The Firm Episode 1.06 Chapter Six

After being arrested, Mitch finds himself locked in an interrogation room with a two-way mirror. He addresses the mirror, asking for his phone call. Detective Cecil Corbett stands on the other side of the mirror, with a guy named Kenneth Stack, who informs that Mitch came to his office, asking questions about a case. Does Corbett really think Mitch killed Moxon? Stack asks Corbett to do whatever it takes to get justice, then leaves to see Moxon's family. Two weeks earlier, a guy eating peanuts is watching the McDeere house, while Mitch meets with Ray and Tammy to go over the shredded piece of paper Ray snatched from Sarah's apartment, listing the names of Margaret Whitaker's last four nurses. One thing is clear: Sarah lied to Mitch. She knew Margaret fired those nurses and offered her services on purpose. But why - to rob her?

Claire's upset. She really wants a cell phone, and she's written her case on a set of index cards. Abby and Mitch stand firm, no phone. Abby and Claire head out for a class field trip to the world history museum, and Mitch meets with his new client, cab driver Zoran Mirko. Apparently, Zoran and his wife were celebrating the birth of their new baby at a nightclub. When another patron insulted his wife, Zoran started an argument and a bouncer threw him out. An hour later, the club went up in flames, and a firefighter was hurt. His prognosis is not good, and if he dies, a murder charge will be added to arson. Zoran swears his innocence, but a fingerprint was found on a can of paint thinner in the club's bathroom - which matches the print on his green card. Zoran knows he's being framed. The only thing Mitch can promise is that he's filed a motion to suppress the print.

At the office, Ray is on the phone when Tammy realizes there must be more paper strips - the piece of paper they've taped back together from Sarah's shredder is too short. Meanwhile, Chief Arson Investigator Dr. Alan Steadman is on the stand in Superior Court, being questioned by Sonia Swain. In his opinion, the suspicious fire at the nightclub was arson, with multiple points of origin, using paint thinner as an accelerant. He has a PowerPoint presentation, which outlines the matching of the partial latent fingerprint found on the can of paint thinner to Zoran's. When Steadman claims he found seven points of similarity between the prints, Mitch points out that most countries demand 12 - 16 points to declare a match. The conversation spins off when Mitch alleges that since the U.S. has no fixed standards, Steadman saw what he wanted to see, and it may be racially motivated. Having heard enough, Judge Dominic orders both attorneys to meet in his chambers - now.

In chambers, the judge softens, taking off his robes and donning a sports jacket, emblazoned with his own re-election campaign button. His platform revolves around a "more civil" approach to law, which he's trying to practice in the courtroom. He's going to allow the fingerprint, but has Mitch considered waiving a jury? Nowadays, juries think the real world is like CSI; whereas Dominic is intimately familiar with the fallibility of science. Mitch may want to consider having the judge alone decide this case; it could be a good call. Afterwards, Mitch tells Zoran that the judge gave him "a wink" - a delicate signal they should waive the jury. Sometimes if evidence is technical, it's better to have only the judge sort it out. Mitch claims if it were him, he'd do it; so Zoran reluctantly acquiesces. Now his fate really is in Mitch's hands.

At the museum, Abby gives her class 15 minutes to work on their book reports individually. Little does she know, the same peanut-eating guy who was watching the house is standing in a high gallery, watching the kids. Meanwhile, Tammy has affixed the remaining paper shreds to Sarah's piece of paper, finding an IP address for Noble Insurance. While it makes sense that Margaret's insurance company would have a list of her nurses, why would Sarah have this list? Luckily, Tammy is, as usual, way ahead of Ray and has learned the auto insurance company Sarah works for is owned by Noble. Ray pulls out the flash drive Tammy was using to copy files off Sarah's laptop when the hard drive was wiped. He remembers seeing Noble's IP then, but he didn't make the connection. Sarah knew her way around Noble's mainframe. This could have been the way she fingered vulnerable victims for robbery.

Back in court, Mitch holds forth on fingerprint science, which is unreliable at best and totally depends on context. The judge should go with reasonable doubt. Unexpectedly, the judge asks Zoran to rise and finds him not guilty on charges of murder and arson; however he is guilty on the charge of assault and sentenced to eight years. Mitch is blindsided, and Zoran is led off to jail. Meanwhile, at the museum, the peanut-eating guy approaches Claire, asking her name. Claire is just sensing that he's a little suspicious, when across the museum, Abby takes attendance. Where's Claire? Hyperventilating, Abby tracks down a security guard, who puts the museum on lockdown. In this moment, it all comes home to Abby - Claire doesn't have a cell phone! Mitch declines to answer Abby's call in favor of a meeting with Zoran. Mitch promises to fix everything, but Zoran's having none of it. Mitch is fired!

Abby's class is lounging around on the floor of the museum when a guard finally shows up with Claire, who can't understand why her mother is so worked up. Mitch barrels into Dominic's chambers and lays into him for "the crap he just pulled." Mitch insists Dominic winked, but Dominic asserts that tipping his verdict in advance would be improper - he did Mitch a favor, and he should be saying "thank you." When Dominic threatens to report Mitch to the bar, he leaves, insisting it's not over. Later, Abby wonders if Mitch might have misread Dominic, but he insists he didn't. Ray and Tammy show up with Sarah Holt's paper and the explanation that she's been hacking into Noble's system to target prospective robbery victims. They've set up a meeting with the guy who runs Noble's IT department tomorrow afternoon, which will leave time for Mitch and Ray to find out why Dominic screwed Zoran.

Later that night, neither Mitch nor Abby can sleep. Abby wants to get Claire a cell phone tomorrow morning first thing, so they never lose her again. Abby muses. She always thought if anything happened to Claire she'd be fierce, but the truth is, she couldn't move or think. Across the country, the peanut-eating man meets with Joey Morolto, Jr. to report that McDeere and his family are totally out in the open. Rather than send the guy after Mitch and his family, Joey's bringing him in. His father is gone, and so is his way of doing business. The peanut-eating guy reminds Joey that his men don't think this way; they see his inaction as weakness. Joey doesn't care. He'll deal with McDeere when he's good and ready.

The next morning, Abby surprises Claire with a cell phone - just phone calls for now, no texting. Later, Tammy shows up at the office with two boxes of Dominic's original files, which she managed to persuade the chief clerk to give her for one day only. Mitch is determined they're going to read every one to find a pattern, but Ray refuses, claiming paperwork isn't his metier. Dominic's running for re-election, so Ray's going to cut to the chase and get the dirt his opponent must already have. Ray meets with Dominic's opponent Julius Carter, who claims there are no red herrings in Dominic's background. However, he is surprised to hear about Zoran. Julius has been tracking Dominic's stats, and he typically sentences blacks to prison three times more often than whites, and for much longer terms.

Mitch proceeds to Noble Insurance to meet with guys we've seen before, VPs Martin Moxon and Ken Stack. Mitch acts surprised; he thought he was meeting with an IT rep. They like to handle any criminal matters directly, and no, they don't recognize Sarah's name. Furthermore, they think it's unlikely that Sarah could have hacked their system. When Mitch asks if the U.S. Attorney's office subpoenaed their data records, Stack allows that if they had, they couldn't comment on a pending investigation. With that, the meeting is over. Mitch is waiting for the elevator when Moxon passes by and thanks him for coming. Mitch thanks him for nothing, but Moxon doesn't seem to notice, handing Mitch a life insurance brochure. Testy, Mitch tosses it into a garbage can and misses, and a piece of paper containing a list of numbers floats out. Hmm - what just happened?

Mitch returns to the office to find Tammy sorting through Dominic's files. He tells her about the meeting and shows her the list of numbers. Ray breezes in to bring up the matter of racial discrepancy - Dominic sends black defendants to prison three times more than whites. So why Zoran who's white? It's not long before they discover Dominic's only been sentencing whites for the last six months, in a clear bid to even up his stats before the election. Mitch has a plan to get the evidence in the hands of the feds, and it involves Ray and Tammy getting married... It's not long before Tammy's in Dominic's ante room wearing a bridal mini-dress, while Mitch approaches Dominic on his way out of the courtroom, claiming he's come to apologize. With both the judge and his secretary occupied, Ray breaks into Dominic's office - and almost gets caught! Luckily, Tammy saves the day, as usual.

Mitch proceeds to the restaurant at The Capitol Hilton to find Dominic eating lunch. Dominic threatens Mitch, claiming this visit officially constitutes harassment. When Mitch brings up the subject of racial discrepancy, offering to bring his numbers to the U.S. Attorney's office, Dominic pats Mitch to see if he's wearing a wire, then sits. Dominic can't believe this is all about Zoran. After all, the cops arrest more minorities and more minorities are charged. He doesn't have a choice on the race of people who appear in his court. Nevertheless, maybe he got a little overzealous with Zoran; they can fix that. Mitch apologizes; he did lie. He isn't wearing a wire, but Dominic is - it's in his campaign button. Mitch leaves as a team of FBI agents descend upon Dominic.

Later, Mitch, Ray and Tammy are on hand for Zoran's release from the lock-up. That night, the two couples gather in the McDeere kitchen to puzzle over Moxon's list of numbers. Tammy's confident the numbers have something to do with Sarah. Abby has a brilliant idea - why not ask Moxon, a number-cruncher, why he was at the meeting? Mitch doesn't like the idea, but Abby's already dialing the phone, and handing it to him. Moxon claims he doesn't know what document Mitch is talking about, and he's not to call again. Two weeks later, Mitch is being interrogated by Detective Corbett. If he didn't kill Moxon, why did he run? Mitch remains silent...