CSI: NY s06e06 Episode Script

Went through his pockets and found a wallet full of cash, credit cards and an lD.
His name's Martin Stafford.
His business card says he's CEO of Kensitron Software.
So I checked.
It's a small firm on the Upper East Side.
Well, these red stains are definitely not part of the crosswalk art.
It's blood.
And a whole lot of it.
And no apparent evidence of an attacker.
He's drenched in his own blood.
You could have saved me! I don't see a gunshot or a knife wound or any significant laceration.
There's no bruising or injuries consistent with a struggle.
Petechial haemorrhaging.
No evidence of strangulation.
It appears he bled out through the nose, mouth and ears.
Directionality of these blood-spatter patterns suggest that he was dizzy and he barely could walk.
Erratic steps.
As if he was staggering and then collapsed.
Was he sick? Haemophilia maybe? Cos there's no way this is natural causes.
Possible internal injuries or viral infection.
Or the only other murder weapon left.
Poison.
Hawkes? What's wrong? I assume if it was about the case, you would have just called.
I've made a mistake.
OK.
I'm sure it's something we can work through.
You can tell me anything, Sheldon.
I may be responsible for the death of Martin Stafford.
# Out here in the fields # I fight for my meals # I get my back into my living # Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah # I was working the day shift with the Volunteer Medical Unit.
I examined our vic, Martin Stafford, in Central Park at roughly four o'clock yesterday afternoon, right about here.
Martin said he was feeling nauseous and dizzy.
He fell over a few times and his nose started to bleed.
When did you last eat? Lunch two hours ago.
He was with a young woman.
She rang medical dispatch saying he had a nosebleed and felt nauseous.
Martin had been drinking.
And it was clear he was a bit drunk.
They both were.
And because of it, I made assumptions and acted irresponsibly.
You may think a bloody nose and a tummy ache is cause for attention, but there are people that are injured that could use my help.
So next time, why don't you call your mother? Was there any abdominal cramping, excessive perspiration? I didn't see it.
Didn't look for it.
Didn't ask.
Later that evening, we found him here on the other side of the park.
It's not at all close to where he lives.
Maybe we can track her mobile call to medical dispatch and get a name and number.
I tried.
The call was made using the victim's phone.
I gave a description to Martin Stafford's neighbours.
No one knows who this woman is.
I know I should have mentioned this at the scene and I don't have a good answer as to why I didn't.
I just keep thinking that if l would have gotten him to a hospital, things could have turned out differently.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
You can't go back and save his life.
You can only move forward.
Solve his murder.
So let's start by finding that woman.
A little gardening, Sid? Oh, research.
Martin's tox screen was negative.
Not the outcome we expected.
So you ruled out poisoning? Well, not at all.
A healthy body doesn't spontaneously expel five quarts of blood for no reason.
According to his medical records, Stafford was very healthy.
Which leads us back to your research.
Yeah, I'm looking for poisons that are not only odourless and tasteless but also hard to detect biochemically.
Perhaps one of them is our culprit.
There was something in his system that caused him to bleed to death.
Yes, but whatever foreign substance that was, it quickly metabolised in his body, leaving no trace.
And no clue as to the identity of his killer.
Right.
Is the poison ingested, inhaled or injected? Well, there was no sign of any irritation to the nasal passages or visible needle marks on the skin.
So oral ingestion seems to be the most logical option.
I did recover some sparse granular trace from scratches in the shoulder.
- Related to COD? - Highly unlikely.
My most interesting discovery was this.
- Linguine.
- His dinner.
- I found it on the victim's body.
- Oh, a messy eater.
Well, it was recovered from beneath his clothing, stuck to his inner thigh.
More importantly, not a single strand of linguine was found in the stomach contents.
There was very little food in his stomach at all.
OK.
That is odd.
In order for it to stick and remain on our victim's skin, the noodle must have still been wet, gooey, the consistency of freshly cooked pasta.
Suggesting it was prepared shortly before TOD.
It's unlikely it was the source of our poison but it's certainly something to noodle on.
The guy had a bloody nose.
There was a woman with him.
- I remember.
- I was hoping you got her name.
I suggest you just head home, get some rest and sleep it off.
- Hey.
- Hey, what's up? Nothing.
It was a big waste of time.
I gotta get to work.
That's the responsibility of the first doctor on scene.
That was you.
Yeah, I know.
I need you to remember whatever you can about that couple.
Did they say where they were headed or coming from? Anything they said could be helpful.
They didn't know each other very well.
It had to be a first date.
He asked how far her apartment was but I didn't hear the response.
