Homicide: Life on the Street s06e20 Episode Script
Secrets
- Stearns, Minnesota? - Stearns, Minnesota.
Longest lifespan in the US.
10-12 years above the national average.
- Why? - They're in the farm countty.
They get up at dawn, they pick the corn, plough the fields.
- Know who has the shortest lifespan? - I couldn't tell you.
Bennett County, South Dakota, Washington DC and a close third, Baltimore, Matyland.
I'm definitely moving to Minnesota.
People out there are living longer cos they're not killing each other.
This place Stearns probably has one homicide cop to the whole town.
Do you think that they need another one? I'll be a farmer.
A couple acres, a pair of overalls.
I buy myself a decade at least.
Sergeant Rogers, enlighten us.
Body is inside the Mercedes.
Josephine Dalton, - It seems like suicide.
- I don't think she was vacuuming.
Looks like carbon monoxide.
I'll have to check her lungs to know for sure.
OK, Doc.
Nice car.
She goes in style, huh? - Was there a note? - No.
Her two kids are inside the house.
Their names are Alex and Samantha.
- Where's Mr Dalton? - Out of town on business.
- Children found the body? - When they came from school.
Phew.
People in Minnesota don't commit suicide.
You still here? I thought you'd be off milking a cow by now.
- Your dad's in Richmond? - I left a message.
- You're the one that found your mum? - Well, we both did.
I saw her car in the driveway and I knew something was wrong.
She's never here when we get home.
She's always at work.
- Where? - Fayette Securities.
She's vice president of investments.
Was she stressed out about anything, was she depressed? She was fine until until last night.
I heard her ctying in her room.
- Any idea why she was upset? - No.
What about you, Samantha? Do you know what your mum might have been sad about? Hey, sweetie.
I'll get a medic.
Just because Dalton owned a Mercedes, does she have to be happy? Something had to drive her to kill herself, like she found out she was terminal or she caught her husband cheating.
- Are we sure this is a suicide? - Lausanne is doing an autopsy now.
He's checking for carbon monoxide in her lungs and blood.
The lab's processing prints.
Someone could've killed her and put her in the car.
Talk to the ME.
If it was a homicide, get it up on the Board.
If it's a suicide, move on.
Even if it was a suicide, I'd want to know why.
Do yourself a favour.
It's hard understanding why people kill each other.
Why they kill themselves? - That's not ours to answer, is it? - Exactly.
- Lieutenant, you got a minute? - For you, 30 seconds.
How will it go for Meldrick today, his trial board? - There are no guarantees.
- No guarantees? Can't you do something? I mean, grease it for him somehow? Grease it? Are you suggesting that a Departmental trial board can be manipulated, that there's no integrity in the process? - Pretty much.
- I'm shocked.
I am shocked by the vety notion of such a thing.
The case against Detective Meldrick Lewis will be decided on its merits.
Now, there's nothing else I can do.
Understood? - Understood.
- Good.
- So what's it say? - "I'm sorty.
" - Anything else? - Yeah, "Love, Ken.
" No broken heart, no thwarted ambitions.
No explanation at all.
No, I guess our Ken wasn't much of a wordsmith.
The deceased name is Kenneth Alden.
He's 54 years old.
President and CEO of this operation.
His secretaty, Vera Sloane, is waiting out in the hallway.
- OK.
- Thanks.
- Miss Sloane, you found the body? - I was bringing him his coffee.
- Mr Alden had family? - A wife, Eleanor.
And a son.
I haven't called them.
Please, don't make me call.
No, no, no.
We'll handle it.
OK, show me the body.
Middle-aged white male, corporate, dead from an self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
- Must be contagious.
- What? Second suicide of the day.
Ballard and Munch handled the first one.
- Can I have him? - Yeah, he's all yours.
- Thank you.
- Let me see that note.
A violation of Departmental rules, to wit, use of excessive force on the 16th Januaty, involving Detective Meldrick Lewis, sequence number C106, and a citizen, one Georgia Rae Mahoney.
- Detective Lewis? - Sir.
I understand you have elected not to contest the substance of the complaint.
Yes, sir.
You are waiving your right to a trial board and have this panel recommend disciplinaty action? I am.
Our recommendation is for Detective Lewis to lose five vacation days, receive a letter of reprimand and counselling on community relations and the appropriate use of force.
This hearing is concluded.
Whoa.
It unfolded like you said it was gonna do, G.
Well, my word's my bond.
How many favours you have to call in on this one? More than you want to know.
- Detective Lewis.
- Captain.
- You look good in uniform, Lewis.
- Why, thank you.
If it was up to me, you'd be back in a radio car for that stunt.
Yes, sir.
Your lieutenant thinks otherwise, but Al's problem is a lack of discipline.
If I was runnin' his shift, I'd be offering you a transfer out.
Respectfully speaking, sir, if you were runnin' his shift, I'd be takin' it.
Hey, I thought you were sick.
A half-hour of Regis and Kathie Lee I had to get out of the house.
Did I miss anything? Munch and I are working a possible suicide.
- It was a suicide.
That was Lausanne.
- Mmm OK.
Now we know how she died.
We still don't know why.
- I don't care and neither should you.
- Are you always such a curmudgeon? The ME says it's not a murder.
Gee says move on, I'm moving on.
- You missed me? - Ballard, how'd your guy kill himself? Er It was a her, and it was carbon monoxide poisoning.
Why? Really? Cos our dead guy in Gilford, Kenneth Alden, he killed himself also.
- You see a connection? - Not unless yours was an executive who blew his brains out.
Josephine Dalton was 46 years old, vice president of Fayette Securities.
She pumped exhaust into her new Mercedes.
This isn't Wall Street.
The financial community in Baltimore isn't that big.
Maybe they knew each other, maybe they er did business together.
Yeah, maybe they brokered a deal, deal goes south, both lose big bucks, both call it a day.
Homicide, Pembleton.
You know somethin'? Coincidence or no, two suicides in one day is plenty.
Well, they say bad things happen in threes.
We'll be right down.
- What's up? - That was the widow Alden.
- She wants to have a word with us.
- Oh, so much for workin' murders.
Hey, if this keeps up, we're gonna call Homicide "Suicide".
is all he has to say.
First I thought he was sorty for shooting himself.
Then this came in the mail today.
What is it? I know what's inside this envelope is connected to Kenneth's death.
If I show you, I hope that this will stay between us.
We'll tty our best.
- I take it this isn't you? - Of course not.
He was having an affair.
Yeah, which someone else got on film.
Looks like it's a telephoto lens.
Whoever took the pictures showed them to Kenneth.
He killed himself out of fear of exposure.
That's a little extreme, Mr Alden.
Please forgive me.
Many men are unfaithful and found out.
They don't end their lives over it.
If you consider who he was sleeping with, suicide makes more sense.
Do you know this woman? Her name is Jessie Metzger.
She's Kenneth's half-sister.
Incest? They had the same mother.
That makes this kind of carnal activity taboo.
- Dalton killed himself out of guilt? - Mmm.
He doesn't look guilt-ridden to me.
Our guess is that Alden was OK by this as long as nobody found out.
Someone took pictures of Alden and his half-sister, and now they hold it over him like a threat? He was a successful businessman.
Maybe somebody did it for the cash.
- That's blackmail.
- Otherwise known as extortion.
Which may have led to another death.
Track down this half-sister, Jessie Metzger.
Talk to Alden's friends, co-workers, other relatives.
- Find out who took the photos.
- What about Dalton? - Who's Dalton? - Our second suicide.
