Time's running out.
Ray Allen for three at the buzzer.
Yes! Oh!
Heat win by two.
Carmelo with a running hook!
(bottle clatters)
(loud crash)
CARRIE: You're forgetting.
I hit the Red Sox
on Wednesday.
Plus, I nailed that three-team parlay
of the A's, Jays and the Reds on Friday, right?
Which would put my new total at...
See, that is a very nice number, Zeke.
All right, give me the Mets tonight, two times.
Okay.
Bye.
That was my bank.
Your bank's not like my bank.
Oh, you have no idea.
So what do we got?
Old guy took a noser from the 12th floor.
Eliot has us out here
because he's some big-shot doctor
on the faculty at Algonquian.
What's his name?
Uh, hold on.
Lustig. Eugene Lustig.
LUSTIG: "So while we will always
"gaze ahead with wonder
"at the great uncharted terrain of the future,
"I believe it will soon be possible,
"by unlocking the secrets of memory,
"to turn our gaze behind us
"and bathe in new sunlight
the hidden landscapes of our past."
Thank you.
MAN: I'm so sorry, folks,
Dr. Lustig has another engagement.
Thank you so much for coming.
LUSTIG: Bye-bye. Take care. Thanks.
CARRIE: Dr. Lustig. Hi.
I'm sorry, Dr. Lustig has a plane to catch.
Dr. Lustig, I just need to talk to you for one minute.
"Thank you for your kind words, Chancellor.
"It's great to be back at my alma mater
"under such a bluebird sky.
"30 years ago,
"when the late Professor Ed Hartung introduced me
to the mysteries of the human memory..."
This is the speech I gave at Cornell last week.
It hasn't been published yet.
Did someone give you a copy?
No.
I think I'll, uh, catch a later flight.
Jo?
Hi.
I saw him speak at the Y.
He was very impressive.
Yes, he was.
WEBSTER: Came down 12 stories.
Pushed, jumped
or fell-- that is the question.
In my opinion,
his injuries are consistent with a high fall,
but anything else,
tomorrow will tell.
Did they, um... did they see anything?
The landing, not the dismount.
Al, I-I knew him.
It was 2004.
Year and a half after...
I quit the force.
Quit you.
I was a wreck.
I mean, every, uh...
every bad thing that had ever happened to me,
every mistake I had ever made
was running in my head on a loop.
Like a swarm of bees.
And then I heard about
this neurologist, Eugene Lustig, and...
So I tracked him down.
I figured, you know, why not...
donate my body to science before I was dead?
Maybe in the process, I wouldn't crack up.
Then I-I joined a research group,
with five other people.
The first of what became known as
Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory.
HSAM.
Were you still in touch with him?
No, not for years. It's...
Gene Lustig is the reason I didn't crack up.
Not exactly lived-in.
You'd expect a few books at least.
Know if he was married?
He was.
Getting divorced, actually.
I just talked to the neighbor.
She said Lustig moved in a month ago
after breaking up with his wife.
Neighbor know him well?
It occurred to me, but she says no.
But she did say Lustig was having
a bunch of health problems,
was down in the dumps lately.
And judging by how clean this place is--
no sign of struggle or forced entry--
kind of makes you wonder.
What are you saying? Suicide?
You find a suicide note?
Any kind of drugs for depression?
No, but, you know, still doesn't mean...
Then I'm not buying it.
AL: Railing's too high.
We can cross off "accident."
WEBSTER: ...came down 12 stories.
Pushed, jumped or fell...
There was a geranium right there.
There was a plant.
How you got geranium, I don't know.
Because I saw it down below.
Bits of clay, dirt...
Gene's attacker...
rushes him and throws him over,
but Gene grabs on to the railing.
So in order to break his grip,
the attacker picks up the first thing he can find,
and... smash.
The flower pot goes over, too.
We don't know the flower pot is connected to this,
we don't know how many people were involved,
we don't know for sure he didn't jump.
We'll get Webster on it,
and CSU will take a look at the clay fragments.
I knew Gene Lustig.
He was one of the most positive, vibrant people
I have ever met.
He gave me hope when I had none,
and that's not easy to do.
He didn't commit suicide.
