In New York City's war on crime,
the worst criminal offenders are pursued
by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
The nicks are a 16th of an inch deep,
but I can't determine the type of projectile.
Projectile, like gunshots from the park across the street?
Projectile is a generic term, Mr. Martz.
Could it be a defect in the glass?
I use that glass in all my buildings.
If it'll make you feel better, Mr. Martz,
we'll schedule an extra night patrol in the park.
Anne Marie, from now on, keep Jeremy away from those windows.
Well, doesn't it scrape off?
It'll just come back.
What is it?
The beginning of the end.
It's your favorite channel, huh?
They are really feeling the heat now.
Jay, is it me, or is that supposed to fog up like that?
What's that?
Anne Marie, you're supposed to keep an eye on Jeremy.
I'm sorry.
I must have looked like an idiot.
When the steam started coming out of the ground,
I thought the whole place was going to blow up.
All right, everyone, take a seat. Let's get started.
I know, I'm disappointed, too, but...
No, no, that's still an option.
Yeah, thanks for calling.
They were coming upriver when something hit the prop.
The owner, Mr. Paulson, was driving the boat.
Deckhands say he's a 40- proof sailor.
You do a Breathalyzer?
He locked himself in his lawyer's car.
He's got some pull in the Commissioner's office.
That's why we're here. You tell Mr. Paulson he doesn't submit
to a Breathalyzer in 10 minutes,
we'll put him where his pull doesn't reach.
Looks like he went headfirst into the propeller.
What's he wearing, a sailing suit?
No, the collar's too short. Looks like a jogging suit.
See this injury here, near the spine?
It's more narrow than the others.
Doesn't look like it's from a propeller, and it's deep.
Now if that hit the renal artery,
he was dead before he was in the water.
An oblique incision at 25 degrees.
That's the angle the blade went in.
An adjustable blade? Maybe a power saw?
Any estimate on how long he was in the water?
No lividity, so say about an hour.
So, bumped into the boat about here.
Now the Hudson flows around four clicks an hour this time of year.
Four kilometers would put him going in off Chelsea.
The leuko lit up around this bench.
That's all we need. Thanks.
Optical glass.
Curvature's too extreme for glasses.
Might be a lens from a binocular.
Looks like blood on it. Might belong to the victim or the perp.
Maybe the guy liked to watch boats.
There's not much to see here at night.
Front row seats for a Peeping Tom.
Maybe their doorman's seen this guy before.
Oh, God. It's Jay.
I called everywhere last night looking for him.
You own binoculars?
Yeah, that's why we moved here.
Jay loved the view.
There's a smudge on the window.
It's on the balcony side.
Your husband spent a lot of time out there looking at the view, huh?
I guess.
Any idea why he would have taken the binoculars with him last night?
I can't imagine.
Excuse me, I have to take this.
Maybe he was admiring his building.
According to Architecture Now,
"It's a wonder of postmodern design. "
Peerson arranged for them to do a photo shoot here next week.
Bars on the screen.
Looks like they're burned in.
Somebody left the television on the same channel for too long.
Poor man's reality TV.
I don't know about muggers in the park,
but it looks like Peerson's more worried about the people in his own building.
Nobody moves in this building without us seeing it.
You remember anybody coming through here
either just before or after Mr. Peerson went out last night?
Well, just Mrs. Fisher and her son about 9:15.
They had a car service take them out to the Hamptons.
This is nice. This woodwork here, you cut it here to fit?
Yup. They finished it two days ago.
Finally.
I don't have my protractor, but this looks like a 25-degree angle to me.
Just seal it.
We'll deal with the leaks as we find them.
Leaks? From steam pipes?
Just that the lobby floor is heated.
It's supposed to be.
Fancy. We're wondering who put up that woodwork.
Well, that'd be me.
Those 25-degree angles, you cut those with a saw?
Yeah. A small circular saw.
Why are you asking?
We're doing a makeover on our squad room. And you are?
Bernie Moreno. I built this building.
You here because of Jay Peerson?
Good guess. You knew him well?
He was president of the condo board.
We were working together to get the building finished.
