Episode 106
Night of the Living Dead (02-25-07)

PLEASE DO NOT COPY AND REUSE ON OTHER SITES

Play by Play Synopsis:

Teaser: Garret is on the witness stand and Renee Wolcott is questioning him about a case.  It is a case involving a young woman, Lisa Hagen, who was raped and stabbed to death.  Garret is testifying on the evidence found on the body and linking it to the defendant, AJ Crawford.  The DNA profile found on the victim did match the defendants.  Renee asks Garret if the DNA found on the victim could be left by anyone other than Mr. Crawford.  Garret tells her, and the rest of the court room, that the likely hood of two people sharing the same DNA profile he found is about 1 in 100,000.  Renee is satisfied with his answers.  The defense attorney, Shelly Levine, approaches Garret with some questions.  He points out that other than the 'contaminated' blood, there was no other forensics linking the defendant to the crime. 

Nigel is running through the halls of the morgue and goes into the break room where the rest of the gang are sitting watching the coverage of the case on TV.  The reporter mentions that they are moments away from hearing the verdict in the AJ Crawford case.  Jordan is pretty certain when she yells "guilty" at the TV.  The reporter then informs her audience that they are going to go live into the courtroom for the verdict.  AJ Crawford is found not guilty for the rape and murder of Lisa Hagen.  The courtroom sighs in amazement, and Mr. Crawford shakes his attorney's hand and thanks him.  Jordan makes a comment about how something has to be done about the jury system.  Mr. Hagen can not believe what has just happened.  He approaches Mr. Crawford and yells at him...saying he knows he murdered his daughter and is not going to get away with it.  He threatens him saying he is a dead man.  The defense attorney and Garret go way back apparently.  In the courtroom Levine and Macy walk by each other and Levine says "Levine twelve, Macy nothing, you lose again."

Garret is sitting in his office quietly and Jordan knocks at his door.  He says that he is busy, but Jordan opens the door anyway.  Garret says he does not want to talk about it, but Jordan comes in and shuts the door and waits for Garret to start talking, knowing that he really does want to talk about it.  Garret vents about how he knows AJ Crawford killed Lisa Hagen and that Levine convinced a jury of morons that he was innocent.  He throws the papers off his desk in frustration.  Then his phone rings and he obviously gets some disturbing news. 

At the crime scene we see AJ Crawford shot down outside a restaurant.  Woody is informing Garret about what happened.  Apparently some witnesses saw an SUV speed through so it is thought to be a drive by shooting.  There are three total people killed.  Mr. Crawford, one of Shelly Levine's assistants, and Shelly Levine himself.  Levine is lying there with his eyes open and he does appear to be dead.  However, we see the world from his view, looking up at Garret and Woody and we can hear his thoughts saying that he is not dead. 

Act One:  Renee walks into autopsy where Garret is with Levine.  She makes the comment about how at least Garret gets to take the knife to him this time.  She also comments on how she knows Ivers took away a bunch of their equipment.  Garret has a small rant about how every little thing has to be justified.  Renee comments that he should have expected this considering how he lets his staff run around and do whatever they want.  Garret asks Renee if she was the one who stuck Ivers on them, but she denies it and says he brought it on himself.  Renee then turns focus on the case and tells Garret to focus on ballistics.  They need a gun to compare everything to, and Lisa Hagen's father owns a 22. 

In the interrogation room at the police station, Woody is questioning Mr. Hagen.  Woody points out that he threatened to kill him in open court, and now the man is dead.  Mr. Hagen then goes on a rant about how the police station, the DA's office, everyone involved in his daughters case did everything wrong.  That was why AJ Crawford was not convicted.  Woody is still trying to get Mr. Hagen to just talk to him and tell him what happened the night AJ Crawford and the others were shot.  Mr. Hagen has nothing to say.  Woody can not arrest him yet because he does not have a warrant to get his gun...so he has to let him walk.

