PERRY MASON

in The Case of the . . .

with Raymond Burr

as Perry Mason

These pages updated on 11 April 2008. All 28 episodes of the fourth season of "Perry Mason in The Case of the . . ." have been upgraded. The following episodes have been upgraded by comparison with the Columbia House Video tapes in their Collector's Edition; 96, 98. 99. 100. 102. 104. 107, 111, 112, 115, 117, 119, 120 and 122. Episodes 96, 108 and 115 are on DVD in the 50th Anniversary Perry Mason issue; DVD chapter indices for this issue are in { } brackets. All other episodes have been compared to full-length or multiple air checks in order to construct an accurate synopsis, and are marked with an asterisk (*). Where indicated "CBS Tape/DVD," the synopsis has been upgraded by an additional comparison to the DVD format, which is also indicated by the DVD chapter indices placed in parentheses within the synopsis text.

#	TITLE	SHOW DATE	BOOK DATE-ORDER	CBS TAPE/DVD
96	Treacherous Toupee	17 Sept 60	ESG '35-6 cf. Counterfeit Eye	15064/13-28615

CHARACTER	ACTOR	CHARACTER	ACTOR
Perry Mason	Raymond Burr	Lorna Grant	Dee Arlen
Della Street	Barbara Hale	Stanley Roderick	Jonathon Hole (correct Jonathan)
Paul Drake	William Hopper	Judge	Frank Wilcox
Hamilton Burger	William Talman	Wilber Fenwick	Lindsay Workman
Lt Tragg	Ray Collins	Lucy, housecleaner	Juney Ellis
Cybil Basset	Peggy Converse	Flo	Rita Duncan
Peter Dawson	Philip Ober	Supper Club Manager	Hal Smith
Ken Woodman	Bert Freed	Plainsclothesman	Len Hendry
Teddi Hart	Cindy Robbins	Court Clerk	George E Stone
Hartley Basset	Thomas B Henry	Sgt Brice	Lee Miller
Dick Hart	Robert Redford	Receptionist	Patricia Marlowe
Arthur Colemar	Nelson Olmsted

Produced by Herbert Hirschman Directed by Richard Kinon Teleplay by Maurice Zimm

{5-10/1-9 Title credits}(3-1) {2-9}(3-2) A Pan Am 707 jet is landing. Passengers deplane and one, a man goes to a pay phone booth, calls the Basset residence. Lucy, the house cleaner, answers and says that Mrs Basset has gone to a "sharecropper's meeting." The man quickly hangs up, then looks in the phone book. He calls Basset Tool and Die, gets the Domestic Tool and Die receptionist. He asks for general manager Peter Dawson, discovers that Dawson is now president. He again quickly hangs up, rushes to a cab. / The Domestic Tool and Die Company. Cybil Basset, wife of Hartley and mother of Dick, joins Dawson with her husband’s proxy. He doesn’t want her to get cold feet, has sent her son to San Francisco so she could make decisions on her own. She's been deserted 2 years by her husband. The stockholders, four men, enter and the meeting begins. A plan to sell assets of the firm and form a new one is discussed. The man, Hartley Basset, enters; “Looks like I got here just in time, doesn’t it?” Cybil faints. // {3-9}(3-3) At home, Cybil gets Hartley a drink when he asks if she has “to hide the liquor from that useless son of hers.” Where was he? He just disappeared and she didn’t know what to do. He counters that it is not he who should answer questions. Cybil tells Hartley that the company was almost bankrupt, but Dawson saved it, by working day and night. She starts sobbing. He counters that perhaps she loves Dawson. She claims that he stole $6,000 when he left her, and she hates him. He doesn’t understand her charge, leaves to find out the truth. She calls . . . / son Dick, who enters a hotel room with his new bride, Teddi. He asks, “we’re getting the money, aren’t we?” He tells her he’s just got married. She advises him that his stepfather has returned. He orders her to “stop crying.” He’ll “make it rain . . . make it pour, on him.” The newlyweds kiss. / Ken Woodman, plant superintendent, comes to Dawson. Basset enters. He's fired the secretary but will keep Woodman, who relates how his wife left him, took her life in Manila. Coldly, he notes that she left about the same time Basset disappeared. He leaves. Basset now fires Dawson. / In his office with Della Street taking notes, Mason advises Dawson that Basset can fire him from his position as president, but not for six months as general manager. Dawson asks the attorney for protection for self and those around him, particularly Mrs Basset who also had a bad first marriage. Why, asks Mason, didn’t he start his own business? He never expected to see Hartley again and thought he could save the company and Mrs Basset with the proxy she held. Mason phones Basset, who is combative, calls Dawson a thief, then agrees to see him at 10 p m, after he and (Arthur) Colemar, the company controller, have time to go over the books. / 10 p m. A scream. Mason comes out of the elevator, enters the company office, is met by Dick who is carrying Teddi to a couch. She has been hit on the forehead, but she can identify the man. They find Hartley Basset, shot dead. Dick laughs. Basset is holding hair, from a wig or toupee. / On the phone, Cybil tells Peter about the murder. She wishes she had done it. He then looks for his gun, but it is gone. He pulls off his wig. // {4-9}(3-4) Dawson tells Mason he has no alibi, but his spare toupee was stolen. Lieutenant Tragg enters, then gleefully discusses how toupees can be identified, including “six different shades” in Dawson’s toupee. Teddi is missing, and Tragg accuses Mason of hiding her so she can’t identify Dawson, whom he now arrests. / Paul Drake questions Dick in the company office. Mason enters, lets Dick go. The groom has no picture of his bride, whom he's known only a week. Colemar joins them, tells Mason he left at 9:47. He knows this because he doesn’t drive a car so he missed the 9:50 bus and had to wait twenty minutes. He couldn’t hardly believe Basset’s calling Dawson a thief, says Dawson barged in about 8. He knows Dawson wears a toupee because Ken Woodman teased him about it. / Woodman gives a cold shoulder to the “counsel for the defense,” as he eats his hot lunch. Mason notes wife's things are untouched for two years. He won’t answer two Mason questions, including if he connected Basset’s disappearance with his wife’s. He’s “not on the witness stand, yet.” Woodman accuses Teddi and/or Dick of the murder, for the money they’d lose with Basset alive. / Drake reports that the murder gun was registered to Dawson and, comments Della, shells were found in his apartment. / The manager of the Burgundy Club of San Francisco tells Drake that “Teddi Lansing” was a singer and pianist for about a month. She never gave him a publicity picture. In the things she left behind, he finds a lead to Fresno. / Flo’s Beauty Salon in Fresno. Drake has been waiting a half hour. He again asks about Teddi. Flo answers, “I’ll have to think about it.” So Paul pays Flo for info on Teddi. She produces Wilbur Fenwick, who married Teddi six months before, as photo shows. / Dick can't believe Drake's story, that she took Fenwick for all he had, left without saying “goodbye,” and didn’t even get a divorce. Mason says they must keep it quiet. Dick leaves. Paul, Perry and Della agree Teddi’s not going to reappear voluntarily. Dick returns to note that he's being followed. Mason says, yes, by the police. / (Lorna) Grant poses for Perry and Della. She is a virtual twin of Teddi, or so thinks Della. Mason gives her expense money to go to Carmel-by-the-sea. She notes that Mason does “skirt the law at times,” but takes the money when he says she'll be doing nothing illegal. This seems an enigma to Della. What does it mean? “It means the preliminary hearing starts tomorrow morning,” explains the lawyer. // {5-9}(3-5) In court, Dick testifies for D A Hamilton Burger to his carrying Teddi to the couch, then, after the D A clarifies why hearsay evidence should be allowed, what she said and what happened when the police arrived, searched the building, and Teddi disappeared. Lt Tragg identifies the torn piece of toupee and the murder weapon, which was found in a culvert, culverts being a favorite place, police have found, for criminals to discard weapons. Mason suggests that the murderer put it there to be certain it would be found. / Stanley Roderick is sworn in by the court clerk. He then demonstrates that the piece of toupee could only have come from Dawson's hairpiece. When Mason asks if the whole wig, instead of a piece of it, wouldn’t come off when someone pulled, Roderick asks him to “grab away,” to the delight of those in the courtroom. Colemar identifies the photostat of the page from accounts the month Basset disappeared, requested by Hartley Basset “on the day he returned.” There is a debit of $6,000, the missing amount. Dawson prevented an investigation. Afraid of an attachment due to the precarious situation of the business, employees were paid in cash, with surplus accumulated in the vault. He, Dawson, Mrs Basset and Ken Woodman had access to the vault. / Drake takes Dick to the airport. / Woodman testifies to hearing Dawson get angry. Then Basset fired Dawson. Later, Dawson said, "Hartley, some day I'm going to kill you." Mason questions the witness about his wife’s disappearance and death. The defense attorney brings up the passenger list for a flight to Manila, which includes “Ken Woodman.” Yes, he went to the Philippines to get proof of Basset's complicity with his wife, swore he'd kill him, but couldn't find him. Cybil Basset is called to the stand but court is adjourned by the judge. Cybil then asks Mason where her son is and he refuses her an answer. // {6-9}(3-6) In Carmel Dick enters a room and embraces Grant. Sergeant Brice and a local policeman enter, take her despite her and his denials. / Cybil admits to receiving a note by special messenger from her husband at 7:58 the eve of the murder. She threw it away, but the police developed a photostat from an impression of the note by ballpoint pen on Basset's memopad. The note tells her to change her plans regarding Dawson, for he took the $6,000. She informed Dawson of this note. Tragg enters, speaks to Hamilton Burger, who tells the court that Teddi Hart, who can identify the murderer, is on her way to the court in half an hour, and, oh yes, charges the D A, Mason may be guilty of serious misconduct. Court adjourns to await arrival of Teddi. In the court hallway, Colemar tells Woodman how he admires Mason, then heads around the hallway corner, followed by Paul, while Colemar is followed by Della, who is observed curiously by Tragg. / In chambers, Burger repeats and explains his charge. Mason explains that the murderer had to think that Teddi was coming to the court to point the accusing finger at him, and now he will waste no time in “getting as far away as possible.” / At the airport, Arthur Colemar is caught by Lt Tragg with Della Street. // {7-9}(3-7) Mason's office. The Los Angeles Chronicle headline reads KILLER TRAPPED. Della tells Paul of Colemar's confession. Colemar took the $6,000. At night, Basset discovered Colemar had done the embezzling. Teddi discovered them. Tragg enters; Mason calls him the devil! He announces that they found Teddi, in Vermont, “getting married again” says he in concert with Della. {8-9 end credits}(3-8) {52:47}(52:26)

