law & order
kid pro quo (20/24)

The veteran crime drama continues its 13th season. In tonight’s episode, the admissions head at an ultra-prestigious private school is found murdered, leading the detectives to suspect corruption behind the scenes of the institution.

Police find the body of a woman killed by blunt force trauma in Central Park. The likely murder weapon is a bloodied walking stick lying nearby. The autopsy reveals the victim had a hip operation recently, and the detectives realise that the walking stick was almost certainly hers. “Damn, she got beat to death with her own cane,” says Green. “That’s cold.”

The victim is identified as Debra Landon, who is head of admissions at Knowles, an elite private school on the Upper East Side. Charming headmaster Wyatt Scofield (Roger Rees, ‘The West Wing’) informs the detectives that it is tremendously difficult and expensive for a child to attend his school: “The parents can be rather zealous in pursuit of their goal,” he explains.

A check of Debra’s voicemail reveals a number of threatening and abusive messages from parents. Single parent Marvin Waters was apparently told by Debra that his daughter, Cassie, was to be granted a scholarship that would have enabled her to attend Knowles for free, only for the school to then send him a letter of rejection.

The detectives learn that blue cashmere fibres were found on the murder weapon, and notice that Scofield is wearing a sweater of that very material. They then check out the headmaster’s movements on the night of Debra’s death –the security guard at his apartment block confirms that he was out at the time of the murder. It also emerges that someone deleted a number of Debra’s emails after her murder. The person who did this must have had a master password –just like Scofield’s. Detectives now have all the evidence they need to arrest the headmaster.

The cops then find some emails that suggest Debra and Scofield had been arguing over Cassie Waters’s proposed inclusion at Knowles. It seems that the headmaster overruled Debra and instead awarded the place to Jared Anchin –the son of famous porn baron Harvey Anchin. “Her emails indicate that she was threatening to go to your board about something you did,” says McCoy to Scofield. “You thought your job was in jeopardy.” Scofield’s lawyer suggests that McCoy needs to find a better motive –if Landon was threatening Scofield, why did he not just fire her?

It transpires that Scofield had recently been gifted a plush apartment worth over a million dollars –a present from real-estate magnate Bud Rush. Rush was in business with Harvey Anchin, who had mob connections. McCoy thinks this is motive enough, as Scofield was clearly bribed by Anchin to get his kid into Knowles ahead of the much brighter Cassie Waters. Debra may not have known the details of the bribe, but if she had gone to the board or even the press, the implications for Scofield would have been huge. “Questions would have been asked,” says Southerlyn. “And answers would have been given,” replies McCoy, gravely. Have they got enough evidence to incarcerate the headmaster?