The Wire (2002–2008): Season 5, Episode 6 - The Dickensian Aspect - full transcript

Mystified by Omar's disappearance, Marlo and Chris ramp up their efforts to locate their nemesis. After a sparsely attended waterfront ceremony, Carcetti fires away at a larger press event--and recasts himself as a champion for the homeless.

Gotta be somewhere.
You wanna keep goin'?

Officer Smith, ma'am.

We're looking for a man went after a woman
last night at Esplanda Apartments.

- Heard anything unusual?
- No, sorry.

Oh my God, that's terrible.
Is the woman all right?

- The woman, is she all right?
- Yeah, she good.

Excuse me. My brother,
Omar Little, came here

last night. He fell
out the damn window.

- We don't have anyone by that name.
- He was kinda high.

Probably messed up his name.
Real dark, got himself a scar.

Legs should be busted up real bad.

No one with that type
of injury came in last night.

Not a goddamn thing.
Been in every trash can,

dumpster, vacant for
three blocks 'round.

- Nothin'.
- We even checked down the sewers.

- Marlo wanna meet.
- So what you want us to do?

Which one?

- Don't seem possible.
- It don't.

That some Spiderman shit there.

We missed our shot.

Now he gonna be at us.

Usually, my staff tries to keep
sharp objects out of my hands.

You know, it all started with Charles
Center and Tommy d'Alesandro

and it continued with William
Donald Schaefer and Harborplace.

And following that, there
were mayors Schmoke

and O'Malley with
Inner Harbor East.

Well, today it is my
administration's turn to

lay claim to the middle
branch of the Patapsco

and what will soon become
known as New Westport,

revitalizing another waterfront area
of our great city. Thank you.

Say goodbye to Locust Point South.

Fuck you, Krawczyk.

Yeah, fuck you, greedhead motherfucker.

Fuck you for tearing down
the port of Baltimore

and selling it to some yuppie
assholes from Washington.

- C'mon, buddy.
- This is bullshit.

Who the hell's that?

That's nobody, Mr. Mayor.
It's nobody at all.

- You happy now, bitch?
- I am content, yes.

- You called the reporter?
- No, actually.

That asshole's making up his own shit.

Brass called a press
conference for this afternoon.

They'll be shoveling so much money
at my bullshit it'll make your head spin.

- What's with all the casework?
- Bodies from the vacants.

- Some still missing lab work.
- Pathetic...

And some of them have
been worked pretty good.

You know what, Jimmy?
I'm gonna go back to the beginning

and work every one of them again.
Back to square one.

You know why?
Because I'm a murder police.

I work murders. I don't fuck with
no make-believe, I don't jerk shit around.

I catch a murder and I work it.

Working this shit like I'm supposed to.

Well, let me know
if you need anything, all right?

Cars, some OT, some lab work...
Anything you need.

Because in three or four hours
the money's gonna flow on my case.

Whatever you need, I'm probably gonna have
more of it than even Lester could use.

To be that close to a serial killer.
It must be weird.

Kinda. Yeah.

- Wonderful story, Scott.
- Yeah, well, it kinda wrote itself.

It's lucky to have the guy
call me like he did...

It comes from pounding the pavement, right?
That's more than luck.

That's putting yourself
in the place where the story comes to you.

What do you have for tomorrow?

This is not the kind of thing
we let go of after a day or two.

I was thinking that if I spent
a night with the homeless, you know.

Did what they did. Saw what they saw.

If it's an overnight thing, I couldn't get
it for tomorrow, but the next day, sure...

That's great. That could be the
perfect follow. I'll speak to Gus.

We've been taking calls from some
of the networks and cable outlets.

- They're looking for you to go on-camera.
- Me? On television?

I'd avoid locals, but if you can do
the national stuff responsibly...

Sure, yeah. I mean,
I'm just not all that comfortable

having myself in the center
of the story like this.

Of course not. But there is a way
of handling this responsibly.

Just remember you're an
ambassador for the paper.

Star time.

How about that?

- Homelessness?
- Our coverage should reflect

the Dickensian aspect of the homeless.

