Original subtitles

Good character.

Give me a step.

Give me a step.

Sorry, guys.

Since you obviously need to practice, put it back and we'll try it again.

Give me a step.

I'm not interested in your excuses or anything else you have to say for that

matter. So from now on, keep your mouth shut.

Scalpel.

Let's go. Let's go. Move it. I'm moving it quickly if safety allows. All right,

that's it.

Get out of here.

You, take over. Hurry up.

Yes, Doctor.

Scalpel.

Scalpel?

Great to kick me out of the OR.

It's absolutely incomparable.

It's the divorce.

His wife is trying to quit every dime she can out of there.

Bless her heart.

Infraordinate and incumbent.

I'm sick to death of people like her. It's okay, Bradley.

She's gone.

She has no business being anywhere near an OR.

Good Lord, suction.

Suction.

Hemostat. Hemostat.

Sponge. Sponge.

God.

Kidney's bleeding like there's no tomorrow.

Reunit. I didn't go that deep, did I?

Looked to me like you severed it.

So what happens now?

Now we wait till the patient's out of recovery.

And then you tell her? Of course I tell her. What did you think I was going to

do, let her walk out of here with a severely damaged kidney and hope she

noticed? I'm sorry, I don't know what the proper procedure is.

This is a first for me.

It's not exactly something I do every day either.

I wasn't suggesting that it was.

Come on, Bradley, take it easy.

First thing we do is tell the patient.

We meaning you and I, so that nobody can say that I misrepresented the facts to

her.

I take it back.

That's the second thing that we do.

You've got to be kidding me. No.

It took him ten minutes to stop the bleeding. I mean, he just creamed it.

For all the good it's going to do her now, he may as well have just removed

Nurse Stone, your behavior in the OR today was inexcusable.

By distracting me like that, you cost a woman her kidney.

Are you blaming me? And after I speak to the hospital administrator, it will

have cost you your job.

This is Dr.

Conway. He assisted me during your surgery.

Actually, we met before, just outside the OR.

You probably don't remember. You were a little loopy.

I was high as a kite.

So, how you doing?

You tell me.

Well, your back is going to be just fine.

As I told you in your pre -op appointment, for the next few months,

to experience some pain and lack of mobility, but in time and with proper

exercise, your back is going to be as good as new.

Unless, of course, you go rupturing two more discs.

So, what's wrong?

Well, in the course of the surgery, I'm afraid that one of your kidneys, the

right one, was damaged.

What do you mean?

It was lacerated inadvertently.

As I told you, the kidneys are in very close proximity to the surgical site.

bad is it?

Well, I can't say with certainty, but the kidney appears to be rather severely

compromised, probably to the point of being non -functional.

Oh, my God. You mean I'm going to have to spend the rest of my life hooked up

some kind of dialysis machine? No, no, no, no.

Nothing like that at all. No.

In all likelihood, you'll experience no ill effects whatsoever. That's right.

Your left kidney is more than capable of taking care of things all by itself.

People live long, happy, healthy lives with only one kidney all the time. What

if something happens to my left kidney?

Well, chances are nothing will.

Who did it?

You?

No. No, I'm afraid I'm responsible.

I was distracted at a highly inopportune moment.

I'm sorry.

You destroy a perfectly healthy part of my body, and all you can say is you're

sorry. There are risks associated with all surgeries, as I pointed out to you

when you signed your release.

I signed that release because you led me to believe that I was in the hands of a

highly skilled surgeon, not some absent -minded butcher.

I'd be happy to recommend a very good kidney specialist who can explain... No.

No more doctors.

The only thing I want right now is the name of a really good lawyer.

I thought you were the roofer.

Oh.

Can I come in anyway?

Mom gave me this address.

Told me this is where you spend most of your time.

Yeah, the man I work for lives here, and he works out of his house, so I do too.

Oh.

For a second there, I thought maybe you were shacking up with somebody.

So what are you doing here? How come you're not at work?

I lost my job.

Hospital laid a bunch of people off a couple months ago, and I was one of

So I figured I had some spare time. I come down for a visit.

And we do what?

Oh, I don't know. Hang out.

Try to talk.

It's been a long time.

You didn't drive across two states to come and visit me. You never visited me

when you lived across town.

