R.J. Decker (2026) s02e07 Episode Script

1
[R.J.]
Previously on R.J. Decker
Lead the way.
Uh, actually,
can I kiss you first?
Just to get it out of the way.
"Get it out of the way."
'Cause that's so romantic.
[Kelly] Gabriel's
already served ten years
of life without parole.
You're talking about a client
who confessed to killing
a police officer.
I wouldn't have approached
you if I wasn't convinced
that Gabriel didn't do it.
Where were you
when Officer Werner was shot?
In an alley somewhere,
needle in my arm.
They kept telling me I did it.
I didn't do it.
What I want is to hire you
to find the real killer.
What if I find out
this guy really did it?
My gut says he's innocent.
Helping Gabriel Romero
would be a mistake,
and I'm here to make sure
you understand why.
[mobile game sounds]
You know, even on break,
you're supposed
to look like a cop.
It's just
I've been stuck on level 87
for three days now.
Water or soda?
Whatever's cold.
[mobile game chiming]
[dialing]
[line ringing]
[phone ringing]
Mmm. I know.
The flan.
Barbecue is on Saturday,
Jessica's counting on me,
yada, yada, yada.
-You know,
I don't even like flan.
-Not my problem.
This is your problem
for telling Jessica
that you can make one.
She is pregnant, you know.
Yeah, well, you can't blame me
for that. [chuckles]
[Bobby] Well,
pregnant women get cravings.
It is your civic duty
to make the damn flan.
Speaking of duty,
I just spent the last
three hours holding the rope
for a fruit carton robbery
while the brain surgeons
interviewed witnesses
I already questioned.
[chuckles]
It's gonna be us someday.
Getting razzed
by the jealous unis.
You think I'd ever give up
the blues and all the off-duty
action they get me?
[laughs] No.
-Hey, can I get a bag, please?
-Are you at
the convenience store?
'Cause I could go
for a coconut slushie
right about now.
-[gunshots]
-Bobby.
[gasps] No! No, Bobby!
Are you okay?
-[lock buzzing]
-[door opens]
[grunts]
Oh, hey, you can take
these off.
It's okay.
They do this sometimes.
Put me on close management.
-Gabriel Romero.
-R.J. Decker.
Apalachee Correctional,
class of '24.
-No joke?
-No joke.
I've only ever seen
close management for transport
or temporary punishment.
Depends on the guard.
No rhyme or reason
except for the fact
that they think I killed a cop.
And you didn't, right?
Kill a cop?
No.
-I thought you
already knew that.
-All I know is
there were some
pretty big holes in the case
against you ten years ago.
Holes that would have given you
a good chance in an acquittal
if you hadn't confessed.
I'm here to talk a few
of them out with you.
I want to start with the place
you were squatting back then.
The abandoned house
on Powerline Road. Okay?
The hoodie. The one the shooter
was wearing when he killed
Officer Werner.
The cops found it inside
the house two days after
you were arrested.
If you read all that stuff,
you know I told them
it wasn't mine.
Your lawyer, Kelly,
she says you think
the hoodie was planted.
The first 20-something hours
when I was in that room
with the cops,
I told them again and again
they had the wrong guy.
They needed something
that would get me
to stop fighting them,
so they found
a hoodie just like that one,
put it in the house.
Yeah, that's one possibility.
Another is it belonged to one
of the guys you were squatting
with back then.
Um, Dookie or Grey Worm.
Ever get their real names?
Ever hear
their street names again?
Maybe from an inmate in here?
Anything that could help me
find them now.
No.
And I had to guess,
they're not out there
for you to find.
They were junkies, same as me.
Guys living the way
we were living,
odds are better they've
both been dead for a long time.
Okay. Let's talk about
what the police didn't
find back then.
The murder weapon.
The theory back in 2016 is
you got rid of it somehow.
You threw it in the ocean,
down a drain, whatever.
But Kelly tells me it popped up
on the cops' radar a few
months back.
Somebody fired six rounds
into a billboard off US 441.
Ballistics or whatever,
they matched the casings
to the gun that killed
Officer Werner.
Police don't find that
as interesting as we do.
Yeah, they think
somebody just found your gun,
that the billboard shooting
was unrelated.
Me?
