Original subtitles

[Ethel Waters singing "I Got Rhythm"]

♪ I got rhythm I got music ♪

♪ I got my man ♪

♪ Who could ask for anything more ♪

♪ I got daisies in green pastures ♪

♪ I got my man ♪

♪ Who could ask for anything more ♪

♪ Old man trouble I don't mind him ♪

♪ You won't find him 'round my door ♪

♪ I got starlight ♪

♪ I got sweet dreams

♪ I got my man ♪

♪ Who could ask for anything more ♪

♪ Who could ask for anything.. ♪♪

Rose, stay put, alright? And keep your head down.

You never know what these darkies will try and pull.

Wait, Curtis. You hear that music?

Take it easy, alright? Crank that window up.

Collins, where you been?

'I'm damn near dry in here.'

Can't help it. I got wide demand.

Hey, chickadee.

♪ That's what I got

♪ I got rhythm ♪

♪ And I've got music ♪

♪ I got my man ♪

♪ Who could ask for anything more ♪

♪ I've got daisies but they're in green pastures ♪

♪ I got my man ♪

♪ Who could ask for anything more ♪

♪ Old man trouble I don't mind him ♪

♪ You'll never find him 'round my door ♪

♪ I got starlight and do I have sweet dreams ♪

♪ I got my man ♪

♪ Who could ask for anything more ♪

♪ In fact who wants anything more ♪

[scatting]

[indistinct chattering]

Watch it, buddy.

Rose Collins, get in the dang car!

'What're you apin' at anyway?'

I ain't. I'm not..

...lookin'.

♪ I've got my man who could ask for anything more ♪♪

[gunshots]

[tires squealing]

[tires squealing]

[intense music]

[camera shutters clicking]

Commercial diver checking for sewage leaks

found this truck with a body in it.

Dredged it up from the Delaware this morning.

[Lilly] Was it down there long?

- I'd say so. - No kidding.

[Nick] Guy in my neighborhood had one of these vintage jobbies.

Spray you with a garden hose if you got close to it.

- How old we think it is? - It's gotta be early '30s.

The headlights mounted on the bar, not the fender?

Means it's pre-'35.

We'll get an exact year when we match up

the plates and VIN number.

[Nick] 'Truck was halfway stuck in the mud.'

'Kept them bones from getting turned into sand.'

We got a reason to think it wasn't just bad driving?

'bout a dozen.

CSU has something that might explain

the reason for the bullet holes.

Remains of a glass jug

and copper tubing found underneath the seat.

Tubing for what?

Oh, you add sugar and rubbing alcohol, Lil

you're making moonshine.

[Scotty] Bootlegging.

- Hot. - 70 years dead.

[Scotty] 'Nice and cold for ya.'

Could be our new record.

[theme music]

[music continues]

I called in a favor with Auto Squad.

Turned up a match for our plates.

1931 Dodge pickup.

Registered to a Curtis Collins.

Could this Collins be our bones?

Nah, he's accounted for.

Fact, guy's still kickin' it

at a retirement place in Haverford.

Lil and Vera are on their way out there.

We know if he ever reported his truck stolen?

Nope. 'Cause Curtis Collins had good reason

to keep the cops far away from his truck. It's like we thought.

Picked up twice for illegal distribution of alcohol

and violation of the 18th Amendment.

Curtis Collins, bona fide bootlegger.

And the truck was the company car.

[Scotty] Glad we brought you a challenge for once, Frannie?

Outside of paleontology camp?

This is the oldest body I've ever worked on.

You able to get anything from what's left?

Fractured skull was the cause of death.

From a gunshot?

- Probably the accident. - What else?

We got the skull and pelvis so I can tell you

the victim was female.

'Late adolescent to young adult.'

A girl?

Had to be some lady bootleggers, right?

[Lilly] 'Curtis Collins?'

This can't be good.

Did you lose a truck around 1930?

Sure. You makin' reparations?

It was dredged up from the Delaware this morning.

No kiddin'.

[Nick] 'Had bullet holes all over it and a body inside.'

A body?

You don't say.

Any idea who that was?

Good chance that's my sister in there. Rose.

[Lilly] 'What makes you think that?'

She ran off with my truck, August of '32.

