CSI: NY s03e09 Episode Script

It's a girl.
Crash car vic, female, approximately 19 years in age.
Lacerations to the face, neck and chest, steering wheel fractured her sternum.
Gcs 114, iv started with ns bolus, pulse ox is low: 81.
Intubated and manually ventilated.
On my count: One, two, three.
She's a strong girl, Mrs Garner.
She survived the worst of it.
And the prognosis is good.
Your daughter has a long life ahead of her.
it's Nicole Garner.
She's 19 years old.
Code blue was called, but she was already gone.
Duty nurse found the body.
Evidence of petechial hemorrhaging.
Possible suffocation.
This pillow could be our murder weapon.
Any witnesses? Duty nurse said it was business as usual.
Hospital security did report that the doctors' lounge was broken into earlier in the day, but that was eight hours ago.
Anything stolen? As far as security can tell, nothing was swiped.
They think it was a junkie looking for meds.
So what else do we know? Just the history.
Five days ago, after a night of drinking, Nicole lost control of her car heading home from a soho bar.
She was in a coma up until yesterday.
Apart from being paralyzed from the waist down, the doctor said she was making good progress.
Kid was given a second chance.
Question is who didn't think she deserved it? I'm gonna need a list of all hospital staff and visitors.
Anyone who's had contact with Nicole since she was admitted.
We'll want to look at her ecg tracing and critical flow sheet.
It'll help us build our timeline leading up to the time of death.
Okay, I'll take care of it.
Mrs Garner.
My name is Mac Taylor.
I'm with the new york crime lab.
I'm sorry for your loss.
I'm Julie Rollins.
I'm volunteer here at the hospital.
Nicole and my daughter Heather were in the same car accident five days ago.
Is she here? No.
Heather died at the scene.
I'm sorry.
Who would do this? Mrs Garner, whatever you can tell me about your daughter will help us find who did this.
I don't care, you got a problem with that? They said icu, I'm going to icu.
Get off of me!It's my daughter! I got a right! - Hold on, ladies.
- I got a right whoa sir, you can not go in there.
That room is a crime scene.
Sir, sir, take it easy.
Just calm down.
Calm down, Nicole's father.
Frank Russo.
My ex-husband.
That's my baby girl right there.
She can't be dead.
I'm telling you, somebody made a mistake.
I'm sorry, Mr Russo.
No Been a long time, Sheldon.
You want your old job back? I have a job.
Oh, right, the dead girl in icu.
You don't really believe someone on my staff killed her? That dead girl has a name.
Nicole Garner.
Sheldon, you were always the smartest surgeon on my staff, but also empathetic beyond the call of duty.
That was your weakness.
Doctor, I'm going to need full access to your staff.
Everyone who was on call at time of death.
You're really serious about this? Well, Nicole's chart said that she was receiving h-2 blockers every four hours.
But she never got her last dose.
What is that supposed to mean? Maybe Nicole's medications were withheld on purpose, and when gi bleeding didn't kill her, more drastic measures were taken.
You're talking about a mercy killing? You're out of your mind.
Did anyone on your staff recommend a do-not-resuscitate order for Nicole Garner? Sheldon, did you come up here to talk or to interrogate me? I asked you a question.
No.
No dnr was ever discussed.
What about an off-the-chart conversation? Did anyone ever say they thought Nicole Garner was better off dead than alive? Absolutely not.
How dare you come into my hospital with these allegations.
Doctor, Nicole Garner was under the care of this facility in an icu that was authorized personnel only.
If we find that it was someone on your staff that killed this young woman and you're withholding information, I'll not only put that person behind bars, but you as well.
Who breaks into a doctors' lounge? I got tool marks on the door lock.
I got scratches on this lock, too.
Looks like they were made by the same tool.
And belong to the person who left this print.
Beautiful.
recorded elevated carbon dioxide levels in the blood and cerebral hypoxia.
She was asphyxiated.
