Numb3rs (2005–2010): Season 3, Episode 11 - Killer Chat - full transcript
Have baseball bat, will travel is the motto for a serial killer, who finds pedophiles in chat rooms and lures them to empty houses, then ambushes them, ties them to chairs, forces them to confess into a video camera and completes the beating deaths. Meanwhile, have space shuttle will travel is the motto of Larry, who is trying to get aboard the next shuttle launch -- and be gone for six months -- to perform scientific experiments. Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin appears as himself near the end.
(camera whirring)
(camera whirring)
Hello!
It's John.
Are you here?
Hello?
(shutter clicks)
(shutter clicks)
(shower running)
(shutter clicks)
It's John!
Hello.
Do you want some company?
(glass shatters)
Victim is John Santos,
30, recently divorced.
Video store manager.
What do you say, Colby?
Hey, he's in here...
We found a wallet
in his back pocket.
Car was parked out front.
License said he's
from Riverside.
Brought his own refreshments.
Even found the receipt
for it. Here you go, Ray.
Thank you. We'll
get that to the lab.
(indistinct radio transmission)
Real estate agent
found the body?
Yeah, same as all the others.
Agent walks in with
the prospective buyer,
opened up and
find the guy like this.
She's never seen him before.
No. Must have taken the key
out of the lock box.
We found the "for sale" sign
tossed into the bushes.
Well, it's the same story.
Tied up, beaten.
DAVID: Six weeks,
three victims, all the same M.O.
COLBY: All in unoccupied
homes for sale.
I mean, there's no doubt
we got a serial killer here.
CHARLIE: Larry!
Over here, Charles.
What is this? What
are you doing?
Well, I'm preparing
for the event horizon
of a new perspective.
Hmm. Guess that makes two of us.
Look, I know I haven't been
entirely supportive
of your decision
to sit atop a Roman candle
and blast off into the unknown.
Hey, if an apology is coming...
your launch window
is shrinking fast.
I've done some soul-searching.
I think it's really
great that your dream
is finally coming true. Well...
I'm grateful for that, Charles.
I'm just...
I'm gonna miss you.
Yeah, I know.
Well, it's only
six months and...
though I will be traveling
250 miles above the Earth,
at 18,000 miles per hour,
it's only a phone call away,
albeit a very
expensive phone call.
Going-away present.
I'd say you shouldn't have,
but given your
recent behavior...
Open it.
This is my T-shirt.
The one I gave to
you for safekeeping.
You're rocketing
into space, Larry.
There's no downside
to packing a lucky shirt.
Charles, I will be okay.
Truly I will.
Well...
Well, I'm headed to the FBI.
I'm gonna go work
on a case for Don.
Wanna join me?
Why not?
Cool.
So we've got three
victims now, all bound,
all beaten to death.
Victim Number Three is this guy,
Santos, the video manager.
Victim Number
One is Scott Tillman,
40-year-old family man
from Mar Vista, killed six
weeks ago in Westwood.
And Two is Jared Holt. He's 55.
He's a broker,
he lives in Malibu
and he was killed ten
days ago in Glendale.
No apparent link between them.
Except for one thing. The
houses they were found in.
Unoccupied, for sale.
All three houses were listed
with three separate real estate
companies. Charlie, we couldn't
find a connection there.
All right, so what are they
doing at these houses?
Well, they all went willingly.
They drove themselves.
Their cars were found on-site.
Plus, you don't bring
beer to your own funeral.
They're finding the
locations first, and somehow
they're getting these
guys there without a fight.
If I may...
The houses are the key. See,
while they may seem
to be randomly selected,
may even appear to be
different on the surface,
there's very likely
a discernible pattern
here somewhere.
MEGAN: You thinking, you profile
the houses, you
profile the killer?
CHARLIE: By using
a multi-attribute
compositional model,
I can analyze houses
by looking at the individual
parts that make up the whole.
And given what we know about
the killer's preferences,
well, then, you know,
I can composite his dream house.
All right. So... compare them
to the other houses for sale.
MEGAN: And generate
a list of locations where
he'll most likely strike again.
DAVID: Clothes make the man.
Maybe houses make the murderer.
COLBY: This guy has
definitely got his own playbook.
I mean, most serial killers,
they stalk their victims,
or they bring them
home to do the deed.
This guy is doing neither.
He lures his victims
to these houses.
All right, so, I mean, he knows
more than just which
ones are for sale.
Yeah, he knows which
ones are empty and when.
It sounds to me
like we're looking
for a real estate agent,
maybe a contractor.
I wonder how he gets
them into the houses
to begin with. I don't know.
But we checked the bank records
and they showed all
three of these victims
just before the murders
took money out of ATMs.
Maybe he's baiting them...
You know, with drugs.
COLBY: Yeah, or maybe
something else.
Our second victim,
Jared Holt, he got
busted two years ago
on a solicitation rap
with a prostitute in Hollywood.
Could be a hustle turned murder.
Okay, so cell phones, e-mails,
and the first guy
had a wife, right?
Yeah, Megan's on all that.
All right.
We were married 16 years.
Wow...
So...
you said on the phone the FBI...
had some new information?
Thank you.
Yeah. Another
man has been found.
(sighs)
It's...
Tomorrow,
it's six weeks to the day.
It's hardest on the kids.
Tom cries every
morning, wants his daddy.
But Susan's the one
I'm really worried about.
She doesn't cry at all.
I'm really sorry
to put you through this again.
No, it's okay. It's just...
I don't know what
more I can tell you.
Well, we found
some commonalities
between the murders.
Commonalities? Yeah.
Your husband withdrew
some money from an ATM
just before he went
to the house. Money?
Yeah. A few hundred dollars.
And you think that
could be significant?
We're not sure, but...
we're not sure why
he was at the house
or what he would
have had the money for.
I told you, we moved
here a year ago, needed
a house fast, bought
this one, sight unseen.
We talked about
getting a bigger place.
Isn't that strange that he
would be there alone, though?
Oh, Scott made most
of our financial decisions,
so if we were
getting a bigger place,
he...
Plus, my birthday was coming up.
If, uh,
I had to guess, I would say
he probably wanted
to surprise me.
Some birthday present, huh?
LARRY: Imagine a tortured psyche
avenging some childhood slight.
He chooses houses
that remind him
of where he grew up.
Completes the circle.
It's very Hitchcock.
I would say it's very Megan.
You two have been
spending so much
time together, your
minds are melding.
Well, of course we needed
to maximize the hours
given that soon we will
be restricted to more...
oh... creative communication.
So is that part of the
creative communications plan?
Actually, somebody
threw a wrench in the works
in my attempts to secure
the CalSci Celestron,
but Megan and I have now devised
a new arrangement.
I will be able to
look down at her...
as she is able to look up at me.
(laser blipping)
Ooh.
Is that your...?
Wait a second.
You have a cell
phone? Since when
do you have one of those?
Since NASA started calling me.
I'm sorry. This is
Larry Fleinhardt. Can I
help you? You know what?
His theory about
the killer's childhood?
Yeah. It's making
me think we should
re-weight these
variables, you know?
Okay.
CHARLIE: So why
don't we start...?
What's up?
Well, my journey may have
ended before it even began.
What happened?
Just... the mission.
What, was it scratched?
No.
Apparently, I was.
DAVID: You going
through victim backgrounds?
Yes. I have medical history,
and family histories
and education.
Are you finding anything in
common? I don't know yet.
Maybe.
John Santos, that last victim,
he has a sealed record with
Child and Family Services.
He went through all kinds
of foster care growing up.
So?
So, Jared Holt,
that second victim,
has a solicitation rap.
I'm not sure I follow.
You know, the
rage, the violence.
It all has a sort of
sexual component to it,
but, you know, I'm not
putting this out there
till I finish my homework.
(sighs)
Does it look bad?
I-I don't know,
but... Of course not.
We'll find out in a second.
What's the story?
According to Millie,
some unnamed rival
of Larry's in some
unnamed institute
in Massachusetts
lobbied for an 11'th-hour
background check.
It seems that some
of Larry's recent...
lifestyle choices
have become a subject
of concern of NASA.
They...
They found out he was living
in the steam tunnels, right?
AMITA: How could they? I mean,
we're his friends and we
didn't even know until...
Mildred. And just when
I was beginning to think
she was a living, breathing
human being. ALAN: Come on.
Come on, Charlie.
How could you
blame Millie for this?
How can I blame her?
How can you defend her?
NASA called her.
It wasn't the other way around.
Mildred is department
chair, Charlie.
I mean, if NASA pressed her
for a full disclosure,
she couldn't lie.
She felt horrible
about this whole thing.
I-I did, too.
What's all this about?
It's real estate data.
We're trying to
quantify a serial killer's
emotional attachment to the
houses he commits murders in.
Mmm. Well,
killer or home-buyer,
the rule is always
the same, isn't it?
Location, location, location.