And you're just now thinkin' she might be dead?

When I couldn't find her back

when I thought she didn't want to be found.

You two on bad terms?

No. Our father killed himself

after the bank took his store.

Mother was long dead.

Leaving you in charge.

Can you think of anyone who'd want to hurt her?

[Curtis] 'No.'

Other than refusin' to heed me, Rose was sweet as honey.

Light up a room.

Took a peek at your file, Curtis.

Selling moonshine was a dangerous business.

- That earn you some enemies? - Guess so.

'Cause as a young businessman, I sure wasn't sweet.

[Doc Win] 'Collins!'

Reach over for your brother and turn that engine off, girly.

Easy there, Doc Win.

Had a nip of that gasoline you trying you pass off as whiskey.

Tastes like you ran it through with fertilizer.

The only fertilizer here's the lies you're droppin', Doc.

About done dealin' with you, Collins.

[Curtis] 'This block is my territory and I am fierce'

in protecting it.

You won't find another outfit willin' to supply you.

'Less you're dead and gone. Then we'd all celebrate.

Please don't hurt him! Take, take another--

Dang it, Rose! What'd I say to you?

Stay outta it, doll-face.

I know you're not talkin' to my sister familiar.

- What if I am? - You do not talk to her!

Calm down and leave the girl out of it.

Fertilizer-tastin' or not

'the hooch is half the draw of this place.'

Other half bein' the entertainers

and they all need the hooch to get in touch with the muse.

Go serve it up, why don't ya?

[chuckles]

Yeah, well, let's not talk business

in front of the females.

I'll catch up with you another time..

...friend.

So this Doc Win thought you were selling him an inferior product.

There were fellas making liquor out of hair tonic.

Least I put corn syrup in the mix.

And Doc Win didn't see you being decent that way.

Not at all.

So if Rose was in your truck maybe some of your

business contacts thought they were offing you instead.

Yeah.

Well, Doc Win knew the truck.

Always said it rattled a particular way.

Irked him.

[Will] 'We know this is a stretch, Celia'

asking you about your great-grandfather.

Doc Win's a legend in our family.

I've been hearing about him my whole life.

Well, he had a beef with a guy named

Curtis Collins, a bootlegger.

Curtis's truck was pulled up from the Delaware today

with a body inside.

We think it may be his sister.

And you think Doc had something to do with that.

Possible.

Her name was Rose Collins.

'Ring any bells?'

The name, no. But the face..

...from Doc's album.

This is the same girl, right?

[Will] 'It is. Sure.'

I've looked at this picture so many times.

You know anything about this girl?

My grandma used to tell me stories that Doc told her.

My favorite was about this night

when Billie Holiday came to play Doc Win's.

♪ I'm so weary and all alone ♪

♪ Feet are tired like heavy stone ♪

♪ Traveling traveling ♪

Whaddya think of this one, Billie?

She ain't bad. She's got my name. That's in her favor.

♪ Who will see and who will care ♪

♪ About this load that I must bear ♪

♪ Traveling traveling all alone ♪

[Doc Win] 'Ah, no.'

Your brother know you're here?

No. Please don't toss me out 'cause of him.

I got money to buy drinks just like she does.

A cordial, please.

[jazz music]

Hello.

Bible Study's out the door, three blocks down.

I'm here for the music.

Watch out. She don't sing 'bout lollipops and flowers.

This ain't no place for you. Why don't you go on home?

I need to listen a while.

Pardon me.

Could I try one of your cigarettes?

Fresh out.

Dang it!

My hat was off.

How come your mother lets you dress like a boy?

I do what I please, first off.

And I ain't dressed like a boy.

I'm dressed like a fox.

[coughing]

Doc Win, you gotta go give this Sunday-best-wearin' white girl

her very first cigarette while I'm tryin' to listen?

Why don't you hit the skids?

I have a drink I paid for.

[indistinct singing]

Now shoo, fly, and don't come back.

♪ Traveling traveling all alone ♪♪

[chuckling]

Story was Rose was the first white girl

to come to Doc Win's.

Lured in by the music.

Doc said it was a testament to the blues being universal.

And who was this Billie giving Rose a hard time?

One of the regular customers.

