The Rockford Files (1974) s01e20 Episode Script

1
An operation like this
costs money.
$100,000.
Now you can't be serious.
The price on infidelity is
going through the roof.
She's
a complete mystery.
She knows the predicament I'm in,
and she's not coming forward to save me.
Why'd you run for it, Charlie?
I mean, you know the law.
If you continue
this investigation
I will call some people
that I know in Europe
and they will fly over here
one night
and they will put
a bullet in your head.
So what do we do now?
Go to bed.
You're kidding.
This is Jim Rockford,
At the tone leave your name
and message.
I'll get back to you.
Hey, Jim, it's me.
Suzy Lewis from the Laundromat.
You said you were gonna call
and it's been two weeks.
What's wrong,
you lose my number?
Sgt. Garvey's car.
Lieutenant.
Well, she went
fast and easy.
It was pretty clumsy action,
very sloppy.
Gabe, this is
Mr. Brannigan.
Dr. Gabriel.
Mr. Brannigan.
Where's Sgt. Garvey
and his partner
Det. Wilson.
Wilson and Garvey are hitting
the nearest neighbors.
What've we got,
Gabe?
Cause of death: multiple
blows to the cervical area.
The hardest blow was the last.
Direct hit
on the occipital bone.
Looked like it'd been dropped on her,
Lieutenant. I had to lift it out.
Where is it?
Over here.
What is it?
I don't know.
Some kind of sculpture.
Finished?
Yes, sir.
I'll get the report to you
right away.
Thanks, Gabe.
Lieutenant,
Mr. Brannigan.
All I know is that the victim's
name was Pauline Harris.
Yeah. Well,
she remarried about two years ago.
Charlie Harris.
Occupation unknown.
Word is he's a playboy in the social
set and he married her for her money.
Who found her?
Ambulance people got a call
from an anonymous male at 9:45.
I received the phone call
a few minutes before 10:00.
The prints on the statue are
same as on the telephone.
Same prints are on all the male
toilet articles in the master bedroom.
Charlie Harris drives
aloud yellow sports car.
And when he hits the street
he always leaves rubber.
Now he was seen and heard by
the chauffeur across the street.
Around 9:45.
Yes, sir.
Is that him?
Yes, sir.
Now, Harris is eight
years younger than his wife.
Find him.
Whoever you are, let me wake up.
Hold on a minute.
Hello?
Hello. Yeah, this is Bunky.
Charlie, where are you?
I'm at 4800
Pacific Coast Highway.
A casual friend of mine went to South
America to visit a government collapse.
So I told him
I'd keep my eye on his place.
It's okay,
only Pauline and I--
I mean, I'm the only one that
knows about it, Bunky, it's safe.
For how long? Are you crazy?
Every cop who can use the overtime's
been looking for you for three days.
And that's every cop in town,.
I know. I've been running.
In my mind.
I'm cooped up and
scared, I need your help,
Charlie, I can't.
You can help. Who else can?
Don't hang up.
You owe me, Bunky,.
And I'm afraid that right now has
to be the time to call you on it.
Charlie.
You're the first person I've
seen or talked to in three days.
Well, I'm only here because
you're Charming Charlie Harris.
Thanks.
This is a real nice hideout.
I should've known you'd go
first class even as a fugitive.
It's not bad.
Except that most of the books
are on South American history.
In Spanish.
Care for anything?
I just got up, Charlie.
Then forgive me,
I haven't been down yet.
I didn't kill her.
I never thought you did.
I gotta let it
hang out, Bunky.
It's tangled.
You were there at the house?
You called the ambulance?
Right. But she was dead
when I came home.
I started to lift the statue.
Then I ran straight to the telephone.
I was panicked.
Pauline
Well, her body was
pretty stiff when I arrived.
She'd been dead for an hour,
half-hour at the very least.
Why'd you make
a run for it, Charlie?
I mean, you know the law,
you never make a run for it
and you never plead guilty.
I wasn't panicked after
I'd called the ambulance.
