Alaska Daily (2022) s01e10 Episode Script
Truth is a Slow Bullet
1
BOB: Previously on Alaska Daily
JUDGE: Mr. Crenshaw.
You're being charged with
murder in the first degree in
the death of Gloria Nanmac.
ROZ: The DNA they found was semen.
EILEEN: Then the signed confession.
So how did he plead not guilty
if he signed a confession?
STANLEY: I need your
story on the arraignment
- and the presser by 6:00.
- It's 4:30.
You can do a Day Two
tomorrow. Keep going.
EILEEN: We've been pushing
this story uphill for months.
Now, suddenly, it's
rolling downhill fast.
Did we just play a part
in the rush to judgment?
STANLEY: Conrad Pritchard
bought these parcels.
AARON: He's building a rare
earths mine at Hockley Mountain?
We're planning to
publish tomorrow morning.
Have we gone to him for comment?
Austin's headed over there now.
He's never gonna talk to Austin.
We still have to report it.
CONRAD: What the hell did you do?
You want a war? You got one.
EILEEN: Did you sexually assault Gloria?
I would never do that.
- So, what happened?
- Gloria was mad.
She called, and I didn't pick up.
There weren't any calls
placed from her phone
the night she went missing.
She left a voicemail.
GLORIA: Toby. I'm sorry for what I said.
You know I love you.
Please come get me.
This number, the one she's calling from,
that's not her number.
Could belong to the
person who killed her.
♪
LINDA: What?
Eileen?
[CLOCK TICKING]
What?
LINDA: What were you thinking about?
Oh.
My colleague, Bob.
♪
LINDA: The earnest one.
EILEEN: Yeah.
The earnest one.
You said you enjoyed provoking him.
In a good-natured way.
I believe I prefaced
my admission with that.
LINDA: You did, indeed.
So what about Bob?
His wife is sick, and
it's progressing quickly.
LINDA: Mm. And?
I ran into him in the bullpen yesterday.
I asked him how he was doing
and he gave me a real answer.
What did he say?
EILEEN: He said he was hanging in there,
but it was a very difficult time.
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
So he told you the truth.
He didn't cover.
- Did that surprise you?
- No.
But as a general rule,
I don't encourage people
to share their burden with me,
especially people in pain.
Because it makes you uncomfortable?
No, because I don't
want them to feel like
they have to reciprocate and ask me.
- Are you in pain?
- That's not the point.
LINDA: What is the point?
It was out of character
for me to even ask.
I don't do that.
Especially at work.
Why do you think you did that?
[TICKING CONTINUES]
I don't know.
Maybe I'm still sideways
from being held hostage.
Or maybe, intentionally
or not, you did want him
to reciprocate and ask
you how you were doing.
EILEEN: Yeah, I don't think so.
Like I said, that's not like me.
♪
LINDA: People change.
Well, have you had any
panic attacks lately?
♪
No. I haven't.
♪
[BUZZER SOUNDS]
ROZ: We listened to Gloria's
voicemail on your phone.
She called from a different number
than the one Sylvie gave us.
ROZ: Do you know whose number this is?
[BUZZER SOUNDS, DOOR CLANKS IN DISTANCE]
It was hers.
Her other phone.
Sylvie was getting in her business.
She didn't want her to call me.
So she got a pay-as-you-go phone.
She had it for a few
weeks before she died.
There's no record of this
number in the police report.
Well, it's hers.
It was hers.
Mm.
You okay?
It sucks in here.
♪
I hate it.
My Change of Plea hearing is next week.
I thought I could just plead
guilty and that would be it.
But Jimmy says I have to tell the judge
that I raped Gloria and
that I beat her to death.
It's called an allocution.
Makes it really hard to
claim your innocence later.
I never hurt her.
♪
But I can't get the
deal unless I say I did.
That's messed up.
Yeah.
It is.
You believe me, right?
We're doing everything
we can to find the truth.
I just told you the truth.
Claire, did you write that piece
on the weeping spruce blight
- a couple of years ago?
- CLAIRE: I did.
Uh, March, I think, 2018. Why?
Our big blue spruce seems to
have contracted the blight.
The one in your backyard?
[CLICKS TONGUE] Too bad.
My parents lost one of their spruces,
but they saved the other
one with a fungicide.
If you need a rec, let me know.
A gang of yellow-rumped
warblers hangs out in our spruce.
Colleen says the
fungicide'll poison them.
I'm inclined to save the tree.
Flora or fauna. It's a Sophie's choice.
- I've never seen that movie.
- It's a riot.
If I remember correctly,
weeping spruce blight
is caused by a non-native species.
Non-native species. The
root problems of all Alaska.
Roz Friendly, ladies and gentlemen.
To be fair, we were talking flora.
The fact still remains, doesn't it?
AUSTIN: Roz, coming in hot.
Whoa, is the copier fixed?
It is, in fact, working.
That's excellent.
But I used the last toner
cartridge printing these.
- That's un-excellent.
- Yeah.
Jindaháa and I are doing
the MMIW database together.
Hey.
[WHISTLES]
Yeah, so, these are the calls
I transcribed off the tip line.
These are articles the
paper ran about MMIW
over the past 15 years.
These are cases I
pulled off of CourtView.
And all these boxes
came to us from JCAN.
Alberta dropped them off yesterday.
How much have you entered
into the spreadsheet already?
About this much.
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
- We're gonna need some help.
- Yeah. Lots.
EILEEN: All right,
so, uh, Teletrove says
Gloria's burner was bought with cash
and it wasn't registered.
Since there's no name attached,
they won't turn over records
to Sylvie as next-of-kin.
What about you?
I can't stop listening to her voicemail.
Gloria tells Toby that she loves him.
That doesn't sound like a woman
reaching out to a man who raped her.
And then there's the other voices.
Other voices?
It's faint, but you can hear
men talking in the background.
GLORIA: Toby, answer your phone.
- [INDISTINC
CHATTER] - Can't make out
what they're saying, but we need to know
- who they are.
- GLORIA: I'm sorry
- for what I said.
- Assuming it's not Toby.
- GLORIA: You know I love you.
- We need a tech nerd.
- GLORIA: This place is bad.
- I got a guy.
EILEEN: You do? In house?
No, strip mall.
A sound guy in this this strip mall?
Yeah, Al. He owns Al's Dank Buds.
Oh, this I gotta see.
Zach's entire extended
family is in Chicago.
He'll have grandparents, aunts, uncles,
cousins his own age to play with.
But he won't have his father.
Ah, he'll come for a
stretch in the summer.
A stretch?
This job will allow me to
pay for a better life
private school, plus
savings for college.
A A house with a pool.
You know he's always wanted that.
You've always wanted that.
He has a great life
here. He loves his school.
You wanna rip him away
from all his friends?
Soccer, hockey?
They have those in Chicago, and at least
I'll be able to provide
him with a safe environment.
What the hell does that mean?
Okay, let's keep it respectful.
Every time you have him,
you end up bringing
him to that newsroom
He loves that newsroom.
where an armed gunman recently
held one of your colleagues hostage.
What kind of place is that for a child?
Are you kidding?
[SCOFFS]
♪
We have a custody agreement.
- [SIGHS]
- MEDIATOR: You do.
But if we can't come
to a compromise here,
it'll go back to the court.
And we all agreed we're
trying to avoid that, right?
♪
EILEEN: First time I've been in here.
Yeah, not me.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
♪
Hey, look at this.
Matanuska Thunderfunk.
- How good is this guy?
- Good.
Weed's his business,
but this guy's a next-level audiophile.
I used him to dig out a bad
recording a few years ago.
Groovy.
AL: Roz! Come on back.
♪
Who's she?
I'm Eileen. We're partners.
- Hi, Al.
- Hi, Eileen.
- Any luck?
- AL: Yeah.
I tried to filter out Gloria's
voice and amplify the background.
I also reduced the low frequencies.
They were distorting.
Anyway, take a listen.
[INDISTINCT OVERLAPPING VOICES]
[DISTORTED VOICE] Daddy, I wanna go.
Is that a kid?
[KEYS CLICKING]
[INDISTINCT OVERLAPPING VOICES]
CHILD: Daddy, I wanna go.
- [KEY CLICKS]
- That's a kid.
I can put an audio file
of this on your phone.
Ezra Fisher said he left Skeeter's
to go get his son that
night, but never went back.
If we can confirm that that's his kid,
then he didn't leave before Gloria.
And he loses his alibi.
- [KNOCKS ON DOOR] Hey, Bob.
- BOB: Hey.
