Log 55: Missing Child (Season 3, Episode 6)

I learned something as I was receiving entries for the giveaway, Gmail organizes your email for you. Before my inbox was inundated with contest entries, I didn't know that there was more than one tab in my Gmail inbox. I soon came to realize that some emails automatically go to the "social" tab. While I was retrieving contest entries from the social part of the inbox I discovered that I had many other emails from blog readers. If you sent me a correspondence and I never replied, I'm truly sorry. Thank you to all of you who sent kind words about the blog. I now know how to "work" my Gmail and I will do a better job of responding to emails. Now that we've found my missing emails, let's watch Pete and Jim search for a missing child.

Episode 58

Reed and Malloy rescue some animals, capture a disloyal nephew, find a missing girl, and investigate a murder.

[What's that smell?]

Pete and Jim must have just gotten done eating Duke's chili because the radio announces that there is escaping gas in the vicinity.

"Lady, please. Huh?"

OK, it's not that kind of gas. It's a natural gas leak they've been called to at 8845 Wilton Street. When they arrive at the address a crowd has gathered in the yard, including a woman who thinks this would be a great time to light a cigarette. Jim doesn't have time for her foolishness, he pulls the cancer-stick right out of her mouth and tosses it onto the ground. Meanwhile, Pete bangs on the door and shouts into the house. He finally kicks the door in after his calls go unanswered.

He and Jim go rushing into the house with only their handkerchiefs to protect them against the toxic fumes. They quickly make their way towards the kitchen where Jim immediately opens the window and Pete turns off the open stove. On his way to open the backdoor, Pete walks past a basket that is next to the stove.

After the air has been cleared, Pete goes back to the pink wicker basket and discovers that it contains two cats. He then notices that there is also a birdcage with two birds hanging near the stove. Jim joins his partner and reports that the rest of the house is empty. They both study the birds in the cage, Jim notices that one of the creatures is overcome with fumes. He asks his FTO if the manual covers this type of emergency.

"Mouth to beak resuscitation? I doubt it," answers Pete.

Both officers begin making their way back to the living room when they hear a woman's voice asking the crowd to let her through. When the elderly woman enters the house, she is surprised to the police there. 

Look, it's Alma Platt playing Patricia Filmore. Does she look familiar? Does this dress look familiar?

Both the actress and the dress should look familiar, they also appeared together in the season 2 episode "Log  14: SWAT". 

Pete asks Mrs. Filmore if she forgot that she turned on the gas when she left the house. She informs him that she knew the gas was on when she left and explains that she only planned on being gone for a few minutes, "just until it was over". She then walks past them into the kitchen.

Pete finds Patricia to be a real head scratcher.

Once she is there, Patricia tells her pets that the "nice men didn't want you to go to sleep". One of those nice men, Pete, tries to make Mrs. Filmore understand the gravity of her actions.

"Ma'am, you know you could've blown this place up."

Filmore now realizes that she placed everyone, human and animal, in danger, but she didn't think of that when she decided to put her plan into action. She tells them how her son-in-law has arranged for her to live at Faircrest, a home in the country. Which is wonderful, except Faircrest doesn't allow animals. So, Filmore planned to euthanize her pets with the gas.

Both Pete and Jim tell her there are alternatives to killing her animals. Jim seems to think that she can release the birds into the wild since she will be moving to the country where there are lots of birds.

I don't know if Jim's suggestion is a good one. Can a bird who has been caged for it's entire life survive in the wild?
 Also, why is Jim wearing his cover? Pete has removed his hat since he is talking a lady. Why hasn't Jim followed his FTO's example? This is not the first time this has happened and it's not the first time it's bugged me, either. Does Jim's hat stay on to illustrate the different attitudes in etiquette between younger and older officers or is Jim just oblivious?

Pete suggests that the cats could go to the animal shelter where a child would fall in love with them. Patricia corrects him, they're not cats, they're purebred angoras. Despite his ignorance of animal breeds, Patricia thinks his idea is a good one and agrees to have the shelter pick up the angoras. Pete makes the call while Patricia writes down their birthdays to pin to their collars.

"Not cats, angoras!" Pete informs the party on the other end of the phone.

When they're back in the patrol car, Jim predicts that Mrs. Filmore will have a bird feeder outside of her window at Faircrest. Pete thinks it will be "loaded with sunflower seeds and peanut butter". When his partner asks how the freckled officer knows this Pete replies that he's an "old country boy".

An "old country boy", really? Because in "Log 74: Light Duty" Pete said he was born in Los Angeles.

Before Jim can point out the inconsistency in Pete's backstory a radio dispatch sends them to 1247 South Florence to investigate a 415, fight.

At the South Florence address a dapper gentleman answers the door and tells Malloy and Reed they're a "lovely sight", but a bit late. The man introduces himself, as Mr. Benton and lets them know he did not call the police. But, he thinks one of his neighbors must have heard the racket when a blond chap in a turtleneck crashed through his front door, beat him up, and stole his disability check. Malloy needs more information and asks if they can come in the house. 

Once inside, Pete takes a closer look at Mr. Benton's door and his story. He's told them that the robber crashed through the door, but Pete points out that there is no damage to the lock or the door jamb. Benton clarifies that he used "crashed" as a figure of speech.

