"Beautiful painting." "Is this her only piece in the collection?" "Maria Kreyn?" "I saw her solo show in Oslo." "There is another piece, but it arrived too late for the opening." "A recent work?" "On loan from a private collection." "I think it's my favorite of hers." "Now you're just torturing me." "Would you like to see it?" "She seems so sad to me." "She's in love." "Why is that sad?" "Because it never lasts." "He doesn't seem to have any doubts." "He's not showing you his eyes." "But just because it doesn't last... doesn't mean it isn't love." "We should get back." "May I get you a drink?" "I'm supposed to be working." "What about after work?" "Come find me." "Evening, sir." "May I check your coat?" "Unh!" "Ugh!" "Private investigator." "Then you can't arrest me." "No." "I like to let them do that." "For me this is the fun part." "Anderson Vaughan Investigations." "How may I direct your call?" "Morning, Robin." "She in yet?" "Conference room." "I need you to know I tried to stop her." "I told her we don't have time for this, but, "A," she doesn't listen, and, "B," she especially doesn't listen to me." "Oh, dear God." "Did she see me?" "Just keep walking." "You're here." "More cake." "So much cake." "You're getting married." "I had no idea." "Why didn't you say anything?" "At this point in my life," "I think marriage is best done quietly, with dignity and with less cake." "Yo!" "I have to call the museum." "I just got off the phone with them." "You asked me to do this." "I know, but..." "You asked me to be your Best Woman..." "Maid of Honor, but okay." "...even though I no longer believe in the institution of marriage, but this is the kind of friend and partner I am." "And I appreciate that." "Then you need to get in here and pick out a wedding cake, or I'm gonna pick one out for you, and it'll be carrot." "What did the museum say?" "No damage to the painting." "Our intel was right..." "the guy was a pro." "How'd our new recruit do?" " She did great." " She did okay." "She conducted a museum tour in three different languages." "She was showing off, calling attention to herself." "She could have blown the whole sting." "She's open to constructive criticism and is sitting right here." "No, offense, okay, but the last thing we need around here is a lawyer." "None taken, but that attitude's gonna land you in jail... that and the fact that you have a history of tampering with evidence before the police arrive on the scene." "You told her?" "That happened one time." "That other time doesn't count." "What other time?" "The point is, we are private investigators." "Clients only come to us when the cops and the feds can't help them." "So, if we start having to run everything we do by the law here..." "I'm not here to be the law." "I'm here to help you when you break it, which you seem to fairly regularly." "What's wrong?" "He sent another one." "What does this one say?" "Same as the others..." ""Are you ready to play?"" "What does that mean?" "In the last nine months, this guy, this "Mr. X,"" "has stolen $5 million from two of our biggest clients." "We don't know who he is." "We don't know what he looks like." "But he knows us because before both jobs he sent us the same e-mail..." ""Are you ready to play?"" "He finds a malcontent in our clients' firm to copy confidential files to a hard drive." "And then he trades the drive for a briefcase full of cash." "But why is he targeting you?" "Because we have the best client list in town." "And we intend to keep it that way." "So, we've been monitoring our clients' employees, and right now we think Mr. X is working with an account manager named Patrick Lewis." "11 years at the company, 11 years of being taken for granted," "11 years of no surprises." "Patrick Lewis... every day, 1:10 p.m. like clockwork," "Philly cheesesteak and fries from the sub shop at Sunset Century Plaza." "Tell Security to cover every entrance, every inch of the plaza." "Mr. X won't be able to get in or out without our knowing about it." "What is that noise?" "That is the sound of the world's most expensive car alarm... the Lamborghini Aventador S.V. Roadster, over $500,000." "Who buys a car like that?" "I'm guessing he didn't buy it." "It's a distraction." "He's here." "Do we have eyes on Patrick?" "Eyes on Patrick." "Hey, pup." "There you go, boy." "Guys, I just lost Patrick." "You what?" "He what?" "!" "I'll find him." "Alice..." "I'm on it." "Should I..." "I'm sending Shawn to cover you." "There's no need." "We're fine." "You go that way." "Eyes on Patrick... north exit." "Danny, he has the briefcase." "We missed the drop." "Ugh, damn it!" "He's here." "I know