"* Something gotta change *" "* It must be rearranged *" "* I'm sorry, I did not mean * * to hurt my little girl *" "* It's beyond me I cannot carry * * the weight of the heavy world *" "* So good night, good night, good night, good night *" "* Good night, good night, good night, good night, good night *" "* Hope that things work out all right *" "* So much to love, so much to learn *" "* But I won't be there to teach you *" "* Oh, I know I can be close *" "* But I try my best to reach you *" "* I'm so sorry *" "* I didn't not mean * * to hurt my little girl" "* It's beyond me I cannot carry * * the weight of the heavy world *" "* So good night, good night, good night, good night *" "* Good night, good night, good night, good night *" "* Good night, good night, good night * * good night, good night *" "* Hope that things work out all right, yeah *" "Thank you." "All right, let's give it up for Maroon 5, everybody." "Come on, let's hear it." "Thank you for coming out to the Central Park concert..." " Hey, get off me!" " Hey, what's going on?" "Come on!" "Get out of here!" "Go!" "Let's go!" "Police!" "Get up!" "Let's go!" "Step away from the officer!" "Officer down!" "Officer gone down!" "I got one here!" "It was a free concert in the park by Maroon 5." "Must've been one hell of a show." "Our vic is Liza Carpenter." "A first year Asian Studies major at Triborough College." "Stumbled out in front of the crosstown bus as it was leaving the stop." "The bus didn't kill her." "Look where it is in relation to the bus stop." "What is that, ten feet?" "Yeah, there's no way it could've been going fast enough to do this." "Looks like a crushed trachea." "The riot squad use 37 millimeter soft rounds?" "Yeah, beanbags for crowd control." "This place went from a sing-along to a slugfest in about 60 seconds." "Come on, you're not saying that one of our guys is gonna take the heat for this?" "Not saying anything... yet." "You think that's the round that hit her?" "It could've gotten caught in her clothing." "She got hit in the throat with a round." "She couldn't breathe, stumbled out of the park into the street, and then... this is where she died." "You guys know these rounds are designed not to kill." "It's not our job to tell you what you want to hear, Flack." "Once we sort through the evidence, our findings may rule out misconduct or excessive force." "Or they may not." "I get it." "It's just that, you know, these guys don't have an easy job out there." "Neither do we." "* How's it gonna feel when summer ends?" "*" "* Out of money, out of friends *" "* I've seen enough But nothing new *" "* The blackest stain on history The last laugh blues *" "* I'm gonna fight I'm gonna cry *" "* I'm gonna shop around For one flag to fly *" "* I've seen enough Inventor's age *" "* I've covered up my face While being shaved *" "* I've got an edge I feel its sting *" "* I've fallen into the deepest sleep Telephone rings *" "Oh, no." " Do we know the source?" " Not yet." "What about the level of exposure?" "We're about to find out." "Don't come any closer." "We don't know what we're dealing with here." "You sure it's radiation?" "It wasn't the beanbag that killed her, I can tell you that much." "All right, we need to move that body to out Exposure Control facility, then test all personnel who've come in contact with her for possible contamination." "That would include you and me." "Your contact was limited." "I'm guessing you'll be clear." "Besides, this radiation isn't airborne, and her clothing levels seem safe." "It's her skin that reads hot." "Suggesting her contamination was transdermal." "The paint on her skin was refractive." "Could've been laced with radioactive salts of some kind." "We gotta find the source and contain it fast." "Safety protocol demands we call the Centers for Disease Control first, then we secure the body, quarantine this area, and move quickly to isolate and protect all exposed individuals." "Not before we get Sid to a hospital." "No, I'll be fine, Mac." "We can't let him out yet." "We're not sure about his level of contamination." "And even though it's not airborne, we're making a big guess about the method of transmission." " Mac!" " Mac, stand back!" "Stand back!" "Sid!" "Get the CDC here now!" "All right, Sid, you're going to fine, okay?" "Listen, you're going to be okay." "We're going to take care of you." "You'll be okay." "I'm not getting unhealthy readings on either of you." "Do we have any idea what kind of radiation he was poisoned with?" " Not yet." " Mac." "I checked with the M. E. 