Original subtitles

Fill me in. Your meetings in the conference room in Atlanta tonight want

the station at five. Five. Here's the proof sheet from that photo session

yesterday. Oh.

Oh, this one. I look adorable.

Have the prints made up and sent out with a press release on the takeover.

ma 'am.

Maggie.

Donna.

Bobby.

Chrissy is always a pleasure.

Let's cut to the chase, shall we?

As you already know, the SEC has approved my takeover plans. Within a

will control each of your companies.

Bobby, this is not personal.

Not personal?

My company's my whole life.

I created it with my own blood, sweat, and tears.

Sugar. You're low, Katie.

Heartless low.

But consistent.

You still want the same thing you wanted in the first grade.

What did I want, Chrissy?

More.

Katie. You're a powerful businesswoman, given, but you're a lousy cook.

Really, sugar?

I'm the cookie lady.

Maggie, you understand why I'm doing this, don't you?

Perfectly.

I'm taking over each of your companies.

Accept it gracefully, and you can keep your titles and salaries.

Fight me, you'll wind up with Zillow.

Miss White, the bakery, it's an emergency.

Think it over.

Where are the samples of my new line of cookies for the show tonight?

They're in a tin on your desk.

Good.

You have 24 hours.

Witch.

Out of my way.

Get back. Let me through.

Who did this?

Miss White, there's something wrong with this oven.

It'll be working fine, then all of a sudden it goes berserk. I told you to

it. I've had the repairman out here five times. He never finds anything wrong.

Well, you get him back out here.

Show him this mess and tell him that unless he wants his fanny sued, he damn

well better find something wrong.

And on the business front, rumors are rife of a takeover bid in the cutthroat

world of designer cookies.

Katie White, the founder of Miss Katie's Cookies, is rumored to be planning a

takeover of several of her competitors.

I talked to her earlier, and I asked Miss White if it was true that she was

planning a hostile takeover.

Hostile?

Little old me.

Sugar, all I do is bake the world's best cookies.

We also talked to the heads of the companies targeted for takeover.

Donald Ware, the founder of Health Cookies.

No comment.

No comment.

Maggie Shore of Margaret's Muffins. Was Miss White's hostile takeover bid a

surprise to you, Miss Shore? I don't know anything about this.

And Miss Chrissy Dubin, the founder of the Pie Lady Shops.

No comment at this time.

We also tried to talk to Bobby Neal of Bobby's outrageous chocolate chip

cookies. Mr. Neal, could we have a comment about... Oh, get out of here.

out. Neal, please.

Mr. Neal.

But rumor has it that by tomorrow evening, we should know which way

cookies are going to crumble.

Let's turn now to what... You know, Bobby's an old friend of mine.

I was his first investor.

Did pretty well.

Well, he sure looks unhappy tonight.

Oh, you should have heard him on the phone when I told him there wasn't much

could do about that takeover.

It's a shame. He's worked really hard.

Oh, I'm sure he's a wonderful guy, but Miss Katie's cookies are better than

How can you say that?

Her cookies are nothing but little round, brown blobs of grease.

Miss Katie's cookies are soft and chewy.

Bobby's, you need a jackhammer.

Bobby's cookies are crisp and crunchy.

You want cereal to be crisp and crunchy, you want cookies to be soft and chewy.

You know, I always thought of you as a man of great taste.

Well, yeah.

But your taste in cookies... Is impeccable.

Miss Katie's cookies are nothing but little round brown blobs of grease.

I don't know.

What about dinner?

Well, what are you fixing?

Hot dogs.

Pork or beef?

Let's go out.

You order yours, I'll order mine. We'll talk about baseball.

I'll go check on Miss White.

Just a little blush.

My skin is perfect.

Oh, and hollow my cheeks a little.

Don't want the viewers to think my cookies are fattening.

Bobby, what are you doing here?

You gave us 24 hours to answer.

Call my attorney. He's handling the takeover.

What's the matter, Katie?

Does a personal approach make you nervous?

You stay away from me.

Somebody's got to teach you a lesson, lady.

Get a security guard.

What's the matter with you, Katie?

You think it's okay to take a man's life?

I got nothing else.

No wife, no kids. Just my business to show for my life.

Do you understand what I'm saying to you?

God.

Bobby Neal just threatened me. I want him removed immediately.

He's gone.

I've heard people say that they're addicted to your cookies.

Now, what do you put in them that makes them so good?

Oh, I'm afraid that's a secret.

Protecting your cookies, huh?

Well, after all, there is a lot of competition out there. Well, hey,

nothing wrong with protecting your cookies.

So, what have you got in there?

