rock song playing
song continues
Please! No...!
song continues
song ends
Hey. He here?
Room "A."
Doing what?
Meet your new partner.
quiet, indistinct conversation
RUSH: Figured he'd make a good impression,
bringing his girlfriend to headquarters his first day?
VERA: He says she's an informant.
Really.
"Fugitives" has something interesting.
Sherman picked up a guy in Virginia last night.
Wants to trade information on an old one.
Do I break this up and bring the new kid?
DETECTIVE: You get me what I need,
I get you that steak dinner.
WOMAN I know you will, too, Scotty.
Get outta here now.
I'm working.
Hey, how's it going?
Scotty Valens, from West.
Nick Vera. Congratulations.
Yeah, thanks.
Big leagues now, huh?
Yeah.
clearing throat
That Hammond job was some good work.
Yeah, talk about a bag of bones.
But I got an angle on it.
Figured that's what got me to Homicide.
This is Detective Rush.
Her partner transferred out.
You'll be working with her.
Good luck. Yeah.
I see... you're Rush.
Yeah. Congratulations.
I-I pictured a guy.
You got the one girl in the joint.
Yeah... okay.
We got an interview in "Fugitives."
Cool. What's our angle?
Our angle is I talk, you listen.
Got something on a murder.
What's that get me?
Depends on what you did.
Ricky was the driver in a Fishtown drug shooting, two months back.
I was driving a guy to a conversation.
I didn't know he had a gun.
Don't tell lies, Ricky.
Kite okay making a deal?
Yeah. Ricky here's small-time.
Okay, what do you got?
High school girl got iced back in '81.
It was big news, remember?
Remind me.
Paige Pratt.
Keep going.
I ain't saying I saw the bullet leave the gun,
but I did see something good.
siren wailing
I put it all together.
Will Harrell must have killed her.
Are you trying to get a deal off of that?
It's good information. It's crap.
RUSH: Valens,
remember our angle.
Okay.
She was 16 years old?
Yeah, real pretty.
Track star. She had a future.
Why didn't you say anything back then, Ricky?
I was going to the shop that night to steal some stuff.
Not gonna explain that.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, I'll check it out.
Hey, it's going to get me out of hot water, right?
We'll see how this pans out.
Here's the other part.
Someone else went down for this.
Yeah?
Yeah.
Some mope named Al Clarkson.
He's doing life.
The closed ones are down here.
VALENS: Cold cases-- I don't know.
I like being out on the street.
Paige died in a field near the Schuykill River.
So, what, I work a few of these,
then go on the line?
You act like this is the B assignment, Scotty.
Ain't it?
Not to me. I chose it.
Three blows to the head that would have killed her
even if she hadn't been shot.
Passion crime.
Someone she knew.
Al Clarkson was her boyfriend, convicted in '83.
Commonwealth must've had a case.
Lots of testimony he had a temper.
That's nothing.
His gold chain was found at the scene.
Better.
Tracks matched
the tires on his Nova.
Goodrich TA Radial or Uniroyal Tiger Paw?
Uniroyal. How'd you know that?
It's a popular tire upgrade on a muscle car like that.
You know a lot about cars?
Everything.
So this Will Harrell that saw Ricky cleaning blood
out of his car...?
What kind of ride he have?
Trans Am.
Could have easily had those same tires.
So it could have been his car at the scene.
All right. The snitch's story gets some little credibility.
Plus a head injury means a lot of blood,
but there wasn't much found near Paige's body.
So she did most of her bleeding somewhere else.
Like inside a car.
So why do you like old jobs?
You don't like the action?
Don't like bastards getting away with murder.
Will Harrell?
You remember a guy named Rick Stockvis,
used to work here?
There's a name I'd rather forget.
Why's that?
Guy was a thief.
He was lifting our tools, hocking 'em.
We're checking a story he told us
about you washing blood out your Trans Am,
June 20, 1981.
That's pretty specific.
It was the same night a girl named Paige Pratt died.
No, that didn't happen.
No. Did you know Paige?
Friend of the family, church?
I just said I didn't know her.
