Murder, She Wrote (season 2)

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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.

Michael Hagarty: Well, now, what's this I've always heard about crusty New Englanders?

Jessica Fletcher: It's just a rumor started by our forefathers to keep out the tourists.

Henderson Wheatley: What kind of a jerkwater town is this?

Jessica Fletcher: A town that knows how to take care of itself, Mr. Wheatley.

Del Scott: [after Jessica accuses her of committing the murder] For years, I tried to nail him, to gather evidence to get him sent to prison. But every time, every time I got close, he bribed the eyewitnesses and suppliers. He bought them off. I finally realized that I couldn't fight him legally and win. I'm not proud of what I did, Mrs. Fletcher, but don't ask me to be sorry.

Agt. Fred Keller: A man must be pretty special to have people willing to stand up before an agent of the United States Department of Justice and each one willing to risk charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and harboring a fugitive. Not many men have friends like that.

Lt. Antonelli: Mrs. Fletcher, let me be frank. Your kind of writing is not my kind of reading.

Jessica Fletcher: Well, Lieutenant, let me be even franker. Anyone who is capable of imagining that my niece can commit murder is being grossly overpaid for taking up valuable space in this office.

Beryl Hayward: Jessica, I am so looking forward to hearing your commencement address.

Jessica Fletcher: Well, I'm still rewriting. Books are easy compared to speeches.

Daphne Clover: I hear Picasso is really hot.

Jessica Fletcher: Well, his pictures may be hot, but I hear that Picasso is dead.

Oliver Trumbull: A bloke never gets in trouble chasing women. It's after they're caught the trouble begins.

Emma McGill: Television can't compare with the sort of live entertainment that we provide.

Bridget O'Hara: Well, you're right about that. But nothing goes on forever. Even ol' Queen Victoria found that out, she did.

Oliver Trumbull: [after Jessica exposes the murderer] Emma never harmed you.

Kitty Trumbull: But she was destroying you, Dad. Or couldn't you see it? You were so magnificent with a God-given gift that you prostituted to become a second-rate music hall comic. You couldn't break away. Every year, you got weaker and more dependent while I stood there and watched. You couldn't help yourself, Dad. But I could. Don't you see? I had to kill her for you.

Francesca Lodge: Jess, I don't know what they've told you, but I'm just a little bit tired. You know, nerves.

Cheryl Lodge: Mom, it wasn't just nerves last night. You called the sheriff.

Francesca Lodge: I thought I was alone. I heard noises. I guess I overreacted.

Jessica Fletcher: That's enough to frighten anyone. Believe me, I'm an expert on the subject. In my books, of course.

Sheriff Amos Tupper: This is going to look real good to the grand jury. The prosecution's star witness trying to prove that the accused is innocent of the crime that she saw him commit!

Burton Hollis: [after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] Howard's father cheated mine out of the family company. He accused him of embezzling funds. The scandal was too much, and Father died of a stroke. Then Howard's father died, and he inherited everything. He sold that company for a fortune. Half of that should have been mine! It wasn't fair!

Jessica Fletcher: And what you did to Carolyn Crane, was that fair?

Burton Hollis: I had nothing against Carolyn. I was fond of her. But she had to die. Surely, you can understand. To inherit, I had to eliminate them both.

Vicky Gallegos: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] When Carlos was still riding in Panama, he got into some trouble and had to have some money. So he agreed to bump another horse during a race. Only something went wrong, and the other horse went down, and the other jockey got badly hurt; he almost died.

Carlos Gallegos: That's when I met Jack Bowen. I changed my name. I come to this country to ride for him. And then, when he came up with these horses, these ringers, what could I do? He threatened to send me back to Panama.

Jessica Fletcher: And you drugged Carlos so that he would have a legitimate excuse not to ride.

Vicky Gallegos: I put chloral hydrate in his coffee. Only Bowen wouldn't believe that Carlos was really sick. And so he threatened to get even by turning him over to Immigration. Well, what could I do? I couldn't let that happen.

Jessica Fletcher: And later you planted the drug in Tracy's locker.

