Quincy M.E. (1976–1983): Season 8, Episode 6 - Sleeping Dogs - full transcript
Never say anything you don't
have to. It can be bad for the health.
Intimidation, Moeller-style.
I just can't believe,
in this day and age,
a man can terrorize a
town and get away with it.
- Who shot him?
- I did.
I somehow feel this world is gonna
be a better place without Henry Moeller.
I guess we've got
seven conspirators.
Never seen a car with every
tire flat at the same time.
There's never any
excuse for murder.
Or conspiracies that cover it by
setting themselves above the law?
Gentlemen, you
are about to enter
the most fascinating
sphere of police work,
the world of forensic medicine.
Howard.
Howard.
If I was you, I'd
really think about
what I was gonna say tomorrow.
Mrs. Lemner.
Marty!
Come on, open up!
Hey, Mike, wait up!
Mike, gimme some change!
I ain't got any.
Come on, Mike.
Let's see what you got.
You're no help.
I hope they lock you
up for good tomorrow!
Joe, you don't look too good.
Tomorrow might be a
perfect day for you to get sick.
You all right?
Yeah, just get me
up. I want to call Frank.
Take it easy. Take it easy.
That feel better, Mom?
When is Dr. Headly coming?
I called. He's fishing again.
But, they said as long
as you took your medicine,
you'd be okay till he got back.
Rise and shine, Larry.
Get your tail out here.
Henry, how you doing?
How much money you got there?
What do you mean?
I need some money.
Take them. On the house, okay?
I'm gonna take these.
But I still need some money.
I'll pay you back whenever, hey?
You make sure you remind me.
I'm at Inoko's Market.
What about Ray?
Can he back me up?
He's still off the air, Frank.
Roger. Wouldn't you know it?
Henry! Stop!
I've been looking for you.
I got a complaint
about you, Henry.
You pushed Mike Horvath around
and dumped him in the street.
Too bad you missed it,
Frank. It was quite a show.
You gotta come with me.
Negative.
I'm in a hurry. I gotta get
home before my ice melts.
I'll see you
tomorrow at your trial.
I'm Dr. Quincy, did the District Attorney
get my message about the flat tire?
I gave the your message, sir.
- Thanks. Have I got
time to clean up?
- Sure. Just enough.
Henry, please.
Relax, baby.
You're up from L.A., huh?
Yeah, drove up. I had a flat.
That belongs to me.
What's the matter? You got
something to hide in there?
Something you brought
all the way up from L.A.?
Do you mind?
Lemme give you a good
sensible rule for living...
Never say anything
you don't have to.
Sometimes it can
be bad for the health.
I think I just met your bully.
Henry Moeller?
- Big guy with lots of charm.
- Any problem?
- Not really.
- You're lucky.
I guess he's on his
good behavior today.
Any word on Joe Ferretty?
No. I've got a man
out looking for him.
This is Dr. Quincy,
Nardie Shell, DA's office.
- We've talked on the phone.
- Sorry I'm late.
The Judge won't buy another
continuance, but I'll try anyway.
We can't locate a witness.
Is he important?
That's putting it
mildly. Joe Ferretty.
One of two eyewitnesses
that can tie him to the murder.
- I don't want to drop
the case, Nardie.
- Neither do I.
Okay. I'll go with what
we've got. But, I don't like it.
Frank, where's Joe?
And when I got out
to the lumber yard,
I found John Kirby
laying in the parking lot.
The whole side of
his face was caved in
and there was blood
all over the place.
Who identified the victim?
I did. I'd known John
since we were kids.
He was my cousin.
Chief Aliano, the date on which
this happened is very important.
Would you please
repeat it for us?
March 14th.
That's a day I'll never forget.
Somebody knocked John Kirby to the
ground and then stomped him to death.
In your opinion, could he
have been killed accidentally?
No. There were
twelve distinct heel
prints on his head,
face and torso.
The wounds were
inflicted intentionally.
I'll ask the clerk to give
you People's Exhibit "A."
Do you recognize
these, Dr. Quincy?
I do. My initials are on
the inside of the boots.
You initialed the boots?
Any good investigator identifies
the evidence he examines.
They were sent to me by Chief Aliano in
connection with the death of John Kirby.
He said they belonged
to Henry Moeller.
When you first saw them,
did anything
peculiar strike you?
Yes. The boots themselves had had a
lot of wear, but both heels were brand new.
And nailed to them were
brand new metal taps.
Did that conflict
in any way with the
wounds you observed
on the victim's body?
No. It was totally consistent.
There were several distinct
imprints caused by the taps
and there are unique
characteristics of the taps
that could be seen
in the imprints.
Dr. Quincy...
Can you tell us if you reached
any conclusions as a result?
I certainly did.
I concluded that these were the
weapons used to murder John Kirby.
Thank you.
- Yes, sir.
- Speak louder, please.
Yes. I put on heels and taps.
For Henry Moeller?
Who then picked them up
on the morning of March 14th?
No, sir.
Mr. Lemner, did you
understand the question?
Yes, sir.
Well, I don't think you
did. So, I'll ask it again.
Did the defendant pick up
the boots you repaired on
the morning of March 14th?
It was the next
day, or the 16th.
Let me remind you, you've
testified previously under oath
it was the 14th.
And you made the same
statement to the police.
I've thought it over
and I was wrong.
I'm sorry.
Mr. Lemner, I'm a little
bit astonished right now.
Has anybody tried to
influence you in any way?
No.
I must advise you, the District Attorney
may want to pursue a charge of perjury.
Now, if you'd like some time
to give it some more thought...
I don't need any time.
It was the 15th or the 16th.
- Your Honor.
- Just a moment.
Mr. Lemner, you're excused.
Mr. Darcey, approach
the bench, please.
Oh, Howard...
Don't say anything
to him! Not a word.
Nobody understands
what this was like for him.
Jane, believe me, I do.
But he did the wrong thing.
What's this all about?
What went wrong?
Intimidation, Moeller-style.
One witness never
showed up. The other lied.
Jane and Howard,
you don't look so good. You
ought to have the Doc check you out.
The Judge dismissed it?
Naturally.
You can still refile.
Really? Why
should I even bother?
So, everybody's quitting, is that it?
Everybody's giving up without a fight.
Tell me what I'm
supposed to fight with.
Three patrolmen who run the other
way every time they see Moeller?
A town full of people who
live in fear day and night?
That's not a whole
lot of ammunition.
The case was only
dismissed. It could be refiled.
There is no case
without witnesses.
And, you saw what happened.
Joe Ferretty never showed up,
Howard Lemner changed
his story on the stand.
Both of them are good
men, but they're scared stiff.
And I can't blame them.
Give them protection.
I don't have the
manpower or the funds.
Well, I just can't believe,
in this day and age,
a man can a man can terrorize
a town and get away with it.
That's been happening for years. An
animal that oughta be locked in a zoo.
You wanna know something?
And now, I'll venture to
say it'll get even worse.
Somebody just shot him!
Shot who?
Henry Moeller. Somebody just shot
him over at Howard Lemner's Fix-it Shop.
Just let us through, all right.
He's dead.
All right.
What happened?
Who shot him?
I did.
Who does that belong to?
It's his.
And you're saying all of you
shot him with it? That's your story.
- All of us.
- One shot apiece.
If that doesn't
beat everything...
Joe, where were you today?
How come you weren't in court?
I took sick on the road. I
went to the clinic instead.
I can prove it.
Don't you think it'd be a good idea if
somebody told us what happened here?
