CSI: NY s03e16 Episode Script

They brought in the big guns.
Thought you had the night off, mac.
I do, but peyton's on call, and I'm with her.
Danny, I thought you requested an M.
E.
I did, I did.
neighbor upstairs heard a scream about an hour ago.
Thought someone might be hurt in the apartment.
Uniforms hit the door.
At first glance it looks like a bad slip and fall, but I'd love for you to confirm manner of death for me.
Am I the last one to hear about this? I guess so.
Flack knows? You got an I.
D.
On the vic? No photo I.
D.
Or driver's license, but I got a credit card.
Name is diane langston.
Put two and two together "I love you, D.
L.
" Looks like blunt force trauma.
She could've hit any number of surfaces in this bathroom.
I can't say that's what caused her death.
I mean, is there anything that would lead you to believe that this was a homicide and not an accident? No sign of a struggle.
You thinking something else? I got one razor one toothbrush, one robe, so, figuring one person lives here and there's no perfume or nail polish or any girl stuff.
Those shirts belong to a man.
They button left over right.
So I assuming the tenant's a guy.
Okay, simple answer: It's her boyfriend's apartment.
Yeah, but where is he? She comes in, strips naked, writes a love note on the mirror.
Obviously, it wasn't an evening planned for one.
And if she's not expecting him for a few hours, why is she pouring champagne for two? Other option, he was here.
Right, but where did he go? A beautiful woman plans a private party like this, you're going to have to knock me unconscious and drag me out.
I don't think diane langston is the girlfriend of the guy who lives here.
Universal key.
All right, so she breaks in, pours some champagne and takes a bath? Just like the fairy tale.
Only this goldilocks isn't sleeping.
She's dead.
Our canvass of the apartment didn't yield a single clue to the identity of our tenant.
No mail, prescription bottles or even a phone.
I rattled awake the property management company.
The apartment is leased to a D.
J.
Melvoy.
We're trying to track him down now.
I ran his name through our database to check for priors.
Got something even more interesting.
He filed a restraining order.
Let me guess - against diane langston.
Six months ago.
Go get the details.
See what else you can find out about her.
It's as I expected.
Difficult to estimate the time of death.
Her body temp is 97.
2, but the water could have kept her warm.
Blood in the water, but she didn't bleed out.
The injury to her head is superficial.
I wouldn't expect it to cause a hematoma or deatH.
But a bullet might.
Just pulled this fragment from the tub.
There's no entry or exit wound.
So how'd she die? I have no idea.
I thought you had the night off.
My dinner date dumped me for a dead body.
What have we got, flack? Our vic - emery gable.
Music mogul.
Guy signs every hot young artist with half a voice.
Only witness we got is his sister kennedy.
Their attacker was female, five foot, five, blonde hair, medium build.
That's not a very threatening description.
Was she carrying a sledge hammer? Haven't gotten all the details yet.
Ms.
Gable's in a bit of shock.
And I want to warn you, she's not very cooperative.
She reported the same intruder to the police twice before.
Each time, the detective questioned her on the phone, but there was never any follow-up.
So I'm looking into that.
Twice before? Yeah.
Sounds like the attacker was after something.
Anything stolen? Hard to tell at this point, but we're taking our best stab at an inventory.
Bled out in minutes.
Wrist was slashed with a piece of broken glass.
No hesitation marks.
There was definitely intent from the attacker.
There any story to this scar along the jaw line? Yeah, both the vic and his sister were in a car accident nine months agO.
She actually moved in here with him to recover.
It's hard to believe one woman did all this.
It happened when I tried to stop her.
She attacked us both.
How'd she get in? I I don't know.
When I arrived home from work she was already in the apartment.
And your brother was Um, on on the phone.
Calling the police? I don't know who he was talking to.
I just remember seeing her over there.
I told her to get out.
And when I attempted to throw her out, she attacked me.
This should have never happened.
That woman, whoever she is, broke into our home twice before.
And no one even bothered to come out here.
And now emery's dead, because you people didn't do anything.
I'm sorry, ms.
Gable.
We're going to find the woman who killed your brother.
Ms.
Gable what's this about? We need elimination prints - to scrape your nails.
You struggled with the attacker.
It's possible there's trace that can lead us to a suspect.
it wasn't just a scream.
She sounded shocked.
And then it was just silent.
I called 911.
We're trying to locate the tenant who lives in the apartment.
A D.
J.
Melvoy? Don't know him.
We see our neighbors all the time in the elevator, but I couldn't tell you what apartment they live in.