Stanley said you have a
contact at Teletrove Cellular.
Yeah, my buddy Gary is
VP of Public Relations.
We founded the home brew collective
you've heard me reference
Anchorage Yeasty Boys.
Yeah. Cool.
Uh, do you think that Gary
could help us track down
the records for this number?
It was Gloria Nanmac's.
Happy to ask him.
Cheers. Appreciate it.
♪
[DOGS BARKING IN DISTANCE]
[DOORBELL RINGS]
ROZ: Taylor, I just have a few
questions. It won't take long.
I don't want to talk to you.
Then don't. Just listen.
- You're gonna want to hear this.
- What?
A voicemail Gloria Nanmac left
on someone's phone the night she died.
She was calling from this
drug dealer's house
Skeeter Redding.
[CELLPHONE CLICKS]
CHILD: Daddy, I wanna go.
ROZ: Is that Jackson?
Because if it is, I'd
like to talk to him.
You're not talking to my son.
He's 10. No way.
Taylor, please. If he was there
He's got nothing to do with this.
You show up again, I call the cops.
Then can you at least
tell me where Ezra is?
Yeah, I can. [SCOFFS]
Because I have to see him twice a week,
because I don't have full custody.
Because my case fell
apart after your article
took down my prosecutor.
Taylor, I know this sucks,
but I don't want an
innocent guy to go to jail.
He just got back into town.
He's laying fiber-optic
cable over on Spenard.
Now unless you want to lose it,
get your foot out of my door.
[DOOR CLOSES]
♪
Bunny, you're with me
coding the ontology.
You have the conceptual schema?
It's mapped, but I'm
still building the engine.
Erica, Trudy, you're both in charge
of the graphical user interface.
Marsha, you and I are doing data filing.
Our goal is a working beta
to demo by this weekend.
[SCOFFS] Seriously?
We don't need full functionality,
- just proof of concept.
- We can do it.
It's gonna take a few days.
We have a few days. And food.
- And coffee.
- Life's essentials.
But we'll need to stay
on this 'round the clock.
- Any conflicts?
- Well, I have
my parameterized model
of sea-ice dynamics due in two days.
What's that, and due to who?
Well, it's a model that
hindcasts and forecasts
sea-ice dynamics based on
varying climate conditions,
- and it's due to NASA.
- Wow.
- So you're that kind of smart.
- JINDAHAÁA: She is.
- Can you do both?
- Yeah.
I-I just wanted to be transparent.
Well, thank you so much for being here.
All of you, really.
This is very important,
and it's so helpful.
And the clock is ticking, so let's go.
♪
Taylor listened to it. She
recognized her kid's voice.
EILEEN: So Ezra lied
about leaving Skeeter's
to pick up his kid?
ROZ: Yeah. And Jackson was
with him, which is screwed up.
Sounds like he got back into
town and is working on Spenard.
I'm gonna try and track him down.
Back in town from where?
Whatever village he was working in. Why?
W He was in Meade for work
when Gloria disappeared, right?
- Installing high-speed Internet?
- ROZ: Yeah.
And he's been all over
the state for the job,
laying cables in lots of
different villages, right?
Right. Yeah.
So we find out where he was when
See if he hurt anyone else.
ROZ: Try to establish a pattern.
Talk later.
- Hey, Austin.
- What's up?
Need a favor.
Can you pull the stories you've
written about Denali Broadband
installing Internet
service across the state?
Sure. For the Nanmac story?
Yeah. We're trying to
track the movements of a guy
we think might be involved.
Okay. The articles don't usually
mention the names of the workers.
We're just looking for the dates
that Denali hired workers
in various villages.
- Hard copies please?
- Uh, printer's down,
but I'll pull clips from the archive.
Eileen, I heard back from
my source at Teletrove.
He said the records are confidential.
Without a court order,
he can't share them.
Sorry.
Maybe take another run at him.
His answer was pretty firm.
Well, no is easier than yes, right?
Give him another push. It's important.
YUNA: Hey.
Hey.
How did your custody mediation
thing go this morning?
Wonderful. Smiles all around.
- That bad?
- Yeah, kinda intense.
- Got in my head.
- How so?
AUSTIN: I'm starting to
wonder if maybe she's right.
Maybe Zach would be
better off in Chicago.
More family. More opportunities.
He seems like a happy kid to me.
I know, right?
I mean, he is happy.
But he would be close to cousins.
Doesn't have any here. I
mean, am I being selfish?
For not wanting to uproot Zach
so your ex can get a better job?
No.
Okay, stop beating around the bush.
Tell me what you really think.
YUNA: I will.
Always.
Okay, this might not be appropriate
to say in the morgue, but that's hot.
[CHUCKLES]
Oh, yeah?
You deserve better.
Do I?
Because I don't think
I don't It doesn't
♪
- [DOOR CLOSES]
- AUSTIN: Okay.
You know I don't want to stop.
No.
To say it, as long as
I've been thinking about
what kissing you would be like,
the kiss exceeded my imagination.
I mean, expectations can
really bite you in the
♪
Were you trying to shut me up?
There were just a lot of words
falling out of your mouth.
You're a good person.
[LAUGHS] I know.
To be continued.
♪
What?
♪
[TRAIN HORN BLOWS]
[CROSSING SIGNAL BELL DINGING]
ROZ: Ezra Fisher?
Do you remember me?
Are you kidding?
You took down Adam
Barnett. You're my hero.
I'll buy you a drink anytime.
Maybe a rain check, but I got
a couple questions for you.
EZRA: About what?
Do you remember that
case I asked you about?
Gloria Nanmac?
They found her killer.
[WIND WHISTLING]
Oh, yeah?
ROZ: Yeah, an ex-boyfriend.
Guy named Toby Crenshaw.
He confessed.
I think I read something about that.
Took 'em long enough.
We're doing one last story
on her just to wrap things up.
You said you saw Gloria
that night at Skeeter's,
but you left before her
to go get your kid, right?
Yeah, that's right.
I had to pick him up from the sitter.
And you never went back?
You never saw her again after that?
Yeah. No, never saw her.
S'too bad.
Maybe you can clear something up for us.
Gloria left a voicemail for a friend
at Skeeter's that night.
A kid's voice is in the background.
CHILD: Daddy, I wanna go.
That's Jackson, your son.
Taylor confirmed it.
♪
Why don't you tell me what
you really did that night?
♪
You're not a cop.
I don't have to talk to you.
♪
♪
Hey.
Yeah, hey.
I found what you're looking for.
Over the past 10 years, Denali Broadband
has installed service in 27
villages across the state.
Thanks. Uh, so we call
the police department
and see if there were any
complaints against Ezra.
AUSTIN: A lot of those villages
don't have police departments.
- What do you mean?
- He means exactly that.
One in three villages don't have cops.
- That's insane.
- ROZ: We call it Alaska.
If they're lucky, they'll have a VPO.
- What's a VPO?
- Village Police Officer.
- Usually an underpaid
- AUSTIN: And undertrained.
member of the community.
So, can we get in touch with these VPOs?
Yeah, probably. We can
call the village stores.
VPOs generally post
their phone number there.
Going deep. Good luck.
[RINGING]
Doris Peal? Roz Friendly
with The Daily Alaskan.
Wondering if you ever
dealt with Ezra Fisher
between April and July 2016?
That's right Ezra Fisher.
Are you sure it doesn't ring a bell?
No, not Evan Kirshel. Ezra Fisher.
Yeah, he worked for Denali Broadband.
- Would've been in Nikolai
- You just started as VPO.
Did the old VPO keep any records?
- You sure?
- Thank you.
We still got
- 12 villages to call.
- [PEN SCRATCHING]
It's a long shot, but
maybe we'll get a hit.
[CELLPHONE RINGS]
[CELLPHONE CLICKS]
Eileen Fitzgerald.
WARD: Eileen, this is Andy
Ward from The New York Times.
- Good time to talk?
- Sure.
Uh, Andy, just give me a second.
I'm, uh, gonna go grab a coffee.
Do you want one?
I'm good.
What can I do for you, Andy?
WARD: Well, I've been following the work
you've been doing up there in Alaska.
- It's damn good.
- Thanks.
We were all horrified by what
happened to you, by the way.
I'm sure you read Bret
Stephen's opinion piece
on violence against journalists.
EILEEN: I did. I sent him an e-mail.
Oh. Hopefully The Daily Alaskan
has beefed up their security system.
A little, but they don't really have
the budget for that kind of thing.
WARD: Not surprising, given
the economic realities
of small city papers these days.
