The Rockford Files (1974–1980): Season 2, Episode 10 - 2 Into 5.56 Won't Go - full transcript
When an army colonel is murdered after contacting Rockford, Rockford is forced into the middle of a conflict involving military police, military thieves and the colonel's daughter.
You mess with the Army,
they'll put a shovel
in your hands
and point you
to hard ground.
That's the Army way.
Hi. You're a little jumpy.
Hello, Colonel.
You're making a bad mistake,
Harvey.
You take off these cuffs,
and I'll club your head
down between your knees.
You know, for somebody
I can't stand, I'm becoming
awfully fond of you.
You know, the nice thing
about being a civilian
is you outrank
lieutenants and colonels.
Who does the draft board
bother with people like you?
(PHONE RINGING)
ROCKFORD:
(ON ANSWERING MACHINE)
This is Jim Rockford.
At the tone, leave your name
and message.
I'll get back to you.
(BEEPS)
Jim, it's Maria
over at the laundromat.
There's a yellow dress
in with your things.
Is that a mistake
or a special handling
or what?
ROCKFORD:
(ON ANSWERING MACHINE)
Jim Rockford.
At the tone, leave your name
and message.
I'll get back to you.
(BEEPS)
Jim, this is
Colonel Daniel Hart Bowie.
It's important
that I speak to you
right away.
I can't stay at this phone,
so call me at 555-3465
as soon as you get in.
I'll be standing
by that phone.
(POLICE SIREN BLARING)
Sorry, Officer. I guess
I was speeding a little.
Yeah, sure were, Colonel.
Wanna move up here
out of the road, please?
Had some other things
on my mind.
I wasn't paying
too much attention
to what was happening.
What is this?
Wanna spread out there
on the jeep, Colonel?
You wanna do it now,
Colonel,
or you want me
to put this night stick
upside your head?
(HANDCUFFS CLICKING)
(SIGHING)
Okay, I got him.
How much are they
paying you for this?
Oh, it's not the money
that counts, Colonel.
Most of it's just
plain, old-fashioned,
pure satisfaction,
knowing
you got a job to do
and you're doing it well.
It's a booger,
ain't it, Colonel?
(CAR APPROACHING)
Hello, Colonel.
You're making a bad mistake,
Harvey.
That's something
I've always wanted to do.
Always wanted to do.
Okay, wanna
come along with me,
Colonel?
(SARCASTICALLY) Sir.
Quenton?
Hello, Colonel.
Oh, now it makes sense.
I should've figured it.
Oh, I think
you would have,
eventually.
Let's go, Harvey.
ROCKY: I think somebody's
throwing rubbish off the pier
in the afternoon.
Polluting the water,
that's what they're doing,
by golly.
You ought to put up
some signs or something.
Hey, you want yours
fried or filleted?
Are you kidding?
I ain't gonna eat
no little baby fish.
I'm no cradle robber.
Well, good. I'll fillet it
and have it myself.
Fried. I'll have it fried.
Hey, Rocky, would you
get my messages, please?
Yeah.
No, no kidding, we ought to
go get us some of those
"No Dumping" signs,
and take them up there
and post them.
Hey, maybe even phony up
some ordinance number.
(COLONEL SPEAKING)
You know, "If you dump here,
you're gonna be arrested
"under Ordinance Number 564,"
or something like that.
(COLONEL SPEAKING)
Hold it.
Jim, this is
Colonel Daniel Hart Bowie.
It's important
that I speak to you
right away.
I can't stay at this phone,
so call me at 555-3465
as soon as you get in.
I'll be standing
by that phone.
Bowie? Say, ain't that
the fellow that you...
Yeah, that's the one.
What's he calling you for?
You guys were never
exactly buddies.
Not exactly.
(POUNDING ON DOOR)
Oh, hi, Dennis.
How are you?
Hi, Jim.
What's going on?
Well, we're cooperating
with the military authorities
on a case.
This is Lieutenant Fenton.
He'll tell you all about it.
Hi, Lieutenant.
Yes, sir.
We understand
you've been in touch
with Colonel Bowie.
We would like you to come to
the provost marshal's office.
Yeah. Well, you understand
all wrong, Lieutenant.
I'm not really
into provost marshals
or marshals of any kind.
I don't even
think too much
of Matt Dillon.
I'm really sorry
to hear that, sir, because
I'm going to have to insist.
Jim, this is
Colonel Daniel Hart Bowie.
It's important
that I speak to you
right away.
I can't stay at this phone,
so call me at 555-3465
as soon as you get in.
I'll be standing
by that phone.
There you have it,
Lieutenant.
There's your whole contact,
right there.
Now you're welcome
to take the tape,
but I'm staying right here.
Been reading
this file of yours, Rockford.
It reads like a chapter out of
Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Is that so?
It's a real puzzle.
On the one hand, we have
Sergeant James Rockford,
wounded in action,
Silver Star.
Then six months later,
we have PFC James Rockford,
busted for trading
400 cases of C rations
for a North Korean tank.
Is this going on
much longer?
And then, instead of being
sent to the stockade for
conspiring with the enemy,
you receive
a battlefield promotion
to sergeant again.
It probably doesn't say
that Colonel Bowie asked me
to scrounge a tank
that we needed to blow our way
out of a pocket.
I'm sure Colonel Bowie
intended for you to scrounge
one of our tanks
from one of our units.
As I remember,
he wasn't terribly specific.
Then again,
we have PFC James Rockford,
busted for setting up
a string of pool halls
in Pusan,
and stealing
a major general's staff car
from in front of
the Seoul Korean Hilton.
Why didn't you just
get a zipper for those
sergeant stripes?
Okay, Colonel.
You've qualified as a really
first-rate smart mouth.
Now let me out of here.
I listened
to your answer-phone tapes.
I suppose you're gonna tell me
that's all the contact
you had with Colonel Bowie.
You got it.
Well, I'm not inclined
to believe anyone
who would have the gall
to trade Army supplies
for enemy weaponry.
Don't forget you're dealing
with a civilian, Colonel.
You know, the nice thing
about being a civilian
is you outrank
lieutenants and colonels.
Now, unless you've got
some very nice workable
charge to hang on me,
you just don't have a lever.
Why does the draft board
bother with people like you?
That's priceless.
All right,
we'll try another tack.
Colonel Daniel Hart Bowie
was a friend of mine.
Was?
He's dead.
His jeep turned over
on the road north of Seaside.
When we found him,
he had your phone number
in his uniform pocket.
What's the story, Rockford?
Why would Colonel Bowie wanna
look up his old scrounger
20 years later?
Well, maybe he needed
another North Korean tank.
Are you trying to bait me?
Whatever turns you on,
Colonel.
Okay, Rockford.
Mister Rockford.
You understand
the military has
jurisdiction over this case.
But if we decide
something happened
to Colonel Bowie,
it'll be a case
for the civilian authorities,
in which case
you will be in
up to your neck!
Well, this may
come as a surprise
to you, Colonel,
but even though
Bowie and I didn't get along,
I did respect him.
I might even have liked him.
That doesn't surprise me.
I told you,
I read your whole file.
(BUZZER BUZZING)
ROCKY: Will you relax, Jimmy?
I am relaxed.
Oh, sure you are.
You are about to
fry your fish
instead of filleting it
like you generally do.
(POUNDING ON DOOR)
I'll get it.
Hi, I'd like to speak
to Rockford, please.
Oh, good, good. Come on in.
You're just what he needed.
You bet. Hey, Jim,
you got a visitor.
Pretty, too.
Might cheer
you up, huh?
What did he tell you?
Hey, wait a minute.
I wanna know what he told you.
What did he tell you?
Come on.
Put that thing away.
What did he tell you?
You're Shana, right?
How do you know?
Well, because Colonel Bowie
had a daughter named Shana
who would be about your age.
And I recognize
this chrome-plated pop gun.
