Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) s03e16 Episode Script
The Saint
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.
Nana, when you were sick and you prayed to Brother Jerome, he visited you in a dream, right? That's right.
Well, my doll Emily prayed to Brother Jerome, too.
About her arthritis? But I don't know if he can visit her because I don't know if dolls dream.
I'm sure dolls dream.
Maybe more than we do.
Thanks, Nana.
I'm happy to announce that with this last quarter's acquisitions, we're now fully documented.
As Sean can attest, the materials are spectacular.
Yes.
Yes, they are.
We can now take the last step in what's been a journey of 82 years.
If we hadn't been in housewares when we started fighting, I wouldn't have tried to stab him.
That's the kind of rationalization that keeps you showing up to detox talkin' like a jerk.
Who's this from? I don't know.
Somebody left it for me at the desk.
I know this isn't the solution we anticipated.
I tried to explain on the phone.
You're sure? It's not too late to change your mind.
It's the only thing we can do for now.
Thanks for being so understanding.
Is that for me? No, but I was gonna let you open it after your bath.
It's getting cold, Lulu.
Come on.
Nana, it's bad luck to let other people open your presents.
Okay.
Mom! Oh, my God! Nana! That's it then.
It's finished.
I don't want to hear any more about it.
Law & Order CI Mrs.
Politano's daughter said she brought the box home from work.
The trick was inside a balloon loaded with lye.
The top of the box was rigged with a pin.
Where did she work? A rehab center in the Village.
She was a counselor.
With lots of law-abiding clients, I'm sure.
And someone with a science background.
How much science does lye in a balloon take? Um, enough.
This device, uh, resolves a couple of problems.
The first one is, uh, it would pass through any bomb-screening machine.
And only the person who opens the box is is affected.
And only if she's standing directly over the top of it.
Who put this here? Uh, her daughter, while they were waiting for E.
M.
S.
A relic.
From a Brother Jerome.
To watch over her? Why did BrotherJerome let Nana die this time and save her the time before? I'm sorry.
Come on, Lulu.
You have to stay with Mommy.
We're gonna stay with friends, uh, for a few days.
We're very sorry about your mother.
Did she say anything about the gift? - Who it was from? - No.
Mom sometimes got presents from her clients.
Was she having problems with anybody apart from her work? Mom was pretty good at hiding that stuff, but I could tell when she was having a bad time.
Marzipan she'd bring home a box.
The last time she did that? A couple weeks ago.
What did your daughter mean about your mother being saved? My mother was diagnosed with polio when she was 15, and she prayed to Brother Jerome, and she recovered.
People said it was a miracle.
I'm not praying to him anymore and neither are my dolls.
New Morning Rehabilitation Center Wendesday, February 11 The package was left at the front, and nobody saw who delivered it.
We'll need a list ofher clients going back a couple years.
We're specifically interested in anyone with a science background.
Doesn't ring any bells.
Two weeks ago, anything happen to upset her? Nothing she mentioned.
If you need me, I'll be at the front.
Just got a poem in the mail.
It's postmarked upstate Tannerville.
A little over two weeks ago.
"The Deceit of Nature's Radiance.
" It seems to be about the consequences of lying.
It's unsigned.
- There's no return address.
- Never a good sign.
And our poet compares lying to the Drosera and the carnivorous plants who disguise themselves to trap their prey.
This person knows botany.
- Looks old.
- It was written with a fountain pen.
And the ink is bleeds to the other side of the paper.
This was probably written 30, 40 years ago.
There was a receipt in here for a church.
She had a mass said for somebody last week.
Here.
At St.
Anne's.
A mass for the dead.
It was for someone called Mack.
I don't know whether that was a first name or a nickname.
Louise didn't tell me anything about them.
Was it a recent death? Louise didn't say, but my guess, it was fairly recent.
Ms.
Politano was still in pain over it.
You could tell.
She asked me if one person could be held responsible for another's loss of faith in God.
I said, "Sure if that one person is the devil.
" The person that you said the mass for, maybe their death was a result of a loss of faith, maybe a suicide? That would fit the bill.
But Louise didn't say.
- Thanks, Father.
- All right.
God bless.
The poem was about deceit.
Maybe the killer blames Louise for some kind of betrayal that led to a suicide.
Maybe the killer's a poet.
We've been through her address book, client files.
Nobody in there from Tannerville or the immediate area.
No usable prints other than Louise's on the poem.
And the lab traced the watermark on the paper to a company that went out of business in 1959, and the ink contained a synthetic pigment manufacturers started using in 1957.
So the poem was written when Louise was in her mid-20s.
Could be an old boyfriend.
Whoever it was used language with confidence.
"Hiding her decay under a mantle of ice, Mother Nature comes with hands pale and perfect forming the future.
" Nice.
And this here.
"It is not lying to seem one thing and be another.
We learn from the deceit of nature.
" That wasn't their first effort and maybe not their last.
Keyword poet, botany, suicide.
Mary Karen Carnahan, poet and botany professor.
She took her own life two years ago at age 70.
A childhood friend.
She's not in Louise's phone book.
Maybe you should check Mary Carnahan's address book.
Uh, her papers are archived at her alma mater, Dickerson College.
Dickerson College Bedford, New York Thursday, February 12 Mary Carnahan wrote this poem in her late 20s when she really found her poetic voice.
Did you ever come across a a reference to, um, Louise Politano? I don't recognize the name.
Maybe it's in the personal correspondence.
So far, I've just been able to sort it chronologically.
The early letters? Uh, let's see.
This bundle here.
Anything else from her youth? Well, there are some high school essays, and, uh, some yearbooks in this box here and some short stories.
If you need me, I'll be in the stacks.
Pardon me.
Bingo.
Mary and Louise were on the yearbook committee together.
Get a load of those saddle shoes.
This is a note from, uh, Louise to Mary when they were teenagers.
She refers to her as Mack.
"Mack, I really messed up telling my mother I couldn't walk just so Father Luke would come to my house.
"What a little idiot I am.
Then pretending I had a dream about Brother Jerome? God must be so angry with me.
" She faked a miracle because of a crush on a priest.
Yeah.
Mary knew it and saw how people would believe it.
Might be the reason for her depression and suicide.
One fake miracle, two real deaths.
Whoever sent the poem had to know Louise faked her miraculous cure.
I had an aunt who used to pray to Brother Jerome instead of getting a flu shot.
Someone could have been offended by what Louise did.
Well, the stakes might be higher than that.
Brother Jerome is up for a sainthood.
He was a porter at Saint Joseph's in the Bronx in the late 1800s, and then he developed a following after he used "oil from the church lamps to heal a sick child.
