CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

In a hotel room, a man pours himself a drink, walks into the bathroom and looks in the mirror, then hears a sound and turns...

Grissom arrives at the hotel room, Brass takes him into the bathroom, where they see the man in the tub in a sleeping bag, the window is open so that the smell will alert people; Grissom says it's Royce Harmon all over again. He asks if the suicide note is in the same place, and pulls a small tape recorder out of the dead man's hand; it's playing backwards. He asks to be left alone; Brass tells the officer outside the room that they had a similar case three months ago [Pilot]; Grissom listens to the suicide tape where the victim identifies himself as Stewart Rampler, gives his address and says that he's going to kill himself. Grissom has the recorder dusted for prints.

Nick and Warrick are given the case of a reckless driver who went off a cliff, which was called in anonymously; Grissom tells them to work together on it, rather than against each other. Grissom brings Sara up to speed on the Harmon case from a few months back, telling her about the similarities in the crime scenes, and the false prints found at the scene which lead them to Paul Milander, the man who made the mould for the rubber hand used in the crime. He tells Sara to dust the hotel bathroom for prints while he and Catherine go to talk to the coroner.

Nick and Warrick arrive at the scene; firemen, police and paramedics are all there, and are cutting the roof off the vehicle. There is no driver in the car, but there is a passenger in the back seat. Nick calls it as a DUI, and finds a beer bottle near the car that still has cold beer in it to support his theory.

Dr. Robbins tells Grissom that while there are similarities to the Harmon case, there's one difference; Mr. Rampler has a wound in his hand, and a muzzle stamp on his temple, showing that he fought against the person who did this to him, which is something that Mr. Harmon didn't do.

Nick and Warrick check the skid marks and figure that the guy was doing 70 or 80 mph before he went over the edge. They find foot prints that show running; Nick speculates that the phantom driver ran from the car after having an accident, leaving the car teetering on the edge and the victim in the back seat. Warrick doesn't buy it, and wants to know where the driver went. Warrick says that there was a second car, Nick says that the second car picked up the driver. There's more foot prints; Warrick says that this is a crime not an accident. They bet $100 on it; Nick's phantom driver against Warrick's criminal.

An officer tells Sara that Rampler's house was being fumigated and that's why he was in a hotel. He has mail in the hotel room; the officer comments that it looks like he wanted to take care of business before checking out. Sara points out that this isn't likely because the suicide was staged. As she goes through the mail, Sara notices one of the envelopes has an upside down stamp on it. She dusts the bathroom, and comments that the last time she printed a hotel bathroom, there were over 1,000 prints. She checks, and there are no prints at all. The scene has been wiped clean and sterilized.

Grissom talks to Mrs. Harmon, saying that they think that the person who killed her son has also done it to someone else. They've confirmed that the voice on the tape is the voice of the second victim, and want to know if Mrs. Harmon has any tapes her son's voice so that they can check confirm that it was his voice on the tape. She'd already told them that it wasn't his voice on the tape, but gives them a talking frame that her son gave her last year for Mother's Day.

Nick and Warrick talk to the doctor about the victim's injuries. He's sedated, and it will be 12 to 24 hours before he wakes up. Warrick notes that the guy has tan lines that show that his watch and ring are missing. His personal effects contain only an empty wallet. Warrick comments that it was one hell of a fall that knocked his watch and ring off; Nick offers to double the bet.

Greg compares Rampler's DNA to a control sample, and finds that the stamps on the envelopes were licked by Rampler, but the upside down one was licked by someone else, who is unknown at this point.

Nick checks the car, Warrick says that there's no phantom driver at any of the hospitals. The car was rented to Walter Bangler, who Nick figures was in Las Vegas on vacation. They check the car, and there's fingerprints on the steering wheel.

Catherine and Grissom go to see Disco Placid to get a voice comparison on Harmon's voice on the tape against the voice on the talking frame. It's the same voice, but Disco Placid has also found a noise in the background of the Harmon tape - a flag or a tarp, he's not sure. Grissom, in listening to both suicide tapes together, says that it's fill in the blanks; a suicide script, and that the noise is the paper that the script is written on.

The lab tech tells Warrick and Nick that she found specks of blue dust in Bangler's prints, and can't identify what it is.

Sara finds out that Harmon and Rampler have the same birthday, but one year apart; August 17, 1958, and 1957. Grissom tells her to check to see if anything comes up for that date in 1956; he now realizes that the message is that things are going backwards, based on the tape at the scene and the upside down stamp. The finger print comes back as two prints overlapped; the first one is from Paul Milander, which Grissom expected. The second print causes the lab tech to become extremely nervous, and she asks to speak to Grissom alone, but he tells her that she can speak in front of Catherine; the second print belongs to Grissom. Neither he nor Catherine can figure out how someone got his fingerprint as he wears gloves at crime scenes. Catherine points out that someone could have taken one of his discarded gloves, or gotten his finger print off a glass in a restaurant. Grissom realizes what the killer is trying to tell him: "I've got it; he's trying to say he's got me under his thumb."

