CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000–2015): Season 9, Episode 13 - Deep Fried and Minty Fresh - full transcript

Real estate agent Scott Tucker is found drunk as a skunk at home, while his wife Melinda died, handcuffed to the bed, from ingested tooth paste. Their business and marriage were going down the drain. Chicken fast-food joint owner Robert 'Bob' Graham is found dead inside, asphyxiated in hot oil after a non-fatal blow on the head. Suspect fingerprints don't point to any employee, but things tie together after indications for a second murder, the corpse from which was removed in an oil drum, are followed to reveal several at first sight irrelevant plots.

The call did say 419
at Choozy's Chicken

Not him

Him

Oh, careful, guys It's
real slippery back here

Manager Bob Graham
Salt Lake City, Utah

Had a whopping $42 in his wallet

Make that $62

Who found him?

Well, a patrol car went by and saw
the broken window around 12:15 AM

Place closes at 11:00 PM

So a call went out
to the night manager, Kiwi Long



Floor's covered in oil

Probably from the fryer

It does look a bit low

And it's still on

Looks like somebody
interrupted closing time

I have a backpack here

Vic has multiple lacerations,
contusions and fractures

All confined to his face and skull

Razor's still wet

A little personal hygiene
at the dish sink? Yum

A pair of jeans

Men's

Too small to be the victim's

This stuff's got to be an employee's



Somebody's using this place as a motel

Maybe Big Bob caught them checking
in and things went very wrong

If Backpack Dude had a key, then why
use the mascot as a battering ram?

I'm Choozy Chicken
the chicken of choice

But you can just call me delicious

May be he can tell us

Registers are empty

Robbery?

Not sure

You know, back in high school, I
used to work at a fast food place

We would put the cash in a drop
safe and leave the registers open

To show that there
wasn't anything to steal

I'm gonna go check the manager's office

You find something, Ray?

Will you kill the overhead
fluorescents, please?

Yeah

Drag marks

Starting from the fryer

Leading to the back door,
diminishing as they go

Possible second victim?

Possibly

And the blood tell
you anything special?

Tails on the blood drops
establish directionality

But these tails indicate that the
blood is going into the kitchen

Drag marks lead outside

Oil out, blood in Good observation

Nick

Can't be full of oil
if it's full of body

Nothing

This drum doesn't belong
to Choozy's Chicken

It says, "Mr Hu's Mandarin Kitchen"

What, do you eat a lot
of Chinese or something?

I wrote a journal article
about dengue fever

Most of the research was in Mandarin

Oh, well, that's good Then, you and
Mr Hu will have a lot to discuss

My Mandarin's a
little a little rusty

Skid marks

Somebody was in a hurry

Scuff marks on the pole

I have something

Mirror

Looks like transfer

Looks like the killer and whoever he was
dragging made a not- so- clean getaway

I'm Kiwi Long, manager on call

Captain Jim Brass

Mister- Captain Brass, I don't
know why the alarm didn't go off

I was supposed to close last night

But I've been having some trouble
with my son's babysitter

Bob said that he was going to cover
for me, and he's a regional manager

So I figured the place
was in good hands

Oh, my God, that could
have been me last night

Who else, uh, closed up last night?

Elizabeth Martin

She's one of my best
employees- really responsible

I'm going to need to
get in touch with her

I already called her
It went to voicemail

Something must be wrong
She always takes my call

Okay, uh, who else has the
combination to the drop safe?

Only me and Bob

It's the day I got my promotion,
the day my son was born

And the day we got our cat
Zoey-Omega

So
23-31-12

Okay, I-I'm gonna need
all your surveillance

Oh, you have to call corporate
It goes straight to them

Some clips ended up on YouTube that
were, um, unflattering to the franchise

Not on my watch, but, um, ever since

All the surveillance cameras
are wired to a digital feed

In the manager's office

I'm gonna need contact information
for all your employees

Both former and current Okay?

Oh, are you going to be contacting
Bob's next of kin, or should I?

