Well this one has been brewing up in my head for a while now, so I thought I'd put it to the test.

This one's set in the 70's when instead of using cameras on double decker busses the bus driver looks up through a hole above his seat and into a mirror; all in order to see if the top deck are behaving themselves, as my mum tells me was common in those days. And yes, this episode's mainly set on a bus... but don't judge it yet!

A bus driver (I haven't thought of a name... let's just call him Harry) has been getting into arguments with his brother... erh, Steve.. a lot lately, chiefly because he always ends up dating the girls that he's into but have turned him down over the years for being a jerk. Not only that, but he's also feeling a little insecure about losing his job, as he has recently been receiving a lot of complaints about a group of rowdy old drunkards that sit at the back of the bus. But Harry thinks he might be able to kill two birds with one stone.

On his next day shift, before starting his route he puts up a "out of order" sign above the stairway to the top deck (to stop just anyone from going up), and places a bottle of champagne under the left, frontmost seat on the top deck - immediately above the driver's seat. And - just encase you haven't worked out he's the bad guy by this point - he is shown to have not one but TWO guns in his pockets, one of which he'd already fired at home. He pulls out the one he HASN'T already fired and ties a loose knot around the trigger so that there's still a short stretch of string dangling free, and then props it up in that hole above the driver's seat I talked about earlier.

Now starts his shift. First stop is the one the drunkards get on, and under the suggestion he's been told to keep drinkers away from the public he tells them to go to the top deck by themselves, so they reside at the back of the deck as usual. The bottom deck is almost full now with bystanders as his brother Steve is due to get on at the next stop, but before he gets there he stops the bus and turns to the passengers. "Wait... can you hear that?" Harry exhales "Those good-for-nothing drunks are at it again!" The passengers don't know what he's talking about but he wastes no time marching up the stairs and compensating a bottle of beer from one of them (and unknowingly to them, also sneaking the used gun into the same pocket!).

Next it's Steve's stop. When he sees who's driving he's immediately reluctant to come on board, but is surprised by an uncharacteristic apology from Harry who tells him he regrets what he said and is willing to cut ties and put the past behind them. Then he carries on to say he's left him a little gift for his troubles - and it's to be found below the chairs on the front of the top deck. Steve is shocked, but gratefully accepts the apology and proceeds upstairs. Although hesitant when he see's the "Out of Order" sign, Harry reassures his brother by saying "What are rules to come between flesh and blood?"

Like the bus I take to uni, the bus diver needs to change the service destination on the bus display at around halfway through the full journey. He does this just fine.. except unusually quickly. Immediately after he reaches up through the gap... tugs the string and... Bang. Harry dishonestly acts surprised, before telling the passengers to stay calm and remain seated while he sees what happened. He goes upstairs, takes a glance at Steve's body before quickly running to the driver's cavern and phoning the police. Sure enough, when the police go upstairs and search the drunkards they find that one of them just so happens to have a sidearm in their pocket, and so is immediately arrested.

When Columbo arrives he quickly finds a few inconstancies; for example Harry's story states that by the time he heard the shot he was half way through rolling up the new display and he then immediately ran up stairs, however when the police arrived it was completely changed to the next route. Harry tells Columbo that he changed it all the way after he went back to his seat so that police could find the right bus, however this was after the police station bus stop, and so he should have known they would have came from behind - where there is no display to be seen. Columbo also asks him how the drunkard could have got gun powder on the gun while none was found on his hand, of which Harry explains alcohol is a powerful cleaning spirit; if he had some on his hands it could have cleaned it off. Columbo plays dumb and pretends he doesn't know this. As for why he was sent to the top deck Harry explains that he sent him there because he saw he had champagne with him and so carried through with his plan to send everyone who was drinking to the top deck to avoid complaints, however Columbo is still puzzled as to why someone would bring champagne with them on a bus ride.

All things considered, just like with all Columbo cases, he knows he did it but really needs some hard evidence to send him down. So how do you guys think Columbo would solve the case? Would he set him up towards incriminating himself? Or maybe he'd force a confession? Maybe finding straight up evidence would be the way forward? Post your suggestions below!

When, and how, did he remove the gun that he used to kill his brother without anybody noticing before the police arrived?

