CSI: NY s06e11 Episode Script
Second Chances
Merry Christmas! So you had to pick the biggest one, huh? It's a Taylor family tradition.
Every Christmas we'd visit all the tree lots looking for that one.
And then the day after New Year's, when everybody puts their trees out by the curb, my dad would drive us around the neighbourhood to see if we can find a bigger one than ours.
- And? - 17 Taylor Christmases.
Never once did we find a tree that beat us.
Oh, you must be very proud.
You know, we can rest here if you're getting tired.
Oh, this is nothin'! When I was in college, I used to haul my tree up 10 flights of steps all the way to my apartment.
Uphill both ways in the snow.
With no shoes? As a matter of fact, yes.
Whoa, you weren't kidding when you said it was gonna be big! Oh, that's all Mac's idea, I'm afraid.
Nothing's too big for a child who's had a parent killed in the line of duty.
So what's the latest on Santa and the elves? Oh, well, it's all set.
Ready to go.
You guys are the best.
Can I buy you a cup of coffee? We gotta run.
We're working the day tour in the morning.
- Back in at six.
- Well, then - Merry Christmas! - Thank you so much.
- Merry Christmas.
- Merry Christmas.
See you soon? - Yeah.
- OK.
Bye, you guys.
Bye.
- That felt really good.
- Yeah, it did.
You know, there is nothing like Christmas in New York City.
He's not exactly dressed for the weather.
Looks like somebody tried to help him stay warm, with a few third-degree burns.
Witnesses heard what they thought were gunshots.
They look into the alley and see our boy here on fire.
Shots turned out to be these paint cans exploding.
Looks like he was beaten.
Nothing on him.
Not even loose change.
Our vic's wallet and jewellery were on someone's Christmas list.
Along with his life.
# Out here in the fields # I fight for my meals # I get my back into my living # Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah # This is some sort of oil or lubricant.
lnternal damage to the airway.
His lungs were full of blood when he died.
Must have been a serious punch to break these lenses like this.
Or break these ribs.
This guy suffered severe blunt force trauma.
I'm thinking some type of weapon like a pipe or a bat.
It's hard to believe the glasses weren't knocked off with a blow like that.
T urpentine and mineral oil.
The perfect storm with accelerant and fuel.
But it doesn't explain the burns on our vic's body.
And I'm getting a reading of 800 parts per million for gasoline.
And it's all over his body.
This is interesting.
It looks like this cigarette started the fire.
And so our perp beats and robs this guy.
Lights him on fire and takes off? That's a killer without a conscience.
And probably a long criminal history.
Let's hope this cigarette butt is in the giving spirit.
Boom! What are we talking about? That guy you torched in an alley off 7 4th and Amsterdam.
I wasn't in no alley and I didn't torch nobody.
Your DNA was on a cigarette butt that ignited the fire.
I ain't capable of that kind of violence.
Robbery, burglary, assault.
You got a resume for that kind of violence.
This is a step up for you.
Take a look.
- I don't know nothin'.
- That's not gonna cut it! Why were you there? Look, you wanna spend your Christmas in a six-by-four cell? - Then start talking.
- OK.
I was over there doing a stick-up.
Some fat dude dressed up Iike Santa Claus and another guy playing the sax.
- That's it.
- You were jacking Santa Claus.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Merry Christmas.
There were no robberies reported over there last night.
Neither one of these dudes is legit.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you so much.
Don't even try it, punk.
So you were stealing stolen money? They were out there scamming Christmas shoppers, man.
Thank you.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you.
Merry Christmas.
I'm about to make my move when this car comes out of the alley and runs over my foot.
Last-minute shoppers are always the best.
Ho, ho, ho! I heard some gunplay coming.
I split out of there.
Did you get a look at the person who was behind the wheel of that car? No, man.
It happened too fast.
So some mysterious car comes out of an alley, runs over your foot and you go ahead and finish the robbery anyway? Nothing got broke.
A criminal with perseverance? I love that Well, I got a girl and she's got a big Christmas list and there was a lot of loot in that bucket so Were you wearing those shoes last night? Yeah.
Why? Man, come on! These are my favourite shoes.
I got the autopsy report.
Our vic is James Manning.
Sid printed him.
Ran his ten card.
Arrests for drug possession.
Nothing in the last few years.
Only next of kin is a fiancée.
She's coming in to make a positive lD.
T ake a look at this.
X-ray confirmed broken ribs.
No human being is strong enough to inflict this damage.
Agreed.
CT scan shows severe trauma to both sides of the thoracic cage.
Those ribs are shattered.
One of them ruptured the right ventricle of the heart and punctured the right lung.
Check out the humerus bones.
Both are crushed in the same place.
He was lying supine with his arms at his side.
To be on his back like that, he was either unconscious or incapacitated.
Uh-huh.
Tox screen confirms that.
That's a serious dose of heroin in his system.
Enough to knock him out.
Uh-huh.
And here's something else we found.
T rack marks on his arm and a scar on his hand.
The unusual thing is this, though.
Track marks are well healed.
Probably years old.
And there's only one fresh injection point.
- The thigh.
- Uh-huh.
Not a great place to find a vein close to the surface of the skin.
An addict would know that.
Subdermal bruising with a distinct linear pattern.
And just like the burns on the chest, they were inflicted where you found him.
At the scene.
These are crush injuries.
The lubricant on the glasses, the trail of gasoline to the body.
James Manning was run over by a car.
The fire caused by a broken fuel line.
There was no tearing of the skin.
No evidence of dragging.
There's nothing to suggest that the car was going more than 5mph.
Right.
So whoever ran him over did it slowly and deliberately.
That car is our murder weapon.
That's the victim but who's the other guy? They're both James Manning.
The moment I saw him I knew there was something familiar about him and then when I saw that scar on his hand.
I ran him through CARS for past collars and came up with this booking photo.
