""Bankruptcy!"" ""Don't worry kids, Everything will be okay." "And I should know." "I'm psychic!"" ""Knock, knock"" ""It's District Attorney Van Dyke!"" ""Your mortgage is due!" "Pay it now or vacate the premises!"" ""Help has arrived." "It's Attorney Larry Watt!"" ""My hero!"" "Transcript:" "YDY" "Do you know it's not even 6:00?" "Sorry." "I couldn't sleep." "This whole meeting at the bank about the home equity loan has got me all wound up." "I just wanted to make sure I had everything in order." "Yeah." "It's got me a little crazy, too." "I just had a dream about Larry Watt saving our home from an evil banker." "Larry Watt?" "The callous and unprincipled defense attorney?" "I thought you hated Larry Watt." "Well, I don't hate him." "Not him." "Just everything that he stands for." "Ask me who the evil banker was." "District attorney Van Dyke." "That really was a nightmare." "So, if Larry Watt was the hero, and van Dyke was the villain, what role did I play?" "Well, you were strangely absent." "I guess that's what I get for leaving you in bed by yourself." "You got an e-mail." "Great." "Whoever it is, whatever they're selling-- we can't afford it." "It's Devalos." "He's back." "He's going to open his own practice." "He thinks he might have some work for me." "You look nice." "Thank you." "Job interview?" "No." "A thing at the bank." "Just trying to borrow some money against the house." "Just till we can figure out what's next." "I don't know if you've noticed, but I haven't really asked you or mom for my allowance in a while." "No." "We appreciate that, and I know..." "I know you've been using your-your baby-sitting money for school lunch." " And it's fine." " Sweetie, just as soon as we..." "No." "I know." "It's just that..." "There's this store at the mall." "It's a makeup store, and a bunch of us were going to go over after school today." "And then I realized that I don't have money for the bus or to buy anything." "And I was just wondering..." "How much money are we talking about?" "Well, they have these cases with brushes and makeup and everything, and it would be about $30." "You need money today?" "Now?" "Ariel, I..." "Sweetie, if I had $30 to give you..." "Sow much is the bus?" "It's two dollars each way?" " Never mind, dad." " No, sweetie." "Hold on." " Dad, it's okay." " Wait, wait." "Here's four dollars." "Ariel, honey!" "I'll see you tonight." "No, no." "This won't do." "What won't do?" "We have a problem." "You're better dressed than I am." "If you don't open that door, I'm going to kick it down." "You've been warned." "Hey, stranger." "There is nothing more I would love in this world than to have you come work for me, but at the moment, I don't have any clients, much less any work." "No." "What I meant in my e-mail was, a, colleague of mine was asking about you." "Wanted to know if I would make an introduction for him." "A defense attorney?" "I've never worked for a defense attorney." "Interesting case." "Man's accused of killing his wife." "Well, what do you think?" "Do you think he did it?" "I have no idea." "Does it matter?" "It pays american money." "The guy at the bank didn't seem to think there'd be a problem." "It's just a question of pushing the paperwork through." "He thought we'd have a checkin a week, week and a half." "Well, this must be our lucky day, 'cause this meeting, or this job interview-- which is I guess what it is-- shouldn't take me more than a couple of hours." "I should be done by 9:00." " Wish me luck." " Luck." "Girls?" "Come on!" "Dinner's on the table." "Don't give your daddy a hard time." "Make sure that Marie uses her napkin." "Don't be afraid to ask Ariel for help." "Ariel?" "Dad, don't you knock?" "I did knock." "Yeah, well, you're supposed to wait until I say come in." "I would have, but then there's this whole issue of life expectancy to deal with." "Besides, dinner's on the table." "Your mom went off to a meeting." "I could use your help with Marie." "What's this?" "I told you, we were going to the mall." "We went to that store, and I bought that case I was telling you about." "Do you mind if I ask, how did you do that?" "What do you mean?" "I just bought it." "Don't worry." "I used my own money." "But this morning, you made it sound like you didn't have any money." "Yeah." "Well..." "Turns out I did." "Who wants dinner?" "Hello!" "Hello?" "Hello!" "Hello?" "Is anybody here?" "In here." "Larry Watt for the defense." "It's okay, mrs." "Dubois." "I'm not going to bite." "It's been a long time." "I recognized your pitchfork." "Okay, I'm confused." "Was it you who wanted to see me?" "These aren't your offices." "Yeah, well, don't be angry with Manuel." "If I had asked you to come to my offices, would you have taken the meeting?" "Yeah." "No." "My client, John Edgemont, uses this firm for his corporate and civil matters." "I