* Do you believe what you see...? *
( water splashing gently )
( gentle pop music continues )
( phone ringing )
Coming.
Hello?
( dial tone )
Hmm.
( screams )
No!
( panting )
( soft groan )
( whimpering )
911. What's your emergency?
Somebody... please help me...
Someone's trying to kill me!
-( banging on door ) -Help me!
( indistinct excited chatter )
Uh, you know what? It's all right.
Ever since they, uh, made the goalie pads smaller,
my stats analysis has been thrown off anyway, so...
You're no fun, man.
Hockey is-is-is more than stats.
The stats are fun for-for me.
REPORTER 1: Hey, guys, look over here!
REPORTER 2: Hey, fellas, look in the lens!
Why do they want pictures of us?
He's a famous mathematician!
No, don't do that.
Go ahead, get your vogue on, Charlie, go ahead.
( loud, indistinct chatter )
Hey. Victor Smith,
L.A.P.D. Threat Assessment.
Don Eppes. This is my brother Charlie.
He consults with the bureau.
What do you got here?
Looks like he broke the security system.
Scared her pretty good.
What, she was here by herself?
Yeah, her husband's overseas making a movie.
We called and left word.
Apparently, she's been receiving threatening cards
and letters for some time now.
Never took them seriously.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, looks like this psycho was nice enough
to use the U.S. mail, make this a federal case.
Well, lucky us.
Yeah, she's right around the corner.
( garbled radio transmission )
Skylar Wyatt.
Amita loves her, listens
to her CDs all the time.
Oh, yeah?
Just hang back for a second, will you?
( garbled radio transmission )
All right, Officer, I got it, thanks.
How you doing?
I'm Don Eppes.
I'm with the F.B.I.
( sighs )
You okay?
I'm all right, I guess.
Yeah?
So, what can you tell me about the intruder?
He had something over his face.
I couldn't really see him.
Sorry.
Oh, that's all right, I understand.
A stocking, maybe?
How long have you been getting these letters?
About six months.
( clears throat )
And you never reported them to the police?
I thought if I told the police
that it'd be all over the news,
and I'd get even more letters.
Well, the first thing that's going to happen is,
we're going to have to read the letters.
And, uh, if there's any others that might have been sent
to your agents or managers or any of those types,
we'll have to see them, as well.
Okay?
The guy got in my house.
You will get him, right?
Well, we're going to do our best.
MEGAN: Stalkers fall into six
basic types: Rejected,
Resentful, Predatory,
Intimacy Seeker,
Incompetent Suitor...
DAVID: What if you know somebody who qualifies
on all accounts?
What if you think you're dating one?
You guys can laugh, but studies show that 85%
of all women will experience some form
of stalking in their lifetime.
Starts with flowers, and then letters
and then dead bunnies.
Well, how about celebrities?
MEGAN: Public figures are typically
stalked by incompetent suitors or erotomaniacs.
And it's not that common
for celebrity stalkers to become violent.
Why do you think this one has?
Maybe the guy's approached her at a public event.
He's insulted that she didn't single him out
for some kind of special attention.
You think Skylar Wyatt's
actually had contact with this guy?
Most likely without her even knowing it.
DAVID: $20,000 security system.
This guy's the Invisible Man.
Look, camera placement is based
on a sophisticated formula
of focal lengths and field of view
geometries.
They should have picked him up.
She calls 911, by the time the police arrive
seven minutes later, stalker is gone.
How come the cameras didn't see him leave?
Maybe he hid in the house,
-waited. -DAVID: L.A.P.D.
cleared it twice, man. It makes no sense.
They found his footprints outside.
Check with the neighbors, see if anyone saw anything unusual.
Right? You know, stranger, cat missing.
Someone saw something.
He didn't just disappear.
We all use math every day,
to predict weather,
to tell time,
to handle money.
Math is more than formulas and equations.
It's logic... rationality.
It's using your mind
to solve the biggest mysteries that we know.
When you said that you'd purchased a new car,
this isn't exactly what I was picturing.
Oh, I know.
I guess it was a little impulsive of me, right?
Very Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Yeah.
MEGAN: Nice car,
Dr. Fleinhardt.
Is it new?
Well, only in the sense that it's newly in my possession.
And it's, like, a '32?
Uh, '31, actually.