He's right.
We've been looking
at the houses.
We should be looking
at the neighborhoods.
I checked the victims' phone
logs and their credit cards.
They didn't go to
the same places,
they didn't talk to
the same people.
E-mail?
Colby's checking their
Internet service providers,
but so far, it's not
looking so good.
All right, so we're
back to square one.
Maybe not completely.
Why, what do you got?
I called Child and
Family Services
about victim number
three... John Santos.
The one with the sealed
juvie record. Yeah.
At seven years old he was
removed from his home.
Suspicion that he was
being sexually molested.
Well, you know, this is
the gift that keeps on giving.
Those victims... DON: Right.
A lot of them become
abusers themselves.
Yeah, so that inspired me
to take a fresh look
at all of our victims.
And number two, Jared Holt...
He's the one that had
the solicitation rap...
What we didn't know
was that the prostitute
was underage.
She was 14 years old.
His lawyer had the
rape charge dismissed.
And what about victim
number one, the teacher?
His wife told me
they moved. Turns out
they moved a lot.
Five schools in seven years.
I called the administrators,
nobody had any comment.
Well, that definitely
tells us something.
Tells us we've got a guy
soliciting underage prostitutes,
a teacher messing with kids
and a victim
of sexual abuse who more
than likely may have become
an abuser himself.
COLBY: Just got off the
phone with the victim's ISPs.
They didn't have
anything in e-mails,
but they did have records
of visits to chat rooms.
Dozens of sites with names
like "Lonely Girls Only,"
"Cheerleader Diaries."
Got tons more if you want 'em.
Maybe they decided to take
it a step further than just talk.
Maybe that's why they're dead.
Hey, good morning.
All right, so... he's
going after sex offenders.
Yeah, and combined with
the brutality of the murders,
it really suggests one motive.
Right, revenge.
Yeah, something
happened in the past
and the killer's
getting payback now.
He's likely a victim of abuse.
MEGAN: Yeah, or
someone close to him.
A daughter, sister.
And what, the common denominator's
the Internet? MEGAN: Yeah, he's luring
them in through the chat rooms.
All right, why don't you get
after those transcripts, huh?
We're on it. So if the killer's
meeting his victims online,
there's got to be
an electronic trail,
right? Yeah, I mean, if
we find the common user
name that these people talk
to, I think we've found the killer.
Good.
Sorry for the mess.
I just got the
kids off to school.
Your Internet service provider
gave me a list of chat rooms
your husband visited.
Huh?
They seem more appropriate
for a 14-year-old girl
than a 40-year-old man.
We know why
your husband was at that house.
I think you do,
too, Mrs. Tillman.
I'm sorry, I can't help you.
All those schools
in all those cities?
You have children. How can you
continue to protect him?
My husband and I were
married for 16 years.
I have a family.
You think I could just
throw it all away?
We tried counseling.
He promised he'd stop.
But he didn't, did he?
He told me, he swore to me...
he'd never touch the kids.
Your husband went on a
chat room and met someone
that he thought was
a very young girl.
Someone else's kid.
And he went to that
house to meet her.
Now if you saw a name...
if you saw an I.M.
on his computer...
You protected him
for a really long time and
look where it's gotten you.
If you keep living
in this denial,
you're just going
to protect his killer.
We are done here. Thank you.
AMITA: You haven't said
one word in ten minutes.
Just thinking.
Look, I think by
now I can distinguish
between Professor Eppes
puzzling over a math
problem and Charlie Eppes
worrying about a friend.
It's not Larry.
It's me.
To think I was glad that
my best friend's dream
had been destroyed.
(laughs)
What's that say about me?
That you're human.
That you care about Larry.
I think when it
comes to emotions,
Professor Eppes has
to cut Charlie Eppes
a little bit of slack.
The good news is
I have been working.
The current thinking is
our killer was
targeting sex offenders.
Who were preying on
young teens, right? Right.
Which is why I reset
the parameters of our
neighborhood analysis
to reflect the
interests of teenagers.
All three houses are located
near schools, movie theaters
and shopping malls.
Places were kids go?
(whispers): Right.
(piano jazz playing)
NASA hasn't made
any decisions yet, Larry.
Don't give up yet.
Oh, what was I thinking?
That I had the right stuff?
Larry Fleinhardt,
steam tunnel freak.
Oh, come on, you're not a freak.
You are an eccentric.
A delightful,
charming, sexy eccentric.
But you are not a freak.
You know why I bought
that car, don't you?
The '31 Ford.
I remember something
about the organization
and the art deco lines.
All true, but the
tipping point...
What made me take
the pecuniary plunge...
Was actually the hood ornament.
That's right.
It was a bird in flight.
Now a day ago, I was that bird.
Now...
Now my wings have been clipped.
COLBY: Don, I think
we got something.
Found a bunch of chat rooms
that each of the three victims visited.
Now on the day that
they were murdered
each of them had chatted
with the same person... A
user named cheerchik15.
The transcripts indicate
our killer pretended
to be a 15-year-old girl.
Okay, well, trace it.
Well, he was smart.
He used Internet
cafes, paid cash,
made sure there were no cameras.
So what, dead end?
Except we had our techs check
the visitor logs of
those chat rooms
going all the way
back to the fall.
What, this cheerchik
appear before?
Yeah, three months ago.
And he just finds
them again online?
How do you explain that?
Well, we can't exactly,
but at least we have
somebody to ask now.
The guy slipped up and
used his home computer.
I.P. address traces back
to a Brendan McCrary.
All right, and?
He fits the profile.
He had a daughter
who was victimized
by an online predator.
She committed
suicide a year ago.
Wife works for a
mortgage company.
COLBY: So he
had access to all the
real estate
information he needed.
All right, go for
it. Pick him up,
let's see what we get.
MAN: All right,
defense! Move back!
BOY: Open!
MAN: Move it up!
(indistinct shouting)
(whistle blows)
(players cheering)
BOY: Hey. Dad...
See that?
Oh, yeah. Good, son.
So, no, I need some
answers... Brendan McCrary.
I got to go. FBI.
We need to talk
to you. About what?
Your exploits on the Internet.
Cheerchik15... ring a bell?
Turn it around, put your
hands behind your back.
Wait, wait, wait, this is nuts.
Guys, we're on the same side.
The same side?
I can explain it.
You just need to...
Sir, you don't want
to do this here.
(man shouting indistinctly)
BRENDAN: Hey, call your mother.
I need the lawyer.
(whistle blowing)
MAN: Let's go, come on!
Tell my something, Mr. McCrary,
you are cheerchik15?
It's a user name I go by.
Pretending to be
a 15-year-old girl wanting sex.
Excuse me, but what is it you
think my client has done here?
Hold on a second, Counselor.
This is Scott
Tillman, Jared Holt
and this is John Santos.
They're all dead... they all
communicated with cheerchik15.
What?! Yeah, that's right,
they were given an address
to meet on the day
they were murdered. I...
This is a chat with Santos.
Santos: "What are you wearing?"
Cheerchik15:
"Wouldn't you
like to know? LOL."
That's enough, Mr. Eppes...
Santos... hold on... "Can I come over?"
Cheerchik15:
"Parents are away for weekend.
I'll get pretty for you."
Santos: "I'll be
there." Yeah, yeah.
That's my user name,
but it's not me. Right.
You going to tell me it
wasn't you three months ago?
Huh? God, you don't know
what this is about, do you?
No, I get it. I understand...
It's payback for
what happened with
your daughter, isn't that it?
My daughter? I
mean, it makes sense.
I think there is a serious
mistake... BRENDAN: My daughter...
Wait, no, because you
couldn't protect her...
You're the ones who
couldn't protect her!
What? The guy who
lured her out was on parole.
I belong to a group called
Parents Stop Predators.
We go online to chat
rooms, we pretend to be teens
and we have these
creeps arrested.
Say what?
Maybe someone hijacked
my user name from the group.
I don't know, but whoever
killed these men it wasn't me.
Brendan?
Are you all right?
No, it's fine. Everything's
okay. I just saw the lawyer.
He said that the FBI was talking
to you about some murders?
It turns out it was
all a big mistake.
MRS. McCRARY: A mistake? Yeah.
Come on.
You people are always
making mistakes.
I'm sorry, ma'am.
You know, if you were
doing your job... Let's go.
My daughter would
still be alive. Let's go.
Not sure this is going
to brighten the mood any.
Well? His story checks out.
Local P.D. confirmed
that three months ago
he attempted to lure
the victims to a house.
They didn't bite, so
he sent a letter instead.
Saying?
Notification they'd attempted
explicit sexual
conversations with a minor.
Threatened to out them
to their families if they
didn't seek counseling. Oh...
and he has an alibi
to the last murder.
CHARLIE: Don.
What, you got something?
Yeah, I think we figured out
why the killer's
picking these houses.
Amita's got the laptop.
