( woman screams )
( gasping )
CURTIS: Vic's name's Christina Hollis.
She's a sales agent for the building.
Neighbor said she just came running out of her unit,
delirious and hysterical.
Sexual assault?
Definitely.
I'm gonna go with her to the hospital,
see if I can get a statement.
GRISSOM: Video cameras.
That's good for us.
Vic probably thought it was good for her, too.
Excuse me, hi, can you identify yourself
for the camera, please?
PRODUCER: Just look right in the lens.
What is this?
It's a reality crime show.
We're following you for this investigation.
Sheriff promised full cooperation.
We got that memo. They're Hard Crime.
That's us-- we're the guys who put the folks
who look in the microscopes under the microscopes.
Right.
You see, it's good P.R. for the department.
Try not to bust their chops, okay?
PRODUCER: You ever see the show? It's got a lot of forensics.
There's too many forensics shows on TV.
BRASS: The door knob,
the frame, the strike plate are all clean.
No sign of a forced entry.
So she might have known her assailant.
Either that or he talked his way in.
Hey, hey, hey.
Stay behind the crime tape.
PRODUCER: Don't cut.
Mr. Grissom, can you please describe what you're seeing?
A long night.
Captioning sponsored by CBS, C.S.I. PRODUCTIONS
♪ Who... are you? ♪
♪ Who, who, who, who? ♪
♪ Who... are you? ♪
♪ Who, who, who, who? ♪
♪ I really want to know ♪
♪ Who... are you? ♪
♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪
♪ Who... ♪
♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪
♪ Who... ♪
♪ Come on, tell me who are you, you, you ♪
♪ Oh, you! ♪
I don't understand.
Why am I here?
Miss Hollis, you've been assaulted.
Who...?
I...
You don't know who did this?
What was the last thing you remember?
I don't know.
Oh, my God.
Okay, this isn't right.
Why isn't this right?
Why don't I look right?
Christina, it's okay.
No, it's not okay.
It's not okay.
Why don't I look right?
I don't underst...
Why are they st...
Why are they staring at me?
Stop looking at me!
Nurse, get in here!
( sobbing )
It's okay. It's okay.
( sobbing )
NURSE: I did a wet mount from a vaginal swab
and got 4-plus motile sperm present.
So she was raped within the last few hours.
No condom means he's not in the system
or he doesn't care if he gets caught.
Guys like this, they keep doing it.
PRODUCER: Excuse me, Detective.
Can I ask you a question?
Detective.
You try something like that again and you're gone.
I don't a give a damn what the sheriff says.
We never put anyone on screen without a signed release.
You invaded her privacy at her most vulnerable moment.
I am trying to give the crime a face.
Yeah, well, we're going to lose an hour
waiting for her to calm down.
That's on you.
I apologize. It won't happen again.
Look, can I just ask you what you've got there?
It's a sexual assault evidence kit and blood sample.
I've seen date rape victims in similar dissociative states.
We're going to run a tox screen, see if she was drugged.
You were a CSI, right?
Yeah.
And now you're a detective.
So which side of the fence do you prefer?
It's the same side.
( camera clicking )
( camera clicks )
WILLOWS: Candles burned down.
A bouquet in the trash.
( camera clicking )
Flowers and candles--
sure seems like a date.
Some date.
( camera clicks )
There's a void in the wax.
Some kind of white flaky substance.
This looks like blood, but...
I think it's nail polish.
BRASS: Hey, how's it going?
According to your supervisor,
you were doing maintenance work on the 11th floor
at 5:00 a.m.
What were you fixing
at 5:00 in the morning?
I was just clocking a little overtime.
Management said they wanted a few extra coats of paint
on three, seven and 11.
Got to keep everything nice and pretty for the tenants.
You know, the security guy
didn't see you on his camera. Why is that?
Yeah, well, that guy doesn't see much.
Service elevator's out.
We have to use the stairs.
God forbid the tenants ever have to look at one of us.
You got a master key to all the apartments?
Yeah.
