""Elizabeth approached the hotel room door." ""If Carson's intel was right, Mendez was here." "But, if Carson's intel was wrong..."" ""he'd be French-kissing her gun barrel."" ""Elizabeth knocked."" ""A voice asked, "Who is it?"" "Her heart skipped." "Mendez."" ""'Housekeeping,' she replied." ""Then she drew Graham's .9-millimeter from her holster." "It seemed fitting she'd take down her partner's..."" "Uh..." ""Killer with her... her partner's gun."" "You okay?" "I think I'm coming down with something." "Hoo!" "Got a little excited there." "Guess I can't wait to find out what happens next." "_" "I can't..." "I can't find my pen." "I want this back in one piece." "I make no promises." "Hi." "Thanks for coming." "We've met before." "Oh, yeah!" "Of course." "It's good to see you." "Hi!" "Thank you for coming." "Wow!" "You too." "All right." "Mr. Hess." "Hey." "Doug." "What are you doing here?" "Autographs." " Oh, yeah, of course." " I'm surprised to see you here." "I didn't think you were a fan." "Well, I..." "Well, they sell, and, um, if you want to be a writer, you need to know... what people want to read." "Lori?" "Are you all right?" "Gary..." "Gary, I'm sorry." "Lori, it's Craig." "Somebody, call an ambulance!" "_" "Do you know how many lawyers are listed on my subpoena?" " How many?" " Six." "League of nations hired six different attorneys." "Ah, human trafficking is a lucrative business, right?" "They want me to come in for a deposition." " Oh?" " Yes." " Know what you're gonna say?" "I can't talk to you about this." " Yeah, you can." " No, I can't!" "Because if they subpoena you, then you've gotta name names." "Yeah, that's a good point." "I got it." "What do you got, Betts?" "I'm not sure yet." "Lucas said something about spasms." "Sounds like a seizure or stroke to me." "Normally, I'd agree with you, except for the discoloration on her cheeks." "Oh, yeah." "Then you know what I'm going to ask next." "And my answer is..." "I think she was poisoned." "Toxicology won't take long." "Until then, I'm calling it "Suspicious."" "Mm." "Lori Oliver in the conservatory with poison." "Oh, my God." "What have I done?" "I'm not signing anything!" "She just died!" "Craig Davis?" "I'm Detective Flynn, this is Detective Vega." "I'm sorry." "That sounded important." "We're this close to signing a deal to turn Lori's books into a TV series." "Damn vultures wanted to close on the deal today." "How can I help you?" "We just have a few questions for you." "You were Lori's agent?" "Her manager." "Have been for five years." "How about this morning?" "Did you and Lori meet here?" "No." "I picked her up from her house around 9:00 and then we drove here together." "Did you guys stop anywhere?" "No." "Did she look ill?" "She said she had a headache." "She thought she might be coming down with something." "She thought she might be coming down with something." "I-I gave her some ibuprofen." "Where's the bottle?" "It's right here." "I'll grab it." "Actually, you'd better let us take it before anyone touches it, please." "You think there's something wrong with the pills?" "Well, right now, we're just trying to compile information." "Can you think of anyone who'd want to hurt her?" "Hundreds." "She-she has a box of hate mail upstairs." "I..." "It's okay." "I'll get it." "I know exactly where she keeps them." "Are you kidding me, Mr. Hess?" "A "D"?" "I asked for 5 pages, you gave me 20." "A kick-ass 20." "That ignored the criteria of the assignment." "Come on, you gotta at least give me some points for the murder weapon." "Yes, that was a unique kill." "But if you have characters that I don't care about, then all that remains is a gimmick." "You gotta try a little harder." "And try writing something other than crime." "I like crime." "Well, at least read the real authors of the genre, and not this junk food." "I like Lori Oliver." "Lori Oliver writes books for people who don't read." "This is all hate mail?" "From the past few years, yes." "Hate mail, death threats, incoherent ramblings, even creepy items from her books." "Well, she ever... she ever get any fan mail?" "All the time." "But this is all she cared about." "She didn't know what to do with praise." "Huh." "How long have you been her assistant, Parker?" "Three years now." "And how had she been