Read in the club's poetry readings, too.

Can we hold onto this album a little while?

Sure. And I've got boxes of Doc Win memorabilia

that I've been meaning to go through.

If I find anything else, I'll give you a call.

[instrumental music]

So Rose Collins might have been the type

to stick her nose where it didn't belong.

She definitely wasn't welcome at Doc Win's.

[Lilly] Looked at the old ledgers.

Doc Win's wasn't a good girl's kinda place.

Cops arrested people there every weekend.

Shady clientele?

Drunks, women of ill-repute..

...artist types.

So maybe Rose goes back to Doc Win's and this Billie

or someone else there, takes issue with her.

Hey. I did some more looking at your girl's skull.

- And? - There's no nasal sill.

The little bone at the base of the nose.

Nose bone mean somethin'?

It's one of the ways to determine race

from skeletal remains.

Your victim was African American.

[intense music]

Well, Rose Collins is still alive.

No kidding.

Living somewhere up in Manhattan.

Got a last known address.

You got a name for our bones?

So far, six young black women disappeared

or assumed dead around '32.

Saved that stack for you.

- It's a birthday present. - When's your birthday?

- Tomorrow. - How you celebrating?

I'm 60. I'm almost dead.

I'm going home tonight, writing out my will.

Okay.

Most interesting name I found, Wilhemina Doucette.

Nickname "Billie."

[Nick] 'The girl from Doc Win's.'

Check out her mug shot.

Looks like she thinks this whole arrest thing's funny.

[Will] 'Hm, girl had a close relationship with Philly PD.'

Age 12, Juvenile Division picks her up for curfew violation.

Age 14, engaging in illegal possession of liquor.

16, arrested for causing a public disturbance

by wearing men's pants.

She sure liked her boy's clothes.

She was getting in scrapes pretty regular

till summer of '32.

Then no more. Great aunt files a report

when Billie drops off the map.

Into the Delaware?

Best answer so far.

Maybe Rose can give us more.

[instrumental music]

[Lilly] 'We thought you'd be harder to find, Rose.'

Seeing as your brother thought you might've died in '32.

I ran away that year.

Curtis and I haven't talked since.

70-year sibling squabble.

You got me beat.

[Rose] 'He and I never got on.'

He wanted me under his thumb like a kid.

I wanted to live.

[Scotty] 'We got some questions go way back, Rose.'

You remember a woman named Billie Doucette?

Sure. She was a character.

Any idea how she could've wound up in your brother's truck

August of '32?

I lent it to her.

You and Billie were friendly?

[Scotty] ''Cause we heard she hassled you'

the night Billie Holiday played Doc Win's.

Hm. She did.

But after that, we became friends.

So she borrowed your truck and disappeared?

I thought maybe she took off for New York.

And knowing what Curtis would do if he found out

she had his truck. I followed her to get it back.

And that's how you wound up here?

[Rose] 'I never found her, though.'

I was gonna go home to Philly, but I, uh..

...I met a Wall Street man..

...and he became my husband.

You remember Billie having any enemies?

She was saucy. Had her share of rifts with people.

Anyone who'd go so far as to shoot at her?

You've heard the expression "A woman scorned.."?

[school bell rings]

[jazz music plays]

[indistinct chattering]

Goodbye.

- Bye, Rose. See you tomorrow. - Bye.

"Sent that girl away a night ago

"And don't she know it's been ashes.

"Sent her away and don't she know It ache.

"Heart of mine, throat of smoke

"I sent a girl away and it's been hell opened up

"Working on my skin till it be bone."

[jazz music]

♪ It don't mean a thing..♪♪

You're wearing a skirt.

I clean house. They make me.

Well?

Well, what? That about me?

It's one of my originals.

How I express my truest thoughts through poetry.

I got one of my poems published in a magazine.

You heard of"Opportunity"?

Published by WEB DuBois?

Who's that?

Wasn't them chose me anyhow.

They will, when I move to New York.

Was this other outfit, equally prestigious, you know.

- Paid me two dollars. - Gee.

You come back to the club I'll buy you a real drink

using my poem earnings.

Thought you didn't want me there.

Alright, listen.

I go with this girl, Little Georgie

'and she's batty.'

