It's just like the paperwork says. Read the report.
Our feeling is that the prosecution didn't make a full accounting
or mount a suitable case.
So we have to do that now, get the full accounting.
WEST, Roland, Lieutenant, Arkansas State Police
Deposition date: 5/17/1990
Round the end of the first week, family got the note.
Envelope's handwritten, so this isn't a brainiac.
Processing stamp's from a post office in Farmington.
Could've been dropped in any mailbox.
We're putting men out there to canvass.
You see this?
$10,000 reward from The Ozark Children's Outreach Center.
Twiggs said they been fielding calls from Martians all day.
What's The Ozark Children's Outreach?
Some charity.
You think it's true, the girl's alive?
I think she is.
And what were you focusing on prior?
Neighborhood surveillance. Like it says in the report.
Right, yeah...
All day...
But you guys didn't get to the house till after everybody else.
You'd got there first if you were in the neighborhood, wouldn't you?
Well, we mighta taken the call late, or...
I'm a little fuzzy.
Wayne probably has a better memory.
The picture doesn't show anything new.
Nothing that suggests the black-out. That's good.
Since your CT scan looks clean, I think the concern right now
is the need to adjust your lifestyle to what's happening.
I wasn't...
He explained it wrong.
I didn't drive in my sleep, or any kind of state.
I mean...
...at the time...
I believe I did know what I was doing.
It's only I forgot later.
We're just going to have to do some things differently. Okay, dad?
I went out there for a reason. I just can't remember.
That's not like I'm losing it...
Do you remember the rest of dinner at my place?
- Remember me driving you home? - Yeah.
Heather drove you home.
Oh, we're playing "gotcha".
Mr. Hays, your son loves you, Our only concern is your well-being.
I know my son loves me, doctor. But thanks for walking me through that.
The place you found yourself.
Do you know why you might have wanted to go there?
Does it have any significance?
Yeah. It did.
He did a couple interviews for this show,
been talking about an old case, took place out there.
- What're you, ratting on me? - What're you, working a case?
It was never fully solved.
People don't remember being babies.
It's good we get to revisit that stage at the end.
Mr. Hays, believe me...
I can understand your frustration with the disease.
A disease you can't even say what it is.
We can say what it almost certainly is.
I told you.
You try putting me in a home, I'll off myself.
Put it outta your head.
Don't you wanna know?
You do.
And she needs help, doesn't she?
Julie...
Yeah.
You know, it was just a case, when I caught it.
I didn't know it'd be my last.
You with the book these last years...
I feel like...
...tired of this thing. Being in our lives.
Like when we met...
I mean, it's Saturday night. Your mom's got the kids.
And there's this thing sitting between us.
So what do you want to do?
I don't know.
There was a motel back there.
We could just drink and have sex all night.
Boy, that'd be great.
Alan said so far they have her prints on a counter
and some shelves in the main area.
Were there any behind the pharmacy?
He didn't know. Sallisaw PD's got it.
Shouldn't you talk to them?
May come back on me.
It's not like if they check, somebody's gonna have my back.
What if I talked to them?
Sallisaw.
An author with a book about the case.
I have galleys, I'm legitimate.
- I bet I can get 'em to share with me. - I doubt it.
No, no... I'll get done up.
Bookish but sexy,
intimidated by those big tough cops.
This is like Afro... "Hart to Hart", that it?
Come on!
You wanna use the payphone, we're here, check on the kids?
Why don't I call from the motel?
We need to walk it back.
Re-examine it all.
It's like a thing is staring right at us.
Got that feeling myself.
The Purcells said they were gonna play with their neighbor, the Boyle kid.
Yeah.
But he said they didn't have any plans.
Why would the Purcell kids lie about meeting the Boyle kid?
What were they up to?
What were they really doing?
Back to the kids.
Talk to the parents again. The Boyle kid.
Any others knew 'em.
Go back through the house again. Right?
Yeah. Right on.
That's good, man...
