Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) s02e18 Episode Script
Legion
In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
- Hey.
- Hey.
It's freezing in here.
They didn't fix the heat? Mmm-mmm.
Called the super this morning.
Calling doesn't do any good.
I'll go down and talk to him.
Hey, where's Sami? Did you let him go out? He doesn't do what I tell him.
You let him bring that in here? Rico, don't make trouble, please! If he comes in here, I'll send him straight home.
Okay.
Hey, hey! Where's Sami, huh? I don't know anything.
You don't know.
Then why you running, huh? - I don't know! - Where you going off in a rush? You don't know? Listen, you tell your friends Sami's out of this.
If he isn't home in una hora, I'm gonna call the cops and let them know what you're up to.
- Listen, I don't know - Listen, you tell your friends what I said! Hey.
Hey, get away from me! Help! We heard you were looking for Sami.
You got your pops to thank for this, little man.
Look at him, little man.
Look at the love in his eyes.
He loves you so much.
Welcome death, little man.
Look, the senator's bill's never gonna make it out of committee.
No, it's dead, gone, forget it.
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I didn't see him.
I didn't see him.
He came out of nowhere.
I didn't even see him.
Oh, my God.
Law & Order CI Witnesses confirm the initial report.
This guy ran out into traffic.
This accident finished something someone else started.
His throat's been cut.
It's not very deep.
Didn't go through the carotid artery.
There's dirt in the wound, in his mouth.
He's even aspirated some up his nose.
And there's dirt under the nails.
This man was buried alive.
He He dug himself out.
This blood spatter on his pants, you see how it moves across both legs? It didn't come from his neck.
I didn't see any other wounds.
There's another injured out there.
Out there, somewhere in Prospect Park.
Guys, we're gonna have to check this whole perimeter.
Oh, damn.
This is Detective Eames.
We have a body.
Male, juvenile, about 50 yards in from the playground.
He was cut right through the carotid.
The boy died instantly.
And there's no mistake this time.
We ran the prints.
We got a pop on the adult victim.
Enrique lberra.
According to the blood tests, the kid's probably his.
I'm guessing lberra's priors were for dope.
This MO's got dope written all over it.
Iberra's last conviction was 12 years ago.
He finished his GED while he was inside.
His parole reviews are stellar.
He had car grease on his jacket, calluses on his hand.
He was a mechanic.
He was working for a living.
He and his kid were what, witnesses? Wrong place, wrong time? Or it's punitive.
Someone was being taught a lesson.
The father? Not necessarily.
Iberra had his son's blood on his pants.
His son was buried on top of him.
Which means Iberra was likely killed first.
Right in front of his son.
Was your husband in any kind of trouble? Did he owe someone money or No.
There was no trouble.
Not about Sami? No.
No.
When Sami didn't come home last night, you weren't worried? I thought he was with Rico.
And Rico came home after work, he left his toolbox there and then he left again.
Why? To have a beer.
But Sami was 12 years old.
He didn't take Sami to have a beer.
No.
Sami, he was with his friends, kids from the neighborhood.
Maybe your husband went out looking for him.
No.
He just went out That's all, he ju I'm just so upset.
I'm sorry.
We're gonna have to look in Sami's room.
Sami was a fan.
Him and his friends, they all wanna be basketball players.
Your husband took him to the games? No, we can't afford that.
These are ticket stubs from three different games.
The last one was a month ago.
Someone from Rico's work got him those.
A rich guy.
Rico worked on his car.
I don't remember his name.
These protein bars, did you buy them? Sure, I did.
How much did they cost? I A dollar something.
I don't remember.
These are worth about $5, right? I mean, these are about five bucks.
Did someone give them to Sami? Maybe the same person who gave him the game tickets.
No, I told you.
I can't help you.
Please.
We think you need our help.
Promise you'll give us a call, okay? Did Sami work on cars with his dad? I'm wondering if this stuff's grease or oil here.
See? Rico's work.
Grease everywhere in the house.
/ It's okay, I'll clean it up.
It's no big deal.
You should really listen to what my partner is telling you.
You're not alone.
Protein bars, Knicks tickets, this kid had expensive tastes.
Yeah, and the money to indulge them.
Move it over to the right, okay, because that's where the drum kit goes.
Where you been? We got a booking in 20 minutes.
Yeah, sorry, Jojo.
- You know I count on you, right? - Yeah.
And after, Tomas needs help with his homework.
What? You know the rules.
You wanna hang out, eat my food, learn the board, then you gotta get the homework done.
Frankie.
You create a problem, solve it on your own time.
Let's go.
Dead? Both of them? I didn't know.
Enrique's wife said you saw him last night.
Why would she say that? Maybe because he said he was having a beer with you.
No way he told her that.
I was still here, right here, working till 9:00.
How do you know it was before 9:00 when he went out? Well, you just said that She didn't tell you what time it was, Mr.
Ramirez.
Now you know because you saw him, right? Maybe somebody told me they saw him.
Somebody who? Somebody from where Enrique was having the beer, like Louisa said.
Where would that be, you being Enrique's drinking buddy? Try la taverna around the corner.
Hey, I wasn't that close to him.
He'd been in jail, you know? See that bodega down there on the right? I think the guy there, Ramirez, was friends with him.
Maybe he saw him.
But you're sure Mr.
Iberra didn't come in for a beer last night? Yeah.
He hardly ever came in.
I don't know, maybe once, I don't know.
I never noticed him.
Sorry.
Honest people, every last one of them.
You can tell 'cause they're such bad liars.
Hey, guys.
Hey, no, no, wait up, wait up.
Listen, me and my partner, we need your help.
Did you know that a friend of yours from the neighborhood, Sami Iberra, you know that he got killed last night with his We don't know him.
- We don't know what happened.
- Wait, wait, wait.
I'm not finished.
Who put the word out not to talk to us? Who's everyone afraid of? Come on, Sami grew up here all his life with his mom and his dad.
Huh? You guys grew up with him.
You probably went to the same school, right? You played video games, you shoot hoops.
You don't think you should stand up for him? In this neighborhood, the Neighborhood Watch watches the cops.
It just breaks my heart.
Sami was one of our small victories.
He worked so hard to better his grades.
This year it all just clicked in for him.
How was he outside of class? Any problems with the other kids? Fights? No.
He stuck mostly with kids from his own neighborhood.
They're all good kids.
