"I did everything I could not to hit her." "Did you notice anything strange about the victim ?" "Did you see anybody else on the street ?" "No." "It all happened so fast." "She came out of nowhere." "No shoes, no coat, no handbag." "Just..." "lace." "Well, if this is the new look for spring, you can count me out." "Got some serious bruises on her wrists." "Somebody certainly held on tight." "Laceration on her upper cheekbone, doesn't look fresh." "These injuries are inconsistent with trauma associated with the car accident." "Prostitute fights with her john." "Wife argues with her husband." "Lingerie model loses her way." "Might explain why she's out here in her underwear." "Then again, it might not." "Breathalyzer says our driver's sober." "He was about to make the last delivery of his shift." "Said he'd just pulled out of the driveway." "Wasn't going very fast." "I had a speed mark that says he was going 20 miles per hour at impact." "He say which direction she came from ?" "He said she came out of nowhere." "Nobody just comes out of nowhere." "Season 1" " Episode 22 The Closer" " Hawkes." " Hey." "Bill could you turn that off, please ?" "Thanks." "Your victim's name is Margo Trent." "Missing person's inquiry was filed this morning when she didn't show up for work." " Ready for show-and-tell ?" " Oh, yes." "Okay." "Broken leg... crushed kneecap." "These superficial tears indicate overstretching of the skin." "The impact on the right side of the body forced her tissue mass to the opposite side." "So, the skin expanded to compensate the pressure." "Exactly." "It looks like our girl Margo here had a busy night." "Traces of semen on the inner thigh and..." "Ah, stamp from a bar or a dance club." "The logo is smeared." "Yeah." "There's over 300 places in this city that stamp your hand after you pay the cover." "I'd start with the ones that don't have a drink minimum." "Her blood alcohol level was well below the legal limit." "She was probably tipsy, but certainly not drunk." "So it's safe to say that she was coherent and knew that she was standing in the middle of the street half-naked." "Running in the middle of the street." "Take a look." "Now, these abrasions were suffered while running." "But... these here... tiny puncture wounds on her soles." "I can't imagine what she was doing." "Do they have anything to do with cause of death ?" "No." "I had Tox run a screen." "Results were negative." "Margo Trent died because she was hit by a truck, plain and simple." "Okay." "So, this is no longer a case for Homicide." "Flack will want to pursue a suspect for possible rape and assault charges." "Why don't you collect a sex kit, send it over to DNA." "Dispatch." "You know, I have a feeling it's going to be a very busy day." " Want to switch jobs ?" " Oh, yeah, sure." "You'll be cutting off, uh, that guy's right arm and left leg." "I'm leaving now." " Thank you." " All right." "We need a tow truck at stadium parking structure." "Hey." "Unis found his driver's license." "Name's Gilbert Novotny of Brookline, Massachusetts." "Boston fan in the Bronx." "That's brave." "Or stupid." "Very stupid." "Boston's playing tough." "New York'd better get it together." "He's got dried blood in his nose." "Lividity in the lower extremities." "Still in full rigor." "He's been dead and in this position for over 12 hours." "Probably since yesterday's game." "And he wasn't sitting in the cheap seats." "Field level." "So Boston wins the game." "Gilbert's the only one that has reason to celebrate." "Doesn't make it out of the parking lot." "Wait, you're thinking a New York fan's a sore loser and takes it out on this guy ?" "Kind of extreme." "You gotta down a lot of brews to go that far." "No blood drops in or outside the vehicle and nothing running down his face." "Bloody nose happened earlier, somewhere else." "My guess is that Novotny got himself into the car and he died there." "Or maybe somebody put him in the driver's seat, 'cause the uni said the doors were unlocked when they arrived at the scene." "Maybe." "But... let's say you kill a guy and you place him behind the driver's seat, right ?" "Would you take the time to put the key in the ignition and strap his seat belt on ?" "Okay, theory number two." "Official Major League ball... and mud." "Delaware River mud, to be exact." "The umpires rub it on the baseballs before every game." "It takes away some of the "new."" "Foul ball or home run," "Novotny came down with it." "Right, but maybe somebody thought this ball rightfully belonged to them." "Yeah, maybe