"'In New York City's war on crime, 'the worst criminal offenders are pursued 'by the detectives of the Major Case Squad." "'These are their stories.'" "Get a crash cart, stat!" "'Code Blue on ward 11B.'" "North Block, bed five." " Any peripheral pulses?" " No." " Defib." " Shows a shockable rhythm." "Start at 200 joules." " Charging to 200." " Clear." "Alton on post on 11B North Block." "We'll need the crash cart for you." "I'm glad I was there when Mrs Taylor coded." " Not as glad as she is." " She'll be fine." "We'll keep her sedated." "Good work, Colleen." " You're a hero." " No, I'm not." "The papers say there's a book fair on Third Avenue this Saturday." "Yeah?" "I'm headed out to Sheep's Head Bay to check on my folks." "I'll see you later." " Will you come and see our goldfish?" " Of course, honey." "Ma, are you all right?" "I heard they had an emergency." "Mrs Taylor had a little thing with her heart." "OK, kids, let's let Grandma go to sleep." "Bye, Grandma." "We love you." "I don't know what I would have done if..." "Stop staring!" " How does your chest feel?" " It's better." "The doctor says my lung is healing fine." "I'm gonna need some help at home when they let me outta here." " We'll get one of those home nurses." " Medicare won't pay for that!" "How do you know?" "You're always so negative." " You come stay with me for a while." " Ma!" "I fed your cat and watered your plants for two weeks." "Time for your pills!" "Oh, I just wanna sleep." "It's all right, dear, you can take them when you wake up." "Oh, I brought the paperwork from Cutie Bear to sign." "You know, I think of you in your apartment all by yourself," "Lenny's things everywhere." "For the last time, leave that poor woman alone." "'Code Blue, ward 11B." "'Code Blue on ward 11B." "North Block, bed five.'" "Mrs Taylor." "She's dead." " Do the families know?" " No." "They didn't request autopsies." "Did you advise against autopsies?" "I'm a risk management officer." "I always advise against autopsies." "And our other patients?" "We have an obligation." "Our obligation is unclear." "I've asked Ed to advise us on a course of action." " You need a lawyer for that?" " Matt, I understand your feelings." "We will deal with this ethically, but we won't fall on our sword." "Hello." "I'm calling from Bellmore General." "I want to report a..." "I want to report three murders." "Your anonymous caller is grossly misinformed." "It's a statistical anomaly." "A long way from a murder." " Did you do autopsies?" " No." "Toxicology on blood or tissue?" "And test results would be covered by patient confidentiality." "What makes the anomalies anomalous?" "None of the patients were admitted for life-threatening conditions." " They were misdiagnosed?" " That's not what I said." "OK, so they developed life-threatening conditions after they were admitted." "Either way, the hospital's on the hook." "Here are the names of the patients we got off the 911 call." "We want the addresses of their families." "Fax us the names of everybody who was involved in their treatment." "We'll expect it by this afternoon." "I know what a shock this must be for you." "I can't believe that anybody would wanna hurt her." "We're not sure anybody did." "The only surgery your wife had was on her knee?" "Yes." "But then she got an infection from the cortisone shots." "That's why she was still in the hospital." "Did anything unusual happen to her before she passed away?" "Just that afternoon, her heart stopped." "She had what they call a Code Blue." "They resuscitated her." "She have a history of heart problems?" "Just high blood pressure." "It was under control." "It's almonds." "Cyanide?" "I can tell ya already how it's gonna play out." "Angel of death." "Not a doctor, more likely a nurse or an orderly." "Single, late-20s to early-30s, lives alone or with a parent." "Average to above-average intelligence, narcissistic, immature, likely to be a screw-up on the job..." "Chronic lateness." "Minor errors that would show up on a work record." "114 people had one thing or another to do with the three victims." "I wanna make sure Mrs Taylor's not an isolated case." "Talk to the other families and get autopsies." "No problem." "And when you talk to the families, try to curb your enthusiasm." "I'll curb it when this freak's locked in a box." "Poor Lenny." "Who would have imagined?" "Pulmonary embolism at age 44." "That's according to that city doctor." "You don't believe him?" "Lenny was a lot of things, but he was never sick." " What are you doing?" " Wanna make sure it's not frozen." " You wanna plant tomatoes?" " For when they put the headstone." "We haven't even ordered one yet!" "We know where he is." "Trudy, he was your husband." "At