MAN: I do have your boat, sir.
Yes, less than a mile from the marina.
Yes, sir, you will; it's a beauty.
All right, see you in ten.
( tires screeching )
( sighs ) ( tires screeching )
Driver of the truck was delivering a boat.
Said the other guy came out of nowhere.
Is this the other guy?
Mm-hmm.
Paramedics tried to save him, but they were too late.
Alexx?
WOODS: Way too late, Horatio.
The crash didn't kill this guy.
What do you mean?
He's covered in lacerations.
If he were alive during impact, there'd be blood everywhere.
There's almost none.
And that's advanced rigor, isn't it It is.
He died hours before this accident ever happened.
CAINE: So our accident...
is not an accident at all.
♪ Yeah! ♪
Captioning sponsored by CBS, C.S.I. PRODUCTIONS Captioning sponsored by CBS, C.S.I. PRODUCTIONS ♪ We don't get fooled again ♪ ♪ Don't get fooled again ♪ ♪ No, no! ♪
Jake Sullivan. Surfside.
Still missing his right foot.
Get taken off in the crash?
Can't say.
Lack of blood at the lacerated area indicates it was severed after death.
DELKO: All right, I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Eric...
How fast was the vehicle going when it hit the boat?
The guy towing the boat said he was going at least 40.
I don't see anything jammed against the accelerator.
Then how did a dead man hit the gas?
With help from the living.
( clearing throat ) Tim Speedle, please.
Ma'am, I was a colleague of Tim's.
Can I help you?
Was?
Oh, um, did he leave the department?
Um, Tim...
Tim was killed in the line of duty a few months ago.
Tim told me to call if I needed help.
He'd arrested the guy that killed my friend Ashley Anders.
Yes, I remember the case.
After what happened to Ashley, I got out of the business.
You mean the film business?
Adult films, yeah.
It wasn't easy.
The producer I used to work for, Vince Fisher-- a real prince-- he wouldn't let me go. Kept calling.
And you told him no, right?
I... went back to school and dyed my hair.
Met a guy... nice guy.
I guess I was kind of amazed how easy it was to leave "Cookie Devine" behind me.
How can I help, Sara?
Matthew, my boyfriend, he wanted to videotape us a couple weeks ago.
He's got no idea about what I used to do.
So I said "yes." Played along with it.
And something happened to the tape?
Yeah.
I looked for it the other night.
It was gone.
It's my worst nightmare.
It would put me right back in the porn biz.
You ask him about it?
He's got no idea.
We looked everywhere.
He's worried about it, too, but not for the same reasons I am.
Because if the tape comes out, so does your past, right?
I don't care if the rest of the world knows that there's a new Cookie Devine video.
I just don't want Matthew to.
I understand.
Let me look into this, okay?
Thank you.
Miss?
This is my husband.
You're not supposed to see him yet.
You go back on upstairs, okay?
What happened to him?
His ear-- it's all messed up.
I'm going to try and determine that now.
Go back, okay?
The guy's wife?
Yeah.
We need a new receptionist upstairs.
I'm just glad she didn't notice he's missing a foot.
You find that foot?
Hey, I said I'd keep an eye out for it, but I didn't find it.
You're body parts, I'm crime scene.
And here I thought we were working on the same team.
I can't complete post without it.
I can look right here and see that it's blunt force trauma to the head.
You can see a lot of things, doesn't make it cause of death.
Lots of old injuries-- scarring, keloids.
Childhood abuse?
Could be.
Or he could just be part of the Jackass generation.
And then there's what the accident did.
His ear's almost shredded off.
Did you get the T.O.D.
or do we need the foot for that, too?
Liver temp at the scene puts the boy's time of death about 1:00 a.m.
And if you don't get out of here, you're going to be next.
And find me that foot.
Mr. Fisher, I understand you've been trying to contact Sara Piper.
Cookie?
She's retired.
That's the way I want to keep it.
Well, okay, relax.
What do you think I did?
