Profiler (1996) s01e18 Episode Script
Blue Highways
PROFILER TRANSCRIBED FROM DVD He does, too.
He told me in biology.
Keep it down.
No! From the length of the spine, the M.
E.
thinks it's most likely a woman.
Four months in the ground, six tops.
One victim in about twenty places.
Jack was in an angry mood when he planted this one.
I don't think he was angry.
More like economical.
Meaning? Meaning one body, twenty rose bushes.
He was making what he had stretch as far as possible.
If my memory serves, six months ago was just about the time they tell you to fertilize.
I'll check my almanac.
You really think Jack killed some poor bastard just to feed his roses? Sam did say Jack had grown some prize-winners.
Now we know his secret.
The sickness of this guy never ceases to amaze me.
First he lives here awhile, then kills Sister Mary in her own bed, now this.
Place will never be the same, John.
I don't know.
Those old girls look pretty tough to me.
I wouldn't count them out.
Sam, you needed to see me? Yeah.
Uh this may strictly be a flight of fancy, but I think I may have inadvertently found a new serial killer.
George.
Ok, the electronic flags are the locations of recent traffic accidents in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
They fit a pattern.
Serial? You mean, a pattern of accidents? Yeah, but it's more intriguing than that.
You see, I was watching the news last night, and there was a story about a car accident in Champaign-Urbana.
A car owned by Stephen L.
Caldwell was involved in an accident with a van carrying six cheerleaders home from a game.
All six died.
Mr.
Caldwell and his wife Jacqueline are missing.
They left the scene? Yeah, somehow.
Car wasn't totaled, but it was inoperable.
Maybe they got scared and ran for it.
Well, according to friends of Caldwell, they were the kind of people who would leave a note if they scratched another car in the parking lot.
What brings us in? Do you remember Glen Foster? He was an actor sort of a latter-day James Dean.
He was killed in a car accident in Missouri two weeks ago.
It's another hit and run.
Yeah, and another missing couple, Foster and his date.
Same kind of secondary highways, same kind of car- what you might call an american classic.
Did they walk away from that one? We don't know, but their bodies were never found.
I used the accident reports to make a simple mathematical model, and then I tried to cross-reference with traffic fatalities in nearby states.
Made up your own national database.
Exactly, and I found three more that fit the pattern.
So that's a total of five crashes in three adjoining states.
A man and woman missing from each one.
Where was the last one? Illinois.
Good heads-up, Sam.
We'll take a look.
Let's get the chopper.
- Ok.
Did I, um did I thank you, by the way? For what? Oh, for suggesting to your roommate that I'd be, uh, more than happy, I believe she said, to talk to her night school of juvenile delinquents and, uh, glue heads.
The officer friendly routine.
Oh, oh, no.
I just told her that you had done that while you were with the Atlanta P.
D.
Back then, I was under orders.
This is voluntary.
Oh, I'm sorry I-I thought you would get a kick out of it.
I mean, it's really amazing what she's done with these kids.
The last time I did this, I was in a high school, and six guys hot-wired my cruiser, took her joyriding all over Peachtree.
Oh, well, there's no problem here.
Angel's kids are all too young to drive.
It'll be fun.
Stephen and Jacqueline Caldwell - Rockwell, Illinois - going on vacation to Tennessee.
The Mustang was South-bound, the van, North-bound.
Vehicles wound up here and here.
And for some unknown reason, the Caldwell's Mustang crosses directly into the path of the van.
It's gonna be hard to tell from the physical evidence.
It's been too badly churned.
We thought we could save some of those girls, so there was ambulances in and out of here.
It was worth a try, but it screwed up the scene.
The Caldwell car was sitting here alone, empty.
They hit the shoulder hard, maybe cut themselves, but they could have been on their feet.
Think they flagged a ride from a passing vehicle, or if they were D.
U.
I.
, maybe they paid for a ride.
Drunk drivers usually leave skid marks, evidence of weaving, unsteady steering.
Hey, what's the F.
B.
I.
doing on this one? Similar scenes have turned up in Missouri and Indiana.
We think there might be a pattern.
Look at this.
Doubles.
From the size, it's a truck.
Big rig.
18-wheeler, maybe.
Wasn't here before.
Maybe it stopped later.
What if the truck was part of it? We'll get some infrared, see if we can put a time on when these were made.
Also, can you have your people make a cast of this for us? We'll plaster-cast the whole damn highway if you want, but I'm still looking at vehicular manslaughter and two suspects that fled the scene.
Hey, Danny.
I got my virus warning program upgrade for you.
It's pretty swift.
Hmm, but can it catch my newest bug? Oh, no.
I didn't hear that.
Listen, if I thought you were writing a virus patch, I'd be obliged to turn you in.
Frag it.
Relax.
It never went any further than this disk.
It's just a, you know, challenge or something.
Yeah, I know too well.
It almost bought me six years in Leavenworth.
You frag it.
That's my advice.
You guys are worse than those nerdy kids who come in here.
You rewind this? Ben, I'm insulted.
I'll rewind next time.
I promise.
They measured the degradation of the tracks, allowing for wind and rain later on that night, and I'm pretty sure that the truck was there at the same time as the Caldwells' car.
There's your hit and run.
What about the other sites? All four.
No one had looked for truck tires.
And there's no report of a big rig getting wrapped up in one of these wrecks.
A truck is an unusual choice of weapon.
George, let's start digging for truckers who were on these roads the night of the wrecks.
Let's take a look at the victims again.
All young couples.
All missing.
Figure some kind of sex crime? Jealousy, envy? Jealous of their cars, then? No.
I think it's more about the accident itself.
He keeps repeating the accident.
Yeah.
Sticking to the same roads.
Both crashes in Missouri were on highway What are the dates of the accidents? February 3 and 23, March 3, 23, and 30.
They all have the number 3 in them.
And if we've got his pattern down, next one will be Indiana.
Today's the 3rd.
The Indiana Highway patrol pegged the time of the accident at about 12:21 A.
M.
Truck tracks look the same.
It's all the same - classic car, missing couple, the same road as the first Indiana wreck.
He's consistent, if nothing else.
We've got one set of footprints leading to and from the car.
Let's get a cast of these.
Hey, John.
Police report say anything about the ambulance coming up to this car? First on the scene said it was abandoned.
The paramedics went straight to the other vehicle.
