CSI: NY (2004–2013): Season 6, Episode 10 - Death House - full transcript
Mummified remains are found in a booby-trapped Manhattan penthouse that has been closed off for more than 80 years, and Mac and Stella race against time to find the people who discovered the body, who are still trapped in the building.
[dispatch]
91 1. What's your emergency?
[woman]
I'm calling to report an accident.
[dispatch 2]
This is 91 1. How can I help you?
[dispatch 3]
91 1. What's your emergency?
[man]
My wife took a whole bottle of pills.
[dispatch 4] It's on his wrist.
Can you feel a pulse?
[dispatch 5]
91 1. What's your emergency?
[man 2] You've got to help me!
[dispatch 6]
Sir, is someone attacking you?
[man 2] I'm at 2405
Central Park West. Hurry. Please!
Move, move, move!
[policeman] Clear!
Whoa!
Why no lights?
We're working on it.
But according to the super,
this place hasn't had electricity
since Thomas Edison was alive.
Looks like he's been dead
about as long.
Mummification rarely happens
in New York. Too humid.
Well, conditions in this room
must have been desert-dry.
No evidence of putrefaction
by microorganisms.
Nothing to indicate
the presence of rodents or maggots
feeding on the body.
A slow, steady dehydration
of the flesh.
Perfectly preserved.
Do we know who this is?
Well, the name listed as owner
of the property is a Sam Harding.
Word is he vacated
the penthouse 80 years ago.
Place has been sealed up ever since.
What about the 91 1 caller
who said he was gonna die?
Our boys searched the place.
Didn't find anyone.
Our mummy's the only guy here.
So how does the dead guy call 91 1?
[# The Who: Baba O'Riley]
# Out here in the fields
# I fight for my meals
# I get my back into my living
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah #
[Flack] Hey, guys.
I figured out
how our dead man called 91 1.
Someone broke in?
We're just finding this?
My guys swear
this room wasn't even here
on the first go-round.
I don't know.
So who calls 91 1, asks for help,
says they're dying and then cuts out
before help can arrive?
[Stella] Maybe our caller broke in.
Saw the body, made the anonymous call
to lead us to the vic
and then took off.
So he pulls a B&E to rob the place,
then turns good Samaritan.
I'll remember to thank him
before I toss his arse in jail.
I don't think burglary
was the motive.
This place is full of antiques.
He could have picked it clean.
Whoever broke in
was here for something else.
Hi. Are you lost?
No. I'm not lost but thanks.
OK.
Are you supposed to be here?
Do you need to see someone
or can I help you with something?
It's strange to have someone that
doesn't work in the lab hanging out.
Deborah Martin. FBl Personnel Office.
I was cleared
by Detective Mac Taylor.
And I'm here observing the lab,
procedures, work environment.
We're considering someone
from this facility for our own lab.
Someone from here
is moving to the FBl?
- Uh-huh.
- Wow! That's a big deal.
Yes, it is.
It's Jake, isn't it?
It's Jake? Oh, he's such a...
Sorry, did I cross the line?
Jake and l, we just applied
at the same time together
and, I mean, he is...
Actually, it's Haylen Becall.
- Wow! Really?
- Yeah.
- Wow! Really?
- Yes.
[chuckles nervously]
- Really?
- Still yes.
Oh. Wow.
Did you know
that between 400 and 1 400 AD
there was a common belief that mummia
was a potent medicine
with curative powers?
People used to grind up mummy parts
and put them on their bodies
to get well when they were sick.
Hmm. Take 2mg of mummy
and call me in the morning!
Something like that.
I thought you had hobbies
outside of work.
I take it my interest
in the history of my profession
and the fascinating world
of the postmortem
does not strike you
as an enjoyable pastime?
Let's take him
to a Jets game this weekend!
OK, Sid, what can you
tell us about COD?
Your vic was murdered.
The cause was multiple stab wounds.
1 1, to be exact.
The mummification
preserved every wound perfectly.
- Crime of rage.
- Or passion.
- Any idea when he was killed?
- I was just doing the math.
These are Amex dentures.
Made out of aluminium.
They were created
for American soldiers in 1917
as a more durable alternative
to Vulcanite dentures,
but were discontinued
with the Armistice of 1918.
The problem with aluminium is
that it can stop the body's ability
to absorb calcium.
This can prevent bone growth
and reduce bone density.
Now based on the deterioration
of the bone
at the gum line here,
I'd say our vic
was murdered five, six years
after he got his shiny new choppers.
That would put the year of his death
somewhere around 1923.
Sid, please tell me
you were able to identify that body.
No, I assumed he was the owner
of the penthouse, Sam Harding.
Uh-uh. Can't be.
According to my sources, Harding
died of pneumonia 30 years ago
and has been pushing up daisies
in T rinity ever since.
Then who is this?
I'll find out.
Got a positive lD on our mummy.
His name is Walter Jones.
According to these articles,
Jones was a player back in the day.
One of the first venture capitalists.
Could have been bigger
than Rockefeller or Vanderbilt,
if he hadn't gotten murdered.
