AUS Television: City Homicide, No Greater Honour, Part Four "Tangled Web"

City Homicide
No Greater Honour, Part Four, Tangled Web
Original Air Date:  March 16, 2011

Dane Majors is released from prison with his fans and the media waiting on him at the gates.  Graham Proctor warns him as he's leaving that he won't get away with murdering his daughter.  Homicide officially re-opens the Tahnee Majors murder investigation.  Moments before Tim Padgett is killed by a car bomb in Alan Sullivans car, Sullivan gives Bernice information that was sent to the Tribune by Deep Throat, information which takes the case in a completely different direction.  Nick Buchanan becomes the next target in the case.

Both Dane Majors and Nick Buchanan awaken from their sleep with nightmares of the murder of Tahnee Majors (Saskaia Hampele).

Dane Majors walks out of prison a free man after his conviction was overturned.  He is met at the gates by the press, his supporters and even Nick Buchanan is standing with the crowd.  He challenges the authorities to bring on a re-trial because he will be found innocent because he is innocent.  Tahnee's father, Graham Proctor (Graeme Blundell) is there and calls Majors a liar, stating again that Dane killed his daughter.  Proctor warns Majors he won't get away with it.

Bernice and Jarvis inform the team they will be re-opening the Tahnee Majors murder investigation, starting fresh and conducting their own investigation.  Jarvis reminds them that, even though Dane Majors was released from prison, he's still a suspect and, despite the planted evidence, he could still very well be guilty.  The team listens to the 000 call Dane Majors made ten years ago then Jennifer gives them the details of the case.  Nick and Bruce Dalton were dispatched to the scene where they found Tahnee's body.  Dane Majors was treated for shock and released for interview.  Dane told Nick and Dalton he went for a drive down the beach and found his wife when he came home.  Dane's clothes were taken at his home as they were covered with blood, which he said got there when he tried to help her by administering CPR.  Dalton (Robert Morgan) asks Dane if he had a fight with his wife which Dane denies despite reports by the neighbours there were raised voices at the Majors home that evening.  Nick shows Dane photographs of bruising on Tahnee's wrist that was consistent with being restrained and bruises to the face consistent with being hit with a clenched fist.  When asked by Nick if he beat his wife that night, Dane reluctantly admits that he did.  They go over the evidence before them.  The pattern on the missing five-iron matches the pattern on Tahnee's injury.  His wife was dead for an hour before Dane called 000.  The theory is he had time to clean the golf club and stash it in the roof where it was found before calling 000.  Jarvis thinks Dane Majors still looks good for the murder.

Duncan and Jennifer arrive at Dane Majors home to ask him some questions.  He opens the door and waves to his fans and photographers who are lining the gates outside.  Jennifer informs him they are re-opening the case.  When Jennifer tells him he isn't exactly not still a suspect, he tells them the chat is over.  Majors tells them if they want to know what happened read the trial transcripts or, better yet, watch the tapes of his police interviews.  Majors makes it clear he trusts no police whatsoever and wants them to leave his home.  As they are leaving, Jennifer tells him he will have to come into police headquarters for further questioning.  Majors calmly tells her he came through the front door and found his wife lying "right there", and points to the bottom of the staircase.  Duncan asks about his CPR attempt even though her skull had been crushed.  Dane tells him he wasn't thinking straight and panicked and asks Duncan what he would have done.  Duncan replies coolly, "I wouldn't have hit her in the first place".  Majors laughs and tells him he'll need to do better than that.  A woman enters the house and angrily asks what is going on.  Jennifer and Duncan identify themselves as police officers and ask her identity.  Dane tells them that is none of their business.  The woman feels the police should be ashamed of themselves and Jennifer and Duncan leave.

At the office, they have a photo of the woman in Dane's house.  She is Narelle O'Brien (Ella Scotty Lynch), Tahnee Majors' best friend.  She was married to a former vice captain Callum O'Brien (Simon Maiden).  Narelle visited Dane twice a week after he was sentenced according to prison logs.  No one suspected them of having an affair before the murders but Jennifer feels that, either way, it does give her a motive to want to kill Tahnee if Narelle was in love with Dane.  Two years ago, Narelle was charged with assault after she bashed one of Dane's fans.

