Matlock (1986–1995): Season 1, Episode 24 - The Doctors - full transcript
Hi, sweetheart.
How'd it go with you today?
Swell, and you?
Great. I closed the store early
and I went for a jog.
Glen?
- Is something wrong?
- No, nothing's wrong.
But you're drinking,
and you haven't had a drink
in nine months.
I've had a couple.
Now, why don't you have one
with me?
No.
I'll get it. No, I'll get it.
Surprise.
How you doing, Glen? Hi, Laurie.
Hi, Michael. Why didn't you tell us
you were coming?
Didn't know myself.
Last-minute sales meeting.
What's been going on here?
You look like hell.
Well, thanks a lot.
Have you been hitting
the booze again, Glen?
- I thought you were all over that.
- Once in a while.
Once in a while? Hey.
Let me take this bum out
for a few hours.
A little talk, a little dinner.
I'll straighten him out.
Okay.
I'll have him back in mint condition.
Let's go, you bum.
I'll buy you dinner.
- Laurie?
- I'm in here.
Could you tell me, please,
when your big sister gets home?
Because I want to apologise to her.
And tell her how much I love her.
Don't answer it.
Could be important.
Hello?
Yes?
Oh, no.
Yes.
Okay, I'll be right there.
Yeah. Thank you.
What's wrong?
The burglar alarm at the shop.
That was the security guard.
They want me to go down there
and meet the police.
Sweetheart, why don't you
go back to sleep, okay?
I will be back as soon as I can.
You did hear me, didn't you?
When I said that I loved you?
- Hold it, ma'am.
- That's my house.
- Where's my husband?
- I'm sorry. Please, just step back.
Glen?
Mrs. Palmer,
can I speak to you a minute?
I'm afraid I have some bad news.
No. Is it Glen? Tell me it's not Glen.
They took him to the morgue
a few minutes ago.
No.
No.
No.
Are you Mrs. Palmer?
Would you come with me, please?
Hey, lieutenant.
- Who are you?
- Dan Abrams for The Examiner.
Well, later.
Watch your head, please.
Now, Mr. Harper, about this robbery,
you were the only eyewitness.
- Is that correct?
- Yes, sir.
Now, you testified
that you saw a soldier running
from the Humbolt cement plant
at 1 1 :30 at night. Is that correct?
- It certainly is.
- Now, just how dark was that alley?
Not so dark that I couldn't see
the soldier running away
carrying the payroll sack.
He wasn't holding it up so high
you couldn't see his face?
No, sir.
- How's your eyesight?
- Twenty-twenty.
And you were how far away?
About 30 yards.
And that's the gentleman
you saw right there?
Yes, that's him.
Would you stand up, sir?
And you, please, sergeant.
And you, sir.
And you, sir.
You sure it wasn't
one of these gentlemen?
Yes, I am.
Mr. Harper,
making a positive identification
is one of the most
difficult things any of us can do.
The gentleman at the defence table
who you identified as the thief
is not the defendant,
Sergeant James Norris.
That gentleman is Sergeant Norris.
No further questions, Your Honour.
Mr. Matlock,
can I speak to you for a minute?
- Sorry, I don't have a minute.
- What about right now?
I'm on my way to the men's room.
- This is very important.
- So is this.
Mr. Matlock, everything they have
on her is circumstantial.
You could drive a truck
through their whole case.
Well, that may be true, Mr.--
What did you say your name is?
Abrams. Dan Abrams.
Well, I appreciate your good opinion,
Mr. Abrams,
but I'm gonna have to decline.
- I'm leaving town in the morning.
- What for?
Matter of fact, I'm going on vacation.
Vacation? But Laurie Palmer's
about to be set up
for a crime she didn't commit.
There are other lawyers in Atlanta
besides me. Good ones too.
Not as good as you.
I don't know how strenuously I wanna
argue with you on that, Mr. Abrams,
but the fact remains--
Mr. Matlock, I'm a writer.
I'm writing a piece on you.
A profile for the
Sunday Supplement.
For the last six weeks,
I've done research on Ben Matlock.
I believed you were a great fighter
for justice.
I know you take cases
sometimes for pay,
or because something interests you,
or when clearly, there's an injustice.
And, sir, clearly,
there's been an injustice here.
Fifteen minutes, that's all I'm asking.
Allow me to write this profile
on a great man
who, in truth, uses the law for right.
Please.
Where is she?
She had the opportunity.
The house was locked, dead bolt.
Only somebody with a key
could have started the fire,
gone out and locked the door.
The only people with keys
were her and her husband.
Next, the m.o.
Well, gas escaping from both the oven
and the hot-water heater.
You try and tell the jury
that's a coincidence.
Want a motive?
Half a million dollars life-insurance
policy on the husband in her name.
- Like it so far?
- Not much.
Well, how about this?
There's no record of any alarm
going off in her shop that night,
so there goes her alibi.
Ben, we got her, open and shut.
Sure looks like it.
- Can I see her?
- Help yourself.
This won't take long.
So I waited and I waited,
and nobody came.
So I went home.
Do I have to talk about this?
No one saw you
while you were waiting?
No, nobody saw me.
I mean, I don't think so. I don't know.
Try to remember.
Mr. Matlock, Glen is dead.
You're gonna have to
prepare a defence.
I loved him so much.
Nobody can do anything
about that now.
How can this happen?
Let's see what we can do
about you.
Bail is denied.
Defendant is remanded to custody.
The preliminary hearing
is set for the 1 6th in this department.
I'm sorry.
Excuse me. Sorry.
Yo, Ben. Ben.
Mr. Matlock,
could I have your autograph?
What are you talking about?
Matlock has grown so successful
that he now limits his practise
to defendants of murder cases.
He refers to his clients as, quote,
''An exclusive club,
but one you wouldn't wanna join
if you can help it,'' unquote.
Let me see that.
How about that? They spelled
your name right and everything.
- You set me up.
- Everything I said was the truth.
''Fighter for justice
wherever there's injustice,
uses the law for the right.''