In his law offices, Everett Dorrell tells Richard (Hammond) that he cannot get his estate money for three years. Ev(erett) apologizes for not getting a better settlement on the accident and offers to lend Dick the $15,000 that he needs for his mother's operation. Come by at 9, Ev tells secretary Miss Winslow, who buzzed him on the intercom, he doesn't want to talk to Helen Austin. / Ev, at home in a robe, gets a phone call about Helen Austin, just before 9 . He goes to his car. The lights don't come on. He drives without them and, just as he leaves his driveway, he hits a woman, Helen Austin. Dick drives up and sees the dead woman and Ev. // Ev, who has been dating Austin, tells Dick that he got a phone call from a bartender who said that Helen was in trouble. Dick says he'll take care of things by taking the body elsewhere, reporting hit and run. Ev gives Dick the money he needs in cash. / Policeman takes Dick's report. Dick returns home, parks his car in the two-car garage, one side of which is empty. He goes to bed, but wakes when he hears sirens. His garage is on fire, and the Fire Chief thanks Dick for quickly turning in an alarm! Dorrell's car is in the empty space as the Fire Chief inspects. Neither car is fire damaged. Hammond phones Dorrell, but he is not in his office. / Hammond goes to Dorrell's office. Miss Winslow says Dorrell is at court, but Hammond thinks he's avoiding him. On the way out he is met by Clara Thorpe, Helen's aunt, who wants the $15,000 that Helen took. He refuses, then enters Perry Mason's office. / He tells Mason the whole story, including the $15,000 and someone reporting the fire in his name. He also brings up the accident involving his mother. There was carelessness on both sides. Gertie reports over the phone that Dorrell was not in court that day. Mason tells Della Street to get Paul Drake to find Dorrell. / Mason and Hammond go to his home, find Lieutenant Tragg and Sergeant Brice waiting because Clara Thorpe has reported the missing $15,000. As they enter the house, a ringing phone brings info from Della that Dorrell will see Mason. Hammond has Brice get the $15,000. / Ev is told by (Marvin) Claridge that scandal cannot be allowed. Barbara (Claridge) asks if he will tell about Helen Austin. Marvin says he and Barbara won't go along on his confession. This amounts to an ultimatum. Mason is waiting outside but, over the intercom, Dorrell says he has nothing to say. Mason offers a choice of now or on the witness stand. Claridge, Martin's prospective father-in-law, comes out, says he's Dorrell's advisor, "when necessary." // Paul Drake reports to Mason that Helen Austin wasn't at the Oasis Inn and the bartender made no phone call. Dorrell had broken off with Austin who was a receptionist at the Claridge office. Dorrell has categorically denied giving $15,000 to Hammond, and loaned him his car. Paul is told to treat this as a murder case. Clara Thorpe then tells Perry she wants the $15,000 "back." She is the last and only heir of her late sister's only child, and does not know where Helen got the money. Did she actually see the money? Alex Hill, Austin's former husband, is in Los Angeles. They were divorced more than a year earlier, after she met Dorrell. She wants him to lead her to another $15,000. After Clara leaves Mason tells Della that he intends to help her. / Mason seeks out Alexander Hill in his apartment. The man says he hasn't worked for four months, yet Mason notes he has a solid gold cigarette lighter. Hill has no interest any more in Austin. He also has a silk shirt and tie. / Mason and Tragg find Dorrell washing the street just below his driveway where the accident occurred. Dorrell lies about lending car and such. Mason accuses Dorrell of lying, of hit and run. Mason throws accusations, correct ones(!), at Dorrell, then announces that bloodstains were found in his car, not Dorrell's car. Now Dorrell admits everything but giving him the cash. Tragg now reveals that Austin was dead when hit by the car. Hammond deliberately staged the event by phoning Dorrell, shoving the girl in front of the car. Austin was the driver of the car that killed Dorrell's sister and permanently injured his mother! // In court the autopsy surgeon tells D A Hamilton Burger of the means of death, a large stone. A policeman identifies the location where the body was found and the man, the defendant, who reported finding it. Clara says Hammond with his attorney saw niece Austin in the hospital after the accident that killed his sister and injured his mother. On the night of the murder her niece went out at 7:30 to pick up $15,000. She never saw the $15,000. Austin did mention Alexander Hill's name, as well as Dorrell. Yes, she was Hill's wife. Her face was covered with bandages, so he could not see her face. Tragg identifies blood stains, and the lethal stone. Has location of the murder been determined, asks Mason. Has the driveway been searched? Mason suggests that the district attorney has suppressed evidence. Hamilton Burger immediately rests his case. Mason asks for a delay, which is granted by the judge, and asks Della to subpoena Dorrell, both Claridges, and Hill. // Mason calls Dorrell, who admits hitting Austin, and agreeing to loan $15,000 for the service of removing the body. Hamilton Burger tries to go beyond Mason's direct testimony, and is stopped by the judge and Mason's objections. Alex Hill admits he's been out of work a few years. He cannot explain his former wife's bank deposits and withdrawals. Burger objects to this line of questioning, but the judge is curious how Hill "has found a magic way of life." How does Hill live expensively? Helen gave him the money. Helen wasn't alone in the car. That's how she got $2,000 every month and he got $1000 to keep quiet. Burger calls Dorrell as his rebuttal witness. He says he was not in the car, nor did he give money to Austin or the defendant. Mason gets him to admit that he knew the driver of the accident car was Helen Austin, but known to Hammond as Mrs H ill. He didn't want the Claridges to know. Marvin Claridge put pressure on him, and is still doing so. If he wasn't the protected passenger, who was, asks Mason? Dorrell is trapped. It was Marvin Claridge. Yes, he did give $15,000 to Hammond, and if now he'll lose Barbara, he's sorry. Marvin Claridge was the mysterious passenger in Austin's car and was having an affair with Helen. Claridge admits giving Austin the $2000 a month. She demanded $15,000, but he didn't give it to her. He gave it to Dorrell and told Helen to wait a day. No, he didn't kill her. Who, besides her former husband, could have been blackmailing her? Hill came to Claridge after Austin was dead. Mason challenges Hill. The judge orders him to the witness chair. Hill, the murderer, stands, calls Helen a "cheat." "You made a pretty good pair," comments Mason. // Perry, Paul, Della and Ev are gathered in Mason's private office. Helen gave half her $2000 to Hill "because he threatened to go to Claridge's wife and blow the whole affair wide open." Hill couldn't leave Dorrell's because Hammond's headlights caught him in the driveway as he arrived right on time. Then what Hill overheard between Dorrell and Hammond set him up. Mason notes that the two men still have to answer charges of tampering with evidence and obstructing police procedure. Ev says he's ready. Paul and Ev leave, and a hungry Della exacts a dinner out of Perry, now!