That's the picture we're getting.
The local precinct said it's a low crime area, very little drug activity.
Protein bars seem to be the drug of choice.
All of Sami's friends eat those.
If you had to name Sami's best friend, who would that be? It was Jamal Dupuis, but Jamal moved out of state a few months ago to live with his father.
How did Sami take that? He started acting out, but he got himself under control.
CD player.
Noise reduction headphones.
It's got to be at least a couple hundred bucks.
That's Rap.
Rap.
Well, this is interesting.
What is that, a mambo? No, it's son.
It's music from Cuba.
Which is odd 'cause his family's Dominican.
These kids are usually ferocious about, you know, embracing their ethnic background.
It's homemade.
Sami's Mix.
And he didn't have a computer or a CD burner at home.
Sixteen-One Studios.
Yeah, I showed Sami how to download tracks and use the CD burner.
You a friend of the family? A friend of the community.
The local kids, they like to stop by after school, I let them hang out till their parents come home from work.
But that can't be good for business.
Hey, don't worry.
When J.
Lo comes in, I make sure the kids behave.
Let me help you with that.
We'll move it around this way.
All right.
You know, Sami's He had a very eclectic selection on his CD.
Yeah, rap, hip-hop, you'd expect that.
But son music? Is that your influence, Mr.
Rios? He heard me play it.
He liked it.
Kids are like, you know, sponges.
He see you eat these? He had some in his locker at school.
Well, I can't help it if they get hungry, and I don't feed them junk.
I mean, you eat junk, you become junk.
Yeah, respect your body, respect yourself.
That's a good philosophy.
I'm sorry, this thing is just so Baby! Oh, I like that.
It records a word or a phrase so you can play it like a note, you know.
You let the kids use this stuff? I teach them how to use the equipment, after they do their homework.
Jojo's clubhouse.
All due respect, ma'am, where would you like these boys to be? Here, doing their schoolwork, maybe learning a skill, or out in your neighborhood boosting car stereos? No, here, definitely.
Hey, Frankie, Ruthie's Jerk Palace is coming in at 4:00, huh? You want to set up the board? I got a restaurant commercial to do.
You must do a lot of these commercials to pay for all this gear.
Oh, commercials, demos.
I even got a couple of clients get on the Latin charts.
Is Frankie one of your success stories? Frankie's like an apprentice, you know? Another couple of years, he'll know enough to open his own studio.
So he gets his own studio, and then there's Sami.
What happened with him? He was a victim of his father's impulses.
The man was an ex-convict.
That was his nature.
He was probably mixed up with some bad people, and the poor kid paid the price.
You know, one last thing, before we let you get on with your, you know, commercial.
Jamal Dupuis, did he hang out here with Sami? Yeah, for a while.
But I think the kid moved out of the neighborhood.
Good.
That's that's what we heard.
Well, thanks.
Baby! I really like I really like that.
Jamal moved down to the barrier islands, to live with his father in South Carolina.
Why? Was he having problems here? He wanted to work, and they don't let 13-year-olds work up here.
So, they say you can make good money crabbing down there.
Have you talked to him lately? He calls from time to time from pay phones.
His father doesn't have a phone now.
Have you told him what happened to his friend Sami? No.
Well, they were best friends.
They hung out together at the sound studio on Bergen Street.
We have nothing to say against Mr.
Rios.
Your daughter is very cute.
You're happy Jamal's out of the house.
Why would you say that? Well, you don't have any photos of him.
What's the town where Jamal's staying with his father? It's not just one town.
Well, his father's got family on a lot of the islands down there, so Jamal stays with them, too.
My favorite place down there is Gullah Gullah Island.
I bet Jamal probably goes crabbing there.
Oh, yes.
I remember him telling me that.
Telling you that he went crabbing on Gullah Gullah Island? You know, Mrs.
Dupuis, there is no island with that name.
Well, I'm sure I heard of it.
That's because there's a children's television show called Gullah, Gullah Island, and you probably watched it with him when he was growing up.
Where is he? What happened to him? He's with his father, and you have to go now.
Mr.
Dupuis, we can protect your family.
Just go.
Slowly, now.
You don't need that much, just half.
Easy, easy.
You see, Ramon? One drop at a time, not all at once like you did last week.
- No, I didn't.
- Don't contradict! A man who sees his own shortcomings and corrects them is on his way to meet God.
Frankie, come help teach these boys.
Your mind isn't here.
You wanna be strong, you stay focused.
You watch Bennie.
He's focused.
That's how he gets the job done.
I got the job done, Jojo.
Half done.
Now I told you, watch Bennie.
You see, Frankie? That's focus.
Jamal's parents were supposed to contact us to tell us where to send his school records, but we never heard from them.
Jamal ever talk about working in South Carolina? No, I never heard that.
Could we see other files from students who moved away in the last year or so? Sure.
We keep them over here.
There's a notation in Jamal's records from the school nurse.
Two weeks before he moved, he showed up with a black eye and a broken collar bone.
Here you go.
This one moved to Fresno, California.
The school board confirms he's enrolled there.
Here, Christopher White, broken arm six months ago.
Three weeks later, his parents say he moved to Oklahoma to live with relatives.
There's no confirmation in the file.
We try to stay on top of things.
Marco Reyes.
His parents say they sent him to Mexico to live with his grandmother.
That was a week after he showed up for class with eight stitches in his face.
These kids were all getting a beating as a going-away present.
Well, they have something else in common.
They were all from the same 12-block radius.
The same 12 scared blocks.
Some kids were trolling for scrap metal last October along l-95 near exit 43.
Their dog started digging.
John Doe, 12 to 13 years old.
He matches one of the set of dental records you sent around.
Christopher White.
The throat was cut.
The laceration was deep, all the way back to the vertebra.
Almost took his head clean off.
The way the body was posed in the grave, stretched out, hands crossed over the front, feet together.
A proper burial.
A sign of respect? I'm looking at Christopher White's birth certificate.
His body was dumped less than a mile from where he was born.
And these spots on the shoe, anyone test them? Other than coloring and tanning agents, all you got here is shoe leather.
No trace of anything that would cause it to crack and discolor like that.
Yeap.
You know, when I was a kid, I had leather mitts, all right, and then they would get cracked, you know, when they were wet and cold.
Well, that's how leather reacts when it's frozen.
What about flash frozen? Sure, with dry ice.
