The Closer s03e11 Episode Script
Lover's Leap
All right, come on.
Come on! Keep coming.
Keep coming.
Come on! Plenty of room.
Plenty of room.
Let's go.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
Plenty of room.
Plenty of room.
That's good.
Chief, are you sure you've recovered enough from your surgery to be doing this? I have a note from the doctor, Sergeant.
You can read it if you'd like.
Thank you.
Morning, everybody.
Where's our victim? A traffic chopper pilot spotted the car Fire and Rescue rappelled down the hill, found the body, female, early 40s.
Declared dead on the scene.
Called a patrol car.
- Most of our vic is over there.
- Most of her? Coyotes came by the body during the night, Chief.
Yuck.
So it's a traffic accident.
And we're here because? The victim's ID was found in the car.
Her name is Marguerite Scott, and she worked for the Department of Homeland Security.
Fire and Rescue guys brought this up.
Car was a rental.
Victim picked it up five days ago at LAX.
Paid extra for a hybrid.
Our accident investigators saw no signs of a collision, no skid marks.
It seems like she accelerated right off the cliff.
If she's from DC, she might've been lost.
Didn't see the turn.
Or she did it on purpose.
A woman so concerned about the planet that she rents a hybrid to kill herself in? I don't know.
Maybe she saw a tree down there she wanted to hug.
Detective Daniels, could you please get in touch with someone from Homeland Security? Ask them what Ms.
Scott might've been doing here? - Yes, ma'am.
- Thank you.
Pardon me, sir.
I'm Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson of the LAPD and I need to examine the scene of the accident, but I'm just recovering from abdominal surgery.
So I was wondering if you could pretty please give me a lift? Let's go.
Chief, you are not physically ready for this.
I need to see the body.
We don't have training on those harnesses.
We're not supposed to use them.
You're not doing it, Sergeant.
Take the rest of the crew and climb down, and I'll meet you there.
- Ready whenever you are.
- Okay.
All right.
Now, wait, wait, wait.
I have a duty! Okay, wait! Damn it! Chief! Let's go.
Watch your step, guys.
- You're not coming? - I don't hike.
Hard to tell which injuries are from the crash and which from the coyotes.
Looks like they didn't touch her face.
Thank you.
Let's take a look at the car.
We didn't find a handbag or a cell phone.
Detective Sanchez is still doing a search of the perimeter of the crash site.
Now, she was from out of town, Chief, so she may have been using the GPS system that comes with the car.
Assuming the motherboard's still intact, we can download all the data, see what addresses she was punching in.
I see a valet ticket down there.
Let's check her hotel room, drag her room phone and try and find her cell, see who she was talking to.
Lieutenant Flynn, if you could grab that valet ticket, please? Lieutenant Tao, as soon as Buzz has what he needs here, please have this car towed to the print shed.
And Sergeant Gabriel, let's see if you can take the body to the morgue, please? See if we can determine the exact cause of death.
Oh Chief? - Detective Sanchez, you find anything? - Found a toe, Chief.
Bagged it.
- Chief, listen - Let's hand it off to Sergeant Gabriel here.
- Have him take it to the morgue.
- Chief Chief, listen.
- Yes, Buzz? What is it? - You're standing in poison oak.
Hey.
Are you okay? Perfect.
Perfect.
Well, I just need to take these painkillers that the doctor gave me, but I cannot seem to find them.
So was Maggie Scott's death an accident or what? Oh, we don't know yet.
She is a Department of Homeland Security employee.
And Detective Daniels says that she was here on business, but they won't tell us why or what she was doing.
She was an accountant.
And she was auditing us.
You called her Maggie.
Yeah.
She was a friend.
Listen, I'd appreciate it if you kept me very closely advised about what happened to her.
Sure, sure.
And no worries about overtime on this one.
- I'll cover it somehow.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
- Sure.
Impossible.
Homeland Security gave us a grant for new communications equipment so police and fire could communicate during a crisis.
Maggie Marguerite Scott was sent by DHS to keep tabs on how we were spending their money.
Part of LAPD's financial troubles.
For every dollar the feds give us, we spend $2 trying to prove we're not wasting it.
Well, there's your motive, Chief.
Everybody hates an auditor.
Maggie's husband is on his way to LA.
But our friends at DHS were more eager to talk about Maggie's missing cell phone and laptop, both of which are encrypted and contain classified information.
Which is why I can't get a phone dump.
- What did we find in Maggie's hotel room? - No sign of forced entry.
And although she never used the phone in her room, we couldn't find a cell phone anywhere.
We did, however, find a laptop charger.
We pulled the navigation system out of Maggie's car, Chief.
The screen is shot.
But we got the addresses she typed into her GPS.
The first one is from her hotel and the second is - She was in our building.
This week.
- Yes.
Most likely to see Jim Hanson in Fiscal Operations.
And there's the Italian restaurant downtown.
We called.
She dined there two nights ago.
Alone.
The next address is a business in North Hollywood.
Civil Audio.
Which supplied the radios we purchased with the DHS grant money.
This last address is interesting.
Elysian Park Drive, which is precisely where Maggie Scott's car went off the cliff.
And it's only five blocks from LAPD's Academy Road.
Yeah, but why would she wanna know how to get to that exact spot? I mean, there wasn't even a house there.
Maybe she had a boyfriend that no one knew about.
I mean, a lot of couples go up there to, you know, check out the view.
Well, she was a little long in the tooth to be necking in her car.
Priority Homicide, Provenza.
Yeah.
Hey, look.
She's a federal employee working for Homeland Security.
And she's married.
So maybe she didn't want anybody at the hotel to see who she was with.
That was Gabriel, Chief.
They're ready for you at the morgue.
Wonderful.
Okay, Lieutenant Tao? I would like to talk to No, thank you.
This Jim Hanson from the Fiscal Operations Department.
All right.
Thank you.
So, Chief, you really think Maggie's death had anything to do with us? I don't know, Commander, but whoever was meeting her at Lover's Lane wasn't just interested in Maggie.
They wanted her computer, too.
Carry on, everybody.
Can it wait? I'm sitting on a wiretap.
It won't take long.
I have a dead employee from the Department of Homeland Security by the name of Marguerite Scott and I need you to get a dump on her encrypted cell phone.
Why don't you just download it? It's missing.
Along with her laptop, also encrypted.
I don't know if I should check on this for you.
Oh, if I have to hear one more time about how your friends are making fun of you - for doing me favors - It's not that.
I'm recovering from surgery! Please! There are new rules in place.
If you get us involved Look, I can't have chocolate anymore.
Do you understand that? Do you? Please just make the call.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Okay, Brenda.
Marguerite Scott.
I'll make the call.
Great suit.
Did you get it at Fred Segal? Yeah.
Yeah, I did.
I know this girl there.
She gets me a discount.
Love that place.
I live just around the corner from there.
Sorry.
That took so long.
- What have you learned? - It's a little complicated.
Your vic survived the crash and was well enough to climb out of the car and crawl her way up the hill.
Crawl? You sure she wasn't thrown out of the car? No.
These are seatbelt bruises, which means she was definitely strapped in at impact.
And then look.
At the dirt under her nails.
The abrasions on her knees and elbows.
She crawled up that hill.
The real question is how she was able to climb at all when she expired instantly from massive trauma to the head.
- But that didn't happen during the crash.
