You got lucky up in Boston.
This ain't no Boston.
And just how might I get myself heard?
Accident, maybe.
[all yelling at once]
[Jessica] Tonight on Murder, She Wrote.
What do you want?
You've never had the love of a good man.
She got away with murder once, didn't she, in Boston?
No, she did not.
I believe he was poisoned.
The sheriff had found arsenic?
In my storeroom.
Follow us!
[tires squealing]
[cheerful orchestral music]
[woman chattering on scanner]
It was a heart attack, Doris, pure and simple.
Po never felt a thing.
He was sick at his stomach, Doc, real sick.
Yeah, but Jake's been poorly for some time.
Fact is, it's a merciful blessing.
It saved him from a lot of pain and suffering.
Look, why don't you just go to sleep
and I'll talk to you in the morning?
Night.
There you go.
Good morning, Edge.
What looks good today, Ellen, besides you?
A smooth talker like you ought to learn
to take his baseball cap off indoors.
[chuckling]
What were you saying about Jake Gerringer?
Oh.
He had his dinner here every night including last night.
You're sitting in his seat.
Hey, Ross,
that sexy wife of yours still nursing for old Doc Logan?
Yeah, do you mind? This is a private conversation.
Yeah?
Let's see how well you talk with a mouthful of knuckles.
That's enough, Edge.
I don't like people treating me like dirt.
Look, maybe you ought to just go back outside
and cool off a little bit, okay?
I'll save you some coffee and some donuts.
Forget it.
Sorry about that.
Hey, Ross, did Laura tell you what Jake died of?
Heart attack. All that fat.
I tried to sell him on low cholesterol.
He liked that pan gravy and lots of it.
Well, he dug his own grave with a spoon.
You know, I believe I'll have some of
your homemade cinnamon buns there with extra butter.
Cute.
Just what the hell did you think you were doing?
Doris Gerringer called first thing this morning
to tell you what she tried to tell you last night,
only you wouldn't listen.
Naturally, you just faxed off Jake's symptoms
to the poison control center.
Here's their answer.
And another thing, without consulting with me,
you called over to County General Pathology Laboratory
and asked them to run some tests on Jake's organs.
Doctor, the symptoms are very similar.
Look, I don't know nothing about no poison.
I do know that I wrote down "heart failure"
on the death certificate.
Are you trying to tell me I'm too old
to know my business?
No, of course not. I'm sorry if I...
[phone ringing]
excuse me.
Doctor Logan's office.
Yes, doctor, he is.
Doctor Joel Pearlman. County General Pathology.
Hey, Joel, how you doing? What's up?
Is that so?
Arsenic, huh?
Of course that's what I figured.
Why else you think I ordered up all them tests?
[Latin music playing]
Ray, you got a volume control on that thing?
Yes, Sir. Sorry, sheriff.
Listen, I'm taking a ride down to Barstow
and see what's stirring. [phone ringing]
Sheriff's office. Hold on. Sheriff, Doc Logan.
Yeah, Doc?
Jake? What about Jake?
You don't say.
Half the houses in town are for sale,
nobody's buying new cars.
Not like it was before you left.
[scoffs]
Sorry you came back?
Wasn't so great where I was at.
Everybody in this town knows that.
It's funny how things work out.
Take you and me.
That's ancient history.
We were just kids then. Let me get you some more coffee.
Ellen, I'd like to talk to you in the back.
I have a customer.
Ross won't mind. Would you, Ross?
I mind.
Okay. But I'd like to look around anyway.
Excuse me.
Can I ask what you're looking for?
Yeah, Jake Gerringer had dinner in here last night.
Yeah, like always.
You know Doris. She has trouble boiling water.
County Lab boys said Jake was poisoned.
Poisoned!
[sighs]
You saying he was poisoned here in my restaurant?
That's impossible.
I'll have to have this analyzed.
I'll save you the trouble. It's arsenic.
Yeah? Go on.
Oh, come on.
The guy who used to own the restaurant got it
from the tannery to kill ants.
And I resent the accusation.
I'm not accusing you of anything, Ma'am.
Look, there's only one reason that you're here, sheriff.
And that's because of Boston.
Well, might've crossed my mind.
