Numb3rs s03e05 Episode Script
Traffic
That was a weird movie.
Yeah, from the reviews, I thought it was gonna be more of a comedy, huh? - I thought it was pretty good.
- Teenagers like boring movies.
You only like cartoons.
No.
I just don't like boring movies about people in love.
- Can we get ice cream? - No, we got to get home.
Oh, come on.
It's on the way.
Kind of.
Actually, Bud, it's-it's not at all.
You know? - However - You know you want to.
Oh, see, if you put it like that, then Dad! - Dad? - Oh, my God! What was that?! - Grab the wheel! - I'm trying! Dad! Dad! Look out, you're gonna hit! Look out! Oh! I got it! - Dad? - Dad? Dad! Lady luck.
Chance.
Randomness.
Human beings truly have a hard time understanding it.
Raindrops fall randomly.
Now, which of these two images best represents raindrops falling on a sidewalk? Is it image A? Image B? Okay.
You're wrong.
Our brains misperceive evenness as random, and wrongly assume that groupings are deliberate.
Because of this, people make all sorts of irrational decisions.
Like, they-they won't work in a high-rise building, or they're afraid to live in an earthquake-prone area.
And yet, a mathematical assessment tells us that you are far more likely to suffocate in bed than you are to die in a terrorist attack.
You are ten times more likely to die from alcohol than from being in an earthquake.
And it is three times more likely that you will be killed while driving to buy a lottery ticket than it is that you will that you will win the lottery.
They said he was shot.
Yeah, that's what we think.
Is there anyone who would want to harm your husband? No.
No one.
- I'm Don Eppes, FBI.
- Marla.
So, do you know who did it? Eh, not yet, but-but we're working on it.
I heard on the news there were attacks on the freeways.
- Yeah.
- That's true.
But we don't know if those incidents are related to the, uh, the attack on your husband at all.
Right, I mean, what we'd like to do if we can is just take a Excuse me.
Uh, - Mrs.
Kinkirk? - Yes.
- Your husband's stable.
- Thank God.
There are issues that need to be discussed.
All right.
We'll give you a few minutes.
We'll wait for you down here.
Oh, please stay.
- Um - I'll take these guys.
- Why don't we go hang out there, guys? - Okay.
Thank you.
Come on.
It's all right.
Your husband sustained a gunshot wound to his head.
Luckily, the bullet did not penetrate far.
It's lodged in the right occipital lobe.
Our neurosurgeon is confident that he can remove it without further damage.
So, can you guys tell me anything at all that you remember from what happened? I heard a loud crash from the back.
I turned, and Pete was scared.
- From the noise.
- Right.
- And then I saw the blood.
- And I looked where Pete was looking.
- I saw Dad was hurt.
- So, what happened then? I grabbed the wheel, and I tried to keep us from crashing.
Yeah, well, that's smart.
You know, it's good thinking.
Now, right before the shot is there anything that stood out? Any cars or anything that you might remember? I don't know.
I think maybe there was a white truck? - Okay.
- I didn't see who was driving it.
Sorry, I didn't see it.
Is-Is our dad going to be okay? Yeah.
And, you know, we're gonna do everything we can to find the guy.
We got seven freeway attacks in eight weeks.
Four people dead.
You okay? Well, you know, I just lied to those kids.
No, you made them feel a little better, Don.
It's a tough time, you know? I'm an idiot, acting like everything's gonna be normal.
Those kids need to believe that if they're gonna make it through.
Come on, Dave.
Their lives are never gonna be the same.
There's no indication of enemies, financial or marital troubles.
Witness testimony and tips came up empty.
All right, so what have we got here? We got seven attacks in two months.
What do you think, Megan, serial? Uh, if so, it's atypical.
All the MOs are different.
Yeah, the previous attacks we had a wrist rocket, thrown rock, brick, tire iron, golf club, and then a rifle shot.
Now we're looking at a hand gun from close range.
Victims don't fit a profile, either.
Yeah, it's rich, poor, Asian, Latino, whites, across the spectrum.
You know, maybe instead of one sociopath, we have a bunch of copycats.
Maybe there's no pattern at all.
That's what I just said, Charlie.
There's no pattern.
A single assailant, or a bunch of copycats both imply a pattern.
No.
What I'm suggesting here is, these groupings of shootings might, you know, very well be random.
- Seven completely unrelated attacks? - Sure.
Consider this.
An MP3 player has a random shuffle function, right? It uses an algorithm to create a random order to play the songs.
But, when people listen to their random shuffle mode, they do perceive patterns.
That's just pure coincidence.
People swear their MP3 players like to play certain songs.
I know, mine has a thing for ZZ Top.
Right, right.
And that's exactly it; that human beings perceive patterns where there just aren't any.
All right, look, you know, until we know different, then we're gonna pursue these as individual crimes, all right? - Hey.
- Hey, Larry, do you have a minute? Yes, I have the eight and a half minutes it takes me to walk to my office.
Now, if we need more time, I guess we could choose a longer route, maybe stop and contemplate the turtle pond.
Or we could just keep talking at your office.
Yeah, it's not as scenic, but sure.
You know, I'm finding it a little strange, uh, being a professor after being a student for so long.
Oh.
We have all been there, my young friend.
I mean, I feel like I should be going to lectures, not giving them.
You know, I run into former teachers every day who act like nothing's changed.
That's why, you know, people usually leave the school where they earn their doctorate and go off and teach elsewhere.
But, what, CalSci made you an offer you couldn't refuse? I don't know.
Maybe I would have been better off on the East Coast.
No, no, no, no.
Come on, this is not about geography.
Listen, you yourself must embrace this new role.
'Cause only then will others be able to see you differently.
Wow.
Larry, even for you, that was profound.
I guess you just caught me when the caffeine was kicking in.
Come on.
I get the concept of random clusters, I do, but road rage is associated with certain factors, none of which are present in any of these cases.
Wait.
When you say factors, you mean, like, what, like weather? Yeah, and bad traffic, and racial conflicts, and accidents.
Stuff that makes people tense and angry.
All right, so, it's not a typical streak.
No, and there's something else; the youngest boy, Pete, said he thought he saw a white pickup truck.
Now he thinks he saw the same truck drive by his house that morning.
What? A white pickup truck? I mean, they're all over the place.
He says both had a bobble-headed hula dancer on the dashboard.
Yeah? What do you think? I think he's nine, and he's been traumatized, and he's searching, but it opens up the possibility that Jeff Kinkirk was stalked, you know? That he's not a random victim.
All right.
Well, look, play both sides.
I mean, get a list of white pickup trucks from the DMV and-and work it with the guys.
What's the other side? Well, the wife said she didn't think the husband had any enemies, but, I mean, maybe she was hiding something from us.
Okay.
I took out the garbage, helped Pete with his homework.
Everything's good at home.
Hey.
How's he doing? They got the bullet out.
Now we just have to wait.
Did you find the white truck? Not yet, Pete, but, I mean, we got a lot of people working on it.
Guys, I need to speak to your mom for a minute.
Is that okay? Your son Pete thinks he saw a white pickup truck the day of the shooting.
Now it's possible that that same truck was near your house that day.
- Someone was following Jeff? - Yeah.
Any reason for that? No.
I-I can't think of anything.
Does your husband have any problems at work, or with neighbors, anything at all? No, there's nothing.
Anyone want to hurt you? - Me? - Yeah.
Not that I know of.
Marla, somebody tried to kill your husband, and, I mean, you have no idea about who or why? It doesn't make sense.
I mean, it could be something minor.
Just even a-a fight over a parking space.
That's just it.
You have to understand Jeff.
He'd let someone else have the parking space.
If he has a flaw, it's that he tries too hard to be nice.
Okay.
All right, that's-that's all I need.
Come on.
That's all right.
Thought we were looking for a white truck.
I've checked 177 so far.
I'm just also checking some other factors.
