1:17:03
I'm very busy. What does this have
to do with my husband's murder?
1:17:08
I can't get anything past you.
You really got me pegged.
1:17:12
It just shows that your husband
could have been dead
1:17:16
at the time of the phone call.
1:17:18
His voice could have come
from edited tapes in your office.
1:17:23
You know, Columbo, you're almost likeable
in a shabby sort of way.
1:17:28
Maybe it's the way you slouch in here
with your shopworn bag of tricks.
1:17:34
Me? Tricks?
1:17:36
The humility, the seeming
absent-mindedness,
1:17:40
the homey anecdotes about the family,
1:17:43
the wife, you know.
1:17:46
- Really?
- Yeah, Lieutenant Columbo,
1:17:49
fumbling and stumbling along.
1:17:51
But it's always the jugular that he's after.
1:17:54
I imagine that, more often than not,
he's successful.
1:17:58
I appreciate that compliment,
particularly coming from you.
1:18:02
I must tell you I'm disappointed in you.
1:18:06
- I'm really very disappointed.
- How's that?
1:18:08
You've reduced yourself from veiled threats
and insinuations to vaudeville.
1:18:15
What did you expect to achieve
by this tasteless stunt?
1:18:18
Did you expect me to throw myself
at your feet confessing?
1:18:21
- I didn't think you'd do that.
- Then what good did it do?
1:18:24
I just add it up with all the other details.
1:18:27
After a while,
you see what might have happened.
1:18:30
"Might have" won't hold up in court.
1:18:33
You'd be thrown out for lack of evidence.
1:18:36
But, you know, justice is strange, counsellor.
1:18:39
With some people,
it's not enough to be acquitted.
1:18:42
With some people,
it's necessary to convince the public
1:18:45
by producing the guilty party.
1:18:47
I'm familiar with the Perry Mason
school of justice. It's not a bad tactic.
1:18:52
Threaten to ruin my reputation
by accusation, create a doubt about me.
1:18:57
But then I could show
that you were hounding me,