I thought hard for a minute
and I came up with one fact:
if I let
the cops grab me
and I go for trial,
I'm finished.
If the coroner's report says
she'd been killed earlier
then you had to be
somewhere else.
Charming Charlie's alibi,
right?
I waited 72 hours for my alibi
to come forward.
Then I called you.
You've got to find her, Bunky.
Who is she?
I don't know.
Is that it?
She said her name
was Cassandra.
I never believed her.
A mystery woman.
Did I ever tell you that I married
Pauline because I was in love with her
as much as the money?
Where did you meet Cassandra?
Walking alone on the beach.
Where else?
How long have you known her?
Six weeks.
We met six times.
Six times?
Did you always
meet on the same day?
No.
She'd tell me where and when.
The picture is this:
I met a woman
a fantastic work of art.
She's a complete mystery.
She knows about my predicament
and she's not going to save me.
How did you meet her after the first
time when you met her on the beach?
She came and went in cabs.
I tried to follow her once, but she
did a triple cab and a turn-back
so I lost her.
After that I quit
caring who she was.
I just met her
on the beach.
You're in a hell of a spot,
Charlie.
And you're going to
help me out of it.
If the police walked in here
right now through that door
buddy, we'd both be finished.
I don't think you know
how hot this thing really is.
I'll help you
if you turn yourself in.
Now this is Beth Davenport.
She's a standup lawyer
and you can trust her.
She'll make
all the arrangements.
I'm not going to do it.
You've got to find Cassandra.
I can't.
Now I've given you my advice
after hearing your story.
I can't give you
anything else.
Charlie.
Come on, Charlie,
take my advice.
All right.
Stop knocking, I hear you.
What time is it?
Sgt. Garvey.
This is my assistant, Det. Wilson.
And it's 9:30.
Are you
James Rockford?
Licensed Private Investigator?
Yeah, that's me.
May we come in, Mr. Rockford?
What for?
I'd like your cooperation,
Mr. Rockford.
Would you like to see
a search warrant?
Have you got one?
No, I don't.
Frankly, I didn't expect such
an uncooperative attitude.
I can get
a search warrant easily.
Or you could cooperate,
like any honest citizen.
Yeah, why not?
Look, I'm sorry, come on in, Sergeant.
Thank you.
I was sound asleep.
Guess you kind of
caught me cold.
Yeah, well I can understand that.
Sorry I had to wake you up.
Yeah, what's it
all about?
Charles Harris.
Charlie.
I figured the cops'd get
around to me sooner or later.
I want to know
where he is, Mr. Rockford.
If I knew where he was, I'd report it
to the police, like any honest citizen.
Your past record seems to
indicate otherwise.
Well, I've got
nothing to hide.
I spent five years
in San Quentin.
For two of those years,
my cellmate was Charlie Harris.
He's a high society hustler
and he took a fall because he
didn't pay Paul after robbing Peter.
And an old flame
blew the whistle.
Mike the guy.
Yeah, it would seem so.
You were best man at his
wedding and you saw him often.
Yeah, until about a year ago.
We kind of drifted apart.
He travels in a world richer than mine.
It happens, you know.
I have implications
and probabilities
and you explain it away
with that golly-gee-whiz act.
Well, I've told you the truth.
And you no longer have
permission to be on my property.
I'm gonna get Charlie Harris.
And I think
you're gonna go in with him.
If you have anything more to say,
you'd better get your warrant.
Or you can take me in
right now.
You're in much deeper
than I thought.
Good morning, Mr. Rockford.
Good morning.
Jason's quest.
Fleece.
$1.40.
Give me the coroner's office,
please. Dr. Gabriel.
Hey, Gabe, this is Jim.
Anything new
on the Harris case?
Come on, Gabe.
I thought we were friends.
You know I
can't afford to bribe you.
Thanks, Gabe.
It was $1.40.
Hey, good news.
Charlie's wife was dead approximately
four hours before he got home.
