PERRY MASON

in

The Case of the . . .

with Raymond Burr

as Perry Mason

These pages updated on 23 April 2008. All episodes of the ninth 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; 247, 254, 262, 267 and 271. Episodes 262, 267 and 271 are on DVD in the 50th Anniversary Perry Mason issue; DVD chapter indices for this issue are in { } brackets. All other episodes of the ninth season 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. Further upgrades await the CBS-Paramount release of the complete Ninth Season in the "Raymond Burr is Perry Mason" DVD sets.

Addition (cover) 27 May 2010

#	TITLE	SHOW DATE
242*	Laughing Lady	12 Sept 65

CHARACTER	ACTOR	CHARACTER	ACTOR
Perry Mason	Raymond Burr	Peter Stange	Bernard Fox
Della Street	Barbara Hale	Roan Daniel	John Dall
Paul Drake	William Hopper	Cho Sin	Allison Hayes
Hamilton Burger	William Talman	Lenny Linden	Mickey Manners
Lt Steve Drumm	Richard Anderson	Judge	John Gallaudet
Terrence (Terrance) Clay	Dan Tobin	Superintendent	Shirley O'Hara
Leona Devore	Constance Towers	Commentator	Michael Rye
Carla Chaney	Jean Hale	Matron	Irene Anders
Dr Darwood Tobey	John Abbott

Produced by Arthur Marks & Art Seid Directed by Jesse Hibbs Script by Orville H Hampton

Women in prison are watching a TV commentator who is announcing a society benefit opening. A blonde prisoner, Carla (Chaney), hears a laugh, recognizes the woman responsible for the crime that has put her in prison. A matron enters to quiet her shouting, turns off the TV, and almost precipitates a riot. // At the Sibyl Brand Institute for Women, the superintendent asks PerryMason if he is taking Carla's case, for the prisoner has been in trouble all her life. Mason only wants to meet her before making a decision. Then he does, and Carla rants about courts and rich people getting the good lawyers. She has seen on TV the woman who killed Gerald Havens, a murder for which she's been blamed tho for which she's not yet been brought to trial. She never gets a break. Mason gets the restraint removed. // Clay's Grille. Clay suggests that Mason is "quite a comedian" when the attorney tells him to never change the menu because "old customers would die of shock." Della Street queries Perry about his taking Carla's open-and-shut case. Who is paying Drake? Who is paying him? Drake enters with Lieutenant Steve Drumm and District Attorney Hamilton Burger, who has pumped him dry. Drake has a tape of the TV show. He describes the dead man Gerald Havens as a "cut-rate journalist" and art critic. Then he quit his job and started living it up, deserting old (girl) friends, and ends up with a knife in his chest. Hamilton Burger joins them to say that in the Chaney case he'd enjoy beating Mason's brains out. Drumm tells them four reasons for Carla's guilt; her juvenile record, she was Havens' girlfriend, her fingerprints are on the weapon and a radio car picked her up running with blood on her clothes. Mason notes that she was picked-up because of an anonymous phone tip and asks what has become of the mysterious missing witness. / In Mason's inner office, the trio watch a 7" open reel Ampex video recording of the TV show. Drake freeze frames on Leona Devore, "The Queen," of Devore Galleries in four cities including Honolulu. // Mason meets the manager of Devore Gallery (Cho Sin), who brings him to Leona Devore, who's been in the far east the past six months and arrived back just in time for the show the previous eve. Mason has admired a $5,000 Oriental cage and a Malay creese. Roan Daniel, designer of the gallery, bawls out the movers for carelessness, meets Mason. Peter Stange arrives. He's giving a benefit tomorrow at his place. Mason writes Stange a generous check. / Della gives Mason photos from Paul, gets sent to pick up some books on China, including Reminiscences of a Horse Marine by Mordecai Rappahanock Terwilliger. Which Mordecai Rappahanock Terwilliger? asks Della. "Senior," replies Mason. / Carla identifies a photo of Devore as the murderer, and Mason points out the impossibility. She went to Havens' bungalow because her landlady left her a message to see him at 9. She found him dead, pulled the creese out of his body, then saw "her." Carla is disgusted with Mason for not believing her. / Reminiscences is being read at Clay's Grille by Mason when Lenny Linden, comedian, arrives with bad jokes. Paul brings an empty martini glass to Mason and Della and puts in an olive with a toothpick,. They are a radio transmitter and microphone! / Stange's place in Vista del Pajaro. Drake is in a truck with a adio receiver. Mason gets a martini, steps aside and replaces the olive and toothpick with the radio transmitter. Cho Sin introduces Dr Darwood Tobey to Mason. A waiter picks up Mason's martini glass. Tobey talks to Della about the perfect acoustic house, in which Gerald Havens was murdered, and which was designed by Daniel. Devore arrives, laughing, with Roan. As the waiter walks away with the wired martini glass, Drake hears the raucous laughter. / Playback at Mason's inner office, but no identification. Della suggests they ask Tobey to help identify the laugh. Drake bothered by how fast Havens came up in the world. Drake produces a financial statement on Devore Galleries. It was a bad situation a few years back; Devore is now only a figurehead. A $10,000 withdrawal from aHonolulu bank, deposited back the next day, catches Mason's attention. // Court. Daniel testifies for Hamilton Burger regarding the phone call to Havens at the house he designed, assuming that it was Carla. What did the house cost? asks Mason. $60,000. Why let Havens live in it? He was a friend. Cho Sin says Havens had not seen Carla for four months, was through with her, and was afraid of her violent temper. By holding a paper which, supposedly has list of her visits to him, Mason shows that Cho Sin was close to Havens (but the paper is blank) and made many visits on many occasions, and replaced Carla in his affections. On the day of the murder, Havens signed a receipt for the $5,000 Oriental cage. Mason asks what the owner thought of this, not Devore, but Stange. Burger objects to this line of examination, and the judge concurs. Mason calls Leona Devore and asks about the $10,000, withdrawn on the day Havens was killed. Mason confronts Devore with his ability to produce the record of her flight to L A and back, 3-hour car rental. . . She admits going to see Havens to try to keep him from destroying everything she'd worked for. Mason points out she had "motive, opportunity, and excellent alibi," but look of recognition on her face stops him from further examination. Burger gets her to say she did not go in to Haven's house, for that she saw Carla through the window. She heard Carla's mad, hysterical laugh, and saw Carla holding the creese. // Devore accuses Mason of ruining her, but he counters that she did it to herself, as well as convict Carla without a fair trial. / The laughing lady tape is played in court. Dr Tobey says it is neither Devore nor Chaney. Stange says he invested to save the Devore Galleries. Roan Daniel identifies the knife, a Malay creese and, from a limited view, the Oriental cage. Mason produces a book, his authority (Reminiscences. . .), to refute Roan's identification based on a variance of the dynasty marks. A report in the book on the Boxer rebellion states that the third cage was blown up by a grenade, so the one in court must be a counterfeit. Burger says the case has become a comic opera. Stange says that the cage is not a fake, but a reproduction, intended to be sold as such. He reclaimed the cage from Havens in the late afternoon of the murder. Mason suggests that "a shrewd businessman" might have counterfeits made, have them authenticated by an expert, market them through a gallery across the country. Mason asks, did Havens discover Stange's operation and threaten blackmail? All this is speculation is the challenge, but Mason says there is a witness who can prove Stange's lies. He now removes the cover from the cage, and a Mynah bird, struck by light, laughs a raucous laugh, just as he did when Leona Devore's car lights hit the cage where it had been left outside by Stange, while he murdered Havens. // Carla wants to be fair, suggests 4 days in court $25, $75 expenses. Della presents Perry the statement of costs, $1,705.40. Mason looks up at Carla; "$100 expenses, 4 days in court at $15 a day, that's 100 and 60 dollars." She has only $10, but pays that, and assures Perry that, when she gets a job, she'll pay the rest. "You're the first one ever to help me in my life, ever, Mr Mason . . . I . . .you're okay." Mason tells Della to send the money to the Police Juvenile Fund, but not in his name. Drake suggests "Mordecai Rappahanock Terwilliger." "Senior," adds Mason.

Patricia L Kean writes her name on a blackboard, then is told (by seer Marius Stone) that she's frustrated and needs a psychiatrist more than an astrologer. Also, she'll get a promotion, soon. She's 35 and deluding herself that an apple-cheeked prince charming will come into her life, so she's turned down an older, wiser man. "First she'll wear a bride's white, then a widow's black." Danger will follow her. She and companion (Beth Fuller) leave the seer. They only "came for the laughs." Patricia is almost hit by a passing car, as Stone stares down at them. // Perry Mason and Della Street enter a hospital, overhear (Daniel) Buckley tell off Max (Armstead). Patricia, leaving the elevator, bumps into Buckley who congratulates her. For what? Nothing. Max tells Perry he can't run the department store from a sick bed. Pat enters and Perry and Della leave. Pat gives Max a whistle, to blow off steam. Max promotes Pat to merchandising manager of Armsteads (over Buckley). / In her new office, Pat chats with Beth, now her confidential secretary. Buckley comes in, quickly departs with a warning to Pat that Max doesn't know the meaning of friendship or gratitude. / New salesman (Gordon Evans) for "Sharon Ann line" shows a woman's suit to Pat, compliments her, gives her the model's scarf, tries to date her, achieves his goal. / That night, Pat and prince charming in a car. / Max gives Pat a string of matched pearls. Max explains it is four years since his wife died and he's lonely. He realizes she's a lot younger. He proposes, tells her to take the next day off and think about it. She confides in Beth that now prince charming has shown up. / Gordon Evans registers at a hotel, asks the desk clerk if Miss Kean is there, then finds Pat at the swimming pool. / Night, at Pat’s LaJolla apartment. Gordon kisses Pat. A telephone call advises Pat that Max has had a heart attack. Gordon angers her, says he needs her, cites their age differences and suggests they keep seeing each other. She throws him out. Buckley at the front desk looks for Pat, then sees her drive away. / At the hospital. Pat admits to Max that she is fond of him, but doesn't love him. Max says so what, marry me. / She does. Della catches the bouquet. Privately, Max tells Perry that his son stole from him. Max leaves him $1.00 at Mason's suggestion, so he cannot contest the will. The last time that Max heard from son Alan he was in South America. Mason suggests contact, but Max counters, "Once a bum . . ." // Pat returns from her honeymoon, is greeted by Beth. Buckley must see Pat. Gordon has sent flowers. / Over lunch Pat tells Gordon to leave her. Gordon apologizes for his behavior. The seer comes in, stares at Pat. / Max has brought Perry a letter from Buckley that claims his wife has betrayed him. Perry advises Max to speak to Pat, but he wants none of it. He is feeling awful, needs pills, won't let Perry call Dr Fisher. / Clay's Grille. Perry and Della are with Lieutenant Steve Drumm. Clay brings a phone to Perry. It is Patricia, who says Max is violent. / Perry and Steve are with Pat when Max comes out on the second story landing, accuses Pat of poisoning him, falls down the stairs, dead. / Mason asks D A Hamilton Burger to release Patricia Kean. The D A responds that he has two reliable witnesses (Drumm and Mason) who heard Armstead accuse her of poisoning him. The autopsy shows digitalis to be the cause. / At the jail, Mason informs Pat that it is the doctored capsules Max was taking that will be the basis of the D A's accusation. She tells Mason of Marius Stone. / Paul investigates Stone's apartment, finds a note (with the number 852 on it). / Paul Drake is told to seek Armstead's son in Rio. Drake shows a note to Mason. A letter about the Gordon-Pat liaison is typed on a rare stationery; customer ten of only thirteen is the Mesa Country Club where Dr Fisher and Buckley are members. / Mason sees Dr Fisher, who says Max did not confide in him. / Mason returns to his office, aware from Della's comment that he is only one who doesn't think Pat married for $5 million. Drake reports that Marius Stone has returned to his apartment after disappearing for three weeks. Della suggests "823" might be a locker number. Drake calls her a "genius." Della agrees. / Mason writes "his" name, "Paul Drake," on Stone's blackboard, below "Della Street." Stone says "Drake' has a personality split down the middle. His horoscope says one thing, his handwriting another. He knows "Drake" is Perry Mason, for the D A got to him before Mason arrived. / Drake reports that Armstead's son has been in L A , not Rio, the past year, and he has found that the number on the note is a locker 852 in a bus station near Marius Stone's place. Gordon Evans enters, identifies himself as Alan Armstead. // Court. Hamilton Burger's opening statement accuses Pat of ambition. Drumm testifies to deceased's dying proclamation, and to the medicine capsules. Dr Fisher says that the dosage inthe capsules was toxic, twice his prescription. Mason has the doctor state the symptoms of digitalis poisoning, then admit that Armstead could have been hallucinating when he accused Pat. Buckley says Pat was "ambitious, deceitful" and "playing around," but cannot name anyone but Evans. Why was Buckley in La Jolla? Trying to get Pat to help him when he has such a low opinion of her? Did he write the vilifying note to Armstead on Mesa Country Club stationery? No. Evans changed his name to make a new start. Still loves Pat. Yes, they were together often, but never after the marriage. Burger gets carried away challenging Evans. Mason passes on cross. // Stone testifies to his predictions for the defendant. Did the defendant laugh at his predictions? asks Mason. Did his prosperity return after Buckley hired him to appear at Mesa Country Club? Mason wants to know where he got the money left in the locker (852), namely, who bribed him to give the specific predictions to Pat, but he doesn't know. He got $1000 for the gag. Beth Fuller testifies to Pat's receiving flowers with note "I can't wait much longer." It was she who told Evans that Pat was in La Jolla, as well as telling Buckley. When she and Pat watched Stone's show at Mesa Country Club she was asked questions about Pat by Stone, and Dr Fisher, who asked if Pat was going to marry Armstead. Evans is confronted by Mason with the fact that the whole affair was elaborately planned, that there was only one tiny mistake. Namely, Armstead's heart attack was instead turned into murder. He and Beth Fuller planned it. Fuller wrote Evans in Rio, put up $1000 that bought Marius Stone, and doctored the capsules. Beth accuses Gordon, and vice versa. Max kept living after the marriage! // Usual trio plus Pat at dinner. A gypsy comes by to read tea leaves. Drake notes that she picked the wrong table!

CHARACTER ACTOR CHARACTER ACTOR Perry Mason Raymond Burr Della Street Barbara Hale Paul Drake William Hopper Lt Steve Drumm Richard Anderson Claire Armstrong Nancy Gates Intern Walter Mathews Wanda Buren Patricia Smith Detective William Boyett Carol Olin Nina Shipman Sgt Brice Lee Miller Ed Purvis Robert Rockwell Old Man Sam Flint Mario Earle (" Tony") H M Wynant Court Clerk Charles Stroud Mark Chester John Napier Steward Russ Whiteman Harry Arnold John Archer Hat Check Girl Bebe Kelly Judge Kenneth MacDonald Terrance Clay Dan Tobin Landlady Kitty Kelly

At the Royal Beach Club, a man helps a couple. A light blinks in the hat check girls office. She motions to the man (Tony Earle, club manager) who enters the private gambling room of the club, where (Ed) Purvis and (Harry) Arnold are arguing. Purvis goes to Carol (Olin), asks her help. She speaks to Harry, follows him out of the building, is rebuffed. (Mark) Chester, hiding in the night dark, pulls out a gun, orders Harry into back a building (Harry's bungalow), where he demands his formula back, so that his girlfriend Claire won't find it missing from the safe. Harry disarms him, offers "Candy Queen" chocolates, calls his girl (Claire Armstrong), and demands that she meet him with cash, or he'll sell to another buyer. // Perry Mason is dictating to Della Street. She's eating Candy Queen chocolates. On the telephone, Mason asks Claire Armstrong for documents from her safe so she can terminate Purvis' contract;. He cautions that "Purvis knows the business, Mark Chester doesn't." / Arnold receives the check, says he wants cash, is shot. / Mason gets a call from Wanda Buren who claims that she is poisoned, then hangs up. Della calls homicide, then Paul Drake, who comes and takes the phone and asks Lieutenant Steve Drumm to find the address for the phone number. Della finds it in the phone book. / 20 minutes later, Paul is driving Perry in his Corvette as they and ambulances arrive at Wanda's, but she moved a few weeks before. Using his car phone, Drake learns from Della that Armstrong is not at home. A man in the crowd asks what is happening, and the crowd is shoed off. They check the driver's records, find Wanda's new home. / Lt Drumm with Sergeant Brice join Mason and Drake to get a landlady to admit them to Wanda's apartment. Wanda is found on the floor. The landlady goes to put the phone back on the hook, is stopped by Drumm. There are Candy Queen chocolates on the table. Brice tells Drumm he has a call from the Royal Beach. / Tony Earle delays a police raid of his gambling room at the Royal Beach. They ask for Harry Arnold. / In Harry's bungalow, Claire, the face on the Candy Queen box, Armstrong rubs fingerprints off a gun as she stands over the dead body of Arnold. Chester watches from the bushes as the police catch her leaving. / At Wanda's Drumm learns via phone that Arnold is dead, Claire Armstrong is in custody. This is overheard by Mason and Drake. // Claire tells Perry that she wanted Mark to take responsibility. Mason tells her that Tony Earle said Harry had her candy formula and she wanted it back. Now she says he got it from her fiance to cover his gambling loan. She found Arnold already dead, took the gun (only Mark could have had it). / Della interviews Wanda who says that she and Claire are cousins. Candy Queen formula left them by their grandmother. Purvis saw the value of the candy, turned it into a big business. Ed began to notice her when Mark caught Claire's eye. / At Candy Queen, Mason asks Purvis about how to poison someone with candy. Purvis considers Chester a chiseling phoney, expressed self to Claire. A couple of girls led him with some chain buyers to the Royal Beach Club gambling room, where he saw Carol Olin with Chester. Carol was Chester's girl before Claire. He told Claire, who fired him instead of Chester. / Drake at Carol Olin's charm school. Does she know where Mark is? She gave him money the previous night, for Harry had cleaned him out. Drake threatens her with a subpoena, leaves. She calls Purvis, warns him she'll tell all she knows if they put pressure on her. / At Clay's Grille, Drake and Terrance Clay commiserate about gambling on horses. Tony Earle arrives, gives Drake a tip about a private cabin where Chester may be. // Court. Lt Drumm identifies the murder weapon. Purvis says the Candy Queen formula is worth a fortune. Della informs Mason that Paul is on the phone, and the attorney gets an adjournment. / Drake has found Chester and is driving to the cabin. / Mason and Drake question him. He saw Claire with the gun over the body, but heard no shots when he approached the bungalow. / Earle admits he was instructed by Harry Arnold to extend credit to Chester. Earle believes extending credit is bad for business; you can't live on high rollers. Why would the owner of an illegal gambling house want a candy formula, how would he know about it, or know its value? "Somebody must have told him." Chester admits to losing money, got credit from Arnold for his "marker," namely the Candy Queen formula. Chester lies about being in or near the bungalow. Mason confronts Chester with his lies, then backs off. // Mason's office, with Della and Paul. Perry tries one of Della's Candy Queen chocolates. Della offers him a "roast beef sandwich" but he takes a piece of candy, then another. / Purvis says he made the company what it is today, his merchandising expertise, her candy. Mason contends a third party is involved. Only Purvis could have told Arnold of the formula. He wanted to buy the formula from Arnold, because he considered Candy Queen as much his as Claire's. He was going to get the formula, then show it to Claire and tell her how he got it from gutless parasite Chester. But Arnold ratted on the deal, hoping to get more from Claire. So he called the police to raid the gambling place. Mason contends that attempted murder of Wanda Buren is related to this case and calls Wanda, who thought it terrible that Claire would release Purvis. Mason produces a new box of Candy Queen, asks her to show the order in which she ate candies the night that she was poisoned. She takes out a cream. Mason suggests she could have been the Candy Queen had she, not Claire, inherited. Next, she goes for a lemon cream, but it is a chocolate mocha. Mason suggests a third; she winces when she tastes it. Mason says he put Verinol in it, yet she tasted five pieces one after another with Verinol without recognizing the bitter taste. Mason has caught her in a lie, for Harry Arnold had talked with Claire "earlier," but it was not so. Instead it was Wanda he talked with. She would have lost Purvis, and a chance at the formula she believed hers, and even her job. Her mistake was hanging up when calling from Arnold's office, because the phone in her apartment where she was found was off the hook. Wanda hates Claire, who's got it all while she loses everything. // On a cruise ship, Claire signs the extension of Purvis' contract for Perry as Della sips champagne. Paul arrives with a gift, a box of candy.

