polite
Hi, Irm.
How's it going?
Well, I've been busted to street patrol,
and Raquel Welch is commanding women's division.
Good.
Hey, you said you wanted to see me.
Yeah.
Listen, I need 12 girls for undercover vice
to pose as college kids and would-be prostitutes.
Since Sunday, all our campus contacts are going dry,
we have to turn up a lead to Benny Folger.
Who's going to cover the girls?
Well, they'll be covered.
Laurie was covered.
Well, that was unique.
Laurie got caught in a fluid, violent tactical situation.
One girl and her backup failed.
Now you want 12 girls.
For a prowl, this is not a raise, it's just a prowl.
Oh.
You're telling me that the roof only leaks when it rains.
I'm asking you for your backup plan.
Irma, this is me.
Hi, Carl.
Hi, Irm.
How are you?
I'm fine.
I just came by to tell you Parkinson's is clear.
It's all yours.
Oh, Carl, that's marvelous.
Thank you.
And this is for you.
Carl?
Carl, why?
Lady, I just don't want to work for you.
I'll go back to uniforms, anything.
Carl, just a minute.
I was way out of line. I apologize.
Well... No, I mean it. I was wrong.
I've served on 15 boards.
This has never happened to me before.
Carl, put yourself in my place.
Can you imagine assuming command here with your chief assistant
stuck on non-field assignment?
I wanted him back.
If I just tried to explain that
instead of trying to strong-arm you, I know you would have understood.
I understand. What amazes me is that you could publish your findings so quickly.
I know how exacting you are.
I know what you mean as a working detective.
Maybe that's why this request for transfer surprises me.
Is all the evidence in on me?
I'm not making a judgment.
It's just me.
I don't think I have a prejudice around me.
Well, let me admit that I do have.
You're a man and a good one, and I want you here.
You've put in 12 years establishing that.
I could take the experience with me.
And be welcome wherever you go
with the highest possible recommendation from me.
But I'm asking you,
don't leave us without exhaustive,
impartial consideration.
Please.
I think I'd just be putting it off.
Okay. I'll tell you what.
I'm gonna put this on my desk.
The door is always open.
After you've thought about it, I hope you'll pick it up.
If it's still there Monday morning,
I'll sign it and send it upstairs.
I'll be right there.
Well, I guess...
I guess that's fair enough.
Set it?
I don't know.
They're talking about 12 of my girls.
They used to be my girls.
That's right.
Who's in charge of this, Prowl Parkins?
Irma.
How soon we forget.
Despite everything, I think he's a good man.
Your man, not mine.
Have the girls in my office at 5 o'clock.
Be there. I'll conduct the briefing.
And listen to any suggestions you have to offer.
I don't know. I never trust a man with no redeeming vices.
It proves that mercy is stronger than justice.
It proves guys finish first.
Right on.
Anyhow, congratulations, Bill.
Oh, John, my lovely curtains.
I'll see the custodian about the rest of the mess in there.
I got good news and I got bad news.
I'll take them in any order.
There's been a jailbreak.
What's the good news?
It's up in Mendocino County.
You rat.
Here's everything that the office has in the narco probe.
Sam Burton brought this thing.
Are we getting into the money belt thing?
I'm not sure.
Is Burton alcoholic?
I don't think so.
Well, sometimes he drinks too much, but how will we all do?
I went over there. He was hungover.
He knew about the hot Prowl ADW, but he was not involved.
I'd rather think he lied to you than you lied to me.
I did not.
Case closed.
Army.
Yeah, right out of college.
You were what, Navy or?
Coast Guard when I was a kid.
Right. I knew there was something.
My husband was Coast Guard.
Oh, yeah.
Didn't I hear he was lost?
Hurricane Hilda, October 64.
Yeah.
Semper Paratus.
Bill, what's our caseload here?
Major crime 11.
Ten if you count the Folger thing and the narco probe as one.
For the moment, it's one.
Somebody made a mistake last Sunday.
Us or them?
I think it was them.
So someplace they've left us an opening.
Now all we have to do is find it.