Same profile.
Successful executive, mother of two.
She may have her own secrets, her own photographs.
Talk to Dalton's husband.
Find out if he knows anything.
But be discreet.
What about Dalton? What do you think she's hiding? Maybe she had some deep, dark secret.
Or maybe she just ran out of St John's Wort and couldn't cope.
- Do you think it's incest like with Alden? - I don't know.
What are the odds? Yeah, even if it was, what would that explain? She didn't have to commit suicide.
Nor did Kenneth Alden.
If someone found out you were sleeping with your brother, would you kill yourself? - I don't even have a brother.
- Yeah, but you know what I mean.
Time passes, people forgive anything.
They go on to the next scandal.
What would it take for you to end your own life? What could be so bad? - A date with John Munch.
- Ready to roll, partner? Yes.
I don't know.
Tough one.
When I get an answer, I'll come back to you.
Kenneth first kissed me when I was 16.
We were together 25 years, that's longer than his marriage.
Did you see Kenneth at all yesterday? We usually met at lunchtime.
I went to the apartment but he called to say he couldn't make it.
Which apartment is this? Ken rented a place at the Ambassador.
After so many years, we wanted a place of our own.
Did anyone else know about your relationship, anyone who may have wanted to blackmail Kenneth? Not that I know of.
What about these photos? Who might have taken them? I have no idea.
All right, then.
Thank you er vety much for your help.
We are sorty about your loss.
Kenneth and I were in love.
I was never ashamed of our relationship.
Had he felt the same way, he'd still be alive.
Hey, the football's back.
Hey! I was wonderin' where it went.
- Hey, Meldrick.
- Nice to see you mooks too.
- I can move my stuff.
- No, that's all right.
I can er I can slide right over here by Mac.
Huh, Mac? Just er Meldrick, I I I can move my stuff.
I said this is fine.
New desk, new vibe.
I'm all about change right now.
Hey, ball up.
Come on.
Look through my wife's things? We're interested in any recent mail.
Packages, envelopes she received in the past few days.
Would you mind telling me why? Josephine was unhappy.
She took her own life.
What is there to investigate? We had a second suicide today.
We want to rule out any connection.
- Kenneth Alden.
- Yes.
I heard about his suicide from Fairglen.
- What's Fairglen? - It's our countty club.
- I saw him there last Sunday brunch.
- How well did you know him? We'd see him at meals.
Played doubles against him in a tennis tournament.
- Did he talk business with your wife? - Never.
We have evidence relating to Alden's death, so it could be more complicated than a simple suicide.
What evidence? What does it have to do with Josephine? Maybe nothing, but that's why we want to search your wife's things.
There's no need, detectives.
I won't make you waste your time.
- Excuse me? - I know why my wife killed herself.
It had nothing to do with Kenneth Alden.
Who's the kid? Joshua Dillinger.
He baby-sits for Samantha.
They were having an affair.
How long did you know about it? - The pictures came in the mail today.
- But you didn't tell us? If that was your wife, would you be passing them around? This is something Josephine didn't want people to know about.
That's why she was so distraught.
I was planning on burning them and Trust me.
Good thing you didn't.
- Hey.
- Hey, Mikey.
What's up? - I'm glad you made it back to the Unit.
- Yeah, thanks, man.
You know, if er if you felt like it, maybe we could work a call or two together like the old days.
Sounds good.
Maybe.
And er thanks for that tip on Calvin Barnes.
- Who? - Dead dealer in the project courtyard.
Inside that envelope was all I needed to put the case down.
- You think I had somethin' to do with it? - I know you did.
We all know you gave us those envelopes.
Get outta here, Meldrick.
If informants gave up that much evidentiaty detail, do you think the City'd need trained detectives? Whatever.
Why don't ya grab that 25 plate for me? - Tell me somethin'.
- What? What did you to get the Mahoney crew to turn on itself? Nothin'.
I was under suspension.
You forget that.
Whatever.
Well, it's gonna get a lot worse.
I took that tape I made with the judge to the FBI.
- Yeah? - You were right.
They aren't interested because they already got a case up and running on Gibbons.
He's gonna give 'em Georgia Rae.
- They told you this? - Yeah.
So whatever you were doin' to screw up Georgia Rae, or not doing, I think you oughta ease up.
With the Feds on her now, she's done.
I'm goin' to the Courthouse tomorrow.
Juty selection on the Mahoney civil suit.
I'll go watch Gibbons sweat.
- Wanna come? - That sounds like a blast.
But er I got laundty to do.
The owner of the restaurant.
One shot to the head.
The manager discovered the body.
He's sittin' over there.
- Where's the ME? - Hey, busy day.
- Robbety? - The register's full.
- He has his wallet and jewellety.
- Got a name? Tonio Cornell.
Let me guess.
The Mahoney organisation.
He's worked his way up the ladder.
They say he was in line to replace Luther if Georgia Rae hadn't stepped in.
- Another soldier down.
- More like a general.
If guys like Tonio are gettin' killed, can't be much left of the Mahoney crew.
So, think we're gonna get a little white envelope for Tonio here? I figure we might as well talk to Meldrick directly.
- What are you saying? - I'm saying what you're thinking.
That Meldrick mailed those envelopes? You don't know that.
What I'm gonna tell you, you don't repeat.
All that time that Lewis was on suspension, I was feeding him info on Mahoney's people.
And most of those names landed on the Board.
What he was up to, I don't wanna know.
I figured he used what he knew to turn Mahoney's crew on itself.
- I figure he made it happen.
- Then why'd you help him? He's my partner.
He asked.
When you came on to Homicide, you asked questions on Luther's shooting.
I thought you were on a mission.
I thought you were IID or somethin'.
- IID? Now, that's funny.
- Then why were you asking? When it came up, I couldn't get any straight answers.
I walk on to Homicide, and half my shift is cartyin' around some big secret.
I got worried.
What did I just step into? If I knew what the dirt was, I can decide.
Maybe I stay in the unit, or maybe I sidestep and transfer out.
If I don't know what it is, I can't protect myself.
- That's all it was? - That's all it was.
I took a look, came to the conclusion that the Mahoney shooting wasn't right, and I figured I wouldn't work with Kellerman.
- Are you asking me about the shooting? - No need.
I know enough.
Was Tonio Cornell one of the names you gave to Meldrick? Nope.
This one ain't on him.
Well, then this situation is officially out of control.
Meldrick might be good at starting a war but he's nowhere at stoppin' one.
I'm very sorry.
The Ambassador does not give information about our residents.
- OK.
- They have the right to their privacy.
What goes on in their homes is their business.
Did Mr Alden own his apartment? No, I believe Mr Alden signed a two-year lease.
- Of course, I'm not allowed to say.
- Do you recognise this woman? Mr Alden would bring her here.
Mr Alden's relationship with Miss Metzger is between the two of them.
Even if they met here several times a week, which they often did, - I wouldn't be permitted to tell you.
- We understand that, Miss Gurman.
Er But besides Jessie Metzger, did anyone else ever visit Mr Alden? The Ambassador does not give out information about our residents.
In the last few days? All visitors are required to sign this book, you see? They put down their name, apartment they visit, time they arrive and depart.
So we have a Brenner Jones who signed in at 8:40 pm and left at er 8:52.
He must be the photographer who argued with Mr Alden.
- The photographer? - He had a fancy camera, long lenses.
After he went upstairs, some neighbours called down.
They could hear the yelling.
- What were they fighting about? - I don't know.
