S3 E07: The New Deal

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Dr. Kim? Jonathan, come in. Thank you for seeing me. The front desk knows I'm here. Great. I'd hope they would. So does Sheriff Crowley. You're telling me this because you still think I'm some sort of threat to you. I see time away hasn't done you any good. Why did you want me to come in? District Attorney Grant called me. He said we should talk. And I wanted to talk to him, not you. But about me, right. Have a seat, Jonathan. I'd rather not. Then excuse me if I sit. I'm quite exhausted.

I bet you are. Have you heard? I tried to keep the news under wraps. Heard what? I'm leaving Springfield General for a position in New Amsterdam Hospital in New York. Did Grant fire you? Yes, thanks to you. How can you leave? You're under investigation for- I'm not under investigation for anything, Jonathan. Except maybe in your perception. I know you're involved in something here. When I can prove it, we'll drag your ass back from New York. We? Me and Crowley.

Jonathan, Sheriff Crowley is not working with you on any case, especially not one against me. I don't know what it is about me that triggers you, but I hope that my departure can break whatever delusion you have going on right now. I know why Grant wants you out of the picture. Any threat to you eventually exposes him.

Does he know you killed Levant? Is that name supposed to mean something to me? You can deny it all you want, but I know about Maureen Levant. She was sent here to kill me. Why did you stop her? Perhaps this was a mistake. I can see things have only gotten worse for you. I'm not delusional. Okay, Jonathan. Let's say I believe you came across some record-keeping discrepancies and a string of deaths.

What is it about me that makes you so adamant about my implication? You work for Springfield Corp. I don't. They've been closed for decades. You observed Roger and wrote that note to stop the leak. I did observe Roger. He was a patient of mine after coming to me for help with extreme anxiety. But he wrote that note. That's not my handwriting. He said someone else told him to stop the leak.

It was in my file because he came obsessed with the phrase. The purple bodies were killed using a mixture of drugs, including chemo, which I found in your office. I should have known you went through more than just my files. You found this. It's the same kind I found on the scene. There's only one type of chemotherapy available at this hospital. All our bags are the same. You still have it.

You said I looked sick in the past, remember? Jonathan, I have thyroid cancer. No way. That's just an excuse to... Do you see this thump in the base of my throat? It's stage two, not responding to iodine treatment. And that's why I've progressed to chemotherapy. I... I don't... I've been hiding it from everyone but my oncologist.

Grant confronted me about it and explained that I wasn't stealing the bags, as you suggested. But the hospital frowns upon doctors with chemo bags sticking out of them as they treat patients. It was either... Don't work and just do the chemo, or find a place that allowed me to do both. New Amsterdam has no problem with it. What about the tapes? Your old autopsy recordings. What about them? Not those tapes. The ones... The ones you've been leaving. I can't be wrong about this. About you.

You're not an investigator, Jonathan. And that's always been your problem. Stop trying to be one. And seek more professional help once I'm gone. Maybe they can unpack your paranoia. You're wrong about me. I'm not. I know you better than anyone else in Springfield, I imagined. Does anyone else know about your past abuse? Foster care?

How you view Cher Fran as the mother you never got to have. I bet you're not even aware of that. Well, how about what happened in Baltimore with you and Luan? Does anyone know that about you? Fuck you. I'm not wrong about you, Jonathan. But you are wrong about me. Good talk, as always. I hope next time I see you, you'll be in handcuffs. You destroy everything you touch, Jonathan. Every career.

every relationship, and you'll continue to do so until you seek help. People are worse off for being around you. presents How I Die.

Do you know what I've been doing every night for almost two weeks, Joy? I've been walking around the side of Route 66, about ten minutes back into the goddamn Springfield woods. pacing around and checking for other tapes from you. And you know what I've gotten? Nothing. Absolutely nothing for almost 14 days. What do you want from me? What's the point of all of this?

Did you get spooked after seeing me and Sheriff Crowley and all the cops at the old meatpacking plant? I swear to you I didn't know they'd take me there, or that they'd find anything. I didn't point towards it at all. I didn't even know about it. The cops found out from Vincenzo about your involvement in whatever human trafficking ring was happening, and they pieced together the location. They're on the case. Crowley even thinks you're going to kill me next.

You know what? You might. You could be in the fucking woods right now, hiding behind a tree. But I don't think that's it. You know what I think? I think it's getting a little too real for you. I think Crowley's close to figuring it out. You found out, and now you're scared. You can't hide behind the tapes anymore. They're on to you, and now suddenly Dr. Kim is moving away. That sounds a little coincidental, don't you think? So I think you're running away and trying to detach from any...

