Kate Mulgrew is Kate Columbo, wife of the rumpled police lieutenant and - in her own right - a mother, homemaker and reporter for a neighborhood throwaway. In this week's opener, she also demonstrates a knack for investigation after she overhears a neighbor plotting the murder of his wife.

An apparent suicide is actually the handiwork of a retired Scotland Yard investigator who is teaching a course that Mrs. Columbo is taking.

A puppet maker is murdered by a tormented ventriloquist who acted at the urging of his "evil" dummy.

Two women own a catering firm. Both love the same man. To one, the solution is obvious: murder.