You sold that car pretty soon after her death.
According to VIN records, it was just six days later.
I wanted the new ZX.
What kind of tires were you sporting, Will?
Factory install or upgrade?
I don't recall.
Well, that's what records are for.
Mind if we sit in your office, look through your paperwork?
Yes, I do. I'm very busy.
RUSH: Will got pretty hinky near the end there.
Make any connect between him and Paige?
No. Went to different high schools.
That age, high school's your whole world.
Still looking for her parents.
They're not at their old address.
You Valens? Yeah.
Will Jeffries. Congratulations.
Thanks, man. It's great being here.
Jeffries and Vera are a matching set.
Someone named Roxy called for you.
Yeah? Good.
Twice. Says she'll try you back.
Yeah, she don't got a phone.
You guys get a job?
Confession at the scene. Total duck.
You wanna track this old Trans Am for us?
See if it's still on the street somewhere?
JEFFRIES: Sure thing.
Lill, you might want to go see Al Clarkson.
Get his view of the world.
You know, it'd be good
to find the second owner on it.
Whoever bought it from Harrell.
Thanks. We'll do that.
You could learn something from this guy.
Stillman chuckles
Yeah, I got a car habit.
Mercedes taste on a Mazda salary.
I hear ya.
So, did you break the bank on that TA?
Nah, that was a steal.
Dumb kid didn't know what it was worth.
I sold it for twice what I paid.
Why'd he sell it so cheap?
WOMAN: I didn't ask.
A good deal falls in your lap, you take it.
Do you remember anything
about the kid you bought it from?
Well, just that he kept the car up pretty good.
Seemed to love it,
but still, he was selling.
Look, my boss is giving me the evil eye.
Mind if we finish our coffee?
Nah, live it up.
So Will worked at an auto shop.
He never heard about Blue Book value?
Motivated seller maybe.
VALENS: West Detectives was all about the volume.
Every night it's hoppin'.
You're out there running your whole shift.
That's why I'm saying,
I just don't know if Cold Cases is gonna be my thing.
And I just don't know if you have a choice, Scotty.
What do you want with me?
Looking into your case again, Al.
"Lock him up and throw away the key."
That was my case.
Well, we're looking at it again.
I didn't kill Paige.
I got railroaded because I was 21
hanging with a high school girl.
Those guys are a little creepy, Al.
I was a late bloomer.
I see Rudy Tanner was your lawyer.
Strip mall hack.
One of them guys in bad clothes,
dropping his folders all over the place?
That's him.
I didn't know how to find someone good.
How do you explain your gold chain
being at the crime scene, Al?
Paige was wearing it.
She wear it a lot?
When we were getting along.
A lot of people say
you had a real temper with her.
She ran wild on me.
I loved her, so it hurt.
Jealousy ain't against the law.
How come you weren't with her that night?
She was supposed to be grounded, but she must've snuck out.
Energetic girl.
Yeah, she was.
My guess is she must have met some guy.
She had someone on her mind around that time...
What am I missing, Paige?
You're here to run.
Why you gotta wear purple eye shadow?
I can race and look good.
Uh-huh. Which one is he?
I'm tired of the third degree, Al.
And I'm tired of being your fool.
Who is he?
Maybe you should just leave.
I'll get my own ride home.
So which one was he?
Never found out.
Think it could have been this guy? Will Harrell?
Nah, I never saw him.
Okay, thanks for your time, Al.
Yeah. Go pound sand.
BOY: You can just take my car?
Don't worry, kid.
We'll get it back to you when we're done.
There's a dance Friday night.
Will I have it back by then?
We'll do our best.
Yeah, 'cause I just bought this.
I've only had it for, like, two weeks.
First car, huh?
Friday, right?
Hope he's got insurance.
Oh, he don't.
Upholstery could've been shampooed 50 times,
we're still gonna know if blood was shed in there.
Figure out a Will and Paige connect?
She was an athlete at Crespi.
He was a loser at Jefferson.
No activities in common.
So maybe Willy's hanging around the wawa one night,
looking for a party...
He's got the car going for him.
Paige needs a ride.
