Good evening. Hi.
That was nice.
I had such a beautiful time tonight.
Eight years.
People said we wouldn't last.
Happy anniversary, baby. Happy anniversary.
( distant dog barking )
Two victims.
She's on the sidewalk, a foot from the curb and he's in the middle of the street.
What's missing here?
No car.
No mercy. This guy's stabbed at least five times.
Got some reddish hair. Vic's hair is brown. What do we got?
They had dinner at Andre's. Coroner's assistant has his wallet with the credit card receipt.
They didn't bother to valet. Saved five bucks, cost them their lives. Carjacking gone bad.
Carjackers don't use knives. Never?
They used to say, "Never on Sunday." Then Pearl Harbor happened. I never say, "Never."
Oh, man... We got three minutes to process this crime scene! After that, we lose it all to the gutters.
Sarah, take over-alls. Warrick, put a cone down on everything you bag.
Nick, we got to get these bodies into the van.
Pick the jacket up! Let's go!
Bring me a body bag. I want to cover this woman!
Can we get another gurney? I need another gurney. Load this up!
Let's go, let's go! Okay, I've got it. All right, let's get him out. Come on, come on! Hurry up!
( shouting ) Get the plastic on! We're losing everything.
Yeah... our killer got lucky tonight.
Captioning sponsored by PARAMOUNT PICTURES
♪ Who... are you? ♪ Who, who, who, who?
♪ I really wanna know ♪ Who... are you? ♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪ Who... ♪ Come on, tell me who are you, you, you ♪ ♪ Oh, you!
Well, rain screwed up all our chances of a good DNA profile.
Don't even bother bagging it.
Do we have any eyeballs at all? It's a quiet street, weeknight. Neighbors heard the commotion.
Kid over here, he had the only view.
What's your name, son?
Justin Green.
Well, Justin, my name's Gil Grissom. This is Sara Sidle. We're with the Crime Lab.
Is, uh, is that your blood?
No, i-it's his, the one you took away.
I tried to help him. I thought I was doing everything right. I think I might have killed him. Whoa. Slow down. What did you do exactly?
JUSTIN: I was crossing the street. This SUV came out of nowhere-- almost clipped me.
I turned and there was this body lying in the street.
Oh, my God.
Help! Help! Somebody call 9-1-1!
I freaked.
I did everything wrong. I didn't tilt his head back. I-I didn't clear his airway. If it makes you feel any better, that's not what killed him.
SIDLE: Justin... we're going to need to take your clothes.
Why?
Because there's blood all over them.
( garbled radio transmission )
Excuse me.
MAN: Catherine?
Hey.
I like the hair. Thanks. What are you doing here?
I was assigned. This is my case.
Case?
The building collapsed. There's nothing criminal here. Right.
That's why you were assigned-- a homicide detective.
What happened?
Oh, part of the basement caved in. Brought the rest down with it.
Body count?
Three old women. Sisters.
One minute you're watching Wheel of Fortune-- next thing, game over.
And you're not calling this a crime scene?
Catherine, it's a building.
O'Riley... it's a suspect.
Hey, Greg. Shh.
I might be looking at the mother of my children here. Somebody's been putting in way too much overtime. No, man, this is serious. I had a date last night and this girl has the most impossible green eyes. Just... Bam.
Shoulder-length blonde hair... intelligent... and she smells so good. Cute toes?
Oh... ideal. Mmm. And none are longer than the big toe. Mmm. Both feet.
But, you know, what I need to know is what's on the inside? Oh, what's in her heart?
No... her DNA... and let me tell you-- this girl has got some fine epithelials.
Dude, you're sick. Man, you've officially lost it.
No, no. There is this guy in Louisville. He charges 300 clams to test your spouse's underwear for foreign DNA.
Now, that guy is sick. I'm just a romantic.
But whatever happened to getting to know someone over coffee... letting the relationship evolve? Romantic is sending flowers not bogarting her skin cells.
Ahh, that's boring.
What are you doing? What have you got?
Um, pulled some hair off a male stabbing vic.
