Original subtitles

- It's a conspiracy. - A conspiracy?

A conspiracy reaching to the highest levels

of federal authority.

Look to the CIA. Look to the Cubans.

Follow the money. Check the grassy knoll.

- The grassy knoll? - I'm speaking in metaphor.

You're speaking in tongues.

Think about it.

A DC bureaucrat, Janine McBride,

relocates to Baltimore and is murdered here.

She was a deputy director with the Social Security Administration in Baltimore.

Then her body is hauled to New York

and made to look like a suicide.

The reason you didn't find much blood on the ground

is that most of it's still inside her.

- She was already dead when she was shot. - Suffocated.

I got an anonymous call from a man.

He told me that Janine was a lesbian.

Just because I was friendly with Janine

doesn't mean there's anything weird going on.

Diligent, conscientious, and gifted police investigators

identify and arrest one Chesley Purcell.

Everybody down!

Who has in her possession

a phone number listed to the White House.

But before our noble detectives can question this Chesley Purcell,

she is herself shot dead...

...by the demoralized, deranged,

and totally Jack Ruby-like ex-boyfriend of Janine McBride.

She took her from me!

Wow.

I pick up the phone, I get a drug murder in the Projects.

He picks up the phone, he gets one of them L.P. Everett novels.

Who's going to play Munch in the movie?

James Woods.

And don't think I won't be peddling movie rights

when this whole thing shakes out.

If it shakes out.

Now that Purcell is dead, you ain't got no case.

Even as we speak, the best prosecutorial minds

in New York and Baltimore are calling for answers,

demanding that we delve deeper and deeper

into this shocking scandal-to-be.

William Dell, the Independent Counsel, wants to see us.

I'm told that you're relying on a statement

and an identification by one of Miss McBride's friends.

I'd like a look at that statement.

Why?

It might be relevant to my investigation.

So, the lawyers are talking, right?

- Yeah. - I got it.

Come on, Munch, a gunfight,

a couple car chases, you got a movie deal,

but Ed Danvers and his pals

waving their briefcases at each other?

Yeah, I mean, who's going to line up

to pay theater prices for that?

That ain't a movie, that's Court TV.

So, that McBride case turned out to be a hell of a ride, huh?

Might not be over yet. Danvers is still up in New York, sifting through the pieces.

Heard you went through a door on this one.

Looking to arrest your shooter.

- No big deal. - No big deal.

Yeah, I don't know, uh.

Working with Munchkin there. How'd that work out?

Munch is okay.

"Munch is okay."

That's three words I never expected

to form their own sentence.

Actually, I've been partnered up for most of the case

with this New York detective, Curtis.

- Curtis, huh? - Good-looking creature, too.

Yeah, well, and he's very, very, very, very, very married, also.

With the look of the dog about him, you know what I mean?

- Oh, you a homewrecker now, huh? - Just window shopping.

So, I guess you, uh--

guess you're not hunting for partners now, huh?

Me? I'm fine.

Sorry.

- Had to take that phone call. - Trouble in Baltimore?

Only if you have any regard for American jurisprudence.

What's going on?

The Judicial Nominating Committee

just named me to the district court bench.

I-- I still need to be approved by the legislature, but...

Your Honor.

I've seen you in black. You'll carry the look.

Well, sure beats working for a living.

So, where were we?

Oh, well, we got one killer dead and another one in custody.

Not in our custody. The feds are holding Ned Burks.

Even though he's charged with a murder in the state of New York?

Yeah, the Independent Counsel's Office

got a US judge to issue a writ and pull him out of Rikers.

He was transported to DC this morning.

Why is William Dell interested in this case?

The whole case is lumpy.

Who is this Chesley Purcell,

and why is she killing Washington bureaucrats?

Oh, you don't think a pickup in a lesbian bar can go wrong?

If it's a bar pickup,

why drive the body all the way to New York and stage a suicide?

With questions like these, it's not time to close the file.

I can get Baltimore Homicide to work back on Chesley Purcell,

take a hard look at her connections

in Baltimore and Washington.

And Curtis and I can run down whatever we can find

on that White House number.

And we can certainly have a word or two

with Mr. Dell about Ned Burks.

