Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) s02e23 Episode Script
A Person of Interest
The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event.
In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
I've been warning those people.
For 15 years, we were vulnerable.
Your resume says that you served with the Army Rangers in the '80s.
Who was your CO? Sorry, fellas, can't go into operational details.
I do have combat experience.
In an advisory capacity.
Suffice it to say, I'm looking for an opportunity to get back on the frontlines.
Okay.
We'll make our decision in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for meeting with us, Dan.
Okay.
I'll look forward to working with you.
Yeah.
Thanks.
My bus took forever.
You get him in bed okay? He fell asleep listening to his radio.
I left you some tuna in the fridge.
- Thanks, sweetheart.
- Thanks.
See you tomorrow.
Not if I can help it.
Dr.
Croydon, Victor's looking for you.
He found some papers you were burning in the oil furnace.
He says that's illegal.
What is he talking about? You tell him snooping through my garbage, that's illegal.
- Hey, Matson.
- Hey.
There it is.
Thanks.
Morning, Dr.
Croydon.
Don't you worry, I'll get Victor that message.
Let me just rinse up.
I thought you'd be here earlier.
Law & Order CI 2x23.
A Person of Interest Her name's Connie Matson.
Part-time home care nurse.
She was Air Force until three months ago.
We found her discharge papers.
Page two, section five.
"Special Duties: Anthrax Vaccination Program.
" - That's why I called you in.
- You did the right thing.
She was stationed just down the road at McGuire AFB.
You'd think an Air Force nurse could do better than night shift as a home care.
And here's why.
General discharge.
Two medical leaves, each less than 30 days.
Maybe drug rehab.
No.
I didn't see any track marks on her arms.
If it's drugs, it's probably amphetamines.
Go pills.
Air Force keeps them around like vitamins.
Maybe her go-go lifestyle got the best of her.
It's gel from an ice pack where the seal must have been broken.
"For use with food and medical supplies.
"Conforms to US Military specifications.
" Right down to the serial numbers.
The ice pack was traced to your dispensary.
You worked in the infirmary together.
It's even known you fraternized with her.
Right, is the Lieutenant right, Airman? Were you fraternizing with Matson? Yes, sir.
Before I was married.
Well, she didn't have any contraceptives in her apartment, no condoms, no evidence at all that she had a boyfriend.
Not even that she was pursuing a heterosexual relationship.
You were her beard? Because a young, unattached woman, gay or straight, would be harassed here.
Yes, ma'am.
/ And lately she was having a tough time in the world, and she came to you for help.
Something she could sell? Boosters for the anthrax vaccine.
She said she had a buyer for them.
Anthrax vaccinations and the yearly boosters are tightly controlled.
And someone would buy them on the black market because they'd want to stay off the radar.
And once they're vaccinated, the next step is getting the anthrax.
Could be a nut job with a roll of stamps or a terrorist with a crop duster.
I see a lot of inquiries in Matson's file about her military record.
- Hospital, medical group - Prospective employers.
Yeah.
And then there's this one, Haznostics Incorporated up on Fordham.
They made two inquiries.
"Haznostics.
" "A testing facility for environmental hazards and bioagents.
" Well, anthrax certainly qualifies.
There was no anthrax in the nurse's apartment.
But the lab found five spores on the money she gave to her Air Force buddy.
Same South African strain as the anthrax in Dr.
Stern's collection.
Dr.
Stern who says he doesn't know anything about missing anthrax.
Whoever gave the nurse the money to buy the vaccine, already has the anthrax.
Haznostics.
What position did she apply for? Nurse in our clinic.
She has experience treating exposure to bioagents.
- Does that happen here often? - No.
We do environmental testing for insurance claims, workers' comp.
But you never know.
Has any of your employees ever been vaccinated for anthrax? Anthrax isn't something we've dealt with, but I think Dr.
Croydon Dr.
Dan Croydon, our lab director.
He was vaccinated a few years ago during a posting in South Africa for the WHO.
Has he kept up with his boosters? His last one was four years ago.
He'd no longer be protected against the virus.
Unless he got boosters we didn't know about.
I see he worked at the Army bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick in the early '90s.
I like this guy.
What's this notation for? His wages are being garnished.
He fell behind in his child support.
I really like this guy now.
Is he here today? He took his son to Jones Beach.
Every morning, 7:00, Dr.
Croydon's out the door, comes back an hour later.
You ever seen him with this woman? No.
Dr.
Croydon's hit a dry spell lately, you know? You call him a doctor, but he's not a doctor.
He's a scientist.
A lab rat.
But he makes you call him "Doctor"? / Yeah.
Yeah.
I know his type.
- Goes off on people - That's him.
He even threatened to have the super arrested.
For what? Super caught him burning garbage in the furnace.
We need to check the furnace room.
Directory of government agencies.
He's highlighted a few, FBI, Homeland Security.
Could be targets.
Found one picture of his son.
Looks at least five years old.
He's an equal-opportunity deadbeat.
His wife filled out this healthcare form two months ago.
He hasn't mailed it in yet.
It's "the Great Flu Epidemic.
" The flu epidemic of 1918 killed 22 million people worldwide.
Excuse me, who are you? And what the hell is going on here? We just executed a search warrant.
A search? A search for what? Evidence of a crime.
Do you know a Connie Matson? She's a nurse.
- No.
- She applied for a job at your lab.
I don't hire the nurses, and you haven't answered my question.
What are you searching for? Well, this, for one.
You highlighted some of these agencies.
Any particular reason why? They offered me work.
You people have no idea who you're dealing with, but you'll find out.
I promise you.
Oh, speaking of unfulfilled promises, make sure you mail this.
It doesn't sound good, Dan.
Maybe we should take them up on their invitation and go and talk to them.
I know these people.
It doesn't matter what you say, they twist it around until it suits the conclusion they want.
I refuse to play their game.
I won't do it.
The lab says there was no trace of anthrax at all in his apartment.
Might just mean he's not as careless as we thought.
This is the lab report from the furnace.
They found ashes of paper products and traces of bentonite.
I give up.
What's bentonite? An anthrax dispersal agent.
