In New York City's war on crime,
the worst criminal offenders are pursued
by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
Brad, do I make you happy?
Yes, very happy.
Bye. Bye.
Brad gave her a key so she can let herself in,
so she'll be here when we get home.
You're getting crumbs on the floor.
She's coming from Milwaukee, not Buckingham Palace.
Jared, in two months Allison will be family.
If she wants to be family, she and Brad should move back here.
Finish your breakfast. We have a busy day.
We want to do our honeymoon in Bali,
but the travel agent said it's worth stopping in Singapore.
Oh, the food is so good there,
and that's a really nice hotel.
Is it better to take a livery cab to Brooklyn?
A friend said it's less expensive.
We always take a hotel van.
Let me get you a refill. Sir, can I get you something to drink?
The livery drivers are thieves.
Take a cab, but watch the meter.
Depending where in Brooklyn you're going,
you shouldn't pay more than 30 bucks.
Thank you.
Your honeymoon, that's when you splurge.
829.
Milwaukee.
JFK.
Can you zip me?
It's on time.
I've never been nervous about anything, but I'm nervous about this.
We still got an hour to relax.
He went the wrong way, sweetie.
Didn't you tell him to take Shore Parkway?
Somebody told me the expressway was faster.
Oh, we just crossed Bay Ridge.
Okay. On 73rd, turn left.
It's the third house on the right.
I think I can see it from here.
I have to go. I love you.
I love you too, sweetie.
Are you sure?
Mom, she was right in front of the house when I talked to her.
That was five hours ago.
Hang on, I'm trying her cell again.
Yo, the trash is calling. Must be one of your hoochies.
Just 'cause you ain't got none...
Oh, damn! Yo, check this out.
It was in her pocket. It kept ringing, so we fished it out.
It was her fiancé calling from Milwaukee.
Poor guy. Where's he now?
We got a unit meeting him at JFK.
You said her name was Allison, right?
Allison Jenkins, 28.
Our report said a cab dropped her off two miles from here?
Narrows Avenue at 73rd.
Her future mother-in-law's place.
We tracked the cab driver through JFK dispatch.
He was home asleep when we picked him up.
Did you check his logs?
He picked up another fare on Bay Ridge Avenue,
three minutes after he dropped her off.
He's probably okay, but forensics is going over his cab.
We'll want to talk to him.
She took a hit to the head.
The wounds on her face, eyes, pretty severe.
But there isn't much swelling. It's probably post-mortem.
There's no obvious signs of sexual assault.
Her engagement ring is still on her finger.
No sex, no robbery. Somebody just wanted her dead.
Well, this is what they did it with.
Blood, hair stuck to it.
Detectives, this is Mr. Haidar.
He drove Ms. Jenkins to Brooklyn.
Mr. Haidar, do you remember anything unusual that happened?
Maybe something she said?
I took her to Narrows Avenue.
It was rush hour, but still she made me take the expressway.
You see if she made it into the house?
No. The street was blocked off for repairs.
I had to leave her on the corner.
They dug up the street?
Yes. They just left it blocked off.
I'll take his statement.
Okay.
The brick, the corners are rounded off.
It's a cobblestone.
Matches the one in the dumpster.
Hey. How you doing?
Yesterday, what time did you guys knock off?
3:00 p. m., on the dot.
When you left, you blocked the whole street off or just this one side?
Just this side. We left a lane open for traffic.
Thanks.
The cab driver said the whole street was blocked off.
Somebody moved those cones so Allison would have to walk from the corner.
They knew she was coming. They were waiting for her with one of these.
We were on the phone. She said she could see the house.
I told her I loved her, but she'd already hung up.
Was anyone home waiting for Allison?
No. Jared and I were both at work.
She had a key so she could let herself in.
Allison told the cab driver to use the expressway.
Was that your idea?
No, I told her to take Shore Parkway.
She said somebody else told her the expressway was quicker.
What else did she talk about?
Our honeymoon.
She looked at travel brochures on the plane. Excuse me. I...
What's that? "Wycliff Pest Control. "
Your business?
My dad started it. Mom runs it now.
I just work there.
Any reason why your brother doesn't?
He had better things to do.
