Body of Proof s03e07 Episode Script

Previously on Body of Proof Couple of air locks one here, one here.
Dr.
Charlie Stafford, Centers for Disease Control.
It's said that I don't play well with others.
Have you met Megan Hunt? You're making a big mistake.
You need our help.
I put my life on the line to save people.
Then you should take advantage of what's standing right in front of you.
Is that grandpa? You should have this.
What is this, a suicide note? You hid this all these years? What's this? It's my father's suicide note.
I need you to run it through the lab.
Why? Because I don't believe a word in that note.
My father did not kill himself.
Hello.
Who's there? This isn't funny.
I'm calling the police.
No! Aah! That's very impressive.
Hey.
I was just gonna call you.
But you decided to service your weapon instead? Yeah, sometimes it's all a guy's got.
But something tells me you came here to talk about something besides my gun.
I, um was just wondering if you got the handwriting analysis back on my father's note.
Yep.
It came back this afternoon.
I wanted to follow up with the guy before I got with you on it.
Why? What did it say? Handwriting was a match.
Your father definitely wrote the note.
But? Well, the analyst said that there were indications that the note was written under duress.
Now look, Megan Okay.
The definition of someone who's suicidal means they're under duress.
What about the the forensics? I'm gonna push them as fast as I can.
Tommy, I need to know this.
I I know.
You can count on me.
Okay.
Okay.
Thanks.
Megan, uh the reason I was gonna call you was, I scored a couple of tickets to the Flyers game on Friday.
Wanted to know if you'd like to go with me.
Why would you think I'd want to go to a hockey game? Well, it's cold, there's a lot of blood it's right up your alley.
I will pass.
Ask Adam.
No, I can't.
He's gone to some bachelor party in Las Vegas.
This isn't about the hockey game.
I'm asking you out.
Tommy don't.
'Cause of something that happened 20 years ago? No, because uh you and me? Not a good idea.
Megan Hunt.
Tommy Sullivan.
Victim's name is Melanie Summer.
She's a preschool teacher over at Little Tree.
It looks like she was torn apart by an animal.
Or a zombie.
I'd say he was all too human.
That's a fingernail.
Had to be on drugs.
Create this level of mayhem, not even care that your fingernails were tearing out? Maybe it was bath salts.
I mean, those things really screw you up.
Such a waste.
You know, this level of violence, the killer would've been covered in blood, yet there's none of it in the hallway outside.
None in any of the other rooms either.
It's all centered in here.
So how'd he get away? It's like he vanished into thin air.
Oh, so he's a magical zombie? I never said that.
That window's open.
No way.
We're on the third floor.
That's quite a jump.
From the blood smears, looks like he broke his leg, dragged it behind him as he hobbled away.
Stay on your toes.
What the hell is that? Police! Show yourself! Maybe we should wait for S.
W.
A.
T.
Aah! Ah! Tommy? You all right? Body of Proof 3x07 - Skin and Bones Original air date April 2, 2013 He's the building super.
Name's Seth Boylan.
According to neighbors, he was the nicest guy in the world.
Well, nice guys don't try to eat people.
See, what did I tell you? Zombie.
And you got bit so you're next.
Knock it off, Ethan.
Human bites can be extremely dangerous, especially from someone as sick as Boylan is.
Did you say "sick"? I thought he was just on drugs.
See this foam crusted around his mouth? It looks like rabies.
The virus causes the body to overproduce saliva.
It also explains his extreme aggression and hallucinatory behavior.
He probably only had a few days left to live.
Rabies is fatal? Rabies is one of the most fatal viruses in the world, which means you're gonna need some shots.
- Hey.
- How you doing? I gotta ask.
Wh what was it like? What was what like? Being attacked by a zombie.
No, rabies have been around since the dawn of man, okay? And many think its symptomology is what inspired Romero to create "Night of the Living Dead.
" So I figure, what you went through was as close to a real zombie attack as any of us could ever hope to experience.
Don't you have any medical stuff to do, or You know, many people tell me that I'd be the first to die in a zombie outbreak.
It's not true.
They're wrong.
I have exceptional survival skills, keen situational instincts that alert me to even the slightest hint of danger.
