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Perry Mason	[Two typists]	Lieutenant Tragg
Della Street	Jackson	Sergeant Holcomb
Robert Caddo	Another candidate	Joe & other third-degree policemen
Paul Drake	Mason's office building night janitor	Woman witness
Drake's operative "I B Green"	Marlow's woman friend	Deputy sheriff
aka Kenneth Barstow	Mrs Dolores Caddo	Plainclothesman
MM, aka Marilyn Marlow	Police Driver of car 91	Radio officer
Travel-weary woman	[Police photographer]	Jack, his partner
Her four-year-old boy	Policeman in hall	Judge Osborn
Her husband (a Drake operative)	Ralph Endicott	James Hanover
Rose Keeling	Lorraine Endicott Parsons	Dr Thomas C Hiller
Ethel Furlong	Palmer Endicott	Stewart Alvin.
Gertie	Paddington C Niles

Paul Drake is introduced without the long description of his droopy, hang-dog looks which disguise the fact he's a detective.

How often have you slammed down the telephone in anger? When not in anger, you hang up. Erle Stanley Gardner thinks that when it is the person at the other end of the line, they slam up. Read chapter 8.

Here is where Mason switches to Bacardi cocktails.

1.	Mason takes an oblong business card from Della Street. "LONELY LOVERS PUBLICATIONS, INC." is on Robert Caddo's card. Della also hands Perry "a copy of a cheaply printed magazine entitled Lonely Hearts Are Calling." Della explains how, using a form on the back page, readers can send a message to the classified ads. They look at a typical ad, then at an article. Mr Caddo comes in, explains the method of circulation. He admits to having written all the articles in the current issue, which will remain in circulation until it sells out or the ads lose their effect at drawing mail. His concern is Ad 96 from a twenty-three-year-old heiress. Authorities want him to withdraw the issue, which is too costly, or prove the ad is genuine, which he cannot do. Profits come because for every letter submitted in answer to an ad, someone has had to buy the magazine at 25¢. He's tried to find out who Ad 96 is, but she refuses. He's written blindly to her several letters, and she answers none. Mason says it would be cheaper to recall the magazine, but Caddo says this would be an admission of guilt. Mason takes $500 and a handful of back pages from Caddo. After Caddo leaves, Perry reads out loud part of another story to Della.
2.	Mason is still reading articles from the magazine when he abruptly announces he's "about to compose a love letter." Perry analyzes the situation for Della. Caddo's letters brought no response because each emphasized that he wasn't interested in her money. Yet "She took particular pains to mention that she was an heiress." So anyone who said he was not interested because she was an heiress was branded as "being a damn hypocrite." He dictates a short letter beginning "I am a poor young man . . ." which is signed by a Mr Black. Another letter starts "An heiress, Gee!" and notes he can handle farm work. Signed, Irvin B Green (I B Green). He will hand write it, and have Paul Drake write the other.
3.	Paul Drake gives his code knock* and joins Mason and Street. Mr Green has a response from MM, to meet her in the Union Depot at six in the evening. Mason wants the private detective to get an operative who can pass for "a terribly green country kid," "something that no longer exists" because of the "radio, the automobile and the movies." He wants additional operatives to watch the place of assignation in case the woman doesn't make contact, and to follow her when they see her casing "I B Green." *DA dadadada DA DA which, to those in the know, stands for "shave, and a hair-cut, five cents"
4.	"Perry Mason and Della Street entered the big terminal depot, Mason carrying an empty suitcase. . ." He hides behind a newspaper, reading the horse races, while Della surveys the surroundings. She spots a "brunette in a plaid skirt" who eventually joins "I B Green," then leaves the depot with him. Della notes that she is wearing "simple clothes that really cost money." Della is worried that Drake's men aren't following them. The husband of a travel-weary woman with her four-year-old boy returns with an ice-cream cone, then veers over to Mason to give his report directly, that "the contacting operative is with her" so they didn't follow. He states "I guess that's what you want to know, isn't it?" Mason's smile is followed by "That is what Miss Street particularly wanted to know."
5.	Mason receives Caddo, tells him that his heiress is Marilyn Marlow. Her mother, Eleanore Marlow, was a nurse in attendance on George P Endicott who left her most of his estate, about $300,000, which devolved on Marilyn when Eleanore was killed in an automobile accident. Caddo is elated, plans now to reprint the issue since letters are pouring in, a hundred a day. Caddo leaves with Marlow's address. Drake brings in Kenneth Barstow, the agent who met Marlow. He tells of how things went very well, including a little necking, until a phone call at their second meeting, after which he was unceremoniously kicked out. After he leaves it is Della who thinks it was the telephone call, not Barstow's actions, that prompted his dismissal. They check the time of the phone call, and it fits.
6.	Gertie and two typists have gone home when Jackson enters. Mason sends him home, takes Della to the Spanish Quarter for Bacardi cocktails. Then they go to the Union Depot. Another candidate is picked up by Marlow, who ushers him out to a chauffeur-driven car; the chauffeur is Caddo.
7.	Neither is hungry, nor does dancing improve their mood. They return to Mason's office, where the night janitor tells Mason to call Drake first thing. The call brings Drake quickly to Mason's office. Drake then introduces Marilyn Marlow. She tells Mason that he messed things up for her and she wants him to un-mess them. Mason delineates the facts, including that Endicott's mansion and small bequests went to Ralph Endicott, Palmer E Endicott and Lorraine Endicott, who are going to file a contest after probate, even though the will stipulated any contest would invalidate any bequest to them. The problem, explains Marilyn, that Rose Keeling may recant her testimony to the signing. Marilyn wanted a man with whom romantic Rose could fall in love and bare her soul to. She used the magazine to find such a man, having a woman friend pick up her letters, put them in a first-class special delivery envelope and mail them to her. She liked her detective boy a lot .She came to see Mason and when the night janitor said he wasn't in but Paul Drake who ran a detective agency knew how to reach Mason, she put two and two together. She wants to arrange for her and the detective to play tennis with Rose in a foursome; Rose would, of course, try to steal away her boyfriend. Mason advises her to dump Caddo totally and she catches on that it was Caddo who hired Mason to find her. When she learns her detective is Kenneth Barstow, she comments, "Oh, I like that name."
8.	As Mason enters his office, Della warns him that Mrs Caddo is awaiting his arrival. She's a wildcat on a warpath. Della and Perry set up to look busy, and admit her. She knows her husband is a philanderer, knows how to throw a tantrum, give the woman a black-eye, and get her husband back in line. She has his little red notebook, with Marilyn Marlow and Rose Keeling in it. Mason pacifies her, cautions her against going after either woman. When she leaves, Gertie says Caddo is having a fit in the outer office. Mason smears ink and lipstick on his face, then sees Caddo, who has a bigger fit when he hears Dolores has his little red notebook. Gertie giggles as Caddo rushes out. Mason phones Marlow, warns her of Mrs Caddo. She thinks it best to go over and try to get Rose to play tennis. Mason tries to work on a brief, but his interest is elsewhere. He dictates to Della, but a phone call interrupts. Marilyn is at Rose's; she's dead.
9.	Mason and Street arrive at Rose Keeling's four-flat house, and are met by Marlow. Mason first notes the phone has her fingerprints and those of the murderer. Mason notes the phone was off the hook at 11:40 and Marilyn says she found it off the hook. He points out how advantageous it is to her to have Rose dead. She had received a note from Rose denying her first testimony and saying she was out of the room when the will was (supposedly) signed. She had also discussed the situation with Caddo. She saw Rose, asked her to play tennis, returned to her place to get her tennis clothes. When she got back at Rose's, the door was open. She had shopped, and gone to the bank, during her return trip, offering her mother's jewelry as collateral. She talked with Rose at 11:10, was there at 11:25, and got back four or five minutes before she phoned Mason. Marilyn has mislaid her key to the apartment, but it is found. Mason says he'll stick his neck out for her. Mason has Della come with him to survey the bedroom. Cigar ashes in the ashtray. A cigarette left to burn out near the door. The evidence suggests Rose was leaving, not preparing to play tennis. Mason tells her how he'll plan things so she will be home, and his second return to the apartment will be put forth as his first. Mason doesn't tell Marlow to destroy the letter, but let's her know how to do it.
10.	Lt Tragg questions Mason about his activities in the room. Mason says he called Marlow, then Tragg. He came to see Keeling for his client, "to get the general background." Tragg sends Mason and Street to a police car.
11.	Mason tries to whisper to Street, but the police Driver of car 91 stops them. When the policeman sits between them, Perry, noting the officer's boxer-like appearance and therefore likely low IQ, talks to Della in multi-syllable words. The officer calls Tragg, who sends Della to Mason's office, while taking Mason back upstairs. He again questions Mason, goes into the bedroom where a police photographer is at work. A policeman in the hall cautions Mason to not drop his match in the ash tray. Tragg returns, sends Mason away. He calls Gertie, learns Della is on the way to Ethel Furlong's apartment. He overtakes her taxi. They arrive at Furlong's to find a note from the "Driver of Car 91" stating that he had "high marks in forensic debate and was on the college debating team which won the 1929 conference championship." His "physiognomy became badly marred because of a mistaken impression" that he could have been a professional boxer. So he understood his instructions to his secretary, and the police have Furlong in custody.
12.	Mason goes to the Endicott mansion, is met by Ralph Endicott, who ushers him into a room where Lorraine Endicott Parsons and Palmer Endicott are waiting. Mason advises them that Rose Keeling is dead. He wants to know if any of them had been in touch with her recently. Paddington Niles is ushered in and Mason says his detectives suggest Rose Keeling gave one of his clients a check, and he wants to know what for. He notes he could tell Lt Tragg and get the Endicott's names dragged into the newspapers. Mason gives them five minutes to give him answers. As he inches away in his car, Ralph Endicott beckons him back. With the group, Ralph Endicott wants to talk about the will contest, but Mason is only prepared to talk about the murder. So Ralph relates his version, as told him by Rose, of the will, written by Mrs Marlow and submitted to Endicott who signed with his left hand. Both Keeling and Furlong were told that they were promised something in the will. So Rose, who was not in the room at the signing by Endicott, signed as witness. This morning he got a call from Keeling about 7:30, asking him to see her. She told him she'd received a thousand dollars from Mrs Marlow which she was sure came from sale of stolen jewelry. She gave Ralph a check for a thousand dollars, and a carbon copy of a letter she sent Marilyn, which he shows Mason. He was there 8:00 to 8:40. He details the remainder of his morning. At 10:05 he had Keeling's check certified. Then he went to a club until 3:30. His fingerprint, in smeared ink, is on the check. There is an argument, but Ralph submits to a check of the fingerprint. Palmer leaves the room. Mason is offered Scotch and soda. Palmer returns holding a paper, puts it and the ink pad on a table. He then takes a set of prints. The right thumbprint matches that print on the check. Mason then notes the note must have been written with a ball point, the check with regular pen. Mason leaves, drives to a pay phone, leaves a message about the check for Tragg. He calls Marlow; the police are there. In the middle of a sentence Mason hears "a peculiar sound at the other end of the line, then a suppressed exclamation." He continues with information he wants Tragg to hear, then Tragg comes on the line, cannot believe Mason left him a tip. Mason calls his office, gets Gertie, then Della, whom he orders to get out an application for a writ of habeas corpus.
