2x08 SoLV

 (The door opens and LADY HEATHER appears. Both CATHERINE and GRISSOM are
casually taken aback. BRASS doesn't seem surprised at all.)

LADY HEATHER: Let me guess -- three police officers looking for respite from
having to control and dominate our big, bad city?

BRASS: Close-- one police officer, two criminalists. May we come in?

(LADY HEATHER steps aside and they all enter the foyer.)

(In the background, a whip cracks and a man groans.)

LADY HEATHER: Another happy customer.

(GRISSOM turns to look at LADY HEATHER.)

LADY HEATHER: Now, would you prefer individual sessions or would you like to
enjoy each other's submission?

(GRISSOM turns to look at CATHERINE. She laughs.)

LADY HEATHER: You don't have to decide now. Please, make yourselves
comfortable and welcome to Lady Heather's Dominion.

  LADY HEATHER'S DOMINION -- NIGHT]

(GRISSOM and BRASS follow LADY HEATHER up the staircase.)

LADY HEATHER: Never lost one of my girls.

GRISSOM: You don't seem very upset about it.

LADY HEATHER: What you see and what I feel are two different things.

BRASS: Really? Were there any disturbances last night? Did you hear screams?

LADY HEATHER: It's when I don't hear screams that I start to worry.

BRASS: Well, then can you tell us what time Mona got off?

(The reach the top of the staircase. LADY HEATHER turns around to answer.)

LADY HEATHER: Knowing Mona, every couple of hours. She enjoyed her work.

BRASS: There's no sexual contact or anything illegal going on here, of course.

LADY HEATHER: Captain Brass, surely you don't think sexual contact is the only
means of fulfillment.

BRASS: Lady Heather you don't what to know what I think.

LADY HEATHER: Her last client was at 11:00. She would have left at midnight.

BRASS: Do you have any kind of log book? Some record of who was working that
night? What they did with their time? That sort of thing?

LADY HEATHER: Would that get you excited?

BRASS: Not particularly. But it might help us catch the creep who murdered
Mona.

GRISSOM: We need names and addresses. We also need to know which rooms she
worked last night so we can examine them.

LADY HEATHER: Mona worked the pool house. Give me a minute, I'll have to move
some clients around.

(CATHERINE and NICK appear on the bottom.)

CATHERINE: Oh, there you are. Mona's car is in the driveway. It looks clean.

GRISSOM: Okay, tow it to CSI and then start processing the rooms in the pool
house where Mona worked last night.

CATHERINE: And you will be...?

GRISSOM: I'll be with Lady Heather.

LADY HEATHER'S DOMINION - LADY HEATHER'S ROOM -- NIGHT]

(GRISSOM is looking around the room. He picks up a silver-plated mask from the
dresser.)

LADY HEATHER: Does all this fascinate you?

GRISSOM: Yes. I find all deviant behavior fascinating in that to understand
our human nature we have to understand our aberrations.

LADY HEATHER: And you think what goes on here is aberrant?

GRISSOM: I would say that whip marks and ligature contusions on a young woman
are aberrant. Wouldn't you?

LADY HEATHER: Every job has it's peculiar hazards. Rock stars damage their ear
drums. Football players ruin their knees. In this business, it's scars. But
no one who works for me has ever sustained a serious injury.

GRISSOM: Mona did. She died.

LADY HEATHER: Not because she worked here that's your assumption. What happens
here isn't about violence. It's about challenging preconceived notions of
victorian normalcy. Bringing people's fantasies to life. Making them real and
acceptable.

GRISSOM: Like the theatre.

(GRISSOM puts down the mask he's holding and walks across the room.)

LADY HEATHER: It's people who don't come to places like this that I worry
about. The ones who don't have an outlet. Say ... someone like yourself.

GRISSOM: Oh, I have outlets. I read. I study bugs. I sometimes even ride
roller coasters.

LADY HEATHER: And your sex life?

GRISSOM: It doesn't involve going to the theater.

(LADY HEATHER smiles.)

LADY HEATHER: In my experience, Mr. Grissom, some men go to the theater ...
some men are the theater. Either way, what I offer is a chance for submission
or control, whichever's required. Sometimes a client doesn't know what he wants
until I show him.

(LADY HEATHER takes a seat.)

GRISSOM: "No man is a complete mystery except to himself." Marcel Proust.

LADY HEATHER: I bet he'd have enjoyed himself here.

GRISSOM: Probably. No crime is a complete mystery, either. The whip marks on
Mona Taylor were fresh.

(LADY HEATHER stands up surprised by this piece of information.)

LADY HEATHER: That can't be. Mona was Dominant with her clients. (thoughtful)
I know that she sometimes saw clients off the books. I let her because she
brought in so much business, but I just assumed she knew what she was doing.

GRISSOM: My guess is that one of her off-the-book clients ... is a regular. I
mean, it is a repeat business, is it not?

(GRISSOM picks up another mask, this one made of leather.)

LADY HEATHER: Does that one interest you?

GRISSOM: Yes, it does. May I borrow it?

LADY HEATHER'S DOMINION -- DAY]

(LADY HEATHER enters her room carrying a tea pot. She walks over to the table
set for tea. She pours the tea and puts the tea pot on the table. GRISSOM is
standing off to the side. He turns around when she walks in.)

GRISSOM: Afternoon tea. How nice.

LADY HEATHER: I like a bit of civility before dark ... when all the needy
little boys show up.

GRISSOM: Well, I'm a little needy myself today. My lab pulled skin cells from
Mona Taylor's straws.

LADY HEATHER: A DNA sample? I have several clients in law enforcement. X-X or
X-Y?

GRISSOM: They're male.

(GRISSOM shows LADY HEATHER a photograph he brought with him. It's of CAMERON
and EILENE NELSON at a formal function. Both are speaking with a man.)

GRISSOM: Have you ever seen either of these two people?

LADY HEATHER: Not the wife, but I have seen the husband.

GRISSOM: I didn't say they were married.

LADY HEATHER: It's obvious. Look at the way he's clenching her hand with both
of his and leaning toward her. And see how she's twisting away presenting
herself to the wealthy alpha male? She's insensitive; he insecure. That's a
setup for matrimony, not passion. She wants the dominant male to choose her so
she can stop being dominant.

GRISSOM: You're very good. You could work for me.

LADY HEATHER: You want to be my boss?

GRISSOM: You never know. We both might learn something.

LADY HEATHER: Oh, I'm sure of that.

(They both sit down at the table.)

LADY HEATHER: I can read anyone who walks through this door and know their
desires. Sometimes even before they do. Why do you think I selected china and
table linens?

GRISSOM: You like fine things.

LADY HEATHER: Or maybe I knew you'd like them. Same way I know you enjoy most
of the superficial trappings of civilization.

GRISSOM: I'm that obvious, huh?

LADY HEATHER: Only because you try not to be. You spend your life uncovering
what goes beneath the surface of civility and acceptable behavior. So it's a
release for you to indulge in something like high tea when it seems, if only for
a moment, the world really is civilized.

(GRISSOM doesn't respond.)

LADY HEATHER: The most telling thing about anyone is what scares them. And I
know what you fear more than anything, Mr. Grissom.

GRISSOM: Which is?

LADY HEATHER: Being known. You can't accept that I might know what you really
desire, because that would mean that I know you. Something, for whatever
reason, you spend your entire life making sure no one else does.

GRISSOM: Lady Heather, you're an anthropologist.

LADY HEATHER: More tea?

(LADY HEATHER picks up the tea pot and refreshes GRISSOM'S cup of tea.)