What do those instincts tell you right now? I'm gonna go help Curtis in the exam.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Ready for your shots? There are other doctors in Philly, you know? Well, you're the only one I trust.
On second thought Oh, don't be such a baby.
Rabies shots used to go in the stomach with a 6-inch needle Now it's just five shots over a week.
What? What do you mean? It's antibiotics.
It goes in the butt.
- You're serious? - Mm-hmm.
You know, you wanted to see my naked butt, you coulda said yes to the Flyers game.
Why do you pull your pants down at sporting events? Sadly, you'll never know because I have another date.
Someone who appreciates my childlike spirit.
We've got trouble.
I've been over Boylan's body with a magnifying glass and can't find a single bite mark.
What's the problem? Because rabies is almost always transmitted by bite, especially in humans.
Then how did he get it? What if the virus has mutated into a more virulent form? I mean, this could be passed as easily as the common cold.
I mean, we could be headed towards an "I am legend" post-apocalyptic hell-pocolypse.
Are you on drugs? Allergy medication.
Ethan, there is no evidence of that kind of mutation.
Rabies is a fairly stable zoonotic virus.
But mutation isn't impossible.
Yeah, viruses mutate all the time.
But if the rabies virus had already mutated to become more infectious, we'd see more victims.
Morning.
Morning.
- Good morning.
- Hey.
Hey, Frank, good morning.
How are you today? I'd be better if I was still asleep.
Aah! Ah! Whoa! Ah! Ah! Ah! Get him off! Aah! Aah! Ah! The symptoms appear identical.
Bite marks? Not that I could see.
We'll know more after a full exam.
We should consider making a statement.
It's too soon for that.
But not too soon to call the new health commissioner.
Stafford.
It's good to see you again, Megan.
Wish it were better circumstances.
Oh, who are you kidding? An outbreak is your favorite kind of circumstance.
Well, Kate's already briefed me on the possible rabies mutation.
And I'd like to close the door on it, but there's a new strain of the virus that's being passed from foxes and skunks.
It's transmitted passively.
Without biting? Yes.
I I'm sorry.
- Who are you? - Oh Tommy Sullivan.
Philly P.
D.
Right.
The man who put the bullet hole in Mr.
Boylan's head.
Was that really necessary? The guy tore up a girl.
He was gonna do the same thing to me.
Of course he did.
He was very sick.
He couldn't control his actions.
Well, I'll tell you what.
The next rabid lunatic pops up, I'll send him your way.
Dr.
Stafford is here to prevent the next attack.
So why don't we get Mr.
Chen's autopsy started so we can pull the brain and get a section for you to examine? That sounds good to me.
I've been stuck behind a desk too long.
I want to get back to doing what I love looking at viruses under a microscope.
Bet that got you seriously laid in college.
What was that? The guy thinks I'm insensitive to the needs of rabid cannibals.
I don't know.
Are you? Megan, who cares? Tommy, we need this guy.
So zip it up and play nice for once.
Norman Chen, 38-year-old Asian-American male.
Severe blunt-force trauma to the right lateral chest, abdomen, and pelvis.
As with Seth Boylan, reportedly exhibited signs of agitation and hallucination similar to the "furious rabies" virus.
Oh, it's definitely rabies.
Those bullet-shaped virions don't look like anything else.
Mm.
Hello, beautiful.
You admire them? Of course I do.
Rabies is the oldest virus known to man.
Aristotle wrote about it in 300 B.
C.
Totally unique.
Doesn't enter the body through the bloodstream.
Travels through the nervous system.
Is that why the incubation times vary so wildly? Exactly.
Anywhere from a few days to several years.
Depends on how close to the brain the bite is and how fast the infection travels through the neurons.
And when it reaches the brain, it spreads like wildfire.
Yeah.
Aggression redlines, inhibitions disappear, salivation increases.
Then comes the hydrophobia.
Fear of water? More than just a fear.
At the height of the infection, a rabies victim will react violently to the sight or sound of water.
They vomit, lash out, they go into convulsions.
At that point, only got a few days left to live.
Yeah, and those days are spent in madness, with the disease trying to pass itself on through spasms of aggression and biting.
