Original subtitles

They say they can't come up here to help us.

They can't get up here on the roads. There's a snowstorm coming. You're

to stay the night, if it comes to that.

These people make the Adams family look like Ozzie and Harriet, and that one of

them's a murderer.

So, in other words, this means we're all suspects.

Well, you didn't like George much more than you like me.

I thought you said they were going to get a snowplow up here.

I lied to him.

Although it's not possible for us to fulfill our contract with you by

10th, due to the recent problems, we will make every effort to do so as long

you make every effort to fulfill your promise which was made to us during our

first days in negotiation.

I'm sure you understand the situation and the problems that have arisen

financially because of not fulfilling your end of the agreement.

Who is it?

Who is that?

Who is it?

The secretary phoned it in, said she didn't hear anything. Nobody's been in

out.

He's been dead about an hour.

Looks like the shot to the heart was the only one, small caliber.

Looks like he grabbed that picture just as he died.

Maybe he's trying to tell us the killer's the guy in the picture.

Whoever killed him used the private elevator, and the only people who have

to that elevator are George Edelton's brothers and sisters.

Edelton Enterprises is definitely a family corporation.

So you didn't get to talk to any of them?

Well, we located the sister, Sylvia Brand. She and her husband are up at the

Edelton family home on Bald Mountain, and one of the brothers is up there with

them. So you have no idea who killed George Edelton?

Well, we checked out this picture he was holding.

Turns out to be a photograph of his father, Dwight Edelton. The guy's been

for over ten months. Wait a minute. Dwight Edelton?

That rings a bell.

Yeah, well, it should. He's still on our books as an unsolved homicide.

Captain, this is really weird.

He was killed in the same way, in the same office, as his son George.

Who was on that case?

Marty Sussman, but he's still on vacation.

Well, that's a shame.

Looks like you and Hunter are stuck with this one, then.

That's what Hunter said you'd say.

So we need your okay so we can drive on up to Bald Mountain.

Hunter thinks the two of the brothers are probably on their way up there right

now. What's it going to cost?

The cheapest room in the hotel in the area is $110.

Ouch.

Each.

Go.

And take some warm clothes.

It's cold up there.

How about this house?

Makes you feel welcome, doesn't it?

Hurry up. It's freezing out here.

You didn't happen to bring a San Bernard with you, did you?

Are you the police?

Yes, I am.

Sergeant Hunter, Metro PD, Sergeant McCall.

I'm Sylvia Brand.

We spoke on the phone. Won't you come in? Yes.

I got in touch with David just after your telephone.

He drove straight up.

Got hold of John a bit later. He should be here soon.

Sarah, would you get our guests some tea, please?

Sergeant Hunter, Sergeant McCall.

These are my brothers, David and Michael.

Won't you sit down?

So, uh, do any of you know why anyone would want to kill your brother?

No. George didn't have an enemy in the world. He was a little pompous, but not

enough to be murdered for. Don't start that crap, Michael. He was dull, too.

Dull, dull, dull.

But people don't get killed for that either, do they? This isn't a time to be

funny, Michael. Just cool it. I was being quite serious, David.

I never understood the heat of passion, but I certainly can understand being

bored to death. Yeah, someone kills your brother, and all you can do is make

jokes. One of these days, someone's going to tear off that twerp head of

and shove it up your ass. David.

My brother gives the impression of being a belligerent drunk until you see him

sober. Stop it, both of you.

I apologize for my brothers, who are all very upset.

Oh, and Carl Brand.

Sergeant Hunter, Sergeant McCall. Hello. Sorry to keep you waiting. That's all

right.

Carl is my husband. These are the officers who telephoned before. They've

asking us some questions.

I see.

Well, perhaps I can be of some help.

Do each of you own Edelton Industries, equally? Yes, but George ran the company

after Father died.

I see.

Do you think that your brother's death and your father's death was related?

Well, we thought about it, of course, but we just don't know. That's why we're

here to discuss it.

I'll need to know where each of you were between the hours of 10 and 11 .30 this

morning. So, in other words, this means we're all suspects.

Yes. You see, whoever killed your brother had a key to the elevator.