It keeps it from sticking to surfaces, like the inside of an envelope, for example.
And then there's this they found in a corner of the furnace box.
It's the plastic package used for self-adhesive stamps.
Postage stamps and bentonite.
And a hit list.
Next stop is a mailbox.
We notified the Feds.
The HAZMAT people are checking mailboxes near Croydon's home and his job and along the route he takes to work.
If Dr.
Croydon has anthrax, can we say with certainty how he got it? The anthrax on the money was from a strain developed by the South Africans.
Croydon was in South Africa in the late 1990s, same time as Roger Stern.
Sounds as sure as next week's weather.
"The idea that American companies export anthrax" "to such despotic regimes as Iraq" "with the approval of our government is insane.
" "But that's what's happening now.
" "And one day these bioagents will reap terror, and we will be unprepared.
" It's a letter to the editor he wrote in 1988 when he worked for the Defense Department.
Must have made him popular with his colleagues.
Well, he got reprimanded.
His career stalled.
Now he has an ax to grind, a point to prove.
We were posted in South Africa for three years.
Dan's work was water quality.
No anthrax, far as I know.
Far as you know.
Was there a lot you didn't know? Let's just say that Dan was a disappointment and leave it at that.
You mean personally or professionally? Because he had a prestigious job with the WHO, a PhD from the Strathcona University.
Was there something wrong with his PhD? He never finished his thesis.
His problem is he never finished anything in his life.
He'd rather quit or run away.
I know the type.
You know, he neglects his child support, irresponsible, self-involved.
You know, he just needs a personal crisis to carry out his threats.
Anything like that going on in his life right now? My son said that his job interviews haven't been going very well.
Just one more thing.
I noticed a diagnostic code on your husband's medical claim for post-cancer treatment.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago.
When you were in South Africa.
I came home for treatment with my son.
But not with Dan.
He was having too much fun jetting around the world, doing important work.
When I finished chemotherapy, I filed for divorce.
The man that she described fits the profile.
A wounded idealist who's nursed his grievances for years.
Which doesn't get us any closer to an arrest warrant.
We turn up the pressure.
We drive him into our arms.
Haznostics Incorporated North Bergen, New Jersey Friday, April 25 Mr.
Carver, is it true you're looking for anthrax? We're looking for evidence in the murder of Connie Matson.
We've been told an employee of Haznostics, Dr.
Daniel Croydon, is a suspect.
Dr.
Croydon is not a suspect.
While we have no clear evidence linking him to the murder, he remains a person of interest to us.
Thank you.
I recognize that we live under the rule of law, but I have a right to due process.
They call me a person of interest, as if that entitles them to ransack my home and smear me in the press.
All without a shred of evidence.
I've prepared a handout for the press.
It contains a chronology of the government's campaign against me.
Dr.
Croydon, would you be willing to take a blood test to prove that you haven't been exposed to anthrax or recently vaccinated for anthrax? Dr.
Croydon wants to come in, but I've advised him not to.
Well, if you're afraid he's gonna incriminate himself, then we'll make it off the record.
I have no fear of incriminating myself.
Is that a yes? There are over 1,200 different strains of Bacillus anthracis.
And if your so-called experts told you they could pinpoint where this one came from, you should fire them.
No, see, they compared it to an anthrax sample which is known to have come from the South African biowarfare program.
I'm sorry, I should be discussing this with other scientists, not with you.
We're going on two motives.
The first is extortion.
The suspect needs money.
Say, because his wages are being garnished, or he's stuck in a dead-end job.
Only a mediocre mind would think that's a plausible motive.
I can't wait to hear your other theory.
Vindication.
The suspect feels victimized.
This is how he's settling the score.
That's another mediocre idea, for someone with his qualifications would find the proper forum to air his grievances.
Oh, right, like sending a letter to the editor.
When you were forced out, why didn't you raise a real stink? It was a waste of my energy.
I had a family to take care of.
Oh, right.
Nothing comes before family.
/ Right.
Maybe you just didn't feel up to taking on the government.
You know, that's another aspect of the profile.
Sometimes they compensate by pumping up their resumes.
With non-existent PhDs.
That's a clerical error.
One other aspect of the profile, passive-aggressive personality.
The kind that kills with anonymous letters.
- That's not me.
- It's in everything that you do! You neglect your child support, your medical claims No, I forgot.
- You want to be seen as the victim.
- No, I told you, I Well, you won't.
You'll be seen as the malcontent, a fake, a loser who won't even take care of the basic needs of his family.
Damn it.
I told you, I just forgot! Oh, you forgot to come home with your wife when she got cancer? She didn't have to come back to New York.
They have hospitals in South Africa.
She did it to undermine me.
You You bastard.
You bastard! Good day.
Dr.
Croydon will be a hit with the jury.
He's not ready to give it up yet.
He had a lot of fight left in him.
We stay on him.
We wear him down.
He'll break.
He'll make a mistake.
Deakins.
Yes.
Which room? Thank you.
Son of a bitch.
There's a note on the desk, but it's not signed.
He's broken now.
The ME's leaning toward a finding of suicide.
She found booze and anti-anxiety medication in Croydon's blood.
- There was a note? - Yeah.
"I tried to serve my country.
" "But now they've engaged a former member of the Army Criminal Investigation Unit" "to implicate me in an anthrax plot.
" "This man has used his badge to ruin me.
" "Thanks to him, I've lost my job, my home, my son.
" "My innocence doesn't matter to him.
" And that's where it ends.
Detective, he took the coward's way out.
His note, his anger, is directed outward at me.
But depression, suicidal depression, is anger turned inward.
He was drinking, taking pills.
He He succeeded at killing himself, but he never This guy, he never finished one thing, not even his note.
Well The anthrax booster was found, unused, this morning by Canadian customs in a knapsack on a New York-Montreal train.
There was also a small vial with less than two grams of anthrax.
They think the owner lost his nerve and got off the train before it reached the border.
It doesn't look like Croydon was the guy, after all.
We still have a homicide.
FBI has taken jurisdiction.
You guys clean up your paperwork.
I would never say anything in front of the Captain, but Everything pointed to Croydon.