Earlier, Benton had told Pete that his disability check was in a desk drawer. Now Pete questions this aspect of his story, too. How did the intruder know exactly where the check was? Benton guesses that the thief was just lucky, but Pete suspects that there is more to this story than just a lucky thief. He takes Jim's notepad and writes something on it, then hands it to Benton, telling him he has to sign the document. Benton is surprised when he looks at the paper.

The old man answers Pete's question by raising his cane and motioning to the door behind him.

[Let's get him.] 

[You mean I'll get him, especially if he runs.]

Pete and Jim open the door and find a startled blond chap in a turtleneck sweater.

This guy has to be the thief, he dresses like the Hamburglar.

The blond man dives through the window into the backyard and Jim goes after him.  After Jim lands in the yard, the man kicks him.

The guys runs across the yard and tries to escape by scaling the fence. Jim recovers from the blow and charges after him. He grabs the suspect and pulls him off the fence.

[Nice of you to show up.]

While Jim struggles with the suspect, Pete and Benton come racing into the yard from the front of the house. The angry suspect then reveals a surprising twist to the story, he is Benton's nephew. He's furious that his uncle would turn in his own nephew. Benton, however, has no remorse over his actions.

"You're quite right. I did turn in my own nephew, but I also turned in a common thief."

[Let's go to jail, you're already dressed for it.]

When they are back on patrol Malloy compliments Reed on his physical prowess with the robbery suspect. 

"You handled yourself pretty good with that guy back there."

Reed humbly replies, "There was nothing to it. He was tired to begin with. He probably wore himself out working over his poor, old uncle."

Their route takes them past a school bus stop where a woman in a green dress flags them down. 

There's that Mustang again.

The woman is Mrs. O'Neill and she's stopped 1-Adam-12 because her daughter, Janet, should have been on the bus that just left. Malloy asks the other children if they saw Janet while they were on the bus. A little blonde girl in a red sailor dress, Mary Bennett, tells him that she sat with Janet for part of the ride but doesn't know where Janet got off the bus.

Oh, hey, it's that little girl that played Danny Bonaduce's girlfriend on an episode of the Partridge Family. I wonder whatever happened to her. 

Malloy theorizes that Janet must have mistakenly gotten off at the wrong stop. Jim asks for a complete description of the girl in order to alert all units in the area.

They tell Mrs. O'Neill that their questions are just routine.

But, their reassurances do not set her mind at ease.

As Jim makes his broadcast on the missing juvenile, they retrace the school bus route. They don't find Janet wandering anywhere along the route, so they continue down the boulevard to the school. 

Now the Mustang is at the school!

At the elementary school they talk to Miss Farrell, the music teacher. Janet should have been in her class after recess, but the teacher can't recall if she saw Janet standing in her spot with the altos as the class sang. When she goes to Janet's desk Miss Farrell makes a shocking discovery, her books are still there. "Oh my God," the teacher gasps, "She wouldn't have left without her books".

"Which means she was never on that bus," observes Pete.
(In other news, Jim has taken off his cover while talking talking to a lady this time.)

Malloy and Reed return to the bus stop to talk with Mary again. After Mrs. O'Neill implores her daughter's best friend to tell the truth, the little girl breaks down and admits that she lied. Janet was never on the bus. 

At recess the two girls found a ladder some painters were using and climbed it up to the roof. Janet was afraid to come back down and Mary, not knowing what to do, left her friend on the roof. Mary explains that she lied because she didn't want to get her friend in trouble.

Allow me to critique Mrs. O'Neill's outfit. Love the dress, shoes, and her perfect bouffant hairdo. I hate that watch, the band is too masculine and wide for her delicate wrist.

Malloy and Reed, along with Mrs. O'Neill and Janet, race back to the school. They find the ladder the girls used to climb to the roof, only now it's flat on the ground. 

After Reed and Malloy raise it, they both use the ladder to ascend to the roof. At first there is no sign of Janet, then Reed spots her stuck between a wall and a sloping section of the tiled roof.

"Pete, she's over there."

Jim makes his way over to the scared child while Pete descends the ladder to get underneath Janet. 

Jim quickly reaches the girl and scoops her up in his arms. He climbs back down the ladder holding Janet. At the bottom he returns the child to her overjoyed mother.

I wonder if the woman who played Janet when she was a small girl looks back on this role with fondness or great embarrassment. On the one hand, she was on a popular TV show and got carried down a ladder by a handsome actor. On the other hand, millions of people saw her underpants!

"Are you gonna 'awest' me?", Janet sweetly asks the officers.

"No, we're gonna give you a ride home."

Well, we found the missing child referred to in the title. Nothing more to see here, right, folks? Oh, wait, there's nine minutes left! I guess Malloy and Reed better find another crime to solve. Luckily, a hot shot call from the link comes over the radio. There's been a shooting at 6020 Cynthia Street. 

When Malloy pulls up to 6020 Cynthia, a crowd has gathered around a man lying on the ground near a parking garage. Malloy checks his pulse then heads for the radio in the patrol car.

