"It's three hours until the start of Christmas break, and despite what I'm sure are the sincere efforts of the school's pastry chef, my holiday spirit has yet to kindle." "There you are." "Here I am." "I didn't even see you this morning, and I kind of hoped I could carry your books to class." "You okay?" "I saw Meg." "What do you mean you..." "Meg's pregnant." "I know." "You know?" "There was a letter from her aunt." "I guess Meg had asked to live up there and raise the baby." "Oh, my god." "Duncan, how could you..." "Last spring, before we broke up." "Okay, stop." "I was shown a diagram once." "I know how it works." "But you knew, and you didn't tell me?" "This has nothing to do with us." "Oh, no." "Nothing." "Your secret illegitimate child gestating in the womb of your comatose ex-girlfriend affects neither you nor me." "I'm fine with it." "Hola, boyos." "Hope I'm not spoiling a tender moment here, but I just wanted to make sure you got your vaccinations because the new year's bash of the century is just a scant week away." "Of the century?" "Does Truman Capote know?" "Of the millennium." "And Truman who?" "I can't." "I've got holidays in Sun Valley with the parents." "Dude, seriously... snow, pine trees, family... that's not holidays." "Party boat, crazy chinese pyro guy..." "I'm feeling that." "Think about it." "Oh, and, Duncan, if you're not coming 'cause of... tension here, there's a chance an old flame might be there." "What do you mean?" "Didn't you hear?" "Meg... she woke up." "Probably gonna be partying in no time." "So..." "I'm just saying." "I should go see her." "Got it covered." "My visitor's pass from when I picked up Abel Koontz's stuff." "All I need is a color copier and a laminator, and we're in business." "Don't worry." "I do this for all my boyfriends." "Veronica..." "I know." "I'm amazing." "I appreciate you getting down here so fast, Keith." "Sorry about that voice mail." "I'm sure I sounded crazed." "I did detect a certain urgency." "Keith, I got a call from sheriff Lamb right before lunch." "The Aaron Echolls/Lilly Kane sex tapes have been stolen from the evidence room." "All of them?" "Originals and copies?" "From separate safes, no less." "Was there a sign of break-in?" "No, this pretty much has to be an inside deal." "Only an employee would have that kind of access." "This is gonna put a huge dent in the prosecution's case." "It's not the kind of thing that's gonna stay secret long." "No, it isn'T." "And when it does come out," "Neptune is officially bozoville, a national laughingstock." "I need you to get those tapes back." "Woody, I'm just a P.I. I don't have a staff or access." "I'm not talking about a private investigation, Keith." "I'm talking about an official independent inquest on behalf of the city." "I'm flattered, but am I really the guy you want, given my history with the department?" "You're the right guy precisely because of your history with the department." "Please, Keith." "What do you say?" "I say it sounds awkward and uncomfortable." "But we need those tapes." "How can I say no?" "Thank you, pal." "Hi." "Surprise." "Meg... what are we gonna do?" "Duncan, I don't know." "Mom and dad want me to put the baby up for adoption." "Have you ever heard of the Levi Stinson sanctuary house?" "No." "It's horrible." "Their adoption contracts are all about religious indoctrination and tough-love discipline." "It's almost a license for abuse." "When I think of my child brought up like that... don't i have any say?" "The sinner who knocked up their daughter?" "They don't want you involved." "They want you gone." "Their lawyers are digging up all this stuff on your medical history... your blackouts and violent outbursts." "All I want is to have my baby and move in with my aunt Chris in seattle." "I don't know how you got in here, but you need to leave." "Val, it's... it's okay." "We should go." "You should rest." "Veronica... can you stay a second?" "Veronica, I just hope you can forgive me for being such a..." "Meg, you don't have to... it's just that I knew that I was pregnant, and seeing you with duncan... you don't have to say anything." "Is it too much to ask for just one small favor?" "No." "If anything happens to me... don't let them do it." "Don't let them send the baby away." "And no matter what, don't let them keep it." "You're late." "That's the idea." "Figured if I snuck in close to the end of the day, the chances of it getting even worse are slim." "So, you would not characterize your day as good?" "More along the lines of... bad." "How much would it help if I microwaved you some 2-day-old lasagna?" "A... medium amount." "And how much would it help if I went out and got some ice cream, too?" "A..." "lot?" "Why would I need that much help?" "With my sincere regrets." "Chocolate-chip