The human element.

Scott will lead it off,
spending a night on the streets

and writing from that perspective.

He's the lead on your education project.
We need to get him back on the...

I don't see the school project as yielding
the same kind of impact

as our attention to homelessness can.

These murders, the phone
call to our reporter.

It really opens up the issue.

- Yeah, but...
- From now till the end of the year,

let's focus not only on
covering the murders,

but on the nature of homelessness itself.

The Dickensian aspect of it. Yeah.

I've reached a point, Detective Sydnor,

where I no longer have the
time or patience left

to address myself to the needs of
the system within which we work.

- I'm tired.
- You're gonna quit?

Not yet. Not just yet.

So what are you talking about?

When they took us off Marlo this last time,

when they said they couldn't
pay for further investigation,

I regarded that decision as illegitimate.

- Illegitimate?
- And so...

I'm responding in kind.
I'm going to press a case

against Marlo Stanfield
without regard to the usual rules.

I'm running an illegal wiretap
on Marlo Stanfield's cellphone.

- Fuck. Lester?
- If you have a problem with this,

I understand completely

and I urge you to get as far fucking
away from me as you can.

You remember this one here?

I backed away from jackin' the boy up outta
respect for that goofy motherfucker Prez.

Wonder what the young man might
tell me a year later, though...

- What the fuck is this?
- Vernon here did a search warrant

on his dead guy's appliance store,
pulled all of that out of the desk drawer.

- Grand jury shit?
- Transcripts, sealed indictments...

Who's your murder?

Eastside dealer by the
name of Joe Stewart.

Caught one in the back
of his head the other night.

Somebody finally touched Prop Joe.

You remember when Narcotics
indicted Charlie Burman last year?

Motherfucker ran a couple days
before the raids, still on the wing.

The sealed indictments are all in there.
Every one of 'em.

Who don't we trust at the courthouse?

- They put cheese on them fries?
- They can. Chili too.

- All right, then.
- You want a drink with that?

- Strawberry lemonade.
- All right, I'm on it.

They're back on cellphones.
After more than a year?

- That they are.
- Tell me they're talking in code, Lester.

I wanna go to jail for snatchin' something
better than Marlo's lunch order.

There's no code that I can tell.
Half dozen calls.

All routine.
No drug talk, no numbers, no times...

Nothing but what they seem.

So he ain't doing business
with the phone then.

Take this mess down.
Let's get outta here.

I also have five calls,
30 to 40 seconds' duration,

each one picked up on the first ring,
each one with nothing whatsoever

said between parties. You see?
When they talk, it's bullshit.

But there are calls where
no one says a thing.

Thirty seconds, without conversation.

Is he...

We talked it through, he knows the risks.

I'm in. If it makes the fucking case,
I'm in all the way.

So, what's up now? They talking dirt?

- No.
- Lester. Fuck.

Marlo's not gonna talk dirt on the phone,
but there's something to this.

I just haven't figured it out.

We could use some more manpower,
a couple of surveillance teams

to get on these guys to see
how they using the phones.

You see the newspaper today?

Headline like that, the
bosses are gonna start

throwing money at the
homeless murders.

When they do, I'll peel off a couple
detectives, throw them your way.

The homeless murders?
How does that case tangle in with this?

Hard to explain.

Remember what the DNC folks told me
two years ago? How to take the statehouse?

Build something downtown
and stick your name on it,

get the crime to go down,
and stay away from schools.

- And keep my boyish good looks.
- One out of four ain't bad.

Jesus.

Did we have to schedule this the same
day as New Westport?

My news isn't even going to make
the front of the local section.

The ribbon-cutting was scheduled two weeks
ago. No one saw the homeless thing coming.

First of all, I'm surprised
to see so much media here.

A press event held earlier today
to announce the revitalization

of yet another part of our city
was not so well attended.

It would appear that media
attention is always

focusing on the
negatives in Baltimore,

but you aren't around
when we're making real progress.

Still, I'm glad to see so many of you here.

