CSI: Crime Scene Investigation s04e14 Episode Script

Paper or Plastic?

What do you need to get? Actually, it's what you need to get, rook.
Aw, come on, man.
We're off duty.
You're off when I say you're off.
Don't forget the Ho-Hos.
I can help you over here, sir.
That's not what your light says.
Slow night? Kind of.
Oh can't forget the Ho-Hos.
Get out of my way! I've got to get in there! What the hell is wrong with you people? My wife is still in there! Why isn't anybody helping my wife?! We're doing the best we can, sir Please! Body count's five.
Officer Clay entered the store unaware of a robbery that was in progress.
Officer Fromansky came in after he heard a shot fired.
Engaged two suspects.
Lit the place up.
The ski masks are John Does.
The rest have wallet IDs.
Woman at the back is Julia Reed, cocktail waitress at the Tangiers.
Man on aisle four is Rufus Sanders, cab driver.
How you want us to handle this, Grissom? Same way you'd eat an elephant one bite at a time.
Hey, Jim Did you know that Charles Manson is only 5'2"? Yeah, little guys tend to overcompensate.
Do you remember the, uh, story about how and where the marshals found old Charlie when they raided barker ranch? Yeah.
I always, uh I always liked that story.
We need a medic! CSI 4x14 - Paper or plastic by Kornifex All right, tell me what happened.
I was in my radio car when I heard shots fired.
I called for backup.
I went in.
Clay, talk to me.
Clay! How many shots you fire? Three.
No, four.
I fired four.
Then what? I saw my partner on the floor.
I went towards him.
Second gunman came at me.
How many shots you fire at the second gunman, total? Maybe-maybe five.
I'd taken a shot in my vest.
Hard to count under those conditions.
Are you sure? No, I'm not sure.
That's why I said maybe but I know I shot four at the third guy.
I was going to check on my partner.
I caught movement in the back.
Black coat, ski mask, gun I put him down.
He fire at you? Didn't give him a chance.
All right, that's all we need to know.
I need your weapon.
My partner I want to be the one to tell his wife.
He was my responsibility.
All right.
All right, look, if you're not going to say it, I will.
Fromansky said he killed three, and there are two dead ski masks in there.
Now, you cranked him up pretty good on that vigilante case last year.
Is that going to be a problem? No.
Everybody, could I please have your attention? All right, folks, I know that you've been through an awful lot this evening.
If you could just bear with me a little longer, I need to talk with every one of you one at a time, so I promise to get you out of here as quickly as possible.
Is the, uh, guy in black the cocktail waitress' husband? Yeah.
Do you want him first? I don't think he's ready for me just yet.
I'm going to get to him soon enough.
What happened to your assault in Henderson? I closed it.
Where do you need me? There's two more bodies over by the beer.
You got it.
Barely cleared the holster.
Reflex, maybe.
Pulled the trigger before he had a target.
Not quick enough.
Those two guys came out of nowhere made everybody go to the corner.
Where, specifically? Uh dry goods.
Then one guy grabs Celeste Which guy? I was looking at his piece, not his face, okay? Shotgun or handgun? Uh, shotgun.
He drags her over to the registers, makes her open 'em up.
She does.
They're pulling out the cash, and then he sees the cops roll up.
Second guy says, "everybody, get down and don't say a freaking word," so that's what I did.
And then And then? ankles and flashes and booms.
That's all I remember.
And you never moved from that spot? No, I didn't.
Do you have somewhere you need to be? I got to change my pants.
Sorry.
Well, you know, we're not the most modern store around.
How long is the surveillance loop? About 24 hours.
What, uh what happened to these tapes here? Nothing.
These are active cameras, right? Those VCRs are busted.
Never got 'em fixed.
You know, cutbacks.
Over the register and outside works.
That's all we really need.
Gotta keep an eye on the employees, right? Right.
They steal worse than the customers.
You know, this guy hit a $75 jackpot.
Probably shoving quarters in his pockets when this whole thing went down.
The door was twenty feet away.
He probably could've made a run for it.
You know, after the MGM grand fire, they found people fused to slot machines.
