Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hermionesviolin) wrote2006-03-15 10:44 pm
hermionesviolin) wrote2006-03-15 10:44 pm
Entry tags:
CSI rerun: "Anatomy of a Lye" (2.21)
links used: twiztv.com & tv.com
GRISSOM: What's HazMat doing here?
BRASS: Kid's playing tag, takes a header in the dirt ends up with first-degree on his hands.
SARA: Wait. We got a call about a dead body.
BRASS: Yeah, I'm getting there. So, HazMat arrives figuring some sort of
chemical spill. Starts removing the toxic soil, and bamm a shovel slams into a shoulder blade.
HAZMAT: Ma'am, I'm sorry, but I need to neutralize the soil.
SARA: If you touch the soil you're going to contaminate my crime scene, but I'll let you know when I'm finished.
HAZMAT: Okay.
ROBBINS: Three days ago, this man was injured. He bled out until he died yesterday.
!!!
(DET. LOCKWOOD continues to hold the flashlight. From the woman's ear, he finds a larvae. He puts it in a plastic container.)
NICK: Grissom should enjoy this. Hey, Lockwood you got any food in your vehicle? Hamburger, anything like that?
DET. LOCKWOOD: Gum, sugar-free.
NICK: No, gum'll kill him. I'll stop at the first place I see pick up some jerky.
SARA: Are you his domestic partner?
REED COLLINS: We're roommates. I got divorced last year. And about six months ago, Bob's wife kicked him out. He needed a place to crash and I needed help with the mortgage. He's two months late on the rent. How do I go about collecting under the circumstances?
(SARA doesn't say anything. She turns to look at BRASS. BRASS turns to look at REED COLLINS who clarifies.)
REED COLLINS: Look, we were roommates. We weren't really friends.
Collecting, Sara is like, "Gimme a break."
The almost getting run over? C'mon, people, look both ways before crossing.
SARA: If this is our crime scene then somewhere between here and Sunset Park, Bob Martin lost eight to ten pints of blood.
(SARA looks around and shakes her head.)
SARA: Where is it?
Oh, Greg, your hair. *winces*
[INT. CSI - GREG'S LAB -- NIGHT]
(GRISSOM enters.)
GRISSOM: So do want to tell me about the silver flecks I found? Paint chips?
GREG: Aluminum and melamine in the color coat indicate that it's car paint. Factory job. Uh, body shop paint contains styrene, not melamine.
GRISSOM: Mm, what type of car?
GREG: Trick question. Paint won't tell me that. But I do have an answer. It's not technically part of my job description but as you know, I'm always eager to expand my responsibilities. Take a look down the scope.
(Through the microscope, we see the piece of glass SARA picked up from the roadway. The magnification increases and we now see the cross hairs on the plastic.)
GRISSOM: Looks like some sort of insignia.
GREG: Crosshairs. That's the plastic you collected at the accident site. Now that mark is only found on the S-Class Mercedes. It's all about branding. Now knowing that the headlight came from a Mercedes, I was able to compare the infrared spectra with the paint spectra supplied by the manufacturer. Check this out.
(GREG hands GRISSOM the test results.)
GREG: Your vehicle was painted Sarasota Silver. Also, only available on the S-Series '99 models. I checked with the Mercedes State Rep. Five were sold in Nevada. Sara's tracking down the owners.
GRISSOM: You've, uh, already shared this information with Sara?
GREG: Yeah, an hour ago. And she was way more fascinated than you are.
GRISSOM: Well, I'm somewhat fascinated by the fact that I'm your boss, but you talked to her first.
GREG: Well, you were at dinner.
GRISSOM: I've been in the lab all day, Greg.
(GRISSOM leaves GREG and exits the lab to the hallway where he promptly meets up with SARA. GRISSOM is still holding his file.)
SARA: I've been looking for you.
GRISSOM: Well, it's hard to see me if you and Greg are out ahead of me.
Ouch.
GRISSOM: Ignacias High, Nevada State University ... are you a local?
BEN WESTON: Yeah. Great town. I studied my ass off in law school. Passed the bar first time.