Help me? I'm here. I'm with the Springfield PD, and they know my location, so show yourself. Thank God. You can help me. Are you hurt? No. I don't think so. Maybe? What's your name? Eli. Elijah Mills. Officer... Spacer. Officer Spacer, I think something terrible happened out here in the woods. Did you find a body? I did. How did you know? Can you take me to it? Is that a flashlight? Can you turn it on so I can see? It's not. It's a recorder. But I can use my cell phone. Here.

How are you getting around without a light? I've been on this patrol for a while. Where are we going? This way. Why are you out in the woods? Why are you? I went on a retreat with my group. Out here? Yeah, a few days ago. Me and a few other guys and our leader. Like Boy Scouts or something? Yeah, sort of. Why are you still here? I've been trying to get someone to come look what I found. It's... here. I think someone was hurt. He won't wake up.

Jesus. Is that the body? I think so. I didn't want to get too close. Oh, it is. Holy fuck. What is that sticking out? Hold on. Let me call this in. Crowley. Crowley, it's John. Did I wake you? I don't know how to tell you this. I found a body in the Springfield woods north of Exit 15 off Route 66. I'm parked on the side.

I'll explain when you get here. How soon can you come? I'm not far. Is it related to our purple body killer? Or should I call in the cavalry? I'm not sure. It's suspicious being out here, but it doesn't look purple. There's a fucking big, big knife sticking out of his chest. Like a steak knife? No. Some sort of, I don't know, ornate curved blade.

to explain that I got a tip than you fucking searching the woods. Again. Wait in your car, lock your doors, and don't touch anything. I'll be there soon. Shouldn't you have called on a radio and... Not your phone? How did you say you found this? I don't know. I just woke up near here, looking for my friends, and I couldn't find them. I looked around and found... this? Wait. Come closer.

In the light of my phone. Shit. Eli, right? Come look at this. Does he look familiar? Oh my god. That's... Jeremiah. Jeremiah? That isn't you. No. Why? You look really similar. Because of the shaved heads? That's Jeremiah. I'm certain of it. You're wearing the exact same clothes, but okay. Who is Jeremiah? One of my friends from the group. He was out here with you. What were you doing? I told you...

It was a retreat. Can you, um, kick those leaves with your foot? Just slide them? Of course. Why? Just try, please. I... I am crying. I should have heard the lack of leaves crunching on our walk here. What's happening? Eli, I'm worried about you. Can you tell me everything you remember from the night you were here? I can't do that. I'm sorry. Why not? You're not part of the group. To tell you would break our vow. Vow? What does that mean?

That's all I can say about it. But if you'd like, I can introduce you to my leader, and they might be able to explain. What type of retreat were you on, exactly? I can't... I get it. What type of group is it? What were you called? We're called Subsequentium. Subsequentium. Can you please explain why I can't kick the leaves instead of just repeating things I tell you?

Do you have any idea what happened to you and Jeremiah? I think so, but it looks like it didn't work for Jeremiah. Sad. Right. Eli, Jeremiah is definitely dead. But from my experience, the only people who can't touch the ground and the ones I can do this to... Hey, don't touch me! My hand went right through you. You're a ghost, Eli. I think you and Jeremiah were killed here. So the leaders were right. I don't understand what you mean. Are you listening to me? You're not alive. No. I've ascended.

Excuse me? I knew it was true. If I've ascended, that means I'm a living god. Well, you're not alive, so... And you're witnessing me. So you must be here for me to guide you to the light. Right. Well, the only light I'd like to see is the sheriff's flashlight down the path, so if you'll excuse me... You don't believe? Trust me.

I'd like to, but without enough information about what it is your group does, I'm afraid I'll have to just chalk this up to another deity trying to gain some followers. No, no, I can tell you now. I've ascended, which means I'm above the leaders themselves. They can't stop me anymore. Oh, good. Come this way. There's more. So, what kind of retreat was this again?

It was our ascending ceremony. Jeremiah, Lucas, Glenn, and I were here with the leaders as our final act before becoming worthy. Like I said, it... Didn't seem to work for Jeremiah. Uh-huh. Good God. The ground looks like a fucking slaughterhouse. Or like someone was hunting.

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Here's our campsite. I don't have gloves to touch that. What is it? Our literature. Your literature? Again, why do you just keep repeating what I'm telling you? I'm just trying to understand. You all came out here for some sort of camping trip and a ceremony. It wasn't a camping trip. We were taking the next step of our journey to Ascension. And the next step involved killing you and your friends? The ceremonial dagger was just to... Hold on.