It makes me wonder
if the person who actually
killed Bobby Werner
never got rid of it.
They just didn't use it
to commit another crime
until a few months ago.
I wondered the same thing.
I hoped.
But if you really did time,
then you know.
A place like this?
Hope can hurt.
Hey.
How'd it go with Gabriel?
I didn't get a lot more
than what was already
in the files.
Well, what did you think
about him?
I mean, I-I think it's hard
to get around the fact
that he confessed. I do.
But like you said
I mean, you almost took
a plea deal in your dad's case.
Yeah, and I wasn't
sleep-deprived or going through
withdrawal like Gabriel.
My gut says you could be right.
He could be innocent.
If only gut feelings
were admissible in court.
We're gonna need a lot more
if we're gonna get him
out of that place.
Still, it's sort of
a relief knowing
you don't think I'm crazy
for wanting to help him.
Not crazy at all.
There is one more thing
you need to know
about all this.
Something
I didn't wanna tell you
until you could get
your own impression of Gabriel.
Okay.
It's about Mel.
Mel, got a minute?
For you? When don't I?
I assume Emi told you
about our little meeting
the other night.
Meeting's a funny way
to describe an ambush
in a parking lot.
She said you
warned her to stay away
from the Gabriel Romero case?
I didn't warn anyone.
I just wanted to make sure
she had all the facts.
If you wanted her to know
Bobby Werner was a friend,
all you had to do was
pick up the phone.
Instead, you tried
to intimidate her.
Sorry. Is there
some sort of etiquette
for telling someone to
not help a guy who murdered
a cop in cold blood?
-I get that this is
personal for you.
-"Personal"?
I was on the phone with Bobby
when he died.
I heard the shots, and there
wasn't a damn thing
I could do to help him.
Nobody could.
Because right after
Gabriel Romero shot Bobby
through the back of the head,
he planted two more bullets
right here.
Why? All because Bobby dared
to arrest him a few times.
That's the kind of
guy your girlfriend's
trying to get out of prison.
[sighs]
You're gonna help him anyway.
I mean, if Emi's right
about this guy
I have been where he has been,
but he is not facing 18 months.
He is facing the rest
of his life.
Mmm. Hmm.
Well, if he gets out,
maybe he can become a PI too,
and you can explain to him
how much of
the job depends on you
having friends who are cops.
How often you need them
to share information with you
or get you access
to a crime scene.
And you can explain to him
how they would never ever do
those things for someone
who tried to help someone
who murdered one of their own.
Got it.
And just in case you don't,
stay away from this place.
Stay away from me.
[door closes]
I've seen Mel mad before.
This was different.
-I'm sorry.
-I mean, it is what it is.
If I find proof that Gabriel
didn't kill Bobby Werner,
she'll have to accept it.
But you get that
if I find something that
tells us he did kill him
No, you have to bring it
to the police.
Okay. The way I see it,
there are two paths
for us to go down.
First, there's the street names
of the guys Gabriel used
to live with.
Dookie and Grey Worm.
The police never
bothered identifying them
because Gabriel confessed.
There's no point.
But if either of them
could have been
the shooter back in 2016
-We have to find them.
-Yeah.
Wish, he's in a Facebook group
for ex-cons.
He's been poking around,
asking if anybody knows
these guys.
I might be able to help out
with the names too.
Ochoa Development's
been chasing squatters
away for a long time.
It's sad, but it's dangerous
to let them stay.
I'll talk to the security guys,
ask if anyone
has ever had an issue
with a Dookie or a Grey Worm.
God, that sounds wrong.
I'll go down the second path.
The gun path.
I'll try to find the person
that shot up that billboard
a few months back.
The one for
the accident attorney.
Nick Nolan.
"Don't get mad. Get money."
I mean, if he's as sleazy
as he looks, he's gonna
have his share of enemies.
The question is could
one of them be the same guy
that shot a cop ten years ago?
[Nick speaking broken Spanish]
[R.J.] Excuse me.
Did you mean to say you'd
start her case once you get
her cheek in your hand?
[scoffs]
Lisa, call Mrs. Melendez.
Tell her I meant to ask
for her check, not her cheek.
[scoffs]
Damn AI translator.
-Thanks, uh
-R.J. Decker.