She's missing some personal property from a house she shares with her boyfriend.
She has a boyfriend?
A civilian?
Yeah, that'll last.
That's not your business.
Look, I sell porn.
I don't need to steal.
You think I broke into her house?
Prove it.
That's exactly what I'm going to do.
WOLFE: Gearshift's got a print.
AFIS is going to have a hard time with this one.
Print's smudged.
There's not much ridge detail.
Killer would have had to move fast.
Put the car in drive and get out before it took off.
( engine revving ) ( tires squealing ) Did you get anything from the accelerator?
No, just a lot of glass on the floorboard.
That's too much for one car.
Hey, look at this.
Tempered glass doesn't fluoresce.
This isn't even from a car.
Crystal maybe?
Well, whatever it is, it's from the same source.
"Best Overall Title: Thrash Canyon."
That looks like some sort of logo, doesn't it?
Do your recognize it?
Yeah, it's Strong Studios.
It's Dave Strong.
You say that like I'm supposed to know who it is.
Dave Strong's a skateboarder.
He's like the skateboarder.
Turned his hobby into an empire and he runs the hottest video game company around.
Maybe our dead guy worked there.
Sure, I knew him.
Jake was one of my testers on Skate Park Extreme.
What's a tester?
Well, before we sign off on a game, testers hunt for bugs, try to make it crash.
It's our version of quality control.
When did you last see him?
Um, midnight.
He was in the motion capture studio messing around on the vert ramp.
They think I don't know when they go in, fool around.
We're going to need to see that room, and take a look at your personnel files.
Why?
I thought Jake was in a car accident?
He was, but somebody killed him before that.
And you just became the last person to see him alive.
Right.
DUQUESNE: So what exactly are you doing here?
I do motion capture for our sim titles, like Skate Park Extreme.
And what's a sim title?
Simulation. It's real athletes doing real moves.
Close as anybody ever gets to being me.
Uh, the carpet's damp.
Get this cleaned lately?
Do you mind if we test for blood?
Do I have a choice?
Nothing.
Well, either there was never any blood here to begin with or somebody cleaned it up very well.
Not that well.
Got blood drops.
Medium velocity spatter.
WOLFE: It's still red and unoxidized.
It's fresh.
A little blood-- a badge of honor.
I make my living skateboarding here.
I'm sure it's mine.
Give us a DNA sample and we'll let you know for sure.
How kind of you.
And your skateboard.
It's in plain sight.
Unfortunately for you it's coming with us.
Is this cube one of yours?
I make 'em.
I don't keep 'em.
I give 'em as awards to my guys.
It's motivational.
Who got this one?
"Thrash Canyon?"
My best programmer.
Ron Benson.
Now look, I get about three of these a year.
They make great doorstops.
Where'd you keep this one?
Who knows.
Um, probably by that wall.
Those cubes are classic Dave Strong.
Builds a gym we're too busy to use, sends flowers in our name to girlfriends we're too busy to see.
How about a raise and some time off, huh?
Hmm.
You got a sticky substance.
Syrupy.
But no cube.
I guess somebody took it.
You're not a big fan of the testers, are you, Ron?
I graduated M.I.T. in three years, and now I got those mouthbreathers telling me what's wrong with my game.
DUQUESNE: Like Jake?
You two got in shoving matches twice on this project alone.
Strong likes us to keep it confrontational.
If a tester and programmer become friends, he fires the tester.
Where were you last night?
Right here, thanks to Jake. I've been fixing bugs for 72 hours straight.
Any way to prove that?
Yeah.
Strong won't admit it, but he's got spyware on all our computers.
He's spying on his own people?
That's a pleasant work environment.
Every keystroke I type gets recorded on the main server.
Excuse me, Miss, we're...
Last one's a dozen roses.
I know it's boring.
So is the guy.
To Kathy Helms.
Sign it, "To my one and only.
Love, Greg."
DUQUESNE: We need access to your server.
Can we get there from your computer?
Yeah, but Dave's not gonna like that.