Because I don't know who they are

The husband's blood alcohol
level is through the roof

The wife's dead in the bedroom

Mailman tried to deliver
this when he found them

Notice of intent to foreclose

Nice house to lose

Mr Tucker's a mortgage broker

His wife's a real estate agent,
so they probably got first pick

There's no sign of forced
entry, but the place is a sty

Yeah, looks like he's
been living on the couch

Thready pulse BP's 90
over 60 He's wasted

- He's gonna need a stomach pump
- I'm good I'm good

Rigor's begun to set

And her liver temp is 93 degrees

Which means she's been dead
three to five hours

You want to bet that that's about
the time the husband started drinking?

Okay, I'm on my way to the
hospital to get his statement

I'll get back to you

Looks like some kind of a struggle

Yeah But it wasn't a fair fight

She was handcuffed

Which under the right
circumstances can be fun

You got a CODthere, Dave?

Undetermined

Catherine, I apologize
for the overshare

Thank you for the overshare

Whoa, you have your hands full

Uh, yeah Just put your
stuff down over there

Thanks I'm, uh, I'm still
trying to get organized

Trying to figure out when's
a good time to eat lunch

Lunch- which, I just
turned into a biohazard

Your vic had quite a night

Ante-mortem, fractured
cheek bones, broken nose

And I have some sort of
A... circular trauma to the cerebellum

I think he might have gotten whacked
in the head with a "wet floor" sign

No!

So much for safety in the workplace

This is your COD

High-speed impact to the base of the
skull, at the atlanto-occipital junction

Dislodged the C-1 vertebrae
severing the spinal cord

Hit, fall, kick Who knows?

But death swift and certain

Stokes Really

Thanks We'll pay him a visit

Mandy got a hit off of
the side-view mirror

He's a former Choozy's
Chicken employee

Who's already in the system
for assaulting dear old Bob here

Let's go check him out

- Okay
- Thanks, Doc

Uh, you can just leave it
Come back later for it

Thank you

Where were you last night, Max?

Here Studying

Can anyone confirm that?

Sure 32 other frat brothers

We were all here Studying

This side-view mirror
is from your truck

We found it last night at the
Choozy's Chicken on Tropicana

Hey, maybe we should take all 32
brothers downtown, what do you think?

- Why not?
- Yeah?

Okay Okay

Look, um, the damage was an accident

It was supposed to be a
smooth operation You know?

Tie him up, throw him the
truck, bring him back here

But he fell, and he
was too heavy to lift

And I was working with a new crew

So, I guess I miscalculated

I talked to my dad, he said he'd pay

You can't buy your way out of this one

You've already assaulted him once

Were you trying to
finish what you started?

What the hell?

How does it feel to be
my chicken bitch?

- Oh, where you going?
- Come on, fatty!

You embarrassed me

Forgot friendliness

And service

That's why people choose Choozy's

No, no, I was there last night,
but I didn't run into Bob

I didn't see anybody
The place was closed

Come on, Max Your record kind
of speaks for itself here, man

Look, that guy was an asshat

That assault charge is bogus

Ask anybody who was there

The dude went berserk on
me- it was self-defense

Is that what got you fired?

Oh, no, I wasn't fired I just quit
I only took the job for recon

Recon?

Choozy's Chicken was the
only one I didn't have

Good-looking couple

You could blind yourself
on these incisors Ting!

Looks like we have a runner

Didn't know that wine had electrolytes

They say it's good for your heart

Yeah, a lot of good it did her

Now we know how they got
those whites so pearly

Home from a run

More than halfway through
an afternoon cocktail

They haven't been
getting along, he's drunk,

- and he won't take no for an answer
- No!

Romantic

I do like the extra money
working at Choozy's gives me,

but mainly, you got to keep
busy when you're my age

Sure Sure you do

Can I just get you to
keep your fingers straight?

Dude, I can't lose this job or
my dad's gonna take my car away

Well, if you didn't do anything wrong,
you don't have anything to worry about

Well, Jackson's always
doing something wrong

I can't believe this is all over Bob

Probably choked stuffing
Choozy's down his pie hole

Jabrone

You just didn't like him 'cause he would
not let you throw ice cubes in the fryer

It's the best thing about
the job, Marge

Okay, has anybody seen Elizabeth
Martin or Gary Comstock?

