NARRATOR: In the criminal justice system
the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups,
the police who investigate crime
and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
All right, no peeking. (CHUCKLING)
Okay.
Tom, it's beautiful.
This isn't a reproduction, is it?
No, no, it's a real antique. Art Deco.
This is what you like, right? Yes. But I thought that we wouldn't.
Well, I figured I had to snap it up before someone else did.
Besides, I had to give you something for our three-month anniversary, right?
I didn't get you anything.
I'm sure you'll think of something.
You know, New Paltz is a long way away.
I'm sure your your dad wouldn't be too upset
if we, uh... If we got there tomorrow morning instead.
I just thought of what to give you for our anniversary.
Yeah? Yeah.
CORVELL: Neighbor called it in. That's the wife, Linda.
Male victim's Thomas Cooper, lieutenant with the Fire Department.
They moved in about two months ago.
They've had workers in here?
Apparently it was just them, real do-it-yourselfers.
Looks like they were camping out here in the living room.
The upstairs is a real mess.
They came in through the back door.
Forced the lock with a pry bar.
Probably killed Lieutenant Cooper first, then took their time with his wife.
Home invasion.
It's not quite a home yet.
Sarge, there're some firemen out there trying to get through the line.
Yeah, let's go.
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
Guys! Come on, guys! Guys, relax!
Let me talk. I understand how you feel, but this is a crime scene.
We have to keep it clean.
We're Lieutenant Cooper's company, Engine 29.
Nobody carries him out but us.
(FIREMEN AGREEING)
Okay, I tell you what, you pick two guys,
and you can escort your Lieutenant out.
Me and you.
Tell you what, Lupes, we'd better do right by these guys.
(SIGHING)
Lieutenant Cooper took seven blunt-force hits to the face.
But, the blow that did him in was the impact with the floor.
All in all, I estimate 12 minutes, start to finish.
Not exactly in a hurry.
Mrs. Cooper was raped vaginally.
Rape kit showed no seminal fluids, but, there was Octyl-9.
It's a condom lubricant.
Strangulation? Yeah, repeated.
Her assailant squeezed her windpipe,
probably to the point of unconsciousness, then he'd release.
Stop and go. The same pattern as the husband.
He was trying to get something out of them.
They were supposed to come to my Dad's last night.
But, they called to say that they were coming in the morning.
Did your sister and brother-in-law
ever mention problems with anyone?
No, nobody.
Were there any valuables in the house?
My sister was a teacher's aide, and Tom was a fireman.
Their wedding rings cost $500.
Whatever money they had, they put into that little house in Washington Heights.
We're very sorry for your loss.
An officer will drive you home.
Cooper was in great shape.
It would've taken more than one person
to subdue him and control his wife.
The way they tore up the house would've taken more than one pair of hands.
Hard to tell where the renovation stopped and the ransacking started.
This light fixture, Art Deco antique.
And something like this normally runs about ten grand.
(SCOFFING) And you would know this because?
Magic.
See if Cooper's buddies know how he came up with the money to pay for that.
FIREMAN: Come on, back it up.
Come on. Rare antiques?
Knowing Half-Price, he probably got them at a yard sale.
"Half-Price"? What's that about?
Lieutenant was just tight with his money.
Like his house, he bought it in a foreclosure.
Well, this fixture isn't the kind of thing
that you find in the discount bin.
Maybe Cooper had another source of income?
So that's where you're at with this thing.
Calling our brother fireman a crook?
TOSHACK: If he had a sideline, it's news to me.
You guys got a dog? Used to.
Spence, get a box for the detective.
I don't want to tell you guys how to do your job,
but you guys are wasting your time digging up dirt on Cooper.
He was one of the best. Yeah, we got that,
but we got to look at anything out of the ordinary,
anyone he had a beef with. Like this guy.
"Call A.S.A.P." With three exclamation points.
"Upton Paints." You know anything about this?
Guy came in a couple of weeks ago,
looking for Cooper, real steamed. He left that for him.
He said if the Lieutenant didn't call, he'd make real trouble for him.
It was an honest mistake. I thought Cooper ripped me off.
Yeah, well maybe you should explain how you made that honest mistake.
