Body of Proof s01e06 Episode Script

Nice street.
I thought you hated your life in Chestnut Hill.
"Hated" is a little strong.
I loathed it.
Fancy cars, nice houses, citywide recognition as a top neurosurgeon, what's there to like? Recognition was nice.
I wouldn't wanna relive the rest.
Oh, and yet you jumped at the chance to take this case.
I still have a few friends here.
I hope this isn't one of them.
- You flying solo today, Bud? - Excuse me.
- Sam's in D.
C.
Her father's sick.
- Oh, I'm sorry to hear it.
That's Daphne Zimmer, editor of Society Fair magazine.
- You know her? - My mother does.
Did.
- Really? How well? - Well enough.
Listen, if this is gonna be too difficult for you Death is always difficult, detective.
Is that Daphne's? Color looks different than hers.
Better bag it.
Okay.
Well, what have we got? The maid found the body a half-hour ago.
The alarm was off, no sign of forced entry.
The gate was left open.
There was obviously a struggle.
Table overturned, her sandal off her foot.
My guess is, Daphne was reading here, someone came in to rob the place, came on Daphne by surprise, they fought, and our bad guy vanished into this morning's traffic.
What makes you think it was this morning? Well, the body's still limp.
It hasn't gone into rigor mortis yet.
I bent the pinkie, that's all.
Discoloration in the lower right quadrant.
- You know what that is? - Bruising from the attack.
It's decay.
But the body's limp.
It hasn't gone into rigor.
She's already past rigor.
The skin is macerated.
She didn't die this morning.
She died at least two days ago.
Thanks for playing.
All right, everybody, increase the timeline to 48 hours.
Daphne Zimmer, born in rural Ohio, educated at Wellesley and Harvard Business School.
Ran a fashion house in New York and then came here to take over Society Fair magazine She became quite a power player.
Why is it whenever a man calls a woman a power player, it sounds pejorative? Your imagination.
- So now you're patronizing me.
- Okay, I'm not playing in this minefield.
You're already in it, pal.
Maceration is consistent with her position in the water, so she wasn't moved.
And she was out in the open air for at least two days near a garden.
So when there's a garden, there's entomology, and when there's entomology, there's Curtis, just in time.
I have a present for you.
And don't worry, he's got friends.
Second-stage Calliphoridae.
Blowfly maggots to you.
By my estimate, she's been dead for at least two days.
How fast can you confirm that? Well, there are six stages from eggs to adult.
I'd need to grow these little guys out, then calculate backwards.
Twenty days, maybe 25.
How about tomorrow? I'll do my best.
Oh, a present for Ethan.
This is the only trace evidence we found.
- Tell him I want a full analysis.
- Full analysis.
Got it.
Come on, little guys.
Let's eat.
What else does that thing tell you? Daphne Zimmer, never married, no kids.
Apparently, that magazine was her life.
- Guess where we're going.
- You're not gonna open her up? We have to wait for the body to dry out before we make an incision.
In the meantime, let's go find a match for that hair sample.
There she is.
Daphne Zimmer.
- Modest.
- Confident.
I don't see one hanging over your office.
Yet.
The show must go on, apparently.
Always busy between Fashion Week and charity-ball season.
I'll take your word for it.
- Coming through.
Sorry.
- Okay.
- Can I help you? - We need to see who's in charge here.
She's in a meeting.
- Who's in a meeting? - Daphne.
- Are we talking about the same person? - Hang on a sec.
Daphne Zimmer, the head of the magazine.
Her meetings are epic.
She might be a while.
She might be a lot longer than you think.
I see a lot of anxious people, but not a lot of grief.
Well, they just found out their boss died.
They're probably in shock.
Either that or work has taken its toll.
Look at these people.
He's got rhinophyma.
Tip O'Neill nose.
Heavy drinker.
She bites her nails, wears acrylics to cover up the damage.
Chews jewelry, keeps the nails out of the mouth.
And he has got trichotillomania.
- Trichto What? - Compulsive hair puller.