Hi. Beth Davenport.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Any news?
No.
Do you really expect him
to call me?
He might.
What's so good about Charlie's
wife being killed for four hours?
Well, it proves that she
was dead when he got home.
How do you know that?
Charlie wouldn't kill
his wife
and then sit around for hours
trying to think up an alibi.
And he also
wouldn't leave bloody
fingerprints all over the place
and then decide to call an
ambulance for a dead person
and make a run for it.
Okay.
Assuming that Charlie
didn't do it
then you seriously believe this
story about the mysterious woman?
Of course I do.
Only a jerk would expect
anyone to believe that.
I know Charlie.
He's not a jerk, not really.
You owe me a $1.20.
Thought we were going Dutch.
We were.
But you just ate my hot dog,
and all I have is the coffee.
Here. Here's a $1 and
a quarter.
You owe me a nickel.
I don't have
a nickel.
I'll take the quarter.
I owe you twenty cents. Come on, let's go.
So what do we
do now?
Go to bed.
You're kidding.
No, I'm not. Here.
Hey look,
I'm beat.
But if you hear anything,
don't feel bad about waking me up.
Everybody's doing it.
Here, I don't want
to spill this.
Hello.
You're still asleep?
Forget about that,
just listen to this.
No, you listen.
Now I told you where I have to
stand, and now I really can't move.
The cops are onto me.
And I told you to
call the lawyer, She's been--
Bunky, hold it right there,
I've got it.
Good. What've you got?
I've found Cassandra.
She's beautiful. Who is she?
Mrs. Alfred Bannister.
Sure can pick them,
can't I?
Alfred Bannister.
This guy plays International Monopoly.
There's your alibi, Charlie.
That's it.
First, we find her
and then we--
Now wait a minute.
What's this 'we' business?
We means us
and us means me.
I told you I can't touch this.
You're putting me
on top of your bomb.
Right.
Now who else am I supposed to ask?
Should I call the cops?
I wanna be squeaky-clean
from this mess.
And you owe me one,
Bunky.
I came here last night. I heard your story.
I gave you my advice.
We're even now.
I'll pay you.
How?
Pauline's estate.
She has no living relatives.
I was with her lawyer when
we signed joint wills.
When I'm cleared I'm going
to be a very rich man.
Yeah, if you're cleared.
How much will you
pay me to clear you?
You name it.
Throw me an offer.
$10,000.
$10,000.
Well, if I get caught,
I'll get 10 years.
That's $1,000 a year.
I can do better selling pencils, Charlie.
$20,000.
$50,000.
$25,000.
$35,000.
$30,000.
Deal.
Nice camera.
You can tell Tom Addison it's the
last time Ideal with his agency.
Right. Tom Addison.
You think it's funny, huh?
Okay.
Okay, Barbara,
you're the right type
but I don't like waiting so you
go on my "don't use" list
along with your crummy agent.
Just tell Tom to forget it.
I'll get my Somerset Sweet
Pickle Girl someplace else.
You know, you're gonna feel awfully
stupid when I tell you something.
I'm not Barbara,
I don't know Tom Addison
and I wouldn't be a sweet pickle
girl if you gave me a year's supply.
I've been rehearsing that little
tirade for about 40 minutes.
When you're right,
you're right. I feel stupid.
So what does a sweet pickle girl
do, anyway?
Well, she stands
on her tippy-toes
in a bikini
bent forward
slightly at the waist
holding a sweet pickle that
she's just taken a bite out of
and her expression must say:
"It's a sweet, yummy treat."
"Sweet, yummy treat"?
Yeah. Ain't that a hoot?
It's the ad agency's slogan.
I tasted one of them once.
They taste like they've been
cured in battery acid.
Why did you take on the account if
you don't believe in the product?
I took the account because I'm trying
to get my three-inch zoom lens
away from Mr. Saperstein.
Who is?
A pawnbroker.
It was nice talking to you.
Hey, do me a favor, would you?