But we only go in
if a tenant specifically asks us to fix something.
You ever fix anything for Christina Hollis?
Nope. Never.
You're running a little low on duct tape, my man.
Yeah.
It's holding up half the building.
Two pieces of duct tape,
both have been swabbed for DNA and fingerprinted.
Grissom wants you to compare adhesives.
He's looking for a match.
Okay.
That'll take a laser ablation test.
That's good.
Why's that good?
Well, laser ablation is both visual and dramatic.
Are you looking for the video crew right now?
I would think that they would be looking for me.
Relax, man, the show's only an hour long.
Laser ablation takes, like, six.
Yeah, but when they cut it together,
it'll only take 30 seconds.
HODGES: Ran laser ablation on the duct tape samples.
Not a match.
So she wasn't tied up with the maintenance man's tape.
Mm-mm.
What about the rest of the trace?
Mm-mm.
What about the rest of the trace?
White powder was primarily biological,
so I kicked it back to DNA.
It did contain some glassy particles.
Might be industrial diamonds.
And the yellow reflective flakes?
My next priority.
( scoffs ) That's a waste of film.
JOHNSON: The victim came out of her apartment around 5:00 a.m.,
so I've been working my way back from then.
In the previous seven hours, 37 people came and went
from the 11th floor, 21 of them male.
So the assailant could be any one of them...
assuming that our guy didn't take the stairs
which, of course, aren't monitored.
Okay, now, here:
This guy got off on the vic's floor at 10:32 p.m.
There's no footage of him coming back down.
And check this out.
( beeping )
He brought flowers.
How romantic.
But I don't think this was a first date.
( beeping )
Guy had his own key.
So he could've been with the victim the whole night.
Pull the best image of his face you can,
and get a printout to Brass.
I'm on it.
PRODUCER: Ms. Willows, hold on a second.
All you have is a guy's face.
How do you figure out who he is?
Good question.
PRODUCER: Guys, we're good to go.
( clears throat )
So what have you found so far?
I lifted two identifiable prints off the bouquet wrapper.
How do you know they belong to the suspect?
We don't, but one matched a print found
on the duct tape, right here, used to tape up the victim.
Unfortunately, that print's not in our database.
So your suspect doesn't have a record?
Apparently not, no.
Well, how do you find a guy who's not in the system?
( chuckles ) You just got to get creative, you know?
I mean, the flowers... came from a small shop off-strip.
Took the suspect's image to the clerk,
showed it to him.
He gave me a credit card receipt.
From that receipt, I got a name.
That name gave me a driver's license.
Dwight Reynolds.
Police are bringing him in now.
Great, okay.
Clear and concise, thank you.
Thanks.
Clear and concise, thank you.
Thanks.
Yeah, well, we have to do it in court all the time.
If you can't explain it to a jury,
then the bad guy usually walks,
and we don't like it when the bad guy walks.
CURTIS: Unit picked him up at the Double Down.
He was plastered.
BRASS: What'd he blow?
One nine.
That's almost enough to wash away your sins.
Well, we're going to have wait until he sobers up.
No, no, let's not wait, let's move on this.
I think we got a chance.
Look, why don't you come in there with me, huh?
Maybe pop a few buttons?
( chuckles )
No, seriously.
( chuckles )
No, seriously.
See how he reacts.
If he tries too hard not to look,
it could be a guilty conscience?
Yeah, maybe, something like that.
If he is the guy, and we interview him now,
anything he says could be thrown out of court.
It's worth a try.
What do you think, huh?
Let's go.
How's it going?
Okay.
Did you know a Christina Hollis?
Yeah, we used to date.
You seen her recently?
No.
Then how come
No.
Then how come
we found your prints on some flowers at her place?
I dropped some flowers off... but I didn't see her when I did.
You had a key?
Yeah.
She likes me to come over sometimes, you know?
Help her move stuff.
Oh, come on, what really happened, huh?
You went over to move some stuff,
and she wasn't in the mood, is that it?
I told you-- I didn't see her.