In the autopsy room Shelly Levine is lying on a slab and we can hear his thoughts.  Nigel and Bug come in and Shelly is grateful that someone is there, but also not to excited it is those two.  Nigel makes the comment about how he hopes Shelly is someplace where he can feel what all the victims of his clients he got off felt.  Shelly says (in his thoughts) that he is not in the mood for lectures and for Nigel to just take his pulse.  Bug and Nigel start talking about how and why they hated Shelly Levine so much.  Bug mentions how he tricked him on the witness stand, and Nigel mentions about the time he almost got him deported. 

(Flashback): Five years earlier, Bug and Nigel are in the morgue hallway talking about Brittney Spears and other gossip.  They enter the lab and Shelly Levine is there and has some questions for the two of them.  They argued about the legality of a case and needless to say Bug and Nigel were not very happy about it.  Shelly then mentions to them that he had checked their Visa status and while Bug is fine, Nigel is technically illegal and he reported him to INS.  Nigel is pissed and almost slugs Shelly, but Bug holds him back.

Back in real time Nigel and Bug are just staring at Levine's body.  The decide that they do not want to look at him anymore, so they roll him to the crypt and put him in a drawer.  All the while, we can hear Levine's thoughts about how he does not want to go in the drawer, but of course Nigel and Bug can not hear him.  Everyone thinks he is dead, but he is not.

Lily knocks on Garrets door and then lets herself into his office.  She is updating him on the next of kin for the victims of the shooting.  She is having a hard time getting a hold of any family for Shelly Levine though.  Garret tells her to check with his ex-wives.  She mentions that she couldn't reach either one of them, but Garret cuts her off and tells her that there are five of them.  Lily is surprised he knows all this about Shelly Levine, and questions Garret about it.  Garret just tells Lily that he is busy and to just find his other ex-wives and call them.  Lily agrees to do so, but before she leaves she informs Garret that Jordan has started pulling slugs out of the bodies and she does not know if they are suppose to send them to BPD or what?  In a smart ass way, Garret asks if Ivers is taking away their ballistics testing equipment.  Lily says he is, and Garret just looks at her and says that her question was just answered.

Jordan is in autopsy and Lily comes in and informs her that the slugs should be sent to BPD.  Lily then asks Jordan if she knows why Garret is in such a bad mood.  Jordan jokes about how no matter if he is in a good mood or bad mood it is all the same.  Lily says it is something more.  She wonders if maybe Garret cared about Shelly Levine.  Jordan comments on how maybe he wanted to beat him in court just once before either of them died.  Woody then comes in to the room with a memory card from a camera he needs Nigel to work on.  He tells Jordan that he finally got his warrant and they are searching Mr. Hagen's house and car, looking for the gun.  Jordan tells him that the gun won't help because the slug is useless for matching because it is too damaged.  There are only fragments of the other bullets left so it is not looking good. 

Nigel is ready to share the pictures from the memory card.  Jordan and Woody come over and start to put the pieces of the puzzle together.  There is a picture of an SUV like the one seen speeding away from the crime scene with Mr. Hagen driving, but both of his hands are on the steering wheel, so there is no way he could have fired the shots.  They then notice a flash of light from one of the windows from the building across the street.  Nigel makes the comment about how things just got a whole lot harder.

Act Two: Woody & Nigel are at the building where the shooter was collecting evidence.  They can not lift any fingerprints, but Nigel notices some torn skin and blood on one of the cement blocks.  This will help them get DNA of the shooter. 

Jordan is showing Garret the bullet fragments she has collected from AJ Crawford.  Her idea is to microscan each one and and build a computer simulated matrix to fill in the gaps.  Garret tells her she is starting to sound like Nigel, but Jordan disagrees.  He tells her to go ahead with it and then send it over to BPD.  Jordan says they don't need to go through BPD on this because it will either match something in the database or it won't.  Garret changes the subject and asks Jordan where Shelly is.  Jordan tells him that they put him in the drawer because they got tired of lookin' at him.  Jordan gets serious for a moment and tells Garret that she wants justice for everyone who comes into the morgue, but this time she can't help but feel like Shelly dying is justice.  Garret just nods and walks out of the room.  Nigel and Woody then walk into the room and tell Jordan that they have the shooters DNA. Jordan hands him the bullet fragments to work on and Nigel is pretty excited about it and gets right to it.  Bug then enters the room and tells Jordan that Garret told him that one of them is to autopsy Shelly Levine.  Jordan was confused because she thought he was going to do it, but apparently Garret had changed his mind. 