Dawn of an amazing decade-- F.D.R.,
Jesse Owens, Dirac's prediction of antiparticles.
Yeah, our souls
were rekindled.
CHARLIE: I can't help but see it as
70-year-old technology.
LARRY: You're just jealous because
you can't drive a stick shift.
Hey, you can't beat
automatic transmission with cruise control.
Charlie tells us
you're looking for Skylar Wyatt's stalker.
Yeah.
Her security video didn't pick up his image.
And I understand that camera placement
is done by math formulas?
Well, whoever designed it
probably isn't as good as you,
so maybe you'll find something they missed.
Larry, a more modern pursuit.
Okay.
Anything?
Yeah. So, on this block last night, there was
one Zone diet delivery,
two Atkins deliveries, and a Jenny Craig.
What happened to pizza and Chinese, man?
Well, this guy down here-- he had a pizza delivered.
Yes.
Of course, then he had a reflexologist come by
for about an hour and a half.
-( laughs ) -What about you? What'd you get?
In addition to the usual crowd of paparazzi,
there's been cable, satellite,
and Department of Water and Power.
And not much empathy for Skylar Wyatt.
Yeah, well, I guess I can understand that.
How so?
Well, I'm just saying, if I paid for this view,
I wouldn't want it ruined by people standing around
trying to take pictures of my neighbor
sunbathing topless, you know?
Chvatal's Art Gallery Theorem?
That would assume a simple polygon, though, wouldn't it?
Polygons.
ALAN: Wow.
I was wondering why we had no cereal left...
or anything else that was in the cupboard.
What in the world...
CHARLIE: I needed the cartons.
We're building a replica of Skylar Wyatt's house.
We're checking the positioning
of her security cameras for a blind spot.
Why didn't you just go to the house and use that?
Well, as part of this test,
we need to be able to manipulate these walls so as
to determine what types of angles would be possible
under different scenarios.
That'll help us calculate
these potential blind spots.
And for some reason, they won't let us move the walls
of the actual house.
How inflexible of them.
What is, uh...
What are those?
CHARLIE: That's where the FBI found two footprints.
Ah. What conclusions have you come up with?
LARRY: Well, for some reason,
we have too many cameras.
That's probably because neither one of you can read a blueprint.
Let me just take a look at this.
Now, you see here,
you got the slide door in the wrong place,
and the dimension of the parapet is wrong.
It's too high.
Let me fix it for you.
I-I feel like I'm in the fifth grade again.
Remember, uh... remember, Dad, when we did that shoe box thing?
Yeah, the diorama.
-Right. -Of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
-The one. -ALAN: Yeah.
Your mother and I were so happy to be able to help you out
with anything school-related that you
conned us into doing the whole thing for you.
Hey, what are you...! I helped calculate the aspect ratios
so we could get the depth effect right.
Yeah, and certainly, aspect ratios were the key
to perhaps the greatest oratory
-ever written. -ALAN: There it is.
Right size.
CHARLIE: Every entry and exit point
seems to be covered in this array.
The cameras should have seen him.
Okay, well,
forgive me if I seem overly reductive here,
but how do we know anyone was actually
in this house?
Well, you had that celebrity, right?
She said she saw him.
Right. Plus, there are also these footprints, Larry.
I mean, this isn't, uh, Sasquatch.
Must be something wrong with the cameras.
-They were all functioning. -ALAN: Well, maybe
there's something wrong with the way they function.
Okay, let's remember: the human eye
can only detect color within
a certain narrow range of the spectrum.
Now, a camera, which replicates the ability of the human eye,
is just as limited, if not more so.
You're right.
The camera's an eye...
and eyes don't see everything.
The cameras looked right at the stalker...
just didn't know it.
How did that happen?
The camera's iris is designed to imitate
the function of the human eye.
When we stare directly into light,
our pupil contracts,
keeping too much light from blinding us.
And when it's dark, our pupils dilate,
gathering in all the light it can find.
A camera's iris works the exact same way.
It widens when it's dark, narrows when it's light.
Of course, the human eye does this much more smoothly.
A camera has a device called a galvanometer,
which opens and closes its iris.
Now, no doubt, your stalker had a remote
tuned to the frequency
of the cameras' galvanometer control.
All he had to do
was freeze the iris here... here... here...