We get that teacher to help with the kids.
Wayne had the idea, them kids were telling stories...
And he was correct.
Y'all fucked a good detective there.
You know that, right?
I wouldn't argue with you. But it wasn't me.
He probably didn't even give you shit for it when you saw him, huh?
I can't say he did, no.
Purple Hays. My man.
I tried to get him transferred over here twice, you know.
Blocked both times by the major's office.
Told me not to ask again.
Feel like we should stay on point.
I'm making a point, son.
You played with Will and Julie a lot, huh?
Not really. I mean, I hung out with Will at school a little.
But y'all hung out after school?
His dad said y'all played after school.
Nossir. We didn't play much.
I told him he could come over sometime to see the new puppy, but that's it.
He's home after school.
Or at basketball now. He don't go out playing much.
You said they played a lot with that neighbor, Ronnie Boyle.
Yeah...
Three or four times a week... They're best friends.
Did Ronnie ever come over here, to the house?
Did you ever see when kids get together?
No.
No, I guess not. But I knew him and his parents from school.
They'd go over to his place.
Actually, it looks like they didn't really play together.
What is this?
What's this mean?
Why aren't you out there looking for her?
That's where she is... out there...
She's alive, the letter said... she's out there...
The feds are running a wide search, Mr. Purcell.
And they have a lot more manpower.
We're trying to focus on what's personal.
Would you folks be alright
if we started going back through some of their things?
We're afraid now... we might've overlooked something.
What?
We just don't know, ma'am.
"IT'S OKAY".
"DON'T LISTEN."
"I'LL ALWAYS KEEP YOU SAFE."
We'll process this stuff, get it back to you.
Don't lose it, okay?
We won't.
Say, one of you used to work at Hoyt Foods?
Yeah, I did.
On the chicken line.
Quit a year or two ago. Make better money in tips at the Sawhorse.
Why?
Just asking.
Thank you, now.
So Wayne opened up that the kids weren't doing what they said they were.
With that big reward, brought everybody out the woodwork.
You see Wayne much anymore?
Not at all, really.
An' I don't know why.
No hard feelings, though?
Not between him and me. We were good friends, as I see it.
I think it was...
Once we stopped working together, we just stopped.
Sometimes it's like that with people.
- Dad, can I get a Transformer? - No.
Can we get something from the toys, Dad? If it's cheap?
No. Where the hell's the charcoal?
- How about if it's only a dollar? - No.
Stores aren't supposed to be this big.
- Can we at least go look at the toys? - No.
You guys have to stay with me...
So we're trying to update the book, if possible.
Hearing about her prints at the drugstore is very significant...
How'd you hear about that?
My ex-husband.
He's a cop in Arkansas.
Always had a thing for cops, I guess.
We got a few partials and a lot of fulls.
We verified it with the state crime lab... it's definitely a match.
Were any of her prints found behind the pharmacy?
No. But we didn't get to keep working the scene, either.
End of the day, the store just wanted to get back to business.
- So hers were just the shelves? - Yes, ma'am.
We only focused on the robbery, and that was months ago.
I'm about to clock out.
You want to grab a bite and we can talk more about it?
Alright.
Hey... I think we're done.
That was awful, right?
Since you guys were so good, I'll let you get one thing.
Feel better, sad guy?
Where's your sister?
She was right behind me... I don't know...
C'mon!
- Becca! Becca! - Becca!
Becca!
- Becca! - Please come to customer service.
Look for the nearest Walmart representative
and ask them to bring you to customer service Rebecca Hays...
It's been ten minutes.
You need to lock down the store. Shut all the doors. Nobody in or out.
Listen to me. I'm a cop. State Police. Lock down the store, now.
I'll make an announcement, Give me the mic...
- Sir, I don't think you... - Give me the mic!
Where were you?!
I dunno. They were giving out chips in one place,
and I stopped to eat some, and y'all were gone...
Goddamnit, you can't do that! You hear me? Don't fucking do that, Rebecca!