" It says he healed hundreds of people before he died in 1920.
One miracle, more or less, is gonna make a difference to his sainthood? Aside from a documented miracle during a saint's life, you also need two miracles after his death.
Like being healed after the saint visits you in a dream.
If it comes out it was a teenage prank Brother Jerome's sainthood might hit the skids.
The Brother Jerome Foundation is running the campaign for sainthood.
Brother Jerome Foundation Monday, February 16 The Louise Politano case was reviewed by the archdiocese.
Her cure was fully documented.
Mr.
Sullivan, Ms.
Politano She might have been killed to keep her deception from coming out and maybe by someone known to your foundation.
I don't know anyone like that.
Anyway, this whole thing is predicated on what I believe is a fabrication by this disturbed poet to discredit Louise.
Do you have any samples of Louise's handwriting from when she was 15? We have the essay that she wrote.
The one she wrote for her parish priest describing her dream.
Dad, they're suggesting that we have the note authenticated by comparing it to Louise's essay.
Oh.
Of course.
Let's do that.
But I don't want just anyone handling our documents.
We have a man, a first-rate expert.
Sean, give him James's number.
The pressure of the downstroke, the way it cuts into the paper.
And the way she dots the "l" just to the right as an afterthought.
- They look identical to me.
- That's because they are.
The internal rhythms of the writing, the isochrone it's an identical match.
Louise Politano wrote both of these.
Well, that's not the answer the Sullivans expected especially Richard.
Ever since he took over the foundation from his grandfather, he's pushed very hard for sainthood.
His son, Sean, hasn't? He's more interested in caring for sick children.
That's the real work of the foundation.
Did Richard or Sean say how they wanted to pay for this? Oh, uh, how do they normally pay you? They pay me a finder's fee to locate artifacts for their reliquary.
What kinds of artifacts? Brother Jerome's clothes, eating utensils, rosaries.
Once he gets canonized, all this stuff is gonna be not only very valuable, but hard to find.
The sainthood documents Um, he didn't use you.
Is that why you're wondering, uh, how you're gonna get paid? I'll just call Sean.
/ Actually, the department will take care of it.
We just need a bill.
Just give me a minute.
Sullivan, Sr.
Sent us here thinking the call would go his way.
Unless there's another reason he kept us away from his regular authenticator.
Bartleby's Auction house Thursday, February 19 I can't imagine why Richard Sullivan sent you toJames Bennett.
The archdiocese told us that over the last 10 years you've been authenticating all the foundation's documents.
That's right.
Well, what what were they? Um, old letters? Testimonials dating back to BrotherJerome's time? Uh, yes.
Uh, most were 19th century.
As for these, they were written by the same person.
The The dotting of the "I's" and the speed of the pen stroke.
That's what Bennett told us.
He also said that the samples were identical.
You know, I really do believe that, um, there's a problem between you and Sullivan.
Yeah, he told us he didn't trust anyone but Bennett to handle the documents.
What'd you do, drop a jelly doughnut on 'em? I didn't do anything.
It It's those two Richard and Sean Sullivan.
Two months ago I authenticated this letter.
It's dated 1877 from a Reverend Jacob Spencer to his daughter Gracelyn, telling her about Brother Jerome's healings.
"Jerome is Thomas Ketcham's cousin, and he said he was in the woods along the Bronx River "and God told him to use the oil.
"Now people are coming from all over after hearing about the blessed oil.
I have seen it with my own eyes.
" Then, last month, Sean Sullivan came to me with an envelope to authenticate.
It's also dated 1877.
But the envelope doesn't belong to the letter? No.
The thing is, normally they ask me to go to their offices to work.
Sean brought the envelope here.
He didn't want his father to know what he was doing? Um, this missing letter Do you have any idea what it was? He wouldn't tell me.
It was authentic.
I couldn't very well lie.
I knew Louise Politano.
She was not a liar.
Dad, there's no use blaming James.
I know how upsetting this must be.
It's the last thing you needed.
The city's only paying me the minimum fee, so I have to charge you for the balance.
So they steered the police to one authenticator instead of another.
You're reading too much into it.
At the very least, Your Honor, it appears they steered the police away from a controversy withintheir foundation.
This is a charity that helps little sick kids.
A sainthood would enhance the influence and the prestige of Richard Sullivan's foundation.
He has a motive to get rid of any impediment, Your Honor.
You have no right.
We haven't done anything wrong.
Careful! Those documents are irreplaceable! We'll be careful.
Now, if you don't mind, sir, you'll have to wait outside.
Here's the file on Louise.
Here's her medical chart with the diagnosis of paralytic poliomyelitis.
Statements from two doctors attesting to her complete recovery.
I don't see anything here contradicting the claim of a miraculous cure.
Oh, this is the envelope that Sean had authenticated.
This is the letter they don't want anyone to see.
It's from Thomas Ketcham, BrotherJerome's cousin.
"I heard Jerome has a magic oil.
" "He was in the woods along the Bronx River when he came upon a goat.
" "The goat rose up and walked on two legs like a man does walk.
" "Jerome said the goat had much conversation and told him of a magic remedy from the oil in the lamps at the church.
" A talking goat? A goat who walks like a man.
Brother Jerome told his cousin his best ideas came from the devil.
A secret worth protecting.
This becomes known, the foundation might as well hang up its donation plate.
I don't know what the goat letter means, but at the very least, we should have told the archdiocese.
What does your father think it means? He thinks the letter was sent to test our faith.
But he's afraid that his life's work's been in the name of a charlatan.
I keep telling him our life's work is in the name of those we help the cancer kids, the AIDS babies.
But he's turned the foundation into a kind of cult of personality.
If Louise Politano, uh, admitted her prank, it would all unravel.
He didn't know she lied.
How could he? Look at the doctors' reports.
You haven't answered the question.
My father wouldn't hurt anyone.
He's not that kind of man.
And if he was, he would have destroyed the goat letter.
He hasn't.
That's a Good point.
Um, are you familiar with Louise's file? Yes, I prepared it.
The doctor made a notation here during an examination a month after her recovery about a fractured left scaphoid.
- She broke her wrist.
- Yes.
She went skating too soon after her cure, and her legs weren't strong enough.
She fell down.
Louise's note to Mary Carnahan admitting the prank was dated four weeks after her cure.
- She's left-handed.
- She wrote a note with a broken wrist.
Another miracle.
The note is a forgery.
/ Which somehow made its way into the Carnahan archive.
I'm betting that wasn't a miracle.
This is everyone who accessed the Carnahan archives in the last year.