It's hard to believe they're the same person.
Put some meat on his bones and a shave and he looks like a different guy.
Well, it's never a good thing when you look better in the autopsy photo than you do when you're alive.
He used to panhandle on 35th and Lex.
I'd get my coffee and a sandwich on the corner and every once in a while I'd give him a dollar or some change.
- What about a shelter? - I ain't going to no shelter.
You're gonna freeze to death out here.
Isn't there someone I can call? No.
No, I ain't got nobody.
You're wasting your time worrying about me, lady.
I'm a lost cause.
There's no such thing.
You need to get off the street, get sober and take care of yourself.
This life beat the care out of me long ago.
Please.
Let me help you.
Spare change? Spare change? Then one day he just wasn't there anymore.
It made me feel better to imagine that he had picked himself up and straightened himself out.
But I just I never really believed that.
Well, he did.
But somehow he ended up in that alley, drugged and a victim of a hit-and-run that someone wanted to look like an accident.
The question is who? Until we find that car, the only thing we can do is take a closer look at the people in James Manning's life.
- How's it goin'? - Better than I expected.
The undercarriage left a pretty distinct subdermal bruising pattern all over Manning's torso.
I got a useable tyre-tread impression from that crook who robbed Santa.
I should be able to get a partial match to an undercarriage.
Hopefully, between us we can narrow it down to a specific make and model.
T eamwork.
Lenny, give me a hand and get those boxes when you're done with that.
Looks good.
A little more basil and a pinch of red pepper.
Grace Chandler? I'm Detective Flack.
Yes.
Is there somewhere we could talk in private? Oh, my God.
Did something happen to James? When I came home from work, his wallet and his cellphone were on the kitchen table.
I thought he went for a run.
The precinct wouldn't take my report unless he was missing for 24 hours.
I was up all night waiting for him to call.
We're gonna need the names of anyone who might have been with him.
There isn't anyone else.
No family and no real friends.
If he wasn't working at the restaurant, he was with me.
How long have you and James been together? We were engaged for six months and together for over two years.
- Have you been getting along? - Yes, of course.
- No arguments? Disagreements? - No.
None.
What kind of cars do you and James own? A 2009 Lexus lS 350.
That's it.
Why are you asking me all of these questions? We have to, Ms Chandler.
It's our job.
James was under the influence of drugs when he died.
No, that can't be.
That's impossible.
He had heroin in his system.
I met James when he was using but I helped him overcome that addiction.
I gave him a job and then I fell in love with him.
We just celebrated two years of his sobriety.
Ms Chandler, we'd like to take DNA and fingerprint elimination samples from you.
Why? When we find the vehicle that was used to kill James and we process it for evidence, we'll need those samples to eliminate you as a suspect.
OK, I understand.
I'm sorry.
Just this is all so much.
Of course.
She'll have you out of here in no time.
Manning fights his way back from the streets and seems to have a great life ahead of him.
So how does he end up in that alley right back where she found him? Make it a crime scene.
Nobody touches that car until we get there.
- We gotta go.
- Where to? Got a match on that tyre-tread pattern from the shoe.
Graybridge 2o5/65/R1 5.
Standard on most late-model compact cars.
That narrows it down.
Lindsay matched it to the bruising pattern on Manning's body to get an exact year and model.
Now, traffic towed a '97 T aurus station wagon to the impound lot on the Westside this morning.
All right and get this.
It was blocking a driveway on 89th and Broadway, which is 15 blocks north of our homicide.
It wasn't reported stolen.
Well, let's hope this car is the other half of our crime scene.
The steering column's intact.
It wasn't hot-wired.
Definitely started the old-fashioned way, with a key.
Danny, I'm waiting for your "boom.
" Well, no more booms.
Lindsay made me promise.
She's afraid it's gonna be Lucy's first word.
Boom! This is our car.
I'll check the vehicle registration.
OK.
Car's registered to a Sam Baker.
# Every single thing you do tonight # Well, you can cut a rug # Watching you is the only drug I need # So gangster, I'm so thug # You're the only one I'm dreaming of # You see, I can be myself now finally # In fact there's nothing I can't be # I want the world to see you be with me # Hey, soul sister # Ain't that mister mister on the radio, stereo # The way you move ain't fair, you know # Hey, soul sister # I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight # Hey, soul sister # I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight # Hey, hey # Hey, hey # Tonight # Hey, hey # Hey, tonight # Hey, nicely done, guys.
Sam, these folks wanna have a word with you.
Yeah, send 'em on in.
- Sam Baker? - Yeah.
I'm Detective Bonasera.
This is Detective Messer.
Hey, well, that wasn't our best performance ever but not something to get arrested for, right? We have a few questions to ask you.
Yeah, all right.
Sounds serious.
Yeah, it is.
Your car was used in the commission of a homicide.
My car? There's gotta be a mistake there.
No, there's no mistake.
It was the murder weapon.
Why didn't you report it stolen? Because I didn't know it was stolen.
I told you, it sits in the parking garage for days at a time.
- Sometimes weeks.
- And no one else has a key? I have two keys.
One on my key chain and another in my apartment.
Hanging on a hook in your kitchen.
You searched my apartment? Your apartment, your car, the room that you rent at the recording studio.
This is a homicide investigation, Sam! Your car killed a man.
And it was started with one of your two keys.
- Both apparently accounted for.
- This is crazy.
You claim that no one else has a key to your place.
So somebody broke into your apartment, took the key, borrowed your car, committed a homicide, dumped the car and then put the key back.
Does that sound like anything a sane person would believe? You can't account for your whereabouts during the murder.
- I told you, I was home.
- Alone.
Detective Flack? My name is Debbie Fallon.
You're holding my boyfriend.
Sam Baker? Your boyfriend's in a lot of trouble.
I've hired an attorney and he's on his way.
Wow.