If our suspect is saying anything worth hearing,

I intend for us to be in the room.

That private White House number

turns out to be a cell phone, one of a pool of 40

leased to the West Wing in June of last year.

Any way to pin it to anyone in particular?

There's no way to connect any individual with any number.

One staffer might use their cell phone one day,

another might use the same phone two days later.

What about the LUDs from that particular cell number?

- Anything to Baltimore? - Uh, only one.

Incoming from a law firm, Brown and Epstein.

No connection to McBride,

not to Purcell either for that matter.

So we're still left to wonder how the hell this Chesley Purcell

has an unlisted White House number in her phone book.

I knew it was a mistake,

your asking to be this department's FBI liaison.

What?

I knew it was a mistake to let an investigator

from another agency into our shop.

Well, can I ask you what this is about?

You can't serve two masters, Michael.

And what's becoming clear to me

is that you're only answerable to your bosses at the Bureau.

- Oh, man. - You pimped us.

You stood right out there in that squad room

and watched us put a case

against the murderer of Janine McBride.

You told your bosses we were about to arrest Chesley Purcell.

And what evidence we had?

I talked to a supervisor from Washington informally.

Informally!

He gave everything you told him

to the Independent Counsel's Office.

Well, how was I to know?

We could have turned the shooter,

and found out what this case was really about.

Instead, your ham-fisted friends at the Bureau

snatched her up...

and then got her killed.

The guy I talked with?

He's a big suit from National Headquarters.

He asked me how the McBride case was going.

I told him, that's all it was.

You never thought to ask him

why he called you in the first place?

You never thought about that?

Why he's so interested in our little murder?

You wanted to see us?

We're finished here.

- I didn't know. - I said we're done.

I want you to find out everything you can

about this Chesley Purcell.

Background, associates.

Especially anything that's connected with this Ned Burks.

You got it, Gee.

Mr. Burks waived his right to counsel

and he'll testify before our grand jury.

He hasn't contested extradition.

Burks is unstable, unhinged,

and generally unable to contest anything whatsoever.

You have a hell of a nerve

dragging him 250 miles without counsel.

Mr. Burks is being given a grant of limited immunity.

What he says to my grand jury will not be used against him.

At least not by this office.

What kind of railroad are you running, Mr. Dell?

Burks talks to your grand jury

and he's still vulnerable in state court.

You have him bargaining away his testimony

for which he gains nothing.

He's not much of a horse trader, I'll admit.

Access to counsel might have helped him

to do better for himself.

Maybe.

Now, what can I do for you two gentlemen,

seeing as how you both come so far so quickly?

Dueling writs, Mr. Dell.

There's at least one member of the federal appellate bench

who thinks the state of New York has a right to be present

when a defendant agrees to answer questions about his crime.

You talk to Ned Burks about the murder

of Chesley Purcell with us present.

Or not at all.

Chesley Purcell, 34 years of age.

Well, she's gonna stay that way.

What else have we learned?

She was a part of that late '80s DC coke and party scene

one of Marion Barry's hangers-on.

Somewhere around '93,

her name starts popping up on DEA wiretaps.

Intelligence reports link her to major traffickers

in the Baltimore-Washington corridor.

In '94, she's suspected in the killings of two Nigerians

in, uh, Prince George's County, execution style.

Street talk credits her with at least nine kills,

four of them for Little Walter Boyce's Westside crew.

Little Walter? He's locked up.

Life sentence, federal racketeering charges,

but the word is he's still running

his organization from the inside.

All right, let's talk to Little Walter.

If he's got life, he might just be bored enough

to want to chat about the recently departed Chesley.

Can I say something?

What was used in that arrest warrant

was used without my knowledge.

If I get a call from a Bureau supervisor,

I'm gonna have to talk.

So from now forward,

it's best I know nothing more about the McBride case.

Sheppard.

Doing that warrant the other day,

how did it make you feel?

Routine.

It was, uh...

street work.

How did it make you feel?

Police! Don't move.

Like I had no choice.

So you're saying you shot Chesley Purcell

out of grief, and grief only.

She killed Janine. What she did to her...

what they're saying about Janine, it's not true.

