Cold Case

Everybody, listen up.

I could not be a prouder father today

because my son Grant qualified for the Junior Olympic

training program in wrestling. Ha-ha!

: Oh, yeah!

We've got a plan to bring a shiny trinket back to the store.

It's a... it's a little thing called...

Olympic gold!

Hey, hey, no pressure or nothing, huh?

This space right here is reserved for the medal.

Work hard, never quit.

That's what we do, right?

Beers up front, everybody!

Good speech, Dad.

Look at that guy.

Can you believe it?

I can remember him when he was a sparkle in my eye.

Now he eats an entire cow in one sitting.

You got a plan for yourself, Maurice?

Me?

Yeah, you.

Grant set a goal-- there's no stopping him.

So what's it gonna be for you?

I guess I don't know yet.

Wh-what I want to be.

Hey.

I'm talking to you about your future.

You're 16-- you're not the baby anymore.

I know.

I'm saying...

show some direction, Maurice.

Or I'll find a direction for you.

Can always count on the warm atmosphere in here.

You ever wonder if they're not really dead

and they're all of a sudden going to sit up?

That's not funny.

You going to be okay?

What do we got?

Construction team razing a landfill up in Northeast found this.

How long has it been in there?

Skeletal remains tell us he'd been there about 20 years.

He? Skull shape and size says young adult male.

Pulled all missing persons from '87 back to '77;

dental records narrowed it down.

Maurice Hall.

Went missing in October of '84

from the family apartment in Kensington.

Lived above their grocery store.

He was 16 years old.

They thought he was a teenage runaway.

Calcaneus bone is shot.

So are the metatarsals.

Means the right foot was shattered.

So Maurice wasn't running anywhere.

Then what killed him?

Multiple skull fractures.

What kind of weapon?

These kind of fractures,

it was something long and thin.

Can't get more specific than that?

The state of decomp, no fibers, no striations left.

For 23 years, the family hoped he was out there...

somewhere.

Turns out he was practically in their backyard all along.

Cold Case 417

about retirement, boss?

Will, there's something I wanted to let you in on.

All right. I'd rather you hear it from me than someone else.

Okay. We got a call.

Guy facing an armed robbery charge offers up a proffer.

Says a friend of his, ex-truck driver,

confessed to a fatal hit-and-run on the turnpike,

winter of '95.

You talking about my wife?

Who's it from?

Jersey State Police.

Could be the end of the line.

What's his name?

They got anything can put him away,

better than a con snitching?

Proffer is all they have so far.

Jersey has their best guys on it, Will.

They know this is for you.

All right.

Maurice Hall, sophomore at James Marshall High.

Stock boy at his father's grocery store.

Mom died from cancer in '81.

Older brother was a varsity athlete, worked at the store, too.

Hall & Sons' Grocery Mart was the center of the search effort.

Volunteers papered the town with these.

Usual loony callers-- nothing solid.

Father said Maurice was clean-cut, kept to himself.

But it says here Maurice had been acting erratic

before he ran away-- late for work, moody.

Maybe he wasn't so clean-cut.

Maybe he was just a sulky teenager.

Father is still in Kensington.

We're the visit he's been hoping not to get for 23 years.

Are you sure it was Maurice that you found?

We're sure.

I'm very sorry, Mr. Hall.

Someone from the ME's office will call you.

You said Maurice's behavior was erratic before he disappeared.

Well, he had a pretty much erratic way about him all the time.

What do you mean?

He was unique. Creative, like his mother.

Yeah, those two were peas in a pod.

It wasn't easy for Maurice after she passed.

He was different from the usual types in this neighborhood.

Usual type being...?

Me.

Us. Regular guys.

Can you be... little more specific?

Sports, beer, girls.

That's the norm. Whereas...

Maurice was into books, music.

That was him.

Anybody give Maurice trouble for being different?

One time I know for sure.

That same fall.

With Grant training, I'm one hand short here.

And if you left school... High school dropout?

Hey, you're looking at one.

You could contribute to the family and your brother's dream.

I don't want to work here the rest of my life.

Why is that, hotshot?

I don't mean it as an insult, Dad.

Hey. You're...

odd, Maurice.

And you dress funny.

Don't...

Oh...

What's this?

Nothing. Some meathead, Dad, just being a jerk.

Should've seen what Idid to him.

You ought to learn to defend yourself.

I'm hoping it won't happen again.

I tried showing him how, Dad.

You tell me who did this,

and I'll have Grant take care of him.

I don't need his help.

I got it.

I do.

Maurice never told you who gave him the black eye?

It wasn't easy for Maurice.

Big brother-- this great athlete.

Girls going after him the way they did.

That's some balls on that bully,

picking on your kid brother?

Some people are real jerks.

I got inventory to do.

You okay, Dad?

All this time, I'm thinking Maurice would turn up one day and...

"Hey, Dad,

"got the wandering out of my system.

I'm back home."

Not going to happen, huh?

If somebody picked on me when I was little...

I'd tell him who my brother was,

guy would step off in a hurry.

That's right.

You didn't have Maurice's back like that?

Believe me, I did-- it was known.

So who gave him that black eye?

I told you, nobody!

Nobody picked... on my kid brother.

Except you.

It was for his own good.

The only way to get through to him. What's that mean? One night,

I'm jogging in the neighborhood, I find Maurice doing something

would've given our old man a heart attack.

What are you doing?

What?

Are you a queer?

Tell me.

Are you a queer?!

I-I'm not.

You're sure acting like one.

Leave me alone, Grant.

Get up, little brother.

Huh?

Oh, no, you don't! Get away from him right now!

I am not even kidding.

Excuse me? No, excuse me.

I'm Crystal, this is my boyfriend,

and you must be the piece of scum on the bottom of my shoe.

He's your boyfriend?

: I don't think so.

You okay, baby?

I'm okay... baby.

Get out of here.

Is this your girlfriend, Maurice?

Yeah.

You heard her.

Get lost, Grant.

Blew my mind.

I thought he was... you know.

Uh, why didn't this girlfriend come up in the original investigation?

I couldn't take about her-- my dad would've lost it.

'Cause Crystal was black.