And, I'm embarrassed to say, I haven't bothered to learn their names.
So did you hear an argument, perhaps, or maybe some sounds of a struggle before the scream? How about a gunshot? I wasn't here.
We own a nightclub.
I left about 10:15.
When have you ever left for work at 10:15? It had to be closer to 10:45.
What about you? I'm a sound sleeper, but I bolted awake from the pain of a headache.
Too much wine last night, I guess.
Just won't go away.
I got up for aspirin, and that's when I heard the scream.
A pop.
Then again, a quieter pop.
I didn't think anything of it.
I left.
I went to dinner with some friends.
Missed all the excitement, I guess, huh? This pop-pop.
You heard it around 11:00? Like 10:15, 10:30.
Did it sound like it came from the apartment across the hall? I assumed it didn'T.
Why would you assume that? Because I knew my neighbor is out of town.
He's in boston.
So you know D.
J.
Melvoy? No.
But you just said you knew he was in boston.
No.
I said my neighbor is in boston.
D.
J.
Melvoy.
No.
Who's on first here, huh? What's the name of the guy that lives across the hall from you? What's his name? Justin mckinney.
Yeah.
there's some kind of residue on the inner surface.
Like it was burnt or something.
So far, that's all I've found on any of the crime scene glass.
There's a foreign print.
No hit in our database.
There's no match in afis, it's still a needle in a haystack.
Top priority is to find the murder weapon.
sir, I mean, it's not like I've had time to count or anything like that, but there's over 500 pieces here.
Five hundred and seven.
fatal injury is the one to the wrist - severed the ulnar and radial arteries.
I did discover something else about our victim right here on his arm.
Lesions? Kaposi's sarcoma.
Could indicate immune deficiencies.
This is from his stomach contents.
Logo's a little hard to make out.
"G-x-F " "c-3.
" It's combivir.
It's an antiviral.
Used to treat hiv.
I processed his entire apartment.
I didn't find any meds or anything else that indicates that the vic was hiv positive.
Not that surprising.
Many patients keep their meds in generic containers.
You know, in vitamin bottles, that sort of thing.
so so the vic is definitely hiv positive.
Blood work confirmed it.
He had aids.
I'll notify everybody working the case.
Toxicology results are pending.
And I've sent trace from his nails to the lab.
Adam.
I haven't found the murder weapon yet, okay? It's not as easy as it looks.
There's a lot of glass here, okay? - This is a big puzzle, and a tiny puzzle piece.
- Okay.
Okay.
You didn't come here for that? The dna results from the blood you collected off the glass.
Did it come from one donor? Well, they just posted the dna results right now, so let me check.
Let's see.
the victim: Emery gable.
Yeah.
No other donors.
It was only our vic's blood that I found on the glass.
Which is strange, because you would expect the attacker- or even his sister's- blood to be at the scene.
But then again, the water from the fish tank did a good job of compromising our evidence that he Dr.
Klein, telephone please.
Dr.
Klein.
There's a three-month window period, so we won't be able to tell you if you're hiv positive before that time.
And it could take longer.
To lower your risk of infection, we'll start you on an antiviral regimen.
Side effects can include abdominal cramping, dizziness, headache, nausea, difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite and kidney problems.
Do we know what killed goldilocks? Preliminary C.
O.
D.
: Diane langston died from a broken heart.
You going to write that in the autopsy report? It's called a cardiomyopathy.
Emotional stress causes the heart muscle to weaken.
Diane langston suffered a significant surge of epinephrine and stress hormones in the last week.
It stunned her heart.
She passed out, hit her head.
We found her in the tub.
Primarily occurs to women in, um very passionate relationships.
I'll be very careful.
So you said preliminary C.
O.
D.
What? You're not sure? Still waiting for the results back from tox, and analysis on the victim's stomach contents, and there is still one unanswered piece of evidence.
The bullet.
Her name is diane langston.
I've never seen that woman before, and I don't know how she got into my apartment.
That naked woman was found dead in your bathtub.
She didn't just get there by accident.
I mean, in fact, it was quite clear that she had something on her mind.
When did you get back from boston? Two hours ago.
Look, I'm telling you, I don't know this girl.
And if i could explain any of this, I would.
Okay, let's try another question.
"D.
J.
Melvoy" is listed on your apartment lease.
I'm subletting.
It was D.
J.
'S apartment.
He's been in europe for four months.
I need a place to stay when I'm in new york.
Do you have a gun? No.
But I do have a lawyer.
