"Rusty, time to get up." "Let's go." "Rusty, I said get up five minutes ago." "Come on, let's move!" "I'm up." "I'm up." "What the hell?" "!" "Throw on some clothes." "We're leaving." "It's not even 6:00 yet!" "I have another half-hour!" "What is the rush?" "We needed to be out of here five minutes ago." "Let's go." "Go, go." "Okay, all right, well, I am not starting the first day of a brand-new school without a shower, so..." "No, no, no." "Rusty!" "No, don't." "Don't... don't... oh!" "Rusty!" "Open the door immediately!" "I need to be at a crime scene!" "My clothes are off!" "My clothes are off!" "In 100 feet, turn right onto Mercer Avenue." "I shouldn't be going to this school." "I'm not even catholic." "Just walk around with a guilty expression on your face." "You'll fit right in." "What am I supposed to tell people about myself?" "Do a lot of listening." "Stay away from the stuff that happened last summer." "If anybody gives you a hard time, do not try and handle it yourself." "It'd be better if you report that person to a teacher or another adult." "It's hard to believe you're not more popular." "You have arrived at your destination." "So, what am I supposed to do while you're here?" "Maybe go back to sleep for a bit." "Are you comfortable in the backseat?" "Of course I'm comfortable in backseats." "What do you think?" "That is an example of what you will not say today at school." "Understood?" "Fine." "Yes." "Whatever." "Anything wrong, señor?" "Other than watching everything I care about being taken from me as I shuffle towards the grave and having my breakfast interrupted by another murder..." "Not much." "Sykes, your bff just arrived." "Good morning, captain." "Today, we are grieving the loss of Alon Strauss, 48," "Israeli-born, naturalized American citizen, and C.F.O of Hadera securities, a multinational investment firm." "Mr. Strauss answered the door at 20 after 5:00, briefcase in hand, but, um, never made it outside." "He was off to work?" "Well, his wife says he opens the gate for a limo that picks him up every morning at 5:30." "We're guessing Mr. Strauss went to the door thinking that his driver had arrived a bit early." "Single shot through the chest." "Bullet exits between his shoulder blades and lodged in that far wall." "You think the killer used a rifle?" "More likely a large-caliber handgun, ma'am." "The wife and son were sleeping upstairs, heard a loud shot, and came running." "That's them." "What about the limo driver?" "His story checks out." "What I'm seeing suggests your basic hit job, but what I can't figure out..." "why no defensive wounds?" "If I answer the door and see some unexpected person pointing a gun at me, I'm gonna put up my hands." "I'm gonna turn away." "Strauss did not." "Excuse me." "Ma'am." "Ma'am." "I still have a few questions I need to ask you." "I don't think you understand." "No, I don't think you understand." "Did anyone else here wake up to find their husband murdered?" "Mrs. Strauss, I am captain Raydor of the L.A.P.D. Major crimes unit." "May I say how very sorry I am for your loss?" "How dare you?" "Wha... how dare you show up?" "Get out of my sight!" "We are going to get to the bottom of this, I assure you." "You promised you would keep him safe." "Shame on you!" "We are gonna get to the bottom... don't you "look, roma" me!" "We are gonna get to the bottom... that should be you lying dead on the doorstep!" "Agent Howard, what is going on here?" "I'm just here as a liaison." "Morris will be taking the lead." "Hello?" "!" "Sharon, remember me?" "First day of school." "Hold on." "One second." "Stay there." "I don't sleep at night." "I-I-I've lost all interest in baseball." "I look in the mirror, and I don't recognize the person looking back at me." "Yes?" "!" "Buzz, what are you doing right now?" "Uh, my job." "Do you know how to get to St. Joseph's from here?" "St. Joseph's?" "Has someone forgotten the L.A.P.D policy on making requests for personal favors from civilian employees?" "I'm not doing that." "I am asking for help keeping a material witness in compliance with the law regarding the education of minors." "In that case, I will withdraw my objection if, on his way back, the civilian employee can pick up a coffee order." "Mm." "What?" "Nonfat vanilla latte, and see what everyone else wants." ""Take the kid to school." "Go get the coffee."" "Hey, and hurry up." "The kid shouldn't be late." "Excuse me, uh, Mrs. Strauss." "Agent Morris, your presence here indicates that this family is under federal protection." "Almost." "Your victim, Alon Strauss, was supposed to be deposed this week, then they were to be given new identities and a fresh start." "In Tulsa, Oklahoma!" "They wanted to send us away to Tulsa and give us new names." "Like anyone would believe we are the McDougals!" "Roma, that was one