"Uh, mr." "Weaver, I apologize." "I've had this conversation more than once with Lacey." "She knows she's not supposed to use her cell phone in class." "My real concern is what she's using it for." "I know these types of web sites are out there, but a 12 year old looking at paparazzi photos of a dead body?" " You see why I find that disturbing." " Actually, I don't." "Death is a normal part of life." "My ex-wife is a medical examiner." "Dead bodies are what she does." "It's still inappropriate material for school." "Everybody's been looking at these photos." "The body... it's Nikki Parkson." " Parkson Financial, Parkson Library?" " Yeah, their daughter." "She used to be in, like, a ton of magazines." "She's really big into the environment and the rain forests." " She's really cool." " She died?" "Why didn't I know about this?" "She was sick or something." "Her funeral's today." "Cell phones are here to stay, but we do have rules." "And as parents, I expect you to help enforce them." "I agree, Mr. Weaver." "And we have wasted enough of your time." "I'm sure you have much more important issues to deal with." "Lacey's father and I will find the appropriate punishment." " So nice to meet you." " Well, I'm always available." "Megan, what are you doing?" "Talk to you later, Lacey." "This is Nikki Parkson's death certificate." "Is that your signature down at the bottom" " as the witnessing physician?" " Obviously, you know it is." "I'm just wondering why you didn't call the medical examiner after Nikki's death." "I treated Nikki for familial paroxysmal polyserositis for over two years." "She had severe renal and cardiac amyloidosis." "It was really just a matter of time." "Would you mind describing for me how Nikki passed away?" "I got a call from Lillian Parkson night before last." "I went to the house." "Nikki was supine in her bed." "I checked her vitals." " There were none." "I pronounced it." " You shoulda called it in." "The Parksons have suffered enough, Dr. Hunt." "I did what I thought was best for Nikki and for the family." "Now if you don't mind," "I really do have better places to be." "Looks like you charmed another one." "What was that all about?" "Nikki Parkson died two days ago." "He signed off on her certificate." "Yeah?" "So?" "Look at this..." "The trail of blood." "The doctor just said" "Nikki was supine in her bed on her back." "The blood should've run down her neck." "That blood runs forward toward her chin." "So either gravity failed or someone's lying." "We need to stop that funeral." "Curtis." "Where's Kate?" "Do I have to remind you again that I am not her assistant?" " You can try." "I'm not sure it'll do any good." " Why do you need her?" "I'm about to dive into something that could ruffle some feathers." "Just checking in." "Whoa." "Stop the train." "You gon' check in with the chief before you get in trouble?" "But since the chief isn't here..." "You're gonna just dive right on in anyway, aren't you?" "You're the deputy medical examiner." "You want to make the call?" "Me approve one of your schemes?" "Oh, no." "Mnh-mnh." "This conversation never even happened." "Understand me?" "Hey." "O... one question." "Do you want to be involved in Lacey's life or not?" "One asinine question." "You know I do." "Okay, that back at the school there... that's not involvement." "That's the same kind of work-comes-first attitude" " that got us here." " I'm sorry." "It couldn't be helped." "But there was no reason both of us had to stay there." " You can handle it." " No, no, no." "No, see, that's just it." "I don't want to be the bad cop all by myself." "I know how that ends." "She turns 16, and then she..." " she wants to move in with her mother." " Maybe that's my plan." "I did take her phone away from her." "All right." "I will talk to her." "I will play bad cop." "But right now, I gotta go." "Don't you think we should talk to the family first?" "The Parksons are very rich and wield a lot of power." "Well, that's... that's kind of what I'm talking about." "If they're covering something up, they'll only make things harder." "Besides, I'm not here for them." "I'm here for Nikki." "You do nice work." "She looks beautiful." "You know, the service doesn't start for another hour." "I'll go get my boss." "Young, wasn't she?" "22... her whole life ahead of her." "All the blood's gone now." "You see something?" "Give me a tissue, will you?" "A ligature mark?" "So much for natural causes." "What do you think you're doing to my daughter?" "I am terribly sorry, Mrs. Parkson." "I know that this is a difficult time for you, and I'm afraid I'm going to make it a lot worse." "You can't bury Nikki today." "Body of Proof 1x09" " Broken Home Original air date May 17, 2011" "You two can't wait for me to find the bodies." "You gotta go finding 'em on your own now, huh?" "You'll have to take that up with Megan." "I'm guessing Megan's got enough on her plate right now." "Have you thought at all about what you're doing" " to my family, Dr. Hunt?" " I understand, Mrs. Parkson... 