[distant animal calls]
[eerie music playing]
[faint creaking]
[bugle fanfare playing]
Morning, gentlemen.
[horses whinnying]
-You Augustus Landor? -I am.
And you?
Captain Hitchcock at your service. Second-in-command at the Academy.
I'm here to inform you
Superintendent Thayer requests an immediate audience.
-And the nature of this audience? -I'll leave that to the colonel.
-When might this take place? -At your earliest convenience.
[chuckles]
And if I should decide not to come?
That would be your own concern. You're a private citizen.
[exhales deeply]
Well, it's a fine day for a ride.
[intriguing music playing]
[Thayer] The governor suggests that you were a legend
among New York City constables.
And when he recommended your services, he noted your impressive accomplishments,
including apprehending the leaders of the Daybreak Boys,
breaking up the dreaded Shirt Tails gang,
and solving a particularly grisly murder of a young prostitute in Elysian Fields.
Your talents include code breaking, riot control,
and gloveless interrogation.
You're a minister's son from Gloucester
who came to New York while still in your teens.
And you are a widower, Mr. Landor.
Three years now.
-[Hitchcock] Shall I send for coffee? -[Landor] Beer will do nicely.
[bell tolling]
[exhales]
You, uh…
You keep these notes in a pigeonhole back there somewhere, do you?
What else do they say?
Do they say that I haven't darkened the door of a church
in a long time?
Does it mention that my daughter ran off a while back?
We are aware of your daughter's disappearance.
And we offer our sympathy.
With all due respect, I hope I have not offended.
No. No, no, no.
No, sorry. I ought to apologize.
And I do. Please carry on.
Mr. Landor, we are obliged to proceed with extreme discretion.
We're looking for someone.
A private citizen of well-documented industry and tact
who might carry out inquiries on the Academy's behalf.
Huh.
They're of a highly complex and delicate nature
and concern one of our cadets.
Second-year man from Kentucky by the name of Fry.
-Leroy Fry. -There's no point in dancing around it.
Fry hanged himself… last night.
Oh.
Well, I'm sorry to hear that.
A dreadful business, this. But you must understand our position.
We have been specifically charged with the care of these young men,
to make them gentlemen and soldiers, and to that end, we drive them.
But we'd like to think we know when to… stop driving them.
A boy hangs himself…
uh, that's a matter for the coroner.
[Hitchcock] I'm afraid that's not the end of it.
Cadet Fry's body was violated last night in the hospital ward.
Violated? By whom?
Well, if we knew that, we would have had no need to summon you.
I'm sure the Academy has its share of pranksters.
This was no prank, Mr. Landor.
Leroy Fry's heart was carved from his chest.
[somber music playing]
[Landor] Dr. Marquis, how does a person go about doing this?
[Dr. Marquis] Scalpel. Or any good, sharp knife would do.
But getting to the heart, that's the tricky part.
Those gashes on the lungs and liver
came from angling the blade to save the heart.
And how would one preserve the heart?
A container of some sort.
Wrapped in muslin, maybe, or newspaper.
Very likely surrounded by ice.
What type of fella could do this?
A strong one.
Not a woman, then?
No woman as I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, no.
[Landor] What about his medical pedigree?
Would he need to be as well-educated and well-trained as yourself?
Not necessarily.
He'd need a lot of light, and know where to cut,
but it wouldn't have to be a doctor or a surgeon.
-It'd have to be-- -A madman!
And still out there.
[drill sergeant] Port arms!
[Thayer] You'll have to forgive me, Mr. Landor.
You've found us in a very delicate position.
[drill sergeant] Left, face!
There are certain powerful senators in Washington
who would like nothing more than to see us fail utterly, to shut us down.
I'm asking you to help save the honor of the United States Military Academy.
And save it, I'll try.
[pensive music playing]
[Landor] You were, uh, on guard duty last night, Mr. Huntoon.
Yes, sir.
