" Good morning." " Good morning." "What's that?" "A real-estate flyer." "Four bedrooms." "Ranch style." "Big backyard." "Pool." "A custom gourmet kitchen." " And it's within our price range?" " Yeah." " Where is it located?" " New copper plumbing." "New electric." "New roof." " Where though?" " Great school district." "Perfect for starting a family." " Fritzy, where is it?" " Calabasas." "Cal, who?" "Your phone is the duplex." "This tissue box, Parker Center." "Your shoes, the FBI on Wilshire." "Your underwear, the Valley." "And Calabasas is?" " There." " That's not even Los Angeles." "It's LA County." "Just see the place before you decide you hate it." "Brenda, Los Angeles is a big place." "Are you saying you don't want me looking anywhere in the Valley?" "Answer." "Answer." "Answer." "Let it go to voicemail." "Deputy Chief Johnson." "Yes, Sergeant Gabriel." "When was that reported?" "Okay." "Where are you now?" "I'll be there shortly." "Critical missing, 13-year-old boy." "Missing one hour and 35 minutes." "You want to call the office and volunteer?" "We could practice carpooling." "Sergei Monroe." "Age 13." "According to his parents, they sent him to his room last night for arguing with his 16-year-old sister, Theresa, at approximately 8:00 p.m. Yesterday evening." "This morning, 6:00 a.m., Sergei's mother goes to wake him up, he's gone." "They look around for about 30 minutes, called 911." "Do the Monroes have a home security system?" "Alarms?" "Video cameras?" "No, but apparently Sergei does have a cell phone." "We've been calling it, but it just keeps going straight to voicemail." "Any sign of forced entry?" "Busted windows, locks?" "No, and we interviewed Mr. And Mrs. Monroe and their daughter, all individually, and they all say the same thing." "It's pretty much a normal evening." "Chief, kid could be a runaway." "He's done this before." "His father said he only called 911 as a precaution, anyway." " Or because they're in denial." " All right, then." "Mrs. Monroe, Mr. Monroe," "I'm Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson of the LAPD and this is Agent Fritz Howard from the FBI." " Oh, my God!" "FBI?" " Now, we help out with critical missings." "Critical?" "What?" "Any time a child, 13 or under, goes missing, we classify their return as our highest priority, which means we won't stop looking until we find your son." "But Sergei just..." "I told your detectives he's probably gonna show up at school any minute, or if he tries to come home, he's gonna see all of you here" " and think he's in even more trouble." " Sergei's run away twice before." "He's had a few problems adapting lately." " Adapting to what?" " America." " Where's he from?" " Russia." "We adopted him five years ago." "And you found him through..." "An orphanage." "I mean, he had no family." "There's no one." "There's no one in Russia who's gonna be looking for Sergei or trying to kidnap him." "This..." "My God." "So the last time you saw Sergei was 8:00 p.m. Last night after you sent him to his room for arguing with his sister?" " Yes." " And what was the argument about?" "Just him using Theresa's things without permission." "I mean, this is nothing we haven't gone through before." "And where's your daughter now?" "Theresa." "We need to talk to you again." "Theresa." "Open the door, please." "So the entire world stops to pay attention to Sergei." "Is that it?" " I see you like your privacy." " Uh-huh." "You see my hair?" "It used to be a lot longer than this, then one night Sergei thought it'd be funny to cut it off while I was sleeping." "He does cute stuff like that." "For example, torturing and killing my cat." "And no matter what Dad tells you, that's why he put the lock on my door." "Because Sergei is a psycho." "You and Sergei had an argument last night." "What was that about?" "He and his little pathetic friend Jason were..." " Jason?" "Who's Jason?" " Jason Hetner." "He'll do anything Sergei tells him." "It's pitiful." "And yesterday, they both created yet another nightmare for our next door neighbor, Mr. Taft." "What did they do to the neighbor?" "Your brother and..." "Sergei's not my brother." "He's only here because my mom wanted to have a boy and she couldn't have one herself." "Listen to me, Theresa." "Sergei is missing." "This is very serious." " Someone may have taken him, or..." " Taken him?" "Come with me." "You really think someone would want to abduct a kid who draws like this?" "Dad has to paint over the walls in here all the time." "Chief." "Excuse me." "There's something you should