Gurney tracks.
Could be.
He's using a gurney to remove the bodies.
It's a lot of trouble to create an accident just to get some bodies.
Not just bodies.
Couples.
He ripped off the radio, too.
Insurance companies use this kind of program to recreate accidents and figure out what went wrong, what really happened, especially if there's no witnesses or anybody left alive.
I can compute any one element - time, distance, speed - from the other two.
I can plug in odd geometry, even wind, rain, snow.
Can you plug in the truck? Done.
Ok, this is the Caldwell wreck simulation from Illinois.
Now, first thing you can notice is the Caldwells' car was speeding.
Of course, he was passing.
At least, he was trying to.
He hit his brakes hard in the left lane.
He tried swerving right, had to swerve back The truck is boxing him in.
He can't get over.
Caldwell's car smashes into the dozer.
The van goes off the edge.
Elapsed time, nine seconds.
The sports car stopped in approximately real scene almost exactly.
Truck stops, backs up to the Caldwells' car, and takes them away.
But how does he choose them? Sees them on the road, spots the right kind of car.
Or maybe he spots them at a gas station first, or a diner or truck stop - anywhere that he can study his prey.
Let's get a map of every rest stop, fast food place, even picnic areas on the routes the couple took.
I think you look beautiful, Frannie.
I think I look ridiculous.
See? Did you see that? Nobody's gonna talk to me wearing this.
I remember when your mother took you to first grade.
She told me you cried so hard, she almost brought you back home.
Really? What spooked me? Well, you told her that you didn't know they were gonna have desks.
You thought it would be just like kindergarten.
I can handle the desks.
It's the starting over I'm worried about, you know? Making new friends and stuff.
Starting over is hard, Frannie.
It takes courage, and I'm trying to find my own way, too.
Why don't we try a little give-and-take, ok? Ok.
How about twenty bucks? For lunch.
It's for the whole week, right? You want me to gain weight, don't you? You're the best.
Oh, Ben, where's Danny? I got another game for him.
Ben? What's - Look out! You have all their money.
Yeah, but I don't have yours, huh? And we haven't checked the safe yet, either.
Here! F.
B.
I.
Why didn't you tell me I was so lucky, huh? I got $146 and a fed.
That's not a complete waste.
I only work there.
Computers.
Right, like I believe that.
Why are you doing this? Because I hate liars.
Now I wonder if you're gonna actually feel the bullet.
Please don't.
You are one lucky son of a- Get off! - Hey, hey, hey.
- Get off! Ace, give me that brush.
Why? She's just gonna mess it up with them little flowers and all.
Those are her flowers, and you have written your name all over them.
That is very disrespectful to her.
But she's going to - No, no.
You deserve respect, but that is something you have got to give in order to get.
Ahem.
John.
Thanks for coming.
Glad to be here.
Who's he? He's a friend, and he is going to talk with us.
Hi.
He looks like a cop.
Actually, I'm - I'm with the F.
B.
I.
I thought you said he was gonna talk to us, not bust us.
He's just going to talk.
You're always telling us, "stop talking and paint.
" Have a seat.
- Thanks.
Here.
Paint.
Right.
I talked to Atlanta P.
D.
I told them we want in on any case involving our own.
You sure you can't make this guy? Mm-mmm.
He clipped me from behind.
Unfortunately, your friend the store owner was too scared to give an I.
D.
The clerk got hit from behind, didn't see anything.
But the police have a pretty good idea it's a neighborhood thug named Luke Dickerson.
He's got a four-page rap sheet.
They know his name? They picked him up.
Bottom line, without an I.
D.
, they can't hold him.
They let him go? He'll slip up, George.
They'll get him.
The second that gun jammed, I should have just beat the hell out of him.
Don't second guess yourself.
I didn't do it 'cause I was scared, and because I didn't do anything, this guy Ben might go blind in one eye.
You can't take responsibility, George, and being scared probably saved your life.
That's not a bad thing.
I could have stopped him.
And gotten yourself killed? You did the right thing, George, and your friends are alive.
He's not gonna get away with it.
He already did.
All right, I got something new.
Now, the highway killer ripped off the radio, so I had the Illinois and Missouri highway patrols inventory the other wrecks.
There were parts missing from each of them.
They were probably so badly smashed, I guess no one bothered counting fingers and toes.
Well, these classics are rare.
Original parts can be pricey.
Don't tell me he's doing this for the resale.
I doubt it.
He never took the same part twice.
I listed the serial numbers on the interstate hot sheet.
I already got a hit.
The radio from Indiana just turned up in Detroit.
These chop shop dealers got these kids stealing high-end cars.
American classics.
Get 'em out of the country, sell 'em for three times what they go for here.
Who caught the serial number? We got a guy undercover.
He called it in.
You think your killer is one of these chop shop dealers? I doubt it.
My profiler says the guy's a loner.
Ok, are your men ready? Yeah.
John.
Move.
Don't move! F.
B.
I.
! Don't move! Give me your arm.
Other arm.
Ok.
Ok, man.
Good move.
I need a deal.
Don't we all? Me, I'm looking for a radio from a '67 Camaro.
Man, they send me up, I go back to California on three-strikes beef, ok, and I don't think they got too many spares for me, you know what I'm saying? Can we do some business? This guy with the muscle car parts, he's, like, totally whacked, ok? I mean, we never even see him.
We just put the money in a coffee can over there, and in the morning he leaves us a surprise.
Like today, it was a delco push-button hi-fi tuner, a tube-type, early F.
M.
It was nice.
Show us where.
Right over here.
Why are some of them polished? Ask the guy.
I'm telling you, he's a freak.
I mean, you would think some of the stuff he gives us was showroom.
It's thirty years old.
We need to box up these refurbished parts.
Federal officer.
Don't move! Don't shoot.
Then don't move.
What are you doing here? I'm Emmett.
Got any weapons on you, Emmett? I got a frog in my pocket.
So you do.
You should be at the shelter.
I got to take care of my garden.
Garden? What-what garden? What do you mean, "what garden?" It's a beautiful garden, Emmett, especially the shiny ones.
Did you polish them yourself? No, no.
Bug Head brings them like that.
Brings them in his truck.
Bug Head? Does Bug Head have another name? I don't know.
He don't talk.
He just stays in that truck like-like he lives there.