see." "But whenever he's accused of killing his wife, he hires you." "Allison, I know you're in a tight spot." "And I also know, more than most, just how effective you can be in a trial situation." "I'm prepared to offer you a lot of money to assist me." "Assist you with what?" "My client's on trial for murder." "Okay." "Did he do it?" "I don't believe he did, no." "How can you be so sure?" "Because you'll meet him, and you'll tell me, or maybe you won't." "Maybe you'll be just like the rest of us and help mount a great defense because you're being paid to do it." "Think it over, but think quickly." "Bank opens today, and jury selection begins at 9:00." "You know, he was kind of nice in an oily, Larry Watt kind of way." "That's the sound of the money talking." "What, you don't like the sound of the money talking?" "I love the sound of the money talking." "I just hope that you're going to be okay with everything you have to do to earn it." "How much money do you think Ariel makes baby-sitting?" "I don't know." "Why?" "Well, she went to the mall today and spent, like, $30 at this makeup store." "And when I asked her about it, she insisted that she did it with her own money." "Okay." "If that's what she told you, what's the problem?" "I don't know." "There probably is no problem." "I mean I know this whole intuition thing is more your neck of the woods than mine, but I just got this feeling." "Dad, can you pull over and let me off here?" "What are you talking about?" "The school's a block away." "I want to walk." "Please." "Okay." "Thanks." "Can I help you?" "My name's Allison Dubois." "Larry Watt is expecting me." "One moment." "Mrs. Dubois?" "Attorney Watt wanted me to ask you to please meet him in the conference room." "John, I'm just trying to help you." "No." "You're trying to stage manage an event that does not need to be stage managed." "I did not kill my wife..." "Therefore these courtroom theatrics are unnecessary." "They, they just told me to come straight in here." "If this is a bad time..." "No, no, This, is a perfect time." "Allison Dubois, John Edgemont." "John, this is the woman I told you about." "Used to work for the district attorney." "Yes." "I'm very aware of who mrs." "Dubois is." "I think she's going to prove to be very useful to us, particularly this morning with jury selection." "Nice to meet you." "Nice to meet you." "You shook his hand." "Tell me what you feel." "Tell me what you see." "Nothing." "I don't see anything." "I don't feel anything." "Precisely!" "Wait!" "Wait." "I'm confused." "What's going on?" "Apparently mr." "Watt must think that by shaking your hand I'm able to tell whether you're... if I'm a man who could kill his wife?" "So?" "What's the verdict?" "There is no verdict." "Doesn't work that way ever." "At least it didn't today." "So you have no opinion about me?" "You seem like a nice man." "I have trouble imagining you hurting anyone." "I appreciate that." "Mind if I ask your opinion about something?" "No, of course not." "My... my daughters, Myra and Chloe, they're sitting in the, in the waiting area..." "I think I passed them on the way in." "My attorney believes that it would be helpful if they were both present in the courtroom during jury selection." "Do you?" "Don't be naive, John." "We're picking jurors." "These are the people who are going to decide your fate." "We need to paint a picture for them of who you are." "Me, personally?" "I already like you better when I see that you have children." "That the children are in your life." "That they're in the courtroom sitting there with you." "Look, it goes without saying, the district attorney is going to do whatever it takes to win that jury over." "But I could certainly understand as a parent why you wouldn't want your children to hear the things that are going to be said in that courtroom." "I'm not worried about my oldest." "Myra's 18." "I just..." "Chloe is a few years younger, and frankly... she's what people politely call "mentally challenged."" "Now, I'm not even sure that she'll understand what's going on." "And I'm afraid in the courtroom, with the judge, and the lawyers, and all the loud talking... that, she could become frightened." "She can be very excitable." "We're fighting for your life here, John." "It is my job to encourage you to use every weapon at your disposal." "Yeah, well... my children aren't weapons." "I think I'm going to ask Myra to take Chloe home." "Now." "I'll be right back." "I was scared to death that I was going to meet him and something was going to scream out "murderer!"" "But it was the complete opposite." "What is so amusing?" "Nothing." "I just think it's funny that you not only want to get paid, but you want to be on the side of right as well." "Doesn't everybody?" "Well, honestly not everyone has that luxury." "Well, right now I do." "So