"How's this, boss?" "Great." "You don't think it should go below the plaque?" "Oh, here, precious." "You got it crooked." "Gee, boss." "This is the big break we've been waiting for." "With all this press and Maxfield behind you, why, you're going to have more clients than you know what to do with." "I would have loved to have seen the look on Inspector Wolf's face when they handed him the paper this morning." "I bet he choked on his coffee." "We'll probably need a bigger office in a nicer neighborhood." "It's not the first time I've snatched a case right out from underneath his nose." "I'll get it." "Probably won't be the last, either." "Still, it's Wolf's town." "He's not going to let you make a fool of him without trying to find a way to get back." "Thomas Magnum, Private Investigator." "Yes." "Yes." "Who?" "Just a minute, please." "It's Alicia Maxfield." "She says she has to talk to you." "Yeah?" "What could this be?" "Hello?" "This is Magnum." "Uh-huh." "No kidding." "Who else knows?" "That's good." "No, you're doing fine so far." "I'll be right there." "William Tyler Maxfield's been murdered." "No!" "The cops aren't in on it yet." "Listen, you'd better stick by the phone." "I may need you." "Thomas." "Be careful." "William Tyler Maxfield." "There wasn't a newsboy or office girl in America who didn't know that name and the papers he put out under the Maxfield banner." "The Daily Sentinel in New York." "The Evening Star in LA." "The Gazette in San Francisco." "And probably a dozen more between St. Louis and Denver." "He'd made a lot of enemies in his climb to the top." "Finding someone with a motive for murder would be easy." "Narrowing it down to one suspect was something else again." "Mr. Magnum, please come in." "I'm afraid there's been a rather unfortunate accident." "Yeah, I know." "Mrs. Maxfield called me." "Looks like the police beat me here after all." "Well, well, well." "Look what the cat dragged in." "Inspector." "Yeah, I should have known you'd show up." "You're just naturally attracted to trouble like rotting meat attracts flies." "That's very descriptive." "Too bad you're not as good an investigator as you are a talker." "But then I guess having unsolved murder cases lying around doesn't bother you." "Why, I ought to take you to the back room of the station just for the exercise." "Easy, Inspector." "You can't go around arresting innocent people in this country just because you don't like the way they look." "Not just yet, anyway." "Who said anything about arresting you?" "If you two are going to fight," "I wish you'd wait until you've left the house." "It seems so sordid, given the circumstances." "Sorry, Mrs. Maxfield." "I let my personal feelings get the better of my professional conduct." "Careful, Wolf, you don't have much to spare." "What's the matter, afraid you won't be able to grab any of the headlines on this one, sport?" "I'm not looking for headlines." "I'm looking for the man who killed Maxfield." "Maxfield wasn't murdered." "He killed himself." "Jumped off his balcony into the ocean." "Accident, suicide, body washed up onshore this morning." "Is that so?" "Well, then, I guess I'll just pay the family my condolences and be on my way." "Well, I'll be watching you, Magnum." "I'll be waiting for you to screw up." "When you do, and you will, I'll be there." "Let's go, boys." "I'm sorry." "Christine called him." "That girl's done the opposite of everything" "I've asked her to do since the day I married her father." "I was trying to keep everything quiet until we had a chance to..." "Thank you for coming." "According to Wolf, there's no point in my staying." "Did William Tyler Maxfield seem like the kind of man who would kill himself to you?" "I can't say as he did." "I'll show you the room where he was last seen alive." "You're not going to tell me what to do." "I'm free of him at last." "And nobody else is going to run my life for me ever again." "Don't be a fool, Christine." "Sorry to interrupt this charming conversation." "What are you doing here?" "Mrs. Maxfield called me." "She seems to think there's more to her husband's death than suicide." "Stop it." "Stop it." "Well, he's mistaken." "The police have already been here." "They filed a report." "You wanna tell me how you see it?" "Go ahead, Sam." "You always seem to have all the answers." "I don't see how it's any of your business." "Oh, you know that, and I know that, but I don't think the newspapers are gonna see it that way." "You being Maxfield's attorney and all." "Wonder if they might think you've got something to hide, closing the casket on Maxfield so quickly, no questions asked." "Now look here, you two-bit gumshoe, if you're looking for a buyout, you've come to the wrong guy." "I'm not looking to shake anybody down." "I'm telling you something about this business stinks." "As far as I can tell, this country was built on justice for all, and no matter what kind of man he was," "I intend to see that Maxfield gets