's office." "I'm gonna cover for for Sid in Autopsy at least till we get a lid on this." "Has the vic's body been moved to the Exposure Control Facility?" "As we speak." "Follow her and stay focused on how she ended up there in the first place." "Done." "All right, let's go!" "What's the status on her clothing and personal effects?" "CDC wants to clear everything before they release it back to the lab, but as soon as they do, I'm on it." "All right, in the meantime, I want you both on that paint job of hers." "If it is the source of our contamination, time is of the essence." "You got something?" "Actually, yeah, I do." "It's called "shriiimping."" "Shrimping?" "Only they spell it with three "I's." It's a lot like tagging." " Graffiti?" " But for people." "You actually got an ID on the artist who painted her?" "Investigation is its own art form." "I ran the art we found on our vic through GRAFFITISTAT database and it came up with a name:" "Kenneth Bamford, aka Ka-Blam." "Fortunately, this guy might've changed his canvas, but he did not lose his style." "Or his record." "* All alone, in my room, think of you In a rate that's truly alarming *" "* And I put myself at ease By pretending that she still loves me" "* And I can't stop thinking about you *" "* And I can't stop thinking about you...*" "Kenneth Bamford?" "Yeah, okay, I recognize her." "But I'm telling you right now she didn't look like that when I shrimped her." "And when was that?" "A couple days ago, I guess." "I paint a lot of girls." "Maybe you're interested." "I'm only interested in finding out what happened to this one." "We didn't pick up significant radioactive trace on you or your studio." "Did you make contact with her in any other way?" "I like the way you think, but no." "She wasn't my type." "Did she complain about not feeling well when you were with her?" "Nobody complains when I'm shrimping them." "So you didn't notice anything strange about her at all?" "No, I mean not particularly." "I mean, her complexion wasn't that great, but every canvas is different." "And anyways, I knew she'd leave looking a lot better than she did when she got here." "Right, right, right, right." "What kind of paint do you use when shrimp?" "The ushze; non-toxic, hypo-allergenic, waterproof." "Oh, and I threw in some sprinkles to make it pop." "Sprinkles?" "Glass microbeads." "That's what refracted the light." "You're pretty smart for a hottie." "Yeah, I like to mix things up." "It keeps things interesting." "But like I always say, at the end of the day, it's not about the paint." "It's about the painter." "Right, well, you'd better hope like hell it's not about either." "Thanks for coming in on your day off." "I came as soon as I heard." "What's the prognosis?" "They're running a bunch of tests, trying to figure out how best to treat him." "Whatever it is, he got a prolonged dose of it in very close contact." "He's been in and out ever since." "His condition will get worse if we don't figure this out fast." "Radiation can eat through every organ in your body." "There's got to be something we can do." "There is." "Let's get back to the lab and try to figure out what took Liza Carpenter's life before it takes his." "So this is the Exposure Control Facility." "Complete chemical, biological and radiological shielding." "Your taxpayer dollars at work." "Speaking of, I took a core tissue sample from her liver at 600 REM." "That's acute radiation poisoning." "Internal bleeding, rapid infection." "Hundred percent mortality in ten to 14 days, tops." "Yeah, but get this." "Her epidermal reading was almost twice that high." "Oh, my God." "That cuts the timeline in half." "This girl was a walking ghost." "That's what they call it." "By the time she knew something was wrong, it was already too late." "So we're looking at external exposure at levels high enough to induce dementia." "Maybe that's what made her walk into traffic." "And why Sid got sick." "Without a suit like this, that kind of exposure couldn't help but leave him contaminated." "Yeah, well, whatever it is, something Liza handled or touched was absorbed into her skin." "and has to be what killed her" "Here we go: tox results." "The radioactive agent was... thallium-201." "No wonder you can't touch it." "Thallium is deadly on its own, let alone as a radioactive isotope." "Is there a way to treat it?" "Yeah, one." "Radiology." "Yes, this is Dr. Hawkes from the crime lab." "You need to treat Dr. Hammerback with nasogastric intubation of Prussian blue." " Ten grams, stat." " Right away, Doctor." "Hope we called this in time." "Looks like our vic had active hyphae on her shoes." " AKA mold." " Yeah." "You find anything like that on her clothing?" "No." "Mold usually needs exposure to water and a dark, contained environment to thrive." "She must have came in contact with it before she went to the concert." "Could help us retrace her steps to find out exactly where she came in contact with the thallium." "See if you can narrow down the genus and species." " Find out exactly what