Fact is, you're the only woman in town I know of
who's ever been tried for murder.
Tried and found not guilty.
Ellen,
the trouble with you is,
you don't warm up to people much.
You know, folks around here like to forgive and forget,
but you don't give people much of a chance
to show how friendly they can be.
You got lucky up in Boston when that writer friend of yours
convinced the jury that you didn't kill your husband.
But this ain't no Boston.
[sighs]
Thanks for picking me up in Barstow, Mr. Apple.
But you needn't have bothered, you know.
I could have taken the bus.
Next bus doesn't come through Dry Wells
till tomorrow morning.
And please don't call me Mr. Apple.
It makes me sound like a character
on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
[laughs]
Name's Herb.
Well, Herb, thank you.
My pleasure.
Besides, I wanted to get you to Dry Wells as soon as possible.
Ellen needs all the help she can get.
She should have had some big-city,
high-powered attorney,
but, well,
she couldn't afford one, and the court appointed me.
Well, that's not exactly the way Ellen tells it.
Ellen's a friend.
I sure hope you can pull a rabbit out of the hat again.
It's the only hope I have.
Hey, Laura, wait up!
Hey.
How'd you like to have lunch with your husband for a change?
Where?
The Board of Health has locked up Ellen Wicker's place.
And the sheriff has locked up Ellen Wicker.
Which explains why you're cruising Main Street
looking for company.
Laura, for God's sake, loosen up.
I mean, you used to enjoy love in the afternoon.
I still might...
with the right man.
Ellen?
Oh, Jessica! Oh, thank God you came.
Well, did you think I wouldn't?
[sighs]
You got ten minutes.
[sighs deeply]
Oh, I was so sorry to impose,
but I didn't have anybody else I could turn to.
It's no imposition, believe me.
How can you sleep on this thing?
Barely.
All right, tell me what happened.
Didn't Herb fill you in?
Well, he told me that a man had died,
that you'd been arrested.
That the sheriff had found arsenic?
In the storeroom.
I should've never come back here, Jess.
Why did you come back?
When my parents were still alive,
no matter how badly things were going for me,
I could always come home.
I guess I thought,
in familiar surroundings with old friends,
maybe the hurts would heal.
I guess we all have a place like that.
Mine is Cabot Cove.
Yeah, but Dry Wells isn't like that anymore.
[sighs]
It all began when the tannery shut down
and half the people in town lost their jobs.
Yeah, Herb showed me the abandoned tannery
when we drove into town.
That was from the earthquake. Boy, it was a beauty, 6.8.
destroyed homes, damaged shops on Main Street
that were never rebuilt...
when I saw those boarded-up buildings
I should've just got back on the bus.
Most of my friends are gone, and I just...
didn't know where to go.
All right, well, let's get started.
Now, this man, Gerringer,
I mean, did you have any kind of motive?
Not really, though the sheriff thinks otherwise.
Oh, and that's another thing, Jessica.
Sheriff Hays,
you won't be getting any help from him,
not where I'm concerned.
Oh? Why?
[cell door opening]
Time's up.
Let Mrs. Fletcher out, Mary Jo.
Oh, surely ten minutes isn't up already?
Sorry, Ma'am. We have to cut it short.
Mrs. Wicker's due at the county courthouse
for arraignment.
Oh, good. I'll go with her...
and pay her bail.
[people clamoring]
There she comes.
They shouldn't have let you out!
We don't want your kind around here.
Go back where you came from.
Mrs. Wicker, how does it feel to be accused of murder
for the second time?
I never murdered anybody. Not then and not now.
Get in the car, let's go.
You're not gonna get away with it.
Mrs. Fletcher, would you care to make a comment?
No, I don't.
Are you here to get your friend off
the way you did back in Boston?
Would you get that thing out of my face, please?
They don't belong around here.
You won't get away with it this time!
Get her out of the car.
Shouldn't we go out there before somebody gets hurt?
Don't worry about it, Ray,
them folks are just making their feelings known.
It's the American way.
You think you're better than everybody else,
but you ain't!
[horn honking]
[phone ringing]
Hello?
Stop it.
Stop it, Edge Potter. I know your voice.
There's laws against saying those things.