Vicky Gallegos: Mrs. Fletcher, I love Tracy. But I had to protect my husband.

Jessica Fletcher: I particularly liked the way the gas station bandit was caught, having the getaway car shift into reverse by mistake and crash into the police car. Now, that showed a great deal of imagination.

Nicole Tug: Not exactly. That's the way it happened. Hey, I didn't know it had a stick shift, or I wouldn't have stole it!

Sheriff Harry Pierce: [after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] Let me tell ya somethin' about Beverly. She was stupid and greedy. I did all the work. I torched the building. I found the buyers! I even greased the way for the zoning variance! She paid me all right, but what she didn't tell me was that she'd recorded our conversations. She tried to bleed me out of my cut. A lot wasn't enough for her. She wanted it all. Sorry about Elvira. I always liked her. Just as I've always liked you, Jessica.

Dr. Seth Hazlitt: Jess, when I suggested that you write a book called Murder at the Digs, I never dreamed you'd come meandering out to a place like this.

Jessica Fletcher: Suggested? Well, as I recall, it was more like a dare.

Dr. Seth Hazlitt: Was it? I don't recall. In any case, when you leave here, you'll have one hell of a book or one hell of a suntan. Maybe even both.

Gideon Armstrong: [after Jessica exposes the murderer] I gave you everything you wanted.

Cynthia Armstrong: You gave me exactly what you wanted to give me – thanks a lot, Gideon – and exactly when you wanted to give it. And what I really wanted was out of this rotten marriage and your miserable face out of my sight. Yes, I bought the land secretly. And it was Stan, he found Raymond.

Dr. Stan Garfield: That's a lie! It's a lie!

Cynthia Armstrong: Yes, you did. You found Raymond and you got him to steal the gold artifacts from the university museum. And then he made sure that there were gonna be all inexperienced people working at this dig, people who could be fooled. And as for you, Benton, you were easy.

Jessica Fletcher: But why kill Raymond?

Cynthia Armstrong: Because he got so greedy. We could've made millions on this. But he came at me, and he made all these crazy threats to me. He threatened he would tell my husband the truth. I had to stop him. I had to get rid of him. I picked up this rock, you see, and I killed him.

Karen Parks: Why did you throw the body off the cliff?

Jessica Fletcher: To hide the real cause of death. You see, they couldn't leave the body in the cave because, once he was discovered missing, there'd be a search, and we might've found him there. Actually, the fall would have hidden the real cause of death if he had died from the blow on the head. What you hadn't realized was that he died of drowning.

Gideon Armstrong: If you just had come to me, we could have talked it out.

Cynthia Armstrong: And you would've listened to me, wouldn't you have, Gideon?

Jessica Fletcher: Are you so sure it's a robbery? Or did the killer just want it to look that way?

Lt. Varick: Maybe it was a robbery because it looked that way. This is New York, Mrs. Fletcher. This kind of self-employment is a way of life for some people.

Norman Amberson: [after Jessica accuses him of committing the murder] Why would I have done that?

Jessica Fletcher: Was it perhaps triggered by that bill from Vinton's that your secretary insisted on calling your attention to? That was when you learned Elizabeth had purchased an item of clothing for another man. You must've guessed who that other man was. Someone Liz had promised never to see again.

Norman Amberson: Roger Adiano. He's an actor. Not very good. Certainly not successful. Just a boy. Liz was out. I used my key. I thought I was just gonna wait for her, but that wasn't it. That was a lie. I wanted to look around in her things, even though I was afraid of what I was going to find. It wasn't much, just trifles she had forgotten to throw out.

Jessica Fletcher: The program from an off-off-Broadway play. I remember now. It was on the floor near the overturned coffee table.

Norman Amberson: I didn't bother to destroy it. It was meaningless to anybody but me.

Jessica Fletcher: To you, it meant Elizabeth had broken a promise. She'd gone to see Roger Adiano in a play and had probably bought him a gift.

