Elementary s02e10 Episode Script
Tremors
Apparently the mayor's gonna hinge his reelection campaign on the renewed vigilance when it comes to quality of life crimes, so keep it in mind when you're out there doing real work.
Captain? Guy walked in, said he needs to see the man in charge.
Are you the lord here? He keeps saying "lord.
" I took it to mean "captain".
Tom Gregson.
Can I help you? I am the knight.
I was dubbed.
Now I am the knight.
Okay.
That's why I had to kill the queen.
You killed the queen? It was my duty.
I had to kill her.
I had to.
Gun! Sir! It was my duty.
Hey! If you pick up that gun, this is gonna end fast and ugly.
I'm the knight.
Holmes, stay back, stay back! I was dubbed.
Sir, I'm gonna ask you one more time-- step away from that weapon.
Can I try something? Try it fast.
The, uh, scarf on your wrist? On your wrist.
It It As I was saying, I noticed the scarf straightaway.
This is an extremely compelling story, Mr.
Holmes, but I asked about the James Dylan case.
The incident you're describing is connected to the murder or Rada Hollingsworth.
Which is, in turn, inextricably linked to the tale of James Dylan.
If you would just answer the question I asked you.
I am answering the question, just more precisely than you intended me to.
You cannot understand one incident without first understanding the other.
As I was saying The scarf on your wrist-- was it a favor from your lady? Yes.
Belonged to my queen.
Then it must be returned to her.
Knight's Code commands it, yeah? You give it to me, I'll have a squire bring it to her.
Here.
Allow me, sir.
Go down.
- Down! - No! Knight's Code? What is that? Uh, it's oral tradition.
The man's clearly schizophrenic, but his delusions are based on, uh on actual history.
In the Middle Ages, a knight would often wear a token from their beloved.
Usually an article of clothing, a scarf.
Any thoughts where the queen who gave it to him might be? No, not just yet.
Give the man a minute, will you? He's a brave and brilliant instrument of justice.
All we got to do is stay out of his way, and he'll lead us right to the truth.
I got to throw a flag on the play.
Now, I've known Tommy Gregson a long time.
I'm guessing he didn't actually say that.
He may have used different words to make the same point.
Mr.
Holmes, do me a favor? Spare us the flourishes.
You're under oath, and that oath counts.
This is a real hearing presided over by a real judge.
Of course, Your Honor.
It is an administrative hearing.
This court represents neither state nor federal law, but rather the dictates of the police department of New York.
So, "real judge," while not technically inaccurate, seems like an overstatement.
By all means, let's be 100% accurate.
I do only represent the police department of New York.
We're here today because you screwed up.
And the NYPD has empowered me, as a technically real judge, to determine the magnitude of said screw-up, and to make a recommendation as to whether or not you and your partner can continue your relationship with the city.
Now, is that accurate enough for you? We're here today because of one particular breach of protocol.
Alleged breach of protocol.
Alleged breach of protocol.
I'm curious, though.
Would you say the incident is part of a larger pattern? Tommy.
Commissioner.
So how about it, Mr.
Holmes? Is this all part of a larger pattern? I'm sorry.
I don't follow you.
Do you routinely break the law during the course of your investigations? Ah, not that I recall, no.
So you've never broken the law? Everyone breaks the law, Ms.
Walker.
Case in point.
You have been precisely seven minutes early for every meeting we've ever had.
You arrange your notebooks exactly the same way each day.
You position a small photograph of an eleventh-century bust so that you can look at it before you begin your work.
Are you suggesting that someone as bound by routine such as yourself has never crossed against the traffic lights in order to keep to a schedule? I'm not talking about that kind of law-breaking.
So, some degree of criminality is acceptable, the rest is just negotiating boundaries? Answer the questions directly, Mr.
Holmes.
If you won't do it out of respect for this institution, do it for the officer who's in the hospital 'cause of what happened here.
I have never broken the law in a manner Ms.
Walker suggests.
We have statements from several officers saying they have no idea how you and your partner get inside of so many private homes and businesses when nobody's there.
They all think you break in.
So, you didn't pick the lock on Victor Nardin's apartment? You didn't break into the McTierney Brothers Mortuary? A couple of our officers even think you've taught your partner how to do it.
The officers who told you those things are confused.
You're saying you didn't enter those dwellings? Because you used evidence from inside those places.
No.
Ms.
Watson and I entered those locations, just not illegally.
I'm not sure I understand.
It was quite some time ago, but if I remember correctly, on most of those occasions, the doors were open.
In New York City? The front doors were open? Not just unlocked, but actually open? I was surprised, as well.
In several other instances, we thought we heard cries for help.
They turned out to be televisions with the volume turned up.
So there's an epidemic of people leaving their TVs on? Once we mistook the cries of a small puppy for a baby in distress.
Your Honor, allow me to register my skepticism.
Registered, but unless you've got a witness who can contradict Mr.
Holmes' testimony How could she? Miss Watson and I were the only ones present.
Oh, I'll be asking Miss Watson what happened.
Excellent.
That should clear things up.
So, someone walked into the eleventh precinct with a shotgun.
This has something to do with the James Dylan incident No, it has everything to do with it.
Having disarmed the knight, we turned our attention to establishing his identity and that of the queen.
Does anyone ever call you anything besides "The Knight"? It was my duty to kill the queen.
I-I was summoned to her lair and told that only in death would her soul be saved from the demons.
Th-This lair-- do you have any idea where it is? It was my sworn duty.
This is going nowhere.
He's schizophrenic, in the middle of a psychotic episode.
It's going to be days and a lot of risperidone before he starts making sense.
Not a time frame that bodes well for the queen, on the off chance she is still alive.
Well, there's blood in the treads of his boots.
Probably hers.
Two receipts, both for early-morning coffee runs.
One at 6:27 a.
m.
, one at 6:36, both from the same bodega on West 20th and Fifth Avenue.
Well, maybe he lives in the Flatiron district.
Along with hundreds of thousands of other people.
Only one of them is named Silas Cole.
I texted his picture to a friend of mine who works the psych E.
R.
at Sanbridge.
She recognized him.
I set her free.
Captain, the man's name is Silas Cole.
He lives in the Flatiron District.
We'll have an address for you momentarily.
All right.
I'll get a warrant for his place.
This does not fill me with optimism for the queen.
Well, the figure on the right is obviously Silas, which would suggest the queen is a real person, as well.
Yeah, but how do we know for sure that's the queen? Yeah, I don't see any crown.
In the Middle Ages, only royalty were allowed to wear purple and ermine.
That is most certainly Silas's queen.
And he did rather a good job with the likeness.
Oh.
So she was his girlfriend.
Seriously? That guy's in no shape to be dating anyone.
Well, you don't know what he was like on his meds.
Silas and his queen were together till about six months ago, I would venture.
These photographs-- all taken over the last three years.
There are none from last summer.
Hmm.
Maybe she's the one who broke up with him.
Okay, look at this necklace.
Maybe he gave it to her as a gift.
She gave it back to him when they broke up.
Her name starts with an "R".
There's a whole stack of fashion magazines here.
Last year's issue Subscription mailing label's addressed to Rada Hollingsworth.
She lives on 23rd.
So, Detective Bell was actually the one who identified Ms.
Hollingsworth as "The Queen.
" A substantial contribution to the case, wouldn't you say? Yes.
One of many he's made during our work together.
Sounds like you regard him as a real asset to the department.