A student sneaks in to the "engineering" building of a college, makes a copy of a paper. Outside a guard notes the light inside, investigates, misses the intruder. He finds instead Dr (Stuart) Logan who has just entered. The guard hears the intruder running away, but Logan insists he do nothing for "next Monday he'll leave his calling card." // At the Chi Beta Sigma house, Perry Mason, (Tanner) college's best-known graduate, is discussing fund raising with the college's business head (Jim Hyatt). Bob (Hyatt) brings in a file. Mason notes that in engineering, Bob's major, there is no bluffing. Bob leaves and Mason cautions Jim that, sooner or later, he must let Bob go out on his own. / Engineering student Bob is being tutored by Van (Fowler) when Myra (Finlay) comes in with a review of "Logan's" book. Logan had promised Fowler joint credit. She threatens to speak to Hyatt, but Van notes that Logan is chairman of his PhD committee. She doesn't want Logan to squeeze Van dry. He promises to see Logan on his return. Bob returns to the room. Joe is sleeping. Joe has gotten Logan's exam (he is the office intruder). They argue over cribbing, for Joe has to "'cause he doesn't have a job waiting for him if he gets bounced out." / Logan returns home and to his wife, who says that the chancellor is retiring. Logan says he'll throw a party before other candidates. Shirley says this is a bad idea, because the place needs fixing up. If men don't notice, wives do. She wants him to notice her, but to him she's a nagger. She'll give the party the following Sunday, but he is out of town weekends. / The test, proctored by Fowler, ends. Bob asks Fowler the formula for sheer force vector, on which his mind went blank. Logan enters, tells students of the theft and his later reordering of the questions so that the key won't fit, but will identify who is to be expelled. Fowler follows Logan, suggests there is more than one way to cheat, shows him the book notice. While Joe, unnoticed, listens, Fowler accuses Logan of stealing consulting fees and the book. Logan points out that he has control over Fowler's oral exam, tells him to return at 8:30 to discuss the student exams. Fowler is fingering a paper spike, which Logan perceives as a threat. On the way out of his office, Logan denies Joe's protest. Bob tells Joe that he must see Dr Logan, and Joe realizes the tests will be corrected by that evening. / At night, in his office, Logan phones "211" as students call for his dismissal. In the hall, Bob drops the papers. Logan investigates, finds nothing. Joe appears in the hall, notes that Bob was returning the exams to Dr Logan. Joe grabs the papers, runs. Fowler, approaching, hears this, but is distracted by a woman in the hall. "Myra?" he calls. Outside, the protest continues. Inside Van finds Logan's door open. Shirley Logan confronts the students who came to "drive their convertibles." In the crowd is a lady with dark shoulder-length hair, observing. Students charge into Logan's office, find him dead with Fowler over him. Shirley calls Fowler a murderer. // Myra bursts in on Della Street's birthday party at the home of James and Mrs Hyatt, with Mason and Paul Drake as additional guests, to announce that Logan is dead and Van has been arrested. Bob arrives, demands to see Mason, is led aside by his father. Dad worries about what his son may have done, instructs him to say nothing, not even to Mason or anyone else, for good people don't get involved. / Jail. Fowler tells Mason and Drake about the confrontation, and admits that he went into Logan's room when the students entered the building. He notes how Logan indicted a whole class for cheating. He realizes how his fingerprints got on the paper spike. / At lunch, Paul, Della and Perry are with Myra who tells them of Logan's buying an expensive negligee "for his wife." Drake reports that Logan had consulting fees, but none in the last three months. Where was he on weekends? Mason asks Myra to get the unclaimed negligee. / Shirley Logan tells Mason that she telephoned her husband to come home. She phoned again, circa 8:30, was told that he'd be home in ten minutes, Jim Hyatt hasn't come by yet, and he has to take care of Fowler. When he didn't come, she went over to the engineering building. She admits she was a nag. She touches the negligee that Mason delivered. During this, Drake has been searching Logan's car. He's found a note "call Jim Hyatt about book." / The trio confer. The car was driven 190 miles over the weekend which, round trip, could have taken Logan to Los Angeles. Mason draws a circle on a map. / Bob meets Joe outside Hyatt Publishing. Joe's not slept all night. Bob says this must stop now. They each accuse the other of murder. / Mason and Drake find (Evelyn) Wilcox in a beach cottage (she is the lady we could not then identify in the crowd that was asking for Logan's dismissal). Drake lights her cigarette. She says she illustrated Dr Logan's book, finished two months ago, hasn't seen him since. Drake and Mason point out that neighbors have seen him there since. Mason confronts her with the sordidness of her weekend affair with Logan. She believed the cheater that, when he got his promotion, he'd leave his wife. She threatens to tell everything she knows about Van Fowler. When Drake and Mason leave, she uncovers a sculpture of her beloved. // Court. The medical examiner shows the D A how the murder weapon would have been used. Wilcox testifies to animosity between Fowler and Logan, particularly over Logan's use of "I" in the book. Bob Hyatt testifies to finding Logan with Fowler over him. And to the arrival of Myra with the book review. He overheard Myra say that if Van did nothing, she would. Myra testifies that Logan's book and Fowler's book are Fowler's. The credit was to be shared. Van did the research while Logan got the fees and, yes, Fowler did go to Logan and demand his rights or he'd . . . Joe testifies to what he overheard, including Logan's threat to prevent Fowler from getting his PhD. Mrs Logan testifies to the phone calls. So far, Mason has not cross examined anyone. Bob tries to speak to Mason, says he doesn't want to be a fink, but is hurried away by his father. Mason asks Della what is meant by "fink." // Bob finds Mason in his school room. He apologies for his generation which got a lousy deal. Bob has heard about truth, beauty, honor, but Mason says that he has none. Mason challenges him with "don't blame your father and don't blame your friend, blame yourself." / Court. Bob testifies to Logan's calling "211," but getting no answer, about 8:15. Ten minutes later the crowd assembled outside. He saw Fowler, heard him call "Myra." As to test papers . . . Joe admits he took them. Bob diagrams where he, Joe, Fowler, and a woman with clicking heels came from and went. The woman could have been in the office before Fowler arrived. Mason recalls Wilcox. Mason produces a telegram, "meet me in my office 8 tonight, vital, signed Stu." So she was in his office, to celebrate his probably becoming chancellor, so they could be together, openly, after his divorce. Mrs Logan cries out "It's a lie . . . " / Shirley Logan says she knew of the affair. She asserts that, when Stuart told Evelyn he was through with her, Evelyn killed him. Mason points out that no one in the hall ever heard a phone ring. Further, her husband called "211," Evelyn's extension. Would he call her if he expected her in his office? No, Mrs Logan sent the telegram, and killed the husband who was going to leave her, trying to blame it on Wilcox. // Graduation ceremonies. The trio, Perry, Paul and Della, observe, as do Mrs and Jim Hyatt and Van Fowler. Bob gets his degree, but not Joe.

CHARACTER ACTOR Perry Mason Raymond Burr Della Street Barbara Hale Paul Drake William Hopper Hamilton Burger William Talman Lt Steve Drumm Richard Anderson Henry Simmons Stuart Erwin Diana Carter Bonnie Jones Helga Dolwig Hanna Landy Bill Vincent Don Dubbins Henning Dolwig Jeff Cooper Mike Carson Frank Marth Addison Powell Richard Webb Harvey Blake James McCallion Judge Brawley Byron Morrow Dr Lund Michael Fox

Sgt Brice Lee Miller Officer Clay Tanner Matron Helen Gerald Trainer Rand Brooks

CHARACTER ACTOR Shelter Man Wally West Terrance Clay Dan Tobin (Dr Morton uncredited)

Perry Mason, in a boat, sees a woman leave (Addison Powell's) house by way of a window. A German shepherd dog chases her. She jumps into the water and the dog follows. Mason helps her on board his boat. She's Diana Carter, and has bottle with a paper inside. Some men on shore fire their guns. // Mason opens the bottle. Diana thinks Addison Powell killed her aunt, Elvira Simmons Powell, but Mason says that the police cleared him. She says his motive was control of the estate. She reads her aunt's note which says Powell was murdering her. Mason thinks the note to be unauthentic. Mason has read some of her manuscripts while she was out, thinks she shouldn't act out her scripts. / Mason joins Della Street at a cafe. She has heard on the radio that the Addison house was robbed of $50,000 of jewels. Mason says he was the "accomplice," and that she had no jewels. / Mason in his inner office. Henry Simmons bursts in. His niece is in jail. He tells Mason his story, including the salvage operation for the boat on which Elvira died and on which was found a note. Mike Carson attempted to salvage the boat, found the bottle, took it to Addison. Simmons "hires" Mason to defend his niece with a cavalier wave of his arm. / In jail Mason interviews Miss Carter. Police arrived, ignored the bottle, which she thinks Addison Powell now has back. / Court. Mason demands Addison Powell must testify about "$50,000 jewels" being stolen, or $50,000 bail should not be set. Assistant D A Bill Vincent tries the case. Mason confronts Powell with an insurance policy that includes a jewelry rider, cross-examines him on specific items. Powell cannot explain what remains, or what was taken. Defendant is accordingly released on her own recognizance. Powell challenges Henry Simmons, "What do you want from me, when will you stop hounding me?" "Never." / Diana asks Harvey (Blake) if there is mail. Henry Simmons tells Diana to take the situation more seriously and stay in her apartment. / The Assistant D A, Mason and D A Hamilton Burger are together at Clay's Grille with Terrance Clay. Burger lectures his assistant / Diana is typing the next chapter. Addison comes to her room. The note, he says, was a forgery he kept only to find out who wrote it. She denies blackmail. He soft soaps her, offers her a legal guarantee of her share if she'll come to his house that evening. // Outside Powell's, a policeman tells a passer-by that Addison Powell has been murdered. Paul Drake speaks to him. A body is brought out, Simmons following. He brushes off Drake, then a passer-by (Henning Dolwig). Dolwig offers Drake a way by police and into the estate via a row boat for $25, to which Drake quips, that's a round trip to San Francisco. A man in a cap (Mike Carson) observes. / Drake gets out of the row boat rowed by Dolwig at Addison's dock. Inside Addison's, Lieutenant Drumm with Sergeant Brice has decided that a hole in the window indicates that a bullet must have gone outside. Human society brings a growling, vicious dog out of the closet. Drumm has Drake escorted out of the house by Sgt Brice./ In Clay's Grille. Terrance Clay compliments Della, then goes to Dr Morton and asks if his drink is okay. "Excellent as usual, Clay." Paul joins Della and Perry, reports that the police are looking for Diana, a .32 caliber gun was found under the victim, that there is a hole in the window and a vicious dog. There were contusions on Powell's right wrist. Della gives Drake the ad he place seeking Helga Dolwig. / Diana insists to Mason that she did not leave her apartment. Lt Drumm arrests her on suspicion of murder. / Mason complains to District Attorney Hamilton Burger that he is being denied access to the scene of the crime. Burger denies Mason any help. As Mason leaves, he meets Simmons with a lady. Did the police find a bottle with a note? No. The lady is introduced as Helga. Simmons takes her to Vincent. Drake reports on Mike Carson, who runs the salvage operation raising the boat on which Elvira died. He's found Helga Dolwig, who runs a rundown fishhouse on the coast. // The trio, Drake, Street, Mason, with Helga who is complaining about her son who is a good-for-nothing thinking only of girls. Drake recognizes him as the guy who rowed him to Addison's. / At Carson Salvage Drake serves Carson with subpoena. Carson gave different stories to two parties, is now salvaging the boat by night. Drake shows a photostat of a check from Powell to Carson, to change his opinion about salvaging the yacht when he reported to Simmons. Drake is then overheard on the phone telling Mason that he scared Carson, but not enough to keep him from the boat. Mason asks him to check if Helga's boy is with Carson. / Court. Assistant D A Vincent is trying the case. Dr Lund admits that he identified the bullet wound as made by .32 from a police suggestion of the murder weapon. Drumm found green paint from the pier and deceased's blood on a skirt, thus connecting the murder victim with the accused. Harvey Blake saw Diana Carter leaving the apartment after a visit by Powell, circa 7:30. He identifies the skirt. Simmons found Powell on the floor, with the dog barking in the closet. Powell talks about a phone call earlier in the eve, from the deceased, in which he was told he'd lose nothing by his administration of his sister's estate. He tried to reach his niece, but the telephone was not answered up to 9 p m, when he left his house. But, notes Mason, he found the body at 10:28. He cannot remember where he was in the 1 hour 28 minutes. Mason accuses Vincent of concealing evidence. Burger interrupts, takes over the case, grants Mason access to the murder scene. Mason has caught Diana in lie, intimates he cannot trust her. // Drumm, Mason and Drake are at the Powell house. Mason stages the shooting with Paul, finds the bullet in the ceiling. // Court. The discovered bullet was fired from Addison Powell's gun which was found under his body. A second .38 was found on the defendant's boat, registered to Simmons, which could have fired the fatal, but not located, bullet. Burger asks Diana be bound over for trial. Mason first puts on a defense. Helga talked to no one about the note in the bottle? Mason gets her to admit she wrote the note. Henning Dolwig, a scuba diver, admits his mother had him take the bottle down to the boat, thinking that the police would find it. Carson found it in the yacht wreck. Simmons was already paying him, so he took it to Powell, for the $1500 check. Mason says Helga's intentions were to bring someone she thought a murderer to justice. He plans a demonstration. / The "vicious" dog is brought in to court and, one by one, witnesses stand before Simmons as he raises a gun towards them; Henning Dolwig, Michael Carson, Helga Dolwig. The dog attacks Simmon's arm, Helga calls the dog to stay, he does, proving she was the murderer. She was one of three heirs to the estate. Addison accused her of blackmail, raised his gun, the dog attacked his right arm, she killed him with her gun, then put the dog back in the closet. Only she could have done this last item. She is unrepentant at killing a murderer. // Diana arrives at Clay's with her first book. Clay reads the opening, which describes Paul Drake. Mason gave her the idea for The Amorous Adventures of Paul Lake, private eye.

(3-1 Title credits) (3-2) Boxing in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Spectator Jack (David) is shouting everything but obscenities at a “bum” in the ring. He has a coronary. Dr (Raul) Caudere, in the audience, takes care of him as his wife (Marilyn David) watches. Jack is put on a stretcher as an ambulance siren is heard. // (3-3) Perry Mason drives up to the Los Angeles Safeline Insurance Company in a white Cadillac convertible. In the company’s offices he is asked by the company president (Reve Watson) to study a 500 percent increase in coronary attacks. Neither corporate attorney (Wallis) Lanphier nor actuary Dennison Groody can explain such an increase. Privately, Lanphier protests to Watson of the hiring of Mason, who “has no experience in our business.” In the front office, Mason is introduced to Doreen (Wilde). When ordered to prepare a kitchen-sink long laundry list of items for Mason, she calmly asks, “anything else?” To which the quick-witted attorney jests, “what else is there?” / Mason is in his office with Groody. Della Street asks if they are “making any progress.” “We’ve been at it long enough to have taken the square root of minus one and made mathematical history” is Groody’s response. notes that instead of 10% coronary deaths, less than 1.8% die under this company's policies, so the company is held to expensive continuing disability payments. Electro-cardiograms are made and regularly repeated of all insured patients. Mason asks for an independent examination. Groody leaves as Paul Drake enters. Mason tells him to look into the situation. All they know is that the insureds “rarely die.” / Drake together with a film cameraman, tape recorder and parabolic microphone, looks into why the insured rarely die, client by client by client. He finally finds one, Jack David, who easily jumps rope and hits a boxing bag. Drake shows Mason his film of this. Mason asks Della to have Dr Chauncey Hartlund bring the "great fighter" in for a re-examination. / Clay's Grille. Terrance Clay proclaims the good health of himself and his County Cork “Corker” ancestors. Lanphier tells Mason that he advised Hartlund not to provide Mason with cardiograms. As to Jack David, Hartlund says he is one of the worst cases he’s ever seen. Further, Jack David has hired an attorney, Arthur Wendell who specializes in personal injury cases. Mason responds that he won’t have his hands tied. / Mason gets a late evening call from a scared Jack David. / 10:03 a m. Mason is at Dr Hartlund's office when David arrives, debilitated. The former boxer falls and dies. Marilyn David accuses Mason of murder. David's attorney Arthur Wendell threatens Mason with a felony manslaughter charge. // (3-4) The film of David is reviewed by Mason and Drake with District Attorney Hamilton Burger. Mason explains the apparent insurance scam. Burger notes Wendel is pushing him to punish Mason, and he cannot move on an imaginary crime. Hamilton is not sure there is a shred of evidence that a crime has been committed. Mason asserts it is murder. Burger says he’ll back him up if he proves it, but it is the attorney’s problem. / The Hall of Justice. Court. Dr Hartlund tells Mason that Lanphier has advised to settle. A court trial might push the company into bankruptcy due to notoriety. During the inquest, Dr Raul Caudere testifies that he uses special physical techniques and esoteric drugs, and that David was on the edge. The slightest exertion could cause his death. “Only complete rest could have saved his life.” The inquest officer requires an autopsy, because Dr Hartlund cannot certify the reason for death, Wendell tells Mrs David that he'll get Mason disbarred, or behind bars. / Mason tells Della to get herself an appointment for a medical checkup with Dr Caudere, a cardiopist, tomorrow. / Lanphier has called a meeting for Watson with Mason, Hartlund and Wendell. Mason will not settle. Wendell walks out threatening a suit. “We are going to play rough. We are going to collect, gentlemen, every cent the law allows.” Lanphier accuses Mason of all possible faults. Mason says that whatever Watson, Lanphier or Hartlund decide, he will continue to fight. // (3-5) Della is at the Medical Center. Dr Caudere is telling her “if only one half of my patiens were in such bloom as you, I would have to close my doors.” He offers Della, who is in perfect health, his health drink Cardsyn. He explains the drink’s “radiation” absorption properties. She drinks a glassful. / Mason visits Mrs David, says someone murdered her husband. He tells her of the film of her husband’s jumping rope. David threw a fight and was disbarred. Jerry, she says, was a “natural born loser.” She is a practical nurse, thought she was getting a husband but ended up with another invalid patient. She called Jerry (Ormond) the morning he died to help settle him down. Mason notices, sniffs, Cardsyn, and pockets the bottle. Marilyn brings Perry her insurance policy, the only good thing her husband did for her. “You should have heard him scream every time he had to pay a premium.” / Della says Caudere's office was papered with degrees, in French. Her heart started racing after she drank Cardsyn. Mason asks Drake to look for fingerprints on Della’s appointment card, then advises him he has disability insurance, backdated three years. / At a construction site. Paul Drake, who has signed on as "Steele," goes to Jerry, mentions he has Safeline disability insurance but never gets hurt. Ormond sends him to Nappy Tyler's for tacos. Nappy, in a wheelchair, arranges for Drake to get disability. / Paul phones Della from a street-side phone booth, but has to take an arranged cab before he can explain more than uttering the name of Nappy. / Doreen tells Lanphier that the "Rod Steele" file was not there yesterday, but he takes charge. / The cab delivers Paul to a YMCA. Drake takes Cardsyn after reading a hand-written note so instructing him that he finds in his locker. He burns the note, as instructed, plays volleyball as instructed, has an attack, asks for Dr Hartlund, saying “poison.” / Court. News and TV reporters are questioning D A Hamilton Burger about prosecuting Mason. Until there is evidence of a crime, he says he’ll take no action. Then they question Mason to no effect. As the reporters try to put words into his mouth, Mason counters with “I didn’t say that.” Wendell enters the courtroom in a wheel chair. The presiding Coroner (tho he has several lines of dialogue, he seems to be not credited, unless he is the “Deputy”) opens the hearing noting that this is to determine if there is criminal cause. Dr Sholby testifies that no "known" drug could have caused the death. Wendell insists an inquest doesn’t allow cross examination, but Mason gets to ask some clarifying questions. Aren’t there drugs that could cause symptoms of a heart attack. Yes, but known ones are tested for. But of ones with similar properties, probably not. Della enters to tell Perry that Paul has had a heart attack, “He’s dying.” // (3-6) Drake is in an oxygen tent. Mason sadly recounts how healthy Paul was and all Paul has done for him over the years, the risks he’s taken, “now this happens, a heart attack.” Dr Hartlund tells Mason that it was not a heart attack, because Paul called "poison" as he fell, so his stomach was pumped and he was not treated for a coronary, or he would be dead. Perry reassures Della, who will not leave Paul. / Mason returns to the inquest. Lanphier is not there. / Lanphier is questioning Della at the hospital, for he's found that there is no "Rod Steele," in 328, only a Paul Drake. / Della returns to the inquest. Drake is okay. She brings Mason the Steele/Drake admission form. Lanphier now wants Mason to handle the Steele/Drake situation. / Dr Caudere testifies that he cautioned David against meeting with Mason. Then Mason speaks to Dr Caudere in French. Caudere quotes a number of cures discovered by non-doctors. Mason identifies the true name of the Dr (Connelly Dunaway) and his fraudulent practice. Mason notes several ways that Dunaway has done patients harm including Jack David’s death. The doctor counters with the fact that no dose of Cardsyn could hurt a patient. Mason notes Steele/Drake is at point of death after drinking Cardsyn. Ormond enters. Mason accuses Miss Wilde of passing on names of heart attack patients to Nappy Tyler and Jerry Ormond. Wendell stands up to assert that Mason has violated Doreen Wilde’s rights by accusing her of murder and suggests she say nothing more. Mason apologizes. Burger seals the room until the inquest is completed. Mason starts his examination with Ormond, low man on the totem pole. He claims he merely signed forms for good buddy Ron Steele and Jack David. Only he was alone with David before the required office visit, as David never went into Caudere’s office, so was the only one who could have poisoned him, notes Mason. Also, he had to get a call from Doreen to know that Drake was a plant and overdose him. Mason shows that Ormond was the ring leader. It is proven by the admission form. Paul Drake was admitted to room 328 and Ormond could not have known that he was "Rod Steele" in 328 unless he got a call from Doreen Wilde. // (3-7) Dr Hartlund says he can't help Paul any more. He’s given up. Paul is surrounded by beautiful nurses. “You’ve never had it so good” asserts Della. Perry chimes in with “No Oriental potentate ever had it so good.” “Just look at me. I’m a very sick man” states Paul with a straight face, then smiles as a nurse starts massaging his shoulders. (3-8 end credits) (51:34)

A man in a 10-gallon hat enters a bank, puts a gun and a large roll of bills into a safe-deposit box, checks out a ring. As he comes out of the bank to his Caddy convertible, he is watched by a young male who gets into a much older car. The man drives into a used car lot, buys a $225 Chevy for a $100 bill, drives it to a farm. A lady inside, Millie (Barton), primps, then goes out and meets the man, Luke Tolliver. He has brought her a bouquet of flowers. // Luke and Millie get to know each other as farm hands watch. They met through computer matching. / Farm hand (Roy) Hutch(inson) discusses eggs with Luke, then answers the phone. Luke finds "felt" labeled "repent or perish" on it. Luke suggests he sell such items. Hutch is upset that Luke is money-mad. He shows Luke his latest felt; "The idols of the heathen are silver and gold." Millie calls Luke to dinner./ In a records office, a young man compares a photo in the newspaper with Luke's face. Luke finds that Mrs Jack Barton's land has no encumbrances. / Lucas compliments Millie's cooking, eventually gets around to saying that he has nothing to offer her, and she is well off. / From a recommendation by Terrance Clay, Tolliver has come to Perry Mason to draw up a will for his (soon to be) wife and self. He is introduced to Della Street, insists that she should prepare wills for him and his wife. As he leaves, we see that the young man has been watching. // Lucas gives Millie a ring. Millie's handyman Roy greets (Alice) Munford, says "to forgive is the best revenge." Why has Tolliver contacted a lawyer? / At the Happy Future Association offices Alice pulls a card from the computer sorter. Husband Guy comes in, is surprised to see her down from San Francisco. She asks if he's ever looked at Tolliver's form. He's been busy. Haven't they made a mistake in putting him in touch with Millicent Barton? They must stop Tolliver, who has thought only of how much the farm produces, and has seen a lawyer. / Alice Munford tells Mason they should never have brought Tolliver and Barton together. She thinks Tolliver means to sue them. Alice keeps cutting off her husband. They want the marriage stopped. Mason gives no comfort. / Tolliver carries his new bride across the threshold as the farmhands watch. / Terrance Clay tells Mason he'd not seen Tolliver since war, and he sent him to Mason. Drake suggests Tolliver is not the rube he acts as. / Lucas invites Perry to come to his wedding celebration the next night. The will has been sent special delivery. Mason instructs Drake to have his Tulsa operative research Tolliver. / Hoedown at Millie and Lucas' ranch. The young man is there, as are Munfords and Hutch, who has a gimpy leg. Luke drops a glass of punch, goes to the punch bowl where he meets the young man, Larry Dunlap, to whom he is stepfather via Cora (Dunlap). This is overheard by Alice Munford. Larry doesn't like Luke's taking everything of his mother's. He's cutting himself back in. / Drake reports Tolliver owns oil wells from a marriage to Cora Dunlap, who died six months after the marriage from eating wild greens. // Millie asks Alice, "what have you done to me," rushes to Guy as a record turns, a glass of lemonade is removed and another placed, and says she knows about Lucas, that he's a murderer. Lucas makes Millie dance; Clay observes. Lucas picks up the lemonade glass, gives it to Millie as Clay stands by. Millie collapses. / Millie is moved into an ambulance. Clay tells Mason that Millie got overheated dancing, drank lemonade from her husband, fainted and, as he looks in the ambulance, is dying. / In the jail, Mason tells Tolliver he can't defend a man that he can't trust. Tolliver says that he didn't want to be married for his money, nor did he know that he had a stepson. Millie has died of mercuric chloride poison in the lemonade. Lucas asserts his innocence. Mason agrees to represent him. / Court. D A Carl Snell is in charge. Clay testifies as to how Millie got the lemonade, from Tolliver, who picked it up from next the record player. Guy Munford testifies that Tolliver required an attractive and well-to-do woman. His wife discovered that their punch cards were not compatible. Why did they stand by when Millie signed the will leaving everything to Lucas? Larry Dunlap says that at the party he told Millicent of his mother's death. Mason asks if he was not disinherited by his mother for his criminal activity, and that was suspended only when he went into the army, from which he has been separated "for the good of the service." Sergeant Woodward investigated Tulsa as well as Springfield, Missouri, where Tolliver married his first wife, who was killed in a car accident, two years before Tulsa. He acquired $60,000 worth of property and $10,000 insurance from this. / Mason chews out Lucas for his many lies. Lucas responds that he tells the truth, sometimes. He takes a home remedy, calomel, to calm his liver. There are no more wives, Lucas assures Mason. / Hutchinson says that Tolliver was only interested in finances. He has a chemical process involving mercuric chloride for making fine felt which interested Lucas. / The medical examiner identifies the chemical as mercuric chloride. Calomel is harmless mercurous chloride, which can become poisonous mercuric chloride in an acid solution, such as lemonade. Alice Munford came down at the request of Roy Hutchinson, who works for the Munfords, who rented the ranch to Millicent. She did not know that her husband had sold the property to Millie for $1.00. Guy is questioned about his knowledge of Tolliver's liver condition. Drake whispers to Clay, here's the bait. Snell tells the judge that Mason has confused him and he needs an explanation. Drake whispers that he's taken the bait. Mason asserts that Tolliver was the intended murder victim, Millicent Barton was hunting his fortune! Munford tells the court that Millicent came to him saying that she was married to a wife murderer. He admits he loved Millicent, therefore wouldn't murder her. Tolliver was the intended victim, and it would look like his calomel had accidentally been turned into mercuric chloride. Guy confesses. // Tolliver thanks Clay for introducing him to Mason over dinner at Clay's. Tolliver has deeded his ranch to Alice Munford. He thinks maybe he should stop by and give her some comfort.