Okay.
Baby.
Uh-huh.
What?
Nine lives.
Cat hair?
Meow.
Kevin Shepherd. Six stab wounds to the upper torso-- one to the back, five to the front.
And his wife?
Amy Shepherd. One slice across the neck, right to left.
Work of a lefty?
Well, the blade transected the jugular vein and both carotids. Hard to scream when your throat's been cut.
Defensive wounds. This guy put up one hell of a fight. Attacked with two weapons.
Two? Two types of stab wounds.
First a long, sharp double-edged blade. The blade went in smooth... left a little collateral bruising to the skin.
Weapon number two was blunt.
Weapon number two caused extensive bruising around the points of entry.
Two weapons... two attackers.
Hi.
District Engineer? Over there.
Ah.
Follow the tie.
Is that from the rain?
Depends on who's asking. Are you hiding something, or am I not worth your time?
Excuse me?
You are the District Engineer of the city, right? You're responsible for the structural safety of this building. I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name. Catherine Willows, Las Vegas Crime Lab. Crime Lab? Yeah. The building fell down. Three people were crushed to death.
Why is the wood wet?
It's a flat-roofed structure. Leaks aren't uncommon. Maybe that explains the dry rot. Then what am I looking at?
That would be Sheetrock. Drywall. But what about this layer right here?
When they installed the original drywall they used half-inch and then, when they came back and repaired it they used quarter-inch. Was the quarter-inch on sale that day?
Look, lady, I don't know what it is... Catherine.
Sorry.
Don't say, "Sorry" just know who you're talking to.
When they applied the second layer and then they spackled it and they painted it the difference wasn't noticeable. It's noticeable now.
Which District Engineer conducted the last inspection? There's only one District Engineer. Then it looks bad for you.
( laughing ): Okay. Look, uh, Catherine, why don't I write a report and then I'll e-mail it to you. How would that be? Where's the point of origin of the collapse?
Look, this is my crime scene.
I can find it myself but that might mean lots of question to lots of people.
Well, it's just my, uh, expert opinion but I'd say right below us-- in the basement... the laundry room. Then that's where I want to be.
Hey, Griss.
Kevin Shepherd, chiropractor. Amy Shepherd, dentist. House in the Lakes. Married eight years. Perfect credit. You know, I'm lost.
There's nothing jumping off the page, here. What about the eyewitness? Justin Green. First witness, first suspect but he hung around, waiting for us. Covered in blood. But his story jibes. Several eyewitness saw him performing CPR on Kevin Shepherd. But if-if-if it is a carjacking, I don't get it.
Why fight to the death? It's four wheels and a chassis. In the heat of the moment, it's not a car, it's a possession and people will fight without realizing what they're risking. So, you are thinking the Shepherds lost their lives for ther SUV? I'm speaking in generalities. Regarding the Shepherds... I'm in the dark, too just like you.
Hey, Warrick.
Is Grissom around?
You see him?
( chuckles ) You know, between you and me as long as I've been on the job I still don't like touching dead bodies. Well, that's why you got the badge and I got the syringe.
I'm casting the stab wounds.
From the molds, we can identify the murder weapons.
You're getting more like Grissom every day, man.
Did you want me to give Griss a message? Yeah. A patrol car located the Shepherds' SUV.
The car is registered to our dead couple.
When you carjack a car, you keep the car. You don't dump it. Unless you're joyriding. Well, who kills for a joyride? Wouldn't be the first time.
Has anybody else touched this vehicle? No, sir, and I'm the one who found it.
Just the rain.
The evidence on the outside of the vehicle will be compromised. Well, maybe there'll be some evidence on the inside.
Whoa.
Well, I haven't felt that in a while.
What's that?
The element of surprise.
( sighing ) What's she doing here? Good question. Better question, who is she?
Hmm.
Uh. Put some gloves on.
Yeah, I know.
You know, I... I can't believe you messed up the crime scene.
The body fell out when I opened the door. It happens. We move on.
Mmm. Going to bother you all day.
"Jessica Hall. "Date of birth-- 8-5-73."
