( footsteps approaching )
( clicking, rattling )
( sniffing )
( man screams )
( man screaming ) MAN: Local homeowner called it in early.
We got it contained pretty quick. We were lucky. ( camera clicks ) Luckier than he was.
Low humidity, dry brush. Perfect conditions for maximum damage. Firebugs listen to the weather reports just like we do. Only for different reasons. Maybe some moron just threw a cigarette out the car window. You're an optimist.
Do you have a point of origin? Not yet... Fire spread down the slope. Probably started along top of the ridge. I'll give you a shout when it's safe to come up. Okay, Mom.
This area was always a good place for stargazing. It's a good make-out spot, too. So I've heard. ( camera clicking )
Sara! We've got another body down here. Get the paramedics! Captioning sponsored by CBS, C.S.I. PRODUCTIONS ♪ Who... are you? Who, who, who, who? ♪ ♪ Who... are you? ♪ ♪ Who, who, who, who? ♪ ♪ I really wanna know ♪ ♪ Who... are you? ♪ ♪ Oh-oh ♪ ♪ Who... ♪ ♪ Come on, tell me who are you, you, you ♪ ♪ Oh, you! ♪
( sirens wailing in distance ) Are you okay? Is there anything else? I'm Greg Sanders from the Crime Lab. I'm here to collect trace from the arson victim. She was in the burn unit. Bay number three. Thanks. You're welcome.
I thought... I just assumed she was dead. It's a miracle she's not. This is as bad as it gets. SANDERS: How extensive are the burns? DOCTOR: 80 percent. Mostly third degree. I hope the morphine's working. Third degree burns are painless. The nerves are burned away. She's not conscious of what's happening to her. Not now. SANDERS: She's still a Jane Doe. I'm going to need all of her clothes, as well as any trace off her body. We'll save whatever we find during debridement. Debridement? We scrape off the dead flesh, then cover it with cadaver skin. We then wrap it with gauze. It prevents infection and allows the remaining tissue to heal. ( metal snaps )
( ring clanks ) DOCTOR: She's gonna lose those fingers.
EMT: Continue chest compressions and manual oxygen. EMT 2: Giving her Atropine and epi via I.V. ETA to Palm Desert-- eight minutes. Just going through the motions. Kid's name is Dani Stewart; she's five. Neighbors saw her floating facedown in the pool from their second-story balcony, called 911. Why didn't they pull her out? They couldn't get in the backyard gate. Childproof lock. No key, no access. Parents protected that kid to death. Where the hell were they?
Home.
We'll call you, Dave, when we clear a path. Okay. ( goofy squawking over TV ) ( boinging, silly cackling over TV )
Oh, man.
Whew. Well... She obviously fell forward... As she ran down the stairs.
Lots of pictures of the kid. Family revolved around the child, huh? Yeah, way it should be.
WILLOWS: Struggle?
She might have put her hand out to break her fall.
Man. What a scene.
BROWN: What are you thinking? Maybe murder-suicide.
I don't know. This gun looks like it might've been wiped clean. WILLOWS: You thinking professional hit? ( gunshot )
What about the little girl? Loose end.
Mommy, why is everybody screaming? There are three bodies in three locations. A lot of variables. Where do you want to start?
( Sidle, Grissom panting )
I've got... the business end of a disposable lighter. Could be an ignition source.
( camera clicking ) ( unzips backpack )
Hey. What's that? ( indistinct background radio communication )
( camera clicking ) Possible accelerant. Or possible martini. ( camera clicks )
I didn't think you could smell vodka.
Well, that depends on how long it was distilled. Cheap stuff. Ironically, the word for vodka comes from the Russian phrase zhizennia voda.
"Water of life."
Hey. Hey, Super Dave. You have any idea when I might be able to process the bodies? Uh... That'd be a question for the boss lady. She's upstairs to the right. Thanks.
WILLOWS: I've got some long hairs on the pillow-- brunette. Wife was a blonde. So was the daughter, right? Yeah.
Well, I'll collect the sheets as soon as I'm finished up here. PHILLIPS: Hey, Catherine, um, I was wondering if I... Oh, I'm sorry, David. We're going need to keep the bodies in their original position for a while longer. STOKES: Crime scene this messy, gotta bust out the big guns, you know what I mean?
Hey, did you know that Ecklie volunteered the lab to evaluate this scanner for Third Tech? I'm sure he's hoping they'll give us one for free. I wouldn't count on it. But I am definitely going to enjoy using this while it's here. Virtual crime scene sketch. Sure beats doing it by hand.
The whole family... dead? Dani, too?
