Accused (2023) s02e01 Episode Script

(SOFT MUSIC)
(DOOR OPENS)
What number am I thinking of?
It doesn't work like that.
Seven. It's always seven.
It's time.
(EXHALES DEEPLY)
(TENSE MUSIC)
I'm so sorry. I really tried.
Well, three different spot
treatments didn't work.
I wanted to get your okay.
before trying hydrogen peroxide.
Red wine is an acid,
and silks hate acid.
(WOMAN): Red wine? No, it's
a, it's a ketchup stain.
No, ketchup's redder. When
it's purple, it's wine.
No, no, no. My husband
was at a Cardinals game
and someone walked into
him holding a hot dog.
You know what? You're so right.
It's ketchup. Um, I will let you know.
- Thank you.
- Okay, bye.
(TV NEWSCAST PLAYING)
(BELL ON DOOR RINGING)
We're closed!
Special delivery.
- Oh.
- Hey, Lorraine.
Now Ray, you're not here
to get your tux cleaned.
I saw your car outside.
I'm still getting your mail.
Oh. Thanks.
You figure if you wait long enough,
they'll stop asking for their money?
I'm working late, aren't
I? You stopped drinking.
How in the world can you know that?
Have you been going through my trash?
Oh, your pants are too loose.
You're down to the
last loop on your belt.
Going on four months now.
Two meetings a week.
I dunno, maybe this time I'll stick.
That's great. Good for you, Ray.
How's things around here?
Well, I just got yelled
at by Jeanie Franco,
whose husband's having an affair
with a clumsy red wine drinker.
Tell me you did not put
yourself in the middle of that.
I didn't say a word. You'd
have been proud of me.
Hey, can I at least pay your cable bill?
I'm the reason you signed
up for it in the first place,
and I'm saving a fortune on my bar tab.
You're not paying my damn bills.
I could pay off all of 'em
and we still wouldn't be even, Lorraine.
Take off your pants.
- What?
- I'll take 'em in.
You want me to walk out
of here in my underpants?
I got something in your size.
He's not gonna come in looking for it?
If he hasn't needed a set
of work clothes in a
month, he got fired.
(NEWSCASTER): in Charlotte
North Carolina this morning
- All right.
- Melissa and Frank Conley
made an impassioned plea to the public
for the safe return of
their son Rory Conley.
Rory is six. He's tall for his age,
with brown hair and gaps in his teeth.
He was dressed as a fox.
(NEWSCASTER): It's been a year
since their five-year-old son
was abducted from Charlotte Comic Expo.
The good news is, I
can always look for work
as a security guard.
The family now offering a reward
- What?
- of up to $50,000
for information that could
lead to his safe return.
Is it happening again?
(SOFT MUSIC)
Why are you being so dramatic?
You have the best view in the house.
(SNIFFS) You'll be okay.
- Yeah.
- (MICROWAVE BEEPING)
(POLICE SIRENS IN THE DISTANCE)
(REPORTER): Are you
frustrated with the police?
Do you know if they're following leads?
They say they're doing their best,
and I guess we have to
believe them. Thank you.
(FRANK): Thank you for being here.
(LINE RINGING)
(WOMAN): You have reached
the Charlotte Mecklenburg
Police Missing Persons Unit.
Please leave your message and
phone number after the ton.
(BEEP)
Hello. My name is Lorraine Howell.
I live in Branson, Missouri,
and I am calling about Rory Conley.
I kept thinking the worst had passed.
But new lows would sneak up on us.
Each day that passed meant
it was that much less likely.
The police said they'd call
when they knew something.
But the phone never rang.
And then it did.
The detective on the case
said someone had come forward
with information. It
was unsubstantiated,
borderline insane, but
when you're in pitch darkness,
no light is too small.
This will sound strange, but
I can see things sometimes.
Images, strong, clear images,
not hallucinations, they're real.
I, I can see Rory.
He's is alive.
He he's
There's an older woman
with a Southern accent talking to him.
She's telling him to
eat graham crackers,
but he's not listening. He has a,
he has a toy car in his hand,
a little purple toy race car.
He's driving it along a
seam in the sofa upholstery,
making sounds like tires squealing.