Even if I did, I'd have to keep it to myself.
Our building policy says The Ambassador cannot give out information about its residents.
- Exactly.
- OK.
Well, if you ever decide to change that policy, please give me a call.
- I didn't think you were comin' back.
- Sorty about the delay, Mr Jones.
Don't get me wrong.
I want to be a good guy.
But I got a life I gotta get back to.
We want to be clear about what we're about to do here.
It's gonna breeze by.
- Mr Jones, you're a photographer.
- Yes.
- What kind of work is it you do? - I'm a freelancer - so I pretty much shoot anything.
- OK.
You shoot these? - No.
- No? Why are you smiling? Cos when I said I'd shoot anything, I didn't really mean anything.
Do you know the man and the woman in these photos here? No.
You said you wanted to help us out, you wanted to be a good guy.
- Yeah, I do.
- Then why are you lyin'? - I'm not.
- Oh, you see, someone saw you at this man's apartment around nine o'clock the night before last.
They heard you fightin' with him, even had your name signed to the log book.
What, you got nothin' to say about that? Guys, you said you would be clear on what this is about.
You haven't been.
OK, so you won't say anything about Alden.
What about er What was that woman's name in the Ballard and Munch case? Mmm Dalton.
Right.
Josephine Dalton.
What about her? Look, if I need to get a lawyer, I will.
I don't want to have to get a Yeah, Mr Jones.
Gettin' a lawyer might be vety wise.
Why? Kenneth Alden committed suicide yesterday.
I have a feeling he didn't know about that.
I don't think he knew Josephine Dalton killed herself, either.
When you blackmail somebody and you get caught, you're in a bit of trouble.
But if you blackmail somebody and they blow off the back of their head and you get caught, well, that's it.
You're screwed.
All right, I took the pictures.
And occasionally I'd make deliveries.
That's all.
You've gotta believe that.
- I didn't blackmail anybody.
- Who did? Cos unless you're willing to give up a name or somethin' we can go on, there's no need to investigate further.
You look guilty as hell to me.
Remington Hill.
Remington Hill? Well, well, well Remington Hill.
Who's he? He's just this rich guy who's er old money, old society.
Some old rich guy? - So how do you know him? - I work for the club he's a member of.
- Which countty club's this? - Er Fairglen.
Mmm Kenneth Alden and Josephine Dalton are members of that club.
That's the connection.
And this Remington Hill blackmails two members of his own club.
Is that it? That's what you're saying? Did he say why? No, he just told me where I would catch the people and what they'd be doing.
- He happened to be right both times.
- Where could we find this Mr Hill? L- I don't know where he lives.
He always had me meet him at the club.
Detectives, I know you think I'm scum, but you have to believe me.
- I did not want to be a part of this.
- Why'd you get involved? I needed the money.
- Come to see the show, Detective? - Why not? - I'm easily entertained.
- We'll be picking a juty all afternoon.
My guess is we won't get to opening arguments before tomorrow.
No prob.
I'll stick around long enough to give Judge Gibbons a friendly wave.
All rise.
Division 14 of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City is now in session.
The Honourable Judge Gerald Gibbons presiding.
Miss Weaver, Mr Robbins, I've reviewed the pre-trial motions in the case of the Mahoney estate versus the City of Baltimore et al, and I've come to the conclusion that my initial ruling on the defendant's motion to dismiss was incorrect.
After a more careful consideration of the facts, I find that the allegations of excessive force in the death of Luther Mahoney to be largely unsubstantiated.
Therefore, I am dismissing the suit.
All rise.
Gee whiz.
Does this mean we don't get to pick a juty? Mr Hill? Remington Hill? - Yes.
- Detective Frank Pembleton.
- This is Detective Bayliss.
- How you doin'? Oh, yes.
Please, have a seat.
I was told you had questions concerning Kenneth and Josephine.
- Sir, how well did you know them? - Well, not as well as I thought.
Their deaths have come as quite a shock around here.
Do you know of a photographer by the name of Brenner Jones? - Brenner Jones? - Are you not familiar with that name? Mr Jones has been hired by Fairglen at various times.
Why do you ask? He claims he's been hired by you.
- By me? - To take pictures.
- Oh? - Yeah, sexual pictures of Josephine Dalton and Kenneth Alden caught in compromising situations.
- I see.
- We interviewed him about an hour ago.
He answered everything we asked.
He's a weak man, don't you think, Detective? He spoke the truth, didn't he? I hired Mr Jones to do some research for me, yes.
Ah.
Research.
Well, I like that.
That's er That's polite.
Maybe not so much polite as proper.
And that's vety important to you, being proper? It should be important to you, as well, Detective.
Forget about me.
But it should've been more important to them, am I right? Sexual relations with your own flesh and blood? Molestation of a child? - I should say so.
- But it wasn't.
And you made them pay.
People who can't afford a scandal but can afford a cover-up.
The best candidates for blackmail.
I'll admit I approached Kenneth and Josephine about the photos that Brenner Jones took, but I never asked for money.
What was it about? It's simple.
The two of them were behaving like animals.
They were a disgrace.
It had to stop.
What right do you have to dictate another's morality? Kenneth carried ugliness.
Josephine was filth.
I demanded that they change.
- By threatening to expose them? - I never threatened anyone.
There's nothing conditional in what I've done.
I went straight to these people, I told them they would be exposed.
You didn't even give them a chance to keep it quiet? When a man is stripped bare, reduced to his basest form, shamed, well, then and only then is there a chance for renewal.
We have got er more pictures here of Dalton and Alden.
These aren't the kind of pictures that you had taken, but these pictures exist because of the ones you had taken.
What was that about a new life? I'm not responsible for the weakness of others.
If this is all there was inside, they're both better off.
- Are their families better off? - How's that? Now we have two teenagers without a mother and a little boy with no father.
Humour me for a minute here, Mr Hill.
Let's assume they are not better off without parents, even flawed parents.
What then? Then they were sacrificed for the greater good.
The decay in this club doesn't stop with Dalton and Alden.
- You've done this to others? - If you listen carefully, Detectives, a whisper at the bar will reveal who is weak.
The punch line of a joke will tell you who cheats, lies, steals.
For over a year now, I've compiled information, targeting those who needed intervention.
This week, eight other men and women in this club, men and women with families, were confronted.
I'm happy to say their children now have better lives.
Eight of the ten faced up to their transgressions.
If two others took the coward's way out, well, doesn't our moral balance sheet still show a net gain? Hey, Your Honour.
How's it swingin'? Hope to hell you never bring a case into my court ever again.
I'm not worried about that.
Your time on the bench is winding down.
I don't deal in the same dirt as you.
You didn't have to fix Georgia Rae's suit.
- That's what you asked for.
- Only to get you on tape, a tape that I gave to the FBI.
The Feds have got you dead to rights.
You wanna stay out of jail, give up Georgia Rae Mahoney.
- I'm going back.
- What? - I'm not finished with Remington Hill.
- You gotta be finished, at least for now.
- Hill knows we got nothin' on him.
- He knows? What does he know? Why does he get to decide between right and wrong? Dalton and Alden killed themselves.
- Hill didn't pull the trigger.
- He might as well have.
Remington Hill was working towards a greater good.
He was ttying to hold people up to a higher standard.
And who can say about these things? I mean, if someone had taken pictures of me and my uncle, you know, anyone had tried to help, I might have been better off.
I mean, I would have been better off.
You comin', Frank? We all know that Remington Hill is guilty.
The question is of what? If he asked for money, then it's extortion.
