\PERRY MASON

in

The Case of the . . .

with Raymond Burr

as Perry Mason

This site updated 22 April 2008. All episodes of the seventh 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; 185, 187, 188, 190, 197, 207 and 209. Episodes 185 and 198 are on DVD in the 50th Anniversary Perry Mason issue; DVD chapter indices for this issue are in { } brackets. All other episodes of the seventh 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.

#	TITLE	SHOW DATE
182*	Nebulous Nephew	26 Sept 63

CHARACTER	ACTOR	CHARACTER	ACTOR
Perry Mason	Raymond Burr	Ernest Stone	Hugh Marlowe
Della Street	Barbara Hale	Caleb Stone	Ivan Dixon
Paul Drake	William Hopper	Ninevah Stone	Meg Wyllie
Hamilton Burger	William Talman	Leonard	Arthur Space
Lt Anderson	Wesley Lau	Sister Theresa	Irene Tedrow
Sophia Stone	Beulah Bondi	Judge	Kenneth MacDonald
John Brooks	Ron Starr	Coroner's Physician	William Woodson
Irene Stone	Kate Manx	Young Nun	Linda Marshall
Wayne Jameson	Mark Roberts	Stewardess	Kathy Willow

Produced by Art Seid Directed by Arthur Marks Script by Jonathan Latimer

At night in a cheap motel, (John) Brooks is looking at slides. He identifies the people he sees for an unidentified man as Caleb Stone, Sophia, Ninevah, Leonard (the houseman and family chauffeur), Maureen Kelly and Caleb Stone the Fourth. He then describes the house using a model. / They drive to the Stone mansion. The man wishes Brooks good luck. // The maiden aunts Ninevah and Sophia are playing cards. Leonard announces Brooks, who has news of young Caleb. According to him, Caleb died in Shanghai, Red China. Brooks and Caleb were deck-hands on a Canadian freighter. Brooks presents a locket and documents as proof. Sophia reminds him that Senior Stone's marriage was declared void. Brooks rubs the bearskin head and Ninevah again asks if he is not really Caleb himself, to which Sophia objects strongly. Brooks says he and Caleb were like brothers. Ninevah invites Brooks to stay the night. Sophia suggests that Brooks is an impostor and makes a phone call. / Irene Stone and the "family lawyer" (Wayne Jameson) are dancing when Sophia's phone call comes through. Irene passes on the news. Jameson thinks Ernest won't like this, but he'll take care of it. They kiss. / Brooks is looking at the gun rack, then finds a pistol in a drawer. He checks the safe. Sophie accosts him, but he goes to his bedroom with no help. Sophia takes the gun out of the drawer. / In his bedroom Leonard tells Brooks about the persecution of Caleb's mother. Ninevah brings a hot water bottle to Brooks. He gives more details to trick Ninevah. / Ninevah speaks to Perry Mason. She wants her money to go to John Brooks. Both Mason and Della Street see through the confidence game and discuss it together, then both with Paul Drake, who explains the complications including the marriage of Caleb III to the mother of Caleb IV. Old Caleb proved the marriage certificate to be a forgery, so the child was named the "Patent Medicine Baby" by the press. She died a year later in Charleston where Caleb had met his mother. Now Sophia enters and demands that Mason change her will to favor Brooks. // Irene tells Mason that no one will fool Ernest. Then Brooks shows Mason how, by opening the safe as did young Caleb, and being discovered, he won over the recalcitrant aunt. The aunts explain that they want to expunge their guilt in not standing up to their father after the trial and supporting young Caleb whom they loved. Now Ernest himself arrives and we recognize Brooks' accomplice, Ernest himself. He tests Brooks, then recognizes him as the young Caleb. / Irene is furious with Ernest. They are on the edge of bankruptcy. He informs her that the aunts were leaving everything to charity. He's lied to Irene about his inheritance. / A four-engine jet takes off with Mason and Drake in it. Paul's researches have vindicated Brook's claim of jumping ship in Shanghai with Caleb, and one of them dying. Mason points out that if the man is Brooks, he may hurry the death of the aunts. Mason has notified Lieutenant Anderson, and he and Paul are on the way to Charleston, South Carolina. / At the St Mary's home for children in Charleston (Sorry, viewers, it doesn't look anything like Charleston, which this writer knows all too well), a young nun introduces Mason and Drake to Sister Theresa. She explains the arrival of Brooks in 1942 and Caleb in 1948. They left after a lurid newspaper follow-up on the Patent Medicine Baby. She notes that another detective was checking up on this a few months earlier. When given a current photo of Brooks, and told hat the aunts are happy believing this is Caleb, she says they should continue in their belief! // The two aunts have offered Brooks a car. He surreptitiously phones Ernest Stone at Irene's. / Irene answers and Ernest listens, then leaves. Irene now tells Wayne Jameson that the call to Ernest was from John Brooks! Wayne kisses Irene on the neck only, as he turns her head away, before leaving. She grabs a coat and leaves. / Ernest arrives at the mansion and asks Leonard for Brooks, then finds the safe open. He takes a gun from the rifle rack. Brooks enters. He has decided to abandon ship after a talk with Lt Anderson, worrying that Ernest may do something to hurry the inheritance. The houseman, Leonard, has told Brooks he believes that Ernest is responsible for what happened to Caleb. In the safe Brooks has found a report to Caleb senior from Ernest indicating that there was no marriage in Charleston. They fight and Ernest is knocked down. Ninevah catches Brooks on his way out, warns that she'll intervene with Ernest. As he starts to leave, she returns; "Ernest is dead." // Mason and Drake discuss Brooks' arrest for the murder of Ernest Stone. Each of the aunts claims to have murdered Ernest. / To Mason and Drake Brooks explains that Caleb is not "dead," and he didn't commit first degree murder. Mason asks Drake to locate Caleb elder. / In court the coroner's physician testifies for D A Hamilton Burger as to means of death, a blow to the back of the head. Brooks said the gun he used hit him elsewhere. Lt Anderson testifies to finding a note which gives Ernest 80 percent of what he, John Brooks, inherits. / Della Street and Paul Drake are phoning information in various cities. / Mrs Irene Stone testifies to the call from Brooks. Wayne Jameson saw Ernest entering the Stone mansion. Ninevah found Stone dead, told "Caleb" "the good news." Hamilton Burger is baffled. To Mason, she admits to killing Ernest. Sylvia, after being reminded by the judge that Ninevah has recanted her confession, asserts that neither she nor "Caleb" murdered Ernest. Leonard says that the afternoon of the murder he told Brooks that Ernest was responsible for ruining Maureen's (Caleb IV's mother) life. He believes Brooks is Caleb. / Caleb Senior has been found and is on the way to Los Angeles, Mason learns from Drake and Street. /The judge reminds the attorneys that this is a homicide hearing, not a genealogical one. Caleb Stone has been intercepted by the police; he is black! Hamilton Burger calls him as his witness. This Caleb states that no one would ever accuse him being the "Patent Medicine Baby," but he did exchange names with the real Caleb. He continues; Caleb was worried that someone would still try to find him and he is still bitter, alive, and wants revenge. Irene says neither she nor Ernest went to the orphanage to trace Caleb. Leonard was in the library. Wayne then is accused of being the hidden partner in the cheating of the two aunts. Sister Teresa is called upon to identify the man who came to find where Caleb was. Wayne quickly confesses to murdering Ernest. // Mason explains to the group how he knew, from Sister Teresa's neither affirming nor denying that Brooks was the real Caleb, what the truth had to be. Caleb notes "love" as his guide, and the aunts had "faith."