And he's just fidgety.
You are looking at some serious signs of stress.
In other words, somebody wanted the boss dead, and I am looking at a roomful of suspects.
Excuse me.
Who's Daphne's assistant? Let's start with him.
- We'd like to ask you a few questions.
- Yeah.
Hey, Kate Murphey returning your call.
Sorry we keep playing phone tag.
I'm at the office now, but you could always call me on my cell.
- I didn't hear anything.
- Next time try knocking.
Right.
Sorry.
Knock.
I'm pulling you off the Mackavoy case.
I want you to focus on Daphne Zimmer.
What do you know so far? About the hair? - That Curtis gave me half an hour ago? - That's right.
It's human.
And? It's human.
Daphne Zimmer was very well respected in this community.
A lot of people are asking questions, and you have the only trace evidence from the crime scene connected to the killer.
- So top priority.
- Start with the roots.
Look for any DNA.
Okay.
Let me get this straight.
You told the interns to say Daphne was in a meeting? It's the standard blowoff when we didn't know where she was.
So she was in the habit of going missing? For days at a time.
We've all come to expect it, and it's my job to cover for her.
Yeah, you were her first assistant, her gatekeeper, and you didn't know where she went? St.
Barts, the Vineyard.
It's a society magazine.
Daphne went out to society.
But she was paranoid about anybody knowing her schedule.
- But you set her schedule, didn't you? - In the office, yeah.
Daphne trusted me and we got along great, but she didn't tell me everything.
So when was the last time you had contact with her? Five days ago.
We spoke on the phone.
And I haven't seen or heard from her since.
It appears that your hair twirler, Stephen Burkett, was the last person to see Daphne alive.
That was five days ago, so if we're saying that she died two days ago, that's a lot of time that's unaccounted for, and Peter.
- Hi, Mom.
- Hey.
- Did you hear about Daphne? - Yes, I did.
Oh, boy, I'm gonna miss her.
We were so close.
- I know.
I'm very sorry.
- Then tell me what you know.
Mom, you know I can't tell you anything.
Well, at least let me see you tonight.
I could do with some company.
Listen, the club is having a black-tie social.
Will you come? The last time you made me go, you paraded me in front of 30 of your friends, and all they did was ask about Todd.
Megan, please.
I'm sorry, Mom, I I have a killer to catch.
How was your mom? She wants me to go to some god-awful club dinner.
Sounds like real quality time.
No time with my mother is quality time.
What are you looking for? You know how your skin prunes up when you take a bath? When a waterlogged body dries out, the skin smooths, revealing marks that are sometimes overlooked.
Like those.
Nail marks.
- From the struggle? - Maybe.
Bruising can show up to a week later.
Bring down that light, will you? - They're square.
- And thicker than normal.
Acrylics.
Is Bud still at the magazine? Daphne was a force of nature.
I just I can't believe she's dead.
Did you know her long? Eleven years.
I was office manager when she came on as editor.
Would you say that you and she were friends? Yeah.
Would you mind explaining why your nail marks are on her body? Every year, Daphne let her top writers enter this city journalism competition that she won.
And this year, she opened it up to everybody, the assistants, the interns.
And this copy editor complained.
You don't complain to Daphne.
She went ballistic.
I had to pull her off of him.
Did it bother you, her opening it up to everyone? High society is a cutthroat world.
I don't have what Daphne has.
Even she was always looking over her shoulder - for someone trying to take her down.
- Anybody in particular? Oh, pick a name.
But she had her own way of watching her back.
Thank you very much.
Would you mind sending in your copy editor next, please? Sure.
No blood or water in the lungs.
No physical signs of drowning.
So we think Daphne died two days ago, but we have no idea what killed her? Correct.
But I did find kidney damage and four-gland parathyroid hyperplasia.
- And that's bad how? - High calcium.
Symptoms include mood swings, anger, paranoia.
So maybe Daphne couldn't help her behavior in the office.
Or maybe she could, and she was just a B-l-T You were about to say, "A very powerful woman who has worked hard for her success"? I was about to say maybe she was a bit uneven.
