I think that somebody killed Joe Tooley.
And if you're working on the same hunch,
I think that maybe we ought to pool our resources.
Just got a kick off one of the dormant mikes.
It's an office.
...that you are dealing with something way over your head.
I'm gonna let them get close to us and you guys blow those turkeys down.
Hold on!
(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)
WOMAN: Good morning, this is the telephone company.
Due to repairs, we're giving you advance notice
that your service will be cut off indefinitely at 10:00.
That's two minutes from now.
He just left.
No. I let him go.
Right. Up the canyon.
(PHONE RINGING)
Hello.
JOE: It's Tooley.
What'd you find out? I got it, Al.
But you ain't gonna believe it. It's spooky.
(BEBE WHINING) Just be quiet, Bebe.
Please, please.
Did you get evidence?
If I'm right, we've got plenty.
Well, what is it? What'd you find?
Well, it's gonna take some explaining.
Look, I've got one more address to check out.
Meet me in my place in an hour.
Okay. Fine.
We got him, Bebe. We got him good this time.
(TIRES SCREECHING)
All right, Mr. Tooley, just stand easy.
Pat him down.
You've got a hell of a nose on you, Joe.
But you can't just let things sit, huh?
We gave you plenty of warning, but you've got to play Jack the Pathfinder.
You got anything on your mind?
Let's get it over with.
That's nice. Page one, right out of the book.
All right, somebody take his car and follow us.
Come on, tough guy, you got an appointment.
(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)
Sit tight, I'm on it.
The whole thing is coming unstuck, Garth.
Not anymore. Things don't come unstuck till I say they're unstuck.
Go kiss a baby, leave this to me.
I had a feeling it would come to this. I told B.J. Sit down.
B.J. Said he could put a run on you,
but I punched you out on the terminal and your package reads
like an Irving Wallace novel.
What do you eat for breakfast, Mr. Tooley? I'd like to get a carton.
You're Garth McGregor, aren't you?
I really want to talk to you about this. You've got the wrong idea.
My jet's warming up over at LAX.
Would you mind riding over there with me?
Will I need a parachute?
You've really got the wrong idea about this and I'm going to set you straight.
And maybe, along the way, make you rich.
Okay, Davey, let's go.
Boy, I hate going to these things.
Well, the older you get, the more of them you're going to go to.
You know, it seemed to me that here a while back,
I was going to the funeral of a good friend once a week.
Then a couple of years ago, it sort of started to steady out.
You know the way I got it figured, sonny?
Rocky, have you seen my wallet?
Now take automobiles.
Supposing Detroit was to build 100,000 red Fords.
Well, at the end of five years you're going to lose half of them red Fords.
They'll be in the wrecking yard.
Then five years later, another 30% of them
are going to be gone because of accidents or bad driving.
Well, that means that after that time is all over,
you're going to have a couple of hundred red Fords
that because they was put together good and driven carefully,
are going to be around forever.
I'm looking for my wallet, Rocky.
Is it on the desk?
You know, it wouldn't hurt you none to put your own Ford in neutral
the way you're always chasing around and working on one dangerous case or another.
You know, you ain't even had time to go fishing
or hunting with me.
So the way I see it, that is no way
for you to rack up 100,000 miles on your dash.
Would you like to get your Ford out of my chair?
I'm trying to find my wallet.
There it is. Right in the old glove compartment.
Sonny...
Yeah, what?
Hey.
What's bothering you anyway?
I ain't seen you this riled up in ages.
Nothing, nothing.
Ah, come on.
I know you better than that.
I just don't like funerals.
I thought this guy was a friend of yours.
He was. He was more than a friend.
I mean, the things he taught me kept me alive
my first two years in this business.
What the hell was he doing on the freeway?
Well, maybe he was trying to get someplace.
He never used them.
Ten years I've known Joe Tooley, he never used the freeways.
I mean, he could go across town on surface streets
faster than anybody else could on a freeway.
Maybe he changed his mind, huh?
Yeah, maybe.
I got to go, Rock. See you.
(ORGAN PLAYING)
Hi, Billy. Hi, Jim.
I never saw so many private investigators
in one room before in all my life.
Yeah. Well, he had a lot of friends.
What a guy.
Yeah.
RICHIE: Don't you see? He'd never be on a freeway.
VERN: Hey kid, this is not the time or the place for that!
See what you're doing? You're disrupting the service.
Vern St. Cloud.
You want to upset the family? Is that what you want to do?
All I said was...
I heard what you said. It's crazy.
Now, shut up.
Just shut up.
Ridiculous.
Mrs. Tooley, I...
I guess that sometimes it's hard to say
how you feel about people, but I've got to tell you,
Joe was the most wonderful man I ever knew.
Well, he's the main reason I'm doing what I'm doing today.
Thank you, Rich.
You know how fond he was of you.
Oh, yes, ma'am.
Listen, could I ask you a question?
See, I know that... I know he still had his office
and that he was mostly retired,
but was he working on anything?
I mean, you know, I thought if you want,
I could go down to the office
and sort of, you know, help straighten things out.
As a favor. If you'd like.
That's very nice of you, Rich,
but he wasn't doing much of anything.
Just a little work for Albert Steever.
They were old friends. It was more of a hobby than anything else.
Do you know what it was?
Well, they were both concerned with
the environmental impact in the canyons.
It was housing starts. That's all I knew.
Well, listen,
if there's anything I can do for you, please let me know, will you?
Thank you, Richie.
Oh, that's real cute, kid.
Trying to sham that poor old broad out of Tooley's caseload.
Things must be really rough
if you've got to pick the bones on that guy's grave.
Twenty-five years I've been in this PI business
and never saw anything so low. Lowest thing I ever saw.
You know, I've about had it with you, Mr. St. Cloud.
(CHUCKLES)
Who's that?
I don't know.
He's probably family.
Hey, you remember '46, right after the war,
he come back with a cast on his leg.
He'd stepped on a mine.
Well, anyhow, they had to open him up, put a pin in him.
You know, the first four years I knew him, he was walking on a cane.
It didn't slow him down one bit.
Listen, does it bother either one of you guys that
Joe got hit by a gas truck on the freeway?
He never used the freeway.
Yeah, Jim's right.
That is kind of strange.
So, he changed his mind once.
No, he had bad eyesight.
It was bad depth perception, I think.
That's why he used the surface streets.
Yeah, come to think of it. It was his peepers.
Hey, I got to shag out of here.
Hey, I got to be at the courthouse in 40 minutes.
Can I catch a ride?
Sure. Jim, I'll see you later.
Billy, nice to see you. Okay.
Sam.
Come on, Rockford.
So one night he puts on his glasses
and he gets on the freeway.
He's late.
Since he's spooked by the freeway anyway, he makes
a dumb lane change and gets gazpachoed by a gas truck.
Look, it could happen. Don't go looking for something that ain't there.
Well, you're right. It just didn't seem right.
You know what don't seem right? That he's gone.
That's what don't seem right. Oh, here comes St. Cloud.
I've got to go. Okay, Sam.
Hey, Sam...
How you doing, Rockford?
Getting any?
Hey, Sam!
(MACHINE WHIRRING)
(BEEPING)
We just got a kick off one of the dormant mikes,
number 35679KLW.
It's an office. Guy named Tooley.
Phone installation. MAN: Hold it.
That's over on 6th Street.
It was supposed to be pulled out.
The location's been neutralized.
Well, somebody's moving around in there.
What do you want me to do?
It's got a 216 code. So, we better notify A unit priority and leave it to them.
Put it on tape.
That's a wilco.
Hey, Brenda, it's Vern. Any messages? Nothing, huh?
No, I had a lead on a bunch of new cases.
A PI I know got caught in a bottle.
I figured maybe I could get some of his slop over,
but he wasn't doing nothing. It was a bust.
Look, I'll check with you later. Okay? Right.
