You basically love this man and you want me to prove he has feet of clay?
I want more than anything in the world for you to prove that I'm wrong.
This $100 bill that dropped out of the flower box
that Hayes was trying to give you.
Case dismissed.
Thank you, Your Honor.
It's not liberal conduct. That's misconduct.
Do you have some kind of hard evidence against me, counselor?
Something that will stand up in court?
Why is he doing this?
I'm not gonna insult Ice Pick by talking to him about this stuff.
You are unless you want him to end up in jail for a murder he didn't commit.
It was January 23, 1958.
I was 12 years old, and my kid sister Wendy was five.
My mom and dad had just been killed in an automobile accident,
and my aunts and uncles were all arguing
about who was gonna have to take care of Wendy and me.
Well, any other kid probably would've been scared, but I wasn't.
I knew Mom and Dad would've been happy wherever they were,
as long as they were together.
I knew Wendy and I would be okay wherever we were,
as long as we were together.
But the one thing that I couldn't stop thinking about
was how, if I was somebody,
I could have afforded to get some flowers for the funeral.
Boy, I wanted to give them some flowers.
How you doing? You okay?
You take care of your sister.
Who's that man?
Francis Hofstetler. They call him Ice Pick.
Ice Pick.
Something like that, you never forget.
He was true to his word, too. He came by every Easter and Christmas, and...
And never forgot your birthday.
Or Wendy's. And when I was 14...
He pulled strings to get you into military school.
Guess I told you guys that story before.
A couple of times.
Hey, the guy was like my father.
You don't have to explain why you want to throw him a big birthday party.
I think it's a great idea.
Yeah, so do I.
There you are. I've been looking all over for you.
The board of directors are meeting at noon,
and the room hasn't been set up yet.
I've gotta call my friend in Maine
about shipping the live lobsters.
I don't recall adding Maine lobster to the Club's menu.
I'm late. I gotta meet Carol at the courthouse in half an hour.
What is going on?
Are you gonna testify again?
No. She just had this case she wanted me to observe.
There is definitely something going on here,
and I will not rest until I get to the bottom of it.
Well, you know Carol.
She probably has this dazzling defense she wants to show off,
and I was the only person she could think of to impress.
I'll be tied up all day, probably.
Case dismissed.
But, Your Honor...
The defendant is released from custody.
Thank you, Your Honor.
Your Honor, may we approach the bench?
I would suggest that your time would be better spent approaching a law library.
Perhaps there you can acquaint yourself
with Article IV of the Bill of Rights,
which protects us all against unlawful search and seizure.
Your Honor, I am very well acquainted with the Bill of Rights.
Court is recessed till 2:00.
All rise.
Better luck next time, Carol.
KO'ed on a technicality?
Hmm?
Oh, that. Yeah.
Well, you win some, you lose some.
Lunch?
What?
Well, there's no point in you making the trip
all the way downtown for nothing.
Oh, no, no. Thanks anyway.
Are you too busy for lunch?
No offense, Carol, but I know you.
Now, you're gonna spend the entire lunch hour
talking about the judge and how incompetent he is
and how some obviously guilty defendant
shouldn't get off on a lousy technicality.
And you're right, you're 100º/º right. I agree with you.
But I'm sorry, I'm just not in the mood today.
This is the fourth case of mine that he has dismissed in two months.
Well, sometimes you get on a losing streak.
Over nothing?
He wouldn't even let me present my case.
Well, I'm not saying that he's been fair with you. I just...
Maybe could you consider that in these four cases, that you,
you know, might possibly have not had that strong a case?
Could you consider that?
No. No.
I have considered that. That's not it.
You don't think I would have asked you to come all the way down here
just to see if I did my homework?
Why did you ask me to come down here?
Thomas, if it weren't for Hannibal, I wouldn't even be a lawyer.
Wait a minute. You lost me.
What does some guy crossing the Alps
have to do with you becoming a lawyer?
No, no, no, not that Hannibal.
Hannibal Kearns. Judge Kearns.
He was a tough teacher, but, oh, he was good.
He was fair and honest, somebody to look up to.
And now I don't know.
Lately he's been spending more money than he makes,
he's throwing out cases he would've never dismissed in the past,
and he will not talk to me. I don't know what to think.
Well, you might think that he made a killing in the stock market,
he suddenly developed a liberal streak,
and he's run out of small talk.
Any judge that shuts the door on the prosecuting attorney's office
before we even have a chance to present our case...
It's not liberal conduct. That's misconduct.
