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Feels like bath water, right�?
It's cold�!
Okay, polar bears, time's up.
Out of the water.
Pretty sure this wasn't the buried treasure
our swimmer had in mind.
Coney Island, February.
Water's 35 degrees
these people feel the need
to take a dip.
I don't get it.
That's why you're not a polar bear.
Well, it's pretty dry inside.
Probably didn't spend
much time in the water.
Tide brought it onto shore, buried it.
Kind of our own forensic message in a bottle,
or should I say a trunk.
Seems to be in one piece.
He's pretty stuffed in there, though.
We can't take him out here.
You got a shovel in your kit�?
- Just these.
- Let's dig.
You know, last July, Kobayashi
won at Nathan's again.
Downed 53 and a half hot dogs
in 12 minutes.
It's a world record.
Now, you got to admit
that's impressive.
And yet still nauseating.
- All right, you ready�?
- On three.
One, two, three.
That's not a trunk.
It's a box.
It's not a box.
It's a coffin.
Team CSI: New-York
OrionDeBmk et Kris
Moustou, Cpt Archer, Bendef et Cordesh
Corrections: Rapidkiller et Cordesh
Saison 1- Episode 14
"Blood, Sweat & Tears"
No yanking.
Cold water would've kept
bloating to a minimum.
A slow and steady tug
should do it.
I'll pull up.
You two
hold down.
Well, it's safe to say
he's still in full rigor,
which usually starts 12 hours
or so after death.
And remains for another 18,
so he's been dead about a day.
Maybe, cold also affects rigor.
Slows it down.
He could've died
up to 48 hours ago.
We're not going to be able to print him.
Fingers are unreachable.
His muscle fibers are
locked up pretty tight.
Body position is unnatural,
to say the least,
but no worries.
I can straighten him out,
but it's not going to be a one-person job.
Mac'll help you.
I got the box.
So, where do I hold�?
Saltwater residue on all sides of the box.
Water's also penetrated
into scratches in the finish.
Twine from the box is unique.
Five interwoven fiber strands
instead of three, that's strong stuff.
If the lid wasn't opening, then this must
have gotten into the box with our victim.
That's one hell of a fiber.
Well, fibers don't have roots.
This is a hair, and it's way
too big to be human.
- That's a lot of blood, huh�?
- Yeah.
The downstairs neighbor freaked out
when it started seeping through her ceiling.
She called the super; he called us.
Positive for human proteins.
The average volume in a healthy adult
is 4.
7 to five liters.
If you lose 500 milliliters,
you're unconscious.
So you don't lose this much blood and walk out.
No.
We're looking for a dead body.
- Who lives here�?
- A former Miss Iowa.
Name's Paige Worthy.
Both the super and the downstairs neighbor
say they haven't seen her in over a week.
Yeah, well, that don't mean anything.
I've lived in my apartment three years now.
My neighbors don't recognize me.
You better hope you don't go missing, pal.
I mean, no signs of struggle.
Bed's made.
Knickknacks and whatnot
are all in their rightful place.
Everything's here except the tenant.
Shower curtain's missing.
Paige Worthy couldn't have walked out of here,
so maybe she was carried out.
You got to be a lucky son of a *** to get a body
down from a fifth-floor apartment with nobody noticing.
True.
It takes more than luck
to pull off a ***.
You got to get out of here without leaving
a trail of evidence.
And our trail starts here.
Looks young.
May have fought back.
I'll scrape the nails,
do a full work-up with the post.
Bruises on the throat,
arms
and wrists.
Peri-mortem.
More on the backside
caused by something
with a hook on the end.
Bruises part of C.
O.
D.
?
It's hard to say.
The darker color bruises on the arm
suggest they're most recent.
What about this one�?
Hickey.
But forget DNA.
Too old.
I don't see any stab wounds.
No gunshot wounds.
- Just the bruises.
- That's the outside.
But this guy came out of a sardine can.
I want to see what's going on
inside.
Unbelievable.
Skeleton's intact
top to bottom.