He requests a field supervisor, detectives, and a coroner. They've got a homicide.

While Reed snoops around the cars in the garage, Malloy talks to the crowd. An old man tells him that the victim is a local hood and drifter named Big Rico. The man recounts that he heard the shots and right before that he heard one long horn blast. In the garage, Reed's found a radio under one of the cars. He calls Malloy over to take a look.

Reed thinks Big Rico must have dropped it.

After they discover the radio another man discovers a set of pliers in a nearby flowerbed. Reed takes them and comments that someone must have thrown them there to hide them. 

Malloy sends Reed to keep an eye on the evidence and the body.

Malloy returns to the man who heard the shots and asks if he went to the window when he heard them. The man replies that he did not see anything related to the shooting. Since it seems that the man doesn't have any other information, Malloy begins looking for evidence in the garage. Mac arrives with backup as Malloy investigates.

He finds the car that had it's radio stolen.

Mac joins Malloy in the garage and he lets the sergeant know they have a dead body and a possible auto burglary. He shows Mac the car that has been burglarized and tells him that when Rico broke into it he must have triggered the car alarm. However, the alarm didn't phase Rico. The "cool cat" just cut the alarm and "went right on with the job". There's no registration in the car, so Mac writes down the plate number to find the owner. Before he leaves Malloy points out the man he talked to before and his wife, they've been nervously watching the officers from a distance.

Malloy thinks someone is afraid to talk, he's going to try again with these people and "lay it out for them".

Malloy steps in front of the onlookers still gathered around the scene and asks for their attention. 

He announces to the assembled crowd that, "It looks like somebody was trying to steal something here, in the process that somebody got himself killed. It happens."

He goes on to tell them that under our laws a man or woman is allowed to use reasonable force to protect themselves, their family, or their property. The woman who's been watching him challenges this and shouts, "Who says that?".

Pete replies, "That's the law."

He asks if she wants to tell him anything. She doesn't want to tell him anything, but she does want to ask him something. She asks what would happen to a man who killed someone who was stealing from him.

"His story would be checked out by detective division, it would be up to them to decide whether to release him or not."

Mac has now finished running the plates and reports that the car belongs to an Antonio Flores. The old woman who spoke to Pete earlier then calls the officers over to the side of the garage. Her son, Antonio Flores, is with her and he has something to tell them.

Antonio admits to killing Big Rico. After Jim reads his rights, he tells the full story of what happened. 

He worked hard and saved a long time to buy his car, it meant everything to him. When he heard the alarm, he grabbed his jacket and ran out of the apartment. He only brought the gun, which is registered to his father, to scare the thief. But it didn't scare Big Rico, he only laughed at Antonio. When he threatened to call the police and tried to pull Rico out of the car, he came after Antonio brandishing a screwdriver. Antonio feared for his life and pulled the trigger.

Pete holds the gun that Antonio used, it will have to be booked into evidence.

As Mac and Jim walk Antonio to the black and white, his mother asks Pete if he knows what an act of faith is. He doesn't understand, so she explains that it is believing in something you can't see or trusting someone you don't know. 

She also shows him her rosary beads and explains that they are either nothing or everything. 

Pete begins to see what she is talking about it.

Later at the station, Reed notices something happening down the hall, he points it out to his partner.

Antonio is being released by a detective.

On the way out, Mrs. Flores shows Malloy her rosary. Her faith in Malloy's words and God has been justified.

The End

I don't really have too many strong feelings about most of this episode. Liked some parts of it, I was slightly annoyed or perplexed by other parts. But, there was nothing that I really loved or hated.

I liked parts of the Mrs. Filmore call. I liked it when Jim snatched that cigarette out of the woman's mouth. I liked that they were both kind to Mrs. Filmore. She did something dangerous, but they realized that it was out of pure desperation. 

I enjoyed the demonstration of Pete's observation skills at Mr. Benton's house. By talking with Benton, he deduces that the attacker must have been familiar with Benton and his habits. How else would he have known where the check was? I'm not really sure how Pete figured out that the thief was still in the house unless he just thought it was strange to have so many closed doors in a house where an attack just took place. 

My favorite part of the entire episode is the part with the missing child. I love it whenever Pete or Jim interact with children, it's just so darn sweet. But, I also love the way they treat kids with respect and actually talk to them like people. It's also fun to see a future Oscar-winning actress interact with "our" boys in one of her early roles. This one is fascinating to watch from a historical perspective, too. It's interesting to see how schools and the treatment of children has changed in the past forty-five years. Today children would never be allowed anywhere near that ladder and a bus would have never left the school without all of the children being accounted for. And I'm shocked that Janet didn't have to wear shorts under her dress.

I found the last call to be too slow and a little confusing. I could have done without the story of  how Antonio saved for his car. I guess I'm more like Joe Friday, I want suspects and witnesses to stick to the facts. I thought Mrs. Flores speech about faith was confusing. Was she saying that she had faith in Malloy or God or both? She didn't seem to have very much faith in the legal system. Of all the calls, this was my least favorite.

Since I was apathetic about most of this episode, I give it a rating of:

Do you agree? Let me know in the comments. I'll see you next time! KMA-367