Looking at traffic, weather, employment, time of day, day of the week.
Looking for a pattern in a series of random events? Oh, dear, Professor Eppes wouldn't approve.
Okay, but here's the thing.
None of these attacks can be linked to the typical causes of freeway violence like bad traffic and hot weather.
- Gang shootings.
- Seven random freeway attacks, and not one of them fits a profile of a random freeway attack? Yeah, I see what you're saying.
At least some should have typical causes.
All we have are invisible assailants and no motives.
Yeah, I mean, is it possible for something to be too random to be random? - I'm sorry, too random? - Yeah.
Too ran Uh, something can be a little random.
Something can be very random.
But, no.
No, no, not, not too random.
Why? Well, we're just kind of assuming that all these freeway attacks are a series of random events, but not one of them can be linked to the typical causes of freeway violence.
You mean, like road rage, I mean, stuff like that? Yeah, actually.
70% of all traffic assaults stem from arguments between drivers, especially if one or the other has something called Intermittent Explosive Disorder.
Oh, we used to call that having a screw loose.
My dad had that screw loose, but, uh, explosive rage can be a little more serious.
People can erupt into violent anger for seemingly no reason.
- I see what you're saying.
- Okay.
You're saying that in this particular string, there are none of the typical causes.
Mm-hmm, and what are the odds of that? I would say that they're not very good.
What if there's a pattern that you're just not able to detect? Hidden variable theory.
The idea that, that nothing in this world is ever really random, that there is some influence or some force that we can't detect.
Isn't it, like, weird that none of these attacks are typical? Not one? Weird, yeah.
Unlikely, yeah.
Impossible, no.
How's it going? White pickups checked: One thousand three hundred and seven.
Only about 162,000 left to go.
Oh, just think of the sense of accomplishment you'll have when you're done.
Right.
How you doing? Looking for connections between people, you always find more than you expect, you know.
Yeah, most of it doesn't mean anything, though.
Two victims wore the same brand of jeans, went to the same college.
I got one I want to take a look at.
These two victims used the same car wash? I want to get a list of employees, see if anybody has a record.
All right, I'll check with the local cops.
Victims number two and number five, Henry Rains and Cece Smith.
They're both patrons of the Valley Car Wash.
Now, Rains got into a yelling match with one of the workers there.
Two weeks later, he's killed by a rifle shot.
What was the fight about? He accused the worker of taking money out of his car, started getting loud with him, so the car wash manager had to call the cops, but Rains split before they got there.
- So who did he accuse? - Calvin Oates.
Five years ago, he's thrown out of a bar.
Comes back, fires a handgun out the front window from a moving car.
Car wash have links to any of the other victims? Still working on it.
All right, it's thin, but go pick him up.
Manager special today.
$11.
95.
Wax, underbody, tire dressing.
What air-freshener? We let the FBI garage take care of all that, thank you.
Hey, we're looking for Calvin Oates.
Oh, man, I just had this suit cleaned.
Hey, you, back up! Back up! Give me the bat, give me the bat.
Thank you.
Next time, leave it to the professionals.
You're fired.
Come on.
Dude said I stole his money.
He started screaming, coming at me.
I didn't do nothing.
When the manager called the cops, he split.
- So why'd you run? - Stupid.
- Yeah.
- When cops show up, I get lost.
I didn't think they'd bother to chase me 'cause I didn't do anything wrong.
Well, that guy must have made you furious.
He called you a thief in front of your boss and your co-workers.
Don't start the psych crap.
I've been in anger management therapy for three years.
I know when someone's pushing my buttons.
You got a lot of buttons, huh? That therapy was court-mandated as a condition of your parole.
Yes, and believe me, I am now the poster boy for anger management.
That must be one ugly poster.
Yeah, time cards show him at work when Rains was shot, so - You don't think he's the guy.
- Either there isn't a guy And it's seven unrelated incidents.
or, if it's one guy, he's definitely a lot smarter than this dude.
Hey.
All right.
- We just got another one.
- Well, there you go.
Victim was a 28-year-old computer tech.
She died instantly.
The killer had to lug this cinder block up to the top of the tunnel entrance, time the drop to hit a car, and avoid being seen by witnesses.
That took work and planning.
I doubt it was vandals or some crime of impulse.
You think she was targeted or just unlucky? I think she never knew what hit her.
Hey.
Pythagorean theorem, law of cosines, metrics.
- Equivalence principle.
- Back to basics.
You know, I spent the weekend at Politzer's and he completely disassembled my 11-D supergravity theory.
So here I am in ten dimensions with two pea-brain solutions, electrically and magnetically charged respectively to the C-field You still sleeping in your office? Yeah, sleeping, living.
Cuts down on the morning commute.
- You must find a new place to live.
- No.
- You can't live out of your office.
- No, I'm not going to be out there choosing wall colors and toaster ovens.
Look, I just want to be thinking about gravity.
How do you expect to have company over? - What company? Who? - Oh, I don't know.
Who, I may- who, what, M-Megan, maybe? Oh, oh, oh, listen.
If you propose to start discussing my love life, then I'm gonna find yours to be fair game.
Ah, point, point.
Point to Professor Fleinhardt.
Hey, so, speaking of Megan, she comes by the house the other day, wants to know if a sequence can be too random.
- It's funny.
- I just fail to see the humor in this.
Too random, you know, as in excessively random.
Yeah, I'm, I'm following you.
I will now ask you a series of questions and I would like you to answer simply in the affirmative or the negative.
- Okay.
- This discussion of randomness.
Was it somehow related to the freeway attacks? - Yes.
- Okay, might she be concerned that all of the attacks have different MOs? - Yeah, but - And given seven random attacks, - all with different meth - Eight now.
Okay, eight random attacks, all with different methods.
I mean, might not she just find the improbability of all this just a little bit disconcerting? Larry, you know, I can, I can roll a pair of dice eight times and never get the same result twice, and that would still fall within the realm of random.
Yeah but something that doesn't repeat is not by definition random.
- Shuffle mode.
- Hmm? Shuffle mode.
Why am I such an idiot? I think I've found new attacks.
- These are insurance claims? - Mm-hmm.
There's damage reports of objects striking cars.
- Smart angle.
- I have my moments, I think.
I was trying to find related incidents that didn't result in any bodily injury.
Objects used include a rock, a large slab of marble, a lead weight, a steel pipe.
- No injuries, so no police report.
- Exactly.
- Megan.
- Hey.
- I am so sorry.
- What's the matter? You were right, I was wrong.
- About the freeway attacks? - Yeah.
- Remember shuffle mode? - Yeah, the patterns that aren't there.
Controlled by an algorithm that creates a random order for the songs, but the order isn't really random because the algorithm won't ever repeat a song.
Just like the freeway attacks don't repeat.
That's what I was saying! So these attacks could be the act of one person Who's trying to make them look random.
Thank you.
Let me show you something.
All right, here are five new incidents.
Five? I-I didn't hear about that on the news.
Oh, these cases haven't been included before now.
- Megan just found them.
- All right, now, let's look at them chronologically with the others.
That's a fairly regular pattern, showing increasing frequency.
Thank you.
Okay, I'm going to call this one.
I am 99% sure.
The varied methods are an attempt to avoid any discernible pattern Which is in itself a pattern.
Yes, but what the perpetrator can't hide is the intensity of his need.
The compulsion is growing, so the time between acts is getting shorter and shorter.
Classic serial killer.
We're looking at one guy.
You guys, check this out.
Just found that five of the 13 victims were involved in serious injury accidents over the course of the last two years.
Oh, yeah? Think that means anything? No, I'm not sure if that would hold true for any similar group or not.
Maybe call a CHP accident specialist.
- And the department of insurance.
- Five of 13- that's less than half, man.
Yeah, I don't know if it's just coincidence or not.
Well, let's find out.
So, Professor, you think it's safe to drive, huh? Even with this crazy person out there attacking cars? People get killed in car accidents every day.
