ACT TWO

FADE IN:

EXT. SUNRISE HOSPITAL

To establish

INT. SUNRISE HOSPITAL - ICU 4 - DAY

Nick and Henry walk in. Natalie has been propped up on her side. She looks as dead as when Nick first saw her in the garbage dump. Only the steady flow of oxygen and soft beeping of the heart monitor prove she's alive.

The TV is on and a love scene from a Jonathan Massie movie is playing.

Henry stands where she can see him when she opens her eyes, Nick moves around to the other side. He sits at the end of the railing, laying his hand on her arm.

NICK
Natalie.

She opens her eyes, staring at Henry. Nick leans to the side and her eyes move to look at him.

NICK (CONT'D)
Hey there, girl. Glad to see you've stuck
around for another day.

She doesn't respond because she can't.

NICK (CONT'D)
This is Henry. He works in our lab and one of
his many talents is that he can read lips. All
you have to do is mouth like you were talking.
Do you feel up to that?

Natalie looks at Henry. He translates while she mouths.

HENRY
Nick is smarter than the average bear.

Both men chuckle.

HENRY (CONT'D)
Yeah. He has his moments, Natalie.

NICK
Tell us about the night you were kidnapped.

Natalie mouths again.

HENRY
I don't remember a lot of things, even my
children's names. I can only remember shards.

NICK
Then let's start with the shards.

She mouths what she remembers.

HENRY
I remember...

MONTAGE

(NOTE: Natalie's memory of events is foggy with very few clear and vivid faces. In her memories, she's not as large as she was in real life.)

A) Natalie and Dana are at the premiere laughing.

B) The backstage party. Natalie is self conscious as she passes slim, beautiful people.

C) A man walks up to her, his face is either blacked out or too fuzzy to identify. He talks to her

D) She wakes up in a cell. The women in the other cells are scared and crying. She's dressed in a dirty cotton smock. Near the door is a dog bowl of water.

E) She hears the door open and watches a figure walk in. It's the man from the party, but he still has no face. He drops a few potatoes and piece of bread in a bowl. She rushes at him when he opens the door. He's prepared and punches her to bring her down. He sets the bowl of food next to the water. He says something incoherent and leaves.

F) When she sees him again, she has lost nearly two hundred pounds and is weak. He enters the cell across from hers with a red dress, necklace, and a bucket of water. The woman in the cell, starved to the brink of death, doesn't fight him taking her smock off, giving her a sponge bath, and putting the dress and pearls on. He gets her on her feet and they leave.

BACK TO SCENE

NICK
He never brought her back?

Natalie mouths an answer.

HENRY
No. When he put the red dress and necklace
on a woman, she never came back.

NICK
Did he bring in a new woman when he took
one out?

HENRY
Yes.

NICK
I'll have an artist come in and get a description.

She starts mouthing again.

HENRY
You don't understand. His face is black.

NICK
He was African-American?

HENRY
No. Every time I think about him or try to see
his face, it's just empty and black.

NICK
What is the last thing you remember?

INT. UNDERGROUND PRISON (RE-ENACTMENT)

Natalie lies on a thin mat, hovering between life and death. Her dirty smock doesn't hide how wasted her body is. The FACELESS MAN walks in carrying a red dress and pearls, and a bucket.

He enters her cell and she is at his mercy as he undresses her, gives her a sponge bath, and puts on the red dress and pearls. He picks her up, setting her on her feet.

FACELESS MAN
You look beautiful, Natalie. See how much
better you feel without all that weight?

She doesn't answer. He is a most patient killer, letting her take her time as she walks to the door on shaking legs. They leave the prison and he shuts the door behind him, locking it.

INT. UNDERGROUND PRISON - DINING ROOM (RE-ENACTMENT)

He walks her over to a chair and sets her in it. He carefully fixes her hair. Even this close his face has no details.

FACELESS MAN
You've done such a good job, Natalie. Now
we'll have a feast. Every food you love will
be here. You can eat as much as you want.

