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All right, come on. Come on!
Keep coming. Keep coming.
Come on!
Plenty of room. Plenty of room.
Let's go. Come on. Come on. Come on.
Come on. Come on.
Plenty of room. Plenty of room.
That's good.
Chief, are you sure
you've recovered enough
from your surgery to be doing this?
I have a note from the doctor, Sergeant.
You can read it if you'd like.
Thank you.
Morning, everybody.
Where's our victim?
A traffic chopper pilot spotted the car
6:00 this morning, dialed 911.
Fire and Rescue rappelled down the hill,
found the body, female, early 40s.
Declared dead on the scene.
Called a patrol car.
- Most of our vic is over there.
- Most of her?
Coyotes came by the body
during the night, Chief.
Yuck.
So it's a traffic accident.
And we're here because?
The victim's ID was found in the car.
Her name is Marguerite Scott,
and she worked for
the Department of Homeland Security.
Fire and Rescue guys brought this up.
Car was a rental.
Victim picked it up five days ago at LAX.
Paid extra for a hybrid.
Our accident investigators saw
no signs of a collision, no skid marks.
It seems like she accelerated
right off the cliff.
If she's from DC, she might've been lost.
Didn't see the turn.
Or she did it on purpose.
A woman so concerned about the planet
that she rents a hybrid to kill herself in?
I don't know. Maybe she saw a tree
down there she wanted to hug.
Detective Daniels,
could you please get in touch
with someone from Homeland Security?
Ask them what Ms. Scott
might've been doing here?
- Yes, ma'am.
- Thank you.
Pardon me, sir.
I'm Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson
of the LAPD
and I need to examine
the scene of the accident,
but I'm just recovering
from abdominal surgery.
So I was wondering if you could
pretty please give me a lift?
Let's go.
Chief, you are not physically ready for this.
I need to see the body.
We don't have training
on those harnesses.
We're not supposed to use them.
You're not doing it, Sergeant.
Take the rest of the crew and climb down,
and I'll meet you there.
- Ready whenever you are.
- Okay. All right. Now, wait, wait, wait.
I have a duty! Okay, wait!
Damn it! Chief!
Let's go.
Watch your step, guys.
- You're not coming?
- I don't hike.
Hard to tell which injuries are from
the crash and which from the coyotes.
Looks like they didn't touch her face.
Thank you. Let's take a look at the car.
We didn't find a handbag or a cell phone.
Detective Sanchez is still doing a search
of the perimeter of the crash site.
Now, she was from out of town, Chief,
so she may have been using
the GPS system that comes with the car.
Assuming the motherboard's still intact,
we can download all the data,
see what addresses she was punching in.
I see a valet ticket down there.
Let's check her hotel room,
drag her room phone
and try and find her cell,
see who she was talking to.
Lieutenant Flynn, if you could grab
that valet ticket, please?
Lieutenant Tao,
as soon as Buzz has what he needs here,
please have this car towed
to the print shed.
And Sergeant Gabriel, let's see if you can
take the body to the morgue, please?
See if we can determine
the exact cause of death.
Oh... Chief?
- Detective Sanchez, you find anything?
- Found a toe, Chief. Bagged it.
- Chief, listen...
- Let's hand it off to Sergeant Gabriel here.
- Have him take it to the morgue.
- Chief... Chief, listen.
- Yes, Buzz? What is it?
- You're standing in poison oak.
Hey. Are you okay?
Perfect. Perfect.
Well, I just need to take these painkillers
that the doctor gave me,
but I cannot seem to find them.
So was Maggie Scott's death
an accident or what?
Oh, we don't know yet.
She is a Department
of Homeland Security employee.
And Detective Daniels says
that she was here on business,
but they won't tell us why
or what she was doing.
She was an accountant.
And she was auditing us.
You called her Maggie.
Yeah. She was a friend.
Listen, I'd appreciate it if you kept me
very closely advised
about what happened to her.
