Original subtitles

When peace like a river attended

my way.

What say?

Okay, let's stop,

and I'll see you on Tuesday.

That was wonderful.

Oh, thanks.

Your car really means a great deal to me. You've added a lot to it. Thank you.

Ben didn't say what a fine singer you are.

You're staring.

I am?

You haven't taken your eyes off Claire the whole rehearsal. It's not nice to

stare the deep end.

I'm so glad you talked me into this. I like singing in the choir. Although

singing a solo scares me half to death. Well, being a little afraid makes you

sing better.

I suppose so.

What's his name again?

Oh, Jimmy Nash.

Is he married?

As far as I know, he lives on his own. Yeah.

Seems like a nice guy.

He's a guy, all right.

I'm not sure about the nice part all the time.

Wait your eyes, ref. Come on. He just got the hell fouled out of him.

Come on, ref.

He's all over me. Get in the game, ref. Come on, ref. Come on.

Forget the phone, Stites. Come on. Run the place.

If you would have run the place, you wouldn't have been fouled.

Are you sure that's the same Jimmy Nash?

No, no. It's Jimmy Nash, coach.

Different animal.

What do you want to do, coach?

I want to sign up for one of those anger management courses.

I sold a car to a guy who gives them last month.

Probably get you a deal.

Let's go outside and watch the rest of the game, okay, Red?

No, it's too painful. We're going to lose.

I mean, that was plain as day long before that little temper tantrum of

That's because that ref made it a five -on -six game.

No, we need some new blood, and that's a fact.

I understand there's a kid up in Maryland that can just shoot the light

Daniel Downing, I think his name is.

Every school this side of the Mississippi is looking at that kid, Red.

have a shot at him.

Well, now, what kind of self -defeating attitude is that? We got as good a shot

at it as anybody else.

It's just a matter of offering him the right incentives, that's all.

I've never paid for a player in my life, and I'm not about to start now.

Money? No.

Working with you, Jimmy, that's the incentive.

The kid starts his freshman year, he's a star right off, he gets the immediate

attention of all the pro scouts, not to mention a fine college education, of

course.

That's the incentive I'm talking about.

Recruiting's my job.

Yeah, but you see, as president of the Baxter Booster Club, I worry about that

too, Jimbo.

I mean, we gotta work together.

You get Daniel Downing down here and just be your sweet, charming self.

That's all I ask.

Just because this year's a bust, doesn't mean next year has to be.

Want to play on my team?

You stick with the play.

Shot in the fourth quarter?

The play was busted!

Not from where I was sitting.

Well, maybe you ought to try it out on the court, coach.

Don't you ever talk to me like that again. You got that?

Too late.

All right, come on, kid. Use your body.

Playing college kids next year.

All right, give me something from outside.

It's pretty good.

I'm glad the old man's starting to lose it.

It's hard to tell which.

Mr. Norman.

All right, that's enough.

I was hoping you'd say that.

I'm impressed.

So am I. I told you it was something, didn't I, Coach?

Let's go talk in my office.

Good idea.

I've looked at a lot of programs, and a lot of programs have looked at me.

Well, Danny, this is one program that would love to have you.

And if you're looking for a good education and a chance to play some

basketball, this is the place to be.

It's starting to look like that to me, too.

So you think you might want to go with us?

I know I do.

Whoa, Coach!

I mean, that boy is not only talented, he's smart.

So when do we discuss the details of our arrangement?

Danny... Why don't you go on back to the motel? What arrangement?

30 grand in cash in the new car.

A sports car, right?

You promised him that?

Jimmy, there's certain things that you just got to be realistic about.

Listen, son.

No matter what he's promised you, we don't pay for players here. So if that's

what you're after, you can get out of here.

But I... Look, look.

This is not a payoff.

This is an investment in this university's future.

And you too.

Get out!

All right, Jimmy.

All right, all right. Take it easy. Don't tell me to take it easy! Get out

here!

This is my program and I'll run it the way I want to!

Death occurred between 9 and 11, it says here.

I was home all night by myself.

Anybody see you, talk to you?

I just told you I was by myself.

Jimmy, why are you so calm and nice at choir and so hostile other places,

especially basketball?

