CSI: Vegas (2021) s02e11 Episode Script

Previously on CSI: Vegas
All of these cases, all of
these people are related.
Alan Herskovitz. He killed Lynn Zobrist.
And then he went after Lamont Moore.
Lamont paid the price for
resisting someone's command.
We found this dossier hidden
in Lamont's motel room.
And somebody wanted
him to commit a murder.
Along with this note.
The only person left alive on
this board is Alan Herskovitz.
This is all by design,
and there's nothing
anyone can do about it.
If we find out who killed Lamont
and our two bystanders, maybe
we'll figure out the rest.
Odds are it's the same
person behind all of it.
Whoever it is, I've got the
feeling they're not done.
Who's there?
Reggie?
Is that you?
Does this feel like a bit much, Beau?
All this for some missing
food and an open window?
No job is too small.
I don't mind when they
call us on the B&E's.
I'll take any crime scene I can run.
Although I got to admit
I think the culprit here
- is a gang of raccoons.
- Honey, this wasn't no raccoon.
I didn't see him, but
I know it was Reggie.
My late husband.
He's been stealing his
favorite food all week.
I'm sorry, ma'am, did you say
your dead husband is stealing your food?
- That's right.
- Oh.
I always wanted to be a Ghostbuster.
- Egon?
- Thanks a lot.
I'm more Bill Murray than
I'm serious.
Reggie was here.
See?
That's him.
Don't worry, Miss Ruth. I'll get him.
Three, two, one.
Go!
What is it?
It's a boy.
My word! How did he get in there?
Hey, buddy. Are you okay?
Get an ambulance. Now.
Got it.
Are you okay? Can you tell me your name?
- Hey, guys.
- Hey.
So, Max said you could
use a partner on this one?
How's the kid?
Well, doctor says he has complications
from exposure dehydration, pneumonia.
And he's having an allergic reaction
making his feet and his hands peel.
But I mean, other than that, he's okay.
- Where are the parents?
- We don't know who they are.
He's nonverbal.
But child protective services
said that we can process him
- before bath time, so we should get in there.
- Okay.
There we go.
Hey, pal. I'm Josh.
This is Beau. What's your name?
Looks like you only got one shoe.
Do you remember where
you left the other one?
Oh
So
Michael.
Is that your name?
It's nice to meet you, Michael.
My friend Beau and I, we
have to take some pictures.
We also have to get a
little bit of that dirt
from under your nails.
And then we need some
spit from your mouth, too.
It won't hurt. I promise.
You think you could, um
Can you look up and say "ah"?
Oh, you've been, uh
living in a dark
garage for about a week.
A little light sensitive.
So, can you say "ah" for me?
All right.
Here we go.
Ready?
Thanks.
Can I take that bracelet
for a little while?
Okay.
I get it. I totally get it.
You know,
I've got a daughter about your age.
And she loves her bracelets, too.
We got one just like that
for her as a souvenir.
Do you know what she
likes more than bracelets?
Dinosaurs.
W-would you trade this
Dino for that bracelet?
If I promise to return
it when I'm finished?
Yeah? All right.
There you go, buddy.
Poor kid.
Yeah, I tell you who's
great with him. Beau.
Total teddy bear.
Big brain. Bigger heart.
That's why I hired him.
He's running trace. Still
got no ID on the kid.
So I'm hoping DNA gives us a hit.
His only identifying characteristic
is like a pointed left ear.
Oh, it's probably Stahl's deformity.
It's an inherited gene mutation
that gives an extra fold
of cartilage at the ear.
Wait.
Your postcard. Those scribbles.
We've seen those scribbles before.
That's the same gibberish
from the postcard I found
at Alan Herskovitz's apartment.
Silver ink.
We found silver on the dossier
in Lamont Moore's bath drain, too.
You think whoever's
ordering these murders
sent us a thank-you card?
What do you think they're grateful for?
I don't know.
I better go find out.
Do you want to get into some DNA?
Let's go find the boy's family.
Too much to hope for an ID?
Michael's DNA wasn't in CODIS.
Must be his first B&E.