13.	Marlowe is getting the third degree from Sergeant Holcomb and others. She tells part of the story, then a woman is brought in who claims to have seen her "coming out of Rose Keeling's flat." Now Marlow admits to trying to see Keeling. Under more pressure, she admits to finding Keeling dead, and that Mason came there at her suggestion. She realizes how much she's given away, clams up. Newspaper reporters are let in. They snap photos with her jewelry in plain view. Lt Tragg enters, stops the third-degree, takes Marlow to her office, gets her to relax and give up more information, including that she got the note from Keeling, but doesn't have it. A deputy sheriff enters with a writ of habeus corpus and shortly Mason enters, takes her away. She says "It was terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. . . ." She tells how she was treated, and of the photographers. Mason explains police routine. She mentions the witness and Mason tells her she was a stooge.
14.	Della is waiting when Mason returns to his office. He tells her how Marlow broke down and that the police found only his fingerprints on the phone she used. She may not be guilty of murder, but what did she want from Barstow? Mason has Della get Drake. He reports that Ralph Endicott's alibi is watertight. He's contacted Furlong, and she swears Eleanore Marlow was in the room with her and Keeling at the signing. He reports that Caddo sent a suit spotted with ink to the cleaners. The police found a playsuit with blouse ripped open and ink spattered over it in a soiled clothes hamper of Keeling's flat. Mason now surmises Rose must have been killed leaving the bathroom. Drake reports she was blackjacked before being stabbed. The murder was about 12:00, and Mason sets it at the time Della phoned, 11:40. Drake was with the police when they searched the parking lot. Barstow found a cheap cigar half-smoked. Barstow likes good cigars. Marilyn left Rose at 11:35, returned at 12:15. Drake now states that Marilyn asked Barstow to get a key to Rose's, and set her up with a tennis game so she could get in to the apartment to search as only a woman could. They argue about the fingerprints wiped off, or left on, the phone.
15.	Robert Caddo in pajamas and bathrobe admits Mason to his house. Dolores joins them, admits she saw Rose about eleven-thirty. Rose was preparing to play tennis. She ripped the suit, snapped ink all over it. Mason now lets them know Rose was killed about eleven-forty. Dolores thinks Mason wants to pin the murder on her. He threatens to call the police, and she doesn't bite. He reaches Tragg, who comes immediately. She offers drinks for Mason and her husband and argues with her "two-timing buzzard" who wants her to tell Mason everything since she's already admitted to being at Rose's. She gets the drinks, then Tragg and a plainclothesman arrive. Dolores now lies, denying having ever been at Keeling's. She claims she never saw Keeling in her life and Caddo says he's never seen her. Now she reveals she went to see Mason that morning and they played a trick on her husband with ink and lipstick. Tragg is outraged, says he's going to issue a warrant for Mason's client, whom he tells Dolores is Marilyn Marlow. He's found the murder weapon. So Mason sews family discord; Caddo thought he could trade in his wife on the more streamlined model with more money, Marlow. Dolores doesn't bite. As Mason leaves, she offers Tragg some excellent Scotch.
16.	Perry phones Della, then joins her, is offered coffee, crackers and assorted tea biscuits. He tells her Dolores's story, the eleven-thirty meeting, the ink on Keeling's sunsuit, Rose locking herself in the bathroom. When he called Tragg, she lied, and he left them "buying Tragg a drink." Mason figures he has to act quickly, before the murder warrant is issued. He thinks about using Marlow's key to Rose's apartment. Della gets an idea; what if "we can show that she was unpacking? "There should be clues a woman would pick up, which would escape "untutored, male eyes of the blundering cops." Mason says he'll get women on the jury.
17.	Mason circles the blocks around Keeling's flat, looking for a police car, finding none. Perry explains to Della how Tragg will view the crime scene, how he will interpret the clothes in and out of the two suitcases to indicate Rose was packing to leave. He explains how he will lead Tragg to trip himself up, that maybe she was unpacking. Then Marlow's claim she was invited to play tennis won't appear out of line. He notes they cannot afford to be caught, for burglary is a matter of intent. With flashlights they go up to Rose's room. Della turns edges of Rose's stacked clothes, notices how accurately they are folded, how "the edges are all uniform, just absolutely the dimensions of the suitcase." Mason is right, she was unpacking. The only way "they exactly fit the dimensions of the suitcase" is because they were folded into it, and have now been taken out. Mason reminds Street that she cannot testify to what she's found, the must get the room guarded so nothing can be changed. They tiptoe downstairs but, as they exit, a police car "flooded the porch with blood-red brilliance." Mason polishes the key, puts it under the door mat. They play at trying to get an answer to the bell. A radio officer approaches them and says that they've been inside. Mason says he's been buzzing the officer (guarding the room). Caddo comes forth, says he saw Mason go in. Mason tells the officer Caddo is a liar. Caddo was watching the place because he expected someone to plant evidence that would incriminate Dolores; "The minute I saw you at that door, I knew it was going to happen, and I made a dash to the telephone." Mason's brilliant mind seizes upon this to prove to the officer that Caddo could not have seen them enter the building. Delta, who's taken all this down in shorthand reads back Caddo's statement. `Mason has the officer search him for a key, even emptying his pockets, and offers to have Della go to Headquarters to be searched. Since Caddo had said his wife had said nothing, Mason crucifies him; how then did he know where Keeling lived? Mason demands the room be guarded, and the radio officer has his partner, Jack, call Headquarters and get a guard sent out.
18.	Judge Osborn is presiding, Deputy District Attorney James Hanover is the prosecutor. Dr Thomas C Hiller testifies that death occurred between 11:30 and noon, a blow was struck but death was from a knife. Lt Tragg identifies photos of the crime scene and finding Mason and Street there when he arrived, then how he found the supposed murder weapon in the defendant's automobile in a public rental garage where Mason left it. Tragg now identifies a blood-covered knife which has no fingerprints. Mason allows its introduction not as a murder weapon but as a knife found in the defendant's car. Sergeant Holcomb is asked to testify to an admission made in "the office of the Homicide Squad at police headquarters." Mason objects, questions Holcomb on how the questioning of Marlow took place. "Was there one big light in the room?" "And that was directed full on the face of the defendant?" Then, didn't he have a woman "identify" Marlow? She was "A night stenographer in the traffic department." Didn't Lt Tragg come in by a prearranged signal? Mason calls this "a typical case of a police third degree." The judge allows evidence of an admission, but not a confession. Mason's cross-examination weakens every statement made by Holcomb; she was there only about the time of the murder, that she didn't use a key but found the door open. Tragg is called back. He testifies about finding the clothes in suitcases indicating Rose was planning on a long trip. Only Mason's fingerprints were found on the phone. He came to the apartment because of a call from Mason. The defendant said she had an appointment to play tennis, and she had destroyed Rose Keeling's letter. Mason challenges the introduction of a carbon copy and the Court adjourns until the afternoon.
19.	Mason notes to Street that Hanover is "trying to breeze through the case" which satisfies Judge Osborn who "is a fine, honest, direct, upright judge, but (who has) never had much actual courtroom experience." Mason accepts that either Marlow is guilty or being framed. Mason thinks it significant that Dolores called on Rose, but then did not call on Marilyn. If Dolores did visit Rose after Marilyn and throw ink, then Marilyn's assertion that she came back to play tennis holds true. Dolores did not murder Rose, for it was Mason's statement to her that was her first knowledge of Rose's death, causing her to change her testimony. He is certain the cigarette on the floor was Rose's so the cigar was a man's. As they head back to court, they see the Endicott's and Caddo; Palmer offers Caddo a cigar.
20.	Ralph Endicott replaces Tragg on the stand. He testifies to receiving the carbon copy through the mails and having a conversation the morning of the murder with Keeling where she told him she'd sent him the carbon copy. On cross, Mason asks for the entire conversation he had with Rose. He admits to Keeling's telling him that she doubted if his brother had actually signed the check and the sale of jewelry was also fraudulent and she gave him a thousand dollar check "to ease her conscience." He was satisfied the check and note were true because the signatures were the same, and he'd seen her sign the check. Ralph is forced to produce the check, but won't leave until he has it back. It will be photostated. Tragg returns. He says he showed the carbon copy to the defendant who said she destroyed the original. Mason bores in until Tragg is trapped regarding packing or unpacking. Mason tests him, giving him feminine garments and a suitcase and asking him to fold the garments and then put them in the suitcase. On the first try there is an inch and a half clearance. Tragg tries again, and the pile is three-quarters too wide. Finally Tragg won't admit Keeling was unpacking, but he withdraws his statement that she was packing. Mason then brings up the torn, ink-stained clothes in the bathroom hamper. Rose was not bathing before tennis, but after getting ink on herself and her clothes. While the court recesses for a photostat to be made, Perry instructs Paul to wait outside the door of the court when it reconvenes. Also, send one of his men to get the cashier who certified Rose's check with a forthwith subpoena.
21.	Perry tells Marilyn he's going to take a chance and calls Central Security Bank cashier Stewart Alvin who has just arrived with the bank's records. Alvin states he certified the check for Ralph Endicott. And the day before she wrote that check she deposited another for a thousand dollars. Mason recalls Ralph Endicott. His thumbprint on the check is not of the same ink as that with which the check was written, but is ball-point ink, the same as was used to write the note. Now Mason says he paid Keeling to lie the day before she was murdered. She then decided she couldn't go through with it and gave him her thousand-dollar check. "No, sir, that's not right!" he states, and Mason agrees! Because he was not the one who called on Keeling the next day. Mason demands Endicott's pen, but it is not a ball-point. Mason wants to take his thumbprint. The print on the check, he asserts, is that of his brother, Palmer. He calls Palmer Endicott to come forward and be sworn, and Palmer tries to leave, but is wrestled to the floor by Paul Drake.
22.	Perry Mason tells Della Street to get four seats at the Ice Follies. When Paul Drake joins them, Della tells him he's stepping out with Marilyn, Perry and herself, but Mason corrects her; it is Kenneth Barstow who will be with Marilyn. Mason explains. Keeling used a fountain pen, as the shading of the lines on the check showed. Yet the note was written with a ball-point pen which, unlike a fountain pen, could produce a good carbon copy, and the thumbprint was from ball-point ink. Ralph had an iron-clad alibi, but Palmer didn't. Palmer was clever. When he showed the blank piece of paper, he was holding it with one finger and his thumb, which had already left his thumbprint. When Ralph got to the table to put his prints on the paper, he only added four finger of his right hand and his whole left hand. Thus, Palmer's print on the check matched the print on the paper. The Endicotts did bribe Keeling to write the note, using ball-point for the carbon, thinking Marilyn would never show the letter so they were safe. Overnight Rose repented. Palmer went to her, wanted cash, but Rose insisted on a check because she'd only deposited the money in the bank the day before. The Endicotts were not sufficiently affluent to forego the thousand dollars, so they couldn't throw away the check. Palmer got Rose to write the check to Ralph and Ralph to certify the check. Palmer then went back and killed Keeling. The door had been left open by Dolores. Palmer was an inveterate cigar smoker, was probably smoking when he entered the apartment, ground out the cigar so the odor of its smoke wouldn't betray him, and put it in his pocket. Mason, playing cupid, tells Drake to send Barstow on a job (to Marilyn). Drake says that while they are out romancing, he'll "be sitting in [his] office, slaving [his] fingers to the bone . . . Making up a fat expense account in the Marilyn Marlow case."