300 mourners are due here in less than an hour." "Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is going to be?" "This has to be some kind of a joke." "I'm sitting, writing a eulogy for my sister, and I get a call that you're seizing her body?" "I'm very sorry, but there is now a question about" " the cause of death." " I don't care what the excuse." "My sister deserves better than to be paraded out there" " for the cameras." " Mr. Parkson, Mrs. Parkson, I'm Dr. Murphy." "I'm the chief medical examiner." "I assure you, we are doing everything possible to protect Nikki and your family." "Don't you want to know the truth about your sister?" "You really think we don't already know the truth?" "Nikki killed herself." "And you thought it would be all right to just cover up her suicide?" "To protect her memory, her dignity." "You've seen the press out there." "You think they care about my sister?" "We wanted to keep this private." "Now, thanks to you, this is how she'll be remembered, forever." "This is Dr. Megan Hunt, performing the autopsy of Nikki Parkson." "There is a linear mark, 2.5 centimeters in width, situated horizontally on the upper neck." "It extends obliquely upward and backward." "Present within the mark is a pattern of a braided cord." "An elliptical impression is present behind the left ear, bearing the same corded pattern." "All indications... consistent with a suspended hanging." "Well, you made the headlines." "You wanna see?" "Not particularly." "Lacey looked up to this girl." "Well, that's not a bad role model..." "The Franklin School, Princeton, always top of her class, tons of charity work, and... and uniquely enough in this day and age, no sex tape, no scandals." "Seems like she was something special." "What do you know about paroxysmal polyserositis?" "Uh, symptoms include inflammation, repeated fevers, uh, abdominal pain, chest pain, joint pain, skin lesions... all treatable with colchicine, which, incidentally, is derived from the crocus flower." "Ethan, I am impressed." "Thank you." "I'm on the internet." "But you're right." "She really was something special." "Please sit down." "Nikki knew she was dying." "Her heart and kidneys were going." "That's how it finally gets you." "And she was taking colchicine?" "Every day." "It just wasn't very effective." "Nikki got depressed and discouraged." "She had seen her father waste away from the same disease." "She always said she didn't want to die like that." "And before you go digging him up, uh, he died in a hospital surrounded by doctors almost five years ago." "Who actually found Nikki?" "I did." "It was around 11:00." "My mother went up to check on Nikki." "I heard her scream, I..." "ran upstairs to see, and..." "I saw Nikki hanging there." "I thought maybe I could save her." "I tr..." "Uh, she was beyond saving." "Whose idea was it to cover up the suicide?" "Mine, and I'd do it again." "Nikki spent her life doing things to help other people." "That's how I wanted her to be remembered." "Not like this." "So I cut her down, I put her in her own bed, and called the doctor." "I just..." "I can't believe she's gone." "I spent every day of the last two years caring for Nikki." "I..." "I gave up everything to be at her bedside." "I..." "I don't know what I'll... what I'll do now." "I really am sorry for your loss, Mrs. Parkson." "Thank you." "Hi." "I didn't know there was someone else in the house." "Doesn't surprise me." "I'm the one they don't talk about here." "I'm Sara." "Nikki's sister." "Peter Dunlop." "I'm with the M.E.'s office." "Uh, suppose I could see Nikki's room?" "Sure." "So you live here as well?" "Me?" "No." "I escaped this house five years ago." "This is my first time back, and as soon as the funeral's over, I'll be gone again." "Troubles with your mother?" "I saw the way you looked at her in the hall." "I must seem like a total bitch, huh?" "It's just, with Lillian, everything's about Lillian." "You heard her, how she lost everything, what's she gonna do now." "You said that you left five years ago." " That was the same time your father died." " Once he was