Which brings me to my point.
We'd like to offer you a
job here at The Times.
Is that right?
WARD: You belong in New York, Eileen.
Have you checked in
with New York about that?
[CHUCKLES] I have.
And, uh, to be honest,
I feel like Rushmi
let you down at The Vanguard,
not the other way around.
WARD: That never would have
happened here at The Times.
We would've been way ahead of it.
You belong on this stage.
EILEEN: I appreciate that, really.
But I'm I'm deep in a
story I really care about here.
And the editor, he gave me a
shot when no one else would.
Stanley Cornik, yeah.
Yeah, he's good. A pro.
But all due respect,
how much longer is he gonna be doing it?
Don't know. Haven't asked.
[CHUCKLES] Okay, look,
I'm gonna text you a
back-of-napkin offer.
It's healthy. Think about it.
WARD: It's a chance for
you to tell the big stories
the way you want.
♪
Who was that?
EILEEN: Uh, New York friend.
Did you forget your coffee?
Yep. Any updates?
ROZ: Yeah, I got a hit.
VPO in Tuxecan remembers Ezra.
- Where's Tuxecan?
- Southeast.
He was seeing a local girl there.
Um, Julie. Beat her up.
The VPO called the Troopers
and they charged him.
EILEEN: Charged him?
Why don't we see it on his sheet?
Can we talk to the victim?
VPO said Julie won't talk
to strangers on the phone.
Well, does this VPO have a name?
Um, Sadie.
We going to Tuxecan?
Feels like it.
ROZ: Stanley's gonna
push back on the cost.
Any chance you could ask the poet pilot?
Yeah. I could.
Really?
Yeah. Really.
What's up?
I'm wrestling with a dilemma.
Oh. You know I like me a dilemma.
[SIGHS]
Lay it on me.
I worry sometimes
that I, professionally,
am too observant of common social mores,
too considerate of
other people's feelings.
To the detriment of
your work, you're saying?
Yes.
Would I be a better
journalist if I were more
morally flexible?
More
Like Eileen?
[SIGHS]
She and Roz need something
for the Gloria Nanmac story,
something important.
If I asked Eileen for
something, she would get it.
My friend Gary won't help,
and I could press him
Mm.
Do you think this is something
Gary could do for you?
Yes. I do.
It would be unpleasant
for him, but it's doable.
So maybe dip your toe
in the pushy waters,
see what it feels like.
[SIGHS]
♪
[DOG BARKS]
Hey, hey, hey! No complaining.
These These are friends of mine.
We're reporters. We've heard worse.
Much, but the tail is new.
It's a nice day, huh?
Yeah. It is.
Do you guys ever hang out on
terra firma, or just up here?
What is wrong with up here?
What are you, an altitudist, Roz?
Sounds like it. She's a Planet Earther.
[CHUCKLES] No judgment.
Just trying to get a vector on things.
"Vector." Very nice.
Very nice.
Felt pretty good about it, myself.
How hard is it to learn how to fly?
It's surprisingly not that hard.
I mean, if you have the
you know, you have the right teacher.
Are you, uh Are you
a little fly-curious?
Maybe.
Do you ever just fly to fly?
All the time.
If I'm ever stuck with
my writing or my life,
I come up here, let it all go.
Kawdigoo.
What's that mean?
"The water has settled clear."
When life gets tangled,
you follow the river
until the chaos falls away.
Kawdigoo.
I like that.
Does the chaos fall away?
Every single time.
Oh.
Just to say it, if you
guys ever do take your show
to Planet Earth, I'll
totally support it.
♪
SADIE: You must be the reporters
from The Daily Alaskan.
We are. Sadie Quinn?
Yeah, it's me. Welcome to Tuxecan.
You must be Roz.
- ROZ: Yeah. This is Eileen.
- Hi.
We gotta go, if you don't
mind. I just got a call.
Some guy's shooting up a house.
Need to make sure he
doesn't hurt someone.
- [GUNSHOT]
- SADIE: Ah, Jonah.
What the hell's he doing?
- [GUNSHOT]
- Morris!
SADIE: Oh, Jesus.
Does someone live here?
No one.
The former owner, Morris,
he died a year ago.
It's been empty since. You
two mind staying in the truck?
- Not at all.
- [JONAH SHOUTING IN DISTANCE]
Do you have a gun?
Town can't afford to insure me
for one when I'm on the clock.
JONAH: Morris!
Ain't that a twist?
[GUNSHOT]
Morris!
[CELLPHONE CHIMES]
[SHOUTING CONTINUES]
Morris!
SADIE: Come on. Let's go back to town.
EILEEN: What is she doing?
Hugging an angry man with a gun.
As one does.
♪
[VEHICLE DOOR CLOSES]
All good?
Mostly.
Jonah's off his meds.
He and Morris were friends and
he's angry at Morris for dying.
That's really heartbreaking.
Sounds like a job for a
professional psychologist.
Well, he had to settle
for this amateur one.
EILEEN: Jack-of-all-trades.
SADIE: I do my best.
What are the cots for?
SADIE: Anyone who needs
a safe place to sleep.
Do, uh, people just call
you when they need help?
Who else are they gonna call?
EILEEN: 911?
If you call 911 out here,
you get transferred to a 1-800 number
which then connects you to a
call center way up in Wasilla.
Wasilla? That's, um
That's like calling
Miami to get the police
to come out in Chicago.
That's Alaska.
BOB: Gary?
GARY: Bob?
What are you doing here?
I need to talk to you, Gary.
Is this about the phone records?
C'mon, Bob. I told
you my hands are tied.
You got time for a beer?
I have a new malted barley brown roast
that's very toasty and rich.
That's kind of you, Gary,
but this visit's all business.
At my home?
BOB: You didn't call me back.
[GARY SIGHS]
I can't give you those phone records.
A leak like that could get me fired.
I wouldn't be asking if
it wasn't important, Gary.
You wouldn't be breaking
anyone's confidence.
The owner of the phone passed away.
A murder victim, actually.
It could help bring
her killer to justice.
You should do this, Gary.
I'm done with this, Bob.
Please leave.
Now.
[SIGHS]
You know, we did a
reader survey recently
tracking customer satisfaction
of Alaskan cellphone providers.
Guess who came in dead last?
Teletrove.
♪
I'm just following the rules.
I'll pass that along to
Gloria Nanmac's mother,
who's desperately hoping to find out
who killed her daughter
before she succumbs to cancer.
You can't put that on me.
We're prepared to publish an article
detailing Teletrove's failure to
respond to consumer complaints.
But I'd much rather write an article
about how some unnamed
Teletrove Cellular executive
did the right thing and
helped solve a murder.
You're kinda being a dick, Bob.
BOB: I know.
But if I'm being honest,
I don't see any other way.
I met Ezra at Crystal's, a bar in town.
The whole village was excited
about finally getting
high-speed Internet.
People were always buying
the Denali guys cocktails.
He was fun
at first.
What changed?
Sometimes when he drank, he turned mean.
Didn't really bother me at first.
I was kinda wild back then myself.
When did he hurt you?
One night, he just snapped.
Beat me up pretty bad.
I played dead to survive,
and then when he passed out,
I crawled over here.
When I got over there, Mr.
Fisher was still passed out,
so I restrained him.
♪
Troopers came the next morning.
They arrested him and took him
to the courthouse in Sunrise.
Did the DA ever call you?
JULIE: Never heard from them.
Next thing I knew, the charges
were dropped and he was gone.
Do you have any other pictures or notes
or evidence in that drawer?
I keep notes on everything that happens.
♪
We need to figure out what happened
at the courthouse in Sunrise.
How far away is it?
60 miles or so.
I'm happy to drive you.
[BRAKES SQUEAK]
We keep all our local
records on there.
Go ahead. Just type in a name.
[KEYBOARD KEYS CLACKING]
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
That was quick. There it is.
EILEEN: Felony assault
and domestic violence.
April 2018. Ezra Fisher.
It's just like Sadie
and Julie described it,
so why haven't we seen this before?
Excuse me?
Why isn't this charge on CourtView?
Let me see.
Oh, that's because the
DA dropped the charge
a month and a half later.
So? It should still be
available on CourtView.
Not true. A few years back, the
they passed a law that prohibits us
from publishing domestic
violence or other charges
that were dropped or dismissed.
Including sexual assault?
Yeah.
I guess the thinking behind
it is, one false accusation
can ruin a guy's life, you know?
Ezra could've been stopped if
this information was available.