So someone killed him, stuffed him into a two-
by-two-by-two box and didn't break a single bone�?
Paige definitely wasn't planning
on going anywhere.
Fridge is stocked for a long winter.
Maybe she was cooking for more than one.
I got multiple fingerprints from the doorknob.
Single girl in the city�?
Prints could be a boyfriend.
- Dry blood�?
- It's hard to say what it is or if it's even related to the crime.
But this is blood here.
Gravitational drops
moving towards the door.
Garbage chute.
Our killer threw something away.
He ain't the only one.
I'll post a few uniforms
on the other floors.
- It's clogged.
- We still don't have a name�?
Prints weren't on file.
Dental's still pending.
Doc�?
Cause of death
asphyxiation.
- That box spent a lot of time in the ocean,
any water in the lungs�? - No.
He was dead before he hit the Atlantic.
Strangulation�?
No damage to the hyoid bone.
Also, didn't find any trace fibers
in the trachea or mouth.
- So he wasn't smothered�?
- No.
I think there was air.
He just couldn't get it to his lungs.
When we breathe the diaphragm drops,
the ribs and intercostals expand.
Clears room for the lungs
to inflate with air.
But
if the cavity is externally compressed,
the lungs are unable to draw in any air.
They can't expand.
He was alive
when he was put inside that box.
Large hands grabbed this kid.
Probably the same person
who forced him into the box.
Only kink, defense wounds.
Trace under the nails may have been
him scratching his attacker
- but other than that
- There aren't any.
No.
He was stuffed into a box, alive
and didn't fight back.
Found the shower curtain.
But the face doesn't match Paige Worthy.
You saw the box, Mac.
Come on, my microwave is bigger.
I mean, until now, I never believed that
people were double jointed.
They're not.
There's no such thing
as a double joint.
It's just people with very
loose tendons and ligaments.
Physically he's just like rest of us,
but I'm telling you,
if somebody was trying to shove me into a box,
I would fight back.
And this guy had no defense wounds.
Maybe he's some kind of escape artist
and this was a stunt gone wrong.
He's trying to be the next Houdini.
Got locked in, couldn't get out.
I don't buy it.
I mean, there was nothing
on his body or the box
that indicated that he panicked
or tried to fight his way out.
Hey, you're right, that hair
you pulled from the box, it wasn't human.
Elephas Maximus.
An elephant?
Okay.
New theory.
Ladies and gentlemen, we of the City Circus
must bid you farewell.
I think I packed too much.
Welcome to the circus.
Good night, good night.
Parting is such sweet sorrow!
My son, Lukas.
Mr.
Neiman
when was the last time you saw Lukas?
Um, last night.
He performed then, then disappeared.
He was 17.
The city intrigued him
more than the circus.
He'd sneak away at night and explore.
How?
Sir, we found him in a very small box.
Similar to this one over here.
It washed up on shore at Coney Island.
Lukas was a contortionist,
like his brother, like me.
Boxes are part of the act.
- Your brother, he is dead.
- Maxwell
I just heard.
I'm I'm sorry.
I take it the circus
isn't one big happy family.
We live, travel, perform as one,
year after year.
But only Lukas and Alexander are my family.
What about the man you were
fighting with? What is he?
He's from Brooklyn.
Bernardo Espargosa.
I'm sorry he lost his son.
I really am.
But you know what?
- I don't like the guy.
- Well, I got that much.
- What started it off?
- The fact that I'm not a foreigner
and I didn't grow up in the circus.
What does being from Brooklyn
have to do with this?
I am a third generation performer.
From Europe, tradition, ancestry,
we are royalty.
I worked my *** off to get where I am.
From Roustabout, setting up the tent,
to performer, trapeze artist.
So that little display was just a culture clash?
Had nothing to do with what happened to Lukas?
Absolutely not.
Lukas Lukas had a great bit.
The entire show is going to suffer this loss.
- Lukas was fourth generation?
- And these people despised him for that.
Including Bernardo Espargosa?
He has only one act.
He's not a performer.