So cool.
It's good to have you back, Stafford.
Yeah, excuse me for a sec.
What are you doing here? Murray and Wasik ran down the information you asked for on the rabies victims.
I volunteered to bring it over after my shift.
- Wanted to check on you.
- She's hot, huh? Excuse me? You feel responsible for what happened.
A little.
Don't.
It was my call to split up.
So what did they bring in on our vic? You think I read their report on the way over? So you didn't? Chen and Boylan couldn't have led more different lives.
There's no single apparent connection between them, geographically or socially.
So how the hell'd they both get infected? In theory, there's someone else out there carrying the disease.
An index case or patient zero.
Chen and Boylan got it from him independently.
Index case? You're pretty smart for a cop.
Can you say that a little louder? Thanks for bringing this over.
Sure.
What'd she have? Uh, some info on Chen and Boylan.
Apparently they're not related.
I told her there must be a patient zero running around out there somewhere.
Well, there is no patient zero.
The rabies virus these gentlemen have is the standard virus.
No mutation whatsoever.
Then how the hell did he get infected if he wasn't bitten? Gonna have to do some more tests.
Wait, wait.
Hold on.
What is it? Traces of gauze and adhesive.
I saw it earlier.
An eye patch? He must have ripped it off in the throes of the infection.
I believe that Mr.
Chen has had a recent cornea transplant.
Of course.
What about Boylan? Wait.
What's going on? Skin graft to protect a burn.
I noted it during autopsy.
That explains everything.
Including the accelerated incubation period.
Could you guys please tell me what you're talking about? We know how both men contracted rabies diseased donor tissue both Boylan's skin graft and Chen's new cornea.
So there's an organ donor out there who's got rabies? No.
Organ transplants come from the living.
Tissue transplants from cadavers things like corneas, skin, tendons Heart valves, veins, even bones.
Yep, all of these are harvested from bodies after their dead, and then transplanted into living patients.
So instead of patient zero, we're talking about cadaver zero.
Right.
And just to be clear, this is a good thing, right? Wrong.
A single infected cadaver could contaminate hundreds of transplant recipients, all unaware that they've just contracted rabies.
Which means there could be hundreds of walking time bombs out there, just waiting to go off.
We've issued warnings to all the local medical facilities.
The problem is, cadaver zero's infected tissue could've been shipped to clinics, hospitals all over the country.
Is there some kind of oversight agency that could help? In theory, it's the F.
D.
A.
The reality is, tissue harvesting is a barely regulated industry.
In order to become a licensed harvester, all you have to do is fill out a form online.
It takes the F.
D.
A.
years to check it out, - they're so backed up.
- Years? About two million products derived from human tissue are sold in the U.
S.
alone every year.
Yep, the cash is ridiculous.
You can profit $100,000 on one cadaver.
I'm in the wrong line of work.
We've gotta find a way to locate that tissue.
Every hour that passes reduces our chances of stopping a rabies outbreak.
You know, we could test the D.
N.
A.
on the transplanted cornea.
Yeah, cadaver zero's tissue is still in the transplant.
Exactly, and then we just have to hope the D.
N.
A.
Is already in C.
O.
D.
I.
S.
That's brilliant.
Eh, just a little.
Looks like the doctors who treated Chen and Boylan received their tissue from the same source a company called Bio-Gen Incorporated.
All right, time for a house call.
You want to come? No, I'm gonna stick here with Charlie and follow up on that D.
N.
A.
lead.
Ah, no.
He's got plenty of important stuff to do.
He's got to run a health department, right? No.
No, actually, right here is the, uh, best place for me right now.
- Right.
Yeah.
- - Well, you should definitely have a doctor with you at Bio-Gen.
I'm coming along.
I'll get my stuff.
Good luck.
Good hunting.
So what's the deal with Stafford anyway? What do you mean? He's a health commissioner.
And you really should try not to antagonize the guy.
Yeah, but he's kind of a tool.
Why do Megan like him? Well, she didn't, at first.
They butted heads when the C.
D.
C.
sent him in on the Marburg outbreak.
But I guess working together bonded 'em.