And there's no way this kid could have stopped her killer.
She had two broken arms and a vertebral fracture in the thoracic region.
She was a sitting duck.
Were there any fibers in her nose or mouth? No.
But I did find an unknown substance in the crease of her lips.
Here.
Any idea what it is? Mac been meaning to ask.
I'd like you to consider coming to our house for thanksgiving this year.
My daughter's coming in.
Cousins from philly.
We do a really nice job.
I use a collin scalpel to carve the bird.
Gets the meat paper thin.
I appreciate the offer, Sid you can't spend the holidays alone again.
I'll drag you if I have to.
You're gonna have to add some meat to that skinny frame of yoursif you're going to be making threats.
And I was about to say I do have plans this year.
Thank you.
I'm intrigued.
Unknown substance looks biological.
I'm going to have to take it back to the lab for proper id.
Thanks.
You're not going to tell me who your plans are with? Guess not.
Flack dropped off a list of ICU staff and everyone that came to see our vic while she was in the hospital.
I need you to run the names.
Long list.
What are you working on? just some trace that sid found in the crease of our vic's mouth.
Mac asked me to id it.
Mind if I take a look? Oh, please, knock yourself out.
You kidding me? It's krill.
Pelagic, shrimplike crustacean of the family euphausiidae.
Then how did it get in our vic's mouth? I'm working on that.
You see, krill is one of the main ingredients used in saltwater fish food.
There's an aquarium in the visitors' lounge at the hospital.
Nice.
Mr Green, according to queen of mercy hospital, you're responsible for maintaining the fish tank in the visitors' lounge.
Yes, sir.
You were on duty at the time Nicole Garner was murdered, is that correct? Yes, sir.
I don't understand.
The officer asked me to come down here and answer some questions about the Garner girl.
Should I talk to a lawyer? You tell us.
I didn't have anything against that kid.
I didn't even know her.
According to the duty nurse, Nicole's mother Ellen Garner, filed a complaint against you two days ago, and you were put on probation because of it.
Yes, sir, what happened was, I was mopping the floor, Mrs Garner walked by very fast and almost slipped.
I had my signs up, just like I'm supposed to, but I guess she didn't see them.
I apologized; mrs.
Garner didn't want any of that end of story.
Not exactly.
You see, we found something on Nicole that tells us that you did more than mop the floors outside her room.
You were in her room, and you touched her.
Mr Green,the fish food you used matches trace found on Nicole's mouth.
I can explain that.
I just finished feeding the fish, started making my rounds, and i noticed the Garner girl was trying to reach for the juice cup on her tray.
She was thirsty.
I looked for a nurse.
There was a code blue down in the hall.
Everyone was on that.
I felt bad for her.
I couldn't just leave her like that.
- then why did you lie to us? - 'Cause I'd get fired for that.
My job's already on the line.
Look, I screwed up, I get that, but I did not hurt that girl.
I was just trying to help her.
Sheldon, what do you think you're doing? Kevin green he's been with the hospital Are you worried about his reputation or maybe yours as chief of staff? Sheldon, you are done talking to my people.
I spoke to legal,and they're advising our staff not to speak to you.
I can have the d.
A.
Start issuing subpoenas if I have to.
That hospital used to be your home.
Understand something here, doctor, I have a job to do.
You forgot what it's like there.
The work is 90% medicine, Day to day we make mistakes, and sometimes that means losing patients.
This was not hospital error.
Nicole didn't die because someone on your staff made a mistake.
This was murder.
Nobody ever accused you of murder.
V- tach.
He's crashing! Defib.
Charge.
Clear.
- Nothing.
- Charge.
Clear.
- Still nothing, doctor.
- Adrenaline.
Got it? Clear.
He's zeroing out.
- I'm opening him up.
Scalpel.
- Here you go.
- Rib spreader.
- Spreader.
- clamp.
- I got his heart.
Nothing, doctor.
