CSI: NY s04e07 Episode Script

Commuted Sentences

Fern Lazlow! NYPD! He's really dead? It's not a dream? Somebody get her some clothes.
You're under arrest.
Y You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and Sll be used against you in a court of law.
Absolutely no defensive wounds.
Placement of these knives is precise.
No other sharp force trauma.
Each knife found its mark with the first strike.
We got a name.
Your vic is Mitchell Bentley III.
Son of everybody's favorite billionaire Mitchell Bentley Junior.
They should have stopped at two.
So this is the guy who was just acquitted of attempted murder and rape in Central Park? One in the same, and get this: The vic in that case, Fern Lazlow, an ER nurse over at Queen of Mercy, was seen running from this crime scene to her apartment.
We got her in custody.
When I picked her up, she had blood on her, which I'm assuming is Bentley's, 'cause she didn't have a scratch on her.
Looks like a good, clean case of revenge.
She certainly made her point.
Gravitational blood trails.
Directionality indicates he was moving in circles.
Why not just run away? He didn't fight back, he didn't escape.
Maybe he didn't have a choice.
Let's get him back to Autopsy and see what Sid can tell us.
Maybe he can explain how Fern Lazlow, a woman half Bentley's size, stuck four knives in his back and walked away without a scratch on her.
Excuse us, folks.
Any witnesses? None.
Matt Fella, the Head of Security for the museum, found her around he came in to open up.
Discovered the body up here.
Gun was lying right next to her.
Didn't touch anything; called 911.
I checked him out, but not even a parking ticket.
Seems pretty shaken up.
Keys, phone, eyeliner, cash- 250 bucks.
Doesn't look like a robbery.
She hasn't been here long.
Maybe a few hours.
Acquire Black Card.
Five grand annual fee for that thing.
Quarter of a mil mandatory minimum spending.
Vic's name is Joanna Morgan.
Formidable Advertising Corp.
Looks like somebody wasn't buying what she was advertising, huh? Smooth outer edges, no stellate tearing, no powder burns.
S Looks like an entrance wound.
Turn her.
Oh significant amount of tearing.
Larger wound, undefined edges.
Looks like an exit wound.
We've got a through and through.
Was shot in the back and through the chest.
Downward angle.
Possible wrist fracture.
That would be consistent with being shot in the back and falling forwards.
So our shooter could have been standing right about here pointing the gun in this direction.
I got two spent shells.
We're probably looking for two rounds.
And so the bullet we're looking for should be in this area down here.
No bullet impact marks.
No indication of any rounds, even fragments of a round, anywhere in that direction.
No signs of struggle; there aren't any other injuries.
They leave the gun behind.
Kind of looks like a hit.
Then why can't we find any expended rounds? I heard of, "Leave the gun and take the cannolis, " but I never heard of, "Leave the gun, takes the bullets.
" All right, now, this is strange.
Found high concentrations of GSR on the front of Joanna Morgan's dress, which totally contradicts Hawkes' theory that she was shot in the back, and I found GSR inside the purse, which means the GSR was transferred there from the gun.
Even stranger, the only prints on the gun were hers.
It's Joanna's weapon.
So maybe the gun was fired away from the crime scene and then put in the purse.
Like maybe a test fire.
That's something a novice handling a gun would do, which would mean we're only looking for one round.
Her gun in her hands shot at close range? Maybe this is a suicide.
In the middle of the night, on the steps at the museum? No suicide note.
Hmm.
More to the point, how does an entry wound wind up looking like an exit wound? A striking visual, the sight of those knives in this young man's back.
Okay.
All of the knives penetrated deep into the torso.
They were delivered at close range with great force.
I believe this wound was inflicted first.
It devastated the postural muscles supporting the spine.
Walking would have become very difficult.
Standing up straight, virtually impossible.
Yeah.
Your killer was very lucky, or very skilled.
The postural group is difficult to penetrate.
It took a perfect shot.
Okay, so stabbing him here and here would have been easy, since he was already wounded and vulnerable.
Precisely.
And the result? Increased blood loss, lower blood pressure and acute pain.
These blades were barbed and difficult to extract.
This was the kill shot.
It cut deep.
Another perfect strike.
Transected the aorta, completely devastated the heart muscle.