It is night and two men are fighting inside the Honer-Downing Trucks office. A gun goes off. One man, stout, short hair, wearing glasses, runs out but cannot get through a wire fence. The night man (Harry) comes out wondering who is there. The first man throws his gun over the fence as a truck arrives. / Two boys are playing baseball. Chuck hits one to the fence. Miles, seeking the ball, finds the gun. // Miles brings the ball to Chuck, who berates him and heads home as his mom calls (a fog horn, comments Miles). Miles hides the gun in a shoe-box under straw. / Miles goes home. His "aunt" Sylvia Thompson is awaiting Bill Sheridan. Perry Mason arrives, instead, to get Sylvia. / Bill was the one who was shot. He tells Mason what he has already told his cousin Joe Downing, namely, he was working late, had the safe open and the next thing he was on the floor. He never heard the shot which, according to the deputy sheriff, just missed him. $4061 is missing from the safe. The deputy sheriff says it adds up to simple robbery. / Outside, Joe tells Perry he doesn't think that it was a simple robbery. / Miles is half asleep as a TV announcer reads the news about the robbery at Honer-Downing, just as Miles' "uncle Flick" comes in. He is the stout man with the gun, John Flickinger. He sends Miles to bed before Miles can tell him what he knows, promising to let the boy watch him play pool tomorrow. / Miles puts pillows in his bed, climbs out the window, retrieves the gun, with "caliper 38" on it. Flick comes looking for the gun. Miles takes it home just as Sylvia and Bill arrive. Bill asks when she'll get rid of the boy. Miles hides the shoe-box under the porch. She checks on Miles, who cries after she leaves. / Flick finds Miles' (actually Chuck's) baseball mitt at the lost gun site. // Frank Honer asks Della Street why a meeting was called off. Perry and Paul Drake greet him. National Trucking is interested in Horner's company and Joe wanted legal advice. Honer says he'll stay out of things now and let Joe handle it. /(bad cut here) Mason gets Drake's report on Miles. Among other items, Flick gets about $75 a month for child support, saves more living with sister Sylvia. / Sylvia tells Miles she has to go to the office. He goes under the porch, but leaves the shoe-box when Flick calls to him. / Flick takes Miles to a pool where he tells the boy that he was at the bowling parlor four solid hours the previous night. Miles avoids his questioning. / He takes Miles to a soda fountain but, when he sees a policeman outside, sends Miles to get candy and see a movie. / Flick runs home, searches for the gun in Miles' room, turning it inside out. / Sylvia is filing, gets berated by Downing who sends Miss Frances away. Sylvia begs off to go home and feed Miles, then stops to talk with Bill who has been gambling and lost. He thinks nobody will discover "normal" shortages. Bill then asks for a date with Miss Frances, says she shouldn't worry about his "mother," which Sylvia overhears. / Sylvia arrives home. Flick suggests he should duck out for a few days. Miss Frances phones that when Sheridan left, Downing sent for his lawyer again. She goes outside to call Miles. She is crying when a paper on the ground leads her to see the gun box, which is now empty. / Mason meets Miles coming out of the movie, but Miles does not want to talk and runs away. / The office; Sylvia runs out and drives away as the night man shouts for her to come back, just as Mason arrives. Inside, Joe has been shot dead. // Deputy No. 2 picks up Miles. Mason interrupts, speaks to Miles, is sympathetic with Miles having no one to talk to, asks him to trust a lawyer. Flick's presence prevents the truth from coming out. / In jail Sylvia is stunned when she learns that nearly fifty thousand is missing. Mason puts it to her that she owes the boy a better life. / In court the night man tells D A Hamilton Burger that he saw Sylvia in the office at exactly eight but, due to truck noise, never heard a shot. He won't confirm that she put anything into her purse. The sheriff admits ten minutes of Sylvia's time is not accounted for after the shooting. The robbery bullet was smashed, so it cannot be determined if it is from the same gun as the murder bullet. Burger calls Flick to the stand. / Della phones Miles and asks him to tell Mason his secret. He has the Los Angeles Chronicle in front of him with the headline LOCAL WOMAN HELD IN MURDER. A girl with a doll comes in and Miles runs out. / Flick says that he was looking for Miles (tho he knew he was at the movie). Mason notes he is supported by his sister and that his claim of a bad back is false, then makes him admit Downing fired him for being drunk. /Miles finds the box with the gun in it./ Honer testifies that nearly fifty thousand was missing the past year, but he doesn't think this proves embezzlement. He got a call at 7:30 from Joe who said he might have to fire Sylvia for "dipping into the till." He thinks the loss is due to mismanagement, with Bill Sheridan in charge. He believes the theft may be a cover for theft of records that would indicate who was responsible for the loss. / Miles gets on a bus to Los Angeles./ Bill Sheridan says he was not serious about Sylvia, but she did help him with gambling debts. He doesn't even know how to use an adding machine. / Miles finds the courthouse. / Sheridan was busy having dinner with Miss Frances at the time of the murder. / Miles enters the courthouse. / Miss Frances admits that she was with Sheridan. / Miles inside the courthouse, runs from a policeman who wants to take the box. / Mason confronts Miss Frances; didn't she call Sylvia just to get her back to the office? Miles runs in and the gun flies out of the box. // Miles tells Burger, Mason and the judge about finding the gun. A man brings in a report. The two bullets came from the gun, but Sylvia's fingerprints were on the box! Flick tries to explain his being at the office. He fought with someone in the dark, the gun went off and he ran. He accuses Sheridan. He came to get a bottle which is not grand theft. Mason and Burger confer. Mason suggests that all the stories are true! Honer and Miss Frances join the crowd. Mason suggests that Sheridan was on the floor knocked out when the murder was committed by someone who took the gun out of the hidden shoe-box and fired the second, murder, bullet, then put the gun back. Miss Frances notes that the books were not audited before Sheridan took over. Mason suggests the fifty thousand was missing back then! Honer was not in San Francisco as he suggested - Drake could find no record of the trip - and Honer admits it. // Sylvia tries to apologize for her mistakes, but Mason stops her. Miles arrives with Drake, having climbed 322 steps to the office. Now Mason has to go down the fire escape with him!

At the Big Chance Mine site deep in a mountainous valley there is a shack. An old bearded man with a burro (see the related episode number 88, Bashful Burro) looks down as another drives up in a jeep, enters the mine shaft and falls to the bottom. // People get on a bus headed for Mojave as the old man (Sandy Bowen) drives the injured man (Banning Grant) into town in the jeep. They are observed by Lillian Bradisson and Hayward Small. She asks Mr (Gerald) Sommers to see what has happened. Nell Wyatt has Jason Sparks take Banning inside. / Lillian asks Small what really happened. She hints that he was responsible for Grant's fall, so that he couldn't report the mine as worthless. Small explains that he'll sell worthless mines to Jim if he wants to buy. He's profited by his share of what is sold. Sommers reports that a ladder gave way under Grant in the mine. When Lillian leaves Sommers says Mr Bradisson called in that he was going to investigate a mine he bought. Nell tells Lillian she can't see Grant until he sees a doctor. Sandy warns "that ain't all he is going to see." / Sandy tells Perry Mason and Della Street that he thinks someone is out to get Banning Grant. / Grant tells Mason that it was an accident. He wants Mason to defend Bowen against charges of salting a mine that was sold to Jim Bradisson. Bradisson, his stepson, now runs the mining business to which he is a minor stockholder. He wants Mason to settle up to the $5000 Sandy got, without revealing that he's bankrolling the deal. He admits that Sandy has salted many mines, but he doesn't want to see the man in jail. / There is a crowd outside Gold Gulch Hotel as Mason exits and crosses to the Grant Mining Company office. There, Mason offers George Moffgat, company attorney, the $5000 settlement and it is accepted. Moffgat suggests Mason's reputation is overrated, but Mason rejoins that he can be difficult when necessary. As Mason leaves the office, Deputy Sheriff Connors stops him, informs him that people hereabouts aren't happy with Jim Bradisson. / At the mine, Sandy, Perry and Della inspect wood that has been cut with a sharp crosscut saw. Sandy heard a mosquito buzz, the sound of a black light used to find minerals, a night earlier and thought it was Grant. / Back in town, Bradisson and Moffgat inform Mason and Street that they are calling off the suit, because the trade-off regarding taxes is worth more than the settlement. / Grant is very upset and Mason confronts him with his really wanting the mine, which Sandy had signed over to him should the suit be dropped. Grant explains how, near the mine, he found Indian arrows and a coyote-sized shaft and real gold plus a pistol with "Boler" on the handle. This is the famous lost million-dollar Boler mine! // The Grant Mining board votes Banning Grant a directorship, so he'll have to tell them what he knows about the mine. Nell raises the issue of the quarterly dividend, on which townspeople depend, and says she'll be with them, then leaves with Sommers. Mason arrives, is told of the directorship, then points out he now owns Grant's stock. / In the hotel saloon, the deputy sheriff warns Mason that the townspeople don't like Grant or his friends and are upset at the loss of a dividend. Mason explains to Della how Grant willed his stock to his wife who passed it on to James Bradisson who, with Hayward Small, has been bleeding the company dry through phony mining deals. Grant wants to keep the mine to help his friends. Mason thinks someone else knows the secret of the mine and wants it to himself. / Della, readying herself for bed, hears a buzzing in Grant's room as she heads back to hers. Then she sees someone across the street raising a rifle. Gun shots. She gets Mason to break into Grant's room. Grant is okay, on the floor. / The deputy sheriff notes that the shots came from a 30:30 rifle, and Della asserts it was someone taller than Sandy. Mason looks at the holes in the window frame, above his head. Sandy suggests they go into the country. Mason agrees for his own reasons./ Mason rouses Paul Drake from sleep. / Drake plays prospector. The mining office is not open, so he goes into Grant Mining and asks Sommers where he has to go. Bakersfield, whose office will be closed by the time he can get there. Drake asks Sommers to put his find and a gun, with "Boler" showing on the handle, in the safe, but is told no. Sommers reports to Lillian and James. / In the saloon, Drake pays for a bottle with a $40 nugget, drops his bag and spills more. The gun is picked up, and he claims to have gotten it at a second-hand store. / Evening in the saloon and Paul "Sprague" is getting drunk. He is asked by Lillian to join her and is noticed by the deputy sheriff and Nell Wyatt. Sandy joins Paul. / Sommers finds Grant in the mountains and tells him about the guy celebrating the finding of the lost Boler mine. / Della is worried that someone will try to kill Paul as he did Grant, but Mason says the bullet holes tell him otherwise. Paul tells them that he is going to his camp, a good three miles from Grant's. Moffgat sees Drake leave. The deputy sheriff suggests that he should tag along for protection. Cars start out after Drake. / Drake heads to camp in his jeep with a parade of cars behind. He hides from them in a turnout, then another car appears and follows him. At his camp, he is shot at, then finds Bradisson dead. // Court is held in the hotel saloon and Mason is representing Grant. Deputy Coroner Chute explains his presence. Drake explains his pretending to find the Boler mine. The deputy sheriff testifies that the murder weapon was Bowen's 30:30. He found Grant running back to his camp. Bowen admits he left his rifle with Grant under pressure from Assistant D A Northridge. He also admits to sawing the ladder with his own saw to discourage others from looking into the mine. Sommers admits to helping Grant because of the townspeople being victimized, so he knew where to find Grant. He did know also where Drake was, but didn't follow him or shoot Bradisson. Grant says he doesn't have to testify, but wants to set things straight. He was between the two camps because he worried about telling Sommers where Drake was, so headed to Drake's camp to warn him when he heard the shots. Grant tells Mason to tell Sandy a mosquito will tell him where the Boler mine is. // Mason is showing Della a map of the mines when joined by the deputy sheriff and Northridge. They report Bradisson was killed by Bowen's rifle, while the shots at Grant came from Bradisson's rifle. The deputy sheriff says Connors is cleared because his car, just serviced, showed odometer readings that would have gotten him to Bowen's camp, but not on to Drake's camp. Paul arrives, gives a note to Perry which impels Mason's to further action. / They go out to the Big Chance Mine with the black light device. / In the mine, with the device buzzing mosquito-like, they discover dots forming an arrow, 15 degrees east of north. / They find the Boler mine opening where they are confronted by Sandy. / In the saloon-courtroom, Mason shows the crosscut saw and rifle with "Bowen," the pistol with "Boler," the same "B" on all three. Sandy admits that this was another way to salt the property and get the law suit off his back. Sommers admits being forced to tell Bradisson where Drake's camp was. Mason accuses Lillian of following Jim to Drake's camp. Hayward Small says that, like everyone else, he tried to follow Drake but lost him. Mason produces safe deposit records showing Small and Bradisson had hidden two hundred thousand dollars. Small says Moffgat is in on the deal, too. Moffgat says Sommers had been stealing small amounts and Bradisson knew it, so had him under his thumb, thus was not forced to tell Bradisson where Drake's camp was. Also, he got back into town not at eleven, but twelve-fifteen. Mason notes that the odometer could have been turned back not by driving in reverse, but by propping his vintage car up and running the wheels in reverse! Mason produces Sommers' car jack. // Mason explains that Grant put the "map" in minerals rather than on paper, which could have been taken from him. Sommers did what he did not so much to help the townspeople, as to get out from under Bradisson's threat of prison. Paul suggests that he's going to stay in Gold Gulch because Sandy has shown him a mine with gold all over the place, teasing Perry and Della.