somebody with... brown hair." "Been playing since I was seven." "Little League, college, even had a stint in the Minors." "Good, huh ?" "I had an arm." "How does a potential shortstop become a crime scene investigator ?" "That's real easy." "Get into a fight, break your wrist, and then graduate from the police academy top of my class." "You're dangerous, Danny Messer." "Very dangerous." "Here we go. 108." "Novotny's seat." "This is definitely where Gilbert got hit." "Okay, but nobody dies from a bloody nose." "So what did he die from ?" "Taylor." "You made a mistake." "You couldn't have known." "I'm sorry, who are you trying to reach ?" "I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison." "Who is this ?" ""A small mistake can be significant enough to change everything that follows."" "You said that two days ago when you were on the witness stand." "Detective Taylor, what, if anything, did you find on this hammer ?" "A mixture of both the victim's and the defendant's DNA was detected." "And why is it that you recheck and review all of your testing several times ?" "Because a small mistake can be significant enough to change the dynamic of everything that follows." "Look, you still have time." "At least a week before the trial ends." "Could this hammer have been used to murder Alissa Danville ?" "Yes." "Mr. Sullivan, there's very little I can do for you." "I didn't kill Alissa Danville." "Time's up, Sullivan." "Hello ?" "This is Gilbert Novotny's ruptured spleen." "The cause of death." "You think that could happen from a series of punches ?" "No." "This kind of damage results from something other than a bare fist." "Something packing a lot of power." "See ?" "The diaphragmatic surface is ruptured." "The rib cage is supposed to protect from this kind of injury." "Broken rib." "Punctured spleen." "And somehow Gilbert made it back to his car, where he died from internal bleeding." "Yep." "I think we should subpoena the crowd footage from stadium operations, see if we can track his movements from his seat out to the parking structure." "And get foul ball footage from news and sport stations." "In the meantime, I've got something else for you." "Don't tell me you're gonna make me hold something else." "What've you got ?" "I don't know." "This is where you two take over." "Survey says..." "Cracker Jacks." "What ?" "That's what Hawkes found in his hair ?" "They still do that at baseball games ?" "What is this, high school ?" "Do what ?" "You pop a kernel in your mouth, it gets all gooey." "Anybody within a five-foot radius is a target." "You gonna knock it off or what ?" "What ?" "So someone taunts our Boston fan with a couple of caramel corn spit wads." "Pissed off, they get into a scuffle." "Then the other guy punches him in the gut with God knows why." "Let's track the Cracker Jacks." "Where there's spit, there's DNA." "Well, this job is never boring." " I love Cracker Jacks." " Me, too." "There's never enough peanuts in the box for me." " Detective Bonasera." " Oh." "Thank you." "Oh, DNA results from your crime scene at the stadium parking structure." "Specifically the brown hair you found on the baseball." " That's strange..." " What ?" "This profile exhibits excessive homozygosity." "Oh, several of the 13 loci have the same allele." "It's the second time today I've seen this result." "Not common ?" "Well, it certainly gets my attention." "Ok Jane this is Gilbert Novotny, our victim at the stadium parking structure." "The hair that you analyzed was pulled from a baseball in this man's car, and it's certainly not his." "All right." "What about case number 572-05 ?" "Right here." "Margo Trent, car accident victim." "Upper Westside." "They said the job was never boring." "Come on, ladies." "The suspense is killing me." "Her hair was on the baseball found in his car." "Margo Trent and Gilbert Novotny are connected." "Gilbert Novotny's from Boston." "Margo Trent's from the Upper West Side." "He's a factory worker." "She's a sports agent." "Blue collar, white collar..." "Doesn't make sense." "I mean, these two people should never even know each other." "Mac ?" "Yeah." "Yeah..." "Yet, they, uh... they came in contact with the same baseball." "I can tell you how." "We got some foul ball footage from the game." "Check this out." "There's Gilbert Novotny." "Margo Trent on the left." "They were sitting a seat away." "All right, so they were sitting in the same section." "Aiden, play this frame by frame." "All right, freeze it there." "Zoom in." "Wow." "That's how the hair got on