Then why did Maxwell Neiman attack you
moments after finding out that his son was killed?
Because he cheapens us all.
Performs only
for the applause hoping for fame.
But it was Lukas
who always stole the moment.
He was the star.
Not the girl.
Who's the girl?
His daughter.
Anasuya.
My daughter is the star here.
How'd you get those scratches?
Trapeze isn't easy.
I mean, I haven't had a show yet
I'm not nursing something afterwards.
Tonight was no exception.
Found one just like it in Lukas' hand.
Did you get them together?
No.
It was a gift from Lukas.
He'd sneak out at night.
Make it all the way to the ocean
and back before morning.
You never went with him?
I have two older brothers and
a father watching my every move.
I'm stuck here.
- Lukas was off limits.
- Just like in the show.
Lukas was Romeo
and I was Juliet.
Each year the circus acts are designed
around a central theme.
This year it was Romeo and Juliet.
"Good night, good night.
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
"
Act two, scene two.
Line 185.
I saw you backstage.
You weren't in costume.
Why didn't you perform in tonight's show?
Had a bad release last night.
I hurt my arm.
Thank God my father was there.
We don't use a net.
So I'll take a sore arm
over the alternative.
If the stereotype is kids run
away from home and join the circus,
where do kids already in the circus go?
Apparently the elephant enclosure.
This twine is similar
to the one we found on the box.
Stella, take a look.
Trace material on the lift
plate, same color as our box.
Sand in the treads.
Beach sand? Coney Island?
Mountain of evidence in one place.
And we know where Lukas ended up.
Maybe this is where it started.
Bernardo Espargosa had scratches on his arm.
Could be his skin under Lukas' fingernails.
And let me guess
- Bernardo refused to offer a DNA sample?
- Good guess.
Oh, come on, Mac.
You got to admit,
this is kind of cool.
I have never been this close
to an elephant before.
Mac?
Sorry, it's just, that everything's here.
Elephant hair, twine, dolly.
But we found Lukas nearly nude.
If this is where he was put into
the box, where's his costume?
Backstage of the circus, it is crazy and crowded.
There are people everywhere.
If he were stripped down and shoved into a box,
why didn't anybody notice?
I don't know.
If we find the person that took that dolly
to the beach, we'll get some answers.
What's up, Doc?
- Track down your missing tenant yet?
- Paige Worthy? No.
- Flack's on it, though.
He'll find her.
- How about our friend here from the garbage chute?
- We have a name?
- Blood from the apartment was hers.
Unfortunately, she's still a Jane Doe.
Actually
Mrs.
Jane Doe.
She's married.
Obviously not for the cash.
It's a tiny rock.
Wasn't the only thing on her hands.
Defense wounds.
- Ran a *** kit.
No *** assault.
- All right, what's the cause of death?
Exsanguination.
She was stabbed.
Based on the pattern and shape of the wound,
blade was small.
Severed the femoral artery.
Bled several minutes before death.
So the sick *** could have sat there
and watched her bleed out.
Noticed one other thing.
A crooked nose.
Happen during the struggle?
Pre-existing injury.
As were fractures to the orbital bone,
and zygomatic arch.
And her two front teeth are capped.
Originals were either removed or knocked out.
- Battered spouse.
- Yeah.
Ever know a woman with a broken nose
and capped teeth who wasn't?
Hey, Mac?
We don't need DNA
from Bernardo Espargosa.
Scratches on his arms
didn't come from Lukas.
Skin under Lukas' nails
his own.
Thousand ways it could
have gotten there.
How about the costume?
Positive reaction under the arms,
chest, collar, stomach area.
Sounds like sweat.
Smells like it, too.
Take a look at this
the substance adhered to
the sweat stains on the chest.
It's powdery.
There's more of it that's
adhering under the arms as well.
Sweat streaks.
Those are drops.
Which means they aren't sweat.
What are they?
Pulled a wool fiber off the hand grip
of that dolly.
Also fumed it.
Print city.
Any matches?
Just one.
Jake Lydell, the elephant handler.
