A nice episode, after all. I’m a bit bored by all things political, but it was quite interesting and a pleasure to follow Colombo through all his reasonings.
So, “the First Secretary to the Suarian King” Hassan Salah works at the embassy, and he kills their head of security Yousseff Alafa, burns some documents and steals a lot of money. He has an accomplice, Rachman Abib, phone him pretending to be Alafa while he’s at the police station, to give himself an alibi. Colombo is there at the station too, in the same room, when he receives the call. After the call Abib makes the safe in the office blow up, then he flees in his car; a guard tries tomshoot him but his weapon won’t fire.
The explosion caused bits of wall to fall or something, and yet none of it was on the documents, so he knows the burning happened before the killing. Alafa was not armed, so he suspected no problems when he entered the room. Colombo saw Alafa’s coffee cup, still full but the coffee was cold, because he just got it before he was called out of his office.
Abib is the only one there that Colombo hasn’t questioned because he can’t be found. He should be on leave or something, there’s a reservation in his name at a hotel but he never got there… Salah convinced him he was doing something important for his Country, and now they meet; Salah gives him a new passport and some money, 10.000, but before Abib can drive away Salah kills him. And puts his glasses on his face to make it convinced he died crashing his car off the road. Not knowing he was wearing contacts.
So, Salah and Alafa were the only ones with access to their weaponry, and Salah said Alafa called him but Colombo’s sure the man was already dead…everything points to him, of course Colombo is sure of it the whole time, he just needs proof… and can’t find. Also Salah complains about him, so that Colombo writes a letter of apology. There seems no way Colombo could get his man, this time, and yet it’s clear he has one chance.
There’s only one man with more authority than Salah, and with authority over Salah, and that’s the king. He’s young, on the throne after his father but of rather progressive ideas. All the people out the gates were not protesting against him , they were actually protesting against Salah. Plus the king has taken a liking to Colombo, so it’s his only chance.
It seems like he lost it, his chance, when we see the king’s plane fly. Colombo goes to the embassy to speak to Salah, says he wants to apologize, that he doesn’t want to lose his job, that Salah beat him and there’s nothing he can do, that he hopes Salah won’t file any formal complaint against him. Colombo says Salah was too clever, he beat him… Salah now is all flattered and smug, and offers him tea while letting his guard down, and after a bit of more talking the King comes out showing himself, saying that Colombo can’t arrest him because he has immunity, but not from him. The king can order him to go back home and justice of his people… Salah now is terrified, and confesses all tomColombo begging him to arrest him and keep him in America, he even hurries to sign whatever Colombo puts in front of him. Well, it’s understandable, because even if I don’t know what in this Suari Country they would do to murderers, I can guess what they’d do to a traitor to the Throne, to someone who betrayed his Country…
It’s always nice to see Hector Elizondo, this episode was years before Pretty Woman, but that was just one of those roles that warm their way into our hearts. Funny thing, I saw on the internet that there was Jeff Goldblum, though uncredited, in a small role. :)
Sure, there is something I must point out, that either this one murderer was really unlucky, or Colombo’s lucky star worked bouble here, because there were various instances… I mean, the man always used glasses, but just now got his new contact lenses, so that he could not know about it! Just now! And then a stamp from the bank that usually put all the embassy’s money on the same level, all come from the same bank, but with the money he put on the second body it’s different, he wanted Colombo to believe it was part of the money stolen during the first murder, but no, because the teller of the bank that stamped the wrapper holding those 10.000 dollars only started working at that bank after the first murder!! It’s still all Colombo, another cop probably wouldn’t have checked something like that, but it’s still quite lucky :)
The coffee, on the other hand, just like the hotel reservation, was not bad luck for our murderer, this was a bad mistake that he could have known had he thought about it or cared enough to learn. I mean, if the man was working in a room without phones with other people, he sure could have known about it, and should have made that call at another time. And the coffee, the man got his coffee at the same hour every day, more or less a few minutes, so he certainly could have known, but he either didn’t or didn’t think about it.
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