Elementary (2012–…): Season 5, Episode 12 - Crowned Clown, Downtown Brown - full transcript
When Holmes and Watson investigate a clown's murder upstate, they discover a connection between his death and the creation of a new weaponized virus. Also, Watson helps Bell when he's ...
The Heart Bled Blue
and The Heart Hit Home...
Your stepdad wrote these?
Certainly did.
Why didn't he use his real name?
Why does any thief use an alias?
He based the main characters
on me and Sherlock,
and didn't ask our permission.
This is supposed to be
you and Sherlock?
Yeah, now you know
why he didn't ask
our permission.
Anyway, he learned his lesson,
and now he wants
to write a more grounded book
about real cops.
So he wanted to know if I could
connect him with someone
on the force.
And you thought of me.
He just needs a brain to pick.
And I thought,
I don't know, you'd get
a few free lunches out of it.
What do you think?
Well, it depends.
Am I gonna be the next one
kissing your partner?
You know, jot down his info.
I'll give him a ring tomorrow.
Okay.
Excuse me, but...
does this mean
what I think it means?
If you think it means
I have a date tonight,
then... yeah.
Well, I thought you
were gonna wait to ask her out
until her divorce was finalized.
I was.
And it is.
But then
she made the first move.
Tonight's actually
date number three.
I can't believe
you didn't tell me.
I didn't want to jinx anything.
Speaking of which,
I should probably get going.
I'll let you know when I've
touched base with your stepdad.
Okay, but I better know
the details
about your new girlfriend
before he does.
You're five minutes away,
and you want me
to order you a Merlot.
Actually,
I'm not five minutes away,
but I would kill for a drink.
Everything okay?
Yeah, you know how we're making
that big discovery push
on the Pulaski case?
The homicide, yeah.
Well, the defense just hit us
with a document dump.
I'm gonna have
to comb through this
all night
if I'm gonna make my deadline.
Well, that's the life
of a superstar ADA, right?
Well, I don't know
about superstar, but...
yeah.
This is the life.
Can I get a rain check?
Of course.
I'll call you tomorrow.
You better.
What the hell, man?
I was just about to settle up.
How about I buy you another one?
I don't want another drink.
I want that drink.
Look, man, I'm a cop.
I don't want any trouble.
Let's just take this down
a notch, before...
Before what? You think
just 'cause you're a cop
you ain't got to watch
where you're going?
Hey.
What? You got
something for me, cop?
Over there!
I don't see him.
I thought you said
he went this way.
He did.
That's his mask.
That's not his mask.
It's him.
My God.
He's dead, isn't he?
Looks like someone
tried to bury him.
W-We only lost him
for a second or two!
How the hell did this happen?
Normally, I wouldn't
accept help from an outsider.
It was weird, you showing up
out of the blue this morning.
But this is a weird case.
We don't get much murder
in Mount Pleasant,
let alone whatever this is.
You're the Major Case
consultant...
Ever see anything like this?
This is, in fact, my
third murdered clown.
But that's a career spanning
more than 20 years, so...
I'm hardly an expert.
May I?
You said you'd been reading
about us online, right?
For several weeks now, a clown
matching this one's description
has been skulking around
Mount Pleasant late at night.
He's been observed and
photographed
by a dozen citizens.
Never says anything,
just stands and stares,
before disappearing
back into the shadows.
We weren't sure if it's
just a kid playing a prank,
or someone
who wanted to do real harm.
Yeah. I'm sure you're aware
scary clowns are
quite in at the moment.
They've been observed
lurking around towns and cities
all across the country.
It's a phenomenon
as strange as it is stupid.
I was, I was curious
when I heard this one died.
Who found him?
Two members
of our Citizens Patrol.
They said they saw him near
the middle school
around 10:00 p.m.
When they approached him,
he took off,
made a beeline for these woods.
And yet
this couldn't possibly be
the clown that was being chased.
No. Westchester County M.E.
says he's been dead
about 36 hours.
Obviously,
we haven't been dealing
with one clown
the last two weeks.
We've been dealing with two.
Yeah, at least two.
You never know with clowns.
The assailant was
right-handed, I would say.
The first blow was from behind.
This one killed him.
Weapon has a hook
on the end of it.
Most likely a crowbar.
Yeah. He doesn't look familiar?
No wallet, no phone.
But Mount Pleasant's
a small place.
If he's one of ours,
we'll hear about it.
You said the second clown made
a beeline for these woods.
That's right.
So, by all accounts,
the clowns were stalking
Mount Pleasant, the town,
this one died in the woods,
the other one
ran through here, so...
What's on the other side?
Hey.
We didn't make plans
last night that I forgot?
Nope. I just need
to talk to you a minute.
Sure.
Come on back.
So it's true.
You were in a fight
at the bar last night.
How did you hear about that?
Look, um...
it was just, it was nothing.
Some guy was itching to
mix it up with someone.
For whatever reason,
he picked me.
The bouncers broke it up
before it got serious.
But you did hit him.
Chantal, are you here
as my girlfriend
or as an ADA?
Honestly, I'm here
because I'm angry at you.
At me?
The guy was a jackass.
He instigated the whole thing.
And you took the bait.
The guy you hit,
his name was Roy Booker.
He came to my office
this morning and made a scene.
Why would he come
to the DA's office?
Because he's my ex-husband.
Sorry, it's not me.
You may be right...
After all, you are just one
of the men wearing a costume
like that around Mount Pleasant.
Mount Pleasant... is that,
like, upstate or something?
I just moved here
from Pittsburgh, so...
Cut the crap, okay?
We know you ran away
from two members
of the Mount Pleasant
Citizens Patrol last night.
You led them through the woods
to the Metro North station
on the other side.
We know this,
because a half-costumed,
heavily winded clown
was seen buying a ticket
at a kiosk there,
and that credit card
was traced back to you.
Okay, fine, it was me.
But it's not illegal to wear
a scary costume in public, okay?
I checked.
You know what is illegal?
Murder.
We checked.
Are these...?
Are these for real?
Mount Pleasant's police chief
thinks he was killed
two nights ago.
You'll be meeting her shortly.
Because you reside in New York,
she requested that the NYPD
pick you up, and gave us
permission to talk to you.
But after this is done,
she's gonna have some questions
for you as well.
No-no way, I-I didn't do this.
Two nights ago I
was in Pittsburgh.
I-I went to see my girlfriend.
I crashed with her
and her roommates.
They'll all tell you,
I didn't come back
into New York
until yesterday morning.
Say they will.
Do you have any idea
who would've done this?
I mean, try anyone that
lives in Mount Pleasant.
They hate us.
You're talking
about you and our victim, right?
H-His name was Kip.
Kip Tully.
We weren't buddies or anything,
but I know that he lived
in the city, too.
We would both take the train
to Mount Pleasant.
We would change into our
costumes in the woods
and then use it as
a shortcut into town,
just never on the same night.
Wait,
you took turns
dressing up like a clown
and creeping
around Mount Pleasant,
but you weren't buddies?
It was a job,
for a company called AdRupt.
Have you guys ever heard
of prankvertising?
Prankver-what?
I-It's like guerilla marketing.
You prank people, right?
But you do it on camera.
So how does dressing up like a
scary clown help sell anything?
The pictures people take of us?
The videos they post?
They've been going viral.
It's all supposed
to help promote
this horror movie
that's coming out
in a few months, Mister Mangles.
May I have a moment outside?
Kip Tully doesn't exist.
What do you mean?
You did a search of his name?
No, I searched
for the company, AdRupt,
that employed him.
One of the first things
that came up was a link
to an article written about
the company several months ago.
Look at the byline photo.
That's our dead clown.
Kip Tully was just an alias.
His real name was Dale Schmitt.
Perhaps he was killed
over his reporting.
No way are you cops.
Wait, are you cops?
No, if you're cops, I'm a cop.
The only cop here is me.
But my colleagues do
consult for the department.
Sorry, a lot of shenanigans
around this place.
Even I get tricked sometimes.
Jerry Bice. Welcome to AdRupt.
By shenanigans, do you mean the,
prank that Kip Tully
played on you?
Who? Kip Tully.
He's one of the man that
your company hired to wander
around Mount Pleasant
in a clown suit.
If he told you that,
he's in violation
of a very strict NDA.
He's dead, Mr. Bice.
What?
Dead. More specifically,
murdered.
Kip's real name was
Dale Schmitt.
You remember
Mr. Schmitt, don't you?
He wrote a very
unflattering article
about your company
for a trade magazine last year.
He claimed that you exploit
your merry band of pranksters.
Paying them under the table,
for example, to keep them off
the company health plan.
This, despite the fact, they're
put in dangerous situations.
Dressing as deranged harlequins,
terrorizing small towns,
for example.
We think Mr. Schmitt
went undercover to write
a follow-up piece. You found out
and decided to get revenge
for all the bad press he brought
the first time around.
You're right and you're wrong.