{9-10/1-9 Title credits} {2-9} The court bailiff comes in to a dark courtroom. One (Charles Nevins) asks if lights coming on means the jury is coming in. Yes. The room fills. Mrs (Paulette) Nevin asks Perry Mason if he knows what they'll do to her sister, and he responds that even the judge does not know. (Mason is close up, District Attorney Hamilton Burger and Lieutenant Tragg at the far desk, a reversal of the normal arrangement). Janice Barton comes to the defense table. The jury enters. The verdict is read by the bailiff; Janice Barton is sentenced to death. // {3-9} Mason, Paul Drake and Della Street are having dinner (the waitress is unidentified). Paul and Della note that Janice lied about where she was at the time of the murder and the alibi she still sticks to has been demolished. “$250,000 willed to Janice by an aunt (Amanda) who might have lived another ten or twenty years” was reason enough. Doctor (Charles) and Mrs Nevin arrive, she in a wheel chair. They say Burger told them justice was done, but she doesn't believe Janice could have committed murder. Mason enumerates several options. “The chances of a woman going to the gas chamber in California,” asserts Charles, “are a thousand to one.” Drake says that over three months of work have produced nothing. / JURY GIVES HEIRESS DEATH is Los Angeles Chronicle headline as Della takes a call, then admits the Barton sisters, Miss (Letitia) Simmons and Miss (Violet Barton) Ames, to the office. Simmons asks why Mason wouldn't let Janice plead guilty. She and Ames argue. This will disgrace the family. Letitia might be denied the presidency of the Women’s Club Federation, suggests Violet, who thinks it will be a boost to her acting career. They now expect to inherit, along with brother Doctor Andrew Barton in South America, and Janice's sister Paulette, since convicted Janice cannot inherit. Will Mason be in later? “Tell him” says Violet to Della,“ to have the money ready, dear. Nice, freshly laundered thousand dollar bills, if he can arrange it.” She winks at Mason’s secretary. As they leave, Drake enters. He and Della are wondering where Perry could be. / He is at the house of Amanda Barton where everything is covered. He goes to an upstairs bedroom. As he inspects items, voices are heard, the testimony in the courtroom: Miss Ames testifies to the bottle being the one from the pharmacy. Janice's fingerprints are on the glass, says Tragg. Chloro-hydrate, knock-out drops, was in the water, says Lieutenant Anderson, and also in the body of the decedent, says Dr Hoxie. Burger describes, then, how Janice, by her own admission having administered the drugged water, came back two hours later and carried her aunt to the balcony, then pushed her against the rail which gave way, and the aunt fell to her death on the terrace below. Mr (Christopher) Barton has arrived, summoned by Miss (Emily) Green. Barton offers that he was the one who suggested Aunt Amanda leave the bulk of her estate to Janice and write a new will. He thinks he is partially responsible. He wonders on about Janice's affair in Italy where her lover died, also falling from a balcony. Emily joins them. She thinks Janice cast a spell on Amanda and also caused Paulette's injury in an auto accident. Janice is evil! She saw her running from the house shortly after the murder. / Mason asks (Arthur) Jacks, as the latter lifts weights, whether his current testimony or his first statements are the true ones. Janice came into the bar around 11, not 10:30 as she had him say. Next day she gave him $500 to confirm the 10:30 time with more to come later, which is what made him lie. It was Lieutenant Tragg's finding the hidden $500 that changed his mind about the testimony. D A Burger said he didn't have to mention that. Mason calls him “a trapped liar.” “What she did was about a million times worse” is Jacks’ rejoinder. Mason throws a medicine ball into his gut, walks out. / “It was a fair trial. How is it I was found guilty when I didn’t kill my aunt?” Janice confronts Mason with this and reasserts that she was at the bar at 10:30, and Miss Green lied, too. Mason is certain she is hiding something. She is certain she’ll not go to the gas chamber. / Judge Ryder denies a new trial. The bailiff reads the records of trial and judgments. The judge announces the death penalty. // {4-9} Late at night Mason in his private office, smoking. Then Della arrives, followed by Drake, finding Mason asleep. Mason tells Drake there are four people with weak motives. Drake asks about a fifth, Christopher Barton, but he inherits only through his father, Dr Andrew Barton, who is in Brazil. Since the will already left $50,000 to each as well as Emily Green, they'd gain only about $65,000 each. Is that worth murder? Paulette, when injected with novocain, can walk. Christopher brings in a cable from his father which says the medicine Amanda was given was not what he prescribed. / Drake and Mason catch Janice as a matron is leading her to the transfer vehicle. She says they gave her the new medicine, and they all knew it. But Mason counters that it is not what was prescribed. Janice says she can't tell Mason where she really was the night of the murder. There is one more lead for Paul to investigate. / Drake flies to the Amazon jungle, takes a boat up the river with an Indian guide and is met by Dr Faulkner. She takes him to Barton's grave. / Tragg, Anderson and Burger explain to Mason and Dr Nevin they, too, have trailed the medicine. It was mailed and was the old prescription. The new prescription had additional elements for the heart. Burgeris adamant. The chloro-hydrate in the medicine, not the prescription, is what caused the murder. He will submit a four-(or so) inch thick brief to the Supreme Court urging the death penalty be upheld. / A prison matron brings Janice to Mason who informs her they cannot find who got the medicine. Mason asserts that she went to the family beach house at 10:30, the bar at 11 where, asking for a brandy, she looked like she’d seen a ghost. She finally breaks down, blaming herself for Paulette's paralyzed legs, for her Italian lover's falling from a balcony which she drove him over by calling him a gigolo, and Amanda, too. She’ll never tell what she saw at the beach house, even if it means going to the gas chamber. // {5-9} Perry confronts Charles with being at the Barton beach house the night of the murder. Paulette confronts him to tell the truth. She saw lipstick on his shirt; “It’s her life against my pride!“He calls in his nurse, Elisabeth Carson. She had called him to say that she was going to drown herself. He got her and took her to the beach house. Janice lied, because she saw this and didn't want to ruin Paulette's marriage, given what she'd already done to Paulette. Neither saw Janice at the beach house ten to midnight. / With Drake's help, Mason proves to Miss Green that someone could have opened the mailbox without being seen. She saw “a woman in high-heeled shoes wearing a raincoat with a hood on it.” He challenges her; was it jealousy and hatred of Janice that caused her to identify as Janice a woman whose face she didn't see? / The Nevins and Bartons are all assembled when Mason states that the murderer wanted to get rid of both Amanda and Janice. The murderer ordered the old prescription, picked it up paying with cash, then put the chloro-hydrate in the medicine. The day before the murder, the murderer ordered another prescription to be delivered by mail. When the mail came, the murderer substituted bottles and resealed the package, which Miss Green eventually retrieved. After the murder, the bottles were again switched. Mason now calls on the three, of four possible murderers, who are not guilty to help find the guilty one. A phone call from Della tells of the Supreme Court's upholding the death penalty. // {6-9} In prison Janice has heard that the day has been set. “What time, Mr Mason?“ She knows now that Mason knows about Nevin and his nurse. She names all the women who visited Amanda that day. Her list includes all possible suspects including Christopher, but it was a woman. Mason says a great deal now depends upon Emily Green. / Christopher arrives at Amanda's, where Miss Green suggests she saw him take the medicine bottle on the table away so the one arriving in the mail would have to be used. She saved the old bottle, which he didn't throw away, and it is in the medicine cabinet with his fingerprints on it. The police can take him to the pharmacy for identification. He takes a poker from the stand next the fireplace. She wants the extra $65,000 he’ll get. He suggests he'll take her tomorrow to the police for blackmail. He leaves and Mason and Lt Anderson come into the room to thank Miss Green, then leave, and head to a car. Inside, Miss Green shuts off the lights and uses the chair lift to go upstairs. She hears a couple of clicks. The empty chair starts heading downstairs, then returns with someone dressed as the murderer who goes to Amanda’s room where Miss Green is arranging things. As the murderer raises a kerchief, Drake with gun in hand, Lt Anderson and Mason appear. The murderer is Christopher Barton in high heels. // {7-9} Mason explains to Drake that finding Dr Barton dead identified the murderer. Christopher couldn’t inherit unless his dad was dead before Amanda died. Also, the third medicine bottle had long ago been thrown away but Christopher didn't know that. Janice joins them; “You know what day this is?” “Wednesday,” answers Mason. “At just ten o’clock (the usual time of execution). How nice to have nothing to breathe but air.” As Drake takes her arm to lead her away, he offers, “smog isn’t that bad.” {8-9 end credits} {50:43}(50:15)

