Catch Me a Killer (2024) s01e09 Episode Script

1
This man is angry at women.
Their mysticism.
Fearful of their power.
Can't sleep knowing he's out there sweet-talking the next girl.
You're writing as if you're the killer.
I know what I'm doing. OK?
Expressing the emotional signature of the attacks.
It's the only way I know how. I'm really worried about you.
What you've described seems to be a mild panic attack.
Your mind is trying to tell you something.
That it might not be able to process
everything that's been thrown at it.
One of his detectives committed suicide
over this case you're working on.
It's really eating him up. I can see it.
You do know he's operating right now?
I told you, if anything, he'll speed up his attacks.
We're getting closer, but you have to trust me.
A delay like this will be our fault.
You think I don't know that? What is that?
It's an address. It's my parent's cabin.
I'm heading there Friday. You should come.
Micki, they found another body.
I can't just up and leave.
They need me. They can't do it without me.
What time is it?
A little after nine.
Thank you.
You crashed out soon after you arrived.
Obviously needed it.
Sorry.
Do you want to tell me what happened?
Just needed to get away.
There's something I want to show you.
That should be fine, I mean Hopefully, we've got what we need.
Let's get her to the dock. We can always come back.
Doc's going to move the body soon.
But he agrees, one or two days maximum.
Did you tell Micki?
Yeah. She's in Wemmer Pan.
But I'll keep her updated. Um
She'll be in contact.
Any thoughts?
Well, she's a much shorter distance from the road.
And we're dangerously close to the previous bodies, so
I think he's losing control of his urges.
Some people call this the frenzy stage.
He's getting reckless. Pieter!
That what I think it is? Yeah.
Great. Bag and tag it.
Hopefully, we get lucky.
Forensics. This side.
I lived out here for a while after I graduated.
Training to become a lawyer.
I was engaged.
Saskia was her name.
OK. What happened?
One day, she stepped out of the shower and her legs gave out.
Brain tumour.
Six weeks later, she was gone.
Just like that.
It's horrible. Yeah.
For a while I justshut down, came out here.
But it did teach me something.
At the end of the day,
you have to take control of your own recovery.
And then I found this.
Wow.
I swim down there at least once a week.
Read somewhere that the minerals in the water had healing qualities.
You want to go? No.
Yes. No.
Yes.
How cold is it?
It's refreshing.
(GROANS)
OK.
OK, let's do it. Alright, come on.
(SPLASHING)
Sorry, Suzaan, I just
I thought she was visiting family.
I hoped it was you.
I'm probably mistaken.
No, I'm sure she's checked in with one of my colleagues.
Please don't worry. I'm always the last to hear.
Just forget I called.
I'll give her a slap from you when I see her, OK?
I mean, we could send it to the lab for analysis.
No, no, no. The lab already has the condom.
They say it has been soiled.
Sorry, does that mean they can use it to identify?
Yeah, they're pretty confident they can extract DNA.
So, yeah.
Looks like we're getting somewhere.
What did Micki say? You spoke to her?
Yes. She
..wanted to ensure that we're going through old rape cases.
We're pretty sure that the killing aspect
of his MO was a later development.
Well, I've got Louis on that but if you feel it's a priority.
It is. We think.
Um I can help.
Sure. Be my guest. Alright.
Here you go.
Mm.
Can I ask you a question? Mm.
Do you think you'll always do what you do?
What? Making wine? Mm-hm.
Um
I mean, I started because I
..thought it was natural.
Grows, ages, ferments, really by itself.
And I like that.
So, yeah, probably.
What about you?
When I was a kid
..my dad showed me this old newsreel from the 1930s.
It's black and white.
No sound.
It was ofUSS Akron.
This big American airship, a zeppelin.
The airship was trying to moor
and it's being guided by these Navy sailors,
all holding it down by the guy ropes.
And then suddenly the wind changes.
The airship goes up.
And all the men instinctively let go.
Apart from four.
They held on.
And up they go.
Now, one guy, he's smart.
He lets go about 15 or 20 feet up.
And he falls and just breaks his arm.
But the others don't.
Soon, it's too late.
Too high.
One by one, you watch them fall.
Just tiny little figures.
Kicking and screaming and
..waving their arms all the way down.
The only guy who made it
..is the one who held on.
Eventually, they hauled him up onto the airship.
And what, that's you holding on?
Deon showed you this as a child. Jesus.
Have you told anyone else that? No.
Alright. Well, what do you think it means?
