The Painted Man

The Painted Man
Season	2
Number	2
Writer	Craig S. O'Neill
Director	Sam Hill
Original Airdate	October 6, 2022
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The Painted Man is the second episode in Season Two of CSI: Vegas.

Synopsis

As Halloween descends on Sin City, the CSIs investigate when a creepy mannequin prop inside a popular haunted house turns out to be a real dead body. Also, Catherine enlists the help of Folsom to search for her friend who disappeared.

Plot

Victim: Tim Harker (deceased)

On the case: Allie Rajan, Beau Finado, Chris Park, Joshua Folsom, Maxine Roby

When Necropolis, a haunted house, closes for the night, a mannequin tips over and shatters, revealing human bones underneath. The sight and smell cause everyone inside to panic and run, except for one unfortunate worker who’s chained up as part of the attraction.

At the scene, Beau scrapes the viscous body liquid off the floor and notices a blue powder next to it, which he collects. Det. Chavez relays that none of the employees remember where they got the mannequin from, and there’s no purchase order for it; it just randomly showed up. Security cameras may be of help; however, footage gets erased every month. Beau guesses that the shell is made from hardened paint, and when Allie dusts it for prints, she sees the outline of a hand on the mannequin’s face.

The owner doesn’t know how long ago the mannequin first appeared, but Allie bumps into someone who does. Gene Farrow, a regular at Necropolis (a “Necropolite”), tells Allie that “Fred” arrived on April 15th (Tax Day)—he named the mannequin after his accountant. As “Fred” is wheeled away, the heartbroken Gene reaches out, wishing to say goodbye one last time. A freaked-out Allie alerts Max to the odd man behind the police tape, but whirls around to find him gone. Gene soon reappears on the wrong side of the police tape, saying that it’s where he belongs—he’s been there since Necropolis opened and wants to see how it ends.

Gene volunteers to talk to the police and is brought in for questioning. It’s revealed that his prints were all over the mannequin’s face; Gene replies that he always thought “Fred” was beautiful. He admits to making creatures himself for a living; he does so in the apartment he’s the superintendent of, which is right down the street from Necropolis. Allie asks him what the victim’s real name was, and Gene becomes incensed that he’s the prime murder suspect. He denies his involvement and gets more and more irate when being addressed as Mr. Farrow (“it’s Gene!”). This causes him to break, and he ends the questioning session.

Allie is introduced to the new coroner, Sonya Nikolayevich; her assistant, Jack, is also her older brother. Sonya places the victim at 6’2” tall, 200 pounds, and between 35 and 45 years old. Time of death is estimated at five months ago, which is when the mannequin first showed up at Necropolis. The right hand has two broken fingers; however, it’s believed that this occurred when the mannequin fell.

The mannequin is sawed in half and cracked open, revealing a mostly dissolved skeleton inside. Allie observes that there are at least 50 distinct layers of paint on the shell; the killer painted “Fred” until he was strong enough to stand upright. Sonya spots blunt force trauma on the skull, but is unable to determine whether it occurred before or after death. Because the DNA is dissolved, the way to find a match for the victim is through dental records.

A match through dental records usually takes weeks; however, Beau whips up a putty solution, which is poured into the mannequin head. When cast, the putty recreates the victim’s facial features, and a search through the Missing Persons database identifies the victim as Tim Harker. The 36-year-old veterinarian’s assistant was reported missing by his fiancée five months ago. As it turns out, Tim lived right up the street from Necropolis—and next door to the apartment managed by Gene Farrow.

Tim’s fiancée Elena recalls coming home from work five months ago and finding their apartment trashed; a glass table was broken, and a dent was made in a bookcase, among other things. Max mentions that Gene was at the scene of the crime, and Elena recognizes him from his photo. A search of Tim’s Facebook page reveals that he wanted Necropolis shut down and refused to set foot inside; this would give one of the “Necropolites” motive for murder.

Beau excitedly calls Max into Tim and Elena’s bedroom; he’s found blue dust quite similar to what was found next to the body at the scene. His joy is short-lived, though, as Max notices that Beau didn’t put booties on. Therefore, the dust could’ve stuck to his shoes and been transferred to the bedroom. Allie angrily tells him that the dust is no longer evidence, as it’s become tainted. Max calms them down, pointing out that they still need to find a murder weapon and determine where Tim was painted and taken.