his fair share of that." "Maxfield loved to print that kind of fair-play line." "He found it amusing." "He found you amusing, I don't." "We won't be needing your services around here anymore, Mr. Magnum." "I'll make a deal with you." "You tell me where you were last night, and I won't call the press." "I brought Father his tea around 7:00." "I always bring him tea before he goes to bed." "We talked briefly, not about much." "I think we almost communicated better with our silences." "You know the special bond a father and daughter have." "I can't say that I do." "Maybe someday you will." "Anyway, we talked about the dog show coming up next month in Austria." "He was always so proud of the trophies we brought home." "He said he wanted to read the paper and then go to bed, so I kissed him good night and that's the last time I saw him until..." "I came up about 9:00." "I'd drawn his bath." "But he had drifted off to sleep in his chair." "I guess the scintillating conversation had worn him out." "Whatever the case, I didn't want to disturb him." "Then you were the last person in this room?" "No." "I came up about midnight." "I couldn't sleep." "I thought, perhaps, I could interest W.T. In a nightcap." "He was gone and I noticed the doors to the balcony were open." "I closed them." "The dogs discovered his body on the beach this morning." "He didn't need his bath." "He knew he was going to wash up onshore in the morning." "For God's sake, Christine, get ahold of yourself." "The Reverend Bentley, to pay his respects." "I hope I'm not intruding." "Myron." "Oh, Myron, it was so awful." "I came just as soon as I heard." "If there's anything that I can do..." "Can you think of any reason why Maxfield would want to kill himself?" "Any recent business reverses?" "No." "An illness that was going to rob him of his health?" "I thought he was going to outlive us all." "He had recently complained of a touch of indigestion." "That's hardly the kind of illness that would make a man contemplate suicide." "Was there anybody else in this house last night?" "No." "Well, that leaves us with only one way to look at this thing." "Someone in this room murdered William Tyler Maxfield." "Murder?" "I don't understand." "I thought that..." "Don't be ridiculous." "I've listened to all I'm going to." "Christine, go pack your bags." "We're leaving tonight for Boston." "I'm not going back." "You have no choice in the matter." "You can't let him talk to me like this." "Tell him." "Tell him what?" "No more questions, Mr. Magnum." "Tell him what?" "That Myron and I were secretly married last week." "You married Christine?" "So that's it, is it?" "No, it's not." "Now look here..." "No, you look here, you sniveling little opportunist." "When you saw Christine, you saw dollars." "Well, she's my ward now and I'm going to do exactly what her father was going to do." "I'm going to annul the marriage." "You can't talk to me like that." "Even in this decadent part of the world there are laws protecting underage females." "Don't think I won't see you rot in jail before I let you get your grimy hands on her money." "Her money." "You act like it's your money." "Get out." "Well, are you just going to stand there and let him talk to you like this?" "Get out!" "You haven't heard the last from me." "Oh, I think we have." "How could you do this to me?" "Go to your quarters and pack your things." "You seem to have everything under control, Caldwell." "Alicia, if you'll excuse us for a moment, I need to talk to Mr. Magnum." "What about me?" "What about you?" "I don't want to go to Boston." "It's immaterial to me what you do, one way or the other." "Aren't you being a little hasty about leaving?" "If William was murdered..." "It was an accident, Alicia." "The sooner you come to terms with that, the better." "I suggest you start making some plans for after the reading of the will." "Stop by my room before you leave." "I need to speak to you." "So what have we got here?" "A daughter who wants to get married and a controlling, domineering father who won't allow it." "I'm not interested in discussing Christine." "So the daughter plots to get rid of the one impediment to her imagined wedded bliss, her father." "I believe in a day's wage for a day's work." "You've put in several hours, however fruitless your investigation has been." "Oh, I wouldn't say it's been fruitless." "Will this cover your expenses?" "There's $1,000 here." "That's not enough?" "You know it is." "Good." "Then that should conclude our business dealings with each other." "It's enough to make me forget about Christine and consider what your motives for murder are." "The butler will show you out." "I've got some packing to do." "Thomas Magnum, Private Investigator." "Hello, precious." "Oh, Thomas." "I was starting to get worried about you." "I heard a report on the radio." "They're calling Maxfield's death a suicide." "Oh, don't believe everything you hear, precious." "I need you to find something