Act One
A sunny afternoon brings a car to a building with an older man (George Voskovec) getting out of the car and going inside. The place is 'Sakai Print Shop' and is currently closed but he is allowed entry by the owner Raymond (Seth Sakai). Raymond pulls a box from the floor: 60 orange-bordered bond for highway divisions, 65 blue-bordered for municipal issue and the last 65 being for water district bonds. The older man inspects the pages satisfied with the "thoroughly professional job". The older man suggests they toast to their success despite the early hour with a bottle of scotch he brought. The older man uses the phone holding the handset with a handkerchief and dialing with a pencil. Norman calls his girlfriend (Lynn Carlin) as Raymond takes a swig of scotch straight from the bottle. She asks him if the eye drops are helping and he doesn't give a straight answer. As Norman is on the phone, Raymond collapses. Norman hangs up putting on gloves and places something in Raymond's hand as well as taking the scotch bottle before leaving with the box Raymond pulled out.
McGarrett arrives on scene as HPD and the coroner are already there. Doc Bergman (Al Eben) briefs Raymond has been dead at least 24 hours, maybe more. He surmises cyanide from the smell and "bluish tint". When Danno called earlier, he mentioned a bond that was found in the trashcan. McGarrett's hackles are up because a "bond that good" isn't just destroyed. Danno adds to it producing the suicide note but it's not signed. McGarrett asks what they know: not much, Sakai is 37, unmarried and owned the shop about four years. McGarrett directs Danno to run him including through Washington. He also orders a lid on the counterfeit bond, no one is to leak a word.
The girlfriend goes to the Bank of Honolulu at 10:30 a.m. where she sees a bank cashier (Linda Ryan) and identifies herself as "Mrs. Taylor". She asks for her bond back after using it as collateral for the loan because she's paying it in full. The cashier agrees and goes to retrieve the bond.
In the laboratory, Che Fong (Harry Endo) briefs that he thought the watermark was forged but it wasn't. Che gives McGarrett some bad news: it would be impossible to say it's a forgery if the serial number and counter signature were on it.
At the bank, Mrs. Taylor sees the bank manager Pryor (Kent Bowman) because the bond being given back to her isn't hers. She pleads her case to him and the assistant bank manager. When the lead cashier (Edward Remington) returns unable to find the bond, Pryor tells Miss Hillis the cashier to call the police.
Back in the lab, Che informs McGarrett the suicide note is also a forgery because the handwriting doesn't match. They also discuss the cyanide because there was enough in Raymond's system to kill a dozen men. Che wonders how he could have ingested that much and McGarrett offers the broken glass but Che says that wasn't it. Che tells him cyanide wasn't found in the glass or another glass or cup in the shop and there were no other fingerprints on them except Raymond's. The phone rings: the report is in about a counterfeit bond at the Bank of Honolulu.
McGarrett and Danno go to the bank where Mrs. Taylor states her case in no uncertain terms. Miss Hills says she handles a lot of loans and is rudely interrupted by Mrs. Taylor. She reminds the bank they owe her $5000. McGarrett interrupts her obnoxiousness by informing her that the bond is being held as evidence until the investigation is over.
Che inspects the bond in the lab not sure what's going on. Bottom line: Mrs. Taylor's bond is a counterfeit but Che is only willing to give an educated guess, he won't swear to it in court. McGarrett wants Norman Cargill brought in because he's the best expert they have on the matter. The phone rings as McGarrett is expecting a call from the governor and it's him. The governor tells him he's just received two phone calls from issuers of the bonds. The governor puts a new urgency to the case because if the agencies have to pay principal and interest on fake bonds, it could easily bankrupt the state. After hanging up with the governor, McGarrett calls Norman, the same Norman who visited Raymond!
In the governor's office, McGarrett, Norman and Manicote (Glenn Cannon) meet with the governor as Norman confirms the bond is a fake. The governor then asks who had access to the bonds: bank manager Pryor, assistant bank manager Sung, lead cashier Emery and his assistant Olivia Hillis. The men discuss the job at hand because there are bonds everywhere from being held by banks and financial institutions all over Hawaii and the mainland as well as those held by individuals. The governor knows it's a huge task and asks Norman is he's willing to take it over and he agrees. When Norman leaves the governor's office, he pauses and smiles.
