CSI: NY s04e15 Episode Script

This is New York Crime Catchers.
Tonight, the New York City Police Department is asking for your help.
Approximately six weeks ago, at 11:30 p.
m.
, Cheryl Miller was leaving a New York dance club and on her way home.
It was at this time that she was approached by a female suspect who pulled a gun and fired upon the victim, killing her instantly.
The suspect is also believed to be responsible for the murders of Judge Daniel McHenry, a resident of New Jersey, and New York representative, Congressman Philip Devane.
The suspect is a white female, five foot eight, with medium-length blond hair.
If you have any information about this case, call the New York Crime Catchers tip line at: Remember, every call is confidential.
Crime Catchers.
How can I help you? I saw her! The blond woman the police are looking for, I know where she is.
This building's been vacant for over two years.
New York Power Corp detected an abnormal usage spike from an adjacent building.
Someone's piggybacking off their neighbor's electric service.
This tip looks like the real deal.
Perimeter is locked down- we're good to go.
All right, listen up.
We'll be entering the building from a side location, here.
This will be our primary access and egress point - and I want radio silence.
Our suspect is technologically sophisticated.
Make no mistake, this woman will be armed and very dangerous.
She's a shooter- killing is nothing more than an instinct.
During our last pursuit, I saw her cut down an unarmed civilian without blinking an eye.
So she will not think twice about putting a bullet in you.
Play it smart.
Perimeter's clear.
Man, that's brutal.
Is this Suspect X? Mac, you were the only one to come face-to-face with her.
She just knocked on my door.
I I don't know who she is.
Please let me go.
Yeah.
It's her.
Hey, guys, it's gonna be another minute.
Any luck? Negative.
Hard drive's been wiped clean.
See if you can find any foreign prints.
Maybe whatever was on these laptops is something to die for.
You okay? What are you thinking? This woman was a skilled and trained assassin.
Whoever did this had to be better.
Who kills a professional killer? Your murder weapon.
Six-and-a-half-inch, black powder coated blade, sawtooth back.
This is a Navy SEAL combat knife.
Now, if only there was a game show that called for that kind of knowledge, you'd be able to retire early.
I'd miss your wit.
And your keen sense of observation- speaking of which Uh, that knife you're holding was used to inflict these stab wounds.
They're shallow.
Deliberate but nonlethal.
She endured a tremendous amount of pain.
She was also suffering from acute dehydration.
Her muscles showed signs of atrophy.
And take a look at these.
On the surface, they appear to be minor abrasions, but in fact They're bedsores.
Exactly.
Aged linear bruising.
Looks like she was bound for an extended period of time.
I was getting to that, Mac- you're stealing my thunder.
See? Her legs as well.
She struggled hard.
Now, this looks to be an injection site.
I'm waiting for tox to come back to determine if she was drugged, but I'm guessing she was held captive for a long time, tortured, and possibly drugged.
Any theories? This woman murdered people for a living; she was highly skilled; she probably trained to endure torture.
Whatever her killer was after, she didn't give it up easily.
Or give it up at all.
Anything else? I thought you'd never ask.
This may be the most perplexing thing about this case.
These metal screws were inserted during a cosmetic forehead lift.
And take a look at these, uh, healed fractures, uh, inflicted during a surgical procedure to alter the nose.
My autopsy also revealed remnants of scarring from an eye lift, genioplasty, and skin layer erosion therapy.
And all of this work was performed within the last couple of months.
Our vic was a master of disguise - maybe cosmetic surgery was another elaborate way to conceal her identity.
How are you at reverse engineering? I don't like the sound of this.
Sid, if you can rebuild her face to what it may have looked like before the surgery, it might help ID her.
Knowing who this woman is will help us find her enemies and who might have wanted her dead.
You get any prints off the laptops? Nothing usable.
Knife give us anything? Here.
Take a peek.
I found it in the handle.
A ball bearing? With minute traces of dried blood on the surface.
Looks like shrapnel from an improvised explosive device.
Soldiers wounded in action sometimes keep the shrapnel that's pulled from their bodies.
It's like a little reminder of how close they came to dying.
Get any prints off the knife? Wiped clean- but I did find some dried blood in the crevice between the hilt and the handle.
I sent both samples to DNA.
So if the owner of the knife was wounded in action, he or she would be the recipient of a Purple Heart.
Are you saying our killer could be a war hero? Hey, Linds.
Oh, Danny! They're beautiful.
Nothing says "You're special" like centrifuge tubes filled with DNA samples.
