Numb3rs (2005–2010): Season 2, Episode 2 - Bettor or Worse - full transcript
The team investigates a jewelry store theft where the robbers kidnapped the owner's wife and daughter.
Can I help you find something?
Uh, no, but I'd... I'd
like to see the owner.
Mr. Rausch is with
clients right now.
Maybe I can assist you?
No, it has to be him.
Well, it could
be a little while.
We do have a sitting area.
You can help yourself to some...
Now, this is something
a bit more dramatic,
but maybe that's what
you were thinking of.
Mr. Rausch?
Uh, if you could give
me just one moment.
I'm sorry. This
really can't wait.
Uh, try it on,
and I'll be right back.
What can I do for you?
W-What is this?
Exactly what it says.
If you don't help me,
your wife and daughter
are going to die.
What have you done to
them? Where are they?
Please, just do
as the note says.
The people who have them,
you have no idea
what they're capable of.
They want the diamonds.
Mr. Rausch!
Look, okay, okay.
Your wife and
daughter, Mr. Rausch.
Now, I've done
everything you asked.
My family? Not yet.
If everything goes smoothly,
no police, no FBI,
you'll see them
again in 24 hours.
No, no, that's too long.
I can't...
Uh, hold it right there, ma'am.
Don't!
I warned her. I
told her to stop.
Hey, Colby. Hey, Don.
So, the owner's wife
didn't show at work today,
and his daughter never
made it to school, either.
All right, so the
kidnapping's real.
Yeah, apparently.
David.
Any idea who she is?
No ID.
Only things she had on her
were car keys, sunglasses,
about a half a
million in diamonds
she didn't walk in here with.
Weapons?
Depends on what
you call a weapon.
The old guy said he thought that
she was reaching
for a gun, so...
Well, I hope that shot
just didn't kill three people.
We all use math every day.
To predict
weather, to tell time,
to handle money.
Math is more than
formulas and equations.
It's logic.
Math is more than
formulas and equations.
It's rationality.
It's using your mind
to solve the biggest
mysteries we know.
All right, listen up, everybody.
This is Diane Rausch,
the store owner's wife
and their eight-year-old
daughter, Julia.
Now, we're going to
play this as a kidnapping,
first and foremost.
The robbery is secondary.
It's just a... a means
to get to the kidnappers.
We clear on that?
David, how we doing
on the Jane Doe?
Fingerprints weren't
in the system.
Coroner's checking
dental records,
any kind of medical
clue to identify her.
And the car, we got
anything with that?
I mean, we find that, we
find out who the woman is.
No. Agents canvassed the
neighborhood near the store.
They didn't find a car
to go with her keys.
We should be
looking into other ways
that she might have gotten
there. Bus, car, bicycle...
She was probably
driven by an accomplice.
Statistically, women
rarely commit a crime alone.
Blame the men, huh, Megan?
The stats blame
the men, Granger.
I'm just quoting them.
Come on. Let's
just find this woman.
It's our only way we're gonna
save this kid and... and her mother.
All right? Any questions?
Let's do it.
After what happened, we have
to be worried about their chances.
Let's just assume they're alive,
and then their chances
are better, all right?
Thanks, D.
Don.
Hey, Charlie.
What are you doing here?
I'm dropping this
off for you, man.
You are?
Uh, what is it?
Uh, what is it? I don't know.
It's the geographic crime index
you pretty much begged
me to put together for you,
and I... I found some fairly
fascinating patterns in here, as well.
I mean, you should
be thanking...
Right. Well, thank
you. I appreciate it.
I'm up all night indexing.
Yeah, well, Charlie, you know,
we just got this
kidnapping case.
It's a mother and her
eight-year-old daughter, so...
Kidnapped by whom?
Only lead we have is a Jane Doe.
What do you know about her?
Well, I mean, she
wears sunglasses
and drives a Saturn
which we can't find.
Are these her keys?
Yeah. We did a
search for the car,
but it didn't turn up.
Keyless entry mode actually
poses a fairly interesting
mathematical problem.
Oh, yeah? And what is that?
Well, much of the
general populace
has a remote
nowadays, don't they?
I mean, I... I think
I read somewhere
where 80% of new
cars come with a remote.
Yeah, well, thanks. Hold on.
Every remote has
to have a unique,
one-to-one relationship
with a single car.
Otherwise, you walk
out into a parking lot,
push that button,
any number of cars might unlock.
So, you're saying each
car has its own frequency?
No. That's just it.
They're all on the
same frequency.
Every remote has
a numerical code
that links it to just one car.
You see, people don't
often think about this stuff,
but it's an entirely
math-based technology.
You know who might be able
to help you with this is Larry.
His cosmic listening
project at Kitt Peak
involves stacked frequency work.
Well, I got to find
this woman's car,
so anything you or Larry can do,
I mean, I would appreciate it.
So the last time you saw
your wife and daughter,
they were eating breakfast.
They were sitting
at the kitchen table.
I kissed them
goodbye, left for work.
All right. And your wife
drives Julia to school?
That's our routine, every day.
One of the neighbors saw
them pull out around 8:30.
Said everything looked normal.
God, I just can't imagine what
they're going through right now.
The best thing you could
do for them is just to stay calm
and stay focused.
Mr. Rausch, did you happen to
notice anyone hanging around
or any strange cars
parked on the street?
Anything that just didn't
quite seem to belong?
I'm sorry.
Nothing comes to mind.
So, what... what happens next?
Well, we'll set up a command center
in your house and monitor your calls.
That way, in case the
kidnappers try to contact you...
A command center? No,
I don't... I don't want that.
You know, Mr. Rausch, we need...
The last thing this woman
said was no police, no FBI.
If these people call back...
If they call, I'll do
exactly what they say.
I'll pay whatever they ask.
I just want my family back.
No police, no FBI?
Rausch could wind
up a target himself.
Yep. That's why we're
gonna put a line on his phone,
keep him under surveillance.
Hey, Charlie, have
you ever considered
our place in the universe?
Certainly every time we speak.
More to the point.
You know, galaxies
are constantly
moving away from us.
And the farther away they are,
the... the faster they're
leaving us behind.
This is more to
what point, again?
Amita, Charlie.
Oh. No, wait, wait, wait.
As you let that
opportunity drift away,
it moves faster,
and it moves farther.
It's more complicated than that.
And no matter how complicated
the shape and
structure of a large star,
you... you take
away the nuclear fuel,
it becomes what? A black hole.
Mixing cosmic
metaphors again, are we?
No, it was galaxies...
Our relationship is
not a black hole, okay?
Sorry, guys. It's
not a black hole.
You're not having a
little lovers spat are you?
No, he... Larry just likes
to... Why do you like to talk
about every other problem except
the one you're
currently working on
at the moment? Hey,
hey, hey, what problem?
Receiver is hooked up, so
you just take that remote there,
you hit the button
and the emitted data
stream will be captured
and conveyed right
to the computer.
Okay, I got it. Here you go.
All right, that's the code
that tells the car door to open.
Mmm-hmm. Okay,
let's try another one.
That's a different number.
Because it's a rolling code.
Every time I hit the key,
it sends out a different
signal to the car.
Right. So?
Well, it's like a pitcher. If
he throws the same fastball
every single throw,
what would happen?
Lots of hits. He'd get pulled.
It's the same with a radio code.
If this key sent out the
same signal every time,
well, then it would be easy
for someone else to intercept it.
With a rolling code, the
pitcher needs to mix it up.
Okay, he's throwing curveballs,
he's throwing sliders.
All right, so if the remote's
sending a different signal,
then how does the
car understand it?
The change is predictable,
as long as you know the
algorithm that generates it.
It could be as simple
as adding plus one,
like the catcher
adding a single finger
every time he
signals the next pitch.
All right. So then it doesn't
matter if the combination's different,
as long as the remote
and the car know it.
However, with this remote,
the algorithm's considerably
more complicated.
We're looking at
a sequence, like,
32 hexadecimal digits long.
I mean, that... that's long.
It's a matter of finding the
algorithm that changes the sequence.
The more data I collect,
the easier it'll be for me
to deduce that algorithm.
Well, hence, my preference
for classic automobiles.
Standard lock and
key technology.
Keep your heated seats...
- Guys, look,
I... I'm dealing with a
kidnapping here, okay?
Statistically, the more
time that goes by,
the worse our
chances are getting.