But that leaves a residue.
Liquid nitrogen? Sure.
It evaporates, leaves no residue.
Look, I was wondering if you could run this through your machine.
I wiped it off the floor of a kid's bedroom.
Is that grease? You tell me.
Submicron Teflon chips.
Graphite.
Rare polymers.
Friction modifiers.
I'm afraid to ask you where you put this kind of grease.
It's Italian racing bicycle grease.
It's $30 a tube.
I can imagine what the bicycles cost.
Up to $15,000.
If the lberra kid had a bike like this in his bedroom, it had to be stolen.
That's what he was into.
Yeah, that's what they're all into.
The kid in New Jersey, he dripped liquid nitrogen on his shoe.
Liquid nitrogen is used to break bicycle locks.
I pulled some figures from Compstat.
There are $3 million worth of bicycles stolen in all five boroughs every year.
Most of it involves adult perps, but there are reports of one gang of kids operating in Manhattan.
They're quick, they use different MO's and they've never been caught.
And they're all well-trained.
Like Jojo said, kids are like sponges.
And I assume the ones that don't make the grade or make trouble get their throats cut.
We matched up three of the missing boys, including Jamal Dupuis, with John Doe remains.
Their parents have been contacted, but they're still not talking.
Let's be careful how much we lean on them.
According to the direction of the marks on the vertebrae, these kids had their throats slit from behind from left to right.
The killer was right-handed.
But Sami Iberra and his father had their throat cut from right to left.
Their killer was left-handed.
Jojo was breaking in someone new? Somebody who didn't quite do the job right.
That's a Cielo with a set of Record 10 shifters.
Bennie got that.
Good work, Bennie.
Real good work.
You know what? You guys go home, okay? - Frankie and I can take it from here.
- They could help unload.
You don't look good.
You eat lunch? I just haven't been sleeping so good, that's all.
I heard what the cops found.
I know.
But you're standing up good.
Your loyalty, that's what's appreciated.
Thanks, Jojo.
"The power within stays safe and free from assault, "superior to pleasure and pain, doing nothing randomly.
" - You remember that? - I do.
I know you do.
And I know you're gonna continue standing by everyone.
Your fellow warriors.
Any sacrifice that's needed.
That's what I know you can do.
Well, what do you mean? If it's necessary, we know you'll do, what a man would do.
"Don't act as if you're going to live 10,000 years.
"Death hangs over you.
" "While you live, while it's in your power, be good.
" Frankie's not home a lot of the time.
Look, is there a reward for information or what? - A reward? - Hmm.
Maybe we can scrounge something up.
What do you think? Twenty bucks.
We can handle 20 bucks.
Twenty bucks? Well, it's not like he's on the FBI's top 10 list.
Well, I can see Frankie's mom has kept her youthful looks.
Don't run, Frankie.
It won't be good for you if you run.
- I'm not running.
- What you go and do, you little jerk? Bringing the cops into my house after all I've done for you.
I hope they fry you.
That's a good attitude, Frank.
And so it begins.
Your dad's quite a ladies man, huh? When my dad came home at night, I could smell them on him.
I was ashamed.
Right? I mean, like your dad.
I can see why you look up to Jojo.
I really can.
"Everything has always been the same.
" How do you mean? "You can't lose another life than the one you're living now, or live another one than the one you're losing.
" "The longest life is the same as the shortest.
" What's he talking about? "The longest life is the same as the shortest.
" I know this.
"Some things are rushing into existence.
" "Others out of it.
" Did you read this, Frankie? "Time is a river, a violent current of events, glimpsed "Glimpsed" "Glimpsed once, already carried past us and is gone.
" Yeah.
That's Marcus Aurelius.
The dictates of a warrior.
Okay.
Call EMS.
He's taken something.
He's trying to kill himself.
This is unit 229.
We have an attempted suicide.
What did you take, Frankie? I am a warrior.
I welcome death.
Yes, and warriors try to live.
They fight and they And they live.
The son of a bitch! He told him to do it! He told him to! He's on a respirator.
It's touch and go.
He took some kind of cyanide.
He must have been carrying it around with him.
In case of capture? What, did this boy step out of an old war movie? An old Roman war movie.
Before he went into convulsions, he was quoting Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus Aurelius? The Meditations? He was a Roman emperor And a follower of the Roman Stoic philosophy.
But I wasn't aware that Marcus Aurelius was an advocate of suicide.
Well, he wasn't.
But like any belief system in the wrong hands, Stoicism can be twisted to mean whatever you want.
The wrong hands being Jojo Rios.
His idea of self-control.
The way that the bodies were laid out for the burial, where they were buried, he's following the playbook.
Even the name of his sound studio, Sixteen-One.
The year 161 AD, the year Marcus Aurelius was made emperor.
Mr.
Rios sees himself as a general? Leading 12-year-olds in a criminal enterprise with the help of a second century philosophy? Stoicism inspired the Roman legions to march across Europe and Africa.
I mean, if you're gonna start a gang, you could pick a worse model.
Detectives, I'm sorry.
The Marino boy didn't make it.
The doctor will be out to talk to you.
I need to notify the next of kin.
The father.
Nurse, his father, he's not gonna care.
We need a gag order.
I mean, the hospital can put out that we brought Frank Marino in, but we don't want them to tell anyone that he's dead.
We don't? No.
If Frank Marino talked, we'd have a case against Jojo Rios.
We need him to have talked.
Excuse me, but I really do need to notify the parents.
Nurse, I'm Ronald Carver, Assistant District Attorney.
I need to explain something to you.
It's time to round up some legionnaires.
- Bennie, come on.
- I'm moving.
I'm moving.
- Not anymore.
- Uh-oh.
Jojo takes care of us.
No, see, that money he's making off the bicycles, he's not putting that in your college fund.
He's gonna spend it while you sit in Spofford.
Ramon, don't be a sucker! Your mom's all alone with your two little brothers.
What are they gonna think if you go to jail? They'll see I'm a man.
To stay true.
That's what it means to be a man.
Christopher White, Marcos Reyes, Jamal Dupuis and Sami lberra.
What happened to them, Bennie? And why did Jojo have them killed? Listen, I do not know anything about that.
What about Christopher White? He was in your class.
He must have done something pretty bad to end up like this.
What, was he weak? Disloyal? Did he steal from the others? Listen, he was a good person.
He was a good person? Yeah.
That's right.