And we're done.
This is crazy.
I mean, the only guy that knows this girl- D.
J.
Melvoy- is half a world away.
Which doesn't explain why she was in his apartment, which was his, but now it isn'T.
No.
It makes perfect sense.
Remember the mirror? "I love you, D.
L.
" Diane langston.
But the "I" was smeared.
It's "D.
J.
" "I love you, D.
J.
" She thought he still lived there.
D.
J.
Melvoy got a restraining order six months ago.
Means he didn't talk to diane or see her before he sublet his apartment and took off to europe.
So she doesn't know he was in europe, and she didn't know justin mckinney was living in the apartment.
But what diane did know is she wanted to win D.
J.
Melvoy back.
So she breaks into the apartment, sets up a romantic evening Dies we're back to our original thought.
It was an accident.
See, I want to believe that, but there's three things we can't explain: Pop.
Pop.
And a bullet.
Hawkes.
Hey.
I've compared sound waves from the cd fragment to any of emery gable's clients' albums that sold over a million copies, narrowing the search to the last three years - and this is what I found.
that's from the fragment you found at the crime scene.
And now looks like you got a match.
Yeah.
becca.
"Just in time.
" That was a big hit.
There was a cd display missing from the wall.
And adam found a thick glass shard with a beveled edge consistent with a cd display case.
Any prints? One.
With a void.
Possibly from scar tissue.
When becca went double platinum, she traded in her teen-idol status for a crack pipe.
Arrested three times.
That void could be from "crack hands.
" I saw it in a lot of overdose cases.
Sometimes the glass pipe gets so hot that it burns the skin, leaving behind scar tissue.
If you're right, this becca cleaned up the broken cd because she thought it would place her at the crime scene.
She didn't think about the glass.
Right.
I'll make a call to her P.
O.
He'll know where to find her.
Great.
Thank you.
Okay.
So when was the last time you saw emery gable? I don't know.
It's been a while.
We have a witness who says someone fitting your description paid him a visit last night.
What did you do to your hand? I fell.
You here to score your next high? To see my boyfriend.
Boyfriend/dealer? We spoke to your parole officer.
He told us, if we found you here, it was to score dope.
Asked us to give him a call.
You know, a little professional courtesy.
So you going to play ball with us, or do you want me to start dialing? Okay.
I was at emery's apartment, but I didn't kill him.
You don't exactly sound broken up over it.
In case you haven't heard, my singing career is in the gutter.
I wanted emery's help getting a fresh start.
He made it pretty clear that wasn't going to happen.
I want to help you out, becca.
I really, really do.
But the drugs did too much damage.
Your voice is shot.
The answer is still no.
You're kidding me! You wouldn't be who you are without me! You built your entire career on my talent! I'm taking what's mine.
I hate you! I hate you! he was alive when I left.
Why didn't you just tell us all this up front? I thought it would look bad.
You're right.
It does look bad.
We need to take some photographs of your hands.
Let's go.
Come on come on.
well, rebecca monin had several cuts on her hands.
We can't make a move until we identify the murder weapon.
Got a hold of emery gable's financial statements.
Late payments, past-due notices, collection agencies.
This guy owed a lot of people a lot of money.
Who owns a $10 million apartment and can't pay the bills? Same guy who's got a $2 million life insurance policy on himself.
Do we know who the beneficiary is? We do - kennedy gable.
However, the money was originally set to go to emery's company, but he switched it to his sister nine months ago, after their car accident.
Sounds like motive to me.
Women's intuition counts for anything, my gut says no.
It wasn't an act.
She was devastated by his death.
But it would help explain something that's been bothering me since we left the crime scene.
The vic had glass on top of his body.
Means the glass was breaking after he went down.
Could be from the sister continuing to fight the killer.
But that's the thing: Why keep fighting? After her brother goes down, why not go to his aid? What if she had no choice? What if she had to defend herself? Well, if she did, that means the female attacker killed the brother, who's six-one, 200 pounds.
But kennedy, at five-five, So you're thinking there was no female attacker? Sister killed him? Kennedy said she fought with her, but there's no trace under her nails.
If it's not rebecca, we don't have a single print, smeared partial, nothing of this female attacker.
The water from the fish tank compromised the scene.
But what if there was nothing to compromise? The glass on top of the body could be from kennedy gable staging the scene.
Smoke and mirrors.
With her brother alive, they're bankrupt.
With emery gable dead, she's $2 million richer and set for life.
I told you, I don't know how she gets in.
She just does.