out for me." "Go down to Maxfield's office at the Gazette, ask around, see what you can get on Sam Caldwell." "I got a hunch he's got money problems that disappeared with Maxfield out of the picture." "Sam Caldwell?" "Yeah, that's the one." "Oh, and see what you can dig up on a Bible-thumper named Bentley." "I'll get on it right away." "That's my girl." "Mr. Caldwell said you needed some assistance." "No, I'm fine." "I'll find my way out." "Thanks." "Mr. Magnum, sometimes it's best not to look into things too closely." "It spoils the illusion of perfection." "I'll keep that in mind." "Oh, Thomas." "I'm so frightened." "Everything's happening so fast." "I was afraid you wouldn't come." "That I'd never see you again." "Careful, angel." "The walls have ears." "Oh, what am I going to do?" "You're going to go to Boston with Caldwell and play the part of the bereaved widow." "How can I?" "After what's happened between us?" "The very wealthy, bereaved widow." "You'll think badly of me when I'm gone." "I'll try not to think of you at all." "I'm not a bad person, Thomas." "Of course you're not." "I loved William." "So you said." "I did." "Even though he abandoned me romantically," "I devoted my life to him." "Not like that spoiled little brat he doted on." "Ah, Christine." "I thought that name would come up." "You don't know how she broke his heart." "She couldn't stand the thought that maybe her father had found happiness with me." "I know we're much too close in age for her to ever think of me as a mother, but..." "I had hoped, for his sake, that we could be friends." "That's very good." "How long have you been practicing this pretty little speech?" "Thomas..." "Did you get a chance to try it out on Maxfield before he died?" "Oh, don't be cruel to me." "Not now." "Oh." "I'm sorry, angel." "You just took me by surprise." "So let me get this straight." "You think Maxfield died of a broken heart brought on by the thoughtless actions of his pampered daughter." "No." "I think she's the one who murdered him." "Christine?" "She couldn't find her way to the powder room without help." "Don't you see?" "It's all so clear." "William was going to have her marriage annulled." "She's willful, used to getting what she wants." "And what about you, Alicia?" "What do you want?" "I want William's murderer put behind bars, that's all." "You are good." "You won't let Caldwell scare you off the case?" "Oh, I couldn't do that." "I have my reputation to think about." "Thomas." "When William first hired you, I thought perhaps you and I would have a brief interlude." "And when it was over, I'd be left with William and my memories." "But now I'm not sure what's going to happen to me." "You'll land on your feet, Alicia." "Your type always does." "I knew Maxfield had been murdered all right." "There was no doubt in my mind about that." "The only problem was finding the killer before Caldwell disappeared with all the evidence." "I decided I'd better get help." "Go away." "Hard at work, I see." "Oh, it's you, Magnum." "Come in, come in, come in." "I thought you closed shop at 5:00 sharp every day." "No, they got me here late working on the Maxfield case." "You know how the Chief is." "What does he care that I promised my girlfriend, Sheila, that I would take her to the double feature at the Bijou tonight?" "Suspicion and Death Takes a Holiday." "I happened to drive by there on my way over here." "Something tells me that you didn't come all this way to discuss the movies." "What do you make of Maxfield?" "You think he jumped?" "It's hard to say." "He got beat up pretty bad when he fell on the rocks." "It could've been suicide." "But not for sure." "Nothing is for sure until I see it with these two eyes." "You have a theory?" "A little one." "Not enough to make a case out of it yet." "Suppose Maxfield took a beating before he went in the drink?" "It's possible." "He sustained injuries around his head and shoulders." "Have to be a pretty big man to overpower him though." "Not if he was sedated." "How long before you'll know the contents of Maxfield's last supper?" "Tomorrow morning if I go to this double feature tonight." "Funny, I just happen to have a couple of extra tickets to tomorrow's matinee." "In that case, one hour." "You know where to call me." "He jumped right on it." "Well, I was about ready to give up and go home." "I had a couple of stops to make." "How'd you make out?" "Not so good, I'm afraid." "All the girls are talking, all right, but not about the right people." "Caldwell's clean." "Well, at least it looks that way." "But then he's too smart to leave the obvious clues around." "I was afraid of that." "Hello!" "What's this?" "I'm not quite sure." "It was delivered this afternoon." "I did get something on the girl, though." "Alicia?" "Christine." "Seems like she had a terrible row with her father in his office downtown last week, and ran out in tears and one of the secretaries swears she heard Christine threaten to kill