Cathleen Calvert and her lover, crime scene investigator Patrick Kinsley, are
weary of having to see each other on the sly. She will not divorce her
husband, rich businessman Clifford Calvert, due to their prenuptial agreement.
So the lovers scheme to get him out of the way by killing Howard Seltzer, an
investment broker who is suing him, then framing Clifford for the murder. To
do so, Patrick drives to Seltzer's house and tricks Seltzer into letting him
inside by claiming that his car phone has died and that he has to make an
urgent phone call. Patrick then shoots Seltzer and plants evidence to suggest
that Clifford was responsible. Columbo's work is cut out for him, because
Patrick is on the team handling the investigation.
Final clue/twist: At a restaurant, Columbo sees Kingsley move the artificial
sweetener towards Cathleen Calvert when they all receive coffee. A few minute
later, Columbo sees Kinsley open the front door of a car for Cathleen Calvert
instead of the back door. Columbo realizes that despite their claims
otherwise, the two knew each other. If they had never met, as they claimed to
Columbo, Kinsley would not have known that Cathleen prefers the front seat
because she easily gets car sick when sitting in the back, or that she takes
artificial sweetener with her coffee. A wedding photographer's shot of the
Calvert couple dancing also helps reveal that the cat hair found on Clifford's
suit jacket was planted by Cathleen, while an earlier photograph shows that
Clifford did not have cat hair on his suit jacket prior to dancing with
Cathleen.
Directed by: Vincent McEveety. Story by: Charles Kipps.