Because nobody messes with me in choir.

Well, we got to get this stuff straight, so you might as well just calm down.

The police found one of your whistles in his hand, and the police are saying

that he ripped it off your neck during a violent struggle.

I've got whistles hanging all over my office. Anybody could have stolen it and

planted it there.

And you had words with Red in the gym yesterday.

Yeah. He went behind my back. He told this kid that I was trying to recruit,

that he was going to give him $30 ,000 and a brand -new sports car if he'd come

and play at Baxter.

I guess that made you mad.

Yeah, it made me mad. I could have killed him.

Jimbo, I wouldn't be saying that.

I didn't kill him, Ben.

I swear to you, I did not kill him.

I'm being framed.

Hi, Claire, Cliff.

Claire, Cliff Lewis from choir.

Claire, Cliff, what's happening?

It's really bad.

Cliff. What? What are you doing?

Nothing.

What's he doing here? I'm starved. Ah, he's got ham and cheese. You want a

sandwich?

Well, if you must know, I was just thinking about calling Claire and I was

rehearsing what I was going to say.

You're going to ask her out?

Well, I thought about it, but I don't know if it's such a good idea.

Why, are you nervous?

Yeah, but that's not the problem.

You're afraid she'll say no?

Yeah, probably, but that's not the problem.

Cliff, what's the problem?

I don't know if she's married. I don't know anything about her.

Well, why don't you ask her?

Me? Oh, no, no, no, no. I couldn't do that. I couldn't do that. No.

You want me to?

No, no.

Yes, yeah.

Yeah, all I want to do, I want to maybe take her for a drive or to a movie or

out to dinner.

Out to lunch.

Let me ask you a question.

Why don't you have a man in your life?

I told you, I just broke up with somebody.

I know you just told me that so I wouldn't ask you out.

You didn't believe me?

No.

Well, you were right.

The truth is, I'm staying not interested in anyone because

I've got really bad taste.

I've spent most of my life attracted to guys with great faces, incredible

bodies, but six months later, I wake up and I think, what am I doing?

I just can't seem to pick the right kind of guy.

I've decided that I'm not going to get involved with anybody unless I know the

man really well.

He's going to have to be my best friend.

And then we'll see what happens after that.

You're right.

You're right. You're right. You're right.

I have to get to know Claire.

That's what I do.

Are you going to check into her?

Sure. No problem.

You can count on me, Clifford. Great. Great. Great.

That's great.

I'll do something nice for you sometime.

Wonderful. If we get any better, we're going to have to get a bigger church.

Let's go ahead and take five.

She smiled at me.

Guess you haven't had a chance to talk to her yet.

She's recently divorced, no kids.

She works for the gas company, does a lot of volunteer work for the church.

likes to bird watch and water ski.

It's too bad you haven't had a chance to find anything out.

And she likes to run.

No, run. You're kidding.

Oh, that's great.

Oh, can you find out when and where?

Parkwood High School, 5 .30 p .m. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Cliff, I am so far ahead of you, you can't even see me.

See you next week.

Well,

Ben, the board of trustees called me this morning. Said I can't coach until

after the trial.

Unless and until I'm acquitted. That's how they put it. Oh, great, a

cop.

Now, what does he want?

Hello again, coach.

So it's true, you really do sing in the choir.

What do you want?

Red Tolman's house was burglarized last night.

Wife heard noises.

Called 911 around 10 .15.

So what?

Coach Nash was with me from 7 .30 till about 11, working on his defense.

He didn't burglarize the house.

Well, that takes care of that.

You sing in the choir too, Ben? Oh, yeah.

Every Sunday. You ought to come sometime.

I'll keep it in mind.

Oh, yeah. Going to church is a good habit to start and keep.

Makes you feel good.

Calms jittery nerves.

Look at Jimmy.

So, Joe, if you could find that out, I'd appreciate it. Yeah.

Thank you.

Red and I met at Baxter.

At a pep rally for a basketball game against Leland University.

Did he keep his business files here or at the dealership? At the dealership.

So most of the stuff that was stolen out of this cabinet was probably of a

personal nature?

what these numbers are?

No?

I'll take it in the other room.

Okay.

Hey, Floyd.

