Matlock (1986–1995): Season 7, Episode 14 - The Competition - full transcript
Bravo. That was beautiful.
Is that the piece you're
gonna play today?
I don't know. Maybe.
Hey, relax. You know
you've got the talent.
All you gotta do is relax and
it'll come shining through, right?
That's what you always say.
And that's what
always happens, isn't it?
I hate these competitions.
I know.
But you win this one, and you
get to go to the conservatory, right?
You're making such a
big deal out of this, Dad.
Because it's important.
Now, you want it, I know that.
And I want it, bad.
- I know you do.
- Yeah.
It's late. Time
for you to change.
Change?
Why can't I wear this?
The judging starts the
moment you set foot onstage,
and you're not setting foot
onstage dressed like that.
Now, young lady, go
upstairs and change.
All right, Dad.
If it'll get you off my back.
Mrs. Baldwin just
brought the judges in.
- How do they look?
- Serious.
Oh.
Juliet, you'll do
fine. You're good.
Okay. Well, it's time.
Before I give you the order
in which you'll be playing,
first let me say that Sandra and I
have had all of you in our classes,
and we think you're
all extremely talented.
And no matter what happens
today, there are no losers among you.
Good luck.
Okay.
Darling, if you're looking for the
list, I saw it on your desk at home.
Well, all right. First up
will be Karen Stryker.
Second, Laura. Third,
Becky. Fourth, Peter.
Fifth, Juliet. Uh,
sixth, Samantha.
Again, that was Juliet DeLong.
That was beautiful.
You nailed it. You
absolutely nailed it.
Nice going, Juliet.
Old Frederic himself
couldn't have played it better.
And the winner of
today's semi-final round
of the Atlanta Conservatory
Chopin Competition is:
Miss Rebecca Smith.
Juliet!
No, baby.
No. No.
No!
Oh, Ben. Ben, it's
good to see you.
Oh, Frank, I just stopped by to
say how sorry I am about Juliet.
- I know how much she meant to you.
- Oh, well, thank you.
Yeah. If there's
anything I can do...
Ben, would you come with
me for a minute, please?
Ben, I don't believe
that Juliet killed herself.
I pushed her too hard, Ben.
I know that.
But she was my daughter.
Her doing well meant
everything to me.
She had to win that competition
because she needed the scholarship
because I couldn't afford...
She was under enough pressure that
anyone might have killed themselves,
but somehow I know
she couldn't do that.
Um...
Frank, I, I know it's, it's
hard for people to accept...
When Carol was dying of
cancer, Ben, I faced that,
and when the hospital bills
left me bankrupt, I faced that.
But I will not accept that
Juliet tried to kill herself.
Help me.
- What?
- Help me to see.
Maybe she didn't.
Will you help me?
You know that girl, Juliet, that
killed herself, the piano player?
Yes.
Well, I know her father,
and he doesn't think she did.
And he wonders... He said he...
He said he could use our help.
Our help?
Well, we could go down,
you know, to the conservatory,
look around and
ask a few questions.
We?
Company.
Oh, hello. Dad, look who's here.
Hello, Ben.
Billy.
Come on in.
Well, ain't you gonna
invite me to sit down?
Billy, sit down.
Well, ain't you gonna offer
me some refreshments?
- There's popcorn.
- How about some herbal tea?
Thank you, Leanne.
You're a nice person.
Well, I got some good news.
My brother's coming to town.
- Russ?
- You remembered his name?
He said you probably wouldn't.
Well, sure, who
could forget Russ?
Russ. "Russ the Rhino"
we used to call him.
Not because he was
big, because he was fast.
Russ. He used to
love to have fun.
Fun, fun. Oh, Russ.
Be glad to see him. Russ.
Russ.
He doesn't know Leanne.
Make sure you invite her.
Invite her to what?
To the dinner party you're
throwing for him tomorrow night.
He's your brother. Why don't
you throw him a dinner party?
I don't have any
dining-room table.
Lucy took it when
she moved to Florida.
You're the one that left
her at the altar like that.
She didn't move in with Russ, no,
didn't cause him 40 years of misery.
She moved in with me.
I'll tell you what, Billy.
I'll throw him a dinner party.
Here. Tomorrow night, 6:30.
You, me, Leanne, Russ.
- How about it? Okay?
- Okay.
Billy.
On the way out the door,
don't call me a jackass.
Jackass.
Fun.
Can you think of anybody that
disliked Juliet or had it in for her?
The only enemy Juliet had
around here was herself.
Not herself, her father.
He pushed her very hard.
Sometimes it seemed she played
the piano for him, not for herself.
Sounds like she was
not a very happy person.
She sure wasn't
after the competition.
Anything?
Frank, uh...
My daughter talked to a lot
of people at the conservatory,
and she found nothing.
Nothing?
I don't think anybody
killed your daughter.
Very few people knew her.
Music was her whole life.
And you said yourself,
you pushed her too hard.
Yes, I know.
Can you let it go?
No, I can't do that. I'm
sorry, Ben. I just can't.
Well, the police found traces
of barbiturates in her body.
That's common in suicides.
Will you look in the
garage, Ben, at her car?
Frank... Ben, please.
Certainly you're entitled
to your own opinion.
Ben?
There's a phone call for you,
Ben, somebody named Billy.
Did you find anything?
Battery's not dead.
This is an older car
with an old battery.
If this car had run
out of gas here,
and the key had
been on for four hours,
the battery would be dead.
I don't think your
daughter died in this car.
I don't even think she
died in your garage.
Hi. Me again. Leanne Mclntyre.
Hi.
That was wonderful.
The "Minute Waltz,"
right? One of my favorites.
It's practically
everybody's favorite.
Mind if I ask you one
or two more questions?
Sure.
I understand you were the closest
thing Juliet had to a best friend.