No, I haven't seen either of them

"Ooh, Gary Gary, could
you give me a ride home?"

Dude, shut up, okay?
He's just a nice guy

Yeah, for a homeless junkie

Look who's talking

You're, like, one spliff
away from rehab, moron

Thousands in the safe

A stack of loose cash,
and only $200 missing?

That's not much of a robbery

Well, it could be Elizabeth Martin
was closing up with Big Bob last night

I ran down her address from her license

I mean, it's Ann Elizabeth Martin

She's a Seven Hills desperate
housewife with 25 kids

and a Nordic silver SUV and a
recurring victim of identity theft

Little lie, big lie?

Could be an illegal

Someone with priors

Maybe Bob caught her with
her hand in the cookie jar

- Excuse me, Captain Brass
- Wendy

Um, we just finished getting
the fingerprints and DNA

From all the Choozy's Chicken
employees

But there were two no-shows
Elizabeth Martin and Gary Comstock

Now, I actually got a
CODIS hit from one of them

'Cause the epithelials from
the razor came back to Gary

In the system for felony drug charges?

Last-known address was a rehab center?

I called it, but they said they
hadn't seen him in six weeks

Yeah, that's because he's living
out of a backpack at Choozy's

Well, easy to do when you have a
friend with a key to the back door

So, Gary's on crack time

He comes back there to crash

Only Bob's still there, catches him
in the act, and all hell breaks loose

What are you doing here, Gary?

Well, where's Elizabeth?

Probably in an oil drum somewhere

No honor among thieves

Okay, but wouldn't a drug addict
grab up all the loose cash?

Anything come back on the SAE kit?

Negative

No sign of sexual activity,
forced or consensual

So he cuffed her to the bedpost in her
underwear, but they didn't have sex

Excuse me I just wanted to get my kit

How's business with Choozy's Chicken?

A little confusing
How's your case going?

A bit confusing
You, uh, want to stick around?

Yes, I would

What do we have, Doctor?

Did this woman have
a highly stressful job?

- Why?
- Gastric ulcer Pretty advanced

- Thanks
- Sure Here

Death by Smurf?

Have you ever seen
anything like this?

Nope

Minty

Fresh

Shouldn't that be in an evidence bag?

That's not the one from Choozy's
Chicken I took that out of our bathroom

But first I'm going to
give you the bad news

That bloody handprint on the
countertop that was all smudgy?

I got a useable index
fingerprint off of that,

but it's not a match to
anyone, including Gary

Measures about ten inches from the
tip of the middle finger to the wrist,

which is quite large for a
guy and it's huge for a woman

So we're looking for a guy
whodoesn'twork at Choozy's?

- Right
- Damn Okay

Then I got a lot of
incidental prints on the sign

All of which were
eliminated to the employees

However, there was a set of
prints that got my attention

Eight fingertips on one side of the
sign, two thumbprints on the other

- That is an attacking grip
- Right

And I found
a matching fingerprint for that

On Elizabeth Martin's register receipt

But I can't say for sure it's hers

So I need to see Elizabeth

Or, um, one of her fingers

You're sick, Mandy

So it says herethat blood drop that
I collected from the manager's office

- Is menstrual blood
- It's weird, right?

And weirder still
it's not even Kiwi's

According to this, it's not
any of the female employees

Well, I don't have an exemplar for
Elizabeth Martin

So we can't exclude her

Pants off in the manager's office
during that time of the month?

Assault?

No blood smears, no
semen, no torn clothing

It didn't look like a rape scene

- Maybe it was consensual
- With Bob?

- Or Gary
- Or both

Love triangles can be deadly

Don't I know it

That was well said

The owner of the restaurant is upset
because his drums keep getting stolen,

and he's not getting his energy rebate

I didn't know restaurants
got rebates for recycling

That's why he has security cameras
pointing straight at his drums

Well, lucky for us, we
have Mr Hu's footage

Now, this is just after midnight, same
night your guy was killed at Choozy's

Sweet ride, huh?