Never even made it out of their seats.
This guy probably thought it was his lucky day.
I'm sure he wasn't going to leave without his money.
We all just started running when those two psychos started shooting it out with the cop I took a first aid course about a hundred years ago, so I-I-I tried to keep pressure on the wound, but it just kept bleeding, you know? I couldn't leave Rufus all alone, scared, dying.
You were friends? Mmm, sort of.
He-he'd come in a couple of times a week and play the quarter slots.
From where you and Rufus were, could you see Officer Fromansky? Oh, the cop who saved us? No.
I couldn't see anything.
I just heard all that gunfire just blasting away.
- Hey.
- Hey.
Entry wound's on the left side.
There's no exit wound? Skin's thicker on the back.
Captured the bullet.
We'll retrieve it at autopsy.
I was, uh holding Julia's hand trying to find a place to hide somewhere safe.
It was those stupid heels, you know.
She was always forgetting to bring her flats to work.
Come on.
They didn't have to shoot her.
They were wearing masks.
We didn't even get a good look at them.
Mr.
Reed, you can't look for reasons here.
We'll have it out in a second.
The trick is to apply even pressure all around.
Is there something wrong with tweezers? They can mess up the striae.
You've got enough to deal with without my toolmarks in the mix.
Here we go.
Huh.
Paper or plastic? Officer Clay's already been processed.
We wanted to get him to his family.
Did you get prints off the two suspects? Uh, yeah.
They're right here.
And we also got bullets from both of them.
Good.
Prison tattoos.
They weren't virgins.
Hi, I was wondering if I might be able to speak with Celeste Turner.
She, uh, has a gunshot wound.
She was brought in from the grocery store robbery.
Right.
Curtain three.
Just out of surgery.
Stable.
She's still pretty doped up, though.
You're going to have to come back later.
You going to need these? Yes.
Thank you.
What can you tell me about the little boy who was also brought in from the robbery incident? Minor injuries.
He's fine.
Mostly shock.
He's with his mom.
Hell of a night, huh? Take your kid to work, both end up shot.
Wait a minute.
So, the little boy's mother is Celeste Turner? Yeah.
Bastard was behind her the whole time.
Yeah.
Okay, here's what I got so far there's our two DOA suspects.
Looks like they just walked in off the street.
Is there any sign of Fromansky's mystery gunner? No.
All the cars in the parking lot were accounted for, and the loading dock out back was deserted, so this is the only view of what went down.
And see here? Here comes our cop.
Three, four feet away, doesn't even see him.
The thing I hate the most is the bad guys always know if there's going to be a gunfight.
Officer Clay's one shot went into the floor.
The bullet fragmented.
That's probably how that kid got hit.
But Officer Fromansky's beretta and that suspect's tec-9, they both had hollow 9 millimeters.
Between the two of them, they shot off 18 rounds.
Shotgun was a mossberg, model 500.
Eight rounds fired.
Ammo was double- aught buckshot, nine pellets per shell.
shells, 72 pellets.
Enjoy.
Firing two shots! Grissom, we got a problem.
Only one? We've identified all the bullets recovered at the scene.
There's no evidence of a third gunmen.
It gets worse.
The bullet that killed the cocktail waitress, it came from Fromansky's gun.
How you feeling, Officer? Little sore.
Desk duty hurts a lot more.
Is there anything you want to add to your statement? What's he saying I did this time? A bullet from your gun killed a cocktail waitress.
A ricochet.
No.
A clean shot.
Not possible.
No one at the scene saw a third gunman.
I would never shoot at a civilian.
I saw a guy wearing a ski mask, dark coat, holding a gun.
The girl was wearing a black sweater, carrying a purse.
I didn't shoot at that.
You'd just took a full load in the chest.
Maybe you were confused.
Wasn't confused.
Your statement says that you fired four shots at this third gunman.
Yeah.
Ballistics evidence shows that you spread five shots over the back wall.
So I fired more than I thought.
So what.
I was engaged with multiple hostile targets.
You're not back in the Gulf.
You're a police officer.
You're supposed to identify a target.
And that's what I did.