I'm not gonna live this down, am I? Forgetting my birthday? Probably not.
Where did you get these? Adam found more blood samples on the knife.
There was a piece of shrapnel hidden inside the handle.
Did you run the blood he found on the hilt? Yep.
Came back nonhuman.
I sent it to Serology for a protein analysis.
Lindsay, come on.
Uh, guys, we're not wired for remembering dates, okay? We remember sports stats and steak sides- that's our thing, all right? Steak sides? You are so busted.
Detective Monroe? Thanks.
DNA from the knife came back to a white-tailed deer, common to the forests of the northeastern United States.
Wasn't one of Suspect X's victims on a hunting trip in Jersey when he was killed? Yeah.
Judge Daniel McHenry.
And we also found evidence of a white-tailed deer infected with Lyme disease at that crime scene.
So if our new blood sample has Lyme disease, then it's possible that our murder weapon was at that same location.
Boom.
What about the blood on the shrapnel- did that come back deer or human? Human.
I'll run it through CODIS.
All right.
While you do that, I will run the blood from the knife and see if Bambi is infected with Lyme disease.
Hey, what's the rush? An old friend of mine from the Marine Corps, General Finn, provided me with a list of Navy SEALs who were recipients of the Purple Heart who were wounded in combat from IED or a car bomb.
I bet that's a pretty exclusive list.
Exclusive enough that we may have identified the owner of the knife that killed Suspect X: Russ McHenry.
Judge McHenry's son? The blood we found on the murder weapon was from a white-tailed deer that tested positive for Lyme disease.
Then we can place Russ McHenry's knife at the scene of his father's murder.
The same knife that killed Suspect X.
And the answer to the question: "Who is capable of murdering a professional killer?" A Navy SEAL with a killer motive.
Look, Detectives, I'm really busy.
I got a garage full of cars.
Why don't we skip this Interrogation 101 crap and get right to the point? You still have the Navy SEAL combat knife that was issued to you when you joined your unit? I gave it to my father to gut his deer the day he was killed.
That's the last time I saw it.
Well, it just turned up.
Stuck in the back of a dead woman's skull.
We think she's the person responsible for your father's murder.
Well, when you catch her killer, be sure to thank him for me.
Mr.
McHenry, whoever killed her was highly skilled.
This person was able to render a trained assassin helpless and then torture and murder her, presumably all by himself.
A person capable of that could have had extensive military training.
What do you think? What do I think? I'm not gonna let you stand here and accuse me of murder.
We're not accusing you.
We're trying to understand how your knife ended up at our crime scene.
You're disappointed, Detective.
I can see it in your eyes.
Come here expecting a big strong Navy SEAL killing machine.
Instead, you get half a soldier.
What I see is motive.
What do you know? More than you think.
Don't you dare pity me.
It ain't pity, Russ.
I'm just trying to figure out if you could have done it.
What, 'cause of these? trust me.
But come on.
Leaving my knife behind? That's sloppy.
If you know anything about Navy SEALs, we're not sloppy.
I'll tell you this, though.
If I would have known who killed my father, yeah, I would have done it.
Tox results came back on Suspect X.
We found traces of morphine and propofol in her system.
Veterinarians use propofol to anesthetize animals.
Lab also detected traces of Ringer's solution in her blood, which makes sense because the vic was suffering from acute hypertonicity.
A complication associated with long-term intravenous feeding.
Explains the puncture mark Sid found on Suspect X's hands.
And her bedsores and muscle atrophy.
She was in bed for a long time.
Still doesn't explain why our killer drugged her, fed her intravenously and then held her hostage over a long period of time.
It just doesn't make sense.
Actually, it does if the woman we found in the warehouse is not Suspect X.
Using the cosmetic surgery data Sid culled from the autopsy, I was able to deconstruct our victim's face coming up with a pre-surgery composite.
How do we know that's not what our hired killer looked like before the surgery? Because I ran the composite through our missing person's database, and this is what I found.
Boom.
Her name is Katie Mann.
Six weeks ago, she disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
Suspect X specifically targeted Katie Mann because she closely resembled her.
The surgery made them identical.
So she kidnaps, tortures and kills an innocent girl to fake her own death.
Yeah, means our, uh, female assassin is still alive.
But why go through all that trouble to make us believe she's dead? 'Cause every law enforcement agency in the country's looking for her.
If she dies, her homicide cases die, too.
Suddenly, she's free.
Free to kill again.
Dignitary protection is your number-one priority.
