"Generally, autopsies are performed in the morning." "Hello, David." "Hello, Grissom." "David Phillips, everyone, our excellent assistant coroner and baseball trivia expert." "And who's that ?" "I'll introduce you to her later." "Afternoons are usually for paperwork and court." "Hi." "I'm Rebecca." "Donna." "I'm..." "I was Donna." "But you know," "I don't think that matters much anymore." "So... so we're...?" "Yeah." "Somehow... it's not quite what I expected." "What were you expecting ?" "White light, puffy clouds ?" "My mom." "So how'd you get here, anyway ?" "You know... someone will figure it out." "So you're the one who found the body ?" "Yeah, I pushed the button, the doors open," " I get this." " Right." "Do you recognize her ?" "No." "At any time did you step inside the elevator ?" "And get closer to that ?" "No, thanks." "Okay." "All right, thank you, Gloria." "Thank you." "Some white cotton fibers." "Probably from the towel." "Could be she was dragged into the elevator." "From any floor except this one." " How many floors we got ?" " Well, no 13th." "No four and no fourteen." "Yeah, unlucky numbers." "Different countries, different superstitions." "That was something Sam taught me." "Yeah." "And we just eliminated the one we're on." "You do the math." "33 floors." "Hey, I'm sorry I'm late." "The wedding planner." "Yeah. 21 days and counting." "That's all right, David." "Why don't you help me turn the body ?" "Examine her for injuries." "Wait a second." "A rose petal." "CHAPTER I "American Beauty."" "I'm gonna take a wild stab and guess... drowning." "How do you drown in an elevator ?" "CSI :" "Episode 7x03 "Toe Tags"" "What do you got ?" "We got a dead cop." "Donna Basset out of San Francisco." "She's not a registered guest." "San Francisco PD lets their guys moonlight." "Do you know anyone on this floor needs private security ?" "Mr. Hsing." "Robert Hsing." "He's an architect." "A pretty big deal in Hong Kong." "Which room ?" "Clear !" "Clear." "Clear and empty." "We need to locate Mr. Hsing." "I know these suites." "This furniture's been moved." "Per Mr. Hsing's request." "What is this is, an eight-sided pattern ?" "Feng shui ?" "He's exacting." "The furniture we moved left impressions in the carpet." "We vacuumed them out." "Some numbers patterns make elements flow." "Luck, energy, chi." "So you believe in all this feng shui stuff ?" "When a guest gambles several million dollars per visit, it doesn't matter what I believe." "Now we know how you drown in an elevator." "You don't." "Martin, could you join us ?" "You don't step in." "Just take a look around and you notice anything missing or out of place ?" "There's a couple of towels missing." "And a bath sheet." "And do all your infinity tubs come with rose petals ?" "No, we did that." "When the water flows, the money flows ?" "Four dozen red rose petals exactly." " Imported bath oil." " Per Mr. Hsing's request ?" "This is Martin." "Great." "What floor ?" "Who's in the room with him ?" "You okay ?" "You know, I mean, working Sam's hotel so soon after the... you know ?" "I think that working helps." " I mean, you know that." " Yeah." "No, stay put." "We found Mr. Hsing." "He's gambling in a private suite downstairs." "Player has five." "Natural nine." "You win." "Close the door." "Mr. Hsing," "I'm Detective Jim Brass, Las Vegas Police." "Your security officer, Donna Basset, was found dead tonight." "Murdered in your hotel room." "I'm so sorry." "Donna's worked for me the last 12 times I've come to your city." "Have you notified her family ?" "We'll take care of that." "When did you last see her ?" "When she escorted me here about four hours ago." "Mr. Hsing, when you hire security, how much of it is for real threat and how much is perceived ?" "Do you know what I mean ?" "How much is for show ?" "I have very real enemies." "Yeah, she drowned, all right." "Slight petechial hemorrhaging in both eyes." "Any chance it was an accident ?" "When was the last time you took a nap in Grissom's tub ?" "Take a look." "Oh, yeah." "Someone held her down." "And she... put up a fight." "So, you checked in around 6 :00." "Where have you been since ?" "Here, playing." "It's why I come to Vegas." "So you never left this room all night ?" "Once, about three hours ago." "Oh, that's helpful." "Why'd you leave ?" "My luck was bad." "I went to change it." "And how'd you swing that ?" "Called Detective Basset to escort me back to my suite." "She didn't answer." "I went by myself." "I see." "You can corroborate this ?" " He used the hotel phone." " Okay, good, there's a record then." "So you get back to you suite." "Then what ?" "I urinated." "Changed my underwear." "Came back." "Kept