I've never been so close before.
I know how much this means to you.
The county commission went off walking on air...
when Chuck Raven brought Dickie Pilager to the table.
That was a nice thing for him to do.
Nice? I'm paying Chandler Tyson a fortune for that kind of access.
- A fortune? - A slice of the pie.
But they were starstruck, Gracie.
The zoning's in the bag.
These people will bend over backwards.
You have worked so hard.
If we were a little bit more liquid...
I'd sink every dime we have into this thing.
Like you did that time with the stock market?
Hell, it's more than the money.
I'm building a city, Grace.
A city.
We run something on the Web site...
information we've got... we connect the dots...
and the guilty party, they pretend to ignore it.
If they sue us, certain documents could be entered in a court of law...
where if you deny things it's perjury.
You gotta have the documents.
It's amazing what things are blowing under my door and end up on my desk.
So, you plant the seed.
And the mainstream guys, the print journalists...
they bring it to their editors and their editors say...
"Cool your jets. This is too far out. We don't have the resources.
We don't have the balls to go after this kind of thing.
But track the story...
and if it ever breaks..."
You gotta have the balls.
So we keep accumulating the facts...
till the story is screaming out so loud it's impossible to ignore.
And they run a little test item on page six...
saying allegations have been made.
Allegations?
It's beneath their dignity to quote some cellar-dweller Web site...
in their hallowed journal.
But the bastards in power have to publicly deny those allegations...
and then they're fair game.
First it's the columnists taking potshots.
Then when they've got the politicians on the run...
they use our legwork, our ideas to write outraged exposés and win Pulitzers.
Then they gang up like a pack of jackals.
But somebody has to plant the seed.
The seed of doubt.
He seems a lot more gubernatorial with the sound off.
For a day is coming, my friends...
a great day and a terrible day...
a day when the skies shall open and the waters shall part...
and the dead shall rise up and walk upon the Earth.
And the wicked and the righteous shall bejudged alike.
But that day cannot come...
unless the children of Israel are within the holy land...
for so it has been prophesied in the great Book of Revelations.
So let us look at a map of the Middle East.
Let us look at the headlines of today...
and see what conclusions we can draw from the evidence.
Many are the portents and the signs.
But we need to discern a pattern.
We need to connect one event with the other...
and it will be clear that there are no accidents...
that there is a greater force at work...
and it holds the plan for Armageddon.
Richard Pilager cares about the American worker.
You work with the same bunch all the time?
Yeah, more or less. As far as I know, they're all citizens.
I wasn't asking that.
Mojados are a bit cheaper, but they're not worth the hassle.
Need some hard huevos to keep 'em in line.
Not that I got anything against 'em.
I wouldn't go that far.
But you should check into the packing houses across town.
They got a lot of'em in there making chorizo.
Any of your own guys been missing the last few days?
You're looking for this Lázaro, right?
Cops were here this morning asking the same thing.
- I'm not a cop. - No shit.
But it's like I told him. I got no Lázaros here.
Who brings 'em up...
here in Timberline County?
- You heard of Vince Esparza? - Yeah, I've heard the name.
He's the Saddam-fucking-Hussein of labor contractors.
They pay the coyote half up front to get them across the border...
and when they're delivered here they owe Esparza the rest.
- So they start in the hole. - And they stay in it.
He keeps them moving around the country...
keeps them isolated, keeps them scared.
Where can I find him?
You do not want to fuck with Vicente Esparza, my friend.
I hired a few of his boys without knowing it once.
They'd run off or try to make their way back home.
Next thing I know, I got a shotgun stuck in my face.
What's up?
Daniel O'Brien. I called earlier.
She's back in the rink.
- Just keep heading straight through. - Thanks.
I wanna play that last one back.
Nice shot.
It bit.
Training for the Olympics?
Actually, I am.
The only sport I'm not already too old for.
No, thanks.
Helps me with the Zen aspect of the thing.
Eventually the arrow should become one with the bull's-eye and release itself.
Then I'll just be like a channel.
- So, you from Home and Garden or what? - I'm working for Chuck Raven.
Go on.
You're, like, really accurate with that, right?
It depends on how much dope I've smoked.
- How much have you smoked? - I've lost track.
