Original subtitles

MAN: Isn't it great to get back to nature?

You wanna set camp here?

We can camp on the moon, just give me the shovel.

Chill, chill.

- You got paper? - I have what I need.

[INSECTS BUZZING]

Oh, my God!

Angie?

Angie!

[INSECTS BUZZING]

- They're everywhere. - What the...?

[MAN COUGHS]

That's a person.

Hikers found her.

Looks like a gunshot to the head.

Did you find a weapon?

No.

I hate bees.

Just paper wasps.

They're having too much fun to worry about us.

I never get used to this part, you know, when the bugs get going.

Just doing what God intended.

Recycling us back to the earth.

- Hey, officer. OFFICER: Yeah.

Can I borrow some of your hot coffee, please?

- Sure. - Thank you.

Ahh.

Preservation.

John.

Paul.

George.

Ringo.

Beetles.

No, uh, alkali fluids in the dirt,

so she wasn't killed here.

Whoever dumped her must've been in a hurry.

Didn't take the time to bury her.

What do you think?

You got any of that beef jerky you're always gnawing on?

- You can eat? - I wanna keep these little fellas alive.

They're our first witnesses to the crime.

WARRICK: Cath, you want some coffee?

CATHERINE: Please. Cream with some of that fake stuff.

There's nothing good to eat around here.

Hi.

- Sorry I'm late. - Hey, how's the body with the bugs?

- How do you know about that already? - Hey, don't look at me.

We played a hunch, checked with Homicide.

- You were late. - What do you have for us?

A Paul Sorenson.

Missing since last night. Last seen at home of Richard Zeigler,

- in, ooh, Summerlin. - Summerlin? Rich folks.

Warrick, you can work this with Catherine.

Don't you have a court date coming up?

Yeah, the DA asked me to testify

on a chain of custody. I could do that in my sleep.

Listen, juries need to have confidence in the evidentiary process,

so work with Catherine, then break off

- when you have to appear. - Yeah.

- Bye. - Good luck.

- Bye. WARRICK: See you.

- Need help with your homicide? - No, Sara's gonna work with me.

You get a missing person. Sheryl Applegate.

Her husband notified the police that she took the car

and headed to L.A., but she never showed up.

A few hours ago, P.D. found her car at the bus station.

They requested a CSI.

She took the bus instead. Case solved.

Hopefully, you're right.

But until she's located, treat her car like a crime scene.

Is everything okay? You've been quiet all night.

Yeah.

I got a call earlier today from Child Services

asking about you and Lindsey.

- I don't believe this. - They told me they'd notified you,

some investigation that Eddie had made a charge or something.

Yes, he's pissed off because I won't let him back into my life,

so he's sics Child Services on me.

I never expected they were gonna talk to my friends.

Well, what did they ask? What did you say?

- Hello. - Hi.

Sir, we're with the Las Vegas Crime Lab.

We're here about a Paul Sorenson.

I'm Richard Zeigler. Cops told me you were coming.

Here, please, come in.

- Thank you. - Thanks.

Well, this is where the Sorenson was displayed.

- Sorenson is a painting? - Paul Sorenson was an artist.

Early 1900s.

How dumb are we?

What's he know about forensic analysis of a friction ridge?

- Right on. - I think I may have surprised the guy

while he was stealing it.

I came downstairs to read and I heard a noise.

By the time I got to the room, he was gone,

but the door was open.

Why don't we dust for prints?

WARRICK: Mr. Zeigler, one more thing.

What about the security alarm?

Somebody disengaged it.

- Thinking what I'm thinking? - Oh, yeah. Inside job.

So was it a disaster with Child Services?

Disaster? What do you mean?

Well, my job does take me away from my daughter.

Nobody knows that better than you.

Yeah, but you think I'd say that?

Well, not intentionally. They just,

you know, know how to ask questions.

Are you finding anything?

We're working on it, sir.

Your young woman from the mountains.

Do we know who she is yet?

I gave her prints to Homicide for ID.

There's the blanket she was wrapped in.

Whoever she is, last day on earth was not pleasant.

.38 caliber gun, flush to the scalp.

[GUNSHOT]

Shot clean through, right to left.

Bullet out the other side.

Stellate pattern and beveled wound

confirms the proximity of barrel to scalp.

No question this was an intimate killing.

Full of sound and fury signifying what, doc?

I took these.

SARA: Let's see what we have.

Fracture to the nasal bone,

orbital bone, mandibular.

All facial fractures.

Typical for battered women.

These aren't fresh, are they?

The old fracture lines

indicate this woman was in a long-term abusive relationship.