- No.
I found a splinter in her head, indicating someone struck her with a branch or a large stick.
And the final blow might have come from a rock.
After she drove off the cliff.
Not her best day.
Two last things.
Notice anything unusual about your vic's face? Don't make me guess.
Coyotes always feed on the body's soft tissue first.
My guess is they left her face alone because of the seasoning.
Excuse me? Someone doused your vic with pepper spray.
Which might explain why she drove off the cliff in the first place.
Maggie Scott is dead? I'm afraid so, Mr.
Hanson.
I'm so sorry about that.
Oh, my God.
The LAPD was put through this exhausting audit for nothing? Sorry to see you're so broken up over Maggie's death.
No, no! Yeah, I'm sorry, all right? But the woman was a time waster.
Look, this section manages a billion-dollar annual budget, all right? Two percent of that comes from the DHS, yet I spent 80ºº of my time justifying expenses to Maggie.
The woman was in my office every other month for almost two years! You have no idea how much extra work she created.
During Maggie's last visit out here, she also stopped at a place called Civil Audio.
Do you have any idea what she was looking for? Civil Audio.
This month, it was Civil Audio.
I have no idea what it was.
Last month it was I don't even remember, but the point is it doesn't matter anymore.
Why is that? Well, because the way the federal government operates, it'll be ages before they send anybody to pick up where she left off, if they even bother at all.
Well, maybe we shouldn't wait for the federal government.
Maybe you should let my detective take a look at your books.
Fine.
I'll make sure you get everything you need.
Mr.
Hanson, do you know if Maggie was seeing anyone romantically while she was here? Did she have a boyfriend? Or maybe she was having an affair of some kind? She didn't discuss her personal life with me.
And I am not the type of guy to spread rumors.
So if you'll excuse me, it's gonna take me a minute to put your paperwork through.
You know what, though? I will offer one opinion, ma'am.
Maybe you should let me spend more time helping you fight crime, and not fighting accountants.
That's just a thought.
Watch your step.
You'll take a nasty fall here.
I'm so sorry to bother you on a Saturday, Mr.
White.
But according to our files, your company provides the LAPD and Fire Department with first responder communications.
Civil Audio's not my company.
I'm just a CFO.
Been there since a little after 9/11.
Before that, I was on the job.
LAPD? Yes, ma'am.
Fifteen years.
Tactical Technology Unit.
So Civil Audio's a good fit.
Better pay and no one ever shoots at me.
Sorry about the mess.
Over budget.
Stupid contractor.
Air conditioner's out.
Had to cancel the pool.
Now I have two kids who are gonna be very disappointed when they come back from summer camp.
- Oh, well, that's just tragic.
- Right this way.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
It is hot.
Mr.
White, can you tell me what Maggie Scott was doing in your office earlier this week? Auditors are like police officers.
They don't tell you what they're looking for until they find it.
She wanted all our billing records to LAPD, so I gave them to her.
Why? - Is old Maggie giving you a hard time? - In a manner of speaking.
Her car went over a cliff last night and we found her this morning.
Dead.
Hey, I'm going for takeout.
Oh! Is something wrong? Well, yes and no.
Remember that crazy woman I told you about? The one from Homeland Security? - The horrible accountant lady? - She died last night.
That's too bad.
Gosh.
- Well.
- Just get me whatever you're having.
Thanks.
Sorry to interrupt.
I gotta tell you, the outpouring of sadness for this woman so far It's touching.
Obviously, I feel bad about what happened.
I mean, it's terrible.
But just the idea of going through another audit with Maggie She's brutal.
Just talk to your people.
- Ask Jim Hanson.
- I'm sorry.
Did you say another audit? - Starting Monday morning.
- Jim Hanson didn't mention that.
Not that it was gonna be much different from the last one.
Maggie was investigating the way the LAPD paid us for almost two years.
Poor Jimmy.
And his wife just left him, too.
Look, I appreciated Maggie's tenacity.
I did.
But I just hope whoever takes her place will be a little less rabid.
Well, Hanson said with Maggie's death, there wouldn't be another audit.
Oh, that's wishful thinking.
DHS might not get to it right away, but they'll be back.
Hey, if we're done, I got about three times as many people here as usual.
You know, you threaten to fire them and suddenly they can't finish fast enough.
If there's anything I can do, just let me know.
Okay? Thank you, sir.
Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- My pleasure.
How long before you start feeling the symptoms of poison oak? Probably not until tonight sometime.
- I told you not to go down there.
- Oh, I know, I know.
Come on.
- Chief.
- Yes.
No luck getting access to Maggie Scott's encrypted phone.
Oh, I'm sure we'll be hearing from the FBI any minute now.
The victim's husband, Ken? He just flew in from Washington.
He's in your office.
Oh, and Maggie Scott's rental car company called.
Their accident investigators wanna know when they can get a look at their hybrid.
And what'd you tell them? What I always tell them.
"Sure, no problem.
" Then I hung up.
The car's still in the print shed.
Well, we hang on to Maggie's car until we know what happened to Maggie.
And I want that steering wheel tested for pepper spray.
How am I gonna tell that man that his wife was eaten by coyotes? Poor woman.
- What are all these about? - Financial records from Jim Hanson.
Exactly what you'd expect, Chief.
Bury the two paragraphs of information you actually want in a big load of bull pucky.
- I'll start working on it, Chief.
- Oh, bless you.
Bless you.
Nobody's told me when I can see my wife's body and I've been here almost an hour.
Actually, sir, I think you might wanna wait for a funeral home or mortuary to take a look at your wife.
Are you sure it's her? I mean, are you absolutely certain? I'm sorry, sir.
Yes, I am.
Is there anything I should know? Did she die quickly? I don't think she saw it coming.
Oh, God.
I don't know how I'm gonna tell our daughter.
Sir, do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt your wife? Did she ever talk to you about a threat or No, no.
The only thing Maggie ever complained about was the travel.
I think she was happier lately not having to come back to LA every other week.
Every other week? According to DHS, Maggie was in Los Angeles every other month.
Do you know if she had other business here? - Or did she have any relatives? Or friends? - No, it was work.
Why else would she come? Chief Johnson, Special Agents Blackburn and Horlacher from the FBI.
It's about Maggie Scott.
I'm terribly sorry.
I am right slap-dab in the middle of interviewing the victim's husband.
Good to see you again, too, Chief Johnson.
Sorry to interrupt, but the FBI needs to speak with Mr.
Scott right now.
I've already been in touch with Special Agent Fritz Howard about all of this.
That's who called us, ma'am.
And thank you for informing him about the encrypted laptop and cell phone that have gone missing.
Which makes this investigation a National Security issue.
I hardly think that Maggie Scott was killed by terrorists.
Unless you think the evildoers are trying to destroy the world with pepper spray.
We're talking about the murder of a federal employee, plus the theft of classified material.
So we would like all the evidence you've collected.
And we're gonna take the victim's husband with us right now, too.
You have any further questions for Mr.
Scott, let us know.
Great to see you again, ma'am.
- Oh, I bet.
- Ma'am.
Lieutenants Flynn and Provenza, I'd like you to copy everything that we have on the murder board please, before we hand it off to these gentlemen.
Thank you.
And Detective Daniels, please give the boxes from Fiscal Operations to the FBI.
That should keep them busy.