When he bought thirty gallons of semi-gloss from me,
he peeled off eight 100 dollar bills from a roll as big as your fist.
And then I get a call from the bank
saying there's something wrong with the bills,
and they wouldn't credit my account
until they had them checked out.
You thought he was passing counterfeit money? Yeah.
And so where was the mistake?
The bank called a couple of days later
and said the bills were genuine,
but they were 40 years old.
That's why they were so suspicious. We're square now.
BERNARD: The bills were printed between 1965 and 1969.
Thing is with paper money, it's usually taken out of circulation
after five to 10 years, but, Cooper's bills are near-mint condition.
Is that LT's magnifying glass?
Yeah. I borrowed it off her desk.
Oh, man, when she finds out, you're going to need it
to find the pieces of your face around this squad room.
There's something else about this money. Lower right corner.
Somebody wrote "L.B."
Yeah, I had an instructor at the Academy. This old narco cop.
He said back before copy machines,
you'd write your initials on drug-buy money
so you could identify it at trial.
So this money could've been used in an old drug bust.
Maybe the French Connection. Ooh!
Now we just need to find a Narcotics undercover from the '60s,
with the initials "L.B."
LUPO: You recognize this? Yeah. That's my mark.
Where'd you get these? From the police museum?
They were used two weeks ago by a murdered fireman
to buy paint supplies.
No kidding.
We matched the serial numbers from the bills to one of your old dope cases.
The case that never made it to court
because the dope dealer in question
was killed with another dope dealer in a shoot-out.
You said in your report you found 100 grand in cash at his place.
The informant had said five times that.
That's 400,000 that vanished into thin air.
Until today.
We need to know how that money got from the dope dealer's apartment to this fireman.
Don't worry, the statute of limitations for larceny ran out 35 years ago.
The only way to get jammed up now is by lying.
That stupid idiot, Mansfield.
My partner, Paul Mansfield. He was in the back seat, splitting up the money.
I told him, "Make sure you put the marked bills back where they came from."
Okay. So, 200 grand each. What'd you do with your cut?
Drank some, gambled some.
My ex-wife took what was left.
What about Mansfield?
I don't think he ever spent a dime.
Too scared of attracting attention.
The stress killed him, though, I'm sure of it.
Heart attack, five years later.
What about his family?
Just his wife.
She stayed in their little house in Washington Heights,
just off Bennett Park, until she passed.
This guy, Mansfield, was some clever duck.
Take a look at this. We found the wall already opened up.
These wires are screwed into the studs.
Pull one up.
The other three are the same. Old tobacco tins.
Good place to stash a bankroll.
LUPO: Hey, B, check this out. In here.
Excuse me.
Mansfield hid the drug money in the dining room wall
40 years ago. Cooper must've found it.
And somebody found Cooper's new hiding place.
They must have noticed the new linoleum wasn't glued down.
$20 bill, dated 1968.
The killers must've known Cooper hit the motherload.
Yeah, and they came a-calling.
It's probably why they took their time beating up Cooper.
They wanted him to tell them where he hid the money.
LUPO: Yeah, when he died, they turned to the wife,
and tore the place up looking for the cash,
so it figures, she didn't tell them where it was.
VAN BUREN: Even though they almost choked her to death over and over again.
LUPO: So, maybe Cooper didn't tell her where he hid it.
(SCOFFING) A sweetheart.
You know, put out alerts to all the banks
in case any more of the bills turn up.
And then we need to find out who knew Cooper had the money.
Well, considering how Cooper kept his wife in the dark,
I don't think he's the type of person who would brag about hitting the jackpot.
You know, it looks like they were going to replace
the bearing wall on the first floor with this steel column.
You see that there? Mmm-hmm.
That's a two-man job, nothing he and his wife could've done alone.
Yeah, whoever helped them
might have been there when they found the money in the wall.
Do you have any itemized construction supply bills?
Uh, yeah.
Oh, and by the way, Detective,
my magnifier that you borrowed the other day?
That's going to cost you 25 bucks
to the Harlem Boys and Girls Club.
Here it is. Metropolitan Lumber, a month ago.
Ten-foot steel l-beam. Mmm-hmm.