From the view of Levine we see he is being rolled down the hallway to the autopsy room.  Levine starts "thinking" about how he is going to feel everything when they do the autopsy.  Bug and Woody are looking down on Levine and Bug asks Woody why he hated them so much. 

(Flashback):  We go back three years and Woody is talking to a suspect about a crime they believe he committed.  Garret is also there and puts his two cents in.  The suspect begins to talk and defend himself, but Levine comes in and is representing the suspect.  Levine tells Woody he tried to force a false confession out of the suspect, so therefore he has filed a brutality complaint against him.  Woody denies they have done anything wrong, but Levine gets pushy and tells Woody about a tax return that he failed to declare money he won in a football pool.  Levine notified IRS.

Woody is back to looking at Levine on the autopsy table and no one is in the room.  He takes a needle and goes to the foot of the table and sticks it in Levine's foot.  We "hear" Levine scream from pain, but his body does not move a muscle.  Right at the moment Woody sticks the needle in Garret comes in the room and asks him what he is doing. Woody tells him he is just making sure he is really dead.  Garret is not happy because he is abusing a corpse.  Bug then comes in and Garret tells him to get the body prepped and he is going to autopsy Levine himself.  Bug is totally fine with this. 

Garret is in his office trying to get some peace and quiet when Lily comes in to notify him that AJ Crawford's mother was coming in and she thought he might like to join them.  Garret makes the comment to Lily on how she should just give her one of her pamphlets and let it be.  Lily asks him what is wrong, but Garret says there is nothing bothering him. Lily is not buying it though.  Bug interrupts them though with something urgent to show them.  Jordan and Bug are with the other two bodies that were shot and Jordan points out some bruising on both of them.  Nigel is now going through some of the photos they have come across of the shooting.  Woody comes in with coffee and after putting all the pieces together they determine that AJ Crawford was not the target, Shelly Levine was.  Once Jordan says this we "hear" Levine saying "who would want to kill me?"

Act Three: Outside of Levine's law offices Woody and Garret are talking to Dixie, Levine's assistant.  They are informing her that Levine was the target in the shooting.  She is surprised they could determine that, but goes along with it.  Another of the assistants comes out and Garret gives her his condolences on Levine's death.  She does not appear to be too heartbroken over it.  Woody asks if they can look at some of Levine's files, and after some persuading they allow it.  In Levine's office they notice a bunch of guns and weapons displayed. Dixie informs them they are trophies from each case he as won.  She opens one of the walls and shows them the threat files on Shelly Levine.  There are tons of them. 

All of the files have been transferred to the morgue and Woody, Garret, and Bug are going through them looking for a lead.  Woody wonders if there is any way they can narrow everything down, and Nigel comes in and says he thinks he has a way to lighten the load.  The DNA from the skin and blood they got from the shooter is female.  They have a list of names on the board and start going through the woman.  Renee Walcott's name is on the board as well, and Nigel questions it.  Woody confirms that her motive is as good as anyone else's.  Renee walks into the room, but Nigel doesn't see her and starts talking about her temper and how she would be capable of murder.  Woody starts to motion to him to be quiet, and Nigel figures out that Renee is right behind him.  Nigel is embarrassed, but Renee gets right to business and comments on how she hates sloppiness.  Nigel comments on how she has obviously given it a lot more thought than he has, and he erases her name from the board. 

Jordan is finishing up autopsy on AJ Crawford and Shelly Levine is on the table next to him, listening on what she is doing.  He is thinking how painful it sounds.  Garret comes in and tells Jordan about the shooter being female.  Jordan says it makes sense, and Garret says he had a bunch of ex-wives.  He tells Jordan when she is finished autopsying AJ to get started on Shelly.  Jordan looks at him shocked as he walks out the door because she thought he was going to do it.  She is not too excited about doing it, but she walks over to Shelly's body and puts her gloves on, getting ready to autopsy.  We hear Shelly "talking" to Jordan, begging her not to do this to him.  Jordan looks closer at Shelly and notices a scar over his eyebrow.  She reflects on how he got that scar and says "gotta watch out for those keys."

