"In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the major case squad." "These are their stories." "Ow!" "Let's run away." "They'll bring us back." "My boys." "Wo sind meine adlige knaben?" "Stay here." "My boys!" "We're meeting royals." "You're not clean!" "Ihr werdet..." "Verstrafft!" "Try to calm down, mama." "Aah!" "Mama!" "I sent regrets to the Huntingtons." "Their dinner conflicts with your reunion next month." "My reunion?" "I called the alumni committee and raised hell." "Believe me, now they know how to reach you." "Lukie, I'm really not up for it." "You only skip a reunion if you're fat, single, or unemployed." "There's only one decent hotel in Princeton." "We'll never get a room." "I booked a suite." "Hello?" "Yes." "Yes, this is Gray Vanderhoven." "When you called before, I told you not to..." " Who is it, Gray?" " I got it!" "Please." "It means everything to me right now." "I'll come to your place." "No, it's simply not possible." "My..." "I... it doesn... all right, I'll meet you." "What?" "The..." "Alarm company in Montauk." "Probably another raccoon." "They'll check and call back." "I'm not missing the reception for a raccoon." "Well, honey..." "I know." "But you go ahead." "I'll handle this." "So my most important social event, and I have to go without my husband?" "Lukie, it could be a break-in." "Fine." "Oh!" "Wallace, you remember Lukie Putnum?" "Oh, please." "Vanderhoven." "Oh, sorry." "I keep forgetting." "Lukie's a newlywed." "Not newly." "Almost two years." "Your husband's a Vanderhoven." " From Rheinbeck." " New Pfalz." " Congratulations." " Thank you." "I was worried you wouldn't come." "19 years." "Try 20." "Let's go grab a train." "I'll take you to a great place for dinner." "Lukie Vanderhoven has outdone herself once again by single-handedly raising over $7 million." "Thank you, roland." "So when do I meet your wife?" "That's, uh..." "That's problematic." "But..." "Strangers no more, right?" "What do you want, Anthony?" "Well, life's treated you good." "I'm..." "I'm happy for you." "Well..." "It's taken effort." "What I need to say takes effort too." " Do you need money?" " No, not money." "No, not money." "Anthony..." "I'm saying it badly." "But we were once so close." "Remember..." "She called us..." "Her adlige knaben?" "I still remember some German." "Do you?" "Listen, we'll cut through here." "It's shorter." "I'm sorry, Anthony." "I'm never going back." "Single shot fired face on from a small-caliber weapon." " Robbery?" " Possibly... no watch." "Wallet was found on the body." "No money or credit cards." "Cardboard was placed over his face." "That's a odd gesture for a street crime." "Detectives." "He has no visible exit wound." "I guess the single shot took out his pump." "Small-caliber entry." "Could be a .22." "Hit man's favorite." "Kmart suit." "White cotton socks." "Work shoes." "Dirt or grease under his nails." "Something in his sock." "Penn station locker key." "Have your people collect what's in it." "We got Victor Lustig." "No photo I.D." "Just a social security note." "Business cards?" "Thief would have taken the photo I.D." "To use the credit cards." "So we got a Brooks brothers wallet... about $300... in a kmart suit?" "You're not buying the social security card as valid?" "The only identification on that victim is that card and the name Victor Lustig." "It happens to also be the name of a 19th century con man who once sold the eiffel tower." "Victor Lustig could also be a mechanic from bayonne who got shot on the lower east side." "Name's not that unusual." "Well, my guess is that the killer planted this wallet and card to hide the victim's identity 'cause it connects them." "And here's a name..." "A prescription for compazine made out to Anthony Burris by a Dr. Desouza from Philadelphia." "Compazine..." "that's an anti-nausea drug." "I had to take it last summer after a PBA clam bake." " Let's see." " Oh, Halloween?" "I'd say the kids weren't having much fun." "Yeah, I don't think it's Halloween." "Let's see..." "So if Victor Lustig is now Anthony Burris, who's Anthony burris?" "Well, Anthony Burris's mail goes to 2112 parsifal street, Philadelphia." "This is his phone bill." "You can eat lunch on the acela." "I rent by the week or