She wasn't-- we--

She was gay, Mr. Burks, a lesbian.

No, you don't know her.

That's what it was all about. That's why she was killed.

You're lying about that.

Okay, then, if it wasn't just some bar pickup that went bad...

what was it?

Did it have to do with the people Janine knew in Washington?

With the administration?

Who did you talk to in Washington, Mr. Burks?

- Who were you in contact with? - What?

You didn't just stumble into that precinct on your own

because some reporter called you up for comment

and let slip where Chesley Purcell was being held.

You were sent for. You were used.

No, it was for Janine.

Are you gonna let them use you that way?

Use you and throw you away?

No one used me. Not Janine, not anyone.

- You're a fool. - End game, Counselor?

You're more than a fool, Mr. Burks.

You killed Chesley Purcell to avenge the death of a woman

who wouldn't marry you not just because she was a lesbian

but because she knew you were an imbecile.

Chesley Purcell was a potential federal witness.

By killing her, you violated her civil rights.

I'm gonna see that you die an old man

in a federal correctional facility.

Get ready for a federal subpoena.

What are you talking about?

Well, they laid one on us in New York this morning

and took every bit of evidence we had on this case.

I figure you folks are next.

You drove 200 miles south to tell us that?

Good job, Paul Revere.

I'm on my way to Washington anyway.

- You got a cup of coffee? - What's going on there?

The Independent Counsel shanghaied

Chesley Purcell's shooter,

when they found out he had nothing to say

about any of the president's men,

they got bored with him.

They're returning him to our custody.

McCoy wants me to transport him back to Rikers

and put him on suicide watch.

You're telling me that Ned Burks killed Chesley Purcell

over a lesbian's love lost?

Yeah, and Jack Ruby was a grieving patriot.

A cancer-ridden grieving patriot.

Lennie, you precious [indistinct].

Amazing how all those years on the mean streets of New York

have had so little effect on your sweet childlike brain.

Detective Munch.

Agent Faistrap, assigned to the Independent Counsel's Office.

I have a subpoena for all the evidence collected by your agency

in the McBride-Purcell investigation.

And what does the Independent Counsel

plan to do with all this hard-earned evidence?

- Just collect the stuff. - You guys couldn't track a bleeding elephant

through the snow.

Welcome back, Lennie.

- Bayliss, right? - Yeah.

So as a rule, you can only cross the Mason-Dixon line

if you bring back a really screwed-up case with you?

Hey, if it doesn't make sense, it belongs in Baltimore, right?

How'd you make out with Little Walter Boyce?

Yeah, we're working back through Mr. Boyce's attorney.

I've been told that he's at the Lewisburg Pen,

and on top of that, he'll be happy to help us

in whatever way he can as long as we write a letter to his file

indicating that he was fully cooperative.

Who's his attorney?

Uh, Morton Epstein of Brown and Epstein.

What did I say?

That's the law firm with a telephonic connect

to the White House.

Coincidence or conspiracy?

Oh, why ask a sweet, innocent rube like me?

- You already know the answer. - Guys, I gotta go.

Come on, Lennie, little joie de vivre.

You want to tag team on this Little Walter interview?

Oh, no, you guys handle this yourselves.

I'm already late for DC to pick up Burks.

Mr. Boyce?

Oh, my.

You are a sight for any man

who's been away from home too long.

Rene Sheppard. This is John Munch.

We're both a Baltimore Homicide.

Call me Walter.

We want to talk to you about Chesley Purcell.

Get some background on her.

- Chesley Purcell? - Pretty.

Likes to run with men and women both.

Sounds like I should know her.

- Sounds like I want to know her. - You did know her.

She took some of your contracts. She was a hitter.

- Now she's dead. - Contracts, hitters?

What are you trying to say?

We need background on Purcell.

Right now, we're looking past your part of the story.

I don't know no Chesley, uh, whatever,

and I don't know nothing about no contracts.

But, uh, you're welcome to stay a spell.

We'll talk about more pleasant things.

Your law firm, Brown and Epstein, two weeks ago,

you called that firm from this penitentiary.

That call lasted 46 minutes.

I can talk to my attorney any damn time I please.

So what?