see." "You're so worried about what someone might be doing to Sergei?" "I think you should be more concerned about what Sergei is doing to someone else." " Dried blood." " Yeah, I think so, too." "SID is analyzing a sample right now." "The turn signal's cracked." " Is that hair?" " It is." "Short." "Black." "Pulled from the root." "Could be the boy's, yes." " Looks close." " Whose car is this?" " Theresa's." " Okay, let's impound the vehicle, and Theresa also said something about Sergei and a next-door-neighbor, a Mr. Taft." "Let's see if we can talk to him." "Chief." "Chief, this way." "According to a lady three houses down, a Mr. Taft, divorced, lives alone." "Had an argument last night with Mr. Monroe." "They were standing right out here in the street, screaming and yelling at each other about Sergei, but she doesn't know why." "Sanchez is already over here at the Taft house." "Right here." "So are we looking at a runaway here or not?" "I'd rather have Sergei answer that question." "Oh, here." "These look like fresh tire tracks, Chief." " See if they match Theresa's car." " Chief, no one's answering the door, but there's something in his backyard that we should look at." "Okay." "Is it locked?" "For heaven's sakes." "Fritzy, do you mind?" "Want to lose the bag?" "What is that, a grave?" "We gotta get in there." "Oh, for heaven's sakes." "We could call Judge Reisser, get a search warrant for the house, the yard and the cars." "Okay." "Meanwhile, gentlemen, we have exigent circumstances," " so let's start digging, now." " You don't want to wait for a warrant?" "No, no." "That grave is probable cause." "Shovels!" "Shovels, please!" "All right, well, get the warrant anyway." "I don't want a murderer to get away on a technicality." "Okay." "Thank you." "Thank you, Detective." "Hold it." "Hold it." "Hold it." "I got something." "I got something." "Okay." " Okay, okay." "Okay." " Okay." "Easy." "Easy." " It's stiff, chief." "It's stiff." " Okay." "Okay." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Hey, what's going on here?" "What are you doing on my property?" "LAPD." "We got a search warrant." "Get him out of here." " What the hell is going on here?" " We have a warrant, sir." " You have no right to do this!" " We have a warrant." " Get him out." "Let's go." " No right!" "What the hell are you doing on my property?" " Police business." " You have no right to do this." "No right!" "Instead of digging up Ralphie, why don't you arrest that little son of a bitch Sergei that killed my dog?" "You saw Sergei Monroe do this to your dog?" "Trust me." "The kid did it." " When was the last time you saw him?" " Yesterday morning." "What?" "Is Sergei missing?" "Did he run away again?" "Because if he has, why don't you do everyone in the neighborhood a favor and stop looking for him?" "Sir, I find your attitude towards this boy worrisome." "How about this for an attitude?" "I want that kid dead." "How about that?" "You want some more suspects, why don't you go up and down our street." "Ask anyone. 'Cause everyone hates Sergei." "Not just me." "And his parents are useless." "Why didn't you report him to the police then?" "I did!" "But you people, you didn't do anything at all." "And what's the result?" "Yesterday, I came home from work to find my dog dead on my front lawn." "Sergei and that creepy kid, they let him out of the backyard and they ran him down in cold blood." "Now, when you say Sergei ran over Ralphie, you mean this 13-year-old kid was driving the vehicle?" "Yeah." "Yeah, he's done it several times." "He takes his big sister's car out on the street for a race, and that's against the law, isn't it?" " What did you do about that?" "Nothing." " So after you found your dog, you went across the street and argued with Sergei's father." "I told Brian before that I would sue his ass, and I will." "What else did you tell him?" "A neighbor heard you arguing." "Did you threaten Sergei?" "I don't remember what I said." "I'll tell you what I did." "I took my dog, who never hurt anyone, and I gave him a decent burial," "and then I got drunk, and if that's a crime, you go ahead and arrest me." "Excuse me one second." "Yeah, listen." "Let's you and I go take a walk, okay?" "Do me a favor." "Put your hands in your pockets." "Okay." "Do you want to arrest Mr. Taft for burying his dog in his backyard?" " Ralphie is not our victim." " But he could be our motive." "Or a good reason for Sergei to vamoose." "Explains why the Monroes weren't very specific about the argument they had with their son." "I sent a patrol car