The Mentalist

The girls were last seen

leaving Sullivan's tavern, 1:00 in the morning.

A truck driver spotted the car around 5:30 and called it in.

Look, I only have four deputies.

Only a couple of them have ever seen a body killed in anger.

If what we have here is a homicide,

I'm gonna need some help.

Just to be clear, except in special circumstances,

We don't help out. We take over.

You need to be okay with that.

Okay. I guess.

She's not really a morning person.

She'll improve.

Names of the missing women?

Nicole Gilbert and Kara Palmer.

Local girls, both 21.

Work together at hunting store in town.

Last night was Nicole's engagement party.

The car was found exactly like this?

Yep. Well, no.

Uh, the door was open just like that. We popped the trunk.

Ah, yep. Dead as a dodo.

No gas either. They must have left it running.

Hey, there's a different set of tire tracks here

that pulled off the road.

- A truck or big S.U.V.,looks like. - They're still fresh.

Must be from the trucker who called in the car.

- Make sure forensics gets a mold. - Yep.

What's going on with your dog?

Oh, he's confused somehow. This behavior?

He's saying,"hey,look! Here they are!"

Give me my slim jim already.

Parker, do you have a better dog close by somewhere?

Sir, this is the best dog in the county.

Come on, Dexter. People are waiting on us.

- Did you look under the car? - Under the car?

Yeah. Of course we looked under the car.

Oh, crap.

One or two?

One.

It's Kara Palmer.

So...

Where's Nicole Gilbert?

Nicole!

Good boy, Dexter. He's got her on lock now.

Is there any way to tell from the scent trail

- How fast Nicole was moving? - Oh, sure. Dexter's detecting skin cells.

They fall off your body all the time

- at a pretty consistent rate. - Nicole!

So the faster you move, the thinner the trail you leave.

So are we following Nicole on foot

- or Nicole tied up in the back of a truck? - I don't know.

- You said you can tell how fast she was moving. - Oh, Dexter can tell.

- I'm just walking behind him. - Nicole, can you hear us?!

- Tell us about Kara and Nicole. - I've known them practically their whole lives.

Kara was a real sweetheart. You'll find no one around here

Will say a bad word about Kara Palmer.

- Churchgoing family, no trouble at all. - Meaning Nicole Gilbert was trouble.

Nicole... well, she had her problems.

Drugs and drug-related foolishness mostly.

Fraud, petty theft.

- Any violent offenses? - No. No.

- Nicole! - No,she was more of a troubled soul

than a bad person.

Tough life. Her mom died when she was 7.

Her father raised her on meth and hot dogs.

He's in prison now for drug dealing.

Kara and her family were all the stability Nicole ever had.

So she and Kara were good friends. Odd match.

Yeah, real close since they were little.

In a small town, you don't choose your friends.

They're the same age. They're female. That's enough.

Kyle, boys, thank you for coming.

Sheriff.

- Where do you want us? - Well, you know this valley as well as anyone.

- Just pick your spots. - Do we know if she's armed?

- What do you know about this case? - Uh, same thing as everybody else, I guess.

Some badass townie girl got mad drunk,

Stabbed her friend to death and ran off into the woods.

Kara Palmer died from loss of blood.

Nicole Gilbert is missing.

Maybe she ran off. Maybe she was abducted. We don't know.

Don't assume anything.

Message received and understood, ma'am.

All right, fellas.

You knew Nicole. You think she did this?

Who knows what others are capable of?

She sure had built up a lot of bad karma.

- But I don't know. She seemed to be turning her life around. - Bad Karma doesn't have an expiration date.

Uh, actually, it does,

According to traditional buddhist teachings.

I'm counting on it.

Let's go.

People in town are already saying Nicole did this.

But I don't believe it.

She will have to tell me herself that she did this

before I believe it.

Nicole loved our daughter,

- and we loved Nicole almost like she was our own. - Almost.

Why... why would she kill her?

She had her troubles, Lord knows, but...

she wasn't crazy.

Has there been any tension between them recently?

