Here's a question we should have asked 10 minutes ago.
What if these cuffs really are unpickable?
Claiming a new line of handcuffs to be unpickable
is equivalent to proclaiming revamped detergent improved.
It's a marketing ploy, and not a very original one at that.
We should've figured out how to unlock before we put them on.
The purpose of this exercise is to simulate field conditions.
If we were kidnapped, do you think our captors
would allow us a dry run with our restraints?
Oh!
- Almost had it. - Unlike hand grenades,
handcuffs do not reward a near miss.
- Still using that ringtone? - Still haven't cracked
my new passcode to change it?
Stuyvesant Memorial Hospital, your former place of employ.
I could play the voice-mail, put it on speaker phone.
What's your passcode?
I got it. Thanks.
This is her, Abby Campbell.
She's a lab tech at our fertility clinic.
She told a colleague she was planning to work late.
Her husband, he's a doctor here, he says she never came home.
Her car is still in the parking garage,
but no one's been able to locate her.
- You called the police? - Already been here.
They're looking into it, but then, I thought of you,
and I figured, since we have a detective in the family...
Is it possible she left without telling anyone?
She has a 2-year-old daughter.
I can't imagine her leaving her behind.
She's a good person. Stable, respectable.
Respectable people have been known to uproot themselves.
All I can tell you is it would be out of character,
and that a lot of people care about her.
So, what do you think? Can you help?
This is her workstation.
Where she spent her days looking at life through a microscope.
And nights. No one seems surprised
that Abby was planning to work late.
Rise in the breeding age of the average American female
has led to a great increase
in the demand for fertility specialists.
You think there would be security cameras, wouldn't you?
Surveillance in the hospital's lab wing has always been light.
She could have slipped out unnoticed.
Or someone else could have slipped in.
- What is it? - Emily needs to talk. Urgent.
Did your social network choose today to have some crisis?
Is this related to your former administrator's plea for help?
Emily and Tamara didn't know each other.
Emily wants to meet up. She said she needs to talk in person.
- Did you find something? - Abby's work station,
and only Abby's, has been recently thoroughly cleaned.
Maybe she tidied up before she left.
Maybe there was a violent struggle here,
followed by a thorough scrubbing.
You think Abby and her fellow techs have been in the habit
of wheeling samples to and from this area on gurneys?
You almost never see gurneys in this part.
It's all labs and support facilities.
There's evidence that one was used here.
It had a sticky wheel. Left scuff marks every few feet.
That's one way someone could have gotten Abby out of here.
They continue into the corridor. Let's track them.
Trail ends here.
Are you familiar with this room?
No, I've never been down here before.
Not exactly a surgical suite, is it?
Actually, I think it is.
Sort of. This is an ultrasonic aspirator.
These are human organs.
More human organs. This is a prep lab for medical specimens.
They take donor corpses and turn them
into teaching materials for med schools.
This would've been a great place to dispose of a body.
- Abby Campbell's dead. - I'm saying it's a possibility.
No. It is a certainty.
Note the chip in her left maxillary central incisor.
Hello, Abby Campbell.
Dental records confirm it. This is Abby Campbell.
- At least, what's left of her. - I doubt we'll find much more.
Culprit used the pressure oven Watson identified
at the scene to burn away the other remains.
Why leave the skeleton?
I'll wager from its careful reconstruction,
they wanted it to end up in a lab somewhere.
Well, any way you slice it, pun definitely not intended,
whoever did this is a nasty piece of work.
He didn't just kill her, he took her apart.
Nasty and skilled.
Stripping and then reassembling Mrs. Campbell overnight,
would have taken a certain amount of expertise.
We're looking at a doctor, or a nurse
or any medical professionals who work at that hospital.
Or someone who works for its associated laboratories,
private practices and specialty clinics.
You said on the phone she was choked to death?
There is one bone missing from this macabre display,
the hyoid should sit right here.
Now, since the hyoid is known to break
in one-third of all homicides by strangulation...
You think the killer got rid of it to cover his tracks?
Perhaps a broken hyoid was more suspicious than an absent one.
Now, assuming Abby was strangled at her workstation,
and that workstation faced the only entrance to the lab...
