If yesterday was Thanksgiving and today is Christmas, what's tomorrow?
Saturday.
Are we going to exchange gifts?
You know, Christmas gifts?
Some small token of partnership?
I'll check in again with you closer to the big day.
How was your Thanksgiving?
My dad's still gone, my mom got drunk and I did the dishes. You?
Ted made some kind of bird.
It was either a very large chicken or a very small turkey.
Maybe a baby turkey. Do they sell those? Baby turkeys?
Tasted like chicken, though.
He fell from up there some place.
Yeah, but fell slipped, fell pushed or fell jumped?
Neck snapped, died instantly.
What do you say? You the first jumper of the holiday season?
Sorry, sorry.
Got me a solid column of my wife's stuffing and gravy,
starts in my neck, runs straight down to my...
Well, straight down.
First jumper of the season?
Yeah, seems a little early, but you never know.
You get an ID on him?
Head of mall security.
Dave, these are detectives Crews and Reese.
Harris, Dave. Head of security.
Crime scene's all battened down.
Good to know that, Dave.
You know this man?
Sure. It's Mitchell Clark.
He worked up on the second level.
Doesn't seem that far to fall.
Not from down here, it doesn't.
How well did you know Mr. Clark?
I saw him around. You know, I try to familiarize myself
with all the employees for security reasons.
Did he seem depressed?
That I wouldn't know.
Do you think he killed himself?
Oh, I hope he didn't kill himself.
Well, if he didn't kill himself, then
someone probably pushed him.
You mean killed him?
Is the world coming to an end?
Kind of. 6:00 a.m. Mall's opening.
The mall's opening?
I thought you said you'd secured the crime scene.
Well, I... I put out this yellow tape, but...
You think I closed the mall? I can't close the mall.
I just work here. Anyway, it's Black Friday.
Biggest shopping day of the year.
Stop! Hold up, wait! Wait!
Wait, wait, wait! Hey, hey, hey! No, no, no!
Hey, stop! Stop! Stop!
Hey, whoa! Whoa!
Stop! Don't!
Hey! Don't!
Oh, the crime scene.
Crime scene.
The body's gone?
Body's gone.
It's a miracle. A genuine miracle.
You know, I lost a girlfriend in a mall once.
But it was to the guy who can stand motionless for hours,
so, you know, they had that in common.
But a body, a dead body.
Wait a minute, could it be a Christmas miracle?
If someone took the body, they took it for a reason.
Perhaps it's all the "everything must go" signs.
Probably not. If someone took a body like that...
Maybe it was going to tell us something.
It did tell us something, it wasn't a suicide.
The killer took the body.
All right, K9, you, find the body.
You find the killer,
and I'm going to Everything on a Stick to find some breakfast.
Where were you last night?
Isn't that the kind of question you ask a suspect?
I was at my sister's. It was Thanksgiving.
And you were there all night?
She lives in Ojai. I slept over.
You can ask her, or the little brat whose room I took,
came in this morning and sat on my head, full diaper.
Thanksgiving.
Mitchell was scheduled to open for me today.
He's always so punctual. I thought something was wrong.
We need to know where you were last night.
It was Thanksgiving. I was with my family. Wasn't everyone?
We need the phone number for the victim's next of kin.
He didn't list anything.
He split with his wife a couple years ago,
she moved back to Minneapolis or one of those states back there.
There's a rumor that you all lost his body,
but I just say that's silly.
You're right. That is silly.
Was Mitchell having trouble with anyone at work or in the mall?
He never said anything.
Did he have friends here?
Well, he didn't think I knew,
but I think he was dating Erika from the hat kiosk.
She's way too young for him.
You can't miss her. She dresses like a tramp.
Try lost and found on level two.
I heard you're looking for a body.
That's a strange reaction.
Yeah? Why is that?
Because we heard you were dating Mitchell Clark.
Dating the shoe store guy? Who said that?
His manager at Sole Fix.
Oh, her.
She's just jealous because guys ask about me.
I mean, look at her. Look at me.
Where were you last night?
I was off. It was Thanksgiving.
Ate some turkey with the family?
Kind of.
Clay and I went to the Pocket Stop for potpies and rocket fuel.
Didn't see Mitchell Clark?
I said no. I'm sure he's got friends his own age.