It is dark as two men slip things out of the second story of a building into station wagon. One of them slips, dropping a box that damages the rear gate. An alarm goes off. They speed away, observed by woman. // The station wagon is being washed. / Dr (Aaron) Stuart leads his class on Walt Whitman. John (Marshall Baxter) starts the discussion. He is followed by (Bruce) Perkins, who is interrupted by Mrs Perkins. A man who called her was right, The Leaves of Grass are filth," tho she hasn't read it. She takes Bruce out of the private (Manzana Valley Prep) school. Janet (Gwynne) complains that she has not gotten her visual aides, nor has her salary been paid. He goes into the office where Marion Stuart is glowing over a vacation weekend at Cliffside they now can take due to a cancellation. Tobin Wade, assistant dean, and gym teacher Chuck (Emmett) share the story. Stuart accuses his wife of causing the problems. She is a volunteer secretary. He looks for the documents as she leaves. The Perkins folder is empty and he asks Tobin and Chuck about it. Five students have been taken out of school lately. They await foundation funding. / Marion tells Aaron she doesn't need him anymore. Harvey Forrest has called about the mortgage being two months in arrears. She reminisces on nights at Cliffside. He's the one, not she, who needs help. / Aaron gives realtor Harvey Forrest a check for $2000. Forrest mentions the offer on the property, but Stuart insists he'll make Manzana Valley Prep School work. Forrest tears up the mortgage check. A phone call from Della Street summons Stuart. / The Foundation Fund officer, Mr Ryan, explains his concerns to Mason and Stuart. There have been anonymously-provided negative comments, and that of three hundred students who took a special test, the three students who took it at Manzana Valley Prep failed. / Stuart tells Gwynne of the three failures. She argues that they studied the material. He ask if it was everything in the blue book. She says no, it was from a list provided by Tobin Wade. / He breaks into Wade's desk and finds the blue book after Chuck comes in to the office. / Wade enters a dark room, picks up a liquor bottle, then goes to the living room where he pours a drink. Marion enters and he tells her Chuck has called him and told him of the office event. He's been fired. Marion doesn't believe this. Tobin berates Aaron against Marion's objections, then tells her their weekend at Cliffside was canceled. It's a double anniversary for her. / Stuart has found the proof of Wade's involvement, including letters to parents, and shows them to Chuck. / Stuart meets Jenkins coming out of his house, having delivered groceries for Marion. Jenkins asks if Mrs Stuart is okay, as she was looking sick-like when she left with Wade. Stuart finds the liquor bottle, empty. Jenkins says he heard Wade say something about Cliffside. He throws the empty bottle at a mirror, breaks it. / It is night at the Cliffside Resort when Stuart finds Tobin and accuses him of making his wife drink tho she's sick. They wrestle and Tobin falls over the cliff into the ocean. / Stuart offers himself for arrest. // (John Marshall ) Baxter says that, because Stuart has confessed, he'll only ask for voluntary manslaughter. Paul Drake is appalled at the confession without Stuart first calling Perry Mason. The lawyer asks for full cooperation. / At Cliffside an ocean body search is being conducted. Sheriff (Ward Vincent) says no one could survive a fall from the cliff. Drake reports to Mason that the sheriff had called Wade in for questioning a few months earlier. No body has been found. / At the Manzana Valley Court, Mr Baxter is the local prosecutor. Mr Ogden of Cliffside recognized Stuart's wife when she arrived and told Stuart that Wade had gone for a walk. The sheriff testifies that Stuart's confession was totally voluntary. Mason challenges the validity of the confession, as there is no corpus delicti. Judge One agrees. Baxter argues substance over form, and Mason puts him down. / Stuart signs the property over to Harvey Forrest. He says he'll spend the rest of his life repaying the death. / Drake tells Mason and Street that Wade was stealing prep school books from the company warehouse and selling them to schools while pocketing the profit. / Marion tries to comfort her husband as they pack. Janet Gwynne phones Stuart to say that she's been at Wade's shack in Topanga Canyon and "Tobin Wade is alive.' / Wade is dead on the floor, and Stuart is handcuffed next him. Mason and Drake walk in to be told by Lt Anderson, who is with Sgt Brice, that Aaron Stuart has been arrested for first-degree murder. / Jenkins testifies that only the Stuarts and he drive the station wagon and identifies the tire iron from the car. Lieutenant Anderson is with Sergeant Brice in the background as Mason arrives with Drake. Now it is first-degree murder. // D A Hamilton Burger argues complicity between Stuart and Wade. The woman who saw the station wagon speed away from the building at night (Grace Witt) tells her story. She recognized Tobin Wade in the car. Lt Anderson identifies the tire iron as the murder weapon. He notes blood and grease that link Stuart with the murder. / Perry asks Della to get Ann Cogin of the Manzana Valley C of C to meet them. He thinks Stuart's actions are prompted by financial reasons. He asks Paul to get in touch with a filmmaker, Ted Reichert; he wants to make a movie of Paul . . . getting murdered. // Mrs Stuart has agreed to testify for her husband. She's an alcoholic, who'd been off a year, so the wedding anniversary was also a second anniversary. Tobin got her drunk. Mr Ryan admits to Mason that Wade specifically had him send Stuart out to the cliff bluff. / The sheriff says no man could have fallen off the cliff and into the surf and survived. Mr Richert, professional filmmaker, is qualified and produces his film. Mason quotes California legal decisions, twice, to overcome Burger's objections. Drake sets up the film. / The film is shown. It shows Drake jumping only several feet onto a soft landing, then throwing a dummy into the water. Burger's objection is overruled. Emmett is asked where the sports dummy for his team is kept. He admits to giving Wade the key to the room. He wasn't in cahoots with Wade, and doesn't know the name of the man who was. Mason asserts that only one man could profit, real estate man Harvey Forrest. Mason produces a photo of real estate developer Baker, accuses Forrest of offering Baker the most fantastic piece of land in Manzana Valley. He admits to working with Wade, but thought his tactics were too obvious. When, after the first trial, Wade turned up alive and demanded a first payment of $50,000, he went to Wade's and killed him. When Stuart arrived, he knocked him out and planted the evidence. // Developer Baker tells Marion, Aaron and Perry that he'll deed property next the prep school to them and build the most modern school he can.

CHARACTER ACTOR Perry Mason Raymond Burr Della Street Barbara Hale Paul Drake William Hopper Hamilton Burger William Talman Lt Arthur Tragg Ray Collins Lt Anderson Wesley Lau Otto Olney John Larkin Goring Gilbert Robert Brown Grace Olney Joanna Moore Leslie Rankin Margaret Hayes Colin Durant John Dall Maxine Lindsay Erin O'Donnell Oscar Pickering Carl Prickett Judge Charles Irving Ticket Woman Shirley Mitchell

Agnes Newton Kitty Kelly First Reporter Walter Mathews Second Reporter Dick Garton Art Expert Noel Drayton Housewife Ida Mae McKenzie

CHARACTER ACTOR Assistant In Art Gallery Julia Faye Thomas Sgt Brice Lee Miller Yacht Steward Lindsay Workman Critic Louise Lane