GRISSOM: Good for you. Let me guess -- criminal defense?
BEN WESTON: Everyone deserves representation.
GRISSOM: Yes, they do.
DAVID PHILLIPS: She drowned.
NICK: This is the girl I found in the desert.
DAVID PHILLIPS: I am aware of that. She drowned.
NICK: It's not possible, Dave-O. She was found in Diablo Canyon -- miles from the nearest water source. Lake Mead's got to be 20 miles away.
DAVID PHILLIPS: Desert, no desert -- I don't care. She drowned. Look, if it's any consolation she dry-drowned.
NICK: Dry-drowned?
DAVID PHILLIPS: Happens in about ten percent of all cases. When dry-drowning occurs the larynx closes involuntarily ... preventing air and water from entering the lungs resulting in hypoxia -- a reduced concentration of oxygen in the blood. Thus, water's kept out of the lungs -- dry-drowning. In wet drowning, hypoxia also occurs but the larynx relaxes and water floods the lungs. Still, the question remains, how does a girl drown in the middle of the desert?
NICK: She doesn't. She was engaged. The guy never filed a missing persons on her.
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Yeah, I got a call. "You want a wrecked S-Class?"
(MITCHELL SULLIVAN chuckles.)
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: You betcha. The parts alone are worth four or five times the blue book value of the car. I asked where do I pick it up. That's all I asked.
BRASS: You didn't ask his name?
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Someone throws you three hundred thou in used parts the only response is "thank you very much."
SARA: So where is the vehicle now?
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Look around.
BRASS: You work fast.
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Hey, I called it in. What more do you want?
GRISSOM: Aristotle said something about the whole being more than the sum of its parts. Of course, he never worked in a chop shop. We want all of the parts.
SARA: Affirmative for blood -- passenger side.
GRISSOM: Well, that's just a trace amount. Where's the rest of it?
SARA: Want to pass me the luminol?
(GRISSOM hands SARA the spray bottle and turns off the light. SARA sprays the front passenger seat area. The seat glows.)
GRISSOM: Well, you do know how to light up a room.
WARRICK: The one day I'm due in court and you pull a drowning in the desert.
NICK: How'd it go?
WARRICK: Oh, it went great. The judge recessed right before my testimony. I'm on call. Catherine's on call.
WARRICK: Goose feather? This looks like basalt rock. Didn't it say somewhere in here that she found her at 1,500 feet?
NICK: The desert, yeah.
WARRICK: Well, you can only find this rock at high altitudes like 4,000 feet.
NICK: Really?
WARRICK: Yeah.
NICK: You sure?
WARRICK: Yeah. I went on this field trip up at table mountain in my senior year -- "rocks for jocks." Don't ask me why I remember any of this.
NICK: Hey, that helps. I think I'm going to head out there. You want to roll?
(NICK remembers.)
NICK: You're on call at court, right.
WARRICK: Yeah.
(NICK gets up and leaves.)
CATHERINE: So Greg said you guys are processing an S-Class.
GRISSOM: (to CATHERINE) Yeah, what's left of it.
CATHERINE: Now, that's a crime. Oh, this would have broken my ex's heart.
Every weekend the guy'd be test-driving another Mercedes. I'd get myself all dressed up make the dealer believe we could actually afford it. Damn.
(SARA smiles at the story. GRISSOM looks up at CATHERINE. CATHERINE leans in and takes a closer look at the driver dashboard.)
CATHERINE: Except if the car was stolen the ignition lock would be punched, right?
(Immediately, GRISSOM and SARA both look at CATHERINE. They hadn't thought of it from that angle.)
SARA: Huh?
CATHERINE: Anyway, I got to go. Warrick and I are due in court. Later.
(CATHERINE gets up and leaves the room.)
SARA: We ... we would have caught that.
GRISSOM: We were distracted by what we were looking for.
SARA: Yeah. So how did the thief turn the engine over without breaking that lock?
GRISSOM: Maybe there is no thief.
Mmm, Grissom sizing up the lawyer suspect.
DET. LOCKWOOD: I'm all for retracing the girl's steps but it wouldn't hurt to bring in some cadets.