he's still here." "I've got Patrick." "Find Mr. X." "He's gone." "We lost him." "Hey!" "You home?" "You would not believe this day." "We had him surrounded, security all over the plaza." "But somehow he is always one step ahead of us." "I'm sorry, babe." "I'm sure you're closer than you think." "Where are you?" "Are you here?" "I'm pulling in right next to your car." "Just be careful when you open your door." "You know, just for that, I'm keying it." "So, guess what." "The museum called me this morning." "To thank you for saving their painting?" "And to offer to host our wedding." "Ah." "I'm gonna have to call you back." "Morning, Rita." "Morning, Holly." " Morning, Alice." " Morning, Alice." "How is $1.4 million only half of a three-bedroom house in Los Angeles?" "Please let me buy us this house." "Mnh-mnh." "I'm not coming into this marriage as a dependent." "We are partners in this, or we're not doing it." "Mr. Hall, your 10:00 is here." "I'll see you at home." "Mr. Hall, your 10:00 is here." "You do realize that's useless to me now." "Security data is only good if the company doesn't realize it's been stolen, and thanks to your fiancée, the mark was arrested seconds after he made the drop." "Well, it's not my fault she's good at her job." "That is why we targeted her in the first place." "Yes, well, she's officially outlived her usefulness." "You need to break it off with her..." "today." "Margot, I can't just break it off with her..." "You can, and you have to because in two days time, we are disappearing." "Oh, come." "You knew this day was coming." "Now, she's had you all to herself for a year." "I want you back." "I miss you." "Besides, I think it's mean, what you're doing to her." "What I'm doing to her?" "Whose idea was this?" "Mm-hmm." "Oh, I told you to get information from her, not propose marriage." "If I leave now, she'll be suspicious." "She'll be heartbroken." "Her firm will be destabilized, and they'll never see us coming." "You have 24 hours." "That's not enough time." "You won't be doing it alone." "I've asked Reggie to help you." "I'm not just gonna help you." "I'm gonna do it for you." "You're gonna extract me from my own con?" "Yes, I am, and do you know why?" "Because you don't trust me to do it." "No!" "'Cause I love you." "All right, Reggie, I think that's..." "No, no, you're so good." "You're so method that, when you take on a con, you become that guy." " Mnh." " I mean, look at you." "You have become this fine, upstanding citizen, who all he wants to do is marry the redheaded lady detective and settle down." "You are not that guy." "You think I don't know about your little game?" ""Are you ready to play?"" "It's not just your life you're playing with here, Ben." "So, tomorrow morning, after you kiss her goodbye," "I'm gonna let myself into her house, and I will make every trace of you disappear..." "DNA, fingerprints, all of it... gone, like Christopher Hall never existed... which he never did... right?" "What is this?" "It's a very simple, tasteful, white dress." "You gonna put it on for me, give me a little private show?" "I thought you no longer believed in the institution of marriage." "I believe in the institution of a fine, well-tailored garment no matter what the occasion." "Try it on." "No." "You know you want to." "Val." "All right." "But between the cake and the dress, somebody doesn't seem very excited about her wedding." "Can I tell you something?" " What?" " I'm not." "I'm excited to be married." "I just kind of hate weddings." "You hated my wedding?" "No!" "I hated me at your wedding..." "at any wedding." "I'm terrible at them." "I never know what to do at a weddings except drink too much and sleep with inappropriate people which you're not allowed to do at your own wedding." "Who did you sleep with at my wedding?" "No one." "Bartender." "Which is proof that I am terrible at weddings." "I don't know." "Sounds like you had more fun at my wedding than I did." "And if you really hated weddings... you would have never bought yourself this dress." "It is a good dress." "Alice, honey, you home?" "Just a sec!" "Don't come in!" "Go away!" "Don't look." "It's bad luck." "Honey, please." "Let me see." "What do you think?" "I think... you should take it off right now." "What?" "What's wrong?" "I have something to tell you." "Alice..." "You know what I want to do?" "I want to run away." "What?" "So let's do it." "What?" "Let's go away." "We'll go to City Hall, and we'll get married." "Then we'll get on a plane, and we will just go." "We'll go wherever you want to go." "You want to go to the Riviera?" "We'll go to the Riviera." "You want to go to