Code Six, body of a dead female at a construction site off of Hill Street.
No breakthroughs yet in the brutal series of rapes that have rocked the Southland...
So, who we dealing with here?
It's the first rape victim he's killed.
Her name's Rachel Abbott. 29 years old; waitress.
Roommate filed a missing persons two days ago.
And the new guy's here... the one the new assistant director assigned?
Don... David Sinclair.
Homicide says she called her job to report car trouble.
Said she was going to phone Triple-A.
Triple-A has no record of that call.
Here you go, sir.
Thanks.
No wounds or ligature marks. She probably suffocated.
Lividity shows she was dead when the body was moved here.
The burn was made with the same implement used on the 12 previous rape victims.
Metal, heated to 300 degrees and pressed into the skin for about three seconds.
Rape isn't enough of an assault for this guy?
He has to burn them?
Branding asserts his possession - like the women belong to him.
As the psych expert, tell me:
after 12 rapes, why did he decide to kill Rachel Abbott?
Death is permanent possession; murder the ultimate act of ownership.
The violence has escalated with each attack.
He's been working up to this.
He used something to cover her face, causing asphyxiation.
Like duct tape... or a bag?
No tape marks, so I'd say an airtight substance, maybe a plastic bag.
The marks on her wrists are from thin gauge rope.
The severe abrasions occurred shortly before death.
She fought harder when she realized she couldn't breathe.
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- I have information about the rapist... - middle school, two miles from where he attacked...
- Federal Bureau of Investigation... - Still no leads in the hunt for the L.A. Rapist...
brutal series of rapes that have rocked the Southland...
We all use math every day...
to forecast weather...
to tell time...
to handle money...
We also use math to analyze crime...
reveal patterns...
The dead girl's car - we need to find it.
If she was attacked where it broke down, we do have a shot at some forensics.
1981 Honda Civic, blue.
California plate, 2-B-A-I-triple-2.
All regional agencies are looking for it.
Let's get on that.
Thanks.
- David, I want you to oversee the search for that car. - All right.
Terry...
We need to go talk to Karen Silber again.
Why Karen Silber?
That's victim number 12. There were inconsistencies in her statement.
- I'll get my stuff. - You get on that car.
He'll be talking to Merrick before we're out of the parking lot.
It's a major case; the Assistant Director needs to know he's getting the facts without spin, so...
Don, in the ten years I've known you, you've never given anybody spin.
Even when you should have.
I'm just happy for the help. We can use it.
I'm sorry we have to ask these questions again but you understand,
the case has changed, right?
Did he talk about having watched you as if he knew your routine?
He didn't say.
His attitude was like I didn't have an existence outside of what he was doing to me.
You were just trying to get through each moment.
And I know you couldn't see him...
He taped my eyes shut.
Maybe you remember his hands.
Were they rough?
Were they callused?
No, but they were strong.
And cigarettes...
His hands smelled like he smoked.
That's something you hadn't told us before.
How about we go over the moments right before it happened,
just to see if we can pin down the time any better.
I don't remember that part. I've tried, but I can't.
Please... I'm getting married next month.
Karen...
help me stop this guy.
The brand...
the four crosses...
Did he say anything that would indicate its significance or meaning?
No.
Look, if I knew anything that would help, don't you think I'd tell you?
Director Merrick...
- Agent Sinclair's catching me up on the case. - Sure.
You get anything from Karen Silber?
Eh, she's still holding something back, but we're working on her.
What about these tips?
There's over 20,000 calls and e-mails. We're halfway through, get another 200 every day.
What about finding the car?
We're on it.
Good.
Got anything?
Merrick's just threatened by you because you ran your own office.
He needs to feel like he's contributing ideas.
He's doing his job, making sure I haven't missed anything.
Have I missed anything?
No... except several days' worth of sleep.
We got to break some kind of lead on this, and I have no idea where that's going to come from.
21.07 seconds, 68.3 miles per hour.
No one would ever guess you don't have a driver's license.
MIT and Stanford can't touch that.
Professor Charles Edward Eppes.
