PERRY MASON

in The Case of the . . .

with Raymond Burr

as Perry Mason

These pages updated 11 April 08. All 26 episodes of the third 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; 70, 72, 73, 75, 77, 79, 83, 85, 86, 87, 91, 92 and 95. Episode 85 is on DVD in the 50th Anniversary Perry Mason issue; DVD chapter indices for this issue are in { } brackets. All other episodes have been compared to full-length or multiple air checks in order to construct an accurate synopsis, and are marked with an asterisk (*). Where indicated "CBS Tape/DVD," the synopsis has been upgraded by an additional comparison to the DVD format, which is also indicated by the DVD chapter indices placed in parentheses within the synopsis text.

#	TITLE	SHOW DATE	BOOK DATE-ORDER	CBS TAPE
70	Spurious Spinster	30 Oct 59	ESG '61-64	26314

CHARACTER ACTOR Perry Mason Raymond Burr Della Street Barbara Hale Paul Drake William Hopper Hamilton Burger William Talman Lt Tragg Ray Collins Bruce Chapman Karl Weber Grace Norwood Mary LaRoche Ginny Hobart Marion Marshall Helen Sprague Marianne Stewart Marie Chapman Peggy Knudsen Ralph Hibberly James Seay Greg Evans Charles Cooper Walter Sprague Robert Osterloh Judge John Launer Hotel Clerk Charles Davis

Autopsy Surgeon Michael Fox Switchboard Operator Nancy Evans Cashier Sam Edwards

CHARACTER ACTOR Court Clerk George E Stone [Sgt Brice Lee Miller]

Produced by Herbert Hirschman Directed by Arthur Marks Teleplay by Maurice Zimm

Bruce Chapman is dictating to his secretary (Grace) Norwood. His wife (Marie) says that she will not see him off on his trip to the Orient. He tells her he's closed their joint account, will have his office pay the bills and she's to have $50 expenses. He won't support her gambling. She threatens divorce, community property or settlement of at least $25,000. She begs for $2000. He refuses. She telephones her "darling" to say she's not got the money. // Marie drives her Edsel to the bungalow of Ginny Hobart, where she asks for $2000, which Ginny does not have. Marie phones Walter, gets Helen, Sprague from whom she demands $2000 tonight, delivered to the cabin in Whitmer Canyon. Walter enters, asks Helen "Marie who?" and Helen lies. He goes back to office to work. / Night. A man (Greg Evans) on a horse, sees a light in a cabin, investigates, catches Marie. They find a note from Helen directing Marie to get a $2000 check to the Caravan Hotel in Las Vegas. She leaves. / Bruce Chapman, back from the Orient, phones Miss Norwood at the Chapman Import Company, but she's not in. He opens a divorce complaint from his wife, filed in Nevada. / Chapman, in light suit and tie, is with Perry Mason in the attorney's office. He won't contest the divorce and needs a new will. They call Ralph Hibberly in Las Vegas and he demands an immediate payment, or Marie's offer of a $25,000 settlement will be withdrawn. / Chapman is tossing and turning in bed. 5:18. He gets up. / Chapman, in a dark suit, unbuttoned collar, arrives at the cabin. He parks his car, looks over the hill to find that his wife's car is in a ravine. Lieutenant Tragg arrives accompanied by Sergeant Brice, and takes Chapman to the morgue. / Chapman identifies Marie, is booked by Lt Tragg. // Jail. Chapman admits that on the way to the airport he thought things over, decided there must be another man. He found Marie, strangled, at the cabin, about 8:50. He knew he couldn't catch the plane. He put Marie's body in her car, pushed it into the ravine, caught a later plane, came back not six weeks, but ten days, later. When he got back and saw the divorce papers, he thought she had survived. So who impersonated Marie in Las Vegas? Perhaps Marie's former partner Ginny of Ginny & Marie, dance stylists. / Paul Drake reports on Ginny Hobart. Della reports on her failed efforts to reach Grace Norwood who didn't show up for work. / Backstage in Santa Monica (about 12:30 we will later learn), Mason questions Ginny Hobart. She reveals that Marie had an earlier husband, Walter Sprague, unknown to Bruce. The last time she saw her, Marie asked for $2000 but didn't get it. So she went to Walter, who owed her that much, but spoke only to his wife. Ginny says she's never been to the Chapman cabin. / Las Vegas. A hotel clerk thinks he recognizes Marie Chapman's photo which is shown him by Paul Drake. The cashier admits he gave her $25,000 cash. Her lawyer identified her. / Divorce Lawyer Ralph Hibberly says his woman looked generally like the real Mrs Chapman. He saw her earlier that day getting on a plane to L A. / Mason at the cabin meets Evans, who informs him of meeting Helen Sprague on the night of the murder, circa 9:20, identifying her by a note from Marie. / Walter Sprague, with his wife, is confronted by Mason. Walter explains property settlement for which he'd have done almost anything while Helen admits that she hated Marie enough to have done it. / Drake reports that the impersonator arrived 1:20 LAX. Mason spoke to Ginny at 12:30. Helen Sprague had 11:30 dental appointment and kept it, says Drake. That leaves Grace Norwood. Della calls Hibberly, says he'll have to come to L A, gives name and address of Grace Norwood and sets 9:30 for meeting. / Norwood admits to overhearing an argument between Bruce and Marie, and despised Marie. She refuses to say where she was in the desert. Hibberly arrives, does not recognize Norwood, even behind sunglasses, nor she him. // Court. Dr Hoxie explains the date and cause of death to D A Hamilton Burger. Hoxie admits that a woman of average strength could have strangled the victim. Norwood testifies, reluctantly, to the argument, and that the original plan was for her to pick up Chapman's car at the airport and bring it back to his home, but it was not there. Mason asks an "incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial" question, but Grace blurts out that she "wouldn't have killed Marie Chapman for ten times $25,000." Mason then asks if she would kill to free Bruce to marry her. Burger explodes, but Mason cuts off any answer. Sprague says he met Bruce Chapman the day before the murder, and was asked many questions about Marie. Mason notes two chairs in the courtroom are empty. Sprague has no alibi at the time of the murder. He was to pay Marie $50 a month until $7500 was reached. Ginny Hobart admits she knew that Chapman would give a $25,000 settlement. She and Marie were a "sister act." Lt Tragg explains how the defendant changed his flight plans. The only full prints on the back of the car were those of the defendant. Evans says he discovered the car when a boy heard a ping from a rock hitting it. He saw Chapman coasting downgrade from the cabin about 9 pm the night of the murder with the lights and motor off. The judge calls the noon recess. Drake reports that Helen Sprague's home was broken into the previous night (thus, the two empty chairs in court). // Perry and Della ask Helen Sprague what was stolen; nothing. / Court. Evans says that the road to the Chapman cabin is one way, but someone could have come up and gone down the other side from his place. He knew Bruce well, also Marie, apparently very well. Hibberly admits to Hamilton Burger that a woman could file for divorce without proving identity. He is unable to identify the impersonator in the courtroom. He would have said Marie Chapman had to be alive on the day of the divorce court appearance. Mason asks if her husband would have used the divorce ruse to confuse the time of the murder, and he says no. Mason recalls Hobart, because Paul has brought new information. She says that she was "stony broke" when Marie came to her the afternoon of the murder. Later she canceled an engagement; whence comes her sudden shift in fortune? A day later she uncanceled. The man who asked her to marry him then unmasked her. Mason shows her a photo with Greg Evans and the Chapman cabin in the background, so she lied about being there. Mason accuses her of cashing $25,000 check as well as $2000 check, retired, then, after losing it all at gambling tables, unretired. Yes, and she got to the cabin just in time to see Bruce push the car into the ravine. Ralph Hibberly, recalled, now identifies Ginny Hobart as the impersonator. Della Street brings in Helen Sprague, who says they've found what the thief was after. Mason asks Hibberly if he ever knew Marie Chapman; no. When did he arrive in L A; this morning. Not last night? No. Mason produces a divorce decree of Marie Sprague from Walter Sprague. The attorney was Hibberly, who now admits he had to try to get it, for if Mason saw it, he'd know that he would not have been fooled by an impersonator. Marie came to Vegas to see him, not the gambling table. He killed her. // Marie met Hibberly at the cabin that night and he found out about the $25,000 settlement offer, urged her to go through with divorce, yet she refused. They argued and he strangled her. He heard Chapman's car, hid outside, saw the car go into the ravine, then hatched the plan to get $25,000 with Ginny's help. Grace has been visiting an incurable invalid in Nevada. He died. She's sent Bruce a note, "The office needs him." "Sounds just like a secretary" comments Perry Mason.

