Columbo - Etude in black

 It was nice, it didn’t have enough Colombo for my tastes, but it was nice. It’s just that he didn’t have much to work on… until the end.

More details, it’s the story of orchestra maestro Alex Benedict who is about to record an important concert. He sneaks out to go see his lover, pianist Jenifer (they wrote it like that, with one ‘n’). He planned it ahead, he left gloves and everything in his car and left the car at his mechanic’s, and then he entered through the restroom’s door that he had left open beforehand, took his car and drove to Jenifer’s house. She sort of gave him an ultimatum, she doesn’t want to be a secret anymore, she wants him to leave his wife and choose her, she says that he doesn’t need his wife and her mother’s money or good name, he’s enough by himself, and she wants to force him to realize that… the silly girl, between leaving his wife or  letting her make a scandal, he chooses the third way, to kill her to shut her up. He hits her on the head, then puts her on the floor where he opens the oven and the gas, to make it look like a suicide. He also puts a note on her typewriter… and then he goes back for his concert (well, so well dressed, and running like that, and he doesn’t even sweat…)

When of course Jenifer doesn’t show up for the concert, he plays it angry, calls her at home knowing the number by heart (which makes his wife suspicious, but he waves it away as nothing) and then tells his assistant to inform the police and call another pianist in her place. 

During the concert he notices that he doesn’t have his flower anymore, he always wore a flower on his jacket during concerts, but this time it fell when he was at Jenifer’s house… so as soon as he hears that she’s been found dead, after the concert, he goes there and sees it on the floor. Here he does a stupid thing, he puts it on his jacket, and when Colombo sees the gesture he says that he picked it up after it fell… I think he should have put it in his pocket, but good for Colombo that he didn’t. 

There are many little things, but by themselves they can’t be counted as proof, or at least not proof against him… like: Jenifer’s parrot died from the gas, she should have given the parrot to her neighbour, that she let him die is really hard to believe; the note was clearly put in the typewriter after being taken out, because the letters don’t match (it always happened with those typewriter, if you put a paper already written, it was really difficult, maybe impossible to get it exactly right to be able to write over it). Also, his car has been used, Colombo checked the kms and is sure of it, but it could have been someone working at the garage, they say they didn’t, but it could be… 

Many little things that point to murder instead of suicide, but that also make Colombo think that Alex did it, but he can’t find proof. Until he realizes that the concert has been recorded, not just shown once on tv. There is a recording, so now he can prove that Alex didn’t have the flower during the concert, and then Colombo saw him pick one up at Jenifer’s house. Also, when he got out of there, there were journalists outside asking him questions about the tragedy… so there’s a recording that shows that he did have the flower when he got out of her house. Alex tries to lie, to say that he was in shock and maybe he took one of the flowers that his wife is always bringing to his dressing room, but when Colombo asks her she denies it, she says that he did not, and that she could have ignored a lot of things, but not murder. He tells her that he did it but only because she wanted to ruin them, and he wouldn’t let her, that it was only a fling, it was nothing. He’s busted now, and doesn’t resist arrest. 

P.s. this is the first appearance of the dog, he says he just got it at the city dog pound.