Well, there's no kicked-in doors, no picked locks, nothing.
I can't explain that.
I thought that was your job.
Or is this just another example of this city's inadequate police department? Ms.
Gable, you seem to find refuge in pointing the finger at what the police haven't done.
My brother is dead.
Are you nervous? It's just very hard.
Answering questions about last night.
Remembering all the details.
Well, I'll make this very easy for you - just one simple yes or no answer.
Does this female attacker really exist? Yes.
Prior to last night, was your home ever broken into? Yes.
Did you murder your brother? No.
her baseline runs as high as I've ever seen.
Making the test inconclusive.
You know, strangely enough, on questions regarding the murder, her signal never exceeded what it is on the control questions.
So she passed the polygraph.
She's not lying.
We have a bit of an issue with emery gable.
The funeral home sent the body back.
Why? Here's a reason.
Bruises.
Why didn't we notice that before? Couldn't have.
They were invisible until the body was embalmed.
As formaldehyde gets pumped in, it discolors damaged tissue, bringing up bruises in the process.
They look like fingernail marks.
Somebody grabbed him with a lot of force.
And I'm hoping whoever made those marks can tell us what these are.
Nothing on the murder weapon yet.
We started putting together all the burned shards, and this is what I got.
That's used for fire cupping.
Uh, along the lines of acupuncture.
A flame is used to expand the air inside of a glass cup, and then it's placed on the skin, supposedly pulling all the toxins from the body.
Explains the burn residue found on the glass.
It may also explain sid's little discovery.
It's a perfect match.
So, our victim began alternative treatments.
His desperate chase for a cure may have led to his financial ruin.
Stella.
Uh, that's right.
Uh, shouldn't be hard to track down.
I'm-I'm running with it.
You do make house calls, though? Yeah I make house calls.
When was the last time you were there, ms.
Opal? Two days ago.
Fire cupping treatment.
Does that treatment include grabbing your client and digging your nails into his arms? No.
You know, nail marks are a lot like bite marks.
The curvature can be matched back to the person that made them.
I'm thinking you might be that person.
He owed me money.
Now I'm going to need you to square up your account.
Next time, mia.
I promise.
There won't be a next time.
Wait! Wait.
Look at me.
I need your help.
I don't work for free.
You can't just turn your back on me.
Don't do that! you're taking advantage of me because you're sick, emery.
It's pathetic.
I should have helped him.
He was my friend, and that was the last thing I said to him.
Because our victim was submerged in water, the washerwoman skin prevented me from accurately determining the primary cause of death.
No broken heart? No, our victim did suffer from cardiomyopathy, which weakened her heart and made her vulnerable to an electric shock.
She was electrocuted? From the tip of her fingers right through her heart, down to her toes.
Bathwater would've made a potent conductor.
That's the electrical current's entry point.
Remember when we found the body, her arm was over her head? If we extend it at the elbow, she was clearly reaching out.
The source of shock could've been an arm's length away.
So how does diane langston get electrocuted? Does this make it an accident? That's my job and not yours - got it.
I'll get danny right on it.
two gunshots, one bullet.
Where's the other bullet? Pop.
And then again, a much quieter pop.
I left about 10:15.
I bolted awake from the pain of a headache.
How you doing, uh, mrs.
Ballard? I was wondering, by any chance, do you still have that headache? Danny, this is highly unusual.
This room is for dead bodies.
This is your autopsy room, okay? You're in charge, right? Besides, the hospital is taking too long on all the paperwork.
Please? Peyton, just trust me, all right? You are gonna be glad you were here.
You and mac are gonna be telling your grandchildren about this one.
it's a bullet.
You see? What?! This can't be happening.
Please hold still.
No major arteries hit.
Shallow penetration.
And only an entrance wound, which wouldn't have bled that much.
Uh, mrs.
Ballard, we need to get you to a hospital.
You've been shot.
What? Do you own a gun? My husband has one.
Please, sit down.
We need to get an ambulance straightaway.
You got it.
She must have showered and washed away any of the blood.
You ever seen anything like this before? No.
Okay, diane langston is a victim of a bullet that never entered her body, because russell ballard tried to kill his wife.
- Don't ever call me again.
- Come here, come here, look I'm sorry, all right? I know it's been tough.
Listen, baby.
That is a reason to get rid of your wife.
Hold it.
Hold it! Nypd! Detective 825 in pursuit of a male, black.
Northbound on broadway between one-six and one-seven street.
Coming through, coming through.
Get out of the way! You almost got away with it, ballard.