I'm a private investigator.
Well, you will be top
of the list next time
I need someone followed.
-Drop your résumé with Lisa.
-I'm not looking for work.
I'm looking for a gun.
Specifically the gun
that was used
to shoot up
one of your billboards
a few months ago.
-That?
-Yeah.
Anyone you can think of
that might have wanted
to use your face
for target practice?
Pick a drawer.
After three decades
of suing people,
beating them in court,
and generally pissing
people off,
the list of potential suspects
is quite extensive.
[exhales]
-Mr. Decker?
-Yeah?
Mr. Nolan may not be worried
about the person who
shot up his billboard,
but some of us are.
I'm no detective,
but I did a little digging.
I came up with a list of people
who were really angry with Nick
around the time of the
-incident.
-Oh.
Okay. Well
Thank you so much.
This is incredible.
-[chuckles]
-Uh
Are you sure you don't want
to leave a résumé with me?
[chuckles]
Maybe next time.
[doorbell rings]
Mel.
Oh, my God.
[chuckles] This is a surprise.
-Hi, Jess.
-Hi.
What is it?
It's gonna start
all over again.
The lawyers, the reporters,
anyone and everyone
who ever had an opinion
about Gabriel Romero
just out there saying
whatever they wanna say.
I don't know
what I'm gonna tell
Bobby's parents.
Hey, if you want,
I'll talk to them too.
Danielle was so young
the last time Gabriel tried
to appeal his conviction.
But now she's old enough
to hear the kids at school
talking about how her dad's
killer might be set free.
-I mean, he confessed.
-I know.
Why can't we have closure?
Don't we deserve that?
When Bobby died,
you dropped off food,
you cleaned out
Bobby's locker
You were there for us.
Even after everyone else
went on with their lives.
Still am.
And look,
this thing with Gabriel,
it might not go anywhere.
I just didn't want it
to get sprung on you again.
I wanted you to be ready.
Thank you.
For everything.
[party music playing]
[chuckles] Nice costume.
You bring Higgins and TC?
[laughs]
Uh, is Griff Saunders
working tonight?
Yeah. Uh, green cape,
selling shots.
Gotcha. Thank you.
Plasma shot?
Yeah, I am interested in shots,
just of a different caliber.
Nick Nolan,
the accident attorney.
A couple months back someone
fired six rounds at one
of his billboards.
What are you talking
about, man?
[sighs] Nick deposed you
three times
as a witness against
the restaurant
you used to work for.
Three times
for a slip-and-fall.
Great for Nick's billable
hours, not so great for you.
The restaurant fired you.
A couple days later,
someone perforated
Nick's face on a billboard.
Hell of a coincidence,
don't you think?
Griff, you can talk to me,
or you can talk to the cops.
I'm not Griff.
I'm Marv. That's Griff.
[people exclaiming]
Oh, boy.
[groaning]
Yeah. I thought it would take,
like, all the Avengers
to take down Doctor Doom,
but nope.
Just took a cape
that should have been hemmed.
[sighs] Okay.
[groaning]
-How old are you?
-Nineteen.
You're 19? Prove it.
[sighs]
Why do you look
so disappointed?
Because, Griff, unless you were
very advanced for your age,
I don't think
you murdered a cop
when you were nine years old.
I can't believe it. A cop.
My gun was used to kill a cop.
Yeah, and look, Griff, I need
to know where you got it, okay?
-Did you-- Did you buy it
off someone?
-No, no, I found it.
Where?
In a dumpster.
All right, I was a kid.
It was like ten years ago.
I was looking for bottles
to recycle, saving up
for the new Minecraft.
I thought it was cool,
so I took it.
-It was stupid, I know, but--
-Yeah, you were
nine years old. It's okay.
My mom and I lived
in a pretty sketchy area
back then.
I thought the gun could be
used to protect us, you know,
if any bad guys broke in,
which never happened, luckily,
and we ended up moving
to a pretty good neighborhood.
And I only held on to it
'cause, honestly,
I didn't know
how to get rid of it.
And funny thing is,
I never even shot it.
Okay, look,
not until Slick Nick
cost me my job.
I got angry. I got drunk,
and I shot up his billboard.
-You still have the gun, right?