Chevy Corvair

Take one, leave an empty

At least our barrel bandits recycle

Can you get a read of
the license plate?

Yeah

This is Timothy Rand's vehicle

You know, I missed
the whole hippie thing

I was too busy in Southeast Asia
keeping my head down and my feet dry

I'm surprised you didn't drop a
little acid or smoke a little T

Well, things did get a little wild

Namast?? I'm Silver

Police I'm Brass

And this is Ray Langston
from the Crime Lab

Is Timothy around?

Oh, yeah, he's in his
workshop Here, follow me

Can you feel that?

Feel what?

High ratio of positive to negative ions

Unfriendly air

But you can't let it bring you down

Scientifically proven

The Santa Anas, the Siroccos

You know what I'm talking about

Timothy Rand?

I know why you're here,
but this is not a crime, man

They put this valuable
resource out with the trash!

Some restaurants are, you know
pouring it down storm drains

Or dumping it in the desert

If one good thing could come out of all
those caged animals,

Hopped up on hormones, who are
then slaughtered and then frozen

Only to be deep fried and wind up
as plaque in our arteries, it is this

Biodiesel

It only cost me 200
bucks to convert my van!

You know what I'm saying?
One man can...

Make a difference!

Look, this planet is our mother
and we're all her children

That's right, baby

Where'd you get the
Choozy Chicken barrel?

The one on, uh, Tropicana

I always return them

I just haven't processed this one yet

Well, congratulations It's a boy

David, you have the touch of a surgeon

Thank you

Looks like there's a blood stain
on the boxers

I'm going to need to get those to DNA

Will do

Ante-mortem abrasions on
the second and third knuckle

Could be from busting up Bob's face

Extensive third degree burns here

I'm gonna need to, uh, take
a look inside his mouth

Go ahead

There are full thickness burns on
all exposed surfaces of his face

There's damage to the
nares and nasal mucosa

So his breathing was compromised

That's your COD

Asphyxia due to inhalation of hot oil

Prints just confirmed ID

It's Gary Comstock

Tox panel came back clean

So he wasn't using anymore

The man had a second chance at life

Till he was murdered

Nope Any news on blue goo?

The blue goo was toothpaste

Approximately 12 ounces worth

Equivalent to two full tubes

Yeah, we collected a couple of
empties in the trash at the house

I'll compare them

Is it possible to OD on toothpaste?

Definitely, if it's fluoride toothpaste

Each tube comes
with a warning-

"If swallowed, please contact the
Poison Control Center immediately "

Never had a cavity

No joke

How much fluoride would
it take kill a person?

Depends on the person

Uh, female victim, 110 pounds

With a pre-existing stomach ulcer

Which means it would get
into her system faster

The PTD-
"Probably Toxic Dose"-

is five milligrams per
kilogram of body weight

A regular tube of toothpaste-
you're talking 170 grams

25 percent of which is fluoride, so

170 times 25 is 425

She's 50 kilograms, Yeah So...

She would need 250
milligrams for it to be toxic

And if there's 425
milligrams in one tube

So one tube would do it

Assuming she absorbed it
all and didn't throw it up

Well, then, for sure, two
tubes would get the job done

She would experience what I like to
call a catastrophic symptom train

Wicked muscle spasms
would give way to

Decreased heart rate

Lowered blood pressure

Decreased respiration
and, eventually, death

Death by toothpaste

You know, I got something else

I found trace amounts

Of diphenhydramine
hydrochloride in her tox panel

Maybe she had allergies

Someone slipped it to her

I analyzed her wine

It was cheap California merlot
with an antihistamine mickey

Why?

Well, diphenhydramine hydrochloride
is both a soporific and an antiemetic

It makes you sleepy and
it keeps you from puking

Paramedics found this in your pocket

It's the key to the handcuffs
that we took off your wife

We checked your
Pay-Per-View selections

You've been watching a
lot of bondage porn lately

Strap Daddy Silk Cuffs OneandTwo

What happened to my wife?

