'The Trouble With Women' by Tony Williamson

Jeff spends a night’s stake-out watching an unfaithful husband; but as he dozes in his car, another car drives by and shoots a man dead. Jeff makes the papers as witness to the murder, and is then hired by a beautiful blonde named Susan Lang, who thinks the man that fell dead against Jeff's car the night before took a bullet meant for her cheating husband. After she tips Jeff off about a visit by her husband to the horse-races the next day, Marty and Jeff witness Paul kissing a mysterious brunette. When Marty is confused about Lang being so obvious about his affair in public, Jeff heads to the Pelican Club, where Lang plays poker regularly, to see if he can get more information. But Lang's henchmen quickly realise that Jeff is tailing him, and they stop him from following their boss, instead forcing the detective to return to the poker table, where he loses £240. Jeff is given twenty-four hours to pay off the debt, but has no idea where he will find the money. He decides to win the money back, and with Marty’s help, returns to the casino; Marty feeds him information on what the other players are holding, and Jeff cleans up. Then Susan Lang phones Jeff and tells him that Paul will be out of town; she asks Jeff to go Paul's office to get some documents out of the office safe, feeling that if she has proof of Paul's criminal doings, he will have no option but to allow her to divorce him. Jeff goes to Paul’s office, but finds that the safe only contains money, not papers. Even worse, Marty discovers Paul's dead body lying on the floor, the murder weapon by his side. The police arrive and arrest Jeff, who realises that he has been perfectly framed for the murder. He mentions Susan Lang as his alibi, and so the police escort her to the office - but the woman who appears is the mysterious brunette, not the blonde who hired him. The police are ready to charge Jeff for the murder, but Jeff reminds them that he was at the police-station giving a statement the night before ‘Susan Lang’ arrived up at his office, and asks for just three hours to solve the case. When Jeff goes to Susan Lang's apartment and questions her about the blonde, she tells him that the description fits her sister, and invites Jeff to wait for her to return home. Unknown to Jeff, before his arrival Susan removed the blonde wig and make-up that she wore when hiring him. Susan calls her lover, Alan Corder, the Pelican Club manager. Marty investigates the bedroom and finds the wig, but his warning to Jeff is too late, and Jeff is held at gunpoint by Corder, and taken to an abandoned lime quarry in Kent, where the corrosive lime will help dispose of his body. Marty finds a seance at the North London division of the British Spiritualists Society, and is all set to convey a message to get help when he suddenly notices a long queue of ghosts, who are rather unhappy about Marty jumping ahead of them. Marty pleads that he has a life-and-death situation, and as the ghosts discuss and debate whether or not to allow him to jump the queue, Marty manages to get the message to the police. He arrives at the quarry in time to tell Jeff to duck from Corder's shot, just as the police arrive and arrest the two villains.

Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt), Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope), Jean Hopkirk (Annette Andre), Paul Maxwell (Alan Corder), Denise Buckley (Susan Lang), Edward Brayshaw (Paul Lang), Robert Russell (Harry), Nik Zaran (Brin)

Directed by Cyril Frankel

TX:
UK: 20th February, 1970 @ 7.25pm

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