Any idea how long she's been dead?

The elements really got to her.

Grissom and his insects are gonna have to figure that one out.

Have we lost you, Grissom?

The worms go in The worms go out

The worms play pinochle On your snout

Shakespeare again?

An old nursery rhyme.

ROBBINS: A very special insect, Dr. Seuss?

A muscid fly,

typical only in urban areas.

But you found her in the mountains.

How many people have access to your home, keys and security code?

Just my wife and my two sons and my daughter.

CATHERINE: Can you get them all here?

They might be able to help us with evidence.

Hey, Catherine.

Check this out.

You see that?

Helix, antihelix, helix rim, tragus, antitragus.

I think the thief must have pressed his head against the wall

to check if the painting was wired.

Come on, an earprint?

Hey, a jury convicted a first-degree murderer

based on a print just like this two years ago, in Washington.

Yeah, I know. I know. I'd like to see that one on appeal.

Well, photograph and lift.

We'll have someone to compare it to soon enough.

Okay, bear with me.

You're one of ten guys in the country that understands this stuff.

I think there's at least 15, but go on.

What don't you get?

Insects arrive at a corpse in a specific order, right?

Like summer follows the spring.

And you can pinpoint time of death

based on the type and age of insects present on the body?

I watch the insects mature

from eggs to larvae to adults,

and then count backwards.

Linear regression.

How old are those creepy crawlers?

- Well, they're not done maturing yet. - Oh.

But when they are, I'll be able to tell you how old they were

when I found the body.

Which will tell us when the women died.

I ID'd her body through AFIS and located her husband.

Let me guess, downtown?

- The Fremont district? - You know, I'm not even gonna ask.

Synthesiomyia nudiseta is the Latin name.

It's a muscid fly.

Only breeds in urban areas, but Grissom found one on our girl,

which means she was probably killed downtown

and then carried into the mountains.

Well, the neighbors heard a gunshot at their apartment five days ago.

The grieving husband,

his name is Scott Shelton.

What was her name?

Kaye screamed at me a lot, that's for sure, but I didn't kill her.

In fact, I was out of town last week, at a convention.

Yeah, in New Orleans soaking up the gumbo. You told us.

When was the last time you saw your wife?

Five days ago.

When I came back from my trip she was gone.

And you didn't think to notify the police?

I keep my personal business private.

If Kaye had left me again, I wasn't gonna broadcast it.

BRASS: So this neighbor lady,

who told me that she heard a gunshot

and a woman scream inside your apartment,

what, she just imagined that?

It was probably our TV.

Mr. Shelton...

...did your wife drive racecars?

- You're kidding me. - No.

The two most common causes of facial trauma in adult women:

Motor-vehicle accidents

and domestic violence.

These are your wife's x-rays.

SARA: Every face and neck fracture your wife has sustained

over the last six years is highlighted.

Kaye can get wild.

If I came home late with friends, I've wrestled her off me.

I admit that.

Three complaints against Scott for spousal abuse in the last two years.

Kaye was excitable.

Like I said, I've wrestled her off me,

but I never, ever laid a hand on her.

How about a gun?

- You have your hands full with her. - So do you.

SARA: We're gonna investigate your apartment.

Do we need a warrant or are you gonna play nice?

Come on over. I've got nothing to hide.

We'll be the judge of that.

Detective Secula.

- Mr. Stokes. - What's up?

You got stuck on this one too?

Yeah, well, missing person, could be interesting.

Husband reports his wife missing and her car's at a bus terminal? Come on.

Lady took a trip. Didn't want him to know where to.

- Not much of a mystery. - Auto unit been by yet?

SECULA: No, they just slim-jimmed.

We checked for a body, didn't find one.

- Big surprise. - Yeah.

No. I didn't touch a thing.

Secula, is something wrong?

We had dinner last week.

I thought it went great. You never called.

That doesn't mean I wasn't going to.

- Is our missing person a redhead? - Yeah.

Call in a tow to the CSI garage.

This case is now officially interesting.

It's just like a fingerprint, for your ears.

Now, wait a minute. Are you thinking one of us did this?

CATHERINE: Well, there's no forced entry.

Someone shut off your alarm.

That tells us that we eliminate the family first,

before we widen our investigation.

I'll tell you what. I'm not putting that crap on my ear.

We can get a warrant.

No, nobody's getting a warrant against this family.

We'll humor them, and get this over with.

CATHERINE: Thank you, sir.

ZEIGLER: Tell me what you want me to do.

CATHERINE: You're a good sport.

WARRICK: Just gonna press this against your ear.