At night a train comes into (Salinas) station, the "Wildcat Special," heading down the coast from San Francisco to Paso Robles and on to Los Angeles via Oxnard and Glendale. (Burt) Payne calls to Ellen Payne as she leaves, and she responds with an emphatic "no." Payne argues with Unk (Hazekian). The conductor calls out "San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura . . ." As an unidentified man (Judson Warner) leaves a phone booth, he tips his hat in recognition to Ellen. Unk and Ellen have to run to catch the train, as Perry Mason comes on the phone and queries, "Ellen?" // Jud Warner and Burt at the train bar, as well as Unk and other team members. Burt berates the Wildcats. Coach (Casey Banks) tells Burt off. Ellen gets pills from the team doctor. Casey expresses his strong feelings for Ellen. Andy (Grant) joins them. Burt sings the school song (to tune of "Far above Cayuga's waters" but the school is the blue and grey) to Ski, who accompanies on the harmonica. Andy tells Ellen that Burt is going to fire him, and she says "I know what I got to do and I'll do it." Burt passes out. Ellen gives pills to Casey to give to Burt. Ellen learns from Jud that Harvey Skeen wants Burt's 10% of her team, and he has money, cash, on him. The train rolls on; San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Glendale. A chemical fire breaks out on the train. // Mason and Della Street learn from Lieutenant Steve Drumm that Burt Payne is dead. Jud Warner is missing. Sergeant Brice tells Lt Drumm they are about done inside, so Drumm shows Mason the aftermath of the fire, including Burt's jewelry with a belt buckle with "P" on it, all they have to work with. / Two weeks ago, Ellen says, she never heard of Jud Warner, but he told her Burt was in some difficulty that could harm the team. Burt had received a down payment. She rationalizes herself into being responsible. She comments that Mason cannot know what life was like before Burt became a rich woman's husband. Her workman enters, then shows Mason out. She makes a phone call to someone with whom she wants to be alone. / Mason finds Drumm one step ahead, as he tries to see Warner. The receptionist calls instead Harvey Skeen. Mason looks at photo-covered walls, then is admitted to Skeen's presence. Skeen says Payne needed money to pay big gambling debts, gave him $200,000. Burt agreed to deliver his wife's consent if Jud would deliver additional $100,000 "last night." Skeen says he has a contract, signed and notarized. Mason notes that this is not a good bargain if the police can't find Warner, leaves, Skeen phones Andy Grant. / Paul Drake reports on Skeen and Warner. The former is clean. The latter earns $40,000, spends $50,000, and is loved by ladies. Unk rushes in, says police have taken Ellen from the practice field and told him that she killed Burt. / D A Hamilton Burger is trumpeting his third narcotics conviction to reporters, gives a "no comment' regarding the Payne case, finds Mason in his office. The attorney asks the D A to release Ellen Payne. Burger explains why, if Warner is part of the crime, he had to have an accomplice on the train after he left it at Glendale. Also, Warner and Mrs Payne were alone together in a motel a few days before the murder. / Mason asks Ellen why he learns more from the police than her, why she was in a rush to get to practice field after he left her. She needed to talk to Casey Banks . Mason asks, to agree on "an alibi?" She met Warner two days before the murder because he threatened to create a scandal. // At Clay's, Drake says that the fire was caused by a peroxide catalyst with no odor, readily available in small quantities. Sergeant Brice commiserates with Della. Drake says Warner made a oom reservation at the motel where the others of the group also stayed, their reservations being made by a Stuart James. Coach Casey Banks who is loved by everybody, loves Ellen, hated Burt. / Coach Banks says he'd say he and Ellen stayed up all night if it would help her. He tells Mason Burt was betting against the Wildcats. / Vegas. Drake calling Street; having trouble finding Jud Warner’s bookmaker. Name of Stuart James has popped up again, so notes Drake to Mason who has just returned. / Court. The judge admonishes against personal exchanges. Skeen says Warner phoned from Salinas. Mrs Frye says that the defendant went straight to the room of Warner at her motel and, when she left a half hour later, he called her "partner." A bartender says that the defendant told Casey Banks to have her husband take the pills. The team doctor says the bottle was nearly full. Mason gets him to admit that it was his decision to give Mrs Payne a full bottle. Andy Grant is forced by Burger, who is accordingly chided by the judge for his tactics, to admit that Ellen told Casey "I know what I got to do and I'll do it." Mason challenges Grant's friendship with Payne. Was it helping him to introduce him to gamblers? Had Grant been told by Burt that he was going to fire him? Yes. Banks identifies the bag of chemicals as similar to the one in the drawing room where the fire occurred. Banks used it to preserve butterflies. Mason has him show that this was common with Helen, picking up the chemical in San Francisco. Drumm testifies that the train left Glendale at 7:05, the fire began about 7:15, and at 7:25 two cars were under surveillance and at 7:30 they were sealed. Jud Warner had to leave before the train left Glendale. Della tells Mason of Glendale car rental by Stuart James. / Unk Hazekian admits receiving chemical bag addressed to Mrs Payne, who whispers to Perry that she didn't order it. In Glendale, he was away from Ellen for maybe ten minutes. This was because the lights went out and he went to look for the conductor. The train left the station, the conductor pushed the circuit breaker and, "poof," lights came on. // Drumm testifies that a match would start a chemical fire. How about a spark? The court reporter reads back Unk Hazekian's testimony about the lights. Mason sprinkles peroxide catalyst around keys and on asbestos. A switch is thrown, "poof" and fire. Drumm admits Mason's scenario is possible. Mason requests a continuance. The judge, annoyed at Burger's tactics, allows it. / The Wildcats' game. Mason and Drake have set a payoff trap. The Wildcats score a touchdown on an intercepted pass, winning the game. As the crowd leaves, Drumm tails Perry, but loses him. Drake watches a payoff, chases the gambler out of the Coliseum. Mason comes out of the trees, the man is forced back into the arms of Drake. Della pull up next Mason's car. The man is herded into Mason's car. He drives away. Drumm and Hamilton Burger order the police to close in on Mason. Della, however, slips away in a separate car. / Burger and Drumm are giving Mason the third degree. Where is Judson Warner? / Court. Mason explains that the crime was committed by one man alone, in desperation. He asks for Ellen to be released, as she committed no murder. Burt Payne is brought in to the courtroom by Drumm. // At a celebration party, Mason toasts "to those things for which there are no substitutes, good friends, happy days, and victory." Mason is toasted as the "twelfth wildcat." [Neither the chase nor the crime are explained. First, the man was hustled into Mason's car and directly out the opposite door and into Della's car. The burned remains with which Burt Payne's jewelry was found was that of Jud Warner.]

The Deputy D A sums up his case regarding murder on a boat by Louise Selff of husband Jamison. Reporter Ted Harberson goes to the phone for rewrite. Back in court, the (first) judge frees Louise of the charge and she is not to be bound over. They leave the court, and Willa Saint Sutton, mystic and clairvoyant, tells Louise that she can get in touch with her husband, again. A flash bulb upsets Louise, as Perry Mason joins her in a car, and comforts her. SELFF HEARING TODAY is the Los Angeles Chronicle headline which is accompanied by photos, Louise's captioned HUSBAND SLAYER. // CLAIRVOYANT IN TOUCH WITH HUSBAND screams Los Angeles Chronicle headline being read by a man-wearing-glasses in a car parked in front of Louise's Tudor mansion. Louise returns with Rosemary (Welch), owner of a heavily mortgaged hotel closed for the season, to find Ralph Balfour sitting in her husband's library, looking to Louise much like her dead husband. Louise tells him that dead Jamison could go weeks without talking to her. She reads some hate mail. / She's still on trial, she tells Mason. Her husband was charming to everyone else, notes Rosemary. It is pouring rain, so Rosemary goes to the closet to get a raincoat for Della Street. Jamison's raincoat is gone. Mason and Street leave. Louise goes into the library where the wind blows thru open French doors. She goes into a small room, retrieves a box from the safe. The door slams shut behind her, and she gets hysterical until Rosemary opens the door. As the French doors are shut, we see the man-wearing-glasses outside, hiding. Louise opens the cuff links box she retrieved. The box is empty. / Ralph and Rosemary tell Mason that Louise is paranoiac and that the newspaper reporter Harberson's story on the mystic's offer is part of the problem. Louise enters, says she's going to see the mystic, who was easy to talk to. Rosemary offers her hotel as a retreat, but that is where Louise met Jamison. Balfour is vicious in condemning Louise for considering seeing the mystic. // Drake and Mason enter Clay's Grille, Perry complaining that Harberson's editor was no help. Drake reports that Harberson never hit it big until he lucked into this story. Clay brings a note from Della, who is at Louise's. Louise has left for Saint Sutton's. / Harberson, Street, Welch and a photographer watch as Louise is admitted to the mystic's private room, Harberson complaining he was to be with them.. The man-wearing-glasses comes to the door, asks to use the phone, goes into a back room, the kitchen. Mason, with Drake, arrives, is challenged by Harberson, whom Mason says has the integrity of a jackal. Saint Sutton comes out to quiet the bystanders. Louise screams. We see a man's image. Louise says she saw, then heard, Jamison. Mason removes a curtain, reveals a dummy, and water on the floor. Saint Simon says this leads to the kitchen, but no one's been there, as the man-wearing-glasses stands in the outside hallway. / Back at the mansion, we catch a glimpse of the man-wearing-glasses outside in the rain. Inside, Louise says her husband told her to look in a drawer, she will find something to pay back the misery he's caused her. Mason finds an envelope, with a letter in Jamison's handwriting. Drake wonders if Jamison is not alive. Mason says either that, or someone wants Louise to think so. / Balfour explains the deal with Arcott Laboratories, a (laser) process, for which Louise has to pay $300,000 for half ownership. Balfour says Jamison treated Louise badly in life, now also in death. / Drake queries (Glen) Arcott about his laser process and gets a demonstration. / Arcott and Balfour argue. Mason points out that any process has risks, and Louise decides that she cannot risk a long wait for return. As the men walk out, the phone rings. Then Louise cries out "Jamison," faints as she drops the phone. // Paul and Perry arrive at Balfour's for a nightcap. He answers, "housebreaker." A letter in Jamison's desk, which he kept, is gone. / Louise is sleeping. Someone covered in black sneaks in, tells her to give Arcott the money. She wakes, screams. Rosemary enters, finds Jamison's raincoat on the bed. / A doctor tells Mason that Louise has had a great shock and should be kept sedated. Rosemary promises to take good care of her. / Night. Rosemary, searching in a drawer, asks Louise "where's the gun." Louise is keeping it to protect herself from Jamison. After Rosemary leaves, Louise pulls a gun out from under a pillow. Rosemary answers a phone call from Arcott, who is anxious. / Louise wakes, sees a man's shadow at the French doors to the balcony, takes a gun to find him. Paul and Perry arrive. A man rushes by them, gunshots are heard, and Jamison Selff falls from the balcony. / Mason sees Louise at L A women's institution. Louise's memory is of Rosemary holding her head in her lap. Mason says she told him that she did not fire the gun before fainting and encourages her to fight back. / Court. Lieutenant Drumm testifies that the bullet was fired at close range. Balfour says he recommended against Selff's taking out a $400,000 insurance policy because of his precarious financial situation. He bought the policy with money given him by Louise from her personal savings. / Clay's Grille. Drake has found Ed Allison, the man-wearing-glasses, who ran away as he and Mason arrived at Selff's. Harberson is joined by a woman, "Just coffee" is the order given Clay. Then Drumm joins Harberson. / Court. An investigator for Interwealth Insurance, (Ed) Allison, thinks the two Selff's were collaborating. Allison has been on the job a bit more than two months, has no real evidence of any attempt to defraud his company. Nor does he know of anything that would show Mrs Selff knew her husband was alive. Mrs STalman, the woman who joined Harberson at Clay's, identifies Selff from a photo, says he stayed at her place five weeks. She recounts overhearing him telephone Louise in a soft voice. He never gave his last name, said he had amnesia. Willa Saint Sutton testifies that on Louise's first visit she helped her find lost pearls that her husband had used as security on a loan without telling her. Jamison burst into her place once, slapped Louise and called her a "childish idiot." Rosemary Welch says Louise woke and saw her husband. She tries to explain away the strange occurrences. // In the judge's chambers District Attorney Hamilton Burger offers to accept an insanity plea rather than continue to torture the accused, but Mason says he rejects all of Burger's assumptions. / Balfour regarded the Arcott deal too speculative. Yet, with insurance money, Jamison could exercise the option, then he could come back to life claiming amnesia. Only Glen Arcott would gain by Selff's not exercising the option. Arcott says that, at the time he took option, he was grateful, but now that he is nearing production, it is not so good, for he's had a better offer from another company. After Selff's death, only his legal widow could exercise the option, and he told no one of his progress. Balfour is recalled, admits he was informed by Arcott via Selff of the progress of the laser process. Balfour did not tell Louise. Mason asserts that Balfour was the collaborator with Selff, but double-crossed him. He is caught, claiming to have shot the intruder in the dark, but Mason saw the lights on. When Selff could not convince Balfour to carry through with plot, he had no choice but to try to convince Louise "from beyond the grave." Balfour set up the dummy corporation that made the higher offer to Arcott. // Clay's Grille. Della's been shopping with Louise and Rosemary, and Clay is holding their collections of half-price bargains. Della calls Clay a misogynist when he says he can understand seances but not women. Della declares Clay a woman hater, and Paul is the opposite, but Perry, he was so nice to Louise. Mason responds with what else could he do for a client who's husband has died twice?

Perry Mason arrives at the Riverdale Raceway where he is introduced to Marge Leonard by Pete (Griston) . He reminds Pete that he should have shown him the partnership agreement before signing it. The agreement makes Pete liable for loses, not just a sharer in the profits. Pappy (Ryan) argues with two others (Rettig and Stone) about his radical design. One, (Harvey) Rettig, built the new gear system which has been declared unsafe. Pete arrives and is, with Rettig, accused of forcing his car off the track on technical grounds so that theirs can win. Pappy accuses the other, the inspector, (Oliver) Stone of selling out. Pete gets into Pappy's car, drives it off to prove how good it is, crashes it, causing the car driven by Blake Leonard to crash and burn. Pappy shouts that Pete will go to jail. // At the hospital, Pete tries to explain to Marge that the car was doing 110 and running smooth as butter, then it just stopped. "Marge, Blake and Pete, that's the way it's always been and it's always going to be" asserts Pete. / Pete tells reporter (Dan) Platte of "Car Racing" magazine that his car was sabotaged by Harvey Rettig, but the reporter won't get involved in libel or slander. Platte leaves. Pete arrives and says that the car lost power. Pappy shows him the bad gear part, which was poorly manufactured, and again accuses Rettig. / Rettig talks to Stone about the D A's interest in the accident, on Pappy's formal complaint. / Mason has a call from D A Hamilton Burger about the warrant on Pete Griston. Paul Drake reports that Ryan shouts even when he says "good morning." Stone is worried sick, says that it was an accident. Della Street reports that she cannot locate Griston. Drake shows photos of the stripped gear which Ryan claims was weakened. Stone says it was bad design. The D A believes it was sabotage. / Pete arrives at the track, tells a bald man (we learn later that this is Marty Webb) that he's not driving the next race. He goes into the shop where the Rettig Special is being worked on by two mechanics, Mitch and Joe. Pete goes into Rettig's office. The other two hear a noise, find Pete stunned, Rettig dead. // Pete tells Perry that as soon as he entered the office he got hit on the head. Lieutenant Steve Drumm asks Griston how Rettig's body got in front of the other body, given the position of the two. Drumm argues how the murder occurred, with Griston as the murderer, faking a head wound by removing the plaster from the earlier accident. As Pete is led off, Platte confronts Mason, and is put down by the attorney. / Mason questions Ryan, who takes him in a race car around the track. Ryan says, yes, Rettig was alive when he left and the mechanics know so because Rettig was calling the telegraph company at the time. / Marge Leonard in her husband's hospital room is questioned by Mason regarding when Platte left the night before, and where was she around 7 p m. Outside the room Drake says that Ryan left about 6:40. The telegram from Rettig saying the deal is off w as logged in at 6:51. An earlier cable from Italy to Rettig stated that the gear principle was sensational! / They visit Stone. Drake comments "money, lots of money," but Mason suggests otherwise. They question Stone about Enzo Pinieri, the signer of the telegram to Rettig. A phone call comes to Drake from Della Street, who says that the gambler and bookmaker Marty Webb loaned Rettig $50,000; but the note bears Pete Griston's signature. // In jail Griston says he didn't know about the note, he signed so many things. He adds that he saw Webb at Rettig's and told him that he wasn't going to drive next race. Webb blew up and said he'd break Griston and Rettig if he didn't drive and win (this last part is absent from the early meeting, where Pete walked away from Webb right after telling him he wasn't going to race). / Mason and Drake meet Webb at his bar. Webb loaned 50 Gs interest free because he was guaranteed a win and he had good odds on his bets. 50 Gs were for Rettig to cover a couple of guys. Who? Webb refuses to answer. Mason and Drake suggest that the D A will come at him with a fraud case. Webb is unimpressed, but another hook has been baited. / Due to Paul's capabilities as a con man, Stone, Ryan, Platte and Webb all have reason to believe that something in Rettig's office will incriminate them individually, so Perry tells Della as they and Paul arrive at Rettig Motors. Inside Della and Perry wait for the fish to bite. Outside, a drunk gets to the phone booth before Paul can signal Perry by phone, as someone is entering the office using a nail file. It is Marge. She has Rettig's personal files, and a gun. Paul arrives, disarms her. How did she get the file? The same way she got it on the night of the murder, by entering the back door. She says everyone knew how to open that door with a nail file, it was a running joke. The three look through the file. Perry finds proof of Rettig's piracy of Ryan's design. Lt Drumm arrives with his police stakeout, and Perry gives him the file. // At his restaurant, Terrance Clay suggests the clam chowder as Perry Mason joins Lt Drumm and Hamilton Burger. The D A explains the evidence, but Mason has different conclusions. / The inquest at the track, with Stone presiding. Webb arrives, having gotten a note that Stone knows nothing about. Mason asks Platte, as an outsider, what he knew, especially about the equipment in Italy. Platte denies any knowledge. Mason accuses him of being a phony. Why didn't he write about the gearbox? Because Rettig paid him off not to write about it? Webb refuses to answer Burger, so the District Attorney says he can bring his lawyer to court. Webb identifies Stone as in on the deal. Mason notes how much Webb would lose on bets, unless the whole race were called off. Stone says his reputation denies complicity. Stone says he needed money from Rettig to keep his home and to keep sponsoring the race. He only knew that the gear was unsafe, which has proven true. Ryan challenges Stone, then says Rettig sent a cable to Italy to call the deal off. How did he know what was in the cable? It was Ryan who sent the cable because he was in the office when the first cable came. The telegraph operator said that the same voice received the cable sent the cable (as we also learned earlier) and left after killing Rettig, then returned by the back door to send the cable. Burger asks why Ryan canceled the agreement with the later cable. Ryan says "he had no right." Mason responds, "you had no right, to kill." // Blake, Marge, Della, Perry, and Paul at the raceway. Paul goes out in a race car with Pete, after Mason says that no payment for his fee is immediately due. The new Griston-Leonard Combine must be solvent first.