What do you mean, they bonded? All right, you know how Megan always thinks she's the smartest person in the room? Well, Stafford challenges her.
It makes her raise her game.
Women like that.
Ooh.
Nice.
So what's the deal with officer badass? Tommy? Um He's a little rough around the edges, but he's good at what he does.
Seems a little trigger-happy to me.
He takes things personally.
It's his weakness and his strength.
From what I remember, you take things personally, too.
You saying that Tommy and I are alike? No, you're much better looking.
Get this to the lab.
They're expecting it.
So how the hell did you end up health commissioner? You never struck me as the bureaucratic type.
Well, a year ago I would've agreed with you.
Then I realized how much good I can do by formulating this state's health policy.
Okay, fine.
It, uh, it has been a bit of an adjustment a big one.
But, um, it's fulfilling.
Although it's been pretty nice getting back in the trenches with you.
There must be some mistake.
Our tissue can't have been the source of this rabies infection.
Every cadaver that we harvest has its blood tested for infectious diseases.
Rabies isn't present in the blood, so a blood test is useless.
Well, that is all the F.
D.
A.
mandates.
Why don't you tell that to the parents of the young woman who was murdered because of your infected tissue? The most important thing right now is to make sure that no one else is infected.
So we need to know exactly where the rest of that tissue went.
It didn't go anywhere.
Thank God.
Cadaver zero's tissue is right in here.
We're going to need to take it with us.
I can get a warrant if I have to.
That won't be necessary.
What's she doing? A body without bones could be disturbing for the family, so they replace 'em with P.
V.
C.
pipe.
That's just so wrong.
Here it is.
Cadaver zero's blood sample and tissue.
Great.
Now we just need his name and vital information.
I'm afraid I don't actually have that.
What the hell do you mean? You have to understand, the demand for harvested tissue is at a record high.
My in-house personnel are overwhelmed.
So I outsource some of my harvesting to subcontractors.
Uh, they hustle their own cadavers.
They, uh, harvest the bodies off-site, then they sell the tissue to me.
C cadaver zero was one of those.
And you didn't require an I.
D.
for the body? Of course we did.
There are forms.
But when I pulled the paperwork, it was incomplete.
Somebody should've noticed, they didn't, and I apologize.
Oh, you apologize? Three people are dead.
I'm close to bringing you in as an accessory.
This is a simple clerical error.
I can give you the person who harvested the body.
His name is Ken Dobannis.
There's a copy of his harvesting license in my office, and his address will be on it.
Clearly the address on Ken Dobannis' license is a fake.
I got a bad feeling about this.
We got a problem.
The lab found a match on cadaver zero's D.
N.
A.
He's a 21-year-old college student named Brian Ellis.
When did he die? No idea.
What do you mean? It's a matter of public record.
Brian Ellis is currently listed as a missing person.
According to police, he was abducted off the streets three weeks ago.
Now call me crazy, but I think this kid was murdered for parts.
I I can't believe he's really dead.
We think he had rabies when he was abducted.
Were you aware that he was bitten? Uh, yeah.
A stray dog a few weeks before - Mm-hmm.
- But the bite wasn't bad, and it's not like he had the money to go to the doctor.
The police report says you were both drinking the night he was taken.
Yeah.
As we were walking home, Brian thought we were being followed by a black car.
It sped off as soon as I turned around.
Brian said he saw it earlier on the way to the bar.
We laughed it off as paranoia.
I stopped to throw up, and he went on ahead.
Suddenly, he was screaming my name.
And as I came around the corner, he was gone.
The black car was speeding away.
Okay, here's what we got Brian Ellis was abducted off the streets by a black car, make and model unknown.
Two days later, Bio-Gen purchased Ellis' tissue from a licensed subcontractor named Ken Dobannis.
Now the harvesting license is real, but the name and address used to obtain it are not.
So this Dobannis guy kidnapped and killed Ellis for his tissue? Plenty of people have been killed for a lot less than the $100,000 a body can generate.
Well, a young male like Ellis that could generate a lot more than 100 grand.
Young bodies, they're harder to come by.
Not if you kill them yourself.