You should ask him when you find him.
I have to get back to work.
Is this store all key chains?
They're called fobs.
"Fobs"? Just "fobs"?
You get a lot of repeat business?
Clay, did you know Mitchell Clark from the shoe store?
No. I heard you guys lost the body.
Oh, you heard that, huh?
If there's no body, how do you know someone's dead?
We have a test. It's called the dead test.
Mitchell Clark passed.
Oh, dude, I'd hate to take that test.
Clay, do you want some potato chips?
Why would I want potato chips?
Well, just seems like you might like some.
Do you know Erika over there?
Yeah. Yeah.
Was she dating Mitchell Clark?
The shoe store guy? No. No. I mean, look at her.
Look at him.
Well, look at him when you find him.
Who works over there?
I don't know.
Come on. Thanks.
Who doesn't come to work on the busiest shopping day of the year?
Is this Zak?
It's Detective Crews with the LAPD.
Yeah, we saw you weren't at work.
We saw the sign and called you.
We have some questions we'd like to ask you.
Says he's sick. Won't be here until tomorrow.
Hey, hang on. Hang on a minute. You're cutting out.
I see. Okay.
That was mall music.
He's in the mall.
Hey, you don't know the guy who works five feet from you?
No, man, sorry.
Kiosk people kind of come and go.
Don't know him. You lose him, too?
He's here some place.
Yeah, but it's the seventh-largest mall in the world.
I heard it was the fifth.
Can you show me how you do that thing
when you block the caller ID?
Your dad still gone?
Yep.
Maybe he'll come back.
Or maybe he won't, and then I'll finally get what I want for Christmas.
Zak Sutter.
I'd say so.
I guess he didn't see the sign.
I guess he didn't see that one either.
Good place to hide a body down here.
Hey! Hey! Okay, who are you?
I'm Detective Crews.
I spoke to you on the phone, Zak.
Anything here you want to show us?
No.
No, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, don't open that!
He's in that photo with Jack Reese.
You want to go see Mickey Rayborn.
Mickey Rayborn.
Let me tell you, when I grew up,
the idea that the Mayor of Los Angeles would call me his friend
was not something a kid like me would dream about.
But I've been lucky here,
lucky to have been a police officer for the City of Los Angeles.
How does an ex-cop get that kind of money?
Maybe he worked for it.
Holds land all over the city,
three hotels, owns a big piece of that development
going up in the marina.
Owns the arena fighting franchise.
We should go to a match.
And now, if somebody will just give me a shovel,
I'll shut up.
Charlie, isn't that your ex-wife?
What is she doing here?
I don't know.
Well, maybe we should go.
Charlie...
Charlie.
What are you doing here?
Oh, it was Ted's idea. Something about a tax deduction.
What about you?
Me? Oh, you can't imagine how many of these things we have to go to.
We?
My husband.
He's around here somewhere on a call.
I got a car.
Has a backseat.
It got shot up. I mean, I shot it up.
But, you know, it still drives.
What do you want, Charlie?
What do you want to do?
I want to go back.
Back where?
There.
I want to go back there.
Yeah.
But we can't go back.
Because we're here now.
I know.
We're here now.
Charlie, I have to find my husband.
Agent Bodner?
We need to talk, but not here.
FBI.
Max Sutter, Jeanette Sutter.
Your father died of cancer, October 2007,
your mother in a car accident a month later.
You and Karen were supposed to enter foster care.
They don't know us.
You can't become Karen's legal guardian until you're 21.
You plan to live in the mall for the next four years?
I have a job there.
I can take care of her.
Zak, did you know Mitchell Clark?
No.
I heard you lost the body, though.
I bet your boss was pretty mad about that.
When the mall closed down last night,
did you hear anything unusual or see anything?
We're in our room. We stay in our room.
Really? You have the mall to yourselves. I'd go out.
Well, that's you.
When can I talk to my sister?
How long have you and your brother been living at the mall?
Since your mom died?
Yeah.
Karen,
you know you can't live in a mall, don't you?
I have Zak.
He's a good brother.
What about my things?
Your things are at the mall,
and we'll have them brought to you.
Brought to me?
Why?
Where am I going?
I want to go home.
What's it like living in the mall?
