Original Airdate: January 23, 1976
Written by: Stephen J. Cannell
Directed by: Meta Rosenberg
Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett) and Dave Delaroux (John Saxon)—a client with whom she has a personal relationship—go to Jim Rockford with a problem. Delaroux suspects that someone has been stealing cashier’s checks from his company, Biometrics. He doesn’t want to inquire personally because his cousin is the regional manager and would resent his interference.
With some reluctance, Jim uses an alias to dig into the ledger at Biometrics. The numbers of all the cashier’s checks that Delaroux gave him are accounted for. He assures Delaroux that no one has stolen them. In gratitude, Delaroux gives him and Beth two tickets to a classical music recital to which he was planning to take Beth himself.
While having dinner at the house of his girlfriend Karen Silver (Katherine Woodville) Delaroux is confronted by Karen’s husband Mickey (Robert Riesel), a crime figure. The two men have a fight, and Delaroux wins hands down. Mickey isn’t about to let the matter rest, so he and his bodyguard Arnold Adams (Ned Wilson) follow Delaroux after he leaves. He leads them to, of all places, to Jim’s trailer. Having seen where Jim keeps his extra key, he breaks in and tosses the place. Mickey goes in, intending to shoot him, but Delaroux uses Jim’s gun to shoot first. Adams, who has secretly been working with Delaroux, expects that they’ll report it as a self-defense shooting, but Delaroux kills him too.
Jim and Beth leave the concert early, at Jim’s insistence and to Beth’s annoyance. JIM find Silver and Adams lying dead on the trailer floor. Jim calls Becker to report the crime. Unfortunately for him, Becker’s boss Lt. Diel (Tom Atkins) is determined to shuffle him around the system so that his lawyer (i.e. Beth) can’t spring him. His troubles seem to increase when federal agent Dan Shore (Wayne Tippit) pulls rank and arrests him for conspiracy to defraud the US government as well as murder. In his interrogation, though, Jim manages to convince Shore that he might be innocent.
Jim’s release depends on finding Delaroux and recovering the money that he embezzled. Through Delaroux’s other lady-friend Susan Valero (Cynthia Sikes) he and Beth learn he has an apartment that Susan sold him. While they search his apartment he returns and takes Beth hostage. While Delaroux is driving away Jim blinds him by splashing paint on his windshield. After Delaroux is in custody, Jim and Beth find a portrait that he painted of her—on a federal bearer’s bond.
Tropes present in this episode:
- Amoral Attorney: Delaroux is a lawyer himself, so he knows enough to cover up his own crimes and put suspicion on others, including Jim.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Mickey Silver, over his wife. It’s a Fatal Flaw on his part, as going after Delaroux causes him to fall into the latter’s trap.
- Frame-Up: Dave Delaroux shoots Mickey Silver and Arnold Adams in Jim’s trailer with Jim’s (unlicensed) gun. And while Beth could provide Jim with an alibi, she’s also Dave’s lawyer, so she can’t say anything that would incriminate him.
- Green-Eyed Monster: To console Beth, Jim cites jealousy as a reason why he disliked and distrusted Dave. Of course his instincts turned out to be right.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Lt. Diehl and FBI Agent Shore argue over who is going to arrest Jim. Diehl merely wants to charge him with the double murder, while Shore not only wants to charge him with murder, but other charges including fraud against the government. Shore wins the battle, which is good for Jim because he's much more reasonable than Diehl ever was.
- Lie Detector: The feds give Jim a lie detector test and he passes.
- Men Are Uncultured: Jim and Beth leave the concert because he was falling asleep. This embarrasses Beth, along with Jim’s unkempt appearance when he first meets Dave.
- Mugging the Monster: Mickey expects Dave to be an easy beatdown, but tries to sucker punch him anyway. It turns out that Delaroux—like Saxon in real life—is an accomplished martial artist and makes short work of him.
- Really Gets Around: Delaroux is active even by 70s standards. He’s sleeping with his attorney (probably), his realtor, the estranged wife of another crook he’s setting up, and—as revealed by his apartment filled with portraits and nudes—a slew of other conquests.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Agent Shore listens to Jim’s story and shares details about what they have on Delaroux. As it turns out being charged with federal crimes is a hidden blessing for Jim, because unlike Diel, Shore doesn’t have it in for him personally.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Mickey’s bodyguard Arnold Adams was Delaroux’s accomplice, but Delaroux kills him so as not to have to split the money.
