Acceptable Risk (2017): Season 1, Episode 6 - Episode #1.6 - full transcript

There's the gates of mercy
and the gates of justice, Sarah.

There's the gates of what?

Hey!

I have just attended the funeral
of my head of security.

He tried to intervene in an
illegal surveillance operation

carried out by an employee
of your embassy.

I came to resolve this matter
quietly.

And what are you offering?

I've been thinking of taking
some time off.

There's this one file, though.
You can have it if you want it.

Follow it where it goes,
to whoever it goes to.



We received a call concerning
you and your children.

A report has been made.

You don't have to give me
a name.

I know.

You bugged Lee's car.
You bugged Sarah's car.

Your real target was Hoffman.
Did you bug his car?

Yes.

You can tell me where he was
last night?

If I get the file
from Mrs. Manning.

How much do you think she knows
about that deal with Ciaran?

She has no idea of it.
Not yet.

Let's put a bottle of champagne
on the table.

We'd need somebody who could get
inside information.

The obvious person to go to
was Ciaran, right?



He was head of PR then.

Ciaran worked for you
on this deal?

It's been a great story, yeah?

All that's missing
is the big finish.

"I'm a ghost," he said.

"Ghosts have to make amends.
That's why they come back."

Then he walked to the edge
and...

I've got to go and do my job.
You gonna be all right?

No.

Yeah.

I'm just still taking it in.

He said something
just before he jumped

about why Ciaran
might have been killed,

why that might lead
to who killed Lee.

Nuala's in it, too.

It's just what I was scared of.

Patrick Mulvaney makes
one last headline.

All eyes had to be on him
when he was alive,

and everyone has to be talking
about him now that he's dead.

I have to face my sister.

NUALA: That's where we'd go
to celebrate signing a new act,

making another million.

He'd wave his arm and say,
"Look down there.

It's ours.
All of it.

We just have to reach out
and take it."

And the champagne.

I bet he ordered the
most expensive one on the menu

and that he didn't pay for it.

I'm expecting the bill.

I have a bottle here.

This will be in celebration,
by the way,

of getting rid of him for good.

Not grieving.

To Patrick Mulvaney,

who managed to exit this life
the way he lived it.

On his own terms

and causing the maximum amount
of damage to everyone else.

He told me about the deal,
Nuala.

You know which one.

I can't understand why you
didn't come straight to me

three years ago.

And then what?

You worked for them in legal.

You'd have gone
straight to the company

and refused to let Ciaran in
on any deal we were making.

You'd have had to be whiter
than the snow, above reproach.

That's who you are, Sarah.

You can't help yourself.

You loved that firm.

That is why you're fighting it
so hard,

like you've been betrayed
or jilted.

You'd have put your job
and their good opinion of you

before the chance
of making so much money

you could paper the walls
with it.

And if there was a conflict
of interest...

Patrick always said,
"Isn't life and death..."

"...a conflict of interest?"

He did.

He said it again, to me,
just before he jumped.

It must have been so horrible
to have seen that.

I won't try to excuse myself.

I had a secret,
and I kept it a secret.

And if that got Ciaran killed --

It did.

We have a witness now.

So I don't know how long it's
gonna take you to forgive me --

or if you should.

Patrick said that Ciaran drank
because he couldn't stand

the thought that I earned
more money than him,

that I was the breadwinner.

Do you think Ciaran
had a problem with that?

Other people's marriages.

Yeah, but you had a front-row
seat at mine.

Did you?

I think Ciaran was
more complicated than that.

That's what I think.

Most of us are.

Me and the pills --
That wasn't simple.

It took five shrinks and
20,000 euros to sort that out.

We're through
with fudging the truth

and giving half-answers, Nuala.

Is that what you think
was going on between us?

You're very strong, Sarah.

You were too strong for Ciaran.

He leant on you.
He relied on you.

And people resent
having to do that.

I'm sorry, but there it is.

And when he found a chance
to stand on his own feet --

It got him killed.

I didn't know that for sure

until you put Lehane at the lock
that night.

Then it did go straight back
to the firm.

To James Aloysius Darragh
Mulvaney.

He wasn't a Patrick at all.

Even that was faked.

Rest in pieces
and good riddance.

Do you want to go there?

You want to see it?

See what all the fuss was about?