You don't have to threaten me,
I been through the system before.
Right, Providence, Boston, Cleveland
It seems wherever the circus stops,
you get in trouble.
I'm unlucky.
That have anything to do
with the color of your water?
It's a cold day.
I'm trying to stay warm.
Coat looks thick enough.
What is it, wool?
Look, I know my rights.
You have
to tell me why you're here.
We found your fingerprints on a dolly
that we took from the elephant enclosure.
So?
What's the matter?
That dolly ended up at the beach.
Uh-huh, oh,
I get it.
The twisty kid.
I use the dolly every day.
I touch everything in the pach.
"The pach"?
Pachyderm.
Elephant.
It's my job to prep her for the show.
Clean, scoop that's my life.
Lukas ever intrude into that life?
Every day.
But he didn't talk to me
and I never talked to him.
You see, backstage,the circus is
just like everywhere else in America
split down the center.
Talent with talent,
crew with crew.
Take my coat.
Take all my fingerprints.
Take my spit
if you want that, too.
You can keep your spit.
But I will take your coat.
And I'll take your hands.
Fiber on the left,
from the dolly wool.
Fiber on the right from
suspect Jake's coat: cotton.
No match.
Neither were these.
Jake's hands are too big to
have caused Lukas' bruises.
Well, we know that Jake had
a bad temper and a wandering eye.
did you see the way he looked
at Anasuya?
But it didn't lead
to ***, huh?
Can you place him
on the box?
No.
But there's more than
just salt water on that box.
Propylene glycol,manganese,
aluminum silicate, mineral oil.
This is make-up.
D&C Red Number 7.
Calcium Lake.
Red make-up.
Right.
Thick enough
to survive the ocean.
So, who with the circus
layers it on like Tammy Faye?
Are you guys out
of your minds?
Clown faces are unique.
No two alike.
Yours left a print
on Lukas' contortionist box.
I was trying to get a laugh.
The box was part of the act.
We found distinctive bruises
on the victim's backside.
That part of the act, too?
The bruises on Lukas' body
are consistent with your props.
Wrist and throat
from your stockade,
backside from your cane.
What happened?
He spilled the bubbles.
I was literally
walking out into the ring.
No time to make more bubbles.
My act bombed.
Not one kid laughed,
and it was his fault.
So, I pressed charges.
By beating him with a cane?
No, by taking him to court.
Order.
Lukas Neiman, a.
k.
a.
"Romeo,"
I find you guilty.
You are remanded to Clown Alley
for punishment.
He took his licks and got back
in the good graces of the clowns.
Problem solved.
That night we did the show and
that's the last time I saw him.
Clown court?
We handle things internally.
So do we.
Hands on the
table; no gloves.
Paige Worthy?
Is that how you hail them
in the Midwest?
Only want to get picked up by a cab.
Don't have time for you.
- Make time.
- I'm Detective Messer from the crime lab.
This is Detective Flack.
What is this about?
It's about a dead woman that
was found in your apartment.
In my apartment?
Recognize her?
That's Lita, Lita Cartey.
Lita Cartey.
We pledged together at Grinnell.
She was staying with me.
Yeah, but you've been
staying in a hotel.
Tracked your credit card.
Lita asked if she could crash
for a couple nights.
A couple of nights
turned into three weeks.
So you split?
Lita wasn't the problem.
It was that delinquent she married.
Jason, I told you,she's not here.
Stop calling.
Time gets away from me when I'm writing.
I figured she was okay.
Guess she wasn't, huh?
You know the husband's name?
This one's a real tough guy.
Beating on a woman half his size.
I never hit Lita.
Her nose was broken
at least twice.
Lita filed three domestic
violence reports against you.
I couldn't have kept a girl
like Lita if I hit her.
College-educated,
pretty.
I had to beg her to marry me.
But a woman like Lita doesn't
stay with a guy like you.
So, you knock her around a little bit,
make her afraid to leave.
She was my wife.
But if you couldn't have her
no one else could rigth.
I didn't kill her.