Sure, sure.
And no worries about overtime
on this one.
- I'll cover it somehow.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
- Sure.
Impossible.
Homeland Security gave us a grant
for new communications equipment
so police and fire could
communicate during a crisis.
Maggie... Marguerite Scott was
sent by DHS
to keep tabs on how we were spending
their money.
Part of LAPD's financial troubles.
For every dollar the feds give us,
we spend $2 trying to prove
we're not wasting it.
Well, there's your motive, Chief.
Everybody hates an auditor.
Maggie's husband is on his way to LA.
But our friends at DHS were
more eager to talk
about Maggie's missing cell phone
and laptop,
both of which are encrypted
and contain classified information.
Which is why I can't get a phone dump.
- What did we find in Maggie's hotel room?
- No sign of forced entry.
And although she never used
the phone in her room,
we couldn't find a cell phone anywhere.
We did, however, find a laptop charger.
We pulled the navigation system
out of Maggie's car, Chief.
The screen is shot. But we got
the addresses she typed into her GPS.
The first one is from her hotel
and the second is
150 North Los Angeles Street.
- She was in our building. This week.
- Yes.
Most likely to see Jim Hanson
in Fiscal Operations.
And there's
the Italian restaurant downtown.
We called.
She dined there two nights ago. Alone.
The next address is a business
in North Hollywood. Civil Audio.
Which supplied the radios we purchased
with the DHS grant money.
This last address is interesting.
Elysian Park Drive,
which is precisely where
Maggie Scott's car went off the cliff.
And it's only five blocks
from LAPD's Academy Road.
Yeah, but why would she wanna know
how to get to that exact spot?
I mean, there wasn't even a house there.
Maybe she had a boyfriend
that no one knew about.
I mean, a lot of couples go
up there to, you know,
check out the view.
Well, she was a little long in the tooth
to be necking in her car.
Priority Homicide, Provenza. Yeah.
Hey, look. She's a federal employee
working for Homeland Security.
And she's married.
So maybe she didn't want anybody
at the hotel to see who she was with.
That was Gabriel, Chief.
They're ready for you at the morgue.
Wonderful.
Okay, Lieutenant Tao?
I would like to talk to... No, thank you.
This Jim Hanson from
the Fiscal Operations Department.
All right.
Thank you.
So, Chief, you really think Maggie's death
had anything to do with us?
I don't know, Commander,
but whoever was meeting her
at Lover's Lane wasn't just interested
in Maggie.
They wanted her computer, too.
Carry on, everybody.
Can it wait? I'm sitting on a wiretap.
It won't take long.
I have a dead employee from
the Department of Homeland Security
by the name of Marguerite Scott
and I need you to get a dump
on her encrypted cell phone.
Why don't you just download it?
It's missing.
Along with her laptop, also encrypted.
I don't know if I should check on this
for you.
Oh, if I have to hear one more time about
how your friends are making fun of you
- for doing me favors...
- It's not that.
I'm recovering from surgery! Please!
There are new rules in place.
If you get us involved...
Look, I can't have chocolate anymore.
Do you understand that? Do you?
Please just make the call.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Okay, Brenda.
Marguerite Scott. I'll make the call.
Great suit.
Did you get it at Fred Segal?
Yeah. Yeah, I did. I know this girl there.
She gets me a discount.
Love that place.
I live just around the corner from there.
Sorry. That took so long.
- What have you learned?
- It's a little complicated.
Your vic survived the crash
and was well enough
to climb out of the car
and crawl her way up the hill.
Crawl?
You sure she wasn't thrown
out of the car?
No. These are seatbelt bruises,
which means she was definitely
strapped in at impact. And then look.
At the dirt under her nails.
The abrasions on her knees and elbows.
She crawled up that hill.
The real question is
how she was able to climb at all
when she expired instantly
from massive trauma to the head.
- But that didn't happen during the crash.
- No.