It's Larry. Uh, give me a hand.
So this is what distracts you from helping me, your friend, your colleague,
win the Nobel Prize for my 11-dimensional supergravity theory?
Well, in a way, this project is related to your theory.
- This go-cart? - Go-cart?!
This isn't a go-cart. This is an extreme gravity vehicle.
Its shape will help inform the next generation of high-performance automobiles.
Okay, hooray for making things go faster, but I fail to see how this will provide me
the necessary mathematical breakthroughs I need to redefine the fabric of the cosmos.
You know, some physicists do their own math. Ed Witten, Richard Feynman.
Hurtful. I actually knew Feynman.
I actually think of him often. You know, here's a discussion:
Why is it that we remember the past and not the future?
That's a tough one, Larry. Look, I'll have time on Monday.
I'll run through some equations for you.
- Donny! - Brisket. Must be Friday.
- What's up? - I didn't have time to drive home.
Can I catch a shower here, maybe borrow a clean shirt?
Yeah, sure, be my guest.
And tell your brother to come down for dinner.
- All right. - You want some? There's plenty.
No, I can't. I got to get back to work.
Hey, what's going on? What are you doing here?
Just making sure you don't take complete and total advantage of Dad.
Are you kidding? He wouldn't know what to do without me.
Charlie, what do you think you're doing?
- Crime scenes... What kind of crimes? - Get away from here.
- These are confidential case files. - He just looked at the map.
I made sure he didn't go through anything else.
Good.
13 crime scenes spread over a contained region.
You guys are analyzing the significance of those locations?
Yeah, it's called predictive analysis. The FBI pioneered it.
I trained in it at Quantico, and it doesn't work on sado-serial crimes.
There's no way to predict the location of the next attack.
You know, I helped you out on that stock fraud mess, and the IRS extortion case.
Yeah. This is different. It's not about numbers.
Everything is numbers.
Don. Hey.
Um, can I show you something really quick?
- No, Charlie, I got to get... - I know, I know.
I know. Just come with me. Hear me out. Hear me out.
Come here. Check this out.
- You see the sprinkler, yeah? - Yeah, I see the sprinkler.
- You see the drops? - Yep. See the drops.
Even using math, there's no practical way to predict
where the next water drop will land.
There's too many variables.
Howeve say I couldn't see the sprinkler.
>From the pattern of the drops, I could calculate its precise location.
It's not about predicting the next site.
It's finding what the sites have in common.
The point of origin.
Charlie, you're saying you can tell us where the killer lives?
Yeah.
The movements of a serial perpetrator are defined by his needs.
He watches potential victims.
Avoiding detection, he'll frequent public areas, parks,
streets that don't get a lot of traffic, waiting for moments of isolation.
Isolated areas, high probability of attacks.
TV distracting you? I could turn it off.
No, it's fine, Dad.
What else? What else?
Serial offenders cover a wide region,
but rarely commit crimes near their homes.
It's a "buffer zone."
Early in a cycle, buffer zones will vary in size, but as the cycle matures, they tend to stabilize.
- These guys follow patterns. - Exactly. There's also "distance decay."
The more intensity the attacker feels about a crime, the further he will travel to commit it.
- You don't want to look at those. - How do you gauge "intensity"?
By the nature and extent of the injuries, the length of each abduction,
adherence to ritualized behavior. I've listed the incidents by estimated intensity.
Oh, great.
This'll give me enough to start putting together some expressions. Just give me a minute.
Sure.
- Who'up? - Shawn Green.
Green - four games without a hit.
He's due. There's no statistical evidence for a batter being "due."
I say he gets a high fastball, he smacks it out of the park.
This is a tape of yesterday's game.
I know. I read the box score.
Three and one the count. A high fastball.
- Hey, you know, that was an anomaly. - Something like that, Charlie.
Shut up, Dad.
What you're talking about is a completely new way of identify a perpetrator.
- Exactly. - Not who he is, but where he is.
The question is, will it be accurate, and identify a small enough area.
- Morning, Thomas. - You think Charlie can do it?