You want me to analyse myself for your benefit?
Absolutely. Mm.
OK.
I want to know how you see yourself.
Well, I suppose I would say I am a dichotomy.
OK. Part of me is messy and chaotic.
Passionate. It wants to
..throw caution to the wind to just
..believe in the dream.
But then I also really need control.
Yeah.
It's like I'm
..too scared or
..too guarded to just let go.
I mean, you did today.
(FOOTSTEPS RUSTLING)
OK, so if I'm going to make potjie tonight
then I should run into town and get some groceries.
Micki.
Yeah.
Yeah. Sounds good.
I was profiling a man who targets young black women.
He binds them, gags them, bludgeons them
and rapes them before he chokes them to death.
So far, there are 19 bodies.
19 girls left to rot face down in sugarcane fields.
And my job requires that I
I immerse myself in that guy's mind.
I feel his urges, his desire.
I look at what he's done
and I have to imagine committing those crimes.
I invite him inside me.
If I don't If I don't give myself over to it completely,
it doesn't fucking work.
Sometimes I think I even experience the same mood as him.
How fucked up is that?
Like
Like if he's anxious if the police are close, it's
It's like I feel it too.
So, now I second-guess everything.
If I'm feeling good, I wonder what the hell he's up to.
And the trouble is
..I have felt good.
That's allowed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thirsty?
Grab us a drink. Sure.
(PHONE RINGS)
Hello. Erika.
Micki. Thank God. Where the hell are you?
Uh Grabouw. Grabouw?
Are you OK?
Yeah. I just I just needed to take some time.
Listen, I had this feeling that I should call.
You think? I've left you about 100 voicemails.
Sorry, my
My phone died.
Did something happen?
We have another body. We found her yesterday.
This time, she'd only been there a day or two.
We lifted a condom from the scene.
So we have the guy's DNA.
Pieter has the lab cross-checking it
with a blood test from an old rape case.
What's your case? Oh, Louis dug it up.
It never made it to court. But get this.
The victim claimed the suspect dragged her off the street
and tried to tie her up.
The only reason she got away was
because somebody heard her cry out.
Micki.
Micki, Pieter is breathing down my neck.
He's saying if they go to a magistrate with this guy,
he wants you there to certify he fits the profile.
Micki, please can you come back today?
Are you going back?
They said they need me.
What about you?
Look, I'm not
I know you're under a lot of pressure.
But there is a cost.
Dr Pistorius. Welcome back.
What's that smell? You're cooking something.
Oh, we are getting rid of the flesh from the skulls.
Yeah, it is how it's done.
It's the only way.
So that it can be flown to Pretoria.
Sorry.
(VOMITS)
Micki. Good. You're back.
How was Wemmer Pan?
Erika said you had another case to visit.
Oh, right. Yeah, well We made a start, at least.
OK. Good, good.
We finally have an arrest warrant. Got a DNA match.
Sipho Mandler Agmatir Thwala.
OK, so 29.
Local. He's got previous.
He grew up working in the sugar fields.
Born and raised in Besters and lives there now with his mum.
It's like this guy fell directly
from the pages of your bloody profile.
Sorry, what's Besters? Squatter camp.
OK, and where's that?
Right here.
KwaMashu. Just south of the highway.
It's a short distance from Mount Edgecombe.
So, there are no
..no house numbers in Besters.
We've relied heavily on informers.
It's this one here, right? Yeah.
You can't really tell from these but that's actually an alleyway.
This here is a stream running alongside it.
His place is right between the two.
Yeah. They say it's identifiable by a red colour door.
Yeah, we're bringing the cars up to about here and there.
After that, small specialised units.
Here. An armed unit?
Yeah. The locals don't care for us, eh.
Won't that panic them?
Let's be smart about this. It's dark in about three hours.
We go when it's quiet. Fewer people on the streets.
Small teams, less panic.
I want you two in the mix, OK?
Every officer armed.
No exceptions.
(BOTTLE CAP UNSCREWS)
(TAPS LIGHTLY)
Uh, Micki.
I just wanted to say, um
..I'm really sorry for running off like that.
And for what it's worth, I
..I don't think I had much choice.
I
..lost a young detective.
This case.
Sebastian.
I know. Esther told me.
(SIGHS)
I was
..mentoring him. Smart kid man.
Sensitive.
His wife found him
..in the bath.
Sleeping-pills.
He just
..just couldn't deal with it anymore, you know.