Look, if you're trying to shock us,
you're only betraying your ignorance.
We've all heard words like this,
and usually with a good deal more originality.
You know, I've known some of those people
in front of the courthouse all my life.
This was a nice little town once.
At least, I thought it was.
Oh, it's not the town.
Believe me, even Cabot Cove, as much as I love it,
has its share of rotten apples.
Jess, I can't go through it again.
The phone calls, the hate mail, people screaming at me.
Yes, you can, and you will.
Now, you've got nothing to apologize for,
nothing to fear.
And I'm going to stick right here with you
until we work this thing out.
And how do we do that?
Well, for starters,
tell me about Jake Gerringer's daughter, Doris.
Well, I don't know her all that well.
Doris mostly keeps to herself.
Kind of plain, kind of mousey-looking.
Lately I've heard she's been looking real strange.
No, Mrs. Fletcher,
I don't mind talking about my father's death.
Not at all.
Oh, though it is kind of painful, of course.
Would you like a glass of French champagne?
Oh, no, no, not right now, thank you.
Do you always entertain drop-in guests so lavishly?
[chuckles]
I never entertain at all.
I'm practicing for the way I'm gonna live in Hollywood
when I get daddy's insurance money.
You know, you are the first celebrity I have ever met.
Well, you certainly went to a great deal of trouble.
About Ellen...
I did it right, didn't I?
Caviar and this liver stuff and all?
Perfect.
I got it out of a magazine.
[exclaims]
Didn't realize how much it cost, though.
Doris, about Ellen...
Ellen.
She was my very best friend in high school
and I'd be glad to help any way I can.
I understand that she worked for your father at one point.
Mm-hmm. We both did.
I guess she told you my daddy fired her.
Well, actually...
I felt sorry for her. It wasn't fair.
Even if he did catch her stealing at the register,
he should've given her another chance.
Ellen was the most popular girl in high school.
Everybody liked her.
I envied her so much.
And you wanted to be like her.
No, I...
I wanted to be her.
Then I wouldn't have had to live with that old man.
My daddy treated me like a slave.
Never let me have any friends.
Well, anyway, she shouldn't have done it.
What makes you so sure that she did?
She got away with murder once, didn't she?
In Boston?
No, she did not.
That's what I heard.
Oh, I can hardly wait for the trial.
[chuckles]
I'll have to buy myself something nice to wear.
I think I'll make a terrific witness, don't you?
Sheriff Hays, are you there? Come in, Sheriff Hays.
Yeah, Mary Jo, what's up?
Katie Emhardt's waiting in your office.
Says she's got something important to tell you
about her dead husband.
My Wilbur died exactly three weeks ago today.
I didn't have the heart
to clean out his closet until yesterday.
I kept seeing those empty shoes there and I started to cry,
thinking how I'd never see his big feet again.
Ma'am, I just don't have a whole lot of time...
Oh, shoo! There's a point to this, sheriff,
and I'm gonna get to it.
Now, after I did his closet,
I cleaned out his side
of the bathroom medicine cabinet.
And I found these pills, his bladder medicine.
You see, Doc Logan's name is there on the side.
What about it?
Well, Doc said he died of his heart,
but there wasn't any heart medicine,
because he didn't have a bad heart.
I was with him when he died.
He was clutching his stomach, he was in a lot of pain.
Just exactly like Jake Gerringer.
You're gonna think I'm crazy, sheriff,
but I believe he was poisoned.
You know, I really shouldn't do this
without Dr. Logan's permission.
He's out to lunch.
With Doc that's a permanent condition.
Go on.
Wilbur Emhardt.
His last physical was before the quake.
Doctor diagnosed an irritated bladder,
prescribed medication and put him on a special diet.
No heart problems?
None indicated.
You got a copy of his death certificate in there?
Cause of death, heart failure.
It's a Friday.
Doc has a habit of usually leaving early on fridays
to drive down to Laughlin
for a weekend of heavy gambling.
Around noon.
Time of death is 2:15 p.m.
well, Doc could have rushed through the examination
to get back on schedule.
Anyway, thanks a lot, Laura.
Tell the Doc that I stopped by.
Sheriff, do you think
Ellen Wicker's one of them serial killers?