Della Street	Eric Hansell	Carl B Knight
Perry Mason	Edgar Z. Ferrell	Charles W Neffs
John Racer Addison	Drake's switchboard operator	Fingerprint expert
Veronica Dale	Department store night watchman	Frank Parma, deputy sheriff
Jail matron	Sergeant Holcomb	Dr Parker C Loretto
Harry Bend	Lorraine Ferrell	George Malden (ballistics)
Rockaway Hotel desk clerk	A wolf driving a car	Court deputy sheriff
Mr. Putnam	Merna Raleigh	Two drake operatives
Two telephone operators	Frank Summerville	Laura Mae Dale
Addison's secretary	Myrtle C. Northrup	Hamilton Burger's secretary
Laura Mae Dale	Newspaper reporters	Court matron
Rockaway Hotel chambermaid	Spectators	Lone newsman
Gertie	Judge Paul M Keetley	Thomas P Barrett
George Whittley Dundas	Bailiff

1.	Della Street informs Perry Mason that the department store man, John Racer Addison, is on the phone. He is impatient, hyperactive. He wants to know if you can "put a virgin in jail as a vagrant?" Mason tells him how loosely the term "vagrant" can be interpreted. Addison instructs Mason to get a girl out of City Jail, Veronica Dale. Don't mention him. Don't plead guilty, raise the devil. Send him a bill. Mason sends Della to the jail.
2	The matron brings Veronica to the visitors' room. She "looked childish in her innocence, a platinum blonde with a poker face, wide blue eyes, thin, flawless skin and a good figure." She explains how she went for a walk from the Rockaway Hotel, was stopped by an officer. She "wasn't doing a thing" but he said she "was doing something--well, something that I wasn't!" Mason says he's put up $200 bail. Harry Bend, the arresting officer, says it looked like she was soliciting. He "was afraid she'd wind up as a corpse." Mason informs him she has a room, and she thought he was insulting. Mason talks him into going to the hotel. When they pick up Veronica, she tells Bend that he hasn't "any respect for womanhood." Mason says he was just doing his job. She counters, "I don't like his job." Bend says, bitterly, "Neither do I." They go to the hotel, discovering Veronica is only eighteen. Bend asks the desk clerk if they have a Veronica Dale registered. Yes, 309. He only came on in the morning, so doesn't recognize Veronica. She is asked to write her name; it matches the registration card, which has a note from the manager, Mr Putnam, to reserve a room for Dale. She arrived at 9:45, fifteen minutes after the call came to the hotel. They find the room unused but occupied. Bend agrees to dismiss. When he leaves, she asks for privacy but Mason tells her always leave the door open whenever she has a man in the room. Mason gives her $50 to tide her over. Mason goes to a telephone booth in the lobby, phones Addison, has to go through two telephone operators and a secretary to get to the man. He informs Addison that Dale is out on bail and the complaint will be withdrawn. How long has he known Veronica? He just met her. Send him the bill. Mason asserts that "Either that girl is pretty dumb, or she tried hard to get herself arrested." Addison says "she's naive." Mason suggests it is Addison who is naive.
3.	Della announces Laura Mae Dale. Before she is admitted, Mason checks if they billed Addison; $500. Mrs Dale moves with "swift efficiency." She just wants to thank Mason. She, like her daughter, hitchhiked from a small town in Indiana. She followed because Veronica wants to be independent. She wishes she'd "had a mother to keep an eye on me and help me. . .Well, that's water under the bridge. Never cry about spilled milk. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof and all that stuff." (This is typical of her.) She wants to pay his bill. Mason says $50 is enough, but she writes a check for $150, asks for and is given a receipt. If Veronica asks, say the fee was paid by a friend. Addison phone and demands immediate audience.
4.	Gertie tells Mason that Addison is fit to be tied, won't sit down. When he enters, he glares at Street, but Mason says he can trust her. He trusts no one. He's being blackmailed by George W (for Whittley) Dundas, tabloid columnist. He shows Mason a column cut out from a newspaper. He's dealing indirectly, with Eric Hansell, the man who gets Dundas his facts. Mason asks him to state the facts since his meeting the virgin. He picked her up, hitchhiking, learned of her boredom with her small-town environment, waiting tables for her widowed mother at a small restaurant lunch counter. He learned she wanted to be independent, self-reliant, but had no place to say and was short of cash. So he phoned the Rockaway Hotel manager and arrange for a room. At the hotel, he watched from the car until he was certain she'd registered. Then at home the jail matron called him. Veronica must have looked at the registration on the steering post while he was phoning. He got the call just before he phoned Mason. He's seen her since; he got her a job at his (Treasure Chest) department store. Eric Hansell then called him up wanting an interview. He asked impertinent, personal questions, finally asking him about his "relationship with Veronica Dale." Hansell knew he'd telephoned the hotel, he'd hired his personal attorney to represent her, he'd given her employment. After asking Hansell how much he wanted and getting no answer, he kicked him out, then paced the office floor for about an hour before coming to Mason. He gives Mason Hansell's telephone number. Addison explains he can't get into any controversy because of his partner, Edgar Z Ferrell, a "hidebound, narrow-minded, bigoted stick-in-the-mud" who, fortunately, is on vacation (without his wife). Ferrell's a trained accountant who "pounces on every mistake." Addison can't afford to have him see in print any scandal. Ferrell inherited his share of the company when his father died and Addison didn't buy him out then, and the company has prospered since but might go down by summer. Addison says he's got to pay off to keep anything from becoming public. Mason rehashes his relationship with Veronica, leading to her mother showing up, paying him $150. Mason says he can write a personal check and tear up the bill. He still insists that there is a stockholders' meeting in two weeks, they should pay off. Mason tells him what happens with blackmailers and that what he really wants is to be sure his "name doesn't get put in a gossip column in connection with an affair with an eighteen-year-old juvenile delinquent." He has Addison sign a bank check, then tells him to become incommunicado. Alone with Della, Mason has her put on gloves, and he does likewise. He traces in pencil on a blank check Addison's signature, then inks over it with India ink. Della says that it's not a good forgery, which is what he wants. He sends Della out to a typewriter store to fill in the rest of the check for $2,000, and to not ask him questions. Gertie gets Drake on the phone. Mason tells Paul to "ring up every bank in town" and tell them to watch for India ink forgeries. He then phones Hansell.
5.	Perry informs Gertie he's going to Paul Drake's office. When Hansell has been ushered into his private office by Della, phone him. Mason goes to Drake's, asks the switchboard operator for Paul, goes to his office. They chat; the shortage of operatives is over. Gertie calls, Mason leaves. At his office, he finds Della and Hansell, who is seated with his hat on Mason's table. Putting himself between Haskell and the hat, Mason, with gloves, puts the check in the hat. Mason dismissed Street. He and Hansell barter back and forth until Haskell states the situation about Addison in colorful language. Mason says he'll get in touch. Hansell is arrogant, suggests Mason see him, but freezes when he picks up his hat, discovers the check. His attitude changes. Now he is nice, yet challenges Mason about having the place wired for sound. Mason warns him that he can't get more than that check, once he's signed it. Hansell leaves, calling Mason a "Wise guy!"
6.	Shortly before closing time Addison is back. He has a new problem. Ferrell is "married to a very attractive woman," Lorraine. About three weeks ago he was offered a country estate about twenty miles out, but he passed since it was run down. Ferrell was with him, and two days later he bought the property without letting him know. He learned this from the real-estate dealer, who said Ferrell was in a hurry, wanted the property by Tuesday because he expected to be there for two or three weeks beginning Tuesday. Addison says he thought Ferrell might be putting over a fast one on his wife, so he drove out Tuesday night to check it out. Someone had been there, because there were tire tracks. But no one was there. So maybe Ferrell bought it for an investment. But then he received a telegram which indicated Ferrell was travelling. Then Lorraine saw Ferrell only this afternoon in his car with a cute red-headed trick. If Ferrell is using the house as a love nest, he wants to catch him so Lorraine will file for divorce and he can buy her share of the joint stock. He invites Mason to go with him to catch Ferrell.
7.	Addison directs Mason to the house, noting the place nearby where he picked up Veronica. There are no lights on. The place seems locked, every window, every door. There is a bullet hole in an upstairs room. Mason tries the front door and it opens. Going up the stairs, Addison stumbles, grabs the banister, leaving fingerprints. They find Ferrell, dead, for as much as four days, which would make it Tuesday night. With Addison demanding the immediately call the police. Mason drives him to the spot where he picked up Veronica that night, and points out how he is involved, that Veronica would know he'd come from the house by the sound of his car negotiating the steep hill before turning on the highway. He tells Addison he's going to call Lorraine Ferrell, ask her if she's heard anything more from Edgar, mention the country house deal, the when she wants to go there, go with her. Leave his fingerprints all over downstairs before going upstairs and finding the body. The police won't be able to tell when the fingerprints were left, that night, or the night of the murder.
8.	Drake's night switchboard girl passes Mason on to Drake's office where, on the phone, Drake is giving Sergeant Holcomb a tip. When he hangs up, he asks Mason about forged checks. The police picked up Eric Hansell trying to forge a check, and the man finally broke down and said Mason gave it to him. The attorney suggests the detective go to the sheriff's office to check on Edgar Z Ferrell who was supposed to be on a vacation trip but whose wife Lorraine saw his car with another woman driving in town this afternoon. He's worried that Ferrell might have been the victim of a holdup. Mason calls Holcomb and is told that "Every time you get mixed into a case, Mason, there's something screwy about it." He expects Mason to stall, but instead he agrees to go to Headquarters directly. Perry explains to Paul that Lieutenant Tragg of Homicide is a square shooter and a smart man. Holcomb is a moron who will frame a prisoner if he thinks the man is guilty." At police headquarters he is welcomed by Holcomb but Hansell asks "What sort of a frame-up is this? "The sergeant explains that Hansell tried to cash a check with a traced signature. He then threatened the cops with what George Whittley Dundas could do to them, but Dundas said that he knew Hansell only slightly. He tried a different story. Mason suggests to Holcomb that he should check Hansell's fingerprints. Mason challenges Hansell to say what the check he says he got from him was for. Holcomb thinks it involves blackmail. Hansell now says Addison sent him to Mason and he'd finance his business deal involving manufacturer of a product Addison would sell, but he cannot identify manufacturer or product. Holcomb gets the record on Hansell, alias Hanover, alias Handwig, an extortionist. Hansell now says he only went to Addison for a loan. Again, his previous story was false. Mason suggests Holcomb call Addison before Hansell can reach him. Holcomb gets a call and tells Mason that Edgar Z Ferrell has been found dead, shot probably Tuesday evening. Mason asks Hansell where he was Tuesday night. Mason leaves with Holcomb speaking of blackmail and Hansell screaming he's not a murderer.
9.	The night watchman at the Treasure Chest admitted Mason, tells him that Mrs Ferrell awaits him but Addison is with the police. She notices how he quickly appraises her when she shows some leg. He explains how important it is in his profession to size people up quickly. He suggest the "best time to size [a prospective juror] is as he walks up to the jury box." She asks if she should walk, and does. She says her "husband bored [her] to distraction." She mistakenly married for money. She was tempted, but never cheated. She'll date, but not likely marry. She tells the lawyer that apparently Edgar use oil lights on the lower floor, took a lantern with him upstairs. The police figure the shot was from right beside where tire tracks have been found. They've found a woman's fingerprints all over the place. She thinks the murder works or worked in the department store. Mason's reasoning leads to the conclusion it was probably a married woman. She turned off the lamp after her irate husband shot Ferrell. Addison bursts in. Ferrell was shot with his gun, which he'd taught Edgar to use. It was found in a dry wash near the house, and there were no fingerprints. Mason says he shouldn't say one word, but he says he'll "have to explain some things." "Then you'll have to explain everything." He admits he can't do that, and Mason walks out.
10.	Drake is shaving and reading reports when Mason arrives at 8 am. He reports that the weapon that did the killing is a .38 and they've found a .38, which is Addison's. They cut out the glass with the bullet hole, which is clean-cut. There is a "wound of ingress, no exit wound." Holcomb is all worked u over Hansell, who is a blackmailer, but the whole thing is a frame-up. Mason wants more on Laura Mae Dale, but no clumsy work. Mason then tells Drake to listen carefully so he'll remember not so much what he says, but what he doesn't say. Hitchhiking Veronica impressed Addison "posing as a synthetic creation of cherubic innocence that was in vogue in the novels of the gay nineties." "He escorted her to the hotel, then tried to step out of her life." Then she gets arrested for vagrancy. Then her mother calls up and pays her fee. The mother wants to know if Veronica settles down, or "starts sowing a wild oat around." "Just one oat?" Drake asks, grinning. He tells Drake to get Addison to call Veronica to go to Della's.
11.	Tragg is seated in Della's chair when Mason enters. Holcomb is upset, and Hansell confessed to extortion claiming Mason forged the check. The bank says the check is a forgery. They now know Addison was at least near the murder scene.
12.	When Mason is taken in to Holcomb's by Tragg, he first says "Remember, Hansell, these people can't give you immunity. They . . ." Holcomb cuts him off. Hansell is told to talk. He says he can't make a living giving George Whittley Dundas bits of information, but the publicity he gets gives him "a chance to make a better shakedown." He stays around Headquarters, noticed a high-priced lawyer springing "a broad on a vag." Backtracking, he got to the hotel manager, then Dale, finally John Racer Addison, who sent him to Mason. The attorney slipped the forged check into his hat. Hansell then says the blonde was picked up ten or fifteen miles past Canyon Verde and was taken to the hotel. Tragg reminds him he's "getting immunity on a blackmail rap" because he blundered into a murder. Now the girls was picked up twenty miles beyond Canyon Verde, "just about opposite the place where the crime was committed" notes Tragg. Further, she sized up cars before facing the good ones as a hitchhiker. She heard Addison's car crossing a plank bridge and climbing a hill, which is the way out of the crime scene. Tragg suggest they take Veronica out to the culvert at night to see if she can identify the place she was picked up, but Holcomb, having just gotten a phone call is unenthusiastic. When he tries to pull Tragg back from arresting Mason, the lieutenant calls all this "a typical Mason trick." Holcomb restrains Tragg as Mason leaves. Back at his office, Della asks if Holcomb didn't get a call. "Hell, yes!" She explains, she got Addison to call and say the check was good! He laughs, then sends Della home to await Veronica.
