'The Smile Behind The Veil' by Gerald Kelsey

After Marty watches Jean place flowers on his grave, he witnesses the funeral of racing driver Caroline Seaton. Among the mourners are her brother, Donald, and his wife Cynthia, and Marty soon becomes suspicious when he sees that behind her veil, Cynthia is smiling... He begins to wonder if, like him, Caroline's death was really an accident. He asks Jeff to help his ‘new neighbour’, but the detective is reluctant to help his partner, preferring to take a paying job for a change. When Jeff goes to meet a new client, Marty interferes by blowing tree branches over signposts and even blowing the signposts to point in the wrong direction. Jeff arrives at the home of Caroline Seaton's brother Donald, but when he innocently asks for directions, Seaton is suspicious, and when his henchmen find Jeff's detective license, he is held at gunpoint, knocked out, and thrown into a nearby river. By blowing a fisherman’s line across the water, Marty is able to save Jeff, but not before he glimpses his partner all dressed in white, looking very annoyed! Jeff is revived by CPR and the fisherman takes him to his cottage, where he reveals that he is Donald Seaton. He and his father fell out over Donald’s criminal behaviour as a teenager, and so Donald fled to Australia. Recently, his dying father planned a death-bed reunion with his son, putting an ad in the papers to find him; however, several ‘Donald’s appeared, all claiming to be the real one, and Donald’s father was taken in by an impostor backed by crooked solicitor Brooks. After the death of Donald’s father and Caroline, the impostor is now claiming the estate. Jeff's main problem is trying to determine which Seaton is genuine. Seaton's wife Cynthia arrives at the Randall and Hopkirk office, offering to pay Jeff double whatever the other Donald Seaton is paying. When Jeff refuses Cynthia storms out, but not before leaving a bomb behind. Luckily Marty hears the ticking, and Jeff discovers and defuses the bomb just in time. Jeff revisits the Donald Seaton that hired him, but Cynthia arrives and holds him at gunpoint. She and the real Donald Seaton were once married, enabling her knowledge of him to convince the Seaton family that her new husband is the genuine article. The real Donald is then locked in a farm storage building, while Jeff is thrown headlong down a deep well. Marty manages to get two hikers to use the wishing well, and they discover Jeff and pull him to safety. Jeff arrives at the Seaton home with the police, who can easily sort out the question of who the real Donald Seaton is thanks to the fingerprints on his criminal record. The fake Donald makes a break for it, but is arrested, together with Cynthia. Marty and Jeff leave to continue their unique partnership as detectives…

Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt), Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope), Jean Hopkirk (Annette Andre), Alex Scott (Seaton), Hilary Tindall (Cynthia), Gary Watson (Donald Seaton), Freda Jackson (Mrs. Evans), Peter Jesson (Hooper), Robin Hawdon (Grant)

Directed by Jeremy Summers

TX:
UK: 13th March, 1970 @ 7.25pm

Notes:
*Featuring Jeff Randall, the late Marty Hopkirk, and Jean Hopkirk