Original subtitles

Thank you.

to go with you today.

Swell. And you?

Great. I closed the store early and I went for a jog.

Glenn, is something wrong?

No, nothing's wrong.

But you're drinking.

You haven't had a drink in nine months.

I've had a couple.

Why don't you have one with me?

No.

I'll get it. No, I'll get it.

What are you doing, Glenn?

Hi, Laurie.

Hi, Michael. Why didn't you tell us you were coming? Didn't know myself. Last

minute sales meeting.

What's been going on here? You look like hell.

Well, thanks a lot.

Have you been hitting the booze again? Glenn, I thought you were all over this.

Once in a while.

Once in a while.

Let me take this bum out for a few hours. A little talk, a little dinner.

I'll straighten him out.

Okay.

I'll have him back in mint condition.

Let's go get mama, buy you dinner.

Lori?

I'm in here.

Could you tell me, please, when your big sister gets home?

Because I want to apologize to her.

And tell her how much I love her.

Don't answer it.

It would be important.

Hello?

Yeah?

Oh, no.

Uh -huh.

Yes.

Okay, I'll be right there. Yeah, thank you.

What's wrong?

Oh.

It's the burglar alarm at the shop.

That was the security guard. They want me to go down there and meet the police.

Sweetheart, why don't you go back to sleep, okay?

I will be back as soon as I can.

You did hear me, didn't you? When I... I said that I loved you.

That's my house.

Where's my husband?

I'm sorry. Please, just step back. Glenn!

Mom, I'll speak to you in a minute.

I have some bad news.

No.

Is it Glenn?

Tell me it's not Glenn.

They took him to the morgue a few minutes ago.

Lieutenant.

Now, Mr. Harper, about this robbery, you were the only eyewitness. Is that

correct? Yes, sir.

Now, you've testified that you saw a soldier running from the Humboldt cement

plant at 11 .30 at night. Is that correct?

It certainly is.

Now, just how dark was that alley?

Not so dark that I couldn't see the soldier running away carrying the

sack.

He wasn't holding it up so high you couldn't see his face?

No, sir.

How's your eyesight?

20 -20.

And you were how far away?

About 30 yards.

And that's the gentleman you saw right there?

Yes, that's him.

Would you stand up, sir?

And you, please, Sergeant.

And you, sir.

And you, sir.

You sure it wasn't one of these gentlemen?

Yes, I am.

Mr. Harper, making a positive identification is one of the most

any of us can do.

The gentleman at the defense table who you identified as the thief is not the

defendant, Sergeant James Norris.

That gentleman is Sergeant Norris.

No further questions, Your Honor.

Mr. Matlock, can I speak to you for a minute? I'm sorry, I don't have a

What about right now? Right now, I'm on my way to the men's room. This is very

important. So is this.

Mr.

Matlock, everything they have on her is circumstantial.

You could drive a truck through their whole case.

Well, that may be true, mister.

What did you say your name is?

Abrams. Dan Abrams.

Well, I appreciate your good opinion, Mr. Abrams, but I'm going to have to

decline. I'm leaving town in the morning.

What for?

Matter of fact, I'm going on vacation.

Vacation? But Laurie Palmer is about to be sent up for a crime she didn't

commit.

There are other lawyers in Atlanta besides me. Good ones, too.

Not as good as you.

I don't know how strenuously I want to argue with you on that, Mr. Abrams, but

the fact remains... Mr. Matlock, I'm a writer.

I'm writing a piece on you, a profile for the Sunday Supplement. For the last

six weeks, I've done research on Ben Matlock. I believe you are a great

for justice.

I know you take cases sometimes for pay or because something interests you, or

when clearly there's an injustice.

And, sir, clearly there's been an injustice here.

Fifteen minutes, that's all I'm asking.

Allow me to write this profile on a great man who, in truth, uses the law

right.

Please. Where is she?

She had the opportunity.

The house was locked.

A dead boat.

Only somebody with a key could have started the fire, gone out, and locked

door.

Only people with keys were her and her husband.

Next, the M .O.

Gas escaping from both the oven and the hot water heater. Try and tell the jury

that's a coincidence.

Want a motive?

Half a million dollars life insurance policy on the husband in her name.

Like it so far? Not much. Well, how about this?

There's no record of any alarm going off in her shop that night, so there goes

her alibi.

Man, we got her open and shut.

Sure looks like it.

Can I see her?

Help yourself.

This won't take long.

So I...

