REPORT: JAROD’S HONOR
FILE #: 119

The episode opens with Jarod in his lair putting the finishing touches on a homemade miniature casket. Into it, he places a red notebook which details his latest triumph: the exposure of a fraudulent pet cemetery that was selling the animals’ remains to labs for scientific study rather than interring them as the pets’ owners were promised. As he sits back on his couch, smiling, and relaxing with a treat of PEZ, the alarm on his computer goes off announcing an in-coming e-mail message. Jarod goes to the computer to retrieve the message which reads:

JAROD – TRAVEL TO NEW ORLEANS TO SEE MAN IN PICTURE. MAY HOLD KEY TO THE PAST. – SYDNEY.

Attached to the e-mail note is a scanned photo of a man standing in a driveway beside a restored vintage automobile.

Following the message’s instructions, Jarod travels to New Orleans and arrives at the Hotel Madison Rouge. On his way to his room, he passes by another room and can hear what sounds like a brief struggle and a male voice gasping, “Help me… help me…” Jarod enters the room to find a man lying on the floor. The man has apparently suffered a heart attack, and slips into unconsciousness almost immediately. When Jarod realizes the man has no pulse, he immediately starts CPR, but is unable to revive him.

With the now dead man still lying on the floor, Jarod steps over to a night stand beside the bed in the man’s room, and picks up the telephone there. He calls the front desk to ask for assistance, but as the desk answers, Jarod looks on the man’s bed. He sees a revolver lying next to the pillows and a metallic briefcase. He tells the desk clerk, “Never mind,” hangs up on her, and looks through the items on the bed. He finds several fake IDs (all with the dead man’s photo on them, but registered under different names in different States), several weapons, and a small 35mm camera. He also comes across a pocket-sized photo album… filled with black-and-white photographs of dead people (each one with a bullet hole in the head). While Jarod is perusing the photographs, the telephone on the nightstand rings. He pauses a second before answering it, then answers it with an abrupt and gravely-voiced, “Yeah?”

A male voice on the telephone tells Jarod to meet him downstairs and asks him if they’re going to do “the hit” today. “Hit?” Jarod asks. “Don’t jerk me around,” the man on the telephone growls; and he asks Jarod if he’s “in” or “out”. Jarod looks at the dead man on the floor and the photographs of his victims, and tells the man on the phone that he’s “in” . The man on the phone then asks, “How will I recognize you?” Jarod again looks at the corpse on the floor and notices that the man is wearing a corrective shoe on one foot. Jarod tells the caller, “I have a limp.”

MEANWHILE, AT THE CENTRE , Broots is informing Sydney of a new e-mail transmission from Jarod just as Miss Parker arrives to overhear their conversation. She is trying to give up smoking, but isn’t having much success. She’s chewing gum, wearing a nicotine patch, and is VERY irritable. She demands that Broots and Sydney show her the e-mail transmission from Jarod. The message reads:

SYDNEY – YOU’RE EXPECTED AT THE TWIN CITIES HOTEL IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA ON THE 22ND FOR A VERY SPECIAL GATHERING. MAY HOLD KEY TO THE PAST. – JAROD.

Sydney tells Miss Parker that the 22nd is the upcoming weekend, and Miss Parker demands to travel with Sydney when he goes. Sydney agrees.

BACK IN LOUISIANA , Jarod is driven to the Cafe Club Faisdodo by the man who had called him on the telephone: a youngish, weaselly man named Donnie. Before they enter the club, Donnie complains that Jarod doesn’t look like “no stone killer” to him. Jarod pulls his sunglasses down a notch on his nose, looks Donnie over, and replies with sarcasm: “Well, looks aren’t everything.”

Once inside the cafe, Jarod — now posing as Jarod Doe — is introduced to Tug Beaulieu (Donnie’s uncle). Tug tell Jarod that he’s been chosen because he has the reputation of being clean and discrete, and is unknown to anyone in New Orleans. When Donnie asks Jarod why he takes photographs of the people he’s “whacked”, Jarod answers with an expressionless: “Your business is your business. Mine’s mine.” Jarod then insists that he wants to know why he’s been called there. Tug tells Jarod that he wants Jarod to kill a man for $50,000 [$25,000 to be paid up front, and $25,000 to be paid when proof of the murder is provided to Tug.] Tug gives Jarod a photograph of a man named Benjamin Worth. When Worth is killed, Tug tells him, he will commission Jarod to go after a “second target”. Jarod asks Tug why he wants the man killed and Tug answers: “Your business is your business. Mine’s mine.” Jarod agrees to the arrangement, and tells Donnie to pick him up at his hotel in three hours.

BACK AT THE CENTRE , in the Tech Room, Broots — affecting a winsome British accent — calls the Twin Cities Hotel and tells the desk clerk to have a gift ready for Miss Parker when she arrives: a carton of cigarettes, to be placed on her pillow so she can see them when she enters the room. Laughing at his joke, he hangs up the phone, only to hear it ring again. He picks up the phone, and answers it with a jovial, “Broots here!”, but immediately starts shaking and blinking when he realizes that the caller is Mr. Raines. Raines knows there was a transmission from Jarod and he wants more information about this, as Raines calls it, “security situation” .

AT THE TWIN CITIES HOTEL , standing in the lobby, Miss Parker gets a panicky call from Broots on her cell phone. He warns her that Mr. Raines knows something about the transmission from Jarod and is looking for Sydney and Miss Parker. Fearing that Raines has the phones “bugged”, Broots hangs up quickly. Miss Parker refers to Broots as a “mutant” and complains that there is always something wrong with him… then she realizes that the lobby of the hotel around her is filled with innumerable sets of twins. “What the hell is going on?” she asks Sydney. He indicates a banner the lobby that’s announcing a TWINS CONVENTION .

BACK IN NEW ORLEANS , using the e-mailed photo as a guide, Jarod finds the home and driveway pictured in the photograph. A neighbor woman explains to him that the house is up for sale. It used to be owned by a man named Sonny Herbert (pronounced: Ay-bare.), and she confirms for Jarod that it is Sonny who is seen in the photograph. The photograph is an old one, though. Sonny disappeared about twenty-five years ago, the woman explains. He was a private investigator who had an office in Stanton City somewhere. He had specialized in finding lost children. Jarod is excited about the discovery: perhaps Sonny had been searching for him , and knew something about his parents. Before tracking down Sonny’s current whereabouts, though, Jarod has to deal with Ben Worth and Tug Beaulieu. He goes to Ben’s house and tells him that he’s been sent to kill him.

Later that evening, Jarod is lying in the bathtub in his hotel room. He’s completely submersed in water and is breathing through a long glass tub that sticks up above the water’s surface. Once he’s satisfied that the tube works well enough, he sits up in the tub and looks across the bathroom… to where the corpse of the real assassin is sitting on Jarod’s toilet.

Once he’s dried and dressed, Jarod lays the corpse out on the floor and checks over the body. He finds that there is a lengthy scar just under the knee of the corpse’s damaged leg (the one that needs the corrective footwear). Jarod then stands the corpse up in the shower stall of the bathroom and, after stealing buckets of ice from every room in the hotel, pours the ice over the corpse to preserve it. Just as he’s finishing this, Donnie arrive at the door and tells Jarod he’s ready to go to Ben Worth’s killing.

Jarod and Donnie arrive at Worth’s home, and Jarod warns Donnie to stay out of his way and keep watch on the front gate while he (Jarod) breaks into the house to kill Worth. At first, Donnie obeys, but he eventually follows Jarod into the house and up to the second floor. He doesn’t actually see the killing, but he can hear the whispered “pipp” of a silenced gunshot, and can see the flash of the strobe on Jarod’s camera as Jarod takes photos of Ben’s body. When Donnie arrives in the bedroom, Jarod is wrapping Worth’s body up in a blanket. Donnie demands to see the body, and threatens Jarod with a gun when Jarod seems reluctant to do so. Finally, Jarod pulls the blanket away from Ben Worth’s head, and Donnie can see what looks like a bullet hole in the temple, and blood oozing from it. While Donnie is mesmerized by the corpse, Jarod punches him and takes Donnie’s gun away from him, warning Donnie, “Next time you get the urge to put a gun in my face, you’d better make sure you pull the trigger.” Jarod then makes Donnie help him carry the body out to their car.

Donnie drives Jarod to a forested area and parks. He tells Jarod they’re going to “plant” Ben Worth’s body there because, “Uncle Tug is very fond of fertilizing this field.” Donnie then refuses to do any of the labor, so Jarod buries Worth himself. He and Donnie then leave in the car.

BACK AT THE TWINS CONVENTION , Sydney is greeted by Milly and Tilly Pilcher, who mistake him for his own twin brother, Jacob, whom the women refer to as “Dr. Jacob” . When Sydney explains that he’s not Dr. Jacob, and that Jacob was in an automobile accident and left comatose, the Pilcher twins seem very distraught. They ask when the accident occurred, and Sydney tells them it was August 2, 1967. The Pilcher twins go pale, gulp down their drinks, and hurry away.

JAROD, MEANWHILE , returns to the Faisdodo Cafe and gives Tug Beaulieu the roll of film that has the photographs of Ben Worth’s killing on it. Tug asks Donnie if he witnessed the killing, and Donnie complains that, no, he was there when Jarod “planted” Worth, but was not there when Jarod “popped” him. Although Jarod reiterates to Tug that he works alone, Tug insists that Donnie watch the killing of the second target, or Tug won’t pay Jarod the money he’ll owe him for that killing. The second target is a woman: Doris Worth, Ben Worth’s estranged wife.

BACK IN HIS HOTEL ROOM , Jarod interrogates Ben Worth. Worth, at first, complains that he doesn’t understand everything that’s going on. Jarod broke into his house, faked his murder, buried him in the ground with nothing but the glass tube to breathe through, and now Jarod is asking him all sorts of questions. “Why does Tug Beaulieu want you dead?” Jarod asks. “That’s the 64-thousand dollar question,” Worth responds. Jarod says flatly, “He’s only paying me 50.” Worth is still reluctant to answer and tells Jarod, “I don’t even know who you are.” Jarod answers, “My name is Jarod. Why does Tug Beaulieu want you dead?” Ben Worth finally tells Jarod that he owns a couple of jazz clubs in New Orleans. Tug Beaulieu wants them, and Worth refused to sell them. The real estate in New Orleans is in short supply and is, therefore, invaluable. Jarod shows Worth the photograph Tug gave him of the second target, and Worth is stunned to see that it’s a photograph of his estranged wife Doris. Doris has the title to one of their clubs, while Ben has the other.

Satisfied with Ben’s answers, Jarod readies to leave the hotel room and instructs Ben, “Don’t answer the phone, and don’t go in the bathroom.” Ben asks what he’s supposed to do if he needs to use the toilet. Jarod hands him an ice bucket. Worth says there is no way he’s going to use that, so Jarod takes him over to the bathroom and opens the door. He shows Ben the corpse in the shower stall. “That’s the guy who was really going to kill you,” Jarod growls. And Ben hugs the ice bucket, saying it will suffice should he have the need for it.

Later, Jarod goes to Stanton City, and finds the locale of Sonny Herbert’s now defunct Private Investigators office. The building manager opens the place up so Jarod can look inside of it, and tells him that just before Sonny disappeared, a bunch of men– “vending machines with heads” — had come looking for him, claiming that Sonny owed them money. Among their group was a “spooky looking” man with deep set eyes and an oxygen tank. Jarod recognizes the description of Mr. Raines immediately. The building manager then tells Jarod that Raines and the others had left so quickly, looking for Sonny, that he never had the chance to tell them about the materials Sonny had kept in files in the basement.

Jarod hurries into the basement of Sonny’s office and tears through the files there, but is frustrated by the fact that they only go back about 20 years. Jarod had been at The Centre himself for over 30 . Kneeling in the middle of the floor with the disheveled files all around him, Jarod drops his head and cries, “I’m not here… I’m not here.”

BACK AT THE TWIN CITIES HOTEL , the Pilcher twins arrive at Sydney’s room and tell him that they have to talk to him. The Monday before the August 2nd car crash that left Jacob in coma, they tell Sydney, they were in The Centre as part of an international study conference. It was the eve of their tenth birthday… and the first time they had ever seen a gun. They tell Sydney that they came across “Dr. Jacob” arguing with someone. When the argument escalated, the man Dr. Jacob was talking to pulled out a gun, pushed it into Jacob’s neck, and demanded that Jacob cooperate with him. “Dr. Billy scared us to death,” the twins tell Sydney… and he deduces that “Dr. Billy” was actually Dr. William RAINES.

MEANWHILE , on a tip from the building manager of Sonny Herbert’s old office, Jarod searches for and finds a woman who was Sonny’s secretary for the last fifteen years of his practice. Jarod tells her that he believes Sonny was trying to locate him (for his parents), and asks her if she knows where Sonny is. She says she does know, but warns Jarod that Sonny can’t talk to him. She explains that Sonny had been the victim of a fire during which over 80% of his body was burned. Investigators claimed he had fallen asleep while smoking a cigarette and was burned as a result of the fire caused when the cigarette set the bed afire; but the secretary doesn’t believe it. Sonny was an insomniac, she said, and would never have fallen asleep so deeply that he could suffered such a fate. There was no immediate proof of his insomnia – or of foul play – so the police refused to investigate further. Sonny is now ensconced at the V.A. hospital in Slidell, she says.

Jarod doesn’t have time to go to Slidell immediately, so he instead goes to the house where Ben Worth’s estranged wife, Doris, is living. He introduces himself, and she lets him in. Outside, Donnie Beaulieu is watching. Donnie later leaves Doris’s house and goes to the spot where Jarod buried Ben Worth. Ben’s body is gone.

MUCH LATER , Jarod is confronted in his hotel room by Tug Beaulieu, Donnie and one of Tug’s henchmen. Donnie punches Jarod in the mouth, sending him reeling into a wall. Rather than retaliating, Jarod calmly dabs the blood from the side of his mouth. Tug demands to know where Ben Worth’s body is, and Jarod explains that he removed the body from the spot where Donnie had seen him bury it because he was afraid Donnie might wimp out and tell the authorities where it was; he moved it to “protect” Tug from exposure.

Donnie then says he saw Jarod go into Doris Worth’s house. Jarod explains that he’d gone there to set her up for the murder he’d planned. He shows Tug a photograph of Doris bound and gagged, and tells Tug he’ll kill her in front of him tomorrow. Almost convinced, Tug tells Jarod that the word is Jarod got his limp because, during an altercation with police in Chicago, Jarod had been shot in the leg and lost about an inch of bone. Tug wants to see the scar. Jarod lifts his pant leg… and shows Tug a long scar just under his knee (just like the one the real assassin had). Now truly convinced that Jarod is the man he claims to be, Tug tells Donnie to leave “Mr. Doe” alone. Tug, Donnie and the henchman all leave. It’s a good thing, too, because Ben and Doris Worth are both hiding in Jarod’s bathroom.

Jarod sets up the “killing” for the next day. He rigs a car so the doors will lock (and stay locked) on his command; fixes the windows with shatterproof glass; and manufactures a system of hoses that will channel the exhaust fumes from the tail pipe into the seating compartment of the car when he activates it. He then takes the corpse of the real assassin out of his shower stall, and puts it in the trunk of the car, along with bags of ice, the briefcase with all of the assassin’s paraphernalia in it (after making sure all of it is clear of his own fingerprints), and a large manila envelope addressed to the New Orleans Police Department.

THE NEXT MORNING , Jarod meets Tug and Donnie in the woods. There he has the rigged car parked, with Doris Worth sitting in the front seat seemingly tied to the steering wheel. Jarod tells Tug he’s going to make it look like Doris gassed herself in her own car after she was “abandoned” by her estranged husband, Ben. Tug says it all looks real convincing to him, and Jarod asks for the rest of the money due to him for the killings. Rather than paying Jarod, however, Tug has Donnie pull a gun on him. They’re going to kill Jarod, then kill Doris themselves. Before they can, however, Ben Worth shows up and creates enough of a distraction so that Jarod can wrestle the gun away from Donnie. “You never learn, do you?” Jarod scolds Donnie.

Jarod lets Doris out of the car, then forces Tug and Donnie to get inside of it. He locks them in, and sets up a video camera next to the car that will record the confessions he wants out of them. Donnie and Tug try to escape from the car, but can’t open the doors and can’t shatter the glass… They still refuse to confess, however, so Jarod has Ben hook up the hose that sends a cloud of exhaust fumes into the car through the ventilation system. Terrified that he’s going to asphyxiated, Donnie confesses that Tug contracted for the murders of Ben and Doris Worth, and also says, “He killed them all! I can show you where the bodies are buried!”

Satisfied with the confession, Jarod prepares to leave. Ben Worth asks him if he’s really going to leave Donnie and Tug in the car to die, and Jarod explains that there is only gas in the tank to frighten the men. The engine will shut off in about 30 seconds. He also tells Ben that the police will be there shortly. Ben shakes Jarod’s hand, and Doris gives him a hug before he leaves.

BACK AT THE TWIN CITIES HOTEL , Sydney is “talking” to Jacob in his mind, asking him about the “accident”, asking him if Raines was responsible for what happened to them. His mind-generate image of Jacob tells him he already has the answers to those questions. Sydney’s musing are interrupted by Miss Parker who arrives at his door, chain-smoking. “Don’t say a word,” she warns him as she lights up another cigarette.

MUCH LATER, IN SLIDELL , Jarod visits Sonny Herbert in the burn ward at the V.A. Hospital. A nurse warns Jarod that Sonny hasn’t been very lucid since his “accident” and slips in and out of consciousness a lot. Jarod still insists on seeing him.

Sitting beside Sonny’s bed in the burn ward, Jarod gently nudges Sonny awake and then talks to him about his PI practice. Sonny remembers vaguely, “Children.” Jarod nods, excited, and shows Sonny a photograph of his mother. He asks if Sonny remembers her. Sonny says, “Nice woman…Wanted to find little boy…” Truly excited now, Jarod leans forward in his chair and asks Sonny if he can remember what the woman’s name was… but Sonny falls back into unconsciousness before he can respond. Unable to get any further response from Sonny, Jarod crumples in his chair, totally disheartened.

BACK AT THE CENTRE , Sydney gets a telephone call from Jarod. Jarod thanks him for sending him the photograph of Sonny Herbert, and Sydney tells him pointedly that he never sent Jarod such a photograph. As a matter of fact, Sydney tells Jarod, he was just about to thank Jarod for sending him the information on the Twins Convention. Jarod says that he doesn’t know what Sydney is talking about. “Well, if you didn’t send it,” Sydney says, “then who did?”

The camera pans up to the ventilation duct adjacent to Sydney’s office, where Angelo is sitting, smiling behind the screen.