And while they're looking at our finances, let's take a look at Mr.
Hanson's.
Thank you.
Lieutenant Tao, please put the car's computer in the desk.
Thank you.
And, Detective Sanchez, I'd like you to move Maggie's rental car out of the print shed.
- To where? - Someplace the FBI won't find it.
Listen, just because Just because the FBI is starting an investigation doesn't mean you have to halt yours.
Let them look for the laptop.
You find the killer.
Well, I still have lots of questions for Maggie's husband.
Is he a suspect? Well, he's the only person so far who seems at all upset about her death.
But here's the thing, Will.
Maggie was visiting Los Angeles every other week last year for reasons other than DHS business.
She lied to her husband about that.
And her car went over a hillside at a place where people sometimes go to You know.
So I'm guessing that she might've been having an affair.
I can promise you, who she was seeing last year has nothing to do with her death.
How can you say that? Because the affair she was having was with me.
When were you going to tell me that you'd been sleeping with my murder victim? Well, there wasn't really so much sleeping.
Look, do you wanna hear about this or do you just wanna get all mad? - I'm investigating her murder, Will.
- Okay, you wanna get mad.
Look, we met about a year ago.
And we started seeing each other whenever she was in town.
Every other week.
I flew her out sometimes and put her up at the Cielo Hotel.
And it ended six months ago.
I was never involved in any of her audits so there's no conflict of interest, and her husband never knew.
So you were seeing Maggie while you were still married to Estelle? Technically, yes.
But after Estelle filed for divorce.
Look, Estelle was already seeing someone else.
I was pretty much alone.
As you well know.
What should I have done? Should I just stop living? - Is that what you think? - She was married! You couldn't have found someone single? Forget it.
Are there e-mails from you on her computer? Not on the government account.
I mean, did she ever check personal mail on her encrypted laptop? I don't know.
What? What? There's a female investigator working for an intelligence agency who was in a relationship, who you seduced into coming to Los Angeles on a regular basis.
It all sounds so familiar, and yet I'm surprised.
Do you wanna talk about this? In detail? - Just drop it.
- 'Cause we can.
Drop it, I said.
And tell me what else you know about the victim that can help me.
Maggie was honest.
Except about me with her husband.
She was an honest person.
She was a relentless investigator.
She believed in what she was doing.
Her personal life may have been a bit of a mess, but she was extremely professional.
And she was stubborn when she was right.
Which she almost always was.
Thanks.
Wait, I know how this is going to sound, but the outcome of this investigation, the timing of it, could affect my custody agreement.
My kids.
Right.
Well, I'll try to find out what happened to Maggie before that becomes an issue.
Thank you.
Look.
Yes? I'm really sorry.
Again.
You're really sorry again.
Yes, gentlemen? What more can I do for you today? Maybe we weren't clear when we said we want everything you have on the Maggie Scott case.
You have her husband.
We're handing over the rest of our evidence.
What more do you need? We need the car Mrs.
Scott was driving when she crashed, and it's not in your print shed.
Well, it's gotta be around here somewhere.
It was certainly in no condition to go driving off on its own.
Ma'am, you should know the FBI issued a national security letter, which compels you to turn over every aspect of your case to us.
And when investigating matters of this import, we shouldn't even be dealing with you at all, really, but rather the Homicide Task Force in your own Counterterrorism Bureau.
Wait.
Okay.
No problem.
- What? - Just one moment, Chief.
If we hook you guys up with our Counterterrorism Bureau's Homicide Task Force, you guys would be cool with a joint operation? I mean, you'd have no more complaints? None.
- Great.
Let's do it.
- All right then.
Follow me, gentlemen.
What the hell is this? Well, you guys said you wanted to work with the Homicide Task Force of LAPD's Counterterrorism Bureau.
That would be us.
Even passed our Weapons of Mass Destruction training.
This is a bunch of crap.
Chief Johnson, this is not what we agreed to.
Oh, I'm so sorry, Agent Blackburn.
It's exactly what we agreed to, but it's also not my problem.
Lieutenant Provenza and I aren't part of the CTB's Homicide Task Force.
You'll have to address your concerns to Lieutenant Flynn.
We want the car.
We gave you the GPS information from the car's computer.
- We still need the car.
- What for? This really isn't my business anymore, but, Detective Sanchez, do you know where these men might find Maggie's Prius? Well, it was probably towed to the central garage.
I could take you guys there.
- Why don't you do that, huh? - Sirs, don't forget your evidence.
Just the boxes, boys.
The cart belongs to LAPD.
Make sure you lift with your legs.
Don't hurt yourself.
Payback's a bitch, boys.
Chief, I checked the Prius's online service manual.
If you use a cell phone with a Bluetooth wireless connection, you can make calls through the car.
Maggie's car computer probably has a record of numbers she dialed and received.
That's why the FBI wanted the car.
They can't get into Maggie's encrypted cell phone yet either.
Well, it's our patriotic duty to help them out.
Let's take a look.
The Prius's Bluetooth system isn't really designed to display the information without the menu.
We tinkered around a little, and we found the phone numbers.
And here they are in order.
And the last call Maggie Scott received came from Joe White, the CFO of Civil Audio.
Right after that, she punched in the address of where we found her body.
So while I'm looking into Mr.
Hanson's finances Yes, thank you, Detective Daniels.
Please look into Mr.
White's.
Hey, I knew Joe White when he was on the job.
There's no way he'd murder anyone.
It's ridiculous.
Yeah, Joe was a bit of a player when he was around here.
Maybe he and Maggie were doing the big nasty, and she was gonna tell his wife.
You think White would try to take somebody out with a can of pepper spray? Come on.
You can't keep doing this.
- Doing what? - Being angry at me.
You insisted, insisted, I get the FBI involved.
- I'm not angry.
- So what is this, so I recognize the mood when I see it again.
It's disappointment.
You knew what would happen when you called your buddies at the FBI and you didn't tell me.
I'm a little let down, frankly.
I told you the request was a bad idea.
You demanded I do it anyway.
And then you hung up on me before I could explain.
And you're saying I let you down? Well, just be aware most of the time, - I'm never gonna ask your help again.
- Oh, well, fine.
You know, that is fine because what happened here, in reality, is you confided in me and I tried to do something about your problem and apparently I just made it worse.
That's exactly what happened.
You tried to help me and you only made it worse.
Let's see if I can't provide that same kind of help to the FBI.
Don't scratch.
As CFO of Civil Audio, Joseph White pulls in nearly $500,000 a year.
That's a lot of radios, Chief.
A ton more cash than he was making here.
But his new residence cost three times as much as he got for his condo, which, for the record, is two blocks away from the scene of the accident, right above Academy Road.
He knew the area well.
Joe White paid $1.
5 million for this house? How are we ever gonna be able to afford a new house? How? And for the past two years, Mr.
White has been spending more than double his declared income without incurring any obvious debt.
It's like he's pulling money from someplace off the books.
He did, however, cancel a charge to his contractor four days ago.
He was complaining about them going over budget on the remodel.
But there were construction workers in his backyard yesterday.
Because Saturday morning, the charges were reauthorized, provided that the contractor would guarantee everything would be finished in three weeks.
So, timeline.
Maggie Scott drops by Joe White's office at Civil Audio.
Tells Joe that his accounting doesn't quite add up.
That night, Maggie flies off a cliff.