It's not like you worry about that when you get on the road.
Uh-huh, speak for yourself.
Look, if you're worried about the freeway killer, you know, take the bus.
The bus does not go everywhere.
In case you missed it, we live in Los Angeles, the city of the car.
You know, people in L.
A.
spend That's four full days of waiting for the car in front of you to move.
I'm getting road rage just thinking about it.
But, seriously, you are twice as likely to hit a royal flush on your first hand of poker than you are of being a victim of this freeway attacker.
Yeah, but I'm not afraid of hitting a royal flush.
I'll still be around to play the next hand.
You want me to behave irrationally and tell you that, yes, I would prefer if my only living parent stayed off the roads until we catch this guy, okay? There, I said it.
You happy? No! I have to drive to Culver City.
My mall project.
I I don't know why I let you do this to me.
- I should see it coming.
- Yeah, but you never do.
Hey, look who's awake.
Hi.
Honey, this is the FBI agent I told you about.
Anything new? Well, what we're working with is that in five of the attacks, the victims have been involved in a serious car accident.
So we're checking on the others, but, uh no? Jeff hasn't had so much as a speeding ticket since we were married.
No, I you know, I'm careful.
I worry about the kids.
A couple years ago, I saw this bad accident where this little boy was hurt.
It was terrible.
- Yeah, you say you saw this? - Yeah.
An SUV ran through this light and smacked a sedan.
I tried to help out at the scene.
I gave a statement to the police.
Jeff Kinkirk was the only witness to an accident that left a six-year-old boy badly injured.
Now, Kinkirk says he saw the boy's father run a red light.
Father said he didn't.
But both insurance companies went with Kinkirk's account.
Well, a lot of people witness accidents.
Yeah, but they don't all end up with gunshot wounds to the head.
It's such a strange motive for a series of attacks.
Yes, it is, because serial attacks generally have a sado-sexual component to them.
The assailant needs to see the victim suffer.
But not this guy.
He wants to inflict serious damage, but he's happy to do it from a distance.
And he's not that intent on killing every victim.
So how would the profile break down? Likely male, and meticulous and educated.
History of road rage, problems with anger.
Might have difficulty holding a job.
He identifies with the victims.
He feels a sense of injustice.
He's probably a victim of a violent crime himself.
Or someone close to him is.
Well, we could get a list of major injury accidents and cross-check them against the victims.
Yeah, we'll let Charlie run whatever we come up with, and get a suspect list going.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, anything will help.
What do we have, five million drivers in L.
A.
County? The optimization algorithm can be translated into software.
You know what? I think Amita has it.
But there's stuff in here we can use.
I mean, how's it going with Amita? Huh? Oh, good, good.
No, yeah, she's- I mean, we're both pretty busy right now.
- You know, she's a professor now.
- Yeah.
- It's always tough, huh? - What's always tough? The whole thing, you know? It's just tough.
- How you doing with Robin? - Yeah, well, it is what it is.
Yeah.
I know you don't like to talk about who you're seeing.
Hey, Charlie, if I have anything worthwhile to say, believe me, you'd be at the top of my list.
You know who else doesn't like to talk about his love life? Your boy Larry.
- What do you know? - I know Megan thinks he's beautiful.
Beautiful? What does he say? It's difficult to decipher through all the, you know, the cosmological metaphors.
But he does really seem to really like her, you know? Hey, here we go, I found it.
All right.
Okay.
Before we run Amita's program, I need to draw up some parameters, because there's a component we're neglecting.
- What's that? - Traffic.
I mean, this guy's been attacking people in broad daylight, on busy roads, running the risk of being seen.
- Right.
No witnesses.
- So he must be planning carefully.
- He probably plans escape routes.
- Yeah, possibly.
All right, so if we can look at the traffic patterns in the vicinity of the attacks, that'll give us a chance to guess at those escape routes, which will give us a more general idea of where he goes afterward.
Right, 'cause he'd definitely want to avoid traffic in each instance, right? Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Now, traffic flows just like any other, you know, dynamic fluid flow in a closed system.
You know, it's like the water in your house.
Water flows due to pressure and release.
What is the optimum length and width of the pipe? What are the number of branches? How many release points are there? I mean, it's a little more complicated for traffic, but partial differential equations can help us calculate the optimum number of lanes, on- and off-ramps, signal synchronization.
And-and I can use data from road sensors, traffic cameras and satellite imagery.
I mean, hell, I can even factor in the street light algorithms used by the D.
O.
T.
This is fairly high-level math.
All right, so ten out of 13 have been involved in some sort of serious injury accident.
Six are directly involved.
There's a lawyer for an insurance company, two accident witnesses and a tow truck driver.
And we're still trying to connect the last three.
Yeah, unfortunately, this guy works to a schedule, and, you know, he's due now.
Oh, look! It's CalSci's live-in cosmologist.
Listen, don't laugh.
I think that couch of mine has finally fused my vertebrae.
What's going on, Larry? Is there something you want to talk about? No.
I find any discussion of my inner feelings to be potentially catastrophic.
It's like a star- burns up all of its own fuel and then finally collapses in on top of itself.
Well, I was just trying to be supportive here, Larry, not destroy a solar system.
- Who needs a caffeine fix? - Hey, you know what Renyi said? He said a mathematician is a machine that turns coffee into theorems.
Hmm.
Thank you for getting on this so fast.
Hey, I don't want to be shot or struck by a brick while driving any more than the next person.
You know, I guess there's nothing to be done about meteors- well, just yet.
No, Larry, even the FBI can't stop meteors.
No, not yet, but someday.
We'll have plasma cannons, steam rockets.
Anything interesting? Well, I loaded the data into the modeling software.
It should produce a clear graphic of the flow of traffic after the attacks.
- Look, I'll put it up on the LCD.
- Great.
Also, I compressed time, so that Hmm.
And what's this? It's a traffic anomaly- a street adjacent to the freeway.
Pull it up.
Huh.
Look at that flow.
Optimized in one direction, all the cross streets are backing up.
Pull up another one.
Yeah, there it is again, wow.
And this timecode is telling us that this is after the shooting attack.
Yeah, it's like someone opened up an escape valve for traffic coming off the freeway.
It's more like an escape route.
Come an, get out of the way.
Get out of the way, lady.
Ma'am? Ma'am, roll down your window.
Kathryn Krager.
She's 46 years old, she has two teenage children.
She works for the City of Bellhaven.
- Notify the family? - CHP's at the house now, actually.
All right, we got to see if she fits the traffic accident scenario, right? This is the second gunshot wound at close range.
That's new.
All the other ones were different forms of attack.
What? Different guy? No, I think it's the same guy, he's just not afraid to repeat himself now.
- Yeah, he thinks we can't catch him.
- Hm-mm And he might be right.
Come on, you know we can get this guy.
All right, if you say so.
And how about the next one on deck? What's going on with you? Nothing.
No record the victim was ever in a traffic accident.
That was Krager's boss- city manager for Bellhaven.
He said that two years ago, a neighborhood submitted a petition for a light at a blind intersection, and Krager was in charge of overseeing the traffic budget.
And she turned down the petition.
So she wasn't actually involved in an accident herself.
Somebody might blame her for causing one.
All right.
So an accident happened six months after Krager denied a request to have a traffic light put at this intersection.
Three people in two vehicles.
One person survived: Brennon Sommers.
His wife, the driver of the other vehicle died at the scene.
And Sommers suffered a head injury.
Anger and impulse control problems.
He's lost his job, he's living on disability.
He's been arrested twice since the accident, although the charges were dropped both times.
Well, I can see where he might blame Krager for not putting in the stoplight, right? Yeah, but she wasn't the first victim.
I mean, why kill other people first? Well, maybe his first victim set him off some other way, and then once he got going, he went back for Krager.
Brennon Sommers! Put your hands up and walk over this way.
What is this about? Put your hands up and walk over this way.