There was an incident on the campaign trail...
that was potentially embarrassing to your brother.
What, he made a speech without a teleprompter?
There was a dead body involved.
Anyone I know?
Lázaro Huerta?
Can't place him.
Maybe just another skeleton out of Daddy's closet.
You sure you don't want a hit?
- You look a little tense. - No. It makes me paranoid.
Like someone's got you in their crosshairs?
Yeah. Something like that.
How about a drink then? A bottle of tequila by your left leg.
You're not gonna, like, shoot it out of my hand or anything?
Relax.
So you're some kind of a campaign lackey?
- Investigator. - Am I being investigated?
Mr. Raven thinks you may be harboring a grudge.
My whole life is a fucking grudge.
Investigator.
You go to some kind of school for that?
No, I was working as a reporter.
- I hate reporters. - Well, I'm not one anymore.
Fifteen years old, I'm pregnant...
the fucking Mountain Monitor outs me.
"Senator's Daughter In College Sex Scandal."
It was before my time.
The whole thing was set up.
Fly to Nevada, nice, quiet operation, back to school within a week.
- You could still have had a... - Public abortion?
With the Christian crusaders block-voting for my father?
So he advised you not to.
- I was a hopeful. - A hopeful?
Yeah. Olympic hopeful.
Figure skating.
Nine months carrying DeweyJunior...
another four to recover.
My body wasn't the same.
Your center of gravity changes...
and you can't do the jumps.
That's what happened to Tonya Harding, you know.
It wasn't Nancy Kerrigan. It was her center of gravity.
You mature, your perception changes...
and you never get it back.
What's your name?
You're cute.
Thanks.
If I'm being investigated, I could do worse.
Excuse me.
And who wants to know?
You gotta be him.
How you figure on that?
It's the shoes, ese. Braceros don't be wearing their party boots on the job.
Vince Esparza. Man, you a legend.
People say you got crews working all over the county.
People say a lot of shit that isn't necessarily true.
I'm looking for a guy named Lázaro Huerta.
I don't keep track of their names.
I'm not runnin' a summer camp here.
Would you mind if I was to ask your jornaleros a few questions?
Yeah, I would mind. They're here to work.
They wanna blow their nose, scratch their balls, talk about their girlfriends...
they can do it on their own time.
This is a job here. This is private property.
And if someone who is not authorized to be here was to get hurt...
it'd be my responsibility.
They're hiding something.
My first husband was a downhill racer.
Won the bronze at Innsbruck.
Wow.
He ditched me in, what, '85.
My girlfriend just moved out.
You poor baby.
Took my couch.
You can have this one if you want.
She picked it out. It was both of ours.
She paid for half of it.
Rodney? They called him Hot Rod.
Won the bronze?
He runs a lodge in Aspen he got as a settlement.
He sued you for alimony?
Daddy paid him off so he wouldn't file adultery charges.
Anything to avoid another public scandal.
You were adultering?
Yeah. But so was he.
But he was the one who hired some fucking investigator to take pictures.
We don't do much of that these days... divorce stuff.
- Transom peeping? - Nobody has transoms anymore.
But you still peep.
Well, mostly it's on, you know, computer records.
We have ways to access. We share information, buy lists...
your credit balance, where you travel, what videos you rent.
Wow.
That's invasion of privacy.
So the skier ditched you.
Then I tried living in California for a while...
but there was nobody there to embarrass but myself.
- So you are trying to embarrass him. - It's pointless.
What could I do they haven't seen worse on some reality show?
You're a senator's daughter...
sister to the future governor.
They catch one president getting a BJ in the Oval Office.
The next rigs the election, gets away with it.
People have lost the ability to be scandalized.
So now your ambition is?
Make sure my son gets out of his 20s in one piece.
Represent my country in 2004.
You're that good at it, huh?
You know...
the Amazon women amputated one of their breasts.
It got in the way of the bow string.
Give me three of those lottery tickets.
I'm feeling kinda lucky all of the sudden.
Somebody's fucking with me.
These were bad guys.
They owned a whole bunch of low-rent housing downtown.
The building boom had started, and they had a big offer to sell...
but they couldn't legally evict their tenants.
So they were doing strong-arm stuff, intimidating.