On the same date, at the same time,

someone from that law firm dialed a White House cell phone.

That call also lasted 46 minutes.

Someone at Brown and Epstein conferenced you

into that White House number, it's all in the logs.

The same White House number that Chesley Purcell had on her

when she was arrested in New York.

We'll be in touch, Mr. Boyce.

You might want to take a little more time

and think about your answers.

Conspiracy to murder can become a death penalty case.

We shook him.

We'll let Little Walter stew for a few days.

I want to hit him up again.

From what I hear, you won't have to go back to Lewisburg to do that.

From what you hear?

Talk around the federal courthouse

that Little Walter's being transferred

to a Baltimore detention center,

where he's being held for reconsideration

of sentence hearing at US District Court.

Reconsideration hearing for Little Walter?

How does a gangster like that rate a hearing on his petition?

Funny, that's what a friend of mine said who called me.

Backroom deal.

Somebody owes Little Walter a favor.

But for what?

How's Sheppard been lately?

I got a big problem there.

I'm not saying that it wouldn't happen to me, but...

Yeah, I know, once you pull your gun,

you've gotta be in a position to use it.

Right, otherwise, don't pull it at all.

What was she gonna do, shoot the guy?

He was a witness, for God's sake.

But still, you and I have both been on some corner,

alone, outmanned, outsized.

You know how tempting it is to go for your gun.

So that's it between the two of you?

I don't know.

when it happened, you know, you got all wired up.

"No one beats down my partner. No one takes her gun."

And you got her gun back for her.

Yeah, but that was adrenaline.

You know, the next morning, I'm home alone,

I'm shaking in my shoes.

You know, when it first happened,

I told Rene that I would have done the same thing.

But...

You know, you-- you gotta carry this job on attitude.

Those two mobs come through the door at Rene, it is her moment.

You make that moment on attitude more than on force.

Or you don't make it at all, and you get your ass whipped.

You got shot at with me last year.

Junior Bunk, he blew the windows out of that Cavalier, man.

You still work with me, right?

Yeah, but that wasn't behind no move

me and you made on the street.

See, I ain't got no question working with you.

What you do about Shepard?

I just want to go home at night. Huh?

The bottom line is, Rene lost control out there.

She got her gun took, and all of us

are taking hard looks for it.

And you blame her for that?

A little.

Celebrating already, huh?

Governor announced it today.

I'm number two on the nominating list,

and they're taking the top three.

- Congrats. - Thanks.

Now all I need to do is not step in any brown mess

before the State Senate approves the nomination.

We spoke with Little Walter Boyce in Lewisburg.

Did he give you anything?

On this one, Your Honor, you definitely better watch where the hell you step.

I can only tell you how it looks,

and it looks real wrong.

Little Walter Boyce files a routine

reconsideration of sentence motion.

The kind that gets turned back

without coming close to a hearing.

But in this instance,

Baltimore's newest member of the federal bench,

Magistrate Robert Prevain, specifically requested his clerk

pull Boyce's file, and he grants a new hearing.

Where's the quid pro quo? What can Boyce do for Prevain?

The man's already been appointed to the federal bench.

Accusing a US magistrate of corruption

is not somewhere I want to go.

What, is this going to screw your nomination to the bench?

Well, it can't help me, that's for sure.

So what are you suggesting, Ed?

- I'm not suggesting anything. - No.

Do you really think I'd broker a special deal

with some sort of narcotics trafficker?

I picked up Boyce's motion and granted a hearing

because I thought the legal issues had merit.

- Of course. - So why are you here?

There's an investigation ongoing.

A murder in New York. Boyce may be connected to that.

Boyce is under active investigation?

A lot of people will be watching your reconsideration hearing.

If Boyce were to get any kind of sentence reduction,

a lot of eyebrows get raised, that's all I'm saying.

I thought you'd want to know.

Thanks.

And congratulations again on your nomination.

Motion denied.

The defendant is returned to the custody

of the Bureau of Prisons to serve life without parole.

So your drug lord is talking?

Oh, he's singing a full aria.

- He's waiting for us at headquarters now. - What's his story?

Little Walter, through his attorney,

gets a message to call Theodore Dawkins.

