T.J. Hooker (1982) s05e03 Episode Script

(80s rock music) (synthesizer music) - Hey, I got a great idea, how 'bout I cook us some steaks? - On the barbecue, you gonna make a fire? - Can we go to a movie after, Dad? - How about if I rent one for the VCR? - Great, can I ask Jimmy over? - Sure.
- Can I get a watermelon? - Sure, sweetie, but get a half, it's more than enough.
- Remember in the old days when we used to get a whole one, plug it, fill it with rum? - I remember what rum used to do to you.
- Hey, I made an honest woman out of you, didn't I? - And then some.
Apropos of nothing, we're out of steak sauce.
- Mm, barbecue steaks ain't barbecue steaks without steak sauce.
- Far aisle against the wall.
While you get that, I'll pick out some corn.
- Okay.
- Hey, Phil, you remember me? Carl Beemon.
So long, Phil.
(gun fires) (gun fires) (woman screams) - [Dispatcher.]
All units in the vicinity on four Adam 30, shots fired, a man down in the grocery store, handle code two.
- Four Adam 30, roger.
(suspenseful music) - Four Adam 16, rolling back up to 30.
(suspenseful music) (tires screech) - Move aside, please, move aside.
- This way, officer, please.
The guy was here with his family, shopping.
I don't know what happened, no one saw nothing, no one heard nothing until the woman screamed.
Everything's just as it was, we didn't touch anything.
His wife and his kid were going half crazy.
(somber music) - Wife and child? - Over there.
(woman sobs) - Martha.
(woman sobs) I'm so sorry.
- Oh God, how could this be? (sobs) (somber music) - Stacey will take you and Andy home.
- Oh, God, the times we spent talking about him quitting before something happened.
- I'll get there as soon as I can.
- Nobody saw anything, nobody knows anything, somebody walks up to my husband and shoots him in the supermarket in broad daylight, and nobody knows a damn thing about it? - Martha.
- Oh, God.
All those years, worrying.
Every time he left for work, and it happens on his day off.
Why? - That's what we're gonna find out.
Take her home, Stacy.
- All right, Mrs.
Kenter.
- Hooker.
(sobs) - I'm gonna find out who did it.
That's a promise.
(engine turns over) Jim, interview everyone that was in that store and everyone that was near it.
Somebody's got to have seen something.
- Right, all things considered, that's a pretty big promise you made the boy.
- Yeah.
- Could have been anything, you know, a random hold up that went sour, a crazy.
- Maybe, Phil took a slug in the head.
One on the body.
- Like an execution.
- You got it.
Smells like a professional hit to me, Lieutenant.
Phil was working on vice, homicide, non narcotics, been up against all kinds, it's impossible.
- And it could have been a revenge killing, done by one of six or seven hundred cases he's dealt with over the years.
- Or a current case he's working on now.
- Damn good record, you know his partner, Carey Dunston, right? - Yeah, Phil and he have been partners for years.
Let me have this one with them.
- All right, I'll talk to the detectives and arrange it.
Where are you gonna start? - With Dunston.
Corrigan's looking for him now, to tell him the news.
(synthesizer music) - Corrigan, right? You know, it seems I remember your partner better than you.
She was five, six-ish, blonde, real beautiful? - Hooker sent me to talk to you, sergeant.
- Hooker, what's going on? - Well, we didn't want you to hear about it from the news report or get it over the phone.
- What's happened? - Your partner's been shot.
- Phil.
Well, how bad is he, I mean, is he - I'm sorry, he didn't make it.
(somber music) (engine starts) - Phil Kenter was a good cop.
A friend to all of us.
And his shooting was cold and calculated, an execution.
That's the way we're proceeding with it.
We'll be going over the cases Phil was working on, so check your street sources.
See what the talk is.
Find out if anything can be learned.
And let me know what you pick up, that's it, move with it.
Carey.
- Yeah, it's a hell of a thing, Hooker.
Anything to go on? - Not much, when forensics is finished, ballistics will tell us what they have.
- Yeah, if it was a professional hit, the question is still why? - You have an answer to that, Carey? - Yeah, it could have been some kind of a nut, you know, somebody high on something, out for kicks.
I brought along the current file, I didn't see anything in it that fits, you wanna have a look? - Yeah.