Cell phone, power's off. Didn't call 9-1-1.
They would've instructed her to leave it on. Seat belt's unbuckled. That's why she fell out. Yeah, so?
Well, she's in the driver's seat. Was she driving? Or could she have been placed in here?
Maybe she's like 28% of Americans-- she doesn't buckle up.
I think it's 29%, actually.
I'll go radio the 4-19.
Hope you're not allergic there, Boss. What?
Cat hair. Found similar hair on Kevin Shepherd's clothing. How about Amy Shepherd? Nope. No hairs on the wife. Shepherd's SUV. Stab wound. Cat hair.
She's linked to the first crime scene.
But how?
Victim number three. Wrong place, wrong time.
Saw something she shouldn't.
Well, finally.
What? Someone has a theory.
Look, I-I've got guys that are trained to do this. Why don't you let me call them? You're going to go in there, you're going to get that snappy little jumpsuit dirty, and... No offense, but they work for you.
So what?
Well, so the victims' family deserves answers.
Somebody's responsible.
Hey, I didn't do anything wrong.
Well, maybe not intentionally, but if a ship sinks the last person who checked for leaks is negligent.
You're not married, are you?
Divorced.
Okay. All right. What you see, I'll see but I just want to go on the record. This is a bad idea. Thanks for your input. All right. We got a hot feed.
I'm going in.
I'll be right here.
Catherine?
You sure you want to do this?
Why is everybody asking me if I want to do my job? Because we care.
And?
The Mayor ran on a platform of urban renewal.
Clean out the slumlords, create habitable, low-cost housing maintained by the city.
If you find so much as a scratch on an aspirin in there you know who it's going to come back to.
I know I have a job to do. Excuse me.
Hey, Doc.
What's with the fluoroscope? When we brought the body into the lab she set off the metal detector. Did you check in her pockets? Nothing in the pockets. What about a pin or a plate-- something metallic on the inside? I had the same thought, but that's not what we've found. David, take her down. Yes, sir.
Cause of death, laceration of the liver. Exsanguination. Once you nick the liver it's almost impossible to stop the bleeding without immediate medical intervention.
Whoa, David. Go back up to the 12th rib, please. I was just getting to that.
Our killer leave us a souvenir?
What is that?
What do you leave your waiter?
A tip... of a knife. How soon can we get that out of the body?
( building creaking ) Am I almost at ground zero? Almost. About ten more feet. Uh, then you should be in the laundry room. You should have more headroom, too.
I feel like I'm crawling through a straw.
( grunting )
Sweet.
What? What is it? Are you getting this?
What is that? A roach? I'm not an entomologist, but I know one.
He can tell us.
( rumbling ) I thought this building was secure. It is secure. Just hang on. The daily sorties. I think that was an F-16.
Nellis Air Force Base.
About a mile south of here.
Anything else I should, uh be aware of?
You're in the clear.
Okay.
I'm in the laundry room... what's left of it.
You want to talk me through this?
Okay, look up. You should be able to see the beam now.
Got it. All right, connected to the beam running vertically to the concrete foundation are the support columns. Now, in a perfect world, they should be steel but given the age of the building they might be wood.
Yeah, it's wood, all right.
And it looks like somebody took a sledgehammer to it.
So you really pulled this out of a corpse? SIDLE: Yeah... but I cleaned it for you.
We need to know the make of that knife.
Well, it's not a knife.
The tip's double-edged. Bevels on both sides, downward slope. This came from a dagger which means it's either carbon steel or stainless steel.
I get asked this question more than you think.
SIDLE: Acid in the lemon juice should react to carbon steel, but not stainless steel. How's a cop know all this? He's the cop. I'm the scientist. I got a cop question. What are we looking for here? Dark spots.
SIDLE: Carbon steel. What's next? Length. Daggers are rarely more than an inch at the base. We got the tip. So, we can fill in the rest.
It's basic geometry.
Five inches.
Top row-- five-inch daggers, carbon steel. This is the one you want.