Three fingers are broken,
each between the first and second knuckle.
Also...
I found topsoil in his scalp and under his shirt collar.
Absent your flower pot theory, I came up with nothing.
His neighbor said he had some kind of health problems.
Did you find anything? Oh.
Jumped right out at me.
He had cancer.
Cancer?
Mm-hmm.
See those little white dots?
Radioactive tubes.
Brachytherapy.
Prostate cancer.
Exactly. Treated early,
the success rate is...
95% after 15 years.
So then that would not be a reason
for him to jump off a balcony.
Right.
Oh, Carrie, I'm so sorry.
Al told me you knew him.
Were you his student?
More like his object of study.
I can't imagine you being a lab rat.
I was difficult.
I tried to chew through the bars on my cage.
(laughs)
Look, I know I'm not the detective on this,
but I'm with you.
Your friend had help going over that balcony.
Carrie! Oh.
(laughs): Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.
Hi. That's okay.
May I call you Carrie?
Yeah, sure, sure.
Great. Come on.
I want to tell you all about
this little study I've dreamed up. Okay.
No needles, no electrodes, I assure you.
Oh, well, that's... that's a relief.
(chuckles) Just simple questions to gauge the capacity
of your marvelous mind.
I don't know about "marvelous."
Save the modesty for Terry Gross.
This is science.
Next week, I want to have you meet the others.
Others?
Yeah, the other study subjects.
Oh, did you think you were alone?
It's okay.
You can go.
I'll take good care of him.
Thanks, Jo.
Nothing on the surveillance video from Lustig's building.
The camera in the lobby shows him entering alone.
No cameras at all in the basement or garage.
Any prints off the flower pot?
CSU has to reassemble it first.
We're talking pellets.
I wouldn't hold your breath.
Well, it looks like the ex-wife's clean.
Friends say the divorce was amicable,
and she's been in Europe for five weeks.
So she's out of the picture.
But I wouldn't come to you without something.
Been digging around at the university.
Meet Alwyn Pierce.
Assistant Professor of Neurology at Algonquian.
Former graduate student of our Dr. Lustig.
Something of a protégé.
Lustig had high hopes for this lady.
Apparently she had high hopes, too,
but they never panned out.
According to some of the faculty members I spoke to,
she was pretty difficult.
Just last month, she was denied tenure.
How'd she take it?
Not good.
It all blew up at a faculty meeting a week ago.
She accused Lustig of rigging the vote.
Did she? She did.
And according to folks at that meeting, she really went off.
They had to call
campus security.
(school bell ringing)
CARRIE: Alwyn?
Alwyn Pierce?
Carrie Wells. Yeah, we met years ago,
in Gene's first HSAM study.
Yes, I know. I remember.
Lieutenant Al Burns.
Of course.
You're here because of Gene.
You guys worked together for a long time.
This must be hard for you.
It is.
AL: Though we understand
you two had your differences lately.
Perhaps, but professional squabbles
seem irrelevant at times like these.
CARRIE: As opposed to a week ago,
when professional squabbles
led to you being escorted from a faculty meeting
by four security guards.
I worked with Gene for ten years.
And I felt I earned his support.
Instead, he blackballed me.
So draw your own conclusions about our "differences."
Why would he blackball you?
I have no idea.
If he were alive, you could ask him yourself.
You know, we don't need to ask him.
According to a transcript from the tenure committee,
Gene thought your work displayed--
and I don't think I'm getting this wrong--
"a shoddy methodology
bordering on fraudulent."
Now, that... that had to hurt.
That was a joke.
Especially since his work
was sloppy and mediocre.
I was a part of Gene's work.
There was nothing mediocre or sloppy about it.
Where you were between the hours of 6:00 and 7:00 this morning?
Wait a minute.
I got denied tenure,
and I blame Eugene Lustig,
but I sure as hell didn't kill him.
You sure as hell didn't answer my question.
I was asleep, in my bed, by myself.
You need proof, talk to my cat.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a class to teach.
ELIOT: She make any physical threats?
"I'll ruin your life.
"You'll regret what you've done.
You'll be sorry." That sort of thing.
Sounds like my daily staff meeting at the mayor's office.