The Lorna Thomas Lake Club, members only. A man (Fred Bushmiller) walks up the hill to the main building which is closed for alterations. He looks inside, hears a commotion in the nearby lake. A woman (Lorna Thomas) and a man (Dennis Briggs) fight in a boat, and he goes overboard. Thomas speeds off. Bushmiller rows out, helps Briggs, comments “it’s just not your day to be murdered.” / Inside the house, Bushmiller notices photos of Lorna Thomas, comments on her upcoming come back with Tony Raeburn. The club used to be Lorna’s lake home. Briggs wants the event to be dropped. Bushmiller has brought a report to Briggs, claiming that Betty Clark is the daughter of Thomas, tho adopted long ago by someone else. Briggs specifically asks Bushmiller to forget what he saw, for he says he fell into the lake. Briggs offers a bonus. / A porticoed mansion with a swimming pool in the back. Fred Bushmiller is looking around when maid Harriet (Snow) brings actress (Lorna) Thomas to him. He saw what happened to (Dennis) Briggs, and now wants a job. Doesn’t Brigs work for her? He’s a “sneaky, lying thief” she counters. She says Briggs tried to pull her into the water, and she can't swim. He then mentions the daughter she gave up to adoption. No one could ever prove anyone is her daughter, but he seems determined to blackmail her. He argues he doesn’t even have a car to get around in. She offers him a job. // Bushmiller leaves in his 2-passenger Thunderbird convertible, the car he didn’t have to get around in. George Clark stops and challenges him about his wife, Betty Clark. / George Clark consults Perry Mason regarding adoption. Betty, now 24, was raised in a state orphanage when her foster parents died when she was twelve. Mason advises Clark that “certain questions are best left unanswered,” and that she may have no legal rights if properly adopted. Clark tells Mason that Lorna Thomas, the actress, is the mother of Betty, his wife. / George tells Betty she must see Thomas. All she’s ever said is “mother, mother, mother,” wanting to know who her mother is. / Lorna is berated by her film producer, Tony Raeburn, for not producing her share of the money; it is 10 p m. By 10 a m someone must produce $100,000. Lorna insists she doesn’t have to make any picture she doesn’t want to. Betty is introduced by Harriet, who dismisses Raeburn, then rejects Betty, calling her a little impostor. Lorna gets told off by Harriet for being so cruel, her affection would fill a thimble! Harriet leaves, after telling her that Bushmiller will be right back. She departs with a frosty “goodnight, ma’am.” / 10:30. Perry and Della Street arrive at Thomas's for a friendly visit. Lorna is dead. // Lieutenant Tragg takes Dennis Briggs out of the room, then Mason tries to interview Bushmiller, but Lt Tragg takes him away, then tells Mason Thomas was strangled. / Mason's office. Betty Clark is waiting when Mason arrives. She and George left Thomas's about 10 p m and he dropped her at a cafe while George went to get gas. He never returned. Paul Drake enters, informs the threesome that George Clark has been grilled since being picked up at 2 p m. He’s been booked for first degree murder. / Jail. George admits to Mason that he went back to the house to tell Thomas off, handled a number of household items including a jade statue and a jewelry box before he found her dead, about 10:15. He ran as fast as he could. Police found a broken bracelet in his car, stuffed in to the cushions. He, who had asked for help for his wife, now asks Mason’s help for himself, and gets it. / At the lake, Mason asks Raeburn about the bracelet, but gets no recognition. He admits to a fight with Lorna, says he is quite broke, even rents. He admits that Lorna may have had a child by Rafael O’Connor, a South American revolutionary who was executed. He expected to be the one charged with the murder. / Mason reads a long list of jewelry missing from Thomas's, provided by Drake. Then Dennis Briggs asks Mason to take a $5000 check to help defend George Clark. “I only wanted to help,” he claims. It was he who hired an investigator to find Betty. He suggests Lorna may have loaned her jewelry or put it away. Mason returns the check. Briggs leaves. Della suggests that Briggs seems to have devoted his whole life to Lorna Thomas's greatness. / Bushmiller stops his car on a dirt track, opens the trunk, takes out a cement bag, and puts jewelry into the mix. He then throws the mix into a lake. // Court. D A Hamilton Burger is prosecuting. Harriet Snow testifies to seeing George Clark run from the house just before she saw dead Thomas. Mason takes up cross-examination. Did she see or hear anything or anybody else? No. Did she see the jewelry in Thomas’s room? No. Was there time in which someone could have left before she saw Clark? Yes. If she wanted to kill Thomas, she could have picked anytime she wanted! Raeburn identifies the bracelet. He says Betty Clark came before 10. He overheard something about “Lorna Thomas’s daughter,” which Lorna denies. He had an argument; Thomas reneged on a business deal, potentially bankrupting him. He came by boat over the lake. Lt Tragg found the bracelet in Clark's car. Mason gets him to admit that the bracelet is costume, “paste, practically worthless.” Briggs says he was the business manager for Thomas for more than 25 years. He hired a private detective to trace Thomas's daughter. The estate, he says, is in good condition. Bushmiller testifies to finding the daughter, Betty Clark, as well as his encounter with Clark at Thomas's, but puts his words in Clark's mouth. Mason is about to cross-examine when Drake enters and gives a signal. Mason gets the Court to take a noon recess. Drake tells Mason “it isn’t much, but I got him.” // Mason's office. Drake has brought Mr Smith, who can identify the jewelry, but apparently not faces. Thomas's jewelry was all paste. But he is not certain he can identify the man. / Court. Mason asks Bushmiller about the jewelry. Drake brings Smith in, points to Bushmiller, and Mason renews his questioning, but Bushmiller denies seeing or showing the jewelry to anyone. Burger objects. The judge allows Mason “great latitude” in his cross-examination. Pressured by Mason, he states that no one alive saw him leave for the liquor store, and Thomas was dead. Now he admits he took the jewelry, and put the bracelet in Clark's car, and went to Smith to sell them. When he discovered he had junk, he threw it in the lake. Now he states he saw Thomas try to murder Briggs in a boat. Briggs asserts that Thomas was his dearest friend. Why did he let the insurance on the jewelry lapse five years ago? Because thru the years the real jewelry had been sold off, replaced with paste. She didn't even own her big house anymore. He'd protected her for five years without taking any salary. In the boat returning from Raeburn's, she accused him of stealing. He couldn’t stand it anymore. He tripped and she lashed out. Raeburn says that Briggs “told Lorna she'd have to get rid of old Harriet” to meet her obligation, but “even later at the house he still thought she had the money.” When Thomas sent him away, did he leave? Yes. Mason has the court stenographer read earlier testimony in which Raeburn clearly heard a conversation between Thomas and Betty Clark, meaning he did not leave. Since a motion picture company carries insurance against anything happening to a star, only he stood to gain a single penny by Thomas's death. Raeburn says he faced starvation, and he “never knew anyone so cruel, so selfish,” as Thomas. // By the lake, Drake says he'd have chosen Briggs over Raeburn, and Mason says he did. Raeburn's confession shows he was so angry with Thomas that he went into her study planning to take anything that would convert to cash. She came in, showed him the jewelry was costume and worthless. Enraged, he strangled her. On the lake, lovebirds, Betty and George. Mason comments, “At least we know the world keeps turning.”

(1-1 Title credits) (1-2) Inside a (Malibu) beachfront house, Doris (Shackley) pours out a drink, takes it to (Mike) Granger, who is playing poker with ( Johnny) Clay, (Ben) Wallace, Earnshaw (who leaves), and (Larry) Benton (who, holding 3 queens, draws two, discarding an Ace and the 7 of diamonds). Dealer Granger then shows four 7s, is promptly called a cheat by Benton. Granger draws a gun, Wallace leaves. After a fight, Granger is shot dead by Benton. Clay and Shackley see it all. Benton has problems they don't know about. Clay suggests they bury Granger in the sand, as he has no family. // (2-2) Larry Benton searches the newspapers for any note of Granger's death, then is presented a calling card, a 7 of diamonds, by his manservant, Mickey Fong. It is Wallace, who says he “likes to stay clear of the cops. How ‘bout you?” He saw Johnny bury Mike behind the beach house. Johnny and Doris can't afford to have the police looking in to their lives, so will hardly back Larry. He tries to blackmail Benton for $5,000, given the high-class surroundings, but Larry is only living in his brother's place. / At the beach house, Doris tells Johnny that she's scared. Johnny takes a call from Wallace about Larry giving in, then phones Granger, who is alive and hiding. Granger says “nobody will ever find where he’s holed up.” / Steve Benton confronts kid brother Larry with forged checks. Larry says his only fault was being Steve's brother. Steve slaps him. Larry says he's sick of being the ungrateful kid brother always compared to Steve. His elder brother has had Paul Drake check on Larry, who is in trouble with Johnny Clay. / Steve Benton asks Perry Mason to help his brother who, he has a hunch, is being blackmailed for he has paid $20,000 on a two-dollar limit poker game. After Steve leaves, Della Street says that she likes him, trusts his instincts. / Johnny and Doris are playing gin. Wallace joins them, says Granger is getting restless, having to live in a flea-bag, then announces that Larry gets his money by forgery. Doris thinks they should cut out. Johnny thinks this is a career, do it his way! / Paul Drake finds Nora Bradley in an apartment, living on the edge of poverty. He shows her a photo taken that morning by a Drake operative of Johnny Clay. It is her husband, John Bradley, who deserted her two years earlier. / Drake reports to Mason in the attorney’s office that Clay is really Bradley, who has done time. He has found nothing on Wallace. Granger has been missing since the last poker game, right after Larry began writing $5,000 checks. They plot a plan to get information from Doris, Clay’s girlfriend. / Paul and Perry drop in on Doris, who is coming in from a swim in the Pacific, and inform her of Johnny's desertion of his wife Nora. She insists they are lying. They inform her of where Nora is living. / Steve tells Mickey to get dinner as Larry arrives. Larry presents a briefcase filled with $20,000, and "John Clay" embossed in leather to his brother. / Benton returns the briefcase, starts cleaning up, finds Clay, dead. Wallace walks in, pulls out a gun when he sees Benton holding a poker, picks up the phone, calls the police. // (1-4) Jail. Benton says he's told all. "Did you tell me why you went first to see Clay?" asks Mason, who then points out that he “destroyed any chance the police might have for finding the real killer?” Steve won't allow Mason to bring Larry into this, then capitulates. "You do what he thinks best." As Mason leaves, Lieutenant Tragg stops him, tells him Steve Benton's fingerprints are all over the bathroom. / Fong is arranging flowers when Perry and Della arrive to confront Larry. “He asked me to say he wasn’t home.” “But whre is he?” “In the study.” Clay was not home when he took the money around 7 o'clock, asserts Larry. He got the key from Doris Shackley told him it would be, after she told him of the shakedown plot by Clay. He knew Granger was alive. / Mason’s office. The attorney tells Drake that he must find Granger. Nora Bradley is introduced by Paul to Perry. Drake gets her coffee, which she refuses, so he drinks it. She still loves Johnny, always wanted him back. Mason gives her the third-degree, suggesting she has talked with Shackley. She refuses expense money, leaves. Perry tells Pau that she filed for her husband’s insurance money within 24 hours of his murder. // (1-5) Paul and Perry confront Doris at the beach house. Didn't she follow up on Nora Bradley? She couldn’t be bothered. Where is Granger? Drake finds Wallace in an adjacent room (his car was parked nearby). Wallace pulls a gun, but Paul knocks it to the floor. Mason asks, “weren’t you ever taught not to point these things?“ Paul then suggests Wallace put ice on his wrist. Paul and Perry leave, with the gun. Wallace orders Doris to get him ice. / Lt Tragg informs Perry about the penal code regarding intimidating a witness for the state, namely Wallace, who has a witness to the event, namely Shackley. Mason hands over Wallace's gun. // The Los Angeles County Courthouse. Doctor Victor is responding to a question from D A Hamilton Burger when Lt Tragg enters with the poker. The doctor identifies the murder weapon and the time as 7-8:30. Tragg identifies the weapon, and a blood-stained handkerchief, then admits to Mason that lack of blood on the defendant's hands was unusual. On redirect, Hamilton Burger gets Tragg to note that there were defendant fingerprints on the wash bowl in the bathroom. On recross; isn't it impossible to determine when fingerprints were left? Yes. Did he ask Benton if he'd been there before? No. Larry Benton refuses to identify John Clay's briefcase, and Mason points out to the judge that the witness cannot identify the particular money. Larry admits he was foolish not to listen to his brother. As Mason rises for cross examination, Steve restrains him with a hand on the attorney's arm. "No questions." // (1-6) Doris Shackley states that Steve Benton threatened Johnny Clay, showing him the four $5000 checks made out to cash. They had an altercation, she tells Mason, and “there was blood all over the place.” She cannot remember where Benton washed up. She denies calling Nora Bradley. Then why did she call Larry Benton regarding the shakedown? "I was only kidding." Wallace says that the defendant was wiping fingerprints off the murder weapon when he arrived. After some argument, Mason corners Wallace regarding blackmail, thus gets him to admit that he saw Larry Benton murder Granger, and Johnny Clay bury him. Mason challenges him to show where the body is buried. Burger asks for, and gets, a recess. / At the beach, the police find a body under the cottage. “Nice family you represent” says Tragg to Wallace. // (1-7) Back in court. Mason argues against introduction of the earlier murder of Granger, but Burger argues to the judge that it provides a motive for the second murder. The judge states the principle involved and lets Burger proceed. / Tragg identifies Granger's coat. The cleaner's mark is shown by Tragg under ultraviolet light. The coat was cleaned three days after he was "murdered." Wallace is accused of willful perjury by Mason, as well as two murders. Burger, saying he wants justice, not just a conviction, tells the judge he wants to hear Mason out. Wallace's motive was $20,000. He thought Clay was double-crossing him when he couldn't produce the money, “because Larry Benton had it removed.” Tragg says he can compare in 15 minutes the fatal bullet to one from the gun Mason took from Wallace. Wallace is silent. The judge orders Wallace into custody. // (1-8) Paul, Perry, Della in Mason's office. Mason was led to Wallace because he was always on the scene, and Granger must have been dead or he'd have gotten his cut of the blackmail. Mason gives Paul his fee and he smiles. As the clock begins to strike the hour, Della wishes, “just once do you suppose we could get out of here before midnight?” Mason ushers "Cinderella" out quickly, followed by Drake. The clock continues to strike. Della returns to shut the glass door to the office balcony, leaves. Mason returns to turn off the lights. He shuts the door. In darkness, the clock strikes its final, twelfth, tone. (1-9 end credits) (52:22)