Post at 9:30. Relieved at midnight and made my way back to the guardroom.
Where is that?
Number four, sir. By Fort Clinton.
I… I admit, I'm not very familiar with the grounds,
but it seems that the part we're standing on right now
is not on the way from Fort Clinton to North Barracks.
-No, sir. -Oh. What took you off course?
Well, sir, on my way, I heard something.
I reckoned it was an animal.
It sounded like it was dying or caught in a trap, so I came to help.
I'm terribly partial to animals.
Uh… I was running this way until I brushed Cadet Fry, sir.
-How'd he look? -Not well, sir.
He wasn't hanging straight.
It was almost as if he was seated in a chair.
I'm not following you.
Well, his feet were touching the ground, sir.
-His feet were touching the ground? -Yes, sir.
All right. What did you do next?
I ran. Ran straight back to North Barracks.
Hmm.
Uh, one last question and I'll trouble you no more.
Did you see anyone else about?
No, sir.
Mr. Huntoon.
[pensive music continues]
[Landor] The neck…
That's what first struck me.
See?
Not a clean cinch at all. The rope grabbed at him
and ran up and down the neck looking for purchase.
As though…
As though he was… fighting.
Hmm?
Look, if you would, at his fingers.
Blistered fresh from clutching at the rope…
[door opens]
-…trying to peel the thing off him. -[door closes]
May I ask what's going on here?
This is, uh, quite irregular.
I was wondering if you wouldn't mind feeling around the back of Mr. Fry's head.
You did examine Mr. Fry?
Of course I examined him, as is my job.
[Landor] Hmm.
[Dr. Marquis softly] Haven't we already been through this?
-Uh… -Hmm.
There is a contusion of sort.
Parietal region.
Approximately three inches.
[breathes deeply]
-I must have missed that. -Mmm.
[Hitchcock] Someone murdered Mr. Fry.
Is this what you're telling us, Mr. Landor?
You might be onto something there, Captain Hitchcock.
[bones crack]
[cracking]
Well, anyone could have missed that, doctor.
Mr. Landor.
[soldiers marching nearby]
[door closes]
So now you're on board,
I think it's important we set some ground rules.
You will report to me on a daily basis and I to the colonel.
And you mustn't breathe a word of this to anyone, inside or outside the Academy.
-Is that all? -One final condition.
There will be no drinking throughout the course of this investigation.
Your reputation precedes you.
[distant animal calls]
-[Landor sighs] -[footsteps approaching]
[Landor grunts]
Oh.
Pardon.
-Are you Augustus Landor? -[coughs] I am.
Unless I mistake, you've been tasked with solving the mystery
surrounding Leroy Fry.
That's so. What might I do for you?
It is incumbent upon me and the honor of this institution
to divulge some of the conclusions which I have reached.
Conclusions?
Regarding the late Mr. Fry.
I'd be most interested.
The man you're looking for
is a poet.
[marching band playing]
[Landor] Private Cochrane.
When Leroy Fry's body was brought back to the hospital,
you were detailed to guard it?
I was, sir.
-Did anything happen while on watch? -Not till around 2:30.
-That's when I was relieved of my duty. -Who relieved you?
-Private, who relieved you? -I can't tell you, sir.
Only that it was an officer.
-He never identified himself? -No, sir.
But I wouldn't expect it of an officer.
Hmm.
What did this officer say to you?
He said, "Thank you, private. That will be all. I'm relieving you."
-An odd request, no? -Yes, sir. Very.
-Did you see this officer's face? -No, sir.
I had only a candle. It was terribly dark.
Right, tell me then, how did you know it was an officer?
The bar on his shoulder, sir. But I must admit, it was so very strange.
-How so? -The bars.
The bars on his left shoulder were missing.
[intriguing music playing]
[violin playing softly]
[door opens]
[door closes]
[Benny] Ah, there's the man himself.
Benny knows a man who's in need of a drink when he sees one.
The very sight of it warms my blood.