Each time,
he only needed a second
that looked perfectly natural, like the second it takes
for a camera to adjust from dark to light.
Yeah, but to know what the camera positions were
and then to move with such incredible timing...
CHARLIE: He would have had
to have had access to the grounds
prior to the night of the break-in.
But, well, you're just talking speculation now, right?
Absolutely, it was... until I ran a curvelet analysis
on the obscured portions of the recording.
Curvelet's a mathematical analysis
that defines the edges of an image.
The analysis reformatted the pixels that were available...
producing the stalker's image.
Wow. If I didn't know any better, I'd say
our stalker was a ghost.
DAVID: We're running down anyone
who's had access to Skylar's place in the past year--
contractor, pool guy, everybody.
Well, whoever it was studied those cameras,
you know, I mean, their positions.
Somehow, was able to get past them-- I don't know.
-We'll work it. -Right.
Hey.
Hey, can Charlie get anything else off that video image?
Well, he's working on it.
How about you and those letters?
I think I got something interesting.
Interesting good or interesting bad?
It's never that good when it comes to a psychopath.
But these are the last 20 letters
that Skylar received from this guy.
Uh-huh.
They're filled with expressions of apologetic behavior.
-So he knew what he was doing was wrong. -Actually, he thinks
he's being responsible.
He's afraid he offended her
with the previous one, so now he's trying to make up for it
with acts of kindness and love.
But then, his tone changes again.
In these last few, he's saying, "You're an idiot
"and people are using you.
And if you're not careful, you're going to end up dead."
I'd say that's when he started stalking her.
And when were these sent?
Three weeks ago.
So give me some things that might...
trigger a change like that.
Well, something happened that he perceives to be
a rejection, and he's afraid of being alone.
And he's mad at his victim for putting him in this position.
That's when stalking usually begins.
So we should narrow our search down
to people who've had contact with her
-in, like, the last three weeks. -Mm-hmm.
What do you think the chances are of him laying low
-for a while? -None.
He'll keep coming back at her again and again
until he's successful, or until we stop him.
SKYLAR: So you're saying
that this nut job could be somebody that I know?
Yeah, but probably only that you know vaguely.
Thank you.
Maybe that you met
at a public event or somebody that you worked with.
Maybe someone stopped you
or asked you for an autograph recently...
I had a CD signing a couple of weeks ago.
There were a lot of fans there.
Does that help you any?
MEGAN: Well, a couple weeks ago
is when the letters started escalating.
I could probably get a warrant
to look at the security videos.
Damn it.
All right, look...
I know this is difficult for you, but...
But what?
It comes with the territory?
It's a necessary evil?
Actually, I was gonna say I respect the way
you're handling this.
Sorry.
When you can't even look out your own window...
you start to consider if maybe
the alternative isn't better.
And the alternative is?
Gary, Indiana.
My mom lives there.
The people treat me regular.
Would you trade it?
What? Fame for privacy?
Are you kidding?
Not me. No, thank you.
What about the money?
Hey, I took this job, didn't I?
( laughs )
What's up?
D.W.P.
Didn't David and Colby say something about
them being here last week?
Yeah.
Two meter readings in the same neighborhood
in less than a week.
Hmm. Seems strange.
Gentlemen.
-Hey, how's it going? -Good.
Yeah, we're making progress.
Not much yet, but there is something.
Well, anything that can help
with height, build, maybe coloration.
Well, we have a better outline.
Let me show you.
( beeping )
Oh, okay, that's something.
And in this image, he may not have the nylon
-over his head. -Yeah, so that with further enhancement,
we could maybe see some facial features.
Oh, that would be
really helpful, but how are you gonna
build an image out of nothing at all?
That's what we do in astronomy.
We capture tiny amounts of data
from powerful radio telescopes.
We use them to construct images of entire galaxies,
light-years distant.
And that's the same math as this?
-That's pretty amazing. -Yeah.
What's the best we can hope for?
There's almost no limit to how much a photo can be enhanced.
-You only get into deeper math, the more you... -All it takes
-is math that hasn't been done yet. -Oh, okay.
Are we working on the case,
or are we trying to win a Nobel Prize?
There is no Nobel Prize for mathematics.
Really? You're kidding.