(6-1)(2-1Title credits )(2-2) A bullet-nosed Ford convertible comes to a stop at a beach-front cottage. The driver, Toma (Sakai), is greeted aby Mitsuo (Kamuri) who shows him Thelma Nichols' pearls which are worth a quarter of a million and which she found when se took her brushes to paint. Grove (Nichol)'s family would think that she stole them. Toma agrees to return the pearls. A flash catches them as a photographer (Edgar Beals) makes a photo for (Hudson) Nichols, who is with him. Beals then phones the police. // At the Seaside Beach municipal court Mitsuo is committed to jail by the municipal judge unless she posts $5000 bail. Hudson Nichols posts the bail. As she leaves the court with Toma Nichols asks her to give up son Grove so that he can marry (non-Oriental) Alice Carson. / Grove drives up to the family home. On the back veranda Hudson Nichols tells his wife (Thelma) that he doesn't want a pound of flesh. Grove joins them and Thelma leaves. Grove wants to know why his father framed Mitsuo. Detective (Edgar Beals) told him how the frame was done. Hudson shows Grove a set of rosé pearls made to match the stolen ones. Son Grove is tired of being groomed for dad's position, always being told what to do, algebra instead of art, business administration instead of architecture, Alice instead of Mitsuo. So he'll marry Mitsuo if she'll have him. To prove he did not frame Mitsuo, dad offers to hire Perry Mason to defend her. / On a busy downtown Los Angeles street, Mason and Della Street arrive at Kamuri's Oriental Imports where the secretary is looking for a gift. They are met by Mitsuo, but Ito Kamuri offers to show better pearls than those in the showcase and takes him to an inner room. There Kamuri introduces Mr Nogata (Mason mispronounces his name, placing the accent on the middle rather than first syllable). Kamuri identifies several kinds of pearls to Mason and admits that "blushing (rosé) pearls" are the rarest. In the show room Della purchases a $35 string. Mitsuo asks Della to help her approach Mason. / (6-2) Over Japanese dinner they discuss Mitsuo's situation. She met Grove in an art class. Does she love Grove? Her heart has not yet spoken. She worries that the disgrace this could cause might kill her uncle Ito. Mason asks about the matching rosé cultured pearls. Then Mason accepts a 5 yen piece (about 2¢) as retainer. Mason admits Nichols phoned on her behalf but he wanted Mitso to have the opportunity to make up her own mind. / (6-3) Drake reports that the only place a matching set of pearls could have been made was at Ito Kamuri's. The case where the real pearls were kept had Mitsuo's fingerprints. Grove enters wanting to know if Mason is being paid by his father. No, though he offered a $5000 retainer. "Then Mitsuo must have . . ." Mason cuts him off. / Grove speaks to Ito Kamuri and Toma regarding the duplicate pearls. He leaves thinking that they were made for Mitsuo. / Mitsuo admits to once touching the pearls and that Alice Carson, Nichols choice, came by then. Grove enters with the phot made by Beals of Toma and Mitsuo hugging. He storms back out. Mitsuo is devastated. / Late at night Mitsuo meets night watchman (Connors), (6-4) then enters Kamuri's where she finds Uncle Ito dead. // (6-5)(2-3) Mason enters his office and Della hands him the newspaper that reveals the suicide. He is informed by Della that she has failed to find Mitsuo and that Lieutenant Tragg had also come by looking for Mitsuo. / Toma says Grove was misinformed. Ito admitted that a matching set of pearls were made, but for whom? Mason searches the back room. Where is the red rug? Toma says there was none. The watchman saw Mitsuo. Mason asks for the books to see about the string of rosé pearls, but two separate pages are torn out, one from a week ago, the other from two months before. / Mason speaks to Connors, who spoke to Mitsuo "a couple of minutes before twelve." Outside, Edgar Beals offers information, but Mason won't buy, but he could get it out of him in court./ Della and Paul speak to Mitsuo's landlady who shows them a painting given her by Mitsuo. She says that Mitsuo came by in the morning about two and left at dawn. / Alice Carson dives into the swimming pool. Thelma Nichols calls to her. Lt Tragg joins them and she tells Tragg that she did not see Mitsuo steal pearls, only saw her taking them out of the case. Mason is announced by the maid. Tragg, on the way out, asks Mason to have Mitsuo get in touch with him so questions about the suicide can be answered., Mason is told off by Thelma. He then tells Grove he's a heel. Thelma reports that Hudson went to San Francisco, where he has an office and a small apartment, the night before. Mason suggests that Grove should be trying to find Mitsuo. / Della with Paul finds Mitsuo at an oceanside cliff. Della is worried Mitsuo might be planning to commit suicide / (6-6) Mitsuo is of the samurai class, yet her uncle wore no ceremonial robe in his hara kiri and there was no red rug. Tragg enters to announce that the suicide is now a murder, for Beals has told Tragg that Mitsuo also entered the store earlier at eleven o'clock. He even heard her argue with her uncle. She admits it. /(6-7)(2-4)At the county jail Mason warns Mitsuo how the prosection will proceed against her, and that her uncle left everything to her and Toma. She accused her uncle of lying about her in their eleven o'clock meeting and went back to apologize at midnight and beg forgiveness. She thought that "she was to blame for his suicide." / In court Lt Tragg testifies for Hamilton Burger about hara kiri and why this instance was murder. Miss Nichols testifies that the cultured pearls in her case were substituted for her rosé pearls. When she discovered the loss, she told her husband. Husband Hudson testifies to finding the real pearls in Miss Kamuri's hand. Did he hire Beals to watch Mitsuo? Mason suggests it was to plant the pearls. He is forced to admit that he did not hire Beals, his wife did. Toma says Ito did not deny Grove's insinuation. He offered to return the pearls for Mitsuo because he loves her. Sgt Taylor (a technician) testifies regarding fingerprints and identifies the natural rosé pearls. Mason demands proper authentication of the pearls. //(6-8)(2-5)Itsubi Nogata admits the eye is not sufficient, only X-ray . . . and explains why. The technician brings the X-rays which show both strings of pearls to be cultured! Both Burger and Mason are surprised. / Drake returns from his trip via the office back door. "He who plays with fire sometimes throws light on situation" is Mason's old saying as he notes only a Japanese could have read the torn pages. / (6-9) The three go hunting. Della rings Nogata's bell and is admitted. Outside, Mason with Drake lights a fire. When Nogata sees the fire, he grabs the real blushing pearls from his dresser. Mason is waiting for him outside. / (6-10) Nogata admits to the theft. He made two strings, one recently, one two months ago. He identifies Alice Carson as b eing in the store when one string was made. She admits that she ordered a matching set for $5000 and had Beals find what she thought was the original set. She knows that Hudson Nichols was in San Francisco because he called Thelma just past eleven. Mason shows Hudson a photostat of letter from the bank threatening foreclosure on his San Francisco plant for an overdue $200,000 note. Ito Kamuri paid him $180,000 for the blushing pearls. He had a matching set made to keep his wife from discovering the ruse. Mason asserts that he made the phone call not from San Francisco but from the Kamuri store. The phone call "from San Francisco" was made by Nichols' secretary, Miss Carmody. When she is brought in to the courtroom, Nichols confesses. // At a Japanese restaurant Mitsuo, accompanied by Tomo, says that her civilization is older and gentler than American and suggests that "the quiet enjoyments are very important." Then Della gives Perry something from Hamilton, a citation for burning trash without a permit. (2-6 end credits)(6-11) (50:05)