the ball... and ultimately, into Novotny's truck." "And they both end up dead." "Margo's death was the result of a car accident, emphasis on "accident."" "We have no evidence to prove otherwise." "Not from the scene but... what was she doing an hour before she was hit by that truck ?" "Who was with her ?" "Well, we know it wasn't Gilbert because he was already dead." "All right." "Aiden, Danny," "I want to know everything we can possibly find out about Gilbert Novotny." "Stella and I'll focus on Margo Trent." "All right." " And... in English ?" " What the hell's bugging you, Mac ?" " It sounds so much better in Greek." " Yeah, most things do." "Okay, I surrender." "I... received a strange phone call today, from a defendant in a murder case." "He said we made a mistake, like he knew something that we didn't." "Haven't been able to shake it." "Come on, Mac." "Most criminals claim they're innocent." "You know that." "Yes." "Yes, I do, but still..." "He's in jail, Stella." "He gets to make one phone call a day, and he makes that one call to me ?" "Okay, so he just up and called you out of the blue ?" "Yeah." "Something I said stayed with him, I guess, I testified in court on Friday." "Oh, the murder case of Alissa Danville." "We processed that scene together." "It was Quinn Sullivan who called you, right ?" "Well, his DNA was on the murder weapon..." "A hammer he claimed he never owned, and yet, his blood was on the handle." "Come on." "We didn't get that wrong, Mac." "We don't make mistakes." "Hell, I don't make mistakes, not with evidence." "Don't worry about it." "Margo's sports management firm owns the place." "Executives use the apartment when they have a client in town." "She was here with someone." "And I don't think they were getting along." "Someone tried to bust through the door." "Bathroom window is open." "She went out the window." "That must've hurt..." "Spikes to keep the pigeons from nesting on the window sill." "Those were the punctures on her feet." "Now, I spoke to the other tenants in the building, and no one saw her enter the building with anyone." "We understand you were with Miss Trent night before last." "Yeah, I saw Margo at Bixby's Bar and Grill." "We were told by the managerand several regulars that the two of you had words." "Yeah." "We had an argument... and ten minutes later we had sex in the bathroom." "It was a... you know... it was a love-hate relationship." "What was the argument about ?" "She accused me of stealing one of her clients." "Did you ?" "Yeah." "Yeah, that's the way this business works, it's cutthroat." "And Margo..." "She was the best at it." "Yeah, she'd wine and dine these guys, buy them expensive gifts, send flowers to their... uh, mothers, wives and girlfriends." "She signed two of the top closers in the game with that... gimmick." "It really pissed me off." " But I'd never kill her over it." " Did you go back to her apartment" " after you left Bixby's ?" " No." "Anybody who could vouch for you ?" "Yeah." "My wife." "Gilbert Novatny's game ticket was purchased by a local sports talk radio station." " What ?" "Here in New York ?" " Yeah, it's called WNYD." "It's part of some on-air giveaway." "They got Gilbert on tape talking aggressive with this other guy." "Let's check it out." "All right, Gilbert, you sound like a pretty devout Boston fan." "I am the original, my friend." " Go ahead, caller." " Yeah, this is Tony from the Bronx." " Gilbert, you're a loser." "So is your team." " Gilbert ?" " You got something to say about that ?" " Yeah, New York sucks." "You know something, Gilbert, what do you say WNYD gives you a ticket, a little traveling cash for Saturday's game and then you two" " can battle it out ?" " Yeah, that's what I'm talking about." "Hey, Tony, from the Bronx, come and find me, okay ?" "I'll be with your mother." "That's it." "That's something to really be proud of, Rico." "I'm sorry the guy's dead." "His name's actually Gilbert Novotny." "He had two kids and a widow." "All right, so just think about that the next time you decide to pump up a couple of fans, all right ?" "Messer." "You guys keep track of any of your incoming calls ?" "We get about 50 calls an hour from all over the northern East Coast." "We don't have time for that kind of paperwork." "Our batting average just went up." "Jane got back the results from our Cracker Jack DNA." "She got us a hit in CODIS." " One Anthony Reanetti." " Anthony, Tony, one and the same." "Let's find out." "Tony from the Bronx..." "Tony from the Bronx." "I never got in touch with