Post by CC Fan on Jun 1, 2005 0:44:35 GMT -5
Recap Provided By Cellogal
May 19, 1932
Cars drive down the street, and people saunter down the sidewalks as Ethel Waters and Ben Slavin sing “I Got Rhythm.” Looks like a pretty rockin’ night in Philly! One truck in particular stops outside a brick building and a guy gets out, leaving a pretty blonde girl in the passenger seat. She watches as he unloads jugs of something from the bed of the truck, then he instructs her to keep her head down and stay put, since “you never know what these darkies’ll try and pull.” The girl, Rose, calls after the guy, Curtis, and expresses her enthusiasm for the music she hears coming from inside, but he tells her to take it easy and roll the window up, then heads inside. The enraptured Rose watches him. Inside the bar, we see a glimpse of Curtis exchanging the jugs for money and hitting on a passing “chickadee.” Rose gets out of the truck and looks around in wide-eyed curiosity. Suddenly, she spies a young black woman shucking out of her dress to reveal that she’s wearing men’s pinstriped pants underneath. Completing the transformation, she stuffs her hair under a hat and coolly smokes a cigarette, then goes inside, where she bumps into Curtis. He tells her to watch it, then yells at Rose to get back into the car, demanding to know what she’s aping at. She says she’s just looking, and the woman from earlier tosses her a smile.
The truck hurtles down the highway, being shot at from a car behind it, then crashes through the guardrails of a bridge and plunges into the water below.
Present day.
The car has been unearthed, and CSU investigators are snapping pictures. Stillman explains to Scotty and Lilly that a professional diver checking for sewage leaks found the truck with a body in it, and it was dredged up from the Delaware this morning. Lilly asks if it’s been down there long. A 1930s car, Lil? I’d say so. Scotty and Stillman agree with me, and Vera pipes up that a neighbor of his had a vintage car like that and would spray you with a garden hose if you got too close to it. Heh. Lilly asks how the car is, and Scotty, calling on his vast car knowledge, cites bar-mounted headlights instead of fender-mounted ones as evidence that it’s pre-1935. Stillman says they’ll get an exact year when they match up the plates and VIN, and Vera says the truck was halfway stuck in mud, which kept the bones inside from turning to sand. Lilly asks if they have reason to think it wasn’t just bad driving, and Vera, holding up a bullet-riddled license plate, says they have about a dozen. He points out that the remains of a glass jug and copper tubing found underneath the seat might explain the bullet holes, and Stillman explains that the addition of rubbing alcohol and sugar means you’re making moonshine. “Bootleggin’,” Scotty comments. “It’s hot.” Vera points out that the body inside has been there for 70 years, and Scotty tells Lil this one’s nice and cold for her. “Could be our new record,” Lilly remarks.
Credits.
Squad room. Jeffries and Scotty have called in a favor and matched the car to the plates: a 1931 Dodge pickup registered to Curtis Collins. Stillman asks if Curtis could be the bones, and Scotty says that he’s actually still alive and kickin’ it at a retirement home in Haverford. Jeffries adds that Lilly and Vera are headed out there. Stillman asks if Curtis ever reported the truck stolen, and Scotty says he didn’t, since he had a reason to keep the cops away from his truck. Stillman comments that Collins was arrested twice for violating the Eighteenth Amendment, and seems fascinated to have discovered a bona fide bootlegger. Jeffries remarks that the truck was the company car. Frannie approaches, and Scotty asks if she’s glad they finally brought her a challenge. She replies that, outside of paleontology camp, this is the oldest body she’s worked with. Paleontology camp? Just…wow. Stillman asks if she was able to get anything, and Frannie says that a fractured skull from the accident was the cause of death, and that the pelvis tells her the victim was female, late adolescent to young adult. Scotty’s surprised that the victim was a girl, but Frannie says there had to have been some lady bootleggers.