The paint is identified as an industrial grade latex, which is used to stop metal from rusting. Allie and Beau analyze the paint and find more blue dust between paint layers. The assumption is that the victim got painted at Necropolis, a place Gene knows intimately. However, there’s no way he could turn a dead body into a mannequin in the middle of a crowd of people.

Allie and Max confront the owner of Necropolis and inform him that his biggest adversary was the victim. The belief is that whoever applied the 57 layers of paint applied to Tim’s body did it at Necropolis in a place where they would have enough time and privacy. When threatened with being arrested for obstruction, the owner leads them to the preparation and staging room. One of the workers complains that anyone can have access to the room due to poor security and busted locks; crazy fans are always itching to get a peek behind the scenes. Allie spots a glob of white paint on the floor at the base of a wall. It’s explained that the wall is actually a construction flat that was erected five months ago; however, it’s clearly hiding something, and Max orders the wall to be broken down. Behind the wall is a large amount of paint, leading to the conclusion that Tim was not only painted there, he was killed there, too.

The employees of Necropolis are fingerprinted in the hopes that a print found in the murder room is out of place. Meanwhile, Allie searches the high-traffic area and lifts a white eyelash off the floor. She remembers that Gene Farrow has vitiligo, a disease that causes areas of skin to lose color.

When confronted with the evidence, Gene admits that he has snuck into the Employees Only section of Necropolis a few times. He also cops to stealing a few tools for a “special project.” Gene leads Allie and Det. Chavez to his bedroom, which is full of arts and crafts, such as demonic stuffed animals and dolls. One of the dolls is a miniature of Allie, complete with a CSI uniform. Allie has him arrested on the spot despite Gene’s claims of innocence. She shows Max the doll, but Max informs her that it isn’t evidence. In fact, they have no evidence to tie Gene to the murder. They can only hold him for 24 hours, and Allie has just made a disturbed man angry.

Allie heads back to the scene of the crime intent on finding the murder weapon; however, every weapon in the room tests negative for blood. Folsom soon arrives to lend a hand. When he flips a light switch, a table saw starts running. The CSIs realize that the table saw was brought into the room and assembled in pieces. Allie unscrews a panel to reveal the inner workings of the equipment. She sprays a pipe with luminol and finds that it tests positive for blood; it also matches the size and shape of the blunt force trauma to Tim’s skull.

Heat from the table saw has cooked the oil in the latent fingerprint, making DNA impossible to collect. Fortunately, Allie is able to put her FBI training to good use by utilizing fluorescent fingerprint tagging, which allows the print to fluoresce under ultraviolet light when the right powder is used. The print comes back to Lue Jasper, one of the construction workers at the Necropolis expansion. His print being at the crime scene can easily be explained, as he operates the table saw on a daily basis. A frustrated Allie notes that Gene is getting out of jail soon and there’s still no evidence against him. Efforts to link Gene to the murder are further thwarted when it’s discovered that the Allie doll was painted with acrylic paint; Tim’s body was painted in latex. While it’s possible Gene’s style is evolving, it’s even more likely he’s not the killer.

Beau and Folsom head back to Tim’s apartment looking for any tools that led to the abduction. Instead, Beau finds a pair of sneakers in the bedroom closet that have blue dust on them. He knows he never set foot in the closet, so the trace couldn’t have come from his shoes. The shoes are size 9 ½, which means they don’t belong to the 6’2” Tim; furthermore, they have a spec of white paint on them. Allie, still fixated on Gene, wonders how the man got into the apartment and why he left his shoes behind.

DNA from the shoes actually comes back to Lue Jasper. In interrogation, Allie presents the “holy trinity of crime solving”: means, motive, and opportunity. Lue had the opportunity, as he worked in the same room where Tim was killed. For means, his print was found on the murder weapon, which was hidden under the table saw. The motive is the biggest surprise—he was sleeping with Tim’s fiancée, Elena. He tracked the blue dust into the bedroom during one of his visits, and clothes in the living room that Elena claimed were Tim’s actually belonged to Lue. The affair started before Tim even went missing, and the CSIs figured out that he was the one who trashed his own apartment when he found out, as the dent in the bookcase came from his fist.

Max and Elena watch the interrogation from the other side of the glass. Elena has been caught in another lie, as she said that Tim had never set foot in Necropolis. However, he went in there once—and never came out. When Tim confronted Lue, things got out of hand. Lue hit him with the table saw’s tilt shaft and killed him. Because the area is off limits to tourists and has no cameras, Lue used his surroundings, painting the body over and over again until it blended in with the other props that Necropolis uses. Both Lue and Elena are arrested, as Max informs the fiancée that she stayed silent and lied to the police, making her an accomplice after the fact.