Dale was working
on a follow-up piece,
but he wasn't undercover.
I was paying him
to write another article
about AdRupt.
Explain that.
It was gonna be a retraction.
He was gonna work here
a few months
and then say
he got us all wrong.
We're on the up and up,
we treat our people well...
Stuff like that.
You don't want to take
my word for it, take his.
I wanted to see everything
he was writing as he wrote it,
so we shared a cloud drive.
The work he did got
uploaded automatically.
I can give you the username
and password.
You can see for yourself.
Where the hell
did that come from?
I rented it!
It's help putting me
in the mindset of someone
who'd want to kill a clown.
I could see how it could
drive someone to murder.
If you're having
to work this hard,
I'm guessing Jerry Bice isn't
looking good as a suspect.
The folder that Schmitt and Bice
shared indicates
they were working together.
Well, if Bice isn't our killer,
why are you still reading that?
Well, the folder documents
Schmitt's activities
in his final days,
so there might be
a lead lurking somewhere
in its pages.
“Officer Roy Booker, NYPD,
retired?”
Yeah, remember, Chantal Milner?
The ADA Marcus
was interested in?
Well, they're dating now.
And Booker is her ex-husband.
Something amiss?
Marcus was waiting for Chantal
at a bar last night,
when Booker walked in
and started a fight.
So he just happened to be
in the same bar, did he?
Well, it's not as suspicious
as it sounds.
Booker is an ex-cop, and the bar
was near One Police Plaza
and the courthouses.
He claimed he was there
to meet his friends,
when he recognized Marcus.
The thing is he barged into
Chantal's office this morning
and made a huge scene
in front of the DA.
So he's not one
to let things go.
And Marcus is worried
what he's gonna do next.
Well, he could really
jam Marcus up.
I mean, he could push
the department
to take disciplinary action.
I'm gonna stop by the bar.
See what I can scrape up.
Maybe a security video, witness.
Just in case this guy
keeps causing trouble.
You just spot something?
It's a link to an online
Photobucket.
Schmitt's phone
was never recovered.
Presumably the killer took it
along with his wallet.
But it seems that his phone
was set to automatically
upload photographs here.
The last two photos, they were
taken the night he died.
You said Schmitt was
killed with a crowbar.
We've got to be looking
at his killer, right?
This is not the same part of the
woods Schmitt's body was found.
Well, maybe
Mount Pleasant Police
can round up enough people
for a grid search.
That won't be necessary.
There's only a few hundred
yards of roadway
where you could drive a car
this deep into the woods.
Shouldn't be too hard
to find the spot.
Body was found, what?
A few hundred yards that way?
So Schmitt saw something
he shouldn't have
somewhere around here.
And our perp chased him away.
Killed him.
Or some such chain of events.
Any idea what we're looking for?
Something worth killing over.
Watson told me about,
Chantal and her ill-tempered ex.
That sounds like a lot
of unwanted drama.
If this is about to turn
into one of your
down with love speeches, I...
No, I mean, you remember
I once chastised you
for allowing yourself
to be lonely.
Honestly, at this point,
I'm more worried for Chantal.
She's been prepping 24/7
for this big trial.
You know about
the Pulaski murder.
Myra Pulaski.
She butchered her husband
of one year,
inherited three quarters
of a million dollars.
Her claim is self-defense,
but there's no evidence
to support that.
And even her own parents
say she's lying.
Yeah, the DA's showing
a lot of trust
giving Chantal first chair,
could be a career-maker.
But after Roy's outburst
at her office,
her boss is worried
her head's not in the game.
He might pull her off the case.
I just, I don't want what
I did to cause her any grief.
This impression, you see it?
I think it was made
by a large hose.
Starting at the road back there.
Given how hard the soil
has been due to the cold,
to leave an impression like that
it would have to be
warm and heavy,
for a long time.
What's a manhole
doing in the middle
of the woods?
I don't know.
Perhaps that's why our killer
had a crowbar with him.
Cut through the lock here
with a blowtorch,
and used it to open it.
You got a set of tools
in your car, don't you?
What do you think? Storm sewer?
I think you're close,
but you're at the wrong end
of the urban cycle.
We're standing directly above
part of the Catskill Aqueduct.
What we see below us is
New York City's drinking water.
What?
I recognize that smell.
That's liquid nutrient
growth medium
for viruses and bacteria.
And you said the hose
coming from that service road
was pouring it for a long time?
Dale Schmitt was killed
because he saw someone
poisoning the city's water.
We should contact
the Department of
Environmental Protection.
New York City's drinking water
needs to be shut off.
Now.
This is Special Agent David
Breslin from the Department
of Homeland Security,
and this is Wendell Hecht, EVP,
of Water Integrity at the city's.
Department of Environmental
Protection.
Gentlemen, this is Sherlock
Holmes and Joan Watson.
The D.E.P. owes you
a great debt.
Your warning about Mount
Pleasant came just in time.
And has the threat from
the water been neutralized?
Well, the tainted water
from the aqueduct
had made it's way down south to
the distribution hub in Yonkers.
But we were able
to seal off the valves,
so none of it was able to reach
the city grid.
But until we are able to
make that supply safe again,
we're gonna be using
emergency reserves,
full capacity.
It'll be a headache,
but it beats the alternative.
DHS is grateful as well.
But, like I was just
telling your captain,
this all needs to be
kept under wraps
until we can coordinate an
investigation with the FBI.
The city's drinking water
was contaminated.
Now it isn't.
There's no need
to start a panic.
Well, what about
the contaminate itself?
Do we know what it was?
Nothing definitive yet.
Early word is it's
some sort of waterborne bug.
It can't live in the air,
which is why we gave the okay
to let you out of quarantine.
Yeah, but it's not
all good news.
I mean, this bug, or
whatever it is, it's hardy.
I mean, it made it past both
of our disinfection safety nets.
The chlorine treatment and
the ultraviolet purification.
Well, isn't that a superbug?
I was a surgeon and I've never
heard of a pathogen
that could survive UV
and chlorine.
- Well...
- I'm afraid we've said
all we can say at the moment.
Can you at least tell us who
you think is responsible?
Department of Homeland Security
does like its secrets.
Hold on.
Someone drove a tanker truck
into Mount Pleasant
and dumped God only knows
how many thousands
of gallons of a bioweapon
into New York City's
drinking water,
and you're gonna keep
the NYPD in the dark?
For the time being, yes, I am.
The usual suspects?
Already moved off them,
actually.
How was your,
visit to Farlane's?
Anything productive?
Aside from the light buzz
you're feeling
from the Belgian White, was it?
I was at a bar.
Seemed like a better idea
than drinking the water.
The attack was thwarted, Watson.
Don't let your lizard brain
run away with you.
The manager gave me
the security video
of the fight that Marcus was in.
I still have to review it,
but I think you were right
to doubt that Roy was there
by coincidence.
I'm gonna talk
to talk to Chantal
after I watch the video.
And while I was out,
I managed to meet up
with my friend
at Stuyvesant Memorial.
The virologist? Yeah.
I gave her the glove
you were wearing
when you touched the liquid
growth medium yesterday.
I still don't think it was
a good idea to keep it from DHS.
And?
Well, she put a sample under a
scanning electron microscope.
It is a virus, but not one
she's ever seen before.
Well, now we've got
its mug shot,
someone's gonna know what it is.
She thought it was
very suspicious
that it was both UV
and chlorine-resistant.
She cannot rule out that
it was a natural mutation,
but said that it was far
more likely
that our suspect
was lab-engineered.
So someone crafted it
specifically to survive
the city's gauntlet
of water safeguards?
Yeah.
Unfortunately, there are
thousands of labs in the world
that could've made it.
So it doesn't exactly narrow
our suspect pool.
Actually, I think it does.
After Agent Breslin
shot us down,
I reached out
to my sundry contacts
in the intelligence community.
No one heard any chatter
about the attack,
before or after.
Well, that doesn't prove it
couldn't be one of those groups.
No, but it does suggest so.
So I began to consider
the possibility
that we are pursuing someone
with a more singular vision.
A lone wolf, as it were.
Synthesizing a superbug would
either take a lot of expertise,
or a lot of money.
If you're right, then there
can't be that many people
who have both the desire to
poison eight million New Yorkers
and the means to do it.
Actually, I think I found
just such a person
right here in the city.
And apparently he's a
17th century Dutch explorer.
No.
It's his great, great, great,
eight more “greats”
grandchild.
That's Gracie Van Bylandt.
And, yes, she's one
of those Van Bylandts.
One of the oldest and wealthiest
families in New York, yeah.
Fallen on hard times
over the last century,
relatively speaking.
I put Gracie's net worth
in the mid eight figures.
More crippling,
has been her decline
into a hermetic life
of agoraphobia and paranoia.
She's not sounding
like someone who would
infect the water supply
with a designer bug.
How did she and all of
her stuff end up here?