Okay.
Let's go. Let's just go home.
We were happy to help.
Especially once we heard she was a former employee of ours.
Just it led to a lot of false tips, you know,
and it's better to coordinate this kind of thing between our offices.
But we did.
The board cleared it with the county prosecutor's office...
I don't see any pictures of y'all putting up rewards for anybody.
Up till now, we've tended to help
families with children that needed medical treatment.
But with it all over the news,
and knowing the mother used to be in our family of workers,
the board voted to contribute.
When did this "outreach" start?
Mr. Hoyt endowed the foundation after they lost their granddaughter
a couple of years ago.
The mother worked on the chicken line. Where's that building?
Let's see...
It'd be one of... those two.
You know what would help?
Names and dates of hire for every employee works at this plant.
That's nearly seven hundred people.
Faster we get them back, the better.
Alright. Sure, of course. We'll start getting it together right now.
The big man, Mr. Hoyt, he ever here?
Well, hardly, no. Mr. Hoyt's been an Africa since mid-October.
Safari.
Yeah? My partner's a bit of a hunter himself...
State PD, task force...
The girl's being held at a snake farm in Hunstville?
And how you know this, ma'am?
Listen, we closed right now, but do me a favor:
Call back in the morning, this number,
ask for Agents Bowen or Diller, FBI.
Tell 'em what you telling me.
Alright now.
"IT'S OKAY." "DON'T LISTEN."
"I'LL ALWAYS KEEP YOU SAFE." "HAVE A GOOD NIGHT"
Lady seen Julie Purcell in a dream.
An' she say her dreams always come true.
All this stuff's about that game.
Couldn't find his dice, but...
I'm not seeing anything.
Except, he played a lot.
And them other kids didn't play with him, huh?
SECRET FRIEND?
Who gave Julie the doll and met them in the woods?
Who played the game with Will?
Where'd they go after school, they were meant to be with that neighbor?
So what was your next move?
Shut down the park except for search parties.
They were still doing them every day, mostly volunteer.
State Park's about 2500 acres...
So, how does it work?
You spot patterns.
Disturbance, flattening.
It's there, you just have to look for it.
Bent grass, compressed ground.
You tracked men in the war?
I did.
Did you march?
I did.
Funny how the protests stopped once the draft ended.
Hey, that... poem you were teaching.
Yeah. You had some thoughts about it?
He says you call the story "Time",
but you can't say its name.
Why's that?
I guess because...
we're in time, and of time,
but to name...
You separate yourself from something when you name it.
And I think he means,
we can't be separated from time.
I thought he meant it was like the name of God.
You know, how the Hebrews weren't supposed to say God's name.
You think maybe we should have dinner some time?
- Hey! - Hi.
Those Sallisaw boys couldn't stop telling me stuff.
I was pretty tremendous. I think I have a future at this.
You're reading it? Finally?
Not really.
I keep seeing my name.
Are you drunk?
No. I had a drink at dinner.
This detective took me out to eat.
Oh, terrific.
No, actually I got a lot of info from him.
Listen, her fingerprints were found
just on the shelves in the cosmetics aisle.
Looks like she was probably a customer.
They have the prior week's surveillance footage.
I think they're gonna let me look at it.
I didn't get any of that shit you wanted.
At Walmart.
Okay.
Did something happen?
- Are the kids alright? - The kids are fine.
- Are you alright? - I'm alright.
But one thing, one favor.
Do not come bouncing in here
half-in-the-bag, all giddy about this shit.
Can you do that?
Can you summon the mental resolve to shut up about this shit with me?
If you feel this way you don't have to talk to me like that.
- You could just tell me. - You've been told.
Whyn't you go check on the kids, since you haven't seen em all day.
- They're supposed to be in bed. - Fuck off.
I'm with them five times the amount you are,
for a job that treats you like shit.
I don't really feel like trading curses. I said my piece.
I'm not gonna stop, Wayne.
Patrol's got the scene. Forensics' is on the way.