- Right now it's take your choice.
- Oh, I don't know, I got a gut feeling that it was somebody who wanted him dead, personal reason.
You working on anything that might tie into that, Carey? - You mean revenge? We'd have to go all the way back to when he left the academy for that.
- You got a better idea? - Well, we could sift through Phil was involved in.
- Well, there'll be a lot of them that we'll automatically discard, Stacy and Corrigan will be helping out, why don't you go through the files, Carey, pull out those you think might help us? Threats, by those cons that have served their time, friends and families of the hard core cases that are still in the joint.
- I'll check records, see how they're doing.
- (sighs) I understand Martha and Andy were in the store when it happened, is that right? - Yeah, they were.
- I wanted to take Phil fishing, but he insisted on being with his family that day.
I gotta go see Martha and Andy.
- Why don't you make that later? Get started helping Corrigan on the files.
I'll tell her you'll be along.
- I didn't know you were close to Martha, Hooker.
- Oh, yeah, I introduced them, a lot of years ago, when things were better for all of us.
- Come on, it's been two whole days.
- Ma'am, there is nothing I can tell you.
- Well, then, who can? - Hooker, see you a minute? This is Miss Chotner, maybe you can help her.
- My friend was murdered two nights ago.
Her name was Ginger Coleman, and I wanna know what's being done to find who did it.
Homicide won't give me the time of day.
- Well, ma'am, let me explain to you how this thing works.
An investigative team is assigned to homicide - What have I got here, a public relations man, or maybe you cops don't put as much into a prosty getting dumped as you do for other people? - I can understand how you feel, but you see these kinds of investigations take time.
- She was my friend, my friend, and there's not a lousy thing I can do for her, do you know how that makes me feel? (synthesizer music) - Jackpot.
Hey, Jackpot, I wanna talk to you, Jackpot.
(suspenseful music) (brakes screech) I said I wanna talk to you.
- Hey, man, you know I can't be seen talking to the man.
- Listen up, a friend of mine was blown away.
Your name was on his file, and I want some answers.
- What file, man, what you talking about? Who you talking about? - Sergeant Phil Kenter, ring a bell? You worked as a snitch, I wanna know everything you know.
I wanna know if there's anything on the street.
- I don't know nothing about no hit.
Mister Kenter always treated me fine, all I did was turn him on to a couple pushers, you know.
That's all.
- I want more.
- There is no more.
- I don't buy it.
- I swear.
- I don't buy it, tell me something before I get really angry.
- I don't know anymore, but listen, why don't you ask Mister Kenter's partner? - Sergeant Dunston? - Yeah, Dunston, he knows more off the street than I do.
He lived with a street girl for a few years, he knows what's going down better than me.
- Get away from me before I book you just for practice.
(doorbell rings) - All the neighbors brought food and they hardly touched a thing.
Andy said his father was supposed to barbecue steaks tonight The things people do to other people.
- You go on home, I'll see you in the morning.
- Really had something special, the three of 'em, you know? - I know.
I'm sorry it took me so long to get here.
- Oh, no, I'm just really glad you could come.
I'm tired, I'm glad everybody's gone.
I just need to be with somebody.
- Let me help you.
- No, it's okay.
Oh, Hooker, why did I have to fall in love with a cop? - He wasn't a cop when you met him.
- Yeah, you know why he became one? It's 'cause of you, they call it a role model these days.
Hooker, what's gonna happen to Andy and me? - You're gonna pick up the pieces and go on.
- I'm not sure I can.
- Of course you can, and Andy's one big reason why.
- He's so much like his dad.
- Yes he is.
- You know, this morning, this morning my big worry was I hadn't been able to make a dental appointment for Andy and now nothing, nothing's the same and it never will be.
- That's right, Martha, it won't be.
Know it, accept it, and go on from there.
Where's Andy? - He's in his room.
- I'm gonna say good night to him.
- Hooker? Promise you'll stay close? - For as long as you need me.
(somber music) (Hooker knocks) Andy? - Hi, Hooker.
- Can I come in? - Sure.
Will you tell me something? - What? - Did they hurt him? The bullets, did they hurt Dad? - No, it was too fast, it didn't hurt.
- That's good to know.
Can I ask you something else? - Mmhmm.
- This friend of mine, when his father died, his uncle told him he had to be the man of the house, take care of his mother.