least pretend you're sorry he's gone." "I am sorry." "Let's go before you catch cold." "My husband wasn't supposed to die." "He had his gall bladder removed." "He was a day away from being released." "Did anything unusual happen to him?" "No." "But the man in the bed next to him, he had a Code Blue the day before Aaron died." "But him they saved." "Excuse me." "Seems like a lot of Code Blues for a surgery ward." "During a Code Blue, security covers the nurses' station." "On the surgery ward you're the only security that showed up every time." "Doesn't this seem strange to you?" "There's not a lot of room in here." "Any chance I get, I go out." " So, you're Johnny-on-the-spot?" " I guess so." "I heard some of these are worth a lot of money." "You collect 'em?" " Nah, they're gifts." " From your wife or your girlfriend?" "Nah, I'm not married." "They're from a nurse." " She likes you." " Yeah." "She's not really my type." " Is she on the 11th floor?" " How did you know that?" "Magic." "So what's this nurse's name?" "Derrick's a nice man." "I'm sure he'd never hurt anybody." "Seems to pop up when there's a Code Blue." " Is that your mom's or your dad's?" " My dad's." "You live here alone with him?" "Looks like he needs a lot of care." "Is that why you're always late for work?" "I'm not always late." "I bet your dad doesn't appreciate all the effort that you put out." " But the hospital appreciates you." " I don't know about that." "You save people's lives." "Like James McKee." "Six weeks ago." "When his heart stopped, you called the Code." "I just happened to be there." "And Bruce Sonshein in the same week." "People look up to you, people like Derrick Alton." "It feels nice." " Yes." " Makes up for those other looks." "When you're late or you make a mistake." "What did you give them, Colleen, to make their heart stop?" "Oh, God!" " I gave them Adenosine." " Heart medication." " For rapid heart rate." " And if they have a normal heart rate?" "Their heart stops for 20 seconds." "It's not lethal." "It's enough to call a Code Blue." "OK, Colleen." "What did you do to Aaron Berkowitz, George Malloy and Jenny Taylor?" " They were given cyanide." " I didn't do anything!" " Saving people wasn't exciting?" " No, I didn't kill those people." "All I did was give Mrs Taylor Adenosine to make her heart stop." "But I did not give her cyanide." "I didn't!" "You made her heart stop the afternoon before she died?" "Yes." "But, please, I didn't kill anybody!" "I didn't kill her." "Colleen, stand up." "We're placing you under arrest." " Can anyone take care of your dad?" " My sister." "Better call her." "I'll call CSU, have 'em check the place for cyanide." "She didn't do it." "She's not the one." "She lives with her father." "She's a screw-up." "She's all the wonderful things you said our angel of death would be." " She admits inducing 34 Code Blues." " Yes." "And when she got tired of that, she graduated to murder." "So...why are we having this discussion?" "Because once these people graduate to murder, they don't look back." "She wouldn't have induced a Code Blue on Jenny Taylor before poisoning her six hours later, that wouldn't fit the profile." "Profiling is an art, not a science." "Isn't that so, Detective?" "Science didn't find a trace of cyanide in Colleen Braxton's home." "The ME found gelatine caps containing cyanide in all three of the victims." "The capsules had the same colour and brand marks" " as a medication called Necedrol." " Whoa!" "I take that stuff." "It's what Bellmore gives patients for minor aches." "Nurse Braxton spiked the pills." "I'm telling you, she's not the one." "There's someone else." "Look, tie her to those poison pills." "I'll get the FDA in to plead." "Nurse Colleen brought my boy those Necedrol pills around noon." " You saw him take them?" " Yeah." " Why?" " Your son died four hours later." "Cyanide would've acted quicker than that." "Your son was in a motorbike accident." "He must have been in a lot of pain." "He complained they weren't giving him enough pills." "The nurses said they couldn't do anything without the doctors' OK." "It must have been tough for you." "Yeah." "You wanted to do something for him." "You gave him some extra pills, some Necedrol that afternoon?" " Yeah." " Where did you get them?" "At the drugstore across the street from the hospital." " I bought a bottle..." " Do you still have it?" "Yeah." "For once, I was really hoping you were wrong." "I said I didn't see nobody fooling with Mrs Taylor's medication." " Why do you think they were asking?" " Why do you think, Ma?" "Probably somebody did something to Mrs Taylor." "Oh, my God!" "It could have been you." "Just think about that." "You look tired." "Go sit down." "There's