mister welles. you're very prompt.
i appreciate your coming on such short notice.
this is mister longdale, my late husband's attorney.
apparently mr. longdale has something he feels he simply must say before you and i speak.
yes, how theatrical. so you've gone on the record, and now perhaps you should just be gone.
have a pleasant evening. will you have tea, mister welles?
he's a lawyer. please, sit, here.
i've spoken to friends of mine and my husband's, in harrisburg, in lancaster and hershey. asking about you. i must say you have friends in influential places.
you are highly recommended. praised for your discretion.  your strict adherence to confidentiality.
as you know, my husband passed away recently. two weeks ago now.
his passing has left me with.  something of a dilemma. a terrible, terrible dilemma.
his inner sanctum.
not many people have been inside this room.
mostly. that's where he started his empire building. he was a good man. notorious as an eccentric, but that was something he cultivated. he wanted to be legendary.
we were married forty-five years. hard even for me to imagine. we had our troubles. there were plenty of places for him to be other than here, but he was always loyal to me, and i to him. i loved him deeply.
do you carry a gun, mr. welles?
just curious.
my husband was the only one with the combination to this safe. i knew about it, but as far as i was concerned it was none of my business. not till now, that is.
there was nothing he could do. my husband left everything to me. i prevented anyone from seeing the contents. i felt these were my husband's private things. i didn't.  i didn't realize.
cash, stock certificates, and this.
it's a film.  of a girl being murdered.
this is a movie showing a girl being murdered. she's sitting on a bed, and a man rapes her.  and he begins to cut her with a knife.  i only watched what i could.
i didn't know what to think. i can't tell you how horrible it's been, to know this belonged to my husband. to know that he watched this.  this atrocity. but, i can't go to the police.
no.
i'm telling you it's not that.
will you watch it and see for yourself?
i told you i can't, not yet.
no. for me to live with the ruin of my husband's name, i need know that whoever did this will be punished. if you can find them, i will take their names to the police. i'll say my husband confessed on his death bed. i'll say i didn't have courage to come forward at first.
any evidence you collect can be given to the police later, anonymously. i've thought about it and there's no other way. if you can't find them.  if the only thing that comes from this film is that this is all my husband will be remembered for, well i can't let that happen. i'm telling you i won't. if there's no chance that poor girl's memory can be served, then i'll just have to spend my last days trying to forget her.
you've found missing persons before.
i know what i'm asking. your compensation will be appropriate to the risk. you'll need cash to buy information, and i'll provide it. i feel responsible, mr. welles. you saw what he did to her.
my husband had five cash accounts he used to temporarily hold stock profits. between november of 1991 and march of 1992, he wrote one check out to cash from each account. he wrote these himself.
my husband never dealt with money personally, certainly not cash.
the checks were for odd amounts.
one was for two hundred thousand, one dollar and thirteen cents. another was for three hundred thousand, six hundred fifty four dollars and seventy six cents.
totalled together, these five checks from five different accounts, they equal one million dollars.
to the penny. exactly one million dollars in cash.
hello.  ?
do you think the film could have cost that much?
okay.
you told me to look, so i looked.
hello?
how are you? having any luck?
i've been ordered into bed. the doctor says i've gotten the flu, or some other wretched ailment.
nothing more than a bother. have you any news for me?
fine.
how will i get it to you?