The young girls would die a horrible, violent death
because he couldn't find this guy.
Anyway, um
..this was in his desk drawer,
so I thought I'd fill it and,
you know, later we can
Bloody scared as hell he gets away, Micki.
He won't.
Alright, everybody, come closer. Listen up.
Two teams.
As we said, the first led by myself and Superintendent de Beer.
We'll divide into Alpha and Bravo.
We'll approach separately, converge on the property.
Detain and arrest.
Second team, Micki and Erika,
wait for our signal, then approach
and help secure the property and the evidence.
I want this done smoothly and tightly.
No fuck-ups, right?
OK, then, let's get this guy. Let's go, let's go, let's go!
Hey. Will you be alright?
Guess I'll find out.
(QUIETLY) Come, come, come.
OK, team, let's go.
Let's get this guy.
(TAP ON WINDOW)
We're going in.
Anything changes, let us know.
Radio channel four.
(OVER RADIO) Bravo team following the stream, over.
Back three, back three. Go. Go. Go.
Bravo in position.
Mama! Mama! Mama!
Shh!
Good boy, go.
It was Mark.
In Grabouw that I was with.
Just needed to blow off some steam, I guess.
Do you want to talk about it?
Don't need my PhD in psychology to know something's wrong.
I upped and left you.
And you were stuck holding it all together.
I don't want to talk about it here.
Why not?
OK, for God's sake, just tell me what's going on.
OK.
How about Ibroke up with my fiance?
How about I was the one who lost the apartment?
How about in the midst of all that, I had to bury my dead mother,
my own mother, who didn't even recognise her daughter in the end?
I mean, I'm losing my mind too, Micki.
But I knew that if it got THAT bad, I would go to you.
Only, you didn't come to me.
You just
..you just let yourself spiral and took it all on yourself.
I mean, what is that?
Catholic guilt?
Look, I
I know that you're
..my boss, but
..we talk, don't we?
Yeah.
Just don't
..lose your mind again without at least giving me a warning.
OK.
Is he going to help, then?
Mark.
Yeah.
While I was there.
Then you get back and it's all still going on.
I don't know.
Being with someone, doing what we do
..do you think it's even possible?
Hmm.
You're asking the wrong person.
I don't know.
Maybe it's the only thing that makes it possible.
Bravo in position.
Visual on the suspect's premises.
Awaiting your signal, Alpha team. Over.
All teams, stand-by.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACH)
(SHOUTS)
(WOMAN SHRIEKS) (SHOUTS)
MAN: Calm down, calm down. (SHRIEKING)
MAN 2: Room clear. No sign of the suspect.
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
Back door's open.
Bro, are you in there?
(GRUNTING)
We've got visual!
I see him.
Micki. Come in, Micki.
He's heading for you. Repeat, he's heading south.
We think he's using the alleyway.
Received. Received.
Pieter.
Pieter, in which direction?
Which?
Micki!
Micki.
Justjust cover me.
(GATE CLANGS)
MAN: Police! Stop!
Stop!
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
Police, police, stay down.
Hands where I can see them. Let me see your hands.
Yeah, we have him. I think we have the suspect, over.
Get down. Don't move.
(HANDCUFFS CLINK)
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
(SIREN BLARES)
(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)
You have the right to be informed
of the charges on which you've been arrested.
You have the right to remain silent.
You have the right to be promptly informed of the consequences
should you choose not to remain silent.
Any information uttered or given freely to a police officer
can be used against you in court.
He's a good young. Kind.
I'm afraid we've been following your son for quite a while.
What we're afraid he's done
Done what?
Working the sugar fields? Providing for us?
Of course. Please, sit down.
He could have been anything he wanted
but he chooses to stay and help me.
Is it just the two of you at home?
Me, his sister.
He looks after us.
Um
Well, does he have a wife or a girlfriend, maybe?
He was too good for her anyway.
Hm.
Why do you say that?
There is nobody. Just us family.
Thank you. Someone will be in shortly.
Uh, no it's not the problem. He's back from the district surgeon.
They certified he wasn't assaulted in the arrest.
The problem is, he's not talking.
At all? Well, confirmed his name.
Other than that, all he says is, "You got the wrong guy."
We have enough evidence. No.
The DNA match we have is just basic.
It was an old sample.
Defence will make a case against it.
They're still searching the house but there's nothing.
You know this guy.
I mean, you
..know him inside.
I need an admission of guilt.
And it's not a request, it's an order.
Get me a confession, Micki.