kind of mold this is." " You got it." "Bonasera." "Same kind of butterfly rashing?" "Hair loss?" " Yeah, yeah, I'll be right there." " Kidding me, right?" "Found another body." "Remember, nobody touches the body without a safety suit on." "Who are we looking at?" "Our vic is Dante Gunther." "He's the director of Killer Vacation, and he was set to receive a lifetime achievement award at tonight's horror film festival." "What is he, 20-something?" "A little early for lifetime achievement." "Looks a little late to me." "Anyone see what happened?" "No, the audience is so far below us, they couldn't see or hear anything." "Publicist I spoke to said that Gunther was supposed to intro the film, but he showed up late." "Then he started acting weird." "He didn't remember his own name." "He even started pulling out his own hair." "So they finally rolled the picture, brought him up here to this VIP section, and a few minutes after that, he hit the red carpet." "Anyone make direct contact with him?" "Negative-- no moviegoers were allowed up here, and he arrived at the screening alone." "Tell you o thing, that's not the sound of applause we're hearing." "So far, the hotel room appears to be clean." "Tell the detectives they're cleared to enter." "Did the CDC tell us anything else?" "Our deceased director just checked into the hotel two days ago." "Concierge say where he was before the screening?" "They're checking restaurant and car reservations." "Nothing yet." "The CDC's only found low levels of radiation thus far." " Normal for living in the city." " That sounds localized." "We might have something here." "It's in his cuff." "This is the source of the radiation." "Hey, any word on Sid?" "Now that his specialists have a course of treatment, they're hopeful." "Oh, good." "So, you find anything on our new vic?" "As a matter of fact..." "I searched the vic's clothes for possible trace." "Found this." "A torn piece of paper?" "It's older stock, but I'm having it carbon-dated to be sure." "There's some kind of a sheen to it." "Thallium is soluble." "Could've been applied in liquid form." ""Call agent." "Get festival dates, times."" "Forgot his Blackberry and needed a notepad?" "Dante Gunther and Liza Carpenter have to be connected somehow." "They both died of radioactive thallium poisoning at around the same time." "Other than that, I still do not see a connection." "What if they just randomly crossed paths?" "Few seconds at a public place, unaware of each other, not knowing that they came into contact with something contaminated?" "If that's true, how many more people out there have no idea how sick they are?" "So far, we've found no other radioactive trace at any place either of them were at in the days before their deaths." "Means we need to keep looking." "Ready for some Heavy Metal 101?" "Rock on." "Thallium has a pretty toxic place in the periodic table, somewhere right between mercury and lead." "Cozy but deadly." "Yeah, and apparently, 60% to 70% of it is used in the electronic and optical lens industry." "The rest of it is used in nuclear medicine." "Isn't it also used in rat poisoning?" "At one point, yes, but it was just way too toxic, so besides China, it's pretty much been banned everywhere else." "Well, somebody got their hands on it, so we need to check every medical, optical and technical lab using thallium in New York City." "Maybe one of them is missing our murder weapon." "So, the Mylar strip definitely tested positive for thallium." "Yeah, it's an EM Soft Tag." "It's most commonly used as an anti-theft device for printed material." "So maybe Dante Gunther was exposed to a radiated book." "But where?" "The paper in his pocket might help us answer that." "Now, it dates to the 1930s, and the Scanning Probe microscope indicated that it was freeze-dried." "Some kind of preservation technique?" "No, no." "It's a process used to repair books after water damage." "Oh, that could be the link between our vics." "The mold I pulled from Liza Carpenter's sandal came back as Stakybotrus." " Black toxic mold." " Right." "Thrives on stagnant water, and is mostly found in water-damaged buildings." "The two vics might have been in the same building, and touched the same book." "But how do we find one valuable, antique volume in Manhattan that's been soaked in water?" "Much less thallium." "With a little reading on the subject." "The New York City Library." "The Antiquities Branch." "They keep a lot of high-end material here for limited public access." "The building itself looks pretty old." "They had some faulty plumbing." "Wound up with a flood in their lower stacks last year." "So, you're thinking, this year they added thallium to their collection?" "That's why we're here." "There's got to be over a million books in this place, Mac." "Then we'd