Detective Bell is several standard deviations above the norm.
I've always regarded him as such.
Your affection for the man really shines through.
According to your deposition, when you got to Rada Hollingsworth's apartment, the door was wide open.
That's correct.
It was.
Ms.
Hollingsworth? Ms.
Hollingsworth? In here! Looks like she's been dead for a couple hours.
These must be Silas's boot prints.
All right, I'm gonna call the station.
Tell 'em to book Cole.
Don't.
You know, I'm not convinced that Silas Cole killed this woman.
Sorry.
Silas Cole walked into the station holding a shotgun and confessed.
You were standing there looking at his footprints, and your first thought was he didn't kill Rada Hollingsworth? Not my first thought.
I tend to have thoughts in rapid succession.
She'd been shot in the chest, rib cage.
Her heart had essentially been obliterated.
The knight wouldn't do that.
Silas Cole said he killed her in order to save her soul.
In the Middle Ages, the heart was not just a symbol of romantic love.
It was the vessel for the soul.
So for him to shoot her in her heart-- in the universe of his delusions-- he would be sentencing her to eternal damnation.
He wouldn't do that.
He loved her.
And the confession? The footprints? Silas Cole was acting in diminished capacity.
He may well have believed he was responsible, even if he wasn't.
As to the footprints, there's no question that he was in the apartment.
I just don't believe he pulled the trigger.
Which means, of course, someone else did.
Your Honor, Ms.
Watson is scheduled to testify at this hearing.
- She can't be here.
- Excuse me, Your Honor, I have an important message for Captain Gregson.
His phone is off.
I would not interrupt otherwise.
What's going on? Mr.
Holmes, while you're on the stand in my courtroom, you will limit yourself to testimony relevant to this case.
Do you understand? Yep.
Thanks for texting, Gretchen.
What happened? While I was repairing the abdominal wall, a blood clot formed in the left ventricle.
I thought this was supposed to be routine surgery.
We thought he was out of the woods a few days ago, too.
There's no such thing as "routine" when you're recovering from a gunshot to the abdomen.
What happened with the clot? It got wedged in his right subclavian artery.
Obstructed the blood flow to his arm for about 30 minutes.
So what's the prognosis? He might be fine.
Or? Or he may never regain full use of the limb.
He's in recovery.
Tell me again why they wait until five days after he got shot to perform the operation.
They leave abdominal wounds open for a while.
It helps reduce infection.
It's absolutely standard procedure.
The timeline has nothing to do with the clot.
He was still unconscious when I left.
They'll know more once he wakes up.
I'm gonna go back to the hospital.
You should come when this is over.
You haven't visited Bell once since he was shot.
You asked me to grab you when we're headed back in.
Thank you for the news.
Hey.
Wide open doors? Puppies? I'm just saying what I need to say to get us back to work.
Well, it's not just what you say.
It's how you say it.
You can hate what's going on in there.
You can think it's beneath you.
But if the judge knows that you think that, how is that good for you? Be nice.
It's the smart play.
Did you put this on my desk? "At the head of all understanding is realizing "what is and what cannot be and the consoling of what is not in our power to change".
It's a lovely sentiment.
First expressed by the 11th century poet Solom ben Judah.
But you know that 'cause you've got a photograph of ben Judah's bust on your day planner.
So? The saying is thought to be an early derivation of the Serenity Prayer, which is commonly recited by recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.
Is that why you keep the photograph? As a gentle reminder of the prayer? Is this some kind of threat? No.
No, there's nothing on earth that would make me reveal a secret of that nature.
It's it's just a-a tip of the cap, you know? From one obsessive to another.
Just an acknowledgment that the world we live in is so often too complicated for the rules we make to keep it orderly.
Ms.
Walker, ready when you are.
You heard about Marcus Bell's complications, I take it.
Yes, of course.
I'm told they may have long-term implications for his career.
In that light, I was wondering if you feel any regret about your methods in this case.
This is a courtroom, Ms.
Walker, not a confessional.
Fair enough.
Let's turn back to the Rada Hollingsworth investigation.
Yes, well, Captain Gregson did not agree with my assessment that Silas Cole was innocent of her murder, so Ms.
Watson and I explored other avenues on our own.
Ex-lovers, colleagues, a neighbor with designs on Rada's apartment.
All of those, dead ends.
But in the course of exploring Rada's life, we learned that she was seeing an oncologist named Dr.
Phineas Hobbs.
When had Ms.
Hollingsworth been diagnosed with cancer? Seven months prior to her murder.
Dr.
Hobbs was administering a stage one drug trial - which Rada was enrolled in.
- I'm sorry.
Rada didn't say anything to me about where she planned to go when she left my office.
We tended to talk mostly about her diagnosis.
I'm sure you understand.
She was really responding to the medication.
It was beautiful to watch.
I thought she might even go into remission.
But, uh, I guess her ex-boyfriend had other ideas.
Rada told you about her relationship with Silas? Yes, she mentioned that her former boyfriend was schizophrenic.
She'd, uh, ask me for advice about it sometimes.
I really had no idea how sick the man was until he showed up here about about a week and a half before she died.
He was ranting.
I thought about pursuing a committal.
I should have.
Obviously.
Drug trials like yours are expensive, are they not? They're rarely covered by insurance.
Rada Hollingsworth was a teacher.
Have you any sense as to how she paid for the study? I know exactly how she paid for it.
She cashed in her life insurance for a viatical settlement.
A viatical settlement is a repugnant, predatory arrangement whereby a terminally ill patient signs away their future life insurance payment in exchange for a monthly cash advance.
The company or individual making those payments is essentially betting that their client will die before the payments surpass the value of the policy.
In Ms.
Hollingsworth's case, the vulture circling overhead was an employee of a company called Helping Hands Viaticals.
That man's name was James Dylan.
The equation seems simple enough.
The longer she lived, the less profit for you.
In fact, according to the terms of employment of this place, if she outlives the value of her life insurance policy, the money comes out of your pocket.
So it seems like you would have incentive to want her gone.
Yeah, well, that doesn't mean I killed her.
So where were you the night she died? Look, if you want to talk about this, we can go somewhere else.
And if you're gonna grill me, I want a lawyer there.
Right now, we got new leads in from a nursing home, and I got to hit the phones.
This place is a miserable warren of cynicism and despair.
You'd think they'd have a hard time holding on to their employees.
And yet the cubicles are full.
Some of your colleagues even have diplomas on display.
So it seems in this economy, your employers have no trouble in attracting the overqualified.
Yeah.
So? So I was wondering if they know that you're a convicted felon who's spent time in prison.
- Who told you that? - Seems like a fair question.
How did you learn about Mr.
Dylan's criminal record? When I learned that James Dylan had sold Rada Hollingsworth her viatical, I did some cursory research into his background, research his employers had apparently neglected to do.
That's the beauty of the Internet.
from twerking kittens to criminal records.
Mr.
Dylan stated in a deposition given from his hospital bed that you discovered that information from his phone.
Which you accessed without a warrant.
Would it surprise you to learn that James Dylan is lying? Not necessarily.
But you do tend to attract people who lie about your illegal behavior.
Who told you that? Why, you did.
That's my phone! According to your outgoing calls, you regularly contact the same local number several times a week.
It has a 477 prefix.
That's the same as our precinct.
It's a municipal number.
Yeah, you stole this.
Your calendar says you have a recurring commitment every Tuesday.