Anything else?
Well, we're trying to find something more concrete,
see if we can work up a warrant to search her place.
Please, Burns, with all deliberate speed?
Algonquian University pumps $9 billion
into this city's economy every year.
I know, I thought it was a typo, too. It's not.
Having this on the front page of The Times
irritates the mayor, who then irritates me.
That's a lot of irritation.
You need more on this woman,
and you're not gonna find it here.
Would it help to know that she's a thief?
Check this out.
I followed up with campus security.
Got them to give me all the Neuro Lab
surveillance footage since that faculty meeting
where Alwyn went off.
2:30 a.m., one day after the tenure meeting.
Alwyn enters the lab,
and she heads for a cabinet by Lustig's desk.
She opens the cabinet.
Right there. That box.
Security say she was authorized to be there?
Definitely not.
That's trespassing.
Forget the search warrant.
Go pick her up. Right.
(knocking)
Alwyn Pierce, I repeat, this is the NYPD.
MURRAY: Alwyn Pierce?
Alwyn?
Well, we can rule out your garden-variety robbery.
Money, credit cards, all here.
No sign of forced entry, no struggle.
She let them in.
Yeah, that's how I read it, too.
Her phone shows one 45-second call at 6:30.
Traces back to a pay phone at a gas station in Brooklyn.
We'll check for surveillance cams.
Al?
That's the box Alwyn took from Lustig's office.
CARRIE: These are tapes from Gene's HSAM study--
from my HSAM study.
December 3rd was a Friday.
I got off early, so I went
to a 4:30 show of Unbreakable.
With a friend? Alone.
It was at the Syracuse Odeon.
Wow, it was cheap.
It was four bucks.
Any trailers?
Previews. We call them trailers in New York.
CARRIE: No, I know, I know what they are.
You all right?
Yeah. It's just weird, you know?
One thing to remember something,
it's another thing to actually see yourself.
That girl doesn't exist anymore.
Those were tough years,
after Syracuse.
Wish I'd been there to help.
I had to learn to help myself.
Okay, enough of this.
What does it matter if I had blueberries on my oatmeal
five years, two months, three weeks ago on a Friday?
Come on, Carrie.
And I didn't.
I had bananas.
Do you see, Gene?
It's relentless! It doesn't stop!
Carrie, people like me, our experiences,
all our little joys, just slip through our fingers.
You get to hold on to them.
You should celebrate that.
I can't let them go!
You keep telling me how wonderful it is
that I remember everything.
I can't... forget.
There's a difference.
Sometimes you forget.
Never! Once.
Your sister, Rachel.
Would it help you
to know why?
Yes.
You're all struggling.
You know Todd?
The loud guy.
He likes to scramble up big rocks without a rope.
And beautiful, gentle Lena?
She's seen Terms of Endearment,
(chuckles): like, 400 times.
Cries her eyes out every single time.
And you and Ruth,
you like gambling, right? Okay.
High stakes poker, blackjack? Yes. So?
So, we don't know the science exactly yet,
but under the influence of intense experience,
the brain is flooded with adrenaline.
That's a key building block of memory.
Too much adrenaline...
it erases memory.
There's a name for it: psychogenic amnesia.
Kind of like a memory hole?
Exactly.
Jumping off bridges on a bungee cord,
betting the house on red 22...
the death of a loved one...
The most loved one.
You memory guys are all risk takers,
adrenaline junkies.
The rush engenders
a little benign forgetting.
So what you're saying...
I'm saying you're okay, Carrie Wells.
But listen, if in your leisure hours
you're planning to play with fire,
just do me a favor, huh?
Don't get burned?
Don't get caught.
(laughs)
Hey, Carrie,
you got any idea why
Alwyn would have been tracking your old memory jocks?
I followed up on
all those phone records,
and in the days after she stole the tapes,
Alwyn contacted Todd Blasingame, Ruth Meaney and Dale Parsons.
All participants in your study with Lustig, right?
I don't know why she didn't call the other three.
Well, Lena committed suicide a year after the memory study,
Tomas moved to Korea to study
being a Buddhist monk.
Still leaves you.
Maybe she did call.
Your old number in Syracuse.