his parole officer." "Yeah." "Call the backup !" "Stop !" "Come on, guy !" "Hey, hey !" "NYPD !" "NYPD !" "Don't move, don't move." "Come here." "All right, easy, easy !" "All right..." "There's one thing I hate more than running, leaping." "You're not my favorite person today." "Come on." "So you like Cracker Jacks, huh ?" " They're okay." " Just okay ?" "You don't like that sweet, sticky caramel taste ?" "That's a cool picture, huh ?" "That's your spit." "That's what we found on some Cracker Jacks we took from Gilbert Novotny's hair." " You got good aim." " He's dead, you know." "Hey, I had nothing to do with that." "Yeah, then why'd you take off down the street before we even had a chance to flash our badges ?" "A guy runs, Tony, that tells me he's up to something." "First of all... you two look like cops, okay ?" "Just so you know." "I was running because" "I haven't been to see my parole officer in a couple of weeks." "I figured that was the kinda heat you were bringing." "Why don't you tell us about the baseball game ?" "Again, I had nothing to do with that guy dying." "Oh, yeah ?" "Well, we heard the radio show, Tony." "That was just talk." "You had to be pissed off you didn't catch that foul ball." "Off A-Rod's bat ?" "That's a nice ball." "After the game, you went into the parking lot." "What you hit him with ?" " A tire iron ?" " No, no, no." "I wasn't even there after the game." "I got thrown out 'cause we got into it over the spit wads." "Okay ?" "I was spitting them at him, yeah." "And that led to some pushing and shoving, and I was tossed out of the stadium." "Bottom of the fifth." "And then I went home." "All right, you got somebody that can back that story up ?" "The two thugs from stadium security ?" "The 25 other people who were riding the same subway car." " Didn't get any of their names." " Don't get smart, all right ?" "I'm not in the mood for that." "What are you doing, Mac ?" "I reviewed our trace analysis and DNA results." "I tracked the chain of custody on all the evidence." "There were no mistakes made by any member of my team." "I stand by my results and my testimony." "You came all the way down here to tell me that ?" "I wanted to look you in the eye and make sure you understood." "I didn't appreciate your accusation." "Well, understand this." "I didn't kill that girl." "I don't decide what you did or didn't do, Mr. Sullivan." "I gather the evidence, analyze it... and the results tell me the probability of your actions." "I was not in that alley." "My only crime is I look like someone who killed that girl." "There was no description given of the suspect." "So the next best thing is to find someone who looks like they might have done it." "You're accusing the prosecution of profiling ?" "I'm a big man." "I got big hands." "My eyes are set too close together  and my voice is too deep to speak the truth." "I fit the description... simply because I could have taken out that woman with one blow." "DNA doesn't look for strength, or size or a face." "It looks for a match, and the match I got in my crime lab led me to you." "A small mistake  can be significant enough to change everything that follows." "Mr. Sullivan, if you have something to tell me, say it now." "I lost it." "I don't know where I dropped it, I don't know when, but I figured if I told the truth... if I told them I owned it, it was as good as pleading guilty." "But what if the hammer was mine ?" "That changes everything." "This is a surprise." "You were in the neighborhood ?" "No." "I woke up early and found my way over here." "Can I get you anything ?" "Black coffee." "Because I couldn't sleep and because this couldn't wait." "If you're looking into the Alissa Danville case for mistakes, I expect to be consulted." " I wasn't looking..." " Mac... the murder weapon was in the alley with his DNA on it." "What else did you expect to find ?" "Well, for one, we didn't take a substrate control sample on the murder weapon." "That's because Sullivan claimed that the hammer wasn't his." "In that kind of a case, not taking a control sample is standard procedure." "Well, maybe that should change, because finding someone's DNA on a murder weapon shouldn't automatically make them guilty." "It doesn't." "Let's just consider the facts in this case, all right ?" "His coworker testified that every time Alissa Danville walked past the construction site," "Sullivan stopped and watched her go by." "Then there's the hammer." "It was issued to every employee of Luxwell Construction Company." "Every single hammer