History Recap / LawAndOrderS17E11RemainsOfTheDay

The nurse leads them to the room, which is a mess, and says that no one touched anything since Michael was pronounced dead. Cassidy notes that the boy was spitting up blood, and the nurse says that his lungs filled up with blood -- which is a symptom of some poisons. Green asks for Ashley, and the nurse says that she's sedated down the hall. Green finds her bag, which includes a change of clothes, books, and a cell phone. Cassidy asks who else was in the room, but the nurse doesn't think that anyone besides the staff would have been around. The detectives find a hospital dinner sitting on a table. Then Green realizes, from the change of clothes, that Ashley was the patient, not Michael. Cassidy wonders if Ashley was supposed to be the victim.

She says that her stepson, Miles Foster, and his sister Hillary are contesting the will of their father William. William's will left everything to Ashley, but his children want a share. The will is for forty-six million dollars. Ashley breaks into tears, complaining that they never had any time together. Cassidy says that it's possible that she, Ashley, was the target, and she's stunned. Green asks if Foster has threatened her before, and Ashley says that he's threatened her repeatedly and had people follow her. She also says that, right now, the will is tied up in probate, but if she dies, the Fosters get it all.

He claims that he was about to win the lawsuit and so had no reason to kill Ashley or Michael. Green asks how Ashley got a claim to his will in the first place, and Miles says that Ashley married William when William was already ninety-two and becoming ill. She, Miles says, tricked William into amending his will. Cassidy says that William might have just loved her, but Miles disagrees and says that Ashley schemed endlessly to get the money.

Green approaches Van Buren and says that the toxicology report was negative -- the food wasn't poisoned. Cassidy is at narcotics trying to track down Michael's dealer, and Medical Examiner Rodgers doesn't have a definitive cause of death yet. Van Buren says that he needs to ask Rodgers again so they can make some progress, but Green says that Rodgers is tired of talking to him.Van Buren is about to when Cassidy comes in, having identified the dealer as a low-level criminal named Marco Penzler. Reading his rap sheet, Van Buren sees a bench warrant on a drug charge, and Cassidy points out an attempted murder charge as well. There wasn't enough evidence to charge him, but he was once suspected of selling poisoned drugs that hospitalized a kid. The cops wonder if Penzler poisoned Michael. Green remembers that Michael's cell phone had a call they couldn't trace; it could connect to Penzler. Van Buren authorizes Penzler's arrest.

Cassidy wonders how this could have happened, and Rodgers say that no legitimate tissue bank would have let this happen. Green is disbelieving. Rodgers then says that the cancer Michael got was ovarian cancer -- obviously impossible for him to get naturally. He definitely died from cancerous bone grafts.

Green tells Van Buren that the surgery was legitimate but the bones themselves weren't. Van Buren wonders if the bones were stolen from dead people, and Green says that it's likely. Cassidy warns that there will be a health crisis if the contaminated body parts wind up in general distribution, but Van Buren cuts her off. Van Buren asks who else knows about it, and Cassidy reports that the health department is contacting area hospitals. Van Buren asks for leads, but Green says they have none. They do have a very rough timeframe of when the bones were grafted into Michael's body -- about eighteen months ago. Cassidy points out that Michael was a heroin addict living on the street then and was likely uninsured. Van Buren doubts that any real hospital would help him without insurance. Cassidy notes that someone must have really wanted to help Michael, since the bone graft was extremely expensive. Van Buren tells them to talk to Ashley again.

Vaughn tells the detectives that he highly doubts that the bones he used caused Jones's death. He says his clinic uses several tissue banks and the bones could have come from anywhere. Cassidy asks how the uninsured patients are covered, and Vaughn responds that grants and donations make up the difference. His clinic has an annual budget of fifteen million dollars, and most of that subsidizes patient care. Green asks if Vaughn occasionally cuts corners, but Vaughn says no. Vaughn says that the odds of Jones contracting cancer from bones is minute and that Jones must have gotten the cancer from some other source; as for the bones, he doesn't know the source. All he has is the donor's death certificate, which does show that the corpse -- Karen Kendall -- didn't die of cancer.

Karen's parents, Alexis and Thorn, talk to the detectives about Karen's death. She was driving home from college when she was hit by a truck. She was proncouned brain-dead and was taken off life support shortly thereafter. Her organs and tissue were not donated -- the family couldn't bear to part with her remains. The Kendalls say that the hospital they used was Chase General. The parents are stunned to hear that someone donated Karen's bones regardless. Cassidy asks if Karen had cancer, but Alexis says no.