Eli Cornicello, huh? Called in the big guns.
You are accusing an innocent man of murder.
Well, let's hope that Eli can spin a better story than Sam cos the one he's telling in there isn't holding water.
You're so wrong.
He isn't capable of murder.
Anyone's capable of murder, Ms Fallon.
All the evidence we have points directly at your boyfriend.
Hey, Mac, I'm still waiting on the DNA results I took from the samples on Baker's car.
What about the fingerprints? Baker's were all over the interior driver's side.
Baker's prints inside his own car aren't incriminating.
Yeah, but James Manning's all over the passenger side are.
Manning was in the passenger seat.
It's likely he knew his killer.
If that's true, Sam Baker is lying.
I don't think so.
Manning had a boatload of life insurance.
2.
5 million to be exact.
And Grace Chandler is the beneficiary.
This is outrageous.
I just lost my fiancé.
Two-and-a-half million will make for a great send-off.
It was James' idea to get those policies.
Those premiums must have cost over 600 a month.
Living in the streets, abusing himself the way he did, he was always afraid of getting sick and dying young.
So you paid the premiums.
I've been polite for long enough.
I've done nothing wrong.
I know you think I had something to do with this.
Most of the people who sit in this chair, they lie.
Each time that happens we get a little bit better at knowing who's telling the truth and who's not.
And how about me, Detective? Am I a liar? I'll let you know.
Flack checked into her background.
No criminal record.
She's involved in homeless advocacy groups.
Volunteers as a counsellor at a drug treatment programme.
Whoever took him into that alley and killed him knew his background.
Yeah, question is who else in his life or in his past life had the means and the motive to do this? I understand you have a suspect in custody.
She's not in custody.
She agreed to come in and talk to us.
- Do you know her? - Of course not.
Why would l? Her fiancé was murdered with your boyfriend's car.
Maybe she had a personal relationship with the band.
Or him.
If you're suggesting he was having an affair with her, you're wrong.
I'm not.
I'm asking if there was a connection between them.
The answer's no.
Is she claiming to know about the murder? Can't tell you that.
But I can promise you, whether Sam is guilty or innocent, the truth will come out.
Mac, DNA results came back from Baker's car.
Give us anything to go at Grace Chandler with? There was one foreign DNA sample inside on the steering wheel.
Female, but not a match to Grace Chandler and no hit in CODlS.
The hairs on the undercarriage? Not Sam Baker's, not James Manning's and not Grace Chandler's.
And they were wrapped around the chassis screw.
So I ran 'em through CODlS.
They're from a hit-and-run in the Bronx from six months ago.
And get this.
The victim was found in an alley.
ID'd as Matt Davis.
Crushed to death, heroin in his system.
Sound familiar? Well, I'm betting there are a couple of million-dollar life insurance policies out there that say these two cases are no coincidence.
The tyre-tread patterns are identical to the ones on Baker's station wagon.
Same crush injuries.
Car was driven slowly over him.
Matt Davis, 27.
History of drug abuse.
In and out of the city shelters up until about three years ago.
No next of kin.
Same MO, same murder weapon, same victim profile.
No family, living on the streets, addicted to drugs.
Clean for the last couple of years.
The case detective exhausted all leads.
Figured that Matt started using again, stumbled out into the alley and was run over by a passing car.
Which is what somebody wanted James Manning's death to look like.
Except the killer didn't count on us finding the car.
Matt Davis was insured under a bunch of policies totalling $2 million.
Here's our beneficiary.
Am I supposed to know her? What about him? Is this the part where I look at the bloody crime-scene photo, break down and confess to murder? - Only if you did it.
- That ain't happenin'.
I ain't never seen that guy before.
Dead or alive.
Well, that's surprising, considering his death made you $2 million richer.
You think I'd be out here slinging flowers and newspapers if I had that kind of money? Maybe you collected the money for somebody.
Or someone else collected it for me.
You need to talk to the other Lisa Williams out there pretending to be me.
Some of these date back to over two years ago.
Credit card accounts, doctor bills.
I thought I had it all sorted out.
When did you discover your identity had been stolen? I hit a rough stretch a couple of years ago.
I went into rehab and I got clean.
And when I got out, the phone calls from the creditors started coming.
They started asking me about accounts that I ain't never opened.
Was your rehab affiliated with a hospital? The place was upstate.
I went there because I was referred by the staff at Queen of Mercy.
Thank you, Lisa.
Think we just found our connection to Grace Chandler.
James Manning, Matt Davis and Lisa Williams all went to the same drug-treatment programme at Queen of Mercy Hospital where Grace Chandler happens to volunteer.
That makes her the common denominator in each one of their lives.
Hundreds of people go through Queen of Mercy for the same thing.
Lisa couldn't lD Grace Chandler.
She had access to patients' personal information without ever seeing them.
Stealing Lisa's identity was just a click away.
We don't have forensic evidence that connects her to those murders.
This might help.
A tissue sample from a cosmetic surgery office on Park Avenue.
Whoever stole Lisa Williams' identity used a bogus credit card in her name for outpatient cosmetic surgery.
She had a growth removed from her shoulder.
That's where being a doctor comes in handy.
I know they destroyed the larger tissue sample but not the smaller one used for the biopsy.
When they glued that slipcover on, they weren't thinking about the evidence.
It'll be tough to remove it without the solvent corrupting the sample.
Not a lot to work with.
You're gonna get one shot at it.
Somebody better get his game up.
We've been through phone records, credit card statements, employment history, bank records.
There's nothing that connects Sam Baker to James Manning or Matt Davis.
Except for his car and lack of a believable alibi.
He's an up-and-coming musician with no criminal history.
What can he gain by killing these two guys? Maybe his gain is connected to Grace Chandler's money.
She could have hired him to kill Manning and Davis.
We can't rule out the possibility she and Sam were involved romantically.
