Plot

While on a helicopter Mannix sees a woman with a man choking her. When he gets to the place, they deny anything has happened. Mannix has few leads and no police cooperation (they don't believe him) until a woman appears with her own story.

Mannix is traveling to Santa Barbara by helicopter when he sees a woman apparently being strangled on a penthouse terrace. When Mannix and the police investigate, however, they are assured by the occupants of the penthouse apartment that nothing has happened. Mannix refuses to accept this and launches his own investigation.—aldanoli

On a private helicopter flight to Santa Barbara, Mannix witnesses a redheaded woman being attacked on the penthouse terrace of what ends up being a residential hotel. With no evidence of anything on the terrace when the helicopter circles back, Mannix cannot help but investigate in being worried about the woman's safety. The penthouse is occupied by upper crust and straight-laced British national but Bahamas residing Phillip Montford, a lawyer, and his wife Barbara Montford, who appears on first glance to be the woman that Mannix saw. While Mr. Montford is somewhat defensive about the intrusion by Mannix on their privacy, Mrs. Montford ends up seeming a little more open to cooperating with Mannix. But a specific incident demonstrates to Mannix that both the Montfords are hiding something, that threatens Mannix's livelihood in his "friends" in the LAPD considering his investigation as possible harassment against the Montfords, and that even tests Peggy's loyalty to him in each one of his "allegations" seemingly having no basis in the after fact. But what Mannix sees as a missing piece of heavy furniture in the Montfords' suite may be the key to discovering what is happening, he believing it being used to transport something, or more specifically someone, like a murdered dead body, out of the suite.—Huggo

SHORT VERSION

On a helicopter ride to a vacation up the coast, Mannix sees a woman on an apartment patio, struggling with a man who appears to be choking her. When he gets to the scene, the couple in the apartment deny anything has happened. Mannix has to work against sparse leads and the police (who think hes compiled too many complaints already) to determine what, if anything, actually happened.

LONG VERSION

Mannix is in a two man helicopter headed north along the coast to a weeks vacation in Santa Barbara. They fly past a high-rise penthouse and Joe sees a red-haired woman coming out of a sliding door onto the rooftop patio. A white-haired man is following her, grabbing at her neck as if to strangle her. Joe orders the pilot to turn the helicopter around but by the time they get back to the high-rise, there is no one on the patio. Joe tells the pilot to head back.

CREDITS

Part 1

Joe is outside the building and points up to the orange patio umbrella he saw earlier. Sergeant Kramer isnt keen to disturb the tenants of such a posh building, especially the penthouse, but Joe is convincing. They meet with the building concierge in the lobby who tells them the tenants are a Mr and Mrs Montford, English, who are here from the Bahamas. When asked to describe the woman, the super confirms that she is aged 35 and red-haired. Kramer asks him not to call up to the penthouse and he heads upstairs with Joe.

They buzz at the door and an older white-haired man opens the door. Kramer introduces himself and Joe asks where his wife is. Montford says she is enjoying her privacy and tries to close the door on them. Kramer tells Montford that they heard there was a disturbance a few hours ago, and asks if they could come in and look around.

Montford asks if he has a search warrant and Joe pipes up and says, threateningly, they could get one. Montford wasnt introduced to Joe, but he figures Joe is not involved in law because they would need cause for a warrant. Montford says hes willing to cooperate with the local authorities and lets them in. Joe heads for the patio and tells Kramer the umbrella out there is the one he saw from the helicopter. Joe explains to Montford that he saw a woman being strangled while he was overhead in a helicopter. Montford chimes in, that must have been a shocking experience for Joe. Joe asks where his wife is, and Montford says shes taking a nap; they had a busy evening so she is catching up on her sleep. Joe tells Kramer that Montford is hiding something, and just then, a red-headed woman walks out of the bedroom asking whats going on. Surprised, Kramer says, a mistake, and apologizes. Joe says he saw her earlier and she says shes at a disadvantage. Montford refuse to introduce Joe to her and Joe proceeds to tell her what he saw from the helicopter. She does not respond. Kramer apologizes again and ushers Joe out the door. She thanks Joe for being concerned about her. The door closes.

Immediately, Joe tells Kramer that they are lying and that they need to get a search warrant. Kramer says hes gone this far on this because of Joes reputation, but hes had enough and unless Joe finds a body, hes done.

At the office, Joe asks Peggy to look up the Montfords. When Peggy asks Joe if he is sure about what he saw, he repeats that he saw Mrs. Montford being strangled and then corrects himself to say, a red-haired woman being strangled. Peggy thinks the couple had an argument and is naturally covering it up. Peggy thinks proving anything will be very hard and Joe admits that hes already embarrassed Kramer. Peggy starts to defend how the police needs better evidence before starting an investigation and Joe cuts her off for defending the police. Joe says hes going back to the Montfords. Peggy will check to see if there have been any red-headed women discovered recently . . . dead red-headed women.