So the only clue that Ezra has a history
of violently attacking women
is hidden on this one computer.
The question is how many other charges
against violent abusers are
hidden in dusty courthouses?
Why does it smell
vaguely exotic in here?
Did you bring that ferret back?
No. They've been here since yesterday.
EILEEN: Well, I admire the dedication.
CLAIRE: Yeah, very curious
to see what it's gonna yield.
- How'd it go in Tuxecan?
- Good.
And bad, depending
on your point of view.
Listen to this.
So, I made some calls to
some of the other courts
after Roz told me what
happened in Sunrise,
and they all said they couldn't give me
the information over the phone.
- Why not?
- It's policy.
You have to ask for
the records in person.
Obviously, we can't fly to
every village and do that.
So what's the workaround?
AUSTIN: Well, I called the
people from each of the villages
who sent in tips about
missing relatives.
They were more than happy
to make the requests for me.
- And?
- [CELLPHONE CHIMES]
And I got two more DV charges
against your boy, Ezra.
One dropped, one dismissed.
So neither charges
were ever made public.
So it's a pattern of violent behavior
that's been virtually
erased from the system.
Listen, I gotta deal with this.
- Thanks, Austin.
- Yeah!
Maybe I should take another shot
at Taylor before we go to print.
Yeah. Good. The new information
on Ezra might be enough
to make her reconsider
and let us talk to her kid.
Hey. Um
Look, I'm
I'm so sorry about how contentious
our last mediation session was.
I know you care about Zach's
safety as much as I do.
Yeah.
You know, there are crazy
people with guns in Chicago, too.
Yeah. I know. You're right.
But there's also
newspapers there as well.
And magazines and even TV stations.
- Anna
- Zach needs his father,
but his father doesn't
need to be in Alaska.
Not forever.
Right?
Just come, okay?
Get your own place.
Be a journalist, be a father.
You can do those things in Chicago,
and we can give Zach
the life he deserves.
Think about it?
I don't have to.
Zach has a good life
here, a unique life,
and he loves it.
And I have a life here that I love.
You're the only one who's
dissatisfied with Alaska,
but I am not going to
willingly uproot myself or Zach.
♪
Okay. Well, then, I guess
I will see you in court.
[DOORBELL RINGS]
ROZ: Taylor, please, just hear me out.
I'm sick of you. Just leave me alone.
He's hurt other women!
Three that I know of so far.
Four if you include Gloria.
How come I don't know about this?
Because Alaska's more
worried about protecting
the reputation of abusers than
the safety of their victims.
♪
This is Julie from Tuxecan
after Ezra was through with her.
Tuxecan?
He worked there for a few months.
Yeah, I remember.
This is hard. I get it.
But it's real,
and we need to figure this out together.
I need to talk to Jackson.
Please.
Hi, Jackson. I'm Roz.
Hi.
I want to talk to you about
something very important.
But first, I want you to know
you're not in any trouble, okay?
- Are you the police?
- No.
I'm a reporter for The Daily Alaskan.
Kinda like the guy on your shirt.
He works for the Daily Bugle, right?
Yeah, but he's a
photographer, not a reporter.
Good point.
Do you remember visiting your
dad up in Meade two years ago?
Did he take you to a grown-up party?
You can tell us the
truth. I won't be mad.
Did he ask you to not tell anyone?
Yeah.
♪
Jackson, do you remember this woman?
She used crutches.
TAYLOR: Do you remember her, honey?
♪
Do you know what happened
to her that night?
I think she got hurt.
Daddy had to drive her home.
She was sleeping.
Were you with them
when he drove her home?
No.
He He left me at the party.
Are you sure?
Is that true?
He told me not to tell anyone.
He said I'd get in trouble.
You're not in trouble, Jacks.
You're not.
♪
ROZ: DA David. Got a minute?
Ms. Friendly.
If this is about Toby
Crenshaw, I have no comment.
It's not about Toby.
It's about Ezra Fisher.
He was a person of interest
in the Gloria Nanmac case.
Yeah, I know. He had a solid alibi.
Ezra was arrested three times
for felony domestic
assault around the state.
Because of Rule 40, those
arrests were never made public.
We pulled the records from the villages.
Like I said, Mr. Fisher had an alibi
for the night Gloria
Nanmac went missing.
That alibi fell apart.
We just talked to
his 10-year-old son,
and he told us that Ezra
left Clarence Redding's
the night Gloria went missing.
He said she was sleeping.
Even if it's true and
testimony from children
is historically unreliable
all it proves is that Ezra
left a location with Gloria.
You're not gonna do anything about it?
I have a signed confession
from Toby Crenshaw.
That's a hell of a lot more
convincing than three arrests
that resulted in not one
prosecution of Ezra Fisher.
What if we write an article
about how Rule 40
protects domestic abusers?
That's wildly inaccurate.
Is it? Under Rule 40, if
charges against an alleged abuser
get dropped or dismissed,
the courts don't have
to log those arrests
into the statewide database.
Men accused of violent crimes
are hiding in plain sight.
Like Ezra.
So a prosecutor in
Anchorage would have no idea
if a suspect in Scammon
Bay or Russian Mission
had been charged with assault.
Innocent until proven guilty.
It would be highly
prejudicial to leave an arrest
on someone's record
if charges are dropped.
It's also highly prejudicial
to charge the wrong man
with Gloria Nanmac's murder.
Toby's taking a plea
in less than a week.
Off the record, the
Governor is satisfied
that justice is being
served, and so am I.
This train has left the station.
Goodbye.
- Fill me in.
- EILEEN: The good news is,
we're pretty sure we
know who killed Gloria.
The bad news is, it's not
the guy going to prison.
EILEEN: And we can't do
a damn thing about it.
Ezra was right. We're not the cops.
We can't touch him.
Our stories aren't moving the needle.
Toby's rotting in jail, and
the DA won't listen to us.
STANLEY: He may not be listening,
but the rest of the state is.
Whether you realize it or not,
you're having a dialogue with Alaskans.
The truth is a slow bullet.
Don't stop.
Go. Write your story.
EILEEN: This reads well.
Yeah, it's good.
Uh, few small things.
Check it.
You okay?
I hate it when I lose
faith in what we're doing.
Well, Alaska's a good place to
lose it, for what it's worth.
Does that mean you're gonna take the job
at The New York Times?
If I'm being honest, I haven't decided.
ROZ: Well, if I'm being honest,
I'd want redemption, too.
After what you went through,
walking into The New York
Times, everyone watching
I do like the idea of punching
cancel culture in the face.
So I came clean.
Your turn.
You taking the WaPo offer?
How'd you know?
EILEEN: They called me as a reference.
Well, at least someone's
paying attention to our stories.
So? You going?
I haven't decided either.
Getting an offer from
The Washington Post
ain't no small feat.
It's impressive.
And deserved.
I suppose so.
I always thought I'd jump at
it, but now I don't know.
How you gonna decide?
Guess I'm waiting for a sign?
EILEEN: Let me know when you see it.
- [DOOR OPENS]
- GABRIEL: Sorry to barge in,
but we have something
we want to show you.
Hi, everyone.
Well, first, I want to thank Jindaháa
and his talented and generous friends
for putting in the time
to help with this project.
And of course, we
wouldn't be standing here
if it weren't for Eileen
and Roz's MMIW series.
So, here goes.
For context, I have to point
out that Alaska Native women
experience the highest
rate of sexual assault
of any demographic in the United States.
This is the first case we entered.
We all know her by now.
Gloria.
These women went
missing in the last year.
This is the past five years.
♪
10 years.
♪
15 years.
In the past 100 years,
literally thousands of
Native women have disappeared.
Still today, in 2023,
at least one woman goes missing
weekly from Anchorage alone.
♪
Extraordinary work.
♪
BOB: Special delivery.
Is this what I think it is?
The records for Gloria's burner phone.
Thanks, Bob.
How'd you get your
pal to change his mind?
I channeled my inner Fitzgerald.
[CHUCKLES] That sounds painful.
It was, a little.
But it worked.
Thank you.
♪
Look at the date of
the last call she made.
November 30th, to 911.
She disappeared the 28th.
Sylvie reported her
missing the next morning.
If Ezra left Gloria on the tundra
on the night of the 28th,
she was alive for at
least two more days.
So while the police
refused to search for her,
while they did absolutely nothing
Gloria was making desperate
calls, including one to 911.
There has to be a recording.
And we gotta hear it.
Into the fire ♪
Feel more alive than I've ever been ♪
Heart of a fighter ♪
Made in the flames ♪
I know when I get to the other side ♪
♪
I'll be better for it ♪
BOB: Previously on Alaska Daily
JUDGE: Mr. Crenshaw.
