An angular blonde in the form of Joanna Pettet gets off a plane at LAX and takes a cab to her brother-in-law, Julian's (Robert Webber's) house. She's looking for her sister, Beth, missing six weeks. In his study, there's the woman's portrait, looking suspiciously like a brunette version of Pettet--- they are sisters after all. Mute from a childhood growth and resulting surgery, the sister can only communicate thru sign-language which just makes her creepier (No Offense, Anybody). Her brother-in-law's secretary, his lover, makes their relationship obvious by her unsuspecting, "Darling!", as she enters the study (this was written by DYNASTY's darling Ed DeBlasio, remember), and Beth's sister leaves in a huff.
While in the middle of another fur-heist case (a glamorous crime) Pepper gets drawn into the case of the missing girl as Pep, mistress of all trades, can read signing.
When the blonde sister winds up stabbed in the shoulder in her hotel room and found by a maid, she claims her brother-in-law, Julian, is responsible. Interrogated by Pepper and Crowley, the brother-in-law irks the pair by calling the sister "pathetic" (which offends Pepper's sense of political correctness), and questioning Crowley's authority and competence (which offends Crowley's ego, always a mistake). The brother-in-law denies responsibility for the stabbing.
The sister reveals letters that Beth wrote her which seem to implicate the brother-in-law in something unwholesome. These lead the squad to find a decomposed, decapitated body buried in Northern California they think may be the sister, Beth.
During an inquest, the DA verifies that Robert Webber sometimes has the opportunity to use lye ("lye", the DA repeats, hoping the double-meaning will settle in) in his business, the substance used to speed up the body's decomposition. Webber looks pretty guilty, until Pepper, at home with Pettet downstairs on the couch, gets a call from Crowley: the forensic lab has determined the body is that of an elderly woman. That, and a phone bill revealing a call to the Pettet's native Nova Scotia, prompts Pepper to dial it. The fussy Nova Scotian housekeeper is irritated by the late-night call, and when Pepper asks for the sister, she's informed she died six months ago but that her sister, Beth, is out in California.
Pepper smells a rat, and goes downstairs to find the sister off the couch doing midnight dish duty. Pepper realizes that the sister is, indeed, Beth herself, and has dyed her hair and adorned contact-lenses in order to pull the ruse... Beth remains silent to keep the mood going... Pepper explains everything in a 3-minute monologue, including Beth's jealousy over Julian's secretary and the likelihood that Beth just killed and old woman in northern California who answered an ad for a maid, in order to provide a dead body.
Unable to coax her to put down the loaded gun she's had stuck in Pepper's face for several minutes, Pep jumps her, they fall behind the couch; the gun goes off, and Pepper gets up --- and promptly collapses.
They guys get there and receive an improbable call from the airport revealing that the sister's flight out will be delayed by a few minutes. Everyone recognizes this as the unlikely plot device it is and they rush for LAX, leaving Pepper behind.
There, they spot Joanna Pettet and chase her down, Crowley pulling the fake scar from her throat, thus permitting her to scream.
At the hospital, the gang makes jokes about Shelley Winters and Sgt. Crowley flirts with a common-looking nurse. Pepper throws a bouquet.
While in the middle of another fur-heist case (a glamorous crime) Pepper gets drawn into the case of the missing girl as Pep, mistress of all trades, can read signing.
When the blonde sister winds up stabbed in the shoulder in her hotel room and found by a maid, she claims her brother-in-law, Julian, is responsible. Interrogated by Pepper and Crowley, the brother-in-law irks the pair by calling the sister "pathetic" (which offends Pepper's sense of political correctness), and questioning Crowley's authority and competence (which offends Crowley's ego, always a mistake). The brother-in-law denies responsibility for the stabbing.
The sister reveals letters that Beth wrote her which seem to implicate the brother-in-law in something unwholesome. These lead the squad to find a decomposed, decapitated body buried in Northern California they think may be the sister, Beth.
During an inquest, the DA verifies that Robert Webber sometimes has the opportunity to use lye ("lye", the DA repeats, hoping the double-meaning will settle in) in his business, the substance used to speed up the body's decomposition. Webber looks pretty guilty, until Pepper, at home with Pettet downstairs on the couch, gets a call from Crowley: the forensic lab has determined the body is that of an elderly woman. That, and a phone bill revealing a call to the Pettet's native Nova Scotia, prompts Pepper to dial it. The fussy Nova Scotian housekeeper is irritated by the late-night call, and when Pepper asks for the sister, she's informed she died six months ago but that her sister, Beth, is out in California.
Pepper smells a rat, and goes downstairs to find the sister off the couch doing midnight dish duty. Pepper realizes that the sister is, indeed, Beth herself, and has dyed her hair and adorned contact-lenses in order to pull the ruse... Beth remains silent to keep the mood going... Pepper explains everything in a 3-minute monologue, including Beth's jealousy over Julian's secretary and the likelihood that Beth just killed and old woman in northern California who answered an ad for a maid, in order to provide a dead body.
Unable to coax her to put down the loaded gun she's had stuck in Pepper's face for several minutes, Pep jumps her, they fall behind the couch; the gun goes off, and Pepper gets up --- and promptly collapses.
They guys get there and receive an improbable call from the airport revealing that the sister's flight out will be delayed by a few minutes. Everyone recognizes this as the unlikely plot device it is and they rush for LAX, leaving Pepper behind.
There, they spot Joanna Pettet and chase her down, Crowley pulling the fake scar from her throat, thus permitting her to scream.
At the hospital, the gang makes jokes about Shelley Winters and Sgt. Crowley flirts with a common-looking nurse. Pepper throws a bouquet.