Scott, there's not enough booze in
this town to make you forget murder

Fluoride poisoning?

Are you kidding me with this?

No See I'm thinking
you're a mortgage broker

Your business is in the crapper

The bank is trying to foreclose
on your house

And your wife had a very nice
insurance policy

Nice enough for you to
pay off all those debts

You see where I'm going, Scott?

Look, I'll admit things weren't that
great between Melinda and I Okay?

She blamed me for losing the
house and everything else

But those handcuffs
are from better times

We hadn't had sex in months

We, uh, checked your medical records

You have receding gums

So what? Who cares about my gums?

Well, you use a special,
high fluoride toothpaste

We found your prints all over these

Yeah Before Melinda became a real
estate agent, she was a dental hygienist

We had boxes of that stuff lying around

Free samples We both used it

Look, if I had tried to cram toothpaste
down Melinda's throat

She would have kicked me in the cubes

Hey, Ray

Did your "Barrel Boy" wear glasses?

Not according to his DMVrecord

But Big Bob did

Halt You can't bring food in here

Not my rules

I found this in the fryer oil

Along with two metal screws,
which was the giveaway

Cheap plastic frames and lenses

These don't look like French fries

That's because those are bits of Gary

And what were these?

Once upon a time, those were $180

How do we know that?

All right, what am I looking at here?

You are looking at a
plastic security strip

It's embedded in all USbank notes

Supposedly to prevent counterfeiting

Although I've heard that they
can be read by satellites,

so the "Man" knows how
much money's in your pocket

And we still can't find Bin Laden

Nine plastic strips

Nine
twenties- $180

Plus the 20 we found in
the dead manager's pocket

So all the missing money from
Choozy's Chicken is accounted for

Which means there was no robbery

We've got evidence that isn't
telling us the whole story

So let's walk through
this again Shall we?

Bob was on the floor here

There were oil drag marks leading
from the kitchen to the Dumpster

And we now know that Gary was dragged
outside and put into an oil drum

There was also a blood trail
leading in from the Dumpster

As well as blood stains
on Gary's boxer shorts

Now, DNA confirms that both
samples were "Dead Bob's" blood

Bob bled on Gary dragging him out

And then bled on the ground
when he walked back in

But did Bob kill Gary?

Or was there another assailant?

All right I'll be Gary

You be Big Dead Bob

- Seriously
- Yeah

Seriously Okay

- We struggle
- We struggle

You shove my face in the oil

That could explain

how Bob's glasses ended up in the fryer

As well as the missing $200 that
could've slipped out of his shirt pocket

Let's do it again

Look at your left hand

You're using it as leverage

If Bob pushed Gary into the fryer, the
handprint we collected would be Bob's

But it's not

Well, the evidence can't be wrong

but we could be

What you doing?

I need to see for myself the
volume of 340 grams of toothpaste

You know, unencumbered by
a tube it is an awful lot

Join in I used to do this as a kid

Now we get paid for doing it

Even with an anti-emetic

How would you force this much
toothpaste down someone's throat?

Excuse me for interrupting
arts and crafts

Ah, it's an experiment

Well, maybe for you

The toothpaste that Mrs Tucker
ingested contained a bleaching agent

The tubes you collected didn't

There were two empty tubes of
toothpaste in their bedroom,

but it's not the
toothpaste that killed her

Arts and crafts are over
Gotta go back to the house

Their life in garbage

And no toothpaste

Nothing on the ground or in the planter

Shoe rubber

The gate was locked
Homeowner's about 80

Once I asked loudly enough, she gave us
permission to search without a warrant

Fluoride toothpaste with bleach

Hey, Mandy

Okay, you know what, no
more shotgun approach

You need to start
prioritizing your latents

No, no, I'm only interested
in one print, the handprint

O... kay, but I already put that
through the database

Well, we're having a little disparity
between context and the evidence

What are you asking me?

Is it possible the print got distorted?

Well, you can only distort prints
with pressure or body weight

Well, we do now think that the surface
print was left during a struggle,

and Bob Graham was a big boy, so can
you run that index finger for me again?