the Serengeti, the Swiss Alps... you name it." "Okay?" "We'll go where no one can find us." "Where is this coming from?" "I just..." "I want you." "That's it." "I want you." "I don't need the rest of it." "I don't want the rest of it, any of it." "But we have to go now." "We have to leave today." "Sweetheart, I can't just go." "Yes, you can." "I have this case." "Yes, you can." "You can do this." "We can do this." "Okay." "Okay." "The minute I catch this guy, I'm all yours." "I love you." "You know that, right?" "Mm-hmm." "See you tonight." "Bye." "Mr. X has hit us three times in the last nine months, the same crime done in the same way and always within a few hours of sending us the same note..." ""Are you ready to play?"" "So I'm thinking this guy either wants to get caught or he really loves playing this game." "But games have rules." "So, if we can figure out what his rules are, we may actually stand a chance of catching him." "Are you okay?" "Christopher asked me to elope this morning." " He what?" " Oh, my gosh, Alice." "Yeah." "He wanted me to just get on a plane with him and go to the Alps." "And you didn't go?" "I have a job." "Oh, get out right now." "Val." "I am serious." "Honey... he asked you to marry him on an Alp." "You've reached Christopher Hall." "Please leave a message." "How do you feel about the Palace Hotel in Gstaad?" "I'm going home to pack." "Call me." "You've reached Christopher Hall." "Please leave a message." "I'm sorry." "The number you have reached has been disconnected." "He's gone." "Christopher is gone." "What do you mean?" "His clothes, his shampoo, his toothbrush, everything." "I'm at his office now." "Gone." "I gave him all of my money," "$1.4 million, my entire life savings." "I didn't give it to the Realtor." "I gave it to him." "What is wrong with me?" "There's nothing wrong with you." "There's nothing wrong with you." "This guy was good..." "like, really good." "Danny..." "His entire web presence is gone... no archived search items, no photos." "I don't even know how to start investigating." "I have photos." "I have photos." "Oh, my God." "He never looks at the camera." "He was hiding the entire time." "Would this help?" "Thank you, Sophie." "Hey... do you want to go home?" "Do you want me to come with you?" "No." "I want to find him." "We will." "I want to do it today, now." "This is what we do, right?" "So... what do we know about Christopher Hall?" "Nothing." "We know nothing about Christopher Hall because Christopher Hall doesn't exist." "Maybe start with what you do know." "How did you guys meet?" "He came in as a client." "He said that Seth Hamilton recommended us." "Alice is our lead investigator." "Valerie actually runs the company so I can be out in the field." "We're private investigators, but we..." "We also provide personal and corporate security." "Which is what you're doing for Seth." "And a number of high-profile clients." "The guy's last V.C. deal was worth $400 million." "He's going with another firm." "What?" "Did he say why?" "He said that we're not a good fit." "Ms. Vaughan." "This is a coincidence." "It's not, actually." "I made a few calls, found out where you were dining and that you were dining alone, so I thought..." "You thought you'd demonstrate your firm's investigative prowess?" "Is that how you landed Seth Hamilton?" "I didn't have to do much." "Your secretary is very chatty." "She's not gonna be my secretary much longer." "Our firm is happy to vet new candidates for you... unless, of course, you think we're aren't a good fit." "Will the lady be joining?" "Mm." "Thank you." "You really should have let me pay for dinner." "If I'd let you pay, it would make this next part of the conversation..." "very uncomfortable." "You're going with the other firm." "May I ask why?" "There's a conflict of interest." "What's the conflict?" "I am interested in seeing one of the partners outside the office." "Is it Danny?" "Because Danny's only an associate." "It's not Danny." "Unless you think we're not a good fit." "It was a textbook con." "I approached him." "How do you mean?" "A con man never approaches a mark." "He creates a situation where the mark approaches him, where the mark wants something from him." "I wanted his firm's business." "And because we ended up dating, he never became a client, so we never really vetted him." "There was no need." "He seemed perfect." "I'm so sorry." "Aw, don't be." "I am sick of eating in restaurants, and you know how much I hate other people." "Is that it?" "Mm-hmm." "Wow." "You're right." "That is amazing." "Oh." "What?" "Well, I've been wondering what to get you for a wedding