Since he didn't, we can't charge him with anything.
Alden and Dalton killed themselves because of Hill.
- He's somehow responsible.
- All he did was say he'd tattle.
Tattling is not a crime.
Well, maybe it should be.
What about the photographer, Brenner Jones? - He took still pictures only, no video? - Not that we know of.
You're not allowed to tape someone without consent.
Still photos are OK.
Depending where he took them from, we might have breaking and entering.
Now you're talkin'.
Pembleton, Bayliss.
- Come in.
- Back to the countty club.
- Why, what's goin' on? - Fairglen has one less member.
- Victim's a white male.
- Mmm Gunshot to the head.
We found a wallet and the driver's licence says - Remington Hill.
- How'd you know? - I recognised his tie.
- So who found him? - The membership director, Jason Cahill.
- I guess guilt got to him.
What guilt? Last time we spoke to Hill, he didn't have any.
Maybe he found some.
Two suicides on his conscience made him follow suit.
You'd think.
Except this isn't a suicide.
- It isn't? - His trigger finger is clean.
A 44-calibre Smith rv Wesson left an impression.
So he didn't shoot the gun.
We're lookin' at a murder.
Why is this happening? Why is this happening? Mr Cahill? It's OK, let him go.
That's three losses in two days.
There's gotta be some explanation.
What am I gonna tell these people? The best thing is to not tell them anything for now.
Mr Hill's death may not have been self-inflicted.
Somebody killed him? We need a list of evetyone who was at Fairglen today.
Please, step this way.
So he was murdered.
By who, someone he was going to expose? Eight other Fairglen Countty Club members had received photos.
According to records, three of them were at the club today but had alibis.
Two were playing golf.
The third was having lunch with a party of ten.
The only other guy who was at the club who had any connection at all with Remington Hill was er Brenner Jones.
- The photographer? - He was paid by Hill.
Why kill him? Get him in the Box and ask him yourself.
- I went to speak to Remington Hill.
- What about? There were more people he wanted dirt on.
- So you're back on the job, huh? - No.
- No? - No.
- I told him I didn't want to do that.
- Why? I don't know.
I guess I got tired of feeling like a terrible person.
That sounds like a good enough reason.
How did Mr Hill respond? Not too well.
He got pretty upset.
- So what did you do? - I told him I didn't care and left.
That's it? You haven't seen him since? - No.
- All right.
At this point, Mr Jones, we need to inform you that Remington Hill was found dead today at the Fairglen Countty Club.
- Looks like suicide.
- I guess that's some poetic justice.
You said that Mr Hill was angty earlier, right? - Yeah.
- Based upon what you saw, would you have guessed that he would kill himself? I just wanted to get away from him.
I was fixed on how I was feeling.
I don't know.
I wouldn't be able to say anything about that.
It's a little oddball.
Hill didn't seem the type.
It's suicide.
I mean, you'll never know.
It'll always remain a mystety.
Oh, if it was a suicide, you know Forget about it.
It's mystety theatre.
- You said it was suicide.
- No, no.
I said that we thought it looked like a suicide, but we don't think that it was.
- No? - No, we don't think so.
The weapon used was vety powerful.
A.
44 calibre.
The trigger pull pressure is vety high.
If someone shoots a weapon like that, more than likely, there'll be an imprint.
- There wasn't one? - No.
So that makes you sure that it wasn't suicide? No.
What makes us sure is the gunshot residue test.
- What's that? - The test used to determine if any powder residue from the shot was left on Mr Hill's hand.
But there wasn't any powder, so this guy, he shot him point-blank and then he put the gun in Hill's hand, staged the suicide.
So maybe it was murder, but even if you know how it was done, - you'll never know who.
- No, how leads to who.
This fellow that we're after tried hard, but he wasn't vety good.
Undoubtedly, he'll have left behind some hair, fibre, fingerprints.
Might take a couple of weeks, but we're gonna catch up to him.
I shot him.
And you put the gun in his hand.
Why? You two didn't do anything to stop Hill after bringing me in here.
Someone had to do something.
You didn't have to kill him.
You could have just walked away.
He wouldn't let me do that.
Why wouldn't he? I was like evetybody else at that club.
I had a secret.
And Hill told me that he was gonna expose that to my family unless I did everything that he asked me to do.
I know when it comes to something like that, he is a man of his word.
We all have secrets.
Why was yours so bad that you felt that you had to kill? I'll never tell you.
I'll never tell you.
I'll never tell you.
Nathan Bihari.
Passport says DOB is 8/10/63.
AKA Nathan the Nigerian.
Mmm, how the mighty have fallen! - This guy's big-time? - He's the importer for Luther Mahoney and five or six other East Coast organizations.
So another one of Mahoney's crew rolls a seven, huh? Yeah, but this one here, Munchkin, this one here I don't get at all.
- And why is that? - This guy's a supplier.
He's not on the inside, not involved.
He's neutral, like Switzerland or some place.
Hey, don't trust the Swiss.
They spent World War II skimming money from my dead relatives.
- What? - I don't like their chocolate, their cheese, or that knife that folds out into cutlety.
Don't go talkin' up the Swiss to me.
Whatever.
Why would they whack a guy who ain't playin' for either team? - They'll need him after this war is over.
- Murder for murder's sake.
This one here is way beyond makin' sense.
You want sense? Violence sets in and feeds on itself.
Ttying to make sense of this war is like ttying to make sense of cancer.
- Here you go.
- Hey.
So Brenner Jones confessed to killing Remington Hill? - Yeah.
- Hill got what was coming to him.
What's that, some kind of strange justice, huh? - Vety strange.
- Well, I'll drink to that.
Can I get you something to eat? We got vety nice specials this evening.
We have a pasta, and it's got chicken, sun dried tomatoes and pesto.
No.
I hate to eat alone, so - Well, how about if join you? - Yeah? Yeah, it's not vety busy here tonight.
I mean, if it's all right with you.
- Yes, that would be vety nice.
- OK, I'll order us the food.
John, let me get two of the pasta specials.
- Cheers again.
- Cheers.
So we haven't had dinner together since er Since our disaster of a date? - Yeah.
- We never really talked about that.
- No, we didn't.
- Is there anything to talk about? Er You know, it wasn't you, it was me.
- How many times have I heard that? - Really.
Mm-hm I never really talk to a lot of people about my personal life.
- You talk to Pembleton.
- Not about everything.
You ever thought about er having a relationship with another woman? Am I gonna have to kick you upside your head? - I didn't mean it like that.
- You did! - I didn't.
- Come on.
You and evety other man on the planet means it just like that.
It's the ultimate sexual thrill to see two women in bed together.
I'll tell you somethin'.
Not many women imagine two men in bed together.
So that disturbs you? No, it doesn't disturb me at all, but it doesn't excite me.
- I didn't mean it like that, either.
- Are you saying - I'm not gay.
- What are you saying? I'm not um strictly heterosexual, either, it seems.
What does that mean, strictly? Well, you see, I've had a lot of relationships with women, and when er they fell apart, I always blamed the women.
All the time.
Never me.
And then I met this man and I thought that - Are you involved with a man? - Well, I'm not in love with the guy.
But I don't know.
I guess the thing is that I'm never satisfied, see? When I've been with women, I've thought about men.
When I've been involved with men, I've thought about women.
You know, you really didn't have to tell me all this.
I did have to tell you this.
Keeping things secret is no good.
Doesn't help anybody, really.
The problem is I always thought that if I told anybody who I really was they'd run away.
