Without a Trace s05e09 Episode Script

Please don't take my baby.
You don't have to do this.
- Stop packing the bag, okay? Mommy, no.
Please, don't take her.
Let's talk about this.
- We don't deserve this! - Please, don't take her, no.
- Kayla, sweetie.
- You don't have to do this.
Just look at me, sweetie.
Everything's gonna be okay.
Take my hand.
It's okay.
No, I don't wanna go! Don't take her, no! No, no, don't take her! No, please don't! Mommy, Mommy! - Baby, Mommy's here.
No! Mommy! Ain't you listening to her? - Mommy, Mommy! She doesn't wanna go.
She doesn't wanna go! Don't take her.
Mommy.
Please, somebody do something.
Let her go, man, I'm warning you.
Why are you doing this to us? Why? There's a number on the letter I gave your husband.
Call it, somebody will tell you what your options are.
You able to find housing for the girl? Yeah.
There was an empty bed over at Shield House.
That's good, isn't it? It's a bed.
Hey, uh, we're gonna hit happy hour over at the Matador.
You wanna come drink it off? Ah, not tonight.
But thank you.
Hey, man.
How's it going? It's going.
- What have we got? - We've got Eric Hayes.
Social worker.
Last night he removed a 7-year-old from her home.
P.
D.
Says the girl's father nearly took his head off.
When the janitor came in this morning he found Hayes' office looking like this.
What time was that at? Uh, just after 5.
Never made it home, and his wife was in Philly, on her way back.
What about security? Security's not in the budget around here.
And the back door was rigged open for smokers.
Anybody could have walked in.
I'm thinking the pissed-off dad from yesterday.
Yeah, could be holding Eric hostage until he gets his daughter back.
There's a lot of possibilities.
The last couple years, this guy's removed 19 kids from bad situations.
And he's paid the price.
He's been stitched up at St.
Luke's.
His tires have been slashed on his car, he's had death threats.
Hello? You with me, man? Yeah, uh You okay? What's going on? I spent a lot of time in places like this when I was growing up.
So the faster we get out of here, the happier I'll be, all right? Yeah, I hear you.
But, uh, I don't think we're leaving here any time soon.
We've sent Eric's photo to state police and all hospitals plus I have an APB out.
The wife, she touch down? - Not for another half-hour.
We have an agent waiting at the terminal.
But I did get this.
- N.
Y.
P.
D.
's files on Thomas Biggs.
- Oh "Possession, aggravated assault, domestic violence.
" Should've lost his daughter a long time ago.
I know.
The wife said he left at 8:30, and never came back.
- Did we talk to the foster home? - He hasn't been there.
We should post an agent outside just in case he decides to pay a visit.
- Got it.
- All right.
So how many open cases does Eric have? He's probably pushing 30.
These parents are either drug addicts, abusive or have a criminal record.
Tell us about Thomas and Lucinda Biggs.
He's violent, she takes it.
And their daughter's caught in the middle.
Eric was pushing to get him into Anger Management so the family have a shot of staying together.
- Obviously that didn't work.
- Biggs didn't like being told what to do.
Eric kept pushing, though.
Even after he told us he was moving on.
- Eric quit? - Gave his 30-day notice last month.
- Did he say why? - Same reason everyone here quits.
It's their time.
I was sorry to hear he was leaving, but I'll be honest he hasn't made his last week here very easy.
What's this I hear about Thomas Biggs refusing entry in the home? Oh, yeah, I showed up there yesterday for a drop-in And you left.
I read your notes.
What was he even doing there? Mrs.
Biggs swore she filed a restraining order.
And did it ever occur to you she may have lied? I thought you made it clear how serious this is.
She has a choice: Either her husband or her child.
Yeah, and what's she supposed to do? She can call the police.
She can call you.
What's going on with you, Eric? You know what you need to do here.
Honestly, Harriett, we can take Kayla Biggs away from her family.
We have the right.
But half the placements don't have room.
