Quincy M.E. (1976–1983): Season 8, Episode 13 - Cry for Help - full transcript
Five or six students from
your school committed
suicide over the past two years?
Probably more.
This kid is going to spend
the rest of his life behind bars!
She killed herself.
That teenage suicide has
reached epidemic proportions.
Well, for my money, he did it.
He is a sick, dangerous person.
She wanted to do it.
That was her business.
Maybe she's better off now.
Am I wrong, Em,
or are kids beginning to
kill themselves in droves?
I'm going to get a search warrant. I
want you guys to check out his van.
You better call
Lieutenant Monahan.
It looks like Joby Kenyon
has some explaining to do.
Gentlemen, you
are about to enter
the most fascinating
sphere of police work,
the world of forensic medicine.
Could I speak to
Hale Bonner, please?
This is his daughter, Julie.
Would you tell him it's important?
That I got to talk to him right now?
DataPac is slipping already...
I think the profit takers
are already on the move...
I'd advise you to unload it.
It's now or never.
Just a sec. Yes, what is it?
Your daughter,
Julie, is on line two.
Bradley? Listen,
while you think about it,
I've got another call.
I'll put you on hold
and be right back.
Julie, honey, what's up?
I need to talk to you, Dad.
Do you have a minute?
Oh, boy... Sweetheart,
you have a knack
for picking the wrong
times to call. Is it important?
Well, kind of...
Where are you?
- I'm at a pay phone...
- Can I call you back?
Dad? Did you hear me?
Oh, no. Julie, listen.
I've got to put you on hold,
something just came up.
Bradley, it's down a
point. We'd better move.
It's two. Come on, move.
Good-bye, Dad.
Hey. What happened?
He put me on hold.
Can you believe it?
That's the story of my life.
Well, what do you want to do?
Like we talked about.
Julie,
are you sure that's
what you want?
It's the only answer!
One second of pain, and
then our troubles are all over!
We can be together forever.
Life's a bummer. Joby,
let's just do it our way.
If you've covered it from
this angle let me know.
Right, Quince.
Where is she?
Julie...
- I'm her father.
- You can't go to her now.
- We're still taking pictures.
- Pictures?
Lieutenant Monahan.
We need a video-tape to
help with the investigation.
Lieutenant Monahan.
This is the father.
Who did it?
- Please, sir. You can't do any good here.
- Come with us!
Quince, you can
turn her over now.
Eddie.
Make sure you get some
tight shots on that bloodstain.
It's very strange.
How come?
In the position we found her in,
the blood should have
flowed to her right arm.
Instead it flowed to her left.
That means the blood
would have had to run uphill.
Mr. Bonner? Joby Kenyon...
You don't have
an address on him?
No...
My daughter met him in school.
They were dating, they
spent a lot of time together.
He might know something.
Was he with your daughter
when she called you?
I don't know, she didn't say.
I don't even know where she
called from, it was a pay phone.
And I... I put her on hold.
Couldn't even take
time to talk to her.
I put my own daughter
on hold and now...
Mr. Bonner, we'll have
someone take you home.
You shouldn't be driving now.
Brill.
We'll get the
person who did this.
Mr. Bonner.
Joby!
Joby! Joby!
Joby, there are some
people here to see you.
- People?
- Mmm-hmm.
The police.
What's it all about?
How should I know?
I would think if
something's happened
that brings the police to see you,
you would at least have an idea.
Well, I don't.
Joby, are you in trouble again?
Look, I told you.
I don't know what all
this is about. All right?
Don't you ever believe me?
I don't know why they're here.
All right.
Let's just go and
see what it's all about.
I can't believe it...
I can't believe it...
We think you might have been
one of the last people to see her alive.
I should never have
let her get out of the van.
What happened?
Um...
We had a fight.
Actually...
We'd been fighting
for a couple of days,
I don't know.
Nothing was going right.
So finally I got really mad
I stopped the van and
I told her she could hitchhike
back to Los Angeles...
And left her there on
the side of the road.
Oh, Julie... I'm sorry.
I think this is
everything, Lieutenant.
Thanks.
Brill, would you give her
a receipt for this, please.
Here, write it down.
Okay. Is this everything
you were wearing yesterday?
Yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah.
Oh, that watch. You
were wearing the watch?
Yeah.
Could I have it, please?
Sure, but...
Why?
Because I have to have everything
you were wearing at that time.
Please.
Thank you, son.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Looks like I was right, Sam.
The body was moved, all right.
There are two lividity patterns.
The one on her right
side is the strongest.
That's the position
we found her in...
But from this weaker pattern, it
looks like she died on her left side
and stayed in that
position for at least an hour.
Uh-huh.
So maybe she died on
that roadside and maybe not.
I don't think so.
There was hardly
any blood at the site.
If she died there I would have
expected to see more blood.
Are there X-rays?
Right here.
And there it is.
- Looks like a .38 caliber.
- Yeah.
It's lodged in the spine at the
bottom of the fifth thoracic vertebra.
With that positioning,
it would have hit the left
atrium or possibly the aortic arch.
Either way it would be lethal.
Hi, Quincy, Sam.
What brings you here?
- You figure out if
the body was moved?
- Yeah...
Lividity patterns showed it was.
She didn't die anywhere
near that roadside site.
That's what I thought.
I just got a report from
the police crime lab.
The watchband that belongs
to that kid, Joby Kenyon?
It had all kinds of dried
blood between the spans.
I'm getting a search warrant...
I'd like you to check out that van.
Okay.
Joby.
Joby, you can't just
sit in there all day...
You have to eat!
All right. You
leave me no choice.
I'm calling your father.
Do you hear me?
Maybe your father can talk
some sense into your head.
Of course, that's assuming
I can even find him.
God knows what part of the
country he might be in this week.
Joby?
All right, that's it.
I'm calling him now.
Good luck.
So far there's nothing
here that's suspicious.
It's the cleanest van I've
ever seen for a teenager.
Yeah... Almost too clean.
Where do you have the
trace blood detection spray?
Back here in the case.
This van really
was scrubbed clean.
Maybe because there was
something to scrub away.
If there was any bloodshed
here, this should bring it out.
Is it damp?
No, it appears to be dry. But it's
been pretty hot the last few days.
It would dry out quickly.
That won't affect
the benzedine spray.
If there was blood
on that carpet,
the hemoglobin will still be
detectable and bring it out.
Let's see what we get.
So far nothing.
You better call
Lieutenant Monahan.
It looks like Joby Kenyon
has some explaining to do.
Rotten, lying, little punk,
you killed my little girl!
Mr. Bonner you're
going to have to leave.
- Get out!
- Okay, I'm going.
But I'll tell you this,
I'm going to make sure
the DA files charges.
This kid is going to spend
the rest of his life behind bars!
Hey, all right!
You told one story, now
you're telling another.
Let's have the whole
story from the top, okay?
And the truth this time.
Like I said.
We were fighting a lot...
Nothing was working right.
Not just between us...