13.	Mason goes to Della's. She says she had a short visit from Lorraine Ferrell, who is in love with Addison. As to Veronica, both are baffled by her sweet innocence act. She can't be "that dumb" is Della's attitude. Mason should have a witness, so they both go to Della's friend's apartment to see Veronica and Mason begins the questioning. She says she had been hitchhiking five days. There was no fun in her small rural town. She just took off. Her mother couldn't be following her, because she wouldn't know what direction she went. She had wolf trouble just before being picked up by Addison. She switched off the ignition, grabbed the keys, then got out of the car, tossed the keys back. She waited about forty-five minutes, worried the wolf might come back, then heard Addison's car. She remembered a car, possibly Addison's, backfiring four or five times. Tragg and Holcomb virtually knock the door down to get in and make Veronica a prosecution witness. When Mason and Street get back to her apartment it is unlocked. She cannot remember if it were latched, or not. Mason explains how the backfires followed the shooting; they were gunshots as the shooter emptied the gun, takes out the shells, throws the gun away, thinking this prevents the police from proving the gun is the murder weapon since they couldn't match the murder bullet with shells in the gun. A call from Drake warns Mason that Holcomb may try to frame him. They search the room, find six empty .38 calibre cartridges, where both Veronica and Lorraine sat, or where Holcomb planted them. Mason fashions a slingshot, wipes fingerprints off the cartridges, slings them out the window into an adjoining lot.
14.	The bank on which Laura Mae Dale's check to Mason was written has no account. Drake cannot find her. Della phones; the police took Veronica away, and no one has searched her apartment. A call for Drake reveals a neighbor to the country house heard gunshots at ten of nine. There's a young red-head, Merna Raleigh, at the department store who went to the house with Ferrell Friday night. Ferrell promised to put her in charge of the personnel department. Drake's operative, Frank Summerville, got her story before the police took her into hiding. Summerville says Raleigh had figured him for a detective, but she spilled her story. Ferrell wanted her at the country place Friday, between nine and ten, and drew her a map with distances and such on it. Now, the personnel department is run by a smart, forty-five-ish, woman, Myrtle C. Northrup, who is the company treasurer. She liked Ferrell's dad, but not Junior. Summerville is told by Drake to write a very detailed report. Gertie reports that Mrs Northrup left yesterday on her vacation. Mason tells Drake to find out about Laura Mae Dale; he smells a possible arrangement between Ferrell and the two Dales to get Addison in trouble.
15.	Newspaper reporters and spectators jam the courtroom as Judge Paul M Keetley enters, shortly followed by a bailiff with John Addison. Mason disrupts Hamilton Burger by calling for Veronica Dale to be produced or a continuance granted. Assistant prosecutor Carl B Knight whispers to Burger, and Burger assures the court she will be produced. He calls Charles Neffs to testify. He is the deputy sheriff who, with another deputy and Paul Drake, accompanied Lorraine Ferrell and John Addison to a farmhouse about midnight. On a map, he shows where he met Ferrell and Addison, and the route they took. Photos are introduced showing the site. At the house he found the body and a window with a round hole in it. A box with the window glass sealed between two sheets of plastic is produced. He says Addison said he'd been there only three weeks before, and he and Mrs Ferrell came out when she got worried about her husband. She knew nothing of his purchasing the farmhouse. Photographs are introduced of tire tracks. The are from two different times, but are identical. Mason asks about the glass; which is in, and which out, side? He cannot tell. What happened to the rest of the glass. It was used for tests, and is destroyed. The fingerprint expert found numerous prints, some as yet unidentified. Deputy sheriff Frank Parma testifies to finding a .38 revolver belonging to John Addison. Dr Parker C Loretto identifies the fatal bullet. George Malden says it matches a test bullet fired from Addison's gun. Mason asks him about the unidentified fingerprints and Burger argues Mason is not entitled to that police evidence. Eric Hensell is called, and testifies to meeting Addison in his office, was sent to Mason who gave him a check for $2000. Mason tricks him; was the check for being with the cutie, or for being on the road the night of the murder. Further, doesn't he have an agreement for immunity? Hasn't he been convicted of felonies? Four. Didn't he have an accomplice? Burger objects. Mason says he wants to know who the other woman was who was at the house.
16.	Mason tells the surrounding newsmen "There are the fingerprints of at least one mysterious woman in this murder house. There may be the prints of still another woman. Who are these women?" Drake grabs Mason's arm, whispers, "We've located the woman you wanted." His men found her in a little town in Indiana and have flown her to Los Angeles. They go to her room in the Rockaway. Two Drake operatives are watching her. They go into the bedroom, and meet the real Laura Mae Dale. She hasn't seen her daughter, whose " regular little vagabond," for over a year. The first time she left was four years before. She's twenty years old. Mason calls Burger, gets his secretary. Burger is heading home, won't let Mrs Dale see Veronica.
17.	Judge Keetley now sustain's Burger's objection. Mason asks Hansell how he got the information which allowed him to approach Addison. He relates noting Mason defending a babe charged with vagrancy, going to the hotel where the manager revealed the Addison connection. Burger admits Hansell is a blackmailer, but the name of the columnist is not relevant. Hansell tells the judge he needs the publishing outlet for clout. Mason admits the defendant paid this witness $2000. Keetly remarks to Burger about the witness's smug complacency, and Burger says there is personal antagonism between Counsel and witness. A matron now brings in Veronica Dale. She is "attired in a neat-fitting cream-colored tailored suit, which . . . gave her a virginal appearance of innocence, an angelic beauty. . ." Veronica states she's "Just eighteen." She doesn't "exactly have any residence" and blinks back tears. She testifies to getting a ride, identifies a photo of the culvert at which she was picked up, marks the spot on the map. She tells how she first heard the car and where it came from. Before hearing the motor, she heard six shots, one, then another, then four together. She relates how Addison picked her up, stopped at a service station to call ahead for a hotel room, took her there, "a perfect gentleman." Later, she got a job when he sent her to his personnel manager with his card. Mason begins his cross-examination. So she was living with her mother, then hitchhiked west, which took "as much as a week?" She guesses so. "Then you were at home with your mother in this restaurant up to a week before you first met Mr Addison." A long silence follows. Burger tries to defend her. The courts says it is fair cross-examination. Veronica asks for a glass of water. Burger rushes to her aid; "No, Veronica, don't overtax yourself." "'What's the matter with her?' Mason asked." "'What do you mean?' Burger roared at him." "'She seems to me to be a healthy young woman, some twenty years old,' Mason said. 'She certainly should be able to answer a question as to what time she left home. The way you're coddling her, I'm beginning to think there's something wrong with her.'" "'Well, there isn't!' Burger shouted." Mason gives Veronica a glass of water. Burger explodes with "Twenty years old!" He suggests Mason is throwing mud at an unspoiled, barely eighteen-year-old, young woman. Mason calmly waits for her to finish her water. When Burger protests further, the judge asks if he's checked her age, and Burger reasserts eighteen. Mason states twenty. The judge forces the issue, and Veronica finally admits she's twenty. "How long since you've last seen your mother?" Burger now interposes that the mother is in town, and Veronica should have "the comfort of her mother's presence." He prevented the two from getting together, then couldn't find the mother when he thought better. The judge has lost all sympathy with Veronica, and demands the question be answered. Veronica admits she hasn't seen her mother for about a year. Where has she been in the meantime? Burger objects; the past year is too much. Sustained. Mason asks her how she was on that road, how she got away from the wolf, then, what make of car and what was its license. Doesn't she keep a record of the licenses of the cars she rides in? A notebook? The judge agrees she must produce it. She keeps it "in case there should be any complications." But there were none with Addison. In the notebook, the last name and license are Addison, yet there are twenty-one others. The license of the wolf is not there. Mason reads out the number before Addison. Addison struggles to his feet; "That's the license number of Edgar Ferrell's automobile!" Mason suggest the fingerprints of Veronica be taken and compared to the unidentified ones. Mason points out that the fingerprint on Veronica's glass should match. Take the others. George Malden comes forth, takes the prints. Burger announces that they are the same. Veronica now tells her tale. She was in the farmhouse with Ferrell. She was working a racket with her hitchhiking. She make's her living that way. Men pick her up, give her five to fifty dollars to help out. At a gas station, Ferrell drove up, and she joined him. When they got to the house, where he was to be joined by some people for a short meeting, he heard a car. It was his wife, so he chased her outside. She circled back to his car to get her bag so the wife wouldn't find it. She didn't want to get messed up in domestic business, so left, wandered, got dirty, changed and cleaned up to be presentable. She didn't realize she was still close to the house. The shots were at least ten minutes before she got to the road; she cheated on the time to protect herself, and there was no wolf. She made eighty dollars, a typical day. The judge suggests a recess and that the story be checked, further, perjury must be considered.
18.	Mason, Street and Drake ponder the impossibilities. How did the murderer, outside the building, know Ferrell was dead? He asks for several legal studies books, reads. Comparing the photo from inside, showing the window, with the window photo revealing crack lines, he deduces which side of the pane is inside, and that the bullet hole was shot, not from outside, but inside! That still doesn't solve all the problems.
19.	At the court, a newsman warns Mason that Burger is going to ask for a continuance. When that happens, Mason objects, notes one week is not the legal two days. Mason recalls Hansell, asks him about his blackmailing technique. Doesn't he use a feminine accomplice, particularly Laura Mae Dale. No. Didn't he blackmail people Veronica had been able to maneuver into a compromising position. Burger objects, but Keetley overrules, warning that immunity was not given for these other blackmails. He cannot refuse to answer about the Addison blackmail. He admits Veronica got herself arrested for vagrancy to lay a base for blackmail, but he know's nothing about a woman who posed as Laura Mae Dale. Mason consents to a week's continuance. Driving back to his office Mason explains to Drake (and Della) the significance of dates. Ferrell was putting across a big business deal in the country house. Lorraine Ferrell went out the night of the murder, had a row with her husband. Only Veronica and Lorraine could have left the empty cartridges at Della's. Mrs Ferrell is also in love with Addison. Mason notes Ferrell went fishing, but Drake realizes it is not trout fishing season. Two weeks, back just in time for the annual stockholder's meeting in which he and Addison each hold 40% of the stock. Mason says he tried to reach the treasurer, Myrtle C Northrup, the only other person to attend the meetings, with proxies, and she is on a two-week vacation. Now, how did the false Laura Mae Dale know so much accurate, as well as erroneous, information about Veronica? And why did Veronica and Hansell need this woman? They didn't is Mason's conclusion. All she got was a receipt, her check was no good. She gave him a defense for Addison's blackmail! Northrup is loyal to Addison, notes Drake. Ferrell's red-headed chick was promised Northrup's job, so Ferrell was going to fire her. "Or promote her" is Mason's comment, "so her job would be vacant.
20.	Mason, Street and Drake go to Northrup's apartment, and find the false Laura Mae Dale. Mason explains that only she, in charge of personnel, could have known true facts about Veronica, as well as the wrong ones given by her. She admits that she did what she did to help Addison, having overheard the blackmailer. When Mason tells her that her fingerprints are at the house, she give up. She played the ponies, lost, dipped into company funds, got caught by Ferrell. In order to avoid prosecution, she had to throw in with Ferrell and get other stockholders to do likewise, including Merna Raleigh who inherited stock from her mother. When she went to the house with her boyfriend Thomas P Barrett, they passed Mrs Ferrell coming out, though at that time she didn't know it was her. Tom stayed in the car. She went in. Ferrell was to have returned a confession he'd made her write, but now his wife had seen Veronica and was going to divorce him. The only thing he could do was show his wife the confession and explain the deal they hoped to pull off to get control of the company. She grabbed the gun from the top of his suitcase, they wrestled, the gun went off and a bullet went through the window. Her coat was over her wrist. When he twisted her hand, her finger was twisted against the trigger, and the gun fired through her coat, so there were no powder burns on his face. She drove his car to Las Vegas, flew back. She was "terribly angry at the smug hypocrisy of that baby-faced little bitch." When she overheard Hansell, she knew the blonde hussy was in with blackmailers. She wanted to confront Veronica, then realized she had the shells, which, for a tip to the chambermaid, she was able to put in Veronica's suitcase, figuring the police would give her a shakedown. Mason then notes Veronica realized what the shells were, planted them in Della's apartment.
21.	Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake are at a lunch counter in a drugstore, Mason tells what the significant clues were. Only one woman could have had the information on Veronica. Then the coincidence of Ferrell's and Northrup's vacations. It wouldn't have happened if he hadn't fallen for the police theory that the shot was fired from outside the window.