Well, have you gone to the Review Board or the Ethics Committee?
No. No.
Well, because I don't have any proof.
Maybe that's why I asked you to come down here,
because I thought if you would just follow him around, maybe...
Wait a minute.
Now, what you're saying is that you basically love this man,
and you want me to prove he has feet of clay?
No.
I want more than anything in the world for you to prove that I'm wrong.
I just can't figure out why he would be taking money.
He certainly has a well-paying job.
What's a nine-letter word for "completeness," second letter, "N"?
Oneness.
That's only seven letters.
His house is paid for.
Here we go.
Be careful. Don't let him see you.
I have done this a few times.
Sorry.
Ordinarily I'd consider an all-day surveillance
a dull way to spend a Saturday,
but there was a very good reason
to spend a day watching Judge Kearns,
and it had to do with General Grant.
He was my high school coach, and he wasn't really a general.
He was a retired Marine colonel. Warren McKenzie Grant.
General Grant didn't exactly take me under his wing,
more like under his thumb.
But it was the closest I came to having a mentor,
and even though he was far from perfect, I felt a loyalty to him
I couldn't really explain.
Haircut.
Just doesn't make any sense.
It seems like a perfectly reasonable thing
for a man to do on a Saturday.
No, no, no, I mean about the money.
You want your crossword puzzle back?
Normally at this stage of a stakeout,
I break out the battery-operated video games,
but since you're here, 20 questions.
Oh, no, 20 questions?
No, 20 questions! I think of a person, living or dead,
and you try and guess who they are in 20 questions.
Thomas... Yes or no only.
Okay, go ahead. I've got someone.
I'm not exactly in the mood to play games, Thomas.
Games? This isn't a game.
It is an exercise in deductive thinking.
Keeps the old reasoning process sharp.
Very important in my line of work. First question.
Is this person alive?
No. That's one down and 19 to go.
Seventeen down and three to go.
Eisenhower! No.
That's 18 down and two to go.
But you said he was responsible for ending World War II.
In a way, he was.
Uh-oh.
Oh, no.
Looks like we're gonna be here for a while.
Hannibal loves to spend hours in the bookstore.
That's 18 down and two to go.
Okay. Well, let's see.
If it isn't Eisenhower and it isn't Patton, then...
I don't know. I give up.
General Grant.
Oh, come on. You're a couple wars behind.
Not Ulysses. Warren McKenzie Grant, my high school coach.
Your high school coach?
In his own way, he influenced the war.
I am supposed to guess your high school coach?
Well, if you're not ready for the advanced level...
That's not advanced, that's cheating.
No, it's not cheating, it's misdirection.
And I got you to quit obsessing on Judge Kearns for a couple of minutes.
All right, I've got one. You ask.
I'm hungry. How about you?
No, no, no, come on. Living or dead, male or female.
Come on, give it your best shot.
I'm no good at this on an empty stomach.
Now, why don't you grab us a couple of burgers?
I hate burgers.
All right, grab one for me and you can have anything you want. I'm buying.
No.
What? You said we were gonna be here for a while.
Now, I need two double cheeseburgers, plain.
All right. Now, that's just plain.
Nothing on the bun, no lettuce, nothing.
I'll be right back.
But don't think you're getting out of this.
Start racking your brain. You're gonna need it.
"The blonde was pretty, but too pale,
"and her thin, high-arched eyebrows
"gave her face a startled look."
Oh!
Do you believe that? He never eats fast food.
It's a rule with him. Who could have guessed he would go in that store?
You suppose he suspects? Where are we going?
Just far enough away so he thinks we're gone.
What's he doing at the Flower Mart?
Probably taking a break from his all-day crime spree.
Thomas, look.
That's Donald Hayes. That's the defendant from yesterday's trial.
What's going on?
Hey.
Hey!
Get away from him!
You all right?
No trouble. Please don't bring trouble here.
I'm just glad we were there to help.
As soon as you feel stronger, we're gonna take you to the police.
You can file an assault charge.
I'm not going to the police.
Then I'll call them and have them come here.
You have witnesses. We're not gonna let him get away with this.
Look, this is none of your business.
What were you fighting with Donald Hayes about?
What the hell were you doing following me all over town?
I asked him to. I was worried about you.
Well, you didn't have to be.
Look,
Oliver Wendell Baldwin, did I stick my nose into your business
every time I worried about you during law school?
Why won't you answer Thomas' question?
Look, I appreciate you patching me up, but if you don't mind...
Hannibal, if you're in some kind of trouble, I want to help.