She was so sure. She told us
exactly what we needed to hear.
He has crumbs on his shirt.
He's, he's uh lost one
of his bottom teeth.
(EXHALES)
He is being cared for.
Please don't give up.
Who wouldn't want to
believe their missing son
is still alive?
Even if it was a lie?
(THEME MUSIC)
(SOFT MUSIC)
Hey. Hey.
Hey.
I got your pants.
Oh, thanks, Lorraine. Really.
And you're throwing in a free fern?
I'm going out of town. Do me a favor,
look after it when I'm gone?
I don't have the best
track record for keeping
things alive. I can remember
one marriage in particular.
You'll do fine. Indirect light,
somewhere nice and humid.
It'll drink as much as you give it.
- My kinda plant.
- (CHUCKLES)
So, how long am I
taking care of Mr. Fern?
I don't know. Couple weeks, maybe.
It's the kid, isn't it? The one on TV?
Why, Lorraine?
It's never worth it,
putting yourself in the
middle of all that pain.
You're always worse
off on the other side.
I have to do this.
No, you don't. Stay.
Let me take you out to dinner. We
I have to go. I have to go.
Don't over-water it.
You'll rot the roots.
The purple toy car, that's what did it.
He had it in his pocket
the day that he
It's people like her
who claim to be psychics,
they do research.
Maybe she saw him
holding it in pictures.
So given that skepticism, why
bring her to North Carolina?
She said she needed
to be in Rory's room.
Establish a connection.
I wasn't sure. Frank was.
And he knew the magic words.
He said the same thing
I tell all my buyers
when they're looking at a house:
All the research in the world
doesn't compare to the feeling
you get when it's right in front of you.
(CITY HUBBUB)
You must be Frank.
Thank you for coming.
Oh.
- (WOMAN ON SPEAKERS): outcomes to yourself.
- Oh, sorry.
through the power of manifestation,
by focusing on positive thoughts
My wife doesn't believe
in any of this stuff.
She'd rather listen to
nails on a chalkboard.
I guess even that beats the quiet.
Unless, do you need quiet to
get the energies in alignment, or ?
If you'd rather, I can turn it off.
No, it's fine. I'm a
normal person, I promise.
Okay. (CHUCKLING)
(SOFT MUSIC)
I'll go get Melissa. Melissa!
Hi. Nice to meet you.
I'm Melissa Conley.
Uh (CLEARS THROAT)
Lorraine.
I'm so sorry for what
you've been through.
Thanks. Thanks for coming.
Oh. You smell that? Cookies.
She's been out of the real
estate game for a year,
but she still pulls
the open house trick.
Don't fall for it,
Lorraine. Place is a dump.
I'll bet Rory loved oatmeal raisin.
I, I thought it might
help. I don't know.
- Yeah.
- Set the mood. (LAUGHS)
Anyway. Shall we shall we begin?
- It's this way.
- Oh, okay.
Please.
Anything you need to get started,
you just let us know.
Or, if you'd rather, we
could go over what we know.
We've got that folder from the police
- around here somewhere
- Frank. Remember
- what we talked about?
- Yeah. Right. Sorry.
My husband's a talker,
but maybe there are things
- you could tell us instead?
- (FRANK): Mm-hmm.
Um (CLICKS TONGUE)
You don't have to tell
me anything. I just
I get a feeling.
But only sometimes.
(EXHALES)
Yeah.
It comes or it doesn't.
(SOFT PIANO MUSIC)
May I?
Yeah.
(SIGHS)
Was Rory allergic to peanuts?
(EXHALING)
No. He didn't have any allergies.
Then why did he sort his Halloween candy
one pile with peanuts, and one without?
- I'm allergic.
- Frank
I, I, I told Rory not to
bring peanuts into the house
or he couldn't kiss me goodnight.
And so he would trade
the ones with peanuts
for sour gummy worms.
But that doesn't mean that he's alive.
- Or that we're gonna find him.
- Yeah. But, yeah, but
No, no, no. You're right,
you're right. This is scary
letting a stranger into your house.
Your heart's already broken,
you don't wanna have it broken again.
I promise I wouldn't
put you through this
unless I knew there was
reason to hope. Just hope.
