♪ ♪
(grunts)
(alarm blaring)
♪ ♪
(yelling)
♪ ♪
(screaming)
Maybe the chute was sabotaged?
Problem is,
all our suspects are dead.
Multiple compound fractures to the legs.
The impact also caused
significant brain trauma,
all consistent with a base jump gone bad.
And our vic was the best in the business.
Jeff Scott. 23 years old.
Madison Avenue hired him
to promote the upcoming Real Fuel Games.
They picked today for the stunt
'cause the conditions were perfect.
Yeah, there was a slight change in forecast to cloudy
with a chance of birds.
TAYLOR: The pigeons weren't flying--
they dropped out of the sky like bricks.
What are we looking at here?
Electrical storm? Bird flu?
Poison. According to Jo O'Keefe of Animal Care and Control,
based on the size of the crime scene and the number of birds,
she believes they were flying formation,
and then suddenly died at approximately the same time.
That doesn't explain
all the blood that they're covered in, though.
Somebody's tagged them.
These are racing pigeons.
It looks like a bloody handprint.
Well, the vic's wearing gloves, so it didn't come from him.
Take a look at this one.
High-velocity blood spatter, indicating a gunshot
or some other violent action.
That means somewhere out there...
there's one more victim.
♪ Out here in the fields ♪
♪ I fight for my meals ♪
♪ I get my back into my living ♪
♪ I don't need to fight ♪
♪ To prove I'm right ♪
♪ I don't need to be forgiven, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Yeah. ♪
Captioning sponsored by CBS and CSI NY PRODUCTIONS
(camera shutter clicking)
Send this to the print lab.
I didn't think they still
raised pigeons, huh?
It's become a popular sport.
raised pigeons, huh?
It's become a popular sport.
These birds are athletes.
They can fly a thousand miles at 60 miles per hour
and always return home.
They navigate
by the Earth's magnetic field.
The beak has magnetite in it.
Acts like
a bird compass.
I always thought these things were just flying rats.
(chuckles): To some, yeah.
But to others in the racing community,
these birds are worth a lot of money.
That's motive for the poisoning right there.
"N.U."?
National Racing
Pigeon Union.
'06 for the year the bird was born and registered.
RS-644 is the owner.
All right, I'll reach out to the National Pigeon...
whatever it is, and see if I can't
figure out who owns these birds.
Yeah, maybe that'll lead us to the owner
of the bloody handprint.
♪ ♪
(camera shutter clicking)
MONROE: Vic's name is Edward Archerson.
He's the birthday girl's father.
And... that's Autumn.
She turned 16 today.
Next to her is Debra, the mother.
And then over there is Chaz, the son, channeling
the late great Johnny Cash.
The presentation of the car
was supposed to be the big finale.
CROWD: ...one!
(crowd cheering)
(screams)
(crowd cheering)
(screams)
Daddy!
Dad?
Dad!
Did anybody notice that the father was missing
before then?
Party like this, I don't think anybody noticed anything.
before then?
Party like this, I don't think anybody noticed anything.
Excuse me.
HAWKES: C-L-K-350.
Bet you the kid doesn't have a driver's license yet.
Well, nothing says happy birthday like a $60,000 car.
You know, when I turned 16, I got my mom's used Pinto.
I loved that car.
This isn't about sweet 16.
This is about outdoing the Joneses.
Help me move him back.
All right.
Ow!
Hey, Lindsay! Lindsay!
(groans)
She just got bit by a snake. Somewhere over there.
Got it!
Don't shoot! Don't shoot! It's mine!
Let me see, let me see, let me see.
You're gonna be all right.
(Monroe gasping, groaning)
I need a med-evac at 633 Cliffside Drive.
Man, that hurt.
BONASERA: There's an officer down with a snake bite.
Put this around your arm.
Okay, all right, all right, just send EMS.
They can't get a med-evac in here.
But EMS is on their way,
and they're gonna take you to heliport,
and the chopper's gonna take you
to the snake bite center, all right?
Look at me, look at me. You're gonna be fine.
Okay? You're gonna be fine.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
(siren chirps)
MAN: Oh, yeah. That's the same band that's on every one
of Mr. Seely's birds.
His coop's just up there.
