AUS Television: City Homicide, No Greater Honour, Part Five "Last Man Standing"

City Homicide
No Greater Honour, Part Five, Last Man Standing
Original Air Date:  March 23, 2011

The murder of Dane Majors barrister and then the judge that presided over his trial bring the Homicide team to focus on him.  When both Alan Sullivan and Nick Buchanan are confirmed as missing, Homicide focus on Dane Majors.  With the possibility more people who were involved in the Majors case will become targets, Homicide must work fast to prevent anyone else from dying.  Can the team get to Nick before anything can happen to him and take a cold-blooded killer off the streets?  Meanwhile, Lombardi drops a bombshell on Bernice Waverley when he calls her to his office to discuss her budget proposal for Homicide.

Papers flutter to the floor from above and fall around the body of a slain barrister, Helen Jefferson.  Her robe is thrown from above and falls beside her body last.  As the other members of Homicide are tied up with the car bomb investigation, the murder of the barrister is being worked by Matt and Jennifer.  Matt explains that she fell from the same floor as the papers and her robe.  She has smeared blood on her face and Matt is guessing that was from being punched before being pushed over the railing.  She was murdered between 5:30 and 6:00 that morning.  The assailant checked out of the building using the barrister's swipe card which was then thrown in the bin outside.  Jennifer recognizes the name and, when she looks at a book lying amongst the papers around the barrister, finds that she was the barrister who defended Dane Majors.

Jarvis and Bernice arrive for the briefing wanting all details about the barrister's murder.  Matt and Jennifer bring the team up to speed.  Jefferson's husband, a surgeon, was performing emergency heart surgery from 3:00 to 7:00 that morning.  Theories run from an affair gone wrong to a current client unhappy with Jefferson's representation and Jarvis suggests Dane Majors could have been getting revenge on her.  Bernice questions Majors' motive and Jarvis points out that Majors ending up getting 20 years from her defense and Allie brings up the point that Jefferson profited off the case by writing books about it.  Jarvis suggests they chat with Majors, "to test the waters" and Bernice gives the okay.  Jarvis instructs Duncan and Rhys to speak with Majors while Stanley wants the rest of the team to follow up on other aspects of the case.  Jennifer takes Stanley aside to tell him Nick was due back at work that day but hasn't been answering his phone.  Stanley mentions that Ethical Standards has been trying to reach Nick since he's required to check in with them upon his return and they cannot reach him.  She asks to check on Nick and Stanley gives permission.

Jennifer arrives at Nick's house and knocks on the door but there is no answer.  There are three newspapers on from the front steps.  She gets his spare key from its hiding place outside and enters the house calling for him with no answer.  She tries calling his cell again and receives no answer then looks over the work he'd been doing on the Majors case and bombing.

Dane Majors is juicing carrots and pretends to not know who Helen Jefferson is and says he can't hear Rhys and Duncan until Duncan unplugs the machine.  He finally 'remembers' her but doesn't seem concerned in the least that she has been killed.  Narelle has gone to Port Douglas to a yoga retreat.  Dane begins juicing the carrots again and, again, Duncan unplugs the machine.  He asks if Dane read Jefferson's book about his trial and Dane responds that he doesn't read fiction.  He tells them he wanted to tell his side of the story and Jefferson wouldn't let him take the stand.  Duncan asks if that made him angry enough to get revenge.  Dane asks them how much they reckon he would have made in his career had he not gone to jail.  He reveals he is going to sue the State Government for everything they took from him now and in the future.  He maintains he wouldn't risk all that for some stupid act of revenge.

Jennifer is waiting for Stanley in his office and he asks if she tracked Nick down.  She tells him she went round to his house but there was no trace of Nick and no signs of a disturbance she could see.  She insists to Stanley that Nick wouldn't just not turn up.  Stanley brings up Lombardi wanting to push to have Nick charged but she's worried about how Nick feels about the deaths of Juliette and Bruce Dalton and his support of Graham Proctor all those years.  She mentions the text she received from Nick three nights ago and that she checked the safe he kept in his room.  His gun wasn't in that safe as it always was.  Allie knocks on the door telling Jennifer they have a call-out for a male victim with a single gunshot wound.  Jennifer and Stanley share a nervous look and Jennifer heads out.