$24.99. We don't take credit cards. Yeah.
WARRICK: Forget Shepherd's wife. I can't match the slash marks. It's all about these stab wounds. So I concentrated on Kevin Shepherd.
This is a nice job, Warrick. You know, casting is an art. And while the artist was at work, Brass and I identified Jessica Hall's murder weapon from the tip we found lodged in her ribs. It's a dagger. Fugasi Model 502. Cool. So we've identified the weapon used on Jessica Hall. Was it also used on Kevin Shepherd? Well, I measured all the sharp points of entry on Kevin's body.
They're all identical.
They're all made from the same murder weapon. So, if this dagger matches your mold... SIDLE: Okay. We just put the sharp wounds to bed. Identified murder weapon number one.
Now we just need that second murder weapon.
Points of impact on these two are blunt, right?
WARRICK: Yeah, who stabs someone with a blunt instrument? Sara, you still have the dagger tip from the body?
Yeah? And you have the cast of the unidentified murder weapon. Yeah.
A dagger's not a diamond. It doesn't last forever.
We don't have two weapons.
So he started with Kevin and then he went after Jessica and then the tip broke off. And then he went back to Kevin to finish the job.
One weapon, one killer.
An Anobiid powder-post beetle.
Very nice specimen. He likes you, too. Now, tell me about him. Your building collapsed. You assigned me the case. You already know that. Well, this little guy confirms it.
This species of beetle eats softwood.
Tell me about the building.
The frame's made of Douglas fir.
A delicacy.
I did find more than a bug. Dry rot, questionable repairs, a jittery engineer. And check this out.
GRISSOM: Forget the beetle; this damage was intentional. You're looking for a Homo sapiens.
I know. Gives new meaning to "home wrecker." Catherine, there's a reason I assigned you this case.
You're good with people, both the dead and the living.
Translation: we're opening a political can of worms. The mayor's involved, an election's around the corner and you could've clued me in a little earlier.
Can I keep it?
Sorry. It's evidence.
Don't forget to feed him. I know-- wood.
WARRICK: Oh, yeah.
I got three prints on this gearshift and they are beauties. Sweaty palms make the best prints.
The coroner just sent over a ten card of Jessica Hall's fingerprints.
Evidently, I'm the new delivery boy.
Are you doing what I think you're doing?
If we find what we're looking for the answer is yes.
Can I see those prints?
The images are printing.
Thanks.
No need for AFIS. We got a visual match. All three prints belong to victim number three. So Jessica Hall was the last person to drive the Shepherds' SUV. What does that give us? We know she was stabbed at the crime scene, but then what? Was she driving herself to the hospital? Was she under duress? None of the above.
Hey, Grissom, you know that theory I had? Yeah. I'd like to revise it.
It's a scientist's right to reexamine his theory with each new piece of evidence, Nick. My evidence is in the layout room.
All the wounds sustained by Kevin Shepherd were to his torso.
Now, look at this.
Blood flow on the left instep of Kevin Shepherd's shoe.
WARRICK: Lucky for us the rain missed that. When death is not immediate a victim will instinctively curl up into a fetal position. Which may have protected this from the rain. Preserving the blood pattern. You expect blood on a victim but let's ask the question: could the normal action and behavior of our victim have put his blood there? The victim was lying on the ground wounds above the waist.
It's not Kevin's blood.
Who else had a flowing wound? Amy Shepherd was too far away but Jessica Hall was alive and bleeding. Okay. How did her blood get on his shoe?
Gravity.
Warrick, please, on the floor on your back. Man, why are you always trying to put me down? Sara, you're Jessica.
Come on, now.
SARA: Okay.
All right, I'm bleeding from my abdomen. Standing here, I'm not going to get that much blood on Warrick. Get closer.
Well, I can't without... stepping on him.
You can if you kneel down.
Why would she do that?
Possibly to help or to hinder.
I say hinder.
( loud gasp ) ( moans ) Grab his legs! Oh! ( grunting ) She was in on it. She held him down while someone else stabbed him.