Nothing in our whole lives.
Sometimes...
It gets so there's no hope.
Hope for what?
For anything.
Everything is like
a long dark tunnel
and there's no end to it.
You just keep
walking in the dark.
You wouldn't understand.
You don't know what it's like.
What happened in the van?
I'm trying to tell you.
It's all connected.
And I guess it
started a while ago...
The beginning of the semester.
A friend of ours...
A girl Julie knew
for a long time...
She killed herself.
Jumped off MacMurtrie Hall.
That's about five or six of off
MacMurtrie in the past couple of years.
It's getting famous.
Five or six students from
your school committed
suicide over the past two years?
Probably more than that.
That's just the
ones off MacMurtrie.
But I never knew any of
them... Unil this girl Cathy.
That's when Julie
started talking about it.
About what?
About killing herself.
Like Cathy.
You know. Cathy, the girl
who had everything to live for?
I guess Julie figured
if Cathy couldn't make it,
what chance did she have?
So from that point on that's
all she could talk about.
Dying.
When she talked like that
what did you say?
I thought she was right.
So what happened then?
I found a gun. Honest to God
I just found it
in the hills behind campus
and I showed it to Julie
and she really got off on that.
She said it was like a sign
like it was meant
to be, you know?
To make it easy to kill herself.
And that's what she did.
In the van.
She had the gun
pointed at her chest
and
I didn't want her to
do it. You know I...
I yelled at her to stop
but she closed her eyes and
shook her head...
I reached out to
grab the gun, take
it away from her...
And, uh,
she pulled the trigger.
There was blood
all over the place.
I've never seem so much blood.
Why did you dump the body?
I guess I panicked.
I thought it'd be better
if it seemed like she was
hitchhiking and somebody killed her.
So you ditched the gun
and cleaned up the van.
Yeah, right.
I remember
I was really scared.
Joby, aren't you scared now?
No. No.
There's nothing to
be scared of now.
Whatever you do to
me, it doesn't matter.
Okay, Joby. You can go home.
But please be available
for any further questioning.
Yeah, sure.
Well, for my money, he did it.
You think he's lying?
He just doesn't seem like
the type of kid to kill somebody.
Oh, come on, Quincy.
That's hardly proof.
You said you found her
fingerprints all over the gun.
Her thumb print was on the
trigger. She had to have fired the gun!
He could've wiped the gun
and pressed her hand around it.
We found gunshot
residue on her hands.
With a shot fired
that close to her
there could be residue
on either one of them
no matter who did the firing.
I think the DA will
file this one, Quince.
I don't know, honey, there
was something in his voice...
A sense of despair,
of utter hopelessness...
He wasn't fighting,
he wasn't trying to convince
us he was telling the truth...
He was just disintered.
It seemed so out of
place in a young person.
How old could he be?
Eighteen, nineteen?
A healthy young
kid, good-looking,
comes from a good family,
you'd think he had
everything to live for.
But all he could see
in life is that it is bleak.
When he told me about those kids
that had jumped from this one
building... What's going on here?
Am I wrong, Em,
or are kids beginning to
kill themselves in droves?
I don't know, Quince. It's
probably worse than you imagine.
I'm not a suicidologist,
but I know that teenage suicide
has reached epidemic proportions.
Do you know it's the third leading
cause of death among adolescents?
Wow. Why are these
kids killing themselves?
Has the modern world
become so alienating
that it drives them to despair?
Is it fear of nuclear holocaust?
The bleak economic situation?
Or the breakdown of the family...
The decline of the church...
Or a combination
of all of the above?
I don't know. It's a
complex issue, Quince...
And there's no
single simple answer.
There's a lot for young
people to cope with these days,
and a lot of the traditional support
systems aren't there anymore.
But drugs and alcohol are.
That's right.
And they sure don't
help the situation any.
- Would you get me
that mister over there?
- Yeah.
Adolescence is always
a rough time for kids...
Their bodies are changing,
their feelings are changing...
It gets to be pretty
overwhelming.
I sure wouldn't want
to go through it again.
Me neither.
It felt so sad and painful
and lonely at times.
- Okay, just wipe those
leaves for me, honey.
- Okay.
But what it's hard for
young people to realize
is that a certain amount of
those feelings are normal,
and that by coping with
them, working them through,
we're learning how
to deal with pain
and sadness and
loneliness that we have
which is a normal part of life.
But if you try to mask
that pain with drugs,
or alcohol and just get so
high that we don't feel anything,
then you never learn to
cope with bad feelings.
The end is never in sight.
That's how Joby said it...
A long, dark tunnel
with no end to it.
Maybe Julie tried to
make her own end.
- Maybe.
- What do you mean, maybe?
Maybe the young
man is lying again.
After all, he concocted a pretty
convincing story the first time around...
Yeah, that's important, right?
We need to find out whether
or not that boy is telling the truth.
Okay?
Quince...
Are you leading up to something?
Yes. I was wondering, Em,
could you do a
psychological autopsy for me?
Oh, Quincy... I'd like to.
I just don't know if I could
give it the time it deserves...
Okay. I'm just thinking
of myself I guess.
Besides, you should call
the Suicide Prevention Center.
I worked there for about a
year and they have a terrific staff.
Yeah, I'll tell Asten to call.
And I have someone
who'll do the job.
I just hope they're experienced. I
want a good thorough job on this.
Oh, I think you'll be pleased
with this person's qualifications.
Who is it?
Emily Hanover.
Wait a minute... I already
asked her and she said no!
I called the SPC and the person on
their staff that usually works with us
is on leave for a month.
They recommended Emily.
Yeah, but she's too busy
right now. She told me so!
She did say she
was under pressure,
but that she wanted to
cooperate with the department
so she'd rearrange her
schedule. Isn't she terrific?
- She did, did she?
- Yeah.
I'm glad.
That's who I wanted
in the first place.
I'm glad.
Emily, I just asked
him, and you...
You... Me...
What happened?
When I ask you to do
the psychological autopsy,
you say you're busy.
Asten asks you
and you get un-busy.
Oh, Quincy, don't act like that.
When you asked
me, it was as a favor.
Dr. Asten made
an official request.
Oh, so a request
made out of friendship
doesn't carry as much
weight as one that's official?
No, that isn't it at all...
Quincy, you know what a
psychological autopsy is like
there are interviews with
deep, probing questions.
It isn't right to enter into
something as sensitive as
that unless there's
official sanction.
And besides, if this
had been any other case,
I wouldn't have taken it.
It was only because it was yours
and I knew it was
important to you
that I even considered it.
So, you see?
So it really was your
request I was responding to.
- Okay?
- Okay.
- I just want to
know one thing.
- What?
You know that trip to Catalina
we keep trying to make?
And you keep putting off
because you're so busy?
Yes.
You suppose if I
asked Asten about that
he'd give you official
sanction for that, too?
You might give it a try.
I will. Believe me, I will!
Bye, bye.
Did Julie ever write
any letters to you?
Letters?
What's that got to
do with anything?