Some of you representing
not just our local media,

but national attention to this problem.

Thank you for caring enough
about our most vulnerable citizens

to address yourselves to this tragedy.

Our homeless citizens, those who have
fallen through the cracks of our society,

those who command
the least of our attentions and efforts,

they seemingly have little to endear
themselves to politicians.

They don't vote, by and large.
They don't contribute to campaigns.

They offer little to a city's tax base,

and to the extent that our government
is made aware of their existence,

it responds by trying to mitigate
the damage done by their presence.

We open a food bank here, a shelter there.

We try to move them away from downtown,

away from our communal areas,
away from our schools, away from our homes.

If you were to judge our
society by the manner

in which we treat those
lost on our streets,

we would have cause to be shamed.

Well, I am, God forgive me, a politician.

But I ran for public
office because I believe

that there is a different
way of governing.

And I believe that in the end we will be
judged not by the efforts we make on behalf

of those who vote for us,
who contribute to our campaigns,

or those who provide for our tax base.

I believe that we will be judged by what we
provide to the weakest and most vulnerable.

That is the test. That is my test.

Somebody is killing
homeless men in this city.

Taking the lives of fellow citizens
who do not have the means or the strength

to properly protect themselves.
They will be stopped.

We will do everything in our power
to stop them. You have my word on this.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

- What got into you?
- What?

I want to assure the public that we are
doing everything possible in our power

to apprehend this subject.

Homicide detectives are working non-stop.

District officers are in contact with the
agencies that work with the homeless.

I cannot go into specifics
of the investigation

but, with that caveat,
I will take questions.

Commissioner, is there any connection

between these murders and those
in the vacant homes last year?

No connection.

Commissioner, are you asking the FBI
to join in the investigation?

I think deputy commissioner Daniels is
in a position to elaborate on that.

We'll take whatever help is offered.

Our detectives will work closely with
the behavioral analysis unit at Quantico...

Deputy, even with all the resources
at your disposal,

isn't it extremely difficult
to catch a serial killer?

Our ability to secure genetic material
and the growing DNA data bank

are assets unavailable
to us even a few years ago.

Our ability to effectively use resources

has been increased with the aid
of sophisticated computer software.

And we have some of the best criminal
investigators in the nation working 24/7.

As the mayor made very clear a moment ago,
this is now a priority for the department.

Has a note been found at any of the scenes?

I'm not at liberty to go into any details
of the investigation at this time.

You want me to hang?

He told you who I am, right?

Son, the thing about murder
is it never goes off the books.

I mean, we work on 'em for weeks,
months, years.

We keep on with it until finally
someone decides they've had enough,

until we get the right word
from the right person.

And you know what happens then?

When a case does go down...

all those people who kept quiet about it,
who lied about it,

all of them who thought
it wasn't coming back on 'em,

they end up catchin' a charge.
And they get time behind that.

Time? You gonna give me time?

If you know something
about that boy Lex getting shot,

now is your last chance to speak to that.

You gave a statement
last year...

Why don't you promise
to get me outta here?

That's what y'all do, ain't it?
Lie to dumbass niggers?

Yo, y'all need to get this police
out my face before I bank his ass.

You're a natural, kiddo.
You had them eating out of your hand.

Shit, I was just following the mayor's
lead. He wants a full-court press, right?

We can add a detective or two.

And you can ask patrol to concentrate
on posts where vagrants congregate.

But other than that, deputy,
the cupboard is bare.

- But Carcetti...
- Make no mistake.

He wants us to solve the murders.
He just doesn't want it to cost.

Don't look so shocked.
You're runnin' with the big dogs now.

Isn't it enough that we're
up on the killer's cellphone?

Couldn't you track him on the GPS chip?

He's using a burner and we suspect he's
taking out the battery between calls.

And there's nothing to stop him
from changing phones,

calling the reporter from a new number.

So you want to tap the reporter's phone
as well.

It stands to reason that we should monitor
this thing from both ends.

- It's what we would normally do.
- Nothing about this is normal.

A Baltimore Sun reporter's phone
is problematic.