At a port site (Colin) Durant and Maxine (Lindsay) drive up to yacht. She tries to beg off, but he suggests that she, a beginning art student, should want to see a $130,000 Gaugin. They go aboard after being checked in by the Yacht Steward. Mrs (Grace) Olney arrives. Inside, Leslie Rankin introduces (Otto) Olney to the visitors with a triple toast, interrupted by Grace, who claims the Gaugin "Tahitian Bathers" as hers. She throws champagne in her husband's face, then leaves. Durant looks closely at the Gaugin, laughs, tells Maxine it is a fake, a copy. // At the Leslie Rankin Gallery Olney is looking at new possibilities with Leslie. She decides that he wants the nude woman. Leslie says it is sold, but the art gallery assistant says the buyer has decided she doesn't want it because of a rumor that the Gaugin is a forgery. / (Goring) Gilbert asks an art student if she's thought of taking up house painting. Maxine is the model. Rankin enters, accuses Maxine of putting out the rumor. Maxine counters, saying that Colin Durant would stake his reputation on its being a forgery. Rankin leaves. Gilbert queries Maxine, who runs out. He picks up another copy of the "Tahitian Bathers" from his collection. / Maxine apologizes to Durant, who says it is okay. / Rankin has told Perry Mason about Maxine's confession. Mason suggests that not she, but the Gaugin, should sue. / Olney has two art experts, Ann Armbruster, head of the Arts Department at the University, and Dr Emil Danton, curator of the Pasadena Museum (Armbruster is non-speaking, so not credited). Dr Danton testifies that every element of Gaugin's style is present. A reporter asks if Mason is also representing Olney in his divorce. Olney claims that he and his wife don't even quarrel, but she enters at that moment and disagrees. At the bar, another reporter asks Olney for a picture of him and his wife under the Gaugin, holding hands! Olney suggest Mason, instead, and the attorney complies. / At dinner Mason explain to Della Street and Paul Drake why he had Olney, not Rankin, sue. Durant approaches and confronts Mason with the fact that he didn't say it was a forgery, only that he'd want to run tests before he'd authenticate it. He then leaves. Mason asks the duo how Durant found him. Drake suggests that he must have been followed, and Mason surmises the whole thing was staged. Mason tries to call Maxine; no answer. Mason thinks he's been tagged as a prize boob. // It is nighttime and Maxine is at a public phone booth in the Greyhound bus station. / Perry, Paul and Della arrive at the office, just miss Maxine's call. Mason notes that, without Maxine's presence, the affidavit is not admissible. Maxine calls again. In a phone booth, she apologizes to Mason, says she's leaving town. Back in the office, Mason and Drake have heard the background of the bus station. / Drake asks a ticket woman about a bus, but there is one or two leaving every five minutes. / Della and Perry are admitted to Maxine's room by the landlady (Agnes Newton) who says the girl left with a suitcase and canary minutes after claiming she was in the shower. Della hears the shower still running. Colin Durant is dead in the tub. / Lieutenant Tragg, with Sergeant Brice, has found an envelope with ten one thousand dollar bills. Tragg answers the phone. It is Olney for Mason. The attorney is fired. / Drake finds Maxine at the Mexican border four hours after the murder. Lt Anderson stops her from crossing the border. / In jail, Maxine tells Mason that an opening at the American Art School in Cuernavaca came open, requiring her immediate departure. Durant had arranged a flight from Tijuana and she left her apartment just before eight. "Not eight-thirty?" asks Mason. No. Durant was in the apartment and was going to both pay her back rent and take care of her canary. / Outside Gilbert's, Mason says Olney has denied paying Durant, and Drake can't believe Gilbert could. Gilbert gladly admits them to see the Gaugin copy Maxine has mentioned to Mason. As they entry the studio, Rankin charges through them. She wanted to examine the copy. "In the dark?" queries Mason. // In court Della tells D A Hamilton Burger how she found Durant's body at 9:42. Burger tries to get Della to say why they wanted to see Maxine and Mason objects via voir dire. Della then says her next move was to call the police. Lt Anderson identifies the ten one thousand dollar bills. Tragg states that the murder was between eight and eight-forty. Agnes Newton is positive that Maxine left at eight-thirty; she recognized the coat and suitcase and the canary. Oscar Pickering, night superintendent at the bus station, saw Lindsey just before nine. He identifies a pistol from a locker 11. / Lt Anderson identifies the pistol as the murder weapon and it is registered to Maxine Lindsey. Mason calls Goring Gilbert and states that it is obvious Lindsey is not guilty. Gilbert admits making his copy for Colin Durant. Drake enters with information Mason wants. Hamilton Burger is curious about Mason's "not guilty" statement, and Mason asks if he wants to take a bus ride. // At the bus station Della, with the canary, joins Perry, Paul, Hamilton and Lt Anderson. Mason takes two dimes from Burger, opens,then closes a locker and takes the key. With this, and Oscar Pickering's testimony, Mason proves the gun was put in the locker while Lindsey was in custody. Della gets a newspaper from a newsboy and shows Mason a photo of a happily reunited Olney and wife boarding their yacht for a round the world tour. / The police stop the yacht from leaving port. / On the yacht Olney, with his wife, demands of Burger and Mason to be charged or be free to sail. Just then Drake arrives with Gilbert who says that Mason has his only "Bathers" copy. Then Sgt Brice enters with Leslie Rankin, who admits Olney's "Tahitian Bathers" is a copy, to which Grace Olney then berates her conniving husband. Grace brings out a rolled "Bathers" and Gilbert admits it is his work. Olney admits that on the day of the murder Durant offered him the copy for ten thousand dollars, much more than the three hundred expected. At eight o'clock, he went to Durant's girl's apartment, gave him ten thousand in bills, got the copy and left. Della brings in the caged canary. Grace Olney confesses to arriving at eight-twenty and leaving with the bird. Durant was already dead. It was she who left ten thousand in an envelope, for the copy Durant made for her! Now Mason asks Grace if her copy was with Durant; no. So he asks Gilbert how it got back to his studio, as well as the ten thousand left by Otto. Gilbert testifies that Durant said he could up the ante, maybe to seven fifty each. He left, then crawled back into the bathroom where he overheard ten thousand from each of the Olneys. Durant had heard him, so confronted him with his gun which went off, and Durant fell dead. // An uninterrupted dinner. Questions all around, and Mason offers that Durant started wanting money via a defamation suit, then went for the twenty thousand. Della presents a bill from Hamilton Burger for the twenty cents rental of the bus station locker.

CHARACTER ACTOR Perry Mason Raymond Burr Della Street Barbara Hale Paul Drake William Hopper Hamilton Burger William Talman Lt Anderson Wesley Lau Gwynn Elston Pippa Scott George Belding Baxter Patrick McVey Corley Ketchum Karl Swenson Felton Grimes Michael Conrad Carl Jasper Allan J Melvin Nell Grimes Jacqueline Loughery Judge Charles Irving Bolton Claude Stroud Little Girl Betsy Hale Mrs Gillette Ann Mitchell Plainclothesman (Evans) Jim Drum [Sgt Brice Lee Miller]

Water in a kettle boils. Gwynn (Elston) talks to it, then shuts it off. She takes breakfast to Felton and Nell Grimes who are kissing, "having a fight." He's leaving on another trip. They are kissing passionately. / Gwynn, an encyclopedia salesperson, goes to the Gillette home where she is greeted by a little girl, then finds a photo that looks like Felton. The girl turns it around and Gwynn recognizes without a doubt Felton Grimes. The wife, Mrs Gillette, says that husband Frank, gone half the time, is returning tomorrow. Gwynn begins her sales pitch. // Felton finds Gwenn going through his desk. They argue over her snooping. She blurts out that maybe he's been married before. He kisses her, threatens her if she reveals anything. She runs in to the kitchen, throws her drink in the sink, then wipes it with tissue she saves. / She tells Perry Mason and Della Street that Grimes has baited her and is a bigamist. Mason says Paul Drake should check into it. He suggests the only way she can stay out of danger is to go back to the Gillette's for the order form which the husband has to sign. / Gwynn picks up the order form while Grimes/Gillette is out. Mrs Gillette tells Gwynn that she's much too nervous and needs to find a good husband. As Gwynn leaves she notices a man looking at her car. She goes by neighbor Baxter's house, finds another car that is registered to Frank Gillette. She runs, as the man stands in front of a neighbor's house. She bangs on the door of the Baxter's, a neighbor, and is met outside by the caretaker. The man is now gone. When she gets in her car, a man is looking for keys next it. / Gwynn reports her incident to Mason. Paul Drake reports that he did not have a man watching Gwynn. Gwynn looks for her list of prospects, but it is lost. / Traces of strychnine were in Gwynn's gin and tonic, says Paul. / Gwynn returns to the Baxters and trips over dead Felton. // Mrs Gillette identifies husband Frank (Grimes) and Sergeant Brice helps her in her hysteria. George Belding Baxter tells Lieutenant Anderson that he found the body. He returned by plane and taxi from Bakersfield. Evans (plainclothesman) states that the murder gun was Gillette's. Drake arrives and Andy shows him a compact with "G.E." engraved on it. / Gwynn Elston doesn't think she even had her compact with her. Drake has her order forms. Drake reports that Grimes' real identity is Frank Gillette, who married Nell six months ago. His mother was a charity case. His father, Gorman Gillette from Bakersfield, died a couple of days ago, a hermit. Andy takes Gwynn away after she brazens out the loss of her compact. Andy returns to take Drake with him. / The funeral home director (Mr Bolton) says that only a younger man, Frank, ever visited the hermit Gillette. Mason offers $500 to help cover costs. Mason takes a lipstick from Della, leaves her, returns with the old man's fingerprints. / Della brings a boxed dinner to the hermit's shack and the report that Gwynn has told everything. Mason has discovered that Gillette read westerns and one copy of "Suburban Landscaping." Drake calls in; Gillette served time for robbery with an accomplice named Halsey, still not found. Gwynn is to be charged with first-degree murder. Mason tells him to get a subpoena for George Belding Baxter whose picture is in "Suburban Landscaping." // Della is polishing a cigarette lighter and box. Baxter bursts in to Mason's office. He has to fly to Honolulu. He's given District Attorney Hamilton Burger an affidavit. Della pushes the lighter and box to him, but he smokes his own. He's offered a drink as Della goes to crystal decanters. He refuses. Baxter threatens a $100,000 suit for Mason's damage to his business as Drake and Street look on. After he leaves, Mason draws a "U" around Baxter's fingerprints, tells Drake that these are his case. / In court Nell Grimes admits that Gwynn left at about 8:30 and didn't return until after she fell asleep. Gwynn whispers to Mason that she returned almost immediately. Nell refuses to answer if her husband and Gwynn argued. Mrs Gillette says Miss Elston left her house at 8:50. Her husband was a good man and wouldn't have put strychnine in her drink. When he left the house that evening, he said "he had something unpleasant to attend to." Mason asks her about her husband's business. Well, he began to travel a little less than a year ago, so maybe sales. Couldn't it have been "blackmail?" asks Mason. The caretaker says Miss Elton drove away at 9:15, and he saw no one on the estate the rest of the night. Andy says they found Gillette's blood on the compact and in footprints of shoes the size of the defendant's. Baxter testifies to the time he found the body between 9:50 and 10. Mason tries to prove Baxter is someone else, but this is improper cross. Carl Jasper is called. He is a private detective who was hired by Frank Gillette to check on the girl that would call on his house that night. She saw him. After she left he met Gillette, who admitted she knew something about him. As he drove away, Gwynn Elston passed him returning. // Gwynn tells Perry that, when she drove back, she didn't see anyone. Drake reports that Baxter's fingerprints are not Halsey's and are not even on file. / Mason shows Baxter the photo in "Suburban Landscaping." There are two people, Baxter and the caretaker (Corley Ketchum), whom Mason says Gillette recognized. Yes, Baxter admits, the caretaker Ketchum is his brother, Halsey. It was Frank Gillette, son of Gorman, who discovered the situation and moved next door and demanded money. With his father dead, Frank asked for a quarter of a million dollars, at Baxter's house the night of the murder. Halsey, Baxter and Gillette were together when Gwynn came by, wondering if things hadn't gotten out of hand. Gillette left. Shortly thereafter Halsey heard a car backfire, then found Gillette dead. He heard a woman running away. Mason calls Gwynn. What size shoes does Nell wear? The same as she. Did she check to see if Nell was in her room? Nell breaks down. // Drake explains. Nell followed her, confronted her husband. They fought and that was that. Mason says Nell had her in the house as her detective, having suspected her husband of bigamy for at least a few weeks. He shows the prospects list, and the last one, that of Gillette, was typed on Nell's typewriter, not Gwynn's.