It might help me
understand her a little better.
Joby, I'm trying to help you.
If Julie was suicidal, any
clue that I can uncover
that would support
that is to your benefit.
Nobody's gonna believe me
anyway, so what's the point?
If you're worried because
the letters are personal...
I promise you they
wouldn't become public.
They're only for evaluation.
Okay, you want letters?
For evaluation? Okay.
You can have letters.
Here.
A few notes.
Julie wasn't too
big on love letters.
You miss her a lot, don't you?
Yeah.
She was my only friend.
We could talk.
I understand.
It must be rough.
Yeah, well, um...
Don't worry about me.
I'll be fine.
Mr. Bonner,
I've read some letters
your daughter wrote to Joby.
And I must say
they concern me...
In my judgment
she was a severly
depressed young woman.
If she was, it was because
he made her life miserable.
She seems to have been deeply
affected by the death of a friend, Cathy.
Did she ever mention it?
Well, yes... Cathy was
a crazy kid, I never
did approve of her.
In these letters,
she refers to some
automobile accidents she had.
Oh, boy, did she.
In the last three or four months
she must have been in some
kind of scrape every other week.
Mostly dings and scratches...
But it seemed like she was
determined to wipe out that car.
Did it ever strike you as odd
that she was suddenly
involved in a spate of accidents?
Struck me as stupid
and irresponsible.
I even told her, I'd take
that car away from her.
Then she stopped talking to me. She
wouldn't even answer my phone calls.
You mean, she stopped
communicating all together?
Yes, that's right.
Mr. Bonner,
sometimes
with behavior like that
withdrawal or isolation,
self-destruction,
that can be indicative
of a much larger problem.
What are we trying
to say here, Doctor?
What I'm saying, Mr. Bonner,
is that your daughter seemed
to have been laying clues.
Clues that were overlooked.
About her feelings.
About her despair.
Okay, just hold it, Doctor.
Let me tell you something.
You're way off the track.
Julie had
everything to live for.
She was pretty and
she was popular.
And everybody
loved her. She was...
A wonderful happy child.
Till that boy came along.
I found some things
about him, let me tell you.
He is an intense, volatile young man
given to enormous eruptions of rage.
His mood swings are so extreme
that he is frightening to
the people around him.
Doctor, he is a sick,
dangerous person.
I don't exactly know what to
tell you about Julie, Doctor.
I didn't really
know her that well.
I thought you were
her best friends.
That's what she
said in her letters.
If we were her best friends,
then she didn't have any.
You wouldn't describe
her as popular?
No way.
I mean, she was
nice enough and all.
But she didn't let
people get too close.
She was kind of a loner.
- Did you know Joby, too?
- Kind of.
They spent all their time
together after a while.
And during that time...
How did Julie seem?
What was her mood?
- She got weird -Weird?
Yeah... It's hard to
describe, exactly...
It was sort of like she wasn't
here at all, if you know what I mean.
Withdrawn? Uncommunicative?
Yeah... And cutting class a lot.
Sleeping all the time.
Did Julie ever make any kind
of self-destructive statement?
Like wanting to end it all...
No reason to go on living?
Anything like that?
Practically every day.
- Every day?
- It got to be a broken record.
One day one of the girls in the
dorm told her to stop talking about it
and just do it.
After that, she didn't
mention it again.
Did anyone ever suggest she
talk to someone about her feelings?
A teacher, a counselor?
Nobody took her seriously.
It was just talk.
Anyway, if she wanted to
do it, that was her business.
You really mean that?
Sure.
Maybe she's better off now.
Well, right up there.
MacMurtrie Hall.
I don't like that building.
It gives me a strange feeling.
Old Jumpers' Heaven?
It's a gas!
Julie Bonner... She's in my...
Introduction to Western
Philosophy that's
10:00 a.m. Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday.
Was, Dr. Emison.
Julie Bonner is dead.
- Dead?
- Yes.
I'm so sorry, what happened?
We're not sure.
My office is doing an
investigation to figure that out.
She may have committed suicide
or she may have been murdered.
Oh, no...
I'm here to get her grade
record for the second semester.
Certainly. Let me
check it for you.
She was doing well
the first semester.
She was pulling down
a high "B" average.
She seems to have
gone into a slump here.
A "D" an "F" and a...
A no-show on three quizzes.
Isn't that kind of unusual?
For a high "B" student to
take a nose-dive like that?
Yes... But it happens.
Their first year in college, they
have so many of ups and downs.
So many things can
affect their grades.
But Julie was a good student,
she was a responsible student.
And suddenly she's
getting D's and F's
didn't that make you wonder why?
Dr. Quincy, you have to realize
I didn't even notice that
her grades had slipped.
Why not?
Look around you.
This room holds
upwards of 200 students.
In my Introduction to Philosophy
course, there are about
eighty-five enrolled,
plus another dozen
or so auditing.
That's one class.
Then there's Beginning Logic,
Philosophies and
Religions of the World,
Contemporary Thought...
Each has around
a hundred students.
I also have an honors seminar
and several tutorials.
So you see Dr. Quincy, I really
don't have time to get involved
with the freshman students.
Nor to get involved in
their ups and downs.
You know...
When I went to school,
my teachers did know me.
Cared about me.
Would have noticed if my
grades suddenly went down
and would have called me in
to see what was wrong.
When you were a student,
that was probably true.
But, you know?
This is really a
very small class.
- Small?
- Mmm-hmm.
At some major
universities in this country,
they have classes with
over five hundred students
that means the professor sees
nothing more than a mass of faces.
I feel very lucky, because
I get the chance to
know the upper classmen.
So,
if a freshman gets in
some kind of trouble
whether it's emotional
or scholastic,
he or she is just out of luck.
They can always ask for help.
Yeah.
I think Julie was
asking for help.
Only nobody noticed.
You know, when you first asked
me to help you I was going to say no.
Because I was afraid I'd say the
wrong thing, I'd do the wrong thing
I have no expertise
in this field.
But you said all I had to do
was listen and I did, and...
I sure found out a lot.
For instance,
every single one of her
grades, at every class,
took a nose dive. That should've
told somebody something.
It sure should've.
Any drastic change in
behavior like that is a red flag.
Good grades turning bad...
Bad grades turning good.
A thin child
putting on weight...
A fat child losing weight.
Any drastic change in behavior
should tell somebody something.
Seems like Julie had
thrown up a lot of red flags.
Absolutely.
She was in trouble, and no one
seems to have picked up on it.
The reaction to her
ranged from the
indifferent to the confused.
She threatened to kill herself,
but no one seemed to
know quite what to do or say
so they just ignored her.
Or laughed it off.
So you're saying we
do have a suicide here?
I'd say it's an
almost classic case.
Here we have a loner
whose family is
blind to the problem.
A young woman who has
suffered the loss of her mother.
Who made
constant and specific
references to suicide...
Who was increasingly withdrawn,
spiralling into a depression
that became so enveloping
that she couldn't see any way
out of it except to end her life.