You're being charged with
murder in the first degree in
the death of Gloria Nanmac.
ROZ: The DNA they found was semen.
EILEEN: Then the signed confession.
So how did he plead not guilty
if he signed a confession?
STANLEY: I need your
story on the arraignment
- and the presser by 6:00.
- It's 4:30.
You can do a Day Two
tomorrow. Keep going.
EILEEN: We've been pushing
this story uphill for months.
Now, suddenly, it's
rolling downhill fast.
Did we just play a part
in the rush to judgment?
STANLEY: Conrad Pritchard
bought these parcels.
AARON: He's building a rare
earths mine at Hockley Mountain?
We're planning to
publish tomorrow morning.
Have we gone to him for comment?
Austin's headed over there now.
He's never gonna talk to Austin.
We still have to report it.
CONRAD: What the hell did you do?
You want a war? You got one.
EILEEN: Did you sexually assault Gloria?
I would never do that.
- So, what happened?
- Gloria was mad.
She called, and I didn't pick up.
There weren't any calls
placed from her phone
the night she went missing.
She left a voicemail.
GLORIA: Toby. I'm sorry for what I said.
You know I love you.
Please come get me.
This number, the one she's calling from,
that's not her number.
Could belong to the
person who killed her.
♪
LINDA: What?
Eileen?
[CLOCK TICKING]
What?
LINDA: What were you thinking about?
Oh.
My colleague, Bob.
♪
LINDA: The earnest one.
EILEEN: Yeah.
The earnest one.
You said you enjoyed provoking him.
In a good-natured way.
I believe I prefaced
my admission with that.
LINDA: You did, indeed.
So what about Bob?
His wife is sick, and
it's progressing quickly.
LINDA: Mm. And?
I ran into him in the bullpen yesterday.
I asked him how he was doing
and he gave me a real answer.
What did he say?
EILEEN: He said he was hanging in there,
but it was a very difficult time.
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
So he told you the truth.
He didn't cover.
- Did that surprise you?
- No.
But as a general rule,
I don't encourage people
to share their burden with me,
especially people in pain.
Because it makes you uncomfortable?
No, because I don't
want them to feel like
they have to reciprocate and ask me.
- Are you in pain?
- That's not the point.
LINDA: What is the point?
It was out of character
for me to even ask.
I don't do that.
Especially at work.
Why do you think you did that?
[TICKING CONTINUES]
I don't know.
Maybe I'm still sideways
from being held hostage.
Or maybe, intentionally
or not, you did want him
to reciprocate and ask
you how you were doing.
EILEEN: Yeah, I don't think so.
Like I said, that's not like me.
♪
LINDA: People change.
Well, have you had any
panic attacks lately?
♪
No. I haven't.
♪
[BUZZER SOUNDS]
ROZ: We listened to Gloria's
voicemail on your phone.
She called from a different number
than the one Sylvie gave us.
ROZ: Do you know whose number this is?
[BUZZER SOUNDS, DOOR CLANKS IN DISTANCE]
It was hers.
Her other phone.
Sylvie was getting in her business.
She didn't want her to call me.
So she got a pay-as-you-go phone.
She had it for a few
weeks before she died.
There's no record of this
number in the police report.
Well, it's hers.
It was hers.
Mm.
You okay?
It sucks in here.
♪
I hate it.
My Change of Plea hearing is next week.
I thought I could just plead
guilty and that would be it.
But Jimmy says I have to tell the judge
that I raped Gloria and
that I beat her to death.
It's called an allocution.
Makes it really hard to
claim your innocence later.
I never hurt her.
♪
But I can't get the
deal unless I say I did.
That's messed up.
Yeah.
It is.
You believe me, right?
We're doing everything
we can to find the truth.
I just told you the truth.
Claire, did you write that piece
on the weeping spruce blight
- a couple of years ago?
- CLAIRE: I did.
Uh, March, I think, 2018. Why?
Our big blue spruce seems to
have contracted the blight.
The one in your backyard?
[CLICKS TONGUE] Too bad.
My parents lost one of their spruces,
but they saved the other
one with a fungicide.
If you need a rec, let me know.
A gang of yellow-rumped
warblers hangs out in our spruce.
Colleen says the
fungicide'll poison them.
I'm inclined to save the tree.
Flora or fauna. It's a Sophie's choice.
- I've never seen that movie.
- It's a riot.
If I remember correctly,
weeping spruce blight
is caused by a non-native species.
Non-native species. The
root problems of all Alaska.
Roz Friendly, ladies and gentlemen.
To be fair, we were talking flora.
The fact still remains, doesn't it?
AUSTIN: Roz, coming in hot.
Whoa, is the copier fixed?
It is, in fact, working.
That's excellent.
But I used the last toner
cartridge printing these.
- That's un-excellent.
- Yeah.
Jindaháa and I are doing
the MMIW database together.
Hey.
[WHISTLES]
Yeah, so, these are the calls
I transcribed off the tip line.
These are articles the
paper ran about MMIW
over the past 15 years.
These are cases I
pulled off of CourtView.
And all these boxes
came to us from JCAN.
Alberta dropped them off yesterday.
How much have you entered
into the spreadsheet already?
About this much.
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
- We're gonna need some help.
- Yeah. Lots.
EILEEN: All right,
so, uh, Teletrove says
Gloria's burner was bought with cash
and it wasn't registered.
Since there's no name attached,
they won't turn over records
to Sylvie as next-of-kin.
What about you?
I can't stop listening to her voicemail.
Gloria tells Toby that she loves him.
That doesn't sound like a woman
reaching out to a man who raped her.
And then there's the other voices.
Other voices?
It's faint, but you can hear
men talking in the background.
GLORIA: Toby, answer your phone.
- [INDISTINC
CHATTER] - Can't make out
what they're saying, but we need to know
- who they are.
- GLORIA: I'm sorry
- for what I said.
- Assuming it's not Toby.
- GLORIA: You know I love you.
- We need a tech nerd.
- GLORIA: This place is bad.
- I got a guy.
EILEEN: You do? In house?
No, strip mall.
A sound guy in this this strip mall?
Yeah, Al. He owns Al's Dank Buds.
Oh, this I gotta see.
Zach's entire extended
family is in Chicago.
He'll have grandparents, aunts, uncles,
cousins his own age to play with.
But he won't have his father.
Ah, he'll come for a
stretch in the summer.
A stretch?
This job will allow me to
pay for a better life
private school, plus
savings for college.
A A house with a pool.
You know he's always wanted that.
You've always wanted that.
He has a great life
here. He loves his school.
You wanna rip him away
from all his friends?
Soccer, hockey?
They have those in Chicago, and at least
I'll be able to provide
him with a safe environment.
What the hell does that mean?
Okay, let's keep it respectful.
Every time you have him,
you end up bringing
him to that newsroom
He loves that newsroom.
where an armed gunman recently
held one of your colleagues hostage.
What kind of place is that for a child?
Are you kidding?
[SCOFFS]
♪
We have a custody agreement.
- [SIGHS]
- MEDIATOR: You do.
But if we can't come
to a compromise here,
it'll go back to the court.
And we all agreed we're
trying to avoid that, right?
♪
EILEEN: First time I've been in here.
Yeah, not me.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
♪
Hey, look at this.
Matanuska Thunderfunk.
- How good is this guy?
- Good.
Weed's his business,
but this guy's a next-level audiophile.
I used him to dig out a bad
recording a few years ago.
Groovy.
AL: Roz! Come on back.
♪
Who's she?
I'm Eileen. We're partners.
- Hi, Al.
- Hi, Eileen.
- Any luck?
- AL: Yeah.
I tried to filter out Gloria's
voice and amplify the background.
I also reduced the low frequencies.
They were distorting.
Anyway, take a listen.
[INDISTINCT OVERLAPPING VOICES]
[DISTORTED VOICE] Daddy, I wanna go.
Is that a kid?
[KEYS CLICKING]
[INDISTINCT OVERLAPPING VOICES]
CHILD: Daddy, I wanna go.
- [KEY CLICKS]
- That's a kid.
I can put an audio file
of this on your phone.
Ezra Fisher said he left Skeeter's
to go get his son that
night, but never went back.
If we can confirm that that's his kid,
then he didn't leave before Gloria.
And he loses his alibi.
- [KNOCKS ON DOOR] Hey, Bob.
- BOB: Hey.
Stanley said you have a
contact at Teletrove Cellular.