NICK: If it was a little kid or a mass casualty maybe we'd get that kind of manpower but hey, exercise is good for us, right?
NICK: Well, maybe he left a day later than he said for his little marathon, you know? Followed her out here, started arguing with her no neighbors around to call the cops. She manages to fight her way free finds higher ground, he follows her, takes her down.
DET. LOCKWOOD: So then what? He drowns her with canteen water? I'm going to let you run that by the D.A.
NICK: You should try describing a scuba diver up in a tree, man. This is nothing. No, the evidence tells a story.
BEN WESTON: Look, I'm filing a complaint with your supervisor. You're harassing me.
GRISSOM: If you're a lawyer, you should know the legal definition of
harassment. Investigating a crime doesn't quite fit the criteria. However, a false accusation of harassment within earshot of my colleagues could be construed as slander. I know the law, too and I've actually been in a courtroom.
GRISSOM: This was parked in the driveway, wasn't it?
BEN WATSON: Now that's a crime?
GRISSOM: Jim, could you get this car moved for us?
BRASS: Unless the keys are in the ignition hand them over.
BEN WATSON: It's a rental. You're not on my policy.
BRASS: I'm a safe driver. Wait outside.
NICK: Did you take a look at that maggot from the desert yet?
GRISSOM: Yes.
NICK: And?
GRISSOM: Well, it belongs to the family of sarcophagids. That's as far as I got.
NICK: You mind taking another look for me?
GRISSOM: Your maggot never developed, Nick. It never will.
NICK: Why?
GRISSOM: It happens to sarcophagids when they're exposed to freezing temperatures before they're allowed to pupate.
NICK: So, my maggot was stunted?
GRISSOM: Probably by frozen air.
NICK: Yeah, but we found the vic in the desert.
GRISSOM: Well, maybe it was a very cold night. Mucho frio.
(They arrive at GRISSOM'S destination. GRISSOM leaves into the room. NICK turns back down the hallway they just came from.)
NICK: Muchas gracias.
(GREG stands next to the glass wall to the lab. He faces the large wall monitor that shows what NICK is working on inside the room on the computer. NICK looks up and smiles.)
NICK: Come on in, Greg.
GREG: Hey.
NICK: Hey.
GREG: So I heard about your cold maggot.
NICK: News travels fast.
GREG: I was thinking -- most people figure Las Vegas means the strip. But it really means "the meadows."
NICK: I'm trying to calculate barometric pressures here, G.
GREG: Well, my point is Nevada is a Basin-and-Range State. Down in the desert basin, hardly any rain. But up in the mountain ranges, it's 40 inches a year. That's more than Seattle ... more than San Francisco. More than ...
NICK: Yeah, yeah, I see where you're going. Last week in Vegas -- perfect weather. Warm, steady barometric pressure, but ... out in Diablo, two days before I found Stacy Warner's body ...
GREG: The Mountain Shadow Effect.
GREG: That's what meteorologists call it.
(NICK nods.)
NICK: Right.
(ROBBINS walks outside toward GRISSOM who is leaning in through the rear window of the car.)
ROBBINS: This is Ecklie's Mercedes?
GRISSOM: Well, actually, I sold it to him five years ago. It was in much better condition back then.
(SARA approaches from behind.)
SARA: Hey. So I checked with auto detail. Uh, obviously, if you fill a car up with enough water or, in our case, blood it's going to leak through the bottom.
ROBBINS: The victim bled out for two days.
GRISSOM: Yeah, but he could have been conscious, right? Until he lost a third of his circulating blood volume?
ROBBINS: Then the hypovolemic shock would have set in after approximately 12 hours.
GRISSOM: So it's possible that he was wedged into the windshield of Ben Weston's Mercedes which was parked in Ben Weston's garage.
SARA: We know where Bob Martin was. Where was Ben Weston?
GRISSOM: My guess? ... at work, making a good impression.
(Quick flashback to BEN WESTON on the phone in his office. He's smiling and laughing. Flash to white. Resume to present.)
ROBBINS: Sometimes I'm glad I only deal with dead people.