lately?" "Pleased that the new book was getting solid reviews." "What about her personal life?" "That's... complicated." "Is there something you'd like to tell us?" "Lori loved Gary, but she didn't want him to be a part of her professional life." "She was traveling all the time." "Oh?" "She travel recently?" "Three weeks ago." "LA with Craig." "Were Craig and Lori..." "Gary doesn't know." "Mr. Hess!" "I can't believe Lori Oliver is dead." "That was so intense." "Yeah, it was." "I mean, she just... she died right there." "Right in front of us." "Yeah, I know, Doug." "It's very sad." "Seriously, though." "Have you ever seen anything like that?" "No, Doug." "I haven't." "If you could excuse me, I have a class to teach." "How can you still teach a class?" "People die every day." "Not in front of you!" "I mean, the look on her face, her... her eyes, there was such... panic." "If you need someone to talk to, the guidance counselor's office is on the third floor!" "Detective Lucas." "Thank you for bringing your handsome self into my morgue." "Angie wanted me to check in on the autopsy." "Aww..." "I thought you just wanted to hang out with me." "Oh, I see." "You're gonna make me work for it." " Aren't ya?" " What?" "I like to work for it, because I know what you really, really, really want." "Okay..." "There's my report." "And the winner is..." "Mercury?" "60 times the threshold?" "I wonder..." "Hmm." "What are those?" ""Mees' lines."" "Mees' lines?" "It's a symptom of heavy metal toxicity." "It grows out with the nail." "Well, based on that, can you estimate when she was poisoned?" "Some time within the last three weeks." "And you think it was mercury?" "Not at this concentration." "I think it was dimethylmercury." "Which is?" "One of the most potent neurotoxins out there." "It attacks your nervous system and causes irreversible brain damage." "And it's slow-acting." "What's this stuff used for?" "These days?" "Nothing." "So accidental exposure is unlikely?" "Highly." "This was intentional." "How much do you need to kill someone?" "Put out your hand." "I'd have just killed you." "Okay." "Um..." "We believe Lori was poisoned sometime in the last three weeks." "Who would do something this cruel?" "Well, we're hoping you can help us with that." "If we can figure out when Lori was exposed to the poison, it might help us identify her killer." "You were with Lori in LA, yes?" "Yes, but we barely saw each other." "Other sources say differently, sir." "What are you implying?" "That your relationship with Lori wasn't purely professional." "Yeah, I am not going to sit here and listen to you defame Lori on the day..." " that she died!" " Vega." "Look." "What are you doing?" "What's wrong?" "We're gonna get you to a hospital, sir." "We need paramedics in here!" "You've been poisoned." "That's a picture of Craig's index finger and Lori's index finger." "Well, the mees' lines are roughly in the same spot." "Does that mean they were poisoned..." " at the same time?" " Exactly." "Then why did Lori die sooner?" "Well, she had 60 times the toxic limit and he had only six times." "She just got a bigger dose." "Okay, but he's got no chance of survival, right?" "Right." "The lower dosage just means he'll live long enough to experience all of the toxin's effects." "That's a... that's a big team of doctors." "Yeah." "Apparently, dimethylmercury poisoning makes me quite a prize, from a, you know, research standpoint." "Huh." "We, um..." "We need you to clarify a few things." "Yeah." "Of course." "I'm not going anywhere." "There's no chance of survival." "I'm a dead man walking." "How long were you and Lori a couple?" "Started during her first book tour." "We've been on and off for years." "Tell us about the last month." "We were together in LA, and then I went to New York for two weeks." "Did you see her before the writers' conference?" "Yeah, the Saturday night I got back from New York." "I spent the night at her place." "Gary was, uh, away on business." "Yeah?" "When was that?" "The 17th." "The 17th?" "Okay, we're gonna have to search your apartment, in case you brought anything contaminated back there." "Yeah." "I don't need it much longer." "Thank you." " Yeah." " We'll see you soon." "Don't let him get away with this." "Who?" "Gary." "Who else?" "Can you tell me exactly