You set me up.
Why didn't you tell me you're just
another reporter looking for a story?
I didn't tell you I like
strawberry ice cream, either,
but what I said was the truth.
I do want you on this case,
and that story's legitimate news.
Damn it, you used me
just to get a headline for this story.
I'm on her side as much as you. You
are gonna represent her, aren't you?
I ought to represent
suing your hind-end off.
I'm a reporter. I was on that story,
I was at the fire,
I was there when she came home.
I'm the one that told her
her husband was dead.
I was there when they arrested her.
- You have notes?
- Sure, I have notes.
- Let me see them.
- What for?
I'm gonna need all the information
I can get.
- I want the story.
- No.
Don't worry. I won't publish anything
that'll jeopardise your case.
No, not a chance.
You promise?
Not one word without my okay?
Long as I get the story first,
I don't mind waiting a while to publish.
All my notes, right here.
What do you say?
That's right, honey.
Probably at least another week.
The police are still talking to me,
and then the trial.
Yes.
Yes, I will.
Love you too. Bye.
Sorry, my wife works nights
as a nurse.
If I don't talk to her now,
she's asleep,
and then later,
I'm out with customers.
Well, maybe you'll get together
later on.
Oh, I hope so. I'm tired of looking
at myself in the mirror.
Tell me about
your brother's marriage.
Well, I'll be real honest with you,
Mr. Matlock.
I'm not crazy about my sister-in-law.
But Glen married her,
and she's in enough trouble
without my shovelling dirt on her.
Yeah.
Well, tell me what you know.
Things have a way of popping up.
Well, I'll tell you something
I didn't tell the police.
My brother was going
to divorce Laurie.
She said they were crazy
over one another.
He was going to leave her.
- Glen said that?
- The night he--
The night he died,
we went out to dinner together.
He said he wasn't happy with her.
He couldn't take it anymore.
He was going to leave.
It was finished.
And you think she killed him then
because of that?
Couple hours later, he's dead.
Well.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Where'd you first meet
your husband?
Glen moved to Atlanta
about a year ago,
and a friend of mine worked
at his office. She introduced us.
You ever meet his family?
No. Just his brother Michael.
I'm having a hard time
getting a personal history
- on your husband.
- What do you mean?
Well, there's no personnel file on him
in his company.
Personnel director told me
the company president
hired him directly.
Yeah, I think that's right.
What else do you know about him?
We didn't have any secrets.
Other than his brother, have you ever
met any of his family or old friends?
No, why?
Well, somebody killed your husband,
so somebody had a motive.
Then it would sure help
to look into his past.
I don't know.
Did you talk to his brother Michael?
Mr. Matlock?
- Yeah?
- Where are you headed?
I thought I'd take a look
at the crime site.
- Come on, I'll give you a lift.
- Okay.
Here it is.
- You're kidding.
- This is my car.
Does it run?
I work for a major newspaper.
When I have to be somewhere,
I have to be somewhere.
Of course it runs.
- I don't believe this.
- Believe it, it's a good car.
Okay.
You gotta reach in
through the window.
I think I may be on to something.
About your car?
No.
Laurie doesn't seem to know
too much about her late husband.
Neither does anybody else.
There's no personnel file
at his company,
which is peculiar enough.
But something's
just not right about him.
The diploma on his office wall says
he graduated from Michigan State.
You wanna keep your eyes
on the road?
Okay.
The registrar's office says yes,
he was a student.
But the Journalism Department
says otherwise.
Road.
Journalism says otherwise, huh?
There's a certificate in his office
that says he won a top award,
but the story on the award that year
says it was won by somebody else.
Well, maybe it's just poor journalism.
There's a lot of that going around.
He wasn't in the yearbook, either.
Road.
You know what I think?
Something not kosher
about our corpus delicti.
Excuse me, how did this happen?
You don't know about this?
No, I just this second got home.
I work for an airline.
I've been in Paris and Rome,
and I had a two-day layover in London.
I'm Sally Duncan.
I'm Dan Abrams.
I'm a reporter for The Examiner.
This is Ben Matlock.
He's an attorney.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- When did you leave?
- Last Monday night.
- The fire was that night.
- What time did you leave?
About 1 1 :1 5.
My flight was a 1 a.m. departure.
Did you see anything unusual,
anything at all?
Well, I don't know.
As I was getting ready to leave,
I saw some people go into the house.
Three men, and, well,
they sounded pretty drunk.
Two of them, anyway.
They were carrying a third man.
It looked like he had passed out.
Did you recognise any of them?
No, it was too dark.
But you know what?
Just as I was leaving in my cab, I saw
them come down from the house.
They all seemed to be sober now.
All three of them.
- What do you think?
- I don't know.
- Mob hit?
- I don't know.
Could be a Mob hit.
Yeah.
Yeah, he gets in the way
of some guy in the Mob, it's all over.
- What do you think?
- I don't know.
Maybe the company
he was working for.
Some kind of financial malfeasance.
- Could be a cover-up.
- Could be.
Yeah. I think it could be a cover-up.
Well, we need to back up
what we think
with something as mundane
as a few facts.
Well, I don't know what it is,
but I'll tell you what I think.
I smell a conspiracy.
I don't know about that,
but there is one piece of evidence
in favour of what you think.
- What?
- Somebody's following us.
What should I do?
Go ahead, easy.
Okay, hit the brakes.
What did I do that for?
So I could get
his licence plate number.
See what you can find out
about that car that was following us.
There's a phone booth.
Use your influence.
I'll be in this divorce factory.
We must get 40-, 50 divorces
through here every day.
- It's a big-volume business.
- Well,
surely you could look it up
as a professional courtesy.
I've handled divorces.
Not many anymore.
Maybe I could refer.
Well, Mr. Matlock, for you.
Let's see here. Palmer.
Paid cash.
Paid cash?
Cash for the complaint
and filing fees.
Most of our clients
are on the easy-payment programme.
Oh, another thing.
He wanted it filed the very next day.