You didn't get laid off.

You got fired, didn't you?

So what is it, Rachel? You broke?

You need a handout?

God, I don't believe that.

You know what kicks me off the most about you? It isn't...

The lying or your inability to take responsibility for anything.

It's that you think so little of me that you still believe you can get away with

it. Why do you always think that I'm lying? Rachel, you don't know how to

the truth. Oh, God, Jerry, that was a long time ago. You are always doctoring

up. You're always twisting it around to fit your little purpose. Okay, you know

what? Forget it. Just forget it, all right? I'm going to go, and you are

going to hear from me again, all right? How is that?

Trust me, I'll never be that lucky.

Who's that?

My sister.

Speed limit the same here as it is in North Carolina, man.

My radar gun says you were going 80.

Oh, no way I was going that fast.

I mean, I didn't feel like I was going that fast. License and registration,

please.

Put your hands on your head and very slowly get out of the car.

What?

What's going on?

There's an all -points bulletin out on you.

You're wanted in Wilmington, North Carolina, for murder.

Case 95 -48625 -4 -3.

The people versus Rachel Stone.

What are the charges?

The state charges that Rachel Stone murdered Dr. Bradley Gray on March 7th,

1995, with premeditation, Your Honor.

Have you retained counsel?

Can't afford a lawyer.

Well, then one will be supplied for you. That won't be necessary, Your Honor.

I'll take it.

It looked like you were fleeing.

I wasn't fleeing. I didn't even know Dr. Gray was dead.

Why were you heading south?

I was going to Valdosta. Cousin Martha just moved there.

And you were going to hit her up for some money?

I would not.

Why else would you go here? You can't stay on Cousin Martha.

Oh, how the hell would you know?

All right, all right, all right. Can we quit talking about Cousin Martha?

Let's talk about Dr.

Gray. Dr. Gray was an orthopedic surgeon at Shoreline General, the hospital that

I worked.

He was a real egomaniac. I mean, horrible to work with.

Anyway, about four months ago, he accidentally damaged a patient's kidney

an operation I assisted on and blamed me, and he got me fired.

And this was not your fault in the slightest?

That's right.

He fired you for no reason. Come on, Rachel.

Oh, the guy made a mistake. It cost his insurance company 1 .5 million bucks. He

had to blame somebody, so he blamed me. All right, all right, all right, all

right.

What about the scalpel that the police found in your house? I have no idea

that came from.

Somebody must have put it there after I left for Atlanta. I mean, that's all I

can figure.

Three people say they saw you at the hospital the day of the murder.

Did they?

Yeah, I've been looking and looking for another job, and no one would hire me

because Dr. Gray bad -mouthed me to hospital administrators all over town,

went to see him. I begged him to give me a break.

And here you are.

Not a chance, no.

So I packed up my car, I headed for Atlanta, figured a little help from my

sister, maybe I could start over down there.

Wrong.

And this was the last time you saw Dr.

Gray since you were let go?

Yeah.

I should never have gotten you into this. I am so sorry. What? What?

You had a loud argument with Dr. Gray outside the Parkway Grill ten days

the murder. At least four people saw you. I forgot. I'm sorry. Rachel.

We have got to get something straight here. Mr. Matlock is one of the best

lawyers in this country.

He is doing this as a favor to me, but he cannot help you if you don't tell him

the truth.

We just happened to run into each other. That's all. He said something snotty to

me. I said something snotty to him. That's all it was. It was nothing.

That's all. It's all it was. Nothing.

Then you go see if you can give us a look at the crime scene, and I'll take

of your sister. Oh, you better keep a polygraph. Go ahead. Oh, that's funny.

That's really cute. Okay, let's go.

You only stabbed once?

One time, right in that main artery.

Either the killer got lucky or knew his anatomy.

Any fingerprints on the scalpel? No, latex.

Probably wore surgical gloves.

And since Rachel's a surgical nurse, to say nothing of the fact that the murder

weapon was found in her living room.

Prosecutor's gonna have a field day, isn't he?

Yeah.

I know I would.

My sister has her bald.

Well, all of us do.

But she'd never kill anybody.

It's not in her nature.

When we were kids... Hey, guys. Hi.

I got some interesting news.