Did you ever think, Jared, that if Brad had gotten married to Allison,
he would've stayed in Milwaukee for good,
never come back here to help you chase bugs?
Where were you yesterday afternoon around 5:00?
I didn't hurt her.
I just wanted to talk to her, tell her that she should let Brad move back here.
But she never showed up.
I waited for her. I looked outside.
There was nobody, nothing,
just some blue Lincoln.
I figured her plane was late. I fell asleep waiting.
I'm sorry I fell asleep. I'm sorry that I couldn't save her.
So are we.
Captain's getting an earful from the Chief of Ds.
Apparently, when tourists take a bite out of the Big Apple,
the Apple isn't supposed to bite back.
Somebody's already been through this.
These seams are undone.
Same thing here.
Here's her wallet and cash and credit cards.
Only thing that's missing is the travel brochures.
This... Cut all the linings.
They were looking for something.
Maybe somebody at their airport
mistook her for a drug mule?
This person was waiting for Allison when she got out of the cab.
Maybe that's who told her to take the expressway.
Slow her down, so they could get there ahead of her.
Somehow they knew where she was going.
Allison wouldn't give out personal information to a stranger.
Unless she got to know them.
By sitting next to them on the plane?
Ms. Jenkins was in row 47 on the aisle.
Next to her, in the window seat,
was a Mr. Leonard Passante.
He originated in Austin.
Austin?
Any reason why he flew to New York through Milwaukee?
Let me check.
He flew Austin to Seattle, took a connector to Saint Louis,
then to Milwaukee.
Pinball special. What was he looking for, cheap flights?
Hardly. These are all one-way tickets.
Pardon me.
There's a number for him. Can I use your phone?
What's that abbreviation here?
He requested the window seat in the last row of every flight.
Some people are superstitious that way.
Or they just don't like people behind them.
The number's out of service.
Complicated itinerary, last-row seating.
Mr. Passante's acting like a man on the run.
They're all ugly.
If I gotta pay for them, I should get to pick them out.
Yeah?
Yeah, okay. I'll tell her.
He wants you to put the wigs away.
He's spying on us?
Sonny, this is not gonna work.
It's gonna work.
There.
Take a good look at him. He's our lottery ticket.
Passante's described as white, 50s, average, glasses and hat.
Paid cash for his ticket. The driver's license he used for ID is bogus.
The flight attendant saw him talking to Allison.
Something about her set him off.
Maybe something in her background?
Nothing there but sugar and spice.
The lab matched blue fibers on Allison's clothes with the carpeting
used in new Lincoln Town Cars.
Jared Wycliff saw a blue Lincoln parked on his street.
The plane landed at 4:00. Thank you.
He would've had to leave by 4:30
to get to Bay Ridge to wait for Allison.
A half-hour window to rent a blue car?
It's worth a shot. Start dialing.
Taking some R&R?
These are duplicates of the brochures
that Allison got from the travel agent.
They were the only things missing from her personal effects.
The lady needs it back tomorrow.
Tomorrow afternoon. Promise.
It's Jeremy, right? I really can't thank you enough.
I should be going. I try to get home in time to eat with the kids.
That's sweet.
How much do you think a cab to New Rochelle is?
Well, it's far. They'll charge you round trip.
Could be $200.
Is there a train?
Blue Town Car rented to a Duncan Tamblyn,
using a fake credit card and a fake Ontario driver's license.
I put out an APB.
They make a copy of the license?
The picture didn't come out.
Something wrong with the copier.
Maybe not.
You know, you can put epoxy on the original photo.
It interferes with the photocopy light.
Well, that's a lot of trouble to go to.
This is a guy who changed his reservation eight times
to get the seat that he wanted.
His itinerary added 20 hours to his travel time.
The guy works hard to stay off the grid.
These places look way off our grid.
Singapore, Bali, Kuala Lumpur.
There's a connection. I just can't see it.
Detective.
The rental was abandoned at a garage downtown.
It got towed from a parking lot the day before.
Sure, I remember her.
She was out here for an hour. Beautiful girl.
The tow truck driver said there was a man helping her.
Mr. Stockton. He's a lawyer.
He parks his car here.