Life isn't black-and-white.
Don't reduce Daphne's.
I matched time code to office phone records.
This is Stephen Burkett on the phone with Daphne Zimmer five days ago.
Oh, the assistant? Wait for it.
Wait for it.
Oh, Daphne's not the only one with anger issues.
Nice.
Yeah, we're good to go.
- Yeah, I kind of lost it.
- Kind of? I had plans to go to the shore that weekend.
It was Friday night.
Daphne tells me that I have to get a scarf for the mayor's wife's birthday, and I spent my whole weekend in Chicago.
I'm sorry.
Time-out.
You went to Chicago to get a scarf? Daphne has a favorite designer there, Audra Avery.
It was Friday night.
She wanted it Sunday.
Express delivery was not an option.
That's the most ridiculous errand I've ever heard of.
I'd snap too.
I might even ask myself how I'd get back at that person, particularly if that person were keeping me from my higher calling, writing professionally, gaining recognition.
You think I killed Daphne over a writing competition? You had motive, opportunity and plenty of anger.
You wanna talk about motive? Do you have any idea how many rich people Daphne's pissed off in this city? Try reading a few of our exposés.
Still no DNA on the hair from Daphne's pool.
My guess is Stephen Burkett.
Daphne sent him to Chicago to pick up some scarf.
He was really pissed off about it.
- When did that happen? - He left four days ago.
Then he didn't kill her.
After death, the cells break down and potassium levels rise.
Daphne's potassium levels are way too high for somebody who was dead for only two days.
So you're saying she was killed while Stephen was out of town? I will know for sure when we get a timeline from Curtis' maggots.
Meanwhile, look at this.
I sectioned a renal artery, looking for the causes of her kidney problems.
- You see that blue material? - Yeah, what is it? Old suture granulomas from kidney surgery.
And this is an almost completely healed fracture of the cheekbone.
I think Daphne's health problems started after somebody beat her up.
- There's no hospital record.
- She took care of it privately.
I'm sure there's a number of doctors who owed her a favor.
- What are those? - Articles.
Daphne took down some very big names in the past two years, so I'm guessing one of these guys was trying to get revenge.
How long ago do you think she was assaulted? Those suture calluses look about a year old.
September, a month prior.
So - Colin Lloyd.
- The department-store magnate? That affair was the talk of the town.
- Cost him $50 million.
- I will look into him.
Could you try not to enjoy that so much? Somebody's having a rough day.
It's just There's no roots on the hair, so no nuclear DNA.
It's the only evidence from the killer, and I'm a little stressed, so a little quiet would go a long way.
Did you hear that? Eat quietly.
Now, I can try to extract the mitochondrial DNA from the shaft.
What happened? It just It fell apart.
So the mysterious hair.
It's human, Caucasian and really weird.
Traces of arsenic and lead.
The killer has two different kinds of heavy-metal poisoning? I tested it twice.
It's bizarre.
- What about mitochondrial DNA? - Samples are pretty degraded.
You know, bones, teeth and hair are sort of your thing, so I was hoping you would not mind Do your job for you? I'd settle for with you.
Okay.
- Why don't you just go to the club? - She doesn't want me there.
She wants me there, in front of her friends.
Well, maybe today she just wants your company.
Luke Tillman.
Convicted of assaulting Daphne a year ago.
He only got three months.
- How did he pull that off? - Well, Daphne refused to testify.
Three months was all the DA could get.
- Why would she refuse to testify? - It's public.
When you're a power player, you can't afford to show your weakness.
- So where's Tillman now? - Dead.
- Shanked in prison.
- Convenient.
Too convenient.
Tillman worked in shipping.
Guess where.
Colin Lloyd's flagship store.
How about that? So he sends Tillman to beat up Daphne, and then a year later he kills her? - You've never been divorced.
- Amen.
- So how do we get to Colin Lloyd? - Oh, don't look at me.
He'll be lawyered up to the gills.