In Las Vegas's Little Church of the West, the minister and Mrs Brant with her husband come out, he in wheelchair. She chases a photographer (Charley Cass?) away. Inside a car, the husband removes his wig, eyebrows and mustache. She pays him $1000, gets rid of him. // At a trotting track, a couple (Terry Blanchard and Clara Hammon) time a racer. The race goes on, and Jo Ann (Blanchard) pulls ahead with "Spindrift," beating the horse driven by the real John Brant. Brant and his trotter follow her, and he is lifted into his wheel chair by Peter White and Brant demands Jo Ann give him Spindrift, or he'll take everything she inherited, due to his conditional contract of sale with her father. Brant orders his secretary, book keeper, "but not my wife" Clara (the Vegas "Mrs Brant") to take him into town. Peter White, John's ward, is ordered to help him. / Perry Mason's office. Mason walks in, and Jo Ann Blanchard is announced by Della Street. She says she has a colt "under two minutes six times," but Terry Blanchard has spent all her funds. She asks Mason about the contract, but he discovers that the colt was a gift before that, so hers. / White is looking in a desk when Clara returns. He's discovered checks signed "Clara Brant." Is she embezzling? Clara produces the marriage certificate. She gives White invoices and he leaves. Clara phones Terry. / At a bar, Clara coaxes Terry to give Brant a nudge to his death. Terry leaves. As Clara starts out she is accosted at the bar by her Vegas husband (Earl Maudlin). He's impressed with the ranch. She rejects his blackmail until he drops his price from $10,000 to $3,500. She pays with two checks. / In a late forties Ford woody, Perry and Jo Ann arrive at the Brant ranch, where they are greeted by ranch hand ("Pop" Abbott) with word that two men and Brant have taken Spindrift. / White demands of Brant that he give the horse back or he'll leave. Mason and Blanchard, with Clara, enter, and the attorney asks for the horse, pointing out that it belongs to Jo Ann. Clara tells Terry she thinks they should go and get Spindrift. He responds angrily, tells her he doesn't want her around Brant's ranch that night. / Night under a full moon. Jo Ann goes to the stable, finds Brant dead, runs away. // White holds Spindrift as Lieutenant Tragg and Sergeant Brice arrive. Clara Brant comes forth. Lt Tragg wonders how Brant got to the stable around midnight when he was killed. Clara wants the horse killed. At the stable, Tragg wonders how a cripple could reach the bolt from the inside. / Mason hears from Charley Cass that Peter White discovered the body, and that Brant was secretly married to his secretary. Jo Ann bursts in about disposing of her horse. She stumbles into admitting she saw Spindrift and dead Brant just after twelve. She told brother Terry. Drake enters, says homicide is on the case. / Clara is confronted by Terry over disposal of the horse. She says better this than police not finding blood on his hooves. / A veterinarian is about to kill Spindrift when a process server brings a court order stopping him. Tragg arrives, arrests Jo Ann for murder. // Drake reports on Clara Hammon Brant, showing similarity of her first and second marriages, and noting her familiarity with Terry Blanchard. On the day of Brant's death, one Earl Mauldin cashed two checks, one on the account of Clara Hammon, the other Clara Brant, for a total of $3500, which neither account could cover alone. Mauldin is a broken down actor in Carmel. Paul is ordered to check on the Las Vegas marriage / Court. The coroner tells D A Hamilton Burger that the decedent was not killed by the horse. The fingerprint man found fingerprints of Peter White and Jo Ann Blanchard on the stable bolt. Tragg shows a cast of a car tire, left front wheel of Blanchard's woody. He also found the weapon, with blood on it, wedged under seat (Jo Ann whispers to Mason that she doesn't know where that came from). The court clerk takes it from Burger for identification. Terry Blanchard is asked if he wasn't asked by his sister to go to the Brant ranch to bring back the horse? After a nod from Clara, he says yes. He refused. Mason gets him to admit he said he'd handle it in his own way. Clara heard Miss Blanchard's car and saw Miss Blanchard drive away after midnight. She tells Mason there was a full moon, so she could identify the defendant at 200 feet distance. "Pop" Abbott stands up, claims that he killed Brant. Burger is outraged at Mason's stunt. / At his office, Mason paces as he awaits Drake's return. The only unusual aspect of Clara's marriage is the refusal to buy photos that were taken. Mason compares Brant's real signature with that on the license; they are different significantly. Photo shows un-gloved hand is not that of an old man, but someone adept at the art of makeup. / The Seaside Playhouse in Carmel. Earl Mauldin compliments his actress then, in his dressing room, is confronted by Mason with receiving $3500 for the fraudulent marriage, and therefore accessory to murder. Mason discovers the actor's vanity, namely, a photo of John Brant used by Mauldin to make himself up as Brant. // Court. Clara Brant recalled. Mason asks her about Terry Blanchard. Also, her marriage was a fake. In comes Mauldin as Brant. / Hamilton Burger says they reject Abbott's confession but are continuing the investigation. Clara Brant is asked about her affair with Terry Blanchard. Earl Mauldin comes in dressed in his John Brant makeup and in a wheelchair. / Mauldin, now his self, admits to taking $1000 to be Brant, another $3500 to keep quiet. Burger makes snide remarks at Mason over the performance, and is then admonished by the Trial Judge who was in on the act. Mason then shows how Mauldin stood to gain by Brant's death, for he could demand even more from Clara Hammon. Since he didn't fly back to Carmel until after the murder, what did he do the night of the murder? Mason notes that, when he checked his car in at the airport at 3:55 am, a jack handle was missing. Mauldin confesses. // Mason gives Jo Ann Blanchard a present, then from Peter White (who inherits all of Brant's estate) her mortgage marked "paid in full." Terry will have to serve time. Jo Ann gives Mason the title to the first foal of Spindrift, as payment for his services, plus three box seats at the race for him, Drake and Street, from Spindrift.

