"In a shocking turn of events," "Sierra Macy, thought to have been murdered..." "Lazy morning in bed with your new girlfriend Naomi?" "No, we're both a little busy what with the U.S. Attorney going through every case I've ever worked." "You said you were 10 blocks away." "Traffic on Broadway." "You also said I got to pick my own cases." "Believe me, you'll pick this one." "You see the news this morning about Sierra Macy?" "Woman from Queens, went missing a decade ago." "Presumed dead until today when she flagged down a UPS driver in Yonkers." " A miracle." " If it's really her." "Prints are a match." "It's her." "I've had my share of lost weekends, but 10 years?" "Where's she been?" "Apparently held captive by a long-haul trucker named Peter Gunther." "He died of a heart attack, Sierra escaped." "You want CIU to review the conviction of the guy currently in prison for her kidnap and murder." "Josh Fleck." "He was a teacher at her school." "He should go free." "Clearly, he didn't kill Sierra." "But Peter Gunther didn't abduct her." "NYPD found his trip sheets in the house." "He was doing a long haul in Iowa the night she went missing." "Gunther had an accomplice." "Could've been Josh Fleck or someone else entirely." "How solid is the case against Fleck?" "Physical evidence connects him to the crime, he lied to the cops, and pled guilty." "Could mean he's guilty, could mean some bulldog prosecutor railroaded an innocent guy into a plea deal." "Is it really her?" " Is Sierra alive?" " Yeah." "Hayes, meet the bulldog who put Josh Fleck away." "Sierra Macy was a junior at Westford High when she disappeared." "She had a reputation for breaking the rules... skipping class, smoking pot, running away from home." "Girl after my own heart." "Josh Fleck started teaching at Westford that year." "He was 23, known as the cool teacher, offering advice, taking an interest in students' personal lives..." "Maybe too personal an interest." "Sierra called Josh from a train station that night, which he denied when the cops first contacted him." "You shouldn't be here." "I'm still a part of this unit." "Turns out Josh was lying." "He picked up Sierra and drove her to a nearby diner." "You put this guy away, though." "Which means I know this case inside and out." "And since we only have five days..." "A waitress served them around 10:00 p.m., and a half-hour later, she said she saw Sierra getting into Josh's truck." "There's no way you can be objective about this." " You should recuse yourself." " Thanks for the support." "Or you should do it for him." "Maxine's right, according to conventional wisdom." "I hate conventional wisdom." "Sam's familiar with the case." "And I want to see how he handles the anguish of facing his mistake." "It's not a problem if I made a mistake." "Sierra Macy's alive, and since you got Josh to plead guilty to her kidnap and murder..." "Because Detective Quinn and I put together an airtight case against him." "We had Sierra's blood on the passenger door of Josh's truck and a shovel with fresh dirt in the back." "Which he obviously didn't use to bury her." "The point is even without a body, I had enough for a life sentence." "This time, just get the truth." "You can start by reinterviewing Josh." "I wasn't kidding about facing your mistakes." "Maxine, go with him, make sure he stays objective." "Frankie, see if you can find a link between Josh and Gunther." "Tess, reach out to Sierra's mom, see if Sierra's up for talking to us." "How have the last 10 years been for you, A.D.A. Spencer?" "'Cause mine have really sucked." "When am I getting out of here?" "Your murder conviction's being overturned, but the kidnapping still stands." "We'll be adding trafficking charges if we prove you were responsible for her abduction." "So this time you'll prove it instead of bullying me into a plea?" "If you were innocent, why take the deal?" "My lawyer told me a jury might give me a life sentence." "Figured 20 years, I'm 43 when I get out." "I still have a shot at a life." "Tell us what happened the night Sierra disappeared." "I've already told him plenty of times." "Tell me." "Taking a plea means you give up your appeals." "This review's your only shot of getting out of here." "Sierra called me from the train station, said she was running away, she wanted to say goodbye, which is teenage speak for "Stop me, please."" "So I picked her up, took