She just had her birthday. How long have you been Morgan Stewart's assistant? Uh... about two years now. Did you and Morgan ever see each other outside of work? Well... I baby-sat Dani sometimes for some extra cash. I'm putting myself through school. We found a brown hair in his bed. Your color. I wasn't sleeping with Morgan, and if you knew him, you wouldn't bother implying it. He was devoted to his wife. He was a... He was a wonderful father. Hmm. Were you ever in his bedroom? ( scoffs ) No. Then you wouldn't mind giving us a sample of your hair. No. Be glad to... as soon as you show me a court order. You know how that makes you look? Save it. I'm pre-law.
( beeping at varying rates ) ( several long beeps, then beeping stops )
I hear our victim is still alive. I don't see why. Well, she's not ready to let go yet. SANDERS: Some kind of melted card. I found traces of alcohol all over her clothes. She was doused in it. The accelerant and the probable ignition source were found at the top of the hill. That was the point of origin. But the victim was found, almost completely burned, at the bottom of the hill.
I don't think she was caught in the fire... I think she started it.
♪ ♪
( camera shutter clicks, quiet beeping )
( beeping ) SIDLE: I got a work card hit off the vodka bottle-- a Patrick Bromley. He used to bus tables at the Palms. These days, he's driving a big rig. He's a trucker. Let me guess: he's on the road. According to his employer, yes. Vartann is working at bringing him in. But, as it turns out, the company tracks its drivers via GPS, and they were kind enough-- under threat of subpoena-- to give me access to Mr. Bromley's route data for the last 24 hours.
And what do you know. ( beep ) He was in the area of the fire an hour before the alarm went out? Yes. And about a half hour before that, he made a stop at the local Gas 'N' Sip. Well, see if the store's got video surveillance. Done. Footage is on its way in.
BROMLEY: You got my dispatcher crawling all over my ass for the past five hours. You know, you pull off a route, that costs me money. Hey... shut up. Why don't you tell us about your friend here.
BROMLEY: She's not my friend. I picked her up hitching out on Sunset. Did she tell you her name? Never came up. Where and when did you see her last? Dropped her off on Blue Diamond Road. In the middle of nowhere, just like that? Yeah. She wanted out. SIDLE: I bet she did. Where did you get the, uh, scratches on your neck? A bar fight, couple of nights ago.
Hey, do you mind if we look inside your truck?
If that's what's gonna get me back on the road.
♪ ♪
SIDLE: Mr. Bromley! Pink is not your color.
Look, I was just trying to help that chick out. And then you helped yourself.
Uh-uh. Wasn't like that. Are you saying you never touched her? No way. I mean, yeah... the girl was ready to party. We had a couple drinks, and a smoke. She was definitely checking me out, but I'm a happily married man. I just gave her a ride.
We already know what you did.
( bottle shatters )
Looks like you guys already got your answers. Which means I want a lawyer.
BROWN: Bobby matched the bullets to the gun that was found at the scene. He also ran a registration check. Let me guess: Gun was clean. No, it was registered to Morgan Stewart. So, what, we're looking at a murder-suicide? Guy kills his family and then turns the gun on himself? Well, you know it's a possibility. Brass pulled his financials. Morgan Stewart was in debt up to his eyeballs. He was in danger of losing his house. Never underestimate the fragility of the male ego. ( wry laughter ) ROBBINS: Bullet enters with a marginal abrasion on the underside of the chin. The wound path traverses the oral cavity, brain, and the high scalp, just right of the mid-line. Bullet exited with a stellate laceration in the right parietal scalp.
Mrs. Stewart... Bullet penetrates the back. The hemorrhagic wound paths traverse the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and the deep musculature on the right side of the back. Trajectory is back to front, right to left and slightly downward. And what about the daughter?
Cause of death was drowning.
Any trauma to the body? I noticed a fracture on the left fourth costosternal junction-- with virtually no hemorrhage-- caused by excessive pressure on the upper aspect of chest. Broken rib. Now, I know the paramedics performed CPR... Right, but the EMTs' report states that she already had the injury when they found her at the scene.
So maybe this all started with the accidental death of a child.
( cracking ) WILLOWS: Wife tells her husband, whose mental state is already hanging by a thread... Eh, that works. Except how do you perform CPR on your child and then toss her back into the pool? Did you get an I.D. on our arson victim yet? I ran the DNA through CODIS and Missing Persons, and I came up empty. But one thing I do know is that one of her markers is out of the control range. "Off-ladder" peak? You talk the talk, but did you know the frequency of that anomaly is one in every 250? I learn something new every day around here.
♪ ♪
GRISSOM: Mr. Matthews... when was the last time you saw your wife? MATTHEWS: Last night, about 6:00. SANDERS: She hasn't been home since? No. We had a fight, she left. It's happened before. Do you have a lot of fights? ( sighs ) I don't know; what's a lot? Look, things have been a little rough for us lately. Tara's been on anti-depressants for awhile. I own my own business, so she's home most of the time.