What? Phone records.

Guess who Dr. Bradley Gray called every day, at least once a day for weeks, up

until the day he was murdered?

Who?

Nancy Pearson.

The girl whose kidney he damaged during that operation that got Rachel fired.

Au revoir.

Nancy Pearson?

Yes, sir. Oh, I'm Ben Matlock. I saw you weren't here, and I just thought I'd

sit down and wait, and I guess I dozed off.

Did I drool?

No, you just snored.

Well, anyway,

I'm a lawyer, and I'm representing the woman who's accused of murdering Bradley

Gray, and I wonder if we could talk a few minutes. Oh, certainly. I have all

time in the world.

Uh -oh, the back's still bothering you. Oh, not as bad as it was, believe me.

Just knowing that I'll never have to pick up another suitcase again helps

immensely. Oh, that's right. You used to work as a ticket agent, didn't you?

Twelve years throwing luggage onto a conveyor belt.

One day I grabbed a hold of an innocent -looking duffel bag, pulled, and

ruptured two discs.

Tell me about it.

But... Dr. Gray made it all better.

I lost a kidney in the process, but I also gained more than a million dollars,

so I'd say it all worked out.

Did you talk to Dr. Gray after you decided to sue him?

That man must have called me every day for a month.

Why?

Trying to get me to drop the lawsuit.

Kept ranting and raving about how it was going to ruin his reputation like I

cared.

When did the insurance company settle with you?

Um, I deposited the check on the 6th.

That would have been the day before he was murdered.

Does that mean something?

Probably not.

Probably not.

We can talk in here.

As long as it doesn't take too long, I need to go on around.

Oh, you're a resident.

Sir, you're a surgical resident.

Oh, you've got one of those blood pressure gizmos in here.

Sphygmomanometer.

The technical name for it, sphygmomanometer.

You know, the last time I saw my doctor, he said my pressure was a little high.

Well, you were probably just nervous. Oh, I was, but not now.

I'm here, and you're here, and it's here, and everything's here, so how

it? Mr. Matlock, we really shouldn't even be talking while I'm on duty. Well,

you can take it while we talk.

Just take a second now and tell anybody.

I understand that you're the one who found the body.

Yes. It was quite a shock. I imagine.

What were you doing at the hospital on your day off?

Well, I needed to get some stuff from my locker.

I stepped in to see Bradley. We'd had a couple of run -ins during the week, and

I just wanted to clear the air.

Run -ins?

Oh, just silly little arguments about things that were totally

And then this malpractice case was making him crazy.

Then coming on top of his divorce like that, he just made sure that everyone

just as miserable as he was.

Was he driving his ex -wife crazy?

Oh, no, she was happy as a clam. She got half his money and made a beeline for

the Greek Isles.

Yeah. What was that?

Nothing. I just couldn't hear the first time. We were talking.

I understand that you assisted Dr.

Gray. in the operation that caused the malpractice.

That's right.

Was Rachel Stone to blame for what happened?

Bradley allowed himself to be distracted at a critical moment and made a

critical error.

No one was to blame but him.

What? What? I'm done.

They're still high. Mr. Matlock, if you're worried about your blood

suggest you see your regular doctor.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go on rounds.

Well,

you can give me a pill.

I guess you know who came to see me today.

I need to talk.

Dr. Conway.

What are you doing there? That room's off limits.

Well, I know, but I... I just... Maybe you better give me that.

Why didn't you tell us?

Tell you what?

About the file that was in Dr. Gray's office.

The one containing a memo.

Describing how he caught you stealing painkillers from the hospital defensory.

The one he made you sign.

I made a copy of it.

The trioxin wasn't for me.

It was for my boyfriend.

And I wasn't stealing. I was going to replace it.

I wasn't stealing it, Terry. Dr. Gray believes me. That's why he never

it.

That memo was just his way of making sure I never do it again.

That memo is going to allow the prosecutor to say that you killed him,

revenge, but so that nobody would find out what you did.

Can't you see how that makes everything worse?

I knew if anyone found that memo, it would be a disaster.

You should have told me.

Did you ask Dr. Conway to steal it for you?

He volunteered.

He's a really good friend.

I... He did it because

I stole the drugs for him.

Hello, Miss Pearson.