Well, I'm not running.
- You're not? - No.
Good.
Longest lifespan in the US.
10-12 years above the national average.
- Why? - They're in the farm countty.
They get up at dawn, they pick the corn, plough the fields.
- Know who has the shortest lifespan? - I couldn't tell you.
Bennett County, South Dakota, Washington DC and a close third, Baltimore, Matyland.
I'm definitely moving to Minnesota.
People out there are living longer cos they're not killing each other.
This place Stearns probably has one homicide cop to the whole town.
Do you think that they need another one? I'll be a farmer.
A couple acres, a pair of overalls.
I buy myself a decade at least.
Sergeant Rogers, enlighten us.
Body is inside the Mercedes.
Josephine Dalton, - It seems like suicide.
- I don't think she was vacuuming.
Looks like carbon monoxide.
I'll have to check her lungs to know for sure.
OK, Doc.
Nice car.
She goes in style, huh? - Was there a note? - No.
Her two kids are inside the house.
Their names are Alex and Samantha.
- Where's Mr Dalton? - Out of town on business.
- Children found the body? - When they came from school.
Phew.
People in Minnesota don't commit suicide.
You still here? I thought you'd be off milking a cow by now.
- Your dad's in Richmond? - I left a message.
- You're the one that found your mum? - Well, we both did.
I saw her car in the driveway and I knew something was wrong.
She's never here when we get home.
She's always at work.
- Where? - Fayette Securities.
She's vice president of investments.
Was she stressed out about anything, was she depressed? She was fine until until last night.
I heard her ctying in her room.
- Any idea why she was upset? - No.
What about you, Samantha? Do you know what your mum might have been sad about? Hey, sweetie.
I'll get a medic.
Just because Dalton owned a Mercedes, does she have to be happy? Something had to drive her to kill herself, like she found out she was terminal or she caught her husband cheating.
- Are we sure this is a suicide? - Lausanne is doing an autopsy now.
He's checking for carbon monoxide in her lungs and blood.
The lab's processing prints.
Someone could've killed her and put her in the car.
Talk to the ME.
If it was a homicide, get it up on the Board.
If it's a suicide, move on.
Even if it was a suicide, I'd want to know why.
Do yourself a favour.
It's hard understanding why people kill each other.
Why they kill themselves? - That's not ours to answer, is it? - Exactly.
- Lieutenant, you got a minute? - For you, 30 seconds.
How will it go for Meldrick today, his trial board? - There are no guarantees.
- No guarantees? Can't you do something? I mean, grease it for him somehow? Grease it? Are you suggesting that a Departmental trial board can be manipulated, that there's no integrity in the process? - Pretty much.
- I'm shocked.
I am shocked by the vety notion of such a thing.
The case against Detective Meldrick Lewis will be decided on its merits.
Now, there's nothing else I can do.
Understood? - Understood.
- Good.
- So what's it say? - "I'm sorty.
" - Anything else? - Yeah, "Love, Ken.
" No broken heart, no thwarted ambitions.
No explanation at all.
No, I guess our Ken wasn't much of a wordsmith.
The deceased name is Kenneth Alden.
He's 54 years old.
President and CEO of this operation.
His secretaty, Vera Sloane, is waiting out in the hallway.
- OK.
- Thanks.
- Miss Sloane, you found the body? - I was bringing him his coffee.
- Mr Alden had family? - A wife, Eleanor.
And a son.
I haven't called them.
Please, don't make me call.
No, no, no.
We'll handle it.
OK, show me the body.
Middle-aged white male, corporate, dead from an self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
- Must be contagious.
- What? Second suicide of the day.
Ballard and Munch handled the first one.
- Can I have him? - Yeah, he's all yours.
- Thank you.
- Let me see that note.
A violation of Departmental rules, to wit, use of excessive force on the 16th Januaty, involving Detective Meldrick Lewis, sequence number C106, and a citizen, one Georgia Rae Mahoney.
- Detective Lewis? - Sir.
I understand you have elected not to contest the substance of the complaint.
Yes, sir.
You are waiving your right to a trial board and have this panel recommend disciplinaty action? I am.
Our recommendation is for Detective Lewis to lose five vacation days, receive a letter of reprimand and counselling on community relations and the appropriate use of force.
This hearing is concluded.
Whoa.
It unfolded like you said it was gonna do, G.
Well, my word's my bond.
How many favours you have to call in on this one? More than you want to know.
- Detective Lewis.
- Captain.
- You look good in uniform, Lewis.
- Why, thank you.
If it was up to me, you'd be back in a radio car for that stunt.
Yes, sir.
Your lieutenant thinks otherwise, but Al's problem is a lack of discipline.
If I was runnin' his shift, I'd be offering you a transfer out.
Respectfully speaking, sir, if you were runnin' his shift, I'd be takin' it.
Hey, I thought you were sick.
A half-hour of Regis and Kathie Lee I had to get out of the house.
Did I miss anything? Munch and I are working a possible suicide.
- It was a suicide.
That was Lausanne.
- Mmm OK.
Now we know how she died.
We still don't know why.
- I don't care and neither should you.
- Are you always such a curmudgeon? The ME says it's not a murder.
Gee says move on, I'm moving on.
- You missed me? - Ballard, how'd your guy kill himself? Er It was a her, and it was carbon monoxide poisoning.
Why? Really? Cos our dead guy in Gilford, Kenneth Alden, he killed himself also.
- You see a connection? - Not unless yours was an executive who blew his brains out.
Josephine Dalton was 46 years old, vice president of Fayette Securities.
She pumped exhaust into her new Mercedes.
This isn't Wall Street.
The financial community in Baltimore isn't that big.
Maybe they knew each other, maybe they er did business together.
Yeah, maybe they brokered a deal, deal goes south, both lose big bucks, both call it a day.
Homicide, Pembleton.
You know somethin'? Coincidence or no, two suicides in one day is plenty.
Well, they say bad things happen in threes.
We'll be right down.
- What's up? - That was the widow Alden.
- She wants to have a word with us.
- Oh, so much for workin' murders.
Hey, if this keeps up, we're gonna call Homicide "Suicide".
is all he has to say.
First I thought he was sorty for shooting himself.
Then this came in the mail today.
What is it? I know what's inside this envelope is connected to Kenneth's death.
If I show you, I hope that this will stay between us.
We'll tty our best.
- I take it this isn't you? - Of course not.
He was having an affair.
Yeah, which someone else got on film.
Looks like it's a telephoto lens.
Whoever took the pictures showed them to Kenneth.
He killed himself out of fear of exposure.
That's a little extreme, Mr Alden.
Please forgive me.
Many men are unfaithful and found out.
They don't end their lives over it.
If you consider who he was sleeping with, suicide makes more sense.
Do you know this woman? Her name is Jessie Metzger.
She's Kenneth's half-sister.
Incest? They had the same mother.
That makes this kind of carnal activity taboo.
- Dalton killed himself out of guilt? - Mmm.
He doesn't look guilt-ridden to me.
Our guess is that Alden was OK by this as long as nobody found out.
Someone took pictures of Alden and his half-sister, and now they hold it over him like a threat? He was a successful businessman.
Maybe somebody did it for the cash.
- That's blackmail.
- Otherwise known as extortion.
Which may have led to another death.
Track down this half-sister, Jessie Metzger.
Talk to Alden's friends, co-workers, other relatives.
- Find out who took the photos.
- What about Dalton? - Who's Dalton? - Our second suicide.
Same profile.
Successful executive, mother of two.