You still have that circular saw here?
Something wrong, Bob?
Well, my saw is gone.
I put it in there day before yesterday.
You don't keep this thing locked?
Not all the time, no.
Last time you used the saw, was that on the woodwork?
That's right. That's right. I finished it two days ago.
The builder, Mr. Moreno, he was all over us to get it done.
All this caulking. A lot more leaks.
Yeah. From the roof and the windows.
Mr. Moreno not in a hurry to get them fixed?
Leaks don't show up in a photo spread. Not like woodwork in a lobby.
No.
Is that what Mr. Moreno was worried about, the photo shoot next week?
All I know is he had us working double shifts.
And then, yesterday... Yesterday,
he had us go back to regular shifts.
The pressure was off.
He said the homeowners canceled the photo shoot.
And then somebody canceled Jay Peerson.
Sounds like the homeowners were the ones feeling the pressure.
Okay, hope she got it. You never know with her.
Fred.
Darla, anything we can do, you let us know.
Thank you.
I have calls to return still, but please stay. Help yourselves.
Maybe you should call Anne Marie.
I'm never sure she gets my messages.
She got this one.
You send her out for milk,
she comes back with motor oil.
Things are different now, Victor.
I hope you'll see things our way.
Moreno's had a few beefs with the Building Department.
And then there's this. Two weeks ago,
local precinct investigated reports
of gunshots hitting the River Tower.
Turns out it was just falling debris hitting some windows.
Talk about your dream house.
Doesn't sound like anyone's getting a good night's sleep.
Careful with that.
Same model as the murder weapon.
It's light, maneuverable, it's got a blade
that can cut through metal and bone.
Not the obvious choice to kill someone.
Cover the bases. Get alibis from everyone in the building.
We know what one of his neighbors was doing.
A few minutes before he was killed,
Peerson got a call from a Victor Garros on the third floor.
We were commiserating.
Jay and I never thought being on a condo board
would take over our entire lives.
You were at the meeting for the vote on the photo shoot?
Yes, I'm the secretary. I record the minutes.
Now, the photo shoot was putting a lot of pressure on Bernie Moreno.
Why do you suppose it was voted down?
Mr. Garros, is it possible some members of the board
were threatened by Moreno?
I don't know about that.
Jay wanted to sue Moreno,
and some of the others were afraid that he would just, you know,
walk away from the job.
Well, he's practically walked away now.
The heating doesn't work...
What is this here?
A floating wall.
It's another thing Moreno hasn't quite gotten around to.
The other people, how do they plan to deal with Moreno?
They want to pay him extra to finish the job
by almost tripling our maintenance fee to $8,000 a month.
These people are nuts.
Yeah, Maureen doesn't really understand about New York real estate.
You're not from here?
No, I'm from Brewster.
We had a bed-and-breakfast there.
But Victor grew up in the city, so...
Now the group that wants to pay off Moreno, who speaks for them?
Fred Martz. He's in the penthouse.
Martz? He called in the gunshot report.
I haven't been threatened. Where did you get that idea?
Well, for instance, instead of suing Moreno,
you want to pay him extra to finish work he's already been paid to do.
First of all, I don't scare that easy.
Well, maybe Moreno found another way to get you back.
You know,
like this wall.
Is this what you call a floating wall?
Yes. It's bronze and aluminum.
We almost saw another one, but Moreno hadn't built it yet.
You know, I'm willing to bet that this is the only one
that he actually did finish.
Mr. Martz, your mail is being forwarded
from four different addresses.
What's that called when somebody buys a place
and lives in it for a year and then sells it?
Yeah, yeah, flipping.
Right, flipping. You're going to flip this place, aren't you?
Is that why you don't want publicity from a lawsuit?
If word got out this place was a dud,
the $2,000 a square foot you paid
would be worth, what, half? A third?
Did you notice that when they were building this
that they used a little saw?
You know, the same kind of saw they used to kill Jay with?
You're accusing me?
Just for drill, where were you around 9:00 the night he was killed?
I was outside in front of the garage with Moreno.
Oh, so your alibi's our other suspect. That's not terrific for you.
