♪ ♪
I don't think I can get a clear shot.
It's a peregrine falcon. No, it's not. It's a hawk. You can't see anything this time of day. We should come back at dawn. But I'm so behind on my life list. I still don't have a western wood-pewee or a solitary sandpiper. What, do you think they're gonna kick you out of the club? John saw a dickcissel earlier today. It could be gone tomorrow. John's full of... ( cawing ) Corvus corax. A common raven? So what?
( siren wailing ) GRISSOM: Well, someone's missing a contact lens. WILLOWS: That's not all they're missing. You know, ravens, like eagles, have been known to travel 30 miles from roost to feeding ground. 30 miles in every direction. Pi r squared. That means that we're looking at a... 2,800 mile search area. "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered "weak and weary over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore." We're up a tree and you're quoting Poe. Give me something. "Quoth the Raven, 'Only this... and nothing more.'"
♪ Who... are you? ♪ ♪ Who, who, who, who? ♪ ♪ Who... are you? ♪ ♪ Who, who, who, who? ♪ ♪ I really wanna know ♪ ♪ Who... are you? ♪ ♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ Who... ♪ ♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ Who... ♪ ♪ Come on, tell me who are you, you, you ♪ ♪ Oh, you! ♪
♪ ♪
You'll be pleased to know the eyeball was only slightly desiccated. And what about the iris? Still blue. Color distinction means the body's been dead less than 48 hours. Yeah, I sent some vitreous fluid to tox. The rest to DNA. So, what else have you found in our nest?
WILLOWS: Well, let's see-- I've got some foil a leaf, a feather and plastic.
Feathers. For warmth. Seagull feathers. Well, the only place we'd have seagulls around here would be Lake Mead. But only when the fishing's good. And we got some ground limestone.
GRISSOM: Not found at Lake Mead.
You know, ravens are incredibly intelligent. They have a brain capacity comparable to dolphins. Means they know where to shop. We found the eye here. I'm thinking that she shopped here where limestone is used as ground cover. ( birds chirping ) ♪ ♪
SIDLE: Did you know the average Nevadan generates three times more waste than the average American? Yeah, well, that's tourist trash. 13 million pounds per day. I went to a recycling forum in March. So, the landfill manager says this is the active cell. Spotter says cell lift moves forward 20 feet a day. That puts the active cell pretty much in front of us. Man! You find the best evidence in the nastiest places. You are what you throw away. It's like peeling an onion into peoples' lives. Well, this onion is our time line, so peel back accordingly.
ROBBINS: The electrolyte and glucose levels in the eye were normal. Means your victim wasn't dehydrated or diabetic. Other than that... We're flying blind. David. Uh, Hey, Griss.
A 35-year-old male. Car salesman. Dropped dead at work. Apparent heart attack. Not under the care of a physician. Uh, no history of high blood pressure. Just routine autopsy.
Go for it.
Yeah, we're all set, Dr. Robbins. Okay, David. Case 03-615. Postmortem exam of an adult. Caucasian. Male. Identified as Fred Stearns. Body received warm to the touch. Rigor mortis not present. Skull, nose, bones are intact by palpation. Irides are brown. Slightly congested. Hmm. Unidentified dry black substance on the front of the teeth, gingiva and lips. Okay. David, open him up.
Uh, D-Dr. Robbins? Hmm? Sir, I-I have blood. I-I have bleeding.
( clears throa ) Get me my kit. Come on.
Hold this. Let's go, keep it tight.
That's it, David. Good.
Pulse is rising. David, string me a suture needle. Go, go.
♪ ♪
Hey! I think I may have something here.
What do you got? STOKES: Whoa.
Got a leg. STOKES: Obviously female. Obviously. Whew. WILLOWS: Whoo! STOKES: I'll bag it.
All right, I got a torso and head. Missing an eye. ( cawing ) WILLOWS: Okay, so, uh how hot do you think it is, underneath all this trash? STOKES: I don't know, what do you think-- ballpark at 120 degrees? So this is yesterday's trash. Dead body. Minimum 18 hours in this heat. She should be totally bloated. WILLOWS: Yeah, she's not. Uh, she's really torn up.
