High Potential (2024) s01e10 Episode Script
Chutes and Murders
1
♪
There he is. Come here, big guy.
Don't you want to go down
the slide? It's so fun.
- Mnh-mnh.
- Someone's waiting, sweets.
You can do it.
Come on. Go down the slide.
Come. Whee!
- [LOUD THUMP]
- Aah!
Margot?
- [LOUD THUMP]
- Aah!
- Margot!
- [CHILDREN SCREAM]
- Erica? Hold on. I'm coming!
- [CHILDREN SCREAMING]
- Oh, my God!
- Aah!
[SIREN WAILS, POLICE RADIO CHATTER]
Her name is Tara Foley.
She was also a nanny,
but we really didn't know her that well.
Do you know of anyone
who would have wanted
to wanted to hurt her?
- I can't imagine.
- She was so nice.
Milo, we don't eat grass.
Have some seaweed.
Well, there was that creepy guy.
What creepy guy?
Some weird guy who had
been hanging around the park.
As a mom, it's my job
to anticipate all the ways
somebody could die at a
playground but stuck in a slide?
I missed that one.
- Morning, all.
- Morning.
- Morning.
- So, Dr. Farzan,
- what have you got?
- Well, it looks like
the victim died of an epidural hematoma
due to a blow to the head
by a heavy object.
She was attacked in the slide?
I don't think so.
Judging from the shape of the slide,
the location of the wound,
it's my belief that
the victim was struck elsewhere
and tried to escape her assailant.
She was hiding, Lieutenant.
- Time of death?
- Around 10:00 p.m.
There doesn't seem to be any CCTV here.
I'll have Lin check.
Any guess as to the murder weapon?
It's hard to say.
We'll test the wound
for particulate matter.
but an injury like this
could've come from any number of things
if it was swung hard enough.
I'll have forensics do a wide sweep.
They're going to have a hell of a time.
There's no place more laden
with bodily fluids
than a playground during flu season.
[CELLPHONE CHIMES]
- Got a lead.
- The victim's name is Tara Foley.
According to Tara's fellow nannies,
a suspicious man who seemed
particularly interested in Tara
was seen hanging around the park.
Any one of them manage
to take a photo of this person?
- Unfortunately, no.
- [CELLPHONE CHIMES]
Okay, that dinging's got to stop.
- Morgan.
- What? I'm detecting.
- [CELLPHONE UNLOCKS]
- [SIGHS]
See? Eight unread messages
from someone named Brett Lewis.
"Tara? Tara? You're late. Where are you?
Tara, answer me now." Ooh.
The last one's a voice memo.
Tara, you're now an hour
and a half late.
You better have an airtight
excuse because this is unacceptable!
That would appear to be her employer.
May I?
No emergency contact listed.
No one listed as mom or dad either.
What? God! This just
keeps getting sadder.
This poor girl, all alone in the world,
spent her last few minutes
terrified for her life.
You can tell by her ballet flats
that she was nice.
Okay, we have to find that man
who's been hanging around the park.
Daphne, Oz, go through Tara's phone,
see if you can find any pictures
she may have taken of him.
And look for a next of kin,
boyfriend, girlfriend.
Anyone who can tell us more
about Tara and her life.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
And, Morgan, Karadec, we may
not be able to talk to family,
but let's at least start
by talking to the one person
she worked for every day.
Find out what he has to say for himself.
You got it, boss.
[DOORBELL RINGS]
What murderer leaves
someone an angry message
after killing them?
A smart one.
Adam Karadec, LAPD. I'm afraid
I've got some bad news for you.
Oh, poor Tara, this is such a shock.
So how long had Tara been Ward's nanny?
About four months.
And in that time,
she'd become part of the family.
You know, Brett, you seemed
pretty angry in your messages.
I mean, did you have a
strained relationship with Tara?
No. Not at all.
I'm just a stickler for being on time.
I wouldn't have yelled at her
had I known.
- Can you tell us about Tara?
- What was she like?
Oof! Um, Tara was a sweet girl.
You know, she was quiet and loving
and liked reading historical fiction
and watching TikToks of dance protégés.
Sorry. I'm just trying
to give you everything I know.
Outside of working for us,
she lived a relatively solitary life.
That would explain the lack
of an emergency contact in her phone.
Had Tara mentioned anything out
of the ordinary to you recently?
- No. Nothing I can think of.
- Wait.
There w There was that guy
that kept following her.
Well, Tara complained that
she kept seeing the same guy.
He'd show up wherever she was.
The park, coffee shop.
He was often reading
a French magazine or newspaper,
and he had a limp.
♪
I know where to find this guy.
There's only one newsstand that
sells French newspapers in L.A.
And it's across the street from
a perfect stakeout location.
Wow, you really love this diner, huh?
Oh, my God. This is so good.
You got to take a bite.
Eat from the other side.
I didn't touch there.
Morgan, we're on a stakeout.
A key to a good stakeout
is being discreet.
You worried I'm going to pull a Meg Ryan
and fake an orgasm or something?
That would attract
way too much attention.
Oh, I can fake yours, though. Watch.
- Impression over.
- That's hilarious.
- That's our guy.
- Really?
Yeah. Yeah, it looks
like he's headed this way.
- In here?
- Yeah.
Where did he go?
♪
Okay. He went up there. You stay here.
Okay.
Okay!
♪
Hey, Morgan. It's safe to
Well, I could tell
by your confident footsteps
that the coast was clear.
Well, it turns out that
our stalker is actually a P.I.
- Oh.
- Charles Lavoie,
a.k.a. "Chuck the Canuck." Former LAPD.
Used to be a detective
in the traffic department.
Just a warning The guy is a lot.
Okay.
I apologize about the pastrami smell.
You'll get used to it.
- Hey, Chuck.
- [DOOR CLOSES]
Adam Karadec.
[LAUGHS] I'll be damned.
And you got married.
- No. Morgan Gillory.
- We work together.
- Huh.
- Anyway, uh, Karadec and I
came up together as detectives.
You know, we were always neck and neck.
- Is that right?
- Uh.
Until I was forced
to retire early, so
Well, Chuck was shot
in the line of duty.
- Oh, my God.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- What happened?
Uh, my firearm did discharge itself
whilst in its holster
during a routine traffic stop,
causing my metatarsal to shatter.
You shot yourself in the foot.
- [CHUCKLES]
- I shot myself in the foot.
Okay. Hey, can I take a look at
this newspaper?
Yeah, sure.
Le Devoir from Québec.
This is the French newspaper
that Tara saw her stalker reading.
What's this all about?
What do you know about Tara Foley?
- Everything.
- Did you know she was murdered?
Almost everything. I had no idea.
- Poor girl.
- Who hired you to follow her?
I place a high priority
on client confidentiality,
but an even higher one on friendship.
I was hired by the Lewises.
Her employers? Ward's parents?
This is getting messy.
They wanted to know if I saw
anything out of the ordinary.
But I found bupkis.
Did you take any pictures?
Tons.
I shoot raw, my man.
This is my favorite part of the job.
Do me a favor, Chuck.
Bring these photos down
to the station tomorrow.
Yeah. Happy to. Karadec.
Nice to meet you.
- You too.
- Poor girl.
Why did you stop following Tara?
I was canned.
The client wasn't happy
with the results,
which is what they always say
when they don't get
what they were hoping to find.
What were they hoping to find?
They thought the nanny
was mistreating their son.
♪
[DOORBELL RINGS]
[DOOR OPENS]
Oh, I didn't expect to see you again.
We didn't expect to be back.
You think we hired a private
investigator to follow Tara?
I'm sorry,
but we most certainly did not.
- Well, we might have.
- What?
Brett, why did you hire a P.I.
to follow Tara?
I was a nervous wreck,
ever since the ordeal
we went through with
our last nanny, Rosa.
What happened with Rosa?
I'm a member of the 90049
Parents Facebook group.
That's the Brentwood zip code.
Six months ago,
I see a post from
a concerned mother describing
a horrific event at the library
where an unattended child
wandered out of the library
and almost into the street.
When I read the description
of the child,
- I realized it was Ward.
- It was terrifying.
That is a nightmare. What did you do?
We asked Rosa about it
and she ultimately admitted it.
We had no choice but to let her go.
But what does this have to do with Tara?
We hired Tara,
and everything was going great.
Ward loved her.
But then we see another post
in the Parents group,
this time about Tara.
And this time
from several mothers all saying
that Tara was endangering Ward.
We debated whether to believe it.
- The post about Rosa was true.
- But we talked to both
Ward and Tara and determined
that the accusations against
Tara had to be made up.
Ward lit up around Tara in a way
that he never did with Rosa,
and Tara seemed to be taking
excellent care of Ward.
I couldn't let it go. I'm sorry.
What did this P.I. even find?
Nothing.
Can we see these negative
posts about Tara, please?
Sure. I took screen grabs of everything.