I didn't talk to them much.
I didn't bother asking any questions.
You said they were a waste of my time.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Sheldon, what's wrong? Nothing.
Thanks.
It's not gonna tell you what it is.
- You're gonna have to analyse it.
- I know.
It's just the granular sample Sid gave you is so small, there's not much to work with.
I'm looking at one chance of getting it right.
GCMS.
It's mixed with our victim's blood.
That may alter the analysis.
What does it like under the scope? Well, it's got the structural and compositional properties of talc.
Until I can look at it further, I don't know if it came from paper, paint, rubber, ceramic.
I surrender.
I get the problem.
Sid recovered this trace from the scratches on the shoulder.
Until I can figure out what it is, I don't know if the wound was caused by something or someone - our killer.
Well, we do have the sample library.
- And when all else fails, ask EDNA.
- EDNA.
Mac, I got prints and a hair off the linguine Sid found on Stafford's body.
They belong to the vic? Don't know.
I'm waiting on a 10-card from Sid and a match in AFlS.
I did some digging into Stafford's background.
He was some financial whiz kid.
Started Kensitron Software when he was 23 years old.
He put everything he had into it but when the economy tanked, Kensitron went down with it.
Stafford filed for bankruptcy three months ago.
He's liquidating the company.
Losing everything he built hit him hard.
Maybe we're looking at a suicide? Well, nothing else suggests he fits that profile.
Search his apartment.
We know he ingested the poison.
See if you can find a source.
All right.
I'll hobble my way over there.
Martin Stafford was a healthy businessman with no prior arrests, not even a speeding ticket.
We got contacts who all swear he was a great guy, yet no one's called to ask where we are in our investigation.
We usually get those calls.
Yeah.
To be that young and have no family, no close friends.
I mean, it's very sad.
A few people got close to him just before he died.
Danny just left to process the vic's apartment.
Told me to give you this.
I found two partial prints and a hair on the strand of linguine recovered from Stafford's body.
Each one belongs to someone different.
Nothing to our vic.
- Danny get hits in CODlS or AFlS? - Nope.
It says here the two prints belong to women and the hair belongs to a man.
That's like too many cooks in the kitchen to me.
It doesn't explain why the noodle we found was underneath his clothing.
- This guy was kinky with his food.
- Care to elaborate on that? Yeah, I think he was sploshing.
A sploshing party is an event where a group of people get together and they experience food in a sensual way.
They caress their bodies with foods of different textures and temperatures and it arouses and stimulates and they say that it excites them.
Well, l, just again It's what I've heard.
There are specific locations for these.
.
? Sploshing parties? Or you can go to a website and get an invitation.
But l I've just heard.
I # the moon shines I become alive # Yeah # And every time # The moon shines I become alive # Yeah # I'm feeling strange in the night # I'm in myself I feel I'm thrown into a fight # Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nothin's right # My skin is burning when my rock begins to speak # There's something going wrong with me # I am changing rapidly #.
Y esterday was our ltalian theme.
T omorrow, vegan.
This is our dessert course.
This takes place every day at lunch? Yes.
We've just added dinner parties on Friday and Saturday nights.
I can get you a membership application.
God, no.
Thank you.
Do you know this man? I'm sorry, I don't.
- We believe he was here yesterday.
- He wasn't.
Men have to be members to attend our events and he's not a member.
- Are you sure about that? - Positive.
That's not a face I would easily forget.
- You record these things? - Yes.
For YouT ube.
Excuse me a moment.
So when I'm grabbing a sandwich at the corner deli, this is what the corporate world does for lunch.
It explains how Danny found multiple fingerprints and hair on the linguine.
- I see somebody we know.
- What? Yeah.
Over there.
Messer.
Walk to the window.
I can see you right now.
See me? Straight across.
Big building.
Yeah, no, Flack.
I see you.
- I got a great view here.
- Where our investigation led us.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
What the heck is going on over there? Er sploshing party.
Sploshing? You finding linguine in our vic's apartment? There's not a linguine noodle in this place.
Not much at all.
Super says the apartment was going into foreclosure.
Anything that might be our poison, give a ring.
I'll let you know if I find anything.
You let me know if you find anything.
- All right.
Will do.
- All right.
Be careful there, buddy.
- Who me? - Yeah.
Seems our vic had a bird's eye view of the hottest lunch party in town.
But he wasn't at the party.
So how did the linguine end up on his leg and how did he end up dead? Whoa! Oh! - You all right? - Yeah.
I was evaporating the liquid sample Danny collected at the apartment.