I remember he made a big deal
about that.
Well, that must have
put you under the gun,
- grinding all that paperwork out.
- Simplicity itself.
Palmer didn't want anything
except out.
Well, just to make sure,
take a look at this.
You don't recognise him?
No, that isn't the fellow
who come in here.
What'd he look like?
He was a little taller than me,
which would make him about 5'1 0'',
1 60, blond.
I can't thank you enough.
- You've been a great help.
- You will send
- some of those referrals, yes, sir?
- Oh, yes.
Well, our divorcee's
not Glen Palmer.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
What'd you find out about the car?
It belongs to a Delaware corporation.
I'm trying to find out more about it.
Some kind of holding company.
Some kind of holding company.
So, what do you think?
I don't know. What do you think?
I think it was some kind of scheme.
Well,
I keep thinking about
what that flight attendant told us.
- About the three guys?
- Yeah.
Two guys go into the house
like they're supporting another guy,
a third guy.
And then a short time later,
three guys come
walking out of the house.
What if the guy
who was being supported
into the house was not the same guy
that came walking out of the house?
What if Glen Palmer
was not the guy
who was being supported
into the house?
What if Glen Palmer
was one of the three guys
that came walking out of the house?
A switch.
- That's some theory.
- Yeah.
Road.
- Afternoon, Ben.
- Hello, Lewis.
You here on business?
I don't come to the morgue for fun,
Lew.
I'm just here getting a little
expert testimony for the Palmer case.
- How's it going?
- Fair.
What are you doing here?
I thought the medical examiner
was supposed to be
on the golf course in the afternoon.
Well, Ben, sometimes work
interferes with my pleasures.
Oh, Lewis, a man should never
allow that to happen.
- Oh, I fight it, Ben. I fight it.
- Yeah.
- Take care, now.
- You too.
Thank you.
- What'd you find out?
- Not even a close call.
These aren't remotely
the same teeth.
- You sure?
- Absolutely.
For one thing, I put a bridge in
for Mr. Palmer less than a month ago,
and the deceased in there
has perfect teeth.
Thank you for coming down, doctor.
I'm gonna need you
to testify in court.
Oh, I understand.
Okay, Harry, okay,
but I need this right away. Stay on it.
Well?
- It's not Glen Palmer in the morgue.
- You're kidding. Who is it?
- Where's Palmer?
- Beats me.
Wait a minute.
I get it. Insurance fraud.
She does three years,
he comes out of the woodwork,
they both go flying to Rio
with half a mil from the policy.
Danny, if she goes to prison,
she won't get the money.
Well, what's it all about then?
I don't know, but there are gonna be
some very surprised people
in the courtroom tomorrow.
Wait a minute,
we don't know who's behind all this.
That's right.
But what about the three guys?
Who were they? Especially the one
who burned in the fire?
- Who was that?
- I don't know.
That's for
the Atlanta Police Department
and the examiner to find out.
Well, you've been a big help, son.
I don't understand.
You're telling me that Glen is alive?
It certainly seems that way.
Where is he?
Is there anything about all this
you haven't told me?
No. What is going on?
We will find the answers.
Yeah. Hi, Harry.
You got it.
Treadway Corporation.
Listen, thanks. I owe you.
Right, bye.
Your editor wants to know when
- the Palmer story's gonna be ready.
- It's almost ready.
- Here it is. Treadway Corporation.
- Well, what am I supposed to tell him?
Tell him he'll get it when it's ready.
Are you telling me
that my brother's alive?
That this is all some elaborate scheme
to defraud an insurance company?
Glen would never
do something like that.
- May I quote you on that?
- Damn right you can.
Look, I lost my brother in that fire,
and I think that wife of his killed him.
Mr. Palmer, where would Glen go
if he wanted to hide?
How the hell do I know?
Did he have a favourite
South American country?
I think you better leave.
You're a local sales rep
with the Treadway Corporation.
Would you mind explaining
why a Treadway car was following
Mr. Matlock and me?
Get out of here.
I bet if I call
the Treadway Corporation,
I'd find out it was your car
that was following us.
I said get out of here.
You're in this with your brother,
aren't--? Thanks for your cooperation.
What do you wanna do about him?
Now, Dr. Randolph, you were
Glen Palmer's dentist, weren't you?
- Yes. Yes, I was.
- And in that capacity,
I asked you to bring your x-rays
of his teeth to court with you today.
- Did you do that, sir?
- I've got them right here.
These have been shown to counsel,
Your Honour,
and I ask that they be marked
Defence Exhibit D
- and entered into evidence.
- So ordered.
Dr. Randolph, did you have occasion
to visit the county morgue
and examine the remains of the body
found in the Palmer home?
I did.
Would you tell the court
what you learned
when you compared
your dental records of Glen Palmer
with the remains?
I examined the teeth of the deceased
against my x-rays for Glen Palmer.
They were a perfect match.
Say that again.
I positively identified them
as being those of Mr. Palmer.
Dr. Randolph,
when we were both at the morgue,
you told me the remains
were not Glen Palmer's, didn't you?
Objection.
Mr. Matlock is cross-examining
his own witness.
I'm hearing a different testimony
than I heard at the morgue.
Overruled.
Mr. Matlock, you may proceed.
Didn't you tell me a different story
at the morgue?
Yes, but you pressed me
to say that it wasn't Mr. Palmer,
but it clearly was.
You didn't tell me
that Mr. Palmer had a bridge,
- but the deceased did not?
- He didn't have a bridge.
Just look at my x-rays
against the coroner's.
- They're a perfect match.
- I see.
Then I have one last question
for you.
Who got to you?
Who paid you to perjure yourself
in court today?
Objection.
Mr. Matlock is grossly argumentative.
Withdraw the question.
I have no further use of this jackass.
Witness.
Mr. Palmer?
Glen Palmer?
I've got a message from your wife.
She's in a lot of--
Palmer, your wife's on trial
for murdering you.
- Shut up.
- Your brother set her up.
I said shut up, and I mean it.