( door rattling )
( Barry White song playing inside )
She was playing Barry White.
Everybody knows what that means.
I guess it wasn't my night.
You're lying!
We found the flowers inside her apartment, in the trash,
and you didn't use the elevator to leave.
I was pissed.
I tried to walk it off.
I figured 11 flights down, it's better than a cold shower.
Christina Hollis was tied up and brutally assaulted
in her apartment last night.
What?
And you were there.
Is she...?
She's alive and talking.
Last night?
The guy who with her was...
was doing that to her?
I could've stopped it.
SIMMS: So the powder that you found on the bedroom floor
was actually keratinized skin cells.
They belong to the vic, and morphology suggests
that they're probably from her cuticles.
Cuticles?
Mm-hmm.
Cuticles?
Mm-hmm.
Nail polish, diamond particles...
Maybe she was giving herself a mani and pedi
before the assault.
I don't know about you, but if I could afford to live
in an apartment like that, I'd be in a spa every week.
Yeah, I hear you there. Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
Wendy ran the semen, no hits in CODIS.
Yeah, the, uh... ex-boyfriend
didn't match any of the prints on the duct tape, either.
SAE found oral, vaginal and anal smears positive for semen.
Degraded and intact sperm suggests multiple deposits.
Which means that he probably raped her
on and off, for a long time.
Yeah, well, tox came back-- lorazepam in the vic's blood.
I didn't find any prescription bottles in her apartment.
No, nor did I.
Lorazepam is a hypnotic sedative,
and I know in high doses, it causes acute amnesia.
Maybe that's what he was counting on to cover his tracks.
Well, it usually takes an hour for a drug like that to kick in.
How did he subdue her in the meantime?
Low-profile entry, sedatives, duct tape--
I mean, if he's not a serial, he will be soon.
Hey, there, gorgeous.
I'm going to be running with the trace
from the victim's apartment.
Would you mind bringing me up to speed?
Certainly.
Take your time.
PRODUCER: Did you page us?
Um...
No. Mm-mm.
According to the gas chromatograph
mass spectrometer,
the glossy red drop you found on the footboard was...
nail polish.
Well, that's not unusual in a woman's apartment.
What is far more intriguing is the reflective yellow flakes.
Follow me to the Fourier Transform Infrared Microscope.
Hodges, what's wrong with you?
Nothing.
PRODUCER ( whispering): Guys... stay with the girl.
As you can see, the flakes are fluorescent reflective lenses
bonded to an aramid backing by a special polymer layer.
And it's used exclusively
in the reflective trim of firemen's turnouts.
You're telling me there was a firefighter
in the victim's bedroom.
Hmm...
Thanks. Thanks, Hodges.
Anytime.
Yeah, all right, okay, let 'em roll.
But you're buying the lobster.
Yeah, right.
See, one of the guys gets on TV,
that guy has to buy lobster for the whole company, you know?
These guys eat well-- lobster thermidor!
Check it out.
So, according to dispatch, you responded to an alarm
at the Omni condos last night?
Yeah, at 6:58 p.m.
We were on scene in about four minutes.
Three smoke bombs on three different floors,
three pains in my ass.
There's no major damage, just paint and wallpaper.
We were there about a half hour.
What'd the arson guys find?
They didn't find much.
The smoke bombs were made out of soda cans.
Kids, Internet, you do the math.
It's all in your lab.
Really? What for?
A couple guys from the day shift were gonna
compare 'em to those bombs we found a couple of weeks ago.
What are you talking about?
Apartment building over on Paradise.
Smoke bombs started a fire, one woman died.
We still don't have a suspect in that.
BRASS: Were you on the scene?
CAPTAIN: I saw it after.
Smoke bomb was too close to the wall, the whole place...
Which of your guys were up on the 11th floor at the Omni?
I don't know. I'd have to ask around. Why?
A woman was raped last night.
You think one of my guys did it?
I'm not saying that, but we found some evidence
that a fireman was near her bed.
You came here to accuse my guys of this in front of the camera?
No, no, no. Settle down, settle down...