Everything you're looking at
was in plain view
when we visited her apartment.
He thought
we should check her out
because of some
self-published manifesto
she'd posted online.
They're short and uninspired
as manifestos go.
But they do express
Gracie's strident view
that the blame
for her family's ignominy
falls at the feet of, I quote,
“all these damn people
who've moved into the city.”
And they also document
her search for,
the best way to, I quote again,
“kill off the lot of them.”
She'd been researching
technologies that can be used
environmental toxins,
dirty bombs,
custom-made superbugs.
Thing is, we found
a ton of evidence
that she was interested
in an attack like this,
but no evidence that
she actually took action.
Meaning you don't think
she was involved?
So why is she still here?
Well, as part of her research,
she interacted online
with a lot of
like-minded individuals,
people who,
for one reason or another,
shared her interest
in thinning the herd.
So, we're reading through
her e-mails and chats.
Once her family attorney
gets here,
we'll interview her, see if she
could point us toward anyone.
No need.
You found something
saying she was involved?
No, not necessarily.
Dale Schmitt's last moments,
he photographed a man
seen only in silhouette.
I committed that silhouette
to memory.
And, um,
I'm-I'm quite sure
that this scientist
is the same man.
His name is, Raymond Thorpe.
And he's the chief virologist
at a lab on the Upper East Side.
I think he might be our killer.
Chantal?
Hi, I'm Joan.
I work with Marcus.
I think you met
my partner, Sherlock.
Joan. Of course, right.
I've heard a lot about you.
Likewise. Listen,
I was wondering if I could
ask you a few questions
about your ex-husband, Roy.
Why would you...?
Marcus asked me to look into,
a disagreement that
he and Roy got into.
I asked Marcus
to leave it alone.
And he is.
Look, he's a friend,
I could tell he was upset.
He told me about
the fight at the bar.
So, I offered to look into it,
make sure nothing could
come back on him.
And?
Well, it's my understanding
that when Roy made a scene
here the other day,
he claimed the bar
was his usual hangout.
But when I went to
ask them about it,
they said they'd never
seen him before that night.
I don't understand.
You're saying you think
he was lying?
Well, right now, I'm just trying
to get my facts straight.
So, to the best of
your knowledge,
is Farlane's a bar he frequents?
I mean, honestly,
I'm not the best person to ask.
We may have just signed
our divorce papers,
but it's been three years
since we've lived together.
I mean, hell, Roy was still
on the job when we split.
Which brings me to
my next question.
Why isn't Roy a cop any longer?
You think Raymond's a terrorist?
He was an immunologist with the
Air Force before he came here.
I mean, he-he coaches
my son's soccer team.
Timothy McVeigh
won the Bronze Star
and John Wayne Gacy was a clown,
much like the man
we suspect Dr. Thorpe murdered.
No, Raymond didn't kill anybody.
I'm telling you, you're wrong.
Do you know where he is?
Well, he said he needed some
time off for a family emergency.
He hasn't been here all week.
It does not mean that
he engineered some superbug.
Does this?
So, he went to the trouble of,
pulling it into the trash,
but he didn't seem too concerned
about his work being found.
This is what your son's
soccer coach
was doing in his spare time.
And this is what was found
in the contaminated water.
Are those two organisms
the same?
They are.
I don't believe this.
Any idea what the virus does?
Could you open that window?
Given Dr. Thorpe's
absence of several days,
and his apparent lack of concern
about his work being found,
he's probably fled the city.
Yeah, you're probably right,
but we should get an alert
to the TSA and Port Authority,
all the same.
Well, this
doesn't make any sense.
I mean, you're right.
From the looks of it,
Raymond did do what you said.
He used our equipment
to synthesize a virus, making it
chlorine and UV resistant.
Then what doesn't make sense?
Well, what the virus does.
It's basically a harder-to-kill
serotype 40 adenovirus.
It's non-lethal.
It would just give people
a mild gastrointestinal bug.
So, Raymond Thorpe
went to the trouble
of custom-tailoring a virus
so it would survive
the city's water safeguards.
He introduced that virus
into the water supply
and in all likelihood,
killed a man in the process,
just to give New Yorkers a few
urgent trips to the toilet.
Why?
So, if I'm following
everything you said,
our-our terrorist doesn't want
to kill the people of New York,
he just wants to give them
a bad case of the runs.
Actually, bad might be
something of an overstatement.
An expert at the lab where
the virus was created said
that it would have run
its course in a matter of days.
Less Montezuma's Revenge,
more Montezuma's Office Prank.
“Prank”? Sounds about right.
I'm starting to think
this Thorpe guy is more likely
to have ties to a frat house
than a terrorist group.
I'm not sure I agree.
You're making light of this,
because the bug would have
given people diarrhea.
Well, think about it.
Millions of people,
all coming down
with a dehydrating illness,
all at the same time.
Don't drink the water.
But water is exactly
what they would've needed.
There would've been a run
on the stuff,
hospitals would have been
overloaded.
Because of diarrhea?
In developing countries,
diarrhea kills hundreds
of thousands of children a year.
But this is not
a developing country.
Compared to England,
America's a pimply teenager.
Yes,
Thorpe's plan, had it worked,
would've created some
terror, but given the ease
with which he could have stolen
or synthesized
a far deadlier bug,
it's hard to imagine
that his agenda was political.
What about
the woman you brought in?
The Van Bylandt heiress.
Any connection
between her and Thorpe?
She had a scientific journal
that had his picture in it,
but she had a lot of
scientific journals.
After we talked to her and
poked around her financials,
we think it was just
a coincidence.
So how's it going on your end?
I'm sure you've made a lot of
progress, being the DHS and all.
You should know,
the press found out
about what happened
in Mount Pleasant.
They now know we had a near miss
with New York City's
water supply.
How?
Someone leaked the story.
Hopefully not someone
in this room.
In any event, there's
going to be a lot of questions
in the morning, so let me
take this opportunity
to remind you that the answers
need to come from us.
Hello?
Hey.
This clown really dead?
Yeah, he really is.
Who are you?
Me?
I'm the guy who just fixed
your girlfriend's pipes.
Hey, I was just getting ready to
go see Marcus at the precinct.
So it's true.
The shaved bear I met upstairs
installed a water
filtration system?
Okay, first, that shaved bear
got over 600 reviews on Ratelt
as the best plumber in the city.
Second, until someone
can find Raymond Thorpe
and get him to explain why
he wanted to make everyone sick,
I thought we should take extra
precautions on our water.
This is the model the D.E.P.'s
Web site recommends
for filtering out germs
like the one that Thorpe made.
Well, one of the reasons
I chose to live in New York,
as opposed to other
American cities,
was the quality of its water.
The taste and odor, unmatched.
This glorified strainer
is going to change that.
Now, I suppose
I shouldn't blame you
for falling prey
to the hydro-hysteria
sweeping the city.
The leak that Agent Breslin
mentioned last night is,
in fact, a geyser. Look.
Yeah. Now remarkably,
one of the only publications
to look past the hysteria
and explore the consequences
of Thorpe's actions,
was this one.
The Daily Newswire?
You got to be kidding me.
I can see the paper
is mostly bollocks,
but the metro reporter
is tip-top.
Every New Yorker knows...
Every New Yorker aside
from you, that is...
That their water
is the champagne
of municipal hydration,
because it arrives
virtually untouched
from the most pristine
watershed in the country.
What about the chlorine
and the UV?
Those are disinfection measures,
not filtration measures.
The water never passes
through any kind of membrane,
so all of the natural salts
and minerals are retained.
And this reporter found
that New York's
unfiltered status
is contingent
on an ongoing assessment
known as a Filtration Avoidance
Determination or F.A.D.
And that is awarded by the EPA.
Well, she thinks the F.A.D.
might be yanked
in the wake of the virus attack
and that the city
will finally be forced
to build a filtration plant.
And my research suggests
that she's right.
In the event that
any of the conditions
of the F.A.D. are broken,
a waterborne disease outbreak
being linked directly
to an unfiltered water system,
for example,
the EPA has the right
to pull the F.A.D.
and demand that the city
break ground on a new plant
within 24 hours.
A plant like that could cost
hundreds of millions.
Try billions.
Well, that's plenty of incentive
for someone to hire Thorpe,
to get him to come up with
a virus that could get past UV
and chlorine and not kill
everyone in the city.
We have to find who's most
likely to build the plant.
Well, I would stay and help...
But you have a meeting
with Marcus.
Bring back some water from
the precinct, would you?
I'm not gonna make any tea
using that.
Okay, thanks.
I was just about to call you
and your partner.
That was the TSA.
A Raymond Thorpe, correct
address and date of birth,
booked a flight from JFK
to Montenegro three days ago.
They're gonna pull video
from the terminal,
confirm he's our guy
and that he really boarded.
And if he did,
Montenegro doesn't have
an extradition treaty
with the U.S.,
so there isn't much we could do.