playing." "So changing your skivvies can change your luck ?" "Mr. Hsing's was down $1.2 million." "Now he's up over $2 million." "Wow." "I'll have to try that." "Well, got part of your killer." "He knew there were cameras in the elevators, but not in the hallways or the service area." "So what do you want to do now ?" "His sleeve is wet." "Stop and smell the roses." "You just caught me." "Mr. Hsing," "I'm Catherine Willows, from the Crime Lab, and I need to see the suit that you wore last night." "You already have my fingerprints." "Well... we can be finicky." "A rose petal from the victim's body was found to contain traces of vitisvinifera... grapeseed oil." "The kind that this hotel puts in your tub." "We know that the killer's shirt was wet, so..." "I need to see your clothes." "I'll leave you my address in Hong Kong." "You can ship them back to me when you're done." "Thank you." "Rose petals in the bathtub had traces of grapeseed oil." "Killer's sleeves were wet." "So you get the clothes, you get your guy." "Dry cleaner screwed us." "Did he push all the buttons ?" "Yeah." "Enough to keep that body moving, and leave me with a lot of partials." "A lot ?" "You're in my water." "You're the reason I'm losing !" "I changed his luck, and he took my life." "Every time he came to Vegas, he would gamble for four hours exactly." "And, you know," "I took that bath every time." "You were murdered." "I was a cop." "Thought I could see danger coming." "Well, not me." "I got into more train wreck relationships than I can count." "And then..." "I met Gavin." " And...?" " He was a great guy." "And when I fell..." "I fell hard." "CHAPTER II " No Brainer"" "Rebecca McGill." "She was taking a hike with her husband Gavin." "He was taking photos." "One second she was there, the next she was gone." "He went for help." "Hiking accident ?" "Maybe." "It's going to take you some time to get down there." "It's better than an express for Ushito" "Okay, Mr. Boy Scout." "Eagle Scout." "I didn't earn a chestful of merit badges for nothing." "You see anything interesting up there ?" "Well... looks like she bounced around a lot up here at the top before she caught air." "She was hot." "You pay for "hot," believe me." "It's a no-brainer." "I guess that makes me the search party." "Oh, I see it." "You're getting warm." "Hotter by the foot." "There you go." "It's hard to crack an egg without breaking the yolk." "That's amazing." "Don't think she'll be needing it, but..." "I found her cell phone." "It was a bald eagle, and they're extremely rare, and Rebecca had to have a.... a picture for our Christmas card." "It's weird..." "You take a picture, and you turn back around, and life as you know it is... forever changed." "Sir, is that the camera that you used ?" " Yeah." " May I see it ?" "This was supposed to be our second honeymoon." "We fell in love at an Internet convention at the Hilton." "Couldn't believe my luck." "A model... and a guy like me." "Beauty and the geek." "What did you do after she fell ?" "I ran to the edge, called down to her," "and she didn't move." "Mr. McGill, you hiked to the ranger station for help." "Why did't you just use your cell phone ?" "Bad reception." "You're free to go." "But stay local." "Impressive that it remained intact." "I'd say." "So take a look at this." "The multiple embedded small rocks present in the neck area, also in the parietal and occipital scalp, suggest she landed head first." "Extremity fractures, rib fractures, spine fracture all consistent with a fall." "Multiple abrasions on the arms and legs." "So I am guessing most were sustained before hitting the ground." "Well, I did find some blood on the rocks at the top of the cliff, as well as a piece of her shirt." "Looks like it was a bumpy ride all the way down." "Yeah." "Which could explain these abrasions." "She tore up her hands grabbing on to anything she could." "Severe lacerations on the backs of both hands and a broken right middle finger." "Was that sustained during the fall... or did someone step on her hand ?" "Tina, baby, can you give me a call when you get this ?" "Listen, I know we haven't been spending quality time with each other," " but I was thinking tonight..." " Oh, Warrick." "Oh." "I'll come back." "Work comes first." "What's up ?" "Oh... tox came back." "I detected traces of sertraline in the vic's blood." "It's a currently popular anti-depressant." "She had moderate levels of alcohol." "Six percent." "That's a dangerous combination." "But it's not that unusual." "Would you let your wife drink if she was on medication ?" "If I had a wife..." "no." "So let me get this straight." "You took your depressed wife to the top of Red Rock