We need to strike a balance
between your needs

as investigators and the First Amendment
rights of the Sun and its sources.

The First Amendment does not
guarantee privacy, your Honor.

Legal precedent clearly indicates...

- Look I'm not saying that we can't, but...
- But what?

Until we get the sense
that your suspect is changing phones,

I'm not inclined to look
with favor on tapping

the Baltimore Sun's
telecommunications.

- We're afraid to piss them off?
- Never pick a fight

with anyone who buys ink
by the barrel-full.

- Christ.
- Very well, judge.

How many enemies do you need?

Deputy.

- Where did you get all this?
- Darling, you do not want to know.

What's up with you?

Got all 22 out of the drawer?

- Workin' the whole mess at once.
- I'm trying to see 'em fresh.

25. My triple.
It comes back to Marlo and his people.

For sure?

A good informant tells me so.

Says one of my vics was talking bad
about Mr. Stanfield, who took it personal.

Killed him, his girl, his muscle.

Left the little kids alive,
so I guess he ain'tall bad.

People out there
so scared of this motherfucker,

I can't get close to an
eyewitness on any of it.

Where you at with the
rest of these cases?

We don't even have lab work

on 14 of these bodies?

A year later I'm still walking in
written requests into Landsman,

who just files them away in his drawer.

McNulty would've called a news reporter.

I am not him.

Well, what would the Bunk do?
Take no for a fucking answer?

We had cutbacks, you know that.

We lost three or four trace examiners.
Lost half our clerical.

The freezer went bad, we lost four months
of blood samples.

Did you know that? Four months of evidence

and they still haven't
replaced my damn icebox.

My heart pumps purple piss for you.

Now, I got the worst mass murder
in B-more history

and you can't get the trace work back to me
inside of a year? C'mon, Ron...

Look...

You can't go to the press.

I mean, heads will roll if this gets out.
It isn't anyone's fault.

In fact, it's a little
bit on you, in a way.

The fuck you say?

After Annette took retirement, the casework
got backed up worse than ever, right?

Well, we put in to fill
the lab assistant slot,

but with the cutbacks,
the best they could give us was a temp.

- A temp?
- Yeah. No medical. No pension.

A temp hire to get us over for a while.

Look, I'll show you something...

She was assigned to sort
and file the individual trace elements...

Hair, fiber mostly...

You know, from each of the 14 scenes.

So what's the problem?

In the initial paperwork,
you wrote out all 22 CC numbers, right?

- Right.
- But in the supplemental requests,

you put all the incidents
under the initial CC

and then you wrote, "et al," remember?

- So?
- She didn't know what "et al" meant.

And she sorted everything under
the single complaint number.

You don't fuckin' mean...

We have no idea which one of your scenes
any of this shit came from.

We don't have a clue.

Actually, except for this
she's been a pretty good employee.

- Surveillance teams.
- Two each on 12-hour shifts.

I need them to set up on certain locations
common to our cases.

C'mon, Jay. You heard the mayor.
This case is a red ball.

That it is.
You can have Greggs, if you want.

The last time I offered her up, you
kicked her back to her own casework.

Other than a second detective,
you are on your own.

- So it's all bullshit.
- I dunno.

I thought the mayor
gave a very nice speech.

I, for one, was moved. Much like the
bull to which you just referred.

- Tell you one thing...
- What's that?

Motherfucker whose got the connect,
he the one that did Joe.

Oh, no doubt.

Y'all know the co-op took some hits.
Joe. Hungry Man.

Good people, especially Joe.
Their passin' was for real, cold blooded.

I know what you thinkin',
so I'm a put it out there...

I'm responsible.

A week or so back,
I made a move on Omar, with Joe's approval.

The faggot ain't had heart enough to come
at me, so he come at those close to me.

Now I'm doublin' the bounty...

Hundred large for a whiff of that dicksuck.

Two hundred fifty for his head.

- What about the connect?
- I got that covered.

And in light of that fact, I'm a take
it upon myself to conduct this meet.

Slim, I want you take over
Hungry Man's slice of the cake.