by the month mostly to single guys who work nearby." "How long did Mr. burris live here?" "Mm, about six months." "He was working part-time as a mechanic." "Do you know where?" "I only know he took the bus." "He owes a balance." "Cops gonna be payin' me?" "Uh, we'll talk after we look around." "Well, he knew how to live on minimum wage." "Guess he wore his Sunday best when he got shot." "Well, that goes along with meeting someone he was trying to impress." "Here's something that's dated a little over a year ago." ""Dear Mr. burris, I have no information" ""on the person of whom you've inquired." ""Do not contact me again." "Signed Mavis Rightmire."" "Return address is new canaan, Connecticut." "Three years ago," "I was engaged to a man named Richard Phelps." "This..." "Anthony burris person saw a photo of us taken at a charity event." "He wrote me..." "Wanting to know about Richard." "He thought he knew him and wanted to reestablish contact." "And..." "Did Mr. Phelps know Anthony burris?" "He denied it." "At first, I believed him." "Richard was Princeton, '95." "I was also Princeton." "But when I showed him the letter, his behavior changed." "What, he... he thought that you mistrusted him or..." "He made irate accusations that I was checking his past." "And that actually made me suspicious, so I hired a former police officer who found things on Richard's computer..." "Research." " Research." " On others." "Divorced or widowed..." "Well-off." "When I confronted Richard, he wanted to explain everything." "We had a nice dinner, and..." "We were very close that night." "And in the morning, he was gone." "Did he have access to your accounts?" "I-I don't think he was after money." "His own money was tied up, so I just lent him a little pocket money, and I bought him a few nice gifts." "A Brooks brothers wallet?" "The cop she hired was very thorough, and so was Richard Phelps." "His research on these women starts at kindergarten." "Lonely women..." "common mark for con men." "With a twist." "He didn't grab her money before he left." "I'm thinking if Burris's letter ruined his plan with Mavis Rightmire, it's possible burris somehow ruined a more recent plan." "I live there." "You're not lonely?" "Uh..." "My husband and I lived in town, but when it ended, I... you wanted your own life back." "I know the feeling." "That's it." "Spy hop house." "Spy hop." "It's a whaling term." " Very good." " Well..." "This is, after all, nantucket, but I have no idea what it means." "When a whale puts his head out of the water to look around, that's called spy hop." "See how it sort of juts up out of the marsh?" " Yeah..." "Like a whale." " Yeah." "So where are you from, Mr. chisholm?" "Ah, old family." "We're spread around, uh, new Mexico and Arizona." "And not Mr. Chisholm." "Tyler." "Julianna." "There's a hint of the west in your speech, but you seem very east coast." "Guess Princeton must have rubbed off." "Princeton." "Me too." "Ah!" "You do know what you're in for on nantucket in January." "Perfect writing environment." "Mind me asking what you write?" "I've had a few books published under different names, but, uh..." "The novel I'm working on now will be in my own." "I think it's very exciting that you'll create something here." "So for a winter rental," "I could let you have this for 2,000 a month." "Done." "Great." "I'll have it cleaned." "The .22-caliber bullet tumbled after entry, causing severe cardiac and arterial damage." "Death occurred within seconds." "And this is a burn." "It's old." "Early childhood." "The pattern looks like a steam iron." "There's a similar burn on the other forearm." "So as a child, he might have been an abuse victim." "And what about the stomach contents?" "Anything tell us where he had his last meal?" "Probably a vending machine." "Bologna, white bread, processed cheese." "No wonder he needed anti-nausea medication." "Well, that was probably to deal with chemotherapy." "Lab tests indicate a blood malignancy." "I'm not offering a medical expert opinion, but..." "What I saw didn't look good." "There you go." " Cash." " Yeah." "A problem?" "No." "Makes you a bit mysterious." "No, I'm..." "I'm not, uh, I'm not mysterious at all." "That's what I told my father." "He insisted on