That's not saying much.
Making friends
wasn't a priority for her.
I hear she didn't date much.
- Who told you that?
- Her dad.
Oh, she'd never tell her father.
But the way she acted sometimes,
you know, the
things she'd let slip,
I think there was a guy.
She just never talked about him.
How did you know it was me?
Your handwriting.
It took me a while, but I matched it
with a sample from the faculty files.
I don't make a habit of
having affairs with my students.
She's the only one.
She was very special.
How long had it been going on?
About six months.
It was all my doing. She
was never comfortable with it.
She was always terrified
that her father would find out,
or my wife would find out,
or the school would find out.
I was the one
that wouldn't let go.
Weren't you afraid
someone would find out?
I was in love with her.
When was the last
time you saw her?
At the competition.
It was the best I
ever heard her play.
She killed herself before
I had a chance to tell her.
We don't think
she killed herself.
You don't?
No.
Where were you the
morning she died?
Every Friday morning, I'm
at the music hall downtown
rehearsing with
the philharmonic.
Here. Let me play it.
It's beautiful.
She meant a great deal to me.
I was just an older man trying
to make her fall in love with me.
Oh, God, it's Sandra.
Please. She didn't know.
Michael? I tried to get your shirts,
but the dry-cleaner screwed up.
I'll have to go
back later... Oh.
Sandra Baldwin, this
is Leanne Mclntyre.
She's working on the
Juliet DeLong case.
Hello.
Frank DeLong has no one to
blame for this tragedy but himself.
Excuse me?
Pushing Juliet to
suicide like that.
It was only a piano
competition, for God's sake.
Sandra has very little patience
with stage mothers or stage fathers.
I was just telling your
husband, Juliet didn't kill herself.
At least, we don't think so.
Well, I've taken up
enough of your time.
Nice to meet you. Bye.
They're here, Dad.
Russ. RUSS: Ben.
Russ. Russ. Come in here.
- Oh, Russ. Yeah.
- Long time.
- This is my daughter, Leanne.
- Oh, nice to meet you.
- You too.
- Give me that hand.
Ow! MATLOCK: Huh? Oh.
- Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
- It's okay.
Well, you're looking good, Russ.
- I'm doing pretty good. You look fine.
- Oh, I'm just fair, fair.
I was telling...
I said, I was just
telling Leanne
how much fun we used to have.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Remember the time we knocked
over Old Man McCabe's outhouse,
and Junior McCabe
was still in it?
Well, in honor of all
the fun we used to have,
we fixed your favorite
meal, venison stew. Heh-heh.
I don't eat red meat anymore.
Oh.
Well, don't worry about
it. I'll eat around the meat.
It'll be fine.
Oh.
- Shall we?
- Yeah.
Some dinner party.
Guest of honor's a
vegetarian, and you serve meat.
- Why didn't you tell me?
- I didn't know.
It'll be fine, Billy, it'll
be fine. It'll be fine.
Is there something wrong
with your salad, Russ?
Tomatoes give me hives.
Good stew, Leanne.
Dad made it.
Kind of runny, though.
Is this zucchini?
Yeah, I always put
zucchini in stew.
It's a vegetable.
I get these little
sores in my mouth.
- Where you going?
- Get a drink of water.
- Oh, have some tea.
- Oh, caffeine makes my hands shaky.
What business are you in, Russ?
Oh, I sell commercial
vacuum cleaners.
Actually, that's the
reason I'm in town.
That's interesting.
Oh, yeah, this new model
that we have, it's a doozy.
- Russ?
- What the hell happened?
- The leg on the chair broke.
- You're trying to kill my brother.
- Oh, Billy.
- Let's just get him up.
- You okay?
- Let's just get him up.
Ooh! My back.
I must have slipped a
disk when I hit the floor.
Oh, don't worry about
it. I'll be fine. Ooh.
That's the song your
husband wrote for Juliet.
You knew about them.
I came across a rough draft of
the song in his office one day.
Then I heard Juliet
playing it before class.
I didn't wanna believe it.
Then I saw the way
he looked at her.
Kind of the way he looked
at me a long time ago.
And then I knew that she and
my husband were having an affair.
- How long have you known?
- About two months.
- And you never confronted Michael?
- No.
I'm not an easy
person to live with.
I'm opinionated,
blunt, selfish, impatient.
I can see why Michael strayed.
But he didn't leave me.
I was afraid that if I confronted him,
he would feel obliged to move out.
I didn't want that.
You still love him.
I'm very stubborn
too. Did I mention that?
Michael said that he was
rehearsing with the philharmonic
the morning that Juliet died. Do
you remember where you were?
Where I've been all week,
right here, grading blue books.
The Conservatory
Chopin Competition
always wreaks havoc
with my schedule.
Oh, speaking of which, I've
got to get over to the auditorium.
The final round
starts in 15 minutes.
Would you mind
if I tagged along?
I've never been to a
piano competition before.
Sure.
But I may not be the
best person to sit with.
I've never won one.
Here we go.
Oh, this is exciting. - Yes.
And the winner of this
year's Chopin Competition is:
Miss Rebecca Smith.
- Do you believe that?
- It wouldn't have been my choice.
- What's wrong?
- What's wrong? The girl stank.
- She wasn't that bad.
- Oh, are you kidding?
Her tempo was erratic, her
interpretation was boring.
She gave one of the
weakest performances there.
Did she really?
This is a disgrace.
Mr. Baldwin, Ben Matlock. My
daughter spoke to you yesterday.
This is Officer Wilson.
We have a warrant here, sir, which
allows us to search your garage
and examine it and its
contents for any fingerprints.
Fingerprints?
I don't understand.
Well, the police believe
that Juliet may have died
of carbon-monoxide poisoning
in somebody else's garage
and then moved to
her own garage later on.
You suspect me?