I understand. Each of you has a key.

I think I should tell you that I'm an attorney.

Well, not a real one. You know, not like Perry Mason.

Carl's a tax lawyer. You don't have to be a criminal defense lawyer to know

you don't have to say word one if you don't care to.

Where do you get off coming up here and accusing us anyway?

You see, I get off by being a police officer.

Second of all, I'm not accusing anybody yet. You all have the right to remain

silent. We just came up here hoping that maybe you'd like to help us out.

Well, I, for one, would hate to waste a perfectly good alibi. I was here with

Carl and Sylvia. I've been here for three weeks, hiding out from a woman who

turned out to have a mind of her own. I was at home, so I don't have an alibi,

Ace.

But I didn't kill anybody.

That's not very good, David.

My money's on you for the job. I mean, you didn't like George much better than

you like me. Keep it up, twit.

Well, looky here. Some more family members.

Hello, Johnny.

Still zapping those death rays?

Go ahead. Make jokes while you can, brother dear. Just remember it's your

children who will suffer if we don't do something about it. I don't have any

children. At least none that I know of. This is my brother John, conservator of

the ozone layer.

Hi. Sergeant Hunter. How are you?

Sergeant McCall. Hello.

This is Elaine Farmer.

And my family here. Sylvia, Carl, Michael, and David.

I hope Elaine won't feel too out of place, John. This is a family meeting.

Elaine is my fiancée.

I don't think she'll feel out of place at all.

Your sister's right, John. I could stay at the hotel. No, no. You're going to

stay right here.

I assume you have some questions for me? No, I have questions for everybody.

Good.

I'll start off by asking you the same question I ask these folks.

Where were you this morning between the hours of 10 and 11 .30? I was on the

road. I gave a lecture in Santa Barbara last night.

Lecture on what?

Uh -oh, now you've done it. I'm head of the Edelton Environmental Foundation.

We study the effects of hydrocarbons on the ozone layer, that is the portion of

the atmosphere that protects us from the harmful rays of the sun. Are you two

prepared to stay here the entire evening?

Excuse me, that's my private phone.

Forget nuclear war.

His hairspray is going to be the end of life as we know it.

Do you know why anybody would want to kill your brother?

No. No, but I am very busy with the foundation.

I really didn't see that much of George.

Do you want me to serve dinner now, Mrs. Brands?

Is that all?

Oh, I think that'll be it for now. We're staying down at the village, and

perhaps we could continue to talk tomorrow. Then you'll excuse us. Sir.

Yes, Clara, you may serve. Set an extra plate for...

Elaine. Elaine.

Another fun -filled family dinner at the room org.

Turn the heat on.

Oh, no.

It's wide over.

Great.

Hit the

starter.

Great,

now what?

Well, we'd better get a mechanic.

All right, let's go inside and do it. I'm going to die if I stay out here.

Certainly, right this way, but... You do the honors, huh?

Uh, you have a phone book?

Of course.

Here you are.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Is there something wrong? Well, we acquired some car problems, and, uh...

trying to get a mechanic.

There's a filling station at the end of the road, but I really don't know if

they'll come out this time of night.

I'm up at the Edelton house, and my car won't start.

Well, yeah, that's right.

Well, we're Los Angeles police officers. We don't have...

Okay, thank... Yeah, I

understand.

Thank you.

They say they can't come up here to help us. There's a snowstorm coming.

So, come in to dinner.

And you're welcome to stay the night, if it comes to that.

No, thank you.

We're going to try to work the phone some more. Thanks, anyway.

You work on the phone. I'm going to eat.

Are you really a cop?

Yes, I am.

You like it?

Yes.

Thank you.

You like what you do?

Oh, absolutely.

I do nothing at all.

Well, no, that's not entirely true. I serve an essential social function.

I am a terrific fill in a dinner party.

He's lazy.

He doesn't want to do anything.

He never did.

Do we have to air all this in front of our guests?

You know, man is the only animal that makes a virtue out of working. I do not

work because our father invented a splatter -free skillet lid. And thanks

grease -splattered housewives everywhere, I can afford to do nothing

is also the only animal that is cynical.