This is Dr Micki Pistorius.
Doctor of the mind.
She's here to assess you.
You don't want to talk?
OK.
I'd like to tell you a story. Will that be OK?
It's about a young man.
And he's born with a clever mind.
Sensitive, inquisitive.
And he reads, pushes himself to learn.
But he's also stifled.
By where he's born and by everyone's low expectations of him.
He wants to be something, but he's powerless.
So, what does he do? (EXHALES SMOKE)
He makes do.
Plays their game.
Works, lives, finds someone to love.
But then that someone he loves, someone he trusts hurts him.
Deeply.
Betrays him.
And the foundations he's been building just
..evaporate.
For a man that
..that betrayal fuses all the wiring inside him.
Now he sees a young girl in the street and he feels something new.
He wants her.
Maybe in a way, he doesn't quite understand.
To have all of her.
Totally in his control.
The way he speaks to her.
Promises her work in town.
And offers to escort her there using the plantation roads.
He even suggests a short cut through the fields himself.
And it's once they're in the cane
..the sound of the leaves, the world left behind
..that something takes over.
He takes a rock.
She's on the ground unconscious.
He pulls her hands behind her
and ties them with the balls of clothing he's prepared.
Then he sits on her hand and ties her feet.
He gags her mouth with a ball of clothing.
Ties a cord around her neck.
Then he has sex with her.
Then he kills her.
For a moment, he feels right.
Only, it never lasts.
He knows
..it will just go on and on.
It was me.
I'm the man that killed them in the cane fields.
The man in your story.
And are you ready to talk to an officer?
(DOOR OPENS)
I got it.
So, you use bindings
that you, what, that you prepare earlier?
Yeah.
From?
Just anything.
Can use acloth.
Something that can rot away fast.
OK.
And then you tie up the feet and
No, it's hands first.
Always tie the hands behind like we do with sugarcane,
the same way we tie, because I used to practise every night.
Can youcan you show us?
Alright. He can demonstrate on me.
OK.
Good. Come.
Alright, alright. I think that's enough.
Sit down.
So
..they're already unconscious from the blow.
Why tie them up?
You must ask her.
Tomorrow
..you'll take us to all the places this happened.
It's over there.
That's nine for nine. Yeah.
I want this guy in the Magistrates today.
Before he has a change of heart. Mm.
I don't think he'll make things difficult for us now.
What will happen now?
You'll be moved to a jail while you await trial.
My report will say that you were well-oriented,
that you knew what you were doing.
Hm.
I saw you
before all of this.
I was watching you in the cane field looking down on you.
The prayer. The flowers.
Who is it that hurt you?
We were engaged.
She became pregnant.
I was so happy.
Then she decided she wanted more than what I could give.
She didn't want the cane field, she wanted the city.
So she killed my baby.
Every woman I pick, when I look at them, I see her.
And you really think that makes it acceptable?
The only reason that you catch me
is because I leave the body in the same place.
Because I want the families to have a peace.
I wanted to stop.
But you didn't.
There's one mistake in your story. Small.
When I gag them, I take a cloth
..first and roll it and put it inside my mouth to make a shape
..before I put it inside them.
(FOOTSTEPS RECEDE)
I should have known that.
No. I should have.
If I'd have worked it out, we could have used the saliva weeks ago.
You would have matched the DNA to the blood sample.
You would've taken him off the streets.
I should have been more focused. Micki, stop.
We did a good thing, Micki.
OK.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYS)
Hey.
I, uh
..I just wanted to say
..thanks.
Cheers. Cheers.
So, you'll be back in Pretoria now.
For good, I guess.
Yeah, but, um
..only in the morning.
(SPLUTTERS, COUGHS)
(CHUCKLES) Um
Yeah.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(PHONE RINGS)
Mark, is that you? MARK: Micki?
Hi.
I'mI'm so glad you called.
I was just thinking about you.
Is everything OK?
Yeah. Um
Well, yes.
We got the guy.
We got him.
Great. That'sthat's great.
Yeah.
Yeah. I thought, um
..maybe we could celebrate when I'm back.
I could cook.
Or something else.
Micki, I called because I was worried.
You left in such a rush, your phone wasn't connecting.
I thought you'd at least let me know when you got back. I
I'm sorry I left you.
Me too.
Uh
UmI fly tomorrow.
Could I call you then?
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
Bye, Mark.
(WAVES CRASH)
Captions by Red Bee Media (c) SBS Australia 2024