Bulldozers are vicious.
I think they only finished the job. How did she get here?
Heard you got to be superhero today. I consider myself a superhero every day. Got anything on Our Lady of the Dump? COD is still indeterminate. Blunt force trauma's a possibility. She has some perimortem bruising around the left eye. But limb removal's relatively clean. Definitely postmortem. So we've got no arms, no prints. What kind of identifying characteristics do we have? Second degree midline episiotomy scar. Well, that narrows it down to more than half the women in this country who gave birth. But there might be one other thing. At first I thought appendectomy, but check out her X-ray. She's had surgery. Some kind of implant at the L4-L5 interspace. I'll know more when I open her up. You're my hero, Al. All right, what do we know? That all of this trash was found around the victim. And she was buried with some very expensive trash. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with this frying pan. Could've gone to Goodwill or someplace. Home pregnancy test. Negative. Better luck next time. Someone does not like frozen peas. ( chuckles ) They weren't shopping at Costco. They paid way too much for ice cream.
There's a good chance our vic was wearing this shirt. Let's start trying to narrow this down to a neighborhood, huh? Excellent idea. Uh, marker or sort? Sort. Please. First up: "178 Spaulding Meadows." Uh, "174 Storm Cloud Lane."
A second 174 Storm Cloud Lane. ROBBINS: Pulled it from the L4-L5 interspace. Cobalt chromium molybdenum alloy with a titanium coating and an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene component. An artificial spinal disc. If you can recreate a spine, the possibilities are endless. I thought, uh, disc replacement surgery involved fusing bone to bone. Yeah, typically, but it can limit mobility. With that little disc, your body doesn't know the difference. Matches range of motion, flexibility and an axial rotation of a normal spine. Still in clinical trials. Less than a thousand surgeries have been performed in this country. Oh, well, I like those odds. You'll like this even better. Medium endplate, size 12, polyethylene component and a six-degree lordosis angle. Narrowed it down to one. Amy Ennis. Austin, Texas. Tourist? ( chuckles ) That's for you to find out.
♪ ♪ ( indistinct chatter ) Hey, is this all of them? WILLOWS: Yeah, every last one on Storm Cloud Lane. SIDLE: Cans are on private property, it's not trash day, how did you get consent? I talked to the president of the owner's association. What'd you threaten her with? A return visit.
Hey, guys? I got blood. Yeah. Yeah, me, too. WILLOWS: Well, that makes five. Let's see if any of it's human.
STOKES: These two are human.
SIDLE: If the vic was in here, blood would have pooled to the bottom.
Yeah, and blood dripped down the side of this one as the hydraulc arm dumped it. ( clanking ) This is our can.
And that's our house. You found blood in my trash can? Any idea how it got there? No. Do you know an Amy Ennis from Austin, Texas? No. WILLOWS: So, you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about?
Dad? You all right? I'm fine. What's going on? I'm just asking your father a few questions. Why don't you go inside and make some dinner? What are you in the mood for? Whatever you want.
Charlie, homework. Hey. Get the job? Later.
Divorced? Yeah. Five years. I hear David's resurrecting the dead now. ( chuckles ): Yeah, our little miracle worker. I just came from the hospital. That guy's in ICU with respiratory paralysis. I did get a prelim on his blood work-- looks like some sort of an organic poison. Well, that would explain the discoloration Robbins found around his mouth. MAN: Stick with me. I'm telling you, this is great. You're gonna love this, love this. You're gonna get 30 miles to the gallon, very low maintenance, you people are gonna love it. You know what? I want you to tell them to throw away the manuals. Call me for anything. Marty Gibson doesn't close a sale, he opens a relationship. That guy's a charmer. Yeah, real Ricky Roma. ( dog yipping ) WOMAN: Do you want a treat? Do you want a treat? Can I help you, gentlemen? I'm Warrick Brown, this is Gil Grissom. We're from the Las Vegas Crime Lab. Oh. Nanci Linden. It's a pleasure to meet you. We have a warrant to search your premises. What for? For evidence concerning the attempted murder of Fred Stearns.