Well, it's the second-largest mall in the world,
so, you know, dream come true.
Zak, what's it like living in the mall?
Well, it's the second-largest mall in the world,
so, you know, dream come true.
Yeah.
Okay, Zak,
you know the State's gonna want to hold you.
Because we're minors?
Because you're minors, because you were trespassing,
and, Zak, because a man died,
so we might need to talk to you again.
When can I see my sister?
I'll call Children Services to take custody.
They're children. I have to call Children Services.
They wanted to split them up.
Who wanted to split what up?
Those kids. Children Services would have separated them.
After their parents died, they ran.
All they've got is each other.
I still have to call them unless someone
wants to ask me to do them a personal favor.
All right. I'll see if I can find somebody to track down a relative.
While they wait here.
Detective Reese,
we still on for dinner?
Only if you never say it out loud again.
Tidwell.
They were living in a mall for almost a year.
They lived right here, in a mall.
He was taking care of his sister.
You know, not a lot of kids would do that.
Yeah, but if two kids have been living here unnoticed,
what else is going on?
Let's split up.
Crews, did you go shopping?
It's Black Friday, Reese, everything's on sale. Man, my dogs are tired.
I thought we were supposed to find out what else is going on here.
Oh, I found out a lot of things.
I found out you really can't get everything at Everything On A Stick.
You can get papaya, which some people think tastes like barf.
I don't.
Oh. The girl with the bubbles
told me you shouldn't wash your face with soap.
Did you know that?
All my life, I've washed my face with soap.
Oh, the guy in the bookstore,
he told me that in four days I could learn to speak Dutch.
Four days, Reese.
By Tuesday, what I'm saying to you now, I could say to you in Dutch.
Oh, the woman at Opticals told me that with the shape of face you have,
you should be wearing these frames.
Put them on.
How does she know the shape of my face?
I described you.
By Tuesday, I could describe you in Dutch.
Put them on.
She was right. They do look good.
You're what they call a pinched ovoid.
Don't take it personally. Did you get me anything?
Crews.
The girl at Lola's, she told me...
I don't think I want to know this.
No, you do.
The girl at Lola's
told me that the dead shoe store guy
and the hat kiosk girl are in there a lot. Together.
Together, together?
Together, together.
So Clay and Erika lied to us about knowing Mitchell?
Let's go to the kiosks.
No, they're working at the gift wrap hut. I saw them there today.
Oh, do you want these?
They have a patented breathability patch. Microfibers.
I can't return them. You can't return underwear.
Here you go.
Thank you.
It's about time.
These things were heavy.
Just get in the back. These people need their presents wrapped.
♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells ♪
♪ Jingle all the way ♪
Hey, Charlie.
♪ Oh, what fun it is to ride ♪
♪ In a one-horse open sleigh ♪ ♪ Hey! ♪
He says they're fighting about fruitcake.
There's no fight about fruitcake.
Everyone hates fruitcake.
It's fruit and it's cake. What's not to like?
That it's the heaviest substance known to man.
What did you just say?
That I hate it?
No, the other thing.
If I gave you one of these,
would you wrap it up and give me back an Xbox?
Because we think people are giving you Xboxes
and you're handing them back fruitcake.
Now what kind of holiday spirit is that?
♪ Deck the halls with boughs of holly ♪
♪ Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la ♪
♪ Tis the season to be jolly ♪
♪ Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la ♪
♪ Don we now our gay apparel ♪
♪ Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la ♪
♪ Troll the ancient yuletide carols ♪
♪ Fa, la, la, la, la... ♪
Bad elf.
_
Hi, Charlie.
Hi, Jen.
This place looks exactly the same.
Exactly.
Right?
Remember the night your dad caught us here?
I remember how nervous you were the first time we checked in.
No. I wasn't nervous.
Yes, you were.
I was, too.
Jen.
I thought you said we couldn't go back.
We can go back tonight.
Who did this to us, Charlie?
I don't know.
But you're gonna find them?
Yeah.
I loved you, Charlie.
So much.
I loved you, too, Jen.
The fruitcake gag. You think it up?
Kid wakes up Christmas morning,
opens up a box of delicious fruitcake.
Who wouldn't like that?
That's a lot of fruitcake.
You don't want to go down for the full freight on this.
Full freight?
Homicide.
