Epilogophilia: You're Sixteen, Your Beautiful, and Your His

Hardcastle does a favor for an ailing friend by taking over his post as judge for a small town beauty pageant, 'Miss Sixteen'. He and McCormick are drawn into the lives of local RV salesman, Ed Whitman, and his daughter, Melissa, who is one of the contestants.While enduring a series of uninspired talent acts by comely sixteen-year-olds, and even less inspired casserole suppers by Ed's wife, Marge (her specialty is mac and cheese with chunks of hot dog in it), the guys discover that all is not right in this part of middle-class Americana. Melissa asks them to help her boyfriend, whose uncle came across the border illegally, and who witnessed the murder of one of his fellow immigrants at the hands of the men who were smuggling them.The uncle is murdered, too. The guys go south of the border, meet up with the smugglers, and discover that Ed Whitman is at the top of the chain of command. In the end, Ed and his confreres are busted, and Sara Jane Rose takes the crown, possibly on the strength of her baton performance.Hardcastle and McCormick escape back to L.A.