I can place Hoffman at the
cottage the night Kilbride died.

He was meeting a politician
named Maurice O'Hanlon

and somebody else.

My contact at the Gardaí

thinks it's a high-ranking
officer in the police.

We don't know yet what they said
at the meeting,

but with Sarah Manning's file,

I can make a pretty good case
for conspiracy.

And these jokers?

They are gonna go to jail
for decades.

And this firm
is going to be stripped

of everything it owns --

offices, plants, airplanes --
everything.

There won't be any case.

I'm closing you down.

Today.

Do you know how many lawyers
that firm has?

You're either gonna lie to them

and risk federal penalties
for perjury

or tell the truth about
your illicit activities here.

Lee Manning's widow can provide
concrete physical evidence

that will stand up in court.

The Justice Department will not
bring a case against that firm

in a million years now.

You will go home

and report that no case can be
made against Gumbiner-Fischer

or its officers or employees.

Take them down and shred them.

Take every scrap of paper
out of there, too.

In case your attention wandered,

that is where your career is
now.

The first time I drove past it,
I stood on the brakes.

Location.

Motorway access. Airport access.
Docks access.

Zoned for industrial
or commercial use.

It's got everything.

Wouldn't take a genius to guess
how much it could be worth

once it was developed.

Call in the bulldozers,
flatten those buildings,

and you're flying.

I brought Patrick to see it,
and he got it at once.

Would've been the deal
of a lifetime.

Why go to him?

You were divorced.

Who else could I go to?

I didn't have the money.

He still had the contacts,
and he was a great deal-maker.

He used to say he could sell
athlete's-foot powder

to a man with two wooden legs.

He wasn't far wrong.

What was this place?

I don't know.

It was the location
I was interested in.

What was on it wasn't important.

Not to me, anyhow.

I signed a contract
saying I'd make half

of anything we made reselling it
as a finder's fee.

Patrick took over from then on.

And then we hit the roadblock
at your firm

and we brought Ciaran in.

He'd have been in
for half a million.

When we couldn't make the deal
happen,

of course the line went dead.

Nobody wanted to know Patrick.

Can I help you, girls?

We're just wondering
what this place is.

It's private property.

You're trespassing.
That's what it is.

Can't you read?

Or did you leave your glasses
behind?

We're on this side of the fence,
aren't we?

-You being funny?
-No. We're leaving that to you.

Nuala, he's just doing his job.

Do the owners ever come 'round?

I wouldn't know who they are.

And if I did,
I couldn't tell you.

Are you leaving?

You're not a real guard,
you know.

You're just playing at it,
like a big kid.

Nuala, please.

If I showed you a photograph
of somebody,

would you be able to tell me
if they'd been here?

Even if I did,
I couldn't tell you.

Not you...and not your lippy pal
here with the bad attitude.

Have you got the message?

Let's go.

I'm Sarah Manning, by the way.

In case you need to know.

I'm sorry.
My big mouth.

The poor, sad little man
was just trying to do his job.

A toy guard with a uniform
two sizes too big.

His neck didn't even touch
the collar.

He took the license-plate number
down.

Somewhere in that notebook
will be Lee's, too.

That would be how Hoffman knew

he was out there
investigating him.

Wouldn't that mean that Hoffman
will know we were there?

I hope so.

I need him to know
that I'm still coming after him,

that I have cards to play, too.

SARAH:
Sarah Manning.

Charles Duquesne.

Would it be possible
for you to come and see me

before I go back to Montreal?

You're leaving us?

I regret that my time

in your beautiful
but sometimes dangerous city

is almost at an end.

I'm sorry to hear it.

You must have got used to
that borrowed office by now,

figured out how to work
the desk lamp.

We, um, have found the man
who killed your husband.

We all understand
how vital this contract is

not only to all our operations
in Ireland

but to the company as a whole.

That is why I can assure
everyone at head office

that I have personally dealt
with all remaining obstacles.

Our friends here in Ireland
have assured me

that we can rely on
their continued support.

We are now ready to break ground

at the proposed site
for our new plant.

We know Hoffman killed Ciaran
because he asked

too many questions
about that property deal.

He used Lehane to do it.

And your second husband begins
to investigate that death,

and Hoffman decides
that he has to die too --

in Montreal.