-Yes, it's back in
my apartment.
Just follow me home
and I'll give you
the damn thing.
[Trudy] Doing what I do,
I've handled my share
of murder weapons,
but this
this is the first one
I've ever seen that took
the life of a cop.
Yeah.
It's different somehow.
And you wanted me
to see it because
[stammers] I need your help.
I'm no crime scene technician,
but I try to keep up.
I know there's
some kind of scanner
that can find impressions
left deep in gun metal,
even after that metal's
filed down. Uh
The ghost of a serial number,
for example.
Yeah, you're talking about
a magneto-optical scanner.
-Yes.
-So you want me to take it back
to the crime lab
and use our scanner
to trace where it came from?
Yeah, I mean, if this really is
the gun that killed
Bobby Werner,
the serial number
could lead us to the person
that actually did it.
'Cause that person
couldn't possibly be
Gabriel Romero?
No, I didn't say that.
If the serial number
connects us back
to Gabriel, okay, then we know.
[chuckles] No, not okay,
because then I broke
a bunch of rules for nothing.
All I'm trying to do
is find the truth about
what happened that night.
So if I don't help you,
I'm someone who doesn't care
about the truth?
No, no.
No, I'm sorry.
No, that's not what I meant.
I may not be a cop,
but I work with them.
They treat me like
I'm one of their own.
Helping someone
like Gabriel Romero, it's not
just opening an old wound,
it's me digging in
with both hands and ripping.
Okay, I get it. I do. I get it.
But just say for a minute,
say Gabriel didn't do it.
Say the serial number leads me
someplace else.
Wouldn't they appreciate
an actual cop killer
being brought to justice?
I can't.
I cannot help you.
I'm sorry.
[sighs]
[Trudy] But
Harbor Forensics might.
They're an independent lab.
Sometimes we sub out work
that we have when we're
overloaded with cases.
If you have the money,
they'll run any tests
that you want.
But you didn't hear it from me,
R.J., okay?
Thank you.
-[door closes]
-[sighs]
Let's see now
There you are.
Oh, babe
This is two mornings
in a row now I've woken up
at 5:00 a.m.
to find your side
of the bed empty.
Weird, considering your shift's
supposed to start at 9:00.
I got a lot of work to do,
so figured I'd hit it early,
but this is gonna help.
Thank you.
This work, is it also
the reason you jolted
awake the other night
like you'd been electrocuted?
Something's up.
Wanna just tell me about it?
It's been nice that up until
now, you and R.J. have been
such compatible work wives,
but you're a cop who works
for the people.
He's a PI who works
for the people
who give him money.
Something like this,
you guys finding yourselves
on opposite sides of a case,
-it's sort of
inevitable, right?
-No.
I didn't choose to be
on the phone with Bobby
the night he was killed.
R.J. did choose to try
and help the guy who did it,
and he could have said no.
He could have told Emi
to go find some other PI, and
it doesn't just piss me off.
That
hurts.
I'm sorry. Didn't wanna tell
you about all this. Didn't
wanna put you in the middle.
Middle?
There is no middle.
There's just us, you and me.
Everything else is just noise.
I know what I got.
-[soft music playing]
-[Emi] I found Dookie.
Sorry, not in here.
It's someone's name.
This place is very clean.
[sighs]
A former security guy
remembered him.
He had been kicked out
of Ochoa buildings
at least a dozen times
in the years before
and after the murder.
His real name was
Marco Duquesne.
Was.
He died four years ago.
Overdose.
Okay. If he was the guy
that killed Bobby,
proving it now
just got a whole lot tougher.
Yeah.
-Who's Trudy?
-Uh, what?
I asked Wish how
the hunt for the other
squatter was going, Grey Worm.
-[mouthing] I'm sorry.
-[Emi] He said not great,
but he mentioned the lab
Trudy told you to bring
the gun to.
She's like CSU or something?
[sighs] Yeah, or something.
-[chuckles]
-Oh.
Oh!
Trudy's a friend.
-Kinda, yeah.
-Hmm.
Okay, it's okay.
Seriously, I mean
[scoffs] we're allowed
to have friends.
-I have friends.
-You do?
I mean, I have friend friends,
not, you know, "friends."
At least right now.