better start checking them out." "SPECIAL COHECHONS" "I got somethin" "Tibetan Book of the Dead." "And they say, reading's fundamental." "This time it was fatal." "The Knot of Eternity." "That was painted on Liza Carpenter's forehead." "That's a Tibetan symbol of omniscient wisdom." "A page has been ripped out." "Paper's consistent with what Hawkes found on Dante Gunther." "Might also explain the Mylar strip we found in the cuff of his pants." "I think we got our black mold." "The symbol, the page, the mold-- all those connect our vics to this book." "But anyone who handled the book could have been contaminated." "Not a very precise way of targeting people." "Unless the vics were poisoned at random." "What kind of killer doesn't want to know who his victims are?" "Prussian blue?" "Yeah." "It's his second dose." "It speeds up the removal of thallium from the body, but he's too sick to swallow it, so they had to insert a feeding tube." "Is it working?" "Only time will tell." "Conditions such as these in a public facility are indefensible and reprehensible." "That's why I'm filing a wrongful death lawsuit... against the City of New York and the New York City Library, both complicit in the radiation deaths of my clients," "Liza Carpenter, Dante Gunther..." "Those are our two victims, Mac." "and Molly Paulson." "Who's Molly Paulson?" "She was my wife for 11 years." "I still can't believe she's gone." "When did she pass away?" "Two months ago." "Why do you think she was poisoned by radiation?" "She was a librarian at the New York City Library." "Well, Mr. Paulson, the main branch of the library is expansive." "The odds of Molly coming in contact with one book in the Special..." "Collections section?" "Because that is where she worked, you know." "For the last five years." "May I ask, what were you told was her cause of death?" "Our family doctor said lupus is what killed her." "And all I can say is, the minute I saw the news and heard about the-the rash and the hair loss," "I knew it had to be thallium poisoning." "Even if the symptoms are also consistent with lupus?" "She was in remission a week before she died." "It all happened so fast, but now it all makes sense." "You know, Molly and I used to took an art class on the weekends together." "I painted that picture of her." "But if thallium did kill your wife, that means it was murder, and the only way I can confirm that is to have her body exhumed." "You do what you have to do, but mark my words-- somebody's gonna pay." "Mr. Paulson, I'm sorry for your loss." "Well, can I speak with him?" "Oh, of course." "No, no, I understand." "Well, thank you, Doctor." "I'll call back later." " Sid?" " Yeah." "He's still under heavy treatment, but according to the hospital, he seems to be alert and responsive." " Well, that's good news." " You want some more?" " Absolutely." " Great." "Well, as it turns out, nobody's actually allowed to check out books from Special Collections at the library's central branch." "They're for reference viewing only." "So our killer contaminated the book from inside the library." "Yeah, and anybody who wanted to read it had to sign in." "Liza Carpenter signed in two weeks ago, and Dante Gunther, about a week after that." "So I figured we got to be looking for somebody who signed in before those two." "Yeah, and if that somebody's still alive, they could be our suspect." "In the past six months, only ten people signed in." "Eight of them are clean." "One of them-- a guy named Timothy Pram-- actually read the book twice." "Should I just get to the best part?" "He has priors?" "For multiple acts of vandalism at Manhattan chemical laboratories, and an attempted break-in at, get this" " Three Mile Island." "Oh, this could be his twisted way of making a statement." "Where is he now?" "Currently residing at 7th and Webster." "That's the same address that was scribbled on the book page that Dante Gunther tore out." "I knew that rung a bell." "Excuse me." "NYPD." "I am Lhamo Vadhana." "Do you have any idea where we can find Timothy Pram?" "He no longer exists." "What do you mean, he's dead?" "In a manner of speaking." "He is who I used to be." "Okay, then." "Listen, Lame-o..." "It's Lhamo." "Tim, why don't we start over?" "When did you start hiding behind Buddha?" "Oh, my transition occurred when I stopped hiding." "Great." "Then you won't mind telling us what you know about these two people." " I'm not familiar with these individuals." " No?" "'Cause we're familiar with your tendency to go nuclear." "And since these poor folks died of radiation poisoning, and one of them had your address in his pocket..." "What are their names?" "Liza Carpenter and Dante Gunther." "I don't know the woman, but Mr. Gunther did call me recently regarding several tenets of Buddhism, specifically, its