After their shifts, Allie and Folsom are met by Gene Farrow, who has stopped by to collect his Allie doll. He explains that after his arrest, he lost his job and apartment because of the tools he stole from Necropolis. Allie tries to apologize, but Gene won’t listen. He tells her to not judge people by the way they act or how they may look, especially with her job. Before leaving, he gives Allie the doll, saying that she inspired him to make it.

When he gets on the elevator to leave, Gene angrily stares out at Allie before the doors close. This may not be the last we see of Mr. Farrow (“IT’S GENE!”).

Victim: Grace Huang (missing)

On the case: Catherine Willows, Joshua Folsom

Catherine is gambling at the Eclipse, the casino her father built and where she served as a board member until she was kicked out. When security approaches her, she asks the guard if she can see surveillance footage; the request is seemingly ignored. She’s soon met by the board president, who’s upset that Catherine has resorted to harassing the staff in person instead of over the phone. Catherine is adamant that her friend, Grace Huang, has gone missing and that someone at the casino is covering up her disappearance.

Jodi Wallach, another board member, privately escorts Catherine out of the casino. On the way, she covertly sides with Catherine, saying that she voted against her removal from the board. Jodi offers to talk in private and wants to help get to the bottom of everything.

Back at the lab, Catherine makes a timeline of Grace’s disappearance. There isn’t enough evidence to open a formal investigation, so everything must be handled under the table. Folsom agrees to help even though he may get fired if he gets caught investigating. Catherine hands him the surveillance footage from the Eclipse, which is on a hard drive.

Surveillance video shows Grace leaving work at the end of her last shift. Cameras tracked her through the elevator into the parking garage; however, she never reached her car. The only other car seen driving through the garage around the same time is a black SUV, which Catherine recognizes as belonging to the casino. Catherine doubts that Jodi can get her information on the SUV, especially since they won’t have a warrant to do so. Not all is lost, though, as Folsom offers to call a buddy of his to assist.

Folsom enlists the help of his tow truck-driving friend, who delivers the SUV in question to an empty lot. If anyone asks, the assumption will be that the SUV was towed by accident. Folsom calls Catherine with the good news and accesses the SUV’s navigation system. The most recent trip was taken 60 miles into the desert, and Catherine notes that nothing good happens out there.

Catherine and Folsom follow the GPS coordinates out into the desert. There, they check for recently disturbed dirt, eventually finding some in the size and shape of a makeshift burial site. Folsom digs a few feet down but finds no signs of a body. His hope is that there never was a body; perhaps her kidnappers showed her an empty grave as a scare tactic and told her to disappear. However, Catherine notes that the hole got filled back up. She knows that the casino is aware of her involvement and figures that they moved the body. They collect the dirt from the site and bring it back to the lab for trace analysis.

Back at the lab, Catherine sifts through the dirt and unearths part of a tortoise shell. Since tortoises aren’t native to the area, the thought is that it could be from Grace’s sunglasses. Bacteria in the dirt suggests that Grace was buried there before being moved; however, there’s still not enough evidence to open a case.

Catherine receives two phone calls from a blocked number, the second of which she answers. The calls are from Jodi, who she meets in a parking garage. There, we see that Jodi has been worked over; there are cuts and bruises on her face. Her phone was also taken, which is why she had to call from a burner phone. Jodi has no idea who beat her and took her phone, but she wants out of the Grace Huang investigation. She also can’t go to the police, as she was handed surveillance photos of herself; someone is following her.

Cast

Main Cast

• Paula Newsome as Maxine Roby
• Matt Lauria as Josh Folsom
• Mandeep Dhillon as Allie Rajan
• Ariana Guerra as Det. Serena Chavez
• Jay Lee as Chris Park
• Lex Medlin as Beau Finado
• Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows

Guest Cast

• Sherri Saum as Jodi Wallach
• J.P. Manoux as Gene Farrow
• Joel Johnstone as Jack Nikolayevich
• Sara Amini as Sonya Nikolayevich
• Daniel di Tomasso as Trey
• Tom Parker as Lue Jasper
• Francesca Ling as Elena Tran
• Sue Zen Chew as Grace Huang

Notes

• Coroner Hugo Ramirez is no longer working in the morgue, having traveled to Europe after his art got recognized. He has been replaced by the brother/sister combination of Jack and Sonya Nikolayevich.

See Also

• Category:Images from The Painted Man