Operator, I'd like to call Franchot, Tennessee.
Person to person. Mr. Harry St. Cloud.
Right. Area code 615...
Where do you come off making a crack like that, Harry?
Is that the way to talk to your brother?
Look, I called you, didn't I?
I didn't call collect this time.
Well, how about a little respect for me, huh?
Well, look...
Okay, okay, keep your shirt on.
Hang it up. Now!
Come on, on your feet.
Listen. I'm a friend of Tooley's.
I just came up here to help him with the caseload.
Look, put that away, will you? Put it away.
Well, now. What is a Vern St. Cloud?
You're a gumshoe, huh?
Well, look, I'm an old friend of Tooley's, like I said.
I went to his funeral today.
Mrs. Tooley was asking me to come down here and make sure that
good old Joe's cases were all up-to-date.
I'm a sucker for a widow in distress, you know?
"What the hell," I say to myself.
If I can do one nice little thing for big Joe, why not?
Yeah, well, you left these in the door.
Mrs. Tooley out of spare keys?
Are you guys cops?
Let's go. You got an appointment.
Take him down, Smitty.
You're not cops?
This is B.J.
Alert 216, we just trapped a gopher,
and tell Operations to leave this dormant in and upgrade surveillance to 1A.
Yeah, we still may be in trouble here.
I could tell you're really busy.
I could come back. I could wait a little bit. You know, I...
I want to make it as easy as possible
for you 'cause I know it's a lot of bother, but you know how it is
with these companies. They've got more red tape than 3M.
Let's see it.
Here it is.
$25,000 life, huh?
Yeah.
You know, it's kind of unusual. I been here a year
and you're the first claims adjustor
that ever wanted to see the coroner's file.
Yeah, well, you see, the thing of it is, is we've got this new executive,
a Mr. Shusterfeld,
and, well, apparently when he first started out with the company,
they paid off on a big policy and the guy was still alive.
So now old Mr. Shusterfeld has all us claims investigators running all over
everywhere, double-checking the coroner's reports.
If you ask me, it's a giant waste of time.
I'm not even certain the file's still down here.
Hey, I know it's a pain.
But the thing of it is, is if I don't get a look at that thing,
I can't file a claims report,
and old Mr. Shusterfeld is not going to approve the payment.
And I got to tell you, of all the claims this company should pay quickly,
this is right at the top of the list.
You see,
Mrs. Tooley, she's out at the Spring Garden Hospital.
It's an old folks home. There's a $4,000 bill due
and they're about to pitch her out onto the street.
Which is okay, I guess, except for the fact that she's a paraplegic
and she needs a place with ramps for her wheelchair,
which lets out most of your inexpensive housing...
Let me take a look.
Sometimes the files hang around down here.
I really appreciate this. Honest.
Just a minute.
Hey, we got lucky. Here it is.
Holy mackerel. Thanks a lot.
I'm afraid I don't understand your problem.
You understand the problem, Councilman Nardoni.
In my opinion, you created the problem.
You know, I've endured an awful lot of slander from you over the years,
Mr. Steever.
You've falsely accused me of every misuse of power in the book.
Even the news media have stopped covering your slander.
Now, when are you going to, as the kids say, get off my back?
I want to hear why those lots are being cut up in Deadrock Canyon.
Now, that's supposed to be a wilderness area and in County Statute 1767,
it clearly states that no homes can be built in that canyon area
without a full debate and a hearing.
Now, I want to know why bulldozers and skip loaders
are cutting those pads up there.
No, it's all right. It's my district.
I'll deal with him.
Oh, you won't deal with me, Mr. Nardoni. You never have.
Now, when are you going to start being responsive
to the people who are trying to keep this state from being overrun
with franchise eating establishments and billboards?
NARDONI: Can we have a little quiet in the room, please? Thank you.
All right, Mr. Steever, you refer to County Statute 1767:
That's right.
Now, I suppose before you came down here to spew all this...
Hey, didn't I see you at Joe Tooley's funeral?
Oh, yeah. Richie Brockelman.
Yeah, Jim Rockford.
Jim Rockford? The Jim Rockford?
I mean, the famous private eye?
Famous? Yeah.
What are you doing here?
What, here? Nothing.
How about you?
Nothing.
Boy, oh, boy, Jim Rockford?
Yeah.
Holy mackerel.
STEEVER: I want an answer now.
NARDONI: Mr. Steever.
I mean, I...I...
Mr. Steever, you don't even live up there.
It seems to me that you live in Torrance.
Now, why don't you go back to Torrance
and harass that city government.
Now, please, clear the docket. That's all.
We have a lot of people waiting.
Mr. Nardoni. Mr. Nardoni.
Have that man evicted, please.
Why don't you answer my questions? I am a tax payer.
I have a right to know. It's my right to stand...
No, no. This is... Take your hands...
All right, I have witnesses here.
I want my briefcase back.
And if I don't get some answers to my questions, I'm going to file a suit.
Boy, Jim Rockford. I got to tell you,
I've really admired some of the things you've done, sir.
Like, for instance, the time you busted that trucking scandal
and made all the papers. Man, that must have been hairy.
Yeah. Hey, hey...
What are you doing here?
Well...
The thing of it is, is I'm a private investigator like you.
No, really. No kidding. I am.
And Joe Tooley, he was a real friend of mine.
You see, when I first got out of college,
my parents wanted me to join Newhaven Mutual, which was offering me
a big job in their claims adjusters division.
Well, you know, not so big. Well, pretty big.
Anyway, I wanted to be in private investigative endeavors
and Joe Tooley, he was the one that encouraged me.
Helped me get my license and then when I had some of my, you know,
really tough cases to crack, you know, we'd talk about it and, like that.
Yeah. All of which doesn't answer the question.
You noticed. Yeah.
Well, I hate to be premature on this thing, but...
I'm working on his murder.
Joe Tooley was hit by a truck.
The thing of it is, is somebody was hit by a truck.
Not necessarily Joe Tooley, is the thing.
See, he had just one case he was working on,
that guy Steever who just took the Black Maria to County.
Yeah, I know. And I figured
as long as I'm working on his murder,
I'd come down and check out his client.
Yeah, well, you keep using the word murder.
Now, do you just throw that word out all the time,
or do you really have something?
Did anybody ever tell you about Tooley's leg?
He did. Yeah, he stepped on a land mine in France
and they put a pin in or something.
Yeah, well, I just saw the morgue X-rays
and they don't show any pin in his leg.
Come on. No, honest Injun, Mr. Rockford.
I'm really smoking here. Now, I think that somebody killed Joe Tooley.
And if you're working on the same hunch,
I think that maybe we ought to pool our resources.
You have a client? Client?
Yeah, client. Somebody to pay the freight.
Joe Tooley was a friend of mine.
I'm working off an old debt, so I guess you could say that, you know,
he's my client in absentia, so to speak.
Listen, Mr. Rockford, if you've got something on this,
I really would appreciate it if you'd give it to me.
'Cause I know that you're not down here to feed the pigeons.
Yeah, well, I don't have anything.
You know, I have a hunch.
I don't know. I just keep thinking about Joe.
What was he doing on the freeway?
Hey, that's the same thing that got me started off. He hated the freeways.
Do you mind if I finish a sentence?
No. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
I went up to Tooley's office and I found his expense sheet
and these.
Glasses? Sharp.
That's exactly what I thought they were, too.
No, no. That's not what I meant.
Oh, Joe...
What was he doing on the freeways, which he was afraid of,
at night, without his glasses?
Two pair, maybe?
No. I called Mary. He only had one pair. No others.
Listen, Mr. Rockford, we're onto something here.
I can feel it. Joe Tooley was murdered.
And it's got something to do with all this,
with that construction in Deadrock Canyon, that guy Steever.
I can feel it. I really can. Maybe it all ties together.