Then, boom! - Which sample exploded? - It was the orange juice.
The orange juice had to be spiked with something highly flammable.
I can run it through GCMS.
The injection port on the GCM runs at That'll cause a bigger blaze than the one you created.
Yeah, I know.
So why don't you try a liquid chromatography instead? - Adam.
- Yeah? - You OK? - No, actually, I'm not.
Notice anything different about the lab? No.
Are you kidding me? She rearranged everything.
Well, not everything.
She moved some things and organised.
I take one day off and she thinks she can just take over the lab.
- She? - Haylen? The part-time lab tech? Why doesn't she just come in, clean some test tubes and put them back where I like them? Not take over the lab.
You're upset because she moved some things? Well, yeah.
Yeah.
- Yo, yo, yo, Sheldon! - Hey.
- You're late.
- I'm sorry, man.
- I've been an hour behind all day.
- Keys to my place.
Thanks, Brian.
I appreciate it.
- No problem.
- It means a lot.
You'll bounce back, Sheldon.
I know you.
Thanks again, Brian.
Whoa! An ant farm! Isn't Lucy a little too young to have one of these? I didn't get my first one till I was at least seven.
This is crime-solving science, Adam.
Check it out.
Draw a simple circle.
And then The granular substance Sid found in the victim's wound, it's ant chalk.
Cool! There's nowhere to go! They're trapped! Also known as "Most Fabulous lnsecticide Chalk.
" "Made in China.
" "Kills cockroaches and ants effectively.
" After EDNA identified it I ran it through the GCMS.
It contains deltamethrin and cypermethrin.
EPA pulled it off the market two years ago.
So if you can't buy it, how did it end up on our vic? I found a Chinese import company that sells this stuff online.
Hopefully, we can get a subpoena.
They can get us a list of who's purchased this in New York City.
It could be our first lead in identifying our killer.
One of the many perks of our profession, huh, doc - You OK, buddy? - I'm fine.
This is a disgrace to ltalian cuisine.
- I am getting hungry.
- Freeze it right there! Isolate that.
That girl reminds me of the woman I saw with Martin Stafford.
Same hair colour, same build.
Can't see her face.
She's looking in the direction of Stafford's apartment.
Zoom us in closer.
What's she doing? She could be leaving us a clue.
It looks like a line.
No.
It's an arrow.
So it looks like the sploshing party continued up here.
T race of orange pulp in these plastic glasses.
It smells like vodka.
Whoa! That's not all they left behind.
Got body fluids here.
The woman from Central Park was wearing a charm just like this.
Must have been a pair.
T racy.
I figured out why the orange juice combusted.
It contained a high concentration of dimethlynitrosamine.
It's found in photo processing, cancer research and rocket fuel.
When ingested, DMN acts as a hepatotoxin.
It attacks the liver and disrupts blood clotting.
That explains the uncontrollable bleeding.
If it could launch a rocket, imagine what it could do to your insides.
We've confirmed the source of the poison and the cause of death.
We also found orange juice pulp in the glasses from the rooftop.
But the vic's prints were all over the cups and the flask.
Semen from the lounge chair also came back to our vic so we know he was there.
So our vic spies on mystery woman, T racy, at the sploshing party from his apartment across the street.
She invites him to meet her on the roof.
He's not about to let this invitation go unanswered.
He pours orange juice from a pitcher in his fridge into a flask, adds vodka, grabs glasses, heads across the street.
While they're having sex, a strand of linguine transfers from her body to his.
He walks her home through Central Park.
That's when he starts to feel nauseous.
A few hours later, he's dead.
I might have found T racy.
Customers who purchased the ant chalk include a T racy Wallace.
She lives on the Upper West Side.
So she must have scratched our vic during their sex-capade on the roof.
That's how the chalk transferred to his body.
This is who we're looking for, no? What is it, Mac? There were two empty glasses on the roof.
Since the orange juice contained the poison We need to find this T racy.
Tracy Wallace, NYPD.
We want to talk to you.
Tracy? T racy? Clear here.
That's her.
- I gotta turn the water off.
- Wait! There's a smell.
It's ozone.
Circuit breaker? - Yeah, down the hall.
- Show me.
Breaker's off! She's dead.
Cold.
Same clothes she was wearing in the park.
She's been here a while.
Electricity entered her body there.
But there's no sign of inflammation around the thermal burn.
She died before she received the electric shock.
She bled out, just like Stafford.
She must have turned on the tub and then just passed out.
She died from the poison.
You could have helped us.
You could have saved us.
She's not the killer.
She's another victim.
The orange juice was at Stafford's apartment.