He's told not to contact Dawkins directly

but to have his lawyer route the call to Dawkins' cell phone.

An effort to avoid leaving a trail

on any long-distance logs.

Dawkins served eight years

on the DEA's Baltimore field office

and records there confirm that he was in contact with Little Walter in several cases.

Dawkins retired and went into business

as a private investigator, doing defense work

in Baltimore and Washington, mostly.

Why is this name Dawkins even vaguely familiar to me?

He's been working for the president's attorney

for the last four months.

His job is to dig up dirt on Dell and his people.

Tit for tat, a war of mudslinging.

We're actually in the White House on a murder case.

So Dawkins contacts you and tells you what exactly?

- He needs a hitter. - A contract killer.

For some dyke who lives in Baltimore.

Janine McBride.

That be the name, yeah.

Does this strike you as strange? This Dawkins, he's ex-DEA.

Has anyone from our side of the tracks ever come

looking for this kind of work from you?

It's different, I know.

But Dawkins and me go back a ways.

So, hey, I'm listening.

He wants this woman to get aced

and he wants it to look like an accident

or like it was just some messed-up one-night stand, you know?

Did he tell you why he wanted Janine McBride dead?

No. And I don't ask.

He just says she got to be got.

What do you get out of it?

Dawkins tells me how he's working for the White House.

That he can get things done.

I mean, I'm down for life in Lewisburg

and he's talking about how he can get my sentence knocked back?

Talking about how there are federal judges

owing favors to the president,

you know, for their jobs and all.

But you never actually talked

to anyone in the White House, correct?

You only talk to Dawkins.

Yo, who else gonna take my call?

"Yo, Oval Office, put the president on the line.

Little Walter Boyce wanna rap with the man."

Please.

I guess he ain't never talked to no judge for me.

Magistrate did grant you a hearing

for a reconsideration motion that was pretty thin.

So maybe Dawkins got the horse to water.

Couldn't make him drink, though.

You used Chesley Purcell because the target was a lesbian

and her approach would be easier,

but tell me, Mr. Boyce,

why did you have Purcell take the body to New York?

Why not just leave it in Baltimore?

Man, you got someone working for the White House

telling you they want some bitch to be aced?

The drama's gonna be thick.

I got business interests in Baltimore.

You know that.

Figured I'd drop the body somewhere else.

Besides, Chesley wanted to see some show on Broadway.

Uh, some musical thing with the lion.

Part of the contract was that I gotta hold her some seats for.

You paid a hitter with tickets to The Lion King?

Third row, orchestra.

Are you willing to testify

against Theodore Dawkins, Mr. Boyce?

What I got to lose now?

Little Walter Boyce told you I took a murder contract to him?

Why would he lie, Mr. Dawkins?

Why would he tell the truth?

Well, it's your choice, guys.

You can believe an imprisoned heroin trafficker

with multiple convictions,

or you can believe a twice-decorated former federal agent.

The phone logs and a statement by his attorney

confirm Mr. Boyce's account.

I mean, how would Little Walter even know

this White House cell phone number?

And how would it be in Chesley Purcell's possession

when she was arrested in New York?

You got me.

His word against mine, gentlemen.

Just barely enough corroboration

to indict Theodore Dawkins,

not nearly enough for a jury verdict.

I got a feeling if we're crazy enough

to indict an investigator who's working for the White House,

all kinds of fresh leads

are gonna start coming through the door.

- Scared? - Hell yes.

- One more surprise. - What's up?

Your victim, Janine McBride,

she was in contact with the Independent Counsel's Office

when she got killed.

I know because Dell requested

a background check on her from the FBI.

She was a potential witness in a corruption investigation.

How'd you find this out?

They used me as a source.

I used a source or two of my own.

What goes around, comes around.

That son of a bitch Dell's been holding out on us all along.

No wonder he's been so interested in this case.

McBride had already gone to him with whatever she knew.

Well, now he's our witness.

We're gonna subpoena

Independent Counsel William Dell,

make him testify as to motive

in the murder of Janine McBride.

What did I tell you?

I got Ned Burks up here

and I specifically asked the shift commander

to put him on suicide watch.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, at Rikers Island,

that seems to mean they stand around

and watch you commit suicide.