A love triangle? That would have to be the best-kept secret.
It still doesn't explain Matt Davis.
We have nothing that connects him to any of the other players.
If Baker is the killer and he uses his own car, why doesn't he have the car towed after he's out of gas? Why leave it in front of the driveway? He's in over his head.
Maybe he panicked when he ran the kid's foot over with his car.
Thought somebody gets the number of his car.
Didn't know what to do.
So he did nothing.
Or he was thinking on his feet.
Rather than involve potential witnesses and leave a paper trail that connects him to the murders, abandoning his car and claiming ignorance gives him an out.
Taylor.
Got it.
I'm gonna go get Grace Chandler.
Stella, you go get Sam Baker and bring him down to lnterrogation.
You two pick up Debbie Fallon.
Get her over to the precinct.
What's going on? We got ourselves a triangle.
Except it doesn't involve love.
It involves murder.
This is harassment.
We're not here to harass you.
We'd like you to take a ride with us.
We have someone in custody.
We believe this is the person responsible for killing your fiancé.
Is that him? Is he the one who killed James? No.
She is.
Go ahead.
Look at 'em.
Look at what you did.
I don't know who this other man is.
And I don't know any Debbie Fallon.
Well, she knows all about you.
How about Lisa Williams? That name ring a bell? I don't know any Lisa Williams.
She came through a drug treatment programme at Queen of Mercy Hospital.
You stole her identity so you could take out life insurance policies under her name that would pay off after you and Debbie killed Matt Davis.
Being his fiancée, you knew you could get away with putting your name on James' policies and collecting on his death.
But not Matt Davis.
He posed a problem.
Grace couldn't use her real name as a beneficiary.
That would raise red flags with the insurance companies and the police.
But she made a mistake.
You opened a bogus credit card account in Lisa Williams' name and used it to pay for some work at a cosmetic surgery office.
We matched the DNA from the biopsy tissue to the elimination sample you gave us in the ME's office.
This doesn't prove anything.
I don't know who this Grace Chandler person is.
Debbie, before you make a complete arse of yourself, take a look here.
If something went bad with the procedure, she needed a contact person - someone she could trust.
Now the name's a fake but that number? That's your cellphone number.
That's how we connected the two of you.
And Sam, of course.
- Sam, you were next.
- What? Your life was insured for over $5 million.
In order to become a legitimate beneficiary, Debbie called herself your fiancée on all of the paperwork.
I can't believe this is happening.
I was living on the streets.
She helped me get a place.
Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? Because I can and because I know what it's like to be out on the streets.
Alone.
To have nobody.
This was all part of the plan.
Debbie and Grace waited two years.
Enough time for the policies to mature and pay out at maximum benefits, no matter what the manner of death.
Most likely, Sam, in a week, you'd have been dead.
The man in this photo was murdered last night.
They used your car to kill him.
We found Debbie's DNA inside on the steering wheel.
I've heard Grace talk about you.
It's great to finally meet you.
And you as well.
- I really appreciate the ride home.
- Don't even worry about it.
You're lucky to have known a person like Grace.
Yeah.
What are you doing? Now what? You chose people who were vulnerable and broken.
People you knew had nobody to question your motives.
What's it like to live without a conscience? It's like being rich.
Something you probably know nothing about.
Putting people like you away for the rest of your life, doing good, that makes me rich.
Something you probably know nothing about.
I have to ask.
Two years nurturing someone back to health, getting to know them, watching them grow.
How do you rationalise killing them? They're a cancer.
Living in the street like dogs.
Begging for change.
Leaving their faeces and stench in boxes in doorways.
How long do you think they would have lasted before you or some other cop found them dead? We took them off the street.
We gave 'em two more good years.
Two years living in a Park Avenue apartment building.
Wearing the best designer clothes and expensive jewellery.
We gave them things.
Things they never could have imagined.
Having a life they were never supposed to live.
We gave them two more years.
Two years they would have never had.
And the payment for that was their lives? Look, let's take a walk.
I'll get you a cup of coffee.
I've been guilty of it myself.
Put a couple of coins or a dollar in a cup and move on.
Never looking at them in the eyes or thinking you can do more to help.
And those couple coins in a cup, it's more than most.
So what are you gonna do now? I don't know.
This is knocking me back on my heels.
When I was a little girl, there was a sign hanging above the desk where I'd do my homework.
And it said that, "Temptation will lean on the doorbell but opportunity may knock only once.
" As ironic as it might seem, Debbie provided me with a second chance and I plan to make the most of it.
Good.
Mac, what did you want to see us about? You'll find out in a minute.
- Just got the last four.
- Last four what? What's going on? - I need your help.
- Elf costumes.
With what, Mac? Making toys? No, no, no.
No.
Delivering them.
Yeah, Santa's sleigh broke down on the Expressway about 45 minutes ago.
He was on his way over here to pick up these toys and bring 'em to the Children and Families Benefit downtown.
I remember Adam collecting money for that a few weeks ago.
- So which one of you guys is Santa? - Ho, ho! I was starting to think you weren't gonna deliver.
It's Cooper from the 1 1th.
Does all the precinct Christmas parties.
Gets him off traffic post for a couple of weeks.
You got an hour until his next gig so we should make a move.
I promised him dinner at Morton's.
Your treat.
- Flack, your elf costume.
- All right.
All right, let's roll.
You guys take that.
We head downtown in two cars.
# I need a sign to let me know you're here # All of these lines are being crossed over the atmosphere # I need to know if things are gonna look up # Cos I feel us drowning in a sea spilled from a cup # And I'm # Calling all angels # And I'm # Calling all you angels # And I won't give up if you don't give up # I won't give up if you don't give up # I won't give up if you don't give up # I need a sign to let me know you're here # Cos my TV set just keeps it all from being clear # I want a reason for the way things have to be # I need a hand to help build up some kind of hope inside of me # And I'm # Calling all angels # Calling all angels # Calling all you angels #
Every Christmas we'd visit all the tree lots looking for that one.
