Electronics expert Harold Van Wick has wired his estate-home with closed-circuit television cameras and video recorders. His costly fascination with gadgetry raises the ire of his frugal mother-in-law, who owns the firm where Van Wick is the chief executive. His mother-in-law orders him to resign and threatens to reveal his philandering ways that she has discovered through a private detective. So, Van Wick schemes to murder his mother-in-law on tape while a recorded image of an empty study is being received by the guard monitoring the estate's rooms on television screens at the gate to the Van Wick estate; then, Van Wick timer-sets the recording of the murder to play while he is at a social function, thus giving him an alibi. He forces open a window and lays footprints outside to make the murder look like the deed of a burglar. But Lieutenant Columbo, the super-intelligent detective of many fetishes and a rumpled raincoat, suspects Van Wick and asks incessant questions as he probes the murder and tries to link it to Van Wick. cab Written by Kevin McCorry Harold Van Wick just loves inventing gadgets, and his house is filled with them. But investing in new technology is sending his family's electronics company deep into the red. His mother-in-law decides to remove him as head of the company and threatens to show her daughter evidence of his infidelity. He thinks his inventions will help him commit the perfect murder. Later it seems his mother-in-law was shot by an intruder while he was at an art gallery. But clever gadgets aren't enough to fool the rumpled, redoubtable Lt. Columbo. Written by J. Spurlin