Don't matter much what I think.
The evidence will speak for itself.
Mary Jo?
Yes, Sir, sheriff.
Call Judge peller,
tell him I need to have a body dug up.
Jake Gerringer didn't catch me stealing.
Somebody lied to him and told him
I took money out of the register.
Somebody like his daughter Doris?
There were several clerks.
Guess it could have been Doris.
Anyway, Jake reported it to the sheriff's office.
I think he wanted to scare me more than anything else.
I got scared okay, but...
not by Jake.
Sheriff Deloy Hays.
Of course...
he wasn't sheriff then, just a deputy, but...
he said he could fix things for me on a friendly basis.
How well he fixed things depended on how friendly I got.
I wasn't even 20 yet.
Hays was 30.
As mean and cold then as he is today.
He had me in a cell, backed up against the wall.
If Herb Apple hadn't come in just then, I...
What happened?
Herb had gone to see Jake and got him to drop the charges.
The next day I left town.
And the last thing I remember seeing
is Deloy Hays' eyes staring at me as the bus pulled out.
That was 15 years ago, Jessica.
And about the only thing that hasn't changed in this town
is Deloy Hays.
[people chattering]
Hey, Herb, just in time. You almost missed all the fun.
What the hell is this about, sheriff?
It's all in the court order, counselor.
Read it for yourself.
[chuckles]
Look at this.
Ol' wilbur looks as good as the day he was buried.
Figures.
Preservation's one of the properties of arsenic.
The tannery used a ton of it.
Ray, have Wilbur delivered to the pathology department
at County General.
You got it.
There's no way you can hang this on Ellen.
Just doing my job, Herb.
Tell that to Mrs. Fletcher, too.
Tell her to stay out of my way or get out of my town.
[motorcycle revving]
[tires screeching]
Howdy, Mrs. Fletcher.
Hello.
I hear you been all over town seeing folks,
even crazy Doris.
Now that ain't very smart.
Be a shame to put in all this exercise
and all of a sudden get yourself hurt.
And just how might I get myself hurt?
Accident, maybe.
Town's kind of edgy these days.
Never know what's liable to happen.
Is that some sort of threat?
Now, if I was you, I'd think real hard
about catching the next bus out of here.
Well, thanks for the advice. I'll give it some thought.
Now, where's my manners?
I'll just take you to the station myself.
Get on.
[sirens wailing]
Oh! Where did you come from?
Sheriff asked me to keep on eye on you.
You all right, Mrs. Fletcher?
Oh, yes, I'm just fine. No damage, just my nerves.
Edge Potter.
He's three bricks short of a full load.
I'll have a chat with him later.
Everybody in this town is not like him, Mrs. Fletcher.
Well, thank goodness. And thanks for you.
Although I'm sure all this isn't
what the sheriff had in mind
when he said to keep your eye on me.
[both laughing]
Well, no question about it, Ellen.
Wilbur Emhardt was poisoned.
Arsenic, just like Jake Gerringer.
I can't believe this.
He was one of your regulars, too, wasn't he?
Oh, for God's sakes, you, too?
No, course not, course not.
I'm just reflecting what people are saying.
Or, you know, at least thinking.
Relax, you're gonna come through this okay.
I'm here, huh?
I mean,
haven't I always been here when you needed me?
Huh?
Yeah...
come on. No, that's enough.
Come on.
Please don't.
This is stupid and embarrassing.
Stop it! I said no!
Ellen?
[door slams]
Funny, isn't it, Jess,
how I seem to bring out the best in people?
[sighs]
It's all right, Ellen.
[shrieks]
Stay here.
Jessica, don't go out there!
[tires squealing]
[gasps]
I don't suppose you can describe the car, can you?
Well, no, it was too dark to see.
I'll see to it that this window gets replaced.
Then I'll take care
of painting the porch for you, Ellen.
Thanks, Herb.
I would have been here sooner
if I wasn't hanging around with Doctor Logan
at the County General waiting for the lab test results
of Wilbur Emhardt.
It was arsenic poisoning, all right.
I know.
I understand that two of the victims
were Doctor Logan's patients.
Doc says that if the poisoning hadn't gotten him,
something else would have.