googling you." "He find anything?" "Tyler chisholm..." "Distinguished himself with a lifelong study of wood warblers." "He also taught ornithology at Cornell." "The problem is... and this is where you're caught in a lie... you do not look 84 years old." "I tell you, finding this place, it..." "It almost seems like it was meant to be." "I called the doctor who wrote the compazine prescription." "He was treating burris for lymphoma." "Had he given a prognosis?" "Six months, tops." "I doubt the killer was aware that burris was sick." "Because he wouldn't bother to kill a man he knew was dying." "I mean, why..." "Would a dying man extort money?" "Maybe he had a greedy family." "What do we know about his family?" "Uh, his medical records had only one person listed as next of kin." "Patricia Lumet, his ex-wife." "She works at a supermarket in Metro park." "Poor Anthony." "I mean, nothin' ever went right for him." "Nothin'." "You were married three years." "Was any of it good?" "Yeah, at first, kinda, but..." "You know, Anthony was damaged goods." "What do you mean?" "Well, I mean, he wasn't a bad guy." "He just couldn't hold nothin' together... jobs, night school." "He just couldn't cut it." "You weren't aware of his illness?" "You were listed as next of kin." "I guess he never had no one else." "He never really had a home, and..." "His mother was, you know, a schitzo." "And he was removed from her care." "No, she died." "Yeah, I don't know if she killed herself or what, but there was something weird, and he wouldn't talk about it, so..." "Well, he and his brother went into foster care." "His brother?" "Yeah." "Thomas." "Anthony used to talk about findin' him, but it never happened." "I gotta go." "Can't be late on break." "Eames." "Okay, thanks." "Burris's last call was to an Upper East Side residential phone." "The name's Vanderhoven." "Is he dead?" "Is that why you're here?" "Why would you assume that?" "I don't assume anything." "Then what has he done?" "Are there others?" "Is he one of those, you know..." "He signed an armored pre-nup with no objections." "When did he leave?" "Thursday night." "Why don't you tell us about that evening?" "I was to be honored at a major charity event." "We had a little Mr. and Mrs." "About a stupid phone call from the alarm company." "Nothing." "It's so tawdry." "I came home." "The place was torn up, and he was gone." "How did you meet him?" "I have a house in Montauk." "He called about renting it." "Did he?" "He didn't need to." "We met." "He was charming." "We're both Princeton, had things in common." "Princeton." "The night he left, he was annoyed at me for signing him up for a reunion." "Maybe he didn't really go to Princeton." "Oh, he must have." "He knew all the right names." "Even knew the occidental club's secret recipe for boneless shad." "You say he tore the place up." "Did he take anything of value?" "No." "He didn't find what he was looking for." "This." "I was having it framed as a surprise present for him." "It seemed to be the only thing he really valued." "Ex nobilis barusia." "Do you know what it says?" "I don't know Latin." "But Gray said it was a family crest." "He didn't wanna brag about it." "I-it documents descent from east prussian royalty." "I wouldn't know." "I don't even know who I married." "Lukie Vanderhoven married a phony pedigree." "He failed to get at her money." "They both came up empty-handed." "I don't think it was the money that Gray was after." "Lukie bragged he signed an iron-clad pre-nup." "Call me a skeptic." "No way he married for love." "5th Avenue apartment, full social calendar." "That's money." "Yeah, but it's also a lifestyle that matches a vision that he has of himself." "He left jewelry, expensive art." "But he tore Lukie's place apart looking for the certification of his family crest." "So this guy's what... some kind of penniless aristocrat?" "Well, this title that he's claiming, uh, the Count of Haugwitz?" "It existed in east prussia, but his mother's amish." "So this noble heritage, it's delusional." "And then there's Princeton." "He claims he went there, and as far as we know, he only targets Princeton grads." "Lukie swears he went there." "He even knew a secret recipe from the occidental club." "Occidental