-Friends are good.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
-[computer chimes]
Oh. Uh, yeah, Harbor Forensics.
This is the lab
where I took the gun.
They successfully recovered
the serial number.
Last registered owner was
a guy named Arthur Langford.
Hmm.
-What?
-He died in 1997.
He couldn't have murdered
Bobby Werner in 2016.
According to this,
his widow still lives in Boca.
Maybe she can explain how
her husband's gun ended up
in the hands of a cop killer.
You wanted to ask me about
a gun that Arthur used to own?
Yes, I do.
It's this one, a Beretta 92.
I'm afraid it was used
in the commission of a crime.
I'm trying to figure out
how it went from Arthur
to the person who had it.
Well, if it's the gun I think
it is, it went missing
about ten years ago.
I was modifying the house
to make it easier
to move around.
Had to move all
sorts of things around,
including Arthur's gun locker.
That's when I noticed
it was gone.
And did you report it missing?
Of course I did.
[chuckles]
I told my grandnephew Flynn
about it right away.
He was a policeman then.
I'm sorry.
Did you just say
y-your grandnephew was a cop?
[Emi] Hey.
Hey, does the name
Flynn Magnuson
mean anything to you?
Of course.
He was Bobby Werner's
partner in 2016.
Yeah, well, he could be
a lot more than that.
He might be the person
who orchestrated
Bobby's murder.
Hi, can I get your name
and who you're here to see?
Yeah, my name's R.J. Decker,
and matter of fact, Flynn,
I'm here to see you.
You're sure it was
my uncle's gun
that killed Bobby?
I think you mean
your gun, right?
At least it became your gun
after you stole it out
of your aunt's house.
I mean, I know you're not
a cop anymore, but possession
is still nine-tenths.
Am I right?
Yeah, I looked into you.
Six months after Bobby died,
you were accused
of excessive force
against a shoplifter.
You and the FLPD,
you parted ways.
What's that got to do
with anything?
Well, it made me wonder
if it wasn't a one-time thing.
It was part of a pattern.
Maybe a pattern
Bobby didn't like.
Maybe he was planning on
reporting you, you found out,
and you set him up
to be killed.
What?
Why else would you steal
your uncle's gun?
Why else would you file
the serial numbers down?
It was supposed to
It was supposed to be
a drop gun.
Something I could
plant if me or Bobby
ever had to justify a shooting.
When I started bringing the gun
out on patrol,
it wasn't just me
I thought I was protecting.
I thought I was protecting
Bobby too.
But when I told him about it,
he flipped.
He said the gun went or he did.
Man, after Bobby died,
I just
lost it.
Eventually I was diagnosed
with PTSD,
but that wasn't until after
I hurt that shoplifter.
But you get how
none of that explains
how your gun ended up
in the hands
of a killer, right?
After me and Bobby talked,
I brought the gun home.
Before I could figure out
what to do with it, someone
broke in one night.
My laptop, some watches,
the gun, all gone.
My laptop and watches,
I didn't care about,
but the gun, knowing
it was in the hands
of some criminal,
someone who might use it,
terrified me.
[sighs]
Guess I was right to be scared,
because now you're telling me
it ended up with
Gabriel Romero.
It ended up in someone's hands.
I'm not sure that person
was Gabriel.
I know one thing for sure.
Romero wasn't the guy
who broke into my apartment.
Wh-What? What do you mean?
I couldn't report what happened
because if anybody but me
found the guy who did it
Yeah, they could tell them
about the drop gun.
So I did my own investigation.
Found some fingerprints,
asked the lab to run them,
said it was part
of this other thing
I was helping on,
some store on Sunrise Boulevard
that kept getting graffitied.
-Okay. And?
-No hits.
Gabriel, he was
in the system back then.
His name would have come up,
but it didn't.
The store that
kept getting graffitied,
you remember the name?
I take it you asked me
to meet you here
so Mel wouldn't see you?
Or what, instead of a gun,
do you have a body
for me to look at?
No, no, no, no gun, no body.
Okay.
But I need your help.
Mm-hmm.
Back in 2016, a week before
Bobby Werner was killed,
his partner asked the crime lab
to run prints.
He said they were left by
someone who vandalized a store
called Sand Dollar Beachwear,
but they weren't.