It belonged to your father.
No bullets.
Sit down.
What did he tell you?
Please, I've gotta know.
All right. Here.
Jim, this is
Colonel Daniel Hart Bowie.
It's important
that I speak to you
right away.
I can't stay at this phone,
so call me at 555-3465
as soon as you get in.
I'll be standing
by that phone.
But Colonel Hopkins
said that you talked to him.
Well, I didn't.
I just can't seem
to get Colonel Hopkins to...
Oh, Miss...
Oh, I'm Jimmy's father.
I can tell you,
he never talked to your pa.
He was out on the pier
fishing with me
when that message came in.
Why did he call you?
Why didn't he call me?
I could have helped him.
What are you talking about?
He didn't
put that jeep over by mistake.
He was killed.
Well, what makes you say that?
Well...
about a week ago,
he came to see me
over at the university.
I'm an assistant professor
of archeology at USC.
And we were gonna
go out to dinner together,
and he was
in his civilian clothes,
and he was very nervous.
And he was very upset,
and it was...
You remember
his drinking habits,
don't you?
Yeah. Yeah.
A glass of wine
before dinner
and that was it.
Right.
Well, last week at dinner,
he was drinking
hard liquor and a lot of it.
And something was
going wrong in his life.
I mean,
something was very bad.
And I...
He wouldn't
discuss it with me.
I kept trying to get him
to tell me what was going on,
and he said that he would
finally discuss it with Terry.
Who's Terry?
I don't know.
But when he left
at 12:30 at night,
he was very drunk
and he was
afraid of something.
Well, it wasn't death.
Colonel Bowie was never
afraid of death.
If he called you,
then he must have felt that
you could help him the most.
Well...
You see,
the MPs are working on it,
and I never mess around
with anything that the
authorities are involved in.
Didn't you tell all this
to Colonel Hopkins?
Of course.
And?
Didn't seem to impress him.
Well, as long as
the MPs are involved,
I really can't touch it.
You see, I'm not
getting along too well
with Colonel Hopkins, anyway.
But what if they close it?
What if they call it
an accident?
Would you help me then?
Oh, well...
Jim, you...
You ain't thinking
about going around messing
with the Army again?
You mess with the Army,
they'll put a shovel
in your hands
and point you
to hard ground.
That's the Army way.
I'm not gonna
mess around with this,
Rocky.
Come on, do you think
I'm gonna mess around with
something like this? No way.
Now, look, Miss Bowie...
Shana. I...
Well, I'm just
not available.
That's final.
MAN: Yes, sir.
I will want to keep
your expense receipts.
Fine.
And if we're gonna
keep double entry books,
don't forget the coffee.
That's 10 cents extra.
I've heard all about you
from my father, Mr. Rockford.
Obviously, he called you
because you're the trickiest
man he ever met,
and he needed somebody sly
to help him solve his problem.
Well, I'm not about to
be a victim.
I can't afford you
in the first place.
You know, I used to
gouge widows and orphans,
but the trouble with that is
after you lock them out,
they whine so bad,
kind of takes
the fun out of it.
That's exactly what I mean.
That kind of flip talk
doesn't impress me.
You know, Shana,
you're a very pretty girl.
You're also very tiresome.
Last night,
you came at me with a gun,
then you begged me
to help you.
Now you're treating me
like any minute
I'm gonna snatch
your purse and push you
out into traffic.
If you feel that way about it,
why did you take the case?
I'm not sure.
Well, I'm sorry
if you find me so tiresome.
I think you remind me
of your father.
I'm gonna take that
as a compliment.
Take it any way you want.
Here, you want this
for your files or what?
You keep it.
You sure now?
I mean, it's in pencil.
I could erase it
and change all the numbers.
I'm not gonna let you
provoke me.
Morgan's Rest is about
20 minutes from here.
MAN: Yes, sir.
I've been in so many houses
like this all over the world.
Different,
somehow the same.
Those are
his campaign ribbons.
When we were at Fort Benton,
I used to play with them,
and I lost the one
from Corregidor,
and he gave me
such a spanking.
I used to sit
and look at them,
look at all that glory,
and I would try to imagine him
there at those battles.
But now they look
sort of garish and silly.
I suppose that amuses you.
Hey, relax. I'm not gonna
jump on you for that.
I think they look
a little garish myself.
Why did we have to come here?
We're gonna have to
go through this place,
Shana.
See if we can try and find
something that will
tell us who Terry is.
If we can find Terry,
maybe we can get the answer
to whatever was troubling
your father and slam the lid
on this thing quickly.
I suppose we should
start at the desk drawers.
No. No, you start
at the phone index
and then the address book.
They'd be over here.
That's funny.
Yeah? What?
He always kept that picture
over here on the desk.
He's had 10 different quarters
that I can remember, and
he always kept it over here.
There's something else.
He's got his fatigue pants
hanging on the same hanger
with his dress shirt.
Why? Why would he do that?
Well, I'm not
altogether sure he did.
Just may be that somebody
searched this place
and when they put it
back together, they put it
back together wrong.
What do you think
they were looking for?
Well, I don't know.
Probably the same thing
we are.
The only advantage
they have is they
probably know what it is.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
Harvey.
Shana. Shana, honey.
Oh, Shana, I'm...
I'm so sick about the Colonel,
I don't know what to tell you
except that, well,
you know, my loss is
almost as great as yours.
I know.
Sergeant Slate, this is Mr...
Sanderson.
Sanderson.
Oh, Mr. Sanderson.
Rock Sanderson, is it?
Yeah, that's right.
It's a little nickname.
It kind of hung over.
I used to do
a little amateur fighting,
you know.
No, it's okay, Jim.
We can trust Harvey.
You see, that is, Jim and I...
Of course we can, Shana.
Of course we can.
Look, what Shana's
trying to say is that...
Well, we're about to
become engaged.
In about six weeks,
I'll have tenure,
and when you have tenure,
well, you've got
a lifetime of security.
Tenure is when
they can't fire you.
It's sort of like signing up
for a lifetime hitch.
Right. Right, Sergeant.
Hey, that's right.
Sergeant, we want to
thank you for coming by.
Well, I was
up at Major Hopkins' office
when a guard
on the gate called,
so I just came on down.
Now, Shana, it's
perfectly all right for you
to stay here on the base,
but I'm afraid
Mr. Sanderson here'll
have to get a room in town.
Oh, that's what we were
planning on, Sergeant.
Thank you.
All right. Well,
Shana, if there's
anything at all I can
do for you, anything,
all you have to do
is call me, you know that.
I know.
I thought I told you
that we could trust Harvey.
Do you know how many years
Harvey Slate has been
with my father?
Do you know how many campaigns
they've been through together?
Yeah. Well,
he missed the one
I was in.
I'm gonna have to
find out how
he managed that.
I tried six or seven
different ways
and I ended up in a foxhole
about 400 yards
from the enemy.
One of my classic failures.
Are you going to continue
with this kind of talk?
I think you're doing it
just to infuriate me.
My father
was a great soldier,
and you spent the entire war
trying to find ways to go
AWOL without getting caught.
Hey, I'm sorry. I...
I'm not trying to bait you.
You hated him, didn't you?
You hated Daddy.
I said I'm sorry.
You want a signed confession?
Oh, brother.
Just what I need.
Hey.
Shana, I said I would help.
Sure.
I have my reasons.
I'm not doing it just for you.
I'm doing it for me, too.
Why?
Shana, your father
was a military Boy Scout,
complete with a.45
with notches in the handle.
Now it's a mistake
to look at campaign ribbons
and battle records
and try and judge him.
If you feel grief
for the man who
bounced you on his knee
and went out
and bought dresses for you
and took you
out to the park,
that's fine, that's great.
But why mourn
a military record?
Leave that to the men
who write obituaries.
You get out of here
right now!
Well, it looks like
we're just stepping on
each other's ghosts.