So...
we hit a wall trying to
composite our killer's ideal house
because we realized
he's not choosing houses.
He's choosing by neighborhoods.
CHARLIE: Exactly. We're
all familiar with Megan's Law.
Yeah, requires the
police to tell the public
about sex offenders.
There's also something
called Jessica's Law.
Right. Where they can't live.
Not 2,000 feet from a
school, or day care, right?
So what we did was
we ran an analysis
of Jessica's Laws hot zones
and mapped it against the
locations of the three houses.
MEGAN: The houses where
the murders occurred are all
dead center?
DON: Right. So these
are the areas we're
supposed to look?
And I also mapped all the
other Jessica's Law hot zones
in the entire L.A. area.
Oh, boy.
Come on, Charlie, what,
are you kidding me? I mean,
there's no way we can
cover this much ground.
MEGAN: Wait a
minute. That might be
the killer's message.
That there's no way
we can stop these guys.
What? Only he can?
DAVID: A Web host
monitoring one of their sites
just gave us a call.
Our killer posted a video.
Don, you have to see this.
I didn't do anything.
I just came by to see a friend.
(panting)
My name is John Santos...
I came to this house to have
sex with a 15-year-old girl.
This isn't the first time.
DAVID: He beats
them until they confess.
I've had relations
with over 30 girls
under the age of 15.
I ask for forgiveness
from them...
from their families...
You don't want to see the rest.
Killer uploaded this video
to a site that holds suicides,
beheadings, you name it.
Post today? Yeah, this morning.
I did a search and found a
similar video of victim number two
put up two days
after he was killed.
What about the first victim?
Nothing yet.
All right, well,
can you trace him?
Techs have been trying,
but the killer must have used
some kind of masking program.
They haven't been
able to crack it.
All right, well, who
are you going to call?
Charlie. There you go.
(phone beeps)
(speed dial tone)
Yeah, so it seems to me
that the killer is using
some kind of
"onion-routing" technique.
Onion-routing
is a way of sending
content over a network
and still remaining
completely anonymous.
It's sort of like a person
sending a series of
letters inside letters.
He sends the first
one to a friend,
who then finds a
second letter inside,
and all that friend knows is,
he's supposed to forward
that letter, so he does.
So, each letter is like a layer
of an onion being peeled back
until the final message
inside is revealed.
Can you crack
something like this?
You know, it's funny,
I created an algorithm
for one of Larry's projects,
and so I-I think I can
adapt it to this case.
And speaking of
Larry, Charlie, I...
I keep thinking that maybe
there's something that-that
we can do to help him.
I keep thinking the same
thing, but I-I don't know what.
What about all the
people you know
in the science community?
What if you call one of them?
(sighs)
Well, Larry's NoiseTamper
project is an NSA initiative,
but you have to understand,
if NASA's questioning
Larry's overall fitness,
that's... Then we
should make that call,
because Larry is devastated.
His spirit is-is crushed.
He's like a star
collapsing in on himself.
You two have been
hanging out a lot.
Charlie, I don't
want him to go either.
If there's anything we can do,
we have to let Larry be Larry.
The killer's timeline is
definitely accelerating.
He's gone from six weeks
between kills to ten days;
now down to 72 hours.
What's the deal, is Charlie's
thing up and running?
Megan says it'll be up in an
hour, but there's a problem.
What's that?
It can't run a trace after
an upload's completed.
It can only look for
content during transmission.
Great, so what do we do,
wait till the guy does it again?
This better work. (typing)
CHARLIE: Hey, so
I got the algorithm
set to scan the site the
killer's been uploading to.
Once we get a hit, we'll be
able to trace his transmission.
All right, good.
(beeping) We got
a hit, Professor.
Okay. Hey. Don,
hey! We got a hit.
My name is Wendell Henderson.
I came to this house
to have sex with
a 15-year-old girl.
In the past ten years, I've...
molested over 40 young girls.
Some as young
as 11... All right, so?
It's getting there.
Just another minute.
HENDERSON: I understand that I
can never give these young girls...
Wow, this is really odd.
What?
This transmission...
The file size and video times
are steadily increasing, and
the checksums are
constantly changing.
This is uploading live.
Wait, what? Don...
their trust...
He hasn't killed him
yet. Tina, come on.
You gotta give me a location now.
I'm tapping into the server. I should
be able to run a
ping trace to find
the broadcast socket.
Do that. Call me in the car.
HENDERSON: I ask forgiveness...
from these young girls...
Got it.
And their parents...
252 Estrella.
For the pain and
suffering that I've caused...
(sirens wailing)
Jimmy, you guys come
with me. Colby, David,
take two and head out back.
FBI! FBI! FBI!
FBI! FBI! What is this?!
Wait here! Don't move!
What's happening? You alone in
the house? Yes, I
don't understand.
All right, all right, it's okay.
You been on the Internet?
No, it's been down today.
Okay, it's okay. Just relax.
We're sorry, it's the
wrong house, ma'am.
We're going to rectify this.
The killer's covering his
tracks. (dialing phone)
He must have
piggybacked their router.
I'm sorry, ma'am. Sorry.
Hey, Charlie, we
got a problem here.
(muffled scream)
Yeah, Don, what's going on?
We... we just lost our
video transmission.
DON: It's the wrong house.
He must have
piggybacked the signal.
Oh, no, that's not possible.
You know what, if he did, then
he's in the area using a WIFI signal.
Tell me all the houses for
sale in the neighborhood.
I'm already on it.
Okay, I've got a house.
It's two streets over.
It's 2463 North
Irving Boulevard.
DISPATCH: All units...
2463 North Irving Boulevard,
stand by for possible backup...
Oh, damn.
Damn!
Ah, he's dead.
He must have heard the chopper.
Left in a hurry.
Ah, he left this...
Computer transmitting gear.
We were close.
Yeah, well. You guys clear?
AGENT: All clear.
Wendell Henderson.
32, computer geek.
Same story. He talked dirty with
Brendan McCrary in a chatroom
three months ago.
And the killer
contacts him again,
using McCrary's
username to lure him.
DAVID: Electronic gear we found
was all bought with cash.
The store owners can't remember
who made the purchases.
I mean, so whoever
it is clearly has access
to McCrary's files.
COLBY: He may
be right. It may be
somebody from his group
who hijacked his username.
DAVID: I have a list
of all the Parents Stop
Predator volunteers,
transcripts of their chatroom
conversations. Well, then
may I take a look at that?
A lot of names to
go through, Charlie.
Maybe instead of going
through the names,
why don't we go
through the chat?
What do you mean?
Well, it's just like
any language.
You know, on-line messaging
has its own
vocabulary and syntax.
Senders of these messages
develop their own
unique patterns of speech,
which can then be analyzed
using Statistical
Linguistic Analysis.
It's like a jeweler
beading a necklace.
A jeweler chooses
certain types of beads
then strings them
in a particular pattern
according to his own
unique, personal style,
just like IM senders will
exhibit their own styles,
patterns of speech
which are unique to them.
So, then we just compare them.
Yeah, to the transcripts
of the volunteers
for this "Parents
Stop Predators" group.
Look, if the killer
is in that group,
he will be betrayed
by his own chat.
Amita.
Hey. Hi.
Um, have you seen Charlie?
I-I have the transcripts
from the killer's latest chat.
He's working in Larry's office.
Larry's at a symposium.
And he thought he could
concentrate better there.
Oh, he's got you
working on this, too?
Well, my experience with
asymptotic combinatorics
comes in handy.
Sounds like everything you need
for a good working relationship.
Charlie and I
work well together.
That must be nice.
You gonna miss him, aren't you?
Yeah, a little more
than I think I originally
thought I would.
Well, he's coming back.
Yeah, he is.
And I have a telescope now.
(laughs)
You know, I'm
actually going that way.
I'll walk with you.
(laughing): Okay,
thank you. Sure.
CHARLIE: I need to
speak with Dr. York
concerning Lawrence Fleinhardt.
F-L-E-I...
Oh, you know him?
Okay, well, then I guess
you're the person I need
to be speaking to.
Um, I've known
Professor Fleinhardt
for approximately 17 years,
and I'll be the first to
admit he's an eccentric.
I'm aware that
that's your concern.
Yeah, but he's brilliant.
He's the kindest, most
decent person I know.
Yes.
I am, I am personally
vouching for him, yes.
Well, I appreciate that.
Uh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I guess that
is all I have to say.
Thank you.
(mouthing)
Hey. So, got something?
Yeah, I did what I
said I was going to do.
I compared the killer's
messaging patterns
against our Parents
Stop Predators group
and I've isolated a near
match within an error margin
of five percent.
All right, so who?
According to my math,
Brendan McCrary.
No, no, that's not possible.
He's already alibied
for two of the murders.
Yeah, but Charlie's saying
he found a near match.
You know they say
people and their pets start
to look alike?
Same thing happens
in family dynamics.