He isn't in his apartment, he's usually on the roof.
How's Lindsay doing?
She was treated with antivenin bolus.
She'll be fine.
Howie.
You know Mr. Seely well?
Well enough.
You know, just the other day,
Ray was telling me how he got one of the networks
to pony up a $50,000 quarter-mile race
between one of his pigeons and a greyhound.
(laughs): Do you believe that?
Ray?
(camera shutter clicking)
Full rigor.
And you're just gonna ignore the bird?
Same tag.
This is home.
He doesn't have blood
on him like the others, though.
Or dead like the others.
This looks pretty.
Arterial spray-- he was cut here
and... stumbled back into the coop.
(grunts)
(gasps in pain)
(yells)
That could explain the bloody handprint
we found on one of the birds.
Severed carotid-- that's gonna be our COD.
MAN: M.E.'s office is on the way.
Howie, did Mr. Seely
ever mention any trouble he was having?
Nothing specific.
But as I understand, the sport was very competitive.
Everybody wants to come after the king.
That's what Ray used to say.
Maybe that's why he was thinking about getting out.
What do you mean, he was quitting?
He told me he was thinking about selling off his flock.
Who else has access to the roof?
No one.
Mr. Seely paid extra to have the roof to himself.
I mean, it was just him and the kid.
Who? What kid?
Uh, he cleaned the coop, fed the birds.
He loved the flock as much as Ray, I guess.
I heard them get into it the other day.
But I wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying.
What's the kid's name?
Kid.
♪ ♪
TAYLOR: This cut in Seely's bone looks like it was produced
by a toothed blade.
Discoloration suggests it was moving at a high rate of speed.
You're thinking the murder weapon was a power saw?
That would explain the high-velocity spatter.
(screaming)
Results came back
from the reflective substance
we scooped off the pigeon coop.
Calcium carbonate and conchiolin,
It's called nacre...
but more commonly Mother-of-pearl.
Clam shells in a pigeon coop?
Not specifically.
Could be the iridescent lining of any number of mollusk shells.
FLACK: You guys ready for this?
Ray Seeley is actually Rudy Santangelo.
I ran background on him-- Ray's prints came back
to this guy Rudy who picked up
for a couple B & E's when he was 15.
Did some more checking-- turns out Rudy-boy
testified in a federal case back in '93.
After that, nothing...
disappeared like he never even existed.
Our victim was in Witness Protection.
TAYLOR: Thanks for meeting me, Candace.
Here's your guy--
Rudy Santangelo-- aka, Ray Seeley.
Went into Protection in New Mexico in '93
when he was 17.
Guess he got tired of it,
because he came out on his own in '04.
Been out of our radar ever since.
Tell me what you can tell me.
You know the rules, Mac.
Look, I'm not asking the Bureau to compromise itself.
Just tell me what's pertinent to my investigation.
If I knew why the vic was being protected
I might have an idea of who'd want to see him dead.
Santangelo-- Seeley befriended a K-9 cop,
Kevin Bart.
Community policing and all that.
They grew close.
Ray saw Bart and his dog killed by two bank robbers.
The robbers were IRA.
Santangelo testified against them in open court.
IRA used to drop four or five bodies a year
here in New York.
You think they'd hold a grudge?
We'll let you know.
Mac, why do I get the feeling
we're going to be bumping into each other on this?
Because your witness was found dead
and it's my job to find out who killed him.
This car is pristine
except for these distinctive scratches here in the hood.
Okay, set the light to the lower angle.
I have a date with an unconscious snake.
Limonene...
primarily used in cleaning applications.
Possible sources are paint stripper, wax remover...
guitar strings.
Guitar strings?
Hey, Stella. Hawkes.
I know how the snake got in the car.
It was an accident.
All I meant to do is scare Autumn.
I didn't mean to hurt anyone.
BONASERA: Chaz, that little prank you pulled
put one of my people in the hospital
and it put your father in the morgue.
CHAZ: I'm sorry... I'm so sorry...
The snake charmer we hired assured us it would be safe.
He came highly recommended by my spiritual advisor.
Chaz, did you know your father was going to be in the car?
No.
I didn't mean to kill my dad.
What's going to happen?
Is he going to go to jail?
At the very least he'll be charged
with reckless endangerment.