WOLFE: Okay.
Well, we'll get a warrant, bring a class of recruits from the academy down here, have 'em poke around.
But they're kind of clumsy.
And real slow.
( sighs ) Fine.
( beep )
( beep ) WOLFE: Do you have a clue what any of this code means?
DUQUESNE: No, except it proves our programmer was typing at 1:00 a.m.
He was telling the truth.
He hasn't left his desk for two days.
Well, somebody did.
And they took our victim with them.
That's where we hid the tape.
Matthew.
I thought you were playing pickup.
Uh, it got canceled. Hey.
Saw the humvee out front. Everything all right?
Yeah, we've had, um, reports of break-ins in the area recently.
Yeah, I got worried and called Lieutenant Caine.
Why does my girlfriend have your number?
Well, I worked on a case, um, that involved her friend at one point.
Who?
You know, that's not important.
Have you had guests recently?
No, but we did have a contractor about three weeks ago, replace the doors behind you.
What do you see?
I see fingerprints that shouldn't be here.
And these doors have been put in backwards.
Why would the contractor do that?
Maybe because he was coming back.
Do you have his phone number?
Yeah, actually I do, right here.
Happy couple needed a set of doors, I did the work, they paid me, I left, end of story.
But you came back.
Installed doors so you could gain easy entry.
CAINE: You see, Connor, we found your prints on the end table.
You stole the videotape, and I want it back right now.
I don't have it anymore.
Who has it?
Look.
I saw it was Cookie Devine.
I know a guy who said we could make some cash.
Cash how?
He takes orders over the Internet.
By the time you shut him down, he'll be a millionaire.
I want your partner's name.
I only know where he's running dubs.
You better hope it's enough.
SALAS: Houseboat?
You sure this is the right place?
We're gonna find out.
Good afternoon.
Are you the owner of record?
Brandon Pace.
Good.
A warrant to search your place.
Uh, there's, there's nothing back there.
Just some clothes and stuff, I swear.
Just, uh...
Hey...
Oh, look at that.
Mr. Pace...
It's not my movie.
We're aware of that.
No, really, I'm just the middleman.
I dub them and ship them and the seller pays me a fee.
So how many copies did you make of this, uh, Cookie Devine video for your friend Connor Meade?
Uh, I don't... Connor... I don't know who that is.
You know, the contractor who gave you the master.
All I know is a dude named Derek.
How many'd you make for Derek?
Five thou.
Really? Only a few left.
Where's the rest?
Truck came by this morning, picked them up.
I need a proof of payment and the State Attorney may show you some leniency.
Uh, attorney?
It's Cookie Devine.
It's not like she hasn't been in this position before.
You know what?
You just blew your chance.
Turn around, you're under arrest.
How's our sticky substance?
Where the cube should have been?
Yeah.
It's a soft drink. Chappy's Cola.
I thought that all soft drinks were made of high fructose corn syrup.
In the U.S., they are.
If you want cane sugar, you have to import it from Mexico.
Soda snobs demand it-- they say it tastes sweeter and cleaner.
Are there any soda snobs working at the company?
One.
I talked to Rachel, the world's friendliest receptionist, and she said she special orders it for a guy named Todd Simmons.
What's he do there?
He's a tester.
Just like our victim.
Except Todd's still alive.
So, I was drinking a soda in Ron's office yesterday morning.
Just hanging out.
By the wall with your messenger bag?
Did you steal the cube, Todd?
Use it to weigh down the gas pedal?
I didn't steal the cube.
I didn't see a cube.
Ron already told us that testers and programmers don't hang out with each other unless they have to.
Do you want to revise your story?
Okay...
This job gives me a lot of tension sometimes.
I, uh, self-medicate.
Ron's got the best weed.
I snagged a blunt while he was in the men's room.
( phone beeping ) That's an interesting defense.
Duquesne.
It did?
Good. Thanks, Valera.
Where's your boss?
Where is he always?
Get winded faster than I used to.