As he drives up to his home, (Carl) Gorman is dictating to secretary Betty (Wilkins). She offers to take a cab back to the office, so that Gorman's wife Alice can drive him to the airport. Inside, Alice asks when she'll see him again. She's going to the mountains and nephew Jim (Ferris) is in town. Alice says there's no time for anyone in his family. He's busy opening a new factory. He leaves. Jim comes in from the bedroom. They kiss passionately. // It is 7:23 at the Pink Lady Cocktail Lounge when Alice joins Jim. A cocktail waitress takes their drink order. Alice produces the withdrawal from her joint account, $11,000. He suggests she divorce Carl. She "couldn't." He asks for a key to Carl's office and gets angry when Alice doesn't immediately comply. Jim gets the audit showing the company debts from Alice. Finally, doesn't she trust him, he asks. / Jim asks Stan (Piper) about the company converting to cash. (Harold) Ames is heard outside, so Jim goes to the anteroom, lies down as if asleep, as Ames enters. Jim asserts that gamblers are following him and mentions the snapshots that he took at the office party. He needs $80,000. Ames explodes, which Stan overhears. Jim tells Stan to find out where the deposit came from, then leaves with Harold. / Perry Mason's inner, private office. Gorman tells Perry Mason and Della Street of panhandling by Jim even at his club; $210, which is theft. His wife, he asserts, has nothing to do with Jim. He wants Jim out of his will and his life. Mason notes that $210 is a crime. Has Gorman been blackmailed? What over? He'd kill anyone who'd try. After he leaves, Della ponders what the nephew has on Carl. / Gorman is taken into the office by Betty Wilkins. Gambler men were waiting at the cabin for Alice. At the cabin, Alice, alone with Jim Ferris, says that there's material on his father's company. Send Betty alone, with $80,000. Jim looks out the cabin window, sees a man watching. Jim suggests he'll take a walk, but Alice doesn't want to be left alone. / A car speeds up the mountain road as Alice and Jim finish dinner. Betty toots, then calls to Alice. Jim shouts to her to do as told. Betty throws the money on to the porch. The watching man (Piper) now enters, masked, to rob them with Jim to leave with him. As Alice stands, the table falls over, and a fire is started. Alice pulls out a gun, Jim grabs her and gets shot. She rushes out and drives away. The masked man gathers the money as the cottage burns. // As Betty dials a pay phone, she sees the flames, drives back to the cabin, sees the body on floor and picks up Alice's gun as the fireman arrives. / Los Angeles Chronicle headline reads MAN FOUND MURDERED IN FLAMING CABIN with a photo of Betty. Gorman says Betty wouldn't harm anyone. Alice is under sedation, but she said Jim wasn't there, only two masked men. Gorman says his father was once prominent in the paper business and went to jail, so he changed his name. Drake says Gorman's nephew's name was well-known to gamblers, and was on the black list. Mason says blackmail had to come from Jim, not gamblers. / Mason has brought Betty home. She didn't recognize the man's voice. She's surprised at how ordered a desk is and is annoyed when Mason suggests that the police have searched the place. Yes, she knew Ferris. He went to Cuernavaca. He asked the night before how to reach accountant Stanley Piper. / Paul Drake says Piper had been fired often. Della has checked the time from the cabin to the phone. A round trip is a quarter hour. Della suggest that all sorts of things could have happened in that time. / Mason questions Harold and Mrs (Dora) Ames. Harold admits he was unaware of what was going on. He discharged Piper. Dora butts in with "he's the one who stole things." When Mason suggests that the man might have masterminded the affair, Harold counters that Piper only stole stamps. No, Gorman did not consult him before taking the $80,000, and he'd be rather shattered if it is not returned. / Gorman wakes Alice. Mason then questions her. One man had a widow's peak, a scar. Just as Mason asks Alice if the second man could have been Jim Ferris, Lieutenant Tragg enters, wants also to hear her answer. A forest ranger saw Ferris at the cabin, and also saw Betty Wilkins with him the night before, says Tragg. They once took out a marriage license. It was Betty's gun which killed Ferris. Gorman is sorry that he asked Mason's help, for he didn't think Betty even knew Jim. "Why, if (he'd) once thought Betty'd actually committed murder." Mason suggests that she needs a lawyer now more than ever. // In court. Drake testifies that Ferris got two tickets. The autopsy surgeon tells the prosecutor that Ferris died before the fire. There was only one bullet. Tragg says that the murder weapon was bought by Wilkins, who then whispers to Mason that it was bought for the office. The court clerk is handed the weapon for identification. In the cabin many empty shells were found, says Tragg. It was a hunting cabin. Only two .25 caliber shell casings were found, but could have been fired from almost any gun. But only one shot slug was found, in the body. Even Paul Drake found no other. No burned money was found. He did find $5,000 in Betty Wilkins' car later the eve of the murder. This surprises Mason and Wilkins. Alice testifies to hearing Betty drive up, and away. Gorman says he got $80,000 in $50 bills, unmarked. Mrs Ames says she saw Wilkins and Ferris together after a company party, kissing each other. On night before the murder, she saw them at the office. / Betty, in jail, tells Mason that, when seen with Jim lately, he was asking questions about the company. She told him "good bye," drove him to the Pink Lady. Mason is annoyed that she didn't tell him this earlier. / Drake is in a Cuernavaca phone booth. He hasn't found Piper. Nor have the L A police who got there before he did. // Ames says that Wilkins had access to information. He was at home all eve on the night of the murder by his wife's testimony, but she was at the office. This gave Ames an alibi, or maybe his wife? Couldn't some other woman . . . ? Ames denies being blackmailed by Ferris. Mason suggests Mrs Ames was seeing Ferris. Mrs Ames says not so, it was Mrs Gorman. After some arguing among possible people to be recalled, Alice Gorman breaks down, says she did it, she shot Jim. The judge tells Mason that he'll rule favorably on the attorney's motion to dismiss. Gorman tells Mason he still needs his help. / Finally, in Cuernavaca, a man shows up, and Drake catches Ferris, with a wound in his shoulder, the second bullet. Piper is the dead man in the fire. // Gorman, Wilkins, Drake, Street and Mason are assembled in the office. Mason explains how the notes that they sent as if "from Alice" trapped Ferris. They'd figured that the only way for a second bullet to get out of the cabin was in someone. Gorman comments on poor Betty, who had to bear the whole burden. Della offers that that's what secretaries are for.

At the Los Angeles Airport, Lucy (Stevens) heads to a car, which she finds is unlocked. She puts a briefcase on the right seat, locks the car and goes to a telephone booth. She has been observed by another woman. Lucy phones Hugo Burnette in New York City. He tells her she's earned a vacation, but she wants out. He tells her there is no way out, she can't quit. // The briefcase is delivered by (Marjorie) Ralston to Catherine and Whitney Locke. Whitney dismisses Marjorie after asking some questions about whom she saw or talked to. Catherine asks him about Hugo Burnette. She is not fooled by Marjorie who is in love with him. Alone, Whitney empties the briefcase, phones Burnette . . . a switchboard operator handles the call, patches it through. Whitney tells Burnette that only newspapers, not $60,000, were in the briefcase. / Burnette tells a businessman (John Ruskin) that he can go ahead, the zoning will be taken care of, and he'll take care of the double-crossing red-head. / A letter from Lucy tells Carole Morgan that she's closed her account with the accompanying $3,225 check. A phone rings but goes unanswered. Lucy brushes her hair, then leaves. / She gets into a postwar Chevrolet coupe, drives to San Pedro harbor. She takes out a packet of papers. She puts a stone on the gas pedal, pulls the transmission into drive, releases the brake and sends the car speeding into the harbor. / In Perry Mason's private office Carole Morgan tells the lawyer that she got the letter the day before yesterday in San Francisco. She phoned, with no result. She's afraid for Lucy, her cousin, who may have committed suicide. She gives Mason a packet of papers. Mason notes that the check is worthless if Lucy is dead, and asks if she's told him everything that might be helpful, and she says "yes," then leaves. Della Street and Perry wonder about Lucy's waiting two days before coming to Los Angeles. Paul Drake enters, on the way to a vacation. Mason puts him on Lucy and Carole. / Drake phones from dockside, where the car was found 19 feet deep. / Mason drives Drake and Morgan to the harbor. The car is brought out of the water. Lieutenant Tragg joins them and they witness a woman's body being taken out. // Lt Tragg asks Hugo Burnette to identify Stevens. He is unsure, but asks for the address of the cousin and leaves just as Mason and Drake arrive. Drake follows Burnette. Mason wonders why a man would cross a continent to identify the woman. Lt Tragg wonders why Drake followed Burnette. / Mason takes Carole to the harbor, confronts her with fact that there is no "Carole Morgan" in San Francisco. She now admits that she is Lucy Stevens. / Back in Mason's office, Della and Paul want to know who was in the car. Mason informs them that Lucy found that she was handling illegal money and thus staged the suicide. Mason wants Drake to run down Burnette, but he already knows he is in Woodcrest Arms, 6C. / Burnette reports to Ruskin that he cannot find Lucy's "cousin." Ruskin leaves when Mason enters. The attorney is hoping that Burnette can give him a clue as to who the dead woman is, and why he transferred large sums of money in a briefcase. Someone is being paid off, or threatened, and real-estate developer Ruskin is involved. / Catherine is acting as secretary when Mason arrives. Locke denies any connection with $60,000 so Ruskin could get a favorable rezoning. Mason exits, asking the name of Locke's absent secretary (Marjorie Ralston). / Perry phones Della to get Paul to check on Ralston, whom he thinks is the murder victim. Stevens is in the office, Della says. So is Tragg, who has identified Ralston as the victim, and Stevens as the murderer, and Mason as an obstructor of justice and withholder of evidence. // In court prosecutor Grosvenor Cutter, the prosecutor, has Burnette testify to sending Lucy with the $60,000 and her delivering it to Marjorie Ralston's car. He admits that John Ruskin was sending money to Whitney Locke. Locke says that the $60,000 was a political contribution. No one saw him open the case. The autopsy surgeon, Dr Hoxie, testifies. Tragg identifies the body in the car. Prosecutor Cutter tries to get the defendant bound over, but Mason quotes various aspects of the law and the judge adjourns court for lunch. Lucy tells Perry that she thought this the only way out, and she was stupid to think so. Drake reports that Burnette always maintains two apartments, including one in Los Angeles. He reports on phone calls. Lucy arrived LAX at 5:20, made her call to Burnette at 5:35, and Whitney Locke placed a call at 6:22 to Burnette. Mason reviews the events. The Ralston woman left the parking lot at 5:30, Ralston left Locke's home about 6:20, and at 7 Lucy drove to the harbor. Drake tells Mason that Ruskin hired a detective to watch Locke. Della discovers that a call to Burnette can go from L A to NYC and back to L A. // Mason asks Tragg what fingerprints were found in Ralston's apartment. None of the defendant nor of Whitney Locke. Burnette states there were two jets from New York, a 3 p m one on which Lucy traveled. Didn't he take the 2:15 and arrive before Lucy. Yes. He admits to being inn L A with Ruskin. When he heard from Locke, he phoned Lucy about 6:20. Ruskin was not there then, but phoned about 6:30 to invite him to his home, at which he arrived about 7. Neither he, nor Ruskin nor Locke, can account for a half hour. Burnette's place is 10 minutes from Lucy's. Mason queries Locke about Ruskin's interest in his political career. Locke's office denied a rezoning to Ruskin twice before the $60,000 contribution came. Why, if the contribution was legitimate, was there such secrecy and subterfuge? He was at home 6:20 to 7. Ralston left the airport at 5:30 and had time to follow Lucy home and then get to Locke's by 6:15. Then did he not go with Ralston on a fake search of Lucy's car to find the money? Cutter objects and calls Catherine Locke who testifies that her husband was at home, for he made a phone call at 6:30. Then Burnette arrived a quarter hour later. Mason asks if she hired a detective to spy on her husband. This is answered by Ruskin who says he did it all, for he wanted to catch Whitney Locke in a bribe. Marjorie not only took the money, but then threatened him with exposure. // The trio in the office. Drake notes that the money showed up when Ruskin found Ralston packing. She was killed at Lucy's car. Ralston suggested shifting the burden of the theft on to Lucy, and when they got to the car, Ruskin killed her, thus shifting not only the theft but the murder on to Lucy's shoulders.

"Perry Mason in The Case of the Lavender Lipstick" is missing 5:30 of the original broadcast. The Columbia House tape 221917 is 51:44 in duration, the DVD 35230 is 46:14 long. I have notified Columbia House Video of the problem and asked them to issue a corrected disc and send those who already have the faulty disc a new copy. If you have the disc, please write Columbia House Video and ask for a replacement with the full Episode 100.

