(indistinct voices)
The bidding is closed.
(sirens wailing)
(garbled radio transmission)
BLACKWELL: The victim's name is Peter Dewhurst.
Single dad, kid in second grade.
Found his body this morning in a classroom at Archer Elementary.
Coroner puts the time of death between 10:00 and 11:00 last night.
Near the end of the annual school fund-raiser.
Head trauma, blow from a blunt object.
Subject's in custody, Archer parent named Sally Marin.
The blunt object?
Children's art project chair.
The murder weapon was a class art project? Mrs. Marin won
it at the silent auction.
Paint flakes, head wound all match up with the chair.
Blood on the chair and on the dress she was wearing,
same type as the victim.
The lab's working up definitive DNA.
We got skin from under the victim's nails.
We're running that, too.
What do we know about Mrs. Marin?
Married, eight-year-old daughter, second grade.
BLACKWELL: Typical soccer mom.
Except for the homicidal tendencies.
There was a note in the victim's wallet.
Mrs. Marin's stationary.
"Thank you for being you. You are my rock.
You've opened my eyes to the nightmare I've been living."
Sounds like an affair.
If she was having
an affair, why aren't we looking at the husband?
Mr. Marin has an iron-clad alibi-- a seminar 90 miles away
with 50 other people.
Were victim and suspect seen together last night?
The security camera time stamped 9:55 p.m.
just before the murder.
Looks like a lover's quarrel to me.
MAN: Annabeth.
Casey, how's private practice?
The credit cards are paid off, and my mortgage is up to date.
(laughs) Life's grand. How's that baby?
Cute as a button? Cuter.
16 months next week. Oh, yeah?
You must be gearing up for that preschool frenzy.
What frenzy? Are you kidding me?
My wife has us on every list in town.
Uh, Phoebe's what, like not even a year old?
But you got to get a jump on these good preschools.
We called Little Red Wagon from her hospital bed.
(laughing): Seems excessive.
What's the rush?
Annabeth, you apply when they're one
so you get in when they're three.
Are you serious?
If I were you, I'd make that appointment.
Now, could she look any more innocent?
Funny, in our justice system,
looking innocent doesn't actually count for anything.
They quarreled.
She struck Mr. Dewhurst with a chair.
I never even went in that classroom last night.
The chair was out in the hallway.
I-I picked it up and took it home.
A guilty person would have destroyed the evidence.
She just paid $2,000 for it. She wasn't just gonna throw it away.
Wipe off the chair,
take the dress to the cleaners, everything's back to normal.
Except Peter Dewhurst is dead,
and his eight-year-old son is an orphan.
I would never do anything to hurt Peter or his son.
What were you and Mr. Dewhurst fighting about?
Fighting?
Just before 10:00 in the hallway.
A security camera caught it. You were arguing vehemently.
He grabbed your arm, and you stomped off.
That doesn't prove anything. It was nothing.
School stuff, trivia.
We were just exhausted last night from working on the auction.
Peter and I, we were very close friends.
Very close friends?
Yes.
He was your rock?
What?
"...the nightmare I've been living."
Your marriage?
My marriage is fine.
It was something else, a personal situation.
You and Mr. Dewhurst were having an affair.
No!
This situation
is the nightmare.
I'm innocent.
Talk to your client.
She tells the truth, we can talk about a plea.
Otherwise, I'm charging her in the death
of her very close friend.
Think it over, Mrs. Marin.
www.1000fr.com present
Capture:FRM@XXY Sync:FRM@¡¤D¡¤
?? it to ruin my week
by arresting the city's most popular soccer mom?
Had a few calls? You know, I thought
dealing with the mayor and the governor was tough.
They're nothing compared with the parents
of the Archer Elementary School PTA.
So what do we have on the victim?
Peter Dewhurst, widower,
single father to a second grader at Archer.
The lone dad on the PTA executive committee,
and according to his legion of female fans,
Peter was a PTA rock star.
All the moms loved him.
Loved him how much?
Ms. Marin obviously had some kind of relationship with him.
