Premise[]
The team re-opens the case of a woman who allegedly committed suicide in 1962 when the victim's granddaughter comes forth with evidence that the note found on the death scene -- then thought to be the suicide note -- was not written in the victim's handwriting.
Synopsis[]
September 16, 1962 A woman, Nancy, is typing on a typewriter at night. She appears to hear ghostly sounds and continues typing when her husband, Daniel, scares her from behind. She tells him not to do that and she thought he's on his way to his lecture, and he answers he wanted to say goodbye to her. Daniel starts kissing Nancy and she asks him to stop since Rachel, their daughter, is not in bed yet. Rachel comes in and shows them a drawing she made of her family, where she is blonde, not red-haired like in reality. Nancy reassures Rachel her red hair is beautiful just like her grandma's, and that she is now in heaven, having died in childbirth. They send Rachel to bed with their maid Annette, but Nancy keeps hearing strange sounds. Her husband tells her they've had this topic already, it was just the house creaking; Nancy insists something's up in the attic. He tells her to let her fantasy out in her typing and she shouldn't get scared by poltergeists. In the next scene, Nancy is seen hanging by a noose in the attic, labelled a suicide.
Present A blonde woman Scotty comments on as Cyndi Laupner visits him and Lilly in their precinct. She asks if they are dealing with cold cases, and her name is Liza. Her grandmother, Nancy Patterson, had been found dead in the attic, which was considered a suicide. The new tenants had found a letter in the attic: "I must end it my dearest, my butterfly. Only in death will I find peace. I hope in time you'll forgive me". That is a suicide note, Lilly comments. Liza declines it was her grandmother's handwriting and shows them a comparison. She asks if they can test and compare it. Scotty asks what her parents think of that, and Liza claims her mother doesn't want to talk about Nancy as Rachel had been only five when her mother died. They agree to look into it. Liza leaves and Scotty glances at the two writing samples. To him, they do not look the same. They wonder if the suicide note is not by Nancy, who had written it for her?
Valens talks to Stillman and his suspicion was correct, the handwritings are not a match. Stillman suggests Nancy could have been smothered before being hung. Rachel had found her mom back then and it traumatized her. Nancy's second husband, Daniel Patterson, now having the title of a professor laureates, had an alibi of being at work. He is still lecturing today, where he met Nancy, his then-secretary. When he married her, she became a housewife again.
Lilly and Scotty meet up with Rachel, who tells them Liza shouldn't have bothered them with this. Scotty tells her it might not have been a suicide, but she is reluctant to accept this possibility. Rachel sends Liza away to talk to the police by herself. She tells them her mother was a mentally ill person, and it could be something inheritable. Rachel's stepfather Daniel sent her to a boarding school after Nancy's death and was busy with publishing books. Rachel was alone with Nancy that day, as usual, and her mom would hear strange noises.
Flashback Rachel is playing hide-and-seek with her mother and hides in the attic inside a chest. Nancy gets to her, but scolds she had told her not to go there. She finds Rachel in the chest, pulls her out, and warns her she could have suffocated and to not come here again. Nancy looks around in fear as she hears noises again. When she wants to leave the attic, the door is locked from the outside. She tells her daughter there is someone outside, Rachel is afraid, and after a few tries it opens up again. She holds Rachel up in her embrace and says the door was simply stuck and no one as there. To her shock a broken vase is on the floor, shattered.
Present Scotty asks if someone had intruded, Rachel disagrees and he suggests anyone wanting to scare her, but she turns around hastily and claims to have something to do. The only problem had been in her mother's head, she said, and Lilly interrupts Scotty by handing her her card.
Daniel is being handed the suicide note. He tells Vera and Miller he had been looking for an explanation for years and that back then, there were no words to describe Nancy's situation. And there was no healing - but electroshock therapy and lobotomy, Vera continues. Miller asks Daniel if Nancy was afraid of him, and he claims to have loved her and worked over nights. The book, "Empty Rooms", is what he wanted to gift her. It was a book about how he thought she saw the world, and wasted his time on writing instead of taking care of her, hence he hired Annette. Miller asks if she also had keys, and when he affirms this, she asks for her contact information and a specimen of his handwriting. He says it is relieving to hear it was no suicide.