present." "Oh, come on." "It's a museum piece." "It's worth a fortune." "Even you can't afford it." "Mnh." "You really like it?" "Mm-hmm." "I know exactly how he feels." "No, you work." "I'll be right over there." "A con man gives and gives." "He never takes... to establish trust and make the mark dependent on him so the mark keeps coming back." "He never asks for anything... so you give him everything." "Ms. Vaughan, I thought you had work to do." "Mnh-mnh." "Mmm." "The whole time you were together, he never asked you for anything?" "Not that I can remember." "He did, though." "He asked you to marry him." "They're so young." "Maybe you have to be that young to do it... to think it's all gonna work out." "Are we that old and jaded?" "Well, I am." "Yeah." "Me too." "You ever want to get married?" "Mm... yeah." "Yeah?" "I mean, in theory." "I guess I just never met the right guy." "I'll try not to take that personally." "I wasn't talking about you." "So, if I were the right guy, you would marry me." " Mnh." " You wouldn't?" "No." "That's not what I'm saying." " So you would." "And what about you?" "What about me?" "Would you?" "Would I what?" "Marry me." "Did you just ask me to marry you?" "Oh, my God." "You did." "I'm sorry." "Hmm." "No." "It's all right." "I just, uh..." "Well, let me think about it." "I proposed to myself." "Can I ask a thing?" "Why would a con artist target a private investigator, the one person most likely to bring him down?" "Danny, check our security protocols." "What am I looking for?" "Anything, any irregularities." "What are you thinking?" "I'm thinking it wasn't me he was after." "It was our clients." "That's how he stayed one step ahead of us the whole time." "He knew everything about me, about us." "Christopher is Mr. X." "Our security protocols have been changed." "We've been hacked." "We are confident we'll be able to meet the payment schedule this month." "Yes, I know what the penalty is, but I can assure you we will absolutely make our delivery date." "Thank you." "You took everything?" "I took everything." "He took everything..." "our log-ins, passwords, security codes." "Everything he'd need to drain our clients' accounts." "Then why hasn't he done it yet?" "Look." "There's no online activity, and he hasn't touched the accounts." "And I've re-encrypted our data so the codes he stole won't do him any good." "So, can we start drinking now?" "Alice and I still have a few hundred phone calls" " to make tonight." " No, Val." "If we tell our clients, they will fire us." "Nobody stays with a security firm that has been hacked." "We have an obligation to our clients." "Yes, but Christopher hasn't actually used any of the information he stole." "All of which is obsolete now." "So, why don't we continue to monitor the accounts, and then when Christopher makes his move, we'll be there." "Allie, we were there the last time Christopher made his move." "But we know who he is now." "We know who we're looking for." "So, I took all of our Mr. X stuff, and I put it into a comprehensive" "Christopher Hall timeline." "Guys, there's a Jules Dao here to see you." "Jules Dao?" "No idea." "He says he's from the FBI." "At least, I think that's what he said." "He has a really strong French accent." "Okay, thanks, Robin." "We'll be right out." "Did you tell anyone about the hack?" "Of course not." "Because if the feds know, then our clients know." "Maybe the feds should know." "Maybe they could actually help us." "I don't think he's here to help us." "He might be here to arrest us." "We didn't call the clients." "We're gonna look like co-conspirators." "Okay, just don't say anything." "Just let me do the talking." "Okay." "Jules Dao?" "Alice Vaughan." "Hi." "This is my partner, Valerie Anderson." "Jules Dao." "From the FBI?" "Well, Interpol originally, now the FBI." "What the hell is that accent?" "French and African." "Burkina Faso." "How do you know that?" "I'm reading his lips." "I've come to ask for your assistance in finding this man." "He is wanted for intellectual property theft, burglary... fraud." "We have no clear photos, nor do we have a name, but I've tracked him across Europe for two years, and now I believe he's here and that you are tracking him, too." "He stole nearly $5 million from two of your clients this year." "Actually..." "You think the man you're looking for is the man we're looking for?" "And I was hoping we could work together." "Unfortunately, we can't disclose any client information without consulting them first." "So..." "Of course." "But, please, the sooner we talk, the better for all of us." "We should have told him." "Val..." "He's been after