You've got it all wrong.
- I loved her.
- Leanne told me.
But since your wife
is now a suspect too...
My wife?
Why is she a sus...? No.
She didn't know about us.
- Yes, she did.
- That's not possible.
We'd like to get started, sir.
Sir, could you open the garage?
Sure.
Ohh! Ben, is that you?
Russ?
You still here? I thought
Billy took you to the doctor.
Oh, Billy came by,
but when I tried to
stand up, I just couldn't.
My back hurts so bad.
Russ, what happened?
Is it...? Is it age?
You used to be so... and funny.
Ben, that was high school.
When I entered the
world of vacuum cleaners,
I realized I just had to
develop a more serious side.
Oh.
Maybe you ought to take
some aspirin for your back.
Upsets my stomach.
Oh.
Oh, you know what? It
would be so nice, Ben,
if I could have the
phone just a little closer
so I could reschedule my
vacuum demonstrations.
Oh, ha, ha. There
you go. It just reaches.
Isn't that wonderful?
Oh, would you mind if some
of the calls were long-distance?
I forgot my credit
cards in my other pants,
and calling collect is so tacky.
Okay.
Oh, I can't quite
reach my briefcase.
I wonder if you could
move the coffee table
just a little bit
closer to the couch.
Mm-hm. Yeah. Oh.
Oh, now... Now, watch your
back. Don't you throw it out.
You'll have to buy
a second couch.
- How's that?
- You'll have to buy another couch.
I say, how's that
with the coffee table?
Well, that's fine, it's fine.
It's a little dark in here.
I wonder if you
could turn a light on.
Okay.
Hi.
Hi.
Heh. What are you doing?
Um...
Trying to figure something out.
- What?
- You.
I thought you'd given up
on that a long time ago.
You knew about Juliet?
Why didn't you say anything?
Because I didn't know
what would happen.
What if you denied it?
What if you didn't deny it?
What if you asked for a divorce?
Didn't you want a divorce?
No.
I thought if I didn't say
anything, if I didn't rock the boat,
that somehow,
maybe I could figure
out how to win you back.
Well, that's very interesting.
Because I've been sitting
here for the last three hours
trying to figure out
how to win you back.
Sandra, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Well, Michael and Sandra were doing
just what they said they were doing:
philharmonic and blue books.
- Yeah, they're not the killers.
- Yeah.
How'd you know that?
Because the police didn't find Juliet's
fingerprints anywhere in their garage.
And you had me running all
over town all day for nothing?
Why didn't you call me?
Well, I've been too busy waiting
on Russ the Rhino in there.
- Hush.
- Well, I have.
I just got done fixing dinner.
He wanted some chicken,
so I got him a bucket.
It was too greasy,
he couldn't eat it,
so I had to go to the store
and get some more and bake it.
And I had to skin it first.
- You ever heard of such a thing?
- Yeah.
Had to skin it first.
Maybe this is some kind of hateful
joke that Russ is playing on me.
We used to play
hateful jokes on people.
Maybe they're getting back at me
by having Russ play
these hateful jokes on me.
- Oh, don't talk that way.
- Well, he is.
He's hateful, he's old,
he's mean, he's nasty,
and he's hateful.
Could be worse.
Could be Billy in there.
I wish Billy was in here.
I could yell at Billy. I could
just go ahead and kill him.
Billy drives me crazy.
Russ makes me nuts.
Would you...? Stop.
I'm... Just... I'll take over.
- I got it.
- You're gonna break something. Dad.
Fine. Fine.
Well, I went to the finals
of the Chopin Competition
at the conservatory
this afternoon.
- Who won?
- Becky Smith.
That the same girl that
beat out Juliet the first time?
Yep. Frank DeLong said
she didn't deserve to win.
Said she didn't play very well.
Of course, I couldn't tell the difference.
She sounded like Van Cliburn to me.
Um...
Uh...
I'm going out
for a little while.
- Where you going?
- I'll tell you when I get back.
- Ben?
- I'll be right there, Russ!
No. No.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Hi. Hi. Ben Matlock.
I'm sorry I'm late. I had
trouble finding a place to park.
There's a lot right
across the street.
Yeah, but you have
to pay to park there.
What's going on here?
I have a plane to catch
first thing in the morning.
I know you do. That's why I
wanted to talk to you tonight.
I have a few questions
about how you judge
these competitions.
Like, yeah, well, for instance,
do all three of you have to
agree on who's the winner?
In this particular competition,
only two out of three are required.
Is that how it was today,
or did all three of you think
that Becky Smith was...?
Oh, please.
Let's not get into that again.
I'm sorry, but a 10 year
old could have played
as well as Miss Smith did today,
and the sonata she played
Tuesday, she absolutely savaged.
You just don't
like either piece.
I don't like the way
she played them.
Her fingering was awkward. She
had no sense of style or virtuosity.
- Well, the others played worse.
- They played infinitely better.
Becky Smith had no right
to win that competition.
Well, the two of us
thought differently.
Well, the two of you should
be looking for another job.
- Now, you just wait a minute.
- How dare you?
Thank you. Thank you. I just
wanted to find out how it worked,
and now I think I know.
So thank you for your
time, and good night.
And have a... Have
a pleasant, safe trip.
And again, thank
you. Good night.
I think I know.
It's pretty far-out,
but I think I know.
Now, you see, what
you gotta know is that
that works on all
kinds of carpets.
It works on, oh, pile, loop,
everything, and it dries...
It dries overnight.
Now, you feel that?
That's like pushing butter
on a hot skillet, isn't it?
Now, a baby could operate that thing.
But let me show you something else.
You see that can of
sawdust over there?
Pick it up and dump it on the
floor. Just dump it right on the floor.
Everywhere on the
floor. That's it. That's it.
- Now, get it on there good.
- Are you sure?