Oh, John, cats are cynical, too.

Sam Spade over there makes me look almost pious.

Sarah, have Bert fix that shutter right away, please.

Looks like a bad one.

Didn't you bring those dogs in from this store? We don't bring our dogs inside

the house. They have a kennel.

Do you hear that?

Of all the noises we've heard since we've been here, which noise are you

referring to? The gunshot. It was a gunshot. Did you hear that?

It wasn't a gunshot.

It was a branch that had fallen off a tree due to the insurmountable weight of

the snow that landed upon it.

Are you sure?

Haven't you ever been to the mountains?

Yes, I've been to the mountains.

But I was raised in the city and, uh...

If I ever get back there, that's where I'm going to stay.

Well, don't worry about it. The plows will be here tomorrow morning to dig us

out.

Are you scared, or do you have to go potty?

I'm just, uh, I'm jumping, you know. I'm jumping. There's a lot of noises

up here. This place has a lot of noises.

How did you raid a room like this?

Well, didn't you notice Sylvia and I have a rapport?

Yes, right.

What is that?

The Life and Time of Stanislavski? Since when did you start to read in bed?

Well, actually, tonight's my first night.

I'm kind of excited about it.

Yeah, I wonder which one of our suspects reads books on acting.

Get a couple parkas and maybe some snowshoes in the closet, if you need

ahead and make jokes. I'm freezing to death.

Hunter, there's something very weird about this place.

Yeah, well... No, no, no. Seriously.

I'm serious.

I mean, besides the fact that these people make the Adams family look like

and Harriet and that one of them is a murderer...

It's just a power shortage.

Relax. What are you so afraid of the dark for?

I'm not afraid of the dark.

You know that flashlight?

freezing in here.

We had a power failure, Michael. Are you sure? Maybe we could take up a

collection and pay your electric bill. Very funny, Michael. You can see your

breath in my room. Yeah, well, at least you have someone to keep you warm.

They're not married, Michael. They have separate bedrooms.

Oh, I'm sorry, John. I thought it was 1987.

Where's David?

David sleeps like the dead.

Comes from having an uncluttered mind.

Clara! Will you go and tell David, please, that we expect him at breakfast

five minutes?

There's no eggs.

What are we supposed to do with these? Eat them or sketch with them?

Michael, Clara did the best that she could on a wood stove.

Bert, I thought I told you to fix that shutter. I did. It came loose again.

Well, fix it again.

I thought you said they were going to get a snowplow up here.

I lied to you.

At this point, I'd settle for snowshoes.

Now, Clara, you say you walked down the corridor.

When you got to David's door, you knocked.

You didn't get a reply, so you let yourself in, is that right?

Yes. That's when you found David's body.

Did you hear anything at all?

He was so still.

He was so... Did anybody hear anything at all last night? You couldn't hear a

bomb go off in here last night with that wind howling.

And that damn shutter? I fixed it. It keeps breaking loose.

Excuse me.

Was David killed in the same way as George? Yes, he was. Shot in the chest

a small color hand.

Has anybody figured out what this means here? Have you faced this? Someone is

killing us one by one. Michael, would you just be quiet?

Can't you do something?

Yes, Sylvie, I can do something. I'm going to.

I'm going to search this house from top to bottom.

Avert and lay a flashlight.

Under the kitchen sink.

Sir, a what?

A gun.

Maybe there's somebody in the house we don't know about.

That's impossible.

Sylvia, nothing in this house will surprise me in the least.

Sergeant McCall will be in charge.

Getting out of here. Whoever it is is not going to get me. So long, family.

my dust.

I'm afraid I can't let you go anywhere. Not until my partner gets back.

I thought the snow was six feet deep in the driveway.

Come

on, Bert.

Get something to fix this window.

I'm afraid so.

She's like a rock, isn't she?

Even when I was a kid, she took care of me.

People do that. I don't know. They take care of me.

Maybe it has something to do with my flawed character.

Are you all right?

No.

I am not all right.

Two of my brothers are dead.

Did you bring her here?