mint or butter pecan?" "Oh, crap." "Jury duty?" "I'll get both." "Jury duty on Christmas break." "No sing-alongs, no poignant messages of universal love and hope... just cellphones out, watches eyeballed, jackets left on, and a commitment to the sacred ideal of drive-through express justice." "All right, ladies and gentlemen." "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we get back to our real lives." "First order of business, I believe, is to elect a jury foreman." "Do I hear any nominations or volunteers?" "All right, hearing no nominations, I have a proposal." "This strikes me as a fairly open-and-shut case, so, would anyone object to letting the young lady serve as our foreman?" "Be a nice chance for her to learn about civic responsibility and the justice system." "Great!" "All in favor of miss Mars as foreman, raise your hands." "Absolutely." "Yeah, we've done a ton of upgrading on the security front since you were here." "For example, no keys anymore." "We're using magnetic cards like you get in hotels." "Reprogram them every couple days." "No worries about lost or copied keys." "Say, bud, can you give me a spot?" "A spot?" "Yeah, spot me up here." "Ahh, endorphin rush, man." "You know, Keith, you really should have done more to push fitness when you were here." "Yeah, I was gonna get to that, but crime-fighting kept getting in the way." "Anyway, you were saying?" "Magnetic cards... right." "And level-one clearance for senior staff only." "There's no nighttime access without written permission... from me." "So, to paraphrase, you're telling me... the Neptune sheriff's department is a locked-down, squared-away citadel of security?" "That's a little flowery." "But you can pretty much catch my drift." "I run a tight ship, Keith." "And you look good doing it." "That's why they elected me, Keith." "I'm gonna need unrestricted access to your staff at all times." "Absolutely." "We're here to please." "Well, in that case, I'll need personal info for everyone who works here... personnel files, tax returns, security access levels, email addresses, browser histories... all that." "No problem, buddy." "Just say how high." "Oh, I will." "So the question is whether there's any need to deliberate at all." "Um, as Foreman, I don't see how a quick review of the facts could hurt." "Briefly." "All right." "Our defendants are Robby McKinnon and Hunter Hayes... both 21 years of age, both from well-known Neptune families." "They are charged with aggravated assault in a november 5th beating of Anissa Vilapando, age 25." "As the prosecution tells it," "Anissa missed her bus after getting off work at the Elite Touch car wash in downtown Neptune and decided to hitchhike." "She was picked up by McKinnon and Hayes." "On the way, Anissa and the boys smoked some marijuana." "Their weed?" "Yes." "Then she says they asked her to join them in a motel room so they could "party some more"" "With ecstasy... also theirs." "They struck her as harmless, so she accepted." "Once inside the room, they allegedly asked her for sex." "Her statement says they got so aggressive, she became frightened and tried to leave." "Hayes then supposedly pulled out a gun and forced her back inside, where McKinnon punched and kicked her." "Hayes put the gun on the bedside table, climbed on top of her." "Ms. Vilapando says she fought back, managed to grab Hayes' gun, and fired twice into the ceiling." "The boys ran off, and the police picked them up the next day based on her descriptions and the video from the motel security camera." "Ms. Vilapando also says, after the beating, she staggered out to the second-floor balcony and threw the gun over the railing." "This... gun was never found." "Noted." "So, the defense case..." "The defendants both claim she is no victim but rather a hooker who offered them a 3-way for 80 bucks." "But before they could get down to business, a young african-american man apparently her pimp kicked the door in, fired two shots into the ceiling, and ordered them out." "The boys told police the pimp seemed to feel Anissa owed him money." "They left the motel but assume he was the one who beat her." "I'd like to remind everyone that this girl is a known criminal." "She was convicted of forgery at age 15, and she's still on parole for being an armed lookout during a liquor-store robbery." "Noted." "So, final facts..." "After the attack, Anissa called an ex-boyfriend named Ankwan Simmons." "He says she asked for his help, but when the cops arrived, he was still on the line." "Neither of the defendants had a criminal record." "Nor any guns registered to their names." "After the shots, the motel manager waited a few minutes and then walked toward the room." "He testifies that he saw a young black man with a gun run across a parking lot