In interview, Narelle tells Allie and Rhys the fan she assaulted came at her and she just pushed the woman away.  She went to the woman's house because she was sending Dane "nasty" letters in jail.  Allie asks her when she started seeing Dane and Narelle says it wasn't until after the trial, after she had split with Callum and after Dane was convicted of murder.  Callum didn't like Narelle visiting Dane in jail because of him being convicted of murder.  Rhys asks what makes her so sure Dane was innocent.  She admits she wasn't, at first, but even if he had, he didn't mean it and it was simply an argument that got out of control.  She tells them Dane was devastated after his sentencing.  He grabbed her hand, looked into her eyes and told her he didn't do it.  She believed him 100%.  Allie asks her about how hard it must have been being friends with Tahnee since Tahnee was a gorgeous model that everyone loved and in all the photos it was Dane and Tahnee.  Narelle claims she wasn't jealous because Tahnee wasn't as perfect as they made her out to be and she was always nagging Dane.  She didn't think Tahnee deserved to have Dane but she denies killing her.

Jennifer goes to see Nick who thinks he 'should have seen it' regarding Narelle O'Brien.  She insists he presented a solid case to the DPP and the jury found him guilty.  He couldn't have followed up every case he worked.  She finally agrees to say what he wants to hear and asks why he never questioned the finding of the murder weapon during the middle of a trial.  He gives several reasons and tells her to take her pick of any number of lame excuses.  Jennifer tells him she wants him to say it wasn't his fault, to tell everyone he didn't know the club had been planted and she wants him to stop sitting around beating up on himself.  She wants him to withdraw his resignation.  Before leaving, she tells him he's a good cop that's fought for a lot of people on the job and he now has to stand up for himself.

In interview with Matt and Duncan, Callum O'Brien admits he's seen Narelle be physically violent.  He tells them the two split because Narelle kept seeing Dane in prison after he was convicted of murder.  Callum thought Dane was guilty.  Callum, who was Dane's best mate, remembered the evidence he gave against Dane.  Tahnee had called him the night she was killed and told him Dane had hit her, again.  He went to the house.  Dane was out and Tahnee was packing her bags.  She was finally going to leave Dane because she was sick of him sleeping around and beating on her.  He says Dane thought he and Tahnee were having an affair but he denies that they were.  He convinced Tahnee to stay with Dane and went home.  Three hours later, she was dead.  Matt asks why he didn't convince her to leave and Callum admits he was because he loved her and he was worried that was clouding his judgment.  When Duncan presents Callum with a scenario that he tried to convince Tahnee to leave with him and an argument ensued, Callum stops him and tells him he could never hurt Tahnee.  When shown a photo of Tahnee, Callum recoils then tells the two detective that he still believes it was Dane who killed Tahnee.

Matt informs the team that Bernice has been trying all day to get some sense out of the Tribune regarding what they got from Deep Throat but nothing so far.  Bernice feels she's been stonewalled so she wants them to try another tact.  Matt tells Rhys to talk to Tim Padgett (Andre De Vanny).  Rhys knows Tim won't give away his scoop but Matt is sure Rhys will find a way.

Rhys drops in at the Tribune to see Tim who quickly closes the document on his computer screen so Rhys cannot see any of it.  Tim asks what he wants and Rhys responds that it isn't so much what he wants as it is what he can give him.  He offers inside scoop on the Tahnee Majors murder investigation which is too much for Tim to pass up.  He mentions them having Narelle in for an interview but Tim already knows that, and knows that Callum was in as well as he had talked to Narelle himself.  He feels Rhys has nothing else to offer.  Rhys tells him the information he's working on was meant for him.  Tim thanks him for that letting him know he has the story of a lifetime.  Rhys reminds Tim that Tahnee Majors was beaten to death and Nick could lose his career.  Tim tells him what was in that envelope was bigger than a homicide and way bigger than Nick Buchanan.  Rhys asks again for Tim to tell him what it was to which he responds Rhys will just have to wait to read his article.

At the office, Graham Proctor insists that Dane Majors killed his daughter and would still be in jail had Dalton not planted the evidence.  Allie reminds him that Majors wouldn't have gone to jail at all had it not been for the planted evidence.  Graham and Dalton were mates for 10 years until the day he admitted planting the evidence.  Jennifer makes mention of the other person Dalton mentioned in his suicide note and Graham immediately names Nick Buchanan since he was the one who found the club.  He's surprised at Jennifer's implication he was the other person in on planting the club.  He claims he knew nothing about it.  When Allie asks him if he killed his daughter, he is insulted.  He says he and his daughter only fought about one thing ever:  Dane Majors.  He wanted her to leave Dane.  He takes a picture from his pocket showing his daughter with bruises and cuts where Dane beat her the first time.  The press want to know nothing about Dane beating his wife but Graham insists he and the police know the truth about him.