Stands to reason he didn't sneak up on her. She knew him.
Did I mention her husband is a doctor?
Hey.
- Hi. - Hi.
- Thanks for coming. - You said it was urgent.
It is. Or at least, I think it is.
What, you don't know if it's urgent or not?
I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to talk about this.
About what?
A police detective came to my house this morning.
She said she had some questions for me, so I figured, okay.
Then I let her in, and all her questions were about you.
- Did she tell you her name? - Yeah. She left her card.
Gina Cortes.
Here.
"Burglary Division, Coney lsland."
- Do you know her? - No.
- What did she wanna know? - It was weird.
Personal stuff, like how we met, how often we get together.
She asked if you were the kind who would break the law.
- What? - I know.
Well, did she say she was working a case?
No. When I asked why she was asking about you,
she said she wasn't at liberty to discuss it.
Joanie, are you in some sort of trouble?
- No, of course not. - If you are, you can tell me.
Emily, obviously there's been some sort of misunderstanding.
I'll look into it.
Dr. Campbell, just for the record, you are an oncologist
at Stuyvesant Memorial.
- Yeah. - That where you and Abby met?
We didn't work together, uh, not directly.
My clinic is technically a private practice.
We met at a party, mutual friends.
- How long you been together? - Five years.
Married for three.
Your callouses are quite distinctive.
You a rock climber?
Uh, Abby got me into it. I climb at the gym.
Yeah, I imagine you've got formidable grip strength.
You're strong enough to have overpowered Abby.
You've got the medical knowledge to reduce her to a skeleton.
- We have to ask. - Did I kill my wife?
No.
I understand you guys have to ask,
but the night that Abby disappeared,
I was going over the books with my manager.
She can tell you when I left, but I remember it was late.
And why didn't you report Abby missing
when you came home, realized she wasn't there?
Abby's clinic is understaffed. She works long hours.
She told the nanny to look after our daughter until I got home.
I got home, I just... I went to bed.
Would you describe your marriage as a happy one?
Lately, no.
- Quite the contrary. - You two weren't getting along?
Abby and I were more in love than we ever were.
Our marriage wasn't happy because she was dying.
She had pancreatic cancer, stage four.
She didn't want anyone to know.
Abby was gonna get chemo, but the truth is,
there was no hope.
She probably only had a year to live.
You can ask my nursing staff.
The people at my clinic, they'll tell you
I was doing everything I could to save Abby's life.
I wouldn't have killed her.
The cancer was doing that all by itself.
Sherlock.
- What are you doing? - Hospital cameras had no sound.
So I was providing a musical score in order
to make the comings and goings of employees engaging.
You chose a ringtone you knew I would dislike
so I thought I would fight fire with fire.
"Friday"? Seriously?
There's also a song that appeals to me.
It's a mystery about dogs and who may have let them out.
So did you find anything?
There's little on Abby on the night of her disappearance.
Trip to the cafeteria, return to her workplace
- and then nothing. - These are from different days?
I tracked down all video in the weeks leading up to her murder.
Hoping to isolate any encounters she may have had with coworkers.
- And? - She was very, very well-liked.
No unpleasantness whatsoever.
There was, however, some suspicious pleasantness.
- They look intimate. - Using employee records,
I identified him as Branford Fisher, surgical resident.
Dr. Fisher and Abby have no professional reason to interact.
Their areas of expertise have no overlap.
I have observed no less than 12 meetings between them,
and all in out-of-the-way corners of the hospital.
That is a disused patient room.
They spent approximately 15 minutes in there together,
and then they emerged looking rumpled and happy.
Abby was having an affair.
Dr. Fisher called in sick when she was reported missing.
I've tried to contact him, but he's not answering.
And the only listed address for him is a P.O. Box.
All rather suspicious.
How went your meeting with Emily?
Not great, actually. Can you think of any reason
why the police would be investigating me?
You said Emily was not your only friend contacted by Detective Cortes.
Yeah. I got calls from two other people today.
The detective asked them the same kinds of questions.
What kind of person am I? Would I ever break the law?
- But she never accused you? - No.
Have you, Watson, ever committed any burglaries in Coney lsland?
- Have to ask. - No, I haven't.