Well, it just so happens I brought some samples of a brand new cookie I've

developed. It goes on sale next week.

I call it the kitchen sink cookie because it has everything in it.

Chocolate chips, raisins, oatmeal.

Yet it's soft like all my cookies.

That's outstanding.

Aren't you going to join me?

I'd be happy to.

Hey, just one.

So tell me, tell me the truth. Do you ever have a craving for just, say, a

cracker?

Go to a commercial.

Ben,

the cops think I killed Katie White.

Well, I didn't.

And they say I threatened her. Well, I didn't. I was just trying to talk some

sense into her.

And Ben, listen.

That cookie tin.

They say I was alone with it. All right, maybe I was, but I didn't put poison in

it.

Can I have a glass of water?

Guard!

I did not doctor those cookies, Ben.

Hell, if I wanted to kill her, I'd just strangle her with my own bare hands.

Ben, listen.

I am.

Now, look, I know what you're thinking. I didn't want her to buy me out. All

right, I didn't, but I did not kill her.

You believe me?

No.

Well, why don't you say something?

It's hard to talk at 2 o 'clock in the morning, Bobby.

Who's the water for?

Well... Bob, you might as well turn Bobby loose.

He's not under arrest or anything. You don't have anything to hold him on. Come

on, Bobby. Oh, I'm very sorry, Ben, but now he is under arrest.

Oh, come on. Well, cookies identical to the one that killed Katie White were

found in his garbage can.

Maggie Shore, Donald Ware, Bobby Neal, and Chrissy Dubin. They were all here

when I came in to tell Katie she was needed in the kitchen. Did everybody

you tell her about Cookie?

I said I'd put the samples in her office.

Well, maybe somebody got in that cookie tin in her office before the TV session.

It's right down the hall.

I got the police report.

Katie White died of anaphylactic shock.

What's that?

She was allergic to hazelnuts.

That's what killed her? Yeah. That's why no one else on the show was affected.

Oh, come on. Who ever heard of a hazelnut killing anybody?

There are some people, not a lot, but some, who are so allergic to certain

and medicines that the minute they take them, they go into shock.

Their blood pressure drops, their heart can stop beating, and they can die.

I'll be hazelnut.

You know, sometimes when I eat a bunch of them, I feel a little funny. I always

thought it was gas.

Allergic. She know it?

Yeah.

A lot of people did.

A couple of years ago, she was at a banquet for people in the food industry.

Nobody told her there were hazelnuts in the sauce for the chicken.

She went into shock, almost died.

Well, put my leg in a tea kettle.

Hazelnuts. In here.

I put a dozen cookies in the tin and left it sitting on her desk

right there.

That door always locked?

Of course, no one would dare enter without her permission.

All of her cookies kind of looked the same, didn't they? Yes.

Whoever killed her had to make sure that his cookies looked just like hers.

Do you know where she kept the recipe?

In a safe in the bakery.

I set the timer.

I turn it on, and next thing I know, the thing's going to sell you miles an

hour. This is a brand -new machine. You must have done something.

I'm telling you what happened, okay?

You, get this cleaned up here.

Right away.

This is the third time in two weeks.

I didn't do nothing.

This is nice.

Have you always worked out of your home?

It's in with the pie lady image. Thank you, Leticia.

Here you go, cup of coffee. coffee and a nice warm piece of rhubarb pie.

Rhubarb. My favorite.

I thought so.

It's getting so I just have to look at a person to know what their favorite pie

is.

My mother used to make

We're best friends.

Lived right around the corner from each other. Went to grade school, high

school, and college together.

Even went into business together.

Catering.

Finish your pie.

Well... Oh, you look very trim.

Well, I try.

This is so good.

What happened?

Between you and Katie?

The man she was in love with fell in love with me.

While I was busy being in love, she stole the business.

Oh.

And now she was going to steal your pie business.

Oh.

I can't get over this.

I'm glad.

No.

After the meeting... With Katie.

What did you do?

We all left. I went home.

Was your house kicked off? Oh, no, that was her afternoon off.

You're thinking I could have gone back and slipped into Katie's office and put

those hazelnut cookies in that cookie tin.

Could have, but didn't, Mr. Matlock.

Well, you knew she was allergic to hazelnuts. Everybody knew.

She collapsed at a banquet in front of several hundred people.

Oh, boy, this is good pie.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Well, like I say, you give great pie.

Oh, you sure know how to talk, don't you? Mm -hmm.

Blueberry muffin, cup of coffee to go. Wonderful, right from the oven.

You think you can take a break?

Yeah. I'll bring it to the table.

Sure. Jeannie, I'm taking five.

Here you go.

No problem.

I've been expecting you.

