Mr. Oscar Hemmings, an elderly eccentric misanthrope, dies in Community General, leaving his sizable fortune to six people, including Jesse and Amanda. His will took the form of a 'tontine' legacy; the last survivor will be the only recipient, obviously a recipe for murder, which pleased Hemmings. After a parade of loony secretary applicants, Mark hires college-graduate Ingrid Thurston at Steve's enthusiastic insistence. An explosion in the bio-lab kills med student Jerry Royce, a tontine member; Jesse's dinner date dies from a Bordeaux, found to be injected with an anti-depressant, poisonous in red wine. After Dr. Phillip Zachary is killed by a weight in the gym and Mr. Leonard Drexel (whose wife Mary needed an expensive eye operation) dies, Mark deduces there must be an unknown seventh person with an unknown motive. Hemmings' tontine would be invalid if the survivor were charged with murder, so Mark looks for a distant relative--who happens to be close at hand. As Mark interviews her, Jesse has a serious car accident, fortunately faked to catch a killer. But that's not who she targets.
—KGF Vissers