He died instantly.
Why not just stab him in the heart and be done with it? I'm not sure.
But your killer has an intimate knowledge of the human anatomy.
You should be looking for someone with a medical background.
A coincidence? Bumping into a dead body, outside your apartment, who, it turns out, happens to be the same man recently acquitted of raping you? I was coming home from the hospital.
I cut through the park.
You ran right past your doorman, covered in blood.
Didn't think to ask him to call 911.
And you made no attempt to contact the police on your own.
I told you, I was upset.
But not so upset that you couldn't dispose of your bloody clothes, or take the time to try to wash away the evidence.
Come on.
I just wanted him off of me.
All right? I didn't care about anything else.
Not buying a word of it.
I know how this looks.
I have every reason in the world to want to kill him.
But as much as I would have loved to I didn't kill Mitchell Bentley.
Those are your prints.
That's from the coat you tried to dispose of.
It was found at the crime scene.
Must've got caught on the fence when I fell.
How do you explain your prints on Bentley's neck, Ms.
Lazlow? I checked his pulse there.
You said you checked his wrist.
Maybe I checked both.
"Must have, maybe, I don't know.
" Prosecutor's gonna eat you alive.
e prosecutor? Is this the same incompetent ass that let that piece of garbage walk in the first place? We're walking in circles here, gentlemen.
That's all I'm telling you until I see my attorney.
She certainly has all the answers.
When you've taken the time to plan a murder, it's very possible you've already considered all the questions.
Not one print.
Not from Fern or anyone else.
Now, I did find traces of amino methyl propanol and methacrylate on the handles of these two knives.
You can just say "hairspray.
" I can't help it.
Chemical compounds just sort of roll off my tongue.
Now, these are exact replicas of the knives we took from Bentley's body.
Watch this.
I'm thinking our killed concealed these weapons as hairsticks.
I also found epithelial cells from a female donor on the handles of these two knives.
Now, there's enough for a DNA sample.
We have no comparison sample from Fern Lazlow.
Her attorney's making us jump through hoops.
Yeah.
You can understand her distrust in the system.
Bentley raped and stabbed Fern, and then he was acquitted.
And now his murder takes away her freedom.
Well, if she is the killer, she made that choice, Stella.
She surrendered to anger instead of fighting to go on with her life.
I know, but why now? Why not two months ago? Why not six months ago? What made her snap? What are you thinking, Mac? This wasn't someone who snapped.
This was planned.
Methodical, calculated controlled- in fact, I have a theory that the method of this killing is a message.
It has something to do with Spanish Style Bullfighting.
Okay, you got my attention.
The knives were stuck into Bentley's body one at a time, methodically.
And those circular blood trails.
It's as if he's charging instead of running away.
In Spanish Bullfighting, the matador stands in the ring and he watches as the bull makes a series of passes.
He looks for the animal's strengths and weaknesses.
And when the time is right, he drives a knife into the thick muscles of the back.
This weakens the bull's muscles, lowers his bloopressure, and provokes angrier attacks.
Almost the same as rupturing the postural muscles.
During the next phase, Tercio de Banderillos, two barbed lances with decorative handles, like the ones found in Bentley's sides, are thrust into each of the bull's flanks.
The final stage, Tercio de Muerta.
The matador thrusts a sword in between the bull's shoulder blades and through the heart.
A quick, clean kill.
The planning, the pre-meditation.
Now, this was torture driven from intense hatred.
Nothing quick and clean about it.
Brushing up on your autopsy procedures? Ah, just confirming my suspicions.
Though I hate to contradict a former colleague.
Hey, no harm, no foul, Sid.
I was making a field observation.
There's a logical explanation for Danny's finding of GSR on the front of Joanna Morgan's dress being consistent with an entrance wound, and your contradictory finding of an exit wound in the same place.
The gun was fired with the barrel pressed tightly against her skin.
Rapidly expanding gases exploded out of the barrel and were forced into the space between the outer skin and the underlying tissue.
The pressure behind the gases chose the path of least resistance and pushed back out through the outer layer of skin.
Made the wound larger, more jagged and similar in appearance to aexit wound.
The black dress made GSR invisible, but how could the wound in the back appear to be an entrance wound? Ah- support behind and directly up against Joanna Morgan's skin, where the bullet exited.