I got you. We're
on it. We're moving
as fast as we can for you.
So you're sorting
those? Based on what?
The ones I like
and the ones I don't.
Looking at the quality.
See if she knew
what she was doing.
She's not in the system.
She has no criminal
history, no record.
And she wakes up this morning
and decides to become a felon.
Maybe she's never
been caught before.
I don't see how with her
habits. I mean, look at her.
She's making absolutely no
attempt to avoid the cameras.
And her hands...
Her fingerprints are on the
top of every counter in there.
And look right there.
What?
She looks terrified.
♪
Oh, hey, Amita.
Hi, Charlie. Hi.
What's going on?
What are you working on?
Something for Don.
It's part of a kidnapping case.
Although, um, right now,
I'm not really
seeing a solution.
Can I help? Please do.
I'm trying to determine
a generating algorithm
from a series of
coded data streams.
You're working this as
a straight rolling code.
Yeah.
Well, for the first
half, definitely.
You proved it.
But for the second half,
I don't know.
Have you tried a 1-D
cellular automaton?
What, like...
Wolfram's Discrete
Computability Theories.
Yeah. It's just a thought.
Well, that's a great thought.
What?
What are you smiling about?
Would you wanna
do something with me
after we're done here?
Charlie, are you actually
asking me out on a date?
You and me, talking
about anything except work.
What do you say?
Yes.
The coroner's report
on our Jane Doe,
no traceable dental work.
She's never even had a cavity.
Yeah, so we got a jewel
thief who flosses, huh?
Anything else we can trace?
Contact lenses, breast implants.
The contact lenses
are generic mail-order,
so there's no serial numbers.
And her breasts,
believe it or not, are real.
In LA.
I mean, that wasn't the
nose she was born with,
which won't help
our case at all,
but at least it'll help
me sleep better at night
knowing she wasn't perfect.
Thanks.
We were able to narrow
the window on the abduction.
Looks like they were grabbed
somewhere between home
and the daughter's school.
Colby, how we doing on
the setup at Rausch's house?
Get this, Rausch
wouldn't allow it.
Wouldn't allow it?
No. Seems to think
he has a better shot
getting them back on his own.
Come on. Wrong move there.
We mentioned that.
Eppes.
Hey, bro, it's me. I, uh,
calculated the program algorithm,
Jane Doe's car keys,
and I'm e-mailing
it to you right now.
Yeah?
Did you get it?
Uh, hold on.
Yeah, I'm getting it. I mean, I
don't know what this means.
Yeah, well, It should mean
something to the car manufacturer.
This algorithm is
specific to one car.
They should be able
to tell you which one.
Then the DMV can tell you
who the current owner is.
All right, good,
Charlie, thanks.
Spotter's got one white male in
his 50's in the front living room,
and there's no
sign of anyone else.
All right, let's get
everyone in position.
Tell David? Yeah.
Can I help you?
Yes, um, I have a package
here for Erica Logan.
Erica's not here.
Ah, well, maybe
you can sign for her?
Well, sure, okay.
FBI. Be quiet.
Okay, okay.
Who else is in the house?
No one, no one's here but me.
FBI!
FBI! FBI!
FBI!
Clear! Clear!
Clear! What?
W-What's going on?
Are you the registered
owner of a 2001 Saturn Ion?
Yes, it's my daughter's car.
Your daughter?
Erica, but she
isn't here right now.
She's at school.
What, she's a student?
No, a teacher. Kindergarten.
Your daughter's a
kindergarten teacher?
Why? What's going on?
Is this her?
Yes.
Where is she?
Where's Erica?
This doesn't make any sense.
She can't be dead.
You must have the wrong girl.
Uh, sir, I'm sorry, we don't.
My wife died when Erica was 12.
Her brother Remy was six.
Erica kept us going,
kept us together.
How could someone like that
ever be involved in a robbery?
When was the last time
you saw or spoke to her?
This morning.
And she lives here with you?
Well, my health
hasn't been so great.
Erica moved back in about
a year ago to look after me.
What about a boyfriend?
Someone who... who might be
able to explain what happened today.
Well, truth is, taking
care of me and her brother
didn't give her much
time to live her own life, but
I'll tell you this,
whatever did happen,
there's got to be more to it.
Don.
They found the wife's car.
It's Mrs. Rausch's car.
Last time she and her
daughter were seen
was this morning
pulling out of the house.
Kid's school is about
three blocks from here,
so obviously they
knew her route.
Kidnapped in broad daylight?
Looks like they were rear-ended.
Now, make sure we get some
paint scrapings here, huh?
Yeah, that's got to be
how they were grabbed.
Get hit from behind, hop out
to swap insurance information.
I got a shoe here.
That matches what Rausch said
the little girl was
wearing this morning.
Thanks.
So looks like it
happened fast, right?
I mean, it was well-planned,
well-executed, they knew her routine.
Got a freeway right
around the corner.
Not dealing with amateurs here.
Nah, there's no question
these guys were pros.
Yeah, who used a kindergarten
teacher as their bag man.
Been no word, no contact,
for almost seven hours.
What the hell are they after?
I still think Erica
Logan has to be the key.
This kind of radical
shift in behavior?
There has to be
some sort of trigger.
Trigger. Like what?
I can tell you what a
textbook would say.
Statistically, it's things like,
um, a near-death experience.
A person can exhibit an
extreme shift in behavior
if they survived a plane crash.
Another could be a person who's
told they only have a month to live,
may start to act on the
fantasies of an alter ego.
That doesn't fit,
though, in this case.
The autopsy
would've flagged that.
All right, so what else?
Uh, parental instinct.
The perception of a
serious threat to a child.
That also doesn't fit.
I mean, her father said
she doesn't have kids, right?
Yeah, but there
was a brother, right?
The old man said she
practically raised him.
Yeah.
A younger sibling
could be the trigger
if they had developed
that kind of relationship.
Well, younger brothers can definitely
be a trigger. Trust me on that one.
Why don't you go
talk to the old man,
see if we can get an
address on the son.
I mean, I want to get everything
we can on this kid, all right?
♪
So, by the way, I wanted to, uh,
thank you so much for
earlier, for helping me.
I... I... Honestly, I think I would
have stared at those boards all day
if you hadn't come up with
the cellular automaton angle,
so you... you rock.
It was one of those weird
inspiration things, you know?
Coming at it with fresh eyes.
It's funny 'cause
my first thought
was the universal
conductor approach,
but then I realized...
Then you what?
We're doing it again, Charlie.
Talking about work.
We said we weren't gonna
talk about work, remember?
Yeah. I remember.
This is ridiculous.
It's ridiculous.
We have to be able
to talk about something
that's not work-related.
We can have a normal
conversation, right?
We can have a conversation.
What's wrong with us?
I don't know.
Pressure. Pressure, maybe.
Yeah.
Maybe it's the pressure.
Thanks.
Okay. Thanks, thanks a lot.
Whoa.
Look at this.
See that? It's
Romanesque broccoli.
I've actually only ever seen
pictures of it, and there's...
There's a fractal pattern
in here that's amazing.
How cool is it that
there's a vegetable
that grows in the
ground that has fractals,
and at the same
time, we're discovering
their importance
in astrophysics?
I mean,
it really makes you wonder...
Yeah.
Bon appetit.
Is everything okay?
Can I get you anything
else this evening?
Thanks, buddy.
You were right.
Brother's name is Remy Logan.
Kids got a sheet, goes
back to when he was a juvie.
Oh, yeah, look
at this, petty theft,
narcotics, gambling charges.
Oh. Just the kind
of little brother
that could complicate
a sister's life.
So we know where he is?
Yeah, David just called with that
address. All right, go pick him up.
♪
Wow.
What do you suppose the
rent is on a place like this?
I don't know, expect
like, two grand, $2,500.
You looking to move?
The place I'm in
doesn't have a pool.
I'm just kind of
thinking here I am,
moved all the way to LA.
Should have a pool, you know?
Absolutely, man. Pool's a
birthright around here, man.
Here it is.
Six.
Number 2 on the rail,
ahead by a length and a half.
Number 7...
His car's in the garage.
Trailing by half a length.
1 is fourth on the outside by
two lengths, followed by the 6.
There's someone in there.
Remy Logan! FBI. Open up!
He's going out the back.
FBI. Stop!
FBI! Stop, or I'll
shoot you in the back.
Wait! I don't have a gun!