I haven't seen her in weeks.
All right, then
the fingerprints I lifted
from the doorknob in the apartment
won't match yours?
She wouldn't let me inside.
Come on, Lita,
I just want to talk.
Open the foor
I talked through the door
for 15 minutes.
She never answered.
The longer she made you wait,
the angrier you got?
I know what she's like
when she gets depressed.
Pulls the curtains,
won't leave the apartment.
Just shuts everyone out.
Everyone,
or just you?
I'm not a criminal.
Yes, you are.
We're just trying to figure out
what kind.
Danny, breathe.
It's okay.
I feel like it's right
in front of me, Mac.
I just can't see it.
Take your eyes out of it.
Talk it out.
I got a battered woman
with skin underneath her nails
hiding from a husband who admits being
in the building the night of the ***.
So, he's our guy,
right? Wrong.
DNA comes back no match.
- Husband didn't do it.
- No.
- You looked at all the evidence?
- Yeah, including this.
Check that out.
That's loomi a Middle Eastern spice.
Comes from boiled limes.
I found it on the floor.
If the husband wasn't in
the apartment, someone else was.
The evidence is there,
Messer.
You're not yet.
Keep at it.
You want the long or the short of it?
Short.
All right.
Lukas' flip-flops
and costume came back
with heavy traces of corn syrup
and dishwashing liquid.
Bubbles.
Matches Rosie the Clown's story.
So does this.
Rosie's got small hands.
They didn't wrap around Lukas' arms.
Okay, so we've accounted for the wrist,
throat and backside bruises.
Question is, who grabbed him?
The white powder we found in the sweat
on Lukas' costume was chalk.
Unique concoction of
the trapeze artist.
I told you, these marks
happened during a show.
I believe that.
Lukas didn't scratch you.
But the bruises on his arm
match the size of your hands.
You grabbed him.
I had to.
He attacked my daughter.
That was five days ago.
I made Anasuya
promise she'd never see him again.
Did she?
Did you know in Portuguese the name
Bernardo means "strong as a bear.
"
Yes, but that means
nothing in all this.
Maybe not,
but you knew this kid;
you watched his act.
My guess is you knew how
to fold him and put him in the box.
You had motive
and opportunity.
I think you handled it
"internally.
"
I despised him and his family.
But I'm not a murderer.
Lukas' bruises
are telling a different story.
I know you like Bernardo
Espargosa for this ***,
but before you pass the case on to the DA,
I need to show you something.
No doubt Lukas had talent.
Sticking your leg behind
your head isn't easy.
But
he was a great contortionist because
of what he got from his father.
He was a fourth-generation performer.
And there's something to that.
Elhers-Danlos Syndrome.
Genetic defect in the manufacturing
of collagen.
Affects connective tissues
skin, tendons, organ walls,
cartilage, blood vessels.
Makes them weak.
Watch.
Okay.
I think we got the picture.
One more.
It's relevant.
Skin is smooth.
Velvety.
Elastic.
Which translates to "bruises easily"?
Extremely.
There's no way I can date
the bruises on Lukas
based on their color.
So, the injuries on Lukas' arms could
have happened five days ago
just like Bernardo is claiming?
Yes.
Basically, all of Lukas' bruises
could have happened long before
he was put in that box.
Lukas Neiman may have
been a great contortionist,
but he wasn't skilled enough to shut the box,
tie it up, dolly
to Coney Island and throw himself
into the ocean,
no matter how flexible he was.
Okay,
even if Lukas wasn't physically forced
into that box,
it doesn't mean he got in on his own.
He could've been threatened
by gun or knifepoint.
Yeah, it's possible
but there's no evidence to confirm it.
And if no one laid a hand on him,
why didn't he start yelling for help or run away?
I'm beginning to wonder less
about why he didn't fight
when he was put into the box
and more about why he didn't fight to get out.
We processed the box,
the twine, the dolly.
There's no evidence of ***.
We do have evidence of a relationship
between him and Anasuya,
and a father who wasn't
very happy about it.
What if life was imitating art?