Now, there's no heading on that appointment, so my first thought was weekly Brazilian, but then I noticed the address of the Tuesday rendezvous.
It's 202 Broadway, which, as it turns out, is the office of the New York State Division of Parole.
Okay.
Let's take this outside.
On the night that Rada Hollingsworth was murdered, I was having a drink at Sharkey's on Gansevoort Street.
And your presence in a bar is a violation of your parole.
Yeah, I got sent upstate after a bar fight.
I got out of control and I broke this guy's legs.
So on the particular night that you're asking about, okay I had had a lousy day at work.
I mean, whatever, they're all lousy, actually, but on this particular day, I just felt like having a couple of drinks with a friend.
Okay, there's at least a dozen people who can vouch.
I was nowhere near Rada Hollingsworth.
We're gonna need names and numbers.
Okay, fine.
But please, don't tell my parole officer.
James Dylan's associates confirmed that he had indeed been drinking at the time Rada Hollingsworth was killed, so he was no longer a suspect.
You are aware, of course, that it's a crime to steal private property? I stole no property.
Nor did I call James Dylan's parole officer.
So, our investigation was back to square one.
Usually, this means a distraction of some sort is called for.
Interesting.
Hey, you never came down to eat.
I had extra.
What gives? Science-- the most potent distraction of all.
Hey, I've been looking for that.
Um, and what are you trying to distract yourself from? Silas Cole said he was summoned to Rada Hollingsworth's apartment, which makes me think that the actual killer did the summoning.
Indeed, Silas received a phone call from a disposable cell phone at 8:40 p.
m.
Rada's neighbor thought she heard a truck backfiring at 7:35.
That had to be the shotgun blast that killed her, so, why would you kill Rada at 7:35, then wait over an hour before calling Silas to the scene? Why, indeed.
I've been considering Rada's autopsy.
Her blood potassium levels were 22.
4.
That's quite high, isn't it? Not for a body a few hours postmortem.
After you die, your cells start leaking potassium into the bloodstream.
So, the longer you've been dead, the higher your potassium level.
Of course, if you killed Rada, then waited an hour before calling Silas, it could be because you wanted the potassium in her blood to build up.
Mm.
And what would be the purpose of that? I don't know.
To conceal an already elevated potassium level? Potassium chloride is an extremely effective way of killing someone.
It does the heavy lifting at most of your state-sanctioned lethal injections.
It sounds crazy, but it would explain the time gap.
And it would be easy enough for us to figure out if we're right.
We just test the vitreous fluid in her eyes.
It's not subject to the postmortem potassium build-up.
Of course, it wasn't crazy at all.
The tests confirmed what Watson and I had suspected.
Rada Hollingsworth was killed with an overdose of potassium chloride.
This discovery exonerated Silas Cole, who we had confirmed was legitimately delusional.
The murder was clearly the result of careful planning, and he was in no fit state to carry out such methodical work.
You're smiling.
That is the first time you have been anything but irritated since we started.
Well, an innocent man was freed.
And what, in your opinion, does this have to do with what happened to Detective Bell? Whether one believes that I have occasionally broken the rules or not, you cannot evaluate the work that Watson and I do without considering the good that so often comes of it.
Whatever happened later, it matters that a mentally ill citizen is not unjustly imprisoned at the moment.
It has to matter to all of us.
Or we might as well just dissolve this institution and start again.
This is just one instance.
There are many, many others.
All of which, by the way, my partner and I donate free of charge to the city of New York, so I hardly think this proceeding is the appropriate response to our work.
And what is the appropriate response? "Thank you" would be nice.
I'll make sure Marcus Bell gets that message.
Well, Bell's stable.
They've decided to keep him sedated overnight.
Less stress on his system.
And you're making Yorkshire pudding.
Well spotted, Watson.
Most Americans mistake them for muffins.
When I was younger, our governess would enlist my help in making Yorkshire pudding for Sunday lunch, and ever since then, I've found making them to have a calming effect.
Yeah, Gregson told me about the hearing.
What? I enjoy making Yorkshire Pudding, Watson.
Not eating it.
It is absolutely revolting.
I could dig you one out if you'd like to try it.
I'm good, thanks for asking after you threw them away.
Oh, you're upset with me.
You know, for a genius, you can be a real nimrod.
You know that I have to testify tomorrow, right? Which means I get to lie under oath about puppies and-and wide open doors and Shouldn't be a problem.
If we stick to our story, there's nothing they can do.
Well, if you bothered to come up with a better story, it wouldn't be so obvious that we were lying.
You're practically daring them to fire us.
You think I'm letting my ego pay too big a role in this affair? This is not about your ego.
I know that we color outside the lines a lot, but this time, Bell got shot.
Doesn't that give you pause about how we do our jobs? No.
Why not? Why do we get to be above the rules? Because our methods work, and I'm comfortable that our actions are guided by a morality which supersedes any clumsy employee manual.
The danger with rulebooks, Watson, is that they offer the illusion that leading a moral life is a simple undertaking, that the world exists in black and white.
Welcome to the grays.
Miss Watson, you and your partner have often found yourselves inside of crime scenes and other places of interest ahead of the police, ahead of any kind of warrant.
Would you say that's a fair assessment? I'd say it's happened on occasion.
How? We've encountered an unusual number of open doors.
Open doors.
I see.
Did you ever break into a place to help out a puppy? Once.
Although we didn't realize it was a puppy until after we were inside.
And how did you and your partner learn about Mr.
Dylan's criminal record? We looked into his background while we were waiting to talk to him.
Neither of you stole Mr.
Dylan's cell phone? No.
So, you are committed to the same version of events as your partner? No further questions.
Actually, I'd like to ask a few questions.
You want to cross-examine your own partner? I am within my rights, Your Honor.
I'm acting as my own counsel.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll be as brief as I can, Your Honor.
Um After you and your partner Uh, should I refer to myself as "your partner," or should I refer to myself in the first person? Doesn't matter.
Great.
After you and your partner freed Silas Cole, how did you go about finding the real killer? Rada Hollingsworth died of a potassium overdose.
Potassium chloride is something that you can get online, but to use it in the way that the killer did, you had to understand the biochemistry of dying tissue.
That's why the killer waited over an hour before calling Silas Cole.
All of that suggested we were looking for someone with a medical background.
Hmm.
Rada Hollingsworth-- she was a cancer patient.
She was attended by a virtual platoon of medical professionals.
So, are you saying that they were all suspects? I'm saying that, when we started looking, none of them were.
We didn't have a motive, so we went to the morgue.
You examined Rada Hollingsworth's body in an effort to find an investigative bread crumb.
Yes.
But I should say, "body" isn't really a The remains of Rada Hollingsworth's internal organs.
Shredded by buckshot.
Then dissected by the M.
E.
Then divvied up, organ by organ, into their own bags.
Hmm.
This is gonna get messy.
Shall we unpack? Do you really want me to describe everything in the bags? Well, why don't you just skip to the good bit? Nothing unusual with the liver.
Her heart-- pretty much just a bunch of muscle fiber.
Hmm.
The killer must have put the shotgun barrel right over it.
Now, do we think that this was by chance, or was the obliteration of the heart intentional? It seems like overkill, literally.
I mean, she was already dead from the potassium.
You'd only destroy the heart if you were looking to conceal something about it.
Hmm.
And how would we determine whether the tissue was healthy when she died? Well, that's what microscopes are for.
Hand me that box of slides.