Peggy checks with the Lieutenant Dave Angstom but hes not sympathetic as hes just read Kramers report which points out the Montfords have not disturbed anyone, and theres been one unidentified body recently, a white male in his 60s. The lieutenant offers Peggy some advice because shes a policemans widow. He says its okay to be loyal to Joe, but the Montfords are visitors to the US and theyve caused no problems, so Joe has to leave them alone.

Joe is back at the apartment but only Mrs. Montford is there. He apologizes that he is stubborn and wants to find out where he went wrong. He asks if he could take a look around. She thinks hes crazy but says yes. Joe looks around the patio and finds nothing. He says the vision is stuck in his mind and she tells him to call her Barbara. She offers him a drink. When they come in off the patio, he sees four impressions in the carpet as if left by the legs of a coffee table. She plays ignorant and when there is knocking at the door, she quickly musses up her hair, scratches herself down her arm and yells for the caller to come in. Joe knows what is happening right away, rolls his eyes and says, oh no. It is the building concierge with two uniforms. She tells him Joe broke in, and the concierge says she was right to warn him ahead of time so he would have the uniforms ready in case Joe came back. The uniforms lead Joe out. She thanks the concierge and says she feels safer now.

Part 2

Joe is at the precinct with the Lieutenant and Kramer. The Lieutenant thinks Joe went there for information and when she was not cooperating, he grabbed her. Joe denies it all and the Lieutenant says hes lucky shes not pressing charges. He asks Joe for his license and Joe hands it to him. The Lieutenant reminds him its just a piece of paper and it can be torn up. Joe says it represents 12 years of his life, but the Lieutenant says there are enough complaints about Joe already that it can be over really fast. Joe leaves. The Lieutenant tells Kramer, Joe isnt going to let this go.

It is late. At the office, Peggy is asleep at her desk. Joe tells her she should be at home with her real kid, but Peggy says hes with a baby sitter and asks what happened with the Lieutenant. Joe says he got a warning and that if he got any more complaints that hed be out of business. Joe wonders why Barbara would mouse trap him like that so it must be something important. He recalls the moved piece of furniture as being six or seven feet long, and low (because it was under a picture) coffin-sized. Joe fires Peggy because if she continued to help him it would be aiding and abetting.

Joe is back at the Edgerton Apartments, this time with maintenance asking if they had moved a piece of furniture for the Montfords. The man checks and there was a stereo console moved midday Wednesday. Joe says hes an insurance investigator doing spot checks and asks for the name of the movers.

Peggy, in a maids outfit, pushing a cleaning cart, enters the penthouse but Barbara is there. She says shes there to tidy up, and Barbara lets her in and heads for the patio. Peggy snoops in the bedroom and finds a portfolio with some documents in a dresser drawer.

Joe is at the movers and the man looks through some documents which remind him that they had moved the console to a station wagon parked in a parking lot behind a church. They figured it was a contribution.

Peggy has laid out the documents on the bed and is taking photographs. Barbara comes back in from the patio and Peggy is just able to pull the bedspread over the documents as Barbara walks into the bedroom.

The documents reveal Montford had dealings with a businessman who he accused of cutting corners. On top of that, Montford refused his legal fees. Joe asks Peggy to look up the investigation firm they worked with in the Bahamas. Joe asks Peggy to wire them to investigate Montfords dealings with the businessman, Sir Arnold Salt. Joe wants to see what he can learn from Montfords dealing with an enemy.

Joe gets to the office and asks Peggy if she heard anything from their wire. Peggy instead introduces him to Joanna Salt, the niece of Arnold Salt. She says she heard the Bahamian investigative firm was asking about her uncle and the Montfords, and this led her to Joe, so she flew out to see him. She explains her great aunt lived in the Bahamas, in poverty, for most of her life, but her land proved to be very valuable to developers so by the end of her life; she was worth $12 million. Joannas uncle was the principle heir, and she was to receive some inheritance as well, but by the time they reached the solicitor, Montford, the estate was a mess and there was no money to inherit. Joanne wants Joe to investigate and get what is owed to her uncle and her.

Joe drives to the church -- the Mission Church of Saint Agnes. The pastor says he was not there on Wednesday, but that the housekeeper might have been. He goes to get her.

Someone opens Joes hood and siphons out the brake fluid.

At the mention of the station wagon, the housekeeper looks troubled. She remembers the license plate. As Joe drives off, a man walks out from the side of the building and watches Joe drive away.