Oh, he had a heart attack. He's dead.
No, he didn't, and he's not. ( barks ) Gigi, shush. Shh! ( whimpers ) Shh! ( whimpers ) I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to bring her in here. ( whisperin ) ( indistinct radio chatter ) So, this was... is Fred's desk. Nobody's touched it since they took him away. It's bad luck. Middle desk is Marty Gibson. The one on the end is Clyde Hinton. Thank you.
The poison could've come from any of these sources here. Oral fixation, you think? Yeah. Constant need for gratification? Yeah. Constant need for gratification? BROWN: In every way. This guy was like the monster closer. You ever buy a brand-new car, Griss? Depreciation doesn't make it a logical investment. It's not about logic. It's about that smell. There's nothing like the smell of a brand-new car. How right you are. Marty Gibson. Huh? We're not buying, we're looking. If we need any help, we'll let you know. Sometimes it's not about what you need, sometimes it's about what you want.
♪ ♪
GRISSOM: You always, uh, lock your drawers?
Huh. ( snickers ) You're the one who super-glued Fred's phone. ( chuckles ) "Chewing Gum: will turn any mouth black for days." ( laughs ) ( cell phone rings ) ( laughs ) ( cell phone rings ) Warrick Brown. I get it. You're the funny guy. You know the definition of "kismet," Mr. Grissom? Do you know the definition of attempted murder, Mr. Hinton? Just go with me for a second. Go with you where? Come on. "Kismet." Fate, or destiny, from the Arabic word meaning to distribute, or divide up. Smart guy. Destiny is what you make of it. It's what gets distributed to me while the other guy's washing the stain off his lips. Well, boys, just closed another fatty. Two hours of schmooze-- I can't lose. Your lips. Clyde! Don't worry, Freddy. I'll handle the client. ( laughs ) Look, everyone tries to get an edge in this business. I use jokes. Fred Stearns just passed away. Again.
Dead guy. Not funny.
Okay, David, take two.
No luck on Amy Ennis's next of kin. The Austin PD is still working on it. Well, we know that she had a kid. Well, she gave birth. That doesn't mean that she had a kid. So, what, we've got nothing? We have a Mercury Sable, uh, Texas plates, found in the lot of the Tangiers hotel. She's the registered owner. They're bringing it in now.
PHILLIPS: If the poison was administered orally, I may know how it got into the bloodstream.
Gastric ulcer. In a healthy, functioning stomach mucosa lines the walls and prevents the hydrochloric acid from burning the organ itself. But if h. pylori gets in there, sends the whole system off-balance, stops the mucosa and causes an ulcer. Opens a direct channel from your digestive tract straight into your bloodstream.
I know a lot about stress-related ailments. ROBBINS: Any word yet on a poison? Tox screen ruled out the ink gum. It could've been a factor, though. Uh, gum churns up stomach acid-- instant inflammation. I don't care about his indigestion, Doc. We need to know what killed him. SIDLE: Well, she wasn't in town on business. What's that?
( clicking tongue ) Oh. ( clicking tongue ) Oh. Depends on what her business was, I guess. ( chuckles )
Nothing risqué about the rest of her wardrobe. Maybe she got it here. She could've met somebody, you know.
STOKES: Okay, I'm gonna fume. Okay.
( beeping ) ( two beeps ) ( tapping key ) According to Greg, the hairs and the DNA from the toothbrush are a match to the vic. What about the prints from her car? I thought I messed it up, so I ran it twice. No errant prints, all a match to the same woman. Amy Ennis. No "Amy Ennis" in the database. Well, Amy Ennis is our vic. It's her car. Prints came back to somebody named Kelly Easton. WILLOWS: Kelly Easton... Easton... 174 Storm Cloud Lane? What's the first thing you do when you don't want to be found? Leave town. Yeah... Leave town. Yeah... and change your name.