Rada's cardiac tissue showed clear signs of dilated cardiomyopathy.
Her heart was enlarged.
She would have started to feel symptoms of congestive heart failure.
Could her enlarged heart have been a result of her cancer? Not directly.
And everything in her records looked normal from a few months previous.
What, then, do you think caused the change? Well, it's not unusual for it to be a side effect of certain chemotherapy drugs, especially more aggressive treatments.
Treatments such as the ones Rada was receiving on the drug trial run by Dr.
Phineas Hobbs? The drug was in stage one trials.
Typically, an experimental drug becomes hugely profitable once it gets to stage two.
We're talking millions of dollars that wouldn't have made it into Dr.
Hobbs' pockets if anyone learned about Rada's condition.
So, in other words, there, buried within that bag of posthumous slop, you found A motive.
I'm sorry.
You told me you had a few follow-up questions.
It sounds like I'm a suspect.
You most assuredly are.
Well, then, uh, I'm getting a lawyer.
Aah! What the hell are you doing? Hurts quite a bit, doesn't it? I bet you've got a nasty be under there.
That's the thing about shotguns.
If you don't know how to brace them properly, the kickback will get you every time.
I hurt myself playing squash.
Once you dispatched Rada, it was time to put your patsy in play.
Well aware of Silas's delusions, you telephoned him - to come to the crime scene.
- We think you convinced him he killed Rada.
Then you gave him the gun, shoved some shotgun shells in his pocket, and then sent him on his way.
I'm sure you thought he'd get gunned down.
- Either way, you were covered.
- Or at least you thought you were.
But the shotgun didn't just kick back into your shoulder.
The trigger caught your finger, as well.
Opened up a nasty little cut, didn't it? It's not the kind of thing you'd notice in the heat of committing your very first murder.
But it drew enough blood that some of it wound up in the grooves on the strike plates of those shells you put in Silas's pocket.
You wiped the shells clean of prints.
You're a smart guy.
But those little grooves-- they're hard to get to.
We know the blood didn't come from Silas or Rada.
This is a warrant to compel a DNA test from you.
We can run the tests, wait for the results, or you can just start talking now.
WATSON; Dr.
Hobbs confessed.
He's losing his medical license, and he's going to jail for a very long time.
Thank you, Doctor Thank you, Miss Watson.
A very great pleasure indeed.
Redirect? Then what happened? You mean with Dr.
Hobbs? No.
I've seen enough of your mutual admiration society for one day.
I'm talking about the reason we are actually here.
The day you got Phineas Hobbs to confess to murder.
What happened when you were leaving work? We were just heading out of the station.
I'm not learning fencing from you, Holmes.
Please stop asking me.
It's not fencing.
It is singlestick.
Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it's fascinating, but I'm not interested.
At all.
Now, if you want to talk about real sports, like basketball You couldn't keep your voice down, huh? Mr.
Dylan, it's business hours.
Shouldn't you be trolling a cancer ward looking for prospective clients? No, 'cause I don't have that job anymore.
'Cause somebody overheard you at work.
They heard you say that I've been in jail.
They told my boss, and he fired me.
Well, that would matter less if you could actually sell What's the opposite of ice to Eskimos? Give the man a break.
He just lost his job.
Well, perhaps this is an opportunity for you to do something a little less soul-sucking.
No, I won't be doing anything because my boss called my P.
O.
and he violated me.
I'm going back to prison.
That's a regrettable outcome.
Regrettable? You ruined my life, man.
You don't get to just walk away.
Gun! one officer and one suspect.
We need an EMT here ASAP.
No further questions.
Well, thank goodness that's over.
Do you have any sense on how the judge is leaning? Guess we'll find out in the morning.
Yeah.
I'm gonna head over to see Bell right now.
All right, I'll see you later at the brownstone.
Hey.
Hey.
How's it going? All right.
I bumped into the nurse on the way in.
She said that you have some movement back in your arm.
Yeah, that might be a bit of an understatement.
They said I, uh might get better.
In time, physical therapy can do wonders with nerve damage.
I've seen it.
The, uh the department requires detectives to carry a gun, so what happens if I can't anymore? What are his chances of making a full recovery? Well, he's young and healthy, which is good, but there's no way to tell how much function he'll regain.
Practicing left-handed is one way to show you care about what happened.
A better one would be to visit him.
I'm well aware of your feelings on the matter, even if your logic eludes me.
This is not about logic.
It's the right thing to do.
It would be an empty gesture.
Unlike you, I have no medical insight to offer him.
And I can't imagine my presence would be anything more than an invasion of his privacy.
I don't care if you lie in court, but do not lie to me.
This is not about Bell's privacy.
This is about your guilt.
Look, you're not directly responsible for what happened-- that is on James Dylan.
But this time, your fondness for blowing past "bureaucratic guidepost", got a man you respect shot.
If I went, what would I say? I've got nothing to offer the man other than a few banal bromides.
What makes you think that's not enough? This hearing has left me no doubt that Sherlock Holmes is a singular mind, and the work that he's done with Joan Watson has been an asset to the NYPD.
Now, that an officer was wounded during the course of that work is a highly regrettable outcome but one that occurs in law enforcement.
Another regrettable outcome in law enforcement is when officers decide that they are above the rules.
So in spite of Mr.
Holmes' good intentions, he's demonstrated amply that he doesn't care to control his actions.
As such, my recommendation to the commissioner will be that Mr.
Holmes and Ms.
Watson be terminated as consultants to the NYPD.
You needn't gloat.
It's unbecoming of the good work that you did.
I'm not here to spike the ball.
I'm going to a meeting.
Seems like maybe you should come with me.
Boy, the Giants sure do suck this year.
Commissioner.
I'm not watching the Giants.
I know.
Just felt like it needed to be said.
I wanted to make sure they're taking good care of you here.
The hearing ended today.
The judge recommended that I end our arrangement with Holmes and his partner.
It's just a recommendation, though.
The decision's mine.
And I'll admit it I'm struggling with it.
Captain Gregson pointed out that tossing Holmes opens the department up to charges of impropriety on every case Holmes worked on.
That's a lot of closed cases that could get opened up again.
Clearly, Holmes is a loose cannon.
But this time, a first grade detective got caught in his crossfire.
Facing danger from a guy on your own team can I really ask officers to do that? Wait, are you You're asking me what you should do? How could I not? You've been working with the guy for a long time, and you're the one who caught a bullet.
I heard your hearing didn't go too well.
Not well at all.
But the commissioner decided not to accept the judge's recommendation to terminate me.
So I'm staying on as a consultant after all.
With a little, uh, additional oversight.
Congratulations.
Any idea what changed his mind? There's much I should say to you.
Thanks.
For intervening with James Dylan.
You may very well have saved my life.
And, uh, I apologize.
I had James Dylan's name before we went to see him.
I should have done some proper research before I helped myself to his phone.
I should have been more discreet when I was attempting to loosen his tongue.
I could have provoked him less outside the police station.
I could've There's any number of ways that this could've turned out other than the way it did.
I hate what happened to you.
And whatever role I played in it.
That's why I've been avoiding this visit.
So, the palsy in your hand I've done some research.
The clinic with the highest rate of recovery is in Gstaad.
I've communicated with the director, and they would be happy to take you on straightaway.
But if you'd rather stay in New York, their top physician travels here frequently and could consult with local specialists.
All at no cost to you, obviously.
Well, I'll just, uh I'll just leave you with their card.
I feel good about the doctors here.