They called each other 10 to 15 times a day,
and exchanged thousands of emails. It'll take us days
to go through them.
Hundreds of phone calls, thousands of emails?
And they saw each other every day.
What could they have to talk about? It had to be an affair.
Clearly, you've never been on a PTA committee.
And you have?
No, but my ex-wife was.
I was going to say, you don't look like the PTA type.
Does Mrs. Marin have a criminal history?
None.
Forensics?
Uh, recovered a plastic fragment from the rug
in the kindergarten classroom,
apparently off the bottom of a woman's satin heel.
Are we checking Mrs. Marin's wardrobe?
Yes, and we're still waiting on DNA
from skin under the victim's nails.
Let's hold off charging her until we get the results, huh?
Okay. In the meantime, I will talk to the suspect's husband.
And Ed is canvassing some of the mothers who were at the auction.
Well, hopefully he's wearing his Kevlar.
Did you notice any tension between
Sally Marin and Peter Dewhurst that night?
Definitely. They were barely speaking all night.
Well, it's understandable. That event was insane.
All the committee people, they work so hard.
They love it. They're all addicts.
FEMS.
What's a FEM?
Formerly Employed Moms.
That is so mean.
They quit working to be stay-at-home moms.
But they still need adult stimulation.
So now they just run their kids' lives instead.
You think Sally Marin and Peter Dewhurst were having an affair?
Oh, gosh, no.
I mean, I can't even imagine...
Peter was a babe. I would have jumped him.
(giggling): Andrea.
The truth is, if they'd been sleeping together,
I think we would have known.
When Miss Heather and the science teacher hooked up,
the whole school knew in a week.
Then again, I mean, if you're not in the inner circle,
I bet we don't know the half of it.
Inner circle?
PTA is like anything else.
You've got the movers and the shakers,
and then you've got the worker bees.
And you're worker bees?
Definitely.
Well, I'll need the buzz on that inner circle.
(laughs)
Hello.
I'm Maureen Scofield with the Prosecutor's Office.
I'm here to see Mr. Marin.
Oh, uh, yes, just hold on one second.
Hey, Lily.
Go finish your soup.
I don't feel so good.
I know, but eat your soup. It'll make you feel better.
Okay.
Kelsey, keep her company.
But Mom?
Kelsey?
(laughing): I'm sorry.
Poor Lily. She has been so upset about her mom.
I'm sorry. Are you a neighbor, or a relative?
I'm Caroline Cummings. I'm Sally's best friend.
I'm just helping out Kevin and Sally until this gets resolved.
May I ask you a question?
Sure.
You're her best friend?
Yes.
Did she confide in you about her relationship
with Mr. Dewhurst?
I don't understand.
We think they were having an affair.
Peter and Sally? That is ridiculous.
No, they were friends. We were all friends.
Look, this whole thing has just been a terrible mistake.
It's a tragedy, and you people have compounded it by arresting Sally.
When are you going to let her go?
I'm sorry, that's not up to me.
Well, she did not kill Peter.
There's a lot of evidence that she did.
Mr. Marin is this way.
Thank you.
We think Peter Dewhurst and your wife
were having an affair.
You're wrong.
They called each other every day, all day long,
emails, text messages.
They were doing the auction.
Is that all they were doing?
You're right.
She was cheating on me.
All right?
But not with Peter Dewhurst.
With the PTA.
Of course it bothered me she was spending so much time with him.
11:00 at night in bed, IM-ing Peter on her laptop.
What are the best juice boxes to buy for the May Fair?
Who's working the bake sale,
the Pecan Festival...?
I... I'd had it.
I wanted out.
Out of the marriage?
Out of the school.
How did your wife feel about that?
Sally was upset, begged me to change my mind.
She loves Archer, but I insisted.
I told her I want my family back.
The blow fractured his skull, causing a subdural hemotoma.
I'd say the attacker was close to the same height
as the victim, at least 5'8".
Mrs. Marin is not that tall.
She's like 5'3", 5'4" at the most.
She could have been standing on something--
a step, a riser.
No, there was nothing like that
in the crime scene report.