a chair in front of the counter." "I don't know why we came here." "There's a drugstore just round the corner from me." "These prices are better." "Sit down." "I'll be done in a minute." "All right." "Yes, any cyanide deaths in the last three months." "Anything comes up, you let us know pronto." "Looks like he's getting the crap pounded out of him." "Here it comes, Necedrol headache number 14." "Yes, that's right, death by cyanide." "No, we're not kidding." "Yes, Goren." "Call me." " Did we hear from the lab yet?" " No." "Upstairs there's a theory." "You wanna hear it?" "On her lunch, Colleen Braxton walks across to the drugstore, plants hot pills in a bottle of Necedrol." "What do you want me to say?" "It's brilliant." "They want you to look at the nurse again." "And they want me to shut down the phone bank." " Are they insane?" " They're worried we'll start a panic." "A panic might save lives." "Everyone's a potential victim." "OK, got it." "Thanks." "The two-seven and Midtown, 22-year-old female, cyanide poisoning six days ago." "Jeanine King was out dancing with her boyfriend." "They get home, he passes out." "Next morning he trips over her." "Tox screen came back positive for cyanide." "Our gut reaction was go for the boyfriend." " How'd he get his hands on cyanide?" " The kid's just a bike messenger." "With no access to a supply lab." "It'd be easier for him to crack her over the head with his tyre pump." " What came up in the search?" " Nothing yet." "So, you gonna tell us where to look or do we have to play 20 questions?" "The medicine cabinet." " We got a nut job out there?" " You didn't hear it from us." "Someone's spiking Necedrol tablets." "Oh, really?" "OK, two questions." "How long have you known about this and when were you planning to share?" "That's up to the Commissioner's Office." "Those idiots." "But if it were to leak out, it wouldn't be a bad thing." "The lab found two cyanide-tainted capsules in a Necedrol bottle in Jeanine's bathroom." "The tox exam turned up both cyanide and Necedrol in her system." "The boyfriend said they bought the Necedrol before the hospital deaths." "We tested Mr Malloy's bottle." "We got a product tamperer out there." "We'll contact the manufacturers about a recall." "Other than that, keep a lid on this." "Deakins." "No, sir." "I'll call you back." "'27th Precinct sources said the 22-year-old victim 'took two Necedrol capsules minutes before her death." "'Sources also told us the death might be related 'to recent deaths at Bellmore General Hospital.'" "Who the hell opened their big yaps?" "Deakins." "Hold it." "What?" "Phone canvass turned up two more cyanide deaths." "The FDA turned up ten bottles of tainted Necedrol." "The green dots show where the original bottles were purchased by the tamperer." "The blue dots show where each bottle was purchased by the victims." "We fed this stuff into a geographic profiling program." "We start with the least-effort principle." "Most people who run out for a gallon of milk, they go to the store nearest home." "Criminals work the same way, but out of caution, they keep a buffer zone around their home." "This is the buffer zone." "Outside that is the strike zone." "And here is the hot zone, a three-block area where the tamperer lives." "Have you identified any possible suspects?" "We fed the addresses of hospital employees, the six victims' families and close friends, and...present and past employees of the Necedrol manufacturer into the program." "There are no matches." "This program is reliable." "The killer lives in the hot zone." "Thank you, Detective." "You can er..." "leave us now." "Captain, you started working off another of Goren's profiles?" "We had a shrink look at Colleen Braxton." "She was a hop, skip and a jump from going lethal." "Goren's profile saved lives." "And, meanwhile, the person who was lethal was operating with impunity." "We're getting a thousand phone calls per hour." "Nobody knows how much of this poison there is out there." "You should have conducted a two-track investigation." "However many tracks we have, we will catch this hump." "That's a promise." "I'm concerned because I think my husband may have taken Necedrol before he died." "A month ago." "I guess it'd be OK to dig him up." "No, I can come down to your office." "Erm...can I ask you, how long would a lawsuit take?" "I'm not really the kind who goes around suing people, it's just that Lenny, he'd want me provided for." "The FDA analysed the cyanide." "All the same batch." "They're trying to get a line on where it came from." " I'll put out a word to my sources." " What sources?" "Watchdog groups who keep track of shipments of dangerous chemicals." " Tree huggers." " Might get us