What does Bug Head look like? You ever seen a bug? Big, shiny head, no face? And his truck, you said he lives in it.
He's got everything he needs right inside.
It's a kingdom for one, covered with lights like a palace.
Eighteen-wheeler.
He's got a metal case in the front - that's where he sleeps.
He lives like a king.
Bug-head, the king.
When was the last time you saw him? I don't know.
- Few days? If we asked you to sit down with an artist and describe Bug Head for us so we could draw a picture of him, could you do that? I could draw you a picture myself if you hold my frog.
He's feeling a little frisky.
According to Emmett, this is bug head, the killer.
Helmet and racing leathers.
It's the best the sketch artist could do based on the description.
That's a pretty bizarre outfit for driving a truck.
What about the footprints from the Indiana crime scene? Do we have the casts back yet? Uh-huh.
It's subtle, but he drags his right foot.
He puts about thirty percent more weight on his left.
He's got a limp, which means he was hurt.
He wears a helmet and leathers, has a cage built into his truck.
This guy has an intense phobia about being in a crash.
He's scared of having an accident, so he runs cars off the road into the path of other vehicles.
That's some Bug Head.
Above all, he wants to be safe, but he's compelled to keep going back out there.
If he holds to form, he'll grab another couple on the 13th, which is tomorrow.
Let's concentrate on where he feels safe.
It's not about being safe.
He's repeating his pattern.
So he'll start over.
He'll go back to Missouri.
John, put the Missouri H.
P.
on alert.
Get them a sketch.
Tell them about the limp.
Ok, your witness said that Bug Head the king lived in a palace of lights, so I did some extrapolating, and what if he meant that the Bug Head drives a royal road rig? Well, it makes sense if we can believe any of it.
Truckers usually stick to the interstates.
Why isn't this guy? Well, maybe because it's too crowded.
Too many witnesses.
Not after midnight, when he does his hunting.
His choice of roads isn't practical.
Must be a part of his compulsion.
Illinois, 2; Indiana, 60; Missouri 51.
He's got a compulsion for blue highways and detours.
No, see, they are now, but I ran each state's history of road construction.
Let me take you back through time.
This is 1930.
Now, with all the modern clutter gone, you can see it.
It's the same road.
Right.
See, they were all displaced by interstates in the late sixties and early seventies, but in the first half of the century, this was U.
S.
interstate truck route.
Maybe he's repeating an accident from that era.
Which means it's at least twenty-five years old.
Let's put a practical upper limit of, say, forty years.
Could be older.
Could have been a child.
Ok, George, we need accidents with children Occurring on a date with the number 3 in it.
Don't forget the leg injury.
Georgie, let's make it fast.
Like my mother always said, "All you get for doing good work is more work.
" Mr.
Malone, this is Miss Gates from Wheatland High School.
Hey.
Hey.
You got a minute? Yeah, sure.
Sam, I'm not scared of bullets, bombs, bad guys.
It's par for the course.
I am scared for my own daughter.
From what I hear about raising teenagers, it sounds appropriate.
Frances was twelve when Janet and I split up.
A little girl.
I turn around, she's seventeen.
It's like an alien took over her body.
Well, those aren't aliens, Bailey.
Those are hormones.
Half the time, she doesn't know who she is.
She just started at Wheatland High.
She already cut school today.
I don't know where she is.
Well, you don't think that she went back to Baltimore, do you? No.
She and Janet had a huge blowout.
Besides, she knows the only reason the court dismissed the charges against her was on the condition she live with me.
I just really think that she's just testing her boundaries, Bailey.
I mean, you're as new to her as she is to you.
That's not the way I wanted it.
I fought hard for her, Sam.
I sued for joint custody.
No dice.
Janet had the judge on her side.
I got completely shut out.
Does Frances know how hard you fought for her? I'm not sure.
I think you should tell her.
Yeah.
I got three hundred and fifty-six so far, one hundred and ten with children who survived, and right here eleven with male children who injured a leg.
Forty-year-old accidents.
Forgotten tragedies.
Yeah.
Some states don't keep the actual files past thirty, then it's microfilm.
I hooked up to the courthouse data network for the photo.
Wait, wait, wait.
Listen to this.
David Hambling, only child.
Parents killed in a head-on with a truck on Missouri route 26 in 1968.
They were driving a Camaro, and David's right leg was - was crushed.
March 3.
His foster family name was Rutherford.
See if you can get a current address.
Sure, he had problems, but a lot of these kids do.
Don't get me wrong.
I love being a foster mother, but these kids got dealt crappy cards, or they wouldn't be here in the first place.
Well, what was David Hambling like as a child? Quiet.
Kept to himself.
Never made any friends.
He used to make the most beautiful model cars - polished them, painted them.
And then he'd destroy them.
Yeah.
Used to smash them with his shoe.
Do you know Davey? Well, I'm beginning to feel like I do.
Now, he had a crushed leg.
Yeah, from the accident when he was four.
I don't like to think about it.
Can you imagine being trapped in the back seat of the car while your parents are dying in the front? Can you imagine what that does to a kid? Well, thank you for your time.
You wanted to see me? Yeah.
John, when you were on the Atlanta P.
D.
, you remember where the kids from Wheatland hung out? Sure.
The straight kids go to Piedmont Mall, and the punks hang out at a place they call the stacks.
Why? File this under the heading of "personal favor.
" Ok.
- Thanks.
Take 'em off.
She just borrowed your pretty bracelets, pops.
Chill.
Don't you have someplace else to be? Get in the car.
That's great.
Did you have to flash your badge? Now they all know my dad's in the F.
B.
I.
That'll win me a lot of friends.
You don't want these friends, Frances.
You really don't care about my feelings, do you? Of course I do.
I care about your feelings most of all.
But I also care that you cut school today.
That can't happen anymore, Frannie.
It just so happens there was a sub, and nothing was gonna happen anyway, but you don't even bother to ask me that.
You assume - I assume you're in school when you're supposed to be.
Now, get in the car.
You don't even know me.
All I ever was to you was a check in the mail.
That's not true.
I fought your mother like hell for custody.
That's not the way she remembers it.
Look, we've got a lot to talk about.
I want us to air it all out so we can make a clean start.
Ok? Get in the car, please.
Thought it was going to be different here, but you're just like mom.
Hey.