I'm not sure the ones that do are better than where she's at.
Have you even looked at what you've been writing in this file? "September 13th, suspected drug use in the home.
October 1 st, more of the same.
October 2nd, domestic violence call.
" If we can't do better, there's a problem.
I can convince him to leave.
- I'll talk to him.
Get him in a program.
- You tried talking and it didn't work.
Next time, if Thomas Biggs is still in the house you take the child out.
Eric didn't like the move, but that's his job.
At least for a few more days.
Is there something else going on that he didn't tell you about? I don't see what else.
Everything's in the file.
We're gonna need a court order before we see the case file, right? This isn't your first barbecue.
The other social workers are off-limits too without a subpoena? Look, I wanna help you find Eric, but the rules are clear.
Get me that subpoena and I'll give you everything.
Fair enough.
I've tried for so long to get him to quit.
You think this guy did something to him? We're not sure about that yet, we're looking for both of them.
Have you seen him before? I don't think so, no.
Did anything happen at work that made you concerned for your husband's safety? Not lately.
Back when he was new to the job he'd talk about it all the time.
Every day, another horrible story.
After a while he just stopped.
It didn't make a difference, I still saw the bites and bruises.
Any idea why he finally quit? Eric thought he was saving these kids from bad situations.
Last month he realized he couldn't take it anymore.
Eric, what are you doing home? It's 4:30.
Are you drunk? I might be, a little.
You remember that song "Dancing Queen" the song from the '70s? - Sure.
- It was playing on my way to work.
It just made me think of my sister.
She was crazy about that song.
And I hated ABBA, obviously.
But I'd go to her room and we'd play that song.
We'd blast it, and you could feel the walls shaking.
It's funny how a song can make you forget your dad's in the other room beating your mom.
- I quit today.
- What? I gave my notice.
Thirty days.
What happened? I just I can't do it anymore.
All these years I thought I was making a difference.
I wasn't doing anything but making everything worse.
Did something go bad today? I just let this kid down.
I was so busy doing my job I didn't do my job.
I'm sorry.
Eric spent so much of his life running from what his dad did to them.
Then he found himself in a job where he could relate to these kids.
And he couldn't always help them.
This kid that he thought he let down, did he ever say anything else about it? I figured it was one of his cases.
But I didn't ask.
Think it has something to do with why he's missing? It might.
I should have made him talk to me.
I was just so happy he was getting out.
Hey.
Did the, uh? Did the judge say how much latitude we have to dig into Eric's cases? You can dig as deep as you want to.
But he was leery of opening the door to the third-party privacy violations.
I'll let Martin know.
Oh, I can't get out of here right now.
Um, can we, uh reschedule the thing for later? Later.
I know your definition of later.
No, I'll just go on my own and call you.
- Okay, great.
- Okay.
Okay, thanks a lot.
Nobody's talking.
Think the guns have anything to do with it? It's not the guns they're afraid of.
It's the clipboards.
Hey, there's our man.
Thomas Biggs, FBI.
Come here.
I'll go around back! - Put your hands where I can see them! - Get off me, man.
- Where's Eric Hayes? - The hell if I know.
Get up.
Have anything in your pockets? - Look, you got this all wrong.
- Do I? Why were you running from me? Because you were chasing me, man.
Hey.
This is a list of emergency foster homes in the city, on CPS letterhead.
Let me guess, Eric Hayes gave that to you, right? I'm warning you, you throw me around, you're gonna be sorry.
Sorry? Like Eric Hayes was sorry? Why do you keep hitting me with that? I didn't touch him.
You followed him back to his office and you did a little redecorating.
- So what? So I went there.
- I doubt it was for a list of foster homes.
You went to bash his teeth for taking your daughter.
Maybe you're right.
It still doesn't change the fact that he wasn't there.
- I don't believe you.
- Hey.
I'm telling the truth.
Why are you shaking me down and not the punk that got in your boy's face the other day? Tom, you know how this works.