They say that Alfred Nobel's mistress had an affair
with a very famous mathematician.
So, naturally, Nobel wouldn't want to share
his prize with his rival.
So, all you math guys
are aced out 'cause one of you was good in bed.
Guess so.
What is this?
I don't know. That was here when I got here.
This was in-in my office?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, just taped right here
to the blackboard.
Very pretty, Charlie.
( chuckles ): Pink stationery.
Is it a love note or what?
It's not signed.
Oh, secret admirer.
It's from someone who says she's a fan of my work
on low-dimensional topology.
Well, yeah...
And she's a fan of my...
...hair.
-( laughs ) -Oh, come on.
Is this Amita's handwriting, or what?
I don't know.
Maybe. Hmm.
Why wouldn't Amita sign it?
I don't know.
MEGAN: Owner of the supply store says
Jerry Wilcox bought a uniform
for the Department of Water and Power.
Anyone can just buy one of their uniforms?
Yeah, but the thing is, utility workers get a voucher.
This guy paid for it with a credit card.
That's why the store owner remembers him.
We got anything on him?
Other than the fact that even stalkers
don't take good pictures at the D.M.V.?
Pulled his tax returns.
Listed occupation: journalist.
Colby's out hunting him down.
Has no criminal record,
but the neighbors haven't seen him in about two days.
-What's up? -Colby just found Wilcox.
COLBY: Hollywood Hills patrol unit
spotted the Jeep with the driver-side door open.
Figured the guy
made a run for it, ran out of real estate.
His body was down in the brush over here.
How long has he been dead?
COLBY: According to the coroner's report,
about 24 hours.
So that's what?
Like, two days after the break-in
-at Skylar Wyatt's house? -Yeah.
Anything else?
Well, Jeep is registered to a Sunshine Incorporated,
so David's
running that down.
Anything inside it?
Ah, the usual stuff: insurance card...
They did find some computer stuff, peripherals, CDRs,
-memory sticks. -DON: We should be canvassing
these houses, obviously, see if anyone saw anything.
All right.
MEGAN: Got something?
Think so.
Check this out.
Skylar Wyatt's house?
DON: You said this guy's was a journalist, so what was he doing
up here two nights after the break-in?
MEGAN: If Wilcox was a photographer.
But taking pictures of her after breaking into her house
doesn't fit the profile of our stalker.
Maybe he wasn't the stalker.
Maybe the stalker caught him up here taking pictures
of the girl's house.
And lashed out in a possessive rage?
Looks like he's in one of his own tabloid stories.
( whistles )
Something wrong?
I think most of the people over here would probably say yes.
Just trying to earn a living, Detective.
FBI.
Feds?
What's going on?
This is what you do, huh?
Stand out here taking pictures of people having lunch?
Every one of these so-called celebrities were nobodies
begging to have their photos taken.
Believe me,
they'd all start complaining
if guys like me stopped coming around.
I'm not so sure Jerry Wilcox would agree with that.
Somebody certainly didn't seem to like what he was up to.
I heard what happened.
It's a shame.
Yeah, we stopped by your office.
We know he worked for you.
Yeah. Jerry was a nice guy.
Worked for me
as a freelancer.
He got a shot, I'd buy it.
Come on.
What do you guys want?
-Actually, gonna need to borrow this for a second. -Hey.
This came off of Wilcox's camera.
It's got your company's logo on it, so I'm assuming
you got some software in here that'll tell us what's on it.
COLBY: What is this?
I have no idea. Now can I get back to work?
Soon as you tell us
what Wilcox was doing the night he died
out near Skylar Wyatt's house.
Looks like Brad Pitt's
about to pay his check, dude.
All right, look, tabloids pay top dollars
for two kinds of photos:
celebrities with babies, celebrities with lovers.
Last time I checked,
Skylar Wyatt didn't have a kid.
I couldn't see his face very well,
but I'm pretty sure this was not the man in my house.
Who is he?
He's a photographer, and he was killed the other night.
From where we found his body, he may have been
trying to take photographs of you.
Do you know, on my honeymoon,
they waited six hours to get a photo of me topless?
What kind of life is that?
Well, we checked the photographer's e-mails
the day he was murdered.
He did, in fact, send a number of messages to various tabloids.
Messages about what?
Seems he thought he was going to get
some very valuable photographs of you
the night that he died.