Howard, you want to fill us in?
Well,
you see, we all kind of
gathered here after the trial.
We were so disgusted
by the way it turned out
we got together to
decide what to do.
And while we were
talking, he walked right in.
He said he wanted every
cent I had in my cash drawer.
- He robbed you?
- It's all still there.
In the right hand pocket of his
pants. Two hundred and twenty dollars.
Yeah, and that
wasn't enough for him.
When I said something, he
started pushing me around.
He started pushing
us all around.
And he was really
throwing some punches, so...
Somebody went out to
his truck and got his gun.
It just sort of happened.
One by one, we all shot him.
Uh...
Doctor, I think I might be able to
do a lot better alone with these men.
Go ahead. I'll call my office and
get someone to pick up the body.
I'll walk them over to my office and see
if I can make some sense out of all this.
Okay, gents, let's go. Straight
down Main Street to my office.
And, no talking to
anybody along the way.
Got it? Let's get going.
Well, I hope you're
proud of yourselves.
We did what somebody
should've done a long time ago.
- And you damned well
know it, Frank.
- He robbed Howard,
and he was hitting us like were
punching bags. It was self-defense.
Or, maybe you don't believe us?
It doesn't matter
what I believe.
We figured if all of us shot him,
they couldn't really do anything.
I know what you figured.
But maybe you figured wrong.
But, we're stuck with it so we're gonna
have to handle it the best way we can.
First thing I want
you to remember is,
nobody talks.
Nobody makes any
statements. To anybody.
Except you.
Including me!
I don't want to know anything
beyond what I already do.
Who got the gun...
Who shot in what
order, none of it.
We trust you, Frank.
I don't want you to
trust me! Or, your wives,
or your children. Or even your
father confessors, if you have any.
The lid's on this thing
and it stays on tight.
What about that coroner
from Los Angeles?
I get the feeling he'd like to be
asking a lot of questions, himself.
Well, that occurred to me, too.
So...
I'll just have to handle
it the best way I can.
Where are they going?
Home.
Already. You've
got their statements?
Nobody's said more than
you heard at the shop.
But, isn't it a little soon
to be letting them go?
How can I arrest them?
They're all decent men.
With jobs and
families to support.
You don't lock up
people like that.
Did you check their
hands for powder residues?
It'd be a waste of time.
They all washed their hands.
You allowed that?
I went out of the room for a
few minutes to talk to Alice.
Time I came back, they'd
all cleaned themselves up.
So, the only way you
can help me, Doctor,
is to go home and
do the autopsy.
And there's no need
to come back in person.
You can just save yourself
the trip and send it by mail.
That's it. The last bullet path.
Okay...
Now, because of the way
the bullets were flattened,
these five shots were fired
while he was lying on the floor,
this one was fired when
he was someplace else.
Unless the shooter
was three inches tall.
And that was the fatal shot?
That's the one that killed him. Sam,
how much blood in the chest cavity?
Over fifteen
hundred millimeters.
So he didn't die right away?
With the damage we found,
it would've taken twenty to thirty
minutes for that much blood to
accumulate before he died.
So, that means the other five bullets
were fired twenty to thirty minutes later
into a dead man.
- Where are you going?
- Mill Falls.
- You just came back...
- Six bullets fired.
Fifteen hundred millimeters of
blood. Twenty to thirty minutes later
into a dead man, you ask me why?
What's he talking about?
Did you see him?
Yeah, I saw him.
What do you think he
came back here for?
Probably no big deal.
Oh, yeah? When John Kirby was killed,
nobody came back up, now did they?
I stopped at your office.
Alice said you were here.
Well, Dr. Quincy,
you sure are putting a lot of miles
on that county vehicle of yours.
In these days of cutbacks,
postage stamps make a lot more
sense than a buck-and-a-half a gallon.
If you're talking about mailing the autopsy
report, Chief, it's not finished yet.
But, I did find enough
during my examination
to make the drive
seem legitimate.
Okay, then, why don't
you tell me about it.
Well, it's pretty simple.
I think what we've got here is a
murder and a conspiracy to cover it up.
I'll agree it was a
strange shooting.
With six people
equally involved. But...
Because of the
peculiar circumstances
and the lack of any
evidence to the contrary...
It'll probably go down as
self-defense or justifiable homicide.
Not in my report, it won't.
See, the bullet
that killed Moeller
was fired almost a half
an hour before the others.
From an entirely
different angle.
That means the man was murdered.
Then the murder got five of his
friends to cooperate in a cover-up.
Maybe according to your interpretation,
which doesn't necessarily make it true.
Okay, how do you
think it happened?
I think it's too early to
jump to any conclusions.
Forgive me for
saying this, Chief,
but, I get the feeling that
you're not pushing too hard.
Then, that's what you
came up here for, isn't it?
To tell me my job?
Evidently somebody has to.
You can't let personal emotions
stop a murder investigation.
Dr. Quincy, I like you and I don't
mean to sound unappreciative.
When Henry Moeller was alive, I
used to jump every time the phone rang.
For fear it was
another complaint.
Either he'd beat up a
man or assaulted a woman,
or robbed a store, or
burned somebody's porch.
All that's over now.
People breathing easier in the
daytime and sleeping better at night.
So,
if I nail somebody for murder,
would any of us really be better off?
Of course, you would.
He broke the law!
I'll make a deal with you.
Don't tell me how to do my job,
I'll stay out of your business.
Is there a hotel in this town?
Sure, there's a hotel, but,
you'll probably find it's all full.
You'll probably find there isn't one
single place for you to stay in Mill Falls.
Doesn't matter.
I noticed a motel
about ten miles south.
Well, I just hope you
brought your medical bag.
You're gonna need all
the disinfectant you've got.
More fleas stay at
that dump that people.
I'm prepared for anything.
Oh, and you never use
bleach with colored blankets.
They run.
What's the matter,
your car break down?
Oh, no. This here's my baby.
Sleep okay, Doc?
Sleep, are you kidding?
One more bedbug bite, I would've
needed a blood transfusion.
Looks like you've
got a problem there.
Never seen a car with every
tire flat at the same time.
I suppose you didn't
see who did it, either.
Nah...
Is there a towing
service around here?
You can't tow a car with
four of 'em down all at once.
Well, then, where's the closest
place I can rent something?
Titusville used
to have a service.
Twenty-five bucks a day,
twenty-five cents a mile.
- How do I get there?
- You don't.
They been outta
business for over a year.
So, what are you trying to say?
I'm stuck here because
somebody flattened my tires?
I'm not saying that at all.
I'm saying I'm gonna do you
a favor and let you use my car.
That's very nice of you.
I'm sorry, I had no idea.
Yeah, especially since I'm only
gonna charge you twenty bucks a day,
and twenty cents
a mile. In advance.
Judy Fields?
I'm Dr. Quincy from Los Angeles.
Yeah, I know. I
saw you at the trial.
As part of my investigation, I need to go
through some of his personal belongings.
Sure.
But I don't think anybody's really
too serious about an investigation.
I hope you haven't
touched anything, Judy.
I didn't touch nothing.
Some of his personal
belongings are in the box.
Place looks like it
was just cleaned.
Henry was a very neat person,
he had a lot of good qualities
people didn't know about.
Nothing here.
Nobody ever mentioned that the
two of you were gonna get married.
Was that public knowledge?
Sure, it was public knowledge.
I had my eyes on Henry
Moeller ever since I was thirteen.
He was the handsomest
man I ever saw.
