CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

(Greg, Nick, Warrick and Catherine are in the room examining the latest miniature) Greg: The doll's still alive. That means Sara's still alive. Nick: Generic stretch of desert. She could be anywhere in a four-state radius. Catherine: Let's just focus on the details. There's always something to go on. Warrick: She has to make these in advance, right? But how do you plan a car wreck? There's no way to know how the car's going to land. (Nick examines the car) Unless you wreck the car first, and then put her under it.

(Grissom walks in the layout room with a file) Grissom: Her name is Natalie Davis, and she works for our janitorial service. Warrick: What? Catherine: Here in the lab? (Catherine looks at a copy of her ID badge and info) Grissom: For over a month. She's never been arrested, so there's nothing to flag on a security check. She used Ernie Dell's address on her work form. She has no home phone and no driver's license.

Grissom: My God. She was at the crime scene. Nick: So she salvages the car, and somehow gets it out to the desert, and grabs Sara, and puts her under it? Warrick: I don't get it. What does Sara have to do with bleach? Catherine: I don't know. This just feels different. Grissom: It is different. (flashback to crime scene where Grissom takes a camera from Sara and caresses her arm) This girl holds me responsible for the death of Ernie Dell. I took away the only person she ever loved, so she's gonna do the same thing to me. (everyone looks shocked, they all remain silent) It's not about a psychotic reaction to bleach, or some dead sister or the doll...

Grissom (talking about the miniature killer): Do you remember what she looked like? Art: Late 20s, early 30s ... She's about yay high. Uh ... brown hair. Uh ... she's kind of a skinny chick. Weird. Grissom: Weird how? Art: I got guys who come in here trying to recreate Civil War battles hoping for a different outcome. I get the desperate housewives who are trying to build the perfect Thanksgiving dinner. Control freaks with social problems that's my bread and butter, but ... uh ... this chick, she had ... crazy eyes, you know.

Wendy: Hey, I got DNA off the Trevor doll. There were two contributors: the vic and an unknown. There was nothing in CODIS, but ... the unknown was XX. Nick: The Miniature Killer's a woman? (Wendy nods) Grissom: Female serial killers are rare enough. Delusional psychosis in women ... rarer still. Nick: Well, "female" cuts the list down a little bit. Wendy: We could also narrow it down even further by cross-referencing the dates that Trevor lived with Ernie. I mean, that's got to be enough to get the foster records released, right? Grissom: Family court judge was explicit: "No fishing expeditions." We need to go in with a name.

(Using a magnifying glass, Nick is looking at the miniature items on Grissom's shelves in Grissom's miniature) Grissom: I found a thriving miniature hobbyist community on line. Sites where people meet, chat, exchange building tips, list stores they shop in. (Grissom is looking at the modelmarket.com site, for all things Small and Small. He's on the message boards) Nick: So that's why you built this thing? I mean ... other than to creep us all out?

(Natalie sits among other applicants in the waiting room. She has her sketchbook with her and flips through the pages. One of the pages has a pencil sketch outline of the Raymundo Suarez miniature with a body on the table. She flips through the pages showing Penny Garden's face through her broken window. She flips through earlier sketches of Izzy Delancy dead. She glances around, then continues a sketch she's working on. Rochelle Dorley calls out the next name) Rochelle Dorley: Uh, Natalie? Davis? Natalie Davis? (Natalie timidly raises her hand) You're next, hon. (cut to office. Rochelle Dorley sits behind her desk and interviews Natalie) Ooh-ee. Izzy Delancy. Hoity-toity, hmm? It's a real shame what happened to him, huh? Were you there for all that nonsense? (Natalie shakes her head) Too bad, huh? (giggles) You're a little lawbreaker. Says here, you ... uh ... prefer to be paid in cash. You like working off the books, huh? Good ol' Uncle Sam probably not too happy about that, huh? Natalie: (stutters) That's ... because ... I-I ... Rochelle Dorley: (taunts) Uh, uh, uh, ooh, uh, uh. (laughs) You speak English, you got all your papers. No, fine. It's fine. But in a seriousness, you wouldn't mind having your fingerprints done? See, we were lucky enough to get a contract for the municipal buildings downtown. You know, mayor's office, police department. Natalie: Yeah. (looks at her fingertips) Rochelle Dorley: But, you know, they require a background check for anyone going to work in that building, even temps. Natalie: Sure. That'd be okay. Rochelle Dorley: Yeah ... Listen, hon, you seem like a real nice girl, real nice, but we're called Platinum Maids for a reason. I-I just don't see the sparkle. Natalie: No. No, I'm very good. And I have exceptional attention to detail. Rochelle Dorley: You clean in between the blinds? Natalie: No. More like memory. I can see a room one time and remember where everything is. Rochelle Dorley: After just one time? Natalie: Uh-huh. Rochelle Dorley: Okay. Describe the reception area. Natalie: There's a lavender orchid on the reception desk. It's top bloom is about to open. A glass coffee cup with a chip on the edge, a half inch of coffee still in the cup. Cut glass bowl full of chocolate kisses -- two gold, one purple. A glass vase with a rose etched in the glass, three leaves etched on its stalk. Rochelle Dorley: You sit tight. I got some choices for you. (gets up and steps away from her desk for a moment)

(flashback) Ernie Dell: I just come from the police. They showed me your miniatures and they showed me some pictures of some dead people. The cops know I helped you put some of that stuff together. They know I-I-I delivered that package to the old lady's house, like you asked me to. They think I killed, I killed all those people. Natalie: You didn't. Ernie Dell: Natalie, did you kill them? (insistent) Did you kill those people? Natalie: Yes.