a line on a motive." "We haven't found anybody with a motive against any of the victims." "What about the great American pastime?" "Which one?" "Dieting or cheating on your taxes?" "Suing." "Our nationwide recall's costing us tens of millions of dollars." "Not to mention the cost of redesigning our packaging." " Anyone file a suit against you?" " Nine lawsuits so far." "We plan to settle as soon as possible." "You said nine?" "Two class actions, they're non-starters, plus suits by the families of the seven victims." " We only know of six." " So did we until a few days ago." "Leonard Palmeranski of Manhattan." "Died of cyanide poisoning five weeks ago." "Er...why did it take five weeks to hear about it?" "He was originally diagnosed as having died of a pulmonary embolism." "When the tampering story broke his widow had his body exhumed." "An autopsy found cyanide mixed with Necedrol in his system." "If we can help in any other way, please let us know." "You bet." "Thanks for coming in." "Palmeranski doesn't live in the hot zone." "He was the first to die, first to be poisoned." "Somebody had to be first." "Well, as Leonard Palmeranski might say," ""Why me?"" "I know you're very selective about your franchisees." "This is the second time I've applied." "I see your boutique experience is a little..." "Lacking?" "But I've learned so much about children's clothes at Macy's." " I've been taking business classes." " May I speak frankly?" "I'm er...quite concerned about financing." "Despite the fact that you had someone co-sign for the credit..." "Not a problem." "I'm expecting a large cheque at the end of the month." "It's a settlement from a lawsuit." "I can make the entire first year's licence payment as soon as I get it." "I'm gonna send your application upstairs for further review." "And we will be in touch with you very shortly." "The thing is, I knew it wasn't a pulmonary embolism." "It was like Lenny ate something that didn't agree with him." "Like a bad heartburn." "He went to lie down and never got back up." "I called 911 right away, but it was too late." " What are they doing?" " All the victims' homes got searched." "How did you know your husband took the Necedrol?" "Did you see him?" "No, but he had a bad headache when he got home from work." "The drugstore where you bought it isn't exactly around the corner." "They have better prices over there." "I noticed there's no pictures of you and your husband." "We didn't like taking pictures." "Lenny always thought he looked fat." "Wedding pictures?" "I like looking at them." "I threw them all out." "It was too depressing." " I don't like to dwell." " You gotta move on with your life." "Yes." "That's a franchise operation." "I thought you worked in a department store." "I do." "It's just something I'm thinking about." " More getting on with your life." " Yeah, like that." "With all the bad memories, you'll probably want to move soon." "Oh, no!" "This place is rent-controlled." "Yes, both sides of the application." "I understand." "As soon as possible." "Thank you." "No trace of cyanide in her apartment." " Something here stinks." " Too bad it's not almonds." "What do you know?" "Tree hugger." "The FDA call up the chemical companies and say," ""Did you ship any cyanide lately?" "No." "OK, thanks!"" " How do you work?" " The baby can sign." "It's his ocean, too." "Didn't Bobby tell you?" "We got other methods of gathering information." "You hack into company computers?" " That sounds illegal." " What did you find?" "Company in Oklahoma shipped ten ounces of cyanide to a photo store in the Village." " You're sure?" " What's the big deal?" "They stopped using it for processing ten years ago." "The cyanide was shipped two weeks before people starting dying." " To what store?" " Marlins Camera." "But they went out of business two years ago." "The post office had the forwarding address." "480 West 12th Street." "That's smack in the hot zone." " Who is it?" " Police!" "There's an emergency." "I need access to your apartment." "What's going on here?" "What emergency?" "This is." "It's a search warrant." "A search for what?" "A package of dangerous chemicals was mailed to this address." "I don't know anything about that." "Marlin Camera Supplies." "This you?" "T-That was my husband's store." "He passed away two years ago." " Are you Loretta Marlin?" " Yes." "Your Percocet?" "Had an operation lately?" " Yeah." "Two weeks ago." " Bellmore General?" " Mrs Marlin?" " Who's this?" "Why, that's my daughter." "Trudy Palmeranski." "They already asked me at the hospital about Mrs Taylor." "I told them I don't know anything." "Did you or your daughter visit Mr Berkowitz?" " He was five doors down from you." " No." "But Trudy