We need to find out who helped him get it home. Yeah, all right.
Told you.
Yeah, I remember this guy.
Haggled me down almost to cost.
Thought he was entitled to a fireman's discount.
Yeah, that was his rep.
We notice the store hires out people to assist with home projects.
Did he get any help? No.
I told him that installing a weight-bearing column wasn't for amateurs.
But, he said him and his pal had it covered.
His pal? Young guy.
Yeah, the two of them carried the beam out themselves.
Wanted to save on delivery cost.
You remember what his friend looked like?
White, in his 20s, crew-cut.
He had a, uh, tattoo. What was it? "Hellfire Boys."
I helped him a few times. It was no big deal.
This guy needs a hand with home repairs, that one needs his lawn mowed.
Slave labor. Sounds like fun.
Everyone coming up goes through it. It's all good.
So, what did you do at Cooper's house?
I helped him put up that column. I helped him with some with the demo.
I bet you had to be careful,
so you didn't damage any of the original woodwork in there,
like that wainscoting in the dining room.
No, I didn't work on that. I had to leave on a call.
One last thing. Where were you last Friday night?
You're kidding me, right? Just answer the question.
(EXHALES LOUDLY) I finished my shift,
then I met my girl in The Village for some Italian.
It was my birthday. Nick made an 8:00 at Dolcetto's.
Hmm.
He sprung for the lobster. I would have preferred a ring,
but Nick says he needs to get his stripes before he can afford a wife.
Anyway, after the dinner, he said he was beat to hell from the job,
and then he went home to crash.
Did he talk about that guy, Lieutenant Cooper?
He's not one to complain.
LUPO: Complain? About what?
About the personal chores he was doing for Cooper and the other guys?
Wasn't just that.
Nick would never admit it, but...
(SIGHING)
How bad was it?
A few weeks ago, Nick's driving out to Suffolk County
to visit his grandmother.
Next thing, he's calling me from a hospital.
He's got food poisoning.
This is a guy with a cast-iron stomach.
He didn't want to talk about it,
but, I knew something happened.
Mister Spence had his stomach pumped and spent two days at Suffolk County Hospital.
From eating what?
Dog food.
He had internal bleeding. Dog food contains ground bone meal.
The human intestinal tract is not meant to digest that.
Why would someone deliberately eat dog chow?
Well, unless he was starving to death
or at my ex-sister-in-law's for Thanksgiving, he wouldn't.
(MACHINE WHIRRING)
Cooper had dog food in his locker.
Yeah, but the firehouse didn't have a dog.
Yeah, but they had a proby.
Sure, Cooper broke the kid's balls. We all did. It was nothing serious.
For example?
One time McShane sent Spence up
to this bodega on 114th to pick up groceries.
In drag. (CHUCKLES)
Kid comes back with photos of himself kissing this old Korean guy.
Cooper was always the one to cut the proby slack.
Walters? He made the kid clean his gutters in the rain.
See, thing about the proby, he's always been a good sport.
What if I told you that Cooper made Spence eat some dog food, hmm?
Then I'd call you a liar.
You saw me pull dog food out of Cooper's locker.
And I told you we used to have a dog.
Oh, yeah, we... We checked into that, and guess what?
It must've been a phantom dog because nobody ever saw it.
Yeah, come on, Toshack.
When you were a proby at Engine 29,
didn't Cooper give you the treatment?
Cooper was a good guy, okay?
And the proby wouldn't say any different.
Then why did he put in for a transfer two weeks ago?
Maybe he couldn't take Cooper's hazing.
Yeah and when they denied his request, he found another way out.
That's bull. Spence is a stand-up guy,
just like his pop, Bill Spence, Department legend.
Carried six people out of a three-bagger in Stuy Town.
And as for Lieutenant Cooper,
I'm not going to sit here and let you kick dirt
on the grave of a guy that I trusted with my life.
It was the big sucking sound of the FDNY closing ranks.
Same sound when we close ours.
You really like Spence for this?
His alibi's crap, he's got means, motive in spades, the hazing, the money.
Well, you were figuring on two assailants.
You have a candidate for number two?
Not yet. Everybody at the firehouse sang Cooper's praises.