- How you doing? Tearing off those things sure hurts, don't it? Yeah.
Main thing is you're okay.
Is it? No.
Tomorrow I get my stitches out.
You know my friend Ben? He's gonna need surgery on his eye to reattach the retina.
It's fifty-fifty.
Over a few bucks.
Happens all the time.
No, it doesn't, not to me, not to my friends.
Danny's gonna have to eat through a straw for the next six weeks.
His jaw is broken.
I let it happen.
Wasn't your fault.
No, I froze.
John, you know you wouldn't have.
You and Bailey and Sam it's just when that gun jammed, I had my chance.
I just I froze.
I never got a clear I.
D.
Now he's walking around.
He'll sure as hell do it again.
You didn't create him.
It's not your fault.
You're being too hard on yourself.
I can't eat, I can't sleep at night.
I have to take care of this.
What does that mean? I've looked into this Luke character.
I know where he goes and when.
I'm into where he lives and breathes.
Maybe a couple buddies of mine from the Atlanta P.
D.
Can scramble his eggs.
No.
See, I don't need that.
All I need is a gun.
A gun? You're out of your mind.
The last thing you need is a gun.
Fine.
Listen to me.
Smartest thing you can do is leave this guy alone.
But getting a gun, going after him by yourself, that's not even on the list.
Well, I can't buy one, right? At least, not legally.
Think about why, George.
You were busted for illegal hacking.
You turned your life around with us.
You want to throw that all away just 'cause of this guy? Thanks for your help.
You know, this conversation alone is a felony.
Well, then arrest me, John, ok? So all right, all right.
Unh! Ok, here, here.
You just take my wallet, right? I don't want to fight ya.
I'm not gonna look at ya.
No, I want you to look at me Luke.
No, thanks, man.
Turn around really slow and look at me, Luke.
F.
B.
I.
What is this? Uh Is this a bust, F.
B.
I.
? Hey, hey, hey uh, you want to take it easy with that thing, ok? You want to think about what you want to do- Hey, you blinded a man.
You broke a kid's jaw.
Now, what do you think I should do to you? Well, I don't think you should kill me, because I didn't kill anybody, you know? I let you live.
No, you didn't.
Your gun jammed, Luke.
Do you remember? You wanted to, you tried to, but your gun jammed.
I don't think mine will.
What would the odds of that be? I got kids.
Ok, have have mercy, please.
What mercy? I didn't get any from you.
It was just business.
It was nothing personal.
You don't have to do this to me, ok? It was just, uh the same old, same old go along, get along, you know? Hey, this guy's trying to kill me, huh?! Oh.
Thought you might need some backup, but, uh, I guess you don't.
Hey.
Hey, where you going? Uh where you going? Face the wall.
- No, no, no, please.
Face the wall.
- Please, please, please, man, please! You want to do this? Please, please please.
Please.
I got what I wanted.
I don't care what you do with him.
Get up.
Stand up! Put your hands behind your back.
David Hambling drove for Midstates Overland until he was fired three months ago, and he stole a Royal Road 18-wheeler, and he just dropped right off the map.
There's only so many places a custom-made 18-wheeler can hide.
We can't wait, Bailey.
Day after tomorrow is the 13th.
George, how close can you hone in on the target area? Well, Hambling always chooses a section of road that's at least ten miles away from an intersection, which leaves us with these two possible stretches of Missouri 26.
There are about 45 miles of road in between.
He'll hit the same stretch of highway he did before.
We need to bring him to us.
John and Sam, I want you to go as decoys.
We'll shadow in the surveillance van.
I'll get plenty of backup from the highway patrol.
If you spot Hambling, just give a location signal.
Keep your distance.
Do you want some? No, not while I'm driving.
There's a little more coffee, it's not very hot.
Do you want? I'm working on a bad case of paper cup stomach as it is.
Hmm.
We should check again.
What time you guys got? At the tone, seven seconds past the midnight hour.
Should be time to rock 'n roll, but we haven't seen a truck for the last twenty minutes.
Be patient, John.
He's out there.
We got company.
Six o'clock, coming fast.
Jesus.
Guy's doing at least 80.
Where's a cop when you need one? False alarm.
What's this guy doing? It's getting near dawn / when lights close their tired eyes / I'll soon be with you, my love / to give you my dawn surprise / I'll be with you, darling, soon / I'll be with you when the stars start falling / I've been waiting so long / to be where I'm going / in the sunshine of your love It's him.
We got him.
Stay behind him, John.
It's safer.
Son of a bitch.
This is how he does it, until another car comes the other way.
He's speeding up.
He won't let us pass.
Hambling, get out of the truck.
We've got you covered from all four sides.
Hold your fire.
Hambling, F.
B.
I.
! Get on the ground with your arms spread.
Now! Bailey! Davey - Could be armed, Sam.
It's ok.
Davey, we're not gonna hurt you, all right? We want to help you.
Now, I want you to come with us, ok? I want to help you.
I want to help you find your mother and your father, all right? Come with us.
You guys better take a look.
There's something back here.
He's been recreating the accident again and again, trying to save his parents, collecting parts of their cars, parts of them, so that he could make them whole.
But he couldn't.
You've been here all night? Uh-huh.
You should go home.
You've been putting in a lot of hours.
In a bit.
This legal bureaucracy of ours is such a tangle.
What's the latest on our friend Luke Dickerson? He confessed, then flip-flopped.
Turned it around, said it was coerced.
They threw out the case.
But don't worry.
He's a repeat offender.
He'll be back behind bars before you know it.
Yes, he will.
Luke Dickerson's a victim of the system.
He's got failures to appear on assault, armed robbery, jumped bail in seven states, yet no one has gotten around to issuing the fugitive warrants he has coming.
Until now.
Uh-huh.
He won't even be able to walk the streets without getting picked up.
And the penalties add up to years behind bars.
And I am loving it.
Um uh, this was not what I had planned.
I, um, invited you over to thank you for being such a good guy about the class.
And I was just telling you how I wanted to come back.
Then did I kiss you, or did you kiss me? That time, I kissed you.
Is there gonna be a next time? Why not? I enjoy talking to them.
I feel like a kid most of the time myself.
Have you ever considered teaching or- Cheers.
Cheers.
Not until I was up in front of your class.
Gave me a couple of fantasies.
Yeah.
Teaching can be really fun.