I can't even remember the last time I was there.
- You have to talk to this woman. - You think?
The timing of her investigation is unfortunate.
We've just returned to the N.Y.P.D.
We don't need rumors we've engaged in thievery.
I will handle it, okay?
- Hello? - Mr. Holmes?
- This is Nate Campbell. - How'd you get this number?
You're looking for a doctor from Stuyvesant Memorial.
- Branford Fisher. - I am.
I can tell you where he is, but only in person.
And you can't bring the police.
We came alone, but the police are aware we're here,
on the off chance you intend to do us harm.
No. Nothing like that. Please, come in.
So you told us you could help us find Dr. Fisher.
Someone needs to tell us what's going on right now.
When you left your message, I got nervous. I called Nate.
- Because? - It's complicated.
Branford never would have hurt Abby.
Did you know they were having an affair?
No, it wasn't an affair, was it?
Dr. Fisher's a size 12, Dr. Campbell's a size 9.
There's a pair of size-12 shoes here by the door.
Also a photograph of Dr. Fisher receiving a commendation
on the wall. He lives here.
On the phone, you said this is your house.
It's their house.
They were married to Abby, or is there an explanation
for your matching wedding bands?
I think the slang for such an arrangement is a throuple.
Three people, one marriage.
You were both married to Abby at the same time.
We were. But I swear to you, neither of us killed our wife.
We had to keep our marriage secret.
We have a 2-year-old daughter, Chloe.
If we got reported to Family Services, we could lose her.
Not to mention our careers. Hospitals don't like scandals.
You all look very happy together.
Yeah, we are. We were.
We're just a family. We're no different than anyone else.
Can you account for your whereabouts
- the night Abby disappeared? - I was in Boston.
My dad's been sick. I went up to see him.
I caught up with some friends. They'll tell you I was there.
If you don't mind me asking,
how did this arrangement come about?
Branford and I were together at first
but we had an understanding.
And as I said, I met Abby at a party.
It grew from there.
- She was okay joining you? - It was her idea, actually.
- She'd done it before. - In another group marriage?
Arrangements like ours happen more often than people think.
For some people, it just works.
- It worked for Abby. - Mostly.
- Her last marriage was bad? - It ended badly.
She had a falling out with one of her fellow wives.
She hinted it got violent once.
There was a dispute over money
and community assets, and she was still fighting it
- years after. - One of her fellow wives.
How many people were involved in her previous marriage?
Not counting Abby, five.
Abby Campbell's exes, all five of them. They're still married.
They live in some big house out in West Essex County.
I had to send five different cars to get them.
All the suspects we could hope for.
I don't know how they do it. I couldn't make a marriage
- to one person work. - Americans have experimented
with every possible variation of matrimony.
From the adelphic polygyny of Omaha Tribe,
to the patriarchal polygamy of early Mormons,
to the free love hippie communes of the 1970s.
While some of those experiments were abject failures,
- many were long-lived. - Well, this experiment
ended badly, at least for Abby Campbell.
Maybe bad enough to get her killed.
They're here, but they're not happy.
You kept them separate so they can't coordinate their stories.
Yeah, like five married people could ever agree on anything.
Abby was special. We all loved her.
Everything was great the first year or two.
- I got nothing to say to you. - But you have to understand,
Abby was... stubborn.
I'm supposed to be coaching my daughter's soccer team.
- Do I really need to be here? - It was really all about money.
Abby worked hard. She wanted to keep what she earned.
But Denise insisted we all pool our money.
We're registered as two married couples.
We share a house to save money.
- Trish is our nanny. - The nanny?
- Yeah, sure, I'm the nanny. - It got a little ugly.
Especially when it came time to buy the house.
The house thing, that was when it all went bad.
Abby had this inheritance
and Denise pressured her to use it as a down payment.
Abby agreed, but she was never really happy about it.
We have six kids. Everybody's gotta pitch in.
Doesn't matter if they have a job or not.
I don't gotta talk to you about any of this.
Unless you charge me with something.
The arguments just got worse and worse,
and it didn't help that Abby was younger than Denise,
and maybe got a little more attention
when it came to, you know, sleeping arrangements.
