Tucker's Witch (1982–1983): Season 1, Episode 5 - Terminal Case - full transcript
- Mayor Carter.
Terry's here with the
latest results of the polls.
You've gone up seven points!
- Not now.
- He's been like that for two days.
I don't know wh--
Mayor Carter?
Oh no.
Mayor Carter.
- Live, from the Tucker living room,
it's Amanda and her magic harp.
Her fingers never leave her hand.
Hey, way to go Rams!
- They lost.
- I know.
But I won on the points spread.
They never let me down.
Anything new on the front page?
- It's awful.
One of the gubernatorial candidates,
the mayor from Santa
Theresa, committed suicide.
- Mayor Carter?
That's hard to believe.
I mean, everything was going his way.
Honey?
- Rick, is it hot in here?
All of a sudden I am burning up.
- No, if anything it's kind of cool.
- Dickens is feeling it too.
Rick, he's telling me something.
I see fire.
Lines and lines of fire.
- Well, you feel cool.
- It's gone now.
- Oh.
- But it was there.
- Good morning.
- Hi, Ellen.
- Hi.
It's my first day of school.
Do you know they've
decided to call my course
alternative medicine?
Don't you think that's a very
good and appropriate title
for high school health week?
- Uh-huh.
- It sounds great, mom.
- Yes, well, ha ha.
I'm so nervous, I'm so nervous.
I've never spoken to more
than a crowd of two before.
- Ellen.
Ellen, stay calm, be cool,
and don't let them know you're nervous.
Otherwise, they'll go for your throat.
- Oh, thank you, thank you.
Now I really feel better.
- Better answer the door.
- I wish you wouldn't do that.
That just drives me
crazy when you do that.
Your grandmother used
to do that all the time
and made me crazy.
That's Mr. Stillwell, who's a lovely man.
He's the principal of our high school
and come to drive us to school.
Yes, hello.
- Hello.
- It's my first day.
This is Mr. Stillwell.
- Are you all
set to go, Mrs. Hobbes?
- Yes, yes, I'm all set.
- Bye.
- See ya.
- Good luck.
- Thanks.
- Is this an opportune moment for me--
- Oh no, no, go ahead.
- We have a little problem at our school.
Mrs. Hobbes suggested that
you might be able to help us.
Someone's been breaking into
our computer lab at night.
- Uh-huh.
- Anything stolen?
- Yes, time.
Well, computer time is quite valuable.
- And you don't want to go
to the police about this?
- I was hoping not to
have to resort to that.
Mrs. Hobbes said you'd be pleased
to lend us your expertise.
- I wonder if I put
my butternut root in here.
- Mr. Stillwell, we'll
stop by this afternoon.
- Ah, splendid, splendid.
I can't tell you how thrilled I am that--
- Uh, stop while you're ahead.
- Yes.
- Goodbye.
- Goodbye.
- Your mom.
- I know.
Aw, you gonna ask me to the prom?
- Yeah.
Boy, are we old.
- Ain't it the truth.
- You know, with Mayor
Carter out of the race,
Mark Wyndham is a shoo-in.
- You think so?
- Mm.
- I think Lincoln's gonna give
him a real run for his money.
- Oh, you got a feeling?
- I prefer to think of
it as political savvy.
- Oh.
- The manufacturer donated the equipment.
Mr. Briggs.
We're hooked into a network
of thousands of computers
via telephone lines.
- Wow, this is incredible.
Our office computer has
the same kind of modem.
- The same modem?
Really?
- Absolutely.
- These students can really
handle these monsters, huh?
- Handle them?
Why, some of our students
are already redesigning them.
- Honey, what is a modem?
- A modem is the computer's
link with the outside world.
- Of course.
- It has to be one of
the computer students.
Our junior hoodlum element might
take a crowbar and smash
one of the terminals,
but stealing time?
- I mean, how could they pawn it?
- That's what makes it so difficult.
All of the--
- Suspects.
- Yes, suspects.
All of the suspects are good students.
- When you find out whoever it is,
what's going to happen?
- A phone call to their
parents, detention hall.
- Have you had any fire drills lately?
- Not for a couple of months.
No, don't set off that alarm!
We'll have a thousand students
stampeding through here.
- You wanna bet?
- Don't bet.
- That's impossible.
- Looks like someone rewired
your door, Mr. Stillwell.
- All you have to do is come back
later tonight and catch them.
- A stakeout.
- I don't know how to do it.
Splendid.
- Please, please tell me
this is important, Callum.
I'm due in a subcommittee
meeting in 15 minutes.
Hello, Frank.
Yeah, I'm on my way.
Yeah.
Hm?
The Ladies League?
I don't know, look it up on the schedule.
Well? So?
- We may have trouble.
Someone was listening in
when we raided that computer in Tulsa
for the information on Mayor Carter.
- I really need this.
Who?
No, Frank.
Frank, I can't make both of 'em.
The Ladies League has more clout?
Okay, whatever you think.
Well?
- Some kid in high school.
- How do you know it's a kid?
- Graffiti.
It said Holly was here.
- Okay, okay.
I just left.
Now, what are you talking about?
- Oh, kids playing with computers.
They do it all the time.
- Hey, hold it.
I set you up in this
specially designed office.
I got you your own terminal
so you didn't have to use
the computer in my house.
Foolproof security, you said.
All bases covered, you said.
Now you're telling me some kid is onto us?
- She doesn't know what she has.
She can't.
- Yeah?
I'm not taking that chance.
I want Hawkins in on this.
- No!
He scares me.
Now look, we've been together a long time.
From the beginning.
- And does this nostalgia have a point?
I'm late.
- Mayor Carter's suicide.
We're going too far this time.
- We didn't do anything to Carter.
He did it to himself.
- Mark, this whole business
is starting to get to me.
You're still way ahead
in the primary polls.