- There was even some arson involved. - The march of progress.
The housing inspector who should have been on top of this... Skaggs...
was taking payoffs.
I had these two informants... very Deep Throat.
Meetings in parking garages, the whole deal.
And they give me the big lead.
Now, this is criminal activity that they're exposing.
So I write the story. My editor, Mitch, he trusts me enough to run with it.
And they're willing to testify in court?
They said yeah, if it came to it. But I didn't have 'em on tape.
The landlord and the inspector sue the paper...
one of my sources blows town and the other flat denies it.
Big retraction, settlement out of court...
and I'm seriously fired.
Worse, I'm the guy who fabricates.
From that day on...
the Monitor concentrated on who bakes the best chocolate chip cookie in Denver.
And I couldn't get a job delivering a newspaper.
- The editor should've... - He got fired too.
He runs a... What do you call it? A Web site.
At least you did something.
You know? I've just been taking up space and emptying out my trust fund.
Hey, you took all these pictures.
That's a hobby.
You raised a kid.
Isn't he gorgeous?
His father... His biological father...
Bugged out of the whole deal.
I can't blame him, with the publicity and what a little tramp I was then.
But DeweyJunior is a...
He's a nice guy, you know.
Despite having me for a mother.
You raised a nice kid.
Maybe that's what you're good at.
One of the things I'm good at.
This is a nation based on Christian principles.
What I promise to work for...
is a government that respects those principles.
A government that supports traditional family values...
that respects the sanctity of human life.
A government strong enough, brave enough...
to maintain the cultural equilibrium.
What's "cultural equilibrium" mean?
No handouts for homos.
Hey.
- What's up, sugar? - Can some of the guys stay over tonight?
They don't have homes?
They don't have satellite. There's stuff we want to watch.
You'll have to sort out where everybody sleeps.
- I can handle that. - You sounded really good today.
You should find a club to play in.
- We don't have any of our own material. - So write some.
Write about what a mess your mother is, like Eminem does.
Yeah.
- See ya. - See ya.
Closing time at the zoo. Get your clothes on.
I haven't slept this well in days.
Yeah, I don't sleep much unless I pass out.
One nation under God...
with liberty and justice...
Who is this?
Chuck.
It's Maddy Pilager calling.
- How'd you get my number? - Never mind, you little creep.
I just fucked your messenger boy.
Danny... What's your last name again?
- Oh, shit. - Danny O'Shit.
Tell him I'm firing him.
You send anybody else after me, I swear I'll put an arrow through his neck.
You need help, Maddy. You're a sick person.
I love you too.
He says you should check in with your office more often.
You were fired this morning.
Hey.
- You get the boot? - I guess so.
Don't take it personally. She's kinda moody.
Right.
So, you're a detective.
Investigator.
- You look for missing people? - That can be part of the job.
You usually find them?
Depends on how long they've been missing.
Twenty-three years.
My father.
Dewey Hamilton.
- Right. - So, how would I start?
You know, like if he's moved out of the state?
Sometimes people can...
Sometimes people don't want to be found.
And if you do, it can be pretty disappointing.
If things are messy, you gotta face them sooner or later.
- Are you on the Web? - Wired to the eyeballs.
There are a couple of things you can try.
- Glad you could make it. - You're conscious.
Painkillers, man.
I'm flying.
They said you had an accident?
It wasn't no accident.
It was him.
I saw the boots.
You know.
The one who sticks his head in the sand.
Ostrich?
Ostrich-skin boots.
Puts his head into the sand 'cause they don't wanna see when they cut his throat.
It was vehicular homicide, man.
Dude tried to kill me with my own car.
Paper on the table.
"Fito and Rafi. Carbonville."
They knew our dead man.
They're pretty spooked.
But you could try them.
They got maybe three words of English.
Spooked by?
The same hijo de la chingada pushed the car on me.
Vince Esparza.
- Vince. - Vicente.
Esparza.
I'll give you odds he had something to do with...
this Lázaro kicking the bucket.
O'Brien.
I been tryin' to track you down.
Sheriff Skaggs, my friend Tony Guerra.
Shaving accident?
You'll make me laugh and break my ribs again.