what it is you're looking for?" "We can't share specific information with you just yet, but we can confirm that it was poison." "We'd like you to get tested, just to make sure that you haven't been exposed." "You think I'm involved?" "No." "We didn't say that." "Please, Detective." "My wife was a mystery writer." "Your first suspect is usually the spouse." "That is usually the case, yes, sir." "Well, not in this case." "I couldn't hurt my wife." "I loved her." "The doctor will be in touch." "Tell you what." "If he does know about the affair," " he's certainly hiding it well." " Mm-hmm." "Who only keeps their hate mail?" "Some people don't think they deserve happiness." "Anything jump out at you yet?" "Any of these people could've killed her, as far as I can tell." "What's with the stacks?" "Oh, well, this is the "I hate you, so you must die."" "The "I love you, so you must die."" "And "I want to wear your skin as a suit" stack." "Any mention of dimethylmercury or poison in general?" "No." "Any luck finding a source?" "No." "Hardly anyone carries it anymore." "And the suppliers that do sell it have extensive purchase restrictions." "Okay, so you can't order it online." "Is it hard to make?" "According to the people that I talked to... you create an amalgam of mercury and sodium, and then you combine that amalgam with methyl iodide." "Okay, yeah, not hard." "No." "But without the proper equipment, could be extremely dangerous." ""Dear, Mr. Hess." ""Thank you for your recent submission."" "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." ""While crime fiction isn't our forte," ""we felt the manuscript was..." ""competently written..." ""reminiscent of..." "Lori Oliver."" "I'm sorry." "It's such a tragedy." "Isn't it?" "Let's focus on Lori and Craig for now." "We know..." "What do we know?" "That they were together on the third, in Los Angeles." "And then together again on the 17th." "Now, Betty said that the poisoning could've happened at any time in the last three weeks." "So that's here." "One, two, three." "So that means they were most likely exposed to the DMM" " on the night of the 17th," " Uh-huh." "the day they slept together." "Are... are we interrupting you?" "Nope." "I'm good." "Everything so far has tested negative for dimethylmercury." "But is everything here?" "Looks like it's all here." "Are you sure it could be in something like her shampoo?" "Well, it's possible." "Anywhere else she might leave personal items?" "Did you check her purse?" "Everything in her purse would've been tested." "Maybe it's something that she got for Craig?" "Or from him?" "Her perfume." "Ghost orchid." "It was Craig's favorite." "She took it everywhere." "Well, forensics did not find that in either Craig or Lori's house." "No." "I just bought her a new bottle." "When?" "The 14th." "I tried it when I bought it for her." "W-w-wait, wait." "You're saying someone poisoned her perfume?" "It was a new bottle, and now it's missing." "Well, it could be anywhere." "Which is why we're starting with you and we're gonna work our way backwards." "We need you to walk us through the morning of the conference, and please be as detailed as possible." "I-I picked her up." "She was running late and, uh..." "I-I drove us to the conference." "Did she do her makeup in the car?" "No." "That's why she was running late." "I loved the way she smelled." "Craig?" "Craig." "You're driving to the conference." "Now what?" "Uh..." "She... she kept on digging in her purse for something." "For the perfume?" "No..." "No." "Her pen." "She was looking for her pen." "She-she was always losing things." "She dumped her bag out on the floor of the car to look for it." "Where's your car now?" "The killer's brilliant." "He got Lori Oliver to poison herself." "Hey!" "I can..." "I can come back." "Thank you." "It's fine." "We're just finishing up." "We were?" "What do you got?" "Uh, poisoned perfume." "Parker Wexler tested clean for the toxin, so, uh, the perfume was probably poisoned after the purchase." "Suspects?" "Well, Craig Davis was out of town." "Parker Wexler and Gary Oliver had access to the perfume." " Either one of them good for it?" " Between the two of them..." "I'm leaning towards the husband." "Hmm." "And I'm gonna go now." "Actually, maybe you can answer my question, since my witness is so reluctant." "I'm not reluctant." "I just don't want to get into it right now." "The league of nations just subpoenaed another witness." "Julie Dyer, the daughter of the man you shot in 2004." "Well, with my subpoena," "I'm not supposed to be talking about this with you, am I?" "The league kept the money to dig under every stone and are highly motivated to make sure that my case against them goes down in flames." "Can Julie Dyer help them do that?" "I don't know." "The defense thinks so." "Sam." "You need to tell me about the day you shot Alfonso Dyer." "Julie Dyer?