CSI: Crime Scene Investigation s14e01 Episode Script

Previously on CSI: Our serial killer got all of his inspiration from one place: the Nine Circles of Hell.
Your daughter, Ellie, is one of the girls who may be missing.
The pictures I sent online? A client who reached out to my ministry.
Oliver Tate.
Works for a biotech company.
Without an undercover operation, we are all just sitting around waiting for another body to drop.
I need to do this, Dad.
Stop the SUV.
Killer's got Morgan.
And Ellie.
He's got them both.
The Book of Job tells the story of a man who loved God and renounced evil.
Until one day, Satan posed a challenge to God.
Test this man.
Test his faith.
When we mourn, we're all tempted to curse God.
To give voice to our anger, our confusion.
Our sense of powerlessness against evil.
We're tempted to ask: Are we being punished for our own sins? We're tempted to ask: Is there something we could have done? You are the angry girl.
Get out of the car! Now! Get out! Nick! She's not here.
Russell, Morgan's gone.
Oliver Tate, LVPD! Go, go! Go left! Yep.
Clear.
Clear! Sheriff, it's clear.
No sign of Find Tate.
Nick, traffic cams showed two SUVs.
We're tracking the other one now.
I got it.
The SUV with Morgan is parked outside a storage facility off of Hill and Decatur.
Greg.
Greg! Drop back! Greg? Nick, Greg, talk to me.
What's going on? 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! Stand by, Russell.
It's not Morgan.
It sure looks like her, though.
Her hair, her dress.
I think it's one of the missing girls from Larson's church.
The crime scene's staged like the Fifth Circle of Hell.
We'll start to process.
Uh, get us some help out here, will you? If I may conjecture John, not now.
Your press badge only gets you so much access.
No, I understand.
This has nothing to do with my being a reporter doing some story right now.
If neither Ellie Brass nor CSI Brody were intended to be the killer's next victim, then then there is still hope, isn't there? There are four circles of Hell left, so more circles means more time.
We are gonna find them.
Alive? Or like all the others? We know you're working with Oliver Tate.
Oliver Tate.
No way.
Where are the girls? I already told your guys who stopped me.
Now I'm telling you-- I don't know.
And we're telling you we don't buy it.
Two SUVs, two drivers-- you playing decoy, and whoever was driving the girl.
And not just any girl.
I know your daughter Ellie from Brother Larson's church.
She told me all about you.
I'm not your little girl.
You're gonna talk to us.
Kiss my ass.
All right, all right, no, no, no, no.
The kid knows where Morgan is, Jim.
You want to know why I was driving that SUV? I work for Brother Larson.
Talk to him.
You set us up, you son of a bitch.
I don't know what kind of intimidation Jake was subjected to, but I know the boy's flesh is weak.
Righteousness and a good lawyer, cast out that confession faster than Jesus cast out the moneychangers from the temple.
I-I don't way what game you're you think you're playing here.
You-you and Tate are on the hook for four murders, and now two kidnappings.
I'm being set up, pal.
I'm telling you, Oliver Tate is setting me up.
Why would Tate go after you? Obviously, a man of Tate's dark desires is vulnerable.
I tried to blackmail him, but man wouldn't pay my price, so I called his bluff.
I shared his secrets with his friends, his employer.
Much to his chagrin, I imagine.
You don't believe me, do you? No.
Admittedly, I've not earned your faith.
But I know someone who has.
Someone who was once Tate's favorite forbidden fruit.
Someone who once saved your life.
Angela? The very same.
I should warn you, Mr.
Russell, if Oliver Tate is the master of this game, he will never stop until he sees to it we all burn.
Can you hear me? Are you okay? Can you hear me? Are you okay? Can you hear me? Ellie? You're the cop.
He said you'd be coming.
Who? Who said that? I don't know.
I haven't seen his face.
All I know is that I was with him at his condo, and then I woke up here.
You were with him, too? Yeah.
Where are we? What is this place? It's hell.
Hyoid bone's broken.
Denise Tyler was strangled.
Thoracic injuries appear postmortem from being impaled on that spear.
Staged.
Just like the others.
We've seen this latent bruising before.
Our last victim.
"Barb "the thorns.
" What does that mean? I don't know.
This guy's dropping bodies, he's staging crime scenes and leaving nothing behind to tie him to the murders.
Maybe this time he did.
This looks like a dried secretion.
Perhaps a bead of sweat from the attack.
Could be our killer's DNA.
Who's the mannequin supposed to be, the Grim Reaper or something? Phlegyas, the boatman.