Here you go.
This "Carina" gal seems to be
all up in your business.
Yeah, well, Carina is the one
who alerted us to Rosa's misconduct.
Yeah, and then it looks
like she turns on Tara.
- Did you reach out to Carina?
- I messaged her,
but she said she didn't have
any more information.
If you'll excuse me, I got to stand up.
These pants only have about
a 10-minute sitting time limit
before they become
a permanent part of my body.
So, Jeff, you were totally confident
in Tara's care of Ward?
Completely. She was wonderful.
Where did you even find this guy?
The Internet.
I can't believe you even hired a P.I.
Well, my guess is he wanted
eyes and ears on the outside
since you guys are all covered
on nanny cams in here.
What?! Nanny cams?
I used to rely on a very kind,
but very senior gentleman
to watch my kids.
And I wanted to make sure
that he wasn't literally
falling asleep on the job.
So I looked into
my surveillance options.
You've got the nanny cam clock,
tissue box,
picture frame, energy drink,
which I found confusing.
Uh, the nanny cam fake toolbox.
Ultimately,
I couldn't afford any of them,
but I'm finding that
Brett went with the plant,
globe, and the adorable spy robot.
There's a nanny cam in the north pole?
We're going to need that footage.
Where were you two last night?
We were here all night.
Can anyone corroborate that?
We were on a video call.
With who?
Lamar Nichols, our couples counselor.
Alright. We'll be in touch.
♪
Well, I'll have
Daphne look up Carina's address,
track down the other parents
who posted about Tara.
We need to get to the bottom of this
90049 Parents Facebook group.
Yep.
You know why
most foods are cooked at 350?
The Maillard reaction,
a chemical process
by which the sugars are browned
and produce pleasing flavors.
But I think the sweet
potato fries call for 425.
[CELLPHONE CHIMES]
[LAUGHS]
Oh, crap.
You're right.
[OVEN BEEPS]
Ah! They rejected me!
I'm trying to infiltrate
a private online parenting group
so I can chat up some people
who are bullying our victim,
but seems like they sniffed around
and figured out
that we don't exactly live
within the city limits of Brentwood.
We don't even live close enough
to have the same weather
- as Brentwood.
- [CHUCKLES]
Oh, by the way,
my classmate Finn is having
an 11th birthday party soon,
so I'll need a gift.
- Awesome.
- What do you want to get him?
Um, Ava, what's a good gift
for a boy's 11th birthday?
[BOTH LAUGH]
Ava, do you have any ideas?
Hey, Phone Face!
Hi. Your brother's talking to you.
I don't know.
Elliot's the only fifth grader here.
[LAUGHS]
Hey, I was super into Legos
when I was 11.
My favorite was a "Toy Story 2" set
because I had a big crush on Jessie.
You did?
I could totally see it
with her cute pigtails
and your eyes just popped
out of your head
and your jaw dropped to the floor.
- Hey, she seemed nice.
- [LAUGHS]
Why don't you go grab your tablet
and you can pick out a set?
- Okay.
- Text me again.
Okay.
[AWOOGA!]
That's you when you first saw Jessie.
You change your text
tone to say "awooga"?
Only for the texts from you.
I can't believe you.
Me neither.
♪
Hey, you want to go through
Tara's phone?
- That's all you.
- Oh, yeah.
This place still smells
like cheap floor wax
and the scared urine
from the suckers we put away.
[LAUGHS]
- Ooh!
- Uh, you must be Chuck.
Ah, you got me.
Did you bring the photos
for the Foley case?
- Indeed I did. Yep.
- All 1,500 of them.
Yeah. Karadec wanted
me to walk you through them.
You know, identify all the key players.
But first, I need a chair
with solid lumbar support.
There she is.
I slipped a disc between my L2 and L3.
- You know what?
- I got Tara's phone.
You tear it up with Chuck.
- Okay.
- Hey, Chuck!
Ah! [LAUGHS]
Seems like you have some
personal photos mixed in here.
All my photos are personal.
Are you on any of
these online parenting groups?
Absolutely not.
Don't need some
self-righteous mom telling me
I don't love my kids
if I don't cut their cucumbers
into little smiley faces before
I cram them in their lunchbox.
Yeah, I would never take you as the type
to anthropomorphize vegetables.
That is the kindest thing
you've ever said to me.
"Warning from a concerned mom
Ward's new nanny, Tara,
is cruel and neglectful.
Last Tuesday, she grabbed
his arm so hard he screamed.
Then Thursday,
she yelled at him to stop crying
and left him stuck on
the top of the play structure."
Mm-hmm. I didn't write that.
Sure seems like you did.
And a bunch of other ones just like it.
I mean, why don't
you take a second look?
Didn't write it. Didn't write it.
That's pretty good,
but I didn't write it.
Didn't No,
you know, I did write this one.
Uh, which one?
"At the library on Wednesday afternoon,
a dark-headed boy wearing galoshes
and a conductor hat
was unattended for 15 minutes,
crying and calling for a Rosa.
He ran out the front door
and would have gone into traffic
had it not been
for a library staff member.
Finally, Rosa showed up with no excuse.
If this is your nanny,
she is dangerous!"
Exclamation point.
Okay. So you got Rosa fired?
No, I didn't get her fired.
I reported an issue. In my line of work,
safety is paramount.
I'm a VP of a commercial
real-estate firm.
It's very demanding.
Usually childcare falls
to my husband, Mark.
But I had the day off,
so I was able to take
our daughter to the library.
Now, I don't know all the
the kids and the nannies
like my husband does because I'm
not around during the day.
So I had to post on Facebook
to let the parents know
what had happened.
My point is, is that
I tried to do the right thing
and it bit me in the ass.
How so?
Well, after I wrote that post,
I was eviscerated
in private messages saying
I ruined a woman's career.
Said I needed to check my privilege.
It was It was ridiculous.
Yeah, they wouldn't be saying
that if it was their kid.
Exactly. Okay?
So I just said screw this
and deactivated my account.
Where were you two nights ago?
I was working very late.
I have a big,
big presentation coming up.
Look, I'm sorry
that this nanny Tara is dead,
but I didn't know her.
The initial search of Tara's apartment
didn't turn up anything of note.
But I want to go back again now
that we know more about our suspects.
Hopefully, we'll find some answers.
[CELLPHONE RINGS]
Talk to me, Daph.
Tara has someone saved in
her phone as "Little Sketchy."
The texts are intense.
I'm sending them to you now.
Think we might have
an actual stalker on her hands.
Any luck tracking down the other people
who wrote negative posts about Tara?
- Still working on it.
- [CELLPHONE VIBRATES]
Thanks, Daph. Bye.
Okay, here we go.
Little Sketchy "My forever
love, why do you forsake me?
My heart knows not its beat
if it can't echo that of yours."
Little Sketchy
"If I don't see you soon,
I don't know what I'll do."
That was three days ago.
She never wrote back.
Ah, Tara's apartment seems pretty neat.
I still feel kind of weird
about you parking in her spot.
Mm.
Alright, let's do this methodically.
I'll start with Tara's desk,
and you start
By making a huge mess.
Look at this. Tara was religious.
Drawer dump already paying off.
Yeah, we got overdue bills.
Notice of a rent increase.
Tara may have had money trouble.
Mm. This is interesting.
She knew Carina
was harassing her online.
Well, she may have feared for her life.
She kept pepper spray in her nightstand.
Oh, we got a lawyer's number here.
[LINE RINGING]
- Kalill, Phillips and Strauss.
- Hi.
Um, I was wondering if you could tell me
if Tara Foley is a client.
I'm afraid we can't
divulge client information.
Right.
Uh, well, who might I speak
to regarding a stalker?
I'm sorry, sir.
We're an immigration law firm.
- Oh. Um, thank you.
- You're welcome.
Huh. That's strange.
Oh, Morgan, look at this.
Hm. The night she was murdered,
she was planning on going to church.
Yeah. I'll have Hoffie find out
if anyone saw her there.
Still nothing
that points to Brett or Carina
or gives us an idea
of who Little Sketchy was.
Eww.
- Morgan, don't.
- By all means,
let me parse through the trash
piece by piece, like a lady.
At a certain point, just treat
yourself to a full-size bar.
Bingo. Sunday night poetry slam.
Based on Little Sketchy's
overly wrought rhyme scheme,
I bet we could find the guy here.
And today just happens to be
Sunday fun day.
Where is Ava? She's 10 minutes late.
Ooh, forgot to tell you.
Our Prime delivery came with
Finn's birthday present in it.
I just ordered it yesterday.
It's already here.
Actually, I don't need it after all.
Turns out I'm the only kid
in class Finn didn't invite.
What? That's got to be a mistake.
It's not.
I promise.
Well, this sucks.
Hey.
I still think it's just a mistake.
But if it's not,
you're keeping that present
'cause you're a wonderful kid,
and you deserve it.
