Elementary (2012–…): Season 6, Episode 5 - Bits and Pieces - full transcript
Previously onElementary...
Hey, uh, my name's Michael.Hello.
A man approached me
at a meeting yesterday.
Apparently, I-I helped him once
when I described
how integral my work was
to maintaining my sobriety.
There's this girl I know
from the program.
I'm worried about her.
You want me to look for her?
I thought it might help you,
too.
HOLMES:
Six weeks ago,
I experienced bouts
of dizziness, memory loss,
sensitivity to noise
and bright lights.
I have something called
post-concussion syndrome.
Things could get worse
before they get better.
[applause]
ANNOUNCER:
Midnight Ranger:
It's Always Midnight
will now take
a 15-minute intermission.
Please be back in your seats
in 15 minutes.
Ira. Ira!
Don't move.
I'm telling you
for the last time,
do something about these wires
or find yourself a new Ranger.
I almost collided
with Dietrich out there.
You're gonna
kill somebody.
Justin, you want
to accuse me of murder,
get in line.
These folks over here
just beat you to it.
Go, go. I'll talk
to you after the show.
A lot of pressure
for a big producer.
A lot of money on the line.
You have no idea.
Actually, we do.
We looked it up.
Your show's budget
is around $30 million.
If you don't turn
a healthy profit,
you're ruined.
A scathing review from a critic
like Victoria Garvey could take
a bite out of your box office.
What? I loved
Victoria, okay?
She was an institution.
She was cranky, but
that was her schtick.
Witnesses overheard the two of
you having a heated conversation
at Sardi's after
Wednesday's matinee.
Didn't sound to us like a talk
with an "institution."
Sounded more like you knew how
her review was gonna go.
WATSON:
You could not afford
to let her rip you
to shreds in print,
so you killed her and then
you burned down her house.
Look... I didn't
kill Victoria.
I didn't have to.
Yeah, you're right,
she told me her review
was gonna be a bloodbath.
But then she offered to bury it
if I made it worth her while.
You're saying she
solicited a bribe?
That's how she operated.
You don't believe
me, ask around.
That "heated
conversation," eh,
that was just us
haggling over the price.
You know admitting
that she was squeezing you
doesn't make you look
less guilty of her murder?
You said it yourself.
My ups and downs are
measured in eight figures.
What's $50 grand
against that?
Besides, I,
uh, wired her
the money the morning
after she was already dead.
I hadn't heard yet.
If I'm the one
who killed her,
why would I do that?
Hey.
I hope your day was less
of a dud than mine.
So, Ira Langstrom
may have single-handedly
murdered
the Broadway musical,
but Marcus and I do not think
that he killed Victoria Garvey.
So that argument that people saw
them having on the street?
He says that they were
negotiating the amount that he
was gonna pay her for writing
nice things about his show.
Apparently, anyone could buy
a good review from her--
and you haven't heard
a word I've said.
Dead critic took bribe.
Have you and I
spoken since lunch?
No, you don't remember?
I've got no memory
of the last six hours.
I'm calling Dr. Hanson.
My head is the less urgent
of our concerns at the moment.
A short while ago, I arrived
home carrying this bag.
And I couldn't recall
what was inside, so...
Well, I looked.
[Watson gasps]
[exhales]
There is a head in there.
Yes, there is.
And I have no idea
where I got it.
♪
What's the last thing
you remember?
After you left
to meet Marcus,
I rang the fire marshal assigned
to Ms. Garvey's investigation
to see if he'd
discovered anything
I hadn't already concluded
two days ago.
He had not.
After that, I recall planning
another review
of Ms. Garvey's personal life,
and then...
nothing.
Until the moment I was walking
up our front steps
carrying a head.
So the last thing we know,
you were working the case.
Naturally, I wondered whether
the head might have something
to do with Ms.
Garvey's murder.
But I see no
obvious links.
She had no children,
and that man's facial structure
suggests they are unrelated.
We've seen no evidence
that she had a lover,
male in his 30s
or otherwise.
And no one fitting that
description is missing a head
at the newspaper she wrote for.
I checked
right before you came in.
Okay, well, I'm pretty sure
that you didn't kill him.
Looks like he's been dead
for a while.
And I'm sure you noticed
the same smell I did
when you opened the bag.
Formaldehyde,
glutaraldehyde,
methanol.
Embalming fluid.
So, whoever he is, he was
professionally preserved.
Presumably before his head
was removed.
It could be
I stole it from a funeral parlor
whilst in the throes
of a hallucination.
Or, for all I know, I
found the bag next to me
on the back seat of a taxi.
Possibilities are endless.
I know that you
didn't want to talk to the
captain about your PCS, but I...
You can stop there.
My memory may be a shambles,
but I'm well aware of the
gravity of the situation.
A man's head
is in that bag.
And I don't know
where I got it from,
which means I
also don't know
who might miss it.
I mean, for all we know,
the police are on their way here
as we speak.
I know what I have to do.
[sighs]
[elevator bell dings]
Hey. What are
you doing here?
We need to talk.
Where is the head now?
We notified the M.E.'s office,
and a medicolegal investigator
came to the house.
Watson is accompanying it
to the morgue.
And you have no idea
where you got it.
I do not.
And that's because of this--
what do you call it?Post-concussion syndrome.
Which you've been dealing with
for how long now?
I was diagnosed
just over a month ago.
Well, I didn't tell you
because I didn't
want to concern you.Bull.
You weren't concerned
about me or my feelings.
You were concerned
about yourself.
You didn't tell me
because you were afraid I'd
bench you. And you were right.
Because unlike you,
I've got other people
to worry about. I've got a whole
squad under my command.
I thought we were past all this.
What's that supposed to mean?
Six years ago, when you asked
to work here,
you left out the part about you
just getting out of rehab.
These situations are
completely different.
I know.
But you are not in full control
of your actions right now.
What if you got confused
and you tried to pull
someone's gun?
I get tired.
I get headaches.
I, uh, I... [chuckles]
I've had a brief memory lapse.
During which,
you took a human head
from God knows where and
brought it back to your house.
Look, you and I both know that
even with my new deficiencies,
that I'm still ten times
more capable than...
Oh, go ahead.
Finish your thought.
It's not like it's any secret,
you think you're better
than everyone else.
And the truth is,
too many times,
I have treated you like you are.
So some of this is my fault.
But I'm done.
Cops get injured
on the job all the time.
Cops get concussions
all the time.
You know what they do?
They tell their C.O.
And they get cleared
by a department doctor
before returning to duty.
I am tired of
giving you a pass.
This time,
you want to keep working here,
you're gonna jump through the
same hoops as the rest of us.
How'd it go
with the captain?
[sighs]
About as well as
can be expected.
Hmm. That bad?
I'm to report
to the NYPD's medical division
first thing in the morning.
I'm forbidden for
working with the police
in any capacity until I'm
cleared by a department doctor.
And what if they don't
clear you?
Well, I hear Cape Town's
awash with murder.
I have contacts there.
How did it go at the morgue?
Did Eugene find anything
that might help us
identify our John Doe?
Not yet.
And there's a good chance
that the embalming chemicals
destroyed any DNA.
And dental X-rays
are useless
until they have
someone's records
to compare them to.
Marcus is gonna reach out
to Missing Persons.
Eugene did say that he thought
the head was cut off
with a Satterlee bone saw.
As used by morticians and M.E.s.
And that the man's corneas
were surgically removed.
Suggesting that
prior to embalming,
our John Doe was a tissue
and organ donor.
Which got me thinking,
Victoria Garvey was
in a car accident two weeks ago,
remember?
I lost six hours, not six days.
Yes, it happened in the
Hamptons. Her car hit a tree,
burst into flames,
and her leg was burned.
Bad enough that she needed
a skin graft.
Skin from a human donor.
So our mystery head came from
a tissue donor, and our victim
was a tissue recipient.
Yeah, so it's possible
that the skin graft came
from our John Doe.
That wouldn't explain
why I had the head,
or what it had to do with Ms.
Garvey's murder, if anything.
Well, I was just looking up
the surgical center
where the skin graft
was performed.
Marcus is gonna meet me there
in the morning.
They should have a record
of where the donor tissue
came from.
It could, at
the very least,
help us determine
who John Doe was.
And maybe that'll tell us more.
Morning.
Hey.
Is your partner not here because
he's running down another lead?
Or is he actually taking
his benching seriously?
Oh, the captain told you?
Sherlock went
to the doctor.
He gonna be okay?
You know, brains
are funny things.
The captain, well,
he's the captain.
He's got to look
at the big picture,
but if you guys need anything
from me, just say the word.
Thanks.
Someone else was
in here yesterday,
asking about
the same patient.
Interesting.
British guy?