Meanin' no disrespect,
but I ain't cut out to be no CEO.

- Cheese, then.
- No problem, man. Got you covered.

Until we settle up with Omar,
I think it's best we suspend these meets.

In fact, I ain't really
one for meets no how.

Anybody got a problem here on out,
bring it to me, or sit on that shit.

Those of you on the Westside
who need to re-up, holler at my man Monk.

He gonna handle supply over there.
On the Eastside, Cheese.

One more thing.

Price of the brick going up.

Thirty more.

All right. Enough of this shit.

What?

Next year for the schools.
From now until December,

we're all about the plight of the homeless.
The great whiting has spoken.

I appealed to Klebanow half hour ago
but he gave me the thumbs down. I'm sorry.

Check it out, people.
Our Metro desk has some national profile.

We're being careful to cooperate
with the investigators in every way.

My newspaper has no desire to get between
the police and the suspect.

But still, wouldn't you agree it's
an incredible moment for any journalist

to come face to face with that type
of pure evil like the son of Sam.

That makes you the
Jimmy Breslin of Baltimore.

Well, no, I wouldn't say that. I mean...

But knowing you have been
in contact with a killer,

are you at all concerned about continuing
to report from the street?

No, not at all.
I mean, this is what we do.

As a reporter, you expect to be
in harm's way at some points.

- It's what we do.
- Agreed. It's what we do.

But very rarely does a reporter end up
being in the middle of a story -

an ongoing story -

about a murderer who is still at large and
posing a severe and deadly risk to the...

You shoulda heard Phelan this morning.

Too scared to tap the newspaper phones
they might shit on him for it.

Fuckin' hack judge.

What would you want with more wires?
We got all we need.

I don't want another wire.
It's the principle of the thing...

It just pissed me off listening to him.

Oh yeah, no surveillance cars.

They won't go beyond me and Greggs.

You and Sydnor will have to work
it as best you can for right now.

Assholes.

They need another body, don't they?

I'll call our man in the Southern.

I can take it from here.
Y'all can bounce.

All right, boss.

What up, Rick?

Just like ol' times for me and you.

- Whatever you want it's yours, all right?
- Tonight, I'm just gonna take yo' jump...

- And leave you with a little something.
- What's that?

My word in your ear.

I'm callin' Marlo a straight bitch.

I'm sayin' it don't take much
to shoot down a blind man.

And as for him steppin' to me,
you tell that dude he ain't got the heart.

All right.

You tell that man I'm
in the street, waiting.

Just like a little bitch,
he ain't nowhere to be found.

I'll tell him. I will.

Pick up your keys and go on inside, yo.

You kill Joe?

Hungry?

Didn't think so.

What now?

There's more than one way to skin a case.

Already ran them for priors, right?

Priors, yeah. But I'm gonna run
every name you guys developed

through the entire database.

Not just for priors, but for
anything at all in the miles system.

Court appearances, parole, probation,

gun permits, DOC, open bails.

You're playing
long shots, huh?

Darlin', I'm playin' the
hand I've been dealt.

An H-file?

- Who caught the case?
- Worden. Other shift.

Stepfather. Beaten to death.

They interviewed the mother,
but no one else in the household.

Doesn't exactly fit with
the others, does it?

A straight up ass-whoopin' in an alley
doesn't seem like Marlo Stanfield.

- No, it doesn't.
- But you're gonna work it anyway.

In the Pentecostal church
where I was given religion,

it would have been said the spirit
was on you yesterday.

- It got good to me.
- Let praises be.

It pissed me off that on top
of everything else I gotta deal with,

some nutjob starts killing homeless guys.
Fuck already, how many shitbowls are there?

He's right though. You were great.
That passion was just the thing.

- You think...
- We step out on this issue,

it could provide some national presence...

Didn't the governor scrap the emergency
medical and housing program last year?

What was it, TEMHA?

Replaced it with T-Dap,
which cuts funding to

anyone who doesn't qualify
for federal support.