Well, would you like a few more maybes?
Yeah.
Well, maybe Joe exaggerated about his war injury.
Maybe the guys down at the morgue put
the wrong X-rays in Tooley's file.
Maybe it's just hard to bury a friend.
Maybe we're just trying to keep him alive by working on this.
Then you are working on it.
Nice to meet you, son.
Hope I run into you again.
(HORN HONKING)
Out.
Back in the car.
MAN: You need not be frightened, Mr. St. Cloud.
We will not hurt you unless you lie to us.
Let that be understood. You are being hooked up to a polygraph machine.
The impulses are broadcast electronically to me,
picked up by a receiver here in my car.
If you lie, I will know.
All right?
What the hell is this? I mean, what did I do?
I try and help a widow lady and end up talking to an Italian car.
I mean, what do you guys want?
I'm going to ask you some questions.
I want you to answer with a yes or a no.
Well, yeah, yeah. Sure, yeah.
Were you working with Joe Tooley?
Are you kidding?
Work with Tooley? Me?
The guy was a bumbler.
Yes or no, Mr. St. Cloud?
No.
Did Joe Tooley ever discuss with you
anything about the project he was currently working on?
I hardly ever seen the guy, except...
It's no. No. The answer is no.
Why were you in his office?
How can I answer that yes or no?
Just answer it. That's all, mister.
Answer it and stop wasting my time.
Well, I was there because his old lady wanted me to help him clean up
his current caseload. You know, his old caseload.
Is that statement a lie?
Well, all right. Okay, look,
not that you should think less of me, but I figured that
maybe if I stole his caseload, made a few calls,
maybe I could end up with a case.
Things have been tough this year.
I mean, my property taxes went up.
I got to have a double hernia fixed in June.
This has been a bad year.
Is that statement true?
Oh, yeah.
All right, gentlemen, that's all.
Take him out someplace and cut him.
Cut him? What's he mean, cut him?
Cut you loose, Vern.
Now, when they fix the hernia, be sure they don't let any guts fall out.
You're running kind of short as it is. Okay, Smitty.
You're very persistent, son.
Oh, you should see me do crossword puzzles.
What is this place? It's got something to do with Tooley?
It's an address I found on a card in Tooley's desk.
Okay, let's go.
What do you say let's make a deal? Sure.
Let's just not turn this into something that it isn't.
Sometimes it's easy to see a case where there isn't one.
Chances are Tooley just got hit by a truck.
I know that.
No, no, you don't.
You're working on a murder case.
I'm just poking around, trying to fill up an afternoon.
Fair enough.
RICHIE: Hey, Mr. Rockford, can you come here a minute?
ROCKFORD: Yeah.
What is that?
Looks like a commercial air conditioning unit.
Look at this thing.
This thing could cool a five-story building.
Well, what's it doing here? I mean, an empty house
with an air conditioning unit that's worth more
than the house and property put together?
What is going on here?
Boy, it beats me.
They didn't put this in here just to cool this house.
They must have had some kind of
big piece of electronic equipment in here.
You want two more maybes?
Maybe Tooley isn't dead. Maybe he's still alive.
Maybe.
How does all this tie in with Steever and Nardoni?
I don't know,
but I'm beginning to get interested.
Look, Mr. Rockford, I'd really like to work on this with you.
I mean, what I mean is,
either you let me in or I do it myself.
So I figure, if we work together,
at the very least, we can pick up some coordination.
Maybe we should spend some more time on it,
but we do things my way. All right?
Hey, just lay it on the line. I'm all yours, boss.
Great.
Morning.
How'd you sleep?
Lousy. And you?
Well, I wouldn't say lousy, you know, fitfully.
Did you get to the hall of records?
Oh, yeah.
Took me almost all morning, but I finally dug it out.
The owner of the house on Willis is John David Russell.
All right, let's run him, see what he's all about.
Hey, you know, when you first said your name there in the city council room,
you know, it was like meeting someone you'd always admired.
Come on, Richie, put away your grease gun.
I already told you you could work with me on this one.
Hey, no, what the hey?
I mean, I'm really honored.
You're a living legend.
Remember that Financial Dynamics case
you were involved in last year? Front page of the Times.
You busted the crooks.
Oh, sure, they had you in jail for a little while, and,
sure, you had to beat a B and E charge
and you ended up doing 30 days...
Ninety. Yeah, whatever. That's not important.
You didn't do them.
Yeah, well...
Hey, listen, how do you get an outfit like this to run this stuff?
I mean, you'd think that a credit company would be pretty tight on security.
They are. That's why I wait until noon and run them myself.
You're kidding.
Yeah, well, you got to cut corners, you know.
Look, we're going to get in two minutes
what it'd ordinarily take to get in two days.
Now you just stay with me and don't say anything.
But... Anything.
I don't know what's gotten into Mort lately.
I mean, only sending two men up to do that patch through
on the computer in Sacramento.
I mean, that's a two-day job.
No per diem, no expense money.
I don't know what's gotten into him lately.
I'm sorry I'm late, honey. I got hung up on the second floor.
The AG terminal microspooled again. That thing takes forever.
I'm sorry?
Maintenance check on Mr. Davis' terminal.
He's getting a ghost printout of 50 lines per second.
Mr. Davis and his secretary, they've both gone to lunch.
Fine. I'll just
take off the housing, check the terminal gates, see they're clean,
check that spooler.
But I didn't have any word you were coming.
Hey, fine with me. I'm two hours late already.
You just be sure that you tell Mr. Davis that I came by. Okay?
Let's go, Dick.
Wait a minute.
I suppose if they called you...
They did call you, didn't they?
I didn't come all the way out here just to drink a bottle of water, honey.
Well, go ahead.
Come on.
Just try to stay with me, will you?
Boy, you sure know a lot about computers.
I don't know anything. I just make all that stuff up.
Nobody around here knows the hardware.
You're kidding.
Okay. Everybody in the country is on at least
18 computers.
You'd be surprised what you can learn by just punching out a name on
one of these control banks. It's spooky.
This is a whistle job.
You did five years in the state prison?
What? Yeah, it says here
that your credit is subnormal, you did time in state prison,
and you owe the bank $2,500.
Hey, there's no need to get sore.
"What the hey."
That ought to take care of it. What was wrong?
Well, you see, the 1600 docking transfer button
was jammed and it was hitting against the deactivator tripod.
But, you know, like he says,
it's going to be just fine now.
But you better tell Mr. Davis
to degauss every six weeks from now on.
Degauss? Sure.
That saves the telemetric system.
You want to come along, Dick?
We got a whole building to service.
Oh, sure. I'm sorry. Got to go. Bye-bye. Bye.
You're right. She doesn't have a clue.
What'd you find out?
I don't know.
It says here he has a checking account for $5,000 at First Federal.
They never heard of him.
How could that be?
Mistake, maybe.
Yeah, like the X-rays at the coroner's office?
No, I think we ought to go talk to this Albert Steever.
All right.
You want to follow me? Yep.
Look, this guy actually lives in a trailer.
What does that mean? Well, I don't know.
It just seems to me like living in a trailer is kind of the bottom.
I live in a trailer.
Well, you know, not exactly the bottom.
More like the middle and, of course, depending on the kind of trailer,
it could be the upper middle.
For instance, I saw one in a magazine
a couple of months ago that could expand out into a 2,000-foot home.
Now, a guy living in a place like that would have the...
Just save yourself, son. It's not important.
Look, it's better off if only one of us does the talking,
so you let me do it. All right?
Hey, I'm just learning and taking notes, sir.
(BEBE BARKING)
Yeah? Hi, my name's Jim Rockford.
I'd like to talk to you about the situation with the city council.
Are you guys media?
Not exactly.
We're friends of Joe Tooley's.
Well, I don't believe much of what anybody tells me anymore.
Hey, you can call his wife Mary. She knows us.