They weren't about teaching.
Mary, Mary, so contrary Grow this.
He told me in biology.
Keep it down.
No! From the length of the spine, the M.
E.
thinks it's most likely a woman.
Four months in the ground, six tops.
One victim in about twenty places.
Jack was in an angry mood when he planted this one.
I don't think he was angry.
More like economical.
Meaning? Meaning one body, twenty rose bushes.
He was making what he had stretch as far as possible.
If my memory serves, six months ago was just about the time they tell you to fertilize.
I'll check my almanac.
You really think Jack killed some poor bastard just to feed his roses? Sam did say Jack had grown some prize-winners.
Now we know his secret.
The sickness of this guy never ceases to amaze me.
First he lives here awhile, then kills Sister Mary in her own bed, now this.
Place will never be the same, John.
I don't know.
Those old girls look pretty tough to me.
I wouldn't count them out.
Sam, you needed to see me? Yeah.
Uh this may strictly be a flight of fancy, but I think I may have inadvertently found a new serial killer.
George.
Ok, the electronic flags are the locations of recent traffic accidents in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
They fit a pattern.
Serial? You mean, a pattern of accidents? Yeah, but it's more intriguing than that.
You see, I was watching the news last night, and there was a story about a car accident in Champaign-Urbana.
A car owned by Stephen L.
Caldwell was involved in an accident with a van carrying six cheerleaders home from a game.
All six died.
Mr.
Caldwell and his wife Jacqueline are missing.
They left the scene? Yeah, somehow.
Car wasn't totaled, but it was inoperable.
Maybe they got scared and ran for it.
Well, according to friends of Caldwell, they were the kind of people who would leave a note if they scratched another car in the parking lot.
What brings us in? Do you remember Glen Foster? He was an actor sort of a latter-day James Dean.
He was killed in a car accident in Missouri two weeks ago.
It's another hit and run.
Yeah, and another missing couple, Foster and his date.
Same kind of secondary highways, same kind of car- what you might call an american classic.
Did they walk away from that one? We don't know, but their bodies were never found.
I used the accident reports to make a simple mathematical model, and then I tried to cross-reference with traffic fatalities in nearby states.
Made up your own national database.
Exactly, and I found three more that fit the pattern.
So that's a total of five crashes in three adjoining states.
A man and woman missing from each one.
Where was the last one? Illinois.
Good heads-up, Sam.
We'll take a look.
Let's get the chopper.
- Ok.
Did I, um did I thank you, by the way? For what? Oh, for suggesting to your roommate that I'd be, uh, more than happy, I believe she said, to talk to her night school of juvenile delinquents and, uh, glue heads.
The officer friendly routine.
Oh, oh, no.
I just told her that you had done that while you were with the Atlanta P.
D.
Back then, I was under orders.
This is voluntary.
Oh, I'm sorry I-I thought you would get a kick out of it.
I mean, it's really amazing what she's done with these kids.
The last time I did this, I was in a high school, and six guys hot-wired my cruiser, took her joyriding all over Peachtree.
Oh, well, there's no problem here.
Angel's kids are all too young to drive.
It'll be fun.
Stephen and Jacqueline Caldwell - Rockwell, Illinois - going on vacation to Tennessee.
The Mustang was South-bound, the van, North-bound.
Vehicles wound up here and here.
And for some unknown reason, the Caldwell's Mustang crosses directly into the path of the van.
It's gonna be hard to tell from the physical evidence.
It's been too badly churned.
We thought we could save some of those girls, so there was ambulances in and out of here.
It was worth a try, but it screwed up the scene.
The Caldwell car was sitting here alone, empty.
They hit the shoulder hard, maybe cut themselves, but they could have been on their feet.
Think they flagged a ride from a passing vehicle, or if they were D.
U.
I.
, maybe they paid for a ride.
Drunk drivers usually leave skid marks, evidence of weaving, unsteady steering.
Hey, what's the F.
B.
I.
doing on this one? Similar scenes have turned up in Missouri and Indiana.
We think there might be a pattern.
Look at this.
Doubles.
From the size, it's a truck.
Big rig.
18-wheeler, maybe.
Wasn't here before.
Maybe it stopped later.
What if the truck was part of it? We'll get some infrared, see if we can put a time on when these were made.
Also, can you have your people make a cast of this for us? We'll plaster-cast the whole damn highway if you want, but I'm still looking at vehicular manslaughter and two suspects that fled the scene.
Hey, Danny.
I got my virus warning program upgrade for you.
It's pretty swift.
Hmm, but can it catch my newest bug? Oh, no.
I didn't hear that.
Listen, if I thought you were writing a virus patch, I'd be obliged to turn you in.
Frag it.
Relax.
It never went any further than this disk.
It's just a, you know, challenge or something.
Yeah, I know too well.
It almost bought me six years in Leavenworth.
You frag it.
That's my advice.
You guys are worse than those nerdy kids who come in here.
You rewind this? Ben, I'm insulted.
I'll rewind next time.
I promise.
They measured the degradation of the tracks, allowing for wind and rain later on that night, and I'm pretty sure that the truck was there at the same time as the Caldwells' car.
There's your hit and run.
What about the other sites? All four.
No one had looked for truck tires.
And there's no report of a big rig getting wrapped up in one of these wrecks.
A truck is an unusual choice of weapon.
George, let's start digging for truckers who were on these roads the night of the wrecks.
Let's take a look at the victims again.
All young couples.
All missing.
Figure some kind of sex crime? Jealousy, envy? Jealous of their cars, then? No.
I think it's more about the accident itself.
He keeps repeating the accident.
Yeah.
Sticking to the same roads.
Both crashes in Missouri were on highway What are the dates of the accidents? February 3 and 23, March 3, 23, and 30.
They all have the number 3 in them.
And if we've got his pattern down, next one will be Indiana.
Today's the 3rd.
The Indiana Highway patrol pegged the time of the accident at about 12:21 A.
M.
Truck tracks look the same.
It's all the same - classic car, missing couple, the same road as the first Indiana wreck.
He's consistent, if nothing else.
We've got one set of footprints leading to and from the car.
Let's get a cast of these.
Hey, John.
Police report say anything about the ambulance coming up to this car? First on the scene said it was abandoned.
The paramedics went straight to the other vehicle.
Gurney tracks.
Could be.