gone, there was no buffer between me and my mom." "So you left." "I was thrown out, actually." "I got caught with some coke, embarrassed my mother, which was the real crime, so she threw me out and cut me off entirely." "That must have been rough." "Best thing that ever happened to me." "Nikki's room." "That's what she used." "She tied a piece of it on the beam in there." "Nikki was amazing." "The best of the three of us, by far." "The only regret I had about leaving" " was that I couldn't take her with me." " Did you keep in touch?" "I tried." "We e-mailed, talked on the phone sometimes." "The last few weeks, she was sounding really depressed, despondent." "That's why I came back from London." "I was hoping I could cheer her up." "I thought I had." "We're back." "Just finishing up the neck." "We brought you a present." "Is it eggplant parm from Remmy's?" " Not exactly." " We pulled this from the trash." "Oh, I'll pull the skin flap down." "We can make a comparison." "Well, it looks like a perfect match." "I've got a lot of e-mails from Nikki to her sister." "There was no mention of suicide, but the girl was clearly depressed." "Yeah, family interviews also support suicide." "I'm ready to sign off on state of mind" " as soon as you're ready with the body." " Just about." "Hold on a second." "There is bruising... on the strap muscles." "Bruising, from the rope?" "Below the rope." "No question." "Then what bruised 'em?" "Hands around her neck." "The hanging was only meant to make it look like a suicide." "Nikki Parkson was murdered." "What the hell is all this?" "We have a warrant, Mr. Parkson." " Nikki's bedroom is now a crime scene." " A crime scene?" "Your sister didn't commit suicide." " She was murdered." " This is crazy." "Have you completely lost your minds?" "Nikki was sick." "She killed herself." "No, this is insane." "You're not going in there." "Well, I can arrest you if you'd like." "This is pointless." "I mean, how am I supposed to gather evidence?" "She's been embalmed." "I don't even have the clothes she was wearing." "You know, she's had a manicure," " for Pete's sake." " When you're done with that," "I need a revised death certificate." "Cause of death... manual strangulation." "Are you sure?" "I'm only asking just because you just... you don't seem 100% sure." "Yes, I'm sure." "I just don't understand it." "I'm looking at her heart and kidneys." "There's advanced amyloidosis." "She was already dying." "Why would somebody want to murder her?" "A mercy killing maybe?" "Somebody couldn't stand to watch her suffer." "There's a lot more merciful ways to end somebody's life." "Well, I don't claim to have all the answers." "I just came in to tell you your daughter called." "She's on her way over to see you." "Oh, she must be going crazy without her phone." "A little young to have gout, isn't she?" "She had beta thalassemia minor, so age is not a factor." "Prep that." "Get it on a slide." "Wait." "You think she meant me?" "You think she didn't mean you?" "All right, so let's say you're the killer." "Nikki's in bed or she's in the chair reading." "One way or another, my hands end up around her throat, and I strangle her, then I grab a piece of cord from the curtain." "All right, question is, though, do you tie it around the beam first... or do you put it around her neck and hoist her up?" "Well, if I want to make it look like a true suicide..." "I'd have to go with the tying over the beam first." "And then I make a noose... and lift Nikki up into it." " Suicide." " Who else had access to the room" " apart from the family and the doctor?" " No one was here that night." " The help was all gone by 7:00." " Yeah, that's the "who."" "The other big question is the "why."" "That's easy." "Rich people like this?" "It's always about money." "Okay, this is new territory for both of us, so bear with me." "Can't we just tell dad you yelled at me?" "No." "And I'm not gonna yell at you." "You just need to understand that what you did was wrong." "And your father and I both agree on that." "What's so funny?" "I'm sorry, it's just this whole tag-team parenting thing, you guys both being at my school." "Why do you guys think you have to keep it a secret?" "What do you mean, a secret?" "What?" "You and dad... getting back together." "Where did you get that idea?" "Please." "Dad's been out, like, almost every night, and the caller ID at home has logged a ton of calls from your office." "It doesn't take a genius." "Okay." "I think we're done here." "Mom..." "Are you okay?" "I am sorry to disappoint you, Lacey, but your