Short on social skills?
Mr. Holmes.
He said he worked
with the police,
but his social
skills were fine.
BELL:
You caught him
on a good day.
He asked to see
Ms. Garvey's files.
Did you show him?
I wasn't supposed to.
But I couldn't believe it when
he told me she was murdered.
Such a nice lady.
I told Mr. Holmes I wanted
to help, any way I could.
So you
wouldn't mind
showing us as well?
At first, your friend
was wondering
how the surgery went.
Were there any complications,
how did her surgeon seem
after it was over?
Was he wondering if there was
some sort of malpractice?
He thought
maybe Ms. Garvey
was killed
to cover it up.
But I told him
that was crazy.
Dr. Chopra is one of
the sweetest people
I've ever met.
Plus, she was
visiting family in India
when Ms. Garvey died.
So your friend
lost interest in that.
And then something
in Ms. Garvey's
donation documents
caught his eye.
He started asking questions
about them instead.
Donation documents?
Donor tissue
always comes with paperwork--
vital stats about the donor
and information
about preparation and use.
Just so I'm clear,
when we say "donor,"
we're talking about
cadavers, right?
People who agreed to donate
their organs and tissues
after they died.
The donor
for Victoria's skin
was a white male, age 32.
That matches
our John Doe.
But no donor name.
Just a number?
It's anonymous when we get it.
But the tissue bank
that sold us the skin
should have
the donor's name
in their records.
Do you know what it was
that interested Mr. Holmes?
He didn't say.
He did ask if we had any other
forms from the same tissue bank.
I came in here to pull some,
and when I went back out
to the waiting room,
he was gone.
Yeah, he does that.
I think I know what it was
that Sherlock saw.
So, these forms
document
all of the testing for diseases
that the tissue bank
performs on each donor.
But these are all identical.
They were not
filled out separately. They're
all copies of the same form.
You see
the ink flecks
and the image degradation?
That's from
repeated photocopying.
Someone at the tissue bank's
been rubber-stamping their work.
This one has the same
donor number as Victoria's.
So, Kareem Ludlow...
got tissue from
the same body?
I had that file out already,
because the patient
missed a follow-up.
He was scheduled to have the
cadaver skin removed yesterday
and get a permanent autograft
in its place.
Well, that's a pretty big
appointment to miss.
Were you able to reach him?
He didn't return my calls.
Kareem Ludlow,
same home address,
was killed in a fire
in Hoboken
on Monday.
Fire marshal ruled
it suspicious.
That's two days before
Victoria Garvey died.
So two people got skin grafts
from the same donor
and they were both
killed in fires.
Whoever our John Doe was,
someone wanted every
last bit of him dead.
BELL:
Both of those patients
received skin grafts
from the same cadaver, which
came from your tissue bank.
Earlier this week both
those patients were murdered.
And you think I had
something to do with that.
I'm not in the business
of taking lives, Detective.
I'm in the business
of saving them.
Operating a human chop shop
has made you very rich,
Mr. Voth.
Your company pulled in
close to $10 million last year,
so how about you drop
the phony altruism?
Those forms strongly
suggest that your company
has been cutting corners
on disinfection and
disease testing,
in blatant violation
of FDA regulations.
We think you realized
that a contamination got through
involving the cadaver
those two people
received tissue from.
Now, if they'd gotten sick
and it got traced back to you,
you would have been hit
with lawsuits, criminal charges.
It would've shut you down.
I swear, it's like déjà vu.
How's that?
Another guy was
in here yesterday
peddling the same garbage.
A friend of yours?
Because he broke
into my facility
after we talked
and stole one of my products.
The way I see it,
you're the ones
who should be worried
about criminal charges.
This product you say he stole
wouldn't happen to be
a severed head, would it?
So you do know him.
Did you call the police?
Guess you didn't
want us taking
too close a look around.
Mr. Voth, if you had nothing
to do with the murders,
why not cooperate?
Give us access
to your facility
and your records and the names
of anyone else who received
tissue from that donor.
Show us this wasn't you.
If you want my cooperation...
...come back with a warrant.
What are you doing?
I'm running.
Have you also suffered
a concussion?
I meant, why are you trying
to break the land speed record?
It was your research
that informed me of the link
between increased
physical activity
and quicker recovery from PCS.
I remember. I also remember
that the study recommended
moderate exercise.
Not trying to
outrun Usain Bolt.
[beeps]
[exhales]
[treadmill slowing]Better?
Much. Also, now we can talk.
I appreciate your texts,
keeping me apprised of your
progress with Marcus.
At least now I can pretend
I'm a contributing member
of this investigation.
Are you kidding? So far,
you'd been everywhere we went.
All we did today
was catch up.
On the bright side,
now that we know where
I acquired John Doe's head,
we might also know why.
It stands to reason I took it
to deny Dominic Voth
the chance to destroy evidence
and preserve our opportunity
to identify the donor.
Unfortunately, he's gonna be
a John Doe a bit longer.
Marcus heard back
from Missing Persons,
and the head is not a match
for any reported cases.
I mean, that doesn't change the
fact that we think that Voth,
or someone from his company,
killed two people.
You're hoping
that if you can prove
John Doe's tissue
was compromised,
it'll help the police get
a search warrant
for the tissue bank.
I'm guessing the head
will be no help
in that regard,
given that the whole point
of embalming chemicals
is disinfection.
Yeah, and since
we haven't heard anything
about Victoria Garvey being
sick, we're gonna focus on
the other tissue recipient,
Kareem Ludlow.
Marcus is gonna reach out
to his family in the morning.
[exhales]
If you'll excuse me,
my recovering brain
needs hydration.
You still haven't told me
how your day went.
Oh. By and large,
unmitigated boredom.
But I do remember every second
of it, so that's an improvement.
I used some of my time
to read up on
the "tissue industrial complex"
and the myriad ways
that a human body
can be monetized
once broken down into parts.
Including how a preserved head
can be sold to educate dentists
on the latest advances
in titanium implants.
Well, that would
explain why
the tissue bank had John Doe's
head in their inventory,
but I was asking about your trip
to the medical division.
Well, there isn't much
to tell.
The police doctor had me perform
a battery of
neurological tests--
standing on one leg,
reciting the alphabet.
I offered to juggle
whilst riding a unicycle,
but she had other patients
to see.
She's going to confer
with my doctor
and then issue a ruling,
so I await my fate.
You're not gonna do
any more running, are you?
What if I am?
I know that you want to get back
to work for the department
as quickly as possible,
but pushing yourself
too hard
isn't gonna make it go
any faster.
You can't get well in one day.
[doorbell rings]
Are you expecting anyone?
Hey, you do live here.
I do. What are you
doing here?
Uh, sorry, I didn't mean
to freak you out.
Can I come in?
Yeah.
Yeah, I had a rough sense
of where you lived
because of the meetings
you went to.
I knew I was gonna be
in the neighborhood tonight,
so I looked you up.I'm not listed.
Yeah, but you know I-I work
at an architecture firm.
So we look up building records
all the time,
and I saw this was listed
to a Morland Holmes
and took a shot.
I get you at a bad time?
Well, I... Sorry,
it-it's been a weird day.
Do you want to talk about it?
No, I-I'm-I'm really
all talked out.
Well, look, I'm gonna go to
the meeting at St. Augustine's
if you change your mind.
Are you working a case
right now?
Why do you ask?
I know it's good for you.
It keeps you focused.
Michael, I appreciate you
taking an interest in me,
but I-I think you misunderstand
my relationship with my work.
It doesn't keep me sober.
My commitment to the program
keeps me sober, to the steps.
Right, but you...
Well, there's no buts.
That's it.
Oh. Um, before I go,
have you heard anything...
There have been no new leads
in the disappearance
of Polly Kenner.
And I've uncovered no indication
that she met with foul play.
She's been missing
for weeks now.
I know. That concerns me.
But she has an unfortunate
history of dropping off the map.
I've lodged inquiries
with the law enforcement
where she is most
likely to turn up,
but... all we
can do is wait.
Well, thanks for your help.
Sorry to bother you.
[door opens]
[door closes]
You had a question
about a culture we handled?
We're investigating the murder
of a man named Kareem Ludlow.
His doctor told us he had
developed flu-like symptoms
after undergoing surgery,
and the doctor sent a culture
here for analysis.
Long story, but the results
could be pertinent to the case.
I remember this.
I'm happy to print you
the results, but I have a hunch
it's not going
to be much use.
This culture was corrupted
here at the lab.
Corrupted how?
It tested positive for H7N5.
That's a type of bird flu.
An incredibly rare one.
There was no way Mr. Ludlow
could have caught it,
so we chalked it up
to cross-contamination.
H7N5 is only found
in one province in China.