Natalie looks at the cages, focusing on the spiders. The faceless man crouches next to her and places his hand high up on the inside of her thigh.

FACELESS MAN (CONT'D)
You like the spiders? They creep most
women out.

Natalie stares without speaking.

FACELESS MAN (CONT'D)
I've gotten quite a collection; most of them
are several years old. They wouldn't have
lived that long in the wild, but here they
can. Just like my beautiful women.

He reaches up and pets her face. She slowly drops her head away, trying to avoid his touch. In the distance, someone knocks on a door.

FACELESS MAN (CONT'D)
That's dinner. Wait here, beautiful. I'll bring
it down.

He leaves her. Her eyes move to the spiders. Particularly the Brazilian Wandering Spider. Gripping the table she very slowly pulls herself to her feet. Taking one shaky step at a time she walks over to the spider's cage.

She hears talking in the distance, it almost sounds like an argument. She reaches the cage and with great effort she pulls off the lid. The spider senses movement and goes on guard. She reaches her hand in. At first the spider makes false charges, but she moves her hand toward it forcing it to strike.

It jumps back, leaving two small bites with trickles of blood. She moves her hand toward it again and it strikes again. She keeps moving her hand, enticing it to bite her.

FACELESS MAN (O.S.) (CONT'D)
WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?

Natalie is yanked away with the spider still attached to her hand. She lands on the floor as everything fades to bright white light, and then to black.

BACK TO SCENE

NICK
Why did you want the spider to bite you?

HENRY
I hoped it would paralyze me so I'd look dead.
Then I'd have a fifty-fifty chance he'd dump my
body where someone would find me and help
me. And someone did.

Nick pats her arm.

NICK
You did a good job tonight, Natalie. We're
going to go now, so get some rest. I'll stop by
later to check on you.

He stands and turns as she starts mouthing again. Henry stays behind to listen to her. He smiles, tells her something, and then follows Nick. They two meet up at the elevator.

HENRY
She asked for Joseph.

NICK
We can't let him know--

HENRY
I told her he can't know until we catch this guy.
She's okay with it.

The door opens and they get on.

NICK
You did a good job today, Henry. If you ever
get bored of the lab, let me know. I'll put in a
recommendation.

He just smiles.

INT. CSI BUILDING - LAYOUT ROOM - NIGHT

A newspaper sits on the edge of the table. The headlines cover various topics, including actor Jonathan Massie's recent humanitarian work. On the same page is a small box about the 'Red Dress Killer.'

A laptop sits at the end of the light table. Across the table are spread the files and evidence from the past six starvation cases along with Natalie's.

Despite a firm Fire Marshal warning affixed to it, seven red silk dresses with pearl necklaces hang from the fire sprinkler. The dresses are short, spaghetti strap dresses, size zero, with nothing especially outstanding about them. The pearls are Mother of Pearl strung with pure silver.

Nick sits on a stool, staring at them. The case has clearly got him befuddled. He glances at the door when it opens to let Catherine in. He has a stack of printouts that he's putting his glasses on to read as he sits down on a stool.

CATHERINE
I contacted the Missoula police department,
and I hadn't really expected to reach anyone at
this hour...

Nick is confused.

CATHERINE
...but the police chief was in the office -- he
was hiding from his wife, he said. Anyway, I
asked if he could send us case files of any
case Natalie helped get a conviction, and
whose first name was John. He'll--

NICK
Am I in trouble?

CATHERINE
No. Why?

NICK
Why are you working my case?

CATHERINE
You don't have much to go on, so I took
unilateral action as your supervisor and
assigned myself to your case. You're still lead,
but I figured two heads were better than one. Is
that okay?

Nick smiles.

NICK
As long as I'm not in trouble, always. So the
Missoula police chief hiding from his wife
said...

CATHERINE
He said he'd ask the detective she worked with
and send us copies. He also said he remembers
something about her having a stalker, but he
wasn't involved with the case, this detectives
was. He'd send that file too.

NICK
That's something at least. I'm hitting walls so far.

