Kill Me If You Can

CSI EPISODE
Kill Me If You Can
Season	9
Number	15
Writer	Bradley Thompson, David Weddle
Director	Nathan Hope
Original Airdate	February 26, 2009

Kill Me If You Can is the fifteenth episode of the ninth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Summary

CSIs are called to three different crime scenes in one night. Dr. Langston and Wendy Simms investigate a drowned curator who sold fake art pieces. Greg and Catherine look into a homicide of a woman (presumably from California) in a motel room. Nick and Riley are called to investigate a dead body which an old man found in his car. As the investigations develop, the crime lab uncover a common thread that links all three cases together.

Plot

Three people are found dead in one night. The first is a man found floating in his mansion's pool. The second is an older man found dead in a car. The third is a woman found in a motel room with a trail of maggots leading to her body.

Lifestyles of The Rich and Felonious

Langston, aided by Wendy in the field, investigates the death of the pool victim, a wealthy art dealer named Carsten Pennington. He has been killed by having his head bashed into the ground near the pool. His fiancée, Darcy Farrell, mentions that they hosted a party the previous night which ended when Carsten burst out of a room and told everyone to leave. In one of the rooms, Langston and Wendy find a smashed vase, possibly as the result of a struggle. Later, at the lab, Wendy discovers that the vase may have been stolen from the national museum in Iraq and that the thief may have used plastic wrappings and "Made in China" labels found in Carsten's room to smuggle it into the country as a cheap fake. After Wendy puts the vase together, Langston reveals that the vase is fake. In the room, he found several empty packages of plain yoghurt and noticed that Carsten's cat, Gareth, was licking the vase pieces. A thorough analysis revealed that the vase was covered with a mix of the yoghurt and Iraqi minerals, artificially aging it to make it look real. Another look at the house reveals that Ms. Farrell had tried to wash a great deal of blood off of one of her dresses, suggesting that she may have killed Cartsten after learning that he had withdrawn $100 000 from their account and was planning to leave. After she asks for a lawyer and is arrested, Catherine calls Langston to show him a video clip of a movie producer named Tripp Linson, who bears a striking resemblance to Carsten Pennington.

Hooray for Hollywood

In the next segment, Greg and Catherine examine the motel crime scene. The victim is Jena Mackin, who has been dead up to 48 hours. Her cause of death is two bullets fired through her chin while she sat up. The slugs are apparently .38, fired from a revolver. They are also slightly rusted. On a table, they find two circles left by wine glasses, suggesting that Mackin wasn't alone. Under the table, they find a live tortoise, who appears to have been on the scene when the victim was shot. The autopsy confirms that the gunshots were the cause of death, but also reveals vaginal abraisons suggesting that she was either raped or had rough, consentual sex before being killed. On the tortoise, Mandy finds a fingerprint in blood. It turns out to belong to Mickey Ross, a Hollywood actor who was married to the victim. They bring him in for interrogation and take a sample of his DNA. In his possession, they find that he has a .38 revolver and ammo of the same kind and with the same level of oxidation as the ones found on the crime scene. When Vartann asks him where he was at the time of the murder, he tries to claim he was in L.A., but when Vartann reveals that the tortoise, Gareth, places him at the scene, he puts on crocodile tears and admits that he visited her and brought the tortoise. However, he claims that he found her dead with the gun in her hand and cleaned up the scene because it would have reflected badly on their relationship. He tries to claim he loved her, but a voicemail he left on her phone suggests otherwise.

While in interrogation with Vartann, Ross tells him about Tripp Lynson, a movie producer who conned him into investing $200 000 in his next movie and, insult to injury, seduced Jena. A few days earlier, she had broken up with Mickey and was going to run away with Tripp. Mickey tracked her down through her credit card records and found her at the motel, in tears because Tripp had dumped her and pretended not to know her during their last meeting. Afterwards, she and Mickey had sex and, he claims, she shot and killed herself. When Vartann remarks that Jena was shot twice, Mickey insists that he only heard one shot. Greg ultimately proves him to have been telling the truth when he finds strange markings on the slugs found in the ceiling above Jena. They show that the gun malfunctioned after the first shot and the gunpowder failed to ignite, trapping the slug in the barrel. When she pulled the trigger again, both bullets were fired because the second launched the first. After the case, Catherine watches a video clip of Tripp Lynson and notices that he is very similar to Langston's victim, Carsten Pennington. Nick then joins the group as well with a photo of a man named Ryan Morton, who also looks identical to Carsten and Tripp.