please, stop raining on my parade." "Yes, ma'am." "All rain will hereby promptly cease and desist." "It better." "Are you laughing?" "I'm just saying let's keep things in perspective, that's all." "By "keeping it in perspective, " you really mean"don't bite the hand that's paying our bills", don't you?" "What do you want me to say?" "As little as possible." "Look, when I worked at Aerodytech, I did a lot of things that I didn't want to do, but that was the job and they were paying me a salary to get it done." "I did those things because I needed the money." "Because we needed the money." "He is a murderer!" "He murdered his wife in cold blood." " You think." " I know." "Well, I don't know what to tell you." "'Cause last night you "knew" that he was innocent." "No, but you're right, you're right." "All right, let'S... you know, we'll give Larry Watt back his money." "We'll live differently." "We'll sell the house, we'll move to a commune." "Eat only what we grow." "We'll homeschool the kids." "I didn't say I was quitting." "I didn't say I was giving the money back." "I just said... that this changes it for me." "Yesterday it felt good." "But I guess feeling good is not a perk I get this time." "I'm going to drive the kids to school." "I'll see you this afternoon." "See you this afternoon." "Hey, I'm Ariel Dubois's father." "I was wondering if I could talk to you for a second." "You're late!" "Not a terribly auspicious start, mrs." "Dubois." "I'm really sorry." "I should have been here in plenty of time." "I forgot that I didn't have my official I.D. anymore and that they took away my permanent parking space." "They made me go up to the third... the judge took ill, there's no court today." "I don't know why, but somehow I expected you would have known that before anyone else." "Anyway, my boy had an epiphany last night." "He wants to testify in his own defense." "I told him I thought it was ill-advised." "Of course, that only hardened his resolve." "I thought we'd have a little rehearsal, a little, mock trial this afternoon." "Attorney Watt, I have to talk to you about John Edgemont." "No, actually." "No.You don't." "You're not the only one with good instincts around here, mrs." "Dubois." "I have a hunch that you're going to tell me something about my client, something about our client that I don't need to hear." "Well, I think you do." "I had a dream about him last night." "I'm sure you did." "But whatever you dreamt doesn't change the fact that there's a man accused of murder who needs someone to mount his defense." "And speaking for myself only, I'd like to be that someone." "The pay is good and the work is interesting." "And if you'd like to be that someone, too, you change the subject and change it quickly because whatever you think about me you should know that I'm not keen on suborning perjury." "Now, John Edgemont wants to tell his side of the story to that jury and you know as well as I do that i can't put him on the stand if I know he's guilty." "Good." "I'm glad we see eye-to-eye on this." "We'll reconvene at 2:00." "You might want to show up around 1:45." "Parking can be tricky at that building." "So you admit that you and your wife fought on the night of her death." "Yes, we had an argument." "What about?" "The children." "My children." "Myra's a, freshman at college and she's taken to coming and going as she pleases." "Stacey thought we should lay down some ground rules about her hours." "Or insist that she move to campus." "Stay in a dorm." "And you disagreed?" "I like having my children with me at home." "I just..." "I like it." "And is Myra the only thing that you two disagreed about that night?" "No." "No, we also had a conversation about Chloe." "What about Chloe?" "She requires a lot of attention, doesn't she?" "Yes, Chloe requires constant supervision." "We have nurses, but it's... it's always difficult to have... a child with special needs at home." "Stacey didn't have a lot of patience." "She felt that we shouldput Chloe in a facility." "In an institution?" "That's right." "And again, you... you didn't agree." "I was fairly adamant that both my children should live at home." "Wait a second." "Let's talk about this word "adamant."" "It conjures up all sorts of images." "It makes you sound intractable." "Let me make something clear here." "No one is asking you to lie." "But it would be very helpful to our cause if somehow this jury was made to believe that the idea of sending Chloe away was something you might have reluctantly considered." "But it's just not true." "My father would never put Chloe in an institution." "We're a family." "She belongs at home with us." "I know that, ms." "Edgemont, and I admire it." "But without lying about any of the material facts of this case, we have to paint a picture for the jury on who your father is." "We want it to be