Looks like a lot of people
might have wanted him dead.
Oh, yeah. Found court records
for 19 lawsuits against him.
One of them was filed
by an inventor named Sam Harding.
[Mac] The owner of the penthouse.
Apparently, Jones put up money
for Harding's invention business.
Sounds like their deal went sour
cos Harding filed a suit in 1923
for patent infringement
but it was dismissed.
Jones is missing shortly after.
Sam Harding had motive
to make that happen.
Harding thought Jones
stabbed him in the back
and when he didn't win in court,
he got revenge.
[Danny]
We solved an 86-year-old murder.
Not bad for half a day's work.
No, it gives us the rest of the day
to tackle
the remaining unanswered questions.
Who broke into the penthouse
and who made the 91 1 call?
Adam Ross. What you got?
Oh... Yeah.
I reconstructed the shattered glass
from the skylight
and I lifted several usable prints.
The name's Richard Lawson.
He must be the guy that came through
the skylight and made the 91 1 call.
[Stella] He's got two priors
for breaking and entering.
As far as we can tell,
nothing was stolen.
That's because what he broke in for,
he couldn't carry out.
[Mac] This guy's a real estate agent.
Why is he breaking into
Sam Harding's penthouse?
Before he died, Harding set up
a trust to take care of his home.
Keep it empty after his death.
Nobody was allowed to go inside,
not even the building's super
or maintenance man.
Wanted to hide the fact he murdered
Walter Jones and left him to rot.
His secret and Jones' body
would have remained undiscovered,
except this week the rule against
perpetuities went into effect.
Stops dead people
from owning property forever.
Right, which means the penthouse
was just about to be put up
for auction by the state.
That property must be worth
1 0 to 1 5 million.
Yeah, and that brings us
right back to this guy, Lawson.
Now he makes his living by getting
a jump-start on his competition.
Two years ago he broke
into a foreclosure in the Hamptons.
He's a suspect on two other cases.
The times he hasn't gotten caught,
he appraises the property and makes
quite a bit of money on the sale.
- We bringing him in?
- Well, we can't find Richard Lawson.
- T ried the penthouse?
- Flack searched the place twice.
No disrespect to Donny Boy.
You might want to try again.
When I processed
the static lifts from the scene,
I saw footprints with directionality.
All of them are moving into the room.
Nothing coming out.
So nobody went back up that rope.
Flack said the front door
was bolted from the inside
when they responded to the 91 1 call.
Lawson didn't use that door
when he left.
Has to be another way out.
Or not.
We ran Lawson's phone records.
He's definitely our 91 1 caller.
Now I want you to listen to this.
[Lawson] I'm gonna die.
You gotta help me, please!
[dispatch 6]
Sir, is there someone attacking you?
[Lawson] I'm at 2405
Central Park West. Hurry. Please!
Does that sound like a prank call?
No. He's crying for help.
That 91 1 call was made six hours ago.
Yeah, Richard Lawson
may still be in that penthouse.
Attic's clear.
- Power's back on.
- Well, that took long enough.
Guess the switch was in Jersey.
[sighs]
We checked every room,
closet, crawl space,
any place a person might hide
or a dead body could be stashed.
And all possible points of escape.
Richard Lawson's
gotta be in this penthouse.
There was no evidence
suggesting he got out of here.
Do we rule out
vanishing into thin air?
I'm with Stell. Cos where is the guy?
Flack, you said
on the first search of the apartment,
no one found the utility room?
Yeah. It's like it popped up
out of nowhere.
[hums Twilight Zone theme song]
[chuckles]
There's concrete behind this plaster.
It's pretty damn thick.
Why would you have
cement interior walls
on the 25th floor of a penthouse?
There may be hidden passages
between these rooms.
[Mac] Stella!
- You OK?
- Yeah.
What the hell was that?
Both of you move toward the door.
Be careful.
Pressure trigger.
After the weapon's done its job,
the pressure is taken off the trigger
and it retracts.
Keep the pressure on the trigger
and it doesn't reload
for the next unsuspecting victim.
We've got our murder weapon.
This whole house is a murder weapon.
- Heads up, guys.
- I hope you know what you're doing.
[Mac]
These tiles were designed to slide.
Just like a child's number puzzle.
One through 15.
You move each one.
You place them in numeric order.
Instead of a number pattern,
these create an image.
Sorry.
It's a giant slide puzzle
that's already been solved.
And the reward for putting
the last piece of the puzzle...
...is to be impaled
by a swinging bed of knives.
And so our vic, Walter Jones,
was the unlucky winner.
[chuckles]
Sam Harding was an inventor.
This room,
maybe this entire penthouse,
was his greatest creation.
OK. Knowing that,
how do we find Richard Lawson?
We play Sam Harding's game.
Things just got a lot more difficult.
And a lot more dangerous.
What I'm saying, Mac, is that this,
this library, it, it isn't a library.
I mean, I mean, it's a library
but it, it's a library...
[video phone] Adam, Adam. Come on.
I'm sorry, Mac.
I'm just kind of off my game today.
[sighs] OK.