I waited and I waited and nobody came.

So I went home.

Do I have to talk about this?

No one saw you while you were waiting?

No, nobody saw me.

I mean, I don't think so.

I don't know.

Try to remember.

Mr. Matlock, Glenn is dead.

You're going to have to prepare a defense.

I loved him so much.

Nobody can do anything about that now.

How can this happen?

Let's see what we can do about you.

Bail is denied.

Defendant is remanded to custody.

The preliminary hearing is set for the 16th in this department.

I'm sorry.

Mr. Matlock, could I have your autograph?

What are you talking about?

Matlock has grown so successful that he now limits his practice to defendants in

murder cases.

He refers to his clients as, quote, an exclusive club, but one you wouldn't

to join if you can help it, unquote.

Let me see that.

How about that? They spelled your name right and everything.

Everything I said was the truth.

Fighter for justice wherever there's injustice uses the law for the right.

You set me up. Why didn't you tell me you're just another reporter looking for

story? I didn't tell you I like strawberry ice cream either, but what I

the truth.

I do want you on this case, and that story's legitimate news. Damn it, you

me just to get a headline for this story.

I'm on her side as much as you are. You are going to represent her, aren't you?

I ought to represent Sue in your high and end off. I'm a reporter. I was on

story. I was at the fire. I was there when she came home. I'm the one that

her her husband was dead.

I was there when they arrested her.

You have notes?

Sure, I have notes.

Let me see. What for?

I'm gonna need all the information I can get.

I want the story. No.

Don't worry, I won't publish anything that'll jeopardize your case. No, not a

chance.

You promise?

Not one word without my okay?

As long as I get the story first, I don't mind waiting a while to publish.

All my notes.

Right here.

What do you say?

That's right, honey. Probably at least another week. The police are still

talking to me and then the trial.

Yes.

Yes, I will.

Love you too. Bye.

Sorry, my wife works nights as a nurse. If I don't talk to her now, she's

asleep, and then later I'm out with customers.

Maybe you'll get together later on. Oh, I hope so. I'm tired of looking at

myself in the mirror.

Tell me about your brother's marriage.

I'll be real honest with you, Mr. Matlock. I'm not crazy about my sister

-law.

But Glenn married her, and she's in enough trouble without my shoveling dirt

her.

Well, tell me what you know.

Things have a way of popping up.

Well, I'll tell you something I didn't tell the police.

My brother was going to divorce Laurie.

She said they were crazy over one another.

He was going to leave.

Glenn said that? The night he... The night he died,

we went out to dinner together.

He said he wasn't happy with her. He couldn't take it anymore.

He was going to leave. It was finished.

And you think she killed him then because of that?

A couple hours later, he's dead.

Where'd you first meet your husband?

Glenn moved to Atlanta about a year ago, and a friend of mine worked at his

office. She introduced us.

You ever meet his family?

No, just his brother, Michael.

I'm having a hard time getting a personal history on your husband.

What do you mean?

Well, there's no personnel file on him as company. The personnel director told

me the company president hired him directly.

Yeah. I think that's right.

What else do you know about him?

We didn't have any secrets.

Other than his brother, have you ever met any of his family or old friends?

No. Why?

Well, somebody killed your husband, so somebody had a motive.

Then it would sure help to look into his past.

I don't know.

Did you talk to his brother, Michael?

Miss Matlock.

Yeah. Where are you headed?

I thought I'd take a look at the crime site.

Come on, I'll give you a lift.

Okay.

Here it is.

You're kidding.

This is my car.

Does it run?

I work for a major newspaper.

When I have to be somewhere, I have to be somewhere.

Of course it runs.

I don't believe this. Believe it. It's a good car.

Okay.

Gotta reach in through the window.

Oh.

I may be on something.

About your car?

No.

Laurie doesn't seem to know too much about her late husband.

Neither does anybody else.

There's no personnel file at his company, which is peculiar enough.

Something's just not right about him.

The diploma on his office wall says he graduated from Michigan State.

You want to keep your eyes on the road?

Okay.

Register's office says, yes, he was a student.

But the journalism department says otherwise.

Right.

Journalism says otherwise, huh?

There's a certificate in his office that says he won a top award.

But the story on the award that year says it was won by somebody else.

Well, maybe it's just poor journalism has loved that going around.

He wasn't in the yearbook either.

Wrote.

You know what I think?

Something not kosher about our corpus electi.

You don't know about this?