-Benny! -Sir.
-Here's… to rules. -Fuck 'em.
Patsy.
Patsy!
What's grieving you?
Did you hear about that poor cadet?
-They say it took him hours to die. -"They"?
Him.
Aren't you meant to be in recital?
Uh… Good evening. Recital?
No, I won't be missed.
They hardly know I'm at the Academy.
And besides, I've learned more in rooms like this than any classroom.
I don't doubt it.
Sit, please. Please, sit. Have a… Have a…
-Seat? -Seat. Thank you. Uh…
Fourth Classman Poe. E. A. Poe.
Edgar A. Poe.
Worked up quite a thirst, I see.
Helps take the bite off the gloom.
Um…
So tell me, how did you learn about Leroy Fry?
Uh, well, from Huntoon, of course.
He has been spouting the news like the town crier. [chuckles softly]
Perhaps someone might hang him before too long.
You don't mean to imply that someone hanged Mr. Fry?
I don't mean to imply anything.
Why do you think that the man who cut Leroy Fry's heart out
was a poet?
Well…
The heart is a symbol or it is nothing.
Now take away the symbol and what do you have?
It's a fistful of muscle of no more aesthetic interest than a bladder.
Now, to remove a man's heart is to traffic in symbol.
And who better equipped for such labor
than a poet?
Awfully literal-minded poet, it would seem--
Oh, you cannot pretend that this act of savagery
did not startle the literary resonances from the very crevices of your mind.
Lord Suckling's charming song,
"I prithee send me back my heart Since I cannot have thine"
Or… Or the Bible even,
"Create in me a clean heart, O God."
"A broken and a contrite heart thou wilt not despise."
Then we might just as easily be seeking a religious maniac.
No, you see, I neglected to tell you that I am a poet myself,
hence inclined to think as one.
[exhales heavily] I don't get around to poetry much.
Why should you? You're an American.
And you?
An artist. That is to say, without country.
-Oh… [laughing] -What, Mr. Landor?
You've been a great help.
You want a second look at a cadet named Loughborough.
In former days, Leroy Fry's roommate, until they had a falling out.
The nature of which remains uncertain.
[unsettling music playing]
[Hitchcock] Mr. Loughborough.
Tell Mr. Landor how you were acquainted with Mr. Fry.
Yes, sir. We were roommates.
Hmm.
You ever have a falling out?
I wouldn't call it a falling out. Just…
a matter of diverging paths, sir.
-What made you diverge? -Well…
Nothing so…
A matter of course.
[sternly] If you know of anything pertaining to Mr. Fry,
you're bound to disclose it at once.
Well, it's like this, sir.
I'd say he'd fallen in with
a bad bunch.
At least that's what he called them.
[Landor] Now then, tell me, by "bad bunch,"
did he mean other cadets?
[Loughborough] He never said, but I assumed so.
And why didn't you come forward earlier?
I didn't quite see that it had any bearing,
happening so long ago, sir.
Dismissed.
Mr. Stoddard.
You were the last one to see Mr. Fry alive.
Yes, sir.
-Speak up. -I'm just a bit ill, sir.
[clears throat] I did see Leroy late on the night in question.
Passed him on the way to barracks as I was coming in.
You spoke to him?
He stopped me, asking if any officers were about.
How did Mr. Fry look?
It was so very dark. I… I wouldn't trust my memory.
Did you see anything on his person, a length of rope, maybe?
-None that I could see. -Hmm.
There was something. Uh…
As Fry was leaving, I did ask where he was off to at such an hour.
And?
He said, "Necessary business."
What did you take that to mean?
I don't know.
-[Landor clears throat] -Dismissed.
-[cadet] Pardon me, captain. -Yes.
Christ almighty.
"A cow and sheep have been murdered and mutilated in Cold Spring."
"Their chests most cruelly carved open and their hearts removed."
Are any of God's creatures immune from this man?
We don't know that this is the same man.
What?
Coincidence, is it?