And Joe continues his remodel.
Sing whatever song you want.
I still don't believe Joe White would have anything to do with something like this.
He was building a pool, didn't wanna disappoint the family.
And what about Jim Hanson, our Fiscal Operations Director? His divorce left him strapped for cash.
Almost maxed out on all of his credit cards.
But his personal investments seem solid.
Detective Sanchez, where did you last see Special Agents Blackburn and Horlacher? They were checking our impound facilities.
But I had the car moved again a few hours ago.
- They'll never find it.
- Excellent.
Lieutenant Flynn, please call our FBI friends and tell them what we've discovered about Joe White.
Chief, we share our information with the FBI, they're likely to take matters into their own hands, and make our situation worse.
That is the established pattern, Lieutenant.
Let's hope it holds on for another day.
Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Gentlemen, I have to ask you to wait! Excuse me! You cannot take White away like this! We called you, remember? Not now, Sergeant.
We're questioning Mr.
White today.
- Could be you'll have a crack at him later.
- We agreed to share our information.
All right, just for you.
Mr.
White here seems to have faked Civil Audio's invoices to police and fire departments all through the Southwest, adding on a little surcharge for every radio he sold and keeping it for himself.
And the victim knew all about it.
Let's hit it.
Chief, where are you going? Hopefully I'm gonna find out where Maggie's encrypted cell phone and computer are.
This is all a terrible mistake! Joe would never kill anyone except maybe in self-defense.
- He was a police officer.
- And our accident investigators agree.
Mrs.
White, they say Maggie Scott drove straight over that cliff.
Oh, you have to tell that to the FBI.
Please! Oh, I will, I will.
But what I was wondering is why you didn't just tell them that yourself? - Tell them what? - That you were there.
That you witnessed the accident.
- But I wasn't there.
- Mrs.
White, I'm not gonna lie to you.
Leaving the scene of an accident is punishable by six months in prison or a $10,000 fine.
Before we talk about it, I should inform you of your rights.
Susan White, you have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney.
If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you by the state.
Have you heard and understood these rights? Yes.
Now, if you really want to help your husband - I do.
Of course I do.
- Then you're gonna have to fess up.
Because I know you that you were there when Maggie Scott drove herself off that cliff.
Why do you think that? Because the last call she received was from this house.
And immediately following the phone call, she punched in an address to the GPS system on her Prius.
An address only four blocks from the condo where you and Joe used to live.
She She drove there for a spur-of-the-moment meeting of some kind.
Now, I don't think she would've agreed to that, to meet alone, at night, in a deserted corner of the world with anyone she was about to accuse of embezzlement.
Now, if I'm wrong, Mrs.
White, just tell me.
If it was your husband she was meeting with, and not you, if our accident investigators made a mistake.
No.
No.
Listen, let me just explain.
What Joe did was not embezzlement.
At all.
He borrowed a little bit of money because we went so far over budget with this remodel.
Our contractor lied to us about what everything would cost.
And we have this adjustable mortgage, and the payments have skyrocketed.
We put everything we have into this house.
Joe was just trying to keep us from losing our life savings.
And I wanted Mrs.
Scott to know that.
That sounds reasonable.
And so you wanted to explain that to her.
So I called her.
And I told her where to meet me.
I said I had some information she needed for her audit.
I was waiting for her when she drove up.
She rolled down the window without turning off her engine.
I told her, I said, if she would just give us a month, Joe would make things right.
That he would flip the house and put all the money he borrowed back.
- With interest.
- And she agreed? No.
She didn't.
She said Joe would go to jail.
She said she was going to report him, that she was just following orders.
I argued with her, and she got really mad.
And she drove off and missed the turn, and drove over the side of the cliff.
I was just so upset, I got back into my car and I drove away.
Yeah, but you know, you could've called someone and waited for them to arrive, ma'am.
I know I should have.
I know.
But it was dark.
And I was afraid.
And I'm sorry.
I'm so, so, so, sorry.
So sorry that you got in touch with your contractor the very next morning, and told him to have his workers finish up the remodel on your house? You Listen! I was just making the best of a terrible situation.
I thought if we could get the house in shape to sell, Joe had time to repay the money.
Which is what I told that woman we wanted to do, but she wouldn't listen.
She refused to listen.
Well, that might've been because of the pepper spray that you spewed all over her face.
That's a report from our Scientific Investigation Division and the LA County coroner's office, documenting that there was pepper spray on the victim's face and the steering wheel of her car.
Which is another reason I knew that it was you that called Maggie and not your husband.
- Because the attack was so inept - There was no attack! That woman, she She reached through the window, grabbed me by the arm, and tried to drag me along the road.
She must've given your arm quite a bruise.
Could I see that, please? No? That makes me wonder, Mrs.
White.
What else do you have up your sleeve? It's been awfully hot here lately.
Your husband's in shorts and a t-shirt.
Sergeant Gabriel here took his jacket off the moment we sat down and yet here you are, all covered up head to toe.
That is exactly the type of rash I'd expect to see on someone who was begging for mercy with a can of pepper spray.
You may notice that I have got a similar rash on my legs.
Only like you, I didn't get anything on my hands.
That's because we were both wearing gloves, though for different reasons, when we were standing in the poison oak over Maggie Scott's body.
She didn't die in that crash, did she? - No.
- No.
She pulled herself up out of that car, and crying for help, crawled her way back up to the road.
She had a husband and a daughter.
And she was trying to see them again.
She was doing everything she could to try and see them again, - but you wouldn't let her! - Don't! Please stop! Please stop? Is that what Maggie said? As you hiked down the side of the hill and beat her with a tree branch? Was she begging you to stop before you crushed her skull in with a rock, and then left her body to be torn apart by coyotes? Please stop? It was far too late for "please stop.
" I was only trying to help my husband.
Let's skip the part where you try to explain yourself.
I just don't have the stomach for it today.
Because there's something else I need to know, Mrs.
White.
The whereabouts of an encrypted cell phone and a computer.
And it is something I really need to know.
That smells good.
For all your help.
Even without trying, you always do.
Still, nobody knows who Maggie was seeing all those times she came to LA.
Yeah, well, some secrets are best taken to the grave.
Oh, speaking of Maggie, here are her computer and cell phone.
I don't know which is which.
Maybe you could hand them over to Agent Blackburn with my regards.
Where did you find them? Susan White smashed them to bits and put them in a dumpster behind a nearby Home Depot.
Along with the can of pepper spray.
Nice.
Got another little baggie in there with Maggie's Prius in it? I'm sure it'll turn up by and by.
The feds will take the residence, and after we sue Civil Audio, our money problems will go from terminal to merely bad.
Well, sir, if I might offer a suggestion, being that it was Priority Homicide that cracked the case Actually, this is the first arrest of our new CTB Homicide Task Force.
- So congratulations.
- Yeah, thank you, sir.
I was wondering if maybe some of the money could be applied to Priority Homicide's budget.
I mean, the idea of losing personnel at this phase is just Oh, no.
Well, that's not my car.
No, sir, it's not.
Sergeant, where is my car? Well, sir, I think in an effort to maintain access to the vehicle and other evidence pertaining to the murder, someone must've thought that your parking space You're just making all of this up off the top of your head, right? I am, sir.
I don't know how this happened.
This is terrible.
I - Sergeant, go find my car.