She may have her own secrets, her own photographs.
Talk to Dalton's husband.
Find out if he knows anything.
But be discreet.
What about Dalton? What do you think she's hiding? Maybe she had some deep, dark secret.
Or maybe she just ran out of St John's Wort and couldn't cope.
- Do you think it's incest like with Alden? - I don't know.
What are the odds? Yeah, even if it was, what would that explain? She didn't have to commit suicide.
Nor did Kenneth Alden.
If someone found out you were sleeping with your brother, would you kill yourself? - I don't even have a brother.
- Yeah, but you know what I mean.
Time passes, people forgive anything.
They go on to the next scandal.
What would it take for you to end your own life? What could be so bad? - A date with John Munch.
- Ready to roll, partner? Yes.
I don't know.
Tough one.
When I get an answer, I'll come back to you.
Kenneth first kissed me when I was 16.
We were together 25 years, that's longer than his marriage.
Did you see Kenneth at all yesterday? We usually met at lunchtime.
I went to the apartment but he called to say he couldn't make it.
Which apartment is this? Ken rented a place at the Ambassador.
After so many years, we wanted a place of our own.
Did anyone else know about your relationship, anyone who may have wanted to blackmail Kenneth? Not that I know of.
What about these photos? Who might have taken them? I have no idea.
All right, then.
Thank you er vety much for your help.
We are sorty about your loss.
Kenneth and I were in love.
I was never ashamed of our relationship.
Had he felt the same way, he'd still be alive.
Hey, the football's back.
Hey! I was wonderin' where it went.
- Hey, Meldrick.
- Nice to see you mooks too.
- I can move my stuff.
- No, that's all right.
I can er I can slide right over here by Mac.
Huh, Mac? Just er Meldrick, I I I can move my stuff.
I said this is fine.
New desk, new vibe.
I'm all about change right now.
Hey, ball up.
Come on.
Look through my wife's things? We're interested in any recent mail.
Packages, envelopes she received in the past few days.
Would you mind telling me why? Josephine was unhappy.
She took her own life.
What is there to investigate? We had a second suicide today.
We want to rule out any connection.
- Kenneth Alden.
- Yes.
I heard about his suicide from Fairglen.
- What's Fairglen? - It's our countty club.
- I saw him there last Sunday brunch.
- How well did you know him? We'd see him at meals.
Played doubles against him in a tennis tournament.
- Did he talk business with your wife? - Never.
We have evidence relating to Alden's death, so it could be more complicated than a simple suicide.
What evidence? What does it have to do with Josephine? Maybe nothing, but that's why we want to search your wife's things.
There's no need, detectives.
I won't make you waste your time.
- Excuse me? - I know why my wife killed herself.
It had nothing to do with Kenneth Alden.
Who's the kid? Joshua Dillinger.
He baby-sits for Samantha.
They were having an affair.
How long did you know about it? - The pictures came in the mail today.
- But you didn't tell us? If that was your wife, would you be passing them around? This is something Josephine didn't want people to know about.
That's why she was so distraught.
I was planning on burning them and Trust me.
Good thing you didn't.
- Hey.
- Hey, Mikey.
What's up? - I'm glad you made it back to the Unit.
- Yeah, thanks, man.
You know, if er if you felt like it, maybe we could work a call or two together like the old days.
Sounds good.
Maybe.
And er thanks for that tip on Calvin Barnes.
- Who? - Dead dealer in the project courtyard.
Inside that envelope was all I needed to put the case down.
- You think I had somethin' to do with it? - I know you did.
We all know you gave us those envelopes.
Get outta here, Meldrick.
If informants gave up that much evidentiaty detail, do you think the City'd need trained detectives? Whatever.
Why don't ya grab that 25 plate for me? - Tell me somethin'.
- What? What did you to get the Mahoney crew to turn on itself? Nothin'.
I was under suspension.
You forget that.
Whatever.
Well, it's gonna get a lot worse.
I took that tape I made with the judge to the FBI.
- Yeah? - You were right.
They aren't interested because they already got a case up and running on Gibbons.
He's gonna give 'em Georgia Rae.
- They told you this? - Yeah.
So whatever you were doin' to screw up Georgia Rae, or not doing, I think you oughta ease up.
With the Feds on her now, she's done.
I'm goin' to the Courthouse tomorrow.
Juty selection on the Mahoney civil suit.
I'll go watch Gibbons sweat.
- Wanna come? - That sounds like a blast.
But er I got laundty to do.
The owner of the restaurant.
One shot to the head.
The manager discovered the body.
He's sittin' over there.
- Where's the ME? - Hey, busy day.
- Robbety? - The register's full.
- He has his wallet and jewellety.
- Got a name? Tonio Cornell.
Let me guess.
The Mahoney organisation.
He's worked his way up the ladder.
They say he was in line to replace Luther if Georgia Rae hadn't stepped in.
- Another soldier down.
- More like a general.
If guys like Tonio are gettin' killed, can't be much left of the Mahoney crew.
So, think we're gonna get a little white envelope for Tonio here? I figure we might as well talk to Meldrick directly.
- What are you saying? - I'm saying what you're thinking.
That Meldrick mailed those envelopes? You don't know that.
What I'm gonna tell you, you don't repeat.
All that time that Lewis was on suspension, I was feeding him info on Mahoney's people.
And most of those names landed on the Board.
What he was up to, I don't wanna know.
I figured he used what he knew to turn Mahoney's crew on itself.
- I figure he made it happen.
- Then why'd you help him? He's my partner.
He asked.
When you came on to Homicide, you asked questions on Luther's shooting.
I thought you were on a mission.
I thought you were IID or somethin'.
- IID? Now, that's funny.
- Then why were you asking? When it came up, I couldn't get any straight answers.
I walk on to Homicide, and half my shift is cartyin' around some big secret.
I got worried.
What did I just step into? If I knew what the dirt was, I can decide.
Maybe I stay in the unit, or maybe I sidestep and transfer out.
If I don't know what it is, I can't protect myself.
- That's all it was? - That's all it was.
I took a look, came to the conclusion that the Mahoney shooting wasn't right, and I figured I wouldn't work with Kellerman.
- Are you asking me about the shooting? - No need.
I know enough.
Was Tonio Cornell one of the names you gave to Meldrick? Nope.
This one ain't on him.
Well, then this situation is officially out of control.
Meldrick might be good at starting a war but he's nowhere at stoppin' one.
I'm very sorry.
The Ambassador does not give information about our residents.
- OK.
- They have the right to their privacy.
What goes on in their homes is their business.
Did Mr Alden own his apartment? No, I believe Mr Alden signed a two-year lease.
- Of course, I'm not allowed to say.
- Do you recognise this woman? Mr Alden would bring her here.
Mr Alden's relationship with Miss Metzger is between the two of them.
Even if they met here several times a week, which they often did, - I wouldn't be permitted to tell you.
- We understand that, Miss Gurman.
Er But besides Jessie Metzger, did anyone else ever visit Mr Alden? The Ambassador does not give out information about our residents.
In the last few days? All visitors are required to sign this book, you see? They put down their name, apartment they visit, time they arrive and depart.
So we have a Brenner Jones who signed in at 8:40 pm and left at er 8:52.
He must be the photographer who argued with Mr Alden.
- The photographer? - He had a fancy camera, long lenses.
After he went upstairs, some neighbours called down.
They could hear the yelling.
- What were they fighting about? - I don't know.
Even if I did, I'd have to keep it to myself.