Now, you step on it.
Now grind it down good.
- Good, good, good. That's perfect.
- Oh, grind it down?
Okay. Okay. Now stand back,
because this puppy's gonna
suck the daylight out of this carpet.
Now, will you look at that?
Will you look at that?
Like a tornado over a
field of cotton, ain't it?
I don't mean to be a tattletale,
but Russ is grinding sawdust
into the living-room carpet.
He's been dumping dirt and
grime, every kind known to man,
in there since
9:00 this morning.
And now the vacuum is
picking up all that dirt and grime.
Well, that's good.
And you know who is
operating the vacuum cleaner?
You guessed it. Russ the Rhino.
You're kidding.
There's nothing wrong
with him or his back.
He forgot himself.
He had to be one with
the vacuum cleaner.
He flew off that couch
like he was 17 years old
on his way to knock down
Old Man McCabe's outhouse.
It was a trick.
The whole thing was a
mean, nasty, hateful trick.
- Did you talk to Becky?
- Yup.
She got an alibi?
Mm-hm. She said she was giving a
piano lesson to this kid named Kyle
over at her grandmother's house.
When I spoke to her grandmother,
she said she wasn't
sure that Becky was there,
because she had been at the
senior center that whole day.
She teaches aerobics.
Did you talk to Kyle?
Mm-hm. He said Becky
gave him a lesson,
but he also said that right
in the middle of the lesson,
she left for about 20 minutes,
said she had to make a phone call.
How far is it between
Becky's grandmother's house
and Frank DeLong's house?
Less than a five-minute drive.
- You clocked it?
- I clocked it.
Miss Smith? Hi.
You don't... You don't know me.
You don't know me, but I
know a good bit about you.
I'm Ben Matlock. Leanne
Mclntyre's my daughter.
Haven't I answered
enough questions?
Just a few more.
I spoke to Dr. Wadell.
- Who?
- Daphne Wadell.
One of the judges you paid off
to make sure you'd
win the competition.
I don't know what the
hell you're talking about.
Well, you didn't need to win that
competition for the scholarship,
but you knew you'd never get
into the conservatory fair and square
by, you know, just
good piano-playing,
so you kind of bought
your way in, didn't you?
I've heard of people being paid
off and bribed in sports and politics,
but I've never heard of it in
the arts and classical music.
If Dr. Wadell told you I
bribed her, she's lying.
Oh, no, no, no. She
didn't say anything to me.
Neither did Dr. Chomsky,
the other judge that you bribed.
Then why did you come here?
Uh, for the same
reason Juliet did.
What do you mean?
Well, Juliet probably
figured it out too
and wanted to give you a
chance to disqualify yourself
before she turned you in.
I don't know. But one
thing I do know for sure,
somehow you
drugged that poor girl
and trapped her in your
grandmother's garage
with the car running
and left her there to die.
You knew your grandmother
would be gone all day
and would never see her.
At about 2:00, you drove
the body back to Juliet's house
and staged it so it
would look like a suicide.
Around 2:00, I was in the
middle of a piano lesson.
Kyle Hinckley. I spoke to Kyle.
He said that you were
gone for a good 20 minutes.
That's more than enough time
to get to Juliet's house and back.
Not only did I bribe two judges,
but now you're saying I killed Juliet?
Juliet wasn't in your
grandmother's garage at all that day?
Of course not.
How about opening it
up? Let me take a look.
Be just a second, and
I'll be gone, promise.
Deal.
What happened in here?
What's all that blue stuff?
Police dusted for fingerprints.
Your grandmother let them in.
So if they didn't find anything,
what are you doing here?
How do you know they
didn't find anything?
Because if they had,
they'd be here, not you.
And of course, there
is nothing to find.
Oh, you cleaned this
place to a fare-thee-well.
Floors, walls,
doorknobs, everything.
Took them close to an
hour to find any prints at all.
But they didn't find
Juliet's, did they?
Yes, they did.
You missed a place.
Either you didn't see it
because the door was up
or you didn't think of it.
See that spot right there?
I guess the drugs you
gave her had worn off,
and she woke up and
started trying to open this door.
She yanked at it
with both hands,
but she was trapped,
and the car was running.
The police found six
real good, clear prints.
Speak of the devil.
Didn't finish your soup, Russ.
I didn't eat the noodles.
Got egg in them.
Oh, I'm sorry.
- Russ the Rhino.
- In here, Ben.
- Did you get the magazines?
- Oh, yeah. Models, see?
French Nites, N-I-T-E-S.
"Life as it really is on
the French Riviera."
And his own private nurse.
Oh, that's real
sweet of you, Ben.
It'll be nice to have
someone look after him.
Come in, Shirley.
This is Shirley "Jawbone
Breaker" Hawthorne.
Russ "the Rhino" Lewis
and his brother, Billy.
Charmed, I'm sure.
Her real expertise is
deep-tissue massage.
According to the
woman at the agency,
a couch-ridden person ought to get
one of these at least four times a day.
Go to it, Shirley.
Wait a minute. Wait, wait. Wait
a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa!
- No, no, no, wait, wait.
- That's right. Get in there.
Oh, no. wait, wait,
wait. Please, wait...
No, no, no. Please.
Oh, my God. Oh, no, no.
Will you wait,
please?! Oh, oh, oh, oh!
Oh, ha, ha, ha!
Actually, Ben, ha, ha,
I think I'm starting
to feel a little better.
Ha, ha, ha.
I... I might even try to sit up.
You know, I think,
as a matter of fact,
I might be able
to... To... To...
Look at that. He's
standing by himself.
You know something?
By the end of this day,
I may even be able to
kind of walk out of here.
Why wait till the end of the day?
Why not right now? Go to it, Shirley.
No! No!
Wait, wait. I'm well.
I'm well. I'm well.