Well, the good news is
Sherlock may be able
to identify the person
who hired Thorpe.
But that's not actually
why I'm here.
Um, I found out some
things about Roy Booker
I thought you should know.
So, he didn't just randomly
bump into you the other night.
And he wasn't just
blowing off steam.
He's working as an investigator
for a lawyer named.
Ardy Gulbenkian.
You've heard of him?
I've heard plenty about him
from Chantal.
That's Roy, coming
out of his law office.
He's the defense lawyer she's
up against in the Pulaski case.
Well, Chantal's
assistant admitted
that Roy sweet-talked her
into telling him
when and where you
were both meeting.
Then, Gulbenkian flooded
her office with paperwork
so Chantal would be a no-show.
It was a set-up.
Chantal's probably
the only female ADA
up to speed on the case
and qualified to run it.
And with Myra Pulaski
claiming self-defense,
better for her team
if the prosecutor's male.
That way the jury sees her
being attacked
by a big, scary man.
So Roy makes a scene
in Chantal's office,
the DA thinks she's distracted,
pulls her off the case.
And I played
right into the plan.
You did, but
I have an idea how you
could set things right.
What the hell?
Can I help you?
Yeah, you could tell me
how much it costs
to turn a respected virologist
into a mass-poisoner.
Excuse me?
You own Vecoli Construction,
one of the largest
contracting companies
in New York.
Time and again
you've won the bid
to build an $8 billion
water-filtration plant
in New York City.
But only in the event
one is needed.
Thanks to its F.A.D.,
the city's never needed one.
That is until you paid
Raymond Thorpe
to engineer a virus
which could defeat
both U-V and chlorine measures.
You're obviously a crazy person.
Do yourself a favor... leave,
before I call the cops.
You're denying knowing
Raymond Thorpe?
I never heard that name
before in my life.
Please.
I'll admit a search of your home
yielded no evidence
of a link between
you and Thorpe, or you might
just be good at hiding it.
You were in my house?
Yeah, that's where I got this.
So you've stockpiled
thousands of gallons of water.
I mean, it-it-it's
almost as if you knew
there'd be a problem
with the city's
water supply this week.
I had that delivered
this morning
when I heard what happened
in Mount Pleasant, okay?
You know what, that's it.
I'm calling 911.
Go ahead. I've got a very good
relationship with the police,
so I'd be happy
for them to join us.
Okay, fine, you're right.
My company's in line to build
a water-filtration plant
for the city...
Emphasis on filtration.
Why “emphasis?”
Because we got a hell
of a lot more money
tied up in UV
disinfection these days.
You know why? Because filtration
plants are complicated.
They pump water through stages
with names like
“coagulation,” “flocculation,”
“dissolved air floatation.”
When you're dealing with
the New York City watershed,
that's overkill.
UV disinfection plants
are cheaper,
they're easy to build.
So you tell me...
Why would I pay somebody
to design a bug to beat UV
if that's where
I make my profits?
You can prove that you're
more heavily invested
in ultraviolet?
Look on the Web site.
It's all there.
Why'd you buy
so much water, then?
Because I could.
That, and it's gonna take years
for that plant
to get up and running.
I told you, they're complicated.
This one's gonna take
three or four years at least.
Meantime,
I don't want my kids drinking
anything out of a tap.
No, you wouldn't.
Who would?
Hey. How'd it go with the...?
It's nice to see you, too.
Sherlock!
What are you doing?
It's not personal,
Watson, it's business.
I need a patent number.
You're getting water everywhere.
I was so busy trying
to think of a cure
to the city's water problem
I didn't stop to
consider the Band-Aid.
What are you talking about?
A water-filtration plant
is a cure to a problem
presented by a virus
which is immune to chlorine
and UV treatment.
This filter is the Band-Aid.
Even if the EPA compels the city
to break ground on
a new plant tomorrow,
it won't be operational
for years.
So in the interim, what are
thirsty New Yorkers to do?
They can't all drink,
wash, cook, and clean
with bottled water, can we?
No, we need filters
on every tap in the city.
It's like what happened in Flint
when they found
all that lead in the water.
The government had to buy
home water filters
for everyone who lived there.
Filtering lead is
relatively easy.
Removing viruses,
that requires a special product.
I confirmed what
you said earlier.
There is, indeed,
only one home filter
the D.E.P. recommends
for preventing
the kind of waterborne
disease outbreak
that Raymond Thorpe
tried to carry out.
That one.
So Flint has, what,
100,000 people?
New York has eight million.
So whoever holds
the patent for this
would make a fortune.
Not “whoever”...
A recent acquaintance of ours.
Captain.
Agent Breslin, thanks
for coming back in.
I promised you I'd let you know
if we had anything more,
and I'm a man of my word.
Well, FYI, my boss is reaching
out to the State Department.
We're asking them to contact
the government in Montenegro,
seeing if we can persuade them
to send back Raymond Thorpe.
Now, I wouldn't hold my breath,
but it's worth a shot.
Trust me, no one's
giving up here, either.
In fact, I think
you're gonna be surprised
by what you hear.
Mr. Holmes,
Miss Watson, Wendell.
We're just bringing
Mr. Hecht up to speed
on the investigation.
Raymond Thorpe's virus
was custom-made
to force the city to enact
water-filtration measures.
So we've been looking
into who profits
from those measures being taken.
And I got a call that
one of you visited,
Gio Vecoli?
The head of the company
that's building the new plant.
He was a bit ruffled,
but it sounded like you
decided he wasn't a murderer.
We did.
Largely because we discovered
a different profit motive.
The home-filtration system
your department is now buying
for everyone in the city.
Strange you didn't disclose
you own the patent.
Your Ph.D. is in
materials engineering.
Before entering
the public sector,
you tried your hand
at entrepreneurship.
The water-filtration system
that you developed, however,
failed to find a niche. It was,
it was too pricey for
the average consumer,
and it was not quite
the high-end system
which attracts
larger institutions.
When the government's
footing the bill, however,
the economics are
a little different.
So, as the man in charge
of the response
to the Thorpe attack,
you could make sure
the city chose
to buy your filters,
making you very rich.
Is this about me
failing to reveal
a conflict of interests,
or are you accusing me
of orchestrating the attack?
You tell us.
If it's the first one...
guilty as charged.
And I'll pay whatever
penalty I'm due.
But the other one,
that's, that's a fairy tale.
Are you saying that
I hired Raymond Thorpe?
Is that it?
I don't even know him.
Actually, you do.
The lab Thorpe worked at
had to comply with D.E.P.
environmental codes.
And you were the person
in charge of overseeing that.
So Thorpe's calendars
show that he attended
half a dozen meetings
over the years
that you also attended.
Okay, so I don't
remember knowing him.
Where's this all going?
The guy fled the country,
and there is no connection
between him and me
besides a few meetings that
a lot of other people attended.
What, are you looking
for a scapegoat
because he got away?
TSA sent us this.
That's Thorpe, about to board
his flight to Montenegro.
Over the course of an hour,
he got up to go
to the restroom four times.
I guess he got some
of that sludge
he was pouring
into the aqueduct on him.
We contacted the Montenegrin
government ourselves.
There's no extradition
treaty with the United States.
But they were only too happy to
put Dr. Thorpe back on a plane
when they discovered he was
carrying a virulent superbug.
We might have left out
the part about
it not being lethal
or contagious.
Given the nature of the virus
you chose, we assume you
never meant for anyone to die.
But Thorpe murdered Schmitt
while committing your crime.
His flight should be landing
in a couple of hours.
We'll have people there
to pick him up,
which leaves you plenty of time
to cut the first deal.
Roy Booker!
Detective Marcus Bell.
You want to take
another shot at me?
No bouncers around this time.
I'm not here to fight you, man.
I'm here to tell you
how it's gonna be.
Is that right?
You were on the job
for just ten years,
and then you took
early retirement
on a disability claim, right?
Said you tore
your right rotator cuff?
Took a three-quarter pension?
So?
So the claim is bogus.
Your shoulder's fine.
I'm sure
you remember
that bouncer right there.
The one who's twice your size?
You pulled away from him
like it was nothing
with your right arm.
If you had torn
that rotator cuff,
even two years ago,
that would have hurt like crazy.
Who says it didn't?
What is it you think that you're
threatening me with right now?
Because that right there...
doesn't prove anything.
Nah, but it doesn't have to.
Just has to be enough
to convince the department
to launch an investigation.
I'm pretty sure
it would do that.
If it were to get
sent to the department.
And if that investigation
comes up bad for you,
you know what happens, right?
First, you have to give back
any pension money
you've collected so far.
Then, if you ever want
to collect a pension again,
you have to go back to work
and finish your 20.
What do you want?
I know what you were
really doing
when you got in my face
the other night.
So, one... you're gonna quit
working for that defense
attorney today.
No more giving anyone
leverage on Chantal.