Come on! Come on, Can you believe this? Bean-o-rama house blend, you know, the lid wasn't on right.
It's just one of those days where I wish I would have just taken t hat construction job with my uncle, you know? what's the matter? You all right? I'm fine, man.
I'm fine Yeah, well, you've had that look on your face ever since wgot back from the hospital.
I know it's none of my business, but I always wondered why you left.
All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession.
It's from the hippocratic oath.
Took three high-risk surgeries, exercising my profession, to learn sometimes it's just your time.
And there's nothing medicine can do about it.
come on.
Come on.
Come on.
Doctor, he's gone.
We should call it.
You can make this.
You can make this.
- Come on! - You did everything you could.
So you just walked away.
Yeah.
Learned the hard way that I didn't want to be the guy standing over somebody when they took their last breath.
So, took a job in the M.
E.
'S office.
Figured if god had the final say when someone died, I could do something about it if they were taken away too soon.
At least that's what I keep telling myself.
Hey, you're still a doctor, Sheldon.
yes.
I was trying to reach you guys.
Cell phone drowned.
Oh, all righT.
yeah, bean-o-rama house blend.
Aliphatic, chlorogenic alicyclic carboxylic acids are a dead giveaway.
I mean, I-I was a coffee sommelier when I was in college.
I mean, just for the chicks and stuff, they'd come in.
.
you were looking for us.
yeah.
Yeah, sorry.
ran the names that doc gave me and came back with nothing.
Verified meds and course of treatment.
Cross-referenced with the on-calls.
The last person in Nicole Garner's room was an icu nurse.
All right, she went in, checked the iv's, and went back to her station.
Computer login confirms that she was online at t-o-D.
Sorry, man, wish I had a suspect for you.
Yep.
Mary.
Get this over to the print lab.
- Thanks.
- Right away.
I was able to lift a print from a bar of betadine soap I took from nicole's room.
Lab's running it right now.
Any hits from the prints you lifted off the pillow? Nothing in afis.
Same deal on iv and hoses.
Let me ask you something.
If you just came out of a coma, and you saw your mother, even if you couldn't speak, wouldn't you at least try to make some effort to connect? Of course.
Well, according to her doctor's statements, Ellen had been at Nicole's bedside ever since she was brought in.
When she awoke, they ran a mobility test.
She was able to squeeze the doctor's finger but when the doctor asked her to squeeze Ellen's, she didn't respond.
Bonasera.
Yeah.
All right, great.
Right.
We're on it.
Thanks.
Okay.
Print from the soap gave us a name: Matt Huxley.
He was arrested two years ago for boosting a car.
He's also one of the 20 potential candidates from the print lindsay got from the doctors' lounge.
Okay.
It's your lead.
How do you want to handle it? Take Matt.
I'll stick with the evidence.
If he's our killer, we're going to need something besides his print on a bar of soap to get a conviction.
Matt Huxley? Matt Huxley? Who wants to know? New york's finest.
I'm all right.
Keep going.
I'll get the car.
get off me! Why you running, sport? Hands on the hood.
Let's go.
I didn't appreciate that, Matt.
You see, this here's a new pair of pants.
And I don't get uniform allowance.
So I suggest you make it up to me by making the rest of this very easy.
Check out what Mr Goodwrench had in his back pocket.
Set of lock pick tools.
What can I say, I'm always losing my apartment keys.
Hey.
What'd I tell you about making things easy? Look, I don't know what you want from me.
I didn't kill Nicole.
Wh at makes you thinkwe're here on that? You think I'm stupid? Somebody killed her and because I was sloppy, you think it's me.
Sloppy? You're talking about the prints we found in the doctors' lounge and in Nicole's room? Not to mention the tool marks on the locks.
You got some explaining to do, Matty boy.
If not, you're going back to jail.
And this time for life.
It's going to make that stint you did for jacking a car feel like a week in cabo.
It's going to make that stint you did for jacking a car feel like a week in cabo.
All I wanted to do was see Nicole.