Joe struggles with the car going downhill. The hand brake doesnt work, and hes unable to work the transmission. As he picks up speed, he turns onto a dirt road that banks steeply and he is able to stop.

Part 3

Joe has the car at a mechanics. He calls Peggy and assures her he is alright and to check the license plate. The mechanic confirms the hand brake cable was worn as if it were cut, and that he was out of brake fluid. Peggy calls Mike back and says the plates belong to a rental car.

Joe is at the rental car company. The name on the rental form is illegible, but the agent remembers the man was tall with an English accent. Joe notes that the car was driven 68 miles. The agent says its about 15 miles to the church. That would leave about 37 miles. So that would mean about 20 miles to some place, and 20 miles back from some place.

Joe calls Peggy and asks her to take out a local map and draw a 20 mile circle using the rental car company as the center, and to call every shop in that region that could repair a stereo console.

Back at the office, Joanna insists that Joe tell the police what happened with his car as that is certainly intent to murder. Joe says hes on thin ice with the police and without evidence, the police will just think hes being paranoid. Peggy gets a hit a local cabinet maker, and the console is still there.

Joe drives there with Joanna. She wonders why Montford chose a place so far off. Joe theorizes that the shop is close to the ocean, so it would be easy to dispose of a body and then bring the console here for repairs.

The cabinetmaker says they are almost done making a reproduction of the console. Montfort had brought in a burned and scorched original. The cabinetmaker is an expert at reproductions, so all they will have to do is replace the electronics and everything will be like new. The old cabinet was deposited in the back of the shop, where they burn all the unneeded scraps. They rush out, but the parts were burned that morning. They go back in the shop and the cabinetmaker crows about his handiwork. He shows them a charred wood panel and says hell even be able to reproduce the inlaid work. Joe ask if thats from Montforts original and the cabinetmaker says yes. Joe and Joanne take the charred panel and leave.

The panel has been with the lab for an hour but there are no results yet. The Lieutenant tells Joe to relax, but Joanne is upset that the police have not brought the Montfords in yet. The Lieutenant says they have no proof. She says they have her word, and her uncles word. The Lieutenant says theyve tried looking for her uncle but with no luck.

The tech comes in and says there was blood and tissue trace on the panel. Joe asks if they can identify the female victim. The tech corrects him and says its a male in his forties. Joanne realizes it is her uncle.

PART 5

Joe is upset at himself for jumping to the conclusion that when he saw a man and a woman fighting, that the woman would be the victim. Angstrom comes in and says the blood belongs to Montford he scratched himself trying to fix the console. When Joanne says Montford is lying, Angstrom says Montford is willing to come in to have his blood compared. In fact, he had injured himself on Tuesday, and called the hotel doctor. Joe thinks that was set-up as well. Angstrom reports the Montfords are leaving on a cruise.

At the office, Joe lists the facts with Peggy and Joanne. First was what he saw. Then that Mrs. Montford tried to frame him. Then that Joes car was booby-trapped to kill him. Then that Joannes uncle is missing.

Also, when Joe first went to see them with Kramer, if they had given the story that it was a plain argument, Joe would have dismissed it and left. But they covered it up as if they were afraid of something. Also, Montford is wealthy, but he took the console to be repaired himself.

Joe thinks that if they could catch the Montfords off-guard, they could catch them. Joanne offers to go. Peggy thinks its too dangerous; that you cant tell what criminals will do when they are trapped in a corner.

They go to the hotel and Joe sends Joanne up first. Kramer comes out from nowhere and tells Joe that he is off duty in twenty minutes, but until then, Joe cannot go upstairs. Joanne knocks on the door and Montford and Barbara, just finished packing, scramble, with Montford hiding in the bedroom. Barbara is surprised it is Joanne. Joanne asks where Philip is and Barbara says he is out. Joanne says she has news they will both want to hear : that the police have found a body and will soon be at their hotel. Joannes tries to run but Barbara blocks her way, so Joanne runs into the bedroom, and when she sees Philip there, she yells, Uncle Arnold!

The elevator attendant has returned to the lobby floor. Joe gets up and asks him for a light, and Joe grabs him and throws him into Kramer. Joe then gets in the elevator.

Barbara convinced Arnold to kill Philip and take his place and now he has to kill his niece. Joanne has been gagged and bound. When he hesitates, Barbara hands him a pillow to suffocate Joanne. He hesitates again but then places it over Joannes face.

Joe makes it to the penthouse and kicks the door in. He pushes through the bedroom door as Barbara tries to resist and fights with Arnold. Joe punches Arnold out just as Sargent Kramer rushes in. Kramer grabs Barbara to protect her and holds his gun on Joe. He tells Joe he must have gone nuts. As Joe removes the gag from Joannes mouth, he says, Sargent, youre not going to believe this.

The End.