(Flashback): Four years earlier we see Jordan sitting in the courtroom hallway looking though a file and holding her keys.  Shelly comes over to her and questions what she is going to say in court.  He then says he pays people well for knowing what they are talking about.  He can stall the court and take her to dinner to talk about it.  He says he has his own plane and it is a Friday and they can just take the weekend.  Jordan tells him she passes on the invitation and looks away from him.  Shelly does not move and continues to look at Jordan.  She looks back at him and he asks her how much she is getting paid.  She is not sure where this is going.  He then tells her she needs to start watching out for herself, and brushes her hair away from her face gently.  Jordan then winds up and smacks Shelly in the face with her keys in hand.

Back in real time Jordan is still looking at Shelly.  She lifts up the sheet covering his penis and takes a peek, commenting on how she "clearly didn't miss much."  Shelly "says" he deserves that and that he was a pig.  Jordan takes out a scalpel and gets ready to make an incision in Shelly's chest.  She pauses before cutting and looks at Shelly's face.  She takes a small napkin and places it over Shelly's eyes so she does not have to look at him looking at her.  She then gets ready to proceed with the autopsy.

Act Four: Jordan walks out of autopsy and grabs Garret in the hall.  She wonders if with Ivers' new rules if they can justify a full autopsy on Shelly.  She says cause of death is pretty obvious and she is about to hit overtime.  She does not get an answer from Garret because Nigel comes into the hall to inform them that he is doing the bullet reconstruction, but he is missing a piece.  In the computer room Nigel tells them that the missing fragment is in Shelly's body.  He thinks it must have pierced his arm when he was using AJ as a shield.  Jordan comments on how someone is going to have to cut into Shelly after all.  Jordan looks at Garret and says "good luck with that" and walks out of the room. 

Garret is standing over Shelly's body with a scalpel and Shelly is "talking" to Garret about how there wasn't always hatred between the two of them.  Nigel is standing behind Garret observing, and he mentions that maybe if he pretends it is someone else cutting him won't be so hard.  Shelly then tries to "tell" Garret to remember they used to be friends.

(Flashback): Nine years earlier Shelly is walking through the morgue and tracks down Garret.  Garret has some news for him about a case he is working on, and Shelly is not happy about it.  They talk about the case and try to figure out what to do.  Shelly is still mad and walks away. 

Garret is still standing over Shelly's body with the scalpel and Nigel asks him if he should get Jordan back to do it.  Garret says no, he can do it.  Shelly is still "talking" to Garret, pleading to him that he will change.  Garret then takes the scalpel and cuts into Shelly's arm.  Shelly "screams", but does not move a muscle.  Garret digs into his arm and pulls out the missing piece of bullet.  He then looks down at Shelly's arm and notices that he is bleeding and blood is pumping out of the wound.  He immediatly grows concerned and checks for a pulse.  He asks Nigel to get him a slide.  Nigel is confused, but after Garret yells at him he gets the slide.  Garret puts the slide under Shelly's nose and it fogs up.  Garret and Nigel can see that he is breathing.  We then see a tear fall from Shelly's eye.

In the hospital Shelly is lying in bed, "thanking" Garret for finding out he was alive.  Shelly is still motionless and can not speak, but we hear the heart monitor in the background so we know he is alive.  Garret is looking into the room through the window, and Renee comes to talk with him.  Apparently Shelly suffered from total paralysis and his condition is deteriorating.  Renee tells him how bad it looks that the medical examiners office can not recognize death when they see it.  Garret defends himself and says there was absolutely nothing that indicated he was alive.  Renee then asks if Shelly is going to make it.  Garret says no unless they figure out what is wrong with him.  Renee strongly suggests that Garret figure out what is wrong with him...because the only way he can save himself from this mess is to save Shelly. 