They were left
at the scene of another crime.
The theft of the gun
that was used to kill
Bobby Werner.
-What?
-Yeah.
Ten years ago,
there weren't any hits
off the prints,
but it's possible the guy that
really did it has committed
other crimes since then.
If he got arrested
for even one of them
Yeah, he would be
in the system now.
Yes.
-[chuckles] Okay.
-What?
Just I thought
I made myself clear yesterday
that I'm not comfortable
helping you with any of this.
You did.
R.J., do you remember
how we met?
You asked me
to run prints then too.
Right? You were trying
to help your ex, Emi.
It makes me wonder
your willingness
to go against Mel
to come and ask
me for help again,
even after I told you not to.
I mean, how much
of this is really about
helping Gabriel Romero
and how much of it is
about helping Emi?
What I'm trying to do here,
free a guy who might
be innocent,
catch a guy who
may have killed a cop,
it has nothing to do with us.
Nothing. It's bigger than us.
Oh, I agree. The question is,
is it bigger than you and Emi?
[sighs]
Right.
Yeah, I'll look into finding
the Sand Dollar Beachwear
report from 2016.
I'll run the prints again.
Anything comes of it,
I will call you.
Anything doesn't, I won't.
-[phone ringing]
-[sighs]
-Hey, buddy.
-[Wish] Remember Manolo
from Apalachee?
Yeah, he stole a horse trailer,
ended up with
a kidnapping charge 'cause
there was a jockey inside.
Well, Manolo's out now.
He gave me a lead
on that other guy Gabriel
was squatting with, Grey Worm.
Unfortunately, he didn't have
a current address,
but Manolo did know
where Grey Worm's
gonna be at 5:00 today.
I ain't been called Grey Worm
since I got clean.
Six years.
Folks used to think
I looked like the guy
from Game of Thrones.
Skinny, quiet, dangerous.
Drugs had a hand in all three.
Did you have many run-ins
with the cops back then?
Uh, how many's "many"?
Look, if y'all are here
to ask me if I helped
Gabriel kill that cop, then--
Actually, we don't think
anyone helped Gabriel.
We don't think he had
anything to do with it.
The gun that was used
to kill Werner,
it was actually stolen
out of someone's apartment.
Whoever did it
left fingerprints.
Those fingerprints are being
run through the system
right now.
They won't be mine.
Look, I never messed
with no guns.
So if your next question is,
"Well, where were you the night
the cop got shot," my answer
is Cypress Bay Medical.
I OD'd. Almost died.
I won't have the records,
but they will,
so you can ask 'em.
Or you could trust me
when I say Gabriel
did do what they say.
I'm sorry, how can you be
so sure about that?
You know where me and him
were staying back then,
house off Powerline?
The night after I got out
of the hospital, I went back.
I heard Gabriel got arrested,
figured I'd go back
and get my stuff
before the cops
found the place,
turned it upside down.
Only I walk in
on someone, member
of the Los Cuerpos de Sangre.
-You know them?
-Yeah, I do. Street gang.
Next thing I know,
I'm up against a wall
with a gun to my head.
"Is this where
Gabriel Romero crashes?
Which room is his?
Where does he keep his stuff?"
-What was
his interest in Gabriel?
-Her interest.
Isn't it obvious?
Los Cuerpos put Gabriel up
to shooting that cop.
It was a hit.
Only reason
she would've been there.
They heard he got scooped up,
sent someone to the house
to make sure
that there was nothing there
to connect them to Gabriel.
Yeah, what if she wasn't there
to-to clean anything?
I mean, what if she was there
to plant something?
The hoodie. The one with
the skeleton hands on the back.
Los Cuerpos kills Werner.
Uh, the cops start zeroing in
on Gabriel,
so the gang starts feeding them
evidence that fits.
The woman you saw,
can you describe her?
Twenty something.
Little thing. Latina.
She cussed me out in Spanish
before taking off on
a red Ducati motorcycle.
-Are you sure about
the motorcycle?
-Positive.
Is that her?
Yeah. Yeah, man, definitely.
Guess who used
to own a red Ducati.
Breaking into a cop's house
is a good way to get
yourself shot.
I have a key to this place,
remember?