It is night at the Royal Gardens apartments, where someone is playing a recording of a piano concerto, while screams are heard. A blonde (Susan Wolfe) runs out of #20 calling for help. Four other apartment dwellers are distressed by the screams, but do not help. Lieutenant Drumm drives up with (Sergeant) Dave (Wolfe), who rushes up the stairs, finds Susan (Wolfe) in a state of confusion. Sgt Wolfe gets hit on the head. A man (Joe Oliver) runs into the room with a candlestick in his hand, gets shot six times, falls back over the balcony rail. The sergeant wakes up, picks up his gun, wanders a bit dazed on to the balcony. He looks over and sees Drumm who has come running (and who passed a car with a musical note on the side, which we will later see at the Hang Up Club), standing over the dead man. // Wolfe is questioned by reporters. He almost attacks one who asks a personal question about his sister. / Paul Drake asks Perry Mason about a Bakersfield case, and is put off. Mason puts off a question from Herb (Jackson). Lt Drumm explains to Mason how he's been assigned to prosecute his friend Wolfe, then asks Mason to defend the sergeant who is quoted in the paper as saying "He had it coming! Somebody just saved me the trouble!" Drumm tells Mason about Wolfe, who was overprotective of his sister, and ends with how they are trained to shoot, in threes, but Wolfe fired six times point blank without a stop, to kill. / Mason cautions Wolfe to put nine years of experience to work. Who, if not Joe Oliver, fired the shots. Joe asks why not consider the four other apartment dwellers. / At the hospital, Susan suggests that it is Hamp Fisher who is dead, then says she swore to Hamp not to tell. Drumm suggests that Dave made up the story. It was Hamp who beat Susan, but Dave found Joe there, saw red, and fired. // Mason says they have three stories, Drumm's, Susan's and Dave's. Drake adds Hamp Fisher to the list, then suggests that Susan might be telling the truth. What was Joe Oliver doing there? The witnesses? They didn't want to get involved. / At the Hang Up Club Hamp Fisher tells Mason he was with Monk Coleman all night. He's seen Susan. She was at the club not long before with a creep from the apartment building, who got angry when she danced the watusi, where nobody touches anybody, with one of the band members. Hamp surmises that Drake doesn't like him, and Drake concurs. Outside, Mason talks with Coleman, who identifies the creep as Ron (Peters). Asked if he and Hamp spent the whole night together, he says only that in court he'll tell the truth. / Paul and Perry come upon Lt Drumm and Sergeant Brice in front of the apartments. Drumm says no one left Susan's apartment after Dave entered. / Ron, who is hiding from the police to avoid further questioning, is pacing. He argues with Linda Blakely over Joe, who paid her bills, and his inability to aid Susan. / At the murder site, Paul, Steve and Sgt Brice. help Mason reconstruct the murder. Drumm tells Brice to post a guard at Peters' door. Perry goes to Flo Oliver, in her wheelchair. Paul encounters author Craig Jefferson in apartment 5 on the ground floor, and learns that Joe Oliver, the manager of the apartments, had guilt over what he did to his wife, cheating on her, and debts with five empty apartments. / Flo Oliver tells Mason that Joe put her in the wheel chair five years ago because of drunken driving. Joe had a temper, threw someone out of a party that Monk Coleman was having in his apartment. // In jail, Dave complains that Mason hasn't yet gotten him out. Mason tells him Susan's story and suggests that Oliver did not beat her. Dave wants out badly, says he's willing to take a chance with a judge. Mason says he won't get a reprimand after firing six shots. If he wants to plead to a lesser charge, he'll do it with another attorney. This quiets Dave down. Mason lays down his law. There will be no guilty plea, they will skip the preliminaries and call for an early trial. / Mason listens to a tape recording of Dave's memory of the event, including a man's voice, the shots, the sound of a gun or something heavier falling on the floor, a door slamming, the crash of Oliver hitting the rail. Drake reports that Jefferson makes book and has 3 phones, and that he learned the following from him; 1. Oliver owed him $2000. 2. Linda Blakely had a battle royal with Oliver the day before he was killed. 3. Oliver fired Ron Peters, who worked to pay part of his rent, the day he caught him in Linda's apartment. / The stage is set. Drake asks filmmaker Arch where he can find Linda. She's a bit part in a commercial, which is ruined by the meringue. Linda tells Drake that Ron is a liar and Joe was lonesome and Flo Oliver doesn't need the wheel chair. / In court, Mason's opening statement Is about the 10 minutes when Susan Wolfe called for help and no one answered. Drumm testifies to finding Wolfe with a gun in her hand. Mason asks what the lieutenant did when he heard the shots. He ran to the courtyard. Could not someone have in the same time left Susan's apartment? What were Wolfe's first words? "I didn't do it, Steve." Jefferson says Susan's phone was out of order, so she used his to call her brother. Which one? asks Mason. Burger objects. Mason continues. Jefferson admits he did demand $2000 from Joe, threatened him with his gun, but Joe took it away. He next saw the gun at the party with Hamp, Susan, Monk, Linda and a girl from Milwaukee when Joe showed up with the gun to quiet them. Then he told Ron, who'd brought him there, that he was going to change the locks. Why was Joe Oliver so angry? Because Hamp and the girl from Milwaukee were hopped up on goof balls. Ron Peters says he heard Dave say that he'd take his badge off and beat up on Joe. His apartment abutted Susan's, so he heard the screams, the breaking furniture, the shots, but he did nothing to help her. / At Clay's Della is reading the transcript of Dave's tape to Paul and Perry. Mason tells Drake to get photos of the interiors of the apartments. / Mason offers Ron a chance to redeem the murder night. // Mason asks Flo Oliver to identify the candlesticks in the photos of the apartment interiors. Two in most, three in Susan's, one in Linda's. She admits she kept Joe from knowing she could walk, because she thought he'd leave her if he knew. She first thought he was with Susan, but he was with Linda Blakely. Blakely cannot account for her missing candlestick, and admits Joe was with her. He took the candlestick with him when he heard Susan's screams. Ron saw Monk Coleman running away, getting into a station wagon under the street light and driving off. Coleman admits Hamp dropped him off on the strip for an hour or so that evening. Hamp admits giving Susan a "going over." He wanted Susan to keep quiet to her policeman brother about his being hopped up on goof balls. He roughed up Susan and knocked out Dave. Ron remembers the blue band coat, a man, possibly Hamp, running out the back door. Mason produces a photo from Ron's back window, proving Ron could not have seen the street light. A photo from the back of Susan's apartment is where he had to be to see the light, after he killed Joe Oliver. He now admits that he killed Joe, then discovered he may have killed the wrong man. He cared, other witnesses didn't. // At Clay's, Susan and Dave, on their way to Hawaii, arrive with Steve to thank Perry who is with Paul and Della. When the couple leave, Steve teases Paul about cutting it close on a traffic light. He leaves. As Della smiles, Paul asks, "What's the penalty for committing mayhem on a backseat driver? Mason responds that he shouldn't worry, "no jury would convict [him]."

In East Berlin, children are playing. The girls march back to school. One runs away to an "American" blonde (Gerta Palmer), who gets into a VW Beetle and drives away. A man (Franz Hoffer, we will learn), who was reading a newspaper at the playground, watches. The car stops at Checkpoint Charlie. An older couple (Prof Hans and Emma Ritter) watch from the American sector. Just as the car is passed by the border guards, a man (later identified as Wolfgang Stromm) approaches, checks her papers, and has the boy's cap removed to reveal a girl. // Los Angeles. The older couple are in Perry Mason's office. He, Prof Hans Ritter, says he'll go back. The Russians who want him, not his six year old grand daughter. Gerta, Prof Ritter's assistant, gets a photo of the girl, and Ritter's wife Emma says that the photo of grand child,Elke, her "kleine maus," is identical with that of a picture of her daughter as a child. Gerta was released on a promise of telling Ritter to return in exchange for Elke. Mason says this is blackmail,and no citizen can negotiate with a foreign power. Emma suggests that Mason negotiate, with the return of $50,000 Fermi prize money as the exchange. / Mason receives a call from Emma Ritter telling him Hans has left for East Berlin. Mason sends Paul Drake to intercept him. / In West Berlin Sam Carleton greets Perry, Emma and Gerta and offers to be their guide. Franz Hoffer bumps into Gerta as she follows the others to the car. / In a park where girls are playing, the matron brings Elke to Mason. He learns from the girl that her mother was taken a year ago to the krankenhaus. Sam, nearby, makes photos. Elke was called her "kleine maus." Mason gives her a gift of a doll, but the matron returns it. // At the Bristol Hotel Kempinsi, Mason reports to Emma that Elke is legitimate. Gerta reports that Franz Hoffer has been located. Carleton "knows of" Hoffer, who deals on both sides of the wall. Hoffer will take Mason to a highly-placed East German official. Drake over the phone reports that Ritter is in London. / Professor Ritter is met at Checkpoint Charlie by Mason, Emma and Drake, and is persuaded, with great difficulty, to wait a day. / Hoffer (whom we recognized as the man, Wolfgang Stromm, at Checkpoint Charlie and the one who bumped Gerta) comes to Mason and Drake, then makes a phone call that is overheard by Sam. He takes them to a small chalet, a safe house, a few hundred yards across the border. Here they meet Wolfgang Stromm, who notes that they detained Prof Ritter at the border. Aside, the matron argues with Hoffer over their agreement. Mason offers the $50,000, is told that this is demeaning to the East German government. Mason counters that they have already demeaned themselves by blackmail. The offer is rejected. // Back at the Bristol Hotel, Mason learns that Emma has left with the money, on the basis of a telephone call to Sam, thinking that the agreement has been reached. Sam says Hoffer told Emma to meet Mason and Drake at the safe house. / At night Mason and Drake head across to East Berlin. Sam, behind them, pulls out a gun. Mason and Drake find the matron, Elke and Emma at the safe house. They also find Hoffer dead with a knife in his back, just as Stromm arrives. / Prof Ritter angry over Mason's interference. / Night, at the cross point. Ritter is determined to cross, and Stromm has agreed to exchanged Elke simultaneously. Ritter leaves, and the girl crosses, but she is not Elke. / Mason confronts Stromm, says he has no honor. Was it honorable to bribe him? counters Stromm, who further berates Mason. A mind like Prof Ritter's is worth what he did to get him, for it will attract back other scientists. / The East Berlin court. Mason is given ten minutes with Ritter only after Drake brings his credentials. The court is conducted in English. Stromm is the prosecutor. The matron testifies to being present when Mason offered a $50,000 bribe, indirectly to Hoffer. Hoffer was excited, ordered the matron to bring Elke. The female magistrate denies Mason the right to offer objections. A German border guard testifies to Gerta and Emma's crossing about an hour after Mason and Drake's first visit, 5 minutes before they returned. 1:40 Mason, Drake, Hoffer. 2:41 Emma. 2:46 Gerta. 2:55 Mason and Drake. Emma says Hoffer went into his inner room to make arrangements for her and Elke to cross back. Stromm notes that a search of the body and the room found no cashier's check which Emma claims she gave Hoffer. She reasserts that she did not kill Hoffer. Prof Ritter goes delirious on the stand. // Back at the hotel, Paul, Perry and Gerta are joined by Sam. He offers to help and, alone with Gerta, says it is hard to believe that Dr Ritter had a breakdown. Gerta queries, how did he know? In an adjacent room, Paul and Perry find Sam's photos in his valise. Paul returns the case, is lied to about the contents. Back with Perry, they discuss loudly publishing their event, so that it will be overheard in the adjacent room. They will take their story to the editor, so that no scientist, knowing how East Germany treated one of the most eminent ones, will come over to their cause. It will be published by the morning. Sam offers to take Gerta to Prof Ritter. The trap is baited. Sam sends Gerta on to the car, makes a phone call to "Julius." Beer hall. Drake reports to Mason that no response has been received, but then a note is delivered. / Stromm is outraged, offers to return Prof Ritter, only. Mason points out that Ritter is perfect proof that no one should give up freedom to return to East Germany. Dogs are heard barking. Stromm says that Mason may discuss the matter with his superior, who is just arriving. Gerta and Sam join them. Mason notes that Gerta told him she crossed the border after they did, but told Mason that she crossed nine minutes before. Gerta admits the she killed Hoffer because he was going to sell out. He would give up the girl for money, when she had worked so hard to get Prof Ritter back. She is taken away, by the police, screaming hysterically. Sam is instructed to call "his" editor, Julius, on the agreement with Stromm. // At Checkpoint Charlie, Sam is given his first interview with Prof Ritter, who returns, lucid, with Emma and Elke. Mason had whispered to Hans what to do in the anteroom of the court during the ten minutes, and Prof Ritter fooled everyone.

At “Tryon Industries, R and D Division,” employees are undergoing fluoroscoping under Paul Drake's direction. Horace Lehigh, Dr Nina Revelli and Dr Maseo Tachikawa are tested. Drake checks Dr Revelli’s ear rings. Lowell Rupert, chief of security, arrives with a protest against Drake's presence. Drake checks Tachikawa's cigarette lighter. / The officers transfer to a car. Drake assures Dr Malcolm Scranton that the chosen room out of three will be secure. / Tachikawa pours a drink, looks out the window, sees Florist truck. Inside the truck, a tape recorder is documenting the meeting. // COLERIDGE ASSOCIATES ANNOUNCES NEW DESALINIZATION PROCESS reads a newsmag article, revealing to Tryon Industries the theft of their desalinization process by Coleridge Associates. Dr Scranton and Lowell Rupert are outraged. The point out that the individuals didn’t know how their efforts would dovetail. They want Perry Mason to file suit for $20 million. When Dr Scranton asks Mason if he doesn’t feel “a certain obligation” to them, as he had recommended Drake to them, Mason agrees to see if there is a case. / Paul wants to know how he was beaten. Drake is sure of the physical security of the room, but not of the participants' minds. Dr Mead (spelled Meade in credits, Mead on his lab door) once worked for Coleridge Associates and “had a thing going with Rhonda Coleridge,” owner of that company. / Nina enters the lab where Todd is working, consoles him, asking him to join her for lunch, but he declines. Mead then accepts being the “probable” one to accuse, but excuses himself from immediate examination by Drake and Mason. offering thanks for being given the benefit of the doubt. / Mead meets Rhonda at a bar. She asks him to return as director of research. She accuses Todd of living in a good world, but in hers you have to be “rougher and tougher and smarter.” He leaves her with “you’re rougher and tougher than I am.” / Scranton points out to Mason that his industry involves musical chairs. Rupert is particularly pleased at his coup in getting Todd for the company, and Todd's integrity is unquestionable. Dr Revelli barges in, accuses Horace Lehigh of hiding a surveillance camera in her room, threatens to return to Milan, shouting “I will not be spied on.” Drake and Mason note that Italy and Japan are the biggest markets for industrial secrets. All the time, Dr Tachikawa is in the background. / Tachikawa arrives at a Japanese Geisha house, the Sashimi Gardens, is told that the property is available for $75,000. He offers $70,000. He meets Rhonda Coleridge. She suggests that he come to her company; and that he might get the rights to market the process in Japan. A geisha goes into a room, asks “something more, noble sir” and is dismissed, as Lehigh records Tachikawa-Coleridge in an adjacent room. Then the Geisha, “Passion Flower,” enters yet another room, where Paul Drake is dining, and reports on Lehigh. / Drake shows photos to Mason, reports that Lehigh has no references. / Coleridge offers Scranton 50-50. Lehigh is on the telephone. He knows who the thief is. Scranton tells Coleridge, “you’re through.” He phones Mason to join him at the lab. / Mason informs Drake of Scranton’s call from an unidentified person. / Mason and Drake join Scranton at Mead's lab, find Lehigh dead, floating face up in a tank. Mead lifts his head out of the water tank. // In jail Mason tells Mead all the evidence that is collected against him. Mead complains that Lieutenant Drumm spent fifteen minutes reading him his rights, and two and three-quarters hours trying to squeeze a confession out of him. Mason assures him Drumm is fair and gave him a chance to call a lawyer. Mead asserts his innocence, relates how he found the dead Lehigh. They know the prosecutor’s case, now solve the other side of the equation. Who could have wanted him dead? Why was Lehigh in Mead's laboratory? What have they missed, overlooked, failed to notice? / Dr Revelli comes out of Lt Drumm's office, tells Mason she cannot believe what is happening. Drumm comes out; “Did his client tell him what Lehigh was doing for the company?” / At Clay's Scranton tells Drake and Mason that Lehigh was an industrial “intelligence agent”/counterspy for his company. That provides a motive for the murder. / Drumm retraces the murder night steps with Mason and Drake. Drumm’s view is that Mason’s client stole the process and Lehigh, who found the proof in the lab, was going to report him. Librarian (Bess) is searching for the original patent files, A100 & A102, checked out to Mead, but they are not there. Mason asks Paul to get a copy of the patent files. // Mason arrives at the Courthouse. / In court, District Attorney Hamilton Burger explains that the case is about a “cold war” involving spies and counterspies, during which Drake tells Mason that even Rupert could not locate copies of the patent, so they've sent to Washington. Tachikawa tells of his relationship, such as it was, with Lehigh. He admits to Mason of meeting Coleridge and paying $70,000 for a house in Hollywood Hills, which is way beyond the means of his $22,500 salary, but not that of his “five extremely valuable patents.” He came to America because of the importance of Scranton’s project. Scranton says Coleridge was in his office when the call came from Lehigh, but he told only Mason. The judge adjourns overnight. Drake notes that Scranton had an anti-bug generator running at full tilt. Mason says that’s it, the “how.” / Della Street barges into Mason's office, and is sssshed by Perry. Paul finds the bug behind a Polynesian mask on the wall. / At Clay's, Drake says he has gotten Lehigh's car and found nothing in it. Mason gives Della and Paul their scripts. / Mason's phone rings. Della answers and the three read from the script, saying Lehigh's investigative report must be in his car, giving its location and license number, and there is no rush to get it; “Relax, Paul. Noone knows about the car bus us.” Paul writes a note to Perry; “This better work.” // Back in court, Mason attacks Coleridge. Burger objects. Mason raises issue of honesty and integrity. The judge admonishes Mason to keep within limits. Now Mason forces Coleridge to state that she purchased the desalinization process from an independent research organization. Mason shows her a thumbnail (miniature bug), a tie clasp microphone, and a spike microphone. She knows nothing of such devices. She tried to hire Tachikawa, Mead, Revelli, but not Lehigh because she never heard of him, he couldn’t be a contributor. When Mason asks permission to show a film, Hamilton Burger pontificates about Mason’s “dramatic interlude” and how the attorney shouldn’t be deprived of getting a headline in the evening’s newspapers, but offers no objection, prompting one of the more famous Mason rejoinders, "The district attorney's generosity is exceeded only by his wit." Mason explains how they turned the tables on the bugger. Drake's infrared photo reveals Revelli, who now admits selling the info to an Italian intermediary for $50,000. In Italy that is not illegal. She placed a thumbnail mike on the only person not fluoroscoped, Dr Scranton. Berger raises the point that Ravelli doesn’t know American law and she should be advised not to incriminate herself. Mason responds that he is not accusing her. While Rupert heads to the witness chair, Drake informs Mason that there is no response from Washington. He's convinced that there is no record of any patents and now so is Mason. Rupert does not know why the patents were not registered; “only Scranton can tell you.” Scranton says that Lehigh was competent and thorough, and he did not object when the camera was put in Dr Revelli's office. Did he check the defendant, and Rupert, as thoroughly? Perhaps he also checked Dr Scranton, found that the patents were not his to pledge to the company to gain financing. Scranton confesses. When he raised the pipe, it was to threaten Lehigh, he didn’t intend to kill him. // Mead, Tachikawa, Mason, Street and Drake at the Sashimi Gardens. They are discussing invasion of privacy. Drake notes several weapons against privacy. Tachikawa says that science will always be a step ahead. Mason says there is only one sure solution, “plain, old-fashioned, personal integrity.” Della offers that perhaps they should all live in cocoons. Paul notes “there's always one thing you’ll find in a cocoon, a bug!” (51:38)

Dusk at the beach. A blonde man drives his convertible down the highway and is waved down by a bathing beauty. He, Stacey Garnett, picks her, Debbie Conrad, up. As they drive on, he suggests that she might be a Teddy Bear in the Golden Bear Club. A ways down the road he stops for an appointment, gives her a business card with a personal note. / At the club house, "something's not right." Garnett takes an antique pearl-handled gun out of the divider compartment and goes inside. Two gun shots are heard, lights inside go out, Debbie runs away. // Debbie tries to phone Garnett, but there's nobody by that name. An older man, Victor Montalvo, stops his car, goes to the phone and starts to dial. He sees Debbie at his car, agrees to take her to town. There's an antique pearl-handled gun on the car floor, with a Golden Bear and VM on it. She takes it. / Teddy Bear training by Beverly Garnett. Photographer (Irving) Florian arrives with props wanted by Corinne (Richland). (Victor) Montalvo's pistol is missing. Montalvo enters, is recognized by Debbie. Corinne tells Victor that Debbie brought in an introduction from Stacey. Reporter Rick Durbin awaits Montalvo, says he saw him pay for a young girl's room in a hotel the previous night. Montalvo recognizes blackmail. Outside, girls pose for Corinne, who ducks under Irving's camera cape. They kiss. Where was he, where she, each asks the other. / Perry Mason's inner office. Montalvo reports the $2,500 blackmail to Mason. He wants to retake control of the club and cannot afford a public scandal. Mason says he probably won't win the proxy fight, then has him sign a blank paper, and give him a blank check. / Paul Drake enters Clay's, as Mason consults with Rick Durbin, who accepts the check, leaves. Paul Drake is told to spread a rumor at banks of a forged check. Terrance Clay delivers fresh coffee. / At the police department. Mason, Drake, Durbin and Sergeant Eggers. Mason points out to Durban that if he is innocent on forgery, he is guilty of extortion. Drake takes a telephone call from Lieutenant Steve Drumm; Stacey Garnett has been found dead from two bullets at Rancho de Oro by Montalvo. // A police car and ambulance are in the parking lot as Drake and Mason drive up. Montalvo and Beverly Garnett come out as Drake and Mason walk up, then Drumm, ready to ask questions. Mason cautions Montalvo, who takes Beverly home. Sergeant Brice brings out Garnett's body and bodily possessions, including a proxy that puts Garnett in the driving seat regarding the Golden Bear Enterprises. They haven't found the gun. / Debbie sees Los Angeles Chronicle headline that reads GOLDEN BEAR CLUB PARTNER DIES IN MYSTERY SHOOTING. There is a photo of Garnett. A Teddy Bear comes in looking for a tranquilizer. Debbie grabs her bag from the girl. She goes to Montalvo, though Corinne tries to stop her. She offers Victor the gun for $5,000, cash, which he gets from his safe. He tells her he's sorry for her. She goes back to the dressing room, gets the gun, wraps it in the newspaper. Corinne tells her to return to the floor, but Sgt Brice, Lt Drumm and other policemen are entering the club. She returns the gun to her box, puts on an overcoat and exits, watched by (Irving) Florian. Drumm asks for the antique gun and, when Montalvo cannot produce it, arrests him. // Debbie returns to her room where she is met by Durbin, who takes $3,000 of the $5,000. / In jail. Young, innocent, that's the basis of the badger game, Mason tells Montalvo, and he hopes that he didn't pay her off. He was going to dial the police when he saw the girl and picked her up. / Drake and Mason are met by Della Street, who takes them to Debbie, who has been beaten by Rick. She says she can't give the $5,000 back. Paul sees Brice and Drumm in the street, so Mason instructs Debbie. Then she is left alone. Drumm and Brice enter Debbie's apartment. Drake and Della, in the hallway, carry the evidence away. / The trio await Debbie's phone call. Drake's report includes the fact that Florian says Durbin worked for Garnett in the past. / In court, D A Hamilton Burger and Mason argue over the availability of Debbie Conrad. Drumm is asked to identify a tire track and fingerprints, but Mason stipulates they are the defendants;. He also stipulates that a special .41 caliber gun was given by the first American governor of California to Montalvo. Drumm then cannot say when the fingerprints were left. There were two other sets of tire tracks, worn and snow tires. And it is only an assumption that the gun was in Montalvo's possession at the time of the murder. Richland says Garnett was the man without culture, brash. He took a fine traditional magazine and turned it into a purveyor of filth. "Montalvo said that his grandfather had used the gun to kill bandits and that it was a shame Garnett wasn't around then." Beverly Garnett says she was present at the "discussion," at which Victor wanted to buy back Garnett's share. She tells Mason she was going skiing,. Her car was having new snow tires put on it, and it was delivered to the Golden Bear at 7:30 when she was not there. Florian equates indoor (girlie) and outdoor wildlife, so what he shot before and then for Garnett doesn't matter to him. Florian was fired by Garnett the afternoon of the murder because he walked in as Garnett was slapping his wife. He identifies the critical pistol in a photo. After using it as a prop, Stacey Garnett took it. Durbin testifies that he took a $2,500 check from Mason to keep quiet about the defendant's being with some girl near the beach the night of the murder. Mason goes after Durbin. Was he near the beach? No. How'd he know about Montalvo? He saw him with a girl in a bathing suit in the hotel lobby, and deduced he was at the beach. What did he think when Montalvo got into the elevator with the girl. I thought I had him, says Durbin. No, says Mason, Durbin was never in the hotel, for Montalvo never got into the elevator. Burger has granted Durbin immunity on the extortion charges. The judge considers ordering Burger to press charges for perjury against Durbin. Mason points out that Stacey Garnett once hired Durbin, but recently blacklisted him and also threw him out of his office. Mason asks for dismissal since Durbin's testimony, now impeached, was central to the prosecution. Burger now wants to put on Debbie Conrad. // Debbie identifies Montalvo as the man who picked her up. She has denied meeting Garnett, but Mason produces the note that got her employment at the Golden Bear Club. She now says Rick set it up. She heard two shots while Garnett was inside, then she ran away. She admits Montalvo paid $5,000 for the gun, which she could not give back. But Burger finds no gun in her case. Mason instructs Della to have Corinne meet him at the club in thirty minutes. / Corinne gets the key, gives it to Mason, pleads Montalvo's case, even as the attorney points out the helplessness of Montalvo's case. They open some hat cases, find the gun, and Drumm takes it. Outside, Brice stops Florian and Beverly. Perry reminds Steve that they thought only the two knew of the proxy, but Corinne knew of it, too, having been told by Garnett just before she killed him. She admits Garnett had the proxy, so she murdered him. // At Clay's, Drumm with the trio celebrate the new Golden Bear magazine, with a real Golden Bear, the State of California's symbol, as its centerfold.