(1-1 Title credits) (1-2) Joe Marsden and Donna Kress are listening to her demo record for Star Recordings. Frank Thatcher joins them, quickly ushers her out. / Thatcher enters and apartment building with Donna and is greeted by the desk clerk (Anders). Thacher takes Donna to an apartment he's set up for her, gives her a key. He points out that the apartment is soundproofed and has a stereo. She asks for a drink. She sees that the towels have Mr, and Mrs embroidered on them. She knows he won't get a divorce. He won't give up his business opportunities with the Dameron family, into which he's married. She throws the drink in his face after noting he won't be "divorcing fifteen million dollars." She confronts him and he responds that she can't conceive how ridiculous it would be for him to give up his business opportunities. / Driving home at night, Marsden hits a man, kills him. // Tad Dameron tells Charles Dameron of the death via quote of Shakespeare's gravedigger from Hamlet as Henry Dameron and son-in-law Thatcher look on. Tad gets a drink. Alexander Colin of the steam fitters union is the dead man. Frank says he wanted to go to the police but whiskey had been spilled on him at the club and he had the Dameron position to uphold. Charles points out 200 foot skid marks, blood on the car. Henry stops him, says Frank was chosen to marry Judith because one son is a bookworm, other a bottle worm. Neither could run a lemonade stand! Tad is to take care of Frank's car. Charile raises the issue of the dead man's family. It is agreed to send $25,000 to the Colin family, anonymously. Henry tells Frank that he must take care of it. Judith meets Frank on his way out, warns him she knows of his liaison. Henry breaks up their quarrel. / Paul Drake is in his office (a far cry from the cubbyhole of the novels) when Margo, his secretary, asks to go out to lunch. Frank Thatcher comes in, calls himself Frank Danco. He wants Drake to deliver the money for a Canadian friend. / Mrs Colin is spun a story of an overweight Canadian friend, also a member of the steam fitters, who struck it rich in uranium, by Drake. She tells Drake her husband was hit, killed, and not overweight as the gift-giving friend claimed. He was 165, but his driver's license said 195, so someone looked at that. She breaks down crying, for she misses the noises he made around the house. / Perry Mason returns to his office from Santa Barbara. Della Street tells him that Drake is upset according to Margot. / Drake investigates Danco's apartment building where he is accosted by desk clerk Anders. Danco arrives, takes him to the room, asks for a receipt. Drake tells him he cannot hide behind lies, confronts him. Thatcher says he'll send him a $10,000 check, which Drake refuses. They fight. Drake is knocked out with a heavy object. / (1-4) The desk clerk is knocking on the door. Drake is on the floor. He wakes to the tune of "I need a man I can own" on the stereo. The clerk enters with two police, one called Harry. Thatcher is dead on the floor. / Mason and Della are returning to the office when they get a call from Paul. / Lieutenant Tragg shows Mason an envelope with $25,000 found in Drake's desk. D A Hamilton Burger apologizes to Mason. He's a public servant and has to get an indictment. They both seem upset at this turn of events. / Drake's gun shot Thatcher, twice. He'd figured things out. Executive vice-president of the Dameron Company, headed by Henry, represented power and influence. Instead of phoning, he went to Danco/Thatcher. He arrived at 7:10, was hit at 7:15. 7:30 came to. / Mason goes to the Thatcher residence where Judith greets him, coolly, as the lawyer of the man who widowed her. He catches her in knowledge of the Donna Kress relationship with her husband. Henry Dameron confronts Mason who quickly asks about the family member who was involved in hit-and-run. Dameron tries to bribe Mason with lucrative contracts for the attorney and Drake. He then suggests he could testify to his son-in-law having a nasty temper, so that Drake could plead manslaughter, having been provoked. Mason responds with a no. Henry contacts son Tad on the intercom. Tad suggests that Drake was blackmailing Frank over hit-and-run. / At the recording studio Donna is listening to a new demo of "I need a man" when Mason and Street enter. She discusses her relationship with Frank, nine years, and they were to be married before the "Damerons" came along. She is bitter. Mason asks Marsden if he, too, knew Thatcher. The police report shows that he called the apartment. To speak to Donna, he says. But she got a rehearsal call at the night club and was out. Frank was worried about Drake calling the apartment. No, Drake never threatened, he was just doing a job for Frank, who believed he could make Drake come around to his way of thinking. Tad even tried to prevent Frank from leasing the apartment. Mason needs her statement but, urged by Marsden, she puts it off until she finishes recording. Mason and Della leave. Charles Dameron then interrupts Miss Kress. His father has just bought the Star Recordings company. / Mason gets a call from Donna who, with Charles standing behind her, says that now she won't help. / (1-5) In the Los Angeles County Courthouse, the ballistics expert testifies for Hamilton Burger about the guns. Mason objects to a paraffin test, quoting from a Colorado court decision saying it is unreliable, and is sustained. Officer Wilson testifies for the prosecution to finding both Drake and a record with a blank label of a lady singing. Miss Kress testifies regarding Frank's expecting Drake to contact him. She has no alibi. Tad notes that the blood on Frank's car dried. Mason and Burger stipulate regarding hit-and-run. Tad lies about knowing about hit-and-run until after the murder. Burger is bothered by Tad's statement that Frank was using Drake to cover for himself. Mason shows that Tad had time to stop by the apartment near 7 p m. He asserts that he didn't know about the apartment until after the murder. Charles Dameron testifies that Frank had him get $25,000 the day before death. Mrs Colin testifies that Drake had discussed money, but did not deliver it. / Hotel clerk Anders testifies about finding Drake behind his desk, and that no one entered or exited while he was on duty. Mason asks what Anders did with the magazines he bought. Did he not read them? Not at that time. Anders prides himself on getting along with everybody, yet has had four wives. Mr Wiltzy, who services the apartment, states he put a pad lock on the back door when he left the apartment at 4 p m. After the judge adjourns court for the night, Mason hints to Paul that he has already solved the case. / Outside the apartment building, Mason sends a private detective to keep Anders, who has just bought a newspaper from a boy hawking the headline private eye on trial, busy, while Della sneaks into the building and the apartment's locker room. From there, Della dials the switchboard. Anders answers, but sees Mason heading up the stairs in his rear view mirror. He misses Della coming down. / (1-6) Back in court, Tragg testifies about his report, but is cross-examined about the demo record. Mason plays the demo as he pursues the question of no one being able to enter the apartment other than Drake. Burger, after objecting and then hearing Mason's reason, agrees to this line of thought being pursued. Miss Kress is asked how a demonstration copy of the record could get into the apartment. She has no answer. Frank and she had keys. Mason suggests that she was in the room but, when he sees her reaction to his suggestion that she made the call from the locker room, he recognizes that it was Marsden who made the call that allowed him to slip out when the police arrived and Anders was not at his desk. She breaks down, calls to Joe to deny it. Marsden accepts the blame so Donna, whose beautiful voice he's nurtured, won't be silenced. He's not sorry for what he did. // (1-7) Henry Dameron gives Mason a large check, is sending Drake a larger. Mason tears up his check, with the comment that Dameron is so removed from humanity that he could believe his own sons could commit murder. (1-8 end credits) (52.27)

(Sylvia) Welles, holding a black kitten, admits (Rip) Conners so that he may bug the house. It is a joke that she wants to play on a friend. She wants to know if he can edit the tape. He bugs, shows her how to work the machine, leaves. She picks up a Siamese. // In 43 years, notes Richard Vanaman to his wife (Frances), (Henry) Noble has presented only eight coins. He has one, Fred Petrie has one, and vice-presidency lies between the two. Welles phones Richard, says she must see him before investing $250,000. She's leaving town this evening. Frances is upset over her husband's working nights with Miss Welles. / Richard presents the prospectus to Welles. She gets him to make a variety of statements, then the Siamese cat finds the bug, and so does Vanaman. He is outraged, but she counters with her "jealous husband." He threatens her if this is a badger game, extortion. He leaves. She stops the recorder and phones Conners. / Vanaman waits at home for his wife's return. He lost his "quarter noble" at Sylvia's. He rushes back. / Mr (Eliot) Hale gets the papers from the Delivery Man in the lobby. / Vanaman finds Sylvia dead. Hale knocks on the door, enters, sees Vanaman slip out, finds the body. / MURDER OF BEAUTY BAFFLES POLICE reads the Los Angeles Chronicle headline handed by Vanaman to Perry Mason. In the article there is a note about a gold coin being found in a parking meter. Vanaman says that Henry Noble, head of the company, hates publicity, so he cannot claim the coin. / Paul Drake arrives at the police station to pick up the coin, just as a blonde with a photographer arrives and describes the quarter noble perfectly, as well as the location of the parking meter she put it in. Flash; the photographer catches her posing. She is Bunny Lee. / Bunny returns to her apartment. Drake has followed in his Thunderbird, with Vanaman, who goes to Lee when Drake leaves him alone. // The night clerk (Eliot Hale) confronts Vanaman, who offers to pay his blackmail to get the coin. Lieutenant Tragg and Sergeamt Brice appear at this critical moment. / Mason interviews Vanaman at Tragg's office. Richard admits to returning to Welles's apartment. The room was wiretapped. He met Welles recently at Fred Petrie's. Mason asks why she didn't have Petrie invest her quarter million. Vanaman used his one phone call to reach Henry Noble. / Mason is told by Noble that Vanaman is no longer employed. Mason wonders why Noble would be so narrow-minded about an innocent man. Petrie enters, declares his support of Vanaman. Is Sylvia Welles an acquaintance? No? Perhaps she crashed his party? Or been invited by his wife, suggests Mason. / Doris Petrie receives a telephone call from Conners, who offers a spool of tape, cut and edited, for $1000. / Detective Drake reports on Fred Petrie to attorney Mason and secretary Della Street. Wife Doris was formerly a secretary to Henry Noble. She was busy, saw Hale, went to the bank, bought gardenias. Drake leaves as Hale arrives. Mason is told by Hale that he promised himself that he'd bring the murderer to justice if he could. He got a phone call from a woman asking if any tapes had been found in the apartment. She left a phone number; (Doris Petrie). He wants the truth. Welles was a lady, an angel. After he leaves, Della comments that he is still in love with Welles. Mason phones Doris, and she refuses to help, even while her husband overhears her. She tells him she's going to buy a tape recording between Vanaman and the murdered woman. She is paying $1000 for the vice-presidency of Noble & Co. He wants none of it, but she doesn't care how he gets the VP. He stops her. / Della poses as Mrs Petrie, but Lt Tragg shows up. Mason comes in, Tragg confiscates the tape. / D A Hamilton Burger examines Conners after hearing the tape. He picked up the equipment and gave tape to Welles at 9:30. Burger is outraged at the fake Conners has produced. He didn't use demagnetized shears, so pops are heard at every splice. Connors then says that there is more, for he used two mikes, and Vanaman threatened Welles, and it is on the tape. // Court. The autopsy surgeon tells D A Burger that death occurred from asphyxia. Hale says that when he took newspapers to the apartment, he found Welles's apartment open, the cat yowling. He found Welles and saw Vanaman running out. He found an old English coin in the room, then set up the parking meter plan to get the man who dropped it. Burger asks that the coin be entered into evidence and the court clerk takes it. Hake had seen the defendant several times before, as well as on the night of the murder. Mason gets Hale to admit that he does not see everyone who goes in or out of the apartment building. Delivering the newspaper to Miss Welles was special. Lt Tragg identifies fingerprints and explains how the defendant tried to reclaim the coin from Bunny Lee. Connors identifies his tape. The tape is loaded (by the court officer?). The unedited part of the tape is played. Connors says he came for his equipment just before nine, edited the tape, then left. He was not paid. How did he know Mrs Petrie would be interested in the tape? Was $1000 a "few bucks"? Mason consults Vanaman, who says he left the apartment at 8:45, took ten minutes to get home. Conners left at 9:30. So time between 9:30 and 10:05 is clear; but Frances says, no, she wasn't there when Richard arrived home. / Mason's office. Frances admits she took a cab to Welles's apartment house. She got there at 9:20. The desk clerk did not see her. She saw someone listening at Welles's door, panicked and ran. // Court. Doris Petrie went to school with Sylvia in Iowa. She says Sylvia told her she'd fallen in love with Vanaman. She told Sylvia that Vanaman's wife was rather drab, but had lots of money. Sylvia didn't have a dime to her name! To Mason; she was at home between 9:30 and 10:10, with her husband. Mason elicits information about the rivalry between Vanaman and her husband for the vice presidency. What reason could Welles have for taping Vanaman? Why did she, Doris, have a thousand? He traps her into showing she knows the precise amount of money Welles wanted Vanaman to invest. Didn't she have Sylvia entice Vanaman? But it didn't work. If she were going to turn the tape over to the police, why did she insist on hearing it first? Might not it incriminate her? Hale, recalled, remembers Mrs Petrie asking about a tape from Welles's room. Was he the man standing outside Welles's door that Mrs Petrie saw? No. The edited part of the tape is played. This is what was overheard by Hale, who thought it was a real scene. His angel was being defiled. The woman he loved had revealed feet of clay, so he killed her. His mother was the same, an angel. Hale confesses. // Noble presents Mason a quarter noble. Vanaman and Petrie will compete, again, for the vice-presidency, a solution better than Solomon's.