She could have seen
Frank's EpiPen in the car,
she could have noticed we
had no nuts in our kitchen,
or a million other clues
I might have missed.
But still. That night, I
slept a full eight hours
for the first time in a
year. So, I guess in some way,
I did believe it.
You put the defendant up
in your guest room, correct?
Yes. It was impossible
to know when, or if,
she'd see anything
that we could have used.
So she stayed.
And did she ask for
anything besides the room?
Some sort of payment?
We offered, she refused.
Then she got a call from her landlord.
She was behind on rent,
so she'd have to go back
and move her things out.
So we paid it off for her.
We could afford it.
Little by little, other things came up.
Loans. Car payments. So she stayed.
And a week turned into a month,
which turned into two months.
Why welcome her in?
Why pay off her debts?
What made you think she was legitimate?
She'd done it before.
She found that girl. The one in Nevada.
Lorraine led the police right to her,
and now she's in college.
She'd done it once.
I thought she could do it again.
(MUSIC SWELLS UP)
- (CHUCKLES): Hi.
- Hi.
Still keep the freezer
stocked with mint chip.
Good.
Never know when he might
come back and want some.
Nothing new?
It's only been four days
- since I last saw him.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Don't read into it.
- Thanks.
- Hm.
- You're all right to stay, yeah?
- Of course.
There's no one missing me in Missouri.
- No one? No, no family?
- Mm-hmm. Not really.
You and Melissa are
It's good you have each other.
Yeah, it's a great balance.
She's vegetables, and I'm ice cream.
- Mm.
- I was always the one
who indulged Rory.
Like the stuffed koala on his bed.
When he saw that at the convention,
he begged me for it.
He'd look at me with those big eyes.
I swear to god, the kid knew
exactly what he was doing.
Yeah. There were so many people there.
I turned away for a second.
Maybe if I didn't,
he wouldn't have
Hey. It's not your fault. It's not.
Yeah
Nothing made him happier
than mornings his dad
woke him up to play hooky. Nothing.
I bet. Good night.
Have you seen anything else?
- Not yet.
- How, how long did it
take the last time? That
girl you found in 2007.
Amelia Price.
How long until you saw the thing
that led the police to her?
I couldn't piece it together.
I just saw fleeting images.
I kept
I kept seeing this row of little jars
with peeling labels on a windowsill.
Then I could see past
the grimy windowpane,
out to a water tower
with faded lettering.
I-T-E space S-T.
Then someone found a manufacturer
named Granite State Steel,
and next to one of their,
um, water towers was
a trailer park.
They knocked on doors,
the guy ran, and they found Amelia.
Her family sends me
Christmas cards every year.
It's been 17 years since
you've seen a missing child?
Yes.
- Good night.
- Good night.
(MAN): That's it? A blue sedan?
- From the '90s, right?
- It could be the early aughts.
Definitely an older model.
With a pull-down armrest
in the backseat. Rory
was using to draw on it.
And, and there was a burger
wrapper in the cup holder.
- Didn't you say that?
- Yeah.
Are, are you gonna write it down?
Okay. Uh, I'll write it down,
along with your other tips. Yeah.
An older woman with a Southern accent,
a backyard with a tire swing,
and the sounds of jack-hammering
from a construction site.
You didn't also happen to
see like a license plate?
Or um, a street sign? Or a state flag?
Lorraine has seen things that
can't otherwise be explained.
She knew Rory had that purple car
- the day he disappeared.
- It's not much to go on.
Yeah, but it's something.
I didn't peg you as much
of a believer, Ms. Conley.
Well, at least it's better
than the nothing your office
has to show for the past year.
Okay. Just because
we don't have answers,
doesn't mean we're not still looking.
We're tracking half a
dozen child-abduction cases.
Three in particular.
If we solve one of those,
it could lead us to him.
So, I apologize
if I'm not keen on wasting our resources
tracking down a palm reader's tip.
She found that girl, Amelia Price.
A broken clock's right twice a day.
But it's not just random guesses,
- I gave concrete details.
- Yeah, that's great, fine, great,
but you're not exactly one for one,
are you, Ms. Howell?
I looked you up on the NCIC database
and there were six
cases, six I could find,
I'm sure there were more
where you offered information.