Norman Amberson: I could see them in my mind. Just a flash. Then all the pictures came back of her with all the other men. It snapped, turned right around. I hated her. I hated the woman I loved. Classic. I wanted to destroy her, blot her face out of my memory. I was looking around for something to use on the portrait. I couldn't find my pocket knife. I found the lipstick in my pocket. And when she came in and found me, I could see from the terror in her eyes that ... She ran for the bedroom, and I grabbed the scarf around her neck. I wasn't really aware of what I was doing. Then she was dead, and I panicked.

Jessica Fletcher: And you vandalized the apartment to make it look like she had been killed by an intruder.

Norman Amberson: Survival. Self-preservation. Oldest instinct. Oh, God, I loved her.

A.D.A. Tom Casselli: Mr. Harris, do you recognize anyone in the courtroom?

Fenton Harris: In my business, it's good practice never to recognize the customers.

Cornelia Montique: All my customers started coming here, so I thought I might as well join them.

Dr. Seth Hazlitt: At least, in the diner, you didn't have to dress up as Betsy Ross.

Jessica Fletcher: Doctors who make their rounds in hip boots hardly qualify as fashion experts.

Harrison Fraser III: Suppose we cut to the bottom line. It's my word against his. I have a great deal of influence in this part of New England.

Jessica Fletcher: I'm sure you do, but connections won't help you to evade a simple answer to a simple question.

Wilhelmina Fraser: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] When Betty suggested this trip, I did my homework. At least, I thought I did. I was so sure it would look like botulism. I didn't mean to make anyone else sick. I only wanted to get Harrison back.

Frank Kelso: [after Jessica accuses him of committing the murder] About a couple of days after New Year's, soon as I come home, I knew Jolene been with another man. I got mad. She just laughed at me. I grabbed hold of something, a brass bookend, I think, swung at her. Next thing I know, she was laying on the ground there, eyes wide open, staring up at me. Then I realized he was there. The bedroom door. Ed Bonner. Seen it all. It was Ed's idea. Cart Jolene off, bury her in the woods, me say she was off visiting her mama. All the time, he was telling people behind my back that she'd run off with another man.

Jessica Fletcher: Is that when the blackmail started?

Frank Kelso: Just a few dollars at first. You know, just, then more and more. He loved to see me sweat. Last night, he come back here after I closed, looking for his cigarette lighter and money. Whole lot of money. I couldn't pay him no more. I took out my gun, and I shot him. Wasn't like it was with Jolene. This time, I didn't feel nothing. Just like killing a wild dog.

Carrie McKittrick: At my age, thirty years seem like last month. It's last month I have trouble remembering.

Jessica Fletcher: [after deducing the murderer's identity] Carrie wasn't so much a murder victim as much as she was a means to an end, and I suppose that's what makes this so hard to accept. I mean, a smart killer would have injected Carrie with insulin, so the murder would not have been detected. But you wanted the murder discovered, Ruth, and you made sure that the clues pointed to your husband.

Sister Ruth Fargo: No.

Jessica Fletcher: When I first met you, I assumed "Sister Ruth" had a religious connotation. But when you said that you'd met Willie John in London when he'd had a diabetic attack, it made me wonder if the term "sister" might not refer to your former vocation. A nurse. It would have been simple to find a uniform in the locker room downstairs and washable hair color spray. The kind Mr. Whittaker's secretary wears is available at any all-night drսg store. If anyone had seen you from a distance, they'd have mistaken you for Sue Beth. You even wore gloves so that Willie John's fingerprints would still be on the syringe.

Earl Fargo: Ruth, why? Did you do it for Willie John?

Sister Ruth Fargo: For Willie John? No. I did it to Willie John. Or I tried to. I had to be free of him, but that meant destroying him totally. I tried to tell you, Mark. I couldn't. As much as I know you love me, you could've never understood. Willie John was crushing me, Mrs. Fletcher, wringing the life out of me with his sanctimonious piety. I'm a woman, and every day I've been getting older and older, living like some plaster saint. The dutiful wife of the great and good Willie John Fargo. What was I supposed to do? Divorce him? Oh, my God. Can you just see the headlines? Or kill him? That would have thrust me into an even more untenable role. The keeper of Willie John's flame, living in chastity for the rest of my years.