Hoffman allows Niklas Esser
to learn

that Lee will be delivering
a file

which will destroy him.

Lehane makes sure that Esser
knows the name of somebody

who can solve this problem
for him,

somebody who can get the file
and leave no witness.

Lee never gets to deliver
the file.

DUQUESNE: Then Hoffman realizes
that Lehane has to go, too.

So he uses his background as
a chemist to make that happen.

No one is left
to connect it all back

to that first link in the chain,
to Hoffman himself.

Who, I regret to say,
seems to be untouchable.

SARAH:
Untouchable?

Okay, he didn't pull
the trigger,

but he set it all in motion.

He put the pieces in place.

Didn't you say we know
who killed Lee now?

Detective Byrne provided
the information

which led to Lee's killer

through his family connections
in Dublin.

And then Montreal
tried to arrest him.

He decided to fight.

The trail ends here.

Okay.
It can't end there.

I won't let it end there.

Is there anything you can do?

My mission was only to establish

how deeply compromised
the minister might be,

how far he'd laid himself open
to potential blackmail --

blackmail that your husband
was involved in.

You accept that now?

I've had to.

But that doesn't mean their
lives can just be thrown away.

That he -- he sets it up
and then goes free.

That is exactly
what will happen,

and you should be very careful,
Mrs. Manning.

He's a killer.

If he feels you threaten him...

SARAH:
He dropped his guard

because he wanted to get back
to me.

It's a yes.

So in a way, I got him killed.

You see that bit of the canal
there?

Where my first husband
was murdered?

Every time I walk past
a canal lock

or along the quayside
or any bit of water --

and it's hard to avoid
in Dublin -- I remember.

Like I remember Lee
six or seven times a day

when I see him walking
towards me or...

...or feel his hand on me.

If you think
I'm going to let this go

and not get justice
for the two of them

and for everybody else
that he's just got rid of...

Be careful with this man.

You can expect no assistance
from us.

If you go further,
you do so on your own.

Haven't I always been?

BYRNE: Sarah's ready
to give you everything --

hotel receipts,
plane reservations,

all the evidence you need

to prove her husband traveled
the world

fixing contracts
for that company.

Everything you need
to make the case.

There is no case.

But you said the --

The FBI is no longer interested
in trying to figure out

why a man named Lee Manning
was found dead in the street

in Montreal.

It's dead and buried.

I've been recalled, Detective.

But at least you can give me
the evidence you had --

you know, to link it to Dublin,
to the firm, to Hoffman.

COYLE:
You're not listening.

There is no more evidence.

They put this case in a sack,

and they threw it off the end
of the pier.

Nobody's going to try
to bring it back

because it's not just the money
that's threatened,

it's all of those politicians
here and in Washington

who feed off of that money.

You put a tracking device
on Hoffman's car.

At least you can tell me where
that car is now, you know?

Then at least I have
physical evidence

to link him
to Deirdre Kilbride's murder.

I know exactly where
and when that bug died.

In a scrapyard north of Dublin.

I saw the face of the man

who put a bullet in my husband
today.

I saw the face of the man
who told him to do it.

I keep seeing Hoffman's face...

...because he's behind
both of them.

And there's nothing anybody
can do about it.

You're stuck.

Duquesne's gone back
to Montreal.

The FBI is off the case.

I'm out of ideas.

I think I'm going mad.

I pushed O'Hanlon really hard.

If I keep at it, he might crack.

He might give something up.

He must know that Hoffman killed
Deirdre Kilbride.

He's a politician, Emer.

He can easily find a way of
wriggling out of facing facts.

Unless you can put Hoffman
there.

Unless he cracks, too.

And what are the chances
of that?

I can go back to Nulty.

With what?

He told you not to go back
to him until you had proof.

Proof.
Not a guess.

Not a wild swing of the bat.

Evidence that when Hoffman left
that cottage,

he ran her down
and made sure she was dead.

Until then,
he's like O'Hanlon.

He can tell himself

that there's still a chance
it was somebody else.

He must have slipped up
somewhere.

There must be something
that leads us back to him.

Yeah, but you won't find it.
You know you won't.

He'll have taken care of that,

like he's taken care
of everything else.

He'll run rings
'round the Gardaí.

I'm not letting it go.

I'm not letting him go.
I promise.