The mayor will be led on and off the stage from that stairway.
Um, as for final numbers, it's still unknown, but you can be assured tomorrow's Green rally will be one of the largest outdoor gatherings in New York history.
You two know each other? We met last year at a charity event in Gracie Mansion.
Gracie Mansion, huh? Couple months after we met, her estranged husband began stalking her.
She made a special request of the chief.
And you took care of it.
Yeah.
You know, I' never even had an old lady ask me to help her cross the street.
Magnetometers will be set up at every entryway, but that doesn't mean that anyone in this detail feels that they can relax.
You will have to be on your toes.
I want that site report and threat assessment on my desk before the puck drops tonight.
Once the Rangers hit the ice, I'm off the clock.
And that's it.
You got a lot of work to do, gentlemen.
Get to it.
Detective Don Flack, Jordan Gates, the mayor's criminal justice coordinator.
Pleasure.
Same.
It's good to see you again, Detective Taylor.
The Crime Lab back in one piece? I don't know what strings you pulled, but it seemed to happen overnight.
Well, I figured I owed you one.
The mayor, however, he didn't see it the same way.
He said, next time you want to blow up your Crime Lab, it's gonna come out of your paycheck.
What can I do for you today, Detectives? Ms.
Gates, you filed a missing persons report on your former assistant Katie Mann.
Uh, yeah, about six weeks ago.
Why? I'm afraid we have some bad news.
Last night she was found murdered in an abandoned warehouse downtown.
Oh, my God.
I'm sorry.
Katie's like a little sister to me.
She-she didn't have any family.
Jordan, I know this is difficult, but we do need to ask you a few questions.
Of course.
What can you tell me about the day Katie disappeared? Nothing out of the ordinary.
She came to work, she told me she was gonna go out that night to a club.
Uh, Random.
It's downtown.
A cosplay club, right? It's where people dress like avatars? Yeah, that's right.
She loved going there.
You know the place? Katie wasn't the killer's first victim.
A woman named Cheryl Miller was murdered a couple of months ago following a night out at that same club.
Katie say she was gonna meet anyone- boyfriend, girlfriend? No, she always went alone.
When she didn't show up for work the next day, you know, I just figured she had a late night.
And then when I didn't hear from her the following day, that's when I filed the missing persons report.
What does this place remind you of? I have no idea.
Star Wars cantina.
Right, right.
The bar Luke went to on Mos Eisley.
Absolutely.
How can I help you, Officers? How do you know this isn't a costume? Give me a break, man.
You recognize any of these women, cowboy? Yeah, they're regulars.
Haven't seen them in a while.
I think this one's name is Katie.
What about the other one? No idea.
Served her a couple times.
Didn't really say much.
Where is that coming from? I got no idea.
Someone's hacked into the system, man.
I don't know.
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Detective Taylor and I'm with the New York Crime Lab.
The NYPD needs your help tonight to bring to justice a fugitive.
What the? It's Suspect X.
She knows we're here.
She could be here.
Anyone holding a mobile device.
Detectives, the hunt for me is futile.
Why are you wasting your time chasing shadows like a nightmare that won't go away? I will continue to evolve while you and your cop friends chase their tails and mop up the blood.
I now return to your regularly scheduled party.
Danny.
She's watching us.
The call Suspect X made to Crime Catchers originated from a throwaway cell phone.
No other calls were made and it's been turned off.
What about pulling up some of the background noise from the 911 tape? That could determine where she made the call from.
Done.
No acoustic anomalies to work with.
Hey, anyone for good news? Please.
The custom-made bone screws that Sid pulled from the victim's skull were made by a company called Unlimited Titanium.
They were special ordered, coated in titanium.
A Park Avenue plastic surgeon by the name of Joseph Kirkbaum placed the order about two years ago.
Suspect X kidnapped Katie Mann to alter her face.
What would make a high-end cutter like Kirkbaum complicit in something like that? His license was revoked a year ago for malpractice.
He went into the undertaking business.
Now, get this.
Lori Hess, the woman responsible for Kirkbaum having his license pulled by the state, was found shot to death in her Florida condominium two months ago.
One round to the back of the head.
Okay, well, Kirkbaum had to be a suspect.
He was, but he had an airtight alibi.
He was in New York when she was ventilated.
But that doesn't mean he wasn't involved.
The Hess murder had all the earmarks of a contract killing.
The slug that the Miami Crime Lab found at the scene had striation marks consistent with the use of a silencer.