Yeah, Miss Stone. What's up?

You done working in here? Yep. In about five minutes, we'll be done working out

here. What you got?

A nice, clear podiatric calling card.

A footprint, huh? A big footprint.

Cool.

You made your cut too soon. Let the play develop.

You're not supposed to be coaching, Jimmy.

I mean, if this kid would just concentrate.

I tell you what, let's talk in your office.

What are you doing? Come on, come on.

Come on.

Mikey, that is your shot. Take it when it's there.

Come on.

Go on to your office.

I'll meet you there.

Come on. Come on.

I hear the police found a footprint made by your shoe outside Red's house.

Yeah. They think you broke in there last night.

I used to go to parties there all the time.

So even if that was my footprint, I didn't break in.

You always enter the house through the window, Sipes. You broke in because

was proof. Red was paying. That's a lie.

Jimmy, go on to your office. How much did you make?

At least I didn't kill anybody.

You'll never come to me again.

And you'll never play again.

Come on, let's go! Right now! Right now! Right now!

Right now!

Right now!

Right now! Right now! Right now! Right now!

Claire!

Hey! Cliff!

From the choir? Yeah, sure.

How you doing? Oh, great, great. How are you doing?

Good. Good?

That's great.

Do you come around here a lot?

Here and you're out. Oh.

Well, why don't, uh... Why don't we go running sometime? You know, I could show

you some routes and broaden your horizons a little. Yeah.

That'd be great.

Great. Well, that's it for me.

I'll see you at choir practice? Yeah. Great. Okay. Great.

Nice running into you.

Bye -bye.

See you next time.

I used to... Think losing your temper like that was something you did just for

show, but you got a real problem, you know that?

Yeah, yeah, I know.

You lose it like that in front of a judge and jury. Okay, okay, I get the

picture. You better get the picture.

So, uh, you think this, uh, boy Ron Sipes think, uh, Red was paying him on

sly to come here and play?

God knows how many other kids he tried to recruit like that.

I'm sure God knows a lot more than we think he does.

Well, we'll get some subpoenas and have a look at a few bank records to see what

we come out with. Oh, this is found on Red's death.

Any of you?

No.

Oh.

Hi, Barry.

Come on in.

Ben, this is Barry Glover.

Oh, been that long. Hi.

Lamb dunk or yours, you take my breath away.

Thanks.

I need to talk to you.

About?

The, uh, Britt Holman thing.

Well, Mr. Matlock's my attorney, son. You can talk in front of him.

The police came by my place this morning and asked me a bunch of questions.

What did they want with you?

Well, see, the night of the murder, I went over to your house.

Well, you told my favorite any trouble in any of my classes to make sure I got

the help, and...

Ancient world history has been giving me fits this semester.

Anyway, I rang the bell at the front door, went around to the side, but you

weren't there.

I guess one of your neighbors saw me and recognized me.

What time is that?

Around 9 .30.

I couldn't lie.

I mean, your car was gone and everything.

Don't worry about it.

I'm sorry, Coach.

It's okay.

You did the right thing.

You just work on that jumper.

Where were you?

I can't tell you.

You lied to me and you lied to the police. Ben.

I'm working my butt off for you.

Look, temper, Ben.

People lie to their lawyers all the time.

Not to this lawyer they don't. I want the truth.

I didn't kill Red Coleman.

I'm sorry about the lie, but I didn't kill the man.

I understand you play basketball for the Baxter Cougars. Is that correct?

I used to.

I've been declared ineligible by the NCAA.

And why is that?

I took money from Red Tolman.

You mean the decedent was paying you to play basketball for Baxter?

Yes.

See, he gave me a job at his car dealership.

Only I didn't have to show up. I just collected a paycheck.

Did anyone else know about this arrangement?

Yes, ma 'am.

The man who turned me in.

Coach Nash.

That's a lie. Order!

Order!

Order! Order!

Mister!

Five minutes!

You want to get mad?

Here, get mad!

Jump up and down on it. Throw it against the wall. Throw it out the window. Do

any asinine thing you want to to get it out of your system.

