Elementary

(garbled, overlapping radio transmissions blaring)

(garbled, overlapping radio transmissions continue)

Too loud?

Sorry.

I went downstairs to get some cereal.

Didn't want to miss anything.

This city has

excellent scanner apps,

but there's nothing like the tactility

of the original devices-- all those dials and buttons.

You like pushing buttons; I'm stunned.

You've been glued to these for the last few days.

It's a slow week.

At least in regards to murder and mayhem.

Captain Gregson hasn't called once.

Maybe some lunatic will

put his mother-in-law in the wood chipper,

give you something to do today.

Uh, I need to talk to you about something.

That's never good.

Your father e-mailed me last night

before I went to bed.

He's coming into town for business.

Wants to have dinner.

What's so funny?

Him.

Dinner. Us.

You.

Remind me, Watson: how many times

have you actually met the man?

Never.

That's because he secured your services

as my sober companion electronically.

Yeah, but... And all of your

subsequent correspondence has been

via e-mail or through one of his legion of personal assistants.

- So? - So, take it from someone

who has spent incrementally more time with him than you:

he has zero intention of meeting us for dinner this evening.

What are you talking about?

Shh!

WOMAN (over radio): ...at Beach 17 Street.

10-4, multiple units responding.

Detective, show me 84 at the scene, over.

- What is it? - Get dressed. We're leaving.

Do you want to tell me what you just heard?

"10-66." Code for "unusual incident."

It can mean one of only three things.

Location of the incident-- Far Rockaway Beach--

indicates it's neither a train collision

nor a building collapse, which leaves only one possibility.

Plane crash.

I didn't realize you also investigated accidents?

We need to find Captain Gregson.

He 84'd on the scanner.

I heard his voice.

"84" is confirmation he had arrived on the scene.

What are you doing here?

I heard what happened on the scanner;

I thought I might be able to be of assistance.

This isn't a crime scene, it's a crash site.

I'm a jack-of- many-trades.

When it comes to aviation and air accidents,

I'm something of an expert.

Good to know, but we've already got all the experts we need.

This is their scene, not mine.

Department's just here to lend a hand.

Captain Gregson?

Yeah?

Some of our looky-loos are getting

a little too close for comfort.

Sergeant, you hear that?

Excuse me, Miss, uh...

Molinari.

What exactly are we looking at?

Engine failure? Bird strike?

Fatigued wing spar?

Ms. Molinari, uh,

this is, uh, Sherlock Holmes.

He's a consultant with the NYPD.

Miss Watson.

You have a consultant for plane crashes?

No, he's...

A specialist in the field of deductive reasoning.

And unraveling the complex chain of events

that can turn a triumph of human innovation

into a smoldering pile

of wreckage in seconds--

well, I can't think of

a more compelling application than that.

Well, thank you for the offer, Mr. Holmes,

but I think we have things covered.

Go home, okay?

If you really need something to do, I'll send you

some cold case files when I get...

back to the precinct.

Holmes!

How many of the passengers were attorneys?

All of them.

How did you...?

The toiletry kit.

It's emblazoned with the logo "VeriScript."

That's a court reporting company

hired to transcribe depositions.

Obviously given to the lawyers

as some sort of promotional gift,

help drum up business.

This man's leg was nearly

amputated by a piece of fuselage,

yet there's virtually no evidence of blood loss

on his pants.

Laceration like that

while his heart was still pumping,

that'd make quite a mess, no?

To put it mildly.

Blunt force trauma

on the back of his head.

It's a nasty one at that.

Someone caved his skull in before the plane hit the ground.

This man didn't die in a plane crash...

he was murdered.

== sync, corrected by elderman ==

of the wound, the depth,

the severity of damage to the bone, gray matter.

The murder weapon wasn't just heavy,

it had two prongs at the tip.

A wrench?

Large one.

Blow would've killed him instantly.

Has the, uh, has the voice recorder

been recovered from the cockpit?

Not yet.

Any eyewitness accounts of the crash?

One, a jogger.

She said that the plane was gaining altitude

when the nose suddenly went straight up.

It climbed like that for a while, then shuddered,

tipped to the right and went into a tailspin.

I was thinking wake turbulence or elevator control failure.

Hmm.

Might want to add

"wrench-wielding madman" to that list.

The passengers were all attorneys

with the same white shoe firm.

Two men, one woman.

The odds of one of them attacking the other

in the back of this small plane with a wrench...

You can see how that might be distracting to a pilot, no?

Hmm?

Unless the pilot was the killer.

You're saying that the pilot got up from his controls

to attack a passenger?

Drivers get road rage.

Can a pilot get air rage?

Would you come with me?

Let's talk logistics.

Did you find something?

Sand.

Well, yeah...

th-these granules aren't frosted.

Natural sand is, um, it's smoother, weathered.

The city must have trucked in new sand

to offset the erosion on the beach.

Are you okay?

You seem a little off, even for you.

Four people are dead, Watson.

I'm just trying to do my part.

I get it, but whoever killed that attorney

must have died in that crash, too, right?

Obviously.

Well, then if there's no killer on the loose,

I just, I don't understand why you're sticking around.

Because the killer hasn't been identified yet.

We have three suspects.

Dead, alive, doesn't matter.

Two of them are innocent of the crime.

Don't you think we owe it to their loved ones to prove that?

Absolutely, but all the police have to do

is find the murder weapon.

Then they can compare fingerprints.

What if they don't find it? What then?

Hmm?

Also, the killer committed a murder

on a very small plane with a very large wrench.

Now, if the crime was spur-of-the-moment,

what was the wrench doing there, hmm?

If it was premeditated, what was the killer thinking?

He-- or she-- waited

until they were in an extremely confined space

with their would-be victim

and two witnesses. Hmm?

That seems like a strange time and place

to commit a violent homicide,

wouldn't you agree?

It's just...

there's a story here, Watson.

And we can help tell it.

Or do we just need to stay busy enough

to miss dinner with your father?

So, CSU's en route to process the scene.