- He did, huh.
- I guess I'm the man of this house now.
- Andy, I don't know about that.
You're 12 years old, man of the house? You're just a boy, man of the house is too much, that's for when you grow up.
Don't even try now.
- My friend used to have nightmares about it.
- You're gonna have lots to handle and there are gonna be changes, big changes, your mother's gonna need you, but as her son.
And if there are things you can't handle, call me.
We'll handle them together.
Kramer, how's it going? - Overworked and underpaid, like always.
Sorry about Phil Kenter.
- Yeah, how are you doing on the Ginger Coleman shooting? - Oh, yeah, I heard that Gayle Chotner was bugging you on that, what I'm wondering is, you seem to have plenty to keep you busy.
Why the special concern over some prosty getting snuffed? - 'Cause I'm interested, you don't wanna tell me what you got, I'll go through channels.
- Still the hardnosed, eh? - Only when I have to be, what do you got, Kramer? - Ginger ran an out call operation with her friend and roomie, Gayle Chotner, last Tuesday night at the Sea Breeze motel, the deceased had an 11:30 reservation.
- Did she keep it? - Nope, nobody saw anything, nobody heard shots, some did hear a car backfire.
We found Ginger in the motel parking lot the following morning dead.
- That's it? - That's all I had time to get.
- Maybe the lieutenant can get you some more help.
- I'd appreciate it, Hooker, you're all heart.
- How's it going with the files on the Kenter cases? - We eliminated most of the dead wood last night.
- Which still leaves six file drawers full for today.
- We just saw Dunston.
- How's he holding up? - He says you're spending too much time with Kenter's wife.
- Dunston just lost a partner, he isn't thinking right.
Let's get on those files.
- It's a fishing rod, I want you to catch a big one for your mom.
Why don't you come along, Martha? We're gonna go downtown to the sporting goods store, buy some new lures, take 'em out to Browns Lake and try 'em out.
- No.
- Be a nice drive.
- No, sorry, Carey, I've got so many things to take care of, do you mind if I don't? - Nah, I'm disappointed, but I understand.
(sinister music) - Lot of people have a lot of nice things to say about cops, a lot of the others hate our guts.
- What else is new? - So far we have a couple dozen cons, ex and otherwise, who swore before witnesses they were gonna get Phil Kenter.
- You put a man behind bars, you're bound to get threats on your life, after 13 years, they add up.
- Well the current cases, we've got a couple of long shots here, one was a case that Phil was on before he and Dunston teamed up, the other from a couple of years ago.
Dunston been any help? - Not yet, you get any sleep last night? - Enough, you worried about me, Mother? - Hey, you two, it's lunchtime, why don't you take a break and I'll cover for you here.
- That's what my stomach's been trying to tell me.
- I'll buy.
- Not very subtle, Pete, what's on your mind? - Well, Dunston's been shooting off his mouth.
- What about? - Look, I know you're giving Martha Kenter support when she needs it, but Dunston has been saying you've been moving into a dead man's shoes, maybe his bed before his body's cold.
- I can put an end to that kind of talk.
- Calm down, Hooker, come on.
Dunston's been Phil's partner for a long time, he feels a proprietary urge to do what he can for Martha and the boy, matter of fact, it's a departmental tradition for the partner to step in and hold things together, you know that, just watch yourself, okay? - I'll do that, thanks for the tip.
(sinister music) - Just be sure you bring back some fish.
Have a terrific day, hon.
You're sweet.
- I'll bring him home early.
(sinister music) (car starts) (radio beeps) - [Dispatcher.]
Four Adam 30, will you accept a phone patch from a Mrs.
Phil Kenter? - Four Adam 30, roger.
- [Dispatcher.]
Go ahead, please.
- Hooker? - What is it, Martha, what's wrong? - I'm afraid for Andy and Carey.
- [Hooker.]
Why, what's wrong? - Carey picked up Andy to go fishing and when they pulled away from the house, a man in another car followed them.
- Where did they go? - They went to a store Phil used to shop at downtown, the All Western, I think.
- I know where it is, I'll be in touch.
- Hooker, hurry.
(synthesizer music) (car screeches) (gun fires) - Dunston, get down, get Andy down! (guns fire) (synthesizer music) (tires screech) - One thing I want to say to you, Dunston, something I couldn't say in front of Andy.