(ROBBINS walks away.)
SARA: You know ... the tow truck driver said Weston's Mercedes was totaled. But the only damage would have been to the bumper and the windshield. He's lying.
GRISSOM: He's been arrested on a hit-and-run. He's also under suspicion for murder. That makes you an accomplice after the fact. Twenty to life.
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Okay, look, all I did was take his call, take his car. I don't even like the guy. In high school, he's the one who turned me in. He said he wanted to make it up to me.
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Maybe it wasn't totaled. I don't remember. I was only interested in the parts.
BRASS: You don't know who phoned it in?
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: It was a guy. What else can I tell you?
BRASS: Mr. Sullivan, in '96 you were arrested for vandalism, right?
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: I was 18. It was a prank. I hoisted the principal's station wagon onto the roof of the gym.
BRASS: St. Ignacias High School, right?
GRISSOM: You know. It's funny, but the registered owner of the Mercedes also went to St. Ignacious. You were in the same class. Ben Weston.
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: That might ring a bell. So what?
GREG: Just remind yourself that usually I bring the case home.
(GREG hands SARA the test results with the following information: )
Date: 5/01/02
PCR AMP #: 198456722
DNA STR TYPING RESULT ...
Sample # 1: "Blood In Concrete"
INC. INC. INC. INC. INC.
NR. NR. INC. INC. INC.
GREG: If that garage floor stain started out as blood the bleach just degraded it. There's nothing for me to work with. Sorry.
SARA: There goes the slam dunk. Blood in the garage would have conclusively linked victim to killer.
MATT HUDSON: I didn't want her to die. I didn't.
NICK: Then why did you alter the map?
MATT HUDSON: We competed. I'd just run the trail in three days. I didn't want her to beat my time.
(NICK sighs.)
MATT HUDSON: Am I being charged with murder?
DET. LOCKWOOD: No. You altered the map, but you didn't make it rain.
NICK: What you did isn't a crime ... but it is criminal, isn't it?
"I didn't want her to beat my time." Wow, man; you lose at life.
GRISSOM: Explain it to me, Ben. How does a lawyer rationalize something like this?
SARA: You know the law. You hit a guy. It was an accident. Nothing criminal. But you let it escalate to first-degree murder. I spoke with your senior partner. It was your first day on the job. Big firm. Big welcome. How many drinks did you have that night?
GRISSOM: Let me guess. You wanted the alcohol to wear off before you called it in, right? So you decided to wait it out. Have a cup of coffee, sober up and then call the cops. But unfortunately, Bob Martin woke up.
[flashback]
GRISSOM: So what do you do now, hmm? Can't walk into the Emergency Room and say, "Hey, this guy was bleeding to death in my garage while I was eating mu shu pork."
[...]
BEN WESTON: I sacrificed to get where I am. My whole life was leading up to last Monday.
GRISSOM: Yeah. It's tough, huh? Fifteen years to build your dream and a fifteen-second phone call destroys it.
[...]
GRISSOM: When a driver hits a pedestrian the presumption is the driver is negligent. When a driver's been drinking and he hits a pedestrian it's no longer negligence, it's reckless homicide. But when a pedestrian intentionally throws himself in front of a moving vehicle then the driver's no longer responsible. Legally, he's off the hook.
SARA: This suicide letter was written by Bob Martin to his wife Charlotte. When you hit him Monday night it wasn't an accident.
[flashback]
SARA: You were off the hook.
GRISSOM: Until you let him die.
GRISSOM: What's HazMat doing here?
BRASS: Kid's playing tag, takes a header in the dirt ends up with first-degree on his hands.
SARA: Wait. We got a call about a dead body.
BRASS: Yeah, I'm getting there. So, HazMat arrives figuring some sort of
chemical spill. Starts removing the toxic soil, and bamm a shovel slams into a shoulder blade.
HAZMAT: Ma'am, I'm sorry, but I need to neutralize the soil.
SARA: If you touch the soil you're going to contaminate my crime scene, but I'll let you know when I'm finished.
HAZMAT: Okay.
ROBBINS: Three days ago, this man was injured. He bled out until he died yesterday.