You mean murder?
That's what it means.
For Mitchell Clark's murder?
Oh, you're trying to trick me.
Mitchell's alive. I know that for a fact.
How do you know that, Clay?
Oh, look at all this stolen merchandise
we found in your apartment, Erika.
My partner and I, we work robbery homicide.
But there's a little play in the robbery charge,
as long it helps us solve a homicide.
There is no homicide. Mitchell isn't dead.
He is.
You had a relationship with him you don't want to talk about.
This is all about hurting Mitchell.
That won't happen.
Mitchell cares about us.
You don't care about us.
Maybe he cared about you, Erika.
Not anymore.
Mitchell Clark is alive.
They swear he's not dead.
This is why we like to have a body in these situations.
It helps keep things simple.
Are you liking that?
There is a distinct possibility that this isn't fruit or cake.
When they say he's not dead...
But he is dead.
Yeah, he is. But they mean it when they say he's not dead.
So, he's risen?
He's Elvis?
What?
Don't you "what" me.
The kids, where are Zak and Karen?
It's been a full day.
Detective, a police station is no place for kids.
Back me up on this, Crews.
I'm going to be Switzerland here.
They had Nazi gold.
You sent them to Children Services.
I couldn't find a relative. There wasn't anybody who wants them.
Detective, they are children. Children Services are where they need to be.
Now, I've got two thieves in there,
and from all that swag, it looks like they've been at it for quite a while.
And a good guess is that the dead guy who they lied about
not knowing was a thief, too.
So, I'm waiting for you two to tell me who killed him.
Fruitcake?
Reese, come on. How would you get rid of me?
Tidwell said find the killer, not the body.
You do everything Tidwell says?
The question isn't who killed him.
It is if you're homicide cops, which we are.
No, the question is, why do they think he's not dead?
Stop.
Come on, it's weird, right? To think he's not dead.
You're scaring the children.
Reese, come on. How would you get rid of my body?
Would you put me in one of these big boxes like a present?
They've been searched.
Would you cut me up into tiny pieces?
No blood, no knife, no time.
Would you drag me across the parking lot,
put me in the trunk of your car?
That's a long way to go with a body.
You know, if I want to get rid of you,
I'd put you in the nearest store.
But the cadaver dogs have been through the mall and didn't find anything.
Maybe they didn't find anything because there's too much there.
You like goldfish?
No. What did you find out?
K9 didn't bring the dogs into here.
Said there's too much animal scent to get a hit.
But the uniforms have scheduled a visual search.
They haven't done it yet?
Hey, Reese, ever had a bunny?
Cedar chips in a cage.
Smells like a walk in the woods.
Mr. Clark, there you are.
Yeah, but who put him there?
Black Friday, we did not open at 6:00 a.m.
What time did you open?
9:30. Regular hours.
No one wants a lizard at 6:00 a.m. No one.
And where were you?
Thanksgiving, I was with my family. Isn't everyone?
Who has access to the store?
The owner in Tahiti. My partner in rehab.
Security.
Dave.
You don't know?
How can you not know?
Come on.
Moonlighting?
Oh, I do this every year.
I like to spread a little cheer.
Now, you'll have to wait your turn, like good boys and girls, detectives.
Hey, Santa, guess what?
We just got an early Christmas present.
Oh, what's that?
Mitchell Clark's body
in the cedar chips, back of Paws and Claws.
Well, I'd imagine that'd be a big help to your investigation.
It is.
Yeah, see, the store was closed,
but guess who had the access code.
As the head of security,
I can assure you that 18 people have access to that store.
Come on, son.
And you've already established where I was when, um,
Mitchell went off that balcony.
And, of course, I was with you when he went missing.
This isn't... is this real?
It's real.
But he was here. You had him.
Who told you that?
Erika, who told you Mitchell was still alive? That we had him?
Was it Dave?
Were you stealing for Mitchell?
We all were.
Then Friday morning, Mitchell is gone.
Dave said you had him.
That if we did what he said,
Mitchell would get out and come back to us.
So, we did what Dave said.
I...
I did what Dave said.
You want to tell us about Mitchell?
I'd do anything for him.
Everyone would.
Anything he said.
Ever since I left home, he was everything.
How old were you when you left home?
Young.
