"Hey, guys, check this out." " Thanks." " The number to call is on the back." " Catch you guys later." " Excuse me, ladies." "How are you?" "This evening is tonight." " Enjoy." " You wanna go?" "Hey, guys." "The number to call is on the back, man." "Call before 10:00 for the location." "Hey, check it out, man." "Go timeless, lose form." "Okay." "That's it." "It's time to do it." "Yeah." "Oh, yeah." "Oh, yeah." "Why won't you be with us?" "Is that what you want?" "I want you both." "Later, you'll have it all." "What's that?" "It's special." "Special." "The sprinkler system came on on time, finally." "Good." "That's good." "Well..." "I'm off." "Do you plan to go out today, honey?" "It would only be to the market." "But I think I have everything I need for dinner." "Well, if you do go out, Karen, you be cautious." "And when you come home, let the garage door close before unlocking the car doors." "Right?" "The same way I've been doing it for 18 years, Art." "The Botanical Garden has over 2,000 different kinds of plants... from all over the world." "And this is what the Garden of Eden might have looked like." "All the flowers and plants you'll see grew between... the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in Mesopotamia... what we think of today as the cradle of civilization." "Now, can any of you guess what kind of trees we don't have here in our Garden of Eden?" " Peach?" " Banana?" " Oak?" " Elm?" " Apple tree?" "That's right-an apple tree." " Frank Black?" " Yes." " Maureen Murphy." " Thomas." "Boulder P.D. Homicide." "Ex-L.A.P.D." "It wasn't my idea to squeal for help." "Not now, probably not ever." "A male and a female in their 20s." "The school field trip came across 'em." "May I?" "Naked as Adam and Eve." "Their genitalia, the woman's breasts, are covered with leaves... probably from elsewhere in this exhibit." "Did you find any indication of recent sexual activity, Detective?" " Thomas." " What?" " Found this." " Bite marks." " I'm Maureen Murphy." " She's one of the Millennium people." "The victims' teeth are gonna match the dental pattern on the apple." "There are pieces in the mouth, but you'll find no apple in the stomach." "What makes you use the term "victim"?" "They were killed somewhere else and brought here, posed." "I don't see why." "Could be one of those... moony, calf-love, teen suicide pacts." "The Garden of Eden?" "The apple with two bites?" "The nakedness covered?" "It's atypical." "Meticulous." "I've never seen a double suicide staged this way." "I've never heard of one." "My lieutenant says that, uh, that you specialize in sexual predators." " Is that so?" " Yes." " And you think this is a homicide?" " Yes." "I think killing is new for the perpetrator." "I think he's lost his innocence." " He's ashamed." " Maybe." "We haven't found any more, uh, new dead kids in our Garden of Eden here." "Do you recall any events similar to this, Detective?" "There was a couple abducted in a bar." "They may have been doped." "The abductor, uh, had them perform sexually." "It was nothing like this." "There was no murder, no staging." "If you could put them into contact with Maureen." "It's your time to waste, Mr. Black." "I'll, uh, tap on the glass." "The blind will open, and you'll see the shoulders and face of the deceased." "And if it's our boy... if it's Mel..." "Then you just nod, and I'll close the blind." "I'm very, very sorry." "If there's anything I can do for you, you have my number." "Pathology says they both took an Ecstasy hybrid orally." "Unusually pure." "But they can't tell us what, if anything... was injected into both of'em." "I sent tissue and blood samples to my people." "It should be helpful." "Are you comfortable working a case like this with a woman?" "I'm not comfortable working a case like this." "In my opinion, for what it's worth... they don't understand male sexuality worth a damn... any more than we do theirs." "Thank you." "You said you worked sex crimes in Los Angeles." "You never worked with a woman, did you?" "No." "How'd you know that?" "If you'd had, you'd have learned to value their insights more." "Hey!" " Are you Mel Dodd?" " No, I'm, uh..." "No, you're just, uh, what, having a go in his bed?" "Who are you?" "We're friends of Mel's and have permission to be here." "Do you know where Mel was the other day?" " Who was with him?" " My roommate" " Leslie." " And where'd they go?" " A club, I guess." "I don't know which one." "Say you and, uh, your girlfriend here were found dead..." "What?" "would you want Mel to, uh... try to remember where you might have gone?" "Yeah, I see it." "Put it away, will ya?" " You run this place?" " I guess." "I rent the building, collect the