Columbo: Grassy Knoll

by William Harrington

  “So all these years—” said Columbo.

  “All these years,” Bell interrupted. “There’s no statute of limitations on the crime of conspiring to assassinate the President. But after thirty years it looked safe. Then Paul Drury used this computer-enhancement business to make something out of those two pictures. I saw them in his office. I went to Phil and told him. We agreed. We hadn’t killed anybody yet, but we had to kill somebody now.”

  “And you used Mrs. Drury for your trigger woman,” said Columbo.

  “Phil couldn’t have done it. He’s under constant surveillance by the FBI. I didn’t have the stomach for it, I didn’t think. But Alicia— Well, she owed the Sclafanis a hundred twenty-four thousand dollars. I agreed to pay half that, and Phil agreed to forgive the rest of it. She was perfect. She had the magnetic card. We worked out an alibi for her. Tim came in because he’s a dummy. He doesn’t even know she reduced her debt some sixty thousand by turning tricks. Neither Phil nor I wanted him in on the deal, but he’s not the one who broke.”

  “Who broke is Phil,” said Alicia. “If he hadn’t tried to kill me, the case might have been damned hard to make.”

  “No, ma’am,” said Columbo. “We had the case made.”

  Alicia wiped tears from her eyes with the fingers of her right hand. “How long you suppose it will be before I see the street again, Columbo?”

  He turned down the corners of his mouth in a hard grimace. “Not for me to say, ma’am, and I sure don’t know. I wouldn’t buy any baseball tickets for this century if I were you.”