Eight names.
Doctoral students and professors all with proper accreditation.
Uh, do you know who, uh, moved the humidity recorder here by the Carnahan archives? A technician came by last month.
The service log hasn't been signed.
How long was he here? I think about half an hour.
Your desk is right around the corner? I didn't think I had to keep an eye on him.
He was just calibrating the machine.
By putting it underneath the heating vent.
The company that leases the machine says they haven't sent a technician out in two months.
So this bogus repairman may have planted the bogus note? If the note was a fake, then we're saying what? Louise's cure was the real thing? I guess that is what we're saying.
There is no other evidence it wasn't.
We were led to the note by Mary Carnahan's poem, which we thought was inspired by Louise's prank.
But if there is no prank, then maybe the poem is a fake too.
A lot of trouble just to keep Brother Jerome from becoming a saint.
Maybe not so much trouble if the target is the foundation itself, and the trail led us to the goat letter, Brother Jerome's fall from grace.
I knew it! I knew Louise could not make that up.
Well, you still have a bigger problem the goat letter.
That's only a problem for those whose faith is weak.
Like your son? Maybe he thought that the foundation was losing touch with its mission.
He thought that exposing the goat letter would force a change.
That's ridiculous.
When Brother Jerome is canonized later this year, my job will be done.
I'm retiring.
Sean can run the foundation from a shoe box in the Bronx if that's what he thinks is right.
The goat letter How did you acquire it? From a collector in North Carolina.
The authenticator that you sent us to James Bennett He have anything to do with the letter? He brokered the purchase.
You actually met the collector? No.
James handled all that.
He's helped us acquire over a dozen documents in the last few years.
Funny he didn't mention that.
James BennettHe is someone that you trust? He's a friend of the foundation? I've known him for years.
His mother is a longtime supporter.
I don't know why you want to come here.
- It's not our church.
- Closer to where I work.
What happened to your watch? Mother.
I gave it for a charity auction.
It was a nice watch.
I still had the box.
It was a special gift for you.
Just for you.
I told you I don't want anything.
Good.
Be right back.
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
But that's not why I'm here.
- I know you speak with the archdiocese.
- What's on your mind? It's about the Brother Jerome Foundation.
I know they have certain documents in their possession documents that suggest that Brother Jerome was not unfamiliar with satanic magic.
Bennett has a juvenile arrest record.
We're working to get it unsealed, but we tracked down the cop who busted him.
Bennett used home-brewed thermite to melt the glass in a store window.
Home-brewed.
Boy chemist.
Yeah, someone who might have had the bright idea to use a balloon filled with lye as a murder weapon.
What do we know about this goat letter? It was authenticated by the expert at Bartleby's.
We tried to track down the collector, but the trail dead-ended at a P.
O.
Box in Fayetteville.
If Bennett wanted the world to know about this goat letter and embarrass the foundation, why not just call the papers? That would call attention to himself.
This goat letter probably came from Bennett's pen.
And And this other letter uh, the one about God telling Jerome to use the lamp oil.
Now, Bennett sold the foundation all building up to this goat letter, the disgracing of Brother Jerome.
To make these forgeries, he'd have to use materials from different centuries, to write in the style of the period.
And immerse himself in the mind of a 19th-century minister writing to his daughter, of a a 15-year-old girl worried about telling a lie and a a 30-year-old poet.
And compose an original poem true to her style.
He'd have to be good.
Yeah, not just good.
Extraordinary.
And for paper, your guy Bennett probably used blank pages ripped from 19th-century books.
And by burning old paper and mixing the ashes with the ink, he was able to trick the carbon dating.
Impressive.
More impressive is what he did with the writing.
I mean, forgers usually write in short bursts with pauses to look at the handwriting they're imitating.
But not Bennett.
No.
Once he starts to write, he never pauses.
There's no disfluency.
The writing is natural, relaxed.
It's like he's in a trance.
He became Thomas Ketcham, Mary Carnahan.
I did find one inconsistency.
Several pen strokes have this smudge.
From a left-handed writer.
Which your guy is.
Now, true writing samples from Mary Carnahan and Thomas Ketcham show right-handed smudges, but it's not enough for me to declare these forgeries.
Any evidence Bennett's forged anything besides the Brother Jerome documents? If he did, he's been giving them away.
We found two bank accounts in his name with balances totaling $132,000.
Small money considering what you can get for a Abe Lincoln letter.
Bennett can't be all bad.
He put his mom as a signatory on his accounts in case something happens to him.
Nothing will happen to him if we can't even make a case against him for fraud.
High school transcripts have him excelling at history, chemistry, art.
Useful skills for a forger.
His grades Straight "A's" at midterm.
A few months later"C's," "D's.
" His attendance record is erratic.
Maybe he had a chronic medical problem.
A social worker made a visit to his home.
The furnishings were missing.
TV.
Stereo was gone.
Chaotic home life.
You know, his juvie file It shows that he was arrested at 13 for breaking into a thrift store.
Look whose store it was.
Brother Jerome's Thrift Shop Bronx, New York monday, March 1 James was caught stealing an electroplating kit his mother Betty had donated.
He said it was his, and his mom gave it away by mistake.
His mother do that a lot Uh, donate things? Mmm, yes.
Every few months she'd bring in, uh, clothing, toys, furnishings.
Did she say where she got them? Well, we assumed she got them from her neighborhood.
She was tireless.
I bet she got special recognition for her tireless work.
From Mr.
Sullivan himself.
And what did James think of all this, uh, giving? Well, after his little incident, I think he was moved by the spirit of Brother Jerome.
He started bringing in rare coins he found.
One of our volunteers said they were valuable "D" series or something like that.
Anyway.
But James traded them for a radio or a bicycle.
The coins were worth a lot more than that.
Oh, yes.
We sold them for hundreds of dollars.
It was a great gift from such a young man.
Great gift.
Thanks to the electroplating kit.
Apartment of James & Elizabeth Bennett Tuseday, March 2 James is at work right now.
I don't know when he'll be back.
I like the way you keep your home.
You know, it's so, um, clean and efficient.
There's no clutter.
I don't like keeping a lot of things.
What about James? Does he hate clutter too? Him? He is a clutter bug.
Inez at the thrift shop said over the years you've donated a lot of things.
Things we didn't need.
Even James's toys? He couldn't have been very happy about that.
We all had to give up things we love.
You gave it all to the Brother Jerome Foundation? Yes.
Everything.
It is such a good feeling.
It's like a dark cloud being lifted, isn't it? Yes.