Look, I mean, I've had a long day. I've been hassled by everybody.
Would you guys just come back later?
You know, I think that Joe Tooley may be alive.
Do you mind, son?
Listen, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to get the ball rolling.
Go ahead.
Well, I don't think he's alive, but why don't you come in.
Bebe, be quiet.
(BEBE BARKING)
STEEVER: Just calm down. They're friends. Okay?
Bebe.
Shut up, you crummy dog.
All the time barking, driving me crazy.
So what makes you think that Joe Tooley may still be alive?
Well, right now, it's just a theory.
Well, it's more than a theory, Mr. Steever.
We actually have some hard evidence on that.
You see, Joe Tooley had a pin in his leg... Mmm-hmm.
...and the morgue X-rays,
well, they show a man without any pin in his leg.
Do you mind? I'm sorry.
What we'd like to know is
what was Tooley working on for you?
Well, Mr. Rockford, he called me the night he disappeared.
And he said he had something so big it would scare me to death.
And he had a few more addresses
he said he wanted to check and we'd meet
at his office in an hour.
I went down there and he never showed up.
Four hours later, his body was pulled out of a burning car on the Ventura Freeway.
There's not much doubt that Tooley's dead.
What if somebody else was in the car?
Patch me through to 216. We've got a fire burning here.
We have a kick on post 775.
Monitor request patch through to 216.
MAN: Negative. 216 is unavailable.
Tell post 775 to record and transmit.
We'll respool and transmit.
That's a wilco.
Record and transmit. We'll respool and retransmit.
This thing has got to be stomped on.
And I need to talk to 216. I've got a watch and report priority.
This is an alert.
I'm sorry, we're doing the best we can.
Okay, give me a data transfer on Jim Rockford
and run a make on a tan Firebird,
853-OKG.
That's a wilco. Stand by.
(BARKING) Okay, Bebe, that's it.
If you can't behave, you have to go in the other room.
All right, excuse me, gentlemen.
I'll tell you though, ever since that day in 1974
when he had me arrested the first time,
I've known that Tom Nardoni was corrupt.
Now, you stay in there, Bebe. Big people are talking.
I've never stopped trying to prove it since then.
And I turned up all kind of things,
illegal campaign contributions,
but I didn't have the right kind of evidence, see,
and the witness I had died of some kind of
pulmonary infection, so I never got to court.
(BEBE BARKING)
Well, there were a half-a-dozen other things, too.
Misuse of county funds. Hold it a minute, Bebe.
You know, billboard advertising kickbacks.
Okay?
But nothing I could get the D.A. To believe in.
Then about two years ago, I thought I really had him.
I hired Garth McGregor.
Garth McGregor? The Garth McGregor? McGregor, D.C.B., Inc?
That's right. See, this was before his data control bank got so big.
I guess he's into all kinds of,
you know, Telecredit and computerized nonsense now.
Anyway, back then he was just doing security work,
debugging political campaign headquarters, stuff like that.
You put Garth McGregor on Councilman Nardoni?
That's right. And, you know,
he couldn't turn up any evidence that Nardoni was crooked.
And he hit me with a bill you couldn't believe.
Anyway, right about then, I started working with Tooley just trying to
rehash the old evidence, you know, prop it up, find new witnesses.
Tom Nardoni does not belong in city government.
And I'm going to get him, Mr. Rockford.
I think Tooley was onto something.
I don't know what it was, but he sure sounded excited.
You ever hear of anybody by the name of John David Russell?
No. He owns a house
at 1414 Willis Avenue.
Did Tooley ever mention that address?
No. But he did say that he wanted to check a few more addresses
before we met that night.
Well, okay, Mr. Steever.
I think we'll poke around a little longer.
Okay. But I'll tell you,
I think Joe is dead.
I knew him pretty well, Mr. Rockford,
and he wasn't the kind of man to sell out at any price.
He just lived too long to sell out for money.
Yeah, well, something happened to him, Mr. Steever,
and I'm beginning to believe that Richie was right.
I think maybe we attended somebody else's funeral.
We'll be in touch.
Garth McGregor.
That puts a real shark in the goldfish bowl.
Yeah, I think he may be right. Joe Tooley would never sell out for money.
He must be dead.
A minute ago, you thought he was alive.
So, I changed my mind. I've got a right to change my mind, don't I?
Don't you ever change yours?
Never.
Why don't you ride with me? We'll pick up your car later.
They're pulling out now.
I did try to get through to McGregor,
but those clowns down at D.C.B. Wouldn't patch me through.
Rockford, 29 Cove Road.
All right, I'll take care of it. I can pull a few favors.
All right. And I'll keep trying to get through to Mr. McGregor.
Forget about McGregor.
He's probably out having lunch with a computer.
All right, I'll take care of it.
(TIRES SQUEALING)
Hey, get under. Go on, get.
(TIRES SCREECHING)
Hey, you're hit.
Come on, let's go. You drive.
We've got to get close enough to get a license plate.
(GROANING)
You missed them.
How could you miss them?
Gil, keep moving. They're following us.
You all right? All right, go get him. Go get him. Yeah.
This is nuts.
I'm gonna let them get close to us and you guys blow those turkeys down.
Okay, Gil.
If I could just read the plate.
Get over behind him where I can see it.
E999288.
It's a county car.
Hold on!
All right.
(TIRES SCREECHING)
All right, you did all right, son.
(CHUCKLES) Thanks.
Well, guess things could be worse.
How?
I was just making small talk.
Just trying to fill these first few awkward moments.
You know, I've been thinking, Mr. Rockford,
and if you want my opinion, we may be barking up the wrong tree.
We're sure getting some strong feedback from the wrong tree.
No, no. Let's just look at the facts for a second.
Now, Joe Tooley hated the freeways.
But, what the hey, who doesn't, right?
I mean, many times I've been caught in those 5:00 fender benders
and I swear I'm never going to ride them again and then
find myself late and I say, "Okay, once more," right?
Richie... No...
Let me finish. Okay?
Now, we've got the problem of why would he be on the freeway
without his glasses when he had such bad vision.
Now, in itself, that would appear to be very damning evidence, right?
It is.
Unless you view it
with the assumption that he had two pairs of glasses and his wife didn't know about it.
I was thinking about going down to Mexico, myself.
You know, Joe's dead and all our poking around and maybe turning up something
is not going to put any more candles on his cake, right?
Hey, hey, hey. I'm not just folding here, Mr. Rockford.
There's nothing wrong with folding. I've gotten out of some very touchy games
just by pitching them in.
No, I'm simply trying to view this from a new perspective, that's all.
Sure, sure.
Okay.
Now, we've got this thing with the switched X-rays.
Which isn't such a big wow.
I mean, thousands of stiffs a month going through the county deep freeze.
Some guy comes back from coffee, he chucks the X-ray into the wrong file.
Richie... Now we've got the house on Willis Avenue.
Which in itself is a very strange little item.
Of course, there's all sorts of wackos running around out there.
I knew this one guy, he had electric trains.
I mean, he had electric trains running all over his house.
He'd ask you if you wanted a drink,
and if you said yes, he'd fire up this little locomotive
and it went out over the dining room trestle
and into the kitchen.
Then he'd go running into the kitchen,
he'd fix you the drink and he'd put it on a little flat car
and send it back out to you.
Talk about fruitcakes, he had this little
engineer's cap...
Boy, it just doesn't float, does it?
It doesn't have to.
Look, son, we're in stagnant water, chest high.
I don't like it, you don't like it.
But there's something going on, right?
So either we can stay,
maybe end up like Joe Tooley,
or we can find somebody to feed the cat and leave town.
Mexico, huh?
Cabo San Lucas.
Yeah, I know a guy down there that runs a fishing boat.
Oh, boy, will you look what they did to my car?
This thing has county corruption stenciled all over it.