father and I are not getting back together." "Here's your phone." "I'll talk to you soon." "I love you." "Mwah." "Go." "Bye." "Todd." "Just had a nice talk with Lacey." "You need to call me... soon." "Bastard." "Oh, God." "You know, it's ridiculous we gotta sneak around like this." "We're both adults... single." "Uh, I'm not the only one who wanted to keep things quiet, you know." "No, I know." "I wasn't..." "didn't mean it like that." "I just..." "I... it shouldn't feel sleazy, and it still kinda does." "Well, maybe it's time to get this out in the open." "It'll have to happen sometime, assuming we keep... doing whatever this is that we're doing." "But, um... this was nice." "And I didn't think it was sleazy." "Really?" "Sexy, definitely." "But not sleazy." "You're not gonna believe this, but Sam's crime tech's found semen on Nikki's sheets." "They're running the DNA right now." "Why wouldn't I believe a beautiful young woman was having sex?" "Well, it's just, I mean, was sex even a possibility in her condition?" "She was weak, but not that weak." "Okay." "I have what you wanted." "What did I want?" "I made up a slide of what Curtis thought might be gout in Nikki Parkson's toe." "Turns out he was right." " That doesn't make sense." " Why not?" "Ethan." "I know I should know, because..." " Nikki was on colchicine." " And colchicine is used to treat gout." "There is no way she could develop a gout flare like that." "Are we sure she was on colchicine?" "According to her medical records, 3 milligrams a day." "We do have her pill dispenser." "Get it." "You're gonna hate me." "I already hate you, Dryer." "You say that, but every April when you want your taxes done, you are loving me." "What'd you dig up on Nikki Parkson's finances?" "Money is not your motive." "The only real funds that she controlled are in the charitable trust... they have to be donated... to the rain forests, to be specific." "So... unless you're an endangered tree frog or a golden tamarin..." "Nobody profits from her death." "Keep digging on it, will you?" "Man, Nikki took a lot of pills." "Which one was colchicine?" "This one is supposed to be, but..." "You're gonna light it?" "It smells like crème brûlée." "Actually, he's right." "That's sugar." "They're placebo pills." "No wonder the poor girl was dying." "She wasn't getting her medicine." "Mother, what are you doing?" "What are they doing here?" "We have some questions for your mother, Mr. Parkson." " Well, she doesn't have to answer them." " I want to." "The sooner this is done, the sooner we'll have Nikki back." "We need to have her funeral." "So what can I tell you, Dr. Hunt?" "Are you familiar with Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome?" "I'm sure I've heard of it." "I couldn't say exactly what it is." "In some cases, parents actually make their children sick in order to get attention." "You're gonna say my mother gave Nikki F.P.P.?" "It's a genetic disease." "She was born with it." "No, that's not what I was going to say." "Not exactly." "But you did get quite a lot of attention from your circle because of Nikki's illness, didn't you?" "I'm blessed with supportive friends if that's what you mean." "I checked with the pharmacy, Mrs. Parkson." "You personally signed for Nikki's medication." "So why didn't she ever receive it?" "Oh, that's ridiculous." "My mother was religious about Nikki's medication." "I saw her dole out the pills every night." "She gave her pills, yes, but not the colchicine." "They were sugar pills, placebos." "How could you do that to your own daughter?" " You don't understand." " Oh, I understand." "As long as Nikki stayed sick, you felt important." "Mom, what are they talking about?" "I'm putting an end to this." "We're done talking." "What happened?" "Did Nikki find out?" "Did she threaten to tell all your society friends what you did to her?" "Did you hear me?" "We're done." "Just imagine the embarrassment." "Is that why you killed her?" "Stop it!" "I want you out of here." " Now." " All right." "We're leaving." "Thank you for the tea." "Two years, that woman watched this girl suffer... her own daughter." "If Nikki had gotten her colchicine, the attacks could've been prevented." "She would've lived a fairly normal life." "Do you really think her mother killed her?" "Believe me." "I've known women like Lillian." "All they care about is their image, more than anything else." "It's possible." "Megan." "What's going on?" "I just got your message." "Let's go in my office." "So what's so urgent?" "What happened with Lacey?" "Our daughter thinks we're