One member of a family will
start to think and speak alike.
What, the family?
Well, the wife did go
off on you pretty good.
Yeah, but going off isn't
what I'm talking about,
'cause that's too
explosive. This kind of
rage is, is
calculated carefully.
All right, well, if you
don't think it's the wife,
there's only one survivor left.
All right, Matt, this
is from your laptop.
List of sexual predators,
these are chat
room conversations.
He says you downloaded it
from my computer. Is that true?
Four of the names
from your father's list
were murdered.
Now, he didn't do it.
You're the only other source.
You going to tell me
what I want to know?
Agent Eppes asked
you a question, son.
I didn't kill anyone.
Who did?
Hey, look, it makes sense
that you'd want to get
back at people like that...
What happened with your sister.
It's normal, it's
natural. I would, too.
But that makes you
just like them, right?
Is that what you
really want to be?
No.
Sweetie...
I didn't know they were
going to get hurt, I swear.
Tell them what
they need to know.
I met this person in a chat room
for families of victims
of sexual predators.
I didn't know his name
or anything about him.
All I know is that he listened.
Honey,
if you were having problems,
why didn't you come to us?
What were you going to do?
Matt! Oh, seriously,
Dad, you're too busy with
your Catch The Creep group.
And you?
You don't even come out
of your room half the day
except to go into Katie's
bedroom to look around.
You don't think I see?
I loved Katie.
Losing her
sucked.
But I didn't just lose her.
I lost you, too.
This person you said you
met, what'd you talk about?
My dad's group, mostly.
How useless they are getting
these guys into counseling.
How counseling doesn't
do anything.
You gave him the names, right?
It's...
I didn't mean for
any of this to happen.
(sniffles)
I'm sorry.
LARRY: Hey, Charles.
I thought you should know.
Yeah? I heard from NASA.
Uh-huh? I'm back on the mission.
Oh, that's... that is great.
Congratulations.
Well, apparently,
someone at the NSA
did some arm twisting.
Oh, well, they're the
experts, off the record.
Well, on the record...
thank you very much.
I didn't do anything...
aside from making them
see the error of their ways.
Consider it my contribution
to national security.
(laughs): What, you
think having me off planet
improves our security?
I didn't say it.
Well, I know you
don't want me to go.
And therein lies the
nobility of what you did.
What I did was repay a debt.
You don't remember this, do you?
But, uh, when I was a
14-year-old kid at Princeton...
when we first met, do you
remember what you said to me?
Oh, as I recall, I
said many things.
You said...
that you wanted to
see me safely launched
into the academic firmament.
Now it's your turn.
Listen, just so you know,
it's always harder on the mentor
than it is on the student.
COLBY: I traced the
username of the person
that Matt McCrary
talked to in the chatroom.
Right. It was a dead end.
Yeah, guy keeps
covering his tracks, right?
How about you, you got anything?
I keep going over
my interview notes.
Matt McCrary had a
conversation with the killer
talking about how
useless counseling is
for guys like these.
Sounds an awful lot like
my conversation
with Elaine Tillman.
The first victim's wife?
You think she had
something to do with this?
MEGAN: She said her husband
swore he would never touch their kids.
What, she lying?
We never did find his
video confession online.
I think I know why.
Because she didn't
need a confession.
Right, 'cause she already knew.
All right, so going
with that theory,
I get why she kills her husband,
but what about the
rest of the guys?
The notification letter Brendan
McCrary sent the Tillmans must
have been the trigger
that just pushed her
over the edge, and
then she met Matt online.
And she knew that there were
all these other men out there
just like her husband. COLBY:
We know Scott Tillman taught
computer science in high
school, so she could've
learned what she
needed to know from him.
Architect of his own demise.
DAVID: We checked
Elaine Tillman's e-mail.
Over the past three
months, she's contacted
a half a dozen real
estate agencies.
She did say her and
her husband were looking
to buy a bigger house.
She used a different
name to contact
the real estate agent,
make the appointment.
All right, where is she?
Two hours ago, she
dropped the kids off
with a neighbor, said
her mom was sick,
had to take her to the hospital.
Uh, no, she's lined
up her next victim.
All right, how many
houses are in here?
Almost 100. Yeah, at least.
All right, let's get
it up to Charlie.
So I mapped all the
locations of the houses
on Elaine Tillman's list.
And assuming she's sticking
to live uploads,
she's gonna need a
strong WIFI connection.
All right, I don't want to go
to the wrong house again.
So... Doesn't even
matter because this time
we'll know where
she's transmitting from.
Yeah, and how's that?
When I did my
real estate analysis,
I was looking at
WIFI connectivity.
In fact, I had your techs
cross check the database
of broadband
users in these areas
against owners
of wireless routers.
That sounds like
a lot of houses.
Not where we're looking.
Because, remember,
she was choosing houses
in Jessica's Law hot zones.
Overlaying those hot zones
over our map of
houses and factoring in
for WIFI connectivity,
I've isolated five locations
where she'll likely strike next.
All right, I'm gonna get
LAPD into those areas.
As soon as we find her
car, we're gonna move in.
There's Elaine Tillman's car.
House is around the corner.
2152 Floresta.
And LAPD has the perimeter?
Let's take the house.
(indistinct radio transmission)
(yells)
What do you want from me?!
Everything!
FBI!
FBI!
FBI!
One more step and he's dead!
Elaine, nobody's doing anything.
Nobody's gonna move
until you and I talk.
About what? You
know why I'm here.
You know what I have to
do. I know what happened.
I know your husband
hurt your daughter.
He lied to me.
He promised he'd
never touch Susan!
I want you to think
about your kids, okay?
Your children do not
want you to do this.
This man never
touched your daughter.
What about the other daughters?!
I have to stop them!
No!
What difference does it make?
If I kill him or not, they're
gonna shoot me anyway.
MEGAN: Elaine, no one's
gonna shoot you. Listen to me.
We have proof. We have his words
on his computer.
We know why he came here.
He's not walking out
of here a free man.
Put down that knife
and he's going to jail.
And there's nothing
you can do to him
that isn't going to
be worse in there.
(crying): Just don't...
just...
Okay.
DISPATCH: All units, be
advised, suspect is in custody...
You okay?
Yeah.
I thought for sure
she was gonna kill me.
Thank you. Shut up.
(chuckling)
DON: All right...
All right, Larry, here you go.
I got you a few extras
in case you run into any,
uh, I don't know, aliens
or something.
My colleagues in space
salute you. It'll be reassuring
to know that we have an
FBI presence out there in orbit.
How do you know
we don't already?
That's right.
Professor, it's often
been confusing...
it's always been real,
man. Take care, okay?
LARRY: See ya.
COLBY: I second
that, Fleinhardt.
I'll be looking up for you, bud.
Take care. All right.
Careful up there, all right?
Yeah.
See you around, Don.
I'll miss you.
Professor Fleinhardt.
Well, if you ever
need to call...
I'll just put it on
the NSA's tab.
I'll walk you outside.
Take care now.
See ya.
(voice breaking): Well, I
guess the next time I see you,
you'll be in your space suit.
Isaac Newton had his apple.
But it took you
falling into my life to make
me see the world anew.
Even I became new.
And how we see ourselves
changes how we see the world.
Even from space.
Just be careful.
Well, I've got to go.
Someone's waiting.
Is that Buzz Aldrin?
I think NASA figured I'd
need help finding my way.
Bye, Larry.
(giggles)
♪ She packed my bags
last night, pre-flight ♪
♪ Zero hour, 9:00 a.m. ♪
♪ And I'm gonna be high ♪
(launch announcers speaking
indistinctly) ♪ As a kite by then ♪
I have goose bumps.
(nervous giggling): Me, too.
Hey, he'd better wear one
of our hats on TV, right?
But how's he gonna get the hat
over the pressure suit, though?
Fleinhardt
in a pressure suit.
That's a visual I don't need.
Aw... I can imagine!
You're awfully quiet.
♪ It's lonely out in space ♪
It's just not every day
you get to see your friend
live out his dream.
It's not every friend that
gets to make it happen.
T-minus 30 seconds.
CHARLIE: Hey, whoa, Dad!
All right, you're... Come on!
You're gonna miss it. Alan!
Hold the countdown,
I got the drinks.
Wait, what's the
deal, no champagne?
Well, in honor of Larry,
and given his propensity
for white food, I figured
milk is the most appropriate.
♪ 'Till touchdown brings me
'round again to find I'm... ♪
A toast to Larry.
Yes, may the
orbit rise with you.
And may the solar
winds be at your back.
(launch announcer
speaking indistinctly)
I think you've been hanging out
with us nerds for too long.
Wait, wait, here we go.
ANNOUNCER: And minus-10...
ALL: Nine, eight...
seven, six...
five, four...
three, two...
ANNOUNCER: one. And liftoff.
Opening a new chapter
in the completion of
the International Space Station
for the collaboration
of nations in space.