Rod Pina's on the Folger thing.
Fine, we'll leave that alone.
I'll handle the narco probe myself.
And take me off it?
Well, it's the one case I can contribute to.
We have nine others here I know little or nothing about.
I think you should supervise them until I catch up.
Yeah.
Cleared by the board, but not by the chief of detectives, right?
Okay.
It's your office, madam.
Relieve who you want, assign who you want.
Bill, I'm not relieving you of anything.
I'm overloading you.
No sweat. That all?
Is it?
All right.
I can't help how I feel.
I don't know how this is going to work out.
But you say mistake?
I think your being here is a mistake.
Now, I got nothing against you.
That's the way I feel and I can't help it.
All right, you check that out.
Yeah.
Let me page you in.
What's the matter with you?
Sergeant, I'm putting some people under cover on a prostitution probe.
If this means putting on a wig and a pair of falsies, I quit.
Briefing at five o'clock, I have the girls coming up.
You get their backups, big strong men.
Well, let's you...
I'm glad my needlepoint group meets tonight.
Hey, two points for Charlie Chan.
Everybody gather around.
This is Laurie Breckins.
He was hot down on 3rd Street Tuesday morning.
A guy by the name of Albert R. Darwin.
R could be for Richard.
Is Folger's car still on the street?
Right where you found it.
I make it they paid off Richard in cocaine for enticing girls into the racket.
Sunday night he blew his free connection.
Tuesday morning he pawned a hot police special because he needed money to buy a fix.
Now, where does that leave Laurie's $500?
He figured it was marked.
Marked money is easy to fence and a whole lot safer than what he did.
He didn't take the money.
Benny Folger took it. He was there.
Okay, but Folger did not participate in the rape.
We can't even prove he's a pusher.
So what have we got if we get him?
You answer that question after you bring him in.
Yes, ma'am.
What are you waiting for?
The address is probably a phony, but it's a place to start.
Are you sure you want to keep on playing games?
Police for... Bill.
What are you guys doing here?
I'm just wondering who's coordinating this caper.
Hey, help me, will you?
Man, do you realize that one of us almost got it?
Could Alan phone this in?
Suspect Richard Darwin.
What'd he do? Resist arrest?
How'd you guess that?
How'd you find us, please?
A helpful neighbor from a former address.
Hey, you take me in. Don't let him.
Sure, you want to wear my fraternity pin?
Hey, believe me, he's got a real... he's got a reason.
What are you talking about?
Ask him. $500. Ask him.
As it happens, a buddy of mine knows one of the suspect's girlfriends.
He got me the address.
So you went to the door.
I knocked, he answered the door, I showed him my badge, and he panicked.
This was in the room, say.
Pawn ticket to Officer Bracken's gun.
Will you say he panicked? We fled?
First he kicked me.
Where? Where it hurts, pal.
I see. And then what?
And then an altercation ensued, during the course of which the suspect experienced a bloody nose.
Doctor?
How's the patient?
My wife has hurt me worse for trumping her ace.
Excuse me.
Sam, I want to see you.
I always want to see you. I hope I didn't miss another invitation.
Do I get three guesses while you're here?
Well, out-proud victims, what else?
You know, I'm a pussycat.
How are they?
The old man's still unconscious. The woman doesn't remember a thing.
Sam, I've been checking the files you sent over.
The two wounds that can be accurately measured indicate an impact weight of about three pounds and are 1.24 centimeters wide.
That's a third of a centimeter wider than you can make with any money belt I could find.
You mean it might not be a money belt?
I think it looks like one in the dark.
And we know he wears it around his middle.
Like a scuba diver wears a weight belt.
Yeah.
Well, you know, if you could only cook.
But I can.
Yes, he's right here.
Klein. Zeno Bates is back in the house.
Hindsight.
At home?
How?
Yes, by all means, tail him, but not too secretly.
Try to make him improvise.
Right.
All right, thank you, Sheldon.
Ed, backtrack this taxi.
Backtrack until you find out where Mr. Bates has been.
Morning.