Oh!
Is that an official promise?

What are those worth?

Sorry.
I shouldn't have said that.

He's just smarter
than any of us.

BECK:
I'm going back to Berlin now.

My work here is completed.

I was investigating a possible
national-security threat

to a leading German politician

who may have exposed himself
to blackmail.

Not a case
of commercial wrongdoing.

DUQUESNE:
And what about Niklas Esser?

He gets away?

Just like Hoffman.

Well, you know how these things
are handled.

A phone call, lunch or dinner,

a suggestion that he quietly
resign in the next few months

to spend some time
with his family.

A couple years keeping
his head down and then what?

He's back in power?

It is possible.

That doesn't bother you?

Bismarck once said

that government is like
making sausages --

Even if you like the end result,

don't look too closely
at the process.

Goodbye, Mr. Duquesne.

Wait.

You forgot that.

Those cannot be mine.

They are copies of a document,
yes,

but even copies must carry
a serial number.

I didn't see one there.

You decide what to do with them.

Can I write something
for the service

instead of saying it aloud?

You needn't even read it out.

If you want to say it inside,
in your heart, you can.

Do you want to say something?

Do I even have to be there?

You have to be there.

Doesn't he?

Let me talk to Eamonn alone,
Rose, please.

You don't have to go.

No.

It won't bring him back if I do.

And he wasn't my real dad
anyway.

He wasn't your flesh and blood,
no.

Remember when you were getting
bullied at school

because you liked to dance?

Remember Lee told you
that you have a gift

and they were just
being jealous?

He didn't stop there, did he?

He showed you a couple of things
to do if they hit you again.

The very next day...
flattened three of them.

Wiped the floor with them.

I did.
Yeah.

And have they left you alone
since?

Actually, other kids come to me
and ask me to look after them.

Lee wasn't your real dad.

Whatever that means.

But he was so proud of you.

Go do your homework.

But remember --
I'll still love you either way.

Whether you go to the service
or not.

So would Lee.

NUALA:
Hi, Eamonn.

I know what that place was.

Hey, uh, right there.
Can I help you?

Hey.

I need to know if you have
a particular license plate

in that book of yours.

Uh-huh.

They fired the last guy
in this patrol before me

just for leaving
five minutes early.

I can't risk that.

Right.

Do you like this job?

And you have your license
to work in the security industry

after passing
your Basic Guarding Skills

FETAC Level Four Award, yeah?

Or did you just slip the man
hiring you a couple of hundred

to fill in the forms for you?

I got it fair and square.

So you don't mind me going
to headquarters

and pulling the files?

What do you want?

I need you to take a walk
over there for five minutes.

Check the fence.

When you do, leave your book
on the dashboard.

And that will be that?

As far as you're concerned,
yeah.

And you let nobody know
I was here, okay?

I went through Patrick's
old files --

the ones I had dumped on me
when he went on the run.

There was a lot of junk --

press cuttings,
things like that.

I found the business stuff
in the end --

the property stuff
about that piece of land

and the buildings on it.

The freehold is still held
by Gumbiner-Fischer.

They bought it from a charity
years ago

who ran it
as the Gates of Mercy.

The Gates of Mercy.

It's a home for pregnant
and unwed mothers.

It's been around
a hundred or so years.

The gates of mercy
and the gates of justice.

What?

Barry Lehane used those phrases
the night he came to see me.

He was testing me...

...to see how much I knew.

Lee was seen by security at
the property on two occasions.

The last was three days
before Montreal.

The Private Security Authority
says it has a long-term contract

to secure the premises.

They're paying thousands a month
for a round-the-clock patrol.

All for a place
that's falling to the ground --

when they made a song and dance
about the problems they had

finding a site
for their new plant?

I found this.

SARAH:
When did it close?

Twenty-five years ago.

There was a missing-persons
inquiry concerning it

a few months before that.

I know her.

I'm told Jimmy Nulty is out.

Early retirement.

One of the finest men
ever to wear the uniform.

I have no idea
what hand you had in that

or whether the shenanigans
the two of you got up to

left him with no choice.

But I'll make sure that your
career stops dead, Emer Byrne.

I still have friends
in Phoenix Park

who can put a nail
in your coffin.

Mr. Nulty got dragged into --

Chief Superintendent Nulty
to you.