Now, if your husband did die from the snakebite,
he's looking at manslaughter.
Mom...
While the unfortunate Mr. Archerson
did have a close encounter of the reptile kind...
that was not what killed him.
See this damage to the throat?
Here.
Crushed thyroid cartilage...
COD is asphyxiation due to strangulation.
If the killer used a soft object,
combined with a wide distribution of force,
then you wouldn't have any noticeable damage
to the epidermis,
but you'd still get the damage to the underlying tissue.
What kind of murder weapon does that?
You might want to keep that coat on, boss.
I found traces of termite killer
inside the feed box on Seeley's roof.
Located the one place that stocks the "fly high" feed
and I checked their packages.
All the other bags were clean.
So someone tampered with the feed
after it left the store.
The owner confirmed that Seeley had an account there.
Sent a kid named Jesse to pick up the feed every week.
Jesse?
Jesse Quinn-- loved the birds as much as Ray.
Tracked him down to a pool table repair shop on Ocean Avenue
in Brooklyn.
Pool tables...
Which have Mother of pearl inlays.
Call Flack, tell him to meet me there.
Hey, Hawkes...
heard the autopsy report came back on Edward Archerson.
Strangulation, murder weapon... unknown.
Blood alcohol level was negative.
That's odd.
The whiskey bottle we found in his pocket
was open and empty.
I'll show you something else that's odd.
It's this stray hair
I pulled from the vic.
BONASERA: The proximal end of the hair?
Yeah.
If that hair was ripped out
during a struggle,
that end should be torn not cut.
Now see,
there's a small segment of the hair that's crushed.
Which can happen in cases of blunt-force trauma.
But there was no blood in the car,
nothing else to substantiate that, so...
I ran some additional tests.
Not even a trace of keratin, propylparaben
or fragrance. That's not possible.
It is if it's virgin hair.
Hair that hasn't been treated with any kind of product.
So you're thinking...
That this hair,
was ripped out of a very expensive hair extension.
So we've got two unanswered questions--
the hair and the whiskey.
I say we hit the bottle first.
MAN: Ray Seeley dead?
For real?
Afraid so.
For real?
Afraid so.
Decent guy.
My stepson Jesse--
he worked with Mr. Seeley
and his birds.
He did that
ever since his mom died.
Got any leads?
Yeah, working on a couple things.
How'd you get interested
in pigeons, Jesse?
Jess, come over.
The man asked a question.
Um...
I don't... I don't know.
Started when I was a little kid.
A pigeon flew into my bedroom--
right through the window.
And she wasn't scared at all.
FLACK: Hey, Jesse, when was
the last time you saw Ray Seeley?
Um... the other day.
The building super said you two had a fight on the roof, Jesse.
Were you pissed 'cause
he was selling off his flock.
No. I mean, that's not true.
Jesse, did you damage
Mr. Seeley's coop?
There was a cut in one of the wooden posts.
Okay, all right, we're done here.
Jesse, would you mind if we had a little talk alone?
Jess!
I'll cut him off on the other side.
I just want to talk to you, Jesse.
Jesus, who did that to you?
What the hell was that?
You had him. You let him go?
The kid doesn't have a summer house in the Hamptons.
Trust me, he'll be around.
Trust you?
What's that supposed to mean?
You got a problem with me, just say it.
Let's just get out of here.
Cops are talking about you, I know that.
They're saying you didn't have Dean Truby's back
when you gave me the memo book that convicted him.
Doesn't matter.
He's in jail.
That's what you wanted, right?
I wanted to put a killer behind bars, and I did that.
Truby was a bad cop.
He stole cocaine from a crime scene
and he killed somebody.
Don, you know you did the right thing.
You want to be angry at somebody, make it Truby.
'cause he's the one that forced you
to make that decision.
Dried blood.
Mac, I hope you're right about this kid.
Because if the blood on that case matches our vic,
your instincts just let our murderer go.
All right, so this eliminates
our vic as the source of the print.
Now, Edward Archerson didn't drink,
so someone had to put the bottle into his pocket at the party.
Let's see who may have had a fondness for whiskey.
The Archersons didn't
invite any criminals to their party.
The guest list was 90% kids
and unless they're robbing banks between classes,
They're not gonna be in the system.