You know, down Cabo San Lucas this time of year,
they got broadbills that,
I'll tell you, they run 100, 150 pounds.
We don't even know where this jerk Nardoni fits in.
He could put a lot of pressure on us.
You get one of those broadbills on a line and he's up there on his tail
and wanna shake that hook, man...
It's a feeling like nothing else.
I like marlin fishing.
I say, it's...
Joe Tooley was a good guy, but he's dead.
And I don't think that he'd want us going getting killed trying to solve this thing.
I suppose we ought to start at the county garage.
Yeah. They've got logs for these kind of things.
Maybe we can get a look at it, you know.
RICHIE: See, she was being brought in
by the county medical examiner in a county car.
I'm sorry, son, I don't see what that has to do with anything.
Well, see, I'm from the County Medical Examiner's Office.
Right there. And, see, we work with the Disease Control Center in L.A.
For two semesters and then they take us down to Houston and we work
with NASA Disease Control for two semesters.
I like those moon shots.
Especially when they're on the T and V.
Those fellows walking around the moon saying, "Roger, Houston."
It's a great show.
Well, everybody thinks so until maybe we bring back a bacteriological strain
that nobody can defend against.
Yeah. Right. Bac...
Bacteriological strain, that can be real deadly.
No kidding. That's why that car should have been given a DDW
and quarantined for 86 hours.
DDW?
Detergent Disinfectant Wash. I don't even know how these things can happen.
That's why we have to find that guy who was driving that car all this morning,
shoot him over to the ME's office for O and E.
Huh? Observation and Evaluation.
Well, I'm not supposed to let nobody see this log without Mr. Fanderman's approval.
Look, Mr. Kenner,
the woman was picked up
off an airliner at the airport at 10:30 this morning.
She was transported in county car license plate E999288.
She was diagnosed by county staffers at 11:17
of a critical triganiseptic pulmonary infection with miracarnial complications.
Now, that was even before Dr. Maxwell noted that
she had a radiant discoloration
of the didactic femoral appendages.
Of course, everybody knows what that means.
Not me.
Plague, Mr. Kenner. Middle European viral incarsus.
The Black Death.
E... E what?
E999288.
(IGNITION BUZZING)
(KEYS JANGLING)
(BUZZING CEASES)
(EXCLAIMS)
Yeah, here it is.
That car was taken out by a fellow named Russell. David Russell.
All righty, we're going to get on this right away.
Do you have his address there?
Ah, no.
Okay. Listen, I'm going to check it out right away and I want to thank you very much.
You, there. Where you going?
You're supposed to check in here first.
It's okay. I'm on my way out.
Well, what are you doing? You got no business in there.
It's all right. I'm with Chase Food Products.
We're putting in the new food machines downstairs in the coffee room. Okay?
Oh.
Well, it's about time.
What'd you get? I got another Russell.
John Russell? No.
The guy who used the car is named David Russell.
(PRINTER CLATTERING)
I got David Russell.
How you doing on Russell David?
Yeah, well, it's just coming in now.
Well, I guess we ought to try John David, David John,
all the other permutations you can think of.
Okay.
I think it's a good idea. But I think what we ought to do is
use the same system that we...
What are you doing in here?
Computer terminal repair.
We'll be through in a minute.
You want to patch me through to Computer Central
and then we'll run a scan printout.
Oh, right. You want me to microspool
and see if we're still ghosting at 1,600 LPS?
Good idea.
What are you two talking about?
That's computer talk. It's probably a little confusing.
That's gibberish.
We'll be through in a minute.
You're through right now, mister.
I happen to have a degree in computer technology.
Excuse me. Do you happen to have a .38 caliber automatic?
I beg your pardon? He has a .38 caliber automatic.
Show him, Jack.
I never like to pull this thing unless I'm going to use it.
You want me to run the rest of these?
Under the circumstances, I think we can do it later.
You guys want to move over there and don't do anything dumb?
You know, I hate to use shopworn phrases,
but do not leave this room for 10 minutes.
My little .38?
Let me see those.
Hey, they're all the same guy.
Yeah, except for the name and the address and the social security number.
Same banking references, same $1,200 check guarantees.
Everybody's 35, married, one child. Mr. National Average.
Yeah. John Russell lives on Willis
in an empty house with no interior and a 1,500-pound air conditioner.
Russell David lives on Pinehurst and David Russell lives on Moorpark.
You think we better go check out those addresses?
You want to split up?
Do you?
Well, I don't want you to think of me as being a chicken.
Me, neither.
See if you can get in the garage.
(BEEPING)
Same thing.
We have a kick at 2365 Moorpark.
Look at this stuff, will you?
That's a relay station in the Valley.
It's a trespass.
MAN: Thank you. We've got people nearby.
We'll get somebody out there.
That's a wilco.
Holy mackerel.
Well, this explains the air conditioning.
ROCKFORD: Must be a relay station.
Oh, boy, we tripped off an alarm somehow. Let's get out of here.
(TIRES SQUEALING)
Headed south down the alley. Cut them off. Come on!
Go with him, Smitty.
It was Rockford and Brockelman, sir. They burned this place.
Great. Just great.
I have Halsted coming in from London, Gunderson from Munich. They arrive today.
I'm sorry. I know the timing is bad, sir.
All right. We'll have to consolidate the operation.
They're obviously on to the David John Russell code,
so neutralize all four shops and reroute the feed through the Menlo Atherton circuit.
Do it now.
I'm not sure we can strike them all, sir.
You don't have any choice. I'll get Nardoni on it.
If we have to use county crews, we'll just have to risk it.
I'll leave that to him. What about those two guys?
I think somebody should bring them down fast.
They already know more than Tooley did.
We'll do that, B.J.
First they have to be isolated, then debriefed.
(SIGHS)
Leave that to me.
You just close up those four shops.
(WOMAN CHATTERING O VER POLICE RADIO)
Thank you. Thank you very much.
What's going on?
They say there's a gas leak. We can't get through.
You think the Sheriff's Department's in on this?
I don't know what's happening here, so why do you keep asking?
Hey, what the hey? You don't need to get sore.
You're the one with 10 years experience.
You're the one wants to run this whole thing.
So if I ask a question now and again,
you don't have to come all unstuck.
You need a mentor, go back to college.
Find an old criminology professor.
Tooley moved very quietly.
He was a cautious man.
This thing snuffed out his light
before he could send up a flare.
Hey, if you're scared, take off. Go fishing.
You're darn right I'm scared.
Anybody with normal reflexes would be running like a scalded dog right now.
You got computer people who own houses full of electronic cables
leading to who-knows-where.
You got a bunch of houses in desolate no man's land
out near the airport, you've got county equipment running around everywhere,
county cops running interference.
Listen, if I ask you another question,
are you going to take my head off?
No.
I'm sorry. Go ahead.
What do we do now? Where do we go?
I don't know.
Why don't you come up with something for a change?
You know, I think we should risk it and call the police.
Yeah, where's your phone?
It's in here on the desk.
Right there.
Well, well...
How you doing down there, Vern?
Getting any?
Oh, great. What the heck do you think you're doing here?
What am I doing here?
Is that what you're asking, kid?
Is that what you want to know?
Is that the question?
Yeah, that's the question, Vern.
And you better be quick about answering
or you and I are going to have some trouble.
You know what this kid is doing, Jimbo?
He's going after old Joe's caseload.
Oh, come on!
I tell you something else.
I caught him trying to sham my old friend, poor old Marie Tooley.
Mary Tooley.
Well, Joe and I have never been all that tight,
everybody knew that,
but if you toss out the fact that
he had me arrested in Tucson once
and you throw out the time that he testified against me
in that insurance recovery case,
I figure we didn't have all that bad a relationship.
So I figure, why should I let this little two-bit junior G-man here
take the bread out of what's-her-name's mouth.
Vern, you're in here illegally. You're breaking and entering.