At night the Caresse Cosmetic Products building watchman (Charles Knudson) checks the main door. Inside a lab, chemist (Peter Nichols) checks formula 331, perhaps a bit of luck. He draws lips, fills it in with the stick, then puts a reagent on it. It turns lavender. Karen (Lewis) suggests that Vance should figure how to keep estrogen from turning lipstick lavender, but Peter says he promised to do it. Knudson tells Karen that (Max) Pompey awaits her. Karen finds Pompey in his office. He offers her a drink. She uses "Mr" and he corrects "Max," then accuses her of seeing Gabe Rawson, number one playboy and his leading competitor, and of giving estrogenic cream and other formulas to Rawson. He has her deposit book, which shows two recent payments, but she doesn't recognize them. He makes a pass and gets thrown to the floor. He fires her, says she needs to be out of town by tomorrow or be in jail, and to not tell Peter Nichols. // Myra (Heston) catches Max coming out of his office. She has eaves dropped. She asserts that Karen is not a thief, but Max must be. He is rebuffed when he makes a pass, they argue, and then they kiss. Alone, she calls Rawson to tell him that Pompey "found the evidence." / In Perry Mason's office Peter Nichols tells Perry with Paul Drake of his worries about Karen Lewis who is missing, and that his office is messed up. He thinks there is something in Karen's childhood that she's hiding / Silas Vance, president of Caresse, charges in to the lab wondering where Pete Nichols or Karen Lewis or Max Pompey are. Myra tells Silas that Max fired Karen for selling formulas to Rawson. Silas stands up for Karen. Myra suggests that maybe Karen has been framed, and Vance says he'll kill Pompey if he's involved. Mason and Nichols join them, looking for Karen, who's not been seen since an altercation with Pompey. Vance clams up. Mason suggests that, if he doesn't know what is going on, he should check in to the bloodstained towel found in Pompey's office. / Rawson meets Pompey in a steam bath, confides to him that either Vance "kicks the bucket" or he must go into the stockholders meeting with Caresse in the palm of his hand. Pompey promised Rawson, who paid his debts, that Vance would sell out, but it hasn't happened. In three days Pompey must deliver. / At Sunset Hall Vance calls Lewis, tells her to come on down to the lab, they'll string up a real criminal. A shadow in the background indicates someone might have overheard. / , As Drake watches Lewis enters the Caresse building. Inside, Knudson is lying half conscious on the floor, and Vance is dead. // Lieutenant Tragg hears from Knudson, whose machine indicates he was hit at 11:22. Sergeant Brice is given evidence. Mason joins them. Drake is in the office. He tried to follow Lewis, but was stopped by the cops. / Karen is in Peter's arms when Mason's call catches them. / Pompey joins Myra at a restaurant. She left the plant, knowing that Vance was dead. Rawson joins the two, pours champagne. / Peter tells Perry that he left the lab about 7, and has no alibi. Mason explains what Lt Tragg knows about the evidence. Peter says this provides a motive for killing Pompey, not Vance, who had the evidence, but it is now missing. That's Karen's motive. Mason receives a call from Drake. Vance has left Caresse in his will to Karen! / At the murder site Karen, wearing the same skirt as on the murder night, demonstrates to Paul, Peter and Perry what she did. Drake remembers that Vance had purple on his hand. Karen submits this was lavender, one of the new lipsticks. Undera desk drawer, Mason finds the lipstick message; "shot by KA" or so it looks, just as Tragg enters. He takes Karen to headquarters on a charge of first-degree murder. // In jail Karen tells Perry that her father died in prison. She knows him only through newspaper clippings. He was head of a small cosmetics firm, and was convicted of selling a cheap face cream that was poisonous. Mason wonders then why Vance has watched over her. There must be some connection between him and her father. / Court. Even though Drake's been subpoenaed, Mason orders him to leave and get information on Kenneth Lewis, dead 23 years. Pompey tells the prosecutor, Ernest Helming, that he found carbons of two of the company's secret formulas and a bank deposit book. He showed these to Karen Lewis. Heston says Vance didn't believe the charges until she showed him the evidence. Lt Tragg says that they couldn't find the evidence. Then the drawer is introduced, and related to KAren Lewis. Nichols identifies the lipstick found in the deceased's hand. Karen Lewis was helping him with the research. On two other thefts, Karen Lewis was his assistant. Knudson says he has no idea of who hit him. Mason asks him if in his 11 years he's ever found Karen Lewis' desk out of order. No. Isn't it strange that her desk was open one specific night? Helming objects. The judge adjourns court for lunch. // Drake joins Della Street and Mason. Vance, aka Frank Jefferson, was a full business partner to Kenneth Lewis. He got information because Rawson asked a New York agency to get it. Rawson is on his way to New York. / Drake gives a subpoena to Rawson in a steam bath. / In court Max Pompey, on the stand, is revealed by Mason as the N Y state investigator in the case against Kenneth Lewis. By a coin toss, says Pompey, Lewis took the blame for the poisonous face cream, and Pompey got a lifetime job. Pompey was going to use this information to force Vance to sell to Rawson. He got deep into debt over a woman, Myra Heston, which Rawson paid off. She admits that, at Rawson's suggestion, she got Pompey to spend lots, and she made the deposits to Karen's account. She planted the book at Rawson's insistence, and got the formulas from him. Rawson admits giving money and formulas to Heston. Mason suggests that he went further, but Rawson denies it. Mason recalls Tragg, who testifies about what was found on the defendant's skirt. Because no glass from the watchman's machine was found in the skirt, Karen must have left before it was broken! Now Mason copies the lipstick writing, and shows KA could be KN. Drake stops Knudson from leaving the courtroom. Knudson confesses to Drake that Vance had found it was he who was stealing the formulas. He needed money for his family. He couldn't let Vance send him to jail. // Back at jail, Mason explains to Karen that Knudson didn't break the clock until he knew when she was there. Drake joins them, says Knudson burned the evidence, threw the gun up a canyon in Malibu. Mason then explains how easily they lured Rawson from the airport into the steam room.

(Burt) Stokes visits the Warden in San Quentin prison. He wants to see Riley Morgan, whom he admits that he doesn't know. He thinks that Morgan is the missing witness to the Kendall murder, and his ship left the harbor before the newspapers headlined it and Morgan could learn of it. Morgan sailed to Japan, then worked out of Australia for a couple of years, so never heard of the murder. / From a lineup, Stokes identifies Morgan. // At the Pacific Military Academy, Jimmie (Kendall) leaves his books curbside and a man slips a letter inside. (Lorraine) Kendall, wife of the murdered man, drives up in a Buick convertible. Jimmie finds the note, gives it to his mom. / They drive home, where they are met by Uncle Roger (McClaine). / Warren Donner is awaiting her, and reading a newspaper that says Riley Morgan has been pardoned. He is joined by McClaine to whom he complains about everyone gossiping about him, the vice-president. His wife Faye is upset that her brother's murderer is now running around loose. He is worried that questions will be asked as to who did kill Kendall. Donner reminds McClaine that they, Lorraine and Faye benefitted from the murder of Martin Kendall. So which of them really killed Lorraine's husband? / Mrs Kendall reads her note, telling her to phone for the answer. / Lorraine meets Burt, who sent the note, in a park. He says Morgan has no friends, no money, and Lorraine could change that, if she'd provide $5,000. When she leaves, he turns to journalist Bill Worth who, with a recorder hidden in the bushes, has recorded everything. Worth leaves Stokes, not wanting a part in thinly disguised blackmail. / Worth is playing the Stokes-Kendall tape. Warren Donner and Faye Donner, sister of deceased, argue over what to do. // In Perry Mason's inner office, Lorraine Kendall shows a possible newspaper article to the attorney. She notes that Morgan owed her husband money, and asked for an extension on repayment. Kendall played golf on Saturdays, and Morgan hid in the nearby woods, hit Kendall with a club. Roger McClaine followed Kendall into the woods, thinking he was looking for a ball, and saw Morgan leave. Now Stokes has come forth to say that he saw Morgan in his cabin Saturday morning. At Mason's suggestion, Lorraine calls Stokes, and arranges a meeting for 10 p m. He is meeting with Roger McClaine, who has offered $10,000 if he and Morgan will leave the country. McClaine leaves and Morgan enters, asking what was going on. Riley says it is all over between them. / Leaving Jimmie, Lorraine hurtles down her winding driveway, nearly hitting an approaching car. The other car continues up to Jimmie, where its driver, Warren Donner, asks where the boy's mom is headed. It is 9:30, and she left after getting a phone call from a man. / Paul Drake and Mason look for Stokes at 10 p m, and find him dead. / Lorraine asks Jimmie to hurry up, she has to take him to Martha's. He protests, citing homework for the Academy. / McClaine admits Mason to his home. The attorney tells him of Stoke's death, to which McClaine sees the irony of Lorraine's absence when her husband was killed, then notes that only Lorraine and Jimmie were in Kendall's will. Donner is kept on as a necessary evil. / At 3:30 Lorraine finally returns and admits to Mason that she went to the park but had a scuffle with a man she cannot identify, and left without seeing Stokes. Lieutenant Tragg arrives to arrest Lorraine Kendall for murder, both! // Drake reports that nothing can be found on Lorraine before the age of 21. She's a secretary who married the boss. / Morgan reads a Los Angeles Chronicle headline; KENDALL WIDOW HELD IN STOKES MURDER. Then he tells Perry and Paul that he thinks Stokes was turning to blackmail, but he knows nothing of value. / Deputy D A Telford greets Faye Donner, who gives him a letter from Stokes, the wording as that sent Lorraine. / In court deputy D A Telford examines an attorney, Mr Leeman, about the alibi claimed by Morgan. Morgan testifies that Stokes followed him to Los Angeles. He identifies Roger McClaine, who testified against him six years earlier, as man who gave Stokes blackmail money the afternoon of the murder. McClaine admits paying $10,000 to Stokes, from a check given him by Lorraine. The tape is played and verified by journalist Bill Worth, who is forced by Mason to admit that his only permanent employer is Kendall Industries Weekly, with Warren Donner his boss. Donner says he never discussed the case with Worth. He saw Lorraine leave the house about 9:30. Faye Donner says she figured Stokes wanted to blackmail her, but she had no guilty conscience. Before she left the house at 9, she found $5,000 in new bills in Lorraine's purse. Her brother died at the same time Kendall was murdered. She expected to inherit, and was upset that the money went to a secretary and an adopted child. Tragg says that the weapon belonged to Stokes. Footprints identified Stokes and Lorraine Kendall. He identifies $5,000 from the pocket of the corpse. / Drake, at the Pacific Military Academy gate, gets Buddie Staples to show him a postcard for Jimmie. / Martha sent Jimmie to Canada. Paul and Perry drive a short ways away, then watch Martha leave with Jimmie. // In jail Mason advises Lorraine that he's found no record of her first marriage. She says it and an annulment were obtained in Tijuana, to Riley Morgan! / Back in court, Mason goes after Tragg concerning the "struggle" revealed in the footprints. Why are not the shoes in court? Telford is forced to agree to have the shoes brought to court. / The shoes are brought. Morgan is on the stand. He admits to making a 9:30 p m blackmail call to Lorraine, which Jimmie answered. He learned that she was going to the park to meet Stokes at 10. He denies killing Stokes at the park. Mason continues. In the dark he struggled with Lorraine, got the $5,000 from her purse and put it in Stokes' pocket. He put his shoes on Stokes. Yes, he was blackmailing his sweet little wife, both times. // Mason and Drake are at Mrs Kendall's. Stokes made up the story, got his ship's captain to back him, then got greedy. Jimmie joins them. Perry says that something bothered him about the shoes, for one was tied with a granny, not, as Jimmie then notes, a sailor's square knot.