In Dante's Inferno, Virgil escorts Dante down through the Nine Circles of Hell, and Phlegyas here is the one who gets him across the River Styx, the River of Death.
I always liked engineering.
How wide do you think that door is? I don't know, maybe four feet.
And the beam of this boat? At least six.
Somebody put this thing together in here.
Let's see if we can take it apart real quick.
I think there's a seam right here.
Ready? Yeah.
Balliol's bones-- just like the ones our guy's been leaving behind for us in the Bibles.
Yeah, but those dowels had zeros on them; these have zeros and numbers in repeating order from stem to stern.
Maybe it's some kind of, uh, sequence, like a code.
Tate's leaving us messages.
He must've left us something somewhere in that condo.
I mean, he know we were gonna tear the place apart.
I'm telling you, I haven't found anything, and I mean anything.
There is no blood, there are no signs of violence.
There is nothing here to even suggest a secondary location.
All right.
Keep looking.
You know, there's got to be a message there someplace.
Hi.
Hi.
Did you find any trace from the crime scene? Boat, SUV, dowel? I did find trace on the spear and the planks of the dory.
Halide deposits.
That's rock salt, right? We're 300 miles from the nearest ocean, but there are any number of mineral deposits in southern Nevada.
Doesn't exactly narrow it down, does it? No, it doesn't.
She's a CSI.
What the hell was she doing undercover? Call me if you find anything, David.
Doc said he may have found some DNA from the killer on Denise Tyler's body.
Is that right? Yeah, I've got a dried secretion.
I ran it-- there seems to be a problem.
The profile seems incomplete; there's no amelogenin.
No sex gene? How is that even possible? You know, run it again, and get Greg to help you.
Hey.
Hey.
When did you get back from San Francisco? A few hours ago.
You were in PD.
Uh, Ecklie asked me to check on Larson's story.
According to police records, Angela, aka Miss Kitty, was arrested last year for solicitation.
Vice made a notation that she was with an Oliver Tate.
Cops busted her; they let Tate go.
So Larson's telling the truth about Tate knowing Angela.
And maybe the blackmail.
I spoke to his old boss at PhiloDyne, a biotech company where he worked.
Tate was fired for personal indiscretion.
After that, he was angry at the company, he was angry at the cops, at the world.
He became a recluse.
We need to talk to Angela.
She's disappeared.
How the hell did you get in here? Officer downstairs let me up.
You don't want to shoot the messenger.
Someone left their Bible and a dowel outside my hotel door with that inside.
Instructions to come here.
Quote from Dante's Inferno.
Inscribed on the Gates of Hell.
The King said, "Bring me a sword.
"Divide the child in two.
"Give half to one and half to the other.
" By this wisdom Solomon discerned the worthiness of the one that would lay claim to the child.
You can only have one daughter back.
You have a decision to make.
Or the decision will be made for you.
You have six hours.
You can only have one daughter back.
You have a decision to make.
Or the decision will be made for you.
You have six hours.
Has Brass seen this? Yeah.
What I don't understand is why Tate is now sending messages through you.
Is there anything you want to tell us? Maybe he knows who I am, what I'm doing here.
Wouldn't be the first time that a killer reached out to the press.
He's screwing with us.
He's using my daughter to do it.
He doesn't even say how we're supposed - to communicate with him.
- My guess is we're gonna get another flash drive.
Well, when you do, why not give Tate an answer? Excuse me? It is the last thing he'd expect.
Maybe throw him off his game.
No, this isn't a game.
And as I recall, the last time you were here, you two convinced me to send my daughter into the arms of a killer.
I don't think that's quite fair.
No, no.
You're right.
'Cause I'm the one who made that call.
But you two don't have to live with it.
I know you said we got nothing, but we better find something soon.
Or the decision will be made for you.
She keeps looking up.
Here, watch this.
You have six hours.
She keeps looking up.
Why is she doing that? Well, she's struggling, she's under duress.
No, she's stronger than that.
And she's smart.
Like you.
Why would you be looking up? I would look up to send a message.
Did you see Ellie on the video? No, just Morgan, but we have to believe that Ellie's still alive.
If you had to choose We don't have to choose.
There's no choosing.
This isn't real, Nancy.
I know.
I'm just saying.
Ellie is my daughter.
She's my little girl.
But she's not a little girl.
She's-she's not six years old.
Look, I understand.
The first six years we were all together, you were a great father.
You were a great husband.
You were a better man.
Until I screwed it up.
We screwed it up.
So what chance did Ellie have but to do the same thing? Gun to your head, you'd choose the other girl, right? If we get her back, you have to love her not for who she was but for who she is.