'Cause, uh, weeks before, you're very sad 'cause y ou're thinking about all the the sick kids and how you could help them.
You would be surprised how many there are.
You have lovely hands.
They're beautiful, aren't they? They're so pale and perfect.
Those are exactly the words that James used.
He wrote me a little card for Mother's Day when he was a teenager.
Do you still have it? I don't have time to look for it.
I have errands to run.
You know, I'm I'm surprised, uh, with all the money that he has that that James didn't, um, donate more money to the foundation.
What money? We barely get by on what James makes.
Well, actually, he has quite a lot put aside.
Well, he has over 130,000 in his accounts.
My Lord.
That's, uh, your money too.
You're a signatory on those accounts.
I am? Yes.
Thank you, Mrs.
Bennett.
It's been nice meeting you.
What do you mean it's out of your hands? Richard Sullivan told me to talk to you.
I'm sure he explained to you the foundation's under investigation for fraud, and their accounts have been frozen.
But not before they deposited the check my mother wrote them! $130,000! - That's all the money we have! - I'm sorry, but until we finish our audit This is how charity is rewarded? Thank you very much for your help.
It still astounds me she gutted his accounts.
It's a manic-depressive behavior that she can't resist.
Well, let's hope Mr.
Bennett performs to your expectations.
We had so much money, and they needed it.
I don't want to talk right now.
I'm very angry.
You'll get over it.
You always do.
Not only does Brother Jerome accept Ketcham's apology for spreading that rumor, he even forgives him.
And it's from the same collector in North Carolina? Yes.
I know that seems fortuitous, but that's how it is sometimes.
All right.
I'll send it to Devlin for authentication.
I've already verified it.
If I were you, I wouldn't wait too long.
If Devlin is satisfied, I'll have a check for you by the afternoon.
Tomorrow afternoon then.
Hi.
Oh, we're not interrupting dinner, are we? - Hi, Mrs.
Bennett.
How are you? - I'm all right, Detective.
Come in.
You know these people? We stopped by a couple days ago.
Why didn't you tell me? / You were already so upset about the money.
Scrabble.
I love Scrabble.
- Who's winning? - James.
He's a very good player.
What What do you people want? Oh, we need your help with a document.
- You mind if we set up here? - What document? An old letter.
Mr.
Sullivan sent it this morning to Blaine Devlin at Bartleby's for authentication.
Mr.
Devlin had problems with it, so he called us.
He called you? Yeah, we have friends everywhere.
Do you think you could find that Mother's Day card you told us about? If it's anywhere, it's in a big box I keep in my closet.
- Let me help you.
- What are you looking for? This letter written by Brother Jerome Mr.
Devlin says he thinks it's a fake.
- He what? - He thinks it's a fake.
Mr.
Sullivan told him he got the letter from you.
Actually, a collector put this up for sale.
I'm just brokering the transaction.
You can just put it on the table.
And I thought that James was the clutter bug.
Maybe we should talk to the collector.
No.
I've done business with him for years.
There's no doubt this is Brother Jerome's handwriting.
The paper is right and the ink.
Did you try carbon-dating the ink? That wasn't Devlin's problem.
What are these? Those are thank-you letters from the foundation.
This was Devlin's problem here These microscopic left-to-right smudges.
He says it's from a left-handed writer.
Brother Jerome was right-handed, wasn't he? Yes, he was.
These smudges don't prove anything.
This is it.
It is such a beautiful poem.
"Mother with hands pale and perfect forming the future.
" It is so beautiful.
So beautiful that, uh, he used it in another poem.
"Hands pale and perfect.
" No, no.
That That's not James's handwriting.
We're supposed to think it was written by somebody else, except it has the same left-to-right smudges.
And the 16 documents that you sold the foundation Every one of them with the same smudge pattern.
All fakes.
Brilliant fakes.
What are they accusing you of? That you tried to cheat the foundation? I don't know what they're talking about.
What he's been doing almost as long as you've been devastating his home with your generosity.
He used his electroplating set to change the mintmarks on coins to make them seem rare and valuable.
He brought them to the thrift store.
Yeah, he bought back his bicycle and his radio.
Everything that you gave away of his.
Is this true, James? I don't remember.
Oh, come on.
Even now you can't tell her how much you hated what she did? She took away your stability and safety.
Everything that made a home.
It's ancient history.
Your, uh, report cards.
Uh, attendance.
"A chronic under achiever.
" He was a lazy boy.
It is normal for boys to be lazy.
Hey, is Is this why you can't bring yourself to blame her? Is this why instead you go after the ones who encouraged her, who enabled her? Is that why you spent 20 years entangling them in a web of forgery, priming them for the kill? Every single one of those documents is authentic.
Even this one? This is from Brother Jerome's cousin.
"Jerome said the goat "had much conversation and told him of a magic remedy from the oil in the lamps at the church.
" A goat? "The goat rose up and walked on two legs like a man does walk.
" What do you suppose that means? It's obvious, isn't it? That's the devil.
Where did you get such an evil letter? It doesn't matter.
No.
It matters what Richard Sullivan did with it.
Come on.
I mean, you didn't really think he would make it public? That hypocrite! It would have been the ethical thing to do.
You were counting on Sean.
And he couldn't prevail on his father.
Louise Politano became a martyr to your needs.
I didn't have anything to do with that! No.
You left it to, um, "divine providence.
" Maybe the lye would kill her, maybe it would injure her.
Or maybe it would just startle her.
Either way, the trail would lead back to the poem and Brother Jerome.
And that's where you showed your hand.
"The Deceit of Nature.
" You used a poem that you wrote about your mother.
In your heart, you know, turned your young life into chaos.
Tell me this isn't true, James.
The devil didn't talk to Brother Jerome, did he? I made it up, Mom.
All the letters.
Brother Jerome is just what you always thought he was.
Why? They took advantage of you! You are nothing but a common criminal.
No, there's nothing common about your son.
Or his crime.
No, you fooled experts.
That's right.
Because I'm brilliant at what I do.
Hey.
Show her.
Mom, watch.
Brother Jerome.
Thomas Jefferson.
Mickey Mantle.
Edgar Allan Poe.
Elizabeth Bennett.
You, Mom.
The first signature I learned.
My goodness, that is my signature.
It's perfect.
They're all perfect.
She took everything away from you.
Everything that you loved.
But she gave you this.
She gave you the the drive to develop this skill.
Yes.
And the venom to use it.
Use it to cheat.
And to kill.
She gave you that.
Yes, Mother.
That's what you gave me.
We're putting you under arrest, James.
If anybody needed a miracle she worshipped a saint and raised a sinner.