Retirement home. Curtis Collins sits on a porch as Lilly and Vera approach him. “This can’t be good,” Curtis remarks, as he sees their badges. Heh. Vera asks if he lost a truck around 1930, and Curtis says he did, then slyly asks if they’re making reparations. Lilly and Vera tell him that the truck was dredged up from the Delaware that morning, complete with bullet holes and a body inside. Curtis absorbs this information, and Lilly asks him if he has any idea whose body it might be. His first guess is that it’s his sister, Rose, who ran off with his truck in August of 1932. “And you’re just now thinkin’ she might be dead?” Vera asks incredulously. Curtis explains that when he couldn’t find Rose back then, he thought she just didn’t want to be found. Vera asks Curtis if the two were on bad terms, and Curtis slowly explains that their father killed himself after the bank took his store, and their mother was long dead. He can’t think of anyone who’d want to hurt Rose, saying that other than refusing to heed him, she was sweet as honey. Lilly says they took a peek at his file, asking if the moonshining earned him some enemies, and Curtis supposes so, since as a young businessman, he sure wasn’t sweet.
Outside a bar. As Rose and the other girl look curiously at one another, the African-American bar owner confronts Curtis about that gasoline he tried to pass off as whiskey, saying it tastes like he ran it through fertilizer. Curtis argues that the only fertilizer is the lies he’s hearing, and the bar owner tells Curtis he’s about through doing business with him. Curtis says the block is his territory, and he’s fierce in protecting it, that the owner, Doc Win, won’t find another outfit to do business with. “Unless you’re dead and gone,” Doc comments, and Rose, who’s been in the truck the whole time, asks Doc not to hurt Curtis. Curtis yells at Rose, and Doc calls her “doll face” and tells her to stay out of it. Curtis is incensed that Doc is talking to his sister “familiar.” “So what if I am?” Doc asks, and the two look like they’re about to start fighting when the girl in the suit steps in, saying that fertilizer-tasting or not, the hooch is half the draw of this place, and the other half is the entertainment, who need the hooch to get in touch with their muse. Hee. She tells Doc to go serve it up, and he laughs, suggesting that they not talk business in front of the females and tells Curtis he’ll catch up with him later.
Lilly sums up that the bar owner, Doc Win, thought Curtis was selling an inferior product, and Curtis says there were fellas making liquor out of hair tonic, and at least he put corn syrup in the mix, but that still wasn’t good enough for Doc. Lilly theorizes that perhaps some of Curtis’s business contacts thought they were offing him instead, and Curtis says that Doc knew the truck, that it rattled in a particular way, which irked him.
Squad room. Jeffries has a young woman, Celia, in, and admits it’s a stretch, asking her about her great-grandfather, but she says that Doc Win was a legend in her family, that she grew up hearing all about him. Scotty explains that Doc had a beef with Curtis Collins, a bootlegger. Jeffries explains about the truck and the body, and Celia guesses that the detectives think Doc had something to do with that. Jeffries says it’s possible, and Scotty asks if Rose Collins rings any bells, and Celia says the name doesn’t, but as she looks at pictures from Doc’s album, she recognizes the face, saying she’s looked at that picture so many times. Scotty asks if she knows anything about Rose, and Celia says all she knows are the stories she heard from her grandmother, which Doc told her. Her favorite, she says, was when Billie Holiday came to play Doc Win’s.
Doc Win’s. Billie Holiday’s up on stage singing “Trav’lin’ All Alone,” and people are drinking, dancing, and generally having a good time. The suit-wearing girl from earlier sits at the bar with Doc, and he asks her what she thinks of Billie Holiday. The girl says she’s not bad, and that she’s got her name, so that’s in her favor. Suddenly, Rose walks in, looking every inch the fish out of water, but clearly enraptured. Doc is less than thrilled to see her, and asks if Curtis sent her there. Rose says he didn’t, then asks him not to toss her out, since she’s got money to buy drinks, too. She then orders a cordial and glances over at Billie, greeting her with a friendly hello. Billie replies that Bible study’s out the door, three blocks down, but Rose says she’s here for the music. “Watch out,” Billie says. “She don’t sing about lollipops and flowers.” Heh. Doc says this is no place for Rose and tells her to go home, but she tells him she needs to listen a while. She watches Billie light a cigarette and asks her if she can try one, but Billie says she’s fresh out. A flashbulb pops, and Billie laments being caught with her hat off, and Rose asks her sweetly how come her mother lets her dress like a boy. Billie protests that she does what she pleases, and that she’s dressed not like a boy, but a fox. Doc gives Rose a cigarette, and, predictably, she coughs and chokes. Billie’s annoyed that Doc had to go give this “Sunday-best wearin’ white girl” her first cigarette while Billie’s trying to listen. Man, this girl’s got a way with words. Billie then tells Rose to hit the skids, but Rose insists she has a drink she paid for. Billie grabs her cordial, downs it, then tells Rose to “shoo, fly” and not come back. She leaves, and Billie smiles with satisfaction.