Chief Superintendent Nulty
got dragged into the affairs

of the firm I used to work for.

My first husband and my second
husband worked there, too.

They were killed because
they got too close to something

it wants to hide.

He handed the file back to me.

He'll help where he can.
I have his word on that.

It is a major investigation
going back several years,

and I would value
your assistance on it,

as I value his.

It all leads back
to the Gates of Mercy.

Why did it close down?

Was it to do with
the missing-persons case

you were working just before?

The Gates of Mercy?

BYRNE:
You were there.

That case was months
before it shut up shop.

One of the staff had left it one
night and she never came back.

You never found her?

No.

I don't want to continue this.

You may have forced Jimmy Nulty
to work with you, but not me.

I can make this official.

I am in charge
of a wide-ranging inquiry

into several suspected murders
committed over a number of years

with an apparent connection
to that place --

and now, potentially,
one of your unsolved cases.

You can answer now
or be required to answer.

Say that again.

You know what I said,
what it means.

Don't make me go there, please.

I took you under my wing
when you came into the guards.

Perhaps I was taught too well.

It was a routine
missing-persons case.

It meant that I had to check
on her place of work.

I did.

There was no hint
there was anything wrong there.

Yeah, but it closed down
overnight months afterwards.

I wouldn't know about that.

It was a place for women
who nobody else would take in.

It looked after the outcasts
and their children,

and it didn't judge them --

in a country where that judgment
came a little too easy

for a woman who'd made a slip.

It did a great job.

First-class people.
First-class facilities.

A model for what
that kind of place should be.

Did the name of Gumbiner-Fischer
ever come up?

No.

You're sure?

I'm not in the witness box,

and as far as I know,
you're not a practicing lawyer.

They bought the land.
They have the freehold.

There's a 24-hour guard
on the place still.

What are they hiding?

Were you not listening?
Nobody had anything to hide.

There were decent people there
as well as rogues.

People who spent their lives
caring,

trying to build things up,
not knocking them down.

I'm leaving now,

unless you have means
of keeping me here.

I've told you all I know.

I won't forget this, Emer Byrne.

I didn't want to do it this way.

I'm going to see my friend
Jimmy Nulty now.

A good man.

Whatever you think he did,

he didn't deserve to end
his career this way.

You went against the code.

Well, at least it's still
an open missing-persons inquiry.

That might just be enough
to get us over the fence,

see what they're hiding
in there.

DR. HOFFMAN:
I shall take a small vacation

before the funeral service
for Ms. Kilbride.

Please arrange for my plane
to be serviced and ready,

and alert the staff at the villa
of my arrival.

WOMAN: Dr. Hoffman,
Sarah Manning is here.

What should I tell her?

Mrs. Manning.
An unexpected pleasure.

You will not use my children
as a weapon against me.

Whatever fight you have with me,
they'll be kept out of it.

I have no idea
what you're talking about.

This is a copy
of the report made

by the German Federal Institute
for Drugs and Medical Devices.

It's been kept under wraps
for years.

It's a little bit
like the information

you used Lee to deliver
to swing contracts your way.

This time it's about you.

Put together by other people

who are used to
looking into secrets.

If you are recording
this conversation,

I still insist that
your allegations are baseless

and sincerely plead with you
to get professional help.

You started out
as a research chemist

but very soon showed where your
real talents were -- management.

You were good at fixing things.

When you couldn't make
a deal happen

that would keep both sides
happy,

you were the hatchet man, too.

Twenty-five years ago,
they flew you to Ireland.

There was a problem.

It was gonna take a corporate
star like you to sort it out.

A few years previously,

they had a new drug in the
pipeline for cancer in children.

It needed to run clinical trials

in the real world,
outside the laboratory.

It looked for somewhere

the regulatory regime
was a little loose.

What would be ideal would be
to have people to experiment on

where there wouldn't be
a song and dance

if too many infants, babies,
young children died.

At the Gates of Mercy Home, say.

Those trials were conducted

with the approval
of the Irish authorities.

Nobody should have been asked
to take part

without having the risks
explained

and given a chance to back out.

That's what went wrong there.

It's why you took one look

and had the company buy
the place, then close it down

and scatter all the staff who
might know something about it,

like how many young children
died.