An Oriental man exits a small boat docked in Hong Kong harbor and heads downtown. / Mr Eng pays $40,000 for some diamonds, noting that they are worth much more. He suffers a heart attack after the delivering agent leaves. A Westerner and servant Kwon (not credited since he does not speak) enter to help him. // The Westerner, Tudor Sherwin, joins Mr (Louis) Kew and asks about Mr Eng's American relative. Juli Eng, Mr Eng's granddaughter, joins them for the reading of the will. Juli gets all but a small bequest to Kwon. There is no mention of diamonds in the inventory, which Juli knows about from her grandfather's phone call. Ralph Iverson of the Orient American (diamond) Sales Corporation enters. Juli relates the phone call. Privately, she suggests to Iverson that Sherwin run the company but he tells her that Sherwin was going to be let go. Juli runs out; Sherwin is gone. Iverson remembers a hidden space and opens it, but finds it empty. Juli says she'll call the police. / On a large passenger ship at dockside, a woman (Agatha Culpepper) stops a man (Gilbert Tyrell) who claims to be Sureté National. In a cabin the diamonds are being shown to Tyrell by Iverson. Lorraine knocks on the locked door, Tyrell hides, she enters and finds the diamond package which Ralph says is a cigarette case for his boss. Lorraine leaves. Iverson arranges with Tyrell to get the diamonds into San Francisco. / Inspector Mac Ritchie states that he's searched Sherwin and he doesn't have the diamonds, so he's sailing for America, now. / The ship is casting off. Iverson leaves his room with the diamonds. Sherwin goes into his room. Iverson gives the diamonds to Tyrell at his stateroom. Agatha Culpepper interrupts Juli Eng's arrival from a pilot boat. / Della Street brings Perry Mason a telegram regarding the stolen diamonds from Juli. / Iverson tells Juli that he doubts Sherwin would bring the diamonds aboard ship. Mrs Culpepper joins them. She notices "everything." Tyrell, faking a Texas accent, is joined by Sherwin. Juli asks Culpepper about Tyrell. She informs her that he's a very dangerous man and Iverson excuses himself when she asks him for confirmation. / Later, at dinner, Lorraine is again complaining to Ralph. Juli dances with Tyrell. Then Tyrell joins Iverson who warns him about Juli and about playing around with any of his girls. Iverson sees Tyrell kissing Lorraine, goes to Tyrell's room. Sherwin, already there in a connecting room, joins him. He threatens to expose Iverson's cheating Kew for over $10,000. Since he hasn't found the diamonds, he'll wait until they land for his share of the loot. // Paul Drake reports on Gilbert Tyrell to Perry and Della. Paul is sent to the ship docks in San Francisco. / At the dock the custom's agent (Wendel) tells Drake of his shipboard informant who travels to collect rewards, Culpepper. / Aboard ship, Culpepper keeps a watchful eye on Tyrell. / At the dock Wendel tells Drake that Tyrell has been previously caught. / At Customs Tyrell informs the customs officer that he has diplomatic immunity, but to no effect. / Mason warns Juli there is no proof that Tyrell has the diamonds. Agatha asks Wendel what her moiety will be. Iverson sends his wife to get a cab, goes to tell a man (later identified as Chowen) in a car to not let Tyrell out of his sight. Meanwhile, Tyrell has gone thru three hours of search. Wendel has to let him go. Juli protests to Mason as Wendel claims that not even the Hong Kong police believe there are any diamonds. / Tyrell goes into a phone booth. The phone rings at Iverson's, but he hangs up as Lorraine walks by. Juli enters and complains to Iverson. She partially overhears a phone conversation between Tyrell and Iverson. / A tugboat comes by and the diamond package is thrown to Tyrell. (Frank) Chowen and another confront him and he throws the diamonds into the water. The two threaten him, but Drake pops out and saves him. They walk away and Tyrell explains that he didn't know his attackers. A king's ransom is in a hundred feet of water headed for the Golden Gate. / Drake phones Mason, noting that the diamonds were for Iverson, not Sherwin. / Juli comes running out of Iverson's office, hysterical. Mason enters as Iverson staggers out, a knife in his back, and dies. Juli knows Iverson stole her diamonds. // Doctor (Lefcourt) tells the District Attorney how the death was caused. Mason gets him to admit that he could have lived five or more minutes after being stabbed. Sherwin says only Iverson must have seen the diamonds. Lorraine, hardly an unhappy widow, states that she saw a small package, but her husband didn't have it at customs. Ralph went to his office after dinner, regarding a phone call. Culpepper says she warned Juli, then identifies Tyrell, aka Colonel Chilton, as a notorious smuggler. Tyrell admits that he was a spy! He "brought nothing that was contraband into the United States." // Drake tells Mason that Iverson had been swindling Eng. A private detective hired by Sherwin told him so. Kew on the phone says Kwon remembers a package delivered from Red China. Mason tells Drake to show a photograph to every taxi driver in San Francisco. / In court Mason tells Juli that Louis Kew is in love with her. Chowen says he followed Tyrell. He overheard him call Iverson and say he could have the diamonds within five minutes, then went to the pier where he dropped them in the water. Mason recalls Culpepper. She lost her reward when Tyrell was not caught. She saw Juli come aboard from a pilot ship. Tyrell is asked if he didn't drop the diamonds overboard with a float attached, to be later picked up and delivered. Really, wasn't that a stunt for Iverson's benefit, with the diamonds left back in Hong Kong, sent ashore on the pilot boat? Didn't he go to Iverson with his tale of how his thugs caused the loss? No, he didn't go inside, because Mrs Iverson was there first. Lorraine jumps up, reveals that Ralph was going to run out on her, having finally gotten the big one with the diamonds, which she saw in the cabin while he was out. He beat her and she grabbed the knife. She breaks down sobbing. // The usual three and Juli. She is told that her grandfather was merely helping mainland Chinese, not himself, by smuggling. Mason says Louis can handle the diamonds for her. Della says Mason is just teasing, she can go to Honk Kong if she wants. She smiles and admits she's crazy about lawyers.

Three men and one woman (Chester, Lawton, Reed, Eloise, all Brents) gather with another (Justin Grover) around a bed with one woman (Bebe Brent) in it. One asks Grover if they should call the doctor. Another asks where nurse Randall is. The sick lady, Mrs (Bebe) Brent, calls for Hetty (Randall). She asks for an envelope from Justin, whom she asks about a "gift in anticipation of death." Justin, in an envelope addressed to Hetty Randall, finds a certified check for $1 million. Three of the other four are outraged. Eloise suggests Chester and Lawton would split everything, perhaps with Justin, if the check were destroyed. Bebe dies and Hetty returns from the drug store, too late. // Next a swimming pool Lawton Brent serves ice cold lemonade to his future daughter-in-law Madeline Randall and son Reed. Justin arrives with news the Max Randall, Hetty's brother and Madeline's uncle, has heard of "a" gift to Hetty. / Hetty tells Madeline that Bebe went to a lawyer, then a man at the bank, who took care of the check. Max hears this and Hetty offers that no one should do anything. Madeline leaves, then heads back to get her gloves. She hears Hetty tell Max that Reed is a good boy and has certainly told Madeline what happened. / Madeline confronts Reed and he states that things were confusing. She knows he's holding something back, then leaves. Lawton tells Reed that he needs time. / Madeline confronts Justin. He needs time. Carla enters and gives Justin reason to leave. Alone with Madeline, she accidentally blurts out that she came in at Justin's signal to rescue him from her. / Chester tells Madeline that there was no gift. Eloise complains that they are late to a party. / Madeline asks Perry Mason for help. He quotes law to indicate the possible "undue influence" by her mother, then agrees to take her case. / Madeline is met by Reed, who confesses to the million dollar gift and leaves her. She goes in to the house to answer the phone, then tells Grover that she knows about the check. He says he'll explain everything if she'll meet him in an hour. Max has heard her end of the conversation. / Justin Grover's house is burning as Madeline runs out, meeting a policeman who corrects her statement that there is a man inside to "was." // In jail Madeline is being interrogated by D A Hamilton Burger with Mason and Drake present. Madeline is explaining that the fire started when she knocked over a heater and was knocked out bumping her head. Burger leaves. Drake tells Madeline that the back door had been jimmied, the front locked, so she is considered a felon. When she came to, she says, there was smoke. She ran into the study, grabbed the brief case and ran, not seeing the dead body. Mason informs her she'll be charged with murder . . . in the first-degree. / Mason and Street help Hetty finish the papers that will get her her gift. When Mason asks why a nurse would get such a gift, Max nods "no," and she suggests that they leave. / Drake wants information from Justin Grover's private secretary, Carla Eden, but she is on to him. He pulls a "talent scout" trick on her. / The Brents squabble before Mason and Drake, but Lawton says he and his son will stand by Hetty. Chester threatens that she won't get the money, because he and Eloise will disagree, two against two. Mason reveals Grover's office diary admits that he had the check to deliver. Lieutenant Anderson enters. Hetty was only a go-between. The check was meant for Madeline, Bebe's daughter! // In court Chester tells of a brother, Philip, who married Bebe, but was thought dead in an avalanche. Some time later he met "what was left of him" in a hospital. He lived until a few weeks ago. Eloise says Bebe went to pieces when she heard of her husband's death. Fourteen months later, when he was found alive, she telephoned her in Oregon, but she was injured near San Francisco and arrived later in Los Angeles. Hetty admits that Bebe was Madeline's mother by someone other than Philip. So Hetty took her as her child. The check was to go into a trust for Madeline. Reed says Madeline didn't know that the check was for her, but he did tell her how much. Lawton says that he fought against the gift check because the family company was in desperate straits. Madeline told him she'd "light a fire under" Grover if necessary to get the check. / At night in Mason's office, Drake reports to Mason and Street that the Brent business came up $150,000 short. Justin Grover had been running around with some woman, identity unknown. Mason now knows who embezzled, who murdered, and who started the fire. // Carla Eden testifies that Madeline said she'd see Grover whether he liked it or not. Mrs Taylor, his neighbor, heard an argument between Grover and someone else, man or woman she couldn't be sure, but they argued for ten or fifteen minutes. The policeman met Madeline heading out the back door. The surgeon identifies the cause of death as carbon monoxide inhalation. Burger, with a long explanation, asks Madeline be bound over on a charge of first-degree murder. Mason explains that motive and intent are not the same, and intent to steal is necessary. Max Randall admits that he told Madeline she was Bebe's daughter before she left to meet Lawton. He admits that he went to Grover's, jimmied the back door, but never got beyond the kitchen. He heard the bell and knocked over a table in the dark. Mason says it was Madeline who entered, tripped and knocked her head while falling. The secret was kept from Madeline, because she was illegitimate. He was her father! Lawton suspected Chester of embezzlement, but found that it was Grover, so confronted him. He had a partner who was going to return much of the money. Mason turns to Eloise, who protests too forcefully. When Mason mentions embezzlement of $250,000, Carla Eden blurts that it was only $150.000. Mason asks about her screen test, then her first screen test. She was offered $500 a week, but instead went to work for Grover for $100 a week. What of her safe deposit box? She now admits that she has over a hundred thousand dollars from working three years with Grover. When he demanded its return, she argued, struggled, then hit him and threw curtains on the gas heater before she left. // Della, Hetty, Max, Mr and Mrs Madeline Reed learn from Perry that Madeline is actually legitimate.