We can afford to back off.
- Back off?
You can never afford to back off.
The minute you back off, you're finished.
Get Hawkins,
pull the plug on that
high school computer,
do it tonight.
- Staking out a high school.
- Rick?
- I feel like the Hardy Boys.
- Wanna slide over here?
Just for a little while?
- You could be Nancy Drew.
Honey.
- Yeah.
- Somebody's sneaking in the high school.
I'll bet it's the shy
little girl in the corner.
- No way.
It's the little chubby
boy with the freckles.
- Uh-huh, could be a crazed killer.
- I will protect you.
Don't be frightened, we won't hurt you.
- Who are you?
- We're detectives.
- Detectives?
- Mm-hm.
- Really?
Like Magnum?
- Well, he is.
- Where are your guns?
- What's your name, munchkin?
- Holly.
Holly Fields.
Are you gonna take me to the joint?
- Yeah, the big house.
10 to 20 in detention hall for you.
- PIs, huh?
Boy, this is terrific.
- Are you pretty good at this stuff?
- Yeah.
So how'd you do it?
Fingerprints?
- Candy wrapper.
- Oh, like a clue, right?
Man, you must be primo detectives.
- So Holly, why'd you turn
to a life of crime, huh?
Gambling debts? What?
- No.
No, it was just like my
computer class assignments
were just too easy, you know?
It wasn't any fun just
sittin' here all alone
with all those computers
out there to explore.
- Explore, huh?
- Yeah, you know,
like computer companies
and banks, newspapers, all
sorts of neat information.
- Honey, what's wrong?
- Uh, I just felt that...
Oh, I don't know.
Nothing, I guess.
- These computers all have
security systems, right?
- Mm-hm.
- You little hoodlet.
You break the access codes, don't you?
- It's fun.
- Could you slow down for the civilian?
What is an access code?
- If you think of a computer as a safe,
the access codes are like combinations.
- Oh, okay, thanks.
Go ahead.
- Well, once I get into the
computer, I leave graffiti.
- I'm lost again.
- I leave these messages.
Like Holly was here.
Like that.
Last week, I found something
really interesting.
I was eavesdropping.
I listened in on this computer,
and it was doing the
same thing I was doing.
Except it was raiding a police computer.
- Where?
- In Tulsa.
- Let me get this straight.
You say it was raiding a
police computer in Tulsa?
- I've heard enough.
- Here.
I made a printout of the
information they were stealing.
- Hit-and-run suspect,
19-year-old college student,
January 4th, '53.
Charge dismissed due to a technicality.
- Rick, the name.
- Yeah.
Irwin Carter.
- Who's he?
- Up until a couple of days ago,
he was the mayor of Santa Theresa,
and he was also running for governor.
- What's the matter with her?
- There is somebody in
this building with us.
- Hey, how did she--
- Don't ask.
- Oh, wow!
- Shh.
- I'll take a look.
- You okay?
- You kidding?
We're talking Angie Dickinson here.
- I thought so.
- I coulda nailed him.
- There's three of 'em.
You gonna kill 'em all?
- Hey, is Rick single?
Oh.
Great.
- Freeze!
- Freeze yourself.
Oh, God.
Honey, if there was anybody
out there, I couldn't find 'em.
- Rick, there was someone out there.
I felt it.
- Come on, let's get outta here.
We cracked the case.
Oh, Holly, we're gonna have to turn you in
to Mr. Stillwell, you know.
- Hey, we'll put in a good word for you.
Ange.
- You're not gonna try and
skip town on us, are you?
- Nah, my mom wouldn't let me.
- Let's go.
- Blackmail by computer.
I love it.
- It'd take a whole lot
of number crunching.
- Hey, they could kludge
up a database search.
- It's a new wrinkle, isn't it?
- Yeah, most of the stuff we get
at the computer crimes division
is timesharing scams, theft of software,
the gray market.
- Yeah, the basic garbage in, garbage out.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Hey, wait, hold it.
The next language I wanna hear is English.
- Okay, look.
Suppose somebody got this
information by computer
and then sent Mayor Carter
blackmail threats the same way.
There'd be no notes, no nothing.
- Right.
Not unless Carter made
printouts of the threats.
But he wouldn't be likely to do that.
- Tucker, where did you get this printout?
- Oh, well, let's just
call it serendipity.
- We could call it withholding evidence.
- So there'd be no way to get any proof.
- You got it.
- This is suicide brought on by blackmail.
If that's not murder, it should be.
There must be something you can do.
- It's out of our jurisdiction.
I can pass it on to the
Santa Theresa police.
That's all we can do.
Tucker, who's your client in this case?
- That's a good question.
Who is our client?
- The car is registered
to an Amanda Tucker.
This is a copy of a news clipping
we found on her and her husband.
- I thought it was only some kid.
Now it's detectives?
How much do they know?
- They know about Carter.
- Yeah, but they don't know about us.
- Well, I need the records
of two more key people
from our list of possible targets.
Fairleigh, Lefcourt, Senator
MacGowan, Hopkins, Lincoln.
Lincoln.
Oh yes, yes.
If I can only find something
on Mr. Robert T. Lincoln,
I'm home free.
- I'll try.
The computer in my office is secure.
The building's rented in my name,
so as long as we don't use this terminal,
you're in the clear.
- Why take the chance?
All we have to do is lose the Tuckers
and our problems are solved.
- We don't have to.
- I want this, Callum.
It's everything I've worked for.
It's everything I've dreamed of.
I'm going to be the next
governor of this state.
- I can distract them.
We only need a couple more days.
- Distract them?
How?
- I can complicate their lives.
- But I have a canceled
check here dated May 26.
No.
Don't put me on hold.
I been holdin' all mornin'!
Dammit.
- What is all this?
- I been gettin' calls all morning'
from banks, boutiques, furniture stores.