I guess I was afraid of
him, like everybody else,
until I found out there
was a side to him
so gentle and sweet it
could almost make you cry.
Look, I don't mean to be unkind.
But, I've read a hundred
pages of testimony
documenting the fact that he was
cruel and sadistic and dangerous.
I had an encounter
with him myself.
So, I can't really accept
your Mr. Nice Guy image.
Which means you're walking
through your investigation, doesn't it?
Like the Police Chief
and all the rest of them?
Judy, he was murdered. I
want to find out who did it.
What I think about him doesn't
make the slightest bit of difference.
So many lies are going around
this town, I don't believe it.
They're even saying Henry tried
to steal $220 from Howard Lemner.
That exact amount was
found in the pocket of his pants.
Then, I guess
somebody put it there.
Because, human
nature tells you that
no man steals when he
has all the money he needs.
What do you mean?
Telegram from Kansas City. See, an
uncle of mine died and left me $10,000.
Henry and I were gonna take that
money and head up north for Oregon.
So, maybe you and the rest of
the liars around here can tell me
why he'd go to Howard Lemner and
try to steal something he didn't need?
What did I do?
I think you missed your turn.
You should've taken the
highway that gets you back to L.A.
I'm not going back to L.A.
And I'm pretty
sure you know why.
Mind pulling over there?
Would you take out
your license, please?
I see, you're gonna
hassle me until I leave.
I'm not hassling you, Doctor.
I noticed you have
an equipment violation.
Where?
Your tailpipe's too low.
It's not my car.
You're the one who's driving it.
You're the one person around here
who ought to realize what's happening.
You're a peace officer.
You're the empowered law.
But, you're behaving with just as
much stupidity as that gang of vigilantes.
Well, you see, I've served the law
long enough to know its imperfections.
And the irony of this thing is that the
same court that let Henry Moeller go free,
might find all six of those
good people guilty of his crime.
They are guilty. By
their own admission.
But, you'll have to admit
the issue's kind of confused.
Nobody knows who
actually killed Moeller.
So, if we don't push too hard,
it's just possible some
of them won't be punished
for cleaning the
streets of this town.
If you think they
were justified,
why don't you let it be
tested by a judge and jury?
Didn't I just mention
imperfections, Doctor?
There are all sorts of little
loopholes and technicalities.
Twisted little games
lawyers play to get their way.
I've seen too many
righteous men go to jail.
And too many Henry
Moellers go free.
His trial didn't have a damned thing
to do with games or technicalities.
He got off because two members of your
lynch mob didn't have the guts to testify.
Sure, it's easy for us to stand
here and say the system isn't perfect.
But, every time we ignore it,
or try to put
ourselves above it,
we take a giant
step toward anarchy.
I'm not a philosopher, Doctor.
And I don't even
claim to be too bright.
But, I somehow feel this world is gonna
be a better place without Henry Moeller.
And I don't necessarily
believe there'll be any anarchy
around Mill Falls
because he's gone.
Then, I guess we've got seven
conspirators instead of six.
What happened to your
station wagon, Doctor?
One of those
amazing coincidences.
Four tires blew on
me at the same time.
I need some gas.
Sorry. Just ran
out. Pump's empty.
What about that one?
He's taking the last ten
gallons. Aren't you, Larry?
Sure. Running her clean dry.
Well, if I can't get gas, maybe
I can get some information.
Mr. Lemner,
maybe you can tell me
why you lied about Moeller
coming to your
shop to steal $220.
Who says that's a lie?
I just talked to Judy Fields.
She inherited $10,000, which
she was going to give Moeller
as a token of her love.
So, why would he raid your cash
register for money he didn't need?
Probably outta plain meanness.
That was his nature, in
case you haven't heard.
I know what his nature was.
And I also know that if
you stuck together in court
you could've convicted
him of first-degree murder.
It wasn't worth getting
killed for, mister.
So, don't talk to us about
courts of law, or legal protection.
I wouldn't have felt safe
with a squad of U.S. Marines.
Oh, that's terrific!
So, you don't feel safe.
If you think the law's
inadequate, pick up a gun
and kill whatever it
is that's bothering you.
That's the kind of
justice he deserved.
It wasn't justice,
it was murder.
And firing bullets into his
dead body was conspiracy.
So, you can refuse
to sell me gas,
and you can flatten my tires,
and you can force me to
sleep in a flea-ridden motel,
but, I'm staying until
every guilty person here
goes to prison.
What do you think?
I think he's full of hot air.
Yeah, but he was
right about the trial.
Moeller could've been convicted.
What if he wasn't?
And you were me or you were Joe?
For the rest of
your life, you'd be
listening to every
little sound in the night.
I already am. I
can't sleep anymore.
Then have your mother
fix you a glass of warm milk.
I'm gonna call Frank.
Howard...
If anything happens, and I go
to prison, my mom would die.
What I think you
oughta do, Larry,
is get control of yourself.
If it takes milk,
or sleeping pills,
or just plain old guts,
I think you better not
let the rest of us down.
Hey, Doc!
Listen here, buddy,
what do you think of Baby?
Baby could use a de-lousing.
Got a note for you, Doc. Somebody
called while you were gone.
Just a number? No name?
Just a number. No name.
Do you mind?
Inoko's Market.
This is Dr. Quincy.
You got my message. This is
Larry Inoko over at Mill Falls.
- You were at
the gas station today.
- Yeah.
Listen, you gotta
be honest with me.
If I help you, can you
guarantee I won't go to prison?
It might be the only
chance you have to avoid it.
Okay, I'll tell you who
killed him and where, but...
We're on a party line,
so I can't exactly talk.
You want me to
meet you someplace?
No, no, not here. I'll
come where you are.
Okay.
- How bad is he?
- He's gonna make it.
But, if nobody found him
for another couple of hours,
you'd probably be
going to a funeral.
I sure want to thank
you for coming, Doctor.
You really think it was
an accident, Chief?
Got no reason to believe
anything to the contrary.
Have you checked
the skid marks yet?
No.
And what about his vehicle?
Not yet.
I wanted to make sure
he was taken care of first.
I'll save you some time, then.
Larry was on his way out to
tell me how Henry Moeller died.
He was forced off the road.
Probably, by a truckload of vigilantes.
- I can't believe that.
- Why not?
All of them are Larry's friends.
Who took the law
into their own hands.
They did it once, and you sanctioned
it. Why shouldn't they do it again?
They could've talked to him.
They could've tried to convince him.
They probably did. But,
obviously without success.
So, they rounded up their
lynch mob and went to work.
And, I'll tell you
one more thing.
If Larry had died,
I would've held you responsible.
Hi, ol' buddy, what'cha doing?
Well, I just came from the
emergency hospital in Greenbush.
I guess you heard Larry
Inoko had a bad accident?
Alice mentioned
that. She called Jane.
Have you guys gone
crazy or something?
I don't follow what you mean.
There's blue paint
on your fender.
You came out of Horse Head Road
and ran him off the embankment.
I checked the skid marks
and I know what happened.
Look, Frank, he was...
He was gonna squeal to
that Doctor from Los Angeles!
He was gonna
spill the whole story!
You almost killed him!
I only meant to...
Run him in the
ditch as a warning.
I did it to protect
us. All of us.
You're wrong, Howard. "Us"
doesn't include me anymore.
Because, what's happening is no
better than what Henry Moeller did.
Only, instead of one
person, now it's a whole gang.
And suddenly that scares
me more than I'd like to admit.
You hear that, Jane?
Seems we've got a
fair-weather friend, here.