He can be a pain in the ass, but he is a world-class mathematician.
If it works, we have a whole new system for analyzing and investigating serial crime.
- Good morning. - Good morning.
Wow, that's impressive.
- Agent Eppes, the dead girl. Rachel Abbott? - What do you got?
Microscopic particles of fungal matter were found in the victim's lungs, inhaled shortly before death.
Identified as black truffles. The kind you cook with.
So maybe the bag he put over her head is the one he bought them with.
There's some 200 places you can find black truffles in this area.
Plus more on the Internet. I'll get on it.
No car yet?
Not yet.
Look, I know you've got a job to do for the Assistant Director,
but there's a guy out there who's attacking women. I need to know where your priorities are.
Sir, my first priority is to assist you on this case.
I've notified every jurisdiction from San Diego to Seattle.
This car is not turning up.
All right.
Listen up, everybody.
We need to piece together Rachel Abbott's last day.
Where was she? Where was she going?
If she was having car trouble, maybe she was on the way to a repair shop.
Did she go to a movie? Was she shopping?
Call all the parking facilities, deal with the people on the premises.
Did she break down on a freeway or a surface street?
Ask CHP about abandoned vehicles.
I know you've done some of this, but do it all, and then do it over again, please.
Early in the cycle, buffer zones vary,
but as the cycle matures, they tend to stabilize.
He watches potential victims
waiting for moments of isolation.
It's Monday. It's 2:45 in the afternoon.
Monday. After lunch.
Larry!
Larry! Larry!
All right.
Sorry. I was busy working on something.
I know I'm supposed to be going through some equations for you.
Yes. I wondered if I'd gotten the time wrong. Or the place.
Or quite possibly the dimension.
No, I'm developing an application for the FBI.
You know what? You actually might be able to help me.
The problem involves finding an origin point from evidence provided by scattered effects.
Somehow I doubt we're talking about orbital paths and black holes.
Not exactly, no.
Evariste Galois.
Brilliant young mathematician not unlike yourself,
tackling the hardest problems in his day.
But he got distracted, he got caught up in politics and romance.
- I know where you're going with this. - And at the age of 20, he was killed in a duel.
And who even knows what he might've accomplished?
I would say I'm actually pretty good at avoing duels.
Charlie, what I'm trying to say is you are almost 30 years old. You're at your peak as a mathematician.
Many mathematicians do their best work in a very short time period, maybe five to eight years.
Hey, forget about me, forget about my supergravity theory.
You have abilities. You could be helping define the nature of reality.
All I'm asking is that you just consider how you spend what time you have.
Actually, it's this way over here. Hi.
It's all right. You all right?
Hi. All right. Amita, could you put the first map right up here, please?
Hi.
Here you go. I'll help you with that.
- How you doing? - Good. Nice to see you again.
Okay, this map was generated by an equation.
- Charlie, don't erase that. - No, it's okay. It's an old case.
I'm writing the equation here in abbreviated form.
I've pinpointed the area most likely to be the perpettor's residence.
- You got the guy's address? - Not the address? No. An approximate base.
Um, okay, I'm using some of the same techniques that physicists use to find black holes,
which can't be detected in any way other than the effect that they have
- on objects around them. - Black holes?
Walt, he based his work on FBI theories of serial crime.
Okay, professor. Why don't you just walk us through it?
Amita, can you put up the enlarged version?
The first point, really, to take into account is that,
when picking places to attack a victim or dump a body,
the perpetrator will choose sites that appear to be selected at random.
He doesn't want you to make any conclusions about where he lives, what areas he frequents.
Right.
You know what? Let's do an elementary demonstration, okay?
So can you help me just move this back?
And let's slide this over to there.
Can you five - one, two, three, four and five please come up here?
You know what? You guys, too.
Just, please, distribute yourselves randomly across this area right here.
You mean, spread out?
Like this?
That's exactly right. But look what you've done.
You have distributed yourselves at equal intervals.
While true random patterns will include clusters.
We're spaced too evenly.
Exactly. It's pretty difficult to consciously pick a random sequence.