I'll be at the Seaside Motel.
But he was my father.
Evening.
How's that?
What is this, Officer?
What have I done?
Spread out against that wall,
please.
I said what have I done,
Officer?
First of all, you ain't
moving fast enough to suit me.
Do you mind
reading me my rights?
You're in
a lot a trouble, mister.
Do yourself a big favor.
Don't go provoking me.
Look, Officer, I'm in town
for Colonel Bowie's funeral.
We served together
in Korea.
Now, if I'd known
that was against the law,
I would've just sent a card.
I don't understand
what you think I've done.
You're gonna find out
soon enough.
You country cops
hand me a laugh.
Everything gonna be all right.
We're gonna have ourselves
a real ball.
WEBSTER: (ON SPEAKER)
We better get a few things
straightened out here,
hadn't we, hoss?
You don't mind
if I don't give you
your rights just yet, do you?
ROCKFORD: This is not exactly
what I expected.
You expect me
to take you downtown
and let you get some
hot-shot lawyer
to protect you.
I got my own ways
of dealing with trash
like you.
Sanderson, hmm?
WEBSTER: James Sanderson.
What you doing
in Morgan's Rest, Jim?
I told you. I'm here
for Colonel Bowie's funeral.
(GRUNTING)
Now, look...
Ah, he's blowing it.
(CAR HORN HONKING)
Don't go away.
I got my eye on you.
I think I'm gonna
fix him up where
he walks funny.
I can make him
come clean.
Billy, let me see that wallet.
WEBSTER: I think
it's a fake ID, Mr. Davis.
DAVIS: Well, if this
gentleman is legitimate, who's
the private investigator?
SLATE: I don't know.
Got a guy in the provost
marshal's office in LA.
Now he had coffee
with Shana Bowie,
and she said she was
gonna get some help.
I figured she'd hire some guy.
But what if
Mr. Sanderson's from CID?
SLATE: No, no.
He's not from CID, Mr. Davis.
I'm into the computer.
I know what's going on there.
DAVIS: Billy,
we got a shipment of 5.56
going out tomorrow.
I want you to go back
to that gentleman
and take him by the collar
and toss him up in the air.
When he comes down,
I want him moving out of town.
I think I'll bust him up.
That way he'll keep moving,
Mr. Davis.
You bust him up, Billy,
and I'll let our friend
Harvey here bust you up.
You understand?
Yeah.
You chicken-hearted cops
really get me.
You take off these cuffs,
and I'll club your head
down between your knees.
You're nothing
but a tub of guts
with a big mouth.
What did you say?
You heard me, rumdum.
Want me to mess you up?
You'd have trouble
messing up a bed.
You're leaving Morgan's Rest,
and you ain't even gonna stop
to get your toothbrush.
Now you let me
catch you here tomorrow,
I'll come down on you
so hard, you'll have to
reach up to tie your shoes.
That's very colorful, but
I just don't think you can
cut it, Billy Webster.
I'd purely like to drive you
into the hard ground.
(HANDCUFFS CLICKING)
(GRUNTING)
(WEBSTER GRUNTING)
(CAR HORN HONKING)
(WHOOPING)
Well, I guess
you got the message
that time, didn't you?
Hi. You're a little jumpy.
(SIGHING)
I was in the coffee shop.
When I saw you, I came over.
I'm sorry if I startled you.
Well, that's okay,
I'll get over it.
What are you doing here?
It's really nice in here
on the inside.
Color TV. Everything.
Maybe I ought to
check in here,
and that way
I could eat
at the coffee shop and...
Look, leave me alone,
will you?
I haven't said anything.
I can't stand it over there.
I'm confused.
It's okay.
Everybody gets confused.
He never did.
Except for that one time
last week
when he came to me
and he asked me to help,
and I wanted to help him,
but he wouldn't let me.
Sometimes it works that way.
You know, you can't
write the scenes
and direct the action
just for you, Shana.
Boy, you're really big
on amateur psychology,
aren't you?
Well, don't feel guilty
about it.
And every time I do it,
I add it onto the bill.
What makes you think
you have all the answers?
Look, Shana.
Let's not tear
at one another,
all right?
Your father was whatever
you wanted him to be.
He never took me
to the park
or out to buy dresses.
He left us,
Mother and me,
for months and months
on end,
and all he sent back
was money and
Japanese swords.
I wanted him
to be proud of me,
but he was never there.
So instead I studied
and I studied and I studied.
Hey, you don't have to
explain it.
Yes, I do.
I think that everything
I don't like about myself
is tied up with it.
You know why I'm
an assistant professor
at the university?
'Cause you like it?
Because it's safe.
It's safe and it's stale.
He didn't love us.
When my mother died,
he came back from Korea
and he put me
in a private school,
then he went back.
He didn't love us.
All my life I've been
trying to get passing marks
from a man who didn't care.
And I've let it ruin my life.
I've become a fossil.
I don't expect you
want a comment from me.
Maybe. Maybe not.
Well, I've known
a lot of men like your father.
Don't be too hard on him.
He was very good
at being a soldier,
and he had a rough time
with people.
That rule book
was his lifeline.
Told him how he should act.
You break a rule,
you go to the stockade
or you don't get to go
to the park on Sunday.
And you break the rules?
No, no.
I bend them,
and I hope to win
some of the close calls.
Is this yours?
Are you just allowed
to carry that around?
That?
I never saw that
before in my life.
The maid must have
left that here.
You know, for somebody
I can't stand, I'm becoming
awfully fond of you.
And I just had a feeling
about Deputy Webster,
so I checked
the sheriff's office in town.
There's no Billy Webster
on the department.
How did you know
he wasn't a cop?
Well, my car was parked
outside the room at the motel,
and he never ran a make
on the license plate.
Now, every cop does it.
It's just routine.
If he'd done that,
he'd have known my name
wasn't Sanderson.
What did
the Chief of Police do?
Well, what could he do?
He filed
the assault and battery.
It sounds unreal.
Who do you think
they were?
Well, I don't know.
A somebody named Mr. Davis.
Well, I went through the book.
Dwight Davis,
4045 Margate Road.
Alice Davis,
1600 Pacific Coast Highway.
And there is no
Billy Webster or B. Webster
or anything like that.
Well, it doesn't make
any difference.
He was so eager to give me
his name, it'll probably
turn out to be an alias.
Oh, hey, do you know
what 5.56 is?
No. Why?
Well, Mr. Davis said
something about
5.56 going out
tomorrow afternoon.
It sounded kind of important.
If it had anything
to do with my father,
it had something
to do with the base.
Did you find out
who Terry was?
No.
I searched through
my father's quarters.
I couldn't find a clue.
I'm gonna go back there.
I'm gonna go back
to my father's quarters.
You sure you want to?
I could get you a room here.
I have to.
After all, what good is it
to step on your ghosts
if you don't kill them?
Good girl.
So?
I still don't know
nothing about it.
ROCKFORD: Well,
it's a black limousine,
registered to a Mr. Davis.
Hey, look, pal,
I'm just working
an insurance claim.
You wanna get hostile,
it's all right with me.
I'll just refer it
back to the main office
and they'll
take care of it
through the regular
police authorities.
But, you know,
you're better off
dealing with me.
Now maybe
you don't know it,
but when you bang up
a parked car in a parking lot
and take off,
the official police charge
is hit-and-run.
Well, I ain't got
no black limo.
And so help me, if that
Alice has gone and took
one of them cemetery limos,
Quenton's gonna
skin her alive.
Well, you think maybe
somebody named Alice did it?
Yeah. Alice or Terry.
One or the other.
You can go ahead
and check on that.
I tell you, mister,
you try and be responsible
for your kin,
and you're gonna get
plowed under every time.
That Alice been getting
in trouble ever since
she was 16 years old.
Quenton give her a job, too.
Her uncle give her a job.
She ain't gonna change none.