Going gets tough,
he starts clucking
like a chicken.
I'm give you exactly an
hour to do some thinking.
Then I want you to
come to my office,
and tell me which one
of you killed Moeller.
We're ending it. Right now.
This dent is exactly
the same height
as the bullet that
stopped in Moeller's side.
He must've been
leaning against the door.
The bullet passed through his body
and when it struck the panel, it stayed in.
But it still had enough
force to leave that dent.
Let's check the trajectory.
Lower, Sam, lower...
The entry wound was thirty-two
centimeters above the seat.
Come on, come on. Whoa...
There! That's the
exact path of the bullet.
Dr. Quincy.
I know who ran
Larry off the road.
Lemner. Howard Lemner.
Lemner?
I can't believe he'd
do a thing like that.
Chief, this is my
assistant, Sam Fujiyama.
I asked him to drive up
from L.A. to bring me these.
Well, whatever it is you're doing,
you've got my full cooperation.
I can't tell you
how ashamed I am.
Everything you said was
gonna happen happened.
And a decent man almost
died because I didn't listen.
Let me ask you one thing.
Can I move this truck?
I said you've got my full cooperation.
You can take it anyplace you want.
Okay, then get those vigilantes
together behind Lemner's shop.
- We're gonna put this thing
to rest once and for all.
- Okay.
Nice to see you again, Doc.
We heard you was gonna put on a
show, so we broke out some brew.
You and your friend
care to join us?
Ask me in about ten minutes.
If you're still in a party mood,
we might take you up on it.
So, why don't you guys
shut up and get serious.
The Doctor's gonna tell
us who killed Henry Moeller,
and exactly how it happened.
We all killed him.
Every one of us.
Including Larry Inoko.
Six bullets, six people.
First, let's go through the
actual sequence of the crime.
You see, only one of you was
in the shop when Moeller arrived.
There was an argument. Not over
money because he didn't need money.
Then, Moeller came out
here and got back in his truck.
But, before he could drive away, the
person opened the passenger door,
grabbed his gun off
the seat, and fired.
That was the
shot that killed him.
My autopsy'll prove it
to any jury in the world.
If he did die in the truck, what'd
he do to get back into the shop?
Float in on a magic carpet?
The autopsy also proved
that the other five shots were
fired twenty to thirty minutes later.
So, during that time, the killer got
the rest of you and asked for help.
Someone came up
with the conspiracy plan,
then you dragged Moeller inside
and fired the other shots.
I take it you've got
a witness to all that?
Yeah, right here.
Moeller's favorite boots.
You should recognize
them, Howard.
At the trial, you lied about
the day you repaired them
and put taps on the heels.
I didn't know those
boots could talk.
When I put the taps on,
they never even said "ouch."
You're very eloquent now.
Moeller was a strong, heavy man.
When he was
dragged from the truck,
the edges of the taps
slid over the floor plate and
made grooves in the soft aluminum.
Anyone care to look?
You'll notice two distinct
grooves about six inches apart.
Are they there, Mr. Bonham?
What the hell does that prove?
Those grooves could've
been made by anything.
They could have,
but they weren't.
You see, I asked my assistant
to take a very close look at these.
I found aluminum scrapings lodged
between the taps and the heels.
Also, paint which I'll be able to match
up as soon as I get back to Los Angeles.
Does anyone have anything to
say? Or do you want me to go on?
Are you...
Okay, you're hinting it was me.
So, why don't you just say it.
Shut up, Howard,
he's just bluffing.
No, what's the use anymore.
I almost killed Larry Inoko,
I felt bad all along about
involving the rest of you.
Just like I've been
ashamed of lying at the trial.
Okay, it happened like you said.
I was alone, he came in,
and he started
pushing me around,
and making fun of
the way acted in court.
He called me a chicken,
he called me a coward,
and I just
couldn't stand it.
So, when he went
out to the truck,
I followed.
I opened the door
and I shot him.
Sam,
would you get in the
driver's seat, please?
So, Mr. Lemner, I want you to
show me exactly how you shot him.
I, uh...
I stood here and
aimed, like this.
That's strange,
because that would've been
the wrong trajectory for the bullet.
Much too high.
Well, I dunno, maybe I
scrunched down like this.
Come to think of it,
he's right, Howard.
You couldn't be the killer.
I remember you
were at the tavern with
Joe and Roy that day.
I saw you ordering a pitcher,
couple of minutes
before I met Dr. Quincy.
Figuring twenty
or thirty minutes,
the shot that killed Moeller
must've been fired while you
were still on your first glass of beer.
I drank up and left.
And when I fired, I
hunched over like this.
No, Mr. Lemner, it
didn't happen that way.
The person who fired
was shorter, much shorter,
about your size, Mrs. Lemner.
Five one or two.
The shooter was your size.
Uh...
Don't say a word, Jane.
And don't you give
him no demonstration.
Why should I let you take the
blame? For something you didn't do.
And she had a
damned good reason!
That pig,
tried to rape her!
He tried to rape her?
That was one of
his favorite pastimes.
Ask our Chief.
So who could blame her?
For protecting herself?
That's all it was, protection.
Is this your handwriting
Mrs. Lemner?
Damn it! Leave her alone!
Is it?
"Dear Henry,
"this is just a quick note of
warning to let you know Larry Inoko
"saw us saying
good-bye this morning.
"I don't think he
suspects anything,
"but we have to be careful.
"And, you must not
use the phone anymore.
"Half this town listens
in on party lines.
"Love, Jane."
What are you doing? What are
you trying to make people think?
This is only one of a dozen
letters I found in Moeller's cabin.
Jane, for God's sake,
tell him it's not you!
You of all people
should know it was.
With our separate rooms
and our separate lives.
Not him, not that...
Man?
That's the word you can't say.
He was alive and exciting
and he was a man.
And it made all of you
feel small and impotent
because you couldn't tame him.
So, stop acting so
surprised, Howard.
I saw him whenever I could.
I only wish I could've taken his hand
right down the middle of Main Street
and shown you all what it was
like to be in the company of a man.
You found out he was
leaving for Oregon, didn't you?
With Judy Fields?
He never should
have told me that.
Maybe I could've
forgiven him if...
If he'd gone alone.
And then he
turned it into a joke.
And he taunted me.
And he degraded me.
Maybe if he'd just gone alone...
You lied to us.
We were trying to help you.
You still don't get it, do you?
That there's never
any excuse for murder.
Or conspiracies that cover it by
setting themselves above the law?
You still feel there's something
honorable about what you did.
You're bewildered when
you should be ashamed.
You feel cheated
instead of feeling guilty.
What is it going to take for you
to understand what you've done?
What you gonna do, Frank?
What I should've
done to begin with.
I'm placing all of
you under arrest.
I'll get it. Keep the change.
- It comes to
thirty-five cents.
- Well, keep it anyway.
Quince, you never told us what finally
happened to those people in Mill Falls.
They've all been
arraigned and held over.
What about the police chief?
He tried to resign.
They wouldn't let him.
He's a good man. He made a
mistake. I think he learned from it.
I don't know how
come you're so lucky.
What are you
talking about, lucky?
You're always sticking your nose
into everybody else's business
and you've never had it bent.
You know why I
never get it bent?
Because I don't stick my
nose in everybody's business.
Only where it counts.
Opener is sixteen dollars.
Sixteen dollars?
Sixteen dollars?
- What are you doing?
- I'm gonna fold.
Why? He's bluffing.
- I only got
sixteen dollars...
- Listen to me, he's bluffing.
