Their eyes are too big and too bright. That's the first thing that's strange about them. They stare up at Colombo with a wide grin, teeth just a little too sharp.
"sh-show me how, you d-did that." Eyes flick over to the pool table. Curious above all else. "you're g-good at it."
Columbo had a habit of immersing himself into whatever he was doing: Whether it was looking for clues on the scene of a homicide or playing a round of pool such as this, his mind often couldn't and wouldn't fire on all cylinders unless it was deeply engrossed and fascinated in what he was doing. It was another quirk of his that he'd given up trying to understand and hide long ago, when he'd first made lieutenant.
Because of this, the innocently posed question almost makes him jump...instead, it just makes him whirl towards their direction, still gripping the cue stick with one hand.
The eyes are the first thing that comes to his attention. They don't have the suspicious, smug gleam he's come to associate with the killers he tends to arrest, and yet he can't quite shake off the hunch that they're still not the eyes of an average person. The grin only adds to the picture as the lieutenant is able to pick out a tooth or two that looks more like a fang than a normal tooth. That's all before he notices other odd details, his brain immediately shifting gears and picking up on little things that probably meant nothing because he wasn't on a case: The bell necklace, the fingerless gloves...
He forces himself to not go any further with this line of suspicion, scratching his head with one hand as he sets the cue off to the side. Doing his best to play up the idea that their words had needed a second to sink in after his game in the process.
"Evening," he greets. "Just finishin' up this game...judgin' by your question, I guess you were watchin' though, huh?"
He reaches down to grab the 8-ball again while keeping an eye on them. "I can try, but, uh...I'm gonna be honest, that might've been even trickier of a trick shot than I thought. Ya might not get the results you're hopin' for...I'm not exactly a good teacher, either..."