He's a little mole.
Doesn't do good with girls. Makes a play for her.
She brushes him off.
Will breaks her head open.
This is the cool part.
JEFFRIES: Hit the light.
He knew her somehow.
Found your old Trans Am, Will.
Blood, blood, and more blood.
Bull.
Wanna see pictures?
Okay. Just...
Here's what happened.
I... hit a dog on the Turnpike.
A dog.
Yeah, I-I put it in my car.
I had to clean it out after.
That's what Ricky must have seen.
You a special kind of stupid, Will?
I'm not making it up.
And the night that girl was murdered,
I was at Raiders of the Lost Ark.
You recall that now, too, huh?
You guys coming around made me think of it.
Who'd you see the movie with?
Bennett Cahill.
My best friend.
And his girlfriend Jane.
JANE: I have cheer practice till 6:00.
So when can we talk?
Dinner at 6:30.
So I should call you at 6:45?
Hey, guys. Hey.
Raiders
Cool.
Yeah. I'm getting in line at noon.
I'll get three tickets, if you guys want to go.
Yeah, sounds good.
Okay, great. Saturday...
Raiders.
I still have the ticket stub to prove it.
You have the stub from 22 years ago?
Some good luck.
It's my favorite movie.
You keep stuff like that.
Will, you do realize that we have the science
to tell us the difference
between dog and human blood, right?
I have the ticket stub.
You and Bennett still close?
Bennett's really successful.
Always was.
Class president, went to Princeton.
He's a surgeon now.
You're friends with a surgeon?
Old friends.
Okay, Will, we'll check out that story.
I have the stub.
So what happened to your old partner?
Detailed out to H.I.U.
Got to weed out the weak ones.
He needed all day work 'cause of his diabetes.
He wasn't... weak.
Hi. Bennett Cahill.
Detectives Rush and Valens, Homicide.
What's it about?
Guy named Will Harrell.
You went to high school together.
I could probably place him.
Right, that guy.
What'd he do?
We don't know yet.
Will says you and him
were best friends.
More like acquaintances.
He says you went to Raiders of the Lost Ark
with him and your girlfriend, June 20, 1981.
I doubt it.
I probably was with Jane, but, uh, Will...?
Willy kind of an outcast type?
You could say.
He had this room
at his dad's shop.
It was a no-parents zone, you know?
So a lot of us would hang out there, drink beer, whatever.
How'd he do with the ladies?
Don't recall any big scores.
He ever mention
a girl named Paige?
No. But we didn't talk a lot.
Uh... After he freaked me out one night,
I stopped going over there.
What'd he do?
He showed me a gun.
Called it a bitch killer.
Yeah. That's when I stopped going over there.
Will seem like he could get frustrated enough
to hurt a girl?
I really don't know.
Uh... I hope not.
Will was a B-list kid with A-list aspirations.
Hottie like Paige would have blown him off for sure.
He meets her, gets the snub, it's the last straw.
Pulls out his bitch killer.
His what?
Nothing, boss.
Did you ever find Paige's parents?
Mm. Moved to Atlanta in '84.
Aren't returning phone calls.
They already got someone in jail.
Why relive the nightmare?
DA's office is gonna hate this.
Well, Kite's already called a hundred times.
Who's Kite?
Assistant D.A. Ivy League jerk.
Criminalistics just called.
It was Paige's blood in the Trans Am.
I'm telling you I hit a dog.
Well, that dog had Paige Pratt's DNA.
Look at the date. Look at the date.
June 20th, 1981.
Heads up.
Found the bitch killer.
I've never seen that before in my life.
My money says
this is the gun 'killed Paige.
Party's over, Will.
I was with Bennett and Jane that night!
Yeah, we talked to Bennett.
He didn't back your story.
What?
Your "best friend"
barely remembered you, Willy.
He said you were a nobody in high school.
A hanger-on who got used by the popular kids
'cause you gave them a place to party.
He didn't say that.
He said he wouldn't be seen at the movies with you.
Or anywhere else.
Well, then...
Then screw him.
You wanna know the truth?
For a change, you mean?