Godspeed, Larry
Fleinhardt. ♪ Rocket man ♪
DON: All right, Larry!
♪ Burning out his
fuse up here alone ♪
♪ And I think it's gonna
be a long, long time... ♪
(camera whirring)
Hello!
It's John.
Are you here?
Hello?
(shutter clicks)
(shutter clicks)
(shower running)
(shutter clicks)
It's John!
Hello.
Do you want some company?
(glass shatters)
Victim is John Santos,
30, recently divorced.
Video store manager.
What do you say, Colby?
Hey, he's in here...
We found a wallet
in his back pocket.
Car was parked out front.
License said he's
from Riverside.
Brought his own refreshments.
Even found the receipt
for it. Here you go, Ray.
Thank you. We'll
get that to the lab.
(indistinct radio transmission)
Real estate agent
found the body?
Yeah, same as all the others.
Agent walks in with
the prospective buyer,
opened up and
find the guy like this.
She's never seen him before.
No. Must have taken the key
out of the lock box.
We found the "for sale" sign
tossed into the bushes.
Well, it's the same story.
Tied up, beaten.
DAVID: Six weeks,
three victims, all the same M.O.
COLBY: All in unoccupied
homes for sale.
I mean, there's no doubt
we got a serial killer here.
CHARLIE: Larry!
Over here, Charles.
What is this? What
are you doing?
Well, I'm preparing
for the event horizon
of a new perspective.
Hmm. Guess that makes two of us.
Look, I know I haven't been
entirely supportive
of your decision
to sit atop a Roman candle
and blast off into the unknown.
Hey, if an apology is coming...
your launch window
is shrinking fast.
I've done some soul-searching.
I think it's really
great that your dream
is finally coming true. Well...
I'm grateful for that, Charles.
I'm just...
I'm gonna miss you.
Yeah, I know.
Well, it's only
six months and...
though I will be traveling
250 miles above the Earth,
at 18,000 miles per hour,
it's only a phone call away,
albeit a very
expensive phone call.
Going-away present.
I'd say you shouldn't have,
but given your
recent behavior...
Open it.
This is my T-shirt.
The one I gave to
you for safekeeping.
You're rocketing
into space, Larry.
There's no downside
to packing a lucky shirt.
Charles, I will be okay.
Truly I will.
Well...
Well, I'm headed to the FBI.
I'm gonna go work
on a case for Don.
Wanna join me?
Why not?
Cool.
So we've got three
victims now, all bound,
all beaten to death.
Victim Number Three is this guy,
Santos, the video manager.
Victim Number
One is Scott Tillman,
40-year-old family man
from Mar Vista, killed six
weeks ago in Westwood.
And Two is Jared Holt. He's 55.
He's a broker,
he lives in Malibu
and he was killed ten
days ago in Glendale.
No apparent link between them.
Except for one thing. The
houses they were found in.
Unoccupied, for sale.
All three houses were listed
with three separate real estate
companies. Charlie, we couldn't
find a connection there.
All right, so what are they
doing at these houses?
Well, they all went willingly.
They drove themselves.
Their cars were found on-site.
Plus, you don't bring
beer to your own funeral.
They're finding the
locations first, and somehow
they're getting these
guys there without a fight.
If I may...
The houses are the key. See,
while they may seem
to be randomly selected,
may even appear to be
different on the surface,
there's very likely
a discernible pattern
here somewhere.
MEGAN: You thinking, you profile
the houses, you
profile the killer?
CHARLIE: By using
a multi-attribute
compositional model,
I can analyze houses
by looking at the individual
parts that make up the whole.
And given what we know about
the killer's preferences,
well, then, you know,
I can composite his dream house.
All right. So... compare them
to the other houses for sale.
MEGAN: And generate
a list of locations where
he'll most likely strike again.
DAVID: Clothes make the man.
Maybe houses make the murderer.
COLBY: This guy has
definitely got his own playbook.
I mean, most serial killers,
they stalk their victims,
or they bring them
home to do the deed.
This guy is doing neither.
He lures his victims
to these houses.
All right, so, I mean, he knows
more than just which
ones are for sale.
Yeah, he knows which
ones are empty and when.
It sounds to me
like we're looking
for a real estate agent,
maybe a contractor.
I wonder how he gets
them into the houses
to begin with. I don't know.
But we checked the bank records
and they showed all
three of these victims
just before the murders
took money out of ATMs.
Maybe he's baiting them...
You know, with drugs.
COLBY: Yeah, or maybe
something else.
Our second victim,
Jared Holt, he got
busted two years ago
on a solicitation rap
with a prostitute in Hollywood.
Could be a hustle turned murder.
Okay, so cell phones, e-mails,
and the first guy
had a wife, right?
Yeah, Megan's on all that.
All right.
We were married 16 years.
Wow...
So...
you said on the phone the FBI...
had some new information?
Thank you.
Yeah. Another
man has been found.
(sighs)
It's...
Tomorrow,
it's six weeks to the day.
It's hardest on the kids.
Tom cries every
morning, wants his daddy.
But Susan's the one
I'm really worried about.
She doesn't cry at all.
I'm really sorry
to put you through this again.
No, it's okay. It's just...
I don't know what
more I can tell you.
Well, we found
some commonalities
between the murders.
Commonalities? Yeah.
Your husband withdrew
some money from an ATM
just before he went
to the house. Money?
Yeah. A few hundred dollars.
And you think that
could be significant?
We're not sure, but...
we're not sure why
he was at the house
or what he would
have had the money for.
I told you, we moved
here a year ago, needed
a house fast, bought
this one, sight unseen.
We talked about
getting a bigger place.
Isn't that strange that he
would be there alone, though?
Oh, Scott made most
of our financial decisions,
so if we were
getting a bigger place,
he...
Plus, my birthday was coming up.
If, uh,
I had to guess, I would say
he probably wanted
to surprise me.
Some birthday present, huh?
LARRY: Imagine a tortured psyche
avenging some childhood slight.
He chooses houses
that remind him
of where he grew up.
Completes the circle.
It's very Hitchcock.
I would say it's very Megan.
You two have been
spending so much
time together, your
minds are melding.
Well, of course we needed
to maximize the hours
given that soon we will
be restricted to more...
oh... creative communication.
So is that part of the
creative communications plan?
Actually, somebody
threw a wrench in the works
in my attempts to secure
the CalSci Celestron,
but Megan and I have now devised
a new arrangement.
I will be able to
look down at her...
as she is able to look up at me.
(laser blipping)
Ooh.
Is that your...?
Wait a second.
You have a cell
phone? Since when
do you have one of those?
Since NASA started calling me.
I'm sorry. This is
Larry Fleinhardt. Can I
help you? You know what?
His theory about
the killer's childhood?
Yeah. It's making
me think we should
re-weight these
variables, you know?
Okay.
CHARLIE: So why
don't we start...?
What's up?
Well, my journey may have
ended before it even began.
What happened?
Just... the mission.
What, was it scratched?
No.
Apparently, I was.
DAVID: You going
through victim backgrounds?
Yes. I have medical history,
and family histories
and education.
Are you finding anything in
common? I don't know yet.
Maybe.
John Santos, that last victim,
he has a sealed record with
Child and Family Services.
He went through all kinds
of foster care growing up.
So?
So, Jared Holt,
that second victim,
has a solicitation rap.
I'm not sure I follow.
You know, the
rage, the violence.
It all has a sort of
sexual component to it,
but, you know, I'm not
putting this out there
till I finish my homework.
(sighs)
Does it look bad?
I-I don't know,
but... Of course not.
We'll find out in a second.
What's the story?
According to Millie,
some unnamed rival
of Larry's in some
unnamed institute
in Massachusetts
lobbied for an 11'th-hour
background check.
It seems that some
of Larry's recent...
lifestyle choices
have become a subject
of concern of NASA.
They...
They found out he was living
in the steam tunnels, right?
AMITA: How could they? I mean,
we're his friends and we
didn't even know until...
Mildred. And just when
I was beginning to think
she was a living, breathing
human being. ALAN: Come on.
Come on, Charlie.
How could you
blame Millie for this?
How can I blame her?
How can you defend her?
NASA called her.
It wasn't the other way around.
Mildred is department
chair, Charlie.
I mean, if NASA pressed her
for a full disclosure,
she couldn't lie.
She felt horrible
about this whole thing.
I-I did, too.
What's all this about?
It's real estate data.
We're trying to
quantify a serial killer's
emotional attachment to the
houses he commits murders in.
Mmm. Well,
killer or home-buyer,
the rule is always
the same, isn't it?
Location, location, location.
He's right.
We've been looking
at the houses.
We should be looking
at the neighborhoods.
I checked the victims' phone
logs and their credit cards.
They didn't go to
the same places,
they didn't talk to
the same people.
E-mail?
