Murder in a Small Town

All right, see you next game.

-Bye, guys. Bye. -See you.

Sweetheart.

It's me.

Just listen.

Stay away from me! Stay away from me!

Mom's outside, she tried to follow me in her car.

Stay right here. Stay right here.

-I'll be right back. -Yeah.

Maria!

Maria!

Don't you show your face around here again!

- I'm her mother. - I don't care.

Don't you ever try to ambush my daughter like that again.

She's not your--

Yeah. Yeah, my daughter.

You left.

I messed up. I'm not the same person.

Where the hell are you?

Here.

Hello?

Is someone there?

Hello?

Who's there?

I really like your place.

How come we're always at mine?

Because you keep touching my stuff.

Well, you know, it's hard to drink from a glass

unless you touch it.

I mean, I can always bring mine, but...

I really like this one.

My Corfu glasses.

I used to have two.

You went to Corfu?

Yeah, years ago. Back when I was in grad school.

You and your sorority chums?

Karl...

can you see me in a sorority?

Well, you know, maybe if I squint a little.

No, I, uh, I went with Terrence.

He was my thesis advisor.

Also, my... my boyfriend, if I can use that word.

Um... he was a little older.

Oh.

Was he the one?

When we first met, you said that you'd come close

to getting married once.

I believe I said close-ish.

How much older?

Too much, yeah.

It has been washed a thousand times, Alberg.

You are not gonna find any fingerprints.

Sorry. You know, you invited a detective to dinner.

Yeah. You look at my place like it's a riddle to be solved.

Big picture first, then details.

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

Is there anything out of place?

Anything that wasn't here before?

Wow.

You're good.

It's yours.

Seriously?

I saw the way that you looked at it at the art fair.

You shouldn't have. How much was it?

It's your mom's, and it's you.

I don't know what to say.

It's obviously the summer that you spent on the beach

with your mom at Half Moon Bay, but...

The man with his hands in his pockets.

Who's that?

Your father?

I never knew him.

Hm. That's not what I asked.

He's called The Creeper.

He wears one of those, like, monk hoodie things.

-A cowl? -Yes! A cowl.

One night every month, he creeps out to clean up

Lauren Park's shrine and leave flowers.

- Why? - I don't know.

It's a legend.

Every month since Lauren died.

That's like 25 years.

Three hundred months, Holl, without fail.

Holly.

Yeah?

Rargh!

You loser! You scare so easy.

Get away from me.

Morning.

Someone had a good weekend.

Vanessa?

... maybe I'm just high on life.

So... what are you fixated on?

Just an email.

My LSAT results.

Let's not talk about it, okay?

Oh, crap.

No. I'm... I'm fine.

Really.

For what it's worth, my brother needed six cracks at the LSAT.

But then he nailed it and he is doing great now.

Well, he's practicing tax law in Salt Lake.

-But, yeah, he likes it. -Corporal.

Gotta go. Picked up a body.

Hey.

Another break in?

Except this time someone got killed, right?

Yeah, I can't comment on that.

This town's changing.

Transients.

People that shouldn't be here.

All these rentals don't help.

Can you take this gentleman's statement for me?

Morning, boss. Short-term rental.

Vic's inside.

Tenant?

Yeah. Owner found her.

Looks like the perp jimmied the door.

She hears something, comes out.

Neck's broken?

Yeah. CSI confirms that.

He was strong.

Or she... they.

Pronouns.

What's missing?

Cash. Credit cards. Jewelry.

Uh... found the cell phone.

Break-in gone wrong?

Or somebody wanted us to think that.

Same kid in all the pictures.

-Hers? - Maybe.

She put a lot of time into this.

Wait, go back.

Why would she tear that one page out?

It's the way it's torn.

Somebody who put so much effort into this book

wouldn't have done that.

Her name was Maria Bannister.

She lived in Spokane.

The coffee machine was on the fritz.

That's why I came this morning with the new one.

And Maria was a tourist?

Nuh-uh. Uh... she said she used to live here.

She hoped to visit family.

Family... meaning?

I didn't ask, it didn't seem like

she wanted to talk about it.

Okay.

What else did she tell you?

She seemed all wound up about something.

Like she was scared something bad could happen.

Lord.

And it did, didn't it?

"Dear Belinda, my dear baby girl."

Maria wanted to visit family.

That's all the landlord's sure of.

Last name Bannister.

Let's find out how many live in the region.

Just one.

Mr. Bannister?

Yeah.

I'm Chief Alberg, this is Sergeant Sokolowski.

We're here about your wife, Maria.

It's ex-wife.

I'm afraid I have some bad news.

Maria was found dead this morning here in Gibsons.

What happened?

We're still investigating.

Your daughter here?

I'd rather tell her myself.

Well, we need to talk to her.

No, you leave her out of this.

Out of what?

Whatever this is.

Belinda?

My mom's dead?

I'm so sorry.

No one else is.

When's the last time you saw your mother?

Five years ago.

Like my dad already said, she just left.

Belinda was 10.

Your mother say why she left?

I guess she just got tired of us.

No, she met somebody.

Darryl.

Darryl got a last name?

I would assume so, most people do.

Mr. Bannister...

I never heard his name, his last name.

All I can tell you, he was younger.

He was a tree planter.

They went off and they planted trees together.

And that's the last time you saw your mother?

Yes.

You haven't spoken to her since?

-That's enough. -No contact whatsoever?

That's enough. She told you all that she can.

Mr. Bannister...

I'm gonna ask you to come to the station with me.