- Yeah, okay
- Thank you

It's a reversal

There must have been enough
pressure to invert the print

I'm sorry, I missed it Okay Right

Do you see how these appear to be
ridges, but there is no sweat glands?

Which is because those are furrows

It's a match I'm sorry

It's okay, you're human Stokes

Hey, Nicky, I got Elizabeth Martin
from her canceled payroll checks

The bank gave me her address

- So she's alive
- Oh, yeah

Did her record kick back any priors?

No record Immigration got wind of it

They scooped up her whole family

She's an illegal working
here on a fake ID

She's in Interrogation now I'll
let you know how it turns out

All right

Hello

I'm Detective Jim Brass
Las Vegas Police

Okay

Let's start with an easy question

What's your real name?

Rosa Gonzales

Okay, Rosa Gonzales

tell me what happened at
Choozy's Chicken the other night

I didn't mean to kill him

You wanted to see me?

Your drop bag was short

I checked it twice

You want me to call the police, huh?

I'm gonna have to do a strip search

He made me take off all my clothes

Did he assault you? Touch you?

He put his hands on me

No!

What the hell is this?

What are you doing here, Gary?

I'm not the issue here, Bob

Then what happened?

I got dressed I could
hear them fighting

I went out into the kitchen

Stop it!

Get out of here! What the
hell are you doing, Bob?

I ran

But I swear to the Virgin herself,
I was just trying to help Gary

Hitting him with the sign
isn't what killed him

So I can go home?

Miss Gonzales, you see the immigration
agent outside with your family

They tell me that you're
in this country illegally

I grew up here I work
I take care of my family

I believe you, I do,
but it's not my call

Well, we've exhausted every suspect,
and we still don't know who killed Bob

Well, at this point, it's
a locked room mystery

After all that we've been
through, how can you guys eat that?

Power of suggestion

And because I can't help
myself They're good

It's 'cause they put crack in the fries

What if the room is the suspect?

According to his insurance records
Bob had twenty-eighty vision

Without his glasses, he
was practically blind

Elizabeth gave him a pretty
good whack to the cerebellum

Which can affect equilibrium

Add those factors to a slippery floor

It's a case of blind justice

So when I'm filling out the paperwork
who do I list on the suspect line?

There is no suspect It was an accident

The DNA from inside the latex
gloves was You ready for this?

- Scott Tucker?
- Related by marriage

Melinda?

Wait a minute Wait a
minute It was suicide?

Yeah With a nice, big frame around it

Otherwise, why not just
pop the diphenhydramine?

Why spike the wine?

Well, maybe she was trying to frame
her husband for attempted murder,

hoping for a poisoning, not a death

Doubtful I mean, she was a hygienist

If that were the case, she
would've just stopped at one tube

Henry did say that there was about an
hour between ingestion and her death

Plenty of time to set up the husband

She goes outside, she
climbs the fence

she ditches the evidence
in the neighbor's trash, and then...

Cuffs herself to the bed
and then waits to dies?

What could you possibly have done
to make your wife hate you so much?

We used to be an amazing team actually

She'd find the client the house, I'd
get them financing Everyone was happy

But I always told her-
don't get too friendly;

These are clients, they're not friends

But she goes to all the parties

All the barbeques,
all the fund-raisers

So, when the NINJA loans flipped over,

and the banks kicked
them out of their homes

Because they couldn't afford
to make their payments

Well, they called us, screaming
like it was our fault,

And I blamed her

If she hadn't gotten all buddy-buddy
with them in the first place,

they never would have crossed that line

That's when the marriage went belly-up

We couldn't look each other
in the face after that

I thought she was weak

And she wanted me to feel bad
because I didn't feel worse

I never thought she'd
kill herself, though

Tried to kill me a couple of times

Couldn't sell the house,
couldn't afford to get a divorce

I can't believe that bitch set me up

Figured it's better than nothing
till they find you something

You could put a desk in there

It's perfect

I should check with Catherine first

I already did

- All right Thank you, Doctor
- You're welcome

I think I'll be right at home here