went to the drugstore across the street, right, to get some magazines and some candy?" " No." " Are you sure?" " We heard somebody saw her there." " Not her." "And she was seen in Dwyers on 8th and Broadway." "That's where Jeanine King bought her Necedrol that killed her." "And Susan Cassadine, she got hers at the shop at 7th and Waverly." "Ninette Wong's daughter bought them at The Gay Doses near Union Square." "And then your son-in-law, Leonard." "All these innocent people dead because they took the cyanide the chemical company shipped to your address." "No!" "When you were in the hospital, who took care of your cat and your flowers?" "It was Trudy...right?" "And she planted all those tainted bottles while she was coming and going from your place." "Look at them, Mrs Marlin." "Don't these people's families have a right to know what happened?" "You could tell them." "It's the decent thing to do." "I'm sorry." "I don't know anything." "Trudy did this." "I know it." "Detective Eames knows it." "You know it." "We'll talk to the DA." "We'll make sure she's not hurt." "There's a whole machine out there waiting to chew her up." "You have it in your power..." "I want someone to help me!" "I want a lawyer!" "Where's the evidence this package was even delivered?" "You said it was sent to an old address." "When the company finds the receipt, that's evidence." "For God's sakes, Ron." "You think this old lady ran around like some tooth fairy from hell?" "No." "But her daughter probably did." " Your client's covering." " Subpoena her." "In the meantime, she's not under arrest." "I'm taking her home." "See ya." " Quite a pistolero." " Yeah." "Question is, how tough is her client?" "Might get her to talk two or three months from now." " Oh!" " She shut down in there." "She's in shock." "The idea that her daughter is responsible for seven murders, it's too horrible to contemplate." "We can't afford to wait for three months." "The FDA planning a second look at Trudy Palmeranski's apartment?" "Yeah." "We're also bringing in the FBI lab as a backup." "Let's keep our fingers crossed." "I feel bad for Mrs Marlin." "She reminds me of my grandma." "Gonna share that with the class?" "It's a fax from Cutie Bear Baby Clothes." "Trudy Palmeranski filled out this application for her franchise." "This is the contract she signed." "It's 100,000 bucks to buy in." "Funny how she can afford it now." "Here's your motive." "Trudy killed six people to hide the fact she killed her husband for the lawsuit money." "We can lay that motive on everybody who's suing." "Still doesn't get you past square one." "Baby clothes?" "The contract has a morals clause." ""If the franchisee causes, by whatever means," ""negative publicity for or associations with Cutie Bear brand," ""this will constitute a breach," ""and the company may terminate the contract without compensation..."" "Detective." "Get an indictment against the mother." " For what?" " Murder." " With what?" " Whatever!" "The Grand Jury eats out of your hand." "You could indict that clock." "Didn't we just agree the daughter did it?" "Trust me." "We start with the mother." "Isn't it great?" "My office will be over there." "The company won't take back what you can't sell, but I made a deal with a department store in Puerto Rico." "I haven't even opened yet and I'm already in profit." "You haven't heard a word I've said." "Trudy, they think you killed people!" "If that was true, I'd be in jail." "Anyway, I didn't do anything, so don't worry about it." "Trudy...did you use Dad's old account to order cyanide from that chemical company?" "No." "Look at these clothes!" "They're so cute!" "How much is all this costing?" "The settlement money takes care of it." "Would you quit worrying and just be happy for me?" " Trudy, what have you done?" " Ma!" "Don't talk like that." "Did you kill Lenny?" " They feel so soft." " Answer me!" "You're so negative!" "You always think the worst of me." "I only married him so you wouldn't think I was a slut for sleeping with him." "You've never cared what I wanted." "Well, now I got what I want." "I'm not gonna let you spoil it for me!" "This hospital record, People's Grand Jury Exhibit Four reflects the fact that Mrs Marlin was on the ward at the same time as victims two and three were poisoned and that she shared a room with victim number four." "That concludes the People's evidence." "Yes?" "Is there any evidence at all that she tampered with those bottles?" "That is not relevant to your deliberations." "Ladies and gentlemen," "I remind you that the appropriate standard of law to be applied here is legally sufficient evidence and reasonable cause to believe." "I will leave you to deliberate and vote in this