You're not to be here.
Unless you got a piece of paper that says I gotta go, I ain't going nowhere.
Can you not see I'm trying to help you? If you're living in the home, not working your program there's nothing I can do.
- Then I guess we're done.
At least let me check on Kayla and Lucinda.
- See how they're doing for my report.
- How stupid do I look? They're fine.
Yeah, I need to see that for myself.
Kayla? You're not coming inside my house.
Not today.
Daddy? - What the hell are you doing here? Get your ass back inside the house.
Now.
What are you doing? - Wanna play games? - Tell me what I wanna know.
I swear, I don't know anything.
Get out of here.
I'm calling the cops.
Sosh got in his car and got out of here.
Next day, shows up with a couple of cops to take my kid.
The guy with the gun, Eric say who he was? I didn't ask.
Okay, great, thanks.
Yeah, bye.
A call came from a neighbor who saw one white guy waving a gun at another white guy.
- That's very descriptive.
- Biggs recognize any of your guys? No.
He looked at the dads in Eric's caseload.
None of them match the guy with the gun, so I'm gonna get a sketch.
Sam, look at the board.
This guy's life sucks.
What if he just left on his own? Someone waved a gun in his face, trashed his office.
I have a feeling there's more to it.
Well, maybe there isn't.
Social workers burn out.
When I was a kid we had a social worker that worked with my family for a year.
And then one day out of nowhere, he just quit.
Quit his job, quit everything.
Wanna know how he did it? He left a note on his chair in his office that said, "I quit.
" Well, this guy didn't leave a note.
He just disappeared.
He looks so angry.
- Is he another parent from Eric's work? - Not that we can tell.
Are you aware that your husband closed out his retirement account? What? He took out about $ 10,000 in cash.
- When? - A couple weeks ago.
Is it possible that he could have owed this man money? I have no idea.
Any other reason why this man would be pointing a gun in your husband's face? When I went back to our apartment today I started going through all of Eric's things.
This was in a pair of his pants.
"The Brookhurst Motel.
" We've never been to Connecticut.
Mrs.
Hayes, do you think your husband was having an affair? I thought I was just losing him to his job.
I guess I was wrong.
Oh, I really appreciate it.
All right, thank you, bye.
That was the manager of the Brookhurst Motel.
Eric checked in two weeks ago.
- Paid $2000 cash for the whole month.
- Anybody there now? No, but the "Do Not Disturb" sign was on the door.
We need to interview the manager, maids, neighbors.
Anybody that might have seen him.
Figured out who Eric was hooking up with.
Her name's Stacy Russell.
Last night, after all the caseworkers had gone one call came into the switchboard from a number in Connecticut.
It was hers.
- Just one? - Yeah.
But I found calls from his home to her while his wife was away in Philadelphia.
You think our gunman could be Stacy's husband? Ms.
Russell? - Yes.
I'm Special Agent Spade.
This is Special Agent Fitzgerald.
We're with the FBI.
We wanted to ask you a few questions about Eric Hayes.
- Okay.
- When was the last time you spoke? - Last night around 9.
- And what did you guys talk about? I'm sorry, what's that got to do with the FBI? Eric's missing.
We understand you were involved with him.
Involved? I just met the guy a couple of weeks ago.
He brought his pregnant girlfriend in for a checkup.
I see you're just over eight months.
Have you been getting regular prenatal care? Trying to.
I missed a couple appointments early on, though.
And how long have you been spotting? Three days.
Is that bad? You see this kind of thing all the time.
It's not really that serious.
Actually, I can't say.
- That's for the doctor to determine.
- Right.
But you can tell us.
She's gonna be fine, right? I'm sorry.
But I can't share any information with you unless you're family or the father of the baby.
He is the father.
I just want to know if my baby's gonna be all right.
Is it? You and your baby are going to be fine, Amy.
We're just going to have to keep a close eye on both of you.
He paid me $5000 cash to act as a midwife.