Canyon, shared a bottle of wine, and then you went on a nature hike ?" "What are you implying ?" "Did you know she was on anti-depressants ?" "She made her living with her looks and, lately, she'd been worried about... losing them." "Worried enough..." "to kill herself ?" "I was going to take her to New York and then to Paris." "We started talking about planning a family." "Suicidal people don't make plans." "Maybe it wasn't a suicide, but then again, you're the only one left." "You can say anything you want." "Let's just say your marriage wasn't so rosy." "Alimony's a bitch." "You get her drunk." "It's cheap just to shove her off a cliff." "According to the coroner, the evidence suggests that her hands may have been stepped on." "You're right," "Rebecca was drifting away." "She became a different person." "The meds weren't helping enough." "I thought if I took her to Vegas, where we met, it would snap her out of it, but instead," "she jumped." "No, no." "It is my fault." "I never should've taken her out there." "Why didn't you just tell us this in the first place ?" "Would you want people to know that your wife would rather be dead than spend another minute with you ?" "Well, if he is lying, somebody should give him an Emmy Award." "Well, there's plenty of physical evidence, but it's all ambiguous." "Yeah." "Ultimately, I think he is responsible, whether he meant harm or not." "Well, you know, there's precedent for charging him with promoting a suicide attempt." "It's reckless endangerment." "There was a case in New York, but it's hard to make that charge stick." "Well, what if I can prove she tried to kill herself before ?" "How do you do that ?" "Well, I have her phone." "I could go through the most recent calls." "If I know women, the husband's usually the last person to know anything." "Gavin, what are you doing ?" "Gav... wait..." "No !" "No !" "Help me !" "Help..." "We have a witness." "Why did you kill your wife, Mr. McGill ?" "You try having a hot wife." "You pay for it every day." "I want a lawyer." "I finally found a guy who liked me for my brains." "Turns out he thought I didn't have any." "Excuse me, ladies ?" "Have you seen my wife ?" "Her name's Cara." "No." "Or my little girl ?" "I had a beautiful little girl." "She was only about that big." " You ain't seen her, have you ?" " Nope." "Just us." "So they're not here ?" "Okay, then." "It's okay." "Anywhere but here, right ?" "So, how'd you get here ?" "Oh, ma'am, I thought the war was hell until I came to Vegas." "CHAPTER III "Embalmy Day"" "Knucklehead just blew the stop and ran right into the side of my car." "Damn." "You're lucky..." "I don't even see any skid marks." "Didn't even try to stop !" "Just dropped off my partner otherwise I would've been sitting in that passenger seat." "Hey, Linda, you didn't touch the outside of that door handle, did you ?" "No." "I know better." "Been to a couple of forensic classes taught by you lab guys." "Reached in through the window to check his vitals, he was dead." "Paramedics pronounced, made sure no one touched anything." "You did good." "This might take a while, if you want to take a little break or something." "Thanks." "Hey, Nick." "Hey, Doc." "What brings you out ?" "David's on a pickup, and he's got another two lined up after that." "He's going for some sort of record." "Dig in." "What was going through his mind just before he crashed into the police cruiser ?" ""I want to die today and take somebody with me"?" "Nothing." "Got a wallet." "Mr. Russell Caris." "He has dried blood on his hands and on the steering wheel but no bleeding wounds that could have contributed to it." "This could explain the blood." " Sophia..." " Here you go." "you might want to put out a broadcast on Mr. Caris and his vehicle." "Possible stabbing suspect." "He's definitely good for something." "I'll include the local hospitals in case they've had a stab victim." "Why wouldn't he have thrown that knife away ?" "He's not smart." "This is natural selection." "The dumb ones die." "The good ones, too." "I just found your stab victim." "Patrol got a 415B call." "Man with a knife." "The paramedics rolled up soon after they did." "The guy was already dead." "Was he alone ?" "No." "He was with his family." "We were getting gas, and... some lunatic came up... just stabbed my husband in the chest." "My baby saw Jack get stabbed." "Did your husband know the man ?" "No." "And Jack offered him his wallet." "The guy just muttered something, just... just stabbed Jack." "And left the wallet." "Why... why did he do this ?" "My husband just met his daughter." "What do you mean, he just met his daughter ?" "He just got back from his second tour in