Now, how would you like me to take that beef downtown
to Lieutenant Chapman, see how he deals with it?
Don't you threaten me with a brown-shoe lieutenant.
You got more trouble than me, boy.
Okay, Vern, I wanna know what you're doing here. Now, tell me.
Hey, you're wrinkling the tie!
Spit it out, or you and I are going to go one round right here now.
All right. Let go. Let go, will you?
I went to Tooley's office to see if I could help, you know?
ROCKFORD: Sure, sure, Vern.
Well, two guys jumped me.
At first, I thought they were cops.
You know, they had short hair and narrow ties.
Then they turned out to be independents.
And they take me over to this garage
and they give me a lie detector test
and then this guy in a black Italian car,
he was talking to me. I couldn't see him.
Asked me all about Tooley. Do I know what Tooley is working on?
Do I talk to Tooley and all that.
And then he peels out.
That still doesn't answer why you're here.
Well, I figure the kid here pilfered Tooley's caseload.
I figure the guy in the black car maybe
was going to pay for some information,
so I poked around.
Maybe I make some dough, maybe not.
Now, look... Look, we're not joined at the hip.
I don't owe you or that child star anything.
It's a dog-eat-dog business and no dog is gonna eat me.
Okay, Vern. If I see you,
if I hear about you, if I even read your name in the paper,
I'm gonna put a bad hitch in your get-along. Now, go.
Tough guys. Everybody's a tough guy.
I'm not.
Who knows what the hell you are, kiddo.
(DOOR CLOSING)
Do you know who that reminds me of?
Who?
Garth McGregor.
Particularly that car-to-car polygraph test.
That's just the kind of gadgety thing he'd go crazy for.
Last time I heard of him, he was trying to set up some kind of
information center along the lines of ASPIC.
ASPIC? It's an acronym
for Atlanta Southern Personal Information Center.
It's a conglomeration of computers.
He was trying to set one up in Massachusetts and then he got run out
because of some local ordinance.
Well, what is it? Some kind of private computer center?
Well, I don't know what it is, exactly.
But there was a big flap about it in Massachusetts and then all of a sudden,
overnight, somebody slammed the door.
It just smells of powerful people
and one hell of an invasion of personal privacy.
Hey, wait a second. Wait a second. Hang on here.
Now, Steever hired Garth McGregor
to find out if Supervisor Nardoni was crooked, right?
Now, suppose McGregor turned something up?
I mean, something that would really squeeze Nardoni.
Wouldn't that give him the leverage he needed to set up his computer center here?
It's not bad. Not bad.
Yeah, it sure fills in a lot of the variables.
McGregor tells Steever that he found nothing,
then he turns right around and blackmails Nardoni
and gets county assistance in setting it up.
Yeah. Of course, it doesn't explain the houses or the computer people.
But that's not bad.
That's not bad. Good boy, Richie. Good boy.
Hey, didn't you forget the pat on the head?
Oh, hey, well...
No, no. That's okay. That's okay.
When you get a little older, I'll call you Pop.
Probably won't bother you, either.
Now look who's getting sore, huh?
No, I'll call my father,
tell him to move my address, then I'll call the police.
I got a friend there, Sergeant Becker.
Oh, yeah, I got a police contact, too. Sergeant Coopersmith.
We better call him, too.
Yeah, well, we better hope that this fix isn't in all the way to the police.
WOMAN ON RADIO: All units, all frequencies,
stand by for felony warrant on two male Caucasians.
Pick up and hold for questioning James Rockford.
6'1", 190, black and brown.
Suspect last seen driving a tan 1977 Firebird,
853 Ocean King George.
Also wanted, Richard T: Brockelman.
5'9", 150, brown and blue.
Known to drive a 1965 red Mustang convertible, Edward Tom Union 887:
Both suspects wanted in felony B and E:
Both suspects have extensive police records and may be armed and dangerous.
Thank you.
You know, Garth, one of these days you're going to tire of all this hardware.
Or, perhaps, it will tire of you.
There is nothing wrong with precautions. I support that.
Yes, of course you do.
Drink, gentlemen?
Thank you. A touch of Scotch.
Not for me, thank you.
Ice? No, thanks.
So, Garth,
how is the project coming?
Are we still going to see completion schedules as discussed?
Well, we're a little behind schedule, Franz,
but nothing we can't make up.
I understand your county supervisor
has lost control of the environmentalists.
Not so.
Now, gentlemen, why don't we just enjoy a drink, huh?
You sure you won't have...
No, thank you.
Well, a little later on we'll have some dinner.
I mean, I just hate to plunge right into this thing.
After Massachusetts,
I always felt that Los Angeles was a mistake.
Northern Scotland would have been much more suitable.
There's nothing going wrong here.
You'll see when we get out there tomorrow night. This location is perfect.
You are running a circus out there with those lots.
I prefer quiet.
When things get in the papers, I sleep badly.
That is a necessary smoke screen.
I think when you see what we've done, you'll be very pleased.
Well, we've already sold our services to
several international banking corporations
and one Middle European government.
Now, we must deliver on schedule.
How are things going with Interpol?
HALSTED: When they see what we're doing, they'll change their minds and join us.
After all, they're running a company just like we are.
Frankly, I don't think they can stand the competition.
Still, I wish we had them with us.
They will be.
You just get the location ready. Make sure that this thing stays quiet.
We must remain unknown for fear of public outcry
or even governmental intervention.
Yes, at least for the first two or three years.
After that, I don't think it will matter much.
(MAN CHATTERING ON RADIO)
Hey, what's that?
Oh, that's a police band radio.
My Uncle Hermie gave it to me for my birthday. I hardly ever listen to it.
Does it got Tac-2?
Yeah. Right there...
(MAN CHATTERING ON RADIO)
Why don't we just show up late?
If Becker and Coopersmith are sandbagging us,
we ought to pick up some chatter on this thing.
Hey, they said they just wanted to meet and talk.
Listen, Richie, the same thing that makes cops wear gray suits and white socks
makes them itch when there's a warrant on the board.
Let's just play it safe. Okay?
Okay.
Yeah, well, this... This looks good.
Can I ask you something?
Sure, sure.
Well, you see, my dad wanted me to join an insurance company.
My mother wanted me to be an engineer.
And, you know, it's kind of hard to disappoint them.
I mean, how do you tell them you want to be a private eye, right?
So what I want to know is, I mean, your dad understands, doesn't he?
Rocky? Oh...
Yeah, sure, he understands, sort of.
I mean, do you ever go to him with stuff?
I mean, the thing of it is, I can't go to my dad and sound things out
'cause he hates what I do.
Well, that's a shame.
You know, it's always good to have somebody you can talk things over with.
Do you do that with Rocky?
Rocky? Yeah. I mean, like discuss cases.
You know, I used to do that with Joe Tooley. But now he's gone.
And I...
I just think that sometimes it's good to sit down
and talk things out like you and I have been doing.
Yeah, well, I...
I run some of this stuff by Rocky.
He has his own ideas on most of it.
Like what?
Oh, you know...
No, no. I'd really like to hear.
I mean, what kind of advice does he give you?
Oh...
"Life is like a red Ford." That's one.
And, "It's better off keeping that Ford in neutral
"than revving your engine all the time."
What's that got to do with being a private eye?
Nothing, nothing.
It doesn't have anything at all to do with it. It's just something he said.
But I'll tell you what does.
You know, it doesn't make any difference what
anybody else thinks about what you do.
It's what you think about what you're doing that's important.
Oh, yeah. Well, I really love it. I really do.
You know, even now, with all this crazy stuff going on.
If you think about it,
we're the only two guys who have a chance to uncover something really big.
If you're happy with what you're doing, that's the important thing.
BECKER ON RADIO: Hey, Coopersmith, you in place?
COOPERSMITH ON RADIO: Yeah, Den.