money at the door... pay for the sound, the light package, band sometimes." " You sell any drugs?" "You sell "X"?" " No, it's just a business." "Look, it's safe." "There's no violence." "If they want to get high and sex out, what do I care?" "It's their lives." "It's my living, though." "Can I look in your pockets?" "The maître d' here thinks he saw the kids leave with someone." "He's gonna come down and work with the artist." "Give us a minute, would ya?" "The person we're looking for... he's providing opportunity, drugs." "What do these "victims" give him in exchange?" "A window into sexuality." "The way he wants it to be..." "perfect... uninhibited, guiltless." "His actions will follow the development of his fantasy." "You're first." " Don't be scared." " I think you're next." "Ah." "Your turn." "Your turn." "You're next." "Ooh, Sylvie." "Ladies?" "I want some pink champagne." "Liquor stores close in 20 minutes." "We'll be right back." "Damn." "What would you like us to do wrong, Officer?" "So, they hadn't returned from the liquor store, as expected... after two hours?" " Yes." " Right." "Well, how far is this liquor store... from the house where the party was held?" "About a half a mile." "So two hours later, you noticed your wives hadn't returned?" "I mean, did you go look for them?" "Did you call us?" "Did you make a report?" "No." "You look a little nervous to me, Vic." "Look, this... this is embarrassing." "Not to me it isn't." "It was, uh, kind of a "swing" type of party." "I mean, they could have been in one of the bedrooms." "Wife-swapping." "You two are into that, are you?" "Group sex?" "Are you proud of that?" "Huh?" "I don't think pride is what's at issue here, Detective." " We just want our wives back." " Yeah, so you can trade 'em up." "Are these events advertised?" "word of mouth, mostly in the swing community, in some magazines." "There's an Internet site." "But it's discreet." "Any screening?" "Well, like, say to keep out, what, fat people maybe?" "The host usually meets prospective new guests." " Mm-hmm." " Cut these guys loose, Detective." " They're gonna need some time." " What for?" "Their wives are most likely dead." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Hey, somebody!" "Hey!" "Hey, somebody!" "Somebody!" "Help!" "Help!" "Hey, somebody!" "A, uh, penny for your thoughts." "Same guy." "Pulled the women over... probably impersonating a police officer." "I don't think the device is important." "Well, it's important to someone." "I mean, maybe those two sophisticates back at the station, huh?" "You might want to call Maureen and see what she thinks." "I don't want to know what Maureen thinks." "I know it's what I described." "Well, it's how I described it, but it's not." "I think the guy had short hair, close-cropped." "I don't know." "There were a lot of people at the club that night." "You might want to go back and start again." "I know it's tedious." " Thomas?" " He doesn't have a clue." "Maybe." "But the man he's describing..." "The man we're looking for is gonna be hard to define because of his appearance." "He's unremarkable." "And he's a predator who will belie his physical size, looks." " It could be anybody." " To him, the victims are unreal." "Erotic figments to be manipulated." "He kills them... to prevent them from existing outside his fantasies." "Until the two women, the targets were heterosexual couples." " Conventional activities." " "Conventional"?" "Oh, you think doping these people, watching them have sex... and then murdering them..." "that's conventional?" "Maureen is referring to the expansion of his interest into possible gay/lesbian sex." "This conjecture can be worse than useless." "It might lead us down the wrong road altogether." " Do you have a suggestion, Detective?" " Yes." "I'm gonna get that lousy description we have... and compare it with all the locally known registered sex offenders... which is what we should have been doing all along." " Frank." "Maureen." " Peter." "Peter, what have you got?" "Some additionally developed toxicology from blood and tissue." "In addition to the synthetic M.D.M.A.... the hybrid Ecstasy... we found trace amounts of triphetamine and dilavtin." " Indicating?" " The trace was slight." "This might suggest an inadvertent contamination of the Ecstasy." " Possibly it was deliberate." " Anything on the injection?" "Some unusual metabolites." "Our tentative conclusion is that the substance injected was succlynocide." "A dose large enough to be lethal, but difficult to detect... because of the way the body breaks the drug down." " That's pretty fancy shooting." " The guy's a marksman." "I'll be right over to help you." "We need a prescription