- Well, I'm listening, Hooker.
- You're letting your mouth run off at record speed about Martha Kenter, you're saying the wrong things and if you don't stop, I'll stop you.
- To bring you two up to date, I just put out an APB on the car the suspect was driving.
- Let me tell something, big shot, it'll be stolen, this guy's a hardcore pro.
- We might get lucky, pick up a print somewhere.
- I think we got a whole new ballgame here.
- What do you mean? - This guy wanted to take Dunston out with a gun.
- You mean like Kenter, it could be.
Someone you and Phil brought down together, Carey.
- A professional who served his time, is now out on the streets.
- That narrows it down even more, why don't you take a look at those files yourself, Carey? Another attempt to get at you is a possibility, more likely a probability.
- Yeah, well, I'll just keep my eyes open.
- Just do it away from Martha and Andy, they've had enough tragedy.
- You stay out of my private life.
- Andy could have been killed, dammit, you're a target.
- Knock it off, both of you.
- Just want to know where we stand.
Gayle, hey, Gayle, Gayle.
Hey, you're a hard lady to find.
- So? - So I want some information.
- Yeah, me too, explain this.
In the newspaper the councilman's daughter who got raped two weeks ago, had to have been a kink who did it, right, just like it had to have been a kink who shot up Ginger.
- Let me explain.
- Let me finish, it took you three days to catch that guy because you had the whole police force looking for him.
- There were four officers assigned to that case.
- Yeah, well there's one assigned to Ginger's shooting.
- Two.
- Yeah, what's in it for you? - Maybe your good will, did you give the name of Ginger's clients to Detective Kramer? - He never asked me for them, anyway, I don't know the names of her johns.
- Give me a list of the ones you do know.
Did Ginger ever take any calls from strangers? - No way, I taught her not to do that right from the very beginning.
- How'd she keep her lists up? - Referrals, you know, mostly from our regulars, if it came to it, one of us with a trick at the time of the call would use the other's name.
No sense in missing out on business.
- You say she wasn't booked that night? - I was out at an all nighter.
The detective said she had a reservation at the Sea Breeze motel.
- Maybe she took one of your referral calls.
- Maybe, she took a motel room so maybe she took the call.
- Who'd want her dead? - Nobody, she was a sweet dumb thing who never did anything to make somebody want to do that to her.
- Well, then we have to consider this, the way the two of you handled referral calls, maybe the call she took was meant for you, anybody you know who'd want you dead? Thanks, Lee.
Yes, Martha? - [Martha.]
Hooker, did I call at a bad time? - There's no such thing where you're concerned.
- Listen, I guess I was upset about what almost happened to Carey and Andy, but I need some help.
- Name it.
- The mortuary people called, and they're coming over at 5:30 and I just don't think I can - Take it easy, I'll be there, I'll handle it.
- What would I do without you? - Do something with Andy, Martha, read a book, watch TV, anything, I'll be there.
- Thanks.
- Hey, take a look at this, I was going through the electronic sorter files right next to Sergeant Kramer's desk.
- Ginger called, where have I heard that name before? - From Hooker, she was Gayle Chotner's roommate, she was murdered, remember? - Yeah, but what's the connection? - Read on, Kramer was calling to check on something with ballistics, it's a hell of a coincidence, isn't it? - Let's find Hooker.
Hooker, I think we got something.
- Yeah? - The Ginger Coleman shooting.
- What about it? - In the file, one shot to the head, one shot to the body, just like Phil Kenter.
- Both times a 357 was used and no one heard the shots.
Could mean a silencer in both shootings.
- What was Kramer doing sitting on information like that? Look, there's something I've got to take care of.
Jim, get a list of all the cons released from the joint in the last six months, see if any name matches up with any of Kenter's and Dunston's case files.
- Right, how do we get a hold of you? - I'm gonna grab a shower, I'll be at Phil's house.
Move on it.
(synthesizer music) - You sure? - I'm working.
- Oh, God, solid oak, double walled, satin lined, it's a morbid line of business, I'm glad I sent Andy to a friend's.
- Some advice? - Sure.
- Don't keep Andy from being a part of your adjusting to things.
- He's just a kid.
- Don't underestimate him.
