Laura Gabriel

**Laura Gabriel** (Annabeth Gish) is the hidden main villainess of a three-episode Season 12 arc of *CSI*. Born Laura Campbell, she was introduced as the wife of Mark Gabriel, the billionaire CEO of a corrupt American military contractor called Ceressus Logistics, and an old friend of Catherine Willows.

## Events

Her first appearance occurred in episode 12.09, "Zippered" (airdate December 7, 2011), and it had her getting reacquainted with Catherine, who she hadn't seen in decades, during an investigation into the murder of gunrunner Michael Newbury. The pair then made plans to see each other again before Laura had to leave Las Vegas. Furthermore, towards the end of the episode, she visited her old friend and caught up with her more before admitting that she overheard Mark (who has been established as an abusive and controlling man) having a conversation with someone, nervously laughing when she was asked to provide details. Laura then dismissed her behavior as herself "being jet-lagged" and prepared to leave, but not before Catherine wrote down all of her phone numbers onto the back of a business card for Malcolm Turner (the lawyer of her late father Sam Braun) and recommending him to the former.

Episode 12.11, "Ms. Willows Regrets" (airdate January 18, 2012), saw Malcolm, his receptionist Amelia Groves, and his paralegal Julie Blanch being shot to death by two men and a woman, with the villainous trio having bioengineered hide beetles devour the flesh of their victims' corpses in order to leave behind as little physical evidence as possible. As for Laura, it was discovered that prior to vanishing from a condominium she and her husband were staying in, she withdrew $28,000—doing so five days before the episode's events—and had talked to Malcolm about leaving Mark. Subsequently, he planned for himself and his intended client to meet with the FBI so that she could tell them everything she knew.

Later on, Laura's cousin Helen and her husband Derek were found murdered in their farmhouse by parties unknown, after which Laura herself emerged unharmed from where she was hiding: a crawl space located under the floor planks. She recounted that everything happened "fast," with Derek being yelled at before being killed by gunfire. Helen was then shouted at and beaten as they tried to get her to tell them something, but to no avail; she subsequently perished as well. Laura also mentioned that one of the perpetrators was a man who "sounded like he had an accent."

Additionally, Laura told the whole truth about the aforementioned conversation she overheard: it involved Mark talking with a man in his study about "cleaning the offices" of Stanley Merrill, a rival military contractor who had disappeared 11 months ago. Asserting that he was the orchestrator of his demise, she also mentioned that whenever her husband "conducted business," he swapped out his phone's memory card. Afterwards, the lone woman amongst the aforementioned trio infiltrated an FBI transport detail that was to take Laura to safety, culminating in an ambush on the convoy that saw the vehicle with the female latter and FBI Agent James McQuaid inside of it being set on fire, resulting in their deaths. The episode ended with Catherine narrowly escaping from unseen shooters in her backyard with the help of Diebenkorn "D.B." Russell; her backup gun had been stolen beforehand.

## Reveal/Arrest

In episode 12.12, "Willows in the Wind" (airdate January 25, 2012), it was confirmed that the trio were in fact assassins working for Mark, being referred to as the Hit Squad by the CSIs. They were responsible for not only Stanley's murder, but also making it look like that Lenny Wesson—a witness to his illegal arms dealing—died of a "heart attack" at the end of "Zippered." In addition, Catherine allegedly sent a resignation email to D.B., which turned out to be one of many pieces of evidence revealing that it was all part of a plan to frame the former for what was supposed to be Mark's murder, with the intended weapon being her missing backup gun. All of this information led to suspicion falling on Laura because she would have benefitted the most from their actions.

Her official reveal came after Paul was paid twice his normal salary by Mark to have his wife become the new target of the contract she initially put on him. Armed with a gun that had a silencer, the male latter entered his target's house while she was inside and about to take a shower. Firing three times, Paul saw that Laura was not where he expected her to be, after which he and his female employer were both arrested.

As it turned out, the self-serving villainess wanted to leave Mark for James, who was actually her accomplice. Together, the pair became the masterminds behind a sinister plot to frame her husband by having the Hit Squad—with three of its six members being Paul Obrecht, Sandra Pence, and Geoffrey Krueger—perpetrate various murders at several locations and meticulously stage the evidence left behind in order to have Mark take the fall. After that was done, they helped Sandra infiltrate the aforementioned FBI transport detail for the next part of the scheme: faking their own deaths. The rest of the squad ambushed Laura's convoy in "Ms. Willows Regrets," killing three FBI agents, with Laura and Agent McQuaid being escorted from their car to safety. Paul then betrayed Sandra and Geoffrey by shooting them and putting them in said car before setting it on fire, killing them and burning their corpses beyond recognition.

This was followed by Laura moving on to attempting to frame Catherine as Mark's vigilante executioner by ordering her employees to hack into Catherine's email account and send a "resignation email" to D.B., after which the Hit Squad's three unnamed members went to Catherine's backyard and attempted to shoot her dead. They made sure to steal their would-be victim's backup gun so that it could be used to kill Mark. However, James (who secretly had feelings for Catherine) ran towards her and fired a warning shot to try to protect her, which worked, as she was able to flee injured but alive. Subsequently, the trio killed him by shooting him multiple times in his back—dumping his corpse in a nearby culvert and making use of more modified hide beetles to feed on his flesh.

Wearing a prison uniform, Laura was asked by Catherine why she chose to set her up. The callous woman stated that it was because "[she knew] her," along with going on admit that she went for men who "[gave her] something." In her words, Mark "gave [her] a lifestyle" that "worked out for a while" before meeting James and deciding to leave her husband for him. She then boasted that unlike her old friend, who put others first because "[it's] the easier way," she "[risked] having the life she [wanted]" because she didn't "accept the life [she had]" (in Laura's mind). Catherine responded to Laura's statements by not only stating that she would never "see the outside world again," but also that she should have known it was going to end the way it did. She was then sentenced to life in prison offscreen for her crime spree.