- Peter? - Yeah? Do you own a tuxedo? - Here you go.
- Thanks.
Megan? - It's been ages.
- Oh, Suzanne.
Suzanne, this is my colleague, Peter Dunlop.
- Hi.
- Jim and Suzanne Pollato.
- They own Niçoise Restaurant.
- Oh, right.
- Colleague? - Well, someone has to be.
- What are you doing these days, Megan? - You're a mortician, right? Medical examiner, actually.
- Did you hear about Daphne Zimmer? - I'm working on her case.
Oh, good Lord.
I just decided to be cremated.
- How about a drink inside, huh? - Good idea.
Lovely to see you both.
- Do you see Lloyd anywhere? - Relax.
Act like you own the place.
I don't even own this tux, Megan.
Well, speak of the devil.
There's Colin Lloyd himself.
And here we go.
Oh, my.
Oh, darling.
- I was sure you wouldn't come.
- Oh, I was too.
- Hi, how are you? - How are you? - And who's this? - Peter Dunlop.
- Hello.
- Hi.
Well, he's marvelous.
- We work together.
- Of course you do.
Brendan, I'd like you to meet my daughter, Megan.
- Joan has told me a lot about you.
- I'm sure that was excruciating for you.
Only the good things, dear.
Now, there are so many people I want you to meet, so Brendan, do you happen to know Colin Lloyd? Colin? Sure.
- Would you mind terribly introducing me? - Not at all.
- That's very good.
I will say no.
- Colin.
- Brendan.
- This is Megan Hunt, Joan's daughter.
- How do you do? - Hello.
You're every bit as beautiful as your mother.
- That's an amazing dress.
- Oh, thank you.
Would you mind taking a photo with me? Absolutely, I'd be delighted.
Peter? What do you know about Luke Tillman? - What the hell? - He worked for you.
He was convicted of assaulting Daphne Zimmer after she ran that exposé on you.
- What are you getting at? - You're aware she was murdered? - Megan, what on earth? - Are you accusing me? She cost you $50 million.
What happened? Sending Tillman to beat her up wasn't enough? - Who the hell do you think you are? - I'm a medical examiner.
And if I find out you had anything to do with her death, I'll nail you to the wall.
Thank you for the invitation, Mother.
I think we're done here.
- Joan.
- I don't know what to say.
You didn't have to make a scene just to get a hair sample.
Actually, I did.
I had to startle Lloyd enough to get him to open his eyes.
I noticed these café au lait spots on his neck, which are common birthmarks, but his were rather large, so then I looked at his irises.
- What are those flecks? - Lisch nodules.
Tiny benign growths on the irises.
They're associated with a disease called neurofibromatosis type 1.
Now watch this.
They both have them.
- I don't suppose that's a coincidence.
- No, it is not.
Timmy Akers, the intern at Daphne's magazine, is Colin Lloyd's son.
You are Colin Lloyd's son.
- Yeah.
How'd you find out? - You have your father's eyes.
Akers.
Your mom's maiden name? That's right.
I want nothing to do with my father.
Strange timing, you joining the magazine a year ago, right after Daphne's written that article skewering your father.
How do you think I got this job? I was the one that came to Daphne with the story on my father.
She gave me an internship in return.
Daphne was assaulted after that article came out.
- Were you aware of that? - I had no idea.
But I wouldn't put it past my father.
You expensed travel to and from Daphne's house? You've been there dozens of times over the last few months.
You must know the house well.
Hold on.
You think I did it? I liked Daphne.
She gave me a chance when no one else would.
- She trusted me.
- Why? Why did she trust you? Because I understood her.
She wasn't the monster people made her out to be.
She needed some help, so I ran some errands for her.
- What kind of errands? - Anything she wanted.
Food if she was at home, or books.
Or heating pads.
A space heater once.
She was always cold.
And bottled water.
She couldn't drink enough.
Aches, chills, thirst.
They're all connected to her kidney damage.
I appreciate you teeing up Stephen and Lauren and Timmy for me, but you know what would be even more helpful? A cause of death.