I forgot.
You don't speak ill of the dead.
You don't speak ill of a fellow warrior.
Chris White was a fellow warrior.
He's buried in New Jersey, the land of his birth because that's what Marcus Aurelius told you to do.
You see, we know all about Jojo and Mr.
Aurelius.
Frankie told us.
Did you know that he was arrested earlier? If that had happened, he'd know what to do.
- He wouldn't just nark on Jojo.
- Oh, no.
No, he told us how him and Jojo laid Chris in his grave.
No.
Frankie's a hero, just like Jojo.
He would never turn his back on us.
Jojo's a hero? How do you figure that? He's a sound engineer.
No, no.
I know his story.
Jojo came from Cuba.
His boat sank, and it was night.
Everybody drowned except for Jojo.
He made it because he's strong.
He taught us how to be strong.
- To be true? - Yes.
He showed you by example.
You would never betray him because he would never betray you.
- Yes.
The way of the warrior.
- The way of the warrior.
Well, it's nice to see kids studying the classics.
And learning all the wrong lessons.
Well, should we pick up a few more of Mr.
Rios' disciples? Well, there's no point.
I mean, we can't threaten them with anything more potent than what they're already afraid of.
Afraid of falling short, as warriors, as men, in the eyes of their hero.
All that's missing is war paint and a bonfire.
The wild place inside every boy's heart.
You know, Jojo knows that Well, he knows that every good hero needs a good story.
I need to call the INS.
I was going out to see a client about a booking.
- You're lucky you caught me.
- We're lucky that way.
Well, we won't be long.
It's about Frank Marino.
What did you call him? Your apprentice? / Yeah.
Frankie's a good kid.
I hope he's not in trouble.
Afraid so.
We think he's mixed up with a ring of bicycle thieves.
That's hard to believe.
Well, what's worst is that when we were questioning him, he did something, well, inexplicable.
He took cyanide.
My God, that's He killed himself? Well, no.
He botched it.
He's still alive.
He's at Methodist Hospital.
We should be able to talk to him by tomorrow.
That's good.
I'm glad he's gonna make it.
He might not be so glad.
He's facing a couple murder charges for Sami Iberra and his father, Enrique.
Yeah, he botched that, too.
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure he wasn't planning on Sami's father, you know, running out of the park with his throat slit.
Look, I'd be surprised if Frankie had anything to do with that.
But then again, I don't really know what he does on his own time.
Well, what he does is, I mean, you know, besides heisting bikes and - killing people - On his own time.
- Do you mind? - Sorry.
- That's expensive equipment.
- Sure, sure.
So sorry.
What he does is he fills his mind with some kind of, you know, martial philosophy about warriors and loyalty, accepting death.
That's what he talked about on the way to the hospital.
You don't know anything about that? No.
That's funny because we thought that it came from you, you know, along with the protein bars.
I mean, even if I did believe all that stuff, these are hard-core street kids, you know? I mean, they wouldn't listen to a guy like me.
Come on, you're being too modest.
These kids look up to you.
Where did you hear that from? Bennie Renato.
He thinks you're a hero.
That's crazy.
You know, these are street kids.
They're running a con on you.
Well, no, I mean, Bennie, he seemed very sincere.
Hey, he told us about your perilous crossing from Cuba.
You know, your boat sank at night.
Everyone drowned.
I mean, except you.
That's right.
I told him that.
So what? Why, because it's true, right? - Of course.
- It was the Mariel boatlift.
It was when Castro emptied his jails.
You came over with your father.
- Your father is a convicted rapist.
- That's a lie.
Hey, not according to your INS file.
Your boat, well, it didn't sink.
And those people, nobody was lost at sea or The INS put your father in a detention center.
They put you in a foster home and then in a group home until you were 17.
Okay.
Okay.
- So I made up a story.
- Well, not just any story.
Well, it was, you know, a hero's story.
I mean, you know, the child being plucked from the water.
That's Moses with a little Jonah thrown in there.
And then the orphan who grows up to be a great leader.
That's Marcus Aurelius.
You know what? I don't know what you're talking about.
No? Marcus Aurelius.
That warrior's creed? That loyalty unto death stuff? - You taught them that.
- No.
Look, I was new in the neighborhood.
I had to make nice with the locals, so I let their kids hang out here.
That's all.
Oh, that's good for PR, I guess.
I swear to God.
And if I told them stories, Boy Scout crap, it was just talk.
All that stuff about loyalty was just talk? Loyalty's fine as far as it goes, but if Frankie and Bennie did something illegal, that's not my responsibility.
And if they're telling you something different, they're liars.
So, you gave them some attention and a little advice and sent them on their way.
That's all I did.
And if they got into trouble, you know, themselves, they were on their own.
I don't owe them a thing.
Not even loyalty? Nothing.
All right, Mr.
Rios, I think we've wasted enough of your time talking about these punks.
What are you doing? Did you take that CD out of there? - Hey man, the thing just popped out.
- Yeah, the hell it did.
You recorded me.
You son of a bitch recorded me.
- What's the big deal? It's not like - Now, you can't take that! That's my property, now you give it to me.
What did you think you were gonna do with this, huh? I was gonna use it to see if any of the kids had illusions about how you felt about them.
I told you, those dumb kids have got nothing to do with me.
I'm surprised at you, Jojo.
About what? Well, I mean, a guy like you on the cutting edge of sound recording technology, you know, thinking that we would resort to using a synthesizer to bug your sound studio.
Especially when we have neat stuff like this.
An omnidirectional microphone and transmitter all in one.
You know, that broadcasts theater-quality sound through brick and soundproofing up to 100 yards away.
You know, I can't believe you, Jojo.
You know, I'm so stupid.
What you think you heard, it was a trick.
Listen, I heard, all right? So tell me, Jojo, what do we do now? To be true.
What, do we be like Frankie? Tell me, what do we do to stay true? Yeah.
I just want to tell them everything.
Don't you dare! / Jojo Rios, you're under arrest for murder.
No, no, no.
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie! Listen to me.
Listen to me! Listen.
Listen, you're not stupid, Bennie.
You're not stupid.
You're a strong kid.
You're a true kid.
That book that you read about being a warrior, that was good.
It's Jojo, man, he sent you on a battle that wasn't good.
But you, you're true.
And you're strong.
You hear me? I hope they find a better role model for their kids.