getting back together." "Why in the world would she think that?" "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you're screwing my boss." "Oh, you're unbelievable." "Unbelievable." "Of all the women in this city, you have to pick her?" "Kate was an expert witness on one of my cases, and I..." " w... we just hit it off." " Oh, I'll just bet you did." " It just happened." " Lacey doesn't know about this?" " No." " So there haven't been any sleepovers yet?" "Oh, jeez." "Megan, come on." "Don't start." "When are you planning on passing that little milestone?" " You are totally out of bounds here." " I'm out of bounds?" "!" " Yes, you are..." " You have put me in an untenable position." "We're all grown-ups here." "We have done nothing wrong." "You don't see me sleeping with one of your partners, do you?" "Well, maybe you should." "It's been five years." "You can't tell me you've been a nun." "But you know, thank you, though." "You know what?" "You did make me realize one thing at least." "It's time to tell Lacey." "We found your DNA on Nikki's bedsheets." "No offense, but you're not exactly in Nikki's league, are you?" "Auto theft, burglary... you pled out to pot possession in Costa Rica a few months ago." "Makes us think you might have been up to no good." "Maybe tried to take advantage of Nikki's condition or even worse... rape." "Rape?" "Nikki and I were in love." " Did Nikki know that?" " I'm serious." "I delivered a "get well" basket to her a couple of months ago." "I..." "I had a copy of "Catcher In The Rye"" "in my back pocket." "Turns out, it was her favorite book." "I..." "I ended up staying for a while and reading to her." " We hit it off." " Well, that's you and Nikki sitting in the parlor." "A long way from messing up her sheets." "I kept going back." "Nikki was cool." "We liked the same stuff." "And... and she didn't care if I wasn't rich or anything." "How did her family react to you being around all the time?" "They didn't like it." "Her mother tried to bar me from the house." "But that didn't stop you, right?" "I told you, me and Nikki were in love." "That's a beautiful story, Shane." " But..." "I don't buy it." " Believe what you want." "What I believe is, you strangled Nikki and tried to make it look like a suicide." "No, no." "No, no way." "Never happened." "You were in her room, and right after that, she's dead." "She was alive when I left." "I swear." "Y... you don't believe me?" "Ask the sister..." "Sara." "She was there." "She walked in on us." "It's true." "I was out for the evening." "When I got back home, I went up to Nikki's room." "What time was that?" "I'm not sure." "Close to 10:00?" "Anyway, when I got to Nikki's door, it was closed." "I didn't think for a minute anything was going on, so I walked in." "And Shane was there?" "At first, I was angry." "But then I saw Nikki's face." "She looked so happy." "What'd you do after that?" "I gave Shane a minute to dress, and then I walked him out of the house." "Why didn't you mention him when we talked before?" "I threw him out." "He couldn't have done it." "So you said that happened around 10:00." "What happened after that?" "I don't want to get my brother in trouble." "Sara, you need to tell us the truth about what happened that night." "Billy must have seen me leading Shane out, because when I came back inside, he was upstairs." "He was yelling at Nikki." "He sounded really pissed." "We're not gonna get anywhere near Billy now." "He's totally lawyered up." "Listen to this." ""The Parksons have made every effort to cooperate"" ""but they no longer see a benefit"" ""to continuing a dialogue."" "They're hiding." "The question is, which one did it..." "Billy or Lillian?" "I mean, she had the motive..." "trying to protect her image." "Yeah, but Billy had a motive also." "Last week, he inquired about amending Nikki's trust." "He wanted to change her choice of charity." "Where did Nikki want her money to go to?" "An environmental fund." "Uh..." "Rain forests?" "Something Lacey said." "The point is, maybe Billy couldn't stand to see all that money going to frogs and trees." "Might have led to a fight." "Which means that this could be about money after all." "Either way, I need you two to help me link one of them to this crime." "Oh, so much happened to Nikki's body before we got it." "Megan." "Would you mind stepping into my office for a minute, please?" "Can it wait?" "I just think that we should talk." "Funny." "You weren't in any hurry to talk before." "Funny thing... you always go straight to the bodies." "What are you talking