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Episode Number: 10 according to broadcast and production order.
The notoriously frugal Carol buys a designer dress at “Fashion’s R Us,” a cut-rate clothes store, and is furious when the seams give the first time she tries to wear it. She decides to go to Jared Martin, the designer and complain. With Sydney to back her up, the two women go to his offices, but are surprised to find also the police investigating a break in. When Carol shows Martin the dress, he asks her where she bought it, and when he hears it was “Fashion’s R Us” he realizes that his design was stolen and copied by a cheap distributor. Sydney recognizes Barney McKay, a notoriously poor detective, leaving, and Martin tells Carol and Sydney that McKay had recommended an expensive security system to guard his designs, which did not prevent the break in of the previous night. They ask Martin about hiring Barney, and he tells them that Wingate Sloan, a fashion photographer, recommended him. Martin decides to fire McKay and to hire them, against the advice of Irene Pettit, his assistant.
But Barney is working with Max Dixon, a crooked fashion distributor, and gave him the code of the security system so that he could break in and take photos of the designs and put Martin out of business. It turns out that Martin was a designer for Brockwind Fashion Designers and after some argument with them went out on his own, and is so successful that Brockwind would not be sorry to see his business fail.
Carol goes to Sloan’s studio, and he is takes the beautiful brunette for a model and is all for putting her under the lights for a photo session. Flattered, Carol tells him she is a detective working for Martin and wants to know about McKay. Sloan tells her that he was recommended by his assistant, Mary Childs, who hired McKay for her messy divorce.
Carol gets the keys to Martin’s building, and she watches the offices while Sydney is being wined and dined by Martin. He tells her that he had started at the bottom at Brockwind Fashion Designers, but had worked his way up to being their most famous designer, than left them to develop his own line of fashions, and that they would like to see him go out of the business. He also tells Sydney that Irene quit six months ago from Brockwind’s and came to work for him. Sydney smells a rat, and she is right. At that very minute, Irene meets with one of Max Dixon’s men, and lets him into the building where Carol is guarding the offices of Jared Martin.
When the man breaks in, he takes out a straight razor to slash the fashions on the clothes racks for Martin’s upcoming show. Carol sneaks up behind him and hits him with a mannequin arm, and he panics and runs away. When Carol and Sydney compare notes the next day, the women realize that two things are happening; someone is trying to put Jared Martin out of business and another is trying to counterfit his designs. Shane tells them that he was tailing Irene, he lost her for about 15-20 minutes, and in that time she could have unlocked the door for the burgler.
Carol and Sydney tell Martin that Irene may be in league with the crooks, and he suggests that they act as models in the upcoming fashion show, and in the meantime they can keep an eye on Irene. Surprised and flattered, they agree. At the rehearsal the next day, Carol takes pictures of the models in their normal clothes alongside Wingate Sloan while he is shooting the rehearsal. He suggests that she come over to his studio to develop her film. Sydney checks out Irene’s office, and finds a paycheck stub in the trash.
Mary Childs, Sloan’s assistant, is watching her daughter Chris who is one of the models waiting to rehearse on the runway. Suddenly, she gets up and angrily pulls her off the stage. Chris comes back onto the stage minus her mother, and also minus a fancy belt she was wearing before. Mary has left to go to Max Dixon’s warehouse, in an abandoned army fort, to tell him that Wingate was taking pictures at the show, and that the two women are there watching the rehearsal. He says that he will take care of everything.
Carol goes to Sloan’s studio with her film, and as she comes in the door, she is shot at by Dixon. He runs out the back door, and she finds Sloan dead and the pictures gone. Lt. Veronsky comes to investigate and Carol, who has her pictures on her, persuades Sydney to tell him that if he doesn’t take Carol for questioning (and find her pictures) and waits for 48 hours, she will go out with him. That is a deal Veronsky can’t refuse, and the two women go back to the mansion to develop the photos.
They break into Irene’s apartment, and hear a phone message to her by a man saying that if she is not there with the money at 8:00, he will not do the “burn job.” Sydney recognizes that a “burn job” is slang for arson. They call Veronsky and they stake out the warehouse where Martin has his clothing inventory, and both the arsonist, who was also the clothes slasher, and Irene are captured by the police.
At the fashion show the next day, a very nervous Carol and cool Sydney have Jeanine pose as a famous fashion designer from Harrod’s and has her sit next to Mary Childs. The two women talk, and Jeanine tells her that her brother-in-law has a chain of 27 discount store in England. Mary tells her that she may have something to show her afterwards and goes to call Max that she has a buyer for the Jared Martin design copies in their fort warehouse. Jeanine agrees to go there with Mary after the show, and is followed by Carol and Sydney. But Barney McKay arrives and catches sight of Jeanine, and tells Mary that she is a fake, and the mother-in-law of the two women detectives. Max Dixon pulls a gun, but Lt. Veronsky and the police pull up. They go after some of the crooks, while Sydney helps capture Mary with a right cross, Carol rolls a barrel of clothes dye at Max and knocks him off the roof of the old fort, saving Jeanine and Jarod Martin’s fashions.
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