Hello.

Let's see now. Here you go.

Saw you sitting out here. Thought I'd save you a trip to the box. Well, that

nice. Thank you.

I guess you're a woman of leisure now, huh?

You betcha. Must be nice.

How's it back?

It's getting better every day.

Wish I could say the same about mine.

Y 'all take care.

It was my first year of residency.

It was a basket case.

And I wasn't the only one. I mean, everybody I knew was popping pills.

There's a big difference between popping pills and stealing them.

I was going to have Rachel replaced me as soon as I got the prescription

refilled. If Bradley Gray hadn't come along, nobody would have been the wiser.

Did he know that you were the one she was stealing?

Not stealing.

Borrowing.

And no, she never told him.

So I had no reason to kill him if that's what this is about.

It was in the back of my mind.

You and Rachel were friends.

Friends.

She's a good person.

I was furious when Bradley Gray had her fired, but there was nothing he could

do.

I'll tell you one thing, though.

When I had to testify against him in that malpractice case, I enjoyed the

out of it.

Oh, by the way, I made an appointment with my regular doctor, you know, about

blood pressure. I made an appointment.

It was high luck.

You know, Mr. Matlock, sometimes I get throbbing headache when I stand up real

fast. That's how blood pressure is.

Mrs. Pearson.

This is the police detective, Hal Remsen.

Mr. Matlock here thought it would be a good idea if you told him what you just

told us. Do you feel up to it?

Oh, yeah, I guess.

He's a very lucky woman.

Hello, Miss Pearson.

You want to tell me what happened?

Well, you see, I'm violently allergic to benzocaine.

It's a painkiller, prescription only.

Anyway, I took a garlic pill.

Right after lunch, like I always do.

And next thing I knew, I was here.

We pumped her stomach.

We found remnants of Chinese food and the garlic capsule, which appears to

been laced with a potentially fatal dose of benzocaine.

How do you know the benzocaine wasn't already in the food? Well, she would

gone into anaphylactic shock right after the first bite.

Probably be dead now.

It was leftover moogoo guy pan from the lotus garden.

They wouldn't poison me.

I'm too good a tipper.

Where did you get the garlic castle?

Mother Earth Health Food Store.

I keep a bottle of them in my purse.

It's supposed to prevent cancer.

How many people know you're allergic to benzocaine?

A few.

Any of them particularly mad at you for any reason?

Not that I know of.

Dr. Gray was pretty mad.

Very mad.

All those phone calls.

That's the doctor she sued for malpractice.

Dr. Bradley Gray?

The man your client is accused of having murdered?

Yeah. So what you're suggesting, then, is that he put the benzocaine in the

capsules before he was killed?

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, you could say that's what I'm saying.

Hi. So what's for dinner?

Dirt fry?

Mmm.

Any chance we can add a little... No, Jerry.

No meat.

Oh, come on. One chicken breast is not going to kill you. Jerry, I do not want

the flesh of dead animals in my refrigerator.

Oh, jeez, Rachel.

I'm your guest.

Guest? You're my sister.

Explain something to me.

We are. We're sisters.

Yet we fight all the time.

And what happened to us? They put along so well.

We did?

Yeah, remember when Mom and Dad used to fight sometimes? You used to run

upstairs and used to hide under my bed?

No. You'd hide under your bed.

I'd hide under mine.

Well, that's not how I remember it.

Rachel, you and I fought every waking moment of our childhood. If we'd hid

a bed together, one of us would have ended up dead within about two minutes.

See? Why is that?

I don't know.

You and I... are so different.

I see things one way, you see things another way, only you have no respect

my opinion and I don't care for yours.

It's always been that way.

So I guess we just don't like each other, do we?

Hello?

In the kitchen!

Well, you're going to keep Nancy Pearson under observation.

Just in case she goes into shock again.

Happens sometimes.

Any idea who flipped her the benzocaine?

I think it was Dr. Gray.

Ben? That's crazy.

No, it's not.

I mean, if she was allergic to penicillin and wore a medical alert

that's something anybody who met her would know. But to be allergic to

benzocaine? That's something very few people would know about.

A doctor would.

Especially if he was treating her for back pain.

Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that a renowned orthopedic surgeon broke into

her house to tamper with her garlic pill?

