PLOT: Riley Greenleaf is a publisher. One of his clients Allan Mallory has decided to leave him and sell his next novel to another publisher, Jeffrey Neal. Riley is furious at having lost a certain best seller, so he persuades Eddie Kane to murder Mallory. Greenleaf has the perfect alibi- he crashed his car into another car at a parking lot at the time of the murder. He has framed himself for the murder, being careful to ensure Kane didn't smudge his fingerprints off his gun, which was left at the scene of the crime. Columbo is soon on the scene and immediately suspects Greenleaf- until his alibi shows up. Then Columbo seems sure that someone is trying to frame Greenleaf for the murder. Greenleaf has him thinking exactly what he wants him to think. Greenleaf then pays a visit to Eddie Kane. He has promised Kane that he would publish his new book, a book on explosives. Greenleaf poisons Eddie and leaves a typed manuscript in his house. It is part of the transcript of Mallory's new book. Columbo is puzzled by this new information and is also puzzled that Greenleaf's name was in Kane's address book. Greenleaf tells him that Eddie Kane had sent him a transcript for a book a few months back and he had rejected it. Greenleaf tells Columbo that he had given Mallory the transcript, who had then plagiarised Kane's book. Therefore it looks as if Kane killed Mallory and framed Greenleaf out of revenge. Columbo says that what Greenleaf did wasn't very ethical and Greenleaf agrees. However, Columbo has inklings that Greenleaf may not be telling him the whole truth, and digs deeper. He finds out that Neal's secretary Eileen McRae had helped Mallory think of the ending of the book just a few weeks earlier. He now knows that Greenleaf's story was a lie. Greenleaf had also made an error over the key to Mallory's apartment. Unbeknown to him at the time of the murder, Mallory had recently had his locks changed. It was pure luck that his door happened to be open when Kane came in to murder him. Kane had left the old key that Greenleaf had given him by Mallory's body. It had bothered Columbo that the key didn't fit the door. He had told Greenleaf about this and mentioned that if he finds the key to the door then he'll find the killer. Then Greenleaf had obtained a key to the door and planted it on Kane when he murdered him. However, Greenleaf wasn't aware that Columbo had had the locks changed again after the murder. Therefore this proved Greenleaf was the murderer!
VERDICT:
Jack Cassidy is in top form as Greenleaf in this superb episode. It has a fascinatingly intricate storyline and is unique in that the villain actually framed himself for the murder. In fact Greenleaf fools Columbo for most of the episode and it is only near the end that he begins to suspect Greenleaf. He made two errors, which he couldn't have foreseen (the locks being changed and McRae having input on Mallory's book.) This episode is also unusual because the villain didn't actually commit the first murder himself.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Riley Greenleaf.......Jack Cassidy
Eddie Kane...........John Chandler
Alan Mallory.......Mickey Spillane
Eileen McRae......Mariette Hartley
Jeffrey Neal......Jacques Aubuchon
Lou D'Alessandro....Gregory Sierra
David Chase.............Alan Fudge