The hell I will.
No wonder they call you Brass, because you really got a set.
Aw, come on, Sparky...
SIDLE: Excuse me, gentlemen.
Captain, uh, which of your guys...
wears a yellow reflective stripe on their turnouts?
Nobody; department's color is orange.
SIDLE: The reflective flake we found
in Christina Hollis' apartment was yellow.
Then you're not looking for a Las Vegas fireman.
JOHNSON: According to surveillance,
the victim came home at 6:19 p.m.
And the firemen were in her building
at approximately 7:00.
They took the stairs, so we don't have them on this camera.
Now take a look at this...
WILLOWS: Well, he certainly looks the part.
He touched the door with his bare hands.
Might get prints.
The time code says 6:36 p.m.
but the alarm went out at 6:58.
That's 22 minutes later.
What kind of fireman comes before the fire?
Someone who knows it's coming.
PRODUCER: Uh, Mr. Grissom, we may have missed that.
Could you say it one more time for camera?
( indistinct conversation )
PRODUCER: You ever hear the saying,
"Only the dumb ones get caught?"
Yeah...
but we catch the smart ones, too.
And this guy's definitely smart.
He lights smoke bombs on three different floors
so as not to call attention to his target.
Victim sees the smoke, sees him, and opens the door.
( knocking ) !
Fire department, open up.
I mean, who wouldn't trust a fireman, right?
CURTIS: It takes a lot of courage to do this.
Thank you.
And if you change your mind about the camera,
all you have to do is say so--
no one ever has to see this.
No, I want him to see it.
He'll watch it in jail.
Okay, so, you said you were
beginning to remember what happened?
Yeah, a little.
Can you tell me what he looked like?
Um...
No, not really.
It's mostly, uh... just feelings.
Feelings.
Of what?
I know he raped me.
What I remember most...
it was, um...
( sniffling )
He...
He kept...
He kept touching my feet.
( sniffling )
He kept touching my feet.
( police sirens wailing )
A foot fetish is a visual pathology.
The suspect would have had to be close enough to the vic
to see her toes and then get aroused.
We live in a desert, Gil.
You want to see a woman's bare feet,
all you have to do is look down.
( footsteps approaching )
Door in the parking structure
was like the arm of a slot machine:
smudge city.
Anything useful from the janitor?
Yeah, he gave us a full description.
Said he looked like a fireman.
( sighs )
Well, between eBay, uniform shops,
and national manufacturers,
there's about a hundred different places
that you can buy yellow-striped turnouts.
Maybe he was a fireman in another city.
Maybe.
What's that?
When I was at the firehouse,
all of the air tanks were rigged
with the valves on the bottom, like this one.
But our guy...
his valve is on top.
A real fireman probably wouldn't make that mistake.
His air line isn't even rigged to his mask.
It's rigged to a second mask on his side.
Maybe he put something in the tank to subdue her.
He used lorazepam.
Eventually.
But this guy was somehow able to get her
from the door to the bed without a struggle.
I bet he used nitrous oxide.
That stuff will knock you out real fast.
And it's undetectable in the blood after a few minutes.
Pretty easy to come by.
And it would explain the valve on top.
It's liquid under pressure.
It would spill if it were upside down.
All you need is a driver's license
and a deposit for the tank.
If this guy bought nitrous from a local distributor,
there's definitely a record.
Check it out.
Come on, Tina.
Like, I'm the only one working doubles here.
Oh, so it's my fault that we have strange schedules.
Great. Go out with your friends.
I'm sure you'll be seeing Robert again tonight, too, huh?
You know what?
It's fine.
I got to go.
Have a fun time.
PRODUCER: This a bad time?
No. Great time. What can I do for you?
What are you working on?
I'm examining smoke bombs recovered from, uh...
the victim'scondo, and comparing them
to smoke bombs from an arson case
a couple of weeks ago.
How do you know which is which?
I mean, how do you tell them apart?
Well, so far, I've only opened up one item from each case.
CSIs, when we work a case,
we take extensive notes at the scene,
and photos of each item.