Their records show that you two
haven't made any payments
on anything in over a year.
- What?
That is impossible.
Isn't it?
- That's what I plan to tell these fools
if I can ever get through.
It's Verani and Tizer's greatest hits.
- Wait a minute.
Financial records are
stored in computers, right?
- Sure, everything's stored in computers.
- Holly.
Boy.
You try to sort things out here.
That kid is not gonna live
to see her 17th birthday.
- Strangers in the Night.
It's one of my favorites.
- I didn't do it.
Honest, Mrs. Tucker, I didn't do it!
- Okay, Holly, I believe you.
But someone's been messin'
around with our accounts.
- Hey, maybe it was those guys
that I was eavesdropping on.
- Who else could it be?
I knew there was someone
in the school last night.
And if they think that we
know what they're up to,
that makes us a threat
to them, doesn't it?
- I got you in trouble, didn't I?
- No, no.
It is not your fault, okay?
It just means that we've got this case
whether we want it or not.
Come on, let's go.
- Were are we going?
- To find Rick.
- All right, outstanding!
Hey, where's Rick?
- He should be galloping up
on his white steed any moment now.
Holly, I still don't understand
how they tracked you to the school.
- I left some graffiti in
that police computer in Tulsa.
- Oh, Holly was here.
- Yep.
Then when I was eavesdropping,
there was a breakup of data on the screen.
Hey, that must have
been that other computer
trackin' me down.
- Yeah, then they saw us with you,
found out who we were, and
messed up our credit records.
- I don't know why.
Mayor Carter's dead.
- Whatever they're up to, it
didn't stop with Mayor Carter.
- Hello.
- Hi, Rick.
- Hi.
- What did you find out in Santa Theresa?
- There were no large
unexplained bank withdrawals
from Mayor Carter's account.
- So if they were blackmailing
Carter, it was not for cash.
- No.
So we gotta go over the mayor's life.
We gotta find his enemies,
both personal and political.
I am starved.
Is that turkey leg still in the fridge?
- Wow, they must be trying
to take over the world!
This is just like James Bond!
- Holly, what are you doin' here?
- Oh, the bad guys are onto me.
- They're onto all of us.
- Marcia, would you forget
about the credit hassles?
No, Marcia, there is no
debtors' prison in this country.
We'll survive.
What I do need is a list of Mayor Carter's
closest political associates.
Goodbye.
And you, back to school, now.
- You need my computer brain.
- I know.
But life is full of disappointments.
- Hey Holly, your schoolwork
needs your computer brain more.
- Schoolwork?
Amanda, this is real life.
- Oh boy.
- Come on, back to school.
We'll give you a lift.
- Hey, maybe mom can drive
you home after school, okay?
- All right.
- And Holly, I want you
to promise me one thing.
Next time you touch a
computer, keep it legal.
- I promise.
They're at it again.
Last week was Mayor Carter,
now there's some dirt on Senator MacGowan.
- Holly, Holly!
I think I got a third one.
- Where is this stuff comin' from?
- Connecticut.
Robert T. Lincoln, the guy
that's running for governor.
- I know I promised.
Shove over.
- I can't even talk that fast.
Holly, what are you doing?
- Stealing the information
on this Lincoln guy.
These creds have had it
their way long enough.
- Why is it doing that?
- The Hartford police
computer just locked me out.
I must've tripped a flag or something.
It automatically changed the access code.
- Get it back.
I need that information on Lincoln.
- I can't!
- Could it be that high
school computer again?
- Yeah, it could.
- Well, take care of it.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Are you ready for me to drive you home?
- Yeah.
- Good.
I found you another helmet.
- All right.
I just have to get
something from my locker.
- All right, I'll be right here.
- Okay.
Mrs. Hobbes!
- May I help you?
Is something wrong?
- Just checking the locks.
- Oh.
Oh.
Is there something loose?
Holly!
What are you doing in there?
- He was in the lab, stealing the modem!
- Did he see you?
- No, no, I was too fast for him.
- Oh, well, we'd better
go tell Rick and Amanda.
- Boy, things are really
pickin' up around here.
- Let's go, let's go.
- I'll make sure we're not bein' tailed.
- Oh, thank you.
Well, he was big.
No, no, kind of medium.
And weird.
Very, very weird.
And dressed in a kind of janitor's suit.
And I think that's all I remember.
- Well, mom, that's great, thanks.
- Oh, you're welcome.
- All right, now, first
they blackmail Mayor Carter.
Now they're after Lincoln?
And they're both candidates for governor.
- Hey, I stopped 'em from
gettin' that stuff on Lincoln.
- That's great, Holly.
Whiz kid.
- What I don't understand
is why they want to
blackmail Senator MacGowan.
He's not running for anything.
And also, how are we ever gonna find them?
I mean, computers don't
leave fingerprints.
- By tapping into the central
phone company computer!
- Can you do that?
- I've been doing it
since the sixth grade.
- My gosh, we were reading
Silas Marner in the sixth grade.
- Holly, while you're
tapping into the phone
company's computer--
- While she what?
- Yeah.
Can you keep them from
getting that information
on Lincoln if they try again?
- Sure!
- Here's Mayor Carter's political cronies.
- Senator MacGowan's on the list.
That's the connection.
He supported Mayor Carter's candidacy.
- I heard on the radio he's
speaking at the Press Club.
They say he's gonna throw
his weight behind Lincoln.
- You hang in with Miss Microchip.
I'm gonna try to get to MacGowan.
- What's she gonna do
to the phone company?
- Uh-huh.
- Okay, okay everybody, let's begin.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you all for coming.
I've always enjoyed a
warm, personal relationship
with the members of the press.
I've asked you here today
because I'm about to throw
my not-inconsiderable weight
behind one of my party's
nominees for governor.
An old ally, my close
personal friend, Mark Wyndham.