- I'm finding it right now, sir.
Thank you.
English
Come on! Keep coming.
Keep coming.
Come on! Plenty of room.
Plenty of room.
Let's go.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
Plenty of room.
Plenty of room.
That's good.
Chief, are you sure you've recovered enough from your surgery to be doing this? I have a note from the doctor, Sergeant.
You can read it if you'd like.
Thank you.
Morning, everybody.
Where's our victim? A traffic chopper pilot spotted the car Fire and Rescue rappelled down the hill, found the body, female, early 40s.
Declared dead on the scene.
Called a patrol car.
- Most of our vic is over there.
- Most of her? Coyotes came by the body during the night, Chief.
Yuck.
So it's a traffic accident.
And we're here because? The victim's ID was found in the car.
Her name is Marguerite Scott, and she worked for the Department of Homeland Security.
Fire and Rescue guys brought this up.
Car was a rental.
Victim picked it up five days ago at LAX.
Paid extra for a hybrid.
Our accident investigators saw no signs of a collision, no skid marks.
It seems like she accelerated right off the cliff.
If she's from DC, she might've been lost.
Didn't see the turn.
Or she did it on purpose.
A woman so concerned about the planet that she rents a hybrid to kill herself in? I don't know.
Maybe she saw a tree down there she wanted to hug.
Detective Daniels, could you please get in touch with someone from Homeland Security? Ask them what Ms.
Scott might've been doing here? - Yes, ma'am.
- Thank you.
Pardon me, sir.
I'm Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson of the LAPD and I need to examine the scene of the accident, but I'm just recovering from abdominal surgery.
So I was wondering if you could pretty please give me a lift? Let's go.
Chief, you are not physically ready for this.
I need to see the body.
We don't have training on those harnesses.
We're not supposed to use them.
You're not doing it, Sergeant.
Take the rest of the crew and climb down, and I'll meet you there.
- Ready whenever you are.
- Okay.
All right.
Now, wait, wait, wait.
I have a duty! Okay, wait! Damn it! Chief! Let's go.
Watch your step, guys.
- You're not coming? - I don't hike.
Hard to tell which injuries are from the crash and which from the coyotes.
Looks like they didn't touch her face.
Thank you.
Let's take a look at the car.
We didn't find a handbag or a cell phone.
Detective Sanchez is still doing a search of the perimeter of the crash site.
Now, she was from out of town, Chief, so she may have been using the GPS system that comes with the car.
Assuming the motherboard's still intact, we can download all the data, see what addresses she was punching in.
I see a valet ticket down there.
Let's check her hotel room, drag her room phone and try and find her cell, see who she was talking to.
Lieutenant Flynn, if you could grab that valet ticket, please? Lieutenant Tao, as soon as Buzz has what he needs here, please have this car towed to the print shed.
And Sergeant Gabriel, let's see if you can take the body to the morgue, please? See if we can determine the exact cause of death.
Oh Chief? - Detective Sanchez, you find anything? - Found a toe, Chief.
Bagged it.
- Chief, listen - Let's hand it off to Sergeant Gabriel here.
- Have him take it to the morgue.
- Chief Chief, listen.
- Yes, Buzz? What is it? - You're standing in poison oak.
Hey.
Are you okay? Perfect.
Perfect.
Well, I just need to take these painkillers that the doctor gave me, but I cannot seem to find them.
So was Maggie Scott's death an accident or what? Oh, we don't know yet.
She is a Department of Homeland Security employee.
And Detective Daniels says that she was here on business, but they won't tell us why or what she was doing.
She was an accountant.
And she was auditing us.
You called her Maggie.
Yeah.
She was a friend.
Listen, I'd appreciate it if you kept me very closely advised about what happened to her.
Sure, sure.
And no worries about overtime on this one.
- I'll cover it somehow.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
- Sure.
Impossible.
Homeland Security gave us a grant for new communications equipment so police and fire could communicate during a crisis.
Maggie Marguerite Scott was sent by DHS to keep tabs on how we were spending their money.
Part of LAPD's financial troubles.
For every dollar the feds give us, we spend $2 trying to prove we're not wasting it.
Well, there's your motive, Chief.
Everybody hates an auditor.
Maggie's husband is on his way to LA.
But our friends at DHS were more eager to talk about Maggie's missing cell phone and laptop, both of which are encrypted and contain classified information.
Which is why I can't get a phone dump.
- What did we find in Maggie's hotel room? - No sign of forced entry.
And although she never used the phone in her room, we couldn't find a cell phone anywhere.
We did, however, find a laptop charger.
We pulled the navigation system out of Maggie's car, Chief.
The screen is shot.
But we got the addresses she typed into her GPS.
The first one is from her hotel and the second is - She was in our building.
This week.
- Yes.
Most likely to see Jim Hanson in Fiscal Operations.
And there's the Italian restaurant downtown.
We called.
She dined there two nights ago.
Alone.
The next address is a business in North Hollywood.
Civil Audio.
Which supplied the radios we purchased with the DHS grant money.
This last address is interesting.
Elysian Park Drive, which is precisely where Maggie Scott's car went off the cliff.
And it's only five blocks from LAPD's Academy Road.
Yeah, but why would she wanna know how to get to that exact spot? I mean, there wasn't even a house there.
Maybe she had a boyfriend that no one knew about.
I mean, a lot of couples go up there to, you know, check out the view.
Well, she was a little long in the tooth to be necking in her car.
Priority Homicide, Provenza.
Yeah.
Hey, look.
She's a federal employee working for Homeland Security.
And she's married.
So maybe she didn't want anybody at the hotel to see who she was with.
That was Gabriel, Chief.
They're ready for you at the morgue.
Wonderful.
Okay, Lieutenant Tao? I would like to talk to No, thank you.
This Jim Hanson from the Fiscal Operations Department.
All right.
Thank you.
So, Chief, you really think Maggie's death had anything to do with us? I don't know, Commander, but whoever was meeting her at Lover's Lane wasn't just interested in Maggie.
They wanted her computer, too.
Carry on, everybody.
Can it wait? I'm sitting on a wiretap.
It won't take long.
I have a dead employee from the Department of Homeland Security by the name of Marguerite Scott and I need you to get a dump on her encrypted cell phone.
Why don't you just download it? It's missing.
Along with her laptop, also encrypted.
I don't know if I should check on this for you.
Oh, if I have to hear one more time about how your friends are making fun of you - for doing me favors - It's not that.
I'm recovering from surgery! Please! There are new rules in place.
If you get us involved Look, I can't have chocolate anymore.
Do you understand that? Do you? Please just make the call.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Okay, Brenda.
Marguerite Scott.
I'll make the call.
Great suit.
Did you get it at Fred Segal? Yeah.
Yeah, I did.
I know this girl there.
She gets me a discount.
Love that place.
I live just around the corner from there.
Sorry.
That took so long.
- What have you learned? - It's a little complicated.
Your vic survived the crash and was well enough to climb out of the car and crawl her way up the hill.
Crawl? You sure she wasn't thrown out of the car? No.
These are seatbelt bruises, which means she was definitely strapped in at impact.
And then look.
At the dirt under her nails.
The abrasions on her knees and elbows.
She crawled up that hill.
The real question is how she was able to climb at all when she expired instantly from massive trauma to the head.
- But that didn't happen during the crash.
- No.