suggestion." "There were several cities on the list!" "No, thank you." "I'm not talking with the FBI!" "Mrs. Strauss, Mrs. Strauss, if I could get agent Morris out of the way, would you consider talking with me?" "My husband, Alon, and his cousin, Ilya, founded a company together..." "Hadera securities." "They were like this." "So your husband and his cousin were very close." "Yes, and for 20 years, everyone was so happy." "And why were they so happy?" "Was it because Alon and Ilya were involved in selling ecstasy?" "I don't know, Mrs. Strauss." "Was it?" "How should I know?" "All I can tell you is that out of nowhere comes the FBI, saying that Alon is going to jail unless he testifies against Ilya..." "Alon and Ilya..." "Who were like this." "But when agent Morris started asking questions about what happened in Pittsburgh, oh, Alon thought he had no choice but to turn on Ilya." "What happened in Pittsburgh?" "You think you have to know everything?" "Mrs. Strauss, if Ilya Blum learned that your husband was cooperating with the FBI... which seems possible, okay, and... and what was he going to say?" "And how did Ilya Blum find out that he was going to say it?" "Did you inform anyone that your family was entering the Witness Protection program?" "Excuse me." "Avi, have some water." "Mom, um, no, I'm not thirsty." "Why you don't have some water?" "Because I'm not thirsty." "So it would kill you to have a glass of water?" "Ballistics confirmed the bullet is .50 caliber." "Uh, they also discovered polygonal rifling along the length, which ties it to the Israeli-made desert eagle." "That's a very specific weapon." "Mm-hmm." "Let's start looking to see who has one of these registered under their name." "Oh." "There's something that bothered me about..." "The crime scene." "What is it?" "I can't remember." "Think about it." "Get back to me." "Right." "Okay, that's enough water." "Stop." "She told no one about Tulsa." "Not a soul, nobody." "Mom." "What?" "What?" "What?" "!" "You tell Thorn everything." "Thorn?" "Who's Thorn?" "Her life coach." "Life coach?" "Y-you have a life coach?" "What?" "You never feel like you need inspiration, like you need someone to help you find the reason to get up in the morning?" "And how does he do that?" "Lieutenant, uh, excuse..." "but..." "Excuse me, l-lieutenant." "Roma..." "Did you tell your life coach about the witness protection program?" "I had to." "Thorn is helping me find myself." "Although neither of us thought about looking in Tulsa." "Thorn's real name is Arthur Woodson." "He was either born in Syracuse in 1965 or Jacksonville in 1969." "His past jobs include hand model and, uh, children's party ventriloquist." "However, lately, he's been advertising himself as..." ""An intuitive life strategist" ""helping people unleash creative thinking while redefining themselves."" "Let me see that." "What happened in Pittsburgh, and how is Thorn connected to Hadera securities?" "Hadera's core business is importing ecstasy from Europe, which nets them around $3 million a month." "Pittsburgh is one of their gateways into America." "Hadera is only a front for a criminal syndicate operated by six male relatives, all of them Israeli expats, all of them living on L.A.'s West Side." "These guys use hadera's legitimate businesses to cover up a lot of different illegal activities." "Couple of years ago, they began investing in low-budget action films, which, uh, apparently is a very good way to hide and launder cash from the drug trade." "What's the story on the guy with the, uh, question mark next to his picture?" "Yossi hersch oversees hadera's film projects." "He was on our radar till a month ago when he dropped off the map in Pittsburgh." "Hasn't been seen since." "And our victim, Alon Strauss, was prepared to testify about the ecstasy business?" "And other criminal activities Blum allegedly participates in." "Till half an hour ago, I would've absolutely said that no one outside the family and our agents knew Strauss was cooperating." "But since roma told this, uh, Thorn Woodson, it's hard to say what might be out there." "Oh, hey." "Now, we have dumped Thorn Woodson's cell, and in the past two weeks, he has had multiple conversations with all six of the Hadera wives." "Including roma Strauss?" "Especially roma Strauss." "They talked all the time." "This morning, after she called 911, she phoned Woodson repeatedly." "That's who she was on the phone with when we arrived." "So, if Thorn isn't the hit man, he could've passed on what he knew about roma to one of the other women and from there to Blum." "Exactly." "Well, thank you very much, agents Howard and Morris." "The information you've given us will help us move forward." "Goodbye." "Captain, I've discussed the situation with my superiors." "We've decided that it would be best for us to partner