Hell, I'd even settle for a time of death.
Believe me, no one is more frustrated than I am.
Megan.
Mom, what are you doing here? I came here because I wanted to tell you how disappointed and hurt I was with your behavior at the club.
Okay, wait It was graceless, insensitive and wildly inappropriate.
I thought Daphne was your friend.
And besides, Colin Lloyd, he had it coming.
You think this is about Colin Lloyd? You embarrassed me and yourself.
Well, you know, I don't feel embarrassed, so I guess it's all about you.
No, it's about my friends.
And Daphne was my friend.
You know I owe her my career because of the article she wrote years ago.
You have no idea how I'm going to miss her.
What a lonely world you inhabit in that head of yours.
I feel sorry for you, Megan.
You don't know what it's like to have friends.
You know what? You're right.
I don't.
Because after my accident, after I lost my profession, my standing, where were my friends? - Where were you? - I was right here for you.
No, you weren't.
You were embarrassed.
You were too worried about your friends.
- They're all like this? - Yes.
Thank you.
Well, according to your analysis, Daphne's killer is high on opium, poisoned by various metals, and puts resin in their hair for reasons unknown.
It is an odd series of traits.
Odd? Yeah, the person is certifiable, Ethan.
All right, let's look for any contamination and run another PCR.
- Try to get a match to some suspects.
- You got it.
- Yes? - Nothing.
It's just, you're being really nice to me, which, don't get me wrong, it's really great, but it can't be because of me.
My private life is private.
Let's leave it at that, all right? Yeah.
Yeah, of course.
Can you fax that for me, please? Hey.
Where's Ethan on the hair from the pool? Stuck.
No matches to Lloyd or anyone at the magazine.
So no signs of trauma, no drowning.
She was ill, but not terminal.
Got something for you.
He went from stage two to stage three just a few minutes ago.
You got a time of death? This little guy was laid approximately 70 hours ago.
Wait, so Daphne was dead for two days after all? Yeah.
And there's something strange about this guy.
- His growth is stunted.
- Is he diseased? He's high.
I tested his family.
They're all full of acetylsalicylic acid.
Aspirin? That could spike her potassium levels.
The last thing you wanna take for kidney disease.
Unless she didn't know she was taking it.
Only two of these people had access to Daphne's medical records.
And thanks to Curtis' bugs, one of them just lost his four-day alibi.
Two days? - Two days? You're positive now? - Bugs don't lie.
So Stephen had time to come back from Chicago and kill her with aspirin? Daphne's system was extremely sensitive.
When Luke Tillman assaulted her, she sustained kidney damage, leading to secondary hyperparathyroidism, leading to hypercalcemia, causing paranoia and mood swings.
But the kidney damage also elevated her potassium.
Promise me when you tell him that, it'll actually make sense.
Giving her aspirin was like throwing gasoline on a fire.
Her potassium levels spiked, and her heart stopped like that.
Daphne complained of headaches all the time.
She wanted the aspirin.
- Aspirin or other painkillers? - I didn't know it was dangerous.
Oh, come on.
You screened every call she took, including doctors.
You mean you didn't know what aspirin would do to her? No.
I had no idea how sick she was.
Stephen, help yourself.
It's time for the truth.
You gotta understand.
Every pill I slipped her was a day of freedom from Daphne hell.
She'd stay home, and I could get some writing done, which is the only reason that I put up with her in the first place.
You never noticed the more aspirin you gave her, the sicker she became? No, no, wait a second.
I wasn't trying to hurt her.
It was only aspirin.
That, my friend, is called involuntary manslaughter.
Congratulations.
I hear that Stephen Burkett's under arrest.
Oh, I thought that would be good news.
Potassium-induced cardiac arrest is a diagnosis of exclusion.
We know her heart stopped, we don't know why.
Aspirin's all we got.
It's all we need, along with Stephen's confession.
If Stephen goes to jail and the killer remains free because we couldn't find cause of death, that's a triple tragedy.
Megan, it's all we have for the moment.
