The Mentalist

Previously on "The Mentalist"...

Listen, there's this poker game we've got going on.

You want in? Maybe. When?

Let me see. Thursday night.

Ahh. You're going to play poker.

Hey. Teresa. Glad you made it.

This is district attorney Don Wolcott. Hi.

FBI Bureau Director Charles Bailey.

Sir. Senator Eileen Dawkins.

State Senator.

It's a pretty high-class crowd.

I wish you would have warned me.

Oh, I think you know this guy, right?

Teresa. I didn't take you for a gambler.

It's not gambling if you know you're gonna win.

Ace of hearts. (Exhales)

Not me.

Action's on you, Judge.

Well...

$500.

Dealer folds.

That's $500 more to you, Bertram.

Raise it $1,000.

You're bluffing.

Mmm...

All in.

I love playing with you, Gale.

I can read you like a kids' book.

Yeah, yeah. Just pick up your chips.

"Goodnight Moon."

Ay, yi, yi.

I'm sorry guys, but we caught one.

Okay. Will you cash me out?

Yeah.

Have fun.

There you are.

I should come by sometime

when there's not a corpse here to meet us.

Are you playing poker again, Lisbon?

It's getting the better of you.

Losing money?

Losing skin's more like it.

Bertram's been in a bad mood.

Hi. I'm Agent Lisbon with the CBI.

Christos Papadakis.

I am dean of the university's Natural Science Department,

so... the museum is my responsibility.

Please follow me.

I believe your team is the one

who investigated the death of Professor Montero.

Yeah, we were.

We have a bit of a walk.

The museum labs are in the east wing of the museum.

What can you tell us about the victim?

We think it is Linda Parfrey.

You think it's her?

Linda has been missing for some time, and...

Well, you'll see.

Ah, this is the student who found Linda.

Tell--tell them your name.

Uh, Greg. Uh, Gregory Lewis.

I found her around midnight.

Tell me what happened.

Well, by sheer luck, I-I happened upon

a very nice tree shrew.

Um, I've never examined one before,

and I-I brought it in to strip the flesh off.

You know, to keep the skeleton.

How do you do that?

Oh, w-we put 'em in these tanks.

How does that strip them of their flesh?

Flesh-eating bugs. Flesh-eating bugs. Right.

Right.

That's when I found Linda.

Ew.

Oh! Okay.

== sync, corrected by elderman ==

Yeah, that's Linda's ring, all right.

So it is Linda Parfrey.

Why dump a body into a beetle tank?

The museum doesn't have great security,

but it's not the kind of place you can sneak a body out of.

Unless you make it small enough to fit in a duffel bag.

So the killer was waiting for the bugs to eat it

down to the skeleton so they could sneak it out?

Possibly. Uh, we found a scientific tool in the tank.

It could be the murder weapon.

So the killer's probably another scientist then.

Or someone that works at the museum.

When was Linda last seen?

Linda's been missing a couple weeks.

People thought she was

out camping near Yosemite doing some kind of research.

Then someone noticed her car was on campus,

and they realized she was missing.

Who filed the missing persons report?

Dr. Sonia Kidd.

Head of the biology department at the university

and Linda's adviser.

Her name sounds familiar.

Yeah, she's written a couple books.

Popular science stuff.

One's called "Natural Born Killers:

The Evolutionary Roots of Murder."

Cute. Jane and I will go talk to her.

And, uh, Linda had an office here at the museum.

You and Cho check it out.

You got it, boss.

(Police radio chatter continues)

We thought she was lost in the mountains.

But she was here the whole time.

It's too horrible for words.

What did she study? What kind of animal?

Why does that matter?

Nobody picks what they dedicate their life to by accident.

It says something.

I study primate brains. What does that say about me?

You have dark thoughts inside your head

that you want to believe are normal and natural.

Which they are, of course.

Linda was an ornithologist.

Her doctorate was on the diet of the northern flicker.

A kind of woodpecker. Mm.

Interesting.

Tenacious.

Bang their head against the problem

until they solve it.

Was that Linda?

It was.

Although woodpeckers don't bang their heads

against things so much as they use their bills

to drill holes.

Yes. Well, the subconscious mind is--

isn't really a stickler about that kind of thing.

Uh, was she a good student?

Brilliant.

She had already co-authored several papers

in prestigious journals.

Well, who was jealous?

Nobody.

This is the top biology department on the West Coast.

Best and brightest only.

The success of one of us helps all of us.

We're a family.

Well, people murder family members every day.

It's natural.

Murder is natural.

But abnormal.

Teachers don't know there's scandals

unless of course they are the scandal.

Are we done?

Yeah. For now. Uh, we're gonna need to talk to some students

and visit the gift shop,

which is left out the door, isn't it?

Yes.

Excuse me. What are you doing?

Who are you?

I'm Agent Rigsby. This is Agent Cho.

We're with CBI. And you are?

Megan Parker.

I was Linda's classmate in the doctoral program.

And I have the office next door.

What are you doing here?

I just came to get my copy of "Understanding Macro-Evolution"

before you guys sealed the place off.

Did you know Linda well?

She was rock star.

A rock star who could use a makeover, but still.

She got the Dean's fellowship this year.

That's like 100 grand.

The rest of us will be paying off our student loans

with our social security checks.

What's with all the taxidermy?

I thought Linda just studied woodpeckers.

No, Linda managed the specimen rooms

for her work-study, so she got the overflow.

Huh. Drugs?

Sugar.

She didn't do drugs.

Not even diet soda.

What about her personal life?

What about it? Did she have one?

We didn't talk about that stuff very much.

I know she had a boyfriend outside the school.

But that's all I know.

Hey, Jane, call me when you get this.

I think I found Linda's classmates.

Look for the elephants.

Most species stay in stasis for long periods of time.

Sorry, can I help you? I'm Agent Lisbon with the CBI.

Professor Friedman? Adjunct Professor.

Yes, adjunct Professor Paul Friedman,

which, as you can see, engenders a great deal of respect

from the students.

Uh, I teach a couple seminars under Dr. Kidd.

I'm sorry to interrupt,

but I'm looking for information on Linda Parfrey.

These are her classmates, right?

Yeah. Uh, we all know Linda.

Do you know anything that might be helpful