This was a family gathering to talk about George's death and you bring a

stranger into the house. I'm going to marry her.

She is not a stranger.

She is to me.

Did you find anything?

I found a .45 in your room.

Did you leave it there? No, I took it.

Well, you didn't search us.

That's next.

I'll search the men and Sergeant McCall will search the ladies.

No one is searching me in my own home.

You've already been through my private possessions. You have no right to do

that. Oh, I'm afraid he does, dear.

They're Los Angeles police officers on a murder case.

They have every right to investigate.

We have nothing to hide.

Go right ahead.

Let's get started.

Well, I'm not taking my clothes off more than two feet from this fire.

That's a good idea.

The women stay here and the men in the dining room. Thank you.

I'll go first.

Sergeant Hunter and I have discussed it, and if everyone would feel better, we

can all stay down here tonight.

I, for one, would feel a good deal safer in my own room.

There are good locks on the doors. David just didn't have his locked.

Well, that's up to you.

Thank you.

We who are about to die salute you.

a word with you for a minute.

How long have you worked for the Edeltons?

Ever since Mr. Dwight bought the place 25 years ago. Well, you must know the

family pretty well then.

Oh, look, come on, you two. You've got to know what the hell's going on around

here. Anything you tell us will be held in the strictest confidence.

What about Mrs. Edelton, the mother? Where is she?

Which one?

Are there two Mrs. Edeltons?

Mrs. John's mother died in childbirth.

The other three children are from Mr. Edelton's second wife.

What happened to her?

She divorced him ten years ago. Dead now.

Auto accident in Italy.

Can we go to bed now?

Sure. Yeah. Good night.

Thank you.

I'll be in the hall as you can stay in your room.

No, I'm going to sleep in the four -poster. Thank you. Just wake me up when

you're tired and I'll be back.

Hunter, do me a favor.

Kill the cat.

Oh, my God.

It's no.

No!

Everybody down to the family room and keep a good close eye on him, will you?

What do

you want?

Where's Clara?

Didn't you two hear anything just now?

In this storm?

Down here.

Is there any way you can get inside Michael's room without using the doors?

No. Not if the windows are locked from the inside, and they are.

What's wrong?

What's happening?

Would both of you be so kind as to come to the family room?

There's got to be another way into Michael's room. I'm going to go take a

for it.

Maybe someone just got there ahead of him.

No, everybody was in the hall after the gunshot except for Claire and Bert.

What are you saying? You think that there's some kind of secret passage in

house or something?

Just like in the movies, my dear.

I don't care what your sister says. Those dogs are suffering out there. It's

right, Elaine.

They're just frightened.

So am I.

Sergeant McCall, I want you to arrest that woman.

Why? Because she murdered my brothers and probably my father.

She's crazy.

I knew I'd seen her somewhere before.

Now I know where.

He's a lame farmer.

It's Denise Parkins.

She was sleeping with my father.

This does look a lot like you. Would you like to try to explain it?

Who looks like her? She does.

This is a picture of her and my father, whom she claimed never to have met.

It is a picture of me.

And I did know her father.

But I haven't killed anybody.

Dwight was 30 years older than me and rich.

And I told him what people would think, but he laughed.

He said that people would stop talking about us when we invited them to our

anniversary party.

Dwight told Sylvia about the wedding. She knew about it. That's a lie. I never

heard a word about a wedding. I don't think one was ever planned.

Sylvia threw a fit. She called him an old fool and told him that I was after

money. I would have married Dwight if he didn't have a dime.

He said that Sylvia was scared that we'd get fruitful and multiply, and that

she'd inherit a few less million. It was a joke, but a week later, he was dead.

So why'd you change your appearance and your name?

Because I knew that one of them had killed Dwight.

I went to John. I told him what I thought and how I felt.

It's true.

Denise came to me, and she convinced me that she was right, that one of the

family did indeed kill my father. So I agreed to help her find out what

happened. You let her use you?

That is enough, Sylvia.

Why did you go to John? Why didn't you suspect him, too?

Because John was in London when Dwight was killed.

John really loved his father.

And Dwight talked about John as if he was the only son he had.