He's using a gurney to remove the bodies.
It's a lot of trouble to create an accident just to get some bodies.
Not just bodies.
Couples.
He ripped off the radio, too.
Insurance companies use this kind of program to recreate accidents and figure out what went wrong, what really happened, especially if there's no witnesses or anybody left alive.
I can compute any one element - time, distance, speed - from the other two.
I can plug in odd geometry, even wind, rain, snow.
Can you plug in the truck? Done.
Ok, this is the Caldwell wreck simulation from Illinois.
Now, first thing you can notice is the Caldwells' car was speeding.
Of course, he was passing.
At least, he was trying to.
He hit his brakes hard in the left lane.
He tried swerving right, had to swerve back The truck is boxing him in.
He can't get over.
Caldwell's car smashes into the dozer.
The van goes off the edge.
Elapsed time, nine seconds.
The sports car stopped in approximately real scene almost exactly.
Truck stops, backs up to the Caldwells' car, and takes them away.
But how does he choose them? Sees them on the road, spots the right kind of car.
Or maybe he spots them at a gas station first, or a diner or truck stop - anywhere that he can study his prey.
Let's get a map of every rest stop, fast food place, even picnic areas on the routes the couple took.
I think you look beautiful, Frannie.
I think I look ridiculous.
See? Did you see that? Nobody's gonna talk to me wearing this.
I remember when your mother took you to first grade.
She told me you cried so hard, she almost brought you back home.
Really? What spooked me? Well, you told her that you didn't know they were gonna have desks.
You thought it would be just like kindergarten.
I can handle the desks.
It's the starting over I'm worried about, you know? Making new friends and stuff.
Starting over is hard, Frannie.
It takes courage, and I'm trying to find my own way, too.
Why don't we try a little give-and-take, ok? Ok.
How about twenty bucks? For lunch.
It's for the whole week, right? You want me to gain weight, don't you? You're the best.
Oh, Ben, where's Danny? I got another game for him.
Ben? What's - Look out! You have all their money.
Yeah, but I don't have yours, huh? And we haven't checked the safe yet, either.
Here! F.
B.
I.
Why didn't you tell me I was so lucky, huh? I got $146 and a fed.
That's not a complete waste.
I only work there.
Computers.
Right, like I believe that.
Why are you doing this? Because I hate liars.
Now I wonder if you're gonna actually feel the bullet.
Please don't.
You are one lucky son of a- Get off! - Hey, hey, hey.
- Get off! Ace, give me that brush.
Why? She's just gonna mess it up with them little flowers and all.
Those are her flowers, and you have written your name all over them.
That is very disrespectful to her.
But she's going to - No, no.
You deserve respect, but that is something you have got to give in order to get.
Ahem.
John.
Thanks for coming.
Glad to be here.
Who's he? He's a friend, and he is going to talk with us.
Hi.
He looks like a cop.
Actually, I'm - I'm with the F.
B.
I.
I thought you said he was gonna talk to us, not bust us.
He's just going to talk.
You're always telling us, "stop talking and paint.
" Have a seat.
- Thanks.
Here.
Paint.
Right.
I talked to Atlanta P.
D.
I told them we want in on any case involving our own.
You sure you can't make this guy? Mm-mmm.
He clipped me from behind.
Unfortunately, your friend the store owner was too scared to give an I.
D.
The clerk got hit from behind, didn't see anything.
But the police have a pretty good idea it's a neighborhood thug named Luke Dickerson.
He's got a four-page rap sheet.
They know his name? They picked him up.
Bottom line, without an I.
D.
, they can't hold him.
They let him go? He'll slip up, George.
They'll get him.
The second that gun jammed, I should have just beat the hell out of him.
Don't second guess yourself.
I didn't do it 'cause I was scared, and because I didn't do anything, this guy Ben might go blind in one eye.
You can't take responsibility, George, and being scared probably saved your life.
That's not a bad thing.
I could have stopped him.
And gotten yourself killed? You did the right thing, George, and your friends are alive.
He's not gonna get away with it.
He already did.
All right, I got something new.
Now, the highway killer ripped off the radio, so I had the Illinois and Missouri highway patrols inventory the other wrecks.
There were parts missing from each of them.
They were probably so badly smashed, I guess no one bothered counting fingers and toes.
Well, these classics are rare.
Original parts can be pricey.
Don't tell me he's doing this for the resale.
I doubt it.
He never took the same part twice.
I listed the serial numbers on the interstate hot sheet.
I already got a hit.
The radio from Indiana just turned up in Detroit.
These chop shop dealers got these kids stealing high-end cars.
American classics.
Get 'em out of the country, sell 'em for three times what they go for here.
Who caught the serial number? We got a guy undercover.
He called it in.
You think your killer is one of these chop shop dealers? I doubt it.
My profiler says the guy's a loner.
Ok, are your men ready? Yeah.
John.
Move.
Don't move! F.
B.
I.
! Don't move! Give me your arm.
Other arm.
Ok.
Ok, man.
Good move.
I need a deal.
Don't we all? Me, I'm looking for a radio from a '67 Camaro.
Man, they send me up, I go back to California on three-strikes beef, ok, and I don't think they got too many spares for me, you know what I'm saying? Can we do some business? This guy with the muscle car parts, he's, like, totally whacked, ok? I mean, we never even see him.
We just put the money in a coffee can over there, and in the morning he leaves us a surprise.
Like today, it was a delco push-button hi-fi tuner, a tube-type, early F.
M.
It was nice.
Show us where.
Right over here.
Why are some of them polished? Ask the guy.
I'm telling you, he's a freak.
I mean, you would think some of the stuff he gives us was showroom.
It's thirty years old.
We need to box up these refurbished parts.
Federal officer.
Don't move! Don't shoot.
Then don't move.
What are you doing here? I'm Emmett.
Got any weapons on you, Emmett? I got a frog in my pocket.
So you do.
You should be at the shelter.
I got to take care of my garden.
Garden? What-what garden? What do you mean, "what garden?" It's a beautiful garden, Emmett, especially the shiny ones.
Did you polish them yourself? No, no.
Bug Head brings them like that.
Brings them in his truck.
Bug Head? Does Bug Head have another name? I don't know.
He don't talk.
He just stays in that truck like-like he lives there.
What does Bug Head look like? You ever seen a bug? Big, shiny head, no face? And his truck, you said he lives in it.