Rhys finds the story on the Tribune web site.  He and Duncan call Matt from his office to read the story with the headline:  State's Attorney-General Linked to Planted Evidence.  The story is complete with a picture of the State's Attorney-General Michael Lombardi (Marcus Graham) with Bruce Dalton.  Nick reads the story at home. 

The next morning, Duncan, Matt and Rhys identify Lombardi as the other person in the "we" in Dalton's suicide note.  The article states that Lombardi emailed Dalton three days before the club was found saying he needed the club and without it he couldn't guarantee a conviction.  Bernice and Jarvis arrive to remind them they aren't there to clear Nick's name, they are there to find the truth.  The detectives handle the investigation while Bernice and Jarvis will handle the Attorney-General.  She informs them that in an hour, they will be questioning Lombardi about his involvement in planting the evidence so she wants every bit of background possible at her fingertips as she doesn't want to be under-prepared.  Deep Throat calls again, while Bernice and Jarvis are still at the table, and he isn't happy with what was and wasn't printed in the paper.  He's angry that Lombardi might get away with it even though the information he presented was clear and "dynamite".  Jarvis wishes the police could know just what information the paper is sitting on before they talk to the Attorney-General but Bernice knows they can't wait and will have to wing it with Lombardi.  She orders the team to get working on the background.

Bernice and Jarvis arrive for their meeting with the Attorney-General and find that Tim Padgett and Alan Sullivan (John Howard) are there wanting to give the AG his chance to "tell his side of the story".  They overhear the argument between Sullivan, Padgett and Lombardi and the latter denying there is any story at all.  The AG tells Bernice and Jarvis he wants to have things sorted out properly at police headquarters.  When Jarvis, Lombardi and Bernice are leaving the Office of the Attorney-General, Alan Sullivan calls Bernice aside and tells her they couldn't publish the last piece of the puzzle because the lawyers got a bit skittish and gives her an envelope and tells her to stick it up Lombardi's backside for him when she gets a chance.  When Tim Padgett gets into the car he and Sullivan arrived in and starts the engine, the vehicle blows up.

At headquarters, Sullivan is stunned noting it was his car and if he hadn't turned back to talk to Bernice he would have died as well.  Matt informs them a full canvass of the area has been done and all security footage has been pulled.  Jarvis adds that the bomb squad figures it was a rudimentary homemade job.  Bernice feels the bombing is related to the Dane Majors investigation.  Sullivan wants Bernice to find who killed Tim and nail them to the wall.

Later, in her office, Bernice shows Jarvis what Sullivan had given her.  It was two copies of a page from Bruce Dalton's day book.  There are two copies because there is a discrepancy.  A bloody big discrepancy Jarvis notes after looking over the pages with highlighted information.  She tells Jarvis they need to get the Attorney-General in now.

In Bernice's office, Lombardi admits Dalton came to see him a few days ago to speak about the Dane Majors trial.  Dalton was worried about a reporter digging up dirt.  Lombardi told Dalton not to worry as they'd done nothing wrong.  Jarvis questions him about the email he'd sent Dalton during the trial regarding the club.  Lombardi explains it was a statement of fact and not a suggestion to plant evidence.  Lombardi, rather than answering Bernice when she asks if he had knowledge of the planting of evidence, questions why they are asking him those questions rather than Nick.  Lombardi accuses Bernice and Jarvis of trying to protect one of their own when they should be investigating a car bomb and resolving the murder of Tahnee Majors.  They show Lombardi Bruce Dalton's day book and then show him the papers they received from Sullivan.  In those papers, Dalton had written down that he discussed the finding of the golf club with Lombardi at a meeting at 11 a.m. before Nick even found the club.  By time of trial, Dalton had altered the time of the meeting to 3:30 p.m.  Jarvis jokingly asks why Dalton would do such a thing.  After several seconds of looking over the papers, Lombardi suggests scrappy bookkeeping as the reason for the change.  He maintains that the evidence he's holding proves that Dalton is corrupt, not him.  Lombardi stands, turns his recorder off and asks what disciplinary actions have been taken against Buchanan.  Bernice informs him Nick was suspended on full pay.