What about the DNA results?
The skin under the victim's nails
is not a match for the suspect.
Okay, sounds like we have a problem.
Annabeth, you and Ray better meet me at the crime scene.
This is where they found the heel fragment?
Yeah, it's from a woman's Cosomo brand red satin pump.
As opposed to a man's red satin pump, I guess.
Cosomo, huh?
Is that good?
Very nice,
very elegant, very expensive.
Mrs. Marin
was in black that night.
Right.
Meaning what?
She wouldn't be wearing red pumps.
She wouldn't? How would you know?
Unless she tied it in with something else.
Yeah, like a-a red belt or a red scarf.
What is this, some kind of rule?
Yes. Yes.
It's called the Law of Accessories.
I'm used to a different kind of accessory,
like... an accessory after the fact.
We should be able to find her.
There were 400 parents
at that auction, more than half of them women.
It's a needle in a haystack.
For you, maybe, but we have our working theory.
Red belt, red scarf, red pumps.
There could have been more than one woman
that night wearing red pumps.
Yes, but red satin Cosomo pumps?
Not likely.
Here's a red dress.
Would you wear red heels with that?
I wouldn't.
I'll put it in the "maybe" pile.
Wrap dress, fur shrug.
Probably vintage Mary Janes.
Check this one out with
the peasant blouse. Not a chance.
Why not?
She's wearing
leopard print and burgundy.
So? She's probably wearing
beaded slippers or strappy sandals.
Hmm.
Beaded slippers, man.
Get with the program.
Funny, I don't remember
covering formal footwear at the academy.
I met this woman at the Marins' house.
Said she was Sally's best friend.
WILLIAMS: Caroline Cummings.
She's wearing a red belt.
I'll bet she had red shoes on.
Sure.
Ties the whole look together.
Exactly.
Worker bees told me
she co-chaired the auction committee
with Mrs. Marin.
Let's check her out.
I'll get a warrant.
You need probable cause for a warrant, ladies,
which this is not.
It will be. How?
We just need a female judge.
With a sense of style.
Judge Stevenson?
Tres chic.
This is absurd.
Don't pull on that, please.
That's cashmere. Pashmina.
Mrs. Cummings, you could save us all some trouble
if you just hand over the clothes you were wearing
that night at the auction.
Fine.
(sighs)
Here.
Happy?
This is short sleeve.
And this is not the same skirt at all.
Oh, I... I spilled wine on that outfit.
I had to throw it out.
You do that a lot? Throw away an expensive dress
instead of taking it to the cleaners?
Got the shoes.
Red satin pumps.
These look like Cosomos to you?
Yeah. Cosomos, definitely.
You're getting pretty good at that.
Hey, you're not the only one with a sense of style.
Oh, and look, there's a little piece missing off the heel.
Luminol that puppy.
What are you doing?
What are you spraying all over my shoes?
It'll show us if there's blood on them.
Well, if there is, I don't know how it got there.
Bingo.
I am not discussing anything until we get an attorney.
Wait a minute!
What are you doing?
Sir, step back.
Your wife's under arrest.
Joe, call a lawyer.
Don't worry, honey, I'll call Jim Thompson.
Call Sally.
Get someone from her lawyer's firm.
Got it.
Not a criminal mastermind.
She should have thrown them out
instead of trying to clean them up.
Oh, shoes like these, you don't throw out.
Not if you can help it.
Best friends, huh?
So she said. She was still going
to let Mrs. Marin take the rap.
We released Sally Marin
and charged Caroline Cummings with manslaughter.
You got a motive yet?
No, but the physical evidence
is incontrovertible.
The victim's blood on her shoe,
heel fragment at the scene, and DNA.
It was her skin under the victim's fingernails.
This case, without a motive,
manslaughter's a stretch for a jury.
Better plead it down to reckless homicide.
And if I can find a motive?
Better find one quick!
Why aren't you helping him?
E-mail trees, they're connected.
It's like an ecosystem.
It's better for one person to read all of them.
He lost the coin toss, didn't he?
What can I say?