Wait a minute.
Is he telling the truth?
Glen, get back to your room.
I'm a reporter.
My press pass is in my wallet.
Get him to show you a newspaper.
Laurie's on the front page.
You promised me
Laurie was gonna to be okay.
- She is.
- Like hell she is.
She's on trial for murdering you.
Who are these guys?
They're federal agents.
- Well, what are they holding you for?
- They're not.
Well, then let's go.
Laurie's sitting in jail right now.
Glen, there are people out there
looking to kill you.
I'll take my chances.
You can't stop me.
Understand?
You signed the death certificate,
Lewis.
You certified the identity
of those remains in there
- as being Glen Palmer.
- That's my job.
I know for a fact
those remains are not Glen Palmer.
Why'd you say they are?
- I'm sorry, Ben, I can't discuss it.
- The hell you can't.
I just had an expert witness
perjure himself in court.
First, I thought he was bought off,
but then I got to thinking about you.
You had to know
it wasn't Glen Palmer.
Now, I know you'd rather play golf
than work, Lewis,
but I know you can't be bought.
- It had to have taken something else.
- Ben, I've got nothing to say.
Michael Palmer
made the identification.
He was the one who convinced you
to lie, wasn't he?
Ben, I can't help you.
You've got to, Lewis. I don't know
what these people are up to,
but I can tell you what they've done.
They've framed an innocent woman.
I know that
as sure as I'm standing here,
but if I can't prove it in court,
that girl's gonna go to prison
for a crime she didn't commit,
and I'm not gonna let that happen,
Lewis, and neither are you.
- Mr. Palmer.
- Yes, Mr. Matlock?
Yeah.
I think I have a fair idea
of what's going on.
- Really?
- Yeah.
I want you to call this thing off,
Mr. Palmer, or whatever your name is.
I won't allow this woman
to go to prison.
Mr. Palmer,
I listened with real interest just now
while you testified
about your brother's death.
It must have been
a terrible blow to you.
Glen and I were very close.
The only problem with your testimony,
it was all lies.
Objection.
Counsel is badgering the witness,
Your Honour.
On the contrary, Your Honour,
I haven't even begun yet.
Sustained.
Your name is not Michael Palmer,
is it?
I don't know
what you're talking about.
Neither does the prosecution,
Your Honour.
I assure the court
this is most relevant,
and I'll connect it up momentarily.
See that you do, Mr. Matlock.
You work for the Justice Department,
don't you?
No, I sell paper goods
on commission.
You work for
the Witness Protection Programme
of the Justice Department,
don't you?
Not true.
And you set my client's husband up
with a new identity here in Atlanta,
didn't you?
None of this is true.
Then for some reason,
you needed to pull him out of this life
and place him somewhere else,
so you staged his death.
No, and your allegations
are irresponsible.
I'm not out to compromise
your operation.
All I want from you
is a little cooperation and candour
so that I can get this woman
out from under a charge of murder
which she did not commit,
and which, in fact, never occurred.
Mr. Matlock,
can you substantiate any of this?
Yes, Your Honour.
That's what I intend to do right now.
Would Dr. Weeks please stand?
This is Dr. Lewis Weeks.
Do you recognise him?
- No, I do not.
- Is that so, sir?
Didn't you go to Dr. Weeks
and identify yourself
as a government agent?
No, it is not true.
Then you told Dr. Weeks
that you were on a secret assignment,
and you ordered him not to make
his usual identification tests
on a badly burned corpse,
and to identify that corpse
as one Glen Palmer.
That's a lie.
I warn you, sir, a government agent
is not above the law,
and I will see you in prison
if you continue to perjure yourself.
Your Honour,
may I see you in chambers?
Your Honour, I demand the right
to set the record straight
and clear this innocent woman
before that man leaves the stand.
Well, I see no reason
to stop this examination. Proceed.
Thank you.
Mr. Palmer,
an employee of the federal government
has a sacred trust.
You, above all people,
must never break the law.
You know what I think?
I think the Attorney General
of the United States
would never condone
what you've done here.
I don't think your superiors
even know about it.
You took it on yourself
to break the law.
You placed a corpse
in the Palmer home,
and then you burned it.
Do you have any idea
what you're doing?
Then you framed Laurie Palmer.
You took out an insurance policy.
You filed their divorce.
In the name of justice,
you perpetrated the greatest injustice.
You took away the liberty
of an innocent person.
We are in a kind of war in this country,
Mr. Matlock,
and you may not like it,
and you may not approve,
but we have to do
whatever is necessary in order to win.
I've been at this for 1 5 years,
and I've got the scars to prove
that I put my life on the line
for what I believe in.
And what about you,
Mr. Matlock, huh?
Do you care about the years of work
that you're ruining,
the lives that you're putting
in jeopardy?
Yes, I do.
But people like you...
...will destroy this country...
...and everything it represents
in your effort to save it.
Now, let's end this charade.
Glen Palmer's alive, isn't he?
Yes.
And you do work for
the federal government, don't you?
Yes.
And you did stage
Glen Palmer's death, didn't you?
- Yes.
- One last question.
Why did you allow this woman
to be charged with murder?
I don't think that's relevant.
Answer the question, damn it.
Just once, tell the truth in this court.
Because it was the most
convincing thing we could do.
Glen was the bookkeeper
of a major drug distributor.
- We needed him for one more trial.
- You lied to me.
- Glen.
- Order. Order in the court.
Your Honour, I move that all charges
against my client be dismissed.
The prosecution joins in that motion,
Your Honour.
Motion granted. Case dismissed.
I will see the witness
and the district attorney
in my chambers in five minutes.
The deputy will take you out
the back way.
Thank you.
Laurie, wait.
Wait, I didn't know
what was happening to you, I swear.
I don't know anything about you.
I don't even know what to call you.
Well, you will. I'll tell you everything.
But most importantly, I love you.
And I'm your husband.
Yes. Yes, you are.
Well, you got your story.
Yeah. I got a bonus too.
What are you gonna do with it,
get a new car?
