overnight at a cheap hotel recommended by their taxi driver, Tim Rainey ( Desmond Harrington ). Later that night Megan is bludgeoned to death, initially casting suspicion on Alice, but even though Alice confesses to the murder because of her drunken state, Detective Eames does not believe she is the culprit. Goren and Eames track down Rainey, the taxi driver, and find that he is a committed method actor seeking a movie role as a serial killer and that his mother was killed in a similar manner by a stalker when he was a child. Eventually the detectives solicit a confession from Rainey who still harbored resentment against his mother whom he saw as a victim.