I found a splinter in her head, indicating someone struck her with a branch or a large stick.
And the final blow might have come from a rock.
After she drove off the cliff.
Not her best day.
Two last things.
Notice anything unusual about your vic's face? Don't make me guess.
Coyotes always feed on the body's soft tissue first.
My guess is they left her face alone because of the seasoning.
Excuse me? Someone doused your vic with pepper spray.
Which might explain why she drove off the cliff in the first place.
Maggie Scott is dead? I'm afraid so, Mr.
Hanson.
I'm so sorry about that.
Oh, my God.
The LAPD was put through this exhausting audit for nothing? Sorry to see you're so broken up over Maggie's death.
No, no! Yeah, I'm sorry, all right? But the woman was a time waster.
Look, this section manages a billion-dollar annual budget, all right? Two percent of that comes from the DHS, yet I spent 80ºº of my time justifying expenses to Maggie.
The woman was in my office every other month for almost two years! You have no idea how much extra work she created.
During Maggie's last visit out here, she also stopped at a place called Civil Audio.
Do you have any idea what she was looking for? Civil Audio.
This month, it was Civil Audio.
I have no idea what it was.
Last month it was I don't even remember, but the point is it doesn't matter anymore.
Why is that? Well, because the way the federal government operates, it'll be ages before they send anybody to pick up where she left off, if they even bother at all.
Well, maybe we shouldn't wait for the federal government.
Maybe you should let my detective take a look at your books.
Fine.
I'll make sure you get everything you need.
Mr.
Hanson, do you know if Maggie was seeing anyone romantically while she was here? Did she have a boyfriend? Or maybe she was having an affair of some kind? She didn't discuss her personal life with me.
And I am not the type of guy to spread rumors.
So if you'll excuse me, it's gonna take me a minute to put your paperwork through.
You know what, though? I will offer one opinion, ma'am.
Maybe you should let me spend more time helping you fight crime, and not fighting accountants.
That's just a thought.
Watch your step.
You'll take a nasty fall here.
I'm so sorry to bother you on a Saturday, Mr.
White.
But according to our files, your company provides the LAPD and Fire Department with first responder communications.
Civil Audio's not my company.
I'm just a CFO.
Been there since a little after 9/11.
Before that, I was on the job.
LAPD? Yes, ma'am.
Fifteen years.
Tactical Technology Unit.
So Civil Audio's a good fit.
Better pay and no one ever shoots at me.
Sorry about the mess.
Over budget.
Stupid contractor.
Air conditioner's out.
Had to cancel the pool.
Now I have two kids who are gonna be very disappointed when they come back from summer camp.
- Oh, well, that's just tragic.
- Right this way.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
It is hot.
Mr.
White, can you tell me what Maggie Scott was doing in your office earlier this week? Auditors are like police officers.
They don't tell you what they're looking for until they find it.
She wanted all our billing records to LAPD, so I gave them to her.
Why? - Is old Maggie giving you a hard time? - In a manner of speaking.
Her car went over a cliff last night and we found her this morning.
Dead.
Hey, I'm going for takeout.
Oh! Is something wrong? Well, yes and no.
Remember that crazy woman I told you about? The one from Homeland Security? - The horrible accountant lady? - She died last night.
That's too bad.
Gosh.
- Well.
- Just get me whatever you're having.
Thanks.
Sorry to interrupt.
I gotta tell you, the outpouring of sadness for this woman so far It's touching.
Obviously, I feel bad about what happened.
I mean, it's terrible.
But just the idea of going through another audit with Maggie She's brutal.
Just talk to your people.
- Ask Jim Hanson.
- I'm sorry.
Did you say another audit? - Starting Monday morning.
- Jim Hanson didn't mention that.
Not that it was gonna be much different from the last one.
Maggie was investigating the way the LAPD paid us for almost two years.
Poor Jimmy.
And his wife just left him, too.
Look, I appreciated Maggie's tenacity.
I did.
But I just hope whoever takes her place will be a little less rabid.
Well, Hanson said with Maggie's death, there wouldn't be another audit.
Oh, that's wishful thinking.
DHS might not get to it right away, but they'll be back.
Hey, if we're done, I got about three times as many people here as usual.
You know, you threaten to fire them and suddenly they can't finish fast enough.
If there's anything I can do, just let me know.
Okay? Thank you, sir.
Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- My pleasure.
How long before you start feeling the symptoms of poison oak? Probably not until tonight sometime.
- I told you not to go down there.
- Oh, I know, I know.
Come on.
- Chief.
- Yes.
No luck getting access to Maggie Scott's encrypted phone.
Oh, I'm sure we'll be hearing from the FBI any minute now.
The victim's husband, Ken? He just flew in from Washington.
He's in your office.
Oh, and Maggie Scott's rental car company called.
Their accident investigators wanna know when they can get a look at their hybrid.
And what'd you tell them? What I always tell them.
"Sure, no problem.
" Then I hung up.
The car's still in the print shed.
Well, we hang on to Maggie's car until we know what happened to Maggie.
And I want that steering wheel tested for pepper spray.
How am I gonna tell that man that his wife was eaten by coyotes? Poor woman.
- What are all these about? - Financial records from Jim Hanson.
Exactly what you'd expect, Chief.
Bury the two paragraphs of information you actually want in a big load of bull pucky.
- I'll start working on it, Chief.
- Oh, bless you.
Bless you.
Nobody's told me when I can see my wife's body and I've been here almost an hour.
Actually, sir, I think you might wanna wait for a funeral home or mortuary to take a look at your wife.
Are you sure it's her? I mean, are you absolutely certain? I'm sorry, sir.
Yes, I am.
Is there anything I should know? Did she die quickly? I don't think she saw it coming.
Oh, God.
I don't know how I'm gonna tell our daughter.
Sir, do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt your wife? Did she ever talk to you about a threat or No, no.
The only thing Maggie ever complained about was the travel.
I think she was happier lately not having to come back to LA every other week.
Every other week? According to DHS, Maggie was in Los Angeles every other month.
Do you know if she had other business here? - Or did she have any relatives? Or friends? - No, it was work.
Why else would she come? Chief Johnson, Special Agents Blackburn and Horlacher from the FBI.
It's about Maggie Scott.
I'm terribly sorry.
I am right slap-dab in the middle of interviewing the victim's husband.
Good to see you again, too, Chief Johnson.
Sorry to interrupt, but the FBI needs to speak with Mr.
Scott right now.
I've already been in touch with Special Agent Fritz Howard about all of this.
That's who called us, ma'am.
And thank you for informing him about the encrypted laptop and cell phone that have gone missing.
Which makes this investigation a National Security issue.
I hardly think that Maggie Scott was killed by terrorists.
Unless you think the evildoers are trying to destroy the world with pepper spray.
We're talking about the murder of a federal employee, plus the theft of classified material.
So we would like all the evidence you've collected.
And we're gonna take the victim's husband with us right now, too.
You have any further questions for Mr.
Scott, let us know.
Great to see you again, ma'am.
- Oh, I bet.
- Ma'am.
Lieutenants Flynn and Provenza, I'd like you to copy everything that we have on the murder board please, before we hand it off to these gentlemen.
Thank you.
And Detective Daniels, please give the boxes from Fiscal Operations to the FBI.
That should keep them busy.
And while they're looking at our finances, let's take a look at Mr.