Our building policy says The Ambassador cannot give out information about its residents.
- Exactly.
- OK.
Well, if you ever decide to change that policy, please give me a call.
- I didn't think you were comin' back.
- Sorty about the delay, Mr Jones.
Don't get me wrong.
I want to be a good guy.
But I got a life I gotta get back to.
We want to be clear about what we're about to do here.
It's gonna breeze by.
- Mr Jones, you're a photographer.
- Yes.
- What kind of work is it you do? - I'm a freelancer - so I pretty much shoot anything.
- OK.
You shoot these? - No.
- No? Why are you smiling? Cos when I said I'd shoot anything, I didn't really mean anything.
Do you know the man and the woman in these photos here? No.
You said you wanted to help us out, you wanted to be a good guy.
- Yeah, I do.
- Then why are you lyin'? - I'm not.
- Oh, you see, someone saw you at this man's apartment around nine o'clock the night before last.
They heard you fightin' with him, even had your name signed to the log book.
What, you got nothin' to say about that? Guys, you said you would be clear on what this is about.
You haven't been.
OK, so you won't say anything about Alden.
What about er What was that woman's name in the Ballard and Munch case? Mmm Dalton.
Right.
Josephine Dalton.
What about her? Look, if I need to get a lawyer, I will.
I don't want to have to get a Yeah, Mr Jones.
Gettin' a lawyer might be vety wise.
Why? Kenneth Alden committed suicide yesterday.
I have a feeling he didn't know about that.
I don't think he knew Josephine Dalton killed herself, either.
When you blackmail somebody and you get caught, you're in a bit of trouble.
But if you blackmail somebody and they blow off the back of their head and you get caught, well, that's it.
You're screwed.
All right, I took the pictures.
And occasionally I'd make deliveries.
That's all.
You've gotta believe that.
- I didn't blackmail anybody.
- Who did? Cos unless you're willing to give up a name or somethin' we can go on, there's no need to investigate further.
You look guilty as hell to me.
Remington Hill.
Remington Hill? Well, well, well Remington Hill.
Who's he? He's just this rich guy who's er old money, old society.
Some old rich guy? - So how do you know him? - I work for the club he's a member of.
- Which countty club's this? - Er Fairglen.
Mmm Kenneth Alden and Josephine Dalton are members of that club.
That's the connection.
And this Remington Hill blackmails two members of his own club.
Is that it? That's what you're saying? Did he say why? No, he just told me where I would catch the people and what they'd be doing.
- He happened to be right both times.
- Where could we find this Mr Hill? L- I don't know where he lives.
He always had me meet him at the club.
Detectives, I know you think I'm scum, but you have to believe me.
- I did not want to be a part of this.
- Why'd you get involved? I needed the money.
- Come to see the show, Detective? - Why not? - I'm easily entertained.
- We'll be picking a juty all afternoon.
My guess is we won't get to opening arguments before tomorrow.
No prob.
I'll stick around long enough to give Judge Gibbons a friendly wave.
All rise.
Division 14 of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City is now in session.
The Honourable Judge Gerald Gibbons presiding.
Miss Weaver, Mr Robbins, I've reviewed the pre-trial motions in the case of the Mahoney estate versus the City of Baltimore et al, and I've come to the conclusion that my initial ruling on the defendant's motion to dismiss was incorrect.
After a more careful consideration of the facts, I find that the allegations of excessive force in the death of Luther Mahoney to be largely unsubstantiated.
Therefore, I am dismissing the suit.
All rise.
Gee whiz.
Does this mean we don't get to pick a juty? Mr Hill? Remington Hill? - Yes.
- Detective Frank Pembleton.
- This is Detective Bayliss.
- How you doin'? Oh, yes.
Please, have a seat.
I was told you had questions concerning Kenneth and Josephine.
- Sir, how well did you know them? - Well, not as well as I thought.
Their deaths have come as quite a shock around here.
Do you know of a photographer by the name of Brenner Jones? - Brenner Jones? - Are you not familiar with that name? Mr Jones has been hired by Fairglen at various times.
Why do you ask? He claims he's been hired by you.
- By me? - To take pictures.
- Oh? - Yeah, sexual pictures of Josephine Dalton and Kenneth Alden caught in compromising situations.
- I see.
- We interviewed him about an hour ago.
He answered everything we asked.
He's a weak man, don't you think, Detective? He spoke the truth, didn't he? I hired Mr Jones to do some research for me, yes.
Ah.
Research.
Well, I like that.
That's er That's polite.
Maybe not so much polite as proper.
And that's vety important to you, being proper? It should be important to you, as well, Detective.
Forget about me.
But it should've been more important to them, am I right? Sexual relations with your own flesh and blood? Molestation of a child? - I should say so.
- But it wasn't.
And you made them pay.
People who can't afford a scandal but can afford a cover-up.
The best candidates for blackmail.
I'll admit I approached Kenneth and Josephine about the photos that Brenner Jones took, but I never asked for money.
What was it about? It's simple.
The two of them were behaving like animals.
They were a disgrace.
It had to stop.
What right do you have to dictate another's morality? Kenneth carried ugliness.
Josephine was filth.
I demanded that they change.
- By threatening to expose them? - I never threatened anyone.
There's nothing conditional in what I've done.
I went straight to these people, I told them they would be exposed.
You didn't even give them a chance to keep it quiet? When a man is stripped bare, reduced to his basest form, shamed, well, then and only then is there a chance for renewal.
We have got er more pictures here of Dalton and Alden.
These aren't the kind of pictures that you had taken, but these pictures exist because of the ones you had taken.
What was that about a new life? I'm not responsible for the weakness of others.
If this is all there was inside, they're both better off.
- Are their families better off? - How's that? Now we have two teenagers without a mother and a little boy with no father.
Humour me for a minute here, Mr Hill.
Let's assume they are not better off without parents, even flawed parents.
What then? Then they were sacrificed for the greater good.
The decay in this club doesn't stop with Dalton and Alden.
- You've done this to others? - If you listen carefully, Detectives, a whisper at the bar will reveal who is weak.
The punch line of a joke will tell you who cheats, lies, steals.
For over a year now, I've compiled information, targeting those who needed intervention.
This week, eight other men and women in this club, men and women with families, were confronted.
I'm happy to say their children now have better lives.
Eight of the ten faced up to their transgressions.
If two others took the coward's way out, well, doesn't our moral balance sheet still show a net gain? Hey, Your Honour.
How's it swingin'? Hope to hell you never bring a case into my court ever again.
I'm not worried about that.
Your time on the bench is winding down.
I don't deal in the same dirt as you.
You didn't have to fix Georgia Rae's suit.
- That's what you asked for.
- Only to get you on tape, a tape that I gave to the FBI.
The Feds have got you dead to rights.
You wanna stay out of jail, give up Georgia Rae Mahoney.
- I'm going back.
- What? - I'm not finished with Remington Hill.
- You gotta be finished, at least for now.
- Hill knows we got nothin' on him.
- He knows? What does he know? Why does he get to decide between right and wrong? Dalton and Alden killed themselves.
- Hill didn't pull the trigger.
- He might as well have.
Remington Hill was working towards a greater good.
He was ttying to hold people up to a higher standard.
And who can say about these things? I mean, if someone had taken pictures of me and my uncle, you know, anyone had tried to help, I might have been better off.
I mean, I would have been better off.
You comin', Frank? We all know that Remington Hill is guilty.
The question is of what? If he asked for money, then it's extortion.
Since he didn't, we can't charge him with anything.