All this time, all these years, I've been searching for Ellie when she didn't want to be found.
I thought, by my sacrifice, I could prove to myself that I still loved her.
But you're right.
I'd choose the other girl.
You know, maybe she's trying to draw our attention to something else in the room.
You know, that's what I thought at first.
But check this out.
Every single time Morgan looks up, there's a spike on the audio track.
You have six hours.
Maybe if I can isolate it.
Low frequency.
Power lines? Yeah, but it surges.
Then it dissipates.
Doppler effect.
It's moving.
Could be an engine.
It sounds like a jet.
And it's close to the ground.
Taking off or landing? If we can I.
D.
this audio, we might be able to I.
D.
the plane.
There are several airports around the Vegas area, including Nellis Air Force Base.
Yeah, and if we run it against FAA flight logs from the time of the recording, we could have our flight path.
And we can narrow down the search area.
I processed the dowels in the boat.
They were clean, just like the ones that you guys have been finding in the Bibles.
If that's a sequence, I'm not sure where to begin.
It's ternary code.
Like binary code but instead of just having zeros and ones, you have zeros, ones and twos.
You're talking about digital encryption? I'm also talking about DNA.
In this case.
Finn found this in Tate's condo.
Synthetic DNA in saline solution.
An exact match to the DNA we thought was sweat from our killer.
Engineered for data storage.
That sounds pretty sci-fi.
But Tate did work at a biotech company.
Forget about flash drives-- this is the future.
So let's say that we wanted to store this digitally on synthetic DNA.
First, we would have to translate the pixels into the zeros, ones and twos of ternary code.
Then we'd transfer those numbers into the nucleic acids of DNA.
The information can be retrieved as long as you have the right decryption key.
Tate must have been storing something important, something he wanted to protect.
Well, if the dowels are a decryption key, we should be able to read it, right? We'd need the biometric scanners from Tate's company.
And a warrant.
So let's get a warrant.
We shouldn't be doing this.
What if he hears us? Just keep listening.
I almost got this.
It's not gonna work anyway.
We're not giving up.
Just like the people who are looking for us aren't giving up.
Yeah, right.
Keep on dreaming.
Ellie, I know it seems like the world has turned its back on you, but it's not the case.
You don't know anything about me.
I know a lot more than you think.
I know how much your dad cares about you.
And how much he misses you and how he would do anything to help you.
He's not doing this for me.
You know that he's not even my father? Yeah, my real dad is some cop that my mom hooked up with at the bar trying to get back at him for all the bitches he banged.
The only thing they ever agreed upon was to lie to me about it, but I found out.
From some vice cop in Jersey who busted me after he screwed me.
I used to hate my dad, too, you know? Please.
Just spare me the speech about how you let go of your past and learned to accept your dad for who he was.
All I'm saying is I've seen your parents.
It isn't what you think it is.
What are you talking about, my parents? Your mom's here.
My mom? Your dad called her.
They may disagree about most everything, but they both love you.
Well, it doesn't matter because there's no way we're gonna make it out of here alive.
Russell.
It's me.
Angela.
Angela, where have you been? We've been looking for you.
There's something I should have told you about these murders, about Oliver Tate.
I'm scared, Mr.
Russell.
Tell me where you are right now.
At the Fellowship.
All right, Angela, I'm gonna send a team over to you right now.
No.
No, please, Mr.
Russell.
I don't trust anyone but you.
All right.
All right, okay, I'm on my way.
Angela? Oh Put the phone down.
Phone.
On the floor.
Now.
Kick it over here.
Whatever Angela did to you, Tate, she did not deserve this.
Easy for you to say.
She didn't betray you.
What do you want? You want you want me to beg? Is that it? You want me to choose which girl gets to live, you sick You really have no idea what is happening here, do you? Look, it's just it's just you and me right now.
Tell-tell me what it is you want, and I and I'll get it for you.
I just want the girls back.
For a pair of whores, you would cast your own soul into the fire? I would make a deal with the devil himself to get those girls back.
Whatever you think of me, I am not the devil.
However, I do believe the devil is within your midst.
Are you talking about Larson? That's kind of funny, 'cause he said the same thing about you.
Except he's been in custody for two days.
Kind of hard to kill somebody when you're behind bars, isn't it? Oh, God.
I see.
Those girls are going to die, and I will be held accountable.
You can't stop it.
And neither can I.
Control, this is Charlie-Zero-One, Russell.
I need backup at Fellowship of the Fallen Angels.
I'm in pursuit of Oliver Tate.