And then the day after New Year's, when everybody puts their trees out by the curb, my dad would drive us around the neighbourhood to see if we can find a bigger one than ours.
- And? - 17 Taylor Christmases.
Never once did we find a tree that beat us.
Oh, you must be very proud.
You know, we can rest here if you're getting tired.
Oh, this is nothin'! When I was in college, I used to haul my tree up 10 flights of steps all the way to my apartment.
Uphill both ways in the snow.
With no shoes? As a matter of fact, yes.
Whoa, you weren't kidding when you said it was gonna be big! Oh, that's all Mac's idea, I'm afraid.
Nothing's too big for a child who's had a parent killed in the line of duty.
So what's the latest on Santa and the elves? Oh, well, it's all set.
Ready to go.
You guys are the best.
Can I buy you a cup of coffee? We gotta run.
We're working the day tour in the morning.
- Back in at six.
- Well, then - Merry Christmas! - Thank you so much.
- Merry Christmas.
- Merry Christmas.
See you soon? - Yeah.
- OK.
Bye, you guys.
Bye.
- That felt really good.
- Yeah, it did.
You know, there is nothing like Christmas in New York City.
He's not exactly dressed for the weather.
Looks like somebody tried to help him stay warm, with a few third-degree burns.
Witnesses heard what they thought were gunshots.
They look into the alley and see our boy here on fire.
Shots turned out to be these paint cans exploding.
Looks like he was beaten.
Nothing on him.
Not even loose change.
Our vic's wallet and jewellery were on someone's Christmas list.
Along with his life.
# Out here in the fields # I fight for my meals # I get my back into my living # Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah # This is some sort of oil or lubricant.
lnternal damage to the airway.
His lungs were full of blood when he died.
Must have been a serious punch to break these lenses like this.
Or break these ribs.
This guy suffered severe blunt force trauma.
I'm thinking some type of weapon like a pipe or a bat.
It's hard to believe the glasses weren't knocked off with a blow like that.
T urpentine and mineral oil.
The perfect storm with accelerant and fuel.
But it doesn't explain the burns on our vic's body.
And I'm getting a reading of 800 parts per million for gasoline.
And it's all over his body.
This is interesting.
It looks like this cigarette started the fire.
And so our perp beats and robs this guy.
Lights him on fire and takes off? That's a killer without a conscience.
And probably a long criminal history.
Let's hope this cigarette butt is in the giving spirit.
Boom! What are we talking about? That guy you torched in an alley off 7 4th and Amsterdam.
I wasn't in no alley and I didn't torch nobody.
Your DNA was on a cigarette butt that ignited the fire.
I ain't capable of that kind of violence.
Robbery, burglary, assault.
You got a resume for that kind of violence.
This is a step up for you.
Take a look.
- I don't know nothin'.
- That's not gonna cut it! Why were you there? Look, you wanna spend your Christmas in a six-by-four cell? - Then start talking.
- OK.
I was over there doing a stick-up.
Some fat dude dressed up Iike Santa Claus and another guy playing the sax.
- That's it.
- You were jacking Santa Claus.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Merry Christmas.
There were no robberies reported over there last night.
Neither one of these dudes is legit.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you so much.
Don't even try it, punk.
So you were stealing stolen money? They were out there scamming Christmas shoppers, man.
Thank you.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you.
Merry Christmas.
I'm about to make my move when this car comes out of the alley and runs over my foot.
Last-minute shoppers are always the best.
Ho, ho, ho! I heard some gunplay coming.
I split out of there.
Did you get a look at the person who was behind the wheel of that car? No, man.
It happened too fast.
So some mysterious car comes out of an alley, runs over your foot and you go ahead and finish the robbery anyway? Nothing got broke.
A criminal with perseverance? I love that Well, I got a girl and she's got a big Christmas list and there was a lot of loot in that bucket so Were you wearing those shoes last night? Yeah.
Why? Man, come on! These are my favourite shoes.
I got the autopsy report.
Our vic is James Manning.
Sid printed him.
Ran his ten card.
Arrests for drug possession.
Nothing in the last few years.
Only next of kin is a fiancée.
She's coming in to make a positive lD.
T ake a look at this.
X-ray confirmed broken ribs.
No human being is strong enough to inflict this damage.
Agreed.
CT scan shows severe trauma to both sides of the thoracic cage.
Those ribs are shattered.
One of them ruptured the right ventricle of the heart and punctured the right lung.
Check out the humerus bones.
Both are crushed in the same place.
He was lying supine with his arms at his side.
To be on his back like that, he was either unconscious or incapacitated.
Uh-huh.
Tox screen confirms that.
That's a serious dose of heroin in his system.
Enough to knock him out.
Uh-huh.
And here's something else we found.
T rack marks on his arm and a scar on his hand.
The unusual thing is this, though.
Track marks are well healed.
Probably years old.
And there's only one fresh injection point.
- The thigh.
- Uh-huh.
Not a great place to find a vein close to the surface of the skin.
An addict would know that.
Subdermal bruising with a distinct linear pattern.
And just like the burns on the chest, they were inflicted where you found him.
At the scene.
These are crush injuries.
The lubricant on the glasses, the trail of gasoline to the body.
James Manning was run over by a car.
The fire caused by a broken fuel line.
There was no tearing of the skin.
No evidence of dragging.
There's nothing to suggest that the car was going more than 5mph.
Right.
So whoever ran him over did it slowly and deliberately.
That car is our murder weapon.
That's the victim but who's the other guy? They're both James Manning.
The moment I saw him I knew there was something familiar about him and then when I saw that scar on his hand.
I ran him through CARS for past collars and came up with this booking photo.
It's hard to believe they're the same person.