You know, I told the lieutenant that going to church calms jittery nerves.

you. The old hymn we like to sing, in that far off sweet forever just beyond

shining river, when they ring the golden bells for you and me, you keep yelling

and cussing in the courtroom like that. They ain't gonna ring no golden bells

for you.

You just testified that Coach Nash knew all along that Red Tallman was paying

you under the table and that Coach Nash turned you into the NCAA. Is that right?

Yes, it is. Then I just have one other question. If Coach Nash knew all along

about those payments, why would he turn you in knowing that you'd just turn

around and turn him in?

Objection. Calls for speculation.

Yeah, I guess it does. Nothing further.

We keep singing like this, we get to heaven, we're going to have a job.

Okay. See you next time.

Okay.

Hi.

Hi. Ready to go for that run?

Um, yeah.

Sure. Great. Why don't you meet me at my house so I can change and we'll go from

there. Great. Excellent. Okay. You know where it is?

Yeah. Okay. Sounds good. Bye.

That was a good run, Clint.

I didn't even know the park was there.

Yeah, I discovered it when I was training for the triathlon.

You were in a triathlon?

Yeah, a small one, up in Wilmington.

I didn't win or anything, but I did finish.

That's great.

Better than I could have done.

I don't know, you seem like you're in pretty good shape.

Thanks.

I would invite you in for some water or something, but I'm kind of pressed for

time. Oh.

All right, well, we'll try it some other time, then. Definitely.

Definitely.

So, uh, I'll, um, see you at choir practice?

Choir practice, right.

Okay.

I'm all sweaty.

Running, huh? Mm -hmm.

With Cliff.

From the choir in Matlock's office.

Oh.

Well, he's been asking and kind of flirting.

Thought it wouldn't hurt.

It's okay, isn't it?

Sure.

Don't you want me to take a shower?

Later.

Hi, Claire. Jerry, what are you doing here?

Ben wanted me to find out why Jimmy lied about his alibi, so I've been following

him. Can I talk to him?

Letter in, Claire.

So, how long has this been going on?

What are you talking about?

Nothing's going on.

Nothing? Do all of your friends have keys to your place?

It's okay, Claire.

She knows.

Were you here the night of the murder?

Yes.

Jimmy, that means she can give you an alibi. You've got to come forward with

this. See, she can't give me an alibi.

Because I was here, but Claire wasn't.

I parked in the fire lane behind the library that night, and my car was

I got here about 11 o 'clock.

And that's why I lied to Ben.

Claire's just recently been divorced, and I was seeing her before that.

And the church is very important to Claire, so I decided not to make it more

difficult for her.

And because telling the truth wouldn't have done me any good anyway.

Excuse me.

Cougars are stuck in a win zone.

Hold on.

Call Ben, tell him to

meet me at my office.

Those numbers are point spreads.

I went through all 26 games that we played last season, and I wrote down the

point spread for each game, which is apparently what Red did.

Why are some of them, sir?

Because those are the games where we didn't cover the point spread.

We either lost by more than we were expected to, or we won by less than we

expected to.

And if Red looked at this tape, he would have discovered what I discovered.

In every single one of these games, It was Barry Glover who made or missed the

shot that determined the final score.

Barry was throwing the game?

He was shaving point.

Probably making a fortune in bet.

Red loved the Cougars more than life.

And he bought players.

But he never would have stood for that.

They're gone.

I said they're gone. I didn't say damn.

You know, Fred told his wife that he was going out to do some errands that

night.

I wonder where he went. I don't know.

What about his effects? Find anything unusual?

No.

It was a crazy car, I guess.

The cougar mobile.

He drove that thing everywhere. Yeah, yeah. I used to see him around town

blowing his horn, waving like he was some kind of homecoming queen.

I didn't see that sign, did you?

Uh -uh.

Wonder how he got here that night.

Well, now, that's a good question.

Because if he had driven here that night, he'd have parked his car right

Old Red, God rest his soul, kind of lazy. Believed in parking as close to

door as he could.

Whose car is that?

Well, I didn't know.

It's not from our dealership, so I called the automobile registry and found

it's registered with somebody named Daniel Downing.

Purchased the very day Red died.

Tees are right here.

Brand new, all right. Got less than 100 miles on it.

Different dealership.

I bet Red left his car over there.