For someone who can't force a vision,
you've got a lot to say.
And not enough of a track
record to back it up.
I wonder if you're more worried
about your track record than mine.
Those are a lot of case files.
Maybe you've bitten off too much?
A man your age has to
be looking at the clock,
hoping for that promotion to Captain.
Maybe it's easier to brush these pesky,
unsolvable cases out of sight.
I think we're done here.
(SIGHS)
Do yourself a favor?
Start ironing your shirts.
You're so right, I mean,
look at his case load.
He can't afford to have
someone else show him up.
There were other cases?
- Sorry?
- You said the last case
you took was the Nevada
girl. But there were others.
Yeah six. Six, since Amelia Price.
- Why didn't you tell us?
- In some cases, my
connection was severed.
So you lied.
(SIGHS)
Yes, I lied.
Did you really want to know
that I stopped being able to see
four of the six children,
and that they were later found dead?
Did you really want to know
how often this doesn't work out?
I'm sorry, but I was protecting you.
Rory is alive.
That much I know.
Just like I knew about Amelia.
Ugh!
The day we found Amelia
Price was a great day.
A great day. I was on Dan Rather,
and I remember, he called
me a hero, and I said,
look, the world had given up.
But not me. Not the family.
And not Lorraine.
We had no leads, you know.
Most of the team had been reassigned.
It was just me and the tip desk.
Lorraine was a godsend.
Deserved every bit of that reward.
And how much of the
reward did you receive
- for solving the case?
- None.
And how were your financial
circumstances at the time?
I was doing all right.
I picked the Steelers over the Seahawks
- in the Super Bowl, so
- So you weren't experiencing
any financial hardship in 2006, correct?
- Not particularly.
- Your Honor,
I'd like to offer into
evidence the following document.
(TENSE MUSIC)
Detective, do you
recognize what this is?
Yeah, it's a letter from
the court from March 2006.
You're eight months behind
on your child support.
- Well yeah, but
- Explain the highlighted
portion on the list of assets
from your divorce settlement?
Uh, this has nothing to do with it.
I'd just bought a new Ford F-150.
I was paying it off. Look, I saved up,
I got a promotion. I
could pull in more overtime
once the Price case was
off my desk, all right?
You said you were the only
one monitoring the tip line,
and had a tip come in,
you would have received
none of the reward money, correct?
That's what I said.
So, just at time that
you were short on funds,
an outside party who claimed
to have a supernatural gift,
happened to offer up information
that would reinforce her claim
- and secure her the reward money?
- Hold on
Wouldn't you both have benefited
from splitting the reward money?
That's not at all what
happened, all right?
I did my job, I brought Amelia home,
and I'm not the one on trial here.
No further questions, Your Honor.
I
I-I can't get my statements.
The bank's records
don't go back that far.
But I used the reward to
pay off my credit card debt.
- I didn't know that man before.
- Okay. Okay.
I didn't speak to him
after. You have to trust me.
(LITTLE GIRL BABBLING)
(SOFT PIANO MUSIC)
Detective Serrano, you have stated
that the defendant fed
the Conleys false hope,
that her so-called
visions had nothing to do
with the disappearance of Rory Conley.
- Can you state that conclusively?
- Yes, I can.
And how do you know that for a fact?
(DOOR BELL RINGS)
Frank?
Maybe it's better if we sit.
- No, I don't want to sit down.
- Ms. Conley
- Just say it.
- (MAN SIGHS)
I have some news.
It's not good news,
but maybe, I hope, it'll bring you
some amount of peace.
Last night, we charged a man
with the murder of your son.
(OMINOUS MUSIC)
No.
How do how do you know?
He confessed.
Oh! Oh no!
(CRYING)
Four days ago, a retired contractor
named Matthew Lee Boyd
was stopped at a D.U.I.
checkpoint in Virginia.
His fingerprints matched those
of a case of a missing
Pittsburgh boy, Noah Jackson.
In the trunk of his car,
we found children's toys
and zip ties.
Now, while under interrogation,
he admitted to two more murders.
One boy had gone missing in
Richmond, that's Caden Greer,
and the second was was Rory.
