Night at the Sentinel, and reporter Pat Allen calls to get Britt's permission to break a hot story. Britt isn't in, and Joe leaves a message. As Pat sits down at his desk and takes out a diamond, the elevator door opens and a leopard comes out. It walks past the maintenance worker Martha Crown and leaps at Pat, who falls back out of the window to his death.
The next day, Britt and Casey watch a newscast about Pat's death. Martha has been hospitalized for shock, and the leopard escaped from the zoo a few blocks away. Casey wonders how the leopard got into the city room and targeted Pat, and tells Britt that Mike is cleaning out Pat's desk. Pat checks on Mike and finds him looking at a piece of paper that Pat typed an opening sentence about a walled estate near Danforth. He tosses it away and says that the police already closed the case and ruled it "accidental death". Mike tells Britt that Pat was like a son to him, and wonders what Pat's story was. A miniaturized transmitter falls out of Pat's pack of cigarettes and Britt picks it up.
The leopard keeper, Walter Melvin, storms in and insists that the leopard is too old to have killed anyone. Mike admits that he wrote the story about Pat's death, while Britt shows Casey the transmitter and then leaves. She follows him and asks where he's going, and Britt says that he'll be back in an hour as he signals Scanlon. Scanlon goes to the penthouse and meets with Britt and Kato. the DA explains the withheld one piece of evidence from the press: a diamond on Pat's desk. It's worth between ten and fifteen thousand dollars, and Britt shows Scanlon the transmitter. He holds it near his cat, which jumps away, startled.
Casey calls and says that according to the Humane Society, the nine leopards in the area are all accounted for the night before. Britt has her get him a Sentinel article on gemologist Frank Miller, and then tells Scanlon that Frank was working on a progress to manufacture a perfect diamond. He suggests that Pat stumbled onto something big, and someone used the transmitter to program the leopard to kill. Britt tells Scanlon that Hornet will prove what happened.
That night, Hornet and Kato go to Frank's home where he sells rare gems. Hornet goes in alone and confronts Frank, and shows him the Sentinel article. Frank claims that he gave it up a long time ago, but Hornet doesn't believe him and says that he can make millions flooding the world diamond market. The professor takes Hornet to his lab and shows him the oven where he exposes piece of coal to extreme temperature after a chemical preparation. Frank then shows Hornet the refrigerated vault where he exposes the fragments to 50 degree below temperatures. Using a pair of tongs, he picks up a fragment and tells Hornet to examine it. When Hornet does so, Frank knocks him over the head with a tray, runs out, and locks the refrigerator door.
Frank runs out and Kato spots him as he drives away. He goes inside as Hornet blasts his way through the refrigerator door with the Sting. Using the scanner, they spot Frank's car and drive to the location. It's a manor near Danforth, and Hornet recognizes it as the home of widow Yolanda deLukens. Her husband was one of the wealthiest diamond merchants in the world.
inside, Yolanda meets with several men and begins by reading them a note from Jeremy Clark, their Far East representative. They hear a leopard roar, and Yolanda says that it's a pet... and her burglar alarm.
Hornet and Kato sneak into the estate and hear the leopard.
Yolanda tells the men that by including the fake diamonds in the shipments of her late husband's legitimate merchandise, they can increase profits a thousand fold. Hornet and Kato come in and Hornet tells Yolanda that they're partners. She says that five years ago she began managing her husband's business. Hornet demands half of the profits or he'll inform the international diamond association of her scheme.
Yolanda seemingly agrees, just as her guards bring Mike in. Mike tells Yolanda that she left an easy trail to follow, and explains that he found a piece of paper at Pat's apartment with Yolanda's name on it and the address of an electronics outfit. They confirmed that Yolanda bought a number of transmitters. Mike figures that even if he dies, Britt will follow the same trail. Hornet offers to kill Mike, and Yolanda's assistant Mark takes out one of the transmitters and secretly places it on Mike. Kato takes Mike and leaves with Hornet. Once they're gone, Yolanda tells her associates that the partnership will be short-lived and triggers the transmitter.
In the yard, Hornet and the others hear the leopard's release. Mike runs off and the leopard goes after him following the transmitter. Hornet and Kato go after Mike, and the leopard leaps on him as Yolanda's thugs run out. They gas Mike and the leopard, and confirm that Mike is unharmed. The thugs run up and Kato makes short work of them. They then go back to the house and capture Yolanda and her associates.
The next day, Mike writes up a story about the diamond gang's capture... taking all of the credit himself. Britt and Casey congratulate him, and Mike complains that Hornet left the gang for him. He wonders if Hornet is as bad as they say he is and walks out.
Written by Gadfly on Sep 17, 2017