case." "I..." "I'm going to ask you to trust me on this one." "Thank you." "Here we go." " Sir." " Thank you." "From a wink to a nod...to an indictment." "Docket number 709501, People v Loretta Marlin." "Seven counts of murder in the first degree." "How do you plead, Mrs Marlin?" "Mrs Marlin?" "Miss O'Brien, we will enter a plea of not guilty, if that works for you?" " It does." "Thank you, Judge." " People on bail?" "In light of the severity of the crimes, we ask for remand." "Given the weakness of the evidence, remand's absurd." "It passed muster with the Grand Jury." "Was my client indicted before or after the ham sandwich?" "Very amusing." "Your client is remanded without bail." "Next." "Docket number 734916." "People v Lewis." "That's docket number 734916." " You're absolutely sure?" " This is her mother." "I don't wanna tell you your business, but if it gets out that Trudy bought one of your franchises," "Cutie Bear is gonna become Cyanide Bear to most people." "It's just something to think about." "Have a good day." "I don't understand." "I have all the money I need from the settlement." "That's not the issue." "Section 16 of the standard terms, the morals clause..." ""If a franchisee causes negative publicity for Cutie Bear," ""the company may void the contract."" "I haven't done anything wrong." "Your mother is charged with seven murders!" "That doesn't have anything to do with me." "Unfortunately, it does." "People will find out who your mother is." "We sell baby clothes." "Baby clothes cannot be associated in the public mind with a killer." "But my mother didn't do it." "We will wait until there's a final disposition." "But unless she's cleared, the company will have no choice but to void your franchise agreement." "I'm sorry." "No!" "No!" "This is just so awful and so unfair." "Please, have a seat." "My mother never hurt anybody in her whole life." "Sometimes people do things when they get old and they're alone." "But she wasn't alone." "She had me." "She can't have done this." "She's innocent." "Well, no." "See, Mrs Palmeranski, we have a lot of good evidence against her." "The cyanide sent to her house, the fact she was in the hospital when those people were killed." "She hasn't exactly been jumping up and down saying she's innocent." "You saw her in court." "Innocent people don't act like that." "She looked guilty." "Even the DA said so." "But she had no reason to do this." "Maybe she got angry about the tumour in her lung." "Maybe she decided to take it out on the drug companies." "Or maybe she just didn't like Lenny, didn't like the way he treated you." "No, Lenny treated me fine." "Ma got along with him." "Or maybe she felt sorry for you, she wanted to help you, to create a situation where you could make money suing the drug company." " You think that's possible?" " Ma's not that smart to do that." "Well, whatever the reason... there's no way she's not going to jail for this." "But she didn't do it." "Can't you see?" "It's not possible." "I'm sure you believe that, but we can only go by what's in front of us." "We could be wrong." "Someone could walk in tomorrow and say they did it." " Does that happen?" " Not a lot." "But it's more likely in a case like this." "Why?" "What do you mean?" "People who commit this kind of crime want attention." "If they see someone else getting the credit, they'll let us know." "They'll call or write a letter to the newspaper." "It usually turns out it's just some crackpot." " How do you know it is?" " They have to prove to us that they did it." "They tell us something about the crime only they would know." "Or give us a piece of evidence, like the murder weapon." "It takes something like that to believe a confession." "Take our word." "Without something like that, nothing's gonna change our mind about your mother." "I just can't believe this." "We don't wanna give you false hope, Mrs Palmeranski." "You have to prepare yourself for the truth that your mother killed those seven people." "You understand?" "We're very er...sorry about your situation." "The officer will show you out." "Car three, you stay with her." "We'll stay with the mailbox." " Yes?" " Very nice." "Oh, thank you." " It's too bad." " What's too bad?" "You dropped this in the mailbox." " No." "I...." " We have it on videotape." "It smells like almonds." "I bet you know what else smells like almonds." "Trudy Palmeranski, you're under arrest." "Turn around." " No!" " I don't want to hurt you." "No!" "No!" "I don't wanna go!" "Please!" "Please!" "Please!" "No!" "No!" "Please don't make me go!" "Come with us, ma'am." "You have the right to remain silent." "Anything you say can and will..." "They're adorable." "That's what dreams are made of." "Bad dreams."