Murder, She Wrote (season 10)

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Murder, She Wrote (1984–1996) is an American television show, airing on CBS, about mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher.

Brian Dunbar: In the old days, they used to bury the eggs a century or more.

Jessica Fletcher: Well, how old are these eggs?

Brian Dunbar: Well, let's just say everything's been speeded up a little.

Louise Walton: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] I knew that Brian was determined to merge with a Chinese company before the People's Republic took over. If not Kuan, then someone else. And I'd be replaced with a Chinese counterpart, left out in the cold.

Insp. McLaughlin: So you decided to kill both Brian and frame Emma.

Louise Walton: Without them, the board had no choice but to put me in the position that I have deserved for so long. Running the House of Dunbar.

Eugene Gillrich: Carol, has it occurred to you that I may have no ulterior motive?

Carol Collins: For about two wish-fulfilling seconds until you flunked my reality check.

Sheriff Mort Metzger: [after Jessica exposes the murderer] Mrs. F, remind me never to play poker with you.

Kathryn Scofield: [after confessing to the murder] I don't regret killing Harrison Kane. Not at all. He was a pig.

Jessica Fletcher: [to Chad Macinoy, after explaining how the murder was committed] Maybe you knew exactly where to find your dad's old gun and the shells to go with it. And maybe your mother was away from her desk, and you were listening to the police band on the radio. You heard the Sheriff talking to Ethan, and you were hiding in the trees with a gun when the Sheriff's car slowed for the curve in the road.

Sheriff Mort Metzger: Which gives you means, motive, and opportunity. That ought to be enough for a jury. Chad, I'm placing you under arrest for the murder of...

Irene Macinoy: No, no! It wasn't like that. Candace Bennett was the only girl that Chad ever made friends with in high school. Well, they were so close. It was so wonderful. Then he got that damn football scholarship and went away to some college where he didn't belong.

Chad Macinoy: Mom...

Irene Macinoy: It was such a waste of time. While he was gone, Ethan seduced Candace. She always was so stupid and silly about boys. Well, Chad came back too late. He screwed up again. I tried to save it. I did.

Jessica Fletcher: So you decided to eliminate Chad's rival for her affections. But to divert suspicion, you concocted the Sheriff's imaginary enemy, who wrote threatening letters, and finally took a shot at him in the Sheriff's office, so that we would believe the killer's victim was to be the Sheriff.

Irene Macinoy: And I could give Candace back to Chad. And they could get married in a church, and everybody could be there to see it. Oh, and they would give me the most precious little grandchildren in the whole world.

Jessica Fletcher: Sorry we had to put you through that, Chad, but we felt we had no choice.

Irene Macinoy: Chad, don't look at me like that. All I ever wanted was for your happiness.

Iris Novaro: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] You know, that's the one thing I didn't figure on. Dave never stopped loving Janet. I think that's what ticked me off so much that night when I stopped by the store to tell him I didn't want a divorce after all. Someone was just running out of the store.

Jessica Fletcher: That would've been Norman Trent. According to his statement, he went there to avenge his daughter but was having second thoughts.

Iris Novaro: Well, he was in such a hurry to get out, he dropped his cane. That was Dave's misfortune. He stormed out of his office, saying he had read your book, and it reminded him of how he'd given me the damn garage opener to get fixed, and that was the way I got back into the house. And the fact is, it was all true. It made me angry. I forgot why I was there because he was gonna call the police. That's when I hit him with the cane. I cleaned my prints off it and threw it in the dumpster down the street. After all these years, no way was I gonna go to jail.

Lt. Artie Gelber: You wanna bet?

Oliver Hopkins: [to Sally Briggs, after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] Please, love. Getting upset won't change anything. I did it for you. Last night I was in the wings, wrapping things up after rehearsal, when I heard Martin make his offer to you. He keeps Franklin in the show if you go to bed with him. After you ran off, I saw that cruel, ugly look in his face. And I knew that even if he hurt the production, he would take his revenge on you by firing Franklin. I felt so powerless, and at the same time, I was relieved you turned him down. I ended up at Binkie's, talking to Peter when you and Franklin left. You went to your dressing room, remember? And I followed you. You had a terrible argument, but you told him nothing. I admire you for that, Sally. Then, after he left, I heard you call that beast Martin, trading yourself for Franklin's sake. You didn't want to go to his place, and I don't blame you. So you told him you'd meet him where no one would see.

Sally Briggs: But you came to me with a message from Martin.

Jessica Fletcher: Unless I'm mistaken, saying that Martin couldn't make it.

Oliver Hopkins: Oh, yes, but I made it all right. And I have no regrets, either. I hadn't meant to implicate Miss Highsmith, honestly. It was for you, Sally. You're going to be a big star someday, like Judy or Marilyn. You've got the talent, the looks, the je ne sais quoi. You'll go all the way.

Marie Camouche: [after confessing to the murders] Eleven years. That's a long time. Every minute of it, thinking what my life would be like with Frank. He was a good man. He was just doing his job. He didn't deserve to die.

Bernardo Bonelli: Do you really think they can protect us from being victims of a hit and run, or me falling accidentally out of a 10-story window?