[DOOR OPENS]
There you are. Where have you been?
I gotta go to work. [AWOOGA!]
Can you put that down, please?
You have actual people in the room.
I'm just being polite and thanking Ryder
- for dropping me off.
- Ryder drives?
- Most 26-year-olds do.
- [LAUGHING SARCASTICALLY]
Not funny. Not the night and not funny.
As if I couldn't be in a worse mood,
I got to go to a poetry reading.
Tara, oh, Tara,
you're gone with the wind.
I am left heartbroken,
beaten and chagrined.
Goodbye, Tarasaurus. Who is sore? Us.
Who's dead?
You.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
[LIGHT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
Excuse me. Um, we need to talk.
Uh, I'm Detective Karadec.
This is Consultant Guillory
with the LAPD.
We're looking into
the murder of Tara Foley.
Good. I know who killed her.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING]
Bryan Schlotzky is on his way
in for questioning.
You know, I can't stress enough
the importance of hand-to-hand
combat training in our line of work.
I could show you a few moves.
I can't believe you brought
Chuck the Canuck
- back to our precinct.
- Well, you got to admit,
it's fun to watch Oz squirm.
Daphne, any luck
finding the other people
who posted about Tara
on that 90049 Parents group?
- Still looking.
- It's a needle in a haystack.
There are so many moms
named Megan out there.
I think we might have
someone else to consider.
Mark, Carina's husband.
Mark's in a lot of these photos.
He and Tara seemed cozy,
and in this one,
he's wielding a bat.
That could cause a hematoma.
Can you go back one?
Tara's wearing Mark's sweatshirt.
Well, how do you know?
It's got the old SuperSonics logo on it.
- SuperSonics, fast food joint.
- No.
Former NBA team based in Seattle.
In 2008, they moved to Oklahoma
and play under a different
sound-theme name, the Thunder.
I think Mark was from Seattle.
On their mantel,
I saw a family photo of them
standing at the Space Needle.
In the distance you could see
Mount Rainier in the foreground
- with the arches of Lumen Field.
- Daphne, pay Mark a visit.
Find out what the real nature of
his relationship was with Tara.
- Got it.
- Oz, can you print these for me?
- Yeah.
- [INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
Yep. And it would appear
that Little Sketchy has arrived
for his interview.
[CELLPHONE VIBRATES]
- Ooh.
- [VIBRATING CONTINUES]
Oh, give me one sec, real quick. Hello.
Hi, this is Jean Anne, Finn's
mom, returning your call.
Oh, hi, Jean Anne. Hey.
Listen, I think
there's been a misunderstanding.
See, my son Elliot
believes he's the only kid
not invited to your son's
birthday party.
Oh, Finn made the guest list.
It's a small group,
and he and Elliot
don't know each other that well.
Oh, well, that's an easy fix.
Why doesn't he come over
tomorrow for a play date?
Tomorrow? I guess that could
work.
- Perfect. We'll see Finn then.
- Great. Bye.
Motherhood has made me so understanding.
How did you know Tara?
Tara was my babysitter.
Where were you the night Tara died?
I was outside her apartment complex
blasting a love song through a speaker.
- Can anyone confirm that?
- Uh, several of the tenants
were quite frustrated
with my act of devotion.
At the poetry reading,
you said you knew who killed Tara.
It was Mark, a dad at the playground.
He started horning in and made
Tara cut me out of her life.
But Tara would never be
with a married man.
So he killed her.
♪
[DOORBELL RINGS]
- Hi, Mark.
- Daphne Forrester, LAPD.
Is there news about Tara?
Not exactly.
Can you tell me why Tara was wearing
your sweatshirt in this photo?
I guess she was cold?
Looks like you two were pretty close.
We were.
Ward and my daughter Ruby
were playground friends,
so I got to know her pretty well.
You know, she didn't have any family,
so I was there for her,
gave her advice when I could.
Was it more than friendship for you?
What? No.
No. I love my wife. I'm devoted to her.
- Tara was a friend.
- Okay.
Where were you the night Tara died?
Here. Hosting book club.
We were reading Liz Gilbert's
"Big Magic."
Actually, you know what?
You can ask anyone in my book club.
We're called the Lou Reads,
except Reed is spelled
I can guess.
Is that your bat?
Um
♪
This?
It's for Wiffle-Ball. It's plastic.
Totally harmless. See?
♪
[VIDEO GAME SOUNDS]
You're doing great.
I have actual racecars if you want to do
a tactile thing later.
I've got freshly opened cookies.
[VIDEO GAME SOUNDS STOP]
Do you have anything
without refined sugar?
Let me go look.
[VIDEO GAME SOUNDS RESUME]
Gosh. Imagine being there
in the summer of '56
when Art Ingels invented
the first go-kart.
- [DOWNBEAT NOTES PLAY]
- Dude!
- You made me lose!
- I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to.
You really suck the fun
out of everything.
You know, I'm only here
because my mom made me.
Right? You're just a weirdo
who can't shut up.
That's why you're not invited
to my birthday party.
Hey, Finn. I'm taking everybody
to Knott's Berry Farm next week.
And you're not invited.
I sure would love to bring you along,
but they got a no-turd-kid policy,
so I guess we'll just
have to miss you on this one.
Why don't you grab your stuff
and go sit on the porch
and wait for your mom?
Bye. Thanks for coming.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES] [SIGHS]
I kind of blacked out. How bad was it?
What just came out of my mouth?
Bad.
It was all bad.
[MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYS]
I'm so sorry I forced a play date.
Finn does not deserve a friend like you.
I know it's hard to be different.
But listen.
You are fun no matter what
that little jerk says.
I'll believe it when I see it.
♪
I don't know. One of them thinks
he's not cool and the other one
has basically divorced herself
from our family.
If she's not with her boyfriend,
she's constantly texting him.
Yep.
I'm so sorry, Morgan,
but this too shall pass.
And then something
even harder will come up.
Oh, good. Thank you so much.
Honestly, this Foley
case is driving me nuts.
We are missing something. I can feel it.
- I do too.
- [DOOR OPENS]
Brett's couple's-counseling
alibi checked out.
Although he may
have hired someone to kill Tara.
Look into his financials.
You might want to see this.
Tara's with the other nannies
in a lot of Chuck's photos.
They might have known each
other better than we thought.
I mean, they did spend
every day together.
♪
Our main suspects all have alibis.
Not all airtight, but still.
Go back to the nannies.
Find out everything
they know about Tara,
anything we may have missed.
- Yeah.
- Oz.
I remembered that boxing combo is lethal
if done correctly.
- I'm actually heading out.
- We'll talk about it later.
Morgan, I think you
and I should tag along.
Karadec, you want to play some handball?
As soon as I get back, bro.
- As soon as I get back.
- Alright.
Ooh!
[SIGHS] Remember the good old
days, Selena?
You know, when you could
arrest a perp in the morning
and then take him out for a beer
in the afternoon?
You know, when everybody wasn't
so sensitive about everything.
Darius!
Come here. Please.
I wanted to ask you about
the Tara Foley case.
Chuck, I think you'd better excuse us.
You want me to get
the chuck out of here?
My hourly rates are too high. [LAUGHS]
Thank you, Chuck.
Oh! You are a lifesaver.
I hope I didn't pull you
from anything urgent.
Nope. Just snagging a cup
of the good coffee
you guys have up here.
But I do have an update.
The toxicologist report
on Tara Foley came out clean,
and we found no evidence
of defensive wounds on her body.
Which means when she was
attacked, she didn't fight back.
She was taken by surprise,
or she knew her attacker.
It seems like it.
[SIGHS]
♪
We're hoping you can tell
us a little more about Tara.
She was nice. Almost too nice.
She didn't know her worth.
I hear she was working for
$10 an hour less than we do
and with no benefits. Poor thing.
An extra 10 bucks an hour
would help with those overdue bills.
This job is easier if you work
together, coordinate.
Only one nanny needs to bring a
soccer ball, that sort of thing.
But she didn't take us
up on our offers to help.
You know, the saddest part is
she might still be alive
if she was a joiner.
Joiner? What do you mean?
Well, the night that
she passed, I was housesitting.
So I had these girls
over to just hang out.
She could have been with us,
but instead
Oh, God rest her soul.
The only one
she was friends with was Mark.
But his wife didn't like that.
- What was her name?
- Carina.
- Right. Carina.
- You remember that fight?
What fight?
Oh, his wife show up one day
and scream at her and Mark.
Tara look really frightened.
♪
Carina's motive just got
a whole lot clearer.
- She was jealous.
- Didn't she have an alibi?
She said she was working late,
which was confirmed by
the security log at her office.
Anyone can jump a turnstile
if they want to avoid scanning their ID,
or they don't have money for the Metro.
Want to sneak into a Brandi
Carlile concert,
for example. [CELLPHONE VIBRATING]
- Karadec.