over to check Sergei's best friend Jason." "Nobody home, and he didn't go to school today, either." "But no one's reported him missing, and Jason and Sergei both have rap sheets." "I'm waiting to get them, but who knows?" "Maybe they took off somewhere together." "So we need to have a discussion about circumstances." "What circumstances?" "You want to call off the critical missing?" "This kid, Sergei, has an extensive juvenile record and a history of running away." "It appears that his father punished him, not unjustly, and the boy ran off in the middle of the night." "If we investigated everything based on appearances, we'd have a whole lot less to do." "Do I get a vote here?" "I think it is too early to say what happened." "I'd like a vote, too, because as of 3:00 p.m. Today," "I'm gonna have both presidential candidates in town and I guess I'm gonna have to decide which one not to protect." "So tell me, Chief Johnson, is half my security force out there looking for a runaway?" "You want me to decide right now if this is a critical missing?" " I do." " Would you be applying this kind of pressure if it was your kid we were looking for?" "The city of Los Angeles does not want or expect me to run this department the way I do my family." "Sergei was two weeks shy of his 14th birthday." "If his parents had called 911 15 days later, we would've sent one patrol car, two uniforms and filed a report." "So, what are we doing here?" "It doesn't feel like a critical missing." "It really doesn't." "Thank you." "Priority Homicide will continue to search for Sergei Monroe." "Meanwhile, Commander Taylor, break down the crisis center." "Tell the press that, in line with the family's wishes, we're treating this situation as a runaway." "Agent Howard, if you remain concerned, you're welcome to stay, of course." "Chief, that guy's crying again." "I put him in the back of my car." "What do you want me to do with him?" "Well, Lieutenant Flynn, you can let Mr. Taft go for now." "And, if you would, please help him take Ralphie back across the street." "Thank you." "Chief, the blood on the front of Theresa Monroe's car is, as suspected, canine." "And they've matched one of the hairs embedded in the front fender to poor Ralphie." "Who was run over by Sergei, if we can believe Mr. Taft." "Chief, I'm guessing that you can trust Mr. Taft on this." "I mean, apart from being a building contractor, and I've never had a good experience with a building contractor yet," "Mr. Taft has no record." "Well, our boy Sergei's got him beat, big time." "I've got his rap sheet here." "Charges range from vandalism to marijuana possession." " He's got..." " Underage driving without a license?" "Twice, also three times for truancy and disturbing the peace" " with guess who?" " Jason Hetner." "Hey, maybe these two boys are just hiding out together." "Or they were abducted together." "Jason's 14." "Six months older than Sergei." "Uh, his parents divorced last year and he's been slipping out of school ever since, compiling his own history with the LAPD." "Tried contacting his mother on her cell, home and office." "No answer." "Yeah, and there's still no answer at the door at the house, either." "Okay." "I want to check the dates on their arrest records." "See how often they were picked up together and where." " Uh, Detective Sanchez?" " Soon as either one of them makes a call, we can lock onto the cell phone tower they're using and find them." "Why have you stopped looking for my son?" "My whole division is applying every resource at its disposal to find your son." "So, Mr. Monroe, this morning you were certain that Sergei had run away." "He's never been gone more than five hours before." "Never." "And you said you wouldn't stop the search until you found him." "I haven't stopped." "But I've been seriously delayed because both you and your wife withheld information from me about this so-called family argument last night." "All right, all right." "Look." "Mr. Taft was already very upset." "I didn't want to drag him into this." "Drag him into it?" "Sir." "If Mr. Taft's story is true, he may well be the reason that Sergei is missing." " Now, did Sergei run over his dog?" " Yes." " With Theresa's car?" " Yes." "Jason let the dog out, but Sergei ran him down." "We asked Theresa not to mention this to you." " Because?" " Because we were afraid that if you thought Sergei was a problem child, instead of bringing him home," " you might arrest him." " Look." "We're mortified about the entire situation." "We apologize." "And we were slow to understand how