Smoking Out the Real Killer

March 27, 2003

Judge: On the charge of murder in the second degree and the hearing arguments by counsel, bail is hereby set at $100,000.

Blair: Oh, my God.

Bailiff: All rise.

Nora: Well, you can't be surprised she made bail. I'm not convinced she did it, and neither are you.

Bo: That arrest was justified. All the evidence was there. I couldn't ignore it.

Nora: The evidence was ambiguous at best, and the Judge obviously thought so, too.

Bo: Doesn't prove she's innocent.

Nora: Well --

Bo: Plus, her arrest could end up helping us in the long run.

Nora: How?

Bo: It could help us smoke out the real killer.

*~*

Blair: I didn't kill Sam. And everything I said last night was true. I heard Mitch say he put Todd in Victor Lord's tomb.

Bo: Todd wasn't there.

Blair: Yeah, that means that he just escaped somehow. He's on the run, Bo.

Bo: You know what would help? If you would stop withholding information, Blair.

Blair: I am not.

Bo: Well, if you weren't, you wouldn't be facing murder charges right now.

Blair: Nora? Troy was in my bedroom the night Sam was shot. Is that why you're coming down on me, huh?

Nora: This has nothing to do with Troy. He's free to do whatever he wants.

Blair: No, I don't care what your motives are. All I care about is the fact that you are letting Sam's killer run free. I know that it's crazy because Sam hardly had anything to do with Mitch, but Bo should be investigating Mitch Laurence instead of arresting me. I've known you a long, long time, Nora. I can't believe that you're ok with this.

Nora: I'm not ok with this.

*~*

Nora: Explain to me how arresting Blair is going to smoke out the real killer.

Bo: All right, here's what I figure. If Todd really did kill Sam, then maybe he's going to come forward now to clear Blair.

Nora: Ok, but what if he didn't? What if it was somebody else?

Bo: Well, if it's somebody else, then maybe they're going to think they're off the hook and they can relax, put their guard down, and then they'll make a big mistake. Hey, honey.

Gabrielle: Oh, hi.

Bo: What brings you by here?

Gabrielle: Listen, I called the station. They said I would find you here. Hi, Nora.

Nora: Hi, Gabrielle.

Gabrielle: Look, look -- this was slipped under our door not so long ago.

*~*

Bo: You have no idea who sent this?

Gabrielle: No. None whatsoever. I came out of the bedroom, and this was on the floor inside the apartment. Well, I can see you two are in the middle of a case here, so I will -- oh, actually, there's a mate of mine from "the banner" over there. So I'll go and --

Bo: Thanks.

Gabrielle: Just let me know when you've got some spare time.

Bo: Ok.

Nora: Do you want to do this some other time? Are you sure you don't want to have coffee with Gabrielle or something?

Bo: No, no, no, no. She understands. This is police business. What do you make of this? Todd?

Nora: That's -- possibly.

Bo: Yeah. Ok, I'm going to send it to the lab, have it tested for fingerprints, type of paper, everything else. But you know what? If this was sent by the real killer, my plan's working.

Will: Hey. Sorry to interrupt, but I just want to say thank you for nailing my dad's killer. It's going to help a lot knowing that Blair's going to pay.

Bo: Well, you know, we're still putting a lot of the pieces together, Will. So --

Will: Why the hell are you even out on the street? You think that you're going to get away with murdering my dad, you better think again, Blair!

*~*

Blair: Will, I didn't do it! It wasn't me!

Will: Yeah. The hell it wasn't. The cops arrested you because you did it, Blair.

Blair: No, will.

Will: Oh, you can't even admit it? You're a gutless coward? I hope you rot in prison for the rest of your life.

Blair: I swear to you, Jen, I swear on my life, on the lives of my children, I did not shoot your father.

Nora: That's not fair. It's not right, Bo. She has absolutely no motive, and that phone call that Todd supposedly made to Sam blows that time line.

Bo: Yeah, but there's Todd's gun. You know, there's Victor Lord's ring. Todd disappeared. Now, either they're in this thing together --

Nora: Which I don't think so.

Bo: Or each one of them thinks that the other one did it and they're both trying to cover for each other. Well, who else do we have?

Nora: Blair thinks it's Mitch. But where's his motive?

Bo: The appellate court pretty much fixed it so we'll never get the attempted murder back in. So that means that Blair is the key witness against Mitch. Without her, the kidnapping charge just falls all apart.

Nora: Then why shoot Sam? Why not just shoot Blair? He certainly had the opportunity.

Bo: He aimed at her, he missed.

Nora: From five feet away?

Bo: Could happen. Well, I don't know. You know, I'm dry. I just can't figure out who'd want to see Sam dead.

Nora: I don't know. He didn't have an enemy in the world. We're missing something. I mean -- who would follow Sam all the way to Blair's house, up into her bedroom, where they then shoot him in cold blood?

Bo: So you think he was followed?

Nora: Well, yeah, of course. I mean, how else would they know where he was?

Bo: Yeah, but why would someone want to take the risk of doing it at Blair's house, you know? There probably would have been witnesses there.

Nora: I don't know. Troy says she was passed out, Blair was complete passed out.

Bo: The killer wouldn't have known that.

Nora: That's true.

Bo: Speaking of Troy --

Nora: Hmm?

Bo: Troy was there, too.

Nora: Well, that's true. As a matter of fact -- what if the killer were gunning for Troy?

*~*

Bo: I think that maybe we've been looking at this all wrong. Now, if this happened the way that Blair and Troy say it did, Blair was drunk, she passed out. Troy was there. He got called to the hospital. Now, the room was dark. So whoever did it may have been trying to kill Troy.

Nora: Ok but why the evidence against Blair and Todd?

Bo: The killer, trying to cover his own tracks, divert suspicion. See, but the question is, who? Who hated Troy enough that they wanted to kill him?

Nora: Well, I have to confess, I mean, the thought has crossed my mind once or twice.

Bo: So it was you.

Nora: Bo.

Bo: No, I'm fooling with you. I'm fooling with you. But seriously, there's only one other person that it could have been.

*~*

Bo: It has to be Lindsay.