If he wanted to kill her, why go to such lengths?

Well, you're probably right.

So when are you going to go check out his house?

Cliff's working out the arrangements now. I'm going to meet him in about 30

minutes. Of course, I could be a little late if dinner's about ready.

It's stir -fry. You're welcome to stay.

She put tofu in it, Ben.

No beef, no chicken, no fish.

Just vegetables and white gunk.

Oh, well, I probably shouldn't keep her waiting.

He moved in after the divorce.

That's nice enough.

Oh, you should have seen the house he lived in before.

Right on the water, gorgeous view, built -in vacuum cleaning system.

Mrs.

Gray made him sell it so she could get her half of the money.

Well, it's mighty clean. You do awfully good work.

Well, thank you.

But to be honest, he never got it very dirty.

I don't think he spent that much time here.

Well, how often do you come in?

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Dave doesn't look like he's been slept in.

When did you change your sheets?

Last Monday.

I always do the linens on Monday.

You killed him the next day.

Must have spent the night somewhere else.

Maybe he stayed at the hospital.

Yeah.

Does Dr. A have a girlfriend?

I'm sure he dated.

Sometimes I can smell a little perfume.

But you never saw him?

Never.

Sure he spent a lot of time cooking, that's for sure.

Uh -huh.

I guess he ate a lot of takeout. Look at this. Willard's Rib House, Lotus

Garden, Wilmington Grill.

Not Chinese.

Lotus Garden.

Hi.

Can I come in?

How you doing?

I feel fine.

I don't know why they're keeping me here.

Well, the reason I stopped by is I was at Bradley Gray's apartment, and

I think he had a girlfriend.

Good for him.

And I found out that he likes Chinese food.

He ordered out from Lotus Garden a lot.

What a coincidence.

I don't think so.

And just what do you think?

That girlfriend I mentioned, I think that was you.

You can't be serious.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

That's how he knew you take garlic pills.

That's how he could get to your purse. So easy to lace one on with benzocaine.

Explains the phone calls. He wasn't mad at you. Quite the opposite.

The two of you were in bed together in more ways than one, weren't you?

You are out of your mind.

Sooner or later, somebody's going to remember seeing the two of you together

the whole thing is going to crumble.

If I were you, I'd let it go right now.

I'm sorry, but you're really starting to annoy me.

Of course, I can stop by your townhouse and see what I find there.

You go near my place, they'll have you arrested.

Yes?

Would you please come down here? There's a man in here bothering me.

Of course, I can always get a warrant.

You can go to hell, now get out.

So the scalpel was just lying here in plain sight?

Police found it on the floor by the corner of that chair.

Oh, does it really make sense to them that I would kill somebody then just

a bloody murder weapon lying around my living room? They don't care.

It's our job to try to make sense of it.

Did you lock all your doors when you left?

Always.

Windows? When I left town that day, everything was locked and closed.

You must have left something open.

Matthew Pearson have planted the scalpel in here? I mean, it's not like she's a

professional burglar.

What about that?

Oh, yeah.

That's the only thing that wasn't locked.

But it doesn't count. It's permanently stuck.

That's as far as it'll open.

I guess she could have jumped up, caught the sill, and pulled herself up.

No, not with her back, she couldn't.

But maybe she could have... Maybe she could have stood on this.

That's why I keep my gardening tool.

Oh, no. How'd it get broken like that?

Ben, is that what I think it is?

And so, what went wrong during the operation, Miss Pearson?

Dr. Gray accidentally sliced open my right kidney and virtually destroyed it.

And so what did you do as a result?

I sued for malpractice. Oh.

And what were you awarded?

One and a half million dollars.

Boy, that's a lot of money even when you say it fast.

Especially when you see that you're not exactly incapacitated.

I'll be extremely incapacitated if anything happens to my other kidney.

The chances are that nothing ever will. And that's why you and Dr. Gray decided

that this would be... A good gamble to take.

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

I'm saying that Dr.

Bradley Gray deliberately destroyed your kidneys so that you and he could become

$1 .5 million richer.

Objection, Your Honor. Mr. Matlock has just given new meaning to the word

speculation. Your Honor, it would be speculation if I didn't have proof, but

do. It's proof right here.