filled." "We're kind of in a hurry." "We're getting married tomorrow, and we're going to Bali." "Dr. Kenton wants us to..." "Well, we don't want to run the risk of getting the trots on the honeymoon." "Really, Randall!" "Right." "Well, I could fill this right now if you could wait." "I think you should take it right away, so it can be effective." " Okay." "Hey, thanks." " Great." "These type drugs, they couldn't be made by bathtub chemists?" "Very complicated to produce relative to their illegal equivalents, speed and heroin." "These particular drugs have a legitimate point of origin." "The killer had legitimate access to them." "And your Millennium people, they're running down the D.E.A. records?" " Yes." " I think the killer takes the drugs himself." "His could be a substance-related paraphilia." " What the hell's that?" " The violence is drug-related... prescriptive, allowing him to act on recurrent... intensely sexually arousing fantasies." " Fantasies the killer makes real." " So why now?" "He's moving toward the consummation of an act... that he is incapable of consummating." "Not with his wife, not with anyone." " So you think this guy's married?" " Yes." "Possibly for many years." "A great possibility there never has been sexual consummation." "His wife probably blames herself." "She's deferential, attentive, supportive." "Probably come to value other qualities in her husband." "Dependability, maybe." "Kindness." "Karen." "I want you to know that I realize... that the..." "Well, the physical side of our marriage may not have been..." "These are beautiful flowers, Art." "I" " I-I want to get them in water right..." "It" " It didn't go so well... the first time." "And maybe since it's our anniversary, I was wondering... if maybe you wouldn't like to try again?" "If that's what you'd like, Art." "I want you to be happy." "Then, uh..." "I was wondering... when... you might like to try having relations?" "Anytime you like, Art." "Is-Is there any reason we couldn't... tonight?" "No." "Really, that- that would be fine." "The pharmacist's name is Art Nesbitt." "He's married." "He bought that business about eight years ago." "Go get him." "So what did you get on this guy?" "We've run the names that dispense dilavtin and triphetamine by pharmacy." "The findings aren't complete, but we have eleven hits so far." "Nesbitt has taken receipt of both drugs four times... but he has not filed the appropriate paperwork with the F.D.A... for dispensation by prescription." "He's not here." "He left sick this morning." "The young kid filling in says he thinks Nesbitt went home." "That's our guy." "Detective Thomas, Boulder P.D. Are you Mrs. Nesbitt?" "Karen Nesbitt, yes." " Is your husband home?" " No." " Not yet." "Why?" " May we speak to you?" "May we come inside?" "All right." "We can talk right in here." "Mrs. Nesbitt, there's, uh, some confusion about possible discrepancies... in your husband's prescription records at the pharmacy." "Oh." "Oh, please, call me Karen." " Karen." " Well... if Art was here, I'm sure he could straighten this out right away." "My husband is a very methodical man." "meticulous, really." "Almost to a fault." " Really?" " Well, I think I know my husband." "We've been married 18 years." "Eighteen years?" "That's wonderful." "Do you have any children?" "I'm Maureen Murphy, by the way." "No, Maureen." "Does your husband have any hobbies, Karen?" "Hobbies?" "No." "No, I don't think he has time with work." "Um, we..." "we watch TV periodically." "And he used to work on the car sometimes." "He changed the motor by himself once..." "a long time ago." "Do the two of you go out much?" "We have dinner at my sister's most Thanksgivings." " And Art has his drives." " By himself?" "." "Uh-huh." "He likes to drive around." "Think and-and..." "look at things sometimes after work." "I know this must be difficult for you." "I wouldn't ask these questions unless there was a good reason." "I don't talk to people much." "Um... my sister sometimes." "We don't talk about... well, things." "How often have you been having relations with your husband, Karen?" "what?" "Why?" "It's important." "We're going to... try again... to make it right." "In what way, "make it right"?" "Art wants to try." "Excuse me, Mrs. Nesbitt." "Have you seen that magazine before?" "No." "It's-It's- It's old." "It looks, uh..." "Is it smut?" "That copy's from 1978." "You mentioned that's when you and your husband were married." "we found it upstairs, ms." "Nesbitt, clipped under the lid... of the toilet tank in the master bathroom." "I don't know what to say." "This is what you were talking about, isn't it?" "The 'good reason" for asking the question?" "He's