And when our investigator
followed up with Mr. Ludlow,
he said he'd never even
been out of the country.
You said you thought
there was cross-contamination.
That means you have some sample
of the virus in your lab.
I remember reading about
a bird flu case in New York
about a month ago.
BELL:
Thing is, we don't think
Mr. Ludlow got sick traveling.
We think he got sick
from a tissue donation.
We knew about Mr. Ludlow's
surgery, and we considered that,
but it didn't track.
The case you're talking about
involved three Chinese women
who'd visited family
outside Shanghai six weeks ago.
A mother and daughter
and the mother's first cousin.
Soon after they had reentered
the U.S., they were hospitalized
and tested positive for H7N5.
All three died
within two weeks.
They definitely
were not tissue donors.
We're pretty sure our donor
was a white male anyway.
WATSON:
And these women-- you're sure
they never infected
anyone else?
Our team traced everyone
they came into contact with.
No one else
was contaminated.
They never crossed paths
with Kareem Ludlow.
You wanted to show me something?
BELL:
Yeah. I've been looking
into the women
that died from bird flu.
The doc that Joan and I talked
to at the Department of Health
was positive
they didn't give it to anyone.
But you think she might
have missed something.
I was thinking
our tissue donor's a white guy.
The three victims were from
a traditional Chinese family.
If the young one
was dating our guy,
she might have wanted
to keep it a secret.
Her name is Wu Meili.
I found this
on her social media.
She was taking an ESL class
at the time.
Check out the numbers
under the teacher's name.
"520, 530."
Mean anything?They're SMS codes,
only popular
with young Chinese people,
so it's unlikely Meili's parents
would have understood them.
They mean "I love you"
and "I miss you."
Do you think Meili
and her teacher
had a secret thing going?
This is a picture
of the teacher,
guy named Eric Russo.
You tell me.
Same guy.
So our tissue
donor has a name.
And if he was intimate
with Meili
after she got back
to the States,
he'd have
the bird flu, too.
So this all backs the
theory you and Joan
came up with, right?
That the two tissue
recipients got
contaminated skin,
and someone from the
tissue bank killed them.
This proves motive.
Then let's get a warrant.
WOMAN:
In light of recent
developments,
Mr. Voth is willing to concede
that Voth Biologics
cut some corners
in the processing
of a handful of tissues.
That's real
big of him,
admitting things
we can already prove.
But right now we care less
about the regulations
he broke than we do about
the two murders he committed
to cover it up.
WATSON:
The Department of Health
briefly suspected that tissue
from your facility
infected a patient
with H7N5, and they
notified you at the time.
They later believed
that it was an error,
but the truth is,
they were right.
GREGSON:
The patient's name was
Kareem Ludlow.
Not long after,
he and another recipient
from the same donor,
Victoria Garvey,
were both murdered, and their
bodies were destroyed in fires.
WATSON:
We think that you set
those fires so that
no one would find out
how they had gotten sick.
I'm sorry.
Are you seriously suggesting
my client committed
two murders over
a call about
a possible contamination?
GREGSON:
No.
We're suggesting
he did the murders
after he confirmed
the contamination.
He had Eric Russo's body
at his facility.
And seeing as he sold
tissue from it before
it was embalmed, we can assume
that he did the embalming.
You got the call
from D.O.H.,
you tested Russo's body,
you found out
it was indeed infected
with bird flu,
and you knew
that could ruin you.
So you embalmed him to
destroy the evidence,
and you killed the two people
who received his tissue.
Mr. Voth's company routinely
embalms cadavers.
It's hardly proof of a cover-up.
You are right
about the embalming.
But you're wrong
about the rest.
And if you look at the records
you seized, they'll prove it.
I didn't test that body
after the D.O.H. called.
I didn't want to know
if they were right.
And I sure as hell didn't want
a paper trail showing I knew.
So I had the body embalmed
right away.
These are the only two people
who received tissue
from that donor.
We took the rest
of the tissues
out of inventory
and burned them.
You realize you just confessed
to tampering with evidence?
He did, but I think
his larger point is that,
with the evidence destroyed,
he didn't have to kill anybody.
I did a lot
of bad things, but I'm
no murderer.
Speak to you a sec?
Excuse us.
So, even if Voth's
records don't show it,
he could have tested the tissue.
He could still be our killer.
Actually, I think
the opposite's true.
If Voth did test
Eric Russo's tissue,
he almost definitely
isn't the killer.
I just got off the phone
with Eric's brother.
Poor guy had no
idea Eric was dead.
He told me that
Eric lived alone
and wasn't teaching
any classes this month.
Explains why no one
reported him missing.
Thing is, the last time
the brother saw Eric
was two days before
his body arrived
at the tissue bank.
They went for drinks.
Eric mentioned that a student
he was dating had died.
So you were right
about Wu Meili.
But the brother said
that when he saw Eric,
Eric didn't seem sick.
So I did a little digging
and called a CrossFit gym
where Eric was a member.
The manager checked
the computers.
Eric took a class there
the same day he saw his brother.
That doesn't make any sense.
By that point in his infection,
Eric should have had pneumonia,
even kidney failure.
He should've been
too sick to walk,
let alone do CrossFit.
You said his girlfriend
was already dead.
So when did Eric catch the flu?
That's just the thing.
If he wasn't showing
any symptoms, then Eric
never had the flu at all.
And if Voth had
tested Eric's tissue,
he would have known that.
Meaning he wouldn't have had any
motive to commit the murders.
So our theory of the crime
is wrong.
We're back to square one.
Are we having a barbecue?
So, now, more than ever,
given my diminished state,
I find visual aids useful in
holding onto complex thoughts.
So I put together a flowchart
of all the deceased
individuals
involved in the case.
And that explains
the chicken decals how?
We're faced with a paradox,
and it needs resolving.
According to the Department
of Health,
Wu Meili and her family
contracted bird flu
whilst visiting
a Shanghainese poultry farm,
so these seemed
a fitting indicator
of bird flu status.
And, as an added bonus,
we have dinner
for a couple of weeks.
Because all this really puts me
in the mood to eat chicken.
Well, beginning where it began,
the Chinese ladies,
they all had bird flu,
so they all get a sticker.
Over here,
we have our two murder victims,
Kareem Ludlow, Victoria Garvey.
Now, he received
donor tissue
from her boyfriend.
He then showed
symptoms himself
and he tested positive.
The D.O.H. said that that test
was contaminated.
That's an unlikely coincidence
to my mind.
Especially since
they reported
no other contaminations.
So, bird flu.
Victoria Garvey, we don't know.
This brings us
to the man at the center
of it all, Eric Russo,
our tissue donor,
and for a brief time,
our travel-sized
house guest.
Now,
on the one hand,
our case only really makes sense
if Eric had the bird flu.
It's the only reasonable
explanation
for Kareem's positive test,
and it would provide us
theory of motive
for both of these murders.
On the other hand,
multiple witnesses said
that Eric was asymptomatic
at a time where he should've
been close to death.
Is there any way that
he could have infected people
whilst not showing
symptoms himself?
He would have had
to have been immune.
But that would be impossible.
This flu
is a hundred percent fatal.
Hence our paradox.
By the dictates of logic,
Eric simultaneously must have
had the bird flu and not had it.
It's Schrodinger's bird flu.
How long has that chicken
been out of the fridge?
WATSON:
So, Marcus called earlier.
The police are going
through the records
they seized from
the tissue bank.
CCS found e-mails
between Voth and his execs.
They were planning to pin
all of the testing shortcuts
on one lab tech
in case it ever came out.
Well, that would
support Voth's innocence.
It seems unlikely
he would set up a scapegoat
when he was committing two
murders to cover his misdeeds.
But Voth's records
also mentioned
that they had bought Eric's body
from a body broker.
Another unsavory player in the
supply chain of Big Tissue.
Someone who procures dead bodies
from hospitals and hospices
and sells them to tissue banks.
Right, but this broker
also forged
Eric's donor consent forms,
so he was obviously up
to something shady, too.
I mean, it's possible he heard
about the contaminated tissue,
and then committed the murders
to protect
his own racket.So our theory of the crime
could be right, but we would
have the wrong suspect.
The captain is gonna have him
brought down for questioning.
Have the two of you talked
since yesterday?
We have not.
Well, maybe you should.
There's a bush outside.
Perhaps you'd physically like
to beat around it?
I think you should apologize.
You did keep something from him.
A medical condition.
A very private
medical condition,
which, I would remind you,
has not affected the work
I've done for him one iota.
I get all that.
Okay, I'm not saying
that you should've told him
because he is your boss.
I'm saying that
you should have told him
because he is your friend.
Just think about it.
GREGSON: We called around
to a few of the tissue banks
you supply, Mr. Petty.
