Law and Order: Criminal Intent: Self-Made (Episode 139)

The opening sequence this week involves a young black woman, Keira, who seems to work at some sort of publishing firm. She's an aspiring writer, who reads her short story at an open mic and is immediately approached by a literary agent, who says he loves her work and offers to take her for a drink. She calls an older male -- who appears to be a mentor of some sort -- and he informs her that the guy is bad news. The next thing we know, Keira is shot several times in the stomach in her home.

This week we get Goren and Eames, which is disappointing, because Alicia Witt makes everything better. They arrive on the scene and immediately take heat from the local cops, who are none too pleased with Major Case walking in on their territory. Goren and Eames explain that the case is significant because of the woman for whom Keira worked. They conclude that Keisha was burnt before her death: "They wanted her to talk." They find evidence of marijuana in the house, and men's sweatshirts. They conclude she had a boyfriend of some sort, and was dealing weed. 

Keisha's boss, Ms. Cipher -- an Anna Wintour type -- arrives on the scene. She'd sent another assistant over when Keira hadn't shown up for work; that's how the body was discovered. "I want the killer caught," she says, before leaving.

They interview the other assistant, who says there's no way Keira was selling pot. She recalls meeting one of her friends -- a black kid named Detour who worked for a local animation studio. 

The animation studio says Detour called in sick today. Goren is his typical annoying self, poking around until he finds a joint in the office. This scares the studio head into giving them Detour's pager number. 

Keira's brother is able to identify Detour as Dante Heath, Keira's high-school boyfriend. Her brother tells them that Dante did sell weed, but wasn't violent and wouldn't have hurt Keira. They assume he went home to his mother in the projects. Goren and Eames head to the projects, and get there just in time to find Detour shot and bleeding. He's taken to the hospital and tells the police he was targeted because he stole drugs, but he swears those people weren't the ones who killed Keira. They roughed her up once, he says, but wouldn't have killed her. He tells the police he saw Keira leaving her short story reading with an old white guy. 

They learn from the other assistant that Keira was close with a fellow writer named T.J. Hawkins, who wrote a non-fiction piece about his time in prison. "Like siblings," she says. They studied together under a renowned writing professor named Lionel Shill, who it now seems is the guy Keira called after her reading. They approach T.J. at a book signing, where he promptly freaks out and is arrested. T.J. continues to be a jackass under interrogation, although he has a solid alibi.

Goren and Eames go to speak to Lionel, who confirms T.J.'s alibi and that Keira called during dinner. "She was with Garreth Sage," he says. "A snake of a man." Sage has a history of making sexual advances toward his female clientele, it seems. He claims that Keira was "very upset" when she called and that he'd told her to call 911. 

The detectives speak to Sage, who clearly does not want them there. "I liked her reading, we want to a bar, and we discussed her future," he says. He tells them he didn't take her home; he says she was not in his car. 

It turns out at least three women have charged Sage with sexual harrassment, but he always settles out of court. They speak to one of these women, another attractive black woman, who calls him a "shark" and says he drove her home in his Jaguar before forcing himself on her. Eames gets a search warrant for Sage's car, where they find a strand of Keira's hair. He's brought in for questioning and quickly lawyers up. 

Sage admits to driving Keira home, but says it ended there. Keira went into her house to get her novel for him, he says, but he became uncomfortable sitting in his Jaguar "in the hood," so he set his GPS for home and headed out. The lawyer pushes the GPS log across the table. "Mr. Sage was home by 10:30," she says. Sage says that Lionel Shill was resentful of Keira and her career prospects. 

We cut to Shill, who's at home burning a manuscript in the fireplace. 

Goren has obtained a copy of Shill's upcoming novel, about a young black painter who rises from poverty to Manhattan's posh art scene -- a story that mimics Keira's -- and they suspect Shill may have stolen Keira's novel. They can't confirm this, because they haven't been able to track down Keira's manuscript. Her computer was smashed the night she was killed. Goren suggests Keira may have been writing her novel from her work computer. Eames goes to check that out, while Goren takes another pass at Detour. He confirms that Detour is clearly one of the characters in Shill's "original" novel. 

They confront Shill with the allegations of plagiarism, and Goren wants him to say that he's a fraud. After some roughing up, Shill admits to the plagiarism. "You pulled back the curtain, and you found a pathetic old man who coveted a brilliant young writer's future." But he maintains that he did not kill Keira, and his alibi eventually checks out. Captain Ross suggests they turn their attention back to T.J.

They find T.J. at a gym, where Goren challenges him to a fight. T.J. turns his back and walks away, which, as Eames points out, "would have been the first thing he'd learned not to do in the pen." I think we have a James Frey story on our hands, kids. They do some digging and learn that T.J. has not done time in jail or juvie, but the stories he writes about echo experiences Detour lived through. It also turns out that Keira was going to review T.J.'s new book in The Times -- she would have known that his stories were untrue, because her close friend Detour was in juvie the same time T.J. claims to be. The review was due the day after Keira was killed. They go to Sage, and ask how Keira got the assignment -- it turns out Shill had called in some favors. 

The detectives find Shill and T.J. in Shill's salon. They confront them with what they know. They show T.J. Keira's novel-in-progress, but he tosses it away. Goren produces another copy. "Read it," he says. Goren believes that, when Keira called Shill to say she'd been beaten up, he responded by showing T.J. her review of his book. "They set you up to kill Keira," says Goren. He begins reading from Shill's novel, and T.J. finally sees the light. T.J. admits that Shill gave him a gun and cut him a line of cocaine. "I'd been clean for five years," he says, "He told me I deserved it." He admits to then going to Keira's apartment and murdering her. They arrest T.J. for murder and Shill for conspiracy to commit murder.