This is my Parallel Time [to use a term from the original Dark Shadows] solution to the tactical situation in which Kookie found himself in "The Diplomatic Caper" [season 4, episode 19, Jan. 26, 1962].
By the way, "SS" on a telephone dial is also "77." Did Roy Huggins have that in mind when he created the show?
"The Diplomatic Caper: Parallel Time"
The first time they went to Mrs. Franklin's house, "Gil" drove them in a black&white Ford 4-door sedan.
And Mrs. Franklin lied to them because she had a gun pointed at her back.
Now Gil and Officer Malloy were in the black&white running "Code 3," with Stu and Kookie right behind them in Stu's Thunderbird convertible.
Two blocks from the Franklin house, Malloy turned off the siren and roof lights. One block from the house, he pulled over and he and Gil got in the T'bird. When they reached the house next door to the Franklin house, Stu pulled over and they proceeded on foot.
And now Kookie was on the patio behind Mrs. Franklin's house. He could clearly see Mrs. Franklin, her nephew Ross, and Michelle Feld ...
And Volta and Benin, two Commie agents with guns. Two Commie agents who would kill Michelle and Ross and Mrs. Franklin if Michelle's father didn't vote their way at the Conference, which was being broadcast on the radio.
Michelle, whose father had trusted Bailey and Spencer, Private Investigators, to keep his daughter safe while he was at Conference. And they had failed ... Michelle was in the hands of the enemy ... and it was up to them to save her.
Kookie's father had taught him to shoot at paper targets and tin cans and rabbits, and bigger game when he was old enough.
Stu and Jeff had taught how to shoot at the most deadly animal on earth.
Stu and Jeff taught him, "Shoot only to save yourself or someone else from death or grave physical harm. But if you must shoot, then shoot to kill."
And now his own mind supplied two paraphrases of an old saying:
"Dead men pull no triggers. Dead men kill no hostages."
Volta and Benin were fools: the lights were on and the curtains were open, making them easy targets.
But Kookie wished the patio door was one solid sheet of glass instead of separate panes, in case he had to charge in after his first shot.
He cocked the hammer of his Colt Detective Special, and gripped it firmly in both hands. He took three slow, deep, calming breaths. He stepped in front of the patio door and took careful aim.
His line of fire was perpendicular to the glass, so the glass could not distort his view or nudge the bullet even slightly off course.
Kookie squeezed the trigger, just as his father and Stu and Jeff had taught him. The exact moment the gun fired was a surprise, so he did not flinch and throw his aim off.
The bullet shattered the glass and then hit Benin above the right ear.
Benin dropped like a marionette with its strings cut.
Volta spun to his left and fired his gun in the direction the shot had come from.
The shot missed, partly because Kookie had side-stepped to his right before lining up his sights on his second target: the center of Volta's chest. He squeezed the trigger ...
And then Ross jumped Volta.
"Shit!" thought Kookie, as he released the trigger, and swung the gun up.
He tried the door handle. To his amazement, it was unlocked.
"Lights on and curtains open ... and the door unlocked. Thank God they're stupid," Kookie thought.
He ran across the living room yelling, "Mrs. Franklin! Open the door for Stu and Gil!"
Mrs. Franklin moved.
Kookie did not dare try to shoot Volta while he and Ross were thrashing around in a clinch, he might hit Ross. He had to get close and use his hands.
When Kookie reached the struggling Ross and Volta, his left hand grabbed the back of Volta's coat collar. With the index finger outside the trigger guard, his right hand pounded the right-rear "corner" of Volta's head with the gun butt, until he felt Volta go limp.
"Ross! Get clear!"
Ross obeyed.
With his left arm straining under the limp weight of Volta's body, Kookie took one step back, to keep Volta away from wherever his gun had landed, and then dropped him.
"Mr. Kookson!"
Kookie spun and raised his gun ... and forced it down when he saw Officer Malloy, gun in hand, standing inside the patio door. Malloy had come over the back fence, the same as Kookie.
"I'm sorry, Officer Malloy! I'm sorry! I'm a little wound up right now."
Malloy replied, "Yes, Sir."
That's what he said out loud. The look on his face clearly said, "No shit."
Kookie said, "Please keep them covered in case they're playing possum."
"Yes, Sir." Malloy moved closer to the two on the floor and kept his gun pointed in their direction.