Celia explains that Rose was the first white girl to come into Doc’s, lured by the music, and it was a testament to the blues being universal. Scotty asks who this Billie was, and Celia says she was one of the regulars, who read in the club’s poetry readings, too. Jeffries asks if they can hold onto the album, and Celia agrees, saying she’s got boxes of Doc Win memorabilia she’s been meaning to go through, and she’ll call them if she finds anything else.
Stillman’s office. Stillman theorizes that Rose might have been the type to stick her nose where it didn’t belong, and Scotty says she definitely wasn’t welcome at Doc Win’s. Lilly has looked at the old ledger and says that Doc’s wasn’t a “good girls” kind of place, with arrests every weekend. Scotty adds to this, saying there were lots of drunks, women of ill repute, and artist types. Stillman suggests that perhaps Billie took issue with Rose, and then Frannie comes in, saying that a peek at the nose bone of the skeleton has told her that the victim was African-American. Hmmm…Rose sure doesn’t fit that description.
Evidence warehouse. Vera and Jeffries inform Scotty that Rose is still alive and kicking, that they’ve located her somewhere in Manhattan. Vera asks if Scotty has a name for the bones, and Scotty says that so far, he’s found six young black women who disappeared or assumed dead around 1932, then tells Jeffries he saved that stack for him as a birthday present. Well, happy birthday, Jeffries! Vera asks Jeffries when his birthday is, and he reluctantly replies that it’s tomorrow. Scotty asks him how he’s celebrating, and Jeffries drily says that he’s 60, he’s almost dead, so he’s going home to write out his will. Wow. Is there such a thing as a Birthday Grinch? ‘Cause if there is, I think Jeffries has met him. “Okay,” Scotty says uncomfortably, then changes the subject, saying that the most interesting name he found is a Wilhelmina “Billie” Doucette. Vera remembers her as the girl from Doc Win’s, and Scotty tells him to check out Billie’s mug shot, surmising from Billie’s sarcastic smile that she thought the whole arresting thing was a joke. Jeffries says that Billie sure had a close relationship with Philly PD, and he and Scotty recite the list of arrests, beginning at age 12 for a curfew violation and running the gamut from that to illegal possession of liquor to causing a disturbance for wearing men’s pants. “She sure liked her boy’s clothes,” Vera comments. Scotty says the arrests are pretty regular until the summer of 1932, and Jeffries says that’s when Billie’s great aunt filed a report and Billie dropped off the map. “Into the Delaware?” Scotty guesses, and Jeffries says that’s the best answer so far, and maybe Rose can give them more.
Rose’s place in Manhattan. Lilly and Scotty tell Rose they thought she’d be harder to find, since her brother thought she might have died in 1932. Rose says she ran away that year, and she and Curtis haven’t talked since. “Seventy-year sibling squabble,” Lilly comments with a smile. “You got me beat.” Heh. Scotty reacts to this subtle dig with a glance in Lilly’s direction, and Rose complains that she and Curtis never got along, that he had her under his thumb like a kid, and she wanted to live. Scotty says they’ve got some questions for her that go way back, and Lilly asks if Rose remembers Billie Doucette. She does, saying Billie was a character. I’ll say. I’d think a person like Billie would be hard to forget. Scotty asks how Billie ended up in Curtis’s truck, and Rose says she lent it to her. Lilly asks Rose if she and Billie were friendly, and Scotty adds that he heard Billie hassled her the night Billie Holiday played Doc Win’s. “She did,” Rose says, “but after that we became friends.” Scotty asks if Billie just borrowed the truck and disappeared, and Rose says she always thought Billie came to New York, and knowing what Curtis would do if he found out she had his truck, she followed Billie to get it back. Scotty surmises that that’s how she wound up in New York. Rose says she never found Billie and was going to go back to Philly, but, smiling adorably, she says she met and married a Wall Street man. Lilly asks if Billie had any enemies, and Rose says she had her share of rifts with people. Scotty asks if any of them would go so far as to shoot at her, and Rose reminds him of the dangers of a woman scorned. Oh, I think he’s learned that lesson. I hope.
Outside St. Abigail’s School, where we hear Ivie Anderson and Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” A bell rings, and students are dismissed for the day. Billie stands outside the gates, smoking, and upon seeing Rose, follows her and begins to recite a poem about sending a girl away and the pain it caused. Rose smiles slightly, then stops and turns around, surprised to see Billie wearing a skirt. Billie explains that she cleans a house for a living, and they make her. Rose asks if the poem is about her, and Billie tosses her a winning smile, saying it’s one of her originals, and poetry is how she expresses her truest thoughts. Rose looks understandably overwhelmed, and Billie continues, saying one of her poems has been published, then asks Rose if she’s heard of “Opportunity,” published by W. E. B. DuBois. I’m gonna guess she hasn’t. I’m right. Rose asks who that is, and Billie shrugs, saying it wasn’t them who chose her anyhow, but they will, once she gets to New York. She says she was published by another outfit, equally prestigious, who paid her two dollars. Rose is impressed. Billie tells Rose that if she comes back to the club, she’ll buy her a real drink with her poem monies. “I thought you didn’t want me there,” Rose answers shyly. Billie tells her that she goes with a girl, Little Georgie, who’s batty. This throws Rose for a loop, and she asks if Billie goes with a girl. “They’re a headache,” Billie says with a smile, “but that’s my taste.” Rose tells her that she has a beau, Ted. “A boy,” she adds, by way of clarification. Billie, undeterred, asks Rose if Ted gets jealous. Rose says he’s a hothead, and Billie says Little Georgie’s got a pistol in her purse, and she’s seen her use it. Rose asks if Georgie’d use it on her, and Billie says Georgie came in and saw them jawing at Doc Win’s, but Billie broke it off, telling her she’s got the right to new friends if she wants them. Rose asks if Billie will teach her how to smoke and dance, and Billie agrees, but then sees Little Georgie and tells Rose to hide. Georgie yells at Billie, and Billie pushes Rose away, telling her to put some speed on it. Rose runs off.
“So…Billie had a thing for you,” Scotty concludes awkwardly, and Rose says she did at first, which was scandalous to her. Lilly reminds her that they became friends anyway, and Rose says she was taken in by the free way Billie lived: the pants, the smoking, the cursing, and not caring who protested. Scotty asks if Little Georgie was Billie’s jilted ex, and Rose says Billie told her to ignore Georgie, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the pearl-handled pistol she carried.
Little Georgie’s place, where she’s lounging on the porch with some huge sunglasses and a drink, and complains that Vera and Jeffries are blocking her view. Jeffries calls her Little Georgie and tells her they have to interrupt her vacation for a minute, and she takes off the sunglasses, asking him what he called her and wondering if they met in another life. Vera suggests they talk about that other life, and asks her if she remembers Billie Doucette. She does, saying that girl bruised her heart, and good. Jeffries asks what she did in revenge, and Georgie says revenge isn’t her way. Vera begs to differ, reminding her that she stabbed a lady in 1943 and spent five years in prison. “Woman got in the way of me and my dance moves,” Georgie explains. Hee. Jeffries asks if she’d be surprised to hear that Billie was killed in 1932; she’s not. Vera says there were bullet holes in the back of the pickup truck she was found in, and says he knows about Georgie’s fondness for using her pistol, but Georgie says Billie had enough trouble coming her way, and she didn’t need hers. Vera asks what kind, and Georgie says it’s the worst: “the kind that comes with bein’ sweet on an innocent little white girl.”
May 19, 1932
Cars drive down the street, and people saunter down the sidewalks as Ethel Waters and Ben Slavin sing “I Got Rhythm.” Looks like a pretty rockin’ night in Philly! One truck in particular stops outside a brick building and a guy gets out, leaving a pretty blonde girl in the passenger seat. She watches as he unloads jugs of something from the bed of the truck, then he instructs her to keep her head down and stay put, since “you never know what these darkies’ll try and pull.” The girl, Rose, calls after the guy, Curtis, and expresses her enthusiasm for the music she hears coming from inside, but he tells her to take it easy and roll the window up, then heads inside. The enraptured Rose watches him. Inside the bar, we see a glimpse of Curtis exchanging the jugs for money and hitting on a passing “chickadee.” Rose gets out of the truck and looks around in wide-eyed curiosity. Suddenly, she spies a young black woman shucking out of her dress to reveal that she’s wearing men’s pinstriped pants underneath. Completing the transformation, she stuffs her hair under a hat and coolly smokes a cigarette, then goes inside, where she bumps into Curtis. He tells her to watch it, then yells at Rose to get back into the car, demanding to know what she’s aping at. She says she’s just looking, and the woman from earlier tosses her a smile.
The truck hurtles down the highway, being shot at from a car behind it, then crashes through the guardrails of a bridge and plunges into the water below.
Present day.
The car has been unearthed, and CSU investigators are snapping pictures. Stillman explains to Scotty and Lilly that a professional diver checking for sewage leaks found the truck with a body in it, and it was dredged up from the Delaware this morning. Lilly asks if it’s been down there long. A 1930s car, Lil? I’d say so. Scotty and Stillman agree with me, and Vera pipes up that a neighbor of his had a vintage car like that and would spray you with a garden hose if you got too close to it. Heh. Lilly asks how the car is, and Scotty, calling on his vast car knowledge, cites bar-mounted headlights instead of fender-mounted ones as evidence that it’s pre-1935. Stillman says they’ll get an exact year when they match up the plates and VIN, and Vera says the truck was halfway stuck in mud, which kept the bones inside from turning to sand. Lilly asks if they have reason to think it wasn’t just bad driving, and Vera, holding up a bullet-riddled license plate, says they have about a dozen. He points out that the remains of a glass jug and copper tubing found underneath the seat might explain the bullet holes, and Stillman explains that the addition of rubbing alcohol and sugar means you’re making moonshine. “Bootleggin’,” Scotty comments. “It’s hot.” Vera points out that the body inside has been there for 70 years, and Scotty tells Lil this one’s nice and cold for her. “Could be our new record,” Lilly remarks.
Credits.
Squad room. Jeffries and Scotty have called in a favor and matched the car to the plates: a 1931 Dodge pickup registered to Curtis Collins. Stillman asks if Curtis could be the bones, and Scotty says that he’s actually still alive and kickin’ it at a retirement home in Haverford. Jeffries adds that Lilly and Vera are headed out there. Stillman asks if Curtis ever reported the truck stolen, and Scotty says he didn’t, since he had a reason to keep the cops away from his truck. Stillman comments that Collins was arrested twice for violating the Eighteenth Amendment, and seems fascinated to have discovered a bona fide bootlegger. Jeffries remarks that the truck was the company car. Frannie approaches, and Scotty asks if she’s glad they finally brought her a challenge. She replies that, outside of paleontology camp, this is the oldest body she’s worked with. Paleontology camp? Just…wow. Stillman asks if she was able to get anything, and Frannie says that a fractured skull from the accident was the cause of death, and that the pelvis tells her the victim was female, late adolescent to young adult. Scotty’s surprised that the victim was a girl, but Frannie says there had to have been some lady bootleggers.
Retirement home. Curtis Collins sits on a porch as Lilly and Vera approach him. “This can’t be good,” Curtis remarks, as he sees their badges. Heh. Vera asks if he lost a truck around 1930, and Curtis says he did, then slyly asks if they’re making reparations. Lilly and Vera tell him that the truck was dredged up from the Delaware that morning, complete with bullet holes and a body inside. Curtis absorbs this information, and Lilly asks him if he has any idea whose body it might be. His first guess is that it’s his sister, Rose, who ran off with his truck in August of 1932. “And you’re just now thinkin’ she might be dead?” Vera asks incredulously. Curtis explains that when he couldn’t find Rose back then, he thought she just didn’t want to be found. Vera asks Curtis if the two were on bad terms, and Curtis slowly explains that their father killed himself after the bank took his store, and their mother was long dead. He can’t think of anyone who’d want to hurt Rose, saying that other than refusing to heed him, she was sweet as honey. Lilly says they took a peek at his file, asking if the moonshining earned him some enemies, and Curtis supposes so, since as a young businessman, he sure wasn’t sweet.
Outside a bar. As Rose and the other girl look curiously at one another, the African-American bar owner confronts Curtis about that gasoline he tried to pass off as whiskey, saying it tastes like he ran it through fertilizer. Curtis argues that the only fertilizer is the lies he’s hearing, and the bar owner tells Curtis he’s about through doing business with him. Curtis says the block is his territory, and he’s fierce in protecting it, that the owner, Doc Win, won’t find another outfit to do business with. “Unless you’re dead and gone,” Doc comments, and Rose, who’s been in the truck the whole time, asks Doc not to hurt Curtis. Curtis yells at Rose, and Doc calls her “doll face” and tells her to stay out of it. Curtis is incensed that Doc is talking to his sister “familiar.” “So what if I am?” Doc asks, and the two look like they’re about to start fighting when the girl in the suit steps in, saying that fertilizer-tasting or not, the hooch is half the draw of this place, and the other half is the entertainment, who need the hooch to get in touch with their muse. Hee. She tells Doc to go serve it up, and he laughs, suggesting that they not talk business in front of the females and tells Curtis he’ll catch up with him later.
Lilly sums up that the bar owner, Doc Win, thought Curtis was selling an inferior product, and Curtis says there were fellas making liquor out of hair tonic, and at least he put corn syrup in the mix, but that still wasn’t good enough for Doc. Lilly theorizes that perhaps some of Curtis’s business contacts thought they were offing him instead, and Curtis says that Doc knew the truck, that it rattled in a particular way, which irked him.
Squad room. Jeffries has a young woman, Celia, in, and admits it’s a stretch, asking her about her great-grandfather, but she says that Doc Win was a legend in her family, that she grew up hearing all about him. Scotty explains that Doc had a beef with Curtis Collins, a bootlegger. Jeffries explains about the truck and the body, and Celia guesses that the detectives think Doc had something to do with that. Jeffries says it’s possible, and Scotty asks if Rose Collins rings any bells, and Celia says the name doesn’t, but as she looks at pictures from Doc’s album, she recognizes the face, saying she’s looked at that picture so many times. Scotty asks if she knows anything about Rose, and Celia says all she knows are the stories she heard from her grandmother, which Doc told her. Her favorite, she says, was when Billie Holiday came to play Doc Win’s.
Doc Win’s. Billie Holiday’s up on stage singing “Trav’lin’ All Alone,” and people are drinking, dancing, and generally having a good time. The suit-wearing girl from earlier sits at the bar with Doc, and he asks her what she thinks of Billie Holiday. The girl says she’s not bad, and that she’s got her name, so that’s in her favor. Suddenly, Rose walks in, looking every inch the fish out of water, but clearly enraptured. Doc is less than thrilled to see her, and asks if Curtis sent her there. Rose says he didn’t, then asks him not to toss her out, since she’s got money to buy drinks, too. She then orders a cordial and glances over at Billie, greeting her with a friendly hello. Billie replies that Bible study’s out the door, three blocks down, but Rose says she’s here for the music. “Watch out,” Billie says. “She don’t sing about lollipops and flowers.” Heh. Doc says this is no place for Rose and tells her to go home, but she tells him she needs to listen a while. She watches Billie light a cigarette and asks her if she can try one, but Billie says she’s fresh out. A flashbulb pops, and Billie laments being caught with her hat off, and Rose asks her sweetly how come her mother lets her dress like a boy. Billie protests that she does what she pleases, and that she’s dressed not like a boy, but a fox. Doc gives Rose a cigarette, and, predictably, she coughs and chokes. Billie’s annoyed that Doc had to go give this “Sunday-best wearin’ white girl” her first cigarette while Billie’s trying to listen. Man, this girl’s got a way with words. Billie then tells Rose to hit the skids, but Rose insists she has a drink she paid for. Billie grabs her cordial, downs it, then tells Rose to “shoo, fly” and not come back. She leaves, and Billie smiles with satisfaction.
Celia explains that Rose was the first white girl to come into Doc’s, lured by the music, and it was a testament to the blues being universal. Scotty asks who this Billie was, and Celia says she was one of the regulars, who read in the club’s poetry readings, too. Jeffries asks if they can hold onto the album, and Celia agrees, saying she’s got boxes of Doc Win memorabilia she’s been meaning to go through, and she’ll call them if she finds anything else.
Stillman’s office. Stillman theorizes that Rose might have been the type to stick her nose where it didn’t belong, and Scotty says she definitely wasn’t welcome at Doc Win’s. Lilly has looked at the old ledger and says that Doc’s wasn’t a “good girls” kind of place, with arrests every weekend. Scotty adds to this, saying there were lots of drunks, women of ill repute, and artist types. Stillman suggests that perhaps Billie took issue with Rose, and then Frannie comes in, saying that a peek at the nose bone of the skeleton has told her that the victim was African-American. Hmmm…Rose sure doesn’t fit that description.
Evidence warehouse. Vera and Jeffries inform Scotty that Rose is still alive and kicking, that they’ve located her somewhere in Manhattan. Vera asks if Scotty has a name for the bones, and Scotty says that so far, he’s found six young black women who disappeared or assumed dead around 1932, then tells Jeffries he saved that stack for him as a birthday present. Well, happy birthday, Jeffries! Vera asks Jeffries when his birthday is, and he reluctantly replies that it’s tomorrow. Scotty asks him how he’s celebrating, and Jeffries drily says that he’s 60, he’s almost dead, so he’s going home to write out his will. Wow. Is there such a thing as a Birthday Grinch? ‘Cause if there is, I think Jeffries has met him. “Okay,” Scotty says uncomfortably, then changes the subject, saying that the most interesting name he found is a Wilhelmina “Billie” Doucette. Vera remembers her as the girl from Doc Win’s, and Scotty tells him to check out Billie’s mug shot, surmising from Billie’s sarcastic smile that she thought the whole arresting thing was a joke. Jeffries says that Billie sure had a close relationship with Philly PD, and he and Scotty recite the list of arrests, beginning at age 12 for a curfew violation and running the gamut from that to illegal possession of liquor to causing a disturbance for wearing men’s pants. “She sure liked her boy’s clothes,” Vera comments. Scotty says the arrests are pretty regular until the summer of 1932, and Jeffries says that’s when Billie’s great aunt filed a report and Billie dropped off the map. “Into the Delaware?” Scotty guesses, and Jeffries says that’s the best answer so far, and maybe Rose can give them more.
Rose’s place in Manhattan. Lilly and Scotty tell Rose they thought she’d be harder to find, since her brother thought she might have died in 1932. Rose says she ran away that year, and she and Curtis haven’t talked since. “Seventy-year sibling squabble,” Lilly comments with a smile. “You got me beat.” Heh. Scotty reacts to this subtle dig with a glance in Lilly’s direction, and Rose complains that she and Curtis never got along, that he had her under his thumb like a kid, and she wanted to live. Scotty says they’ve got some questions for her that go way back, and Lilly asks if Rose remembers Billie Doucette. She does, saying Billie was a character. I’ll say. I’d think a person like Billie would be hard to forget. Scotty asks how Billie ended up in Curtis’s truck, and Rose says she lent it to her. Lilly asks Rose if she and Billie were friendly, and Scotty adds that he heard Billie hassled her the night Billie Holiday played Doc Win’s. “She did,” Rose says, “but after that we became friends.” Scotty asks if Billie just borrowed the truck and disappeared, and Rose says she always thought Billie came to New York, and knowing what Curtis would do if he found out she had his truck, she followed Billie to get it back. Scotty surmises that that’s how she wound up in New York. Rose says she never found Billie and was going to go back to Philly, but, smiling adorably, she says she met and married a Wall Street man. Lilly asks if Billie had any enemies, and Rose says she had her share of rifts with people. Scotty asks if any of them would go so far as to shoot at her, and Rose reminds him of the dangers of a woman scorned. Oh, I think he’s learned that lesson. I hope.