Well, I went to bed at 9:00.
I took an Ambien.
So no idea what
he might have expected to see?
No. None.
I noticed your husband
hasn't rushed home
from Europe yet.
I told you,
he's away doing a movie.
What does that have to do with anything?
Look, Skylar, a man has broken into your home,
and now there's a man dead.
Now, we can't keep this quiet anymore.
And I don't want to upset you
any more than you already are, but if I have to,
I will subpoena your phone records, your e-mail,
I don't care.
And if you think your personal life is public now...
Dante Baker.
The rap star?
I was supposed to see him that night.
Only he didn't show up,
so I went to bed.
Now you know my secrets.
Do you know why he didn't show?
No, you'll have to ask Dante.
But you were having a relationship with him?
If you could call that a relationship.
The truth is my husband has been done
with his movie for three weeks.
And since then, he's been in postproduction,
which basically means he's away in Paris with his lead actress.
But I'm sure
you already know that, right?
It's all over the tabloids.
We don't really read tabloids.
Yo, what up with these fools?
Hey!
Fore, jackasses!
You believe this?
Can I help you gentlemen?
We'd like to talk to Mr. Baker.
Dante's golfing now.
No, no, no. That ain't golfing, man.
I saw that practice swing.
You're using your wrists way too much, bro.
Oh, yeah, well, maybe you want to show me what I'm doing wrong?
I would love to.
David.
Just going to drive the club head
right through the zone, all right?
Watch.
Oh, yeah.
Just like that. You see that, man?
That is a beautiful shot.
That's going to play nicely for you.
We'd like to ask you a few questions.
About what?
About a dead photographer
found up on Mulholland.
You know anything about him?
You know, I think maybe I ought to talk to my lawyer first.
Why would you want to spend money
talking to a lawyer, Dante?
It's a lot cheaper than talking to you guys.
Thanks for the lesson.
So if this rapper Dante Baker is sleeping with Skylar Wyatt,
maybe Wilcox goes up on Mulholland
to get a picture of the two of them together.
So, what? Baker finds out and beats him to death?
I mean, there was a history of assault.
I read something about a fight at an awards show.
Or maybe
the killer is the stalker if he thinks that Skylar
is going to be exploited by Wilcox.
Charlie thinks he's going to get an image of the stalker today.
How you doing on the handwriting analysis?
Secret Service ran it through something called FISH.
Forensic Information System for Handwriting.
And you know who worked on the program?
Let me guess.
AMITA: You've got to drive it more, Larry.
I mean, you just take it to campus then bring it home.
That car deserves the open road, Fleinhardt.
But the very thought of staining that perfect finish
with sooty exhaust, exposing it to the negligence
of some Humvee driver on a cell phone...
All right, Larry, it's a car.
It's whole function is to transport you
from point A to point B.
See, this is the philosophical schism
between a student of applied science
and a student of the cosmos.
For me, aesthetic beauty is... it's function enough.
Well, the aesthetic beauty of the sun is that it works,
not just that it's bright.
Hell of a point.
Well... maybe it's more art than a machine.
AMITA: Hey, Megan.
Hey, guys.
Hey. Uh, you're here for the photo enhancement.
It's, um... it's still, you know, enhancing.
No, I'm here for FISH.
You mean the, uh,
Forensic Information System for Handwriting?
All I'll say is that I helped develop
an algorithm for the Secret Service, uh,
based on segmentation, or writing elements,
that are considered to be in isolation,
such as whole words
or words separated by pen lifts...
At the moment, we're not having a lot of luck with it.
Yeah, and I've always thought that we missed something
in the development of the software.
So I'm going to take another crack at it. What do you say?
I thought you'd never ask.
Thanks, Charlie.
Wow.
You know, the thing about this car,
it's such a classic design and engineering.
It's more like a work of art than a vehicle.
Yes, I was saying the exact same thing.
Dr. Fleinhardt, you have to promise
to take me for a ride in this car.
Okay.
Yeah, we could tool around
in the parking lot together, certainly.
Okay.
Sure.
If you're thinking of sending these letters to Amita,
I would rethink your approach.
Laugh riot, Father.
This is for the stalking case.
I'm now working on a handwriting algorithm.
Oh, I see.
To try to identify who wrote them, huh?