impossible for them to imagine that he's done this horrible thing." "We're fighting for your father's life here." "She understands." "We both understand." "I'll..." "I'll try to avoid using the word "adamant."" "All right, fine." "All right, so..." "That's a lot of stress on a new marriage, isn't it?" "Yes." "That night, you fought." "Yes, we did." "And you claim that your wife went out for a drive to clear her head." "That's what she did." "And you didn't worry when she failed to return home?" "Of course I worried." "And the longer she was gone, the more I worried." "I couldn't raise her on the cell phone, we just had an argument." "I mean, I guess I was hoping she was cooling down." "I guess I was hoping she'd call me." "And finally, just before 4:00, I called the police." "it's done." "Okay." "Good." "Really?" "I'm not so sure." "Dad, you know what would've happened if you told them the truth." "They would've taken Chloe away." "To an institution." "Or worse, prison." "It's not like we had a choice." "Now, you promised mother." "You promised you would never send Chloe away." "I know." "I know I did." "But Myra, this isn't the first time she's hurt someone." "But dad, you know it isn't intentional." "She isn't capable." "She just gets frustrated." "She doesn't know her own strength." "I know." "I know that." "Stacey wasn't the best stepmother." "And she wasn't the best wife." "But she didn't deserve to die like that." "Nobody does." "For the last time, mr." "Edgemont, did you or did you not kill your wife?" "No." "I did not." "Look, dad, mom's home from work exactly when we got home from school." "Hi, mom, how was your day?" "Mine was good." "We had Sloppy Joes for lunch." "I never actually had a Sloppy Joe before." "Except I really like them." "This kid named Brett told me the sandwich was actually made out of the guts of some guy named Joe who's really sloppy." "But I don't believe that." "Do you believe that, mom?" "I really need to speak with you." "You first." "No, you first." "It turns out that John Edgemont is not guilty." "Not?" "Excellent." "You sure?" "Did you discover this before you gave back the money?" "Answer the second question first." "Okay, I told you I was not giving the money back." "I told you I was not quitting." "Okay, calm down." "Boy, you seem awfully upset for somebody who just eight hours ago was worried they might be toiling away for someone who committed a horrible crime." "He's covering for his daughter." "His daughter killed his wife?" "There's something wrong with her." "She's got brain damage of some sort." "I only saw her once, briefly." "She seemed sweet." "Apparently, she's got a real a temper." "What are you going to do?" "The district attorney is pushing for the death penalty." "I feel like I haveto tell somebody." "Maybe Watt, maybe the district attorney." "And then I think, "no, I can't do that." "This man is choosing to do this."" "He's not being framed." "He's not being coerced." "This is a father trying to protect his daughter." "Now, what was your thing?" "No, that's not fair." "I can't possibly follow your dilemma." "What are you talking about?" "You've got this, like, seven course meal of a moral quandary going on," "I've got this little fast food burger of a problem." " It's okay, it'll wait." " Joe." "I know how Ariel is getting her money." "I thought we already had this conversation." "Yes, we did, but then I took her to school yesterday and she's hanging around with these older kids." "You know, and your imagination just starts to go crazy." "Then I realized I just had to be forthright about it." "I mean, I had to do something." "What are you talking about "do something"?" "I don't know, just grab the bull by the horns." "Anyway, I saw the older girl that Ariel was talking to the other day, and then I just figured, "what the hell?"" "And then you..." "Nothing." "I didn't do anything." "You should see the look on your face." "Well, you must have done something." "Nothing." "I give you my word." "I didn't do anything." "I just went up, I started talking to this girl." "No." "Yes, how else do you think that I could figure out how Ariel was getting her money?" "You can't do that." "You can't go behind her back and talk to her friends." "It wasn't behind her back." "It was in broad daylight in front of a whole bunch of people." "She just didn't happen to be one of them." "This is terrible." "You haven't even heard..." "Okay, fine." "Tell me." "She's doing readings." "Just this one girl, far as I can tell." "And she seemed pretty impressed with whatever Ariel was telling her, which is probably a pretty good thing considering she charged her $50." "I guess with all the attention that you got in the press last year, it's just a matter of time before somebody sought her out." "I can't deal with this right now." "You don't have to