01x03 - Sting Like a Bee

[bunniefuu]

I have a tip.

I have information about my sister Penny's m*rder.

But we have to do it face-to-face.

Are you sure about this?

Yeah, I-I think it's important.

I'm here to see Sam Gillis.

You know, I took her to Rikers.

She even knows you can't bring in a pen and paper.

And I taught her how to remember quotes by turning them into song lyrics.

I mean, she's ready.

And we can talk about mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex after.

It'll be like responsible parenting 101.

I'm not sure "responsible parenting" and "prison" should go in the same sentence.

But...

Look, as long as you're okay.

Hey, Dad. Sign.

Bags on the conveyor belt, please.

Thanks. Thank you.

Step forward.

Empty out your pockets, sir.

Go ahead. Step forward.

The state calls Matt Lisko.

Do the right thing, Matty.

You okay? Yeah.

I don't know. Maybe this was not such a good idea.

I don't want to distract Hilde. I think I'm gonna go wait in the car.

Wait. No. Matt. What are you doing?

Where'd Dad go?

Bridget Jensen. Yes.

I apologize.

You and your daughter won’t be able to see inmate Gillis today.

Oh. Okay. Thank you for your time.

Wait. Why not? He's in solitary.

But he put my name on today’s visitor list.

He's expecting me.

Prisoners don't decide their schedule, sweetheart.

We do.

Have a nice day. You too.

Wait. What did he do? There must be something wrong!

Hey, you cannot talk to a corrections officer that way.

Why is Sam in solitary?

Let's go. We'll figure it out. Mom, I'm a journalist.

Seat belts on.

Are we gonna talk about you walking out like that?

Okay, dude. I am not doing this with you right now.

You're being like you were back in Brooklyn with Miriam.

This has got nothing to do with her.

Who's Miriam?

Nothing, sweetie. No one.

Matt.

Damn it.

Frank. Lieutenant Briggs.

You're driving with out-of-state plates.

You gotta register your vehicle here in Washington State ASAP or you'll be fined.

Temporary move, Lieutenant.

Well, you still gotta register here if you're staying for more than three months.

You two know each other?

Yeah, don't worry, Frank.

I'm not here to cause trouble.

Really?

'Cause for the past couple decades, it’s been really nice and quiet around here.

Now we got your kid writing about homicides that aren't homicides.

And people are already starting to talk.

Tell me, uh, Lieutenant, is Holmes County doing an autopsy on Penny Gillis?

Penny slipped and broke her neck. There's gonna be no autopsy.

No waste of taxpayer dollars.

There'll be no cops chasing a ghost when they should be doing their damn jobs.

This is a warning, okay?

If I see those plates again, I'm gonna write you up.

What was that all about?

That's the guy who's been stalking us, hanging out in front of our house every night.

Don't worry.

Everything's okay.

Did you see Mom and Dad today?

I live here, loser.

No. I mean, did you notice that we left together and then we came home separately?

Dad's sad.

It's this town.

This place is so weird. Like, horror movie weird.

I know, right?

But it's not like the kind of horror movie that has a poltergeist or a creepy clown.

It's like the kind that has an explanation for all the weird things that happen.

Sure, like a serial k*ller.

At least serial K*llers can be caught.

Do you think that Mom and Dad are gonna get a divorce?

Izzy?

Izzy?

Scooch over.

Izzy?

I swear, if you and I really moved out to the woods, I don't think my family would even notice.

Do you want to?

Maybe.

Do you?

Maybe.

So, with this JPay thing you can just, like, call prisoners?

Yeah. It's like FaceTime but for inmates.

Shh.

No talking. Can you put these in periodicals?

Oh. Can you put these in periodicals?

To you...

Penny and, um, Richie Fife, they're just news stories.

But not to us.

I was there when that boy went missing.

Broke our hearts.

So, next time you write about it, you remember that.

Yes, ma'am.

Sam Gillis, my name is Hilde Lisko, editor in chief of The Chronicle.

This is Spoon and this is Donny, my reporters.

I don't think I should be... I could get into a lot of trouble for this.

I'm really sorry about your sister.

But I don't think her death was an accident.

I don't either. But everyone else does.

So, if you wanna find out who k*lled her...

we're pretty much all you got.

Hello? Principal Collins.

Honey, you better get down here.

Okay, Mom. I'll be right there.

Look, I know you think we're too young.

But that's why we can help. We're off the radar.