Hell, no. I don't need a new car.
How'd it go with you today?
Swell, and you?
Great. I closed the store early
and I went for a jog.
Glen?
- Is something wrong?
- No, nothing's wrong.
But you're drinking,
and you haven't had a drink
in nine months.
I've had a couple.
Now, why don't you have one
with me?
No.
I'll get it. No, I'll get it.
Surprise.
How you doing, Glen? Hi, Laurie.
Hi, Michael. Why didn't you tell us
you were coming?
Didn't know myself.
Last-minute sales meeting.
What's been going on here?
You look like hell.
Well, thanks a lot.
Have you been hitting
the booze again, Glen?
- I thought you were all over that.
- Once in a while.
Once in a while? Hey.
Let me take this bum out
for a few hours.
A little talk, a little dinner.
I'll straighten him out.
Okay.
I'll have him back in mint condition.
Let's go, you bum.
I'll buy you dinner.
- Laurie?
- I'm in here.
Could you tell me, please,
when your big sister gets home?
Because I want to apologise to her.
And tell her how much I love her.
Don't answer it.
Could be important.
Hello?
Yes?
Oh, no.
Yes.
Okay, I'll be right there.
Yeah. Thank you.
What's wrong?
The burglar alarm at the shop.
That was the security guard.
They want me to go down there
and meet the police.
Sweetheart, why don't you
go back to sleep, okay?
I will be back as soon as I can.
You did hear me, didn't you?
When I said that I loved you?
- Hold it, ma'am.
- That's my house.
- Where's my husband?
- I'm sorry. Please, just step back.
Glen?
Mrs. Palmer,
can I speak to you a minute?
I'm afraid I have some bad news.
No. Is it Glen? Tell me it's not Glen.
They took him to the morgue
a few minutes ago.
No.
No.
No.
Are you Mrs. Palmer?
Would you come with me, please?
Hey, lieutenant.
- Who are you?
- Dan Abrams for The Examiner.
Well, later.
Watch your head, please.
Now, Mr. Harper, about this robbery,
you were the only eyewitness.
- Is that correct?
- Yes, sir.
Now, you testified
that you saw a soldier running
from the Humbolt cement plant
at 1 1 :30 at night. Is that correct?
- It certainly is.
- Now, just how dark was that alley?
Not so dark that I couldn't see
the soldier running away
carrying the payroll sack.
He wasn't holding it up so high
you couldn't see his face?
No, sir.
- How's your eyesight?
- Twenty-twenty.
And you were how far away?
About 30 yards.
And that's the gentleman
you saw right there?
Yes, that's him.
Would you stand up, sir?
And you, please, sergeant.
And you, sir.
And you, sir.
You sure it wasn't
one of these gentlemen?
Yes, I am.
Mr. Harper,
making a positive identification
is one of the most
difficult things any of us can do.
The gentleman at the defence table
who you identified as the thief
is not the defendant,
Sergeant James Norris.
That gentleman is Sergeant Norris.
No further questions, Your Honour.
Mr. Matlock,
can I speak to you for a minute?
- Sorry, I don't have a minute.
- What about right now?
I'm on my way to the men's room.
- This is very important.
- So is this.
Mr. Matlock, everything they have
on her is circumstantial.
You could drive a truck
through their whole case.
Well, that may be true, Mr.--
What did you say your name is?
Abrams. Dan Abrams.
Well, I appreciate your good opinion,
Mr. Abrams,
but I'm gonna have to decline.
- I'm leaving town in the morning.
- What for?
Matter of fact, I'm going on vacation.
Vacation? But Laurie Palmer's
about to be set up
for a crime she didn't commit.
There are other lawyers in Atlanta
besides me. Good ones too.
Not as good as you.
I don't know how strenuously I wanna
argue with you on that, Mr. Abrams,
but the fact remains--
Mr. Matlock, I'm a writer.
I'm writing a piece on you.
A profile for the
Sunday Supplement.
For the last six weeks,
I've done research on Ben Matlock.
I believed you were a great fighter
for justice.
I know you take cases
sometimes for pay,
or because something interests you,
or when clearly, there's an injustice.
And, sir, clearly,
there's been an injustice here.
Fifteen minutes, that's all I'm asking.
Allow me to write this profile
on a great man
who, in truth, uses the law for right.
Please.
Where is she?
She had the opportunity.
The house was locked, dead bolt.
Only somebody with a key
could have started the fire,
gone out and locked the door.
The only people with keys
were her and her husband.
Next, the m.o.
Well, gas escaping from both the oven
and the hot-water heater.
You try and tell the jury
that's a coincidence.
Want a motive?
Half a million dollars life-insurance
policy on the husband in her name.
- Like it so far?
- Not much.
Well, how about this?
There's no record of any alarm
going off in her shop that night,
so there goes her alibi.
Ben, we got her, open and shut.
Sure looks like it.
- Can I see her?
- Help yourself.
This won't take long.
So I waited and I waited,
and nobody came.
So I went home.
Do I have to talk about this?
No one saw you
while you were waiting?
No, nobody saw me.
I mean, I don't think so. I don't know.
Try to remember.
Mr. Matlock, Glen is dead.
You're gonna have to
prepare a defence.
I loved him so much.
Nobody can do anything
about that now.
How can this happen?
Let's see what we can do
about you.
Bail is denied.
Defendant is remanded to custody.
The preliminary hearing
is set for the 1 6th in this department.
I'm sorry.
Excuse me. Sorry.
Yo, Ben. Ben.
Mr. Matlock,
could I have your autograph?
What are you talking about?
Matlock has grown so successful
that he now limits his practise
to defendants of murder cases.
He refers to his clients as, quote,
''An exclusive club,
but one you wouldn't wanna join
if you can help it,'' unquote.
Let me see that.
How about that? They spelled
your name right and everything.
- You set me up.
- Everything I said was the truth.
''Fighter for justice
wherever there's injustice,
uses the law for the right.''
You set me up.