her to the diner where we could talk." "Sounds like you two were really close." "School was hard for her." "Home, too." "Being a teenager, your life is like wall-to-wall rules." "Sierra needed somebody who could understand how she felt, who could tell her it gets better." "You were her teacher, not her friend." "I was trying to do both." "Not the best judgment, I know." "So at the diner, I calmed her down, or at least I thought I did." "She got up to use the bathroom, and she never came back." "I figured she needed more time." "It is a nice story, but it leaves out one little detail... her blood on the door of your truck." "Please talk to Sierra." "She will tell you we were friends." "I would never hurt her." "We'll see what she has to say." "You're not serious." "Keeping Sam on the case puts him in complete conflict of interest." "Great way to discover what he's made of." "Your team, your call, but it's on you to make sure he doesn't screw up." "Mm-hmm." "You talk to Sierra Macy yet?" "About to head over with Sam." "Any update on the battle with the U.S. Attorney?" "Naomi's there now." "Have they found something?" "Nothing for them to find." "Doesn't mean they won't find anything." "Well, let me know if I can help in any way." "Naomi's got me covered." "Thanks." "Hello?" "Hayes, what can you tell about the investigation?" "All these reporters remind me of when Sierra disappeared." "Camped out day and night then, too." "The media loves triumph almost as much as they love tragedy." "Sierra's story bridges both." "She's the dream girl." "Mrs. Macy, thank you for letting us speak with Sierra." "I'll go get her." "Actually, we need to talk to her alone." "Last door on the left." "Carla, how are you?" "Ah." "I cleaned out her room." "I gave away her clothes." "We had a funeral." "I'm sorry." "Based on the evidence we had... 10 years that monster had my baby locked up." "The things he did." "The police stopped looking." "I gave up because you told me she was dead." "He showed me a clip from "GMA."" "It was my mom talking about my murder... so that I'd know no one was coming for me." "Can you remember anything else?" "He called me his baby girl." "I'd hear him coming down the stairs every night like clockwork." "Then a few nights ago, it stopped." "That's when I knew if I didn't get out," "I was gonna die down there." "I didn't, but..." "I feel like this girl did." "I don't even remember being her." "Sierra, you know that Josh Fleck is in prison for your kidnapping and murder." "He's been cleared of the murder charges, but there are still some questions about your abduction." "We know that Gunther wasn't responsible." "We need to find out who may have taken you." "Do you really think Mr. Fleck did it?" "We don't know." "That's why we're asking you." "I remember fighting with Liam, my mom's boyfriend, here at home." "Is that why you ran off?" "I ended up at the train station." "I wasn't sure who to call." "I knew Mr. Fleck wouldn't yell at me." "So he picked me up and drove me to the diner, and... and we just... talked." "And then... everything gets hazy." "I remember feeling dizzy, and my mouth was dry like..." "like I was high." "Do you think Mr. Fleck drugged you?" "I don't think so." " We were friends." " Try to remember, Sierra." "I'm sorry." "I can't." "Sierra, those scars on your arms, did Gunther do that to you?" "No." "You used to cut yourself?" "Did you cut yourself earlier that night before you called Josh?" "Yes." "I was upset." "Thank you, Sierra." "What's with all the questions about her cutting?" "Another explanation for how Sierra's blood was found in Josh's truck." "Looks like your airtight case has sprung a leak." "_" "Sierra was cutting the night she disappeared." "That could be how her blood got on the door of Josh's truck." "Even if that is the case, Josh could've kidnapped Sierra and delivered her to Gunther." "He didn't have an alibi for later that night." "Because he was at home asleep." "That blood was the only evidence of foul play." "And it's how you painted Josh as a violent assailant." "Detective Quinn talked to a waitress at the diner who said that she saw Josh touching Sierra inappropriately then saw the two leave together." "Someone needs to go talk to the witness." " I'll do it." " No, you won't." "I need someone who doesn't have an ax to grind." "Tess, go speak to the waitress." "Take Maxine with