Law & Order: Criminal Intent

What am I supposed to do with this?

That's all I can spare right now.

You want my kids living on Happy Meals?

Sandi, I shouldn't even be here.

Why are you being this way, Danny?

You know where you wanna be.

Sammy's raving about this smoked salmon he found in Nova Scotia.

Lockport.

Okay.

You went there this morning.

Mom, she has kids.

They're not your kids.

Kelly called.

She needs to talk to you.

Yeah, hi, honey. It's Daddy. Put Mommy on.

It's Dad.

You just got in?

Yes. You know, the traffic. What's up?

I won't be able to make it this afternoon. My sister's coming in for the day.

Oh, no, that's not acceptable.

You have to call them and tell them that we'll be there.

We'll talk tonight.

Don't start with me, Mom, okay?

Mike's coming in from Binghamton.

All the cousins can be together.

- What date is that? - The fourth.

I can't. It's the first day of Sukkoth.

Sukkoth, the Festival of the Booths.

And don't try to tell me that sounds any weirder

than the Feast of the Transfiguration.

Mom hasn't seen your kids since, what, just before Easter.

I know.

Maybe I'll just drive up one Sunday with Jordie and Sharon.

Is everything okay with you and Danny?

You keep asking that. Yes.

The business just takes up a lot of his time.

I have to run.

Housekeeper leaves at 4:00, and I don't want the kids coming home to an empty house.

Tell Mom I'll call her tonight.

Kelly,

we can still talk.

The lady who drove the kids home from school found her about 5:30.

Where was Mr. Sussman?

Oh, he got home from work at 6:15.

We were already here.

He looked pretty shook-up.

We'll see.

See the hand spread across her neck?

It's almost a foot wide.

And this bruise here.

See? Knuckle marks.

Smaller hand.

Yeah. A second assailant. Came from that side.

She didn't stand a chance.

Oh, but she fought back.

Her nails are torn.

Threads from a gauze bandage?

Now, that's

antiseptic cream.

One of them might have been wearing a bandage.

She came over the top of the hood

to get away from them.

But why did she go back in the car?

The way out.

Instead of overwhelming her

as soon as she got out of the car,

they hesitated.

They gave her an opening.

And then when they regained control,

they used excessive force to kill her.

Amateurs.

I thought that other detective I talked to,

he was running things.

Your borough president called the police commissioner.

That's how the case came to us.

Your family's prominent in the community.

Well, my father was a very important man.

He helped a lot of people.

Children, come in the kitchen with Grandma.

Yeah, go ahead.

It's a terrible thing they had to find their mother that way.

Sussman Kosher Foods.

I see your trucks around all the time.

Everything good between you and your employees?

Yeah, we have no complaints.

You and Mrs. Sussman?

Anything we should know about?

Everything was fine.

The kids are doing well. We had our health.

You have something in your eyes?

No. Why?

Blinking your eyes a lot, that usually means you have something in your eyes.

Or that your stress level has gone up.

It's called the blink rate.

Well, of course, I'm under a lot of stress.

Of course.

Do you know where your wife was earlier this afternoon?

Her sister Anna had come down from Albany for the day.

Kelly was meeting her in the city.

Would she have been wearing any jewelry?

She always had her wedding ring

and a necklace

that I bought her for our 10th anniversary.

It had three diamonds, for me and each of the kids.

She always told me everything was fine.

She was very private about her marriage.

But something made you ask.

Our mother had a stroke a few months ago.

I was calling Kelly late at night

with progress reports.

A lot of times, Danny wasn't there.

Where did she say he was?

At some religious observance.

You know, prayers.

What religious observance takes place late at night outside the home?

I wouldn't know. I'm not Jewish.

Oh, Kelly converted.

Yes.

So her children could be raised in their father's faith.

Kelly was familiar with the Jewish traditions?

She had to be.

The Sussmans are a very religious family.

Could you write down the dates and the times

that you called her at home?

There are three daily prayers in the Jewish tradition

and a man might leave the home to go pray with the minion,

with nine other men.

Sussman might have had a legitimate reason to be out.

Except that the last prayer takes place

in the early evening.

Which Mrs. Sussman would have known,

being familiar with the traditions.

She was covering for her husband.

Seems to be part of her MO.

She didn't let on that there were problems.

She was better at it than he was.

Two months ago, Tuesday night, 11:10 p.m.,

he made a withdrawal for a thousand bucks from an ATM

on the 600 block of Cuthpert Boulevard.

What's the date on that?

There was a call to a business on Cuthpert.

Here. Same day, from his cell phone,

at 5:00 p.m. to Stan's Show Supplies.

One block down from the ATM.

Sussman, one of his checks bounced.

We were holding his order until he came up with one grand cash.

What was in his order?

I don't remember. Show stuff.

You mean, like in Stan's Show stuff? Maybe we should ask Stan.

There is no Stan. There's Mr. Harland,

and he's gonna be back here in an hour,

and I gotta get these orders out.

We'll write you a note, how you were helping with a murder investigation.

Now, Sussman's in the food business.

What does he need lighting equipment for?

Sussman told me he did charity events.

Rented to Firefly Enterprises for delivery on 10th Avenue in Manhattan.

Spotlights, glitter ball, smoke machine.

What's this abbreviation for?

A bubble bath setup. It's a clear Lucite bathtub.

Charity events.

Charity must be the girl who takes the bubble baths.

Hey, how long I gotta wait in the car?

Huh? Don't we gotta do a thing tonight?

Next time will be on the house, baby.

It's gonna take at least an hour

to get all the way up there.

Since when did you grow a brain, huh? Come on.

Sussman's got the lease till the end of the year.

After that, it's available.

- Why'd he close up? - I don't know.

Business was good.

Is there a problem with the lights?

Fuse box blew three weeks ago.

Just like that?

Well, two days later I got a letter from Sussman's lawyer

wanting to break the lease on account of the electrical problem.

- Do you mind if we have a look? - No, go ahead.

They poured acid behind the connector.

That's blood.

Well, he splashed acid on his arm.

He would've had to reach in.

He came over here to wash it off,

and he used this to wipe his wound.

Gauze fibers on Kelly Sussman.

Yeah, from the bandages of the killer.

He used this to cover his burn.

Murderer, arsonist, jack of all trades.

Yeah, master of none.

The Arson Squad confirmed they found traces of acid.

So this works for you? Sussman risking jail time for arson

just to skip out on a lease?

- Money's money. - Small money.

- And what's this guy doing running a strip joint? - You have to ask?

He wasn't running it alone.

He filed a change of ownership 2 months ago.

He used to have a partner.

Oh.

And she spells it with an “i”.

That's right. Sandi. Sandi Tortomassi.