Stay away
from Somerset Sweet Pickles.
You're kind of funny.
Oh, you think so?
Well, I am having one of my
hilariously funny afternoons.
I'm sorry. I keep forgetting that you were
out here freezing, waiting for Barbara.
I'll tell you what, why don't you let
me buy you a nice, hot cup of coffee?
Why don't we have lunch?
Good idea.
My name is Jim.
What's yours?
I'll go ahead
and be Barbara.
"Somerset Pickles are
a sweet, yummy treat."
Not bad. Where would you like to
eat, Barbara?
Wherever you like.
My place?
Sure.
Very nice.
Yeah, it's not too bad.
Would you care
for a drink?
Whatever you're having.
To your husband.
I'm glad you told me
you were married.
At least I know we're being
honest with each other.
Putting it in that light,
I'll drink to it.
Why not? I did.
Reunions are fun,
aren't they?
Charlie, I--
You're stuck for an answer.
That's okay.
It's a flaky situation.
How do you like my friend Jim?
Not much.
We did time together.
He's getting me
out from under this.
I don't think you're gonna believe
this, but I did try to find you.
I put an ad in the personal
column with a number.
Mrs. Bannister,
why didn't you go to the cops?
Why didn't you tell
them we were together?
Ten minutes, you could have
taken me off the griddle.
Well, Mrs. Bannister
has a lot at stake.
There's old Alfred
to worry about.
If she told the cops
about your affair
he might cloud up and rain all
over her variable annuities
and tax-free
inheritance bonds.
A girl has to be careful.
Now who are you,
anyway?
Do you come equipped with smart
remarks or are you just showing off?
Little of both.
Charlie
when I heard you were a suspect
in your wife's murder
I was just about to go
to the police
and I began thinking
about the night of the murder.
Now, we were supposed
to meet at 8:00.
You kept me waiting one hour.
Now, the police can only
approximate the time of death.
I began thinking: What if
he really did kill her?
I mean, what if I go to the
police and ruin my marriage
and he really killed her?
You could have done it, you know.
I told you why I was late that
night, I got hung up in traffic.
I had a stopwatch.
I got into my car,
and I went past your house
and out to the motel
on the highway.
You could have done it.
What's she talking about,
Charlie?
Listen, Bunky, would I kill my wife
and then write my name on the wall?
Come on.
Is she an alibi or not?
She's an alibi in a court case.
She can establish reasonable doubt.
If I'm willing to take a
gamble, what do you care?
He cares because he's an accessory after
the fact and you've been lying to him.
If I could have killed her,
so could you.
Who knows how many minutes
ahead of me you arrived?
Me? What motive
would I have?
My wife found out about us and
was going to tell your husband.
You killed her to keep her from
tearing your marriage apart.
You're gonna try
to sell that to the jury?
Who knows whether I can sell it to a jury?
But I can sell it to the cops.
At least long enough
to blow up the candy store.
Look, nobody even knows
we had an affair.
I have
an old friend
she'll just say
that I was with her.
It's your word
against mine.
And mine.
Okay.
I'll go this far.
You turn yourself in
and don't tell them about me.
And if you get convicted,
then I'll come forward.
And it's
only because
you did mean
something to me.
That's great.
You'll keep me out of the gas
chamber for old times' sake.
That's a bad deal,
Charlie.
She waits that long,
she'll be impugned as a witness.
Mister, you are really
beginning to get on my nerves.
I'm sorry,
I don't get out much.
Well, that's
my best offer.
I'll be waiting for you
in the car.
I've been in some
pretty tough card games
and we got ourselves one hell
of a pot limit on this hand.
You've got to stick with me,
Bunky.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah.
You got to make her
come across.
She's my only chance.
It's either that or I
catch a freight to Bolivia.
Okay, Charlie, you stay put.
I'll see what I can work out.
Thank you.
You're not out of it yet,
Mrs. Bannister.
Your opinions
don't concern me.
Why, sure they do.
If I get Charlie to South
America, that'd be the end of it.