Morning.
Chill.
Looks nice in here. How'd you manage?
I'm threatened to tell the custodian's wife that he and I are having an affair.
I see his men to come up.
My last request for transfer is a bad way to start a new week.
Would anyone care to comment?
My damn near got my head blown off yesterday.
I just don't like to work that way.
I think you'd be used to damn nears.
Damn nears are what we get paid for.
Yeah, we just had that routine from Rod Pena.
Ma'am, it's just that...
That what? You handled it right.
These things happen, don't they, Bill?
What about Reese? After all his years on the force.
Hold it. Whoa. I'm a big boy. I can speak for myself.
I'm not with these guys.
And if I knew what jerks they were, I wouldn't have told them what happened.
You want me, I'm in.
I want you.
Done.
But this doesn't mean that you might not get this back someday.
Anyone else?
Mrs. Prentiss, it's over with the whole department, this thing that you got about firearms.
We pull guns, we're wrong.
You're only wrong if you want to play cowboys and Indians. That's as wrong today as it ever was.
Okay.
We may be only hours away from breaking this narcotics investigation.
Till it's over, you are needed by the community you are sworn to serve.
I, personally, ask nothing of you.
I know the real reason you're here.
I'm a woman.
You resent me.
Fine.
Quit if you will.
But I think it's a damn shame to use a tromped up excuse.
I want to see you both.
I'm sorry.
Rod, I take it you had spoken to those men.
Why didn't you back me out there, Bill?
I could have lost half the Bureau if they'd quit in a body.
You did all right.
All right, Rod, thank you.
You want to comment on Joe Lee's remarks?
No, I don't.
He's lucky and so are you that I got there first.
Because that guy would have kicked Joe Lee in the gut.
And Lee's partner would have smoked him and they'd all be dead.
I doubt it.
You doubt it?
Because Joe Lee and his partner used good procedure all the way and got there less than five minutes behind you.
Do you know what could happen in five minutes?
That friendly neighbor could have tipped Richard off the minute he told Lee where to look.
The same is true of your informant at the plant.
Richard could have yanked open the door and blown your head off.
Was what, a gun he'd hot?
You didn't know he had hot it.
Lee learned that.
Face it, Bill, you lucked out.
Come in.
Markins.
Mrs. Prentiss.
Well, what it boils down to is that Richard denies going to the apartment with Laurie.
And then he has a witness who saw him pick up the gun in an alley.
Now they know they're not going to get away with that.
If we insist upon going to trial, they can prove that excessive force was employed when he was falsely arrested.
Have you seen the medical report on this officer's bruised groin?
Report establishes bruises, but not how or when they occurred.
Lieutenant Parkins told us how and when.
You assume that he was telling the truth.
I can't go to a court of law with assumptions.
You can go with attempted murder, accessory to rape, resisting arrest.
But his lawyer will throw the whole...
I expect obstruction from the suspect, Mr. Langley. From you, I will not tolerate it.
D.D., you can't even hold that man unless I say so.
If you think I'm going to make a fool of myself...
Joan, get me the district attorney in person and at once.
What are you planning to do?
Get a prosecutor on this case, one who is not afraid to...
Mrs. Prentiss, if you tell my boss...
You all out of here now and bind that character over for me and I'll be as discreet as possible with your boss.
Well?
Yes, Joan.
Okay, tell him he owes me a lunch and I'm all broken up because he hasn't called.
Thank you.
You're different, I'll give you that.
Now, Bill, about the $500.
Frame up, clumsy frame up.
But it was good enough. You stand accused.
And I have to investigate. I have to clear my organization.
Look, if I put your narcotics probe in jeopardy, I'm sorry.
I wasn't thinking about that at the time.
The scum resisted arrest, I busted him.
And you got rough as you often do. And you were alone as you often are.
As you were last Sunday night or there'd be no question about you having the money.
You don't think I have it, do you?
They say you do.
That doesn't make any sense.
Unless they know they're right.
Hey, I like this.
Little ol' America.
Must have been good.
Doesn't take any genius to be young.