By the positioning of her wound I'd say it looked like her stabbing was an accident. Stabbing's are messy and inexact.
So victim number three becomes suspect number two. GRISSOM: Nick, get a warrant for Jessica Hall's apartment. We'll see if suspect number two leads us to suspect number one.
And bring a scorecard with you.
Can, uh, can I give you a hand with that? Nope.
How did you get in here? Well, I flashed my city I.D. and, uh, my smile.
What are we looking for?
A lot of factors contributed to the collapse. I'm focusing on the human element.
Now... if a sledgehammer was taken to this column recently there'd be evidence of discoloration. The damaged part would be lighter.
May I?
Hands off. Oh, right. Sorry.
No. No discoloration.
Would you like to know why?
Yeah. Five years ago, this building was apartment Vietnam. The facility was substandard. The city turned its back on it. The tenants revolted. Blake Neferson, apartment 204 took a sledgehammer to that column.
It's public record-- he was arrested. Public record?
And you failed to indicate the damage in your inspection report?
There wasn't enough damage to cause concern.
Tell that to the women who were crushed to death.
I heard the lab matched the blood on Kevin Shepherd's shoe to Jessica.
My theory's getting better and better. BRASS: Not so fast, Nicholas. P.D. traced a call Shepherd made to Jessica from Andre's Restaurant. What's he doing calling the woman who helped kill him?
It's your theory, pal.
Our little Jessica was a prolific note-taker.
"Be a good person today." Yeah, right. Try not to kill too many people.
"Cancel water cooler delivery." "Plan girl's night out." "Light bulbs for porch."
NICK: I think I found a key piece of evidence.
The redhead we've been looking for.
Red hairs on Jessica. She owns a tabby cat. Red hairs on Shepherd.
Chances are Shepherd was here without his wife. BRASS: Yeah. I'm going to run Jessica's cell phone records and Shepherd's. If anything was going on between those two we'll find out.
Stay here, fella.
NICK: "To access Achex, double-click icon.
User name: Jessica. Password: money."
Try it.
Yeah.
Achex.
Personal on-line banking. Deposits, checking, money transfers everything under the sun.
Okay, I'm in.
Direct deposit from Beaumont's Department Store $500 a week-- probably her weekly paycheck.
And then a $35,000 day?
What, she win the lottery?
How does a girl who makes $2,000 a month pull in $35,000... only to give it away on the same day?
Let's see who she gave it to.
It hasn't posted yet. ( sighs ) No luck.
Wait. Go back.
Well, we know who she got it from-- Kevin Shepherd. Wait a minute-- Shepherd paid Jessica to murder him and his wife? Maybe. Maybe not.
We can't speak from the evidence, Nick and everybody else is dead.
I took this from our suspect's apartment. Husband and wife carjacking. I heard about the case. My friend and I eat at Andre's. Creepy. Don't cancel your next reservation. It wasn't a carjacking.
Well, it's a fresh pad. Only a couple of pages missing. Let's see what she wrote on those missing pages.
"Quarters for laundry." Not incriminating. "Pay parking ticket."
"Andre's at 9:00 p.m." Whoa.
"Andre's, 9:00 p.m. "Green SUV. "Corner of Sixth. "Sunday, K's office, 8:00 a.m." This is a blueprint for murder. Assuming "K" is Kevin they were planning to meet three days after he was murdered. He paid Jessica $35,000. He called her as he was leaving the restaurant. He wasn't supposed to die. No. Neither was Jessica. Kevin Shepherd took a hit out on his wife and something went wrong.
And we may have the proof.
Okay, we've got the blueprint and Kevin Shepherd's credit card receipt from Andre's.
Okay. Now, normally, a signature wouldn't give us much. But look at the "K" on the receipt. Now, look at the "K" in "K's office."
Okay? Also, look at the "S" in "SUV" and "Sunday." Now, look at the "S" in Shepherd.
Both letters are identical.
He wrote both these documents. I think Shepherd planned the murder of his wife. I'm with you. Why'd he end up dead? Bad karma.
Jessica and this Shepherd guy