Didn't wanna deliver her baby at a hospital.
- Where did they wanna deliver? - In a motel.
Except when I went over there for her checkup last night, she was gone.
So I called Eric.
He didn't seem to know where she was either.
I need this carpet out of here today.
I've been waiting here for hours.
No, I can't be here tomorrow.
It's gotta happen today.
No.
No, I'm not dealing with a deadline, thank you very much.
I'm dealing with an idiot.
Oh, my God.
Oh, God.
Oh, God.
Oh, please.
Hey, what's up? Oh Uh, would you mind, uh, coming in and shutting the door behind you? Okay.
Take a seat.
Sure.
I wanted to tell you something.
Anne and I are moving in together.
Okay.
That's great.
Um I don't really understand why you're telling me this.
Because I felt like Ahem.
I felt like I owed it to you.
Because we had a fling while you were married? You know what, Jack, I gotta take this.
I'm sorry.
She's pregnant.
Oh.
I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't say anything.
I haven't told anybody yet.
Okay.
Spade.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Okay, the free clinic records confirm Stacy Russell's story.
Eric is listed as the father.
Oh, okay.
Well, he emptied $ 10,000 from a retirement fund.
Five thousand dollars went to the midwife and 2000 to set Amy up in a motel.
So that leaves $3000 unaccounted for.
Motels are transient and the midwife keeps her out of the hospital.
Guy's doing everything he can to make her invisible.
Okay, I found Amy Jensen in the CPS system.
She didn't show up in any of Eric's files.
Eric's not her caseworker.
Jason Barnes is.
Take a look at this.
On September 29th CPS took her son Kevin away from her put him in a foster home because she failed drug tests.
A month later they found the kid.
He had been beaten to death.
One of the parents? No, another foster kid.
A 12-year-old that lived in the same home.
Jeez When CPS found out she was pregnant again they petitioned to take the baby based on predictive neglect.
When was the kid killed? October 21 st.
That was two days before Eric resigned.
Eric's not the father.
Amy's my case.
He never met her until about a month ago.
Her CPS file has the father listed as unknown.
Yeah, officially.
She wouldn't give up the name.
How about unofficially? Damon Winters.
- Ahem, is that him? - Yep.
He got her pregnant in between beatings.
Since Eric's not the father, what's his connection with Amy? Supervised me on a drop-in to see how Kevin was adjusting to the foster family.
I'm new, they wanted to make sure I didn't miss any red flags.
It looks like the both of you missed a couple red flags.
I thought the whole visit was a red flag.
- How so? - Too much food.
Too many hugs and kisses.
You don't see kids that happy at Disney World.
It was staged.
Why wasn't that reflected in your report here? Because it was an announced visit.
Eric explained that they always feel staged.
He said to drop in unannounced to get a true sense of the home.
- And did you? I never got the chance.
- Kevin's dead.
- What happened? Those idiot foster parents, they went to Atlantic City they left the kids alone.
The older one beat him to death.
I knew something was wrong at that house.
Remember? Yes.
I remember.
He split his head open like a cantaloupe.
That's what the cop said.
What am I gonna say? I can't deal with her.
- You know, I can't deal with any of this.
- Go home.
Go home.
It's fine.
This isn't on you.
I'll make sure everybody knows.
You just go home.
- What are you gonna say? - Just go home.
Ms.
Jensen? I'm Eric Hayes.
I'm with Child Protective Services.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
This is your fault.
You took him.
You took him.
He was safe with me.
He was safe.
I'm so sorry, I don't know I'm sorry.
Seeing Amy like that it was brutal.
Eric blamed himself.
Sounds like he should have.
If we make the wrong choice and leave a child in a bad home and that child dies, it's our ass on the 6:00 news.
But if you place a kid in a bad home? Then the blame goes to the State of New York.
So that's what you do around here? You cover your asses, huh? It's the best of bad outcomes.
That's the job.
That's what Eric told me.