There was a little pushing and shoving
between her and Denise toward the end.
I think that was the last straw.
The next day, she just left.
She'd been trying to get that down payment back.
Giving it to her would've meant selling the house.
Denise said that was out of the question.
You wanna know what happened, talk to Denise.
I don't know. That was between her and Denise.
This is harassment, plain and simple.
And if the N.Y.P.D. causes me or my family any embarrassment,
I will sue this department and you three in particular.
It says here your specialty is contract law.
Didn't know you were also a litigator.
A lawyer is a lawyer. You wanna test me?
- I'll see you in court. - Look, no one's going to court.
Not if you want your private life to stay private.
If you cooperate, you and your family can go back to Essex.
You make a stink, you're gonna end up in the press.
Seven years after Abby left the marriage,
you and her were fighting over her share of the house.
She fronted $100,000 for your down.
- You never paid her back. - Like she needed the money.
She married an oncologist. He's rolling in it.
Okay. Things were bad between Abby and me.
But then, we had lunch a few weeks ago.
We buried the hatchet. It was her idea.
She was diagnosed with cancer and wanted closure.
No loose ends.
Here. She e-mailed me this
after she signed it. I have the original at home.
It's a quitclaim giving up her interest in the house.
You see, I had no reason to hurt Abby, not that I would have.
I loved her. Once.
Now, are we done?
Sorry. Did she want anything in return for this peace offering?
Denise?
Yes, she asked for something, but I couldn't give it to her.
She wanted me to draw up a confidentiality agreement.
She was trying to sell something and wanted a guarantee
the buyer wouldn't reveal the nature of the transaction.
- What was she selling? - I don't know.
But I got the sense it was something that she had stolen.
When I explained that any contract that
pertains to illegal activity is null and void,
she dropped it.
But I don't know. Whatever she took
maybe it was worth killing over.
Detective Cortes, Joan Watson.
But I'm guessing you knew that already.
- How can I help you, Watson? - I was wondering
if I could help you. You've been asking questions about me.
We could sit down, talk, clear up any misunderstandings.
That's thoughtful, but now's not a good time.
- When would be a good time? - I don't know.
But when I'm ready to talk to you, I'll find you, trust me.
Can you at least tell me what you think I did?
I never said you did anything.
Are you planning to talk to more people I know?
Does that make you uncomfortable?
Having someone poke around in your life, ask questions?
It's not like you have anything to hide, right?
Just gonna text you. Still a free woman, I see.
May I assume you've cleared up any confusion
- with Detective Cortes? - No, you may not.
I caught her as she was leaving her precinct.
I told her I would be happy to answer any questions.
She said she didn't have any, so I asked her:
"Can you tell me what crime I've committed?" She said, "No."
It's not unusual for a detective to be cagey with a suspect.
I don't think I'm a suspect. She's messing with me.
You said before you'd never even heard of Detective Cortes.
- I hadn't. - You slept with her lover.
Considering she's gay and I'm not, that's highly unlikely.
- You've been looking into her. - What choice do I have?
She won't tell me what her problem is,
so I have to find out myself. What is all this?
Inventory forms, personnel records,
and security reports from Stuyvesant Memorial.
One of Abby's ex-spouses seems to think
she was selling something she had stolen.
Whatever it was, you think it came from the hospital?
She would've had access to valuable items.
Drugs, the most common target for medical larceny.
But all of the hospital's inventories add up.
Nothing is missing from any of the pharmacies.
The equipment in Abby's lab is accounted for
except for inexpensive items like test tubes and beakers.
Glassware always goes missing. Interns use them
as tumblers and shot glasses.
I noticed sutures in your sewing kit. Anyway,
there was something else she could have taken.
Something she had access to as an employee of the clinic.
Something that is in extremely high demand.
Viable human embryos.
Would've been simple to pilfer excess blastocysts for disposal.
A fertilized egg can go up to $10,000 on the open market.
I don't think Abby's eggs would've made it to the market.
If she was looking for a motivated buyer,
she needn't have looked any further than her social circle.
Dr. Amrit. Sherlock Holmes, this is Joan Watson.
We work with the New York Police Department.
You went to college with Abby Campbell
- did you not? - Excuse me?