No, I just the second got home. I work for an airline.

I've been in Paris and Rome, and I had a two -day layover in London.

I'm Sally Duncan.

I'm Dan Abrams. I'm a reporter for the Examiner. This is Ben Matlock. He's an

attorney. Hello. Hi.

When did you leave?

Last Monday night.

Fire was that night.

What time did you leave?

About 11 .15. My flight was a 1 a .m. departure.

Did you see anything unusual? Anything at all?

Well, I don't know.

As I was getting ready to leave, I saw some people go into the house.

Three men, and, well, they sounded pretty drunk.

Two of them, anyway.

They were carrying a third man.

It looked like he had passed out.

Ah. Did you recognize any of them?

No, it was too dark.

But you know what? Just as I was leaving in my cab, I saw them come down from

the house.

They all seemed to be sober now.

All three of them.

I don't know.

Mob hit?

I don't know.

It could be a mob hit.

Yeah.

Yeah, he gets in the way of some guy in the mob. It's all over.

What do you think?

I don't know.

Maybe the company he's working for.

Some kind of financial malfeasance.

Could be a cover -up.

Could be.

Yeah. I think it could be a cover -up. Well, we need to back up what we think.

Something as mundane as a few facts.

Well, I don't know what it is.

I'll tell you what I think.

I smell a conspiracy.

I don't know about that.

But there is one piece of evidence in favor of what you think.

What? Somebody saw it.

What did I do?

Go ahead, easy.

Hey, get some brakes.

What did I do that for?

So I could get his life plate number.

See what you can find out about that car that was following us.

There's a phone booth.

Use your influence. I'll be in this divorce factory.

We must get 40, 50 divorces through here every day. It's a big -volume business.

Well, surely you could look it up as a professional courtesy.

I've handled divorces. Not many anymore.

Maybe I could refer?

Well, Mr. Madlock, for you.

Well, let's see here.

Palmer.

Paid cash.

Paid cash?

Cash for the complaint and filing fees.

Most of our clients are on the easy payment program.

Oh, another thing.

He wanted to file the very next day. I remember he made a big deal about that.

Well, that must have put you under the gun, grinding all that paperwork out.

Simplicity itself.

Palmer didn't want anything, except out.

Well, just to make sure, take a look at this.

Uh -uh.

You don't recognize him?

No, that ain't the fella come in here.

What'd he look like?

Well... He was a little taller than me.

Must make him about 5 '10", 160, blonde.

I can't thank you enough.

You've been a great help.

You will send some of those referrals. Oh, yes.

Well,

our divorcee is not Glenn Fong. Yeah?

Yeah.

What'd you find out about the car?

Belongs to a Delaware corporation.

Trying to find out more about it. Some kind of holding company.

Some kind of holding company.

I think it was some kind of theme.

Well, I keep thinking about what that flight attendant told us. About the

guys? Yeah.

The two guys go into the house like they're supporting another guy, third

And then a short time later, three guys come walking out of the house.

What if the guy...

who was being supported into the house was not the same guy that came walking

out of the house. What if Glenn Palmer was not the guy who was being supported

into the house? What if Glenn Palmer was one of the three guys that came walking

out of the house?

Oh, a switch.

That's some theory. Yeah.

Afternoon, Ben.

Hello, Lewis.

You here on business?

I don't come to the mall for fun, Lewis.

I'm just here getting a little expert testimony for the Palmer case.

Oh, how's it going?

Fair.

What are you doing here?

I thought the medical examiner was supposed to be on the golf course in the

afternoon. Well, Ben, sometimes work interferes with my pleasures.

Oh, Lewis, a man should never allow that to happen. Oh, I fight it, Ben. I fight

it. Yeah.

Take care now. You too.

Thank you.

Not even a close call. These aren't remotely the same teeth.

You sure?

Absolutely. For one thing, I put a bridge in for Mr. Palmer less than a

ago. And the deceased in there has perfect teeth.

Oh, thank you for coming down.

I'm going to need you to testify in court.

Oh, I understand.

But I need this right away. Stay on it.

Well?

It's not Glenn Palmer in the morgue.

You're kidding.

Who is it?

Where's Palmer?

Beats me.

Wait a minute.

I get it.

Insurance fraud.

She does three years. He comes out of the woodwork. They both go flying to Rio

with half a mil from the policy.

Danny, if she goes to prison, she won't get the money.

Well, what's it all about then?

I don't know.