and leap over the 6-foot fence surrounding the motel." "Boys got some serious ups, yo." "Now we get to the defense's ace in the hole." "Young masters McKinnon and Hayes have a very credible witness on their side... a mr." "Carnell Myles, who identifies himself as Anissa's pimp." "Mr. Myles turned himself in to police after hearing that a man fitting his description was spotted fleeing the crime scene." "His story matches the boys' version to a "T."" "How'd I do?" "So, are we ready for a vote?" "I say we make this simple." "Jot down your vote on a piece of paper, fold it up, and stick it in the hat." "And there it is... one quick lesson in civic responsibility for me and an only slightly shortened holiday for everyone." "Our resident alpha male was right about one thing... the case does feel, thankfully, pretty open-and-shut." "Our vote is 11 innocent, 1 guilty." "I guess we'll all see each other first thing in the morning." "Well, it's like I said." "These rooms are monitored closely in compliance with new security upgrades, such as magnetic keys." "Magnetic keys, senior staff only... right." "You ever lose a card?" "So?" "If somebody found it, it's no good." "We change the codes." "But you still need a card, right?" "Inga has the codes in her drawer." "She can just make a new card right there." "But only if you have, uh..." "level-one... level-one clearance..." "senior staff only." "Got to hand it to you, Sacks." "You stay on message like nobody's business." "If not for the little perspiration problem, you'd make a great white house press secretary." "Yeah." "So, security's wonderfully tight, and none of the senior staff took the tapes themselves." "I know we all have better things to do than pull jury duty over the holidays, and I feel your pain." "Does your pain affect 200,000 stockholders?" "I'm supposed to meet outsourcing contractors in Bangalore." "Care to tell them why their C.E.O. Couldn't show?" "And while you're at it, tell the sports fans of Neptune why the mind of Madison Harwell is missing from the airwaves." "As a divorced mother of two taking unpaid leave from her crap waitress job, could I please suggest we get on with it?" "Right." "We were..." "I was just wondering if our holdout voter would identify him or herself as a courtesy to those whose lives you've put on hold." "No problem, big shot." "I'm the one trashing your quarterly earnings." "I respect your honesty, so I'll be straight with you, too." "Is the racial stuff affecting your vote?" "Is it affecting yours?" "Fine." "But can you give us one solid reason we should see this girl's story as even remotely credible?" "Okay, here's one." "A ho that works her ass off all day at a car wash before hitting the streets... that's just something I never heard of." "Okay, let's discuss." "I'm not gonna insult your intelligence, Keith." "Don is a fine politician, but as a lawman and administrator... security around here is a joke." "That's odd." "He told me security here was quite impressive." "He thinks so." "He locks himself out pretty often." "Listen, someone must have figured what those tapes would be worth on the open market and..." "What?" "No, it's nothing." "I'm an idiot." "I've been so hung up on Aaron Echolls and all this evidence tampering," "I never stopped to think what those tapes are worth." "Good celebrity porn is scarce these days." "Keith... you mind giving my best to your daughter?" "A little." "But I'll do it." "Dispatch." "Blankenship speaking." "Lloyd, Keith Mars here." "Got any more true-crime semi-bestsellers for me?" "Fortunately, no." "But what I do have needs to stay on background." "No problem, man." "What's up?" "The sex tapes of Echolls and Lilly kane have been stolen from the balboa county sheriff's department." "Heard any buzz on that?" "No." "But we're not the target market." "Whoever's got them is going straight to the tabs." "With whom you legitimate newsmen have no ties whatsoever?" "Well, I do have a casual acquaintance at the instigator." "You mind letting me know if he knows anything?" "It's a she." "And I'm happy to do it." "Well, thanks, Lloyd." "Oh." "Hello." "Which one are you..." "Blinky, Humpty, Zorro?" "My name is Thumper, not that you really care." "Oh, I care... deeply." "I guess you heard about our new cranberry-walnut crumb cake." "It's true, it's crantastic." "I just dropped by 'cause me and some of the guys were curious about something." "And that would be?" "We was just wondering, now that you're all up in there with the 09ers again... you gonna be letting those two little frat boys walk for beating down a poor mexican chick from our hood?" "Can't talk about this while the trial's still on." "Yeah, of course not." "Wouldn't want to prejudice you or nothing." "You take care, Veronica." "These are from the