Bug and Nigel are in the lab looking at the ballistics on the bullet.  They are also trying to figure out what is wrong with Shelly because they can not believe he is alive.  Garret tells them they are looking for a paralysis that mimics death.  Jordan says it has to be a toxin or an exotic poison.  Garret asked Nigel if anything showed up on the toxscreen, but Nigel tells him that he didn't run one because of Ivers new rules.  Jordan tells them that the hospital already ran tox and they didn't find anything.  Garret then suggests that they run stomach contents on.  They had not done the test yet because of Ivers, but they go ahead and do it.  Jordan, Bug, and Nigel are sifting through the stomach contents and Nigel finds Fugu.  Garret is on the phone with the hospital and tells them what they found.  It is pufferfish, which was prepared incorrectly.  Garret and Jordan go in and tell Nigel great job, but Nigel comments on how it is still bad for them.  Suddenly the computer beeps and they have found a match on the reconstructed bullet.  It came from a gun that was used in a case that Shelly had defended a few months earlier.  Garret then remembers that Shelly's office had all the guns in it as trophies.  The put the pieces together and figure out it must be Dixie, one of Shelly's assistants. 

In Shelly's hospital room, Dixie is standing over Shelly with a pillow in her hand.  Walking toward him like she is going to stuff the pillow in his face and suffocate him, but before she reaches him she hears Garret enter the room.  She takes the pillow and puts it behind Shelly's head, pretending that was her intention all along....telling Garret she was just making sure he was comfortable. 

Act Five:  Woody is in the hallway outside Shelly's hospital room when Garret and Dixie come out.  Dixie asks Woody how the investigation is going and he tells her they found the murder weapon.  Garret tells her that it was one of the guns in Shelly's office, and Woody tells her that there were only two people who had access to the office...her and Shelly.  Garret then tells her that she left DNA on the ledge and they can prove she was the shooter.  Dixie turns around and tells them she did them all a favor.  Woody asks if that is a confession, and Dixie says it is a proclamation.  Woody then points out that she shot three people, not just Shelly.  Dixie tries to justify their deaths, but Garret and Woody are not buying it. 

Garret is sitting in his office looking at the lamp he broke after his little tantrum earlier.  Renee walks in and tells him that both he and Shelly dodged bullets today.  Garret tells her that shouldn't have happened.  He says he was so disgusted he could not bring himself to look at Shelly. 

(Flashback): Renee and Garret are sitting in Garrets office having a drink when Shelly walks in pissed about a case.  Apparently Garret and Renee went against him on the case and Shelly did not take it very well.  He can not believe Garret tells Renee about all the things he does and tells them he is looking for a different job and switching sides...that he is going to represent the bad guys.  This is the moment they all started really hating each other.  Shelly tells them that his personal mission is to screw both of them in court. 

Renee tries to console Garret and tells him that he is not responsible for what Shelly became.  She then says that she does not want him to lose his job over this thing with Ivers.  She does not believe he is the reason everything started....it was because of Jordan. She says it is hard for the DA to fire Jordan after they falsely accused her of murder, but Garret can.  Garret tells Renee NO.  Renee then tells him to fire someone else so that the Attorney General has an out and they can tell people there has been a change made at the morgue.  Garret again says NO, and Renee tells him that the scapegoat will then be him, and there is a chance he will lose his job.

Shelly is checking himself out of the hospital and Garret comes to talk to him.  He gives Shelly a bell and tells him that back in the 1800's coffins came attached with a bell in case someone was buried alive.  Shelly thanks him.  Garret tries to explain how the pufferfish shut his body down and why they could not tell he was still alive.  Shelly then accuses Garret of coming down just to cover his ass.  Garret apologizes, and Shelly tells him he does not need to apologize because he is going to sue him and the morgue.  Garret tells him that usually when people have a near death experience they learn from it.  Shelly tells Garret not to let his attorney settle because he wants to get him on the stand one last time.  Shelly turns and walks out of the hospital.  While jogging across the street Shelly is hit by an ambulance. 

At the morgue Shelly is in a body bag and everyone is standing around him.  Renee asks if they are absolutely sure he is dead this time.  They all look at each other, and then look down at Shelly one last time.  Jordan nods and then starts zipping up the body bag.  As we see it go dark we hear a bell ringing.

Written by: Mary Jo