I haven't heard a peep out of you, Danny. That wasn't our agreement.
- I'm off the case. - Step on your own dick again?
Used to be this guy was a reporter...
till his mouth got way ahead of his brains.
There's a lot more to this than some illegal alien floating in a lake.
- The people who hired me... - The people who hired you fired you...
which means you're out of the conversation.
- They hired me to pretend... - That means make yourself scarce, son.
I need to talk to your amigo here, alone.
Later, Tony.
You sleep with a client's sister? That is so unprofessional!
That's not why Raven wanted me off the case, is it?
No, but he didn't like it!
He wanted me off'cause I'm getting too close to something they wanna hush up!
That's the whole point of the job, Danny...
and he doesn't trust you to do it!
- I don't have all the pieces, but Lázaro... - You don't have any pieces!
He knew something, saw something, and they set him up!
Had him killed.
Chuck Raven had you fired because he found out you used to be a reporter.
Okay?
That doesn't change anything.
He called yesterday morning.
If you would check your cell phone once in a while, you'd know that.
That sheriff, he's been right on my tail.
I cannot deal with your paranoia.
Take the rest of the week off, come in on Monday...
and we will sit down and discuss what's left of your so-called career.
My expenses so far.
Fill out a voucher. Hilary will take care of you.
Look, Danny, I'm sure you were doing a very good job...
aside from banging Maddy Pilager.
- Hey. She got me stoned. - Out!
220, 240, 260.
Sign here.
And next time I want all the receipts.
Right.
Lupe!
Here, let me help you with this.
- Thank you. - How would you like to make $200?
They said these two men, Rafi and Fito...
have gone to the church.
It's not Sunday.
The day of the dead.
Tell 'em I came instead ofTony.
They don't trust you.
Tell them I have their names and that if they want to stay in this country...
You wouldn't do that to them, would you?
They don't know that, do they?
We can go somewhere else to talk.
They say you have to come with them to the ruins, to Silver City.
So, when do we get to this joint?
This is it.
They buried the city years ago.
What now?
This is where Lázaro died?
He says Lázaro died where they take the meat from the bones.
The slaughterhouse.
- BENagra. - The BENagra slaughterhouse.
Lázaro was a newly arrived.
He was a very shy person.
Very afraid of everything in the north.
But especially afraid of the boss.
- And the jefe was? - Vicente Esparza.
Vincent Esparza carries a gun?
We were the cleaning crew.
After midnight, when they stop the line...
they come in to clean the metal with scalding hot water mixed with clorina.
There is always so much noise...
and you can't see from the steam.
They have told Don Vicente that thejob up above...
cleaning the machine that takes the skin off the cows is not safe...
that there has to be more scaffolding or something to hold onto.
But he says that only little babies are crying for their mamas...
and he sends whoever he doesn't like to do it.
This day he sends Lázaro Huerta.
They told Lázaro he shouldn't shoot the steam full pressure...
when he's turning it on.
There was nobody else in that part of the factory...
but these two men and Vicente, their boss.
He asked them to put the body in a garbage barrel...
and to clean his blood with the blood of the animals.
At the end of work, they carried the body out to his truck and he drove them here.
He told them he knew this place from years ago...
when he was hired to hide some kind of garbage.
They felt bad treating a man they knew... a human being...
like he was garbage too.
They left the body at the back of the tunnel...
and Vicente told them that now they are part of a crime...
and if the police finds out they are going to jail.
If he doesn't kill them first.
So you left the body up here?
They came back three days later to bury him as a Christian, but...
He wasn't here?
He was gone. Maybe it was a miracle.
They left him where there was water on the floor.
So when they came back the water was this high.
Show me.
Come on.
All right.
Wait for me here.
Help!
Help, up there!
Mr. O'Brien!
Are you there?
Mr. O'Brien!
Mr. O'Brien, you got all wet!
Look at you!
- Where are the guys? - They took them away.
Took them?
La Migra come, chase those men and take them away.
How come they didn't take you?
Because I carry my citizen papers always.
Guess I'll have to leave you here, Lupe.
It's okay.
How come you didn't take the day off?
I belong to the Iglesia Evangélica.
This? This is the devil's work.
I'll keep that in mind.
Thanks for everything.