WILLOWS: Want a mulligan on your first story? "Divorced"? EASTON: What the hell was I supposed to say? My wife went out to get her hair done and never came home. Well, maybe you gave her a reason to leave. Spousal abuse, cheating... Ugh, you people. You know, you were here five years ago, with your grid searches, your dogs, your cadets-- you came up empty. You give me a good reason why my wife left me, I'd love to hear it, because I tried the truth. I didn't know what happened. You know what I got for it? They all think I killed my wife. Her parents sued me for custody. I lost my job, my friends. Only thing I got left are those kids and this house. Okay, you didn't kill her. At least back then.
♪ ♪
I don't think these belong to Dad.
Could place Mrs. Easton at the house. She came back about a month ago. Doorbell rings... ( doorbell rings ) ( scoffs ) What do you say? Hi. ( chucklin ) SIDLE: You tell me. Whatever it is, it must've worked. She was back in your bedroom. Well, they say time heals all wounds. It's crap. I hate her for what she did to us, but I swear, it was the first time I felt anything in five years.
♪ ♪
CHARLIE: So, she's really dead? Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. Figures. How's that? Figures. How's that? She left without telling us. Figures she'd die the same way. I don't think your mom knew she was gonna die, bud. Whatever. ( muffled music playing ) Last time I saw my mother, I was... in seventh grade. She handed me my lunch and said, "See you after school." Did you know that she was back? I never thought that she was dead.
Can I sit down? Yeah, sure. Nora, I'm sorry. I-I know this has got to be very hard on you and your brother. And my dad.
Is your dad seeing anybody? Does he have a girlfriend? How could he?
♪ ♪
STOKES: This is where I found the hairs, in between the packages of frozen peas.
WILLOWS: Mrs. Easton was a brunette. And we found a warehouse worth of frozen peas at the landfill.
Lack of swelling, clean fractures... She was frozen.
Skin and muscle would've lost elasticity. Fracture planes would've passed through in a straight line. I'm thinking somebody in this family stuck her in here, waited till trash day.
Well, the garbage tells us how she was killed. Now I want to know who.
That unknown substance I collected from Marty Gibson's coat? Possibly reptilian skin? How'd you know? Tox report. The organic poison came back snake venom. I think maybe it's time to open a relationship with Marty Gibson. We found reptile skin on your jacket sleeve. So, unless you're shedding, we want to know how it got there. Whoa, gentlemen, slow down. Can I get you a cup of coffee? Nanci...? No, thank you. Doughnut? Everybody loves doughnuts. Nanci? No doughnuts. BROWN: Fred Stearns dropped a dime at Girls, Girls, Girls and wrote it off. Kaido Computers. Software guys are nuts, into the kinky stuff. End of the day, they're driving Fred's cars. Neiman Marcus, jewelry department? Fred knew you got to spend money to make money. Well, here's a freaky one. Since when are two dozen mice a business expense? Since I got The Pet Place to buy a mini-van from me. My cousin works there. You got kids? I could put you in a wagon way below sticker. Marty? way below sticker. Marty?
What'd you do with the mice?
What do you care? You gonna arrest me for blurring the lines? No. We were leaning towards murder.
MARTY: Watch your step. ( rattlin ) You guys are completely overreacting. It's just a hobby. See? Fuzzies? They're food. You know it's illegal in the state of Nevada to have venomous snakes? If you handle them correctly, snakes are harmless. I know what I'm doing. Yeah, that's what we're afraid of.