For God's sake, I didn't kill Jay.
When I was finished with Moreno, I came back up here.
I'm sorry, I was at a yoga class.
And Moreno?
He said he had to fix the automatic gate in front of the garage.
He skinned his knee.
It's okay, sweetie, Mommy's here.
There we go.
I have said everything to you I'm going to say without my lawyer.
I would like you to leave.
Maybe the super can tell us if Moreno actually fixed that gate.
That smudge,
it's the same height as it was at the Peersons' place.
Anybody besides Moreno might have worked on the gate?
No. I told him we were having problems with it.
His crew had already gone. He said he'd fix it himself.
That takes him out of the running.
8A? That's the Martzes' space, isn't it?
Mrs. Martz.
When did this drip start?
Yesterday.
We moved her to another spot until we can get it fixed.
The new space, can we see it?
Well, yeah. It's back here.
It's the only space we have open.
There's no security camera back here.
Where's that door lead to?
It's the service corridor to the stairwell. Only employees have keys.
I'd be worried parking back here.
That drip down there, do you know how it started?
Well, it looks like a pipe just got knocked loose.
Well, we're gonna need you to send a notice
to the tenants about that pipe getting fixed.
Hillary Martz?
We might not know the why, but at least we know the how.
Hillary, after tomorrow night,
you'll be able to park back in your old spot.
They're fixing the pipes.
That was quick.
Look at that. That's what we paid for.
Anne Marie, what's the matter?
Fred. Fred!
Hillary, get a mop.
I can't believe this. Those idiots didn't seal the windows.
Drop it! Drop it!
Drop it!
God told me. God told me to do it.
My client's not in a position to decide what's in her best interest.
She was arrested trying to kill someone
she thought was Hillary Martz.
An explanation can only help her.
Anne Marie, you don't seem very happy.
People are usually happy they are chosen by God for a special purpose.
Was it difficult for you to obey him?
Yes, but I had to.
He showed me the door in the garage
and he put the key in my pocket.
He showed you how? In a dream?
No, he just showed me. He showed me they were sinners.
I saw him touch her while everybody was at the apartment.
You saw Mrs. Martz and Mr. Peerson? They were having an affair?
God told me they were.
Does he speak to you? You hear voices? His voice?
No. He has a special way of telling me things.
How do you know it's God?
Because he tells me things only God knows
about my prayers and other things,
like how Ms. Martz eats in secret and makes herself sick.
Anne Marie, the world is full of sinners.
Why would God ask you to punish these two?
He said their sin was bringing a plague on the building.
A plague?
You mean the problems with the construction?
The windows break, the cement turns to white powder.
It's all signs.
Of what?
The prophecy. Mark 13.
Mark 13. "Jesus came out of the temple.
"His disciple said to him, 'Master, see what buildings are here. '
"And Jesus answered, 'Seest thou these great buildings?
"'There shall not be left one stone upon another
"'that shall not be thrown down. "'
It happened before.
Three years ago. The Devil's Chimney. I saw it on TV.
People were falling from the sky.
And God told me that it would happen again if I did not obey.
An affair? I don't know where Anne Marie got that idea.
She said Mr. Peerson touched you during a homeowners meeting.
We were both in the exercise room when the steam pipe blew.
He just put his hand on my shoulder.
Anne Marie's making this whole thing up.
Here you go. Are you bulimic, Mrs. Martz?
Of course not.
Because Anne Marie,
she said that she was told by God that you, you know,
binge in secret, and then you... How would she know that?
Is that what you're thinking? Maybe she saw you or...
It's impossible.
I always make sure no one's home.
Thank you for all your help, Mrs. Martz.
The officer will show you downstairs.
So, a fanatic?
I think she's a reasonably functioning person
who's convinced that she was contacted by God.
Now, her conviction is informed by
a traumatic experience.
Devil's Chimney. World Trade Center.
Now she thinks that she was chosen
to stop it from happening again.
The key to that door didn't just materialize in her pocket.
Actually, we traced it back to the maintenance office.
And Anne Marie's DNA matched the smudge on Jay Peerson's window.