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
playing itself out backstage at the City Circus?
Hmm.
Okay, so Lukas Romeo
gets caught making out with Anasuya
Juliet whose respective
parents hate each other.
The Neimans and the Espargosas
become
the Montagues and the Capulets.
That's nice and neat,but, uh,
this is real life.
A life that Lukas Neiman wanted to get
away from.
There's no secret there.
Think he committed suicide?
In the play, both Romeo
and Juliet end up dead.
Makes me wonder why our Juliet
is still alive.
I don't know,
but there has to be more of a connection
between Romeo and Juliet
than just a hickey.
Maybe there is.
If Paige Worthy
hasn't been here for weeks,
Lita had to buy this food,
but Lita never left the apartment.
This is New York, Danny.
You can have anything delivered,
groceries, dry cleaning.
I'm jonesing for a pastrami sandwich
at 3:00 in the morning,
I call Andy down at the deli
boom, done.
I got a feeling
that she was jonesing for something
requiring loomi.
Yeah.
Lita ordered loomi.
Nice.
Charged it to Paige's tab.
We just need to find out who made this delivery.
While you were trying to figure out your story,
I ran some tests.
See that?
That's Lita Cartey's blood on your knife.
She ordered a lot from the store.
Spent about a hundred bucks a week.
And she bought this the night she was killed.
This is loomi from your store
I wasn't on the spice rack in the kitchen.
I found this on the floor.
I spilled it.
She didn't mind.
She wanted me to stay.
She was just
afraid to ask.
Wait a minute.
Spilling loomi was your way of coming on to her?
You were flirting?
My boss always sent me to deliver to her.
She must've asked for me special.
You thought she liked you.
She did like me.
Ever occur to you that you were misreading
the situation?
That maybe she just wasn't into you?
You did realize it, you got angry, and you stabbed her.
It was an accident.
She was bleeding and you didn't call for help?
Somebody was there.
A man.
He was trying to get in.
Come on, Lita, I know you're in there.
I know you're in there.
Lita! I just want to talk.
When he left,
it was too late.
So you threw her away?
What else was I supposed to do?
The two drops on Lukas' costume
What are we dealing with?
DNA came back.
Female.
No matches in CODIS.
You don't seem surprised.
I'm not.
What's the source?
Inconsistent with vaginal fluid,
and you already ruled out blood or sweat,
so it's up to Trace 2to identify what they are.
Not blood, not sweat.
I think I know what they are.
Two households
both alike in dignity
in fair NYC, where we lay our scene.
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny
where civil blood
makes civil hands unclean.
Anasuya, that's a beautiful sweater.
Is it wool?
Anasuya had nothing to do
with what happened to the boy.
We found black wool fibers on the dolly that
was used to take the box out to Coney Island.
This is a warrant for a sample
of your DNA.
Why?
There were droplets on Lukas' costume.
The DNA in them was female.
We suspect they were yours.
I'm sure it is.
In the show,
he reaches up to me,
and I to him.
It gets hot under the lights.
It wasn't sweat.
There were traces of mascara in the droplets.
They were your tears.
Anasuya
What's going on?
He committed suicide.
And you found him, didn't you?
Yes.
But you didn't tell anybody what
Lukas had done.
You took him out to Coney Island.
Why?
You had been there before, hadn't you?
With Lukas, at night?
If we could have gone farther
we would have.
You'd choose him over your family?
Family?
I hated it here.
Performing so my father can live out his dream.
Lukas hated it here.
Lukas got away.
And you were supposed to be with him?
Is that why?
You hurt your arm in the show,
but it wasn't a bad release, was it?
Without Lukas as Romeo,
I wasn't going to be Juliet.
We made a pact
but I changed my mind.
The moment my body started to fall,
I suddenly realized everything
I hated about my life, I could fix.
I didn't want to die.
So you reached out for help.
From forth the fatal loins
of these two foes,
a pair of star-crossed lovers
take their life.
Whose misadventur'd
piteous overthrows do,
with their death,
bury their parents strife.