Your target tried. But like you, he wound up with roughly even spacing.
In trying to avoid a pattern, he wound up with one anyway?
Yep. Locations purposefully distanced from a site not on your map,
but clearly marked in the perpetrator's mind.
Namely, his residence.
The equation reveals the probability that each area has of being the subject's base.
Yellow's the hot zone.
I had a feeling about Silver Lake.
I estimate an 87% chance he lives in that area.
You know, I don't know a lot about mathematics, but this doesn't make any sense to me.
Makes more sense than this.
You can't win if you don't buy a ticket.
Yes, this is truth. However, the odds of this one being the winning ticket are one in 41 million.
Which means if you bought 20 tickets every week,
you would win the jackpot once every 40,000 years.
- Really? - Yep. It's basic probability theory.
Agent Eppes, we've got the dead girl's car.
It's in a parking structure in West Hollywood.
Let's go. Test it.
Run it against cases from the past that've been solved.
Miller, pull some files for him to work with.
Ever play craps?
Agent Eppes!
Over here.
- Why don't you check on the girl's car, David? - Got it.
- What do you got? - Someone waited here.
We don't know if it is related to Rachel Abbott, but we've got cigarette butts, soda cans.
The condition shows they were left here recently.
Checking 'em for DNA?
We will.
Why wait here? He couldn't know her car wasn't going to start.
Nobody tampered with the car.
The spark plugs fouled, built up over time.
What street does that nurse Karen Silber live on?
Fountain, right?
What's the exact address?
634 Fountain.
Get her on the phone.
That's her house right there.
He was watching Silber.
Then he hears someone having car trouble; Rachel Abbott.
Nice target of opportunity.
But that's not why he was here. He's still after Silber.
Karen Silber didn't show up for work today. Nobody knows where she is.
Let's move.
Call for backup!
FBI! Karen Silber, FBI!
- Window open! - FBI!
Go! Go!
I'll check the house.
Serial killer. Boston. 1992.
Killer resided in hot zone.
Serial rapist. Portland. 1983.
Rapist resided in hot zone.
Tonight, the Southland is rocked by the return of the L.A. rapist. Karen Silber...
...stalked and killed by a man who had already raped her...
Karen Silber was found dead in her own home after an apparent second visit by the L.A. rapist.
Neighbors insist they heard nothing...
We've ordered police protection for the other victims?
It's done.
You think he'll go after another previous victim anyway?
No. He's too smart.
Very rare for a serial offender to go after the same person twice.
He probably intended to kill her the first time. She said she put up a hell of a struggle.
Yeah, I think in his mind, he was just finishing what he started.
But we're still at a dead end.
What's your next course of action?
But today there was the tragic discovery of Karen's body,
again showing the marks of the L.A. rapist.
Charlie tested the equation on five serial cases.
In four, the perpetrator lived in the hot zone.
And he's predicted a hot zone for this case.
Small neighborhood in Silver Lake. About 50 men live in the vicinity.
If we move fast, we can get backgrounds and DNA on that many guys in...
- In 48, 72 hours. - No way we get a court order off an equation.
You're gonna have to pick up discarded objects to get the DNA.
Coffee cups, cigarette butts and chewingum. That's the plan.
All right.
Let's go.
We got 16 so far. Let's go. Let's move it. Come on.
All right, that is number 34. We need the rest. What's the holdup?
DNA tests. What do you expect?
The lab needs another day.
He's out there somewhere.
So is his next victim.
Aren't you going to introduce me to your girlfriend?
You've met her before. She's not my girlfriend. I'm her thesis advisor.
Oh. Does that means she can't be your girlfriend?
It's... it's against the rules.
Well, screw the rules.
What's more important, learning or love?
Well, I'm sure there's no rule against the father of her thesis advisor asking her out.
- Go for it. Go right ahead. Be my guest. - Thank you.
Actually, I'm oken for, Mr. Eppes.
Back in Madras, my parents arranged for a marriage to a family friend-
- a nice Hindu banker from Goa. - Really.
Getting married?
God, no. He's a total ass.
