While trying to track down the suspect, Lennie Briscoe finds a phone book in the suspect's apartment. Lennie says he knows an old PI trick - if the phone book had been open a long time it would bend the spine. He then drops the phone book, demonstrating the old PI trick, as it opens to the page most recently opened to. Actor Jerry Orbach played Harry McGraw, a Private Investigator (PI) appearing both as a recurring character on both Murder, She Wrote (1985-1991) and as the featured character in its spin-off, The Law and Harry McGraw (1987-1988).