sacred view of what to do when death is closing in." "I believe he said he was developing a film along those lines." "So what, you told him to read the book first?" "I suggested that before we meet, he should become more familiar with the Bardo Thodol." "The Book of the Dead?" "As Westerners refer to it, yes." "It's a centuries-old text to prepare one for the signs and rituals of death and rebirth." "Are you aware that book was contaminated with a deadly dose of thallium?" "Of course he is." "He's the one who contaminated it." "Detectives, I fully acknowledge and accept the mistakes of my youth." "Vandalizing a nuclear facility was a foolish thing to do." "But I have paid for my transgressions, and my past is just that-- my past." "I have no intention of hastening anyone's journey from this life to the next." "Really?" "'Cause I have every intention of hastening you from here to lockup." "Hold on, Flack, before you book him..." "Mind if I check your aura?" "What's that stuff?" "It's a small bit of trace I found on The Book of the Dead." "Came back as a poriferan." "Sea sponge?" "This particular species hails from the reefs off Southern Florida." "What's really interesting-- I found trace on the trace." "Check it out." "See the red?" "That's it magnified 100 times." "I found it inside the sea sponge." "Morphology suggests that it's some type of protein, maybe chitin?" "Some kind of an exoskeleton." "Yeah, but the thickness of the sample indicates it's not from a crustacean." "Looks like an insect." "So what the heck is a bug doing on a sea sponge?" "We're looking at a virtual image scan of Molly Paulson's exhumed body." "Fortunately, she had a green burial, so there was almost no contact with the body by the mortuary after she died two months ago." "But when the CDC dug her up, and the Geiger needles pinned, looking at her this way seemed like the safest bet." "So we know her husband was right." "It wasn't lupus that killed her." "Tox has already confirmed that Molly's tissue bore high traces of thallium-201, just like the other two victims." "Then why don't we see it?" "Maybe we're not looking in the right place." "Enlarge the stomach." "See all those lesions in the lining?" "From cardia to corpus to pylorus." "The entire organ is ulcerated." "She have any gastric problems in her medical history?" "Not according to the records." "Then you're thinking her exposure to radiation wasn't transdermal." "That's right." "Molly Paulson ingested her poison." "Doesn't make sense." "We have three victims of thallium poisoning." "Two were exposed transdermally, and one by ingestion." "You know what?" "But the two victims who touched the book-- they came later." "Our first vic, Molly Paulson, somehow swallowed her thallium." "The delivery system is more direct, more personal." "Feels like she was an intended target." "Right." "Meaning the other two were just collateral damage." "Yeah." "So I'm thinking somebody specifically wanted her dead." "We've already cleared the graffiti artist and the Buddhist monk." "Well, there's someone else you might want to talk to." "Lawrence Wagner." "He was Molly Paulson's assistant at the library." "But according to the personnel department-- she had him formally written up three times for not showing up to work." "Then she died-- and he's been a no-show ever since." "Do we know where he is?" "His address on his application turned out to be a fake." "I got our guys running down a real one as we speak." "In the meantime, I figured you might want to rummage through his desk." "All right." "Ah, here we go again." "Come on, I don't want to put on that suit." "No." "Levels are low enough for lead-lined gloves." "Oh, good." "You don't mind if I keep my distance?" "I'd actually prefer if you did." "Smoke detectors." "These connectors were cut away from brackets on the wall to remove the smoke detectors." "Why?" "Most ionization models use small radioactive source to detect the smoke particles." "By the looks of it, this guy had quite the collection." "Whatever happened to friendly hobbies, like collecting baseball cards?" "Flack." "Getting a hit off something in this box." "Iodine." "In tablet form, these can be used to protect your thyroid from absorbing certain types of radiation." "Half of Eastern Europe took them after Chernobyl." "Well, it looks like Lawrence Wagner was taking them as well." "Want to find out why?" "According to his mother, he spends all his time back here doing experiments in the shed." "When the hell are people gonna learn how to profile?" "Lawrence Wagner, NYPD!" "Listen up, Larry." "I'm a little pissed off over having to wear this outfit." "So if you don't open this door, I'm gonna huff and puff and nuke your little house down." "Please tell me that's not a reactor." "All right, Lawrence." "Lawrence, put