In the police department, Will and John are talking to Annette. She tells them no one had a reason to harm Nancy. After the Pattersons' wedding, Annette started working there and got the keys for the house, including the attic. When she vehemently defends Daniel, Will asks is she was perhaps into him, which she answers with no, Professor Patterson only had eyes for his wife. John says he did until she snapped, but Annette replies people just wanted to believe that. Once, something happened that even she couldn't explain.
Flashback At her desk, Nancy is rummaging through her papers with increasing urgency when Annette comes in. Nancy is looking for the page she had typed yesterday and wonders if her daughter might have taken it. Annette says Rachel wasn't in the room. She informs her employer that Rachel is asleep and asks if she can go home now. As Annette prepares to leave, Nancy stops her in the hallway to confirm if she locked all the windows and doors, including the back door. Annette assures her she did. A breeze suddenly occurs, and Nancy asks if Annette also felt that. Her pages appear on the floor, leading a trail back to her writing room, and they find the window mysteriously opened. Annette closes it and insists she locked everything. She sees Nancy fearfully staring at a paper in her typewriter: it says "Death lurks in the corners of your past, leaving her marks about your neck", signed "DRUMMOND". The two women look at each other in shock.
Present John asks if she knows that name, and Annette declines. She doesn't know that person, but she remembers a man who was parking with a station wagon Buick in front of the house. He was staring into Nancy's writing room. She never mentioned this man since, when Nancy's death was considered a suicide, it didn't matter either way.
Vera found that at least a hundred of these cars were registered back then and the only Drummond was in a home for the elderly. Miller found something else: a brown Buick was stopped for speeding two streets away from the house. The man driving was Bruce Davies, one of Daniel's students. Nancy married Daniel not even a year after dumping Bruce, so they conclude they need to talk to him.
Vera and Jeffries knock on a door, a woman opens, and they ask for Bruce. She introduces herself as Belle, the maid, and makes a cheeky remark to Jeffries. She brings them indoors and tells Jeffries she makes great apple pie, and that he looks like a man to appreciate a good apple pie. Vera adds he also likes whipped cream with it, then they proceed to more serious matters. They inquire about Nancy and Drummond, and ask for a specimen of his handwriting. They tell him he'd been dumped, was grieving and thus started stalking her. He affirms this, but Nancy wasn't the reason behind his grief, it was David. He claims to have been ignored by Patterson and never hurt Nancy, he was applying for a job at that time. He never believed in the suicide since the whole house's atmosphere was strange to him.
Flashback Nancy is handing appetizers during a meeting of Daniel and some of his male students. He lectures him and one of his students tell him this is why he loved writing on paper, right? The muse is sometimes whispering...or screaming, adds Nancy. She apologizes, but the students are interested in her and ask whether a muse could be a bad fairy. She tells them she normally doesn't write, not really, not as well as her husband. But Nancy is reading eagerly all his books, and makes great appetizers a students adds. She excuses herself and wants to check on Rachel. Daniel tells his students Nancy was an orphan and wasn't able to read the classics until now. One of his students asks if his newest poems will be published soon, and he says his muse is as moody as his wife. Nancy is heard screaming and the party investigates: in the attic, Nancy is staring at a noose.
Present Bruce says Daniel required him to keep his mouth silent and not talk about his wife's mental problems. He said the incident with the noose was a "misunderstanding", and Bruce has never spoken about this until today.
Rush and Valens question Daniel in the interrogation room: he has never mentioned Nancy found a noose. He says it meant nothing and it wasn't as serious. Valens asks if it had become serious once Nancy died, and he says it got worse then because he believed her.