See?

We got a match.

What do you think?

WARRICK: Jason?

- What? - The earprint talking.

Why would you steal from me?

Sir, are you gonna wanna press charges?

No, no. God, no, no. I'm just...

We'll get help for Jason.

I don't want court records.

Jason, do you still have the painting?

What if I told you I sold it?

Well, that would be selling stolen property, and you would be arrested,

no matter what your dad says.

Okay.

Painting's in the trunk of my car.

Can I get you guys something to drink? Soda, ale?

SARA: No, thanks.

Not a lot of room for Kaye.

She's shy.

Does it get cold in here in the winter?

Sometimes. Why?

That's why you'd need a blanket on the couch, huh?

A green one, I bet.

[GUN CLICKS]

Looks like your gun's just been cleaned.

Yeah, I cleaned it before I left town.

Took out the garbage too. Does that make me guilty of something?

No bullets missing here.

Bullets missing here, though.

I fired them at the shooting range last month.

I go there with a couple of guys from work.

We're gonna need to borrow your bullets.

- This back door lead to your car? SHELTON: To a car.

I drive a different demo every day. Perk of the dealership.

You smell that, Grissom?

Did you do laundry back here today?

I got news for you, Scott.

Bleach doesn't make blood disappear.

You just can't see it with the naked eye.

I have no idea how that got there.

It got there when you shot your wife in the head,

before you wrapped her in a blanket and you dumped her in the mountains!

- Get your finger out of my face! - Touch me again--

- Sara! Sara! - Can't you control her?

Get him out of here, Jim.

SHELTON: I told you she was a handful.

You don't know a handful!

Hey. Hey. What is the matter with you?

I am a woman and I have a gun, and look how he treated me.

I can only imagine how he treated his wife.

- Hey. WARRICK: Hey.

- Nicky, how's it going? - Good, good.

Are you putting one of Lindsey's drawings into evidence?

If only her artwork brought in this kind of dough,

I wouldn't need to worry about her college tuition.

Yeah, I heard your missing person was a painting.

- At least we solved our case. - Oh! Oh.

Keep walking.

Give me an evidence tag for this painting.

CLERK: Sure.

Okay, now, I know that these are rich people,

and it's just a painting, and nobody died,

but this just doesn't feel finished.

Every time you say that, I'm looking at more overtime.

I know.

[PAGER BEEPING]

You know what? I gotta be somewhere.

- Court. - Yeah, right.

- Can you handle this from here? - Yeah.

Cool. See you later.

Hey, Warrick.

- Are you gonna tell me? - What?

- About Child Services? - Oh.

I told them as far as mothers are concerned, you're the bomb.

- Really? - Yeah.

And I also told them your ex is pretty screwed up.

No worries.

What do we need to nail him at trial?

Well, the neighbor puts him in the apartment five days ago.

You tell me she's been dead five days

and a jury is gonna jump all over that coincidence.

Insects will tell me when she was killed.

No, all I'm saying is five days is what I need.

Jim, please don't try and compromise my end of the investigation.

Good luck.

The bullets from Scott's gun are unusual.

Since we didn't find the spent bullet, I sent one from the box over to Trace.

Everything else stacks up.

He killed her.

What'd you get?

- She's been dead three days. - Are you positive?

Not five?

Three.

My client was in New Orleans

three days before his wife's body was discovered on that mountain.

He couldn't possibly have killed her,

unless I misunderstand what you've explained to us, Mr. Grissom?

Your linear regression?

You understand.

Okay, forget time of death,

how does your client explain Kaye's blood all over his apartment wall?

Quite simply. Scott has three prior complaints for abuse.

What's to say the blood didn't get there during one of those altercations?

Altercations? Upgraded from wrestling.

BRASS: This is good.

Admitting to prior abuse to cover up actual murder.

My client and I are leaving.

And, Mr. Grissom, thank you.

[DOOR OPENS]

[DOOR CLOSES]

Hey, tough luck about the wife abuser getting released.

There's no secrets around you, are there, Conrad?

You think I wanted you to whiff out on that?

Your reputation as an entomologist elevates this entire crime lab,

which elevates my stature, by association.

Well, then you must feel very small today, by association.

You're dropping the ball in other areas, though.

Administratively.

Did I miss one of your status meetings?

Warrick Brown had one of my guys sub for him in court.

So? I'm sure something came up.

He told my guy it was an emergency,

but I have it on good authority that he was gambling.

At the Monaco.

- What? - That's right. On CSI time.

I don't like him using one of my guys as a cover.

I figure if he brings anybody down with him, it should be from your shift.