The short of it -
this blueprint is useless.
If you're standing
where you say you are standing,
everything's been changed around and
nothing matches the original plan.
Mac, I found
a Ledger article from 1922.
Apparently, Harding spent
serious bucks to pimp this place out.
I mean, major renovations.
It was a two-year $300,000 project.
At the time, that was big money.
More than four million
by today's standards.
Right, and he hired
different contractors to complete
the construction in stages.
None of them were told
what the finished product would be.
There's mystery and speculation
about what he was doing up there.
I need an updated floor plan.
Find out if one exists.
I'm on it, boss.
Are you? What's wrong with you?
No, l... I'm fine. Just I'm...
Why would Walter Jones play a game
that could get him killed?
Maybe he didn't know the stakes.
Or he knew the stakes
but was forced to play.
And Richard Lawson had no idea
what he was walking into.
An angel. A fallen angel.
A message to a friend
who's now an enemy.
Looks like there's a theme
going on here.
Do these blades
look like wings to you?
Yeah.
He's pointing.
That can't be an accident.
The book stand.
[sighs]
No title. No author.
Blank pages.
Except this one.
"lf a red house is made of red bricks
"and a blue house
is made of blue bricks,
"what is a greenhouse made of? "
Glass.
Well, the windows
would be too obvious.
[Stella sighs]
Two vases. Both glass.
This is part of the game. There's
a 50/50 chance that we're right.
I can do better than that.
Careful, Stella.
[buzzing]
[Stella chuckles]
It's crystal. Crystal sings.
This isn't glass.
- lmpressive.
- Thank you.
[sighs]
I'll shoot you
if you say ladies first.
So Adam's got his boxers
all in a twist
because Haylen's
getting a job with the FBl.
Huh? Good for her.
So why does Adam care?
Didn't he think
she was after his job?
- I think he had a crush on her.
- Hmm.
- This looks like tedious fun.
- Yeah.
I reconstructed the shards of plastic
I recovered from Jones' pocket.
It's an old phonograph cylinder.
One of the original mediums
for reproducing and recording sound.
- Wow. Kinda like the first iPod.
- Hmm.
[Danny] It's pretty beat down, huh?
Yeah, there's scratches
in the grooves
and I'll have to dig those out
to get it to play.
Are these initials right there? SH?
Sam Harding.
Except I found it on Walter Jones.
Maybe he was a klepto.
Or whatever's recorded
on this cylinder
was important for Walter Jones
to keep in his pocket.
We need something
that might help us find Lawson.
Yeah, well, right now,
all we got is this cylinder.
You think Walter Jones' murder
is somehow connected
to Lawson's disappearance?
- It was 80 years ago.
- Yeah.
Harding's throne.
It's the same chair
that's in the portrait in the foyer.
Same chair, same room.
But the chair's in a different place.
Also is the side table
and the lamp and the candlesticks.
It's all been rearranged.
[Mac] Everything in the painting
is in this room.
Maybe we're supposed to put it all
back the way it is in the painting.
Then let's get to it.
Everything's the way
it's supposed to be.
[Mac] There's gotta be something else
or we just wasted our time.
Let me see.
There's only one thing missing.
[chuckles]
I smell burnt flesh.
[Stella coughs]
[Stella]
Could this be Richard Lawson?
What is this place?
Whatever it is,
it burned the victim alive.
Richard Lawson?
It's hard to confirm
without an autopsy
but according to his driver's
licence, Lawson was over 6ft.
Also noticing
a faint eye colour of blue.
Vic's burned to the core.
I'm thinking
300 degrees Fahrenheit minimum.
He died from pulmonary edema.
Yeah, his lungs filled with fluid.
He drowned before he burned.
How did he get in here
without playing musical furniture?
We had to rearrange that entire room
before the door opened.
There's gotta be
more than one way in.
Flack and I were just in this room.
Only we came through that door.
So that's how the victim got in.
Why couldn't he get out?
He was trapped.
There was no way to escape.
[Stella] This runs on gas.
And this is our heat source.
From the fireplace in the bedroom.
Well, Harding was meticulous
when he designed this place.
Heat rises.
If he was using forced air,
he'd put that vent down by the floor.
Right.
[Mac]
There's gotta be something else.
These side walls are made
of a lead steel alloy.
They keep the heat in.
This middle panel is copper,
a heat conductor.
Harding's intent was
to cook his victims to death.
[coughs]
Richard Lawson. They found him.
Wait a minute.
Hey!
Hey, guys! Hey!
Hey, Stella!
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, anybody!
Hey, Stella, Mac!
Anybody out there? Hey!
Hey, hey, hey, guys!
Hey! Hey, Mac! Stella!
Hey. Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, somebody! Hey!
You OK in there?
Yeah. Just get me out of here.
Guys, I don't think
we're finished here.
We found Richard Lawson, Danny.
I know. I think somebody else
is trapped up there.
All right. This better be good.
Lawson's fingerprints weren't
a match to the fingertip prints
I accidentally picked up
on the static lift.
Somebody else
came through that skylight?