Yeah, my buddy Gary is
VP of Public Relations.
We founded the home brew collective
you've heard me reference
Anchorage Yeasty Boys.
Yeah. Cool.
Uh, do you think that Gary
could help us track down
the records for this number?
It was Gloria Nanmac's.
Happy to ask him.
Cheers. Appreciate it.
♪
[DOGS BARKING IN DISTANCE]
[DOORBELL RINGS]
ROZ: Taylor, I just have a few
questions. It won't take long.
I don't want to talk to you.
Then don't. Just listen.
- You're gonna want to hear this.
- What?
A voicemail Gloria Nanmac left
on someone's phone the night she died.
She was calling from this
drug dealer's house
Skeeter Redding.
[CELLPHONE CLICKS]
CHILD: Daddy, I wanna go.
ROZ: Is that Jackson?
Because if it is, I'd
like to talk to him.
You're not talking to my son.
He's 10. No way.
Taylor, please. If he was there
He's got nothing to do with this.
You show up again, I call the cops.
Then can you at least
tell me where Ezra is?
Yeah, I can. [SCOFFS]
Because I have to see him twice a week,
because I don't have full custody.
Because my case fell
apart after your article
took down my prosecutor.
Taylor, I know this sucks,
but I don't want an
innocent guy to go to jail.
He just got back into town.
He's laying fiber-optic
cable over on Spenard.
Now unless you want to lose it,
get your foot out of my door.
[DOOR CLOSES]
♪
Bunny, you're with me
coding the ontology.
You have the conceptual schema?
It's mapped, but I'm
still building the engine.
Erica, Trudy, you're both in charge
of the graphical user interface.
Marsha, you and I are doing data filing.
Our goal is a working beta
to demo by this weekend.
[SCOFFS] Seriously?
We don't need full functionality,
- just proof of concept.
- We can do it.
It's gonna take a few days.
We have a few days. And food.
- And coffee.
- Life's essentials.
But we'll need to stay
on this 'round the clock.
- Any conflicts?
- Well, I have
my parameterized model
of sea-ice dynamics due in two days.
What's that, and due to who?
Well, it's a model that
hindcasts and forecasts
sea-ice dynamics based on
varying climate conditions,
- and it's due to NASA.
- Wow.
- So you're that kind of smart.
- JINDAHAÁA: She is.
- Can you do both?
- Yeah.
I-I just wanted to be transparent.
Well, thank you so much for being here.
All of you, really.
This is very important,
and it's so helpful.
And the clock is ticking, so let's go.
♪
Taylor listened to it. She
recognized her kid's voice.
EILEEN: So Ezra lied
about leaving Skeeter's
to pick up his kid?
ROZ: Yeah. And Jackson was
with him, which is screwed up.
Sounds like he got back into
town and is working on Spenard.
I'm gonna try and track him down.
Back in town from where?
Whatever village he was working in. Why?
W He was in Meade for work
when Gloria disappeared, right?
- Installing high-speed Internet?
- ROZ: Yeah.
And he's been all over
the state for the job,
laying cables in lots of
different villages, right?
Right. Yeah.
So we find out where he was when
See if he hurt anyone else.
ROZ: Try to establish a pattern.
Talk later.
- Hey, Austin.
- What's up?
Need a favor.
Can you pull the stories you've
written about Denali Broadband
installing Internet
service across the state?
Sure. For the Nanmac story?
Yeah. We're trying to
track the movements of a guy
we think might be involved.
Okay. The articles don't usually
mention the names of the workers.
We're just looking for the dates
that Denali hired workers
in various villages.
- Hard copies please?
- Uh, printer's down,
but I'll pull clips from the archive.
Eileen, I heard back from
my source at Teletrove.
He said the records are confidential.
Without a court order,
he can't share them.
Sorry.
Maybe take another run at him.
His answer was pretty firm.
Well, no is easier than yes, right?
Give him another push. It's important.
YUNA: Hey.
Hey.
How did your custody mediation
thing go this morning?
Wonderful. Smiles all around.
- That bad?
- Yeah, kinda intense.
- Got in my head.
- How so?
AUSTIN: I'm starting to
wonder if maybe she's right.
Maybe Zach would be
better off in Chicago.
More family. More opportunities.
He seems like a happy kid to me.
I know, right?
I mean, he is happy.
But he would be close to cousins.
Doesn't have any here. I
mean, am I being selfish?
For not wanting to uproot Zach
so your ex can get a better job?
No.
Okay, stop beating around the bush.
Tell me what you really think.
YUNA: I will.
Always.
Okay, this might not be appropriate
to say in the morgue, but that's hot.
[CHUCKLES]
Oh, yeah?
You deserve better.
Do I?
Because I don't think
I don't It doesn't
♪
- [DOOR CLOSES]
- AUSTIN: Okay.
You know I don't want to stop.
No.
To say it, as long as
I've been thinking about
what kissing you would be like,
the kiss exceeded my imagination.
I mean, expectations can
really bite you in the
♪
Were you trying to shut me up?
There were just a lot of words
falling out of your mouth.
You're a good person.
[LAUGHS] I know.
To be continued.
♪
What?
♪
[TRAIN HORN BLOWS]
[CROSSING SIGNAL BELL DINGING]
ROZ: Ezra Fisher?
Do you remember me?
Are you kidding?
You took down Adam
Barnett. You're my hero.
I'll buy you a drink anytime.
Maybe a rain check, but I got
a couple questions for you.
EZRA: About what?
Do you remember that
case I asked you about?
Gloria Nanmac?
They found her killer.
[WIND WHISTLING]
Oh, yeah?
ROZ: Yeah, an ex-boyfriend.
Guy named Toby Crenshaw.
He confessed.
I think I read something about that.
Took 'em long enough.
We're doing one last story
on her just to wrap things up.
You said you saw Gloria
that night at Skeeter's,
but you left before her
to go get your kid, right?
Yeah, that's right.
I had to pick him up from the sitter.
And you never went back?
You never saw her again after that?
Yeah. No, never saw her.
S'too bad.
Maybe you can clear something up for us.
Gloria left a voicemail for a friend
at Skeeter's that night.
A kid's voice is in the background.
CHILD: Daddy, I wanna go.
That's Jackson, your son.
Taylor confirmed it.
♪
Why don't you tell me what
you really did that night?
♪
You're not a cop.
I don't have to talk to you.
♪
♪
Hey.
Yeah, hey.
I found what you're looking for.
Over the past 10 years, Denali Broadband
has installed service in 27
villages across the state.
Thanks. Uh, so we call
the police department
and see if there were any
complaints against Ezra.
AUSTIN: A lot of those villages
don't have police departments.
- What do you mean?
- He means exactly that.
One in three villages don't have cops.
- That's insane.
- ROZ: We call it Alaska.
If they're lucky, they'll have a VPO.
- What's a VPO?
- Village Police Officer.
- Usually an underpaid
- AUSTIN: And undertrained.
member of the community.
So, can we get in touch with these VPOs?
Yeah, probably. We can
call the village stores.
VPOs generally post
their phone number there.
Going deep. Good luck.
[RINGING]
Doris Peal? Roz Friendly
with The Daily Alaskan.
Wondering if you ever
dealt with Ezra Fisher
between April and July 2016?
That's right Ezra Fisher.
Are you sure it doesn't ring a bell?
No, not Evan Kirshel. Ezra Fisher.
Yeah, he worked for Denali Broadband.
- Would've been in Nikolai
- You just started as VPO.
Did the old VPO keep any records?
- You sure?
- Thank you.
We still got
- 12 villages to call.
- [PEN SCRATCHING]
It's a long shot, but
maybe we'll get a hit.
[CELLPHONE RINGS]
[CELLPHONE CLICKS]
Eileen Fitzgerald.
WARD: Eileen, this is Andy
Ward from The New York Times.
- Good time to talk?
- Sure.
Uh, Andy, just give me a second.
I'm, uh, gonna go grab a coffee.
Do you want one?
I'm good.
What can I do for you, Andy?
WARD: Well, I've been following the work
you've been doing up there in Alaska.
- It's damn good.
- Thanks.
We were all horrified by what
happened to you, by the way.
I'm sure you read Bret
Stephen's opinion piece
on violence against journalists.
EILEEN: I did. I sent him an e-mail.
Oh. Hopefully The Daily Alaskan
has beefed up their security system.
A little, but they don't really have
the budget for that kind of thing.
WARD: Not surprising, given
the economic realities
of small city papers these days.
Which brings me to my point.