club is very prestigious, limited to select membership." "It's always been rowdy, but, uh..." "Ha." "I thought when the courts forced the club to let women in, it would calm things down, but just the opposite." "We're wondering if you remember this man." "Uh..." "Oh!" "Is that burris?" "Ha." "Yeah, Tommy Burris." "Sure." "He was real sharp." "Always wore a tie." "Even when he was washin' dishes." "Ha." "Uh..." "The students pay, what, ten grand to eat here, and they still have to wash their own plates?" "Oh, Tommy wasn't a member." "He... he worked here." "But he was a scholarship student, right?" "He wanted people to think that." "And he was smart." "He would bide his time while some smartass bragged how he had just aced a philosophy exam..." "Then Tommy would quote that guy Nietzsche in German." "But he was lying." "Well, hey, sounded good." "Called himself an auto..." "Tridact." "Autodidact." "Self-educated." "Yeah, that was him." "Yeah, he... he sat in on some classes, but he never registered." "How long was he here?" "Couple years." "Then..." "One day he just stopped showing' up." " Thanks for your help." " Sure." "There's a plaque here for five students that died in a climbing accident." ""Jeff Walters, George Gifford, Tyler Chisholm," "Richard Phelps, Gray Vanderhoven."" "Yes, Gray Vanderhoven was a student here until his death in 1983." "And Tommy burris, anything?" "Princeton hires at-risk teens as part of our community outreach." "He was an employee here." "Referred by children's protective services." "According to this, he showed real promise and was encouraged to get a GED." "But..." "There were problems." "Behavioral problems?" "He threatened a Russian history Professor who questioned some claim of his royal lineage." "Yeah..." "I remember." "The burris boys." "That's a long time ago." "You got a good memory." "It's one of my first cases." "Those you never forget." "Yeah, Tommy's the older one." "And Anthony..." "So sweet." "So sad." "He bounced from one foster home to another." "What they put him through was the real crime." " The foster families?" " The cops." "Making him testify against his brother." "Testify?" "Apparently, Anthony saw Tommy kill their mom." "Daddy, he went to Princeton." "But he told you he was born in Arizona, right?" "Our credit check gave his birthplace as Wyoming." "Why would he lie about something so insignificant?" "I was..." "Born in Arizona." "Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing... the door was open." "Mr. Morgan, Tyler chisholm." "I worked, uh, summers on my Uncle's ranch in Wyoming." "It was my first job." "Needed a social security card, so I gave the Wyoming address." "You signed for that card under oath." "Yeah." "I was, uh, 17." "You want coffee, Tyler?" "Yeah." "We run credit checks on people who rent from us." "Right, and I..." "I came up with no rating 'cause I've never borrowed money." "In today's world, that's quite a trick." "Yeah, it's more a combination of family tradition and, uh, personal choice." "I think it's unfortunate that being debt-free raises questions about someone's character." "Have some." "Great." "Have some pie with that coffee?" "Mm." "Mm-hmm." "We can waste a whole lotta time here, but it won't do any good." "We know your brother killed your mother." "No." "I don't think so." "Can you believe this?" "You know what's gonna happen?" "Your brother's gonna admit what he did, then you're gonna be in a whole lotta trouble." "Why will I be in trouble?" "You lied." "You wanna go to jail?" "No." "It's what you say." "Your brother." "He killed her." "Yeah." "So you know, they keep them in separate rooms." "They play one against the other." "With the kids trying to figure out what the guards wanna hear so they can tell it to them." "It would never have made it through court." "It didn't have to." "They were children." "Now here's the other brother." "Hey, we're all tired, but we can't leave here until this is settled." "You gotta be a man." "We know it was to protect your brother." "Didn't you protect him when your mother got mean?" " Yeah." " Well, I respect that." "He respects that." "He cried when he told us he saw you throw the heater in the tub." "He knew it was to protect him." " He saw me?" " He saw