I know there was a lot of speculation
about my supporting Bob Lincoln.
Bob is a fine young man
and a good assemblyman,
but the governor of this
great state needs the maturity
that only a Mark Wyndham can
bring to this important office.
We'll be happy to answer any
questions that you may have.
- There it is.
- Okay.
It's the billing number
for the computer terminal.
Now let's get the address.
- Anything you want.
- Right, right.
Let's get the address.
- Light fiberoptics cut
jobs like this in half.
Do you think I'm pretty?
- Yeah.
Yeah, you're pretty.
- Girls my age in Samoa are havin' babies.
- Okay, now where are we, here?
- I'm kludging in a new search program.
There.
Now we wait.
You know it's true.
- What's true?
- Girls my age are much more mature
than they were in your day.
- Who can remember that far back?
Holly, I think we oughta talk.
- What's the matter, don't you like me?
- I'm a married man.
And you are 16 years old.
- In Saudi Arabia--
- We're not in Saudi Arabia.
And we're not in Samoa.
We're in Santa Monica.
I'm not James Bond.
I've got a mortgage.
I've got a mother-in-law,
I've got a cat that I'm allergic to.
- But you're such a babe.
- Hey,
in another country, in another time,
but not here.
Not now.
Okay?
- Okay.
Were the Beatles really that good?
- MacGowan called his press conference
to support Mark Wyndham for governor.
- He was supposed to
be supporting Lincoln.
- Forget that.
Wyndham's got him in his pocket now.
- And Lincoln's next.
- I found the blackmailer's computer!
- Wow!
- I've been trying to get ahold of you.
I've had a breakup on my readout screen.
- A breakup?
Meaning what?
- They know where I am.
- Well, I can't let those detectives
get to that other computer
before I have what I need on Lincoln.
My press conference is tomorrow.
- Why not use that one?
- They can trace the other terminal,
they can trace this one.
If that happens, it's all over.
- I'll stop them.
- Well.
We're being followed.
- Rick, that's that
snake I saw with Wyndham.
Lose him.
- Do what?
- Floor it!
- Holly's got you doin' it now.
Why don't I just blast him
with my tail-mounted
heat-seeking bazookas?
- Rick, we cannot let him
follow us to that computer.
I am burning up again.
- Honey, maybe you're
comin' down with somethin'.
Does Officer Wolf,
does he still have that
speed trap over on 14th?
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- Hawkins didn't stop them?
- They'll find the computer.
- The files are there.
- Why didn't you destroy them?
- You want me to rewrite a computer
every time I make a blackmail threat?
Those printouts have dates, facts.
It has to be down there
in black and white!
- Callum!
I trusted you to lead me through this
labyrinth of electronic wizardry.
But now we're down to one
final fallback position.
You designed this security system.
It damn well better work!
Move.
- Amanda.
- Rick, what was that?
- It's a bolt.
- Rick!
- Yeah, I see it.
- Those fevers, I felt
like I was burning up.
- Well, we are.
Honey, don't you want
to deal with the lock?
- I can't picture it.
Nothing's coming.
- It worked coming in.
- But we weren't on fire then.
- Great.
- We really appreciate
you responding so quickly, Mr. Lincoln.
- Your phone call was very persuasive.
- Wyndham doesn't have this
information about you yet.
We blocked him for now.
But we can't keep it from him forever.
- Is it true?
- As far as it goes.
I was a patient in a private sanitorium
for several months
following my wife's death.
- And you kept it quiet all these years?
- I know it was something
I should have talked about
during my first campaign or before.
I never found the courage.
- Wyndham's blackmailed Senator
MacGowan into endorsing him.
You are next.
- Well, if you know this,
why hasn't he been arrested?
- Because we can't prove it.
See, Wyndham's hired man
Callum rented the building
and the computer equipment
used in the scheme,
but we don't have a
thing on Wyndham himself.
- Then there's no solution.
- Hey, did you get a readout yet?
- Mr. Lincoln, here is our solution.
Miss Holly Fields.
- Hey Rick, they're trying to access
the Connecticut computer again.
They're askin' it about Mr. Lincoln.
- Great.
Wyndham wants something
to blackmail you with.
Let's give it to him.
- All right.
- That's it.
- Well, that's perfect.
That's just perfect.
That should convince
Mr. Lincoln not to run.
Hawkins, get him on the phone for me.
- There's something
strange about this signal.
- They traced us.
- No, I don't think so.
- Well, then, shut it off so nobody can.
Well, good afternoon.
I'm sure you all know
Mr. Robert T. Lincoln.
Bob.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
I realize it must be something of a shock
to see me here today,
but I have an important statement to make.
Mark Wyndham, even though
he was my opponent,
is a man I have always admired.
Until today.
You see, he has just
tried to blackmail me.
As he did Mayor Carter
and Senator MacGowan.
- All right, if that's the
way he wants to play it.
- He does.
And he's gonna win too.
- That information that
you got on Mr. Lincoln
didn't come from a police
computer in Connecticut,
but from a 16-year-old girl in L.A.
- Oh!
- Aw, thanks, honey.
- I can't get over that
computer lab at the high school.
Boy, back in my day--
- The dawn of time.
- Yeah, in the cave.
We were lucky if we had slide rules.
- Did it make you feel funny
being back in high school again?
- Yeah.
- Me too.
Boy, it seems like a
foreign country to me now.
- It seemed like a foreign
country to me back then.
I was scared of everything.
Teachers, exams, girls.
- Girls? You?
- Oh yeah, I was terrified of girls.
Especially Kathy Calhoun.
- Kathy Calhoun?
- Uh-huh, she was my first big date.
I spent the first two
hours of Lawrence of Arabia
trying to put my arm around her.
When I finally got it there--
- What happened?
- She changed her seat.
I wouldn't wanna go through
that again for anything.