terrible it could be." "Do you have anything at all?" "The name Jason Hetner keeps coming up, and we can't find him, either." " Jason's missing, too?" " Not technically." "But we can't find him, and we'd really like to." "Jason's a bad influence." "There's no question about it." "We tried to separate them." "But his mother won't call us back or meet with us, even though they've been arrested together." " Speaking of..." " Yes, Sergeant, what'd you find?" "Jason and Sergei both have been reported for trespassing three times at a place known as The Tunnels." " It's a neighborhood magnet for..." " We know what it's a magnet for, and I've absolutely forbidden Sergei to go there again." "I mean, it's dangerous." "Why..." "Susan, we should go there and see if he's there or if Jason's there..." " No, no, no, no." "We're going." " I would like to come with you." "Look, ma'am, I understand why you would like to come, but it is more important that you and your husband go home and wait for Sergei to call." "No, no, our daughter's there with the people you have covering the phones, and Theresa will call us the second that Sergei comes back." "If he sees me, if he hears me call his name, he'd be more likely to answer." "Please." "I do better with him than anyone else." "Sergei!" "Sergei, it's Mom!" "Mrs. Monroe, I have to ask you not to call out, please." "We don't know who all's in here." "Thank you." "Nice hideout." "All right, Lieutenant Provenza, please wait here with the parents." "Uh, Lieutenant Tao, I'd like to get a patrol car or two, if we can get them." "All right then." "Let's see what all's down here." "LAPD." "Anyone in here?" " Just a rat!" "Just a rat." " Relax." "Chief." "Chief." "Okay, okay, okay." "Okay, Detective Sanchez, Lieutenant Flynn, let's find out if Sergei's by himself in here." "Detective Daniels, please step outside and call the morgue and SID." "I need this place checked for a weapon and blood, and I want the search revved up for Jason Hetner, please." "Got it." " Hey, where are you going?" " I'm getting some air." "Besides, this isn't a critical missing anymore, is it?" "Wait, what did you find?" "Hello?" "Hello, is he in there?" "Did you find him?" "Hello?" "He suffered two blows to the head from an almost blunt instrument, a bad hit here at the left temple, and then a very bad hit here, at the left central parietal bone, death almost instantaneous." "There wasn't a lot of blood where we found him." "Then he died elsewhere." "Hmm." "Also explains why we found no weapon." "Well, look for something that leaves a waffle pattern." "See this cross-hatching with dimples?" " Probably some sort of tool, I'm guessing." " Like, for construction?" "Maybe something a building contractor might have?" "DR. MORALES:" "Sounds right." " Were there any signs of molestation?" " No." "Thank God." "The poor kid was murdered, but it stopped there." "Would you preserve the wounds for me, Doctor?" "With a casting or the epidermis itself?" "Uh, cut out the actual wound, please." "Thank you." "Would you like that for here or to go?" "Doctor." "DR. MORALES:" "Chief Pope." "Uh, time of death?" "The boy was found in a dark, moist place, which could've sped up the decomp." "So I'd have to say, broadly, between 6 and 24 hours." "Thank you." "As soon as you can, please, Doctor." "Excuse me." "I made a horrible mistake." "Will, we have two things to rely on." "Instinct and training." " We went with our gut feelings and..." " Because of that, this boy is dead." "We don't know our culpability yet." "Sergei could've left the house in the middle of the night." "He could've been dead before we got the call, and on his body, we found a cell phone and some pot." "So..." "So it wasn't a robbery." "What are you suggesting, then?" "This was, what, a fight between friends, or that Sergei was a little drug dealer?" "'Cause that's a big "So what?" He's still a 13-year-old kid." "What about this friend?" "This Jason Hetner." "Is he a suspect or another possible victim?" "Um..." "I can't say." "We are having trouble locating him." "But I have the rest of my detectives and six patrol cars out looking for him." "All right." "As of now, Jason Hetner is missing." "Use any resources you have to find him." "I don't care what it costs." "Excuse me, Chiefs." "Detective Sanchez just found Jason." "He's on his way down to Parker Center with him right now." "Is the boy all right?" "He's okay enough to run." "Little bastard's fast, too." "Yeah, so his mother finally comes home, and we ask her, you know," ""Can we look in your garage?" "Can