I've always been lucky.
ANNABETH: Guys, help me out here.
I need a motive.
Why'd she kill him?
Why do people kill each other?
WILLIAMS: Hundreds of reasons.
Money, blackmail, extortion, drugs.
Well, you guys are still on the streets.
Think PTA moms in the suburbs.
I'll take a dealer
with a rap sheet as long as your arm any day.
Well, something set her off.
Anything in the e-mail so far?
Well, in the first 5,000 or so I've read,
maybe something brewing in paradise
between Dewhurst and Mrs. Cummings.
Like what?
Disagreements over the auction planning.
What's the theme going to be?
Should we or shouldn't we
have a Deejay?
Exciting stuff.
Don't gloat.
Motive for murder...
I don't think so.
The other parents you canvassed didn't mention
anything about problems between those two?
They wouldn't have necessarily known.
Who would? I gave my list
of the PTA's inner circle to Maureen.
She's talking to them for me,
including the ex-PTA president,
who threw up her hands in disgust over the whole thing.
I can think of someone else who probably knew something.
You mean the woman I accused
of killing her closest friend?
On your way over, you might want to practice
that apology in the rearview.
(sighs)
I quit and never looked back.
Too much work?
Too much drama.
PTA politics was something else.
I felt like a U.N. negotiator.
Our kids are at stake, or so people tell themselves,
but do you think it really matters
what font we use on the auction flier?
(laughs)
Now the principal at Archer mentioned
there was some hostility between Caroline and you?
Oh, it was between Caroline and everyone,
but for me, the final straw,
someone sent an anonymous complaint
about how Peter was running the meetings.
It was absurd, and he was mad as hell.
How do you know it was Mrs. Cummings?
Well, Peter joked that he
was going to hire a private investigator,
but I recognized Caroline's handwriting.
I heard Caroline threaten him once.
She said it like a joke, but it sure sounded angry to me.
Mom!
Someone's here for you!
Lily, I can hear you all the way in the back.
Go play, honey, okay?
Okay.
What are you doing here?
Mrs. Marin, please accept my apologies.
I made a huge mistake.
I'd like you to leave, please. Right now.
I need to talk to you about Caroline Cummings.
You were wrong about me.
You're wrong about her.
We were mistaken about you
and you can hold it against us,
or you can help us.
We know that she and Peter Dewhurst
weren't getting along.
That kind of friction is normal in...
I know I should have called.
Kelsey is in the car and she's dying to see Lily, so I thought
maybe the girls could have a play date.
Caroline, this is not
a good time.
What are you two talking about?
We'll do it some other time, okay?
I'll call and arrange something for the girls.
Please.
I'll call you later, sweetie.
She's out on bail for killing one of your closest friends
and she just drops by like it's nothing out of the ordinary?
Well, that's Caroline for you-- nothing fazes her.
Um...
Could we do this another time, please?
I can't.
This is all starting to hit me.
Hard.
Of course.
So I'm standing
in Sally's living room and in walks Caroline,
and get this, their living rooms are exactly the same.
How weird is that?
Same curtains, same shade of green paint, same furniture,
same photo of the two of them
wearing the same outfit.
Creepy. I wonder what it means.
It's like they're leading doppelganger lives.
Yeah, but who's copying who?
So I combed through Caroline Cummings' past.
It took me a few days.
Campus security reports
from 15 years ago are hard to lay your hands on.
Where was this?
Oregon. Grad school.
She was a T.A.
One of her students accused Miss Cummings of stalking her.
Said Cummings started showing up
uninvited to her apartment,
parties...
Borrowed some of her laundry and wore it around campus.
She finally asked for a disciplinary hearing.
Anything come of it?
No. She got sick over spring break, couldn't fly home.
Guess who shows up at her front door with soup?
Caroline Cummings?
Student was too out of it
to see straight. So she lets
her stalker take care of her.
You got it. She gets better,
she's grateful, drops the charges.
But what if this whole thing
was about the two women?
If Caroline was obsessed with Sally...
Then she kills Peter Dewhurst
because he's coming between them.