What are you, pissed off because the last time you tried to jam me up didn't work? Hey, ease up.
What I said in my statement is the truth.
The truth is, we have a dead civilian with your bullet in her.
This going to the next step? It has to.
You're on administrative leave pending an IAB review.
There was no way I could warn that cop.
I wanted to but the guy was right there, under the counter pushing his gun right in my stomach.
I'm sorry.
You're not the one that pulled the trigger.
Ms.
Turner, what was your son doing there with you? Well, my ex was looking after him that night.
Then the son of a bitch shows up at the store.
Had a party to go to.
Practically shoved Henry out of the car.
I mean I'm not allowed to bring kids to work.
So I snuck Henry into the office, and I told him to stay there.
Then? Then those two maniacs came in.
They shot that poor policeman.
And then everything just went crazy.
I was running, and I ran to go find Henry Henry! but I couldn't find him anywhere.
That's all I remember.
Henry likes his candy, doesn't he? He's got five cavities to prove it.
How'd you know? Well, we found him in a storage cabinet, near the candy rack.
He never listens to me.
Double counts, two people in the room at all times.
When you're done, match the total amounts with the register receipts, okay? So, explain to me what all the money was doing in the registers and not the store safe.
See that light? It's called a halo.
It's keyed to the sensor in the cash register.
Now, at a preset amount, that light goes off, letting the store manager know it's time to transfer the cash to the safe.
Now check this out Most of the halos are lit.
Maximum cash, just lying in the drawers.
So, those guys did their homework.
They picked the perfect time to hit.
Mm-hmm.
AFIS hits on our suspects, both just recently released from five-year sentences at Lompoc.
California boys.
Born and raised.
Okay.
Let's do this.
Officer Clay was killed by a single close-range shotgun blast to the back of the head.
Excessive penetration and laceration of the brain.
Suspect Clyde Tremmel The tec-9 guy.
Two distant-range, medium-caliber gunshot wounds to the front of the chest, with penetration of the lung and heart.
Suspect Jack Delver Shotgun guy.
One distant-range, medium-caliber gunshot wound to the forehead.
The bullet penetrated the brain and was recovered in the occipital lobe.
Rufus Sanders, bystander five scattered buckshot perforations on the outer thigh.
One severed the femoral artery, resulting in massive hemorrhage.
And Julia Reed, cocktail waitress.
Single medium-caliber gunshot wound to the left chest.
The bullet perforated the lung and thoracic aorta, then perforated the opposite lung.
And that's it.
Thanks, Doc.
Catherine, something bothering you? A little.
Look, I came here to pick up my wife's body.
I already gave you my statement.
Well, we just need a few more details before we can release the body.
I promise this won't be long.
What? Well, you said that your wife fell during the gunfight, that that's how you got separated.
Yeah.
Do you recall exactly how she fell? Well, what do you mean? How did she land? Did she land sideways, backwards? She fell forward, I think.
She fell forward.
So her hands broke the fall, landed on her knees? Yeah.
Well, there weren't any bruises or scrapes on her knees or elbows, which is leading me to believe that she didn't fall.
Well, what's-what's the difference? She's dead.
Mr.
Reed, there were a lot of bullets flying around that store and a lot of victims, and every detail is important, but they don't help if they're not accurate.
Well, when we started running she was right behind me.
She froze up.
Just stood there looking right at me scared out of her mind.
I yelled at her to get down, to come over to me.
Sh-she wouldn't move.
I mean I'm I'm pretty sure I yelled.
Highlight the shots that killed the tec- 9 shooter.
Fromansky said that he fired three or four shots at that target.
He fired four.
That accounts for those shots.
Okay, the guy with the shotgun was killed with one bullet.
Well, those four shots were definitely meant for him.
But this shot is closer to the second gunman than it is to the cocktail waitress.
Well, Fromansky was turning when he fired so his shots were spread out.
Okay.
Which means Fromansky fired four shots at a target at the back of the store.
Just like he said he did.
Yeah.
At the walk-through you said that you saw a third suspect at the back of the store.
Why did you make the decision to shoot? I was in fear for my life.
Did you see a weapon? Yes.