It's worse than that: He froze eligibility
by disallowing new applications,

which put all kinda folks
out on the street.

So we slam the Republican
for sticking it to the poor.

It plays. Nationally, you're taking up
the cause of the forgotten...

And no one is ever in
favor of homelessness...

Statewide, you're going up against the
fella who tore up the safety net.

Homelessness.

I'll be damned.

- Base to 2306.
- Go ahead, Lester.

- You see anybody using a cellphone?
- Wait one.

Negative.

Hold on. Somebody's here.

Lester?

Can't get used to how empty
this place feels nowadays.

True, but you'd be surprised what you
can get done when no one's looking.

You'll need to serve these.
Running out of time.

I'll get right on it.

There's a couple of loose ends
we should cover as well.

- Now?
- If not now, when?

The trial date is coming up on us fast.

Right. But it's...

- Is it something I said?
- No...

Sydnor is bringing in a CI.
And if you're here...

Oh, shit.

I'm sorry...

I'll leave you my list, OK?

No problem. We'll get right on it.

I'm sorry, Lester, if I was intruding.

You couldn't know.

So why you here?

If this about Michael and what he into,

y'all should know he
don't live here no more.

Actually, I'm following
up on your man's case.

You spoke to Detective Worden
when it happened.

He was your boyfriend, right?

When he weren't in jail...

Father to my youngest.

But you know how he died.

Beaten bad. Crime of passion, as we say.

Didn't seem like he was home long enough

to get somebody that riled at him.

Unless, of course, it was over you.

You sayin' I know somethin' about that?

Lady, let's put our cards on the table.

I been in this game longer than a little
bit, and there's one thing I know.

A murder like this,
there's a woman at the center of it.

I don't know nothin'.

You know my gut tells me that you do.

And I'll tell you what...

We're gonna take a ride downtown,
let you talk to the grand jury.

You're not straight with them, they'll
give you a material witness warrant.

And you sit over at woman's
detention for a couple of weeks.

It's amazing what it does
for the grieving process.

- Get your things.
- I ain't goin' nowhere.

It's me or the wagon.

Detective, I swear, I ain't in this.

It ain't me you wanna talk to.

It's the boy, he know.

- He runnin' with them who did it.
- You just tryin' to put me off the scent.

You gotta believe me.

He told me Devar wasn't comin' home,
'fore we even knowed he was dead.

You said he's runnin' with them?
Runnin' with who?

Chris, Snoop, all them gangsters.
Who else doin' all the killin' around here?

Let me see your camera.

- Add a minute-six to your times.
- Got it.

Here it is. Look at this.

Single ring. Connection. Silence.

What do you have?

I took these three.
They're just hangin' around.

What time did Monk leave?

1:24. Two minutes later.

It's not what Marlo's sayin',
it's what he's sendin'.

- Look at Monk.
- Yeah. Text message.

Text? Need I remind you, Detective,

these young men are products
of Baltimore City schools.

Besides, look how far away he's holding his
phone. Too far away to be reading a text.

Nah, son. Pictures.

Pictures...

What the fuck you lookin' at?

You know what they do, right?
They tease you.

They let you get close and just
when you're about to pull the case,

they rip the fuckin' rug
out from under you.

I'm not lying. We got a fuckin'
serial killer on the loose.

You didn't know that?

It's in the goddamn paper.

What support do I get?
One fuckin' detective.

They wanna play their simple-ass games,
fine. But I gotta do what I gotta do.

Excuse me.

Yeah, Oscar.

Beautiful.

Absolutely. Where? On my way.

Man, you can't let it get to you like this.

Why don't we go buy up a bunch
of toys and take 'em to your kids?

You ain't hearin' me. How can I go
near my people with Omar on us?

How he gonna find out about them?

How we find out about the blind man?

Get.

It's Omar!

You too, shorty.

Omar! It's Omar!

Money a little late today.

That buckshot in your leg should help you
explain yourself to Marlo.

As for them other two they gonna wish
that I'd peppered them a bit.

Now you make sure you tell
old Marlo I burned the money.

'Cause it ain't about that paper.