deal with it." "I'll deal with it." "Well, you definitely can't deal with it." "The minute that she finds out how you got this information, everything you say is just going to fall on deaf ears." "Oh, yeah?" "How is it that you know this and I don't." "Well, I don't know, Joe." "How is it I know this and you don't?" "Hello?" "You know, I don't get that." "Excuse me?" "I don't get that either." "You can't tell who's on the phone, you leave your bag behind after a meeting, and you call yourself a big time psychic?" "Mr. Watt." "Maybe I spoke too soon." "So what do you want me to do with this bag?" "There's not much here, just a pad and some pens." "You want me to hold onto it until tomorrow?" "Where are you?" "I'm at the coffee shop across the street from where we were, why?" "Thanks for waiting." "So what is it?" "What is what?" "You didn't come all the way here to get back a pad and some pens." "You're dying to tell me something." "Just remember our agreement." "I don't want to know if it has..." "No, it's not that." "On the contrary." "Now, I'm certain he didn't do it." "So ask me who did." "Do I care?" "It's Chloe." "His youngest." "And Edgemont knows." "Well, that's not there action I was expecting." "What do you mean?" "Why am I not surprised?" "About six years ago I got a call from Edgemont's civil attorneys that my office needed to write up a... a waiver of liability." "A live-in nurse that John and his first wife employed attacked in her bed in the middle of the night." "Sound asleep, someone starts beating the crap out ofher with a baseball bat." "Couple of broken ribs, contusions to the face... a hundred thousand dollars and that waiver later... the problem just... disappeared." "Chloe?" "So what do we do now?" "What do you mean?" "This doesn't change anything." "Our client is still innocent." "And we have to continue to defend him." "But isn't the best way to defend him, to prove to the court who really did it?" "Well, that's one strategy." "But I'm fairly certain it's a strategy to which our clients would take exception." "Listen, let's... let's get out of here, you know?" "We have to finish picking a jury tomorrow." "I can't do that." "Can't do what?" "I can't be a party to this." "Look, I know you think what he's doing is honorable, but she is obviously dangerous." "She needs help." "And she's not going to getit as long as everyone is convinced that her father is the guilty party." "We have to tell someone." "Tell them what?" "I mean no disrespect." "Where did you get this?" "A fortune cookie?" "Burning bush?" "I'm not the D.A. I'm a gun for hire." "And John Edgemont didn't hire me to turn his daughter in." "Yeah, well, I'm a gun for hire, too, and I didn't sign on for this." "Look, don't be foolish." "The guy is paying you good money." "And he is innocent." "This is as close as you get to a straight flush in the defense attorney business." "Listen, I don't want to have to go back to my client and explain to him why one day you're on the team and the next day you're off." "Please, let's just get through this trial." "And then after our client is declared innocent, you want to be a girl scout and go tell someone about his daughter, go ahead." "But for now, take his money and pay your bills." "Go buy yourself something." "Buy your kids something." "I mean, isn't that really what this is all about?" "Taking care of your kids?" "'Cause that's all I'm trying to do." "And that's all you're trying to do." "Hell, that's all he's trying to do." "You smell like shampoo." "I'm sorry." "Thank you for feeding everybody and bathing everybody." "They're my kids, too, you know." "Well, I know that." "Did you talk to Ariel?" "You asked me not to." "Do you have any idea what you're going to say to her?" "Well, actually, Larry Watt gave me an idea." "And it's $50." "Take it." "What's it for?" "It's for your friend, Marcy." "I want you to give her her money back." "Daddy told you?" "But I don't get it." "Why are you giving this to me?" "Because I can." "Because I want you to put that genie back in the bottle." "Because I don't want you going through high school with everyone remembering you for things that, frankly, if I was given a choice, I'm not sure I would wish on you." "There is so much more to you than that." "I can't bear the thought of you taking a math test, and everyone thinking that you had an unfair advantage." "Or some boy wanting to ask you out, but hesitating because he's sure that you already know." "And for people clamoring for your attention for all the wrong reasons." "Not because they want to know you, but because they want to know what they think you know." "Can I tell you a secret?" "It wasn't even my idea." "She came up to me at school and started asking about you." "Said she'd pay anything to know her future." "What college she'd end up going to." "What