He lent her his phone.
You said they waited an hour for the tow?
They waited 20 minutes.
She was out here for a while before Mr. Stockton came along.
Mr. Stockton get off work same time every day?
Yeah, pretty much.
Did he give the girl a ride?
Oh, look, I don't know. It was my busy time.
Thank you.
Sounds like this girl picked out her Good Samaritan in advance.
I loaned her my phone, that's all.
I don't have any information about her.
The 20 minutes you waited for the tow truck, you didn't talk to her?
Yeah, she talked, but I didn't pay attention.
Come on, Mr. Stockton.
You know, a beautiful woman stops me in the street,
I pay attention.
I'm happily married.
Somewhere along the line I stopped noticing beautiful women.
You specialize in maritime law?
That's pretty buttoned down.
It is. And I should get back to it.
The parking lot attendant said this woman had a couple suitcases...
Sample cases of upholstery fabric.
She said she was in from Atlanta.
Well, see, you were paying attention.
Did you give the girl a ride to her hotel or wherever?
Absolutely not.
Mr. Stockton, we think this woman was waiting for you.
She sat in front of the parking lot
for 40 minutes until you came along.
Right now you look like someone just punched a hole in your hull.
All I did was loan her my phone.
I'm sorry, but I have work to do.
We don't want to bother Mr. Stockton again,
but we forgot to get his home number.
Sure.
Those numbers are the time zones?
Yes.
Plus five is London. We have many clients there.
And plus 12, that's Asia?
A board member from a company he represents lives in Singapore.
He sent Mr. Stockton a thank-you gift recently.
A gift from Singapore?
Unfortunately, it arrived in a million pieces.
The gentleman called to say he'd be sending something else.
Something more appropriate for a man with a family.
He didn't know Mr. Stockton was married?
I think he did, but when he called,
he asked if Mr. Stockton was still married
and the ages of his children.
Oh, that's not the sort of personal information you usually give out.
No, but this gentleman seemed so sorry
that his gift had been damaged.
Can we see the gift?
Sure.
How long ago did he call?
Oh, it must be three weeks ago, now.
It's too bad. It was a beautiful bowl.
The store it was shipped from, it's on the same street
as the hotel in Allison's brochure.
Thank you.
The hotel in the brochure has a record of a call to Stockton's office
from one of their guests. Guy by the name of Roger Withers.
What's all this malarkey about a broken bowl?
A ploy to get personal information on Stockton,
to see how big a mark he was.
And then they sent this damsel in distress to seduce him?
Long way to go for a shakedown.
Roger Withers, what do they know about him in Singapore?
White male, 50s, American, same as the guy who sat next to Allison.
He checked out of the hotel a week ago and plans to return.
And he left a suitcase in storage at the hotel.
The Singapore police were happy to seize the bag and send it to us,
no questions asked.
Gotta love a police state.
Here comes the suitcase now.
The lab's still going over the blue Town Car.
So far, no fluids or hair,
but the carpeting matches the fibers we found on Allison.
This guy, Withers, sees Allison Jenkins
with a brochure from the same hotel
he's staying in and, what, decides she's following him?
Talk about extreme paranoia.
He is extremely paranoid.
This is nonsense. Not to him.
It's some kind of secret writing.
He scratched out their eyes.
Yeah, he did the same thing to Allison, only he used a brick.
Well, this guy thinks the whole world is after him.
Goose eggs on fingerprints.
These photos, they were all taken in Asian cities.
Manila, Hong Kong, Macao, a lot of them in Macao.
Withers probably spent a lot of time in casinos there.
He thinks these people are following him.
He scratches out their eyes to...
Well, it's his attempt to neutralize them.
Don't tell me you read Paranoid.
I'm learning.
You know, I'm surprised that we haven't found any money in there.
He pays for everything in cash.
He would have squirreled it away anywhere he could.
That suitcase was X-rayed?
Uh-huh. No hidden gold coins.
Macao.
He likes... He likes gambling.
Clay, doesn't show up in X-rays.
10,000 in local currency?
That's a $1,300 poker chip.
Lucky Angel Casino in Macao.
Redeemable anytime.
I wonder if he was as careful wiping his prints off these
as he was everything else.