Overruled. Thanks.

What's your phone number, Miss Pearson?

555 -7868.

I had the phone company make a list of all

the calls that Dr. Gray dialed from his house and his office in the five months

prior to his death in order of frequency.

Would you read the number at the top of the list, the one most often called?

5 -5 -5 -7 -8 -6 -8. That's your number? Yes, but I told you the reason... And

this card was on his desk at Shoreline Hospital.

Would you tell the court what that card represents?

Gentle Giant Mover.

Thank you. I wondered what that was doing on his desk.

So I called him, and guess what?

Dr. Gray had called him, too, on March 6th.

The day before he was murdered. And the man he spoke to is Mr. C .J.

Nussbaum. And he is prepared to testify that Mr. Gray did not call because he

was thinking of moving.

He called him to find out if a friend of his was.

A friend named Nancy Pearson.

You were going to pack up bag and baggage and move to Dallas, weren't you?

you were going to keep it a secret from your friend.

Dr. Gray, because you had decided to keep all 1 .5 million yourself, hadn't

He was not my friend.

He called me all those times to harass me.

He must have called the moving company so that he could continue to harass me

even after I left town.

No.

No.

At some point, at some point, you and he got, you know, close.

And everybody needs a little money. He needed money because of his divorce. And

so you and he hatched up this scheme to defraud his insurance company of a small

fortune for sacrificing one of your kidneys.

But then you got to thinking about that thing.

Wait a minute.

Fair is fair here.

And you decided to keep it all.

But he found out.

And he said, well, if I can't have some of it, she's not going

to have it either.

No. And it almost worked.

He put something that you are deathly allergic to into one of those garlic

that you always take.

He couldn't tell anybody what you had done because then they'd know what he

done. You were double -crossing him and he was helpless to do anything about it.

So he decided to kill you.

He figured you wouldn't take that garlic pill till you got to Dallas.

And he had no idea.

He didn't think for a minute that you would kill him first.

Objection!

Your Honor, I got the proof right here.

Proceed.

This ball

was found Beside the defendant's house.

And there's a little window that won't close all the way anymore because the

frame's warped.

You stood on that box and dropped that scalpel through that little

opening into Rachel Stone's house, didn't you?

No, I did not.

You've never been to Rachel Stone's house?

Of course not. I don't even know where she lives.

But since her name came up during that malpractice suit, you knew who she was,

didn't you? Yes, but... And you knew that Dr. Gray had caused her to be

and you knew she'd be a perfect one to frame because everybody'd think that she

killed him because he fired her.

That's just not true. And so you eased in that hospital, and you stole a pair

gloves and a scalpel.

from the supply room.

And then you killed Dr. Gray.

And you looked up Rachel's address and went over to her house, didn't you? No.

Walked around her house, walked around looking for a way to get in.

And then you saw, you saw that little window.

But it was eight feet above the ground.

So you drug over this box.

being very careful not to hurt your back again.

And you stood on it, and you dropped that bloody scalpel through the window

her house.

Then you went home.

Postponed your trip to Dallas until the coast was absolutely clear.

No, no, none of this is true.

Yes, it is.

You know how I know?

But when you stepped on this box to reach the window, you broke it.

Didn't you? See that? Remember?

See, your foot went all the way through that slat.

See there? You can see blood on the wood. See that?

And the police found good skin samples, too.

It wasn't me.

What do you mean?

Let us see your legs.

I don't mean all the way up. Just the calves.

You're wearing slacks anyhow. Just pull them up.

If your legs have no scratches on them, you're home free.

I think that's a reasonable request.

I'd like to talk to a lawyer, please.

Good idea.

Good idea.

This is great.

I haven't felt this free since I went to Topless at Lollapalooza last summer.

Thanks for everything.

Oh, don't thank me. It was your sister who made us come to the rescue. Thank

her.

Here, I thought you didn't like me.

It's not that I don't like you. I think I'm hard on you because you're my

sister.

I called the Rupert this morning.

They're done, so we'll be going home. You're welcome to come with us. Oh,

thanks, but I've got to find a job.

Know anybody who needs a nurse?

Speaking of that nursing and all, when I stand up real fast, I get dizzy and

kind of get a headache.

Is that high blood pressure?