Why didn't you tell me you're just
another reporter looking for a story?
I didn't tell you I like
strawberry ice cream, either,
but what I said was the truth.
I do want you on this case,
and that story's legitimate news.
Damn it, you used me
just to get a headline for this story.
I'm on her side as much as you. You
are gonna represent her, aren't you?
I ought to represent
suing your hind-end off.
I'm a reporter. I was on that story,
I was at the fire,
I was there when she came home.
I'm the one that told her
her husband was dead.
I was there when they arrested her.
- You have notes?
- Sure, I have notes.
- Let me see them.
- What for?
I'm gonna need all the information
I can get.
- I want the story.
- No.
Don't worry. I won't publish anything
that'll jeopardise your case.
No, not a chance.
You promise?
Not one word without my okay?
Long as I get the story first,
I don't mind waiting a while to publish.
All my notes, right here.
What do you say?
That's right, honey.
Probably at least another week.
The police are still talking to me,
and then the trial.
Yes.
Yes, I will.
Love you too. Bye.
Sorry, my wife works nights
as a nurse.
If I don't talk to her now,
she's asleep,
and then later,
I'm out with customers.
Well, maybe you'll get together
later on.
Oh, I hope so. I'm tired of looking
at myself in the mirror.
Tell me about
your brother's marriage.
Well, I'll be real honest with you,
Mr. Matlock.
I'm not crazy about my sister-in-law.
But Glen married her,
and she's in enough trouble
without my shovelling dirt on her.
Yeah.
Well, tell me what you know.
Things have a way of popping up.
Well, I'll tell you something
I didn't tell the police.
My brother was going
to divorce Laurie.
She said they were crazy
over one another.
He was going to leave her.
- Glen said that?
- The night he--
The night he died,
we went out to dinner together.
He said he wasn't happy with her.
He couldn't take it anymore.
He was going to leave.
It was finished.
And you think she killed him then
because of that?
Couple hours later, he's dead.
Well.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Where'd you first meet
your husband?
Glen moved to Atlanta
about a year ago,
and a friend of mine worked
at his office. She introduced us.
You ever meet his family?
No. Just his brother Michael.
I'm having a hard time
getting a personal history
- on your husband.
- What do you mean?
Well, there's no personnel file on him
in his company.
Personnel director told me
the company president
hired him directly.
Yeah, I think that's right.
What else do you know about him?
We didn't have any secrets.
Other than his brother, have you ever
met any of his family or old friends?
No, why?
Well, somebody killed your husband,
so somebody had a motive.
Then it would sure help
to look into his past.
I don't know.
Did you talk to his brother Michael?
Mr. Matlock?
- Yeah?
- Where are you headed?
I thought I'd take a look
at the crime site.
- Come on, I'll give you a lift.
- Okay.
Here it is.
- You're kidding.
- This is my car.
Does it run?
I work for a major newspaper.
When I have to be somewhere,
I have to be somewhere.
Of course it runs.
- I don't believe this.
- Believe it, it's a good car.
Okay.
You gotta reach in
through the window.
I think I may be on to something.
About your car?
No.
Laurie doesn't seem to know
too much about her late husband.
Neither does anybody else.
There's no personnel file
at his company,
which is peculiar enough.
But something's
just not right about him.
The diploma on his office wall says
he graduated from Michigan State.
You wanna keep your eyes
on the road?
Okay.
The registrar's office says yes,
he was a student.
But the Journalism Department
says otherwise.
Road.
Journalism says otherwise, huh?
There's a certificate in his office
that says he won a top award,
but the story on the award that year
says it was won by somebody else.
Well, maybe it's just poor journalism.
There's a lot of that going around.
He wasn't in the yearbook, either.
Road.
You know what I think?
Something not kosher
about our corpus delicti.
Excuse me, how did this happen?
You don't know about this?
No, I just this second got home.
I work for an airline.
I've been in Paris and Rome,
and I had a two-day layover in London.
I'm Sally Duncan.
I'm Dan Abrams.
I'm a reporter for The Examiner.
This is Ben Matlock.
He's an attorney.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- When did you leave?
- Last Monday night.
- The fire was that night.
- What time did you leave?
About 1 1 :1 5.
My flight was a 1 a.m. departure.
Did you see anything unusual,
anything at all?
Well, I don't know.
As I was getting ready to leave,
I saw some people go into the house.
Three men, and, well,
they sounded pretty drunk.
Two of them, anyway.
They were carrying a third man.
It looked like he had passed out.
Did you recognise any of them?
No, it was too dark.
But you know what?
Just as I was leaving in my cab, I saw
them come down from the house.
They all seemed to be sober now.
All three of them.
- What do you think?
- I don't know.
- Mob hit?
- I don't know.
Could be a Mob hit.
Yeah.
Yeah, he gets in the way
of some guy in the Mob, it's all over.
- What do you think?
- I don't know.
Maybe the company
he was working for.
Some kind of financial malfeasance.
- Could be a cover-up.
- Could be.
Yeah. I think it could be a cover-up.
Well, we need to back up
what we think
with something as mundane
as a few facts.
Well, I don't know what it is,
but I'll tell you what I think.
I smell a conspiracy.
I don't know about that,
but there is one piece of evidence
in favour of what you think.
- What?
- Somebody's following us.
What should I do?
Go ahead, easy.
Okay, hit the brakes.
What did I do that for?
So I could get
his licence plate number.
See what you can find out
about that car that was following us.
There's a phone booth.
Use your influence.
I'll be in this divorce factory.
We must get 40-, 50 divorces
through here every day.
- It's a big-volume business.
- Well,
surely you could look it up
as a professional courtesy.
I've handled divorces.
Not many anymore.
Maybe I could refer.
Well, Mr. Matlock, for you.
Let's see here. Palmer.
Paid cash.
Paid cash?
Cash for the complaint
and filing fees.
Most of our clients
are on the easy-payment programme.
Oh, another thing.
He wanted it filed the very next day.
I remember he made a big deal
about that.