Just got a fax from the Feds.
40-year-old bills turned up at banks in Bay Ridge and Smithtown, Long Island.
Spence has a grandmother next door to Smithtown, in Babylon.
It's time to bring him in. Mmm-hmm.
LUPO: We're looking for one of your guys. Nick Spence from Engine 29.
FIRE CHIEF: He had no business being up there without back-up.
No business whatsoever!
You understand? What the hell were you guys thinking?
Chief? Detective Bernard and Detective Lupo.
We need to talk to Nick Spence.
You guys are a little late.
(SIGHING)
BLAIR: The 29 crew was the first on site.
Spence, Walters and Toshack were the forcible entry team.
Spence was on the top floor sweeping the offices for survivors.
Turns out this whole area
was full of aerosols that were improperly stored. They ignited.
Throw in a room that was illegally subdivided,
there were no windows, it's a perfect storm.
A rookie fireman four flights up on his own?
Is that standard procedure?
No. He should've been bird-dogging his senior man.
That would be Toshack.
Toshack said he advised Spence of his responsibilities before they entered the site.
He's saying Spence disobeyed him?
Yes. Worst of it is, the warehouse was empty anyway.
The auto parts company that was leasing the facility
went out of business the week before.
How did this fire start? RAYMOND: Undetermined.
We found what might be traces of an accelerant.
Let me ask you, as a Fire Marshal,
you find it plausible that a seasoned firefighter like Toshack
would lose track of a proby who, all of a sudden,
decided to take it upon himself to play hero?
You ever been in a fire, Detective? You can't breathe.
You can't see. Guys make snap decisions, and sometimes they die.
That facility had no sprinklers,
the asbestos had been removed from the insulation a month before.
Those walls were like kindling.
You want to blame someone, blame the laws of combustion. Okay?
BERNARD: Spence ate dog food on command,
but we're supposed to believe that he
disobeyed a superior at a fire?
Well, what are you asking us to believe?
Firehouse justice, maybe.
Their beloved lieutenant is killed by the proby,
so all of his men take revenge?
They sent Spence into a firetrap.
Did the Fire Marshal sign off on your theory?
That firefighters use fire to settle scores?
No.
Stick to your original mission.
The robbery-homicide of a firefighter and his wife.
Investigations take their own course.
I have nothing but respect for firemen.
Imagine what it takes to run into a burning building to save life and property.
It's bad enough your murder suspect was a probationary firefighter
and that hazing might've played a role.
You don't need to put the rest of the fire department in the crosshairs.
More like, Candidate McCoy doesn't need it.
CUTTER: One case at a time.
Spence is dead, but his possible accomplice is still running loose.
If Spence was still around, we might've gotten him to flip on his accomplice.
Well, Spence must have talked to somebody.
Not his girlfriend.
Another fireman, then.
Maybe a retired one.
There wasn't nothing wrong with my son.
We know you spoke with your son every day,
we have the phone records to prove it.
Now, you must have spoken about something that was going on in his firehouse.
He didn't give me the blow-by-blow,
he just told me Cooper was riding him pretty hard.
(SIGHING) I talked him out of quitting I don't know how many times,
especially after his transfer was denied.
What about the last two weeks?
He was worried.
He kept saying crazy stuff,
like how he felt responsible for Tom Cooper getting killed.
Responsible how? Did he say?
I knew my son was no killer.
He didn't have to explain to me what he meant.
(SIGHING) I just told him to shut up
and to forget about it.
I mean, what do you think? I should have told him to tell what he knew?
(LOUDLY) Screw that.
Screw Cooper and the fire truck he married.
All I wanted was for my son
(SOBBING) to come home in one piece. Excuse me.
Fire truck?
Yeah, my guess, all the firemen rode her.
I wondered how long before you people started sliming my sister.
I'm not here to do that.
Linda dated a lot. Mostly firemen.
She'd say they were more alive, more real.
Anyway, so what?
Given the violence she was subjected to, anything's possible.
Sometimes these relationships linger.
No. That all ended when she found Tom. Full stop.
They were in love.
Maybe some of her old boyfriends didn't want it to end.
I mean, a couple of guys were still trying to hook up, but she wasn't interested.