And people think
the PTA is about the kids.
Poor Peter. I haven't even...
had time to cry over him.
This kind of grief, someone
so close, out of the blue,
it's very hard.
I know.
How can I help you, Miss Chase?
You can tell us in detail what you know of their relationship.
Were they having an affair?
Lord, no.
How can you be so sure?
He didn't have the time.
He spent it all with me.
You said you and Peter weren't...
We weren't sleeping together, but we were that close,
that intimate emotionally.
We believe Caroline was jealous
of your friendship with Peter Dewhurst.
She could be a little possessive.
Was she in love with you?
Caroline?
No, not exactly.
It's hard to explain.
Sally, you're not the first woman she stalked.
Excuse me?
Caroline stalked another woman in college.
Uh... Julie Gardner.
Caroline never mentioned her.
Miss Gardner eventually lodged a formal complaint
with campus security.
We moved here a year ago.
I met Caroline in line at the market.
She helped me find a gym,
a baby-sitter...
And I was thrilled that Lily made a new friend.
Lily's shy.
Changing schools in midyear was brutal.
Caroline would arrange play dates for the girls.
It meant the world to me.
So you became friends.
We did.
And then it started to get weird.
Caroline redid her living room
to look exactly the same as mine.
She started
dropping by at all hours.
She was the nightmare you referred to
in the note to Peter, wasn't she?
When Peter was killed,
why didn't you tell us about her behavior?
Who would believe me?
What would I tell the police,
that this PTA mom was acting like
a teenager?
Hanging around the market for hours
so she'd accidentally run into me?
No one would take that seriously.
Peter...
was my closest friend in the world.
If...
if Caroline killed him...
She did.
it was because of me
??
She was obsessed with Sally Marin.
Well, jury's gonna want to know how and why that night,
what happened to make her snap.
A psychologist is coming in today
to look at Sally's video statement.
Has Ed gotten through the e-mails yet? He's close.
He's at the point where she tried
to get Dewhurst kicked off some PTA committee.
Well, a pattern of ongoing antagonism
would establish her existing mental state.
Which would get around the defense claim that it was sudden heat.
Sudden heat knocks you back down to reckless homicide.
Which is what you've wanted.
No, it's what's easier.
If you can prove intent, then you'll get your
manslaughter conviction That's what I want.
I know.
Caroline started redoing her living room
so it looked like mine.
She got Kelsey the same hair clips Lily likes.
(laughs): I could go on and on.
I tried to pull away, but...
Caroline just got more and more needy.
Here's where I see evidence of what is called a girl crush.
Is it sexual?
Not overtly.
It's a passionate friendship, strictly platonic.
Common in middle and high school.
Most teenage girls go through a girl crush phase.
Wendy Wellman, my best friend in eighth grade.
We sat next to each other in every class,
and as soon as I got home from school,
we were on the phone again.
Part of the reason Mrs. Marin allowed
Caroline's behavior is because it enabled her
to carry on her emotional affair with Peter Dewhurst.
So Sally Marin tolerated
Caroline Cummings having a girl crush on her.
Oh, she knew her relationship
with Mr. Dewhurst was inappropriate,
but as long as she could tell herself
it was all under the guise of handling the Caroline situation,
they could avoid feeling guilty about
spending so much time together. Explains why Sally
didn't tell us about Caroline from the beginning.
A girl crush can be
as passionate as a love relationship.
So if Sally
rejected Caroline for Peter...
Oh, Caroline could feel the same kind of jealousy,
anger, feelings of betrayal
as if she'd been rejected by a boyfriend.
The late-night phone calls,
bitter recriminations, screaming,
hysterical fights on prom night.
You sound as if you have some experience in this area.
I was very intense in my youth.
WILLIAMS: 10,000 e-mail. I read every single one.
Very impressive. Half the time
the parents are planning barbecues together,
the other half slamming each other.
But no outright threats between Caroline and anyone.
Which means we can't prove intent,
which means no conviction.
Can we track any underlying antagonisms
between Caroline Cummings and Peter Dewhurst?