up with the L.A.P.D." "And what's in it for us?" "Well, we, uh, we'd be happy to take care of your division's overtime and ancillary expenses." "Of course, the government would bear the cost of prosecuting." "It's okay." "You had me at overtime." "Lieutenants Flynn and Provenza, I want to talk to Mr. Thorn." "Aye, aye, captain." "Sanchez, Sykes, come with us in case this guy turns out to be our murderer." "Wait, who's gonna reimburse me for the coffee?" "Here." "Put it on the FBI tab." "Enjoy my latte." "What is it I can't remember?" "What, what, what?" "Maia, of course it's okay to cry." "Look, if my life strategist called to say that he was leaving town, it would probably trigger my own irrational fears of abandonment." "Yeah." "We have a search warrant." "He's probably packing up everything we'd want." "Feels like you've traveled a long way..." "All right, we'll go in and talk to Thorn." "You and Sanchez help him with his luggage." "You're not lost." "You have your own internal GPS system." "Life will shout out at you," ""make a legal u-turn when possible."" "And remember..." "Your hands are always at 10:00 and 2:00 on the steering wheel of your own heart." "When is feeling vulnerable a flaw?" "Whoa!" "Aah!" "Who are you?" "L.A.P.D. Your front door was open." "Just wanted to make sure you're not being robbed." "Yeah, keep your hands where we can see them." "What do you want?" "We want to ask you questions about the death of Alon Strauss and what you know about his cousin Ilya and Hadera securities." "No." "No, no, no, no." "I don't have to tell you anything about Strauss." "It's covered by privilege." "You're not a doctor, Mr. Woodson." "You don't have privilege." "Are you sure about that?" "Because I think I have privilege." "I do." "If you check the fine print on the website where you bought your degree, you'll realize that you..." "I did not buy my degree." "I'm certified by the Sedona institute of advanced spiritual learning," "Los Angeles campus." "Where is that?" "Oh, well, you know Santa Monica and Fairfax?" "Right across from the whole foods, there's that strip mall, and then there's a nail salon next door." "You go upstairs from that, and then one building over, there's that." "That's a traffic school." "During the day." "Listen to me." "You're not a doctor." "I'm more than a doctor." "I don't just "diagnose problems and prescribe medicine"" "or "perform surgeries."" "I have remarkable abilities of perception." "Really?" "Yeah." "Tell me about myself..." "Anything." "You're divorced." "You have a hole in your heart so deep you couldn't fill it with booze, so you covered it up with a badge." "You feel you destroyed your children's lives, even though they say they forgive you." "Is that all you got?" "You're smart, cynical, and tough, and you're..." "Cynical and tough." "Look, guys, even if I don't have privilege," "I'm not gonna share my clients' secrets with you, okay?" "And I've got a lot to do." "Sir." "Guess what we found in his car." "$20,000 in cash." "There was $60,000 in that bag." "Did you steal $40,000 of my dollars?" "May I count my money?" "$59,920, $40, $60, $80, $60,000." "Okay, whew!" "That's a lot of small, unmarked bills to have in your possession, Mr. Woodson." "I prefer being paid in cash." "You know who else prefers to be paid in cash?" "Hit men." "I oppose all forms of violence." "What do you know about the late Alon Strauss?" "I may not be a "lawyer"" "or understand "police investigation"..." "But I'm pretty sure that I don't have to answer everything you ask." "True, but this murder is rapidly filling up with the kind of things our local media love... drugs, mobsters, a life coach." "Okay, let's get something straight." "I am not a life coach." "Life coaches are complete bullshit." "I'm an intuitive life strategist." "What's the difference?" "Life coaches are cheerleaders and bullies." "I help people re-establish contact with their intimate selves so they can re-balance their perspective and reclaim their proper place in the world." "How much do you charge for that?" "$500 an hour." "Oh." "Oh, so 15 minutes would be, uh... excuse me, lieutenant." "Thorn, if you didn't murder Mr. Strauss and you won't help us find the killer, you may very well be the next victim in this crime spree." "You went through all of his stuff?" "Yeah, Thorn has no desert eagle." "Yeah, a lot of tie-dye t-shirts, trail mix, and, uh, Celtic meditation CDs." "No gun." "But we did find an interesting outline for a screenplay." ""The ecstasy and the agony:" "My year as intuitive life strategist to the Israeli mob."" "Why are you dragging me into all this, okay?" "Until a few hours ago, I didn't know about any ecstasy smuggling, and when I did find out about it," ""I was like, " whoo-hoo!" "You know, I did not sign up for this, guys."" "Dates, names." "We