done something." "He's done something horrible, hasn't he?" "Oh, my God." "Eighteen years." "Eighteen years." "Do you have any idea where we can find your husband, Karen?" "He's at work." "Isn't he?" "The photos are in circulation." "All hands on deck." " What do we do now?" " Try and figure him." " Figure his mind." " well, did he know we were on to him?" "He can't have." "So he must have took himself off work for another reason." "What, did he grab someone?" "Where in the hell does this guy go?" " Excuse me." " What?" " Can I get past you?" " Oh, yeah." " To the restroom?" " I'm sorry." "I, uh..." "I sort of got off on the wrong foot with you." "Well, both-both of you." "I mean, I can see that she's a pretty good investigator." " I mean, I can see that." " I'm glad." "Yeah." "I, uh..." "I haven't exactly been comfortable with this case." "Yes, I noticed." "I worked a lot of sex crimes when, uh... when I was on the job in L.A." "Some of that stuff got pretty rough." "So I was..." "I was married then." " But no more." " I, uh..." "You know, I felt I was contaminated or something." "And then I found that, uh..." "I couldn't make love to my wife." "It started driving me nuts." "I mean, she didn't say anything about it." "And, you know, I started going to porno movies trying... trying to cure myself." "It got worse." "I got a divorce." "I moved here." "we don't get much sex crime." "I don't, uh..." "I don't usually handle this kind of thing." "I haven't for a while." "I haven't done it very well." "Frank?" "Something Karen Nesbitt told you about her husband- that they hadn't had sex... for the last 18 years." "And now suddenly, he wants to try again." " You think he's going back there?" " I hope so." " I mean, I got men all over the area." " No." "I think he's way ahead of us." "Say the words." "Karen, I love you." "This will be the first of many blissful nights." " I want it to be special, Karen." " And what do you say, Karen?" " Make love to me." " Art." "Call him "Art"." "Art. it's time for you to make love to Karen." "So what is it that sets this guy off now?" "An important date." "His anniversary functioning as a stressor." "He's recreating sexual experiences he feels he should have had before marriage." "He killed and froze his victims in death... at what he believes to be the happiest, most perfect moment of their lives." "Do you really think he's gonna come back here, back to this house tonight?" "He wants to make his marriage work." "I don't know where else he'd go." "If he's here..." "and I think he's here... where is his car?" "And why isn't it parked where I'm standing?" "Maureen, open the garage door." "We're gonna need an ambulance." "Give me that hook there, will you?" "One man should be able to do this easily." "Lauri?" "Lauri, you okay?" "Lauri?" "Please, let us go!" "Come on." "I got to get down there." "You're safe." "Please, whoever you are, please get us away from here." " Nobody's gonna hurt you now." " It's gonna be okay." "She's all right." "You're freezing." "I thought..." "I thought we'd die here." "He gave us pills." "Thank you." "When was the last time you saw Nesbitt?" "Maybe an hour ago." "I think there's a door over there." "It's an old bomb shelter." "The tunnel was probably added on." "This leads into the house." "When we made love... we gave each other a little piece of our souls." "We became fuller, more complete people." "And I've arranged it so that nothing can ever change." "Call Thomas." "Nesbitt's upstairs." "We will never, never be unhappy again." "We will be together forever, Karen." "That is what marriage is." "Hey!" "Hey, no!" "No, you don't understand!" "That is my wife!" "I am married now!" "I am married now!" "That's my wife!" "Karen, I'll be there." "I'll-I'll wait for you." "I'll be faithful." "We're married now." "Come on, Karen." " Maureen will be staying a few days." " Yeah, she said." "Is she married?" "Ask her." "Maybe I will." "I, uh" " I told you about working in L.A., Frank." "But I didn't tell you everything." "Besides my, uh, marriage breaking up and all..." "I had this reaction to the... the squalor, the carnage of the work." "And instead of working up a drinking problem like a normal guy..." "I had a nervous breakdown." "I mean, something is wrong, Frank." "You know... in this day and age... people are..." "are carrying on wild as ever... maybe more so." "I mean, regular folks." "And they're doing drugs, acting nuts." "Sex and death commingled." "One inseparable impulse." "Risk feeds sensation." "Sensation makes risk acceptable." "We're headed toward..." "Toward what, Frank?" "Something, perhaps, we'd do better to avoid." "Take care, Thomas." "Revision:" "Thor"