The sinner raised himself.
These are their stories.
Nana, when you were sick and you prayed to Brother Jerome, he visited you in a dream, right? That's right.
Well, my doll Emily prayed to Brother Jerome, too.
About her arthritis? But I don't know if he can visit her because I don't know if dolls dream.
I'm sure dolls dream.
Maybe more than we do.
Thanks, Nana.
I'm happy to announce that with this last quarter's acquisitions, we're now fully documented.
As Sean can attest, the materials are spectacular.
Yes.
Yes, they are.
We can now take the last step in what's been a journey of 82 years.
If we hadn't been in housewares when we started fighting, I wouldn't have tried to stab him.
That's the kind of rationalization that keeps you showing up to detox talkin' like a jerk.
Who's this from? I don't know.
Somebody left it for me at the desk.
I know this isn't the solution we anticipated.
I tried to explain on the phone.
You're sure? It's not too late to change your mind.
It's the only thing we can do for now.
Thanks for being so understanding.
Is that for me? No, but I was gonna let you open it after your bath.
It's getting cold, Lulu.
Come on.
Nana, it's bad luck to let other people open your presents.
Okay.
Mom! Oh, my God! Nana! That's it then.
It's finished.
I don't want to hear any more about it.
Law & Order CI Mrs.
Politano's daughter said she brought the box home from work.
The trick was inside a balloon loaded with lye.
The top of the box was rigged with a pin.
Where did she work? A rehab center in the Village.
She was a counselor.
With lots of law-abiding clients, I'm sure.
And someone with a science background.
How much science does lye in a balloon take? Um, enough.
This device, uh, resolves a couple of problems.
The first one is, uh, it would pass through any bomb-screening machine.
And only the person who opens the box is is affected.
And only if she's standing directly over the top of it.
Who put this here? Uh, her daughter, while they were waiting for E.
M.
S.
A relic.
From a Brother Jerome.
To watch over her? Why did BrotherJerome let Nana die this time and save her the time before? I'm sorry.
Come on, Lulu.
You have to stay with Mommy.
We're gonna stay with friends, uh, for a few days.
We're very sorry about your mother.
Did she say anything about the gift? - Who it was from? - No.
Mom sometimes got presents from her clients.
Was she having problems with anybody apart from her work? Mom was pretty good at hiding that stuff, but I could tell when she was having a bad time.
Marzipan she'd bring home a box.
The last time she did that? A couple weeks ago.
What did your daughter mean about your mother being saved? My mother was diagnosed with polio when she was 15, and she prayed to Brother Jerome, and she recovered.
People said it was a miracle.
I'm not praying to him anymore and neither are my dolls.
New Morning Rehabilitation Center Wendesday, February 11 The package was left at the front, and nobody saw who delivered it.
We'll need a list ofher clients going back a couple years.
We're specifically interested in anyone with a science background.
Doesn't ring any bells.
Two weeks ago, anything happen to upset her? Nothing she mentioned.
If you need me, I'll be at the front.
Just got a poem in the mail.
It's postmarked upstate Tannerville.
A little over two weeks ago.
"The Deceit of Nature's Radiance.
" It seems to be about the consequences of lying.
It's unsigned.
- There's no return address.
- Never a good sign.
And our poet compares lying to the Drosera and the carnivorous plants who disguise themselves to trap their prey.
This person knows botany.
- Looks old.
- It was written with a fountain pen.
And the ink is bleeds to the other side of the paper.
This was probably written 30, 40 years ago.
There was a receipt in here for a church.
She had a mass said for somebody last week.
Here.
At St.
Anne's.
A mass for the dead.
It was for someone called Mack.
I don't know whether that was a first name or a nickname.
Louise didn't tell me anything about them.
Was it a recent death? Louise didn't say, but my guess, it was fairly recent.
Ms.
Politano was still in pain over it.
You could tell.
She asked me if one person could be held responsible for another's loss of faith in God.
I said, "Sure if that one person is the devil.
" The person that you said the mass for, maybe their death was a result of a loss of faith, maybe a suicide? That would fit the bill.
But Louise didn't say.
- Thanks, Father.
- All right.
God bless.
The poem was about deceit.
Maybe the killer blames Louise for some kind of betrayal that led to a suicide.
Maybe the killer's a poet.
We've been through her address book, client files.
Nobody in there from Tannerville or the immediate area.
No usable prints other than Louise's on the poem.
And the lab traced the watermark on the paper to a company that went out of business in 1959, and the ink contained a synthetic pigment manufacturers started using in 1957.
So the poem was written when Louise was in her mid-20s.
Could be an old boyfriend.
Whoever it was used language with confidence.
"Hiding her decay under a mantle of ice, Mother Nature comes with hands pale and perfect forming the future.
" Nice.
And this here.
"It is not lying to seem one thing and be another.
We learn from the deceit of nature.
" That wasn't their first effort and maybe not their last.
Keyword poet, botany, suicide.
Mary Karen Carnahan, poet and botany professor.
She took her own life two years ago at age 70.
A childhood friend.
She's not in Louise's phone book.
Maybe you should check Mary Carnahan's address book.
Uh, her papers are archived at her alma mater, Dickerson College.
Dickerson College Bedford, New York Thursday, February 12 Mary Carnahan wrote this poem in her late 20s when she really found her poetic voice.
Did you ever come across a a reference to, um, Louise Politano? I don't recognize the name.
Maybe it's in the personal correspondence.
So far, I've just been able to sort it chronologically.
The early letters? Uh, let's see.
This bundle here.
Anything else from her youth? Well, there are some high school essays, and, uh, some yearbooks in this box here and some short stories.
If you need me, I'll be in the stacks.
Pardon me.
Bingo.
Mary and Louise were on the yearbook committee together.
Get a load of those saddle shoes.
This is a note from, uh, Louise to Mary when they were teenagers.
She refers to her as Mack.
"Mack, I really messed up telling my mother I couldn't walk just so Father Luke would come to my house.
"What a little idiot I am.
Then pretending I had a dream about Brother Jerome? God must be so angry with me.
" She faked a miracle because of a crush on a priest.
Yeah.
Mary knew it and saw how people would believe it.
Might be the reason for her depression and suicide.
One fake miracle, two real deaths.
Whoever sent the poem had to know Louise faked her miraculous cure.
I had an aunt who used to pray to Brother Jerome instead of getting a flu shot.
Someone could have been offended by what Louise did.
Well, the stakes might be higher than that.
Brother Jerome is up for a sainthood.
He was a porter at Saint Joseph's in the Bronx in the late 1800s, and then he developed a following after he used "oil from the church lamps to heal a sick child.