A blonde pours herself a drink, then undoes dress. She turns on the TV to the Bennet Buccaneer show, drops her dress and puts on a robe. She turns up the volume on a Buccaneer commercial, then off. The blonde, Grace (Knapp), makes a telephone call, asks for dough. A buccaneer arrives at her door. She demands money; they fight, he hits her with his hook. Mrs Webb, who has been watching all, calls the police. // The police round up buccaneers. Lieutenant Drumm runs the investigation with Sergeant Brice and several police officers. Mrs Webb said that Knapp paid her the rent from a roll of four or five hundred dollars. Harlan Kean, Buccaneer producer, enters and gives Drumm a list of his buccaneers. Mike Woods bursts in arguing that he's an actor between jobs and knows nothing. One by one Brice reads off the names and asks Mrs Webb to identify the murderer. Charles Stroud is too tall, Michael Woods is about the right size. Buccaneer Tony Polk has over $300 on him and had told producer Kean that he was broke. Mrs Webb identifies him as the buccaneer, because he has a scratched face. / Parole officer Abe Heyman tells Lt Drumm that nothing surprises him anymore and that Polk may have a record but is not a murderer. Drumm notes that all the pieces fit around him. Polk needs a chance to live the night over again. Heyman sees Perry Mason and Paul Drake talking, and knows what Polk really needs. / Polk is angry at everybody, including the guy from the Public Defender's office. Is Perry Mason taking him as a charity case? Mason is there for Abe, not Polk, and is tired of the boy's self-pity. Polk then tells Perry Mason what happened, how the other women were happy to get the samples, but not Knapp. He got the money he had on him from a bookie, which violates his parole, and the bookie'd never admit it. He traded routes with another buccaneer, Mike Woods, which is why he got Knapp. He worries about his wife, Bett. / Bett, clearly pregnant, returns home to find that it has been rifled. She phones Mason . . . who is in his office with Paul and Della . . . A man grabs Bett, hangs up the phone. Della Street is baffled . . . The man demands the $25,000 from Bett. She faints. // He continues to search for $25 Gs. The police arrive outside, with Paul, Perry and Della. On officer sees the man, tries to follow. Della comforts Bett. She thinks that the intruder recognized her. Della will protect her. / At the murder site, Sergeant Brice advises Mason and Drake that Lt Drumm will be done in five minutes. Drake tells Mason that Grace Knapp moved in but three days before being killed, brought nothing with her to the apartment but luggage. They discuss coincidences. / Drake, Street and Mason with Bett read letters to buccaneers. Della reads one about a girl in Waterton and buccaneer Marvin. / Drake visits the Waterton records office. Martin Eldridge was Marvin. Grace Knapp was from Waterton (and something heard only by Perry). Grace was blackmailing husband Martin as a bigamist. Only Mr Kean knows Martin was being blackmailed by Grace. Kean enters and Martin leaves for a retake. Kean rants about Grace, though he did not know her or what she had on Martin. // Terrance Clay greets Paul as he joins Perry, Della and Bett. Paul has been trying to find Mike Woods. He produces a newspaper article that shows that Grace having been a bigamist, too, with Bett's attacker, Clayton Douglas. / Night, Douglas on the road A car pulls up with Martin and Ann as he hides. She gets out, and he drives into a garage, where he is accosted by Douglas with a knife. Martin tells him he gave Grace the $25,000. / Mike Woods comes to a receptionist. He is there to read for a part by Mr Randolph (Paul Drake). Drake introduces him to the producer, Perry Mason. Why did he leave town? Woods suggests it is to get a name, for an actor has to have a name to be hired, whatever his talent. Drake says Mike didn't know any "friends" on the list he switched for. Mike also declares actors are speechless without their lines, leaves. Drake muses "if the police can just pick up Clayton Douglas." / Headline about the start of "Bogus Buccaneer "trial. Court. Mason is worried that Della is not there, as Mrs Webb rattles on. She identifies Mason's client as the murderer. He catches her in use of the hook by the buccaneer. He has her reenact the murder, helped by a buccaneer. Mason proves that she saw nothing, as the hook was blocked by the buccaneer's body, by holding up the hook after the buccaneer leaves. / Mr Kean gave Martin Eldridge $25,000 to pass on to Grace Knapp. Mason challenges. Hamilton Burger gets Kean to admit that it was a check, not cash, he gave Eldridge. He knew where Mason proves decedent lived, but her name was not on the list. / Della and Bett are being held by Clayton Douglas. Della fools him into looking for money under the sink, hits him with an iron pan. // Clayton Douglas testifies. He denies blackmail, but was looking for the money owed Grace. Mike Woods finally admits to being hired by Eldridge to deliver "a surprise." He opened the package, kept the money ($2,500, not $25,000) and switched lists. Eldridge testifies that he sent just enough money to test Grace's reaction. He claims he was doing a location shoot at the time of the murder. Grace, he says, called him just as he entered his house to pick up his script. She was furious. He told her that he did send the money, and she said that the buccaneer had been there. So she was still alive. Now he denies the call. Mrs Eldridge confirms her husband's denial of receiving the call. She got it, learned of the bigamy. She was at Graces, was attacked by a hook, fought back, grabbed the hook and hit Grace, then ran. She's been running ever since. // At a nursery, Bett is shown her baby boy. Terrance Clay suggests that it must be a bit Irish because it looks so intelligent. Abe says it can't be Irish, or it would have been born talking! The baby's three godfathers, including Perry, have gotten together. The lawyer's bill is "paid." Perry Abraham Terrance Polk will start out life free and clear.

A girl in a Ford convertible drives up to Steele Estate, hears a radio from inside. Cut to radio studio where the announcer, Barney Austin, reads a note. He calls writer Lewis Ogden who threatens, over the phone, to sue. Cut to Mason in his Lincoln convertible (top up), listening to the show. Austin dials his boss, (Kevin) Steele, hears two gunshots. The girl almost hits Mason as she rushes away. Mason offers her help, but she drives away. // The girl, Holly (Andrews), stops at Gledhill Academy, looks for Clara, who is gone. It is 1:47. Dan Thorne arrives with a young boy, her son Ronnie, asleep. He tells her that her ex-husband (Steele) was home. He was shot with a .38 caliber gun. / Holly is in a police lineup. Lieutenant Drumm asks a mechanic to identify the woman who brought a car in for repair; . He identifies Holly. Sergeant Brice answers a telephone call from Perry Mason. The attorney is now a key witness in a murder crime. / At the crime scene, Mason identifies Holly Andrews, now a rich widow. Steele was murdered at 12:06, Mason had a brush with her at 12:10. Andrews insists that she didn't touch the gun or even see it. Inside the house, she asserts again that she didn't go in, even though she had a key. She could see bookcases and the fireplace, with a painting above. Now there is no painting. Paul Drake joins them. Andrews takes Drumm and Mason into an adjacent room, explains it shows Steele's ego (it is a shambles), how he had to have everything his way. He had visitation rights but never exercised them. He wouldn't let her speak to another man. Dan Thorne came to Steele with plans for a boy's academy, and Steele found them alone, beat up Thorne, might have killed him had not (Able) Jackson arrived. The room was left as a reminder to her to never be alone with another man. Mason says she's a fool or innocent, and takes her as a client. Meanwhile Drake catches a man with a painting. // It is Abel Jackson, reclaiming the painting for his gallery that he paid $75,000 for and was not paid by Steele, who thought himself a god. / In jail Holly says that Gordon Sellers phoned her to warn her that Kevin was going to get a court order to take her son. She went to the house, got no answer, thought she was too late and rushed down the hill. She heard only the Barney Austin show on the radio. When Kevin first threatened to foreclose on Dan a few months earlier, she went to him, and he took the gun away from her then. She asks Perry to pick up the birthday presents for Ronnie. / Paul Drake asks Dan Thorne about his gun, the murder weapon. Yes, he gave Holly the gun. Steele refused to loan him money. It was after Holly had his child that Steele bought up his mortgage. / Della Street delivers Ronnie's presents to Clara Michaels. She shows Della her invalid husband, Charlie. This was Steele's doing. They were the ones who sheltered Holly so she could have her baby without Steele's knowledge. Steele got Charlie's real estate license revoked./ At the KRMQ studios, Barney Austin is on the air. When the show is over, he greets Mason, chews out the control room man when there is feedback, then apologizes for his temper. They go into his room, "The King, Barry Austin," on the door. He asserts he likes working alone, for everything is his. He plays the tape. Mason wonders if this could have anything to do with Sellers. // At Clay's Grille Drake tells Mason that the painting is a forgery. Gordon Sellers joins them. He started the Barney Austin Show, which Steele stole for his station. Yesterday he discovered Steele was trying to take away Austin's replacement, and that is why he went to Steele's. Steele was going to use a legal petition to deny Holly her child, and Clara Michaels was going to sign it. / District Attorney Hamilton Burger notes that several thousand people heard the murder, before he asks Mason about his brush with Holly four minutes after the murder. He quotes from Mason's police report. Mason answers more questions than Burger wants to hear. Lt Drumm testifies that the police gained access to the house by a key from the defendant. The defendant admitted to getting the gun from Thorne. The medical examiner says that the radio broadcast did not determine time of death, but only confirmed it., "Non-medical facts were conclusive." Jackson says he dealt only with Steele, and he and Holly couldn't agree on the time of day. He tells Mason that Steele stole from him for years. Thorne says he gave her the gun and, yes, she asked for it. He tells Mason that Steele threatened to foreclose on the academy mortgage, and Holly went to Steele to get an extension. Why did the defendant go back the night of the murder? Because Steele was getting a custody petition together. Holly did not return the gun because Steele took it from her, but Burger makes the point that it is only her word. Michaels says she never saw anything wrong between Thorne and Andrews. She never heard of the petition until Lt Drumm showed it to her. Mason wants to be fair to Burger; she told Della Street about the petition, didn't she? Where did she go when she called Thorne to babysit? She went home; her husband took ill. Steele had threatened to take away what little they had left if she didn't sign. She tried to call Steele but got no answer. Yet several hundred thousand people listening to the broadcast heard Steele answer the phone while she was trying to reach him. // Sellers tells Burger that the defendant said she'd tried everything and there wasn't anything left to do short of killing him. After his heated argument with Steele, Steele said he had to leave because of the thing with his wife, son and Thorne. Yes, he admits to Mason, Steele had (again) taken away his star performer. He talked to Barney, but he didn't know anything about it. Mason now asks the court if he may recreate the broadcast, with the help of Sellers and Austin. Austin is sworn in. Mason explains the private radio channel and phone lines, and Sellers enters to play Steele. The reenactment begins and, when Sellers answers, there is the loud screech of feedback. Burger objects. This is not exact, but Mason says that his and Drumm's testimony show the radio at Steele's was on! Mason asks Austin to explain, and he stammers. Burger says everyone heard the murder. Mason notes it was only what purported to be the murder. Austin asserts that he made the call, and Mason says it was not to Steele's number, for Mrs Michaels testified she called it many times and could not get an answer. What everyone heard was a recording on an answering machine at another number. Steele was already dead. Mason dials another number, and gets Steele on an answering machine. Austin asserts tjat Steele was his friend. Mason says even he was to be replaced (by Larry Stevens, Sellers's man). Austin says all he wanted was time, but Steele never bargained. Austin goes down shouting that no one pushes him around. // Clay's at closing. Clay tunes in Larry Stevens on a portable radio, and Paul Drake asks him to turn it off. Stevens's last words, "and remember, please, to turn down your radio."

CHARACTER ACTOR Perry Mason Raymond Burr Della Street Barbara Hale Paul Drake William Hopper Hamilton Burger William Talman Lt Steve Drumm Richard Anderson Laraine Keely Lisa Gaye Miriam Fielding Jeanne Cooper Stacey Fielding George Wallace Jud Bennett Richard Erdman Reed Kavanaugh Russell Arms FAA Investigator John Matthews Judge Telford S John Launer Al Dolby John Goddard Operations Clerk Carl Prickett Ruth Kavanaugh Carol Brewster Process Servier Tom Vize Sgt Brice Lee Miller McGill (Drake's operative) Glen Vernon

At an airport, a Lincoln Continental arrives with (chemist Stacey) Fielding. He asks (Al) Dolby how soon he leaves for Salt Lake City. Jud (Bennett) asks if he can't do the flying, but is refused by Fielding. Al Dolby says that the plane is fine. A cab brings (Reed) Kavanaugh, who prefers to fly commercial. Fielding submits a flight plan, gets a weather report. Fielding takes a drink from a flask filled by his wife whom, he notes, would like to see him dead, as Bennett warns him about drinking and the operations clerk stands silently by. / The plane is in air and the pilot is drinking from a flask. The plane crashes. Newspaper heading; "Noted chemist dies in crash." // Lieutenant Drumm arrives with Sergeant Brice. They meet the FAA Investigator. Jud Bennett volunteers that everything was okay. Mrs Fielding comes to claim her husband's things, but there is little left after the crash. Sgt Brice brings Lt Drumm an object in which he finds Fielding's flask. / Paul Drake and Perry Mason seek Mr Fielding's apartment under "Shelby Farr" name, looking for hidden assets as the attorney for Mrs Fielding. Drake finds a photo of Mrs Farr. She is quite a dish. Mason finds an open safe, empty. Mason suggests they've been set up. / Della Street is on the telephone with Terrance Clay, wondering if Mason is at his establishment, just as the lawyer walks in. She tells Mason that Mrs Fielding has been picked up for murder but has not been booked. / Mason enters the District Attorney's office and, in front of a battery of reporters and photographers, asks Lt Drumm what is going on, why Mrs Fielding has been picked up but not booked. Is she in Hamilton Burger's office? Mason presses the intercom button, tells Mrs Fielding to say nothing and assert her right to have her attorney. Hamilton Burger comes out and Mason challenges him to produce his client or charge her. He does, with murder. // Mason interviews Mrs Fielding in jail. She says large numbers of drugs were missing. Husband said that they were stolen. She is supposedly the murderer because she put drug (Verinol) into her husband's flask, knowing he'd drink during flight, fall asleep and crash. She denies. / Mason tells Drake that the District Attorney, Hamilton Burger, has a case. Kavanaugh is missing. Laraine Keely is Mrs Farr. / The FAA investigator tells of the final radio message from the plane, "sick, awfully sick." Dolby relates the "she'd like to see me dead" statement. Drumm indicates that the decedent died from Verinol. Mason suggests that the flask was probably "passed around" as it had smudged fingerprints over the accused's fingerprints. Drumm admits that others could have handled flask, but the decedent "was last." Bennett testifies, Mason objects, as to the defendant's attitude to him and about missing drugs. Mason qualifies his objection, saying that the body may have been Reed Kavanaugh, who didn't use his airline reservation, not Fielding, who is still alive. Where is Fielding's car, which was at the airport? Burger admits that the dental chart does not match. The judge releases the defendant. Drake warns Mason that Burger is ready to rearrest Mrs Fielding. Mason uses a ruse to go through the judge's chambers and helps Miriam Fielding exit by a back door route. Just as Drumm sends Brice to the judge' chambers to see why Mason hasn't come out, the attorney walks by with Della who the Lieutenant initially mistakes for Mrs Fielding. / Mason enters Laraine Keely's house while she is showering. She is angry to find him there, goes to dress. He finds letters to Mr and Mrs Farr, addressed to the house as well as the apartment of Farr, where he's sent Miriam. Laraine sneaks out while pretending to dress, drives away. Mason alerts Paul via phone to Della and orders a check on Keely's car. // Drake, in Denver at Kavanaugh's restaurant, orders a dry martini and their best steak medium rare. He is told by Ruth Kavanaugh that she hadn't seen him in three years, but he was on the way with divorce papers. Drake calls a process server company. / Night at a Colorado Motel. Drake watches Mr Kavanaugh receive divorce papers from the process server. Drumm joins them, picks up Kavanaugh. Drake pleads for five minutes alone with Kavanaugh, but on Burger's orders, he is denied. / At the Royal Garden Apartments, awoman exits her car, goes to "B-11," asks for Jud. It is Mrs Fielding, who is arrested by Sgt Brice who was waiting outside for her. / Mason and Drake at the airport. Mason tells Drake that Mrs Fielding said Jud lied on the stand. Drake notes "eight trips to Mexico City" by Fielding. The Denver plane is arriving, but Sgt Brice bars Mason and Drake, admitting only the authorized press. Burger struts in with Kavanaugh. Drake's operative, posing as a press photographer, hands Kavanaugh a summons to appear as a defense witness! / Back in court, Burger berates Mason with "vituperative personal recrimination." Drumm located Reed Kavanaugh in Denver, but he has "escaped" from a hotel room where the D A was holding him! The judge gives Burger 48 hours to find him. Court takes a short recess. Drake reports that, as expected, Laraine Farr sold her car, but gave a third address, in Modesto. // Drake and Mason arrive in Modesto, watched by someone in a car. Miss Keely answers Mason's knock. He tells her that her actions of the past few weeks have been part of "a plan for a happy future." The plan would leave her with lifelong guilt. Paul and Perry leave in a cab. The man watching goes to the house. / Again in court. Kavanaugh has been picked up at the state border, with Laraine Keely. When they enter, it is Mr Fielding, not Kavanaugh. In chambers, Mason asks Fielding questions. It turns out that Fielding suffered no effect when drinking from flask. Fielding and Kavanaugh drove to Salt Lake City to have time to discuss plans, while Jud Bennett flew the plane. In Las Vegas, he learned of his "death" from the papers. He admits to taking advantage of a fortunate circumstance to change his life and disappear as Mr & Mrs Shelby Farr. Then he learned that Jud Bennett was alive. / Jud Bennett is taken into chambers. In the courtroom, Kavanaugh goes to Mrs Fielding, says that he, Fielding, with Laraine "worked it all out." In chambers Mason gets Bennett to say that the dead man was Al Dolby who stole the drugs and that the drug business was over as Mrs Fielding had caught on. Since Dolby didn't want to stop, he killed him. // Paul joins Perry and Della, protests the denial of his miscellaneous expenses, $175.18. Mason tells Della that the miscellaneous charges even without vouchers are always acceptable. Della teases that it was the 18¢ she worried about. Paul confesses it was for a set of golf clubs. Mason instructs Della to pay him, it is cheap, for he might have charged a new convertible. Lt Drumm arrives with ten tickets for the Police Department's Child Guardian Fund. Paul says this is the best fund to support, so Mason hands Drumm a generous check, and Mason takes Paul's expense check and gives it to Drumm as the detective's offering, as he gives him one ticket.

The Championship Playoff Round at the Pine Hills Country Club. Jim Harrell is one stroke ahead of his boss, Chick Farley, at the 17th hole, as the announcer calls the match. Alma Farley is worried, as the club manager confides in her. At the 19th hole, Dina (Brandt) tells husband Erwin that she'd prefer to be out with the gallery and he could use the walking. After a great drive, Jim informs Chick of a problem off the fairway, and Chick has the golf official call a two-stroke penalty. Back at 19, listening to the radio, Erwin doesn't like Chick's trick, that he's wrong for the club. Jim misses a long putt, Chick sinks his and wins. Alma tells the announcer that her husband's win is the best since she won a woman's tournament at 17. A photographer brushes her aside. Then Pat (Patterson) asks Chick for the papers that he needs for a report, and Chick demands $3000. // Alma looks at her trophy. Pat arrives for a meeting, but Chick is not there. Alma, a bit tipsy from martinis suggests that she's going to get back into golf. Pat asks her to help find the papers. She finds a key in one of Chick's jackets, but the papers are not in the drawer. Pat leaves. Alma finds a love note from Chick's mistress in his coat pocket. / Patterson thanks Perry Mason for his help with the tournament banquet, then asks anonymously about blackmail. Mason suggests the police. / Jim instructs Erwin Brandt about his putting. Pat asks Jim if he's seen Chick. No. / District Attorney Hamilton Burger arrives at the banquet. In the locker room, Chick is getting dressed. He congratulates Jim on being second, gives him advice on being hard if he wants to be #1. Jim shows him Pro Shop inventory $3000 shortage. Chick notes that the shortage is two weeks ago, so he'll blame Jimmy. Jim tries to stop Chick's exit, is hit. Denny (Bright) observes, and Erwin stops Jim from retaliating. / Chick asks Denny if he's ready to take over Jimmy's job and cautions him not to reveal he was with Rosalie. Alma confronts Chick over his affair. Why doesn't he leave? Because it was her reputation and money that got him back into golf. She threatens to get him. // Chick arrives at the banquet with Alma; Hamilton Burger presents the trophy and $2000 cash. Patterson announces tht Chick is welcomed back to the pro money tour. Chick takes Alma outside, tells her to get out of his sight, goes back to Pat and tells him he's pulled a fast one. They'll meet in Pat's office in 15 minutes. Chick cuts in on Dina, tells her he wants her to go on the tour. She brushes him off big time, saying she did it for her own ego, but couldn't go with him if he looked like Cary Grant and owned Fort Knox, as husband Erwin watches. Chick grabs her, kisses her. Dina slaps Chick slaps Dina. Erwin confronts Chick, then is tossed into the pond as Denny and Jimmy and the partygoers watch, most laughing. / Pat, in his office, reminds Chick that the only reason that the club hired and kept him was his wife Alma and her reputation and money. He'll have him removed as the pro. Chick threatens to reveal Pat's deposits in his personal account from Hedrick Construction Company regarding the wing addition to the club. He demands $5000 to leave. / Denny enters a practice room and asks Chick for his caddy's 10% of the prize money. He is rebuffed and threatened. In the background a P A calls for Denny Bright. / Outside, Dina paces, then asks Denny if he'll help her find her husband. Is Chick alone? / Burger answers a telephone call from Chick, who says he's being threatened, is then hit over head. The assailant places the phone back on the hook, then puts a sand wedge on the body. Burger calls the police. / Denny watches as Dina gets in a car, is joined by Erwin. They drive away as the police arrive, only to meet Jim Harrell walking out of the office where Chick lies dead. // Mason in his inner office is looking at a Los Angeles Chronicle headline; PINE HILL PRO MURDERED. $2500 arrives, with a note, for the defense of Jimmy Harrell, and Della Street says that it is from female contributors. / At a bar, Mason asks Hamilton Burger and Lieutenant Drumm who might be putting up the money. Hamilton admits it is a hard case, for everyone likes Jimmy. Drumm is convinced that he's guilty. / Jim says it was his club, but he didn't use it. He went to Chick, since he had no way of proving him guilty, to say he'd use his second-prize money to cover the shortage. Says he cannot afford Mason, so Perry produces the note re $2500. Jim says it is the same as he's received earlier, signed "Rosalind." She paid his tournament entry fee of $150. / Mason learns from Denny Bright that Chick was at Rosalie's the day he didn't show up at the club after winning the tournament. The P A pages Mason. Pat overhears a bit of the previous. Drake, at the P A operator's room, tells Mason he has been unable to find any Rosalind, or any members who contributed to the defense fund. / Paul visits Rosalie, who says Chick was charming. He was on tab to the tune of $3000, but paid it off a few weeks back, in cash. Denny was the only one who came with Chick, but that was stopped, because Denny has a record. / Drake reports on Rosalie. He picked up an envelope in Jimmy's apartment. Della says that its perfume is the same as Rosalind's letter. / In court Lt Drumm testifies as to the cause of death, Jim's sand wedge. Denny testifies to the strained relation between the defendant and the deceased. With Bill Vincent doing the questioning, Hamilton Burger testifies regarding the phone call. He tries to explain the call regarding the defendant, but Mason points out that he knows the time of the murder, not the connection of any sort to who did it. Patterson testifies to the shortage in Pro Shop. Did Chick give him the $2000 prize for safekeeping? No. As Pat leaves the stand for recess, Mason asks him about a "friend's" blackmail, and is assured it has no bearing on the case. Drake informs Mason he's found Rosalind. // A butler leads Perry, Paul and Della to Mrs Hedrick, a charter member of the Pine Hills Country Club, who admits to the payments, because Jimmy is honest and treats her nicely. She learned of the murder from Denny Bright, a phone call between midnight and 1. Then, from the police, she learned it was Jimmy who was under arrest. Outside, Mason asks Drake to look at Rosalind's golf bag and get a copy of the clubhouse phone log, and to check on Rosalind./ Back in court, Mason asks Denny about times. Burger got a all from Farley at 12:27, the police discovered the body at 12:41. He was paged for the phone call from Rosalind at 12:37, four minutes before the police discovered the body. He admits he has a juvenile record. Mrs Brandt paid him $1000 in the murder room to keep quiet. Dina was in the practice room and says she killed him, but Mason asks her then where the prize money is. Isn't she protecting her husband? Erwin Brandt says he went to the room to offer to pay $5000 to get rid of Chick, who was a disgrace to the club and to the game and embarrassed his wife. He left Chick alone with his wife Alma. She testifies that she begged him not to leave her. He called her a lush, and she ran away. Drumm and Drake enter, show the money found in Rosalind's golf bag at the club. Mason recalls Denny Bright to tell which of the three who have testified is truthful. Then Denny notes that he failed to admit that he'd violated parole in Massachusetts. Is that what Farley was going to reveal? Only he could have hidden the money in the bag of someone he knew didn't play golf because of her broken hip, for the other one, Jimmy, could not have left, then returned to be found by the police. // Rosalind coaches Paul on putting. She gave the money for the wing addition, causing Patterson his troubles about the banking funds, by making him keep it a secret.