She was watching him from his own balcony?
God tells her things, but she doesn't hear voices.
These are her personal effects.
Now there's dozens of messages
from the Martzes about Jeremy.
And here, deleted messages marked from Unknown.
There's like two or three every day, and six yesterday.
See if you can undelete God's word.
All I'm finding are frags. Here.
"You won't be alone. I'll guide your hand. I hear your prayers. "
"Didn't I show you her sin? Why do you still have doubts?"
This girl's good.
What? You don't believe she wrote these?
Well... She's setting up a defense.
Then why delete the messages? Unless God asked her to.
You owe me a Danish.
The messages from God, they were traced back to a computer.
Hers.
We bought her the computer. She'd never owned one.
She grew up in Vermont?
On a farm.
Maybe if we had hired someone with a little more savvy...
She loves your son.
Yes.
And these kids. Orphans from 9l11.
She told us that was the reason she moved to the city.
She read about all the orphans.
Okay, let's get you some juice, huh?
These messages
were definitely sent over the Internet from this terminal.
Well, that computer has a Wi-Fi, doesn't it?
Someone could hack in, you know, send messages.
Sure, but the range would be limited.
The hacker would have to be inside the building.
She said God showed her things.
The locked door in the parking garage.
The toolbox.
Hillary Martz.
That birthmark.
It's Jay Peerson.
The lab checked.
The photos were definitely taken with her camera.
Someone borrowed it.
Isn't it more likely
this is an elaborate ruse to mount an insanity defense?
Well, we heard that she refused a psychiatric evaluation.
Still, have you considered the possibility
she has another motive to kill Mr. Peerson and Mrs. Martz?
Maybe she's in love with Mr. Martz.
Maybe she thought she was doing him a favor
killing his wife, his enemy.
We would've found evidence of her devotion to Martz.
Photos, a diary.
No, her only devotion is to children and God.
She could've taken this picture of Hillary.
But this one of Jay Peerson...
These shadows in the picture.
He's lying down, maybe on a bed.
The image is compressed.
A telephoto lens?
These pictures were taken from far away, from a high angle.
Don't tell me. By an angel.
At least in Brewster we had a garden.
Look, I don't want to sell, all right? We'll lose our shirts.
Fred, help me out here, buddy.
Fred, you of all people, after what nearly happened to Hillary...
Victor's right. You sell now, we all take a bath.
Now you're...
Your husband would've been lying right here.
She must have snuck in from the balcony to take that picture.
Thanks, Darla.
Well, the shot would have been from this side.
Well, I guess from further back...
Yeah, this is right. It's just a higher angle.
Above you.
I wonder what's behind that wall.
This is it. This is the east chase.
It runs up the back of the building.
Those are the vents up there.
Somebody could've climbed up and taken the pictures.
Is there access to this shaft from the apartments?
They all have trapdoors they could crawl through.
I can't see Anne Marie climbing around in here.
Well, whoever it was
heard her prayers.
God told me to look in the camera
and these pictures were in there.
We think someone took advantage of you, Anne Marie.
These pictures, the text messages,
they are not from God.
That's not true.
Anne Marie, just listen.
This was taken from inside a vent in Mr. Peerson's bathroom.
Somebody was in the shaft behind the wall.
The one of Mrs. Martz was taken the same way, with your camera.
No, but my camera was in my room.
They borrowed it.
The same person got into your apartment
through a trapdoor in the hall closet.
Mr. Peerson, Mrs. Martz, they weren't having an affair.
Yes, they were. Mr. Peerson wasn't happy in his marriage.
I heard him arguing with Mrs. Peerson when I was on their balcony.
Anne Marie, the God that you know
doesn't ask people to kill in his name.
I wasn't sure, but then God made it easy for me.
Made it easy to kill Mr. Peerson? How?
He showed me these pictures and then he told me what to do.
But I was weak and scared.
So God let me go to sleep,
and in the morning, he said that I had done a good thing,
that Mr. Peerson was dead.
You don't remember actually killing him?
I do now.
God said I didn't have a choice,
that I needed to finish what he had asked me to do.