I didn't break in anywhere,
unlike you, ten years ago.
The abandoned house
where Gabriel Romero
was staying.
I found the guy
you put the fear
of God into that night.
He remembered you.
He remembered
your old motorcycle.
Gabriel was scooped up
just one day after
he shot Bobby.
The detectives who were
handling the interviews,
they were friends.
They told me they knew
he was the guy,
but there was a problem.
They didn't have
a murder weapon,
no prints, no DNA,
no physical evidence, period.
So I went looking for some.
I took a personal day.
I hit the streets, asked
around, found somebody
who knew someone,
who heard a rumor that
Gabriel had been squatting
in some abandoned house.
So I went to that house,
and I'm not there 60 seconds
before some other junkie
comes in.
So I think fast, I tell him
I run with Los Cuerpos,
just anything to keep him
from thinking that I'm a cop,
and then he confirms it to me.
I had the right place.
This was where Gabriel
had been staying.
Meanwhile, Gabriel's on, what,
hour 30 of being interrogated?
At least.
And he was still crying,
still playing the victim.
And just like that,
anonymous tip comes in.
It's about the house.
The cops go there,
they find the shooter's hoodie.
No, they find Gabriel's hoodie.
And that's the straw
that breaks his back.
-He confesses.
-I know what you're thinking.
You think I called in the tip,
but you know what
the funny part is?
All that work for por nada,
the tip came from someone else.
That was fine by me because
all I cared about was justice
for Bobby.
It's funny, you being
inside the house
the night before the cops found
the shooter's hoodie there.
I'm sorry, excuse me?
Maybe when you heard there was
no evidence to use
against Gabriel,
you didn't just go looking
for some, you created some.
You found a hoodie just
like the shooter wore.
You planted it.
-You've lost your damn mind.
-I came here as a courtesy.
Remember the murder weapon
nobody could find back then?
I found it.
I traced it to the person
it was stolen from.
Right now I'm waiting
on evidence that could tell me
exactly who killed Bobby.
If it does,
everything's gonna come out.
Everything.
So you can believe
that I planted evidence,
but you can't believe
that Gabriel Romero is guilty
of a murder he actually
confessed to?
You know me.
Not lately.
[knocking on door]
Hi.
Hey.
-Hey.
-Come on in.
-I was worried about
you last night.
-Oh, yeah?
Everything you told me about
your conversation with Mel
Well, had to be done.
-Here.
-Thank you.
Still no word about
the fingerprints
from your, uh, friend?
To be fair, that was a that
was a hard conversation too.
If she doesn't find the report
that Bobby's old partner
says he submitted back then,
or if she does, but the prints
still aren't in the system,
she may not call me
at all, so
Well, I wanted
to thank you again
for-- for doing this.
I know, it's not easy.
Yeah, I mean, if helping people
like Gabriel were easy,
everybody would be doing it.
No, I don't think they would.
You're a good man, R.J. Decker.
I'm glad you're
I'm glad you're my friend.
[phone ringing]
Sorry.
Ah.
-Hey.
-[Mel] Hey. Can we meet?
No one else is here?
No. [sighs]
In case you're wondering,
I have a key to this place too.
What are we doing here, Mel?
I'm about to owe
a whole bunch
of people apologies.
I figured I should start
with you.
First, I want you to know
that everything I told you
last night was the truth.
I did not plant that hoodie,
and it matters to me that
you know that.
I believe you.
I know everything now,
or at least I know a lot.
The gun you found, the one
that was used to kill Bobby,
he said someone stole it.
The person who stole it,
they left prints,
prints that you think
belonged to the killer.
So you talked to Trudy?
Hey, Mel, what is it?
What's going on?
She found something, something
that has to go through
channels now.
And there's, um, still some
things I wanna ask you about
because I wanna understand.
If it's gonna mean
that I had it wrong
and you had it right,
then Gabriel Romero spent
the last ten years of his life
in prison for nothing.
I-I just
I-I-I don't understand.
All these years
being told it was Gabriel,
that it could only be Gabriel.
I know, I know it's a lot.
The gun, you-you said
it belonged to Flynn Magnuson.
You don't think he had
anything to do with Bobby
getting killed?
No, he said it was stolen.
I believe him.