- All right.
- He's bluffing.
Four aces.
have to. It can be bad for the health.
Intimidation, Moeller-style.
I just can't believe,
in this day and age,
a man can terrorize a
town and get away with it.
- Who shot him?
- I did.
I somehow feel this world is gonna
be a better place without Henry Moeller.
I guess we've got
seven conspirators.
Never seen a car with every
tire flat at the same time.
There's never any
excuse for murder.
Or conspiracies that cover it by
setting themselves above the law?
Gentlemen, you
are about to enter
the most fascinating
sphere of police work,
the world of forensic medicine.
Howard.
Howard.
If I was you, I'd
really think about
what I was gonna say tomorrow.
Mrs. Lemner.
Marty!
Come on, open up!
Hey, Mike, wait up!
Mike, gimme some change!
I ain't got any.
Come on, Mike.
Let's see what you got.
You're no help.
I hope they lock you
up for good tomorrow!
Joe, you don't look too good.
Tomorrow might be a
perfect day for you to get sick.
You all right?
Yeah, just get me
up. I want to call Frank.
Take it easy. Take it easy.
That feel better, Mom?
When is Dr. Headly coming?
I called. He's fishing again.
But, they said as long
as you took your medicine,
you'd be okay till he got back.
Rise and shine, Larry.
Get your tail out here.
Henry, how you doing?
How much money you got there?
What do you mean?
I need some money.
Take them. On the house, okay?
I'm gonna take these.
But I still need some money.
I'll pay you back whenever, hey?
You make sure you remind me.
I'm at Inoko's Market.
What about Ray?
Can he back me up?
He's still off the air, Frank.
Roger. Wouldn't you know it?
Henry! Stop!
I've been looking for you.
I got a complaint
about you, Henry.
You pushed Mike Horvath around
and dumped him in the street.
Too bad you missed it,
Frank. It was quite a show.
You gotta come with me.
Negative.
I'm in a hurry. I gotta get
home before my ice melts.
I'll see you
tomorrow at your trial.
I'm Dr. Quincy, did the District Attorney
get my message about the flat tire?
I gave the your message, sir.
- Thanks. Have I got
time to clean up?
- Sure. Just enough.
Henry, please.
Relax, baby.
You're up from L.A., huh?
Yeah, drove up. I had a flat.
That belongs to me.
What's the matter? You got
something to hide in there?
Something you brought
all the way up from L.A.?
Do you mind?
Lemme give you a good
sensible rule for living...
Never say anything
you don't have to.
Sometimes it can
be bad for the health.
I think I just met your bully.
Henry Moeller?
- Big guy with lots of charm.
- Any problem?
- Not really.
- You're lucky.
I guess he's on his
good behavior today.
Any word on Joe Ferretty?
No. I've got a man
out looking for him.
This is Dr. Quincy,
Nardie Shell, DA's office.
- We've talked on the phone.
- Sorry I'm late.
The Judge won't buy another
continuance, but I'll try anyway.
We can't locate a witness.
Is he important?
That's putting it
mildly. Joe Ferretty.
One of two eyewitnesses
that can tie him to the murder.
- I don't want to drop
the case, Nardie.
- Neither do I.
Okay. I'll go with what
we've got. But, I don't like it.
Frank, where's Joe?
And when I got out
to the lumber yard,
I found John Kirby
laying in the parking lot.
The whole side of
his face was caved in
and there was blood
all over the place.
Who identified the victim?
I did. I'd known John
since we were kids.
He was my cousin.
Chief Aliano, the date on which
this happened is very important.
Would you please
repeat it for us?
March 14th.
That's a day I'll never forget.
Somebody knocked John Kirby to the
ground and then stomped him to death.
In your opinion, could he
have been killed accidentally?
No. There were
twelve distinct heel
prints on his head,
face and torso.
The wounds were
inflicted intentionally.
I'll ask the clerk to give
you People's Exhibit "A."
Do you recognize
these, Dr. Quincy?
I do. My initials are on
the inside of the boots.
You initialed the boots?
Any good investigator identifies
the evidence he examines.
They were sent to me by Chief Aliano in
connection with the death of John Kirby.
He said they belonged
to Henry Moeller.
When you first saw them,
did anything
peculiar strike you?
Yes. The boots themselves had had a
lot of wear, but both heels were brand new.
And nailed to them were
brand new metal taps.
Did that conflict
in any way with the
wounds you observed
on the victim's body?
No. It was totally consistent.
There were several distinct
imprints caused by the taps
and there are unique
characteristics of the taps
that could be seen
in the imprints.
Dr. Quincy...
Can you tell us if you reached
any conclusions as a result?
I certainly did.
I concluded that these were the
weapons used to murder John Kirby.
Thank you.
- Yes, sir.
- Speak louder, please.
Yes. I put on heels and taps.
For Henry Moeller?
Who then picked them up
on the morning of March 14th?
No, sir.
Mr. Lemner, did you
understand the question?
Yes, sir.
Well, I don't think you
did. So, I'll ask it again.
Did the defendant pick up
the boots you repaired on
the morning of March 14th?
It was the next
day, or the 16th.
Let me remind you, you've
testified previously under oath
it was the 14th.
And you made the same
statement to the police.
I've thought it over
and I was wrong.
I'm sorry.
Mr. Lemner, I'm a little
bit astonished right now.
Has anybody tried to
influence you in any way?
No.
I must advise you, the District Attorney
may want to pursue a charge of perjury.
Now, if you'd like some time
to give it some more thought...
I don't need any time.
It was the 15th or the 16th.
- Your Honor.
- Just a moment.
Mr. Lemner, you're excused.
Mr. Darcey, approach
the bench, please.
Oh, Howard...
Don't say anything
to him! Not a word.
Nobody understands
what this was like for him.
Jane, believe me, I do.
But he did the wrong thing.
What's this all about?
What went wrong?
Intimidation, Moeller-style.
One witness never
showed up. The other lied.
Jane and Howard,
you don't look so good. You
ought to have the Doc check you out.
The Judge dismissed it?
Naturally.
You can still refile.
Really? Why
should I even bother?
So, everybody's quitting, is that it?
Everybody's giving up without a fight.
Tell me what I'm
supposed to fight with.
Three patrolmen who run the other
way every time they see Moeller?
A town full of people who
live in fear day and night?
That's not a whole
lot of ammunition.
The case was only
dismissed. It could be refiled.
There is no case
without witnesses.
And, you saw what happened.
Joe Ferretty never showed up,
Howard Lemner changed
his story on the stand.
Both of them are good
men, but they're scared stiff.
And I can't blame them.
Give them protection.
I don't have the
manpower or the funds.
Well, I just can't believe,
in this day and age,
a man can a man can terrorize
a town and get away with it.
That's been happening for years. An
animal that oughta be locked in a zoo.
You wanna know something?
And now, I'll venture to
say it'll get even worse.
Somebody just shot him!
Shot who?
Henry Moeller. Somebody just shot
him over at Howard Lemner's Fix-it Shop.
Just let us through, all right.
He's dead.
All right.
What happened?
Who shot him?
I did.
Who does that belong to?
It's his.
And you're saying all of you
shot him with it? That's your story.
- All of us.
- One shot apiece.
If that doesn't
beat everything...
Joe, where were you today?
How come you weren't in court?
I took sick on the road. I
went to the clinic instead.
I can prove it.
Don't you think it'd be a good idea if
somebody told us what happened here?
Howard, you want to fill us in?
Well,
you see, we all kind of
gathered here after the trial.