we look in your son's room?"" "And she says, "Is this all because he skipped school again?"" " Like it was nothing at all." " Is she here now?" "Jason's mother?" "Too tired." "Great mom, huh?" "Didn't see her son this morning." "Hadn't seen him since last night." "She finally lets us into Jason's room, and as I'm looking in the kid's closet, guess who crawls out from under the bed?" "And he jumps out the window and I have to chase him for five blocks." " So any chance this boy is our murderer?" " He ran." "Okay." "Let's go, Sergeant." "Good work." "Good work." "Hello, Jason." "I'm Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson." "I just have a few questions about the last 24 hours." " Questions I don't have to answer, right?" " That's true." "Instead of you and I having a little conversation," "I could arrest you and send you to juvie." "And since you demonstrated you're a flight risk," "I will personally speak at your petition to detain." "You'll be in custody for the entire six months leading up to your trial." "Is that really how you want to spend your summer and fall?" " No." " Let's try the questions then, shall we?" "You are friends with Sergei Monroe, are you not?" "Ask Sergei who his friends are." "All right." "Never mind." "Book this little smart aleck." "No, no, no." "Wait, wait, wait, wait." "Wait a minute." "How much trouble am I in?" "Well, I can guarantee you it's gonna get worse if you don't cooperate." "Fine." "Fine." "Okay." "I'll tell you what happened yesterday." "I just want some protection." " Protection from who?" " From Sergei." "Why do you need protection from him?" "He makes me do things." "Makes you?" "How does he make you?" " He just does." " Well, what does he use?" "A knife?" "A gun?" "I mean, come on, you're bigger than Sergei." "He knows..." "He knows certain things about me." " What things?" " That's not part of the story, okay?" "God." "All right?" "He just..." "He makes me do things." "I need to know what that means or I am leaving." " I'm leaving." " No, no, no." "Wait a minute." "Okay." "You want to know?" "Okay." "Sergei pulled me into an alley once and he grabbed my hand," "pulled me towards him, asked me if I..." "He asked me..." "Are you saying Sergei made sexual advances on you?" " Yes." " What did he do?" "He asked me if I wanted to kiss him." "And I did." "But Sergei didn't." "It was a trap." "Then every day after that he threatened to tell people all about me." " So he's been blackmailing you." " Yeah." "Ain't love grand." "Jeez, Louise, this Sergei kid." "He can't know that I'm telling you this." "That's a promise I can keep." "Provided that you tell me exactly what happened yesterday." "So Sergei, he wanted me to let Ralphie out of Mr. Taft's yard." "He was going to drive Theresa's car up the street and the dog would chase it." "I opened the gate, and Ralphie ran out into the front yard, but Sergei didn't drive off." "He..." "He gunned the car over the curb and he hit the dog." "I jumped off the fence." "I ran and I tried to help Ralphie, but he was making these gurgling sounds." " Okay?" "I'm sorry." " Okay, okay." "What happened then?" "Well, then I made Sergei take the car back into the garage." "Look, really, if I had known that he was gonna kill Ralphie," " I would've never helped him." "Never." " So did you fight with him after that?" "Did you punish him for what he did to Ralphie?" "Punish him?" "You're kidding, right?" "Jason." "Sergei Monroe was found dead this afternoon in a place you two were known to hang out." "The Tunnels." "What?" "How did..." "Oh, my..." "You think that..." "You think that I killed him?" "It wasn't me." "It was Mr. Taft." "It was Mr. Taft, I'm telling you." "It was Mr. Taft, okay?" " How do you know it was Mr. Taft?" " Because I heard him." "He was screaming at Mr. Monroe in the street." "Okay?" "And he was saying to him how he was gonna kill Sergei." "Right back where we started." "But I didn't hear anything after that..." " Damn it." "...because that's when" "Sergei's sister came in the garage when we were hammering out the dents, and she was freaking out, and I ran." " I just ran." " Did you say hammering out the dents?" "Voicemail recordings from Sergei Monroe's cell phone," " minus the messages from LAPD." " Okay." "Thank you." "Uh, do you have a flashlight, Lieutenant?" "And a cell phone, please?" "Thank you." "Thanks." "You looking for something, Chief?" "A circular waffle pattern that matches this." "What do you think, Lieutenant?" "I think you got a match." "You want me to take off the