And Mitchell was everything,
and you did what he said to?
Erika,
how old were you when he started with you?
Too young.
Do you know who killed him, Erika?
Could Dave have done it?
Dave is the one that likes to keep everybody in line for Mitchell.
Dave liked to do that, keep people in line.
Except for Zak.
Zak isn't like the rest of us.
He and his sister.
Dave was worried Zak would talk.
I found the aunt. The kids' aunt in Phoenix.
Remarried, changed her name. See that?
Happy ending.
Yeah, this is Detective Reese.
You have a Karen Sutter, she came in with her older brother Zak.
Yeah. Okay.
I got it.
They're gone.
They jumped out of the car at a stoplight.
Karen and her brother, they're gone.
We'll find them. We'll put out an Amber Alert and we'll find them.
Dani, Detective,
we will find them.
Dave was worried Zak would talk.
What if he finds him first?
Karen wanted to go home.
She just wanted to go home.
And so stupid.
So stupid! Stupid!
"Ho, ho, ho."
If you run, you'll only die tired.
I really wanted to shoot him.
No, you just really wanted to shoot someone.
No, he would have done just fine.
Watch your head.
Where'd that blood come from, Dave?
I cut myself.
Karen, it's okay.
Where's Zak?
Karen, come here.
Where's your brother?
Don't!
Karen, it's okay. Let it go.
We can book Dave for the assault, but not for the murder
because the killer's right here.
Okay.
Is he going to hurt my brother?
No.
No, no, sweetie, he's not.
He's gonna be with you, too, okay?
Hey,
Dave swears he's not good for the killing.
He said he hid the body so it would look like Mitchell was still alive,
but did not kill him.
And get this, when I asked him
how he got the body across the floor without being seen,
Dave told me he took the dead guy's arm,
put it around his shoulder and walked him out.
Weekend at Bernie's-ish. Everyone was looking for the sales.
No one even noticed.
I got something else, too.
Yeah, what's that?
The kids' aunt.
She'd been looking for them.
She wants to take them home.
- Hi. - Hi.
Time for you to go home.
But what about Zak?
When we came in before down there,
your sister with that stick,
she protected you.
You protect her, too.
Don't you, Zak?
We protect each other.
Yeah, but you're the big brother.
You're the man, Zak, right?
We know what Mitchell did to Erika.
We know how old Erika was when Mitchell started in with her.
You protected your sister.
You protected Karen, so Mitchell would not do that to her.
I did what I had to do.
You know, I... I had to stop him. He had her.
So, I chase him up the stairs,
and he was right next to the railing.
And he tripped?
No, he didn't.
He tripped and fell,
right over the railing.
There was nothing you could do.
Sometimes people just fall.
Hey, that looks like your aunt over there.
Let me get you up.
How about that body?
What?
The one you and your partner found in the pet store.
It was good work.
Thanks.
You don't mind if I...
No, no, I don't mind.
I thought you weren't coming because of the kids.
Because I sent the kids to Children Services.
I thought you'd be pissed.
Well, that was the job.
The job's the job.
You did what you had to do,
so, you know, let's just leave it back there.
All right. Good for you. The job's the job.
Yep. That's the way I like to do it.
Some people, though, they can't...
They can't leave it back there, you know?
They have to take it home with them,
runs around in their mind all night long.
Me, I just... I leave it at work.
But someone like that would probably be pretty pissed off
at someone like me.
You okay?
You know what, I am pissed.
You know something?
You look a lot bigger from the side.
Hi, this is Jennifer.
I'm not here right now, but please leave a message for me for when I am here.
Special Agent Bodner.
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
What happened to Homeland Security?
I was just on loan there. Now I'm back where I belong.
Who shot your car?
I did.
You did?
My partner helped.
Yeah, okay.
Is this the part where you tell me there's something I should know?
Yeah, what you should know is that
I know you want Mickey Rayborn,
and that's not going to happen.
Are the FBI investigating him or protecting him?
Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.
But if you want Rayborn, you'd have to come at us.
And if you come at us, you'll find yourself back in prison
and no ginty little civil rights lawyer
is going to get you out this time.
Gum?
Thanks.
Tropical fruit?
It's the only kind I chew.
- synced and corrected by chamallow - - www.addic7ed.com -