you." "Hayes wants us to talk to the waitress from the diner." "Oh, great." "I'll be there in a sec." "Thanks so much for meeting with us on your break." "That poor girl." "It's a miracle she's still alive." "Yes." "Unfortunately, that wasn't the least of it." "The man you saw her with the night she went missing..." "Uh, Josh Fleck." "I see lots of people come through every week." " He creeped me out." " Care to elaborate?" "Mm, the way he was talking to her, holding her hand." "Young girl like that, you could just tell something wasn't right." "In your statement, you said you saw" "Josh and Sierra leave together." "I'd come out here for a smoke, and I watched them get into his truck." "And that was parked on the side of the diner?" "That's right." "Problem is, these big propane tanks were parked there at the time." "Not only would it have been a bad place for you to light up, but the tanks would've obstructed your view of the parking lot." "The penalty for perjury in New York is up to seven years." "Look, I saw them inside, I served them." "Whatever was going on, it wasn't right." "But you never saw them drive off together?" "No." "Then why did you tell the police you did?" "That detective, he told me they found blood in Josh Fleck's truck." "They knew he'd done it, but they needed someone to confirm he and Sierra left here together." "I was trying to help." "What does the U.S. Attorney have on Wallace?" "He doesn't want me to tell you." "And yet, you're here." "Do you remember when you and Wallace faced off on Tim Gore's insider trading case?" "Of course." "My father asked me to represent Tim, but we never made it to trial." " The charges were dropped." " Yes." "After Wallace's star witness from the grand jury recanted." "His confidential star witness who now says that you pressured him into recanting." "The U.S. Attorney thinks that Wallace leaked the identity of the witness to me." " Exactly." " That's a felony." "Wallace could get disbarred." "Edward Marchand's handling the case." "I know him." "He's tough." "Right now, he's offering Wallace a deal that would keep him out of jail." "That would end his political career." "I know." "But he's considering it." "Wallace didn't leak the name to me." "And I will testify to that effect in front of the U.S. Attorney." "As Wallace's attorney, I'm thrilled." "As your friend, I'll point out that you'll be asked how you got a confidential witness's name, and you will need to answer." "Mm." "I know." "And depending on that answer, you could be in a lot of trouble yourself." "Call me in front of the U.S. Attorney." "No wonder why they can't fix the toilet at the precinct." "The city blew their bankroll on this place." "What's up, Quinn?" "Come here." "Sierra Macy." "I figured you'd be calling about that." "The waitress admitted to my colleague that she never saw them leave the diner together." "You told me she was a solid witness." "You told me you needed to put Sierra in that dirtbag's truck leaving the diner." "I never meant you should fabricate a witness statement." "What does this matter?" "Josh Fleck pled guilty." "He obviously played a role in this." "We put him away for her murder." "Clearly, she's not dead." "The evidence still points to him for the kidnapping." "It might not." "What the hell happened to you, Sam?" "All of this Monday morning quarterbacking, overturning cases we busted our asses off to make." "And we did that to get the bad guys off the street." "That's important work." "So is making sure we actually got the bad guys, because if we didn't, whoever grabbed Sierra is still out there." "We didn't screw up." "New info on Josh Fleck." "Sierra Macy's not the first girl he overstepped with." "Angela Cheng." "She didn't go to Josh's school, and yet her parents filed a complaint there." "Why?" "Apparently, he sexually assaulted their daughter." "There's no mention of her in any of your case notes." "Josh pled to Sierra's murder before I found out about it, but he met Angela on a message board, and she was 16 years old." "You still think this guy's innocent?" "_" "You have a history of dating underage girls, like Angela Cheng." "Angela said she was 20 in her post." "She said the same thing in person." "We looked for that post, couldn't find it." "It was over a decade ago." "Her parents made her delete it when they found out..." "Or maybe you're a predator." "What was next for