you." "That's what he says." "So you might as well give it up!" "What's that in Tommy's hand?" "It's his mother's tiara." " Detective." " Thank you." "I checked out the names of those students who died on the Mountain." "Someone just ran a general credit inquiry on the name Tyler chisholm." "Looks like he's leasing a house in nantucket." "I'm so curious about your novel." "It's, uh, still sort of unformed." "Okay." "Two children, a brother and his younger sister." "The mother..." "You sure you wanna hear this?" "Very much." "Okay." "The mother is, uh, she's a remarkable woman." "She knows the classics, music, art." "And she uses fantasies to..." "To help these children escape the poverty and dire circumstances of their lives." "They dine as nobles on spaghetti while she tells how Catherine the great made love to her horse." "Mm." "So..." "They grow up shielded by fantasy from the cruelty of the world?" "Yes." "I would imagine it makes them very close." "How does it end?" "You like a happy ending?" "I can't disappoint you." "Mr. Morgan?" "That's right." "Hello." "I'm detective goren." "This is detective Eames." "We're from the major case squad, NYPD." "You ran a credit check on a man named Tyler chisholm?" "He rented a house from us." "What's the problem?" "Is this the man?" "What is it, dad?" "Who is he..." "Really?" "We can't discuss that." "We need directions to that house." "What's going on?" "What's Tyler done?" " Stay out of this, honey." " Dad." "Julie, I'll deal with this." "You obviously know him." "Calling to warn him would be a felony." "Let's go, bud." "On your feet." "Oh... okay, okay!" " All right." " Come on, let's go." "Thomas burris." "You've got the wrong guy." "That's not my name." "Your fingerprints will prove you wrong." "That's all you'll prove." "Yes, that's my husband." "Well, his real name is Thomas burris." "Who is he?" "Where's he from?" "Well, he was born in hershey, Pennsylvania." "It's so humiliating." "I know he's a novelist." "I knew creative people at Princeton." "They aren't like other people." "He understood finance." "At our annual dinner, I heard him talk about market trends with Brad Burnap of crown funds." "Brad thought he was a genius." "I majored in English." "I know that he's gifted." "He get any money from any of these people?" "Half a million from Brad." "For my pet project." "Restoring the fountains of versailles." "He talked about his novel." "It was real." "And..." "It all went to your charity?" "Every penny." "An indictment?" "That would happen in your dreams, counselor." "We have evidence... a lease signed in another man's name." "Driver's license." "Yeah?" "So?" "Look hard." "You might find a misdemeanor." "There's something much bigger than that." "Oh, the... the tragedy of my brother's death." "The only thing that connects me to that is my grief." "Take credit for the wallet and phony I.D." "You planted on his body." "Come on, the wallet was a Christmas present." "So, Mr. D.A., the crime of re-gifting..." "What kinda time are they giving for that these days?" "Witness testimony will establish you had motive, means, and opportunity." "Oh, right." "Okay." "The wonderful Lukie." "Yeah, I-I'd be careful putting her on the stand." "She might work better for me than for you." "He's right." "She'd make him sound wholesome to avoid appearing like a fool." "And Julianna's still smitten." "You don't want a grand jury hearing anything she might say." "What's the deal, Whitney?" "How hard can we come down on the identity charges?" "He's been very smart." "Don't tell me that son of a bitch is gonna walk." "If we release him, he's gonna change his identity and vanish." "Go back to the women." "Push them on anything he's done, anything he's said, anything potentially incriminating." "He never told me anything remotely incriminating." "I believe that." "He's clever." "He's had practice." "But when you first are with a guy..." "There's usually something he says or something he does that..." "Raises a flag." "I-I'm just asking if..." "There was anything that made you ask..." "Yourself," ""is he okay?"" "Maybe something..." "Little that didn't seem to matter." "The day after he took the place," "I saw him in the skiff." "He wasn't rowing, just