Suspect's driving a silver Taurus.
Thomas-David-Henry, Ocean-Three-Four-Seven.
Oh, God.
What the hell is going on? I thought we had our guy.
Who says we didn't? All the signs still point to Tate.
They'll be picking up pieces of him till tomorrow morning.
I think we're looking for an accomplice who decided to end the partnership.
I'm not so sure.
Violence.
What? Violence.
The scattered remains look exactly like the engraving.
The Seventh Circle of Hell.
I think that Tate was just the next victim.
Which means there are now only two circles left.
I processed the Bible and the dowel.
They're both clean.
But there was a SIM card inside the dowel and a message for you.
The killer wants me to make a call.
We're set to run a cell tower trace, for what it's worth.
Dad? Ellie.
It's time.
You have to give me your choice.
Ellie Sweetheart I can't do that.
I know.
I was told I'd find you here.
I assume this is where you come for answers.
Given your reputation, it must work.
Well, it's not working now.
I know it took you 11 months to find the Gig Harbor Killer but you did find him.
After he had already killed six women.
And here I am now with seven dead, and I'm waiting for another body to drop.
Maybe a member of my own team.
Or at least the daughter of someone very close to me, so We're trained to follow the evidence, but some-sometimes that's not enough.
There there are times when you need to hear that that voice in your head that says, "Look here.
" Trouble is, when you when you've done this job long enough one day, you stop hearing that voice.
And that day has come? Russell.
Hey.
You have anything? Two things.
Doc found skin under Angela's nails.
She got a piece of her attacker.
Henry ran the DNA, it came back unknown male, so Tate is not our killer.
Okay.
What-what about the synthetic DNA? I got the warrant.
I got Tate's company to decrypt the files.
You need to see this.
Tate's been using all his DNA gigabytes for one thing-- porn.
Guy certainly had a fixation on the Nine Circles of Hell.
All of our female victims are here.
Yes, but he wasn't killing them.
It was sheer fantasy.
Pretty clear, also, that Tate was a watcher, not a participant.
He was using teenage boys as sexual surrogates.
Some of them were pretty young.
Our killer, whoever it is, left us evidence of Tate's perversions, right? He's been talking to us in-in puzzles, in-in code.
Like the-the message the message on the body.
"Barb thee thorns.
" It's an anagram.
That's from Dante's Inferno.
"Who is in yon fire, that comes so parted at the summit, "as it seem'd, ascending "from that funeral pile where lay the Theban brothers.
" "Barb thee thorns.
" Theban Brothers.
Sons of Oedipus.
Cursed for life because of the sins of their father.
See, I think we're looking for brothers that Tate used.
Hey, Henry! Come here.
The skin you got under Angela's nails-- run it against Jake.
Hey, D.
B.
Hi.
So, it turns out your hunch was right.
DNA confirmed it.
Angela's killer was a familial match to Jake.
Meet his brother-- Matthew Tarland.
I pulled a print off the trigger remote that was used in the bomb to kill Tate.
Got a hit in AFIS.
It turns out that his brother there, Matthew, was busted a couple of years ago for solicitation.
There's no way this dude's gonna roll over on his own flesh and blood.
All we have him on right now is driving around the block, and he knows it.
I just I just don't see he and his brother going to all this trouble without wanting the world to know what Tate did to them, why Tate had to be punished.
Why we all had to be punished, for that matter.
Mm-hmm.
No, he wants to confess.
Just not to us.
When they came to me, I proclaimed your innocence.
Even though you'd just planted a big, fat, red Judas smack on my cheek, I said, "No.
"He could never have committed these heinous crimes "because only one man lives in such dark places.
Oliver Tate.
" Well, you would know.
You pimped to him.
Yes, I did.
Is that why you bore false witness against me? I don't know what you're talking about.
Yeah, you do, Jake.
You know what you've done-- you and your brother.
It seems to me, your brother's kind of left you holding the bag.
And the Lord said unto Cain, "Where is Abel thy brother?" And he said, "I know not.
Am I my brother's keeper?" Am I my brother's keeper? A boy came to me once.
A little boy.
He'd been cast out onto the street with his brother by a man who, father-like, promised them everything but instead used them.
Twisted their souls.
Do you remember that boy? Yes, I do.
But he's dead.
I think there is still love in your heart.
Not for me, but for someone someone who gave that life to you unconditionally, who's been repaid in blood.
I think you need to look at this.
Recognize your brother's work? You're lying.
This is a trick.
No, Matthew would never He-he knows how much I care about Angela.
No.
Jake, your brother killed her.