Dad, you're, like, hovering over us.
And we have so much work to do.
I thought you already helped your brother...
Something this complex needs to be checked and rechecked.
There's one thing you and your brother have in common-
on some things, you're both very thorough.
Other stuff...
you completely miss.
Right. No, you just have to... I'm sorry, what?
I can't... Hold on. 30 minutes?
Don, there's a problem with t...
15 minutes is the difference between catching this guy and having another dead woman on our hands.
Can you at least get us the DNA results?
Don...
Yeah.
That would help. Thank you.
Charlie, did you just say we have a problem?
I did a test to verify the equation's accuracy.
I reversed it. Like running a film backwards.
I used the hot zone as a starting point and went the other way.
It was supposed to confirm the known crime locations.
It did not.
I got 40 agents working two days straight.
You're telling me that, what, you made a mistake?
Not my mistake. It was in the data that you provided.
Those reports have been checked and rechecked.
It was where Victim 12 was attacked.
So, either you guys got it wrong, or I don't know,
she lied to you.
Why do you say that?
It's evident that these locations fit within a general pattern
except for the first Karen Silber attack, in Marina Del Rey.
That's way outside the areas defined by the other locations.
I mean, just look at these numbers. 86 percent, 75 percent, 81 percent...
Two percent.
She was hiding something. Maybe this is it.
Numbers don't lie.
Why would she lie about where the attack took place?
She had a ex-boyfriend.
she and the ex were still friends.
So if she was attacked in the area her ex-boyfriend lived...
We're going to need the address of that ex-boyfriend.
Okay.
Charlie, I have a new location for the first Silber attack.
She was probably in Los Feliz, near Hillhurst and Franklin.
Great. I'll run the equation again.
We'll get a more accurate map.
Wait a minute. What's going on?
We got the last results. All 52 guys from the hot zone are cleared.
Not a single match.
Karen Silber lied about where she was attacked.
We got the right location. Charlie's generating a better map.
Please, just come in. Be patient.
Get on that map.
Yeah. Charlie...
It works. The new location fits. The map's much more accurate, from 87% to 96%.
- Give me the new zone. - He wants the new zone.
- Hyperion between Melrose and Del Mar. - Hyperion between Melrose and Del Mar.
- Marathon between Lucile... - Marathon between Lucile and Robinson.
- Robinson between Marathon and Winslow. - Robinson between Marathon and Winslow.
Robinson... between Marathon and Winslow?
And Winslow... between Edgecliffe and Micheltorena?
With better data I was able to narrow it down to a smaller area.
You only need to clear about 20 guys.
I would assume that this willllow you, you know, a far more efficient use of manpower and...
Charlie, you're telling me the same area, it's only smaller.
Exactly, smaller means more accurate.
No, we already cleared those 20 guys.
Um, what?
No, that's... well... you must have missed him because, uh...
Well, either, um, you cleared someone you shouldn't have, or, uh... no, he lives there.
- You just didn't find him. - You're not listening to me, okay?
We cleared all males in that zone.
And that means you missed him.
Look, you just said we're dealing with degrees of probability.
96%, you know what that means?
I helped build an entire Weak Force theory with less than that.
Yeah. Well, it didn't work. You understand?
I'm sorry.
Charlie...
Look, let's take a break, huh?
Get some coffee.
Charlie.
I'm trying to think.
I'm not running the investigation anymore.
If there's one agent in this office that can crack this case, it's you.
Yeah, but I didn't.
I don't think you realize how hard you push yourself.
Everything we tried was going to be a long shot.
Yeah, well, I got to go brief De Winter. He's taking over.
I'll do it.
Thanks.
Larry...
something went wrong and I don't know what.
And now it's like I can't even think.
Well, let me guess.
You tried to solve a problem involving human behavior and it blew up in your face.
Yeah, pretty much.
Okay, well, Charles, you are a mathematician.
You're always looking for the elegant solution.
The human behavior is rarely, if ever, elegant.
The universe is full of these odd bumps and twists.
You know, perhaps you need to make your equation less elegant,
more complicated, less precise, more descriptive.