And that's what you recommend
as the official mode of death?
I'm sure of it.
And what about Joby?
Well, Quince.
From Julie's letters,
I suspect they
had a suicide pact.
That they planned
to die together
but, for some reason,
Joby couldn't do it.
They were two troubled kids
who fed off each
other's sickness.
Now, Joby's had the
awful shock of Julie's death
plus being accused
of her murder.
These are terrible pressures, hard
for even a happy, healthy person.
Is he in trouble?
Big trouble.
Nobody responded to Julie Bonner
and now she's dead.
And unless we do something,
we may very well lose Joby, too.
Hi.
Yeah, it's Joby.
I thought I'd give you a
call because, you know...
I'm in town for spring vacation,
thought you want to
go over the old times.
Well, I...
I sense you're busy, so...
Maybe I'll try some
other time, okay?
In ten seconds
At the tone the time will be
three, fifteen, and
twenty seconds.
I have tried to talk to him.
He never listens to me.
I think you should come over.
I hadn't called you if I didn't...
All right.
Fine.
Bye.
Dr. Hanover.
Hello, Mrs. Kenyon.
Please forgive me for
bothering you at this time of night.
That's all right...
Won't you come in?
Thank you.
I...
I'm here because I
wanted to see Joby.
Joby?
Is anything wrong?
Well...
First of all, Dr. Quincy
has determined
that the mode of death
for Julie Bonner is suicide.
There won't be charges
filed against Joby.
Oh, that's good news!
Maybe that will
make him come out.
What do you mean?
Joby's locked
himself in his room.
He won't come out
and he won't answer.
He just sits in there,
sometimes playing his drums...
How long has he been in there?
For two days.
I...
I think we'd better
get that door opened.
Joby.
Please, open the door.
Dr. Hanover is here...
Joby.
Please, let me talk to you.
Joby?
Dr. Quincy, where
is this leading us?
What we've done,
with the help of a
qualified psychiatrist,
is to put together a portrait
of your daughter's emotional
condition in the months before she died.
What she did, what she felt,
what she said to the
closest people around her.
We've tried to recreate her
mood as accurately as possible.
And?
It is our determination that
your daughter took her own life.
I know you don't want to believe
that. It's a hard thing to accept.
But I can't let you carry on a
vendetta against an innocent boy.
Let go of it, Mr. Bonner. Stop
looking to put the blame somewhere.
Do you know what you're saying?
If Joby wasn't responsible
for my daughter's death,
then I am!
No, thank you,
Doctor. I won't let go.
Please.
Don't put on
blinders, Mr. Bonner.
Maybe some of your other children.
Are sending you messages, too.
Quincy, Emily just called.
Joby is gone. He
left a suicide note.
I bet get over there right away.
I'll put an APB out.
- Yes?
- I'm Dr. Quincy.
I'm with the Coroner's office.
Joby's mother.
- How do you do?
- Sarah Kenyon.
- Have you heard anything?
- No, sorry.
- Quince!
- Excuse me.
Oh, Quince. I'm glad to see you!
This is Joby's
father, Judd Kenyon.
Hi. How do you do, sir?
Lieutenant Monahan has
put out an APB on Joby.
The note...
Did it say where he was
going? What he intended to do?
Just that he couldn't
take it anymore
and wanted to make it
easier for everybody by...
By dying.
Sarah.
Easy. Hang in there.
Easy enough for you to say!
You haven't been here
with him day after day,
trying to cope!
You were never here, I
had to handle everything!
Sarah... We have our
problems. We always have had.
But now, more than ever,
we need to pull together.
Help each other.
Let's put our squabbles
aside for now. For Joby's sake.
- Come on.
- Sobbing.
Hey!
It's the only answer!
One second of pain, and
then our troubles are all over!
We can be together forever.
No hassles!
Life's a bummer.
Joby, let's just do it our way.
Could I make anyone a coffee?
No, thank you.
Can't we go out, look somewhere?
This sitting around
is driving me crazy.
We've tried all the friends you
mentioned and one's seen him.
Can you think of any
place else he might go?
I don't know... I can't think.
Em...
What about where Julie
died? Would he go there?
Oh, Quince. That's a thought.
I'll call Monahan.
Yes?
Yes.
Where?
Right away. Thank you.
They spotted Joby.
I'm glad you're here.
I'm afraid I haven't
been much help.
He won't even let me near him.
Judd, you talk to him.
If he'll listen to
anyone, it's you.
I'm scared.
You'll be fine.
Just remember what
I've been telling you.
Hey, Dad.
How's it goin'?
Okay, Joby.
How's it going with you?
Well,
I seem to be causing
quite a ruckus down there.
You must be feeling pretty bad.
I'm surprised that you bothered
to come all the way here.
Surprised?
I...
Well, I guess I can
understand that.
But it still makes me
pretty sad to hear you say it.
It shows how
much we don't understand
about each other.
I thought about that
while we were
driving up here tonight.
How people can look at
something so differently.
Like your mother and me.
I never knew two people
who could look at something
with such opposite viewpoints.
I was thinking about your life.
Wondering if you remember it
the same way as I do...
Knowing you don't, you can't.
You probably remember
all the times I was gone.
Absent. I remember all the
times I was there for you...
I have pictures of
you here, in my heart.
I carry them every place I go.
And at night, in some city,
I play those pictures
over in my mind.
And I feel very close to you.
Believe me.
What I realized
tonight, in the car,
is that you are the most
important thing in my life.
I know it's a cliche
to say that everything
I've done, I've done for you.
But it's true.
I've given you
everything I could
give you, Joby.
And if I...
Am a limited man, and I
haven't given you enough...
Then maybe I can learn.
Maybe we both can.
Please, Joby.
I love you.
Don't go away from me.
Dad...
Help me...
Honey, lunch is over,
we've got to get back.
I know, I know, Quince.
Just give me a minute.
I had to come back up here.
Why?
To see if I can
find some answers.
It's beautiful
up here, isn't it?
Yeah... It didn't seem
so beautiful last night.
What a difference a day makes.
If only kids like Joby
could get that message.
Hang on.
What looks bleak and
impossible one day
doesn't have to
look that way always.
Feelings change.
People can get help.
I think Joby knows that now.
I hope so, Quince.
But what about those
kids down there?
Yeah...
Those kids look happy, carefree
as though the only care they
have is what to wear on a date
or what grade
they get on a test.
But that's on the outside.
Inside, lots of them
might be feeling the same
kind of despair that took
hold of Julie and Joby.
Any one of those kids might
be the next candidate for suicide.
Why can't we see the sign-post
before they get on the ledge?
Quince, we have got
to be able to do that!
It's just a matter of listening.
Of caring. Of believing
enough in these kids
to get them some help.
Oh, Quince, I know that this
awful suicide rate can be cut down.
Fifty kids
in the next twenty-four hours
will try to kill themselves.
And eighteen...
Eighteen of them will succeed.
There are eighteen
kids out there
alive right now
who are going to
be dead tomorrow.