Lisa, drunk, is driven to the Curtis Franklin Circus by her new husband , the one and only Felix (Heidemann). They enter tent and see Jerry (Franklin), to whom they rush. Lisa unlatches the tiger's gate, he gets out, gores Jerry. // Four years later, fifth sensational year, in a train on its way to Los Angeles, Felix readies a celebration when (Judd) Curtis enters. He points out that Lisa let tiger loose on Jerry, that's why she married Jerry, rather than Felix. Franklin has offered Curtis as co-owner of the circus $180,000 to buy him out, but Judd does not want to leave the circus, and has the right to take Jerry's share for the same price. He wants a loan from Heidemann, but the latter says he'll give his money first to Jerry to buy out Judd. Curtis reminds him that Lisa had no time to divorce Felix before marrying Jerry out of pity, and he wants the loan. / Lisa on the trapeze bar, Jerry below in wheelchair watching. She drops to the net, is then chided for not checking the equipment. On her way out, Curtis tells her to see Felix. Then Jerry tells Curtis to take Lisa off the evening's bill, and he'll have the money by tomorrow afternoon. / (Tim) Durant informs Curtis that Lisa won't stay on if he buys Jerry out. Curtis tells Durant that he'll not take over Heidemann's role. Durant says he has everything Heidemann has. "Everything but his genius," rejoins Curtis. / Tony and Joyce Gilbert give $15,000 to Lisa and Jerry, and Felix says that is enough. / Perry Mason's office. Felix tells Mason her of the bigamy. He's got all but $15,000, but he can get that. He doesn't want to hurt Jerry, who believes Lisa loves him. // The Gilberts are the first act as Paul Drake, Mason and Della Street enter the big tent. She shoots coins he tosses in the air, then he reciprocates. They split cigarettes in the mouths of each other. Heidemann is then introduced as the funniest man in the world, and begins his tricks as Paul , Perry and Della watch. The clown points a gun at Drake, who quickly removes his cigarette. They are joined by Lieutenant Tragg, who tells Mason that someone again let a tiger lose on Franklin, but he is okay. In fact, he's in a wheel chair watching Heidemann, as the clown points his gun at Judd Curtis, who is smoking, and shoots him. Mason and Tragg determine that he is dead. // Gilbert shows Mason the cat cage, then explains how Lisa and he helped Franklin get away, this time, from the cat. Mason asks Lisa if she knows where Felix is; he was being blackmailed by Curtis. Lt Tragg enters with the circus entourage, Della and Paul, and asks Lisa where was she when the fatal shot was fired. She was putting on her makeup when she heard the silence, and she saw no one in a clown suit. / SAN FRANCISCO DISPATCH headline; "Los Angeles Police Seek Circus Killer" Heidemann phones Mason from San Francisco where he'd gone to get the last part of the $180,000. He left Los Angeles at 9, Curtis was murdered at 9:15. / Jail. Heidemann says he didn't keep his ticket stub. He doesn't know who filled in for him, since Curtis was his substitute. Who, then, could have convinced the audience he was Heidemann? / Durant tells Mason he was waiting to enter. He says he was never asked to substitute. Mason suggests the murder bullet could have come from where Franklin was watching the show. Mason asks Durant to search his memory for reasons why the clown was not Heidemann. He refuses. / The Gilberts come to Mason. Joyce says that about 6:20 she found Felix's note in Curtis' office. Later, the note was gone. She tells Drake that she was in the entrance, and Tony says that he was behind her. Drake says police will concede Heidemann went to San Francisco, but after 10. Near Santa Barbara at Carpinteria, a gun was thrown from an SF bound train on to the highway, the murder weapon. // Court. The autopsy surgeon tells Deputy D A Alvin that a .38 bullet passed thru his heart. He tells Mason the bullet could have travelled twice as far and done the same. Lt Tragg testifies about the murder bullet, about the gun, and about the San Francisco trip. Then he states that no one has suggested it was not the incomparable Felix Heidemann who was performing that night. Mason gets Tragg to admit that the clown was unrecognizable and, due to damage to bullet, it cannot be proven that the gun was the murder weapon. Two shots could have been fired. Gun was found at 6:50 a m, so any of the suspects could have driven to Carpinteria and put it there since they were all released by 3 a m. Franklin testifies to having partners to buy Curtis out, including Heidemann. He tells of Lisa's devotion and self-sacrifice, having chosen him. He knew Felix was also in love with her. Mason objects to this line of questioning, and Alvin counters that he is laying a foundation regarding motive, that Heidemann was being blackmailed by Curtis. Lisa asks to be heard, for only she can answer what Alvin wants to know; but she will not testify, for Heidemann is her husband! / Durant testifies that Curtis was to get money from Heidemann. Why did he tell Durant this? Because, says Durant, Curtis planned to replace Heidemann with him. He has no doubt that it was Heidemann performing that night, a genius, and wouldn't it take a bigger genius to impersonate him? // Paul and Perry ask Tony about what he saw from entrance, then Perry wonders about the second bullet making a whole in the tent. They go to Durant's dressing room, look for the missing blanks, and there Perry asks Gilbert if he wasn't angry with Joyce in his office for not telling him about the note, or why she went back to Curtis' office. What kind of guns does he use in his act. Drake finds four blank cartridges. / Mason cross-examines. Durant loaned Judson Curtis a lot of money so he could take over the Heidemann act. Mason challenges him; he did see the note, and took Heidemann's place in the act. Yes, all the pros watched and not one knew it was not Heidemann. He admits driving to Carpinteria and putting the gun there. He did not know the gun was loaded when he went into the ring. He first examined it after coming back from police headquarters. Mason believes he did not kill Curtis, but someone else fired from a concealed place; Franklin. Jerry admits that Curtis was the one who set the tiger on him, so that's why he killed him. He then thanks Lisa for "those four years." He never knew. // Mason's office. Drake says that Curtis was desperate. He'd stolen so much money that an accounting would have shown that Franklin wouldn't have had to pay him a cent. So he had to buy Franklin out. Now Drake has Lisa reveal what only she, he and Perry know; the Franklin marriage was a mock ceremony. Lisa has never been a bigamist. Della brings in champagne.

