CSI: Crime Scene Investigation s12e06 Episode Script

What are you looking at? - The view.
- Oh.
Never seen the city from this perspective before.
It's beautiful.
Takes your breath away.
Yeah.
It can take more than that.
We used to call this place the Missile Base.
- The Missile Base.
- Uh-huh.
Care to share why? Why did I bring that up? Oh! All right, I'll tell you what.
I'll make it easy for you-- I'll go first.
I met my wife freshman year in college, and she was my first and only love.
Aw.
Seriously? You lost your virginity to your wife? Yep.
Yep.
Life is simple sometimes.
You meet the right person, and you know it's forever.
And that was a boring story, so it's your turn.
Tony Anthopoulos.
I was 16.
Too many beers, too little romance.
Seemed like a good idea at the time.
Ah, that's better.
Swept away by the passion of the moment.
Something like that.
Tony was a bad boy.
First of many.
I liked being wanted till that got old.
Well, you're a very smart woman.
You probably just wanted to be appreciated for that, too.
Yeah.
Hey, David.
Oh, hey.
So, what are we looking at here? I'm not sure yet.
Just got here myself.
The tarp's pretty clean.
Doesn't look like it's been dragged or rolled.
Looks more like it was carried and placed here.
We'll get it to Trace.
Concrete caliche.
Not going to get any foot impressions.
Oh.
There's like a dozen needles here.
But there's no blood.
You get your shots? Yeah.
There's some expertise demonstrated here.
Those needles are thrust through and through-- see that? Yeah.
Right under the cornified layers of the epidermis.
Minimize the hemorrhaging, maximize the pain.
Well, this was not about killing her.
This was about watching her suffer.
Who are you? Who, who, who, who? Who are you? Who, who, who, who? I really wanna know Who are you? Oh-oh-oh Who Come on, tell me who are you, you, you Are you! Morgan.
I heard Russell cleared you to come back.
If you need more time Oh, I'm good.
I might put off that helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon for a while.
Yeah, that'd probably be smart.
Well, since you're here, I could use a hand.
Yeah, no problem.
These are 20-gauge hypos.
The kind used in bone marrow transplants.
Killer had access to medical supplies.
Needles are inserted approximately three inches apart.
Perpendicular, in a line, wrist to wrist.
You think the pattern is significant? Seems ritualistic.
- But it's definitely sadistic.
- Yeah.
Hold on.
This isn't a hypo.
Shish kabob skewer.
It's a black residue.
Looks like candle wax.
The scarring-- it's all over her body.
Consistent with the needles and the skewer.
You'd think after all these years, I wouldn't be surprised by what people are capable of.
- - Hodges? What are you doing? Scusi.
Did Lorenzo interrupt Michelangelo when he was creating? He didn't wrap bodies in his canvas.
And I thought you said you didn't find any trace on this.
Not trace.
Something better.
Art.
Are you familiar with a pentimento? What do you think? It's an alteration in a painting.
When an artist makes a mistake or they want to change something, they simply whitewash over the error, and then begin again.
I don't want to get too excited, but we may have a lost treasure here.
Maybe even a Rembrandt.
Really? Uh scusi.
Hmm? Oh.
Prego.
Mm.
I am getting excited.
See? What I see is more layers.
More paint, Leonardo.
Maybe what's under here will give us a clue to our killer.
So stop your scratching.
Canvas is mine now.
Huh.
Hey, you better hope I don't find out what that means.
I ran our Jane Doe information through Missing Persons.
- Nothing.
- Run it again.
I did.
I know.
It doesn't make sense.
The injuries, the evidence all suggest that she was abducted weeks ago.
Somebody should have missed her by now.
Doctor.
- Hey.
- Hey.
So, C.
O.
D.
? Don't know yet.
I sent samples off to Toxicology.
We'll see what Henry has to say.
As you both observed, the external scarring indicates a prolonged period of abuse.