fender?" "Yes, please, and could you bring it to the Murder Room?" " Thank you." " Luis?" "Pull that fender." "What makes a child go bad, nature or nurture?" "Unfortunately, Chief, by the time we get involved, it really doesn't matter." "Sergei, this is Theresa and I hate your stupid guts." "I hate you." "You've ruined my car." "And when you get home, I'm going to kill you." "Message received yesterday at 7:18 a.m." "Damn it, Sergei." "The police are outside your house." "Man, leave me out of this." "Message received yesterday at 7:43 a.m." "Sergei, you're destroying this family." "Mom can't stop crying." "Dad's going out of his mind." "All because of you." "I hope you're dead." "I hope you've been run over the same way you ran over Ralphie." "Hey." "Sounds like there's more than one problem child out there." "There are no more messages in your mailbox." "You were right." "I should've kept the critical missing designation." "Yeah." "Well..." "The odds were stacked against you from the start." " Hey." "I was looking at that." " It sold already." "You were right, it's too far away." "The only reason to move out there is the schools." "Otherwise, it may be more house than we need, may be more trouble than we want to go through." "What do you think?" " Let's talk about it tonight." "Is that okay?" " Okay." " Hey." "Have a good day at work." " You, too." "Lieutenant Provenza." "Good morning." "I'm on my way to the morgue, and I need you to do a few things for me first." "Will?" "You had Lieutenant Provenza arrest Theresa Monroe" " for murdering her brother?" " Yes." "Time of death?" "I won't know exactly until I get the confession." "All right." "Well, I'll watch then." "Excuse me." "Theresa's parents haven't asked for a lawyer, but they do want to be in the room while you talk to her." "Buzz has already set up some extra cameras." "I'll take care of it." "Lieutenant, I need a waiver form, please." "Yes, ma'am." "Our daughter would never murder her own brother." "Ever." "Well, Theresa told me she didn't think of Sergei as her actual brother." " And you know what?" "I believe her." " How can you do this to us?" " After all we've been through." " Look." "If you want to stay here while I interview your daughter," "I need you and your wife to initial the marked areas and sign on the bottom or leave." "This explains your rights." "Theresa, you recognize this fender?" "I didn't do anything to Sergei." "Are you suggesting that Theresa ran over our son?" "Sir?" "Sign the forms or leave!" "There's no in between." "Let's look underneath the fender, please." "On the underside, you see this waffle pattern?" "Someone was trying to pound the fender back into shape." "This is from Sergei's scalp, the skin from one of the bludgeoning wounds that killed him." "Get it away from me." "Get it away from me." "Mom!" "Mom!" "You will notice that the waffle pattern on the epidermis of the wound matches exactly the one on the car." " Why?" " I will not let you continue to treat us..." "This is disgusting and unfair to my daughter." "How can you show this to us?" "To prove that the same tool that was used on your daughter's car was also used to kill your son." "That is the mark that this hammer makes." "Sergei was using one just like it to hammer out the dents in Theresa's car." "She came out to the garage while he was using it, grabbed it from his hand and killed him." " What?" " Brian, stop this." "Sergei cut your hair." "He killed your cat." "He stole your car and wrecked it." "And in a fit of anger, you jerked this from his hand and smashed his head in." " I have a witness." " I never wanted Sergei dead." "Wait, wait, wait." "You have a witness?" "Please, I never wanted him dead." "You have a witness who saw Theresa kill my son?" "He puts her in the garage while the hammer was being used, and Theresa left two threatening messages on Sergei's cell phone yesterday at 7:00 in the morning saying she intended to kill him." " No, I never wanted Sergei dead..." " Wait, wait, wait." "Theresa made those calls after Sergei was already dead." "How do you know when he died?" "We were never able to establish a time of death." "But you bring up an excellent point." "Only people who thought Sergei was still alive would bother calling him on his cell." "There were two messages from Theresa, and one from Jason Hetner, but not one from you or your wife." "And why?" "Because you knew he wouldn't answer!" " Dad?" "Dad, what is she talking about?" " It's okay." "Lieutenant Tao?" "Would you please escort Theresa out of the room." "Come with me, dear." "Go