Alden and Dalton killed themselves because of Hill.
- He's somehow responsible.
- All he did was say he'd tattle.
Tattling is not a crime.
Well, maybe it should be.
What about the photographer, Brenner Jones? - He took still pictures only, no video? - Not that we know of.
You're not allowed to tape someone without consent.
Still photos are OK.
Depending where he took them from, we might have breaking and entering.
Now you're talkin'.
Pembleton, Bayliss.
- Come in.
- Back to the countty club.
- Why, what's goin' on? - Fairglen has one less member.
- Victim's a white male.
- Mmm Gunshot to the head.
We found a wallet and the driver's licence says - Remington Hill.
- How'd you know? - I recognised his tie.
- So who found him? - The membership director, Jason Cahill.
- I guess guilt got to him.
What guilt? Last time we spoke to Hill, he didn't have any.
Maybe he found some.
Two suicides on his conscience made him follow suit.
You'd think.
Except this isn't a suicide.
- It isn't? - His trigger finger is clean.
A 44-calibre Smith rv Wesson left an impression.
So he didn't shoot the gun.
We're lookin' at a murder.
Why is this happening? Why is this happening? Mr Cahill? It's OK, let him go.
That's three losses in two days.
There's gotta be some explanation.
What am I gonna tell these people? The best thing is to not tell them anything for now.
Mr Hill's death may not have been self-inflicted.
Somebody killed him? We need a list of evetyone who was at Fairglen today.
Please, step this way.
So he was murdered.
By who, someone he was going to expose? Eight other Fairglen Countty Club members had received photos.
According to records, three of them were at the club today but had alibis.
Two were playing golf.
The third was having lunch with a party of ten.
The only other guy who was at the club who had any connection at all with Remington Hill was er Brenner Jones.
- The photographer? - He was paid by Hill.
Why kill him? Get him in the Box and ask him yourself.
- I went to speak to Remington Hill.
- What about? There were more people he wanted dirt on.
- So you're back on the job, huh? - No.
- No? - No.
- I told him I didn't want to do that.
- Why? I don't know.
I guess I got tired of feeling like a terrible person.
That sounds like a good enough reason.
How did Mr Hill respond? Not too well.
He got pretty upset.
- So what did you do? - I told him I didn't care and left.
That's it? You haven't seen him since? - No.
- All right.
At this point, Mr Jones, we need to inform you that Remington Hill was found dead today at the Fairglen Countty Club.
- Looks like suicide.
- I guess that's some poetic justice.
You said that Mr Hill was angty earlier, right? - Yeah.
- Based upon what you saw, would you have guessed that he would kill himself? I just wanted to get away from him.
I was fixed on how I was feeling.
I don't know.
I wouldn't be able to say anything about that.
It's a little oddball.
Hill didn't seem the type.
It's suicide.
I mean, you'll never know.
It'll always remain a mystety.
Oh, if it was a suicide, you know Forget about it.
It's mystety theatre.
- You said it was suicide.
- No, no.
I said that we thought it looked like a suicide, but we don't think that it was.
- No? - No, we don't think so.
The weapon used was vety powerful.
A.
44 calibre.
The trigger pull pressure is vety high.
If someone shoots a weapon like that, more than likely, there'll be an imprint.
- There wasn't one? - No.
So that makes you sure that it wasn't suicide? No.
What makes us sure is the gunshot residue test.
- What's that? - The test used to determine if any powder residue from the shot was left on Mr Hill's hand.
But there wasn't any powder, so this guy, he shot him point-blank and then he put the gun in Hill's hand, staged the suicide.
So maybe it was murder, but even if you know how it was done, - you'll never know who.
- No, how leads to who.
This fellow that we're after tried hard, but he wasn't vety good.
Undoubtedly, he'll have left behind some hair, fibre, fingerprints.
Might take a couple of weeks, but we're gonna catch up to him.
I shot him.
And you put the gun in his hand.
Why? You two didn't do anything to stop Hill after bringing me in here.
Someone had to do something.
You didn't have to kill him.
You could have just walked away.
He wouldn't let me do that.
Why wouldn't he? I was like evetybody else at that club.
I had a secret.
And Hill told me that he was gonna expose that to my family unless I did everything that he asked me to do.
I know when it comes to something like that, he is a man of his word.
We all have secrets.
Why was yours so bad that you felt that you had to kill? I'll never tell you.
I'll never tell you.
I'll never tell you.
Nathan Bihari.
Passport says DOB is 8/10/63.
AKA Nathan the Nigerian.
Mmm, how the mighty have fallen! - This guy's big-time? - He's the importer for Luther Mahoney and five or six other East Coast organizations.
So another one of Mahoney's crew rolls a seven, huh? Yeah, but this one here, Munchkin, this one here I don't get at all.
- And why is that? - This guy's a supplier.
He's not on the inside, not involved.
He's neutral, like Switzerland or some place.
Hey, don't trust the Swiss.
They spent World War II skimming money from my dead relatives.
- What? - I don't like their chocolate, their cheese, or that knife that folds out into cutlety.
Don't go talkin' up the Swiss to me.
Whatever.
Why would they whack a guy who ain't playin' for either team? - They'll need him after this war is over.
- Murder for murder's sake.
This one here is way beyond makin' sense.
You want sense? Violence sets in and feeds on itself.
Ttying to make sense of this war is like ttying to make sense of cancer.
- Here you go.
- Hey.
So Brenner Jones confessed to killing Remington Hill? - Yeah.
- Hill got what was coming to him.
What's that, some kind of strange justice, huh? - Vety strange.
- Well, I'll drink to that.
Can I get you something to eat? We got vety nice specials this evening.
We have a pasta, and it's got chicken, sun dried tomatoes and pesto.
No.
I hate to eat alone, so - Well, how about if join you? - Yeah? Yeah, it's not vety busy here tonight.
I mean, if it's all right with you.
- Yes, that would be vety nice.
- OK, I'll order us the food.
John, let me get two of the pasta specials.
- Cheers again.
- Cheers.
So we haven't had dinner together since er Since our disaster of a date? - Yeah.
- We never really talked about that.
- No, we didn't.
- Is there anything to talk about? Er You know, it wasn't you, it was me.
- How many times have I heard that? - Really.
Mm-hm I never really talk to a lot of people about my personal life.
- You talk to Pembleton.
- Not about everything.
You ever thought about er having a relationship with another woman? Am I gonna have to kick you upside your head? - I didn't mean it like that.
- You did! - I didn't.
- Come on.
You and evety other man on the planet means it just like that.
It's the ultimate sexual thrill to see two women in bed together.
I'll tell you somethin'.
Not many women imagine two men in bed together.
So that disturbs you? No, it doesn't disturb me at all, but it doesn't excite me.
- I didn't mean it like that, either.
- Are you saying - I'm not gay.
- What are you saying? I'm not um strictly heterosexual, either, it seems.
What does that mean, strictly? Well, you see, I've had a lot of relationships with women, and when er they fell apart, I always blamed the women.
All the time.
Never me.
And then I met this man and I thought that - Are you involved with a man? - Well, I'm not in love with the guy.
But I don't know.
I guess the thing is that I'm never satisfied, see? When I've been with women, I've thought about men.
When I've been involved with men, I've thought about women.
You know, you really didn't have to tell me all this.
I did have to tell you this.
Keeping things secret is no good.
Doesn't help anybody, really.
The problem is I always thought that if I told anybody who I really was they'd run away.
Well, I'm not running.
- You're not? - No.
Good.