Once that's done,
her boss should be okay
keeping her on the case.
And, two, you're gonna
steer clear of her forever.
We clear?
== sync, corrected by elderman ==
@elder_man
and The Heart Hit Home...
Your stepdad wrote these?
Certainly did.
Why didn't he use his real name?
Why does any thief use an alias?
He based the main characters
on me and Sherlock,
and didn't ask our permission.
This is supposed to be
you and Sherlock?
Yeah, now you know
why he didn't ask
our permission.
Anyway, he learned his lesson,
and now he wants
to write a more grounded book
about real cops.
So he wanted to know if I could
connect him with someone
on the force.
And you thought of me.
He just needs a brain to pick.
And I thought,
I don't know, you'd get
a few free lunches out of it.
What do you think?
Well, it depends.
Am I gonna be the next one
kissing your partner?
You know, jot down his info.
I'll give him a ring tomorrow.
Okay.
Excuse me, but...
does this mean
what I think it means?
If you think it means
I have a date tonight,
then... yeah.
Well, I thought you
were gonna wait to ask her out
until her divorce was finalized.
I was.
And it is.
But then
she made the first move.
Tonight's actually
date number three.
I can't believe
you didn't tell me.
I didn't want to jinx anything.
Speaking of which,
I should probably get going.
I'll let you know when I've
touched base with your stepdad.
Okay, but I better know
the details
about your new girlfriend
before he does.
You're five minutes away,
and you want me
to order you a Merlot.
Actually,
I'm not five minutes away,
but I would kill for a drink.
Everything okay?
Yeah, you know how we're making
that big discovery push
on the Pulaski case?
The homicide, yeah.
Well, the defense just hit us
with a document dump.
I'm gonna have
to comb through this
all night
if I'm gonna make my deadline.
Well, that's the life
of a superstar ADA, right?
Well, I don't know
about superstar, but...
yeah.
This is the life.
Can I get a rain check?
Of course.
I'll call you tomorrow.
You better.
What the hell, man?
I was just about to settle up.
How about I buy you another one?
I don't want another drink.
I want that drink.
Look, man, I'm a cop.
I don't want any trouble.
Let's just take this down
a notch, before...
Before what? You think
just 'cause you're a cop
you ain't got to watch
where you're going?
Hey.
What? You got
something for me, cop?
Over there!
I don't see him.
I thought you said
he went this way.
He did.
That's his mask.
That's not his mask.
It's him.
My God.
He's dead, isn't he?
Looks like someone
tried to bury him.
W-We only lost him
for a second or two!
How the hell did this happen?
Normally, I wouldn't
accept help from an outsider.
It was weird, you showing up
out of the blue this morning.
But this is a weird case.
We don't get much murder
in Mount Pleasant,
let alone whatever this is.
You're the Major Case
consultant...
Ever see anything like this?
This is, in fact, my
third murdered clown.
But that's a career spanning
more than 20 years, so...
I'm hardly an expert.
May I?
You said you'd been reading
about us online, right?
For several weeks now, a clown
matching this one's description
has been skulking around
Mount Pleasant late at night.
He's been observed and
photographed
by a dozen citizens.
Never says anything,
just stands and stares,
before disappearing
back into the shadows.
We weren't sure if it's
just a kid playing a prank,
or someone
who wanted to do real harm.
Yeah. I'm sure you're aware
scary clowns are
quite in at the moment.
They've been observed
lurking around towns and cities
all across the country.
It's a phenomenon
as strange as it is stupid.
I was, I was curious
when I heard this one died.
Who found him?
Two members
of our Citizens Patrol.
They said they saw him near
the middle school
around 10:00 p.m.
When they approached him,
he took off,
made a beeline for these woods.
And yet
this couldn't possibly be
the clown that was being chased.
No. Westchester County M.E.
says he's been dead
about 36 hours.
Obviously,
we haven't been dealing
with one clown
the last two weeks.
We've been dealing with two.
Yeah, at least two.
You never know with clowns.
The assailant was
right-handed, I would say.
The first blow was from behind.
This one killed him.
Weapon has a hook
on the end of it.
Most likely a crowbar.
Yeah. He doesn't look familiar?
No wallet, no phone.
But Mount Pleasant's
a small place.
If he's one of ours,
we'll hear about it.
You said the second clown made
a beeline for these woods.
That's right.
So, by all accounts,
the clowns were stalking
Mount Pleasant, the town,
this one died in the woods,
the other one
ran through here, so...
What's on the other side?
Hey.
We didn't make plans
last night that I forgot?
Nope. I just need
to talk to you a minute.
Sure.
Come on back.
So it's true.
You were in a fight
at the bar last night.
How did you hear about that?
Look, um...
it was just, it was nothing.
Some guy was itching to
mix it up with someone.
For whatever reason,
he picked me.
The bouncers broke it up
before it got serious.
But you did hit him.
Chantal, are you here
as my girlfriend
or as an ADA?
Honestly, I'm here
because I'm angry at you.
At me?
The guy was a jackass.
He instigated the whole thing.
And you took the bait.
The guy you hit,
his name was Roy Booker.
He came to my office
this morning and made a scene.
Why would he come
to the DA's office?
Because he's my ex-husband.
Sorry, it's not me.
You may be right...
After all, you are just one
of the men wearing a costume
like that around Mount Pleasant.
Mount Pleasant... is that,
like, upstate or something?
I just moved here
from Pittsburgh, so...
Cut the crap, okay?
We know you ran away
from two members
of the Mount Pleasant
Citizens Patrol last night.
You led them through the woods
to the Metro North station
on the other side.
We know this,
because a half-costumed,
heavily winded clown
was seen buying a ticket
at a kiosk there,
and that credit card
was traced back to you.
Okay, fine, it was me.
But it's not illegal to wear
a scary costume in public, okay?
I checked.
You know what is illegal?
Murder.
We checked.
Are these...?
Are these for real?
Mount Pleasant's police chief
thinks he was killed
two nights ago.
You'll be meeting her shortly.
Because you reside in New York,
she requested that the NYPD
pick you up, and gave us
permission to talk to you.
But after this is done,
she's gonna have some questions
for you as well.
No-no way, I-I didn't do this.
Two nights ago I
was in Pittsburgh.
I-I went to see my girlfriend.
I crashed with her
and her roommates.
They'll all tell you,
I didn't come back
into New York
until yesterday morning.
Say they will.
Do you have any idea
who would've done this?
I mean, try anyone that
lives in Mount Pleasant.
They hate us.
You're talking
about you and our victim, right?
H-His name was Kip.
Kip Tully.
We weren't buddies or anything,
but I know that he lived
in the city, too.
We would both take the train
to Mount Pleasant.
We would change into our
costumes in the woods
and then use it as
a shortcut into town,
just never on the same night.
Wait,
you took turns
dressing up like a clown
and creeping
around Mount Pleasant,
but you weren't buddies?
It was a job,
for a company called AdRupt.
Have you guys ever heard
of prankvertising?
Prankver-what?
I-It's like guerilla marketing.
You prank people, right?
But you do it on camera.
So how does dressing up like a
scary clown help sell anything?
The pictures people take of us?
The videos they post?
They've been going viral.
It's all supposed
to help promote
this horror movie
that's coming out
in a few months, Mister Mangles.
May I have a moment outside?
Kip Tully doesn't exist.
What do you mean?
You did a search of his name?
No, I searched
for the company, AdRupt,
that employed him.
One of the first things
that came up was a link
to an article written about
the company several months ago.
Look at the byline photo.
That's our dead clown.
Kip Tully was just an alias.
His real name was Dale Schmitt.
Perhaps he was killed
over his reporting.
No way are you cops.
Wait, are you cops?
No, if you're cops, I'm a cop.
The only cop here is me.
But my colleagues do
consult for the department.
Sorry, a lot of shenanigans
around this place.
Even I get tricked sometimes.
Jerry Bice. Welcome to AdRupt.
By shenanigans, do you mean the,
prank that Kip Tully
played on you?
Who? Kip Tully.
He's one of the man that
your company hired to wander
around Mount Pleasant
in a clown suit.
If he told you that,
he's in violation
of a very strict NDA.
He's dead, Mr. Bice.
What?
Dead. More specifically,
murdered.
Kip's real name was
Dale Schmitt.
You remember
Mr. Schmitt, don't you?
He wrote a very
unflattering article
about your company
for a trade magazine last year.
He claimed that you exploit
your merry band of pranksters.
Paying them under the table,
for example, to keep them off
the company health plan.
This, despite the fact, they're
put in dangerous situations.
Dressing as deranged harlequins,
terrorizing small towns,
for example.
We think Mr. Schmitt
went undercover to write
a follow-up piece. You found out
and decided to get revenge
for all the bad press he brought
the first time around.
You're right and you're wrong.
Dale was working
on a follow-up piece,
but he wasn't undercover.
I was paying him
to write another article
about AdRupt.
Explain that.