By now, it would be assigned to someone else.
The question is: why?
Why did she call?
We got to talk to them.
Stay on those tapes.
I got a feeling we find out
what Alwyn was looking for, we find our killer.
WOMAN: Hi. May I help you?
Yeah, we're here to see Dale Parsons.
WOMAN: Oh, he's actually busy with a client right now.
With you in a sec, Carrie.
Haven't seen this guy in nine years?
That's why it's called "highly superior memory," Al.
PARSONS: Sorry.
Got a bear of an audit.
Some clients, they just never learn.
Carrie Wells.
Love your new look.
So... unencumbered.
Dale Parsons.
Al Burns, NYPD.
Ah, you're here about Alwyn.
Gene, too. So sad.
But I-I read that that was a suicide.
Do you think that they're connected?
You know, she called me last Monday.
Really? What did she want?
She tried to recruit me for some follow-up HSAM study.
Chance to make a name for herself,
I suppose.
She was always pretty ambitious, Alwyn.
I mean, even as a grad student.
Remember, Carrie, when she asked Lustig if she could sit in
on Ruth Meaney's second interview?
Yeah, how could I forget?
January 19, 2004.
It was Monday.
Around 11:15.
11:16.
Fifteen.
(clears throat) If you say so.
I do.
So, Alwyn... what'd you tell her?
Well, I said, "Please, get back in a room
with those lemon heads?"
Who you calling a lemon head, Dale?
Who's got time, anyway?
Did Professor Pierce talk about
her relationship with Dr. Lustig?
Not a word.
She just said that she was trying
to update an earlier study.
And like I said, I told her thanks, but no thanks.
I'd say, "Call if you remember anything else,"
but I've learned there's no point.
(chuckles)
It's good to see you again, Carrie, and a pleasure
to meet you, Al, but I must say,
you're not exactly as Carrie described you.
Mary, can you give me a hand with the Elderton?
So how is it I came up in your memory study?
Gene wanted us to deal with some memories
accompanied by strong emotions.
And how exactly did you describe me?
Well, I'm not really sure.
You don't remember?
All right, fine.
I may have given you...
a lisp, a wandering eye and really bad dandruff.
But we had broken up, and I was mad.
Nice.
Let's go, lemon head.
Hey, Vita Club members, Todd Blasingame coming at you
from beautiful, beautiful San Marco Key.
Now, did you know my limited production Memory Serum contains
the fermented extracts
of over 38 tropical fruits and berries?
MAN: Cut! All right, guys, let's reset it back to one. (bell ringing)
Lauren, honey, I'm gonna need a touch-up.
I'm sorry.
So you were asking me about poor Alwyn Pierce.
Yeah. Did you speak with her in the last week?
No, but I saw her name on my call list.
Hundred calls a day, can't return them all.
Hmm. Any idea why she was calling?
Thanks, hon. I'm good.
Not a clue.
Go ahead.
Hit me. Hit you?
Yeah, you know, with the question.
You know, where was I the night of blah-blah-blah?
Okay. Monday morning, Tuesday night,
where were you, Mr. Blasingame?
Call me Todd.
Norway.
You were in Norway?
Jus got back this morning.
Have you ever heard of Trollveggen?
3,600-foot
vertical cliff.
(laughs) Outstanding!
I BASE-jumped it. (whistles)
So when's the last time you saw Dr. Lustig?
February 17, 2009. Tuesday.
That was the day I settled
that little nuisance lawsuit he cooked up.
Hmm, he didn't want you using his name
in promotion for your memory products.
JAY: $500,000 in punitive
and lawyer fees, Mr. Blasing...
Sorry. Todd.
Weren't you even a little upset?
(giggles)
You see that?
And I'm not talking about the beauties.
This uses your body's own energy
to locate areas that are stressed.
This little puppy has already made me three mil,
and I haven't even shipped a one of 'em.
I don't think I'm upset at anyone.
MAN: Okay, Todd, let's get another one. Thank you.
You know, I am starting to understand why
Carrie didn't stay in touch with these memory folks.
Yeah, you hold on to everything long enough,
it's easy to forget anyone else is out there.
From Mr. Blasingame, with his compliments.