That's where the boy died. Somebody carried him to the cave.
The office checked the field reports.
Nobody talked to this guy.
The farm road's not on our maps.
I already talked to your people.
Man came here the next day.
What man?
Was he police, sheriff's?
Man in a suit, showed me a badge.
Asked about those missing kids, if I'd seen anything.
Can you describe him?
Normal guy. White. Suit.
Showed me a badge.
What'd you tell him? Did you see anything?
I told him I'd seen those kids before.
Two or three times. They'd come down my road, into the woods.
Couple afternoons I've seen 'em.
- You see anybody else? - Yeah.
I told him I'd seen a car out here a couple times.
Nice one, brown. Man and woman...
But that wasn't the same day.
What they looked like, the man and woman?
Like y'all. Black and white.
Man was Negro.
I couldn't see faces.
Most times you gotta be looking for our place,
but sometimes people come out here.
Sir, you mind if we search your property?
Yessir, I mind.
Don't you need a warrant for something like that?
If you make us get one.
I think you'll have to, son.
Can I ask...
do you feel there was sufficient coverage of the neighborhood
during the canvassing?
I guess I do.
We brought whatever we had.
General rule, you start close, then work your way out.
Did the officers conduct multiple interviews
with all potential witnesses?
Yes...
And I feel like, honestly, everyone was giving everything they had.
Well, we have people who say they were never questioned by the police,
although they remembered the officers going door to door.
I don't know...
If anyone got overlooked, it was a mistake...
We had over a hundred law enforcement officers out there...
Some residents did get talked to three or four times.
But nobody spoke to these people.
And we found two who both separately claim to've witnessed
a very nice brown sedan driving around the neighborhoods
and later, away from Devil's Den on the day of the murder...
Brown sedan?
A witness said police talked to him once, and he told them about the car,
but they never came back.
And there's no mention of the sedan in field reports.
Another said the police never took a statement.
But they both noticed the car because it was new and upscale,
and that was unusual for the area.
And that the vehicle kept driving around.
Treads...
I remember, treads...
Another former resident, Charles Snyder,
said two weeks before, he reported that his boy and a friend
had told of a black man with a scar, in a suit
at the cul-de-sac where the kids played, near Devil's Den.
No one ever came back to question him.
None of this is mentioned in the official reports.
This alone, don't you think, points to serious flaws in the investigation,
from the beginning?
What's going on, really?
You got some new evidence? Are you looking for Julie?
You find something?
- That's enough for today. - I'm alright.
- I think we were doing well. - I'm sure you do.
You see his distress? This man is ill, Elisa.
- Henry... - That is enough.
For today.
Over there, 'other side of the tree line.
It's hard to find, kind of hidden. That's where they played.
We need to process these toys.
You can bag the toys, but we need pictures to show the parents.
Hey!
- Get up! - What's going on?
What're you doing skulking around here?
What?
We got kids playin' out here, we don't need you lurking around 'em.
My kids and two others say
you keep coming around that field where they all play.
What're you coming around the kids for?
I'm not...
I don't...
- I have kids. - No you don't.
We don't want you around here.
I live here. I have rights.
I fought for your fucking rights, you assholes...
You a goddamn bum.
- You stay away from these kids. - And stay out our neighborhood.
You hear me, now, boy?
You don't come around here no more.
We don't see you.
And God help you, you talk to another child out here.
Get the fuck outta here!
How's life in charge?
It's got it's good and bad.
You talked to 'em, Alan's firm?
Yeah, they approached me.
The guy's kids hired them, he said.
But you support it, re-opening it?
They tell you about the fingerprints?
Yeah.
You have any idea what that means to me?
I have to imagine.
But yessir.
You know I... I think of Lucy...
I wish she was still around to hear this.
Two years ago, now.
Alan had her file.
I had the body brought back from Vegas.
What about you?
How you doing with all this, now?
Still sober.
Five years.
I know.
I'm proud of you, man.
So...