You didn't listen, Bobby.
You didn't listen to what his wife said.
"Scientist Innocent Suicide note blames Detective" Admirers? Reporters.
They want a comment.
Can they print a hand gesture? You get any sleep last night? I've been trying to tie up loose ends.
Look, you know, if you don't incinerate bentonite at a very high temperature, it leaves a residue.
Now, Croydon Croydon's lab has a 2,000-degree industrial furnace.
So why did he use an oil furnace that only burns at 400 degrees? He would have known better.
I had Latent take another look at Connie Matson's cover letter to Haznostics.
Her fingerprints are under the ink, not over it.
She only handled the blank page.
Somebody else wrote the letter, printed it, mailed it.
This evidence, it's manufactured.
Croydon was set up.
Now he's dead, and, just as mysteriously, he's been cleared.
It doesn't make sense.
If somebody wanted to ruin the guy Is that what you think they wanted to do? Or this? "Innocent man driven to suicide by ruthless and incompetent detective.
" You must really like veal parmesan.
It's the fifth night in a row you've ordered it.
I just like watching you write it down.
Hello, Bobby.
I would call you Detective Goren, but given your press coverage lately, you probably want a low profile.
Keep your hands on deck.
We don't want you playing with your pistol under the table.
Nicole Wallace.
Hitchens, same as it was and always will be.
Yeah.
I thought we cleared all that up.
Your identity, your pathology.
Oh, right, your little theory.
But like many of your theories lately, wouldn't butter your parsnips.
What will they do with you, Bobby? Do you think they might find a nice tunnel for you to guard? Well, you know, there is a bright side.
I mean, you'll have more time to spend up at Carmel Ridge.
Oh, you're just hitting all the marks.
I was right about you, Nicole.
Elizabeth.
And you were wrong about me.
Just like you were wrong about Dr.
Croydon.
Read the papers, Detective.
Your insights have no currency anymore.
Is that what this is about? Do you remember what you said about Moby Dick and the unrelenting pursuit of evil? I know why you were unrelenting about Dr.
Croydon.
I know what it was about him that stuck to your hide like a harpoon.
He ran out on his poor sick wife.
Cheers, Bobby.
This was everything I'd hoped for.
Careful, your salad's wilting.
Oh, I was hoping you'd join us.
This is Robert Goren, my friend I was telling you about.
- This is my husband, Gavin Haynes.
- Oh, nice to meet you.
Elizabeth tells me you're one of New York's finest.
Oh, not these days.
So you're married to I told you, Gavin has made an honest woman and American citizen out of me.
We should give you our number, and you should join us for dinner one night.
Oh, better yet, you should jot down our license plate.
You can find us that way.
She's a remarkable woman, isn't she? Oh, gosh.
She wouldn't have dangled herself in front of me like that unless she felt completely protected.
With Gavin Haynes as her husband, she would be.
She planned this return from the minute that she disappeared.
Stern, Buzz Davis, Connie Matson Who knows how long that she knew them.
Resourceful girl like her would have held on to their numbers till she needed them.
And then there's Croydon.
The perfect background.
- The perfect personality.
- Perfect fall guy.
She framed him with planted evidence, and she killed him.
And Ms.
Matson, is she also responsible? Croydon.
She picked a man I already didn't trust, I already didn't respect.
That's how she blind-sided me.
She, uh She picked a man like my father.
She, uh She got me.
She got me good.
Then let's get her back.
That's Nicole and her French boyfriend during their killing spree in Thailand.
Well, outside of being blonde and pretty, that girl doesn't have a lot in common with Elizabeth.
You have any more recent photos? There's that.
I noticed your marriage went unnoticed.
Was that her idea, to keep it a secret? She told me that she had an ongoing dispute with the Australian tax people over a fund she ran in Melbourne.
It's actually not her dispute.
It's Elizabeth Hitchens', whose identity she stole.
She tell you about her little stint at Hudson University? She was very sorry she got dragged into an academic feud.
A feud? She was responsible for the murder of two people and killed two more in the last two weeks.
If you had one iota of evidence You don't see it, do you? We're just picking on your poor innocent wife.
I hear a familiar voice.
Sweetheart, I tried to call you at the spa.
They told me, but I was wrapped up in something.
Don't worry.
You did a good job inoculating him against the truth.
Sooner or later, she is going to turn on you.
She probably turned on people for good reason.
I don't intend to give her that reason.
But I've humored you, Detective, up till now.
But I know about all your methods.
You drove an innocent man to commit suicide.
I'm warning you, don't try it with my wife.
A week after her marriage, Hitchens got an expedited citizenship hearing before an administrative judge and pledged allegiance a week later.
Unless we prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she is, in fact, Nicole Wallace, she's out of our reach.
ME heard back from the Australians.
Nicole Wallace got vaccinated for anthrax in 1996, in Bendigo.
Apparently, that's the heartland of sheep country.
Do you have an atlas? Her last booster was over two years ago.
ME says it protects up to two to three years later.
If we could test her blood, we'd know if she handled the South African anthrax.
There's no probable cause to compel a blood test.
Six years ago, Croydon investigated an anthrax outbreak in Australia, in the state of Victoria, which happens to be where Bendigo is.
Six years ago, Croydon's wife was in New York battling breast cancer.
He would've been in Australia by himself.
They could've met.
Nicole could've found out that he ran out on his wife.
Factor in your credibility problem, Gavin Haynes.
The way he was mooning over her, he'd spend his last dime keeping her out of trouble.
She seemed to be moony over him, too, in her own way.
Question is, how far will she go to protect him? As you can see by the date, the Australians filed their extradition request two months before Ms.
Haynes' citizenship was granted.
She wasn't aware of it.
Your office just didn't perform its due diligence.
You can't revoke her citizenship, and because this concerns non-violent financial crimes, - she can't be extradited.
- That's true, but this is one of several irregularities involving the administrative judge who presided over her citizenship hearing.
Ms.
Haynes, did Judge Burbank ask you for a financial consideration? Now wait a minute! The judge paid off the mortgage on his country home two weeks after Ms.
Haynes became a citizen.
We're very curious how he did that.