" It says he healed hundreds of people before he died in 1920.
One miracle, more or less, is gonna make a difference to his sainthood? Aside from a documented miracle during a saint's life, you also need two miracles after his death.
Like being healed after the saint visits you in a dream.
If it comes out it was a teenage prank Brother Jerome's sainthood might hit the skids.
The Brother Jerome Foundation is running the campaign for sainthood.
Brother Jerome Foundation Monday, February 16 The Louise Politano case was reviewed by the archdiocese.
Her cure was fully documented.
Mr.
Sullivan, Ms.
Politano She might have been killed to keep her deception from coming out and maybe by someone known to your foundation.
I don't know anyone like that.
Anyway, this whole thing is predicated on what I believe is a fabrication by this disturbed poet to discredit Louise.
Do you have any samples of Louise's handwriting from when she was 15? We have the essay that she wrote.
The one she wrote for her parish priest describing her dream.
Dad, they're suggesting that we have the note authenticated by comparing it to Louise's essay.
Oh.
Of course.
Let's do that.
But I don't want just anyone handling our documents.
We have a man, a first-rate expert.
Sean, give him James's number.
The pressure of the downstroke, the way it cuts into the paper.
And the way she dots the "l" just to the right as an afterthought.
- They look identical to me.
- That's because they are.
The internal rhythms of the writing, the isochrone it's an identical match.
Louise Politano wrote both of these.
Well, that's not the answer the Sullivans expected especially Richard.
Ever since he took over the foundation from his grandfather, he's pushed very hard for sainthood.
His son, Sean, hasn't? He's more interested in caring for sick children.
That's the real work of the foundation.
Did Richard or Sean say how they wanted to pay for this? Oh, uh, how do they normally pay you? They pay me a finder's fee to locate artifacts for their reliquary.
What kinds of artifacts? Brother Jerome's clothes, eating utensils, rosaries.
Once he gets canonized, all this stuff is gonna be not only very valuable, but hard to find.
The sainthood documents Um, he didn't use you.
Is that why you're wondering, uh, how you're gonna get paid? I'll just call Sean.
/ Actually, the department will take care of it.
We just need a bill.
Just give me a minute.
Sullivan, Sr.
Sent us here thinking the call would go his way.
Unless there's another reason he kept us away from his regular authenticator.
Bartleby's Auction house Thursday, February 19 I can't imagine why Richard Sullivan sent you toJames Bennett.
The archdiocese told us that over the last 10 years you've been authenticating all the foundation's documents.
That's right.
Well, what what were they? Um, old letters? Testimonials dating back to BrotherJerome's time? Uh, yes.
Uh, most were 19th century.
As for these, they were written by the same person.
The The dotting of the "I's" and the speed of the pen stroke.
That's what Bennett told us.
He also said that the samples were identical.
You know, I really do believe that, um, there's a problem between you and Sullivan.
Yeah, he told us he didn't trust anyone but Bennett to handle the documents.
What'd you do, drop a jelly doughnut on 'em? I didn't do anything.
It It's those two Richard and Sean Sullivan.
Two months ago I authenticated this letter.
It's dated 1877 from a Reverend Jacob Spencer to his daughter Gracelyn, telling her about Brother Jerome's healings.
"Jerome is Thomas Ketcham's cousin, and he said he was in the woods along the Bronx River "and God told him to use the oil.
"Now people are coming from all over after hearing about the blessed oil.
I have seen it with my own eyes.
" Then, last month, Sean Sullivan came to me with an envelope to authenticate.
It's also dated 1877.
But the envelope doesn't belong to the letter? No.
The thing is, normally they ask me to go to their offices to work.
Sean brought the envelope here.
He didn't want his father to know what he was doing? Um, this missing letter Do you have any idea what it was? He wouldn't tell me.
It was authentic.
I couldn't very well lie.
I knew Louise Politano.
She was not a liar.
Dad, there's no use blaming James.
I know how upsetting this must be.
It's the last thing you needed.
The city's only paying me the minimum fee, so I have to charge you for the balance.
So they steered the police to one authenticator instead of another.
You're reading too much into it.
At the very least, Your Honor, it appears they steered the police away from a controversy withintheir foundation.
This is a charity that helps little sick kids.
A sainthood would enhance the influence and the prestige of Richard Sullivan's foundation.
He has a motive to get rid of any impediment, Your Honor.
You have no right.
We haven't done anything wrong.
Careful! Those documents are irreplaceable! We'll be careful.
Now, if you don't mind, sir, you'll have to wait outside.
Here's the file on Louise.
Here's her medical chart with the diagnosis of paralytic poliomyelitis.
Statements from two doctors attesting to her complete recovery.
I don't see anything here contradicting the claim of a miraculous cure.
Oh, this is the envelope that Sean had authenticated.
This is the letter they don't want anyone to see.
It's from Thomas Ketcham, BrotherJerome's cousin.
"I heard Jerome has a magic oil.
" "He was in the woods along the Bronx River when he came upon a goat.
" "The goat rose up and walked on two legs like a man does walk.
" "Jerome said the goat had much conversation and told him of a magic remedy from the oil in the lamps at the church.
" A talking goat? A goat who walks like a man.
Brother Jerome told his cousin his best ideas came from the devil.
A secret worth protecting.
This becomes known, the foundation might as well hang up its donation plate.
I don't know what the goat letter means, but at the very least, we should have told the archdiocese.
What does your father think it means? He thinks the letter was sent to test our faith.
But he's afraid that his life's work's been in the name of a charlatan.
I keep telling him our life's work is in the name of those we help the cancer kids, the AIDS babies.
But he's turned the foundation into a kind of cult of personality.
If Louise Politano, uh, admitted her prank, it would all unravel.
He didn't know she lied.
How could he? Look at the doctors' reports.
You haven't answered the question.
My father wouldn't hurt anyone.
He's not that kind of man.
And if he was, he would have destroyed the goat letter.
He hasn't.
That's a Good point.
Um, are you familiar with Louise's file? Yes, I prepared it.
The doctor made a notation here during an examination a month after her recovery about a fractured left scaphoid.
- She broke her wrist.
- Yes.
She went skating too soon after her cure, and her legs weren't strong enough.
She fell down.
Louise's note to Mary Carnahan admitting the prank was dated four weeks after her cure.
- She's left-handed.
- She wrote a note with a broken wrist.
Another miracle.
The note is a forgery.
/ Which somehow made its way into the Carnahan archive.
I'm betting that wasn't a miracle.
This is everyone who accessed the Carnahan archives in the last year.