Hey, Russ. Hey, Russ.
Gotcha.
Is that the piece you're
gonna play today?
I don't know. Maybe.
Hey, relax. You know
you've got the talent.
All you gotta do is relax and
it'll come shining through, right?
That's what you always say.
And that's what
always happens, isn't it?
I hate these competitions.
I know.
But you win this one, and you
get to go to the conservatory, right?
You're making such a
big deal out of this, Dad.
Because it's important.
Now, you want it, I know that.
And I want it, bad.
- I know you do.
- Yeah.
It's late. Time
for you to change.
Change?
Why can't I wear this?
The judging starts the
moment you set foot onstage,
and you're not setting foot
onstage dressed like that.
Now, young lady, go
upstairs and change.
All right, Dad.
If it'll get you off my back.
Mrs. Baldwin just
brought the judges in.
- How do they look?
- Serious.
Oh.
Juliet, you'll do
fine. You're good.
Okay. Well, it's time.
Before I give you the order
in which you'll be playing,
first let me say that Sandra and I
have had all of you in our classes,
and we think you're
all extremely talented.
And no matter what happens
today, there are no losers among you.
Good luck.
Okay.
Darling, if you're looking for the
list, I saw it on your desk at home.
Well, all right. First up
will be Karen Stryker.
Second, Laura. Third,
Becky. Fourth, Peter.
Fifth, Juliet. Uh,
sixth, Samantha.
Again, that was Juliet DeLong.
That was beautiful.
You nailed it. You
absolutely nailed it.
Nice going, Juliet.
Old Frederic himself
couldn't have played it better.
And the winner of
today's semi-final round
of the Atlanta Conservatory
Chopin Competition is:
Miss Rebecca Smith.
Juliet!
No, baby.
No. No.
No!
Oh, Ben. Ben, it's
good to see you.
Oh, Frank, I just stopped by to
say how sorry I am about Juliet.
- I know how much she meant to you.
- Oh, well, thank you.
Yeah. If there's
anything I can do...
Ben, would you come with
me for a minute, please?
Ben, I don't believe
that Juliet killed herself.
I pushed her too hard, Ben.
I know that.
But she was my daughter.
Her doing well meant
everything to me.
She had to win that competition
because she needed the scholarship
because I couldn't afford...
She was under enough pressure that
anyone might have killed themselves,
but somehow I know
she couldn't do that.
Um...
Frank, I, I know it's, it's
hard for people to accept...
When Carol was dying of
cancer, Ben, I faced that,
and when the hospital bills
left me bankrupt, I faced that.
But I will not accept that
Juliet tried to kill herself.
Help me.
- What?
- Help me to see.
Maybe she didn't.
Will you help me?
You know that girl, Juliet, that
killed herself, the piano player?
Yes.
Well, I know her father,
and he doesn't think she did.
And he wonders... He said he...
He said he could use our help.
Our help?
Well, we could go down,
you know, to the conservatory,
look around and
ask a few questions.
We?
Company.
Oh, hello. Dad, look who's here.
Hello, Ben.
Billy.
Come on in.
Well, ain't you gonna
invite me to sit down?
Billy, sit down.
Well, ain't you gonna offer
me some refreshments?
- There's popcorn.
- How about some herbal tea?
Thank you, Leanne.
You're a nice person.
Well, I got some good news.
My brother's coming to town.
- Russ?
- You remembered his name?
He said you probably wouldn't.
Well, sure, who
could forget Russ?
Russ. "Russ the Rhino"
we used to call him.
Not because he was
big, because he was fast.
Russ. He used to
love to have fun.
Fun, fun. Oh, Russ.
Be glad to see him. Russ.
Russ.
He doesn't know Leanne.
Make sure you invite her.
Invite her to what?
To the dinner party you're
throwing for him tomorrow night.
He's your brother. Why don't
you throw him a dinner party?
I don't have any
dining-room table.
Lucy took it when
she moved to Florida.
You're the one that left
her at the altar like that.
She didn't move in with Russ, no,
didn't cause him 40 years of misery.
She moved in with me.
I'll tell you what, Billy.
I'll throw him a dinner party.
Here. Tomorrow night, 6:30.
You, me, Leanne, Russ.
- How about it? Okay?
- Okay.
Billy.
On the way out the door,
don't call me a jackass.
Jackass.
Fun.
Can you think of anybody that
disliked Juliet or had it in for her?
The only enemy Juliet had
around here was herself.
Not herself, her father.
He pushed her very hard.
Sometimes it seemed she played
the piano for him, not for herself.
Sounds like she was
not a very happy person.
She sure wasn't
after the competition.
Anything?
Frank, uh...
My daughter talked to a lot
of people at the conservatory,
and she found nothing.
Nothing?
I don't think anybody
killed your daughter.
Very few people knew her.
Music was her whole life.
And you said yourself,
you pushed her too hard.
Yes, I know.
Can you let it go?
No, I can't do that. I'm
sorry, Ben. I just can't.
Well, the police found traces
of barbiturates in her body.
That's common in suicides.
Will you look in the
garage, Ben, at her car?
Frank... Ben, please.
Certainly you're entitled
to your own opinion.
Ben?
There's a phone call for you,
Ben, somebody named Billy.
Did you find anything?
Battery's not dead.
This is an older car
with an old battery.
If this car had run
out of gas here,
and the key had
been on for four hours,
the battery would be dead.
I don't think your
daughter died in this car.
I don't even think she
died in your garage.
Hi. Me again. Leanne Mclntyre.
Hi.
That was wonderful.
The "Minute Waltz,"
right? One of my favorites.
It's practically
everybody's favorite.
Mind if I ask you one
or two more questions?
Sure.
I understand you were the closest
thing Juliet had to a best friend.
That's not saying much.
Making friends
wasn't a priority for her.