If it means going to the Review Board, I'll go with you.
Why? Do you have some kind of hard evidence against me, counselor?
Something that will stand up in court?
Or you, sir?
No. Just a hunch.
And observation.
And a great deal of concern.
Which smells a lot like harassment to me.
There's also this $100 bill that dropped out of the flower box
that Hayes was trying to give you.
Hannibal, I know this is very hard on you,
but I...
I mean, don't you think that if I've seen the changes...
I think what she's trying to say is...
Well, look, if Carol has seen certain shifts
in your lifestyle and your professional conduct,
I mean, don't you think it's just a matter of time
before other people start seeing it, too?
Why did you meet Donald Hayes? What were you fighting about?
It was a chance encounter.
He wanted to contribute some money to Hawaii Legal Aid.
I told him to go through channels. He...
He got angry.
Now, if you'll excuse me, it's been a very long day.
Why is he doing this?
He's not doing it to you, Carol.
He's doing it to himself. I know.
But what am I supposed to do? Stop him for his own good?
Or look the other way and become a partner to it?
I don't know.
Integrity. It's a nine-letter word for completeness.
Integrity.
8:00, and don't be late. Okay, I'll see you here. Thanks. Bye.
I got people coming to this party
that Ice Pick hasn't seen in 20 years.
I hope he still recognizes them.
Are you kidding? He's gonna faint.
He may not be the only one.
Have you asked Higgins about this party yet?
Oh. Hey, Thomas, I need your help with something.
Do you remember me telling you about Ice Pick's girlfriend, Grace?
The only woman he ever really loved.
That's right. And I've been talking myself blue in the face,
but I cannot convince her to come to the party.
Then that's one less phone call you'll have to make...
Higgins...
...when you call everyone to cancel the party.
Oh, come on, Higgie. You can't make him cancel this party.
He's got people coming from Chicago, Miami.
Everything's all planned for tomorrow night...
Then it will simply have to be un-planned.
The board of directors will not approve a party
honoring someone of Ice Pick's dubious reputation.
They can't tell me who I can and who I can't throw a party for.
They wouldn't dream of it. They're simply telling you it can't be here.
They might reconsider if you asked them, Higgins.
As a kind of personal favor?
Higgins,
did I ever tell you about the time
that Ice Pick brought flowers to my parents' funeral?
It was January 23, 1958.
I was 12 years old, and my sister, Wendy, was five.
My parents had just been killed in an automobile...
Warren McKenzie Grant.
I bet it had been five years since I'd even thought about him.
But for some reason, his presence had been with me all day.
It wasn't just a matter of remembering things about him.
It was more a matter of seeing things in myself that he'd drummed into me,
and recognizing that at least a small part of Thomas Sullivan Magnum
was pure Warren McKenzie Grant, for better or worse,
and realizing that even though disillusionment had replaced hero worship over the years,
I missed him.
I really didn't know what I'd do if I were faced
with the decision Carol had to make about a man
who had influenced her life so much.
Hello?
Thomas, I'm at Judge Kearns' house.
Carol, what's wrong?
Carol.
Oh, Thomas.
I can tell you right now what the report's going to say.
Judge Kearns committed suicide.
I won't believe it was suicide.
I'm sorry, Carol. Everything points to it.
Nothing points to it.
This was not the kind of man who would take his own life.
Look around you.
The photo album, the empty bottle of whiskey,
the nickel-plated. 38 with only his fingerprints on it.
No forced entry.
No suicide note.
Even so, this is a classic case of suicide.
Maybe. Or maybe somebody wants us to think it is.
You told me yourself you thought that he was taking payoffs.
Looks to me like he spent the night
going through his scrapbook of achievements
and realized he couldn't live with the scandal
of being caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Why did he leave a message on my answering machine to come and see him
if he was planning to pull the trigger?
Why did he write a letter of resignation
if he wasn't going to be around?
Even if he resigned, he'd still have to face criminal charges.
I think he wanted to confess and get it all out in the open.
I know how difficult this is for you,
but I have to have more to go on than your gut feeling about this.
All right.
How about the fact that over the past six months,
Hannibal has let three defendants off on technicalities,
and all three of them worked at Hoku Florists?
How about the fact that this was the second time Donald Hayes came up
before Judge Kearns in the last year,
and it was the second time that he was let off?
I've been at my office most of the night going through the files.
That's why I missed his call.
Lieutenant, I know this points more to bribery than murder,
but if he was trying to expose whatever racket they were in,
well, that's a motive for murder.