His father wasn't in
the database either,
but we found his mother.
- Who is she?
- She is a missing person
by the name of Cara Jefferson.
LVPD file is pretty thin.
She was 16 years old,
and the detective running
the case kind of
He let it drop.
The case hasn't been touched
in, like, eight years.
Michael can't be more
than seven years old.
That means he was born
after Cara disappeared?
Cara went missing summer of 2015.
Three other girls from her high school
also disappeared that year.
I know.
It was a lot, even for Vegas.
But her little boy is our new lead.
What happened to you?
I know the scent dogs are
supposed to help us find
where Michael came from,
but we're already two miles
from Miss Ruth's garage.
How long can a scent
dog track a trail again?
Only about 130 miles.
Houses along the wash stretch
for more than seven miles.
Maybe Cara's been in Vegas all along.
Not all missing persons get very far.
This is still a really long way
for Michael to walk by himself.
Explains why he was so sunburnt.
And the allergic reaction's
probably no question either.
W-wait, what's that?
Well, where there's bee
hives, there's pollen.
And where there's
pollen, there's allergens.
Something made his hands and feet peel.
Just got off the phone with my captain.
Michael's grandparents are local.
Mary and Pete. Cara's stepdad.
They're coming home early from vacation.
On their way to the hospital now.
Well, that's a hell of a surprise.
- "Congratulations, you're grandparents."
- Yeah.
I mean, there was no mention of
Cara being pregnant in the old file.
Mary did say she always suspected
Cara's high school boyfriend
being responsible for her running away.
Name is Sam Daley.
Hold on. Running away? I
thought she disappeared.
That's how it was initially reported,
but a week later, Mom
got a letter from Cara.
"I'm never coming back."
Well, whether she ran
away or she was abducted,
she's still missing.
Yeah.
Over here.
Wait a minute. I got something.
Oh, it's Cara.
Looks like she's been here about a week.
She's wrapped in a blanket.
Yeah, she was probably
killed somewhere else.
This is just a dump site.
If Cara and the other missing
girls from her high school
were taken by the same person
They could be buried out here, too.
The beehives I saw earlier
might help us find them.
I'll explain later. But may I?
Yeah, of course. Maybe-maybe
take a uni to help.
If the scent dogs
followed Michael's trail
to Cara's grave, does that mean ?
Michael's shoe.
He
He was buried alive.
Cara was
She was buried alive, too?
The autopsy will
determine how-how she died.
Has the boy talked about
what happened to him,
what happened to his mommy?
No, no, he hasn't said anything.
- Is he mute?
- No.
No, he's just been
through a real trauma.
Poor kid.
Mm.
You know, uh, the time
for questions is later.
Please, you have a grandson.
Go and meet him.
You know, I saw some Jays'
Chips in the vending machine.
Want some?
Sure.
Well, damn. Somebody must have got them.
So, uh, how you holding up?
Oh, um I'm-I'm doing great.
- I have daughters Michael's age.
- Mm-hmm.
If something like this
ever happened to them, I
And no matter how hard it is for you,
it's worse for the families.
I know.
And your feelings matter here,
but you got to learn to
distance yourself from them.
For your sanity. For their confidence.
I am happy to walk away from this case.
I am not dismissing you
from this case, Beau.
This is a big deal, Max.
Don't you think you need
a real pro, like Allie
- or Catherine?
- Or you.
You're a pro, right?
You've got this, Beau.
Okay, boss.
Cara suffered major central
nervous system injury.
See?
The gray matter is thin,
tissue is softening, and there's loss
at the gray-white junction.
These are all signs of laminar
necrosis caused by hypoxemia.
- So she suffocated.
- Well
Not how you're thinking of it.
Hypoxemia can be caused by
a myriad of complications.
Each has their own set of clues
pulmonary embolism or edema,
pneumothorax, narcotic overdose
Being buried alive?
Possibly
I did find trace of fiber
and dirt in her mouth and
throat, but not her lungs.
So, she didn't suffocate on dirt?
Well, it's possible the dirt may
have given her a laryngospasm.