DANIEL: I didn't even know she was dead. Thought she'd just left me again. BRASS: Well, it's a good thing you didn't tell the kids Mom was back. My client agreed to talk to you, not be harassed by you. You're right. Well, you were excited to see her. Why wouldn't the kids be? I'm an adult. That's right, you're an adult. Knowledgeable, experienced, aware of Nevada Statutes, Chapter 156: Administration of Estates of Missing Persons. Uh, it's a matter of public record. We've been filling out those forms for five years. You're jumping the gun. those forms for five years. You're jumping the gun. It's four years, 11 months, one week. So what? Well, in three weeks, Mrs. Easton's estate can be distributed to her husband. You had a half a million dollar life insurance policy on your wife. And she had one on me. We did that for the kids. But you're not dead, and she wasn't, either, two days ago. You know, for an unemployed guy, you're doing a lot of spending. ( laughs ): I mean, Tiffany's, La Perla, International Watch Company. Expecting a windfall? Don't answer that. You're fishing. No, I do that with a pole. No, I'm just thinking out loud. Your wife disappears. Five years after the fact, you get the money-- you've earned it, it's yours-- but she screwed you up. She showed up.
I did not kill my wife. What happened, Daniel? The sex wasn't as good as you remembered it, or the money was better? What happened?
The scales found on your suspect's jacket are keeled. diamondback rattlesnake. All of his other snakes have smooth scales. ( rattling, hissing ) A snake fang is basically a hypodermic needle. Oral glands hold in the venom... like the barrel. When aggravated, the jaw muscles push on the toxin, like a plunger. Only, our victim didn't have any puncture wounds.
Well, your guy's probably pretty comfortable with his collection. Otherwise, he'd be dead. Which means he could've milked this one. And brought the venom with him to the dealership. Well, the trace lab found venom proteins in his coffee cup. Could that have killed him? Well, I know a lot of hot shots who drink the stuff-- manly, daredevil BS-- and they're still alive. Because typically, and they're still alive. Because typically, the stomach acids would kill the venom before it reached the bloodstream, but if you had an ulcer... Hmm, then you're seriously screwed. Was there any abnormal tissue death? Necrosis? No. That rules out his diamondback rattlesnake. Rattler venom's hemotoxic. It means it predigests the tissue before swallowing.
Well, the ELISA test came back positive for alpha-neurotoxins.
Well, your guy likes them mean, so these other two could've done the job, both neurotoxic. Which would send the body into complete and total paralysis, right? Explaining why the victim ended up in the morgue the first time. Okay, blood from the bedroom chair and the kitchen belong to Mom. That's what I figured. Hair from the freezer-- nicely preserved, by the way-- and hairs from the bedroom pillow, also the victim's.
Okay, this is all great, but, uh, why the 911 page? The moral of my story: share and share alleles. Pubic hairs in the bed, not Mom's.
The daughter.
Dad did have a new girlfriend.
The bracelet was a gift. From your father.
Diamonds and platinum, that's, uh, pretty fancy. Guess he thought I deserved it.
Why? For taking care of everything.
Everything?
Laundry, groceries, carpool for Charlie. ( laughs softly ) Is that it?
( exhales ) Nora, I'd really like to help you and your brother, but I can't unless you talk to me.
We found evidence of you in your father's bed.
My father loves me.
( panting ) Oh, my God.
Are you lactating?
You're pregnant.
You sick son of a bitch. Did you think we weren't gonna find out she was pregnant? Who? Oh, stop it. Your daughter. Nora is pregnant? Cut the clueless routine. What are you accusing me of?
Daniel! Your wife came back and saw what you were doing, so you killed her, and you tried to buy off your daughter with a diamond bracelet. I bought that for my wife. Well, your daughter's telling a different story. Nora? How could she even know about... I'm going to nail you for murder.
What do you mean, "none"? Well, venom's like perfume: highly specific recipe. Protein ratios vary from species to species, even snake to snake. The protein level of your three "hoses" doesn't match the sample taken from your vic's coffee cup. So, Marty was telling the truth? It was just a coincidence that he owns poisonous snakes, and his coworker was envenomated. A coincidence is a scientific anomaly. Maybe he just got rid of the snake. ( music playing faintly ) ( hissing ) Girl called all hysterical. Said a snake ate her dog. He's a monocled cobra, it's not indigenous. Comes from Southeast Asia. I asked her where she got it from, said her coworker asked her to snake-sit. Marty Gibson. Mm-hmm.