- Hey, it's Daphne.
You know those other moms who posted
negative things about Tara
in the Brentwood parents group?
- Yeah.
- They don't exist.
Don't exist?
Their profiles appear to be fake.
So somebody who hated Tara
created fake profiles to drag her?
Yeah, we're about to go talk
to somebody who fits that bill.
Thanks, Daphne.
So we need to be keeping
an eye on sustainability
as our clients value. Um
♪
Tell us about
the heated argument you and Mark
- had at the park, please.
- Did it have anything
to do with Mark's
relationship with Tara?
- What? No. Are you
- [SCOFFS]
Are you suggesting
I was jealous of Tara?
Well, jealousy is a common motive.
You wouldn't exactly
be rewriting the playbook.
I wasn't mad about Tara!
I was mad about our deck!
Mark had one simple job.
Just order the wood for our new deck.
And out of all the types of wood,
do you know which one he ordered?
[MUFFLED] Alaskan spruce!
Everyone knows that Alaskan
spruce shrinks endgrain,
okay, and causes serious
problems when it gets wet.
I mean, I know that,
but I'm not everyone.
You are the only real person
we can link to
the negative posts about Tara.
All the other profiles were fake.
Did you maybe create them
to upset the young woman
that your husband was so close with?
Oh, my God. Look, I told you
I never posted about Tara.
Only Rosa.
I took my daughter to story time
at the library one time.
Okay? As a working mother,
that is a special opportunity
to hang out with your kid
in the middle of the day.
And while I was there, I
happened to see something awful.
So I said something,
and then it backfired,
and I deleted my account.
H-H-Hang on, hang on.
What time is story time?
- Noon.
- All the comments about Tara
were posted between 12:00
and 1:00 p.m story time.
It's basically a time
when caretakers get to take
a little breather
because the kids are otherwise occupied.
And who would want to infiltrate
a parent group
where the subject is trashing nannies?
The nannies!
They were in that group
under fake accounts.
They bullied Carina off of
Facebook when she came for Rosa.
And then once Tara was hired,
they scraped her old profile
and made a new one.
They posed as Carina
and other "concerned parents"
and they reported Tara.
But the other nannies liked Tara.
Did they? I've been on the
outside of the mom clique
enough times to know when people
are being nice to your face
but judging you behind your back.
When people like that
come in and work for less money
and no benefits, they devalue our job.
She didn't abide by the nanny code.
Tara wasn't welcome.
She replaced our friend.
- [SPITS]
- Those nannies resented Tara.
She threatened their very way of life.
Not to mention they were
loyal to the woman she replaced.
Rosa.
Or should we say Sporty Spice?
Each of the kids had a Spice
Girls sticker on their lunchbox.
♪
Which was clearly for the nannies,
because what 3-year-old
gives a zig-a-zig-ah
- about a 30-year-old band?
- Band?
Except there was one Spice Girl missing.
Sporty Spice was tucked away
in the back of the shelf
in Brett and Jeff's house.
Tara didn't want to use that lunchbox
because the Spice Girls
stickers were the original
five nannies' thing.
And Tara was on the outs.
So you think all the nannies killed Tara
because they were mad she replaced Rosa?
Nope. Oksana did.
And you know this because?
Because of the capitalization
conventions in the Russian language.
In the post that Carina admits
to writing about Rosa,
she capitalizes the day of the
week that the incident occurred.
But in the posts that Carina
denies writing about Tara,
the days of the week are lowercased,
which would only make sense
if you were a native Russian speaker.
Because in Russian you don't
capitalize days of the week.
But even if Oksana
was bullying Tara online
using fake accounts, that
doesn't mean she killed her.
Well, of course it does,
because of the way she crossed herself.
You guys aren't up to date
on The Great Schism
between Eastern Orthodoxy
and Catholicism?
- Okay.
- Not totally?
[SIGHS] Okay. In 1054, there
was a huge fight between
Western and Eastern churches
called The Great Schism.
And this resulted in a few
fundamental differences between
how each church does things.
One of those differences being
how members cross themselves.
- Okay.
- Now this is ringing a bell.
Catholics use five fingers
and they cross
forehead, chest,
left shoulder, right shoulder.
Orthodox Christians cross
themselves using three fingers,
forehead, chest,
right shoulder to left shoulder.
Now, when we were chatting
with the nannies,
I saw Oksana cross herself
in the Eastern Orthodox manner.
How does Oksana's
religion mean she killed Tara.
Another result of The Great Schism
is that the two sides use
different calendars.
Catholics use
a Gregorian calendar introduced
by a pope in 1582.
Orthodox Christians
still use a Julian calendar.
Basically, it means they
celebrate the same holidays,
but certain holidays fall
on different dates,
much to the chagrin
of the little Greek girl
whose Easter Bunny comes a month
after her friends got to eat
all their Cadbury eggs.
- Mmm-mmm! I love those.
- Girl, same.
- So good.
- You can go back to work now.
Now, do we know what religion
Tara Foley was?
- Catholic?
- Catholic! We found a rosary.
- That's classic Catholic.
- Mm-hmm.
But don't forget what I said
about the calendars.
- Oh, how could we?
- On Tara's calendar,
she had marked down a date
for the exaltation of the cross.
September 27th.
But Catholics celebrate
that on the 14th.
So she wasn't planning
to go to her church service.
She was going to Oksana's.
Tara had figured out
that Oksana was the one
who was bullying her,
and that explains the number
for the immigration lawyer
we found in her apartment.
Identity fraud is a crime
that can get your visa revoked.
Tara knew that by making
fake profiles on Facebook
and pretending to be Carina,
Oksana was putting her visa in jeopardy,
- and she could be deported.
- Exactly.
Tara knew that Oksana was going to be
at the Russian Orthodox Church
that night.
Which is a block away from the park.
After the service,
Tara confronted Oksana.
Oksana freaked out
and bashed her in the head.
[THUMP, TARA GROANS]
She thought she'd finished
the job, but she didn't.
Tara was out of sorts, afraid
that Oksana would follow her.
She went into the park, hid
in the slide, where she died.
Were you with Oksana
the night Tara was murdered?
- Yes.
- Yes.
Can you tell me what you did that night?
Oh, my employers were out of town,
so I just had a girls night in.
We had some drinks, went in the hot tub.
Oksana made dinner.
Then we watched a movie.
- Everyone left around 1:00 a.m.
- Well, thanks. Super helpful.
We're just going to go ahead
and check the nanny cams.
They don't have nanny cams.
Well, the whole point of a nanny cam
is that you don't tell the nanny.
- Oksana wasn't there.
- Oksana is a very scary lady.
- She made us lie.
- Oksana swore it was an accident.
- Mm.
- [ELEVATOR BELL DINGS]
♪
I can't believe you found
nanny cams and didn't tell me.
I was bluffing.
Sneaky Spice!
♪
Your friends turned on you.
They said you forced them
to provide your alibi.
We know that you were the one
who killed Tara.
♪
That little bitch threatened me.
Said she's gonna have me sent
back to Russia for creating those posts.
After everything
I sacrificed to get here.
After the persecution my family endured!
Tara had no idea what going back
would mean for me!
That's why I pick up that rock!
You could have just promised
to stop bullying her.
I couldn't take risk.
I would always
be looking over my shoulder.
I choose prison here over going
back to Russia any day.
And so you have.
♪
[AWOOGA!]
[CHILDREN PLAYING,
INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
I got to go do something.
You guys play. Have fun.
Hey. There was a time
you would have killed
to go to the playground.
Well, it's because Ava would
make me puke on the spinner.
It was fun.
But we're different people now.
[AWOOGA!]
You want to go play over there?
You can go run over there.
Don't go too far.
Hey, Jeff.
- Thought I might find you here.
- Well,
hasn't felt right
to hire a new nanny yet.
But I'm so relieved that
Tara's killer is behind bars.
Tara deserved that, at least.
Well, now that the case is closed,
there's something
I thought you might like.
♪
[EXHALES SLOWLY] Wow.
I never got to see this, you
know, their every day together.
I just
That is the heartbreaking thing
about being a working parent, is that.
Your kid has all these experiences
that you are just not a part of.
And your main focus
when you hire a caretaker
is that your child will be safe,
but your hope is
that your child will be loved.
And Ward was loved by Tara,
and I knew that.
But now I get to see it.
♪
I keep moving to the south ♪
Race you to the spinner.
- Wait!
- Come on!
- [LAUGHS] Get on.
- Wait up!
Okay. I'm on, I'm on.
Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
♪
Wow, you're so much faster than before!
Oh, yeah! Whoa-oh-oh!
Ava, you're going to make
me lose my lunch!
Don't stop! Whoa! [AWOOGA!]
♪
Yeah? I'm gonna make you puke
up yesterday's lunch, too!
[LAUGHS] Whoo-hoo!
[LAUGHS] Whoo!