Not one bit.
This Terry, who's Terry?
Terry. Oh, yeah.
Well, Terry,
that's her girlfriend.
She been... She been messing
with that Sergeant Slate.
They was all the time
getting drunk.
She and Alice been living
with us for a while.
I throwed them both out.
She's living in
one of them apartments
down at 1600.
Down the highway there. Yeah.
You go talk
to Alice or Terry,
and you're gonna find
your hit-and-run driver.
Them girls is wild, wild,
and they're no good!
No good!
Bingo.
Main gate.
Hi.
This is Professor Sanderson.
I was trying
to locate Miss Bowie.
GUARD: Look, Mr. Sanderson,
I'm afraid I can't help you.
Oh, well, is she in for it.
I mean, I got two calls
from Dean Whitmore's office,
and the substitute she got
to teach her Artifacts
and Digging Techniques class
can't make heads nor tails
out of her notes,
and they're about
to hang her in effigy.
Look, Professor Sanderson,
I can't tell you
where she went
because I don't know.
She left here with
Sergeant Slate in 2424.
The what?
It's the number of the car
from the motor pool.
They left about an hour ago.
2424. Thank you.
(PHONE RINGING)
Is Quenton Davis in?
Oh, he's not here.
Mahogany Hall?
Yeah. It's terrible, isn't it?
But I didn't invent it.
I just work for them.
Well, it's like
I told Quenton,
Mahogany Hall is
the oak-lined library
of slumber chambers.
Hey, that's kind of cute.
Yeah. Hey,
I'll bet you're Alice.
Quenton told me he had
a good-Iooking niece
named Alice.
No, Alice is in Los Angeles.
Then you must be Terry.
Well, yes. How did you know?
Well, I know that because
I'm an old friend
of Colonel Bowie's,
and he told me he was having
a little affair with you.
Hold it. Hold it.
Just leave me alone,
just get away from me.
Wait a minute now.
You're in
a lot of trouble, Terry.
I happen to know
you're in on it.
You're an accessory
to Colonel Bowie's murder.
Now, he came to you
and he told you
his fears about what was
happening on the base,
and you fingered him
for Slate and Davis,
and they killed him.
I didn't know they were
gonna kill him.
I swear it.
What were you, a decoy?
How did they work that?
Look, you can either tell me
or the cops.
You make up your own mind.
Two months ago,
they told me to go
to the Seasider bar.
It's a place where
military people go.
Harvey Slate was there
with the Colonel,
and I was supposed to
come on to him
and set up a relationship.
And it wasn't too difficult.
I mean, he...
He was a very brusque man
and he didn't get along
with girls very well.
So, when I
aimed myself at him,
he just sort of fell
in the basket.
Why?
Come on, Terry. Keep it up.
You're doing fine.
They're smuggling things
off the base.
Weapons and stuff in hearses.
Harvey was afraid
that the Colonel
would find out.
He was pretty alert
to the personnel records,
so whenever they wanted
to stage a funeral,
I'd make a date
with Colonel Bowie,
and we'd go to San Francisco
for the weekend.
I'd just get him out of town.
But he caught on that
something was happening.
He came to you and told you,
not knowing you were in on it?
I didn't know they were
gonna kill him.
I swear it, I didn't.
HOPKINS: What do you think
you're pulling with this
assistant professor routine?
Rockford, I've just about
had it with you.
Are you gonna listen to me,
or you gonna exercise
your mouth?
I'm trying to tell you that
something called 5.56
is being smuggled
off this base.
Sergeant Slate
and a group of morticians
have been working the smuggle
and doing it
for several months.
Slate. Harvey Slate?
Harvey Slate.
That fits.
That sure as hell fits.
A funeral, huh? Of course.
All they had to do
was get Colonel Bowie
to look the other way.
What's a 5.56?
It's a new kind of ammo.
Fits in the new M-16 rifle.
It's the 5.56 mm.
Well, there's a funeral
going down today.
Now, what they've been doing
is putting the stuff
in the hearse
with the bodies
of the dead soldiers
that die on the base
and smuggling it out.
Oh, no.
That's not what they're doing.
It's even better than that.
Hello. Is there a hearse
on the base picking up
a casket right now?
How long ago?
Look, I need
a helicopter,
three MPs
and a pilot,
and I need them
five minutes ago.
And get me
the Chief of Police.
I'm going
with you, Colonel.
No, you're not.
Oh, yes, I am.
You try to stop me, you're
gonna get bloody trying.
Give me a reason why.
Well, because I think
Colonel Bowie's daughter
is with them as a hostage,
and, well...
I told you, I read your file.
You owe him one, don't you?
That's right.
Maybe you're okay.
Just maybe.
Okay, that's far enough
on the Coast Highway.
They couldn't have
made it this far.
Double back and take
Route 12 inland,
and then we'll check the pass
and try the roads south.
ROCKFORD: Okay, Colonel,
it's great to look smart,
but how about letting me
in on the rest of it?
I never thought that
Colonel Bowie's death
was an accident.
I merely said so
to take the heat off.
We've been losing
a lot of weaponry,
and I was sent down here
from Washington
to look into it.
First we thought
Colonel Bowie was involved,
but he was innocent.
It was Sergeant Slate.
Cooked the whole thing up.
Did it have anything
to do with a computer?
How'd you know that?
They were creating military
files for fictitious soldiers
and running them
through the computer system.
All the code numbers were
keyed back here
to the Morgan Rest computer.
When they needed
a shipment to go out,
they couldn't count on a
convenient death at the base,
so they killed off one
of their fictitious soldiers.
It wasn't until this morning
that I managed to break down
the computer codes
and figured out
the fictitious soldier angle.
Then you came in
with that funeral,
the rest of the pieces
of the puzzle fell together.
Okay. There they are.
All right, let's just sit on
them and see where it goes.
We'll seal off that road.
I'm gonna set two of you down
at the mouth of the road,
and I'll take the barn.
If they got an M-16 and
ammo in there, it's gonna be
one hell of a firefight.
Did you ever qualify
for an automatic rifle?
Colonel, I always try
to avoid gunplay.
It's kind of a religion.
If it's absolutely
necessary, give me
a.45 or something.
Norfolk, give me a.45.
Safety's on the right.
No kidding.
SLATE: How'd it go, Billy?
Like a champ.
Don't do that.
What?
Don't do that!
All right. Out.
We have to get a chopper
down here for Webster.
He's bleeding bad,
but he's okay.
I saw that John Wayne
shootout, Rockford.
You're okay.
You're gonna work out fine.
Thanks a lot, Colonel.
Let's go.
All right.
Just like my father.
That's exactly what
Daddy would've said.
HOPKINS: Well, he was a hell
of a soldier, your father.
Ask Rockford sometime
what happened in Pusan.
Your father was the best.
If you ever need anything,
you just call.
I'm gonna personally see
they expedite everything,
the GI insurance,
everything.
Thank you, Colonel.
Thank you.
Why?
Why did you do it?
I knew you and Daddy
didn't get along,
but you risked your life
to save me and to prove
who killed him.
Oh, I have my reasons.
Tell me about Pusan.
What happened there?
Oh, it's really
kind of dreary, Shana.
It's another one of those
"there I was" stories.
What?
You know, there I was,
surrounded by 50,000 Indians
and my guns jammed.
Only in my case, it was
just a North Korean patrol.
I got hit a couple of days
before in the leg,
and the wound was getting
kind of nasty.
I kept passing out.
Well, I kept poking
the butt of the rifle
in the wound
just to stay awake.
Been out too long,
well, I'd have been dead.
I heard all this gunfire,
and North Koreans were
dropping right and left.
I looked up,
there was your father.
He wasn't a colonel then,
he was a major,
but he came back for me.
Nobody else was
willing to try.
It looked too much
like suicide.
There were Koreans
all over that hill.
He came back for me,
and he was
the commanding officer.