That support prevented the outer skin from expanding and tearing, more like an entrance wound.
Okay, but there was nothing but concrete, glass and steel where Joanna was found.
If she was pressed up against something solid, the round would have fallen to the ground.
We didn't find it.
Maybe that support was another person.
The victim had a wrist fracture.
It was a radial dislocation.
Perhaps Joanna's wrist was bent violently back towards her by someone strong, likely a man.
If your theory's right, our shooter was standing behind her.
Find that someone, you may find your missing bullet.
Oh, uh, Sheldon, hold on.
A parting gift.
Barely digested stomach contents, ingested shortly before she died.
Judging by the way she was dressed, she wasn't dining alone, so this might help retrace her steps, find her killer- thanks, Sid.
All right, well, thank you for your help, appreciate it.
That was the last one.
I've checked every hospital in the city.
No suspicious gunshot victims.
If Sid's theory's correct, and the bullet passed through Joanna Morgan and into the shooter, why would the shooter have sought medical attention? He's afraid we'll find him.
Maybe.
But there was no blood at that scene other than Joanna Morgan's.
There's no evidence of any other gunshot anywhere in front of that museum.
All we have is Sid's theory that the shooter was standing behind and up against Joanna.
Maybe Sid's theory's wrong.
Stranger things have happened.
But if he's not, we were looking in the wrong direction.
Our search area for the bullet at the crime scene was based on Joanna being shot in the back, not the chest.
We've got to go back to the scene and look in the opposite direction.
If the shooter dodged the bullet, it still might be out there.
Specimen? He's on a cayenne pepper and lemon juice diet.
Lose 20 pounds in 20 days.
Some girl at a bar told him his baby fat was cute.
Vanity.
Thank you, Kendall.
How are we doing with the evidence? Mm the blood on the outside of the bandage was the vic's.
No surprise there.
I found trace and wear marks on the outside skin of the bandage consistent with it having been worn on the bottom of a shoe.
That makes me think the void on the adhesive side is part of a shoe tread print, but it's not one that's in our database.
People wear bandages on the soles of new shoes to keep from slipping.
Anything else? That tiny little chad that hitched a ride along the way, it being election week, there's more than a few possibilities.
I'm looking into all of them.
Good work.
What about you? Um, the fibers that Stella found on Mitchell Bentley's pants are from a black napkin.
There's three places in the area that serve black napkins, and only one of them is open late.
That place is called um Casa del Matador Grill.
Casa del Matador? Yeah.
That's where Bentley met Fern Lazlow before he attacked her last year.
That could be our connection to Spanish Bullfighting.
That's probably where he had his last meal, too.
Eat something.
They are pretty, but I dobut recognize any faces.
Does this guy ring a bell? Oh, yeah, everybody knows that bum from the news.
Hard to believe he'd come back here.
Was he with anyone? A smoking hot brunette in a red dress.
She made the reservation under Florence Nightingale.
I'm thinking fake name.
Real sharp, Larry.
How'd they pay? Cash.
She picked up the tab.
She left a nice tip considering she was so ticked off.
Ticked off at him? No.
They got along fine, but she lost something, like a contact.
Never found it, didn't want any help, refused to leave a business card in case it turned up.
Show me where they sat.
Yeah.
She was sitting right there.
He was sitting right here.
Thank you.
There's something stuck on the bottom of this chair.
Yeah? Huh.
It's pretty beat up.
Hard to tell what it is.
I will leave that up to you scientists.
Thank you very much.
Diamond mink eyelashes.
One that Flack found at Casa del Matador Grill.
Ten grand a pair.
They stick onto your real eyelashes and they stay on for, like, two weeks.
We get a DNA profile? Nothing usable, but they're not sold in many places, so, you know, I'm looking into it.
I'd just love to know who's rich enough to lose five grand worth of eyelashes and not stick around.
Someone who doesn't want to be found.
That guy look a little too interested to you? He's probably just shaken up after finding the body.
Angell said he's a boy scout.
Besides, he doesn't look like he's suffering from a gunshot wound.
All right, point the gun at me.
Definitely could have gone right through the love handles.
That's too low, wise ass.