Put some meat on his bones and a shave and he looks like a different guy.
Well, it's never a good thing when you look better in the autopsy photo than you do when you're alive.
He used to panhandle on 35th and Lex.
I'd get my coffee and a sandwich on the corner and every once in a while I'd give him a dollar or some change.
- What about a shelter? - I ain't going to no shelter.
You're gonna freeze to death out here.
Isn't there someone I can call? No.
No, I ain't got nobody.
You're wasting your time worrying about me, lady.
I'm a lost cause.
There's no such thing.
You need to get off the street, get sober and take care of yourself.
This life beat the care out of me long ago.
Please.
Let me help you.
Spare change? Spare change? Then one day he just wasn't there anymore.
It made me feel better to imagine that he had picked himself up and straightened himself out.
But I just I never really believed that.
Well, he did.
But somehow he ended up in that alley, drugged and a victim of a hit-and-run that someone wanted to look like an accident.
The question is who? Until we find that car, the only thing we can do is take a closer look at the people in James Manning's life.
- How's it goin'? - Better than I expected.
The undercarriage left a pretty distinct subdermal bruising pattern all over Manning's torso.
I got a useable tyre-tread impression from that crook who robbed Santa.
I should be able to get a partial match to an undercarriage.
Hopefully, between us we can narrow it down to a specific make and model.
T eamwork.
Lenny, give me a hand and get those boxes when you're done with that.
Looks good.
A little more basil and a pinch of red pepper.
Grace Chandler? I'm Detective Flack.
Yes.
Is there somewhere we could talk in private? Oh, my God.
Did something happen to James? When I came home from work, his wallet and his cellphone were on the kitchen table.
I thought he went for a run.
The precinct wouldn't take my report unless he was missing for 24 hours.
I was up all night waiting for him to call.
We're gonna need the names of anyone who might have been with him.
There isn't anyone else.
No family and no real friends.
If he wasn't working at the restaurant, he was with me.
How long have you and James been together? We were engaged for six months and together for over two years.
- Have you been getting along? - Yes, of course.
- No arguments? Disagreements? - No.
None.
What kind of cars do you and James own? A 2009 Lexus lS 350.
That's it.
Why are you asking me all of these questions? We have to, Ms Chandler.
It's our job.
James was under the influence of drugs when he died.
No, that can't be.
That's impossible.
He had heroin in his system.
I met James when he was using but I helped him overcome that addiction.
I gave him a job and then I fell in love with him.
We just celebrated two years of his sobriety.
Ms Chandler, we'd like to take DNA and fingerprint elimination samples from you.
Why? When we find the vehicle that was used to kill James and we process it for evidence, we'll need those samples to eliminate you as a suspect.
OK, I understand.
I'm sorry.
Just this is all so much.
Of course.
She'll have you out of here in no time.
Manning fights his way back from the streets and seems to have a great life ahead of him.
So how does he end up in that alley right back where she found him? Make it a crime scene.
Nobody touches that car until we get there.
- We gotta go.
- Where to? Got a match on that tyre-tread pattern from the shoe.
Graybridge 2o5/65/R1 5.
Standard on most late-model compact cars.
That narrows it down.
Lindsay matched it to the bruising pattern on Manning's body to get an exact year and model.
Now, traffic towed a '97 T aurus station wagon to the impound lot on the Westside this morning.
All right and get this.
It was blocking a driveway on 89th and Broadway, which is 15 blocks north of our homicide.
It wasn't reported stolen.
Well, let's hope this car is the other half of our crime scene.
The steering column's intact.
It wasn't hot-wired.
Definitely started the old-fashioned way, with a key.
Danny, I'm waiting for your "boom.
" Well, no more booms.
Lindsay made me promise.
She's afraid it's gonna be Lucy's first word.
Boom! This is our car.
I'll check the vehicle registration.
OK.
Car's registered to a Sam Baker.
# Every single thing you do tonight # Well, you can cut a rug # Watching you is the only drug I need # So gangster, I'm so thug # You're the only one I'm dreaming of # You see, I can be myself now finally # In fact there's nothing I can't be # I want the world to see you be with me # Hey, soul sister # Ain't that mister mister on the radio, stereo # The way you move ain't fair, you know # Hey, soul sister # I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight # Hey, soul sister # I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight # Hey, hey # Hey, hey # Tonight # Hey, hey # Hey, tonight # Hey, nicely done, guys.
Sam, these folks wanna have a word with you.
Yeah, send 'em on in.
- Sam Baker? - Yeah.
I'm Detective Bonasera.
This is Detective Messer.
Hey, well, that wasn't our best performance ever but not something to get arrested for, right? We have a few questions to ask you.
Yeah, all right.
Sounds serious.
Yeah, it is.
Your car was used in the commission of a homicide.
My car? There's gotta be a mistake there.
No, there's no mistake.
It was the murder weapon.
Why didn't you report it stolen? Because I didn't know it was stolen.
I told you, it sits in the parking garage for days at a time.
- Sometimes weeks.
- And no one else has a key? I have two keys.
One on my key chain and another in my apartment.
Hanging on a hook in your kitchen.
You searched my apartment? Your apartment, your car, the room that you rent at the recording studio.
This is a homicide investigation, Sam! Your car killed a man.
And it was started with one of your two keys.
- Both apparently accounted for.
- This is crazy.
You claim that no one else has a key to your place.
So somebody broke into your apartment, took the key, borrowed your car, committed a homicide, dumped the car and then put the key back.
Does that sound like anything a sane person would believe? You can't account for your whereabouts during the murder.
- I told you, I was home.
- Alone.
Detective Flack? My name is Debbie Fallon.
You're holding my boyfriend.
Sam Baker? Your boyfriend's in a lot of trouble.
I've hired an attorney and he's on his way.
Wow.
Eli Cornicello, huh? Called in the big guns.
You are accusing an innocent man of murder.