His wrists. Yeah.

So no signs of foul play.

He has hesitation marks on both wrists.

Used a sharpened edge of a bed frame.

And we found this underneath when we rolled him.

- Suicide note? - Yeah.

Some usual white-boy angst.

"I gave him my heart and trusted her with it,

but now I see that it was all a lie."

Yada, yada, yada.

"I took Katherine Raynor as Janine's friend,

but it's clear now that she was more than that."

Raynor, the one who got herself transferred

to the Chief of Staff's Office.

She said there wasn't any affair with McBride.

A liar in the White House? Gee, what are the chances?

So, uh, have you seen the suicide note?

No, but Curtis read it to me.

And this Ned Burks guy,

he specifically named Katherine Raynor as Janine's lover?

Well, then I think you should take the lead.

She might feel more comfortable girl on girl.

My, you're subtle.

Yeah, well, it's part of my charm.

Miss Raynor?

Baltimore Police. We need to talk with you.

I don't have anything to say.

Miss Raynor, Janine McBride's boyfriend, Ned Burks,

he killed himself last night in a New York jail cell.

He named you in this note as Janine's lover.

You were her lover, weren't you?

Miss Raynor, we've uncovered evidence

that Janine McBride's murder may have been ordered

by someone at the White House.

Look, I came to Washington to work for the president

because I believe in his goals.

All this other nonsense is a distraction.

I don't have any other comment than that.

Well, listen, we're not reporters looking for a comment.

We're police officers investigating a homicide.

What the hell is it with this town?

We're interested in knowing

who Theodore Dawkins reports to

in the administration.

Um, who supervises him?

Mostly he serves the president's private council

doing investigative work to prepare his defense

against the initiatives of the Independent Counsel.

He's not on the White House payroll, then?

No, we're not going to fund

a private investigator with public money.

His hours are billed to the president's legal defense.

Does Mr. Dawkins perform services for staffers

other than those working for the president's lawyers?

At times, he checks in

with my boss, the Chief of Staff,

and I know he's worked on some projects

with the press office as well.

- What about you, Miss Bernardi? - Me?

No, I don't see all that much of Mr. Dawkins.

Whatever he does goes well over the head

of a Deputy Chief of Staff, I'm afraid.

You said this had to do with the death of Janine McBride.

- Yes, you knew her? - We met.

She used to be at the Council of Economic Advisers.

Can you tell me, is Mr. Dawkins in any way connected to her death?

We heard it was a suicide.

Then we heard that it was a,

you know, sexual thing.

A murder, I mean.

The Baltimore grand jury

handed up the indictment of Theodore Dawkins this morning.

The implication that can be drawn from this indictment

is that the administration had something to do with the murder

of this McBride woman in New York.

- Is that what you're implying? - We imply nothing.

The indictment names only Theodore Dawkins,

a private investigator whose clients include persons in the White House.

Beyond the overt fact stated in the indictment,

we have no further comment.

Mr. Abrams.

What brings the Independent Counsel to Baltimore?

We're obligated to go where the evidence leads.

Right now, the truth leads to Theodore Dawkins

and others yet unnamed in this administration.

We've only indicted Mr. Dawkins.

That's all the truth we're comfortable with right now.

It goes well beyond Mr. Dawkins.

And our office has every intention

of getting to the whole truth

and getting there faster and with more authority

than you two can manage in a Baltimore courtroom.

Mr. Dell is asking you to dismiss this indictment

and turn your evidence over to us.

A murder took place in Baltimore, Mr. Abrams.

I'm a Maryland prosecutor.

I'm afraid I can't help you.

Well, then I'm afraid

we can't be much help to you either.

We're here to inform you that the Independent Counsel's Office will not be bound

by Maryland's offer of immunity to Walter Boyce.

And if he testifies in your prosecution

as to his involvement in the contract killing

of Janine McBride,

he will be prosecuted under the death penalty statute

for killing a federal witness.

You can't be serious.

We've already informed Mr. Boyce's attorney

that his continued cooperation with you

places him at grave risk.

Boyce is already serving life without parole.

What's the point of targeting him

instead of using him as a witness?