[Danny]
I assumed they were his prints.
I figured he used his hands
to break his fall.
Who would know
to come through that window?
I checked his phone records.
T urns out that he called his house
before he called 91 1.
This is audio from his voicemail.
[Lawson] Honey, where are you?
Help me. I'm trapped.
You gotta get here as soon as you can
or I'm not gonna make it.
Lives with girlfriend, Paula Davis.
I tried to find her.
She hasn't showed up for work, missed
a lunch and two other appointments.
You think she responded
to his call for help?
There's no evidence
of her being there.
Now Adam found a fibre
on the cut glass from the window.
It wasn't until I saw the crime-scene
photos that I saw Lawson's clothing.
That fibre didn't come from him.
And there's the unknown prints.
Somebody else
came through that window.
Paula came looking for her boyfriend
and ended up getting trapped?
Taylor.
Mac, you recall seeing
any water leaks in the penthouse?
No. Why?
I'm with the downstairs tenant
who's complaining about a water leak
coming from above her.
A leak? The water's been shut off
in that penthouse for years.
Oh. All right, I'll look into it.
Death by knife. Death by fire.
If Paula Davis is up there,
she's drowning.
I'm sending the blueprints
over to you now.
These are of the apartment you're in
below the penthouse.
I got it.
Water from a place with no water.
I'm no plumber
but is that even possible?
There's no plumbing
on that side of the building.
Maybe a chemical breakdown
of the water can indicate a source.
Boom.
Anything?
[Danny]
Oxygen peak looks extremely low.
The sample hasn't been exposed to
the atmosphere in a very long time.
How long are we talking?
Well, I was a geology major and
I did a lot of field-study work.
Oxygen-depleted water
is most likely from an aquifer.
I studied one that hadn't
been tapped since the 1 930s.
What does that mean?
The water is coming
from the penthouse.
It must have its own water supply.
Maybe a tank.
Whatever it is, it's right above us.
Danny said the leak was coming
from the northwest corner
of the apartment.
This direction.
[Stella]
I don't see a drop of water anywhere.
Danny? We're in the room above you.
[Mac stamps his foot]
He says to walk west 10ft.
Still dry. The water's
gotta be behind this wall.
Paula Davis!
Paula Davis, are you in there?
[thumping]
She's still alive.
I've got the camera over the edge
of whatever she's encased in.
[Mac sighs]
There's no way we can bust
through this wall quick enough.
We gotta figure out
how she got trapped.
She's losing air
and going hypothermic.
We gotta get oxygen in there now.
I'm on it.
She can see the Hawk-Eye.
[Mac] Her pupils
are barely responding to light.
Her muscles are relaxing.
She's close to death.
We gotta find a way in.
Nothing's happening.
That water's 72 degrees.
The range for survival at that
temperature is 3 to 12 hours.
Danny said Paula got the call
from Lawson 1 1 hours ago.
So if we're lucky, we have an hour.
Maybe we should be looking
for what we don't see.
Light switches.
There's a big giant chandelier
in a tiny room
with no light switch to turn it on.
Another piece of the puzzle.
It's a clue.
One that asks you to figure out
how to turn on a light.
Huh, that's an odd size and place
for the only window in the room,
don't you think?
We need a ladder.
Jones wouldn't have had a ladder.
So we use the stairs.
Nothing happened.
It's gotta all be about the window.
The stairs lead right to it.
That skyscraper wasn't there
when Harding modified the place.
- It's blocking the sun.
- Can't move the building.
Then we move the sun.
Oh, hey, did you
get everything you need?
Yeah. I think so.
Well, listen, for what it's worth,
Haylen is really great,
really competent,
really smart and, um...
I didn't know her that well
but I know she's the type of person
that's meant to work in that field.
She's smart and talented.
And you're really happy she's leaving
because she was threatening your job.
What? No. No.
Who, who, who told you that?
Was it Jake?
Everyone.
That is so not true!
Me? Threatened? Please!
Wait. How many people said that?
Whatever.
[opera music plays
through gramophone]
[Sam Harding] A sad, painful song.
A song of lies and betrayal.
Heartbreaking.
But a song can only
make you feel so much.
It's no substitute
for real suffering.
That's why I invited you to my home.
Everything I worked for,
you stole it and sold it
to the highest bidder.
And kept the money. My money.
Then you bought off the judge
and made me look like a liar.
So while you made millions,
I invested my unrewarded ingenuity
and hard work
into making this place
a lesson in pain, lies and betrayal.
You may be smart enough
to steal my inventions
but let us see if you are
smart enough to survive them.
[groans]
Colour of that light
look familiar to you guys?
A UV-filtering oxide.
Harding turned the chandelier
into a primitive UV light.
There's something written
on that wall.
Huh.
"l search my face
for a four-part song.
"My heart keeps pace
eight days long."
Should we look in the mirror?
Four-part song could be
referencing the four bedposts.
No. It's a clock.
The riddle's about
a grandfather clock.
Eight days long,
the time some grandfather clocks run
before needing to be restarted.
Its hands search its face.
It finds its song on the quarter hour
when it chimes.