Did we bribe him, is that what your question is? No.
If you'll give me a minute, I'll be right back.
You're sure you don't know about this? - I mean, if Gavin did anything - I know.
He wouldn't be so bloody reckless.
Well, he just might, Elizabeth.
He loves you.
Now, you may not be in trouble, but he would be.
Bribing a judge is serious business.
Judge Burbank? Elizabeth Haynes.
You did my citizenship hearing.
Yes, I remember, Mrs.
Haynes.
Could I have a word with you in private? This may come as a shock to you, but you're being investigated for taking bribes.
Excuse me? Where did you hear this? They suspect my husband of helping you pay off your little shack here.
I have no way of knowing if he did or not, but I will not let anything happen to him.
You name your price, whatever it is, but under no circumstance will you implicate my husband.
If I'm hearing you clearly You heard me clearly, Judge.
I'll be in touch with you tomorrow.
Love the garden.
Hello, Nicole.
If you insist on calling me that name, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ignore you.
Nicole, Elizabeth, Wallace, Hitchens, Haynes, whatever.
All of you are under arrest for attempted bribery.
Since we believe she obtained her citizenship using a false identity, she's a foreign national with no status and no right to the usual protections.
How long is that going to fly? Hopefully long enough to get probable cause to test her blood for anthrax exposure, proving once and for all that she is Nicole Wallace.
What a clever pair you are, with your phony extradition request.
And that judge, oh, he was very convincing.
I'd keep an eye on him if I were you.
He might actually be taking bribes.
You know, let's put aside Elizabeth Hitchens' crimes.
Let's talk about Nicole Wallace and her crimes.
That's the anthrax you left on the train to Montreal.
Along with the booster Connie Matson got for you before you killed her.
Where did you find her, at a bar near the Air Force base? You slept with her, is that how you gained her trust? Fire up your imagination all you want, Detectives, you won't provoke me.
And then there's Dan Croydon.
You find out where he was staying.
You invited yourself up to his room.
You commiserated with him and then suggested that he vent his outrage on paper.
You made sure he was good and drunk, and then you got him in the shower and strung him up.
All that, and she can bake a cake, too.
Really, Detectives.
Hold on.
There's a leak in the anthrax bag.
It spilled onto the table.
It's okay.
It's not weaponized.
It'll stick to the surface.
It won't float around.
I'll get a HAZMAT guy up here.
It's an emergency kit.
They give us these things in case something like this happens.
Your hands.
- You touched the table here.
- So did you.
We were vaccinated after 9l11.
There's no problem.
But you You touched your face, your mouth, and Yes, please save me.
I've been mortally contaminated with what? What is this, confectioner's sugar? - You don't believe it's anthrax.
- Fool me once, Detective.
I doubt even you would throw around bags of lethal anthrax.
Well, there's a detection kit.
It's easy to find out.
Give me your hand.
If you just wanted to hold my hand, Bobby, you really didn't have to go through such measures.
Is it everything you imagined? Don't flatter yourself.
I see in you what your other conquests don't.
Right, the famous Goren vision.
A little shortsighted lately, though, with one glaring blind spot.
Well, we all have our off days.
Just a couple of drops on this strip, and then we'll see if it's anthrax.
Did it ever occur to you how much you despised him? Who? Croydon? No.
Daddies, Bobby, the subject is daddies.
I was stunned to discover divorce decrees were matters of public record here.
While reading between the lines of your parents' divorce, I gather your daddy was quite the bon vivant.
He liked a good time.
Tell me, Bobby, when he ran out on your poor mother, it was her you blamed, wasn't it, for driving him away? Yeah.
Yes, I did.
You were 11.
You thought Daddy was fun and exciting.
Boys are supposed to look up to their daddies.
But now you worry you're too much of a chip off the old block.
Is that why you haven't married? You're afraid that maybe you'll be the model husband - that your daddy was? - No.
You remember the rules.
Tit for tat.
And what about your father? Did you ever confront him for what he did to you? Did you ever bring him to account for his abuse? You never even admitted it to yourself.
This doesn't concern me.
You've become the abuser of that sparkling little girl.
You pimp her out.
You make her sleep with men and women she doesn't want to, what, to serve your pathological needs and theirs.
Well, this will come as news to Gavin.
You know, we've fooled ourselves into thinking we're in love.
Thank God Detective Goren is here to save us.
No.
You just listen to me! Just listen to me now! My, how you hate being contradicted.
I believe that there is a part of you that loves Gavin.
The decent part of Nicole that's hidden in that bunker you call a heart.
You know, the last time you sat here, you confronted the truth.
It hurt, so you had to shoot the messenger.
Hmm? If I could be wrong about Dan Croydon, then how could I be right about you? Well, you blew it, Nicole.
Your one chance for happiness with Gavin.
One chance, and you had to come back to me? You couldn't leave well enough alone.
That's the price of denial.
Look, it's positive for anthrax.
You don't seem concerned.
Maybe you didn't hear me.
I heard.
/ You've been exposed to anthrax.
No cause for alarm, Detective.
I've been vaccinated for anthrax along with millions of my fellow Australians.
Including Nicole Wallace.
Yeah.
She was vaccinated in 1996, in Bendigo.
One year before she met Dan Croydon.
And her records show that her last booster was over two years ago.
On the other hand, there's no record that shows Elizabeth Hitchens has ever been vaccinated.
So if, in fact, you are Elizabeth, you would be alarmed.
You'd be screaming for medical help.
You might still have enough time to put on a convincing performance.
This is proof of what? Nothing.
Not quite.
It's probable cause for a blood test, which will reveal your recent exposure to the South African anthrax.
And that, Ms.
Wallace, is proof of everything.
Well, of course I've been exposed to that.
Isn't that part of your little charade? This? No, that's a different strain of anthrax.
A genetically impaired harmless strain.
You don't seriously think he'd toss about bags of lethal anthrax, do you? Don't think for one second that this is the end of us, Bobby.
When the blood test came back positive, I thought she'd jump at a plea, but she's insisting on a trial.
Sure, with Gavin Haynes footing the bill.
Well, it's your turn in the barrel now.
I'm done with her.