Hanson's.
Thank you.
Lieutenant Tao, please put the car's computer in the desk.
Thank you.
And, Detective Sanchez, I'd like you to move Maggie's rental car out of the print shed.
- To where? - Someplace the FBI won't find it.
Listen, just because Just because the FBI is starting an investigation doesn't mean you have to halt yours.
Let them look for the laptop.
You find the killer.
Well, I still have lots of questions for Maggie's husband.
Is he a suspect? Well, he's the only person so far who seems at all upset about her death.
But here's the thing, Will.
Maggie was visiting Los Angeles every other week last year for reasons other than DHS business.
She lied to her husband about that.
And her car went over a hillside at a place where people sometimes go to You know.
So I'm guessing that she might've been having an affair.
I can promise you, who she was seeing last year has nothing to do with her death.
How can you say that? Because the affair she was having was with me.
When were you going to tell me that you'd been sleeping with my murder victim? Well, there wasn't really so much sleeping.
Look, do you wanna hear about this or do you just wanna get all mad? - I'm investigating her murder, Will.
- Okay, you wanna get mad.
Look, we met about a year ago.
And we started seeing each other whenever she was in town.
Every other week.
I flew her out sometimes and put her up at the Cielo Hotel.
And it ended six months ago.
I was never involved in any of her audits so there's no conflict of interest, and her husband never knew.
So you were seeing Maggie while you were still married to Estelle? Technically, yes.
But after Estelle filed for divorce.
Look, Estelle was already seeing someone else.
I was pretty much alone.
As you well know.
What should I have done? Should I just stop living? - Is that what you think? - She was married! You couldn't have found someone single? Forget it.
Are there e-mails from you on her computer? Not on the government account.
I mean, did she ever check personal mail on her encrypted laptop? I don't know.
What? What? There's a female investigator working for an intelligence agency who was in a relationship, who you seduced into coming to Los Angeles on a regular basis.
It all sounds so familiar, and yet I'm surprised.
Do you wanna talk about this? In detail? - Just drop it.
- 'Cause we can.
Drop it, I said.
And tell me what else you know about the victim that can help me.
Maggie was honest.
Except about me with her husband.
She was an honest person.
She was a relentless investigator.
She believed in what she was doing.
Her personal life may have been a bit of a mess, but she was extremely professional.
And she was stubborn when she was right.
Which she almost always was.
Thanks.
Wait, I know how this is going to sound, but the outcome of this investigation, the timing of it, could affect my custody agreement.
My kids.
Right.
Well, I'll try to find out what happened to Maggie before that becomes an issue.
Thank you.
Look.
Yes? I'm really sorry.
Again.
You're really sorry again.
Yes, gentlemen? What more can I do for you today? Maybe we weren't clear when we said we want everything you have on the Maggie Scott case.
You have her husband.
We're handing over the rest of our evidence.
What more do you need? We need the car Mrs.
Scott was driving when she crashed, and it's not in your print shed.
Well, it's gotta be around here somewhere.
It was certainly in no condition to go driving off on its own.
Ma'am, you should know the FBI issued a national security letter, which compels you to turn over every aspect of your case to us.
And when investigating matters of this import, we shouldn't even be dealing with you at all, really, but rather the Homicide Task Force in your own Counterterrorism Bureau.
Wait.
Okay.
No problem.
- What? - Just one moment, Chief.
If we hook you guys up with our Counterterrorism Bureau's Homicide Task Force, you guys would be cool with a joint operation? I mean, you'd have no more complaints? None.
- Great.
Let's do it.
- All right then.
Follow me, gentlemen.
What the hell is this? Well, you guys said you wanted to work with the Homicide Task Force of LAPD's Counterterrorism Bureau.
That would be us.
Even passed our Weapons of Mass Destruction training.
This is a bunch of crap.
Chief Johnson, this is not what we agreed to.
Oh, I'm so sorry, Agent Blackburn.
It's exactly what we agreed to, but it's also not my problem.
Lieutenant Provenza and I aren't part of the CTB's Homicide Task Force.
You'll have to address your concerns to Lieutenant Flynn.
We want the car.
We gave you the GPS information from the car's computer.
- We still need the car.
- What for? This really isn't my business anymore, but, Detective Sanchez, do you know where these men might find Maggie's Prius? Well, it was probably towed to the central garage.
I could take you guys there.
- Why don't you do that, huh? - Sirs, don't forget your evidence.
Just the boxes, boys.
The cart belongs to LAPD.
Make sure you lift with your legs.
Don't hurt yourself.
Payback's a bitch, boys.
Chief, I checked the Prius's online service manual.
If you use a cell phone with a Bluetooth wireless connection, you can make calls through the car.
Maggie's car computer probably has a record of numbers she dialed and received.
That's why the FBI wanted the car.
They can't get into Maggie's encrypted cell phone yet either.
Well, it's our patriotic duty to help them out.
Let's take a look.
The Prius's Bluetooth system isn't really designed to display the information without the menu.
We tinkered around a little, and we found the phone numbers.
And here they are in order.
And the last call Maggie Scott received came from Joe White, the CFO of Civil Audio.
Right after that, she punched in the address of where we found her body.
So while I'm looking into Mr.
Hanson's finances Yes, thank you, Detective Daniels.
Please look into Mr.
White's.
Hey, I knew Joe White when he was on the job.
There's no way he'd murder anyone.
It's ridiculous.
Yeah, Joe was a bit of a player when he was around here.
Maybe he and Maggie were doing the big nasty, and she was gonna tell his wife.
You think White would try to take somebody out with a can of pepper spray? Come on.
You can't keep doing this.
- Doing what? - Being angry at me.
You insisted, insisted, I get the FBI involved.
- I'm not angry.
- So what is this, so I recognize the mood when I see it again.
It's disappointment.
You knew what would happen when you called your buddies at the FBI and you didn't tell me.
I'm a little let down, frankly.
I told you the request was a bad idea.
You demanded I do it anyway.
And then you hung up on me before I could explain.
And you're saying I let you down? Well, just be aware most of the time, - I'm never gonna ask your help again.
- Oh, well, fine.
You know, that is fine because what happened here, in reality, is you confided in me and I tried to do something about your problem and apparently I just made it worse.
That's exactly what happened.
You tried to help me and you only made it worse.
Let's see if I can't provide that same kind of help to the FBI.
Don't scratch.
As CFO of Civil Audio, Joseph White pulls in nearly $500,000 a year.
That's a lot of radios, Chief.
A ton more cash than he was making here.
But his new residence cost three times as much as he got for his condo, which, for the record, is two blocks away from the scene of the accident, right above Academy Road.
He knew the area well.
Joe White paid $1.
5 million for this house? How are we ever gonna be able to afford a new house? How? And for the past two years, Mr.
White has been spending more than double his declared income without incurring any obvious debt.
It's like he's pulling money from someplace off the books.
He did, however, cancel a charge to his contractor four days ago.
He was complaining about them going over budget on the remodel.
But there were construction workers in his backyard yesterday.
Because Saturday morning, the charges were reauthorized, provided that the contractor would guarantee everything would be finished in three weeks.
So, timeline.
Maggie Scott drops by Joe White's office at Civil Audio.
Tells Joe that his accounting doesn't quite add up.
That night, Maggie flies off a cliff.
And Joe continues his remodel.