Don't you think?

[KETTLE WHISTLING]

[FOOTSTEPS]

Sara?

Sara?

You okay?

Fine, yeah.

Did you sleep here?

I was working till 4 a.m.

I combed every demo Scott's driven.

Zilch.

What's up?

I need you to do some background for me on Warrick

without letting him know why.

Oh, Warrick, your favorite CSI.

That's why I want you to handle it,

so that Ecklie can't accuse me of favoritism

if it turns out that Warrick's clean.

What do you wanna know?

WARRICK: This painting's a forgery?

Where does it say that?

I was reading up on Sorenson,

and I found a site that says 15 percent of all museum art is fake.

It's not our job to authenticate art, case is closed.

You're so right, but if this is a forgery,

we've got a new crime.

JESSICA: This electrothermal atomizer

is set at the excitation wavelength for titanium,

which was not used in oil paint before the 1950s.

So an authentic Sorenson would be titanium-free.

If it's present, the canvas will fluoresce, and we've got a forgery.

Hit the lights.

CATHERINE: Hm. - No doubt about it. It's a fake.

Okay, so if the owner purchased this painting

from a reputable auction house,

- they would have run a similar test. - Absolutely.

So the kid stole the original painting from his pop,

and gave us back a forgery.

This kid's in college, right? Let's check his dorm room.

There's no more hair.

Not even a trace. No signs of foul play.

And the carpet's clean.

Yeah. Yeah, too clean.

Which begs the question:

- What lies beneath? - Hand me the phenolphthalein, please.

You're, um...

You're checking for blood.

Well, I'm checking

to see why someone scrubbed this carpet so clean.

If there is blood present...

...we'll know why.

Looks like our missing person might be a homicide.

Oh, yeah.

Hey.

You find out anything about Warrick?

Um, I'm here about something else.

You-- You know how you say we're the victim's last voice?

Mm-hm.

I thought it was our job to speak for Kaye Shelton.

You don't crunch evidence to fit a theory.

What if you hear the victim's screams?

In the car, at the store.

You have empathy for her, Sara.

You want someone to pay for what was done to her. That's normal.

You wanna sleep with me?

Did you just say what I think you said?

That way, when I wake up in a cold sweat

under the blanket hearing Kaye's screams,

you can tell me it's nothing.

It's just empathy.

BRASS: So you planning a little late-night luau?

- Roast pig? - It's an experiment.

Maybe Kaye was dead five days.

I thought your bugs never made mistakes.

They don't. People do.

The victim was wrapped in a blanket.

Normally a blanket or clothing doesn't impact insect maturation.

The insects usually fight their way in anyway.

But I examined the folds in Kaye's blanket.

She was wrapped tight, maybe tighter than I realized.

Which would've decreased the corpse's exposure to insects.

So it took longer for the insects to get in there.

And deposit their eggs. Maybe two whole days.

I've wrapped Porky here pretty tight.

Let me ask you this, you killed a pig just for this?

This poor ham was already on its way

to someone's Christmas dinner table.

- I mean, wouldn't a rabbit be easier? - Gotta be a pig.

Interestingly, they're the most like humans.

Yeah, I been saying that since I was a rookie.

You're on your own, pal.

[FOOTSTEPS]

Thanks.

- How's the case going? - Hey.

Eh. Dead end, how about you?

Just got a hit on one of our missing lady's credit cards.

Motel.

NICK: Her abductor sold her card, or is using it himself.

- What motel? - Four Aces.

That's right around the corner from where we found her car.

I've got some uniforms meeting us there.

Good job.

[SIRENS WAILING]

OFFICER: Las Vegas Police!

All right, don't move! Put your hands where I can see them!

Let's go.

Are you Sheryl Applegate?

Oh, whoa, man! Ow!

- Whoa! What's going on here? - Michael, shut up.

Las Vegas Police. Your husband reported you missing.

Can she put that gun away?

You haven't been abducted, have you, Ms. Applegate?

Not really.

We found evidence of blood in your car.

I saw an injured dog last week and drove it to the vet.

Ahem. Uh, Nick, let's get out of here.

[NICK CLEARS THROAT]

Wait!

What are you gonna tell my husband?

That you're okay.

You're gonna have to fill in the blanks.

So the pig's insects matured at a rate consistent with a five-day-old corpse?

Once I took the blanket into account.

Your initial computations were wrong?

You went back, adjusted conditions, and proved actual time of death?

- Five days, not three. SARA: Which places the victim

with her husband, who's already guilty as sin.

Captain Brass, do you understand Grissom's insect evidence?

To a degree. In a...