Green and Cassidy tell Rubirosa that Bicks got 278 bodies over the past few years; 213 gave no consent for donation, but many of their names are showing up on donor lists regardless. However, no one is willing to admit that they bought directly from Bicks. Rubirosa is concerned that the harvested body parts could be scattered across the country. Cassidy notes that Bicks called Vaughn's clinic frequently, but that doesn't meant that Vaughn necessarily knew what was going on -- Bicks was forging death certificates and consent forms. Green adds that Vaughn was unhelpful when talking to them. Rubirosa asks how much money was involved, and Green begins reading off a price sheet. One body is worth more than $200,000 without even counting organs. Bicks doesn't have enough money in the bank to indicate that he was selling the parts at market value. Cassidy is sure that Bicks is hiding the money, but Rubirosa says that, regardless, he's not responsible for Jones dying. Green asks if they can get Bicks for larceny and forgery, but Rubirosa says they first need to prove that Bicks robbed the corpses himself. Cassidy comments that not all the bodies were cremated; the bodies can still be examined.

Rubirosa tells [=McCoy=] that Bicks will post bail the next day and Prescott won't talk about a plea. [=McCoy=] says that Prescott is waiting on the murder indictment to see if the charges are really filed. [=McCoy=] says that he finds it hard to believe that Vaughn didn't know where the bones came from. Rubirosa says that it's circumstantial, and that the phone calls between Bicks and Vaughn could be argued to be related to fundraising. Bicks often donated to the clinic, and Bicks's illegal profits could have been sent to Vaughn as donations -- there's still no indication where the money from the bodies went. [=McCoy=] wonders what Vaughn had to say, but Rubirosa says that Vaughn lawyered up, and his attorney, Dave Seaver, is a criminal law attorney (and not a malpractice one). [=McCoy=] says that this is telling. Rubirosa sighs that they have no proof of Vaughn's knowledge unless Bicks rats him out. [=McCoy=] says that they need the clinic's records. Rubirosa doubts that they can get a subpoena, but [=McCoy=] notes that many of the judges have had transplants themselves, and will be nervous about a possible source of contamination int the organ and tissue banks.

Rubirosa identifies herself and says she needs to talk about Dr. Vaughn. Jason confirms that Vaughn gave him knee surgery. At his home, his mother Tanya says that Jason smashed his knee badly at the end of his junior year of high school. She is surprised to hear that the bone they used to heal Jason was stolen, and possibly carcinogenic -- the bone was also from Karen Kendall. Jason doesn't believe that Vaughn would do something like give someone a cancerous bone. Tanya asks why Rubirosa is there, and Rubirosa says that they have to be able to prove that the cancer came from Karen. Thus, they need to take a biopsy from Jason's knee. Tanya is unwilling.

Rubirosa points out that Jones is dead and Carter has cancer. Seaver says it's a civil malpractice case, but [=McCoy=] disagrees. He offers a fifteen year sentence, contingent on Vaughn surrendering his license to practice medicine. Seaver says that Vaughn couldn't have known about Karen's cancer since she was undiagnosed when she died. [=McCoy=] points out that Vaughn didn't have Karen's medical records because the harvest was illegal -- he couldn't have known anything about Karen's condition. Vaughn says that he was justified. He says that Jones would have lost his legs had he not helped him.

* MurderByMistake: The police suggest tgat Michael's death is the result of an attempt to murder his mother. However, it turns out they are wrong about this.

!!Tropes present in this episode

Green and Cassidy talk to the first nurse to enter the room. She says that the only people present besides Michael were his mom, Ashley, and the man, Ashley's publicist. The nurse thinks that foul play was involved, since Michael was healthy right up until he died. Cassidy says that people die despite being previously healthy all the time, and cites an Uncle Harvey who had a heart attack. The nurse says that this is unlikely, since Michael was young and in his prime.

--Jack [=McCoy=]

At Delaney's Restaurant, Natasha Clayton tells the cops that she and Michael met when they were homeless junkies. She quit drugs and lost contact with him until a few weeks prior, when she tried reconnecting with him. However, he was still using, so she left. Cassidy asks how Michael injured his legs, and Natasha says that they were stealing an airbag from a car when they were spotted. Michael took off across a busy road and got run over by a taxi. The paramedics wouldn't let Natasha go with him, and she never found out which hospital he went to -- the nearest hospital, which she checked, didn't have him listed as a patient. Green asks if Michael was admitted under another name, and Natasha recalls that Michael did have a stolen ID, which he got from another car. She gives the name as Hubby WIlson.

--Jason Vaughn

--Dave Seaver