Petrocelli
The Gamblers
(First aired: 1975)
The owner of a store, Al Benton, was murdered. Theresa Riviera goes to Tony Petrocelli because her brother had been arrested for the murder. She and her brother Manuel look after their two younger siblings because their parents are on a trip in Mexico.
So Tony talks with Manuel. He was running errands for Mr. Benton. That night he went back to the store because he had forgotten his notebook there which he needed for school. The back door was open and he went in. He found Al Benton dead on the floor. He hid when two other men were looking for Mr. Benton - then he ran away, afraid they would think he did it.
The district attorney tells Tony that they found Manuel's finger prints on the knife - and that they had found the notebook he mentioned and that Manuel had an argument with Benton earlier that evening. They also found the cash register open and found over 300 dollars in Manuel's car that he didn't tell Tony.
The investigation starts. Tony and Pete find out that Al Benton was a bookie- that lots of people owe him lots of money - bet debts - for example, Mr. Melon owes $5,000. When Tony meets him, he runs away thinking he was sent by Benton to force the money from him and to set him under pressure.
One evening Tony and his wife are at the Riviera's house. Theresa invites them for dinner. Tony spotted some postcards from their parents but something isn't right with them. He needs to talk with Manuel again - and not only about this.
Indeed, Manuel admits that he had money in his car because he doesn't trust banks. He also admits that he had an argument that he wanted to quit his job because Benton had used him for his illegal business. Mr. Benton told him that he can't quit because he is already a part of that business and set him under pressure. And he also tells Tony that his parents died in a car accident three months ago. He writes the cards so his younger siblings believe their parents are okay - he just can't tell them the truth. After school he's working to get enough money to pay all the bills. Now that he's in jail he's afraid that social workers could find out the truth about his parents and that they would put his siblings into an orphanage.
By now Pete found out that much more people owed Al Benton lots of money: James Wylie owed him around $7,000 and a guy named Gomez around $3,000. And there's some still inexplicable break-ins they should check. So Pete should find Gomez while Tony wants to talk with James Wylie.
Tony doesn't meet James Wylie just his son Dennis (Mark Hamill) working on a car trying to repair it. Tony offers the help of a mechanic but Dennis explained that he wouldn't have the money. He tells Tony that his parents aren't at home. He talks about his father's addiction to betting. In his eyes, it's an illness that he wants to help his father overcome because he owes him that. When he was ill as a kid his father was at his side - he even lost his job back then. So he gives his father the money he gets working in a restaurant. With some disgust he tells Tony where he can find his father.
We know Pete won't give up finding out all about tricky things - this time more about these break ins. The thief always took money never other things and he never took all the money - only a few hundreds dollars every time. Both men are starting to check Mr. Benton's book and compared them with the break ins trying to find something that could bring them further to their goal. They find out that James Wylie had always paid his debts on the last day of the month - and the break-ins were always a few days earlier. Is that the solution?
In the court Tony wants to talk with James Wylie who admits getting money from his son. At this point he wants to talk with Dennis. He asked him how it can be possible to give his father that much money but only getting thirty-five dollars every week for his job. So Petrocelli can now start to explain what really happened that night: Dennis was making one of his break-ins - as always wearing gloves. It was easy for him to open that door, too after so many other break-ins he did before. He opened the cash registry with a large knife he found when Al Benton came in and run directly into the knife. It wasn't Dennis' intention to kill him.
For the records, there's another episode of that series called "Edge Of Evil" that should be interesting. No, it isn't another episode with Mark. Two other well-known actors - Harrison Ford and William Shatner - star in it..