We'd like to offer you a
job here at The Times.
Is that right?
WARD: You belong in New York, Eileen.
Have you checked in
with New York about that?
[CHUCKLES] I have.
And, uh, to be honest,
I feel like Rushmi
let you down at The Vanguard,
not the other way around.
WARD: That never would have
happened here at The Times.
We would've been way ahead of it.
You belong on this stage.
EILEEN: I appreciate that, really.
But I'm I'm deep in a
story I really care about here.
And the editor, he gave me a
shot when no one else would.
Stanley Cornik, yeah.
Yeah, he's good. A pro.
But all due respect,
how much longer is he gonna be doing it?
Don't know. Haven't asked.
[CHUCKLES] Okay, look,
I'm gonna text you a
back-of-napkin offer.
It's healthy. Think about it.
WARD: It's a chance for
you to tell the big stories
the way you want.
♪
Who was that?
EILEEN: Uh, New York friend.
Did you forget your coffee?
Yep. Any updates?
ROZ: Yeah, I got a hit.
VPO in Tuxecan remembers Ezra.
- Where's Tuxecan?
- Southeast.
He was seeing a local girl there.
Um, Julie. Beat her up.
The VPO called the Troopers
and they charged him.
EILEEN: Charged him?
Why don't we see it on his sheet?
Can we talk to the victim?
VPO said Julie won't talk
to strangers on the phone.
Well, does this VPO have a name?
Um, Sadie.
We going to Tuxecan?
Feels like it.
ROZ: Stanley's gonna
push back on the cost.
Any chance you could ask the poet pilot?
Yeah. I could.
Really?
Yeah. Really.
What's up?
I'm wrestling with a dilemma.
Oh. You know I like me a dilemma.
[SIGHS]
Lay it on me.
I worry sometimes
that I, professionally,
am too observant of common social mores,
too considerate of
other people's feelings.
To the detriment of
your work, you're saying?
Yes.
Would I be a better
journalist if I were more
morally flexible?
More
Like Eileen?
[SIGHS]
She and Roz need something
for the Gloria Nanmac story,
something important.
If I asked Eileen for
something, she would get it.
My friend Gary won't help,
and I could press him
Mm.
Do you think this is something
Gary could do for you?
Yes. I do.
It would be unpleasant
for him, but it's doable.
So maybe dip your toe
in the pushy waters,
see what it feels like.
[SIGHS]
♪
[DOG BARKS]
Hey, hey, hey! No complaining.
These These are friends of mine.
We're reporters. We've heard worse.
Much, but the tail is new.
It's a nice day, huh?
Yeah. It is.
Do you guys ever hang out on
terra firma, or just up here?
What is wrong with up here?
What are you, an altitudist, Roz?
Sounds like it. She's a Planet Earther.
[CHUCKLES] No judgment.
Just trying to get a vector on things.
"Vector." Very nice.
Very nice.
Felt pretty good about it, myself.
How hard is it to learn how to fly?
It's surprisingly not that hard.
I mean, if you have the
you know, you have the right teacher.
Are you, uh Are you
a little fly-curious?
Maybe.
Do you ever just fly to fly?
All the time.
If I'm ever stuck with
my writing or my life,
I come up here, let it all go.
Kawdigoo.
What's that mean?
"The water has settled clear."
When life gets tangled,
you follow the river
until the chaos falls away.
Kawdigoo.
I like that.
Does the chaos fall away?
Every single time.
Oh.
Just to say it, if you
guys ever do take your show
to Planet Earth, I'll
totally support it.
♪
SADIE: You must be the reporters
from The Daily Alaskan.
We are. Sadie Quinn?
Yeah, it's me. Welcome to Tuxecan.
You must be Roz.
- ROZ: Yeah. This is Eileen.
- Hi.
We gotta go, if you don't
mind. I just got a call.
Some guy's shooting up a house.
Need to make sure he
doesn't hurt someone.
- [GUNSHOT]
- SADIE: Ah, Jonah.
What the hell's he doing?
- [GUNSHOT]
- Morris!
SADIE: Oh, Jesus.
Does someone live here?
No one.
The former owner, Morris,
he died a year ago.
It's been empty since. You
two mind staying in the truck?
- Not at all.
- [JONAH SHOUTING IN DISTANCE]
Do you have a gun?
Town can't afford to insure me
for one when I'm on the clock.
JONAH: Morris!
Ain't that a twist?
[GUNSHOT]
Morris!
[CELLPHONE CHIMES]
[SHOUTING CONTINUES]
Morris!
SADIE: Come on. Let's go back to town.
EILEEN: What is she doing?
Hugging an angry man with a gun.
As one does.
♪
[VEHICLE DOOR CLOSES]
All good?
Mostly.
Jonah's off his meds.
He and Morris were friends and
he's angry at Morris for dying.
That's really heartbreaking.
Sounds like a job for a
professional psychologist.
Well, he had to settle
for this amateur one.
EILEEN: Jack-of-all-trades.
SADIE: I do my best.
What are the cots for?
SADIE: Anyone who needs
a safe place to sleep.
Do, uh, people just call
you when they need help?
Who else are they gonna call?
EILEEN: 911?
If you call 911 out here,
you get transferred to a 1-800 number
which then connects you to a
call center way up in Wasilla.
Wasilla? That's, um
That's like calling
Miami to get the police
to come out in Chicago.
That's Alaska.
BOB: Gary?
GARY: Bob?
What are you doing here?
I need to talk to you, Gary.
Is this about the phone records?
C'mon, Bob. I told
you my hands are tied.
You got time for a beer?
I have a new malted barley brown roast
that's very toasty and rich.
That's kind of you, Gary,
but this visit's all business.
At my home?
BOB: You didn't call me back.
[GARY SIGHS]
I can't give you those phone records.
A leak like that could get me fired.
I wouldn't be asking if
it wasn't important, Gary.
You wouldn't be breaking
anyone's confidence.
The owner of the phone passed away.
A murder victim, actually.
It could help bring
her killer to justice.
You should do this, Gary.
I'm done with this, Bob.
Please leave.
Now.
[SIGHS]
You know, we did a
reader survey recently
tracking customer satisfaction
of Alaskan cellphone providers.
Guess who came in dead last?
Teletrove.
♪
I'm just following the rules.
I'll pass that along to
Gloria Nanmac's mother,
who's desperately hoping to find out
who killed her daughter
before she succumbs to cancer.
You can't put that on me.
We're prepared to publish an article
detailing Teletrove's failure to
respond to consumer complaints.
But I'd much rather write an article
about how some unnamed
Teletrove Cellular executive
did the right thing and
helped solve a murder.
You're kinda being a dick, Bob.
BOB: I know.
But if I'm being honest,
I don't see any other way.
I met Ezra at Crystal's, a bar in town.
The whole village was excited
about finally getting
high-speed Internet.
People were always buying
the Denali guys cocktails.
He was fun
at first.
What changed?
Sometimes when he drank, he turned mean.
Didn't really bother me at first.
I was kinda wild back then myself.
When did he hurt you?
One night, he just snapped.
Beat me up pretty bad.
I played dead to survive,
and then when he passed out,
I crawled over here.
When I got over there, Mr.
Fisher was still passed out,
so I restrained him.
♪
Troopers came the next morning.
They arrested him and took him
to the courthouse in Sunrise.
Did the DA ever call you?
JULIE: Never heard from them.
Next thing I knew, the charges
were dropped and he was gone.
Do you have any other pictures or notes
or evidence in that drawer?
I keep notes on everything that happens.
♪
We need to figure out what happened
at the courthouse in Sunrise.
How far away is it?
60 miles or so.
I'm happy to drive you.
[BRAKES SQUEAK]
We keep all our local
records on there.
Go ahead. Just type in a name.
[KEYBOARD KEYS CLACKING]
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
That was quick. There it is.
EILEEN: Felony assault
and domestic violence.
April 2018. Ezra Fisher.
It's just like Sadie
and Julie described it,
so why haven't we seen this before?
Excuse me?
Why isn't this charge on CourtView?
Let me see.
Oh, that's because the
DA dropped the charge
a month and a half later.
So? It should still be
available on CourtView.
Not true. A few years back, the
they passed a law that prohibits us
from publishing domestic
violence or other charges
that were dropped or dismissed.
Including sexual assault?
Yeah.
I guess the thinking behind
it is, one false accusation
can ruin a guy's life, you know?
Ezra could've been stopped if
this information was available.
So the only clue that Ezra has a history
of violently attacking women
is hidden on this one computer.