I used to deal blackjack at the Lucky Angel,
but I came back two months ago.
We found your prints on some poker chips
in a suitcase from a hotel in Singapore.
And since you used to work in Atlantic City,
your prints are in the system.
Small world. Sure is.
Roger Withers.
Do you know him? The suitcase belonged to him.
Don't know the man, but I guess he got lucky at my table.
What about Jeremy Stockton?
He's a lawyer. You know him?
No, sorry. I'm trying to cut down on my lawyers.
Right, we noticed you were a big consumer of legal services.
You had a few beefs for pimping.
Don't mind my partner. He's a little ADD.
When you take the card from the shoe,
drop it in front of each player.
If the player asks for more cards, repeat what he says
so there's no misunderstanding,
and deal the cards one at a time, face up.
Your girls, are you still in touch with them?
You have 14. You're going to stand?
Swear to God, lady, you don't get out of my face, I'm gonna blow!
You don't want to do that, Mr. Brightbill.
Don't tell me what I want to do!
Knock it off.
Okay, I'm cool.
I'm done.
Don't touch those.
The man in the visor, do you know who he was?
No, I don't know. Just somebody auditing the class.
Thanks. Who was your friend?
People walk in off the street all the time.
That's right, be a smart ass.
By the way, did we mention we're investigating a murder?
She flew in from Milwaukee on Wednesday.
She was beaten to death with a brick.
It's a brick, Sonny. What do you think of that?
Sonny.
That's my boss.
Sorry I lost my cool.
The only prints on the cards
belonged to the instructor.
He probably put something on his fingertips to cover his prints,
something like liquid bandage.
Qualifies him as a fulltime paranoiac in my book.
And he was using a stopwatch to time himself.
This guy likes to push himself,
not only to make the right move, but to make it quickly.
So, that's Mr. Withers.
The honey in the honey trap.
And now Mr. Sonny Brightbill, former pimp.
He didn't look happy when we told him about Allison's murder.
Well, maybe he got more than he bargained for
when he partnered up with Withers.
Sonny's LUDs show a lot of calls
to prepaid no-name cell phones.
But yesterday he made two calls
to an express delivery's tracking service.
This package got here yesterday afternoon, Mrs. Stockton.
Just about the same time your son Jeremy got one at his office.
Well, I don't see what one thing has to do with the other.
We believe your son is the target of an extortion attempt,
and that the packages contain photographs of him with a young woman.
My package contained a book.
And my son would not cheat on his wife.
Lovely bride.
Did he marry well?
He married for love.
Well, all the more reason to pay off the blackmailers.
This girl is in business with a man
we suspect murdered a young woman
from Milwaukee last week.
He goes by the name of Roger Withers.
They look like very bad people,
but it doesn't have anything to do with my son.
Did Jeremy make this, when he was a kid?
No, no.
It's nothing. It's just a memento.
Big eyes, very intense.
All these squares... It's a map of the world.
I'd rather you left my things alone.
Oh.
Sorry. It's a bad habit.
Hey, do you think I could borrow your phone? I need to call in.
Thanks.
Mrs. Stockton, you pay these people once,
they'll keep coming back.
I appreciate what you're saying, Detective,
but no one's blackmailing my son.
Well, then we're sorry for wasting your time. Thanks.
Got new pictures of your nephew.
You're like little animals, the two of you.
It's all set.
They're playing ball.
It's their only move.
Don't sit on that. Go stand over there.
And you, take your hands out of your pockets.
Do you have the itinerary?
The cops asked me about a girl in a dumpster.
Killing wasn't part of our deal.
My deal. My risks, my rules, my deal.
This will do. Now go. You first, that way.
What? You want some of this?
I don't waste it on animals. Now get out of here. That way!
Next time you take pictures with my phone,
try not to erase the ones of my nephew.
Sorry.
Go closer on the side with the face.
More eyes.
Magnify the back of the head.
They're all looking at this kid.
This kid with a map of the world inside his head.
Can I see the other sides?
Sixteen squares per side, that's four sides, that's 64 squares.
A chess board. Chess board has 64 squares.
The guy with the visor, he was timing himself. Chess players do that.