Thought a lot about it
since then,
but I never quite
understood why he did it.
So maybe that's
the last ghost
left to kill, huh?
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it is.
they'll put a shovel
in your hands
and point you
to hard ground.
That's the Army way.
Hi. You're a little jumpy.
Hello, Colonel.
You're making a bad mistake,
Harvey.
You take off these cuffs,
and I'll club your head
down between your knees.
You know, for somebody
I can't stand, I'm becoming
awfully fond of you.
You know, the nice thing
about being a civilian
is you outrank
lieutenants and colonels.
Who does the draft board
bother with people like you?
(PHONE RINGING)
ROCKFORD:
(ON ANSWERING MACHINE)
This is Jim Rockford.
At the tone, leave your name
and message.
I'll get back to you.
(BEEPS)
Jim, it's Maria
over at the laundromat.
There's a yellow dress
in with your things.
Is that a mistake
or a special handling
or what?
ROCKFORD:
(ON ANSWERING MACHINE)
Jim Rockford.
At the tone, leave your name
and message.
I'll get back to you.
(BEEPS)
Jim, this is
Colonel Daniel Hart Bowie.
It's important
that I speak to you
right away.
I can't stay at this phone,
so call me at 555-3465
as soon as you get in.
I'll be standing
by that phone.
(POLICE SIREN BLARING)
Sorry, Officer. I guess
I was speeding a little.
Yeah, sure were, Colonel.
Wanna move up here
out of the road, please?
Had some other things
on my mind.
I wasn't paying
too much attention
to what was happening.
What is this?
Wanna spread out there
on the jeep, Colonel?
You wanna do it now,
Colonel,
or you want me
to put this night stick
upside your head?
(HANDCUFFS CLICKING)
(SIGHING)
Okay, I got him.
How much are they
paying you for this?
Oh, it's not the money
that counts, Colonel.
Most of it's just
plain, old-fashioned,
pure satisfaction,
knowing
you got a job to do
and you're doing it well.
It's a booger,
ain't it, Colonel?
(CAR APPROACHING)
Hello, Colonel.
You're making a bad mistake,
Harvey.
That's something
I've always wanted to do.
Always wanted to do.
Okay, wanna
come along with me,
Colonel?
(SARCASTICALLY) Sir.
Quenton?
Hello, Colonel.
Oh, now it makes sense.
I should've figured it.
Oh, I think
you would have,
eventually.
Let's go, Harvey.
ROCKY: I think somebody's
throwing rubbish off the pier
in the afternoon.
Polluting the water,
that's what they're doing,
by golly.
You ought to put up
some signs or something.
Hey, you want yours
fried or filleted?
Are you kidding?
I ain't gonna eat
no little baby fish.
I'm no cradle robber.
Well, good. I'll fillet it
and have it myself.
Fried. I'll have it fried.
Hey, Rocky, would you
get my messages, please?
Yeah.
No, no kidding, we ought to
go get us some of those
"No Dumping" signs,
and take them up there
and post them.
Hey, maybe even phony up
some ordinance number.
(COLONEL SPEAKING)
You know, "If you dump here,
you're gonna be arrested
"under Ordinance Number 564,"
or something like that.
(COLONEL SPEAKING)
Hold it.
Jim, this is
Colonel Daniel Hart Bowie.
It's important
that I speak to you
right away.
I can't stay at this phone,
so call me at 555-3465
as soon as you get in.
I'll be standing
by that phone.
Bowie? Say, ain't that
the fellow that you...
Yeah, that's the one.
What's he calling you for?
You guys were never
exactly buddies.
Not exactly.
(POUNDING ON DOOR)
Oh, hi, Dennis.
How are you?
Hi, Jim.
What's going on?
Well, we're cooperating
with the military authorities
on a case.
This is Lieutenant Fenton.
He'll tell you all about it.
Hi, Lieutenant.
Yes, sir.
We understand
you've been in touch
with Colonel Bowie.
We would like you to come to
the provost marshal's office.
Yeah. Well, you understand
all wrong, Lieutenant.
I'm not really
into provost marshals
or marshals of any kind.
I don't even
think too much
of Matt Dillon.
I'm really sorry
to hear that, sir, because
I'm going to have to insist.
Jim, this is
Colonel Daniel Hart Bowie.
It's important
that I speak to you
right away.
I can't stay at this phone,
so call me at 555-3465
as soon as you get in.
I'll be standing
by that phone.
There you have it,
Lieutenant.
There's your whole contact,
right there.
Now you're welcome
to take the tape,
but I'm staying right here.
Been reading
this file of yours, Rockford.
It reads like a chapter out of
Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Is that so?
It's a real puzzle.
On the one hand, we have
Sergeant James Rockford,
wounded in action,
Silver Star.
Then six months later,
we have PFC James Rockford,
busted for trading
400 cases of C rations
for a North Korean tank.
Is this going on
much longer?
And then, instead of being
sent to the stockade for
conspiring with the enemy,
you receive
a battlefield promotion
to sergeant again.
It probably doesn't say
that Colonel Bowie asked me
to scrounge a tank
that we needed to blow our way
out of a pocket.
I'm sure Colonel Bowie
intended for you to scrounge
one of our tanks
from one of our units.
As I remember,
he wasn't terribly specific.
Then again,
we have PFC James Rockford,
busted for setting up
a string of pool halls
in Pusan,
and stealing
a major general's staff car
from in front of
the Seoul Korean Hilton.
Why didn't you just
get a zipper for those
sergeant stripes?
Okay, Colonel.
You've qualified as a really
first-rate smart mouth.
Now let me out of here.
I listened
to your answer-phone tapes.
I suppose you're gonna tell me
that's all the contact
you had with Colonel Bowie.
You got it.
Well, I'm not inclined
to believe anyone
who would have the gall
to trade Army supplies
for enemy weaponry.
Don't forget you're dealing
with a civilian, Colonel.
You know, the nice thing
about being a civilian
is you outrank
lieutenants and colonels.
Now, unless you've got
some very nice workable
charge to hang on me,
you just don't have a lever.
Why does the draft board
bother with people like you?
That's priceless.
All right,
we'll try another tack.
Colonel Daniel Hart Bowie
was a friend of mine.
Was?
He's dead.
His jeep turned over
on the road north of Seaside.
When we found him,
he had your phone number
in his uniform pocket.
What's the story, Rockford?
Why would Colonel Bowie wanna
look up his old scrounger
20 years later?
Well, maybe he needed
another North Korean tank.
Are you trying to bait me?
Whatever turns you on,
Colonel.
Okay, Rockford.
Mister Rockford.
You understand
the military has
jurisdiction over this case.
But if we decide
something happened
to Colonel Bowie,
it'll be a case
for the civilian authorities,
in which case
you will be in
up to your neck!
Well, this may
come as a surprise
to you, Colonel,
but even though
Bowie and I didn't get along,
I did respect him.
I might even have liked him.
That doesn't surprise me.
I told you,
I read your whole file.
(BUZZER BUZZING)
ROCKY: Will you relax, Jimmy?
I am relaxed.
Oh, sure you are.
You are about to
fry your fish
instead of filleting it
like you generally do.
(POUNDING ON DOOR)
I'll get it.
Hi, I'd like to speak
to Rockford, please.
Oh, good, good. Come on in.
You're just what he needed.
You bet. Hey, Jim,
you got a visitor.
Pretty, too.
Might cheer
you up, huh?
What did he tell you?
Hey, wait a minute.
I wanna know what he told you.
What did he tell you?
Come on.
Put that thing away.
What did he tell you?
You're Shana, right?
How do you know?
Well, because Colonel Bowie
had a daughter named Shana
who would be about your age.
And I recognize
this chrome-plated pop gun.
It belonged to your father.
No bullets.
Sit down.
What did he tell you?
Please, I've gotta know.
All right. Here.
