Original subtitles

Mr. White, this is awkward, but we do have to ask a question. No, my wife and

were not having marital difficulties.

Look to me like she really had the hots for him. How do they meet, the guys?

Are you asking me this personally, or is this professional?

This isn't a runaway wife anymore.

We've got a homicide here, and you two women were the last people to see her

alive. You had lovers.

And the letter is signed to Marquis de Sade.

This is too working. I know what it sounds like, but it's police work,

am not having a good time.

Then Liz comes back from Acapulco a week early and walks in on Brad and Devin in

Brad's apartment.

Brad shot Liz?

No.

Devin shot Liz?

Oh, no way. Devin was in the shower.

Well, who shot Liz?

My money's on Lance.

Her ex -husband?

He's still real hung up on her.

Dave, you never watched these shows. How come you know all the people in them?

I got hooked on Beyond the Horizon when I worked nights.

I found I really missed it when I went over to day shift.

It all worked nice, like me.

My daughter gave me one of those video recorders for Christmas.

I tape old shows, and on weekends I catch up.

Not a terrible idea.

I could use one myself for the summer.

How's that?

I work days during the tourist season.

I've already been to the Westchester police.

If she turns up, they'll let me know, but they aren't even going to look for

her. Mr. White, please.

I can't just sit around and wait.

I'm going out of my mind. Your wife is last seen at the Sullivan Theater, Mr.

White? She goes to a matinee every Wednesday with her girlfriends.

This is an idea that I never liked, the three of them going into the city alone

like this.

It's a dangerous place for women.

Mr. White, this is awkward, but we do have to ask a question.

All right.

Westchester police have already asked.

No, my wife and I were not having marital difficulties. She is a good wife

mother to our two little girls. Now, please, find her.

Yes, sir.

We'll certainly do what we can, Mr. White.

I think the Westchester police have the right idea.

We want to run away from all of this.

People who want more.

Oh, come on. Want more.

You've got two beautiful daughters, a husband that...

Adores her. Got a nice home and a safe neighborhood. And every Wednesday, a day

out with the girls.

Stopping in culture.

I wouldn't need much more.

I grew up here.

Around here?

With your mother, right?

My grandmother and my brother.

Oh, yeah.

How come I... I never hear about your brother.

He lives in California now.

There's telephones, Christine.

Yeah, well, it's been a long time.

I haven't talked to him since my mother died.

I'm sorry.

So was your old home as fancy as these here?

Yeah, I guess.

Where is it? Is it closed?

I mean, we could go by later, take a look if you wanted.

No, I don't think so.

Last Wednesday, Helen left in the middle of the second act to go to the ladies'

room. She never returned.

So look for her, ma 'am. Of course.

Well, then what? Did you call the police? Did you report it to the

I told an usher.

I see.

Did Mrs. Quiet ever indicate to you she was having trouble at home?

No, no problems.

How about you?

You mean, did she run away from home?

If that's a possibility, ma 'am.

Well, anything's possible.

Did she have friends or family in the city?

Um, I don't know.

Do you?

No one her husband wouldn't know about. You'll have to check with him.

Oh, there's Chet.

We'll be with you in a whiz, Chet.

We don't mean to be rude, but we did book a tennis lesson for three o 'clock.

You are a half hour late.

Right.

Can you believe those two?

Their friend disappears and they're worried about making a tennis lesson.

People have different ways of dealing with their emotions, Christine. Oh, can

the good cop routine, Mary Beth. It's just us here.

Cops even have their hair done to play tennis.

Mary Beth, you had a phone call.

I left a message on your desk. Hi.

Had Dan Cordes, Becky?

Hmm? You look like you got dragged through the mud, pal.

Hey, who cares about Cord Cagney?

Real police works down in the streets.

Car thieves.

We caught him in the act.

Wow. Just you and Petrie, huh?

No SWAT squad?

Hey.

Look, I don't have time to make small talk with you, Detective.

I got some reports to fill out.

Hey,

Petrie.

What's with your collar?

Kid ran.