The two of you remained friends until her recent demise.
Posted your condolences just this morning
- on social media. - So?
You use embryonic stem cells in your research, right?
Abby reposted an article you wrote a few months ago.
You argued that researchers should have unfettered access
to embryos destroyed by lVF clinics
in the course of their work.
Embryonic stem cell research is the most promising path
to finding a cure for diabetes and other metabolic diseases.
Why that would be of interest to the police?
Must be frustrating when politicians pander
to their base by making it difficult to obtain cells.
Enough to purchase excess embryos from Abby.
- I have papers to grade. - It is illegal
to obtain embryos without the consent
of the parents that provided that genetic material.
We can get a warrant. If the DNA of the cells from your lab
matched the patients' from Abby's clinic, that's a crime.
I'm trying to save lives. Diabetes is a plague.
It kills over 4 million people a year.
How many embryos did you agree to buy from Abby, a few dozen?
That would've cost thousands of dollars.
- You never paid her a dime. - Did you kill your old friend
so you wouldn't have to compensate her?
I didn't hurt Abby.
And she didn't want money. It was a trade.
A trade for what?
She came to me asking for access to my lab.
She wanted to run blood tests after hours and off the record.
I asked for the embryos in return.
They would've just been thrown away, wasted.
- Why was she testing the blood? - She wouldn't tell me.
She would've used computerized equipment.
There might be records of her tests on their hard drives.
- Do you mind if we have a look? - No, I do not.
I just don't think you're going to find much.
I thought it was some religious fanatic opposed to my research.
I get threatening letters and e-mails, very nasty.
But then, I heard about Abby,
and now, I'm not so sure.
A blood chemistry analyzer.
A flow cytometer, everything she might've used to test blood.
Whatever she was doing, someone wanted to keep it a secret.
So Abby Campbell ran some hush-hush blood tests.
Someone isn't happy about that.
He or she kills her, takes her apart,
and then the next night, goes to the lab she used,
and destroys all of her data.
Whoever set the fires didn't just burn those machines.
- Hard drives were destroyed. - What were the blood tests for?
One theory is Abby suspected a colleague of shenanigans,
- and was confirming. - Shenanigans?
Remember the fertility doctor who used his sperm
to fertilize eggs without informing the mothers?
It's possible someone in Abby's lab was doing the same.
It would explain why she wanted access to Amrit's lab.
She may have been running paternity tests.
So that's one theory. Any more?
Not at present. But another may be just a warrant away.
There's a trace of Abby's research that her killer missed.
The biological waste produced by university labs
is set aside in locked bins for processing.
The waste is collected three times a week.
There was a pickup before the lab was destroyed.
So if Abby dumped her test materials
in one of those locked bins...
The disposal company might still have some.
I'll get an ADA to get you a warrant.
Sort of a cliché, huh?
Cop who actually hangs out in a doughnut shop?
- Who told you I was here? - I am not at liberty to say.
But I know why you've been harassing me.
Before you moved to Burglary,
you were in the Bronx under Anne Bessy.
Rumor has it she promised to transfer you to Major Crimes
when she was tapped to take over for Captain Gregson.
That would have been a big step up for you.
She didn't take over for Gregson because he didn't leave.
You blame me for that. You found out I was looking into Bessy.
- You think I torpedoed her. - What is that?
Everything I gave Captain Gregson. Read it.
You'll see that I found Bessy was clean.
The captain decided not to step aside
because he was not ready, not because of anything I said.
It's heavy. You put a lot of work into this.
I don't care what you did or didn't find out about Anne.
What I care about is that you looked at all. You're not a cop.
You're a citizen with delusions of grandeur.
Cops, real cops, we have people looking over our shoulders.
Politicians, the press, the brass,
IAB, they second-guess us all day long.
But hey, that's what they're there for.
Who are you to look into us?
I take it you've never used a consultant before.
No. I've never used a consultant.
Real cops do the job themselves. That's how it works.
You don't belong.
I don't know what to tell you. I'm not going anywhere.
But you were. You and your partner.
And now you're both back. That's weird, right?
I caught a new case, it's gonna keep me busy for a while,
but after that, I don't know, maybe I'll circle back around
see what else I can find.