He's got everything he needs right inside.
It's a kingdom for one, covered with lights like a palace.
Eighteen-wheeler.
He's got a metal case in the front - that's where he sleeps.
He lives like a king.
Bug-head, the king.
When was the last time you saw him? I don't know.
- Few days? If we asked you to sit down with an artist and describe Bug Head for us so we could draw a picture of him, could you do that? I could draw you a picture myself if you hold my frog.
He's feeling a little frisky.
According to Emmett, this is bug head, the killer.
Helmet and racing leathers.
It's the best the sketch artist could do based on the description.
That's a pretty bizarre outfit for driving a truck.
What about the footprints from the Indiana crime scene? Do we have the casts back yet? Uh-huh.
It's subtle, but he drags his right foot.
He puts about thirty percent more weight on his left.
He's got a limp, which means he was hurt.
He wears a helmet and leathers, has a cage built into his truck.
This guy has an intense phobia about being in a crash.
He's scared of having an accident, so he runs cars off the road into the path of other vehicles.
That's some Bug Head.
Above all, he wants to be safe, but he's compelled to keep going back out there.
If he holds to form, he'll grab another couple on the 13th, which is tomorrow.
Let's concentrate on where he feels safe.
It's not about being safe.
He's repeating his pattern.
So he'll start over.
He'll go back to Missouri.
John, put the Missouri H.
P.
on alert.
Get them a sketch.
Tell them about the limp.
Ok, your witness said that Bug Head the king lived in a palace of lights, so I did some extrapolating, and what if he meant that the Bug Head drives a royal road rig? Well, it makes sense if we can believe any of it.
Truckers usually stick to the interstates.
Why isn't this guy? Well, maybe because it's too crowded.
Too many witnesses.
Not after midnight, when he does his hunting.
His choice of roads isn't practical.
Must be a part of his compulsion.
Illinois, 2; Indiana, 60; Missouri 51.
He's got a compulsion for blue highways and detours.
No, see, they are now, but I ran each state's history of road construction.
Let me take you back through time.
This is 1930.
Now, with all the modern clutter gone, you can see it.
It's the same road.
Right.
See, they were all displaced by interstates in the late sixties and early seventies, but in the first half of the century, this was U.
S.
interstate truck route.
Maybe he's repeating an accident from that era.
Which means it's at least twenty-five years old.
Let's put a practical upper limit of, say, forty years.
Could be older.
Could have been a child.
Ok, George, we need accidents with children Occurring on a date with the number 3 in it.
Don't forget the leg injury.
Georgie, let's make it fast.
Like my mother always said, "All you get for doing good work is more work.
" Mr.
Malone, this is Miss Gates from Wheatland High School.
Hey.
Hey.
You got a minute? Yeah, sure.
Sam, I'm not scared of bullets, bombs, bad guys.
It's par for the course.
I am scared for my own daughter.
From what I hear about raising teenagers, it sounds appropriate.
Frances was twelve when Janet and I split up.
A little girl.
I turn around, she's seventeen.
It's like an alien took over her body.
Well, those aren't aliens, Bailey.
Those are hormones.
Half the time, she doesn't know who she is.
She just started at Wheatland High.
She already cut school today.
I don't know where she is.
Well, you don't think that she went back to Baltimore, do you? No.
She and Janet had a huge blowout.
Besides, she knows the only reason the court dismissed the charges against her was on the condition she live with me.
I just really think that she's just testing her boundaries, Bailey.
I mean, you're as new to her as she is to you.
That's not the way I wanted it.
I fought hard for her, Sam.
I sued for joint custody.
No dice.
Janet had the judge on her side.
I got completely shut out.
Does Frances know how hard you fought for her? I'm not sure.
I think you should tell her.
Yeah.
I got three hundred and fifty-six so far, one hundred and ten with children who survived, and right here eleven with male children who injured a leg.
Forty-year-old accidents.
Forgotten tragedies.
Yeah.
Some states don't keep the actual files past thirty, then it's microfilm.
I hooked up to the courthouse data network for the photo.
Wait, wait, wait.
Listen to this.
David Hambling, only child.
Parents killed in a head-on with a truck on Missouri route 26 in 1968.
They were driving a Camaro, and David's right leg was - was crushed.
March 3.
His foster family name was Rutherford.
See if you can get a current address.
Sure, he had problems, but a lot of these kids do.
Don't get me wrong.
I love being a foster mother, but these kids got dealt crappy cards, or they wouldn't be here in the first place.
Well, what was David Hambling like as a child? Quiet.
Kept to himself.
Never made any friends.
He used to make the most beautiful model cars - polished them, painted them.
And then he'd destroy them.
Yeah.
Used to smash them with his shoe.
Do you know Davey? Well, I'm beginning to feel like I do.
Now, he had a crushed leg.
Yeah, from the accident when he was four.
I don't like to think about it.
Can you imagine being trapped in the back seat of the car while your parents are dying in the front? Can you imagine what that does to a kid? Well, thank you for your time.
You wanted to see me? Yeah.
John, when you were on the Atlanta P.
D.
, you remember where the kids from Wheatland hung out? Sure.
The straight kids go to Piedmont Mall, and the punks hang out at a place they call the stacks.
Why? File this under the heading of "personal favor.
" Ok.
- Thanks.
Take 'em off.
She just borrowed your pretty bracelets, pops.
Chill.
Don't you have someplace else to be? Get in the car.
That's great.
Did you have to flash your badge? Now they all know my dad's in the F.
B.
I.
That'll win me a lot of friends.
You don't want these friends, Frances.
You really don't care about my feelings, do you? Of course I do.
I care about your feelings most of all.
But I also care that you cut school today.
That can't happen anymore, Frannie.
It just so happens there was a sub, and nothing was gonna happen anyway, but you don't even bother to ask me that.
You assume - I assume you're in school when you're supposed to be.
Now, get in the car.
You don't even know me.
All I ever was to you was a check in the mail.
That's not true.
I fought your mother like hell for custody.
That's not the way she remembers it.
Look, we've got a lot to talk about.
I want us to air it all out so we can make a clean start.
Ok? Get in the car, please.
Thought it was going to be different here, but you're just like mom.
Hey.
- How you doing? Tearing off those things sure hurts, don't it? Yeah.
Main thing is you're okay.