Well, that must have
put you under the gun,
- grinding all that paperwork out.
- Simplicity itself.
Palmer didn't want anything
except out.
Well, just to make sure,
take a look at this.
You don't recognise him?
No, that isn't the fellow
who come in here.
What'd he look like?
He was a little taller than me,
which would make him about 5'1 0'',
1 60, blond.
I can't thank you enough.
- You've been a great help.
- You will send
- some of those referrals, yes, sir?
- Oh, yes.
Well, our divorcee's
not Glen Palmer.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
What'd you find out about the car?
It belongs to a Delaware corporation.
I'm trying to find out more about it.
Some kind of holding company.
Some kind of holding company.
So, what do you think?
I don't know. What do you think?
I think it was some kind of scheme.
Well,
I keep thinking about
what that flight attendant told us.
- About the three guys?
- Yeah.
Two guys go into the house
like they're supporting another guy,
a third guy.
And then a short time later,
three guys come
walking out of the house.
What if the guy
who was being supported
into the house was not the same guy
that came walking out of the house?
What if Glen Palmer
was not the guy
who was being supported
into the house?
What if Glen Palmer
was one of the three guys
that came walking out of the house?
A switch.
- That's some theory.
- Yeah.
Road.
- Afternoon, Ben.
- Hello, Lewis.
You here on business?
I don't come to the morgue for fun,
Lew.
I'm just here getting a little
expert testimony for the Palmer case.
- How's it going?
- Fair.
What are you doing here?
I thought the medical examiner
was supposed to be
on the golf course in the afternoon.
Well, Ben, sometimes work
interferes with my pleasures.
Oh, Lewis, a man should never
allow that to happen.
- Oh, I fight it, Ben. I fight it.
- Yeah.
- Take care, now.
- You too.
Thank you.
- What'd you find out?
- Not even a close call.
These aren't remotely
the same teeth.
- You sure?
- Absolutely.
For one thing, I put a bridge in
for Mr. Palmer less than a month ago,
and the deceased in there
has perfect teeth.
Thank you for coming down, doctor.
I'm gonna need you
to testify in court.
Oh, I understand.
Okay, Harry, okay,
but I need this right away. Stay on it.
Well?
- It's not Glen Palmer in the morgue.
- You're kidding. Who is it?
- Where's Palmer?
- Beats me.
Wait a minute.
I get it. Insurance fraud.
She does three years,
he comes out of the woodwork,
they both go flying to Rio
with half a mil from the policy.
Danny, if she goes to prison,
she won't get the money.
Well, what's it all about then?
I don't know, but there are gonna be
some very surprised people
in the courtroom tomorrow.
Wait a minute,
we don't know who's behind all this.
That's right.
But what about the three guys?
Who were they? Especially the one
who burned in the fire?
- Who was that?
- I don't know.
That's for
the Atlanta Police Department
and the examiner to find out.
Well, you've been a big help, son.
I don't understand.
You're telling me that Glen is alive?
It certainly seems that way.
Where is he?
Is there anything about all this
you haven't told me?
No. What is going on?
We will find the answers.
Yeah. Hi, Harry.
You got it.
Treadway Corporation.
Listen, thanks. I owe you.
Right, bye.
Your editor wants to know when
- the Palmer story's gonna be ready.
- It's almost ready.
- Here it is. Treadway Corporation.
- Well, what am I supposed to tell him?
Tell him he'll get it when it's ready.
Are you telling me
that my brother's alive?
That this is all some elaborate scheme
to defraud an insurance company?
Glen would never
do something like that.
- May I quote you on that?
- Damn right you can.
Look, I lost my brother in that fire,
and I think that wife of his killed him.
Mr. Palmer, where would Glen go
if he wanted to hide?
How the hell do I know?
Did he have a favourite
South American country?
I think you better leave.
You're a local sales rep
with the Treadway Corporation.
Would you mind explaining
why a Treadway car was following
Mr. Matlock and me?
Get out of here.
I bet if I call
the Treadway Corporation,
I'd find out it was your car
that was following us.
I said get out of here.
You're in this with your brother,
aren't--? Thanks for your cooperation.
What do you wanna do about him?
Now, Dr. Randolph, you were
Glen Palmer's dentist, weren't you?
- Yes. Yes, I was.
- And in that capacity,
I asked you to bring your x-rays
of his teeth to court with you today.
- Did you do that, sir?
- I've got them right here.
These have been shown to counsel,
Your Honour,
and I ask that they be marked
Defence Exhibit D
- and entered into evidence.
- So ordered.
Dr. Randolph, did you have occasion
to visit the county morgue
and examine the remains of the body
found in the Palmer home?
I did.
Would you tell the court
what you learned
when you compared
your dental records of Glen Palmer
with the remains?
I examined the teeth of the deceased
against my x-rays for Glen Palmer.
They were a perfect match.
Say that again.
I positively identified them
as being those of Mr. Palmer.
Dr. Randolph,
when we were both at the morgue,
you told me the remains
were not Glen Palmer's, didn't you?
Objection.
Mr. Matlock is cross-examining
his own witness.
I'm hearing a different testimony
than I heard at the morgue.
Overruled.
Mr. Matlock, you may proceed.
Didn't you tell me a different story
at the morgue?
Yes, but you pressed me
to say that it wasn't Mr. Palmer,
but it clearly was.
You didn't tell me
that Mr. Palmer had a bridge,
- but the deceased did not?
- He didn't have a bridge.
Just look at my x-rays
against the coroner's.
- They're a perfect match.
- I see.
Then I have one last question
for you.
Who got to you?
Who paid you to perjure yourself
in court today?
Objection.
Mr. Matlock is grossly argumentative.
Withdraw the question.
I have no further use of this jackass.
Witness.
Mr. Palmer?
Glen Palmer?
I've got a message from your wife.
She's in a lot of--
Palmer, your wife's on trial
for murdering you.
- Shut up.
- Your brother set her up.
I said shut up, and I mean it.
Wait a minute.
Is he telling the truth?