Iraq." "Would you recognize this guy if you saw him again ?" "Is that him right there ?" "That's him." "Is he dead ?" "Who is he ?" "Why did he kill my husband ?" "That's what I'm gonna find out for you." "Why don't you go with this officer right now." "She'll take care of you, all right ?" "I'll do my best to keep you informed, ma'am, I promise." "I'll check with the clerk, see if his surveillance camera was working." "Yeah, there's some... some oil and grease around the pump." "I'll check the tire and... shoe impressions." "Made it back from the war to die on the streets of Las Vegas." "I'm telling you, no place is safe anymore." "Sergeant Jack Day was in top condition except for the single stab wound to his chest." "Knife entered the fourth intercostal space, transected the fourth intercostal muscle, and the left internal mammary artery." "C.O.D.'s exsanguination." "What about the crash-test dummy here ?" "Interesting case." "He has intense erythema of the tracheal mucosa extending down into the main stem bronchi." "You don't get that from an auto accident, do you ?" "No." "You get it from inhalation of some caustic poison or drug." "I sent samples to Tox." "Okay, good." "So..." "C.O.D.?" "Well, the impact of the accident caused the first cervical vertebrae to tear away from his skull, lacerating the brain stem." "His skull separated from his spine." "Exactly." "Should've been wearing a seat belt." "No !" "Well, why'd he stab him ?" "I mean, it's not like he put up a fight." "And why does he pick the biggest guy at the station ?" "You think that guy in the back would be an easier target." "Rewind it back to this... fool getting out of the Buick." "He seems disoriented, shaky... high on something." "He had fairly high levels of THC in his blood." "97 nanograms per milliliter." "THC ?" "That's it ?" "Isn't that what you were looking for ?" "No, I was kind of thinking there was something else in there." "You should've seen this guy." "He was acting really... sketched out." "Sometimes people are just crazy." "Well, you're persistent, I'll give you that." "I tested the remaining marijuana in the paper wrapper." "You were right." "The joint was dipped." "PCP ?" "No." "Embalming fluid." ""Embalming fluid" is the street name for PCP." "Yeah, but I don't use street names when I don't mean to." "No, I mean real, inject-into-a-dead- person embalming fluid, made of formaldehyde, methanol, ethanol, all that bad stuff." "So this guy was smoking wet." "Well, the embalming fluid would make the marijuana burn slower, giving it more chance to be absorbed, creating a longer lasting high, I would imagine." "So, now, what do I tell Sergeant Day's widow ?" "A retired marine who served two tours in Iraq." "That all this is about getting higher ?" "You got to tell her the truth." "It was... it was just random ?" "That's the reason I don't have a husband ?" "That's why ?" "I'm sorry." "So after all that, how can you be happy ?" "You don't get it." "This is the best week of my life." "'Cause I got to hold my baby girl." "Oh, son of a bitch !" "Let me tell you something, you got nothing to bitch about here." "I don't think you can smoke in here." "Nah." "Let him try." "No, you guys, we're gonna be here a long time." "Let's just try to keep it pleasant, okay ?" " I'm not even supposed to be here." " Tell me about it." "CHAPTER IV "The Nevada Chainsaw Massacre"" "The hot weather, the full moon, too many people moving to Vegas." "Whatever the reason, the natives are restless." "Scene's in the garage." "Well, that's not a good sign." " Bacon and eggs ?" " Yeah, you know, don't bother about that." "That's the water delivery boy." "He lost his breakfast, and his bottle." "He said the house belonged to a guy named Lou Beltran." "Is he one of the victims ?" "He couldn't tell." "The door's been forced." "I thought this only happened in the movies." "Life imitates art." " Okay." " You first." "All right." "Kicked-in door, one bloody chainsaw, two dead bodies." "Someone broke in, cut up the two guys, left the murder weapon and split." "What about all this mess, the furniture and appliances ?" "Some of the furniture looks new." "Some of it's cut-up, some of it's not." "Maybe they were cutting it up when the assailant came in." "That's a workable theory for now." "You know what this reminds me of ?" "The first time we met." "San Francisco." "Your lecture." "Double murder in a garage." "I'd heard you were a little dull as a speaker, but you can't rely on your first blush." "That was the... subject of your talk." "I believe I said first opinions are crucial, but if the evidence changes, so must the theory." "Exactly." "Hey." "Any ID on them yet ?" "We're