These people are at the top of their field Holmes, I don't want a favor from you.
I'd rather not see you around here.
Captain? Guy walked in, said he needs to see the man in charge.
Are you the lord here? He keeps saying "lord.
" I took it to mean "captain".
Tom Gregson.
Can I help you? I am the knight.
I was dubbed.
Now I am the knight.
Okay.
That's why I had to kill the queen.
You killed the queen? It was my duty.
I had to kill her.
I had to.
Gun! Sir! It was my duty.
Hey! If you pick up that gun, this is gonna end fast and ugly.
I'm the knight.
Holmes, stay back, stay back! I was dubbed.
Sir, I'm gonna ask you one more time-- step away from that weapon.
Can I try something? Try it fast.
The, uh, scarf on your wrist? On your wrist.
It It As I was saying, I noticed the scarf straightaway.
This is an extremely compelling story, Mr.
Holmes, but I asked about the James Dylan case.
The incident you're describing is connected to the murder or Rada Hollingsworth.
Which is, in turn, inextricably linked to the tale of James Dylan.
If you would just answer the question I asked you.
I am answering the question, just more precisely than you intended me to.
You cannot understand one incident without first understanding the other.
As I was saying The scarf on your wrist-- was it a favor from your lady? Yes.
Belonged to my queen.
Then it must be returned to her.
Knight's Code commands it, yeah? You give it to me, I'll have a squire bring it to her.
Here.
Allow me, sir.
Go down.
- Down! - No! Knight's Code? What is that? Uh, it's oral tradition.
The man's clearly schizophrenic, but his delusions are based on, uh on actual history.
In the Middle Ages, a knight would often wear a token from their beloved.
Usually an article of clothing, a scarf.
Any thoughts where the queen who gave it to him might be? No, not just yet.
Give the man a minute, will you? He's a brave and brilliant instrument of justice.
All we got to do is stay out of his way, and he'll lead us right to the truth.
I got to throw a flag on the play.
Now, I've known Tommy Gregson a long time.
I'm guessing he didn't actually say that.
He may have used different words to make the same point.
Mr.
Holmes, do me a favor? Spare us the flourishes.
You're under oath, and that oath counts.
This is a real hearing presided over by a real judge.
Of course, Your Honor.
It is an administrative hearing.
This court represents neither state nor federal law, but rather the dictates of the police department of New York.
So, "real judge," while not technically inaccurate, seems like an overstatement.
By all means, let's be 100% accurate.
I do only represent the police department of New York.
We're here today because you screwed up.
And the NYPD has empowered me, as a technically real judge, to determine the magnitude of said screw-up, and to make a recommendation as to whether or not you and your partner can continue your relationship with the city.
Now, is that accurate enough for you? We're here today because of one particular breach of protocol.
Alleged breach of protocol.
Alleged breach of protocol.
I'm curious, though.
Would you say the incident is part of a larger pattern? Tommy.
Commissioner.
So how about it, Mr.
Holmes? Is this all part of a larger pattern? I'm sorry.
I don't follow you.
Do you routinely break the law during the course of your investigations? Ah, not that I recall, no.
So you've never broken the law? Everyone breaks the law, Ms.
Walker.
Case in point.
You have been precisely seven minutes early for every meeting we've ever had.
You arrange your notebooks exactly the same way each day.
You position a small photograph of an eleventh-century bust so that you can look at it before you begin your work.
Are you suggesting that someone as bound by routine such as yourself has never crossed against the traffic lights in order to keep to a schedule? I'm not talking about that kind of law-breaking.
So, some degree of criminality is acceptable, the rest is just negotiating boundaries? Answer the questions directly, Mr.
Holmes.
If you won't do it out of respect for this institution, do it for the officer who's in the hospital 'cause of what happened here.
I have never broken the law in a manner Ms.
Walker suggests.
We have statements from several officers saying they have no idea how you and your partner get inside of so many private homes and businesses when nobody's there.
They all think you break in.
So, you didn't pick the lock on Victor Nardin's apartment? You didn't break into the McTierney Brothers Mortuary? A couple of our officers even think you've taught your partner how to do it.
The officers who told you those things are confused.
You're saying you didn't enter those dwellings? Because you used evidence from inside those places.
No.
Ms.
Watson and I entered those locations, just not illegally.
I'm not sure I understand.
It was quite some time ago, but if I remember correctly, on most of those occasions, the doors were open.
In New York City? The front doors were open? Not just unlocked, but actually open? I was surprised, as well.
In several other instances, we thought we heard cries for help.
They turned out to be televisions with the volume turned up.
So there's an epidemic of people leaving their TVs on? Once we mistook the cries of a small puppy for a baby in distress.
Your Honor, allow me to register my skepticism.
Registered, but unless you've got a witness who can contradict Mr.
Holmes' testimony How could she? Miss Watson and I were the only ones present.
Oh, I'll be asking Miss Watson what happened.
Excellent.
That should clear things up.
So, someone walked into the eleventh precinct with a shotgun.
This has something to do with the James Dylan incident No, it has everything to do with it.
Having disarmed the knight, we turned our attention to establishing his identity and that of the queen.
Does anyone ever call you anything besides "The Knight"? It was my duty to kill the queen.
I-I was summoned to her lair and told that only in death would her soul be saved from the demons.
Th-This lair-- do you have any idea where it is? It was my sworn duty.
This is going nowhere.
He's schizophrenic, in the middle of a psychotic episode.
It's going to be days and a lot of risperidone before he starts making sense.
Not a time frame that bodes well for the queen, on the off chance she is still alive.
Well, there's blood in the treads of his boots.
Probably hers.
Two receipts, both for early-morning coffee runs.
One at 6:27 a.
m.
, one at 6:36, both from the same bodega on West 20th and Fifth Avenue.
Well, maybe he lives in the Flatiron district.
Along with hundreds of thousands of other people.
Only one of them is named Silas Cole.
I texted his picture to a friend of mine who works the psych E.
R.
at Sanbridge.
She recognized him.
I set her free.
Captain, the man's name is Silas Cole.
He lives in the Flatiron District.
We'll have an address for you momentarily.
All right.
I'll get a warrant for his place.
This does not fill me with optimism for the queen.
Well, the figure on the right is obviously Silas, which would suggest the queen is a real person, as well.
Yeah, but how do we know for sure that's the queen? Yeah, I don't see any crown.
In the Middle Ages, only royalty were allowed to wear purple and ermine.
That is most certainly Silas's queen.
And he did rather a good job with the likeness.
Oh.
So she was his girlfriend.
Seriously? That guy's in no shape to be dating anyone.
Well, you don't know what he was like on his meds.
Silas and his queen were together till about six months ago, I would venture.
These photographs-- all taken over the last three years.
There are none from last summer.
Hmm.
Maybe she's the one who broke up with him.
Okay, look at this necklace.
Maybe he gave it to her as a gift.
She gave it back to him when they broke up.
Her name starts with an "R".
There's a whole stack of fashion magazines here.
Last year's issue Subscription mailing label's addressed to Rada Hollingsworth.
She lives on 23rd.
So, Detective Bell was actually the one who identified Ms.
Hollingsworth as "The Queen.
" A substantial contribution to the case, wouldn't you say? Yes.
One of many he's made during our work together.
Sounds like you regard him as a real asset to the department.
Detective Bell is several standard deviations above the norm.
I've always regarded him as such.
Your affection for the man really shines through.