- Rick.
- Hm?
- You don't have to.
- Oh.
Terry's here with the
latest results of the polls.
You've gone up seven points!
- Not now.
- He's been like that for two days.
I don't know wh--
Mayor Carter?
Oh no.
Mayor Carter.
- Live, from the Tucker living room,
it's Amanda and her magic harp.
Her fingers never leave her hand.
Hey, way to go Rams!
- They lost.
- I know.
But I won on the points spread.
They never let me down.
Anything new on the front page?
- It's awful.
One of the gubernatorial candidates,
the mayor from Santa
Theresa, committed suicide.
- Mayor Carter?
That's hard to believe.
I mean, everything was going his way.
Honey?
- Rick, is it hot in here?
All of a sudden I am burning up.
- No, if anything it's kind of cool.
- Dickens is feeling it too.
Rick, he's telling me something.
I see fire.
Lines and lines of fire.
- Well, you feel cool.
- It's gone now.
- Oh.
- But it was there.
- Good morning.
- Hi, Ellen.
- Hi.
It's my first day of school.
Do you know they've
decided to call my course
alternative medicine?
Don't you think that's a very
good and appropriate title
for high school health week?
- Uh-huh.
- It sounds great, mom.
- Yes, well, ha ha.
I'm so nervous, I'm so nervous.
I've never spoken to more
than a crowd of two before.
- Ellen.
Ellen, stay calm, be cool,
and don't let them know you're nervous.
Otherwise, they'll go for your throat.
- Oh, thank you, thank you.
Now I really feel better.
- Better answer the door.
- I wish you wouldn't do that.
That just drives me
crazy when you do that.
Your grandmother used
to do that all the time
and made me crazy.
That's Mr. Stillwell, who's a lovely man.
He's the principal of our high school
and come to drive us to school.
Yes, hello.
- Hello.
- It's my first day.
This is Mr. Stillwell.
- Are you all
set to go, Mrs. Hobbes?
- Yes, yes, I'm all set.
- Bye.
- See ya.
- Good luck.
- Thanks.
- Is this an opportune moment for me--
- Oh no, no, go ahead.
- We have a little problem at our school.
Mrs. Hobbes suggested that
you might be able to help us.
Someone's been breaking into
our computer lab at night.
- Uh-huh.
- Anything stolen?
- Yes, time.
Well, computer time is quite valuable.
- And you don't want to go
to the police about this?
- I was hoping not to
have to resort to that.
Mrs. Hobbes said you'd be pleased
to lend us your expertise.
- I wonder if I put
my butternut root in here.
- Mr. Stillwell, we'll
stop by this afternoon.
- Ah, splendid, splendid.
I can't tell you how thrilled I am that--
- Uh, stop while you're ahead.
- Yes.
- Goodbye.
- Goodbye.
- Your mom.
- I know.
Aw, you gonna ask me to the prom?
- Yeah.
Boy, are we old.
- Ain't it the truth.
- You know, with Mayor
Carter out of the race,
Mark Wyndham is a shoo-in.
- You think so?
- Mm.
- I think Lincoln's gonna give
him a real run for his money.
- Oh, you got a feeling?
- I prefer to think of
it as political savvy.
- Oh.
- The manufacturer donated the equipment.
Mr. Briggs.
We're hooked into a network
of thousands of computers
via telephone lines.
- Wow, this is incredible.
Our office computer has
the same kind of modem.
- The same modem?
Really?
- Absolutely.
- These students can really
handle these monsters, huh?
- Handle them?
Why, some of our students
are already redesigning them.
- Honey, what is a modem?
- A modem is the computer's
link with the outside world.
- Of course.
- It has to be one of
the computer students.
Our junior hoodlum element might
take a crowbar and smash
one of the terminals,
but stealing time?
- I mean, how could they pawn it?
- That's what makes it so difficult.
All of the--
- Suspects.
- Yes, suspects.
All of the suspects are good students.
- When you find out whoever it is,
what's going to happen?
- A phone call to their
parents, detention hall.
- Have you had any fire drills lately?
- Not for a couple of months.
No, don't set off that alarm!
We'll have a thousand students
stampeding through here.
- You wanna bet?
- Don't bet.
- That's impossible.
- Looks like someone rewired
your door, Mr. Stillwell.
- All you have to do is come back
later tonight and catch them.
- A stakeout.
- I don't know how to do it.
Splendid.
- Please, please tell me
this is important, Callum.
I'm due in a subcommittee
meeting in 15 minutes.
Hello, Frank.
Yeah, I'm on my way.
Yeah.
Hm?
The Ladies League?
I don't know, look it up on the schedule.
Well? So?
- We may have trouble.
Someone was listening in
when we raided that computer in Tulsa
for the information on Mayor Carter.
- I really need this.
Who?
No, Frank.
Frank, I can't make both of 'em.
The Ladies League has more clout?
Okay, whatever you think.
Well?
- Some kid in high school.
- How do you know it's a kid?
- Graffiti.
It said Holly was here.
- Okay, okay.
I just left.
Now, what are you talking about?
- Oh, kids playing with computers.
They do it all the time.
- Hey, hold it.
I set you up in this
specially designed office.
I got you your own terminal
so you didn't have to use
the computer in my house.
Foolproof security, you said.
All bases covered, you said.
Now you're telling me some kid is onto us?
- She doesn't know what she has.
She can't.
- Yeah?
I'm not taking that chance.
I want Hawkins in on this.
- No!
He scares me.
Now look, we've been together a long time.
From the beginning.
- And does this nostalgia have a point?
I'm late.
- Mayor Carter's suicide.
We're going too far this time.
- We didn't do anything to Carter.
He did it to himself.
- Mark, this whole business
is starting to get to me.
You're still way ahead
in the primary polls.
We can afford to back off.
- Back off?
You can never afford to back off.