The Son He Never Had

The third segment covers the victim found in the car, Shawn Hagan, a private investigator from Tahoe. His case is handled by Nick and Riley. His cause of death is something of a mystery since there is no sign of violence in the car, but his records show that he was working for a Dr. Paul Anton and had been in L.A. four days earlier. During questioning, Dr. Anton explains that he hired Hagan to track down a business associate of his, a real-estate developer named Ryan Morton. While examining the body, Nick and Riley find a contact lense on Hagan's clothes. When they remove one of his gloves, they also find a small gunshot wound that went through the hand. The autopsy reveals that the bullet did go through his hand, after which it grazed his arm before entering the chest and ricocheting between bones inside and finaly being lodged in the spleen. When the gun is found in a dumpster, it turns out to be registered to Dr. Anton himself. He claims to have given it to Morton as a gift years earlier. At first, Nick and Detective Cavaliere accuse him of killing Hagan in a dispute over his bills, but then Dr. Anton reveals that Morton befriended him and tricked him into investing $175 000 in a non-existent real-estate project. He didn't report it to the police out of fear that it would reflect badly on his judgment as a cardiac surgeon. As the team converges over their three cases, Wendy runs a DNA analysis on the contact lense found on Hagan and discovers that it's a sibling match to Carsten Pennington, a.k.a. Tripp Lynson, a.k.a. Ryan Morton.

The Brother He Never Wanted

As the whole team bands together to investigate their cases, they discover that Ryan Morton has a brother named Gareth (who also served as the namesake for Carsten's cat, Tripp's tortoise and Ryan's dog) who is in the wind. Security camera footage from Carsten's house reveals that Gareth was present at the party. Catherine figures that Jena Mackin saw Carsten on the cover of a Las Vegas magazine and sought him out. Since he had changed identities by then, he claimed he didn't know her. Out of grief and despair, she then killed herself. After being found by Shawn Hagan, Gareth, likely by accident, shot and killed him in the car. Later that night, he went to his brother's mansion and wound up killing him. Luckily, Gareth is arrested after being pulled over for speeding. During interrogation, Gareth claims Shawn Hagan visited him in Tonopah four days earlier and tried to force him to give up his house, half of which was legally owned by Ryan, to repay the $175 000 Ryan had stolen, though he denies killing Hagan. After Ryan's party ended, Gareth went to his mansion and tried to convince him to give up his half of the house. Ryan turned him down, mocked him for his weakness, and Gareth then left peacefully.

However, evidence found in Gareth's car suggest a different story altogether. Not only do they find a case of contact lenses wit hone missing, they also find almost $100 000 in cash hidden under the trunk of the car. Stranger yet, they find that Gareth was wearing expensive Burberry underwear when he was arrested, yet all the underwear in his luggage is cheap Dempseys; however, when they hauled "Carsten" out of the pool, he was wearing Dempseys. When asked about the $100 000, Gareth tries to claim that Ryan gave them to him and he didn't tell about it because he didn't want to pay taxes on it. While being questioned, Gareth accuses Darcy of killing Ryan out of anger that he gave him the money. However, Darcy, who is overhearing the interview, reveals that Brass isn't talking to Gareth, but he man she knew as Carsten. On the night of his murder, she saw Gareth chew his brother out for not being in touch with their late mother. Ryan, in a moment of anger, shoved Gareth to the ground, accidentally killing him. Afterwards, they undressed Gareth, threw him in the pool and Ryan put on his clothes and stole his identity (though it's not explicitly stated, that also explains Shawn Hagan's death, as the DNA the crime lab thought was Gareth's was actually Ryan's). After coming clean about his identity, Ryan tells Brass how he once returned to Gareth and their mother and tried to give them some money, but Gareth refused them. Though Brass is sceptical about the story, Ryan says he will stand by it, even if it never happened.

Cast

Main Cast

• Laurence Fishburne as Raymond Langston
• Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows
• George Eads as Nick Stokes
• Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
• Robert David Hall as Dr. Al Robbins
• Wallace Langham as David Hodges
• Lauren Lee Smith as Riley Adams
• Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass

Recurring Cast

• Liz Vassey as Wendy Simms
• David Berman as David Phillips
• Alex Carter as Detective Louis Vartann
• José Zúniga as Detective Chris Cavaliere
• Archie Kao as Archie Johnson
• Sheeri Rappaport as Mandy Webster

Guest Stars

• John Schneider as Mickey Ross
• John Aylward as Dr. Paul Anton
• William Lee Scott as Jeffrey Luvan
• Wendy Glenn as Darcy Farrell
• Allison McAtee as Jena Mackin
• Diane Salinger as Hilda Morton
• Tom O'Keefe as Gareth Morton
• Michael Weston as Ryan Morton/Tripp Linson/Carsten

Goofs

• Just before the body of Sean (body #3) is set down on the ground he braces himself by putting down his feet. However earlier (or rather later) when he is being brought into the morgue he is stiff and has his legs curled up.
• When Catherine goes to print the turtle, Mandy helps Catherine flip him over and his two front legs are waving madly but in the next shot, the turtle's legs are still.
• A .22 pistol all-lead round is not a "high penetration round" and could not have traveled all the way up through an arm, and then take multiple paths around the inside of a torso. The energy is not there.

Quotes

(Catherine, Hodges and Mandy are trying to lift a fingerprint off of a turtle)

Mandy Webster: Just please hurry okay 'cause he's been traumatized enough already

David Hodges: He's a material witness in a homocide investigation

Mandy Webster: I meant traumatized by you.

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Ryan Morton: It's the truth - I swear to God - even if it never happened

See Also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes
• CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Season 9
• Category:Images from Kill Me If You Can