Get down! Okay,
just don't shoot me.
We're not gonna shoot you.
Just did not feel like
chasing you today.
Looks like somebody's
been packing,
getting ready to leave.
Who you running from, Remy?
Oh, I'm just taking a
little time away, that's all.
There's nothing
illegal about that, right?
No. You weren't planning
on sticking around
to bury your sister?
Yeah, we know all about the
whole jewelry store robbery thing.
And the kidnapping
of the little girl
and her mother.
I don't know what
you're talking about.
Remy, I read your file.
I talked with your old
man. I know the whole story.
You're the screw-up
little brother.
And Erica,
well, she was the
caring big sister
who always got
stuck bailing you out.
Now, the problem is
Erica was just killed
during the commission
of a robbery.
And if you're involved, that puts
you on the hook for felony murder.
But the kidnapping.
If you're involved in that,
might just land you
strapped to a gurney.
Remy, listen.
Talk to us.
Where are they? Where's
this mother and her little girl?
I don't know.
David, check this out.
You run a book operation?
Hey, who's your bank?
I don't work for anyone.
That's funny. You know,
I never met an independent
bookie who didn't have
a safe, two armed guards
and at least three dead bolts
on the front door.
You don't work for anybody, huh?
Here are all the bets
he pushed through.
Oh, come on, Charlie, it
couldn't have been that bad.
Actually, I truly can't explain
how awful it was.
Oh, I don't understand it.
You and Amita, you
always got along so well.
I'm just as confused as you are.
Yeah, well, maybe it'll
be better next time, hmm?
Yeah, I don't think there's going
to be a next time in my future.
No, no, you do not give up.
You never give up.
Who's giving up what?
Charlie.
He blew his first
date with Amita.
I wouldn't say that
I... I blew it, Dad.
I mean, that's...
Yeah, maybe I
blew it. I blew it.
Wait, what happened, buddy?
We just... We found out
that we really don't
have much to talk about
outside math.
Oh, man. Yeah,
I know about that.
Maybe it's an Eppes
thing, you know?
When Terry and I started
dating, the first thing we said was
we weren't going to talk about
work, right? You know, not a word.
So, how'd you work it out?
Well, I mean,
I mean, she's back
with her ex, but...
That's really very encouraging.
Well, I didn't
mean it like that.
I'm sorry. It's
different with you guys.
You'll work it out.
Meanwhile, I'm hitting
a wall with this case.
You haven't found them yet?
No. Found who?
A mother and her eight-year-old
daughter, kidnapped.
That's horrible.
Who took them?
Well, we don't know yet.
I mean, we got this one
suspect who's a bookie,
and we think there's
some connection,
but we got these
files off his computer,
and they're
impossible to analyze.
What are you
looking for in here?
Well, I mean, the people
who financed the operation.
This guy's been running
bets through a website
called Statzwire that
dead-ends at a URL in China.
And with all the money
he's pulling in and paying out,
we can't tell the difference
between the backers and the bettors.
Well, these abbreviations
may be names and dates,
but the numbers in
this column here...
35, 17, 11,
23, 17, 5.
24, 12, three and a half? Yeah.
I'm assuming that they're part
of some sort of odds-making,
but they just appear to be
at random and they can't be.
You're right.
They're not random.
What are you talking about?
Where's that paper?
This weekend's football scores.
35, 17, 11, here.
The Packers beat
the Vikings 35-17,
and the spread was 11.
Whoa.
23, 17, 5. That... Here.
Niners in San Diego,
five-point spread, right?
24-12 was the Jaguars
over the Colts, huh?
Let me see that. Three and a
half was a ridiculous spread.
I took the Jaguars and
made a hundred bucks.
What, you have a bookie?
Should I have a lawyer present?
No, I'll let you slide.
Wait a minute. If this
column is the point spread,
I can use it to calculate
the ratio of winners to losers
and potentially trace the
payouts and the money flow.
A surprising amount of math
applies itself to gambling.
The most important application,
at least for the bookie,
is determining the point spread
which is this column right here.
Now, ideally,
a bookie wants to take
equal amounts of money
on each side of a game.
However,
sometimes one team is
obviously better than another.
He has to adjust
the point spread.
He has to draw
bets to the weak side
and keep the balance.
See, he keeps the balance
and he doesn't have to pay the
winners out of his own pocket.
They get paid with
the losers' money.
Well, so what's
in it for the bookie?
The juice.
You got it.
For every dollar lost,
the bookie takes about a dime.
With his balance spread,
he's making a four and a half percent
profit on all the action he's taken.
Which means
for a bettor to
simply break even,
he's got to be right
more than 50% the time,
52.38% of the time.
It's a good deal for the book,
not so good for the bettors.
Now, once I figured
out the profit stream,
it was fairly easy for me
to separate out the juice,
and that led me to
this bank account.
That bank number puts
us at Pacific World Bank
in Santa Monica.
That has to be the backers.
The kidnappers.
Colby, track down the
bank manager, the president,
I don't care, just wake them up.
Get the name on
that account, all right?
That's a good job, Charlie.
Charlie, this list of names,
where did you get these?
Well, I... I took them straight
from the books themselves.
They're a list of
the suspect's clients.
Why? What's wrong?
Can you put this page
on the screen? Sure can.
Now scroll down about halfway.
Stop. Right there.
Rausch, the store owner?
He's one of Remy
Logan's gambling clients?
These numbers indicate he's
lost substantial amounts of money.
Well, how substantial?
$180,000.
Well, that ties Rausch to Remy,
and through Remy,
right to the kidnappers.
Wait a minute. Rausch is
right in the middle of all this?
Don, Rausch is in the wind.
What do you mean? What
happened to our surveillance?
They were on him, and
they lost him in traffic.
Now he's not
answering his cell phone.
I mean, he's waiting on
the biggest call of his life.
You know, maybe he's
already gotten the call.
No. We're monitoring his
phone, and there's nothing.
Well, maybe he's got
another cell phone, all right?
Call all the locals and have
them issue an alert, all right?
All right. I got
through on the account
Charlie gave us
for Remy's backers.
Traced back to these two.
Brian and Chris
Reynolds. Brothers.
They cleaned out the
account less than an hour
after the robbery went bad.
'Cause they knew it
was only a matter of time
till we would find Remy
and connect it to them.
Oh, yeah, and look at this.
These are definitely our kidnappers.
Extortion, extortion,
conspiracy.
Older one had a grade-fixing
charge when he was at SC.
Younger one's
got a violent streak.
Goes back to juvie.
Any idea how we can find them?
The address on the bank
account was traced to a PO box.
This little mail
center in San Pedro.
But the owner hasn't
seen anyone, not in weeks.
These guys could be
anywhere right now.
Yeah, well, I mean,
you got to figure
the kid and the mother are
slowing them down, right?
Hey, look, until we
find dead bodies,
this is still a
search-and-rescue. All right?
Yeah.
Where are they?
I never seen either one of them.
You don't know? Look, I know you've
been pushing bets through their wire
to the tune of five figures
a week, you hear me?
We know about Martin Rausch.
We know he's your client.
So I'll make it as
clear as possible.
We got a straight line between
them and the kidnapping.
You know who's right
in the middle of it?
So if you know
where these guys are,
this would be
the time to tell us.
I don't.
I swear, I don't.
Oh, I believe you.
Look,
Rausch got way behind.
Chris and Brian said
if I couldn't collect,
it was coming out of
me, one way or the other.
So then you got your sister
to pull the robbery for you?
No, it was supposed
to be no big deal.
You just take the diamonds
and you show the picture
and you come out, and
I go to the parking lot.
She did what she did to help me,
to save my life.
So Martin Rausch is a gambler.
Mmm-hmm. Right? He's a bad one.
He gets himself in debt to Remy.
Which puts Remy in
trouble with his backers.
That kind of cash, I'm surprised
that they didn't
just kill Rausch.
Well, I mean, dead
guys don't pay.
Ultimately, they just
want their money.
So they find out he
owns a jewelry store...
So they kidnap his family
and make Remy pull the robbery?
It's not a bad plan.
No. It's a damn good plan.
I mean, they get their
money, probably more,
and they can count on him to keep
his mouth shut because of his gambling.
Only thing they didn't count
on was the security guard.
Rausch's phone records.
Three hours ago, there was a
call from his wife's cell phone
to a number we don't have.