Here, have one.
What's this? Scones.
In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
I've been warning those people.
For 15 years, we were vulnerable.
Your resume says that you served with the Army Rangers in the '80s.
Who was your CO? Sorry, fellas, can't go into operational details.
I do have combat experience.
In an advisory capacity.
Suffice it to say, I'm looking for an opportunity to get back on the frontlines.
Okay.
We'll make our decision in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for meeting with us, Dan.
Okay.
I'll look forward to working with you.
Yeah.
Thanks.
My bus took forever.
You get him in bed okay? He fell asleep listening to his radio.
I left you some tuna in the fridge.
- Thanks, sweetheart.
- Thanks.
See you tomorrow.
Not if I can help it.
Dr.
Croydon, Victor's looking for you.
He found some papers you were burning in the oil furnace.
He says that's illegal.
What is he talking about? You tell him snooping through my garbage, that's illegal.
- Hey, Matson.
- Hey.
There it is.
Thanks.
Morning, Dr.
Croydon.
Don't you worry, I'll get Victor that message.
Let me just rinse up.
I thought you'd be here earlier.
Law & Order CI 2x23.
A Person of Interest Her name's Connie Matson.
Part-time home care nurse.
She was Air Force until three months ago.
We found her discharge papers.
Page two, section five.
"Special Duties: Anthrax Vaccination Program.
" - That's why I called you in.
- You did the right thing.
She was stationed just down the road at McGuire AFB.
You'd think an Air Force nurse could do better than night shift as a home care.
And here's why.
General discharge.
Two medical leaves, each less than 30 days.
Maybe drug rehab.
No.
I didn't see any track marks on her arms.
If it's drugs, it's probably amphetamines.
Go pills.
Air Force keeps them around like vitamins.
Maybe her go-go lifestyle got the best of her.
It's gel from an ice pack where the seal must have been broken.
"For use with food and medical supplies.
"Conforms to US Military specifications.
" Right down to the serial numbers.
The ice pack was traced to your dispensary.
You worked in the infirmary together.
It's even known you fraternized with her.
Right, is the Lieutenant right, Airman? Were you fraternizing with Matson? Yes, sir.
Before I was married.
Well, she didn't have any contraceptives in her apartment, no condoms, no evidence at all that she had a boyfriend.
Not even that she was pursuing a heterosexual relationship.
You were her beard? Because a young, unattached woman, gay or straight, would be harassed here.
Yes, ma'am.
/ And lately she was having a tough time in the world, and she came to you for help.
Something she could sell? Boosters for the anthrax vaccine.
She said she had a buyer for them.
Anthrax vaccinations and the yearly boosters are tightly controlled.
And someone would buy them on the black market because they'd want to stay off the radar.
And once they're vaccinated, the next step is getting the anthrax.
Could be a nut job with a roll of stamps or a terrorist with a crop duster.
I see a lot of inquiries in Matson's file about her military record.
- Hospital, medical group - Prospective employers.
Yeah.
And then there's this one, Haznostics Incorporated up on Fordham.
They made two inquiries.
"Haznostics.
" "A testing facility for environmental hazards and bioagents.
" Well, anthrax certainly qualifies.
There was no anthrax in the nurse's apartment.
But the lab found five spores on the money she gave to her Air Force buddy.
Same South African strain as the anthrax in Dr.
Stern's collection.
Dr.
Stern who says he doesn't know anything about missing anthrax.
Whoever gave the nurse the money to buy the vaccine, already has the anthrax.
Haznostics.
What position did she apply for? Nurse in our clinic.
She has experience treating exposure to bioagents.
- Does that happen here often? - No.
We do environmental testing for insurance claims, workers' comp.
But you never know.
Has any of your employees ever been vaccinated for anthrax? Anthrax isn't something we've dealt with, but I think Dr.
Croydon Dr.
Dan Croydon, our lab director.
He was vaccinated a few years ago during a posting in South Africa for the WHO.
Has he kept up with his boosters? His last one was four years ago.
He'd no longer be protected against the virus.
Unless he got boosters we didn't know about.
I see he worked at the Army bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick in the early '90s.
I like this guy.
What's this notation for? His wages are being garnished.
He fell behind in his child support.
I really like this guy now.
Is he here today? He took his son to Jones Beach.
Every morning, 7:00, Dr.
Croydon's out the door, comes back an hour later.
You ever seen him with this woman? No.
Dr.
Croydon's hit a dry spell lately, you know? You call him a doctor, but he's not a doctor.
He's a scientist.
A lab rat.
But he makes you call him "Doctor"? / Yeah.
Yeah.
I know his type.
- Goes off on people - That's him.
He even threatened to have the super arrested.
For what? Super caught him burning garbage in the furnace.
We need to check the furnace room.
Directory of government agencies.
He's highlighted a few, FBI, Homeland Security.
Could be targets.
Found one picture of his son.
Looks at least five years old.
He's an equal-opportunity deadbeat.
His wife filled out this healthcare form two months ago.
He hasn't mailed it in yet.
It's "the Great Flu Epidemic.
" The flu epidemic of 1918 killed 22 million people worldwide.
Excuse me, who are you? And what the hell is going on here? We just executed a search warrant.
A search? A search for what? Evidence of a crime.
Do you know a Connie Matson? She's a nurse.
- No.
- She applied for a job at your lab.
I don't hire the nurses, and you haven't answered my question.
What are you searching for? Well, this, for one.
You highlighted some of these agencies.
Any particular reason why? They offered me work.
You people have no idea who you're dealing with, but you'll find out.
I promise you.
Oh, speaking of unfulfilled promises, make sure you mail this.
It doesn't sound good, Dan.
Maybe we should take them up on their invitation and go and talk to them.
I know these people.
It doesn't matter what you say, they twist it around until it suits the conclusion they want.
I refuse to play their game.
I won't do it.
The lab says there was no trace of anthrax at all in his apartment.
Might just mean he's not as careless as we thought.
This is the lab report from the furnace.
They found ashes of paper products and traces of bentonite.
I give up.
What's bentonite? An anthrax dispersal agent.
It keeps it from sticking to surfaces, like the inside of an envelope, for example.