motel's parking-lot security cam." "It does support the motel manager's story of a black guy fleeing with a gun." "Then speaking of the motel, here's something I didn't hear nobody talk about." "This motel manager says 12 minutes passed, from when he heard shots to when he stuck his head out and saw that pimp running off." "Why would a man who just beat some poor gal and shot off a gun stick around so long before getting away?" "I adore what your designer's done with the men's room." "That hefty bag over the busted urinal adds a delicious wabi-sabi feel." "That's don's thing." "We went more mid-century modern back in my day." "Anyway, thanks for coming by." "I'm guessing by your blithe spirits that you have no idea what's up." "No." "But they request my presence here weekly, so..." "Logan the tapes of your dad and Lilly have been stolen from the evidence room." "I'm here to investigate how it happened and try to get them back." "What?" "!" "Obviously, I need to know what, if anything, your father might have said lately about the case or the evidence." "Wait." "Wait." "Now I'm totally confused." "That sounded a lot like a question you would ask a suspect... an accomplice, say." "You did spend time with Aaron before the tapes were stolen." "Yeah." "Excuse me, Keith." "Lloyd Blankenship of the dispatch is on the phone." "Thanks." "Be right back." "Excuse me." "I just talked to that casual acquaintance at the instigator." "They've been contacted about the Aaron Echolls sex tapes." "You know who else they approached?" "Didn't know, but the bids are coming in fast." "Dare I ask?" "Current high?" "Half a million." "Thanks, lloyd." "Keep me posted?" "Sorry about the interruption." "Now, I asked you whether you heard anything unusual from your father." "Did he ever mention the tapes when you were locked up with him?" "Can you seriously imagine me conspiring to save daddy dearest, Lilly's killer?" "I'm just making sure I have every pertinent bit of information." "I'll tell you what, dude... if I hear anything pertinent, I'll get back at you." "The name's not "dude"." "It's "Mr. Mars"." "Kids say the darndest things." ""Mommy, if you get fired, do I still get free leftover tater tots?"" "Look, we all hate this, but until we all agree... look, honey, my whole thing from the start has been to take this job seriously, and I am satisfied that we have." "If we vote again and nobody crosses over to my side," "I'll change my vote." "Fair enough?" "Hands will do." "All right, all in favor of continued deliberation?" "I'm sorry." "I was looking for my apartment, but I seem to have stumbled upon some sort of magical winter wonderland instead." "Why, perhaps this elf can help me." "I just thought we needed at least an hour of holiday." "Grab a seat." "You know, elf, we might not be the richest family in town, but we can afford normal-size birds once a year or so." "Game hens... they were just so cute." "Plus, this way, we won't have to eat leftovers on new year's." "That's smart thinking." "Come on, what do they taste like?" "I don't know." "Dense little turkeys?" "thanks for doing all this, honey." "Thank the three energy drinks." "Merry Christmas, pops." "You're drinking wine now?" "No." "God bless us, everyone." "She's a very tiny bird in size, but in taste, so big!" "Backup can handle the dishes." "Right now, how's about an early peek at one of your Christmas presents?" "What about our strict "Christmas morning only" rule?" "This Christmas, we make our own rules." "Follow me!" "I'm so impressed you fit a pony into my room." "Presents, presents, presents!" "Uh... yeah." "Isn't that the same computer you got me two years ago?" "On the outside, yes." "But this old beast has a new heart pulsing inside her." "I'm talking 512 gigawatts of ram, an 80-something-or-other hard drive." "You don't know what you're saying, do you?" "No, but your friend mac promised me that it's all very state-of-the-art." "Thanks, dad." "You rock." "Why don't you take it for a test-drive?" "What's this?" "Two stories from 1999, dated about 2 months apart." "And the man pictured in both stories?" "Carnell Myles, the same guy who now identifies himself as Anissa Vilapando's pimp." "Is there anyone in town who doesn't know which trial I'm on?" "Maybe the fellas can help out a sports-impaired girl." "This Carnell Myles guy..." "I keep thinking I've heard his name, but he's not a musician or an actor or anything I'd know." "Did he used to play something?" "Damn." "You know, I think you're right." "Matrix Myles... incredible cornerback at San Diego state." "He got drafted by the Bengals." "So, how did he end up a pimp?" "First day at training camp, he blew out his knee." "Miss Foreman... any idea how this no-cartilage-having ex-jock managed to leap over that