I'm sorry, Ellen,
but this business with Wilbur is going to make things tougher.
You haven't changed your mind about defending me, have you?
Of course I haven't.
[phone ringing]
I'll get it.
Did you know your phone was off the hook when I came in?
Well, Ellen has had several unpleasant calls recently.
[whistles]
How long has this been going on?
Since early this morning. It never quits.
[sighs]
Ellen, I am so sorry.
Whatever it takes, however long it takes,
we're going to get you through this.
[coughing]
[groans]
[coughing]
Laura!
Ross?
[phone ringing]
Sheriff's office. Deputy Gomez...
the sheriff isn't here right now.
Hold it, he just walked in.
It's Mrs. Corman. She sounds kind of hysterical.
Laura?
Laura, just slow down. I can't understand you.
He's gone, sheriff.
Hasn't been dead more than 15 or 20 minutes, though.
Poison again, Doc?
Now, how the hell would I know?
I ain't no damn coroner.
How you feeling, Laura?
Better, thanks.
Well, you look like hell.
You've had a bad shock. I want you upstairs...
No, no, no, no.
I need to ask her a couple more questions first.
[clearing throat]
Laura, you said Ross told you
he had some kind of business meeting tonight.
And you went up to bed around 10:00, right?
Yes.
And then later you heard Ross come in, you know,
banging around like he'd had too much to drink.
But you don't know where he'd been?
Well, I didn't get a chance to talk to him.
He called out my name and when I went downstairs
I found him doubled up sick.
He couldn't talk, he fell, it was awful.
That's when I called you.
[phone ringing]
Ray, would you answer that thing?
Okay, up you go.
I want you in bed for a while.
The questions can wait.
Sheriff, it's Mary Jo.
Yeah, hello. What's the trouble, Mary Jo?
Hmm.
When did the call come in?
It was a muffled tone, hard to hear.
Yeah, did they give a name?
What exactly did the caller say?
Maybe you should try to get some sleep, Ellen.
I can't.
Why don't you go to bed, Jess, you must be tired.
I can't sleep either.
I mean, this poison, something is missing.
I just can't get a handle on it.
About tonight. About Ross. I'm sorry you had to see that.
Oh, it wasn't your fault.
Well, when he invited himself over for a drink,
I should have known better.
You know, mostly everybody thought
we were going to get married, including me.
That was before Jake Gerringer's accusation
ran me out of town.
[sighs]
I guess
Ross just thought he could pick up where we left off.
Never had much luck with men, Jess.
Not even Herb Apple?
Oh, Herb's a dear friend,
but I never thought of him in that way.
Too bad. Maybe you should try.
[car approaching]
Who could that be? It's almost 1:00.
It's the sheriff.
[knocking on door]
Ellen, mind if I come in?
Mrs. Fletcher.
Sheriff.
Anything wrong?
Seems a little late for a social call.
No, nothing, Ma'am.
Trouble is like babies. Mostly it comes at night.
What kind of trouble?
Ross Corman was here earlier tonight, right, Ellen?
Yes, he was.
Yeah, we got a tip about that.
Had some wine, I expect.
That's right. Why?
Oh. Had stains on his shirt.
Could have matched the wine in that bottle there.
What do you mean, "stains on his shirt"?
He's dead, Ma'am.
What?
Looks like he was poisoned.
Ellen, I'm confiscating this bottle,
and you're coming with me down to my office.
Now, just a moment, sheriff.
I had some of that wine. We both did.
Our glasses are right here.
Well, where's Ross Corman's glass?
I washed it after he left along with mine and a plate.
So you didn't poison the whole bottle,
just Ross's glass.
That's such a stupid accusation.
We know you had the arsenic.
You could have put enough aside
to get even with an old boyfriend
who dumped you years ago.
Look, sheriff, you have no right...
You stay out of this, Ma'am. It's none of your business.
Now, Ellen, you grab your coat.
You can call your lawyer from my office.
All right, go with him, Ellen. I'll call Herb.
Well, having got you out in the middle of the night,
the least I can do is to make some coffee.
It was a dirty trick,
the sheriff arresting Ellen at night.
He knows I won't be able to get hold of a judge
until late in the morning.