According to your deposition, when you got to Rada Hollingsworth's apartment, the door was wide open.
That's correct.
It was.
Ms.
Hollingsworth? Ms.
Hollingsworth? In here! Looks like she's been dead for a couple hours.
These must be Silas's boot prints.
All right, I'm gonna call the station.
Tell 'em to book Cole.
Don't.
You know, I'm not convinced that Silas Cole killed this woman.
Sorry.
Silas Cole walked into the station holding a shotgun and confessed.
You were standing there looking at his footprints, and your first thought was he didn't kill Rada Hollingsworth? Not my first thought.
I tend to have thoughts in rapid succession.
She'd been shot in the chest, rib cage.
Her heart had essentially been obliterated.
The knight wouldn't do that.
Silas Cole said he killed her in order to save her soul.
In the Middle Ages, the heart was not just a symbol of romantic love.
It was the vessel for the soul.
So for him to shoot her in her heart-- in the universe of his delusions-- he would be sentencing her to eternal damnation.
He wouldn't do that.
He loved her.
And the confession? The footprints? Silas Cole was acting in diminished capacity.
He may well have believed he was responsible, even if he wasn't.
As to the footprints, there's no question that he was in the apartment.
I just don't believe he pulled the trigger.
Which means, of course, someone else did.
Your Honor, Ms.
Watson is scheduled to testify at this hearing.
- She can't be here.
- Excuse me, Your Honor, I have an important message for Captain Gregson.
His phone is off.
I would not interrupt otherwise.
What's going on? Mr.
Holmes, while you're on the stand in my courtroom, you will limit yourself to testimony relevant to this case.
Do you understand? Yep.
Thanks for texting, Gretchen.
What happened? While I was repairing the abdominal wall, a blood clot formed in the left ventricle.
I thought this was supposed to be routine surgery.
We thought he was out of the woods a few days ago, too.
There's no such thing as "routine" when you're recovering from a gunshot to the abdomen.
What happened with the clot? It got wedged in his right subclavian artery.
Obstructed the blood flow to his arm for about 30 minutes.
So what's the prognosis? He might be fine.
Or? Or he may never regain full use of the limb.
He's in recovery.
Tell me again why they wait until five days after he got shot to perform the operation.
They leave abdominal wounds open for a while.
It helps reduce infection.
It's absolutely standard procedure.
The timeline has nothing to do with the clot.
He was still unconscious when I left.
They'll know more once he wakes up.
I'm gonna go back to the hospital.
You should come when this is over.
You haven't visited Bell once since he was shot.
You asked me to grab you when we're headed back in.
Thank you for the news.
Hey.
Wide open doors? Puppies? I'm just saying what I need to say to get us back to work.
Well, it's not just what you say.
It's how you say it.
You can hate what's going on in there.
You can think it's beneath you.
But if the judge knows that you think that, how is that good for you? Be nice.
It's the smart play.
Did you put this on my desk? "At the head of all understanding is realizing "what is and what cannot be and the consoling of what is not in our power to change".
It's a lovely sentiment.
First expressed by the 11th century poet Solom ben Judah.
But you know that 'cause you've got a photograph of ben Judah's bust on your day planner.
So? The saying is thought to be an early derivation of the Serenity Prayer, which is commonly recited by recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.
Is that why you keep the photograph? As a gentle reminder of the prayer? Is this some kind of threat? No.
No, there's nothing on earth that would make me reveal a secret of that nature.
It's it's just a-a tip of the cap, you know? From one obsessive to another.
Just an acknowledgment that the world we live in is so often too complicated for the rules we make to keep it orderly.
Ms.
Walker, ready when you are.
You heard about Marcus Bell's complications, I take it.
Yes, of course.
I'm told they may have long-term implications for his career.
In that light, I was wondering if you feel any regret about your methods in this case.
This is a courtroom, Ms.
Walker, not a confessional.
Fair enough.
Let's turn back to the Rada Hollingsworth investigation.
Yes, well, Captain Gregson did not agree with my assessment that Silas Cole was innocent of her murder, so Ms.
Watson and I explored other avenues on our own.
Ex-lovers, colleagues, a neighbor with designs on Rada's apartment.
All of those, dead ends.
But in the course of exploring Rada's life, we learned that she was seeing an oncologist named Dr.
Phineas Hobbs.
When had Ms.
Hollingsworth been diagnosed with cancer? Seven months prior to her murder.
Dr.
Hobbs was administering a stage one drug trial - which Rada was enrolled in.
- I'm sorry.
Rada didn't say anything to me about where she planned to go when she left my office.
We tended to talk mostly about her diagnosis.
I'm sure you understand.
She was really responding to the medication.
It was beautiful to watch.
I thought she might even go into remission.
But, uh, I guess her ex-boyfriend had other ideas.
Rada told you about her relationship with Silas? Yes, she mentioned that her former boyfriend was schizophrenic.
She'd, uh, ask me for advice about it sometimes.
I really had no idea how sick the man was until he showed up here about about a week and a half before she died.
He was ranting.
I thought about pursuing a committal.
I should have.
Obviously.
Drug trials like yours are expensive, are they not? They're rarely covered by insurance.
Rada Hollingsworth was a teacher.
Have you any sense as to how she paid for the study? I know exactly how she paid for it.
She cashed in her life insurance for a viatical settlement.
A viatical settlement is a repugnant, predatory arrangement whereby a terminally ill patient signs away their future life insurance payment in exchange for a monthly cash advance.
The company or individual making those payments is essentially betting that their client will die before the payments surpass the value of the policy.
In Ms.
Hollingsworth's case, the vulture circling overhead was an employee of a company called Helping Hands Viaticals.
That man's name was James Dylan.
The equation seems simple enough.
The longer she lived, the less profit for you.
In fact, according to the terms of employment of this place, if she outlives the value of her life insurance policy, the money comes out of your pocket.
So it seems like you would have incentive to want her gone.
Yeah, well, that doesn't mean I killed her.
So where were you the night she died? Look, if you want to talk about this, we can go somewhere else.
And if you're gonna grill me, I want a lawyer there.
Right now, we got new leads in from a nursing home, and I got to hit the phones.
This place is a miserable warren of cynicism and despair.
You'd think they'd have a hard time holding on to their employees.
And yet the cubicles are full.
Some of your colleagues even have diplomas on display.
So it seems in this economy, your employers have no trouble in attracting the overqualified.
Yeah.
So? So I was wondering if they know that you're a convicted felon who's spent time in prison.
- Who told you that? - Seems like a fair question.
How did you learn about Mr.
Dylan's criminal record? When I learned that James Dylan had sold Rada Hollingsworth her viatical, I did some cursory research into his background, research his employers had apparently neglected to do.
That's the beauty of the Internet.
from twerking kittens to criminal records.
Mr.
Dylan stated in a deposition given from his hospital bed that you discovered that information from his phone.
Which you accessed without a warrant.
Would it surprise you to learn that James Dylan is lying? Not necessarily.
But you do tend to attract people who lie about your illegal behavior.
Who told you that? Why, you did.
That's my phone! According to your outgoing calls, you regularly contact the same local number several times a week.
It has a 477 prefix.
That's the same as our precinct.
It's a municipal number.
Yeah, you stole this.
Your calendar says you have a recurring commitment every Tuesday.
Now, there's no heading on that appointment, so my first thought was weekly Brazilian, but then I noticed the address of the Tuesday rendezvous.