TV ANNOUNCER: And they're heading to the gates
for race number six.
Number three horse...
Carrie Wells, as I live and drink.
Ruth Meaney.
...number seven, Rosso Brew, with jockey Juan Marquez...
Whatever happened to blackjack?
Are you kidding?
My picture's up in every casino
all across the country. (chuckles)
There they go.
And it's Vital Jack down the inside...
Who you got?
Claire's Knee, number six.
I got no memory edge for the ponies.
And so what if he ran 2:11 in the mud
a year ago Tuesday?
Look at him now.
With all the booze and dope I've sucked up,
you'd think I'd be brain-dead.
No such luck.
Rosso Brew and Vital Jack are battling it out!
And it is Vital Jack...
Run, you schmuck.
(patrons murmuring excitedly)
Did you hear about Alwyn?
I'm afraid so, yeah.
Come on.
She claimed Lustig goosed the results
of the memory tests.
Oh, you know, try to make it all seem more impressive,
make a bigger splash, dazzle the world.
He would never do that.
He was a legitimate scientist.
Well, you're telling me.
But Alwyn had an axe to grind.
Now, she asked me
if Lustig ever put me up to lying.
Well, did he?
Oh, come on, no!
(chuckles)
Well, Alwyn thought he did.
Well, that-that would be crazy.
Of course it's crazy.
But... I guess there was someone
who told one big old whopper.
Someone in our group lied?
Who?
Alwyn wouldn't say.
But, um...
Well, it was that one group session we had
is all I know.
Thank you, Ruthie.
You and me, Carrie, we could break the bank.
(laughs): Ooh.
Make a hell of a team.
Unstoppable, indestructible.
Whoa.
Carrie, what's up?
We have to look at the group session.
What group session?
There was only one: January 20, all six of us.
Lustig wanted to see if we could influence
each other's recollections.
Uh, I'm not seeing it, Carrie.
There's no tape for that day.
Check again; there has to be.
Nope. January 15, January 19, January 23.
Okay, well, I know
there was a session on the 20th, which means...
someone stole that tape
from Alwyn's apartment.
What's so important about that one session?
Alwyn thought someone lied about a memory.
Whatever is on that tape got her and Gene killed.
(tires screeching)
Carrie, what's going on?
Carrie?
We got no witnesses from the street
or surrounding buildings.
We're looking for footage from secams, traffic cameras,
anything that might have picked up the car.
Thanks. Stay on it. Yeah.
ELIOT: So, we know this group session was taped,
but we don't know what's on it, and now it's gone?
It's not gone.
WEBSTER: Hold still, please.
My work is so much better when my patients aren't moving.
We have a copy here.
Yeah, we don't need the tape.
I got it in my memory.
What do you need?
Uh, candles, uh, what, some music?
No, no, we just...
a stenographer and a pad of paper
would be great.
You know, it's not a massage, just remembering.
Great. We'll set you up.
It was the first time he put us all together--
the only time.
He brought us
all in a room, sat us in a circle.
All right, everyone,
I am gonna ask about your memories...
CARRIE: And asked us about memories from random days.
Uh, the first one was January 17,
1991.
Tomas said,
"That would've been a Thursday.
I had a history test and a term paper."
Todd interrupted. It was the start of Desert Storm.
Right, I was going to say. And, uh...
"And I was sitting down to study, but my mom..."
Then Gene asked about February 11,
1999.
First to Ruth.
Right, of all days.
Sorry? Ruth said,
"Well, just 'cause after getting killed
on the Villanova game, which..."
I mean, 111 to 85.
Come on. "Come on."
Are we talking basketball?
"What do you think?" Ruth said.
Boomerang chucking?
"Yes, basketball, you egghead."
You egghead.
Lena, "Wouldn't you know it, they were doing
track work on the Rock Island Line..."
So I had to have Peggy drive me in.
Peggy?
That's my niece.
Right away, she starts coughing. "She starts coughing.
"So I said, 'Forget Marshall Field's.
We're going straight to Dr. Rinaldi.'"
"February 11, 1999,
"we got a call about a break-in.
"Little two-story colonial
"with yellow trim down on Sterling and Coolidge.