They could do worse than Sami's father.
These are their stories.
- Hey.
- Hey.
It's freezing in here.
They didn't fix the heat? Mmm-mmm.
Called the super this morning.
Calling doesn't do any good.
I'll go down and talk to him.
Hey, where's Sami? Did you let him go out? He doesn't do what I tell him.
You let him bring that in here? Rico, don't make trouble, please! If he comes in here, I'll send him straight home.
Okay.
Hey, hey! Where's Sami, huh? I don't know anything.
You don't know.
Then why you running, huh? - I don't know! - Where you going off in a rush? You don't know? Listen, you tell your friends Sami's out of this.
If he isn't home in una hora, I'm gonna call the cops and let them know what you're up to.
- Listen, I don't know - Listen, you tell your friends what I said! Hey.
Hey, get away from me! Help! We heard you were looking for Sami.
You got your pops to thank for this, little man.
Look at him, little man.
Look at the love in his eyes.
He loves you so much.
Welcome death, little man.
Look, the senator's bill's never gonna make it out of committee.
No, it's dead, gone, forget it.
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I didn't see him.
I didn't see him.
He came out of nowhere.
I didn't even see him.
Oh, my God.
Law & Order CI Witnesses confirm the initial report.
This guy ran out into traffic.
This accident finished something someone else started.
His throat's been cut.
It's not very deep.
Didn't go through the carotid artery.
There's dirt in the wound, in his mouth.
He's even aspirated some up his nose.
And there's dirt under the nails.
This man was buried alive.
He He dug himself out.
This blood spatter on his pants, you see how it moves across both legs? It didn't come from his neck.
I didn't see any other wounds.
There's another injured out there.
Out there, somewhere in Prospect Park.
Guys, we're gonna have to check this whole perimeter.
Oh, damn.
This is Detective Eames.
We have a body.
Male, juvenile, about 50 yards in from the playground.
He was cut right through the carotid.
The boy died instantly.
And there's no mistake this time.
We ran the prints.
We got a pop on the adult victim.
Enrique lberra.
According to the blood tests, the kid's probably his.
I'm guessing lberra's priors were for dope.
This MO's got dope written all over it.
Iberra's last conviction was 12 years ago.
He finished his GED while he was inside.
His parole reviews are stellar.
He had car grease on his jacket, calluses on his hand.
He was a mechanic.
He was working for a living.
He and his kid were what, witnesses? Wrong place, wrong time? Or it's punitive.
Someone was being taught a lesson.
The father? Not necessarily.
Iberra had his son's blood on his pants.
His son was buried on top of him.
Which means Iberra was likely killed first.
Right in front of his son.
Was your husband in any kind of trouble? Did he owe someone money or No.
There was no trouble.
Not about Sami? No.
No.
When Sami didn't come home last night, you weren't worried? I thought he was with Rico.
And Rico came home after work, he left his toolbox there and then he left again.
Why? To have a beer.
But Sami was 12 years old.
He didn't take Sami to have a beer.
No.
Sami, he was with his friends, kids from the neighborhood.
Maybe your husband went out looking for him.
No.
He just went out That's all, he ju I'm just so upset.
I'm sorry.
We're gonna have to look in Sami's room.
Sami was a fan.
Him and his friends, they all wanna be basketball players.
Your husband took him to the games? No, we can't afford that.
These are ticket stubs from three different games.
The last one was a month ago.
Someone from Rico's work got him those.
A rich guy.
Rico worked on his car.
I don't remember his name.
These protein bars, did you buy them? Sure, I did.
How much did they cost? I A dollar something.
I don't remember.
These are worth about $5, right? I mean, these are about five bucks.
Did someone give them to Sami? Maybe the same person who gave him the game tickets.
No, I told you.
I can't help you.
Please.
We think you need our help.
Promise you'll give us a call, okay? Did Sami work on cars with his dad? I'm wondering if this stuff's grease or oil here.
See? Rico's work.
Grease everywhere in the house.
/ It's okay, I'll clean it up.
It's no big deal.
You should really listen to what my partner is telling you.
You're not alone.
Protein bars, Knicks tickets, this kid had expensive tastes.
Yeah, and the money to indulge them.
Move it over to the right, okay, because that's where the drum kit goes.
Where you been? We got a booking in 20 minutes.
Yeah, sorry, Jojo.
- You know I count on you, right? - Yeah.
And after, Tomas needs help with his homework.
What? You know the rules.
You wanna hang out, eat my food, learn the board, then you gotta get the homework done.
Frankie.
You create a problem, solve it on your own time.
Let's go.
Dead? Both of them? I didn't know.
Enrique's wife said you saw him last night.
Why would she say that? Maybe because he said he was having a beer with you.
No way he told her that.
I was still here, right here, working till 9:00.
How do you know it was before 9:00 when he went out? Well, you just said that She didn't tell you what time it was, Mr.
Ramirez.
Now you know because you saw him, right? Maybe somebody told me they saw him.
Somebody who? Somebody from where Enrique was having the beer, like Louisa said.
Where would that be, you being Enrique's drinking buddy? Try la taverna around the corner.
Hey, I wasn't that close to him.
He'd been in jail, you know? See that bodega down there on the right? I think the guy there, Ramirez, was friends with him.
Maybe he saw him.
But you're sure Mr.
Iberra didn't come in for a beer last night? Yeah.
He hardly ever came in.
I don't know, maybe once, I don't know.
I never noticed him.
Sorry.
Honest people, every last one of them.
You can tell 'cause they're such bad liars.
Hey, guys.
Hey, no, no, wait up, wait up.
Listen, me and my partner, we need your help.
Did you know that a friend of yours from the neighborhood, Sami Iberra, you know that he got killed last night with his We don't know him.
- We don't know what happened.
- Wait, wait, wait.
I'm not finished.
Who put the word out not to talk to us? Who's everyone afraid of? Come on, Sami grew up here all his life with his mom and his dad.
Huh? You guys grew up with him.
You probably went to the same school, right? You played video games, you shoot hoops.
You don't think you should stand up for him? In this neighborhood, the Neighborhood Watch watches the cops.
It just breaks my heart.
Sami was one of our small victories.
He worked so hard to better his grades.
This year it all just clicked in for him.
How was he outside of class? Any problems with the other kids? Fights? No.
He stuck mostly with kids from his own neighborhood.
They're all good kids.
That's the picture we're getting.