And then there's this they found in a corner of the furnace box.
It's the plastic package used for self-adhesive stamps.
Postage stamps and bentonite.
And a hit list.
Next stop is a mailbox.
We notified the Feds.
The HAZMAT people are checking mailboxes near Croydon's home and his job and along the route he takes to work.
If Dr.
Croydon has anthrax, can we say with certainty how he got it? The anthrax on the money was from a strain developed by the South Africans.
Croydon was in South Africa in the late 1990s, same time as Roger Stern.
Sounds as sure as next week's weather.
"The idea that American companies export anthrax" "to such despotic regimes as Iraq" "with the approval of our government is insane.
" "But that's what's happening now.
" "And one day these bioagents will reap terror, and we will be unprepared.
" It's a letter to the editor he wrote in 1988 when he worked for the Defense Department.
Must have made him popular with his colleagues.
Well, he got reprimanded.
His career stalled.
Now he has an ax to grind, a point to prove.
We were posted in South Africa for three years.
Dan's work was water quality.
No anthrax, far as I know.
Far as you know.
Was there a lot you didn't know? Let's just say that Dan was a disappointment and leave it at that.
You mean personally or professionally? Because he had a prestigious job with the WHO, a PhD from the Strathcona University.
Was there something wrong with his PhD? He never finished his thesis.
His problem is he never finished anything in his life.
He'd rather quit or run away.
I know the type.
You know, he neglects his child support, irresponsible, self-involved.
You know, he just needs a personal crisis to carry out his threats.
Anything like that going on in his life right now? My son said that his job interviews haven't been going very well.
Just one more thing.
I noticed a diagnostic code on your husband's medical claim for post-cancer treatment.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago.
When you were in South Africa.
I came home for treatment with my son.
But not with Dan.
He was having too much fun jetting around the world, doing important work.
When I finished chemotherapy, I filed for divorce.
The man that she described fits the profile.
A wounded idealist who's nursed his grievances for years.
Which doesn't get us any closer to an arrest warrant.
We turn up the pressure.
We drive him into our arms.
Haznostics Incorporated North Bergen, New Jersey Friday, April 25 Mr.
Carver, is it true you're looking for anthrax? We're looking for evidence in the murder of Connie Matson.
We've been told an employee of Haznostics, Dr.
Daniel Croydon, is a suspect.
Dr.
Croydon is not a suspect.
While we have no clear evidence linking him to the murder, he remains a person of interest to us.
Thank you.
I recognize that we live under the rule of law, but I have a right to due process.
They call me a person of interest, as if that entitles them to ransack my home and smear me in the press.
All without a shred of evidence.
I've prepared a handout for the press.
It contains a chronology of the government's campaign against me.
Dr.
Croydon, would you be willing to take a blood test to prove that you haven't been exposed to anthrax or recently vaccinated for anthrax? Dr.
Croydon wants to come in, but I've advised him not to.
Well, if you're afraid he's gonna incriminate himself, then we'll make it off the record.
I have no fear of incriminating myself.
Is that a yes? There are over 1,200 different strains of Bacillus anthracis.
And if your so-called experts told you they could pinpoint where this one came from, you should fire them.
No, see, they compared it to an anthrax sample which is known to have come from the South African biowarfare program.
I'm sorry, I should be discussing this with other scientists, not with you.
We're going on two motives.
The first is extortion.
The suspect needs money.
Say, because his wages are being garnished, or he's stuck in a dead-end job.
Only a mediocre mind would think that's a plausible motive.
I can't wait to hear your other theory.
Vindication.
The suspect feels victimized.
This is how he's settling the score.
That's another mediocre idea, for someone with his qualifications would find the proper forum to air his grievances.
Oh, right, like sending a letter to the editor.
When you were forced out, why didn't you raise a real stink? It was a waste of my energy.
I had a family to take care of.
Oh, right.
Nothing comes before family.
/ Right.
Maybe you just didn't feel up to taking on the government.
You know, that's another aspect of the profile.
Sometimes they compensate by pumping up their resumes.
With non-existent PhDs.
That's a clerical error.
One other aspect of the profile, passive-aggressive personality.
The kind that kills with anonymous letters.
- That's not me.
- It's in everything that you do! You neglect your child support, your medical claims No, I forgot.
- You want to be seen as the victim.
- No, I told you, I Well, you won't.
You'll be seen as the malcontent, a fake, a loser who won't even take care of the basic needs of his family.
Damn it.
I told you, I just forgot! Oh, you forgot to come home with your wife when she got cancer? She didn't have to come back to New York.
They have hospitals in South Africa.
She did it to undermine me.
You You bastard.
You bastard! Good day.
Dr.
Croydon will be a hit with the jury.
He's not ready to give it up yet.
He had a lot of fight left in him.
We stay on him.
We wear him down.
He'll break.
He'll make a mistake.
Deakins.
Yes.
Which room? Thank you.
Son of a bitch.
There's a note on the desk, but it's not signed.
He's broken now.
The ME's leaning toward a finding of suicide.
She found booze and anti-anxiety medication in Croydon's blood.
- There was a note? - Yeah.
"I tried to serve my country.
" "But now they've engaged a former member of the Army Criminal Investigation Unit" "to implicate me in an anthrax plot.
" "This man has used his badge to ruin me.
" "Thanks to him, I've lost my job, my home, my son.
" "My innocence doesn't matter to him.
" And that's where it ends.
Detective, he took the coward's way out.
His note, his anger, is directed outward at me.
But depression, suicidal depression, is anger turned inward.
He was drinking, taking pills.
He He succeeded at killing himself, but he never This guy, he never finished one thing, not even his note.
Well The anthrax booster was found, unused, this morning by Canadian customs in a knapsack on a New York-Montreal train.
There was also a small vial with less than two grams of anthrax.
They think the owner lost his nerve and got off the train before it reached the border.
It doesn't look like Croydon was the guy, after all.
We still have a homicide.
FBI has taken jurisdiction.
You guys clean up your paperwork.
I would never say anything in front of the Captain, but Everything pointed to Croydon.
You didn't listen, Bobby.