And to single out those
that might be written by different people.
Well, they seem to have been written by the same guy.
They do, don't they?
You know, I've always said,
handwriting... it's a lot like...
like gymnastics.
Writing is like running a floor routine--
the component moves are like letters,
unique to the person that executes them.
Handwriting analysis looks for similarities and differences
in shapes and letters, choices of writing utensil.
Problem is, the gamma distribution
used in the FISH program is limited.
It misses things. It's stupid.
( knocking )
Charlie, hey.
-Hey, Colby. -How you doing?
-Well, hey. -Mr. Eppes, nice to see you.
So Don sent me down here to check and see
how the handwriting analysis was going.
I was just telling my father that we failed
to have the FISH program
take into account that the shape of an individual letter
varies depending on where it's placed in a word.
You write an "o" differently if there's an "s"
placed in front of it.
Accounting for that,
I found some interesting things about these letters
that we didn't expect.
All right, what was that?
Hey, look at this. This letter was an original.
Hey, Charlie, they let you handle actual evidence?
Give that to me.
There shouldn't be originals, you should only have copies.
Actually, that's not one of Skylar Wyatt's letters.
Yeah, I know. It's addressed to you.
Is that lavender I smell?
Yes. Lavender.
-( cell phone rings ) -Thanks, Charlie.
I got to take this. I'll be right back.
So who's it from?
Who the hell knows? It's not signed.
-Not signed? -No.
Since when does a college professor receive
anonymous fan letters?
You kidding?
Richard Feynman was a stud.
He got marriage proposals by the dozen.
Einstein was a true sex symbol.
Charlie, don't you think that's from Amita?
Actually, um, no, because I already
compared it to her writing.
Oh.
So the old FISH system is inefficient,
but it kicked out a name-- Lawrence Pike.
His handwriting matches the stalker's.
Okay, that's all good, but...
But the problem is this guy's been in jail in Utah
for the last three months, so he can't be the stalker.
Which is exactly what I was about to tell you.
The same person did not write all of these letters.
My analysis says there's a first writer
and a copycat.
A copycat stalker?
Yeah, the guy who wrote the original letters is in jail.
But Charlie says the guy who wrote these most recent ones
is mimicking his handwriting and even tracing some of the words.
And do we know which ones are written by stalker number two?
According to your brother, the last four.
Well, that coincides with the escalation
in threats against Skylar.
DON: Right. So, I mean, obviously,
if he copied the letters,
he knew they existed.
Right. He has access to Skylar and to her home.
And we know it's not the husband,
because he's been overseas the entire time.
All right, so I think we should be putting together a list
of everyone who worked for her in the last year.
That's housekeepers, gardeners, trainers, security...
Anybody who could have had access to those letters.
Exactly.
What about the boyfriend, Dante Baker?
Yeah, but how's he going to know
that Wilcox is up on Mulholland that night?
I mean, I'm guessing the same way Wilcox knew about Skylar.
Someone probably tipped him off.
So we should be focusing on connecting Baker to that murder.
What do you got?
These are the photos from the digital disk
we found in Wilcox's S.U.V.
They're all time stamped just a few hours
before he was killed.
I'm trying to pinpoint a location.
Wait, so what's this? Why is he taking pictures of...
-I mean, it's bricks, right? -Uh-huh.
Maybe he's trying to calibrate the camera,
take a bunch of pictures, see if everything's working.
-I don't know. -MEGAN: Well, wherever this is,
he was there just a few hours before he died.
Techs blew it up.
There's nothing in the background,
no way to pinpoint an address.
You should go talk to the girl again,
-see if she showed those letters to anyone else. -Okay.
You think you have something with this photo?
I think so.
I mean, I read something about
using shadows to find a location.
It involves math.
I'm going to run it by Charlie.
Find out where he is with the security video, already.
Boy, he's certainly earning his consulting fee on this one.
( pop music playing )
Hey, Skylar.
Hey.
Give me a minute.
Guess you have to keep in shape for your job, too, huh?
I have an audition in three weeks.
( grunts )
So have you learned anything yet?
We have.
We're, uh... we're making some progress.
Good.
Right now, what I need to know
is if anyone besides you saw the letters
that you received from the stalker.
No, I don't think so.
And where did you keep them?
