Lady in Waiting story
Beth Chadwick murders her domineering older brother, Bryce, after he attempts to break up her relationship with one of his executives, Peter Hamilton, a man he thinks is only interested in Beth for ulterior motives. His mailing a letter threatening to terminate Peter's employment if he didn't break things off with Beth causes her to reach the tipping point and to act to gain control of her own life and, it turns out, the family business (as there are no other siblings). Complications in Beth's plan contribute to Columbo's suspicions. Beth had planned to claim the shooting was an accident. She removed his house key from his key chain thinking it would require him, late at night, to try to enter the house via her bedroom. However, Bryce had a spare key which he had hidden under a flowerpot thus entering the house without ado. She improvises as best she can but her story will ultimately be undermined as a result of this turn of events. Meanwhile, her true personality emerges, showing a very different side than that shown earlier, before the murder. Final clue/twist: When Columbo re-reads the testimony of Peter Hamilton, who had driven to the house after receiving the letter from Bryce, he notices that Hamilton climbed over the gates and heard the gunshots before the alarm went off, not after. The detail is enough to undo her entire story. Columbo tells Beth that Hamilton won't like doing it, but he will testify to what he knows. Directed by: Norman Lloyd. Story by: Barney Slater, Steven Bochco.
16 total · 2 choice · 7 major · 7 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| greed for riches | choice | Contrary to initial expectations, in the end Beth proved herself to be the money grubbing one having committed murder in part to splurge on new luxuries and gain control of the family firm, while her lover Peter was actually not a gold digger at all. |
| how to murder someone and get away with it | choice | The wealthy heiress Beth Chadwick hatched the following plan to dispose of her meddlesome brother to gain control of the family firm and retain her lover: She would steal his key to the house and then invite her brother to enter it by coming through her bedroom windows, promising to deactivate the alarm. Then she'd shoot him and pretend that she'd done so in a delirium after just waking up and mistaking him for a burglar. All went to plan but for a minor miscalculation or two, and the ever troublesome, oh-so intrepid, Lt. Columbo. |
| appearances can be deceiving | major | Witnesses and villains alike are caught off guard by Lieutenant Columbo's bumbling façade, which invariably proves to conceal a laser-focused mind. |
| controlling family member | major | Beth shot her brother, Bryce, dead to get out from under his thumb. It was also mentioned that Beth had been previously domineered by her father. |
| engaged couple | major | Beth announced her engagement to Peter, neglecting to consult the husband-to-be beforehand. |
| fratricide | major | Beth shot her brother Bryce dead because he stood in the way of her aspirations and a dalliance. |
| gold digging | major | Bryce was convinced that Peter was a gold digger, and circumstances seemed rather to support this supposition. In the end, however, Peter proved himself to be in it only for love, and not at all for the money. |
| law enforcement | major | The bumbling but sharp-witted homicide detective Lieutenant Columbo was tasked with the following murder mystery: The seemingly accidental killing of Bryce Chadwick. |
| mother and daughter | major | Beth and Bryce's mother slapped Beth hard after she murdered her brother. She was also upset when Beth proceeded to wrest control of the family firm. |
| blackmail | minor | Bryce tried to blackmail Peter into leaving Beth. Shortly thereafter Bryce revealed this to Beth, Beth killed him. It is somewhat ambiguous whether this alone set Beth off on killing her brother: as Columbo noted, she had already ordered an expensive car long before the murder indicating that the plan was some time in the making. Perhaps it was just the final straw. |