Sing whatever song you want.
I still don't believe Joe White would have anything to do with something like this.
He was building a pool, didn't wanna disappoint the family.
And what about Jim Hanson, our Fiscal Operations Director? His divorce left him strapped for cash.
Almost maxed out on all of his credit cards.
But his personal investments seem solid.
Detective Sanchez, where did you last see Special Agents Blackburn and Horlacher? They were checking our impound facilities.
But I had the car moved again a few hours ago.
- They'll never find it.
- Excellent.
Lieutenant Flynn, please call our FBI friends and tell them what we've discovered about Joe White.
Chief, we share our information with the FBI, they're likely to take matters into their own hands, and make our situation worse.
That is the established pattern, Lieutenant.
Let's hope it holds on for another day.
Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Gentlemen, I have to ask you to wait! Excuse me! You cannot take White away like this! We called you, remember? Not now, Sergeant.
We're questioning Mr.
White today.
- Could be you'll have a crack at him later.
- We agreed to share our information.
All right, just for you.
Mr.
White here seems to have faked Civil Audio's invoices to police and fire departments all through the Southwest, adding on a little surcharge for every radio he sold and keeping it for himself.
And the victim knew all about it.
Let's hit it.
Chief, where are you going? Hopefully I'm gonna find out where Maggie's encrypted cell phone and computer are.
This is all a terrible mistake! Joe would never kill anyone except maybe in self-defense.
- He was a police officer.
- And our accident investigators agree.
Mrs.
White, they say Maggie Scott drove straight over that cliff.
Oh, you have to tell that to the FBI.
Please! Oh, I will, I will.
But what I was wondering is why you didn't just tell them that yourself? - Tell them what? - That you were there.
That you witnessed the accident.
- But I wasn't there.
- Mrs.
White, I'm not gonna lie to you.
Leaving the scene of an accident is punishable by six months in prison or a $10,000 fine.
Before we talk about it, I should inform you of your rights.
Susan White, you have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney.
If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you by the state.
Have you heard and understood these rights? Yes.
Now, if you really want to help your husband - I do.
Of course I do.
- Then you're gonna have to fess up.
Because I know you that you were there when Maggie Scott drove herself off that cliff.
Why do you think that? Because the last call she received was from this house.
And immediately following the phone call, she punched in an address to the GPS system on her Prius.
An address only four blocks from the condo where you and Joe used to live.
She She drove there for a spur-of-the-moment meeting of some kind.
Now, I don't think she would've agreed to that, to meet alone, at night, in a deserted corner of the world with anyone she was about to accuse of embezzlement.
Now, if I'm wrong, Mrs.
White, just tell me.
If it was your husband she was meeting with, and not you, if our accident investigators made a mistake.
No.
No.
Listen, let me just explain.
What Joe did was not embezzlement.
At all.
He borrowed a little bit of money because we went so far over budget with this remodel.
Our contractor lied to us about what everything would cost.
And we have this adjustable mortgage, and the payments have skyrocketed.
We put everything we have into this house.
Joe was just trying to keep us from losing our life savings.
And I wanted Mrs.
Scott to know that.
That sounds reasonable.
And so you wanted to explain that to her.
So I called her.
And I told her where to meet me.
I said I had some information she needed for her audit.
I was waiting for her when she drove up.
She rolled down the window without turning off her engine.
I told her, I said, if she would just give us a month, Joe would make things right.
That he would flip the house and put all the money he borrowed back.
- With interest.
- And she agreed? No.
She didn't.
She said Joe would go to jail.
She said she was going to report him, that she was just following orders.
I argued with her, and she got really mad.
And she drove off and missed the turn, and drove over the side of the cliff.
I was just so upset, I got back into my car and I drove away.
Yeah, but you know, you could've called someone and waited for them to arrive, ma'am.
I know I should have.
I know.
But it was dark.
And I was afraid.
And I'm sorry.
I'm so, so, so, sorry.
So sorry that you got in touch with your contractor the very next morning, and told him to have his workers finish up the remodel on your house? You Listen! I was just making the best of a terrible situation.
I thought if we could get the house in shape to sell, Joe had time to repay the money.
Which is what I told that woman we wanted to do, but she wouldn't listen.
She refused to listen.
Well, that might've been because of the pepper spray that you spewed all over her face.
That's a report from our Scientific Investigation Division and the LA County coroner's office, documenting that there was pepper spray on the victim's face and the steering wheel of her car.
Which is another reason I knew that it was you that called Maggie and not your husband.
- Because the attack was so inept - There was no attack! That woman, she She reached through the window, grabbed me by the arm, and tried to drag me along the road.
She must've given your arm quite a bruise.
Could I see that, please? No? That makes me wonder, Mrs.
White.
What else do you have up your sleeve? It's been awfully hot here lately.
Your husband's in shorts and a t-shirt.
Sergeant Gabriel here took his jacket off the moment we sat down and yet here you are, all covered up head to toe.
That is exactly the type of rash I'd expect to see on someone who was begging for mercy with a can of pepper spray.
You may notice that I have got a similar rash on my legs.
Only like you, I didn't get anything on my hands.
That's because we were both wearing gloves, though for different reasons, when we were standing in the poison oak over Maggie Scott's body.
She didn't die in that crash, did she? - No.
- No.
She pulled herself up out of that car, and crying for help, crawled her way back up to the road.
She had a husband and a daughter.
And she was trying to see them again.
She was doing everything she could to try and see them again, - but you wouldn't let her! - Don't! Please stop! Please stop? Is that what Maggie said? As you hiked down the side of the hill and beat her with a tree branch? Was she begging you to stop before you crushed her skull in with a rock, and then left her body to be torn apart by coyotes? Please stop? It was far too late for "please stop.
" I was only trying to help my husband.
Let's skip the part where you try to explain yourself.
I just don't have the stomach for it today.
Because there's something else I need to know, Mrs.
White.
The whereabouts of an encrypted cell phone and a computer.
And it is something I really need to know.
That smells good.
For all your help.
Even without trying, you always do.
Still, nobody knows who Maggie was seeing all those times she came to LA.
Yeah, well, some secrets are best taken to the grave.
Oh, speaking of Maggie, here are her computer and cell phone.
I don't know which is which.
Maybe you could hand them over to Agent Blackburn with my regards.
Where did you find them? Susan White smashed them to bits and put them in a dumpster behind a nearby Home Depot.
Along with the can of pepper spray.
Nice.
Got another little baggie in there with Maggie's Prius in it? I'm sure it'll turn up by and by.
The feds will take the residence, and after we sue Civil Audio, our money problems will go from terminal to merely bad.
Well, sir, if I might offer a suggestion, being that it was Priority Homicide that cracked the case Actually, this is the first arrest of our new CTB Homicide Task Force.
- So congratulations.
- Yeah, thank you, sir.
I was wondering if maybe some of the money could be applied to Priority Homicide's budget.
I mean, the idea of losing personnel at this phase is just Oh, no.
Well, that's not my car.
No, sir, it's not.
Sergeant, where is my car? Well, sir, I think in an effort to maintain access to the vehicle and other evidence pertaining to the murder, someone must've thought that your parking space You're just making all of this up off the top of your head, right? I am, sir.
I don't know how this happened.
This is terrible.
I - Sergeant, go find my car.
- I'm finding it right now, sir.
Thank you.
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