Kookie turned and headed back outside. In spite of his shaking hand, he somehow got his gun back into his holster.
And then he leaned on the low patio wall and vomited like he would never stop.
Kookie had just killed at least one man, and maybe two, and now he was puking his guts out, but he was still Kookie. He asked himself, "Did James Bond or Matt Helm puke after their first kills?"
And then he was surrounded by Michelle, Mrs. Franklin, and Ross. All of them thanking him and praising him. The women hugged him. Ross slapped him on the back. Michelle kissed him on both cheeks ...
But what got his attention the most was Mrs. Franklin saying, "I don't know how we can ever repay you ... "
Kookie said, "Mrs. Franklin, may I have a glass of water?"
"Of course! I'll be right back!" She ran back into the house.
Kookie looked into the house and saw Stu on the phone. He said, "Michelle, Stu is calling your father. You should be there to talk to him as soon as Stu reaches him."
"Oh! You are right! Thank you again, Kookie! Merci, beaucoup." She kissed his cheeks again, and then ran into the house.
Mrs. Franklin soon returned with the water. Kookie was still shaking so hard he had to hold the glass in both hands, like a toddler. The first two mouthfuls, he swished around in his mouth and then spat them out. He drank the rest of the water slowly. He forced himself to drink it slowly. Then he handed the glass back to Mrs. Franklin and said, "Thank you, Ma'am."
"Thank you, Mr. Kookson."
Gil came out and said, "Kookie, Benin is dead. Volta has a pulse. I sent Malloy back to the squad car to call for an ambulance and the coroner."
Gil did not add that based on what little he knew about pulses, Volta was not going to make it.
"Kookie, I'll need your gun. Leave the cylinder closed and hand it to me butt first."
This puzzled Kookie. Stu and Jeff had taught him to hand over a revolver with the cylinder open so the other person could see at glance if it was loaded or not.
But he said, "Yes, Sir," and handed the Colt to Gil, butt first and with the cylinder closed.
Gil drew a grease pencil from his jacket pocket and marked the gaps in the cylinder to the left and right of the chamber under the hammer. Then he swung the cylinder out and said, "Five live rounds. One fired case under the hammer."
He turned the gun muzzle up and the live rounds fell into his hand. He pushed the ejector rod with his thumb and the fired case joined them.
"Kookie, you'll have to come downtown and make a statement."
"No, Sir."
"What!?"
Kookie stood up as straight as he could while still shaking, and said, "Lieutenant Gilmore. I will not make a statement or answer any questions until I have spoken to a lawyer. If I must go downtown and say that officially, or put it in writing, I will. But nothing else."
And then Stu came out and said, "Well done, Kookie."
Kookie asked, "Stu! Did you reach Dr. Held in time?"
"I reached him after he voted ... voted yes."
"Oh my God! Does Michelle know?"
"She was standing beside me when it came over the radio. She was shocked for a moment ... Then she smiled and cried and said she was proud of her father for doing the right thing. And proud that he trusted us to save her. She's on the phone with him now."
"She's one hell of a girl ... Stu, did you puke your guts out after you killed a man for the first time?"
"No, Kookie. But that was during the War. I was too busy staying alive. Your reaction is probably a more healthy one."
Volta was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
NOTES
To paraphrase Matt Helm in The Revengers [1982], "Rescue is easy when everyone who could interfere with the rescue is dead."
In "The Diplomatic Caper" as broadcast, Gil drove himself, Stu, and Kookie to the Franklin house the first time in a black&white Ford 4-door sedan.
The second time, they were joined by an unnamed uniformed officer, and they arrived in Stu's Thunderbird convertible. Which implied that they rode all the way there in the T'bird, even though it was clearly a Code 3 situation.
Code 3 = lights and siren and step on it.
I named the uniformed officer Malloy after Martin Milner's character in Adam 12 [1968-1975], in which he frequently drove the title vehicle Code 3. In 1962, he was still driving a Corvette as Tod Stiles in Route 66.
The guns the PI's carry in 77 Sunset Strip were never identified by name. The closest shot of them was in the episode "Hot Tamale Caper" [season 3, episodes 37 and 38 (according to Wikipedia), May 26 and June 2, 1961]. They looked like Colts to me.
I don't know if a grease pencil is how a police officer marks the chamber under the hammer of a revolver. But it sounds reasonable to me, so that's how they do it in my ficverse.