(EXHALES)
Did he
Did he tell you where he took Rory?
Well, he was on a bender,
so he doesn't remember much,
but he is cooperating.
It'll take some time
to track down the bodies. But for now,
we have his license plate
charged with a highway toll
on I-85 around the time
that Rory disappeared.
- Are you sure that's
- No! You don't talk!
You don't say one single damn thing.
(TENSE MUSIC)
What are you doing?
Why aren't you packing?
Do you need some help?
Here, I'll help you.
- Melissa, hey, whoa
- I told you to get out.
What is wrong with
you? Why won't you go?
The police have it wrong.
- The police have it wrong.
- How do you know?
Oh, Frank, please don't
keep falling for it.
How can they say anything conclusively
- if there's no physical evidence?
- Evidence?
You read tea leaves!
Don't talk to us about evidence!
I swear, I can still feel him.
Yeah, and so can I.
But he was my son, and I
knew him and you didn't.
And you watched this news
clip and hallucinated a boy
that was already dead, you leech!
Just get her out of here.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC SWELLS)
Wait, Lorraine.
Maybe I'm stupid for
still believing you.
Maybe it's just wishful thinking.
But I don't want you to go.
' Cause once you go, it's
over. I'm never finding him.
So Frank kept her around.
And that's when all hell broke loose.
Inside, a man is being
charged for three murders,
but there are only two bodies.
I feel for the parents of
Noah Jackson and Caden Greer,
who are experiencing the unimaginable,
but at least they know what
happened to their child.
I don't. Matthew Lee
Boyd has not been able
to point to Rory's
body. He doesn't know.
The true crime podcasts.
The social media sleuths.
Someone found CCTV
footage of a blue '98 sedan
near the convention center that day,
so that meant Lorraine must be right.
Right now, I'm focused on convicting
a confessed criminal, okay?
So please, out of my way.
I understand why Detective Serrano
wants this case closed, but he hasn't
produced sufficient proof.
You don't always get
the physical evidence,
but I'm pretty damn close.
If the police are
asking me to abandon hope
that my son is alive, I need certainty.
Not "pretty damn close."
You can't blame a grieving father.
He wanted to keep his boy alive.
But what did she want?
Why couldn't she let it go?
Maybe she needed to keep her
resume clean for next time.
(KNOCKING)
Can I come in?
Yes. Of course.
I found this place on our
credit card statements.
Sixty bucks a night?
- That's highway robbery.
- Well, Frank said he wanted to
Frank doesn't have it
in him to tell you no.
Same as with Rory.
He lets you take advantage of him.
Rory couldn't take
advantage of you, could he?
No. I was the strict one.
Someone had to be.
(CHUCKLES) Yeah.
Otherwise, he'd be up
till midnight every night
eating Froot Loops.
And you thought, when he was older,
he would understand.
I figured he'd have self-control,
and teeth with no
cavities, and he'd thank me.
But now he's gone.
And he knew me as the
lady who only said no.
- I'm sure he didn't
- The district attorney
reached out to me. They
want to prosecute you
for exploiting our situation
and standing in the way
of an investigation.
These things carry prison time.
Forfeiture of assets.
Wh Why are you telling me this?
They won't have a case
without my testimony.
- So I won't cooperate.
- Oh.
On one condition.
Tell Frank you got it wrong.
Tell him Rory's gone.
- Melissa
- As long as you keep
his hope alive, the
wound will never heal.
And-and we have to move on.
And it is not too late, and
we could start over, and
Please.
Please?
I've already lost my son.
I can't lose my husband, too.
(SOFT MUSIC)
I didn't ask for this. I saw something.
You said it had enough
truth to it that I should
uproot my life. And yes,
I didn't leave much behind.
And yes, I accepted your money,
but that doesn't mean I am a fraud.
Please, just tell me how much. Please.
(LAUGHING)
Look at where I am.
If I could be bought, don't you think
I would have been bought?
If, if I were a fraud,
I would cut my losses
and take the get-out-of-jail-free card.
If, if I were a fraud,
I would be able to sleep at night
without seeing a missing
child I never knew.
Do you have any idea what
this gift has cost me?
A marriage. A family.
Everyone wants me to see something!