Philip Bonelli: You've been watching too many gangster movies. You know that.

Bernardo Bonelli: And you're too young to know what you're talking about. I grew up with people like Avoncino. The last thing you do is go to the police.

Sondra Arthur: Philip, $15,000 is a lot of cash for chaos. Frankly, I hate it.

Philip Jovey: Who said anything about liking it? Sondra, remember last year, that oil on wood you absolutely loathed?

Sondra Arthur: It did triple in value, I'll grant you that. Less due to your judgment than the artist killing himself in that spectacular fashion.

Philip Jovey: Bungee jumping. Tragic but public.

Frances McNean: [after confessing to the murder] Lousy break, Mrs. Arthur deciding to donate that painting. Boy, there was no way I was gonna spend the best years of my life in a stinkin' prison cell.

Lt. Artie Gelber: Wrong, Miss Skutnik, only it'll probably be two cells. You'll finish your sentence in Missouri, and then New York will want you. That kind of variety ought to be good for the soul.

Harvey Terhune: [after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] Oh, God. I mean, I ... I didn't mean to do it. I mean, he was going for his gun. I had borrowed Libby's key, and I let myself in. And I had just taken the money, and suddenly I hear someone breaking in.

Jessica Fletcher: Well, that would have been Walter.

Harvey Terhune: And then suddenly, this other guy shows up. He saw me. He was going to kill me. I mean, I had to do something.

Charlie Garrett: Wait a minute. You know anything about Lomax's sideline?

Harvey Terhune: No. Not really. No. I mean, I had a hunch. Yeah. We weren't doing enough business around here to pay for those weekend trips he'd take to the Caribbean. I never meant to mess up my life like this. The money? It wasn't worth it.

Lori Graham: [after Jessica exposes the murderer] I didn't have anything to do with it. I was an out-of-work actress. Leonard met me while I was waiting tables. He asked me if I wanted to play a part that would make me rich.

Leonard Ambler: Be quiet, damn you!

Lori Graham: The whole thing was his idea. He had the doctor brainwash Graham, and then give him a code he'd hear on the phone and do whatever he was told. Like jump off the roof. Getting a guy to commit suicide was one thing. But if he couldn't do it, Leonard was ready for that, too. Leonard did it! He killed Graham, and then he killed Dr. Santana, so he wouldn't have to split the money. They used me. I didn't know what I was doing.

Jessica Fletcher: I doubt that. Being an actress, it was probably your voice on the tape, urging Graham to kill himself.

Leonard Ambler: Exactly.

Mario Hernandez: [after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] What was I gonna do? I mean, you gotta understand, Garcia had been bleeding me for months. When he challenged me to the match race, that's when I hit on the idea how to get rid of him. The two that left Montauk were my racing birds, but they had phony I.D. bands, and they both flew back to my loft. The two that were supposed to race, Garcia's and mine, I never took them out of the cage. I drove them back to Manhattan. I used the fire escape to get up to Garcia's roof and brought my own racing clock with me. I had Garcia remove the racing I.D. band from his bird, put his bird back in his cage, then clock it in. The time punched by the clock showed that the bird had arrived at 6:07. Then I got rid of him. Then I used my own racing clock to prove that my bird had arrived at my loft at 6:08. It made no difference that it took me ten minutes to get back to my own loft. It would always look like I was on that roof to punch in Red at 6:08. Finally, I put Garcia's bird in his loft and got out of there. I went down to the club and that gave me an alibi for the rest of the night. It was perfect. Except for me accidentally pulling out that damn feather when I went to get his I.D. band.

Floyd Larkin: [after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] Hallowell threatened to make my embezzlement public unless I allowed him to rape the Larkin Plan to cover his own excesses. At the party, I paged him. I told him to meet me in the bower, that I would sign our deal there. I took the express elevator down, giving myself plenty of time to prepare. When I heard Ernie Fishman coming, I had everything off. Except the mask. I panicked. I didn't notice until later, but then I realized that you, Jessica, must have seen it at the party. The piece of mosquito netting caught on my pin. I told myself that I was temporarily borrowing to cover those business losses I told you about. With my signature on Amalgamated's acquisition of the store, I would have Hallowell's five million to reimburse the pension fund.

Jessica Fletcher: Hallowell had bigger ideas?

Floyd Larkin: Yes. He would have destroyed the pension. Destroyed the financial security of the very people who had given this store its name.

Connie Anderson: [after confessing to the murder] I just couldn't believe that he was a murderer and a thief. Not Evan.

Jessica Fletcher: You've been in love with him for a long time, haven't you, Connie?

Connie Anderson: I tried to let him know, but I wasn't about to throw myself at him. He just never thought of me that way.

Richard Binyon: [after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] When I took over my father's grocery store, I hated it. It was shabby. I started to remodel it, to turn it into the kind of down east, cracker-barrel place the tourists would go for. I didn't know it would cost so much. I borrowed all I could. Then I had to steal. Little things at first, out of people's houses when I made my deliveries. And then, a man I met in a bar sold me a little kit of tools for opening people's houses when they weren't home. I never thought that I'd end up, you know, murdering somebody.