was accounted for except for Quinn Sullivan's." "And yet, he claims that the hammer we found at the crime scene with his DNA on it wasn't his." "He told me it was." "You went to see him." "He now claims the hammer." "But he still sticks to his story that he didn't kill Alissa Danville." "You believe him ?" "I want to." "Stella, if the hammer was his, his DNA could have already been on it." "DNA from epithelials he shed from normal everyday use." "Source attribution, Stella." "It's a viable possibility the victim's blood was spattered on top of Sullivan's epithelials." "When we tested the blood for DNA, we got a match for both the victim and Sullivan." "Well, if we had known that it was Sullivan's hammer it wouldn't have changed our test results." "But it might have changed our conclusion." "We need to find a way to prove that the blood on the murder weapon belongs only to Alissa Danville." "What if we can't prove it ?" "You'll need the judge's consent to retest the hammer, Mac." "That could take days." "I just want to try." "You know, something more than just the truth and sincerity I see in Quinn Sullivan's eyes... is driving me to find another answer here." "When the Towers fell and Claire died... it was the... clearest definition of what is unjust and unfair... in this world, and I was powerless to do anything about it." "All those innocent lives." "But here..." "I just need to do this." "Okay." "Stitches." "There's a circular pattern of bruising, and these here are the laces of a baseball." "You're telling me that George Novotny got blasted in the spleen with a foul ball ?" "No." "A direct hit." "Less than 50 feet away." "A fastball right to the gut." "And the second baseball took out the door in Margo's apartment." "The only prints I got were smudged." "We got mostly partials from the ball in Novotny's car." "Yeah, and you gotta figure some of them belong to the pitcher, catcher, umpire, even Novotny." "And the rest... who knows ?" "Well, none of them came up as a match in AFIS." "But one of them definitely threw the ball and killed the victim." "All right, Hawkes said a ball was thrown hard enough to kill Novotny, and the door in the apartment was split by a baseball, that's a lot of force." "Let's see what it takes." "Where you going ?" "I'm holding the speed gun." "I get the hard part ?" "You're the baseball player." "And I'm the boss." "Harder and faster." "That's not gonna cut it." "We need to bring in more muscle." "94 miles an hour." "Where were you 20 minutes ago ?" "We find the guy that throws like that," " we find our murderer." " Detective Taylor ?" "Delivery from Judge Fulton." "This is the evidence you requested." "Crossover technology, Stella." "What they use in cancer research I was able to use here." "Laser microdissection." "It's incredible." "I separated the epithelials from white blood cells from the hammer, and only the epithelials contain Sullivan's DNA." "Sullivan's blood wasn't on the murder weapon." "What ?" "You're happy, and excited." "This is a good thing." "Yeah, it's a good thing." "I haven't seen you like this since before." "Why haven't you taken your wedding ring off ?" "Because, uh..." "I don't know..." "I don't want to." "Okay." "Okay, so Sullivan's blood wasn't on the hammer." "You realize this is a double-edged sword." "I mean, in order to prove your point, means that you have to put the murder weapon in the defendant's hand." "Muddies the picture." "Mm, that's the point, isn't it ?" "Reasonable doubt." "Call me as a rebuttal witness." "To your own testimony ?" "Do you even care that you might damage your own credibility ?" "I don't see it that way." "Mac, look, I won this case." "The jury's got what it needs to convict." "I retested the hammer." "My new results are favorable to the accused, which makes it Brady material, which you have the obligation to turn over to the defense." "That's how you see it, huh ?" "Because what you're telling me is that the defendant not only possessed the murder weapon, but he lied about it." "So, it sounds to me like that only strengthens the State's case against Quinn Sullivan." "He was afraid to admit the truth." "I don't think the jury's going to be sympathetic to that argument." "Just give me the chance to explain everything on the witness stand." "Mac, what are you going to say ?" "That you got it wrong ?" "That you made a mistake ?" "I'm not recalling you as a witness, Mac." "This case is over." "Hey, guys." "What, is that the look of agony and defeat ?" "We're back to the stadium footage." "How 