However, I did find something unusual about the injuries.
Scar tissue in the wound tracts.
It's as if the needles and the skewer were inserted in the same areas repeatedly.
You mean like body piercing? Similar.
In piercing, a needle's inserted through the skin, penetrating the various layers of the epidermis.
As scar tissue develops, a permanent hole is created.
Difference in this case is, we're not talking about piercings.
No.
No, we're not.
We're talking about 20-gauge needles and a barbecue skewer driven repeatedly into this girl's flesh.
That's what we're talking about.
What is this? Is this a knee implant? Hers, I assume.
She had unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.
Likely due to injury, given the attenuation - of her collateral ligaments.
- Whatever the case, we have a lot number, which will give us an orthopedic surgeon.
And a name for our our Jane Doe.
Renny was born with an angular limb deformity in both rear legs, which means that her back legs were growing faster than her front legs.
A horse foal my daughter Sylvia is nursing has the same condition, so, in order to help the bones grow, we performed a brief surgical procedure called a peristeal stripping.
Now - Dr.
Grier? - Yes? Catherine Willows with the Crime Lab.
I need to speak with you.
I'm sorry.
I'm in the middle of a seminar.
It's about your sister Rachel.
So, when was the last time that you saw your sister? I haven't seen Rachel in years.
She called me a few months ago.
Um, she had some medical bills, needed money.
Fort Lauderdale.
She had knee surgery.
I just wired her the money.
I stopped asking questions a long time ago.
What do you mean? My little sister was a wild child.
She ran away after high school.
She broke my mother's heart.
Rachel couldn't even be bothered to come to her funeral.
You say that she met with violence.
What does that mean? What happened? I'm sorry; I can't discuss the specifics.
What I can tell you is that we found her here in Vegas, and we suspect that she was taken against her will, probably several weeks ago.
That's impossible.
I had lunch with Aunt Rachel on Monday, and she was totally fine.
You had lunch with Rachel? I didn't even know she was in town Excuse me, Sylvia, you saw your aunt three days ago? Yeah.
I mean, she called, and she said that she was in town and needed to talk.
Made me promise not to say anything.
Why? My mom and Aunt Rachel don't really talk.
But Aunt Rachel wanted things to change; she wanted to fix things.
She wanted to come home.
Where did you and your Aunt Rachel have lunch? The Tangiers.
I don't know.
Maybe she was staying there.
Hey, Catherine.
Tangiers was a bust-- Rachel Grier was never registered, and no one I.
D.
'd her photo.
Yeah, I'm on it.
Hey, Henry, got my tox report? Yeah, right here.
Great.
Mm, not so great.
What's the problem? You'll find the findings are both inconclusive and, well, confusing.
She had lidocaine in her system? But it didn't kill her.
"Injected at therapeutic levels directly into the tissue surrounding the hypodermic needles"" And the skewer.
What kind of sadist uses an anesthetic before torturing their victims? I dug out these images, using optical microscopy.
So what are we feeling about this? Depressed.
Yeah, I mean, - it's no Rembrandt.
- You know, maybe it's a Rachel Grier.
I mean, look at that.
That's gotta be more than a coincidence.
Yeah, there's a similar pattern to the needles in her arms.
And the flames-- we did find candle wax residue.
Now, is it me or does she look like a human candelabra? All right, let's think about this.
Maybe our victim was posed to look like this painting.
So you're saying you think that our killer was inspired by this image? Maybe.
Or maybe the killer got artistic as he was torturing her.
Poses her, paints her, doesn't like his work, so he whitewashes over it, and then just wraps her up in his failure.
Question is, which came first-- the Rachel Grier or Rachel Grier? Hey, guys.
I just did an image search for "human candelabra"" Check it out.
Major Willie's Rambling Carnival and Curious Extravaganza.
What century you get this out of? This one, as in tonight, two shows, Featuring the Human Candelabra.