Get your hands up! Turn around right now! What?! What?! I was an architect.
And now I- I can't concentrate.
I can't read for more than a minute at a time.
And that's Kathryn Krager's fault? Who?! Who is that?! Oh, I think you know.
I mean, you wrote a letter to the L.
A.
Times, because Bellhaven wouldn't put in a traffic light.
She was behind the decision.
I blamed the city, yeah, but I-I-I never knew who made the decision.
And you do get into a lot of fights.
Maybe because people don't treat you fairly? No, because I have anger and impulse problems.
You see, it comes with the frontal lobe damage.
I'm trying to deal with it.
- By seeking out people who hurt you? - No! Nothing like that! I'm in group therapy, that's all.
I used to be a nice, easy-going guy.
Hard to believe, huh? Doctor says he couldn't lift a cinder block or fire a weapon accurately.
We found no firearms, or evidence at his house - linked to any of the crimes.
- Yeah, he's close but not out guy.
- Close? What do you mean? - Someone like him, you know.
More capable or angrier.
Hey, you guys.
Charlie's got something he wants show us.
All right.
Hey, Chuck, what do you got? Hey, I've got probable escape routes, gathered straight from traffic data.
Now, these reb routes have the highest level of probability.
Yellow routes, next highest.
- Blue routes, least likely.
- Okay, good.
Why don't you guys go check them out.
You know, see if you can find a witness, - right? - All right.
Here you go.
Field trip, I love it.
You drive, I'll navigate.
I remember it was the day of the shooting, You know, I had just heard the report on the radio.
Couple minutes later, this truck blows by.
What made you notice the truck, was it speeding? No, that's not unusual.
No, it was that, uh, I see this pick-up, you know, coming up fast, and then the light goes red.
- Wait a minute, did you say pick-up? - Yeah, yeah, white pick-up truck.
Eh, the light's red, like I said, and he doesn't slow down.
So I figure he's gonna run it and then it goes green again.
After only a couple seconds.
- You're sure about that? - It's my job to watch the light.
Can you describe the truck, maybe you got a look at the driver.
Mmm.
Late-model, American make I think.
White, like I said.
I couldn't see the driver, though.
It was just a white dude with sunglasses.
Okay.
Anything else? Maybe there was, uh, something on the dash possibly? Well, there was, now that you mention it.
Uh, I couldn't see what it was, though.
All right, thank you.
Infamous white pick-up.
Sounds like the one Jeff Kinkirk's son said he saw just before he watched his father get shot.
Crossing guard's story about that light changing You thinking what I'm thinking? Yeah, that our killer somehow figured out how to tamper with the lights.
Yeah.
- Hey, you.
- Hello.
Yeah, aren't you supposed to be at the string theory symposium at USC? Now how do you know I'm not there? - One of those kind of days, is it? - Oh, well, aren't they all.
- Larry, is everything all right? - Everything? Well, I'm not sure that I can account for the state of all matter, but You know exactly what I'm talking about.
Stop trying to Fleinhardt your way around answering me.
What is it exactly that you want to know? If sleeping in your office and missing an event important to your field of study constitutes something that I need to, be concerned about.
Well, as I previously explained.
I'm sleeping in my office because I don't wish the distraction of finding and furnishing a residence.
Fine.
Fair enough.
And the symposium? I'm hoping to be unavailable due to a pressing social engagement.
You're choosing dinner with Megan over string theory.
The two are not incompatible.
- But thank you.
- For what? For looking after me.
It's so good to know that if I ever stray from the rational plane, you will be there to accost me.
Thanks, you know I need- Any- Anytime.
Hello? Oh, this modern age.
We think the freeway killer uses a device like this.
It emits a pulse of infrared light, causes traffic lights to change.
They're legal only for emergency vehicles.
All right, well, that explains how he's getting through traffic then.
Disrupting lights should leave a record in the system, times and places.
There's cameras all over Los Angeles, on buildings, and intersections, at ATM machines.
Okay, so we can check the locations and the times - against the web cam logs.
- Use them to get a photo.
What do you think are the chances of that though? More cameras, better odds.
- What do you say guys? - Hey.
All right, so here's what we got.
We been through hundreds of web cams at intersections indicated by Charlie's analysis of traffic light disruptions.
We got this.
Traffic web cam from La Brea and the 10 freeway, at 15 minutes after attack number 9.
Three seconds before he drove through that light, it was hit with an infrared pulse.
No license visible.
No way to identify the truck or the driver.
And this, what's this? Uh, that's some sort of decal.
Pulling together a lot of string.
That the crossing guard witness saw the killer- That the guy in this photo is the one who changed the light.
Well, maybe you're right.
I mean, maybe that's our guy.
We're getting something.
I'll flip it around and print it out.
Does that say H-T-S-U.
Head Trauma Survivors United.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
Brennon Sommers, the guy we suspected.
I think he's part of their Northridge chapter.
There's something on the bottom of the decal that's not quite legible.
Well, it could be Northridge.
Now that would not be random chance.
So far we have eight current and former members that we can link to freeway attack victims.
I ran the members through the DMV.
Two have white pick-ups.
One's a The other is Mitchell MacKenzie, MacKenzie was in a motorcycle accident a year ago.
He suffered a head trauma.
Two months after he joined the support group, the freeway attacks started.
Well, that must be it, right? That must be how he's choosing, - is through the support group.
- His accident was a hit-and-run.
So he's got no target for all the rage.
He could be acting on behalf of the other victims.
That's not the kind of support anybody expected.
Mitchell's close to many people in the group.
It's common for trauma victims to feel like nobody understands what they've been through except other victims.
Dr.
Brewer, do you discuss the freeway attacks in your group? It's come up in meetings.
- I remember I made a note about it.
- What was your note? Mitchell talks a lot at meetings, has an opinion on everything.
But on the topic of the freeway attacks, he's been quiet.
Thank you.
Excuse me.
- Eppes.
- Don, I think MacKenzie could be the guy.
We just got a hit on his credit card.
A gas station in Long Beach.
So I got David Colby and LAPD on their way.
Come on, man.
Come on! Get out of the way! Get the hell out of the way! - Get your hands on the wheel! - You! Just wait! - Get your hands on the wheel! - I'm coming out, right now.
- Put them on the wheel.
- Don't shoot! I get to talk! - I'm only trying to do what's right! - Hey! Innocent people hurt and killed! And those responsible just walk away! Somebody has to pay.
That's all I do.
I make things right.
I make things right.
What are you sitting in the dark for? Just thinking.
Thank God you caught that guy, huh? Five deaths, six people injured.
And tomorrow I got 12 new cases.
Hey, you had a lot of tough ones lately.
Maybe you should think of taking some time off.
Yeah, don't I wish.
Donny, it's not good for you to get this way.
Ah, Dad, what are you talking about? This is the way I am.
- No, no, listen to me, Donny - Look, it's just, you know, sometimes Hello.
Hey, Don, glad you're here.
I found something interesting that I want you to look at.
Oh, yeah, what's that? You know how I thought that all the freeway attacks were a random series? Yeah.
They weren't.
They weren't.
Because, yeah, MacKenzie was behind all of them, but he didn't actually start the sequence.
- What are you talking about? - A hit-and-run driver started the sequence when he hit MacKenzie.
The head injury that MacKenzie sustained left him unable to control his impulses, control his rage Oh, come on, Charlie, the man is still responsible for his actions.
Yeah, of course.
Except that the guy that hit MacKenzie was never apprehended.
He totally got away with it.
- Is this his accident report? - Yeah.
Megan called the CHP for me, and I just I-I thought it was something you might want to look at.
Yeah, I think I see where you're headed.
What? The guy's tire treads, paint and metal.
Yeah, there's tons of information.
I mean, I can help you with this.
- You know.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, Charlie, this is good.
Yeah, this is There's enough information.
- You got a pen? - Yeah.
- We can narrow down the suspect list.