In the morgue, Jennifer and Allie speak with the technician about the man with the gunshot wound.  He was found in a park beneath some bushes by dog walkers who originally thought he was a homeless guy sleeping it off.  When he was still there in the morning, the dog walker took a closer look.  There was a library card on the man with the name Martin Dangerfield on it.  Jennifer recognizes the name straight off.  Dangerfield was a retired Supreme Court justice and he presided over the Dane Majors trial.

In briefing, Martin Dangerfield is added to the known information about Helen Jefferson and Tim Padgett.  Jennifer points out that Dane Majors is the only link to all the victims.  All of them agree it's very possible Dane Majors is going for revenge and Stanley brings up that others connected to the trial could be in danger.  Jennifer notes that Nick could very well be on Dane's hit list if he has one.  Matt asks when the last time was that anyone spoke with Nick and Jennifer tells him she spoke with Nick three nights ago.  Matt wants to bring Majors in and put pressure on him but Stanley tells him Dane is out of bounds.  Jennifer protests vehemently but Stanley tells her the decision has been made and they can't go near Majors.  He orders Allie and Rhys to alert any potential targets.  Allie asks if that includes the Attorney-General and Stanley tells her to leave Lombardi to Bernice.  He orders Jennifer and Duncan to do a thorough search of Nick's place.

At Nick's place, Jennifer collects his notebooks and research materials.  Outside, uniformed officers canvass the street in front of the house.  Jennifer asks what the deal is with the line search and Duncan tells her a neighbour heard a commotion Thursday night and thought a car had knocked over his bin.  When he came out, there wasn't anything there.  One of the officers finds blood on the pavement and alerts Jennifer and Duncan to it.  Nick's watch is found beneath some plants at the curb, the face shattered.

Bernice and Jarvis inform Lombardi he's potentially in danger from Dane Majors but he doesn't seem to take it seriously.  She stresses how serious the situation is but he assures them they have nothing to worry about as his security is extremely tight.  Lombardi feels he isn't a prime target as all he did was argue a case based on the evidence he was given by Homicide.  He changes the subject to ask Bernice about the budget revisions but Jarvis steers it back telling Lombardi he should be worried about being up to his neck in trouble over the Dane Majors mistrial.  Jarvis points out that if Majors goes back inside he will be discredited and all the dirt will wash away from Lombardi.  Lombardi makes it clear to Jarvis that his aide, Christian, takes down all minutes of every meeting he has.  Jarvis tells him to make sure to get it down that Dane Majors was set up once, he might be set up again.  Bernice interjects that she thinks they are done but Lombardi continues, asking Jarvis if he's implying he has something to do with everything.  Jarvis tells him he's just stating the facts.  Jarvis gives him the information that Nick has gone missing and Lombardi smirks asking if they have a detective they cannot locate and notes it is interesting.  He then states they haven't heard and tells them of Dangerfield having been killed and the shot that killed him was a police round and that he takes it their "rogue detective" will be added to the list of suspects.  Lombardi tells them that is why they need change as when a squad gets too comfortable, corruption can fester.

Back at police headquarters, Jarvis tells Bernice he was simply trying to rattle Lombardi and see what fell out.  She asks about that mornings theory that Dane Majors was the killer.  He tells her he's keeping an open mind as Lombardi is a legitimate suspect.  Bernice tells Stanley to let the team know Dangerfield was shot with a police round, giving Stanley a surprise.  Jarvis tells him that Lombardi apparently has a mole in the morgue.  Bernice wants to assure that all police ammunition and firearms are accounted for.  Stanley tells her there is one firearm confirmed missing and when she questions who signed it out he tells her Nick Buchanan.  Jarvis notes that the press will crucify Nick which, according to Bernice is all the more reason to find Nick.  When she walks away, Jarvis tells Stanley it is all the more reason to put surveillance on Dane Majors.  Stanley asks if that is an order and Jarvis replies it is "stamped, addressed and sealed with a kiss".