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "She was, what?" "Uh..." "Eight years old, I think, when we responded to that call, right?" ""Responded to that call?"" "Is that how you remember it?" "I remember saving her life." "Flynn." "Yeah." "Fine." "I'll be right there." " Hey-hey-hey-hey!" " Sorry." "Enough!" "Enough, enough, enough, enough." " I couldn't kill her." " Okay." "Okay?" "I loved her!" "And she loved me!" "Okay, let's go!" "Let's get him back in his room." "You calm down, please." " Sit down." " In here you go." " Over here." " Now!" "How long have you known?" "When I found out that Craig was poisoned," "Parker told me that you two were looking for the perfume." "Look, I just..." "I put two and two together." "Why would you come here?" "You know Craig has a death sentence." "Look, am I under arrest?" "Only if you come near Craig again." "Right." "So the boyfriend's is collateral damage, and the husband's probably innocent." "Where does that leave us?" "With a box of hate mail." "Of course, coincidence can exist, but only if it makes the situation worse... never to escape conflict." "I disagree." "Um..." "Dean?" "Mr. Hess, I hope you don't mind." "Mrs. Oliver is a friend of the college and I asked if she could take some time to chat with the students." "Some advance notice would have been nice." "Oh, I don't want to interrupt." "No, no, no." "Please do." "Sounds like a yes!" "Well, it's nice to meet you." "I'm Lori Oliver." "My name's Dustin Hess." "Nice to meet you, Dustin." "Elizabeth Perfect is my favorite character." "Oh!" "Thank you." "Now, I'm sure you get this all the time, but I gotta ask you, how'd you come up with her?" "Elizabeth embodies everything that I want to be." "She's got the confidence that I wish I had, she's got the comeback that I can't think of till five minutes after a fight." "This one was sent to Miss Oliver by someone claiming to be her character," ""Elizabeth Perfect."" "♪ Creepy ♪" ""Lori, how does a perfect murder make you feel?" ""Does it make you flushed?" ""Make your mouth dry and your hands swell?" ""It makes me smile." "Best, Elizabeth."" "Those are all symptoms of dimethylmercury poisoning." "There's five more, all from the same sender." ""They say that scent" ""is the most powerful memory trigger." "I love how sweet you always smell."" "Okay, that could be about the perfume." "This one just says, "Now we're even."" "These emails started the 16th." "The day before she was poisoned." "Gary?" "Back here." "We discovered that Lori's perfume was contaminated between the 15th and the 17th." "I wasn't home." "Yeah, Parker told us." "So?" "What do you want from me?" "We're wondering who had access to your house while you were away." "Well, I think it's pretty obvious" "I have no idea what goes on around here." "Well, maybe you can give us a little bit more effort than that, sir?" "I don't know, Parker had a key, but Lori told her she liked her to work from home whenever I was out of town." "You know, she enjoyed her solitude." "You know, sometimes, I think that's all she ever cared about." " The writing?" " Being number one." "That woman could be ruthless when she wanted something." "You notice any broken windows or doors around your house lately?" "Well, I had the locks on the side door replaced a few weeks back." "The latches were getting a little loose." "You stole my pen." "Hello?" "Mr. Hess?" "Hey." "Uh, this is not a good time, Doug." "So the news is reporting that Lori Oliver had a heart attack." "Well, that's... unfortunate." "Well, here's the thing." "I was there when the paramedics arrived." "They never performed CPR." "Nobody did." "I think the police are trying to hide something." "Y... w-well," "I-I-I