What's this all about? Where's my wife?
She's been in an accident.
I want to see her. ( monitor beeping )
I don't know who that is, but... that's not my wife. That's not Tara.
Is this her ring?
Oh, my God. ( crying ) Tara.
How did this happen? We're still investigating.
All day... I've been waiting for her to get home.
I was really going to make it up to her.
How'd it go at the hospital? About as well as could be expected. Doctors had to amputate the fingers from her right hand. Too great a risk for infection. They gave them to me to process for trace. You've pulled a double, Greg. You need a break. I'll process it.
Thanks.
♪ ♪
Hey. Hey.
What's the problem? Nothing. I'm fine.
You're not.
I feel like a wuss. Grissom told me I should take a break, and I did. Your burn victim.
How do you get an image like that out of your mind? You go home. You, uh... hug your cat, your dog, your pillow. You have a beer, you watch a movie, and then you come back tomorrow. Is that supposed to make me feel better? Rumor has it you used to be a pretty funny guy.
Don't lose that.
It's hard to look and not touch, isn't it? That poor kid has been working her tail off. Only fair, considering how DNA gets most of the glory these days. Have something for me? Of course.
The dark hairs you found on Morgan Stewart's bed were not a match to his wife. Pretty bold, to bring another woman into his matrimonial bed. Begging to get caught. Well, so far, you haven't told me anything I didn't already know. This is the broken glass and paper found on the floor of the master bedroom. Uh, looks like a thermometer. Yes, but what kind? Do tell. Notice how the gradations are broken down by tenths of a degree? Yes. And most thermometers aren't that specific. Correct. It's a BBT, a basal body temperature thermometer, used by women to pinpoint a temperature spike that occurs... During ovulation. I know. It maximizes your chance of conception. So... Corinne Stewart, I guess, was trying to have another baby. With no clue as to what her husband was doing when she was out of the house. Or with whom. Grissom-- hey, it's about your arson victim. Greg beat you to it. I got an I.D. Yeah, well, I got something you don't have. This is the standard ladder of alleles that I run against every unknown DNA. and it contains all of the commonly encountered alleles within the population. As you can see, at locus D3 the alleles are 12 through 19. Which is normal. Right. Now, as you can see on the sample on the bottom, the locus D3 alleles are 15 and 21. Not normal. The 21 allele is outside the normal range. An "off-ladder" peak. Like Tara Matthews. Right. This is her profile. And this... is the DNA that was extracted from the vaginal contribution to the sheets at the Stewart house. Tara Matthews' DNA in Morgan Stewart's bed. We're working the same case.
There were several spots of high density polyethylene embedded in the fingers of Tara Matthews' right hand. SIDLE: According to Hodges, the material is consistent with the plastic tanks in most disposable lighters. We found the top of one at the scene of the fire. Well, heat melts plastic and butane will explode under pressure. WILLOWS: So the lighter blew up in her hand? Are you saying that she... set herself on fire?
It was attempted suicide. She'd been assaulted by a truck driver shortly before her death. She was clinically depressed. She was having problems in her marriage. You know, some Eastern cultures believe that fire cleanses the soul. Well, Tara Matthews was having sex with Morgan Stewart. So, if she attempted suicide several hours after the Stewarts died, she's a possible suspect. Yeah, but just having her DNA in the bed doesn't prove she was there for the murders. SIDLE: What about Tara's husband Neal? Well, according to Brass, Neal and Morgan were good friends since they were kids. Neal was good at making money, and Morgan was good at making debts. Maybe Morgan was jealous of Neal, sleeps with Tara out of spite, Corinne finds out... GRISSOM: And three people end up dead. So the critical question remains. If Morgan shot himself, then he's the prime suspect in the murders, but if he, in fact, was murdered, then somebody else was in the house. Mr. Matthews. Detective Jim Brass, Las Vegas Police. How's your wife doing? How does it look like she's doing? You know, I just have a couple of questions. Maybe we should talk outside. We can talk here. Okay. You know, when the detective interviewed you earlier, why didn't you tell him that your best friend and his family had just been killed? I didn't know then. Were you at Morgan's house yesterday? No. How about your wife? Not that I know of. Why would she? Well, she's been spending a lot of time there. What's that supposed to mean? Your wife was having an affair with your best friend. Look, I feel for you, Neal; I do. Friends don't sleep with their friend's wives. You think you know how I feel?
Guilty?
Yeah. I do feel guilty.
I was unable to give my wife what she needed. If she went to Morgan, that's the reason. She never handled rejection well. So, if Morgan rejected her, how would she have taken that? Badly. Bad enough to kill?
Not Tara.
How's it going? Hey. Checking out trajectory angles. This is the shot coming out of Morgan's body.