Colby's checking their
Internet service providers,
but so far, it's not
looking so good.
All right, so we're
back to square one.
Maybe not completely.
Why, what do you got?
I called Child and
Family Services
about victim number
three... John Santos.
The one with the sealed
juvie record. Yeah.
At seven years old he was
removed from his home.
Suspicion that he was
being sexually molested.
Well, you know, this is
the gift that keeps on giving.
Those victims... DON: Right.
A lot of them become
abusers themselves.
Yeah, so that inspired me
to take a fresh look
at all of our victims.
And number two, Jared Holt...
He's the one that had
the solicitation rap...
What we didn't know
was that the prostitute
was underage.
She was 14 years old.
His lawyer had the
rape charge dismissed.
And what about victim
number one, the teacher?
His wife told me
they moved. Turns out
they moved a lot.
Five schools in seven years.
I called the administrators,
nobody had any comment.
Well, that definitely
tells us something.
Tells us we've got a guy
soliciting underage prostitutes,
a teacher messing with kids
and a victim
of sexual abuse who more
than likely may have become
an abuser himself.
COLBY: Just got off the
phone with the victim's ISPs.
They didn't have
anything in e-mails,
but they did have records
of visits to chat rooms.
Dozens of sites with names
like "Lonely Girls Only,"
"Cheerleader Diaries."
Got tons more if you want 'em.
Maybe they decided to take
it a step further than just talk.
Maybe that's why they're dead.
Hey, good morning.
All right, so... he's
going after sex offenders.
Yeah, and combined with
the brutality of the murders,
it really suggests one motive.
Right, revenge.
Yeah, something
happened in the past
and the killer's
getting payback now.
He's likely a victim of abuse.
MEGAN: Yeah, or
someone close to him.
A daughter, sister.
And what, the common denominator's
the Internet? MEGAN: Yeah, he's luring
them in through the chat rooms.
All right, why don't you get
after those transcripts, huh?
We're on it. So if the killer's
meeting his victims online,
there's got to be
an electronic trail,
right? Yeah, I mean, if
we find the common user
name that these people talk
to, I think we've found the killer.
Good.
Sorry for the mess.
I just got the
kids off to school.
Your Internet service provider
gave me a list of chat rooms
your husband visited.
Huh?
They seem more appropriate
for a 14-year-old girl
than a 40-year-old man.
We know why
your husband was at that house.
I think you do,
too, Mrs. Tillman.
I'm sorry, I can't help you.
All those schools
in all those cities?
You have children. How can you
continue to protect him?
My husband and I were
married for 16 years.
I have a family.
You think I could just
throw it all away?
We tried counseling.
He promised he'd stop.
But he didn't, did he?
He told me, he swore to me...
he'd never touch the kids.
Your husband went on a
chat room and met someone
that he thought was
a very young girl.
Someone else's kid.
And he went to that
house to meet her.
Now if you saw a name...
if you saw an I.M.
on his computer...
You protected him
for a really long time and
look where it's gotten you.
If you keep living
in this denial,
you're just going
to protect his killer.
We are done here. Thank you.
AMITA: You haven't said
one word in ten minutes.
Just thinking.
Look, I think by
now I can distinguish
between Professor Eppes
puzzling over a math
problem and Charlie Eppes
worrying about a friend.
It's not Larry.
It's me.
To think I was glad that
my best friend's dream
had been destroyed.
(laughs)
What's that say about me?
That you're human.
That you care about Larry.
I think when it
comes to emotions,
Professor Eppes has
to cut Charlie Eppes
a little bit of slack.
The good news is
I have been working.
The current thinking is
our killer was
targeting sex offenders.
Who were preying on
young teens, right? Right.
Which is why I reset
the parameters of our
neighborhood analysis
to reflect the
interests of teenagers.
All three houses are located
near schools, movie theaters
and shopping malls.
Places were kids go?
(whispers): Right.
(piano jazz playing)
NASA hasn't made
any decisions yet, Larry.
Don't give up yet.
Oh, what was I thinking?
That I had the right stuff?
Larry Fleinhardt,
steam tunnel freak.
Oh, come on, you're not a freak.
You are an eccentric.
A delightful,
charming, sexy eccentric.
But you are not a freak.
You know why I bought
that car, don't you?
The '31 Ford.
I remember something
about the organization
and the art deco lines.
All true, but the
tipping point...
What made me take
the pecuniary plunge...
Was actually the hood ornament.
That's right.
It was a bird in flight.
Now a day ago, I was that bird.
Now...
Now my wings have been clipped.
COLBY: Don, I think
we got something.
Found a bunch of chat rooms
that each of the three victims visited.
Now on the day that
they were murdered
each of them had chatted
with the same person... A
user named cheerchik15.
The transcripts indicate
our killer pretended
to be a 15-year-old girl.
Okay, well, trace it.
Well, he was smart.
He used Internet
cafes, paid cash,
made sure there were no cameras.
So what, dead end?
Except we had our techs check
the visitor logs of
those chat rooms
going all the way
back to the fall.
What, this cheerchik
appear before?
Yeah, three months ago.
And he just finds
them again online?
How do you explain that?
Well, we can't exactly,
but at least we have
somebody to ask now.
The guy slipped up and
used his home computer.
I.P. address traces back
to a Brendan McCrary.
All right, and?
He fits the profile.
He had a daughter
who was victimized
by an online predator.
She committed
suicide a year ago.
Wife works for a
mortgage company.
COLBY: So he
had access to all the
real estate
information he needed.
All right, go for
it. Pick him up,
let's see what we get.
MAN: All right,
defense! Move back!
BOY: Open!
MAN: Move it up!
(indistinct shouting)
(whistle blows)
(players cheering)
BOY: Hey. Dad...
See that?
Oh, yeah. Good, son.
So, no, I need some
answers... Brendan McCrary.
I got to go. FBI.
We need to talk
to you. About what?
Your exploits on the Internet.
Cheerchik15... ring a bell?
Turn it around, put your
hands behind your back.
Wait, wait, wait, this is nuts.
Guys, we're on the same side.
The same side?
I can explain it.
You just need to...
Sir, you don't want
to do this here.
(man shouting indistinctly)
BRENDAN: Hey, call your mother.
I need the lawyer.
(whistle blowing)
MAN: Let's go, come on!
Tell my something, Mr. McCrary,
you are cheerchik15?
It's a user name I go by.
Pretending to be
a 15-year-old girl wanting sex.
Excuse me, but what is it you
think my client has done here?
Hold on a second, Counselor.
This is Scott
Tillman, Jared Holt
and this is John Santos.
They're all dead... they all
communicated with cheerchik15.
What?! Yeah, that's right,
they were given an address
to meet on the day
they were murdered. I...
This is a chat with Santos.
Santos: "What are you wearing?"
Cheerchik15:
"Wouldn't you
like to know? LOL."
That's enough, Mr. Eppes...
Santos... hold on... "Can I come over?"
Cheerchik15:
"Parents are away for weekend.
I'll get pretty for you."
Santos: "I'll be
there." Yeah, yeah.
That's my user name,
but it's not me. Right.
You going to tell me it
wasn't you three months ago?
Huh? God, you don't know
what this is about, do you?
No, I get it. I understand...
It's payback for
what happened with
your daughter, isn't that it?
My daughter? I
mean, it makes sense.
I think there is a serious
mistake... BRENDAN: My daughter...
Wait, no, because you
couldn't protect her...
You're the ones who
couldn't protect her!
What? The guy who
lured her out was on parole.
I belong to a group called
Parents Stop Predators.
We go online to chat
rooms, we pretend to be teens
and we have these
creeps arrested.
Say what?
Maybe someone hijacked
my user name from the group.
I don't know, but whoever
killed these men it wasn't me.
Brendan?
Are you all right?
No, it's fine. Everything's
okay. I just saw the lawyer.
He said that the FBI was talking
to you about some murders?
It turns out it was
all a big mistake.
MRS. McCRARY: A mistake? Yeah.
Come on.
You people are always
making mistakes.
I'm sorry, ma'am.
You know, if you were
doing your job... Let's go.
My daughter would
still be alive. Let's go.
Not sure this is going
to brighten the mood any.
Well? His story checks out.
Local P.D. confirmed
that three months ago
he attempted to lure
the victims to a house.
They didn't bite, so
he sent a letter instead.
Saying?
Notification they'd attempted
explicit sexual
conversations with a minor.
Threatened to out them
to their families if they
didn't seek counseling. Oh...
and he has an alibi
to the last murder.
CHARLIE: Don.
What, you got something?
Yeah, I think we figured out
why the killer's
picking these houses.
Amita's got the laptop.
So...
we hit a wall trying to
composite our killer's ideal house
because we realized
he's not choosing houses.
He's choosing by neighborhoods.
CHARLIE: Exactly. We're
all familiar with Megan's Law.
Yeah, requires the
police to tell the public
about sex offenders.