Unless someone listens.
your school committed
suicide over the past two years?
Probably more.
This kid is going to spend
the rest of his life behind bars!
She killed herself.
That teenage suicide has
reached epidemic proportions.
Well, for my money, he did it.
He is a sick, dangerous person.
She wanted to do it.
That was her business.
Maybe she's better off now.
Am I wrong, Em,
or are kids beginning to
kill themselves in droves?
I'm going to get a search warrant. I
want you guys to check out his van.
You better call
Lieutenant Monahan.
It looks like Joby Kenyon
has some explaining to do.
Gentlemen, you
are about to enter
the most fascinating
sphere of police work,
the world of forensic medicine.
Could I speak to
Hale Bonner, please?
This is his daughter, Julie.
Would you tell him it's important?
That I got to talk to him right now?
DataPac is slipping already...
I think the profit takers
are already on the move...
I'd advise you to unload it.
It's now or never.
Just a sec. Yes, what is it?
Your daughter,
Julie, is on line two.
Bradley? Listen,
while you think about it,
I've got another call.
I'll put you on hold
and be right back.
Julie, honey, what's up?
I need to talk to you, Dad.
Do you have a minute?
Oh, boy... Sweetheart,
you have a knack
for picking the wrong
times to call. Is it important?
Well, kind of...
Where are you?
- I'm at a pay phone...
- Can I call you back?
Dad? Did you hear me?
Oh, no. Julie, listen.
I've got to put you on hold,
something just came up.
Bradley, it's down a
point. We'd better move.
It's two. Come on, move.
Good-bye, Dad.
Hey. What happened?
He put me on hold.
Can you believe it?
That's the story of my life.
Well, what do you want to do?
Like we talked about.
Julie,
are you sure that's
what you want?
It's the only answer!
One second of pain, and
then our troubles are all over!
We can be together forever.
Life's a bummer. Joby,
let's just do it our way.
If you've covered it from
this angle let me know.
Right, Quince.
Where is she?
Julie...
- I'm her father.
- You can't go to her now.
- We're still taking pictures.
- Pictures?
Lieutenant Monahan.
We need a video-tape to
help with the investigation.
Lieutenant Monahan.
This is the father.
Who did it?
- Please, sir. You can't do any good here.
- Come with us!
Quince, you can
turn her over now.
Eddie.
Make sure you get some
tight shots on that bloodstain.
It's very strange.
How come?
In the position we found her in,
the blood should have
flowed to her right arm.
Instead it flowed to her left.
That means the blood
would have had to run uphill.
Mr. Bonner? Joby Kenyon...
You don't have
an address on him?
No...
My daughter met him in school.
They were dating, they
spent a lot of time together.
He might know something.
Was he with your daughter
when she called you?
I don't know, she didn't say.
I don't even know where she
called from, it was a pay phone.
And I... I put her on hold.
Couldn't even take
time to talk to her.
I put my own daughter
on hold and now...
Mr. Bonner, we'll have
someone take you home.
You shouldn't be driving now.
Brill.
We'll get the
person who did this.
Mr. Bonner.
Joby!
Joby! Joby!
Joby, there are some
people here to see you.
- People?
- Mmm-hmm.
The police.
What's it all about?
How should I know?
I would think if
something's happened
that brings the police to see you,
you would at least have an idea.
Well, I don't.
Joby, are you in trouble again?
Look, I told you.
I don't know what all
this is about. All right?
Don't you ever believe me?
I don't know why they're here.
All right.
Let's just go and
see what it's all about.
I can't believe it...
I can't believe it...
We think you might have been
one of the last people to see her alive.
I should never have
let her get out of the van.
What happened?
Um...
We had a fight.
Actually...
We'd been fighting
for a couple of days,
I don't know.
Nothing was going right.
So finally I got really mad
I stopped the van and
I told her she could hitchhike
back to Los Angeles...
And left her there on
the side of the road.
Oh, Julie... I'm sorry.
I think this is
everything, Lieutenant.
Thanks.
Brill, would you give her
a receipt for this, please.
Here, write it down.
Okay. Is this everything
you were wearing yesterday?
Yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah.
Oh, that watch. You
were wearing the watch?
Yeah.
Could I have it, please?
Sure, but...
Why?
Because I have to have everything
you were wearing at that time.
Please.
Thank you, son.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Looks like I was right, Sam.
The body was moved, all right.
There are two lividity patterns.
The one on her right
side is the strongest.
That's the position
we found her in...
But from this weaker pattern, it
looks like she died on her left side
and stayed in that
position for at least an hour.
Uh-huh.
So maybe she died on
that roadside and maybe not.
I don't think so.
There was hardly
any blood at the site.
If she died there I would have
expected to see more blood.
Are there X-rays?
Right here.
And there it is.
- Looks like a .38 caliber.
- Yeah.
It's lodged in the spine at the
bottom of the fifth thoracic vertebra.
With that positioning,
it would have hit the left
atrium or possibly the aortic arch.
Either way it would be lethal.
Hi, Quincy, Sam.
What brings you here?
- You figure out if
the body was moved?
- Yeah...
Lividity patterns showed it was.
She didn't die anywhere
near that roadside site.
That's what I thought.
I just got a report from
the police crime lab.
The watchband that belongs
to that kid, Joby Kenyon?
It had all kinds of dried
blood between the spans.
I'm getting a search warrant...
I'd like you to check out that van.
Okay.
Joby.
Joby, you can't just
sit in there all day...
You have to eat!
All right. You
leave me no choice.
I'm calling your father.
Do you hear me?
Maybe your father can talk
some sense into your head.
Of course, that's assuming
I can even find him.
God knows what part of the
country he might be in this week.
Joby?
All right, that's it.
I'm calling him now.
Good luck.
So far there's nothing
here that's suspicious.
It's the cleanest van I've
ever seen for a teenager.
Yeah... Almost too clean.
Where do you have the
trace blood detection spray?
Back here in the case.
This van really
was scrubbed clean.
Maybe because there was
something to scrub away.
If there was any bloodshed
here, this should bring it out.
Is it damp?
No, it appears to be dry. But it's
been pretty hot the last few days.
It would dry out quickly.
That won't affect
the benzedine spray.
If there was blood
on that carpet,
the hemoglobin will still be
detectable and bring it out.
Let's see what we get.
So far nothing.
You better call
Lieutenant Monahan.
It looks like Joby Kenyon
has some explaining to do.
Rotten, lying, little punk,
you killed my little girl!
Mr. Bonner you're
going to have to leave.
- Get out!
- Okay, I'm going.
But I'll tell you this,
I'm going to make sure
the DA files charges.
This kid is going to spend
the rest of his life behind bars!
Hey, all right!
You told one story, now
you're telling another.
Let's have the whole
story from the top, okay?
And the truth this time.
Like I said.
We were fighting a lot...
Nothing was working right.
Not just between us...
Nothing in our whole lives.
Sometimes...
It gets so there's no hope.