That's a four part song.
And its heart is the pendulum
that keeps pace.
OK. Now what?
We start time.
[clock gears creak]
91 1. What's your emergency?
[woman]
I'm calling to report an accident.
[dispatch 2]
This is 91 1. How can I help you?
[dispatch 3]
91 1. What's your emergency?
[man]
My wife took a whole bottle of pills.
[dispatch 4] It's on his wrist.
Can you feel a pulse?
[dispatch 5]
91 1. What's your emergency?
[man 2] You've got to help me!
[dispatch 6]
Sir, is someone attacking you?
[man 2] I'm at 2405
Central Park West. Hurry. Please!
Move, move, move!
[policeman] Clear!
Whoa!
Why no lights?
We're working on it.
But according to the super,
this place hasn't had electricity
since Thomas Edison was alive.
Looks like he's been dead
about as long.
Mummification rarely happens
in New York. Too humid.
Well, conditions in this room
must have been desert-dry.
No evidence of putrefaction
by microorganisms.
Nothing to indicate
the presence of rodents or maggots
feeding on the body.
A slow, steady dehydration
of the flesh.
Perfectly preserved.
Do we know who this is?
Well, the name listed as owner
of the property is a Sam Harding.
Word is he vacated
the penthouse 80 years ago.
Place has been sealed up ever since.
What about the 91 1 caller
who said he was gonna die?
Our boys searched the place.
Didn't find anyone.
Our mummy's the only guy here.
So how does the dead guy call 91 1?
[# The Who: Baba O'Riley]
# Out here in the fields
# I fight for my meals
# I get my back into my living
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah #
[Flack] Hey, guys.
I figured out
how our dead man called 91 1.
Someone broke in?
We're just finding this?
My guys swear
this room wasn't even here
on the first go-round.
I don't know.
So who calls 91 1, asks for help,
says they're dying and then cuts out
before help can arrive?
[Stella] Maybe our caller broke in.
Saw the body, made the anonymous call
to lead us to the vic
and then took off.
So he pulls a B&E to rob the place,
then turns good Samaritan.
I'll remember to thank him
before I toss his arse in jail.
I don't think burglary
was the motive.
This place is full of antiques.
He could have picked it clean.
Whoever broke in
was here for something else.
Hi. Are you lost?
No. I'm not lost but thanks.
OK.
Are you supposed to be here?
Do you need to see someone
or can I help you with something?
It's strange to have someone that
doesn't work in the lab hanging out.
Deborah Martin. FBl Personnel Office.
I was cleared
by Detective Mac Taylor.
And I'm here observing the lab,
procedures, work environment.
We're considering someone
from this facility for our own lab.
Someone from here
is moving to the FBl?
- Uh-huh.
- Wow! That's a big deal.
Yes, it is.
It's Jake, isn't it?
It's Jake? Oh, he's such a...
Sorry, did I cross the line?
Jake and l, we just applied
at the same time together
and, I mean, he is...
Actually, it's Haylen Becall.
- Wow! Really?
- Yeah.
- Wow! Really?
- Yes.
[chuckles nervously]
- Really?
- Still yes.
Oh. Wow.
Did you know
that between 400 and 1 400 AD
there was a common belief that mummia
was a potent medicine
with curative powers?
People used to grind up mummy parts
and put them on their bodies
to get well when they were sick.
Hmm. Take 2mg of mummy
and call me in the morning!
Something like that.
I thought you had hobbies
outside of work.
I take it my interest
in the history of my profession
and the fascinating world
of the postmortem
does not strike you
as an enjoyable pastime?
Let's take him
to a Jets game this weekend!
OK, Sid, what can you
tell us about COD?
Your vic was murdered.
The cause was multiple stab wounds.
1 1, to be exact.
The mummification
preserved every wound perfectly.
- Crime of rage.
- Or passion.
- Any idea when he was killed?
- I was just doing the math.
These are Amex dentures.
Made out of aluminium.
They were created
for American soldiers in 1917
as a more durable alternative
to Vulcanite dentures,
but were discontinued
with the Armistice of 1918.
The problem with aluminium is
that it can stop the body's ability
to absorb calcium.
This can prevent bone growth
and reduce bone density.
Now based on the deterioration
of the bone
at the gum line here,
I'd say our vic
was murdered five, six years
after he got his shiny new choppers.
That would put the year of his death
somewhere around 1923.
Sid, please tell me
you were able to identify that body.
No, I assumed he was the owner
of the penthouse, Sam Harding.
Uh-uh. Can't be.
According to my sources, Harding
died of pneumonia 30 years ago
and has been pushing up daisies
in T rinity ever since.
Then who is this?
I'll find out.
Got a positive lD on our mummy.
His name is Walter Jones.
According to these articles,
Jones was a player back in the day.
One of the first venture capitalists.
Could have been bigger
than Rockefeller or Vanderbilt,
if he hadn't gotten murdered.
Looks like a lot of people
might have wanted him dead.
Oh, yeah. Found court records
for 19 lawsuits against him.