There's also something
called Jessica's Law.
Right. Where they can't live.
Not 2,000 feet from a
school, or day care, right?
So what we did was
we ran an analysis
of Jessica's Laws hot zones
and mapped it against the
locations of the three houses.
MEGAN: The houses where
the murders occurred are all
dead center?
DON: Right. So these
are the areas we're
supposed to look?
And I also mapped all the
other Jessica's Law hot zones
in the entire L.A. area.
Oh, boy.
Come on, Charlie, what,
are you kidding me? I mean,
there's no way we can
cover this much ground.
MEGAN: Wait a
minute. That might be
the killer's message.
That there's no way
we can stop these guys.
What? Only he can?
DAVID: A Web host
monitoring one of their sites
just gave us a call.
Our killer posted a video.
Don, you have to see this.
I didn't do anything.
I just came by to see a friend.
(panting)
My name is John Santos...
I came to this house to have
sex with a 15-year-old girl.
This isn't the first time.
DAVID: He beats
them until they confess.
I've had relations
with over 30 girls
under the age of 15.
I ask for forgiveness
from them...
from their families...
You don't want to see the rest.
Killer uploaded this video
to a site that holds suicides,
beheadings, you name it.
Post today? Yeah, this morning.
I did a search and found a
similar video of victim number two
put up two days
after he was killed.
What about the first victim?
Nothing yet.
All right, well,
can you trace him?
Techs have been trying,
but the killer must have used
some kind of masking program.
They haven't been
able to crack it.
All right, well, who
are you going to call?
Charlie. There you go.
(phone beeps)
(speed dial tone)
Yeah, so it seems to me
that the killer is using
some kind of
"onion-routing" technique.
Onion-routing
is a way of sending
content over a network
and still remaining
completely anonymous.
It's sort of like a person
sending a series of
letters inside letters.
He sends the first
one to a friend,
who then finds a
second letter inside,
and all that friend knows is,
he's supposed to forward
that letter, so he does.
So, each letter is like a layer
of an onion being peeled back
until the final message
inside is revealed.
Can you crack
something like this?
You know, it's funny,
I created an algorithm
for one of Larry's projects,
and so I-I think I can
adapt it to this case.
And speaking of
Larry, Charlie, I...
I keep thinking that maybe
there's something that-that
we can do to help him.
I keep thinking the same
thing, but I-I don't know what.
What about all the
people you know
in the science community?
What if you call one of them?
(sighs)
Well, Larry's NoiseTamper
project is an NSA initiative,
but you have to understand,
if NASA's questioning
Larry's overall fitness,
that's... Then we
should make that call,
because Larry is devastated.
His spirit is-is crushed.
He's like a star
collapsing in on himself.
You two have been
hanging out a lot.
Charlie, I don't
want him to go either.
If there's anything we can do,
we have to let Larry be Larry.
The killer's timeline is
definitely accelerating.
He's gone from six weeks
between kills to ten days;
now down to 72 hours.
What's the deal, is Charlie's
thing up and running?
Megan says it'll be up in an
hour, but there's a problem.
What's that?
It can't run a trace after
an upload's completed.
It can only look for
content during transmission.
Great, so what do we do,
wait till the guy does it again?
This better work. (typing)
CHARLIE: Hey, so
I got the algorithm
set to scan the site the
killer's been uploading to.
Once we get a hit, we'll be
able to trace his transmission.
All right, good.
(beeping) We got
a hit, Professor.
Okay. Hey. Don,
hey! We got a hit.
My name is Wendell Henderson.
I came to this house
to have sex with
a 15-year-old girl.
In the past ten years, I've...
molested over 40 young girls.
Some as young
as 11... All right, so?
It's getting there.
Just another minute.
HENDERSON: I understand that I
can never give these young girls...
Wow, this is really odd.
What?
This transmission...
The file size and video times
are steadily increasing, and
the checksums are
constantly changing.
This is uploading live.
Wait, what? Don...
their trust...
He hasn't killed him
yet. Tina, come on.
You gotta give me a location now.
I'm tapping into the server. I should
be able to run a
ping trace to find
the broadcast socket.
Do that. Call me in the car.
HENDERSON: I ask forgiveness...
from these young girls...
Got it.
And their parents...
252 Estrella.
For the pain and
suffering that I've caused...
(sirens wailing)
Jimmy, you guys come
with me. Colby, David,
take two and head out back.
FBI! FBI! FBI!
FBI! FBI! What is this?!
Wait here! Don't move!
What's happening? You alone in
the house? Yes, I
don't understand.
All right, all right, it's okay.
You been on the Internet?
No, it's been down today.
Okay, it's okay. Just relax.
We're sorry, it's the
wrong house, ma'am.
We're going to rectify this.
The killer's covering his
tracks. (dialing phone)
He must have
piggybacked their router.
I'm sorry, ma'am. Sorry.
Hey, Charlie, we
got a problem here.
(muffled scream)
Yeah, Don, what's going on?
We... we just lost our
video transmission.
DON: It's the wrong house.
He must have
piggybacked the signal.
Oh, no, that's not possible.
You know what, if he did, then
he's in the area using a WIFI signal.
Tell me all the houses for
sale in the neighborhood.
I'm already on it.
Okay, I've got a house.
It's two streets over.
It's 2463 North
Irving Boulevard.
DISPATCH: All units...
2463 North Irving Boulevard,
stand by for possible backup...
Oh, damn.
Damn!
Ah, he's dead.
He must have heard the chopper.
Left in a hurry.
Ah, he left this...
Computer transmitting gear.
We were close.
Yeah, well. You guys clear?
AGENT: All clear.
Wendell Henderson.
32, computer geek.
Same story. He talked dirty with
Brendan McCrary in a chatroom
three months ago.
And the killer
contacts him again,
using McCrary's
username to lure him.
DAVID: Electronic gear we found
was all bought with cash.
The store owners can't remember
who made the purchases.
I mean, so whoever
it is clearly has access
to McCrary's files.
COLBY: He may
be right. It may be
somebody from his group
who hijacked his username.
DAVID: I have a list
of all the Parents Stop
Predator volunteers,
transcripts of their chatroom
conversations. Well, then
may I take a look at that?
A lot of names to
go through, Charlie.
Maybe instead of going
through the names,
why don't we go
through the chat?
What do you mean?
Well, it's just like
any language.
You know, on-line messaging
has its own
vocabulary and syntax.
Senders of these messages
develop their own
unique patterns of speech,
which can then be analyzed
using Statistical
Linguistic Analysis.
It's like a jeweler
beading a necklace.
A jeweler chooses
certain types of beads
then strings them
in a particular pattern
according to his own
unique, personal style,
just like IM senders will
exhibit their own styles,
patterns of speech
which are unique to them.
So, then we just compare them.
Yeah, to the transcripts
of the volunteers
for this "Parents
Stop Predators" group.
Look, if the killer
is in that group,
he will be betrayed
by his own chat.
Amita.
Hey. Hi.
Um, have you seen Charlie?
I-I have the transcripts
from the killer's latest chat.
He's working in Larry's office.
Larry's at a symposium.
And he thought he could
concentrate better there.
Oh, he's got you
working on this, too?
Well, my experience with
asymptotic combinatorics
comes in handy.
Sounds like everything you need
for a good working relationship.
Charlie and I
work well together.
That must be nice.
You gonna miss him, aren't you?
Yeah, a little more
than I think I originally
thought I would.
Well, he's coming back.
Yeah, he is.
And I have a telescope now.
(laughs)
You know, I'm
actually going that way.
I'll walk with you.
(laughing): Okay,
thank you. Sure.
CHARLIE: I need to
speak with Dr. York
concerning Lawrence Fleinhardt.
F-L-E-I...
Oh, you know him?
Okay, well, then I guess
you're the person I need
to be speaking to.
Um, I've known
Professor Fleinhardt
for approximately 17 years,
and I'll be the first to
admit he's an eccentric.
I'm aware that
that's your concern.
Yeah, but he's brilliant.
He's the kindest, most
decent person I know.
Yes.
I am, I am personally
vouching for him, yes.
Well, I appreciate that.
Uh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I guess that
is all I have to say.
Thank you.
(mouthing)
Hey. So, got something?
Yeah, I did what I
said I was going to do.
I compared the killer's
messaging patterns
against our Parents
Stop Predators group
and I've isolated a near
match within an error margin
of five percent.
All right, so who?
According to my math,
Brendan McCrary.
No, no, that's not possible.
He's already alibied
for two of the murders.
Yeah, but Charlie's saying
he found a near match.
You know they say
people and their pets start
to look alike?
Same thing happens
in family dynamics.
One member of a family will
start to think and speak alike.
What, the family?
Well, the wife did go
off on you pretty good.
Yeah, but going off isn't
what I'm talking about,
'cause that's too
explosive. This kind of
rage is, is
calculated carefully.