The local precinct said it's a low crime area, very little drug activity.
Protein bars seem to be the drug of choice.
All of Sami's friends eat those.
If you had to name Sami's best friend, who would that be? It was Jamal Dupuis, but Jamal moved out of state a few months ago to live with his father.
How did Sami take that? He started acting out, but he got himself under control.
CD player.
Noise reduction headphones.
It's got to be at least a couple hundred bucks.
That's Rap.
Rap.
Well, this is interesting.
What is that, a mambo? No, it's son.
It's music from Cuba.
Which is odd 'cause his family's Dominican.
These kids are usually ferocious about, you know, embracing their ethnic background.
It's homemade.
Sami's Mix.
And he didn't have a computer or a CD burner at home.
Sixteen-One Studios.
Yeah, I showed Sami how to download tracks and use the CD burner.
You a friend of the family? A friend of the community.
The local kids, they like to stop by after school, I let them hang out till their parents come home from work.
But that can't be good for business.
Hey, don't worry.
When J.
Lo comes in, I make sure the kids behave.
Let me help you with that.
We'll move it around this way.
All right.
You know, Sami's He had a very eclectic selection on his CD.
Yeah, rap, hip-hop, you'd expect that.
But son music? Is that your influence, Mr.
Rios? He heard me play it.
He liked it.
Kids are like, you know, sponges.
He see you eat these? He had some in his locker at school.
Well, I can't help it if they get hungry, and I don't feed them junk.
I mean, you eat junk, you become junk.
Yeah, respect your body, respect yourself.
That's a good philosophy.
I'm sorry, this thing is just so Baby! Oh, I like that.
It records a word or a phrase so you can play it like a note, you know.
You let the kids use this stuff? I teach them how to use the equipment, after they do their homework.
Jojo's clubhouse.
All due respect, ma'am, where would you like these boys to be? Here, doing their schoolwork, maybe learning a skill, or out in your neighborhood boosting car stereos? No, here, definitely.
Hey, Frankie, Ruthie's Jerk Palace is coming in at 4:00, huh? You want to set up the board? I got a restaurant commercial to do.
You must do a lot of these commercials to pay for all this gear.
Oh, commercials, demos.
I even got a couple of clients get on the Latin charts.
Is Frankie one of your success stories? Frankie's like an apprentice, you know? Another couple of years, he'll know enough to open his own studio.
So he gets his own studio, and then there's Sami.
What happened with him? He was a victim of his father's impulses.
The man was an ex-convict.
That was his nature.
He was probably mixed up with some bad people, and the poor kid paid the price.
You know, one last thing, before we let you get on with your, you know, commercial.
Jamal Dupuis, did he hang out here with Sami? Yeah, for a while.
But I think the kid moved out of the neighborhood.
Good.
That's that's what we heard.
Well, thanks.
Baby! I really like I really like that.
Jamal moved down to the barrier islands, to live with his father in South Carolina.
Why? Was he having problems here? He wanted to work, and they don't let 13-year-olds work up here.
So, they say you can make good money crabbing down there.
Have you talked to him lately? He calls from time to time from pay phones.
His father doesn't have a phone now.
Have you told him what happened to his friend Sami? No.
Well, they were best friends.
They hung out together at the sound studio on Bergen Street.
We have nothing to say against Mr.
Rios.
Your daughter is very cute.
You're happy Jamal's out of the house.
Why would you say that? Well, you don't have any photos of him.
What's the town where Jamal's staying with his father? It's not just one town.
Well, his father's got family on a lot of the islands down there, so Jamal stays with them, too.
My favorite place down there is Gullah Gullah Island.
I bet Jamal probably goes crabbing there.
Oh, yes.
I remember him telling me that.
Telling you that he went crabbing on Gullah Gullah Island? You know, Mrs.
Dupuis, there is no island with that name.
Well, I'm sure I heard of it.
That's because there's a children's television show called Gullah, Gullah Island, and you probably watched it with him when he was growing up.
Where is he? What happened to him? He's with his father, and you have to go now.
Mr.
Dupuis, we can protect your family.
Just go.
Slowly, now.
You don't need that much, just half.
Easy, easy.
You see, Ramon? One drop at a time, not all at once like you did last week.
- No, I didn't.
- Don't contradict! A man who sees his own shortcomings and corrects them is on his way to meet God.
Frankie, come help teach these boys.
Your mind isn't here.
You wanna be strong, you stay focused.
You watch Bennie.
He's focused.
That's how he gets the job done.
I got the job done, Jojo.
Half done.
Now I told you, watch Bennie.
You see, Frankie? That's focus.
Jamal's parents were supposed to contact us to tell us where to send his school records, but we never heard from them.
Jamal ever talk about working in South Carolina? No, I never heard that.
Could we see other files from students who moved away in the last year or so? Sure.
We keep them over here.
There's a notation in Jamal's records from the school nurse.
Two weeks before he moved, he showed up with a black eye and a broken collar bone.
Here you go.
This one moved to Fresno, California.
The school board confirms he's enrolled there.
Here, Christopher White, broken arm six months ago.
Three weeks later, his parents say he moved to Oklahoma to live with relatives.
There's no confirmation in the file.
We try to stay on top of things.
Marco Reyes.
His parents say they sent him to Mexico to live with his grandmother.
That was a week after he showed up for class with eight stitches in his face.
These kids were all getting a beating as a going-away present.
Well, they have something else in common.
They were all from the same 12-block radius.
The same 12 scared blocks.
Some kids were trolling for scrap metal last October along l-95 near exit 43.
Their dog started digging.
John Doe, 12 to 13 years old.
He matches one of the set of dental records you sent around.
Christopher White.
The throat was cut.
The laceration was deep, all the way back to the vertebra.
Almost took his head clean off.
The way the body was posed in the grave, stretched out, hands crossed over the front, feet together.
A proper burial.
A sign of respect? I'm looking at Christopher White's birth certificate.
His body was dumped less than a mile from where he was born.
And these spots on the shoe, anyone test them? Other than coloring and tanning agents, all you got here is shoe leather.
No trace of anything that would cause it to crack and discolor like that.
Yeap.
You know, when I was a kid, I had leather mitts, all right, and then they would get cracked, you know, when they were wet and cold.
Well, that's how leather reacts when it's frozen.
What about flash frozen? Sure, with dry ice.
But that leaves a residue.