We were so disgusted
by the way it turned out
we got together to
decide what to do.
And while we were
talking, he walked right in.
He said he wanted every
cent I had in my cash drawer.
- He robbed you?
- It's all still there.
In the right hand pocket of his
pants. Two hundred and twenty dollars.
Yeah, and that
wasn't enough for him.
When I said something, he
started pushing me around.
He started pushing
us all around.
And he was really
throwing some punches, so...
Somebody went out to
his truck and got his gun.
It just sort of happened.
One by one, we all shot him.
Uh...
Doctor, I think I might be able to
do a lot better alone with these men.
Go ahead. I'll call my office and
get someone to pick up the body.
I'll walk them over to my office and see
if I can make some sense out of all this.
Okay, gents, let's go. Straight
down Main Street to my office.
And, no talking to
anybody along the way.
Got it? Let's get going.
Well, I hope you're
proud of yourselves.
We did what somebody
should've done a long time ago.
- And you damned well
know it, Frank.
- He robbed Howard,
and he was hitting us like were
punching bags. It was self-defense.
Or, maybe you don't believe us?
It doesn't matter
what I believe.
We figured if all of us shot him,
they couldn't really do anything.
I know what you figured.
But maybe you figured wrong.
But, we're stuck with it so we're gonna
have to handle it the best way we can.
First thing I want
you to remember is,
nobody talks.
Nobody makes any
statements. To anybody.
Except you.
Including me!
I don't want to know anything
beyond what I already do.
Who got the gun...
Who shot in what
order, none of it.
We trust you, Frank.
I don't want you to
trust me! Or, your wives,
or your children. Or even your
father confessors, if you have any.
The lid's on this thing
and it stays on tight.
What about that coroner
from Los Angeles?
I get the feeling he'd like to be
asking a lot of questions, himself.
Well, that occurred to me, too.
So...
I'll just have to handle
it the best way I can.
Where are they going?
Home.
Already. You've
got their statements?
Nobody's said more than
you heard at the shop.
But, isn't it a little soon
to be letting them go?
How can I arrest them?
They're all decent men.
With jobs and
families to support.
You don't lock up
people like that.
Did you check their
hands for powder residues?
It'd be a waste of time.
They all washed their hands.
You allowed that?
I went out of the room for a
few minutes to talk to Alice.
Time I came back, they'd
all cleaned themselves up.
So, the only way you
can help me, Doctor,
is to go home and
do the autopsy.
And there's no need
to come back in person.
You can just save yourself
the trip and send it by mail.
That's it. The last bullet path.
Okay...
Now, because of the way
the bullets were flattened,
these five shots were fired
while he was lying on the floor,
this one was fired when
he was someplace else.
Unless the shooter
was three inches tall.
And that was the fatal shot?
That's the one that killed him. Sam,
how much blood in the chest cavity?
Over fifteen
hundred millimeters.
So he didn't die right away?
With the damage we found,
it would've taken twenty to thirty
minutes for that much blood to
accumulate before he died.
So, that means the other five bullets
were fired twenty to thirty minutes later
into a dead man.
- Where are you going?
- Mill Falls.
- You just came back...
- Six bullets fired.
Fifteen hundred millimeters of
blood. Twenty to thirty minutes later
into a dead man, you ask me why?
What's he talking about?
Did you see him?
Yeah, I saw him.
What do you think he
came back here for?
Probably no big deal.
Oh, yeah? When John Kirby was killed,
nobody came back up, now did they?
I stopped at your office.
Alice said you were here.
Well, Dr. Quincy,
you sure are putting a lot of miles
on that county vehicle of yours.
In these days of cutbacks,
postage stamps make a lot more
sense than a buck-and-a-half a gallon.
If you're talking about mailing the autopsy
report, Chief, it's not finished yet.
But, I did find enough
during my examination
to make the drive
seem legitimate.
Okay, then, why don't
you tell me about it.
Well, it's pretty simple.
I think what we've got here is a
murder and a conspiracy to cover it up.
I'll agree it was a
strange shooting.
With six people
equally involved. But...
Because of the
peculiar circumstances
and the lack of any
evidence to the contrary...
It'll probably go down as
self-defense or justifiable homicide.
Not in my report, it won't.
See, the bullet
that killed Moeller
was fired almost a half
an hour before the others.
From an entirely
different angle.
That means the man was murdered.
Then the murder got five of his
friends to cooperate in a cover-up.
Maybe according to your interpretation,
which doesn't necessarily make it true.
Okay, how do you
think it happened?
I think it's too early to
jump to any conclusions.
Forgive me for
saying this, Chief,
but, I get the feeling that
you're not pushing too hard.
Then, that's what you
came up here for, isn't it?
To tell me my job?
Evidently somebody has to.
You can't let personal emotions
stop a murder investigation.
Dr. Quincy, I like you and I don't
mean to sound unappreciative.
When Henry Moeller was alive, I
used to jump every time the phone rang.
For fear it was
another complaint.
Either he'd beat up a
man or assaulted a woman,
or robbed a store, or
burned somebody's porch.
All that's over now.
People breathing easier in the
daytime and sleeping better at night.
So,
if I nail somebody for murder,
would any of us really be better off?
Of course, you would.
He broke the law!
I'll make a deal with you.
Don't tell me how to do my job,
I'll stay out of your business.
Is there a hotel in this town?
Sure, there's a hotel, but,
you'll probably find it's all full.
You'll probably find there isn't one
single place for you to stay in Mill Falls.
Doesn't matter.
I noticed a motel
about ten miles south.
Well, I just hope you
brought your medical bag.
You're gonna need all
the disinfectant you've got.
More fleas stay at
that dump that people.
I'm prepared for anything.
Oh, and you never use
bleach with colored blankets.
They run.
What's the matter,
your car break down?
Oh, no. This here's my baby.
Sleep okay, Doc?
Sleep, are you kidding?
One more bedbug bite, I would've
needed a blood transfusion.
Looks like you've
got a problem there.
Never seen a car with every
tire flat at the same time.
I suppose you didn't
see who did it, either.
Nah...
Is there a towing
service around here?
You can't tow a car with
four of 'em down all at once.
Well, then, where's the closest
place I can rent something?
Titusville used
to have a service.
Twenty-five bucks a day,
twenty-five cents a mile.
- How do I get there?
- You don't.
They been outta
business for over a year.
So, what are you trying to say?
I'm stuck here because
somebody flattened my tires?
I'm not saying that at all.
I'm saying I'm gonna do you
a favor and let you use my car.
That's very nice of you.
I'm sorry, I had no idea.
Yeah, especially since I'm only
gonna charge you twenty bucks a day,
and twenty cents
a mile. In advance.
Judy Fields?
I'm Dr. Quincy from Los Angeles.
Yeah, I know. I
saw you at the trial.
As part of my investigation, I need to go
through some of his personal belongings.
Sure.
But I don't think anybody's really
too serious about an investigation.
I hope you haven't
touched anything, Judy.
I didn't touch nothing.
Some of his personal
belongings are in the box.
Place looks like it
was just cleaned.
Henry was a very neat person,
he had a lot of good qualities
people didn't know about.
Nothing here.
Nobody ever mentioned that the
two of you were gonna get married.
Was that public knowledge?
Sure, it was public knowledge.
I had my eyes on Henry
Moeller ever since I was thirteen.
He was the handsomest
man I ever saw.
I guess I was afraid of
him, like everybody else,
until I found out there
was a side to him
so gentle and sweet it
could almost make you cry.