Chased him through a muddy salvage yard.

Victor hit him with a flying pickle.

You're kidding.

This place is food.

It's best and only food.

You're perfect like a kid.

He may be a juvenile. He's not carrying any ID and he won't tell us his name.

Is the lieutenant in? I haven't seen him.

Christine, we're going to the morgue. They've got a body that might be on

White.

They're going to lose the personal touch.

A computer's just a tool, Bert. What's to be afraid of? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know. That's what this...

What are you doing here?

I asked you a question.

We're processing a grand lost in the auto attack.

Caught the kid in the act.

Now,

you told me you were through with that garbage. This is how you keep your word?

Come on, Lieutenant.

Hold it. Come on.

Come on. Relax.

Come on. Relax. Get him out of my sight.

What'd you ever do to him?

I made the mistake of being his son!

Did we say something to Samus about his boy?

What do you say?

Imagine your own kid, arrested, brought to the precinct.

I'd die if it was one of mine.

It happens.

A lot of cops' kids get in trouble.

Not all cops' kids.

I did.

You did?

Why?

Shoplifting, ice skating.

Twelve years old.

My mother let me stew in Juvenile Hall overnight.

You're kidding.

You were twelve.

I sat there until my dad found out about it, and he came and sprung me.

That's a pretty rough thing for how to do.

Why? I'm the one that got in trouble.

Yeah, but still leaving your kid overnight in jail. I mean, you must have

felt... I don't know what... It worked, didn't it?

I'll never go again.

What do you think, Chris?

Strangulation?

Apparently manual.

Where was the body found?

Manchester Hotel in the West 40s.

The body was fully clothed, but there was evidence of a recent coitus.

Rape?

Doubtful.

I will send you a complete report as soon as we have completed the autopsy.

Thank you, Doctor.

Thank you.

I'll never get used to looking at dead bodies.

Yeah.

Who's going to call Richard White?

You are.

Why me?

You've got more compassion than I do, Mary Beth.

You say that for me because you don't want to make the call.

I'm no good at this stuff, Mary Beth. I just blurt it out. That's the best way

to do it. No.

Hey, hey!

Mr. White?

Hi, this is Detective Cagney.

We found your wife.

I'm not Mary Worth, honey. They find him, pay their money, I give them their

key.

After that, what they do is their business.

Well, right now it's police business, so what... Smith. Smith. Jones. Smith. Ah,

an original thinker. Brown.

This isn't the Ritz, as you can see.

What? Would your memory be refreshed if we just went back down to the station?

I've got to tell you, it doesn't mean anything to me. I told you. She came in

here two, three times a month with some guy.

Same guy?

Every time.

Sometimes he came in with other women, but she was true blue loyal.

Looked to me like she really had the hots for him. They didn't even wait for

elevator.

So this man came in, what, at least once a week, and you can't describe him to

us at all, is that right?

Two arms, two legs.

You are really pressing your luck with me, lady.

Sue me.

Fine. Let's go.

Christine. No, Christine. Come on, lady. You want to help us here? We're looking

for a murderer.

He had this scar.

Ran from here to here.

He was dark and swarthy.

And really put together.

What about a name?

Could be Smith.

Could be Jones.

Could be Brown, right?

You got it.

Oh.

Set late already, huh?

such a long time.

What are you doing working so late?

Well, a few things I had to take care of.

Bert didn't say anything about you coming down to the station. He didn't

I tried to arrange bail for David.

I was hoping I could take care of this without having to appeal to Albert.

What do you think?

What? Is that serious? Sitting down here, we've been talking to her?

And here we've been the whole day? I don't understand an idea. What do you

this is? A fake one or something? I'm a can of cancer? I'm not sure you're not

talking about a can of cancer. He broke the law!

And he broke the law!

He has got to learn that actions have consequences.

Every time he gets into trouble, you think I can bail him out just like that,

huh? No wonder he turns around and runs right back out into the streets again.

My kid thinks he's untouchable. I am not asking you to bail him out. No, but

you're asking me to co -sign a loan on the house.