All that came from Dr. Amrit's lab?
It seems the medical waste for the entire university
was labeled identically. A team is being assembled
to sort through it, but we could get the ball rolling.
- Okay, but... - Gloves, goggles, mask.
Right behind you. You can apprise me of your meeting
with your stalker as we sort.
Mm.
I think she may be insane.
- Because she doesn't like you? - She's fixating on me.
In her defense, you were investigating her friend,
- and you are a mere citizen. - So are you.
But I'm quite accustomed to people not liking me.
Okay, so, what if she continues to look and figures out
your father pulled strings to get us back into the 11th?
As I see it, the crux of the matter is that Cortes
sees you as an outsider and not a peer.
If you were a cop, you would have what is called a beef.
A beef can be settled, and what you have can't be.
- Because I'm a consultant. - Precisely.
So I just take it and just let her keep bullying me?
As I said before, she does not see you
as a peer, so force her to.
Remember the disagreement Grell and Lance had
- last year? - Yeah.
Festered for months, then it was resolved.
- Do you recall how? - You're not serious.
I have reason to believe Cortes would be amenable to the idea.
Six plastic vials containing blood residue, and each one
with Abby Campbell's handwriting on the labels.
Looks like she was thorough.
Test subjects are identified by initials,
plus dates and times of collection.
These samples were gathered on three consecutive Thursdays
- between 9 and 10 p.m. - Does that mean something?
Memorizing a victim's calendar is a matter of course.
I know where she was at these times.
So I know who to talk to about the work she was doing.
Support groups can be very helpful for cancer patients.
They're going through so many things
that only their peers can understand.
Abby Campbell had been attending your group for three months?
Ever since her diagnosis.
We believe she was collecting blood during these meetings.
May we assume it was from her fellow group members?
Miss Russof, this is a murder investigation.
A few weeks ago, Abby made a pitch to the group.
Said she had a friend who was doing advanced cancer research.
It was supposed to be promising, maybe even a cure.
She said she could get people into the study.
She just needed blood samples to test for suitability.
Sounds like you had your doubts.
People are always touting miracle cures for cancer.
You can probably guess how many pan out.
I wasn't the only one who was skeptical.
The husband of one of the members came to a meeting
and he accused Abby of being a con artist.
He said that if she didn't leave his wife alone,
she would be sorry.
Can you give us this person's name?
Kirk. Kirk Abramovitch.
Yeah, I threatened Abby. No, I didn't turn her into a skeleton.
You make it sound absurd, Mr. Abramovitch.
But on your social media page, I've seen pictures of you
pitching in at your father's butcher shop.
Knowing how to work a deli slicer
and deboning a person are different things.
That night at therapy, Kirk only yelled at Abby
because he thought she was trying to scam me.
- He wanted her to back off. - I've seen her type before.
Kirk's mother died of colon cancer in the late '90s.
Got suckered by every snake oil salesman that crossed her path.
She tried light therapy, magnets,
special diets, shark cartilage.
She took out a second mortgage on her house
to pay for some fancy clinic down in Mexico, all for nothing.
I didn't think there was harm in looking into the study
Abby told us about, but the truth is, I didn't need it.
My chemo is working. Dr. Campbell says I'm doing well.
Dr. Campbell, as in Nate Campbell?
So Abby's husband is your oncologist?
I agreed to give Abby my blood because she was his wife.
I thought she must know what she's talking about.
Oh, that's our son. Can I go get him?
- Oh, hey. - Hi. Oh, he's beautiful.
Oh, a hundredth percentile in height and weight.
- He's gonna be a big guy. - Just like his daddy.
Ha, ha, ha, right?
Hm...
Do you mind me asking what kind of cancer you have?
Spinal plasmacytoma. It's a back pain.
There was a lump. Dr. Campbell prescribed chemo.
- Where is the tumor located? - On my L4.
I used to be a surgeon. Do you mind if I take a look?
- Okay. - Okay.
I'm gonna put you down for a second, sweetie.
Right here.
- Right here. - Okay.
If you could just stand straight for me.
Okay, so on a scale of one to 10, 10 being the worst,
how does this feel?
A little uncomfortable, maybe a two.