Depends on the system.
Come here.
Brighton Country Day.
Autumn and Chaz Archerson's school.
Let me reference their data base.
They fingerprint kids at school?
It's a new little gizmo they use
in high school cafeterias.
See, Junior just runs his finger over a scanner and...
debits an account.
And we have a winner.
Perfection.
I've known Autumn since pre-K.
Even then she treated me like I don't exist.
She invited you to her party.
Not because she likes me.
(kids clammoring)
Hi... Hi, guys.
Tim!
Tim. Come up here.
Thanks, Autumn.
Never, ever touch me.
Autumn said I can make it up to her,
if I brought her cousin,
Mia Pleskow, to the party,
emphasis on the "cow."
So you, uh, agreed to do that?
Yeah. It was supposed to be the party of the decade.
I just wanted to be included.
Or maybe you just thought it would be
the perfect place to seek your revenge.
Tell me what happened between you and Mr. Archerson.
It was no big deal.
I tried to spike the punch,
but that's it.
Hey!
What the hell you doing?
Gimme that.
Come on.
Security! Get this guy the hell out of here.
Don't let him back in.
Figured Autumn and her friends would get drunk
and the Princess's sweet 16
would turn into a sweet puke fest.
I just wanted
to knock 'em down a peg.
Are you telling me it doesn't bother you at all
that one of your friend's father was murdered?
Do you think it bothers anybody?
You're one screwed up little kid.
Hey.
Heard you had a suspect.
Yeah, a 16-year-old.
I'm looking for a teenage suspect, too.
They keep getting younger and younger.
The only problem is, who do you blame--
them or their parents?
Hey, have you heard from Reed Garrett?
No.
Nothing yet,
but that day in the diner
when I described his mother to him, he lit up.
His eyes were just filled with curiosity.
He reminded me so much
of her.
I think he'll... he'll call me when he's ready.
I just want it to be his decision.
You might need to give him
a little nudge.
Yeah, well,
you know what he's going through.
He's a kid and he needs
his space right now.
I can't imagine.
He spends all his time looking for his biological mother
and then he finds out that Claire no longer exists.
Oh, she exists, Mac.
In your memory and in your heart.
You can show him who she was.
Same "W" shape,
curve mark and tooth pattern.
Looks like you found our murder weapon.
Not only our murder weapon.
It also tells us how the coop was damaged.
You said Jesse Quinn had a job
building pool tables.
Means he had access
to power tools.
We got his prints at the crime scene.
And we got motive.
Still don't think this kid did it?
Jesse Quinn is not a killer.
And you're right.
Let's follow procedure.
Call the D.A. Get a search warrant.
Let's see if one of Quinn's power saws is our murder weapon.
Hey, Hawkes, what have you got?
These are all the photos I took of the car
that we brought back from the crime scene.
Now, they were all taken using various lighting angles.
And when I stack them on top of each other...
What is that?
A drachma.
The Greek coin.
Actually, in this case,
it's part of a coin belt.
And that's what caused the scratches
on the hood of the car.
Belly dancers wear those.
Exactly.
Which ties into the party theme--
Arabian Nights.
And I remembered seeing a photo station in the room.
So I contacted the photographer...
And I got his flash card.
I isolated all the females
who were dressed as belly dancers.
Uh-huh.
And found the drachma belt.
Great work.
Yeah, that's my belt.
I still can't believe someone would kill Edward.
Edward?
That's an informal way
to refer to your best friend's father.
But it was more than that, wasn't it, Paige?
He liked me.
It was flattering.
He bought me things.
And we have a little evidence that suggests
how you might have thanked him.
I was just trying to get into the party.
Hi, baby.
What are you doing here?
If Autumn sees you, she's going to throw a fit.
Come on. Come on.
(couple giggling)
You weren't invited?
Autumn was upset with me.
Dad.
Paige?
Honey.
Want a sandwich?
Did Autumn tell her mother?
You saw the car, right?
Yeah.
That's what it cost Edward for her not to tell.
Mac, I got a D.A. who's asking me a lot of questions.
Okay? He wants to know where we are
on the Seeley investigation.
I was a little tongue-tied, so I'm asking you.