Well, with everything
that's been going on around here tonight,
I think that she's safer in jail.
Nice try, but I don't think you mean that.
Herb, what do you think's gonna happen?
I mean, really.
Worst case scenario, I don't want to think about.
After the sheriff is finished setting folks against Ellen,
it'll be hard as hell to find an impartial jury.
Folks in this town are like sheep.
You lead 'em by the nose, they'll follow you anywhere.
Of course, with the sheriff, it's personal.
But you know that.
I know that.
I am totally perplexed. I mean, it seems inconceivable
that there's a psychopath running around poisoning people,
certainly not Ellen, but people are dying
and there has to be a logical reason.
I hope you made that coffee strong.
I don't expect to get much sleep tonight.
Jessica?
Hello?
Oh, I'm sorry.
Didn't you tell me that the Dry Wells
that this town is named for are close-by the tannery ruins?
Yes, that's right.
Well, this is a long shot, Herb, but it's just possible.
I may have an idea what's behind all this.
And why should I show my husband's files
from the tannery to you?
Because I believe that
there's something in those files
that will prove Ellen Wicker's innocence.
You make it a habit of doing
the sheriff's job for him,
Mrs. Fletcher?
Well, I guess I do, when he can't. Or won't.
Most folks in this town are real fond of Deloy Hays.
He keeps the town safe.
At what cost, Mrs. Emhardt?
I mean, it seems to me
that the sheriff runs things the way that it suits him.
That's fine with me.
I don't want his job, though it appears you do.
No, I do not want his job,
but I do want to see justice done,
and it won't be if Ellen Wicker is convicted of murders
that she didn't commit.
What are you afraid of?
Don't you want to know the truth
about the death of your husband?
You're wasting your time.
When you called I looked in those files.
There's nothing in there about Ellen Wicker.
Well, what is in those files then?
Lot of chemical stuff I don't understand.
Bunch of memos from the board of directors
about closing down the tannery.
Including disposal of toxic waste?
How'd you know that?
Was just a guess.
Mrs. Emhardt, please let me look at the files.
If I'm wrong, there's no harm done,
but if I'm right,
you've saved an innocent woman from a life in prison.
Sheriff's not gonna like this.
Well, frankly, I don't care what the sheriff likes.
I told my deputy not to disturb us for a while.
You and me, we gotta come to some kind of understanding.
What do you want?
You're a pretty smart lady.
I'd have thought you'd figured that out.
I guess you remember a few years back, you and me in here,
we never did finish that conversation.
You bastard, keep away from me.
Not very nice talk, Ellen, considering your predicament.
You know, I'm in a good position to help you.
County attorney,
he pretty much goes by my say-so.
If I was to tell him
I didn't have much of a case against you,
he'd go along.
Same applies the other way.
Guess I'm not getting through to you, am I?
Oh, I hear you just fine and the answer is no.
I'll take my chances in court.
I'm sorry to hear that, Ellen.
Trouble is, you've never had the love of a good man.
[keys jingling]
Sheriff.
Mary jo, I told you not to disturb me in here!
Yes, Sir, but there's something on the TV
I think you should see.
To recap what's going on here this afternoon,
volunteers from safer environment
are digging with picks and shovels
about 100 yards behind the ruins of the old tannery.
Why they are digging remains a complete mystery,
which may explain the presence of mystery writer
J.B. Fletcher among the diggers.
Damn!
[sirens wailing]
[people chattering]
You people know what you're doing here?
This is private property. And you're all trespassing!
Now let's just clear the area.
Did you people hear what I said?
Oh, they heard you all right, sheriff,
but I just don't think they much care.
Oh, friends of yours, Mrs. Fletcher?
I mean weirdos from back East?
Well, actually, sheriff,
they're from all over the country.
They're volunteers who care about the environment.
What the hell's going on here?
Well, Mrs. Emhardt gave us her late husband's plans
for disposing of toxic materials, including arsenic,
to be buried in three dry wells.
Oh, come on, that old tannery didn't kill anybody.
Don't you be so sure of that.
Mr. Emhardt thought
that the poison would remain safely buried forever.
Now, his wife said that he had second thoughts
during the Central California earthquakes.