( sniffles ) Hey, you're that guy from the crime lab. Well, you're a little late. Bastard told me he had a surefire way to win the Cabo trip, and that he'd take me with him if I just watched his snake for a couple of days. I can't believe what an idiot I am. ( crying ) Never trust a car salesman. What else did you do for Marty?
Well, not that. Did you get him coffee? Oh, well, now I do. Now you do? Yeah. It used to be Marty, the goodwill guy who got coffee for everybody else, but now, since Fred's dead, he's moved up a desk. "The goodwill guy?" Yeah. The guy with no client list of his own, has to live off the hand-me-downs of the others. FRED: Hey, Marty, uh, sure could use another refill. You want anything? Easy on the sugar. Coming right up.
Well, sometimes access is all you need. ( laughter, chatter )
Nanci. Do you know what a syllogism is, Mr. Gibson? Sylla-what? A syllogism. Aristotelian logic. Two premises equal one conclusion. BOTH: "A" plus "B" equals "C." Right. So, you're the snake guy. You're also the goodwill guy who gets the coffee. So, when someone is poisoned with snake venom in their coffee, "A" plus "B" equals you. I busted my ass out on this floor to get a desk up there, and for what? So Fred can make me his bitch? So you kill him? Fred killed himself. Guy was like a goldfish. He would have eaten himself to death before he tossed me a client. And one good client breeds seven more. Without the one, I keep slipping. There's two directions in this business-- up and out. It's a numbers game. I'm 35 years old. I got six guys ready to move me out. Opportunity knocks, you open the door. I guess it's just too bad he had an ulcer.
Who doesn't?
Okay, now, if I could just have you lay back. All right, Nora, now I'm gonna need you to relax.
Okay, now take a deep breath. ( inhales, exhales ) Good. All right, another deep breath.
She's a virgin? What are we talking about, an immaculate conception? More like the immaculate perception. Pseudocyesis: imagined pregnancy. It's all in her head?
Well, that would explain what she was doing in Dad's bed. Fantasizing. Wow. "When the desire to become pregnant is so strong, "hormone levels can change, setting off all the biological signs of pregnancy." It kind of makes sense. Hormones travel the same channels as adrenaline. "Swollen abdomen, "lack of menstruation, and sometimes, bilateral galactorrhea." Milk production in both breasts. Leaking can be brought on by stress.
"Emotional or physical stimuli cause prolactin "to shoot through the endocrine system, "ending in the mammary glands, and triggering the cells to lactate." The father was clueless. About all the women in his life. STOKES: Hey, hey. Check out these photos. The two stains on the inside of the shirt we found at the dump tested positive for Nora, but, uh, the stains on the outside, bloodstains, are definitely Mom's. WILLOWS: The bracelet was Mom's. Greg checked the epithelials. Nora's in love with her father, in an Electra kind of way.
WILLOWS: Nora, is this your shirt? Yes.
Can you explain to me how your mother's blood ended up on it?
No idea how it got there?
No.
WILLOWS: Well, you told me that this bracelet was a gift from your father. He claims that he bought it for your mother. Oh, no. It's mine. I think you feel the same way about your father.
DANIEL: You know you mean the world to me, don't you?
Guess who's back?
WILLOWS: And then you put your mother in the freezer and you waited until trash day.
That's a horrible story. It's not a story. It's what the evidence tells us really happened. What kind of a mother would do that?
I'm helpful. I do what needs to be done. I know. You take care of things. I never ask for anything! And all you wanted was the one thing that you couldn't have. It's not my fault. I'm innocent.
You were innocent, Nora. You're not anymore.
( inhales sharply ) What are you doing? BRASS: You're under arrest for the murder of Kelly Easton. No, but I'm gonna have a baby! ( Brass sighs ) Well, she's gonna retain an attorney, he's gonna advise her to plead insanity. Good defense. Yeah.
Have you ever seen anything like this before?
How it manifested? No. But the cause? People throw things away every day. s before?