The blood we found on the birdcage
outside the billiard shop
turned out to be pigeon blood.
Okay, what about the warrant to search Quinn's power saws?
Look, I understand the kid looks good,
but I'm not gonna rush this.
Patrick Quinn has a history of abuse flag.
Jesse wasn't running from us,
he was running from his stepfather.
Incident reports filed by ER doctors?
Jesse Quinn
broke his collar bone
on September fifth of last year. In November,
a broken finger.
In March, two broken ribs.
This summer, a shoulder sprain. Four instances this year.
Maybe the kid plays football.
In January?
That's when he his arm
for the second time.
(knocking)
I got our vic's blood
on one of the saws I took from Quinn's
Workshop. Two sets of prints.
Jesse and his stepfather, Patrick.
They share tools.
Okay.
You're going to find
two sets of prints.
But hear me out,
the stepfather's got no motive.
It's the kid.
Seeley was going to sell his flock,
Jesse got pissed. We got our murderer.
Just give me an hour. I'm working on something here.
If I can't prove to you that Jesse didn't do it,
I'll make the arrest myself.
I been looking at all the pictures from the party,
trying to find a match to the hair that you found
in the car.
And I think I found one.
Debra Archerson.
Well, the hair's definitely a visual match in color.
Yeah, not only that,
if I measure from the top of the head
to the hair's terminus...
we have a match.
And Debra Archerson was wearing hair extensions.
That could be her real hair.
Not unless she can grow
That could be her real hair.
Not unless she can grow
18 inches in two weeks.
Same photographer took their holiday photo.
Oh.
18 inches.
Now, Mr. Archerson's neck size
couldn't have been more than 15 and a half.
That hair extension would definitely be long enough
to fit around his neck.
And soft enough to not do any visible damage to the epidermis.
We have our murder weapon and we have
our murderer.
Nice to have you back, Lindsay.
Now let's get these over to Stella.
You killed your husband.
What?
First you accuse my son and now me?
We have evidence
that puts you in the car.
Of course you do.
My husband wanted me to look at the car
for the big presentation.
Is that when you killed him?
No.
Is that when you killed him?
No.
How can you sit there and suggest that I'm a suspect.
Mrs. Archerson, we pulled a hair
off your husband's lifeless
body and it's a match
to this photograph.
Your hair extension is the murder weapon.
When Edward was killed I was with my daughter.
Ugh, all day long it was
one thing after another.
And then the car.
You're angry about the car?
It was a bit excessive.
Edward and I agreed on a Mustang for Autumn.
And here's this ridiculous Benz.
It's what Autumn wanted.
And he always gave her what she wanted.
Always?
Always!
Always?
Always!
Well, they can't have everything they want!
They can't.
Why not?
It's not like you don't have the money.
I am not like them.
I'm not like them.
I'm not.
I'm so sick of it all.
I just wanted to walk out
and leave everything behind-- the party, my daughter...
Autumn. Autumn.
(laughing): God.
What kind of a name is that?
Autumn was Edward's idea.
He had me sit
inside that car...
(sighs) ...to see how comfy it was.
You indulge her every whim.
Don't be such a downer, Deb.
Come on, you only turn 16 once, right?
Just try to be happy for once in your life.
(grunting, gagging)
It was just too much!
Way too much.
(laughs)
If you think about it, in the long run...
...it was the right thing to do.
You're worried about the kids.
Don't worry about the kids.
'Cause maybe...
they won't take the little things for granted.
I think they both will be better off.
Don't you?
(phone ringing)
Taylor.
Mac, it's Candace.
I need to talk to you;
I may have something on the Ray Seeley case.
A lead on a suspect?
Well, I won't know until I see you.
Can we meet for coffee tomorrow?
Westway Diner, 8:00 a.m.
See you there.
Okay.
See you there.
Okay.
Hey, I got your page-- what's up?
I think I can prove Jesse Quinn didn't murder Ray Seeley.
Here's what I've been working on; take a look.
Based on statements and autopsy findings,
our vic's official time of death was Friday
at approximately 3:00 p.m.
And we know from the digital clock we found on the coop
our bird landed here, Seeley's rooftop,
at 3:18 p.m.
The chip attached to the pigeon
recorded a distance covered of 12 miles.