I can think of easier ways of visiting her in the hospital without committing a b&E.
Forget it.
Nicole's mother didn't like me.
Wasn't shy about it either.
Made it even clearer when she forbid me to visit Nicole.
So I stole a uniform from the doctors' lounge in order to get into the icu.
I went to the hospital to make good on a promise I made to her.
What promise? A couple years ago, a good friend of ours, Bobby Cirucci, never been on a snow board before, hit a tree on the last run.
We thought he was dead.
Maybe it would have been better off if he was.
Doctors said he broke some bone in his back and would never walk again.
When Nicole and I left we made a pact.
That if something like this happened to either one of us, the other would take care of business.
So you went to the hospital to kill nicole? No, it's not like that.
When it came time to do it, I couldn't.
I'm sorry, Nicole.
I couldn't go through with it.
I loved her too much.
You broke your promise to her.
I may be a lot of things, detective.
But I'm not a murderer.
Once you figure that out, you'll be asking yourself.
If Nicole made that deal with you, maybe she also made it with somebody else.
you never went home last night, Looks like you didn't either.
Hey, I got two miles of bandages to go through.
What's your excuse? Nicole's ecg.
According to this data, her vitals fluctuated right around the time matt went to see her.
Tells me that Nicole was aware that somebody was in her room.
So with matt's alibi, if tod checks out, our little angel of death may be telling the truth even though he admitted to you he went to the hospital with the intention of killing Nicole.
They made a right-to-life pact.
You believe that? A right to a dignified death is something that every human being deserves.
Mac, Nicole was only 19 years old.
It's hard to believe she would have wanted to die just because she was going to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.
Maybe she didn't think that life was worth living.
Something else here is interesting: Right before Nicole was murdered, her resting heart rate of 90 went down to 75.
She was reacting to something that calmed her.
Which could mean our victim may have known her killer.
And 23 seconds later, everything spiked.
Went up to 110.
It's a clear sign of anxiety.
Maybe this is where the killer revealed their true intentions for the visit.
Right.
But there's no tachycardia.
There's no continual rise in her heart rate that would indicate that she was fighting for her life.
See, it should have gone up to 140, but it stayed right there at 110.
- Yeah.
- Until cardiac arrest.
Which is inconsistent with asphyxiation.
Right.
The answers are in the evidence.
Just have to look closer.
we were wrong about the pillow.
This bag is our murder weapon.
Fuming picked up our victim's face.
What do you got there? Discovered this on our vic's right palm bandage.
Imprint has a definite pattern I was able to bring up.
Also analyzed the grimy residue, picked up traces of flour.
This is st.
Christopher.
Nicole's father was wearing a medallion like this when I talked to him at the hospital.
Somebody made a mistake.
But Frank Russo wasn't on the list of visitors allowed to see Nicole.
So how did he get into her room? This? St Christopher, patron saint of travelers.
Look, I know i shouldn't have, but I didn't think nicky was going to make it out of the coma, so I went by the hospital to say good-bye.
Askest.
Christopher if he could make sure my little girl made it to heaven.
Still doesn't answer our question, Frank.
How'd you get into Nicole's room when you were denied visitation rights? One of the nurses over there, she's a regular customer.
Nicky it's daddy.
Can you hear me, Nicky? It's okay.
Hey hey, look what I found in the shop downstairs.
Just like the one you had when you were a baby.
Can you see it? Please, god, help her.
Then I left.
Next thing I know, I get a call from my friend saying nicole was murdered.
Frank, the bag that the gift was in it was used to smother your daughter.
Oh, my god.
Mr Russo, you loved your daughter.
I mean, seeing her like that, knowing that she would have to live in a wheelchair the rest of her life, maybe you just didn't want her to have to deal with that.
I couldn't care less if she could walk, talk or even count to ten.
I would have taken that girl any way she came to me.
What if she asked you? Would you refuse her request to take her life? Of course I would have.