Crowley? I see your car. But I don't see you in your car. Despite being told that's where you should wait. I'm further in. I'm coming back to you. Stay here. Why? So I can find the campsite on the way back. Fine. But then I really need you to understand... Crowley, do you have a flashlight? Of course I have a fucking flashlight. Can you wave it so I can... Yep. I see you.

have a fucking flashlight? You were the one planning to come into the woods, right? Just my phone. It was a little spur of the moment. Uh-huh. And what led to that? I'd rather tell you in person. Move your phone so I at least know where I'm going. We're close. Should we just hang? Spacer? Hey, Crowley. Not super far from here. Act that way. We're already pretty deep in the woods. This is way off the path. Yeah. Now that's your hint to tell me how you found the body.

With details this time, if you please. You know that tape you found inside of Maureen LaVon's body a few weeks ago? I wish I could forget it. Why? Well... I received a tape in the mail. You received a tape in the mail? Yeah, no postage. Someone dropped it in, and it had the location of this body on it. And you could hear the tape? Like someone talking? Um... It was my voice on the tape. Explain. It was my autopsy recording, but...

Clipped and manipulated. Like those ransom notes from the 90s where the letters were just cut from magazines and pasted together. Hold on. You're telling me this purple body killer... clipped your audio to send you a message? Where is it? I can get it to you. I didn't bring it. You should have told me immediately.

Knock on exploring in the damn woods in the middle of the night. You're right. But we're here now. What if the killer was out here waiting for you? I'm not in any danger, Crowley. I think they wanted me to find the body. No offense, Spacer, but I don't exactly trust your read of a serial killer. Shouldn't we have some sort of name for them? It's getting pretty tedious to say the Purple Body Killer over and over. The media usually comes up with those names.

Or the department if it's internal. Right now, neither of those know about the killer, so until then, it's the purple body killer. Great. How much further? It's right over here. You already examined it, I'm guessing? I didn't touch it. Just saw it, confirmed he was dead, and then called you. Uh-huh. And how did you confirm that without touching them? Well... I'd say that's pretty dead. Holy shit. Is that... some sort of ceremonial dagger? I don't know what to make of it.

Well, it's a huge fucking knife. I don't think our killer would really escalate like this. Stabbing someone in the chest is a completely different M.O. They probably would have taken the body to Experimental if they wanted it. We already ruled out injecting dead people, right? Stephen Mauer didn't work. Right. I never thought of that. You're not an investigator. Don't worry about analyzing the why.

Right now, I'm deeming this a new crime scene, unrelated to the other deaths. Dispatch, this is Sheriff Crowley. Car number 453. Wait, there's more. I've got a homicide in Springfield's Northwoods by mile marker 16, about a half a mile in. Copy, Sheriff. Officer Mendez is nearby. This is Eric Mendez. Officer Hart can take this one.

It's not my turn to give a fuck. Mendez? Sounds like you've got a situation to work out. I'm just gonna... You stay the fuck here. I'm not leaving you alone again. Fine. Send heart. Mendez and I will talk later. Copy. You said there's more? Yeah. I can see it more clearly with your flashlight than my phone, but my initial inspection revealed some blood spatter along the path here. And if you look at the leaves, it's almost like people ran through here. Oh, look at that.

Nice job, Spacer. Did you follow it back? I did. Of course you did. I realized it didn't look like a body dump site, so, well, back this way. So, uh, any news with that tape from Levant's body? No. I'd have told you if there was. You sure? You seem to like to keep me in the dark. Says the guy who got a suspicious message in his mailbox and didn't decide to tell me until I got onto the fucking scene. I just figured if I'm getting tapes, there must be some connection between everything.

Officer Spacer, welcome back. You brought a fellow officer. You want to talk about another case while on an active scene. This one clearly isn't the Purple Body Killer. It's not as important. I beg to differ. They all matter, Spacer. All of them. Including this one. How can we solve something big if we keep getting distracted with these side cases?

Is this the other location? Campsite? Yeah. The blood trail leads back here. Leaves haven't covered everything up yet, so chances are it's recent. Then there's this pamphlet.

I didn't touch it since I didn't have gloves. I got it. By the looks of it, footprints, number of stumps by the fire pit, I'd say there were probably six people out here. Mm-hmm. What do you make of this? I can't read it. Come in the light and look. Subsequentium. I've heard of this group. You said you haven't. The most prestigious training of human potential. What the fuck does that mean? It means we're bettering ourselves through societal awareness. It's like one of those self-help things.

