'You Can Always Find A Fall Guy' by Donald James

When Jeff returns to his flat after a heavy night out he finds a nun sitting on his bed. She tells him that her convent, St. Ursula's, needs his help to prove that their accountant, Douglas Kershaw, has embezzled £6,000 from the convent funds. As this is a police matter Jeff protests, but the nun explains that they do not want Kershaw to be sent to jail, but do want their money back - if they cannot recover their money via a private detective then they will put the episode down to experience. Jeff agrees to collect the evidence from the convent the next evening, and the nun leaves, but once outside, she removes her nun's habit and takes off in a red sports car. Since Jeff's car is at the garage he has to ask Jean to borrow her Mini, despite Marty’s protests as he still thinks of the car as his. Jeff and Marty travel to the convent in Winchester and meet the nun in the driveway, where she hands Jeff an envelope and asks him to turn the car lights off so as not to disturb her sisters. When she has gone, a suspicious Marty notes that she was wearing make-up, but Jeff thinks he is wrong - an opinion that quickly changes when alarms suddenly go off. Jeff throws the envelope into the bushes just as the car is surrounded by patrolmen and snarling dogs. He is taken away by Edwards to meet Philp Yateman, the executive of the building, which is actually the Winchester Electronics Research Corporation instead of a convent. Yateman accuses Jeff of trespassing, and is further concerned when he finds Kershaw's card in Jeff's pockets; Kershaw has apparently been stealing information from WERC and selling it on. Yateman demands that Jeff return the papers or he will call the police, but Marty blows a gale-force wind, allowing Jeff to make his escape. He retrieves the envelope from the bushes, and they speed off in the car. When the two detectives later check the envelope, they find that it only contains newspaper. Edwards pays Jeff a visit, claiming he traced him by his car - but Jeff knows better, as it was Jean’s car, not his. Jeff and Jean go to see on Kershaw at his houseboat, and discover that Jeff was the fall-guy in a case of industrial espionage. Marty warns Jeff that the police now have a warrant for his arrest, thanks to Yateman filing a complaint against him. Jeff visits Yateman at WERC, and recognises the personnel manager, Miss Holliday, in her red sports car, as the nun who set him up. Paying another visit to Kershaw boat, Jeff is interrupted by Holliday and Yateman, who reveals that within twenty-four hours he will obtain all the company's research, worth approximately £500,000. The executive overpowers Jeff using a form of martial arts, takes him back to Winchester, and locks in the basement of WERC to be killed later. In order to save his partner, Marty searches through local hospitals for a patient that is near death, so that he can talk to them. When an operation starts to go wrong, the man's ghost appears and Marty asks him to phone the police and have them rescue Jeff. The man is saved by the doctors, and as he comes to, does as Marty requests. The police arrive at the WERC, and together with Edwards they arrest Yateman and free Jeff. To show his gratitude Jeff visits the recovering man, presenting him with a basket of fruit. But the man is perplexed because by now he has completely forgotten about his ghostly encounter with Marty.

Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt), Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope), Jean Hopkirk (Annette Andre), Patrick Barr (Yateman), Juliet Harmer (Miss Holliday), Jeremy Young (Douglas Kershaw), Garfield Morgan (Edwards), Edward Caddick (Patient)

Directed by Ray Austin

TX:
UK: 6th March, 1970 @ 7.25pm

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