Respectfully, I don't know you,
so I don't know why
I should listen
to anything you believe.
I know it's hard,
but all the evidence
says Gabriel was framed.
The person who did it,
they were meticulous, evil.
I'm confused. Are you saying
you know who killed him?
Don't you?
I'm guessing Bobby told you
about the drop gun.
He was pissed at Flynn,
probably talked it out
with you,
and knowing him, he was torn.
He didn't wanna have
anything to do with the gun,
but he didn't want
to jam up Flynn either.
Yeah, Bobby told you
about Gabriel too, didn't he?
That Gabriel had threatened him
a few times.
You went and did a little
detective work of your own,
looked into Gabriel,
found out where he spent
his nights, an abandoned house
off Powerline Road.
Gabriel was much
smaller back then,
barely out of his teens.
Your build, his build?
It would have been hard
to tell them apart
in a big, bulky hoodie.
Flynn Magnuson, not a good cop,
he'd tell you that himself,
but he did do one smart thing
after someone stole
his drop gun.
He looked for prints.
Ten years ago,
when he tried to run them,
you weren't in the system,
but you are now.
Thanks of all things
to you volunteering
to chaperone field trips
at your daughter's school.
Mel, this is insane.
Why would I kill Bobby?
Usually it's about
sex or money. In this case
we're thinking money.
Bobby's death came
with a significant
line of duty payout,
lifetime benefits,
tuition waivers for your kid.
And there's the fact that
Bobby wasn't your first
husband to die
under tragic circumstances.
Jessica isn't actually
your first name,
it's your middle name,
and you only started
going by it when you
came here from Michigan.
Gladwin, to be specific,
that's where you married your
high school sweetheart, Kyle.
He died in a car crash
when you were both 19.
Only three months after
you convinced him to take out
a big life insurance policy.
A lot of people in Gladwin
think you steered into
that tree on purpose.
Mel, we're friends.
The only, and I mean
the only thing about you
I don't think is a lie
is your love for Danielle,
and you can spare her some pain
and confusion if you just
come clean now.
No, I don't think so.
There's a team outside.
It's a warrant
to search your house,
your financials, your computer.
Let's see just
how many problems
Bobby's death solved for you.
[Kelly] An evidentiary
hearing's been granted.
That fast?
[Emi] I pulled a few strings.
I used some
of my father's old connections
to get Kelly an immediate
chamber meeting
with your trial judge.
Am I getting out?
There's still work to do,
but if the state
attorney's office
agrees to an uncontested
motion, you could be
out within 90 days.
[Emi] We saw your mom.
We gave her the good news.
She's doing well,
she can't wait to see you.
Thank you.
Ten years, ten freaking years
of holding that woman's hand,
thinking she was my friend.
You know, think of
the stupidest you've ever felt
multiply that times 1000,
that's how stupid I feel.
I don't want to turn this
into a competition,
but I've felt pretty stupid
a few times.
[scoffs]
And whatever she is,
sociopath, psychopath,
malignant narcissist,
all of the above,
she was a very good actress.
You guys didn't happen
to find any smoking guns
after I left today, did you?
I'm hoping it's just
a matter of time.
To Bobby.
Hell yeah.
Sounds like you really
stepped in it with Trudy.
[laughing] No way.
[chuckles] Yeah,
Jessica's fingerprints weren't
the only thing we talked about.
Don't worry, you leave it
to your hermana,
I'll handle it.
I'll take care of it.
Got it.
[phone ringing]
Change your mind
about confessing?
[Jessica] No.
I'm not worried
about the things you took
out of my house today.
They're not going
to help you prove
this insane theory of yours.
["Cities in Dust" playing]
There is one thing
I can't get past though.
Bobby's parents were granted
emergency temporary custody
of Danielle today.
It happened so fast.
It's almost like someone knew
how preoccupied I would be.
You know,
most crazy people I've met,
they don't know they're crazy,
but even you have to see
you're not the person
she should be
with right now, right?
I don't know who I am
without her, Mel.
I wonder who you'll be
without your family.
What?
Jessica, tell me where you are.
Jessica.
Jessica?
Jessica? Jessica, please.
Jessica?
Jessica?
Jessica, please tell me
where you are right now,
Jessica.
Jessica!