Glen, get back to your room.
I'm a reporter.
My press pass is in my wallet.
Get him to show you a newspaper.
Laurie's on the front page.
You promised me
Laurie was gonna to be okay.
- She is.
- Like hell she is.
She's on trial for murdering you.
Who are these guys?
They're federal agents.
- Well, what are they holding you for?
- They're not.
Well, then let's go.
Laurie's sitting in jail right now.
Glen, there are people out there
looking to kill you.
I'll take my chances.
You can't stop me.
Understand?
You signed the death certificate,
Lewis.
You certified the identity
of those remains in there
- as being Glen Palmer.
- That's my job.
I know for a fact
those remains are not Glen Palmer.
Why'd you say they are?
- I'm sorry, Ben, I can't discuss it.
- The hell you can't.
I just had an expert witness
perjure himself in court.
First, I thought he was bought off,
but then I got to thinking about you.
You had to know
it wasn't Glen Palmer.
Now, I know you'd rather play golf
than work, Lewis,
but I know you can't be bought.
- It had to have taken something else.
- Ben, I've got nothing to say.
Michael Palmer
made the identification.
He was the one who convinced you
to lie, wasn't he?
Ben, I can't help you.
You've got to, Lewis. I don't know
what these people are up to,
but I can tell you what they've done.
They've framed an innocent woman.
I know that
as sure as I'm standing here,
but if I can't prove it in court,
that girl's gonna go to prison
for a crime she didn't commit,
and I'm not gonna let that happen,
Lewis, and neither are you.
- Mr. Palmer.
- Yes, Mr. Matlock?
Yeah.
I think I have a fair idea
of what's going on.
- Really?
- Yeah.
I want you to call this thing off,
Mr. Palmer, or whatever your name is.
I won't allow this woman
to go to prison.
Mr. Palmer,
I listened with real interest just now
while you testified
about your brother's death.
It must have been
a terrible blow to you.
Glen and I were very close.
The only problem with your testimony,
it was all lies.
Objection.
Counsel is badgering the witness,
Your Honour.
On the contrary, Your Honour,
I haven't even begun yet.
Sustained.
Your name is not Michael Palmer,
is it?
I don't know
what you're talking about.
Neither does the prosecution,
Your Honour.
I assure the court
this is most relevant,
and I'll connect it up momentarily.
See that you do, Mr. Matlock.
You work for the Justice Department,
don't you?
No, I sell paper goods
on commission.
You work for
the Witness Protection Programme
of the Justice Department,
don't you?
Not true.
And you set my client's husband up
with a new identity here in Atlanta,
didn't you?
None of this is true.
Then for some reason,
you needed to pull him out of this life
and place him somewhere else,
so you staged his death.
No, and your allegations
are irresponsible.
I'm not out to compromise
your operation.
All I want from you
is a little cooperation and candour
so that I can get this woman
out from under a charge of murder
which she did not commit,
and which, in fact, never occurred.
Mr. Matlock,
can you substantiate any of this?
Yes, Your Honour.
That's what I intend to do right now.
Would Dr. Weeks please stand?
This is Dr. Lewis Weeks.
Do you recognise him?
- No, I do not.
- Is that so, sir?
Didn't you go to Dr. Weeks
and identify yourself
as a government agent?
No, it is not true.
Then you told Dr. Weeks
that you were on a secret assignment,
and you ordered him not to make
his usual identification tests
on a badly burned corpse,
and to identify that corpse
as one Glen Palmer.
That's a lie.
I warn you, sir, a government agent
is not above the law,
and I will see you in prison
if you continue to perjure yourself.
Your Honour,
may I see you in chambers?
Your Honour, I demand the right
to set the record straight
and clear this innocent woman
before that man leaves the stand.
Well, I see no reason
to stop this examination. Proceed.
Thank you.
Mr. Palmer,
an employee of the federal government
has a sacred trust.
You, above all people,
must never break the law.
You know what I think?
I think the Attorney General
of the United States
would never condone
what you've done here.
I don't think your superiors
even know about it.
You took it on yourself
to break the law.
You placed a corpse
in the Palmer home,
and then you burned it.
Do you have any idea
what you're doing?
Then you framed Laurie Palmer.
You took out an insurance policy.
You filed their divorce.
In the name of justice,
you perpetrated the greatest injustice.
You took away the liberty
of an innocent person.
We are in a kind of war in this country,
Mr. Matlock,
and you may not like it,
and you may not approve,
but we have to do
whatever is necessary in order to win.
I've been at this for 1 5 years,
and I've got the scars to prove
that I put my life on the line
for what I believe in.
And what about you,
Mr. Matlock, huh?
Do you care about the years of work
that you're ruining,
the lives that you're putting
in jeopardy?
Yes, I do.
But people like you...
...will destroy this country...
...and everything it represents
in your effort to save it.
Now, let's end this charade.
Glen Palmer's alive, isn't he?
Yes.
And you do work for
the federal government, don't you?
Yes.
And you did stage
Glen Palmer's death, didn't you?
- Yes.
- One last question.
Why did you allow this woman
to be charged with murder?
I don't think that's relevant.
Answer the question, damn it.
Just once, tell the truth in this court.
Because it was the most
convincing thing we could do.
Glen was the bookkeeper
of a major drug distributor.
- We needed him for one more trial.
- You lied to me.
- Glen.
- Order. Order in the court.
Your Honour, I move that all charges
against my client be dismissed.
The prosecution joins in that motion,
Your Honour.
Motion granted. Case dismissed.
I will see the witness
and the district attorney
in my chambers in five minutes.
The deputy will take you out
the back way.
Thank you.
Laurie, wait.
Wait, I didn't know
what was happening to you, I swear.
I don't know anything about you.
I don't even know what to call you.
Well, you will. I'll tell you everything.
But most importantly, I love you.
And I'm your husband.
Yes. Yes, you are.
Well, you got your story.
Yeah. I got a bonus too.
What are you gonna do with it,
get a new car?
Hell, no. I don't need a new car.