her father if she didn't get what she wanted." "Why, Tiffy, you're a detective." "Does that help you out?" "You don't know how much." "I think we just hit the jackpot." "Somebody sent us the goods on Myron Bentley, Christine's playmate." "Appears he's had quite some past." "He's left six wives with less money than when he married 'em." "Here's an arrest record." "Boston, Atlanta, Denver." "No wonder he's bringing salvation to the West Coast." "Arrests for what?" "Petty larceny, breach of promise, bad checks..." "What do I do?" "Show him in, Tiffy, dear." "Show him in." "Only, file this where he won't think of looking for it, will you?" "Mr. Magnum." "Come in, Reverend Bentley." "Sit down." "What can I do for you?" "I think it's more a matter of what I can do for you." "Is that so?" "I'm all ears." "I have certain information that I would be willing to trade or exchange for, shall I say, a document." "A document?" "Yes." "A collection of papers that Mr. Maxfield assured me would be in my possession by early this evening." "And of course, given today's turn of events..." "Yes." "Yes, I see your problem." "But what did you come to me for?" "You don't have them?" "Why should I have them?" "But I was led to believe that..." "Yes, Tiffy?" "No, that's fine." "You can go home." "Oh, and lock up behind you, will you, precious?" "I'm going to have to ask you to put your hands behind your head, Mr. Magnum." "Why, you..." "Please." "Do as I say." "Stand up." "Step out into the middle of the room." "I'm going to have to search your office, Mr. Magnum." "Look what you did to my tunic!" "I get nervous when people start pointing guns at me." "I'm not leaving here until I get what I came for." "Those papers belong to me." "The hell they do." "Maxfield collected a file on you." "A good one." "Good enough to convince you to stay away from his daughter once he'd had the marriage annulled." "And for good measure, he threw in a check for $5,000." "You looked in my wallet?" "You were ready to take a powder, but once Maxfield died, you decided to go back for the goods." "How am I doing so far?" "He had no right to keep those papers." "Who told you I had 'em?" "No one." "All right, have it your way." "What are you going to do?" "I'm calling the police." "I'm telling them you went back to see Maxfield." "You fought with him over the papers, and in the struggle you pushed him over the balcony." "That's not how it happened at all." "I did go back there." "He promised me $5,000 and the papers." "He lied." "But I didn't kill him." "Someone else did." "He came in while I was there and hit him over the head with a trophy." "Who?" "I don't know." "You got to believe me." "All right." "Get out of here." "Stay away from the Maxfield girl, unless you want the police looking into your business." "Can I have my gun?" "Put your hands behind your head." "Step out into the middle of the room." "I intend to search your office." "Okay, I won't stop you." "Alicia." "Oh, Mr. Magnum." "I..." "I thought you were..." "You thought I was who?" "I thought you were Mr. Caldwell, actually." "We've been waiting dinner on him." "Where's Mrs. Maxfield?" "She's in the study." "It's too late, Alicia, you've lost." "Don't be so sure." "The will says the entire estate goes to me." "Not until you're 25." "Or married." "The money's mine." "Not yet, it isn't." "Thomas." "Sam can annul the marriage all he wants." "I'll just marry Myron again, and again, and again." "I'm afraid you won't be able to do that." "What, are you going to stop me?" "I won't have to." "Bentley's dead." "No." "What?" "How?" "If I hadn't been there myself, I'd almost believe you had nothing to do with it." "You." "What are you talking about?" "You killed him." "I didn't." "Why would I?" "From what I just heard, to keep Christine from getting her inheritance." "Sit down." "Mind your manners." "All right, Alicia." "Start talking." "You got me into this mess and now I've got a dead man in my office and a cop who'd like nothing better than to put me into San Quentin for it." "Why'd you kill him?" "Thomas, I swear to you..." "I saw your car drive away." "But I've been here all night." "Then who was driving your car?" "I was." "I had to go to the newspaper office to get Maxfield's will out of his safe." "Oh, Sam." "Myron is dead." "Then the world is a slightly better place." "The will?" "There are no changes." "I suppose you have witnesses to testify you were at the newspaper at the time Bentley was shot to death." "At least a dozen." "I'll give you exactly three minutes to get out of here before I have you arrested for trespassing." "You've overplayed your hand, this time, Caldwell." "I'm not playing, Mr. Magnum." "You think you can plot and scheme and control people's lives." "Well, I'm not going to let you get away with it." "Two minutes and 40 seconds." "I'll be back!" "Mr. Magnum..." "Could you meet me in my quarters?" "I'm staying in the guest house." "Christine." "Don't you want to hear the