He was the target.
T racy was just collateral damage.
- Hey.
- Hey.
I found trace amounts of DMN in T racy Wallace's liver.
COD is the same as our first vic.
Looks like her blood alcohol was.
09.
A lot lower than Martin's.
Explains why it affected Stafford first.
More drinks, more poison.
A powerful pitcher of orange juice, huh? You know, there's no way Hawkes could have saved T racy or Martin Stafford.
So someone spiked the juice.
Hard part is gonna be figuring out when that happened.
Uh Lividity.
TOD can be determined by the collection of blood in the body.
The heart stops pumping and blood settles where gravity pulls it.
Distinct and visible discolouration of the skin occurs.
The process can vary depending on temperature and conditions.
Now if the corpses move, lividity shifts but there is evidence of that movement and we can still determine the time of death.
Same theory might apply to the orange juice.
We need to look at the evidence of the poison on the glass of the pitcher.
T races that might give us a timeline of when it was added.
I suppose I could have said it like that, yes.
- Here we go.
May l? - Yes.
Crystallisation.
If we can recreate the stage of crystallisation, maybe we can pinpoint a day and a time when the juice was spiked.
You'll need the total volume of the containers, an estimated total mass of poison, and the exact temperature of Stafford's fridge.
You mind if I stick around for this? This is your candy store, Sid.
All right, Sid.
It's been four hours.
And take a look.
You know, based on the rate of crystallisation we see here, we can already estimate that the poison was put into Stafford's orange juice roughly 48 hours ago.
That's great.
So that puts us back to Saturday.
Go through Stafford's computer, his PDA, phone messages.
I want the names of everyone he came in contact with on that day.
Someone laced that orange juice with poison.
I'll see if Martin Stafford received any deliveries or visitors.
His place was pretty empty.
No tables, no chairs.
Packing boxes.
I doubt he was entertaining anyone.
I did recover a disposable booty.
I just figured it was left behind by the movers.
You said the apartment was in foreclosure? - Yeah.
- Open house.
Ever think that dream flat is just out of your reach? Not any more.
At RepoLux Tours, we have over 3, 000 foreclosed properties.
Just hop on the bus and we'll introduce you to the rest of your life! RepoLux.
We make your dreams come true.
Martin Stafford's apartment was on the tour? Saturday, 1 0 people.
And it explains why Danny found this little booty on the floor.
Everyone who toured the apartment had to wear them.
Seems like it's time for them to take a tour of the precinct.
There were seven apartments on our tour that day.
What time were you at Martin Stafford's apartment? From 3:00pm to 3: 15.
These tours are usually pretty quick.
Lots of ground to cover these days.
I bet.
Did you notice anyone acting strange? Doing anything unusual? - No.
I didn't.
- Was anyone around the refrigerator? Once we get inside the properties, the clients are free to wander around on their own.
Most people find the kitchen very important.
A full walk-in closet in every bedroom and who can say that in Manhattan? Gas fireplace in the master.
Perfect for you newlyweds.
And all these people here, they were on your sign-up sheet? - Yes.
For our mailing list.
- May I take a look at it? I thought you said there were 10 people who signed on for the tour.
There are 1 1 names here.
Really? There were only 10 registered.
Only 10 people on the bus.
Once in a while we get lookie-loos who sneak in without paying for the tour.
This last name, Thelonious Cross.
Do you remember meeting him? - No, I don't.
- Everybody used the same pen? I keep it with the book.
It clips on and that way I never lose it.
Can you tell me when the police are going to release the apartment? - Why do you ask? - It's a fabulous property.
I may have a buyer.
Hey.
Good news is I have prints.
Bad news, there's too many of 'em.
Let me see.
All overlapping.
Can't tell one from the other.
I'll try fluorescent tagging.
That could differentiate the prints.
And then I'll collect random samples of fingerprint oil from the pen.
See if I can isolate any unique biomolecules.
Might tell us who this Thelonious Cross really is.
Right.
Have you talked to Sheldon? I I'm not sure what to say.
- Maybe my expectations are too high.
- What do you mean? Hawkes is a brilliant former surgeon.
I know he couldn't have saved Martin Stafford's life if he had tried.
What's bugging me is I don't understand why he didn't know more was wrong with him, why he didn't see the symptoms, why he didn't tell us everything at the crime scene.
I've been asking myself those questions.
When Hawkes told me what happened, I was angry but I resisted giving him a lecture, threatening modified duty because it was Sheldon.
All I kept thinking was, "This isn't like him.
" It wasn't like him at all.