Drove this car here so he could deliver it to... What was his name? Daniel

Downey. Yeah.

Later that night.

What are you doing?

Thinking.

Pop this thinking.

The Cougars were favored to win by six. You missed two foul shots.

They won by four.

What about this game?

I screwed up again.

And because of it, the Cougars won by three instead of the five they were

supposed to.

What about this game?

Your Honor.

Mr. Matlock, I take it this blooper reel is somehow relevant to the case at

hand? Yes, sir. Then tell us how, now.

Yes, sir.

Tell me something, Barry.

Why is it that all last season, most of your screw -ups came at the last minutes

of the game?

Even great players get tight at the end of a game.

But not quite as often as you.

You were shaving points, weren't you?

No. You weren't being paid to manipulate the point spread so that somebody could

make a killing betting on a game. No, that's a lie.

You were doing it on your own?

If I was shaving points for myself or somebody else, either way, I'd be rich.

And I'm not rich. I'm asking anyone who knows me.

I live in a dorm. I drive a beater. I had to borrow this coat.

You're smart.

You got a lot of money, but you're smart. You figured this clever way.

To hide your point -shaving money.

Your Honor.

Mr. Matlock.

I'm about to bring it home, Your Honor.

Bring it on in.

When's the last time you spoke to the decedent, Red Tallman?

I don't know.

No, according to the telephone records, he called your private room in the

dormitory on the 23rd of last month at...

3 .09 in the afternoon. That sound about right?

Dead, I guess.

That was the day he was murdered.

What did he want to talk about?

Basketball, I guess. I mean, that's all he ever wanted to talk about. More

specifically, he wanted to talk about point shaving, didn't he? No.

Well, come on now.

You see, this piece of paper is found on Red's desk in his house.

See these numbers?

See these circled numbers?

He figured out that you were shaving points, and he was gonna turn you in,

wasn't he?

No. I bet he was, and I bet you begged to talk to him first in private that

night at his office.

Never happened.

Only you didn't meet him there. You got there early, and you didn't talk to him.

You hit him over the head and killed him. That's not true.

Then you trashed the place.

and planted one of Coach Nash's whistles there so it would look like he had done

it in a fit of anger. I didn't do any of that. Yes, you did.

And this proves it.

There's a basketball player, Daniel Downing.

Red was going to pay him to play for the Cougars. $30 ,000 in cash and a car, a

brand -new white sports car.

Coach Nash turned down the deal, but Red...

Had the money. He had the car. I saw it myself, parked in front of his

dealership. The police searched your room this morning.

They found this briefcase.

It's nice. I mean, it's high quality.

You can't buy a briefcase like this but one place in this town.

And Cliff Lewis had the shop owner go through his records.

And guess what?

This briefcase wasn't bought by you.

It was bought by Red Tallman.

Now, how could that be?

How about this?

After you killed him and wrecked the place, you tried to leave, but you

couldn't. Somebody had parked a car behind your car.

Without thinking, you had parked in red space, so he just pulled up behind you.

So you went back inside.

Got the key, came back outside, moved the sports car one space over.

And you saw the briefcase.

And you opened it and you saw the $30 ,000, so you took them.

And you squirreled that $30 ,000 away with your other point -shaving money and

hid the briefcase in the closet of your dorm room, never imagining that one

day it would incriminate you.

But it doesn't incriminate me.

But Red gave that briefcase to me long before that, as a gift.

No.

The shop owner's records show that this briefcase was sold to Red the day he was

murdered. The only way you could have wound up with it is if you killed him.

You'd have been better off letting him turn you in, wouldn't you?

Go get some peanut butter and crackers or some popcorn or something. Yeah,

yeah. All's well that ends well.

Jimmy's okay.

The choir sounds good.

All's well that ends well.

Yeah, yeah.

Cliffy, I'm sorry about Claire.

Wasn't meant to be.

She's pretty, though, wasn't she? Yeah.

Is she ever going to be meant to be?

Sure.

There's another old song.

I'm blue.

But I won't be blue always because the sun's going to shine in my back door

someday.

It'll be okay, Cliff.

You ain't over the hill yet. You ain't even to it. Yeah.

Let's go toast with some peanut butter and jam.