♪
It's just something I can♪
♪
There he is. Come here, big guy.
Don't you want to go down
the slide? It's so fun.
- Mnh-mnh.
- Someone's waiting, sweets.
You can do it.
Come on. Go down the slide.
Come. Whee!
- [LOUD THUMP]
- Aah!
Margot?
- [LOUD THUMP]
- Aah!
- Margot!
- [CHILDREN SCREAM]
- Erica? Hold on. I'm coming!
- [CHILDREN SCREAMING]
- Oh, my God!
- Aah!
[SIREN WAILS, POLICE RADIO CHATTER]
Her name is Tara Foley.
She was also a nanny,
but we really didn't know her that well.
Do you know of anyone
who would have wanted
to wanted to hurt her?
- I can't imagine.
- She was so nice.
Milo, we don't eat grass.
Have some seaweed.
Well, there was that creepy guy.
What creepy guy?
Some weird guy who had
been hanging around the park.
As a mom, it's my job
to anticipate all the ways
somebody could die at a
playground but stuck in a slide?
I missed that one.
- Morning, all.
- Morning.
- Morning.
- So, Dr. Farzan,
- what have you got?
- Well, it looks like
the victim died of an epidural hematoma
due to a blow to the head
by a heavy object.
She was attacked in the slide?
I don't think so.
Judging from the shape of the slide,
the location of the wound,
it's my belief that
the victim was struck elsewhere
and tried to escape her assailant.
She was hiding, Lieutenant.
- Time of death?
- Around 10:00 p.m.
There doesn't seem to be any CCTV here.
I'll have Lin check.
Any guess as to the murder weapon?
It's hard to say.
We'll test the wound
for particulate matter.
but an injury like this
could've come from any number of things
if it was swung hard enough.
I'll have forensics do a wide sweep.
They're going to have a hell of a time.
There's no place more laden
with bodily fluids
than a playground during flu season.
[CELLPHONE CHIMES]
- Got a lead.
- The victim's name is Tara Foley.
According to Tara's fellow nannies,
a suspicious man who seemed
particularly interested in Tara
was seen hanging around the park.
Any one of them manage
to take a photo of this person?
- Unfortunately, no.
- [CELLPHONE CHIMES]
Okay, that dinging's got to stop.
- Morgan.
- What? I'm detecting.
- [CELLPHONE UNLOCKS]
- [SIGHS]
See? Eight unread messages
from someone named Brett Lewis.
"Tara? Tara? You're late. Where are you?
Tara, answer me now." Ooh.
The last one's a voice memo.
Tara, you're now an hour
and a half late.
You better have an airtight
excuse because this is unacceptable!
That would appear to be her employer.
May I?
No emergency contact listed.
No one listed as mom or dad either.
What? God! This just
keeps getting sadder.
This poor girl, all alone in the world,
spent her last few minutes
terrified for her life.
You can tell by her ballet flats
that she was nice.
Okay, we have to find that man
who's been hanging around the park.
Daphne, Oz, go through Tara's phone,
see if you can find any pictures
she may have taken of him.
And look for a next of kin,
boyfriend, girlfriend.
Anyone who can tell us more
about Tara and her life.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
And, Morgan, Karadec, we may
not be able to talk to family,
but let's at least start
by talking to the one person
she worked for every day.
Find out what he has to say for himself.
You got it, boss.
[DOORBELL RINGS]
What murderer leaves
someone an angry message
after killing them?
A smart one.
Adam Karadec, LAPD. I'm afraid
I've got some bad news for you.
Oh, poor Tara, this is such a shock.
So how long had Tara been Ward's nanny?
About four months.
And in that time,
she'd become part of the family.
You know, Brett, you seemed
pretty angry in your messages.
I mean, did you have a
strained relationship with Tara?
No. Not at all.
I'm just a stickler for being on time.
I wouldn't have yelled at her
had I known.
- Can you tell us about Tara?
- What was she like?
Oof! Um, Tara was a sweet girl.
You know, she was quiet and loving
and liked reading historical fiction
and watching TikToks of dance protégés.
Sorry. I'm just trying
to give you everything I know.
Outside of working for us,
she lived a relatively solitary life.
That would explain the lack
of an emergency contact in her phone.
Had Tara mentioned anything out
of the ordinary to you recently?
- No. Nothing I can think of.
- Wait.
There w There was that guy
that kept following her.
Well, Tara complained that
she kept seeing the same guy.
He'd show up wherever she was.
The park, coffee shop.
He was often reading
a French magazine or newspaper,
and he had a limp.
♪
I know where to find this guy.
There's only one newsstand that
sells French newspapers in L.A.
And it's across the street from
a perfect stakeout location.
Wow, you really love this diner, huh?
Oh, my God. This is so good.
You got to take a bite.
Eat from the other side.
I didn't touch there.
Morgan, we're on a stakeout.
A key to a good stakeout
is being discreet.
You worried I'm going to pull a Meg Ryan
and fake an orgasm or something?
That would attract
way too much attention.
Oh, I can fake yours, though. Watch.
- Impression over.
- That's hilarious.
- That's our guy.
- Really?
Yeah. Yeah, it looks
like he's headed this way.
- In here?
- Yeah.
Where did he go?
♪
Okay. He went up there. You stay here.
Okay.
Okay!
♪
Hey, Morgan. It's safe to
Well, I could tell
by your confident footsteps
that the coast was clear.
Well, it turns out that
our stalker is actually a P.I.
- Oh.
- Charles Lavoie,
a.k.a. "Chuck the Canuck." Former LAPD.
Used to be a detective
in the traffic department.
Just a warning The guy is a lot.
Okay.
I apologize about the pastrami smell.
You'll get used to it.
- Hey, Chuck.
- [DOOR CLOSES]
Adam Karadec.
[LAUGHS] I'll be damned.
And you got married.
- No. Morgan Gillory.
- We work together.
- Huh.
- Anyway, uh, Karadec and I
came up together as detectives.
You know, we were always neck and neck.
- Is that right?
- Uh.
Until I was forced
to retire early, so
Well, Chuck was shot
in the line of duty.
- Oh, my God.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- What happened?
Uh, my firearm did discharge itself
whilst in its holster
during a routine traffic stop,
causing my metatarsal to shatter.
You shot yourself in the foot.
- [CHUCKLES]
- I shot myself in the foot.
Okay. Hey, can I take a look at
this newspaper?
Yeah, sure.
Le Devoir from Québec.
This is the French newspaper
that Tara saw her stalker reading.
What's this all about?
What do you know about Tara Foley?
- Everything.
- Did you know she was murdered?
Almost everything. I had no idea.
- Poor girl.
- Who hired you to follow her?
I place a high priority
on client confidentiality,
but an even higher one on friendship.
I was hired by the Lewises.
Her employers? Ward's parents?
This is getting messy.
They wanted to know if I saw
anything out of the ordinary.
But I found bupkis.
Did you take any pictures?
Tons.
I shoot raw, my man.
This is my favorite part of the job.
Do me a favor, Chuck.
Bring these photos down
to the station tomorrow.
Yeah. Happy to. Karadec.
Nice to meet you.
- You too.
- Poor girl.
Why did you stop following Tara?
I was canned.
The client wasn't happy
with the results,
which is what they always say
when they don't get
what they were hoping to find.
What were they hoping to find?
They thought the nanny
was mistreating their son.
♪
[DOORBELL RINGS]
[DOOR OPENS]
Oh, I didn't expect to see you again.
We didn't expect to be back.
You think we hired a private
investigator to follow Tara?
I'm sorry,
but we most certainly did not.
- Well, we might have.
- What?
Brett, why did you hire a P.I.
to follow Tara?
I was a nervous wreck,
ever since the ordeal
we went through with
our last nanny, Rosa.
What happened with Rosa?
I'm a member of the 90049
Parents Facebook group.
That's the Brentwood zip code.
Six months ago,
I see a post from
a concerned mother describing
a horrific event at the library
where an unattended child
wandered out of the library
and almost into the street.
When I read the description
of the child,
- I realized it was Ward.
- It was terrifying.
That is a nightmare. What did you do?
We asked Rosa about it
and she ultimately admitted it.
We had no choice but to let her go.
But what does this have to do with Tara?
We hired Tara,
and everything was going great.
Ward loved her.
But then we see another post
in the Parents group,
this time about Tara.
And this time
from several mothers all saying
that Tara was endangering Ward.
We debated whether to believe it.
- The post about Rosa was true.
- But we talked to both
Ward and Tara and determined
that the accusations against
Tara had to be made up.
Ward lit up around Tara in a way
that he never did with Rosa,
and Tara seemed to be taking
excellent care of Ward.
I couldn't let it go. I'm sorry.
What did this P.I. even find?
Nothing.
Can we see these negative
posts about Tara, please?
Sure. I took screen grabs of everything.
Here you go.
