New York - Police judiciaire The Wheel (1990–2010) Online

A yuppie couple were making out in a elevator. When the doors opened up, they noticed a smell coming from the hallway, where there was a girl burnt to death. The body lied before an apartment owned by the Chinese government and inhabited by a consul (Tzi Ma). Detectives were not so sure the victim committed suicide or it could be regarded as a murder, but forensics help them figuring out she's killed by strangulation. The girl was a Chinese national whose mother died in her homeland because she was considered enemy of the people. As usually happened in China, all kind of religions were the target of authority (Christianity and Islam are always under close monitoring) and the victim's mother was a guru of a renowned religious sect called Falun Gong, with followers even in United States. The consul was together with a call girl at the time of the murder, anyway a lawsuit made by the victim to him that lead to his deportation could have touched someone else's feelings...

Prosecutors (mostly the chef) were afraid of the consequences in China-USA relations: "Another enemy is the last thing this country needs right now". Code of silence is something firmly fixed in Chinese people's mind, much more than what happened in Sicilian people's mind.

A body burned beyond recognition other than it was a female is found right outside the door of the apartment of the Chinese consul. Even though it's looking like one of those Buddhist suicides reminiscent of Vietnam in the Sixties Jerry Orbach and Jesse Martin have to investigate.

The consul Grant Chang immediately points the detectives in the direction of the Falun Gong people who the Chinese government is cracking down on. They say religion, the government says cult an argument almost old as written history.

An arrest is made and it's the wrong man. Fortunately the right culprit is discovered and the motive is both bizarre and banal at the same time.

What some don't consider a motive for murder.