Hope for what?
For anything.
Everything is like
a long dark tunnel
and there's no end to it.
You just keep
walking in the dark.
You wouldn't understand.
You don't know what it's like.
What happened in the van?
I'm trying to tell you.
It's all connected.
And I guess it
started a while ago...
The beginning of the semester.
A friend of ours...
A girl Julie knew
for a long time...
She killed herself.
Jumped off MacMurtrie Hall.
That's about five or six of off
MacMurtrie in the past couple of years.
It's getting famous.
Five or six students from
your school committed
suicide over the past two years?
Probably more than that.
That's just the
ones off MacMurtrie.
But I never knew any of
them... Unil this girl Cathy.
That's when Julie
started talking about it.
About what?
About killing herself.
Like Cathy.
You know. Cathy, the girl
who had everything to live for?
I guess Julie figured
if Cathy couldn't make it,
what chance did she have?
So from that point on that's
all she could talk about.
Dying.
When she talked like that
what did you say?
I thought she was right.
So what happened then?
I found a gun. Honest to God
I just found it
in the hills behind campus
and I showed it to Julie
and she really got off on that.
She said it was like a sign
like it was meant
to be, you know?
To make it easy to kill herself.
And that's what she did.
In the van.
She had the gun
pointed at her chest
and
I didn't want her to
do it. You know I...
I yelled at her to stop
but she closed her eyes and
shook her head...
I reached out to
grab the gun, take
it away from her...
And, uh,
she pulled the trigger.
There was blood
all over the place.
I've never seem so much blood.
Why did you dump the body?
I guess I panicked.
I thought it'd be better
if it seemed like she was
hitchhiking and somebody killed her.
So you ditched the gun
and cleaned up the van.
Yeah, right.
I remember
I was really scared.
Joby, aren't you scared now?
No. No.
There's nothing to
be scared of now.
Whatever you do to
me, it doesn't matter.
Okay, Joby. You can go home.
But please be available
for any further questioning.
Yeah, sure.
Well, for my money, he did it.
You think he's lying?
He just doesn't seem like
the type of kid to kill somebody.
Oh, come on, Quincy.
That's hardly proof.
You said you found her
fingerprints all over the gun.
Her thumb print was on the
trigger. She had to have fired the gun!
He could've wiped the gun
and pressed her hand around it.
We found gunshot
residue on her hands.
With a shot fired
that close to her
there could be residue
on either one of them
no matter who did the firing.
I think the DA will
file this one, Quince.
I don't know, honey, there
was something in his voice...
A sense of despair,
of utter hopelessness...
He wasn't fighting,
he wasn't trying to convince
us he was telling the truth...
He was just disintered.
It seemed so out of
place in a young person.
How old could he be?
Eighteen, nineteen?
A healthy young
kid, good-looking,
comes from a good family,
you'd think he had
everything to live for.
But all he could see
in life is that it is bleak.
When he told me about those kids
that had jumped from this one
building... What's going on here?
Am I wrong, Em,
or are kids beginning to
kill themselves in droves?
I don't know, Quince. It's
probably worse than you imagine.
I'm not a suicidologist,
but I know that teenage suicide
has reached epidemic proportions.
Do you know it's the third leading
cause of death among adolescents?
Wow. Why are these
kids killing themselves?
Has the modern world
become so alienating
that it drives them to despair?
Is it fear of nuclear holocaust?
The bleak economic situation?
Or the breakdown of the family...
The decline of the church...
Or a combination
of all of the above?
I don't know. It's a
complex issue, Quince...
And there's no
single simple answer.
There's a lot for young
people to cope with these days,
and a lot of the traditional support
systems aren't there anymore.
But drugs and alcohol are.
That's right.
And they sure don't
help the situation any.
- Would you get me
that mister over there?
- Yeah.
Adolescence is always
a rough time for kids...
Their bodies are changing,
their feelings are changing...
It gets to be pretty
overwhelming.
I sure wouldn't want
to go through it again.
Me neither.
It felt so sad and painful
and lonely at times.
- Okay, just wipe those
leaves for me, honey.
- Okay.
But what it's hard for
young people to realize
is that a certain amount of
those feelings are normal,
and that by coping with
them, working them through,
we're learning how
to deal with pain
and sadness and
loneliness that we have
which is a normal part of life.
But if you try to mask
that pain with drugs,
or alcohol and just get so
high that we don't feel anything,
then you never learn to
cope with bad feelings.
The end is never in sight.
That's how Joby said it...
A long, dark tunnel
with no end to it.
Maybe Julie tried to
make her own end.
- Maybe.
- What do you mean, maybe?
Maybe the young
man is lying again.
After all, he concocted a pretty
convincing story the first time around...
Yeah, that's important, right?
We need to find out whether
or not that boy is telling the truth.
Okay?
Quince...
Are you leading up to something?
Yes. I was wondering, Em,
could you do a
psychological autopsy for me?
Oh, Quincy... I'd like to.
I just don't know if I could
give it the time it deserves...
Okay. I'm just thinking
of myself I guess.
Besides, you should call
the Suicide Prevention Center.
I worked there for about a
year and they have a terrific staff.
Yeah, I'll tell Asten to call.
And I have someone
who'll do the job.
I just hope they're experienced. I
want a good thorough job on this.
Oh, I think you'll be pleased
with this person's qualifications.
Who is it?
Emily Hanover.
Wait a minute... I already
asked her and she said no!
I called the SPC and the person on
their staff that usually works with us
is on leave for a month.
They recommended Emily.
Yeah, but she's too busy
right now. She told me so!
She did say she
was under pressure,
but that she wanted to
cooperate with the department
so she'd rearrange her
schedule. Isn't she terrific?
- She did, did she?
- Yeah.
I'm glad.
That's who I wanted
in the first place.
I'm glad.
Emily, I just asked
him, and you...
You... Me...
What happened?
When I ask you to do
the psychological autopsy,
you say you're busy.
Asten asks you
and you get un-busy.
Oh, Quincy, don't act like that.
When you asked
me, it was as a favor.
Dr. Asten made
an official request.
Oh, so a request
made out of friendship
doesn't carry as much
weight as one that's official?
No, that isn't it at all...
Quincy, you know what a
psychological autopsy is like
there are interviews with
deep, probing questions.
It isn't right to enter into
something as sensitive as
that unless there's
official sanction.
And besides, if this
had been any other case,
I wouldn't have taken it.
It was only because it was yours
and I knew it was
important to you
that I even considered it.
So, you see?
So it really was your
request I was responding to.
- Okay?
- Okay.
- I just want to
know one thing.
- What?
You know that trip to Catalina
we keep trying to make?
And you keep putting off
because you're so busy?
Yes.
You suppose if I
asked Asten about that
he'd give you official
sanction for that, too?
You might give it a try.
I will. Believe me, I will!
Bye, bye.
Did Julie ever write
any letters to you?
Letters?
What's that got to
do with anything?
It might help me
understand her a little better.