One of them was filed
by an inventor named Sam Harding.
[Mac] The owner of the penthouse.
Apparently, Jones put up money
for Harding's invention business.
Sounds like their deal went sour
cos Harding filed a suit in 1923
for patent infringement
but it was dismissed.
Jones is missing shortly after.
Sam Harding had motive
to make that happen.
Harding thought Jones
stabbed him in the back
and when he didn't win in court,
he got revenge.
[Danny]
We solved an 86-year-old murder.
Not bad for half a day's work.
No, it gives us the rest of the day
to tackle
the remaining unanswered questions.
Who broke into the penthouse
and who made the 91 1 call?
Adam Ross. What you got?
Oh... Yeah.
I reconstructed the shattered glass
from the skylight
and I lifted several usable prints.
The name's Richard Lawson.
He must be the guy that came through
the skylight and made the 91 1 call.
[Stella] He's got two priors
for breaking and entering.
As far as we can tell,
nothing was stolen.
That's because what he broke in for,
he couldn't carry out.
[Mac] This guy's a real estate agent.
Why is he breaking into
Sam Harding's penthouse?
Before he died, Harding set up
a trust to take care of his home.
Keep it empty after his death.
Nobody was allowed to go inside,
not even the building's super
or maintenance man.
Wanted to hide the fact he murdered
Walter Jones and left him to rot.
His secret and Jones' body
would have remained undiscovered,
except this week the rule against
perpetuities went into effect.
Stops dead people
from owning property forever.
Right, which means the penthouse
was just about to be put up
for auction by the state.
That property must be worth
1 0 to 1 5 million.
Yeah, and that brings us
right back to this guy, Lawson.
Now he makes his living by getting
a jump-start on his competition.
Two years ago he broke
into a foreclosure in the Hamptons.
He's a suspect on two other cases.
The times he hasn't gotten caught,
he appraises the property and makes
quite a bit of money on the sale.
- We bringing him in?
- Well, we can't find Richard Lawson.
- T ried the penthouse?
- Flack searched the place twice.
No disrespect to Donny Boy.
You might want to try again.
When I processed
the static lifts from the scene,
I saw footprints with directionality.
All of them are moving into the room.
Nothing coming out.
So nobody went back up that rope.
Flack said the front door
was bolted from the inside
when they responded to the 91 1 call.
Lawson didn't use that door
when he left.
Has to be another way out.
Or not.
We ran Lawson's phone records.
He's definitely our 91 1 caller.
Now I want you to listen to this.
[Lawson] I'm gonna die.
You gotta help me, please!
[dispatch 6]
Sir, is there someone attacking you?
[Lawson] I'm at 2405
Central Park West. Hurry. Please!
Does that sound like a prank call?
No. He's crying for help.
That 91 1 call was made six hours ago.
Yeah, Richard Lawson
may still be in that penthouse.
Attic's clear.
- Power's back on.
- Well, that took long enough.
Guess the switch was in Jersey.
[sighs]
We checked every room,
closet, crawl space,
any place a person might hide
or a dead body could be stashed.
And all possible points of escape.
Richard Lawson's
gotta be in this penthouse.
There was no evidence
suggesting he got out of here.
Do we rule out
vanishing into thin air?
I'm with Stell. Cos where is the guy?
Flack, you said
on the first search of the apartment,
no one found the utility room?
Yeah. It's like it popped up
out of nowhere.
[hums Twilight Zone theme song]
[chuckles]
There's concrete behind this plaster.
It's pretty damn thick.
Why would you have
cement interior walls
on the 25th floor of a penthouse?
There may be hidden passages
between these rooms.
[Mac] Stella!
- You OK?
- Yeah.
What the hell was that?
Both of you move toward the door.
Be careful.
Pressure trigger.
After the weapon's done its job,
the pressure is taken off the trigger
and it retracts.
Keep the pressure on the trigger
and it doesn't reload
for the next unsuspecting victim.
We've got our murder weapon.
This whole house is a murder weapon.
- Heads up, guys.
- I hope you know what you're doing.
[Mac]
These tiles were designed to slide.
Just like a child's number puzzle.
One through 15.
You move each one.
You place them in numeric order.
Instead of a number pattern,
these create an image.
Sorry.
It's a giant slide puzzle
that's already been solved.
And the reward for putting
the last piece of the puzzle...
...is to be impaled
by a swinging bed of knives.
And so our vic, Walter Jones,
was the unlucky winner.
[chuckles]
Sam Harding was an inventor.
This room,
maybe this entire penthouse,
was his greatest creation.
OK. Knowing that,
how do we find Richard Lawson?
We play Sam Harding's game.
Things just got a lot more difficult.
And a lot more dangerous.
What I'm saying, Mac, is that this,
this library, it, it isn't a library.
I mean, I mean, it's a library
but it, it's a library...
[video phone] Adam, Adam. Come on.
I'm sorry, Mac.
I'm just kind of off my game today.
[sighs] OK.
The short of it -
this blueprint is useless.
If you're standing
where you say you are standing,
everything's been changed around and
nothing matches the original plan.