It's my loan. I'll be responsible for it. Yeah, yeah, you'll be responsible.

think I'm going to allow him to drive you into financial ruin? No, sir, I

need that. You have your way of dealing with our son. I've got mine.

If I want to take out another mortgage on the house, that is my choice.

No, no, no, no, no, no, it's not.

Not while I'm still paying for it, it's not.

No, Thelma, I'm not going to allow that. I'm not going to allow you to do that.

No, not to yourself and not for our son either.

Still controlling our lives, aren't you, Bert? Thelma. You hide away from us in

this little office. You don't want to know anything about us. Thelma!

I can't believe you'd let your own son sit in jail when you could get him out.

This isn't a runaway wife anymore.

We've got a homicide here, and you two women were the last people to see her

alive. We told you everything.

No, ma 'am, I don't think so.

You see, we've established the time of your friend's death between noon and 3 p

.m. She never went to the theater.

Did she, Marsha?

You don't have to talk to them.

I wouldn't listen to that advice if I were you, Mrs. Reynolds, because it's

lousy.

Seeing as everything you've said to us up till now has been a lie, considering

you were the last person to see your friend alive, I would say that made you

very good suspect.

At least the best one we've got.

Mosh, it'd be so much easier if you just tell us what happened.

Come on.

Helen, um, wasn't at the theater.

Neither was Linda.

It was just me.

Wednesdays, we go into the city, but...

Only one of us would go to the theater.

Meanwhile, the other two would... have

an adventure.

You had lovers?

Who was Helen involved with?

I don't know.

Right. No, no, no. We didn't tell each other so that we wouldn't have to lie to

cover.

How thoughtful.

My... My husband... You know, will he find out? You're a material witness,

Marsha. It's likely that he will.

He'll divorce me. I know it.

You should have thought of that before.

Oh, wow.

Why didn't I think of that?

the son of my mother sitting there.

Oh, Chris, is that why she and Charlie got divorced?

No.

My mother didn't have affairs.

At least none that I know about.

She was just lonely.

She cut herself off a lot from everything, especially after the

Maybe she still loved your dad.

I never asked her.

She and my brother were close, son.

How old were you when she died?

Nineteen.

I was in Europe in school at the time.

Oh, so you had to come back, huh? For the funeral.

No, I didn't.

Is that your house?

That's it.

That's a mansion, Christine.

Six bedrooms, three and a half baths, a den, a sun porch, servants' quarters,

three quarters of an acre of land.

For you and your mother, your brother and your grandmother, is that fantastic,

that enormous house.

Is this the first time you've seen it since the family sold it?

No, I've been buying.

What a lucky start, huh?

I mean all of that, you and your brother.

You must have wonderful memories.

Yeah, let's go.

We're going to hit that traffic going back.

David, uh...

You

okay, son?

Huh?

Detective, is Becky, uh, got an inquiry from another precinct about you. That's

why they're holding you.

I didn't know whether anyone would explain to you why you were still here.

Your mother was by here yesterday.

She seems to think that I'm the bad guy in

this whole deal.

I suppose you do, too, huh?

David?

I... I know you think you got some kind of a raw deal.

I never had enough time for you kids.

I know, I know, I know that. Damn it, damn it.

But I did the best that I knew how.

You know, Davey, when I was a kid,

men were taught, people were

taught different things than when

today.

It's different.

Please don't whistle.

I want to talk to you.

I was supposed to be the best damn cop that I could be.

And I was supposed to put food on the table for your mother and for your kids.

And I did that, baby.

And you were supposed to love me.

And you were supposed to respect me.

That's the way we're supposed to be.

Davy, it's complicated for me, too.

Do you know that?

I don't know all the answers, Davy.

a lot of time feeling guilty about

all the time that I put into my work and about divorcing your mother.

But, Davey, I want you to know that if I could do it all over again, I

don't think that I could

I don't think that I would do it any differently.

And now, Davey, you've got to make a life for

yourself.

And you've got to quit blaming me for the mess that you got yourself into.

of the truth, Danny.