Be careful, Mr. O'Brien.
Hey.
You again.
Hey.
I'm sorry about last night.
I get disgusted with myself, and I take it out on other people.
Don't worry about it.
You been swimming?
Cave diving.
I'm sorry if I got you in trouble.
The thing I'm investigating, I got a little in over my head.
- You got fired? - Probation.
Sorry.
Do you think you might call me sometime?
Listen, Maddy...
You're scared of me, aren't you?
No. I'm scared of your family.
Would you say those are ostrich skin?
The guy's boots?
Yeah. Tony Lamas.
Excuse me.
You got a problem, my friend?
You're Vicente Esparza.
Come on. We gotta talk, you and me.
You're the one who's been stirrin' up all this shit, huh?
Askin' about tattoos, botherin' my workers.
Now I hear the police are lookin' for me.
I've got nothing against you. It's the people above you...
the ones that had you dump those barrels into the mine.
- They knew what happened to Lázaro... - What the fuck is it to you?
You don't come down here where I live asking me fuckin' questions!
- I'm not after you. It's them! - That's right.
You don't care about me, and I don't care about you.
I don't care if you live or you die.
You see this?
You see what this is, cabrón?
You ask me one more fuckin' question...
Don't move! Just freeze right there!
Put it down, Dave.
One's deader than a doornail, and the other's unarmed.
- Put it down. - He had his gun out.
Put it in the holster!
And then go keep that crowd from coming back here! Go!
Jesus!
- You said it. - He wasn't gonna shoot your deputy.
Boy's a little overtrained.
- This is Esparza? - Yeah.
He's got that wanted-for-questioning...
killed-while-resisting-arrest look about him.
They didn't clean up the cyanide waste.
They just dumped it into an old mine.
Esparza was working for Bentel then.
He told my guys that he'd dumped something there before.
Only it's flooded now, and it's flooding more every day.
Somehow Huerta's body got swept away by it...
and pushed through the mountain into one of the streams that feeds the lake.
This is sounding crazy, isn't it?
Throw a dead body into a cave...
and three days later it comes back out into the world all on its own?
Sure, a lot of people'll buy that.
It's the water pressure.
The names of these two Mexicans you say you talked to...
Come on!
You had Immigration follow us and pick them up.
- Did I? - Half this town is illegal.
Immigration is gonna bother to drive into the middle of nowhere...
and just run into my witnesses?
Mr. Quińones and Mr. López have been debriefed by the I NS.
According to them, they were working at BENagra Packing...
along with a certain Lázaro Huerta, also an undocumented alien...
until one day he chose...
not to show up for work.
That's the last they saw of him.
- Of course they're gonna say that. - They're back on a plane in 24 hours...
courtesy of the United States government.
Unless, of course...
you choose to include that crock of shit that you just told me...
in your official statement...
in which case, they'd be accessories to wrongful death, at least.
Possibly murder.
They'd be fucked.
Bien jodido is the phrase, I believe, yeah.
Slaughterhouse?
The slaughterhouse operates within guidelines set by the law.
All we've got is a failure to report an accident...
and illegal burial...
which begins and ends with Vince Esparza.
Doesn't it?
I'll give you a few minutes to think about it.
You called his name.
When you were looking for him, you called his name.
Your buddy in the hospital put us on the lookout.
Vehicular homicide?
- It's the same speech every time. - I don't have time now, Nora.
If I spent a few hours reviewing his statistics...
Later.
Instead of just listening to him go on and on and on... Come on, Leo!
Come on!
- What's the deal? - Where have you been?
Out reporting the news. I know it's easier to watch it on cable, but...
Staff meeting in 15 minutes, people!
That means everybody!
- Then it's true. - What?
They'll say, "Nobody'll be let go."
But when they bought the Sentinel, they cut 30 jobs the first month.
They who? What are you talking about?
We've been sold to Gold Mine Publishing, that Bentel owns.
These Rocky Mountains that I love so much...
are part of our national heritage...
something we must keep safe for future generations.
Don't even think about it.
Whatever pathetic publicity stunt you're hatching...
in that drug-addled brain of yours.
- I don't work for you anymore. - I know.
You were dismissed...
when we discovered an incident of substance abuse on the job.