Hey, Frank, prior to two days ago, when was the last time you saw your daughter? It's been a long time.
Look, after i lost custody, my ex got remarried.
Family's been moving around a lot.
I didn't even know they lived in the city till about a week ago.
I read about the car accident in the paper.
Imagine that.
Find out your daughter's in a coma next to an ad for big screen tvs.
Hey, I got your page.
What's up? Stella asked me to take a look at the evidence she pulled from the crime scene.
And I got four heart sensor pads.
Well, that's weird.
The ecg monitor in Nicole's room only required three.
You sure about that? Yeah.
Yeah, I took the overalls myself.
Well, it doesn't make sense that i have four pads then.
I have the one from Nicole's room still attached to the lead and the three mac pulled from the vic's chest.
So if Nicole had hers on, who was wearing the fourth pad? You can tell your team to put their test tubes away 'cause this thing's about to bust wide open.
Ellen Garner had an insurance policy on her daughter? And mommy dearest is the beneficiary.
Ellen has something to gain by her daughter's untimely death.
Means we got a motive.
Did you swab the heart-sensor pads for dna? Yeah.
The three pads you pulled from Nicole came back to her.
No surprise, but the fourth pad was a low-level sample.
All I could get was arnelogenin.
Her unknown donor was female.
The question is why was she wearing a sensor pad in Nicole's room? That's why Nicole's heart rate never indicated she was being suffocated.
Our killer was wearing her own sensor pads.
Swapped out the leads to buy the time needed to kill Nicole.
this way there were no alarms in the nurses' station indicating Nicole was fighting for her life.
So who do we like that's female? What kind of mother takes out an insurance policy on her own daughter? It's long and very complicated.
I'll try and keep up.
My second husband is divorcing me, and because of a piece of paper that I signed when we got married, I get nothing.
and I'm on the street.
Well, not if the policy pays out, right? Jackpot.
You think i killed Nicole? We spoke to some of Nicole's friends who were out with her the night of the accident.
They said Nicole mentioned the two of you were fighting.
Paris, Australia, Spain, The list goes on and on, Ellen.
You spent most of the year traveling - at do you think? - It's too early to tell.
Look, I did the best that I could.
Nicole wasn't very good at listening.
I can't tell you how many times I went through her room when she was out and ended up flushing some kind of drug down the toilet.
Nicole was self-destructive.
You saw her as a liability.
I may not have always been the best mother but I loved my child.
And she loved me.
Then why didn't she respond to you at the hospital? The doctors said that she wouldn't squeeze your hand when you asked her to.
I don't know.
And don't think I haven't stopped thinking about it.
Nicole liked to go out.
She knew how to have a good time, right? You couldn't keep her still for two minutes.
But the accident took all that away.
What are you saying? Well, if Nicole lived, she would've spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.
What kind of life is that for a girl who can't stay still for two minutes? - You think I - Assisted suicide? On Nicole's request.
Or maybe you just couldn't bear to see her live like that.
You are out of your minds.
Ma'am, I got one more question.
We found a heart sensor pad in Nicole's room that wasn't attached to her body.
You want to tell us about that? I'm sorry.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Well, then I'm sure you won't mind giving me a dna reference sample.
What is it? Well, you know when we were talking about the pact that Nicole made with her ex-boyfriend? You said something my father died of small-cell lung cancer.
Spent the last eight months of his life in bed on a feeding tube.
After a while, the medication didn't do anything for the pain, so one day he asked me he begged me to end it for him.
I couldn't do it.
You made the right decision.
Fasten your seat belts.
Ellen's reference sample did not match the mito dna we pulled off the fourth sensor pad.
It also didn't share alleles with the remaining three pads.
Means ellen is not Nicole's mother.
They're not even related.
Well, maybe Nicole is adopted.
That's what I thought.
Checked it out.
Birth records confirm Frank and Ellen are Nicole's parents, but I requested a sample of her dad's dna, and it turns out he isn't Nicole's father.