You didn't listen to what his wife said.
"Scientist Innocent Suicide note blames Detective" Admirers? Reporters.
They want a comment.
Can they print a hand gesture? You get any sleep last night? I've been trying to tie up loose ends.
Look, you know, if you don't incinerate bentonite at a very high temperature, it leaves a residue.
Now, Croydon Croydon's lab has a 2,000-degree industrial furnace.
So why did he use an oil furnace that only burns at 400 degrees? He would have known better.
I had Latent take another look at Connie Matson's cover letter to Haznostics.
Her fingerprints are under the ink, not over it.
She only handled the blank page.
Somebody else wrote the letter, printed it, mailed it.
This evidence, it's manufactured.
Croydon was set up.
Now he's dead, and, just as mysteriously, he's been cleared.
It doesn't make sense.
If somebody wanted to ruin the guy Is that what you think they wanted to do? Or this? "Innocent man driven to suicide by ruthless and incompetent detective.
" You must really like veal parmesan.
It's the fifth night in a row you've ordered it.
I just like watching you write it down.
Hello, Bobby.
I would call you Detective Goren, but given your press coverage lately, you probably want a low profile.
Keep your hands on deck.
We don't want you playing with your pistol under the table.
Nicole Wallace.
Hitchens, same as it was and always will be.
Yeah.
I thought we cleared all that up.
Your identity, your pathology.
Oh, right, your little theory.
But like many of your theories lately, wouldn't butter your parsnips.
What will they do with you, Bobby? Do you think they might find a nice tunnel for you to guard? Well, you know, there is a bright side.
I mean, you'll have more time to spend up at Carmel Ridge.
Oh, you're just hitting all the marks.
I was right about you, Nicole.
Elizabeth.
And you were wrong about me.
Just like you were wrong about Dr.
Croydon.
Read the papers, Detective.
Your insights have no currency anymore.
Is that what this is about? Do you remember what you said about Moby Dick and the unrelenting pursuit of evil? I know why you were unrelenting about Dr.
Croydon.
I know what it was about him that stuck to your hide like a harpoon.
He ran out on his poor sick wife.
Cheers, Bobby.
This was everything I'd hoped for.
Careful, your salad's wilting.
Oh, I was hoping you'd join us.
This is Robert Goren, my friend I was telling you about.
- This is my husband, Gavin Haynes.
- Oh, nice to meet you.
Elizabeth tells me you're one of New York's finest.
Oh, not these days.
So you're married to I told you, Gavin has made an honest woman and American citizen out of me.
We should give you our number, and you should join us for dinner one night.
Oh, better yet, you should jot down our license plate.
You can find us that way.
She's a remarkable woman, isn't she? Oh, gosh.
She wouldn't have dangled herself in front of me like that unless she felt completely protected.
With Gavin Haynes as her husband, she would be.
She planned this return from the minute that she disappeared.
Stern, Buzz Davis, Connie Matson Who knows how long that she knew them.
Resourceful girl like her would have held on to their numbers till she needed them.
And then there's Croydon.
The perfect background.
- The perfect personality.
- Perfect fall guy.
She framed him with planted evidence, and she killed him.
And Ms.
Matson, is she also responsible? Croydon.
She picked a man I already didn't trust, I already didn't respect.
That's how she blind-sided me.
She, uh She picked a man like my father.
She, uh She got me.
She got me good.
Then let's get her back.
That's Nicole and her French boyfriend during their killing spree in Thailand.
Well, outside of being blonde and pretty, that girl doesn't have a lot in common with Elizabeth.
You have any more recent photos? There's that.
I noticed your marriage went unnoticed.
Was that her idea, to keep it a secret? She told me that she had an ongoing dispute with the Australian tax people over a fund she ran in Melbourne.
It's actually not her dispute.
It's Elizabeth Hitchens', whose identity she stole.
She tell you about her little stint at Hudson University? She was very sorry she got dragged into an academic feud.
A feud? She was responsible for the murder of two people and killed two more in the last two weeks.
If you had one iota of evidence You don't see it, do you? We're just picking on your poor innocent wife.
I hear a familiar voice.
Sweetheart, I tried to call you at the spa.
They told me, but I was wrapped up in something.
Don't worry.
You did a good job inoculating him against the truth.
Sooner or later, she is going to turn on you.
She probably turned on people for good reason.
I don't intend to give her that reason.
But I've humored you, Detective, up till now.
But I know about all your methods.
You drove an innocent man to commit suicide.
I'm warning you, don't try it with my wife.
A week after her marriage, Hitchens got an expedited citizenship hearing before an administrative judge and pledged allegiance a week later.
Unless we prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she is, in fact, Nicole Wallace, she's out of our reach.
ME heard back from the Australians.
Nicole Wallace got vaccinated for anthrax in 1996, in Bendigo.
Apparently, that's the heartland of sheep country.
Do you have an atlas? Her last booster was over two years ago.
ME says it protects up to two to three years later.
If we could test her blood, we'd know if she handled the South African anthrax.
There's no probable cause to compel a blood test.
Six years ago, Croydon investigated an anthrax outbreak in Australia, in the state of Victoria, which happens to be where Bendigo is.
Six years ago, Croydon's wife was in New York battling breast cancer.
He would've been in Australia by himself.
They could've met.
Nicole could've found out that he ran out on his wife.
Factor in your credibility problem, Gavin Haynes.
The way he was mooning over her, he'd spend his last dime keeping her out of trouble.
She seemed to be moony over him, too, in her own way.
Question is, how far will she go to protect him? As you can see by the date, the Australians filed their extradition request two months before Ms.
Haynes' citizenship was granted.
She wasn't aware of it.
Your office just didn't perform its due diligence.
You can't revoke her citizenship, and because this concerns non-violent financial crimes, - she can't be extradited.
- That's true, but this is one of several irregularities involving the administrative judge who presided over her citizenship hearing.
Ms.
Haynes, did Judge Burbank ask you for a financial consideration? Now wait a minute! The judge paid off the mortgage on his country home two weeks after Ms.
Haynes became a citizen.
We're very curious how he did that.
Did we bribe him, is that what your question is? No.