about?" "Whenever something is bothering you, this is where you're drawn for solace, to the dead." "Maybe because they don't make annoying observations." "Okay." "So you care to share what's wrong?" "Kate is sleeping with my ex-husband." "And this bothers you?" "You need to ask?" "You and Todd have been divorced for, like, five years." "You... you'd have to figure he'd be seeing somebody." "Yeah, but Kate?" " What do you got against Kate?" " She's screwing my ex-husband." "Unless you still have feelings for him," "I don't see the problem." "Forget it." "You see?" "You're doing it again... the... the dead thing." "You see something?" "Her manicure." "It doesn't match her pedicure." "The color's completely different." "Okay." "So?" "So the mortuary didn't touch her toes." "That makeup artist was only worried about making her look pretty from the waist up for the viewing." " Ethan." " Yeah." "Did you scrape Nikki's toenails for evidence?" "Uh, I t..." "I told you." "It was pointless... you know?" "No, they were all clean, cut, and painted for the funeral." "Not her toenails." "Look, I hate to be a downer, but Billy Parkson's DNA is not necessarily in the system, and there is no way in hell that he's gonna give us a sample voluntarily." "We don't need Billy's DNA." "We have Nikki's." "We can do a sibling comparison to get a match." "Right away." "Well, this is nice." "I've never been here." " Thought you'd like it." " Thank you." "You're welcome." "I'm sorry this has all..." " blown up..." " No." " the way it has." " There's nothing to apologize for." "I know." "I just don't want it to cause you any grief at work." "You know what?" "We're all adults." "It'll be fine." "We'll just soldier through." "Just know, I may need to call you for support." "Have you talked to her yet?" "I approached it." "But I didn't want to push." "That's probably smart." "Megan can be, uh, a little difficult sometimes, to put it nicely." "Okay, but let's not do that." " Okay." " Okay?" "I don't want to talk about her like she's the enemy in this." "Look, this is still so new, you and me." "So how about we just... accept that it's gonna be a little clumsy... at first, and, um... the rest, we'll figure out as we go?" "Right." "At least we don't have to hide it anymore." " Yeah." " Right?" "All right." "I think... we just need to get this whole thing out in the air." " What thing?" " Todd and me dating." "You see how easy that was?" "Why didn't you have the decency to come tell me that five weeks ago?" "Megan, the only reason I didn't say anything about the relationship before is because" "I don't even know yet if it is a relationship." "The bottom line is, I don't want anything" " to affect our work here." " Maybe you should've thought of that before you jumped into bed with my husband." "Your ex-husband, and we didn't jump into anything." "You know, I don't care anymore." "Let's just move on." "Yeah, I would love to move on," " but obviously..." " You know what I found?" "I..." "I just walked into the middle of something, didn't I?" "Um, the DNA results came back from the tissue under, uh, Nikki's toenail." "The sibling comparison is positive." "So it is Billy's?" "No." "It's a female sibling." "The DNA is Sara's?" "Just got your message." " So Sara Parkson, huh?" " Yeah." "Her tissue was deeply embedded under Nikki's nail." "It wasn't from any kind of casual contact." "It was violent." "Okay." "This is weird." "Uh, bizarre, actually." "I..." "I just..." "I just got the full DNA report." "Um, the lab found a second DNA mixed in with Sara's, and it's not human." "Then what is it?" "Some sort of organism... uh, trypano... uh, trypanoso..." "Trypanosoma cruzi?" "That's right." "It's a parasite." "Your girl was bit by a kissing bug." "So Sara has Chagas disease." "The parasite's in her blood." "Bingo." "It's pretty common in certain parts of the world." "The transmission vector is an insect." "Probably rhodnius prolixus or rhodnius pallescens." "Is Chagas disease something" " that she could've picked up in London?" " Not hardly." "If the bug was R. prolixus, we're talking about Guatemala or Honduras probably." "If it was R. pallescens, then she spent some time in Costa Rica." "Our delivery boy Shane was just in Costa Rica." "Got back three months ago." " A coincidence?" " They're in this together." " They gotta be." " But still, why kill Nikki?" " We don't have a motive." " Maybe we do." "Nikki's charity was rain forests, right?" "What do you want to bet it was started in Costa Rica?" "We made the connection, Shane... you and Sara," "Costa