You go with a girl?

They're a headache, but that's my taste.

I have a beau.

Ted. A boy.

[Wilhemina] 'Your boy get jealous?'

Sure. He's a hothead.

Little Georgie's got a pistol in her purse

and I've seen her use it.

You saying she'd use it on me?

[Wilhemina] 'If she came in, saw us jawing.'

But I broke it off with her.

Told her I got the right to new friends if I want 'em.

Will you teach me how to smoke?

Will you teach me how to dance?

Yeah, alright.

Aw, no. Uh, step in there.

- That her? - 'She followed me.'

- 'You oughta go.' - Billie Doucette!

You stop in your tracks!

And put some speed on it.

So, Billie had a thing for you.

At first.

Which was scandalous to me.

But you still became friends.

I was taken by the way she lived. So free.

[Lilly] 'Wearing pants.'

Smoking and cursing and not caring who protested.

And this, uh, Little Georgie was her jilted ex?

Billie said just ignore her but..

...I couldn't stop thinking about

the pearl-handle pistol she carried.

[instrumental music]

You in my view, boys.

Got to interrupt your vacation for a minute, Little Georgie.

What'd you call me?

We meet in another life?

Let's talk about that life.

You remember a girl named Billie Doucette?

Aw, no. That hurts.

Back when, that girl bruised my heart and good.

And what'd you do in revenge?

Revenge?

Not my way.

You stabbed a lady in '43 and spent five years in prison.

Woman got in the way of me and my dance moves.

Would it surprise you to hear Billie was killed back in '32?

Death don't surprise me.

There were gunshots in the back of the truck

she was found dead in.

Now we know you had a fondness for using your pistol.

Billie had enough trouble coming her way.

Didn't need mine.

What kind of trouble we talking about?

Worst kind. Kind that comes with being sweet

on an innocent, little white girl.

Hit me again, Doc.

I can still feel my damn heart beating.

["Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" by Bessie Smith]

♪ Once I lived the life of a millionaire ♪

♪ Spendin' my money I didn't care ♪

♪ I carried my friends out for a good time ♪

♪ Buying bootleg liquor champagne and wine ♪♪

I never slow-danced before.

Ted doesn't like dancing.

You like it?

♪ I didn't have a friend and no place to go ♪

[giggles]

In New York you can go to ten clubs

like this in a single night.

That'd be nice.

[Rose] 'Dancing all night.'

I bet we'd have fun there.

- Ted! - Rose!

You know what kind of a place this is?

You got to be out of your mind.

You've been drinking.

My brother's a bootlegger, Ted.

'Been bound to happen.'

You being lippy just then?

That's the hooch and it don't suit you.

You were supposed to say, "Can I cut in?"

So this is the one.

My pal saw you two outside of St. Abigail's.

She's a queer, Rose.

'And she brought you down here to get you'

'sauced and take advantage.'

No. No, no. We're just..

You the one that don't dance?

Man can't move his feet's a man can't move when it counts.

[chuckling]

Drinks is on me everybody!

[cackles]

You hear about any fallout from this Ted situation?

But not too much after's when Billie took a powder.

You mean, was killed.

Guess that's right.

Tell you what..

..men do not like having another woman

as romantic competition.

Okay.

Seen a few of these scenarios first hand

and they are right ugly.

[instrumental music]

So this Ted guy, Rose's boyfriend?

Dead and gone.

Still might be the doer.

Aced Billie for eyeing his girl.

Happy birthday, Will.

Yeah, yeah.

Give yourself a present, man. Go see her tonight.

- Who? - Lena. Singer at this club.

I'm staying in tonight.

I'll go with you. Wingman.

Forget it. Well, got cigars and guitars at home.

That's all I need.

A Celia Watson dropped this off.

Mementos from Doc Win's?

[Scotty] 'Literary magazines.'

[Will] "To Rose."

"An original poem by Billie Doucette."

Maybe something in one of these gives us a clue to how she died.

[Nick] 'So we got to make sense of'

"Oh, ripest fruit, pink and hidden

"I've traveled wet, sweaty miles to find you."

Sounds like Billie visited Rose's school again.

[Lilly] '"To Rose, whose breathing is blooming.'