Look, I don't mean to be unkind.
But, I've read a hundred
pages of testimony
documenting the fact that he was
cruel and sadistic and dangerous.
I had an encounter
with him myself.
So, I can't really accept
your Mr. Nice Guy image.
Which means you're walking
through your investigation, doesn't it?
Like the Police Chief
and all the rest of them?
Judy, he was murdered. I
want to find out who did it.
What I think about him doesn't
make the slightest bit of difference.
So many lies are going around
this town, I don't believe it.
They're even saying Henry tried
to steal $220 from Howard Lemner.
That exact amount was
found in the pocket of his pants.
Then, I guess
somebody put it there.
Because, human
nature tells you that
no man steals when he
has all the money he needs.
What do you mean?
Telegram from Kansas City. See, an
uncle of mine died and left me $10,000.
Henry and I were gonna take that
money and head up north for Oregon.
So, maybe you and the rest of
the liars around here can tell me
why he'd go to Howard Lemner and
try to steal something he didn't need?
What did I do?
I think you missed your turn.
You should've taken the
highway that gets you back to L.A.
I'm not going back to L.A.
And I'm pretty
sure you know why.
Mind pulling over there?
Would you take out
your license, please?
I see, you're gonna
hassle me until I leave.
I'm not hassling you, Doctor.
I noticed you have
an equipment violation.
Where?
Your tailpipe's too low.
It's not my car.
You're the one who's driving it.
You're the one person around here
who ought to realize what's happening.
You're a peace officer.
You're the empowered law.
But, you're behaving with just as
much stupidity as that gang of vigilantes.
Well, you see, I've served the law
long enough to know its imperfections.
And the irony of this thing is that the
same court that let Henry Moeller go free,
might find all six of those
good people guilty of his crime.
They are guilty. By
their own admission.
But, you'll have to admit
the issue's kind of confused.
Nobody knows who
actually killed Moeller.
So, if we don't push too hard,
it's just possible some
of them won't be punished
for cleaning the
streets of this town.
If you think they
were justified,
why don't you let it be
tested by a judge and jury?
Didn't I just mention
imperfections, Doctor?
There are all sorts of little
loopholes and technicalities.
Twisted little games
lawyers play to get their way.
I've seen too many
righteous men go to jail.
And too many Henry
Moellers go free.
His trial didn't have a damned thing
to do with games or technicalities.
He got off because two members of your
lynch mob didn't have the guts to testify.
Sure, it's easy for us to stand
here and say the system isn't perfect.
But, every time we ignore it,
or try to put
ourselves above it,
we take a giant
step toward anarchy.
I'm not a philosopher, Doctor.
And I don't even
claim to be too bright.
But, I somehow feel this world is gonna
be a better place without Henry Moeller.
And I don't necessarily
believe there'll be any anarchy
around Mill Falls
because he's gone.
Then, I guess we've got seven
conspirators instead of six.
What happened to your
station wagon, Doctor?
One of those
amazing coincidences.
Four tires blew on
me at the same time.
I need some gas.
Sorry. Just ran
out. Pump's empty.
What about that one?
He's taking the last ten
gallons. Aren't you, Larry?
Sure. Running her clean dry.
Well, if I can't get gas, maybe
I can get some information.
Mr. Lemner,
maybe you can tell me
why you lied about Moeller
coming to your
shop to steal $220.
Who says that's a lie?
I just talked to Judy Fields.
She inherited $10,000, which
she was going to give Moeller
as a token of her love.
So, why would he raid your cash
register for money he didn't need?
Probably outta plain meanness.
That was his nature, in
case you haven't heard.
I know what his nature was.
And I also know that if
you stuck together in court
you could've convicted
him of first-degree murder.
It wasn't worth getting
killed for, mister.
So, don't talk to us about
courts of law, or legal protection.
I wouldn't have felt safe
with a squad of U.S. Marines.
Oh, that's terrific!
So, you don't feel safe.
If you think the law's
inadequate, pick up a gun
and kill whatever it
is that's bothering you.
That's the kind of
justice he deserved.
It wasn't justice,
it was murder.
And firing bullets into his
dead body was conspiracy.
So, you can refuse
to sell me gas,
and you can flatten my tires,
and you can force me to
sleep in a flea-ridden motel,
but, I'm staying until
every guilty person here
goes to prison.
What do you think?
I think he's full of hot air.
Yeah, but he was
right about the trial.
Moeller could've been convicted.
What if he wasn't?
And you were me or you were Joe?
For the rest of
your life, you'd be
listening to every
little sound in the night.
I already am. I
can't sleep anymore.
Then have your mother
fix you a glass of warm milk.
I'm gonna call Frank.
Howard...
If anything happens, and I go
to prison, my mom would die.
What I think you
oughta do, Larry,
is get control of yourself.
If it takes milk,
or sleeping pills,
or just plain old guts,
I think you better not
let the rest of us down.
Hey, Doc!
Listen here, buddy,
what do you think of Baby?
Baby could use a de-lousing.
Got a note for you, Doc. Somebody
called while you were gone.
Just a number? No name?
Just a number. No name.
Do you mind?
Inoko's Market.
This is Dr. Quincy.
You got my message. This is
Larry Inoko over at Mill Falls.
- You were at
the gas station today.
- Yeah.
Listen, you gotta
be honest with me.
If I help you, can you
guarantee I won't go to prison?
It might be the only
chance you have to avoid it.
Okay, I'll tell you who
killed him and where, but...
We're on a party line,
so I can't exactly talk.
You want me to
meet you someplace?
No, no, not here. I'll
come where you are.
Okay.
- How bad is he?
- He's gonna make it.
But, if nobody found him
for another couple of hours,
you'd probably be
going to a funeral.
I sure want to thank
you for coming, Doctor.
You really think it was
an accident, Chief?
Got no reason to believe
anything to the contrary.
Have you checked
the skid marks yet?
No.
And what about his vehicle?
Not yet.
I wanted to make sure
he was taken care of first.
I'll save you some time, then.
Larry was on his way out to
tell me how Henry Moeller died.
He was forced off the road.
Probably, by a truckload of vigilantes.
- I can't believe that.
- Why not?
All of them are Larry's friends.
Who took the law
into their own hands.
They did it once, and you sanctioned
it. Why shouldn't they do it again?
They could've talked to him.
They could've tried to convince him.
They probably did. But,
obviously without success.
So, they rounded up their
lynch mob and went to work.
And, I'll tell you
one more thing.
If Larry had died,
I would've held you responsible.
Hi, ol' buddy, what'cha doing?
Well, I just came from the
emergency hospital in Greenbush.
I guess you heard Larry
Inoko had a bad accident?
Alice mentioned
that. She called Jane.
Have you guys gone
crazy or something?
I don't follow what you mean.
There's blue paint
on your fender.
You came out of Horse Head Road
and ran him off the embankment.
I checked the skid marks
and I know what happened.
Look, Frank, he was...
He was gonna squeal to
that Doctor from Los Angeles!
He was gonna
spill the whole story!
You almost killed him!
I only meant to...
Run him in the
ditch as a warning.
I did it to protect
us. All of us.
You're wrong, Howard. "Us"
doesn't include me anymore.
Because, what's happening is no
better than what Henry Moeller did.
Only, instead of one
person, now it's a whole gang.
And suddenly that scares
me more than I'd like to admit.
You hear that, Jane?
Seems we've got a
fair-weather friend, here.
Going gets tough,
he starts clucking
like a chicken.