The minute you back off, you're finished.
Get Hawkins,
pull the plug on that
high school computer,
do it tonight.
- Staking out a high school.
- Rick?
- I feel like the Hardy Boys.
- Wanna slide over here?
Just for a little while?
- You could be Nancy Drew.
Honey.
- Yeah.
- Somebody's sneaking in the high school.
I'll bet it's the shy
little girl in the corner.
- No way.
It's the little chubby
boy with the freckles.
- Uh-huh, could be a crazed killer.
- I will protect you.
Don't be frightened, we won't hurt you.
- Who are you?
- We're detectives.
- Detectives?
- Mm-hm.
- Really?
Like Magnum?
- Well, he is.
- Where are your guns?
- What's your name, munchkin?
- Holly.
Holly Fields.
Are you gonna take me to the joint?
- Yeah, the big house.
10 to 20 in detention hall for you.
- PIs, huh?
Boy, this is terrific.
- Are you pretty good at this stuff?
- Yeah.
So how'd you do it?
Fingerprints?
- Candy wrapper.
- Oh, like a clue, right?
Man, you must be primo detectives.
- So Holly, why'd you turn
to a life of crime, huh?
Gambling debts? What?
- No.
No, it was just like my
computer class assignments
were just too easy, you know?
It wasn't any fun just
sittin' here all alone
with all those computers
out there to explore.
- Explore, huh?
- Yeah, you know,
like computer companies
and banks, newspapers, all
sorts of neat information.
- Honey, what's wrong?
- Uh, I just felt that...
Oh, I don't know.
Nothing, I guess.
- These computers all have
security systems, right?
- Mm-hm.
- You little hoodlet.
You break the access codes, don't you?
- It's fun.
- Could you slow down for the civilian?
What is an access code?
- If you think of a computer as a safe,
the access codes are like combinations.
- Oh, okay, thanks.
Go ahead.
- Well, once I get into the
computer, I leave graffiti.
- I'm lost again.
- I leave these messages.
Like Holly was here.
Like that.
Last week, I found something
really interesting.
I was eavesdropping.
I listened in on this computer,
and it was doing the
same thing I was doing.
Except it was raiding a police computer.
- Where?
- In Tulsa.
- Let me get this straight.
You say it was raiding a
police computer in Tulsa?
- I've heard enough.
- Here.
I made a printout of the
information they were stealing.
- Hit-and-run suspect,
19-year-old college student,
January 4th, '53.
Charge dismissed due to a technicality.
- Rick, the name.
- Yeah.
Irwin Carter.
- Who's he?
- Up until a couple of days ago,
he was the mayor of Santa Theresa,
and he was also running for governor.
- What's the matter with her?
- There is somebody in
this building with us.
- Hey, how did she--
- Don't ask.
- Oh, wow!
- Shh.
- I'll take a look.
- You okay?
- You kidding?
We're talking Angie Dickinson here.
- I thought so.
- I coulda nailed him.
- There's three of 'em.
You gonna kill 'em all?
- Hey, is Rick single?
Oh.
Great.
- Freeze!
- Freeze yourself.
Oh, God.
Honey, if there was anybody
out there, I couldn't find 'em.
- Rick, there was someone out there.
I felt it.
- Come on, let's get outta here.
We cracked the case.
Oh, Holly, we're gonna have to turn you in
to Mr. Stillwell, you know.
- Hey, we'll put in a good word for you.
Ange.
- You're not gonna try and
skip town on us, are you?
- Nah, my mom wouldn't let me.
- Let's go.
- Blackmail by computer.
I love it.
- It'd take a whole lot
of number crunching.
- Hey, they could kludge
up a database search.
- It's a new wrinkle, isn't it?
- Yeah, most of the stuff we get
at the computer crimes division
is timesharing scams, theft of software,
the gray market.
- Yeah, the basic garbage in, garbage out.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Hey, wait, hold it.
The next language I wanna hear is English.
- Okay, look.
Suppose somebody got this
information by computer
and then sent Mayor Carter
blackmail threats the same way.
There'd be no notes, no nothing.
- Right.
Not unless Carter made
printouts of the threats.
But he wouldn't be likely to do that.
- Tucker, where did you get this printout?
- Oh, well, let's just
call it serendipity.
- We could call it withholding evidence.
- So there'd be no way to get any proof.
- You got it.
- This is suicide brought on by blackmail.
If that's not murder, it should be.
There must be something you can do.
- It's out of our jurisdiction.
I can pass it on to the
Santa Theresa police.
That's all we can do.
Tucker, who's your client in this case?
- That's a good question.
Who is our client?
- The car is registered
to an Amanda Tucker.
This is a copy of a news clipping
we found on her and her husband.
- I thought it was only some kid.
Now it's detectives?
How much do they know?
- They know about Carter.
- Yeah, but they don't know about us.
- Well, I need the records
of two more key people
from our list of possible targets.
Fairleigh, Lefcourt, Senator
MacGowan, Hopkins, Lincoln.
Lincoln.
Oh yes, yes.
If I can only find something
on Mr. Robert T. Lincoln,
I'm home free.
- I'll try.
The computer in my office is secure.
The building's rented in my name,
so as long as we don't use this terminal,
you're in the clear.
- Why take the chance?
All we have to do is lose the Tuckers
and our problems are solved.
- We don't have to.
- I want this, Callum.
It's everything I've worked for.
It's everything I've dreamed of.
I'm going to be the next
governor of this state.
- I can distract them.
We only need a couple more days.
- Distract them?
How?
- I can complicate their lives.
- But I have a canceled
check here dated May 26.
No.
Don't put me on hold.
I been holdin' all mornin'!
Dammit.
- What is all this?
- I been gettin' calls all morning'
from banks, boutiques, furniture stores.
Their records show that you two
haven't made any payments
on anything in over a year.