That's his connection to Ruth Stockton and her son? Chess?
What was Ruth Stockton's maiden name?
Ruth Stockton, born Ruth Blake.
Blake. Yeah, search "Blake" and "chess. "
Blake. "David Blake, chess prodigy,
"named grandmaster in 1972 at age 18.
"Became a fugitive in 1982 when he violated the US trade embargo on Cuba
"by playing a rematch there against his Soviet rival.
"He won the match and a million dollar prize and never came home. "
That was 22 years ago.
And now he's back to blackmail his family.
There's a video of an interview he gave two years ago.
They're parasites. They're everywhere.
They want me to play for the US government, but I play for myself.
The game is my country.
They spread lies about my virility,
but I want to assure everyone that my potency is undiminished.
I applaud all those who resist the Caucasian
Judeo-Christian military-industrial complex.
From chess prodigy to paranoid prodigy.
This is why I stuck to checkers.
A flight attendant identified the man
who sat next to the murdered girl
on the flight from Milwaukee.
The same man we saw three days ago at a gaming school in Manhattan.
Mom, who is he?
The man who made this.
Uncle David?
My brother would never hurt anyone.
We found these in a suitcase he left in a hotel in Singapore.
He's insane.
He called me three years ago, when our mother died.
Our parents left us money. I had to keep Davey's share,
otherwise the government would've seized it,
because he's a fugitive.
How much was his share?
$500,000.
And that's what they want, isn't it?
It's...
It's okay, Mom. It was my own stupidity.
I gave that woman a ride to her hotel in New Rochelle.
We ended up in her room.
I've never... I thought I was better than that.
Have you turned the money over, yet?
No. We have it.
A messenger service will pick it up tomorrow morning at 9:00.
We'll need to see what they sent you.
Davey was under so much pressure,
all the publicity, the politics, the money.
By the time he was 16, he was supporting our family.
Everybody wanted a piece of him.
It got worse when he became Grandmaster.
He became so eccentric.
Well, it's not eccentricity.
It's mental illness.
I want to show you something.
This was in 1966, at the youth center on Roosevelt.
He'd just defeated a 24- year-old champion in a tournament.
They named him chess master. He was 12.
Nobody knew who he was yet.
He was happy.
The best day of his life.
We've got the flash money on the tops of each stack.
Underneath's the funny money, good enough to pass the first look test.
This little guy goes with it.
All your units will have a radio run of where the money is at all times.
All right. Let's get it over to the Stockton house now. Thanks.
What's this? The route the money's taking?
Yeah.
The first one's picking up the money at Ruth Stockton's house,
taking it to a mailbox store in Brooklyn.
They're holding it for another courier.
I'm calling them now.
I want units at every stop along the way.
Yeah, I need to check on a pickup
that you have scheduled for tomorrow morning
at 10:15 at a Mailbox Unlimited.
Right, a duffel bag.
Yeah, I need to verify that destination.
Okay. Thank you.
They're having it delivered to a limo company, Lush Ride.
A limo company. That's an odd choice for Blake.
But Lush Ride might be how a working girl gets around town.
I got hired to give the guy a birthday surprise.
But I had no idea somebody was covering the event.
And you had no idea that when you booked
a pickup with Lush Ride for tomorrow morning,
that it was to pick up a bag full of Stockton's money?
That blue car you had towed?
It was used in the murder of this girl.
I didn't kill her.
We don't care.
You're who we've got.
It was that crazy guy Sonny met while he was working in Asia.
Yeah, that's him. But I don't know where he is.
Aren't you supposed to hook up with him to split the money?
Well, I don't always do what I'm supposed to do.
You know all those drivers at Lush Ride, huh?
You and Sonny paid off the driver
to switch the bags, didn't you?
That money's never going to make it to the next stop.
Well, Blake's no idiot. He must've planned for this.
He must have another move.
Move! Out of the way!
Davey.
Where is it? The money, where is it?
Stop looking at me. Get the bag.
Get the bag. Get it!
Davey, you didn't have to do this.
I would have given you the money.
Davey, Mama wanted you to have the money, but I couldn't send it.
The government would've taken it.
Tell those parasites they can track that straight to hell.