Did he tell you he was gonna resign? No.
The next day he asked to see Amy's file.
A couple days later I heard he was giving notice.
We never talked about it.
He feels responsible about the death of Amy's first kid.
He wants to give her a second chance.
Why didn't he petition the courts on her behalf? - Work it through the system? - Lost faith in the system.
That's why he quit his job.
That explains the motel in Connecticut.
If she's outside CPS's jurisdiction, she's not their problem.
Eric would know that better than anyone.
Mm-hm.
Yeah, this is Special Agent Elena Delgado.
We need a drive-by for intel at 475 Avenue D.
- Yeah, the resident is Damon Winters.
- Okay, thanks.
Eric's supervisor confirmed that if Amy gives birth out of NY State, they can't touch her.
Won't they just pass her case on to DCF in Connecticut? They're gonna put in a call, but it won't be a priority.
Keeping her away from the state is one thing but this guy, Damon Winters, that's another.
I've got here that he has two domestic incident reports on him with Amy listed as the victim.
- She didn't press charges, though.
- Great, thanks.
Guys, N.
Y.
P.
D.
Got a 911 call from Damon's address 10 minutes ago.
They sent EMT.
They said she had the baby.
Amy, this is Special Agent Johnson, I'm Special Agent Spade.
We're with the FBI.
Can you tell me what happened here? Amy, where's the baby? She's gone.
He said he would come back.
He took my girl but he promised that he'd come back.
- Who? - Damon.
What about Eric? Was Eric here? Eric came after, but it was too late.
Amy? I'm in here.
Here.
Oh, my Amy.
Amy, what happened? I called him.
You what? Why did you do that? It's his kid too, right? Right? She's perfect.
She looks just like you, Mama.
Can I hold her? Let me hold her.
Shh.
It's okay, it's okay.
She looks just like Kevin.
What are we doing, Amy? What do you mean? We can't hide her forever.
Damon.
We're being selfish.
Aren't we? It can't be about us.
It's gotta be about her, right? I know that.
But you said that you wanted this.
You said that you wanted to take care of us.
I do.
Selfishly, I do.
But think about it.
Shh.
How are we gonna enroll her in school? Once she's in the system the state will take her and put her in a foster home.
Shh.
Shh.
Just like they did with Kevin.
We can't let that happen.
No.
No.
Shh.
Shh.
It's okay.
Shh.
Kiss her goodbye.
That's a good girl.
He already found her a home.
A real home with good people.
Who are these people? I don't know.
He called some woman and then he went to go meet her.
Okay, an ambulance will be here in a minute.
He put me on the couch and left.
Okay, so where was Damon taking the baby? Amy.
Do not protect this guy.
He doesn't love you.
He doesn't care about your baby.
Okay? Tell us where he took her.
He told the woman on the phone to meet him in Gravesend.
The parking lot by the bus station.
Okay, so the last call from Damon's cell was to a woman in Chicago named Sharon Zenowich.
- Is she the buyer? - No, more like a broker.
They've been texting for the past month negotiating a price.
It looks like he was pretending to be Amy.
Mm-hm.
He actually sent her a text this morning that said: "In labor.
Come now.
" If the broker flew in to buy a baby, she's gonna go straight back.
So I'm gonna call TSC and have them check all flights to Chicago.
- Okay.
What's up, brother? I found Eric's car, but no sign of him.
- Any witnesses? - No, this place is a ghost town.
Okay.
Oh, hey, hey, does Transit have any cameras out there? I hope not.
Because if they do, they're wasting taxpayers' money.
All right.
Let me know.
Okay, excellent.
Thanks a lot.
Nothing in Gravesend.
Well, we got lucky.
They're pulling Zenowich off a plane right now.
- She doesn't have the baby, though.
- Great.
Mrs.
Zenowich.
I'm Special Agent Jack Malone.
I'd like an attorney.
Good, because you're gonna need one.
We have a transcript of all your text messages.