In a general way.

Do you think a jury will understand your adjustments,

or do you think they'll realize your conditions

can make the evidence say anything you want it to say?

I can make a case to any jury against Scott Shelton

for the murder of his wife.

Your arresting officer can barely understand it.

I read the file.

Other than bugs, is there anything else?

Get something a jury can understand or move on.

- Hello. - Hello, Mr. Zeigler.

- You brought my Sorenson. CATHERINE: Yes.

ZEIGLER: Good. I'm glad it's back.

Nice campus you got there, Jason.

- What? - We went by your dorm earlier,

with the police here.

We'd like to ask a favor of you, Mr. Zeigler.

A private viewing of the painting.

[ATOMIZER WHIRRING]

My God. My--

My Sorenson's a forgery?

WARRICK: That's not all, sir.

Wait. I have $10 million worth of forgeries.

WARRICK: No, sir.

Police recovered your originals

from Jason's dorm room today.

What?

Well, I don't even know you.

What, did you have an art major do your fakes for you, Jason?

CATHERINE: Robbery checked with your school.

They actually teach classes in how to copy the masters.

My friends helped me out.

They didn't know what I was doing.

And what exactly were you doing?

Your son stole all your originals, replacing them with forgeries.

But the other night, his little scam was interrupted.

WARRICK: He didn't have time to make the switch.

If the hook hadn't dislodged from your Sorenson,

you would've spent the rest of your life admiring fakes.

And you never even knew the difference, did you, Dad?

You're right.

You don't know me.

Where are your pictures of me?

You're too busy staring at your masterpieces.

And they're not even real!

I'm right here, Dad, but you don't even see me.

The police are going to want to know if you're pressing charges this time.

I am.

You want my attention, Jason?

You got it.

I heard you were going into an autopsy.

How can you just move on to another case?

They're laughing at us. You know that, right?

They think we're a couple of science nerds. They threw out our findings.

DAVID: That body should be up in a few minutes, Mr. Grissom.

Thank you, David.

There was a murder recently in a village on the other side of the world.

Every man in the village denied having any part of it.

The victim's throat had been slashed with a shovel.

So this one guy, I guess you could call him a science nerd,

asked all the men in the village to bring their shovels to the center of town

and hold them, spade side up.

And he waited.

Eventually flies started showing up on one specific shovel

looking for microscopic bits of blood and flesh.

First witness to a crime.

The investigator got his murderer, and...

And forensic science was born. Song Tzu. 1235 A.D.

- You call 800 years ago recent? - To an astronomer, it is.

But then people forgot about forensic science, didn't they?

And had to be reminded again by Francesco Redi in the 1600s.

And again by Bergeret d'Arbois in the 1800s.

Every civilization learns what it needs to know, and the next one forgets it.

The sheriff...

Well, it's not personal.

We're part of the cycle.

Yeah, they laughed at fingerprints 70 years ago, and now it's law.

Except somebody had to push for prints.

And you're standing there saying, "All things in their own time."

You're confused, right?

Yes.

That's the best place for a scientist to be.

My body's here.

Kaye Shelton.

Shall we?

SARA: Gave her a bath, huh? - Routine cleaning.

We had to do it sometime.

Doc, what's this blue mark here?

SARA: Why didn't we see this at the autopsy?

It was under a gallon of blood.

But the blue's embedded, it won't wash away.

Didn't you say the suspect's ammunition was in Trace?

Yeah.

"Lead, copper, zinc,

Teflon."

Teflon?

And? So?

Strand of hair from our lady in the mountains.

The blue dust from around her entrance wound?

That's from the bullet's impact.

It's made of Teflon.

Now look at the next specimen.

The bullet is from Scott's personal ammo supply, which I test-fired.

See, the Teflon disintegrated into blue powder at the moment of impact.

SHELTON: You're gonna leave me? Is that what you think?

And all the guys are gonna see a woman walk out on me?

- No, Scott, no! - You just try!

[GUNSHOT]

You did very good.

But this is still just more circumstantial evidence.

- We're a long way from a conviction. - But we can bury him under evidence.

You're the one who's always saying

it's better to have one piece of forensic evidence

than ten eyewitnesses.

What, do you tape everything I say?

- You still have to educate the jury. - On bullets.

It's gotta be easier than bugs.

Less Latin.

BRASS: You know, I've been waiting three days to do this.

No, make that five days.

Let's go.

- Hi. - Hi.

I checked out Warrick. His story about missing court was, uh, lame.

I got this surveillance tape from the Monaco.

He was in the casino.

I'm sorry.

Thanks.