Columbo Likes the Nightlife story
When Vanessa Farrow defends herself against an assault by her ex-husband, mobster Tony Galper, she accidentally kills him. Her boyfriend, Los Angeles rave promoter Justin Price, whose new club Galper was backing, helps Vanessa dispose of the body, but the events are secretly photographed by tabloid photographer Linwood Coben, who offers Price the negatives and prints for $250,000. Price agrees to pay, but when they meet, Price kills him and makes it look like a suicide. Final clue/twist: Columbo points out that one of the koi tanks built into the dance floor at Price's club contains fewer fish and must be less deep than the other tanks. Columbo has ground-penetrating radar used to find Tony's body hidden under the tank. In the last line of the series, Columbo remarks to a Galper "enforcer" that "Tony was sleeping with the fishes." (Homage to "the Godfather" movie series) Directed by: Jeffrey Reiner. Story by: Michael Alaimo.
18 total · 5 choice · 5 major · 8 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| blackmail | choice | Justin Price murdered his blackmailer, Linwood Coben. |
| breaking the law to cover up another crime | choice | Justin Prince killed Linwood because Linwood threatened to reveal Justin had covered up Vanessa's having accidentally killed her ex-husband in self-defense. |
| greed for riches | choice | Justin Price killed to ensure an investment into his club would go ahead. |
| how to murder someone and get away with it | choice | Justin Price came up with the, rather uninventive, scheme to rid himself of the blackmailer Linwood Coben: Justin strangled Linwood to death in Linwood's apartment and staged the scene so it would appear to be suicide. Lt. Columbo wasn't fooled for a second. |
| what if I killed someone by accident | choice | The story begins with Vanessa Farrow accidentally causing her ex-husbands death as she was defending herself against assault. In gender-stereotypical fashion, she then turns hysterical and calls her current boyfriend who arrives with a harebrained scheme to conceal the death. |
| boyfriend and girlfriend | major | Justin Price helped his girlfriend, Vanessa Farrow, dispose of her ex-husband's corpse. |
| how to dispose of a corpse and get away with it | major | Vanessa Farrow had, in self-defense, caused her ex-husband's death and therefore called her boyfriend to help her dispose of the body. They did so by hiding it beneath a fish tank in the floor of a rave club. |
| law enforcement | major | The bumbling but sharp-witted homicide detective Lt. Columbo was tasked with the following murder mystery: Did Linwood Coben really hang himself, or had he been killed? Also, what's with the Italian mafia showing up? |
| organized crime | major | Tony Galper was a mobster and, when he died, goons from New York arrived to "keep an eye" on the investigation. |
| the entertainment industry | major | Justin Price ran a rave club backed by the mobster Tony Galper. |