And our Chicago office is picking your life apart as we speak.
You sell babies like they were used cars.
That's a done deal.
But we can table all that until your attorney gets here.
I just wanna know what happened tonight.
Not without an attorney.
If you don't cooperate and somebody involved ends up dead I'll charge you with accessory to murder.
- Lf you wanna offer me a deal - I'm not offering you anything.
I'm giving you a choice between preventing a murder or being charged with one.
That's it.
I don't deal with kidnapped kids.
My business I don't give a rat's ass about your business.
What happened? The meet went wrong from the beginning.
She's got all the fingers, all the toes.
- Tell your client to wire the money.
- I was explicit.
I don't buy stolen babies.
- I see the mother, then I'll make the call.
- I told you, she's resting.
I gotta know she's willing to part with this kid.
Last thing I need is an AMBER Alert.
Who the hell is this? Damon, come on, man.
Don't do this.
Give me the baby.
- Walk.
This doesn't concern you.
- I'll let you two work this out.
Wait, wait.
Call your clients.
They won't wire the money until they hear the mother.
You're wasting my time.
- Damon.
- I'll take you to see her, okay? No, you can't, Damon.
Amy's with the police.
Damon, please, just let me take the baby.
You're a dead man.
Damon, please.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Let me buy the baby.
- I got $3000.
- Three thousand dollars? I'm supposed to get 30 grand from this bitch, and you wanna give me $3000? I got another 15 grand cash, it's sitting at my office.
We can go right now.
I'll give you cash for the baby, right now, it's over, it's done.
It's easy.
Take my car.
You drive.
Go! I cut my losses and I went straight to the airport.
Did you give any thought about what might happen to that baby? That ship had sailed.
Nice.
Very compassionate.
I'll let you know when your lawyer gets here.
All right, great.
Sam and Viv are on their way to CPS.
- Any chance we missed something? - ERT turned that place upside down.
They never found any cash.
And when Damon finds out who knows what he's gonna do to Eric.
Let's hope Eric can tap dance long enough.
Yeah.
Come on.
You already checked that drawer twice.
- Stop stalling - Relax.
I got it.
Let's go.
Open the drawer.
It's not there, the police Damon, the police must have taken it.
Think.
They went through this, they must've taken it.
- I'm done messing around.
- You don't need to do this.
FBI.
Drop your weapon! Damon, let him go.
Where's the baby? - She's alive, she's in the car.
- Shut your mouth.
That's good.
That's good that she's alive.
Nobody's been hurt yet.
We can all walk out of here.
Stop pointing those guns at me.
We can't do that until you put your gun down.
Relax, Damon, let's talk about this.
- Where's your car? - Um, it's parked.
In the back of the building.
We got a suspect down and a baby in need of assistance.
Jack.
There you are.
Trying to get you all day.
Your phone keeps going to voicemail.
I'm sorry.
I think my battery's dead.
- On your way out? - I am.
I am.
- Well, I'll walk you.
- Oh, thanks.
Thanks.
How's it going? I'm fine.
Fine.
Just, you know, just in over my head.
You know, I talked to, uh I talked to Samantha.
About what? About us.
You know, everything.
I didn't think we were gonna tell anyone about it.
We're not.
We're not telling anyone.
I just I just told her.
- Just Sam? - Yeah.
Yeah, she'll keep it quiet.
Doesn't matter.
It's okay.
- Are you okay? - I'm fine, I'm fine.
I have a meeting, and it's been one of those days.
Look, you won't be too late, right? I won't.
This is Special Agent Taylor.
Are you finished? - Yeah.
- Can I go in? Viv called from the hospital.
Amy and the baby are gonna be fine.
Yeah.
Fine until the courts throw that baby right back into the system.
Then what? Maybe she'll catch a break.
Get a decent judge.
Now she'll have a chance, thanks to Eric.
You know, he used his job to work through some personal issues.
It's not right.
Really? Then what the hell are we doing here? Adapted by: