Description[]
The detectives investigate the death of an ambitious female journalist who was pushed in front of a train in 1945, shortly after the end of the war in Europe.
Synopsis[]
In 1945, the war in Europe is over and the newspapers are buzzing with excitement with the news. Lo Kinney, one of the Philadelphia Sentinel’s female reporters, is anxious to write about it. As always, the editor, Mr. McDuff, orders Lo to write about recipes instead, and blows her off when she tries to discuss other topics to write about. Another female writer quips in, backing the recipe idea. Some time later, Lo is found dead on the train tracks; the case is ruled as a robbery gone bad.
Present A reporter for the Philadelphia Sentinel has found Lo Kinney’s notes from the day she died and approaches Lilly and Lt. Stillman. The notes show she had an appointment at the train station that day, exactly at the time she died. Jeffries has been put on desk duty, following his fight with the ADA in the episode, Death Penalty. Scotty and Nick go talk to one of Lo’s coworkers, Birdie. He says Lo was great reporter, but the boss didn’t allow her to write about anything except what was published in the women’s section, with recipes, advice and gossip, and she was frustrated by it. Women were kicked out of the newsroom at 6 pm every night. When asked if there was anyone who could have had any motive to want to kill Lo, Birdie flashes back to 1945, an afternoon at the news room.
Flashback He and Lo were making fun of the questions the readers send to Lo’s column and Helen, the secretary, got upset by it. He remembers the two women fought all the time about the column, because Helen wanted to be the one to write it, and was angry not only for not getting it, but because Lo didn’t care at all about the column. Helen thought Lo had no perspective on the column.
Helen began writing the column after Lo's death. Kat and Lilly talk to Helen about Lo, and she remembers the heated reactions some of Lo’s advice generated. One afternoon, a disgruntled husband, angry about the advice Lo had given to his wife, came in the newsroom to confront her about it and threatened her. Helen says that usually Lo didn’t pay any attention to the threats, but this guy really scared her. Jeffries, Kat and Scotty go through Lo’s mail to try to find the man who threatened her. They find one Arthur Pool, and Scotty and Lilly go to the Pool’s house. They are too late to talk to Arthur, the angry husband, who had just passed away. They talk to his son, David, who tells them about how the day after his dad talked to her, Lo came to their house to apologize for her behavior. That day, she met Noah Pool, Arthur’s third cousin from Europe who had been held in a concentration camp and relocated to the U.S. when it was liberated. Noah and Lo fell in love. Lilly asks about Noah, and David gives her the address to his house. Vera and Kat talk to Noah who denies having any involvement in Lo’s death. He tells them about an afternoon they spent at an amusement park.
Lo was asking him about the time when he was held in the concentration camp, when suddenly Birdie showed up acting jealous and angry. Noah says Lo always maintained that she and Birdie were only pals from work, but after that day, he suspected they were more than that.
Vera talks to Birdie again, this time in the interrogation-room at the station. Birdie reveals that Lo was the one who wrote his stories, since she was far more talented than he was. She was supposed to write (for his byline) a story about a man who survived the horrors of the war, but the story was already due. Instead of writing about Noah, she was dating him, so Birdie got angry. He tells the detectives that Lo followed him to the newsroom and asked for more time to write the story. They argued about Noah’s story being inconsistent, and Birdie gave her the phone number of a woman named Johanna Hoffman who had also been held at a Nazi camp. She would tell Lo the truth about Noah.
The detectives track Johanna down: she now lives in New York so Lilly goes to talk to her. She finds out that Johanna moved to New York the same day Lo was killed. Lilly asks Johanna about Lo, and tells her Lo was murdered. Johanna remembers the afternoon they met: they talked about Noah, and Johanna reveals the real Noah Pool died in Auschwitz. When Lo insisted that Noah was still alive and showed Johanna pictures of her Noah, Johanna recognized the man on the picture as being Anton, the Nazi soldier from the camp who burned the numbers into her arm. Johanna says because she knew he was there too, she left Philly that same day.
Scotty talks again to David Pool, and asks him for the whereabouts of Noah. He reveals to David that Noah was in fact Anton, a Nazi guard. David is skeptical about it, but Scotty assures him they have the testimony of Johanna Hoffman, who knew them both, Noah and Anton. David flashes back to an afternoon in the newsroom with his uncle and Lo. She is icy to Noah and they are having words when the messenger boy arrives to get a letter to be delivered. The boy reads aloud to whom the letter will be delivered, and Anton recognizes Johanna’s name. Lilly and Kat realize the letter came back undelivered because Johanna had already left, but only after Lo was killed. David admits he read the letter and he told his uncle what was in it. Stillman and Lilly find Anton/Noah and confront him about Lo.
He flashes back to the night Lo died. She was at the station waiting for Johanna, but Anton was the one who showed up. She confronted him about his true identity. Anton asked her for forgiveness, but she couldn’t forgive him for something like that. They fought and as the train whizzed by, Anton grabbed Lo and pushed her to the tracks. While "It Could Happen to You" by Jo Stafford is playing in the background, Lilly arrests Anton. David is saddened to see his supposed uncle go to jail, and Johanna is also there to watch Anton go to prison. Jeffries is on desk duty for his stunt against the ADA. Lo’s purse is retrieved from the vault, and the story she wrote about Anton’s identity is discovered inside. When The Philadelphia Sentinel publishes it in the next day’s paper, Helen and Birdie read the article together. Lilly catches a glimpse of Lo.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Kathryn Morris as Lilly Rush
- Danny Pino as Scotty Valens
- John Finn as John Stillman
- Jeremy Ratchford as Nick Vera
- Thom Barry as Will Jeffries
- Tracie Thoms as Kat Miller
Guest Cast[]
- Michelle Harrison as Lorena "Lo" Kinney
- Todd Babcock as Anton Bikker ("Noah Pool") (1945)
- K Callan as Helen Russell (2006)
- Michael Cavanaugh as David Pool (2006)
- Rodney Eastman as Arthur Pool (1945)
- James Greene as Davis "Birdie" Birdsol (2006)
- Justin Scot as Davis "Birdie" Birdsol (1945)
- Steve Vinovich as McDuff
And[]
- Peter Graves as Anton Bikker ("Noah Pool") (2006)
Co-Starring[]
- Eve Brenner as Johanna Hoffman (2006)
- Aran Cravey as Helen Russell (1945)
- Bob Pescovitz as Tommy Gillis
- Joey Pollari as Newsboy
- Garrett Ryan as David Pool (1945)
- Carolyn States as Johanna Hoffman (1945)
Notes[]
The real historical photgraph...
...and the recreation
- The brief shot at the start of the episode of a sailor kissing a woman is based on the famous photograph "V–J day in Times Square", taken on August 14, 1945, meaning it wouldn't take place for another month.
- The episode was inspired by the case of Elfriede Rinkel, an 85-year old resident of San Francisco who was deported back to Germany after it was discovered that she had been a concentration camp guard during World War II. Rinkel had married a Jewish man while in the US.
- The episode was remade as the nineteenth episode of Cold Case - Door of Truth.
Music[]
- Les Brown & His Orchestra "Leap Frog"
- Johnny Mercer "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive" (1944)
- Tommy Dorsey "Opus One"
- Peggy Lee "I Don't Know Enough About You"
- The Mills Brothers "You Always Hurt The One You Love"
- Closing Song: Jo Stafford "It Could Happen To You"