Eight names.
Doctoral students and professors all with proper accreditation.
Uh, do you know who, uh, moved the humidity recorder here by the Carnahan archives? A technician came by last month.
The service log hasn't been signed.
How long was he here? I think about half an hour.
Your desk is right around the corner? I didn't think I had to keep an eye on him.
He was just calibrating the machine.
By putting it underneath the heating vent.
The company that leases the machine says they haven't sent a technician out in two months.
So this bogus repairman may have planted the bogus note? If the note was a fake, then we're saying what? Louise's cure was the real thing? I guess that is what we're saying.
There is no other evidence it wasn't.
We were led to the note by Mary Carnahan's poem, which we thought was inspired by Louise's prank.
But if there is no prank, then maybe the poem is a fake too.
A lot of trouble just to keep Brother Jerome from becoming a saint.
Maybe not so much trouble if the target is the foundation itself, and the trail led us to the goat letter, Brother Jerome's fall from grace.
I knew it! I knew Louise could not make that up.
Well, you still have a bigger problem the goat letter.
That's only a problem for those whose faith is weak.
Like your son? Maybe he thought that the foundation was losing touch with its mission.
He thought that exposing the goat letter would force a change.
That's ridiculous.
When Brother Jerome is canonized later this year, my job will be done.
I'm retiring.
Sean can run the foundation from a shoe box in the Bronx if that's what he thinks is right.
The goat letter How did you acquire it? From a collector in North Carolina.
The authenticator that you sent us to James Bennett He have anything to do with the letter? He brokered the purchase.
You actually met the collector? No.
James handled all that.
He's helped us acquire over a dozen documents in the last few years.
Funny he didn't mention that.
James BennettHe is someone that you trust? He's a friend of the foundation? I've known him for years.
His mother is a longtime supporter.
I don't know why you want to come here.
- It's not our church.
- Closer to where I work.
What happened to your watch? Mother.
I gave it for a charity auction.
It was a nice watch.
I still had the box.
It was a special gift for you.
Just for you.
I told you I don't want anything.
Good.
Be right back.
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
But that's not why I'm here.
- I know you speak with the archdiocese.
- What's on your mind? It's about the Brother Jerome Foundation.
I know they have certain documents in their possession documents that suggest that Brother Jerome was not unfamiliar with satanic magic.
Bennett has a juvenile arrest record.
We're working to get it unsealed, but we tracked down the cop who busted him.
Bennett used home-brewed thermite to melt the glass in a store window.
Home-brewed.
Boy chemist.
Yeah, someone who might have had the bright idea to use a balloon filled with lye as a murder weapon.
What do we know about this goat letter? It was authenticated by the expert at Bartleby's.
We tried to track down the collector, but the trail dead-ended at a P.
O.
Box in Fayetteville.
If Bennett wanted the world to know about this goat letter and embarrass the foundation, why not just call the papers? That would call attention to himself.
This goat letter probably came from Bennett's pen.
And And this other letter uh, the one about God telling Jerome to use the lamp oil.
Now, Bennett sold the foundation all building up to this goat letter, the disgracing of Brother Jerome.
To make these forgeries, he'd have to use materials from different centuries, to write in the style of the period.
And immerse himself in the mind of a 19th-century minister writing to his daughter, of a a 15-year-old girl worried about telling a lie and a a 30-year-old poet.
And compose an original poem true to her style.
He'd have to be good.
Yeah, not just good.
Extraordinary.
And for paper, your guy Bennett probably used blank pages ripped from 19th-century books.
And by burning old paper and mixing the ashes with the ink, he was able to trick the carbon dating.
Impressive.
More impressive is what he did with the writing.
I mean, forgers usually write in short bursts with pauses to look at the handwriting they're imitating.
But not Bennett.
No.
Once he starts to write, he never pauses.
There's no disfluency.
The writing is natural, relaxed.
It's like he's in a trance.
He became Thomas Ketcham, Mary Carnahan.
I did find one inconsistency.
Several pen strokes have this smudge.
From a left-handed writer.
Which your guy is.
Now, true writing samples from Mary Carnahan and Thomas Ketcham show right-handed smudges, but it's not enough for me to declare these forgeries.
Any evidence Bennett's forged anything besides the Brother Jerome documents? If he did, he's been giving them away.
We found two bank accounts in his name with balances totaling $132,000.
Small money considering what you can get for a Abe Lincoln letter.
Bennett can't be all bad.
He put his mom as a signatory on his accounts in case something happens to him.
Nothing will happen to him if we can't even make a case against him for fraud.
High school transcripts have him excelling at history, chemistry, art.
Useful skills for a forger.
His grades Straight "A's" at midterm.
A few months later"C's," "D's.
" His attendance record is erratic.
Maybe he had a chronic medical problem.
A social worker made a visit to his home.
The furnishings were missing.
TV.
Stereo was gone.
Chaotic home life.
You know, his juvie file It shows that he was arrested at 13 for breaking into a thrift store.
Look whose store it was.
Brother Jerome's Thrift Shop Bronx, New York monday, March 1 James was caught stealing an electroplating kit his mother Betty had donated.
He said it was his, and his mom gave it away by mistake.
His mother do that a lot Uh, donate things? Mmm, yes.
Every few months she'd bring in, uh, clothing, toys, furnishings.
Did she say where she got them? Well, we assumed she got them from her neighborhood.
She was tireless.
I bet she got special recognition for her tireless work.
From Mr.
Sullivan himself.
And what did James think of all this, uh, giving? Well, after his little incident, I think he was moved by the spirit of Brother Jerome.
He started bringing in rare coins he found.
One of our volunteers said they were valuable "D" series or something like that.
Anyway.
But James traded them for a radio or a bicycle.
The coins were worth a lot more than that.
Oh, yes.
We sold them for hundreds of dollars.
It was a great gift from such a young man.
Great gift.
Thanks to the electroplating kit.
Apartment of James & Elizabeth Bennett Tuseday, March 2 James is at work right now.
I don't know when he'll be back.
I like the way you keep your home.
You know, it's so, um, clean and efficient.
There's no clutter.
I don't like keeping a lot of things.
What about James? Does he hate clutter too? Him? He is a clutter bug.
Inez at the thrift shop said over the years you've donated a lot of things.
Things we didn't need.
Even James's toys? He couldn't have been very happy about that.
We all had to give up things we love.
You gave it all to the Brother Jerome Foundation? Yes.
Everything.
It is such a good feeling.
It's like a dark cloud being lifted, isn't it? Yes.
'Cause, uh, weeks before, you're very sad 'cause y ou're thinking about all the the sick kids and how you could help them.