I found a splinter in her head,
indicating someone struck her
with a branch or a large stick.
And the final blow might have come
from a rock.
After she drove off the cliff.
Not her best day.
Two last things. Notice anything unusual
about your vic's face?
Don't make me guess.
Coyotes always feed
on the body's soft tissue first.
My guess is they left her face alone
because of the seasoning.
Excuse me?
Someone doused your vic
with pepper spray.
Which might explain why she drove off
the cliff in the first place.
Maggie Scott is dead?
I'm afraid so, Mr. Hanson.
I'm so sorry about that.
Oh, my God.
The LAPD was put through
this exhausting audit for nothing?
Sorry to see you're so broken up
over Maggie's death.
No, no! Yeah, I'm sorry, all right?
But the woman was a time waster.
Look, this section manages
a billion-dollar annual budget, all right?
Two percent of that comes from the DHS,
yet I spent 80% of my time
justifying expenses to Maggie.
The woman was in my office
every other month for almost two years!
You have no idea
how much extra work she created.
During Maggie's last visit out here,
she also stopped
at a place called Civil Audio.
Do you have any idea
what she was looking for?
Civil Audio.
This month, it was Civil Audio.
I have no idea what it was.
Last month it was...
I don't even remember,
but the point is it doesn't matter anymore.
Why is that?
Well, because the way
the federal government operates,
it'll be ages before they send anybody
to pick up where she left off,
if they even bother at all.
Well, maybe we shouldn't wait
for the federal government.
Maybe you should let
my detective take a look at your books.
Fine. I'll make sure you get
everything you need.
Mr. Hanson, do you know
if Maggie was seeing anyone
romantically while she was here?
Did she have a boyfriend?
Or maybe she was having
an affair of some kind?
She didn't discuss
her personal life with me.
And I am not the type of guy
to spread rumors.
So if you'll excuse me, it's gonna take me
a minute to put your paperwork through.
You know what, though?
I will offer one opinion, ma'am.
Maybe you should let me spend
more time helping you fight crime,
and not fighting accountants.
That's just a thought.
Watch your step.
You'll take a nasty fall here.
I'm so sorry to bother you
on a Saturday, Mr. White.
But according to our files,
your company provides the LAPD
and Fire Department with
first responder communications.
Civil Audio's not my company.
I'm just a CFO.
Been there since a little after 9/11.
Before that, I was on the job.
LAPD?
Yes, ma'am. Fifteen years.
Tactical Technology Unit.
So Civil Audio's a good fit.
Better pay and no one ever shoots at me.
Sorry about the mess.
Over budget. Stupid contractor.
Air conditioner's out.
Had to cancel the pool.
Now I have two kids
who are gonna be very disappointed
when they come back from summer camp.
- Oh, well, that's just tragic.
- Right this way.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
It is hot.
Mr. White, can you tell me
what Maggie Scott was doing
in your office earlier this week?
Auditors are like police officers.
They don't tell you
what they're looking for until they find it.
She wanted all our billing records
to LAPD, so I gave them to her. Why?
- Is old Maggie giving you a hard time?
- In a manner of speaking.
Her car went over a cliff last night
and we found her this morning. Dead.
Hey, I'm going for takeout. Oh!
Is something wrong?
Well, yes and no.
Remember that crazy woman
I told you about?
The one from Homeland Security?
- The horrible accountant lady?
- She died last night.
That's too bad. Gosh.
- Well.
- Just get me whatever you're having.
Thanks.
Sorry to interrupt.
I gotta tell you, the outpouring
of sadness for this woman so far...
It's touching.
Obviously, I feel bad
about what happened.
I mean, it's terrible.
But just the idea of going through
another audit with Maggie...
She's brutal. Just talk to your people.
- Ask Jim Hanson.
- I'm sorry. Did you say another audit?
- Starting Monday morning.
- Jim Hanson didn't mention that.
Not that it was gonna be
much different from the last one.