Joby, I'm trying to help you.
If Julie was suicidal, any
clue that I can uncover
that would support
that is to your benefit.
Nobody's gonna believe me
anyway, so what's the point?
If you're worried because
the letters are personal...
I promise you they
wouldn't become public.
They're only for evaluation.
Okay, you want letters?
For evaluation? Okay.
You can have letters.
Here.
A few notes.
Julie wasn't too
big on love letters.
You miss her a lot, don't you?
Yeah.
She was my only friend.
We could talk.
I understand.
It must be rough.
Yeah, well, um...
Don't worry about me.
I'll be fine.
Mr. Bonner,
I've read some letters
your daughter wrote to Joby.
And I must say
they concern me...
In my judgment
she was a severly
depressed young woman.
If she was, it was because
he made her life miserable.
She seems to have been deeply
affected by the death of a friend, Cathy.
Did she ever mention it?
Well, yes... Cathy was
a crazy kid, I never
did approve of her.
In these letters,
she refers to some
automobile accidents she had.
Oh, boy, did she.
In the last three or four months
she must have been in some
kind of scrape every other week.
Mostly dings and scratches...
But it seemed like she was
determined to wipe out that car.
Did it ever strike you as odd
that she was suddenly
involved in a spate of accidents?
Struck me as stupid
and irresponsible.
I even told her, I'd take
that car away from her.
Then she stopped talking to me. She
wouldn't even answer my phone calls.
You mean, she stopped
communicating all together?
Yes, that's right.
Mr. Bonner,
sometimes
with behavior like that
withdrawal or isolation,
self-destruction,
that can be indicative
of a much larger problem.
What are we trying
to say here, Doctor?
What I'm saying, Mr. Bonner,
is that your daughter seemed
to have been laying clues.
Clues that were overlooked.
About her feelings.
About her despair.
Okay, just hold it, Doctor.
Let me tell you something.
You're way off the track.
Julie had
everything to live for.
She was pretty and
she was popular.
And everybody
loved her. She was...
A wonderful happy child.
Till that boy came along.
I found some things
about him, let me tell you.
He is an intense, volatile young man
given to enormous eruptions of rage.
His mood swings are so extreme
that he is frightening to
the people around him.
Doctor, he is a sick,
dangerous person.
I don't exactly know what to
tell you about Julie, Doctor.
I didn't really
know her that well.
I thought you were
her best friends.
That's what she
said in her letters.
If we were her best friends,
then she didn't have any.
You wouldn't describe
her as popular?
No way.
I mean, she was
nice enough and all.
But she didn't let
people get too close.
She was kind of a loner.
- Did you know Joby, too?
- Kind of.
They spent all their time
together after a while.
And during that time...
How did Julie seem?
What was her mood?
- She got weird -Weird?
Yeah... It's hard to
describe, exactly...
It was sort of like she wasn't
here at all, if you know what I mean.
Withdrawn? Uncommunicative?
Yeah... And cutting class a lot.
Sleeping all the time.
Did Julie ever make any kind
of self-destructive statement?
Like wanting to end it all...
No reason to go on living?
Anything like that?
Practically every day.
- Every day?
- It got to be a broken record.
One day one of the girls in the
dorm told her to stop talking about it
and just do it.
After that, she didn't
mention it again.
Did anyone ever suggest she
talk to someone about her feelings?
A teacher, a counselor?
Nobody took her seriously.
It was just talk.
Anyway, if she wanted to
do it, that was her business.
You really mean that?
Sure.
Maybe she's better off now.
Well, right up there.
MacMurtrie Hall.
I don't like that building.
It gives me a strange feeling.
Old Jumpers' Heaven?
It's a gas!
Julie Bonner... She's in my...
Introduction to Western
Philosophy that's
10:00 a.m. Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday.
Was, Dr. Emison.
Julie Bonner is dead.
- Dead?
- Yes.
I'm so sorry, what happened?
We're not sure.
My office is doing an
investigation to figure that out.
She may have committed suicide
or she may have been murdered.
Oh, no...
I'm here to get her grade
record for the second semester.
Certainly. Let me
check it for you.
She was doing well
the first semester.
She was pulling down
a high "B" average.
She seems to have
gone into a slump here.
A "D" an "F" and a...
A no-show on three quizzes.
Isn't that kind of unusual?
For a high "B" student to
take a nose-dive like that?
Yes... But it happens.
Their first year in college, they
have so many of ups and downs.
So many things can
affect their grades.
But Julie was a good student,
she was a responsible student.
And suddenly she's
getting D's and F's
didn't that make you wonder why?
Dr. Quincy, you have to realize
I didn't even notice that
her grades had slipped.
Why not?
Look around you.
This room holds
upwards of 200 students.
In my Introduction to Philosophy
course, there are about
eighty-five enrolled,
plus another dozen
or so auditing.
That's one class.
Then there's Beginning Logic,
Philosophies and
Religions of the World,
Contemporary Thought...
Each has around
a hundred students.
I also have an honors seminar
and several tutorials.
So you see Dr. Quincy, I really
don't have time to get involved
with the freshman students.
Nor to get involved in
their ups and downs.
You know...
When I went to school,
my teachers did know me.
Cared about me.
Would have noticed if my
grades suddenly went down
and would have called me in
to see what was wrong.
When you were a student,
that was probably true.
But, you know?
This is really a
very small class.
- Small?
- Mmm-hmm.
At some major
universities in this country,
they have classes with
over five hundred students
that means the professor sees
nothing more than a mass of faces.
I feel very lucky, because
I get the chance to
know the upper classmen.
So,
if a freshman gets in
some kind of trouble
whether it's emotional
or scholastic,
he or she is just out of luck.
They can always ask for help.
Yeah.
I think Julie was
asking for help.
Only nobody noticed.
You know, when you first asked
me to help you I was going to say no.
Because I was afraid I'd say the
wrong thing, I'd do the wrong thing
I have no expertise
in this field.
But you said all I had to do
was listen and I did, and...
I sure found out a lot.
For instance,
every single one of her
grades, at every class,
took a nose dive. That should've
told somebody something.
It sure should've.
Any drastic change in
behavior like that is a red flag.
Good grades turning bad...
Bad grades turning good.
A thin child
putting on weight...
A fat child losing weight.
Any drastic change in behavior
should tell somebody something.
Seems like Julie had
thrown up a lot of red flags.
Absolutely.
She was in trouble, and no one
seems to have picked up on it.
The reaction to her
ranged from the
indifferent to the confused.
She threatened to kill herself,
but no one seemed to
know quite what to do or say
so they just ignored her.
Or laughed it off.
So you're saying we
do have a suicide here?
I'd say it's an
almost classic case.
Here we have a loner
whose family is
blind to the problem.
A young woman who has
suffered the loss of her mother.
Who made
constant and specific
references to suicide...
Who was increasingly withdrawn,
spiralling into a depression
that became so enveloping
that she couldn't see any way
out of it except to end her life.
And that's what you recommend
as the official mode of death?