Do you think we have enough excitement in our marriage?

Thinking about those women, you know, sneaking around, fooling around.

Depressing, huh?

Harvey? I don't know if I'm more depressed about them or Chris or Samuel

his kid.

I mean, Harvey, you know, you think you know people?

He hit his kid.

And you ought to see that palace that Christine grew up in, Hoff.

Unbelievable.

It's unbelievable.

But sad, too, you know.

She hasn't talked to her brother since she's 19.

And there's a lot of unfinished business with her mother, too.

I worry about her, Hoff, I do.

Because she keeps everything inside, you know.

Thank you, Harvey Lace. It's been scintillating.

Scintillating having you ease my mind through all of this.

Oh, would you get your very cold feet on your side of the bed, please?

Thank you. You're my husband. You have no right to have feet that cold.

I was going through some of Helen's personal items, and I came

across this.

This filth.

Do you know the man in these pictures, Mr. White?

No.

No, but...

This letter was enclosed.

And evidently, whoever this slime is, he was threatening to send me the

photographs of their afternoon activities unless she brought him $5

You checked your bank account, sir?

Nothing unusual.

Did your wife have access to any funds of her own?

No, no.

It's a Manhattan postmark dated last Friday.

No return address.

And the letter is signed to Marquis de Sade.

We, uh, got a new development in the Helen Grace homicide, sir. The husband

found some photos when he was going through her things.

What type of photos?

A compromising photo, sir, and a blackmail letter.

So we're running through forensics.

Yeah, we're doing it, sir.

Okay, good.

Let me know where that leads.

With respect, sir, is there something I can do?

Maybe you should rethink it.

Look at everything again with a fresh eye.

Talk to the husband.

Talk to the friends of the victim.

Somebody knows something they're not telling you.

Probably everybody does.

You'll find it.

Something else?

No.

Thank you, sir.

You can't get a lab trace on this, can you?

No. One of those instant jobs. High -speed film.

Well, if it's a green wood, can you tell us about these photos?

Well, they're...

Kind of rococo, huh?

Did you catch the black cape?

We caught it, thank you. But we needed some forensic evidence, okay?

Well, forensically speaking, we got male and female Caucasians apparently in

flagrante delicto in a room 15 by 18.

The approximate time of day from the soap opera on the TV is 2 .30 to 3 o

p .m.

Don't you love it?

They're watching TV during the festivities.

Uh, the, uh, bedspread is, uh, cheap fabric. Probably polyester, Nespa.

Yeah, look, we know where it happened. We know who the woman is. What we need

an ID on the man.

The Marquis de Sade?

That's correct.

I love the outfit.

A little Lungopachka, maybe, but, uh... Yeah, six foot, six one.

175 to 190 pounds.

Uh, 25 to 30 years of age.

Dark hair, dark complexion. Oh, there's a three -inch scar under the right eye.

Descended navel.

How clinical do you want me to go on him? You're going far enough. Are there

objects in the room that we could connect the man with?

Well, there's some keys on the night table, but that won't go anywhere.

Um, yeah, you've got a package of cigarettes in a holder, but the brand

non -decipherable.

And you got a matchbook.

Can you read that matchbook?

What do you think they pay me for?

It's one of those strip joints for females only.

The mail room over on Bleecker Street.

I don't like what it's police work on.

I am not having a good time.

All right.

Straight from the Stone Ages to you, ladies.

Let's hear it for the Barbarians. Poppy, Lacey, you get your mind out of the

gutter. I'll see you later.

Now, ladies, get ready for a speck of delivery from the mailroom.

this evening, ready and willing to please you.

Well,

St. Harvey, button it, will you, Chris?

You missed the barbarian who snagged you.

Oh, that's all right. Standing around an ogling half -naked man is not my thing.

Don't think of him as half -naked suspects.

Thank you, guys.

You're our host, ladies.

Let's put them to work.

And now, ladies, hang on to your seats.

For those of you that treasure the dark side.

The mail room is proud to present the Marquis de Sade.