Maggie was investigating the way
the LAPD paid us for almost two years.
Poor Jimmy.
And his wife just left him, too.
Look,
I appreciated Maggie's tenacity. I did.
But I just hope whoever takes
her place will be a little less rabid.
Well, Hanson said with Maggie's death,
there wouldn't be another audit.
Oh, that's wishful thinking.
DHS might not get to it right away,
but they'll be back.
Hey, if we're done,
I got about three times
as many people here as usual.
You know, you threaten to fire them
and suddenly they can't finish fast enough.
If there's anything I can do,
just let me know. Okay?
Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- My pleasure.
How long before you start feeling
the symptoms of poison oak?
Probably not until tonight sometime.
- I told you not to go down there.
- Oh, I know, I know.
Come on.
- Chief.
- Yes.
No luck getting access
to Maggie Scott's encrypted phone.
Oh, I'm sure we'll be hearing
from the FBI any minute now.
The victim's husband, Ken?
He just flew in from Washington.
He's in your office.
Oh, and Maggie Scott's
rental car company called.
Their accident investigators wanna know
when they can get a look at their hybrid.
And what'd you tell them?
What I always tell them.
"Sure, no problem." Then I hung up.
The car's still in the print shed.
Well, we hang on to Maggie's car until
we know what happened to Maggie.
And I want that steering wheel
tested for pepper spray.
How am I gonna tell that man
that his wife was eaten by coyotes?
Poor woman.
- What are all these about?
- Financial records from Jim Hanson.
Exactly what you'd expect, Chief.
Bury the two paragraphs of information
you actually want
in a big load of bull pucky.
- I'll start working on it, Chief.
- Oh, bless you. Bless you.
Nobody's told me
when I can see my wife's body
and I've been here almost an hour.
Actually, sir, I think you might wanna
wait for a funeral home or mortuary
to take a look at your wife.
Are you sure it's her?
I mean, are you absolutely certain?
I'm sorry, sir. Yes, I am.
Is there anything I should know?
Did she die quickly?
I don't think she saw it coming.
Oh, God. I don't know how
I'm gonna tell our daughter.
Sir, do you know anyone who might
have wanted to hurt your wife?
Did she ever talk to you
about a threat or...
No, no. The only thing Maggie ever
complained about was the travel.
I think she was happier lately not having
to come back to LA every other week.
Every other week?
According to DHS, Maggie was
in Los Angeles every other month.
Do you know if she had
other business here?
- Or did she have any relatives? Or friends?
- No, it was work.
Why else would she come?
Chief Johnson,
Special Agents Blackburn
and Horlacher from the FBI.
It's about Maggie Scott.
I'm terribly sorry.
I am right slap-dab in the middle of
interviewing the victim's husband.
Good to see you again, too, Chief Johnson.
Sorry to interrupt, but the FBI needs
to speak with Mr. Scott right now.
I've already been in touch with Special
Agent Fritz Howard about all of this.
That's who called us, ma'am.
And thank you for informing him
about the encrypted laptop and cell phone
that have gone missing.
Which makes this investigation
a National Security issue.
I hardly think that Maggie Scott
was killed by terrorists.
Unless you think the evildoers are trying
to destroy the world with pepper spray.
We're talking about the ***
of a federal employee,
plus the theft of classified material.
So we would like
all the evidence you've collected.
And we're gonna take the victim's
husband with us right now, too.
You have any further questions
for Mr. Scott, let us know.
Great to see you again, ma'am.
- Oh, I bet.
- Ma'am.
Lieutenants Flynn and Provenza,
I'd like you to copy everything that
we have on the *** board please,
before we hand it off to these gentlemen.
Thank you. And Detective Daniels,
please give the boxes
from Fiscal Operations to the FBI.
That should keep them busy.
And while they're looking at our finances,
let's take a look at Mr. Hanson's.
Thank you.
Lieutenant Tao, please put
the car's computer in the desk.