(3-1 Title credits) (3-2) A woman (Madge Wainwright) is walking a small terrier. She sees a coat in a store display window, goes inside, rips it off the dummy. / At Dunbar, Inc., Madge vents her rage at a $27.50 copy of her $200 Dunbar original. Owner Wally Dunbar introduces Rick (Stassi), the designer, who thinks nothing of it. She closes her arrangement with Dunbar. It is the third cancellation in the week and Dunbar worries that any more could cause bankruptcy, but Stassi says "bathing suits" are the key. Dunbar tears up drawings of the spring line, says they'll do another in secret. They’ll have security that’ll make Fort Knox look like a parade ground.” // (3-3) Lisa (Ferrand) fits model (Kitty Wynne) in a bathing suit. Model Kitty is going to have to stay late for a photo shoot. Kitty is sympathetic with Lisa’s who is being worked so hard by Wally, who Lisa knows Kitty is soft on. Stassi looks at the changes. In private, Kitty asserts there is nothing between them, yet he makes a pass. Kitty shouts "I hate you, I could kill you," rushes out as Stassi laughs at her. Dunbar likes the new swim suit, says “now is where the security starts.” / Dunbar consults with Perry Mason about security. They are at the “pilot model stage.” He wants an eye kept on certain buyers, workers, and Simol Atley. Mason quotes Judge Learned Hand, to whit, “When it comes to fashion and changing styles, others may imitate at their pleasure.” Once his fashions are out, he doesn’t care who copies. / At Dunbar’s competitor Atley Wear, Madge tells Simon Atley of the whole new spring line of bathing suits. He makes it clear that he wouldn’t pay her one cent and doesn’t want to hear about them. / Lisa, desperately, makes a pass at Rick who doesn’t “even dare to take a pencil out of the building.” She is rebuffed when he suggests that she go out with her photographer “husband, for a change.” / Paul Drake arrives outside Bud Ferrand’s photo studio, is briefed by his operative Charlie. He’s told to worry about the studio, its equipment and such, not Kitty. / Inside the studio Kitty Wynne is posing. “Bartender just asked how old your are” brings out a smile. She wants to get the job done. Only one more suit of the three to be shot. When the phone rings, Kitty pleads with Bud to tell Wally she’s already gone home. But the call is to nearly-drunk Bud from Lisa; she's not coming home. “Out with that Stassi character?” he queries. He hangs up, smashes a whiskey bottle on the phone. / A watchman (Mr Miller) punches his time card. A white Lincoln drives out of the fenced Dunbar parking lot as Drake watches the watchman calling goodnight to Stassi. The detective then asks the watchman about the place and the people who work there, “how things are locked up.” / Drake arrives at Rick’s in his ragtop T-bird, investigates Kitty's duo-tone Ford Fairlane convertible parked in Rick’s driveway. He finds drawings of bathing suits, concealed in a brief case. He returns to his car. Kitty comes running out of the house, drives away. / Drake reports to Mason and Dunbar his finding the drawings. Dunbar is upset that Drake snooped on his girlfriend. Della Street brings in a newspaper which has an ad by Atley Wear advertising designs identical to Dunbar's. Della phones Stassi, gets Lieutenant Tragg of homicide, who tells her that Stassi’s here “in body if not spirit.” // (3-4) Sergeant Macready greets Mason and Dunbar, who sees Lisa and goes to her. She was driving drunk about 3 a m. A milkman found Stassi, dead. Lt Tragg shows Dunbar a gun, one that Dunbar gave Stassi, a target pistol. He has several, related to security issues. Tragg releases Lisa and asks Dunbar to accompany him downtown. Mason cautions Wally on what he should reveal to Tragg. / Drake’s code knock, “shave and a hair-cut,” gets its “five cents” when he turns the handle on the door before entering. He reports that the police are demanding his records of surveillance. Della says Dunbar has called. Kitty is being booked for the murder. / Jail. Mason asserts that client and attorney have to have faith in each other. Kitty admits that she arrived at Stassi's about 11 and no one was there. She didn’t know what he might have told Wally. She dated Rick and posed for him, but nothing more. She found drawings and notes, took them with her and burned them in her fireplace. She doesn't know how the work sketches of bathing suits were found in her suitcase. Does Mason have faith in her? she asks. Yes. / After handing Mason her terrier, Madge triumphantly shows Simon his ad in the newspaper. He had it arranged all the time, she asserts. Atley tells Mason that Madge was once fired, for theft, by Dunbar’s father. Mason asks Atley about fashion sketches, reminds him that this is theft of private property (not a patent or copyright issue) since he's been protecting same for Dunbar. Atley denies he or employees saw any sketches or suits. Then Kitty Wynne was not responsible for the suits in the ad? “How can I answer a question like that?” Since final work sketches have details different from Atley's, Lisa Ferrand's touches, then did not Atley get the designs from Stassi? Atley paid Stassi $25,000, in 100 dollar bills, to draw for him the new designs. / Perry tells Della that Stassi probably put the drawings in the suitcase. Drake reports that he’s been subpoenaed, then the finding of ashes in the fireplace and crumpled $100 bill at Ferrand apartment. // (3-5) In court the doctor is telling D A Hamilton Burger that death occurred at least eight hours before he investigated, which makes it before 11:30. Police technician Ellis identifies the gun and bullets. Linen threads were caught in the gun breech. Madge Wainwright about 9:30 recognized Stassi's voice and Lisa Ferrand's on the phone, and their "relationship." She “posed in the near nude” for him. Ferrand bursts out "that's not true." Mason asks Madge if there were other attractive women at Dunbar's. “Yes, all of them were.” He gave them attention (“until they passed 22” she had noted earlier). How about herself, and for how long? Silence. Yvonne Lacoste testifies to overhearing Kitty's death threat. Bud Ferrand says Kitty left his studio about 10:45. Mason asks, did he not also go out at 10:45? Yes. Didn't see his wife all night? Lisa testifies to her last talk with Stassi. She says she's a seamstress in the design department, and often makes additions. She makes $150 a week, Rick made $20,000 a year and deserved it. Watchman testifies to Stassi leaving at 10:30. Is he sure it was Stassi? Yes. He saw his car. Tragg says there were intermittent showers that eve. Stassi's, Drake's, and defendant's tires identified at the murder site. He identifies a linen handkerchief, monogrammed with KW for Kitty Wynne, with gun oil stains, matching the gun. The judge adjourns court. Mason and Street ask Kitty about the handkerchief, the purse, and the jacket she was wearing. Mason instructs Della to find the beige jacket. // (3-6) Della is asleep on the couch in a beige jacket as Mason enters the outer office. She has found Kitty's jacket, with pockets that open into the inside from the outside. Mason speculates that someone could have wiped the gun with Kitty's handkerchief, put it and $100 bills in the pocket of the jacket which Kitty had left in the living room. Kitty came running in, grabbed her jacket and bills and the handkerchief fell out. Drake brings in some documents, and Della notes they will work into the night. / Back in court Drake testifies that Wynne ran out of house just after 11:10. Burger is effusive in his praise of Drake for not making him treat the detective as an hostile witness. Testifying for Mason, Drake says that he arrived as the Stassi car drove out from the Dunbar building. He could not tell if Stassi were driving, or if anyone was with him. The watchman admits that he really didn't see Stassi, only a driver and no one else. Mason asks him about other cars in the area. He identifies 1959 pink Thunderbird that was on a side street; Wainwright's. Burger objects, but withdraws when Madge Wainwright admits the car is hers, and her 9:30 phone call to Stassi was in regards to Simon Atley who paid Stassi $25,000. She drove to Dunbar's, left the car “and walked home, straight home.” Simon did not want to use his own car, because it would be easily identified. Rick wanted more money from Atley, and they were to meet to straighten things out. The gates were closed and Atley was trapped. Atley protests, is taken into custody. Instead, Mason suggests, isn't all this what happened to her? She was trapped inside. So she drove Stassi's car out; he couldn’t drive for she’d already killed him! // (3-7) At a showing of bathing suits, Mason explains to Dunbar that it was not premeditated murder. Wainwright had been Stassi's accomplice, and just wanted her share of the money when Rick cut her out. Drake, looking at the bathing beauties, notes that “sometimes this business is fun.” (3-8) (51:06)

