CSI: NY Recap – 5.01 “Veritas” Recap

Episode 5.01: Veritas
Original Air Date: September 24, 2008

Stella is in one of the choppers, as the force searches for Mac and “Joe”, his kidnapper. She receives a call with a tip that the car may be near or on the George Washington Bridge (GWB), headed for Fort Lee, NJ. Mac, however, pops up, on screen, in the river. He makes his way to the bank, and into the brush in the Jersey City side. He flags down a car, and borrows the scared driver’s phone to call Stella.

Divers pull a body from the Hudson. It’s Derek James, the suspect in the shooting of the bank manager and his wife, not “Joe”.

They believe “Joe” is at large, but New Jersey police will only allow them to take crime scene photos. They won’t release the body or the vehicle, or agree to a joint investigation. Stella takes photos, including those of a yellow flower barette in the back seat, bullet holes in the front passenger window, red paint on the bumper; as well as 3D images of tire tracks around the scene. Adam goes to work on the data.

Mac, of course, rushes back to work, despite his having a mild concussion. Mac tells Danny and Hawkes that he keyed the car’s radio mic with his knee, while he was driving. He tasks Danny with checking on the bank scene processing, and Hawkes to check with NYPD dispatch for the recording of the radio transmission from the car. Perhaps Joe said something important that Mac doesn’t remember.

Derek’s entrance wound angle, and abrasions below the wound, seem to indicate that the shot was fired from below, and with the gun upside-down. Did he shoot himself? An incision above his navel shows signs of post-mortem sawing. He also showed injuries consistent with the Heimlich Maneuver.

As Mac takes off his shirt in the locker room, a bullet falls to the floor. Mac had no gunshot wounds, but his shirt had mild burn and abrasion marks around the right armpit. Mac and Lindsay deduce that the bullet must have been slowed by the window glass, and perhaps from its being “stale”, causing it merely to tumble at him. So, “Joe” must believe he had killed Mac, and had dumped him and Derek James into the Hudson.

On the radio recording, Hawkes finds a phone dialing in the background. “Joe” must have called someone.

Danny figures that the barette in the back seat must have fallen out of Joe’s clothing. DNA in a hair from the barette match that from the bank phone that Joe used. So, it must be Joe’s daughter’s.

Adam shows Mac and Danny that the tire tracks indicate no load change. So, Derek must have driven there without bringing the $2 million; perhaps the reason that Joe killed Derek. They agree that it may also mean that Joe will be looking for the money, somewhere in Manhattan.

Joe is angrily, and frantically, searching a house. The call that Joe made in the car was to Derek James. Hawkes tracked down the call record, and the number initiating the call. Mac calls his Joe’s cellphone. It wasn’t enough to determine his location, but Mac notices that he seemed to be expecting a call. So, someone else is involved!

Adam tells Flack that he checked the cameras from the tunnels and bridges into the city. He found video of Joe paying a toll, and driving a red car. The VIN from the car door indicates the owner of the car. Flack insists on taking care of it, but wants two hours before Adam tells Mac and Stella.

Mac begins to remember his last moments in the car: Joe’s cold-cocking him, and his waking and swimming out.

Danny tells Mac that Joe’s fingerprints match those from a 6-year-old robbery case. Also, he found that the bullet from Mac’s shirt matches a fragment from Derek’s head, but not the one from Joe’s shooting the ceiling in the bank. They believe Derek took the first shot at Mac, then turned the gun on Joe. They must have struggled, with Joe forcing the gun up toward Derek’s head; leading to the upward trajectory of the bullet into Derek’s face, and upside-down position of the muzzle.

Mac asks Danny to get his kit from the bank. Joe pushed it with his foot, and had dirt on his shoe. Mac believes it could help point them to Joe’s real identity.

Flack visits his sister, Samantha. She tells him that Lauren Salinas borrowed it. He’s worried Samantha is involved somehow.

Lindsay finds Mimosa perdica roots on Mac’s kit.

Adam confesses to Mac that he told Flack about the red car before telling him, and that it belongs to Flack’s sister, Samantha. Mac receives a call, and leaves.

Mac meets Flack at the scene where Samantha’s car was found. In the trunk, Flack finds the body of a young woman…maybe Lauren Salinas. Mac recognizes her as the woman who loaned him her cellphone.

Danny interrogates Samantha. She loaned her car to Lauren, who said it would just be a few days while her car was in the shop. She says Lauren hadn’t done anything to indicate she’d come into some money, recently. She did have a boyfriend, but Samantha had never seen him. She doesn’t recognize photos of Derek or Joe. As Samantha and Flack walk out of the station, an arrested man guy says hello to her. Flack is incensed that she’s hanging out with guys like that.

Lauren bled to death, but she had water in her lungs and signs of respiratory stress. She also had restraint wounds on her wrists. Mac deduces that Joe was expecting a call from Lauren, and the money. When she arrived, he must have restrained her, and tried to force her to tell him where the money was.

Stella finds wood debris on Mac’s case consistent with old railroad ties. She and Mac search near some abandoned tracks, and find the M. perdica. They also find loosened soil hiding passports and drivers licenses with Joe’s photo. Joe calls Mac. He must be watching them. He claims he’ll find his money, before they find him. He also says that Lauren’s death was an accident. The call is still too short to trace.

Adam and Lindsay test the passports. One has a legitimate State Department watermark, so Ethan Scott is Joe’s real name. Lindsay runs the name through the database.

Danny runs Lauren Salinas’ fingerprints, and finds she was a teller at the bank, and had called in sick the day of the robbery. So, she was the inside person. Stella produces New Jersey findings that Derek had throat lacerations with steel and nickel filings. Danny found Derek and Joe’s prints on the bank manager’s keys. Each key was numbered and one was missing. Derek must have swallowed it, and Ethan dug it out through the post-mortem incision in Derek’s abdomen. So, the money must still be in the bank.

Stella goes to the bank alone. As she looks around, she hears Joe fleeing on the second floor of the bank. She gives chase. She catches up to him on a rooftop, but he surprises her, hitting her with his duffel. As she falls over the railing on the edge of the roof, she grabs the duffel. Both clutch tight onto the bag, Ethan (Joe) from the railing, and Stella, dangling a couple stories over the next-door building. Stella manages to grab hold of the metal platform, as Ethan snatches the bag away and flees.

Lindsay finds that Ethan has a wife and daughter, Allison and Emma Scott. They live in Manhattan. Emma was out of school, that day. So, they’re on the run. Adam has found a purchase made for three train tickets from Poughkeepsie to Toronto, on Allison Scott’s credit card.

Stella finds Allison Scott in the train station, and tells her about Ethan’s actions. Allison is surprised at the news, and doesn’t seem to believe, at first.

As Ethan is walking toward Allison and Emma on the train platform, Mac calls his cellphone. Ethan continues his bravado, until Mac walks up behind him, and undercover police all over the platform reveal their weapons.

Mac: You’re under arrest, for the murder of Derek James, Lauren Salinas, kidnapping and attempted murder of a crime scene investigator, armed robbery, grand theft auto, assault and battery; but most of all… for pissing me off.