I don't like this any better than you do, Bill.
But we both know it's not the end of the world.
I like your attitude, you ought to go far.
Now that's what I call a deplorable lack of imagination.
Need an envelope?
Thanks, I've got one.
That ought to make a jump for joy.
Bill, I could have sent anyone on this job.
Doesn't that mean anything?
I'll think about it.
Good, and add this to the hopper.
If Tom Hubbard was sitting behind my desk, he'd be doing the same thing.
Hear me.
It's just that I was...
I've never been any good with women.
I've never taken orders from one since my mother died.
Tom understood the way I operate.
Bill, I'm trying.
Until I do understand, the least I can do is back your play,
and the most I ask of you is that you back mine.
Well, we gotta work something out.
Today, let's work this out. I need you.
It's getting through to you, huh?
Now, next.
How did they get in?
You keep your windows locked?
Yeah, sure, but a smart young stud could jimmy any one of them open
in three or four minutes' time.
You gonna help me look?
I'm gonna check the refrigerator for a beer.
That's all the looking I'm gonna do.
Hi.
I'm glad you could make it.
What are you checking?
Advanced cargo manifests, truckers, airlines, shipping firms.
As I said, I'm glad you could make it.
We certainly need your help. Coffee?
I'll give you anything but men.
We know now that the shipment of heroin
entered the country from Baja.
Thanks to the work your people did on that rumor,
we are convinced that San Francisco is indeed its destination.
How about some coffee?
Could Zeno Bates have brought it in?
No, he's been in Reno, possibly making the buy.
He wouldn't sit on the shipment,
and he hasn't contacted a single dealer.
The heroin's coming. We don't know how.
Covering every pipeline into the city is impossible,
but we have to cover as many as we can.
How many men can you spare?
None.
Here is your cup of coffee.
Robert, there is other criminal activity afoot in our fair city.
I have already given you 8% of my force.
If I have to function as personnel manager for you,
there is no way I can do my job.
Cream, sugar?
No, sir, no way.
I will not fall for your diversionary tactics.
Robert, every man I have is on assignment.
Do I have to set off a time bomb to get that across?
Here, sit down, sit down. You look tired. Amy, sit down.
Now, here's your coffee.
How many men can you spare?
One.
Good morning.
Detective here, Sergeant Pena.
No, she's out in the field this morning, realigning assignments.
Yes, sir.
Right. Right.
Uh-huh.
Yes, sir, we certainly do.
Yeah, thank you.
Stocked into the P.D. just called.
They pulled a guy out of the river two days ago.
They got him on ice.
They ran an I.D. through the F.B.I.
Are you ready for how it prints out?
Benny Folger.
Hey, Rod, you got it. You go.
Why the hell did you call a district attorney?
He can't do anything but follow me up.
Bill, I had to report on Benny Folger,
and you're gonna foul yourself up if you don't wait.
I busted the two-bit scum. You've had your say.
I'm going in there and make him spill his gut.
You double-crossing think.
I hear Benny Folger is dead.
Brought this back from stock.
They found him in a rivet tributary.
He went in sometime last Monday, but there's no telling where.
Loaded with booze and babichewitz.
But he actually died by drowning.
Who had Richard brought up?
I did.
Have you spoken to him?
No, madam. I was just about to.
All right.
Well, let's figure out how to handle this.
Bill?
Handle it.
Handle it by the book.
He was too far gone to get himself into the river.
Figured somebody threw him in.
Alive.
He died in the water.
Now, don't tell me unless you want to.
Is this the man you knew as Benny Folger?
Sergeant, you're asking him a question.
Let's discontinue this until his attorney is present.
Wait. Hold it.
Listen, I don't want him here. Tell him he's fired.
You have a right to counsel.
It's my life I'm talking about.
It belongs to them. He's their idea, not mine.
Whose idea, Richard?
I don't know.
They all say they work for this guy, Zeno Bates, a friend of Folger.
Friends said that if I got tapped,
I should say the pig lieutenant took the money and I should call this lawyer.
They'd take care of me.