"School bell shocks my heart into moving"

[school bell tolling]

[Wilhemina] "Springtime sends green roots through my veins

"My eyes are dusted off, my blood is searching

"At the bell, I'm born again through the Earth aching.

"Moon-faced girl, you are the only one I see."

Sounds like Billie was smitten.

[Will] 'What about Rose?'

She said they were just friends.

Well, this makes it sound like more than that.

'"Those three words I have never heard together..'

[Wilhemina] "Those three words I have never heard together..

"...before you made them in your mouth

"chewed them soft like sugar cane

"polished them with your tongue

"gave them to me sweet and I swore I'd never get them lost.

"Is it how I can't find sleep, or get fed?

"This thing you said?

"Is it how my heart grows at the sight of you?

"Then, baby, yes..

...I love you, too."

Rose told Billie she loved her.

We sure these aren't just Billie's fantasies?

She said it was her truest self she wrote in her poems.

Okay, well, this one ain't pretty.

Date on it. August 1932.

[Will] 'Close to when Billie disappeared.'

What's it called, Nicky?

"My Body Broken."

"Tired and..

"...nickel-colored night..

"...you can take my blood and keep it

"I ain't need it no more

"Use my broken teeth to pave your street.

"My splintered bones stomped for sand.

"If this lead-footed man should once again leave me dead

"My body broken..

"My soul would find a way

all night to dance with his girl again."

Someone beat up Billie, left her for dead.

Someone whose girl she stole.

Possible Billie stole a lot of girls in her day.

And she calls him "lead-footed," like he can't move his feet.

Maybe dead Ted.

The bad dancer.

Rose didn't tell us Billie got beat up over her.

She didn't mention love poems, either.

Didn't want to own up?

I can't picture my grandma owning up

to something like this.

Back to the Big Apple.

[instrumental music]

Best friends. That's what we were.

That's all?

Rose, someone hurt Billie pretty bad

a few nights before she died. That your boyfriend, Ted?

Yes.

All 'cause you and Billie were "friends," huh?

[Lilly] 'Rose, she wrote you love poems.'

- Do you have them? - Yeah.

I'm a great grandmother.

My family doesn't know.

We're talking to you, not your family.

I was 17.

I didn't know what it was.

I just knew I wanted to be around her.

You had feelings for her?

There's a book in my desk.

Uh, the drawer on the left..

...with the violet cover.

'Writings from my teenage years.'

And you're a poet, too.

Oh, just that summer.

I tried to write my own poems.

I was trying to be just like Billie.

I was terrible, of course.

"I came up from the dark without you

"And every day since has been in shadow."

I thought Billie brought me out of the dark..

...showed me the light.

What happened when Ted beat her up?

It made me realize how much I felt.

[instrumental music]

You think he broke anything, Billie?

Look at me.

[sighing]

He told me I come near you again, he'll kill me.

No.

But I gotta come near you, Rose.

He won't kill you. It's crazy.

Don't you see how it goes?

It ain't easy for us.

[Rose] 'Hold still.'

Hold still, will ya?

[instrumental music]

It's okay. It's okay.

[music continues]

I got a plan so we can be together.

We'll go to New York.

- We ain't got no money. - Sure, we do.

Look around.

We got lots.

[laughing]

[instrumental music]

After that, I knew Curtis would kill me

so we, we had to go.

[Lilly] 'To New York.'

That was the plan.

'Billie was going to take the truck and liquor'

'pick me up at school.'

But she never made it?

I took a bus to New York in the morning.

I tried to find her.

Rose, why were you so afraid of your brother?

After our parents died Curtis became fixated on me.

He, he wanted us to be together forever.

He never would have let me go.

And you think he caught Billie stealing the truck?

What would he do to her?

If that happened..

...I'm sure she would have been killed.

[dramatic music]

My sister's dead.

No, she's in New York. Alive.

You got it wrong.

How would you know, Curtis?

You lost touch in '32.

I just know is all.

Answer me a hypothetical.

'Back in the day when you weren't so sweet'

what would you do if you caught someone liftin' your moonshine?

Shoot 'em.

Did you shoot Billie Doucette?

I don't know who that is.

Sure you do.