ahead, honey." "We'll be out in a minute." "Go ahead." "It's okay." "This way." "So sit down." "Let's talk." "You call 911." "You thought that someone would just pop over and take a quick report." "You were stunned at our reaction." "You came down here to find out how close we were to actually finding something." "You did everything you could to point us in the direction of Jason." "Well, those games are over now." "Which one of you is the monster that killed your own son?" "Sergei was the monster." "Killing that dog was only the last in a long list of horrible, horrible things." "A list that starts with stuffing his pet hamsters in the garbage disposal." "Cutting up squirrels." "Killing cats." "Stepping on baby birds, and I..." "I thought we could work with him, and I tried." "We took him to anger camps, to psychiatrists." "We sent him to boarding school, to a military academy." "We even tried to return him to Russia, and they wouldn't take him back." " Susan, we can't hide what happened." " No." "No." "She does not understand," "Sergei's aggression was created by his biological mother, who abandoned him, or it was genetics..." "I mean, where else does that sort of violence come from?" "Maybe from parents who smashed him in the head with a hammer." "Which one of you did that?" "Or did you both have a swing?" "Is it not clear?" "There was something wrong with him." "Look, I get it." "Sergei was a little psycho, and he was growing up fast, and you didn't plan on actually killing him." "Which is what makes this more a crime of passion." "And you were concerned for your daughter's life." "I mean, isn't that why you put the deadbolt on her door?" "Yes." "Yes." "Exactly, and last night, after Taft..." "We went into the garage after we saw that poor dog lying in the yard." "And I grabbed Sergei, and I pulled him out from under the car, and I demanded to know if he'd killed Ralphie, and he just..." "He just laughed." "So I grabbed the hammer and..." "I hit him." "I don't..." "I was so angry, I don't even think I knew what I was doing." "It was..." "I..." "That's right." "You were very mad." "The first time you hit him." "But then you hit him again." "There were two blows to the skull." "Now, the first one wasn't hard enough, but the second one..." "It wasn't hard at all." "Not for me." "Very hard for Sergei, yes." "But not for me." "No." " And then I looked up at Susan." " Brian..." "Now, wait a minute, ma'am." "Are you involved in this crime?" "Did you participate in this crime?" "She was screaming at me to stop but it just didn't register somehow." "I think maybe I was so surprised after I hit him the first time, because it was..." "It was over before I made the decision, really." "And then I just..." "I saw Sergei lying there, and I thought," ""He's not mine." ""He's not part of me."" "And then while Susan was yelling for me to stop," "I swung that hammer down as hard as I could." "And I wrapped him up in an old blanket, and took him to where he liked to go the most, which is a drain, a sewage drain." "A fitting resting place, I thought." "Then I dumped the hammer and went home, and I thought," ""Wow." "We have our family back, finally."" "And you tell me, Chief Johnson, what would you do if you were responsible for Sergei?" "As it so happens, I am responsible for him, and what I can do is put you under arrest for the murder of your son." "So we couldn't have prevented Sergei's murder." "No." "No." "He was dead before we got the call." "So here's the deal." "From now on, we get a critical missing, for 72 hours we search around the clock with every available resource until we either find the child or the body." "No exceptions." "If that's a policy amendment, you won't get any argument from me." "Okay." "Oh, and if you would extend my personal apology to Fritz, I'd appreciate it." "Absolutely." "Well, tell the Pope I accept his apology, because I'm gracious." "I hate it when they forget to put in that hot mustard." " Why do I never ask for it?" " Because you're too gracious." "Look what I have." "Ah." "Brochure." "The Hollywood Hills." "Houses between my shoes and the tissue box, or your work and mine." "Two bedrooms, office, pool, great views." "I take it then, you're not interested in what school district we buy into." "I don't think we need to worry about schools, really." "I see." "So unless you absolutely have your heart set on a bigger place." "Well," "I go back and forth, but a bigger place, that needs to be something we both want." "Maybe in this case, smaller is better." "English" " SDH"