Outside St. Abigail’s School, where we hear Ivie Anderson and Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” A bell rings, and students are dismissed for the day. Billie stands outside the gates, smoking, and upon seeing Rose, follows her and begins to recite a poem about sending a girl away and the pain it caused. Rose smiles slightly, then stops and turns around, surprised to see Billie wearing a skirt. Billie explains that she cleans a house for a living, and they make her. Rose asks if the poem is about her, and Billie tosses her a winning smile, saying it’s one of her originals, and poetry is how she expresses her truest thoughts. Rose looks understandably overwhelmed, and Billie continues, saying one of her poems has been published, then asks Rose if she’s heard of “Opportunity,” published by W. E. B. DuBois. I’m gonna guess she hasn’t. I’m right. Rose asks who that is, and Billie shrugs, saying it wasn’t them who chose her anyhow, but they will, once she gets to New York. She says she was published by another outfit, equally prestigious, who paid her two dollars. Rose is impressed. Billie tells Rose that if she comes back to the club, she’ll buy her a real drink with her poem monies. “I thought you didn’t want me there,” Rose answers shyly. Billie tells her that she goes with a girl, Little Georgie, who’s batty. This throws Rose for a loop, and she asks if Billie goes with a girl. “They’re a headache,” Billie says with a smile, “but that’s my taste.” Rose tells her that she has a beau, Ted. “A boy,” she adds, by way of clarification. Billie, undeterred, asks Rose if Ted gets jealous. Rose says he’s a hothead, and Billie says Little Georgie’s got a pistol in her purse, and she’s seen her use it. Rose asks if Georgie’d use it on her, and Billie says Georgie came in and saw them jawing at Doc Win’s, but Billie broke it off, telling her she’s got the right to new friends if she wants them. Rose asks if Billie will teach her how to smoke and dance, and Billie agrees, but then sees Little Georgie and tells Rose to hide. Georgie yells at Billie, and Billie pushes Rose away, telling her to put some speed on it. Rose runs off.
“So…Billie had a thing for you,” Scotty concludes awkwardly, and Rose says she did at first, which was scandalous to her. Lilly reminds her that they became friends anyway, and Rose says she was taken in by the free way Billie lived: the pants, the smoking, the cursing, and not caring who protested. Scotty asks if Little Georgie was Billie’s jilted ex, and Rose says Billie told her to ignore Georgie, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the pearl-handled pistol she carried.
Little Georgie’s place, where she’s lounging on the porch with some huge sunglasses and a drink, and complains that Vera and Jeffries are blocking her view. Jeffries calls her Little Georgie and tells her they have to interrupt her vacation for a minute, and she takes off the sunglasses, asking him what he called her and wondering if they met in another life. Vera suggests they talk about that other life, and asks her if she remembers Billie Doucette. She does, saying that girl bruised her heart, and good. Jeffries asks what she did in revenge, and Georgie says revenge isn’t her way. Vera begs to differ, reminding her that she stabbed a lady in 1943 and spent five years in prison. “Woman got in the way of me and my dance moves,” Georgie explains. Hee. Jeffries asks if she’d be surprised to hear that Billie was killed in 1932; she’s not. Vera says there were bullet holes in the back of the pickup truck she was found in, and says he knows about Georgie’s fondness for using her pistol, but Georgie says Billie had enough trouble coming her way, and she didn’t need hers. Vera asks what kind, and Georgie says it’s the worst: “the kind that comes with bein’ sweet on an innocent little white girl.”