She broke into your shed, stole your hooch, your truck

you chased her, shot at her, ran her off a bridge.

That's poppycock.

What about someone stealing your sister?

What would you do to them?

Watch that mouth.

Billie Doucette becoming a little more vivid to ya now?

I didn't shoot that thing.

- What's that? - The one poisoned my Rose.

Aimed to kill her, but..

...Rose had to step in.

[instrumental music]

What the hell are you doin'?

- Lookin' for leaks. - Stop it!

I caught myself a thief, Rose!

Curtis, leave her alone!

You gone bughouse? She's stealin' from us.

I love her!

You what?

Love her. Please let her go.

Better watch what you're sayin', Rosie.

You don't know what she is.

Yes, I do. I know it through and through.

Don't you say that to me!

No. Oh, Lord. No. I tried to raise you right!

I tried, but you slippin' off.

I'm your heart, Rose.

'I know that you know that.'

But you let this thing get in your mind

like a maggot.

It's alright, baby.

Don't you talk to her!

[sobs]

You gotta choice or what.

You cannot be loyal to this thing..

...and be part of this Collins family.

- Rose! - 'Which one?'

Blood or this?

Me or this?

'I'm gonna put her outta her misery.'

Now, go get my gun outta the truck. Now!

Go get it!

[instrumental music]

[gun cocking]

You're not my family, you sorry son of a bitch.

Billie, get in the truck.

Rose.

Curtis.

I guess goodbye.

[intense music]

[gun cocking]

I took my Plymouth and drove after 'em.

- Shot at 'em? - Emptied my gun..

[chuckle]

...but they kept on.

So how did the truck end up in the river?

Bridge was out 'cause of the rains.

I saw the sign, slowed down.

And the girls?

Hit the bridge, goin' full-bore.

'That's..'

...That's what's scramblin' my brains, see.

You sayin' Rose is alive.

'Cause she was in that truck?

[Curtis] 'They both were.'

And I, I saw it go off of that bridge.

[instrumental music]

I don't know why, exactly. The last couple of days

I feel short of breath at home.

[sighs]

I know that feeling.

'Fresh air helps.'

[Scotty] 'We talked to your brother..'

'...about your theory he killed Billie.'

He gave us something else.

He told us you were in the truck, Rose..

...when it went off the bridge.

That's not possible. I would've died.

Yet here you are.

I was not in that truck.

I was waiting for Billie.

I was alone.

Right.

So there was no plan.

- You never loved her. - You never healed her.

You never "Came up from the dark without her?"

Rose..

"Came up from the dark without you

"And every day since has been in shadow."

Dark is the water.

This is about the accident, isn't it?

[Scotty] 'You gave us this poem, Rose.'

'You want to tell us.'

Water, love, guilt, death.

I'm no writer.

But she was.

And that's why you wrote this..

...for Billie.

I wondered if it was wrong. the feelings I had for her.

[Lilly] 'No.'

It was just the wrong time.

All these years..

...I've carried her with me.

What happened that night? In the truck?

[instrumental music]

I betrayed my girl.

How?

I lived.

[gunshots]

- Baby, hold tight. - He's gonna kill us!

[gunshots]

He's gonna follow us all the way to New York

and track us down like dogs.

Let me out, then.

'It's me he's after. You blow on outta here.'

No, he'll kill you.

I'm not scared, Rose.

No. We can make it.

[intense music]

- It's closed off. - No. No. No.

We ain't gettin' away from him now, Rose.

I know. But he's not taking you away from me.

[gunshot]

[gunshots]

You love me?

Baby, what are you doing?

[exhales]

I'm your girl, right?

You're my girl and I love you.

How'd you like to love me forever?

Yes.

- Okay. - Okay.

Alright, then that's what we'll do.

[dramatic music]

[music continues]

[water gurgling]

[gasping]

Billie!

[instrumental music]

[Rose] "I came up from the dark without you

"And every day's been in shadow

"I have begged the tide to wash away my sin

"And take me to you, in the dark

"But every day I surface again

[instrumental music]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[instrumental music]

[Rose] "But in the spring, I am betrayed by the new Earth.

"With you in my heart, I am born again a green bud.

"I am born."

[instrumental music]

[music continues]

[female narrator] Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode.