Truth Be Told (2019) s01e02 Episode Script

1 [TAPPING KEYS.]
[CELL PHONE CHIMING.]
Hello? [FEMALE ELECTRONIC VOICE.]
Hello.
This is a prepaid collect call from [MALE ELECTRONIC VOICE.]
California State Penitentiary.
To accept charges, press one.
To review char [TONE BEEPS.]
Hey, baby.
Why didn't you tell me? I didn't want you to know.
So what was your plan? Just one day you'd just never show up again? Have some chaplain come into my cell, who I don't know, to tell me the news? I didn't think I didn't want Mom.
[WARREN, DEEP BREATH.]
I used to do this when you first came home from the hospital Listen to you breathe.
[DOOR BUZZES OPEN.]
[INMATE.]
Time's up, Cave.
Let's go.
So what kind of cancer? How long did they say? Don't worry about that.
Just don't worry.
Look, I, uh I gotta go.
[TAPPING.]
I love you too.
Nobody gives a fuck your mama got cancer.
Hey.
[GROANS.]
- [WARREN GRUNTING.]
- [INMATES SHOUTING.]
[INMATES CLAMORING.]
If I host this dinner for your new colleagues, razzle-dazzle - Razzle-dazzle.
- Do all that Georgetown Poppy stuff.
That's right.
I can eliminate a week on the Vineyard with your snotty-ass mother.
Wait, now, I didn't say anything like that.
Well, that was my interpretation.
I thought we were horse-trading.
You're going to extort me so that you don't have to spend time with my mother? - Mm-hmm.
- [SIGHS.]
The grand duchess has never liked me, and you know it.
And now that I've dragged her baby boy all the way across the country, she'll be waiting to skin me alive.
- That's not true.
- Yes, it is and you know it.
- [LAUGHING.]
- [SIRENS WAILS.]
[INGRAM.]
Here we go.
Can I speak to you for a moment? Can I help you? Ms.
Parnell, I'm Owen Cave.
You've spoken to my ex-wife and my son, Warren.
Menlo Park.
Long way from home.
Are you here as an officer or as a father? I'm here to give your wife the opportunity to do the right thing.
That's the point of my work.
Ms.
Parnell, you're digging into a painful period for a lot of people.
Some of us still haven't healed.
I heard your podcast.
I just don't understand why you wanna open all that up again in such a public fashion.
Because I think there's a good chance your son is innocent.
You know, for years after the trial I actually dreamed that I found another clue, some new piece of evidence that would point me away from Warren.
And I would've loved to have discovered that I made the biggest mistake of my career in that investigation.
But that was a fantasy that I had to stop allowing myself to indulge in.
I had to move on.
All of us did.
Now, I'm asking you, as a father, not as a uniform, to stop.
Please.
I can't do that.
What if I'm right? What if you did make a mistake? My son deserves to be in prison.
And you're gonna come to the same conclusion because it's the truth.
- [CAR DOOR CLOSES.]
- [ENGINE STARTS.]
Now that just turned us from the new people in the neighborhood to the black people in the neighborhood.
Now, Owen doesn't like me digging.
Now.
One at a time.
Owen, Lanie She called me back, by the way.
She left a very clear message.
"Fuck you.
" And if we keep bothering her, she'll file a restraining order.
I'm gonna ask Markus to look into Markus? As in "used to make your knees go weak, drive by his house in the middle of the night" Markus? - That's interesting.
- That was 20 years ago.
When we first met, we bonded over being the new girls in the boys' club.
Do you remember the other thing that brought us together? Mm-hmm.
Louisiana roots.
That crappy, no-hot-water apartment.
Bulletproof Chinese food from that janky restaurant on the corner.
Broken hearts.
We met post-Markus.
I was there for the oil spill that was you.
Tread lightly.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Ooh.
Lanie's aunt.
Susan Carver.
She was at the trial every day, and in these photos, she looks particularly close to the twins.
Her social media is filled with pics of them as kids.
Schoolteacher, no kids of her own.
You know who never gave a statement? Josie? Really? Her mom said she was too fragile, and the cops said they had enough information.
Oh.
[CELL PHONE RINGTONE.]
[SCOFFS, CHUCKLES.]
Yes? Are the rumors true about why you left the OPD? Are the rumors true why you ran away from the West Coast all those years ago? [SCOFFS.]