should've wired up the women's phones." "Come on, they're a bunch of Hollywood wives." "Their husbands produce low-budget movies." "Am I right?" "Tell us about Pittsburgh." "Uh... regularly chosen as one of America's best places to raise children and has a large Polish population." "Page 19 of Thorn's opus." ""The Pittsburgh screening of their next film, 'excessive impact, ' was an unmitified disaster."" ""Unmitified"?" "What is unmitified?" ""And afterwards, the boss took Nossi Gersh for a ride, and he never came back."" "Something terrible happened in Pittsburgh." "Roma Strauss..." "I'll take a wild guess that "Nossi Gersh" refers to Yossi Hersch." "She talks to you about everything." "Excuse me." "Look, I don't know how to tell you this, but except for a regional theater production of "man of LA mancha" when I was 22," "Pittsburgh has never been a very big part of my life." "Captain, can I speak to you?" "You must have been pretty close to roma if she called you five minutes after finding her husband's body." "Yes, well..." "The woman was in complete shock." "Mr. Woodson, you've told us several times that you didn't share what you know with anyone." "Explain this!" "Uh, that is a pitch for a motion picture or a television series, maybe, but it's registered with the writers guild, so don't think you can steal it." "Who's seen this?" "Nobody." "I mean, you know, a couple of guys at fx and, uh, someone at showtime who thought it sounded a little too much like "weeds."" "You're saying you floated this document in front of how many people?" "Like not even 15, and they were all executives." "It's not like any of them actually read it." "Oh, my God, are you hearing this?" "Guys, lighten up." "Look, I used an undecipherable code to conceal their identities." "Did this undecipherable code involve altering the first letters of names and leaving everything else unchanged?" "Wow." "You guys really are good." "Yes." "I wrote about what these women told me, but in my defense, I exaggerated." "What did you know for sure?" "That Alon was cooperating with the FBI in their investigation of Ilya Blum, and he knew something about what happened to Yossi hersch in Pittsburgh." "We need to pick up Ilya Blum now." "Blum has been under surveillance 24/7 for the past two months, and we know he was at home this morning when Strauss was shot." "He's made no attempt to flee." "Because as far as he's concerned," " he's eliminated the threat." " At the very least, we should get a warrant to search Blum's home." "We've already done that." "When?" "Three weeks ago." "Blum is a foreign national." "Fisa granted a secret search warrant." "Our people went through his house from top to bottom while he was out of town." "And?" "Blum keeps a desert eagle handgun in his bedside drawer." "You knew our victim was killed with a desert eagle and that Blum had one, and you chose to conceal this information?" "How do you justify that?" "!" "We're about to roll up an international drug ring after two years of investigation." "If you pick up Blum right now, even if we get him for the Strauss murder, we lose our ability to close this network." "Blum will be replaced, and the drugs keep coming." "Fine." "You'll get your arrest and your shipment." "We'll get Blum out of his house, remove the gun, and see if it matches our casings." "How are you gonna do that without tipping our hand?" "Captain, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think this is important." "Look captain, I understand having Ilya Blum come here to comfort his cousins wife." "Works fine getting him out of his house." "But what is the point of trying to stage this big confrontation in our murder room?" "The FBI assumes our homicide is connected to the ecstasy trade, and I'm beginning to think that it's a little more personal than that." "Captain." "These are volatile people." "If roma or Blum or even this Thorn character begin to start a fight... then one of them could say something that they will live to regret, and they are more likely to say it to each other than they are to one of us." "You don't understand." "Lieutenant, I told you what I want done." "Do I really need to phrase this as an order?" "I'm sorry to keep you waiting so long, father." "It's been an extraordinarily busy day here." "As I was saying, honesty is at the core of the St. Joseph's honor code, and rusty introduced himself to his new classmates with lies." "Such as?" "They asked me what I did over summer vacation." "I said that I was involved in catching a serial killer and that I would be a material witness in his murder trial." "I thought we decided not to discuss those things with the other students." "So he was telling the truth?" "I am afraid so." "This fight..." "did you start it?" "No." "But I finished it, just like I'll finish the next one and