Three rich guys at night in a Thunderbird convertible are looking for beer. Tim (Balfour) is driving, Chick (Montana) is their presumptive leader. He and Greasy (Neal) go into Liquor store. Chick comes back and has Tim drive away quickly. He tells Tim to tell his housekeeper that he's been in all night, for what Greasy has done he might be in trouble,. / At home, housekeeper Edith (Summers) informs Tim that Chick called. Chick informs Tim that Greasy needs two bills to get out of town or else his friends will finger them. // Luke (Balfour) is berating Tim Balfour,Senior, over the traffic citations young Tim has gotten. Tim does all his driving in Italy, counters Sr. He does no work at Balfour Enterprise. Tim is all Sr has left of his dead son and he is his conscience. Balfour says they have to give something to Tim (III), since the death of Tim II. "Give, give, give" complains Luke. Edith (Summers) tries to calm Luke. Tim comes to Uncle Luke for two hundred dollars, but is given a one dollar bill. Tim says his mother and father were cold because of Luke, who says Tim (II) wouldn't work because he was an artist, an intellectual. Luke denies responsibility for the car wreck in Italy that killed Tim's mother and father (and where Tim learned to drive). Edith consoles Tim and promises to help him. He then calls Chick. They plan to meet. / At the Balfour cottage Tim calls for Chick, wrecks his left headlight, then hides as the police drive by, finally speeds off. At a turn, we see what looks like a body by the side of the road. Tim swerves and runs his car off the road where it gets stuck. / Tim tells Edith, who is returning from the drug store, that he hit a gatepost and needs money to pay a man so that he won't be reported. H is not supposed to be driving since his license is suspended. The police drive up to bring him his wallet. Edith says they were at the Hollywood Bowl, so don't know how long Tim's car has been stolen. / Edith and Tim argue over who is wrong. Chick phones. Edith says that Tim is in Palm Springs. Chick says the price is now two thousand dollars. When Edith repeats the figure, Tim takes the phone, informs Chick that it is a shakedown. Chick responds that it will take $2000 to clear him of hitting the man in the road (who is lying nearby on the couch). // Miss Adler says she's doing the best she can to prepare a financial statement, which has already taken three weeks, of Balfour's estate. She leaves and Luke complains that Balfour is leaving money and shares in the company to young Tim. When Mason refuses to stop it, Luke asserts that he will. / As Tim paces outside the company office, Edith asks Miss Adler for a $2000 advance on the $25,000 Balfour has left her. Miss Adler goes to Hal (Harold Minter, who runs the company) who agrees to the loan, but Luke phones and stops it. / As Edith enters Luke's outer office, Chick comes out. She goes in to Luke, who tells her that she can run the house, but nothing else. He calls Perry Mason and asks for someone to be put on to watch Tim twenty-four hours a day. / The mantel clock chimes nine. Tim takes a loaded pistol from a wall display, puts it back, then checks another. Edith enters and he asks her if she had any luck. No, but she knows what has to be done. She goes into Sr's bedroom while he sleeps and steals from his private cash supply. She gives it to Tim, who at first resists but then takes it. He then takes a gun out of the display, puts it back, than takes it when Edith leaves. / With the gun he goes to Chick and the wounded man. He knocks Chick down and takes the old man to his car. Chick comes after him and gets shot. The gun is left behind. // Drake speaks to operative Pete on his car phone; just watch him he says. An expert has found latent prints on the gun. Lieutenant Anderson greets Drake at the crime scene. Minter comes over; he has found the body. / A man at El Rancho de Health is helping Tim take care of the old man. / Mason tells Luke Balfour that anyone creating grave emotional crises with a man recovering from a coronary must be suspect. He'd inherit all if Balfour dies before recovering. Luke tells Mason that he's trying to prevent Balfour from making a mistake that could kill him or ruin the rest of his life. Mason counts the three driving offenses of Tim, whom Luke calls a hoodlum, then notes that one more citation and Luke loses his license for all time. The phone rings; Drake. He reports that a friend of Tim's has been shot with one of Balfour's guns, and two thousand dollars on him. Mason arranges to meet Drake without letting Luke know. Luke denies being near his father's house this night, when Mason tries to trap him. / Edith paces as Tim drives up. As they enter the house, Miss Adler stops them and accuses Edith of taking two thousand dollars from Tim's grandfather. Tim volunteers that she did it for him. In private Tim confesses to the shooting to Mason, who says the man is dead. / In jail Tim asserts that he didn't mean to. Paul tells Perry that Tim took an old wino to Rancho de Health and he's still there, still drunk. Tim says the liquor store was just the start. Edith knew about the drunk. Mason stuns Tim when he reveals that his friend was shot from ten feet, in the back. / Drake reports that Chick was a fast talker, slow thinker but that, after meeting Tim, he had money. Drake is told to look for whomever is behind Montana. / In court D A Hamilton Burger asks Minter about finding the body. He drove past Balfour's, then thru the estate where he found the body. He runs Balfour's business, but is not a personal friend. He never saw Chick Montana before his death. The medical examiner testifies that the deceased was shot in the back. Gun powder was on the front of the jacket, but no bullet hole. Miss Adler testifies Edith took two thousand dollars from Balfour's bedroom. She identifies a photo of Chick, who was in the office to see Luke Balfour. Luke testifies that the murder weapon, with Tim's fingerprints, was easily accessible and was always loaded. The five thousand from which the two were taken was his, kept at Balfour's so his wife wouldn't find out about his going to Las Vegas. Yes, he met, and threw out, Chick, who went to Minter first. After a short conference with Drake, Mason recalls Lt Anderson. He asks about the gun and whether they dusted for fingerprints on the other gun. No. Wouldn't it be interesting if no prints were on that gun? // Mason and Drake commiserate. Then a cameraman shows Mason his outfit, which was trained on the gun case from outside the house. / Mason asks Balfour to spare Edith for an hour./ Mason explains the way the camera is started and instructs Drake to admit anyone who comes. Mason asks Edith about her knowledge of Tim's father, then notes that she's a corroborating witness in Luke's wife's divorce suit, even tho there was no infidelity! The first visitor arrives, the drunk man. Edith slams the door. Mason opens it and Drake comes in, says Edith tripped the camera looking at the gun case. Mason takes the gun out of the case and discovers that it has only blanks. He confronts Edith. Is she afraid the police will find out that the gun Tim had was loaded with blanks? She was in the cabin with the other gun. She saw her opportunity to get rid of Chick as well as Tim. She ruined Luke's life, Tim's father's life, Minter. . . She would eventually be alone in the mansion with Balfour. She brags about turning Sr against his son. // Balfour apologizes to Mason for all he failed to see regarding Edith Summers. Tim arrives with Drake and Street, and is welcomed by his grandfather.

In a desert valley a Chevrolet pulls up to a farm. Willard (Hupp) gets out and goes to the farmhouse porch where Eula (Johnson) is smoking a cigarette. He wants to know if "he" (Grover Johnson) is coming around. Grover refuses to sell for what has been offered. Eula asks "a thousand acres of what?" and berates him. Three years, she's tried. She wants him to sell. He refuses and is still making his mortgage payments to Hupp. Eula drives Willard away in his car, with a boy (Les Gilpin) watching. On the road out, they meet a Texan in a Lincoln. He's looking for property. // He's (Nelson) Barclift. Eula and Willard bluff about offers to buy. Johnson offers a tour while Eula cooks up a big lunch. / Willard is preparing an offer to buy for the third time. What figure? Eula tells him to leave it blank. Barclift returns with Grover. She knows Barclift likes his steak smokey, blood red inside, sends Grover out to cook it before he can name what they expect. She suggests $175,000, but has written $200,000 on the offer to buy. After protesting, he accepts the high figure. / Paul Drake is astounded by the sale price. Perry Mason's client was offering $52,500. Drake says Barclift cannot possibly come up with the money and Della Street wants to know what she should write to Mason's client. Paul suggests "nothing," for he is sure Barclift is bluffing and will never sign anything. / Barclift signs the agreement, and a check, for $10,000 down and a promissory note for the remainder. As they exit to celebrate, Eula puts money into Nelson's hand, held behind his back. / Barclift is making passes at Eula while Grover is away. He shows her his bridgework. Grover interrupts. He suspects something but leaves. She whispers that a dead body has been found in Arizona and when his bridgework is found . . . Les interrupts them. / Outside the Arizona cabin where the body is, Eula pours gasoline in the Lincoln. Les sees movement at the window. Eula knows the "body" is alive, but will soon be dead. She pulls a gun, calls her husband to come out. Barclift says she's "not going to put me in this car." / The burning Lincoln slides down a rock face next a waterfall. // Grover Johnson is telling Mason, Street and Drake that he has to sell. Drake shows a flyer that proves Barclift was a small-time swindler. The estate will owe the $200,000. Grover says the $10,000 went to cover expenses. Mason's client still wants the place, so he'll help Grover get what he wants, for himself and Eula. / Les tells Eula that Grover is on the way back. She speaks on the phone to a furrier from whom she is buying an ermine stole and mink coat. She gathers and hides magazines which have coat ads. Outside Les is talking to a stranger. He reports to Eula that this one, (Walter) Jefferies, is asking questions like the lawyer and detective did earlier. / Jefferies drives up to Hupp's office. Inside, Hupp complains to Mason and Drake about the man outside. Hupp, in his private office, speaks to Sidney Weplo about the property. / The sheriff meets Mason and Drake on the sidewalk, says the files are available for them and, since they were at Hupp's, they must have met Weplo, a cousin of Barclift. / Les drops Grover and Eula at Hupp's office where they are introduced to Barclift's cousin, over whom Hupp is fawning. Mason and Drake join them. Mason gives Weplo a snapshot of the sheriff and Barclift, together, and Weplo recognizes his cousin. After Eula and Grover leave, Drake confronts Weplo with the fact that it was his dead wife who was Barclift's cousin. Will he take over $190,000 payments? As Drake and Mason leave Hupp's, Jefferies comes out of the title office. He admits that he's an insurance investigator and that Barclift's estate will get $200,000. / The sheriff is apologizing to Mason when the attorney points out that the estate will now have to pay the $190,000 still owed on the property. The sheriff wants to see Eula's expression when she hears she's rich. / The sheriff drives Mason and Drake to Johnson's. Hupp runs up to them for help. They find Eula dead with Grover over her. // In court Jefferies tells the prosecutor that his investigation found both an old and the new dental bridge, but he still suggested a delay in payment. Gilpin tells how Eula and Grover kissed, then fought over his spending his money and a waste pile of rocks, and him apologizing. She'd get off the ranch but once a year, to shop in San Francisco. He tells of the scene he walked in on between Eula and Nelson Barclift, kissing. Willard Hupp had the Johnson's at his place. Grover left him after drinks at the tavern. When he got to the house, he heard fighting, a thud. Then no more sound from Eula, but Grover says "Eula, don't die." The sheriff testifies that he saw bruise marks where she'd been choked and the blood on Eula's head where she'd smashed into the corner of the fireplace hearth. // In jail Nelson admits that he spent time walking off his drinking, and Eula was already bleeding. He says he didn't say any of the things Hupp claimed, but Mason responds that he hopes Hupp is "telling the complete and unvarnished truth." Mason suggests Drake get to a dentist. / The doctor (Lewis) tells Drake that, even with a permanent bridge, Barclift could have wanted a spare. Drake asks about the four-year-old bridge, but the doctor corrects; Barclift's permanent bridge was no more than six months old. / The prosecutor pushes the point that three conspirators became two when Barclift was murdered, but two became one when Grover was overheard to say "I can't let you spoil everything." Mason has Gilpin clarify what he overheard, and how many conspirators there were. He assumed when Eula said "he" she meant Grover, but she could have meant someone else. Weplo says it was six years since he'd seen Barclift, but he'd answered a letter about a revolving door accident in Sacramento just after his wife died. Mason traps him into admitting that he recognized the sheriff, and has never met Barclift. A bank officer (Mr Morgan) says that some time back he loaned Barclift $200, to get his teeth fixed, which was never paid back when Barclift went to South America. Doctor Lewis states that Barclift's bridge was only six months old. Mr Jefferies says now it was not two but three dentists, and that the Sacramento Barclift was not the one who took out life insurance on his company. The third dentist was used by two of the con men who were planning to kill the third. Mason gets Hupp to admit he couldn't be sure that he heard Jefferies. Maybe someone else wanted Eula not to die for, if she did, he'd not get his share of her insurance money! Hupp wouldn't have known how to arrange the insurance and such. Mason turns on Jefferies. Was it the revolving door accident in Sacramento? Eula didn't know how well the swindle was working. He didn't mean to kill her and breaks down in sobs. // The usual trio meet Grover. Mason's client wants the property and also wants Grover to stay on and run it.

In downtown Los Angeles (Martin) Baylor is looking at a new dress from Orin Leslie that is being worn by model Nicolai (Wright). Both Nicolai and Martin think it cheap. Martin suggests Orin thinks that he has less taste than his dead father. Leslie says he came because he was asked to. Baylor identifies the cheap elements of Leslie's offering, but adds that soon he'll be sole owner of the Baylor enterprise. They could then do a lot of business. / Perry Mason and Della Street are with Todd and Martin Baylor for the reading of the will. It is on tape. The dead Baylor says that he is at fault for the breach with Todd. He leaves Martin all the Baylor stores with one exception; if Todd, running the home store, can increase profits 4% in one year, he'll get a half share in all the stores. // In a restaurant Todd sneaks up on Carla Rinaldi and kisses her neck. She's a buyer at the store. He's going to take the $30,000 alternative, plus $45,000 offered by Martin, rather than a 4% gamble. She suggests that he visit her uncle who has been on the wagon a whole year. / At the front desk Todd looks at his photo of Carla, tells the hotel clerk to switch his evening flight to tomorrow or later. / Joseph Rinaldi serves soup to Todd. He then reveals how Carla got Leslie to buy one of his old dress designs for $50, which gave him a new lease on life, one free from alcoholism. Todd looks at Rinaldi's most recent designs and likes them. / Jane (Alder) and Carla agree that sample gloves are not up to Baylor standards. Todd joins them and announces that he's taking the store for a year during which he is going to market "designs by Rinaldi" exclusively, and only, to be launched with a charity fashion show. / Leslie calls Martin to complain about Todd's plans and learns that Martin is only waiting until Todd is far out on a limb. / (Montage of dressmaking) Models get a once over (Debbie and Trixie are named). Carla is looking for Todd. Nicolai says he took out after Rinaldi who had stormed out of Martin's office. / Todd finds Rinaldi, drunk, angry that Carla is a do-gooder, but didn't do good enough. / Martin needles Todd about "breakage," then shows him his court order stopping the fashion show, because he has an exclusive contract with Rinaldi. Carla falls from a ladder. / Jane Alder is taking care of Carla. The doctor (McBurney) cautions rest for Carla, then Todd and Jane. Jane tells Todd that Martin has a plan to sell the stores. / Todd searches for Martin in heavy rain. He asks a house man, then (Nicolai's) maid, where Martin is. He goes to the store. A store security officer ( Edward Lewis) lets Todd in and sends him up the steps, then follows him and discovers Todd on the floor, next Martin, who has scissors in his back. // Lieutenant Anderson and Sergeant Brice are at the building door, knocking, when the security officer brings Todd down and then tells the police that Todd stabbed his brother. / Mason arrives just as the police are finishing the investigation. Rinaldi enters. He didn't get Jane's message about Carla. Rinaldi's eye settles on a piece of jewelry; Mason notices. Andy says that with what they've got, they don't need an admission from Todd. / Rinaldi is at Alder's (just across the street from the store). He informs Jane that Martin's been killed. While Jane makes coffee, Rinaldi sees Carla's coat, which is wet from the rain. Jane looks in on Carla; she's asleep. Jane took one of Carla's sleeping pills and has been asleep since. / Who is Todd trying to protect? asks Mason in the jail room. The reply is angry. / At the store, Rinaldi says Todd doesn't need to protect Carla. Mason notes that the contract which covered one item in small print gives Orin Leslie exclusive rights, which he assigned to Martin Baylor. Todd, Martin, and Rinaldi had keys to the employee's entrance to the building. Rinaldi doesn't know where his is. / Paul Drake asks Nicolai Wright about Martin's dealings with Orin Leslie. She admits Martin gave Leslie a check. / Elsewhere Mason is looking at a photo showing Carla with the jewelry seen at the crime scene just as Jane Alder enters. She says that, in the past, Todd had mismanaged the store and his father had accused him of theft. Drake reports that the check to Leslie was for $10,000. / Leslie claims the check was for orders. Martin was going to put Leslie's wares in all his stores, under the Rinaldi name, make a killing and then sell the Baylor stores to someone who wanted the real estate. Of course, Todd knew. // The security officer tells what he overheard; "Martin, you've gone to far, you're not going to get away with it" "Todd . . . No, No" and a crash. Lt Anderson says there were three keys, only, to the employee's entrance. He was let in the front by the security guard. Nicolai admits Martin confided in her, specifically, that he was going to force Todd out of the store. Leslie admits that he sold his contract with Rinaldi to Martin Baylor, not to the store. This guaranteed the end of Todd Baylor. He informs Mason that he owns Rinaldi designs, one dollar a dress. Hamilton Burger tries to get Alder to incriminate Todd at the moment Martin showed him the contract. She admits she told Todd of Martin's plan to sell the store and Todd said "I won't let him get away with it, I swear it, no matter what I have to do." She says that she took a pill, went to sleep and found Carla asleep an hour later. Rinaldi is angry with Burger, who ends his examination. Mason gets Rinaldi to admit that the contract was "life or death" to him and to Martin, Todd and Carla. Rinaldi says he went to Martin to get the contract and killed him. Todd now changes his plea; he killed Martin Baylor. // Perry tells Della that he's afraid Todd will still plead guilty tomorrow morning when the judge wants to hear from him. Paul has found what Mason wanted, hidden clothes. / In court Mason wants to get a third