All right, well, if you
don't think it's the wife,
there's only one survivor left.
All right, Matt, this
is from your laptop.
List of sexual predators,
these are chat
room conversations.
He says you downloaded it
from my computer. Is that true?
Four of the names
from your father's list
were murdered.
Now, he didn't do it.
You're the only other source.
You going to tell me
what I want to know?
Agent Eppes asked
you a question, son.
I didn't kill anyone.
Who did?
Hey, look, it makes sense
that you'd want to get
back at people like that...
What happened with your sister.
It's normal, it's
natural. I would, too.
But that makes you
just like them, right?
Is that what you
really want to be?
No.
Sweetie...
I didn't know they were
going to get hurt, I swear.
Tell them what
they need to know.
I met this person in a chat room
for families of victims
of sexual predators.
I didn't know his name
or anything about him.
All I know is that he listened.
Honey,
if you were having problems,
why didn't you come to us?
What were you going to do?
Matt! Oh, seriously,
Dad, you're too busy with
your Catch The Creep group.
And you?
You don't even come out
of your room half the day
except to go into Katie's
bedroom to look around.
You don't think I see?
I loved Katie.
Losing her
sucked.
But I didn't just lose her.
I lost you, too.
This person you said you
met, what'd you talk about?
My dad's group, mostly.
How useless they are getting
these guys into counseling.
How counseling doesn't
do anything.
You gave him the names, right?
It's...
I didn't mean for
any of this to happen.
(sniffles)
I'm sorry.
LARRY: Hey, Charles.
I thought you should know.
Yeah? I heard from NASA.
Uh-huh? I'm back on the mission.
Oh, that's... that is great.
Congratulations.
Well, apparently,
someone at the NSA
did some arm twisting.
Oh, well, they're the
experts, off the record.
Well, on the record...
thank you very much.
I didn't do anything...
aside from making them
see the error of their ways.
Consider it my contribution
to national security.
(laughs): What, you
think having me off planet
improves our security?
I didn't say it.
Well, I know you
don't want me to go.
And therein lies the
nobility of what you did.
What I did was repay a debt.
You don't remember this, do you?
But, uh, when I was a
14-year-old kid at Princeton...
when we first met, do you
remember what you said to me?
Oh, as I recall, I
said many things.
You said...
that you wanted to
see me safely launched
into the academic firmament.
Now it's your turn.
Listen, just so you know,
it's always harder on the mentor
than it is on the student.
COLBY: I traced the
username of the person
that Matt McCrary
talked to in the chatroom.
Right. It was a dead end.
Yeah, guy keeps
covering his tracks, right?
How about you, you got anything?
I keep going over
my interview notes.
Matt McCrary had a
conversation with the killer
talking about how
useless counseling is
for guys like these.
Sounds an awful lot like
my conversation
with Elaine Tillman.
The first victim's wife?
You think she had
something to do with this?
MEGAN: She said her husband
swore he would never touch their kids.
What, she lying?
We never did find his
video confession online.
I think I know why.
Because she didn't
need a confession.
Right, 'cause she already knew.
All right, so going
with that theory,
I get why she kills her husband,
but what about the
rest of the guys?
The notification letter Brendan
McCrary sent the Tillmans must
have been the trigger
that just pushed her
over the edge, and
then she met Matt online.
And she knew that there were
all these other men out there
just like her husband. COLBY:
We know Scott Tillman taught
computer science in high
school, so she could've
learned what she
needed to know from him.
Architect of his own demise.
DAVID: We checked
Elaine Tillman's e-mail.
Over the past three
months, she's contacted
a half a dozen real
estate agencies.
She did say her and
her husband were looking
to buy a bigger house.
She used a different
name to contact
the real estate agent,
make the appointment.
All right, where is she?
Two hours ago, she
dropped the kids off
with a neighbor, said
her mom was sick,
had to take her to the hospital.
Uh, no, she's lined
up her next victim.
All right, how many
houses are in here?
Almost 100. Yeah, at least.
All right, let's get
it up to Charlie.
So I mapped all the
locations of the houses
on Elaine Tillman's list.
And assuming she's sticking
to live uploads,
she's gonna need a
strong WIFI connection.
All right, I don't want to go
to the wrong house again.
So... Doesn't even
matter because this time
we'll know where
she's transmitting from.
Yeah, and how's that?
When I did my
real estate analysis,
I was looking at
WIFI connectivity.
In fact, I had your techs
cross check the database
of broadband
users in these areas
against owners
of wireless routers.
That sounds like
a lot of houses.
Not where we're looking.
Because, remember,
she was choosing houses
in Jessica's Law hot zones.
Overlaying those hot zones
over our map of
houses and factoring in
for WIFI connectivity,
I've isolated five locations
where she'll likely strike next.
All right, I'm gonna get
LAPD into those areas.
As soon as we find her
car, we're gonna move in.
There's Elaine Tillman's car.
House is around the corner.
2152 Floresta.
And LAPD has the perimeter?
Let's take the house.
(indistinct radio transmission)
(yells)
What do you want from me?!
Everything!
FBI!
FBI!
FBI!
One more step and he's dead!
Elaine, nobody's doing anything.
Nobody's gonna move
until you and I talk.
About what? You
know why I'm here.
You know what I have to
do. I know what happened.
I know your husband
hurt your daughter.
He lied to me.
He promised he'd
never touch Susan!
I want you to think
about your kids, okay?
Your children do not
want you to do this.
This man never
touched your daughter.
What about the other daughters?!
I have to stop them!
No!
What difference does it make?
If I kill him or not, they're
gonna shoot me anyway.
MEGAN: Elaine, no one's
gonna shoot you. Listen to me.
We have proof. We have his words
on his computer.
We know why he came here.
He's not walking out
of here a free man.
Put down that knife
and he's going to jail.
And there's nothing
you can do to him
that isn't going to
be worse in there.
(crying): Just don't...
just...
Okay.
DISPATCH: All units, be
advised, suspect is in custody...
You okay?
Yeah.
I thought for sure
she was gonna kill me.
Thank you. Shut up.
(chuckling)
DON: All right...
All right, Larry, here you go.
I got you a few extras
in case you run into any,
uh, I don't know, aliens
or something.
My colleagues in space
salute you. It'll be reassuring
to know that we have an
FBI presence out there in orbit.
How do you know
we don't already?
That's right.
Professor, it's often
been confusing...
it's always been real,
man. Take care, okay?
LARRY: See ya.
COLBY: I second
that, Fleinhardt.
I'll be looking up for you, bud.
Take care. All right.
Careful up there, all right?
Yeah.
See you around, Don.
I'll miss you.
Professor Fleinhardt.
Well, if you ever
need to call...
I'll just put it on
the NSA's tab.
I'll walk you outside.
Take care now.
See ya.
(voice breaking): Well, I
guess the next time I see you,
you'll be in your space suit.
Isaac Newton had his apple.
But it took you
falling into my life to make
me see the world anew.
Even I became new.
And how we see ourselves
changes how we see the world.
Even from space.
Just be careful.
Well, I've got to go.
Someone's waiting.
Is that Buzz Aldrin?
I think NASA figured I'd
need help finding my way.
Bye, Larry.
(giggles)
♪ She packed my bags
last night, pre-flight ♪
♪ Zero hour, 9:00 a.m. ♪
♪ And I'm gonna be high ♪
(launch announcers speaking
indistinctly) ♪ As a kite by then ♪
I have goose bumps.
(nervous giggling): Me, too.
Hey, he'd better wear one
of our hats on TV, right?
But how's he gonna get the hat
over the pressure suit, though?
Fleinhardt
in a pressure suit.
That's a visual I don't need.
Aw... I can imagine!
You're awfully quiet.
♪ It's lonely out in space ♪
It's just not every day
you get to see your friend
live out his dream.
It's not every friend that
gets to make it happen.
T-minus 30 seconds.
CHARLIE: Hey, whoa, Dad!
All right, you're... Come on!
You're gonna miss it. Alan!
Hold the countdown,
I got the drinks.
Wait, what's the
deal, no champagne?
Well, in honor of Larry,
and given his propensity
for white food, I figured
milk is the most appropriate.
♪ 'Till touchdown brings me
'round again to find I'm... ♪
A toast to Larry.
Yes, may the
orbit rise with you.
And may the solar
winds be at your back.
(launch announcer
speaking indistinctly)
I think you've been hanging out
with us nerds for too long.
Wait, wait, here we go.
ANNOUNCER: And minus-10...
ALL: Nine, eight...
seven, six...
five, four...
three, two...
ANNOUNCER: one. And liftoff.
Opening a new chapter
in the completion of
the International Space Station
for the collaboration
of nations in space.
Godspeed, Larry
Fleinhardt. ♪ Rocket man ♪
DON: All right, Larry!
♪ Burning out his
fuse up here alone ♪
♪ And I think it's gonna
be a long, long time... ♪