They called Rausch on her phone?
I guess. No way to trace
it back to Reynolds, then.
The thing is, what does he
have to give them at this point?
We know he doesn't
have any money.
Yeah, Martin was
here a little earlier.
I told him it was silly, that
he didn't need to be here
while all this
was still going on.
Was he near any of the jewelry?
Could he have stolen
anything? Steal?
Why would he steal
from his own store?
Was he near any of the jewelry?
No. The insurance company's locked
up all the merchandise since the robbery.
They need to do a full
inventory before we reopen.
Okay, think about it.
Is there anything else?
Anything the insurance
company didn't lock up? No.
You do repairs here?
Yeah.
And they're not part of
the inventory, are they? No.
Show us.
Oh, my God. They're...
They're all gone.
How much was in here?
I don't know, if I had to guess,
fifty, sixty thousand
at the most.
Yeah. That's Rausch
leaving with the repair jewelry.
It's not even close
to what he owes.
Yeah, but he's desperate, Don.
He's going to do anything he can
if he thinks it's going
to save his family.
You know,
there's an entrance for
the 101 South right there.
Even if we know he's heading
south, that's a half an hour ago.
It's not gonna help us much.
Sure it is.
This is PEMS.
The freeway Performance
Evaluation Monitoring System.
Okay? Grad students at
CalSci actually consulted on this.
And I ran the system.
Caltrans has sensors
embedded in the roads.
They count cars, trucks.
They monitor traffic patterns,
and that information is sent
to a UC Berkley computer
about twice a minute.
PEMS is designed to predict
optimal traffic routes
and travel time,
and here, it can give us an
idea of the speed and movement
of traffic at the time that
Rausch got on the freeway.
Projecting from
that information,
as well as the time elapsed...
Oh, this is the part of the SATs
that kept me out of Harvard.
The train is leaving
the station at 5:00, right?
I'm applying Constructal Theory.
Point-area and
point-volume flows.
See, traffic moves like
any other fluid system.
There are
imperfections, obstacles
that force the system
to optimize performance
by reducing its resistance.
Now, Martin Rausch
knows this area pretty well,
and if he's like any
of the rest of us,
he'll reduce his resistance
by choosing the
least congested route
to arrive at his destination.
Still not seeing how you
can tell us where he's at.
I can't exactly.
Well, at least not
yet, not right now.
But what I can do...
You say this is the
101 South? Yes.
What I can do is give
you a bounded area.
Wait a minute.
Isn't this the area
where Remy said
he was supposed to make
the drop after the robbery?
Yeah.
Right. Yeah,
there's a parking lot.
Don, that's Rausch's car.
Yeah, I see.
This is Special Agent
Don Eppes with the FBI.
I need LAPD to cordon
off a one block area
running south from Temple,
north to Second Street.
Copy that.
I think he's still in there.
Mr. Rausch?
What are you doing here?
They didn't bring
my family back.
Just step out of
the car, please.
Who didn't bring them?
I thought if I... if I at least
paid them something...
But it wasn't enough.
They... They want more.
And I haven't got any more.
Did they show you proof
they have your family?
This is different
from the jewelry store,
different location.
I've lost them, haven't I?
We don't know that, okay?
They call you on this?
Yes.
This is all my fault. I...
It wasn't supposed
to go like this.
What are you talking about?
They were just supposed to be
held for a couple of hours,
driven around until
they got the diamonds,
and they said
they'd let them go.
Wait a minute. Are you saying that...
that you... you knew all about this?
They were going to kill me,
do you understand?
This was a way out.
It was a way out for all of us.
Rausch is useless.
He has no idea where they are.
I was actually starting to
feel sorry for the son of a bitch.
Yeah, he played
us something, huh?
Okay, I understand the robbery.
How do you involve your
family in a kidnapping?
Well, it's just like you said,
so we'd feel sorry for him.
You know, it gives
him deniability.
'Cause no one's
going to suspect a guy
whose whole family's missing.
We just counted
him as another victim.
Good news is, as of
about a half an hour ago,
the mother and the
kid are still alive, so...
How are you so sure?
Well, the picture was
taken at a different location.
I mean, If they were
going to kill them,
they wouldn't be moving
them around, right?
Yeah, but now they know
they've gotten everything
they possibly can out of Rausch.
I mean, he even tapped out
his credit cards with
the whole gambling thing.
Wait a minute. That's it.
That's what?
The credit cards. Remy
accepts credits cards
but he doesn't process them.
He sends them through
to the Reynolds' website.
Yeah, but we checked the
website and it was a dead end.
Yeah, well, I'll believe
that when Charlie hits it.
Hey, uh, thank
you for doing this.
I hope it's not, um, too
uncomfortable for you.
Amazingly enough, it isn't.
Well, the FBI techs were right.
The route ends at
a server in China.
Yeah, but... I know,
but they're not in China.
They're not accessing
the Internet through China.
That's their... This...
This is just a disguise.
Disguise or not, Charlie,
that's where the trail ends.
All right, all right,
just... All right.
Wait a minute.
Just wait a minute.
Um...
Every time someone
visits a website,
they rewrite some of
the code, don't they?
Yeah. Yeah.
So, can't we trace that back to
the computer that created the site?
Well, we have to have some
specific data stream to follow them.
I mean, there are hundreds,
maybe thousands
of visitors to this site.
But only the two men we're
looking for are setting odds.
Still. I mean, we need some
sort of unique data to isolate them.
Fractions.
Specifically a Farey sequence.
Farey sequence.
Let's say we begin
slicing oranges.
A lot of oranges.
But the rule is we
can never repeat a cut.
In other words, we cut
the first orange in half,
the next orange,
we take out a third,
the next, one-fourth,
then, one-fifth and so on.
In the end,
we're left with many
orange slices of varying size.
When they're arranged
from smallest to largest,
they form a Farey sequence.
And, yes, it's a fairly
esoteric pattern of fractions.
However, the one place
they often tend to show up,
bookmaking.
There's our unique data stream.
So, one-eighth is
seven-to-one odds,
one-seventh is six-to-one
and two-thirds is two-to-one.
Exactly.
Right. So all the
fractions are betting lines.
Right. And they led us
to an Internet account
billed to a marine
repair business
in San Pedro.
Wait, you say San Pedro?
That's the same place the Reynolds
brothers have their mail drop.
FBI!
FBI!
FBI! Hands up!
FBI! Hands up!
Get them up! Get those hands up!
Get those hands up!
Oh, God!
Where are they? Where are they?
I got no idea what
you're talking about.
Neither does my brother.
They're not here,
Don. No sign of them.
Guys, I think we
may be too late.
No, we're not. We're gonna check the docks,
we're gonna check the boats, everything.
Let's go.
All right, Fish,
Petey, up there.
Sam, Mikey, this way. You guys comes with me.
- We're on it.
Whoa, hold on. Shh. Quiet.
Quiet.
Help! I hear it. I hear it.
Get me something
to pry this open with.
My name is Don
Eppes! I'm with the FBI.
Can you hear me? WOMAN:
In here. In here, please.
Just relax, ma'am.
We're coming right in.
It's okay. It's
over. You all right?
Anyone hurt? No?
You all right, sweetie?
It's okay. You're
going home now.
Daddy.
It's okay, sweetie.
Everything's gonna be all right.
Oh, Martin, thank God.
What...
What's going on?
You can tell them or I can.
Tell me what?
Martin?
Julia, why don't we
go get some food
and let Mommy and Daddy talk.
Careful, there.
The morose and
pensive expression
of the romantically confounded.
You know, it... it
wasn't like I was thrilled
when our date
bombed out, you know.
I can accept the fact
that we're not compatible.
You experiment, it
doesn't work, you move on.
Yeah, a cornerstone
of scientific inquiry.
Right, but the
thing is, is, like,
when we're working together,
we talk and we... and we laugh.
And there's an energy.
And I don't understand
why that doesn't
work outside the office.
Why don't we have
anything else to talk about?
You know, you're making an underlying
assumption here that I question.
What's that?
That there's something
else you have to talk about.
See, where you see two people
unable to talk about
politics or movies...
Hey, movies.
I can talk about...
I just saw the penguin movie.
I see two extraordinary minds
that can communicate
on the purest level
a man and woman
can interface on.
Okay, second purest.
Geek love.
Hey, no better kind.
First one to ten points?
Larry, man, I... I
play this game a lot.