I got my higher power, and...
He's putting this in front of me now...
Cream and extra sugar, still?
Yessir. Like a dessert.
How about the other one, your partner? He still around?
He's on the job.
He hasn't been in major crime in a long time.
Anyways, me and him kinda lost touch.
You didn't have to check on me, Lieutenant West.
You done more for me than just about anybody.
You pulled me outta that hole five years ago...
Naw.
You done good.
Can I ask you for something?
You can ask.
Would you pray with me?
God, save me from anger.
God, save me from resentment.
God, save me from my judgments and prophecies,
my need to control...
I have known You by the hawk and the dove,
and I live at Your infinite compassion...
Lord, guard what I hold dear,
and let me never hold too dearly anything of this world.
Amen.
A brown sedan.
A farmer talked about a brown sedan, '80...
We knew...
Was that who they played with?
She wrote a bit how the games we found
got people worried that kids were getting killed playing this stuff
or something...
Henry was five or six, I think, when she started writing.
And Becca would've been three or four...
Scientists now theorize an infinite number of dimensions outside our own.
Einstein said:
"Past, present and future are all a stubbornly persistent illusion."
Oh God.
And are you waking up to that illusion?
Now, while things fall apart, are you starting to see them clearly?
And at the end of all things are you awakening to what you withheld?
Did you confuse reacting with feeling?
Did you mistake compulsion for freedom?
Please. Not like this...
And even so...
...did you harden your heart against what loved you most?
Not like this. Not like this.
Sweetheart...
Did you think you could just go on,
and never once have to look back?
Please... I don't deserve this.
What's happening? I don't deserve this.
No, you don't. But it's happening anyway.
I'm so sorry.
Where's it... I...
How much do I have to lose?
Everything. The same as everybody else.
I lost Becca.
No, you didn't. Not the way you think.
You're worried what they'll find.
What you left in the woods.
Finish it.
Got a message. A Lieutenant wanted to meet you.
Movin' up in the world.
No, I don't recognize them.
I think. I mean...
I know I didn't buy any of these...
Ma'am?
I don't think so.
- I don't really remember. - I'm the one bought 'em toys.
I don't recognize any of those.
This about the reward?
Someone called us.
What's it have to do with...
Where'd you find these?
Looks like the kids had this kind of play area, hidden in the forest.
- Found these toys there. - They could be anybody's.
Had the kids' prints on 'em.
Another set of prints we can't ID.
And more of those straw dolls.
They were meeting somebody, some adult?
Maybe. Yessir.
What're these?
We haven't see these.
S'old baby albums...
He brought it out. I...
I can't look at it.
Roland.
It's the same.
What's this one from?
That's Will's first communion.
He was ten...
What?
Purple Hays. How 'you been, killer?
Just making my rounds of places I'm not wanted.
- Dub SoCo. - You served?
- Every day of my life. - What war?
Motherfucker, get me two fingers of Southern Comfort.
He's a lieutenant with state police.
Coulda told him you fixed Jeeps while the rest of us were gettin' shot at.
Coulda slapped my dick on the bar, too.
Nine years. You're still talkin' about your dick.
I don't mean to. It just keeps coming up.
New task force.
I'm in charge.
Good for you, Lieutenant.
Say...
That promotion for merit...
...or did it come with the pigmentation?
I think, unlike some others, I lacked a big fucking mouth.
Hell, with Affirmative Action, you coulda been my boss by now.
Guess if I'd been clumsy enough to get shot,
I'd be playing golf most days
and calling old buddies like I'm doing them a favor.
I guess you had a few 'fore I got here.
Could be avoiding home.
I was gonna keep goin', some race bit.
You never been very funny.
You feel like maybe being a detective again?
'Cause that, you were okay at.
The Purcell case?
State's reopening it.
They want me to steer.
Lookit you. 'Can't stop this rocket.
You want to get back to work or not?
I...
I'm sorry about that pigmentation line.
No, you're not.
Half sorry.