Angela?" "Abduction?" "That is ridiculous." "She came on to me." "Blaming the victim's not gonna get you out of here." "I'm not blaming her." "It was consensual." "That's not what Angela said." "She told us that you forced yourself on her." " Sam!" " Hey!" "Just like you did with Sierra." " That is a lie." " I didn't do anything wrong." "Says the man in the orange jumpsuit." "You want to talk about a victim?" "How about the guy doing 20 years for a crime he didn't commit?" "Josh, we are here to help you." "Maybe you are." "But he's trying to railroad me again." " I just want your side of the story." " I already told you." "Angela said she was 20." "She looked 20." "She was underage." "Vulnerable." "Your preferred target, just like Sierra." "I've got nothing more to say to you." "Guard!" "What was that?" "Just trying to cut through the lies." "By telling more lies?" "We never found Angela." "He doesn't know that." "Oh, come on, Maxine." "All the years we've worked cases together," "I've seen you lie to dozens of perps." "Josh is right." "You're trying to railroad him again." "He's a viable suspect." "And if you weren't still pissed about what happened with the filmmaker, you'd agree with me." "Like hell I would." "Your blood evidence against Josh is suspect, your main witness outright lied, and there is nothing connecting him to the man who held Sierra captive for 10 years." "So you need to wake up or back off!" "Frankie has an idea." "Wallace just summoned me, so take your time." "I've run everything I could find on Gunther, but this guy was careful." "No credit cards, only used burner phones." "Explains why we're having a hard time connecting him to Josh." "Josh's actual innocence being another explanation." "It got me thinking." "The only person besides the kidnapper who knows the truth about that night is Sierra." "You ever heard of state-dependent memory retrieval?" "I have a feeling I'm about to." "It's the use of psychotropic drugs to recover repressed memories." "Works even better if the subject was on drugs" " at the time the memory was formed." " Sierra was clearly drugged." "Her symptoms... the dry mouth, disorientation, memory loss..." "are consistent with an opioid." "Most likely fentanyl or hydromorphone." "You want to turn Sierra into a lab rat." "Maybe if we bring her back to the diner, her memories will come back to her." "She'll be able to identify Josh Fleck as her kidnapper." "Or if it was someone else." "Dr. Lorraine Maltin is an expert in this type of memory retrieval." "She volunteered to supervise the whole thing." "Just keep Sierra safe." "She has been through enough." "_" "I spoke to Naomi." "You're not testifying." "Of course I am." "You didn't leak the witness' name to me." "I stole it from you." "I was over at your place one night, and I saw the grand jury minutes in your briefcase, and I read them." "I know." " I was counting on that." " Wait." "What?" "I left my briefcase open with the grand jury minutes on top." "I knew you wouldn't be able to help yourself." "Why would you do that?" "So you could win." "It was a frivolous white-collar case." "It meant nothing to me." "You were on the partner track." "I wanted to help you." "Oh, like I couldn't have beaten you on my own?" "The point is I'm responsible for the leak." "I'm going to take the deal." "I don't want you to." "I stole the damn minutes." "Let me testify." "I won't be responsible for you getting disbarred." "Oh, don't you dare "knight in shining armor" me." "Okay." "I also don't want to risk tanking the CIU." "That's my legacy." "You take this deal, your political career is over." "I can live with that." "Dr. Maltin will take Sierra through the events leading up to her abduction." "You can stop any time you need, okay?" "I spent the last 10 years of my life trapped in a tiny cell, hoping and... praying that someone would save me." "And if Mr. Fleck is innocent, he's doing the same." "I have to help him." "Sierra, I'm gonna inject you with a small does of fentanyl." "It'll make you feel a little disoriented." "That's all." "Now look around." "I want you to try to put yourself back in the night you disappeared... how you felt, what you were thinking." "I wanted to get away." "That's good, Sierra." "What else were you feeling?" "I had to get out of the house." "I didn't know where I was gonna go." "I went to the train station, but I chickened