Jim, this is
Colonel Daniel Hart Bowie.
It's important
that I speak to you
right away.
I can't stay at this phone,
so call me at 555-3465
as soon as you get in.
I'll be standing
by that phone.
But Colonel Hopkins
said that you talked to him.
Well, I didn't.
I just can't seem
to get Colonel Hopkins to...
Oh, Miss...
Oh, I'm Jimmy's father.
I can tell you,
he never talked to your pa.
He was out on the pier
fishing with me
when that message came in.
Why did he call you?
Why didn't he call me?
I could have helped him.
What are you talking about?
He didn't
put that jeep over by mistake.
He was killed.
Well, what makes you say that?
Well...
about a week ago,
he came to see me
over at the university.
I'm an assistant professor
of archeology at USC.
And we were gonna
go out to dinner together,
and he was
in his civilian clothes,
and he was very nervous.
And he was very upset,
and it was...
You remember
his drinking habits,
don't you?
Yeah. Yeah.
A glass of wine
before dinner
and that was it.
Right.
Well, last week at dinner,
he was drinking
hard liquor and a lot of it.
And something was
going wrong in his life.
I mean,
something was very bad.
And I...
He wouldn't
discuss it with me.
I kept trying to get him
to tell me what was going on,
and he said that he would
finally discuss it with Terry.
Who's Terry?
I don't know.
But when he left
at 12:30 at night,
he was very drunk
and he was
afraid of something.
Well, it wasn't death.
Colonel Bowie was never
afraid of death.
If he called you,
then he must have felt that
you could help him the most.
Well...
You see,
the MPs are working on it,
and I never mess around
with anything that the
authorities are involved in.
Didn't you tell all this
to Colonel Hopkins?
Of course.
And?
Didn't seem to impress him.
Well, as long as
the MPs are involved,
I really can't touch it.
You see, I'm not
getting along too well
with Colonel Hopkins, anyway.
But what if they close it?
What if they call it
an accident?
Would you help me then?
Oh, well...
Jim, you...
You ain't thinking
about going around messing
with the Army again?
You mess with the Army,
they'll put a shovel
in your hands
and point you
to hard ground.
That's the Army way.
I'm not gonna
mess around with this,
Rocky.
Come on, do you think
I'm gonna mess around with
something like this? No way.
Now, look, Miss Bowie...
Shana. I...
Well, I'm just
not available.
That's final.
MAN: Yes, sir.
I will want to keep
your expense receipts.
Fine.
And if we're gonna
keep double entry books,
don't forget the coffee.
That's 10 cents extra.
I've heard all about you
from my father, Mr. Rockford.
Obviously, he called you
because you're the trickiest
man he ever met,
and he needed somebody sly
to help him solve his problem.
Well, I'm not about to
be a victim.
I can't afford you
in the first place.
You know, I used to
gouge widows and orphans,
but the trouble with that is
after you lock them out,
they whine so bad,
kind of takes
the fun out of it.
That's exactly what I mean.
That kind of flip talk
doesn't impress me.
You know, Shana,
you're a very pretty girl.
You're also very tiresome.
Last night,
you came at me with a gun,
then you begged me
to help you.
Now you're treating me
like any minute
I'm gonna snatch
your purse and push you
out into traffic.
If you feel that way about it,
why did you take the case?
I'm not sure.
Well, I'm sorry
if you find me so tiresome.
I think you remind me
of your father.
I'm gonna take that
as a compliment.
Take it any way you want.
Here, you want this
for your files or what?
You keep it.
You sure now?
I mean, it's in pencil.
I could erase it
and change all the numbers.
I'm not gonna let you
provoke me.
Morgan's Rest is about
20 minutes from here.
MAN: Yes, sir.
I've been in so many houses
like this all over the world.
Different,
somehow the same.
Those are
his campaign ribbons.
When we were at Fort Benton,
I used to play with them,
and I lost the one
from Corregidor,
and he gave me
such a spanking.
I used to sit
and look at them,
look at all that glory,
and I would try to imagine him
there at those battles.
But now they look
sort of garish and silly.
I suppose that amuses you.
Hey, relax. I'm not gonna
jump on you for that.
I think they look
a little garish myself.
Why did we have to come here?
We're gonna have to
go through this place,
Shana.
See if we can try and find
something that will
tell us who Terry is.
If we can find Terry,
maybe we can get the answer
to whatever was troubling
your father and slam the lid
on this thing quickly.
I suppose we should
start at the desk drawers.
No. No, you start
at the phone index
and then the address book.
They'd be over here.
That's funny.
Yeah? What?
He always kept that picture
over here on the desk.
He's had 10 different quarters
that I can remember, and
he always kept it over here.
There's something else.
He's got his fatigue pants
hanging on the same hanger
with his dress shirt.
Why? Why would he do that?
Well, I'm not
altogether sure he did.
Just may be that somebody
searched this place
and when they put it
back together, they put it
back together wrong.
What do you think
they were looking for?
Well, I don't know.
Probably the same thing
we are.
The only advantage
they have is they
probably know what it is.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
Harvey.
Shana. Shana, honey.
Oh, Shana, I'm...
I'm so sick about the Colonel,
I don't know what to tell you
except that, well,
you know, my loss is
almost as great as yours.
I know.
Sergeant Slate, this is Mr...
Sanderson.
Sanderson.
Oh, Mr. Sanderson.
Rock Sanderson, is it?
Yeah, that's right.
It's a little nickname.
It kind of hung over.
I used to do
a little amateur fighting,
you know.
No, it's okay, Jim.
We can trust Harvey.
You see, that is, Jim and I...
Of course we can, Shana.
Of course we can.
Look, what Shana's
trying to say is that...
Well, we're about to
become engaged.
In about six weeks,
I'll have tenure,
and when you have tenure,
well, you've got
a lifetime of security.
Tenure is when
they can't fire you.
It's sort of like signing up
for a lifetime hitch.
Right. Right, Sergeant.
Hey, that's right.
Sergeant, we want to
thank you for coming by.
Well, I was
up at Major Hopkins' office
when a guard
on the gate called,
so I just came on down.
Now, Shana, it's
perfectly all right for you
to stay here on the base,
but I'm afraid
Mr. Sanderson here'll
have to get a room in town.
Oh, that's what we were
planning on, Sergeant.
Thank you.
All right. Well,
Shana, if there's
anything at all I can
do for you, anything,
all you have to do
is call me, you know that.
I know.
I thought I told you
that we could trust Harvey.
Do you know how many years
Harvey Slate has been
with my father?
Do you know how many campaigns
they've been through together?
Yeah. Well,
he missed the one
I was in.
I'm gonna have to
find out how
he managed that.
I tried six or seven
different ways
and I ended up in a foxhole
about 400 yards
from the enemy.
One of my classic failures.
Are you going to continue
with this kind of talk?
I think you're doing it
just to infuriate me.
My father
was a great soldier,
and you spent the entire war
trying to find ways to go
AWOL without getting caught.
Hey, I'm sorry. I...
I'm not trying to bait you.
You hated him, didn't you?
You hated Daddy.
I said I'm sorry.
You want a signed confession?
Oh, brother.
Just what I need.
Hey.
Shana, I said I would help.
Sure.
I have my reasons.
I'm not doing it just for you.
I'm doing it for me, too.
Why?
Shana, your father
was a military Boy Scout,
complete with a.45
with notches in the handle.
Now it's a mistake
to look at campaign ribbons
and battle records
and try and judge him.
If you feel grief
for the man who
bounced you on his knee
and went out
and bought dresses for you
and took you
out to the park,
that's fine, that's great.
But why mourn
a military record?
Leave that to the men
who write obituaries.
You get out of here
right now!
Well, it looks like
we're just stepping on
each other's ghosts.
I'll be at the Seaside Motel.
But he was my father.
Evening.
How's that?
What is this, Officer?
What have I done?
Spread out against that wall,
please.
I said what have I done,
Officer?
First of all, you ain't
moving fast enough to suit me.
Do you mind
reading me my rights?
You're in
a lot a trouble, mister.
Do yourself a big favor.
Don't go provoking me.
Look, Officer, I'm in town
for Colonel Bowie's funeral.
We served together
in Korea.
Now, if I'd known
that was against the law,
I would've just sent a card.
I don't understand
what you think I've done.
You're gonna find out
soon enough.
You country cops
hand me a laugh.
Everything gonna be all right.
We're gonna have ourselves
a real ball.
WEBSTER: (ON SPEAKER)
We better get a few things
straightened out here,
hadn't we, hoss?
You don't mind
if I don't give you
your rights just yet, do you?
ROCKFORD: This is not exactly
what I expected.
You expect me
to take you downtown
and let you get some
hot-shot lawyer
to protect you.
I got my own ways
of dealing with trash
like you.
Sanderson, hmm?
WEBSTER: James Sanderson.
What you doing
in Morgan's Rest, Jim?
I told you. I'm here
for Colonel Bowie's funeral.
(GRUNTING)
Now, look...
Ah, he's blowing it.
(CAR HORN HONKING)
Don't go away.
I got my eye on you.
I think I'm gonna
fix him up where
he walks funny.
I can make him
come clean.
Billy, let me see that wallet.
WEBSTER: I think
it's a fake ID, Mr. Davis.
DAVIS: Well, if this
gentleman is legitimate, who's
the private investigator?
SLATE: I don't know.
Got a guy in the provost
marshal's office in LA.
Now he had coffee
with Shana Bowie,
and she said she was
gonna get some help.
I figured she'd hire some guy.
But what if
Mr. Sanderson's from CID?
SLATE: No, no.
He's not from CID, Mr. Davis.
I'm into the computer.
I know what's going on there.
DAVIS: Billy,
we got a shipment of 5.56
going out tomorrow.
I want you to go back
to that gentleman
and take him by the collar
and toss him up in the air.
When he comes down,
I want him moving out of town.
I think I'll bust him up.
That way he'll keep moving,
Mr. Davis.
You bust him up, Billy,
and I'll let our friend
Harvey here bust you up.
You understand?
Yeah.
You chicken-hearted cops
really get me.
You take off these cuffs,
and I'll club your head
down between your knees.
You're nothing
but a tub of guts
with a big mouth.
What did you say?
You heard me, rumdum.
Want me to mess you up?
You'd have trouble
messing up a bed.
You're leaving Morgan's Rest,
and you ain't even gonna stop
to get your toothbrush.
Now you let me
catch you here tomorrow,
I'll come down on you
so hard, you'll have to
reach up to tie your shoes.
That's very colorful, but
I just don't think you can
cut it, Billy Webster.
I'd purely like to drive you
into the hard ground.
(HANDCUFFS CLICKING)
(GRUNTING)
(WEBSTER GRUNTING)
(CAR HORN HONKING)
(WHOOPING)
Well, I guess
you got the message
that time, didn't you?
Hi. You're a little jumpy.
(SIGHING)
I was in the coffee shop.
When I saw you, I came over.
I'm sorry if I startled you.
Well, that's okay,
I'll get over it.
What are you doing here?
It's really nice in here
on the inside.
Color TV. Everything.
Maybe I ought to
check in here,
and that way
I could eat
at the coffee shop and...
Look, leave me alone,
will you?
I haven't said anything.
I can't stand it over there.
I'm confused.
It's okay.
Everybody gets confused.
He never did.
Except for that one time
last week
when he came to me
and he asked me to help,
and I wanted to help him,
but he wouldn't let me.
Sometimes it works that way.
You know, you can't
write the scenes
and direct the action
just for you, Shana.
Boy, you're really big
on amateur psychology,
aren't you?
Well, don't feel guilty
about it.
And every time I do it,
I add it onto the bill.
What makes you think
you have all the answers?
Look, Shana.
Let's not tear
at one another,
all right?
Your father was whatever
you wanted him to be.
He never took me
to the park
or out to buy dresses.
He left us,
Mother and me,
for months and months
on end,
and all he sent back
was money and
Japanese swords.
I wanted him
to be proud of me,
but he was never there.
So instead I studied
and I studied and I studied.
Hey, you don't have to
explain it.
Yes, I do.
I think that everything
I don't like about myself
is tied up with it.
You know why I'm
an assistant professor
at the university?
'Cause you like it?
Because it's safe.
It's safe and it's stale.
He didn't love us.
When my mother died,
he came back from Korea
and he put me
in a private school,
then he went back.
He didn't love us.
All my life I've been
trying to get passing marks
from a man who didn't care.
And I've let it ruin my life.
I've become a fossil.
I don't expect you
want a comment from me.
Maybe. Maybe not.
Well, I've known
a lot of men like your father.
Don't be too hard on him.
He was very good
at being a soldier,
and he had a rough time
with people.
That rule book
was his lifeline.
Told him how he should act.
You break a rule,
you go to the stockade
or you don't get to go
to the park on Sunday.
And you break the rules?
No, no.
I bend them,
and I hope to win
some of the close calls.
Is this yours?
Are you just allowed
to carry that around?
That?
I never saw that
before in my life.
The maid must have
left that here.
You know, for somebody
I can't stand, I'm becoming
awfully fond of you.
And I just had a feeling
about Deputy Webster,
so I checked
the sheriff's office in town.
There's no Billy Webster
on the department.
How did you know
he wasn't a cop?
Well, my car was parked
outside the room at the motel,
and he never ran a make
on the license plate.
Now, every cop does it.
It's just routine.
If he'd done that,
he'd have known my name
wasn't Sanderson.
What did
the Chief of Police do?
Well, what could he do?
He filed
the assault and battery.
It sounds unreal.
Who do you think
they were?
Well, I don't know.
A somebody named Mr. Davis.
Well, I went through the book.
Dwight Davis,
4045 Margate Road.
Alice Davis,
1600 Pacific Coast Highway.
And there is no
Billy Webster or B. Webster
or anything like that.
Well, it doesn't make
any difference.
He was so eager to give me
his name, it'll probably
turn out to be an alias.
Oh, hey, do you know
what 5.56 is?
No. Why?
Well, Mr. Davis said
something about
5.56 going out
tomorrow afternoon.
It sounded kind of important.
If it had anything
to do with my father,
it had something
to do with the base.
Did you find out
who Terry was?
No.
I searched through
my father's quarters.
I couldn't find a clue.
I'm gonna go back there.
I'm gonna go back
to my father's quarters.
You sure you want to?
I could get you a room here.
I have to.
After all, what good is it
to step on your ghosts
if you don't kill them?
Good girl.
So?
I still don't know
nothing about it.
ROCKFORD: Well,
it's a black limousine,
registered to a Mr. Davis.
Hey, look, pal,
I'm just working
an insurance claim.
You wanna get hostile,
it's all right with me.
I'll just refer it
back to the main office
and they'll
take care of it
through the regular
police authorities.
But, you know,
you're better off
dealing with me.
Now maybe
you don't know it,
but when you bang up
a parked car in a parking lot
and take off,
the official police charge
is hit-and-run.
Well, I ain't got
no black limo.
And so help me, if that
Alice has gone and took
one of them cemetery limos,
Quenton's gonna
skin her alive.
Well, you think maybe
somebody named Alice did it?
Yeah. Alice or Terry.
One or the other.
You can go ahead
and check on that.
I tell you, mister,
you try and be responsible
for your kin,
and you're gonna get
plowed under every time.
That Alice been getting
in trouble ever since
she was 16 years old.
Quenton give her a job, too.
Her uncle give her a job.
She ain't gonna change none.
Not one bit.
This Terry, who's Terry?
Terry. Oh, yeah.
Well, Terry,
that's her girlfriend.