You gotta have more than a motive.
Well, we saw Donald Hayes try to give Judge Kearns what we think was some money.
A couple $100 bills fell to the ground. I still have one of them.
I gave the other one to Judge Kearns. Did you find one on the body?
No.
Well, then, as far as I can tell,
nobody's seen it since his death.
Now, that may not mean anything, but then again...
All right, I'll go by and talk to Hayes. Now, ask around.
If anything new comes up, give me a call.
You still don't have a case.
I know.
Excuse me.
I always loved this back yard. It seemed so peaceful.
Carol...
I called his sister in Tulsa and his son on the Big Island,
and they're both flying in tonight.
They want the funeral tomorrow. It just seems so awfully fast.
But I told them that I'd make some preliminary phone calls.
Carol,
you want to stay at the estate for a couple of days?
No. I have so much to do.
I want to check out the stuff at the Hoku Florists.
Now, I know that the police department...
It's going to be second priority to them, and I just...
I understand why. I can't...
Carol, it is much too dangerous
for you to go down there and start asking questions.
I owe it to him, Thomas. I started this.
No, you didn't. You just got caught up in the middle.
Thomas, you know Hannibal, the other Hannibal,
he committed suicide rather than surrender to the Roman army.
I'm not sure that we'll ever know
if that's what Judge Kearns did, but I promise you,
I'll do everything I can to find out for you.
A good hobby is absolutely essential
to the well-being of the psyche,
lifting one's thoughts above mundane, day-to-day problems
into a more elevated plane.
Wouldn't you say?
Yeah, I guess so. Higgins?
You need to ask me a favor.
Yes. It's about...
Rick's party.
In a way. How did you...
It's one of the side effects of working on a hobby.
Once your entire energy is focused on an object, such as this orchid,
the mind is no longer cluttered with self-concerns,
and therefore more able to accurately interpret incoming signals.
Kind of a self-hypnosis.
Oh. Well...
For example, the moment you walked in,
I instinctively knew exactly why you were coming to me.
You did?
But you're too late.
I've already talked to the board of directors,
and they've agreed, with some misgivings,
to allow Rick to hold the party
this one time.
I know.
You know?
But since you're all self-hypnotized here, you knew that I knew.
Well, that is, I...
And since you must know
what I really came to ask you for,
I'll just skip the question and wait for the answer.
You're right, Higgins. This staring-at-orchids stuff really works.
I already know what the answer is.
Did I hear you correctly?
Twenty-five floral arrangements?
Yes. And as I'll be doing all of the arrangements myself,
I'll need to inspect each flower personally.
I'm afraid our selection is a little low at the moment.
If you would like to come back tomorrow morning...
No. That is, all of the arrangements are needed for an event
scheduled for this evening.
I'll have to make do with what you have.
Perhaps we could start with heliconias.
"The south wind searches for the flowers
"whose fragrance late he bore..."
"And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more."
William Bryant. The Death of the Flowers.
Precisely.
We have a large supply of chrysanthemums.
"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen..."
"And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
Elegy written in a Country Churchyard.
One of the first poems I ever committed to memory,
but perhaps never fully appreciated until this moment.
You have more than enough here for 25 arrangements.
Well, one can never be too prepared.
Perhaps we should go through the red ginger again.
I'll leave you to go through them while I start the paperwork.
Where are you going?
To the office, to get the invoices.
I wonder if I might ask you a question first about these vases here?
I believe I prefer the design of this one,
yet the color of the other one is so much more compatible with the red ginger.
On the other hand, I believe the bird of paradise arrangement
would do quite nicely in this.
Oh, Donald, get me a book of invoices from the office.
Sure.
Well, perhaps you would like to take all three?
Hmm?
Actually, I don't think I'll take any vases at the moment.
I'll just...
Is something wrong?
Oh, no. No, no. Everything's fine.
If you'll write up the order,
I'd like to charge it to the King Kamehameha Club.
I'm chairman of the board of directors. Jonathan Quayle Higgins.
Grace Chang.
Pleased to meet you.
Grace Chang is into everything.
Extortion, prostitution kickbacks...
Boy, I wonder if Rick has any idea
that Ice Pick's one true love is fronting these racketeers.
Surely there must be some other explanation. She hardly seems the type.
Look at this. A chain of title
showing common ownership of The Sea and Sand on Kuhio.
The Sea and Sand? Isn't that...
Hooker central.
Here's a record of the payments they made to Hannibal.
Well, this ledger is a record of payments to William Paoa.