reading of the will?" "Please." "I knew I had to search Christine's room fast before she tumbled to my little game." "Easy, boys." "Easy." "Okay, now." "Let's not do anything foolish." "Oh, my God!" "Isis, Osiris." "Heel." "You must think I'm very bold asking you to meet me here." "What difference does it make what I think?" "I think it makes all the difference in the world." "Will you have a drink?" "I don't trust a man who won't have a drink." "I feel like every bleak moment of my existence on this earth so far has led inexorably into the horrifying events of the past 24 hours." "Have you ever known what it's like to be a virtual prisoner of your own life?" "I'm afraid I never get that philosophical." "Well, perhaps if you'd been raised by a father whose sole aim was to control and dominate you." "I've been bullied, threatened and abused since the day I was born." "You know, I thought for a fleeting moment when Father died, that perhaps I was about to be granted my freedom." "But I was only to change jailers." "Caldwell." "He handles my estate until I'm 25." "Or married." "He controls all the money." "Everything." "So I'm no better off than some prisoner on death row." "Well, I'd say you got a nicer cell than most." "Mr. Magnum, do you think that you could ever find somebody like me attractive?" "In the right circumstance." "I need somebody strong." "I need somebody to take care of me." "I mean, I thought Myron was that man." "But he's no match for Sam." "Oh, I'm not sure who is." "You are." "You can stand up to him." "I saw that tonight." "Have you ever considered what it would be like to be a very wealthy man?" "I could make all your dreams come true." "I'll bet you're good at that." "Let's do it tonight." "Slow down." "No, no, no." "See, I know somebody who can handle all of the paperwork." "Paperwork?" "Yes, and by morning we'll be man and wife." "And then Sam will be out in the cold." "You'd like to see Sam get what's coming to him, wouldn't you?" "Wouldn't you?" "Sure." "Sure." "I'd like to see him get that." "Well, then tell me you'll help me." "I'll help you, angel." "What are you doing here, princess?" "Wolf called me at home, looking for you." "I didn't know where you were." "What happened?" "How'd Wolf get here so fast?" "An anonymous phone tip." "Someone heard the shots you fired and called the station." "The shots that I..." "Oh, I see." "You're gonna pin this one on me." "Yeah, you telling me you didn't do it?" "No." "No, there's no use in me pulling the wool over your eyes, Inspector." "I confess." "I lured Bentley up here, I tricked him into pulling a gun on me and then when he had his back to this window," "I ran downstairs, shot him twice in the back and then I tipped you off just in case you thought it was another suicide." "What are you boys looking for?" "All right, all right, all right." "Why did Bentley come to see you?" "He wanted some advice on his Sunday sermon." "Laugh your way all the way to the gas chamber, wise guy." "The coroner called." "He wanted to make sure you got this message." "Thanks, precious." "Bring me that file on Bentley, will you?" "So what's it gonna be?" "You gonna take me downtown and give me the third degree?" "Or did you bring the rubber hoses with you?" "If you didn't kill Bentley, who did?" "The same person who killed William Tyler Maxfield." "Hello?" "That's fine." "I'll leave right now." "And just where do you think you're going?" "I asked Maxfield's killer to meet me in 20 minutes." "We can take your car." "I got everyone here, just as you asked." "Inspector, remove this man from the premises." "Oh, I'm not staying, Caldwell." "I'm leaving." "Just as soon as I explain to Inspector Wolf which one of you killed Maxfield." "Inspector!" "Go on." "Well, from the first it was obvious it was Caldwell." "This is insufferable." "Please, Mr. Caldwell." "You seemed like the most likely suspect." "Cold, calculating." "Smart enough to cover your own tracks." "And the only one strong enough to throw Maxfield off that balcony." "That's true." "I figured you doped him up a little, put something into his tea." "As the mickey took hold, he accidentally knocked his tea cup to the floor." "You waited till he was out cold, then you dragged him over to the balcony, threw his body into the ocean and closed the balcony doors." "You cleaned up behind yourself, all right." "But you missed this little piece of china." "I didn't kill Maxfield." "I know." "I realized that later." "You didn't drug him." "You didn't have to." "Maxfield was already dead before you even got into the room." "But that doesn't solve the problem of the broken china cup." "And then, there's this odd object." "Looks like it broke off a trophy, doesn't it?" "One of mine." "Maybe you can tell me what it was doing on the floor near the balcony." "Well, I don't know." "The coroner said that Maxfield was beaten on the head and shoulders numerous times with a heavy object before he took his midnight