"The Magnificent Femmistopheles, Empress of Pain.
" Looks like it's time for a road trip.
- You wish to try? - Only ten bucks to try.
That's the oldest trick in the book.
About all they're good for nowadays.
Come up and get your darts.
You buy the darts for ten of your Yankee dollars.
Now, who will be next? Pop the cherry, win a prize.
Come on, you have to do better than that.
Pop the cherry, win a prize.
This is entertainment? Hard to tell who's more entertained.
Well done, mate.
Sorry, kitty's not a virgin.
Zodiac will be back in 15 minutes.
Be seeing you.
Oh my God.
Oh, it looks like Femmistopheles is a no-show.
I want to look inside.
Can I help you? We're from the Las Vegas Crime Lab.
Sorry, no comping the constables here, I'm afraid.
So who's in charge of this freak show? Me-- you've seen the game, you know the name.
Major Willie at your service.
Good to know.
Have you seen this woman? Seen her? I've seen all of her.
Femmistopheles, Empress of Pain.
So, what'd she do this time? She's dead.
That's unfortunate.
You don't seem too broken up.
Or surprised.
Maybe we know why.
- Am I surprised - Rachel's dead? - No.
- And why is that? Well, take a look around you.
You've heard what your friend said-- we're freaks.
You try cranking up this whoopee machine two shows a night, on the road 351 days a year, ending up in places you wouldn't want to be seen dead in.
Sorry, poor choice.
So what was it-- O.
D.
, old ex? Rachel always did have the most appalling taste in men.
Does that include you? I was the best thing that ever happened to her.
I saw qualities in Rachel she couldn't see in herself.
Lucky girl.
Willie, we need to check out that tent, so you gonna step aside or do we need to go get a warrant? Boss.
Joey needs his intro.
Zodiac, aidez les gendarmes.
It's all good.
I'm gonna keep my eye on Willie.
Yeah, D.
B.
, I'm gonna grab some equipment.
I'll be right back.
Life is full of terrible surprises and miserable fates.
Consider that of a young woman, heavy with child, mauled by a ferocious pachyderm-- her son born hideously deformed, yet able to sow the seeds of future generations, all cursed to the same twisted destiny.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the last heir of the House of Merrick-- Joseph the Elephant Man! Aw, come on.
Surprised? Disgusted? Not what you paid to see? I want to draw your attention to the condition of this poor specimen.
Note the aquiline jaw, the sharp, muscular definition.
This animal is not one of us.
He is not a freak, a freak like me.
Watch as she continues to wrap these chains around me I got hypos and skewers.
I got blood.
If she was tortured in this chair, the blood pattern's off.
There's no void.
Hey-- see these streaks? This contraption could be our blood source.
Where is, uh? Oh, yeah.
What, what do I call you again? - Zodiac.
- Can you tell us a little bit more about Femmistopheles' act? Wasn't an act.
It was unlike anything you ever seen.
She didn't just give a performance.
She gave her own blood.
She rocked the house.
And people-- what, they'd pay extra to see this? What's the point in torturing yourself if we ain't all going to have some fun? Okay, and what's back there? Femmie's dressing room.
She lived in it.
Ah Empress of pain and pleasure.
You mind? Thought you were a coffee snob.
Machine in my office is broken.
I'm waiting for parts.
Mm.
A little light reading, I see.
Satisfying my curiosity.
So Nick and I found a whole pharmacy in Rachel Grier's tent, including lidocaine.
Henry is sourcing the stuff for me.
Also running an expanded tox panel.
Maybe one of the other drugs killed her.
Here, we thought some sick bastard tortured the girl.
Maybe she OD'd.
Nah, you know, I don't think so, actually.
I mean, she certainly wouldn't have wrapped up her own body and dumped it.
No.
You know, there's something about this Major Willie.
He reminds me of I told you about my parents being singers, right? - Yeah.
- Performers, really.
When I was a kid, they were part of this traveling show.