Tou-motherfucking-ché.
[LAUGHS.]
What you need, Pop? My new series Yeah, about Warren Cave.
I listened.
Are you familiar with his father, Owen? Chief of Police, Menlo Park.
Oh.
So you did listen.
Well, he gave me the full-court press today, trying to get me to back off.
I wanna know why he doesn't want me digging into his son's case.
Well, you stay putting your foot in it.
Are you in or not? So this mean we back together again? - Working together.
- [CHUCKLES.]
Yeah, right.
That's what they all say.
Then all of a sudden, it's "Markus.
Markus, please.
Markus, please.
I need some more of your time.
" Why are you terrible? Anything else? One more thing.
No, two.
Hit me.
Chuck's sister-in-law, Susan Carver.
I've been trying to reach her and one of the daughters, Lanie Buhrman.
Both are in South Bay, both are stonewalling me, and I need one or the other to help me find the missing twin.
Look, I need to talk to anybody that might have information to clear Warren.
- What do you think? - I will help you out.
You know, it might be nice for me to flex that muscle again.
But I gotta warn you, baby, I ain't cheap.
[SIGHS.]
What are you doing here? You don't look so good.
All right, put that out.
What do you want, Lanie? A reporter came to see, me last week.
Did you point her in my direction? She thinks that your son is innocent.
So do I.
The state didn't.
Well, the state's gotten a lot of things wrong, haven't they? Like your mental health.
You think all the secrets came out during the trial? Hmm? Thought so.
Are you here to threaten me? It's not gonna work.
It's cute that you believe that.
[LAUGHS.]
Good for you.
[POPPY.]
When you're a kid and your parent dies, it feels like everything that was once solid shatters.
The ground becomes quicksand.
You experience the constant sensation of falling.
[CHUCKLES.]
I know that feeling well.
I was nine when I lost my mother.
But what I don't know is how it feels when your parent dies in a horrifically violent manner.
[ERIN.]
Chuck! Chuck! Oh, my God! The young women at the center of this story do know.
Oh, my God! According to police testimony and the prosecution, Chuck's daughters awaken the morning after Halloween to their mother's screams.
- Josie.
Josie, get up.
Josie, get up.
- What? [SCREAMING.]
Oh, no! [SOBBING.]
Daddy! [BUSY SIGNAL BUZZING.]
[ERIN ON PHONE.]
Uh, he's dead, he's dead.
[DAUGHTER, SOBBING.]
Oh, no! Oh, my God.
[ERIN.]
He's dead! Mom? My husband! - A knife.
I I don't know.
- [SOBBING.]
No! [SOBBING.]
- Come on, go upstairs.
No, no, no.
- Please, don't No! [POPPY.]
Despite the old detective adage that the first place to look when someone gets killed in the home is the family Erin Buhrman and her daughters were quickly ruled out as suspects.
Why? Lanie testified on the record.
Josie did not.
And she never attended the trial.
Not once.
Not even the day the guilty verdict was read.
In fact, the last time anyone saw Josie Buhrman was at her high school graduation.
Why is Josie hiding? [SWITCH CLICKS.]
Try Lanie again, then Susan, then Lanie.
We'll tag-team till one of them talks.
We've gotta find Josie.
[ENGINE STARTS.]
I don't understand why you putting them on blast like that.
Do you even know what I do, what I've done for the past 20 years? You get in people's business.
Stop.
I'm serious.
If that twin is hiding, it's because she doesn't wanna be found.
How you gonna force somebody to talk about the worst shit in their lives? Twelve dollars for some cherries? What the fuck? Look, the girl is hiding for a reason.
That's all we're saying.
Then I want her to tell me about it.
Why? What if someone came to you and asked you how you felt when your mother died? See, that's what I'm talking about.
See, I was with you until you brought up Mama.
[CYDIE MUTTERS.]
You doing an awful lot for this white boy.
I think he's innocent.
So what? He's AB, Poppy.
If Daddy finds out about that Daddy find out about what? - Nothing.
- Nothing.
[MAN SINGING POP BALLAD.]
I don't know, Lanie.
Maybe we talk to her.
Yeah, we can't do that.
I watch these news programs and I see the documentaries and the books, and they make pain romantic.