So during times of extreme distress,
like being buried alive,
the vocal chords can
involuntarily contract
to block foreign bodies
from entering the trachea.
The larynx will remain constricted
to the point of suffocation,
leaving no trace in the lungs.
You don't sound convinced.
Well, that's because I'm not.
Laryngeal spasms are undetectable.
The only way to confirm
is to rule out all other
possible causes of
hypoxemia from my list first.
I'm sorry, there is something else.
I have found old scar tissue
in Cara's vaginal canal.
Cara was raped.
Yes.
Many times, over the
span of years, I think.
And she had an enlarged uterus.
So that suggests that
she'd recently given birth.
How long ago?
No less than three months.
That along with her skin pallor,
her weak bones, her low muscle tone
I have reason to believe
that Cara was held captive.
For years.
The goodbye letter that
she wrote to her parents,
- I mean, that can't be real.
- Sonya,
I need a sample of the
dirt from Cara's throat.
Yes, I already bagged
some of it for you.
Thank you. Joshua,
we need Cara's letter
to her parents from LVPD.
It could give us answers
about who kept Cara captive
and where they kept her.
- Thank you, please.
- Got it, boss.
Raman spectroscopy.
It's right up there
with coffee ice cream.
It's damn near perfect.
Gives you all the facts, but
leaves your evidence intact.
Yeah, except our silver ink
sources aren't very instructive.
The postcards are covered
in prints from mail sorting,
so I have been focusing on ink instead.
Right, find the ink, find the
architect of all this madness?
Yeah, that'd be nice.
Herskovitz's card uses
a common oil-based ink.
But our thank-you card is written
in silver nanoparticle ink.
It's pretty standard.
I have never heard of it.
It's a conductive ink used
in circuit board creation.
The writing on both postcards
uses an unknown alphabet.
The language is an unhinged original.
The writing's also
consistent and deliberate.
The author may be
unhinged, but he's smart.
Unhinged and smart.
That fits every killer
and victim in this case.
Oh. W-what's going on?
The boxes are full of honey, not bees.
I just need someplace to put it,
while I set up my
experiment. Is it okay if I
Make yourself at home, honey.
Nice.
I think the honey can tell us
if the other high school girls
who went missing when
Cara did are buried nearby.
Extracting volatile
organic compounds from honey
- to detect the presence of humans.
- Exactly.
Outside.
Go. Now.
- Beau.
- Hey.
You know, that trace we
found in Cara's throat,
it's the same stuff that we
found under Michael's nails.
It's a mixture of volcanic rock,
melamine, ferrous ore.
Not exactly what you'd
expect to see in the Mojave.
No. Not at all.
I mean, I'm comparing it to
other known soil compositions.
Do you have the letter?
Yeah, if Cara was
taken and held captive,
there's a good chance that
her captor wrote it for her.
But problem is, the perp's
prints will be eight years old.
Well, and they would be buried too
under prints from Cara's
family, mail carriers,
LVPD detectives.
It sure looks like the writing
of a 16-year-old girl to me.
- Yeah.
- Who could do something like this?
We're gonna find out.
You ever heard of the
1/2-indanedione process?
Mm-mm.
Ooh, buddy.
So amino acids dig out
the latent fingerprints
absorbed by the paper.
But the only way to see the old prints
under the ones on top is to
find the correct light frequency.
Bingo.
The prints on the bottom
are definitely Cara's.
- So, she did write the letter?
- Maybe.
Or maybe it was just her stationery.
Also got a second set of prints.
Well, only partials really,
but they're just as old.
And AFIS
says they belong to Samuel Daley.
That's Cara's high school boyfriend.
Looks like his prints are in the system
from a shoplifting arrest as a teenager.
Not much of a record, but
- Look where he lives.
- Right next to where we found Cara.
I didn't kidnap Cara. I never hurt her.
And I most definitely did not kill her.
Your fingerprints are all
over her goodbye letter, Sam.
And Cara's parents seem to think
that she was your girlfriend.
Okay, trust me. She was my friend.
You don't need a DNA test to prove it.
I spoke to your former classmates.
You were popular with
the ladies in high school.
