A Bird in the Hand ... story
Given a deadline to pay his debts, or else, chronic gambler Harold McCain plants a bomb under the Rolls-Royce of his uncle, professional football team owner Big Fred. The bomb is set to explode when the engine is started. However, someone else gets to Big Fred before Harold's bomb does by stealing the gardener's pickup truck and running him over while he is jogging. Harold tries to remove the bomb before it kills someone else, but cannot get near the Rolls-Royce due to police and security on the premises. When the gardener tries to move the Rolls-Royce out of the way of the TV camera crews, the bomb explodes, killing the gardener. Columbo investigates and discovers clues that link Harold to the car bomb, but Harold denies any involvement and tries to divert suspicion away from himself. Fred's wife Dolores, appears traumatised at losing her husband but has a good time as Fred's team's owner, but after Harold tries to squeeze her for money, he is shot dead in his cabin, making it appear obvious who is responsible. Final clue/twist: The TV news tape shows Harold closing his eyes before the Rolls-Royce exploded, thus proving that he knew there was a bomb under the car. Columbo discovers that Harold's alarm was set to 8 pm, not 8 am. Harold had spent the entire night at a casino, where he won $5,000 and had breakfast; then he had a haircut and went to Dolores's house, which Columbo proves with recently cut hairs found inside Harold's hat that was in Dolores' den. Dolores shot Harold and moved his body to his cabin, but left Harold's hat at her house. Before Harold planted the bomb, Dolores moved the Rolls-Royce onto the driveway so the gardener could not drive his truck in. Dolores then sent the gardener to the back of house so that he would not see her steal his truck and run Big Fred over. Harold suspected Dolores was involved and was implying blackmail when he asked her for money. When Dolores demands that Columbo prove it, he replies, "I don't have to prove it, ma'am. One in the hand is better than two in the bush," and arrests her for Harold's murder. Directed by: Vincent McEveety. Story by: Jackson Gillis.
20 total · 5 choice · 7 major · 8 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| blackmail | choice | The main event of the story is Dolores killing Harold in order to rid herself of a blackmailer. |
| greed for riches | choice | Harold was waist deep in gambling debts and out to get money any way he could from Dolores and Big Fred. Dolores murdered her husband to gain control of his sports empire. |
| how to murder someone and get away with it | choice | Dolores came up with a straightforward way to murder her husband: She stole a truck and ran him over while he was jogging in a dangerous location. She later came up with a slightly more intricate yarn to rid herself of Harold when he tried to blackmail her: She shot him and moved his corpse to a cabin he owned, then made it look like a burglary gone awry. |
| parricide | choice | Dolores murdered her nephew-in-law to stop him from blackmailing her regarding her recent spouse murder. |
| spouse murder | choice | Dolores purloined a truck and ran over her disagreeable husband while he was jogging. |
| aunt and nephew | major | The handsome playboy Harold tried to seduce his aunt-in-law, Dolores, ad get her to give him money. But she saw through his charade. |
| avunculicide | major | Harold tried to take out his uncle, Big Fred, with a jury-rigged car bomb. Unfortunately for Harold his aunt beat him to it and succeeded merely in blowing up the gardener. |
| coping with being in debt | major | Harold was waist deep in debts and out to get money any way he could from Dolores and Big Fred. |
| husband and wife | major | Dolores dispatched her husband, Big Fred, by running him over and took over his business empire. |
| law enforcement | major | The bumbling but sharp-witted homicide detective Lt. Columbo was tasked with investigating Big Fred's death in an apparent hit-and-run accident, and later Big Fred's nephew Harold's murder. |