I heard that Ben was taking on the Bobby meal case.

Yeah.

So, uh, Katie was going to take over your business, huh?

And I was angry, frustrated, and helpless.

Last year, you were real excited about some guy you were dating. He was in, um,

in advertising, I think.

For about a month or so, you were on top of the world, and then all of a sudden,

it was over.

Word does get around, doesn't it?

Bobby Neal says that Katie took your boyfriend away.

Well, Michelle.

Well, Maggie.

She took your boyfriend. She was going to take your business.

Bobby remembers when you get into your car and drive away after that meeting at

her place. Why shouldn't I? I came back here and worked till closing.

Well, this place is always crowded late in the day. It would have been easy to

flip away for half an hour without anybody noticing.

Space, Michelle, you're way off pace.

Hey.

Hey.

Where does this stuff go?

It gets put on a truck and delivered to 12 Miss Katie's cookie shops.

They bake on the premises.

What about the cookies you bake here?

We just box them up and ship them out to the local restaurants and department

stores.

That's to keep a guy from just taking the recipe and then going into business

for himself.

Nobody knows the recipe.

He's been locked up in that safe over there.

Then how do the cookies get made?

I put in a certain amount of one thing, and somebody else will put in a certain

amount of something else. Somebody else puts in something else. Right, something

else. So everybody knows part of the recipe, but nobody knows the whole

Right. Y 'all ever think about getting your heads together and comparing those?

Katie White figured that out, too.

See, if somebody tries putting this recipe together, you get a $20 ,000

for turning them in.

That's a good one. Yeah.

But you know, one way of whipping up a batch, just get yourself some of this

batter. stick it in a plastic bag and sneak it out of here.

Anybody works here can do that, huh?

Not me.

came through, he was gone.

Security guard wasn't even there.

Conrad, what's the matter with you?

I got kicked in the head.

Now, wait a minute.

Weren't you the one who asked me to go over there and work undercover in the

first place?

Well, yeah, but if you wanted something out of the personnel office, why...

Didn't you just ask? Yeah.

Because they get suspicious.

They figure out I was a spy.

Well, somebody must have anyway, otherwise you wouldn't be putting that

your head.

Got that right.

What were you looking for? Don't you think the only way the killer could fool

Katie White was by stealing dough from her bakery and then mixing ground -up

hazelnuts into it and then baking that tin of cookies?

What were you looking for in the personnel office?

Well, I'm figuring that the killer hired an accomplice to steal the dough.

What's that got to do with the personnel office?

For the past four weeks, nothing has been working right in that kitchen.

The ovens have been overheating, the mixers have been going crazy, the

refrigerators are breaking down, and I figure it's because the killer's

accomplice was hired in the last month.

He's been doing little industrial sabotage.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So his name and when he was hired would be in the files.

Did you get him?

Yeah.

Only the guy who clobbered me took him.

You remember any names?

When I came to, I could barely remember my own.

Look, in the morning I'm going to get up and I'm going to go to work again.

What if the fellow who clobbered you clobbers you again?

Tomorrow I've got a better chance.

It was dark. I couldn't see his face.

He doesn't think I can identify him. You mean you can't?

You want something?

Nice shoes.

I like what they did to my face last time.

Will you look at this place?

What do you work for?

I work for bakery.

Who's paying you to sabotage that equipment in there and steal cookie

I'm not stealing.

I work for bakery.

Then why did you jump me last night?

You work for immigration. I don't work for immigration.

I hear you.

Always asking questions.

I think maybe you look for my friends.

I follow you.

I see you look for my address.

Look, look. I stop you so that I can tell friends to go so you can arrest me.

Look, that's a private investigator, not immigration. I'm not after your address

or your friends.

You know, you almost put your foot through my head last night and a bucket

through my jaw in there.

You may not be illegal, but assault and battery is. You, my friend, had better

start talking.

Mr. Matlock, this is the fastest moving ID in America.

To your health.

Hey, cookies.

Oat bran.

It'll clean out your pipes, lower your cholesterol, put a bounce in your step

and a song in your heart. Eat a dozen a day, keeps the doctor away.

No salt, no sugar, no fat, no preservatives. Oh, that sounds too good

true. You gotta tune into your body, Mr. Matlock.

It wants healthy, it craves thin, it demands the health cookie.

Tell me you love it.

Mmm.

What do you want to talk about? Katie White?

Wouldn't hurt.

Well, Katie and I were old.

Well, not so old, but bitter enemies.

I would spend thousands of dollars researching the ideal location for a

store. And the minute before I signed the lease, guess who'd open a shop right

across the street?

Katie.