the one after that." "Our school has zero tolerance for fighting." "Yeah, well, that's fine with me because I have a zero tolerance for getting hit in the face." "Captain, when you approached us about taking on rusty as a student, we raised concerns that you asked us to overlook." "We tried, and it just doesn't seem to be a good fit." "Let's review the events as I understand them." "Rusty was asked what he did over the summer." "He told the truth." "He was assaulted and defended himself, and now you're trying to throw him out." "What about the boy who attacked him?" "It was three boys, and they will be punished... after they get out of the infirmary." "And expelled?" "Consider my position." "I am." "I am also considering the message that you send by turning away an abandoned boy." "Is that the example that you want our congregation to follow?" "I am concerned with the safety of my other students." "And what about their souls?" "Do you worry that they hear one thing at mass and another thing at school?" "I see you're determined." "Mm-hmm." "Let me..." "Consult with the faculty." "Father, I want to be clear here." "If rusty is not re-admitted tomorrow," "I will be taking other actions." "Do you understand?" "Yes, captain." "I get it." "Sharon, that was great!" "How dare you hurt those other boys so badly?" "What?" "!" "You put them in the infirmary because you hit them harder than you had to, and you know it." "I want you to stay here." "I want you to think about why you were so mad and why you are throwing away an opportunity to change your life for the better." "Do you want me to stand in the corner, too?" "If that will help you think this through, by all means." "Excuse me, captain." "Roma and Thorn are set up the way you wanted them." "The phone call you asked us to make to Ilya Blum worked." "Lieutenant Flynn is bringing him up in the elevator right now." "Should I tell everyone we're ready to begin?" "Yes." "Something the matter, lieutenant?" "Maybe I can help." "I seriously doubt that." "Perhaps I'm a stranger to the world of law enforcement, but..." "I am an expert in the human heart, and if you're suffering emotional pain, I can help." "Emotional pain... me?" "No, no, no, no." "I..." "I'm worried about a good friend who..." "Well, let's just say he's lost a bit of his drive." "I-it's not that my friend doesn't like his job." "It's just that there have been some changes recently, unfair changes..." "the kind of changes that would drive a dedicated, responsible, easygoing guy like him crazy." "I mean, just thinking about the situation makes me want to put my fist through a wall!" "And your friend feels as strongly about all this as you do?" "What friend?" "Oh." "My friend, my..." "My friend is, well, a little lost, frankly." "I'd like to try and help the guy..." "Find himself." "Are you close to finding the killer?" "No." "As far as we can tell, everybody loved the guy." "Me too." "Alon and I, we were like this." "That's why we called you, sir, and I'm sure his widow will appreciate you coming down." "You?" "!" "What are you doing here?" "!" "Uh, anger and fear." "You're angry." "Ah, ah, ah." "Flight impulses!" "You ruined everything!" "No." "Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God!" "Before you, everyone was happy!" "After you, everything goes to hell!" "How dare you speak to him that way?" "!" "He's 10 times the man that you are!" "Ah, so that's what it takes to screw every woman in the family, huh?" "You don't know anything!" "What?" "You think he only makes sexy with you?" "He makes sexy with everyone, including my Aliza!" "He never did!" "Alon told me you wanted to divorce him because you're in love with prick." "Thorn." "Whatever." "So what?" "You don't think I deserve him?" "Oh, I could kill you myself." "Don't you threaten me." "I know things." "Here." "These are for you." "Rugelach, you bitch." "You probably murdered Alon yourself!" "And why would I murder Alon when you were going to do it for me?" "!" "Kill him." "Kill him." "Thorn, y-you weren't really sleeping with anyone else, were you?" "Roma, just remember what I told you." "Yes-and-no questions are a trap." "Can believe the mouth on that man?" "Oh, that miserable bastard!" "I could kill him!" "All this is because of that miserable prick!" "Thorn." "Whatever." "Ever since he spends time with the women, they're talking about their feelings, asking questions about my feelings." "Tell me, what business is it for a wife to know her husband's feelings?" "Please, have a seat." "If you and Thorn were having an affair and he admits that the two of you were planning something together... you want to know what we planned?" "Hmm?" "A divorce." "And then Alon says we are moving to Tulsa, and... pfft!" "..." "All gone." "I wasn't going anywhere with roma... ever." "You were intimate