Mac, I found
a Ledger article from 1922.
Apparently, Harding spent
serious bucks to pimp this place out.
I mean, major renovations.
It was a two-year $300,000 project.
At the time, that was big money.
More than four million
by today's standards.
Right, and he hired
different contractors to complete
the construction in stages.
None of them were told
what the finished product would be.
There's mystery and speculation
about what he was doing up there.
I need an updated floor plan.
Find out if one exists.
I'm on it, boss.
Are you? What's wrong with you?
No, l... I'm fine. Just I'm...
Why would Walter Jones play a game
that could get him killed?
Maybe he didn't know the stakes.
Or he knew the stakes
but was forced to play.
And Richard Lawson had no idea
what he was walking into.
An angel. A fallen angel.
A message to a friend
who's now an enemy.
Looks like there's a theme
going on here.
Do these blades
look like wings to you?
Yeah.
He's pointing.
That can't be an accident.
The book stand.
[sighs]
No title. No author.
Blank pages.
Except this one.
"lf a red house is made of red bricks
"and a blue house
is made of blue bricks,
"what is a greenhouse made of? "
Glass.
Well, the windows
would be too obvious.
[Stella sighs]
Two vases. Both glass.
This is part of the game. There's
a 50/50 chance that we're right.
I can do better than that.
Careful, Stella.
[buzzing]
[Stella chuckles]
It's crystal. Crystal sings.
This isn't glass.
- lmpressive.
- Thank you.
[sighs]
I'll shoot you
if you say ladies first.
So Adam's got his boxers
all in a twist
because Haylen's
getting a job with the FBl.
Huh? Good for her.
So why does Adam care?
Didn't he think
she was after his job?
- I think he had a crush on her.
- Hmm.
- This looks like tedious fun.
- Yeah.
I reconstructed the shards of plastic
I recovered from Jones' pocket.
It's an old phonograph cylinder.
One of the original mediums
for reproducing and recording sound.
- Wow. Kinda like the first iPod.
- Hmm.
[Danny] It's pretty beat down, huh?
Yeah, there's scratches
in the grooves
and I'll have to dig those out
to get it to play.
Are these initials right there? SH?
Sam Harding.
Except I found it on Walter Jones.
Maybe he was a klepto.
Or whatever's recorded
on this cylinder
was important for Walter Jones
to keep in his pocket.
We need something
that might help us find Lawson.
Yeah, well, right now,
all we got is this cylinder.
You think Walter Jones' murder
is somehow connected
to Lawson's disappearance?
- It was 80 years ago.
- Yeah.
Harding's throne.
It's the same chair
that's in the portrait in the foyer.
Same chair, same room.
But the chair's in a different place.
Also is the side table
and the lamp and the candlesticks.
It's all been rearranged.
[Mac] Everything in the painting
is in this room.
Maybe we're supposed to put it all
back the way it is in the painting.
Then let's get to it.
Everything's the way
it's supposed to be.
[Mac] There's gotta be something else
or we just wasted our time.
Let me see.
There's only one thing missing.
[chuckles]
I smell burnt flesh.
[Stella coughs]
[Stella]
Could this be Richard Lawson?
What is this place?
Whatever it is,
it burned the victim alive.
Richard Lawson?
It's hard to confirm
without an autopsy
but according to his driver's
licence, Lawson was over 6ft.
Also noticing
a faint eye colour of blue.
Vic's burned to the core.
I'm thinking
300 degrees Fahrenheit minimum.
He died from pulmonary edema.
Yeah, his lungs filled with fluid.
He drowned before he burned.
How did he get in here
without playing musical furniture?
We had to rearrange that entire room
before the door opened.
There's gotta be
more than one way in.
Flack and I were just in this room.
Only we came through that door.
So that's how the victim got in.
Why couldn't he get out?
He was trapped.
There was no way to escape.
[Stella] This runs on gas.
And this is our heat source.
From the fireplace in the bedroom.
Well, Harding was meticulous
when he designed this place.
Heat rises.
If he was using forced air,
he'd put that vent down by the floor.
Right.
[Mac]
There's gotta be something else.
These side walls are made
of a lead steel alloy.
They keep the heat in.
This middle panel is copper,
a heat conductor.
Harding's intent was
to cook his victims to death.
[coughs]
Richard Lawson. They found him.
Wait a minute.
Hey!
Hey, guys! Hey!
Hey, Stella!
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, anybody!
Hey, Stella, Mac!
Anybody out there? Hey!
Hey, hey, hey, guys!
Hey! Hey, Mac! Stella!
Hey. Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, somebody! Hey!
You OK in there?
Yeah. Just get me out of here.
Guys, I don't think
we're finished here.
We found Richard Lawson, Danny.
I know. I think somebody else
is trapped up there.
All right. This better be good.
Lawson's fingerprints weren't
a match to the fingertip prints
I accidentally picked up
on the static lift.
Somebody else
came through that skylight?
[Danny]
I assumed they were his prints.
I figured he used his hands
to break his fall.
Who would know
to come through that window?
I checked his phone records.