I hear she didn't date much.
- Who told you that?
- Her dad.
Oh, she'd never tell her father.
But the way she acted sometimes,
you know, the
things she'd let slip,
I think there was a guy.
She just never talked about him.
How did you know it was me?
Your handwriting.
It took me a while, but I matched it
with a sample from the faculty files.
I don't make a habit of
having affairs with my students.
She's the only one.
She was very special.
How long had it been going on?
About six months.
It was all my doing. She
was never comfortable with it.
She was always terrified
that her father would find out,
or my wife would find out,
or the school would find out.
I was the one
that wouldn't let go.
Weren't you afraid
someone would find out?
I was in love with her.
When was the last
time you saw her?
At the competition.
It was the best I
ever heard her play.
She killed herself before
I had a chance to tell her.
We don't think
she killed herself.
You don't?
No.
Where were you the
morning she died?
Every Friday morning, I'm
at the music hall downtown
rehearsing with
the philharmonic.
Here. Let me play it.
It's beautiful.
She meant a great deal to me.
I was just an older man trying
to make her fall in love with me.
Oh, God, it's Sandra.
Please. She didn't know.
Michael? I tried to get your shirts,
but the dry-cleaner screwed up.
I'll have to go
back later... Oh.
Sandra Baldwin, this
is Leanne Mclntyre.
She's working on the
Juliet DeLong case.
Hello.
Frank DeLong has no one to
blame for this tragedy but himself.
Excuse me?
Pushing Juliet to
suicide like that.
It was only a piano
competition, for God's sake.
Sandra has very little patience
with stage mothers or stage fathers.
I was just telling your
husband, Juliet didn't kill herself.
At least, we don't think so.
Well, I've taken up
enough of your time.
Nice to meet you. Bye.
They're here, Dad.
Russ. RUSS: Ben.
Russ. Russ. Come in here.
- Oh, Russ. Yeah.
- Long time.
- This is my daughter, Leanne.
- Oh, nice to meet you.
- You too.
- Give me that hand.
Ow! MATLOCK: Huh? Oh.
- Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
- It's okay.
Well, you're looking good, Russ.
- I'm doing pretty good. You look fine.
- Oh, I'm just fair, fair.
I was telling...
I said, I was just
telling Leanne
how much fun we used to have.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Remember the time we knocked
over Old Man McCabe's outhouse,
and Junior McCabe
was still in it?
Well, in honor of all
the fun we used to have,
we fixed your favorite
meal, venison stew. Heh-heh.
I don't eat red meat anymore.
Oh.
Well, don't worry about
it. I'll eat around the meat.
It'll be fine.
Oh.
- Shall we?
- Yeah.
Some dinner party.
Guest of honor's a
vegetarian, and you serve meat.
- Why didn't you tell me?
- I didn't know.
It'll be fine, Billy, it'll
be fine. It'll be fine.
Is there something wrong
with your salad, Russ?
Tomatoes give me hives.
Good stew, Leanne.
Dad made it.
Kind of runny, though.
Is this zucchini?
Yeah, I always put
zucchini in stew.
It's a vegetable.
I get these little
sores in my mouth.
- Where you going?
- Get a drink of water.
- Oh, have some tea.
- Oh, caffeine makes my hands shaky.
What business are you in, Russ?
Oh, I sell commercial
vacuum cleaners.
Actually, that's the
reason I'm in town.
That's interesting.
Oh, yeah, this new model
that we have, it's a doozy.
- Russ?
- What the hell happened?
- The leg on the chair broke.
- You're trying to kill my brother.
- Oh, Billy.
- Let's just get him up.
- You okay?
- Let's just get him up.
Ooh! My back.
I must have slipped a
disk when I hit the floor.
Oh, don't worry about
it. I'll be fine. Ooh.
That's the song your
husband wrote for Juliet.
You knew about them.
I came across a rough draft of
the song in his office one day.
Then I heard Juliet
playing it before class.
I didn't wanna believe it.
Then I saw the way
he looked at her.
Kind of the way he looked
at me a long time ago.
And then I knew that she and
my husband were having an affair.
- How long have you known?
- About two months.
- And you never confronted Michael?
- No.
I'm not an easy
person to live with.
I'm opinionated,
blunt, selfish, impatient.
I can see why Michael strayed.
But he didn't leave me.
I was afraid that if I confronted him,
he would feel obliged to move out.
I didn't want that.
You still love him.
I'm very stubborn
too. Did I mention that?
Michael said that he was
rehearsing with the philharmonic
the morning that Juliet died. Do
you remember where you were?
Where I've been all week,
right here, grading blue books.
The Conservatory
Chopin Competition
always wreaks havoc
with my schedule.
Oh, speaking of which, I've
got to get over to the auditorium.
The final round
starts in 15 minutes.
Would you mind
if I tagged along?
I've never been to a
piano competition before.
Sure.
But I may not be the
best person to sit with.
I've never won one.
Here we go.
Oh, this is exciting. - Yes.
And the winner of this
year's Chopin Competition is:
Miss Rebecca Smith.
- Do you believe that?
- It wouldn't have been my choice.
- What's wrong?
- What's wrong? The girl stank.
- She wasn't that bad.
- Oh, are you kidding?
Her tempo was erratic, her
interpretation was boring.
She gave one of the
weakest performances there.
Did she really?
This is a disgrace.
Mr. Baldwin, Ben Matlock. My
daughter spoke to you yesterday.
This is Officer Wilson.
We have a warrant here, sir, which
allows us to search your garage
and examine it and its
contents for any fingerprints.
Fingerprints?
I don't understand.
Well, the police believe
that Juliet may have died
of carbon-monoxide poisoning
in somebody else's garage
and then moved to
her own garage later on.
You suspect me?
You've got it all wrong.
- I loved her.
- Leanne told me.