Do you know anyone that might have had a motive to k*ll your sister?

You can trust us, sir.

I think I have an idea.

But I can't tell you over the phone.

They monitor all my calls here.

Excuse me.

Shut that off.

Kimmy?

Kimmy?

Everyone, out.

First you report that an accident is a m*rder, then you bring a convicted criminal into the school.

Convicted but probably innocent.

Well, that's not what these parents think.

They're just gonna wonder why their kids saw a k*ller at school today.

What would you do if you were me?

I would wanna know the truth about what happened to my friend, Richie Fife.

He was your friend.

Hilde, no one in this town thinks that Sam Gillis is innocent.

Do you?

Mm-hmm.

Any chance I...

No. Whatever it is, the answer is no.

Copy that.

Izzy. Wait up.

You're in my personal space.

Sorry. And I'm really sorry for ditching you in the woods.

Yeah, you should be. I can explain.

Oh, this should be good.

When I was six, I was bit by a dog. Here's the scar. See?

That tiny mark?

Well, it's small now, but my face was smaller back then so it was bigger.

Yeah. You know, I don't think that’s how math works but okay.

What kind of dog?

What? You heard me.

Poodle.

Toy or standard?

What?

You know, like, was it a toy poodle, like, in a little sweater or was it a standard poodle?

You know, I did come to find you, but you were gone.

Okay. Well, I forgive you.

I still wanna know what kind of poodle it was.

Hey. Hey, hey, hey, I got it, I got it. There you go.

I'm not an invalid, Frankie.

It's Matt, Dad.

Matt lives in New York now.

He hasn't called in about... mmm... eleven months.

No.

Eleven months and three days.

Yeah, well, I'm here now. Okay?

That's how I ended up in this place.

Dad... Dad, look, I gotta ask you something.

Dad, how... how often does Frankie come to visit you?

You know, I was hoping to run into him.

And, uh, I-I just wanted to talk to him.

Does he come a lot?

Dad?

What do you two talk about?

What a shitty son I am?

What got you so upset that day?

Can you remember?

Thanks, Pop.

Pretty soon I'll have a whole swarm, right?

Yeah, can I get a whiskey, please?

Excuse me for a second.

I hate this song.

Yeah, no sh*t.

Look, man, we've-we've known each other since we were what?

Five years old?

Yeah. We missed a couple decades in there.

Yeah, well, whose fault is that?

My buddy at the prison warned me that you’re trying to connect with Sam.

That's how you knew where to pull me over.

Yeah, you change those plates yet?

Are you making any plans to move back to Brooklyn?

Why are you stalking my family, Frank?

I'm just doing my job. Right, sure.

It's your job to sit outside my house in the middle of the night?

Keeping Erie Harbor safe from anyone suspicious is pretty much the gig.

Yeah, well, how the hell am I suspicious?

I don't know.

It sure is strange you're here not one day and your old friend, Penny, turns up dead.

I-I thought that was an accident.

Excuse me? Can I get another?

What? You're gonna accuse another innocent man of m*rder, Frank?

You are the only person alive that thinks that Sam Gillis is innocent.

Yeah, well, that's not true. Yeah?

You spent seven years trying to prove it.

You ruined your life, your dad's life. Yeah, okay.

Let it go.

Let it go, Matty.

Yeah, or what?

Leave it alone.

You know, I've reported in neighborhoods worse than w*r zones.

You think I'm scared of you, Frank? Huh?

You stay the hell away from my family.

You understand?

Excuse me, can I go again?

Where's Dad?

I don't know. Is he in trouble?

Maybe. Let me get back to you on that.

Hey.

Where's Hilde?

Working.

Hey, sorry I'm late.

Where were you? We were worried sick.

Why? I walked home.

Are you drinking that?

I was.

Oh, God.

Why are you so sweaty, Daddy? Huh?

What?

He's drunk, twerp.

Hey, Iz. Come here, come here.

Matt. Your mom wants to talk to you.

Real nice, Matt.

Oh, ow. Ow.

Ginny, stop it. Stop it, please. Okay?

Ginny, no. Stop. Stop it.

What's that? Stop it. Matt, can you...

Yeah, I'll clean them up. I'll clean up this mess.

Thank you.

Matt, if you're not gonna do the dishes...

Matt. God, now I have two toddlers.

That's it! I'm going to get dessert. I need a break.

We have dessert.

Dad.

What's going on with you guys?