wall?" "Hey, Sacks." "I'm not finding that list of the email addresses for everyone on staff that I asked you for." "It's in the flap." "The flap, right." "What flap?" "The packet I gave you." "I put it in there." "Well, I see a flap, but it's empty." "I put it in the flap." "Okay." "So, Robert McKinnon, the sports agent, is Robby McKinnon's father." "What does that prove?" "It proves diddly, but it begs some interesting questions about how carnell myles got involved in all this." "Are you suggesting that Robert McKinnon paid his former client to take the rap for his son?" "It happens." "Trust me." "What good would money do a man serving 20 years for assault?" "20 years?" "Mi hijo, you got some funny ideas about how judges deal with pimps who slap their hookers around." "Six months... maybe." "And is my theory really any crazier than the other way of looking at it?" "What other way?" "That a pimp tricking $80 hookers showed up out of the goodness of his heart to save two rich white boys from doing time." "But there's still the gun." "Nothing ties it to the defendants." "We all saw it in the hands of the guy running from the motel." "The gun belonged to Anissa." "This should be good." "We know she has a firearms rap." "Parole in those cases forbids you to own a gun." "The boys attack her, she pulls the gun, they flee." "But if she admits the gun is hers, it's prison for sure." "She has to ditch the gun before the cops arrive, but she's too beat up to do it herself." "So she gets her friend to do it..." "Ankwan Simmons." "Whom she calls after the attack and who is seen fleeing the scene 12 minutes later with a gun." "So, aside from the theory you just yanked out of your... imagination, what ties the gun to Ms. Vilapando?" "Process of elimination." "The guy running from the motel wasn't Carnell Myles, so it couldn't have been his." "If it belonged to the boys, Anissa wouldn't have needed to hide it." "Their fingerprints would have been on it, as well as hers." "But that still leaves..." "Anissa and the antigravity guy we saw hopping the fence." "So, unless that guy was in the room the whole time, which neither the defense nor the prosecution has proposed, the gun is Anissa's." "Inga, can I... what's this?" "It's an anonymous e-mail I just got." "For an offer of $50,000 for the tapes." "Sacks, did you get an e-mail like this?" "Uh... yeah." "Just today." "We all got them." "I told the sheriff." "Get me another copy of that e-mail list." "Not too shabby for a guy with a surgically fused knee." "True, that." "Now, take another look at this photo of ankwan simmons." "From a distance, it'd be pretty easy to mistake him for Carnell Myles." "So, are we ready for a vote?" "All for acquittal, raise your hands." "You want to miss more bowl games?" "Give me a break, daddy warbucks." "She laid out a good..." "Pardon me, miss Mars." "The judge would like to see you in her chambers." "Here's something for our foreman to pass along." "I will never vote for conviction, no matter what." "You tell the judge this jury's hung." "That's "Mr. Mars" to you." "What happened?" "She asked me whether we were deadlocked." "I said no." "Then she said we're not going home until we reach a verdict." "Okay." "No problem." "for that experience, you paid 50 grand?" "All that matters is that the world wide web won't be hosting mpegs of my old man Defiling the love of my life." "For a guy who says he hates his father, you sure did him a huge favor." "Well I've seen the tapes." "I could testify against him as well as anyone else." "You can also go to jail." "This is a serious crime." "Yeah?" "where's the evidence?" "I believe those are the tapes right there." "Those are blank." "Blank tapes made you cry?" "Yeah." "I thought I'd save the "Daria" marathon on them." "Right." "And most people have a tape degausser just hanging around on their coffee table." "Well, at least tell me this... how did you manage to buy those tapes for 1/10 of their market price?" "Why, sir..." "I've always depended upon the kindness of strangers." "Oh, kindness at the sheriff's department." "I seriously doubt it." "I'm not questioning your integrity." "I'm just asking you for a logical response to the points I've raised." "Logical?" "Look, barbie, I've had a bellyful of your snide little digs." "Here's my final word." "I'll never, ever send two boys from good families to jail on the word of that mexican whore!" "I think it's time to take a break." "Uh, yeah." "Good idea." "Miss foreman, I'd like to change my vote." "What?" "Did god just speak to you?" "Sir, I think that's a bit out of line." "You're right." "I apologize." "And you know what?" "I'm changing my vote, too." "Even lying hookers deserve a little holiday cheer, don't they?" "Are you serious?" "Of course I'm serious." "Light the yule