Thank you.
And, Detective Sanchez,
I'd like you to move
Maggie's rental car out of the print shed.
- To where?
- Someplace the FBI won't find it.
Listen, just because...
Just because the FBI is starting
an investigation
doesn't mean you have to halt yours.
Let them look for the laptop.
You find the killer.
Well, I still have lots of questions
for Maggie's husband.
Is he a suspect?
Well, he's the only person so far
who seems at all upset about her death.
But here's the thing, Will.
Maggie was visiting Los Angeles
every other week last year
for reasons other than DHS business.
She lied to her husband about that.
And her car went over a hillside
at a place where people
sometimes go to...
You know.
So I'm guessing
that she might've been having an affair.
I can promise you, who she was seeing
last year has nothing to do with her death.
How can you say that?
Because the affair she was having
was with me.
When were you going to tell me
that you'd been sleeping
with my *** victim?
Well, there wasn't really so much sleeping.
Look, do you wanna hear about this
or do you just wanna get all mad?
- I'm investigating her ***, Will.
- Okay, you wanna get mad.
Look, we met about a year ago.
And we started seeing each other
whenever she was in town.
Every other week.
I flew her out sometimes
and put her up at the Cielo Hotel.
And it ended six months ago.
I was never involved in any of her audits
so there's no conflict of interest,
and her husband never knew.
So you were seeing Maggie
while you were still married to Estelle?
Technically, yes.
But after Estelle filed for divorce.
Look, Estelle was already seeing
someone else.
I was pretty much alone.
As you well know.
What should I have done?
Should I just stop living?
- Is that what you think?
- She was married!
You couldn't have found someone single?
Forget it.
Are there e-mails from you
on her computer?
Not on the government account.
I mean, did she ever check personal mail
on her encrypted laptop?
I don't know.
What?
What?
There's a female investigator
working for an intelligence agency
who was in a relationship,
who you seduced into coming
to Los Angeles on a regular basis.
It all sounds so familiar,
and yet I'm surprised.
Do you wanna talk about this?
In detail?
- Just drop it.
- 'Cause we can.
Drop it, I said.
And tell me what else you know
about the victim that can help me.
Maggie was honest.
Except about me with her husband.
She was an honest person.
She was a relentless investigator.
She believed in what she was doing.
Her personal life may have been
a bit of a mess,
but she was extremely professional.
And she was stubborn
when she was right.
Which she almost always was.
Thanks.
Wait,
I know how this is going to sound,
but the outcome of this investigation,
the timing of it,
could affect my custody agreement.
My kids.
Right.
Well, I'll try to find out what happened
to Maggie before that becomes an issue.
Thank you. Look.
Yes?
I'm really sorry.
Again.
You're really sorry again.
Yes, gentlemen?
What more can I do for you today?
Maybe we weren't clear when we said
we want everything you have
on the Maggie Scott case.
You have her husband.
We're handing over
the rest of our evidence.
What more do you need?
We need the car Mrs. Scott was driving
when she crashed,
and it's not in your print shed.
Well, it's gotta be
around here somewhere.
It was certainly in no condition
to go driving off on its own.
Ma'am, you should know the FBI
issued a national security letter,
which compels you to turn over
every aspect of your case to us.
And when investigating matters
of this import,
we shouldn't even be dealing
with you at all, really,
but rather the Homicide Task Force
in your own Counterterrorism Bureau.
Wait. Okay. No problem.
- What?
- Just one moment, Chief.
If we hook you guys up
with our Counterterrorism Bureau's
Homicide Task Force,
you guys would be cool
with a joint operation?
I mean, you'd have no more complaints?
None.
- Great. Let's do it.
- All right then. Follow me, gentlemen.
What the hell is this?
Well, you guys said you wanted to work
with the Homicide Task Force
of LAPD's Counterterrorism Bureau.
That would be us.
Even passed our
Weapons of Mass Destruction training.