He posed her just like all the other girls.
No! You are your brother's keeper.
You are responsible for what he's done and what he will do to two more girls that have nothing to do with what happened to you.
We know he's in that area right there.
We are all sinners.
We all need redemption.
This is your chance.
So, what's the deal with the mask anyway? Why are you so scared to show your face? You're just going to kill us.
Or is that it? You don't have the guts to look us in the eye when you do it.
This what you wanted? Take a good look.
It's the last thing you're going to see.
I'm going to make you feel everything.
Lock him up.
Wait.
What? I think there might be another girl.
What do you mean? When he had me on the phone, I think I heard another girl.
Are you sure? Where? I don't know.
Maybe in another room.
Run! I'll catch up.
Hello? Anybody in here? Come down here.
Get down on your knees.
Told you I was gonna make you feel everything.
No! Let her go.
Thank you for coming back for me.
Come on, let's get out of here.
What do you got? He's dead, Jim.
- Ellie.
- Dad.
He shot her.
I tried to get the gun from him, but I couldn't-- he was too strong, and he It's okay.
It's okay.
Her pulse is weak, but she's alive.
Control, this is Captain Brass.
Officer down.
Need medevac.
My location.
Code Three.
Ellie said Morgan got the girls out of there, but Matthew just chased 'em down, shot Morgan right in the back.
Then he tackles her, there's a struggle, the gun drops, she shoots him.
What about Morgan? In surgery.
Doctors say anything? Nothing yet.
Finished the trace reports.
Morgan's in surgery, so I thought I'd Go.
Thanks.
It's a good thing the kid was a bad shot.
Ellie was lucky, too.
You know, she only got off the one round, the kill shot.
I found, um debris in the firing mechanism.
Maybe from the struggle.
Kid on top of her, wrestling in the dirt.
On top of her? Don't think so-- at least not when Ellie fired the gun.
There was no GSR on his shirt.
She had to be at least four feet away from him.
Traumatic event.
People remember things differently, I guess.
Not that differently.
Call me from the hospital, okay? With an update.
Nick found Matthew Tarland's cell phone at the scene, right? Yeah.
I'm going over his e-mails now.
Okay, forget the e-mails for now.
I need to see the photos right away.
What are you looking for? I'll know when I see it.
Whoa.
That's Ellie Brass with our killer.
Uh, metadata says the photos were taken a year ago in Jersey City.
Nancy told Brass that Ellie brought a guy home with her last year, said that he was her fiancé.
Wait, so Brass's daughter knew Matthew Tarland? She's been lying to us.
D.
B.
, we have a situation.
Is Brass still at the hospital? When did he leave? Hey.
It's me.
Got some moo goo gai pan.
Your guys' favorite, right? Nancy? Ellie? Nancy? Ellie? Right here, Dad.
You gonna get that? You shouldn't have dragged Mom out here.
She saw me with Matthew.
I had no choice.
You should have just kept this between you and me.
Why? Matthew and Jake had their daddy issues, and, thanks to you so do I.
You-you and the boys-- you did? You did this? When I had you on the phone, I asked you to make a choice.
Oh, my God.
You tried saving me my entire life, and you could have saved me then, but, oh, no.
Like always you had to be the cop.
Sounds like someone wants to get your attention pretty bad.
I know what that's like.
You killed the only person I ever loved.
The only person who ever loved you.
Ellie, you want to shoot me go ahead.
Because I'm dead already.
What happened? LAPD! Give me the gun.
Hey.
Hey, hey.
Dad.
Uh, uh, El-Ellie Yeah.
We know.
She's in custody.
Don't worry.
You are gonna be okay.
But you know what? You and I really need to steer clear of hospitals from now on.
Thought you'd already left.
Not without saying good-bye.
Did you get your story? Yes.
Yes, I did.
Although it's not really the story I came here to write.
Should the mayor be worried? It's not a hatchet job, if that's what you're thinking.
Doesn't all just go into the box, does it? No.
There is one question I never got to ask you.
That voice inside your head-- the day that it does go quiet do you think that that will bring you peace? Or will it be a loss too great to bear? And so we gather together today to mourn the loss of our sister Nancy taken from this life all too soon.
In grief, we throw our arms around our brother Jim, and we pray that his journey with Nancy to her final resting place will bring them both peace.
The lesson of Job is clear.
Even in a moment of immeasurable sorrow like this one, we're given a choice.
A choice between the hopelessness of despair, and the everlasting promise of faith.
Faith that there is a plan.
And that in times of doubt, God will speak to us in a voice that is clear and true.