Hey, hey, I'm no stranger
to the student union.
Come on. My physics
versus your geometry.
Uh, no, but I'd... I'd
like to see the owner.
Mr. Rausch is with
clients right now.
Maybe I can assist you?
No, it has to be him.
Well, it could
be a little while.
We do have a sitting area.
You can help yourself to some...
Now, this is something
a bit more dramatic,
but maybe that's what
you were thinking of.
Mr. Rausch?
Uh, if you could give
me just one moment.
I'm sorry. This
really can't wait.
Uh, try it on,
and I'll be right back.
What can I do for you?
W-What is this?
Exactly what it says.
If you don't help me,
your wife and daughter
are going to die.
What have you done to
them? Where are they?
Please, just do
as the note says.
The people who have them,
you have no idea
what they're capable of.
They want the diamonds.
Mr. Rausch!
Look, okay, okay.
Your wife and
daughter, Mr. Rausch.
Now, I've done
everything you asked.
My family? Not yet.
If everything goes smoothly,
no police, no FBI,
you'll see them
again in 24 hours.
No, no, that's too long.
I can't...
Uh, hold it right there, ma'am.
Don't!
I warned her. I
told her to stop.
Hey, Colby. Hey, Don.
So, the owner's wife
didn't show at work today,
and his daughter never
made it to school, either.
All right, so the
kidnapping's real.
Yeah, apparently.
David.
Any idea who she is?
No ID.
Only things she had on her
were car keys, sunglasses,
about a half a
million in diamonds
she didn't walk in here with.
Weapons?
Depends on what
you call a weapon.
The old guy said he thought that
she was reaching
for a gun, so...
Well, I hope that shot
just didn't kill three people.
We all use math every day.
To predict
weather, to tell time,
to handle money.
Math is more than
formulas and equations.
It's logic.
Math is more than
formulas and equations.
It's rationality.
It's using your mind
to solve the biggest
mysteries we know.
All right, listen up, everybody.
This is Diane Rausch,
the store owner's wife
and their eight-year-old
daughter, Julia.
Now, we're going to
play this as a kidnapping,
first and foremost.
The robbery is secondary.
It's just a... a means
to get to the kidnappers.
We clear on that?
David, how we doing
on the Jane Doe?
Fingerprints weren't
in the system.
Coroner's checking
dental records,
any kind of medical
clue to identify her.
And the car, we got
anything with that?
I mean, we find that, we
find out who the woman is.
No. Agents canvassed the
neighborhood near the store.
They didn't find a car
to go with her keys.
We should be
looking into other ways
that she might have gotten
there. Bus, car, bicycle...
She was probably
driven by an accomplice.
Statistically, women
rarely commit a crime alone.
Blame the men, huh, Megan?
The stats blame
the men, Granger.
I'm just quoting them.
Come on. Let's
just find this woman.
It's our only way we're gonna
save this kid and... and her mother.
All right? Any questions?
Let's do it.
After what happened, we have
to be worried about their chances.
Let's just assume they're alive,
and then their chances
are better, all right?
Thanks, D.
Don.
Hey, Charlie.
What are you doing here?
I'm dropping this
off for you, man.
You are?
Uh, what is it?
Uh, what is it? I don't know.
It's the geographic crime index
you pretty much begged
me to put together for you,
and I... I found some fairly
fascinating patterns in here, as well.
I mean, you should
be thanking...
Right. Well, thank
you. I appreciate it.
I'm up all night indexing.
Yeah, well, Charlie, you know,
we just got this
kidnapping case.
It's a mother and her
eight-year-old daughter, so...
Kidnapped by whom?
Only lead we have is a Jane Doe.
What do you know about her?
Well, I mean, she
wears sunglasses
and drives a Saturn
which we can't find.
Are these her keys?
Yeah. We did a
search for the car,
but it didn't turn up.
Keyless entry mode actually
poses a fairly interesting
mathematical problem.
Oh, yeah? And what is that?
Well, much of the
general populace
has a remote
nowadays, don't they?
I mean, I... I think
I read somewhere
where 80% of new
cars come with a remote.
Yeah, well, thanks. Hold on.
Every remote has
to have a unique,
one-to-one relationship
with a single car.
Otherwise, you walk
out into a parking lot,
push that button,
any number of cars might unlock.
So, you're saying each
car has its own frequency?
No. That's just it.
They're all on the
same frequency.
Every remote has
a numerical code
that links it to just one car.
You see, people don't
often think about this stuff,
but it's an entirely
math-based technology.
You know who might be able
to help you with this is Larry.
His cosmic listening
project at Kitt Peak
involves stacked frequency work.
Well, I got to find
this woman's car,
so anything you or Larry can do,
I mean, I would appreciate it.
So the last time you saw
your wife and daughter,
they were eating breakfast.
They were sitting
at the kitchen table.
I kissed them
goodbye, left for work.
All right. And your wife
drives Julia to school?
That's our routine, every day.
One of the neighbors saw
them pull out around 8:30.
Said everything looked normal.
God, I just can't imagine what
they're going through right now.
The best thing you could
do for them is just to stay calm
and stay focused.
Mr. Rausch, did you happen to
notice anyone hanging around
or any strange cars
parked on the street?
Anything that just didn't
quite seem to belong?
I'm sorry.
Nothing comes to mind.
So, what... what happens next?
Well, we'll set up a command center
in your house and monitor your calls.
That way, in case the
kidnappers try to contact you...
A command center? No,
I don't... I don't want that.
You know, Mr. Rausch, we need...
The last thing this woman
said was no police, no FBI.
If these people call back...
If they call, I'll do
exactly what they say.
I'll pay whatever they ask.
I just want my family back.
No police, no FBI?
Rausch could wind
up a target himself.
Yep. That's why we're
gonna put a line on his phone,
keep him under surveillance.
Hey, Charlie, have
you ever considered
our place in the universe?
Certainly every time we speak.
More to the point.
You know, galaxies
are constantly
moving away from us.
And the farther away they are,
the... the faster they're
leaving us behind.
This is more to
what point, again?
Amita, Charlie.
Oh. No, wait, wait, wait.
As you let that
opportunity drift away,
it moves faster,
and it moves farther.
It's more complicated than that.
And no matter how complicated
the shape and
structure of a large star,
you... you take
away the nuclear fuel,
it becomes what? A black hole.
Mixing cosmic
metaphors again, are we?
No, it was galaxies...
Our relationship is
not a black hole, okay?
Sorry, guys. It's
not a black hole.
You're not having a
little lovers spat are you?
No, he... Larry just likes
to... Why do you like to talk
about every other problem except
the one you're
currently working on
at the moment? Hey,
hey, hey, what problem?
Receiver is hooked up, so
you just take that remote there,
you hit the button
and the emitted data
stream will be captured
and conveyed right
to the computer.
Okay, I got it. Here you go.
All right, that's the code
that tells the car door to open.
Mmm-hmm. Okay,
let's try another one.
That's a different number.
Because it's a rolling code.
Every time I hit the key,
it sends out a different
signal to the car.
Right. So?
Well, it's like a pitcher. If
he throws the same fastball
every single throw,
what would happen?
Lots of hits. He'd get pulled.
It's the same with a radio code.
If this key sent out the
same signal every time,
well, then it would be easy
for someone else to intercept it.
With a rolling code, the
pitcher needs to mix it up.
Okay, he's throwing curveballs,
he's throwing sliders.
All right, so if the remote's
sending a different signal,
then how does the
car understand it?
The change is predictable,
as long as you know the
algorithm that generates it.
It could be as simple
as adding plus one,
like the catcher
adding a single finger
every time he
signals the next pitch.
All right. So then it doesn't
matter if the combination's different,
as long as the remote
and the car know it.
However, with this remote,
the algorithm's considerably
more complicated.
We're looking at
a sequence, like,
32 hexadecimal digits long.
I mean, that... that's long.
It's a matter of finding the
algorithm that changes the sequence.
The more data I collect,
the easier it'll be for me
to deduce that algorithm.
Well, hence, my preference
for classic automobiles.
Standard lock and
key technology.
Keep your heated seats...
- Guys, look,
I... I'm dealing with a
kidnapping here, okay?
Statistically, the more
time that goes by,
the worse our
chances are getting.
I got you. We're
on it. We're moving
as fast as we can for you.
So you're sorting
those? Based on what?