But why target Ellis? I mean, according to his roommate, the car had been following them earlier in the evening, so he was clearly targeted.
But why not just go after somebody who's walking alone? That's a good question.
We've been picking apart his life trying to find an answer to that.
Why Ken Dobannis? What do you mean? It's a particular name.
Why not Joe Smith or Tom Jackson? You think it has some significance? Well, he's not stupid enough to pick a name that will lead us to him.
He's not stupid.
I think he's very clever.
So clever, he wants us to know it.
An anagram.
Exactly.
"Skin and bone.
" How can my department help? Well, the M.
E.
's office has Ellis' remains.
What are the odds that this harvester left some trace evidence that will lead us back to him? Well, it's a long shot, but we'll do our best.
All right.
We got work to do.
I got a feeling Brian Ellis is just the tip of the iceberg.
I found something anomalous.
Traces of high-index cavity fluid on the leg bones harvested from Brian's body.
Cavity fluid's only used for embalming.
Exactly.
Any type of formaldehyde would degrade the tissue being harvested.
Add to that the fact that at Brian's abduction site there was a hearse I think this guy harvested Brian Ellis at a funeral home.
Except Brian Ellis wasn't the only one who was harvested there.
Five male college students in the last two months in the Philadelphia area have been reported missing, including one who disappeared a week ago by the name of Michael Finley.
Why didn't the police make the connection? There's no evidence of foul play.
College students aren't known for being particularly stable.
That's no excuse.
Your failure to connect those dots allowed this killer to prey on young men with impunity.
You believe that, you're not living in reality.
Okay, boys, knock it off.
You can blame each other later, okay? We need to find the funeral home that this guy's operating out of before he kills somebody else.
Megan.
The cavity fluid you turned up is a brand the F.
D.
A.
banned eight years ago.
No active funeral home is using this stuff.
So maybe he's using a shuttered facility.
I'll call in for a list.
Slow your roll, Columbo.
I got this.
There's only one closed funeral home still standing, and it's less than a mile from five college campuses.
There's no way I can talk you into staying outside until we get the building clear, is there? Not if the Finley boy is possibly alive inside.
Listen, Brian Ellis was harvested after two days.
Michael Finley's been gone for a week.
Let's go.
Oh, God.
Finley.
Building's empty.
Harvester must have left.
You knew he was gonna be dead, right? But I hoped he wasn't.
Detective.
Yeah? You need to see what's out back.
So the guy's not just carving up bodies for cash.
He's a serial killer.
He's figured out a way to monetize his psychopathy.
That's a new one sick and enterprising.
If he was just preying on college kids for cash, his victims would be more diverse.
But these are all young males, same height, same build, same hair color.
Except for Brian Ellis.
He's got brown hair.
All the others were blond.
Could mean something.
Could mean nothing.
Won't know until we find out exactly what makes this guy tick.
Why risk the exposure by selling the tissue of your victims? Well, you said he thinks he's clever.
He's probably daring us to try to catch him.
Look what I found.
Gotta be at least 60 grand in here.
Probably money from his last harvest.
Gonna make it harder for him to run.
No.
He's probably got multiple harvesting licenses.
All he's gotta do to bring in cash Harvest another victim.
Anything beautiful about this, doc? No.
Can I ask you a question? Sure.
What are you still doing here? This isn't a health crisis anymore.
It's a police matter.
I'm invested in the outcome.
What outcome? The outcome of this case.
What else could I possibly mean? You're a smart guy, doc.
You can figure that out.
'Cause of death was the same in every victim exsanguination due to laceration of the carotid artery.
So he cut their throats.
They bled out in under a minute.
Yeah, but he didn't kill them right away.
He tortured them first.
From the bruising around the neck and the petechial hemorrhaging, I'd say that he manually strangled them to the point of asphyxiation multiple times before ending their lives.
Why in the hell would he do that? Make him feel powerful.
Bring 'em to death's door, spare them literally hold their lives in his hands.
How long did he keep 'em alive? Somewhere between 10 and 12 hours.
I got something.
Remember the clean blood sample that the harvester sent to Bio-Gen? Well, I wondered where he got it so I started to think, maybe it was his own blood.