Hey, look, just lay back. We got this whole area blocked off.
Where are they? They said 2:00.
Boy, I hate doing this.
You think I like it?
But we got a county warrant here, Dennis.
What are we supposed to do with it?
Why don't you sit on it?
Let's get out of here.
Hey, Jim, is that you, buddy?
Is that you, Rich, you little schtunk?
(TIRES SQUEALING)
Let me talk to Halsted and Gunderson.
I can convince them.
Go home, Tom. Leave this to me.
What about Rockford and Brockelman?
Why don't you hire a couple of maintenance crews
to go after them with a street sweeper?
A nice, quiet little killing that shouldn't cause too much of a stir.
Look, you were unavailable.
I got the call. I figured something had to be done.
We can't put them out of action until we know who they've talked to.
It's like cancer, Tom.
You can cut out the malignancy,
but if you don't remove the lymph gland,
you haven't solved your problem.
Now, listen...
I can push the county government around just so far.
I've already got a sheriff's department deputy commander
asking questions about some of the things
I've done on my own authority.
Now, these people will go along,
up to a point,
but they're beginning to put two and two together.
Go home and sweat it out, Tom.
And if you make one move without checking with me first,
I'm gonna send some very incriminating stuff to people in high places.
You won't like it, Tom.
Goodbye.
This Rockford really gets around.
His loan record stinks.
Look here, morals complaint. Is that ours?
Oh, yeah. That's ours. I...
I stuck it in there through the Denver computer system.
We have a witness to back it up.
I figured maybe we'd want the bank to cancel out on his house loan.
Maybe squeeze him.
There's another ringer here.
Let's see... Right here, line 53.
Assault complaint, not filed.
Very good.
That ties in with these legitimate arrests.
Yes, sir, Mr. Rockford looks very unsavory.
The other one?
Twenty-two?
He's just a kid.
Why, didn't anybody tell you that?
No.
No. No one bothered to tell me that.
Yeah, we got into his juvenile package. Punched it out at the Menlo Atherton bank.
Now, who knows where that system hooks into the local police computer.
To the computer on Pinehurst. At least it used to.
What an imposing kid this Brockelman is.
Broke the windows of a greenhouse when he was 15, arrested,
charges dropped when his father agreed to pay.
A real John Dillinger.
How much further?
It's not far.
We've got Rockford's house covered.
We'll go through it, set up a bug and eye surveillance.
Maybe we'll get lucky and pluck him quick.
Where is it, B. J? There's no house here.
Just a minute. It's supposed to be out here somewhere.
I'll find out.
Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I guess we blew it.
We got here and Rockford's place is gone.
You work for me, mister?
Yes, sir, Mr. McGregor.
Dan Baker. Just in from the Houston office.
Didn't anyone ever teach you how to give a report?
Yes, sir. Then give it properly!
Yes, sir.
Suspect's dwelling has been located
at 29 Cove Road for the last three and a half years,
according to persons in attendance here.
An old man known to be suspect Rockford's father, picked up the dwelling
and towed it away by semi about two hours ago.
Just how do you tow away a house with a truck?
Suspect's dwelling is a trailer, sir.
It's a 50-foot house trailer. It's on wheels.
I guess we're having breakdowns everywhere.
Well, it wasn't on the computer, sir. We thought it was a residence.
I want this guy found, B.J., you got that? I want him!
Within the hour, sir.
Come on, Baker, I'll ride with you.
All right, you fellows.
Where's the other fellow? I don't know.
He got up about an hour ago.
Funny kid, ain't he?
You know what he was telling me last night?
What?
He was telling me that he is a private investigator.
Did you ever hear of anything more ridiculous in your life?
What would a nice kid like that be doing getting into something like that?
I don't know. Just for the heartache, I guess.
And maybe because it's just great to
get up in the morning and have the whole world laughing at you.
Well, you don't have to get sore.
You know what I was thinking... Look, Rocky,
I really don't think Richie would make much of a truck driver, huh?
I mean, he's already got a red Ford parked right there
with a lot of mileage on the old dash.
So let's just spare him that little life lesson, okay?
You ain't fooling me at all, sonny.
You're not making me think that we hauled
this trailer plumb up here just to get closer to some rainbow trout.
We hauled it up here 'cause you're hiding out.
Okay, so I'm hiding out.
Now, where's my trout?
You didn't catch him yet.
You mean you didn't catch my breakfast?
No, siree, I didn't catch your breakfast.
I'm gonna make you slow down some way if I got to put a rod in your hand,
turn you around and shove you toward the water like I did when you was a little kid.
That's what I'm gonna do. Yes, sir, that's it.
Where's the fly?
Morning.
Yeah. How you feeling?
I like to run in the morning.
Makes me feel great.
I just get all out of breath.
Yeah, well, you get used to it.
You know,
it seems different this morning.
Less threatening.
You know, Richie, I've been thinking.
There's a couple of moves we haven't tried yet.
What are you talking about? The housing development or those lots
or whatever they are? Yeah, that's one.
The other's Tooley's office.
What do you mean?
Well, how did those two guys know that
Vern St. Cloud was in Tooley's office going through the files?
I don't know.
Well, I was in the place
and I don't think anybody was watching.
But then I was only in there for about four minutes.
Let's say that Vern was in for 10 or 15.
So?
Well, I think McGregor's got the place bugged.
He is crazy about bugs.
You figure that one of us should go into the office
and bang the drawers around a little bit and wait for the sky to fall in?
Not one of us. Me.
You're the one that wanted to go to Cabo San Lucas, remember?
I changed my mind.
I'm entitled to change my mind every now and then.
I'd just like to know what McGregor's up to.
I have a hunch that if he grabs me,
I'm gonna learn a lot more than Vern St. Cloud did.
Maybe we could put McGregor behind a kidnapping charge.
That'll loosen him up. Let's face it, son,
things couldn't get much worse.
We're alive at Tooley's office.
(BANGS)
(THUDS)
Someone moving around, using the phone.
This is Jim Rockford. Would you tell Miss Davenport I called?
No, no. No, I'll call her back. Thank you.
(SLAMS DRAWER)
Guy named Rockford.
MAN ON RADIO: Record and re-transmit. Priority One. Notify 216.
That's a wilco.
Well, maybe not, Joe.
(TIRES SCREECHING)
(GRUNTS)
You guys ought to try swinging in on knotted ropes.
B. J: Very funny.
Go through him, Smitty.
Come on, take it easy.
Shut up. Where's Brockelman?
It's not my turn to watch him.
I can see you're gonna keep us in stitches.
Well, I try to stay bright in spite of the company.
Let's go.
Mr. Rockford, you and I seem to be having a little misunderstanding.
I thought maybe we ought to meet,
try to get it straightened out.
Oh, I think it's more than a misunderstanding.
It's more like kidnapping, illegal detention, assault.
I think maybe what we're talking about
is more in the line of occupational hazard.
I see no reason to get civil authorities involved
in what is essentially a personal matter.
Well, you better go get fitted for a new melon
'cause right about now I have the urge to pin that list on your shirt.
Come now, Mr. Rockford, let's talk business.
I want to find out what it is you think is going on here,
what you've told other people.
I'll bet.
I want to ask you a few questions. Possibly give you a polygraph test.
And once I'm certain that you and I have no secrets from each other,
I'm sure you and I will be able to make some sort of deal suitable to each other.
Possibly employment contract, cash, whatever you like.
Any kind of a deal you want.
Wealth and riches in return for a little honesty.
That sounds great.
Of course, I wouldn't want to end up with Tooley's deal.
It's kind of hard to enjoy wealth and riches from the inside of a brass bottle.
Mr. Tooley's a good case in point.
You see, Mr. Tooley is the other side of the coin.
Mr. Tooley was convinced
that he could destroy my project when, in fact,
in the long run, it destroyed him.
Then he is dead.