your hands up above your head." "Walk out slowly." "Right there, right there." "Can I borrow one of your suits?" "I told you." "I was building a reactor." "Why?" "We need cheaper energy alternatives!" "That's why I spent the last two years gathering all the necessary elements just to make do-it-yourself nuclear fission a reality." "Was it easy?" "No." "Have a taken a few risks, made a few sacrifices?" "You're damn right I had." "But every experiment has brought me closer to success." "And I knew if I just keptorking on it, I, I, I, I could save people all sorts of money." "You turned your backyard into a radioactive waste dump." "I mean, I'm not sure that you saved people a lot." "You didn't save your boss." "Who, Molly?" "Sh-Sh-She never went to my lab." " You mean your shed." " Whatever." "She wasn't interested in my work." "Well, that must've made you really mad." "Mad enough to kill her?" "I didn't kill anyone!" "Yeah, she wrote me up a couple of times." "Yeah, I was pissed off." "But I only took that job so I could score some more smoke detectors." "I'm a scientist..." "No, you're a backyard quack who's lucky to be alive and you're about to be charged with triple homicide." "Yeah?" "I hate to say it, Mac-- but I think we've got the wrong guy." "The evidence we recovered from Lawrence Wagner's wannabe lab just doesn't support it." "Yeah." "CDC found thorium-232 found in the gas lantern mantles;" "radium, uh, from the antique clocks;" "beryllium from a mail order catalog; and americium found in, uh, all those stolen smoke detectors." "But nowhere-- have we found even the slightest trace of thallium." "We can still get him, right?" "For EPA violations, felony larceny, maybe, but not for murder." "All right, I don't know if this helps, but I did at least find a use for the crushed insect trace that we found in The Book of the Dead." "GCMS picked up traces of carminic acid or carmine." "It's normally found on the bodies and the eggs of the beetle Dactylopius coccus." "Now, this beetle is often crushed to make pigment for paint, specifically, red." "Some artists use sponges for painting." "Maybe that's how the two traces fit together." "Ka-Blam the Shriiimper?" "He does all his work with an airbrush." "No." "There's another artist we're forgetting." "You killed Molly." "And then you murdered two more innocent victims." "Don't-don't be ridiculous." "We read your trial records, Joel." "So now we know about the chemical plant in Chinatown you represented three years ago." "Closed down for illegal importation of various radioactive agents, including thallium." "That's where you got it." "And since Molly already had lupus, you saw the perfect opportunity to use it." "You fed it to her, and you made an already sick woman die a cruel and painful death." "You have no idea how miserable she was." "Because she's dead." "I took care of my wife for a long time!" "Yeah, and after she died, you took care of her insurance money, too." "Half a million-dollar policy." "Not too shabby for an ambulance chaser." "That still wasn't enough, was it, Joel?" "No, no." "You wanted a lawsuit." "That's where the real money is." "Only you needed a few more victims to make it all look legit." "So you used your wife's access to the library and painted the book." "Murdered two people." "Nearly killed one of my colleagues and risked the lives of God knows how many other people." "So I wouldn't have to practice law anymore." "Day after day, I spent defending that chemical plant." "Night after night, worried about my wife." "How she wasn't happy or healthy anymore." "So you were angry at life-- decided to embrace death instead." "Is that why you chose the Book of the Dead?" "It was in Special Collections." "I knew people would read it." "Figured I'd take care of business, file one last suit, and then retire from everything." "That will depend on your execution date." "Get up." "You were right, Mr. Paulson." "Someone is gonna pay." "Hiya, Sid." "Sheldon." "How nice of you to come." "How you doing?" "Let's just say I know how a microwave burrito feels." "But I should also say thank you." "I owe a great deal of my recovery to you." "Ah, come on, that was nothing." "You would have done the same for me." "As a matter of fact, I would." "If you get tired of that Journal, I thought you might enjoy a little light reading." "Yeah?" "A clean copy, I presume?" "We were worried about you, Sid." "It's good to see you up and around." "Up, maybe." "Around might take a few days." "Okay, who's up for the Ranger game?" "Did you bring any beer?" "I wish I did." "How about we pour you some water instead?" "All right." "Chips and water." "That's like pizza and milk." "You're, you're kidding about the beer, right?" "Nope." "You gotta get good before you start drinking again."