It was gonna be a retraction.
He was gonna work here
a few months
and then say
he got us all wrong.
We're on the up and up,
we treat our people well...
Stuff like that.
You don't want to take
my word for it, take his.
I wanted to see everything
he was writing as he wrote it,
so we shared a cloud drive.
The work he did got
uploaded automatically.
I can give you the username
and password.
You can see for yourself.
Where the hell
did that come from?
I rented it!
It's help putting me
in the mindset of someone
who'd want to kill a clown.
I could see how it could
drive someone to murder.
If you're having
to work this hard,
I'm guessing Jerry Bice isn't
looking good as a suspect.
The folder that Schmitt and Bice
shared indicates
they were working together.
Well, if Bice isn't our killer,
why are you still reading that?
Well, the folder documents
Schmitt's activities
in his final days,
so there might be
a lead lurking somewhere
in its pages.
“Officer Roy Booker, NYPD,
retired?”
Yeah, remember, Chantal Milner?
The ADA Marcus
was interested in?
Well, they're dating now.
And Booker is her ex-husband.
Something amiss?
Marcus was waiting for Chantal
at a bar last night,
when Booker walked in
and started a fight.
So he just happened to be
in the same bar, did he?
Well, it's not as suspicious
as it sounds.
Booker is an ex-cop, and the bar
was near One Police Plaza
and the courthouses.
He claimed he was there
to meet his friends,
when he recognized Marcus.
The thing is he barged into
Chantal's office this morning
and made a huge scene
in front of the DA.
So he's not one
to let things go.
And Marcus is worried
what he's gonna do next.
Well, he could really
jam Marcus up.
I mean, he could push
the department
to take disciplinary action.
I'm gonna stop by the bar.
See what I can scrape up.
Maybe a security video, witness.
Just in case this guy
keeps causing trouble.
You just spot something?
It's a link to an online
Photobucket.
Schmitt's phone
was never recovered.
Presumably the killer took it
along with his wallet.
But it seems that his phone
was set to automatically
upload photographs here.
The last two photos, they were
taken the night he died.
You said Schmitt was
killed with a crowbar.
We've got to be looking
at his killer, right?
This is not the same part of the
woods Schmitt's body was found.
Well, maybe
Mount Pleasant Police
can round up enough people
for a grid search.
That won't be necessary.
There's only a few hundred
yards of roadway
where you could drive a car
this deep into the woods.
Shouldn't be too hard
to find the spot.
Body was found, what?
A few hundred yards that way?
So Schmitt saw something
he shouldn't have
somewhere around here.
And our perp chased him away.
Killed him.
Or some such chain of events.
Any idea what we're looking for?
Something worth killing over.
Watson told me about,
Chantal and her ill-tempered ex.
That sounds like a lot
of unwanted drama.
If this is about to turn
into one of your
down with love speeches, I...
No, I mean, you remember
I once chastised you
for allowing yourself
to be lonely.
Honestly, at this point,
I'm more worried for Chantal.
She's been prepping 24/7
for this big trial.
You know about
the Pulaski murder.
Myra Pulaski.
She butchered her husband
of one year,
inherited three quarters
of a million dollars.
Her claim is self-defense,
but there's no evidence
to support that.
And even her own parents
say she's lying.
Yeah, the DA's showing
a lot of trust
giving Chantal first chair,
could be a career-maker.
But after Roy's outburst
at her office,
her boss is worried
her head's not in the game.
He might pull her off the case.
I just, I don't want what
I did to cause her any grief.
This impression, you see it?
I think it was made
by a large hose.
Starting at the road back there.
Given how hard the soil
has been due to the cold,
to leave an impression like that
it would have to be
warm and heavy,
for a long time.
What's a manhole
doing in the middle
of the woods?
I don't know.
Perhaps that's why our killer
had a crowbar with him.
Cut through the lock here
with a blowtorch,
and used it to open it.
You got a set of tools
in your car, don't you?
What do you think? Storm sewer?
I think you're close,
but you're at the wrong end
of the urban cycle.
We're standing directly above
part of the Catskill Aqueduct.
What we see below us is
New York City's drinking water.
What?
I recognize that smell.
That's liquid nutrient
growth medium
for viruses and bacteria.
And you said the hose
coming from that service road
was pouring it for a long time?
Dale Schmitt was killed
because he saw someone
poisoning the city's water.
We should contact
the Department of
Environmental Protection.
New York City's drinking water
needs to be shut off.
Now.
This is Special Agent David
Breslin from the Department
of Homeland Security,
and this is Wendell Hecht, EVP,
of Water Integrity at the city's.
Department of Environmental
Protection.
Gentlemen, this is Sherlock
Holmes and Joan Watson.
The D.E.P. owes you
a great debt.
Your warning about Mount
Pleasant came just in time.
And has the threat from
the water been neutralized?
Well, the tainted water
from the aqueduct
had made it's way down south to
the distribution hub in Yonkers.
But we were able
to seal off the valves,
so none of it was able to reach
the city grid.
But until we are able to
make that supply safe again,
we're gonna be using
emergency reserves,
full capacity.
It'll be a headache,
but it beats the alternative.
DHS is grateful as well.
But, like I was just
telling your captain,
this all needs to be
kept under wraps
until we can coordinate an
investigation with the FBI.
The city's drinking water
was contaminated.
Now it isn't.
There's no need
to start a panic.
Well, what about
the contaminate itself?
Do we know what it was?
Nothing definitive yet.
Early word is it's
some sort of waterborne bug.
It can't live in the air,
which is why we gave the okay
to let you out of quarantine.
Yeah, but it's not
all good news.
I mean, this bug, or
whatever it is, it's hardy.
I mean, it made it past both
of our disinfection safety nets.
The chlorine treatment and
the ultraviolet purification.
Well, isn't that a superbug?
I was a surgeon and I've never
heard of a pathogen
that could survive UV
and chlorine.
- Well...
- I'm afraid we've said
all we can say at the moment.
Can you at least tell us who
you think is responsible?
Department of Homeland Security
does like its secrets.
Hold on.
Someone drove a tanker truck
into Mount Pleasant
and dumped God only knows
how many thousands
of gallons of a bioweapon
into New York City's
drinking water,
and you're gonna keep
the NYPD in the dark?
For the time being, yes, I am.
The usual suspects?
Already moved off them,
actually.
How was your,
visit to Farlane's?
Anything productive?
Aside from the light buzz
you're feeling
from the Belgian White, was it?
I was at a bar.
Seemed like a better idea
than drinking the water.
The attack was thwarted, Watson.
Don't let your lizard brain
run away with you.
The manager gave me
the security video
of the fight that Marcus was in.
I still have to review it,
but I think you were right
to doubt that Roy was there
by coincidence.
I'm gonna talk
to talk to Chantal
after I watch the video.
And while I was out,
I managed to meet up
with my friend
at Stuyvesant Memorial.
The virologist? Yeah.
I gave her the glove
you were wearing
when you touched the liquid
growth medium yesterday.
I still don't think it was
a good idea to keep it from DHS.
And?
Well, she put a sample under a
scanning electron microscope.
It is a virus, but not one
she's ever seen before.
Well, now we've got
its mug shot,
someone's gonna know what it is.
She thought it was
very suspicious
that it was both UV
and chlorine-resistant.
She cannot rule out that
it was a natural mutation,
but said that it was far
more likely
that our suspect
was lab-engineered.
So someone crafted it
specifically to survive
the city's gauntlet
of water safeguards?
Yeah.
Unfortunately, there are
thousands of labs in the world
that could've made it.
So it doesn't exactly narrow
our suspect pool.
Actually, I think it does.
After Agent Breslin
shot us down,
I reached out
to my sundry contacts
in the intelligence community.
No one heard any chatter
about the attack,
before or after.
Well, that doesn't prove it
couldn't be one of those groups.
No, but it does suggest so.
So I began to consider
the possibility
that we are pursuing someone
with a more singular vision.
A lone wolf, as it were.
Synthesizing a superbug would
either take a lot of expertise,
or a lot of money.
If you're right, then there
can't be that many people
who have both the desire to
poison eight million New Yorkers
and the means to do it.
Actually, I think I found
just such a person
right here in the city.
And apparently he's a
17th century Dutch explorer.
No.
It's his great, great, great,
eight more “greats”
grandchild.
That's Gracie Van Bylandt.
And, yes, she's one
of those Van Bylandts.
One of the oldest and wealthiest
families in New York, yeah.
Fallen on hard times
over the last century,
relatively speaking.
I put Gracie's net worth
in the mid eight figures.
More crippling,
has been her decline
into a hermetic life
of agoraphobia and paranoia.
She's not sounding
like someone who would
infect the water supply
with a designer bug.
How did she and all of
her stuff end up here?
Everything you're looking at
was in plain view
when we visited her apartment.
He thought
we should check her out
because of some
self-published manifesto
she'd posted online.