And some of those girls went missing
the exact same summer that Cara did.
Cara and I only pretended to date.
I was a gay kid from a
crazy religious household.
She helped me fly under the radar.
- We protected each other.
- What did you protect Cara from?
Cara had a boyfriend she didn't
want her parents to know about.
And you never shared this
information with her parents.
He was an older guy.
That's all she would tell me.
I helped Cara send that
letter to her parents.
And then
she was gone.
Cara kept my secret and
I wanted to keep hers.
You can believe me or not, but
No.
We can test you.
I need your DNA, Sam.
Okay.
Cara's kid?
How's he doing?
So, Cara had a secret boyfriend?
If Sam is telling the truth,
and his DNA here may determine that.
How's the silver ink case going?
It's tough.
I don't want another lead
if the only way to get one
is for another body to drop.
We just keep hitting dead ends.
Dead ends redirect
you towards the truth.
- Right?
- Mm-hmm.
All right. Good news.
Family services called.
Michael's been cleared by his
child psychiatrist to go home.
Good.
- Child psychiatrist?
- Yeah.
Of course. Smart and unstable.
Lamont Moore, Lynn
Zobrist, and her killer
all shared the same child psychiatrist.
Maybe the other victims
had psychiatrists, too.
There you go.
Well
our lead suspect, Sam Daley,
is not Michael's father.
Just like he said.
- Got a little dead end of our own, don't we, Beau?
- Maybe not.
What if we search Cara's
things at her mom's house?
She might have kept a diary
about a secret boyfriend.
- Mm-hmm. Go and get after it, Mr. Finado.
- Okay.
These symbols
reminds me of The Voynich Manuscripts.
It's this ancient European book.
The author invented his own language.
Probably.
It's inspired
schizophrenics for centuries.
So, you think that the
person who sent these cards,
they're responsible
for my patient's death?
Thank you.
Lynn Zobrist and another
victim, Lamont Moore,
and the man who killed
Lynn too, they all had
scars on their temples from
electroconvulsive therapy.
We're looking at a larger pattern now,
and it got me thinking,
maybe the other victims
suffered some serious
psychiatric problems, too.
Maybe there's a common thread.
It says on your website
that you're involved with
the state licensing board.
We thought you might be able
to help us find these records?
- These people are deceased?
- Yes.
I can certainly try.
Oh, Dr. Auerbach, before you go,
I'm just wondering
this whole web of death,
these assignment killings, why
do you think it's happening?
Could it be a game?
Antisocial personalities sometimes find
amusement in what more
socialized personalities
would find macabre or taboo.
More will be revealed.
Okay.
Mary, Michael, we have guests.
- Hey, bud.
- Hey.
We have reason to
believe Cara may have been
close to a man you didn't know about.
We were hoping that we could
take a look at some of her things.
Excuse me.
Um, Cara doesn't have a room anymore.
It was too difficult living with so many
memories of her after she disappeared.
The past eight years
for Mary have been hell.
The only time she's herself is
when I send her on her trips.
Caribbean,
- Latin America, Africa, Asia.
- Mm-hmm.
Wow. You guys have been everywhere.
Mary loves to travel.
Always took her mind off of
You know.
Uh, Cara's boxes are in the basement
if you want to take a look.
Thanks.
Do you mind if I stay with him?
- Yeah, sure.
- Thanks.
Mm-hmm. Thank you.
Hey, Michael.
How you been, huh?
You, uh
I mean, how do you like your new home?
Whoops!
Oh, buddy. Buddy, buddy, here.
Here, have some water. Whoa.
Buddy, hey, it's okay.
It's okay. We'll clean it up.
- It's just water. It's okay.
- Hey. Hey.
- We'll clean it up.
- It's okay, baby. Come with Gammy.
We'll watch some TV.
We'll clean this up later.
- Uh, Micha
- Come on.
Usually we'd try to
extract honey proteins
using polyacrylamide
gel electrophoresis.
But we need GC/MS in order to separate
the volatile organic compounds
from the honey proteins so
Penny. I've only read one
journal article about this.
So just slow it down?