I'd charge $3 a pound for cookies. She'd charge $2 .95.

I'd stay open till 7. She'd stay open till 8.

I'd run a special and she'd run a better special.

Aggressive, wasn't she?

She hated me.

Anything to knock me out of the box.

Have another cookie.

Well... Clean your pipes.

After you left her conference room... I went for a drive.

And, as I drove away, I had a thought.

What if, instead of waiting for Katie to buy us out, the four of us got together

and bought her out?

So I got in my car phone and called the others.

They all have car phones?

Well, Maggie sure doesn't.

She was back at her muffin shop when I talked to her. But Bobby and Chrissy do.

How long were you in your car when you reached them?

10, 15 minutes.

Actually, I never did talk to Chrissy.

You didn't?

I got a recording saying she was away from her car.

But I got Bobby and Maggie.

There's no flour in that either.

No?

Want to know what holds together?

Yeah.

You think I'm going to tell you?

Oh, forgive me. I've just come from Donald Ware's and I ate a carload of his

cookies. Like them?

Not especially, but he said they'd be so good for my pipes.

Now, let's see.

You said before, when you left the meeting at Katie's, you came right back

That's right.

How long a drive is that?

About 30 minutes or so.

So if someone tried to get you on your car phone, say, 15 minutes after you

left, they should be able to reach you, shouldn't they?

I suppose.

Donald Ware said that he tried to call you and he got a recording saying

you weren't in your car.

Oh, wait a minute. I remember.

I stopped for gas.

When the engine turned off, you automatically get the recording.

Did you use a credit card?

Oh, no. Cash.

Oh.

Is this you?

I was nine years old. That was my grandmother.

Her chocolate chip cookies had just won a blue ribbon at the state fair.

Who's the other?

Katie White.

Oh.

Your grandmother had won a blue ribbon with her cookies.

Katie went in the cookie business and you didn't, huh?

She beat me to it.

And now, if you will excuse me, Mr. Matlock, I have a lot of calls to make.

Oh, sure, sure, sure.

Sure, sure.

Take it with you.

Oh, no.

I wouldn't.

Well...

Maybe for later or for a friend.

Who the hell gave it to me?

Chrissy Dubin's in there with John Schneider.

Who's he?

The baker at Katie White's Cookie Factory. You know that fellow that

in the head?

I know somebody did.

Anyway, I thought he was the one that was sabotaging the kitchen.

He wasn't? No. And in exchange for not pressing charges, he fingered John

Schneider. Oh. You following Chrissy?

Yeah.

He wasn't where she said she was when she left that meeting.

You think this Schneider fellow is the one that stole the cookie dough? I think

so.

He might be in there paying him off.

Want to say hi?

We'd like to speak with you and Miss Dubin, if we might.

What is it, Mr. Matlock?

And make it fast, because I'm calling my attorney. Or don't you know there are

laws against harassment?

Do that. You're going to need it. What are you talking about?

You hired Mr.

Schneider here to steal the dough and killed Miss White.

What are you talking about?

You were not in your car when Donald Ware called. You weren't at the gas

station, either.

You were in Katie White's office planning those cookies.

Is that what you're going to say in court?

You bet.

Then you're going to make a fool of yourself.

You really will, Mr. Matlock.

See, because I wasn't in Katie's office and I wasn't at the gas station, I came

straight here.

We're lovers, Mr. Matlock.

We have to meet here right now.

John's married, but soon all that's going to change.

Good enough for you, Mr. Matlock.

And if our word isn't good enough, why don't you talk to the desk clerk or the

guy that brought us dinner?

Or the maid who brought us fresh towels.

Ask anybody.

Now. If you'll excuse us.

Thank you. If you need me, I'll be right across the hall.

I can't believe it. I can't believe I'd do something that dumb. No. It was dumb.

No. Well, how could I, without real proof, accuse this woman of murder and

man of being her accomplice when all they were doing was meeting at a motel

because he's married and because they wanted to, you know.

It's just one of those... Tom, I knew better than that 20 years ago. Maybe I'm

getting too old for this business. Now, stop that. You're not too old.

Your mind is still sharp. I mean, the cases you win.

Well... And look at you.

You're healthy, you're tall, and you have hair and you're a figure.

Well, yeah, I'm still dumb.

You can't hold that against yourself. Every now and then, everybody does

something really dumb.

No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean... No, it was dumb. It's okay. It was dumb.

What's all that?

Miss White's correspondence.

The attorney who's handling her estate said I should just leave it in here for

now. What are these?

Prints of the photo she was going to send out with the press release on the

takeover. It was taken just the day before she died.

Beautiful woman.

I wasn't dumb.

Just premature.