Okay, the trajectory angle was upward, front to back, and probably Would you stop fighting me? Ready? Over the shoulder if it missed completely.
Boom.
Our ssing bullet is here somewhere.
Great.
The round pillar's gonna make it hard to figure out the exact angle of trajectory from the mark.
Think Mr.
Boy Scout over here will let me pop off a couple rounds? Hey, I got a better idea.
Go back to the car, get the first aid kit.
Okay.
It's not a Trumark double- oh-eight, but it'll do.
I can't believe you're not going to let me shoot it.
We'd be here all day.
What, did you, uh, shoot pebbles at squirrels back in Montana? No, I used to shoot boys.
Now stand back and try to keep up.
Now, adjusting for the decrease in velocity from the through and through, I'll recreate the trajectory.
This should give us a general search area.
Boom.
Ooh, and there's our three.
The through and through from Joanna Morgan has to be here somewhere.
Quite impressive.
I can't believe that contraption actually worked.
And that all three of my shots were perfect? Let's just hope this cheap piece of lead holds some valuable answers.
Hey, yo, Dennis The Menace, wait up.
The blood from the bullet we found at the museum turns out to ba mixture of Joanna Morgan's blood and the blood from an unknown male donor.
Bullet went through our perp.
So it's a through and through and through and through.
Exactly.
Now, the angle of trajectory through Joanna Morgan is into the chest, upward, and out the back.
Right, so we're looking for a suspect with a bullet hole up around his shoulder.
Ah Here you go, Ms.
Stanton.
You're not really here because I made an insurance claim on a set of diamond mink eyelashes, are you? A man named Mitchell Bentley was murdered.
What do you know about it? Everything.
It's all over the news.
We believe you were with him last night.
I was.
What was your relationship? He's a sexual predator from a rich family who bought his way out of a conviction and I'm the publisher who was going to help him sell his story.
You have a habit of having dinner with sexual predators? Only when there's money to be made.
I thought Casa del Matador was a nice touch.
He was a little uncomfortable at first, but he loosened up after a few drinks.
Things went so well, we took an after-dinner stroll.
We walked a few blocks.
I decided to catch a cab.
I left him standing at the curb very much alive.
Where'd the cab take you? To Penn Station.
From there, I took the railroad home.
Would you be willing to provide a DNA sample? Absolutely not.
Now, if you have a business card, please leave it with my secretary.
I've got a train to catch.
I'd keep an eye on this story.
I have a feeling there's a few more chapters to be written.
And we'll keep an eye on you.
You're looking at a digitally-enhanced image of the shoe print we found on the bandage.
It's been driving me crazy.
I looked at this a hundred different ways.
I finally figured it out.
It's not like anything I've seen before.
Some type of grid.
Or a map.
What kind of shoe would have a map of the subway on its sole? An Ian Burton.
It's their trademark.
This image is actual size.
You can see the lines fit perfectly into the map.
So the bandage was stuck on the bottom of one of those shoes.
We're looking for a size six, recently purchased.
An Ian Burton boutique on West urth is the only place that sells them.
I'll get a list of buyers, last couple of months.
Let's hope our killer is on that list.
Four older brothers and a detective sergeant for a father? Did your old man dust you for prints when you got home from a date? Well, if it was up to them, I wouldn't have known boys existed until I was 21.
I'm sure the boys knew you existed.
Was that a line, Flack? Did you just bust out your game on me? What? It was, wasn't it? Look at you, you're blushing.
My game.
Game? I have no game.
If I did, that's probably as good as it gets.
I think it's pretty good.
Detectives.
Oh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I? You two have been trailing me for the last couple of hours.
Now, if you are going to follow me, you may as well have a copy of my itinerary.
We've got lunch at Stangs in, oh, That might be a bit expensive on your boyfriend's salary.
The rest of the day is here- Saks, Bloomingdales I've got a meeting at 4:00 in the office.
You get the idea.
And, um, I jotted down my cell phone in case you have trouble keeping up.
Have a nice day.
That woman pisses me off.
What are you looking for? Something toelp me put her in handcuffs the next time I see her.
Not bad for a guy on a city salary.
Thank you.
Hey, Adam.
I'm comparing the DNA sample of Amber Stanton's hair, the one that Flack found in the backseat of the car, to the DNA sample recovered from the knives that Sid removed from Mitchell Bentley's back.