The question is how many other charges
against violent abusers are
hidden in dusty courthouses?
Why does it smell
vaguely exotic in here?
Did you bring that ferret back?
No. They've been here since yesterday.
EILEEN: Well, I admire the dedication.
CLAIRE: Yeah, very curious
to see what it's gonna yield.
- How'd it go in Tuxecan?
- Good.
And bad, depending
on your point of view.
Listen to this.
So, I made some calls to
some of the other courts
after Roz told me what
happened in Sunrise,
and they all said they couldn't give me
the information over the phone.
- Why not?
- It's policy.
You have to ask for
the records in person.
Obviously, we can't fly to
every village and do that.
So what's the workaround?
AUSTIN: Well, I called the
people from each of the villages
who sent in tips about
missing relatives.
They were more than happy
to make the requests for me.
- And?
- [CELLPHONE CHIMES]
And I got two more DV charges
against your boy, Ezra.
One dropped, one dismissed.
So neither charges
were ever made public.
So it's a pattern of violent behavior
that's been virtually
erased from the system.
Listen, I gotta deal with this.
- Thanks, Austin.
- Yeah!
Maybe I should take another shot
at Taylor before we go to print.
Yeah. Good. The new information
on Ezra might be enough
to make her reconsider
and let us talk to her kid.
Hey. Um
Look, I'm
I'm so sorry about how contentious
our last mediation session was.
I know you care about Zach's
safety as much as I do.
Yeah.
You know, there are crazy
people with guns in Chicago, too.
Yeah. I know. You're right.
But there's also
newspapers there as well.
And magazines and even TV stations.
- Anna
- Zach needs his father,
but his father doesn't
need to be in Alaska.
Not forever.
Right?
Just come, okay?
Get your own place.
Be a journalist, be a father.
You can do those things in Chicago,
and we can give Zach
the life he deserves.
Think about it?
I don't have to.
Zach has a good life
here, a unique life,
and he loves it.
And I have a life here that I love.
You're the only one who's
dissatisfied with Alaska,
but I am not going to
willingly uproot myself or Zach.
♪
Okay. Well, then, I guess
I will see you in court.
[DOORBELL RINGS]
ROZ: Taylor, please, just hear me out.
I'm sick of you. Just leave me alone.
He's hurt other women!
Three that I know of so far.
Four if you include Gloria.
How come I don't know about this?
Because Alaska's more
worried about protecting
the reputation of abusers than
the safety of their victims.
♪
This is Julie from Tuxecan
after Ezra was through with her.
Tuxecan?
He worked there for a few months.
Yeah, I remember.
This is hard. I get it.
But it's real,
and we need to figure this out together.
I need to talk to Jackson.
Please.
Hi, Jackson. I'm Roz.
Hi.
I want to talk to you about
something very important.
But first, I want you to know
you're not in any trouble, okay?
- Are you the police?
- No.
I'm a reporter for The Daily Alaskan.
Kinda like the guy on your shirt.
He works for the Daily Bugle, right?
Yeah, but he's a
photographer, not a reporter.
Good point.
Do you remember visiting your
dad up in Meade two years ago?
Did he take you to a grown-up party?
You can tell us the
truth. I won't be mad.
Did he ask you to not tell anyone?
Yeah.
♪
Jackson, do you remember this woman?
She used crutches.
TAYLOR: Do you remember her, honey?
♪
Do you know what happened
to her that night?
I think she got hurt.
Daddy had to drive her home.
She was sleeping.
Were you with them
when he drove her home?
No.
He He left me at the party.
Are you sure?
Is that true?
He told me not to tell anyone.
He said I'd get in trouble.
You're not in trouble, Jacks.
You're not.
♪
ROZ: DA David. Got a minute?
Ms. Friendly.
If this is about Toby
Crenshaw, I have no comment.
It's not about Toby.
It's about Ezra Fisher.
He was a person of interest
in the Gloria Nanmac case.
Yeah, I know. He had a solid alibi.
Ezra was arrested three times
for felony domestic
assault around the state.
Because of Rule 40, those
arrests were never made public.
We pulled the records from the villages.
Like I said, Mr. Fisher had an alibi
for the night Gloria
Nanmac went missing.
That alibi fell apart.
We just talked to
his 10-year-old son,
and he told us that Ezra
left Clarence Redding's
the night Gloria went missing.
He said she was sleeping.
Even if it's true and
testimony from children
is historically unreliable
all it proves is that Ezra
left a location with Gloria.
You're not gonna do anything about it?
I have a signed confession
from Toby Crenshaw.
That's a hell of a lot more
convincing than three arrests
that resulted in not one
prosecution of Ezra Fisher.
What if we write an article
about how Rule 40
protects domestic abusers?
That's wildly inaccurate.
Is it? Under Rule 40, if
charges against an alleged abuser
get dropped or dismissed,
the courts don't have
to log those arrests
into the statewide database.
Men accused of violent crimes
are hiding in plain sight.
Like Ezra.
So a prosecutor in
Anchorage would have no idea
if a suspect in Scammon
Bay or Russian Mission
had been charged with assault.
Innocent until proven guilty.
It would be highly
prejudicial to leave an arrest
on someone's record
if charges are dropped.
It's also highly prejudicial
to charge the wrong man
with Gloria Nanmac's murder.
Toby's taking a plea
in less than a week.
Off the record, the
Governor is satisfied
that justice is being
served, and so am I.
This train has left the station.
Goodbye.
- Fill me in.
- EILEEN: The good news is,
we're pretty sure we
know who killed Gloria.
The bad news is, it's not
the guy going to prison.
EILEEN: And we can't do
a damn thing about it.
Ezra was right. We're not the cops.
We can't touch him.
Our stories aren't moving the needle.
Toby's rotting in jail, and
the DA won't listen to us.
STANLEY: He may not be listening,
but the rest of the state is.
Whether you realize it or not,
you're having a dialogue with Alaskans.
The truth is a slow bullet.
Don't stop.
Go. Write your story.
EILEEN: This reads well.
Yeah, it's good.
Uh, few small things.
Check it.
You okay?
I hate it when I lose
faith in what we're doing.
Well, Alaska's a good place to
lose it, for what it's worth.
Does that mean you're gonna take the job
at The New York Times?
If I'm being honest, I haven't decided.
ROZ: Well, if I'm being honest,
I'd want redemption, too.
After what you went through,
walking into The New York
Times, everyone watching
I do like the idea of punching
cancel culture in the face.
So I came clean.
Your turn.
You taking the WaPo offer?
How'd you know?
EILEEN: They called me as a reference.
Well, at least someone's
paying attention to our stories.
So? You going?
I haven't decided either.
Getting an offer from
The Washington Post
ain't no small feat.
It's impressive.
And deserved.
I suppose so.
I always thought I'd jump at
it, but now I don't know.
How you gonna decide?
Guess I'm waiting for a sign?
EILEEN: Let me know when you see it.
- [DOOR OPENS]
- GABRIEL: Sorry to barge in,
but we have something
we want to show you.
Hi, everyone.
Well, first, I want to thank Jindaháa
and his talented and generous friends
for putting in the time
to help with this project.
And of course, we
wouldn't be standing here
if it weren't for Eileen
and Roz's MMIW series.
So, here goes.
For context, I have to point
out that Alaska Native women
experience the highest
rate of sexual assault
of any demographic in the United States.
This is the first case we entered.
We all know her by now.
Gloria.
These women went
missing in the last year.
This is the past five years.
♪
10 years.
♪
15 years.
In the past 100 years,
literally thousands of
Native women have disappeared.
Still today, in 2023,
at least one woman goes missing
weekly from Anchorage alone.
♪
Extraordinary work.
♪
BOB: Special delivery.
Is this what I think it is?
The records for Gloria's burner phone.
Thanks, Bob.
How'd you get your
pal to change his mind?
I channeled my inner Fitzgerald.
[CHUCKLES] That sounds painful.
It was, a little.
But it worked.
Thank you.
♪
Look at the date of
the last call she made.
November 30th, to 911.
She disappeared the 28th.
Sylvie reported her
missing the next morning.
If Ezra left Gloria on the tundra
on the night of the 28th,
she was alive for at
least two more days.
So while the police
refused to search for her,
while they did absolutely nothing
Gloria was making desperate
calls, including one to 911.
There has to be a recording.
And we gotta hear it.
Into the fire ♪
Feel more alive than I've ever been ♪
Heart of a fighter ♪
Made in the flames ♪
I know when I get to the other side ♪
♪
I'll be better for it ♪