So Kirkbaum hires Suspect X to pull the trigger, and to repay the favor, he performs plastic surgery on Katie Mann.
Only one way to find out.
What? You look good in a vest.
What's it look like? Kirkbaum's car is parked out front.
Snooped around- doesn't look like anyone's home, but the basement door was unlocked.
You bring anything else? All-access pass.
Nice.
You guys take the downstairs, we'll hit the upstairs.
All right.
So much for sterile conditions.
Joseph Kirkbaum NYPD.
Lindsey.
You ready? NYPD! This is definitely where Kirkbaum held Katie Mann.
And where he surgically altered her appearance to make her look like Suspect X.
Lindsay.
Looks like we found our doctor.
Oh, he's dead.
TOD can't be more than eight hours ago.
What is that in his eye? It's like some sort of camera.
Danny, she's watching us.
Not anymore.
I got nothing.
Hard drive's been wiped clean.
This girl is really good at hiding her tracks.
But was Kirkbaum? I'm going to have Flack subpoena his e-mail account, his phone records, any computers he had access to over the last six months.
We've got to focus on hardware outside this location.
And if Kirkbaum hired Suspect X, he must have left an electronic footprint behind.
Hey, Danny.
Yeah.
There's high-velocity blood spatter on these coveralls.
Kirkbaum had a close contact wound to the face.
Suspect X must have been wearing these when she executed him.
Got something in one of the pockets.
It's a strange consistency.
Let's get it over to Hawkes.
Whatever it is, if Suspect X had it in her coveralls, it could explain what the hell is going on.
The bullet recovered from Kirkbaum's skull came from a.
45.
Same caliber Suspect X uses.
Once she knew we were on to her, she killed Kirkbaum to tie up any loose ends.
But why leave behind a camera in his eye? It's her way of looking over her shoulder to see how far behind we are.
Mac Don't tell me, Adam, you broke the case.
All I got to say is remember today when I put in for a raise.
Detective Flack came through with those subpoenas.
I'm going through all of Kirkbaum's electronic communications.
I've been focusing on everything to and from the good doctor leading up to and after the Lori Hess murder.
And? What you're about to see is a series of e-mails between Kirkbaum and his attorney.
It seems like Kirkbaum was angry about Hess refusing to settle out of court or drop the complaint she filed against him with the State Medical Board.
Really threatening stuff.
A few minutes after the exchange Kirkbaum received an instant message from someone using a newly created untraceable e-mail account that emanated from inside an Internet cafe in Soho.
And the message simply read: Kirkbaum didn't find Suspect X.
She found him and offered her services for a price.
Yeah.
And she found him using a recursive spider.
It's an Internet mining program that searches instant messages and e- mails for key words and phrases.
Get someone to kill end of my rope want to destroy her like she destroyed me.
smash her head in for the lies she I' kill her That's how she identifies potential clients.
And when she finds her mark, she plants a worm to compromise the computer and monitor all communications going in and out.
That way gains more intimate knowledge of the situation and times her approach based on what she's reading.
It's brilliant.
And it's it's evil, really evil.
But What are you thinking about? Fishing.
Suspect X is still out there, and if her past is any indication, she's probably looking for business.
So you want to set a trap? Adam, set up a half dozen untraceable e-mail accounts.
Develop some believable conflict scenarios between people, and start sending threatening, inflammatory messages back and forth.
If she takes the bait, we may just catch ourselves a killer.
Processed that, uh, metal based mystery liquid we found at the Kirkbaum crime scene.
XRF identified it as ferro liquid.
Ferro liquid contains magnetic particles that react to sound.
What's a liquid used to treat iron deficiencies in humans doing in Suspect X's pocket? Maybe she added it to the mixture of the IV she was feeding Katie Mann.
Impossible.
Sid did a blood workup.
Katie was suffering from a severe iron deficiency when she died.
There has to be another reason.
Hmm.
Speakers.
Speakers? Ferro liquid is also used to cool voice coils in large commercial speakers.
Technicians carry vials of it on their tool belt.
Okay, I don't see the connection.
Katie Mann.
The woman Suspect X made to look like her.
Katie was an assistant to Jordan Gates, the mayor's criminal justice coordinator.
When we spoke with Jordan, she was at the Westside Pier prepping for a Green rally tonight.
They were setting up a large speaker system when we arrived.
Sheldon, this event has been on the books for months.
I'm thinking that, before Katie was killed, Suspect X got access to information that would have allowed her to get onto the grounds and wearing these coveralls, she posed as part of the sound crew in order to stake the place out.