What kind? A semiautomatic pistol.
- So you fired first.
- Yes.
- Four times.
- Yes.
Can you explain the lack of evidence for a third suspect at the scene? That's not my job.
Right or wrong, there'll be guys on the job who'll think this was personal.
They'd be wrong.
Did you see Julia Reed in your line of fire? No.
According to Supervising Criminalist Grissom's report, you had an unobstructed view of Ms.
Reed, so how do you explain the fact that you didn't see her? I can't.
You don't deny that a bullet from your weapon killed her? I'm not denying that.
But you can't explain it? No.
Look, your partner was dead.
You'd been shot.
You saw someone you thought was a suspect and you fired.
Under those circumstances, any one of us could make a mistake.
Did you? Officer Fromansky, answer the question.
He says yes, he's a bad cop.
He says no, he's a liar.
Maybe he really doesn't know what happened.
A little over.
Perfect.
Let's say I'm Fromansky.
There's nothing between Fromansky and the cocktail waitress.
I got a clean view and a clear shot.
Hey, take a look at this.
The cracks in the glass from shot 22 are terminated by the cracks from shot 23.
So, shot 23 had to occur before shot 22.
Which means that Fromansky was firing from left to right, not right to left.
Four shots on a level spread.
He was shooting at a moving target.
According to Catherine's witness, the cocktail waitress wasn't moving.
She was a stationary target.
So, if he was shooting at a moving target, where was it moving to? We have the surveillance tape.
Shows nothing going on here before, during or after the robbery.
Well, just because it shows nothing doesn't mean it's seeing everything.
You can see me now, right? Keep moving to your left.
All right.
Keep going.
Keep going.
I'm still in? Right there.
Now you're out.
Tell me what you see.
A getaway.
We found metal paint scrapings and skid marks.
Both recent on that loading dock.
These guys definitely had a wheelman.
Yeah, guy slips in after everything gets started.
During the confusion, nobody sees him.
Or no one that was alive to tell anyway.
Except Fromansky.
Yeah.
Well, the suspects knew there was a blind spot.
It has to be an inside job.
Oh, no doubt.
Matched the cash from the garbage bag to the register receipts, $878 was missing.
Somebody came out ahead.
Inside guy? Well, I'll run the employees.
Maybe somebody's got a record.
Ran your paint chips through ppg and Dupont.
Got a hit.
Aegean Blue Honda Accord.
Popular color.
They carried it over for four years.
Go figure.
I'm a teal man myself.
You? Stupid question.
Anyway, model years '84 to '87.
- I'll put out a broadcast.
Thanks, Hodges.
- Sure.
Before this goes any deeper, I want to hear it from you.
Are you going to try to screw me on this? Well? I guess it depends on whether I get stuck in traffic on the way to your hearing.
So, this car was reported stolen about, uh, oh, about three weeks ago.
Why don't you take the front.
I'll take the back.
Ph 13.
Sodium hydroxide.
Got a cell phone.
There's a lot of scung on it.
Won't be too good for prints, but let me check the call history.
Same number keeps popping up.
Best bargain is temporarily closed.
Please check back tomorrow.
Well, this is interesting.
Before the robbery went down, somebody at the store was very eager to talk to our suspects.
Same number.
Yeah? Maybe he can tell us who.
Todd Hallickey.
Look, I don't know why you guys brought me here, but you got no right tossing my apartment.
We matched your prints from a stolen car off the prints from a prior car theft, and bingo, we had a match.
Got a warrant for your apartment.
I don't boost cars no more.
Yeah, right.
Oh, wait.
No, I I was looking into getting some wheels a couple of weeks ago.
I test-drove this old Honda Accord this guy was trying to unload.
An '86 Aegean Blue with matching velour interior? Yeah, that was it.
Must be how my print got there.
Well, didn't buy the car.
Guy seemed kind of shady.
You wouldn't happen to remember this shady guy's name, would you? Come on.
No one keeps track of stuff like that.
Uh, right.
You own any firearms, Mr.
Hallickey? No, sir, I'm on parole.
Besides, I don't believe in guns.
They're dangerous.