In the kitchen in a drawer.
Some of them I didn't even open.
Then I think I'll need a list of everyone
who's had access to the kitchen.
I wouldn't even think you'd read these tabloids
after everything that you've been through.
Generally, I don't.
A friend of mine works
as an editor at that one.
She was nice to me when I first started out.
I gave her the exclusives
to my wedding photos, for whatever that was worth.
Do you think I'm unapproachable?
Charlie, your status
on this campus and in your field
is beyond that of most professors.
Whoever this is, I'm sure they're just afraid to tell me.
Well, fear of rejection, that's powerful.
Many a scientist has not published his work
for fear of being ridiculed by his colleagues.
You know, this isn't the first time
I've received a love letter.
When I published my first article
in the American Journal of Mathematics,
I was invited to spend the weekend
at a bed-and-breakfast in Santa Barbara.
Yeah? Did you go?
Of... I was 14.
My mother had to break the news
to a very embarrassed female professor at Berkeley.
( laughs ): Anyone I know?
Actually...
( knocking )
Charlie, Larry, how you doing?
Hey.
How's the photo enhancement coming?
The program's been running through the image we got
from Skylar Wyatt's video cameras.
This is what we have so far.
That's not enough for a positive ID.
CHARLIE: It's still working.
That's great.
We have something new for you to look at.
It's related to the same case.
Now, we don't have an address,
but we're trying to find out where this place is.
I noticed that
the basketball hoop was casting a shadow.
I thought I read somewhere that you can calculate a location
based on shadows.
-Spherical Astronomy. -Spherical Astronomy.
What's that?
Well, it's a way
of looking at at the cosmos to define one's location
on the Earth.
Sailors use it
when they're lost at sea.
Cosmologists use it
when we're just plain lost.
And it just happens to be the same math used
with sundials.
Agent Sinclair, you just happen to be talking
to two card-carrying members
of the North American Sundial Society.
Oh. Let the good times roll.
Of course, for this to work now,
you're going to need more than one photograph.
Just so happens...
There you go.
You're sure these time stamps are accurate?
We think so.
We need to measure the length of the pole
as well as the shadows.
Well, the basketball hoop looks like
it's regulation height.
Ten feet.
Yeah, and those are bricks
-Right. -on that driveway.
Bricks? How does that help?
Well, they're the same size.
It allows us to measure the movement of the shadows.
By measuring the length of the shadows
against the bricks and then factoring in
the exact times that these two images were snapped,
the equation can then determine
the altitude of the sun on a grid.
Then by mathematically overlaying these images,
I can provide to you, with certainty, latitude
and longitude down to a hundredth of a degree.
( knocks on door )
MAN: Hold on a second!
Oh, man...
Well, if you're looking for Dante, he's not here.
Actually,
we're looking for you.
Me?
You want to step outside, please?
All right, what's this about?
Well, we've been looking at some pictures.
-Of what? -Your house.
Yeah, and one of them actually happens to be a picture of you
standing in Skylar Wyatt's backyard.
It's not like you think it is.
Yeah? So why don't you tell us about this?
Which we found at your house.
Along with these.
Or do you go both ways?
Is that the problem, Orville?
Look, we know you drove Dante
to Skylar's house many times
before that night.
You knew that they were lovers, didn't you?
Come on.
You told Wilcox, right?
I didn't say anything to him.
Oh, come on, Orville.
Wilcox is on the top of a hill with a camera
the night that your boss is going
to have sex with Skylar Wyatt.
Is that just a coincidence?
Look, I didn't tell Wilcox nothing about Dante and Skylar.
Understand me? Nothing.
All right, why don't you take a look at this?
'Cause this puts him at your house the day he was killed.
Yeah, he was there.
But it wasn't to meet me.
So what are you saying, Dante told him?
Why would Dante do that?
Dante said he was banging this big pop star.
Only, if no one knows he's doing her,
what good is it to him?
What are you saying?
He wanted pictures of him with the girl?
He was using her.
And afterwards, he'd talk trash about her.
He didn't know her, he didn't care about her.
Not the way that you did?
She was nice to me.
Dante would leave me in the kitchen
when he went upstairs to be with her.
Sometimes she would come down
and we would talk, you know.
And then, when she had to leave,
she would tell me I could help myself to whatever.