All right, one positive hit puts Amber in cuffs.
No match.
Amber Stanton was so coy and confident.
She wanted me to know she had something to do with Bentley's murder.
I hate to say it, but all the evidence points to Fern Lazlow.
Mac, hold up.
This receipt links our victim, Joanna Morgan, with your victim, Mitchell Bentley.
Joanna's name came up on a list of customers who recently purchased a pair of size six Ian Burtons.
Now the only question is: How did Joanna Morgan's shoes end up at Mitchell Bentley's crime scene? So what do these three women have in common? They were all victims of past sexual assault.
Amber Stanton was raped seven years ago, suspect never caught.
Joanna Morgan was raped five years ago, suspect was released on a technicality.
And then there's Fern Lazlow.
She was raped by Bentley; now he's dead.
She's our prime suspect.
Let's concentrate on the other two women.
Amber Stanton and Joanna Morgan have a lot in common.
They're both CEOs at their own companies, they're both divorced, they both live in the suburbs in big houses, they both work in Manhattan.
Yeah, but the odd thing is they don't shop in the same stores, they don't eat in the same restaurants, they, they don't call the same people.
There's not one common phone call on their cell phone records.
This is the missing piece- Joanna Morgan's killer.
We know he was wounded at the crime scene.
His identity will help us understand the connection between these two cases.
We also know that Bentley raped Fern Lazlow, and Amber Stanton was the last one to see him alive.
There is one piece of evidence still outstanding.
The chad that Kendall recovered from the glue on the bandage.
Lots of possible sources- she's ruled out absentee ballots, legacy punch card systems Let's get her to rule something in.
Dig into those case folders, see if you can find anything we missed.
I want answers.
What's so urgent, Hawkes? I thought we were done with Joanna Morgan's stomach contents.
We were.
Foodwise, the contents were unremarkable, but I did stumble upon a very aggressive foodborne bacteria.
I've never seen it before and it took me a good while to determine the source.
All right.
They're Brucellosis listerial bacteria cells.
They don't come along very often.
This bacteria is unique.
It allows itself to be ingested by healthy immune system cells called phagocytes.
Once inside the healthy cell, the bacteria steals the internal machinery of the phagocyte, causing it to mutate.
The bacteria then hitches a free ride on the phagocyte into the digestive tract, wreaking havoc on the intestines.
So Joanna Morgan had a severe case of food poisoning.
Yeah.
If she had lived, she would have become very ill, as would anyone who ate at the restaurant that night.
And would have had to seek immediate medical attention.
The hospital would have to report it to the Health Department.
Which could help lead us to that someone who had dinner with Joanna Morgan the night she died, possibly our killer.
You said the healthy cells mutated.
I did.
Human hairs can do the same thing.
They're the only tissue in the human body except for bone marrow that have such a high rate of mitotic activity.
And that high rate of cell division can cause a very small number of hairs to mutate, resulting in an altered DNA profile.
So maybe Amber Stanton's hair is one of those mutated hairs.
It's possible, which would explain why it didn't match the DNA on the knife that killed Mitchell Bentley.
This is this is quite the closet, 'cause it's bigger than most living rooms in the Bronx.
Detective Taylor better have crossed his "t's" and dotted his "i's" when he applied for this search warrant.
My lawyer's going to have a field day.
Not before we do.
Where are the shoes that were in this box? They're gone.
I threw them away.
You threw away a pair of $400 shoes? Is that against the law? Why do you bother? Mitchell Bentley was a piece of garbage.
You just don't get it, do you? It doesn't matter who the victim is; it's the killer we're after.
There's only one food poisoning outbreak that matches the bacteria you discovered in the vic's stomach contents.
It came from Kalergios Grill in Midtown.
I ran checks on the names that the Health Department sent over.
A guy named Steve Kaplan showed up in the ER at St.
Vinny's with a severe case of food poisoning.
Kaplan just made a big scene at the ER.
Demanded prescription pain killers.
For food poisoning? Must have been more than just a bad stomach.
And get this- Kaplan was acquitted of the 2004 murder of a model.
Kaplan was Joanna Morgan's target.
He's the missing piece.
He fits the profile.
A man who got away with murder.