out." "That's when I called Mr. Fleck." "He brought me here." "I was cold." "He gave me his jacket." "Mr. Fleck ordered a hot chocolate." "He said it would make me feel better, and it did." "Did he seem nervous?" "No." "How about the other people in the diner?" "Did anyone stand out, look suspicious?" "No." "I'm sorry." "I wish I was more help." "Oh, it's okay." "Maybe Josh was the only suspicious person." "So, what happened next?" "He calmed me down, said he would take me home," "and then we left." "I don't remember." "Take a few deep breaths." "Try and relax." "There's nothing." "I'm sorry." "I'm trying." "You're doing a great job, Sierra." "Wait." "Wait." "I went to the bathroom." "I wanted to clean myself up." "Someone came up behind me." "I felt a pinch like..." "like a needle." "Did you see who it was?" "No." "But I-I-I felt... heavy." "It was dark." "I was in the trunk of a car." "I-I-I felt like I was there for hours." "Then I was at a house." " Gunther's house?" " No, that was later." "Like, a few days later." "I was blindfolded." "But..." "But I could hear things." "Chimes." "For days, all I could hear was stupid chimes." "What about faces?" "This is important, Sierra." "Did you see who put you in the trunk?" " No." " Was it Mr. Fleck?" "I don't know." " I'm sorry." "I can't." " That's enough." "Leave her alone." "Josh drove a pickup." " No trunk." " Maybe he used a different car." "It's a different kidnapper." "Think you locked up the wrong dude." "_ ...when she was sexually abused and deprived of all contact with the outside world." "Neighbors were reeling at the discovery of something so gruesome in a neighborhood they thought was a safe haven for their families." "New York's Conviction Integrity Unit, in conjunction..." "I told you this case would hurt." "What are you doing here, Hayes?" "Following a trail of drunk texts that get progressively more pathetic." ""I think I made a mistake about Josh." "I'm taking myself off the case." Blah, blah, blah." "You really walk all that way to lord that over me?" "Uh, self-pity isn't your strong suit." "The night Josh pled guilty," "I stood on that booth right there, and I bought a round for the house." "Took me a month to pay off that bar tab, but it was worth it." "What the hell are you doing?" "Clearly, you want to punish yourself." "I figured I'd help." "You could've hit me." "I was trying to." "You know what your problem is?" "You're not a seasoned screwup like me." " You haven't perfected the rebound." " So my problem is I'm too good?" "Oh, no." "It's just that you think of yourself that way, and that there's this clean line between the good guys and the bad guys, and your job is to hold that line secure." "Is that so wrong?" "Yeah, because it has nothing to do with reality." "We're all bad guys in someone's story." "You're Josh Fleck's." "And I should just accept that?" "Or you can start the rewrite." "Up to you." "Rough night?" "Been going over Sierra's case file." "Whatever you need to ask her, it'll have to wait." "I came to talk to you." "May I?" "Thank you." "10 years ago, I sat in this room, and I asked you who else might've taken Sierra." "I remember." "And we talked about your boyfriend Liam." "We're not together anymore." "You swore to me that he spent the entire night with you." "At 12:30 a.m. on the night that Sierra disappeared," "Liam was stopped by a state trooper for a busted taillight on 295." "He was out looking for her." "Was he?" "295 north is the road he would've taken to Gunther's house." "I didn't want to believe he could've, but..." "Carla, what else didn't you tell us about Liam?" "Wallace wants to take a bullet for you, and you're mad at him?" " Just doesn't make sense." " He's trying to protect you." "Well, I don't need protection, and his political career, he wouldn't give that up for anyone." "No one asked you to do that." "It's not for you, it's for me." "I think that you're upset with Wallace because you want to protect him." "You want to be his knight in shining armor." " No way!" " Because... you want to win him back from Naomi." "You're out of your mind." "I want him to owe me for a change." "Whatever you say." "The election's getting close." "How are you feeling?" "Mm." "Nice subject change." "We're cautiously optimistic." "My work here is done." "Bye." "Once I pointed out holes in Liam's story, Carla opened up." "So, he was, um, also a