But since your wife
is now a suspect too...
My wife?
Why is she a sus...? No.
She didn't know about us.
- Yes, she did.
- That's not possible.
We'd like to get started, sir.
Sir, could you open the garage?
Sure.
Ohh! Ben, is that you?
Russ?
You still here? I thought
Billy took you to the doctor.
Oh, Billy came by,
but when I tried to
stand up, I just couldn't.
My back hurts so bad.
Russ, what happened?
Is it...? Is it age?
You used to be so... and funny.
Ben, that was high school.
When I entered the
world of vacuum cleaners,
I realized I just had to
develop a more serious side.
Oh.
Maybe you ought to take
some aspirin for your back.
Upsets my stomach.
Oh.
Oh, you know what? It
would be so nice, Ben,
if I could have the
phone just a little closer
so I could reschedule my
vacuum demonstrations.
Oh, ha, ha. There
you go. It just reaches.
Isn't that wonderful?
Oh, would you mind if some
of the calls were long-distance?
I forgot my credit
cards in my other pants,
and calling collect is so tacky.
Okay.
Oh, I can't quite
reach my briefcase.
I wonder if you could
move the coffee table
just a little bit
closer to the couch.
Mm-hm. Yeah. Oh.
Oh, now... Now, watch your
back. Don't you throw it out.
You'll have to buy
a second couch.
- How's that?
- You'll have to buy another couch.
I say, how's that
with the coffee table?
Well, that's fine, it's fine.
It's a little dark in here.
I wonder if you
could turn a light on.
Okay.
Hi.
Hi.
Heh. What are you doing?
Um...
Trying to figure something out.
- What?
- You.
I thought you'd given up
on that a long time ago.
You knew about Juliet?
Why didn't you say anything?
Because I didn't know
what would happen.
What if you denied it?
What if you didn't deny it?
What if you asked for a divorce?
Didn't you want a divorce?
No.
I thought if I didn't say
anything, if I didn't rock the boat,
that somehow,
maybe I could figure
out how to win you back.
Well, that's very interesting.
Because I've been sitting
here for the last three hours
trying to figure out
how to win you back.
Sandra, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Well, Michael and Sandra were doing
just what they said they were doing:
philharmonic and blue books.
- Yeah, they're not the killers.
- Yeah.
How'd you know that?
Because the police didn't find Juliet's
fingerprints anywhere in their garage.
And you had me running all
over town all day for nothing?
Why didn't you call me?
Well, I've been too busy waiting
on Russ the Rhino in there.
- Hush.
- Well, I have.
I just got done fixing dinner.
He wanted some chicken,
so I got him a bucket.
It was too greasy,
he couldn't eat it,
so I had to go to the store
and get some more and bake it.
And I had to skin it first.
- You ever heard of such a thing?
- Yeah.
Had to skin it first.
Maybe this is some kind of hateful
joke that Russ is playing on me.
We used to play
hateful jokes on people.
Maybe they're getting back at me
by having Russ play
these hateful jokes on me.
- Oh, don't talk that way.
- Well, he is.
He's hateful, he's old,
he's mean, he's nasty,
and he's hateful.
Could be worse.
Could be Billy in there.
I wish Billy was in here.
I could yell at Billy. I could
just go ahead and kill him.
Billy drives me crazy.
Russ makes me nuts.
Would you...? Stop.
I'm... Just... I'll take over.
- I got it.
- You're gonna break something. Dad.
Fine. Fine.
Well, I went to the finals
of the Chopin Competition
at the conservatory
this afternoon.
- Who won?
- Becky Smith.
That the same girl that
beat out Juliet the first time?
Yep. Frank DeLong said
she didn't deserve to win.
Said she didn't play very well.
Of course, I couldn't tell the difference.
She sounded like Van Cliburn to me.
Um...
Uh...
I'm going out
for a little while.
- Where you going?
- I'll tell you when I get back.
- Ben?
- I'll be right there, Russ!
No. No.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Hi. Hi. Ben Matlock.
I'm sorry I'm late. I had
trouble finding a place to park.
There's a lot right
across the street.
Yeah, but you have
to pay to park there.
What's going on here?
I have a plane to catch
first thing in the morning.
I know you do. That's why I
wanted to talk to you tonight.
I have a few questions
about how you judge
these competitions.
Like, yeah, well, for instance,
do all three of you have to
agree on who's the winner?
In this particular competition,
only two out of three are required.
Is that how it was today,
or did all three of you think
that Becky Smith was...?
Oh, please.
Let's not get into that again.
I'm sorry, but a 10 year
old could have played
as well as Miss Smith did today,
and the sonata she played
Tuesday, she absolutely savaged.
You just don't
like either piece.
I don't like the way
she played them.
Her fingering was awkward. She
had no sense of style or virtuosity.
- Well, the others played worse.
- They played infinitely better.
Becky Smith had no right
to win that competition.
Well, the two of us
thought differently.
Well, the two of you should
be looking for another job.
- Now, you just wait a minute.
- How dare you?
Thank you. Thank you. I just
wanted to find out how it worked,
and now I think I know.
So thank you for your
time, and good night.
And have a... Have
a pleasant, safe trip.
And again, thank
you. Good night.
I think I know.
It's pretty far-out,
but I think I know.
Now, you see, what
you gotta know is that
that works on all
kinds of carpets.
It works on, oh, pile, loop,
everything, and it dries...
It dries overnight.
Now, you feel that?
That's like pushing butter
on a hot skillet, isn't it?
Now, a baby could operate that thing.
But let me show you something else.
You see that can of
sawdust over there?
Pick it up and dump it on the
floor. Just dump it right on the floor.
Everywhere on the
floor. That's it. That's it.
- Now, get it on there good.
- Are you sure?
Now, you step on it.
Now grind it down good.