This "Carina" gal seems to be
all up in your business.
Yeah, well, Carina is the one
who alerted us to Rosa's misconduct.
Yeah, and then it looks
like she turns on Tara.
- Did you reach out to Carina?
- I messaged her,
but she said she didn't have
any more information.
If you'll excuse me, I got to stand up.
These pants only have about
a 10-minute sitting time limit
before they become
a permanent part of my body.
So, Jeff, you were totally confident
in Tara's care of Ward?
Completely. She was wonderful.
Where did you even find this guy?
The Internet.
I can't believe you even hired a P.I.
Well, my guess is he wanted
eyes and ears on the outside
since you guys are all covered
on nanny cams in here.
What?! Nanny cams?
I used to rely on a very kind,
but very senior gentleman
to watch my kids.
And I wanted to make sure
that he wasn't literally
falling asleep on the job.
So I looked into
my surveillance options.
You've got the nanny cam clock,
tissue box,
picture frame, energy drink,
which I found confusing.
Uh, the nanny cam fake toolbox.
Ultimately,
I couldn't afford any of them,
but I'm finding that
Brett went with the plant,
globe, and the adorable spy robot.
There's a nanny cam in the north pole?
We're going to need that footage.
Where were you two last night?
We were here all night.
Can anyone corroborate that?
We were on a video call.
With who?
Lamar Nichols, our couples counselor.
Alright. We'll be in touch.
♪
Well, I'll have
Daphne look up Carina's address,
track down the other parents
who posted about Tara.
We need to get to the bottom of this
90049 Parents Facebook group.
Yep.
You know why
most foods are cooked at 350?
The Maillard reaction,
a chemical process
by which the sugars are browned
and produce pleasing flavors.
But I think the sweet
potato fries call for 425.
[CELLPHONE CHIMES]
[LAUGHS]
Oh, crap.
You're right.
[OVEN BEEPS]
Ah! They rejected me!
I'm trying to infiltrate
a private online parenting group
so I can chat up some people
who are bullying our victim,
but seems like they sniffed around
and figured out
that we don't exactly live
within the city limits of Brentwood.
We don't even live close enough
to have the same weather
- as Brentwood.
- [CHUCKLES]
Oh, by the way,
my classmate Finn is having
an 11th birthday party soon,
so I'll need a gift.
- Awesome.
- What do you want to get him?
Um, Ava, what's a good gift
for a boy's 11th birthday?
[BOTH LAUGH]
Ava, do you have any ideas?
Hey, Phone Face!
Hi. Your brother's talking to you.
I don't know.
Elliot's the only fifth grader here.
[LAUGHS]
Hey, I was super into Legos
when I was 11.
My favorite was a "Toy Story 2" set
because I had a big crush on Jessie.
You did?
I could totally see it
with her cute pigtails
and your eyes just popped
out of your head
and your jaw dropped to the floor.
- Hey, she seemed nice.
- [LAUGHS]
Why don't you go grab your tablet
and you can pick out a set?
- Okay.
- Text me again.
Okay.
[AWOOGA!]
That's you when you first saw Jessie.
You change your text
tone to say "awooga"?
Only for the texts from you.
I can't believe you.
Me neither.
♪
Hey, you want to go through
Tara's phone?
- That's all you.
- Oh, yeah.
This place still smells
like cheap floor wax
and the scared urine
from the suckers we put away.
[LAUGHS]
- Ooh!
- Uh, you must be Chuck.
Ah, you got me.
Did you bring the photos
for the Foley case?
- Indeed I did. Yep.
- All 1,500 of them.
Yeah. Karadec wanted
me to walk you through them.
You know, identify all the key players.
But first, I need a chair
with solid lumbar support.
There she is.
I slipped a disc between my L2 and L3.
- You know what?
- I got Tara's phone.
You tear it up with Chuck.
- Okay.
- Hey, Chuck!
Ah! [LAUGHS]
Seems like you have some
personal photos mixed in here.
All my photos are personal.
Are you on any of
these online parenting groups?
Absolutely not.
Don't need some
self-righteous mom telling me
I don't love my kids
if I don't cut their cucumbers
into little smiley faces before
I cram them in their lunchbox.
Yeah, I would never take you as the type
to anthropomorphize vegetables.
That is the kindest thing
you've ever said to me.
"Warning from a concerned mom
Ward's new nanny, Tara,
is cruel and neglectful.
Last Tuesday, she grabbed
his arm so hard he screamed.
Then Thursday,
she yelled at him to stop crying
and left him stuck on
the top of the play structure."
Mm-hmm. I didn't write that.
Sure seems like you did.
And a bunch of other ones just like it.
I mean, why don't
you take a second look?
Didn't write it. Didn't write it.
That's pretty good,
but I didn't write it.
Didn't No,
you know, I did write this one.
Uh, which one?
"At the library on Wednesday afternoon,
a dark-headed boy wearing galoshes
and a conductor hat
was unattended for 15 minutes,
crying and calling for a Rosa.
He ran out the front door
and would have gone into traffic
had it not been
for a library staff member.
Finally, Rosa showed up with no excuse.
If this is your nanny,
she is dangerous!"
Exclamation point.
Okay. So you got Rosa fired?
No, I didn't get her fired.
I reported an issue. In my line of work,
safety is paramount.
I'm a VP of a commercial
real-estate firm.
It's very demanding.
Usually childcare falls
to my husband, Mark.
But I had the day off,
so I was able to take
our daughter to the library.
Now, I don't know all the
the kids and the nannies
like my husband does because I'm
not around during the day.
So I had to post on Facebook
to let the parents know
what had happened.
My point is, is that
I tried to do the right thing
and it bit me in the ass.
How so?
Well, after I wrote that post,
I was eviscerated
in private messages saying
I ruined a woman's career.
Said I needed to check my privilege.
It was It was ridiculous.
Yeah, they wouldn't be saying
that if it was their kid.
Exactly. Okay?
So I just said screw this
and deactivated my account.
Where were you two nights ago?
I was working very late.
I have a big,
big presentation coming up.
Look, I'm sorry
that this nanny Tara is dead,
but I didn't know her.
The initial search of Tara's apartment
didn't turn up anything of note.
But I want to go back again now
that we know more about our suspects.
Hopefully, we'll find some answers.
[CELLPHONE RINGS]
Talk to me, Daph.
Tara has someone saved in
her phone as "Little Sketchy."
The texts are intense.
I'm sending them to you now.
Think we might have
an actual stalker on her hands.
Any luck tracking down the other people
who wrote negative posts about Tara?
- Still working on it.
- [CELLPHONE VIBRATES]
Thanks, Daph. Bye.
Okay, here we go.
Little Sketchy "My forever
love, why do you forsake me?
My heart knows not its beat
if it can't echo that of yours."
Little Sketchy
"If I don't see you soon,
I don't know what I'll do."
That was three days ago.
She never wrote back.
Ah, Tara's apartment seems pretty neat.
I still feel kind of weird
about you parking in her spot.
Mm.
Alright, let's do this methodically.
I'll start with Tara's desk,
and you start
By making a huge mess.
Look at this. Tara was religious.
Drawer dump already paying off.
Yeah, we got overdue bills.
Notice of a rent increase.
Tara may have had money trouble.
Mm. This is interesting.
She knew Carina
was harassing her online.
Well, she may have feared for her life.
She kept pepper spray in her nightstand.
Oh, we got a lawyer's number here.
[LINE RINGING]
- Kalill, Phillips and Strauss.
- Hi.
Um, I was wondering if you could tell me
if Tara Foley is a client.
I'm afraid we can't
divulge client information.
Right.
Uh, well, who might I speak
to regarding a stalker?
I'm sorry, sir.
We're an immigration law firm.
- Oh. Um, thank you.
- You're welcome.
Huh. That's strange.
Oh, Morgan, look at this.
Hm. The night she was murdered,
she was planning on going to church.
Yeah. I'll have Hoffie find out
if anyone saw her there.
Still nothing
that points to Brett or Carina
or gives us an idea
of who Little Sketchy was.
Eww.
- Morgan, don't.
- By all means,
let me parse through the trash
piece by piece, like a lady.
At a certain point, just treat
yourself to a full-size bar.
Bingo. Sunday night poetry slam.
Based on Little Sketchy's
overly wrought rhyme scheme,
I bet we could find the guy here.
And today just happens to be
Sunday fun day.
Where is Ava? She's 10 minutes late.
Ooh, forgot to tell you.
Our Prime delivery came with
Finn's birthday present in it.
I just ordered it yesterday.
It's already here.
Actually, I don't need it after all.
Turns out I'm the only kid
in class Finn didn't invite.
What? That's got to be a mistake.
It's not.
I promise.
Well, this sucks.
Hey.
I still think it's just a mistake.
But if it's not,
you're keeping that present
'cause you're a wonderful kid,
and you deserve it.