Turns out you've been
selling a lot of bodies
with phony papers.
Our guys are combing through
your place right now.
How many missing persons
are we gonna find in there?
Wait, you think
I killed those people?
Crossed our mind that you
might've killed some of them.
But we also think
you might've killed
two other people
to cover it up.
BELL:
According to Dominic Voth,
he called you
when he thought
you'd sold his tissue bank
an infected cadaver.
Guess he thought if
he complained about it,
you'd give him
his money back.
You knew if enough people
started asking questions,
eventually
they'd look at you.
So you killed
the two patients
who received
the dead man's tissue.
You-You've got me all wrong.
I'm not a killer.
I'm just a grave robber.
I don't mean
that literally,
but it's what everyone
I know calls me.
I've got backdoor deals
with a bunch of funeral homes
and crematoriums
around the city.
They slip me bodies
no one's gonna miss;
I slip them a little cash
and then I forge
the consent forms.
It's the only way I can
keep up with demand.
People have all
these hang-ups
about donating their
bodies these days.
Gee. I wonder why.
The two people you
were talking about,
when were they murdered?
BELL:
One was on Wednesday night.
The other was
two nights before that.
I was in Cancun
with a lady friend.
We flew back on Thursday.
BELL:
We'll need your friend's
name and number.
Yeah.
And assuming what
you said checks out,
we'll still need to find out
how Eric Russo ended up dead,
so also write down
the name of the place
where you got his body.
Who?
The infected cadaver
we've been talking about.
I-I just told you I'm doing
something I shouldn't do.
It's not like I keep a
travel log and receipts.
I-I don't know which
bodies came from where.
Hell...
[chuckles lightly]
...I do my best
not to remember.
Then write down all the places
you have deals with.
That I can do.
But it's, uh, it's
gonna be a long list.
Hi. My name is Michael.
Uh, I'm an addict.
Hey, Michael.
So, well, I, uh, I have
this friend in the program,
guy I really admire.
He, uh, works the steps,
comes to meetings.
But, uh, recently I can tell
he's been struggling.
So, a few weeks ago,
I put him onto a project
to keep him occupied.
It didn't work.
It's like
there's nothing I can do
to get his attention,
to pull him back.
You know, um,
we come to these rooms
to get help
and to give help.
Sometimes it
doesn't work.
I know you're thinking I should
mind my side of the street,
worry about myself, but...
...I can't.
Not yet.
If I need to get louder,
I'll get louder.
But I'm going to make sure
my friend hears me.
WATSON: So, I brought
you some tea.
Thank you.
It's late.
So, I let you sleep in,
but I have been up for a while,
working on a new theory.
Yes, I am listening.So, what if
Eric Russo's body
was able to fight off
the H7N5 virus?
I thought you said
that was impossible.
I did because it's
never happened before,
but what if Eric
was the first?
If he was, it would make
his body worth millions.
Now I'm awake. Continue.
So, I've been doing
some research into Eric's life
and I noticed that he spent
a couple of years in China,
teaching English
in the same province
where H7N5 is found.
So I called the school
and they confirmed
that he came down with a bad flu
while he was there.
Now, everyone just assumed
it was a mild strain
because he survived.
But you think it was H7N5.
When you recover
from a virus,
your system develops antibodies
to fight off future infections.
So, if he had survived H7N5
once before,
he would still have
the antibodies to combat it.
A second exposure in New York
would not have hurt him
'cause he would
have been immune.
Well, technically, he still
would have caught the virus,
but his symptoms
could've been so mild
that they would have
gone unnoticed.
Right. And yet the virus would
still be in his system, eh,
meaning he could still
infect other people,
even when dead.
If you're right,
that would resolve
our paradox
and restore our theory of motive
for the two murders.
I think it does more than that.
So, I've been reading
some of the work
they've been doing
on flu vaccines.
Now, there is a theory
that antibodies from a survivor
of a particularly
deadly flu could be used
to develop a
universal flu vaccine,
one capable of
preventing all flus.
Hence the millions of dollars
you were talking about.
Whoever developed such a vaccine
would enjoy significant
financial reward,
and Eric Russo's antibodies
would be quite the prize.
The thing is, getting
access to his antibodies
would have required
his consent.
It's not something you could
do without his knowing.
You would need
too much blood.
So, you think perhaps
someone approached him
and he refused
to participate?
Or maybe they didn't
feel like sharing
all the money they
were gonna make.
Either way,
they had to kill him
to get what they wanted.
Our suspect would have to have
just the right combination
of expertise and resources.
As it turns out,
Marcus and I just met
someone like that yesterday.
Who?
The author of that
paper you're holding.
Dr. Selsky, the woman
we talked to at the D.O.H.?
You think she killed Eric Russo
so she could take his blood
and get rich off his antibodies?
In fact, she probably didn't
even bother with his blood.
The cells she would need,
they're called B-cells.
They're found in greatest
abundance in the spleen.
If it were me,
and I was killing him anyway,
that's what I would take.
Glad to know you
thought it through.
So, either way,
she killed Kareem Ludlow
and Victoria Garvey
to cover up
what she'd done.
And there was no sign
of struggle or forced entry
at either of their homes.
Any idea how she managed that?
We know that Kareem
Ludlow was sick.
And as you two established,
he'd been contacted
by the Department
of Health.
If we're right
about everything else,
Victoria Garvey would also
be feeling under the weather.
Selsky had Department of Health credentials.
It's possible she used those
to gain access
to their homes.
WATSON:
She might have even told them
that she had something
to make them feel better.
A lethal dose of potassium
chloride, for example,
would have cleared
their symptoms right up.
After that, she would have
had to burn the bodies
to dispose of any evidence
of the virus.
Well, I get everything
you're saying,
but between us and
the fire department,
we've been over
those houses plenty.
If you're right,
she did a hell of a job.
WATSON: True. But if I'm
right about something else,
we'll have more than enough
evidence to make an arrest.
What you're saying is insane.
I've never even
heard of Eric Russo.
We're pretty sure
that's a lie.
You interviewed Wu Meili
and her family extensively.
And we get that she wanted
to keep her relationship
with Eric secret,
but on her deathbed?
She would have been
holding back information
that could stop
a pandemic.
We think it's more likely
she did tell you about Eric.
And when you checked him out
and discovered that
he was asymptomatic,
you realized what
a valuable find he was.
As the only known
survivor of H7N5,
his antibodies would be
like the holy grail.
So you took them.
In addition to working here,
we also know you're on staff
at Hamilton Hospital.
That's where you do
your own research.
We think that's also
where you met with Eric.
Would've been easy enough for
you to use your privileges there
to dispose of his body
along with others
that had been donated
to science.
The hospital sends those to
a crematorium to be destroyed.
We reached out
to the crematorium
that the hospital uses
and they confirmed
that they received a body
matching Eric's description
the day after
he was last seen.
WATSON:
Unfortunately for you,
someone at the crematorium made
a deal with a body broker
and sold Eric's body
to a tissue bank.
BELL:
Couple weeks after that,
you receive the culture
from Kareem Ludlow's doctor.
When it came back
positive for bird flu,
you looked into it, found out
about Kareem's skin graft,
and put two
and two together.
You got the name
of the other person
who received Eric's tissue
from the tissue bank,
Victoria Garvey,
and you killed them both.
So you're accusing me
of three murders.
I'd like you both to leave,
so I can call my lawyer.
You can call your lawyer
from the precinct.
We've already executed
a search warrant
on your lab
at Hamilton Hospital.
We found a spleen
in your freezer.
Go ahead.
Tell us the DNA's not gonna
come back as Eric Russo's.
GREGSON:
That'll be it.
Okay? Thanks.
You wanted to see me?
Yes. In here.
Hmm.
I wanted to let you know that I
spoke to the department doctor.
She's granted you provisional
clearance to return to work.
"Provisional."
Yes.
You go back to visit her once
a week until further notice.
That's in addition to your
visits to your own neurologist,
which you also have
to do once a week.
They'll be comparing notes.
You miss an appointment,
I hear about it.
You don't follow their
instructions, I hear about it.
Otherwise, as long as there
are no further incidents
like the other day... the
doc's okay will stand.
That's good.
No.
That's not good.
Between you and me,
I would prefer it
if you were sidelined
until you're fully recovered.
Maybe longer.
Maybe permanently.
But I said I'd let
the docs decide
and I'm gonna stick to my word.
Look, I-I want you to know...
I'm not finished.
I know you.
I know you're perfectly
capable of gaming them,
telling them whatever
they need to hear,
whatever gets you
a clean bill of health.
So I'm putting you on notice,
that if I get so much as a whiff
of you not playing it straight,
whether you stay or go
won't be up
to the doctors anymore.