T urns out that he called his house
before he called 91 1.
This is audio from his voicemail.
[Lawson] Honey, where are you?
Help me. I'm trapped.
You gotta get here as soon as you can
or I'm not gonna make it.
Lives with girlfriend, Paula Davis.
I tried to find her.
She hasn't showed up for work, missed
a lunch and two other appointments.
You think she responded
to his call for help?
There's no evidence
of her being there.
Now Adam found a fibre
on the cut glass from the window.
It wasn't until I saw the crime-scene
photos that I saw Lawson's clothing.
That fibre didn't come from him.
And there's the unknown prints.
Somebody else
came through that window.
Paula came looking for her boyfriend
and ended up getting trapped?
Taylor.
Mac, you recall seeing
any water leaks in the penthouse?
No. Why?
I'm with the downstairs tenant
who's complaining about a water leak
coming from above her.
A leak? The water's been shut off
in that penthouse for years.
Oh. All right, I'll look into it.
Death by knife. Death by fire.
If Paula Davis is up there,
she's drowning.
I'm sending the blueprints
over to you now.
These are of the apartment you're in
below the penthouse.
I got it.
Water from a place with no water.
I'm no plumber
but is that even possible?
There's no plumbing
on that side of the building.
Maybe a chemical breakdown
of the water can indicate a source.
Boom.
Anything?
[Danny]
Oxygen peak looks extremely low.
The sample hasn't been exposed to
the atmosphere in a very long time.
How long are we talking?
Well, I was a geology major and
I did a lot of field-study work.
Oxygen-depleted water
is most likely from an aquifer.
I studied one that hadn't
been tapped since the 1 930s.
What does that mean?
The water is coming
from the penthouse.
It must have its own water supply.
Maybe a tank.
Whatever it is, it's right above us.
Danny said the leak was coming
from the northwest corner
of the apartment.
This direction.
[Stella]
I don't see a drop of water anywhere.
Danny? We're in the room above you.
[Mac stamps his foot]
He says to walk west 10ft.
Still dry. The water's
gotta be behind this wall.
Paula Davis!
Paula Davis, are you in there?
[thumping]
She's still alive.
I've got the camera over the edge
of whatever she's encased in.
[Mac sighs]
There's no way we can bust
through this wall quick enough.
We gotta figure out
how she got trapped.
She's losing air
and going hypothermic.
We gotta get oxygen in there now.
I'm on it.
She can see the Hawk-Eye.
[Mac] Her pupils
are barely responding to light.
Her muscles are relaxing.
She's close to death.
We gotta find a way in.
Nothing's happening.
That water's 72 degrees.
The range for survival at that
temperature is 3 to 12 hours.
Danny said Paula got the call
from Lawson 1 1 hours ago.
So if we're lucky, we have an hour.
Maybe we should be looking
for what we don't see.
Light switches.
There's a big giant chandelier
in a tiny room
with no light switch to turn it on.
Another piece of the puzzle.
It's a clue.
One that asks you to figure out
how to turn on a light.
Huh, that's an odd size and place
for the only window in the room,
don't you think?
We need a ladder.
Jones wouldn't have had a ladder.
So we use the stairs.
Nothing happened.
It's gotta all be about the window.
The stairs lead right to it.
That skyscraper wasn't there
when Harding modified the place.
- It's blocking the sun.
- Can't move the building.
Then we move the sun.
Oh, hey, did you
get everything you need?
Yeah. I think so.
Well, listen, for what it's worth,
Haylen is really great,
really competent,
really smart and, um...
I didn't know her that well
but I know she's the type of person
that's meant to work in that field.
She's smart and talented.
And you're really happy she's leaving
because she was threatening your job.
What? No. No.
Who, who, who told you that?
Was it Jake?
Everyone.
That is so not true!
Me? Threatened? Please!
Wait. How many people said that?
Whatever.
[opera music plays
through gramophone]
[Sam Harding] A sad, painful song.
A song of lies and betrayal.
Heartbreaking.
But a song can only
make you feel so much.
It's no substitute
for real suffering.
That's why I invited you to my home.
Everything I worked for,
you stole it and sold it
to the highest bidder.
And kept the money. My money.
Then you bought off the judge
and made me look like a liar.
So while you made millions,
I invested my unrewarded ingenuity
and hard work
into making this place
a lesson in pain, lies and betrayal.
You may be smart enough
to steal my inventions
but let us see if you are
smart enough to survive them.
[groans]
Colour of that light
look familiar to you guys?
A UV-filtering oxide.
Harding turned the chandelier
into a primitive UV light.
There's something written
on that wall.
Huh.
"l search my face
for a four-part song.
"My heart keeps pace
eight days long."
Should we look in the mirror?
Four-part song could be
referencing the four bedposts.
No. It's a clock.
The riddle's about
a grandfather clock.
Eight days long,
the time some grandfather clocks run
before needing to be restarted.
Its hands search its face.
It finds its song on the quarter hour
when it chimes.
That's a four part song.
And its heart is the pendulum
that keeps pace.
OK. Now what?
We start time.
[clock gears creak]