- Definitely, definitely.
Yeah, from the reviews, I thought it was gonna be more of a comedy, huh? - I thought it was pretty good.
- Teenagers like boring movies.
You only like cartoons.
No.
I just don't like boring movies about people in love.
- Can we get ice cream? - No, we got to get home.
Oh, come on.
It's on the way.
Kind of.
Actually, Bud, it's-it's not at all.
You know? - However - You know you want to.
Oh, see, if you put it like that, then Dad! - Dad? - Oh, my God! What was that?! - Grab the wheel! - I'm trying! Dad! Dad! Look out, you're gonna hit! Look out! Oh! I got it! - Dad? - Dad? Dad! Lady luck.
Chance.
Randomness.
Human beings truly have a hard time understanding it.
Raindrops fall randomly.
Now, which of these two images best represents raindrops falling on a sidewalk? Is it image A? Image B? Okay.
You're wrong.
Our brains misperceive evenness as random, and wrongly assume that groupings are deliberate.
Because of this, people make all sorts of irrational decisions.
Like, they-they won't work in a high-rise building, or they're afraid to live in an earthquake-prone area.
And yet, a mathematical assessment tells us that you are far more likely to suffocate in bed than you are to die in a terrorist attack.
You are ten times more likely to die from alcohol than from being in an earthquake.
And it is three times more likely that you will be killed while driving to buy a lottery ticket than it is that you will that you will win the lottery.
They said he was shot.
Yeah, that's what we think.
Is there anyone who would want to harm your husband? No.
No one.
- I'm Don Eppes, FBI.
- Marla.
So, do you know who did it? Eh, not yet, but-but we're working on it.
I heard on the news there were attacks on the freeways.
- Yeah.
- That's true.
But we don't know if those incidents are related to the, uh, the attack on your husband at all.
Right, I mean, what we'd like to do if we can is just take a Excuse me.
Uh, - Mrs.
Kinkirk? - Yes.
- Your husband's stable.
- Thank God.
There are issues that need to be discussed.
All right.
We'll give you a few minutes.
We'll wait for you down here.
Oh, please stay.
- Um - I'll take these guys.
- Why don't we go hang out there, guys? - Okay.
Thank you.
Come on.
It's all right.
Your husband sustained a gunshot wound to his head.
Luckily, the bullet did not penetrate far.
It's lodged in the right occipital lobe.
Our neurosurgeon is confident that he can remove it without further damage.
So, can you guys tell me anything at all that you remember from what happened? I heard a loud crash from the back.
I turned, and Pete was scared.
- From the noise.
- Right.
- And then I saw the blood.
- And I looked where Pete was looking.
- I saw Dad was hurt.
- So, what happened then? I grabbed the wheel, and I tried to keep us from crashing.
Yeah, well, that's smart.
You know, it's good thinking.
Now, right before the shot is there anything that stood out? Any cars or anything that you might remember? I don't know.
I think maybe there was a white truck? - Okay.
- I didn't see who was driving it.
Sorry, I didn't see it.
Is-Is our dad going to be okay? Yeah.
And, you know, we're gonna do everything we can to find the guy.
We got seven freeway attacks in eight weeks.
Four people dead.
You okay? Well, you know, I just lied to those kids.
No, you made them feel a little better, Don.
It's a tough time, you know? I'm an idiot, acting like everything's gonna be normal.
Those kids need to believe that if they're gonna make it through.
Come on, Dave.
Their lives are never gonna be the same.
There's no indication of enemies, financial or marital troubles.
Witness testimony and tips came up empty.
All right, so what have we got here? We got seven attacks in two months.
What do you think, Megan, serial? Uh, if so, it's atypical.
All the MOs are different.
Yeah, the previous attacks we had a wrist rocket, thrown rock, brick, tire iron, golf club, and then a rifle shot.
Now we're looking at a hand gun from close range.
Victims don't fit a profile, either.
Yeah, it's rich, poor, Asian, Latino, whites, across the spectrum.
You know, maybe instead of one sociopath, we have a bunch of copycats.
Maybe there's no pattern at all.
That's what I just said, Charlie.
There's no pattern.
A single assailant, or a bunch of copycats both imply a pattern.
No.
What I'm suggesting here is, these groupings of shootings might, you know, very well be random.
- Seven completely unrelated attacks? - Sure.
Consider this.
An MP3 player has a random shuffle function, right? It uses an algorithm to create a random order to play the songs.
But, when people listen to their random shuffle mode, they do perceive patterns.
That's just pure coincidence.
People swear their MP3 players like to play certain songs.
I know, mine has a thing for ZZ Top.
Right, right.
And that's exactly it; that human beings perceive patterns where there just aren't any.
All right, look, you know, until we know different, then we're gonna pursue these as individual crimes, all right? - Hey.
- Hey, Larry, do you have a minute? Yes, I have the eight and a half minutes it takes me to walk to my office.
Now, if we need more time, I guess we could choose a longer route, maybe stop and contemplate the turtle pond.
Or we could just keep talking at your office.
Yeah, it's not as scenic, but sure.
You know, I'm finding it a little strange, uh, being a professor after being a student for so long.
Oh.
We have all been there, my young friend.
I mean, I feel like I should be going to lectures, not giving them.
You know, I run into former teachers every day who act like nothing's changed.
That's why, you know, people usually leave the school where they earn their doctorate and go off and teach elsewhere.
But, what, CalSci made you an offer you couldn't refuse? I don't know.
Maybe I would have been better off on the East Coast.
No, no, no, no.
Come on, this is not about geography.
Listen, you yourself must embrace this new role.
'Cause only then will others be able to see you differently.
Wow.
Larry, even for you, that was profound.
I guess you just caught me when the caffeine was kicking in.
Come on.
I get the concept of random clusters, I do, but road rage is associated with certain factors, none of which are present in any of these cases.
Wait.
When you say factors, you mean, like, what, like weather? Yeah, and bad traffic, and racial conflicts, and accidents.
Stuff that makes people tense and angry.
All right, so, it's not a typical streak.
No, and there's something else; the youngest boy, Pete, said he thought he saw a white pickup truck.
Now he thinks he saw the same truck drive by his house that morning.
What? A white pickup truck? I mean, they're all over the place.
He says both had a bobble-headed hula dancer on the dashboard.
Yeah? What do you think? I think he's nine, and he's been traumatized, and he's searching, but it opens up the possibility that Jeff Kinkirk was stalked, you know? That he's not a random victim.
All right.
Well, look, play both sides.
I mean, get a list of white pickup trucks from the DMV and-and work it with the guys.
What's the other side? Well, the wife said she didn't think the husband had any enemies, but, I mean, maybe she was hiding something from us.
Okay.
I took out the garbage, helped Pete with his homework.
Everything's good at home.
Hey.
How's he doing? They got the bullet out.
Now we just have to wait.
Did you find the white truck? Not yet, Pete, but, I mean, we got a lot of people working on it.
Guys, I need to speak to your mom for a minute.
Is that okay? Your son Pete thinks he saw a white pickup truck the day of the shooting.
Now it's possible that that same truck was near your house that day.
- Someone was following Jeff? - Yeah.
Any reason for that? No.
I-I can't think of anything.
Does your husband have any problems at work, or with neighbors, anything at all? No, there's nothing.
Anyone want to hurt you? - Me? - Yeah.
Not that I know of.
Marla, somebody tried to kill your husband, and, I mean, you have no idea about who or why? It doesn't make sense.
I mean, it could be something minor.
Just even a-a fight over a parking space.
That's just it.
You have to understand Jeff.
He'd let someone else have the parking space.
If he has a flaw, it's that he tries too hard to be nice.
Okay.
All right, that's-that's all I need.
Come on.
That's all right.
Thought we were looking for a white truck.
I've checked 177 so far.
I'm just also checking some other factors.
Looking at traffic, weather, employment, time of day, day of the week.