Act Two
Norman leads a group into his office including Sung and Emery from the bank with a slew of bonds to double-check. Also present are McGarrett and an HPD officer (Roland Naauao). Norman signs for the bonds as McGarrett tells him when they return, they'll have a duplicate list transferring responsibility back to them. Norman is satisfied with the arrangement. McGarrett also sets up an officer with Norman inside and an officer in the hallway. Norman is successful in getting the HPD officer to sit at his desk in the office and not right on top of him. Norman then begins the long process of trading out actual bonds with the counterfeits giving the counterfeits serial numbers and counter signatures.
Danno goes to question Mrs. Taylor asking her where she purchased her bond. She answers from a Mr. Dunlap at the Morgan Harrison Company, a brokerage house but she gives Danno attitude because he already knows about Morgan Harrison! Danno retraces her history with the bond: purchased 16 months ago and she used it two months later as collateral for a $1500 loan so she could have a down payment for a car. He wonders why she didn't just borrow the entire amount and pay the car off in full. She becomes nearly hostile about it demanding to know why he found it necessary to "snoop" into her financials. Danno answers it's routine and departs. After he leaves, she calls Norman to tell him what happened but he says to stay calm. She wants to meet but he'd rather not setting up a meeting for first thing in the morning. He's a total jerk rolling his eyes when he tells her he loves her.
Miss Hillis leaves the Bank of Honolulu and as she drives down the road, Norman pops up in the back seat with a gun to her head. This is after he mails an envelope from his office. He gives her directions to drive. Later, he's in Mrs. Taylor's apartment where she appears as Miss Hillis. She's still tense after Danno's visit because she feels they know something they're not sharing. Norman is far from worried and points out there is no turning back because death cannot be undone for Raymond or Miss Hillis. Norman asks her if her second thoughts are about the project or about him: a middle-aged man going blind.
Mrs. Taylor shows up at a bank disguised as Miss Hillis but using the name of "Hoover". Brock (Donald Baker) the teller asks her if she's making a deposit but she tells him she's making a withdrawal. She wants the full amount of $19,608 plus any interest it's owed and all of it in cash.
She returns to her apartment with the money and Norman gives her a ticket on United Airlines flight 114 for Los Angeles. Norman goes over the plan with her again: once she lands in L.A., she is to destroy the costume so that the trail for Olivia Hillis ends on the mainland. Mrs. Taylor will then return to Honolulu under her own name. Norman says after that, her role will be over.
Act Three
McGarrett and Danno arrive at Norman's office where he reports he found a counterfeit in the Bank of Honolulu batch due to a serial number misalignment. McGarrett tells Danno to call Pryor to let him know they are on the way. McGarrett tries to get things straight for himself: the same forger completed this bond and the one Mrs. Taylor had? Danno walks back in, saying Pryor is climbing the walls as Olivia Hillis didn't show up for work and there is no answer at her apartment. McGarrett wants him to work it with Ben and they leave with Norman sighing with relief as he was almost discovered by McGarrett when he dropped a document on the floor.
Danno and Ben go through her apartment with Ben finding a set of large men's pajamas in her closet. They have a laundry mark: WL-1915 they soon check out. Meanwhile, Norman signs for another batch of bonds, which he processes the same as before including mailing the good ones off from his office.
Chin walks into McGarrett's office with a break: a woman appearing as Hillis closed an account at the Bank of Hawaii under the name of Orethea Hoover, same initials as Olivia Hillis. She asked for cash and the teller thought it was weird so the manager called HPD. As Chin leaves, Danno walks in with information on the laundry mark: it was Raymond's! McGarrett makes a connection between Raymond and Hillis with him making them and she planted them.