They're short and uninspired
as manifestos go.
But they do express
Gracie's strident view
that the blame
for her family's ignominy
falls at the feet of, I quote,
“all these damn people
who've moved into the city.”
And they also document
her search for,
the best way to, I quote again,
“kill off the lot of them.”
She'd been researching
technologies that can be used
environmental toxins,
dirty bombs,
custom-made superbugs.
Thing is, we found
a ton of evidence
that she was interested
in an attack like this,
but no evidence that
she actually took action.
Meaning you don't think
she was involved?
So why is she still here?
Well, as part of her research,
she interacted online
with a lot of
like-minded individuals,
people who,
for one reason or another,
shared her interest
in thinning the herd.
So, we're reading through
her e-mails and chats.
Once her family attorney
gets here,
we'll interview her, see if she
could point us toward anyone.
No need.
You found something
saying she was involved?
No, not necessarily.
Dale Schmitt's last moments,
he photographed a man
seen only in silhouette.
I committed that silhouette
to memory.
And, um,
I'm-I'm quite sure
that this scientist
is the same man.
His name is, Raymond Thorpe.
And he's the chief virologist
at a lab on the Upper East Side.
I think he might be our killer.
Chantal?
Hi, I'm Joan.
I work with Marcus.
I think you met
my partner, Sherlock.
Joan. Of course, right.
I've heard a lot about you.
Likewise. Listen,
I was wondering if I could
ask you a few questions
about your ex-husband, Roy.
Why would you...?
Marcus asked me to look into,
a disagreement that
he and Roy got into.
I asked Marcus
to leave it alone.
And he is.
Look, he's a friend,
I could tell he was upset.
He told me about
the fight at the bar.
So, I offered to look into it,
make sure nothing could
come back on him.
And?
Well, it's my understanding
that when Roy made a scene
here the other day,
he claimed the bar
was his usual hangout.
But when I went to
ask them about it,
they said they'd never
seen him before that night.
I don't understand.
You're saying you think
he was lying?
Well, right now, I'm just trying
to get my facts straight.
So, to the best of
your knowledge,
is Farlane's a bar he frequents?
I mean, honestly,
I'm not the best person to ask.
We may have just signed
our divorce papers,
but it's been three years
since we've lived together.
I mean, hell, Roy was still
on the job when we split.
Which brings me to
my next question.
Why isn't Roy a cop any longer?
You think Raymond's a terrorist?
He was an immunologist with the
Air Force before he came here.
I mean, he-he coaches
my son's soccer team.
Timothy McVeigh
won the Bronze Star
and John Wayne Gacy was a clown,
much like the man
we suspect Dr. Thorpe murdered.
No, Raymond didn't kill anybody.
I'm telling you, you're wrong.
Do you know where he is?
Well, he said he needed some
time off for a family emergency.
He hasn't been here all week.
It does not mean that
he engineered some superbug.
Does this?
So, he went to the trouble of,
pulling it into the trash,
but he didn't seem too concerned
about his work being found.
This is what your son's
soccer coach
was doing in his spare time.
And this is what was found
in the contaminated water.
Are those two organisms
the same?
They are.
I don't believe this.
Any idea what the virus does?
Could you open that window?
Given Dr. Thorpe's
absence of several days,
and his apparent lack of concern
about his work being found,
he's probably fled the city.
Yeah, you're probably right,
but we should get an alert
to the TSA and Port Authority,
all the same.
Well, this
doesn't make any sense.
I mean, you're right.
From the looks of it,
Raymond did do what you said.
He used our equipment
to synthesize a virus, making it
chlorine and UV resistant.
Then what doesn't make sense?
Well, what the virus does.
It's basically a harder-to-kill
serotype 40 adenovirus.
It's non-lethal.
It would just give people
a mild gastrointestinal bug.
So, Raymond Thorpe
went to the trouble
of custom-tailoring a virus
so it would survive
the city's water safeguards.
He introduced that virus
into the water supply
and in all likelihood,
killed a man in the process,
just to give New Yorkers a few
urgent trips to the toilet.
Why?
So, if I'm following
everything you said,
our-our terrorist doesn't want
to kill the people of New York,
he just wants to give them
a bad case of the runs.
Actually, bad might be
something of an overstatement.
An expert at the lab where
the virus was created said
that it would have run
its course in a matter of days.
Less Montezuma's Revenge,
more Montezuma's Office Prank.
“Prank”? Sounds about right.
I'm starting to think
this Thorpe guy is more likely
to have ties to a frat house
than a terrorist group.
I'm not sure I agree.
You're making light of this,
because the bug would have
given people diarrhea.
Well, think about it.
Millions of people,
all coming down
with a dehydrating illness,
all at the same time.
Don't drink the water.
But water is exactly
what they would've needed.
There would've been a run
on the stuff,
hospitals would have been
overloaded.
Because of diarrhea?
In developing countries,
diarrhea kills hundreds
of thousands of children a year.
But this is not
a developing country.
Compared to England,
America's a pimply teenager.
Yes,
Thorpe's plan, had it worked,
would've created some
terror, but given the ease
with which he could have stolen
or synthesized
a far deadlier bug,
it's hard to imagine
that his agenda was political.
What about
the woman you brought in?
The Van Bylandt heiress.
Any connection
between her and Thorpe?
She had a scientific journal
that had his picture in it,
but she had a lot of
scientific journals.
After we talked to her and
poked around her financials,
we think it was just
a coincidence.
So how's it going on your end?
I'm sure you've made a lot of
progress, being the DHS and all.
You should know,
the press found out
about what happened
in Mount Pleasant.
They now know we had a near miss
with New York City's
water supply.
How?
Someone leaked the story.
Hopefully not someone
in this room.
In any event, there's
going to be a lot of questions
in the morning, so let me
take this opportunity
to remind you that the answers
need to come from us.
Hello?
Hey.
This clown really dead?
Yeah, he really is.
Who are you?
Me?
I'm the guy who just fixed
your girlfriend's pipes.
Hey, I was just getting ready to
go see Marcus at the precinct.
So it's true.
The shaved bear I met upstairs
installed a water
filtration system?
Okay, first, that shaved bear
got over 600 reviews on Ratelt
as the best plumber in the city.
Second, until someone
can find Raymond Thorpe
and get him to explain why
he wanted to make everyone sick,
I thought we should take extra
precautions on our water.
This is the model the D.E.P.'s
Web site recommends
for filtering out germs
like the one that Thorpe made.
Well, one of the reasons
I chose to live in New York,
as opposed to other
American cities,
was the quality of its water.
The taste and odor, unmatched.
This glorified strainer
is going to change that.
Now, I suppose
I shouldn't blame you
for falling prey
to the hydro-hysteria
sweeping the city.
The leak that Agent Breslin
mentioned last night is,
in fact, a geyser. Look.
Yeah. Now remarkably,
one of the only publications
to look past the hysteria
and explore the consequences
of Thorpe's actions,
was this one.
The Daily Newswire?
You got to be kidding me.
I can see the paper
is mostly bollocks,
but the metro reporter
is tip-top.
Every New Yorker knows...
Every New Yorker aside
from you, that is...
That their water
is the champagne
of municipal hydration,
because it arrives
virtually untouched
from the most pristine
watershed in the country.
What about the chlorine
and the UV?
Those are disinfection measures,
not filtration measures.
The water never passes
through any kind of membrane,
so all of the natural salts
and minerals are retained.
And this reporter found
that New York's
unfiltered status
is contingent
on an ongoing assessment
known as a Filtration Avoidance
Determination or F.A.D.
And that is awarded by the EPA.
Well, she thinks the F.A.D.
might be yanked
in the wake of the virus attack
and that the city
will finally be forced
to build a filtration plant.
And my research suggests
that she's right.
In the event that
any of the conditions
of the F.A.D. are broken,
a waterborne disease outbreak
being linked directly
to an unfiltered water system,
for example,
the EPA has the right
to pull the F.A.D.
and demand that the city
break ground on a new plant
within 24 hours.
A plant like that could cost
hundreds of millions.
Try billions.
Well, that's plenty of incentive
for someone to hire Thorpe,
to get him to come up with
a virus that could get past UV
and chlorine and not kill
everyone in the city.
We have to find who's most
likely to build the plant.
Well, I would stay and help...
But you have a meeting
with Marcus.
Bring back some water from
the precinct, would you?
I'm not gonna make any tea
using that.
Okay, thanks.
I was just about to call you
and your partner.
That was the TSA.
A Raymond Thorpe, correct
address and date of birth,
booked a flight from JFK
to Montenegro three days ago.
They're gonna pull video
from the terminal,
confirm he's our guy
and that he really boarded.
And if he did,
Montenegro doesn't have
an extradition treaty
with the U.S.,
so there isn't much we could do.
Well, the good news is
Sherlock may be able
to identify the person
who hired Thorpe.
But that's not actually
why I'm here.