think you're getting a little too obsessed about this, Doug." "You're not even slightly curious?" "I-it's a sad accident, that's all." "IT traced the emails to five different coffee shops around the city." "All in this area." " That's a tight grouping." " Mm-hmm." "What else is there?" "Got a rec center." " Library." " Library." "And how about Langara College?" "Ah-hah." "Wonder what their chemistry department looks like." "Our lab is fairly advanced." "Is it advanced enough to manufacture dimethylmercury?" "I suppose so, but anyone who even attempted that would be immediately expelled." "And where is your mercury kept?" "Over here." "But these cabinets are kept securely locked." "That is not supposed to happen." "Why don't we find out who has access to these?" "Yes." "Right away." "I'm sure this can be explained." "Yeah, I'm pretty sure we can explain it." "Sure can." "The toxin was made here." "Even if the dimethylmercury was made at Langara College, we're dealing with a chemistry program with over 200 students." "That's assuming it is a chemistry student." "Between the students and the faculty, we're looking at over 1,500 people." "There's got to be a way to bring that number down." "What if we cross-reference our witnesses with the school registry?" "Worth a shot." "How long's it gonna take to cross-reference those?" "Doug Butcher." "I love living in the future." "Please tell me that he's in the chemistry program." "Uh..." "Creative writing." "But he does work at the Moral Grounds Coffee Shop." ""Moral Grounds." Wait a minute." "That's... the location of one of these emails, right?" "All right." "Well, let's go get a coffee." "Doug Butcher?" "Detectives Flynn and Vega." "You got a minute?" "Is this about Lori Oliver?" "Actually, it is." "The newspaper said she died of a heart attack." "You don't think so?" "I think you guys are feeding them false information." "Why would we do that?" "Weed out the crazies who try to confess." "You see, I'm a... a bit of a crime nut." "Oh." "You're also enrolled at Langara College." "What, uh, what courses are you taking?" " Creative writing." " Mm." "Was that a control question?" "Were you trying to see if I was gonna lie to you?" "Uh!" "Huh?" "You a big fan of Lori Oliver's?" "Oh, yeah." "I'm a huge fan." "Yeah, I have one of the last books that she ever autographed." "I mean, I know that sounds creepy, but..." "You ever study chemistry?" "Yeah, a bit in high school." "Do you mind if I take some notes?" "No." "By all means." "Why don't you start by writing down what you were doing between November 15th and 17th?" "What..." "Wait a minute." "Am I a suspect?" ""A person of interest" would be more accurate." "You can write that down." "Cool." "I mean, it's-it's not "Cool" that she died." "I mean, that's... that's tragic." "Mm-hmm." "You guys want a coffee?" "Yes, please." "There he is." "Excuse me." "Mr. Hess?" "Can I help you?" "Yeah." "I'm Detective Flynn, this is Detective Vega." "Hello." "We'd like to ask you a few questions about a student of yours." "Doug Butcher." "I hope he's not in any trouble." "Why would you think he's in trouble?" "Because you're the police." "Well, we just need some background information." "Doug said he had a meeting with you on November 15th." "Is that right, sir?" "Um..." "I believe so." "Uh, yes." "Before class." "Okay, and what kind of student is he?" "He's... he's one of the better writers I've had in a while." "Fancies himself a 21st-century Dashiell Hammett." "Mm." "So he likes the crime stories?" ""Obsessed" is probably a better word." "How about Lori Oliver?" "Was he obsessed with her?" "I wouldn't say obsessed, but he was certainly a big fan." "He was always trying to emulate her work, and write his own "Perfect Murders."" "Do you have any of copies of his work that we could see?" "Of course, yeah." "My office is right over here." "That'd be great." "Thank you." "Hey, Doug." " Hey." " You got a minute?" "Yeah, sure." "What's up?" "The police stopped by my office." "They asked a lot of questions about you." "Yeah, I know." "Apparently, I'm a "Person of interest"" "because I was there when Lori Oliver died." "That doesn't concern you?" "No." "Why should it?" "In a case like this, all the police want is to pin the blame on someone." "Right." "Yeah." "Huh." "I