You think she's planning on killing someone tonight? The mayor is scheduled to make a big speech along with a lot of other politicians and dignitaries.
Anyone on that stage could be a target.
Yeah, but security is going to be on lockdown.
She'd be crazy to try to walk up in there with a gun.
What if she didn't bring it in? What if it were already there? The mayor and everyone at this event is at great risk if we allow this rally to go on.
How credible is the threat? Very.
We have evidence we believe links our suspect to this location.
Our intel indicates she's targeted this event for an assassination attempt.
Detective Taylor believes the killer may have infiltrated the support staff tasked with setting up the event.
Perhaps posing as a member of the sound crew.
We're looking into this matter as we speak.
We're concerned she may have smuggled a weapon onto the grounds and hidden it in advance of the rally.
The dog's hit on something, Flack.
Anybody got a drill? Mac, we got it.
Good work.
Make sure we lock down the perimeter.
If she's here, we can't let her get away.
Mac Thank you.
Mac, I don't know how we missed her.
We had every exit sealed off.
She left long before we shut the event down.
She's way too careful not to have been watching us.
Tell Flack I want shadow details on the mayor and everyone else on that guest list.
As long as Suspect X is still out there, there's a chance she'll finish the job or go on to the next target.
And if she's watching our every move, that means she knows how close we got to her.
And with that kind of heat, you'd think she's lay low for a while, no? This woman isn't capable of slowing down.
Killing's the only thing she knows how to do, and her inability to stop is how we're going to catch her.
I'll get busy.
Tell me you got something.
Big time.
I did what you said, and I opened up a bunch of untraceable e- mail accounts in various profiles.
One of them, I am this smoking hot a little flingy-ding with this middle-aged married guy.
And, basically, I want the wife out Adam.
Yeah.
Oh, right.
Oh.
Okay.
So I put a bunch of keywords and phrases that the recursive spider would log on to.
About a half hour ago, I got this message.
Suspect X took the bait.
úA Sergeant Williams, Sergeant Clark.
Agents Beck and Halinan.
Detective Angell.
Network is secure.
Thank you all for joining the TelePresence call.
You've all been briefed on our proposed tactical plan, so I'll jump right in here.
A meeting has been arranged between Suspect X and our undercover detective, Angell.
I just talked to Detective Flack.
He and his advance team are on site.
We're good to go.
Good.
The meet location is a bench on the north side of the plaza.
Sergeant Williams, your tactical response team will stand by at 39th Street between Broadway and Seventh, waiting for my word to move in.
Agents Beck and Halinan, your FBI surveillance team will have eyes on the outer perimeter.
Let's hope one of your people spots her, and we can take her on the way in.
That would save us an awful lot of trouble.
Detective Flack will be the ghost.
He'll be on set dressed as an employee from the Department of Parks.
I will be situated in a parking structure across the plaza.
Every member of the team will have audio capability, but all communications will come through me.
No one moves without my order.
Got movement coming in southeast.
Just say the word.
Nobody move.
It's too easy.
It's not her.
What's the note say? "Don't move.
" She sent somebody in first to make sure it wasn't a trap.
Have somebody pick up the decoy and stand by.
I got a visual.
That's her.
Uni? Who the hell is that? Where did he come from? He's not one of ours, Mac.
He's going to spook her.
Move.
Mac, I lost visual.
I got her, Flack.
Headed due south towards Seventh Avenue.
Look out.
Watch it! She's changed her clothing.
Lost the hat and scarf.
The previous description of the suspect's no good.
I got her.
Corner of 46th and Seventh.
New construction.
I'm going in.
Who are you? Anyone you want me to be Detective.
Lover.
Friend.
Fantasy.
Nightmare.
Take your pick.
Based on the amount of blood leaving your body from that hole I put in your chest, I'll go with dead.
That's not on the list.
This is all just a game, isn't it? Tell me.
What goes through your mind when you end a life? Besides playing God? You don't have much time.
Give me something.
A confession? Pulling the trigger is like taking a deep breath of fresh air.
Seeing that last little speck of life in their eyes.
Then when it fades I don't know.
I believe they're going to a better place.
Mac, you okay? I don't understand.
What does this have to do with me? Immediately following the pursuit, we were able to retrieve the suspect's client list from a PDA she had on her.
Her last target wasn't the mayor or any of the other dignitaries at the events.
It was you.
Me? Uh Well, who-who hired her? Your ex-husband.
I'm sorry.