!!!
(DET. LOCKWOOD continues to hold the flashlight. From the woman's ear, he finds a larvae. He puts it in a plastic container.)
NICK: Grissom should enjoy this. Hey, Lockwood you got any food in your vehicle? Hamburger, anything like that?
DET. LOCKWOOD: Gum, sugar-free.
NICK: No, gum'll kill him. I'll stop at the first place I see pick up some jerky.
SARA: Are you his domestic partner?
REED COLLINS: We're roommates. I got divorced last year. And about six months ago, Bob's wife kicked him out. He needed a place to crash and I needed help with the mortgage. He's two months late on the rent. How do I go about collecting under the circumstances?
(SARA doesn't say anything. She turns to look at BRASS. BRASS turns to look at REED COLLINS who clarifies.)
REED COLLINS: Look, we were roommates. We weren't really friends.
Collecting, Sara is like, "Gimme a break."
The almost getting run over? C'mon, people, look both ways before crossing.
SARA: If this is our crime scene then somewhere between here and Sunset Park, Bob Martin lost eight to ten pints of blood.
(SARA looks around and shakes her head.)
SARA: Where is it?
Oh, Greg, your hair. *winces*
[INT. CSI - GREG'S LAB -- NIGHT]
(GRISSOM enters.)
GRISSOM: So do want to tell me about the silver flecks I found? Paint chips?
GREG: Aluminum and melamine in the color coat indicate that it's car paint. Factory job. Uh, body shop paint contains styrene, not melamine.
GRISSOM: Mm, what type of car?
GREG: Trick question. Paint won't tell me that. But I do have an answer. It's not technically part of my job description but as you know, I'm always eager to expand my responsibilities. Take a look down the scope.
(Through the microscope, we see the piece of glass SARA picked up from the roadway. The magnification increases and we now see the cross hairs on the plastic.)
GRISSOM: Looks like some sort of insignia.
GREG: Crosshairs. That's the plastic you collected at the accident site. Now that mark is only found on the S-Class Mercedes. It's all about branding. Now knowing that the headlight came from a Mercedes, I was able to compare the infrared spectra with the paint spectra supplied by the manufacturer. Check this out.
(GREG hands GRISSOM the test results.)
GREG: Your vehicle was painted Sarasota Silver. Also, only available on the S-Series '99 models. I checked with the Mercedes State Rep. Five were sold in Nevada. Sara's tracking down the owners.
GRISSOM: You've, uh, already shared this information with Sara?
GREG: Yeah, an hour ago. And she was way more fascinated than you are.
GRISSOM: Well, I'm somewhat fascinated by the fact that I'm your boss, but you talked to her first.
GREG: Well, you were at dinner.
GRISSOM: I've been in the lab all day, Greg.
"And she was way more fascinated than you are."
Ah yes, I'd forgotten about early season Greg crushing on Sara. (One of the reasons why I was not a fan of Greg, actually, his puppydog behavior and that deep need to impress. That he has grown on me is clear from the fact that I now find his earnest trying-too-hard endearing at times.)
Also: Weird to hear Grissom pull the "I'm your boss" thing.
(GRISSOM leaves GREG and exits the lab to the hallway where he promptly meets up with SARA. GRISSOM is still holding his file.)
SARA: I've been looking for you.
GRISSOM: Well, it's hard to see me if you and Greg are out ahead of me.
Ouch.
GRISSOM: Ignacias High, Nevada State University ... are you a local?
BEN WESTON: Yeah. Great town. I studied my ass off in law school. Passed the bar first time.
GRISSOM: Good for you. Let me guess -- criminal defense?
BEN WESTON: Everyone deserves representation.
GRISSOM: Yes, they do.
DAVID PHILLIPS: She drowned.
NICK: This is the girl I found in the desert.
DAVID PHILLIPS: I am aware of that. She drowned.
NICK: It's not possible, Dave-O. She was found in Diablo Canyon -- miles from the nearest water source. Lake Mead's got to be 20 miles away.
DAVID PHILLIPS: Desert, no desert -- I don't care. She drowned. Look, if it's any consolation she dry-drowned.