Miss Dubin, I understand that you used to be in business with Katie White.

For about a year after college, we ran a catering business, yes.

What became of the business?

I sold my share to Katie, and after about six months, she gave it up.

Couldn't make it without you?

Katie was a great promoter, but a lousy cook.

If she was such a lousy cook, where'd she get the cookie recipe that made her

millionaire several times over?

She got lucky.

Your grandmother won first prize for her chocolate chip cookies in the 1967

Georgia State Fair. Is that not true?

Yes. I contacted the fair people, and the homemaking division keeps a record

all their blue ribbon winners and their recipes, and those recipes are very

seriously kept under lock and key, very confidential, like many government

secrets. I had the subpoena.

to get a copy of your grandmother's.

Your Honor.

Does it look familiar?

That was over 20 years ago.

Well, this is a copy of the cookie recipe for Katie White's chocolate

chip cookies.

They're exactly the same, aren't they?

Yes. They're identical.

Katie White stole that recipe.

She took your grandma's recipe that was rightly yours and used it to establish

one of the most successful business ventures the state of Georgia has ever

didn't she?

Objection. Irrelevant.

Irrelevant? Goes to motive. What's the matter with you? Please.

Direct your remarks to the bench, Mr. Matlock. It goes to motive, Your Honor.

What's the matter with you? Mr. Matlock. Yes, sir? The bench.

But it does go to motive, Your Honor.

Objection, I will roll.

She took it right off Monday, didn't she?

Yes. Why didn't you do anything about it?

My lawyer said that the case would be almost impossible to prove.

And when the rumors started that she intended to take over your pie company,

what did you do about that?

Once again, there was nothing I could do. I think this time you tried fighting

back.

Who's John Schneider?

He's my friend.

Friend? Motel friend?

Irrelevant.

Oh, come on.

The bench?

A few more moments, Your Honor. You better watch it. Yes, sir.

Go ahead.

Where does he work?

At Miss Katie's Cookie Central Bakery and Warehouse.

Where did he work before that?

For me.

When the takeover rumors started, you asked your boyfriend, John Schneider, to

get a job at Katie White's bakery so he could sabotage the operation, didn't

you? No.

John's a baker.

We have a complicated relationship, as you well know, and so for that reason,

took a job at Katie's. Why did all the equipment suddenly start breaking apart

within a week after he was hired? I don't know anything about that. You knew

that Katie White was deathly allergic to hazelnuts, didn't you? Everybody knew.

Would she ever have eaten that cookie that killed her?

If it hadn't looked exactly like all the other cookies that came from her

bakery? I don't know. And the only way it could look like all the other cookies

was for it to have been made from batter that came from her bakery, right? I

don't know.

John Schneider stole batter from her bakery and gave it to you so that you

once and for all avenge yourself on Katie White, didn't he?

Objection. No foundation.

Pure speculation.

Not so.

It's not speculation. Mr.

Matlock. It's not speculation. Are you sure?

Yes, I'm sure. We do not yell at the bench.

Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize.

You're very close to content.

Oh, no.

This will all tie together.

All right.

Off we rolled.

Uh, for a long time, I thought those hazelnut cookies were

planted.

after the takeover meeting.

But you knew that cookie tin was in her office before the meeting because John

Schneider, who worked there, told you, didn't he? No.

You made a big batch of cookies with batter from her bakery, laced them with

ground -up hazelnuts, went into her office before the meeting, replaced the

cookies in the tin with yours, got rid of the originals, took what was left

of yours.

over to Bobby Neal's and planted them in his garbage, didn't you?

No, I did no such thing, except for the meeting I never set foot in Katie's

office.

This is a picture of Katie White, taken the day before she died.

What's that on her desk?

A paperweight.

What's in the paperweight?

A half a dollar bill.

That is half the first bill that you and Katie made

in your catering business, isn't it?

Yes.

After you left this morning, the police went to your house and retrieved this

from your office. Tell the court what it is.

It's the first dollar bill I made as the pie lady.

Is it?

Read the serial number on this half a bill that's in the paperweight.

Use this.

B9621.

3422D.

Now read the serial number.

B -9 -6 -2 -1 -3 -4 -2 -2 -D.

They're the same.

If you examine this dollar closely, you'll see it's two halves that have

taped together.

Your half and Katie White's half.

You took this bill from her office when you planted the cookie.

That would kill her.

I thought I was dumb when I accused you at the motel. Forgive me for saying it,

but you were dumber when you took this bill from her office. It was a symbol of

your rivalry.

And with it, you finally beat Katie White, didn't you? It's one of those

awful twists of fate.

You finally won.

But in winning, you lose.