Our lab just told us that the blood from your floor and the skateboard is also from our victim.
Really?
Is this where I call my lawyer?
No, it won't matter.
Judge granted a warrant for everything in here off that blood.
Were you the only person being motion captured last night?
Unlike most people, I really am the star in my own movie.
Then we'll need all your footage.
JENSON: This is all the captured data from last night.
What am I looking for?
Basically, there are motion capture cameras all over the stage, and if Strong killed the tester, maybe he forgot and left the motion sensors on.
And that the murder was being recorded.
Why are you stopping it? He's just skating.
Mm, but something isn't right.
Look, this is the mo-cap from last night, when Strong was doing all of his toughest moves.
And this is the footage captured today when your were there.
He didn't do a 720 or a McTwist.
He's taking it easy.
Any way you can compare the height of the two figures?
Uh-huh.
Well, our figures are two different sizes.
Which means they're two different guys.
Our vic wasn't just messing around.
He was a ringer.
Dave Strong is a fraud.
Tyler, will you skip to the footage at the end of the night last night?
Yeah.
Wait, play that back and loop it.
Whoa.
Is that your vic from the car accident?
Yeah, there's the blunt force trauma.
Still doesn't explain how he ended up in the car.
One thing's for sure.
It isn't just motion capture, it's a snuff video.
DUQUESNE: We analyzed the footage from your motion- capture stage last night, Mr. Strong.
All that P.R. about you skating your own tricks is a lie.
It's been Jake all along.
So what?
So, you've got millions of people shelling out 50 bucks for a sim title of you doing your latest tricks.
( chuckles ) I don't have time to skate anymore.
Think my business runs on its own?
I've got licensing issues to work out, partnership deals, endorsements.
Sounds incredibly corporate for a guy who used to tear it up in empty swimming pools.
So, I grew up. Jake didn't.
I'd rather walk upright when I'm 50.
And I paid him a pretty sum for his services.
Were you afraid he'd tell people the truth about your deal?
Couldn't-- he signed a confidentiality clause.
Besides, I already trademarked every move he ever made.
And you'll pass them off to a willing public as your own.
It's called capitalism.
If you want to arrest me for that, be my guest.
Say whatever you want.
Otherwise, I'd like to go find a replacement.
Cynthia, did you get anything for me?
I do. Can't say it's a slam dunk, though.
Your guy, Brandon Pace, was paid in money orders.
Six of them, to be exact.
Six of them?
A thousand dollars each.
The institutions that issue money orders place monetary limits on them.
But they don't require I.D. to purchase, do they?
Nope, only to cash.
Tell me about the person who signed them.
"Derek Baldwin"?
Guy doesn't exist.
But I did learn one thing about him: he's left-handed.
I thought you couldn't tell that from a writing sample.
Well, normally, no.
But there are some indicators.
I'll flip through the sequence under infrared.
CAINE: Yes, I see. The ink becomes more and more smudged with each money order.
This person wrote it with their left hand, the side of their palm dipped into the wet ink, and transferred it to the subsequent money orders.
So that narrows it down to about ten percent of the population.
That help you at all?
As a matter of fact...
it does help me.
Do me a favor and compare this to the money orders.
Slant proportion of the letters are similar.
Take a look at how this person writes their lower case "d."
CAINE: The "d"'s are identical, aren't they?
Class characteristics show that people create a loop on the cursive "d"
to complete the final downstroke.
Whoever wrote this just retraced the upstroke, and didn't connect it to the subsequent letter.
And it also means that Sara was not the only one disguising her identity. Thank you.
All right, all right. I did it, all right?
I sold the tape.
You knew who Sara was from the beginning, didn't you?
You also knew the value of the tape.
No, no, no, I didn't.
I just thought she was a sweet girl, I mean...
I even felt guilty for asking her to do it in the first place.
That's why I tried to erase it.
But when I went to look for it, it was gone.
There's only one person who could have taken it: the contractor.
Hey, you!
Hey, whoa, man, hold up a second.