Flashback Daniel and Nancy are debating on going to the police. Someone must have intruded the house, Nancy says, and that she is afraid. Daniel is away all day and she is all alone. He asks her what she expects and she wishes to be believed. He says he does and that they will go to the police. They kiss and hug and she hands him the car keys. While going through her purse, she finds a receipt of a purchase of 8 meters of rope. Daniel alleges her to have bought the rope, which Nancy denies, she has never done such a thing. Or has she?, she asks.
Present Daniel mentions he always hoped it there was an explanation for his wife's purchase. Rush tells Valens that perhaps the cops back then were correct in assuming a suicide, and they were chasing ghosts.
Nick, Scotty and Lilly are in the kitchen, Scotty is reading a book. Lilly explains how Nancy did all those things herself, unconsciously. Vera agrees she was insane. Scotty doesn't like concluding this case is done since they haven't found Drummond yet. Vera says she must have invented him. Jeffries interrupts Vera and taking the milk out of his hands: it is his, and he needs it. Perhaps for apple pie, teases Vera. Scotty is reading "Empty Rooms" and thinks the woman narrating the book would not leave without a good-bye. The suicide note is not hers, her husband and the maid have an alibi, but someone has to have murdered her. Lilly tells him this case is not about him, or Elisa.
Valens finds the shop where the rope has been purchased and speaks to Jimmy, the grandson of the owner who looks at a photo of Nancy. He tells him his grandfather told him the story of the woman that purchased rope for her suicide. His grandfather sold her the rope, and she later returned to him with similar questions.
Flashback Nancy arrives at Hal's Hardware store and tells him her husband's bank account has been wrongfully debited. He opens a book and looks up the name Patterson, shows her the receipt and asks if that is her signature. She says that is impossible, she has never been into this shop. He claims she must have forgotten; she was also wearing the same hat as today. Nancy says she probably must have forgotten and turns to leave. Hal stops her saying last time she had forgotten a pen when she was here. He hand it to her and she reads the branding on it: "Drummond". Isn't that yours?, asks Hal, and Nancy leaves, scared.
Present Scotty mentions there was Drummond on the pen, which Jimmy confirms, this was the local psych ward. It was shut down in the 80ties and his grandfather told him also Nancy killed herself a week later.
Scotty, this time with Kat, inquires a nurse that was working at Drummond's back then. They tell her they went through every employee and are looking for someone to talk about Nancy, and he hands her a photo. She looks at it, then tells him she knows this woman well. Her, Nancy Patterson?, asks Scotty. No, she replies, she came to the receptionist and claimed someone was stalking her and brought the pen as evidence with her. Miller concludes Nancy has visited, and someone from Drummond could have killed her. The ex-nurse tells them the only thing stalking Nancy was her past.
Flashback Drummonds, many patients are seen, all employees are busy. Nancy steps in and claims someone is stalking her and pretends to be her. A nurse turns and claims she looks so alike her mother, when Nancy replies irritably she doesn't understand and her mother had died in childbirth. The nurse asks if she has received the note by her, it vaguely started with "My butterfly", thinking it was addressed to her daughter, Nancy. She wonders what her mother might have been doing her that no one told her, and the nurse replies she was here as a patient. Nancy discusses with her and wants to see her, to which the nurse replied her mother had hung herself in the attic.
Present The nurse tells Kat and Scotty she had to be that bold, she couldn't get that no one had ever told Nancy the truth. They conclude her mother died the same way she did, in the same place.
In the office, Nick and Will conclude the suicide note was written by Nancy's mother, not her. Will says the clinic must have given it to her, which Nick declines, someone else did it. The signature says "Nancy Patterson", but Vera says this is the same person that faked the receipt. He hands John and Will a sample of Annette's handwriting - it matches. John concludes she was driving Nancy more insane with each incident.
In the interrogation room, Rush and Jeffries are seen talking to Annette. Must have been weird working for a woman that had it all: a nice home, a cute daughter, and a lovely husband. She replies she was happy about her situation, even if she couldn't be the ideal woman in that time. They suggest that had Nancy gone, she could have perfectly replaced her, they even looked alike. Annette tells Rush Nancy was way prettier, then begins to derail into Rush only needing to be blinking and all men would get what they wanted. Jeffries tells her she wanted to hospitalize Nancy into Drummond like her mother had been, to which she replies she never knew a clinic with this name. Rush hands her a paper with the faked signature when she imitated Nancy, and Jeffries tells her she also bought the rope. Annette claims to have bought it for her, Nancy had gotten increasingly dangerous.