We were supposed to go
to the movies that night.
music playing
Where the hell have you been?
There was a problem.
Is that... is that blood?
I, uh, I hit a dog.
You and Jane?
No, it was just me. Uh...
Uh...
I tried to save it. I took it to the vet.
It bled all over the seats.
You should have called me.
Yeah...
faintly chuckles
Well... upholstery's gonna need to be cleaned out.
I'll do it.
Will...
let's tell people that we went Raiders,
I don't want my mom knowing about the dog.
No...
Sure.
Thanks, pal.
Dumb-ass story, Willy.
WILL: It's true. Yeah.
I loaned Bennett my car.
He must have killed that girl.
And-and then put the gun in the ceiling.
Then why'd you cover for him?
Me and Bennett had a deal not to talk about it.
And...
I-I thought we were friends.
Hey, are we going to do this?
Just a sec.
You owe me a call, Rush.
I was getting to that today.
There's a difference between cold cases and closed cases.
Do you get my meaning?
You agreed to the deal with that snitch.
No one mentioned his information
was on a case we already won.
Okay, then, we should just ignore the DNA and ballistics, huh?
Am I supposed to go to my boss and say,
"Sorry, you screwed the pooch on this one.
We're just going to star over"?
An innocent man's been sitting in jail for 22 years
because of your boss.
Why don't you tell him that?
I don't spring Al Clarkson until you arrest Harrell.
I'm holding him.
I want him arrested.
I want to give it a day.
No.
Okay, then, well...
Will's locked up.
Who's that charmer?
A.D.A. Kite. He's above cops.
Ain't above checking you out.
phone rings
I thought you had your guy, Lilly.
I'm gonna check out Will's story.
Go through it all again, this time with Bennett in mind.
Don't matter that everything points to Will?
Al Clarkson got screwed 'cause the prosecutors
didn't look at all the angles.
I'm not doing that to Will.
So, you looking for a Bennett-Paige connect?
Yeah. Well...
Here. Bennett was the captain of his track team.
Paige ran track for her school.
They could have met that way.
And Al thought she was flirting with someone
at a track meet, remember?
Now something's cooking.
Just a month before.
We going back to the doc?
No, let's go to the girlfriend
he was supposedly with that night: Jane.
You guys keep reading.
Sure.
Then we'll wash your car.
RUSH: We have some questions about Bennett Cahill.
Did something happen to him?
VALENS: Nah. Alive and kicking.
RUSH: He was your high school boyfriend, right?
All four years.
Pretty serious?
Very-- but, uh, then we went
to different colleges, lost touch...
Either of you date anyone else in high school?
No. No, we were together.
So there wasn't a girl named Paige Pratt in your lives?
RUSH: She went to Crespi.
Ran track, like Bennett.
I know who you're talking about,
because of what happened to her.
But we didn't know her.
You and Bennett knew all the same people?
Why are you asking about this?
Someone was convicted of that crime.
He's been unconvicted.
And what do you want from me?
I don't suppose you remember
what you were doing June 20, 1981?
Of course she doesn't.
Actually, I do.
For good reason.
Are you sure you're ready for this?
I'm sure.
You know, we don't have to.
I want to.
We love each other,
and... if we're gonna take it to the next level...
RUSH: First time, huh?
Sweet.
Yeah.
His first time, too?
We were devoted to each other.
So that's a yes?
That's a yes.
You ain't covering for Bennett
all this time later, are you, Janie?
Bennett Cahill was an angel.
"Angel"-- yeesh.
You want to write up her interview?
Yeah.
While you're at it, you got to redo Clarkson's.
What do you mean?
Uh, you wrote it in the third person.
It's got to be in their words.
Rush!
We got goods.
Yeah? Look at this.
Three pages of blah, blah, blah,
but then, look what this girl says to Paige at the end.
"Forget the A, go for the B."
Yeah. Could be grades, could be Al and Bennett.
Not bad. Mm.
RUSH: Probably wrote it that way
in case Al ever read it.
Who's Heidi?
Tracking her down.
I'll go you one better.
Surveillance pictures of Al Clarkson before his arrest.