So now it's a quake's fault, huh?
I mean, it sounds like you're making up
one of your stories.
Yeah, I think I hit something.
Over here!
I think I got one!
Okay, on three. One, two, three.
Someone get me a flashlight.
[people cheering]
You see what happened?
The earthquake cracked the walls of the dry wells
and the water from the lower water table seeped in
and the same earthquake damaged the containers.
The arsenic contaminated the water supply.
That's your killer, sheriff. Toxic waste, not Ellen Wicker.
So why don't you get off your butt and let her out of jail?
You're saying it wasn't murder?
That's exactly what I'm saying.
Well, I'm not so sure about that, Herb.
I mean, the fact is
one of the victims was definitely murdered.
And the question in my mind is,
what are you willing to do about it, sheriff?
Well, thank you very much.
You're right, Ma'am.
The board of health tested the town's drinking water
and the main well on the North Side is contaminated.
But not the well on the South Side?
No, Ma'am.
Jake Gerringer and Wilbur Emhardt
would have gotten their water from the North Side.
Well, those two had really bad health problems.
Of course, younger, stronger people like Jake's daughter,
they could tolerate small amounts of arsenic.
For a while anyway.
Yes, but one of the victims was young and healthy
and lived on the South Side where there was no poison.
Doc, we'd like to speak to your nurse, please.
Sure.
Laura, would you come in for a minute, please?
Laura?
She was here a minute ago. She must've stepped out.
Well, maybe we can catch her.
[tires screeching]
Mrs. Fletcher, what's going on?
Follow us!
[toilet flushing]
It won't do any good, Laura. You can't flush the container.
You can't prove I murdered my husband.
Ellen Wicker poisoned him with red wine.
And how did you know that Ellen served him red wine?
Ross told me, that's how.
You told me you were upstairs when Ross came in,
and you never had a chance to talk to him.
He had a wine stain on his shirt, that's how I knew.
But there was no stain when he left Ellen's.
His shirt was perfectly clean.
No, I believe that the stain was deliberately put there by you,
and the only way that you could have known
that he was drinking red wine at Ellen's
was by following him over there
and spying on him through the window.
She's making that up to protect Ellen.
And later, when you supposedly found Ross dying,
you called the sheriff.
A concerned wife and a nurse should've called the doctor.
The anonymous call to the sheriff's office
came from your upstairs phone
while the sheriff was busy downstairs.
I checked the phone company's records.
Do you think I wanted to work for Doc Logan?
I had to.
Ross spent every cent he made
on stupid women that didn't give a damn about him.
But Ellen was the one that he pined for.
I'd already made up my mind to kill him.
When I saw her give him the wine,
I knew just how I'd do it.
I waited for him in a sexy nightgown
to grab his attention.
I'd already poisoned a bottle of his favorite wine.
It was no trouble at all to get him to drink it.
I went up to bed and waited.
When I heard him call my name, I knew the poison was working.
After he was dead,
I poured wine on his shirt and made a trail
that led the sheriff straight to Ellen.
I knew he'd be so anxious to get Ellen in his jail,
he wouldn't concern himself with proof.
You know, Dry Wells is liable to be
a whole different place for you
now that the sheriff has been fired
and Ray Gomez has been appointed in his place.
Yeah, but it wasn't just the sheriff.
Ever since I arrived I felt like I was living in a fishbowl,
always on display, always being judged.
No matter what I did,
there'd always be those looks behind me.
There she goes, the typhoid Mary of murder.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, you can't have that title.
That's what they call me.
[laughter]
[phone ringing]
Excuse me.
Hello?
Hi, Katie. It's Katie Emhardt.
Oh. Are you sure?
[sighs]
Well, yeah, I guess so.
Well, thanks for asking me, Katie.
I'll talk to you soon.
What is it?
The woman's club.
They're trying to revitalize the town
and they're starting with
a "let's get Dry Wells back on its feet dance" next month.
They want me to serve on the committee.
Oh, how very nice.
But...
[clears throat]
are you still going to be here next month?
Yeah, I guess I will be.
Well, then I guess you only have one problem.
A date for the dance.
Here I go, calling a lawyer again.
[chuckling]
[cheerful orchestral music]