You know, that's a nasty injury you got there, Todd.
Looks kind of painful.
How'd you get it? It's a rash.
Looks like a chemical burn to me.
You know what sodium hydroxide is? Never heard of it.
Let me tell you what it is.
It's the active ingredient in drain cleaner.
It opens up the pipes, dissolves flesh and fabrics.
Look, you want to pin that car on me, you go ahead and try.
I got this off the jacket from your apartment.
What the hell is this? It's a bullet wipe.
A test for lead.
Congratulations.
You passed.
Hallickey's got no connection to the grocery store.
He was just the wheel man.
Even, still, he's looking at four counts of felony murder.
But he's not talking.
He lawyered up.
We got a bullet hole in a jacket.
That's not even enough to prove that he was in the store.
What about the cash? It wasn't in his apartment.
Maybe somebody else took it.
Almost $900 in small bills? We'd have noticed pockets bulging with a wad like that.
What about the calls from the grocery store to the suspect's cell? That could have been somebody giving the "go" signal.
There's no way to tell who.
The store runs off of an old PBX system, and every call that comes in goes back to the same number.
Every employee was near a phone, so, it could have been anybody.
Hey, y'all.
Ran the criminal records for the employees.
Came up with a Raul Valdez.
Freight loader.
He clocked in for work that night.
Never clocked out.
No one by that name interviewed at the scene? Here's the kicker.
A few years ago, he spent some time in prison.
Lompoc.
So, Brass is trying to find him now.
I got to change my pants.
You left something in the store besides a urine stain.
Just a little too tempting, huh? All that cash just sitting there right in front of your face Look, I go to that store to bag groceries, not to get my ass shot off.
I figure I earned the money.
Kind of like working overtime.
Might as well get something for all your trouble, right? Considering the fact that your nice little robbery had gone straight to hell.
Whoa, wait a minute.
You think? No way.
It was an inside job.
You knew the registers were full.
Those gunmen had help from an employee.
Not from me, they didn't.
Look, you want to bust me for the money, go ahead, I took it.
But I did not set the thing up.
You know, Hodges already analyzed trace on the bullets.
Yeah, I wanted to take a look myself.
He'll take it personally.
Good.
The report says that the cocktail waitress was wearing a black wool sweater.
Was she also wearing something polyester? No.
Take a look at this.
Black fibers.
Probably synthetic.
Mixed in with the wool.
If their gunman was wearing a black polyester jacket Fromansky claims that he was tunnel-visioned on the gunman.
So, it's possible that he never even saw the cocktail waitress.
You may have just saved Fromansky's ass.
Hey, Catherine, how'd it go with the bag boy? He admitted to swiping the cash, but he wouldn't cop to the robbery.
Then I have something you should see.
I was going back through the surveillance tapes covering the loading dock, thinking I might find someone scouting a blind spot, you know? But instead, I found this.
Two nights before the robbery.
There.
See that? One more time.
Yeah.
That camera's stationary, so Somebody moved the camera.
You used to part-time at the forum shops.
We got your prints off your work card.
It was the same print that we got off the loading dock surveillance camera.
Raul Valdez, an ex-con, your co-worker.
You got him to give you the names of some guys to do the job.
You give them the best time to hit the registers.
You tell them where to park.
It's a good plan.
Until your Ex showed up and leaves you with your kid.
Then you panic, and you call your guys, try to call it off, but they won't listen.
If that's what happened, that could go in your favor.
When we find Raul, he'll give you up in a heartbeat.
I think I need to get a lawyer.
What you need is come clean and cooperate.
And you better hope and pray the DA doesn't want to put a needle in your arm for killing five people, including a cop.
I have been working at that store for five years.
Thirty- eight hours a week.
Thirty- eight not forty.
You know why? Because my manager won't give me enough hours to qualify for benefits.
I have a kid with rotten teeth.
I never meant for anybody to get hurt.
Officer Fromansky, if you could smile, please? Thank you; right over here.
Guy from the mayor's office.
Fromansky's getting a commendation.
What do you think? Two dead felons, two dead civilians a dead policeman I don't know what to think.

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