Otherwise a lot
of people's careers

would have been destroyed.

They might even have gone
to jail.

The company might not have
survived.

This was 25 years ago.

What you call a report

is a series
of unsupported allegations.

You still own the property.

And it's guarded 24 hours a day.

I'm about to find out
what you're hiding there.

It must have been something
worth killing for.

I'm flying to Spain shortly.

A few days' vacation.

When I come back, I will resign
and become a scientist again.

I sincerely believe that I still
have things to offer

as a medical scientist.

I admit nothing, of course,

but I would return from Spain
in a different capacity.

For the rest of my days here,

I would make amends
for any mistakes I've made,

any distress I've caused.

Distress?

I wanted justice.

At least that place can give me
the answers I need.

Think what you may be
about to do.

The consequences for hundreds,
maybe thousands of children

and their parents.

Don't jeopardize the future.

You're a brilliant man.

I believe you could do
what you say.

The greater good -- I get it.

It's something you could ask
a saint to go along with.

I'm not a saint.

BYRNE:
Sarah!

You okay?

There's kitchens and laundry.

That must have been
where the dormitories were.

Ghosts.

What are we looking for,
exactly?

Even with this, I wish I knew.

Years of experiments.

Dozens of trials.

Dead end after dead end.
But they kept trying.

Found someone else
to allow their child to be used.

Told them how much good
would come from it

or...told them nothing at all.

But it's just a file.

Nothing to back it up.

Nothing to say
it really happened.

Allegations without facts.

Guesses without proof.

What's that?

There was no main drainage.

Must be the septic tank.

BYRNE:
This is what we have so far.

There's gonna be more.

A lot more.

Two dozen bodies, aged
a few days to five or six years.

It's gonna be impossible
to determine

the exact cause of death...

...or give them names.

An adult in her early
to mid-20s.

SARAH: Detective Heffernan's
missing person.

Who saw something she shouldn't,

was gonna make a fuss,
blow the whistle,

derail the fix

that Hoffman had spent so much
time and money putting in.

SARAH: Which makes her
the first person he killed.

And after her,
he had to keep on killing.

Ciaran.

Lee.

Lehane.

Kilbride.

Then me?

WOMAN: Gardaí in Dublin continue
to search the site

of a derelict property,
formerly the Gates of Mercy Home

for unmarried mothers
and their children.

The Garda press office says
it will issue a formal statement

later today.

Some wreckage
from the small private jet

registered and piloted
by the chief executive

of one of Ireland's leading
pharmaceutical companies

was found in the waters
off Wexford today.

Air, sea, and shore searches

coordinated by
the Irish Coast Guard

are continuing
for the missing pilot,

Hans Werner Hoffman
from Gumbiner-Fischer.

The plane was last seen on radar
some six hours ago,

and it is not yet clear
if he was traveling alone.

In another statement,
the company announced

a wide-ranging review
into the findings

at the site
of the Gates of Mercy Home

but emphasized
that these events occurred

almost three decades ago
and involved personnel

who were no longer affiliated
with Gumbiner-Fisher.

They have pledged full
cooperation with any inquiry.

The company also confirmed today
that it will be completing

the multimillion-euro plant
outside Dublin.

This is great news for every
Irishman and every Irishwoman,

especially for those of us

with our country's
best interests at heart.

It guarantees a long-term future
with good schools for our kids

and good jobs waiting for them
at the end.

The car's here.

We ready?

Okay.

Go on.

The alarm.

I'm not living like that
anymore.

Afraid of my own shadow.

I got into this
to get one question answered.

Who killed Lee?

I got most of the answer.
Not all of it.

Maybe I have to settle
for what I have

because...I need to get on
with my life now.

I still don't know who that is.

The man who shared my bed.

Where he was from.

Whether one day
he would've opened up to me,

told me everything
he felt he had to keep back.

Whether he was a good man
or a crook.

Or a crook and a good man.

Maybe you have to let it go,
Sarah, find a way to do that.

Do I have a choice?

Remember I asked you
to take care of Rose and Eamonn

while we went away
for the weekend?

I do.

I got my dates wrong.

I think -- I'm not sure...

It's early days, but...

Oh, my God.

Sarah, are you really?

Yes.

Oh, come here.

Would have been nice to have had
the chance to tell him.