NICK: Dry-drowned?
DAVID PHILLIPS: Happens in about ten percent of all cases. When dry-drowning occurs the larynx closes involuntarily ... preventing air and water from entering the lungs resulting in hypoxia -- a reduced concentration of oxygen in the blood. Thus, water's kept out of the lungs -- dry-drowning. In wet drowning, hypoxia also occurs but the larynx relaxes and water floods the lungs. Still, the question remains, how does a girl drown in the middle of the desert?
NICK: She doesn't. She was engaged. The guy never filed a missing persons on her.
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Yeah, I got a call. "You want a wrecked S-Class?"
(MITCHELL SULLIVAN chuckles.)
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: You betcha. The parts alone are worth four or five times the blue book value of the car. I asked where do I pick it up. That's all I asked.
BRASS: You didn't ask his name?
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Someone throws you three hundred thou in used parts the only response is "thank you very much."
SARA: So where is the vehicle now?
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Look around.
BRASS: You work fast.
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Hey, I called it in. What more do you want?
GRISSOM: Aristotle said something about the whole being more than the sum of its parts. Of course, he never worked in a chop shop. We want all of the parts.
SARA: Affirmative for blood -- passenger side.
GRISSOM: Well, that's just a trace amount. Where's the rest of it?
SARA: Want to pass me the luminol?
(GRISSOM hands SARA the spray bottle and turns off the light. SARA sprays the front passenger seat area. The seat glows.)
GRISSOM: Well, you do know how to light up a room.
I was watching with Cat over the phone, but she had to leave right before this Moment O' Squee.
WARRICK: The one day I'm due in court and you pull a drowning in the desert.
NICK: How'd it go?
WARRICK: Oh, it went great. The judge recessed right before my testimony. I'm on call. Catherine's on call.
WARRICK: Goose feather? This looks like basalt rock. Didn't it say somewhere in here that she found her at 1,500 feet?
NICK: The desert, yeah.
WARRICK: Well, you can only find this rock at high altitudes like 4,000 feet.
NICK: Really?
WARRICK: Yeah.
NICK: You sure?
WARRICK: Yeah. I went on this field trip up at table mountain in my senior year -- "rocks for jocks." Don't ask me why I remember any of this.
NICK: Hey, that helps. I think I'm going to head out there. You want to roll?
(NICK remembers.)
NICK: You're on call at court, right.
WARRICK: Yeah.
(NICK gets up and leaves.)
tv.com says: "Warrick tells Nick that Basalt is only found at high altitudes. Warrick was incompletely informed by whomever was instructing him during Rocks for Jocks. Basalt makes up the ocean floor. Basalt is found at high altitudes in the Rocky Mountains because the tops of the mountains used to be at the ocean bottom."
CATHERINE: So Greg said you guys are processing an S-Class.
GRISSOM: (to CATHERINE) Yeah, what's left of it.
CATHERINE: Now, that's a crime. Oh, this would have broken my ex's heart.
Every weekend the guy'd be test-driving another Mercedes. I'd get myself all dressed up make the dealer believe we could actually afford it. Damn.
(SARA smiles at the story. GRISSOM looks up at CATHERINE. CATHERINE leans in and takes a closer look at the driver dashboard.)
CATHERINE: Except if the car was stolen the ignition lock would be punched, right?
(Immediately, GRISSOM and SARA both look at CATHERINE. They hadn't thought of it from that angle.)
SARA: Huh?
CATHERINE: Anyway, I got to go. Warrick and I are due in court. Later.
(CATHERINE gets up and leaves the room.)
SARA: We ... we would have caught that.
GRISSOM: We were distracted by what we were looking for.
SARA: Yeah. So how did the thief turn the engine over without breaking that lock?
GRISSOM: Maybe there is no thief.
Mmm, Grissom sizing up the lawyer suspect.
DET. LOCKWOOD: I'm all for retracing the girl's steps but it wouldn't hurt to bring in some cadets.
NICK: If it was a little kid or a mass casualty maybe we'd get that kind of manpower but hey, exercise is good for us, right?