[DOOR OPENS]
There you are. Where have you been?
I gotta go to work. [AWOOGA!]
Can you put that down, please?
You have actual people in the room.
I'm just being polite and thanking Ryder
- for dropping me off.
- Ryder drives?
- Most 26-year-olds do.
- [LAUGHING SARCASTICALLY]
Not funny. Not the night and not funny.
As if I couldn't be in a worse mood,
I got to go to a poetry reading.
Tara, oh, Tara,
you're gone with the wind.
I am left heartbroken,
beaten and chagrined.
Goodbye, Tarasaurus. Who is sore? Us.
Who's dead?
You.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
[LIGHT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
Excuse me. Um, we need to talk.
Uh, I'm Detective Karadec.
This is Consultant Guillory
with the LAPD.
We're looking into
the murder of Tara Foley.
Good. I know who killed her.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING]
Bryan Schlotzky is on his way
in for questioning.
You know, I can't stress enough
the importance of hand-to-hand
combat training in our line of work.
I could show you a few moves.
I can't believe you brought
Chuck the Canuck
- back to our precinct.
- Well, you got to admit,
it's fun to watch Oz squirm.
Daphne, any luck
finding the other people
who posted about Tara
on that 90049 Parents group?
- Still looking.
- It's a needle in a haystack.
There are so many moms
named Megan out there.
I think we might have
someone else to consider.
Mark, Carina's husband.
Mark's in a lot of these photos.
He and Tara seemed cozy,
and in this one,
he's wielding a bat.
That could cause a hematoma.
Can you go back one?
Tara's wearing Mark's sweatshirt.
Well, how do you know?
It's got the old SuperSonics logo on it.
- SuperSonics, fast food joint.
- No.
Former NBA team based in Seattle.
In 2008, they moved to Oklahoma
and play under a different
sound-theme name, the Thunder.
I think Mark was from Seattle.
On their mantel,
I saw a family photo of them
standing at the Space Needle.
In the distance you could see
Mount Rainier in the foreground
- with the arches of Lumen Field.
- Daphne, pay Mark a visit.
Find out what the real nature of
his relationship was with Tara.
- Got it.
- Oz, can you print these for me?
- Yeah.
- [INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
Yep. And it would appear
that Little Sketchy has arrived
for his interview.
[CELLPHONE VIBRATES]
- Ooh.
- [VIBRATING CONTINUES]
Oh, give me one sec, real quick. Hello.
Hi, this is Jean Anne, Finn's
mom, returning your call.
Oh, hi, Jean Anne. Hey.
Listen, I think
there's been a misunderstanding.
See, my son Elliot
believes he's the only kid
not invited to your son's
birthday party.
Oh, Finn made the guest list.
It's a small group,
and he and Elliot
don't know each other that well.
Oh, well, that's an easy fix.
Why doesn't he come over
tomorrow for a play date?
Tomorrow? I guess that could
work.
- Perfect. We'll see Finn then.
- Great. Bye.
Motherhood has made me so understanding.
How did you know Tara?
Tara was my babysitter.
Where were you the night Tara died?
I was outside her apartment complex
blasting a love song through a speaker.
- Can anyone confirm that?
- Uh, several of the tenants
were quite frustrated
with my act of devotion.
At the poetry reading,
you said you knew who killed Tara.
It was Mark, a dad at the playground.
He started horning in and made
Tara cut me out of her life.
But Tara would never be
with a married man.
So he killed her.
♪
[DOORBELL RINGS]
- Hi, Mark.
- Daphne Forrester, LAPD.
Is there news about Tara?
Not exactly.
Can you tell me why Tara was wearing
your sweatshirt in this photo?
I guess she was cold?
Looks like you two were pretty close.
We were.
Ward and my daughter Ruby
were playground friends,
so I got to know her pretty well.
You know, she didn't have any family,
so I was there for her,
gave her advice when I could.
Was it more than friendship for you?
What? No.
No. I love my wife. I'm devoted to her.
- Tara was a friend.
- Okay.
Where were you the night Tara died?
Here. Hosting book club.
We were reading Liz Gilbert's
"Big Magic."
Actually, you know what?
You can ask anyone in my book club.
We're called the Lou Reads,
except Reed is spelled
I can guess.
Is that your bat?
Um
♪
This?
It's for Wiffle-Ball. It's plastic.
Totally harmless. See?
♪
[VIDEO GAME SOUNDS]
You're doing great.
I have actual racecars if you want to do
a tactile thing later.
I've got freshly opened cookies.
[VIDEO GAME SOUNDS STOP]
Do you have anything
without refined sugar?
Let me go look.
[VIDEO GAME SOUNDS RESUME]
Gosh. Imagine being there
in the summer of '56
when Art Ingels invented
the first go-kart.
- [DOWNBEAT NOTES PLAY]
- Dude!
- You made me lose!
- I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to.
You really suck the fun
out of everything.
You know, I'm only here
because my mom made me.
Right? You're just a weirdo
who can't shut up.
That's why you're not invited
to my birthday party.
Hey, Finn. I'm taking everybody
to Knott's Berry Farm next week.
And you're not invited.
I sure would love to bring you along,
but they got a no-turd-kid policy,
so I guess we'll just
have to miss you on this one.
Why don't you grab your stuff
and go sit on the porch
and wait for your mom?
Bye. Thanks for coming.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES] [SIGHS]
I kind of blacked out. How bad was it?
What just came out of my mouth?
Bad.
It was all bad.
[MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYS]
I'm so sorry I forced a play date.
Finn does not deserve a friend like you.
I know it's hard to be different.
But listen.
You are fun no matter what
that little jerk says.
I'll believe it when I see it.
♪
I don't know. One of them thinks
he's not cool and the other one
has basically divorced herself
from our family.
If she's not with her boyfriend,
she's constantly texting him.
Yep.
I'm so sorry, Morgan,
but this too shall pass.
And then something
even harder will come up.
Oh, good. Thank you so much.
Honestly, this Foley
case is driving me nuts.
We are missing something. I can feel it.
- I do too.
- [DOOR OPENS]
Brett's couple's-counseling
alibi checked out.
Although he may
have hired someone to kill Tara.
Look into his financials.
You might want to see this.
Tara's with the other nannies
in a lot of Chuck's photos.
They might have known each
other better than we thought.
I mean, they did spend
every day together.
♪
Our main suspects all have alibis.
Not all airtight, but still.
Go back to the nannies.
Find out everything
they know about Tara,
anything we may have missed.
- Yeah.
- Oz.
I remembered that boxing combo is lethal
if done correctly.
- I'm actually heading out.
- We'll talk about it later.
Morgan, I think you
and I should tag along.
Karadec, you want to play some handball?
As soon as I get back, bro.
- As soon as I get back.
- Alright.
Ooh!
[SIGHS] Remember the good old
days, Selena?
You know, when you could
arrest a perp in the morning
and then take him out for a beer
in the afternoon?
You know, when everybody wasn't
so sensitive about everything.
Darius!
Come here. Please.
I wanted to ask you about
the Tara Foley case.
Chuck, I think you'd better excuse us.
You want me to get
the chuck out of here?
My hourly rates are too high. [LAUGHS]
Thank you, Chuck.
Oh! You are a lifesaver.
I hope I didn't pull you
from anything urgent.
Nope. Just snagging a cup
of the good coffee
you guys have up here.
But I do have an update.
The toxicologist report
on Tara Foley came out clean,
and we found no evidence
of defensive wounds on her body.
Which means when she was
attacked, she didn't fight back.
She was taken by surprise,
or she knew her attacker.
It seems like it.
[SIGHS]
♪
We're hoping you can tell
us a little more about Tara.
She was nice. Almost too nice.
She didn't know her worth.
I hear she was working for
$10 an hour less than we do
and with no benefits. Poor thing.
An extra 10 bucks an hour
would help with those overdue bills.
This job is easier if you work
together, coordinate.
Only one nanny needs to bring a
soccer ball, that sort of thing.
But she didn't take us
up on our offers to help.
You know, the saddest part is
she might still be alive
if she was a joiner.
Joiner? What do you mean?
Well, the night that
she passed, I was housesitting.
So I had these girls
over to just hang out.
She could have been with us,
but instead
Oh, God rest her soul.
The only one
she was friends with was Mark.
But his wife didn't like that.
- What was her name?
- Carina.
- Right. Carina.
- You remember that fight?
What fight?
Oh, his wife show up one day
and scream at her and Mark.
Tara look really frightened.
♪
Carina's motive just got
a whole lot clearer.
- She was jealous.
- Didn't she have an alibi?
She said she was working late,
which was confirmed by
the security log at her office.
Anyone can jump a turnstile
if they want to avoid scanning their ID,
or they don't have money for the Metro.
Want to sneak into a Brandi
Carlile concert,
for example. [CELLPHONE VIBRATING]
- Karadec.
- Hey, it's Daphne.