Flashback Annette finds Nancy upset on the stairs. She explains to her her mother was hospitalized since she almost killed Nancy- she had locked her up in a closet and left her a note. She wonders if she is also going insane and this could also happen. Annette briefly seems to look guilty. Nancy asks where Rachel is, and Annette tells her half an hour ago, she claimed to have been playing hide and seek with her mother. The women go looking for her in the attic and find the girl suffocating in the chest, locked up. The key falls off of Nancy's skirts and Annette picks up Rachel, holding her away from her mother. Nancy starts crying and apologizes.
Present Annette insists she only wanted Nancy to leave the place. Scotty is watching the interview with John, then excuses himself when he states a mentally ill woman had been driven to suicide.
He drives over to Rachel's home and apologizes for his behavior. He knows that one feels guilty if there is no suicide note, and one will always feel this way, he felt like this because of a friend. When Scotty turns, she says her mom had indeed farewelled her; but back then she didn't realize it.
Flashback Rachel is being put to bed by her mom, asking her if she is crying. Nancy denies that and tucks her in. Rachel offers her mom to sleep at her room if she is afraid. Nancy tells her she loves her and that she is her everything, and no matter what happens, she should never forget Mommy loves her. Rachel replies the same and gets a good night's kiss. When her mom is about to leave, she pulls a drawing from under her pillow: a drawing of her family where she had red hair. Nancy turns the page as she sees it's been printed on and realizes her missing poem is on there. She asks where her daughter got this paper and she answers it was among Daddy's things, in the attic.
Present Scotty asks if Rachel still has this drawing, and she says yes, she does. She only forgot her mom had been telling her she loved her. Scotty states the poem was by Nancy, and Rachel reassures him that's what she told her.
In Daniel's office, Vera is standing, Valens is seen reading from a poem, cycling around Daniel: "Hollow. No escape from the dark. I sit. Alone. In empty rooms". Poems aren't his thing, Scotty tells him, but this one touches him. Daniel tells him it has been translated into seven languages. Critics say his poems are steeped in his wife's ghost. He affirms this, he had written it for her. Vera says he didn't think of Daniel having written that, which he doesn't understand. Scotty tells him this poems is walking about being a broken person, the voids, and lost hope. Sounds like Nancy, the orphaned, badly educated child, abandoned by her mother, widowed. Daniel says she really had it bad, and Scotty tells him she was also denied recognition for her work. Daniel claims to not understand, when Scotty tells him the poems are steeped in his wife's ghost because she had written them. He tosses the book on Daniel's desk who denies the allegation. Vera asks how come they have found the originals by Nancy under his things in the attic? That is not Nancy's, that is his, he claims. Scotty tells him, heated, that he had been only writing on paper so that the muse would inspire him. Daniel claims she had typed it for him, when Scotty approaches him in anger: not he should be sitting in this chair, but Nancy. He was so busy with lecturing writing started becoming hard, when he noticed he could simply steal the skills of his wife and sell them as his own. She had stolen from me!, Daniel exclaims. Scotty replies that he has been telling this himself to sleep well, Vera says he portrayed his wife as insane, stole her poems and presented them as his work. Poor Annette, in love with him, fit well into his game, and Rachel is until today anxious about her hurting her mother, but it was him, concludes Vera. Daniel says he was so desperate and people demanded so much from him, he had no other choice. Did you really have to steal from her?, asks Scotty. Daniel replies that Nancy was the biggest talent of them all.