But if I can't, or if I do,
but it's not the right thing,
then I am a con artist and a liar!
I don't see lottery numbers!
I see pain.
I (SIGHS)
I turn toward it
'cause I am the only one who can.
(DOOR OPENS AND SLAMS SHUT)
(MAN): Why didn't Matthew
Lee Boyd's case go to trial?
He took a plea. Three life sentences.
- Was that your recommendation?
- Absolutely not.
I said forget the death penalty,
I'll strangle him myself.
But when it came down to it,
I could forego the punishment
to save the families from
sitting through a trial.
So other words, he was so guilty
beyond all reasonable doubt,
a trial would only serve to prolong
- the victims' families' pain?
- Correct.
Your Honor, I would like to offer
the following video into evidence.
Detective, what do you
recognize this video to be?
That is my interrogation
of Matthew Lee Boyd.
(INTRIGUING MUSIC)
There's another one, isn't there?
- There was a third.
- A third kid? A boy?
- (MATTHEW): A boy, yeah.
- Where?
- (MATTHEW): I don't remember.
- Yeah, you do.
- What do you remember?
- (MATTHEW): Are they gonna kill me?
Maybe. These are capital crimes.
But if you cooperate,
we may not pursue the death penalty.
Where was the third boy?
(MATTHEW): Near the water. Big crowd.
A convention?
Yeah. A convention.
(OMINOUS MUSIC)
So Boyd had no lawyer
during a confession
that led to a guilty plea,
and no trial during
which that confession
- could be properly examined?
- He waived his right to a lawyer.
If he pointed you to
the other two bodies
within hours, why not make
the location of the third body
- a condition of the plea agreement?
- It wasn't up to me.
Did you recommend not
pursuing the death penalty
in order to elicit a confession
for Rory Conley's murder?
Yes. That's how confessions happen.
Even knowing his confession
rested upon information
you yourself gave him?
- (TENSE MUSIC)
- (AUDIENCE CHATTER)
Do you swear that the
evidence you give to the court
shall be the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the
truth, so help you God?
I do.
When did you first become aware
you possessed such
an extraordinary gift?
I was too young to remember
when my brother was
shipped off to Vietnam.
But I remember when my family
got the call saying his unit
had gone out on night
patrol and never come back.
Four confirmed dead,
two Missing in Action.
We knew what that meant.
He was dead, but no bodies.
My mother was out of her mind.
Joe was the oldest,
her golden boy.
I didn't understand what
was happening. I couldn't
(SIGHS) console her.
One day, I was in Joe's room.
Um, and I saw him.
Somewhere far away, wrapped
in a checkerboard quilt.
Green and white.
What did you make of it?
I knew it wasn't a hallucination.
I tried to imagine where he was before,
but this was different.
I knew
this was happening.
I knew he was alive.
Did your family believe you?
My mother didn't need any convincing.
We'd sit together at night
and I'd tell her what I saw.
How Joe needed a haircut and
(SIGHS)
a shower.
And then you got the call.
Yes. They had negotiated his release
from a prison camp, and he
was alive and coming home.
It
And it was, it was like our
lives were starting up again.
Um (SNIFFLING)
The day after he came back,
he said that the one thing
that kept him going was playing chess.
And it turned out that
that chessboard was green and white.
We have some clippings
from the local paper
to offer into evidence.
(CROWD WHISPERING)
(OMINOUS MUSIC)
So, if you are a
fraud, is it fair to say
you began your grift quite early?
And for no money at all?
Ms. Howell, did it feel good,
seeing how grateful the Conleys were?
How much your information meant to them?
I was happy to be able
to provide that hope.
Hmm, just as I'm sure
you were happy to provide
- hope that to your own mother?
- Yes.
Now you said that your
brother was the golden child.
What did that make you?
I was shy. Quiet. The youngest of five.
Uh, my mother was sure
I would ruin my eyesight
with how much time I spent reading.
But she was much more
focused on my brothers.
And when you were the only
one that knew your brother
was alive, did it bring you together?
Yes. We leaned on each other.
Gosh, that feeling, that
feeling of being a hero,
being important
must have been intoxicating?
I suppose. I was very young.
Well, fast-forward to now.