Like they took care of Folger?
Man, I'm better off in a slam.
Motive? Folger knew too much.
Opportunity? Yes.
At least we know how they got him away from the house.
We do?
In a milk truck.
The dairy delivers there Tuesdays and Fridays.
Our stakeout reports a delivery Monday morning.
One extra. I say one phony.
But was Benny Folger there? That we do not know.
I think there's a woman who does, the housekeeper Ruby North.
I want her watched.
We're short of men.
We'll borrow some from Ironside.
Miss France, meet Morris Stoner, a cabbie.
He picked up a fare that night near the plant.
Dropped them off about a block from Bates' house.
The guy gave him a 20 and he didn't even wait for the change.
And you have a great memory for faces
and you're gonna pick that man out of our mug files, right?
Right.
Tony, you are a darling and my hero and I thank you.
Crime doesn't pay, Rod.
Crime just doesn't pay.
That lady doesn't go anywhere without protection.
Yeah, and I don't think she likes it.
Do you want me?
Come on in, Bill.
You're not ever going to accept me, are you?
Is that a question?
I wish it really was.
But you've made yourself all too clear.
I didn't mind so much that you lied to me about Burton.
Look, I told you...
We all cover for our friends once in a while.
Or that you almost ruined the case against Richard with your hot-dogging.
I even tried to understand why you didn't back me
when you knew a mass transfer would bring this office down around my ears.
It didn't.
But yesterday I thought we had a deal.
And then I had to find out about Folger from the D.A.
And I got there just barely in time to stop you from blowing it.
Blowing it?
I want Rod Pinyon here.
I can't function this way, Bill.
Then give it up.
Go on, get out of here. Go back to playing with the kids.
Let the big boys do the job they're getting paid for.
There's a better way.
Pick your assignment, Bill.
Somewhere else.
You can't do this to me.
Pick your assignment, Bill. Somewhere else.
You're through here.
Look, I've had this job...
For a long time. Maybe too long.
I swear to God, if you were a man...
I know just how you feel.
But an assistant's job is to provide assistance.
I think you've made it clear I won't be getting any of that from you.
Lady, for once, I couldn't agree with you more.
You want the job?
What are you saying, sweetheart?
What's the matter with him?
Do I know you?
You're just another pretty face hungry for my affectionate...
It may be a bad moment, Lieutenant.
But I'm a little ray of sunshine.
Sam!
Last week a towel, today a weight belt, tomorrow a sapphire.
If this is a joke...
Well, if it's a joke, we got the wrong joker.
I don't mean we have him.
But thanks to you, we have the weapon.
Now, if you give me 48 hours, I'll drag him in by the hair.
Now, how about tonight?
Sam, you have rescued what has so far been a dismal week.
If I get free tonight, I might just look you up.
Yes, Joan?
Thank you.
Irma?
I just got a report from one of the girls.
There's a dealer she knows from Marysville.
All right, Amy, that makes three so far today.
I'll call you back.
Well, it's happening.
How many dealers, though? We can't know them all.
Let's pick this Marysville man.
Where he goes, the others will go.
Change the tail on him every 30 minutes, every mile, Ed Offner,
if you have to. Disregard the others.
How about Bates?
Leave him free, but alert our troops at the play park.
All right.
Let's go.
Would you help me adjust my order?
That's the man.
CP to all units. Zeno Bates is here.
What do you think?
I think the dealers are here, too.
T-61 to CP, approaching you on Franklin, westbound.
I have the Marysville men.
Roger, 6-1. Drop him at the entrance.
Rod, whatever happens when it happens,
the housekeeper Ruby North is number one, at any cost.
Another man in an overcoat.
If overcoats turn you on.
It could be dealers.
CP to Lee, you see a milk truck stop at the park?
Yes, it's there now, inside the service gate, behind the dodgers.
Any action?
No.
All right, stop that truck if it tries to leave.
Nature's going behind the dodgers again.
Marysville man's following him.
Then another guy and a woman.
All right, close off that yard, Ed.
Keep the people out.
All units.