Liquid nitrogen? Sure.
It evaporates, leaves no residue.
Look, I was wondering if you could run this through your machine.
I wiped it off the floor of a kid's bedroom.
Is that grease? You tell me.
Submicron Teflon chips.
Graphite.
Rare polymers.
Friction modifiers.
I'm afraid to ask you where you put this kind of grease.
It's Italian racing bicycle grease.
It's $30 a tube.
I can imagine what the bicycles cost.
Up to $15,000.
If the lberra kid had a bike like this in his bedroom, it had to be stolen.
That's what he was into.
Yeah, that's what they're all into.
The kid in New Jersey, he dripped liquid nitrogen on his shoe.
Liquid nitrogen is used to break bicycle locks.
I pulled some figures from Compstat.
There are $3 million worth of bicycles stolen in all five boroughs every year.
Most of it involves adult perps, but there are reports of one gang of kids operating in Manhattan.
They're quick, they use different MO's and they've never been caught.
And they're all well-trained.
Like Jojo said, kids are like sponges.
And I assume the ones that don't make the grade or make trouble get their throats cut.
We matched up three of the missing boys, including Jamal Dupuis, with John Doe remains.
Their parents have been contacted, but they're still not talking.
Let's be careful how much we lean on them.
According to the direction of the marks on the vertebrae, these kids had their throats slit from behind from left to right.
The killer was right-handed.
But Sami Iberra and his father had their throat cut from right to left.
Their killer was left-handed.
Jojo was breaking in someone new? Somebody who didn't quite do the job right.
That's a Cielo with a set of Record 10 shifters.
Bennie got that.
Good work, Bennie.
Real good work.
You know what? You guys go home, okay? - Frankie and I can take it from here.
- They could help unload.
You don't look good.
You eat lunch? I just haven't been sleeping so good, that's all.
I heard what the cops found.
I know.
But you're standing up good.
Your loyalty, that's what's appreciated.
Thanks, Jojo.
"The power within stays safe and free from assault, "superior to pleasure and pain, doing nothing randomly.
" - You remember that? - I do.
I know you do.
And I know you're gonna continue standing by everyone.
Your fellow warriors.
Any sacrifice that's needed.
That's what I know you can do.
Well, what do you mean? If it's necessary, we know you'll do, what a man would do.
"Don't act as if you're going to live 10,000 years.
"Death hangs over you.
" "While you live, while it's in your power, be good.
" Frankie's not home a lot of the time.
Look, is there a reward for information or what? - A reward? - Hmm.
Maybe we can scrounge something up.
What do you think? Twenty bucks.
We can handle 20 bucks.
Twenty bucks? Well, it's not like he's on the FBI's top 10 list.
Well, I can see Frankie's mom has kept her youthful looks.
Don't run, Frankie.
It won't be good for you if you run.
- I'm not running.
- What you go and do, you little jerk? Bringing the cops into my house after all I've done for you.
I hope they fry you.
That's a good attitude, Frank.
And so it begins.
Your dad's quite a ladies man, huh? When my dad came home at night, I could smell them on him.
I was ashamed.
Right? I mean, like your dad.
I can see why you look up to Jojo.
I really can.
"Everything has always been the same.
" How do you mean? "You can't lose another life than the one you're living now, or live another one than the one you're losing.
" "The longest life is the same as the shortest.
" What's he talking about? "The longest life is the same as the shortest.
" I know this.
"Some things are rushing into existence.
" "Others out of it.
" Did you read this, Frankie? "Time is a river, a violent current of events, glimpsed "Glimpsed" "Glimpsed once, already carried past us and is gone.
" Yeah.
That's Marcus Aurelius.
The dictates of a warrior.
Okay.
Call EMS.
He's taken something.
He's trying to kill himself.
This is unit 229.
We have an attempted suicide.
What did you take, Frankie? I am a warrior.
I welcome death.
Yes, and warriors try to live.
They fight and they And they live.
The son of a bitch! He told him to do it! He told him to! He's on a respirator.
It's touch and go.
He took some kind of cyanide.
He must have been carrying it around with him.
In case of capture? What, did this boy step out of an old war movie? An old Roman war movie.
Before he went into convulsions, he was quoting Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus Aurelius? The Meditations? He was a Roman emperor And a follower of the Roman Stoic philosophy.
But I wasn't aware that Marcus Aurelius was an advocate of suicide.
Well, he wasn't.
But like any belief system in the wrong hands, Stoicism can be twisted to mean whatever you want.
The wrong hands being Jojo Rios.
His idea of self-control.
The way that the bodies were laid out for the burial, where they were buried, he's following the playbook.
Even the name of his sound studio, Sixteen-One.
The year 161 AD, the year Marcus Aurelius was made emperor.
Mr.
Rios sees himself as a general? Leading 12-year-olds in a criminal enterprise with the help of a second century philosophy? Stoicism inspired the Roman legions to march across Europe and Africa.
I mean, if you're gonna start a gang, you could pick a worse model.
Detectives, I'm sorry.
The Marino boy didn't make it.
The doctor will be out to talk to you.
I need to notify the next of kin.
The father.
Nurse, his father, he's not gonna care.
We need a gag order.
I mean, the hospital can put out that we brought Frank Marino in, but we don't want them to tell anyone that he's dead.
We don't? No.
If Frank Marino talked, we'd have a case against Jojo Rios.
We need him to have talked.
Excuse me, but I really do need to notify the parents.
Nurse, I'm Ronald Carver, Assistant District Attorney.
I need to explain something to you.
It's time to round up some legionnaires.
- Bennie, come on.
- I'm moving.
I'm moving.
- Not anymore.
- Uh-oh.
Jojo takes care of us.
No, see, that money he's making off the bicycles, he's not putting that in your college fund.
He's gonna spend it while you sit in Spofford.
Ramon, don't be a sucker! Your mom's all alone with your two little brothers.
What are they gonna think if you go to jail? They'll see I'm a man.
To stay true.
That's what it means to be a man.
Christopher White, Marcos Reyes, Jamal Dupuis and Sami lberra.
What happened to them, Bennie? And why did Jojo have them killed? Listen, I do not know anything about that.
What about Christopher White? He was in your class.
He must have done something pretty bad to end up like this.
What, was he weak? Disloyal? Did he steal from the others? Listen, he was a good person.
He was a good person? Yeah.
That's right.
I forgot.