Well, let's hope that Eli can spin a better story than Sam cos the one he's telling in there isn't holding water.
You're so wrong.
He isn't capable of murder.
Anyone's capable of murder, Ms Fallon.
All the evidence we have points directly at your boyfriend.
Hey, Mac, I'm still waiting on the DNA results I took from the samples on Baker's car.
What about the fingerprints? Baker's were all over the interior driver's side.
Baker's prints inside his own car aren't incriminating.
Yeah, but James Manning's all over the passenger side are.
Manning was in the passenger seat.
It's likely he knew his killer.
If that's true, Sam Baker is lying.
I don't think so.
Manning had a boatload of life insurance.
2.
5 million to be exact.
And Grace Chandler is the beneficiary.
This is outrageous.
I just lost my fiancé.
Two-and-a-half million will make for a great send-off.
It was James' idea to get those policies.
Those premiums must have cost over 600 a month.
Living in the streets, abusing himself the way he did, he was always afraid of getting sick and dying young.
So you paid the premiums.
I've been polite for long enough.
I've done nothing wrong.
I know you think I had something to do with this.
Most of the people who sit in this chair, they lie.
Each time that happens we get a little bit better at knowing who's telling the truth and who's not.
And how about me, Detective? Am I a liar? I'll let you know.
Flack checked into her background.
No criminal record.
She's involved in homeless advocacy groups.
Volunteers as a counsellor at a drug treatment programme.
Whoever took him into that alley and killed him knew his background.
Yeah, question is who else in his life or in his past life had the means and the motive to do this? I understand you have a suspect in custody.
She's not in custody.
She agreed to come in and talk to us.
- Do you know her? - Of course not.
Why would l? Her fiancé was murdered with your boyfriend's car.
Maybe she had a personal relationship with the band.
Or him.
If you're suggesting he was having an affair with her, you're wrong.
I'm not.
I'm asking if there was a connection between them.
The answer's no.
Is she claiming to know about the murder? Can't tell you that.
But I can promise you, whether Sam is guilty or innocent, the truth will come out.
Mac, DNA results came back from Baker's car.
Give us anything to go at Grace Chandler with? There was one foreign DNA sample inside on the steering wheel.
Female, but not a match to Grace Chandler and no hit in CODlS.
The hairs on the undercarriage? Not Sam Baker's, not James Manning's and not Grace Chandler's.
And they were wrapped around the chassis screw.
So I ran 'em through CODlS.
They're from a hit-and-run in the Bronx from six months ago.
And get this.
The victim was found in an alley.
ID'd as Matt Davis.
Crushed to death, heroin in his system.
Sound familiar? Well, I'm betting there are a couple of million-dollar life insurance policies out there that say these two cases are no coincidence.
The tyre-tread patterns are identical to the ones on Baker's station wagon.
Same crush injuries.
Car was driven slowly over him.
Matt Davis, 27.
History of drug abuse.
In and out of the city shelters up until about three years ago.
No next of kin.
Same MO, same murder weapon, same victim profile.
No family, living on the streets, addicted to drugs.
Clean for the last couple of years.
The case detective exhausted all leads.
Figured that Matt started using again, stumbled out into the alley and was run over by a passing car.
Which is what somebody wanted James Manning's death to look like.
Except the killer didn't count on us finding the car.
Matt Davis was insured under a bunch of policies totalling $2 million.
Here's our beneficiary.
Am I supposed to know her? What about him? Is this the part where I look at the bloody crime-scene photo, break down and confess to murder? - Only if you did it.
- That ain't happenin'.
I ain't never seen that guy before.
Dead or alive.
Well, that's surprising, considering his death made you $2 million richer.
You think I'd be out here slinging flowers and newspapers if I had that kind of money? Maybe you collected the money for somebody.
Or someone else collected it for me.
You need to talk to the other Lisa Williams out there pretending to be me.
Some of these date back to over two years ago.
Credit card accounts, doctor bills.
I thought I had it all sorted out.
When did you discover your identity had been stolen? I hit a rough stretch a couple of years ago.
I went into rehab and I got clean.
And when I got out, the phone calls from the creditors started coming.
They started asking me about accounts that I ain't never opened.
Was your rehab affiliated with a hospital? The place was upstate.
I went there because I was referred by the staff at Queen of Mercy.
Thank you, Lisa.
Think we just found our connection to Grace Chandler.
James Manning, Matt Davis and Lisa Williams all went to the same drug-treatment programme at Queen of Mercy Hospital where Grace Chandler happens to volunteer.
That makes her the common denominator in each one of their lives.
Hundreds of people go through Queen of Mercy for the same thing.
Lisa couldn't lD Grace Chandler.
She had access to patients' personal information without ever seeing them.
Stealing Lisa's identity was just a click away.
We don't have forensic evidence that connects her to those murders.
This might help.
A tissue sample from a cosmetic surgery office on Park Avenue.
Whoever stole Lisa Williams' identity used a bogus credit card in her name for outpatient cosmetic surgery.
She had a growth removed from her shoulder.
That's where being a doctor comes in handy.
I know they destroyed the larger tissue sample but not the smaller one used for the biopsy.
When they glued that slipcover on, they weren't thinking about the evidence.
It'll be tough to remove it without the solvent corrupting the sample.
Not a lot to work with.
You're gonna get one shot at it.
Somebody better get his game up.
We've been through phone records, credit card statements, employment history, bank records.
There's nothing that connects Sam Baker to James Manning or Matt Davis.
Except for his car and lack of a believable alibi.
He's an up-and-coming musician with no criminal history.
What can he gain by killing these two guys? Maybe his gain is connected to Grace Chandler's money.
She could have hired him to kill Manning and Davis.
We can't rule out the possibility she and Sam were involved romantically.
A love triangle? That would have to be the best-kept secret.
It still doesn't explain Matt Davis.