Rhys brings Bernice up to speed on him and Allie notifying the possible targets.  He feels Alan Sullivan is an obvious one but getting a conversation with him is proving hard.  She mentions Sullivan's second address in Cooper's Arms, Queen Street.  When he starts to leave, she asks him to have a seat.  She's been thinking about his career path and wondering how they can maximize his opportunities.  She asks if he's heard of Task Force Circa (fraud), which he has.  She tells him they are looking for new people and his skills are suitable for them.  He doesn't appear very interested but she tells him she strongly suggests he apply for the opportunity.  He doesn't want to leave as he feels he'd be letting the team down but he urges him that opportunities like the Task Force don't come around often.  When he mentions that Homicide is the pinnacle of the police department she brings up the fact that Homicide is taking a battering over the Dane Majors case.  He feels the Homicide that planted evidence in the Majors case is a different team.  She warns him to think strategically if he wants to have a long career and the Task Force would be an excellent path to promotion in any number of departments and he would make wonderful contacts and she feels he would regret letting the opportunity pass.  He gets a text from Allie that she found Sullivan at Cooper's Arms and gets up to leave.

Rhys and Allie speak with Alan Sullivan who doesn't feel he needs any protection.  Allie points out one attempt has been made on his life already and the killer is determined.  They believe he's high on the killer's list.  Sullivan blames Rhys for Tim's death.  Allie reminds him that his paper campaigned for Majors conviction ten years ago and that the killer has a long memory.  Sullivan questions her that she's confirming Majors is the killer.  He tells them that the killer might have a change of heart once they read the weekend edition.  They are doing a special feature:  Dane Majors, My Story.  The Tribune is on Majors' side now and, as he makes a point, unlike the police, the paper admits its mistakes.  Allie again tells him he's in danger but he insists he doesn't run away from a fight.

That night, as Alan Sullivan is leaving the Tribune, Dane Majors accosts Sullivan in the car park and tells him he needs his help as the cops are gunning for him.  He shows him photos on his phone of police surveillance and tells Sullivan the police are following him everywhere and are saying people.  Dane feels he's being set up just like last time.  Dane wants Sullivan to run the story now but Sullivan tells him he can't as the paper is already to bed and the run kicked off.  Dane insists that by Saturday he'll be locked up and charged and the Tribune won't be able to print a single word.  A blue car with two men in it enters the car park and Sullivan notes they aren't very discreet.  Dane takes a picture of the car.  Dane again begs Alan telling him the story must be in tomorrow's paper and promises if he does that, he might have something more for him.  Sullivan locks his car and tells Dane to come with him.

At Homicide, Jennifer is on the phone regarding Nick's disappearance.  Allie and Rhys haven't found Nick in hospitals and are moving on to medical centers.  Matt asks if they know the blood was really Nick's and Allie tells him the lab will get results back by tomorrow but they are covering their bases.  Matt tells Jennifer to go home but she doesn't want to.  She looks over Nick's research again and says they should call Deep Throat as Nick might have found out who he was and went to find him.  Rhys doesn't have Juliette's phone but he still has the number.  Matt agrees to give it a try even though Rhys doesn't feel like Deep Throat would answer an unknown number.  Rhys makes the call and they find the number has been disconnected.

The next morning, Jennifer is sitting on Nick's couch.  She steps out and picks up his paper and sees the headline "Police Stalk Innocent Cricket Star" with a picture of the blue car.  Bernice throws the same paper down on Jarvis' desk telling him she doesn't recall authorizing the stalking.  Bernice as been ordered to remove all surveillance.  Jarvis wants to bring Dane in but she tells him Majors is untouchable until they have solid evidence.

Alan Sullivan arrives at Dane's house and tells him they missed the country run but the special edition went out to all metro distributors and by that time tomorrow, Dane would be the talk of the town.  Dane leads Alan to his kitchen where everything is covered in plastic.  He tells Sullivan he is about to redecorate.  He offers Alan a drink and Alan asks Dane about the "second chapter to the story" that Dane rang him about that morning.  Dane tells Alan that Nick has gone missing and asks if he knows that Nick was run down by a car a couple of nights ago and the cops can't find him.  They speak for a moment about Dane's run in sports and Sullivan tells him he got lucky.  Dane notes that Sullivan got lucky as well.  Sullivan asks "When?" and Majors replies "When your car blew up."  Dane tells him he had to reassess his match plan and thanks Alan for printing his side of the story and getting the surveillance cops off him but it doesn't make up for ten years in prison and the Tribune smear campaign that put him there.  He opens a drawer telling Alan he found this on the cop who framed him just after he hit him with his car.  He pulls out Nick's gun and shoots Sullivan.