Jennifer again goes to see Nick who insists Lombardi made his career on the Dane Majors case and wanted Majors convicted more than anyone.  He feels Lombardi can talk his way out of anything and they need solid proof.  Nick is working on the case on his own time as best he can.  He feels the bomb is linked to the Majors case just as Jarvis does.  Nick is eliminating suspects at the moment.  Jennifer notes Tahnee's father isn't on the list for setting the car bomb, but Nick feels he didn't blow anyone up.

Rhys and Duncan bring Graham Proctor back in for interview and he tells them he was at home alone.  It's clear that Proctor doesn't care much for Alan Sullivan.  He used to feel that Alan cared about the truth but now it is all about selling papers.  He admits he was disappointed and angry when the Tribune started calling for Majors' release but he didn't try to kill Sullivan.  He tells them if he had the strength in him to "do the deed" there's only one person he would kill:  Dane Majors.

The police search Dane Majors' home.  He and Narelle are there and he wants to watch the search in progress.  Jennifer asks where he was that morning and he tells her to take it to his attorney.  Narelle steps up and tells Jennifer he was with her that morning.  When Matt arrives and Jennifer excuses herself to talk with him, Dane takes Narelle aside and the two go up the stairs a bit and begin to argue.  Narelle tells him she wants to help and, after a short argument, he orders her upstairs.

At briefing, Jennifer offers a theory.  She asks what if they ignore the golf club as the cause of death and points to a photo of the stairs leading Bernice to say "what if she fell down the stairs".  And Duncan suggests Tahnee was pushed.  Matt tells them the pathology report excluded that possibility the first time around because it named the club as the cause of death.  Ten years ago pathology didnt perform CT scans so they assumed the club was the cause of death.  When Bernice asks if Jennifer can prove her theory, she tells her not without exuming the body.  Discussion turns to someone hitting Tahnee with the club once she's already fallen to possibly frame Dane.  Someone who holds a grudge against Dane.

Callum is brought back in to be questioned about the new theory.  Nick enters the room with Jarvis who is watching the interrogation on the monitors.  Allie and Matt suggest to Callum that he wanted what Dane had.  Callum admits Dane seemed to do things so easily when he (Callum) had to work hard to do the same things.  He tells them he and Tahnee didn't argue but something did happen.  He kissed her and told her he loved her but knew she didn't feel the same as soon as he said it.  He felt Dane had killed Tahnee because she had told him about Callum kissing her and expressing his love for her.

Duncan and Rhys speak with Graham Proctor who is angry over the suggestion of a second autopsy.  He denies arguing with his daughter at the top of the stairs the night she died.  After persistent questioning, Proctor admits his daughter was dead already and there wasn't anything he could do.  When he went to see her that night she was crying and her eye was closed over.  They argued because he wanted her to leave Dane and she slipped on the stairs when he grabbed her arm.  He tried to revive her but she was dead.  He hit Tahnee with the club because he felt it was Dane's fault she was dead and people needed to know that.  He threw the club away later.  He didn't help Dalton plant the evidence against Majors and says he should have come forward and admit what he'd done but he couldn't even admit it to himself.  He maintains Dane would have still killed Tahnee one day.

Alan Sullivan and Bernice talk over that mornings headlines "Our Dane's Innocent Father Bludgeons Daughter" in her office.  She assures him they're doing everything they can to find out who bombed his car.  He tells her she will have to pick a side regarding the Attorney-General sooner or later and notes she doesn't know.  When she questions what he informs her Lombardi is going to charge Nick Buchanan with perverting the course of justice.

At his place, Jennifer asks Nick if he's still going to resign and he tells her he's going to apologize to Dane Majors first.  She tells him to leave it.  Dane will get on with his life and Nick should do the same.  Bernice hasn't processed his resignation yet and wants to talk to him about options.  She tells him if he's still sure of his decision in a month she'll let him quit, but he must talk to Bernice.

That night, Nick sends Jennifer a text saying "Thanks for everything Jen" before being struck by a speeding car.

For more information:
City Homicide Official Site:  http://au.tv.yahoo.com/city-homicide/
Internet Movie Database:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024932/
TV Rage:  http://www.tvrage.com/shows/id-17228