At the Concert Recording Company, David Carpenter, president, is playing the piano. Or so it seems until the business manager, Andrew (Collis), enters and removes the needle from the record. Carpenter is broke, and has only $910 in the bank. He cannot continue spending as he has, or giving extravagant gifts to his wife, such as the $3,500 he recently spent. His doctor holds no hope of his recovering the use of his hand since the accident. His protege, Donna (Loring), has been offered $25,000 over four weeks to play (rock and roll) at Lake Tahoe, according to partner (Eric) Sturgis. Carpenter says it is out of the question. Collis puts the needle on the record, leaves. Carpenter phones Donna to tell her she must play for both of them and he loves her, and he then drives over a cliff (same pre-WW II car going over cliff is used in other Mason episodes). / Los Angeles Chronicle headline reads DAVID CARPENTER COMMITS SUICIDE. // Anita tells Donna that she must not give up her studies, thensuggests that she come and live with her and offers a key to her house. Donna notes that she's been offered a large contract and will give up her studies. / Eric Sturgis tells Anita Carpenter that the company is bankrupt. She now refuses the $25,000 of which her share would be $5,000. She learns that she cannot collect on the $150,000 policy since David's death is a suicide. Andrew enters, and he and Eric fight over the company and the contract with Donna. Andrew vows to take care of Anita. They leave, watched by (George) Worthington. He introduces self to Anita, says her husband was murdered, for $1000. / In Perry Mason's inner office, Worthington says that he's taking a risk. He tells Mason, Della Street and Anita how the car was pushed over the cliff, and of a second person running away. / Paul Drake and Mason investigate the murder site. Sergeant Binns says that, since the car was on a slope, all one had to do was release the parking brake and it wouldn't need pushing. Drake wonders why the car was coming from the wrong direction. / Lt Tragg tells Mason that Worthington was at a bookies at 5, and the car with Carpenter in it went over the cliff miles away at 5:15. Worthington is brought in, admits he lied, for a few bucks. Sgt Binns' report, however, does make Tragg think in terms of murder. // Los Angeles Chronicle headline shouts HINT MURDER IN PIANIST DEATH. Sturgis admits to Mason that he hired Worthington to go to the police, then brings George out as his own alibi, for which he was to pay $5000. / Donna Ross is at the piano when Mason arrives. Mason points out that Carpenter went to the cliff from her part of town, not his studio, and must have seen in her his only hope for the future. She denies his being in love with her, but unconvincingly. Tragg arrives, ask if instead of Carpenter being in love with her, she was in love with him, and he didn't keep his promises to her. / Anita Carpenter protests that Donna couldn't have done it. Donna is the daughter she never had. Collis enters with note that Donna has hired a lawyer she could afford. / Mason, at a coffee counter, is immersed in a newspaper. Alice, the waitress, asks if anything is wrong. "No, the sandwich was fine." / A Los Angeles Chronicle headline on Mason's desk reading CARPENTER PROTEGE HELD FOR TRIAL catches Mason's eye and interrupts his dictation. Della reports that, under pressure from Anita, Donna has parted with her lawyer who thought she was holding something back, but may be too embarrassed to ask Perry. Mason remembers what Donna was playing, "It was Fidelio, wasn't it?" he writes. / Donna gets the note, asks to phone Mason. / After a long opening statement by Deputy D A Chamberlin, the autopsy surgeon testifies in court that death could have been caused by a car crashing over a cliff, but head injuries were caused by a strike of a flashlight, which caused unconsciousness only, so it was not suicide. Tragg ties the flashlight to decedent. The defendants fingerprints were in the car and on the flashlight, as well as on other items of the defendant including a lipstick. James Gracie, a neighbor of Miss Ross in Sunset Canyon Road, says that Mr Carpenter came to see Miss Ross. When he left, she was crying. Then she got into her car and followed him. Mason has him admit that he saw Carpenter's car leave, but not necessarily with Carpenter in it. Mrs Carpenter says that her husband tutored Anita Ross for more than three years. She denies any romantic relationship between David and Donna. Chamberlin produces a $3500 bracelet, but she doesn't recognize it. She then says that her husband said he was going to buy it for her birthday, which is months away, then changes to their anniversary, but that was a half year ago. It was found in Ross's cottage. Collis says Carpenter began the year with $80,000, ended with $900. He bought Miss Ross's new car, and her cottage, and a $500 a month allowance. Collis discussed the bracelet, Lake Tahoe engagement for Donna and such about 3:30 the day of the murder. Collis admits there was nothing left to manage if Donna didn't accept the engagement. He gave Carpenter the bad news from the doctor. Mason asks if he's in love with Anita. The judge calls a recess. Anita looks perplexed. // In jail Perry chides Donna for concealing her relationship with David. She says she was surprised when, on the day of the murder, she learned that he loved her. She idolized him, and didn't want to hurt Mrs Carpenter. / Back in court Sturgis testifies that he told Donna of the Lake Tahoe offer and she was willing to accept. Did he threaten Mrs Carpenter when she was against Miss Ross' taking the offer? He admits to hiring Worthington to make up a story so that the death would look like murder, so he could share in the insurance money. Did not he tell Worthington exactly how to describe the event? Anita Carpenter is recalled. She admits that Sturgis was blackmailing her. Collis also wanted the Donna Ross contract, but didn't force the issue, as did Sturgis. Mason forces her to admit that she went to Donna's the murder afternoon, but she says she didn't know he loved Donna until it came out in court. Donna shouts out that she hasn't said anything. But it was she who saw Anita at the murder scene, says Perry. He accuses her of telling Worthington what story to tell. Now she admits that, when she stopped his car, he said he wanted a divorce. She got angry and jealous and then hit him with the flashlight and got out of the car. He must have hit the hand brake when he slumped forward. She couldn't stop it. "I loved him so." // The trio are with Donna. They discuss Anita's calculated risk in demanding that Mason defend Donna. Anita did it thinking that he'd get her off and maybe not discover the truth. "Fidelity seems to be the theme of what happened, so this if for you." Donna gives Perry a recording, which she did that morning, of Fidelio performed on piano). He accepts it as payment for his services. She will continue only as a concert pianist. After she leaves, Paul asks if she'll remember . . . to send tickets to her first concert. Perry suggests to Della to ask for four tickets. Paul should be able to find a suitable blonde date.

Perry Mason is looking at flies in his downtown Los Angeles office and Paul Drake is playing with a fishing rod. Della Street interrupts Mason's reverie about fishing in Scotland with an announcement of a visitor. Little Peggy Smith, with her doll, wants to know who she is. The only thing she remembers is "Martha." // Westcroft School headmistress Lorimer tells Mason that Peggy is the offspring of a Swiss bank (Tobler & Sons) and an electronic brain, and is about 7 years old. She arrived at the school in a gleaming, chauffeured limousine. / Della is with Peggy when Perry and the headmistress arrive. The headmistress shows Mason a doll, Maggie. She gets two a year, one on the day before Christmas, the other on the 11th of June. They are all from one shop in Gstaad, Switzerland. Peggy confides in Della that if she could find her parents, she'd show them she wasn't so terrible and they might want her back. / Paul is rushing Perry to get ready for his trip when Della notices that her boss's ticket is not to Scotland, but "Los Angeles to London by way of Geneva." / At Tobler et fils private bank, a Tobler tells Mason that he acts only as an agent. Everything is paid thru a numbered account. When Mason leaves, Tobler phones Los Angeles. / A train ride thru gorgeous Swiss countryside leaves Mason at Kringle's (Gstaad) doll shop. Mr Kringle says that the bank pays for the dolls. Two Miss Osbornes and a man are in the shop, and one of the Misses Osborne takes an interest in the situation, but none know who is behind all this. (We will learn later that the one is Linda, the couple are Helene and Larry.) Kringle explains that now he chooses the doll to be sent. / The Osbornes are at dinner in the dining room of the Gstaad hotel. Mason comes in alone. Helene joins him. Linda is her sister-in-law. She wants to know about the nine dolls. Larry escorts her away. A Swiss waiter reveals that the Osborne's have been visiting for several years, from Los Angeles. / Mason returns to his hotel room to find a doll with its head twisted off, and a note, "this can happen to little girls, too." // Mason paces his room, responds to the phone, which is his call to Westcroft's Lorime. He is not in, nor is Peggy, who left with a woman. / Perry reaches Paul Drake. Della walks in to Paul's office with Peggy. / On a plane, the Miss Osborne who talked with him in the doll shop, Linda, is sitting next Mason. She's on her way to her uncle, Courtney Jeffers. She got as far as the alter, but is not married. Mason, lighting a cigarette, tells her that he felt that he was being followed to the doll shop, by her, her brother and his wife. She's baffled by his accusation. / In the Los Angeles Chronicle "morgue," Drake is looking into past files. The morgue man finds article Margaret Jeffers, "oil heiress, elopes with a bond salesman." She was killed, 6 1/2 years ago, in a Palm Springs crash. / Courtney Jeffers calls for Martha (Benson), his maid. Linda Osborne enters, says her flight was with Perry Mason, which calls forth Jeffers' ire. Butler (Edgar) Benson announces Mason's arrival. Linda leaves before Mason enters. The lawyer tells Jeffers that he has a grand daughter and shows him a birth certificate to prove it. Jeffers is outraged, thinks Margaret's husband Clark Lawson is behind this. / Peggy is with Della and Perry. The two girls go into the library when Linda Osborne arrives. Linda tells Mason that, had Margaret a child, she'd know it. He says there are records. She says they can be forged. He asks, can little girls be forged? Peggy is brought in. She crosses to Linda, says that if she "belonged to somebody, it must be somebody as pretty as you are." Linda is terrified, "don't touch me" is her response, and she leaves, very upset. Peggy is crestfallen. / Helen Osborne and her husband, Linda and Courtney are at dinner in the Jeffer's place. Benson announces Mason, and Linda and Courtney meet Della, Perry, and Peggy. Now Jeffers accepts his granddaughter. / Mason dictates to Della the new will of Courtney Jeffers. Della is so happy she could cry. A call comes from Linda, who is standing over a dead Jeffers. // In jail Linda says Peggy is so alike her mother, which is why she cannot accept her because, on the day Margaret eloped with Clark Lawson, she was to have been married to him! She was stood up at the church. / Deputy D A Chamberlin gives his preliminary statement to the court. Sergeant Willoughby found a button by the right hand of the deceased that is from a Linda Osborne dress. He identifies as the murder weapon a poker with the decedent's blood type and the defendant's fingerprints only. Helen's husband Larry testifies of learning of the new will which cut him out of the inheritance. Helen testifies to her husband's wanting a brandy because "it isn't everyday that you lose nine million dollars." Emma Benson was in the library when a noisy discussion, as Helen called it, went on. Mr Jeffers was determined to have Peggy in the house so Linda could care for her. He told her to pack up and get out when she refused to live in the same house with Peggy. Edgar Benson testifies to another argument, an hour later, between Jeffers and Linda. He heard a thud, then saw Linda going up the stairs, in a robe. // Drake brings Mason the poker from Linda's room. It is identical to the murder weapon. Clark Lawson was killed in Korea. Also, Larry Osborne has drawn $10,000 in cash for the past three years. Della, at Mason's insistence, has tried to locate Tobler in Switzerland, but he's in L A, at a the Sunset Hills Hotel. / Tobler, threatened with a subpoena, says that Constance Osborne, Jeffers late sister and mother of Larry and Linda, created the trust for Peggy. He came to L A to tell Larry that the bank would gladly release all information about the trust if it would save his sister, and he refused! / Back in court Larry Osborne admits to Mason that he was wrong. He says Margaret knew the marriage was wrong two months into it, and kicked her husband out. Still, she wouldn't let her father know. She wanted the estate for Linda and Larry, therefore she couldn't let Jeffers know of Peggy. Mason suggests that he left the broken doll in his hotel room, and Larry knows nothing of it. He was paying $10,000 a year blackmail to Uncle Courtney's man, Benson. Butler Benson calls it a simple business deal. Mason shows him a poker. The murder weapon and Linda's are identical. Can he be sure the robe is one that he saw? No. Is he sure it was Linda going up stairs, or could it have been Helene? Possibly. Helen admits to Mason to putting broken doll in his hotel room, to help Larry. Yes, she knew who Peggy was. Mrs Benson is recalled, and Mason suggests that she murdered Jeffers. He shows her the robe that she wore, the robe having been sent to the cleaners in a vain hope to get rid of the blood stains. She exchanged Linda's poker with real murder weapon, because she knew her fingerprints would be on it. Now Drake's report from the chemist is used. It shows traces of blood on the exchanged poker. She breaks down and testifies that she and her husband knew that they were in Jeffers's will. When he found out how she and Larry had kept him from Peggy, she had to murder him, because he was going to discharge her and her husband, which would ruin them. // At Jeffers house Linda and Peggy are with Della and Perry. Linda says she's going to take a trip, refuses to take Peggy with her, refuses Peggy's offer to live in the home, starts to leave. Peggy stops her, goes to her, and says she just wanted to say "goodbye." Linda stoops to her level, takes Peggy and hugs her.