never..." "I never thought about that." "Just... be careful what you say." "I'd hate to see something happen to you." "Well, Doug Butcher accounted for his whereabouts with alarming detail." "Mm." "What's the general consensus?" "That he was a nice guy, friendly." "Hey." "Did he account for all of his time?" "Not every single second, no." "Well, you're gonna love this." "The highlighting." "Are you kidding me?" "Does that say what I think it says?" "It does." "You write this?" "Yeah." " The short story?" " Yeah." "The murderer uses dimethylmercury." "Yeah." "That's cool, huh?" "Lori Oliver was killed with dimethylmercury." "That's a total coincidence." "Mm, I don't know, Doug." "This story of yours is pretty detailed." "Yeah, it's almost a, um, like, a how-to manual." "Look." "Look, Mr. Hess is always telling us to do the research, so I did the research, that's all." " So who taught you about DMM?" " My cousin." "He does specialty coatings for the petroleum industry." "So he could teach you how to make this stuff?" "Yeah, he could teach me, but he didn't, because it's... it's too dangerous." "Why were you at the writers' conference?" "To meet Lori Oliver." "Maybe to revel in your handiwork?" "No, man!" "I was freaked out." "Okay?" "I..." "You can ask Mr. Hess." "Why would we ask him?" "Well, 'cause he was there at the book signing." "You know, and I think I want a lawyer." "You know, we either book him or we let him go." "Yeah." "What do you think?" "I think he's too curious for his own good, but right now, we don't have enough to make a case." "Yeah, but do you want to run the risk that he is our guy and he goes out and cooks up another batch of that stuff?" "Of course I don't, but if he isn't our guy," "I also don't want to detain him illegally." " Mm." "You're handing me things." " Yeah." "Why are you handing me things?" "I checked with the conference organizers, and they were adamant that if you wanted to hear Lori Oliver read, you had to buy a ticket, and all the tickets had to be purchased by way of credit card." "So, no Dustin Hess?" "Not for the reading." "But... if you had a conference pass, the you could go to the book signing." "Ah-hah!" "Dustin Hess." "That's funny that Mr. Hess didn't mention he was there when Lori died." "I bet there's all kinds of things he didn't mention." "You don't have enough for a warrant." "Dustin Hess had access to the lab where the dimethylmercury was produced." "Where the DMM was allegedly produced." "You know he never admitted to meeting Lori Oliver, yet he was there when she died." "According to your other suspect, a student who actually wrote about using dimethylmercury as a weapon." "Okay, Sam." "There's more than enough here for a warrant." "You want me to convince a judge?" "First, you have to convince me." "Okay, what do you need to be happy?" "Residual chemical traces on his person might be nice." "Maybe an actual connection between him and the victim." "Um..." "This is our guy." "This is a fishing expedition." "Why are you stonewalling us?" "Because I don't like surprises." "Mr. Hess?" "Doug." "Can I help you?" "I wanted to tell you about a new story I'm working on." "I don't have time, Doug." "This guy... thinks he got away with murder." "But the problem is, he didn't cover his tracks as well as he thought." "Okay..." "So what does he do next?" "Uh, I don't know, Doug." "It's your story." "What do you think he does next?" "Well, I think he goes to the police to confess." "Why would he do that?" "Because if he doesn't, someone might turn him in." "Well, someone had better have more than just a story for the police." "He has evidence." "Lori Oliver's pen that the killer planted on him." "Uh..." "Good... goodnight, Doug." "We've gone through Dustin Hess's life." "There's no connection." "There's got to be one." "Okay." "Let's try it from Lori Oliver's side." "What do we know?" "Her employment records showed she was as a reader for Mr. Davis's literary agency." "Interesting." "What did Gary say?" "Gary said... she "Could be ruthless when she wanted something."" "Nah, that was his anger talking." "Yeah." "Sometimes, that's when the truth comes out." "What did she want, more than anything else?" "Her career." "Right?" "I mean, she wanted to... to be number one." "Well, Dustin teaches