Just try and take your mind off the job, okay? Look, a bunch of us are going out tonight.
Eight o'clock at the J Bar on South Street.
Why don't you come? Oh, I don't know if I can.
My mother called.
She wants me to have dinner with her.
She wants a truce.
Then you should do that.
Peter? - Why now? - What do you mean? I mean, this is the first time you've ever invited me to anything.
Don't look so shocked.
We just wanna hang out with you, that's all.
- That is it.
- What? You are a genius.
- Did I miss something? - No, I did.
See those? Epicardial petechiae.
Microbleeds around the heart.
- From the aspirin, right? - Nope.
Now look at this.
See those bands? Myofiber breakup.
It's extremely rare.
- I've only seen one paper on it.
- So, what is it? Daphne's heart cells changed dramatically in the last seconds of her life, which means only one thing.
Yeah? What can stop a heart, cause microscopic trauma, and pass for potassium-induced cardiac arrest, all without leaving a trace? What? Daphne was electrocuted.
Where there's electrocution, there has to be an exit wound.
Bring that light over here, will you? Everything's on.
It's not the pool outlets.
Main outlets look fine.
No sign of a power surge.
Turn on the garden lights.
Looks like a small bull's eye.
That's where the current left her body.
Her waterlogged skin hid the mark.
Okay, so, what are these? Contact burns.
Some kind of grill? Timmy mentioned buying Daphne a space heater.
- Find out what kind.
- Okay.
Alcohol, opium and arsenic.
Alcohol, opium and arsenic.
Wait a second.
Bingo.
Looks like charring.
This outlet's shorted out.
Something was plugged in here.
Finally have news for you on the hair from Daphne Zimmer's pool.
It was chock-full of everything, alcohol, opium, various metals.
We just assumed it was fresh hair.
Trace alcohol was actually absinthe, and the opiates were laudanum.
Laudanum? No one uses that anymore.
Add to that high concentrations of heavy metals, and your hair is over a hundred years old.
Possibly Victorian.
They used to put hair in jewelry as keepsakes.
Okay.
These gentlemen are extremely fashionable, but only one wears jewelry exactly like that.
I'll tell Bud to get a warrant.
So, Miss Matthews, it doesn't look good for you.
We pulled this lock of hair from Daphne Zimmer's pool.
And once we match it to the locket you're wearing, we can place you at the scene of the crime.
We were friends.
Daphne let me swim in her pool all summer.
- I assume you have a key.
- Yeah.
- You wanna see it? - Where you going? How many times a week did you swim? This is Dr.
Hunt.
- Is your wrist bothering you? - Yeah.
Oh, that's a nasty burn.
Oh, yeah, I just burned myself in the kitchen.
No, you didn't.
You went to see Daphne that morning.
You were pissed.
Daphne? Because you had to compete with interns for the journalism award.
- I've worked for you for 11 years.
- I reward good writing, not seniority.
The two of you fought.
- I trusted you.
- Get out of here.
- You witch.
- Daphne grabbed your necklace, and the lock of hair fell into the pool.
You thought, "Eleven years of service overlooked.
" You lost control, saw the space heater, and threw it in the pool.
No! Don't! When you realized what you'd done, I'd like to think that you tried to save her.
You went to unplug the heater and shocked yourself.
And that's when you burned your wrist.
After the circuit was blown, you took it out of the pool, thought you left nothing behind.
But you were wrong.
Rose gold contains copper.
Copper conducts electricity.
That is an electromagnetic burn on your wrist.
I had gone there to complain, and she fired me.
It was an accident.
She just Lauren Matthews, you're under arrest for the murder of Daphne Zimmer.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney.
If you can't afford an attorney, an attorney will be provided for you.
Do you understand these rights? Goodbye, Daphne.
- Where is Kate? - She is not coming.
How about Dr.
Hunt? - Well, I guess she can't make it either.
- Figures.
- Boys' night.
- All right.
- Let's do it.
- Yeah.
Sorry I'm late.
I didn't give up on you, you know.