CHARACTER ACTOR Perry Mason Raymond Burr Della Street Barbara Hale Paul Drake William Hopper Hamilton Burger William Talman Lt Steve Drumm Richard Anderson Bobbi Dane Francine York Francis Clune Donald Murphy Sgt Deke Bradley Mark Tapscott Bert Kannon Allan Melvin Olaf Deering Peter Mamakos Estelle Gaige Elisabeth Fraser Campbell Boyd Richard Angarola Floyd Walters Stanley Clements Mac Steve Conte Bud Paul Genge

Judge Kenneth MacDonald Counterman William Erwin Detective Dirk Evans Nurse Bebe Kelly

CHARACTER ACTOR Student Nurse Linda Burton Waiter Charles Cirillo Sgt Brice Lee Miller

A Ford drives up at night to the Clune Galleries, which a man (Francis Clune) enters. Inside, another man is reading notes on the paintings. Outside, a woman (Bobbi Dane) waits. Two shots are heard. The inside man is driven away in a Dodge. Bobbi is met inside by Francis. A cop (Marburg) lies dead. // A month later Della Street, with hair in an upswept hairdo, and Perry Mason attend a Clune Galleries pop art opening. Mason suggests that if Francis gets the kind of price he does for this kind of thing, maybe he needs a lawyer. Clune joins them, says he agrees, but he takes junk to purchase real art and hold it. Clune and Perry go off together. Della meets scruffy Campbell Boyd who claims to be the only true artist there. A previous altercation of which Clune was exonerated leaves the police suspicious. The current problem is the Sausalito Sunrise, for which Miss Dane should have paid ten times what she did. It is in the store room. Clune wants protection from the police. Lieutenant Drumm arrives with Sergeant (Deke) Bradley of robbery, who is pursuing the murderer of cop Marburg, and warns Mason to stay out of the case. Mason accuses them of harassing Clune, then learns that Sgt Bradley's partner Marburg got no call from Clune on a previous case, as Clune has asserted. Steve is bitter, and is out to get Clune. In the store room, Bobbi is writing on a painting. A man enters, she shouts for help, runs out the back where she is accosted by an older blond. She slams the car door on him and runs. A man comes out, fires shots at her. Then she is knocked down by a Ford. // In a hospital bed, Bobbi Dane tells Drumm and Francis that it was the same two men who previously tried to kidnap her in San Francisco. / On the phone, Mason tells Clune there is more to this than he'll admit. Clune days it is Bobbie who has built up his gallery. / Sergeant Bradley threatens (Olaf) Deering over the fact that three of Deering's trucks have been hijacked. Deering tells Floyd (Walters), his dispatcher, to get his driver to sign for cargo and get him out. Floyd says that they have no credentials on the driver, who turns out to be Paul Drake. Deering gives Drake a route known only to him, not even his San Francisco partner. Floyd asks for the route plan, Drake sends him to the boss. / Dane is in a hospital bed, The older blond man enters, is caught by a nurse. Bobbi sees him leave. / Perry, Della and Drake are at a cheap restaurant. Bobbi has disappeared. Mason gives Paul a San Francisco bus terminal claim check. / A counterman is asked (by reporter Bert Kannon) who the man (Drake) is, if he is driving alone, and where he is headed. The counterman makes a phone call, and the other of the two men chasing Bobbi watches all. / Mason admits to Drake that he is not even sure if Dane is alive. / Drake on road, finds reporter Bert Kannon hiding in the cab of the truck. Drake drives by a seeming accident, which is faked by the two men. Drake approaches Paso Robles, followed by two men in the Dodge. Drake forces the car off the road and down into the ocean. / Drake rolls into the San Francisco terminal. Drake, "George Turner," meets Deering's partner, Estelle Gaige, and tells her that he left a reporter in Paso Robles after being cleared by the police. Gaige suggests that Deering is fingering her (& his) rigs, forces Drake to agree to her transport downtown. Privately, she calls Clune, reports that Deering's private detective is there. / Drake picks up the claim-check items, an artist's case holding a gun, which is immediately claimed by the San Francisco police. Drake is led off as Gaige watches. // Drumm charges Mason with withholding evidence, behaves nastily, demands the attorney turn in his clients. Clune calls Mason, refuses to turn himself in. He relays contents of the phone call from Gaige. / At eleven o'clock, Mason and Drake enter Gaige-Deering Los Angeles terminal, hear a woman's scream. Clune exits from the office, then the three enter, find Dane crying, and Deering dead. Lt Drumm, Sgt Bradley and Sergeant Brice arrive to investigate. Then Bert Kannon arrives and makes a photo of the dead man. Drumm says he'll convict Clune and Dane. / In a restaurant, Mason tells Drake that he doesn't believe Dane and Clune are guilty, but set up. How did the San Francisco police know of the claim check, and why the attempts on Bobbi's life? A waiter brings Mason the phone. Della informs him that Dane and Clune are charged with the murder of Marburg, not Deering. // In jail, Dane gives a logical excuse for illogical behavior to Mason. She tells Mason how she escaped at the San Francisco bus terminal from the two men while awaiting Boyd, and how she escaped from the hospital. She does not know why the men are after her. / Drake is questioning when Sgt Bradley joins them, warns Drake to stay out of his case. / In court, Hamilton Burger gives a long opening statement and is admonished by the judge to avoid evidence regarding the second murder. Kannon testifies to the last meeting with Marburg and cop's talking of hijacking. Drumm identifies the murder weapon. Sgt Bradley testifies how well Marburg kept him aware of his activities, that he told him he was tracing hijack and fencing operation and that Clune and Dane were involved in both. Drake testifies to finding a gun in the artist's case. Then, to Mason, he testifies as to why he was driving the truck for Deering. Della has a call from Drake's San Francisco man. Mason recalls Drumm, ask about the stakeout of the San Francisco terminal, accuses Drumm and his department of ignoring his client's report of the art theft. Court recesses and Mason shows a list of art works given him by Della to Clune. The list was obtained from the San Francisco police who gave it to Marburg the day of his murder. / Mason enters the gallery store room. Sgt Bradley is already there. He was the only one who could have known all the necessary information and thus masterminded the thefts, which Bradley now admits. He planted the gun after making an anonymous phone call to the San Francisco police. He pulls a gun, but Drumm enters and kills Bradley. // Lieutenant Drumm dismisses all charges, thanks Mason, who returns it for saving his life. Drumm admits he finds it hard that a cop could be involved in theft and murder, Mason says "it only takes one bad cop to undermine the work of hundreds of others" and, regarding the chance he took, he had the best thing in the world going for him, "one honest cop ."

A woman is driving into Scarlet Point. A car, driven by a man, forces her off the road. It is Sheriff Moose (Dalton) in civvies. Elaine Bayler is warned not to fool around with a two-bit musician. She speeds off. / Don (Hobart) is playing the piano for Cynthia (Perkins), a "Concerto for Cynthia." She comments that it might be for Mrs Bayler, his patron, tho she is in love with him. Elaine Bayler barges in, orders Cynthia out, orders Don to follow her. Cynthia tries to stop him. / Don joins Elaine, who berates him for lying about his beatnik friends and Natasha. She orders him to put money in an envelope, then read the note threatening to expose her and (Donald) Hobart. Cynthia has followed in a VW. Two shots ring out, Mrs Bayler falls dead. // Paul Drake and Perry Mason arrive in T-bird convertible at the Scarlet Center county jail. They are not welcomed by the locals. Inside Cynthia Perkins is being grilled by Sheriff Moose Dalton. She insists that Hobart was forced to go with Mrs Bayler. In an adjacent room (Richard) Bayler accuses Hobart of the murder. Perkins says Hobart can't handle a gun. Hobart explains about the note and money. Bayler hits him and says no money was found. The sheriff asks Perkins to tell it all and she can go back to work at Natasha's. In front of Drake and Mason, Bayler asserts Hobart "killed her," then agrees to sign business papers. The sheriff appeals to the home town girl. On the way out, she tells Bayler that Don did not do it. He is nasty. Don stands up for her and against Bayler's power in the town. Perkins asserts to Drake and Mason that Hobart has rights. / Mason carries this point to Richard Bayler. Two gunshots are heard. It is Bayler's son Howard at target practice. Servant Mark tells son that his father wants to see him. Bayler points out that Perkins won a national pistol award. The son is introduced to Mason and Drake. Howard quips about (step)mother leaving father. He was sure she'd not be around much longer. / Ed Kesko arrives. Bayler commands Perry's presence, says he's angry that Perkins tried to reach Perry on his phone, and demands that Perry not see her. Mason informs Bayler that he doesn't like to be ordered around. Bayler says every other attorney has turned Perkins down, now she's trying Mason. Mason says that he may be Bayler's attorney but that this will not conflict with his obligation as an officer of the court, citizen and human being. There is a mob psychology. Even Dick's newspaper has convicted Hobart. Bayler says Mason will pay for it if he helps Hobart. Mason responds that he understands. Bayler, Kesko and Mason share a drink "to justice," then Mason tells Bayler that his ($10,000) retainer will be returned in the morning. Mason leaves, Kesko tells Bayler that there are a few people he can't buy, and Bayler responds that Kesko is paid to open doors in Sacramento. Mason returns to his car as Howard drives up in a Ford Mustang, leaves the radio on; Drake goes to shut it off, finds a necklace on the car seat. // In jail Mason tells Cynthia that the tomorrow he'll be at the end of a fishing line, and Della concurs. The sheriff offers Mason 15 minutes, prevents Cynthia from going to Hobart with him. / Hobart explains to Mason how Elaine Bayler supported him and expected him to write music. At the murder site, he was to be a witness, but ran when he heard two shots. He hates guns. Kesko visited him. On his way out Mason tells the sheriff to feed Hobart. The sheriff says "that's a joke," and Mason tells him he'll hit him with a court order, a petition for change of venue, and will advise the press that he's abusing his prisoner. / As Drake enters a "closed" property he is warned of snakes by Aaron (Chambers), who volunteers his services. They investigate car tracks. One car was blue. They try to locate the source of gun shots but the sheriff orders Drake away. Aaron offers his story. They may never find the money, but did find the note in the car, and he found the gun cartridges. // Drake draws Mason and Street a map of the murder site. They leave to find the gun. / At Hobart's cottage, they investigate the gun after Chambers greets them, goes to the piano and plays. They sniff one gun. When they leave, Kesko comes out of the back room. / At night, the three arrive at Natasha's. Mason notes that a .22 caliber target pistol had been fired recently. Hobart could not have put it there. Paul finds a VW with blue paint, registered to Perkins. Inside, Natasha explains how they "put on a show" for weekend visitors. Elaine Bayler used to visit often, until her old man put a nix on it. Kesko joins them, lets them know that the money has been found, $2,000, by the sheriff solo, at Scarlet Point. Ed leaves, and Natasha points out that he introduced Elaine Bayler to Hobart. The sheriff picks up Cynthia who is with Howard. / Don speaks to Mason and Drake, while the sheriff and Bayler are in the next room. As Drake leaves with Don, Howard enters, challenges Don. Drake stops Howard from hitting Don. / In a jail cell, Perkins doesn't deny being at the crime scene and putting the gun back, but insists that she did not take the money. / At the court, the prosecutor (C A Whitmeyer) finishes his opening statement to applause, and Judge Seymour cautions them to stop. // Chambers gives testimony to which Mason stipulates. Bayler testifies hearing Elaine order Cynthia "off the place," at which Cynthia threatened Elaine with a target pistol. Howard says Cynthia wanted to leave Scarlet Center but "it would look funny" if she left. Howard was at home and Natasha's and driving around. While parked near the cottage he saw the sheriff and Ed Kesko drive by. Kesko is a registered lobbyist for Bayler. The sheriff heard shots as he approached Scarlet Point, ran into Hobart, but did not see the defendant. Car check, bullet check, shoe imprint, note on her stationery, led them to Perkins. Under cross examination, the sheriff hedges on $10,000 versus $2,000. He found $2,000 that all his deputies missed. / Mason with Drake, sets to saw off a post. / Mason asks the sheriff if the envelope with $2,000 has been tampered with. Hobart is recalled and puts the envelope in the post as he did the night of the murder. The sheriff is asked how the envelope got from the post (stanchion) to the place he found it. The sheriff removes the envelope. It is dirty, not clean like the "original." Mason suggests that Elaine Bayler killed because she knew her blackmailer, and he knew he'd been discovered. He knew other details but made a mistake. He described the murder weapon before it was found. Hobart confesses. // Mason and Drake discuss trout and fishing tomorrow. Della returns from the train station. The fishing season closed, yesterday.

THIS EPISODE is offered as a fourth, bonus, episode on the DVD and loudly trumpeted as "NOT SEEN SINCE ORIGINAL NETWORK TV AIRDATE!" NOT SO!! It was presented in 1986 as part of a triple bill hosted by Barbara Hale along with the "Final Fade-out" and the "Deadly Verdict." This was, correctly, THE ONLY EPISODE BROADCAST IN COLOR, thus the added comments about what characters were wearing. Blues and related colors predominate except where attention is called for.

{5-10/1-9 Title credits}(4-1) {2-9}(4-2) At night, Perry Mason’s medium blue Lincoln convertible with white top enters a parking lot in Los Angeles. Two others watch from a van. Perry and Della Street head to a cable car. Della is worried they’ll miss the curtain, but Mason assures her they’ll be back in ten minutes. Kids from the van (which has no rear license plate) strip Mason's car, removing wheels, steering wheel, radio, generator, sun visors, battery, front and rear floor mats, clock, side view mirrors, even the convertible top. As the cable car returns the kids drive off. Mason and Della return after ten minutes. // {3-9}(4-3) A lawyer lists what was stolen. Because the boy they've caught is a juvenile, Mason isn't pressing charges. Sergeant Roddin tells the judge (#1) that this boy could help crack a series of car thefts, 35,000 the previous year, since the boy pawned a camera belonging to Mason and to which the lawyer had the lens serial number, while auto parts can be impossible to identify. This is the only crime with which he is charged. The Deputy D A wants Mason’s cooperation. A welfare worker gives the judge a list of the boy’s offenses. The boy is an orphan and has been in four foster homes, yet finished high school with high honors. The boy, Lennie (Beale), won the camera gambling, craps. William Sikes, who is present, has offered Lennie a job at which he’ll be too busy to get into trouble. The judge warns Lennie not to “tempt fate” again. Lennie promises there won’t be another time. / The van thieves raid two cars in a garage. Team #1 is commended, “well within our allotted time.” #2 is reprimanded by (Ben) Huggins who suggests to both teams that “considerable additional time drill would not be amiss.” They are sent out to have refreshments. Then Huggins explains to Donna (Cardena) Reales why he uses “well-mannered, under-privileged” juveniles, given America’s justice system. Huggins, who is a collector of Tehuantepec art -the Mayans and Aztecs he finds crude -,gets $500 per pair of bucket seats. She is afraid of getting caught by the Mexican authorities and put in prison if she brought a certain museum piece Huggins wants. Sikes, who gets the art objects for him, joins them with Lennie. Huggins warns Beale on holding out, and Sikes warns Jody (Laird). Jody warns Lennie about the camera, threatening “someday I’m going to take care of you.” / Terrance Clay is offering one of his lengthy wise-Irishman aphorisms to Sgt Roddin; “It is defeat that turns bone to flint, gristle to muscle, and makes men invincible.” Perry, in Navy blue, and Della in a dark sky blue, arrive. Perry suggests that the sergeant have the boy watched, rather than settling on convicting him for a crime that won't lead to the car strippers. When Paul Drake takes Perry aside, Della puts Roddin in his place. Roddin thinks Mason is all talk, and “talk is cheap.” But, notes Della, fixing his car is not; $1700 which the insurance company won’t pay unless he prosecutes. She continues, Mason doesn’t “put a price tag on his conscience.” / At a dance hall (Femmes a Go-go Club), a blonde (Suzy) in red sequins and pink elbow-length gloves, begins her routine. Robin (Spring) is greeted by Tom (Loman), who was about to bawl her out for being late, but she’s too pretty. He compliments Suzy (Sue Sawyer), suggesting she’ll be on Broadway. In her dressing room, Ben asks Robin why Mason let him off. She asks for a cigarette, and he sees a gun in her purse. She suggests that he break with Sikes and Huggins, ask Mason for help. He thinks it is too late. No, not for him, but her, she responds. She admits she should have married club manager Tom Loman when asked three years earlier. Sikes tells Loman to act his age as he heads to the dressing room. He overhears Sue advise Lennie (who is almost eighteen) to make a life for himself. She kisses him on the forehead. When Sikes enters, Sue tries to cover up for what she’s told Lennie. Sikes warns Lennie that he'll not let him out of his sight. // {4-9}(4-4) Sikes explains to Huggins, who is accoutered in an orange trimmed in black lounging robe and doesn’t “like taking chances,” how they can clean out a house using a car to tell them when and what house is unoccupied. Robin has arranged things with a parking attendant. Huggins doesn’t trust women, but agrees to the plan. Lester is asked to wait as the others leave. / Miss (Robin) Spring, dressed neatly in olive and her enormous blonde wig, meets Mason at an art gallery. Mason thinks he could reach Lennie and she confirms that he did. So he offers to plead for immunity for Lennie if he testifies. Lester has seen the two meet. / D A Hamilton Burger, drinking coffee with Mason, doubts Spring and Beale, but offers immunity if Lennie will turn himself in voluntarily. / The house theft. Lennie tries to leave, but Sikes stops him, threatening with a knife. In a warning phone call, the attendant reports that Robin finked to the cops. “Cut out” shouts Sikes. The police arrive and during the chase that follows an officer wounds Lennie. Bill leaves Lennie to fend for himself. As the van drives off a Black & White pursues. Sikes and Lennie remain behind. / Graphic of blind justice, blue on blue. // {5-9(4-5) Drake, in his new black Thunderbird showing metallic highlights, is driving Mason to the Go-go club. Mason suggests a parallel with Oliver Twist, with Lennie as Oliver. At the club entry, Lennie is spotted by Drake, leaves to get to Bill. Inside, Robin is dead at her phone, discovered by Suzy. Paul and Perry go in search of Sikes, as Lennie also heads there, with Robin's gun. They find Sikes with a knife in his back, Lennie on the floor, unconscious, with Robin's gun. / Lieutenant Steve Drumm repeats Lennie's story of Huggins as the mastermind to Lennie, who is in a hospital bed, with Mason looking on. When he saw Robin dead, he took her gun, intended to use it, but he was already stabbed. Drumm suggests they fought and Lennie took the knife from Sikes, stabbed him. / Huggins denies even knowing Sikes or Beale. For the first time in is life, Huggins has seen the inside of a police station. They share a Spanish wine which “has what Hemingway called ‘great authority.’” Then one of Huggins’s figurines reminds him of deliveries of Mexican goods from Sikes. Mason is not fooled. / Paul reports to Perry and Della that the police picked up everyone but Tick Gleason, the one in the parking lot. None ever heard of Huggins. Senorita Donna Reales is, says Mason, his only hope of proving Huggins to be a “twentieth century Faggin.” / The Los Angeles County Courthouse. In a courtroom D A Hamilton Burger is giving his opening statement in which he calls Beale “a hardened criminal who is seeking revenge . . .” Sue, attired in mauve, noting she had lunch with Burger, says Lennie said "Bill did it, he killed Robin, and I'll kill him." Lt Drumm says that three fingerprints on the knife were Beale's. / In Mexico, Drake, in an orangish-tan shirt and gray trousers, sees one of the boys, Tick Gleason. Drake tries to catch him, but fails. / Loman (in brown) says Lennie had a crush on Robin. He saw Sikes drag him out of Robin's dressing room. Jody Laird also had a crush on Robin, and Lennie attacked him. Mason notes that Lennie, Sikes and Jody were in love with Robin, wasn't he, too. Yes. He'd have killed Sikes, but was looking at various acts around town. Jody says Sikes was the ring leader. Tick, at the parking lot, tipped them off to Robin's tipping-off the police. Bill said he'd kill her and that he and the others including Lennie heard him. / Drake sees a sign, Reales, finds Tick, then Senorita Reales. He makes a bargain for her testimony. // {6-9}(4-6) Reales, in basic black trimmed with a complex jeweled necklace possibly of Mayan or Aztec design and related, large earrings, starts her testimony for Mason in his dark blue suit with red tie as Huggins ostentatiously walks in. She testifies to getting auto parts from Huggins via Sikes would make delivery in Mexico. / Mason calls Huggins a corrupter of youth and several other things. Burger “reluctantly” objects and is sustained by the judge. Mason points out that a neighbor, seeing lights on in a house where no one was supposed to be home, made the call to the police. Huggins says that on the night of the murder, he “neither saw nor spoke to Tick Gleason.” Gleason confirms this. Senorita Reales told him at the Femmes a Go-go Club to phone the house, then he asked her to take him with her back to Mexico. Ben Huggins forced her to make the call and to do his bidding, particularly regarding Robin. Mason confronts her with a photo of her sign, and the same family crest on the murder weapon handle. When she went to Robin to get her to go outside to Huggins, she did not know her, so she left. “But that was later,” says Mason. First, she saw Sikes picture on her make-up table, realized Robin was a rival. What could she do when Robin picked up the phone to warn Bill? Then, at his place, with him not knowing Robin was dead, she picked up his knife and killed him. She did everything for Bill, but she destroyed it. // {7-9}(4-7) It is three months later. Clay, Della in light peach over a white turtle neck, Paul in dark blue corduroy and olive-black tie, all have had advice for Lennie. He took the advice of all three, went to boot camp. He's now a marine pfc, and stands before the group proudly in his uniform. Mason notes that Lennie got what the three advised, “job training, hard work, and plenty of outdoor life.” {8-9 end credits}(4-8) {51:31}(51:24)

