Episodi: Colombo

Beat.

Martini uses a clever trick. He pre-records a video of himself conducting, displaying it on the giant screens behind the orchestra. During a thirty-second fortissimo climax, when all eyes are on the screens, he slips out a stage door, rushes to Franco’s apartment three blocks away, commits the murder, and returns. Total time: 28 minutes. The Requiem lasts 90. No one misses him.

"You know," Colombo says, lighting a cigar, "the Requiem is about judgment. Guess the music was right all along."

The Perfect Alibi (Un alibi perfetto)

He drives off in his sputtering Peugeot, leaving the opera house silent. This text captures the spirit of Colombo : the seemingly absent-minded detective, the arrogant intellectual killer, the small overlooked detail, and the satisfaction of a trap closing.

Lieutenant Colombo arrives. He’s rumpled, his Peugeot 403 is sputtering outside the opera house, and he’s eating a panino with mortadella. He bows to the Maestro. "Oh, sir, that was… beautiful. My wife, she loves the loud parts. Me? I like the quiet bits. You know, when someone misses a note."