What are you talking about?! The first bullet missed - sliced through the floor.
Guess you were nervous.
The second bullet struck your wife in the head.
Must have been a shocker when you got home and she was up and around.
What are you doing? I can't sleep.
I have a terrible headache.
They found a dead girl in a tub downstairs.
I heard her scream.
But the real jolt is that she's gonna be around to testify against you.
Here we go.
Piece number one, pulled from the vic's wound.
Piece number two, found at the crime scene.
Now watch this.
What up? Found our murder weapon.
Unfortunately there's no prints.
So we're no closer to our killer.
Can't rule out the healer or the pop star.
Or the victim.
I think the answer's been staring back at us this whole time.
A victim in financial ruin, health failing, people take their own lives over less than that all the time.
Fatal wound to the wrist consistent with suicide.
But What about the damage, all right? Who did that? His sister.
Explains how she passed her polygraph.
The examiner's question was, "did you murder your brother?" She didn'T.
She found him after he killed himself.
Insurance policies don't pay out on suicide.
And kennedy must not have known her brother was hiv positive.
So she staged the scene to make it look like a murder so she could collect the money.
So that's it; we go pick her up.
No.
We go back to the crime scene, prove our case.
All right, we need evidence that kennedy gable made a suicide look like a murder.
One, she destroyed the place.
Implies intruder.
Two, she injured herself, made herself look like a victim.
And three, she described the attacker, which she cleverly established in previous reports to the police.
Something's not right.
Why commit suicide with a broken mirror? There's razors in the bathroom.
I recall seeing a knife block in the kitchen.
He could have taken pills.
Why break a mirror to commit suicide? Let's go back to our possible attacker.
Why say it's a woman, five-foot-five, medium build? If you're going to plan and stage the whole thing, wouldn't your first priority be to leave some kind of evidence of your attacker at the crime scene? Well, there was evidence of mia opal and rebecca monin in this room.
I mean, and that would explain why she described the attacker as five-foot-five, medium build.
They both fit that description.
What's her motive to implicate the two of them? Didn't matter.
All she wanted to do was cover up the fact that her brother killed himself.
But, stella, how do you premeditate someone else's suicide? Kennedy gable reported seeing an intruder in the house three weeks ago and again a week later.
How could she have possibly planned a setup for her brother's suicide? It's only plausible if he told her he was going to kill himself in three weeks.
Shattered plasma, cracked mirror broken glass on the artwork.
What's the time you see on these two police reports? Both at night.
What do you see, stella? My reflection.
Kennedy gable can I.
D.
The attacker, she just doesn't know it.
You killed emery, kennedy.
No, no, you're wrong.
But someone out there did, and you're wasting time accusing me.
You killed your brother.
You just don't know it.
I told you, I didn't do it.
She's not lying.
Her answers are concise, consistent.
She's making eye contact.
Because she believes what she's saying.
That's exactly how she passed the polygraph test.
It wasn't me.
There was a woman in our home and she did it.
You described yourself- five-foot-five, blonde hair, medium build.
That's what she looked like.
Oh, dear god get out of our house! Get out of here! Leave us alone! Kennedy kennedy, stop! What are you doing?! Get out! Kennedy, stop! Please help me get her out! Emery, help me.
get her out of here! Get out of our house! Get out of here.
Get out of our house.
Get out! We can get you some help, kennedy.
You think I'm crazy.
Mac's going for it.
Okay, you guys are going to have to explain this to me like I'm a five-year-old, 'cause I'm not getting it.
Capgras' syndrome.
Brought on by a traumatic brain injury.
Right, and kennedy gable was in a car accident nine months ago.
She misidentifies her own reflection and sometimes inanimate objects.
So she believes her reflection is actually someone else? Yeah.
It's a syndrome triggered by anxiety and stress.
You were worried about your financial situation.
Your brother lost everything you had.
If this woman was there to attack you and your brother, why didn't emery fight back? There's no evidence he tried to defend himself.
Why is that? I don't have to answer any more of these outrageous questions! I did not kill emery.
Oh, my god that's her.
That's her she she did it.
She did it.
Do something.
Oh, god, do something.
You! You killed him! You killed him, you killed my brother! You killed him! It was you! You killed my brother! My brother you did it! That's her.
Let me go! You okay? I'm all right.
I'm good here.
Stell? Yeah, yeah, I think I think I'm okay.
Hey, stella, you're bleeding.
Stella, let me take a look.
No, no, no, don't touch me.
Hawke, don't touch me.
Stella