You stole my tape and I want it back.
Hey, hey, hey, hold up!
That's it. I'm calling the cops.
Okay, listen, I'm sorry.
If I was with Cookie Devine, I'd put up billboards.
Cookie Devine?
You have no idea, do you?
I didn't believe him.
I couldn't.
So he showed me.
I've got 15 of her titles. She's a superstar.
I took her to meet my parents.
And she was going to be the mother of my kids.
She lied to me.
She didn't lie to you, Matthew.
She just didn't know how to tell you.
The copies this morning, where are they now?
Gone.
Okay. Who'd you sell them to?
I-I-I don't know.
Some company used to produce her old films.
That's all I need to know.
Do you want to call her, or should I?
Wolfe... check this out.
I was looking for prints.
I didn't find any, but I did find this.
WOLFE: Oh, there's orange particles jammed into the grip tape.
Yeah, some on each side of the board, right where the killer would have held it.
What's the substance?
It's pollen.
Now, I checked it under the scope, and I ran a comparison.
It's from a lily.
A lily...
Oh, man, the receptionist at Strong Studios had flowers all over her desk.
She sends them to employees' wives and girlfriends.
Okay.
I'll get over there.
And you pick all the flowers out yourself?
Sure do.
I even write a little note with each one.
Seems kind of personal.
Hey, I spend more time with their guys than they do.
Have you sent out any bouquets of lilies recently?
Um... probably an order went out yesterday.
Here, let me check.
Yep.
Here it is. "Lilies."
Just one person got them, though.
Who?
Amber, Amber Haynes.
What did the card say?
That one was...
"We'll be together soon.
I love you."
Is there something wrong?
Take a look at your destination.
The flowers you sent to Amber Haynes, they went to Jake Sullivan's address.
To his wife, Julie.
( whispers ): Oh, no.
Is there something I can do?
You can give me her number, please.
( mutters ): Yeah.
Hello, Maxine.
Maxine?
Oh, Dr. Woods!
Hi.
Hi. Uh, sorry.
Hi.
Hi. Uh, sorry.
No one here ever calls me by my first name.
Almost forgot I had one.
No worries, honey. Sometimes...
Hey, you smell that?
I've been smelling it all afternoon.
It's like... Ew.
Exactly. Should only smell that way in my building.
Here, Ryan, you want to help me in the garage?
Sure.
What's in the garage?
Decomp.
Yeah, you're right about the decomp, Alexx.
It gets worse in here.
Uh...
( rattling ) Here we go.
You find something?
Here we go.
You find something?
Yeah, I think a... size 11.
Now we're getting somewhere.
What is it?
Well, unless I'm mistaken, looks like a contact burn.
I gotta find the other end.
You're welcome.
Mrs. Sullivan, may I see your hands, please?
Why?
Because pollen from lilies is one of the most persistent types of pollen.
It flakes, it stains.
And it can lodge itself in the smallest of spaces.
( clinking )
You received a...
bouquet of lilies yesterday afternoon from your husband, didn't you?
I believed him when he said he was at work all the time.
To find out about her like that...
Look, I know what it looked like, but Jake wasn't seeing another woman.
What?
His office sent the flowers.
The receptionist accidentally switched the two names.
No.
I went to see him last night.
Don't lie to me. I have proof!
I-I don't even know a woman named Amber.
Oh, I mean, why am I even fighting for you?
Look at yourself. Skateboarding at 35?
You're pathetic!
Well, wait! Wa...
( screaming )
He tried to tell me, but... I wouldn't listen.
I didn't mean to kill him.
Excuse me.
What are you doing? I'm in the middle of a confession.
Wife got mad, and she hit him in the head with a skateboard.
She might have caused the blunt force trauma to his head, Eric, but she didn't kill him.
You confirmed C.O.D.?
Just determined it: Jake Sullivan was electrocuted.
Electrocuted?
Found a contact burn on his foot.
You mean, where the electricity entered the body.
Electricity hits the body, nuclei in the skin cells stream in one direction.