There are going to be some very surprised people in the courtroom

Wait a minute. We don't know who's behind all this.

That's right.

Well, what about the three guys?

Who were they? Especially the one of them who burned in the fire.

Who was that?

I don't know.

Ask for the Atlanta Police Department and the examiner to find out.

Well, you've been a big help, son.

I don't understand.

You're telling me that Glenn is alive?

It certainly seems that way.

Where is he?

Is there anything about all this you haven't told me?

No.

What is going on?

We will find the answer.

Yeah.

Hi, Harry.

You got it.

Treadway Corporation.

Listen, thanks. I owe you.

All right. Bye.

Your editor wants to know when the Palmer story's going to be ready. It's

ready.

Here it is. Treadway Corporation.

What am I supposed to tell him?

Tell him you'll get it when it's ready.

Are you telling me that my brother's alive?

That this was all some elaborate scheme to defraud an insurance company?

Glenn would never do something like that.

May I quote you on that?

Damn right you can.

Look, I lost my brother in that fire.

And I think that wife of his killed him.

Mr. Palmer, where would Glenn go if he wanted to hide?

How the hell do I know?

Did he have a favorite South American country?

I think you better leave.

You're a local sales rep with the Treadway Corporation.

Would you mind explaining why a Treadway car was following Mr. Matlock and me?

Get out of here.

I bet if I called the Treadway Corporation, I'd find out it was your

was following us. I said get out of here. You're in this with your brother,

aren't you?

Thanks for your cooperation.

What do you want to do about him?

Now, Dr.

Randolph, you were Glenn Palmer's dentist, weren't you? Yes. Yes, I was.

that capacity, I ask you to bring your x -rays of his teeth to court with you

today. Did you do that, sir?

I've got them right here.

These have been shown to counsel, Your Honor, and I ask that they be marked

Defense Exhibit D and entered into evidence.

So ordered.

Dr. Randolph, did you have occasion to visit the county morgue and examine the

remains of the body found in the Palmer home?

I did.

Would you tell the court what you learned when you compared your dental

of Glenn Palmer with the remains?

I examined the teeth of the deceased against my x -rays for Glenn Palmer.

They were a perfect match.

Say that again.

I positively identified them as being those of Mr. Palmer.

Dr. Randolph, when we were both at the morgue, you told me the remains were

not Glenn Palmer, didn't you?

Objection. Mr. Matlock is cross -examining his own witness.

I'm hearing a different testimony that I heard at the morgue.

Overruled. Mr.

Matlock, you may proceed.

Didn't you tell me a different story at the morgue?

Yes. But you pressed me to say that it wasn't Mr. Palmer. But it clearly was.

You didn't tell me that Mr.

Palmer had a bridge, but the deceased did not?

He didn't have a bridge.

Just look at my x -rays against the coroner's.

They're a perfect match.

I see.

Then I have one last question for you.

Who got to you? Who paid you to perjure yourself in court today?

Objection. Mr. Matlock is grossly argumentative.

Withdraw the question. I have no further use of this jackass.

Witness!

Mr.

Palmer?

Glenn Palmer, I got a message from your wife. She's in a lot of...

Palmer,

your wife's on trial for murdering you. Shut up. Your brother set her up. I said

shut up, and I mean it. Wait a minute.

Is he telling the truth?

Glenn, get back to your room. I'm a reporter. My press pass is in my wallet.

Get him to show you a newspaper.

Laurie's on the front page.

You promised me Laurie was going to be okay.

She is. Like hell she is. She's on trial for murdering you.

Who are these guys?

They're federal agents.

What are they holding you for?

They're not.

Then let's go. Laurie's sitting in jail right now.

Glenn, there are people out there looking to kill you.

I'll take my chances.

You can't stop me.

Understand?

You signed the death certificate, Lewis. You certified the identity of those

remains in there as being Glenn Palmer.

That's my job.

I know for a fact those remains are not Glenn Palmer. Why'd you say they are?

I'm sorry, Ben. I can't discuss it. The hell you can't. I just had an expert

witness perjure himself in court.

First I thought he was bought off, but then I got to thinking about you.

You had to know it wasn't Glenn Palmer.

I know you'd rather play golf than work, Lewis, but I know you can't be bought.

It had to have taken something else.

Ben, I've got nothing to say.

Michael Palmer made the identification.

He was the one who convinced you to lie, wasn't he?