- What?
That is impossible.
Isn't it?
- That's what I plan to tell these fools
if I can ever get through.
It's Verani and Tizer's greatest hits.
- Wait a minute.
Financial records are
stored in computers, right?
- Sure, everything's stored in computers.
- Holly.
Boy.
You try to sort things out here.
That kid is not gonna live
to see her 17th birthday.
- Strangers in the Night.
It's one of my favorites.
- I didn't do it.
Honest, Mrs. Tucker, I didn't do it!
- Okay, Holly, I believe you.
But someone's been messin'
around with our accounts.
- Hey, maybe it was those guys
that I was eavesdropping on.
- Who else could it be?
I knew there was someone
in the school last night.
And if they think that we
know what they're up to,
that makes us a threat
to them, doesn't it?
- I got you in trouble, didn't I?
- No, no.
It is not your fault, okay?
It just means that we've got this case
whether we want it or not.
Come on, let's go.
- Were are we going?
- To find Rick.
- All right, outstanding!
Hey, where's Rick?
- He should be galloping up
on his white steed any moment now.
Holly, I still don't understand
how they tracked you to the school.
- I left some graffiti in
that police computer in Tulsa.
- Oh, Holly was here.
- Yep.
Then when I was eavesdropping,
there was a breakup of data on the screen.
Hey, that must have
been that other computer
trackin' me down.
- Yeah, then they saw us with you,
found out who we were, and
messed up our credit records.
- I don't know why.
Mayor Carter's dead.
- Whatever they're up to, it
didn't stop with Mayor Carter.
- Hello.
- Hi, Rick.
- Hi.
- What did you find out in Santa Theresa?
- There were no large
unexplained bank withdrawals
from Mayor Carter's account.
- So if they were blackmailing
Carter, it was not for cash.
- No.
So we gotta go over the mayor's life.
We gotta find his enemies,
both personal and political.
I am starved.
Is that turkey leg still in the fridge?
- Wow, they must be trying
to take over the world!
This is just like James Bond!
- Holly, what are you doin' here?
- Oh, the bad guys are onto me.
- They're onto all of us.
- Marcia, would you forget
about the credit hassles?
No, Marcia, there is no
debtors' prison in this country.
We'll survive.
What I do need is a list of Mayor Carter's
closest political associates.
Goodbye.
And you, back to school, now.
- You need my computer brain.
- I know.
But life is full of disappointments.
- Hey Holly, your schoolwork
needs your computer brain more.
- Schoolwork?
Amanda, this is real life.
- Oh boy.
- Come on, back to school.
We'll give you a lift.
- Hey, maybe mom can drive
you home after school, okay?
- All right.
- And Holly, I want you
to promise me one thing.
Next time you touch a
computer, keep it legal.
- I promise.
They're at it again.
Last week was Mayor Carter,
now there's some dirt on Senator MacGowan.
- Holly, Holly!
I think I got a third one.
- Where is this stuff comin' from?
- Connecticut.
Robert T. Lincoln, the guy
that's running for governor.
- I know I promised.
Shove over.
- I can't even talk that fast.
Holly, what are you doing?
- Stealing the information
on this Lincoln guy.
These creds have had it
their way long enough.
- Why is it doing that?
- The Hartford police
computer just locked me out.
I must've tripped a flag or something.
It automatically changed the access code.
- Get it back.
I need that information on Lincoln.
- I can't!
- Could it be that high
school computer again?
- Yeah, it could.
- Well, take care of it.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Are you ready for me to drive you home?
- Yeah.
- Good.
I found you another helmet.
- All right.
I just have to get
something from my locker.
- All right, I'll be right here.
- Okay.
Mrs. Hobbes!
- May I help you?
Is something wrong?
- Just checking the locks.
- Oh.
Oh.
Is there something loose?
Holly!
What are you doing in there?
- He was in the lab, stealing the modem!
- Did he see you?
- No, no, I was too fast for him.
- Oh, well, we'd better
go tell Rick and Amanda.
- Boy, things are really
pickin' up around here.
- Let's go, let's go.
- I'll make sure we're not bein' tailed.
- Oh, thank you.
Well, he was big.
No, no, kind of medium.
And weird.
Very, very weird.
And dressed in a kind of janitor's suit.
And I think that's all I remember.
- Well, mom, that's great, thanks.
- Oh, you're welcome.
- All right, now, first
they blackmail Mayor Carter.
Now they're after Lincoln?
And they're both candidates for governor.
- Hey, I stopped 'em from
gettin' that stuff on Lincoln.
- That's great, Holly.
Whiz kid.
- What I don't understand
is why they want to
blackmail Senator MacGowan.
He's not running for anything.
And also, how are we ever gonna find them?
I mean, computers don't
leave fingerprints.
- By tapping into the central
phone company computer!
- Can you do that?
- I've been doing it
since the sixth grade.
- My gosh, we were reading
Silas Marner in the sixth grade.
- Holly, while you're
tapping into the phone
company's computer--
- While she what?
- Yeah.
Can you keep them from
getting that information
on Lincoln if they try again?
- Sure!
- Here's Mayor Carter's political cronies.
- Senator MacGowan's on the list.
That's the connection.
He supported Mayor Carter's candidacy.
- I heard on the radio he's
speaking at the Press Club.
They say he's gonna throw
his weight behind Lincoln.
- You hang in with Miss Microchip.
I'm gonna try to get to MacGowan.
- What's she gonna do
to the phone company?
- Uh-huh.
- Okay, okay everybody, let's begin.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you all for coming.
I've always enjoyed a
warm, personal relationship
with the members of the press.
I've asked you here today
because I'm about to throw
my not-inconsiderable weight
behind one of my party's
nominees for governor.
An old ally, my close
personal friend, Mark Wyndham.
I know there was a lot of speculation
about my supporting Bob Lincoln.