- A touch?
- Sorry.
When humans decompose,
we release volatile
organic compounds into
the soil around us.
Those volatile organic compounds
are then absorbed by vegetation
near the body as nutrients
and then deposited into the pollen.
The bee then takes that
pollen and turns it into honey,
preserving the VOCs in the process.
So if there are VOCs
in the honey sample,
we know to look for cadavers
near the corresponding pollen sources.
Theoretically, bees
can do in a few hours
something it takes cadaver dogs
- weeks to pinpoint.
- Mm-hmm.
But don't all organic
things release VOCs
- when they decompose?
- Yes.
But humans have five unique
esters we'll be looking for
3-Methylbutyl pentanoate,
propyl hexan
You get it. Let's get this into GC/MS.
There are more bodies in
the riverbed, aren't there?
Now we just need to find
out where they're hiding.
The basement's kind of a letdown
compared to the house, right?
Yeah.
- Wh what's with the boxes?
- Moisture damage.
If we do find anything,
it'll be compromised by mold.
Not ideal.
I'm gonna go talk to Pete and Mary.
I'll tag you in.
Thanks. See you guys up there.
All right.
How'd it go with Michael?
I mean, I made him laugh,
and then he just just exploded.
Oh. Got to take the good
with the bad, you know?
Dealing with victims, their
families, it's-it's tough.
But you know, it's fuel too, right?
Beau, that's why we do it.
Help people.
Look.
I've been a problem
solver my whole life.
I just, I wanted to solve
more meaningful ones than
how you make a kitchen sponge cheaper
so some corporation's stock would go up.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I want justice for the victims. I do.
I just
I don't know if I can use
the victims as fuel that way.
Cara liked dinosaurs, too.
Just like my girls.
I'm going to, uh I'm
gonna go check the other room.
I got that one for The Bible
as read by Charlton Heston.
Wow. You're recording royalty.
I wouldn't say that.
Just, you know, Mr. Audiobook.
Here's more of Cara's stuff.
Best vocalist, age group 10 to 13.
- Cara was a singer?
- A beautiful singer.
That's how I met Mary.
She wanted me to record a demo of Cara
when she was ten years
old, make her a star.
But you're the audiobook guy.
No one sets out to be the audiobook guy.
- Sure.
- Hey, Beau.
I found Cara's yearbook.
English teacher was her favorite. Look.
My physics teacher was
always my favorite teacher.
No, no. Look at the picture.
His ear.
He's got Stahl's deformity.
He's mine. Michael is mine.
Cara told me she was pregnant
before she disappeared.
- We were in love.
- So, you think
'cause it's love it's
not statutory rape?
The age of consent in Nevada is 16.
And I was only 23 at the time.
You've practiced that
line in the mirror.
I wonder how he's
gonna explain kidnapping
- and sexual assault
charges? - Wh-what kidnapping?
A few other students at
your school went missing
- that same summer.
- Where are they, Jake?
I'm not the kind of guy
who kidnaps and rapes girls.
I have a wife and children.
Does your wife know about Cara?
How she was held prisoner for years,
forced to give birth
with no medical care.
Come on, Jake. Where's the baby?
We were gonna run away
together. But she never showed.
I don't know where she went,
but I didn't do any of
that to her, so
- I want a lawyer.
- You're gonna need one.
I think that's it, Penny.
No, no, there's one more spot.
The Mojave Wild Flower Society says
there's a few more poppies over here.
Just give me a few more minutes.
I don't see any flowers.
Detectives! Over here.
Okay, boy.
I don't think we're searching for
missing high school girls after all.
That's Cara's baby.
Infant is a preemie
girl, around 30 weeks.
She died approximately three months ago
due to what I would sum
up as medical negligence.
Of course. Jake Rooney couldn't
take her to the hospital.
Let's wait for some results
before we jump to conclusions, Beau.
Sorry, boss.
It's just you should've
heard Michael's cough
the last time I saw him.
His peeling hands were driving him nuts.
What did you say?
Michael's hands and
his feet are peeling.
But there was nothing in her stomach.
Yeah.