sitting." "He, um..." "Dropped something in the water and sat just watching where he dropped it." "I don't know what it was." "Do you know where this was?" "Hey..." "You're it, huh?" "Rolled out the big gun." " Yeah." " Yeah." "What is all this?" "Well, uh, this is your life." "This was a present?" "Christmas." "You didn't find the card?" "But you didn't wanna know the guy, so why give him a present?" "Listen, I had it good." "He didn't." "Was that because he punished himself for what he did to you, or... listen, he was six, okay?" "I blame people like you, not him." "Says here, "I couldn't see it happening again, see her burning him"..." "that's you, right?" "I paid that debt." "You were like around ten, right?" "Oh, I've..." "What does it matter, huh?" "Well, then it was reform schools, foster families rejecting you." "Who wants a matricidal delinquent, right?" "Yeah, you hear me complaining?" "No." "But you found a solution in your mother's illness." "My mother was, uh, she was schizophrenic." "There's no solutions in that." "Oh, well, the delusions of grandeur, a florid state in which you were..." "A noble..." "Count Haugwitz." "Das warst du..." "Nicht war?" "Das war ich, genau." "Ah." "What, now you're..." "you're my shrink?" "You know what I'm gonna do?" "I'm gonna use this session." "I'll credit you..." "When I beat my rap on an insanity plea." "I'll just show you." "I couldn't see it happening again, see her burning him." "I have these pictures of you here as a young noble with your mother." "And that's your brother there." "I guess he wasn't part of it." "Part of what?" "The delusion that you and your mother shared." "Which was more painful..." "Her death or his betrayal?" "Uh, I don't, uh..." "I don't distinguish between..." "Between them." "You remember killing her, right?" "Water was spilling over the sides of the tub." "The hot water had run out." "It was cold, so she had the heater on." "Excellent attention to detail." "Now..." "You were barefoot?" "Uh..." "Don't remember." "No, it's just that you said that your feet were cold, so you must have been barefoot." "It's history." "I mean, who cares?" "You should care." "It's made you who you are." "There's a picture here of the heater." "Now, it's plugged in above her." "So..." "You would have had to walk through the water to reach the heater." "What... what's this about?" "What..." "I don't..." "I admitted to killing her, right?" "I did it." "If you walked across the water and touched the heater, you..." "Would be dead or gotten severely shocked." "I don't think that you touched the heater." "I think that that's your brother's lie." "I think that you thought about it...." "Watching your mother in the bath for hours every day." "Just..." "Throw the heater in the tub." "But you didn't do it." "Yeah." "She flew into a rage because she wanted to put Anthony in the shower to wipe away the places that she burned him, all right?" "Her arm hit the cord, and..." "And then you paid for it." "And when he came back, you were gonna pay for it again." "No." "No..." "Anthony was..." "was a part of someone that I no longer wanted to be, okay?" "That's why I avoided him." "So you don't think he got back into your life to destroy what you'd become?" "Listen, your little psycho chatter babble isn't working." "Anthony was a failure." "He was tyranny of the weak, but I didn't kill him!" "Well..." "So that's what he's become, tyranny of the weak." "Isn't he all you had..." "In the world?" "When the two of you were little boys, comforting each other from that nightmare..." "Of a mother?" "These photos of..." "I think you're teaching him how to swim." "I can see he trusts you." "Did he still trust you like that?" "You know, it wouldn't be fair if I... if I didn't show you this." "Oh, his..." "His autopsy report." "You should read it." "He only had a..." "Few months at the most." "I don't think that Anthony came back to destroy your life." "I think he came back for atonement..." "For forgiveness..." "For what he'd done to you." "If you look at the photos, here, he's..." "Reaching out for you." "He trusted you." "He loved you." "I-I think that's why he came back..." "To ask for that forgiveness." "Oh..." "He loved me." "And did you feel that before you..." "Yes."