The office of the Independent Counsel

is not interested in Walter Boyce

and Theodore Dawkins.

We're interested in the president and his aides.

What did they know? When did they know it?

So, Mr. Danvers,

I urge you once again to withdraw your indictment.

Go to hell.

People with a past usually learn

to be more delicate with the world.

What's he talking about, Ed?

What's he got?

I need your help.

Danvers?

I'm as amazed as you are, Colonel.

But at age 14,

Ed Danvers was a junior member

of the Durham Street Raiders,

an all-white Highlandtown street gang.

In 1972, he and six others were charged as juveniles

in the beating of a Black man, Roland Singletary,

on the grounds of the Patterson Park Pool.

The incident was racially motivated.

I spoke to Mr. Singletary. He remembers Ed Danvers.

He also recalls

that out of the six boys that were charged,

Ed Danvers was the only one to come back and to apologize

and to try to make some amends.

What are you asking us, Lieutenant?

Ed Danvers came to me this afternoon

with the full knowledge

that someone had gone to Central Records to pull his juvie card.

Most likely it was someone working

on behalf of the Independent Counsel.

They're looking to trash him.

If Danvers would have backed away from that case,

this wouldn't have surfaced.

He didn't back away.

I believe in Ed Danvers for who he is,

not who he once might have been.

If we back him on this, then he can do his job,

but if we react

to whatever dirt they want to throw at him...

it probably means his career.

He can't function as a prosecutor

without the support of CID.

Do we need to put this to a vote?

No.

Thank you for standing fast

and not letting the past get in the way of some justice.

Listen, it's one thing to back Danvers as a prosecutor,

but there's no way in hell he can be approved

for that judgeship by the State Senate.

He knows that.

So you still got something to say to me?

I need to get right with what happened to you.

I think the entire unit needs to get right with it.

Okay. So?

So you went for your gun right from jump.

Ballard and me, maybe we'd have done the same thing.

Maybe not. I don't know.

- But we're not judging you. - Everybody judges me.

Lewis, my partner, he tosses his brim down on my desk.

You know what he's saying?

"Bitch, you almost got me killed."

But not to my face, though.

Nobody ever says anything to my face, do they?

Well, I'm standing right here in your face, Rene.

Congratulations.

I guess this makes you a stand-up guy.

You asked to speak further with us, Miss Bernardi.

I've read the papers. Your indictment.

The allegations of that drug dealer,

do you think they're true?

We don't indict people unless we feel

the standard of evidence has been met.

So, yes, we believe the allegations

against Mr. Dawkins are correct.

So do I.

I think that Mr. Dawkins arranged

to have Janine McBride killed.

I know why he did it.

And I may be partly responsible in the matter.

I've been having an affair with Katherine Raynor.

She's a staffer in this office.

Now, Katherine had previously been involved

with Janine McBride.

Janine was not happy.

She started harassing Katherine,

and after a few warnings, I took it on myself to see

that Janine received a promotion out of Washington.

Were you ever aware

that Miss McBride had contacted Independent Counsel Dell

and made allegations regarding you and Miss Raynor?

She told Katherine she might do that.

Miss Bernardi, did you ever discuss

this problem with Theodore Dawkins?

I asked Mr. Dawkins to speak with Miss McBride,

to offer her the chance at other job postings

if the work in Baltimore displeased her,

and if need be, to offer her money.

You asked for Mr. Dawkins

to try to buy McBride's silence?

Isn't that what it amounts to?

She threatened to call the Independent Counsel

and tell them that Dawkins had tried to bribe her.

How did Mr. Dawkins react?

He asked me what the administration

could do to protect him

if the allegations of bribery surfaced.

And what did you tell him?

That I didn't know

how any of us could be protected

from anything anymore.

This William Dell, he's in our closets.

He's in our bedrooms.

This started as an investigation

in the President's business affairs,

policy matters.

This thing has become its own sick argument.

Did you ask Dawkins to arrange for Janine McBride's murder?

If I thought for one moment

that someone would die so I could keep this job,

the President would be reading my letter of resignation

in the next instant.

In fact, it's on his desk now.

Subpoenaed as a witness

in our criminal trial in Baltimore.

You'll testify to these matters?