Did she keep a diary?
No. But she'd get "fan mail."
She put all that stuff away when she met Tom.
But she kept it? Yeah.
It's at my mom's house, in the attic.
Linda Cooper didn't lack for admirers. All firemen, by the looks of it.
I never got this thing about men in uniform.
I could see the appeal.
Ah, don't worry, I outgrew it by the time I was 10.
I did find one admirer who took Linda's impending marriage hard.
"You deserve better than spending the rest of your life with a bully.
"It's going to kill me to watch you walk down that aisle.
"You can try to ignore me, but, I won't let you. I love you too much."
Signed "L.D.H."
L.D.H. Didn't correspond to any initials at the firehouse,
or the list of Cooper's friends.
Now, there was one photo from Tom Cooper's place.
It, uh... It was from a night out with the boys.
They all have these T-shirts on. Yup, here.
Toshack's T-shirt. It could be L.D.H.
The nicknames, Halligan, Pike. They're all firemen's tools.
What's an L.D. H?
L.D.H. Is a Large Diameter Hose. (SCOFFING)
Well, he does have a pretty inflated sense of himself.
Yeah, the kind of inflated ego that doesn't like rejection.
What's Toshack's alibi for the Coopers' murder?
He was off duty. But, he was called in to work at 11:10.
L.D.H. Let's reel him in.
First of all, I'm not the only firefighter who uses that handle.
Second, much as I wouldn't have minded taking a poke at Linda Cooper,
I never had the pleasure.
No, see, thing is,
you're the only L.D.H. Who has access to the firehouse computer,
which is what we traced those e-mails back to.
You know, the department's had a whole lot of people hacking into our system.
You don't actually think you can rape and kill the woman
who broke your heart, murder her husband and steal $200,000
without leaving one thread loose, do you?
I suppose not.
But then, I didn't do any of those things.
That nickname of Cooper's, Deck Gun.
That's those water-cannons on top of fire trucks, right?
Right.
And a deck gun out-muscles an L.D. H, right?
Compared to a deck gun, an L.D.H. Is a garden hose.
You think that's what sealed the deal for Linda?
All that thrust and power?
(SOFTLY) You know, I could do this all day.
But I'm going to wait for my lawyer now.
We're not getting anywhere relying on Toshack's poor impulse control.
I know. I checked the firehouse records and found the duty roster
for the night that Cooper was killed.
Toshack drew it up.
He, McShane and Walters were all off-duty that night,
but check out the notation next to Spence.
"Proby can detail to E.M.T. Or not. His choice."
You don't give someone the option of working through a murder
if you want his help committing it.
But Spence told his father he felt responsible for the murders.
Maybe because he was the one that told Toshack Cooper had found the money.
Hey. I went through Toshack's bank statements,
to see if he was dumb enough to deposit any cash.
He wasn't, but check this out.
Last week he deposited a check for 3,500 bucks
from a company called "Mulberry Waste Remediation."
What, he's moonlighting in the hazardous waste business?
Yeah, disposing of such materials as asbestos.
The warehouse where Spence died?
Someone was in there last month, stripping out asbestos.
The waste management company confirmed it.
Toshack worked on the fourth floor.
He would've seen the layout of the place,
knew the aerosols were stored there.
That's more progress than we have on the Coopers' murders.
We can't place Toshack at the scene of their killings,
can't tie him to the money.
And the only person who might have been able to help us prove our case is dead.
That's what we'll go after Toshack for.
Nick Spence's murder.
But the Fire Marshal hasn't ruled that fire as arson.
We can't begin to prove that Toshack set it.
I won't need to prove he set it.
But you want to convict him of a murder by a fire he didn't set?
What's your strategy?
A leap of faith.
I hope you're up for it.
This is an attack on every firefighter in the city.
This is an attack on one very bad apple,
who just happens to be a firefighter.
This goes way beyond one firefighter.
You fool 12 citizens with this "higher duty" crap,
no firefighter's going to be able to do his job without worrying
some gung-ho prosecutor is going to haul him into court
if somebody stubs his toe.
You're overstating things, Chief.
There's not a firefighter who doesn't already live in fear
that his mistakes may cost the life of his buddies or a civilian.