We both loved him. We had to know who killed him. That's why we're here, to

out, not to kill anybody.

She's lying.

Sylvia knew nothing about any wedding plans.

Are you going to arrest her? No.

Why not?

Well, I can't prove she killed anybody. Besides, I don't think she's going

anywhere, do you? Just up the stairs to kill us in our sleep.

No, she's not. She's going right up to her room, just like you and everybody

else is.

Now, Sergeant McCall and I are going to be in the hallway all night.

I know what you did.

And I know what you did.

There's a corridor that honey comes throughout the house, and I'm going in

right now.

All right, just be careful.

I'll, uh, I'll wait for you out in the hall.

Mm, good idea.

Stop right there. Police.

Fatalities reported, but some people up on Bald Mountain have had some pretty

wild experiences during the storm.

Three people were injured in one accident, but not to worry. Help's on

Plows are making their way up the mountain right now. Again, no fatalities

reported. It's my fault. I did it.

What do you mean it's your fault?

John didn't even suspect that anyone had killed his father until I made him

believe.

He was happy with his life until then. I turned him into a killer.

You don't know who killed Dwight Edelton, do you?

Sylvia, probably, or George, or both.

Elaine doesn't know who killed Dwight Edelton. She's just guessing. The Dwight

Edelton murder case is not our problem anymore. That's Charlie's.

We solved our murder case, remember?

John Edelton killed George, Michael, and David.

What are you talking about? The Dwight Edelton murder case is still open.

And I know you. You'd love to solve it.

Oh. Yes, you... Besides, what if Sylvia did it and she gets away with it? So

what you're saying is you'd like to have Charlie open the Dwight Edelton murder

case so we can investigate this family again?

When John Edelton decided his half -sister and half -brothers killed his

he just went over the edge.

I mean, the guy lost it. If we hadn't have stopped him, he would have wound up

killing Sylvia and her husband, too.

All right, I'm convinced.

But who killed the old man ten months ago?

Well, come on, now. Who killed Dwight Edelton?

Oh, we don't know, Charles. You see, Carl and Sylvia are the only ones left

the family, and they're not talking. However, what I have here is our case.

Solved. Completed murder case.

As you can see, El Panito.

But it still does leave the Dwight Edelton murder case open, Anna. But I

believe Charlie gave us that case. That's not our case, remember?

We think that someone in the Edelton family did kill Dwight. We just don't

which one. And I think that if we had a little more time to investigate, we'd be

able to... You got it.

As a matter of fact, as of this minute, I'm putting you and Hunter on the Dwight

Edelton case.

And I'll expect a report in, say, 24 hours, okay?

What are you waiting for? Get your tails in gear here. Get me the answer. We

don't like unsolved cases in this division.

Hey, wait a minute.

What is wrong with you? You want to find out who killed Edelton just as much as

I do.

No, I don't. Look, I had one dream in this world. Never to hear the name

again. Thanks. You crushed that dream for me.

It's the head of that crazy family.

That's Carl.

Good.

Hiya, Carl.

What can we do for you?

I'm here on behalf of my wife.

She wants to make a statement about the death of her father.

Oh, really?

She didn't kill him.

Well, who did?

George got David and Michael to join him.

I don't know who pulled the trigger.

They later told Sylvia.

She kept silent all this time. She didn't even tell me till now.

David became a drunk.

Michael got even more insufferable than he was before.

Sylvia kept quiet to protect her brothers.

She was the only real mother they ever had. Where's Sylvia right now?

She's out in the car.

She wants you to set up a meeting with someone from the DA's office to discuss

an equitable settlement.

Yeah, I can do that.

Have her get an attorney.

We already have.

He'll be here.

Good.

Thanks for coming in.

Okay.

Well, I guess we know everything now. Oh, yeah.

Who jimmied the car?

I jimmied the car.

What?

I jimmied the car.

What'd you do that for?

Because I wanted your performance on the phone and to Sylvia to be impeccable,

and it was. Congratulations.

You lied to me.

Sure. What is it about you two?

I gave you a case to solve, so go solve it. What case is that, Charlie? The

Dwight Edelton case.

We solved that already.