"Turns out it was a couple kids
throwing rocks at the basement windows."
Blasingame, "I mean, anybody could've told you
the new year was gonna be soft."
So, I turned a profit on Intel at the open at 63 1/8.
"I rolled it over into..."
...June hogs.
Then Gene asked about...
March 6, 1997.
Dale Parsons... A Thursday.
"I'd just read an article how they're getting
record prices at auction houses for art."
$68.9 million for a van Gogh.
How is that even possible?
"It's just paint, people.
"And since I happened to be two blocks from the Met,
I go in that afternoon and ask, 'What's the most...'"
"...expensive painting that you have in here?"
Did you get an answer?
A Vermeer.
Uh, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher.
"So I went and had a look at it, and you know what?"
It's a young woman with a water pitcher.
Tomas said... I love that painting.
The Gene asked... Ruth?
I remembered to bring a sweater,
because 1010 WINS...
"...was saying a high of 40.
What they didn't..."
...say, the sky was gonna crack open.
It was Saturday, and I'd just gotten my first M3.
"3.2 liter,
"passion-red, beautiful.
Got pinched for doing 48 in a 35 zone."
Which I don't even consider that speeding.
Gene said, "You're all amazing." You're all amazing.
Uh, there's pizza in the next room.
For those who don't like...
"...pepperoni, there's ham and pineapple.
Save me a slice."
And...
The end?
The end.
AL: Thank you.
You okay?
Tired, sad.
You are amazing.
JAY: I'm just saying, this is a ton of memories.
Which, incredible job, by the way, Carrie,
but if we're gonna verify each one,
it's gonna take forever.
AL: We know Lustig
was able to do it. No, he wasn't.
He did random spot-checks.
Yeah, see, but then how did Alwyn do it?
I mean, we're talking
about random details
about track work on the Long Island Railroad
in 1988.
The price of lamb chops, 1996.
Fourth race at Roosevelt, 1994.
I don't know.
Now, maybe if she was a fan of the trotters or something.
Maybe she was.
I mean, maybe Alwyn found an incorrect memory
in no time at all because it happened to be
in an area of her expertise.
If it was something that jumped out at her...
MURRAY: Money, credit cards, all here.
No sign of forced entry, no struggle.
She let them in.
AL: Yeah, that's how I read it, too.
Her phone shows one 45-second call...
Traces back to a pay phone at a gas station in Brooklyn.
She and Lustig may have been fighting,
but she's got a ton of his books here.
Art.
Alwyn was an art lover.
Books, museum posters-- they were all over her apartment.
PARSONS: Since I happened to be two blocks
from the Metropolitan Museum, I go in that afternoon.
Vermeer, A Young Woman with a Water Pitcher.
Parson said he saw a Vermeer at the Metropolitan.
Young Woman with a Water Pitcher.
Maybe he got the museum wrong?
JAY: No, that painting
was at the Met.
My cousin Angie works there.
It's been in the collection for years.
All right, call her.
My bet is he didn't see it
when he said he did. March 6, 1997.
Find out if the museum was closed,
having a private event, something,
anything.
Hey, Ange, it's me.
You by a computer?
What if Parsons just got it wrong?
People make mistakes. No one bats a thousand.
Parsons does.
He scored highest on all of the objective tests.
He beat me.
If he got it wrong,
he's lying.
You rock, Ange. Yep.
March 6, 1997.
Young Woman with a Water Pitcher
was on loan to the Prado Museum in Madrid.
No way Parsons could've seen it.
He is lying.
And whatever he did that day,
he wants to keep it secret.
He'll kill to keep it secret.
Uh-huh. Jay, check the crime's database.
March 6, 1997.
Unsolved murders, anything.
Okay, here we go.
Let's look at the whole tristate area
and unsolved murders.
Widening the jurisdiction. Got it.
Four unsolved murders March 6, 1997.
Now, assuming for the moment that we're not looking
at a gang-related homicide, that narrows it down to...
Valerie Johnson, age 21, CUNY student,
found dead in her car in Farmingdale.
Strangled with clothesline.
Thanks for meeting me, Dale.
If anyone can help us with this thing, it's you.
No problem. I got a client right around the corner,
but I think I already told you everything that I know.