Um, I found out some
things about Roy Booker
I thought you should know.
So, he didn't just randomly
bump into you the other night.
And he wasn't just
blowing off steam.
He's working as an investigator
for a lawyer named.
Ardy Gulbenkian.
You've heard of him?
I've heard plenty about him
from Chantal.
That's Roy, coming
out of his law office.
He's the defense lawyer she's
up against in the Pulaski case.
Well, Chantal's
assistant admitted
that Roy sweet-talked her
into telling him
when and where you
were both meeting.
Then, Gulbenkian flooded
her office with paperwork
so Chantal would be a no-show.
It was a set-up.
Chantal's probably
the only female ADA
up to speed on the case
and qualified to run it.
And with Myra Pulaski
claiming self-defense,
better for her team
if the prosecutor's male.
That way the jury sees her
being attacked
by a big, scary man.
So Roy makes a scene
in Chantal's office,
the DA thinks she's distracted,
pulls her off the case.
And I played
right into the plan.
You did, but
I have an idea how you
could set things right.
What the hell?
Can I help you?
Yeah, you could tell me
how much it costs
to turn a respected virologist
into a mass-poisoner.
Excuse me?
You own Vecoli Construction,
one of the largest
contracting companies
in New York.
Time and again
you've won the bid
to build an $8 billion
water-filtration plant
in New York City.
But only in the event
one is needed.
Thanks to its F.A.D.,
the city's never needed one.
That is until you paid
Raymond Thorpe
to engineer a virus
which could defeat
both U-V and chlorine measures.
You're obviously a crazy person.
Do yourself a favor... leave,
before I call the cops.
You're denying knowing
Raymond Thorpe?
I never heard that name
before in my life.
Please.
I'll admit a search of your home
yielded no evidence
of a link between
you and Thorpe, or you might
just be good at hiding it.
You were in my house?
Yeah, that's where I got this.
So you've stockpiled
thousands of gallons of water.
I mean, it-it-it's
almost as if you knew
there'd be a problem
with the city's
water supply this week.
I had that delivered
this morning
when I heard what happened
in Mount Pleasant, okay?
You know what, that's it.
I'm calling 911.
Go ahead. I've got a very good
relationship with the police,
so I'd be happy
for them to join us.
Okay, fine, you're right.
My company's in line to build
a water-filtration plant
for the city...
Emphasis on filtration.
Why “emphasis?”
Because we got a hell
of a lot more money
tied up in UV
disinfection these days.
You know why? Because filtration
plants are complicated.
They pump water through stages
with names like
“coagulation,” “flocculation,”
“dissolved air floatation.”
When you're dealing with
the New York City watershed,
that's overkill.
UV disinfection plants
are cheaper,
they're easy to build.
So you tell me...
Why would I pay somebody
to design a bug to beat UV
if that's where
I make my profits?
You can prove that you're
more heavily invested
in ultraviolet?
Look on the Web site.
It's all there.
Why'd you buy
so much water, then?
Because I could.
That, and it's gonna take years
for that plant
to get up and running.
I told you, they're complicated.
This one's gonna take
three or four years at least.
Meantime,
I don't want my kids drinking
anything out of a tap.
No, you wouldn't.
Who would?
Hey. How'd it go with the...?
It's nice to see you, too.
Sherlock!
What are you doing?
It's not personal,
Watson, it's business.
I need a patent number.
You're getting water everywhere.
I was so busy trying
to think of a cure
to the city's water problem
I didn't stop to
consider the Band-Aid.
What are you talking about?
A water-filtration plant
is a cure to a problem
presented by a virus
which is immune to chlorine
and UV treatment.
This filter is the Band-Aid.
Even if the EPA compels the city
to break ground on
a new plant tomorrow,
it won't be operational
for years.
So in the interim, what are
thirsty New Yorkers to do?
They can't all drink,
wash, cook, and clean
with bottled water, can we?
No, we need filters
on every tap in the city.
It's like what happened in Flint
when they found
all that lead in the water.
The government had to buy
home water filters
for everyone who lived there.
Filtering lead is
relatively easy.
Removing viruses,
that requires a special product.
I confirmed what
you said earlier.
There is, indeed,
only one home filter
the D.E.P. recommends
for preventing
the kind of waterborne
disease outbreak
that Raymond Thorpe
tried to carry out.
That one.
So Flint has, what,
100,000 people?
New York has eight million.
So whoever holds
the patent for this
would make a fortune.
Not “whoever”...
A recent acquaintance of ours.
Captain.
Agent Breslin, thanks
for coming back in.
I promised you I'd let you know
if we had anything more,
and I'm a man of my word.
Well, FYI, my boss is reaching
out to the State Department.
We're asking them to contact
the government in Montenegro,
seeing if we can persuade them
to send back Raymond Thorpe.
Now, I wouldn't hold my breath,
but it's worth a shot.
Trust me, no one's
giving up here, either.
In fact, I think
you're gonna be surprised
by what you hear.
Mr. Holmes,
Miss Watson, Wendell.
We're just bringing
Mr. Hecht up to speed
on the investigation.
Raymond Thorpe's virus
was custom-made
to force the city to enact
water-filtration measures.
So we've been looking
into who profits
from those measures being taken.
And I got a call that
one of you visited,
Gio Vecoli?
The head of the company
that's building the new plant.
He was a bit ruffled,
but it sounded like you
decided he wasn't a murderer.
We did.
Largely because we discovered
a different profit motive.
The home-filtration system
your department is now buying
for everyone in the city.
Strange you didn't disclose
you own the patent.
Your Ph.D. is in
materials engineering.
Before entering
the public sector,
you tried your hand
at entrepreneurship.
The water-filtration system
that you developed, however,
failed to find a niche. It was,
it was too pricey for
the average consumer,
and it was not quite
the high-end system
which attracts
larger institutions.
When the government's
footing the bill, however,
the economics are
a little different.
So, as the man in charge
of the response
to the Thorpe attack,
you could make sure
the city chose
to buy your filters,
making you very rich.
Is this about me
failing to reveal
a conflict of interests,
or are you accusing me
of orchestrating the attack?
You tell us.
If it's the first one...
guilty as charged.
And I'll pay whatever
penalty I'm due.
But the other one,
that's, that's a fairy tale.
Are you saying that
I hired Raymond Thorpe?
Is that it?
I don't even know him.
Actually, you do.
The lab Thorpe worked at
had to comply with D.E.P.
environmental codes.
And you were the person
in charge of overseeing that.
So Thorpe's calendars
show that he attended
half a dozen meetings
over the years
that you also attended.
Okay, so I don't
remember knowing him.
Where's this all going?
The guy fled the country,
and there is no connection
between him and me
besides a few meetings that
a lot of other people attended.
What, are you looking
for a scapegoat
because he got away?
TSA sent us this.
That's Thorpe, about to board
his flight to Montenegro.
Over the course of an hour,
he got up to go
to the restroom four times.
I guess he got some
of that sludge
he was pouring
into the aqueduct on him.
We contacted the Montenegrin
government ourselves.
There's no extradition
treaty with the United States.
But they were only too happy to
put Dr. Thorpe back on a plane
when they discovered he was
carrying a virulent superbug.
We might have left out
the part about
it not being lethal
or contagious.
Given the nature of the virus
you chose, we assume you
never meant for anyone to die.
But Thorpe murdered Schmitt
while committing your crime.
His flight should be landing
in a couple of hours.
We'll have people there
to pick him up,
which leaves you plenty of time
to cut the first deal.
Roy Booker!
Detective Marcus Bell.
You want to take
another shot at me?
No bouncers around this time.
I'm not here to fight you, man.
I'm here to tell you
how it's gonna be.
Is that right?
You were on the job
for just ten years,
and then you took
early retirement
on a disability claim, right?
Said you tore
your right rotator cuff?
Took a three-quarter pension?
So?
So the claim is bogus.
Your shoulder's fine.
I'm sure
you remember
that bouncer right there.
The one who's twice your size?
You pulled away from him
like it was nothing
with your right arm.
If you had torn
that rotator cuff,
even two years ago,
that would have hurt like crazy.
Who says it didn't?
What is it you think that you're
threatening me with right now?
Because that right there...
doesn't prove anything.
Nah, but it doesn't have to.
Just has to be enough
to convince the department
to launch an investigation.
I'm pretty sure
it would do that.
If it were to get
sent to the department.
And if that investigation
comes up bad for you,
you know what happens, right?
First, you have to give back
any pension money
you've collected so far.
Then, if you ever want
to collect a pension again,
you have to go back to work
and finish your 20.
What do you want?
I know what you were
really doing
when you got in my face
the other night.
So, one... you're gonna quit
working for that defense
attorney today.
No more giving anyone
leverage on Chantal.
Once that's done,
her boss should be okay
keeping her on the case.
And, two, you're gonna
steer clear of her forever.
We clear?
== sync, corrected by elderman ==
@elder_man