NEW YEAR’S EVE - HELEN KIMBLE’S GRAVE
Richard is standing over her grave and he
places a dozen red roses on top of it. He says, “Helen, it’s over. The man
who killed you can’t kill anyone else and I’ve got my life back…what’s left
of it at least. Chicago General wants me back but I’m still trying to decide
what I want to do. I saw a lot of needy people in the last few years. I’d
like to work at one of the clinics that serves a homeless shelter downtown.
I donated fifty percent of your trust fund to Chicago General to construct
a new state of art pediatric care wing that will be called the
“There’s also Kari, I’m here not only for you but because she told me she made a promise to you that I’d come here and give you a full bouquet of roses, but I love her Helen. Ever since I lost you, my life has been so fragmented but when I met Kari, all of a sudden, the fragments seemed to start going back together. Somehow, I think you approve. I’ll always love you though.” He smiles and walks away.
A FEW HOURS LATER - KARI’S TOWNHOUSE
Kari
comes walking into the townhouse and is greeted by Richard Kimble, who takes
a big box from her and then he takes her in his arms and they passionately
kiss.
“So Honey, how was your last day at the office?”
“Well, it was sad namely because I realized
one of my downfalls was never realizing just how many people at the bureau
liked and respected me, but it’s time for me to do other things. I need to
move to
“Hey, when you want the rest of your life to start you want it to start immediately. So are you hungry?”
“Of course I’m hungry, thank you so much for coming in and cooking dinner. Ooh and it looks like lasagna. What a surprise!” she says with a smile. “By the way, I’m sorry I couldn’t pick you up from the airport.”
“Hey, the press is still hounding me, it was good you weren’t there…before we eat though, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”
She looks up in surprise as she’s taking off her coat and says, “What’s that?”
Richard leads her to a chair, sits her down and gets down on bended knee. “Kari Marie Holmes will you marry me?” He opens up a ring box.
Kari
is trying to regain her senses and says, “Richard, these past six weeks have
been great, Thanksgiving in Peoria with my Mom and Kyle, Christmas Eve at
Becca’s and Christmas Day at Maggie’s and it was wonderful that Mom and Kyle
could come up to Chicago for Christmas but we really haven’t gotten that much
one on one time together.”
“Kari, do you love me?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then please answer the question?”
Kari smiles and says, “Yes, Richard, I’ll marry you!”
He slips the ring on her finger and she stares at it wordlessly.
“Good, now have a bite of pasta!” he teases her.
“Richard…”
Kimble smiles, “Ah, those bedroom eyes. We’ve waited this long, Kari, we can wait a little longer.” He takes a fork and puts a bite of pasta in Kari’s mouth….
…..as the fork is coming out of Kari’s mouth, the two are sitting up in a big bed and they are holding plates of cake. Richard says, “Well, you were right about eating wedding cake after making love. It’s definitely better than smoking!”
Kari smiles as she’s feeding him a piece of cake and says, “Richard, thank you for being so patient with me.”
Kimble raises his eyebrows and says, “I wasn’t that patient. I proposed to you on New Year’s Eve and it’s January thirty-first…but I know what you mean. We deserved this night, Kari.” He leans in to kiss her neck and it tickles her.
She laughs and feeds him another bite of cake and says, “So do you want it do it again?”
“Kari, we’ve got a plane to catch in a few
hours to
“Yes, Richard and it’s a long flight from
Richard smiles at her and says, “OK, you’ve
convinced me.” They put the plates of cake aside and as Richard leans down
to kiss Kari he says, “You know there is something to be said for waiting
to make love to your wife!” The camera pulls back and it’s a huge bridal
suite. Their wedding attire is draped over chairs and the
CHICAGO - JIM BOWERS OFFICE
Jim,
Becca Ross, and Eve Hilliard are seated in Jim’s office.
“Thank you for your help, Agent Hilliard.”