You can trust me.
Prove it.
Captioning sponsored by
CBS
Hey, uh, my name's Michael.Hello.
A man approached me
at a meeting yesterday.
Apparently, I-I helped him once
when I described
how integral my work was
to maintaining my sobriety.
There's this girl I know
from the program.
I'm worried about her.
You want me to look for her?
I thought it might help you,
too.
HOLMES:
Six weeks ago,
I experienced bouts
of dizziness, memory loss,
sensitivity to noise
and bright lights.
I have something called
post-concussion syndrome.
Things could get worse
before they get better.
[applause]
ANNOUNCER:
Midnight Ranger:
It's Always Midnight
will now take
a 15-minute intermission.
Please be back in your seats
in 15 minutes.
Ira. Ira!
Don't move.
I'm telling you
for the last time,
do something about these wires
or find yourself a new Ranger.
I almost collided
with Dietrich out there.
You're gonna
kill somebody.
Justin, you want
to accuse me of murder,
get in line.
These folks over here
just beat you to it.
Go, go. I'll talk
to you after the show.
A lot of pressure
for a big producer.
A lot of money on the line.
You have no idea.
Actually, we do.
We looked it up.
Your show's budget
is around $30 million.
If you don't turn
a healthy profit,
you're ruined.
A scathing review from a critic
like Victoria Garvey could take
a bite out of your box office.
What? I loved
Victoria, okay?
She was an institution.
She was cranky, but
that was her schtick.
Witnesses overheard the two of
you having a heated conversation
at Sardi's after
Wednesday's matinee.
Didn't sound to us like a talk
with an "institution."
Sounded more like you knew how
her review was gonna go.
WATSON:
You could not afford
to let her rip you
to shreds in print,
so you killed her and then
you burned down her house.
Look... I didn't
kill Victoria.
I didn't have to.
Yeah, you're right,
she told me her review
was gonna be a bloodbath.
But then she offered to bury it
if I made it worth her while.
You're saying she
solicited a bribe?
That's how she operated.
You don't believe
me, ask around.
That "heated
conversation," eh,
that was just us
haggling over the price.
You know admitting
that she was squeezing you
doesn't make you look
less guilty of her murder?
You said it yourself.
My ups and downs are
measured in eight figures.
What's $50 grand
against that?
Besides, I,
uh, wired her
the money the morning
after she was already dead.
I hadn't heard yet.
If I'm the one
who killed her,
why would I do that?
Hey.
I hope your day was less
of a dud than mine.
So, Ira Langstrom
may have single-handedly
murdered
the Broadway musical,
but Marcus and I do not think
that he killed Victoria Garvey.
So that argument that people saw
them having on the street?
He says that they were
negotiating the amount that he
was gonna pay her for writing
nice things about his show.
Apparently, anyone could buy
a good review from her--
and you haven't heard
a word I've said.
Dead critic took bribe.
Have you and I
spoken since lunch?
No, you don't remember?
I've got no memory
of the last six hours.
I'm calling Dr. Hanson.
My head is the less urgent
of our concerns at the moment.
A short while ago, I arrived
home carrying this bag.
And I couldn't recall
what was inside, so...
Well, I looked.
[Watson gasps]
[exhales]
There is a head in there.
Yes, there is.
And I have no idea
where I got it.
♪
What's the last thing
you remember?
After you left
to meet Marcus,
I rang the fire marshal assigned
to Ms. Garvey's investigation
to see if he'd
discovered anything
I hadn't already concluded
two days ago.
He had not.
After that, I recall planning
another review
of Ms. Garvey's personal life,
and then...
nothing.
Until the moment I was walking
up our front steps
carrying a head.
So the last thing we know,
you were working the case.
Naturally, I wondered whether
the head might have something
to do with Ms.
Garvey's murder.
But I see no
obvious links.
She had no children,
and that man's facial structure
suggests they are unrelated.
We've seen no evidence
that she had a lover,
male in his 30s
or otherwise.
And no one fitting that
description is missing a head
at the newspaper she wrote for.
I checked
right before you came in.
Okay, well, I'm pretty sure
that you didn't kill him.
Looks like he's been dead
for a while.
And I'm sure you noticed
the same smell I did
when you opened the bag.
Formaldehyde,
glutaraldehyde,
methanol.
Embalming fluid.
So, whoever he is, he was
professionally preserved.
Presumably before his head
was removed.
It could be
I stole it from a funeral parlor
whilst in the throes
of a hallucination.
Or, for all I know, I
found the bag next to me
on the back seat of a taxi.
Possibilities are endless.
I know that you
didn't want to talk to the
captain about your PCS, but I...
You can stop there.
My memory may be a shambles,
but I'm well aware of the
gravity of the situation.
A man's head
is in that bag.
And I don't know
where I got it from,
which means I
also don't know
who might miss it.
I mean, for all we know,
the police are on their way here
as we speak.
I know what I have to do.
[sighs]
[elevator bell dings]
Hey. What are
you doing here?
We need to talk.
Where is the head now?
We notified the M.E.'s office,
and a medicolegal investigator
came to the house.
Watson is accompanying it
to the morgue.
And you have no idea
where you got it.
I do not.
And that's because of this--
what do you call it?Post-concussion syndrome.
Which you've been dealing with
for how long now?
I was diagnosed
just over a month ago.
Well, I didn't tell you
because I didn't
want to concern you.Bull.
You weren't concerned
about me or my feelings.
You were concerned
about yourself.
You didn't tell me
because you were afraid I'd
bench you. And you were right.
Because unlike you,
I've got other people
to worry about. I've got a whole
squad under my command.
I thought we were past all this.
What's that supposed to mean?
Six years ago, when you asked
to work here,
you left out the part about you
just getting out of rehab.
These situations are
completely different.
I know.
But you are not in full control
of your actions right now.
What if you got confused
and you tried to pull
someone's gun?
I get tired.
I get headaches.
I, uh, I... [chuckles]
I've had a brief memory lapse.
During which,
you took a human head
from God knows where and
brought it back to your house.
Look, you and I both know that
even with my new deficiencies,
that I'm still ten times
more capable than...
Oh, go ahead.
Finish your thought.
It's not like it's any secret,
you think you're better
than everyone else.
And the truth is,
too many times,
I have treated you like you are.
So some of this is my fault.
But I'm done.
Cops get injured
on the job all the time.
Cops get concussions
all the time.
You know what they do?
They tell their C.O.
And they get cleared
by a department doctor
before returning to duty.
I am tired of
giving you a pass.
This time,
you want to keep working here,
you're gonna jump through the
same hoops as the rest of us.
How'd it go
with the captain?
[sighs]
About as well as
can be expected.
Hmm. That bad?
I'm to report
to the NYPD's medical division
first thing in the morning.
I'm forbidden for
working with the police
in any capacity until I'm
cleared by a department doctor.
And what if they don't
clear you?
Well, I hear Cape Town's
awash with murder.
I have contacts there.
How did it go at the morgue?
Did Eugene find anything
that might help us
identify our John Doe?
Not yet.
And there's a good chance
that the embalming chemicals
destroyed any DNA.
And dental X-rays
are useless
until they have
someone's records
to compare them to.
Marcus is gonna reach out
to Missing Persons.
Eugene did say that he thought
the head was cut off
with a Satterlee bone saw.
As used by morticians and M.E.s.
And that the man's corneas
were surgically removed.
Suggesting that
prior to embalming,
our John Doe was a tissue
and organ donor.
Which got me thinking,
Victoria Garvey was
in a car accident two weeks ago,
remember?
I lost six hours, not six days.
Yes, it happened in the
Hamptons. Her car hit a tree,
burst into flames,
and her leg was burned.
Bad enough that she needed
a skin graft.
Skin from a human donor.
So our mystery head came from
a tissue donor, and our victim
was a tissue recipient.
Yeah, so it's possible
that the skin graft came
from our John Doe.
That wouldn't explain
why I had the head,
or what it had to do with Ms.
Garvey's murder, if anything.
Well, I was just looking up
the surgical center
where the skin graft
was performed.
Marcus is gonna meet me there
in the morning.
They should have a record
of where the donor tissue
came from.
It could, at
the very least,
help us determine
who John Doe was.
And maybe that'll tell us more.
Morning.
Hey.
Is your partner not here because
he's running down another lead?
Or is he actually taking
his benching seriously?
Oh, the captain told you?
Sherlock went
to the doctor.
He gonna be okay?
You know, brains
are funny things.
The captain, well,
he's the captain.
He's got to look
at the big picture,
but if you guys need anything
from me, just say the word.
Thanks.
Someone else was
in here yesterday,
asking about
the same patient.
Interesting.
British guy?
Short on social skills?
Mr. Holmes.