Well, maybe I can learn more
by picking that extraordinary brain of yours.
Well, you will certainly learn something.
But probably not about what you want to know.
March 6, 1997.
Thursday.
Yes, it was.
What were you doing that afternoon?
Oh, God, you sound like Lustig.
I thought this was about Alwyn.
Well, it is, indirectly.
See, I know what I was doing that afternoon.
I was buying socks and underwear at the Syracuse Dress Barn,
which is not the most exciting or sexy thing in the world,
but at least it's true.
It's not like
the Syracuse Dress Barn just moved to Madrid.
I'm sorry, what was the question again?
March 6, 1997.
You told our group... I'm kidding.
that you were at the Metropolitan... Oh, group session, boring.
seeing a painting by Vermeer.
No, I didn't. Yes, you did.
Wow, is that what you remember?
Uh-huh.
Sorry. (imitates buzzer)
No, Carrie, on Thursday afternoon, March 6,
I was at the 1:45 p.m. screening of Donnie Brasco
at Lincoln Square Cinema.
Afterwards, I had sushi at Lenge.
By the time I was finished,
I would've had exactly nine minutes
to get across town to the Met before it closed.
So how could I have seen a Vermeer?
P.S. I don't even like Vermeer.
You said you saw the painting.
It's your memory against mine.
What about the tapes?
Great, check the tape.
You'll see that I am right.
I could always ask Todd, Ruthie.
Sure, ask them.
But why bother?
You have the tape, don't you?
Don't you?
(sighs) It's just you against me.
I wouldn't take those odds,
but you're the gambling gal, right?
Are we done?
One more thing, actually.
A little picture for you.
Valerie Johnson. Remember her?
She was a client of yours.
Indeed she was.
I did her taxes for 1996.
Adjusted gross,
$21,380, total take-home,
$25,300.
She got a $408 refund. You ever take her home, Dale?
I think I liked you better when you were miserable.
AL: All right.
Thank you.
That was Murray.
She found three more cases, same M.O.
Young women strangled with clothesline.
Poughkeepsie; Binghamton; Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Each murder corresponds with an audit
Dale Parsons attended on behalf of clients.
Valerie Johnson wasn't his only victim.
He's a serial killer.
I still don't get it. Parsons kills these women,
doesn't leave a trace,
but then makes up a bogus alibi,
knowing Lustig could find out and challenge him?
It was seven years later.
Gene was picking random days.
Dale wasn't expecting him to ask
about that one day, so he panics,
and he lies.
So based on IRS returns
where Parsons signed on as the responsible accountant,
we could be up to eight victims.
Oh, my God. If he consulted,
gave investment advice to other women,
who knows how many he killed?
What the hell are you drinking? Mm.
Blasingame's memory juice.
You know, I hate to admit it,
but I think the guy's onto something.
I read his book. He caught a rattlesnake
with his bare hands in Death Valley.
Guy's a total adrenaline junkie.
LUSTIG: You memory guys
are all risk takers.
Adrenaline junkies.
The rush engenders...
a little benign forgetting.
What time of day was Valerie Johnson murdered?
It was morning sometime.
She was on her way to school, so 8:00, 8:30.
We've got to bring Dale Parsons in.
We don't have enough to arrest him.
Can't lock a guy up for lying.
He wasn't lying.
Hey, Dale. Hello.
Thanks for coming in.
Never been in an actual interrogation room.
(laughs) It's cozy.
And an audience.
Hello, people.
So, what happens now?
You break me?
No.
This is just a conversation, friendly conversation, Dale.
So I won't need, say, a lawyer?
Why would you need a lawyer?
You're Dale Parsons.
True.
Okay, friendly conversation, then.
Just, let's not play the day and date game.
So does that mean I can't ask you
about July 12, 1999,
August 27, 2003,
October 11, 2008...
Which were a Monday, a Wednesday and a Saturday.
Very nice. Right?
Yes, they were.
You're good.
You know what happened on those days?
You promised.
Fine, why don't I tell you
what happened on those days.
July 12, 1999.
Tina Davis, murdered.
Strangled to death in her car.
August 27, 2003.
Lakshmi Patel, also murdered.