CATHERINE
Who in the area has purchased a Brazilian
Wandering Spider?

NICK
Natalie and a professor at the university. The
professor checks out, no priors, he and his
spider have been in Argentina for the last four
months. And his name is Carl. Maybe the killer
bought it on the black market.

CATHERINE
She said there were other exotic pets. Did you
check that?

NICK
Yeah, and about half of Las Vegas owns an
exotic pet.

CATHERINE
Ian called before I came in. He said Saint
Mercy sent out a CDC report after a man was
dropped off and died from an allergic reaction
to Phoneutria fera venom.

NICK
When?

CATHERINE
Tonight, and two days after Natalie was found.
I'm pretty sure that the spider couldn't have
survived in the desert, so my hunch is this
John Doe lived or worked where she was held.

NICK
Did he have any identification?

CATHERINE
He was naked, so no, and no one has come to
claim the body.

Catherine leans on the table.

NICK
Damn. Did I tell you the hunch Henry talked to
me about after meeting with Joe?

CATHERINE
No. What hunch? I didn't even know he went
with you to that interview.

NICK
I was conserving gas. So at the house he
asked for a picture of Natalie Greer, but the
photographs were different. She used to weigh
a lot more.

Nick pulls out the photograph of Natalie and the composite. He sets them both out in front of Catherine.

NICK (CONT'D)
So, what if there wasn't enough weight added
to the other victim's composites?

CATHERINE
You believe this man is targeting obese
women?

NICK
Natalie said he told her that she should feel
better after losing all the weight. Maybe this
guy thinks he's helping these women by forcing
them to lose weight.

CATHERINE
It would explain why they were given water but
starved. So why kill them?

NICK
Now that got me too, but I think it's in how he's
killing them. After months of starvation, he's
giving them a huge meal high in calories and
proteins.

CATHERINE
This has been your case up until now, so I
don't understand why that's killing them. What
has Doctor Robbins or Ray told you about it?

NICK
Neither one of them would just tell me.

Nick fishes out a thick, heavy medical book from under the folders. Amused by the fact Nick has gone low-tech for an answer makes Catherine smile.

NICK (CONT'D)
But they both gave me access to their medical
book collection at their houses.

Nick flips back a couple pages. He turns the pages as he skims and delivers the information on them.

NICK (CONT'D)
There was a starvation experiment, conducted
at the University of Minnesota during World
War II -- it's now called the Minnesota
Starvation Experiment. They anticipated the
need to help people and prisoners that were
starved during the occupation. Unfortunately,
the war ended before the experiment and most
Allied troops didn't get the information about
how to safely acclimate these people to richer
foods. So when they first entered cities or
prison camps where people had been starved,
they tried to be nice by giving them their
K-rations and candy bars. The starving
people's systems were acclimated to their
sparse diet of potatoes, bread, and broth, and
the sudden high calorie and high protein foods
caused violent stomach cramping, convulsions,
and death due to shock. So...

Nick looks up to add more, but stops when he saw Catherine's smile.

NICK (CONT'D)
What?

CATHERINE
You're reading a book?

NICK
Yeah. What's wrong with that?

CATHERINE
Go on.

NICK
What's wrong with me reading a book?

CATHERINE
Nothing. Continue.

Nick shoots her a frown.

NICK
Okay, so either this guy knows that these
meals will kill the women or the guy thinks he's
being nice and doesn't know what he's doing.

CATHERINE
You forgot the third option.

NICK
Which is?

CATHERINE
Perhaps at first he believed he was helping
them, but then he got a taste of murder and
now it's intentional.

NICK
Maybe. So maybe I should have Archie add
some more weight to these composites and
re-circulate them.

CATHERINE
It can't hurt at this point.

Catherine gets up.

CATHERINE (CONT'D)
Get addresses on all the pet owners named
John and I'll work on half the list. And be sure
to pay close attention when you interview,
Nick, particularly to their hands. The killer is
likely to have scabies too.

Catherine leaves, and Nick makes a phone call.

FADE OUT.

END OF ACT TWO