Might as well add murder to their list of activities.
Paoa has a reputation of being the best hit man on the Island.
The last entry was today.
Well, that lends credibility
to the theory that Judge Kearns was murdered.
They're not gonna get away with this.
We have enough information here to put Donald Hayes away for a very long time.
I don't think so. None of the titles come back
to Grace Chang or to Donald Hayes.
Francis Hofstetler?
Oh, my God.
Ice Pick.
It's not possible.
Rick... I'm telling you, it's not possible.
It's right here in black and white.
Grace Chang and Donald Hayes are a front for Ice Pick's activities.
He's retired. You know that.
That's what he says.
He did time, he paid his debt,
and he's been clean ever since.
Look at these documents. Oh, you look at the documents.
I don't have to. He's my friend, and I know this is a mistake.
It's a mistake that could link him to murder,
and maybe Hayes and Grace as accessories.
Let me tell you something, Thomas.
Ice Pick would never drag Grace into something like this.
He loved this woman. He wanted to marry her.
So you told me. But that doesn't have anything to do with...
I'm not finished yet.
He thought his life was over when she married another man.
And when her son was killed in a gang war, well, he took care of everything.
Rick... And I mean everything!
He got her out of Chicago and set her up in a business right here in Honolulu.
You could bet your bottom dollar, Thomas,
he wouldn't do anything to hurt her.
I've been looking at this from the wrong angle.
Yeah, that's what I've been trying to tell you. Come on!
What? We're going to see Ice Pick.
I'm not gonna insult Ice Pick by talking to him about this stuff.
You are unless you want him to end up in jail for a murder he didn't commit.
Damn you, Thomas!
The one thing I'd failed to see,
what it was that the memory of General Grant
had been trying to remind me of...
A beautiful fall day, a football game,
a play that maybe the coach shouldn't have called.
His star player was badly hurt.
And Warren McKenzie Grant never forgave himself for the young man's injuries.
And when the young man, confined to a wheelchair,
began taking advantage of that guilt,
almost everyone understood why General Grant let him do it.
Almost everyone looked the other way
when the General allowed the young man to cheat on exams and passed him.
Almost everyone, except Thomas Sullivan Magnum,
who probably only understood for the first time today.
It's very good.
Of course, it'll never stand up in a court of law,
but it's definitely professional.
What else did I sign my name to?
They've left a pretty substantial trail
for someone to tie you into prostitution kickbacks...
Marvin, it's okay. You can leave us alone.
Now, what do you fellas got in mind?
I want to bring in the person who killed Judge Kearns. It's very important to me.
Thomas says they can tie you into this thing.
I suppose if I didn't contest these signatures...
But you are gonna contest?
So you take these to the police.
Is that gonna bring Judge Kearns back?
Don't you think your debt to Grace Chang is paid?
I had to tell him. I had to explain that he...
Grace Chang's boy. He could've been my son if things had been different.
I promised her that I'd see that nothing ever happened to him.
That was a promise I couldn't keep.
No one could keep that kind of promise.
Grace forgave me, but I didn't.
Not then, not ever.
Letting Grace Chang use you isn't going to get rid of that guilt.
Well, the world isn't gonna end in the next 12 hours?
No.
You'll hear from me.
Look, Ricky,
I don't have a lot of time to think this through,
so I'm sorry, but I won't be able to come to your surprise birthday party.
How do you always find these things out?
I want to tell you something. I deeply appreciate it.
Thanks, Ice Pick.
"Mentor: A wise and trusted teacher or guide."
As usual, Webster's spoke volumes with just a few words.
Beyond the deceptively simple definition was an implied relationship,
student and master.
What the definition failed to describe was the ironic twist.
If the relationship were to grow and mature,
the wise and trusted guide would inevitably turn into student,
and the student to teacher.
Sometimes the change could be painful.
Sometimes the student couldn't bear to see the chink in the mentor's armor.
Sometimes the mentor didn't even realize that's what he was.
But one thing was certain.
Once the change in the relationship started to occur,
there was no way to stop it or to go back.
Yes, hello?
I don't want her picked up by strangers,
but I'll see to it that Donald Hayes is there.
I want to talk to her myself.
"From too much love of living,
"from hope and fear set free,
"we thank with brief thanksgiving whatever gods there be
"that even the weariest river
"winds somewhere safe to sea."
Somehow, I knew that through all this,
I had wrapped up some unfinished business
with one of the most important people in my life.
And I knew that one day, if not this day, Carol would, too.