It's about me hurtin' his people,
messin' with his world.

Tell that boy he ain't man enough to
come down to the street with Omar.

You tell him that!

My sergeant and two side
partners got here before me.

Then the shift commander showed.
Now the duty officer is on his way.

For a DOA?

Well, you and Lester
started some shit here, son.

Now a DOA call
brings everyone in a heartbeat.

God bless.

- Pictures?
- Photographs on cellphones.

Now that means new PC to capture the photos

and new equipment that could do it.

How do I write that into
my bullshit homeless killer's MO?

When we started this, you said all
we needed were some bugs,

a camera or two, and in a couple of weeks,
we'd have them. That's what you said.

So I cranked up my bullshit to pay for that

but no, then you needed a wiretap.

So I went along, I got you the wiretap.

Then you ask for surveillance teams,

but before I can get to that,
you came to me with this.

I mean, what the fuck?

I gotta tell you, Lester,
I don't want to hurt your feelings,

but I can see why Daniels cringed every
time you opened your fucking mouth.

You're a supervisor's nightmare.

I'm just following the thread.

Say we get you the intercept
on your pictures, will that give us Marlo?

It'll be coded, probably,
but I'm sure we can break it.

That'll tell us how they do business,

and usually, that's enough.

Or not.

But the truth is, I'm running Sydnor ragged

just staying on a couple
of mopes and monitoring calls.

Now, when we're up on their code,

we're gonna need more manpower
to run down a stash or a re-up.

We can't do it all.

I can't juke this thing
any more than I have.

Last night, half the police
department turned up

at Oscar's crime scene
before I could get there.

We can't make another murder.

Thanks for the milk.

What's a donut without milk?

So you were talking about
your second tour...

- The bad one.
- Yeah.

Second tour fucked me up good.
But they don't wanna hear it.

Who doesn't?

Mostly, it's command and the senior EMS.

They put it down that marines
don't get P.T.S.D.

But they do.

Can you tell me what happened?

Terry, can you talk about it?

We had a month left on the tour,

working an S-and-A mission
outside Fallujah.

I was assistant team leader.

Our M-niner-niner-eights were
retrofitted with up-armor kits.

M-niner-niner-eight?

A humvee, sorry.

They're big on nomenclature.

Anyway we finished our sweep,
headed back in, right?

It was all good. Then, bam...

Our lead vehicle was hit
with an elevated I.E.D.

The blast tore the M-fifty gunner in half.

Flipped the humvee like a matchbox car.

Driver lost both his hands.

Blood shooting out all over.
He's fuckin' laughin'.

Saying over and over,
"Look, Ma, no hands."

It's the laughing I can't shake.

Weird.

'Cause he's OK, you know?
I mean, he's better than me.

Got himself a couple of prosthetic mitts,
eighty thousand apiece.

What happened next?

Nothing really.
We pushed out, secured the perimeter.

Corpsman did what he could,
an' we waited for the casevac.

I'm not looking to shit
on another guy's copy,

I just wanted you to know
this was out there.

I'm at a community meeting
in Bel Air-Edison

to hear about school zoning and this woman
talked my ear off about this.

She said the kids never saw a dime.

I mean, I'm hoping this is all bullshit.

- Hey, Scott. How's it coming?
- Pretty good. You seen the art?

Yeah. Good stuff. Listen,

got a complaint about a story
you wrote a couple weeks ago.

The woman who died
from an allergic reaction to seafood.

- Remember?
- What about it?

Lady knows the dead woman sister says our
story made a lot of money for those kids.

- A scholarship fund we wrote up.
- So?

She says the sister has a history of fraud,
convictions on it.

She says all the money went
to Atlantic City casinos

- And kids never saw a dime.
- Christ, who the fuck...

I know. It's probably some old biddy
talkin' about stuff she don't know,

but maybe you should go
back and check with the family,

see if we don't get took on this, huh?

No, no. Not now. After you file.
Just make a couple calls, huh?

- This is kidnapping.
- Actually, I'm not sure.