- Phil used to tell me that.
- You were talking about packing Phil's clothes? - And his tools and his golf clubs and his fishing gear.
- Let Andy help you.
- Don't you think that's morbid? - It's part of adjusting for both of you.
- Hold me, please.
(phone rings) (Martha sighs) - Hello? Yeah, just a minute.
It's Jim Corrigan.
- Yes, Jim? I'll be there in 20 minutes.
That's Carl David Beeman, murder while committing robbery.
- Served five years, he was paroled six weeks ago on some technicality.
- Time enough to look up the arresting officers, tail 'em, and wait for that opportune moment.
- Claimed he was railroaded by the police and convicted on perjured testimony.
- We dug deep enough, we'd probably find he was innocent of his 20 priors, too.
- He swore he was gonna get Phil and Dunston and the eyewitness who testified against him, Gayle Chutner.
- Where's Dunston? - I don't know, he just took off.
- Has he seen this? - Uh-huh.
- Gayle, TJ Hooker.
Yeah, it's a business call, my business.
I have to see you, it's very important.
(synthesizer music) Thanks for meeting me, you hang out around here? - Sometimes, I like the ocean.
What's so important, Hooker? - Well, I think I know what happened that night.
When the killer called, and asked for you, Ginger used your name and took the date.
- You mean the killer killed Ginger thinking it was me? - Five years ago, you testified at a trial, a man named Carl Beeman.
- Beeman, you think it was him? - He swore he'd kill you at the trial.
Now Ginger takes the date.
It's dark, he's in a car, Beeman's waiting for her in the motel parking lot, I think that Beeman used Phil Kenter's name to make the date.
You knew Phil Kenter, didn't you? - Yeah.
Poor Ginger.
(scoffs) Six years ago, I went into a store to buy a pack of cigarettes, I had just left the place and I looked back in through the window and I saw Beeman shoot the clerk.
- It took a great deal of courage to stand up at that trial and testify.
- Does that surprise you, Hooker? Believe it or not, I also pay taxes and I don't spit on the sidewalks.
- Gayle, Beeman is still looking for Dunston.
If he finds out that Ginger was a mistake, he'll go after you again.
Until he's apprehended, I'd limit my social activities, stay close to home.
Let me give you a lift home.
- That's okay, I've got my car.
- You go home.
- I will.
Thanks.
(somber music) (tires screech) - How'd it go? - No problem, he just wanted to warn me about Beeman.
Now I'm gonna get away from this town.
I'm gonna go home and pack.
- Just stay cool, it'll work out.
- Sure, but if they'd have dropped the pill on him like you said they would, I wouldn't be running now.
- We did our best to see he got it, blame it on the court for overturning the judge's death sentence.
I'll drop by in a while and drive you to the airport.
- Are you kidding? With Beeman out there somewhere, he's looking for you.
I want about as much distance between you and me as me and this town.
- I'll get him.
- Sure, if they don't get you first.
- So long, baby.
- Cops.
- Hooker, where you been? - The beach.
- Great, bring your suntan oil? (Hooker laughs) - Then I spent another couple of hours looking over the Beeman file.
Have you seen Dunston? - Yeah, a while ago, he said he was going to O'Brien's office.
- Well, after Corrigan and Sheridan and I figured out it was Beeman, I thought I'd drop by some of his old hangouts, nobody'd seen him, at least that's what they claimed.
- Well, that's very interesting because I would have thought the first person you would have checked with would have been your eyewitness, her life had been threatened.
- I phoned Gayle Chotner, she said she was leaving town.
- I spoke to her a couple of hours ago and told her to stay put, I wonder what changed her mind.
- What've you got, Hooker? - Beeman file, I wanted to talk to Gayle about that, I wanted to talk to Dunston about it, too.
- Well, why don't you go ahead and talk about it, Hooker? It's something you do real good.
- Hey, nobody asked you, motormouth.
Shut up! - [O'Brien.]
About the file, Hooker.
- I read it and reread it.
Every time I read it, I had a different question and the answers I kept coming up with didn't agree with my stomach, and then I remembered what a snitch named Jackpot told me about Sergeant Dunston living with a street girl.
- You're gonna have to spell that one out.
- The answer I kept coming up with kept pointing me back to a couple of cops who maybe overreached themselves, cops that I respected, then I started thinking about Gayle Chotner.