the name of the man she was going to marry would be." "And I wanted that makeup case so bad." "I just started writing down anything that... came to my mind, and then I told it to her." "I have no idea if I'm right about any of it." "Neither will she." "Not for years." "My girl." "Trust me." "Trust me." "You have to give that money back." "It might hurt a little bit at first, but then, after that..." "Mommy, what's this?" "I completely forgot about this." "I think it's supposed to be some kind of fairy." "But I don't know what it means or why I drew it." "Is it a magic fairy?" "You know, I don't know what kind of fairy she is." "Wait, wait." "She's a sleepy-time fairy." "And she's saying that all the little girls who sneak around and go through their mama's things have to go to bed now." "I heard voices, fighting." "Sweetie, what are you doing awake?" "You should be asleep." "This is Stacey's room." "She doesn't like us in here." "Don't worry, sweetie." "Stacey's gone." " Gone?" " Yes." "Gone forever." "Can you keep a secret?" "Stacey wanted to send you away." "To a hospital." "She wanted us both to leave." "She wanted daddy all to herself." "Don't want to go to hospital." "Sweetie, I know that." "I know that, and you know I could never let that happen." "I wouldn't let her send you away, so I made her leave to protect you." "But then I started to get scared." "I got scared that daddy might be upset." "What if daddy got mad at me because Stacey had left?" "Daddy loves Stacey." "Daddy loves Stacey." "And daddy loves Chloe." "In fact, he never gets mad at Chloe, so I told him you did it." " Me?" " Yes." "Just like that other time with the bad nurse who kept telling on you and me?" "Remember we told daddy that you hit her?" "This is just like that." "And now everything's going to be fine." "You can keep my secret for me, can't you, baby?" "And you'll never tell daddy the truth?" "Even if he asks?" "No, I won't." "He'll be so mad at me." "I won't tell, I won't!" "I love you so much." "I used the fairy." "Do you want to touch it?" "Feel what it felt like?" "Go on." "Put your hands on it." "You're not going to hurt anything." "Wait." "I have to call Larry Watt." "It's going right to voicemail." "It's barely 7:00." "His cell phone probably isn't even on yet." "He's still not picking up." "Hey, mom, can we have Sloppy Joes for breakfast some time?" "Sure, babe." "Allison, put the phone down." "The man obviously isn't at work yet." "No." "I'll feed the kids." "You go get ready for court." "This was the scene just before dawn at the Mariposa county courthouse, where accused killer John Edgemont confessed and surrendered to the district attorney in the bludgeoning death of his wife, Stacey." " Edgemont pled guilty to second degree ..." " Oh, my god." " Tell mommy you want Sloppy Joes." " ...manslaughter with conspiracy after the fact." "Kids!" "Edgemont, in a sudden, early morning confession, admitted that he struck his wife with a small sculpture during an argument, then attempted to mislead authorities by staging a car accident to cover up the crime." "Even as we speak, the judge in the case is meeting with the attorneys from both sides to determine sentencing..." "This is terrible." "He thinks it's Chloe." "He thinks he's protecting someone who needs protecting." "I have to get down there." "The other thing to remember here is, it's not over till it's over..." "I'll tell you, mrs." "Dubois." "This arriving after everything has happened is not a good thing for your reputation as a psychic." "I woke up." "I saw it... on the television." "Why?" "I got a call at3:00 in the morning." "He wanted to confess, wanted to turn himself in." "There was no changing his mind." "There was no talking to him about it." "No one's more shocked by all this than I am." "Well, I'm going to head home and grab a shower." "If you need anything." "I'm fine." "Mrs. Dubois." "I know my father would want me to thank you for all that you did on his behalf." "I know he didn't do it." "Mr. Watt told me." "He loves my sister." "Maybe too much." "Why 3:00 in the morning?" "Why the sudden urgency?" "I don't know." "I mentioned to him about your drawing." "The fairy?" "I saw when it came to you in that lawyer's office." "I think he was concerned that it was only a matter of time before someone found the statue, tied my sister to the crime." "Your sister, right." "So what happens to her now after all this?" "Doesn't she just end up in a hospital or an institution anyway?" "Absolutely not." "She'll be with me in the house we grew up in, just like daddy wants." "Until you get mad at her, or you don't need her for an alibi anymore." "Or you just get tired of watching over her." "Once again, my whole family appreciates all that you've done for us." "Have a nice day, mrs." "Dubois." "I'll be watching you." "I'm watching you"