This was no mistake.
We believe that Toshack wanted Spence dead
because Spence could implicate him in the murders of Cooper and his wife.
Then go after him for those murders.
We don't have the evidence.
(SCORNFULLY) This is some office you're running.
There's only one person responsible for Spence's death,
and that's the owner of the auto parts business.
He illegally subdivided his offices.
And he's up next, after we're done with Toshack.
If you're still in office by then.
You actually think you can get elected
without the support of the firefighters?
I'll pretend I didn't hear that.
I'll pretend you did.
In case that message doesn't get through, we're filing a writ
to appoint a special prosecutor to go after the business owner
for the death of Firefighter Spence.
(DOOR CLOSES)
Prosecuting the owner now will undermine our case against Toshack.
We have to stop this, Jack.
Fat chance. You know who appoints special prosecutors?
The Governor.
And he's not one to let an opportunity pass to stick it to me.
Especially if it helps his boy, Chapell, win an important endorsement.
Firemen are saints in this city.
Deservedly so.
Now that you've put Toshack in the crosshairs,
you better not miss.
WALTERS: We went in as the F.E.T., the forcible entry team.
Brad Toshack was the team leader.
I was the Iron Man. I carried the heavy stuff,
the Halligan, to break down doors.
What about Nick Spence?
He was the Can Man, strapped with a large extinguisher.
What, if any orders, did Mr. Toshack give you
in regards to the fourth floor?
Well, things were happening pretty fast.
Brad just said to forget about the fourth floor,
the place was closed down, there'd be nobody up there.
He said that in the presence of all the members of your team?
Right. Brad Toshack always makes sure everybody knows what to do.
He's a good leader.
I trust him with my life.
KNOX: Did he issue any special instructions to Spence?
He told Spence to stick close and to not lose sight of him.
If Spence had done what he was told, he'd be alive.
KNOX: No more questions, Your Honor.
(CLEARING THROAT)
Did Mister Toshack spell out the hazards on the fourth floor?
The blind hallways, the room full of aerosols?
He didn't have to spell it out.
What? He didn't have to spell out that if the aerosols exploded,
they could bring down a good chunk of that building?
Things were happening pretty fast. I mean, maybe he said something.
Will you show me in your statement to the Fire Marshal,
where you mention any warning by Mr. Toshack not to go up to the fourth floor?
Okay, he didn't mention it.
Yet, you say you trust him with your life.
Well, how about you, Mr. Walters?
Do other firefighters trust you with their lives?
Sure.
They trust that if you were aware of a danger to their safety,
you'd warn them, correct?
Yeah, correct.
And you would warn them, correct?
Correct.
You consider it your duty as a firefighter, correct?
(FORCEFULLY) Correct, Mr. Walters?
Answer his question, Mr. Walters.
Yeah, correct.
Now, it is my pleasure and great honor to announce today
that I have received the endorsement of New York City's bravest
in my campaign to become this county's next District Attorney.
I am humbled to receive the support of people
that I have admired since I was a kid... (SWITCHES OFF TV)
Luckily, most firefighters can't vote in New York County.
But the people who love them can.
Even if you convict Toshack, it's an empty victory,
unless you can show why he wanted Spence dead.
I think one of Toshack's likely accomplices testified today.
Unless Toshack is held accountable for all of his crimes...
You can't justify this trial to your constituency.
Since when is it all or nothing?
Sometimes a half measure of justice is worse than no justice at all.
Jack, unless you order me, I'm not withdrawing the charge of depraved indifference.
And I won't offer Toshack a deal.
(SIGHING)
TOSHACK: I didn't recognize the location
until we were standing in front of the building.
Then I told my guys what I had seen on the top floor,
when I worked three weeks before.
The subdivided offices, the cases of aerosol.
But, the situation was noisy, we were on the move.
I was pretty sure that they'd heard what I said.
What did you tell Nick Spence?
I told him to keep his eye on me, to go where I go.
But, the smoke was thick.
When I noticed Spence wasn't behind me anymore,
I tried to raise him on the radio, but I couldn't.
I looked for him, but...
I've carried people out of buildings,
I've saved some lives, and I've lost some.