Anne Marie, you didn't kill Mr. Peerson.
Somebody convinced you to weaken your resistance
so you could kill Mrs. Martz.
No, I killed Mr. Peerson.
I remember. God showed me how I did it.
God showed you?
Show us how.
I picked this up and then I squeezed this.
I guess he forgot to show you to use the safety.
Now you didn't hurt anybody, Anne Marie. The messages were all lies.
Oh, God.
I almost killed...
Oh, God, I'm so stupid.
I'm so stupid.
You're not stupid.
You're not stupid to have faith.
You'd think she'd be relieved.
It's a big comedown from God's avenger to prize patsy.
We need to put her on a suicide watch.
And you need to figure out who pulled her strings.
She said Jay Peerson and his wife were arguing.
The night Peerson was killed, he was outside with his binoculars.
Maybe what he was spying on was his wife.
Maybe she's the one having the affair, not him.
Well, if Darla Peerson has a lover,
it's a good bet he's the one who killed her husband
and set up Anne Marie.
My money's on Fred Martz.
Getting rid of Jay Peerson
and then his own wife is cheaper than a divorce.
This building's quite the steamy little beehive.
There's no evidence Fred and Darla
were sweating up the sheets off campus.
If they were sneaking into each other's apartments, why didn't anyone notice?
Aren't there security cameras every two feet in that building?
Not in the shaft.
That's probably how Martz got into Darla's apartment.
Well, this is interesting.
These notes Peerson made for a board meeting.
He found out from Victor Garros
that Martz paid 20 grand under the table
to get his floating wall finished.
How would Victor know that?
Might be one of those secrets you overhear from inside the shaft.
Thanks for coming on such short notice.
How you been doing?
It's difficult. I miss Jay.
I know.
Losing your husband all of a sudden like that, it cuts very deep.
It's even worse when you've been arguing.
We didn't argue.
Anne Marie heard you from the balcony.
I'm not saying we had a fairy-tale marriage,
but our arguments didn't mean anything.
I like fairy tales.
Especially the one about Rapunzel.
This was shot last night
in the service shaft behind your apartment.
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair. "
Isn't that Victor?
The trapdoor leads right into your closet.
And, Ms. Peerson, we need you to explain this to us.
Jay and I were living up in Stamford two years ago.
I went to a wedding in Brewster.
We all stayed at Victor and Maureen's bed-and-breakfast.
One night, I had too much champagne,
and then
I had Victor.
You kept seeing each other?
Yeah.
When Jay and I moved back to the city six months ago,
I thought that would end it.
And then next thing I know, Victor has moved in downstairs.
He chased after you. Did he want you to leave your husband?
He asked me.
But Victor's a boy. You know, he was fun.
Jay was
a man, you know. He was a husband.
I loved him.
Ms. Peerson, the night that your husband was killed,
do you know where Victor was?
He was with me.
What time? Do you know?
He came up just after 9:30.
That gives him enough time to call Jay and get back from the park.
What do you mean?
We believe he killed your husband.
That... You told me that girl...
She doesn't remember doing it,
someone convinced her that she did.
And convinced her to attack Hillary Martz.
Not Victor...
This picture was taken through the bathroom vent from the shaft.
So Victor killed Peerson to give him a clear shot at Darla?
And he targeted Hillary Martz to set up Anne Marie as a suspect.
The only transgression of his we actually can prove is infidelity.
Well, maybe we can do better than that.
Jeez, you scared me.
Well, you said to come up.
Yeah, I know, I just didn't...
Well, since we don't have to worry about Jay anymore,
the next time I'll knock.
I need to talk to you about that.
I'm staying with my sister until I sort things out.
Your sister in San Diego?
Yeah, I can't stay here anymore.
No, I get it, I get it.
Hey, you just... You just need to give it some time.
The police were here.
They said that crazy girl was planning to kill me.
Well, I mean, that doesn't sound right.
They said I was on her list.
Things happen for a reason, right?
Hey, hey.
You're hurting me.
Don't... After...
After all I did, you know,
to move in this building, huh,
to be near you?