And that's when
you found the letters?
I just wanted her to know that Dante was using her.
I just wanted to scare her.
So you broke into her house.
Just to show her that she wasn't safe.
You know, that she needed somebody to protect her...
that she needed me.
You had to kill the photographer
to stop him from taking those pictures.
No! No.
I wasn't even there that night.
I couldn't stand to be around anymore when D was with her.
I was at a club all night.
About a dozen people can vouch for me.
We want assurances that whatever is said in this room
remains confidential.
Yeah, well, that's not going to happen.
Well, then, I'd like the record to reflect
that we met voluntarily
and that we ended this meeting the same way.
We're done.
DON: Hold on, counselor. It's not a question of "if."
We know he told Wilcox.
I mean, you think you're going have any street cred
when the media finds out
you sold Skylar Wyatt to the tabloids?
You're taking this to a new level here, pal.
How's "D Bitch" sound?
Look, you can't prove
that my client was the source of this tip.
Your client's cell phone records.
Three phone calls
to Jerry Wilcox two weeks before the murder.
What happened that night?
Why didn't you show up at Skylar's?
I did show up.
It was Skylar who wasn't there.
Yo, you got my cell phone records.
I called Wilcox from my Hummer at Skylar's house.
I assume you people can triangulate the call.
Even if that's true,
it still puts your client in the vicinity of the murder.
All right, look,
we suspect that
you may eventually find forensic evidence
that places my client at the crime scene.
What do you mean, "at the crime scene"?
I was there...
but I didn't kill him.
He was already dead.
All right, then why don't you tell us all about it?
I got to Skylar's.
She wasn't home.
I waited.
And then I tried to call Wilcox to tell him
it wasn't going to happen, and I didn't get an answer.
So I drove up to Mulholland where he was supposed to be.
He was just laying on the ground.
I could tell he wasn't breathing.
So you just took off?
I'm the one who had him up on that hill.
I wanted those photographs to be seen.
Now why the hell would I kill him
to stop him from taking them?
I don't know, but we're going to find out.
Skylar...
Hello. Can you give me a second, please?
Have you learned anything new?
Yeah, why don't we step over here?
Just spoke to Dante.
Claims he was at your house the night of the murder.
Only he says you weren't there.
Well, maybe I didn't hear him.
I told you I was tired that night.
He also tipped Wilcox off about the two of you.
I can't say you look very surprised, Skylar.
You know he called five magazines that day,
trying to start a bidding war for those pictures?
MEGAN: You did know that, didn't you?
Because one of those magazines is where your friend works.
And she called you and told you what he was planning.
We traced the call, Skylar.
You have any idea what it's like to be sold?
To know that
the man that you thought loved you
had arranged to sell photos of... you and him having sex?
So you were up there that night?
I found Wilcox,
and I told him
that I thought what he was doing was despicable.
Know what he did?
He started snapping photos of me.
So I grabbed his camera
and... he fell to the ground.
And he grabbed my ankle and he wouldn't let go.
So I picked up his tripod...
and I hit him over the head.
He was just laying there.
He was just moaning, trying to move.
I ran.
These people try
to justify what they're doing
by claiming that it's the price of fame.
Now one of them has to pay for a change.
Skylar, I need you to put your hands behind your back.
Let's go.
Turn around.
( handcuffs clicking )
I can't retrofit a 1931 car with seat belts.
Why not?
Because it's not authentic to the period.
Well, I know that.
What I meant was, it's authentic to this period.
It's totally physics, Larry.
I mean, without a seat belt,
you could get hurt even in a minor accident.
Look, if I'm in an accident in that car,
I hope I don't survive.
Look, it's a love affair, me and that car.
With affairs of the heart,
you know, sometimes common sense gets thrown out the window.
Yeah, or through the windshield.
Hey, speaking of affairs of the heart, did you ever find out
who sent you that anonymous note?
Oh, yeah, I was wondering about that.
No, not yet.
I think we could run
a handwriting analysis against
the school's records office.
You know what? I've decided I don't need to know.
-Oh, yes, you do. -Whoever it was,
they chose not to sign it,
maybe because they're just not ready to tell me.
Well, I think that's very wise.
Let your life retain some mystery.
Yeah. Besides, you haven't figured out what to do
with the girl you already know about.