Grissom: Hey Natalie. My name's Gil. It's so nice to finally meet you. I-um, probably shouldn't say this, but I'm a huge fan. I've been a crime scene investigator for 22 years, and worked over 2,000 homicides, and you are by far... the best I've ever seen. I mean, you're such a great artist. And to be so young, and so talented, and... so pretty. I've thought about you every night for the last nine months. I even tried to do what you do. I built my own miniature.(Natalie nods her head) You saw it? How'd I do? (Natalie shrugs) You play chess? (Natalie shakes her head) I play. It's a hobby. Quiets my mind, you know? Soothes me. At one point I became so consumed by it, that whenever I closed my eyes I could see the chess pieces moving all around the board. I was obsessed with correcting all my bad moves. I wondered if a game could ever be played without a mistake. I'd love to play you sometime. I'm so impressed by the way you embraced your passion. You'd make a great CSI. This last one was brilliant. You studied our crime scene so well, tracking the car to the junkyard, and then towing it all the way out to the desert where you knew we wouldn't find it. And then, the way you killed Sara. Natalie (shaking her head): I didn't kill her. Grissom: You didn't? (Natalie shakes her head) Natalie: This is about her. Her, her, her. It's always about her. Grissom: No, it isn't Natalie. It's about you. (Natalie cuts him off) Natalie: It's always about her. (she takes a blade from her mouth and slashes Grissom's throat and watches as he bleeds. Then in a baby voice) Oh sad was the day for the little bisque doll, for they cut all her stitches away, and found the seat of the terrible ache. T'was a delicate task... Grissom (not cut, for it was all in her imagination): Natalie listen to me. Tell me where she is. Natalie: For none of the doctor's had ever before... Grissom: Natalie. Natalie: ... performed on a dolly's inside... Grissom: Please tell me where Sara is. Natalie: ...They tried to re-stuff her, but didn't know how, and this was her wail as she died... Grissom (yelling): Stop it! Just stop this! (shaking her) Tell me where Sara is! Natalie: ... I've got a pain in my sawdust. That's what's the matter with me. (voice over, over turned car) Something is wrong on my inside. I'm just as sick as can be. Don't let me faint, someone get a fan. (a hand clawing at the ground from under the car) Someone please run for the medicine man. Everyone hurry as fast as you can, 'cause I've got a pain in my sawdust.

Catherine (after watching Natalie's father a ventriloquist perform): We're in a David Lynch movie. Where's the dwarf?

Grissom (about Natalie): Her biological father was Christopher Davis, a ventriloquist. Catherine: A grown man, sticks his hand up the back of a doll, and speaks like a girl. Sounds healthy.

Nick: Unless the female killer's an Amazon, I kinda doubt she beat a guy like this around in his own bathroom. Doc Robbins: You have another theory? Nick: The Penny Garden case the victim was poisoned, then died falling out of a window, after going into convulsions. Doc Robbins: Right. Nick: In the Barbara Tolman case, the method of murder was gassing, but was disguised by potential poisoning, and suffocation. Doc Robbins: You think I overlooked something? You know I asked for an extended tox panel, came back clean as a whistle. Nick: Take a look at this. A little round spot. Is that discoloration consistent with a decomp? Doc Robbins: Maybe not. Nick: Any idea what it is? Doc Robbins: No, but I can find out.

Brass: I don't want to waste time screwing around with this nut case. I'm going to get some bleach, and drip it on her until she gives up the location. I mean they can't accuse us of police brutality for that. Grissom: I want to talk to her, Jim. Alone.

Catherine: Comparing construction materials in the new doll to see if it's the same work as the others? Grissom: Yeah. Catherine: Is there any doubt? Grissom: I live by the uncertainty principle. The mere act of observing a phenomenon changes its nature. Catherine: In trying to catch a killer we've changed its behavior. Grissom: I'm certain we have. (Grissom notices something on the doll) Catherine: What? Grissom: A fingerprint. Catherine: Well, there was no physical trace on any of the other dolls, or the miniatures. Grissom: Maybe he's finally gotten careless.

Sara: Maybe this one wasn't planned. Maybe the killer has to make the miniature after the fact, which is why it's so cold in here, to preserve the body. Grissom: I don't think we can rule anything out. It's all yours, my dear.

Nick: He was electrocuted, by what? Doc Robbins: If I could tell you that, you'd be out of a job.

Grissom: Somebody likes it cold. Brass: Las Vegas in May plus global warming.

Brass: What's the matter Gil, lost your interest in dead bodies? Grissom: No. But I'm afraid the Miniature Killer was here first.