Nick looks over the fingerprint results and says that there are lots of people's prints in the car. He and Warrick raise the bet to 300 dollars. Warrick says that he really thinks that the guy was robbed, citing the lack of money, the missing watch and ring, and the victim's face being bruised up before the car wreck. Nick says that a robber wouldn't let the victim buckle up before trying to kill him. Nick mentions the blue dust, but Warrick says other questions have to be answered first; the foot prints and the tire tracks.

Grissom goes to Paul Milander's warehouse workshop to talk to him. They make small talk about Milander's work, and he asks about the Harmon case. Grissom asks about the rubber hand that was used in the crime scenes, and wants to see any records of sales to distributors, but Milander says that he doesn't really keep records like that, although he'd love to help if he could.

After spending hours looking through books of shoe prints, Warrick finds a match; Converse size 11. Nick says that the tire database is much faster, and he got a match to the tire tracks in three minutes; the tires match a Bentley, and there are only three in Vegas; one that was reported stolen last week. Brass tells them that the stolen Bentley was found, but it's been completely cleaned.

Brass tells Grissom that Rampler has been making cash withdrawals after his death. Grissom wants the whole ATM machine brought in to the lab so that he can test it for prints, and he wants the pictures from the security camera on it as well.

Nick goes over Mr. Bangler's clothes, and checks for more blue dust. They give it to Greg for testing, which comes back as pool cue chalk. Nick and Warrick brainstorm the crime: Nick says that Bangler was playing pool with the phantom driver, they'd both been drinking and then had the accident, and the phantom driver runs away, which explains the tire tracks and the foot prints as well as the crash. Warrick says that yes, he was playing pool, but then he left alone, the Bentley thief flags him down and then robs him, pushes car over the edge, which explains the tire tracks, the foot prints and the car crash. Each one thinks that the other's theory is better.

Grissom, Sara and Catherine watch the series of pictures from the ATM, where there's a bum holding up a series of pictures that he just keeps flipping, and they guess that the shooter is trying to tell them that life is like holding a dove, hold it too hard you kill it, too soft and it will fly away. They speculate that the dove represents peace, and Catherine takes it further, saying that it represents peace of mind, and that justice is required for peace of mind. Grissom sums it all up: "I'm going to keep doing this over and over again until I get justice."

Grissom talks to the bum in the interview room; Brass says that they handed out burgers to all the bums in the area until they got the guy.

Nick and Warrick are at the hospital, the doctor tells them they can have two minutes with Mr. Bangler. Nick tells him that the person responsible needs to be brought to justice, and wants to know who it was. Warrick says he thinks Mr. Bangler was robbed, and wants a description. Mr. Bangler explains that he wasn't robbed, and no one did this to him. He tells them that he was drunk and shouldn't have been driving. He was playing pool and lost, but didn't have money to pay up, and so they beat him up and took everything he had, including his watch and ring. When he drove home, he was drinking and swerved to avoid a truck, and went over the edge of the embankment, but had enough time to get into the back seat and buckle up before going over the edge. Warrick and Nick leave, laughing over their speculation about phantom drivers and Bentley thieves. They agree that their bet is a draw, with no winner and no loser. As they walk out, they get a call to go to a burglary, and Nick wants to go double or nothing on that one.

Grissom asks the bum about the man who paid him to flip the pictures; the bum says that the guy offered him 100 dollars to flip the cards, and the bum describes him as being about 5'10" with jet black hair, sea blue eyes, a bad complexion, and a pock-marked face. Grissom starts to get suspicious, and when the bum mentions the way that the man spoke, Grissom finishes the sentence for him, saying, "with a stutter." He realizes that Milander set him up, that he had Milander and let him go.

Grissom tells Catherine that when he picked up the hand, he left a print that Milander used in the second crime. Sara is on the computer while they go to Milander's warehouse. She can't find his address and he has no record; there's no information on his business; Catherine suggests checking the newspaper database. Sara finds a report that two hotel security guards were exonerated in the killing of Mr. Milander, and that Paul Milander watched from the closet while the guards put his father in the bathtub and shot him, making it look like a suicide. The crime happened on August 17, 1959. They arrive at the warehouse, and SWAT team goes in, but Milander's not there; the warehouse is completely empty, except for a stool in the middle of the floor, with an envelope on it that has "Grissom" written on it. He opens it up and it contains a blank piece of paper. Grissom says, "We have nothing."

At the station, Milander asks the receptionist if Grissom's in; she says he's out on a call. Milander tells her to tell Grissom that a friend stopped by, adding that he'll know who it was. As he walks out, he stops at the security camera and waves, then walks out.