Brock positively identifies Hillis from a photo as the woman who made the withdrawal. Back in McGarrett's office, Ben calls in with the latest and McGarrett wants a make from her from LAPD. Danno walks in, briefing Hoover's handwriting matches the forged suicide note found on Raymond. McGarrett wants to know if it matches Hillis' and Danno says there are some differences perhaps to make the handwriting look different. The phone buzzes: it's Norman finding a fourth counterfeit.
The bond arrives in the lab and treated by Che. In McGarrett's office, he goes over the case with Manicote and the team: they know Orethea Hoover forged Raymond's suicide note and took off with a one-way plane ticket to L.A. Che finishes his process and pulls up prints on the forged bonds, calling McGarrett with the results. McGarrett goes to the lab looking over the bonds as Che explains the process he used to pull up the prints. The only prints on the bonds: McGarrett's, Che's and Norman Cargill! Not what McGarrett was expecting.
Back in the office, McGarrett breaks the news to Manicote and the team. Danno says Norman's prints would be on them because he's been handling them but McGarrett asks where are the bank employees such as Pryor, Sung, Emery, and even Hillis? If one of them planted the bonds, where are their prints? Danno says the only explanation is that the forgeries found were never in the vault and Norman has been swapping forgeries for the good bonds. Manicote comes unglued not wanting to believe it because Norman is one of the most respected document experts around. There are several unanswered questions such as Norman would have no idea they would hire him for the work, why did Hillis run and where did she get nearly $20,000? McGarrett realizes there are holes but he wants to see if they can come up with something. Manicote leaves to get a court order to put Norman under audio and video surveillance in his lab. He then puts Chin and Ben to help Che with the installation of the equipment. Danno stays behind playing Devil's Advocate: Mrs. Taylor's bond. They're assuming the bond she gave them was good but what if it was counterfeit too? This would imply she's working with Norman and Danno states there's no connection between them or least one they don't know about.
Norman signs for yet another batch of good bonds as Chin and Ben watch. After everything is settled, he calls Mrs. Taylor but before a conversation can occur he notices dust on his magnifying glass. He then calls McGarrett wanting to talk in McGarrett's office because his office is under electronic surveillance.
Act Four
In McGarrett's office, he's broken the news to Norman that he was behind the surveillance. McGarrett lays it out: he doesn't believe any of the bank employees were involved with planting any forgeries and Mrs. Taylor's bond was a counterfeit from the word go. Norman catches up to McGarrett's reasoning that Mrs. Taylor has been working with him on this for over a year. McGarrett also accuses Norman of poisoning Raymond and trying to frame Hillis by tying her with him. McGarrett also believe Hillis is dead. Norman is intrigued but points out one big flaw: he claims Mrs. Taylor is a stranger. Norman picks up the court order saying it was unnecessary because he had a policeman with him at all times. Danno walks in as Norman huffs out. Danno wonders what it was about and McGarrett says it's strategy because he's got nothing to lose. If he's arrested, goes to trial; he can say as an honest citizen, he tried to figure out what was going on. McGarrett wants to watch the video and see if anything useful is on it. He calls Jenny to have Che bring up the video equipment.
Outside, Norman calls Maxine Taylor telling her she has an hour to pack because he'll be by at 1:00 p.m. He gets into his car. Meanwhile, McGarrett and Danno go over the tape when McGarrett has it slowed so he can see the number Norman calls: 355-4991. He tells Danno to find the listing for that number.
Norman and Maxine leave her house overlooking Honolulu. They pull away only to be violently stopped by the Park Lane! They're soon surrounded by Five-O and HPD with Danno pulling Maxine out of the passenger side with McGarrett commanding Norman to get out and put his hands on his head. Ben frisks Norman who asks how did he figure it out. McGarrett tells him he dialed her number before realizing he was bugged. Norman tells Danno all the bonds are there and McGarrett asks where Hillis is: buried in the rainforest off old Paria Road. McGarrett wants to chew nails due to Norman being at the top of his field and resorting to murder. Norman explains he's going blind and tries to butter up McGarrett and use their friendship but McGarrett won't budge, "book him. Murder one".
This plot summary Copyright Bobbi Baker ©2019. No reproduction of any kind without permission.