From the Hotel Knickerbocker in New York City, a woman (Sarette Winslow) phones Los Angeles. Allen (Sheridan) picks up the telephone and hears his aunt Sarette complain that he hasn't sent a check in three months. He says he's had to help out a Ralph Curtis in New York City, then promises to send money over the weekend. She's outraged, looks up Ralph Curtis in the phone book, phones him. Curtis says he hasn't heard from Allen in six months, has doctor's bills, is all alone, too. Winslow hangs up, then calls American Airlines. // Allen tells his girl, Joyce (Fulton), that he owes Lou Caporale, who is at the bar, $5,000. He has to get away. He has a ticket, one. Lou comes over, demands payment this night, is caught making a threat by Joyce, counters it. Allen gives Joyce money to pick up his plane ticket, under the name of William Wyatt. She thinks he may be running out on her. // Sheridan asks Victor (Latimore) for $5,000, a loan. Doris is asked to bring in his account. She does, and it shows $14. Sheridan says 10 pm or he'll be killed, and Latimore laughs. Fulton comes in, followed by Caporale, to whom he speaks. He then helps Sheridan and Fulton out the back door. / Sheridan at the bar with Caporale. They are scamming Latimore together. Caporale gets only $500. Sheridan considers Latimore a leech for taking $5000 to handle his finances. Curtis, Winslow, Fulton are all looking for a cut, and tomorrow he gets $160,000 from a trust fund. / Sarette Winslow enters Allen Sheridan's apartment where she find him dead, on the balcony. She sees a man approaching, tries to get off balcony deck, and her heel breaks off. The man is Caporale. She drives away. / Winslow is now in Perry Mason's office. Sheridan's father left a trust fund, and a $2,000/month allowance until he reaches 30 (today), so she got nothing when he died. She is only "next" heir. She lives in the family house, but has her own bills to pay. Della Street dials Allen's number, and Mason speaks to the maid; Allen is not there. Winslow breaks down; "he's not there, he's not dead." She now admits to finding him "dead." / The maid finds Winslow's heel, then blood under the balcony. // Mason goes to Latimore about Winslow and Sheridan. Latimore says he lent $5000, for Lou Caporale. Mason mentions the trust, but Latimore was told that the 30th birthday was a year away. Phone; Lieutenant Tragg of homicide looking for Sheridan. / Sheridan's. Lieutenant Tragg, Sergeant Brice and several policemen are investigating. Tragg shows Mason the heel. Why is the murderer a woman, Mason asks, suggesting she could not move the body. Tragg points out that it is all downhill, even to where a rental car might have been parked. He has a witness to the rental car, and wants to see Sarette Winslow. / Mason's private office. The usual threesome. Mason gives Paul Drake his orders. Has Sheridan been murdered, queries Della. Possibly a case of his artful dodging, replies Perry, who then has Della call Joyce Fulton. / The Maitre De shows Mason to Fulton's table, and the two discuss Sheridan. She last saw him at 9 pm. When she hears that Caporale was paid off by Latimore, she reveals that Sheridan went to Mexico City. He loaned his convertible to someone else. / Mason phones Drake to check on Sheridan's flight and the convertible. / Caporale drives up to the movie studio in Sheridan's Buick convertible, is stopped by the gate officer. Here Mason takes over, forcing Caporale to open the trunk, which is empty. Telephone call from Drake; William Wyatt flew to Mexico City, seemed ill or hurt, and fit the description of Sheridan. Lt Tragg and Sgt Brice join Mason and Caporale. / Caporale identifies Sheridan's body. Tragg gives Mason a warrant for Winslow. // Mason and Street wonder who William Wyatt, who moved in on Sheridan, is as Drake arrives. He reports that the $162,000 trust was transferred to Mexico City and is already cashed. / Court. Dr Hoxie (autopsy surgeon) testifies for D A Hamilton Burger how Sheridan was wounded, and identifies the possible weapon. Fulton identifies the ash-tray/weapon and the blanket on which Sheridan took sun baths. She admits to the relationship, but one that was unclear. Lt Tragg found the body in the sun bath blanket. The ash tray and porch were wiped free of fingerprints. The heel of the shoe had deceased's type blood, as well as fingerprints of the defendant and the maid. Winslow signed out a rental car at the airport, and she was witnessed driving away by Caporale. Now Caporale testifies to seeing Winslow leave the scene of the crime. Later, 11 pm, there was no body. He bluffs about the $5000, saying he hid it in the back of the car, then turned it over to Lt Tragg. Latimore explains the arrangement by Sheridan for supporting Winslow, and how he often failed to pay the $300/month allowance. She knew he'd get money this year, but now it goes to Winslow. Court takes its noon recess, and Mason is informed by Drake that Wyatt can't be found. Mason suggest that he and Ralph Curtis, the New York end of the trust, are one and the same. // Mason on cross with Latimore. He took 25% fee from Sheridan; normal is 3 to 5%. Allen needed special services. He did have power of attorney. They played poker, and Ralph Curtis was in the game. Were he and Curtis blackmailing Sheridan? Objection, sustained. Ralph Curtis called to the stand. He is wounded. He testifies to an earlier incident with Sheridan where he was injured in Manhattan. Sheridan offered to pay half his $2,000 allowance for life. Recently he received a call from the defendant, wondering if he'd received a large sum of money, because Allen had said that was why she wasn't receiving anything. Curtis claims Winslow threatened Sheridan. Latimore was the only witness to the accident, and he told Curtis that it was not Sheridan's fault. 25% was Latimore's payoff for lying. Authorities found Curtis in Los Angeles. He arrived in L A at 5 am, the day after the murder. Mason now relates Wyatt schedule, asks if Curtis was that man. Curtis now admits to being Wyatt. How did he know of Sheridan's plan, when he was in New York? Joyce Fulton stands up, says to Ralph, "I told you not to come back out here." She confesses and explains it by, "look what he did to you." // At a restaurant, Della explains that Joyce came to L A to make Sheridan pay for what he had done to the man she loved. When she demanded that he pay Curtis, he laughed, and she picked up the ash tray, hit him. It broke. She hit him again and slashed his artery. She concocted the plan with Curtis while Winslow was in the apartment.

CHARACTER ACTOR Perry Mason Raymond Burr Della Street Barbara Hale Paul Drake William Hopper Hamilton Burger William Talman Lt Tragg Ray Collins J R Bradbury John Archer Marjorie Cluny Lisabeth Hush Thelma Hill(/Bell) Jeanne Cooper Bob Doray Michael Miller Mrs (Laura) Fields Doreen Lang Frank Patton Douglas Evans Judge John Launer Dr James Latham Pitt Herbert George Sanborne Ray Kellogg Night Clerk Sid Tomack

Emcee Rennie McEvoy Policeman Leo Needham Art Store Clerk Arthur Marshall

CHARACTER ACTOR Court Clerk Pat Moran [Sgt Brice Lee Miller]

(2-1 Title credits) (2-2) A man in a hotel room in Cloverdale, Utah, is watching a TV that has 3 pairs of legs. Cloverdale's own Marjorie Cluny wins. / Cut to the studio as the Emcee introduces Frank Patton, who presents Cluny her motion picture contract with Stellar Studios. Bob Doray (the man in the hotel) enters, challenges Patton over his rip-off scheme, and threatens him. // (2-3) (The same stock shot of the L A Freeway in downtown Los Angeles that is used to precede the interior of Perry Mason's office.) J R Bradbury wants Mason to find Cluny, whose career lasted two days, and Patton. District Attorney Hamilton Burger has told him that he must prove criminal intent. Bradbury gives Mason some newspaper clippings. Cluny was his secretary, could have been his wife. He is shown the back way out. Della Street admits Bob Doray. He's incensed that Bradbury has come to Mason expecting him to find Cluny. When he doesn't ask Mason to find her, Mason asks him where she is. / Later that night Paul Drake reports on Patton's Lucky Legs scam. Thelma Bell, an earlier winner, wants to help. Mail fraud might be Patton's weak point. / Mason and Della go to Patton's apartment building, bump into a blonde (Cluny) running out. In the apartment they find Patton, stabbed with wood carving knife. The window to the fire escape is open. Mason finds a note indicating Margy was phoning to see him. The number is Thelma Bell's. As they are leaving a policeman arrives with the lady (Mrs Fields) in the apartment below Patton's. / Outside, Mason sends Della home. He goes back inside to phone Bradbury and tell him that Patton was murdered and a woman who could be Cluny was seen leaving. In the background, Lieutenant Tragg and Sergeant Brice are seen entering the building. // (2-4) Mason enters Thelma Bell's apartment, calls Marjorie out of the shower. Cluny admits to finding Patton. She tried to pull the knife out. Doray barges in and tries to take charge of Cluny. He thinks Bradbury will "get the credit," but Mason points out that if Margorie is convicted of murder, who'll get the blame. Mason searches the apartment. Thelma catches him. Her alibi is dinner with George Sanborne, whom Mason telephones . . . Sanborne answers and Mason tricks him into supporting Thelma's alibi . . . When Margy goes to get her things, so she can hide out under Mason's instruction, she returns with a wood carving that she made. / Mason goes to Sanborne, asks about his engagement with Thelma and what they had; they each had the same drinks, and so on. Mason tells him he has no imagination. / Bell phones Doray, leaves a message in Della Street's name with the night clerk suggesting travel. / Della tells Mason that Bradbury has said he should represent Doray if necessary. Doray's car was seen near Patton's apartment the night of the murder. Lt Tragg phones. / Lt Tragg and Sgt Brice interview the night clerk over the message. Mason (outside of camera frame until the message is read) asks if he really believes Della sent the note. A bit of banter, and Tragg says that Thelma Bell volunteered information of Cluny. / Back at his private office, Mason is told by Drake that Mrs Fields worked for the same studio represented by Patton. The knife was bought by someone who looks like Cluny. Bradbury made many calls to courier services, and one to Mexico City. Mason suspects a Mexican marriage, for which there is no waiting period. Drake's operative reports over the phone that Bradbury and Cluny were picked up just this side of the border, in San Diego. // (2-5) Court. Dr James Latham reports for D A Hamilton Burger on how the deceased died. There were two wounds (the knife was found in the second, which was not the cause of death). Tragg identifies fingerprints on the murder weapon as Cluny's. Tragg reads a note he found on the deceased from Cluny saying that she "won't be put off any longer." The note is marked by the court clerk (not the usual one). Mason gets Tragg to admit that fingerprints were put on the knife after it had been wiped clean. Fields says she heard the body fall at 8:20. She phoned, and got no answer. She went up the fire escape, saw a woman in the room with white shoes stained (but not the stockings). She then saw the defendant in the hallway. Mason produces a copy of Fields's earlier marriage to Patton. Mason gets her to admit that there was enough time before she looked into the room for the real murder to have left and Cluny to have entered. An art store clerk testifies to having sold Cluny the murder weapon. Mason asks how he remembers the purchaser, and he replies that it isn't often that a pretty girl asks for a wood cutting tool without knowing what it is for (Mason quickly recognizes the import of this). Bell is another Lucky Legs winner, and she met Cluny at the Stellar Studios. She recognizes the murder weapon, which she says Margy bought for a friend. On the afternoon of the murder, the knife was there at 5 when she went out, not there at 6:30 when she came back, and the defendant returned about 9. She helped Margy wash the stains off her white shoes. Della exits the courtroom. Mason asks Thelma about the silk stockings and Bell says that they had to be washed free of the blood stains. Della returns with a small packet for Perry. Of all the women in court, only Bell is wearing silk stockings. She denies an allergy to nylon, but Mason forces her to wrap a nylon stocking around her wrist. She becomes fidgety, rips off the nylon, then admits silk stockings were hers and that she did go to the apartment. She was in the bathroom when Patton was murdered. She heard the telephone ring, inflicted the second wound, wiped the knife clean. Mason moves for dismissal since Cluny's fingerprints were put on the weapon after the murder. Burger wants to argue the point. Court adjourns. / Jail. Mason asks why she would marry Bradbury. Why is Bob Doray hiding? Mason leaves doubt in Cluny's mind as to whether or not she'll be freed. On the way out, Drake meets Mason and tells him that Doray is the art carver. Tragg joins them and Mason tells him that Drake knows where Doray is. // (2-6) Back in the L A County Courthouse, Burger calls Doray. He admits to seeing the murder weapon at Cluny/Bell's apartment about 5:30. He left the knife there. Mason recalls Bell. George Sanborne was her alibi, but he left her about 7:15. Yes, she did receive a phone call that afternoon and gave her address, but no delivery was made. She also denies to finding an envelope pushed under the door when she returned at 6:30. Mason says delivery service took the message from Patton and left it under Bell's door. During this, Bradbury has passed a message to Burger, so he is called to the stand. He says Mason called him at 8:42 and knew then that Patton was dead. Burger points out to the judge that it was at that time the police reported the death. How did Mason know? Mason notes he has a right to cross examine the witness before answering, and asks how Bradbury knew where Margy was staying. What was in the envelope, that Patton must have told him about? Wasn't Patton blackmailing him, because he had asked Patton to help him get Cluny to marry him by making her penniless? How did he get in Thelma's bungalow? If he didn't, his fingerprints wouldn't be around the table where the knife was. Using Doray's knife he killed Patton, thus ending the blackmail and getting rid of a rival. Yes, but Patton "needed killing, didn't he?" // (2-7) Margy and Bob present "her" carving to Perry, as Della and Paul look on. Bell's phoned message was paid for by Bradbury. Mason says they had to guess what was in the envelope, but Margy calls it a "logical deduction." Della sees a great career for Margy, as a diplomat. (2-8 end credits) (51:06)