'bout you ?" "Anything from that pitching, other than pain ?" "Looking for a guy who can throw heat." "That's our description." "I checked both seats on either side of Margo." "Comp tickets, so the box office couldn't tell me who bought them." "There's Gilbert Novotny, there's Margo Trent." "Now there's somebody sitting between them." "Yeah." "I don't know." "I guess he must have gotten up and maybe went to the concession during the foul ball." "Well, now, that's interesting." "Look at his face, the way he's looking at Novotny." "Everybody's smiling, except for him." "Hey, Aiden..." "Can you isolate him ?" "Yeah." "I've seen that face before." "I'm just trying to get into the big leagues." "Even though I'm not signed with anybody," "Margo was interested in being my manager." "I went to the baseball game with her, and that was it." "What about the guy sitting next to you ?" "Some crazy Boston fan." "You two get into it a little bit ?" "No." "Some other guy was throwing stuff at him." "It was a little irritating,'cause sometimes he would miss and hit me." "Right, right..." "Y-You look really angry at Gilbert, that's the name of the guy sitting next to you." "I was trying to enjoy the game, that's all." "Hey Ruben, you're on the mound." "Look... it's my turn to pitch." "Sure." "Think he'll consent to give up some of his DNA ?" "At the moment, baseball is the sport of steroid paranoia." "He ain't gonna give us anything." "Ooh !" "Good speed on that ball." "Mm-hmm." "You know what ?" "I think I got an idea." "Hey !" "I gotta keep this one." "Sorry." "It's evidence." "I've had a chance to analyze all three." "The DNA from the spit ball you brought me matches DNA from the ball Mac found in Margo Trent's apartment, as well as DNA from the baseball that killed Gilbert Novotny." "Three strikes." "You know, man... you got a mean fastball, you know that ?" "Now, how do you do that ?" "Two fingers on the laces, or do you just use fingertips ?" "What, the thumb and the index finger grip a little tighter than the rest of them ?" "Lady, you want pitching lessons, you should try your local Y." "That's my change-up." "It's not nearly as fast as the ball you threw in the gut of Gilbert Novotny." "Yeah, and you used a much more powerful throw to break the panel in the bathroom door of" "Margo's apartment, and that wasn't very nice." " I don't know what you're talking about." " We got your DNA." "We got you on assault, and we got you on murder." "Murder ?" "Yeah, you know that fastball you threw in the stadium parking lot ?" "You ruptured Gilbert Novotny's spleen." "What ?" "He climbed into his car, and then he died." "I was angry, but I didn't mean to kill him." "What were you so mad about, Ruben ?" "They showed our section on the Jumbotron, and he leaned over and kissed me, right on the mouth." "In front of all those people." "I can take a joke, but that was too far." "I don't like looking like a fool." "Wow, DeRosa..." "You got all hot under the collar over a little smooch." "I love Boston, baby !" "Hey, sweet cheeks, you're a good kisser, now..." "Hey, hey, give me my ball." "You want your ball ?" "Huh ?" " Come on, don't be a sore loser." "It's okay." " Oh, really ?" "Yeah, come..." "Catch that !" "And Margo ?" "She thought it was funny, too." "Deja..." "Come on, you're not still angry about what happened at the game, are you ?" "Deja." "Looks to me like the only thing that gets you hot is another guy." "Never say that of me again, ¿oíste ?" "Are you crazy ?" "Huh ?" "You loser !" "Loser !" "Who you calling a..." "Abre la puerta." "Loser !" "Who you calling a loser, huh ?" "Yeah, you've thrown your last fastball." "You can kiss your baseball career good-bye." "You're out." "Defense calls Detective Mac Taylor." "Detective Taylor, I remind you you are still under oath." "Yes, Your Honor." "Detective Taylor, you were called as a prosecution witness ?" "Yes." "Now you're here as a witness for the defense ?" "That's correct" "Can you tell us why that is ?" "I've reexamined the evidence, and there may be some doubt as to Mr. Sullivan's guilt." "So, why'd you help me ?" "Because you told me the truth." "You know there'll be a civil trial." "And this time, the evidence will come to the rescue." "Mr. Sullivan, my job is to collect evidence and without bias or expectation, provide an answer." "I don't usually hope the suspect is innocent or guilty." "This time... it was different." "This time I wanted the evidence on that hammer to be wrong." "I liked the possibility of... changing everything." "Me, too."