At 9 a m Lester (Martin) is awakened by a phone call from Sam Crane, who reminds him that he's due in the office by 10. Lester asserts that he is prepared to throw mud in his stepfather's eye. When Lester hangs up, a mustached stranger with a gun takes him to the next room for breakfast, but forces whiskey on him. Lester jumps at his kidnapper, but falls to the floor. // Marge (Fuller) climbs the steps to and enters Lester's apartment. He is not there. She finds an open whiskey bottle, apparently empty She then finds a broken glass on the floor and answers a phone call from Crane, wondering where Lester is. Sam then enters the adjacent office, tells Judson Bailey and Lois Rogers that Lester must be almost there. Crane is reminded by Bailey that his presidency of Martin Boat Company is annually renewed by the stockholders who are he and Emma, his wife, and Lois. Sam points out that he and Lester are majority stockholders but, as Judson notes, that is not enough if Lester is not there. Lois suggests that Crane retire, but he asks for a little more time, and is given until 8 o'clock that night. Lois and Judson kiss after Sam leaves. / The mustached stranger drives Lester into a dead end canyon but, after a brief fight, the stranger flees with Lester firing his gun at him. / Marge gets a telephone call regarding Lester's kidnapping from Sam. He tells her to go to a bar and get a picture of Judson Bailey with the guy who kidnapped Lester. / Bailey is talking with the mustached Mexican stranger, the kidnapper, in Corelli's Bar. Marge makes her photograph and the man leaves. Lois joins Judson and tells him of Marge's taking his picture. / Emma Bailey, on the phone, tells Judson that it isn't fair that he won't be home. Lester, Emma's son, enters and informs her that his stepfather, Judson, just tried to have him killed, and she should be at the 8 o'clock meeting to take back her proxy. She refuses to believe this of her husband. He says he'll show her a photo./ Marge tells Lester that the photo is gone, stolen. / Lester reports on the missing negative and only print, as Perry Mason looks at the gun in the private office. Lester relates his suspicions about Judson Bailey as Della Street takes notes. / At the Bailey Boat Company, Sam joins Lois, then Emma Bailey enters, soon followed by Perry Mason, and finally Lieutenant Tragg, who tells Emma of Judson's murder. // Paul Drake joins Della and Perry. Lester has disappeared. The gun was stolen. No trace of any intruder at Marge Fuller's place. Mason suggests, then, that they backtrack from the murder. / Emma Bailey asks Mason if he's going to help her son, to whom, she admits, she's done nothing but harm. When she called Judson at Corelli's Bar, after the confrontation with Lester, he asked her to repeat every word, and was deadly quiet. He hung up and she tried, unsuccessfully, to call him back. Two hours later, he was dead. / At Corelli's Bar Marge explains to Perry and Della that she recognized fromhis description the man with Bailey. Possibly Lois saw her make the picture. Mason asks her to find someone in the bar who looks about like the man. She does, and Mason has her snap a picture of him with the man. / Mason visits Lois Rogers, who is drinking. He shows her the photo and she says "in this view" she cannot identify the man. Mason confronts her with the other view, namely is there another picture? Now she admits that she stole the picture, for Judson, and saw Marge make it. Judson wasn't upset until his wife phoned. She impersonated Crane's secretary to get Marge away from the apartment and, at 6:30, she gave him the picture at the bar. / Over phone at Corelli's, Paul tells Perry that there was no photo on Bailey's body. / Mason goes to Crane, suggests that Lester came to him and he also asked Marge to make the photo, which has disappeared. Crane tries to eject him. Emma Bailey breaks in with the news that the police have found Lester, in Crane's beach cottage. She sent him there. // In jail Mason lights a cigarette as Lester says Bailey accused him of framing him. He found Bailey already dead when he went with the metal vase to confront him. He was too scared to turn himself in and wanted to find the man. He took the photo from Bailey, hid it in Sam Crane's beach house. / In court Deputy D A Sampson asks Dr Hoxie, the autopsy surgeon, if a metal vase could have caused the death. Dr Hoxie admits to Mason that many things could have just as well caused the death. Sampson asks Lt Tragg about the metal vase. It was held as a weapon. Crane is forced to admit that Lester said he'd "get him (Bailey) thrown out of the boat company even if he had to frame him to do it." Mason cross examines. Had Judson Bailey threatened Crane's position in the company? Yes. Did he ask Mrs Bailey, after her first marriage, to marry him? Yes, and she turned him down. Emma Bailey testifies that she told her husband Lester's story of a hired gunman and that there was mutual hatred between deceased and defendant. Lois Rogers says she had to get the picture for Bailey. When he left her, he said, 'I'm going to take this phoney photograph and shove it down that little conniver's throat." Mason makes her admit that she went to Bailey's cottage as his (only) guest. They were lovers and he'd asked her to marry him and she'd said yes, and Emma knew, but pretended it wasn't so. Around 7:30 p m, says Wilma Stone, she heard a loud argument from Bailey's cottage between Bailey and Martin, and she saw Martin drive away. The judge adjourns court for noon break. Lt Tragg teases Mason who has his right arm in a cast. Perry suggests to Paul that he use central casting to find a man with a mustache and scar. // Mason gets Stone to admit someone could have come and gone without her knowledge. About 9:30 in the morning a man drove away with Martin, just before Fuller girl arrived, who was also there at 6:30. Marge Fuller says Lester lied to protect her. She was at the defendant's house 6:30 to 7:15, leaving the defendant alone. Mason insists that he must pursue the question of the photo. Crane got a phone call from Lester, who was at a service station, telling him of the death threat. Mason asks for a description of the man Lester described, and as Crane describes him, Paul Drake brings in a man fitting the description. Stone jumps up and points at Drake's man with "that's him." Mason recalls Lois Rogers and she admits that the man could have been a stranger to Bailey, and someone else could have arranged the picture taking so that Bailey would be blamed. Crane interrupts, admits that he had to kill Bailey. He had to make Emma hate Judson. In the back row, Drake pays his impersonator his $100 fee! // At dinner, Mason explains to Paul, Della, Lester and Marge that Judson Bailey was outraged at the suggestion that he'd hired the kidnapper, so someone else must have done it. Crane arranged for the man to strike up a conversation with Bailey and for Marge to take the picture. Just then, a photo girl takes the group's photo, and they act surprised. The photo girl apologizes.