What's the trajectory going into the wall? Oh, the wall trajectory is a constant. Morgan's is the variable here.
Well, there's no way those lines are gonna match up with Morgan all the way over on the bed. So let's make them line up.
Hang on. If he shot himself there... how did he end up on the bed?
He was moved. Where is the blood spatter from the initial wound? Wait. Morgan's wound bled out here. The blood puddle covered the initial spatter.
( gunshot )
There was someone else in that room. STOKES: So maybe Neal or Tara Matthews has blood on their clothes. BROWN: Time to check the house.
( knocking ) You found a basal thermometer at the Stewart house? Yeah. It was crushed on the master bedroom floor. Why?
I found one in Tara Matthews' vanity drawer.
I was just looking at Corinne Stewart's autopsy report. Uh... She had a tubal ligation, so... she obviously wasn't trying to have kids. Tara was.
♪ ♪
WILLOWS: So it's been confirmed. Tara Matthews is pregnant. Third-degree burns on most of her body and she doesn't miscarry? A mother's body is designed to protect her baby. I don't know, all that trauma and morphine... it'll be a miracle if she brings it to term. Do we have any idea who the father is? Too early to tell. She's just a few weeks pregnant. Okay, we know that Morgan and Tara were having sex. The broken basal thermometer we found in the bedroom implies that she was trying to conceive with him, and not her husband. Neal could've been shooting blanks. Medical records will confirm that. And Neal and Morgan were best friends... Somebody she may have felt comfortable with. WILLOWS: Neal catches Morgan in bed with his wife... He knows where the best friend keeps his gun. The glass in Neal's shoe just puts him at the scene. We didn't find any blood on the clothes we recovered from his house. Clothes are easy to dump. The glass was an oversight, he didn't even know it was there. Or maybe he didn't kill anybody. Which leaves Tara. There was no blood on her clothes either. At least nothing at the house. And the clothes she was wearing went up in flames.
Not everything.
♪ ♪
We got a problem, Neal. We found chlorine from the Stewarts' pool on your wife's sweater. That puts her at the scene. We're going to be charging her with the murders.
Whatever happened... Tara couldn't have done it on purpose. It must've been some sort of accident. Well, the way we see it, you know, Tara went back to Morgan's house to tell him that she was pregnant with his child, and... What, she told you the baby was yours? Yeah. And you believed her? We were trying to have a baby. Why wouldn't I? Oh, well, sure. I mean, you and Morgan are close enough in looks. She probably would've gotten away with it. She always said that a woman without a child of her own wasn't a woman. We tried in vitro fertilization a half a dozen times. Yeah, we know. We subpoenaed your medical records. You had bad sperm.
Anyway... Tara went over to try to get Morgan to leave his family, he said no, she flipped out, she went nuts. She's got a history of depression, right? Total terror. of depression, right? Total terror. I mean, I suppose Morgan got what he deserved. But just because you're defective doesn't mean that Tara's gonna jump in bed with him. I told Tara we could adopt. She wouldn't. And Corinne and the kid... wrong place, wrong time, I guess. She wanted to have a family so bad... And you couldn't give it to her, so she took her business elsewhere. And it didn't take long for Morgan to hit a home run... Stop talking about it like that. Just because she's lying burned up in a hospital room carrying your best friend's kid... No! ...isn't going to cut it with the D.A. No! ...isn't going to cut it with the D.A. No, I'm... Look, Neal, Not another word. she killed three people. I want you to shut up! Just shut up! Neal, please. Let's go. Go ahead and walk. Neal, please. Let's go. Go ahead and walk. Go ahead, let Tara take the fall. She's probably not gonna make it anyway. I love my wife. Please, Neal. Let's go. We know you were there. We got a fragment from a basal thermometer... You don't know anything about her. I know she wanted a baby more than she wanted to be your wife, I know that much. So tell me what I don't know.
We were just hanging out, having a couple beers and I got a splinter. Morgan said the tweezers were up in his bathroom.
He said it was Corinne's idea. They were just trying to help us. We did it for Tara. You slept with my wife! No!
Corinne! Call the police! Mommy. Morgan! ( gunshot ) ( gunshot ) She ran. She was going to call the cops. I was just trying to stop her. You shot her.
What about Dani?
I didn't know what else to do, so I called Tara. When she came over, saw what I'd done... she just freaked out. I made it look like Morgan shot Corinne and then he killed himself. Are you out of your mind? Do you know what you've done? This is all because of you. BRASS: Neal... what happened to Dani?
Dani!
She said we didn't deserve to live, neither one of us. And then she just ran out the door. I was afraid she was going to try to kill herself.
All we wanted was a baby.
Captioning sponsored by CBS, C.S.I. PRODUCTIONS Captioning sponsored by CBS, C.S.I. PRODUCTIONS Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org clothes.