We went around the country in our van.
Anyway, the leader of this group was a, a guy who called himself Durga Joe.
He was a real charismatic, kind of like this Willie guy.
He could make people he could make people do pretty much anything he wanted.
That was the problem, at least for my parents, so, one day they decided they wanted to leave and Durga Joe did not like that at all.
What happened? In the middle of the night, we got in our van and we just took off.
And never really looked back.
Anyway the point is that this Rachel Grier, she wanted to leave, too, you know? She wanted to go home.
Maybe this is about control.
Major Willie's Rambling Carnival-- one big, happy family.
Until somebody wants to leave.
Got your new and improved tox panel.
I know what killed Rachel Grier and maybe who.
Major Willie-- aka Steven Watt of Tampa, Florida.
You know, without the Willy Wonka get-up, you could pass for just another freak.
The word is "geek," as in someone who can perform freakish acts without actually themselves being a freak of nature.
I'll take your word for it.
And I will take that.
Oh, look.
What's he going to do? Yeah, and if you think that's freaky Don't worry, I'll regurgitate it later.
Wow.
We gotta learn how to do that.
So, uh we know what killed Rachel-- propofol.
Which is used in anesthesia, but in high enough doses and without a ventilator, it paralyzes the diaphragm.
So basically Rachel suffocated to death.
You're licensed in Florida and New York to practice body piercings and modifications.
That's how you were able to obtain the pharmaceuticals we found in Rachel's tent.
You people just don't get it.
We don't get what? Freaks versus geeks.
A guy like Zodiac, he has congenital analgesia.
He was born not feeling pain-- a freak.
Rachel and me, we need needed help.
A little pharmacology.
Stuff like lidocaine, to take the edge off the pain, to enhance performance.
No drugs, no show, no dough.
I won't lie-- maybe at the end of the evening we all like to indulge in a little something something to ease an old carney's burden.
But straight up I am a businessman; I look after my people, I take care of them.
And Rachel, she was an earner.
Who wanted to stop earning, I believe.
She would never have left me.
You didn't find any propofol in Rachel's tent, did you? No.
Am I under arrest? Not yet, no.
But this, uh, this is just our opening act.
Here.
One for the road.
Got the DNA results from Rachel Grier's tent-- the blood Russell found in the fridge is a match to Rachel.
- Also the torture chair.
- Well, it makes sense.
Rachel was storing her blood to use in her act.
Yeah, well, the blood also tells us another story-- hormone levels suggest that Rachel was pregnant.
Labels on the pack say as recently as two weeks ago.
There was no evidence in autopsy.
Not just that.
Nick found traces of blood and semen in Rachel's bed.
Single donor.
No hits in CODIS.
"Profile is a male Caucasian suffering from neurofibromatosis type-1 and Proteus Syndrome.
" Rachel was sleeping with the Elephant Man? So, last heir to the House of Merrick.
That's a good story.
I saw the movie, too-- it was I liked it.
But truth is, there is no house, right? Because the Elephant Man didn't have any children.
So your name's not really Merrick, is it? No.
My name is Joshua Helm.
And, Joshua, you don't have any children, either, do you? - No.
- Rachel Grier made sure of that.
She got rid of the baby.
Just like she wanted to get rid of you.
You don't know what you're saying.
Rachel and I were in love.
Is that why she was making plans to leave the show? Yes.
I told her she was crazy, that we couldn't have a normal life on the outside.
Wait-wait-wait a minute.
So you're saying that the two of you were planning on going away together? That's what she wanted.
You could survive on the outside, but I can't.
You can with me.
I love you, Joshua-- that's all that matters.
Rachel had lost the child, and she wanted to try again.
I said no.
I told her she could leave if she wanted to, but that I wasn't going with her.
Rachel was always naive, living in a fantasy land.
You do tell a good story.
Is that what you think this is? I've already seen the show, and I'm familiar with the story.