This is a bunch of crap.
Chief Johnson,
this is not what we agreed to.
Oh, I'm so sorry, Agent Blackburn.
It's exactly what we agreed to,
but it's also not my problem.
Lieutenant Provenza and I aren't
part of the CTB's Homicide Task Force.
You'll have to address your concerns
to Lieutenant Flynn.
We want the car.
We gave you the GPS information
from the car's computer.
- We still need the car.
- What for?
This really isn't my business anymore,
but, Detective Sanchez,
do you know where these men
might find Maggie's Prius?
Well, it was probably towed
to the central garage.
I could take you guys there.
- Why don't you do that, huh?
- Sirs, don't forget your evidence.
Just the boxes, boys.
The cart belongs to LAPD.
Make sure you lift with your legs.
Don't hurt yourself.
Payback's a ***, boys.
Chief, I checked
the Prius's online service manual.
If you use a cell phone
with a Bluetooth wireless connection,
you can make calls through the car.
Maggie's car computer
probably has a record
of numbers she dialed and received.
That's why the FBI wanted the car.
They can't get into Maggie's
encrypted cell phone yet either.
Well, it's our patriotic duty
to help them out.
Let's take a look.
The Prius's Bluetooth system
isn't really designed
to display the information
without the menu.
We tinkered around a little,
and we found the phone numbers.
And here they are in order.
And the last call Maggie Scott received
came from Joe White,
the CFO of Civil Audio.
Right after that, she punched in
the address of where we found her body.
So while I'm looking
into Mr. Hanson's finances...
Yes, thank you, Detective Daniels.
Please look into Mr. White's.
Hey, I knew Joe White
when he was on the job.
There's no way he'd *** anyone.
It's ridiculous.
Yeah, Joe was a bit of a player
when he was around here.
Maybe he and Maggie were doing
the big nasty,
and she was gonna tell his wife.
You think White would try
to take somebody out
with a can of pepper spray? Come on.
You can't keep doing this.
- Doing what?
- Being angry at me.
You insisted, insisted,
I get the FBI involved.
- I'm not angry.
- So what is this,
so I recognize the mood
when I see it again.
It's disappointment.
You knew what would happen when
you called your buddies at the FBI
and you didn't tell me.
I'm a little let down, frankly.
I told you the request was a bad idea.
You demanded I do it anyway.
And then you hung up
on me before I could explain.
And you're saying I let you down?
Well, just be aware most of the time,
- I'm never gonna ask your help again.
- Oh, well, fine.
You know, that is fine because
what happened here, in reality,
is you confided in me and I tried to do
something about your problem
and apparently I just made it worse.
That's exactly what happened.
You tried to help me
and you only made it worse.
Let's see if I can't provide
that same kind of help to the FBI.
Don't scratch.
As CFO of Civil Audio,
Joseph White pulls in
nearly $500,000 a year.
That's a lot of radios, Chief.
A ton more cash than he was making here.
But his new residence cost three times
as much as he got for his condo,
which, for the record, is two blocks away
from the scene of the accident,
right above Academy Road.
He knew the area well.
Joe White paid $1.5 million for this house?
How are we ever gonna be
able to afford a new house?
How?
And for the past two years,
Mr. White has been spending
more than double his declared income
without incurring any obvious debt.
It's like he's pulling money
from someplace off the books.
He did, however, cancel a charge
to his contractor four days ago.
He was complaining about them going
over budget on the remodel.
But there were construction workers
in his backyard yesterday.
Because Saturday morning,
the charges were reauthorized,
provided that the contractor
would guarantee
everything would be finished
in three weeks.
So, timeline.
Maggie Scott drops by
Joe White's office at Civil Audio.
Tells Joe that his accounting
doesn't quite add up.
That night, Maggie flies off a cliff.
And Joe continues his remodel.
Sing whatever song you want.
I still don't believe Joe White would have
anything to do with something like this.