( crackling pops ) Shredded ear was the point of exit.
I didn't know what to look for till I got the foot.
Okay, this explains the water on the mo-cap stage.
What do you mean?
We thought someone covered up the crime, but that was the crime.
And if she didn't kill him, who did?
All right.
Yo!
( siren chirps ) You just can't leave her alone, can you?
What do you want?
You know what I want.
No way. I'll get a court order.
Those are bought and paid for.
This is stolen property, and I'm confiscating it.
These DVDs cost me $50,000. How am I gonna make my money back?
That's your problem.
If you ever contact her again, it'll be the last time you do.
♪ ♪
That's all right, Andy.
Hey, man, nice job. Nice lein and rodeo.
Chill in my office, and I'll see you in a bit?
Is that the new Jake?
That's the new me.
Do you mind? I'm on a deadline.
Too bad, this is still a crime scene.
Don't go far.
Okay...
water conducts electricity.
We found water over here.
The water cooler.
Bottle's empty.
Check it out.
The outlet's fried.
Power cord's been ripped out of the back of the water cooler.
There's something on the end of it.
Skin?
Looks like it.
You know, our vic had a contact burn on his leg.
You take an electrical outlet, a live wire, you add water...
You got a recipe for murder.
But how?
Nobody's going to stand there and let themselves get fried.
I don't think he was standing at the time.
( screaming )
The cord was ripped out on purpose.
Person used one hand as leverage.
Wife hit him... let the electricity finish the job.
I don't think it was a woman.
The print's too big.
Wait a minute.
Look at all the voids in the print.
WOLFE: Palm, the fingers and the thumb.
They're the exact same spots as the prints on the gear shift of Jake Sullivan's car.
Gear shift's got a print.
AFIS is gonna have a hard time with this one.
Print's smudged.
There's not much ridge detail.
I thought they were smudges.
They're hyperkeratosis.
With constant friction, the surface of the skin thickens.
Prints get worn down, they disappear.
Our killer had calluses on his hands.
I can think of one person who might fit the bill.
Why do you want to see my fingertips?
Because Jake Sullivan was electrocuted on the motion-capture stage by someone with calluses.
Occupational hazard, for somebody who plays video games all day long.
DUQUESNE: Let's see, Todd.
Can't press "Escape" on that one.
I put in three years with Dave Strong.
Stuffed in a cubicle...
staring at a TV.
My girlfriend left me. I gained 20 pounds.
No one forced you to stay there.
Dave Strong did. Kept making promises.
Then Jake was hired.
Walked around like he owned the place.
I had seniority, but I was doing all the work.
We're in the final build, and you got the entire programming department twiddling their thumbs.
I haven't seen sunlight in two weeks.
Suck it up. What's your problem?
Why don't you talk to Jake?
What?
One of you is expendable, Todd.
Take a guess who that is.
We had a deadline.
I was gonna tear him a new one.
Then I saw him, just lying there.
Jake!
What are you doing?
He must've hurt himself trying to skate like Dave.
It seemed so easy just to make it look like an accident.
( sizzling )
( grunts ) ( crackling pops ) ( grunts ) ( crackling pops )
It was so awful.
I could hear his teeth grinding...
smell burning hair.
And then he opened his eyes.
( crackling pops )
He died, staring at me.
I... I freaked.
And you figured you had to get rid of the body.
( engine revving )
( tires screeching )
What you don't know is that Dave hired Jake to skate all his moves.
His job as a tester was just for show.
Dave didn't favor Jake.
He just needed him.
Killing's a lot easier in a video game, isn't it?
Lieutenant Caine, thank you for calling.
Is this a copy of the tape?
That's the master.
The other copies are being destroyed.
The others?
No one will ever see this tape.
Where'd you find it?
I think I'm going to let Matthew explain that.
( sighs ) At least I'm consistent.
I always fall for the wrong guy.
Captioning sponsored by CBS, C.S.I. PRODUCTIONS Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org