Oh, they're all over the place.
And I'm not sure Mrs. Marin understood the depth of it.
Turns out...
Peter Dewhurst actually did hire himself
a private investigator.
After the stunt she pulled
at the PTA meeting? Dewhurst had a handwriting expert
confirm the anonymous note was from Mrs. Cummings.
He also looked into getting a restraining order.
For himself?
For Sally Marin.
No sign she knew.
He was protecting her.
Okay, that's our approach, then.
We can't point to a specific e-mail as being threatening,
but the totality of e-mails paints a picture
of Caroline Cummings's pervasive hostility toward Peter Dewhurst.
Like the neighbors who squabble
over the fence for years until one finally shoots the other one
and claims it was in sudden heat.
But because they have a history of fighting...
The sudden heat defense doesn't apply.
It's the pervasiveness of their squabbling
that speaks to intent.
Let's hope the judge
sees it that way.
Motion People v. Caroline Cummings.
Ladies?
Motion to exclude the testimony of Julie Gardner.
Your Honor, the defendant stalked and harassed Ms. Gardner.
It goes towards motive and a pattern of predatory behavior.
12 years ago, in college.
It was an isolated incident, not a pattern.
Prior acts are not admissible.
But M.O.'s are.
How is the stalking relevant, Ms. Scofield?
The stalking shows the obsessive nature
of the defendant's relationships with other women.
One other woman 12 years ago.
I agree with the defense.
It's a singular incident,
not a pattern.
The testimony is excluded. Next.
Your Honor, the defense would also like
to exclude all of Caroline Cummings's PTA correspondence.
These e-mails are more prejudicial than probative.
These e-mails clearly track Mrs. Cummings'
antagonism towards the victim. She is not on trial
for being a...
Ms. Brokaw.
Please. The sum of these e-mails
make it clear-- Mrs. Cummings had a long-running
and pervasive hostility towards the victim.
McEwing v. State upheld
a pattern of hostility can be used to prove intent.
Do the e-mails contain
any explicit threats toward the victim?
There's an undercurrent of rage.
That's your interpretation.
The e-mails are excluded.
If you find a specific threat, I'll review it in camera.
Your Honor...
We're done.
Trial starts Friday.
MAUREEN: First the judge ties our hands,
then he fires the starting pistol and yells "go."
It's a tough case to make without the e-mails.
You realize trial starts tomorrow.
I'll begin with the ex-president of the PTA
to establish Caroline's state of mind vis-a-vis Sally and Peter.
This is a truly twisted triangle.
Caroline and Sally carpooled.
Their kids were friends.
They talked on the phone several times a day.
Did Caroline appear to be obsessed with Sally?
Objection. Witness is not qualified to speak to that.
Sustained.
(sighs)
Did you witness an argument
between Caroline and Peter on October 12?
In the pickup line at school.
MAUREEN: Did you hear what the argument was about?
Peter was taking Lily and his son to the lake house
for the weekend to help Sally out.
Caroline was angling to keep Lily,
but no way was Peter letting that happen.
Then I heard her say,
"I'm so jealous you're keeping Lily.
You're lucky I don't slash your tires."
Objection. Approach?
Your Honor, this is an eyewitness account
of a threat made by the defendant.
It was a joke,
not a threat. If slashing tires
isn't a threat, I don't know what is.
I'll allow it.
When Caroline said this, did you think she was serious?
I did-- her tone of voice...
...it was disturbing.
And how did Peter react?
He was shocked.
You thought he took it seriously.
Very.
Your witness.
I knew Caroline was becoming too possessive.
She tried to oust Peter from the PTA,
so we wouldn't... couldn't spend so much time together.
Did that strategy work?
It backfired, actually.
He and I spent even more time together.
He became a buffer
between Caroline and me.
I wanted it that way.
You never confronted Mrs. Cummings. Why?
I didn't want to hurt her feelings.
And... I thought I could manage her.
Nothing further.
If you thought Caroline was an unstable person,
why didn't you break off your friendship?
I tried to pull away, but...
I'm not a confrontational person.
