MURDER, SHE WROTE: THE SEARCH FOR PETER KERRY (TV)
Summary
One in this murder mystery series about an unassuming Maine mystery writer turned sleuth named Jessica B. Fletcher who uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases. In this episode, Jessica attends the funeral of her former close friend and then meets Danny Schubert, the college roommate of Peter Kerry, grandson of her friend Andrew. In the car on the way to the cemetery, Andrew reflects bitterly on his family's struggles, including the disappearance of Peter twenty years earlier. He states that his grandson is still alive and vows to find him before he dies. Six months later, Danny takes Jessica to dinner to discuss business and overhears a woman, Edie, playing a song that he claims was written by Peter. When they question her, she says it was written by her fiancé, Rick. She takes them to meet him, and they are startled to realize that he may be the missing Peter, as he looks somewhat like him and has a similar scar on his arm. He bristles at the accusation and tells them to leave, but then later calls Jessica and asks to meet, explaining that he was in a car accident two decades ago and lost his memory, fleeing when he learned that the driver of the car was a wanted army deserter. Roger, Andrew's longtime assistant, tells Jessica that Peter is surely dead, though he has no proof, but asks questions about the song and the scar and says he will meet him. Elsewhere, Danny meets up with his estranged wife, Leona, who demands money from him, and he assures her that they will soon be wildly rich.
Roger searches for background on "Rick" and finds none, telling Jessica that the hospital where he stayed after the car accident has conveniently burned down. Leona and Danny arrive at Andrew's home, as does Jessica, and she greets Alma, the housekeeper. Andrew admits that he needs Jessica there to help him verify if Rick is Peter, as he does not trust himself to know. Rick arrives with Edie, saying that the house gives him a "creepy" feeling. He maintains that he cannot remember anything and is not there for money, and Danny insinuates that Roger is the one taking advantage of Andrew. Alma privately tells Andrew and Jessica that she believes he is in fact Peter based on his habit of playing with his watch. Later that night, Jessica finds Rick in the library as Edie returns from watching a movie in a bar. Leona says that she cannot find Danny, and she and Jessica soon find his dead body in the garage. The police arrive, and Sergeant Rice examines the body, finding a burn on Danny's hand and a flask by his side. Chief Underwood arrives to question Jessica and Leona, though he soon proves himself to be rather incompetent, and Jessica has to educate him on the details of the case. The medical examiner verifies Jessica's "guesses" about the nature and time of death, and Underwood tells him to do the autopsy immediately, pressured by Andrew to solve the case quickly. Underwood then catches Jessica poking around the crime scene, and she explains that she is looking for a cigarette butt, guessing that Danny was lighting his killer's cigarette when he was stabbed. He is impressed with her reasoning, and then they learn that a note from Danny was found in Rick's room, summoning him to the meeting in the garage.
Rick denies having ever seen the note, and Edie admits that it was actually for her, saying that she had met up with Danny in secret a few times after meeting him at the restaurant with Jessica and that she threatened to tell Rick when he made advances on her. Jessica, however, declares the entire thing a "scheme" and states that Danny asked Edie to play Peter's song so that he could "accidentally" overhear it and "find" the fake Peter, employing Jessica's help to fool Andrew and get the inheritance and the reward. Andrew admits to the plot, saying that he really did lose his memory and owed Danny money, but reiterates that he did not kill him. Edie, who was unaware, says that she feels used and admits to Jessica that she thought Rick must have killed Danny, as she heard someone outside before fleeing the garage, and Jessica agrees to help her. She stages an argument with Edie, declaring that she will prove Rick's guilt by finding the cigarette butt with its DNA evidence. Later, Underwood catches Leona in the garage hunting for the butt and arrests her for the murder, saying that she feared being cut out of the deal and killed her husband to collect his portion of the reward. Later, Rick disappears, and Roger learns that the sister of the army-deserting driver remembered the other man in the car, who actually seems to have been Peter after all, and they hurry to find "Rick" once again. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: February 5, 1989 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:00:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:33892
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1984-1996
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Promos - "Lonesome Dove"
CREDITS
- Peter S. Fischer … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Robert F. O'Neill … Supervising Producer
- Robert Van Scoyk … Producer
- Anthony J. Magro … Associate Producer
- Richard Levinson … Created by
- William Link … Created by
- Walter Grauman … Director
- David Bell … Music by
- John Addison … Theme Music by
- Angela Lansbury … Cast, Jessica Fletcher
- Mason Adams … Cast, Roger Philby
- Michael Beck … Cast, Danny Schubert
- Sam Bottoms … Cast, Sgt. Joe Rice
- Vanessa Brown … Cast, Alma Goodrich
- Anita Morris … Cast, Leona Schubert
- Lorna Patterson … Cast, Edie Lorraine
- William Prince … Cast, Andrew Kerry
- Marc Singer … Cast, Rick Barton
- Lane Smith … Cast, Pol. Chief Miles Underwood
- John Petlock … Cast, Medical Examiner
- Wren T. Brown … Cast, Uniformed Policeman
- James O'Connell … Cast, Minister