swim." "No..." "There's no way to prove that." "Abrasions and contusions could have been caused by the wave action." "They could've, but they weren't." "Your late husband saw him get hit." "He was going to confront Maxfield and force him to give him the blackmail folder." "But before he could do that, somebody else came into the room." "Somebody who beat Maxfield over the head with a heavy trophy half a dozen times." "I'm already onto that trail, Magnum." "Get your things, I'm taking you in." "But I didn't do it." "I never said you did, angel." "Alicia did that." "Don't be ridiculous." "Why would I want to kill my own husband?" "I guess you're the only one who can answer that." "You know yourself that I have no claim to the will." "If I murdered William, I'd lose everything." "Oh, not if you could make it look like Christine did it." "That's insane." "That's also a bit of a long shot." "But not beyond you, my darling." "Arrest her." "You're getting ahead of me, angel." "Alicia didn't kill your father." "But you just said..." "I said she hit him over the head with a heavy trophy." "But Maxfield was already dead when she did." "And how do you figure that?" "I kept coming back to the china cup and what it was doing on the floor." "So I had my friend at the Coroner's office check very carefully the contents of Maxfield's stomach." "He was poisoned." "With this." "Designed to look like he had a heart attack." "She planted it in my room." "Oh!" "I never said I found it in your room, angel." "Looking for this?" "You know, the one thing I couldn't figure was motive." "What's in it, angel?" "Benzedrine?" "All right, I'm only going to go through this once, so listen good." "Christine got into a little trouble with Bennies." "And when Daddy wouldn't come through with the money to keep her in supply, she had to look to other ways to get her fix." "Eventually all the avenues dried up." "She had to get her hands on her own money." "There were only two ways, murder and marriage." "Marriage didn't work out so good, so she started slowly poisoning her father hoping it would look like a natural death." "And it did." "It looked so good that Alicia thought it was a heart attack." "She knew that would leave her penniless." "And she couldn't have that." "So she hit Maxfield over the head with one of Christine's trophies hoping that it would look to everyone like Christine did it." "Don't, Thomas, don't." "We can still get away from all this." "Stop now before you go too far." "It's too late for that, Alicia." "It's gone too far already." "With her step-daughter up on a murder rap, Alicia would get the money." "But she hadn't counted on Caldwell." "Caldwell came across the murder frame and believed it." "He knew if Christine went to the gas chamber, he wouldn't have control of Maxfield's estate." "But that wasn't the real reason you tried to rescue" "Christine from what you thought was her murderous act, was it, Sam?" "No." "No." "What you didn't realize was that Sam Caldwell was in love with you all along." "How did you know?" "I'm not sure." "Anyway, he cleaned it up, he even tried to bribe me with this thousand dollars." "You'll want that for evidence." "So, once he was in, he couldn't get out." "When he thought Bentley was going to talk, pointing the finger at Christine, he had to kill him, framing Alicia." "Exactly." "Book 'em all, Inspector." "Murder One and accessory after the fact." "Wait a minute, Magnum." "If they're all going to jail, who's going to get Maxfield's money?" ""As Magnum drove off into another beautiful sunset," ""he wondered" ""how many times he could go through this" ""before his heart broke for good."" "Well?" "What do you think?" "I think it's quite possibly the finest piece of fiction I've ever come across." "You're kidding." "The style is strong and aggressive, the characterization is clean, the story innovative, yet comfortingly familiar..." "Well, it's my first effort, and I'm sure I'll have to, you know, change a word or two here and there, but you really like it?" "Like it?" "Not since Dashiell Hammett have I seen such raw, pure talent." "Wait a minute." "You're comparing me to Dashiell Hammett?" "A sort of Raymond Chandler meets Erle Stanley Gardner..." "Black and white." "An Agatha Christie bumps up against Arthur Conan Doyle, there's an image." "Excuse me." "I'm still dreaming." "I have to get back to sleep." "Magnum." "Magnum!" "Magnum!" "Magnum." "Higgins, what are you doing here?" "You asked me to come down." "You implored me to stop by before I left." "Why are you wearing that suit?" "You know why I'm wearing this suit." "I am going to the Anglo-Hawaiian Royal Yachting Costume Brunch." "And I'm late." "Now what is it you wanted me to see about?" "Right." "I'm sorry." "I've been up all night working." "Yes?" "And..." "No." "I just wanted to say, have a good time at the party." "Don't worry about a thing here." "I'll be on the job, making sure no harm comes to Robin's Nest in your absence."