We're sorry to bother you. I left my binder. Thanks.
Hi. There's a board meeting tomorrow.
I just stopped by to pick up Jay's files, so...
Are you going somewhere, Ms. Peerson?
I'm going to my sister's in California.
I'm catching a flight this afternoon.
Well, I hope it wasn't something that we said earlier.
Well, you convinced her that Anne Marie's going to kill her, so...
Well, there is evidence she targeted Ms. Peerson.
I wasn't aware of that, but, you know, the girl's in jail now,
so she can't hurt anyone now.
Well, it's not just her.
I mean, all this stuff going wrong with this building.
Maybe Anne Marie's right. You know, maybe it's a sign of something.
A sign? That girl is delusional.
Detectives...
Don't dismiss it so easily.
You know, neurologists have studied the minds of Carmelite nuns
who have had mystical experiences.
They're finding that some people are,
you know, tuned into different frequencies.
Yeah?
I can't believe I'm hearing this from a New York City cop.
Some of the things Anne Marie saw in her dreams,
like cement turning to white powder,
that's actually happening to this building's foundation.
Right, that's efflorescence, you know. I showed her that.
Okay. I mean, the concrete... The concrete isn't water-sealed, all right?
There's nothing mystical about this girl.
Well, we'll see.
Anyway, thank you for talking to us.
Do you need help with your suitcases?
I can... I can help her.
No, I'll go down with them.
We'll need your contact number in California.
If the girl does get out on bail,
she might want to finish what she started.
Okay, I'm ready.
Coming?
Hey, this...
This evidence that Anne Marie's gonna kill her,
what is it?
It's a photograph.
A photograph. Did you... Did you know that?
I knew there was a photo of Jay.
I didn't know there was one of me.
Well, I mean, I think she has a right to see it, if that's why she's leaving.
Well, it was on Anne Marie's camera,
along with the other photos.
And how does this mean that she was planning on killing her?
No, it's like the photos of Mr. Peerson and Hillary Martz.
Didn't she say something about God
putting those pictures on her camera,
or some such nonsense? I mean, that's what I heard.
That's what she'd like us to believe, but...
Well... She obviously took this. Come on. Look.
See this?
This chair, right, in the background, right? And that painting, okay?
So that means, Darla, you were probably here.
Anne Marie was out there on the balcony.
Didn't you say she was spying on you from the balcony?
Didn't you tell me that?
I don't see your point.
My point is, it's not like the other photos.
It's not trying to act like it was taken by God.
Don't worry. We don't think God actually took any of those pictures.
Right, I know. I'm saying...
The other photos, right? You can't tell how they were taken, right?
They were close up, from a high angle.
Let me check.
Yeah, I see your point.
Right. It's not like the other ones, right?
I mean, this photo is meaningless,
so, I mean, you panicked for nothing.
How did you know about the high angle?
I could hardly notice by glancing at it.
Ms. Peerson told me.
No, I didn't.
They calculated the angle that the photo was taken.
Turns out that it was taken from the shaft
that runs up the back of the building.
Well, I don't know anything about that.
Are you sure?
We put a night-vision camera into the shaft a couple days ago.
The fancier the building, the bigger the vermin in the wall.
You took the photo.
You put it on Anne Marie's camera.
You sent those messages.
You let her believe that she was a murderer.
You corrupted her faith,
pure faith to serve your own evil.
To kill your lover's husband.
No, no.
Darla, I didn't kill Jay.
Don't lie to me.
She knows what you did.
Why do you think she asked you to come up here?
Now how could you do that?
How could she?
Oh! Well, you mean 'cause you spent all that money following her around.
You know, crawling around in the dark like a bug.
Debasing yourself. You know what she told us?
She told us you're like a boy, Victor.
And Jay, Jay's like a man.
And guess what?
Your man didn't do half of what I did for you.
You mean following her around like some puppy dog?
No, I killed for you. I killed your man.
That's just the kind of thing we like to hear.
Victor Garros, you're under arrest for murder.
Look at me. No, no, Darla, you... You look at me!
You look at me!
The view,
you really do pay for it.