Assuming a straight line of flight,
the bird was released anywhere along this 12-mile radius.
And that zone includes
the billiard shop where Jesse worked.
Mm-hmm.
I believe that's where he was taking care
of our little feathered friend.
And it's the same place where we found
the bird cage with Jesse's prints
and traces of bird blood.
So you're saying that Jesse released the bird
from this location.
18 minutes is not enough time for him
to murder Ray Seeley, get back to the billiard shop
to release the pigeon, and for the bird to then fly
twelve miles back to the coop.
Good theory.
It just depends how fast the bird can fly.
TAYLOR: We need to clock this bird.
You guys in position?
All right.
Yeah, we're ready.
All right.
Yeah, we're ready.
Houston, we have liftoff.
From that direction.
I got him.
Twelve minutes, fifty seconds.
Just under 60 miles per hour.
That would only
leave Jesse about five minutes to get from the murder scene
back to the billiard shop 12 miles away.
There's no way he killed Ray Seeley.
Which means the second set of prints we got
off our murder weapon belong to our killer.
Let's go talk to Jesse's stepfather.
FLACK: What'd you do, Quinn?
Hang out in Tribeca
till Seeley left the apartment?
Figured with all the construction going on
in the neighborhood,
who'd notice another guy with a tool belt
and a reciprocating saw?
Right?
TAYLOR: You went upstairs...
dumped bug poison on the feed...
...then you started to take apart the coop.
That's when Seeley returned.
What the hell?
(saw buzzing)
(screaming)
When we came to your shop to break the news,
Jesse ran-- not from us,
but from you.
You beat your kid.
You think I did that?
You did do that.
He knew what you did,
and what you would do to make sure he kept his mouth shut.
Let me tell you something.
Life ain't a free ride, okay?!
Sit.
You sit down.
Wrong answer.
You might want to sit down.
(pounds desk)
Kid spent all his time with that freak and his damn birds.
You think he could help me out?
In a shop?
Look, I know, it's easy.
Blame me for being a lousy parent.
What about him?
Huh? What about his responsibility
to me?
Kid didn't even go to school, but he was perfectly content
to let me work
my fingers to the bone.
Well, to hell with him!
And the hell with you.
Get him out of my face.
Stand up.
I gave that kid my name.
He wasn't even mine.
I should have tossed him to the street years ago.
Wait.
Right now, I'd give a year's pay for two minutes alone
in this room with you.
But since that won't happen, I promise you this.
You're going to place
where you won't be able to hurt Jesse again.
JESSE: Thanks for bringing her home.
What were you arguing about with Ray Seeley?
Oh, no big deal.
Usually, I use the stairs when I take feed up to the roof.
That day, I used the elevator.
I guess some of it leaked.
Neighbors must have complained.
Her name's Sadie.
After my mom.
After she was the only one that survived,
I knew it must have been a sign.
You want to see her fly?
Sure.
(knocking)
Reed.
Hi.
You, uh, you like cheeseburgers?
P.J. Clark's on Third?
Got the best burgers in town.
Come on, I'm buying.
Look, Mr. Taylor...
It's Mac.
Uh, well, Mac...
I appreciate the offer,
but you don't have to start buying me meals
because you feel bad.
Look, Reed, I'm not here for me...
or you.
I'm here because
despite what you told me when we met,
that we're not related, we do have something...
...very much in common-- your mother,
Claire Conrad Taylor.
I'm here for her.
I know that she would have wanted us
to get to know each other.
And I'd like to give that to her.
How about it?
(paper rustling)
I brought pictures.
(phone beeps)
You got to go?
I'm sorry.
I'll tell you what.
Why don't you hang on to these for me?
Yeah, it's FBI Agent Candace Broadbent.
Get down here now.
Looks like she was ambushed on the way to her car.
Straight up execution.
No robbery, no nothing.
Whoever did this was a pro.
TAYLOR: I was supposed to meet her tomorrow morning.
She said she had info on Ray Seeley.
Did we snag the wrong guy, Mac?
No.
Our evidence led right to Quinn.
(camera shutter clicks in distance)
I think Candace started asking questions
about Ray Seeley...
...opened a can of worms,
and found a snake.
Captioned by access.wgbh.org oup at WGBH