Ben, I can't help you. You've got to, Lewis. I don't know what these people

up to, but I can tell you what they've done. They've framed an innocent woman.

know that as sure as I'm standing here. But if I can't prove it in court, that

girl's going to go to prison for a crime she didn't commit. And I'm not going to

let that happen, Lewis. And neither are you.

Mr. Matlock. Yeah.

I think I have a fair idea of what's going on.

Really?

I want you to call this thing off, Mr. Palmer, or whatever your name is. I

allow this woman to go to prison.

Mr.

Palmer, I... listened with real interest just now while

you testified about your brother's death.

It must have been a terrible blow to you.

Glenn and I were very close.

The only problem with your testimony, it was all lies.

Objection. Counsel is badgering the witness, Your Honor. On the contrary,

Honor, I haven't even begun yet.

Sustained. Your name is not Michael Palmer, is it?

I don't know what you're talking about.

Neither does the prosecution, Your Honor. I assure the court this is most

relevant, and I'll connect it up momentarily.

Leave it, you do, Mr. Matlock.

You work for the Justice Department, don't you?

No, I sell paper goods on commission.

You work for the Witness Protection Program of the Justice Department, don't

you? Not true.

And you set my client's husband up with a new identity here in Atlanta, didn't

you? None of this is true. And then for some reason you needed to pull him out

of this life and place him somewhere else so you staged his death.

No. And your allegations are irresponsible.

I'm not out to compromise your operation. All I want from you is a

cooperation and candor so that I can get this woman out from under a charge of

murder which she did not commit and which, in fact, never occurred.

Mr. Matlock, can you substantiate any of this?

Yes, Your Honor.

That's what I intend to do right now.

Would Dr. Weeks please stand?

This is Dr.

Lewis Weeks.

Do you recognize him?

No, I do not.

Is that so, sir?

Didn't you go to Dr. Weeks and identify yourself as a government agent?

No, it is not true.

Then you told Dr.

Weeks that you were on a secret assignment.

and you ordered him not to make his usual identification tests on a badly

corpse and to identify that corpse as one Glenn Palmer.

That's a lie.

I warn you, sir, a government agent is not above the law, and I will see you in

prison if you continue to perjure yourself.

Your Honor, may I see you in chambers?

Your Honor, I demand the right to set the record straight and clear this

innocent woman before that man leaves the stand.

I see no reason to stop this examination.

Proceed. Thank you.

Mr. Palmer, an employee of the federal government has a sacred trust.

You, above all people, must never break the law.

You know what I think?

I think the Attorney General of the United States would never condone what

you've done here.

I don't think your superiors even know about it. You took it on yourself to

break the law.

You placed a corpse in the Palmer home and then you burned it.

Do you have any idea what you're doing?

Then you framed Laurie Palmer.

You took out an insurance policy.

You filed their divorce.

In the name of justice, you perpetrated the greatest injustice.

You took away the liberty of an innocent person.

We're in a kind of war in this country, Mr. Matlock. And you may not like it,

and you may not approve, but we have to do whatever is necessary in order to

win.

I've been at this for 15 years, and I've got the scars to prove that I put my

life on the line for what I believe in. And what about you, Mr. Matlock, huh?

Do you care about the years of work that you're ruining, the lives that you're

putting in jeopardy?

Yes, I do.

But people like you will destroy this country and

everything it represents in your effort to save it.

Now let's end this charade.

Glenn Palmer's alive, isn't he?

Yes. And you do work for the federal government, don't you?

Yes. And you did stage Glenn Palmer's death, didn't you?

Yes. One last question.

Why did you allow this woman to be charged with murder?

I don't think that's relevant.

Answer the question, damn it. Just once, tell the truth in this court. Because

it was the most convincing thing we could do.

Glenn was the bookkeeper of a major drug distributor.

We needed him for one more trial.

You lied to me.

Glenn.

Order. Order in the court.

Your Honor, I move that all charges against my client be dismissed.

The prosecution joins in that motion, Your Honor.

Motion granted.

Case dismissed.

I will see the witness and the district attorney in my chambers in five minutes.

The deputy will take you out the back way.

Thank you.

Laurie, wait.

Wait, I didn't know what was happening to you. I swear.

I don't know anything about you.

I don't even know what to call you.

Well, you will. I'll tell you everything.

But most importantly, I love you.

And I'm your husband.

Yes.

Yes, you are.

Well, you got your story.

Yeah, I got a bonus, too.

What are you going to do with it? Get a new car?

Hell no, I don't need a new car.