And, uh... they're very similar, I know.
But, based on the construction and the components,
I'd say these two bombs were made by the same person.
PRODUCER: So I guess this is a slow day at the morgue.
You can't really predict this job.
Today it's like this, tomorrow it's a bus accident.
So I am here.
Albert.
Yeah?
Did you find the blood sample I called you about?
Female arson fatality. C.O.D. is smoke inhalation.
Partial tox came back carboxyhemoglobin and cyanide.
I need a test for lorazepam.
Blood's on its way to Tox.
You recall any other sexual assault victims
that tested positive for lorazepam?
Uh... Nothing comes to mind, but I'll check my files,
confer with Toxicology.
Thanks.
Yeah.
A slow day is a good day.
These people lived on the same floor
as the female arson fatality from two weeks ago.
Tox on the arson victim
came back negative for lorazepam.
So maybe she wasn't the target.
PRODUCER: Ms. Sidle, is this what you guys call a "fishing expedition"?
We call this following a lead.
Forgive me, but it's not very much of a lead.
What's that supposed to mean?
Well, this case is even colder than the one you're on now.
You'd almost be better off
if you had a new rape victim and a fresh scene.
That might be true, but that is definitely
not the outcome that we're looking for.
WOMAN: I didn't really know the girl who died.
I still can't believe what happened.
It's just awful.
Tell me what you remember.
I was alone in my apartment Saturday night.
Hello. What's new, right?
I was reading or something.
And then, suddenly,
there was someone pounding on my door.
Can you describe what he looked like?
Well, he was fireman.
I mean, he was wearing a mask.
It all happened pretty quick.
Why?
We're looking for a rapist who masquerades as a fireman.
He uses smoke bombs to get
his victims to open their doors.
He knocked on my door.
Are you saying you think he was going to rape me?
It's possible.
You know, I was pretty freaked.
When he was standing there in front of me...
Just before he left,
I swear, for a second,
it felt like he wasn't going to let me go.
Turnouts were a dead end.
And there's nothing to track off of the smoke bombs.
I've got hundreds of names of people
who purchased nitrous oxide in the last six months.
What? You got to narrow that down.
That is narrowed down.
Okay. Our rapist is a foot fetishist.
That's what gets him off.
He has to see his victim's feet somewhere.
If we can figure out where, maybe we can find him.
What do the victims have in common?
Christina Hollis.
African American. Single.
Lives and works at the Omni.
She lives on the 11th floor,
so there's no real way for a peeper to see in.
And she uses
the gym, but not the pool.
Stephanie Daniels
lives across town. Caucasian. Also single.
No gym membership,
but she does use the pool
at her apartment complex regularly.
There's a couple of adjacent buildings.
It's possible that somebody could see
into her place with a telescope,
but she has shades and curtains.
I kind of doubt it.
So they have nothing in common.
Sure, they do. They both have feet.
We may have a third victim
who may also be our first victim.
Tara Weathers. Last month,
she claimed she was drugged in a bar
and woke up in her apartment with her toes freshly painted.
They did a tox on her at the time.
Found lorazepam in her system.
Well, she does have nice feet.
And the nail polish looks like a similar shade
to Christina Hollis'.
Yeah. So the pattern starts a month ago.
Our guy drugs Tara Weathers in a bar,
takes her to her apartment,
paints her toes, leaves.
Two weeks later, he steps it up.
Poses as a firefighter,
places smoke bombs in an apartment building,
only things don't work out
the way that he planned.
The building catches fire,
and he runs.
He waits a couple more weeks,
he does it again,
but this time he goes all the way.
Yeah. And now he's escalating.
Where does he go from here?
Tara Weathers?
I'm Jim Brass, Las Vegas Police.
This is Catherine Willows from the Crime Lab.
What do you want?
Well, we're here to ask you about the incident
you reported to the police last month.
The nail polish thing?
Yeah, the nail polish thing.
You guys said I should consider myself lucky,
that there was no real crime anyway.