We need your signature, Mr.
Kaplan.
So, what, you were the one who pulled me out of bed to come down here? Not bad.
We appreciate you coming down under the circumstances.
Well, hey, if this paper here is gonna help me with my lawsuit against those bastards who, uh, poisoned me, where do I sign? It's just an affidavit saying that you became ill after dining at Kalergios Grill.
Says here on your rap sheet you're right-handed, Steve.
Having some shoulder trouble? Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Don't think about it.
Don't think about it.
What do we have here? I'm sorry, did I hurt you? Pain killers aren't prescribed for food poisoning.
You know something, I like her.
Yeah, yeah, you like her, huh? You like her as much as you liked Joanna Morgan? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second.
She pulled a gun on me, buddy.
She tried to kill me.
That's self-defense.
How did you know her? I met her on the Internet.
She, uh, she couldn't get enough of me.
And then when I, uh, I saw her picture, I, uh, you know, I had to have her.
Pay attention here, lover boy, all right? How did you end up at the museum? She said she liked to have sex in dangerous places.
I mean, we, uh, made it to the top of the museum steps, and, uh, she started to shake real bad.
Then she turns around and she's got a gun in her hand.
She hesitates.
We struggle, the gun went off.
Hey, it's not what I had in mind for the evening, but like I said before- self-defense.
If it was self-defense, why did you run away and not call the police? Man, who's gonna believe a guy who just beat a murder rap? You're going to be charged with murder, Mr.
Kaplan.
It will be up to your attorneys to raise a claim of self-defense.
Well, well, well, well.
You guys do your job, and if my lawyer is on the ball, you'll be testifying in my defense.
I got to tl you, I really hope your lawyer does drop the ball.
Hey, do me a favor, get this moron out of my face.
This was stuck to the bandage you put on the bottom of your new shoes.
It's a chad that came from a Long Island Railroad ticket.
If I'm being charged with taking the railroad, I confess.
Couters are creatures of habit.
They they sit in the same car.
Even the same seat.
They see the same faces every day.
Relationships form that can last years and never leave the train.
That's where you met Joanna Morgan.
On the train.
You became close friends, so close, in fact, you even exchanged gifts.
So it must have really hurt to have to throw away those shoes, 'cause they were a gift from Joanna.
See, I found a piece of wrapping paper and her prints all over the box.
She was just like you, wasn't she? Beautiful, smart and happy on the outside.
Scarred and angry on the inside.
You both shared the pain of being victims.
The two of you were going to avenge other victims you felt were wronged by the criminal justice system.
Joanna Morgan intended to kill Steve Kaplan and leave his body on the steps of the museum for Matt Fella to find, because Steve Kaplan killed Matt Fella's fiancée and got away with it.
And Amber Stanton left Mitchell Bentley's body for you to see.
She knew you worked a double aton Thursday nights.
She also knew you cut through the park.
Mitchell Bentley stole a piece of my soul when he attacked me.
Cutting through the park was my way of telling him that he wasn't going to steal anything else.
And I was scared.
I would hold my keys right between my fingers.
You're very brave.
Why would Amber Stanton kill Bentley for me? I suspect she did it more for herself.
Your case was well publicized.
Bentley's acquittal made a lot of people very angry.
She didn't count on the fact that your instincts as a nurse would lead to circumstances that would actually incriminate you.
You don't have to say anything, Amber, that's your right.
But we have the evidence.
We matched hairs from your brush to the DNA that was on the knife that killed Mitchell Bentley, so you're going to prison.
We became instant friends, Joanna and I.
I started saving a seat for her.
Excuse me.
As time went on, our conversations grew more intimate.
She confided in me about being raped.
I confided in her.
She was wonderful.
Driven, smart.
She fit perfectly into my life.
A 45-minute-a-day friendship.
Neither of us had the time for it to be anything more.
When did the two of you decide to become judge, jury and executioner? Whenever I see a useless piece of human trash walk away without consequence, I feel violated again.
Bentley was smiling.
Kaplan was going about his life as if nothing had happened.
So you became a predator, a killer.
I think of myself as an arbiter of justice.
Stand up.
Killing out of vengeance is not justice, Ms.
Stanton.
Justice is conscience.
And when you lose that, you have nothing.

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