We have nothing that connects him to any of the other players.
If Baker is the killer and he uses his own car, why doesn't he have the car towed after he's out of gas? Why leave it in front of the driveway? He's in over his head.
Maybe he panicked when he ran the kid's foot over with his car.
Thought somebody gets the number of his car.
Didn't know what to do.
So he did nothing.
Or he was thinking on his feet.
Rather than involve potential witnesses and leave a paper trail that connects him to the murders, abandoning his car and claiming ignorance gives him an out.
Taylor.
Got it.
I'm gonna go get Grace Chandler.
Stella, you go get Sam Baker and bring him down to lnterrogation.
You two pick up Debbie Fallon.
Get her over to the precinct.
What's going on? We got ourselves a triangle.
Except it doesn't involve love.
It involves murder.
This is harassment.
We're not here to harass you.
We'd like you to take a ride with us.
We have someone in custody.
We believe this is the person responsible for killing your fiancé.
Is that him? Is he the one who killed James? No.
She is.
Go ahead.
Look at 'em.
Look at what you did.
I don't know who this other man is.
And I don't know any Debbie Fallon.
Well, she knows all about you.
How about Lisa Williams? That name ring a bell? I don't know any Lisa Williams.
She came through a drug treatment programme at Queen of Mercy Hospital.
You stole her identity so you could take out life insurance policies under her name that would pay off after you and Debbie killed Matt Davis.
Being his fiancée, you knew you could get away with putting your name on James' policies and collecting on his death.
But not Matt Davis.
He posed a problem.
Grace couldn't use her real name as a beneficiary.
That would raise red flags with the insurance companies and the police.
But she made a mistake.
You opened a bogus credit card account in Lisa Williams' name and used it to pay for some work at a cosmetic surgery office.
We matched the DNA from the biopsy tissue to the elimination sample you gave us in the ME's office.
This doesn't prove anything.
I don't know who this Grace Chandler person is.
Debbie, before you make a complete arse of yourself, take a look here.
If something went bad with the procedure, she needed a contact person - someone she could trust.
Now the name's a fake but that number? That's your cellphone number.
That's how we connected the two of you.
And Sam, of course.
- Sam, you were next.
- What? Your life was insured for over $5 million.
In order to become a legitimate beneficiary, Debbie called herself your fiancée on all of the paperwork.
I can't believe this is happening.
I was living on the streets.
She helped me get a place.
Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? Because I can and because I know what it's like to be out on the streets.
Alone.
To have nobody.
This was all part of the plan.
Debbie and Grace waited two years.
Enough time for the policies to mature and pay out at maximum benefits, no matter what the manner of death.
Most likely, Sam, in a week, you'd have been dead.
The man in this photo was murdered last night.
They used your car to kill him.
We found Debbie's DNA inside on the steering wheel.
I've heard Grace talk about you.
It's great to finally meet you.
And you as well.
- I really appreciate the ride home.
- Don't even worry about it.
You're lucky to have known a person like Grace.
Yeah.
What are you doing? Now what? You chose people who were vulnerable and broken.
People you knew had nobody to question your motives.
What's it like to live without a conscience? It's like being rich.
Something you probably know nothing about.
Putting people like you away for the rest of your life, doing good, that makes me rich.
Something you probably know nothing about.
I have to ask.
Two years nurturing someone back to health, getting to know them, watching them grow.
How do you rationalise killing them? They're a cancer.
Living in the street like dogs.
Begging for change.
Leaving their faeces and stench in boxes in doorways.
How long do you think they would have lasted before you or some other cop found them dead? We took them off the street.
We gave 'em two more good years.
Two years living in a Park Avenue apartment building.
Wearing the best designer clothes and expensive jewellery.
We gave them things.
Things they never could have imagined.
Having a life they were never supposed to live.
We gave them two more years.
Two years they would have never had.
And the payment for that was their lives? Look, let's take a walk.
I'll get you a cup of coffee.
I've been guilty of it myself.
Put a couple of coins or a dollar in a cup and move on.
Never looking at them in the eyes or thinking you can do more to help.
And those couple coins in a cup, it's more than most.
So what are you gonna do now? I don't know.
This is knocking me back on my heels.
When I was a little girl, there was a sign hanging above the desk where I'd do my homework.
And it said that, "Temptation will lean on the doorbell but opportunity may knock only once.
" As ironic as it might seem, Debbie provided me with a second chance and I plan to make the most of it.
Good.
Mac, what did you want to see us about? You'll find out in a minute.
- Just got the last four.
- Last four what? What's going on? - I need your help.
- Elf costumes.
With what, Mac? Making toys? No, no, no.
No.
Delivering them.
Yeah, Santa's sleigh broke down on the Expressway about 45 minutes ago.
He was on his way over here to pick up these toys and bring 'em to the Children and Families Benefit downtown.
I remember Adam collecting money for that a few weeks ago.
- So which one of you guys is Santa? - Ho, ho! I was starting to think you weren't gonna deliver.
It's Cooper from the 1 1th.
Does all the precinct Christmas parties.
Gets him off traffic post for a couple of weeks.
You got an hour until his next gig so we should make a move.
I promised him dinner at Morton's.
Your treat.
- Flack, your elf costume.
- All right.
All right, let's roll.
You guys take that.
We head downtown in two cars.
# I need a sign to let me know you're here # All of these lines are being crossed over the atmosphere # I need to know if things are gonna look up # Cos I feel us drowning in a sea spilled from a cup # And I'm # Calling all angels # And I'm # Calling all you angels # And I won't give up if you don't give up # I won't give up if you don't give up # I won't give up if you don't give up # I need a sign to let me know you're here # Cos my TV set just keeps it all from being clear # I want a reason for the way things have to be # I need a hand to help build up some kind of hope inside of me # And I'm # Calling all angels # Calling all angels # Calling all you angels #