“It wasn’t me. Kari got the confession from Harry.”
“And you helped AD Merriman pull the strings with the governor to get Richard a full pardon.”
Eve smiled. “I couldn’t let him go back to death row. I’m glad you decided to pursue the appeal.”
“I had to. Richard deserved to be declared innocent in a court of law.”
“You’re right. And with Harry’s testimony and the girl who saw Charnquist at the apartment that night, plus the files from the warehouse linking Crystal Clear to the terrorists and Renee’s testimony, it was a clear victory, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. Renee filled in all the missing gaps on Palazollo’s operation and Ben’s involvement in exchange for immunity. It was also nice that she kept that bloodied shirt of Ben’s with Helen’s blood on it as an insurance policy for herself. Apparently, the plan was to threaten Becca until she gave them the password. Harry was supposed to use it to authorize a wire transfer of ten million to Crystal Clear Water to complete the sale. Then he was supposed to use Becca’s email to tell her father that she changed her mind and the sale had gone through.”
Eve nods her head and says, “What about Becca? What was supposed to happen to her?”
“She was supposed to be eliminated. Palazollo wanted it to look like Becca had done the transaction willingly, but once it was done…well, Ben was supposed to do what he did best…kill her and make it look like a random act of violence and Palazollo would have been beyond suspicion.”
“And then Harry got cold feet.”
“Yes, and Ben was kept in the dark on the details, so he thought Helen was an equally good target. She was always his backup plan, but no one knew it.”
“So Richard Kimble became the perfect fall guy. What will happen to Harry?”
Bowers answers, “He’s been charge with obstruction of justice, money laundering, and fraud. Even without a direct link to the terrorist funding, he faces a lot of jail time. Considering the outpouring of support for Dr. Kimble, I doubt the judge will be lenient. In any case, Richard can get on with his life now. What about you? I hear you’ve now been officially designated as the head of the Fugitive Task Force.” Eve looks pleased. “Yes.”
“What’s going to happen to Gerard?”
“Well, as you know he got six months but he’ll be on probation after that for five years for his part in covering up Matthew Ross’ plot to kill his son-in-law. Linda Westershulte supplied all the details. Apparently she’s been nursing a grudge because Gerard got the job at the task force and left her behind. As for McClaren, he testified Gerard was never directly involved in the evidence tampering. Later, he was threatened by Palazollo so he turned a blind eye to what Gagomiros was doing at the task force.”
Eve turns to Becca. “How’s your father?”
“He’s… comfortable. The doctor’s say he may never regain his speech. It was always hard to communicate. Now its…I wish things had turned out differently.”
“You’ve forgiven him, then?”
“I may never forgive him for hiring Carl Vasick to kill Richard. But he’s my father. I’ll see he gets the best of care.”
“You’re the head of Ross Industries, now. Will you stay?”
“That depends.” She casts a shy look at Bowers. “I’ve learned that family is more important than business. I think I’d like to have children of my own. There are, after all, ways of running a company without actually running it.”
Eve smiles a knowing smile, but refrains
from comment, asking instead, “How’s the happy couple? How was the wedding?
I really wanted to go to
“Oh, it was a lovely wedding. They got married in the chapel of the MGM Grand Hotel which is a very classy place. Just to insure anonymity, they made the reservations under Kari’s brother in law’s name and he did all of the checking in for them. They flew in Kari’s priest from DC to officiate so it would have the church feel and they had no attendants, they just stood in front and recited their vows with all of the close friends and family members in attendance. Afterwards, when they signed the marriage license they asked Kyle and Maggie to sign for them as witnesses. Then they had a very simple reception at the restaurant next door. It was so romantic, Richard picked Kari up and carried her off to the bridal suite from the restaurant!”
Eve shakes her head and says, “I wish I could have been there.”
Becca pulls out some pictures. “Well, Eve as a matter of fact, you can, sort of. Kari asked me to give you these.”