Only not from that automobile accident.
Well, all right, as long as we're going to have an honest relationship,
why don't we start with Tooley's death?
Indeed.
That's a good place to start,
because I do want to impress upon you
that you are dealing with something way over your head.
And then, having told you,
I want you to understand, Mr. Rockford,
why I must have the proper kind of leverage against you
or you simply will not be with us.
"Not be with us."
Don't you have a cute way of putting it?
Dead, whacked, ripped.
I'll feed you to the sharks, mister.
How did Tooley get "not with us"?
Who was really in that car?
Oh, some poor slob on the Ventura Freeway,
burned beyond recognition, hit by a gas truck, incinerated.
So where's Tooley?
He's currently involved in the citrus industry.
He's fertilizing a grove in Northern California.
Somebody in the coroner's office switched the fingerprint card
and switched Tooley's prints for the burned John Doe.
That way nobody could claim it was anything but a freeway accident.
Would you put these on, please?
Oh, I'd rather not.
I always do badly on tests.
Come on, come on.
You're not going to let me walk away from here,
no matter what kind of leverage I give you.
So I figure the best thing I can do here is just give you a few sleepless nights.
What if I told the newspapers, huh?
What if I had a friend on the Organized Strike Force?
Here's a good one, Mr. McGregor.
How about the old letter to the attorney
to be opened only in the event of my death?
I don't think you really know enough to do any damage.
Okay, okay. Let's just see what I do know, huh?
You are opening up some kind of computer center...
Private computers, information for sale.
On a national or maybe even an international scale.
You got your hooks into Tom Nardoni.
He's your county connection,
only he's beginning to unravel like a cheap sweater,
which means he's probably going into the citrus business himself.
You're in the computer business in a big way already.
You're tapped into 15 or 20 computers.
You're in the private information market,
personal secrets for sale.
With your computers in the circle,
you can add or subtract from somebody's credit rating.
You can infer somebody's a deadbeat,
you can stomp somebody into the ground
using computer technology as a club.
How am I doing?
To my knowledge, none of this is illegal.
Well, it sure as hell ought to be.
Where do you go from there?
Private security companies with private police powers?
Companies who employ ex-cops and FBI agents?
What are you up to, Mr. McGregor?
B. J!
Welcome to the citrus industry, Mr. Rockford.
Let's go, Davey.
Hey, hey, I wasn't finished. I was still looking to make a deal.
It's made. Shut up.
You know, this is not really necessary.
Perhaps we could get back in touch with Mr. McGregor.
You see, I was only trying to build a negotiating platform there.
I think he took it the wrong way.
There's no need for this sort of extreme...
I really hate a talky hit.
(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)
(THUDDING)
Probably the luggage. Check it out.
(SHOUTS)
(GRUNTS)
Jim!
Nice work, son.
Go up to 10,000 feet.
10,000?
You heard me, 10,000.
Jim, I got their handcuffs. I handcuffed them to the luggage rack.
Okay, keep your eye on him.
See those two hills over there?
That's Deadrock Canyon.
Head for them.
We're going to set down on the other side.
Where does that road lead out of Deadrock Canyon?
I'm not saying a thing. You want to know, take a look.
I got the pilot hooked up.
Everybody's secure in there.
Not too happy, but secure.
How you coming with that thing?
You got everything you need off of here?
Okay, I guess.
I wired in a sending unit.
Here, it's gonna be heavy.
Oh, what the hey. Let me carry it.
You got yourself a deal.
That's not too bad. Maybe we'll take turns.
Oh, yeah.
ROCKFORD: You know, Richie, I've got a hunch about those building sites.
RICHIE: You think they're phonies?
Well, they're too public.
The environmentalists have been crawling all over this place.
Fire station right down that road, about a mile.
There's a lot of traffic going up that little road there.
Where does that go?
Think maybe somebody should go up there and find out what's going on?
One of us is going to have to be a scout and the other the CP.
If I get in trouble,
I'm gonna need you to pull in some help with that thing.
Yeah, well, then maybe we better take it along with us.
You see, the thing of it is, is I want to go along.
I mean, I'm in it this far. I did pull you out of the helicopter.
Yeah. I've got to admit, you've come in a lot handier than I would've expected.
I guess people underestimate you all the time, don't they, son?
Oh, yeah, I count on it.
(ENGINES RUMBLING)
All right,
we'll wait till dark then we'll take a little hike up that road.
Bingo.
Looks like an old missile silo.
Do you see what I see?
Don't point.
Good. I see you got it.
(MACHINE WHIRRING)
That's Garth McGregor. Which one?
ROCKFORD: Brown suit.
I tell you, it won't do. It simply won't do.
Well, I told you I installed it right.
The computers still have the manual overrides for the counter-spun serving system.
Well, it won't work. Not until you switch to 2345 conduit. I'm telling you!
Now, that won't be in place until the...
Excuse me. Can I see your security passes, please?
Sure. No.
Security break, Tunnel 1. We need some help.
Hey, what happened there?
ROCKFORD: Turn on that radio, son.
Calling all police, all fire units
in Deadrock Canyon. There's a monstrous fire.
Get all the police, call the fire units.
MAN ON RADIO: Roger. We're on our way.
Guard. Guard.
I caught one of them. Here, you hold this one.
I saw another one over by the fence over there.
Go, son! Go!
(SIRENS WAILING)
Calmly, gentlemen. Calmly.
I told you, Garth, about... Tried to get out of it.
Come on.
(TIRES SQUEALING)
(CHATTERING O VER RADIO)
OFFICER: What the hell's going on here?
(MEN CHATTERING)
Shall we introduce ourselves?
Officer, I put in the call.
There wasn't an actual fire, but there's been an actual crime.
ROCKFORD: Let's talk to them up there. Excuse me.
In a surprise move today, Supervisor Thomas Nardoni resigned
and filed a statement with the D: A:,
resulting in the arrest of Garth McGregor
for the murder of Joseph Tooley, a local private detective.
It was all due to the efforts of one Albert Steever,
a long-time opponent of the county supervisor.
(WHIMPERING) Look, Bebe.
All right.
Yeah, thank you. It's going very well. I would like to make a statement.
Of course, I'm very delighted with what's happened here today.
However, I think that we should put out some credit to Mr. Jim Rockford
and Mr. Richard Brockelman.
That's our boy. That's nice.
Two close friends of Joe Tooley's
who pushed this case forward to its conclusion.
Thank you and goodbye.
You're going to be a star.
Oh, there's Coopersmith.
We're still trying to unravel exactly what was going on.
It appears to be that Mr. McGregor and the two men who were arrested with him
were attempting to set up a secret system of computers
which would carry the personal records
of some 200 million Americans.
When we get more, we'll issue a further statement.
Boy, I got to tell you, you got to admire that Coopersmith.
He could find a news crew blindfolded.
Arrested with Mr. McGregor were Derek Halsted and Franz Gunderson,
both heads of large European security firms.
It gives one pause.
It's one thing for our government to have us categorized and computerized,
but why does a company install a secret underground computer center
right in the middle of one of the world's largest cities?
Why indeed.
Here, here.
Elsewhere city planners discuss new ways to...
You really ought to be proud of yourself, Mr. Steever.
I mean, four years and you stuck with it.
If it hadn't been for you, they'd have gotten away with it.
Well, we all lost a friend.
You all better come on back and start on this fish.
You ought to be proud, too, Mr. Rockford. Stay here, Bebe.
I mean, you should have seen Jim there. He was magnificent.
Of course, what the hey, I had a little to do with it myself.
It was a team effort all the way.
How about you, Rocky? What do you think?
Well, I don't pretend to understand why you fellows
like to go around private eyeing,
but I will say, when Mr. Steever came on that TV and mentioned your names,
I was proud of both of you.
Well, looks like you've found a place to come and talk, son.
Oh, what the hey, Pop.