vet tech." "He had access to fentanyl." "Oh, look, you started without me." "This is Liam Strout..." "Carla's former live-in boyfriend." "How's the hangover?" "I'll survive." "Liam moved in with Carla six months before Sierra disappeared." "Sierra started acting up around that time." "Teenage girl doesn't like Mom's new boyfriend." "What differentiates this from "Gossip Girl"?" "Carla said that Liam and Sierra argued a lot, but that night, it got physical." "She ran because she was afraid of him." "Liam's never been considered a person of interest." "Not until now." "But I did some digging, looked into his financials." "Two months after Sierra disappeared, he put a large down payment on a condo in Williamsburg." "$80,000 in cash." "You think Liam sold Sierra to Gunther?" "He was supposedly out looking for her between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m." "More than enough time to drive to Gunther's and back." "Sounds like a solid new suspect." "Let's bring him in." "_" "Carla and me, we had a good thing going." "Always wondered if we'd have made it work, you know, if Sierra hadn't gone missing." "Yeah, but you and Sierra didn't get along." "She was a teenager." "I was dating her mom." "It was awkward sometimes, you know, but we made it work." "When you slammed her against the wall, was that making it work?" "Trust me, if you lived under the same roof as that girl, you would've lost your cool, too." "The night Sierra went missing, you went looking for her." "Carla was freaking out." "I was, too." "You were home around 2:00 a.m.?" " What's your point?" " I didn't look hard enough?" "You had plenty of time to pick her up at the diner and drop her at Peter Gunther's place." "You think I gave her to that psycho?" "Gave?" "No, no, no." "Sold." "Two months after Sierra disappeared, you put an $80,000 deposit on a Brooklyn condo." "That's a lot of money for anyone, especially a vet tech... a job that gives you access to fentanyl." "That's what you used on Sierra, right?" "Sierra Macy was a mess long before I met her." "It was only a matter of time before she got herself in trouble." "Anything else you want to know, ask my lawyer." "Oh, what happened with the ex?" "I shook him." "He didn't break." "Maybe he'll make a mistake now that he knows that we're looking at him." "Yeah, I'll call the 91st, see if they can spare a squad to keep eyes on him." "Good idea." "You were right." "I should've stepped off this case." "It's not easy to face your screw-ups." "I guess we all handle it in our own way." "I'm gonna make it right." "It might not be that simple, but good for you for trying." " The waitress at the diner..." " Melissa DeLeon." "I'm gonna show her Liam's picture." "Maybe she can place him there that night." "Happy to do it." "I understand you're ready to accept the plea deal and acknowledge your wrongdoing." "That's correct." "It's okay, he's expecting me." "Don't start the party without me." "Little busy here." "I am sorry to interrupt, except I'm not." "Hayes." "What are you doing?" " Testifying." " You haven't been sworn in." "Details." "Wallace didn't leak the grand jury minutes." "Then how did you learn the identity of the key witness?" "From the grand jury minutes." "Wallace didn't give them to me." "They were mailed to me by an anonymous source." "Convenient." "That's what I thought, so I looked into it." "Guess who it was traced back to?" " Hayes..." " Chuck Sawyer." "He was a paralegal at the Chicago D.A.'s office." "Turns out he hated you." "Guess Chuck wanted to get even by sinking your big break with the feds." "Well, let's hope Mr. Sawyer corroborates your story when I subpoena him." "I'm sure he'd be happy to, except he's dead." "Passed away in February." "Then I'll need to hear it from you, assuming you're willing to take the stand officially." "I'd love to." "We won't be taking that deal." "Melissa DeLeon?" "I know you?" "Sam Spencer, from the City's Conviction Integrity Unit." "Can I ask you a few questions?" "Thank you." "Hey, so I did some more digging on Liam." "This is a copy of a wire transfer from Liam's brotherin-law in Miami." "Liam wasn't lying." "He borrowed money for the condo." "Well, that accounts for the cash, but it still doesn't let Liam off the hook entirely." "Anything on the fentanyl lead?" "I phoned Liam's old supervisor at the shelter three times, but they haven't called me