If you'll give me a minute, I'll be right back.
You're sure you don't know about this? - I mean, if Gavin did anything - I know.
He wouldn't be so bloody reckless.
Well, he just might, Elizabeth.
He loves you.
Now, you may not be in trouble, but he would be.
Bribing a judge is serious business.
Judge Burbank? Elizabeth Haynes.
You did my citizenship hearing.
Yes, I remember, Mrs.
Haynes.
Could I have a word with you in private? This may come as a shock to you, but you're being investigated for taking bribes.
Excuse me? Where did you hear this? They suspect my husband of helping you pay off your little shack here.
I have no way of knowing if he did or not, but I will not let anything happen to him.
You name your price, whatever it is, but under no circumstance will you implicate my husband.
If I'm hearing you clearly You heard me clearly, Judge.
I'll be in touch with you tomorrow.
Love the garden.
Hello, Nicole.
If you insist on calling me that name, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ignore you.
Nicole, Elizabeth, Wallace, Hitchens, Haynes, whatever.
All of you are under arrest for attempted bribery.
Since we believe she obtained her citizenship using a false identity, she's a foreign national with no status and no right to the usual protections.
How long is that going to fly? Hopefully long enough to get probable cause to test her blood for anthrax exposure, proving once and for all that she is Nicole Wallace.
What a clever pair you are, with your phony extradition request.
And that judge, oh, he was very convincing.
I'd keep an eye on him if I were you.
He might actually be taking bribes.
You know, let's put aside Elizabeth Hitchens' crimes.
Let's talk about Nicole Wallace and her crimes.
That's the anthrax you left on the train to Montreal.
Along with the booster Connie Matson got for you before you killed her.
Where did you find her, at a bar near the Air Force base? You slept with her, is that how you gained her trust? Fire up your imagination all you want, Detectives, you won't provoke me.
And then there's Dan Croydon.
You find out where he was staying.
You invited yourself up to his room.
You commiserated with him and then suggested that he vent his outrage on paper.
You made sure he was good and drunk, and then you got him in the shower and strung him up.
All that, and she can bake a cake, too.
Really, Detectives.
Hold on.
There's a leak in the anthrax bag.
It spilled onto the table.
It's okay.
It's not weaponized.
It'll stick to the surface.
It won't float around.
I'll get a HAZMAT guy up here.
It's an emergency kit.
They give us these things in case something like this happens.
Your hands.
- You touched the table here.
- So did you.
We were vaccinated after 9l11.
There's no problem.
But you You touched your face, your mouth, and Yes, please save me.
I've been mortally contaminated with what? What is this, confectioner's sugar? - You don't believe it's anthrax.
- Fool me once, Detective.
I doubt even you would throw around bags of lethal anthrax.
Well, there's a detection kit.
It's easy to find out.
Give me your hand.
If you just wanted to hold my hand, Bobby, you really didn't have to go through such measures.
Is it everything you imagined? Don't flatter yourself.
I see in you what your other conquests don't.
Right, the famous Goren vision.
A little shortsighted lately, though, with one glaring blind spot.
Well, we all have our off days.
Just a couple of drops on this strip, and then we'll see if it's anthrax.
Did it ever occur to you how much you despised him? Who? Croydon? No.
Daddies, Bobby, the subject is daddies.
I was stunned to discover divorce decrees were matters of public record here.
While reading between the lines of your parents' divorce, I gather your daddy was quite the bon vivant.
He liked a good time.
Tell me, Bobby, when he ran out on your poor mother, it was her you blamed, wasn't it, for driving him away? Yeah.
Yes, I did.
You were 11.
You thought Daddy was fun and exciting.
Boys are supposed to look up to their daddies.
But now you worry you're too much of a chip off the old block.
Is that why you haven't married? You're afraid that maybe you'll be the model husband - that your daddy was? - No.
You remember the rules.
Tit for tat.
And what about your father? Did you ever confront him for what he did to you? Did you ever bring him to account for his abuse? You never even admitted it to yourself.
This doesn't concern me.
You've become the abuser of that sparkling little girl.
You pimp her out.
You make her sleep with men and women she doesn't want to, what, to serve your pathological needs and theirs.
Well, this will come as news to Gavin.
You know, we've fooled ourselves into thinking we're in love.
Thank God Detective Goren is here to save us.
No.
You just listen to me! Just listen to me now! My, how you hate being contradicted.
I believe that there is a part of you that loves Gavin.
The decent part of Nicole that's hidden in that bunker you call a heart.
You know, the last time you sat here, you confronted the truth.
It hurt, so you had to shoot the messenger.
Hmm? If I could be wrong about Dan Croydon, then how could I be right about you? Well, you blew it, Nicole.
Your one chance for happiness with Gavin.
One chance, and you had to come back to me? You couldn't leave well enough alone.
That's the price of denial.
Look, it's positive for anthrax.
You don't seem concerned.
Maybe you didn't hear me.
I heard.
/ You've been exposed to anthrax.
No cause for alarm, Detective.
I've been vaccinated for anthrax along with millions of my fellow Australians.
Including Nicole Wallace.
Yeah.
She was vaccinated in 1996, in Bendigo.
One year before she met Dan Croydon.
And her records show that her last booster was over two years ago.
On the other hand, there's no record that shows Elizabeth Hitchens has ever been vaccinated.
So if, in fact, you are Elizabeth, you would be alarmed.
You'd be screaming for medical help.
You might still have enough time to put on a convincing performance.
This is proof of what? Nothing.
Not quite.
It's probable cause for a blood test, which will reveal your recent exposure to the South African anthrax.
And that, Ms.
Wallace, is proof of everything.
Well, of course I've been exposed to that.
Isn't that part of your little charade? This? No, that's a different strain of anthrax.
A genetically impaired harmless strain.
You don't seriously think he'd toss about bags of lethal anthrax, do you? Don't think for one second that this is the end of us, Bobby.
When the blood test came back positive, I thought she'd jump at a plea, but she's insisting on a trial.
Sure, with Gavin Haynes footing the bill.
Well, it's your turn in the barrel now.
I'm done with her.
Here, have one.
What's this? Scones.