- Do you need help?
- Yep.
Well, that's nice.
Okay.
Okay.
Huh. Yeah.
- There you are.
- Look at that.
- Diatoms.
- Yup. Diatoms.
Diatoms in the inner ear
mean that Cara was submerged
underwater before she died.
Cara drowned to death?
No. No, in order to drown
to death, you have to
take water into your lungs.
Cara nearly drowned.
I believe that she suffocated
due to mammalian dive reflex.
It's a physiological
response to being submerged
in cold water, and
one of the side effects
is the involuntarily
contraction of the throat.
A laryngeal spasm.
I put drowning at the bottom of the list
of potential causes of death
because she had no
other signs of drowning.
There was no water in
her lungs or her stomach.
But her son had pneumonia
and his hands were peeling.
Yeah. Both signs of near drowning.
The question is, where did
they both go underwater?
The only person who knows is Michael.
You were right. Every
person on that list
has a psychiatric file with the state.
Some with Dr. Sarkisian.
- Dr. Sarkisian is dead, right?
- He is.
He specialized in schizophrenia,
borderline personality disorder.
Tough cases.
Most of the files are in there.
Sorry, most?
Actually, some of mine are missing.
I think I might have been robbed.
Really? Will you show me?
Well
This is where I keep all my old records.
Some, you know, past patients. Yeah.
The locks don't look compromised.
The files could've been
taken ten years ago.
There's all kinds of ancient history.
No kidding. Carbon copies?
Ha, it's how we used to
provide the state with
copies of observations
I'd like to call some
colleagues down here,
to process this as a
potential crime scene.
- Mm-hmm.
- If someone took the files,
that could be the
person we're looking for.
Oh, God. I, um
I've got to get to the airport.
I'm I have a speaking
engagement in Saskatoon.
- I know. Glamorous.
- Yeah.
Um, okay. I'll tell you what.
Um, I will have my secretary
take out any active files,
but then it's all yours.
Thank you.
This is my friend Serena.
- Hi.
- Do you mind if we ask some questions
- about your mommy?
- He won't even talk to us.
- Why would he talk to you?
- Mary
It's okay. It's all right.
Do you remember the last
time you saw your mommy?
It's okay to tell Beau, sweetie.
You're safe.
Do you remember the last time I saw you?
And that-that water spilled on you
Was it because water scares you?
You want to play?
I, uh
I saw something downstairs
that I think Michael would like.
Do you mind?
Yeah. Go for it.
There you are.
It's all corroded.
Mold.
None here.
That's weird.
Hello!
Well, thank goodness.
Hello?
So what? There's an
apartment in my basement.
What exactly are you implying?
Sir, we can have that conversation
once we finish searching.
There's no window. There's
only one way in and out.
That ain't healthy.
- How did you even know this space was here?
- I didn't.
This little guy tipped me off.
Corroded battery. Water damage.
And Cara nearly drowned.
Lots of basements have dehumidifiers,
but other than Cara's
boxes, there was no mold.
- Someone did some cleanup.
- Or more like a full-scale remediation.
See this pipe up here?
New fitting there.
That's been recently replaced.
You can tell by the sealant
on the edges of the joint.
How could this room fill up with
enough water to drown an adult?
Well, that door was like
opening a bank vault.
You think she lived down here?
I mean, if you call what
Pete did to her living.
You don't think that
he In front of the kid?
Michael hasn't shown any fear of Pete.
I think she tried to protect
her little boy when Pete,
you know, visited.
Hid him in the bathroom.
I mean, Michael has no idea who he is.
Yeah, but so this space isn't
enough room for him to keep
- multiple girls.
- Oh, I think he probably used the missing
high school girls as
cover for taking Cara.
Problem is, we still
don't have any proof
that Cara was ever down here.
Well, let's find it.
How?
How did he get this damn
room so frigging clean?
Hey, hey. Hang in there, Beau.
Let's just take a beat, okay?
Get quiet. Let's just reassess.
Or
Or just lose it.
What the hell are you doing?!
Most people use the pink
fiberglass for insulation.
- This is soundproof.