You would be surprised how many there are.
You have lovely hands.
They're beautiful, aren't they? They're so pale and perfect.
Those are exactly the words that James used.
He wrote me a little card for Mother's Day when he was a teenager.
Do you still have it? I don't have time to look for it.
I have errands to run.
You know, I'm I'm surprised, uh, with all the money that he has that that James didn't, um, donate more money to the foundation.
What money? We barely get by on what James makes.
Well, actually, he has quite a lot put aside.
Well, he has over 130,000 in his accounts.
My Lord.
That's, uh, your money too.
You're a signatory on those accounts.
I am? Yes.
Thank you, Mrs.
Bennett.
It's been nice meeting you.
What do you mean it's out of your hands? Richard Sullivan told me to talk to you.
I'm sure he explained to you the foundation's under investigation for fraud, and their accounts have been frozen.
But not before they deposited the check my mother wrote them! $130,000! - That's all the money we have! - I'm sorry, but until we finish our audit This is how charity is rewarded? Thank you very much for your help.
It still astounds me she gutted his accounts.
It's a manic-depressive behavior that she can't resist.
Well, let's hope Mr.
Bennett performs to your expectations.
We had so much money, and they needed it.
I don't want to talk right now.
I'm very angry.
You'll get over it.
You always do.
Not only does Brother Jerome accept Ketcham's apology for spreading that rumor, he even forgives him.
And it's from the same collector in North Carolina? Yes.
I know that seems fortuitous, but that's how it is sometimes.
All right.
I'll send it to Devlin for authentication.
I've already verified it.
If I were you, I wouldn't wait too long.
If Devlin is satisfied, I'll have a check for you by the afternoon.
Tomorrow afternoon then.
Hi.
Oh, we're not interrupting dinner, are we? - Hi, Mrs.
Bennett.
How are you? - I'm all right, Detective.
Come in.
You know these people? We stopped by a couple days ago.
Why didn't you tell me? / You were already so upset about the money.
Scrabble.
I love Scrabble.
- Who's winning? - James.
He's a very good player.
What What do you people want? Oh, we need your help with a document.
- You mind if we set up here? - What document? An old letter.
Mr.
Sullivan sent it this morning to Blaine Devlin at Bartleby's for authentication.
Mr.
Devlin had problems with it, so he called us.
He called you? Yeah, we have friends everywhere.
Do you think you could find that Mother's Day card you told us about? If it's anywhere, it's in a big box I keep in my closet.
- Let me help you.
- What are you looking for? This letter written by Brother Jerome Mr.
Devlin says he thinks it's a fake.
- He what? - He thinks it's a fake.
Mr.
Sullivan told him he got the letter from you.
Actually, a collector put this up for sale.
I'm just brokering the transaction.
You can just put it on the table.
And I thought that James was the clutter bug.
Maybe we should talk to the collector.
No.
I've done business with him for years.
There's no doubt this is Brother Jerome's handwriting.
The paper is right and the ink.
Did you try carbon-dating the ink? That wasn't Devlin's problem.
What are these? Those are thank-you letters from the foundation.
This was Devlin's problem here These microscopic left-to-right smudges.
He says it's from a left-handed writer.
Brother Jerome was right-handed, wasn't he? Yes, he was.
These smudges don't prove anything.
This is it.
It is such a beautiful poem.
"Mother with hands pale and perfect forming the future.
" It is so beautiful.
So beautiful that, uh, he used it in another poem.
"Hands pale and perfect.
" No, no.
That That's not James's handwriting.
We're supposed to think it was written by somebody else, except it has the same left-to-right smudges.
And the 16 documents that you sold the foundation Every one of them with the same smudge pattern.
All fakes.
Brilliant fakes.
What are they accusing you of? That you tried to cheat the foundation? I don't know what they're talking about.
What he's been doing almost as long as you've been devastating his home with your generosity.
He used his electroplating set to change the mintmarks on coins to make them seem rare and valuable.
He brought them to the thrift store.
Yeah, he bought back his bicycle and his radio.
Everything that you gave away of his.
Is this true, James? I don't remember.
Oh, come on.
Even now you can't tell her how much you hated what she did? She took away your stability and safety.
Everything that made a home.
It's ancient history.
Your, uh, report cards.
Uh, attendance.
"A chronic under achiever.
" He was a lazy boy.
It is normal for boys to be lazy.
Hey, is Is this why you can't bring yourself to blame her? Is this why instead you go after the ones who encouraged her, who enabled her? Is that why you spent 20 years entangling them in a web of forgery, priming them for the kill? Every single one of those documents is authentic.
Even this one? This is from Brother Jerome's cousin.
"Jerome said the goat "had much conversation and told him of a magic remedy from the oil in the lamps at the church.
" A goat? "The goat rose up and walked on two legs like a man does walk.
" What do you suppose that means? It's obvious, isn't it? That's the devil.
Where did you get such an evil letter? It doesn't matter.
No.
It matters what Richard Sullivan did with it.
Come on.
I mean, you didn't really think he would make it public? That hypocrite! It would have been the ethical thing to do.
You were counting on Sean.
And he couldn't prevail on his father.
Louise Politano became a martyr to your needs.
I didn't have anything to do with that! No.
You left it to, um, "divine providence.
" Maybe the lye would kill her, maybe it would injure her.
Or maybe it would just startle her.
Either way, the trail would lead back to the poem and Brother Jerome.
And that's where you showed your hand.
"The Deceit of Nature.
" You used a poem that you wrote about your mother.
In your heart, you know, turned your young life into chaos.
Tell me this isn't true, James.
The devil didn't talk to Brother Jerome, did he? I made it up, Mom.
All the letters.
Brother Jerome is just what you always thought he was.
Why? They took advantage of you! You are nothing but a common criminal.
No, there's nothing common about your son.
Or his crime.
No, you fooled experts.
That's right.
Because I'm brilliant at what I do.
Hey.
Show her.
Mom, watch.
Brother Jerome.
Thomas Jefferson.
Mickey Mantle.
Edgar Allan Poe.
Elizabeth Bennett.
You, Mom.
The first signature I learned.
My goodness, that is my signature.
It's perfect.
They're all perfect.
She took everything away from you.
Everything that you loved.
But she gave you this.
She gave you the the drive to develop this skill.
Yes.
And the venom to use it.
Use it to cheat.
And to kill.
She gave you that.
Yes, Mother.
That's what you gave me.
We're putting you under arrest, James.
If anybody needed a miracle she worshipped a saint and raised a sinner.
The sinner raised himself.