October 11, 2008.
Gloria Durning.
Same M.O.
All of these young women murdered.
You know any of them?
You're accusing me.
No.
No, I'm asking you.
Now I do need a lawyer. You only need a lawyer
if you've done something wrong.
Besides, you're smarter than any lawyer I know.
I don't know them.
Don't remember them?
(scoffs)
Excuse me?
Don't remember killing them?
You know,
despite his terrible jokes, Gene Lustig was one of
the smartest men I ever met.
And he said something to me once, and it helped me a lot.
He said that people like us,
sometimes we need a vacation.
You know, from all the stuff in our heads.
You more than anyone,
because you were always the best of us.
You admit it.
(chuckles)
So you want to know what the secret is?
Adrenaline.
We crave it.
But not for the rush, not for the high.
That's for other people.
We crave it for the rest it gives us.
From ourselves.
Where were you...
the morning Gene was murdered?
I was at home, asleep.
Okay. What time did you wake up?
6:45. It's my usual hour.
It's when I take the dogs out.
Oh.
Anyone see you?
I have no idea.
Middle of a rainstorm: odd time to walk the dogs.
They don't mind the rain.
Thunder must have bothered them, no?
It did, but hey, when you got to go,
you got to go. Mm.
Speaking of which, if we're done here...
There was no storm the morning
Gene Lustig was murdered.
No rain.
No thunder.
I'll lay it out for you.
See, I thought you lied
about the Vermeer to cover up where you were
when you killed Valerie Johnson.
But she was murdered in the morning.
And you said you were went to the Met in the afternoon,
so I thought to myself... why lie?
Why make up an alibi you don't need?
But you weren't lying, were you?
You forgot.
Because when you murder people,
like these young women, you forget.
That's why you do it.
Not Gene and Alwyn.
You killed them to cover your tracks.
But I bet you don't remember
what happened afterwards, do you?
You have no idea what you're talking about.
Yes, I do.
You know I do.
The adrenaline unleashed by the act of violence
helps you to forget your painful life.
No, you're... you are wrong.
Which becomes more miserable
when you finally, inevitably, No. No, that is...
remember what you've done.
And then you kill again.
To forget, again.
You're an addict, Dale.
You're addicted to murder.
You don't understand.
Of course I understand.
I'm the only one who does.
How long do you get?
A few minutes?
A few hours, a whole day?
How long?
Sometimes more than a day.
The first time...
it was a cat.
It was a stupid neighborhood cat,
and he kept howling and howling.
And when I put my fingers around its neck,
and I squeezed...
it was like I was here...
for the first time.
Just here, now.
Not five minutes ago, not 20 minutes ago,
not 20 years ago,
when my father did those things,
and when those boys did those things,
because I was different.
Because I was the one who was always telling them
that they were wrong, because they were always wrong.
They never remembered
anything.
And Valerie...
The last thing I remember
was the light fading from her eyes
like a torch down a well.
And then it was a miracle.
It was a whole, long, blissful day of peace.
At least I think it was.
I don't remember.
"Peace"?
I want you
to look at these women.
I want you to study their faces.
I want you... to remember them.
Because from now on, forgetting is not an option.
Nice work.
That was amazing.
There you are.
Carrie Wells, on behalf of the Memory Studies Group,
it gives me great pleasure
to present you with this check for $100 U.S.
Wow, Gene, $100.
(both laugh)
Along with an infinite amount of gratitude
on behalf of... me.
You know, you can grow that money,
or you can just piddle it away.
Maybe I'll do both.
Yeah?
Let me guess. Texas hold 'em?
Blackjack, actually.
Scientifically sanctioned.
"A little benign forgetting."
Hmm.
What are you gonna do now?
(laughs)
Keep moving, I guess.
Just a word of advice from a new old friend?
The past has lessons for us,
but the present is where we live.
And nothing brings us into the present like a goal.
A task that uses
all your powers, including...
Hmm.
You said you were a cop.
It was too hard.
Okay.
But, Carrie, if anybody ever needed a mission,
it's you.
When you find one, let me know.
Gene?
Thank you.
I'm taking off.
Think I'll stick around.
Captioning sponsored by CBS
Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org