Rev. Willie John Fargo: Ruth, why didn't you tell me?

Sister Ruth Fargo: I did, Willie John, every day in a hundred different ways. But you were always too busy to hear.

William Readford: You wish to inspect the diary, Doctor, not speed-read its contents.

Dr. Sylvia Dunn: How am I supposed to bid on it if I don't know what's in it?

William Readford: You're in it, Doctor. That's all you have to know.

Lt. Nathanial Casey: McGraw, I'm giving you five seconds to get out that door before I throw you out.

Harry McGraw: Yeah, you do, Casey. And I'll go right to my pals on the Morning Bulletin and tell them how this Boston flatfoot with baked beans for brains just put himself in line for a foot patrol beat in Brockton.

Albert Cromwell: [after Jessica accuses him of committing the murders] I was going to steal the diary. Richard Bennett showed up. He recognized me from Evangeline's. I knew if the diary turned up missing, he'd figure I was the one that stole it, so I killed him. And I put his body in the armoire. I didn't know it was going to be auctioned off. I thought it was blue-tagged.

Lt. Nathanial Casey: And Radford? Why'd you kill him?

Albert Cromwell: Well, I knew he faked the theft of the diary. I tried to force him to tell me where he had it. He didn't scare. He came after me. I grabbed a knife off the wall.

Jessica Fletcher: But why, Mr. Cromwell? Why did you want the diary so badly?

Albert Cromwell: So she could rest in peace. You know, we were going together for a long time before she became famous. But her career, that came first. That meant she had to be seen with all the right people, like Richard Bennett. So, she dumped me. Went off looking for fame. But I never stopped loving her. Then I had to watch her name being dragged through those scandal sheets. Well, that's why she turned to drugs, you know. I think she wanted to stop too, but she was just too weak to, you know, pull herself out. I just couldn't stand it any longer. I had to help her. I had to put her out of that misery.

Jessica Fletcher: Then Evangeline's death wasn't suicide.

Albert Cromwell: I did it because I loved her. You can understand that, can't you?

Phyllis Walters: I had nothing to do with any of this.

Sheriff Amos Tupper: Nobody said you did. Yet.

Jessica Fletcher: Literary Lines Monthly! Now there is a misnomer. Anatomical, maybe. Literary, never.

Vanessa D'Argento: [after Jessica exposes her as the murderer] You never knew my father, Mrs. Fletcher. He was a very gentle man. He wasn't weak. But he was thoughtful, and he was considerate. And he was caring. They never understood him. He always had time for me, even when nobody else did. Time to listen and time to share. And then that beautiful soul was destroyed by someone who only taught me to be afraid.

Rachel D'Argento: Vanessa...

Vanessa D'Argento: Don't look at me that way, Mother! I only did what you never had the courage to do yourself. I'm only sorry it took me so long.

Mitch Mercer: What are you trying to do, make a monkey out of my client in front of his fans?

Carol McDermott: Only God can make a monkey, Mitch.

Elliot Robinson: [after Jessica exposes the murderer] I know I should have told you, but I couldn't. You see, she's all I had left.

Congressman Brad Gardner: I don't think you should go pokin' around that club.

Rosalind Gardner: I was about to offer the same advice to you, darlin'.

Lt. Edmund Cavette: Are you quite ready, Mrs. Fletcher?

Jesssica Fletcher: Actually, Lieutenant Cavette, it's, it's only a theory. But I'm ready if you are.

Lt. Edmund Cavette: I wouldn't deprive you of the pleasure of making a fool of yourself for only me.

Lloyd Marcus: Someday, Jessica, you and I will have a long talk about the joys of parenthood. In terms of gratification, it ranks right up there with molar extraction.

Donald Granger: [to Sabrina Marcus, after Jessica exposes him as the murderer] It was a million-dollar crapshoot, and I lost. Count your blessings, kid. It could have been you in that box.