Looking for a pattern in a series of random events? Oh, dear, Professor Eppes wouldn't approve.
Okay, but here's the thing.
None of these attacks can be linked to the typical causes of freeway violence like bad traffic and hot weather.
- Gang shootings.
- Seven random freeway attacks, and not one of them fits a profile of a random freeway attack? Yeah, I see what you're saying.
At least some should have typical causes.
All we have are invisible assailants and no motives.
Yeah, I mean, is it possible for something to be too random to be random? - I'm sorry, too random? - Yeah.
Too ran Uh, something can be a little random.
Something can be very random.
But, no.
No, no, not, not too random.
Why? Well, we're just kind of assuming that all these freeway attacks are a series of random events, but not one of them can be linked to the typical causes of freeway violence.
You mean, like road rage, I mean, stuff like that? Yeah, actually.
70% of all traffic assaults stem from arguments between drivers, especially if one or the other has something called Intermittent Explosive Disorder.
Oh, we used to call that having a screw loose.
My dad had that screw loose, but, uh, explosive rage can be a little more serious.
People can erupt into violent anger for seemingly no reason.
- I see what you're saying.
- Okay.
You're saying that in this particular string, there are none of the typical causes.
Mm-hmm, and what are the odds of that? I would say that they're not very good.
What if there's a pattern that you're just not able to detect? Hidden variable theory.
The idea that, that nothing in this world is ever really random, that there is some influence or some force that we can't detect.
Isn't it, like, weird that none of these attacks are typical? Not one? Weird, yeah.
Unlikely, yeah.
Impossible, no.
How's it going? White pickups checked: One thousand three hundred and seven.
Only about 162,000 left to go.
Oh, just think of the sense of accomplishment you'll have when you're done.
Right.
How you doing? Looking for connections between people, you always find more than you expect, you know.
Yeah, most of it doesn't mean anything, though.
Two victims wore the same brand of jeans, went to the same college.
I got one I want to take a look at.
These two victims used the same car wash? I want to get a list of employees, see if anybody has a record.
All right, I'll check with the local cops.
Victims number two and number five, Henry Rains and Cece Smith.
They're both patrons of the Valley Car Wash.
Now, Rains got into a yelling match with one of the workers there.
Two weeks later, he's killed by a rifle shot.
What was the fight about? He accused the worker of taking money out of his car, started getting loud with him, so the car wash manager had to call the cops, but Rains split before they got there.
- So who did he accuse? - Calvin Oates.
Five years ago, he's thrown out of a bar.
Comes back, fires a handgun out the front window from a moving car.
Car wash have links to any of the other victims? Still working on it.
All right, it's thin, but go pick him up.
Manager special today.
$11.
95.
Wax, underbody, tire dressing.
What air-freshener? We let the FBI garage take care of all that, thank you.
Hey, we're looking for Calvin Oates.
Oh, man, I just had this suit cleaned.
Hey, you, back up! Back up! Give me the bat, give me the bat.
Thank you.
Next time, leave it to the professionals.
You're fired.
Come on.
Dude said I stole his money.
He started screaming, coming at me.
I didn't do nothing.
When the manager called the cops, he split.
- So why'd you run? - Stupid.
- Yeah.
- When cops show up, I get lost.
I didn't think they'd bother to chase me 'cause I didn't do anything wrong.
Well, that guy must have made you furious.
He called you a thief in front of your boss and your co-workers.
Don't start the psych crap.
I've been in anger management therapy for three years.
I know when someone's pushing my buttons.
You got a lot of buttons, huh? That therapy was court-mandated as a condition of your parole.
Yes, and believe me, I am now the poster boy for anger management.
That must be one ugly poster.
Yeah, time cards show him at work when Rains was shot, so - You don't think he's the guy.
- Either there isn't a guy And it's seven unrelated incidents.
or, if it's one guy, he's definitely a lot smarter than this dude.
Hey.
All right.
- We just got another one.
- Well, there you go.
Victim was a 28-year-old computer tech.
She died instantly.
The killer had to lug this cinder block up to the top of the tunnel entrance, time the drop to hit a car, and avoid being seen by witnesses.
That took work and planning.
I doubt it was vandals or some crime of impulse.
You think she was targeted or just unlucky? I think she never knew what hit her.
Hey.
Pythagorean theorem, law of cosines, metrics.
- Equivalence principle.
- Back to basics.
You know, I spent the weekend at Politzer's and he completely disassembled my 11-D supergravity theory.
So here I am in ten dimensions with two pea-brain solutions, electrically and magnetically charged respectively to the C-field You still sleeping in your office? Yeah, sleeping, living.
Cuts down on the morning commute.
- You must find a new place to live.
- No.
- You can't live out of your office.
- No, I'm not going to be out there choosing wall colors and toaster ovens.
Look, I just want to be thinking about gravity.
How do you expect to have company over? - What company? Who? - Oh, I don't know.
Who, I may- who, what, M-Megan, maybe? Oh, oh, oh, listen.
If you propose to start discussing my love life, then I'm gonna find yours to be fair game.
Ah, point, point.
Point to Professor Fleinhardt.
Hey, so, speaking of Megan, she comes by the house the other day, wants to know if a sequence can be too random.
- It's funny.
- I just fail to see the humor in this.
Too random, you know, as in excessively random.
Yeah, I'm, I'm following you.
I will now ask you a series of questions and I would like you to answer simply in the affirmative or the negative.
- Okay.
- This discussion of randomness.
Was it somehow related to the freeway attacks? - Yes.
- Okay, might she be concerned that all of the attacks have different MOs? - Yeah, but - And given seven random attacks, - all with different meth - Eight now.
Okay, eight random attacks, all with different methods.
I mean, might not she just find the improbability of all this just a little bit disconcerting? Larry, you know, I can, I can roll a pair of dice eight times and never get the same result twice, and that would still fall within the realm of random.
Yeah but something that doesn't repeat is not by definition random.
- Shuffle mode.
- Hmm? Shuffle mode.
Why am I such an idiot? I think I've found new attacks.
- These are insurance claims? - Mm-hmm.
There's damage reports of objects striking cars.
- Smart angle.
- I have my moments, I think.
I was trying to find related incidents that didn't result in any bodily injury.
Objects used include a rock, a large slab of marble, a lead weight, a steel pipe.
- No injuries, so no police report.
- Exactly.
- Megan.
- Hey.
- I am so sorry.
- What's the matter? You were right, I was wrong.
- About the freeway attacks? - Yeah.
- Remember shuffle mode? - Yeah, the patterns that aren't there.
Controlled by an algorithm that creates a random order for the songs, but the order isn't really random because the algorithm won't ever repeat a song.
Just like the freeway attacks don't repeat.
That's what I was saying! So these attacks could be the act of one person Who's trying to make them look random.
Thank you.
Let me show you something.
All right, here are five new incidents.
Five? I-I didn't hear about that on the news.
Oh, these cases haven't been included before now.
- Megan just found them.
- All right, now, let's look at them chronologically with the others.
That's a fairly regular pattern, showing increasing frequency.
Thank you.
Okay, I'm going to call this one.
I am 99% sure.
The varied methods are an attempt to avoid any discernible pattern Which is in itself a pattern.
Yes, but what the perpetrator can't hide is the intensity of his need.
The compulsion is growing, so the time between acts is getting shorter and shorter.
Classic serial killer.
We're looking at one guy.
You guys, check this out.
Just found that five of the 13 victims were involved in serious injury accidents over the course of the last two years.
Oh, yeah? Think that means anything? No, I'm not sure if that would hold true for any similar group or not.
Maybe call a CHP accident specialist.
- And the department of insurance.
- Five of 13- that's less than half, man.
Yeah, I don't know if it's just coincidence or not.
Well, let's find out.
So, Professor, you think it's safe to drive, huh? Even with this crazy person out there attacking cars? People get killed in car accidents every day.
It's not like you worry about that when you get on the road.
Uh-huh, speak for yourself.
Look, if you're worried about the freeway killer, you know, take the bus.
The bus does not go everywhere.
In case you missed it, we live in Los Angeles, the city of the car.
You know, people in L.
A.
spend That's four full days of waiting for the car in front of you to move.
I'm getting road rage just thinking about it.
But, seriously, you are twice as likely to hit a royal flush on your first hand of poker than you are of being a victim of this freeway attacker.
Yeah, but I'm not afraid of hitting a royal flush.
I'll still be around to play the next hand.
You want me to behave irrationally and tell you that, yes, I would prefer if my only living parent stayed off the roads until we catch this guy, okay? There, I said it.
You happy? No! I have to drive to Culver City.
My mall project.
I I don't know why I let you do this to me.
- I should see it coming.
- Yeah, but you never do.
Hey, look who's awake.
Hi.
Honey, this is the FBI agent I told you about.
Anything new? Well, what we're working with is that in five of the attacks, the victims have been involved in a serious car accident.
So we're checking on the others, but, uh no? Jeff hasn't had so much as a speeding ticket since we were married.
No, I you know, I'm careful.
I worry about the kids.
A couple years ago, I saw this bad accident where this little boy was hurt.
It was terrible.
- Yeah, you say you saw this? - Yeah.
An SUV ran through this light and smacked a sedan.
I tried to help out at the scene.
I gave a statement to the police.
Jeff Kinkirk was the only witness to an accident that left a six-year-old boy badly injured.
Now, Kinkirk says he saw the boy's father run a red light.
Father said he didn't.
But both insurance companies went with Kinkirk's account.
Well, a lot of people witness accidents.
Yeah, but they don't all end up with gunshot wounds to the head.
It's such a strange motive for a series of attacks.
Yes, it is, because serial attacks generally have a sado-sexual component to them.
The assailant needs to see the victim suffer.
But not this guy.
He wants to inflict serious damage, but he's happy to do it from a distance.
And he's not that intent on killing every victim.
So how would the profile break down? Likely male, and meticulous and educated.
History of road rage, problems with anger.
Might have difficulty holding a job.
He identifies with the victims.
He feels a sense of injustice.
He's probably a victim of a violent crime himself.
Or someone close to him is.
Well, we could get a list of major injury accidents and cross-check them against the victims.
Yeah, we'll let Charlie run whatever we come up with, and get a suspect list going.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, anything will help.
What do we have, five million drivers in L.
A.
County? The optimization algorithm can be translated into software.
You know what? I think Amita has it.
But there's stuff in here we can use.
I mean, how's it going with Amita? Huh? Oh, good, good.
No, yeah, she's- I mean, we're both pretty busy right now.
- You know, she's a professor now.
- Yeah.
- It's always tough, huh? - What's always tough? The whole thing, you know? It's just tough.
- How you doing with Robin? - Yeah, well, it is what it is.
Yeah.
I know you don't like to talk about who you're seeing.
Hey, Charlie, if I have anything worthwhile to say, believe me, you'd be at the top of my list.
You know who else doesn't like to talk about his love life? Your boy Larry.
- What do you know? - I know Megan thinks he's beautiful.
Beautiful? What does he say? It's difficult to decipher through all the, you know, the cosmological metaphors.
But he does really seem to really like her, you know? Hey, here we go, I found it.
All right.
Okay.
Before we run Amita's program, I need to draw up some parameters, because there's a component we're neglecting.
- What's that? - Traffic.
I mean, this guy's been attacking people in broad daylight, on busy roads, running the risk of being seen.
- Right.
No witnesses.
- So he must be planning carefully.
- He probably plans escape routes.
- Yeah, possibly.
All right, so if we can look at the traffic patterns in the vicinity of the attacks, that'll give us a chance to guess at those escape routes, which will give us a more general idea of where he goes afterward.
Right, 'cause he'd definitely want to avoid traffic in each instance, right? Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Now, traffic flows just like any other, you know, dynamic fluid flow in a closed system.
You know, it's like the water in your house.
Water flows due to pressure and release.
What is the optimum length and width of the pipe? What are the number of branches? How many release points are there? I mean, it's a little more complicated for traffic, but partial differential equations can help us calculate the optimum number of lanes, on- and off-ramps, signal synchronization.
And-and I can use data from road sensors, traffic cameras and satellite imagery.
I mean, hell, I can even factor in the street light algorithms used by the D.
O.
T.
This is fairly high-level math.
All right, so ten out of 13 have been involved in some sort of serious injury accident.
Six are directly involved.
There's a lawyer for an insurance company, two accident witnesses and a tow truck driver.
And we're still trying to connect the last three.
Yeah, unfortunately, this guy works to a schedule, and, you know, he's due now.
Oh, look! It's CalSci's live-in cosmologist.
Listen, don't laugh.
I think that couch of mine has finally fused my vertebrae.
What's going on, Larry? Is there something you want to talk about? No.
I find any discussion of my inner feelings to be potentially catastrophic.
It's like a star- burns up all of its own fuel and then finally collapses in on top of itself.
Well, I was just trying to be supportive here, Larry, not destroy a solar system.
- Who needs a caffeine fix? - Hey, you know what Renyi said? He said a mathematician is a machine that turns coffee into theorems.
Hmm.
Thank you for getting on this so fast.
Hey, I don't want to be shot or struck by a brick while driving any more than the next person.
You know, I guess there's nothing to be done about meteors- well, just yet.
No, Larry, even the FBI can't stop meteors.
No, not yet, but someday.
We'll have plasma cannons, steam rockets.
Anything interesting? Well, I loaded the data into the modeling software.
It should produce a clear graphic of the flow of traffic after the attacks.
- Look, I'll put it up on the LCD.
- Great.
Also, I compressed time, so that Hmm.
And what's this? It's a traffic anomaly- a street adjacent to the freeway.
Pull it up.
Huh.
Look at that flow.
Optimized in one direction, all the cross streets are backing up.
Pull up another one.
Yeah, there it is again, wow.
And this timecode is telling us that this is after the shooting attack.
Yeah, it's like someone opened up an escape valve for traffic coming off the freeway.
It's more like an escape route.
Come an, get out of the way.
Get out of the way, lady.
Ma'am? Ma'am, roll down your window.
Kathryn Krager.
She's 46 years old, she has two teenage children.
She works for the City of Bellhaven.
- Notify the family? - CHP's at the house now, actually.
All right, we got to see if she fits the traffic accident scenario, right? This is the second gunshot wound at close range.
That's new.
All the other ones were different forms of attack.
What? Different guy? No, I think it's the same guy, he's just not afraid to repeat himself now.
- Yeah, he thinks we can't catch him.
- Hm-mm And he might be right.
Come on, you know we can get this guy.
All right, if you say so.
And how about the next one on deck? What's going on with you? Nothing.
No record the victim was ever in a traffic accident.
That was Krager's boss- city manager for Bellhaven.
He said that two years ago, a neighborhood submitted a petition for a light at a blind intersection, and Krager was in charge of overseeing the traffic budget.
And she turned down the petition.
So she wasn't actually involved in an accident herself.
Somebody might blame her for causing one.
All right.
So an accident happened six months after Krager denied a request to have a traffic light put at this intersection.
Three people in two vehicles.
One person survived: Brennon Sommers.
His wife, the driver of the other vehicle died at the scene.
And Sommers suffered a head injury.
Anger and impulse control problems.
He's lost his job, he's living on disability.
He's been arrested twice since the accident, although the charges were dropped both times.
Well, I can see where he might blame Krager for not putting in the stoplight, right? Yeah, but she wasn't the first victim.
I mean, why kill other people first? Well, maybe his first victim set him off some other way, and then once he got going, he went back for Krager.
Brennon Sommers! Put your hands up and walk over this way.
What is this about? Put your hands up and walk over this way.