The ones I like
and the ones I don't.
Looking at the quality.
See if she knew
what she was doing.
She's not in the system.
She has no criminal
history, no record.
And she wakes up this morning
and decides to become a felon.
Maybe she's never
been caught before.
I don't see how with her
habits. I mean, look at her.
She's making absolutely no
attempt to avoid the cameras.
And her hands...
Her fingerprints are on the
top of every counter in there.
And look right there.
What?
She looks terrified.
♪
Oh, hey, Amita.
Hi, Charlie. Hi.
What's going on?
What are you working on?
Something for Don.
It's part of a kidnapping case.
Although, um, right now,
I'm not really
seeing a solution.
Can I help? Please do.
I'm trying to determine
a generating algorithm
from a series of
coded data streams.
You're working this as
a straight rolling code.
Yeah.
Well, for the first
half, definitely.
You proved it.
But for the second half,
I don't know.
Have you tried a 1-D
cellular automaton?
What, like...
Wolfram's Discrete
Computability Theories.
Yeah. It's just a thought.
Well, that's a great thought.
What?
What are you smiling about?
Would you wanna
do something with me
after we're done here?
Charlie, are you actually
asking me out on a date?
You and me, talking
about anything except work.
What do you say?
Yes.
The coroner's report
on our Jane Doe,
no traceable dental work.
She's never even had a cavity.
Yeah, so we got a jewel
thief who flosses, huh?
Anything else we can trace?
Contact lenses, breast implants.
The contact lenses
are generic mail-order,
so there's no serial numbers.
And her breasts,
believe it or not, are real.
In LA.
I mean, that wasn't the
nose she was born with,
which won't help
our case at all,
but at least it'll help
me sleep better at night
knowing she wasn't perfect.
Thanks.
We were able to narrow
the window on the abduction.
Looks like they were grabbed
somewhere between home
and the daughter's school.
Colby, how we doing on
the setup at Rausch's house?
Get this, Rausch
wouldn't allow it.
Wouldn't allow it?
No. Seems to think
he has a better shot
getting them back on his own.
Come on. Wrong move there.
We mentioned that.
Eppes.
Hey, bro, it's me. I, uh,
calculated the program algorithm,
Jane Doe's car keys,
and I'm e-mailing
it to you right now.
Yeah?
Did you get it?
Uh, hold on.
Yeah, I'm getting it. I mean, I
don't know what this means.
Yeah, well, It should mean
something to the car manufacturer.
This algorithm is
specific to one car.
They should be able
to tell you which one.
Then the DMV can tell you
who the current owner is.
All right, good,
Charlie, thanks.
Spotter's got one white male in
his 50's in the front living room,
and there's no
sign of anyone else.
All right, let's get
everyone in position.
Tell David? Yeah.
Can I help you?
Yes, um, I have a package
here for Erica Logan.
Erica's not here.
Ah, well, maybe
you can sign for her?
Well, sure, okay.
FBI. Be quiet.
Okay, okay.
Who else is in the house?
No one, no one's here but me.
FBI!
FBI! FBI!
FBI!
Clear! Clear!
Clear! What?
W-What's going on?
Are you the registered
owner of a 2001 Saturn Ion?
Yes, it's my daughter's car.
Your daughter?
Erica, but she
isn't here right now.
She's at school.
What, she's a student?
No, a teacher. Kindergarten.
Your daughter's a
kindergarten teacher?
Why? What's going on?
Is this her?
Yes.
Where is she?
Where's Erica?
This doesn't make any sense.
She can't be dead.
You must have the wrong girl.
Uh, sir, I'm sorry, we don't.
My wife died when Erica was 12.
Her brother Remy was six.
Erica kept us going,
kept us together.
How could someone like that
ever be involved in a robbery?
When was the last time
you saw or spoke to her?
This morning.
And she lives here with you?
Well, my health
hasn't been so great.
Erica moved back in about
a year ago to look after me.
What about a boyfriend?
Someone who... who might be
able to explain what happened today.
Well, truth is, taking
care of me and her brother
didn't give her much
time to live her own life, but
I'll tell you this,
whatever did happen,
there's got to be more to it.
Don.
They found the wife's car.
It's Mrs. Rausch's car.
Last time she and her
daughter were seen
was this morning
pulling out of the house.
Kid's school is about
three blocks from here,
so obviously they
knew her route.
Kidnapped in broad daylight?
Looks like they were rear-ended.
Now, make sure we get some
paint scrapings here, huh?
Yeah, that's got to be
how they were grabbed.
Get hit from behind, hop out
to swap insurance information.
I got a shoe here.
That matches what Rausch said
the little girl was
wearing this morning.
Thanks.
So looks like it
happened fast, right?
I mean, it was well-planned,
well-executed, they knew her routine.
Got a freeway right
around the corner.
Not dealing with amateurs here.
Nah, there's no question
these guys were pros.
Yeah, who used a kindergarten
teacher as their bag man.
Been no word, no contact,
for almost seven hours.
What the hell are they after?
I still think Erica
Logan has to be the key.
This kind of radical
shift in behavior?
There has to be
some sort of trigger.
Trigger. Like what?
I can tell you what a
textbook would say.
Statistically, it's things like,
um, a near-death experience.
A person can exhibit an
extreme shift in behavior
if they survived a plane crash.
Another could be a person who's
told they only have a month to live,
may start to act on the
fantasies of an alter ego.
That doesn't fit,
though, in this case.
The autopsy
would've flagged that.
All right, so what else?
Uh, parental instinct.
The perception of a
serious threat to a child.
That also doesn't fit.
I mean, her father said
she doesn't have kids, right?
Yeah, but there
was a brother, right?
The old man said she
practically raised him.
Yeah.
A younger sibling
could be the trigger
if they had developed
that kind of relationship.
Well, younger brothers can definitely
be a trigger. Trust me on that one.
Why don't you go
talk to the old man,
see if we can get an
address on the son.
I mean, I want to get everything
we can on this kid, all right?
♪
So, by the way, I wanted to, uh,
thank you so much for
earlier, for helping me.
I... I... Honestly, I think I would
have stared at those boards all day
if you hadn't come up with
the cellular automaton angle,
so you... you rock.
It was one of those weird
inspiration things, you know?
Coming at it with fresh eyes.
It's funny 'cause
my first thought
was the universal
conductor approach,
but then I realized...
Then you what?
We're doing it again, Charlie.
Talking about work.
We said we weren't gonna
talk about work, remember?
Yeah. I remember.
This is ridiculous.
It's ridiculous.
We have to be able
to talk about something
that's not work-related.
We can have a normal
conversation, right?
We can have a conversation.
What's wrong with us?
I don't know.
Pressure. Pressure, maybe.
Yeah.
Maybe it's the pressure.
Thanks.
Okay. Thanks, thanks a lot.
Whoa.
Look at this.
See that? It's
Romanesque broccoli.
I've actually only ever seen
pictures of it, and there's...
There's a fractal pattern
in here that's amazing.
How cool is it that
there's a vegetable
that grows in the
ground that has fractals,
and at the same
time, we're discovering
their importance
in astrophysics?
I mean,
it really makes you wonder...
Yeah.
Bon appetit.
Is everything okay?
Can I get you anything
else this evening?
Thanks, buddy.
You were right.
Brother's name is Remy Logan.
Kids got a sheet, goes
back to when he was a juvie.
Oh, yeah, look
at this, petty theft,
narcotics, gambling charges.
Oh. Just the kind
of little brother
that could complicate
a sister's life.
So we know where he is?
Yeah, David just called with that
address. All right, go pick him up.
♪
Wow.
What do you suppose the
rent is on a place like this?
I don't know, expect
like, two grand, $2,500.
You looking to move?
The place I'm in
doesn't have a pool.
I'm just kind of
thinking here I am,
moved all the way to LA.
Should have a pool, you know?
Absolutely, man. Pool's a
birthright around here, man.
Here it is.
Six.
Number 2 on the rail,
ahead by a length and a half.
Number 7...
His car's in the garage.
Trailing by half a length.
1 is fourth on the outside by
two lengths, followed by the 6.
There's someone in there.
Remy Logan! FBI. Open up!
He's going out the back.
FBI. Stop!
FBI! Stop, or I'll
shoot you in the back.
Wait! I don't have a gun!
Get down! Okay,
just don't shoot me.
We're not gonna shoot you.