Is it? No.
Tomorrow I get my stitches out.
You know my friend Ben? He's gonna need surgery on his eye to reattach the retina.
It's fifty-fifty.
Over a few bucks.
Happens all the time.
No, it doesn't, not to me, not to my friends.
Danny's gonna have to eat through a straw for the next six weeks.
His jaw is broken.
I let it happen.
Wasn't your fault.
No, I froze.
John, you know you wouldn't have.
You and Bailey and Sam it's just when that gun jammed, I had my chance.
I just I froze.
I never got a clear I.
D.
Now he's walking around.
He'll sure as hell do it again.
You didn't create him.
It's not your fault.
You're being too hard on yourself.
I can't eat, I can't sleep at night.
I have to take care of this.
What does that mean? I've looked into this Luke character.
I know where he goes and when.
I'm into where he lives and breathes.
Maybe a couple buddies of mine from the Atlanta P.
D.
Can scramble his eggs.
No.
See, I don't need that.
All I need is a gun.
A gun? You're out of your mind.
The last thing you need is a gun.
Fine.
Listen to me.
Smartest thing you can do is leave this guy alone.
But getting a gun, going after him by yourself, that's not even on the list.
Well, I can't buy one, right? At least, not legally.
Think about why, George.
You were busted for illegal hacking.
You turned your life around with us.
You want to throw that all away just 'cause of this guy? Thanks for your help.
You know, this conversation alone is a felony.
Well, then arrest me, John, ok? So all right, all right.
Unh! Ok, here, here.
You just take my wallet, right? I don't want to fight ya.
I'm not gonna look at ya.
No, I want you to look at me Luke.
No, thanks, man.
Turn around really slow and look at me, Luke.
F.
B.
I.
What is this? Uh Is this a bust, F.
B.
I.
? Hey, hey, hey uh, you want to take it easy with that thing, ok? You want to think about what you want to do- Hey, you blinded a man.
You broke a kid's jaw.
Now, what do you think I should do to you? Well, I don't think you should kill me, because I didn't kill anybody, you know? I let you live.
No, you didn't.
Your gun jammed, Luke.
Do you remember? You wanted to, you tried to, but your gun jammed.
I don't think mine will.
What would the odds of that be? I got kids.
Ok, have have mercy, please.
What mercy? I didn't get any from you.
It was just business.
It was nothing personal.
You don't have to do this to me, ok? It was just, uh the same old, same old go along, get along, you know? Hey, this guy's trying to kill me, huh?! Oh.
Thought you might need some backup, but, uh, I guess you don't.
Hey.
Hey, where you going? Uh where you going? Face the wall.
- No, no, no, please.
Face the wall.
- Please, please, please, man, please! You want to do this? Please, please please.
Please.
I got what I wanted.
I don't care what you do with him.
Get up.
Stand up! Put your hands behind your back.
David Hambling drove for Midstates Overland until he was fired three months ago, and he stole a Royal Road 18-wheeler, and he just dropped right off the map.
There's only so many places a custom-made 18-wheeler can hide.
We can't wait, Bailey.
Day after tomorrow is the 13th.
George, how close can you hone in on the target area? Well, Hambling always chooses a section of road that's at least ten miles away from an intersection, which leaves us with these two possible stretches of Missouri 26.
There are about 45 miles of road in between.
He'll hit the same stretch of highway he did before.
We need to bring him to us.
John and Sam, I want you to go as decoys.
We'll shadow in the surveillance van.
I'll get plenty of backup from the highway patrol.
If you spot Hambling, just give a location signal.
Keep your distance.
Do you want some? No, not while I'm driving.
There's a little more coffee, it's not very hot.
Do you want? I'm working on a bad case of paper cup stomach as it is.
Hmm.
We should check again.
What time you guys got? At the tone, seven seconds past the midnight hour.
Should be time to rock 'n roll, but we haven't seen a truck for the last twenty minutes.
Be patient, John.
He's out there.
We got company.
Six o'clock, coming fast.
Jesus.
Guy's doing at least 80.
Where's a cop when you need one? False alarm.
What's this guy doing? It's getting near dawn / when lights close their tired eyes / I'll soon be with you, my love / to give you my dawn surprise / I'll be with you, darling, soon / I'll be with you when the stars start falling / I've been waiting so long / to be where I'm going / in the sunshine of your love It's him.
We got him.
Stay behind him, John.
It's safer.
Son of a bitch.
This is how he does it, until another car comes the other way.
He's speeding up.
He won't let us pass.
Hambling, get out of the truck.
We've got you covered from all four sides.
Hold your fire.
Hambling, F.
B.
I.
! Get on the ground with your arms spread.
Now! Bailey! Davey - Could be armed, Sam.
It's ok.
Davey, we're not gonna hurt you, all right? We want to help you.
Now, I want you to come with us, ok? I want to help you.
I want to help you find your mother and your father, all right? Come with us.
You guys better take a look.
There's something back here.
He's been recreating the accident again and again, trying to save his parents, collecting parts of their cars, parts of them, so that he could make them whole.
But he couldn't.
You've been here all night? Uh-huh.
You should go home.
You've been putting in a lot of hours.
In a bit.
This legal bureaucracy of ours is such a tangle.
What's the latest on our friend Luke Dickerson? He confessed, then flip-flopped.
Turned it around, said it was coerced.
They threw out the case.
But don't worry.
He's a repeat offender.
He'll be back behind bars before you know it.
Yes, he will.
Luke Dickerson's a victim of the system.
He's got failures to appear on assault, armed robbery, jumped bail in seven states, yet no one has gotten around to issuing the fugitive warrants he has coming.
Until now.
Uh-huh.
He won't even be able to walk the streets without getting picked up.
And the penalties add up to years behind bars.
And I am loving it.
Um uh, this was not what I had planned.
I, um, invited you over to thank you for being such a good guy about the class.
And I was just telling you how I wanted to come back.
Then did I kiss you, or did you kiss me? That time, I kissed you.
Is there gonna be a next time? Why not? I enjoy talking to them.
I feel like a kid most of the time myself.
Have you ever considered teaching or- Cheers.
Cheers.
Not until I was up in front of your class.
Gave me a couple of fantasies.
Yeah.
Teaching can be really fun.
They weren't about teaching.
Mary, Mary, so contrary Grow this.