I feel like a jealous wife all over again, except the other woman is a 31-year-old cold case.

So... he's cheated?

No, not exactly.

I mean, he was covering this story of this girl who went missing in the Hamptons.

She just disappeared.

Yeah, that was all over the national news.

Matt became obsessed with solving it, like, A Beautiful Mind obsessed.

He got super close to the girl's mom, Miriam.

Hmm.

Oh, hello. What are you guys talking about?

This is Winnie Witherspoon.

Wait, "Witherspoon"? Is your son...

Spoon, yeah. He's working with your daughter on the paper.

Yeah. So... did anything happen with your husband and that woman?

He said "no." So...

And you believe him?

Ye... Yeah.

You know, he-he said he was just trying to solve her daughter's case, so...

Well, at least now you know why.

Their connection, you know, I-I could never have that with him.

You know, he...

They both lost someone close to them and-and never knew what happened.

So, it makes sense why he felt like he could talk to her and not me.

I put Ginny to bed.

Hilde and Izzy are... doing their homework, and I finished the washing up.

In 15 years, I've never seen you have more than a few beers.

What would make you drink a gallon of whiskey?

I, uh, I ran into an old friend.

I looked him up.

Lieutenant Frank Briggs.

He was there the night of Richie's abduction.

I called my old firm.

Wait.

I had them pull the court transcripts from LexisNexis.

"The prosecution now calls its witness, Frank Briggs, to the stand."

"Bailiff: Please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth..."

... and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

I do.

"Prosecutor: Mr. Briggs, please tell the court in your own words..."

... exactly what you remember from that night.

I heard him, Sam Gillis, in the van.

And I saw part of the van's license plate.

The letters were L-G-E.

Just... Just stop, please.

You can't make somebody else tell the truth.

And what if Sam really was in that van?

And what if Frank was right and-and I have ruined everything?

I mean, I don't know.

You did the right thing.

You told the truth, your truth. That is always the right thing.

Yeah, well, it didn't stop an innocent man from going to prison for the rest of his life.

It wasn't your fault.

You were just a kid.

I can't believe someone left a telescope here.

Oh, my God. This is amazing.

I, uh... I need to tell you something.

It was a toy poodle.

That dog that bit me when I was a kid, it was a little, white, fluffy toy poodle.

Actually, you know what? I have to be honest with you.

It wasn't a toy poodle. It was a teacup poodle.

And her name was "Baby."

No. Oh, my God.

We finally have an office, a place to put all our gear.

Wait. How'd you get all this stuff?

My garage.

My dad buys most of this stuff from the Internet.

I'm pretty sure he spent my whole college fund on this.

And, yes, Baby wore the occasional sweater, but only when it was really cold out.

And other than that, she was fierce.

Well, well, well, look what we have here.

Oh, my God. You're so obsessed with me. Get out of here.

Here's the deal.

My friends and I are going to use this cabin three days a week.

In exchange, I won't tell Mom and Dad you have a boyfriend.

What? No, I don't have... Look, he's not...

I've-I've never said anything like that.

Just...

Okay, fine. Whatever.

Fine.

We should get out of here, unless you wanna share the place with these nerds.

Thank you.

Oh, what is that?

Oh, my God.

Yeah. Oh, my God. I...

I feel like I'm gonna die.

Yeah, well, before you do that, you might wanna go down and talk to your daughter.

She's worried about you.

All right. Okay.

Oh, God. I'm gonna do it, but...

Oh, you're disgusting.

Yeah, I love you too.

Okay.

What are you doing? You trying to write?

Where's the computer?

Uh, I was going to play a game, do a crossword puzzle.

Yeah, okay. Quit sharpening pencils, okay?

I wasn't.

No, it's just a saying we had when I worked at the paper.

Yeah, it means...

Stop messing around with your pencils and your notebooks and start writing something already.

Yeah, I know. You told me.

I don't know why I try to teach you anything anymore.

Do you miss it?

What, Brooklyn?

No.

Writing, being a journalist.

No.

No, y... you want me to fix you some breakfast?

Yeah, sure.

Be there in a sec.

Hey, Hilde, look at this.

Look what Pop-Pop can do.

"Float like a butterfly...

sting like a bee."

I know, Pop-Pop. Muhammad Ali.

Oh.

Not Muhammad Ali.

That's you, kiddo.

You're the toughest kid I know.

Ready for breakfast.

Wait, guys.

