Plot

While restoring her house in Cabot Cove, Jessica worries that her contractor is preoccupied by the remodeling of another house until the project is put on hold when the client who may or may not be a vampire is found murdered.

Two teenagers making out in the cemetery get the scare of their lives when a man crawls out of a grave. Jessica's house needs electric and plumbing repairs, but her handyman Charles Weatherly is called away, to her anger, by rich client Lawrence Baker, who recently moved into the mansion Borbey House. Dr. Howard Sorenson, the visiting professor researching the Borbey House, congratulates Jessica, in the library, on her book research on sepulchers, in his field of research. Dave Perrin keeps looking for his sister Laurel who's been missing for 18 months. The same teenage couple is scared to death when they find what looks like a dead body but it turns out to just be a mannequin arm. Weatherly cancels Jessica's repairs after Baker agreed to structural work on a wall, doubling the restoration contract price. Molly's dad, a local shopkeeper, refuses to deal with Baker after finding out nobody knows about him and he only pays cash. Dr. Howard Sorenson is caught snooping in Baker's place and reacts like he is meeting a vampire. Next, Sheriff Mort Metzger and Jessica are called when Baker's body in found in the Borbey House, murdered with a wooden stake in his chest. Sorenson reports he found William Borbey's grave was empty. The name Borbey is the Hungarian equivalent of Baker. Sorenson points out Baker never left in daylight, kept no mirrors and may, thus, be a vampire. Baker's butler Peter Jatich's fingerprints match an ex-Stasi. When Laurel's body is located, Jessica figures out how everything ties together.—KGF Vissers, edited by GER

A newly arrived resident in Cabot Cove is having an undesired effect on many of the locals including, indirectly, Jessica Fletcher. Lawrence Baker has bought the Borbey House for cash and is in the process of making many alterations. Local handyman and contractor Charles Weatherly successfully bid on the work but Baker is quite demanding, meaning he has to put off some other work he had committed to, including essential plumbing and electrical work at Jessica's house. Meanwhile, Baker has taken an interest in a young woman who is upset with her boyfriend who has become obsessed with finding his sister, Weatherly's girlfriend, who disappeared 18 months ago. The presence of Dr. Howard Sorenson adds yet another twist to what is going on. He believes Lawrence Baker is a vampire. When Baker is found dead on his living room floor with a wooden stake driven through his heart, there is no shortage of suspects.—garykmcd