And it's not.
It's just pain, and we should say that.
If we talk, it's red meat, okay? Then it never stops.
And what about Josie? Huh? Could she find her? If she looked hard enough, could she find her? Josie's safe.
I really need to talk to her, okay? You know you can't do that.
Just leave her alone.
She's fine where she is.
Where is that? Huh? Where? We're not having this conversation - again.
- God! Don't touch me.
Calm down.
- [CELL PHONE RINGING.]
- Wait.
Is that her? [BOTH SHOUTING.]
[MAN.]
Oh, shit.
- Hey, you guys okay? - Oh, shit.
Oh, shit.
[MAN.]
Call 911.
Call 911! You guys okay? Can you get out? Hang on.
[LAUGHING.]
You're not complaining about the price now that it's in your belly.
Didn't say it wasn't good.
What's going on with Daddy? Daddy's, you know, Daddy.
No, he's not.
For a minute at the party, he didn't know me.
He was drunk, Pop.
- No, he wasn't.
What he said to me - You pissed him off.
- You piss everybody off.
- Just like you doing with the Buhrmans.
I'm just concerned about Daddy's health.
Why are you so defensive? 'Cause you push on people until they just wanna You know? Okay, I'm not trying to step on anybody's toes.
I know y'all been holding it down here.
Daddy just seemed off to me.
When was the last time he saw a doctor? I got some business I need to take care of.
Need to get across the bridge before it gets backed up.
Black people love doing shit like this.
Avoid, avoid, avoid.
- Look, you can't ignore this.
- Watch me.
We came over here to have a nice day with our sister, that's all.
A nice day with you.
The next time you wanna lecture us, drive to Oakland.
Gas costs money.
Come if you coming.
You're ignoring me too? Poppy.
[SCOFFS.]
You haven't been back full-time for six months.
We've been doing life here in Cali while you were back east just fine.
Works for everybody but you.
I'm just saying look out for Daddy.
- Okay.
- Okay, what? Okay.
You said it.
Now let it go.
You know it don't take nothing for that one to get up in the cut, stop answering her phone.
Look, we all wanna be happy that you're back.
Okay? Yeah.
- Love you.
- Love you too.
[CELL PHONE RINGS.]
- Hey.
- There's been an accident, Pop.
Lanie's in the hospital and Susan's dead.
[MUFFLED CHATTERING.]
[LANIE CRYING.]
[LANIE.]
She dropped her phone.
I told her to pull over.
She wouldn't do it.
It fell I don't know, but Can we do this later? [OFFICER.]
I think we've got everything we need here.
[CRYING.]
[DOOR OPENS, CLOSES.]
Hey.
[POPPY.]
You took Susan's phone? Is that the kind of stuff that got you kicked off the force? Do you want the damn thing, - or don't you? - I don't know.
Isn't this a, uh, "by any means necessary" situation? Right? 'Cause that's what you're selling on your podcast.
It's like your life depends on it as much as his.
Come on, girl, I You gotta help me out here.
[SIGHS.]
All right, let me ask you a question.
Cave is housed in San Quentin, right? - Yeah.
- So he's AB.
Does your father know about that? No.
So you're out here on a limb, and now I'm out here with you.
Look, we've been down this road before.
Don't leave me hanging.
They were fighting in the car.
I could see it from where I was.
I told the cops everything I knew.
I even stayed around a little while just to get my head together.
That's when I saw the phone in the weeds.
There's no pass code.
There should be enough there to help you tell your story.
Markus He better be innocent.
All right, Pop? 'Cause you already know.
[POPPY.]
Let's just see if there's anything that could help us find Josie, and then we'll get it back to the family.
- Is he still in love with you? - No.
Well, he did this.
What? Lanie went through a blonde phase.
This woman is very put together.
Wait a minute.
That's Josie.
And that's New York.
Look, it's one of those private parks.
We don't have those in California.
Look at those West Indian nannies sitting on that bench.
That is also not a Bay Area thing.
Make a list of all the New York numbers in the phone and start calling.
Josie is the key.
I need to talk to her.
She's getting married.
Text chain.
New York area code.
She's listed as Vivienne Parr.
[CHUCKLES.]
Bingo.
[MAN.]
My first wife died when Mason was five months old.
Vivienne is the only mother he's ever known.
What's your central parenting philosophy? Attachment parenting.
Mason's already lost one maternal figure, so I think that it's imperative he feels as close to me as possible.
Which means he sleeps with us a lot.
He does.
But even at four, he's emotionally intelligent.
He knows what he needs to feel safe and secure.
I love that about him.
He's a very thoughtful boy.
- Are you a British citizen? - Mmm.
I'm from Esher.
Just outside London.
Any plans to go back and forth? No.
No.
Our lives are here.
Both my parents are gone.
- I'm an only child, so - [CELL PHONE RINGTONE.]
Sorry.
- Please leave a message.
- [ELECTRONIC BEEP.]
Hi, Josie Uh, Vivienne.
This is Poppy Parnell.
I would love to give you the opportunity to discuss your father's story.
I'm sending you a link for an upcoming episode of my podcast I think you'll want to hear.
I need your help filling in the blanks.
[POPPY.]
How could the entire Buhrman family, a mother and two daughters, sleep through such a violent encounter? All attempts to locate Josie Buhrman have led to dead ends.
Is she alive? Is she in hiding? We'd like to know.
So, Josie, if you're out there, if you're listening, you might be the key to Warren Cave's innocence.
- I'm sor-sorry.
- It's okay.
- Did you search her bedroom? - No.
Was it locked? No.
Your aunt was a private person.
- This feels disrespectful.
- Fine.
I'll do it.
- Lanie - Her phone wasn't with her stuff, okay? The cops said maybe it was lost in the wreckage.
The wreckage is not in Susan's bedroom.
I understand that.
But maybe there's something about Josie in there.
- If you don't wanna help me - I wanna help ya.
Then do it! I'm not a vase.
I'm not gonna shatter.
Hey.
hey, hey, just You still in pain? No.
She needs to know about Susan.
Even if she doesn't wanna see me.
I think you should leave your sister alone.
She doesn't wanna be found.
You should respect that.
How could you say that to me? Because it's the truth.
Because I love you and I don't wanna see you get hurt.
You really can't tell you two apart.
Yeah, nobody could.
Is this one you? Yeah.
You're sitting next to the same kid in every one of these pics.
Kindergarten, first grade, second, third.
What? That's Warren Cave.
We used to be friends.
[POPPY.]
What did you think when you watched your father testify against you? [WARREN.]
I wondered if I was really his son.
Were you close growing up? He wasn't around much, but I asked for a police scanner when I was 11 so I could go on patrol with him.
I actually thought it was cool that my dad was a cop.
Why do you think any man, a lawman no less, would testify against his own son if he wasn't absolutely sure he was guilty? I've been asking myself that same question for 20 years.
And? He must know something I don't.
[BARKING.]
Good boy.
I've tried to see you.
You denied my request.
- This time, I thought I - Twice.
You tried to see me twice since you put me in here.
I need to talk to you.
Stop talking to that woman.
She's using you.
She's gonna turn you into a circus clown, then make a fool outta you.
So you're here to protect me? After 19 years? Bullshit.
Don't drag us through this again.
You've ruined enough lives already.
You have a little brother now.
- Who I've never met.
- What about your mother? You don't give a shit about her.
[BARKING.]
[GROWLING.]
He hasn't changed.
He'll never change.
It's all right.
How do you think you got into this dog program? Because of your outstanding character? That was me.
I may not have been here, but I haven't forgotten you.
I've done what I could to What are you hiding? You leave it.
Or I can make your life miserable in here.
Not if I killed you.
You know, they powered down the gas chamber in here.
Permanently.
So a life sentence is just days stacked on days.
I could spend them thinking about how you drained the life from me and then how I drained it from you.
Officer.
If I am the thing that you think that I am, then I have every right to kill you, you piece-of-shit motherfucker.
Because you know I'm innocent.
[POPPY.]
Hey.
Hey.
Where you headed? New York.
I got an address for Josie Buhrman.
She goes by the name of Vivienne Parr, and once I got that, it all started to click.
- She used to live in England - How long you gone? Until I can get her to talk.
You forgetting something? - Oh, shit.
The dinner party.
- Yeah.
"Shit.
The dinner party.
" Tomorrow night.
I've got 15 people coming, Poppy.
Including all the name partners.
Babe, we just We-We just have to reschedule.