I'm give you exactly an
hour to do some thinking.
Then I want you to
come to my office,
and tell me which one
of you killed Moeller.
We're ending it. Right now.
This dent is exactly
the same height
as the bullet that
stopped in Moeller's side.
He must've been
leaning against the door.
The bullet passed through his body
and when it struck the panel, it stayed in.
But it still had enough
force to leave that dent.
Let's check the trajectory.
Lower, Sam, lower...
The entry wound was thirty-two
centimeters above the seat.
Come on, come on. Whoa...
There! That's the
exact path of the bullet.
Dr. Quincy.
I know who ran
Larry off the road.
Lemner. Howard Lemner.
Lemner?
I can't believe he'd
do a thing like that.
Chief, this is my
assistant, Sam Fujiyama.
I asked him to drive up
from L.A. to bring me these.
Well, whatever it is you're doing,
you've got my full cooperation.
I can't tell you
how ashamed I am.
Everything you said was
gonna happen happened.
And a decent man almost
died because I didn't listen.
Let me ask you one thing.
Can I move this truck?
I said you've got my full cooperation.
You can take it anyplace you want.
Okay, then get those vigilantes
together behind Lemner's shop.
- We're gonna put this thing
to rest once and for all.
- Okay.
Nice to see you again, Doc.
We heard you was gonna put on a
show, so we broke out some brew.
You and your friend
care to join us?
Ask me in about ten minutes.
If you're still in a party mood,
we might take you up on it.
So, why don't you guys
shut up and get serious.
The Doctor's gonna tell
us who killed Henry Moeller,
and exactly how it happened.
We all killed him.
Every one of us.
Including Larry Inoko.
Six bullets, six people.
First, let's go through the
actual sequence of the crime.
You see, only one of you was
in the shop when Moeller arrived.
There was an argument. Not over
money because he didn't need money.
Then, Moeller came out
here and got back in his truck.
But, before he could drive away, the
person opened the passenger door,
grabbed his gun off
the seat, and fired.
That was the
shot that killed him.
My autopsy'll prove it
to any jury in the world.
If he did die in the truck, what'd
he do to get back into the shop?
Float in on a magic carpet?
The autopsy also proved
that the other five shots were
fired twenty to thirty minutes later.
So, during that time, the killer got
the rest of you and asked for help.
Someone came up
with the conspiracy plan,
then you dragged Moeller inside
and fired the other shots.
I take it you've got
a witness to all that?
Yeah, right here.
Moeller's favorite boots.
You should recognize
them, Howard.
At the trial, you lied about
the day you repaired them
and put taps on the heels.
I didn't know those
boots could talk.
When I put the taps on,
they never even said "ouch."
You're very eloquent now.
Moeller was a strong, heavy man.
When he was
dragged from the truck,
the edges of the taps
slid over the floor plate and
made grooves in the soft aluminum.
Anyone care to look?
You'll notice two distinct
grooves about six inches apart.
Are they there, Mr. Bonham?
What the hell does that prove?
Those grooves could've
been made by anything.
They could have,
but they weren't.
You see, I asked my assistant
to take a very close look at these.
I found aluminum scrapings lodged
between the taps and the heels.
Also, paint which I'll be able to match
up as soon as I get back to Los Angeles.
Does anyone have anything to
say? Or do you want me to go on?
Are you...
Okay, you're hinting it was me.
So, why don't you just say it.
Shut up, Howard,
he's just bluffing.
No, what's the use anymore.
I almost killed Larry Inoko,
I felt bad all along about
involving the rest of you.
Just like I've been
ashamed of lying at the trial.
Okay, it happened like you said.
I was alone, he came in,
and he started
pushing me around,
and making fun of
the way acted in court.
He called me a chicken,
he called me a coward,
and I just
couldn't stand it.
So, when he went
out to the truck,
I followed.
I opened the door
and I shot him.
Sam,
would you get in the
driver's seat, please?
So, Mr. Lemner, I want you to
show me exactly how you shot him.
I, uh...
I stood here and
aimed, like this.
That's strange,
because that would've been
the wrong trajectory for the bullet.
Much too high.
Well, I dunno, maybe I
scrunched down like this.
Come to think of it,
he's right, Howard.
You couldn't be the killer.
I remember you
were at the tavern with
Joe and Roy that day.
I saw you ordering a pitcher,
couple of minutes
before I met Dr. Quincy.
Figuring twenty
or thirty minutes,
the shot that killed Moeller
must've been fired while you
were still on your first glass of beer.
I drank up and left.
And when I fired, I
hunched over like this.
No, Mr. Lemner, it
didn't happen that way.
The person who fired
was shorter, much shorter,
about your size, Mrs. Lemner.
Five one or two.
The shooter was your size.
Uh...
Don't say a word, Jane.
And don't you give
him no demonstration.
Why should I let you take the
blame? For something you didn't do.
And she had a
damned good reason!
That pig,
tried to rape her!
He tried to rape her?
That was one of
his favorite pastimes.
Ask our Chief.
So who could blame her?
For protecting herself?
That's all it was, protection.
Is this your handwriting
Mrs. Lemner?
Damn it! Leave her alone!
Is it?
"Dear Henry,
"this is just a quick note of
warning to let you know Larry Inoko
"saw us saying
good-bye this morning.
"I don't think he
suspects anything,
"but we have to be careful.
"And, you must not
use the phone anymore.
"Half this town listens
in on party lines.
"Love, Jane."
What are you doing? What are
you trying to make people think?
This is only one of a dozen
letters I found in Moeller's cabin.
Jane, for God's sake,
tell him it's not you!
You of all people
should know it was.
With our separate rooms
and our separate lives.
Not him, not that...
Man?
That's the word you can't say.
He was alive and exciting
and he was a man.
And it made all of you
feel small and impotent
because you couldn't tame him.
So, stop acting so
surprised, Howard.
I saw him whenever I could.
I only wish I could've taken his hand
right down the middle of Main Street
and shown you all what it was
like to be in the company of a man.
You found out he was
leaving for Oregon, didn't you?
With Judy Fields?
He never should
have told me that.
Maybe I could've
forgiven him if...
If he'd gone alone.
And then he
turned it into a joke.
And he taunted me.
And he degraded me.
Maybe if he'd just gone alone...
You lied to us.
We were trying to help you.
You still don't get it, do you?
That there's never
any excuse for murder.
Or conspiracies that cover it by
setting themselves above the law?
You still feel there's something
honorable about what you did.
You're bewildered when
you should be ashamed.
You feel cheated
instead of feeling guilty.
What is it going to take for you
to understand what you've done?
What you gonna do, Frank?
What I should've
done to begin with.
I'm placing all of
you under arrest.
I'll get it. Keep the change.
- It comes to
thirty-five cents.
- Well, keep it anyway.
Quince, you never told us what finally
happened to those people in Mill Falls.
They've all been
arraigned and held over.
What about the police chief?
He tried to resign.
They wouldn't let him.
He's a good man. He made a
mistake. I think he learned from it.
I don't know how
come you're so lucky.
What are you
talking about, lucky?
You're always sticking your nose
into everybody else's business
and you've never had it bent.
You know why I
never get it bent?
Because I don't stick my
nose in everybody's business.
Only where it counts.
Opener is sixteen dollars.
Sixteen dollars?
Sixteen dollars?
- What are you doing?
- I'm gonna fold.
Why? He's bluffing.
- I only got
sixteen dollars...
- Listen to me, he's bluffing.
- All right.
- He's bluffing.
Four aces.