Flashback Daniel is seen coming home. He is looking for his wife and hears sounds in the attic. Nancy is surprising him there and he asks what she is doing up here. She claims to be confused, he tells her to rest, and she corrects herself saying she is confused about him. He is insane. Only a monster would use this -she shows him her mother's suicide note- against her. It is shown the Drummond files and her poems were hidden in the attic. He tells her she shouldn't have found out. She accuses him of stealing her work, and he tells her his professor told him his potential was immensely. Nancy asks what's wrong with him. Yet, even with a doctor's degree he had potential, only potential, and only produced pages of mediocrity. Nancy wants to get Rachel, and he stops her. The gods have been with my secretary, this is brilliant, he says, written by some orphaned girl. Nancy affirms she can do indeed write brilliantly and this is her work, not his. Daniel believes his lies and tells her she had stolen from him, his pen has been touched by God. When Nancy tries to leave, he strangles her to death.
Daniel is arrested and escorted out of the university in front of everyone. Annette has her mugshot taken. Rachel and Liza read "Empty Rooms" together, now knowing it's by Nancy. Jeffries is meeting up with Belle for an apple pie and a glass of milk. Scotty is seen reading Nancy's files, then puts them away with John. He "sees" Nancy appear and smile at him in gratitude before fading away.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Kathryn Morris as Lilly Rush
- Danny Pino as Scotty Valens
- John Finn as John Stillman
- Jeremy Ratchford as Nick Vera
- Thom Barry as Will Jeffries
- Tracie Thoms as Kat Miller
Guest Cast[]
- Emily Rose as Nancy Patterson
- Keith Coulouris as Daniel Patterson (1962)
- Michael Ensign as Bruce Davies (2008)
- June Squibb as Annette Hicks (2008)
- Cate Cohen as Edna Hitchford (1962)
- Brea Grant as Liza West
- Jane A. Johnston as Edna Hitchford (2008)
- Kaleigh Kennedy as Rachel Patterson (1962)
- Lenne Klingaman as Annette Hicks (1962)
With[]
- Ronny Cox as Daniel Patterson (2008)
And[]
- Frances Fisher as Rachel West (2008)
Co-Starring[]
- Tom Costello as Bruce Davies (1962)
- Trisha Mann as Belle
- John Sloman as Hal (1962)
- Kevin Linehan as Jimmy
Description[]
Notes[]
- The song "The End of the World" was also used in the episode "Boy Crazy", which took place in the following year, 1963. However, the version used is that of Skeeter Davis. A different Brenda Lee song ("Everybody Loves Me But You") is used for the closing.
Nancy's full poem:
"Empty Rooms"
Hollow. No escape from the dark. I sit. Alone. In empty rooms. I hear nothing. No one. My own malaise limitless. Filling the void. Leading my eye. Around. Empty rooms.
It will not stay. Forever. But how long I wait. For the light to fill. For the darkness to break. Ceasless isolation. It knows no bounds.
I try to remember. A space. A feeling. Comfort. The warmth of a touch. I read for it. Memories. Of how it might have been. When the rooms were full. Brimming with life. Your presence. The recollection. Distant. Unable to gulf. Empty rooms.
A prayer made. Let it be a passing moment. Fledging. Transient. A heartbeat. A bridge. Then, I may forget. Loneliness. Silence. Night. Among empty rooms.
When I arrive. I find what I'm looking for. A long way away. Empty rooms.
Hollow. No escape from the dark. I sit. Alone. In empty rooms. I hear nothing. No one. My own malaise limitless. Filling the void. Leading my eye. Around. Empty rooms.
Music[]
- Patsy Cline "Crazy"
- Bobby Vee "Devil or Angel"
- The Duprees "You Belong to Me"
- Brenda Lee "All Alone Am I"
- Closing Song: Brenda Lee "End of the World"
Previews[]
- TV Guide News (04/24/2008): "Cold Case Tackles a Killer Story"
| Season 5 Episodes |
| Thrill Kill | That Woman | Running Around | Devil Music | Thick as Thieves | Wunderkind | World's End | It Takes a Village | Boy Crazy | Justice | Family 8108 | Sabotage | Spiders | Andy in C Minor | The Road | Bad Reputation | Slipping | Ghost of My Child |