No, I cannot reschedule.
I'm just getting my footing at this firm, and you said that you would be here for it.
Babe, it's gonna be okay.
Okay.
You just They have things come up all the time.
- You cannot - You have things come up all the time.
You cannot put our lives on hold to go chase a ghost.
I will text you when I land.
Text you when I land.
Don't be mad.
Love you.
[POPPY.]
Good investigators take advantage of the fact that people are creatures of habit.
That natural desire for routine, comfort, safety, for community.
- [BUZZER BUZZES.]
- Where we eat where we worship where we take our children to play.
Those things leave bread crumbs clues about your life that allow people like me to find you.
Are you sleeping Are you sleeping Brother John? Brother John? Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing Ding, dong, ding Ding, dong, ding Her voice has gotten so much stronger.
Well, she did all the work.
Sorry, I'd really prefer cash.
It's just easier till everything's sorted out with my visa.
Bit at the mercy of the State Department till then.
Good job.
Oh, shit.
Josie.
[SONG CONTINUES, MUFFLED, INDISTINCT.]
[SUBWAY TRAIN APPROACHING.]
[CELL PHONE RINGTONE.]
Josie.
See, it's a dating website for incarcerated men.
My sister put my picture up.
I already got ten letters.
- Ten letters.
- Can she get all of us on that? Mm-hmm.
Who's that black woman came to see you? Just a reporter asking about my case.
And that's it? That's it.
Susan died en route to the hospital.
I'm truly sorry.
[NORMAL ACCENT.]
Thank you for telling me.
I'm not here to cause problems for you.
And I hate to bring you such terrible news.
But I'm trying to get an innocent man out of prison.
- He's not innocent.
- I think he is.
And I think your sister lied about seeing him jump the fence that night.
Well, is there anything you can remember from that night? This isn't a story to me, okay? This is my life.
Was my life I I have a family now, and you are parachuting in to destroy that.
It's your aunt's.
I found it near the accident site and kept it for you.
Maybe we were all wrong.
I have to get to the truth of what happened that night.
I have to know if he's innocent.
I have to go.
[MEN CHATTERING.]
There he is.
Hey, Markus.
Armand.
- Haven't seen you in a while.
- I know.
Everything okay? Oh, yeah.
Right as rain, brother.
Right as rain.
Five years without a drink and counting.
How you doin'? Can't complain.
- I do anyway though.
- [LAUGHS.]
Hey, let me ask you something.
How's that boss of yours over there? Chief Cave.
He a hard-ass? Nah, he's one of us.
Cop's cop.
You thinking about getting back behind the badge? Fuck no.
A friend of mine, he put in an application for the department.
That's why I'm asking.
Hey, Cave's old partner, he still around? - He died two years ago.
- Oh.
A week after he retired.
- No shit.
- Good man.
His wife still brings cupcakes to the station every Fourth of July.
Any idea where I can find her? [WOMAN.]
up and breathe.
I hope you don't mind.
It helps with my plantar fasciitis.
Do your thing.
No, I'm good, thank you.
My husband never brought the job home with him.
So he never told you any stories about him and Owen Cave? Oh, George said he was a climber.
- Too ambitious.
- [SCOFFS.]
Gunning for chief from day one.
Did he think Owen Cave was dirty? Oh, no.
No.
Not at all.
Nothing like that.
He was just so straight and narrow he couldn't see sideways.
Probably why he didn't see that business with his wife coming.
Who? Melanie? She was banging that dead guy six ways from Sunday.
Holy shit.
[SIREN WAILING.]
[CELL PHONE RINGS.]
Hey.
- You good? - I just came You have something for me? Oh, yeah.
Your girl Melanie Cave was having an affair.
With Chuck Buhrman.
You lyin'.
Nope.
Went on for months.
And you know what that means.
If Owen Cave found out He had motive.
[MAN SINGING POP BALLAD.]
[LINE RINGING.]
Do you remember our ninth birthday? Aunt Susan got you the yellow bow.
No, you had the yellow one.
I had the red one.
Please come home.
I miss you, Lanie.
I love you so much that it's hard to breathe without you.
But I am never coming home.
You terrify me.
[BALLAD CONTINUES.]
[INMATES SHOUTING, WHISTLING.]
[GROANING.]
[GASPING.]