back." "Then we need to go there in person and get some answers." "You may not need to." "I went looking for a connection between Liam and Gunther," " came across this instead." " It's an old ConEd bill." "For Gunther's house in Yonkers." "Look who's name is on the payment slip." "Melissa DeLeon?" "We need to call Sam now." "Thanks again for cooperating." "I thought they had the man who abducted that poor girl." "Well, we're considering other suspects." "Do you recognize this man from the night you saw Sierra at the diner?" "Would've been driving this car." "He looks familiar, but, uh..." " Give me a sec." "Let me grab my glasses." " Okay." "These chimes, how long have you had them?" "I got them in Cabo about 20 years ago." "You kidnapped Sierra." "Show me your hands!" "Don't say another word." "Killing me is only gonna make your problems worse." "My team knows I came to see you." "They know where I am." "I loved Gunther." "So you helped him rape and torture Sierra for 10 years?" "You're the reason he had all that time." "Locking up the wrong man." "Didn't work out for me, either." "He didn't need me anymore." "So why didn't you turn him in?" "That'd mean turning myself in." "Stay back." "All you did was take her." "You didn't know what Gunther was gonna do." "You'll be out in 10 years, 6 for good behavior." "I'm sorry, but it has to be this way." " Move, move!" " Freeze!" "Freeze!" " Drop it!" " Stay right where you are." "Now!" "Melissa DeLeon admitted to abducting Sierra." "Your conviction's been vacated." "You're a free man." "People will still think I was involved... no matter what I do." "I'll do whatever I can to make it right." "I've been in here 10 years." "Do you have any idea how long that is... when you're locked in a cage, staring at a cement wall?" " I know you've been through hell." " No, you don't." "You have no damn idea." "You had a life." "I had nothing." "I'm sorry." "You stole those years from me." "I will never get them back, and I will never forgive you." "Josh, there are still rumors you were involved in the kidnapping." "Any comment?" "Josh, think you'll ever get a teaching job again?" "I, uh..." "I, uh..." "Hey, Mr. Fleck." "Mr. Fleck, please." "Thanks." "For what?" "Saving my life." "Oh, that." "You know, line of duty." "You were right." "I needed a wake-up call." "Well, I think being held hostage by a psychopath qualifies." "Yeah." "We've seen some crazy things lately." "You okay with all of it?" "Yeah." "'Cause we've known each other a long time." "If you ever want to talk..." "I'm good." "But thanks." "I'm going home." "I was gonna call you." "What you did for me earlier with the A.U.S.A. was..." "Heroic, wasn't it?" "Well, conniving, really." "Not nearly as conniving as what you did." "I don't know what you're talking about." "When you were ready to take the deal, something kept bothering me, well, two things, really... why you gave me the grand jury minutes and why you would take a deal that would end your political career." "Turns out, both questions have the same answer." "See, I remember when Tim Gore's charges were dropped, you met my parents for the first time." "My dad liked you immediately, which is atypical for him, to say the least, but made perfect sense because you'd already done him a favor." "You gave me the grand jury minutes because my father asked you to throw the case because my client was his friend and backer, which leads me to the present moment." "What did my parents promise to make you take the fall for me now?" " None of that matters now..." " Don't even think about handling me." "Judge Burgos is retiring at the end of the year." "District Court." "White House is gonna need a nominee to fill the void between Harper and your dad." "It'd be a formality." "Taking the deal would've meant you stepping down as D.A., but wouldn't have blocked you from being appointed to federal judgeship." "That's a job for life." " You know, Hayes, maybe you..." " You lied to me." "You made me think that you were protecting me." "I did." "I didn't want you to get disbarred." "But not enough to make an actual sacrifice or even be honest about what was going on." "Perfect." "You're here." "I just got word." "Since the U.S. Attorney came up empty on the grand jury leak, he is shutting down his investigation of you." "It's over." "You won." "Thanks to you." "Hayes, join us?" "Oh." "He's all yours, Naomi."