Christopher for years." "He can help us." "I am not going to sit in his supervisor's office telling a roomful of smug FBI agents what happened to me... what I let happen to me." "I'm not gonna do that." "Just give me till the end of the day." "I'll find something." "Now are you ready to talk?" "You've been following me?" "Was that his car?" "Who is he to you?" "Did he take something from you?" "If you tell me, I can help you." "You can't help me, Agent Dao." "So, what do we know?" "We know Christopher stole our security data, our clients' data." "All of which we've changed." "But he had to know we were gonna change it, right?" "So, why steal it?" "Maybe that's not what he was after." "What else did he get?" "Everything... all our contacts, e-mails, calendars." "So he knows who our clients are." "But he's always known who our clients are." "He got to us through Seth Hamilton." "What if he didn't?" "What if he's getting to Seth through us?" "I don't know how I didn't see it before." "Tonight Seth Hamilton will announce a new technology that will generate billions of dollars." "Christopher is going to steal it, and I know how he's gonna do it." "We vetted everyone invited to the launch tonight." "Christopher is gonna use the information that he stole from us to become one of those people... giving him direct access to one of our biggest clients." "Seth Hamilton?" "Andrew Merrick." "I..." "Dr. Merrick?" "This is..." "I thought..." "I-I was told you couldn't make it." "My trip to Stockholm was postponed." "I hope it's all right." "Of course." "It's a pleasure to finally meet you." "From what my advisors tell me, the pleasure is about to be mine." "Uh, would you like to see for yourself?" "Please." "So, you studied with Professor Gavalas?" " I did." " Yeah?" "A long time ago, back in 1992." "Oh, wow." "What was he like in '92?" "Well..." "I remember he never tired of telling me how little I actually knew about chemical engineering." "He still says that to me." "Oh, sorry." "Would you mind?" "You might want to take off your shoes." "I wasn't looking for investors at first." "But without them, a scalable version would take years." "And, as you know, with the drought, we don't have years." "Super-easy to use." "Hmm?" "The membrane... eh?" "... removes all the salt and dirt and whatever we've been poisoning the fish with... allowing you... to drink it." "I'll go first if you want." "No, no, no." "I believe you." "A free-radical graft polymerization of acrylic acid on a ceramic membrane." "The secret formula." "Can I show you the specs?" "Please." "Sir, they're ready." "Sorry." "I hate having to play host." "All right." "Give me 10 minutes?" "Take all the time you need." "Thanks." "Oh, allow me." "Oh, thanks." "But I made the drive again a couple years ago." "And this time, I couldn't stop thinking that I was in trouble." "We are in trouble." "The drought is crippling our state." "So I thought, "Why not let our state cripple the drought?"" "Did you get it?" "I got it." "Partnering with a desalination research team..." "Good. 'Cause I am single-handedly setting back the race in this outfit." "Meet you out front." "...I began work on Seaclarity at my lab in Santa Monica four years ago, drawing inspiration from the nicitating membranes found in fish and reptiles." "Acrylic acid on a ceramic membrane, we can successfully filter out salt, dirt, and all other saltwater particles into clean, drinkable H20!" "Uh, sorry, everybody." "What the hell?" "It looks like, uh, we seem to have blown a fuse here." "Uh, one second." "Just keep drinking." "I'm sure everything will be fine." "Check the house." "Make sure we've got the exits covered." "You almost got us caught." "You stood there like you were about to ask her to dance." "I was looking for an escape route." "You were looking at her, and you need to stop." "If Margot finds out..." "You know how she is, Ben." "She'll kill both of you." "No, she won't." "She'll have you do it." " What's our status?" " We're in." "What does that mean?" "What is she doing?" "She's a hacker." "She's hacking." "I thought she was a lawyer." "A lawyer who worked for Anonymous." "I asked her to build a backup plan into the thumb drive we gave Seth." "Isn't hacking illegal, counselor?" "Not if I'm just taking back what was ours in the first place." "I don't understand." "What's happening?" "What's happening is we just got conned." "How?" "I have no idea." "They hit all our offshore accounts and left us with nothing... not a cent." "And our benefactor is expecting payment." "If we don't pay..." "Fix it." "Hello?" "All right, Christopher." "You want to play?" "Let's play."