still working our way in." "Well, you know, I'm kinda stuck until I know who they are, so..." "Sara, do me a favor, will you ?" "Reach into that barbecue and hand me his wallet." "Sure." "Thank you." "This guy doesn't live here." "This is Ray Gaynor, lives a few houses down." "Maybe the other one's Lou." "I don't know, but I'd bet my right arm that's his left arm." "I'm gonna see if the one-arm man has a wife who knows how to operate a chainsaw." "It was a jagged, sharp force injury to the base of the neck on the right side." "Wound extends down and left laterally from the right shoulder to the left hip." "Wound becomes shallow and then separates into individual incisions." "Directionality of the individual wounds is from bottom... to top." "All chainsaws operate the same way, right ?" "Chain travels around the bar, teeth move away from the operator around the top and come back on the bottom." "So... if our guy, Lou, was attacked from the front," "the teeth would hit him from a downward angle." "Leaving downward wounds instead of the upward wounds you see here." "So... what ?" "He was attacked from behind ?" "Guess who owns the chainsaw." "Ray Gaynor." "The neighbor." "I also found bits of wood and metal shavings on the inside of the cover plate, consistent with the furniture and appliances." "The teeth on the chain are dull, probably from cutting them up." "Don't tell me Lou cut up my mother's headboard." "Was it blue ?" "Sorry." "How about my dining room set ?" "I think there's a couple of chairs left." "Damn that man." "Everything I asked for in the divorce." "Did he get the living room furniture ?" " No." " Figures." "That was going to be his." "Well, now it's mine." "The bastard can rot in hell." "So, Mrs. Beltran, I assume the divorce wasn't final." "No." "Lou held it up out of spite." "Do you know Ray Gaynor ?" "Decent guy." "Never married." "Lots of women around, though." "Pretty handy with his tools." "Halfwit would go over there and Ray'd teach him how to do things." "Too bad he never taught him how to be more of a man." "Look, I gotta ask you this where were you last night ?" "32,000 feet over the Pacific with 300 other people." "So you were in a plane." "I'm a flight attendant." "But go ahead and ask me if I'm sorry he's dead." "Where do you want him ?" "Put him under the Lou Beltran spatter." "And load him up." "Blue test paint is not lining up with the red known spatter." "Well, the body's in the correct relative position." " But the angle's off." " What could throw the angle off ?" "I don't know, but it's very awkward to try and line this up." "You know... what if you line it up switching hands, like this ?" "Ray Gaynor's killer was left-handed." "Lou Beltran wore his watch on his right wrist." "I bet he was left-handed." "So..." "Lou could have killed Ray, cut off his arm  but who killed Lou ?" "Doc Robbins said that the cuts on Lou's body were made when the chain was traveling upwards." "Well, if I attacked you, the chain would be traveling downwards when held normally by a left or a right-handed person." "Which means that the top of the chain had to be facing him." "The way that this works, is if Lou was holding the saw." "The chain was dull from cutting up his wife's things." "The wife told Brass that he wasn't very handy." "An inexperienced left-handed operator with a dull chainsaw certainly increases the risk for injury." "Kickback." " You don't know what you're doing !" " I know exactly what I'm doing !" "So he chainsawed his wife's furniture and appliances, the metal dulled the blade, and the kickback from the chainsaw is what killed him." "So it was an accident." "How many of you are right-handed ?" "Left-handed ?" "2,500 left-handed people die each year using products designed for right-handed people." "Okay, but how do you know there wasn't a third person that killed both of them ?" "A third person would have left shoe impressions in the blood, various other sign-- there was none." "You're absolutely certain ?" "Part of being a CSI is learning to work in the absence of absolute certainty." "Each and every case brings us a new opportunity to learn something." "For instance, in the case of Donna Basset, we can see that there is no such thing as an insignificant detail." "Here... the evidence itself can bear witness." "Don't just look for what you think you're going to find." "And this one, never impose logic..." "on an illogical act." "And finally, if the evidence changes, your theory must change as well." "Questions ?" "How do you deal with the smell ?" "You get used to it." "I'm not sure I can do this." "Well, not everyone can." "Why do you do it ?" "Because the dead can't speak for themselves."