I'm sure of it.
And what about Joby?
Well, Quince.
From Julie's letters,
I suspect they
had a suicide pact.
That they planned
to die together
but, for some reason,
Joby couldn't do it.
They were two troubled kids
who fed off each
other's sickness.
Now, Joby's had the
awful shock of Julie's death
plus being accused
of her murder.
These are terrible pressures, hard
for even a happy, healthy person.
Is he in trouble?
Big trouble.
Nobody responded to Julie Bonner
and now she's dead.
And unless we do something,
we may very well lose Joby, too.
Hi.
Yeah, it's Joby.
I thought I'd give you a
call because, you know...
I'm in town for spring vacation,
thought you want to
go over the old times.
Well, I...
I sense you're busy, so...
Maybe I'll try some
other time, okay?
In ten seconds
At the tone the time will be
three, fifteen, and
twenty seconds.
I have tried to talk to him.
He never listens to me.
I think you should come over.
I hadn't called you if I didn't...
All right.
Fine.
Bye.
Dr. Hanover.
Hello, Mrs. Kenyon.
Please forgive me for
bothering you at this time of night.
That's all right...
Won't you come in?
Thank you.
I...
I'm here because I
wanted to see Joby.
Joby?
Is anything wrong?
Well...
First of all, Dr. Quincy
has determined
that the mode of death
for Julie Bonner is suicide.
There won't be charges
filed against Joby.
Oh, that's good news!
Maybe that will
make him come out.
What do you mean?
Joby's locked
himself in his room.
He won't come out
and he won't answer.
He just sits in there,
sometimes playing his drums...
How long has he been in there?
For two days.
I...
I think we'd better
get that door opened.
Joby.
Please, open the door.
Dr. Hanover is here...
Joby.
Please, let me talk to you.
Joby?
Dr. Quincy, where
is this leading us?
What we've done,
with the help of a
qualified psychiatrist,
is to put together a portrait
of your daughter's emotional
condition in the months before she died.
What she did, what she felt,
what she said to the
closest people around her.
We've tried to recreate her
mood as accurately as possible.
And?
It is our determination that
your daughter took her own life.
I know you don't want to believe
that. It's a hard thing to accept.
But I can't let you carry on a
vendetta against an innocent boy.
Let go of it, Mr. Bonner. Stop
looking to put the blame somewhere.
Do you know what you're saying?
If Joby wasn't responsible
for my daughter's death,
then I am!
No, thank you,
Doctor. I won't let go.
Please.
Don't put on
blinders, Mr. Bonner.
Maybe some of your other children.
Are sending you messages, too.
Quincy, Emily just called.
Joby is gone. He
left a suicide note.
I bet get over there right away.
I'll put an APB out.
- Yes?
- I'm Dr. Quincy.
I'm with the Coroner's office.
Joby's mother.
- How do you do?
- Sarah Kenyon.
- Have you heard anything?
- No, sorry.
- Quince!
- Excuse me.
Oh, Quince. I'm glad to see you!
This is Joby's
father, Judd Kenyon.
Hi. How do you do, sir?
Lieutenant Monahan has
put out an APB on Joby.
The note...
Did it say where he was
going? What he intended to do?
Just that he couldn't
take it anymore
and wanted to make it
easier for everybody by...
By dying.
Sarah.
Easy. Hang in there.
Easy enough for you to say!
You haven't been here
with him day after day,
trying to cope!
You were never here, I
had to handle everything!
Sarah... We have our
problems. We always have had.
But now, more than ever,
we need to pull together.
Help each other.
Let's put our squabbles
aside for now. For Joby's sake.
- Come on.
- Sobbing.
Hey!
It's the only answer!
One second of pain, and
then our troubles are all over!
We can be together forever.
No hassles!
Life's a bummer.
Joby, let's just do it our way.
Could I make anyone a coffee?
No, thank you.
Can't we go out, look somewhere?
This sitting around
is driving me crazy.
We've tried all the friends you
mentioned and one's seen him.
Can you think of any
place else he might go?
I don't know... I can't think.
Em...
What about where Julie
died? Would he go there?
Oh, Quince. That's a thought.
I'll call Monahan.
Yes?
Yes.
Where?
Right away. Thank you.
They spotted Joby.
I'm glad you're here.
I'm afraid I haven't
been much help.
He won't even let me near him.
Judd, you talk to him.
If he'll listen to
anyone, it's you.
I'm scared.
You'll be fine.
Just remember what
I've been telling you.
Hey, Dad.
How's it goin'?
Okay, Joby.
How's it going with you?
Well,
I seem to be causing
quite a ruckus down there.
You must be feeling pretty bad.
I'm surprised that you bothered
to come all the way here.
Surprised?
I...
Well, I guess I can
understand that.
But it still makes me
pretty sad to hear you say it.
It shows how
much we don't understand
about each other.
I thought about that
while we were
driving up here tonight.
How people can look at
something so differently.
Like your mother and me.
I never knew two people
who could look at something
with such opposite viewpoints.
I was thinking about your life.
Wondering if you remember it
the same way as I do...
Knowing you don't, you can't.
You probably remember
all the times I was gone.
Absent. I remember all the
times I was there for you...
I have pictures of
you here, in my heart.
I carry them every place I go.
And at night, in some city,
I play those pictures
over in my mind.
And I feel very close to you.
Believe me.
What I realized
tonight, in the car,
is that you are the most
important thing in my life.
I know it's a cliche
to say that everything
I've done, I've done for you.
But it's true.
I've given you
everything I could
give you, Joby.
And if I...
Am a limited man, and I
haven't given you enough...
Then maybe I can learn.
Maybe we both can.
Please, Joby.
I love you.
Don't go away from me.
Dad...
Help me...
Honey, lunch is over,
we've got to get back.
I know, I know, Quince.
Just give me a minute.
I had to come back up here.
Why?
To see if I can
find some answers.
It's beautiful
up here, isn't it?
Yeah... It didn't seem
so beautiful last night.
What a difference a day makes.
If only kids like Joby
could get that message.
Hang on.
What looks bleak and
impossible one day
doesn't have to
look that way always.
Feelings change.
People can get help.
I think Joby knows that now.
I hope so, Quince.
But what about those
kids down there?
Yeah...
Those kids look happy, carefree
as though the only care they
have is what to wear on a date
or what grade
they get on a test.
But that's on the outside.
Inside, lots of them
might be feeling the same
kind of despair that took
hold of Julie and Joby.
Any one of those kids might
be the next candidate for suicide.
Why can't we see the sign-post
before they get on the ledge?
Quince, we have got
to be able to do that!
It's just a matter of listening.
Of caring. Of believing
enough in these kids
to get them some help.
Oh, Quince, I know that this
awful suicide rate can be cut down.
Fifty kids
in the next twenty-four hours
will try to kill themselves.
And eighteen...
Eighteen of them will succeed.
There are eighteen
kids out there
alive right now
who are going to
be dead tomorrow.
Unless someone listens.