These were taken at Paige's memorial service.
What's Bennett doing there?
BENNETT: I have surgery in ten minutes. Can we make this brief, please?
RUSH: Sure.
Were you screwing Paige Pratt?
I didn't even know her.
You just like memorial services?
Feel like I'm 18 again.
Huh.
I guess there's no reason to lie now.
I did know Paige...
...for about an hour.
Call me when you get home?
The very moment.
Hi.
Did you miss your ride?
Yeah.
Can you believe it?
How far do you live?
Not that far. Six miles.
I can pay you for gas.
I've always noticed you.
I look for you at all the meets.
BENNETT: Yeah, I've seen you too.
What did you think?
I thought I gotta meet that girl.
It was a stupid... a stupid thing to do.
I... I had a girlfriend.
This was the girl that I was going to spend the rest of my life with.
Yeah, but she wasn't providing.
I dropped Paige at home,
never saw her again.
The only one who ever existed to me was Jane.
But after Paige died, you felt guilty.
That's why I went to the service.
Did Jane know about this?
Jane and I had an epic love.
She couldn't know about it.
It would've killed her.
You talked to Janie lately?
Mm-mm.
Breaking up was so awful, we, uh...
we knew we could never speak again.
Paige had a huge crush on Bennett.
But he was a senior at Jefferson, and very taken.
JEFFRIES: By Jane.
Was she a bitch.
Yeah? Why?
Well, when she found out about
Paige and Bennett doing it that one time...
she kept calling Paige up
and saying "You're a damn slut" and all this...
How do you know it was Jane?
Well, she was head cheerleader at Jefferson.
I knew her squeaky little voice.
So you didn't tell the cops about this.
It didn't seem important.
Al was such a slime bag, we all just thought he did it.
Did Paige ever see Bennett again?
No.
Track season was over.
She was still hung up on him, though.
Wrote me all these notes about him...
Mm... You still have any of those notes?
No. I wish I did.
Is it true that Al didn't kill her?
Looks that way.
That's a wasted life, huh?
RUSH: Bennett and Jane supposedly
had this epic love...
mock gasp
...till Bennett cheats.
He says Janie didn't know,
but she knew enough to call Paige to tell her off.
So Bennett could've done it to shut Paige up
or Jane could've done it out of revenge.
And poor Will's sitting in lockup.
phone rings
Not a good time.
Complicated social life.
So what's with the origami?
Letters from Paige to her best friend.
Full of dirty details about Bennett.
Uh-huh.
Here's another one.
A little more loopy with the letters.
How do I get stuck doing this?
I'm doing the fancy folding.
We're in the middle of dinner.
We gotta talk about Bennett and Paige.
sighing What about them?
Come on now, Jane.
It was a one-time thing.
Is that what he told you?
He begged my forgiveness. We moved past it.
But Bennett wasn't a virgin anymore.
That must've hurt.
It was a one-time thing.
Not according to these.
Paige wrote these notes to her friend Heidi.
They're all about Bennett
and the nine times she was with him.
I, um...
highlighted the good parts.
She was a liar.
And a slut, right?
Like you told her on the phone.
You should go.
I'll just leave these for you.
Still want to stick with your story, Jane?
That you and Bennett had
your first time June 20, or...
did something else go on that night?
I told you what happened.
Well, I'll be meeting with Bennett
first thing tomorrow morning.
Hopefully, your stories will match.
How'd it go?
We'll see.
phone rings
clears throat
It was just Roxy.
That the one from the other morning?
Nah, that's Blair.
So which one's your girl?
I don't got a girl.
They're, uh, contacts on the Hammond case.
I'm still looking for a guy.
You know, in West,
we didn't write our interviews first person.
In Homicide we do.
Uh-huh.
Homicide's got the best guys, Scotty.
You're not gonna be the superstar your first week.
VALENS: There she goes.
The surgeon blowing her off?
He's coming.
Nice ride.
VALENS: Wants to show the old girlfriend
how good he did in life.
Rush chuckles
no audio
Be a good time to bring 'em in.
