(There are Spoilers) With his meal-ticket mystery/crime writer Alan Mallory, Mickey Spillane, leaving for a rival book publisher Jerffrey Neal (Jacques Anbuchon) Riley Greenleaf, Jack Cassidy,concocts a plan to do in both what he feels is the back-stabbing, for leaving him, Mallory and Neal for taking Mallory away. Getting in touch with this disgruntled Vietnam Vet Eddie Kane, John Davis Chandler,by promising to publish his book Greenleaf has the perfect plan, and pasty, to do in both Mallory, by him being murdered, and Neal, by him losing Mollay as a writer for his book publishing company.
Getting to have Eddie do all the dirty work Greenleaf leaves a number clues for the police to find that would suggest that he, Greenleaf, was framed for Mallory's murder. At the same time make sure that he'll be seen and remembered in public at the time that the murder of Malloy take's place to give him an air-tight alibi. Eddie sneaking into Mallory's office at night shoot's him dead with a gun that belongs to Greenleaf that even has his fingerprints on it then leaves, as he was instructed by Greenleaf, a key to Mallory's office belonging to Greenleaf on the floor of the murder scene.
Lt. Columbo being assigned to Mallory's murder finds these clues and has Greenleaf taken in for questioning with Greenleaf playing the innocent victim of a frame up that was obviously meant to implicate his rival book publisher Jeffrey Neal. With Greenleaf's alibi checking out Lt. Columbo come to the conclusion, like Greenleaf planned, that he was framed. As Columbo checks out the key to Mallory's office he suddenly finds that there was no way that it could have opened his office door! Mallory changed locks just days before he was murdered and the key could only open up the lock that was changed!
Grenleaf seeing that his master plan had a big hole in it then back-tracks by getting the new key made. Grenleaf goes to Eddie's place telling him that he's going to publish his book and to celebrate gives the elated Eddie a bottle of champaign spiked with cyanide, that he gulps down killing him. Putting the new key on the now dead Eddie's key-chain and then blowing up his body to make it look like Eddie was killed in an accident has the now smug and arrogant Greenleaf feel that he finally committed the perfect crime. As you would expect Grenleaf overlooked two very important facts, that Lt. Columbo didn't, that in the end would land him behind bars. Not just for the murder of Alan Mallroy but that of his accomplish in that murder, the actual hit-man, Eddie Kane.
This was actually an easy case for the dogged and determined Lt. Columbo to crack even though at first he was completely fooled by the well though out plan of the killer Riley Greenleaf. Every step of Greeleaf's plan was foiled by circumstances beyond his control. Greenleaf didn't know that the new key that he planted on Eddie was also one, like the old, that was replaced by Lt. Columbo. The key Greenleaf had made to cover up his first mistake with the original key.
Ignorant of that fact Greenleaf had the replaced key, by Lt. Columbo, put on Eddie's key-chain which would have been impossible for Eddie to open the door and get into Mallory's office and murder him. In fact Eddie didn't even use a key at all to open the office since Mallory had the door opened to gives his heated office a cross-wind in order to cool himself off!
But by far the biggest mistake that the overconfident Greenleaf made was to try to again implicate his hated and rival book publisher Neal and writer Alan Mallory, in this case with plagiarizing someone else's work, by connecting Eddie to the story that Mallory was writing in trying to discredit the murdered writer and give Eddie a reason for murdering him. It was that boner on Greenleaf's part that convinced Lt. Columbo more then anything else that he was the murderer.
Getting to have Eddie do all the dirty work Greenleaf leaves a number clues for the police to find that would suggest that he, Greenleaf, was framed for Mallory's murder. At the same time make sure that he'll be seen and remembered in public at the time that the murder of Malloy take's place to give him an air-tight alibi. Eddie sneaking into Mallory's office at night shoot's him dead with a gun that belongs to Greenleaf that even has his fingerprints on it then leaves, as he was instructed by Greenleaf, a key to Mallory's office belonging to Greenleaf on the floor of the murder scene.
Lt. Columbo being assigned to Mallory's murder finds these clues and has Greenleaf taken in for questioning with Greenleaf playing the innocent victim of a frame up that was obviously meant to implicate his rival book publisher Jeffrey Neal. With Greenleaf's alibi checking out Lt. Columbo come to the conclusion, like Greenleaf planned, that he was framed. As Columbo checks out the key to Mallory's office he suddenly finds that there was no way that it could have opened his office door! Mallory changed locks just days before he was murdered and the key could only open up the lock that was changed!
Grenleaf seeing that his master plan had a big hole in it then back-tracks by getting the new key made. Grenleaf goes to Eddie's place telling him that he's going to publish his book and to celebrate gives the elated Eddie a bottle of champaign spiked with cyanide, that he gulps down killing him. Putting the new key on the now dead Eddie's key-chain and then blowing up his body to make it look like Eddie was killed in an accident has the now smug and arrogant Greenleaf feel that he finally committed the perfect crime. As you would expect Grenleaf overlooked two very important facts, that Lt. Columbo didn't, that in the end would land him behind bars. Not just for the murder of Alan Mallroy but that of his accomplish in that murder, the actual hit-man, Eddie Kane.
This was actually an easy case for the dogged and determined Lt. Columbo to crack even though at first he was completely fooled by the well though out plan of the killer Riley Greenleaf. Every step of Greeleaf's plan was foiled by circumstances beyond his control. Greenleaf didn't know that the new key that he planted on Eddie was also one, like the old, that was replaced by Lt. Columbo. The key Greenleaf had made to cover up his first mistake with the original key.
Ignorant of that fact Greenleaf had the replaced key, by Lt. Columbo, put on Eddie's key-chain which would have been impossible for Eddie to open the door and get into Mallory's office and murder him. In fact Eddie didn't even use a key at all to open the office since Mallory had the door opened to gives his heated office a cross-wind in order to cool himself off!
But by far the biggest mistake that the overconfident Greenleaf made was to try to again implicate his hated and rival book publisher Neal and writer Alan Mallory, in this case with plagiarizing someone else's work, by connecting Eddie to the story that Mallory was writing in trying to discredit the murdered writer and give Eddie a reason for murdering him. It was that boner on Greenleaf's part that convinced Lt. Columbo more then anything else that he was the murderer.