- Good, good, good. That's perfect.
- Oh, grind it down?
Okay. Okay. Now stand back,
because this puppy's gonna
suck the daylight out of this carpet.
Now, will you look at that?
Will you look at that?
Like a tornado over a
field of cotton, ain't it?
I don't mean to be a tattletale,
but Russ is grinding sawdust
into the living-room carpet.
He's been dumping dirt and
grime, every kind known to man,
in there since
9:00 this morning.
And now the vacuum is
picking up all that dirt and grime.
Well, that's good.
And you know who is
operating the vacuum cleaner?
You guessed it. Russ the Rhino.
You're kidding.
There's nothing wrong
with him or his back.
He forgot himself.
He had to be one with
the vacuum cleaner.
He flew off that couch
like he was 17 years old
on his way to knock down
Old Man McCabe's outhouse.
It was a trick.
The whole thing was a
mean, nasty, hateful trick.
- Did you talk to Becky?
- Yup.
She got an alibi?
Mm-hm. She said she was giving a
piano lesson to this kid named Kyle
over at her grandmother's house.
When I spoke to her grandmother,
she said she wasn't
sure that Becky was there,
because she had been at the
senior center that whole day.
She teaches aerobics.
Did you talk to Kyle?
Mm-hm. He said Becky
gave him a lesson,
but he also said that right
in the middle of the lesson,
she left for about 20 minutes,
said she had to make a phone call.
How far is it between
Becky's grandmother's house
and Frank DeLong's house?
Less than a five-minute drive.
- You clocked it?
- I clocked it.
Miss Smith? Hi.
You don't... You don't know me.
You don't know me, but I
know a good bit about you.
I'm Ben Matlock. Leanne
Mclntyre's my daughter.
Haven't I answered
enough questions?
Just a few more.
I spoke to Dr. Wadell.
- Who?
- Daphne Wadell.
One of the judges you paid off
to make sure you'd
win the competition.
I don't know what the
hell you're talking about.
Well, you didn't need to win that
competition for the scholarship,
but you knew you'd never get
into the conservatory fair and square
by, you know, just
good piano-playing,
so you kind of bought
your way in, didn't you?
I've heard of people being paid
off and bribed in sports and politics,
but I've never heard of it in
the arts and classical music.
If Dr. Wadell told you I
bribed her, she's lying.
Oh, no, no, no. She
didn't say anything to me.
Neither did Dr. Chomsky,
the other judge that you bribed.
Then why did you come here?
Uh, for the same
reason Juliet did.
What do you mean?
Well, Juliet probably
figured it out too
and wanted to give you a
chance to disqualify yourself
before she turned you in.
I don't know. But one
thing I do know for sure,
somehow you
drugged that poor girl
and trapped her in your
grandmother's garage
with the car running
and left her there to die.
You knew your grandmother
would be gone all day
and would never see her.
At about 2:00, you drove
the body back to Juliet's house
and staged it so it
would look like a suicide.
Around 2:00, I was in the
middle of a piano lesson.
Kyle Hinckley. I spoke to Kyle.
He said that you were
gone for a good 20 minutes.
That's more than enough time
to get to Juliet's house and back.
Not only did I bribe two judges,
but now you're saying I killed Juliet?
Juliet wasn't in your
grandmother's garage at all that day?
Of course not.
How about opening it
up? Let me take a look.
Be just a second, and
I'll be gone, promise.
Deal.
What happened in here?
What's all that blue stuff?
Police dusted for fingerprints.
Your grandmother let them in.
So if they didn't find anything,
what are you doing here?
How do you know they
didn't find anything?
Because if they had,
they'd be here, not you.
And of course, there
is nothing to find.
Oh, you cleaned this
place to a fare-thee-well.
Floors, walls,
doorknobs, everything.
Took them close to an
hour to find any prints at all.
But they didn't find
Juliet's, did they?
Yes, they did.
You missed a place.
Either you didn't see it
because the door was up
or you didn't think of it.
See that spot right there?
I guess the drugs you
gave her had worn off,
and she woke up and
started trying to open this door.
She yanked at it
with both hands,
but she was trapped,
and the car was running.
The police found six
real good, clear prints.
Speak of the devil.
Didn't finish your soup, Russ.
I didn't eat the noodles.
Got egg in them.
Oh, I'm sorry.
- Russ the Rhino.
- In here, Ben.
- Did you get the magazines?
- Oh, yeah. Models, see?
French Nites, N-I-T-E-S.
"Life as it really is on
the French Riviera."
And his own private nurse.
Oh, that's real
sweet of you, Ben.
It'll be nice to have
someone look after him.
Come in, Shirley.
This is Shirley "Jawbone
Breaker" Hawthorne.
Russ "the Rhino" Lewis
and his brother, Billy.
Charmed, I'm sure.
Her real expertise is
deep-tissue massage.
According to the
woman at the agency,
a couch-ridden person ought to get
one of these at least four times a day.
Go to it, Shirley.
Wait a minute. Wait, wait. Wait
a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa!
- No, no, no, wait, wait.
- That's right. Get in there.
Oh, no. wait, wait,
wait. Please, wait...
No, no, no. Please.
Oh, my God. Oh, no, no.
Will you wait,
please?! Oh, oh, oh, oh!
Oh, ha, ha, ha!
Actually, Ben, ha, ha,
I think I'm starting
to feel a little better.
Ha, ha, ha.
I... I might even try to sit up.
You know, I think,
as a matter of fact,
I might be able
to... To... To...
Look at that. He's
standing by himself.
You know something?
By the end of this day,
I may even be able to
kind of walk out of here.
Why wait till the end of the day?
Why not right now? Go to it, Shirley.
No! No!
Wait, wait. I'm well.
I'm well. I'm well.
Hey, Russ. Hey, Russ.
Gotcha.