creative writing." "Those who can't do, teach?" "And Lori was a reader, so would've been a gatekeeper for all the publishers." "Maybe she read his work." "Turned down a manuscript, and she's the reason he's teaching." "Could you tell us if a "Dustin Hess"" "ever submitted a book to you?" "Pass me my laptop." "Do you keep the readers' reports on file?" "Yes." "It's the best way to protect myself from a lawsuit." "Need help?" "My motor skills are going." "Next, they say it's the dementia." "But not before I lose my eyesight." "And then I get to die." "Craig, your help has really been essential." "It won't be for nothing, sir." "Yeah." "Uh..." ""Dustin Hess."" "Yes." "He submitted five years ago." ""A Perfect Murder."" "Lori read that manuscript, didn't she?" "How are you doing, Dustin?" "Fine." "Would you like anything?" "Some water?" "So you can collect my DNA?" "Please." "Oh." "Partner, we're not gonna get him with any of our tricks." "Doesn't seem so." "Why don't we try some evidence?" "Okay." "What's this?" "That is the release form that you signed when you submitted your manuscript to Craig Davis's company, which gave us the connection between you and Lori Oliver." "It's Lori's first book." "Well, your first book, really, let's be honest." "The similarities are remarkable." "But you already knew that, didn't you?" "Lori Oliver stole your book, so you took her life in return." "Do you really think I'd murder somebody for a book?" "Yes." "But why would you wait five years?" "Was it nerves?" "Take you that long to work up the courage?" "Really, if you think about it," "Dickens, Austen, Hell, Shakespeare, these guys were writing popular characters in their days." "Today, you'd call them The Literary Crowd, but..." "Or did it take you that long to discover a method?" "Doug Butcher... now, he came up with one hell of a murder weapon." "Which you stole." "Which I "stole."" "She stole my character!" "My life!" "And she didn't even remember my name!" "I'm leaving for the restaurant now." "I-I couldn't find my keys!" "The dimethylmercury in the perfume was just poetic justice." "Exactly what you deserved." "No one deserves to die." "You brought this on yourself." "I never meant to hurt you." "Keep telling yourself that." "If I could take back what I did," "I would." "All I can ask for is your forgiveness." "The least you can do is forgive me." "No." "Hallucinations are the worst side effect of anything." "Mm." "Depending on who you talk to." " What?" " Hmm?" "So I am thinking about dinner." "Your favorite, TacoFino." "I'll buy if you pick up." "Ooh!" "You had me at "Taco"." "I had you at dinner." "You did." " I'll see you in a bit." " See you in a bit." "Lucas, how are you?" "Good." "Yeah?" "You, uh, you wanna tell me when Mary left you?" "Uh, about a week ago." "How did you know?" "I've been there." "The... the first month's always the hardest." "Yeah, then it gets better?" "No." "No." "It just, uh, gets less hard." "You know, then it gets easier, and then, uh, eventually it gets, uh..." "It gets a little better." "Let's grab a drink." "What about Angie?" "She's not gonna be coming back." "Mom!" "Hey!" "Babe!" "What are you doing here?" "Ho, ho, ho!" "Oh." "Oscar said you could use some quality time." "Oh, he did, huh?" "He's a wise man." "So." "So?" "What's up?" "Uh, I have to testify at a trial, that's all." "But that's part of your job, isn't it?" "Yeah, yeah." "But this time, it's a little different, because I... have to testify for the defense." "Well, they... they know you're a cop, right?" "Yeah." "Yeah, they know I'm a cop." "But they, um, they also think that I know some information that could discredit the officer who's responsible for the arrests." "Well, uh, do you?" "Uh..." "Do you remember Mark?" "Of course, you remember Mark." "Yeah, I remember him." "He's the officer in question." "Ten years ago, he and I made a... we made a big mistake, and two people died because of it." "And I lied about it." "Mom... what's gonna happen with the case, then?" "I don't know." "Because if I tell the truth, a lot of really bad people could go free." "Well... you're gonna have to tell the truth." "Right?" "You know, whenever I'm unsure about the choices that I've made in my life," "I just have to look at you, and I know I did one thing right."