She been... She been messing
with that Sergeant Slate.
They was all the time
getting drunk.
She and Alice been living
with us for a while.
I throwed them both out.
She's living in
one of them apartments
down at 1600.
Down the highway there. Yeah.
You go talk
to Alice or Terry,
and you're gonna find
your hit-and-run driver.
Them girls is wild, wild,
and they're no good!
No good!
Bingo.
Main gate.
Hi.
This is Professor Sanderson.
I was trying
to locate Miss Bowie.
GUARD: Look, Mr. Sanderson,
I'm afraid I can't help you.
Oh, well, is she in for it.
I mean, I got two calls
from Dean Whitmore's office,
and the substitute she got
to teach her Artifacts
and Digging Techniques class
can't make heads nor tails
out of her notes,
and they're about
to hang her in effigy.
Look, Professor Sanderson,
I can't tell you
where she went
because I don't know.
She left here with
Sergeant Slate in 2424.
The what?
It's the number of the car
from the motor pool.
They left about an hour ago.
2424. Thank you.
(PHONE RINGING)
Is Quenton Davis in?
Oh, he's not here.
Mahogany Hall?
Yeah. It's terrible, isn't it?
But I didn't invent it.
I just work for them.
Well, it's like
I told Quenton,
Mahogany Hall is
the oak-lined library
of slumber chambers.
Hey, that's kind of cute.
Yeah. Hey,
I'll bet you're Alice.
Quenton told me he had
a good-Iooking niece
named Alice.
No, Alice is in Los Angeles.
Then you must be Terry.
Well, yes. How did you know?
Well, I know that because
I'm an old friend
of Colonel Bowie's,
and he told me he was having
a little affair with you.
Hold it. Hold it.
Just leave me alone,
just get away from me.
Wait a minute now.
You're in
a lot of trouble, Terry.
I happen to know
you're in on it.
You're an accessory
to Colonel Bowie's murder.
Now, he came to you
and he told you
his fears about what was
happening on the base,
and you fingered him
for Slate and Davis,
and they killed him.
I didn't know they were
gonna kill him.
I swear it.
What were you, a decoy?
How did they work that?
Look, you can either tell me
or the cops.
You make up your own mind.
Two months ago,
they told me to go
to the Seasider bar.
It's a place where
military people go.
Harvey Slate was there
with the Colonel,
and I was supposed to
come on to him
and set up a relationship.
And it wasn't too difficult.
I mean, he...
He was a very brusque man
and he didn't get along
with girls very well.
So, when I
aimed myself at him,
he just sort of fell
in the basket.
Why?
Come on, Terry. Keep it up.
You're doing fine.
They're smuggling things
off the base.
Weapons and stuff in hearses.
Harvey was afraid
that the Colonel
would find out.
He was pretty alert
to the personnel records,
so whenever they wanted
to stage a funeral,
I'd make a date
with Colonel Bowie,
and we'd go to San Francisco
for the weekend.
I'd just get him out of town.
But he caught on that
something was happening.
He came to you and told you,
not knowing you were in on it?
I didn't know they were
gonna kill him.
I swear it, I didn't.
HOPKINS: What do you think
you're pulling with this
assistant professor routine?
Rockford, I've just about
had it with you.
Are you gonna listen to me,
or you gonna exercise
your mouth?
I'm trying to tell you that
something called 5.56
is being smuggled
off this base.
Sergeant Slate
and a group of morticians
have been working the smuggle
and doing it
for several months.
Slate. Harvey Slate?
Harvey Slate.
That fits.
That sure as hell fits.
A funeral, huh? Of course.
All they had to do
was get Colonel Bowie
to look the other way.
What's a 5.56?
It's a new kind of ammo.
Fits in the new M-16 rifle.
It's the 5.56 mm.
Well, there's a funeral
going down today.
Now, what they've been doing
is putting the stuff
in the hearse
with the bodies
of the dead soldiers
that die on the base
and smuggling it out.
Oh, no.
That's not what they're doing.
It's even better than that.
Hello. Is there a hearse
on the base picking up
a casket right now?
How long ago?
Look, I need
a helicopter,
three MPs
and a pilot,
and I need them
five minutes ago.
And get me
the Chief of Police.
I'm going
with you, Colonel.
No, you're not.
Oh, yes, I am.
You try to stop me, you're
gonna get bloody trying.
Give me a reason why.
Well, because I think
Colonel Bowie's daughter
is with them as a hostage,
and, well...
I told you, I read your file.
You owe him one, don't you?
That's right.
Maybe you're okay.
Just maybe.
Okay, that's far enough
on the Coast Highway.
They couldn't have
made it this far.
Double back and take
Route 12 inland,
and then we'll check the pass
and try the roads south.
ROCKFORD: Okay, Colonel,
it's great to look smart,
but how about letting me
in on the rest of it?
I never thought that
Colonel Bowie's death
was an accident.
I merely said so
to take the heat off.
We've been losing
a lot of weaponry,
and I was sent down here
from Washington
to look into it.
First we thought
Colonel Bowie was involved,
but he was innocent.
It was Sergeant Slate.
Cooked the whole thing up.
Did it have anything
to do with a computer?
How'd you know that?
They were creating military
files for fictitious soldiers
and running them
through the computer system.
All the code numbers were
keyed back here
to the Morgan Rest computer.
When they needed
a shipment to go out,
they couldn't count on a
convenient death at the base,
so they killed off one
of their fictitious soldiers.
It wasn't until this morning
that I managed to break down
the computer codes
and figured out
the fictitious soldier angle.
Then you came in
with that funeral,
the rest of the pieces
of the puzzle fell together.
Okay. There they are.
All right, let's just sit on
them and see where it goes.
We'll seal off that road.
I'm gonna set two of you down
at the mouth of the road,
and I'll take the barn.
If they got an M-16 and
ammo in there, it's gonna be
one hell of a firefight.
Did you ever qualify
for an automatic rifle?
Colonel, I always try
to avoid gunplay.
It's kind of a religion.
If it's absolutely
necessary, give me
a.45 or something.
Norfolk, give me a.45.
Safety's on the right.
No kidding.
SLATE: How'd it go, Billy?
Like a champ.
Don't do that.
What?
Don't do that!
All right. Out.
We have to get a chopper
down here for Webster.
He's bleeding bad,
but he's okay.
I saw that John Wayne
shootout, Rockford.
You're okay.
You're gonna work out fine.
Thanks a lot, Colonel.
Let's go.
All right.
Just like my father.
That's exactly what
Daddy would've said.
HOPKINS: Well, he was a hell
of a soldier, your father.
Ask Rockford sometime
what happened in Pusan.
Your father was the best.
If you ever need anything,
you just call.
I'm gonna personally see
they expedite everything,
the GI insurance,
everything.
Thank you, Colonel.
Thank you.
Why?
Why did you do it?
I knew you and Daddy
didn't get along,
but you risked your life
to save me and to prove
who killed him.
Oh, I have my reasons.
Tell me about Pusan.
What happened there?
Oh, it's really
kind of dreary, Shana.
It's another one of those
"there I was" stories.
What?
You know, there I was,
surrounded by 50,000 Indians
and my guns jammed.
Only in my case, it was
just a North Korean patrol.
I got hit a couple of days
before in the leg,
and the wound was getting
kind of nasty.
I kept passing out.
Well, I kept poking
the butt of the rifle
in the wound
just to stay awake.
Been out too long,
well, I'd have been dead.
I heard all this gunfire,
and North Koreans were
dropping right and left.
I looked up,
there was your father.
He wasn't a colonel then,
he was a major,
but he came back for me.
Nobody else was
willing to try.
It looked too much
like suicide.
There were Koreans
all over that hill.
He came back for me,
and he was
the commanding officer.
Thought a lot about it
since then,
but I never quite
understood why he did it.
So maybe that's
the last ghost
left to kill, huh?
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it is.