with her." "That's my job." "I'm intimate with everybody." "Including all six wives of half a dozen Israeli mobsters." "Who make movies." "I'm an actor, too, and a ventriloquist." "Mr. Thorn has many girlfriends." "And you..." "you are divorced five times?" "Well, yeah." "Yeah, but I didn't sleep with all my wives at once." "No overlap?" "Well..." "Maybe I wasn't always as good a guy as I should've been." "What's troubling you is not your present, it's your past." "As I used to tell my writing students, a problem on page 20 of our story often means we should go back and look at page 5." "What's your page-5 problem, lieutenant?" "Well there was once when I was 12 years old that I took this..." "Hey." "Hey, we're... we're here to talk about you, not me." "And why is that?" "Because you're under arrest." "It's your heart that's under arrest." "In fact, I think it may be in solitary confinement." "Look, Alon and I, we were very close." "I go with his last 20 years." "We come here." "Yeah?" "Sorry to interrupt, lieutenant, but we started with the night table and then looked everywhere that Blum might've hidden the gun." "The desert eagle is definitely not here." "Thanks, Julio." "No gun?" "If you and Alon were like this, you must've known that he and his wife were having marital problems." "I found out two weeks ago when they came over for dinner... him and his family." "Alon tells me the cow wants a divorce." "Just like this." "Buzz, could you bring up the crime-scene video?" "She called the shots, huh?" "Anything in particular?" "Did you get a shot of the door?" "Yeah, right there." "Could you enlarge that picture?" "Peephole to the door is open." "That's what I was trying to remember." "Alon Strauss opened the door for someone he knew and trusted." "Roma was at Blum's house two weeks ago, and now his great, big gun is missing." "And I'm thinking we didn't search the Strauss home as well as we might have." "You want to search it again?" "No." "I have a better idea." "I'm going to be gone for hours on a stakeout with the FBI, so your case worker, Cynthia, has volunteered to sit with you tonight while I am at work." "Wow, I'm so honored." "While I'm gone, in addition to considering your future at St. Joseph's, you could think about the word "civility"" "and if it might be proper to treat me with the same respect as I am showing you." "We are very sorry to have kept you away from home all day, especially given what's happened." "W-why do you have to come back later?" "We believe the killer and the weapon are long gone, but if we don't search your home thoroughly, it may be seen as a major misstep on our part." "So go on about your business, and we'll come back with a warrant so we can look through your house." "I'm really, really, really sorry about the inconvenience." "Mom, l-let's go." "God, don't you even care about what happened to dad at all?" "Oh, so now he's dead, he's a Saint?" "Forgive me for being relieved that we're not involved in drug dealing and God knows what else, avi." "Why... why are you making me yell at you?" "Can't you just say, "okay, mom"?" "So, we're driving around the block after telling the suspect we're going to search her house?" "Now can you tell me what I missed?" "Alon Strauss is informing on his cousin Ilya." "Someone knocks on the door at 5:20 in the morning." "Alon looks through his peephole, sees his cousin standing there." "Is he gonna open the door?" "Right, so it had to be somebody that he knew and trusted and someone he wouldn't think was trying to kill him." "And someone who had Ilya's gun, which is why we're gonna be watching our victim's house the rest of the night." "Thanks, Morris." "Keep me posted." "Is Blum at L.A.X already?" "Waiting for the courier." "Once Morris makes the arrest," "I think the ecstasy operation is pretty much history." "As for the murder charges related to Yossi hersch disappearing in Pittsburgh... let's wrap up the murder of Mr. Strauss first, please." "Everyone will be expecting it, but no one will actually eat the egg salad." "Hold it." "Hold it, mommy." "What?" "Is it okay if I hang somewhere else?" "No one who's coming over even cares about dad." "I'd rather not listen." "Yes." "But don't worry." "I'm going to get you a better father." "Okay, bubela?" "No, listen to me, mommy." "Listen." "Going somewhere, avi?" "Mind if we take a look in your pack?" "I'm grounded if I come home after 9:00, a-and all along, my father was a glorified drug dealer?" "W-why should I have to live in Tulsa because he was a criminal?" "You killed your father because you didn't want to move to Oklahoma." "And lose my friends and... and everything else that mattered to me in my life." "All 14 years." "You had no other alternatives?" "Well, we..." "we were out of alternatives." "Don't... don't you get it?" "I-I wasn't