Same outfit as in the picture.

Six feet, six corners, dark, thin body.

Does he give you what you want?

Come on, let's take him, get out of here. Hey, wait a minute.

We'll see you back.

I'm not going to wear that outfit.

He can be so good when he's bad.

I'm going to have to go talk to him sometime.

Yeah, what's he going to say?

Cagney, Lacey, get in here!

What? Watch me.

This is shoddy police work.

It's a notice sign.

That's the name he works under.

Yeah? You gonna take this to court?

You know what you got? You got nothing.

You got no handwriting match. You don't even have a positive ID on that desk,

clerk. You got no prints.

You don't even have a weapon.

She was strangled. Sir.

Very good, Lacey.

And your guy's got two hands.

Huh? Open and shut case.

He sees a lot of women, sir.

So he's a hustler, Lacey.

Huh? There's no law against that.

You hear me?

I'm telling the both of you, I'm not going to the D .A. and press murder

when I don't have any evidence.

And we still got the blackmail motive. Let me ask you something, Lacey.

Sir? Huh?

Sit down.

Yes, sir?

You want to do some good police work?

tell me how this guy can be taking pictures of Helen White the whole time

hustling? I mean, who is this guy, Houdini?

He must have had an accomplice.

Very good, Cagney. Hey, I would have thought of it.

That's it.

If we find the accomplice, then we've got a case. Right.

You know what he's going to say to us? He's going to say, while you were in the

room, did you look for peepholes and windows and... Well, we were at the

We didn't even know about the pictures yet.

Yeah, well, we know now.

So?

Back to the hotel.

definitely the angle from which the pictures were being taken.

Wait a minute.

Maybe the accomplice worked from out here.

Every room has access to a city code requirement.

So what do you think?

Some guy could have climbed up off the street.

do they do it well you're the mother too you're asking me i am not talking about

that i'm talking about logistics logistics well they got kids to take

they got a tennis lesson the house to look after i mean where do they find the

time let alone the energy they got full -time domestic help they go to a gym

twice a week have facials they take a lot of vitamins no but i mean how do

meet the guys how do they get them to take them to like uh this this here

let me see.

I guess I'd go to a nice cocktail lounge on Madison or Lexington in the 40s.

Huh?

A little perfume, strategically placed.

Buy yourself a sweet dress and do one or two. I think three buttons would be

nice and done on you, Mary Beth. Are you asking me this personally or is this

professional? Nobody likes a wiseacre, Christine.

You asked me. I'm trying to help you out here.

Knock, knock.

Hey, we're kind of busy, okay?

Would you hurry? I need the room.

Now, businessman special.

Dagny, it's 9 .30. What are you doing still here?

Just cleaning up some work.

You went off shift four hours ago.

So do you.

Crossword puzzle?

Helps me relax.

Lieutenant.

I wanted to say that I was sorry about David.

What is there to say?

You turned out all right.

And your old man was a cop.

My problem was with my mother.

You see, you kids, no matter what we do for you, you kids, you got to stick it

to us parents.

Maybe Freud was right.

Don't smart mouth me.

Sometimes I think that kid of mine...

Hates me so much.

I don't think that's true, Lieutenant.

Is that right?

What are you telling me? That now everything is okay between you and your

mother? Well, no, but it's because I... Well, you've got a responsibility to

your parents, you know that? You've got a responsibility to your family. Parents

are people, too.

It's like a two -way street.

Kathy!

Call your mother!

You got focus, ladies.

Focus? Nada. Nothing. You don't have enough evidence against the guy. You

district attorneys make cases out of air?

The desk clerk made a positive ID. On the night of the murder, the two of them

went in together and he came out alone.

Bupkis. I don't want to hear Bupkis. Some smart defense lawyer will argue

was somebody else up there. The trial will go on two months. The jury will

not guilty.

Reasonable doubt.

Thanks, but no thanks.

So what, he just walks away?

Dances. He's an exotic dancer, right?

Hey, Marcus.

How's the lieutenant?