Get your hands up! Turn around right now! What?! What?! I was an architect.
And now I- I can't concentrate.
I can't read for more than a minute at a time.
And that's Kathryn Krager's fault? Who?! Who is that?! Oh, I think you know.
I mean, you wrote a letter to the L.
A.
Times, because Bellhaven wouldn't put in a traffic light.
She was behind the decision.
I blamed the city, yeah, but I-I-I never knew who made the decision.
And you do get into a lot of fights.
Maybe because people don't treat you fairly? No, because I have anger and impulse problems.
You see, it comes with the frontal lobe damage.
I'm trying to deal with it.
- By seeking out people who hurt you? - No! Nothing like that! I'm in group therapy, that's all.
I used to be a nice, easy-going guy.
Hard to believe, huh? Doctor says he couldn't lift a cinder block or fire a weapon accurately.
We found no firearms, or evidence at his house - linked to any of the crimes.
- Yeah, he's close but not out guy.
- Close? What do you mean? - Someone like him, you know.
More capable or angrier.
Hey, you guys.
Charlie's got something he wants show us.
All right.
Hey, Chuck, what do you got? Hey, I've got probable escape routes, gathered straight from traffic data.
Now, these reb routes have the highest level of probability.
Yellow routes, next highest.
- Blue routes, least likely.
- Okay, good.
Why don't you guys go check them out.
You know, see if you can find a witness, - right? - All right.
Here you go.
Field trip, I love it.
You drive, I'll navigate.
I remember it was the day of the shooting, You know, I had just heard the report on the radio.
Couple minutes later, this truck blows by.
What made you notice the truck, was it speeding? No, that's not unusual.
No, it was that, uh, I see this pick-up, you know, coming up fast, and then the light goes red.
- Wait a minute, did you say pick-up? - Yeah, yeah, white pick-up truck.
Eh, the light's red, like I said, and he doesn't slow down.
So I figure he's gonna run it and then it goes green again.
After only a couple seconds.
- You're sure about that? - It's my job to watch the light.
Can you describe the truck, maybe you got a look at the driver.
Mmm.
Late-model, American make I think.
White, like I said.
I couldn't see the driver, though.
It was just a white dude with sunglasses.
Okay.
Anything else? Maybe there was, uh, something on the dash possibly? Well, there was, now that you mention it.
Uh, I couldn't see what it was, though.
All right, thank you.
Infamous white pick-up.
Sounds like the one Jeff Kinkirk's son said he saw just before he watched his father get shot.
Crossing guard's story about that light changing You thinking what I'm thinking? Yeah, that our killer somehow figured out how to tamper with the lights.
Yeah.
- Hey, you.
- Hello.
Yeah, aren't you supposed to be at the string theory symposium at USC? Now how do you know I'm not there? - One of those kind of days, is it? - Oh, well, aren't they all.
- Larry, is everything all right? - Everything? Well, I'm not sure that I can account for the state of all matter, but You know exactly what I'm talking about.
Stop trying to Fleinhardt your way around answering me.
What is it exactly that you want to know? If sleeping in your office and missing an event important to your field of study constitutes something that I need to, be concerned about.
Well, as I previously explained.
I'm sleeping in my office because I don't wish the distraction of finding and furnishing a residence.
Fine.
Fair enough.
And the symposium? I'm hoping to be unavailable due to a pressing social engagement.
You're choosing dinner with Megan over string theory.
The two are not incompatible.
- But thank you.
- For what? For looking after me.
It's so good to know that if I ever stray from the rational plane, you will be there to accost me.
Thanks, you know I need- Any- Anytime.
Hello? Oh, this modern age.
We think the freeway killer uses a device like this.
It emits a pulse of infrared light, causes traffic lights to change.
They're legal only for emergency vehicles.
All right, well, that explains how he's getting through traffic then.
Disrupting lights should leave a record in the system, times and places.
There's cameras all over Los Angeles, on buildings, and intersections, at ATM machines.
Okay, so we can check the locations and the times - against the web cam logs.
- Use them to get a photo.
What do you think are the chances of that though? More cameras, better odds.
- What do you say guys? - Hey.
All right, so here's what we got.
We been through hundreds of web cams at intersections indicated by Charlie's analysis of traffic light disruptions.
We got this.
Traffic web cam from La Brea and the 10 freeway, at 15 minutes after attack number 9.
Three seconds before he drove through that light, it was hit with an infrared pulse.
No license visible.
No way to identify the truck or the driver.
And this, what's this? Uh, that's some sort of decal.
Pulling together a lot of string.
That the crossing guard witness saw the killer- That the guy in this photo is the one who changed the light.
Well, maybe you're right.
I mean, maybe that's our guy.
We're getting something.
I'll flip it around and print it out.
Does that say H-T-S-U.
Head Trauma Survivors United.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
Brennon Sommers, the guy we suspected.
I think he's part of their Northridge chapter.
There's something on the bottom of the decal that's not quite legible.
Well, it could be Northridge.
Now that would not be random chance.
So far we have eight current and former members that we can link to freeway attack victims.
I ran the members through the DMV.
Two have white pick-ups.
One's a The other is Mitchell MacKenzie, MacKenzie was in a motorcycle accident a year ago.
He suffered a head trauma.
Two months after he joined the support group, the freeway attacks started.
Well, that must be it, right? That must be how he's choosing, - is through the support group.
- His accident was a hit-and-run.
So he's got no target for all the rage.
He could be acting on behalf of the other victims.
That's not the kind of support anybody expected.
Mitchell's close to many people in the group.
It's common for trauma victims to feel like nobody understands what they've been through except other victims.
Dr.
Brewer, do you discuss the freeway attacks in your group? It's come up in meetings.
- I remember I made a note about it.
- What was your note? Mitchell talks a lot at meetings, has an opinion on everything.
But on the topic of the freeway attacks, he's been quiet.
Thank you.
Excuse me.
- Eppes.
- Don, I think MacKenzie could be the guy.
We just got a hit on his credit card.
A gas station in Long Beach.
So I got David Colby and LAPD on their way.
Come on, man.
Come on! Get out of the way! Get the hell out of the way! - Get your hands on the wheel! - You! Just wait! - Get your hands on the wheel! - I'm coming out, right now.
- Put them on the wheel.
- Don't shoot! I get to talk! - I'm only trying to do what's right! - Hey! Innocent people hurt and killed! And those responsible just walk away! Somebody has to pay.
That's all I do.
I make things right.
I make things right.
What are you sitting in the dark for? Just thinking.
Thank God you caught that guy, huh? Five deaths, six people injured.
And tomorrow I got 12 new cases.
Hey, you had a lot of tough ones lately.
Maybe you should think of taking some time off.
Yeah, don't I wish.
Donny, it's not good for you to get this way.
Ah, Dad, what are you talking about? This is the way I am.
- No, no, listen to me, Donny - Look, it's just, you know, sometimes Hello.
Hey, Don, glad you're here.
I found something interesting that I want you to look at.
Oh, yeah, what's that? You know how I thought that all the freeway attacks were a random series? Yeah.
They weren't.
They weren't.
Because, yeah, MacKenzie was behind all of them, but he didn't actually start the sequence.
- What are you talking about? - A hit-and-run driver started the sequence when he hit MacKenzie.
The head injury that MacKenzie sustained left him unable to control his impulses, control his rage Oh, come on, Charlie, the man is still responsible for his actions.
Yeah, of course.
Except that the guy that hit MacKenzie was never apprehended.
He totally got away with it.
- Is this his accident report? - Yeah.
Megan called the CHP for me, and I just I-I thought it was something you might want to look at.
Yeah, I think I see where you're headed.
What? The guy's tire treads, paint and metal.
Yeah, there's tons of information.
I mean, I can help you with this.
- You know.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, Charlie, this is good.
Yeah, this is There's enough information.
- You got a pen? - Yeah.
- We can narrow down the suspect list.
- Definitely, definitely.