The mito dna we got off the fourth pad does match mito dna from the other three pads? Yes.
All right, means that our victim and the murderer are maternal relatives, but it isn't Ellen and Nicole.
And what if nicole isn't Nicole? What do you see? Two girls who look like each other.
So much so that they can be mistaken for twins.
There could have been a mix-upwhen the paramedics arrived at the scene of the accident.
That would explain why Nicole didn't respond to ellen in the hospital, we thought it was because the two of them were fighting.
We still have to prove it.
Here it is.
White lexus suv.
Okay, the accident report listed nicole as the driver.
Heather as the passenger.
that bouncer wanted you.
Me? He couldn't take his eyes off you.
But where were his hands? Oh, my god! You saw that? Mrs Rollins, we have forensic evidence hat puts you in Nicole Garner's room around the time of her death.
One of those pieces of evidence are fingerprints we pulled off the equipment that monitored Nicole's vitals.
We matched them to a print that we got off of a notary's document here.
Children aren't supposed to die before their parents.
Mrs Rollins? Nicole took my daughter's life.
She was driving drunk.
I told heather to stay away from her.
She was going to get her killed.
Nicole was popular, and Heather wanted to be just like her.
So you decided to commit murder? I was hoping nicole would never come out of the coma.
And she would die like Heather.
But then Nicole came to.
I couldn't let her live.
Not after what she'd done.
you have to understand, my husband died last year and Heather was all I had left.
There's nothing about this I understand.
You should take me away now.
I've said all I have to say.
Sit down, Mrs Rollins.
There's just one more thing.
When we looked at the heart sensor pad that you left in the room, we realized that you and your victim shared certain genetic similarities.
I don't understand.
It means that the person you smothered with the plastic bag wasn't Nicole Garner.
The person that you murdered was your own daughter.
No.
Th-that's not possible.
You're lying.
That's a toxicology report.
It revealed there was alcohol and drugs in Nicole Garner's system.
Enough to tell us that there was no way she could have gotten behind the wheel that night.
But your daughter could have.
She didn't do any drugs.
Just drank.
Her bac was 0.
9, just over the legal limit.
The accident was the result of driving while intoxicated, but it was heather's fault.
She was driving, not Nicole.
You're wrong.
Heather didn't even have a driver's license.
This is what the paramedics used to identify your daughter at the scene.
It was in her back pocket.
Not in a purse where it ordinarily would have been.
Nicole's drivers license had Heather's prints at one end, Nicole's at the other.
Location and orientation of the prints indicate that the license was handed from one person to another.
I am too wasted to drive.
Here, in case we get pulled over.
They'll think you're me.
and because both girls suffered severe facial lacerations, it was impossible to tell them apart.
It was assumed that the girl behind the wheel with the driver's license was Nicole, when in fact it was your daughter, Heather.
Blood samples pulled from the wrecked car confirm this.
She was trying to tell me Mom your mother can't help you now.
Oh, god.
She was trying to tell me.
Oh, god.
they say time will make all this go away, away but it's time that has taken my tomorrows and turned them into yesterdays and once again, that rising sun is dropping on down once again, you my friend, are nowhere to be found and it's so hard to do, and so easy to say walk away Help! We need help! Call 911! We need an ambulance! - What's going on? - What happened? Guy just came out of nowhere.
He's not breathing.
All right, we need to roll him over on his side.
Get his legs.
All right.
Okay, ready? Okay.
put this jacket under his legs.
You got it? Now come down here, I need you to come down here and steady his head.
All right, we'll put him on his back.
come on, there he goes, there he goes, there he goes, there he goes.
Put his head down.
Paramedics, let me through, please.
What do we got here? He was lying in a prone position.
Unable to breathe.
Turned him over.
Swept his airway.
Started spontaneously breathing again.
The rest of his vitals stabilized.
Mister, looks like you just saved this man's life.
Are you a doctor? Yeah.