Gabe and the Angels are playing to dancers at Henny's Coop, when Perry Mason and Della Street enter. He's been given $5000 to be here by Cameron Burgess. Henny (McLeod) introduces Sandy Chester, the one Burgess wants to sponsor, notes Perry. He's shy, with a thin, somewhat reedy, voice. A woman (June Burgess, we will later learn) enters to watch the singer. Della is baffled, as is Mason. // Mason's inner office. Mason tells (Clete) Hawley that his client wants him to represent Chester. Hawley says "guts and money" are all that is needed. Mason is told by Hawley that the contract must be unbreakable and give him full control. $5000 is to be paid, to start. / Henny, who owns 10% of her protege, plays the piano for Sandy. Hawley enters, takes charge by sending the boy away. He wants to know where Henny stands. / Mason is told by Paul Drake that Chester is another orphaned English boy one year in the US. Hawley has several times been close to a big break. Neither can understand why Burgess wanted Hawley. / Hawley coaches," berates" may be a better description, Sandy before accompanist Riff (Lawler). While Hawley is out, Riff asks for Sandy's first autograph, for his daughter Sherry. He then plays one of his tunes, and Sandy takes to it. Hawley returns with new music, but none of it is Riff's, so he complains, but Clete shuts him down. / Mason auditions the new, and much more in tune, Sandy in "Bye bye Baby." Dottie Merrill brings in publicity materials. Hawley asks $50,000, and no more vouchers. For this he'll dig up a few skeletons. Mason leaves. Dottie thinks Mason is checking out. / Mason suggests to his client, Burgess, that more money should be spent through a different manager. June Burgess, for whom Mason lights a cigarette, does not agree. Mason gives Cameron Paul Drake's report. Hawley "is the best" at getting results. June defends him. Mason points out that every other boy Hawley's put over has left him as soon as they could, and Hawley then did his best to destroy them. // Perry shows Della a newspaper reporting the rioting of fans at Sandy's concert as the young star entered. Police telephone for him. / A crowd and a policeman watch a girl atop a sign, demanding Sandy sing "Surfin' Moon" before she'll come down. Mason joins Dottie and Sandy, who sings the song. / CROONER SAVES GIRL'S LIFE WITH SONG is Los Angeles Chronicle headline. / Dottie on the phone explains to Hawley that the stunt worked. Riff brings in daughter Sherry, who is the girl Sandy saved. Dottie notes that this cut the rug out from under Hawley who is in New York trying to sell an album, but the producer only wants Lawler's song "Surfin' Moon." Sherry is elated, for her stunt did what she wanted. But not what Hawley wanted. Dottie understands. / Mason gives Drake a cashiers check for $50,000 to be taken to Burgess for him to deliver, so he can't hide his involvement. The attorney intends to wash his hands of Burgess. / Burgess tells Hawley on the phone, which is overheard by June on an extension, that he doesn't like to be threatened. Hawley responds that the media would like to know why civic leader Burgess has backed this boy. / Mason is phoned by Burgess for an immediate appointment. Sandy tells Mason that Henny has disappeared and her place has been closed for non-payment of taxes. Mason now learns that Henny owned 10%. He confides that he doesn't like his new world or its people. // At Burgess's, Cameron wants to know how Hawley discovered that he was Sandy's backer, but Mason doesn't know. Burgess wants Mason to deliver the check, and denies being under duress, says he'll take care of the problem. / Riff wants to sell the rights to "Surfin' Moon" to Hawley, who responds that Sandy's cut the rug out from under him, and forces Riff to sign over the rights free as Sandy enters. She takes her dad away. Dottie enters, shows Clete some album covers. They embrace. / June Burgess enters the control room, sees the embrace and overhears Hawley telling Dottie they are getting $50,000, no strings attached. She sees scissors on the control board. / Riff hears the technician setting up an echo effect. Riff enters the echo chamber, overhears via the cross-wired sound system, the conversation in the recording studio. Hawley tells Sandy that he got rid of Henny's 10%. Sandy demands the 10% payment or he won't record. Hawley's invested too much. No, it is Sandy's father, who is now standing behind Sandy, who invested. Burgess said that his mother forbid Sandy's aunt to even let him know of Sandy until three months ago. Sandy wishes it had stayed that way. Hawley threatens Sandy, who tells his dad that he doesn't want his help. Outside, Mason and Drake arrive at the studio as June Burgess leaves. She gives Mason the $50,000 check which she failed to deliver, says she'll be in San Diego over night. Drake notes she has enough luggage for weeks. Inside, the technician finds Sandy over Hawley's dead body. / In court, Henny catches Mason, asks for help in getting a seat. She is aware Burgess is Sandy's father. After D A Hamilton Burger extols Hawley, Dottie says that it was routine to make an overnight sensation of a wooden Indian, and Sherry's bit was ad-libbed. That precipitated the final break. Sandy had to know that Clete would pull the rug out from under him. As Riff testifies, Drake tells Mason that there were only two places he could have overheard the conversation; Sandy's dressing room or the echo chamber, where Hawley was murdered. Riff refuses to tell what hold Hawley had over him. The judge intervenes and court is adjourned. Drake tells Mason that Riff killed Sherry's mother in an auto accident, and Hawley was first on the scene, probably covered for him. // Clay is greeting customers. At a table with Mason and Drake, Cameron Burgess says it was a wartime marriage, his mother soon had it annulled. Cameron is called to the phone. June Burgess admits she told Hawley about the son. She and Hawley were going to go away on the $50,000. / Back in court. Mason lets Riff off the hook. June Burgess admits she planned, with Hawley, to run away on the $50,000. Then she couldn't give it to him, for he was dead, killed by Dottie! Dottie says that when June found out Hawley wanted the money, not her, she killed him! Henny is forced to admit she was in Sandy's room overhearing the conversation on the intercom. Sandy was like a son. Yes, she killed Clete Hawley in the echo chamber. // At Clay's, Clay says that he likes Strauss waltzes, the two-step and Irish ballads. Sandy is now his busboy, but he sings at Riff's new club, which is backed by Sandy's dad.

IGUAL QUETZAL de Las Granjas (Central America). Guards pace by the gate, as a man sneaks inside, goes onto the roof, drops into the room below. He unrolls his tools, including a telescoping claw. One by one he steals jewels from a statue protected in a cage, then replaces them with fakes. // In Perry Mason's inner office Madame (Sonya) Galinova tells Perry Mason and Della Street that she's been betrayed. She dumps the fake jewels on Perry's desk. Two months ago Vyacheslav (Gerznov) the Cossack paid for room and board with these fakes. First the jewels must be appraised. / (Joachim) DeVry, partner with Gerard Van Ness, confirms the fakes, but the stones in the tiara are real. It may be the Tsarina's tiara, worth three-quarters of a million! Does Gerznov have the rights to the jewels? / Paul Drake finds Gerznov at the carnival. He's given the jewels to Galinova, which he inherited from his grandmother. His girl assistant finally gets his attention as Drake leaves, to show him a photo in the newspaper that shows the tiara. / Even though he's agreed to a 1/3-2/3 split, as his attorney, (Alvin) McCauley, notes Gerznov is outraged at Galinova. Mason say he'll go to court, with no chance of compromise. McCauley and Gerznov argue as Madame Galinova and Mason argue. Gerznov accepts. Pauline and Rolf (Thorsen) enter and Mason, McCauley and Gerznov confer over the contract. Pauline tells Madame Galinova to not sound off as Gerznov signs. / LAX. Gerard Van Ness answers a page. A note says that Lisabeth (Wells) cannot meet him, but his car is in the lot. He asks the attendant to phone him, then drops the envelope on his way out at 9:25, and a hand is seen picking it up. At 10:15 the police get a stolen car plates order to stop Van Ness. At 11:20 they find zircons in his brief case and a dead body in the trunk. // Lieutenant Steve Drumm enters Van Ness's house, looks for his gun. There is none, and whiskey and ice are on table. Sergeant Brice finds stains in a rug and elsewhere. / In jail Van Ness explains to Mason that he can detect fake and stolen gems. It is his business. He never did business with Nils Dorow because he could tell where he got his stolen gems. From LAX he went to Nils Dorow at the Breeze Motel, then to the main post office, but saw no one at either place. He returned hastily due to a cable from Dorow. Ricardo Arena was given a note and car keys to deliver to Lisabeth Wells who would take the note to Dorow. Since the note was found on Dorow, it must have been delivered. / Mason says that the physical evidence seems air tight. Drake says that Wells, despite her note to Van Ness, was not teaching the night of his return. Della brings in an invite to a salon by Madame Galinova. Drake learns on the phone that Van Ness's fingerprints were found on one of the liquor glasses, and on his gun, the murder weapon, buried in his yard. / Wells tells Mason that she delivered the note to the motel. She was substitute teaching. She's only a good friend of Van Ness. Riccardo Arena bursts in for his dinner date. / Pauline wants the tiara after DeVry assures her of its authenticity. Mason arrives. DeVry cannot conceive of who would want to destroy the business. // In court Lt Drumm tells D A Hamilton Burger that Van Ness's alibi does not check out. Mason asks if it was possible, and Drumm rattles on that to believe it he'd have to believe a whole series of otherwise improbable events . . . Mason tries to cut him off, but Drumm continues. Mason demands a response to his question. "It's possible" "thank you" "but not probable." Arena tells Burger that he cannot identify the note from the defendant, it was sealed. For Mason, he is forced to admit he knew Dorow. The Chilean police had threatened to remove his visa if he did not cooperate with them. Wells admits she was with Arena the evening of the murder. Drake reports that no one in Van Ness's neighborhood phoned in the stolen car report. / At Maison Galinova. As Mason and Street and a mixed crowd look on, the Madame presents the Tsarina's tiara to Pauline Thorsen, whose former husband was an officer in the Tsarina's guard, for $750,000. Pauline donates it to the art museum. // Back in court, DeVry testifies that Van Ness warned him against seeing Dorow. The tiara is brought in. Burger objects. Mason contends that Van Ness was framed. Van Ness is Mason's expert witness! Under close examination, he is "un-convinced." It is a fake. Yes, the gems are real, but they are from the Quetzal shrine in central America! Someone, explains Mason, had to prevent Van Ness from examining the tiara. What better way than have him arrested for murder. // A jet takes Drake and Drumm to Igual Quetzal de Las Granjas. They go with an expert and guards to the cage. Alarms are everywhere. The expert determines, however, that the gems are worthless paste. / Gerznov claims to be victimized like a serf in a salt mine by Madame Galinova, who accuses him in turn of being a peasant and liar, and Mason of causing the trouble by requiring an appraisal. DeVry says that, after 10 other experts authenticated it, he wouldn't question. Mason suggests that DeVry and he were instruments of others' hoax. When Dorow read the newspaper article; 1, he wanted more money even though he'd already been paid for stealing the jewels; 2, it threatened to expose the fraud and; 3, it threatened to bring Van Ness back too soon. Who was the mastermind, the one who knew all the elements and had access to Van Ness's house and car? One had reason to frame Van Ness. Only two knew of a meeting in Montivideo between Van Ness and Dorow, yet DeVry knew, and could have known only from the man he killed. DeVry says he planned everything, but Mason notes that he overlooked human greed. // Van Ness gives Della Street a ring. Drake notes that no one need have been hurt but, says Mason, everyone was. Mason notes that Della, too, will be hurt when she has to pay the tax on her new ring.

CHARACTER ACTOR Perry Mason Raymond Burr Della Street Barbara Hale Paul Drake William Hopper Hamilton Burger William Talman Lt Steve Drumm Richard Anderson Ethel Andrews Pippa Scott Mr Park Milgrave Barry Kelley Frank Carruthers Arch Johnson Althea Milgrave Joan Huntington Martha Erskine Coleen Gray Peggy Sutton Abigail Shelton Tierney John Rayner Bruce Strickland Hunt Powers Pit Boss Phil Arthur Reverend Alford Henry Hunter

Mrs Alford Vera Marshe Detective Roy Engel Judge S John Launer Attendant Ray Montgomery Waitress Timothy Blake

CHARACTER ACTOR Ed Thomas Marshall Kent Driver Seamon Glass Sgt Brice Lee Miller Chambermaid Mildred Harrison

Church. Ethel Andrews practicing walk down aisle with Rev and Mrs Alford. Bruce (Strickland) has not arrived &emdash; they were keeping plans secret &emdash; so Ethel calls office, and is informed by (Frank) Carruthers that he isn't there, and hasn't been, and $50,000 in securities is missing, sold under her authorization. She is shocked, walks away, leaving the phone off its cradle. / Peggy Sutton lying on bed listening to music; phone call informs her that a hired killer is looking for her. She quickly packs, pulls out gun when there is a knock at the door. She hides gun, chambermaid comes in. / Ethel speeding on road. Peggy speeding, too, nearly collide at an intersection. Ethel goes off road. // Peggy's car is towed into a service station. She goes over to Ethel. She has little respect for men; they head in for coffee. Attendant thinks fuel line torn out of one car, brakes need checking on other. Ethel confesses her need to find her Bruce, while Peggy is trying to shake her boyfriend. Peggy suggests they swap identities, get back together in Tijuana in a week. / Ethel has lent Peggy $25, gives her $20 more as they trade I D. / Ethel in Peggy's car gets a flat. A truck driver fixes it. / Peggy happily drives on. / Ethel finds a package; it is filled with bills. She does a U-turn. / Back at the station, a man stops to ask questions. Ethel drives by, passes sign; "San Diego 38, Tijuana 52," is then passed by police car. She approaches several police cars; her car is off the side of the road ("Bearcat" banner on back bumper is now new, not torn! Bad continuity!) Peggy is loaded into ambulance. / Starglow motel; Los Angeles Chronicle headline indicates death of Ethel Andrews. She removes her ring, looks up phone number of Perry Mason, Brent Bldg, Suite 904 (MA 5-1190). // Ethel confides her problems to Perry as well as her change of identity. She doesn't have company's $50,000, but Peggy's. In private room, Perry asks Della if the tale is possible. She thinks it fantastic. He instructs her to take Ethel to the movies. / They go to Ethel Andrews' funeral; casket is closed. Mason talks to Ethel's boss, Carruthers, and his secretary Martha (Erskine). Strickland is a pall bearer! He tells Mason he's returned from vacation; denies wedding plans. / Lunch. Mason tells this to Della, who says Ethel told her every detail of their wedding plans. He asks Paul Drake to get in touch, discreetly, with people on a list from Peggy. / Lake Tahoe; Milgrave residence. Drake compliments Milgrave's martini. Althea introduced. They know Peggy, and she is a gambler. They often paid her tab. Althea laughs when Drake asks if Peggy'd be carrying a large sum of money. / Ethel enters kitchen; a man sneaks up, demands "Peggy" show him where money is. / Office. Frank comes in on Martha Erskine, then Bruce Strickland. / Night. Man searching room with flashlight, hears noise, turns, sees gun with silencer; two shots fired. Dead man is searched for keys. / Key opens door of apartment. A drawer is opened, cash box removed, cash put in a large urn and burned. // Starglow Motel; Lt Drumm, Sgt Brice and two policemen are admitted, find Strickland dead. / At airport, Ethel with assaulter met by police; she denies being Peggy, then says yes to get away from man. . .who is gone. / Jail. Mason discusses Ethel's difficult position. She explains how Bruce said all they needed to get married was a stake which he'd put into a fabulous deal. She couldn't identify her assaulter from police photos. Mason suggests she'll be guilty of either murdering Bruce for the $50,000, or Peggy for her $50,000 / At a restaurant. Drumm reports to Drake and Mason on burnt brand new bills in Strickland's apartment. Steve leaves, Della arrives, announces that Bruce bought ring for Ethel. / Court. As Hamilton Burger rants on about Ethel's lies, Carruthers says bonding company will drop charges if he returns $50,000, but Mason points out that it isn't known whose money it is. Miss Erskine testifies to Ethel's securities sale. Mason wonders how she just happened to find the securities were missing, since that was not her business on that day at that time. . . She introduced Bruce to Mr Carruthers, with whom she was close; they had dinner night before she discovered the shortage. / Drake learns from the casino pit boss that Peggy was natural born loser. There was a contract on her, he warned her (phone call). // Neither Milgrave nor his wife can explain why or how she had $50,000 on her and also owed the casino. During this, Mason thanks Ed Thomas for coming. Mason asks Althea why Mr had paid her debts before refusing $50,000. It wasn't romantic. Mason stops in mid-sentence when asking about her husband's relationship with Sutton. Drumm concedes apartment access gained with key. Burger objects to questions re burned money, is overruled. / Money package introduced. Burger objects; Mason reels off three suppositions of prosecution, and Burger adds that burned money has no bearing on this case. Milgrave confronted with money which, Mason suggests, he thought he'd burned in Strickland's apartment. This explains why Peggy had to borrow real money, for the money in the package is counterfeit and Mr Thomas of treasury department has examined it. Milgrave confesses. // Thomas says this breaks up a major counterfeiting operation. Ethel says she's beginning to be less naive. Drake offers best dinner on La Cienega to Ethel, Della and Perry, borrows $50 from Perry, and says put it all on his expense account.

A pickup truck heads down a dirt road into a barren valley, stops at a trailer. Chuck is radioed to start the countdown. Explosions are followed by a gun shot. A man (Jason Rohan) with rifle tells the two at the trailer to leave, or get shot. // At his house, Jason Rohan is confronted by Perry Mason over Klee Oil Company's rights. The lease option was signed by Rohan's wife Minna. Matt and Job join them. Then Minna brings in cookies. Jason is happy with the roof over his head, but Minna wants a new TV and couch. Oil, she and Mason say, will pay for it, and disturb none of his land. / Mason, in his Lincoln convertible, is told by Allan (Winford) that oil is only a matter of feet away. Rohan and sons drive up in their new Lincoln convertible. Jason is ebullient, already spending the bank's money though no oil has been found. Winiford's assistant brings a sample that indicates oil is found. / Della Street, in a party dress, is impressed with Klee's wealth. She and Mason are greeted by Ross Darley, Klee's secretary, then meet Monique Martin, TV actress and, according to Della, Jerome Klee's close friend. Mirabel (Corum), a novelist, asks Harry (Lannon) how Klee could have brought that "tramp" here tonight. Klee greets, gruffly, Mason and Street, then makes certain Perry has told no one of the find, except Rohan, and says he'll give Mason orders later. Ross Darley, gives Mirabel a payoff check ($25,000). She confronts Jerome, who compliments her behavior, then says she wants heaven to strike him dead and tears up his check. (Prince) Ben Ali (Bhudeem) suggests to Della that she take a specific hor d'oeuvre, introduces self as a progressive royal. / During dinner for eight there is some catty conversation. After, the contract. Darley offers the Prince a $100,000 payoff for a change in the barrel price. The Prince declines. Mirabel, in the hall, insults Monique, and vice versa. Harry Lannon sends Mason into Klee, who tells Mason he's concluded a new deal to keep his refinery at full production, and the Rohan ranch well capped for ten years. Mason says Rohan is already extended, and Klee cannot do this. Klee says no one tells him what to do, and all he wants is money. // A TV is being delivered to Rohan when Mason drives up. Minna gives him a tour of the house and her new appliances. Jason says that the bank advanced him about $28,000 to pay for everything. He put up the land for security. Mason informs Jason that Klee has ten years to take any oil out, so he is not a rich man. Klee responds that a man lies to him but once, so he'll take care of Klee. / At night Lannon, driving Klee, says that he was left out on a limb in Sacramento. Klee only offers "you've got a problem," and a threat of no longer retaining him if he loses his credibility and contacts. At the field office, a guard greets them. Winford demands an explanation for Klee's capping the Rohan well; "money." Klee threatens Winford with the loss of all business if he announces the Rohan field find. Someone fires at Klee, but Winford saves him. Klee says, "take the break, let the other guy be hanged." // Bhudeem, Mason, Lannon and Klee with the contract, discuss the penalty clause. Mirabel interrupts to express her concern over attempt on Jerome's life. She witnesses the signatures. Mason tells Klee that their business relationship is now ended, for he won't be a hatchet man, even for $50,000 a year. / Klee and Darley arrive at "Oboe Field Test Area," for Winford has sent a telegram saying that he must be met at 11 for he cannot meet the penalty date. Winford's pickup truck arrives and, as Klee looks for its driver, he is struck down. The truck drives away as Darley observes. / Plaster cast of a tire is being made as Drake joins Lieutenant Steve Drumm. Sergeant Brice shows Lt Drumm a foreign coin that he's found. / In jail Winford denies being a murderer to Mason and Drake, but offers them no help. / Minna wants to know why Jason lied about going to L A and returning at 3 am. / Mirabel has lunch with Prince Bhudeem. / Monique tells Ross she only wanted someone who could stand up to Jerome. / Minna worries with Matt over Jason's disappearance. / Mason walks up the L A Courthouse steps. In the courtroom, Lt Drumm identifies for D A Hamilton Burger the 14" monkey wrench murder weapon as Winford's. Tire tracks match the defendant's pickup truck, which was serviced less than a mile from the murder site twenty minutes after the murder. Mason asks if everything found at the site has been entered as evidence, and the foreign coin is noted, to be brought. Darley says that it was Winford's truck that left the site immediately after the murder. Where was he when the earlier attempt on Klee's life was made? In his apartment with his girl, Monique. Jason Rohan says Winford said Klee wouldn't get away with capping the well. He tried to see Klee at his plant the night of the first murder attempt, but the guard wouldn't let him in. The judge adjourns to keep an appointment. Della asks where they are. "Treading water" is her boss's reply. / It is night at the Bank of California Building where Mason now has his office. Mason tells Drake and Street that Winford could not have known about the penalty clause, so couldn't have sent the telegram. Drake gets through to the Prince's palace, but is told that it is "impossible" to speak to the king until further notice. "Of course," says Mason. // Mason confronts the Prince with the $100,000 bribe he was offered, to which Darley will testify. Bhudeem says he declined the offer, but was made another, by Harry Lannon, who then demands to be heard. He says his offer would have benefited everybody. Rohan would get his money, Winford's reputation would be made, and Bhudeem's people would also profit, but the Prince had already "passed the coin," namely, concluded the deal with Klee. He thinks that the gold dinar Mason shows could be the coin. "The Prince knew what would happen if the word got back to his brother" the King, says Lannon. Bhudeem than reveals that he is the King. The real Ben Ali is only eleven. As such, he could not be subverted, nor betrayed. So he also revealed Lannon's duplicity to Klee. Mason confronts Lannon as the only one of the five in the room when the penalty clause was discussed who could have benefited, and have sent the message. Yes, Lannon admits, he had to kill Klee, for everyone else was afraid to. // Minna is showing Mason the plans for the new 27-room house with swimming pool when Jason enters. He's going to build the house himself!