It's 202 Broadway, which, as it turns out, is the office of the New York State Division of Parole.
Okay.
Let's take this outside.
On the night that Rada Hollingsworth was murdered, I was having a drink at Sharkey's on Gansevoort Street.
And your presence in a bar is a violation of your parole.
Yeah, I got sent upstate after a bar fight.
I got out of control and I broke this guy's legs.
So on the particular night that you're asking about, okay I had had a lousy day at work.
I mean, whatever, they're all lousy, actually, but on this particular day, I just felt like having a couple of drinks with a friend.
Okay, there's at least a dozen people who can vouch.
I was nowhere near Rada Hollingsworth.
We're gonna need names and numbers.
Okay, fine.
But please, don't tell my parole officer.
James Dylan's associates confirmed that he had indeed been drinking at the time Rada Hollingsworth was killed, so he was no longer a suspect.
You are aware, of course, that it's a crime to steal private property? I stole no property.
Nor did I call James Dylan's parole officer.
So, our investigation was back to square one.
Usually, this means a distraction of some sort is called for.
Interesting.
Hey, you never came down to eat.
I had extra.
What gives? Science-- the most potent distraction of all.
Hey, I've been looking for that.
Um, and what are you trying to distract yourself from? Silas Cole said he was summoned to Rada Hollingsworth's apartment, which makes me think that the actual killer did the summoning.
Indeed, Silas received a phone call from a disposable cell phone at 8:40 p.
m.
Rada's neighbor thought she heard a truck backfiring at 7:35.
That had to be the shotgun blast that killed her, so, why would you kill Rada at 7:35, then wait over an hour before calling Silas to the scene? Why, indeed.
I've been considering Rada's autopsy.
Her blood potassium levels were 22.
4.
That's quite high, isn't it? Not for a body a few hours postmortem.
After you die, your cells start leaking potassium into the bloodstream.
So, the longer you've been dead, the higher your potassium level.
Of course, if you killed Rada, then waited an hour before calling Silas, it could be because you wanted the potassium in her blood to build up.
Mm.
And what would be the purpose of that? I don't know.
To conceal an already elevated potassium level? Potassium chloride is an extremely effective way of killing someone.
It does the heavy lifting at most of your state-sanctioned lethal injections.
It sounds crazy, but it would explain the time gap.
And it would be easy enough for us to figure out if we're right.
We just test the vitreous fluid in her eyes.
It's not subject to the postmortem potassium build-up.
Of course, it wasn't crazy at all.
The tests confirmed what Watson and I had suspected.
Rada Hollingsworth was killed with an overdose of potassium chloride.
This discovery exonerated Silas Cole, who we had confirmed was legitimately delusional.
The murder was clearly the result of careful planning, and he was in no fit state to carry out such methodical work.
You're smiling.
That is the first time you have been anything but irritated since we started.
Well, an innocent man was freed.
And what, in your opinion, does this have to do with what happened to Detective Bell? Whether one believes that I have occasionally broken the rules or not, you cannot evaluate the work that Watson and I do without considering the good that so often comes of it.
Whatever happened later, it matters that a mentally ill citizen is not unjustly imprisoned at the moment.
It has to matter to all of us.
Or we might as well just dissolve this institution and start again.
This is just one instance.
There are many, many others.
All of which, by the way, my partner and I donate free of charge to the city of New York, so I hardly think this proceeding is the appropriate response to our work.
And what is the appropriate response? "Thank you" would be nice.
I'll make sure Marcus Bell gets that message.
Well, Bell's stable.
They've decided to keep him sedated overnight.
Less stress on his system.
And you're making Yorkshire pudding.
Well spotted, Watson.
Most Americans mistake them for muffins.
When I was younger, our governess would enlist my help in making Yorkshire pudding for Sunday lunch, and ever since then, I've found making them to have a calming effect.
Yeah, Gregson told me about the hearing.
What? I enjoy making Yorkshire Pudding, Watson.
Not eating it.
It is absolutely revolting.
I could dig you one out if you'd like to try it.
I'm good, thanks for asking after you threw them away.
Oh, you're upset with me.
You know, for a genius, you can be a real nimrod.
You know that I have to testify tomorrow, right? Which means I get to lie under oath about puppies and-and wide open doors and Shouldn't be a problem.
If we stick to our story, there's nothing they can do.
Well, if you bothered to come up with a better story, it wouldn't be so obvious that we were lying.
You're practically daring them to fire us.
You think I'm letting my ego pay too big a role in this affair? This is not about your ego.
I know that we color outside the lines a lot, but this time, Bell got shot.
Doesn't that give you pause about how we do our jobs? No.
Why not? Why do we get to be above the rules? Because our methods work, and I'm comfortable that our actions are guided by a morality which supersedes any clumsy employee manual.
The danger with rulebooks, Watson, is that they offer the illusion that leading a moral life is a simple undertaking, that the world exists in black and white.
Welcome to the grays.
Miss Watson, you and your partner have often found yourselves inside of crime scenes and other places of interest ahead of the police, ahead of any kind of warrant.
Would you say that's a fair assessment? I'd say it's happened on occasion.
How? We've encountered an unusual number of open doors.
Open doors.
I see.
Did you ever break into a place to help out a puppy? Once.
Although we didn't realize it was a puppy until after we were inside.
And how did you and your partner learn about Mr.
Dylan's criminal record? We looked into his background while we were waiting to talk to him.
Neither of you stole Mr.
Dylan's cell phone? No.
So, you are committed to the same version of events as your partner? No further questions.
Actually, I'd like to ask a few questions.
You want to cross-examine your own partner? I am within my rights, Your Honor.
I'm acting as my own counsel.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll be as brief as I can, Your Honor.
Um After you and your partner Uh, should I refer to myself as "your partner," or should I refer to myself in the first person? Doesn't matter.
Great.
After you and your partner freed Silas Cole, how did you go about finding the real killer? Rada Hollingsworth died of a potassium overdose.
Potassium chloride is something that you can get online, but to use it in the way that the killer did, you had to understand the biochemistry of dying tissue.
That's why the killer waited over an hour before calling Silas Cole.
All of that suggested we were looking for someone with a medical background.
Hmm.
Rada Hollingsworth-- she was a cancer patient.
She was attended by a virtual platoon of medical professionals.
So, are you saying that they were all suspects? I'm saying that, when we started looking, none of them were.
We didn't have a motive, so we went to the morgue.
You examined Rada Hollingsworth's body in an effort to find an investigative bread crumb.
Yes.
But I should say, "body" isn't really a The remains of Rada Hollingsworth's internal organs.
Shredded by buckshot.
Then dissected by the M.
E.
Then divvied up, organ by organ, into their own bags.
Hmm.
This is gonna get messy.
Shall we unpack? Do you really want me to describe everything in the bags? Well, why don't you just skip to the good bit? Nothing unusual with the liver.
Her heart-- pretty much just a bunch of muscle fiber.
Hmm.
The killer must have put the shotgun barrel right over it.
Now, do we think that this was by chance, or was the obliteration of the heart intentional? It seems like overkill, literally.
I mean, she was already dead from the potassium.
You'd only destroy the heart if you were looking to conceal something about it.
Hmm.
And how would we determine whether the tissue was healthy when she died? Well, that's what microscopes are for.
Hand me that box of slides.
Rada's cardiac tissue showed clear signs of dilated cardiomyopathy.
Her heart was enlarged.
She would have started to feel symptoms of congestive heart failure.