Whose side are you on?
Well, I stay on my side.
For a fee, I clean the laundry.
Like your situation.
Goodbye.
Think it over,
Mrs. Bannister.
I'm the only one in a
position to help Charlie.
An operation like this
costs money.
I get Charlie to South America,
your problems are over.
You want to talk it over,
I'm in the book.
Good morning.
May I come in?
You actually live here?
Well, don't let it put you off, Mrs.
Bannister.
It's very nice.
You've decided
to do business?
You said that you could get
Charlie out of the country.
Yeah, for a price.
Well,
I don't have much.
I've checked you out,
Mrs. Bannister.
Well, I've got some securities,
some bonds, some jewelry of course.
$100,000.
That's ridiculous.
In two installments.
$50,000 up front
and $50,000 when Charlie's
safely in South America.
Now don't push me too hard.
I might decide to let the police
know you're harboring a fugitive.
With your rather undistinguished
history with the law
you'd probably get
a 10-year sentence.
And you'd lose
your inheritance.
Let's stop waving
our fists at each other
and try to make
this thing work.
$100,000,
now you can't be serious.
Well, we're
in an inflationary period.
The price on infidelity
is going through the roof.
When?
Charlie's pretty hot.
Today'd be about right.
Ridiculous.
Okay, tomorrow. No later.
I don't know. I'll see what I can do.
Can I reach you here?
Yeah.
What rock did you
crawl out from under?
I didn't crawl out from under, Mrs.
Bannister.
You rolled the rock off me all by yourself.
Tough break, huh?
The list on Harris'
known associates.
Thanks, Dennis.
Sgt. Garvey.
Yes, sir,
he's right here.
It's for you.
Becker here.
Yeah, this is Jim.
Yes, I--
You can't talk, right?
Yes, that's right.
Good,
Then just listen, I'm onto something,
but I can't tell you about it.
It's big. And I'm gonna make
you the hero.
Well, that sounds fine.
From now until tomorrow night,
I want to be able to get to you.
don't want you to go anywhere
without leaving word where you are.
I'm gonna get you
some evidence, Dennis.
$50,000
in small bills,
What?
What are you doing?
I can't tell you, Dennis.
You'll be hearing from me.
Mr. Rockford?
Yeah.
My name
is Mr. Stanley.
This is my associate,
Mr. John.
Yeah, what's up?
Mr. Alfred Bannister wants you
to join him for lunch.
That's the address
of his club. 00.
The food is excellent here,
Mr. Rockford.
Please.
I have an ulcer,
but I enjoy watching other people eat.
I'm going to speak
frankly.
I do not waste my time.
Fine, we'll just talk
straight and down-home.
What was my wife doing at your place
of business at 7:00 this morning?
Well, your wife is involved in
my client's private affairs.
Answer the question, please.
She came because
my client's in bad trouble.
What is the nature
of the trouble?
Murder.
And how is my wife
involved in this trouble?
She's my client's alibi.
And she failed to come forward
to free an innocent man.
How is the chicken?
A little greasy.
That should appeal to you.
I don't offend easily,
Mr. Bannister.
If you're trying to provoke me,
you'll have to do better than that.
I'm not trying to provoke you.
I'm trying to understand you.
I see. Okay.
Mr. Rockford, there is nothing
about my wife's activities
that I do not know.
She's young,
she's beautiful and
Indiscreet?
On the contrary.
My wife is an adulteress,
but a discreet one.
I do not wish to be
embarrassed by scandals.
So, as long as she is
discreet, I'm satisfied.
I suppose
that makes it palatable.
Are you making
a moral judgment?
Why not?
It doesn't cost anything.
And you want my wife to come
forward and clear your client?
That's right.
And she's refused to do so?
Right again.
All right, Mr. Rockford
it is going to get very expensive for
you, this adventure.
I don't see
how that could happen.
I've cased the deck pretty
well and I know what trump is.
You do, huh?
Well, try this out.
If you continue this
investigation or try in any way
to involve my wife
I will call some people
that I know in Europe
and they will fly over here one
night and they will locate you
and they will put a bullet in your head
and they'll be gone within the hour.
Now that's a trump I presume
you probably did not figure on.
It also lacks finesse.
Well, I've found
in my business dealings
that the higher
you make the risk
out of proportion
to the gain
the more people are likely
to sit out the hand.
How about you and me,
Rockford?
Are you gonna ante up
or get out?
I think I'll get out.
I'll speak to the chef
about the chicken.
Hello again.
Hi, Sergeant.
You got a big problem.
I can imagine.
Well?
You mean what am I
doing here?
Yeah.
After you visited me, I started
thinking, if I were Charlie Harris
where would I go?
Where would I hang out?
And then I remembered that we
had these mutual friends
who owned this house down here and
they were out of the country
so I just came down to see
if Charlie might be here.
Just trying to help you out,
Sergeant.
Yeah, well he ain't here.
He was but he's gone.
And look who turns up,
but you.
You make
an interesting door prize.
If I were you,
I'd call an attorney.
Why? What for?
I'm taking you in.
Obstructing justice,
harboring a fugitive
and just being a cluck
in general.
Well I think I
can beat that last one.
We'll see.
Where've you been?
With the police.
All this time?
Yeah, well Beth
finally got to me.
They were moving me around
from station to station.
I bet it was about
old Charlie, wasn't it?
How did you
know about that?
Well, I figured
he'd be getting ahold of you.
So did everybody else.
How is he?
I don't know.
He's missing.
He'll be
getting in touch.
He started
running again.
I don't know
if he's dead or alive.
You're early.
Are you ready,
Mr. Rockford?
Well, I just woke up.
I don't want to be late.
What are you doing?
My answering service. I'll have to
check in. It'll only take a minute.
Put that phone down.
Where're we going?
Let's go, Mr. Rockford.
You drive.
Be careful.
I'll tell you where
we're going as we go.
Yes, ma'am.
I'd drive a lot better without
that gun pointing at me.
I don't intend
arguing the point. Get in.
Pull it over here.
Stay in the car.
Aren't you
going to count it?
I trust you.
Thank you.
What about this car?
Well, it was rented by a friend.
You can leave it anywhere you want.
All right. Take it easy,
Mr. Bannister.
It had to be either you
or your wife.
Pauline found out that Charlie was
having an affair with your wife
and was going to
take him to court.
You worry too much about what people think.
It happens all the time.
It's not worth killing for.
I had to do it. I had to.
Let me see.
All right. I'm up.
All right, already.
Who is it?
Let me in.
Hey, Charlie.
I been calling and calling.
Your phone's out of order.
It's busy.
You wouldn't believe how many cops there
are until you're trying to hide from one.
You still hiding out?
Yeah, of course, why?
What is it, Bunky?
What's going down?
Charlie, we have a deal,
remember?
$30,000, sure.
You were gonna pay me $30,000.
That's the deal, right?
Sure. What is it?
What's going down?
You did it.
Sure I did.
I almost ended up
in a brass urn but
Well, you know how it is.
You got a checkbook?
I'll take a check.
No.
No, that's why I came over. I was out
of scratch. I was hoping you'd fade me.
Now you can just run to the
bank and pick up the $30,000.
Right.
Charlie?
Right, look
Jimmy, I'm having
inheritance problems
and some of this stuff is tied
up pretty tight in trusts.
Now, I'm gonna be a little
low on cash for a while.
Well, how much you need,
Charlie?
You got $50?
I mean, just until I
get to the bank?
Sure, here.
There you are.
Thanks, Bunky.
One more thing
you should know.
Pauline rewrote her will
just before she was killed.
Now, wait a minute--
I don't mean
that she disinherited me.
I mean, we just
won't know for a while.
Charlie, do you know
what you are?
Yeah. I don't like it
any more than you do.
Thanks for the $50, Bunky.