Oh, nothing.

- No. None at all. - Well...

Yes?

That boy. That... that fiance of Nicole's.

Jason... O'toole.

We never met him but once or twice,

- and he seemed nice enough. - He works lumber. You know how those fellas are.

Like to play the buck. All but sleep at Sullivan's tavern.

But, you know, these days, you have to look past

the piercings and the tattoos and all that, don't you?

But Kara didn't think much of him.

- No? - Didn't approve.

- I think there might have been some tension there. - What was her problem with Jason?

Oh, I guess just a feeling that he wasn't trustworthy, you know?

But Nicole was in love,

and she thought Kara was just jealous

- 'cause Kara didn't have a boyfriend. - Did Jason ever get violent with Nicole?

No. Not that I heard, but I wouldn't be surprised.

- Nicole had her fair share of that type. - Kara didn't have a boyfriend?

Kara could've had anyone she liked.

She had no shortage of suitors.

But have you seen the men around here?

It's all drunken lumberjacks

and hippie pot farmers.

Kara had...

she had higher standards than that.

What's the problem now, Parker?

Trail's cold, sheriff.

Best dog in the county, huh?

Come on.

Nicole!

- She can't answer you. - Or doesn't want to.

No, she's a captive or dead.

How do you know that?

How far have we come? What, 5 miles?

Nicole would've been barefoot, probably drunk.

It was a dark night.

There's no way she could cover that distance.

Someone must have her in a vehicle,

- and Dexter lost the scent. - Okay. So you're in charge now. What do we do?

It's close to evening. Call off the search.

- Gather everybody together and... - Give up? There's a girl missing.

Tell me, of the men on this search party,

Which one would you guess is a violent sexual predator?

- What kind of question is that? - whose name just popped into your head? Someone's did.

Huh? There's always someone.

This is your method? asking people to guess whodunit?

- Strange kind of detective work you guys do. - Jane's being dramatic,

But if somebody did victimize Kara and Nicole, statistics show

that they'd be really likely to join the search party.

they enjoy the deceit. it's like being the invisible man.

- Is that right? - Yeah.

So gather up the search party. Let me have a crack at them.

He gets results.

I know all these guys.

I'll vouch for every one of them.

Well, most of them.

I'll call them in.

Jason O'Toole?

Get your truck outta my way.

- We need to talk to you about Nicole Gilbert. - I don't have time for this, guys.

Let's have a little chat.

Where were you going in such a hurry, Jason?

Back to the woods to find Nicole.

- How do you know she was in the woods? - I don't. I hope she's in the woods.

Because if she's not in the woods,

- then she can be anywhere in the frickin' world, right? - Why not search with the rest of the town?

- nah, I cover more ground alone. - Why did Kara drive Nicole home after the party? Why didn't you?

- Because I was too drunk. - Or maybe you two had a fight.

- No. We were celebrating our engagement. - That's right about when the fights start.

We video'd the whole thing. Okay? You can watch it and see.

- There's no fighting. - We'll do that. Where is that video?

- It's in my truck. - There's this whole Kara issue we have to talk about.

- Maybe that blew up, huh? - What issue?

Well, Kara didn't like you,

didn't think you were good enough for Nicole,

- thought you were untrustworthy. - That's funny. is that what you do?

- You try to get me all upset or something so I look guilty? - Does it upset you?

That Kara didn't like you? She was trying to undermine you?

I couldn't care less, okay? Because it's not true anyhow.

Kara liked me well enough.

Least I never heard her say different.

Where were you between 1:00 and 7:00 a.m. last night?

I was here, passed out on the floor.

We'll regroup in the morning, first light.

Before you go, Patrick Jane from the CBI

would like to have a word with all of you.

Thanks, sheriff Nelson.

I want you to look at me, all of you,

and listen closely.

I'd like you to raise your hands above your heads like this.

Both hands.

You, too, sheriff.

And you, agent Lisbon.

Please.

Good. Very good.

One of you... one of you here killed Kara Palmer