going to be someone else f-from now until the day that I died." "I-I want to be who..." "I want to be who I am!" "This can go one of two ways, Mrs. Strauss." "We can leave your son with the L.A.P.D." "They'll pass him off to the D.A." "We'll try him as an adult." "And with that confession, he'll spend the rest of his life or the best part of it in prison." "Or what?" "This afternoon, you said you knew things." "Does that include what happened in Pittsburgh?" "'Cause if it does, the FBI can get the district attorney to treat avi as a juvenile offender." "And then he'd be out by the time he's 25 or maybe sooner." "Although we have to convince prosecution that there were mitigating factors in your husband's murder." "We went to Pittsburgh, all of us... husbands, wives, children... for a screening of our new film, "excessive impact."" "And..." "And when it was over, oh, Ilya was so angry." "And he said to Yossi..." "he said, "where is the scene"" "with the helicopter crashing into the jet?"" "This was the big scene in the movie, a crash, and it wasn't in the film because Yossi had taken all that money and spent it on clothes at Paul Smith and Barneys." "And so Ilya took Yossi for a ride, and Yossi, who was at least already dressed for his funeral, never came back." "You saw them get in the vehicle together?" "You'll testify to that?" "What about avi?" "Beneath it all, he was protecting his mother." "I know it." "You can't take away a boy's whole life for that, can you?" "No." "So, Blum goes to prison for drug trafficking, roma's off to Witness Protection, her son's arrested for murder, and I get to walk out a free man?" "Go figure, huh?" "Wow!" "Y... what about my money?" "Don't worry..." "we didn't take much." "Well, this cash is nothing compared to what I'm gonna get selling my life story." "Forget about the film treatment." "What?" "Yeah, technically, that's not yours anymore." "Now it's more like, uh, federal evidence." "But it's my life." "And one day, you can sell it." "Yeah, after everyone you named in it is dead." "Wow." "Setback." "Yeah, well, speaking of setbacks and dying, several of our suspects would like to plan and attend your funeral." "So you might want to take that money someplace where you won't be recognized." "Latin America, for example." "What am I gonna do there?" "I don't speak Latin." "Well, you're all about fresh starts and finding yourself." "This time, I actually liked where I was." "And I was making a difference." "But you were sleeping with half a dozen married women." "Yeah, I was a little tired, I'll admit it, but some of them were fairly attractive, and they were paying me." "You know, that sounds like the kind of business that you could probably start up anywhere." "Hey." "You know, there's something to that." "I don't usually believe in free advice, but because you've been so open with me..." "I'm gonna tell you how I think your friend can get back in tune with his environment." "How is that?" "The first step to changing the world is changing yourself." "And if I were you, I'd start with that tie." "So, are you just not talking to me on purpose or what?" "I try and avoid conversations with people who can't treat me as respectfully as I treat them." "Yeah." "Okay." "I guess I-I knew that talking about the trial would cause trouble, and I did it anyway." "And I'm not sure why." "It's just that everybody was talking about their families this and their families that and their brothers and sisters, and I-I just couldn't stand it." "Can't blame the other kids because their life has been easier." "And every school I send you to will come with challenges... challenges you've already overcome at St. Joseph's." "Like what... what challenges have I overcome?" "Well, the new boy is always the target." "But I am pretty sure it'll be a while before the bullies at St. Joseph's feel they can beat up on you again." "But I-I'm still not sure that I belong there." "Right now, you'll be a stranger no matter where you go." "The longer you avoid sticking in one place, the harder it'll get." "You make deals with criminals, right?" "Mm-hmm." "Well, how about making a deal with me?" "What kind of deal?" "I'll go to St. Joseph's like you want, but then as soon as it's time for me to leave and go somewhere else, you have to give me like 30 days' notice, okay?" "Because Ican do this." "I can..." "I can..." "Go to catholic school." "I can be civil as long as we both admit that sooner or later," "I'm gonna have to leave and start over somewhere else." "That's true." "Whatever happens here, you will one day go off on your own and be the new kid again." "But no matter where you go..." "No matter when..." "You'll never be a stranger to me." "I will always know you." "Whether I like it or not?" "That's right, Buster." "Whether you like it or not." "Deal?" "Deal."