It's not going to be as pretty, but it might work a little bit better.
And, Charlie, when you're working on human problems,
there's going to be pain and disappointment.
You've got to ask yourself is it worth it?
Okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Bye.
I can't get my head around it. What are we missing?
Where's the problem? And how do we make it work?
We have to make it work.
We need to retest it. We need another run.
Well, that's not gonna happen.
Well, look. I know that it's gonna be hard for you to talk your boss into doing it again,
- but we can't stop after one attempt. - Charlie.
- These kind of new methods require repeated trials. - Charlie, I'm not on the case anymore.
Okay?
Why?
Because my supervisor wanted fresh eyes on it.
Well, maybe the math is not the problem.
What do you mean?
Well, you just said that there was something you couldn't get your head around,
and I know for a fact that it can't be the math.
What else is there?
Hey, maybe he's right.
I mean, this sprinkler had totally made sense.
That you could track back from the location and find out where the guy lives.
Right? Totally made sense.
Maybe we're thinking about this guy in too narrow a focus.
Are you saying I need to consider more than his criminal activities?
No, not exactly. I'm saying we maybe need to consider more than just where he lives.
Look at me. If you designed an equation to find my origin,
you wouldn't get my apartment 'cause I'm almost never there. My base would be my office.
Which means...
he'll use his home and his work
- as points of origin. - Exactly.
I can design an equation to identify two hot zones.
Why didn't I think of that?
Don...
Dad.
That's brilliant.
This new equation works back from the crime scenes to identify two locations.
Okay, so two hot zones, but very, very different.
Right.
The old zone...
was residential. The new zone is in an industrial area.
Home and work. We know he wasn't in the home zone,
what would be helpful is if we had a blowup of the industrial.
It's printing out.
Theoretically, if you find somebody in this new zone,
the work zone, he should have a link to the old one, yeah?
Enough theory. Let's test it.
This is Special Agent Eppes in Los Angeles. I need to run a database search
for companies in the industrial district of Vernon, Los Angeles, California.
Peter Carlucci.
Hey, guys. Check it out.
Here's a second hot zone.
What works with the first?
I'm running employee databases of companies in the new zone
against FBI databases of sexual offenders.
We narrowed it to eight guys.
"Adam Klanzani, 77." He's too old.
"John Dorstaf, pedophile." It's not him.
"Victor Tommani, in jail until two months ago."
Okay, here's something.
What is it?
"Roland Haldane." Runs a small party rental company in Vernon.
Arrested for attempted rape 12 years ago.
- Good morning. - Good morning, guys.
Hold on. We're headed out of here. Miller?
- What's going on? - Yo.
I need you to check out this guy's residence.
- Let's go, guys. - What's going on?
I'll tell you on the way. Come on. Let's move. Let's go!
The suspect hasn't returned to his house.
Well, that looks like his van there.
Terry, why don't you check for other entrances.
Hang on.
- Hi. - Can I help you?
Yeah, I'm Special Agent Eppes. This is Special Agent Sinclair.
We're following up on a report. Mind if we come in?
Sure. Come on.
Bootleg DVDs? Being sold around here?
You Feds are serious about this pirating stuff.
Yep, we are.
You prepare food here?
I do a little catering on the side.
You cook?
It's a one-man operation. I do everything.
David, it's him!
Drop that knife! Drop the knife or I'll shoot!
Drop it now!
Drop it!
Drop that knife!
Drop it!
Hang on, hang on.
Shh. It's okay.
- Terry! - Don!
- Terry! - Don, in here!
She's alive. I called paramedics. They're on their way.
- You all right? - Yeah.
- You okay? - Yeah.
- You all right there? - Yeah.
Thanks.
- Good job. - Thanks.
Hey, Charlie.
I'm going to talk to the victim.
Hey.
Come here.
There's something I want to show you.
Haldane lived in Century City,
but he'd just moved there three weeks ago.
Look where he used to live.
That's why we couldn't find him in the first hot zone.
He was there, but he moved.
- That's a hell of an equation, Charlie. - Thank you.