So I ran D.
N.
A.
on it.
Ethan, if you found this guy, I will kiss you.
Really? 'Cause, uh Ethan.
Right, no.
It didn't I.
D.
the killer.
But it did match a college student that went missing over a year ago in Arizona.
Arizona? So what, this guy's been harvesting bodies across the country? Looks like it.
Wait a minute.
I've seen Arizona somewhere in this case.
Where? Brian Ellis' roommate Mason Geary.
He transferred here from a school in Arizona.
Excuse me.
Can you help me? I I can't seem to get this to turn.
Sure.
Thank you.
The victim's name is Shawn Asher.
He left soccer practice at 7:30.
Never made it back to his dorm room.
We traced his cell phone to a garbage can on campus.
Mason must have dumped it knowing we'd use it to find him.
He fits the profile athletic, blond, young.
Just like the rest of his victims, except for Brian Ellis.
Now our assumption is that Brian started to catch on to some of his roommate's activity, Mason had to kill him.
Set up the abduction scenario.
Made it look as real as possible.
Any ideas as to why Mason is so focused on this type of victim? Officer Dunn, you know more about this than I do.
Mason Geary was a foster kid who grew up bouncing from home to home.
According to social services, when Mason was 8, he was regularly brutalized by the biological son of his foster parents a blond college athlete living at home who enjoyed beating the crap out of Mason.
Part of that abuse involved strangling him into unconsciousness.
I see.
Now by the time social services found out about it and moved him to a different home, the damage had already been done, so How did he learn about harvesting? An anatomy class at Arizona Tech.
Harvesting tissue was part of the curriculum.
That's just great.
Okay.
He's not gonna kill Shawn and then harvest him.
He's got a ritual.
He'll strangle him repeatedly before cutting his throat, and he needs a safe place to perform that.
I agree.
And the clock already started ticking on this ritual two hours ago.
We got a very short window to figure out where this safe place is and to stop Shawn Asher from becoming the harvester's next victim.
Oh, G You all right? No, I'm not.
We need to find that kid alive, 'cause I cannot look at another dead boy today.
Now you know how it feels to be powerless and scared.
Did you find anything? Nothing yet.
We're running out of time.
Wait a second.
What is it? It's a paystub.
Mason had a short-term job doing night security at a campus storage facility? This has gotta be where he's keeping Shawn Asher.
Come on.
Let's go.
It's time to die now, Shawn.
Don't be sad.
You're about to become so much more than you are.
Drop the scalpel.
You're not gonna shoot me.
One flick of my wrist, and Shawn's carotid artery is severed.
He bleeds out in seconds.
Have you ever heard of the medulla oblongata, Mason? It's where your spine connects to your brain stem.
Sniper school, we call it the apricot.
You clip that with a bullet, it's lights out.
If you're trying to scare me, it's not gonna work.
No, I'm not trying to scare you.
I'm just telling you, the only one who's gonna bleed out in here it's you.
You're gonna be all right, Shawn.
Okay.
Are you okay, Shawn? You all right? Okay.
Hold on.
Hold on to me.
Hold on to me.
Can you walk? Come on.
Try to walk.
I spoke to the Mayor.
I told him how impressed I was with you, your entire staff.
Having you on the job makes my life a lot easier.
Thank you.
And I hope we can keep calling on you whenever we need an expert virologist.
Yeah, get you out from behind that desk that you love so much.
Well, I look forward to that.
Mm.
Hey, anybody here drive a blue convertible? Uh, I do.
Why? It's being towed.
Aw, come on.
Uh, wait.
Hold up, Charlie.
I'll give you a ride to the impound.
Oh.
I'll buy you dinner.
Okay.
It's a deal.
Hmm.
That didn't work out quite the way you planned, did it? No.
It hasn't.
Hey.
Hey.
That was some fancy shooting earlier.
Oh, thanks.
Deep down, you're probably wondering what would've happened if I'd missed, right? No, you don't strike me as a guy who misses.
You got a first name, officer Dunn? Riley.
You like hockey? Sure.
Who doesn't? 'Cause I got two tickets to a Flyers game Friday.
I don't know if you're interested I'd love to.