{7-10 Title credits 1-9}(1-1) {2-9}(1-2) In San Pedro, a drunk, half singing, wanders down a street to Herman’s Blue Lagoon bar as the bouncer throws a Mexican worker out the door. A well-dressed man (Nate) looks on. A car drives up with three in it. Driver Dan (Swanson) gets out to see detective Nate. (Uncle) Otis (Swanson) tells (William) March that it is about $7 million on a patent. Dan returns from Nate with news that the guy they are looking for is inside. March argues that one doesn’t go behind the lawyers’ backs, but Swanson says “with stakes like this you do.” Dan, Otis and Nate and a studio makeup man already inside go into the bar. Dan suggests to Otis that they should “take care of the guy who is giving us a hard time.” Dan accidentally bumps into the drunk. The drunk (Grimes) is sure he “meant no harm.” // {3-9}(1-3) Grimes is getting a shave by the makeup man and is worried about getting back to the Liverpool Lady before she sails. Otis Swanson assures him that he'll be on it in 36 hours. / As the makeup man works on Grimes’ face, Dan instructs the seaman, namely the less he knows the less chance there is of his hanging. / Otis and the makeup man complete the transformation of Grimes into Perry Mason! Grimes complains are cut off by Otis upping the ante from $1 to $2 thousand. / Perry Mason's private office. Della Street is alone at a typewriter (her legs showing beautifully below the desk top). She answers a phone call, but gets no message. / Sandra Dunkel enters the Babson Arms Hotel, asks at the desk for Perry Mason, as Dan watches from behind a newspaper. Grimes-as-Mason enters, gets change from the assistant manager at the front desk for the purchase of a 25$ cigar, which change he returns, puts the cigar in his mouth, is met by Dunkel. A minister playing chess recognizes him. Dunkel asks what she should do, and Grimes hands her an envelope, exits the hotel, wrestles with is tie. / In court Dunkel, secretary to Barbara Kremer (who tells Mason Sandra was the worst secretary her father ever had), is asked by attorney Franklin Bates, did not Kremer know the patent was worth $7 million? Mason interrupts to state the facts of agreement and foreknowledge of the value of the patent by Kremer, who is his client. She denies Bates’s assertions, then bursts out that Mason phoned her, tried to bribe her to answer that question differently, shows a letter with questions and answers that would make Swanson look like “a thief and a swindler who had stolen Kremer’s invention and lied about it” and $10,000 in cash. Mason’s objections along the way are sustained by the judge. / The Babson Arms Hotel assistant manager testifies to being given a 75¢ tip for a 25¢ cigar, which he lit up. Mason doesn't smoke cigars. The minister says he recognized Mason, too, and the handing to Dunkel of an envelope. // {4-9}(1-4) Jess Parkinson is outraged at loss of $7 million patent to Swanson. Barbara Kremer is sure Mason didn't bribe Dunkel. Paul Drake reminds Parkinson that two days before he called Mason a genius. Parkinson accuses Mason of suborning perjury, and both Street and Drake are outraged. Mason enters, reminds Parkinson that they are handicapped by the lack of the letter proving Swanson knew of the $7 offer, which Parkinson said he’d provide, and without that even a retrial may not be successful. Parkinson storms out. Mason tries to sooth Barbara, but she follows Parkinson, dispirited. // The Liverpool Lady is out to sea and Grimes is peeling potatoes. / Dan is dancing with Barbara Kremer who is half drunk. Uncle Otis enters, offers her whatever she needs. She suggests that if she had “all that money,” she’d not catch a rich husband. Privately, Otis chews out Dan for being with Barbara. Mason is having them watched. Dan now has a hold on Otis. It has been a month and the D A’s office hasn’t moved to prosecute Mason. “It’s all over. We won,” asserts Dan. Alone, Otis reads a letter, then burns it. March enters, brings a special delivery letter, notes that Otis has gotten several letters since the trial and has been upset since the trial. March is only an appointed board member, so Swanson can fire him at will. / On the San Francisco docks, Paul Drake is at the Liverpool Lady. He observes March and Nate nosing around. / Drake reports to Mason that a sailor is missing, and March and Nate were asking about the crew, not the cargo. The missing sailor is Grimes, who left to visit his dying maiden aunt. Mason notes that the Liverpool Lady was docked in Long Beach most of the previous month. When Kremer arrives, Mason tells her that he doesn't want her playing private detective, seeing Dan Swanson six times, having lunch with Sandra Dunkel, people about whom she is bitter. She walks out on Mason. Drake gets a report from operative Joe that Swanson has drawn $200,000 out of accounts and stocks. Drake wants to get onto Swanson, with the D A's cooperation, but Mason orders him to stay with the unprotected Barbara. / Drake is at Barbara's car when he hears a scream. As the door is open, Drake enters Otis's house, stumbles over Swanson's body as Grimes arrives, and finds Barbara hiding. // {5-9}(1-5) D A Hamilton Burger gives his peroration. Lieutenant Steve Drum says that defendant Kremer was hysterical when he arrived. He identifies the murder gun and connects it to the defendant. He also found a letter in Kremer's purse, which is the letter Mason wanted Parkinson to produce. Drum did not find the $200,000, then notes that Mason’s client saw the blackmail letter and money on the dead man's desk. Dunkel says that she knew of the blackmail letter and went to Otis’s house that eve because nephew Dan had set it up for her to get a job. She gets upset learning that she’s been followed. Dan Swanson says he was asleep in the rumpus room when his uncle was murdered. He fell asleep after drinking with the defendant, who mixed the drinks. She had his keys. / Parkinson says Swanson wanted him to work for him, but was dead when he arrived. He'd work for the devil himself if paid enough. He saw a bum leaving the house, and Drake. His testimony is interrupted. Mason gets a phone call from Drake, who has found Grimes. // {6-9}(1-6) Court, some time later. Grimes faces Mason (the stand-ins on both sides are remarkable likenesses, but the camera angle disguises the differences). Grimes admits to getting $2,000 for his job at the Babson Arms, from Otis Swanson. Mason asserts that he came back to blackmail Swanson. Grimes says he wanted the same $10,000 given Dunkel, not $200,000. He admits to being a nemesis. He points the finger at Dan Swanson as the one who hired him. March is asked about the phone answering service mechanism and why, as Dunkel testified, Swanson's phone rang twice, then was disconnected. He admits that he took Swanson's phone off the hook. Mason suggests this was to prevent a call from Grimes reaching Swanson. He had a copy of the incriminating letter, which was his insurance that Swanson wouldn't fire him. Parkinson was going to be his replacement, so he figured he'd get a big payment from Swanson and get out. But Swanson was livid when he discovered that he was being blackmailed by March. They fought, and Swanson drove him out of the house. Who would take the money but not the letter, since everyone knew of the importance of that letter, except Grimes? Mason explains how Grimes was caught leaving the murder by Parkinson’s arrival, so went back, made certain his face was seen, giving him an alibi. Grimes points at the lot of liars and cheats. Drake hands him a fistful of bills that have fallen to the floor. Only he and Mason are the “only men on the lot,” but it is Mason who is the real nemesis. // {7-9}(1-7) At Clay's restaurant, Burger tells Mason that Grimes has been sent to San Quentin, then muses what if he sent Mason to San Quentin and it was Grimes at the table. Clay claims this is better than being on a ship, which is “a jail with the chance of drowning.” Mason suggests that Samuel Johnson said it before Clay. Lt. Drumm joins in the conversation as Drake arrives, imitating Grimes. {8-9 end credits}(1-8) {51:58}(51:32)

Sometime in the night a Ford convertible with Continental add-on trunk wheel arrives at the Camellia Apartments. A woman in a fur coat is trying the handle of an apartment door when the couple, Sharon (Carmody) and Duke Maronek appear. He tells her that there is nothing to be afraid of. Duke enters an apartment, is hit. A fight ensues and Sharon phones the police. Art Grover is found dead on the floor when Duke turns on the lights. Sharon agrees to stall the police as Duke removes the body, for she has a chance of a lifetime. // Later that night police find Jake Stearns stealing from a dead man. / In Perry Mason's inner office, Duke is explaining how well he's behaved since Mason helped him. He believes that he killed Grover, then dumped the body in an alley to help Sharon. He won't go to the police. He can't stand being locked up. He refuses to let Mason tell the police anything. / 3 am. Duke goes to Sharon, who says she told the cops she heard someone robbing her place and that a man helped her but left. She tells him to do nothing. He cannot tell the cops because that makes a liar of her. She'll stick by him. / Paul Drake and Perry are met at police headquarters by Lieutenant Steve Drumm. At the records section, clerk Millicent says the file on Art Grover was just picked up, but she reads a file on the murderer, Jake Stearns. Paul and Perry leave a befuddled Lt Drumm. Perry telephones Duke, who is nasty. Mason admits to Drake that he's in a bind, with three impossible choices. // The White Snow Princess contest finals. Rudy (Blair) asks Sharon Carmody if she's ready. He has a headache. She's depending on him to convince Madam Rosa Bruenig that she's the one. "Remember when . . . just one more step." / The receptionist shows Mason to the viewing room, where Madam Rosa and an agent are watching a White Snow contestant being videotaped. / Rudy joins Madam Rosa and Perry as Sharon Carmody enters the studio. Rudy says that she has self-respect. She finishes in charming fashion. / Mason asks Carmody about Duke, Grover and such. She feigns no knowledge. Mason challenges her to fess up, then leaves. Rudy is exultant, has a bad headache, wants a doctor. / Drake is in Seattle, but has lots of men looking for Duke. / Mason walks up the steps to the courthouse from his Ford convertible that is parked in a jumble of cars, passing a bronze plaque declaring "Los Angeles County Courthouse 1958. / Deputy D A Vincent is presenting Jake Stearns's terrible record of felonies when Mason enters and sits behind Jake's lawyer, overhearing him as he tells Jake that the evidence is beyond refutation. Mason asks to be heard in chambers. / In chambers, Lt Drumm, Vincent, Stearns and his attorney, and the judge hear Mason's confession. The judge says Mason's first duty is to the administration of justice. Mason reveals Duke Maronek's confession. Stearns, who is to be booked on theft, leaves. The judge admonishes Vincent and the public defender. Drumm then notes that the coroner said Grover was killed by a blunt instrument blow to the head, yet Stearns had no such instrument on him, so he had doubts. Mason says Duke is a killer, in self-defense, but not a murderer. Drumm says he'll try to remember the fine distinction. // In Seattle Paul Drake visits Dave and Fern Bronwyn. She whispers in Drake's ear, "don't give me away". When Dave leaves, Drake brings up the badger game she ran with Grover. She was paying Grover blackmail to not tell her husband. On the third try, he wanted something other than the money, but she kept it for protection. She'll bring it to Paul's hotel. / Drumm confronts Blair and Carmody. She has to corroborate Mason's tale to keep her name out of the newspapers. Blair, still having headaches, answers the phone and, in private, tells Duke he can stay at his cabin until he can get some cash to him. Meanwhile, Carmody has confirmed Mason's tale but, because she doesn't know where Duke is, Drumm refuses to keep her involvement a secret. Rudy tells Sharon that she'll be the White Snow Princess, for he'll turn Duke in. Looking out the window, she sees Rudy talking to Drumm, who promises Blair he'll keep secret his snitch, then calls a police blockade at the cabin. Back inside, Sharon puts on the crown. // In Mason's office, Drake gives the attorney the low down on Fern regarding Grover. Mason now thinks he may have fingered the wrong man. / Duke hears police sirens, as cars converge on the main road below the cabin. He panics, loads a rifle. / Fern, wearing a fur coat, awaits Sharon in her dressing room, even after Rudy tries to evict her. She threatens Sharon's future. / Drumm arrives at the road block, speaks to Bill, the road block officer, then heads up to cabin. / Madam Rosa, Rudy, who now has a severe headache, and Mason watch the introduction of the White Snow Princess. As Sharon performs, the monitor brings up a photo of her in the arms of an old man. Sharon breaks up, starts trashing the studio. Drake finds Fern. Sergeant Brice, Mason, Drake and Fern confront an hysterical Sharon. "That picture might save a man's life," states Mason. / Police approach the cabin and Duke fires. Drumm has an officer fire tear gas. Mason and the group arrive, driven by Sergeant Brice. The attorney heads up towards the cabin. Rudy Blair drives up. Mason tells Duke it was Rudy Blair he slugged, Grover was already dead behind the couch, because he'd threatened to expose Sharon's past, preventing her from winning the White Snow contest. Sharon is the murderer, and she drives away in a police car. Drumm calls the road block officer. // Duke comes to complain about his bill, because there is none! Mason explains why he broke his promise to Duke. Duke offers, what else, to take them to a restaurant for the biggest steaks (it is always steaks that Mason and Della, and usually Drake, want), champagne and a flaming dessert.

Laura (Brandon) is asleep in a motel bed. Warren (Cotton) knocks at the door, enters, wakes her, asks "why did you do it?" He turns on the light, finds an empty prescription pill bottle, picks up the phone. / Perry Mason answers the phone from a "general," agrees to come immediately to San Carlos. / Infra red photos are developed. "Fire eating general won't have time to worry about reforming San Carlos, he'll be too busy worrying about his wife." // At the San Carlos Hotel, General (Roger) Brandon asks Mason and (Stanley) Overton to be on the enforcement commission with him to help San Carlos get rid of crime, specifically George Emory. He notes how often he's been gone from Laura, and she must have plans for his retirement. Cummings arrives with photos of Laura and Cotton in each other's arms and a note demanding Brandon refuse the appointment. Brandon is outraged that Emory, owner of the San Carlos Press, would stoop so low as to smear his wife. / Laura feels accused and Roger wants an answer. She says Warren came to her because he got a phone call saying she'd taken sleeping pills. He heads off to see Emory. She phones Warren. / Overton, Cummings and Mason confer over drinks, decide they must prove Emory set up the photo. / Warren confronts his uncle Bill at the camera shop over the photo he took for Emory. Bill denies making the photo. Warren heads off to confront Emory. Bill gets his gun. / Roger arrives at Emory's, hears two men arguing. Emory alone, answers the door, says he was just threatened by Warren with a gun, which he took away. Emory produces Brandon's pistol, holding it on the General, thus sends him away. Outside, Bill sees the General drive away. / The General phones Mason, who asks if he found out how Emory knew of an appointment which was known only to the governor, the General, Warren, Overton, Cummings and himself. Laura returns. / At Mason's office, Paul Drake and Della Street decide that Bill Cotton, the photographer who works for Emory, might be the connection. Mason asks Della to check the other newspapers. / Bill holds the pistol over the dead body of Emory. // There is a fire at the camera shop asMason arrives and finds a body on the floor. It is Bill. / Roger, with Laura, telephones the governor. A police officer and Lieutenant Steve Drumm arrive to arrest Brandon. The General tells his wife to call Mason. / Mason saves Bill and they put out the fire. Bill insists he didn't take the photos. Phone for Mason from Street advises the attorney of the General's arrest. Bill admits to Perry that his place was a drop-off for Emory. They open an envelope, find an underexposed outtake negative of Laura and Warren. Why did Emory keep it? / Lt Drumm, at Emory's, tells Mason that Brandon admitted to being at Emory's and much else. / Laura responds to Mason's assertion that the General had complete faith in her with his questioning her as if at a court martial. On the phone, she begged Emory to tell Roger the truth about the photo. She heard a man yelling in the background. "I've taken my last offer" or order, was all she heard. They part friends. // In jail Brandon explains to Mason how his gun got to Emory's, by way of Warren Cotton. He mentions hearing an argument before he was admitted. / In his inner office Mason explains to Overton and Cummings how serious the matter is, and they agree halfheartedly to stand strong. Mason notes to Della and Paul that Overton so jealously guards the family name that he has trouble remember that it is the General who is in trouble. Cummings, who was the first to name the General for the position, now seems quickest to abandon him. Drake reports that the film was sold in one of Frank Cummings's chains of drug stores. The reason for the commission was because, as Cummings said, all the San Carlos merchants were being forced to pay Emory protection money, but he'd refused. / At the camera shop, Warren and his uncle argue about the confrontation at Emory's. Each accuses the other of the murder. / In court D A Hamilton Burger praises General Brandon, then gives his peroration, as the General's wife and son enter, then sit behind the General. Lt Drumm identifies the murder weapon which had Brandon's fingerprints, and Brandon admitted to being at Emory's around the time of the murder. Mason points out that it would have been more incriminating had the fingerprints been wiped off. Burger asks if there is any evidence that anyone else used the gun. No. Cummings reports on the envelope with photographs, and Brandon's violent reaction when shown the photos. Burger concludes his case and asks that General Brandon be bound over to Superior Court. // Bill Cotton testifies that General Brandon saved his life in the war. Emory set Bill up in business as a pigeon drop, payoffs to be delivered through him to Emory. He points out as one of the pigeons Cummings, who was in his store like clockwork every week with films to deliver. Cummings is recalled, now claims he broke with Emory months ago. Mason shows Cummings the underexposed negative given Bill by Emory. He notes only four people knew of the secret meeting, the motel room where Laura was photographed, and that Warren Cotton had a key to that room. Cummings bursts out that he first thought of the commission, Mason, Brandon, and he should get Overton to tell you that. Mason poses Overton an hypothetical question about posing as a crime fighter only to see how the crime will be fought? Yes, possible. Now Mason picks up the photos. Only someone who knew of the secret meeting well ahead of time could have had these photos taken. Now the underexposed negative becomes important, for it contains something important to Emory. Valuable enough someone tried to murder Bill, burn his store to destroy it, and murder Emory to get it. They project the image, and the two people are unidentifiable, but there are fingerprints of one holding the wet negative, someone else Emory was framing, Overton. Overton confesses. He runs San Carlos, but Emory got too big, thought the town was really his. So he killed him. // Brandon holds up a full golf bag and reads its plaque; "To Major General Roger Brandon, from the grateful citizens of San Carlos." Laura teases her husband and Della reminds them all that "without a woman to keep them in line, all men, even lawyers and general officers, would be lost."

Alex (Tanner) comes out of his house, goes to his car on the way to a nighttime party. Patricia (Tanner) calls him to say good night to their son. He returns to the house, goes up to the child's room, returns to his and drives off. / At the party, half drunk Danny (Shine), a muckraking reporter, asks Greg (Stanley) where Alex is. Lola Stanley tries to calm him. Norma (Fenn) takes him to coffee. Danny thinks Greg wants his job. Della Street and Perry Mason sit quietly at a table, watching. Danny thinks Mason wants a fat retainer to represent the Globe News Syndicate. Greg apologizes to Perry. / Alex arrives in a Lincoln Continental, is greeted by Danny and Norma. Danny says he's seen Alex's ideal wife and ideal child and he'll write "an ideal column. . ." A woman (Gloria Shine) hides in a car, watching as Norma puts Danny in his car. Back inside, Alex says Pat is coping after living in Japan. Norma rushes in screaming with blood on her hands. // Mason tends to Norma. A car horn blares. Della offers help to Patricia who has gone into the kitchen, then leaves. Alex interrupts, then leaves. The horn continues, then becomes constant. Greg goes to the car, pushes Danny into the right seat, drives him home. He finds a gun, and discovers that Danny is dead. Gloria drives up, finds Greg with her dead husband. / Lieutenant Steve Drumm questions Greg, who asserts he didn't know Shine was dead. Mason interrupts Lt Drumm, who leaves after complaining that now Mason can coach his client. Greg says Patricia Tanner had told him that Alex was going to give him Danny's job the next month. As to motive, what about all the people Shine ruined with his column? / Alex confirms to Mason the intended appointment of Alex. Gloria Shine arrives, hears over the intercom at the receptionist's desk Alex ask her to come back in half an hour. She goes into her husband's office, finds his secretary Norma Fenn there. She accuses Norma of being in love with Danny. They are overheard by Vandenberg. Gloria tells Norma that she's just one in the passing parade. He'd slapped her around the night before, and she was at the end of the line. Mason and Tanner are interrupted by a telephone call from Pat Tanner, who is hysterical. / Pat is crying, "my baby, my baby" as Alex and Perry arrive. A telephone call sent her to the nursery room where the baby Bobby was missing. The baby will be returned if they don't testify at the Shine murder trial. The telephone rings, but no one speaks; it is a mustached man in a pay booth. // Patricia stops Mason from calling the police, and says that they will not testify. / Mustached man asks (Leon) Vandenberg to have Bruno Grant call him. / Mason, Drake and Street at dinner in Clay's restaurant. Mason assumes that the kidnapper is afraid of something in Tanner's potential testimony. Danny had a secret file. Drake is told to find it, quickly. / Drake watches Lola Stanley searching for something in her husband's office. She leaves with a file. / She goes to her car, is followed by Drake. / Alex calls Mason. Patricia has seen the mustached man. He won't help Greg. / Lola delivers the file to two men (Grant and Vandenberg), who copy it, as Drake, outside watches. The mustached man (Adams) approaches, Drake asks for a light, and then gives him one and goes inside, reports about the trench-coated man. Lola says she was followed. / Perry and Della confront Lola over the file. Vandenberg paid her $5,000 to keep information out of the paper. She brought the file to Vandenberg to protect Greg. Then Danny got the same info on his own. Mason chews her out and warns her to not talk to anyone. // Mason asks Norma about Danny's secret file, his "trust fund." It includes payoffs, apartment houses that slipped down hillsides after the rainy season and so forth. Norma shows Mason Danny's gift for the baby. / Pat opens the gift box whose note reads "the ideal gift for the ideal child," but it is empty. "Go away before you kill my child" she tells Mason. Outside she talks with the mustached man, is confronted by Alex and seen by Perry. / In court D A Hamilton Burger paints Greg as a cold blooded murderer. Lt Steve Drumm identifies the murder weapon and shows how close it was placed to shoot the deceased. Norma says she left Danny alive. Yes, she loved him and, had his wife allowed a divorce, would have married him. She points to Gloria Shine as spying on them from across the street. Dan, says Gloria, told her that he was going to get rid of Stanley who took a $5,000 bribe to withhold information from him and who wanted his job. Danny told her that tonight was "the ideal time and the ideal place for the ideal people" to get rid of Stanley. Was it a man or woman who paid the bribe? She stumbles. For what information? Apartment houses slipping down the hillsides after land erosion. She saw Danny hit Norma, meaning it was over between them, so she left. Then why, Mason asks, did she arrive home after Greg Stanley got there? She must have gone out of the way. Bruno Grant brings his witness Leon Vandenberg to Mason. He admits that he's seen the file. Adams, the mustached man and Grant's detective, butts in, is identified by Mason, who then discovers Grant is the Globe News Syndicate's attorney. // Perry Mason's inner office. Drake has no report from Japan, so Mason demands that Drake immediately call his man in Japan. / Back in court. Burger tells the jury to do its best to separate rhetoric from fact when the defense puts on its case. The judge suggests he stop his own rhetoric. Della reports that Drake's contact confirmed what Grant told him. Mason stuns everyone by resting without calling a witness. The judge, astounded, calls Mason to the bench. / Mason, Street and Lt Drumm go to Tanner's to pick up the baby. Della stays with Pat to comfort her. / At the park where the baby is to be delivered, they find a note in the sand that reads "Your son is dead." Alex accuses Drake and the others of murdering his son. / At midnight the men return. Pat says the baby is back, leads them to the nursery, but the crib is empty. // Mason tells Drumm that the boy was kidnapped so Patricia Tanner would not testify. Control of the newspaper, the Globe Syndicate, was at stake. If Patricia lost her mind, she couldn't vote her controlling interest. The baby died in a bath six months ago in Japan when left alone by Patricia. Sergeant Brice brings in Alex Tanner, who says he did it for Pat. Mason counters that Alex did it to explain his wife's imbalance and to gain control of the Syndicate. Then he explains how he worked it out. Alex asserts that Shine deserved it. "The ideal murder, the ideal cause."