Yes.

Will that be all?

I have to prepare a press statement.

Thanks for your help.

You'll be talking with Katherine Raynor, I imagine.

Of course.

Please, tell her I'm sorry.

Tell her that she doesn't deserve

to be ruined over this.

He's been Mirandized.

Did he make any initial statement?

Only that he's not committed any crimes

and he's proud of everything he's done

in service to his nation.

- He actually said that? - As God is my witness.

Then he quoted Nathan Hale and Patrick Henry.

So, Mr. Dawkins,

did you arrange this strange little murder

all by your lonesome?

Mr. Dawkins is in our custody.

He's being charged federally.

And Mr. Stanton here is representing Mr. Dawkins,

who will be negotiating to provide

the Independent Counsel's Office with testimony

as a government witness.

Witness? He's a murder defendant.

We're here with a Maryland warrant,

and that warrant is good anywhere in the US.

It's a lovely warrant, Detective.

But in terms of the custody of this defendant,

an investigation by the Office of the Independent Counsel

takes precedence.

Captain,

my office will take custody of this prisoner.

You have five minutes.

I have a press briefing to get to.

You son of a bitch.

You offer Dawkins immunity

to get whatever you can on the administration.

But you refuse immunity to Walter Boyce,

who's already doing life in prison

just so you can torpedo our case.

There are larger issues at stake.

This is more than a murder here.

More than a murder?

Corruption at the highest level.

What proof do you have?

Dawkins has no corroboration.

All you've got is innuendo and allegation.

That's all he needs.

He set it up so that this case will never get to court.

You don't want a jury trial,

a chance to determine who's guilty and who's not,

because let's face it, the only case

he can make in court stops with Theodore Dawkins.

But outside a courtroom, at a press conference,

or in an impeachment report to Congress,

he can allege just about anything he wants.

And never have to prove a thing.

I remember when I was clerking at the Supreme Court,

a justice asked me why it was that inside the Beltway

the lawyering seemed so worthy and dignified

while outside the Beltway the same kind of labor

came off as savage and bitter.

I told him I didn't know.

He smiled and explained

that the lawyers outside the Beltway

seemed so damned savage

because the stakes were so damned small.

It's been a pleasure, gentlemen.

What did I do that was wrong?

I went to work every day. I did my job.

I met someone. I fell in love.

What did I do to deserve any of this?

Nothing.

I'll have to testify.

- Yes. - In public.

I'm going to be in all the newspapers,

on all the TV shows for the next year.

I'll be the joke on Jay Leno.

The motive for this contract murder appears to be an attempt

by high-ranking members of this administration

to silence a witness

who was prepared to testify about sexual improprieties

at the office of the White House Chief of Staff.

$40 million worth of misinformation.

And we helped him dig up the dirt.

To hell with it. I'm almost glad.

About what?

You think I had the stomach to drag that Raynor girl

up and down those courthouse steps

with cameras flashing?

Bernardi, Raynor, McBride.

That crazy boyfriend up in New York?

- What's his name? - Burks. Ned Burks.

Are there any winners here?

You want winners? Only Dell.

If the same weasel peeps through keyholes tonight

and gets elected tomorrow,

he'll cover himself in the same kind of scandal.

As long as the Republic stands, it'll never change.

- What he said. - Uh-uh. That ain't it.

- What do you mean? - I mean it's not that simple.

You can't just say it's on the guys

running the government, can you?

I mean, we're the ones that set the game up, right?

We make the rules,

saying that all we want is the truth,

but we don't really want the truth

because the truth is a mess.

You know what?

This world could do with a little less truth

and a little more trust.

We gotta trust that another man or woman is entitled

to screw up every now and then and not be destroyed for it.

We gotta trust that the people that we work with

and work for and live with are gonna think that we're okay

until we really give them a reason not to think so.

And I'm not just talking about one or two bad moments.

We gotta trust that they're gonna judge us

on everything, all of it,

and not just some moment we can't get back.

That's what I'd want for myself.

- Oh. - Whoa, whoa, whoa.

- I gotta go home. - Well, you shouldn't be driving.

I'll take a cab.

What's the damage?

Hell with it.

I'm too damn sober.