Just did not feel like
chasing you today.
Looks like somebody's
been packing,
getting ready to leave.
Who you running from, Remy?
Oh, I'm just taking a
little time away, that's all.
There's nothing
illegal about that, right?
No. You weren't planning
on sticking around
to bury your sister?
Yeah, we know all about the
whole jewelry store robbery thing.
And the kidnapping
of the little girl
and her mother.
I don't know what
you're talking about.
Remy, I read your file.
I talked with your old
man. I know the whole story.
You're the screw-up
little brother.
And Erica,
well, she was the
caring big sister
who always got
stuck bailing you out.
Now, the problem is
Erica was just killed
during the commission
of a robbery.
And if you're involved, that puts
you on the hook for felony murder.
But the kidnapping.
If you're involved in that,
might just land you
strapped to a gurney.
Remy, listen.
Talk to us.
Where are they? Where's
this mother and her little girl?
I don't know.
David, check this out.
You run a book operation?
Hey, who's your bank?
I don't work for anyone.
That's funny. You know,
I never met an independent
bookie who didn't have
a safe, two armed guards
and at least three dead bolts
on the front door.
You don't work for anybody, huh?
Here are all the bets
he pushed through.
Oh, come on, Charlie, it
couldn't have been that bad.
Actually, I truly can't explain
how awful it was.
Oh, I don't understand it.
You and Amita, you
always got along so well.
I'm just as confused as you are.
Yeah, well, maybe it'll
be better next time, hmm?
Yeah, I don't think there's going
to be a next time in my future.
No, no, you do not give up.
You never give up.
Who's giving up what?
Charlie.
He blew his first
date with Amita.
I wouldn't say that
I... I blew it, Dad.
I mean, that's...
Yeah, maybe I
blew it. I blew it.
Wait, what happened, buddy?
We just... We found out
that we really don't
have much to talk about
outside math.
Oh, man. Yeah,
I know about that.
Maybe it's an Eppes
thing, you know?
When Terry and I started
dating, the first thing we said was
we weren't going to talk about
work, right? You know, not a word.
So, how'd you work it out?
Well, I mean,
I mean, she's back
with her ex, but...
That's really very encouraging.
Well, I didn't
mean it like that.
I'm sorry. It's
different with you guys.
You'll work it out.
Meanwhile, I'm hitting
a wall with this case.
You haven't found them yet?
No. Found who?
A mother and her eight-year-old
daughter, kidnapped.
That's horrible.
Who took them?
Well, we don't know yet.
I mean, we got this one
suspect who's a bookie,
and we think there's
some connection,
but we got these
files off his computer,
and they're
impossible to analyze.
What are you
looking for in here?
Well, I mean, the people
who financed the operation.
This guy's been running
bets through a website
called Statzwire that
dead-ends at a URL in China.
And with all the money
he's pulling in and paying out,
we can't tell the difference
between the backers and the bettors.
Well, these abbreviations
may be names and dates,
but the numbers in
this column here...
35, 17, 11,
23, 17, 5.
24, 12, three and a half? Yeah.
I'm assuming that they're part
of some sort of odds-making,
but they just appear to be
at random and they can't be.
You're right.
They're not random.
What are you talking about?
Where's that paper?
This weekend's football scores.
35, 17, 11, here.
The Packers beat
the Vikings 35-17,
and the spread was 11.
Whoa.
23, 17, 5. That... Here.
Niners in San Diego,
five-point spread, right?
24-12 was the Jaguars
over the Colts, huh?
Let me see that. Three and a
half was a ridiculous spread.
I took the Jaguars and
made a hundred bucks.
What, you have a bookie?
Should I have a lawyer present?
No, I'll let you slide.
Wait a minute. If this
column is the point spread,
I can use it to calculate
the ratio of winners to losers
and potentially trace the
payouts and the money flow.
A surprising amount of math
applies itself to gambling.
The most important application,
at least for the bookie,
is determining the point spread
which is this column right here.
Now, ideally,
a bookie wants to take
equal amounts of money
on each side of a game.
However,
sometimes one team is
obviously better than another.
He has to adjust
the point spread.
He has to draw
bets to the weak side
and keep the balance.
See, he keeps the balance
and he doesn't have to pay the
winners out of his own pocket.
They get paid with
the losers' money.
Well, so what's
in it for the bookie?
The juice.
You got it.
For every dollar lost,
the bookie takes about a dime.
With his balance spread,
he's making a four and a half percent
profit on all the action he's taken.
Which means
for a bettor to
simply break even,
he's got to be right
more than 50% the time,
52.38% of the time.
It's a good deal for the book,
not so good for the bettors.
Now, once I figured
out the profit stream,
it was fairly easy for me
to separate out the juice,
and that led me to
this bank account.
That bank number puts
us at Pacific World Bank
in Santa Monica.
That has to be the backers.
The kidnappers.
Colby, track down the
bank manager, the president,
I don't care, just wake them up.
Get the name on
that account, all right?
That's a good job, Charlie.
Charlie, this list of names,
where did you get these?
Well, I... I took them straight
from the books themselves.
They're a list of
the suspect's clients.
Why? What's wrong?
Can you put this page
on the screen? Sure can.
Now scroll down about halfway.
Stop. Right there.
Rausch, the store owner?
He's one of Remy
Logan's gambling clients?
These numbers indicate he's
lost substantial amounts of money.
Well, how substantial?
$180,000.
Well, that ties Rausch to Remy,
and through Remy,
right to the kidnappers.
Wait a minute. Rausch is
right in the middle of all this?
Don, Rausch is in the wind.
What do you mean? What
happened to our surveillance?
They were on him, and
they lost him in traffic.
Now he's not
answering his cell phone.
I mean, he's waiting on
the biggest call of his life.
You know, maybe he's
already gotten the call.
No. We're monitoring his
phone, and there's nothing.
Well, maybe he's got
another cell phone, all right?
Call all the locals and have
them issue an alert, all right?
All right. I got
through on the account
Charlie gave us
for Remy's backers.
Traced back to these two.
Brian and Chris
Reynolds. Brothers.
They cleaned out the
account less than an hour
after the robbery went bad.
'Cause they knew it
was only a matter of time
till we would find Remy
and connect it to them.
Oh, yeah, and look at this.
These are definitely our kidnappers.
Extortion, extortion,
conspiracy.
Older one had a grade-fixing
charge when he was at SC.
Younger one's
got a violent streak.
Goes back to juvie.
Any idea how we can find them?
The address on the bank
account was traced to a PO box.
This little mail
center in San Pedro.
But the owner hasn't
seen anyone, not in weeks.
These guys could be
anywhere right now.
Yeah, well, I mean,
you got to figure
the kid and the mother are
slowing them down, right?
Hey, look, until we
find dead bodies,
this is still a
search-and-rescue. All right?
Yeah.
Where are they?
I never seen either one of them.
You don't know? Look, I know you've
been pushing bets through their wire
to the tune of five figures
a week, you hear me?
We know about Martin Rausch.
We know he's your client.
So I'll make it as
clear as possible.
We got a straight line between
them and the kidnapping.
You know who's right
in the middle of it?
So if you know
where these guys are,
this would be
the time to tell us.
I don't.
I swear, I don't.
Oh, I believe you.
Look,
Rausch got way behind.
Chris and Brian said
if I couldn't collect,
it was coming out of
me, one way or the other.
So then you got your sister
to pull the robbery for you?
No, it was supposed
to be no big deal.
You just take the diamonds
and you show the picture
and you come out, and
I go to the parking lot.
She did what she did to help me,
to save my life.
So Martin Rausch is a gambler.
Mmm-hmm. Right? He's a bad one.
He gets himself in debt to Remy.
Which puts Remy in
trouble with his backers.
That kind of cash, I'm surprised
that they didn't
just kill Rausch.
Well, I mean, dead
guys don't pay.
Ultimately, they just
want their money.
So they find out he
owns a jewelry store...
So they kidnap his family
and make Remy pull the robbery?
It's not a bad plan.
No. It's a damn good plan.
I mean, they get their
money, probably more,
and they can count on him to keep
his mouth shut because of his gambling.
Only thing they didn't count
on was the security guard.
Rausch's phone records.
Three hours ago, there was a
call from his wife's cell phone
to a number we don't have.
They called Rausch on her phone?
I guess. No way to trace
it back to Reynolds, then.