He was building a pool,
didn't wanna disappoint the family.
And what about Jim Hanson,
our Fiscal Operations Director?
His divorce left him strapped for cash.
Almost maxed out
on all of his credit cards.
But his personal investments seem solid.
Detective Sanchez, where did you last see
Special Agents Blackburn and Horlacher?
They were checking our impound facilities.
But I had the car moved again
a few hours ago.
- They'll never find it.
- Excellent.
Lieutenant Flynn,
please call our FBI friends
and tell them what we've discovered
about Joe White.
Chief, we share our information
with the FBI,
they're likely to take matters
into their own hands,
and make our situation worse.
That is the established pattern,
Lieutenant.
Let's hope it holds on for another day.
Gentlemen! Gentlemen!
Gentlemen, I have to ask you to wait!
Excuse me!
You cannot take White away like this!
We called you, remember?
Not now, Sergeant.
We're questioning Mr. White today.
- Could be you'll have a crack at him later.
- We agreed to share our information.
All right, just for you.
Mr. White here seems to have faked
Civil Audio's invoices to police
and fire departments
all through the Southwest,
adding on a little surcharge for every radio
he sold and keeping it for himself.
And the victim knew all about it.
Let'*** it.
Chief, where are you going?
Hopefully I'm gonna find out
where Maggie's encrypted
cell phone and computer are.
This is all a terrible mistake!
Joe would never kill anyone
except maybe in self-defense.
- He was a police officer.
- And our accident investigators agree.
Mrs. White, they say Maggie Scott
drove straight over that cliff.
Oh, you have to tell that
to the FBI. Please!
Oh, I will, I will.
But what I was wondering is why you
didn't just tell them that yourself?
- Tell them what?
- That you were there.
That you witnessed the accident.
- But I wasn't there.
- Mrs. White, I'm not gonna lie to you.
Leaving the scene
of an accident is punishable
by six months in prison or a $10,000 fine.
Before we talk about it,
I should inform you of your rights.
Susan White,
you have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can and will be
used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney.
If you cannot afford an attorney,
one will be appointed to you by the state.
Have you heard and understood
these rights?
Yes.
Now, if you really want
to help your husband...
- I do. Of course I do.
- Then you're gonna have to fess up.
Because I know you that you were there
when Maggie Scott drove herself
off that cliff.
Why do you think that?
Because the last call she received
was from this house.
And immediately following the phone call,
she punched in an address
to the GPS system on her Prius.
An address only four blocks
from the condo
where you and Joe used to live.
She...
She drove there for a
spur-of-the-moment meeting of some kind.
Now, I don't think
she would've agreed to that,
to meet alone, at night,
in a deserted corner of the world
with anyone she was about
to accuse of embezzlement.
Now, if I'm wrong,
Mrs. White, just tell me.
If it was your husband
she was meeting with, and not you,
if our accident investigators
made a mistake.
No. No.
Listen, let me just explain.
What Joe did was not embezzlement.
At all.
He borrowed a little bit of money
because we went so far
over budget with this remodel.
Our contractor lied to us
about what everything would cost.
And we have this adjustable mortgage,
and the payments have skyrocketed.
We put everything we have
into this house.
Joe was just trying to keep
us from losing our life savings.
And I wanted Mrs. Scott to know that.
That sounds reasonable.
And so you wanted to explain that to her.
So I called her.
And I told her where to meet me.
I said I had some information
she needed for her audit.
I was waiting for her when she drove up.
She rolled down the window
without turning off her engine.
I told her, I said,
if she would just give us a month,
Joe would make things right.
That he would flip the house
and put all the money he borrowed back.
- With interest.
- And she agreed?
No. She didn't.
She said Joe would go to jail.
She said she was going to report him,
that she was just following orders.
I argued with her, and she got really mad.
And she drove off and missed the turn,
and drove over the side of the cliff.
I was just so upset, I got back
into my car and I drove away.