At headquarters, Jarvis and Stanley discuss Alan Sullivan and Dane Majors and Stanley tells Jarvis they can't go near Dane Majors.  Jarvis called Sullivan and his P.A. told him Sullivan is at Dane Majors' house at that moment to get another scoop.  Stanley hopes Jarvis isn't going round to Majors to arrest Dane and Jarvis tells him he's not, he's going round to arrest Alan Sullivan.

Jarvis arrives at Dane Majors who takes a deep breath then answers the door.  Jarvis tells Dane he's looking for Alan Sullivan and steps inside.  Majors tells him he was there but he's gone now and didn't say where he was going.  Jarvis walks into the kitchen which is now clean as a pin and free of any plastic.  Dane offers Jarvis a drink but Jarvis wants to look around.  Jarvis looks around the house but finds nothing unusual.  He looks out a back door to a pool and Dane tells him they'll need divers to drag that pool as it's deceptively deep.  He asks Jarvis if he was in Homicide when he was set up and puts his hand on Nick's gun which is in the back of his pants.  When Jarvis tells him that was before his time, Dane takes his hand off the gun.  Dane replies "lucky for you" and Jarvis turns around and tells him the same.

In briefing, Jarvis tells the team that Sullivan's P.A. said Sullivan was going to Dane Majors' home and no one has heard from him since and that he conducted a search of Majors' home and there was no sight of Alan or Nick.  Bernice questions what he did and Jarvis tells her the situation has changed and, as he tells her about Sullivan going to Majors home, Jennifer looks at a Pathology folder Bernice is carrying.  When Jarvis stops talking, Jennifer asks her about it and Bernice confirms the blood traces on the road are Nick's.  Bernice agrees that Dane Majors needs to be shut down regardless of the commissioner and she wants Homicide watching every move he makes.  Stanley orders two-man teams on two-hour shifts and puts Rhys and Jennifer up first.

As she and Rhys sit in the car outside Dane's house, Jennifer tells Rhys she feels it is useless for them to sit there as they don't even know he's in the house.  She gets out of the car and goes to the house with Rhys following her telling her she needs a warrant.  She tells him she's sure she saw someone in the upstairs window and she's going in.  She believes she saw Nick.  Rhys agrees he saw him as Jennifer rings the doorbell.  The door opens in Jennifer's hand and she and Rhys enter, guns drawn, identifying themselves as the police.

At headquarters, Stanley tells Bernice there's nothing to report on Nick and the Tribune are screaming for news on Alan Sullivan.  Allie tells Bernice and Stanley Dane Majors has dodged their surveillance.  Bernice is going to take Duncan and Matt with her to see Lombardi to warn him again about Dane Majors.  Bernice stresses to Lombardi about Sullivan and Nick both being missing and that he could be next and they don't know where Dane Majors is.  Lombardi still wants no part of it and asks Ethan to escort Bernice and the detectives out of the building.  Bernice refuses to leave until Lombardi accepts their protection.  He tells Bernice she has no concern for his safety, just getting Homicide back into good graces.  She admits she is concerned about Homicide but when Dane Majors comes for him, and he will, she doesn't want anyone saying she didn't try to protect him.

Matt and Duncan follow Lombardi's car to his home.  In their car, Matt wonders why he would make such a fuss about protection.  Duncan writes it up to arrogance but Matt notes if Lombardi admits he needs protection, he's admitting he's done something wrong.  Matt and Duncan get out of their car to enter Lombardi's home and he reluctantly hands Matt so he can check the premises the key's while Duncan stays with Lombardi.  Dane, sitting nearby, lowers the window of his vehicle, holds the gun out and when Duncan steps away, he fires.  One bullet strikes Lombardi's arm and a second misses.  Duncan and Matt jump into action.  Duncan screams "on the road, on the road" while he holds Lombardi down and Matt runs toward the vehicle but it speeds away.

Dane drives to an old cabin in the woods and removes items from the back of his vehicle.  The bloody body of Alan Sullivan is also in the back of the car.  He enters the cabin and sits what he carried in down in front of a picture of Tahnee.  He's talking, at first, seemingly to the picture.  He sits down and points a gun at Nick, who is tied and gagged on the floor.  He tells him he wanted him to know what he (Dane) was going through.  If he had a really bad day in prison, he'd imagine what it would be like to shoot Nick in the face.  Most of the time, he just dreamed of caving Nick's head in with a golf club.