The thing is, what does he
have to give them at this point?
We know he doesn't
have any money.
Yeah, Martin was
here a little earlier.
I told him it was silly, that
he didn't need to be here
while all this
was still going on.
Was he near any of the jewelry?
Could he have stolen
anything? Steal?
Why would he steal
from his own store?
Was he near any of the jewelry?
No. The insurance company's locked
up all the merchandise since the robbery.
They need to do a full
inventory before we reopen.
Okay, think about it.
Is there anything else?
Anything the insurance
company didn't lock up? No.
You do repairs here?
Yeah.
And they're not part of
the inventory, are they? No.
Show us.
Oh, my God. They're...
They're all gone.
How much was in here?
I don't know, if I had to guess,
fifty, sixty thousand
at the most.
Yeah. That's Rausch
leaving with the repair jewelry.
It's not even close
to what he owes.
Yeah, but he's desperate, Don.
He's going to do anything he can
if he thinks it's going
to save his family.
You know,
there's an entrance for
the 101 South right there.
Even if we know he's heading
south, that's a half an hour ago.
It's not gonna help us much.
Sure it is.
This is PEMS.
The freeway Performance
Evaluation Monitoring System.
Okay? Grad students at
CalSci actually consulted on this.
And I ran the system.
Caltrans has sensors
embedded in the roads.
They count cars, trucks.
They monitor traffic patterns,
and that information is sent
to a UC Berkley computer
about twice a minute.
PEMS is designed to predict
optimal traffic routes
and travel time,
and here, it can give us an
idea of the speed and movement
of traffic at the time that
Rausch got on the freeway.
Projecting from
that information,
as well as the time elapsed...
Oh, this is the part of the SATs
that kept me out of Harvard.
The train is leaving
the station at 5:00, right?
I'm applying Constructal Theory.
Point-area and
point-volume flows.
See, traffic moves like
any other fluid system.
There are
imperfections, obstacles
that force the system
to optimize performance
by reducing its resistance.
Now, Martin Rausch
knows this area pretty well,
and if he's like any
of the rest of us,
he'll reduce his resistance
by choosing the
least congested route
to arrive at his destination.
Still not seeing how you
can tell us where he's at.
I can't exactly.
Well, at least not
yet, not right now.
But what I can do...
You say this is the
101 South? Yes.
What I can do is give
you a bounded area.
Wait a minute.
Isn't this the area
where Remy said
he was supposed to make
the drop after the robbery?
Yeah.
Right. Yeah,
there's a parking lot.
Don, that's Rausch's car.
Yeah, I see.
This is Special Agent
Don Eppes with the FBI.
I need LAPD to cordon
off a one block area
running south from Temple,
north to Second Street.
Copy that.
I think he's still in there.
Mr. Rausch?
What are you doing here?
They didn't bring
my family back.
Just step out of
the car, please.
Who didn't bring them?
I thought if I... if I at least
paid them something...
But it wasn't enough.
They... They want more.
And I haven't got any more.
Did they show you proof
they have your family?
This is different
from the jewelry store,
different location.
I've lost them, haven't I?
We don't know that, okay?
They call you on this?
Yes.
This is all my fault. I...
It wasn't supposed
to go like this.
What are you talking about?
They were just supposed to be
held for a couple of hours,
driven around until
they got the diamonds,
and they said
they'd let them go.
Wait a minute. Are you saying that...
that you... you knew all about this?
They were going to kill me,
do you understand?
This was a way out.
It was a way out for all of us.
Rausch is useless.
He has no idea where they are.
I was actually starting to
feel sorry for the son of a bitch.
Yeah, he played
us something, huh?
Okay, I understand the robbery.
How do you involve your
family in a kidnapping?
Well, it's just like you said,
so we'd feel sorry for him.
You know, it gives
him deniability.
'Cause no one's
going to suspect a guy
whose whole family's missing.
We just counted
him as another victim.
Good news is, as of
about a half an hour ago,
the mother and the
kid are still alive, so...
How are you so sure?
Well, the picture was
taken at a different location.
I mean, If they were
going to kill them,
they wouldn't be moving
them around, right?
Yeah, but now they know
they've gotten everything
they possibly can out of Rausch.
I mean, he even tapped out
his credit cards with
the whole gambling thing.
Wait a minute. That's it.
That's what?
The credit cards. Remy
accepts credits cards
but he doesn't process them.
He sends them through
to the Reynolds' website.
Yeah, but we checked the
website and it was a dead end.
Yeah, well, I'll believe
that when Charlie hits it.
Hey, uh, thank
you for doing this.
I hope it's not, um, too
uncomfortable for you.
Amazingly enough, it isn't.
Well, the FBI techs were right.
The route ends at
a server in China.
Yeah, but... I know,
but they're not in China.
They're not accessing
the Internet through China.
That's their... This...
This is just a disguise.
Disguise or not, Charlie,
that's where the trail ends.
All right, all right,
just... All right.
Wait a minute.
Just wait a minute.
Um...
Every time someone
visits a website,
they rewrite some of
the code, don't they?
Yeah. Yeah.
So, can't we trace that back to
the computer that created the site?
Well, we have to have some
specific data stream to follow them.
I mean, there are hundreds,
maybe thousands
of visitors to this site.
But only the two men we're
looking for are setting odds.
Still. I mean, we need some
sort of unique data to isolate them.
Fractions.
Specifically a Farey sequence.
Farey sequence.
Let's say we begin
slicing oranges.
A lot of oranges.
But the rule is we
can never repeat a cut.
In other words, we cut
the first orange in half,
the next orange,
we take out a third,
the next, one-fourth,
then, one-fifth and so on.
In the end,
we're left with many
orange slices of varying size.
When they're arranged
from smallest to largest,
they form a Farey sequence.
And, yes, it's a fairly
esoteric pattern of fractions.
However, the one place
they often tend to show up,
bookmaking.
There's our unique data stream.
So, one-eighth is
seven-to-one odds,
one-seventh is six-to-one
and two-thirds is two-to-one.
Exactly.
Right. So all the
fractions are betting lines.
Right. And they led us
to an Internet account
billed to a marine
repair business
in San Pedro.
Wait, you say San Pedro?
That's the same place the Reynolds
brothers have their mail drop.
FBI!
FBI!
FBI! Hands up!
FBI! Hands up!
Get them up! Get those hands up!
Get those hands up!
Oh, God!
Where are they? Where are they?
I got no idea what
you're talking about.
Neither does my brother.
They're not here,
Don. No sign of them.
Guys, I think we
may be too late.
No, we're not. We're gonna check the docks,
we're gonna check the boats, everything.
Let's go.
All right, Fish,
Petey, up there.
Sam, Mikey, this way. You guys comes with me.
- We're on it.
Whoa, hold on. Shh. Quiet.
Quiet.
Help! I hear it. I hear it.
Get me something
to pry this open with.
My name is Don
Eppes! I'm with the FBI.
Can you hear me? WOMAN:
In here. In here, please.
Just relax, ma'am.
We're coming right in.
It's okay. It's
over. You all right?
Anyone hurt? No?
You all right, sweetie?
It's okay. You're
going home now.
Daddy.
It's okay, sweetie.
Everything's gonna be all right.
Oh, Martin, thank God.
What...
What's going on?
You can tell them or I can.
Tell me what?
Martin?
Julia, why don't we
go get some food
and let Mommy and Daddy talk.
Careful, there.
The morose and
pensive expression
of the romantically confounded.
You know, it... it
wasn't like I was thrilled
when our date
bombed out, you know.
I can accept the fact
that we're not compatible.
You experiment, it
doesn't work, you move on.
Yeah, a cornerstone
of scientific inquiry.
Right, but the
thing is, is, like,
when we're working together,
we talk and we... and we laugh.
And there's an energy.
And I don't understand
why that doesn't
work outside the office.
Why don't we have
anything else to talk about?
You know, you're making an underlying
assumption here that I question.
What's that?
That there's something
else you have to talk about.
See, where you see two people
unable to talk about
politics or movies...
Hey, movies.
I can talk about...
I just saw the penguin movie.
I see two extraordinary minds
that can communicate
on the purest level
a man and woman
can interface on.
Okay, second purest.
Geek love.
Hey, no better kind.
First one to ten points?
Larry, man, I... I
play this game a lot.
Hey, hey, I'm no stranger
to the student union.
Come on. My physics
versus your geometry.