I didn't want conflict.
So you tolerated Mrs. Cummings.
I tried to be nice to her, as nice as I could be.
Did you trust her?
Not really-- she was... so erratic.
Then why did you allow her to take care
of your daughter when she was sick?
I mean, you frequently left your daughter in Caroline's care.
In September you left her with Caroline for... 36 hours.
My mom broke her hip; it was an emergency.
You more than tolerated Caroline Cummings.
You relied on her.
I wanted Peter to take Lily for the weekend.
But Lily got sick
and she couldn't go.
So Caroline pitched in.
So you did, in fact, trust her
with your most precious possession,
your only child.
Miss Sarah, hi.
It's Annabeth Chase.
Thank you so much for scheduling an interview tomorrow.
We'll be there at 8:30.
Uh...
no, actually, he passed away last spring.
So, uh, it's just gonna be the two of us.
That's okay.
Okay, thanks. Bye-bye.
(laughs): Uh, preschools.
Haley has an interview tomorrow.
How do you interview a toddler?
Good question.
Apparently, if I want Haley to go to a good feeder school,
I have to start applying now.
It seems prestigious private grade schools
are harder to get into than Harvard.
Wait for high school.
Jessie's on the student council, playing three sports,
and working with food banks just to bolster her college aps.
And she's got a 4.0.
My two cents:
let 'em have a childhood; it's over soon enough.
I know.
I heard what happened with our star witness.
I'm not so sure we're making our case.
You know, from where I sit
it's a jump ball, and I'm sure Becky Brokaw
is as uncertain as to which way the jury's leaning as we are.
You want me to offer reckless homicide.
I think it's the smart play, I really do.
All right.
Go for the max.
Eight years for killing someone?
The jury doesn't know everything you do about this case.
Start with eight, settle for what you can get.
We'll take reckless homicide, two years suspended, no more.
Your client could face 20 years in prison
if the jury finds her guilty.
If you thought the jury would come back guilty,
you wouldn't be here.
Is Mrs. Cummings willing to take the chance?
If she loses,
her daughter will be grown up
and out of the house long before she gets out.
Okay, four years.
With good behavior,
it will be two, tops.
Annabeth?
Agreed.
We want a confession for the record.
It was an accident.
My whole life, I've taken care of people.
When they're sick or when they need a friend.
I never meant to hurt Peter.
Hey.
How'd the interview at Pleasant Corners go?
I put it off for a couple days.
Listen, I've been thinking.
Annabeth, the sentencing
is next week, you can't undo it.
Just hear me out.
Caroline Cummings said something.
She takes care of people when they're sick.
Mm-hmm, a regular Florence Nightingale.
Sally Marin testified that when her mother broke her hip,
her daughter was supposed to go away for the weekend
with Peter and his kid. Mm-hmm. Lily gets sick
and Caroline takes Lily for the weekend instead.
Sound familiar?
Just like her last stalking victim.
Julie Gardner had been trying to ditch Caroline,
and then she got violently ill,
some intestinal thing she's never had before or since.
Caroline made her soup, brought it to her dorm.
Caroline Cummings made Lily soup
the day I interviewed Kevin Marin.
People in Caroline's life
eventually start to pull away from her because she's crazy.
And then they get violently ill, and she magically cures them.
And voila, they're filled with gratitude
and best friends again.
Maureen, is there a chance she made them sick on purpose,
so she could cure them?
If I can prove it, I don't need to undo the plea.
??
This is crazy.
Why can't you just leave my family alone?
What the hell is this?
A subpoena to depose your daughter.
She's eight years old.
You want her to testify against her own mother?
We want her to tell the truth, and you understand,
if you influence her to lie, you could go to jail, too.
Then Kelsey would have no one.
You wouldn't do that.
She'll be sentenced to four years and time served.
On early release she'll be out in two.
Two years for killing Peter, doesn't seem right.
No, it doesn't.
I wanted to ask you.
My colleague said Lily's been ill recently?
Nothing out of the ordinary.
She got sick when I was arrested.
Some kind of stomach bug.