At headquarters, Matt tells Duncan and Rhys the license number, which they got when a neighbour saw the car speeding away and took note of the number, matches Alan Sullivan's car but the driver matches Dane Majors.  Lombardi only received a flesh wound and will be fine.  Jennifer and Allie are looking over items from Dane Majors home.  They need anything that will give them any indication as to where he's gone.  Duncan begins checking out airlines and trains in the event he went to Queensland to his girlfriend.  Jennifer reads an article about Dane and Tahnee that mentions the family cabin.  She feels this is where he's gone.  The article doesn't say where the cabin is located but Allie finds paperwork that does.  Matt orders Jennifer and Rhys to check the cabin out while the rest of the team keeps looking.

At the cabin, Dane washes off in the sink and asks Nick if he's married or has a girlfriend.  He asks Nick how he'd feel if the woman was ripped away from him.  He takes a cricket bat from the box he carried into the cabin then puts on a shirt, his lucky shirt, from the box.  He sits Nick up against a post and removes the tape from over his mouth.  He sits shot glasses down on the table and pours each one full and tells Nick that since he's been three days without food, the booze will knock him right out.  Dane drinks from one glass and pours another into Nick's mouth, but Nick spits the liquid out.  He reminds Nick of the night they met and how he planted evidence to make sure he didn't get off the charges.  He wants to know Nick lives with himself for it.  Nick tells him "I'm sorry" but Dane lashes out angrily telling him he doesn't want an apology.  He kicks Nick in the side then forces him to drink from the bottle.  He tells Nick he wasn't a killer when he put him in prison but he is now.  He puts the gun under Nick's chin and tells him he (Nick) buried him alive and now he's going to do the same to him.

Jennifer and Rhys arrive at the cabin with guns drawn.  Rhys goes round the back with the plan that they'll flush Dane out the front.  Rhys enters the cabin but Dane isn't there.  He has finished digging a grave and is covering it up.  He's close enough to hear Jennifer and Rhys at the cabin while he's digging.  Dane shoots at the two telling them to come out.  Rhys tries to call the team while Jennifer fires on Dane telling him lower his weapon but he cannot get any reception.  She covers Rhys while he makes a run for their car.  Jennifer pursues Dane through the woods and when he reaches Sullivan's vehicle, she fires, shattering a window and again orders him to drop his weapon.  He dives behind a tree to check how many shots he has left and tells her she's lost.  He has four bullets left.  He tells her he just buried Nick.  She looks to the mounds of earth.  He reloads Nick's gun and stands and fires at her but misses.  He admits that Dalton's suicide beat him to killing him, but he has killed everyone else that locked him up, even Lombardi.  Jennifer tells him he's wrong and Lombardi was only winged.  She asks if he didn't kill Nick either since only one grave, Sullivan's was filled.  She wants to know where Nick is.  She begs him to know where Nick is.  He stands and walks toward her saying he's saving Nick till last.  He fires two shots at Jennifer then puts his hand toward the back of Sullivan's vehicle to fire his last shot but Jennifer shoots Dane in the chest.  Still standing, he raises his hand again to fire and she fires two more shots.  When he finally goes down, she runs to the vehicle and finds Nick, alive in the back.

At Homicide, Jennifer hangs up the phone and tells the team Alan Sullivan's funeral is the next day.  Rhys says the Tribune will have it as front page.  Allie mentions Narelle getting her story out and Duncan is sure no one will be asking Nick for his side.  Rhys notes it will all be about Lombardi, who is the last man standing.  Nick arrives back to work, his face bruised and battered from his ordeal.  Jennifer asks him if he's ready to go through his statement and the two go into the kitchen.  She hands him the papers but he pushes them aside and thanks her.  He tells her he's withdrawn his resignation.  She tells him she doesn't want to lose him then they go back to the statement.

Bernice arrives at Lombardi's office.  He doesn't want any small talk and jumps right to her budget cuts for Homicide.  He finds her recommendations quite creative and interesting reading but with a certain natural bias.  She tells him that her belief Homicide is one of the most skilled and cohesive squads in the state police is based on experience, not bias.  He agrees and admits that in the current crisis, Homicide has proved to be a most effective squad and agrees that under the proposed budget cuts Homicide could not function successfully which is why he will be dissolving Homicide altogether.  Divisional detectives will handle single homicides and task forces will handle more complex cases.  She asks about the current homicide detectives and he tells her that's up to her.  A few retirements, a few transfers, but, make no mistake, there will be no more homicide squad.

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