The eyewitness who came forward to volunteer what she saw.
So you know what I did? I went back to the liquor store, the one that Beeman robbed, the one where he killed the clerk.
It's a crummy little place and the owner told me it's exactly the same as it was 10 years ago when he bought it.
It's exactly the same.
As the night Gayle Chotner stood in the street and saw Beeman through the window.
- Let it go, Hooker.
- Gayle Chotner was your girlfriend, wasn't she? She'd say anything you told her to say.
That window is painted black, just like it's always been.
You can't see in from the street.
- Wasn't that brought out in cross examination? - No it wasn't.
- Listen to me, the DA, half the judges, the criminal courts building, and damn near every detective and half the precincts wanted that scumball Beeman off the streets.
- Enough to want him convicted in perjured testimony? - 29 priors, shooting, assault, manslaughter.
- So you framed him? - All right, I framed him, we had enough to tie him to the crime scene, but he was guilty.
- On perjured testimony that you coaxed Gayle Chutner - He did it, Hooker, did you hear, he did it.
He was guilty.
Now what the hell is the problem? - I'm gonna have to turn this over to internal affairs and you know that, until I can find a safe place for you I want you to stay put, Carey, until I say you can leave, clear? - Clear.
- Well, that's all very well, but we've still got a killer on the loose.
- Here it is.
- Right now, Beeman's out there somewhere looking for Dunston.
- Guaranteed, but what do we do about it? - We reel him in, I'm gonna need you to back me up.
- Point us in the direction.
- I'm gonna need an exact duplicate of Dunston's car, you check the rental agencies, you, you're gonna help me buy a new hat and coat.
(synthesizer music) Just checking, still got you, 60? - You're in sight.
- Let's keep it that way.
(woman speaks over radio) - Hey, make yourself at home.
(Dunston sighs) - Hooker called in, lieutenant, said he was trolling the bait, waiting for a bite.
- Thanks, I'll be out in a minute.
Don't wander off, Carey.
(ominous music) (synthesizer music) - Check the mug on this guy beside us.
- That's him, that's Beeman.
This is 16, Hooker? - Got you, 16.
- We just spotted Beeman, he's two cars behind you.
- You sure? - Have I ever lied to you? - Then here we go.
- Why don't we take him now? - If he switched guns, what have we got him for other than carrying? He comes at me, we've got him good.
We'll stick to what will slam the cell door tight.
- Roger, you heard him.
(synthesizer music) - 16, turn off the next corner, go directly to Dunston's apartment complex.
- [Stacy.]
Will do.
- [Hooker.]
I'll lead him in past the swimming pool, move everybody out of there, get going.
- [Stacy.]
Roger.
(suspenseful music) - Hooker.
- What are you doing here? - I don't need you to play hero for me.
If that punk's after me, I'll get him myself.
- You're gonna blow it, Beeman's not gonna show if he sees an army after him, get back in your car and get outta here.
(synthesizer music) - Dunston! - Hooker! (gun fires) (gun fires) (water splashes) (Dunston pants) - You're gonna make it.
- You're lucky I fell.
- Save it.
- Listen, Hooker, about Phil, he never knew it was a frame, you were right, it was my doing, I had a thing going with Gayle, it was easy to get her to testify, Phil never knew a thing.
- Hell of an epitaph for a good cop, isn't it? - Hut, one, two, three, hut, one, two, three, hut, one, two, three, hut, one, two, three, hut, one, two, three, hut, one, two, three.
- Hooker, what's gonna happen to Dunston? - That depends on internal affairs.
- At least he cleared Phil's name.
- That's something for Martha and Andy anyway.
- And Beeman's out of business for good, so cheer up, Hooker.
- There's only one thing wrong, none of it should ever have happened, Phil, Gayle's friend, none of it, all because one cop broke the rules.
It's something to remember.
I was on my way to your place.
- Oh, we appreciate that, Hooker, but Andy and I just had a long talk.
- About how we can help each other.
- That's right.
And we can't do that leaning on you and letting you do everything that might hurt.
Do you understand? - I understand.
- We're gonna be okay from here on in.
Thank you.
For everything.
- Thanks, Hooker.
- That's what friends are for.
(gentle music) (80's rock music)