RUSH: You know Will Harell's sitting
in jail right now, don't you, Bennett?
Yeah... mm... and I feel bad about it.
But you... you really should be talking to Jane.
Except Jane didn't borrow Will's car that night,
where Paige's blood ended up.
I borrowed it, and then let Jane take it out
with her cheerleader friends.
Gosh!
The new stories just keep coming.
She came and told me what she did.
I loved her, so I helped clean up after.
When she found out about Paige and me,
she wanted one thing.
What was that?
To see her dead.
JANE: Get away.
How could you do that?!
It was meaningless.
I was stupid. I'm sorry.
I was going to give myself to you,
and you just threw it away on this nobody.
Th-This can't ruin what we have.
What we had is gone.
I can't be with you now.
Jane.
Who is she?
She was over at Will's all the time, too.
She told me that she hid the gun there.
She told you she killed her?
It'll be hard for you to understand.
But Jane and I had something that most people don't.
In our situation, it, it didn't seem wrong.
What situation?
Love.
Ours was different than other people's.
You said the guy was an angel.
Now he's a killer?
This was Bennett's doing.
That's not what he says, Janie.
He says you were so jealous of Paige,
you went out and shot her dead.
I shot her?
That's his position.
He came to me, crawling...
saying he'd do anything, anything...
to be together again.
Guess what that "anything" was?
Please talk to me.
We're through, Bennett.
No. I have to have you back.
What do you want me to do?
Name it. I'll do whatever you say.
There's nothing to do.
Yes, there is. I know there is,
and I'll do it.
He got a gun... he took her out to a field...
and got her out of our lives.
Came and told me about it.
And you kept that secret for him.
What else could I do?
Head for the hills and call the cops.
I don't think you're hearing me.
He loved me so much, he did murder for me.
I've been looking through your yearbook, Bennett.
You and Janie are all over it.
"Best Couple."
Prom king and queen?
Junior and senior prom.
VALENS: Ah, must've been great.
Yeah.
Me, I can't keep a girl's attention
longer than three months.
I've never been lucky in love either.
I wouldn't call it "luck."
Fate?
That's closer.
Jane and I used to say that we were as...
we were as rare as Halley's Comet.
That's amazing.
Too bad you ruined it with that fling with Paige.
I didn't ruin it.
No? How do you make up for something like that?
We figured out a way.
How?
Look, I got no chance at Halley's Comet--
neither does he--
so we really need you to help us understand.
We made a plan.
I know what we can do.
You do?
I know how we can be together.
Tell me.
If we kill her, we can erase her,
and then you'll be a virgin again.
Yeah?
It's to save us.
You're right.
You'll have to take my word for it.
It made sense.
VALENS: Well, that's how it went.
How what went?
The murder.
RUSH: 'Bout the gun,
the barbells. I don't know what you mean.
How you were gonna sink her in the river after.
I don't...
believe you.
'Bout Halley's Comet.
He told you about that?
And he wants to know
if you want to do this together.
What we thought would save us...
actually ruined us.
After she died, we could never get back the purity.
BENNETT: So we separated, never talked again.
And the worst thing?
We never loved anyone else again,
not the way we loved each other.
That's the worst thing, huh?
We belong together.
We'll go down together.
over phone Paige? It's Bennett.
I didn't think you'd call.
Yeah,
Yeah, I'm sorry about that.
I've been, uh...
Well, Jane and I broke up.
I'm sorry.
Yeah. And I was wondering if you wanted to get together.
Tonight. I know it's late, but...
I can sneak out.
Yeah, I'll pick you up in ten minutes?
Are you sure you're ready for this?
Absolutely.
You know, we don't have to...
I want to.
We love each other,
and...
if we're gonna take it to the next level...
then...
whispering
Hi.
Hey.
Nice car.
Where are we going?
A nice, quiet place.
Well, I guess it's time.
Do it!
gasps
shrieking
screaming
Oh, no!
Bennett grunts
PAIGE: No!
Paige groaning
JANE: Do it! You have to do it!
crying Please! No...!
crying Please... don't...
I can't believe it.
slow '80s rock ballad begins
song continues