He didn't... after pulling the gun out of the hole and wiping the area around it with a damp cloth to remove any gun powder marks, he simply leaves it in his pocket the whole time. When Harry tells the police that he saw a drunkard backing away from the body when he checked and the police subsequently search the drunkard and find a gun, they find no reason to search the bus driver as he already has a rock solid alibi of being at the driver's seat at the time of the shot. After they take him back to the station to write a statement they let him go, where he cleans off the gun and puts it back in the drawer next to his bed, which is where he usually keeps it for protection.

It's worth adding that the drunkard never actually touched the gun, so no fingerprints were found by the police. Columbo naturally finds this odd, especially as no traces of alcohol were found on the gun either which discounts Harries theory that the beer was cleaning off the evidence, but then this doesn't entirely omit him from firing it as he didn't need to touch it, he could have used clothing or just about any kind of fabric to cover his hands. However, if Columbo could encourage him to sneak something else into someone's pocket (perhaps the receipt for the gun) and had him searched for a receipt beforehand, Columbo might be able to make him incriminate himself. The only problem with that plan is you'd have to give Harry a convincing reason to plant evidence on this guy, and you'd have to eliminate the possibility of someone else on board planting the evidence on him.

I'm guessing your from the UK since this takes place on a double decker bus, so I'm clueless when it comes to the layout of the upper deck, but, I'm assuming that when you say the drunks are in the back of the top deck, they are above the rear wheels with the driver and the gun over the front wheel area. Wouldn't Columbo, as seen in "Now You See Him", be able to deduce that the shot came from the front of the bus and not the back and upon inspecting the front area of the bus, find something to indicate that a weapon had been mounted there with a hole drilled down to the driver's area? I'm guessing someone who's constantly drunk wouldn't keep a receipt for a gun so I doubt Columbo would ask about it and assuming that the gun was untraceable, that may be a dead end. If Columbo suspected the driver, and after a ballistics test proved that the gun the drunk had wasn't the murder weapon, but that it had been fired, he may start poking around the driver's home hoping that he could find where the gun was fired and hopefully recover the bullet, similar to "The Greenhouse Jungle". But, if the driver actually got rid of the actual murder weapon, Columbo may have to force him to incriminate himself or manufacture eveidence that forces a confession.

Correct, the drunks are at the rear end of the bus, however the bus driver's suggestion is that the drunk went up from the back of the bus to the front and then shot him, before backing away. None of the drunks can really argue this as they were all too drunk to remember what happened that evening, so the police just had to take Harry's word for it. As for the area the gun was mounted, there was really nothing to suggest it was ever there. No hole needed to be drilled because at those times busses were built in with an opening above the driver so that they could see into a mirror. He wiped the area with a damp cloth, too... however, it is possible some gunpowder fell down unto the driver as well as no his seat and dashboard. If there somehow was a reason for him not to clean all of it, there would be incriminating evidence for Columbo to find.

The gun would have been fired into a cushion and into the ground in his bedroom, and he then would have pushed his wardrobe over the bullethole it left it hide it. Colombo would need a warrant to move it. Unless he can provide a substantial reason to the police as to why there could be a bullethole under there, I agree, he would probably either need to get him to trip himself up somehow or force a confession.

He'd solve it in ten minutes I'm afraid.. And that's assuming it was carried out successfully which is extremely unlikely.
The drunks even in their state would be able to say that the shot came from the front of the bus and none of them were there. Columbo would look at the front and see the hole and the mirror.
There would no drunks' fingerprints on the gun at all.
The shot would have to be bang on target to kill and not just to wound. Harry would find it near impossible to negotiate driving a big bus and shooting the gun on target through a mirror.
With a few tweaks this might get into a script consultation for an episode but I don't think it would get past that.

It sounds interesting. You should flesh it out and publish it on the fanfic site. I really enjoyed those stories.

Just a reminder - There are only a few of us who use the forum. We do not use language like that even if it is disguised. That might be acceptable on MTV or YOu Tube sites but not here. Obviously no harm was meant but lets keep the language here mature and respectful. Thanks.

I just checked what I wrote and wonder about your reply. I thought I sounded civil, maybe a bit preachy, and I stand by what I said. It was not a personal attack, just a reminder. Your reply was ... well, what can I say. But lets end it at that and spare the great users of this forum.

However, if you did not mean ****ty when you wrote ****e, I apologize.