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"Excuse me ma'am…have you seen a dog around here? Long ears, long nose?"

"Sir? Sir? Have you seen a dog passing through here recently? A Basset Hound! Long ears! You couldn't have missed him!"

"Miss? Have you seen a dog around here? A hound dog? Please…"

The Lieutenant spent the entire afternoon walking around the park, looking for clues, looking for witnesses…

Nothing. No one seemed to have seen his dog, or more importantly…who had taken his dog.

Columbo had circled the park about half a dozen times, and by the late afternoon, as the sun was starting to set, he felt as though he had inspected every tree, every bush, and damn near every blade of grass…but nothing had turned up.

He had asked everyone in the park, but none of them could recall seeing Dog. One irate woman even replied to the question with, "Do you expect me to remember every dog I see in a park?"

His feet now burning with pain, Columbo took a seat on a bench next to another gentleman. As he sat there, he replayed the moment in his mind a thousand times…torturing himself with the image of his missing dog and the empty spot where he had left him. How could he have been so careless? How could he have been so stupid?

He sighed heavily and lit another cigar. Somehow, they helped him think more clearly.

"Are you all right?" The other man asked, prompting Columbo to look over at him. He hadn't noticed before, but the man was holding a walking stick and was wearing dark sunglasses. It had been a very bright day, but not anymore. Not at this time of day.

This man was blind.

"Oh…no, sir. No…I'm afraid I'm not. My dog was stolen this afternoon…and I've been searching this park all day like a madman trying to find him."

"I see. Any luck?"

"No. No, none at all. And if there was ever a time I could really use some…it would be now."

A small pause. The man nodded respectfully. Columbo hesitated to speak, but at the risk of seeming rude, he would try anything to get his dog back now.

"Were you here this afternoon, sir?"

"Yes, I was. Why?"

"Well, I was just wondering….I thought perhaps maybe you had…"

"Seen something? Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"Oh no, sir. I wouldn't make a joke like that, and certainly not at a time like this."

"But you would another time?"

"I'm sorry, sir. I think we got off on the wrong foot. Forgive me, I'm terribly out of sorts…I can't stop worrying about my dog. Can you tell me, sir, where approximately you were sitting around one' o'clock this afternoon? Do you know this park well?"

"Yes, I can. I come here every day. I was sitting on the bench on the.…the south side of the field."

"South side, sir? Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes."

"South…so that would have been…directly across the field from where the Ice Cream stand is, right?"

"If it was there, then…yes, it would have been."

Columbo nodded. Slowly but surely, the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. At the least the start of one, anyhow.

"You see, I tied up my dog at the post near this bench sir, just around that time. I went to go get an ice cream…and when I came back, the dog was gone. Now think hard, sir…do you recall hearing anyone or anything unusual around that time, when you were sitting on the bench?"

The face somewhat obscured by the glasses, the Blind man thought silently for a moment, his expression unknowable, until after a pause he finally spoke again. Columbo waited with bated breath, so much so that the man may have even heard it.

"Yes. Now that you mention it…"

"Go on, sir."

"Well, I overheard this woman, you see…she was talking to a dog, I believe."

"And why do you think that, sir?"

"Because of her tone of voice. And also…bizarrely, she referred to it as just "Dog". I know, because I remember thinking, "Who would refer to a dog as just…Dog? Why not give it a name? Unless of course…she didn't know its name."

"What did she say?" Columbo stammered out excitedly. The clue he had been waiting all day for…was this finally it?

"Nothing too important, just…"Here, dog. Come on dog." And then I heard her and the dog leave."

"Excellent, sir! And do you remember which direction they left in?"

"West, I believe."

"You're sure?"

"Well, I can't be completely sure, but my sense of hearing is very keen, as you can guess."

"Yes, sir. I can believe that. Thank you very much, you've been a big help!" Columbo practically shouted before bounding off the bench and jogging in a westward direction.

The western path of the park led him to the parking lot. It was a start, but the Lieutenant felt his heart sink when he realized just how many cars had been here that day. The kidnapper could have driven away in any kind of car.

It was time to expand his search beyond the park.