Could her enlarged heart have been a result of her cancer? Not directly.
And everything in her records looked normal from a few months previous.
What, then, do you think caused the change? Well, it's not unusual for it to be a side effect of certain chemotherapy drugs, especially more aggressive treatments.
Treatments such as the ones Rada was receiving on the drug trial run by Dr.
Phineas Hobbs? The drug was in stage one trials.
Typically, an experimental drug becomes hugely profitable once it gets to stage two.
We're talking millions of dollars that wouldn't have made it into Dr.
Hobbs' pockets if anyone learned about Rada's condition.
So, in other words, there, buried within that bag of posthumous slop, you found A motive.
I'm sorry.
You told me you had a few follow-up questions.
It sounds like I'm a suspect.
You most assuredly are.
Well, then, uh, I'm getting a lawyer.
Aah! What the hell are you doing? Hurts quite a bit, doesn't it? I bet you've got a nasty be under there.
That's the thing about shotguns.
If you don't know how to brace them properly, the kickback will get you every time.
I hurt myself playing squash.
Once you dispatched Rada, it was time to put your patsy in play.
Well aware of Silas's delusions, you telephoned him - to come to the crime scene.
- We think you convinced him he killed Rada.
Then you gave him the gun, shoved some shotgun shells in his pocket, and then sent him on his way.
I'm sure you thought he'd get gunned down.
- Either way, you were covered.
- Or at least you thought you were.
But the shotgun didn't just kick back into your shoulder.
The trigger caught your finger, as well.
Opened up a nasty little cut, didn't it? It's not the kind of thing you'd notice in the heat of committing your very first murder.
But it drew enough blood that some of it wound up in the grooves on the strike plates of those shells you put in Silas's pocket.
You wiped the shells clean of prints.
You're a smart guy.
But those little grooves-- they're hard to get to.
We know the blood didn't come from Silas or Rada.
This is a warrant to compel a DNA test from you.
We can run the tests, wait for the results, or you can just start talking now.
WATSON; Dr.
Hobbs confessed.
He's losing his medical license, and he's going to jail for a very long time.
Thank you, Doctor Thank you, Miss Watson.
A very great pleasure indeed.
Redirect? Then what happened? You mean with Dr.
Hobbs? No.
I've seen enough of your mutual admiration society for one day.
I'm talking about the reason we are actually here.
The day you got Phineas Hobbs to confess to murder.
What happened when you were leaving work? We were just heading out of the station.
I'm not learning fencing from you, Holmes.
Please stop asking me.
It's not fencing.
It is singlestick.
Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it's fascinating, but I'm not interested.
At all.
Now, if you want to talk about real sports, like basketball You couldn't keep your voice down, huh? Mr.
Dylan, it's business hours.
Shouldn't you be trolling a cancer ward looking for prospective clients? No, 'cause I don't have that job anymore.
'Cause somebody overheard you at work.
They heard you say that I've been in jail.
They told my boss, and he fired me.
Well, that would matter less if you could actually sell What's the opposite of ice to Eskimos? Give the man a break.
He just lost his job.
Well, perhaps this is an opportunity for you to do something a little less soul-sucking.
No, I won't be doing anything because my boss called my P.
O.
and he violated me.
I'm going back to prison.
That's a regrettable outcome.
Regrettable? You ruined my life, man.
You don't get to just walk away.
Gun! one officer and one suspect.
We need an EMT here ASAP.
No further questions.
Well, thank goodness that's over.
Do you have any sense on how the judge is leaning? Guess we'll find out in the morning.
Yeah.
I'm gonna head over to see Bell right now.
All right, I'll see you later at the brownstone.
Hey.
Hey.
How's it going? All right.
I bumped into the nurse on the way in.
She said that you have some movement back in your arm.
Yeah, that might be a bit of an understatement.
They said I, uh might get better.
In time, physical therapy can do wonders with nerve damage.
I've seen it.
The, uh the department requires detectives to carry a gun, so what happens if I can't anymore? What are his chances of making a full recovery? Well, he's young and healthy, which is good, but there's no way to tell how much function he'll regain.
Practicing left-handed is one way to show you care about what happened.
A better one would be to visit him.
I'm well aware of your feelings on the matter, even if your logic eludes me.
This is not about logic.
It's the right thing to do.
It would be an empty gesture.
Unlike you, I have no medical insight to offer him.
And I can't imagine my presence would be anything more than an invasion of his privacy.
I don't care if you lie in court, but do not lie to me.
This is not about Bell's privacy.
This is about your guilt.
Look, you're not directly responsible for what happened-- that is on James Dylan.
But this time, your fondness for blowing past "bureaucratic guidepost", got a man you respect shot.
If I went, what would I say? I've got nothing to offer the man other than a few banal bromides.
What makes you think that's not enough? This hearing has left me no doubt that Sherlock Holmes is a singular mind, and the work that he's done with Joan Watson has been an asset to the NYPD.
Now, that an officer was wounded during the course of that work is a highly regrettable outcome but one that occurs in law enforcement.
Another regrettable outcome in law enforcement is when officers decide that they are above the rules.
So in spite of Mr.
Holmes' good intentions, he's demonstrated amply that he doesn't care to control his actions.
As such, my recommendation to the commissioner will be that Mr.
Holmes and Ms.
Watson be terminated as consultants to the NYPD.
You needn't gloat.
It's unbecoming of the good work that you did.
I'm not here to spike the ball.
I'm going to a meeting.
Seems like maybe you should come with me.
Boy, the Giants sure do suck this year.
Commissioner.
I'm not watching the Giants.
I know.
Just felt like it needed to be said.
I wanted to make sure they're taking good care of you here.
The hearing ended today.
The judge recommended that I end our arrangement with Holmes and his partner.
It's just a recommendation, though.
The decision's mine.
And I'll admit it I'm struggling with it.
Captain Gregson pointed out that tossing Holmes opens the department up to charges of impropriety on every case Holmes worked on.
That's a lot of closed cases that could get opened up again.
Clearly, Holmes is a loose cannon.
But this time, a first grade detective got caught in his crossfire.
Facing danger from a guy on your own team can I really ask officers to do that? Wait, are you You're asking me what you should do? How could I not? You've been working with the guy for a long time, and you're the one who caught a bullet.
I heard your hearing didn't go too well.
Not well at all.
But the commissioner decided not to accept the judge's recommendation to terminate me.
So I'm staying on as a consultant after all.
With a little, uh, additional oversight.
Congratulations.
Any idea what changed his mind? There's much I should say to you.
Thanks.
For intervening with James Dylan.
You may very well have saved my life.
And, uh, I apologize.
I had James Dylan's name before we went to see him.
I should have done some proper research before I helped myself to his phone.
I should have been more discreet when I was attempting to loosen his tongue.
I could have provoked him less outside the police station.
I could've There's any number of ways that this could've turned out other than the way it did.
I hate what happened to you.
And whatever role I played in it.
That's why I've been avoiding this visit.
So, the palsy in your hand I've done some research.
The clinic with the highest rate of recovery is in Gstaad.
I've communicated with the director, and they would be happy to take you on straightaway.
But if you'd rather stay in New York, their top physician travels here frequently and could consult with local specialists.
All at no cost to you, obviously.
Well, I'll just, uh I'll just leave you with their card.
I feel good about the doctors here.
These people are at the top of their field Holmes, I don't want a favor from you.
I'd rather not see you around here.