Yeah, but you know,
you could've called someone
and waited for them to arrive, ma'am.
I know I should have. I know.
But it was dark. And I was afraid.
And I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so, sorry.
So sorry that you got in touch with
your contractor the very next morning,
and told him to have his workers
finish up the remodel on your house?
You... Listen! I was just making
the best of a terrible situation.
I thought if we could get
the house in shape to sell,
Joe had time to repay the money.
Which is what I told
that woman we wanted to do,
but she wouldn't listen.
She refused to listen.
Well, that might've been
because of the pepper spray
that you spewed all over her face.
That's a report from our
Scientific Investigation Division
and the LA County coroner's office,
documenting that there was
pepper spray on the victim's face
and the steering wheel of her car.
Which is another reason I knew
that it was you that called Maggie
and not your husband.
- Because the attack was so inept...
- There was no attack!
That woman, she...
She reached through the window,
grabbed me by the arm,
and tried to drag me along the road.
She must've given your arm quite a bruise.
Could I see that, please?
No?
That makes me wonder, Mrs. White.
What else do you have up your sleeve?
It's been awfully hot here lately.
Your husband's in shorts and a t-shirt.
Sergeant Gabriel here took his jacket off
the moment we sat down
and yet here you are,
all covered up head to toe.
That is exactly the type of rash
I'd expect to see on someone
who was begging for mercy
with a can of pepper spray.
You may notice that I have got
a similar rash on my legs.
Only like you,
I didn't get anything on my hands.
That's because we were
both wearing gloves,
though for different reasons,
when we were standing in the poison oak
over Maggie Scott's body.
She didn't die in that crash, did she?
- No.
- No.
She pulled herself up out of that car,
and crying for help,
crawled her way back up to the road.
She had a husband and a daughter.
And she was trying to see them again.
She was doing everything
she could to try and see them again,
- but you wouldn't let her!
- Don't! Please stop!
Please stop? Is that what Maggie said?
As you hiked down the side of the hill
and beat her with a tree branch?
Was she begging you to stop before
you crushed her skull in with a rock,
and then left her body
to be torn apart by coyotes?
Please stop?
It was far too late for "please stop."
I was only trying to help my husband.
Let's skip the part
where you try to explain yourself.
I just don't have the stomach for it today.
Because there's something else
I need to know, Mrs. White.
The whereabouts of
an encrypted cell phone and a computer.
And it is something I really need to know.
That smells good.
For all your help.
Even without trying, you always do.
Still, nobody knows who Maggie was
seeing all those times she came to LA.
Yeah, well, some secrets are best taken
to the grave.
Oh, speaking of Maggie,
here are her computer and cell phone.
I don't know which is which.
Maybe you could hand them over
to Agent Blackburn with my regards.
Where did you find them?
Susan White smashed them to bits
and put them in a dumpster
behind a nearby Home Depot.
Along with the can of pepper spray.
Nice. Got another little baggie
in there with Maggie's Prius in it?
I'm sure it'll turn up by and by.
The feds will take the residence,
and after we sue Civil Audio,
our money problems will go
from terminal to merely bad.
Well, sir, if I might offer a suggestion,
being that it was Priority Homicide
that cracked the case...
Actually, this is the first arrest of
our new CTB Homicide Task Force.
- So congratulations.
- Yeah, thank you, sir.
I was wondering if maybe
some of the money could be applied
to Priority Homicide's budget.
I mean, the idea of losing personnel
at this phase is just...
Oh, no.
Well, that's not my car.
No, sir, it's not.
Sergeant, where is my car?
Well, sir, I think in an effort
to maintain access to the vehicle
and other evidence
pertaining to the ***,
someone must've thought
that your parking space...
You're just making all of this up
off the top of your head, right?
I am, sir. I don't know how this happened.
This is terrible. I...
- Sergeant, go find my car.
- I'm finding it right now, sir.
Thank you.