Girl hates her life, is searching for something, thinks she finds it in a man, a man who needs her, and then it all goes wrong.
You killed her because she wanted her life back.
Look I don't know what happened to Rachel, and if you're trying to provoke me, it's not working.
You can't imagine how the love that we had for each other existed, because you've never known it.
And you never will.
- So, we turned - Major Willie's Carnival upside down, didn't find any propofol.
We have any record of him buying the stuff? No, we have nothing to tie him to the drugs that killed Rachel, and Brass just cut him loose.
Stokes.
Yeah.
You kidding me? Greg'll be interested to hear that.
Thanks, Jimbo.
Well, it looks like we're gonna have to cut Major Willie loose again.
Well rigor hasn't set in.
T.
O.
D.
's less than two hours ago.
No vital response.
He was dead before he was hanged.
Staged.
Yeah, poorly.
Okay, cut him down, get him to Autopsy.
Let's find out what really killed him.
CSI Stokes? - Yeah.
- We've got a suspect in custody.
You need to stay back, okay? Which one of the freaks is it? There.
Suspect's name is Sylvia Grier.
Rachel Grier's niece? This is insane.
Dr.
Grier, your daughter was detained while fleeing the scene of an apparent homicide.
I I don't know what Sylvia was doing at the freak show, but but I do know that she would never hurt anyone.
Well, then neither you nor Sylvia has anything to be afraid of.
What were you doing there, Sylvia? I went there because I needed to see for myself.
See what? S-See who my aunt really was.
I found the story online, "Sideshow Performer Murdered"" and it was Aunt Rachel.
To my mom, Aunt Rachel was a ghost, but to me, she was like this force of nature.
You know? She did what she wanted to do and lived how she wanted to live, and I just felt this connection.
I mean, is that weird? Look, I didn't kill that man.
Why don't you tell me what happened? I went looking for where Aunt Rachel had been living, and I got lost.
And I wandered into that tent, and that's when I saw him.
I was so scared.
And then, they were all staring at me.
I mean, they thought I did it.
So I ran.
And I hid, but the officers found me.
I didn't do anything.
Do you believe her? Sylvia? Yes.
Well, I don't know what to believe anymore.
I think I made a mistake about Major Willie.
I think I let my past cloud my thinking.
Well, we're all guilty of that.
Whoa, what do you mean? You're not having doubts about our Elephant Man, are you? No.
No.
I mean, I don't like being called out about my lack of romance, but it's no argument for innocence.
You still think Elephant Man had motive to kill Rachel? Yes.
Yes, and I think Sylvia was sincere about feeling a connection towards her aunt, which says to me that she wouldn't do her any harm.
Okay.
But that doesn't mean that she wouldn't go after the man who she believed did.
Major Willie? But why would she suspect that he killed Rachel? We're not even convinced ourselves.
Maybe somebody whispered Willie's name in her ear.
Maybe our real killer.
Okay.
What have we got here, boys? Well, your carnival barker's C.
O.
D.
was massive internal hemorrhaging due to an inch-and-a-half laceration and perforation of the stomach wall, severing the left gastro-omental artery.
Check it out.
Stomach wall's punctured from the inside out.
That's bigger than a paper clip.
I found no injuries to the pharynx or esophagus.
So, it's not like somebody shoved something down his throat.
No, no.
Guy swallowed a sword.
Check that out.
Well, that would do it.
Actually, our friend here swallowed lots of things.
Bon appétit, gentlemen.
Good thing for us, Major Willie bit off more than he could chew.
Gemini.
Sign of the Zodiac.
Take your shirt off.
You want to play, you got to pay.
Oh, I got my ticket right here, Muscles.
It's called a search warrant.
Now, take it off.
If you want a picture with me, your friend right there I'm sure will take it.
No, that's all right.
I'll pass.
We're done here.
Check him for warrants while you're at it.
Catherine, it's Nick.