He said he worked
with the police,
but his social
skills were fine.
BELL:
You caught him
on a good day.
He asked to see
Ms. Garvey's files.
Did you show him?
I wasn't supposed to.
But I couldn't believe it when
he told me she was murdered.
Such a nice lady.
I told Mr. Holmes I wanted
to help, any way I could.
So you
wouldn't mind
showing us as well?
At first, your friend
was wondering
how the surgery went.
Were there any complications,
how did her surgeon seem
after it was over?
Was he wondering if there was
some sort of malpractice?
He thought
maybe Ms. Garvey
was killed
to cover it up.
But I told him
that was crazy.
Dr. Chopra is one of
the sweetest people
I've ever met.
Plus, she was
visiting family in India
when Ms. Garvey died.
So your friend
lost interest in that.
And then something
in Ms. Garvey's
donation documents
caught his eye.
He started asking questions
about them instead.
Donation documents?
Donor tissue
always comes with paperwork--
vital stats about the donor
and information
about preparation and use.
Just so I'm clear,
when we say "donor,"
we're talking about
cadavers, right?
People who agreed to donate
their organs and tissues
after they died.
The donor
for Victoria's skin
was a white male, age 32.
That matches
our John Doe.
But no donor name.
Just a number?
It's anonymous when we get it.
But the tissue bank
that sold us the skin
should have
the donor's name
in their records.
Do you know what it was
that interested Mr. Holmes?
He didn't say.
He did ask if we had any other
forms from the same tissue bank.
I came in here to pull some,
and when I went back out
to the waiting room,
he was gone.
Yeah, he does that.
I think I know what it was
that Sherlock saw.
So, these forms
document
all of the testing for diseases
that the tissue bank
performs on each donor.
But these are all identical.
They were not
filled out separately. They're
all copies of the same form.
You see
the ink flecks
and the image degradation?
That's from
repeated photocopying.
Someone at the tissue bank's
been rubber-stamping their work.
This one has the same
donor number as Victoria's.
So, Kareem Ludlow...
got tissue from
the same body?
I had that file out already,
because the patient
missed a follow-up.
He was scheduled to have the
cadaver skin removed yesterday
and get a permanent autograft
in its place.
Well, that's a pretty big
appointment to miss.
Were you able to reach him?
He didn't return my calls.
Kareem Ludlow,
same home address,
was killed in a fire
in Hoboken
on Monday.
Fire marshal ruled
it suspicious.
That's two days before
Victoria Garvey died.
So two people got skin grafts
from the same donor
and they were both
killed in fires.
Whoever our John Doe was,
someone wanted every
last bit of him dead.
BELL:
Both of those patients
received skin grafts
from the same cadaver, which
came from your tissue bank.
Earlier this week both
those patients were murdered.
And you think I had
something to do with that.
I'm not in the business
of taking lives, Detective.
I'm in the business
of saving them.
Operating a human chop shop
has made you very rich,
Mr. Voth.
Your company pulled in
close to $10 million last year,
so how about you drop
the phony altruism?
Those forms strongly
suggest that your company
has been cutting corners
on disinfection and
disease testing,
in blatant violation
of FDA regulations.
We think you realized
that a contamination got through
involving the cadaver
those two people
received tissue from.
Now, if they'd gotten sick
and it got traced back to you,
you would have been hit
with lawsuits, criminal charges.
It would've shut you down.
I swear, it's like déjà vu.
How's that?
Another guy was
in here yesterday
peddling the same garbage.
A friend of yours?
Because he broke
into my facility
after we talked
and stole one of my products.
The way I see it,
you're the ones
who should be worried
about criminal charges.
This product you say he stole
wouldn't happen to be
a severed head, would it?
So you do know him.
Did you call the police?
Guess you didn't
want us taking
too close a look around.
Mr. Voth, if you had nothing
to do with the murders,
why not cooperate?
Give us access
to your facility
and your records and the names
of anyone else who received
tissue from that donor.
Show us this wasn't you.
If you want my cooperation...
...come back with a warrant.
What are you doing?
I'm running.
Have you also suffered
a concussion?
I meant, why are you trying
to break the land speed record?
It was your research
that informed me of the link
between increased
physical activity
and quicker recovery from PCS.
I remember. I also remember
that the study recommended
moderate exercise.
Not trying to
outrun Usain Bolt.
[beeps]
[exhales]
[treadmill slowing]Better?
Much. Also, now we can talk.
I appreciate your texts,
keeping me apprised of your
progress with Marcus.
At least now I can pretend
I'm a contributing member
of this investigation.
Are you kidding? So far,
you'd been everywhere we went.
All we did today
was catch up.
On the bright side,
now that we know where
I acquired John Doe's head,
we might also know why.
It stands to reason I took it
to deny Dominic Voth
the chance to destroy evidence
and preserve our opportunity
to identify the donor.
Unfortunately, he's gonna be
a John Doe a bit longer.
Marcus heard back
from Missing Persons,
and the head is not a match
for any reported cases.
I mean, that doesn't change the
fact that we think that Voth,
or someone from his company,
killed two people.
You're hoping
that if you can prove
John Doe's tissue
was compromised,
it'll help the police get
a search warrant
for the tissue bank.
I'm guessing the head
will be no help
in that regard,
given that the whole point
of embalming chemicals
is disinfection.
Yeah, and since
we haven't heard anything
about Victoria Garvey being
sick, we're gonna focus on
the other tissue recipient,
Kareem Ludlow.
Marcus is gonna reach out
to his family in the morning.
[exhales]
If you'll excuse me,
my recovering brain
needs hydration.
You still haven't told me
how your day went.
Oh. By and large,
unmitigated boredom.
But I do remember every second
of it, so that's an improvement.
I used some of my time
to read up on
the "tissue industrial complex"
and the myriad ways
that a human body
can be monetized
once broken down into parts.
Including how a preserved head
can be sold to educate dentists
on the latest advances
in titanium implants.
Well, that would
explain why
the tissue bank had John Doe's
head in their inventory,
but I was asking about your trip
to the medical division.
Well, there isn't much
to tell.
The police doctor had me perform
a battery of
neurological tests--
standing on one leg,
reciting the alphabet.
I offered to juggle
whilst riding a unicycle,
but she had other patients
to see.
She's going to confer
with my doctor
and then issue a ruling,
so I await my fate.
You're not gonna do
any more running, are you?
What if I am?
I know that you want to get back
to work for the department
as quickly as possible,
but pushing yourself
too hard
isn't gonna make it go
any faster.
You can't get well in one day.
[doorbell rings]
Are you expecting anyone?
Hey, you do live here.
I do. What are you
doing here?
Uh, sorry, I didn't mean
to freak you out.
Can I come in?
Yeah.
Yeah, I had a rough sense
of where you lived
because of the meetings
you went to.
I knew I was gonna be
in the neighborhood tonight,
so I looked you up.I'm not listed.
Yeah, but you know I-I work
at an architecture firm.
So we look up building records
all the time,
and I saw this was listed
to a Morland Holmes
and took a shot.
I get you at a bad time?
Well, I... Sorry,
it-it's been a weird day.
Do you want to talk about it?
No, I-I'm-I'm really
all talked out.
Well, look, I'm gonna go to
the meeting at St. Augustine's
if you change your mind.
Are you working a case
right now?
Why do you ask?
I know it's good for you.
It keeps you focused.
Michael, I appreciate you
taking an interest in me,
but I-I think you misunderstand
my relationship with my work.
It doesn't keep me sober.
My commitment to the program
keeps me sober, to the steps.
Right, but you...
Well, there's no buts.
That's it.
Oh. Um, before I go,
have you heard anything...
There have been no new leads
in the disappearance
of Polly Kenner.
And I've uncovered no indication
that she met with foul play.
She's been missing
for weeks now.
I know. That concerns me.
But she has an unfortunate
history of dropping off the map.
I've lodged inquiries
with the law enforcement
where she is most
likely to turn up,
but... all we
can do is wait.
Well, thanks for your help.
Sorry to bother you.
[door opens]
[door closes]
You had a question
about a culture we handled?
We're investigating the murder
of a man named Kareem Ludlow.
His doctor told us he had
developed flu-like symptoms
after undergoing surgery,
and the doctor sent a culture
here for analysis.
Long story, but the results
could be pertinent to the case.
I remember this.
I'm happy to print you
the results, but I have a hunch
it's not going
to be much use.
This culture was corrupted
here at the lab.
Corrupted how?
It tested positive for H7N5.
That's a type of bird flu.
An incredibly rare one.
There was no way Mr. Ludlow
could have caught it,
so we chalked it up
to cross-contamination.
H7N5 is only found
in one province in China.
And when our investigator
followed up with Mr. Ludlow,
he said he'd never even
been out of the country.