When we were on the phone with Sam, he said he couldn't tell us who k*lled Penny because they were monitoring his calls.

Um, are we supposed to say something?

'Cause I feel like you think we know something we don't actually know.

Think about it. Who is "they"?

Yeah, I'm still not tracking you here.

Who monitors the calls in prison? The people who work there.

Exactly. Yes.

So, what if Sam was suspecting someone at the prison and that's why he was afraid to talk to us?

What if it was that creepy CO who put Sam in solitary?

We gotta look into him.

How are we supposed to figure out who he is?

Wait.

I saw him...

when I went to go visit Sam.

Hey, it's Trip. Leave a message.

Hey, Trip. I have a tip for you.

The police need to look into a guy named Ed Quinlin.

He works at the prison where Sam is.

But why would someone at the prison wanna k*ll Penny?

I don't know... yet.

What are you doing?

I wanna question Ed Quinlin. That's where you're going, right?

You're nine.

And two-fifths.

My dad has taken me to many crime scenes.

Well, this isn't a dead body. It's a live k*ller.

Interesting.

So now it’s an official m*rder investigation?

Hilde, put your notebook away.

The public has the right to know that Penny Gillis' death is now under investigation.

It's not, okay?

Not officially.

Then the public has the right to know that.

How do I turn you off? Hmm?

Is there an off button or a light switch or...

Take me with you... to get the real story.

Please, ma'am.

Uh-uh, wait. You stay behind me, okay?

You're lucky you're not a boy saying that to me.

Well, I could make you wait in the car.

I could write an article that said you kidnapped me, and it would be technically factual.

What are you doing, Trip?

Serve and protect. It's the damn oath.

I can't. Look, I can't!

Now, if you wanna get me in trouble, then get me in trouble.

But I can't take a kid to go interview a k*ller.

Now go hide over there.

Mr. Ed Quinlin? Holmes County.

I'm here to ask you a few questions.

Hello? Anybody home?

Hilde, no, no, no, no.

Hilde.

Hil... Hilde!

What are you doing in here?

I'm not very good at following directions.

You think? Get out of here.

I can't touch anything in here without a search warrant.

And for that, I need probable cause.

To most people in Erie Harbor, Penny Gillis was just the sister of the town bogeyman.

Penny was more than a sister, though.

She was a kind person.

She was the only person who didn’t laugh at me when I said I was a reporter.

Penny was an outsider, just because she would do anything to help her brother.

Warden wants to see you.

He told Penny that if she didn't bring dr*gs or money, he would make sure Sam didn't survive in jail.

I wish every mystery could be solved.

But in the case of Richie Fife, his story is far from over.

If there's anything I've learned from Penny... it's that we should never give upon the people we love.

We should make sacrifices for them.

We should believe them, even if nobody else does.

And we should never, ever stop looking for answers that can set them free.

In the end, we should just... love them.

What is all this stuff?

You know, it's-it's my father's.

He... He hid it.

And I never knew.

I hardly spoke to him for 25 years. I thought he'd given up on me.

He believed me.

I watched the tape.

The van had no license plate.

Frank... he said he saw the license plate.

He gave the cops the last three letters, but... there were no plates.

Frank lied.

Well, you've never written anything like this before.

This is really something.

She deserved more than to be a dead body buried in the back pages.

Yeah, well, now she won't be.

Hey, you did a good thing. I'm proud of you.

Really, I'm proud of you.

Hey, maybe The Chronicle should do more op-eds, huh?

I'll take it up with the board. Funny.

Dad, I think there's something you should know.

Yeah, it's okay. I know you cut school to interview a m*rder suspect.

No. No.

Well-Well, yes, but no.

I think Penny tried to make a copy of the tape because you came back.

She had the tape for a year.

And she didn't show it to anybody because she knew no one was going to help her.

But then... you came back.

Who are you texting?

"Run."

That's what the kidnapper said to me when he took Richie.

Well, I'm not gonna run anymore.

Hey!

I'm surprised you showed up.

You're a liar, Frank.

I got a videotape to prove it.

And that van, it didn't even have a g*dd*mn license plate.

And you knew your testimony was wrong, didn't you?

I was a kid, Matt.

It's what I thought I saw.

I was just a kid.

Yeah, well, so was Richie. And his k*ller's still out there.

It's a copy, assh*le.

I just thought you might wanna see it.

You're a liar, Frank.

Pretty soon, everyone else is gonna know it too.