Rica." "See, right now," "Sara's family is getting her a big, fancy lawyer." "The lawyer's gonna call his friend the judge, and the two of them are gonna offer Sara a real sweet deal to lay this whole thing on you." "You're done." "And you're just gonna sit there and take it." "No." "No way I'm taking the blame." "It was her damn plan." "All right." "So walk me through it." "I met Sara on a beach in Costa Rica four months ago." "She told me about her rich little sister back home who was dying." "Sara had a plan to use the sister to get a share of the family's money." "She was pretty bitter about scraping by when her family had so much cash." "And your job in this was what?" "Just to... cozy up to Nikki." "And convince her to will her money over to the fake rain forest foundation that Sara set up." "Sara told me everything I needed to know about Nikki... her favorite books and foods, the kind of music she liked, all that stuff... so getting in tight with her was easy." "And the environment was already her thing, so... piece of cake." "I don't get it." "All you had to do was sit back and wait for Nikki to die." "The money would've gone straight to Sara." "What happened?" "Nikki changed her mind." "She wanted to switch charities." "That's why Billy was looking to reassign the beneficiary." "I know why you killed her." "You're wasting your time." "You knew Nikki better than anyone." "You knew just how to manipulate her." "But she surprised you, didn't she?" "She changed her mind, picked a new charity over yours." "That's why you came rushing home." " Not to comfort her..." " Nikki, to talk her out of it." "you've always cared about the rain forest." "She wouldn't listen, would she?" "This is just more important to me now." "I don't know why that's so hard to understand." "So one night when you knew that Shane would be there, you walked in on them." " Sara, what are you doing in here?" " Shut up." "Maybe you gave her a second chance." "Or maybe you just wanted to kill your sister." "But even sick and dying," "Nikki struggled to stay alive." "She fought back." "She kicked you." "We have your DNA from under her toenail." "You took a cord from her window... threw it over the rafter... and then made it look like she hanged herself." "Tell me... what's it like to watch your sister die?" "It took you longer than you expected, didn't it?" "Did her body convulse?" "Did she struggle?" "It was... just supposed to be a con." "But she had to ruin it." "She was gonna give her money to her disease, to research." "She wanted to help people so they wouldn't have to suffer like she did." "People she didn't even know." "I'm her sister." "Do you have any idea how much money my family has?" "And they cut me off like I never even existed." "Besides... she was dying anyway." "Déjà vu." "We're back to where we started from." "No." "Nikki got justice." "She can rest in peace now." "You must think I'm a monster." "You're right." "I do." "You have to know..." "I loved Nikki very much." "I'd do anything I could to have her back." "Honestly, Mrs. Parkson, I'm not interested." "We're here for Nikki, not for you." "They, however, are here for you." " What is this?" " You're under arrest, Mrs. Parkson, for interfering with your daughter's medical care." "Y... you're doing this here?" "Now?" "You have no proof." "Yes, they do, mom." "I found Nikki's medicine... all the pills you never gave her." "You did this to me?" "What about our family?" "When have we ever been a family?" "This way." "So you know," "Nikki's money is gonna go to help fight her disease, just as she wanted." "That's what she'll be remembered for." "Thank you, Dr. Hunt." "Mom?" "I noticed that your other cover was pretty beat up." "Aren't you supposed to be punishing me or something?" "I mean, we're at my favorite restaurant, and you got me a gift." "It's a thank-you." "If it wasn't for you, we would never have found out the truth about Nikki Parkson." "I guess that's kinda true, huh?" "I know that your father talked to you about Dr. Murphy." "Yeah." "We're not getting back together." "I don't know if you'd gotten your hopes up about that." "I'm fine." "How are you, though?" "I mean, dad's dating your boss." "I'd be going crazy right now." "Thank you." "You are the first person to acknowledge how hard this is." "I promise I'll hate her." "No, no." "That won't help anyone." "Just promise that you'll respect her and... give her the benefit of the doubt once in a while." "Okay?" "Okay." "Let's have another dessert." "I thought the rule was just one?" "Oh, who cares about rules."