No go on Zodiac.
We're gonna need a pile of warrants.
We're gonna need to bring the whole freak show down here.
I need to see your chest, too.
You want some help? Remove the bandage.
Dog bite.
I hope you had all your shots.
Sergio the Strong.
Where do you people come up with the stage names? I mean, I get it, I do.
Because "Seth the Strong" doesn't look good on a poster.
But "Seth Soon-To-Be-Convicted"-- that has a ring to it.
We got back the DNA profile on your ounce of flesh.
Looks like you and the Elephant Man were fraternal twins.
I got to admit, I didn't see that coming.
Let me guess, mom always liked you best.
We know Rachel broke your brother's heart.
You made her pay for that.
And then when Willie found out what you did, you shut him up, too.
Is that about right? Our mom died during childbirth.
Dad dumped us before we could walk.
And when Joshua started to change, the relatives we were staying with got freaked out.
Said that Joshua and me were born of the Devil.
For my brother, there was only one path to salvation.
Major Willie's Rambling Carnival and Curious Extravaganza.
Willie was no saint, but he was better than most.
He didn't treat my brother like a monster.
He was he was good to him.
Until Until what? What the hell happened? I don't know.
I just found her like this.
Maybe she OD'd or something.
You call the cops? You crazy? They'll close us down.
You got to help me, Seth.
We need to make this go away.
Think about your brother.
No show.
Where does that leave him? So I did what he asked me.
I made it all go away.
But it didn't go away.
And we all know that Rachel didn't just OD.
You people found out what was going on between Joshua and Rachel.
You hauled him in here, you questioned him.
But he didn't do it.
How do you know that? 'Cause I know who did.
Cops picked up Joshua.
Don't sweat it.
That's just what they do.
Josh will be fine.
Best thing you can do is to keep your mouth shut.
Trust me.
Not this time.
I didn't mean to kill him.
I thought that if I made it look like he killed himself, that it all would really go away.
You don't believe me, do you? We believe the evidence.
There's your evidence.
Willie killed Rachel.
Heard the suspect coughed up the smoking gun.
Yeah.
What, did Nick leave you to do the dirty work? No.
Actually, I wanted to run this myself.
So, Sergio found the propofol when he was cleaning up Rachel's tent? Yeah, he had doubts about Willie, so he decided to hang onto this.
In his stomach? Better than a safety deposit box, I guess.
Little messier.
So the propofol belonged to Willie? That's what Sergio thinks.
I'm not so sure.
Why not? Willie was the resident Dr.
Feel Good.
Well, we're to believe Sergio's story, Willie talked him into dumping a body for him.
I mean, come on.
Guys like Willie are the consummate con artists.
They're, like, the best salesmen in the world.
So my question is: if he was worried about losing Rachel, why wouldn't he just talk her out of it? If he could talk her out of it, there'd be no reason to kill her.
Right.
So back to the Elephant Man? Nope.
We traced the drug that killed your sister Rachel to the Clark County Zoo.
To you.
Why? My daughter always worshipped Rachel.
Even though she was barely a part of our lives.
To Sylvia, Rachel was this adventurer, this nonconformist, a free spirit-- everything I wasn't, everything I wasn't allowing Sylvia to be.
Rachel was just a fantasy.
Until she wasn't.
She wanted to come back into our lives.
To insert her twisted self into our home.
Sh-She was having sex with that that thing.
What kind of a sick person would do that? She was your sister.
No she wasn't.
She was.
she was a freak.
I told her there was no place in our home for her.
But she wouldn't listen.
She tried to go through Sylvia to get to me.
She used her.
My own daughter.
Who always loved my sister more than she loved me.
My sister left me no choice.
And you left her to suffocate.
I did what I had to do.
I protected my daughter.
You don't understand.
She's the only family I have.
I would've done anything anything to protect her.
Sylvia's safe now.
She's safe from the monsters in this world.
Yes, she is.