I asked him if he wanted
$100 to go some place for dinner and talk

- And he walked to my car.
- You give him the hundred?

Stuffed it in his jacket.

He's fine, Lester. He's great.

- Think he'll find his way back home?
- Eventually.

By then, we'll be done with Marlo,
we'll have shut this thing down.

As far as what happened to this guy...

They'll write it off as
some fraternity prank.

- Does he know we're cops?
- No.

Even if he figures it out,
who's gonna believe him? He's nuts.

- How do you know he's nuts?
- First of all, just look at him.

He's fucking bouncing off the walls.
Second of all... I got his scrip.

I called the university ER.
It's an anti-psychotic.

So...

I took his I.D.,

I'll scratch his name off the scrip
and leave him with this...

I got that one from the first
homeless death Oscar gave us.

The one that was too rigored.
Donald somebody or other.

It had him in a Cleveland, Ohio shelter.

McNulty, you are deserving
of serious psychological study.

You need PC
to intercept cellphone photos.

Well here it is, right here.

We send photos of this guy

all ribboned up from a dry cellphone

to that goofy reporter, along with
a message bitching about his stories.

"I ain't no pervert," or whatever.
Now, the killer says,

you ain't gonna find no more bodies.
Only photos of the victims...

Before they disappear.

Look at this poor sucker.
I don't believe we're gonna do this.

He disappears, the city goes batshit.
You get your photo intercepts,

and when we need to
run down one of Marlo's re-ups,

you got all the manpower you need.

- And Marlo falls.
- Falls hard.

Don't fucking tell me you
mislabeled this, too.

I want comparisons between known suspects

and the DNA from this scene.

By the looks of it,
we got a whole lot of DNA outta this mess.

- Now, motherfucker. Right now.
- Top of my list.

As soon as we work through
all the trace from the homeless killings.

That's the priority, Bunk.

The homeless killings.

Everything is backed
up behind that, sorry.

Your boy McNulty has
everyone's attention right now.

So it's Larry, huh?

OK, Larry. You're with good people here.
It's all gonna be great.

You're gonna like this place.
It's warm, they got nice beds.

And best of all, I gave you
cash money just for walking in the door.

Come on, Larry.

It's gonna be fine. I promise.

You feel up for trying Clay yourself?

I mean, it's been a while since
you tried a criminal case personally.

It sends a statement, I think.

We should start with our witness list.
See if we can pare that down any,

out of respect for the distracted nature
of a Baltimore jury.

First, there's something
else I need to bring up.

- Old grand jury stuff?
- Sealed indictments.

Sealed transcripts. Dozens of them.

Pulled from the desk of a shot-to-death
drug dealer in east Baltimore.

The deputy ops brought me those.

We have a leak.

And he showed up, outside where I work.

He was confused. Lost I think.
So I brought him here.

Donald, where you from?

Tell the lady, Donald.

Baltimore.

But he told me he came from Cleveland.

Donald, do you have identification?

This does say Cleveland.

Donald, why don't
we get you something to eat?

It's OK. Come on.

- We're good to go?
- It's great, Gus.

It sings.

- Hey, Scotty boy.
- Hey.

Hey. Great piece. I mean this one
really feels like the real deal.

- It's great work.
- Thanks.

What I like most about it
is that you didn't overwrite it.

No extra color. No puffy adjectives.

Just tight, declarative sentences. You
really let this ex-marine tell his story.

- Thanks, Gus.
- Hey, Mr. Slot man,

read it and weep. And I
mean that literally.

Oh, Scott. Did you get a chance to drop
a couple calls on that complaint?

It's bullshit.
I talked to people in the neighborhood.

Sister's good people, but there's
another woman up there, unrelated,

keeps getting arrested
for kiting checks and stuff.

She uses the sister's name
every time she gets locked up.

She's done it like three or four times now.
Yeah, it's crazy.

But sister's clean. Everyone says so.

OK.

Is there anything else I can do for him?

No, we've got it.
But thanks for bringing him in.

Most people, they just ignore them.

I just want to get
your paperwork taken care of.