You've had some very
high-profile successes,
some quiet failures.
Tell me, why do you
keep going back to it?
Because I I
- I have to.
- You "have to".
You have to what?
Make up for your first,
greatest failure?
Please tell us about the
passing of your brother.
(CROWD CHATTERING)
Uh, four years after he came home,
he was killed in a head-on
collision with a drunk driver
on Route 108. He was on his
way to pick me up from school.
And when you failed to
foresee the accident,
- did you blame yourself?
- (WHISPERING): He was on
(LOUDER): He was on his way
to pick me up, how could I not?
But I, I never claimed to
be able to see the future.
I wish I could.
But your mother believed
wholeheartedly in your gift,
didn't she? And did that
belief lead her to place
all the responsibility for
keeping your brother safe
- onto you?
- She didn't blame me, no.
But she never quite trusted me again.
And what about the rest of your family,
would you consider yourselves estranged?
- No.
- When was the last time you saw them?
2002 at my mother's funeral.
Is that why you seek out new families?
Desperate, broken ones like the Conleys,
who welcomed you with open arms?
(CROWD CHATTERS)
I just wanna help.
Maybe.
Maybe by offering them
what you couldn't provide
for your own family gives
you meaning in your life?
If I did it only for myself,
I'd have learned by now
to stay far, far away.
And yet you've spent your life
seeking to be indispensable
to people in pain, haven't you?
Would you say, Ms.
Howell, that the trouble
with an unpredictable
gift, felt only by the one
who possesses it, is that it
bears a striking resemblance
to somebody just making guesses?
But I'm not just making guesses.
I'm, I'm not lying.
But how can you be sure
you're telling the truth?
I mean, after all, isn't a
truly successful fraudster's
first victim herself?
(DRAMATIC MUSIC SWELLS)
No further questions Your Honor.
In a trial for fraud,
the State is required
to prove three things
beyond a reasonable doubt.
One: That the defendant
knowingly misrepresented facts.
Two, the defendant had
an intent to deceive
and succeeded in that deceit.
And three, the deception was
done for financial benefit.
It's not a question of
whether the defendant
was right or wrong. That
much we may never know.
It's not a question of whether
she profited financially
when all is said and done.
It doesn't even matter
whether you believe
she's entirely delusional.
What it comes down to is this:
Did Lorraine Howell
believe what she was
telling the Conleys?
The girl who kept her
family's hope alive,
the woman who knowingly exposes herself
to some of the worst
pain in the world
Does that woman have
faith in her own gift?
(EXHALES DEEPLY)
(CHUCKLING)
I don't want the money back.
I don't want her to go to jail.
I didn't do it to punish her,
I did it to convince you.
Maybe seeing it all
laid out, in court
You saw the same tape I saw.
- It wasn't a real confession
- Stop.
(SOFT MUSIC)
I can't keep going around and around.
There will always be reasons to doubt.
What kind of father
would I be if I gave up?
You were a wonderful father.
And you could be, again.
But I'm tired of hoping, Frank.
I can't do it anymore.
(JUDGE): Has the jury reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
We the jury, in the case of
the State of North Carolina
versus Lorraine Howell, find
the defendant not guilty.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
(CROWD CHATTERS)
(JUDGE): Jurors, thank
you for your service.
This court is adjourned.
(GAVEL BANGS)
(BAILIFF): All rise.
- Congratulations.
- Thank you.
Lorraine. Lorraine.
You'll call me, right?
Even if you think something's
too small, I wanna,
I wanna hear it.
Yeah. Yeah, this isn't
over. It isn't over.
(GRAVE MUSIC)
Thank you.
(SIGHS)
(SOFT HOPEFUL MUSIC)
I figured since you
weren't calling me back,
you probably didn't want me
sitting in the back of the court
for the trial. But I wanted
to be here when it was over.
(SOBBING): It's good
It's good to see you, Ray.
(SIGHS)
You ready to go home?
Car's fixed.
Um, more or less.
(CHUCKLES)
(INDISTINCT ARGUING)
(SIGHS)
You did all you could.
What else was there to
do but tell the truth?
(MUFFLED SOB)
- You okay?
- (SNIFFLES)
(INTRIGUING MUSIC)