All right, over here, the radiator.
Davey, look at me.
I've missed you so much.
You kept it?
Why?
Why, Ruthie?
Why?
My mother could've been killed.
Why wasn't somebody watching the house?
Our units were scheduled to be in place an hour before pickup.
Your uncle moved up the timetable by three hours.
Well, it doesn't matter now. We want you to leave.
Mrs. Stockton, once your brother figures out the money's fake,
he'll try to contact you again.
The man who came here, I've never seen him before.
It wasn't Davey.
Then how did this get broken?
He was upset that you'd kept this? Upset that you cared?
When he realizes that he's been tricked
and that the money is not real...
That wasn't my idea.
But he doesn't know that, and it might break him.
And he'll be out there alone. You won't be there to help him.
Is that what you want?
I can't help you put him in prison.
I'm filing a petition for a temporary restraining order
to keep you away from my mother.
No following her, no questioning her,
no coming within one city block of her home.
That should make our job easy.
It's in effect until we can convince the judge we know what we're doing.
Can't Mr. Brightbill tell us where Mr. Blake is?
We picked him up an hour ago.
He lawyered up. He hasn't said a word.
She just got on the phone with him.
We're getting a live feed from the listening post.
Listening post?
For the wiretap we set up last night on Ruth Stockton's phone.
Don't worry, Counselor, they're three blocks away from his house.
I'm sorry, Davey, but until I saw you, I didn't know.
I have your money. I want to give it to you.
They're listening. It's not safe.
NF3.
G3.
BG2.
Yes, all right, Davey. I understand.
Mrs. Stockton still has the $500,000 cash.
It's her money.
These have to be chess moves.
Knight to f3, pawn to g3, bishop to g2.
The moves are for the "King's Indian Attack,"
the gambit Blake used to win the tournament
that made him a chess master at 12.
The tournament was at the youth center in Queens.
The best day of his life.
Young lady.
Protect your queen.
Hey, you kids need to step outside...
Stay away.
David, that was a good move, clearing away from the kids.
You know, they say that you were brilliant that day.
At 12 years old.
Your flame burned bright back then.
It burns brighter now.
Brighter?
You think that kid would've been fooled by a sacrificed pawn?
Pawn?
Allison Jenkins, the girl with the travel brochures.
It was no coincidence that she sat next to you.
But you know that.
You're trying to get me to admit something?
Killing her.
You think that was the right move, I mean, in theory,
if she was there to spy on you?
If you hadn't killed Allison,
we would've never connected you to the blue Town Car.
Or Sonny's girlfriend, or your nephew.
No, wrong!
Or the hotel in Singapore.
Or this piece, David.
This was the key piece.
As we speak, there are people decoding your encrypted writing,
because you blundered, David. You took the sacrificed pawn.
No. You killed Allison.
No, it was the right move.
Why are you here?
Surrounded.
All your secrets exposed.
I made a blunder.
Yes, you did.
Now, David, look, I need you to take your hand out of the binder.
No. I have a move.
David.
Get away from me.
I want everybody to get out of the room.
You're resigning?
You're conceding defeat? That's not a move.
I can't win.
They wouldn't let me play.
How could they not let me play?
You mean in Cuba?
But chess is not about politics.
You know that. It's about individuals.
It's the ultimate challenge of individuals.
Yes.
And they refused me permission to play.
And it's all I know how to do.
And you're the best at it.
Yes.
The children here, they study your games
and they commit your strategies to memory.
You're an example of what it means to be a Grandmaster.
Well, isn't it true that a Grandmaster
will only resign as a last resort?
When he has to.
But if they have another move?
They play to the draw. Isn't that right?
If he can, a Grandmaster will play for the draw.
Stay in the game.
You can see your next move.
So, show them, David.
Show them how a Grandmaster plays the game.
You're under arrest for murder, Mr. Blake.
That was the right move, David.
I know.
This government has no jurisdiction over me.
I name the United Nations as my legal representative.
I have documentation to present to the General Assembly
that my human rights have been violated.
I'm serving notice on the government of the United States.
Sounds like he's figured out his next move.
See, that's what happens when you
keep people from doing what they do best.
It makes them insane.