NICK: Well, maybe he left a day later than he said for his little marathon, you know? Followed her out here, started arguing with her no neighbors around to call the cops. She manages to fight her way free finds higher ground, he follows her, takes her down.
DET. LOCKWOOD: So then what? He drowns her with canteen water? I'm going to let you run that by the D.A.
NICK: You should try describing a scuba diver up in a tree, man. This is nothing. No, the evidence tells a story.
BEN WESTON: Look, I'm filing a complaint with your supervisor. You're harassing me.
GRISSOM: If you're a lawyer, you should know the legal definition of
harassment. Investigating a crime doesn't quite fit the criteria. However, a false accusation of harassment within earshot of my colleagues could be construed as slander. I know the law, too and I've actually been in a courtroom.
GRISSOM: This was parked in the driveway, wasn't it?
BEN WATSON: Now that's a crime?
GRISSOM: Jim, could you get this car moved for us?
BRASS: Unless the keys are in the ignition hand them over.
BEN WATSON: It's a rental. You're not on my policy.
BRASS: I'm a safe driver. Wait outside.
NICK: Did you take a look at that maggot from the desert yet?
GRISSOM: Yes.
NICK: And?
GRISSOM: Well, it belongs to the family of sarcophagids. That's as far as I got.
NICK: You mind taking another look for me?
GRISSOM: Your maggot never developed, Nick. It never will.
NICK: Why?
GRISSOM: It happens to sarcophagids when they're exposed to freezing temperatures before they're allowed to pupate.
NICK: So, my maggot was stunted?
GRISSOM: Probably by frozen air.
NICK: Yeah, but we found the vic in the desert.
GRISSOM: Well, maybe it was a very cold night. Mucho frio.
(They arrive at GRISSOM'S destination. GRISSOM leaves into the room. NICK turns back down the hallway they just came from.)
NICK: Muchas gracias.
(GREG stands next to the glass wall to the lab. He faces the large wall monitor that shows what NICK is working on inside the room on the computer. NICK looks up and smiles.)
NICK: Come on in, Greg.
GREG: Hey.
NICK: Hey.
GREG: So I heard about your cold maggot.
NICK: News travels fast.
GREG: I was thinking -- most people figure Las Vegas means the strip. But it really means "the meadows."
NICK: I'm trying to calculate barometric pressures here, G.
GREG: Well, my point is Nevada is a Basin-and-Range State. Down in the desert basin, hardly any rain. But up in the mountain ranges, it's 40 inches a year. That's more than Seattle ... more than San Francisco. More than ...
NICK: Yeah, yeah, I see where you're going. Last week in Vegas -- perfect weather. Warm, steady barometric pressure, but ... out in Diablo, two days before I found Stacy Warner's body ...
GREG: The Mountain Shadow Effect.
GREG: That's what meteorologists call it.
(NICK nods.)
NICK: Right.
I just really enjoy Nick's "stunted maggot."
However, Grissom's Spanish? Kinda random. I mean yes there's a Spanish word in the name of the canyon, but still.
And aww, Greg wanting in.
(ROBBINS walks outside toward GRISSOM who is leaning in through the rear window of the car.)
ROBBINS: This is Ecklie's Mercedes?
GRISSOM: Well, actually, I sold it to him five years ago. It was in much better condition back then.
(SARA approaches from behind.)
SARA: Hey. So I checked with auto detail. Uh, obviously, if you fill a car up with enough water or, in our case, blood it's going to leak through the bottom.
1) Ecklie has a Mercedes?
2) Grissom sold it to him? Grissom *had* a Mercedes?
ROBBINS: The victim bled out for two days.
GRISSOM: Yeah, but he could have been conscious, right? Until he lost a third of his circulating blood volume?
ROBBINS: Then the hypovolemic shock would have set in after approximately 12 hours.
GRISSOM: So it's possible that he was wedged into the windshield of Ben Weston's Mercedes which was parked in Ben Weston's garage.
SARA: We know where Bob Martin was. Where was Ben Weston?
GRISSOM: My guess? ... at work, making a good impression.