And are you taking anything for the pain?
Just naproxen.
- Yeah. - Is discomfort worse at night?
A little bit, but the medicine helps.
For what it's worth, I think Dr. Campbell is right.
You should make a full recovery.
In case you were wondering, Mr. Abramovitch
does not have an alibi for the night of Abby's murder.
- I don't think he did it. - Neither do l.
I stayed for the duration of his interview,
and I saw no indications that he was lying.
- Why do you think he's innocent? - I know who killed Abby.
- You do? - It all made sense
once I realized Sadie Abramovitch doesn't have cancer.
This is Sadie Abramovitch before chemo.
- Do you recognize her? - Of course.
It says here you're treating her for spinal plasmacytoma.
The tumor is located on her L4 vertebrae.
That sounds right. She's doing quite well.
We're hoping for a complete remission.
You should know, when we visited Mrs. Abramovitch,
she noted inconsistencies with her diagnosis.
Spinal plasmacytoma causes microfractures
in the affected vertebrae. Most patients can barely walk.
Sadie can move around just fine. Sit, stand, walk.
Lift her baby. No issues.
We diagnosed Sadie very early on
so the microfractures didn't have time to fully develop.
- Mm. You never removed the tumor? - No.
- Too much nerve involvement. - That makes sense.
Except when I pressed directly on her L4,
instead of a sharp pain, she only felt a dull ache,
and her discomfort gets worse at night,
which is a classic symptom of a benign osteoid osteoma.
- I stand by my diagnosis. - Excuse me, but my client
agreed to this in order to help you find his wife's killer.
Now, I fail to see how a possible misdiagnosis
of one of his patients has any relevance.
One misdiagnosis would not.
Several dozen, however, tell an entirely different story.
After we got a warrant for your files,
we asked all your patients to get follow-up exams.
Of those who agreed to be tested, almost a third
didn't have cancer at all.
You've been misdiagnosing patients and subjecting them
to unnecessary chemotherapy, probably for years
to, I don't know, bolster your profits,
inflate your remission rates.
And no one suspected you.
- Until your wife got cancer. - Abby noticed something fishy
when she was getting chemo at your clinic.
Patients like Sadie, whose symptoms
didn't match the diagnoses, but she wanted proof.
- So she ran tests. - Her mistake
was confronting you with the evidence
before going to the authorities.
Perhaps she thought you'd be able to explain.
But instead, you strangled her.
Do I need to point out this is all supposition?
No, it's more than that.
We had a talk with your clinic manager.
She rolled, confirmed the false diagnoses,
the fraud, the whole thing.
She also recanted your alibi.
The last time she saw you, the night that Abby disappeared,
you were headed to the research wing,
right after a heated phone call with Abby.
I told her
that everything I did was for the good of the family.
- Nate... - No, no. I'll...
I'll tell you everything.
But you need to let me talk to Branford.
I need to tell him I'm sorry.
I'll see what I can do.
Good combination.
Third time you've approached me.
If you're smart, there won't be a fourth.
The fourth time is what I wanted to talk to you about.
The N.Y.P.D. Boxing Club is having a match.
I thought maybe we could raise some money for charity.
- You wanna fight me? - That's how it's done, right?
When two cops have a problem and they can't resolve it?
Yeah. The only problem is you're not a cop.
And that would be bad for you, right?
Getting your ass kicked by a consultant?
You wanna fight me so bad, why wait?
There's a ring right there.
Yeah. I thought that's what you might say.
All right.
Keep them submerged as long as you can.
I know how to treat sore knuckles.
- This needs more flour. - You just like the parallel.
Primitive aftercare for a primitive sport.
While this might look primitive, I assure you,
this is the result of years of painstaking research.
It's a poultice of comfrey leaves and flour,
with mountain arnica and a sprinkling of marigold.
I highly recommend it, unless, of course
you want your eye to blacken as a badge of honor.
I just wanna put this whole thing behind me.
- Does Cortes feels the same? - I guess we'll see.
At the very least, this has proven the wisdom
of continuously training in the combat arts.
You do need to work on your defense.
You allowed Cortes to land far too many punches.
I did. But all that matters is that I landed the last one.