Well, we may have been wrong about that.
I knew it, that's what I tried to tell you the first time.
BRASS: The guy who drugged you
is a murderer and a rapist,
and we're looking to stop him before he does it again.
Are you serious?
Very.
We're trying to understand
what you have in common with the other victims
that might lead us to him.
Now he has a foot fetish.
He's into feet.
Is there any way that he could've... seen your feet?
Um...
I-I... I don't know.
Where do you buy your shoes?
All over.
Do you go to a gym?
No, not really.
Pool?
No, never. I burn easily.
I'm a legal secretary, I don't get out much.
My work starts early and it goes late.
The firm is so conservative,
we're not even allowed to wear open-toed shoes.
I notice that you do yoga.
Yeah.
Where?
Out on the balcony.
It's practically the only fresh air I get.
Anybody in those apartments
has a clear view of her bare feet.
PRODUCER: So how'd you get the warrant?
The tenant's name was on the nitrous oxide list.
Las Vegas Police.
Open up, we have a warrant.
Open up, police.
Open it.
Let's go.
No, no, no, you're not going in there, no.
Can you please take this in, it's a flashlight cam.
It'll record anything you point it at.
All clear.
Thanks.
Perfect view of Tara's balcony.
Yoga flyers from all over town.
Guy's got everything he needs for a pedicure.
Hey, check this out.
God bless the internet.
Fireman's air tank case.
Where's the tank?
( cell phone blips )
Yeah, this is Brass.
I want to put a broadcast out on Richard McQueen.
That's M-C-Q-U-E-E-N.
Copy. ( cell phone blips )
Candle wax.
( siren )
( garbled radio transmission)
( sirens )
( grunting ): Stay down!
Las Vegas P.D.!
Las Vegas P.D., break it up!
Break it up!
What the hell's going on here?
Smoke bombs.
We caught this creep sneaking away.
My guys tried to stop him.
She wouldn't let me touch her feet.
You should see what he did?
( sighs )
Women are four times more likely than men
to be the victims of a sex-related murder.
And men are ten times more likely than women
to be the murderer.
It's just the way it is.
Is that your daughter?
Oh, yeah, these are old pictures.
She's a teenager now.
With all the things you see on this job,
do you ever worry about her?
Are you kidding?
I keep a vial of her blood in my freezer.
Like as a DNA sample in case you need to identify her?
Well...
One thing you learn doing this job
is that bad things happen to people who never expect it...
every day.
Yeah, we got a confession.
He didn't choose women's feet,
women's feet chose him.
He lit candles, he played music,
he thought he was on a date.
But did he explain, you know, why he did it?
Oh, yeah. Oh, sure.
His mother was a hooker,
she put him under the bed when she did her business,
her feet dangled over the edge of the bed.
He watched her feet, they were perfect.
You know, I don't know if it's true.
What about the fireman thing?
I don't know, I guess he wanted to be a fireman when he grew up.
Didn't you?
Look, juries love explanations, they want it nice and neat.
They don't want to know we live in a random world,
they want meaning.
It's that simple.
So how do you cope with a day like today?
What do you do?
What do you want me to tell you, that I go home, I get drunk,
I go to a bar, I stay out all night,
I don't sleep... huh?
That's not the truth. You know what happens?
I take care of myself, I sleep very well.
How well did you sleep after you learned
you killed that fellow officer in that shootout last year?
Uh, yeah.
Oh, is this... is that...
Oh, is this what this is about?
Who've you been talking to, huh?
What, you come here with your camera
and you roll a little film and...
what, you think you know what it's like to be a cop?
You?
You're all done. You're all done with this.
Get out of here.
The truth is if there isn't any evidence,
we have nowhere to go.
So you feel you did the best you could?
Yes, I do.
Do you think forensic shows
are just teaching the criminals
how to get away with crimes?
Everyone learns from science.
It all depends on how you use the knowledge.
( camera beeps )
Keep going, go inside for a close-up.
Captioning sponsored by CBS, C.S.I. PRODUCTIONS
Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org ?