- I'm a sound guy!
Of course I insulate!
Take a step back. Cool off.
You know what soundproof insulation
is made of? Rockwool.
- Who cares?
- Rockwool is made of basalt,
melamine and slag, also
known as ferrous ore.
Same trace we found in Cara's throat
and under Michael's nails.
The water main to the house burst
while Cara and Michael were
trapped inside this room.
Nobody could hear her scream
because the room was soundproofed.
And then Cara and Michael
tried to claw their way out of the room.
Mommy!
You must've found Cara
shortly after she died.
You thought Michael was dead.
So you buried him
with his mother.
What?
About four months ago,
Cara came back home.
I hadn't seen her in eight years.
She had Michael now,
and she was pregnant
again, begging for money.
Why didn't you tell me?
She said she was gonna
give her baby away.
Just needed a place to stay, so
I gave her the apartment
while you were out of town.
I kept them down there
to keep them safe.
- I thought she'd
- You What?
The water pipe, the drowning,
it was all an accident
- Stop.
- No
Shut up!
We found Cara's baby
she was gonna give away
in the same field you
buried Cara and Michael.
Here's what's interesting, Pete.
We ran that baby's DNA against yours.
You're a match.
What did you do?
You want to run that story back for us?
Cara didn't run away.
You locked her away.
You stole her life.
You abused her for eight
years in that basement
Stand up.
I'm not who you think I am.
I I couldn't let
her leave. I loved Cara.
- I loved her.
- No, what you did wasn't love.
Up. Now.
I'm not buying it.
How could Mary not
know what Pete was doing
for eight whole years?
Every family secret is built on denial.
If you don't see it, you
don't have to face it.
Something about Mary that isn't right.
She spent the past eight
years of her life on vacation.
Ain't nothing right about that.
That's right.
This is ridiculous.
I wasn't charged with anything.
- He's my grandson.
- Ma'am.
He may be returned to your custody
once family court determines fitness.
- But not yet.
- Not ever.
Haven't you two done enough?
I think you knew what
your husband was doing
in the basement all those years.
I did not know. How would I know?
When I first met Michael,
he was wearing this.
I knew I'd seen it before.
I got one for my
daughters as a souvenir.
It's a Mexican woven bracelet.
You bought this for Michael
while you were on vacation, right, Mary?
Uh Maybe Pete did.
But Pete's not in any
of your vacation photos.
And his passport expired
years ago, I checked.
Pete doesn't go on your trips
around the world with you,
does he, Mary?
Pete married me, but he loved Cara.
What else was I supposed to do?
Leave. Like Cara tried to.
And go back to my old life?
She wouldn't have lasted out there
on her own for a week.
That girl was useless.
She was bound for trouble.
If Pete wanted her, he could have her.
Hands behind your back.
You traded your daughter
for cruises and spa days.
She liked the attention.
Beau, please, that's mine.
- I knew he would like that bracelet.
- Let's go.
Dr. Auerbach was right.
Some of these are really old.
This carbon paper is
almost impossible to read.
All right, hang on.
Are those doodles on the carbon paper?
What else would they be?
I don't know.
Proof that Dr. Auerbach
has some secrets?
I don't know what any of this means.
But didn't she say whoever's
behind this might be playing games?
- Mm-hmm.
- Maybe that's exactly what she's doing.
How long is Dr. Auerbach
out of town again?
I'm gonna find out.
When she gets back to Vegas,
she's gonna answer some hard questions.
- Hey!
- Hey.
So I got a little good news for you.
Cara's friend Sam and his partner?
They're stepping up for Michael.
- They're gonna take him in.
- That's great.
You did good by that boy, Beau.
I'm not going back in the
field. I belong in the lab.
Penny had something
similar that happened.
And what she discovered is that
With all due respect,
it's not the same, Max.
- This isn't my first job.
- Mm.
I walked away from a C-suite
title at Dow to come here.
And you became a
criminalist for a reason.
I'm-I'm
I'm sorry.
I'm just not gonna
accept your resignation
- from the field.
- Max
I'm either in the lab or I'm nowhere.
Okay.