Fellow firefighters.
Unless you've been inside a fire,
you can't know what it's like.
Thank you, Brad.
Mr. Toshack, were you aware that at the time of his death,
Nick Spence was a suspect
in the murder of your Lieutenant Cooper and his wife?
I knew about it, but I didn't believe it for a second. Why not?
Didn't Cooper mercilessly haze Mr. Spence? Make him eat dog food?
Everybody got the Cooper treatment.
Including you?
Yes, including me. It was no big deal.
I loved Cooper like a brother.
You loved his wife too, didn't you?
You had an intimate relationship with her before she was married?
Objection. Relevance.
Goes to the defendant's state of mind.
Overruled. The witness will answer.
Yes. But, it was all over.
So, there you were, rushing into a burning building
with the man suspected of killing your comrade
and his wife, your former lover,
and you say you harbored no ill will toward him?
I told you, I didn't believe he did it.
Well, how could you be so sure he didn't commit the murders?
Unless you were there.
Were you?
No, I wasn't.
So, isn't it possible that in the confusion of events,
you forgot to warn Spence of the dangers on the fourth floor?
No, I told those guys.
Mr. Walters testified you didn't.
He's wrong. I told them.
He's wrong. So somehow, Spence didn't get the word, or didn't hear you?
Maybe.
You were the forcible entry team, right?
You were breaking down doors.
You were in the lead, with Walters, and Spence was the Can Man.
He was in the rear, correct? Right.
So, when you gave your warnings, it was the responsibility
of the person closest to you, Walters,
to make sure those warnings were relayed to Spence.
Sure.
Make sure he understood the dangers. Walters' responsibility, correct?
That's right.
So, you're passing the buck to Walters, your brother firefighter?
The man who says he trusts you with his life?
I didn't mean... Are you sure you're worthy of that trust?
No more questions.
JUDGE: Has the jury reached a verdict?
Yes, we have, Your Honor.
On the sole count of the indictment, Murder in the Second Degree,
how do you find?
We find the defendant guilty.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(JUDGE POUNDING GAVEL)
He didn't do anything wrong! He didn't do anything wrong!
(POUNDING GAVEL LOUDER)
We're not done yet. Issue an arrest warrant for Walters.
I killed Spence?
Am I crazy or didn't I just hear a jury convict Toshack?
That's because they didn't believe his testimony
that he warned you, and that you're the one
who failed to pass the warning on to Spence.
They didn't believe it, because it was crap.
Well, another jury might not think so.
What other jury?
The one at your trial for depraved indifference murder.
People's Exhibit One: The transcript of Toshack's testimony.
Who knows, with an offer to reduce his sentence,
we might even get Toshack to testify against you in person.
Can they do that?
Or, I can set aside this charge
and offer you a reduced sentence for the murders of Tom and Linda Cooper.
25-to-life for depraved indifference murder,
15-to-life for a double murder.
And that's a one-time only offer.
(WHISPERING)
What happened at Cooper's house?
(SIGHING)
Toshack heard from Spence
that Cooper found the money in the wall at the house.
Toshack, McShane and me,
we decided to steal it.
Cooper wasn't supposed to be home.
When he didn't tell us where he hid the money,
Toshack hit him a little too hard.
Then he went after Linda.
Me and McShane, we couldn't abide that,
but we couldn't stop him.
She didn't know where the money was,
but he killed her anyway.
Then Toshack got called back to the firehouse,
and I stayed with McShane
to look for the money.
We found it.
And Spence?
(IN A CHOKED VOICE) Toshack got worried that he knew too much.
So, he set a fire,
and he sent Spence up the stairs.
All for the damn money.
McShane and me, we...
We heard the cops were tracing the bills,
so we lit his barbecue and we made a fire.
Over 100 grand,
up in smoke.
That money was bad news.
It was bad news.
(SNIFFLING)
Walters, 15-to-life. McShane, 15-to-life.
Toshack, 35-to-life, signed, sealed, delivered.
Eat and run?
I'm filing an indictment against the owner of the warehouse.
I want to beat that special prosecutor to the punch.
Mike.
Thanks.
I think.
Ripped & Corrected By mstoll