You said you thought
there was cross-contamination.
That means you have some sample
of the virus in your lab.
I remember reading about
a bird flu case in New York
about a month ago.
BELL:
Thing is, we don't think
Mr. Ludlow got sick traveling.
We think he got sick
from a tissue donation.
We knew about Mr. Ludlow's
surgery, and we considered that,
but it didn't track.
The case you're talking about
involved three Chinese women
who'd visited family
outside Shanghai six weeks ago.
A mother and daughter
and the mother's first cousin.
Soon after they had reentered
the U.S., they were hospitalized
and tested positive for H7N5.
All three died
within two weeks.
They definitely
were not tissue donors.
We're pretty sure our donor
was a white male anyway.
WATSON:
And these women-- you're sure
they never infected
anyone else?
Our team traced everyone
they came into contact with.
No one else
was contaminated.
They never crossed paths
with Kareem Ludlow.
You wanted to show me something?
BELL:
Yeah. I've been looking
into the women
that died from bird flu.
The doc that Joan and I talked
to at the Department of Health
was positive
they didn't give it to anyone.
But you think she might
have missed something.
I was thinking
our tissue donor's a white guy.
The three victims were from
a traditional Chinese family.
If the young one
was dating our guy,
she might have wanted
to keep it a secret.
Her name is Wu Meili.
I found this
on her social media.
She was taking an ESL class
at the time.
Check out the numbers
under the teacher's name.
"520, 530."
Mean anything?They're SMS codes,
only popular
with young Chinese people,
so it's unlikely Meili's parents
would have understood them.
They mean "I love you"
and "I miss you."
Do you think Meili
and her teacher
had a secret thing going?
This is a picture
of the teacher,
guy named Eric Russo.
You tell me.
Same guy.
So our tissue
donor has a name.
And if he was intimate
with Meili
after she got back
to the States,
he'd have
the bird flu, too.
So this all backs the
theory you and Joan
came up with, right?
That the two tissue
recipients got
contaminated skin,
and someone from the
tissue bank killed them.
This proves motive.
Then let's get a warrant.
WOMAN:
In light of recent
developments,
Mr. Voth is willing to concede
that Voth Biologics
cut some corners
in the processing
of a handful of tissues.
That's real
big of him,
admitting things
we can already prove.
But right now we care less
about the regulations
he broke than we do about
the two murders he committed
to cover it up.
WATSON:
The Department of Health
briefly suspected that tissue
from your facility
infected a patient
with H7N5, and they
notified you at the time.
They later believed
that it was an error,
but the truth is,
they were right.
GREGSON:
The patient's name was
Kareem Ludlow.
Not long after,
he and another recipient
from the same donor,
Victoria Garvey,
were both murdered, and their
bodies were destroyed in fires.
WATSON:
We think that you set
those fires so that
no one would find out
how they had gotten sick.
I'm sorry.
Are you seriously suggesting
my client committed
two murders over
a call about
a possible contamination?
GREGSON:
No.
We're suggesting
he did the murders
after he confirmed
the contamination.
He had Eric Russo's body
at his facility.
And seeing as he sold
tissue from it before
it was embalmed, we can assume
that he did the embalming.
You got the call
from D.O.H.,
you tested Russo's body,
you found out
it was indeed infected
with bird flu,
and you knew
that could ruin you.
So you embalmed him to
destroy the evidence,
and you killed the two people
who received his tissue.
Mr. Voth's company routinely
embalms cadavers.
It's hardly proof of a cover-up.
You are right
about the embalming.
But you're wrong
about the rest.
And if you look at the records
you seized, they'll prove it.
I didn't test that body
after the D.O.H. called.
I didn't want to know
if they were right.
And I sure as hell didn't want
a paper trail showing I knew.
So I had the body embalmed
right away.
These are the only two people
who received tissue
from that donor.
We took the rest
of the tissues
out of inventory
and burned them.
You realize you just confessed
to tampering with evidence?
He did, but I think
his larger point is that,
with the evidence destroyed,
he didn't have to kill anybody.
I did a lot
of bad things, but I'm
no murderer.
Speak to you a sec?
Excuse us.
So, even if Voth's
records don't show it,
he could have tested the tissue.
He could still be our killer.
Actually, I think
the opposite's true.
If Voth did test
Eric Russo's tissue,
he almost definitely
isn't the killer.
I just got off the phone
with Eric's brother.
Poor guy had no
idea Eric was dead.
He told me that
Eric lived alone
and wasn't teaching
any classes this month.
Explains why no one
reported him missing.
Thing is, the last time
the brother saw Eric
was two days before
his body arrived
at the tissue bank.
They went for drinks.
Eric mentioned that a student
he was dating had died.
So you were right
about Wu Meili.
But the brother said
that when he saw Eric,
Eric didn't seem sick.
So I did a little digging
and called a CrossFit gym
where Eric was a member.
The manager checked
the computers.
Eric took a class there
the same day he saw his brother.
That doesn't make any sense.
By that point in his infection,
Eric should have had pneumonia,
even kidney failure.
He should've been
too sick to walk,
let alone do CrossFit.
You said his girlfriend
was already dead.
So when did Eric catch the flu?
That's just the thing.
If he wasn't showing
any symptoms, then Eric
never had the flu at all.
And if Voth had
tested Eric's tissue,
he would have known that.
Meaning he wouldn't have had any
motive to commit the murders.
So our theory of the crime
is wrong.
We're back to square one.
Are we having a barbecue?
So, now, more than ever,
given my diminished state,
I find visual aids useful in
holding onto complex thoughts.
So I put together a flowchart
of all the deceased
individuals
involved in the case.
And that explains
the chicken decals how?
We're faced with a paradox,
and it needs resolving.
According to the Department
of Health,
Wu Meili and her family
contracted bird flu
whilst visiting
a Shanghainese poultry farm,
so these seemed
a fitting indicator
of bird flu status.
And, as an added bonus,
we have dinner
for a couple of weeks.
Because all this really puts me
in the mood to eat chicken.
Well, beginning where it began,
the Chinese ladies,
they all had bird flu,
so they all get a sticker.
Over here,
we have our two murder victims,
Kareem Ludlow, Victoria Garvey.
Now, he received
donor tissue
from her boyfriend.
He then showed
symptoms himself
and he tested positive.
The D.O.H. said that that test
was contaminated.
That's an unlikely coincidence
to my mind.
Especially since
they reported
no other contaminations.
So, bird flu.
Victoria Garvey, we don't know.
This brings us
to the man at the center
of it all, Eric Russo,
our tissue donor,
and for a brief time,
our travel-sized
house guest.
Now,
on the one hand,
our case only really makes sense
if Eric had the bird flu.
It's the only reasonable
explanation
for Kareem's positive test,
and it would provide us
theory of motive
for both of these murders.
On the other hand,
multiple witnesses said
that Eric was asymptomatic
at a time where he should've
been close to death.
Is there any way that
he could have infected people
whilst not showing
symptoms himself?
He would have had
to have been immune.
But that would be impossible.
This flu
is a hundred percent fatal.
Hence our paradox.
By the dictates of logic,
Eric simultaneously must have
had the bird flu and not had it.
It's Schrodinger's bird flu.
How long has that chicken
been out of the fridge?
WATSON:
So, Marcus called earlier.
The police are going
through the records
they seized from
the tissue bank.
CCS found e-mails
between Voth and his execs.
They were planning to pin
all of the testing shortcuts
on one lab tech
in case it ever came out.
Well, that would
support Voth's innocence.
It seems unlikely
he would set up a scapegoat
when he was committing two
murders to cover his misdeeds.
But Voth's records
also mentioned
that they had bought Eric's body
from a body broker.
Another unsavory player in the
supply chain of Big Tissue.
Someone who procures dead bodies
from hospitals and hospices
and sells them to tissue banks.
Right, but this broker
also forged
Eric's donor consent forms,
so he was obviously up
to something shady, too.
I mean, it's possible he heard
about the contaminated tissue,
and then committed the murders
to protect
his own racket.So our theory of the crime
could be right, but we would
have the wrong suspect.
The captain is gonna have him
brought down for questioning.
Have the two of you talked
since yesterday?
We have not.
Well, maybe you should.
There's a bush outside.
Perhaps you'd physically like
to beat around it?
I think you should apologize.
You did keep something from him.
A medical condition.
A very private
medical condition,
which, I would remind you,
has not affected the work
I've done for him one iota.
I get all that.
Okay, I'm not saying
that you should've told him
because he is your boss.
I'm saying that
you should have told him
because he is your friend.
Just think about it.
GREGSON: We called around
to a few of the tissue banks
you supply, Mr. Petty.