Perry Mason is shown red riding boots for Ann by Jill (Farwell). Burt, her former husband, and Rita Conover are to get married. She doesn't know why Ann needs a psychologist, though Ann is upset over, and refuses to adjust to, her father's remarriage. Jill wants Perry to get Burt and Rita to postpone their marriage. / Joe (Dixon) tells Burt that his remarriage is affecting Ann, but Burt says that she'll get used to it. Burt gets a call from Mason. Joe is told to exit. Rita Conover rides up, give her horse over to Rennie (Foster) who insults her, suggesting that the way she walks reminds him of a taffy machine. He asserts that the marriage won't come off. They tacitly agree to be quiet about each other as Joe joins them. When he asks for a moment alone, she slaps him. Rennie laughs. Joe goes to him, takes a pocket flask and drinks. // Rita tells Burt that she wants to get away where they can talk. He brings up his conversation with Mason about Ann. She gets angry, says that any time Jill brings up Ann she gets her way. Rita says that there's only one way to solve this and that is to go to Las Vegas. / At the Fernwood School for Girls, Ann's roommate Kathy (Jergens) practices French. Then Ann enters and says she went for a ride with dad, who's getting married tomorrow. She says that she gets cold inside when she sees him with Rita, and she'll die if they marry. Kathy asks for the red riding boots if she does. Ann asks a favor in return. / Joe, driving Burt's car, blows a tire. He is shocked when he opens the trunk. A police car comes up and a deputy sheriff says that they have a report on him for sideswiping a farmer. He shows them what is in the trunk; Rita Conover. // Lieutenant Tragg interviews Burt Farwell. He and Rita loaded his car between 6 and 8 p m with all needed goods and had sent it to the cabin driven by Rennie Foster. He planned to drive in Rita's car to Vegas, then back to the cabin today. Joe Dixon, having entered with Sergeant Brice, gives his statement to Lt Tragg. It says Rennie went to a movie at 7. Joe explains that he left the ranch several times, once to get fruit crates as ordered by Burt, who doesn't remember telling him. / Jill, after reading the Los Angeles Chronicle headline RANCH FOREMAN HELD IN BEAUTY'S DEATH, asks Burt if he can't do something for him. Why is she so anxious to help him wonders Burt and why is he so afraid is her concern. Jill phones Perry Mason. At police headquarters. Lt Tragg tells Mason that Rita was killed about 11, was struck several times. Joe began drinking in the afternoon and has a rough temper. / Joe says it was natural to pull the knife out! When Mason points out that a lab test showed his were the only fingerprints on the weapon, he gets angry, and Mason notes that he has a temper. He admits to having been in jail for a few fights in Tennessee, always after drinking. He stopped drinking long ago, but took a couple of belts from Rennie because of what Rita was doing to Ann. Joe confuses the time when Rennie told him of Burt's instructions, suggesting first, 8 p m, but Mason notes that Rennie went to the movies at 7, and he defends Rennie. / At the ranch, Paul Drake and Perry seek clues. In Rennie's room, they see evidence of his love of movies, including one now playing with Connie Cole. Mason once handled a case for Cole's agent, so has a trick up his sleeve. / Ann tells Perry she can't help Joe though she wants to. Kathy, wearing the red riding boots, brings Ann a snack. Miss Pennock confides to Perry that Kathy slipped out in her car the night before, and won't say where she went. Mason confronts Kathy in the red riding boots, learns that it was Ann who actually slipped out. / Burt Farwell is angry that Mason has seen Ann, and won't believe that she sneaked out. Mason takes, privately, a call from Drake who has found Rennie Foster by the ruse of advertising a personal appearance of Connie Cole. Not only did Rennie show, but so did Tragg's men including Sgt Brice. He saw two shows, drank, fell asleep, and was wakened by the manager at 10 a m. // In court the autopsy surgeon tells Deputy D A Sampson that Conover died between 10 and midnight. Mason gets him to admit even a woman could have administered the wound. The body was moved between midnight and 5 a m. Rennie Foster describes Joe's confrontation with Rita Conover about 5. Mason goes after him regarding his ability to recall detail, even when drinking. He forces Rennie to admit he's wanted for manslaughter in Tennessee. Mason asks why the D A's office never gave him that information, and Sampson retorts that it is not relevant to the current case. Also, the witness would be partial to the defendant, as they are step-brothers, another fact that Mason did not know. Burt says he left the ranch at 8 sharp, went to the Fernwood School, then went to his office, and went to his club after midnight. He got to the ranch about 10 a m, had to admit the rug men who were redecorating for Rita. He became concerned at Joe Dixon's absence, so phoned police who had just stopped him. Mason, after suggesting Burt would not have made the call if the rug men were not there but would have driven to his cottage with the body, asks if he made the anonymous call to the police that got them to pull Joe over. No! Wilmer Beaslee, a Memphis, Tennessee theatrical booking agent, testifies that Joe Dixon was married to a dozen years earlier to Georgia Hale. She walked out on him, went to New York, changed her name to Rita Conover. // Joe tells Perry and Paul that one day Rita showed up at the ranch, saw Rennie, knew he was wanted in Tennessee, and decided that blackmail was better than alimony. He couldn't tell Burt because Rita could put Rennie in jail. / Back in court, Ann is called, is hesitant, but Jill tells her to just tell the truth. The court clerk swears her in. Ann says Joe knew about her dislike of Rita, and understood. He also said he'd do something about her problem the day that she was killed. Mason asks her when Joe left her at the school. 2 o'clock. Her mother was waiting for her, but she wanted to be alone. She saw Burt in the evening and learned that they were to be married the next day. Mason, by showing her a red riding boot, finally gets her to admit she left the school that evening, went to the ranch to talk to Rita. She wanted to tell Rita what she was doing to her mother, how her mother cried every night. She left her car at the road, walked in. She won't go on and refuses to say what she saw next, then breaks down, crying. The judge calls a five minute recess. Ann runs from the courtroom to a window as Mason and others follow. She says she killed Rita. Mason pulls her down after saying that he can prove she didn't kill Rita. When her mother admits to being at the house, Ann says she saw her mother running away, but Jill Farwell says that she and Rita only had a quarrel. Ann went inside and found Rita dead. She called Burt. Everyone is protecting everyone else. Jill is protecting Burt, Burt Ann, Ann Jill. Except Rennie, who is corralled by the police. // Rennie slipped out of the movie theatre, came back in by an unlatched fire door. He was in the next room when Jill was at the ranch, killed Rita after she left. He also made the anonymous phone call to the police. / Joe lifts Ann onto a horse, and she rides away.

Inside a picturesque yard and house in Upton, mayor (Jim) Henderson is being asked by (William) Carter if he'll head up the crime commission. Mona (Henderson) thinks it a big step up, so Jim agrees to accept. The men leave and Mona phones Tom (Stratton), tells him that the deal is off. // She answers realty speculator Tom's return call during which he threatens a front page story if she doesn't pass on information from the mayor's office. He has $10,000 for her. She arranges to meet him at a the Highway Hotel on 101, or to send Susan Connolly, Jim's secretary, at 1:30. / Mona goes to Susan Connolly to enlist her aid. / Susan goes to the Highway Hotel to meet Tom Stratton. A young man in the lobby observes. / She goes to room 204 where Stratton asks her to sign a receipt. As she counts $10,000, a photographer, the man in the lobby, opens the door and snaps a flash photo. / The photographer, who is also a golf pro, Frank (Sykes) delivers the photo to Mona. She pays him $100, then slaps him, and leaves. / In Perry Mason's inner office Connolly tells the attorney that she kept neither the money nor the receipt. She's worried that Henderson might be involved in scandal and kept from the crime commission. "I wonder what else Mona Henderson has to cover up" was the only thing Stratton said that she remembers. / Mona and Julia (Webberly) are having tea. Mona brings up Julia's finding a surprise hunchback witness in Reno who made her husband Arnold's case, thus accusing her of suborning perjury. Julia is to tell William Carter that her husband is not interested in the appointment. / Paul Drake reports to Perry about Upton's explosive growth and Stratton's buying options on certain parcels of land. Drake suggests that Stratton had a direct line to the mayor via Mona, and getting Susan involved was the way to clear Mona. / Mason arrives to see Mona just before Jim Henderson drives up. They hear a shot, see a two-tone Ford hardtop drive away, and find Mona dead in the living room. / Henderson refuses to talk when Mason brings up Connolly and the $10,000. / The Upton Inquirer headline reads MAYOR'S WIFE MURDERED and then in an article heading the news that "Newly zoned area results in 150 more building permits." // Susan tells Perry she was home all evening, but Mason says he phoned her at 8:30, 9 and 9:30. He saw her car at 8, next to Henderson's. She admits she fired the shot. Mason ask if she is in love with Henderson. "He doesn't even know I'm alive" she responds. / Mason goes to the Henderson's, finds the mayor, Julia Webberly and William Carter. Julia leaves. Carter says Jim shouldn't worry and leaves. Mason confronts Henderson, who still refuses to tell the attorney anything. At the door, they notice Webberly's car. Both go upstairs, find her in a bedroom, looking for a glove. Mason asks if Julia hid it, of if she was looking for it the night before. / Julia goes to Frank Sykes, asks for his photo of the presentation of the golf trophy, with her and a hunchback man in the background. He has copies. He raises the issue of the hunchback witness, sets a blackmail fee. / Mason asks Stratton about Connolly and the money, and Mona. He denies the existence of a photo. Mason leaves as Stratton answers Sykes phone call. Stratton asserts he wasn't in the hotel room, there is no photo, and he won't be blackmailed. Sykes phones the D A. // In court prosecutor Thorne is heard detailing the charges. Stratton categorically denies any business with either Mayor Henderson or Connolly. Is it not strange that he has options on all 14 parcels that the planning board is considering? No. He went to see the mayor, about 7, and only Mona was home. She was expecting Susan Connolly. Mason tries to get Stratton to admit that he went to see Mrs, not Mayor, to get the photo of himself and Connolly. Sykes asserts that Mona came to him. She'd heard Connolly was selling information to a real estate agent. He identifies his photo, then tells of Julia Webberly's finding a witness, who was also photographed, and of suborning perjury. Mason asks that the testimony be stricken until Webberly herself testifies. The judge concurs. Sergeant Ralph Reynolds identifies the weapon, which is registered to Stratton, and cartridges. Five cartridges were in the in gun, one had been fired, seven removed from the box. Where is the missing cartridge, Mason asks. Perhaps two bullets were fired. Arnold Webberly leaves, with Drake following. Mayor James Henderson says that he heard a shot, then found his wife dead, and saw Connolly's car being driven away. Yes, he expected her to be there. // Drake reports to Mason over his car phone that Webberly's been in the house 45 minutes just as Sergeant Reynolds comes out. Mason confides to Della that Julia can go one of two ways with her testimony. / Mayor Henderson says he knew that Susan would be at his home because she phoned him at 7:15. It is ten minutes from his office to home, a half hour from Susan's. Mason asks, hadn't Susan told him what really transpired between her and Stratton? Yes. His own wife had deceived him. Susan thought he did it, so fired the false shot to protect him by confusing the issue. Both Webberlys enter, but prosecutor Thorne rests. Mason objects that he was promised the right to cross-examine Julia Webberly. Again the judge concurs with Mason's position. When Thorne refuses to examine her, the judge calls her. She admits she was frightened, that if the newspapers printed the story, she'd never convince anyone that it was above board. Then when her husband told her Frank Sykes story, she knew all she had to do to get her husband the governor's offer was to corroborate Sykes's story. But Sykes lied. Susan did not blackmail her, but Mona, with the photo. Then she blackmailed Frank Sykes for money. Sykes spoke to Julia about 6 o'clock regarding her photo which included the hunchback. He got it back the next morning, or perhaps that afternoon. But it wasn't there when he and the police were there in the morning, and it had to be after he called Mona that evening. He had to be at Henderson's between 7 and 7:45. He now admits that he went then, demanded the photo and she got angry. He grabbed the gun. She wouldn't believe he'd shoot her. // Mayor Henderson tells Mason, Street and Connolly that he's not available for the appointment, it will go to Webberly. Carter will try to get probation for Susan. Henderson admits that he brought both the gun and the cartridges home. He and Susan leave together.

Donald Fletcher lectures to an audience of the Aitkens Weekly magazines. Wendell Harding gives him the current circulation figures, which are awful, and suggests that (Edmund) Aitken can explain why advertising is down. Fletcher sets a new editorial policy around sex for the three different magazines as Lori (Stoner) uncovers the new magazine covers behind the old. Aitken scalds Fletcher with invective and says "a virus cannot be talked to, it must be exterminated." // At a party at the Fletcher pad, Fletcher is introduced to Alyce (Aitken) by Edmond Aitken, then to her sister Milly Nash. Fletche