- Anything you say... - Don't threaten me.
You are the boy that cried wolf, O'Brien.
- It was in all the papers. - A murder was committed.
What?
Murder by deregulation? That kind of thinking went out in the last century.
That's not the point.
The point is that without a smoking gun...
all you've got is another opportunity...
to fuck up your sorry excuse for a life even more than now.
People like you think you've got everything covered.
You think nobody cares enough to fight back.
But someday your shit's gonna catch up with you, and when it does...
You're a loser.
That's already been established beyond doubt.
So just try and be a good one.
Okay?
Don't you think you ought to change your shirt?
- How'd you find me? - I'm a detective.
You said we were investigators.
I'm a detective. You're an investigator.
And the first rule is, don't go finding more than you're looking for.
Look, if it weren't for Mort...
All of his plans, every scheme he's ever had...
has had a jinx on it.
His wife has to support him. He thinks he's a failure.
If this Silver City thing were to fall through...
And he's in with the Pilagers?
Up to his neck.
Hush money?
Severance pay.
And don't go making trouble, Danny.
Won't do any good.
So why'd you ever hire a basket case like me?
Look who I married.
Travel expenses.
Richard Pilager cares about you.
It's like he's a bad actor that doesn't believe himself in the part. You know?
You read these polls... I swear, the questions must be:
Would you rather have Dickie Pilager as governor...
or have your pancreas pulled out through your nose with a rusty coat hanger?
But still, 33% prefer the coat hanger.
What's this?
Weird.
"Silver City."
Someone left us a treasure map.
I hear you've been bought.
- I mean, not you personally. - Part of the happy Bentel family.
There's a man named Lázaro Huerta in that box... what's left of him.
So, this is your case.
- Mr. O'Brien, yes? - Yes.
- Seńora. - Hello.
Ramón Contreras from the Mexican consulate.
On behalf of the aggrieved family...
I offer my sincere gratitude for your generosity.
I'd like to wire some money...
on top of the casket and the shipping costs.
They won't...
Anything you could send would be appreciated.
There are several children.
If you'll excuse me...
The paperwork.
Nice to meet you.
You haven't been sleeping.
No, not really.
I split up with Chandler.
Really?
I was... grousing about communications monopolies...
and he gave me his usual line...
and we got into a fight, one thing led to another and...
Conflict of interests.
Many a promising merger has failed due to a conflict of interest.
Right.
How do you feel... about us splitting up?
Euphoric.
That's how I felt.
I should have been suicidal.
My paper's been co-opted...
I have all these people to call and tell them they're not invited...
to the wedding in Aspen, and...
Were you gonna do one of those ski-lift ceremonies?
It would have been a very tasteful, very Caucasian affair.
If you change your mind, I know of a very good caterer.
Maybe we could see each other sometime.
That'd be great.
So, you quit your job.
Grace fired me.
So, what do you do now?
First I need to repaint my living room.
I promise to respect and support our American traditions...
I'm waiting.
Our right to bear arms...
I'm still waiting.
Our right to the freedoms of religious worship and expression...
so fundamental to our liberty.
I promise to support a smaller, more efficient government.
No longer must the Big Brother of the social welfare system...
dictate our daily lives...
intruding, impeding, regulating...
the very air that we breathe.
What I'm talking about, my fellow citizens...
comes down to that precious word "freedom."
A freedom enjoyed by those bold individuals...
who came to a wild frontier and built the West that we love so dearly...
those steadfast men and women...
whose spirit of daring and conquest...
inspires us to this day.
The freedom from fear of those who envy our good fortune...
who scorn our democratic institutions.
Freedom from the cultural tyranny...
of the special interest groups and the new-age demagogues...
who would seek to deny us...
the harvest of our God-given bounty...
under the false banner of environmental correctness.
The freedom to seek health, happiness...
and, yes, fortune...
in this glorious mountain state of ours.
This is the freedom I promise you, my fellow citizens.
But let not a man be judged by the promises he makes...
but by the works he leaves behind.
America
May God bless you all.
May God thy glory find
Till all success
Be nobleness
And every gain
Divine
O beautiful
For spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain
America
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good
With brotherhood
From sea
To
Shining
Sea