log, crank the mannheim steamroller." "It's Christmas." "Those boys will appeal, and they'll win." "I'll sleep with visions of sugarplums trusting their fate in a jury that doesn't kowtow to a high school cheerleader!" "Yay!" "Let me take this moment to thank you." "I learned a lot about civic responsibility." "Pardon me." "Veronica?" "I just wanted to congratulate you on the superb job you did." "Most impressive, especially for someone your age." "Thanks." "I don't know if you've made plans for college, but I think you'd fit right in at Hearst." "Stay here in Neptune?" "Well, we won't be moving the university." "I'd really kind of planned on having my car packed and running during graduation ceremonies, just to kind of beat the rush out of Neptune." "Then there's the other thing." "What other thing?" "The tuition." "Hearst is a bit pricy." "We have some very generous scholarship and grant programs." "You're our kind of student." "I'd fight for you." "So, life goes on." "Another day of work, carry-out meatloaf, two lousy days of holiday left." "And a freshly vandalized car." "Socially speaking, looks like I'm right back where I was a year ago." "Somehow I don't think I'd be very welcome anymore at Dick's new year's eve bash." "Tax reports?" "Did you change careers without consulting me?" "My dad, the accountant, seriously less cool." "Oh, hey, did you hear about our verdict?" "We voted to convict." "It's making me real popular with my classmates." "It's not always easy doing the right thing." "If that phrase isn't on the Mars family crest, it should be." "What's with the janitorial supplies?" "Oh, just tidying up after a billion or so starlings." "They seem to be the official courthouse mascots." "Veronica." "What can you tell me about deputy Leo, about his family?" "Deputy, can you step in here for a moment?" "I need to speak with you." "What's up, Keith?" "Tell me about your little sister." "Tina?" "What can I say?" "She's a great kid." "She's 10 years old." "She's totally nuts about the 49ers." "She challenges me to crazy eights every night." "She always wins." "She's got Down syndrome, though." "so learning's kind of a struggle." "Is that why you stole the tapes?" "Keith..." "I'm so sorry." "Tina's having a really rough time in public school." "She's getting picked on." "She's falling way behind." "And I want to send her to private school, where she can get special care." "That's rough, Leo." "But I still don't see how you can justify what you've done." "You've really damaged the case against Echolls." "You know, Keith, there are several people, including Veronica, who saw those tapes that can testify what's on them." "And I hope you realize I didn't do this to get rich." "I could have made a whole lot more if I wanted to." "Yeah, like half a million." "That must have been hard to pass up." "No, actually, it was easy." "I nearly gave the tapes back, thinking about them plastered all over the internet... until I saw Logan Echolls in the hallway, poring over a list of all the departmental e-mail addresses." "I got his message, and" "I knew it was him." "He made it clear that he just wanted them destroyed." "Well, you know I can't just let you slide on this one, Leo." "I know." "I'm not asking you to." ""Although no single cause can directly account for the theft, the primary factor appears to be insufficient oversight by the designated caretakers, most notably deputy Leo D'Amato." "While it is my strong belief that Logan Echolls obtained the tapes, the evidence has undoubtedly been destroyed." "For this reason, a conviction seems unlikely. "" "Keith Mars." "No, that's all right." "I'm just kind of shocked." "Look, I really appreciate you giving me the heads-up." "Yeah, I hope so, too." "Bye." "Do you see the moving truck out front?" "Ms. "Moana" Lisa and mr." "Outside-voice next door finally got the boot." "Two old acquaintances that should be forgotten." "Honey, there's something I need to tell you." "I just got a call from the hospital." "Meg died." "A blood clot dislodged and made its way to her heart." "The baby?" "A girl... she survived." "New year's eve." "Someone just needs to change the name to "same old year's eve"" "because that "new," implying all that hope and promise, it's not fooling anyone." "Okay... okay, babe, I'm hitting the bunkhouse." "But, dad, you're gonna miss the ball." "I saw it the past 40 years or so." "You know... it drops." "You'll see." "Good night." "We've still got pizza coming." "It's all yours." "Knock yourself out." "Cash is on the tv." "Happy new year." "And to the traditional strains of "auld lang syne", the joyful throng in times square begins to count down the final seconds of the old year." "Okay, I'm a sucker." "I'll give this new year thing one last chance." "Happy new year!"