Turns out you've been
selling a lot of bodies
with phony papers.
Our guys are combing through
your place right now.
How many missing persons
are we gonna find in there?
Wait, you think
I killed those people?
Crossed our mind that you
might've killed some of them.
But we also think
you might've killed
two other people
to cover it up.
BELL:
According to Dominic Voth,
he called you
when he thought
you'd sold his tissue bank
an infected cadaver.
Guess he thought if
he complained about it,
you'd give him
his money back.
You knew if enough people
started asking questions,
eventually
they'd look at you.
So you killed
the two patients
who received
the dead man's tissue.
You-You've got me all wrong.
I'm not a killer.
I'm just a grave robber.
I don't mean
that literally,
but it's what everyone
I know calls me.
I've got backdoor deals
with a bunch of funeral homes
and crematoriums
around the city.
They slip me bodies
no one's gonna miss;
I slip them a little cash
and then I forge
the consent forms.
It's the only way I can
keep up with demand.
People have all
these hang-ups
about donating their
bodies these days.
Gee. I wonder why.
The two people you
were talking about,
when were they murdered?
BELL:
One was on Wednesday night.
The other was
two nights before that.
I was in Cancun
with a lady friend.
We flew back on Thursday.
BELL:
We'll need your friend's
name and number.
Yeah.
And assuming what
you said checks out,
we'll still need to find out
how Eric Russo ended up dead,
so also write down
the name of the place
where you got his body.
Who?
The infected cadaver
we've been talking about.
I-I just told you I'm doing
something I shouldn't do.
It's not like I keep a
travel log and receipts.
I-I don't know which
bodies came from where.
Hell...
[chuckles lightly]
...I do my best
not to remember.
Then write down all the places
you have deals with.
That I can do.
But it's, uh, it's
gonna be a long list.
Hi. My name is Michael.
Uh, I'm an addict.
Hey, Michael.
So, well, I, uh, I have
this friend in the program,
guy I really admire.
He, uh, works the steps,
comes to meetings.
But, uh, recently I can tell
he's been struggling.
So, a few weeks ago,
I put him onto a project
to keep him occupied.
It didn't work.
It's like
there's nothing I can do
to get his attention,
to pull him back.
You know, um,
we come to these rooms
to get help
and to give help.
Sometimes it
doesn't work.
I know you're thinking I should
mind my side of the street,
worry about myself, but...
...I can't.
Not yet.
If I need to get louder,
I'll get louder.
But I'm going to make sure
my friend hears me.
WATSON: So, I brought
you some tea.
Thank you.
It's late.
So, I let you sleep in,
but I have been up for a while,
working on a new theory.
Yes, I am listening.So, what if
Eric Russo's body
was able to fight off
the H7N5 virus?
I thought you said
that was impossible.
I did because it's
never happened before,
but what if Eric
was the first?
If he was, it would make
his body worth millions.
Now I'm awake. Continue.
So, I've been doing
some research into Eric's life
and I noticed that he spent
a couple of years in China,
teaching English
in the same province
where H7N5 is found.
So I called the school
and they confirmed
that he came down with a bad flu
while he was there.
Now, everyone just assumed
it was a mild strain
because he survived.
But you think it was H7N5.
When you recover
from a virus,
your system develops antibodies
to fight off future infections.
So, if he had survived H7N5
once before,
he would still have
the antibodies to combat it.
A second exposure in New York
would not have hurt him
'cause he would
have been immune.
Well, technically, he still
would have caught the virus,
but his symptoms
could've been so mild
that they would have
gone unnoticed.
Right. And yet the virus would
still be in his system, eh,
meaning he could still
infect other people,
even when dead.
If you're right,
that would resolve
our paradox
and restore our theory of motive
for the two murders.
I think it does more than that.
So, I've been reading
some of the work
they've been doing
on flu vaccines.
Now, there is a theory
that antibodies from a survivor
of a particularly
deadly flu could be used
to develop a
universal flu vaccine,
one capable of
preventing all flus.
Hence the millions of dollars
you were talking about.
Whoever developed such a vaccine
would enjoy significant
financial reward,
and Eric Russo's antibodies
would be quite the prize.
The thing is, getting
access to his antibodies
would have required
his consent.
It's not something you could
do without his knowing.
You would need
too much blood.
So, you think perhaps
someone approached him
and he refused
to participate?
Or maybe they didn't
feel like sharing
all the money they
were gonna make.
Either way,
they had to kill him
to get what they wanted.
Our suspect would have to have
just the right combination
of expertise and resources.
As it turns out,
Marcus and I just met
someone like that yesterday.
Who?
The author of that
paper you're holding.
Dr. Selsky, the woman
we talked to at the D.O.H.?
You think she killed Eric Russo
so she could take his blood
and get rich off his antibodies?
In fact, she probably didn't
even bother with his blood.
The cells she would need,
they're called B-cells.
They're found in greatest
abundance in the spleen.
If it were me,
and I was killing him anyway,
that's what I would take.
Glad to know you
thought it through.
So, either way,
she killed Kareem Ludlow
and Victoria Garvey
to cover up
what she'd done.
And there was no sign
of struggle or forced entry
at either of their homes.
Any idea how she managed that?
We know that Kareem
Ludlow was sick.
And as you two established,
he'd been contacted
by the Department
of Health.
If we're right
about everything else,
Victoria Garvey would also
be feeling under the weather.
Selsky had Department of Health credentials.
It's possible she used those
to gain access
to their homes.
WATSON:
She might have even told them
that she had something
to make them feel better.
A lethal dose of potassium
chloride, for example,
would have cleared
their symptoms right up.
After that, she would have
had to burn the bodies
to dispose of any evidence
of the virus.
Well, I get everything
you're saying,
but between us and
the fire department,
we've been over
those houses plenty.
If you're right,
she did a hell of a job.
WATSON: True. But if I'm
right about something else,
we'll have more than enough
evidence to make an arrest.
What you're saying is insane.
I've never even
heard of Eric Russo.
We're pretty sure
that's a lie.
You interviewed Wu Meili
and her family extensively.
And we get that she wanted
to keep her relationship
with Eric secret,
but on her deathbed?
She would have been
holding back information
that could stop
a pandemic.
We think it's more likely
she did tell you about Eric.
And when you checked him out
and discovered that
he was asymptomatic,
you realized what
a valuable find he was.
As the only known
survivor of H7N5,
his antibodies would be
like the holy grail.
So you took them.
In addition to working here,
we also know you're on staff
at Hamilton Hospital.
That's where you do
your own research.
We think that's also
where you met with Eric.
Would've been easy enough for
you to use your privileges there
to dispose of his body
along with others
that had been donated
to science.
The hospital sends those to
a crematorium to be destroyed.
We reached out
to the crematorium
that the hospital uses
and they confirmed
that they received a body
matching Eric's description
the day after
he was last seen.
WATSON:
Unfortunately for you,
someone at the crematorium made
a deal with a body broker
and sold Eric's body
to a tissue bank.
BELL:
Couple weeks after that,
you receive the culture
from Kareem Ludlow's doctor.
When it came back
positive for bird flu,
you looked into it, found out
about Kareem's skin graft,
and put two
and two together.
You got the name
of the other person
who received Eric's tissue
from the tissue bank,
Victoria Garvey,
and you killed them both.
So you're accusing me
of three murders.
I'd like you both to leave,
so I can call my lawyer.
You can call your lawyer
from the precinct.
We've already executed
a search warrant
on your lab
at Hamilton Hospital.
We found a spleen
in your freezer.
Go ahead.
Tell us the DNA's not gonna
come back as Eric Russo's.
GREGSON:
That'll be it.
Okay? Thanks.
You wanted to see me?
Yes. In here.
Hmm.
I wanted to let you know that I
spoke to the department doctor.
She's granted you provisional
clearance to return to work.
"Provisional."
Yes.
You go back to visit her once
a week until further notice.
That's in addition to your
visits to your own neurologist,
which you also have
to do once a week.
They'll be comparing notes.
You miss an appointment,
I hear about it.
You don't follow their
instructions, I hear about it.
Otherwise, as long as there
are no further incidents
like the other day... the
doc's okay will stand.
That's good.
No.
That's not good.
Between you and me,
I would prefer it
if you were sidelined
until you're fully recovered.
Maybe longer.
Maybe permanently.
But I said I'd let
the docs decide
and I'm gonna stick to my word.
Look, I-I want you to know...
I'm not finished.
I know you.
I know you're perfectly
capable of gaming them,
telling them whatever
they need to hear,
whatever gets you
a clean bill of health.
So I'm putting you on notice,
that if I get so much as a whiff
of you not playing it straight,
whether you stay or go
won't be up
to the doctors anymore.
You can trust me.
Prove it.
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