Sounds like a cult. We are not a cult. Does the madness ever end here? Ain't no rest for the wicked. That doesn't make any sense. It's a saying. And I'm saying that it doesn't make any sense. So your theory is what? I've heard that they take groups of people to retreats for some sort of ascension ceremony. And you heard this from... From me. It's pretty hard to hide a cult. We're not a cult! It's not, actually. Not saying from personal experience, but it's not the first cult of Springfield.

Crazy shit happens here with people turning purple. It's not exactly hard to believe weirdos come looking for something to save them. The last cult was operating something like... I don't know, early 90s? Until about a few years ago? Of course it was. This doesn't seem related to our purple killer. So, uh... So? So I need you to leave.

But I found the body. And that's exactly why you gotta go. This isn't about our case, and I can't exactly have an ex-coroner finding mysterious bodies in the woods. I told you how I found it. And you'll bring me that tape for our purple body killer. But until then, I'll say we got an anonymous tip about the victim, and you can't be here when Hart shows up. Kim quit today.

I heard. How? Grant told me. Well, we can't just let them leave. What if Kim's the purple body killer? Then the evidence trail stops. But I'm assuming that's not going to happen. With them gone, you can get me back into the pathology lab. Grant can make it happen, right? Potentially. We can talk about it later. Crowley, I don't get why- Spacer. Seriously. Get lost. We'll talk later. On the tape I got, I heard another voice. It didn't sound like mine. Another voice? What the fuck are you saying?

This is the kind of shit I need to know about immediately. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to figure out what to do here. I'm not used to this. And I am? More than me. What voice? The killer, I think. They wanted to be called Joy. So that's why you asked about what to call the killer. Fucking shit, Spacer. What happened to total transparency? Officer Hart on location. Sheriff, is that you in the distance? I see a light. I'm coming back. Watch your step.

This whole place is littered with evidence. We'll talk about this later. You get the fuck out of here. Go another way around. Don't be seen.

Now, Spacer! Fine. Why didn't you tell her about me? I'm sorry. I'm a little more distracted by something else. You're not a police officer, are you? Where are you going? Joy, if you want to continue our conversations, I need something in return. I need a tape from you using pieces of my voice to say that there's a body in the Springfield woods, a few meters north of our contact point. Don't say that, obviously, but direct us there.

Sheriff Crowley found your tape inside of Maureen Levant, and I had to lie and say that I got one from you, too, about this body. She doesn't know anything else. And if you don't do this, the jig is up. Over this way. What is that? A tape. Did you put that there? No. with that now would you no i can't imagine you to risk getting caught especially not after you've been dropping bodies off in the woods for me to play with you did what do you know why i asked you to do that jonathan

Yes, obviously. You already know that I can't use a dead body for what I need. Nope. I asked you to do that to see if you'd play ball. my next victim. A live one this time. A young man named Scott Hart. You might know him actually. He works in the sheriff's department. How I Died is an audio media original production created and written by Vince Dijani, directed by Chroma Sikora and mixed by Eric Howell. This episode was edited by Chris Harris-Beachy with sound design by Eric Emma.

Our theme song was created by Silent Mike. Starring me as John Spacer, Shana Waring as Sheriff Crowley, Luis Bermudez as Eric Mendez, Vin Vox as Dr. Kim, and Caitlin Roberts as Amelia. This episode guest starred Dee Voice as Eli, Chris Harris Beachy as Officer Hart, and someone as Joy.

If you're enjoying the show, please head over to your favorite podcast app and give us a rating and a review. It really helps us out a ton and we definitely appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time. All right, girls, this is the place. We'll get everything loaded over to the boat, and we'll lock up the truck. Don't leave anything behind. Wait, is that it? That's where we're going?

Yeah, that's it. Seal Skin Rock. Wow. Return to the mysteries in Don't Mind, Seal Skin Rock. Subscribe now to catch the premiere, and we'll see you on The Rock. You might think you know fairy tales, and you might think that they are cute and sweet and boring. But the real grim fairy tales were not cute at all. They were very dark, and they were often very grim. On Grim Grimmer Grimmest, we tell a grim fairy tale to a bunch of kids.

Perfect for car rides or screen-free entertainment, Grim Grimmer Grimmest activates kids' imaginations and instigates fun conversations. Because fairy tales speak to all of us at a very deep, primal level. and they raise interesting topics and questions that are worth chewing over together as a family. Every episode is rated grim, grimmer, or grimmest, so you, your kids, your whole family can choose what is the right level of grim for you.

Though, if you're listening with Grandma, she's just going to go for Grimmest. Trust me on this one. Tune in to Grim Grimmer Grimmest and our new season available now.