It's the office trailer behind the dodgers.
Six of them in there with veins.
I think the stuff is there.
That milk truck brought something to the park,
and no one has delivered anything to that refreshment stand.
Hello, do you keep that a few minutes?
Get them all fast.
Come on, Mr. Bates, ask your dealers to remove their coats and stay a while.
CP to K2, go when you're ready.
10-4 CP, 10-96.
Put your hands back.
Mr. Bates is in trouble, Ed.
You'll want to call his lawyer.
Hello, where the Bartlets?
Are the Lincolns at home?
Oh, this is the wrong house.
The Lincolns live down the block a ways, other side of the street.
Oh dear, could you step out and show us which one it is?
It's just a couple of doors down the street, lady.
Thank you.
Freeze now, hands on your head.
Stop it.
Listen.
I'm trying to help you.
You're no police.
Please, Ruby, calm down.
That's no police car.
You cover the rear, you over there.
Spread it, spread.
All right, who else is in there?
There's another dude down in the basement, the Rumpus room, sleeping.
There's another guy in the Rumpus room.
I don't know nothing.
I ain't done nothing.
Come on, move to the car now.
You've been a prisoner in there.
I work in there for Mr. Bates.
Mr. Bates is under arrest, sit down here.
And we're not going to let you go.
We're trying to help you, believe me.
I've got my children to think of.
My family, they need me.
Of course they do, and we're going to call them right away.
Come on, lady, cooperate.
It's all right, Ra, we're getting along just fine.
Put your feet in, dear.
There's a guy downstairs in the Rumpus room.
Cover the back.
There ain't no way I can help.
Ruby, Xeno, you're in trouble.
There ain't no way I can help.
Ruby, Xeno Bates deals in dope.
He sells it to children.
You have kids, I'm not that lucky,
but I've worked with them all my life.
Haven't you seen what narcotics does to children?
Didn't you see what they did to Benny Folger?
Oh, oh, they killed him.
They killed him.
They said he was sick, but they drugged him
and held him down in the bathtub itself.
You see anything?
You get inside.
Don't worry, the guy woke up suddenly and started firing.
Make sure the place is surrounded.
Okay, come with me.
Fire, everything's all right.
He did the shooting.
If he was asleep, he woke up with a bang.
Where is he?
In the basement in Rumpus room,
trying to figure a way to get in.
Rod, this is the person who killed Benny.
I'm trying to figure a way to get in.
Rod, this is the perfect example
of what I've been talking about.
You want to play shoot-em-up with that man down there, okay.
But we have another option.
We can assume he knows the way out,
and we can back off and wait.
Lady, for once I couldn't agree with you more.
All right, you heard the chief.
Pull everybody out.
Okay.
Well, hello, Robert.
Having a pleasant afternoon?
Oh, a few arrests here and there.
Anyone need a ride home?
No.
We have two of Mr. Bates' accomplices.
They're on their way downtown.
We have Ruby North,
which is to say we have Zeno Bates for murder.
Anything else, Rod?
No, ask the boss.
Hi, Bob.
Fine.
How about you?
Fine.
Rod, will you get on the horn
and find Sam Burton for me?
Burton?
Please.
He owes me a drink.
Well, I see the transfer requests
are coming in smaller bunches.
We're making some progress.
Excuse me.
Hello, Tony.
You want to see me?
Mrs. Prentice, I couldn't tell you
why I was quitting before today.
I don't think I was sure myself,
but yesterday crystallized it for me.
I was scared to death, not for myself,
but for Pina.
And I've seen a woman almost blown up.
That's no way for a cop to feel.
And when I put my jacket on your desk,
I guess I knew someday
that that feeling was going to come to me.
And yesterday it did.
Yeah.
And then I slept on it.
But the kind of guts you got, lady,
I guess I can learn to live with my feelings.
I'd like to have this back if it's all right with you.
All right.
Tony.
HONKING
Yes, Joe?
Mrs. Prentice?
When?
Where is it?
I'll be there in 15 minutes.
Let's get a car.
After you, chief.
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