(Quick flashback to BEN WESTON on the phone in his office. He's smiling and laughing. Flash to white. Resume to present.)
ROBBINS: Sometimes I'm glad I only deal with dead people.
(ROBBINS walks away.)
SARA: You know ... the tow truck driver said Weston's Mercedes was totaled. But the only damage would have been to the bumper and the windshield. He's lying.
When they first mentioned that the vic bled out for 2 days I was wondering when he would go unconscious.
GRISSOM: He's been arrested on a hit-and-run. He's also under suspicion for murder. That makes you an accomplice after the fact. Twenty to life.
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Okay, look, all I did was take his call, take his car. I don't even like the guy. In high school, he's the one who turned me in. He said he wanted to make it up to me.
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: Maybe it wasn't totaled. I don't remember. I was only interested in the parts.
BRASS: You don't know who phoned it in?
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: It was a guy. What else can I tell you?
BRASS: Mr. Sullivan, in '96 you were arrested for vandalism, right?
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: I was 18. It was a prank. I hoisted the principal's station wagon onto the roof of the gym.
BRASS: St. Ignacias High School, right?
GRISSOM: You know. It's funny, but the registered owner of the Mercedes also went to St. Ignacious. You were in the same class. Ben Weston.
MITCHELL SULLIVAN: That might ring a bell. So what?
GREG: Just remind yourself that usually I bring the case home.
(GREG hands SARA the test results with the following information: )
Date: 5/01/02
PCR AMP #: 198456722
DNA STR TYPING RESULT ...
Sample # 1: "Blood In Concrete"
INC. INC. INC. INC. INC.
NR. NR. INC. INC. INC.
GREG: If that garage floor stain started out as blood the bleach just degraded it. There's nothing for me to work with. Sorry.
SARA: There goes the slam dunk. Blood in the garage would have conclusively linked victim to killer.
"Just remind yourself that usually I bring the case home."
Oh Greg and your need to be The Guy.
MATT HUDSON: I didn't want her to die. I didn't.
NICK: Then why did you alter the map?
MATT HUDSON: We competed. I'd just run the trail in three days. I didn't want her to beat my time.
(NICK sighs.)
MATT HUDSON: Am I being charged with murder?
DET. LOCKWOOD: No. You altered the map, but you didn't make it rain.
NICK: What you did isn't a crime ... but it is criminal, isn't it?
"I didn't want her to beat my time." Wow, man; you lose at life.
GRISSOM: Explain it to me, Ben. How does a lawyer rationalize something like this?
SARA: You know the law. You hit a guy. It was an accident. Nothing criminal. But you let it escalate to first-degree murder. I spoke with your senior partner. It was your first day on the job. Big firm. Big welcome. How many drinks did you have that night?
GRISSOM: Let me guess. You wanted the alcohol to wear off before you called it in, right? So you decided to wait it out. Have a cup of coffee, sober up and then call the cops. But unfortunately, Bob Martin woke up.
[flashback]
GRISSOM: So what do you do now, hmm? Can't walk into the Emergency Room and say, "Hey, this guy was bleeding to death in my garage while I was eating mu shu pork."
[...]
BEN WESTON: I sacrificed to get where I am. My whole life was leading up to last Monday.
GRISSOM: Yeah. It's tough, huh? Fifteen years to build your dream and a fifteen-second phone call destroys it.
[...]
GRISSOM: When a driver hits a pedestrian the presumption is the driver is negligent. When a driver's been drinking and he hits a pedestrian it's no longer negligence, it's reckless homicide. But when a pedestrian intentionally throws himself in front of a moving vehicle then the driver's no longer responsible. Legally, he's off the hook.
SARA: This suicide letter was written by Bob Martin to his wife Charlotte. When you hit him Monday night it wasn't an accident.
[flashback]
SARA: You were off the hook.
GRISSOM: Until you let him die.
tv.com says: "This episode is loosely based on the Chante Mallard case in which Mallard hit Gregory Glenn Briggs with her vehicle and let him die in her garage."
Yowch!
Sidenote: My father informed me during the course of the show that the wife was played by Marcia Brady.