What do you know about pin worms?
They're like head lice,
one of those things that go around
even the best schools.
Huge pain in the... but no big deal.
They're parasites, easily transmitted,
that cause a full-blown parasitic infection--
itchy, uncomfortable, sometimes stomach cramps.
The symptoms often seem like the flu,
so you might not even go to the doctor.
What are you getting at?
We found cookies in Mrs. Cummings' refrigerator.
The frosting contained live pin worm eggs.
Are you saying...?
She infected Lily deliberately.
Oh, my God.
We think she did the same thing in college
to a woman she was stalking.
Why? Why would she do something like that?
To play the hero.
It's a form of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Make someone sick, and then cure them.
She deliberately made Lily sick?
And then gave her something to make her better
so you would be grateful to her.
Soup.
There was leftover.
I put it in my freezer.
Lily was not my best friend, even at all.
She was really annoying.
But if I let her be my recess buddy,
Mommy lets me paint my toenails with her.
If Lily asks my mom for a play date,
I get a cupcake before bed.
Does your mom ask you to keep secrets with Lily?
Mom sometimes packs special cookie treats in my lunch
to give to Lily.
Like this one?
Yeah, only I'm not allowed to have the ones with the ribbons.
Did you tell anyone?
No, because Lily's mom would take them away.
So I'd take it in my lunch box to school,
and sneak it to her under the picnic tables
so the teachers can't see.
We can't share food at school
because Bethany has a peanut allergy.
Well, the plea's already been entered, Annabeth.
You're trying to influence the judge to throw out our agreement before sentencing.
These are new charges.
Your client deliberately infected Lily Marin
with an intestinal parasite.
You're manipulating my child.
You're evil.
We tested the cookies, Mrs. Cummings.
Sally Marin froze some of her soup.
The lab found a drug in it
that cures pin worms in one dose.
What's on the table, Annabeth?
Ten years. She pleads to child endangerment.
Concurrently.
In addition to the four.
14 years?
I have a daughter.
And I feel very sorry for her, but not for you.
The alternative is we go to trial
and everybody finds out what you did
to eight-year-old Lily Marin.
I'd like a moment to confer with my client.
Mrs. Cummings, in the charge of one count of child endangerment
against Lily Marin, do you accept the charges?
Yes, Your Honor.
But I would like to make a statement.
Proceed.
Pin worms are not fatal.
They're a very common
childhood ailment, and they're easily cured.
I always had a supply of the soup ready, just in case.
JUDGE: Mrs. Cummings, your lack
of remorse is noted.
In the death of Peter Dewhurst,
do you accept the charge of reckless homicide?
Yes, but it was not my fault.
Please elaborate.
Peter was the possessive one.
Sally and I were as close as two people could be.
Then he turned her against me.
He said that she only put up with me
for Lily's sake.
Somehow he knew that I was making Lily sick,
so that I could spend time with Sally.
I told him that I would stop
if he just promised not to tell Sally.
But when I did, it was like,
he finally had the proof he needed to ruin our friendship.
He said he was going to tell Sally what I'd done.
I didn't mean to kill him.
I only picked up the chair
because I was so hurt and... angry.
JUDGE: As stipulated in the agreement
between the People of Indiana and the defendant,
for one count of reckless homicide,
the Court sentences you to four years in prison.
For one count of child endangerment,
the Court sentences you to ten years in prison.
These sentences are to be served consecutively
for a total of 14 years.
Bailiff, you can take the defendant.
This court is adjourned.
(bangs gavel)
ANNABETH: Okay, great, thank you.
That was Pleasant Corners, Haley's in.
Congratulations. Thanks.
But if I hold off, Magic Meadows might have a spot.
Oh, what are you going to do?
I don't know. It's overwhelming.
If I make the wrong choice now,
it could affect the whole course of her life.
Wait, this is preschool we're talking about, right?
Three mornings a week.
Yeah.
I think you may be overreacting.
You think?
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess so.
All these decisions, you know?
I guess I never imagined I'd be doing all this on my own.
Well, you are.
And you aren't.
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