You know those other moms who posted
negative things about Tara
in the Brentwood parents group?
- Yeah.
- They don't exist.
Don't exist?
Their profiles appear to be fake.
So somebody who hated Tara
created fake profiles to drag her?
Yeah, we're about to go talk
to somebody who fits that bill.
Thanks, Daphne.
So we need to be keeping
an eye on sustainability
as our clients value. Um
♪
Tell us about
the heated argument you and Mark
- had at the park, please.
- Did it have anything
to do with Mark's
relationship with Tara?
- What? No. Are you
- [SCOFFS]
Are you suggesting
I was jealous of Tara?
Well, jealousy is a common motive.
You wouldn't exactly
be rewriting the playbook.
I wasn't mad about Tara!
I was mad about our deck!
Mark had one simple job.
Just order the wood for our new deck.
And out of all the types of wood,
do you know which one he ordered?
[MUFFLED] Alaskan spruce!
Everyone knows that Alaskan
spruce shrinks endgrain,
okay, and causes serious
problems when it gets wet.
I mean, I know that,
but I'm not everyone.
You are the only real person
we can link to
the negative posts about Tara.
All the other profiles were fake.
Did you maybe create them
to upset the young woman
that your husband was so close with?
Oh, my God. Look, I told you
I never posted about Tara.
Only Rosa.
I took my daughter to story time
at the library one time.
Okay? As a working mother,
that is a special opportunity
to hang out with your kid
in the middle of the day.
And while I was there, I
happened to see something awful.
So I said something,
and then it backfired,
and I deleted my account.
H-H-Hang on, hang on.
What time is story time?
- Noon.
- All the comments about Tara
were posted between 12:00
and 1:00 p.m story time.
It's basically a time
when caretakers get to take
a little breather
because the kids are otherwise occupied.
And who would want to infiltrate
a parent group
where the subject is trashing nannies?
The nannies!
They were in that group
under fake accounts.
They bullied Carina off of
Facebook when she came for Rosa.
And then once Tara was hired,
they scraped her old profile
and made a new one.
They posed as Carina
and other "concerned parents"
and they reported Tara.
But the other nannies liked Tara.
Did they? I've been on the
outside of the mom clique
enough times to know when people
are being nice to your face
but judging you behind your back.
When people like that
come in and work for less money
and no benefits, they devalue our job.
She didn't abide by the nanny code.
Tara wasn't welcome.
She replaced our friend.
- [SPITS]
- Those nannies resented Tara.
She threatened their very way of life.
Not to mention they were
loyal to the woman she replaced.
Rosa.
Or should we say Sporty Spice?
Each of the kids had a Spice
Girls sticker on their lunchbox.
♪
Which was clearly for the nannies,
because what 3-year-old
gives a zig-a-zig-ah
- about a 30-year-old band?
- Band?
Except there was one Spice Girl missing.
Sporty Spice was tucked away
in the back of the shelf
in Brett and Jeff's house.
Tara didn't want to use that lunchbox
because the Spice Girls
stickers were the original
five nannies' thing.
And Tara was on the outs.
So you think all the nannies killed Tara
because they were mad she replaced Rosa?
Nope. Oksana did.
And you know this because?
Because of the capitalization
conventions in the Russian language.
In the post that Carina admits
to writing about Rosa,
she capitalizes the day of the
week that the incident occurred.
But in the posts that Carina
denies writing about Tara,
the days of the week are lowercased,
which would only make sense
if you were a native Russian speaker.
Because in Russian you don't
capitalize days of the week.
But even if Oksana
was bullying Tara online
using fake accounts, that
doesn't mean she killed her.
Well, of course it does,
because of the way she crossed herself.
You guys aren't up to date
on The Great Schism
between Eastern Orthodoxy
and Catholicism?
- Okay.
- Not totally?
[SIGHS] Okay. In 1054, there
was a huge fight between
Western and Eastern churches
called The Great Schism.
And this resulted in a few
fundamental differences between
how each church does things.
One of those differences being
how members cross themselves.
- Okay.
- Now this is ringing a bell.
Catholics use five fingers
and they cross
forehead, chest,
left shoulder, right shoulder.
Orthodox Christians cross
themselves using three fingers,
forehead, chest,
right shoulder to left shoulder.
Now, when we were chatting
with the nannies,
I saw Oksana cross herself
in the Eastern Orthodox manner.
How does Oksana's
religion mean she killed Tara.
Another result of The Great Schism
is that the two sides use
different calendars.
Catholics use
a Gregorian calendar introduced
by a pope in 1582.
Orthodox Christians
still use a Julian calendar.
Basically, it means they
celebrate the same holidays,
but certain holidays fall
on different dates,
much to the chagrin
of the little Greek girl
whose Easter Bunny comes a month
after her friends got to eat
all their Cadbury eggs.
- Mmm-mmm! I love those.
- Girl, same.
- So good.
- You can go back to work now.
Now, do we know what religion
Tara Foley was?
- Catholic?
- Catholic! We found a rosary.
- That's classic Catholic.
- Mm-hmm.
But don't forget what I said
about the calendars.
- Oh, how could we?
- On Tara's calendar,
she had marked down a date
for the exaltation of the cross.
September 27th.
But Catholics celebrate
that on the 14th.
So she wasn't planning
to go to her church service.
She was going to Oksana's.
Tara had figured out
that Oksana was the one
who was bullying her,
and that explains the number
for the immigration lawyer
we found in her apartment.
Identity fraud is a crime
that can get your visa revoked.
Tara knew that by making
fake profiles on Facebook
and pretending to be Carina,
Oksana was putting her visa in jeopardy,
- and she could be deported.
- Exactly.
Tara knew that Oksana was going to be
at the Russian Orthodox Church
that night.
Which is a block away from the park.
After the service,
Tara confronted Oksana.
Oksana freaked out
and bashed her in the head.
[THUMP, TARA GROANS]
She thought she'd finished
the job, but she didn't.
Tara was out of sorts, afraid
that Oksana would follow her.
She went into the park, hid
in the slide, where she died.
Were you with Oksana
the night Tara was murdered?
- Yes.
- Yes.
Can you tell me what you did that night?
Oh, my employers were out of town,
so I just had a girls night in.
We had some drinks, went in the hot tub.
Oksana made dinner.
Then we watched a movie.
- Everyone left around 1:00 a.m.
- Well, thanks. Super helpful.
We're just going to go ahead
and check the nanny cams.
They don't have nanny cams.
Well, the whole point of a nanny cam
is that you don't tell the nanny.
- Oksana wasn't there.
- Oksana is a very scary lady.
- She made us lie.
- Oksana swore it was an accident.
- Mm.
- [ELEVATOR BELL DINGS]
♪
I can't believe you found
nanny cams and didn't tell me.
I was bluffing.
Sneaky Spice!
♪
Your friends turned on you.
They said you forced them
to provide your alibi.
We know that you were the one
who killed Tara.
♪
That little bitch threatened me.
Said she's gonna have me sent
back to Russia for creating those posts.
After everything
I sacrificed to get here.
After the persecution my family endured!
Tara had no idea what going back
would mean for me!
That's why I pick up that rock!
You could have just promised
to stop bullying her.
I couldn't take risk.
I would always
be looking over my shoulder.
I choose prison here over going
back to Russia any day.
And so you have.
♪
[AWOOGA!]
[CHILDREN PLAYING,
INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
I got to go do something.
You guys play. Have fun.
Hey. There was a time
you would have killed
to go to the playground.
Well, it's because Ava would
make me puke on the spinner.
It was fun.
But we're different people now.
[AWOOGA!]
You want to go play over there?
You can go run over there.
Don't go too far.
Hey, Jeff.
- Thought I might find you here.
- Well,
hasn't felt right
to hire a new nanny yet.
But I'm so relieved that
Tara's killer is behind bars.
Tara deserved that, at least.
Well, now that the case is closed,
there's something
I thought you might like.
♪
[EXHALES SLOWLY] Wow.
I never got to see this, you
know, their every day together.
I just
That is the heartbreaking thing
about being a working parent, is that.
Your kid has all these experiences
that you are just not a part of.
And your main focus
when you hire a caretaker
is that your child will be safe,
but your hope is
that your child will be loved.
And Ward was loved by Tara,
and I knew that.
But now I get to see it.
♪
I keep moving to the south ♪
Race you to the spinner.
- Wait!
- Come on!
- [LAUGHS] Get on.
- Wait up!
Okay. I'm on, I'm on.
Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
♪
Wow, you're so much faster than before!
Oh, yeah! Whoa-oh-oh!
Ava, you're going to make
me lose my lunch!
Don't stop! Whoa! [AWOOGA!]
♪
Yeah? I'm gonna make you puke
up yesterday's lunch, too!
[LAUGHS] Whoo-hoo!
[LAUGHS] Whoo!
♪
It's just something I can♪