Bob is a fine young man
and a good assemblyman,
but the governor of this
great state needs the maturity
that only a Mark Wyndham can
bring to this important office.
We'll be happy to answer any
questions that you may have.
- There it is.
- Okay.
It's the billing number
for the computer terminal.
Now let's get the address.
- Anything you want.
- Right, right.
Let's get the address.
- Light fiberoptics cut
jobs like this in half.
Do you think I'm pretty?
- Yeah.
Yeah, you're pretty.
- Girls my age in Samoa are havin' babies.
- Okay, now where are we, here?
- I'm kludging in a new search program.
There.
Now we wait.
You know it's true.
- What's true?
- Girls my age are much more mature
than they were in your day.
- Who can remember that far back?
Holly, I think we oughta talk.
- What's the matter, don't you like me?
- I'm a married man.
And you are 16 years old.
- In Saudi Arabia--
- We're not in Saudi Arabia.
And we're not in Samoa.
We're in Santa Monica.
I'm not James Bond.
I've got a mortgage.
I've got a mother-in-law,
I've got a cat that I'm allergic to.
- But you're such a babe.
- Hey,
in another country, in another time,
but not here.
Not now.
Okay?
- Okay.
Were the Beatles really that good?
- MacGowan called his press conference
to support Mark Wyndham for governor.
- He was supposed to
be supporting Lincoln.
- Forget that.
Wyndham's got him in his pocket now.
- And Lincoln's next.
- I found the blackmailer's computer!
- Wow!
- I've been trying to get ahold of you.
I've had a breakup on my readout screen.
- A breakup?
Meaning what?
- They know where I am.
- Well, I can't let those detectives
get to that other computer
before I have what I need on Lincoln.
My press conference is tomorrow.
- Why not use that one?
- They can trace the other terminal,
they can trace this one.
If that happens, it's all over.
- I'll stop them.
- Well.
We're being followed.
- Rick, that's that
snake I saw with Wyndham.
Lose him.
- Do what?
- Floor it!
- Holly's got you doin' it now.
Why don't I just blast him
with my tail-mounted
heat-seeking bazookas?
- Rick, we cannot let him
follow us to that computer.
I am burning up again.
- Honey, maybe you're
comin' down with somethin'.
Does Officer Wolf,
does he still have that
speed trap over on 14th?
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- Hawkins didn't stop them?
- They'll find the computer.
- The files are there.
- Why didn't you destroy them?
- You want me to rewrite a computer
every time I make a blackmail threat?
Those printouts have dates, facts.
It has to be down there
in black and white!
- Callum!
I trusted you to lead me through this
labyrinth of electronic wizardry.
But now we're down to one
final fallback position.
You designed this security system.
It damn well better work!
Move.
- Amanda.
- Rick, what was that?
- It's a bolt.
- Rick!
- Yeah, I see it.
- Those fevers, I felt
like I was burning up.
- Well, we are.
Honey, don't you want
to deal with the lock?
- I can't picture it.
Nothing's coming.
- It worked coming in.
- But we weren't on fire then.
- Great.
- We really appreciate
you responding so quickly, Mr. Lincoln.
- Your phone call was very persuasive.
- Wyndham doesn't have this
information about you yet.
We blocked him for now.
But we can't keep it from him forever.
- Is it true?
- As far as it goes.
I was a patient in a private sanitorium
for several months
following my wife's death.
- And you kept it quiet all these years?
- I know it was something
I should have talked about
during my first campaign or before.
I never found the courage.
- Wyndham's blackmailed Senator
MacGowan into endorsing him.
You are next.
- Well, if you know this,
why hasn't he been arrested?
- Because we can't prove it.
See, Wyndham's hired man
Callum rented the building
and the computer equipment
used in the scheme,
but we don't have a
thing on Wyndham himself.
- Then there's no solution.
- Hey, did you get a readout yet?
- Mr. Lincoln, here is our solution.
Miss Holly Fields.
- Hey Rick, they're trying to access
the Connecticut computer again.
They're askin' it about Mr. Lincoln.
- Great.
Wyndham wants something
to blackmail you with.
Let's give it to him.
- All right.
- That's it.
- Well, that's perfect.
That's just perfect.
That should convince
Mr. Lincoln not to run.
Hawkins, get him on the phone for me.
- There's something
strange about this signal.
- They traced us.
- No, I don't think so.
- Well, then, shut it off so nobody can.
Well, good afternoon.
I'm sure you all know
Mr. Robert T. Lincoln.
Bob.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
I realize it must be something of a shock
to see me here today,
but I have an important statement to make.
Mark Wyndham, even though
he was my opponent,
is a man I have always admired.
Until today.
You see, he has just
tried to blackmail me.
As he did Mayor Carter
and Senator MacGowan.
- All right, if that's the
way he wants to play it.
- He does.
And he's gonna win too.
- That information that
you got on Mr. Lincoln
didn't come from a police
computer in Connecticut,
but from a 16-year-old girl in L.A.
- Oh!
- Aw, thanks, honey.
- I can't get over that
computer lab at the high school.
Boy, back in my day--
- The dawn of time.
- Yeah, in the cave.
We were lucky if we had slide rules.
- Did it make you feel funny
being back in high school again?
- Yeah.
- Me too.
Boy, it seems like a
foreign country to me now.
- It seemed like a foreign
country to me back then.
I was scared of everything.
Teachers, exams, girls.
- Girls? You?
- Oh yeah, I was terrified of girls.
Especially Kathy Calhoun.
- Kathy Calhoun?
- Uh-huh, she was my first big date.
I spent the first two
hours of Lawrence of Arabia
trying to put my arm around her.
When I finally got it there--
- What happened?
- She changed her seat.
I wouldn't wanna go through
that again for anything.
- Rick.
- Hm?
- You don't have to.
- Oh.