I suppose we do expect a lot out of each other.
Is that bad? No.
Police! Hands up! Let's go! Get your hands up! - What's going on? - We got a warrant from Brian.
- What's the charge? - Grand larceny.
Who are you? Dr Hawkes, the New York Crime Lab.
My badge and lD are in my pants.
Hands above your head! What the hell are you doing? Get your hands off me! - They got it wrong, Sheldon! - Right there.
I didn't do nothin'! Come on, guys.
You got the wrong guy.
It's a setup! I had no idea Brian was wanted for embezzlement.
OK, we went to college together.
Just got reacquainted.
You were on his couch.
Yes.
I stay there sometimes when I'm volunteering for the medical unit.
You know, I just get so beat, I don't wanna take the train home.
- Shel.
- What? I know when someone's lying to me and I'm not just talking about the crooks I lock up every day! I'm telling you what I know, Don, all right? You can't think I'm involved in something Brian was up to.
You kidding me, right? Huh? - Don - I'm done.
Get out of here.
All right.
- I'm fine.
- OK.
Bad judgement on my part.
I didn't know anything about what Hamilton was up to.
We hung out.
We went to undergrad together.
Sheldon, stop.
This just all sounds a little too rehearsed for me.
These are the lines you practised? What will I tell my boss? The DA? Detective on the case? You think I'm lying? I think you're hiding something.
I would prefer you treat me as a friend and not another authority figure looking for a reasonable explanation.
Look, I said this before.
You can tell me anything.
I would hope you'd trust that.
Hey, Mac.
I got something.
I identified a single compound that was foreign to the known print donors on the pen.
Tagged that compound with fluorescent dye.
It isolated a print.
John Simmons.
He lives in Queens and works for Kensitron Software.
Martin Stafford's company.
Right, they develop software for the military, so their employees are fingerprinted.
This guy has no priors, no complaints.
Doesn't seem the type to leap to murder.
I can't give you motive but Simmons' wife works at a cancer research lab and has access to DMN, our poison.
John Simmons is Thelonious Cross.
And he was in Martin's apartment.
John! Hey, Mac, try to cut him off, all right? I'll stay behind.
John! - John, wait! Don't do it! - Don't come any closer! We just wanna talk! John, what you're doing is very dangerous! You don't wanna hurt yourself.
You don't wanna hurt other people.
I don't care! He didn't care! Martin didn't care about others.
He lost our entire pension fund.
I had to kill him! He had to pay for the pain that he caused.
This is something we should talk about.
There's nothing to talk about.
There's nothing left! What about your wife? Your kids? For what I've done? I'll never see them again.
You know that.
And it doesn't matter anyway cos I let them down.
Don't do this.
Don't let this be their last memory of you.
Yeah.
Instead it should be a picture of a father or a husband who can't provide for his family? That son of a bitch took my money! He invested the employees' pension and he lost it all! We trusted him! I don't have anything.
I don't have a damn thing left after all those years.
- Look at me.
- No.
This isn't the way to fix it.
What? You gonna tell me that you understand? You can't understand.
You can't possibly understand! I do.
Cos a month ago I lost everything, too.
I trusted someone with my money, just like you did.
A money manager who turned out to be a scam artist.
Now I'm living with friends, spending my nights out begging for overtime.
Mostly I sit there wondering what the hell happened.
And the worst part about all this is that it changed me and I don't like what I've become.
The secrets I've kept and the pride that forced me to lie to my friends and treat people unkindly.
So It wasn't supposed to happen to me, John, was it? Nah.
Not me.
But it did.
It did.
I had to sell my house, spent all my savings in my retirement.
So, John, I do understand.
I do.
I killed a man.
Give me your hand.
Give me your hand! I don't want to.
Let me down! Let me down! I'm sorry.
I didn't tell anyone because I was embarrassed.
I'm smart, educated and I was duped.
It wasn't like John Simmons or his boss, Martin Stafford.
They trusted in the economy and it let 'em down.
Me, I got greedy.
I tried to play with the big boys and I got stung.
It wasn't greed, Sheldon.
It's called optimism.
You didn't have to sell your condo.
You could have gone to the department, asked for a loan.
No, I was living with more than I needed.
I took the best offer while I had a chance.
Unfortunately, it was before I had another place to live so I ended up staying with a friend.
You know, my biggest disappointment is that I may have to give up volunteering with the medical unit.
With Angell dying, and then this money situation, volunteering was the one thing keeping me sane there for a while.
Don't you dare quit.
You enjoy it too much.
There are other options.
Hey! I have an extra room.
It's not up for discussion.