Perry Mason	Señora Inocente Miguerinio	Gertie
Virginia Colfax, aka . . .	Alman Bell Hackley	Mrs Irving
Janitor	A Mexican boy named Pancho	San Diego County Deputy Sheriff
Bull-necked man	Crowd at crime scene	D A Hamlin L Covington
Bystanders	Drake's tail on Ethel	Deputy D A Samuel Jarvis
Drake's night receptionist	Oceanside deputy sheriff	Lawyers, spectators, courtroom attaches
Edward Charles Garvin	Frank L Bynum	Bailiff
Ethel Carter	Crowd scene individual	Judge Harrison E Minden
Lorraine Evans	Witness	Court Clerk
Goldmining friends of Drake	. . . aka Virginia C Bynum	Oceanside Chief of Police
Friend of the goldminers	Sergeant Holcomb	Surveyor
George L Denby	Stockholder Smith	Autopsy surgeon
Frank C Livesey	Lieutenant Tragg	A friend
Book club friend of Ethel	Hackley's Nevada foreman	La Jolla hotel manager
Monolith Apartments desk clerk	Hackley's broker	Howard B Scanlon
Elevator operator	Rolando C Lomax	Carl Otis
District attorney Stockton	Mortimer C Irving	Monolith apartments switchboard operator

The original Willliam Morrow & Company publication is dedicated to Mrs Frances G Lee, Captain, New Hampshire State Police, and One of the Few Women Who Ever Kept Perry Mason Guessing.

1.	Parry Mason, tired from the day's work, had turned out the lights in his office. Just before the lights in the office above clicked on, a graceful, feminine foot, then another, appear on the fire escape from above. Fresh wind lifted her skirts. Mason helps her into his office through the window. She cautions him to not turn on the lights. Mason next ask what, metallic, was in her hand. A flashlight. Not a gun? Mason frisks her nicely-shaped body. She says she's employed upstairs in the Garvin Mining, Exploration and Development Company. Her employer asked her to come back and work that evening, then didn't show. She had stepped on to the fire escape the night was so nice, with the lights off. Then his wife arrive, so she hid down the fire escape. She is Miss Virginia Colfax. Mason offers to escort her to her car. On the way out, she says she didn't have to register, because visitors to the Drake Detective Agency are not required to do so. The janitor takes them to the main floor. Outside, she slaps Mason and runs to a taxi, as a bull-necked man restrains him in view of many bystanders. Mason then searches the alley for the flashlight/gun, finds none. He goes to Drake's, asks the night receptionist for Paul, leaves instructions, returns to his office. He finds "a handkerchief grimed with dirt that might have come off the fire escape" embroidered with "V."
2	Mason wins his argument before the State Supreme Court, returns to his office where he is greeted by Della Street, who shows him the newspaper Gossip Column which reveals the whole previous evening's escapade. He then explains what is not in the paper. Della recognizes Ciro's Surrender perfume on the handkerchief. A Mr Garvin is waiting to see Mason. He enters, impatient. He's been remarried six weeks. His was a Mexican divorce. Ten years ago he married Ethel Carter. Now, since he remarried, she's become a hellcat. Mason describes Colfax, and he doesn't recognize the person. When he separated from Ethel, he gave her a New Mexican mine. From there, she wrote she was getting a Reno divorce, but didn't. When he met Lorraine Evans, he went to Mexico where a lawyer said he could establish residence. There he got a Mexican divorce and married Lorrie. Now Ethel wants him. Mason asks if he knows his wife was at his office the previous night. No.
3.	Drake reports on Garvin. Marriage to Ethel Carter, two affairs, marriage to Lorraine Evans. He picks up mines, prospects, turns the good ones over to the Edward Charles Garvin Company which turns them over to the Garvin Mining, Exploration and Development Company for fat profits. He is not a member of the board of directors, has less than controlling stock, but as manager collects a fat salary and bonus based on profits. Paul reports that, through goldmining friends who led him to their friend, a stockholder, he learned of a second proxy solicitation with voting rights given to E C Garvin, holder of Certificate Number 123. Later Mason notes to Della that E C Garvin might be Ethel Carter Garvin. Della finds that Garvin is on a second honeymoon, and cannot be reached. Della gets Garvin company secretary/treasurer George L Denby to come in. Denby doesn't give direct answers. To give Mason answers, he needs authorization from president Frank C Livesey. Della gets his number, and he agrees to come to see Mason.
4.	Livesey is forward, tho hesitant to get anyone in trouble. He talked with Denby before seeing Mason. He says Ethel C Garvin is the E C Garvin of stock certificate 123. If she gets control, "She'd wreck the whole damn Business." Drake phones in that he's found Ethel, through a book club friend. Drake is told to put a twenty-four hour tail on her. Livesey doesn't recognize Colfax, either. As he leaves, Della calls him a "God's gift to women" type. Now Drake is told to find Garvin.
5.	The Monolith Apartments desk clerk calls 624, then sends Mason up to Mrs Ethel Garvin. The elevator operator prefers to read, eventually guides the elevator to six. Mrs Garvin is curious why he is concerned about the proxy, is taken aback when he says a detective found her, then is concerned when she finds he is an attorney. Is she planning to take over the company? She only says her husband will get paid back as he gave out. She calls the district attorney, says she wants to take out a complaint against her bigamous husband. District attorney Stockton doesn't want to get into Mexican divorces, but gives her a next-day appointment. Mason warns her he'll find out about her. She wishes she'd retained him before Edward id.
6.	Edward C Garvin is looking at the moonlight over the Pacific with his wife Lorrie. He's in a romantic mood; she's hungry. The go into town for dinner, and Mason finds them. He's not interested in business, so Mason comes out with the fact that his "wife has sent out a flock of proxies in her own name." Lorraine corrects with "His former wife." Mason counters that. Mason explains Ethel's ploy. If he goes to the meeting, he'll be arrested for bigamy.
7.	They go to Tijuana, where Ed and Lorrie are legally married. Mason tells Ed where his wife is. Then they go to the Hotel Vista de la Mesa, where Señora Inocente Miguerinio arranges two rooms for them. They get their things from their separate cars, but Garvin doesn't leave his key with the front desk as requested. Mason calls Drake. He reports that Mrs Garvin met an Alman Bell Hackley at a dude ranch. Six weeks, seven, eight, ten, she didn't file for divorce. Then Hackley left, bought property near Oceanside. As they are talking, Drake gets the address. Mason reports to Garvin his findings. He discovers he left his automatic pencil in the phone booth. When he finds it, he hears a woman in the adjacent phone booth thru thin partitions.
8.	A tapping on his door awakens Mason. It is a Mexican boy. "Telefono." It is Drake. His man lost Ethel Garvin. He went to check a license plate and Ethel came out, grabbed a taxi and was off before he could start his car. The desk clerk says she asked for change; a long distance phone call. Mason checks the parking lot; the Mexican boy Pancho is given a tip, and asked to find him if another call comes in. It does; Drake reports his man found Ethel, shot dead, the gun outside her car. He's sent Della to Oceanside, and his operative has done things so the police will be slow in acting. Mason gives Pancho another tip, to give a message to Garvin, and money to pay his bill.
9.	Mason arrives at the crime scene. Drake's man comes to him. One shell was fired from a .38 Smith and Wesson and the other chambers are filled. The ignition switch was off, the headlights off, the gas tank full. No one in town remembers servicing the car. Della joins them. Drake's man continues. The area was a necking place. The Oceanside deputy sheriff calls Drake's man over and Mason sends Della to the airport, phones Drake, who says the gun was purchased by Frank L Bynum. Mason has noted that the windshield of Ethel's car is spattered with dead bugs, indicating it wasn't cleaned when she gassed up, which means she fueled up at a ranch gasoline pump. At the airplane, Della says Ethel was probably wearing a hat when she drove down, but not where she was murdered. A person in the crime scene crowd said a witness in a nearby house saw the car's lights on for five or ten minutes. The pilot takes them into the plane. Back in Los Angeles Della gets the gun information. Bynum gave the gun to his sister. Mason tells Della to call Garvin, get a list of loyal stockholders, then tell him he must stay in Mexico. Mason goes to the Dixieland Apartment Hotel, finds the button for V C Bynum. When the apartment door opens, Virginia Colfax meets the attorney. They argue about the gun. She says it was stolen, he says she had it in her hand on the fire escape. She admits she was spying on the Garvin Mining, Exploration and Development Company because her "mother has every cent of her money invested in that company and [she] was afraid something was going wrong." She asked Denby about the proxies, was shown the first, not the revised one her mother had as signed. She got the idea of using the Drake Detective Agency as a foil to get in to the building without signing-in. She wanted to look at the proxy file, but Denby was in the office all night long. She then admits she didn't throw the gun away, but put it on to the fire escape; it was not there when she went back to get it. After loud knocks, Sergeant Holcomb bursts into the room.
10.	Drake reports. Hackley will be a tough nut. Mrs Garvin was killed about one o'clock. She left her apartment at ten-nineteen. The police think she was killed elsewhere, taken where she was found, where another car was already parked. The driver stepped directly into the adjacent car, pulled Ethel Garvin into the driver's position and drove off. The gun can be traced to Garvin. The day after Mason caught Bynum, Garvin was looking out the window, called Denby over, then Livesey, who retrieved the gun. Livesey then put it in Garvin's car's glove compartment. Paul reports the police checked on Denby who was apparently dictating all night, which fits with Bynum's statement. Garvin, on the phone, asks Mason why he left without waking him up. Mason warns him to stay in Mexico, that loyal stockholders will prevent a takeover. Garvin tells how Livesey put the gun in his car. He checks the car; it is gone. Lorraine says she didn't see it in there when she got him his sun glasses.
11.	Back at the Vista de la Mesa Mason tells Garvin a guy named Smith started a revolt at the stockholder's meeting but it amounted to nothing; the same board of directors was appointed and he was employed s general manager. The then tell this to Lorrie. Garvin is still a bigamist in the states. The murder is described. Mason double checks that Garvin slept through the night. Lorrie states that she heard the hotel clock strike one, and three, and Ed was there. She reasserts that the gun was not there in the glove compartment. It could have been taken out while they were splitting a beer. The hear Señora Miguerinio chatting with someone, giving him the history of the place. He is upset when, asking for Garvin, he is told that Perry Mason is with him and his wife. It is Lieutenant Tragg, who suggests Garvin return to L A to arrange the funeral. Mason interpolates that he'd be arrested on a bigamy complaint. Tragg offers that it was not suicide, that the victim was in the right seat when shot. The murder might even have been committed in L A, then the car driven to Oceanside. It was a one-man job. Tragg wants Garvin back in L A. Mason resists on account of the bigamy charge. Tragg claims he can get Garvin back the hard way on the bigamy charge. Mason points out that under California law, any marriage that is legal in another state is also legal there, and since Mexico recognizes its divorce, the marriage is legal. Garvin was, until this morning, legally married to two women. Mexico won't extradite him. Lorraine chimes in that even if Garvin took the gun, he couldn't have used it, because he was with her, all night. She heard the clock chimes. Tragg takes Garvin's fingerprints.
12.	Mason and Street take a limousine to San Diego where Mason calls Drake, then on to the Oceanside airport where they retrieve their cars. They go to dinner and are joined by Drake for dessert. They go to Hackley's, where a dog bristles at their arrival. Mason talks to the dog, walks to the door and rings the bell. Eventually Hackley arrives, tries to send Mason away until the morning. Mason mentions Ethel Garvin, and the rancher slams the door as the attorney says she was murdered and got gasoline at his place. He lets Mason in, but denies even knowing who Ethel Garvin is. Della is called over, but as soon as Drake puts a foot on the ground the dog's growl sends him back to the car. Hackley orders the dog to stay down, then escorts Drake in to the house. Mason forces the issue regarding Ethel, suggesting Hackley told her to not get a divorce so that eventually they could get a big settlement. Ethel visited him the previous night, and was murdered just down the road. He calls the Oceanside police, thinking Mason is bluffing, learns otherwise. His story is that he never married because settled domesticity doesn't appeal to him. Women liked him, Ethel especially so. He didn't want to hurt her, so he pulled up, left his Nevada place in care of his foreman, came to Oceanside with absolutely no one knowing, bought the ranch that his broker had found. He then ushers the trio out. As they leave, Mason notes the dog had to be brought from Nevada. Maybe neighbor Rolando C Lomax heard him around one o'clock. Lomax says he checked his watch a bit after the dog started barking, and it was twelve twenty-four. Lights came on, soon the dog stopped barking. Hackley is a city type, not friendly. No, he didn't notice any car. When the three are outside, Della shows that she swiped a woman's scarf from Hackley's. It smells of Virginia Bynum's perfume. Then Della pulls out a small woman's hat; Ethel was wearing a hat when she left her apartment, but not when found murdered. Perhaps both women were at Hackley's.
13.	Mason is reasoning with Della. Bynum couldn't have been the on at Hackley's at 12:24 because she was on the fire escape all night. Della is concerned about Livesey; he's "conceited, vain and . . . cruel." Drake arrives with news. A Mortimer C Irving was returning to Oceanside from a poker game, saw and investigated "a big light or tan-colored convertible" parked at the side of the road with its bright lights on. He got home at 12:50. Gertie interrupts with a phone call from Mrs Garvin. She explains how her husband was tricked into crossing the border. She's at a San Diego hotel, and the police want their car. Mason tells her to get tough with the police, refuse to ride with them, say she'll go to the hotel, and when she returns they can have the car. Now Mason plans; he figures the police will take Garvin's car, park it at the crime scene, take Irving there and convince him that's the car he saw. So Mason will put his car there and show it to Irving first! Drake won't cooperate, for he's afraid of losing his license.
14.	Mrs Irving tells Mason her husband got home at ten to one. He's at the filling station. Mason finds him there, offers to pay for his time. Mason gives him a twenty (which covers his fifteen lost gambling) for his time, ten for the other man on duty, and five for the boy at the washrack. They go to where Mason has left his tan convertible, and Irving thinks this is the car he saw, but asks to view it from the other direction. After that, Mason asks him if he can read the license, and he does. When he returns to his car, the San Diego County Deputy Sheriff has arrived with Garvin's, and Holcomb is incensed at Mason's trick. When Mason asks what they are doing with Garvin's car, they say they are looking for fingerprints. Mason leaves with the parting shot that Garvin has a perfect alibi.
15.	San Diego County District Attorney Hamlin L Covington is warned by his deputy Samuel Jarvis that Mason is dangerous. They are gloating at what they have to throw at the great shyster attorney. They are having the Bar Association cite him for the automobile-identification trick. Lawyers, spectators and courtroom attaches fill the courtroom when Judge Harrison E Minden is announced by the bailiff. Jarvis begins impaneling a jury as the Court Clerk calls names. Covington becomes suspicious as Mason asks only vague questions, and Jarvis's and his searching questions leave the jurors believing they want a hand-picked jury, while Mason trusts the jurors. Covington, angered, takes the opening statement away from Jarvis, almost says too much. When he brings up the bigamy, Mason objects that this is an attempt to discredit the defendant and constitutes prejudicial misconduct. Minden agrees. Covington is flustered, says the defendant committed a "dastardly, premeditated, cold-blooded murder." Mason's opening deflates the opposition; "If the court please, and ladies and gentlemen of the jury . . . He can't prove it." Covington calls Drake's man to testify to finding the body. Next, the Oceanside Chief of Police testifies to finding the body and calling in others to help. Expecting Mason to object, they ask what tire "tracks show in regard to two cars having been parked parallel to each other?" When Mason doesn't object the judge has the question repeated. Bit by bit on cross-examination Mason destroy's the Chief's story. How did the tracks show the other car was waiting? The Chief has to eventually admit he was mistaken. A bailiff gives Mason the citation from the Bar Association and Covington and Jarvis privately gloat, but Mason shows no concern. A surveyor produces maps and diagrams. The autopsy surgeon and a friend identify the body. It is time for adjournment. The prosecutors gleefully believe they'll knock the wind out of Mason tomorrow.
16.	Back in court the prosecution brings in the charges of bigamy, introducing documents, and Mason does not object. Virginia Bynum says she left the gun on the fire escape, Livesey tells of bringing it in and putting it in the glove compartment. Denby tells of the gun being brought in and handed to Garvin; he remembered the number with his photographic memory. The La Jolla hotel manager tells of the Garvins' hasty departure. Mason cuts off Covington's drama by admitting he was the third person at the hotel. Señora Inocente Miguerinio testifies to the Garvins staying at her hotel. Howard B Scanlon, a painter, was at the Hotel Vista de la Mesa, trying to phone his wife about ten-ten. He heard Garvin in the adjacent phone booth call Edith Garvin, suggest they meet in Oceanside. He told her he had a lot on her and a man who has a ranch in Oceanside. Mason draws Scanlon out, showing he was coached by the District Attorney, that the lights were dim and Garvin was walking away from him so he didn't see his face, yet under bright lights and the D A's coaching and Garvin the only one in the room, he took several minutes to identify him when he saw him for less than four seconds at the hotel. Mason orders Garvin to smile as the court adjourns for lunch. In the hall, Señora Miguerinio has a clock which the D A wants for evidence; it strikes chimes during the day, but not at night!
17.	Paul, Perry and Della discuss the latest bombshell. Mason notes that Señora Miguerinio may have forgotten to shut off the chimes that night. Drake's operative brings the news that the D A has a witness who put gas and oil in Garvin's car in Oceanside around eleven-thirty. Mason thinks he can beat the Bar Association charge.
18.	Mason speaks to Garvin before court reconvenes. Lorraine lied. He did go to meet Ethel, but she didn't show. He went to Hackley's, but got scared away by the dog. Ethel's car came out of Hackley's drive. Later, when he got to his car, he found Ethel's car and her, dead. Covington calls Irving. He testifies to seeing a car at twelve-fifty that was very similar to Garvin's. Mason asks him about his encounter with his car and gets him to admit he thinks the car he saw was Mason's, but he's been led to realize how impossible it would be to make such an identification . . . by Covington. Carl Otis, a gas station attendant, testifies to servicing Garvin's car around midnight in Oceanside. Mason gets him to admit he saw Garvin head towards Los Angeles, and did not see him return as he was off duty from midnight. Had he gone to L A and not returned until three, he would not know it. This worries Covington, that Garvin might have an L A alibi he doesn't know about. Court adjourns. Mason thinks Irving is an honest witness, looks at his car, and finds a brownish stain on a rubber mat. He conjectures that Lorraine Garvin could have driven his car up to Oceanside, killed Ethel Garvin, and beat Edward Garvin back to the hotel. The gun was in the glove compartment, and Lorraine took it out and put it in her purse.
19.	But Lorraine vehemently denies it, says she's getting her own lawyer, sweeps out. Then Mason gets an idea. Off he, Paul and Della go to Tijuana. They check with Señora Miguerinio as to who rented the last room, and made a phone call to Los Angeles. It was a Miss Virginia Colfax who, at nine fifty-five called Frank Livesey.
20.	Garvin is livid with Mason trying to frame his wife. Mason tells him to "Shut up." Before Covington can call his witness, Mason asks to recall Frank Livesey, first gets him to admit knowing Virginia Bynum, then forcing him to admit to a conversation at nine fifty-five the night of the murder, with Bynum in Tijuana. When asked if he instructed Bynum to take his, Mason's, car and drive it to Oceanside, he remains silent, then refuses to answer on the ground that it would incriminate him. The court recesses for fifteen minutes.
21.	Livesey has seen counsel, and refuses to answer any questions. Covington calls it a cheap frame-up. Mason demands he prove that. Covington elaborates until Mason warns him he'll be held personally responsible. Covington asks a fur-day adjournment. Mason agrees only if he can first recall George Denby. Denby restates that he was working all night the night of the murder. He doesn't know Bynum except for her request to see a stock certificate. Denby identified the gun from its number by way of his photographic memory. Mason gives him his own driving license, asks Denby some questions which require him to look carefully at the document. He takes it away, then asks what is the number and Denby gets it right. Mason springs his trap; "if you have such a photographic memory for numbers how does it happen that when I first asked you, you were unable to remember who it was that owned Certificate Number 123 in the corporation?"
22.	Mason, with Drake and Street, confront Bynum at her hotel. She can no longer claim to have been on the fire escape all night. She fell for Livesey because she's a party girl and Frank give lots of parties. He and Denby had been looting the company and the latter would juggle the books whenever an audit was imminent. Then they got suspicious that someone was tampering with corporation files, so they got her to wait in the fire escape. She discovered that it was Ethel Garvin and followed her to the Monolith Apartments. She reported this to Livesey and Denby, who got the apartment switchboard operator to listen in to her phone calls. They learned of her substitute proxies and had reason to believe she knew of a cash shortage. They stationed her at the border to see if Garvin and his new wife would cross. They did, followed by Mason, and she followed them in a taxi. Mason knew her, Garvin didn't, but she waited until everyone was in bed, then rented the last room. She phoned Livesey. When Garvin went out and drove off in his car, she had to act fast. She got Mason's keys out of the desk, took his car to Oceanside, parked near Garvin who was outside Hackley's. Then Ethel Garvin drove in to Hackley's, soon followed by Denby. He came to her, borrowed her, Mason's, car while she took his and went to Hackley's place. She saw Hackley filling Ethel's gas tank, then saw Garvin sneaking up. She went back to Oceanside where Denby, "very nervous and excited" told her to drive Mason's car fast back to Tijuana to beat Garvin, then in the morning fly back to Los Angeles. There she should claim to have been on the fire escape and assert he was dictating all night. Mason explains, grinning, to Paul that Denby killed Ethel while he had his car. He'd been arranging his alibi a long time, dictating as he could, since nothing identifies when a cylinder was recorded. Perry has Della inform the Bar Association secretary that it was his car from which the murder was committed.

Perry Mason	Burglar	Pete Brady
Della Street	Gardener	Sidney Elmo
Major Claude L Winnett	Nurse Helen Custer	Oklahoma trailer owner
Marcia Winnett	The handyman	Rental car agent
Mrs Victoria Winnett	Harry Drummond	Butler
Daphne Rexford	Tall brunette, aka Mrs Drummond	Sergeant Dorset

The placing of this in the canon of Perry Mason murder mysteries is problematic. It is copyright 1947, two years before The Case of the Cautious Coquette, but it is a novelette, only eleven chapters long. It was printed with The Case of the Cautious Coquette originally, and reissued as if original in 1971 as one of three posthumous Erle Stanley Gardner Perry Mason novelettes, along with, The Case of the Crimson Kiss (copyright a year earlier in 1947), and The Case of the Irate Witness, another novelette, copyright 1953 by Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. Then followed two full posthumous novels, The Case of the Fenced-In Woman and The Case of the Postponed Murder.

One advantage of a novelette is the short cast of characters, with fewer opportunities for Gardner to suggest wild goose chases for us.

1.	Perry Mason is reading a state supreme court decision when Della Street places ten one-hundred-dollar bills on his desk. They go unnoticed until she announces the caller's name is "Mr Cash." Della remembers, she's seen his picture. He's Major Claude L Winnett, millionaire playboy, recently married. Major Winnett, now identified, comes in and gives Mason a letter in which his wife, Marcia, says she's leaving him because "there are some things that I cannot drag you into." He says his "marriage was not exactly in accordance with the wishes of [his] mother." She lives "in a bygone era," in which he should marry within his own set, such as Daphne Rexford. Tuesday night a burglar entered the house and jewelry valued at thirty thousand dollars, once insured for fifteen, has disappeared. The policy was canceled the day before the burglary, which has not been reported to the police. He was wakened by crying swallows, the birds having built a nest on the balcony where they were disturbed by the burglar who climbed up a ladder. Normally the gardener knocks down the nests before eggs are laid. There is a nurse in the house, Helen Custer, because of his mother's heart condition. They agree for Mason, Street and Paul Drake to go to the Winnett estate, as people he's consulting on mining.
2.	The Winnett estate occupied most of a peninsula in the city of Silver Strand Beach. Mason tells Drake that it rained Sunday night, so he might follow tracks of the horse on the bridle path. Della is assigned the nurse. Major Winnett shows Mason the balcony and Swallow's nest. The ladder was left by a handyman; since the servants are well-paid, the Major doesn't worry about an inside job. Mason is certain it is an opportunist. There is a public camp at the end of the peninsula. Since it can be seen from the house, the house can be seen from there. Up in "the tower," binoculars are found turned to be aimed at a "shaded spot." The right eye is negative five diopters. Mason sets this to zero, sees Drake leading his horse along the bridle path.
3.	Mason, alone, goes to Winnett's bedroom, then the nest. Over swallow protests, he reaches in the nest, pulls out "an emerald and diamond brooch." A leather gun case in a closet gives up a shotgun, the barrels of which are holding "rings, earrings, brooches, and a diamond and emerald necklace." On his way out he encounters Mrs Victoria Winnett, who questions the presence of a murder trial lawyer at her home.
4.	Della catches Mason in the patio. She thinks the nurse is in love with the Major, keeps herself looking plain to avoid being sacked. She has found a piece of paper in the tower with numbers in a column 5"5936, 6"8102, 7"9835, 8"5280, 9"2640 and 10"1320, then a line and 49"37817. The last three are feet in a mile, half, and quarter. Drake reports following the tracks to a fence and locked gate. Outside there was a place where a car parked, but three right wheels. Mason asks about a circular spot, eight or ten inches in diameter. A car and trailer, with bucket for waste water.
5.	They look for garbage, find it, noting someone is watching them from the tower. No fresh vegetables, flattened cans. An outdoorsman. They find a cash register receipt. Mason tells Drake to go to town and set up office. What if " is not inches, but ditto marks? The total is not right, but the difference is 4"4704.
6.	Mason checks out the tower. The right eyepiece has been reset to negative five diopters. He is discovered by Mrs Winnett and Daphne Rexford, a brunette in riding clothes, who watches birds from the tower. Mason joins the Major, to whom he shows the brooch he took from the swallow's nest. Drake reports by phone the tracing of the cash register receipt to Harry Drummond, who is also being chased by a tall brunette. Mason waits a while after Drake hangs up, hears a click. The Major says there are five extensions, including the tower.
7.	Drake's headquarters. The license of Drummond's Buick is 4E4705. Versus 4"4704. They are interrupted by Mrs Drummond. She hasn't seen her husband of a year for two months, wants to pool information. He doesn't want to give her anything in a settlement. He was involved in a mining swindle. After she leaves, Drake suggests she's covering Drummond's back trail. The trailer and Buick have been located. They drive to a Silver Strand Trailer Camp, where agent Pete Brady awaits them. Sidney Elmo runs the place. They interview an Oklahoma trailer owner, then move on to their quarry, in which they find a man dead for some time. Mason notices a bullet hole. They return to Oklahoma, who noticed a young woman there at night, redhead, checkered suit, in a rented car. Marcia Winnett, says Mason. Her car backfired.
8.	It takes a while before Drake finds Mrs Drummond. The rental car agent said the woman identified herself as Edith Bascom, and he checked it. Mason goes to the hotel, go to Bascom's room, get no answer. Mason helps Della look thru the transom. She sees a "terribly still" woman. They get the chambermaid to admit them, find Marcia having taken a heavy dose of sleeping pills. They nurse her back to consciousness, learn that Drummond was her first husband after going over how she arranged the theft, putting jewelry into the swallow's nest, leaving a piece behind accidentally, trying to use this to pay off the man. She was surprised to find him in the trailer. She can't remember. Mason has Street take her to a private hospital in Los Angeles, tell them she has amnesia, and get out.
9.	Mason confronts Mrs Winnett who bluffs. "You're a good poker player . . . This is a showdown." He suggests she "found out something about Marcia . . . involved the family good name" and she tried to avoid notoriety. He catches Daphne Rexford listening, She was the one using the binoculars, for she has a bad right eye. He catches her into admitting she watched Marcia at the trailer. The butler answers the phone, Mrs Winnett speaks to Claude, and Mason takes the phone and tells the Major to get there at once.
10.	The Major wants to fire Mason but is caught off guard when the attorney says he put the jewels in the shotgun. Mason suggests he saw the trailer a second time, on Wednesday, went to it and killed Drummond. Marcia followed him, thought he'd killed Drummond. Then he hired a lawyer "who specialized in murder cased, because [he[ knew there was going to be a murder case." When he parked the trailer, he failed to see that the bullet hold now aligned with a window. The Major takes Mason to his room. He saw Marcia go to the trailer Wednesday, but was told about Monday. He went to the trailer, found the man dead, and the jewelry. He took the jewelry, after dark moved the trailer to the park. To throw the police off, he fired two shots in the air. Mason gets a connection; the addition didn't equal 4E4705, but 4E4704; the calls Drake to find that car. At the hotel, they find Helen Custer. She can be an accessory to murder, or just a blackmailer, her choice. She wanted to open a beauty shop, thought Mrs Harry Drummond would help. Mason figures that the only way Mrs Drummond could get money was to "put the heat on Marcia" who was "too conscientious " to ask her husband for the money. So she staged a fake burglary, gave the jewels to Drummond, whose second wife thought they were hot, wrestled with him and shot, probably in self-defense.
11.	Sergeant Dorset receives photos of Marcia Winnett from Mason and Drake. He is skeptical about the amnesia story; he has a report of Mrs Winnett's nurse reporting the murder of a man named Drummond.. Mrs Drummond, when picked up, said it was self-defense and she was being blackmailed by the nurse. There must be a connection with Marcia Winnett. Mason notices the "murder case is county" and Dorset notices that "the amnesia case is city." Neither police force will meddle with the other. Dorset orders "the amnesia case" to be brought up to Mason.

Fay Allison	Paul Drake	Barney Sheff
Anita Bonsal	Doctor	Caroline Manning Grover
Dane Grover	Woman in 701, aka . . .	Judge Randolph Jordan
Aunt Louise Marlow	Three men (Richard P Nolin, Manley L Ogden and Don B Ralston) and a woman (Vera Payson)	Stewart Linn
Carver L Clements	Radio officer	Dr Charles Keene
Taxicab driver	Lieutenant Tragg	Benjamin Harlan
Drake's night operator	Police detective	. . . aka Shirley Tanner
Della Street	Marline Austine Clements	Elevator attendant
Perry Mason

The placing of this in the canon of Perry Mason murder mysteries is problematic. It is copyright 1948, the year before The Case of the Cautious Coquette, but it is a novelette, only eleven chapters long. It was printed with The Case of the Crying Swallow originally, and reissued as if original in 1971 as one of three posthumous Erle Stanley Gardner Perry Mason novelettes, along with, The Case of the Crying Swallow (copyright another year earlier in 1947), and The Case of the Irate Witness, another novelette, copyright 1953 by Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. Then followed two full posthumous novels, The Case of the Fenced-In Woman and The Case of the Postponed Murder.

One advantage of a novelette is the short cast of characters, with fewer opportunities for Gardner to suggest wild goose chases for us. There is only one real character who has nothing to do with the crime, but certainly seems to know who might, in this novelette.

1.	"PREOCCUPATION with her own happiness prevented Fay Allison from seeing the surge of bitter hatred in Anita's eyes." Fay is going to marry Dale Grover tomorrow; he'd first been the beau of Anita Bonsal. Fay is awaiting the arrival of her Aunt Louise. Anita is going out on a date, but actually goes up one flight to the secret apartment of Carver L Clements, who takes her much to cavalierly. She challenges him to commit immediately, but he hedges, worrying his wife will find out and hit him for higher alimony. Clements sends her to wait in his "big, luxurious sedan equipped with every possible convenience." She waits five, then ten minutes, then returns to his apartment, 702. She finds him, "dressed for the street . . . lying sprawled on the floor . . . The print of half-parted lips flared in gaudy crimson from the front of his bald head." She makes certain that the rich playboy is dead, returns to Fay. She prepares a drugged chocolate which causes Fay to fall into deep sleep. She returns to Clements' apartment, puts Fay's clothes, tooth brush and such where her clothes had until then been. Then she returned to her and Fay's apartment, drugs herself to sleep.
2.	Louise Marlow arrives at the Mandrake Arms Apartments earlier than expected, by airplane and taxicab, in the middle of the night, at one o'clock. She takes the elevator to the sixth floor, uses her key to enter Fay's apartment, finds her and Anita unconscious. She gets Anita to semi-consciousness, learns the two girls "drank chocolate," and phones the night operator at the Drake Detective Agency to get Della Street. Della returns the call, says she'll get a doctor over right away; she's been night clubbing with Perry Mason and Paul Drake.
3.	Perry and Della are met by Louise Marlow, who explains the scheduled marriage to Dane, and the drugged chocolate. When Mason suggests that the chocolate cups are evidence, Louise erupts. She doesn't want the police involved. Mason has the girls go through the purses. The doctor reports that the girls will be okey. Della finds a key to 702 in Fay's purse. They go to 702, and the buzzer wakes the woman in 701 who protests their noise-making. Perry and Della quickly duck into 702, find the dead Clements. A glass has rolled along the carpet, another is standing empty on a table. They retreat into the hall just as three men and a woman arrive from the elevator. They go to 702, and the woman in 701 comes out to complain again about the buzzer. The four leave when they hear 702 has company. Mason, now in the lobby, phones Marlow to get the two women to a "sanitarium immediately, and complete quiet." He mails the 702 key to himself. The four visitors drive off quickly when a police car pulls up, but they are brought back. Mason informs the radio officer of the murder, and the woman says they were visiting but didn't get in.
4.	Lieutenant Tragg wearily asks Mason how he got in. "I had a key." Mason is enigmatic to other questions. The deceased has no key on him. Mason notes that, despite ice cubes, Scotch, and soda the fatal drink didn't have any ice in it. A police detective reports that a cleaning mark in a coat has been traced to Fay Allison. As Tragg heads to the elevator, Mrs Carver (Marline Austine) Clements exits it. She is looking for her husband. When told he's dead, she responds "He hated me too much to die."
5.	When Louise answers the door, Mason clues her by acting as if he hadn't seen her before. She tells Tragg neither girl is there, but when he threatens her with newspaper reports she points him to the Crestview Sanitarium.
6.	Paul Drake gives his notes to Mason. Fay and Dane were going to get married today. Last night Fay and Anita celebrated with hot chocolate, Fay getting a double dose of barbiturate. Fay didn't wake up until she was in the sanitarium. Tragg has found Allison's fingerprints on one glass, while the murder glass had been wiped clean of fingerprints. Fay's clothes and