You don't speak ill of the dead.
You don't speak ill of a fellow warrior.
Chris White was a fellow warrior.
He's buried in New Jersey, the land of his birth because that's what Marcus Aurelius told you to do.
You see, we know all about Jojo and Mr.
Aurelius.
Frankie told us.
Did you know that he was arrested earlier? If that had happened, he'd know what to do.
- He wouldn't just nark on Jojo.
- Oh, no.
No, he told us how him and Jojo laid Chris in his grave.
No.
Frankie's a hero, just like Jojo.
He would never turn his back on us.
Jojo's a hero? How do you figure that? He's a sound engineer.
No, no.
I know his story.
Jojo came from Cuba.
His boat sank, and it was night.
Everybody drowned except for Jojo.
He made it because he's strong.
He taught us how to be strong.
- To be true? - Yes.
He showed you by example.
You would never betray him because he would never betray you.
- Yes.
The way of the warrior.
- The way of the warrior.
Well, it's nice to see kids studying the classics.
And learning all the wrong lessons.
Well, should we pick up a few more of Mr.
Rios' disciples? Well, there's no point.
I mean, we can't threaten them with anything more potent than what they're already afraid of.
Afraid of falling short, as warriors, as men, in the eyes of their hero.
All that's missing is war paint and a bonfire.
The wild place inside every boy's heart.
You know, Jojo knows that Well, he knows that every good hero needs a good story.
I need to call the INS.
I was going out to see a client about a booking.
- You're lucky you caught me.
- We're lucky that way.
Well, we won't be long.
It's about Frank Marino.
What did you call him? Your apprentice? / Yeah.
Frankie's a good kid.
I hope he's not in trouble.
Afraid so.
We think he's mixed up with a ring of bicycle thieves.
That's hard to believe.
Well, what's worst is that when we were questioning him, he did something, well, inexplicable.
He took cyanide.
My God, that's He killed himself? Well, no.
He botched it.
He's still alive.
He's at Methodist Hospital.
We should be able to talk to him by tomorrow.
That's good.
I'm glad he's gonna make it.
He might not be so glad.
He's facing a couple murder charges for Sami Iberra and his father, Enrique.
Yeah, he botched that, too.
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure he wasn't planning on Sami's father, you know, running out of the park with his throat slit.
Look, I'd be surprised if Frankie had anything to do with that.
But then again, I don't really know what he does on his own time.
Well, what he does is, I mean, you know, besides heisting bikes and - killing people - On his own time.
- Do you mind? - Sorry.
- That's expensive equipment.
- Sure, sure.
So sorry.
What he does is he fills his mind with some kind of, you know, martial philosophy about warriors and loyalty, accepting death.
That's what he talked about on the way to the hospital.
You don't know anything about that? No.
That's funny because we thought that it came from you, you know, along with the protein bars.
I mean, even if I did believe all that stuff, these are hard-core street kids, you know? I mean, they wouldn't listen to a guy like me.
Come on, you're being too modest.
These kids look up to you.
Where did you hear that from? Bennie Renato.
He thinks you're a hero.
That's crazy.
You know, these are street kids.
They're running a con on you.
Well, no, I mean, Bennie, he seemed very sincere.
Hey, he told us about your perilous crossing from Cuba.
You know, your boat sank at night.
Everyone drowned.
I mean, except you.
That's right.
I told him that.
So what? Why, because it's true, right? - Of course.
- It was the Mariel boatlift.
It was when Castro emptied his jails.
You came over with your father.
- Your father is a convicted rapist.
- That's a lie.
Hey, not according to your INS file.
Your boat, well, it didn't sink.
And those people, nobody was lost at sea or The INS put your father in a detention center.
They put you in a foster home and then in a group home until you were 17.
Okay.
Okay.
- So I made up a story.
- Well, not just any story.
Well, it was, you know, a hero's story.
I mean, you know, the child being plucked from the water.
That's Moses with a little Jonah thrown in there.
And then the orphan who grows up to be a great leader.
That's Marcus Aurelius.
You know what? I don't know what you're talking about.
No? Marcus Aurelius.
That warrior's creed? That loyalty unto death stuff? - You taught them that.
- No.
Look, I was new in the neighborhood.
I had to make nice with the locals, so I let their kids hang out here.
That's all.
Oh, that's good for PR, I guess.
I swear to God.
And if I told them stories, Boy Scout crap, it was just talk.
All that stuff about loyalty was just talk? Loyalty's fine as far as it goes, but if Frankie and Bennie did something illegal, that's not my responsibility.
And if they're telling you something different, they're liars.
So, you gave them some attention and a little advice and sent them on their way.
That's all I did.
And if they got into trouble, you know, themselves, they were on their own.
I don't owe them a thing.
Not even loyalty? Nothing.
All right, Mr.
Rios, I think we've wasted enough of your time talking about these punks.
What are you doing? Did you take that CD out of there? - Hey man, the thing just popped out.
- Yeah, the hell it did.
You recorded me.
You son of a bitch recorded me.
- What's the big deal? It's not like - Now, you can't take that! That's my property, now you give it to me.
What did you think you were gonna do with this, huh? I was gonna use it to see if any of the kids had illusions about how you felt about them.
I told you, those dumb kids have got nothing to do with me.
I'm surprised at you, Jojo.
About what? Well, I mean, a guy like you on the cutting edge of sound recording technology, you know, thinking that we would resort to using a synthesizer to bug your sound studio.
Especially when we have neat stuff like this.
An omnidirectional microphone and transmitter all in one.
You know, that broadcasts theater-quality sound through brick and soundproofing up to 100 yards away.
You know, I can't believe you, Jojo.
You know, I'm so stupid.
What you think you heard, it was a trick.
Listen, I heard, all right? So tell me, Jojo, what do we do now? To be true.
What, do we be like Frankie? Tell me, what do we do to stay true? Yeah.
I just want to tell them everything.
Don't you dare! / Jojo Rios, you're under arrest for murder.
No, no, no.
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie! Listen to me.
Listen to me! Listen.
Listen, you're not stupid, Bennie.
You're not stupid.
You're a strong kid.
You're a true kid.
That book that you read about being a warrior, that was good.
It's Jojo, man, he sent you on a battle that wasn't good.
But you, you're true.
And you're strong.
You hear me? I hope they find a better role model for their kids.
They could do worse than Sami's father.