He hasn't come out of his office yet. Coleman went in there and he nearly took

his head off.

The ram is at four, right?

Tracy, I don't know where it's at.

Hey, Paul.

Oh, I hope you don't mind.

What's to mind? Our case hasn't been going anywhere.

Good. The date is missing.

Good.

Quite good.

I think I have a new theory about your case.

You do?

Could we go somewhere private? This is a little embarrassing.

Ladies' room.

Watch me.

Yes, I want you to come in.

I thought you might want to talk. Yeah, well, you thought wrong.

Just close the door on your way out.

He's kept us waiting.

13 minutes.

Columbo would never have stood for this.

Detective Cagney, they see you. Oh, sir, we are so sorry to take up your time

like this, sir.

Did somebody come up?

Well, we just came by, Mr. White, to tell you that the DA dropped the charges

against our suspect.

Some legal technicality? Oh, no, no. As a matter of fact, it was our fault. We

just had the wrong guy.

The man that we had was being set up.

Heard something from it, didn't we?

I mean, sometimes you get a hold of a piece of evidence and then you look at

the wrong things.

Do you happen to have one of those videotape recorder things, sir?

I don't see what this has to do with... Well, the prices on them have really

gone down, haven't they?

Anyways, this fellow we work with, he got one for Christmas.

See, because when he was working night, he got hooked on this soap opera, Beyond

the Horizons.

And now that he's working days... See, he can record it, and then he can look

it on the weekends.

Detective Lacey, please, I'm rather busy. Please,

I cannot look at those photographs again. Please.

I'm sorry to do this. I really am, sir, but I wish you'd look. It's very

interesting. See, just look beyond this. Look here at the TV set here. What has

that got to do with anything? Guess who the woman is on the TV set.

What? Liz.

Liz? Right.

See, because I would never have known myself.

But this fellow we work with, he tells me Liz did not come back from vacation

till Wednesday.

I'm afraid I really don't understand what you ladies are talking about.

Well, I think you do, Mr. White.

You see, because the envelope that you gave us was postmarked five days before

your wife's death.

So? So the pictures couldn't have been in it because the pictures were taken

five days later, Wednesday, the day of your wife's murder. So what you did was

you mailed this envelope to yourself and then you dropped the pictures in later.

On Wednesday the 19th, you waited on the fire escape at the Manchester Hotel and

you took those pictures.

Then after her boyfriend left.

You let yourself in the room and you murdered your wife, didn't you, Mr.

Before you say anything, Mr. White, you do have the right to remain silent.

If you choose to give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and

will be held against you in the court of law. You have the right to speak with

an attorney and to have the attorney present during questioning.

So desire... Was

I right?

Full confession.

The proper stuff was perfect, Paul. You should really, you should take the

collar. Be my guest.

Just don't let the word get around the squad room that I watched that stuff.

Our lips are sealed.

Where is he?

Down at Central Booking talking to his attorney.

I think this calls for champagne. What do you say? Who's buying? I'll buy.

I don't think this was exactly the time.

36 minutes.

You're never going to make it.

You think someone will tell him what time it is?

Hey, Petrie, you want to go and tell him what time it is? No.

I think LaGuardia ought to go in there.

Why me?

You're closer to his generation.

Look,

the man obviously doesn't want to go, and it's none of our business.

Petrie's right. It's his decision.

Making him crazy.

What?

Tearing him up.

What do you know?

That's his son.

Whatever happened between the two of them, Christine, can be repaired. That's

family. You love and hate each other, you argue and fight, but you don't walk

away.

Lieutenant, last night you told me to call my mother.

I didn't do it because my mother died.

No, no, it's all right. It happened a long time ago.

But what I needed to say to you was, is I wish I had.

And now I wish I could.

So I guess what I'm telling you, I'm just telling you.

What'd you say to him?

he goes lights and sirens. He hasn't gone lights and sirens in years.

He probably doesn't even know how to work it.

You said something to him.

It's 25 to 1 in California, right?

Hello, Annie?

It's Christine.

Is my brother home?