A bus pulls to a stop in Fawnskin, angler's capitol of the Sierras. A man gets out into the snow-covered surroundings. He walks to a house, enters an open door. Kathi (Beecher) is surprised to see Phil (Beecher). He asserts that he didn't kill Aggie Norris, the car skidded, but she says the town thinks he got off easy. She refuses to forgive him, answers the telephone. Ward Lewis tells her to tell Phil to get out of town. Reluctantly, Phil goes out the door. // Perry Mason arrives in town, enters the hotel. Phil Beecher has just registered. Ward Lewis comes in, slugs Beecher, but Charlotte Norris, sister to the dead girl, intervenes, orders all others out. She wishes Phil well. She tells the clerk that she'll be working late at the mill. Mason meets the clerk, who retells the story of the accident. It is the first time Mason has seen Charlotte. / Charlotte enters the Fawnskin Mill, tells her boyfriend, Norman Thurston, how she faked liking Beecher. They kiss. She calls Phil, tells him the company owes him $225 for a suggestion of his that they used, and he should pick it up that evening. / Judith Thurston calls the mill, is annoyed to find that Norman is working with Charlotte, tells him to pick up tissues and nose drops. Charlotte and Norman are in agreement about stealing the $40,000 payroll, and Phil Beecher will be blamed. / Mason and Sheriff (Eu)gene Norris enter the hotel, discussing their early morning rise. Norman Thurston enters, tells Sheriff Norris that Beecher is seeing Charlotte. He phones, hears a gunshot. / Police converge on the mill. Charlotte is found dead, and the safe is open. Sheriff Norris orders everyone to stay in the office. / Mason is awakened by Kathi Beecher, who asks him to help her husband. / At a hideaway, Phil Beecher protests to Kathi and Perry that it was a setup. As he was leaving the mill, he got shot in the arm. He jumped at her when she pointed the gun again, knocked her over, blacked out. When he finally left, she was unconscious at a bit after nine. He agrees to be turned in, placing his life in Mason's hands. // Mason meets with Sheriff Norris at the mill, where Thurston lies about Phil Beecher's meeting. Norris is convinced that Beecher committed the murder, relates how it happened while he was on the phone. Ward Lewis is the only protection for Beecher at the jail. / Ward asks Kathi to leave, but she won't. He asks where the money is, offering to let Phil escape, and unlocks the jail cell door. Phil calls him back, to lock the door, and accuses the deputy of the murder. / At the general store, (Robert) Tepper relates what Mrs Beecher bought with the $20 payroll bill. Mrs Thurston enters, asks for tissues and nose drops, which her husband forgot to get. She tells Mason that he won't get Phil Beecher off. Mason muses to Tepper that Thurston must have forgotten to pick up the items at just about the time Charlotte Norris was killed, or maybe he did stop by, but Tepper was not there. / The hotel lobby, where Della Street is on the phone, wondering what is going on. The hotel clerk refuses to remember whether Phil called Charlotte, or vice versa. Sheriff Norris is introduced to Everett Ransome, who is to try the case. Ransome, the appointed special prosecutor, arrogantly warns Mason thatr Beecher is guilty. // Kathi discusses the townspeople with Perry. Thurston is a staunch pillar of society. Ward Lewis was in love with Aggie, clashed with Phil. Robert Tepper has lots of money, but doesn't trust banks. / In the Fawnskin Court, Sheriff Lewis tells of Phil's fingerprints being everywhere. He'd made a call to Charlotte because Thurston told him Beecher was going to see her. He identifies the murder weapon, breaks down over the murder of his daughter. Mason suggests another could testify in his stead. Deputy Lewis identifies the murder weapon. The blood on the floor matches Beecher's rare type AB. A bank money wrapper had the defendant's fingerprints, but none were on the open safe. Mason pursues a "third bullet" that is not accounted for. There were tissues and a few other items in the waste basket. Mason asks Lewis about his treatment of the defendant, trying to show bias and prejudice, and making him look foolish. Thurston left the mill about 9 pm, lies about the phone call between Phil Beecher and Charlotte Norris. He identifies listings of $20 note serial numbers. The pages are handed to the judge, who gives them to Mason, who passes them on to the court clerk for identification. Mason asks how long it took Thurston to walk from the mill to the lodge; about ten minutes. But he arrived at 9:20. Did he stop at Tepper's? Yes, but he couldn't wake him up. Mason writes a check for $1000, asks Kathi to cash it and get the largest possible bill. Tepper, having been sworn in as Mason was signing his check, says Kathi came in about 9:45, paid for the goods with a $20 bill, whose serial number matches one on the bank list. Mason asks where he was at 9:10, 9:15, and again Ransome objects rather obnoxiously. / Mason wants an option on a parcel of land owned by Tepper, pays with a $1000 bill. / Tepper carries out trash, goes to a woodpile, opens a safe underneath, puts the bill in a tin can. Sheriff Norris and Mason take the can. // A court reporter reads the number of the bill. It is the fifth that matches the payroll list. Tepper cannot explain where he got them. Thurston, recalled, admits that he planned to steal the payroll and substituted "initialed" interior pages from an earlier list into the bank serial numbers list. He admits to conspiring with Charlotte, who called the defendant and offered him bonus money. He was to be in the hotel when Charlotte would call, saying that Phil Beecher had overpowered her and taken the payroll money. He was in the hotel when Sheriff Norris heard the shot over the phone. Ransome calls Judith Thurston. She drove to the mill to save Norman a tiring walk, arriving about 9:25. She heard one shot, saw Phil Beecher running out, found Charlotte dead. Mason asks her how the man got out when the door had a safety catch. If he had both hands free, it would be possible, but then money would have had to be stuffed into his pockets. The bulk of forty thousand dollars in silver change, dollar bills, five dollar bills . . . Judith is flustered. How long was she there? She ran right out. No, Mason says, two tissues were found in the waste basket. Mason suggests that what concerned her was, not the long walk, but her husband's working long hours at night with Charlotte. She fired the third shot heard over the telephone. Charlotte was dead when she arrived 9:15. She was alive at 9:05. Deputy Lewis, Tepper, or her husband could have killed her in that ten minutes. Norman Thurston admits to being in love with Charlotte who used him, and who hated Beecher. He shot her. // Sheriff Norris, Mason and the Beechers. Even hate is not black and white, says Mason. Sheriff Norris has a message from Ransome; he has one more objection to make, to the Attorney General, the next time he is appointed to appear against Mason.

A hand, lit by a flashlight, turns the dial of a safe. The lights come on. This was a practice only. It is a woman (Janice Atkins), watched by a man (Howard Walters). They discuss a robbery of $130,000. She'll meet him at the cabin in the Sierras. / Taylor Maid Markets Business Offices. Mr (Wade) Taylor goes to Howard Walters, asks if he is flying on this trip. Taylor discusses his disappointed hopes for his son (Andy). Carol Taylor comes in, chides Wade, who says she rushed Andy into marriage too early. She came to invite her father-in-law to dinner. He's left the Fresno account for Andy. / As she drives him to the airport, Ruth complains to Howard that they have hardly any time together. She wishes he wouldn't fly himself. He jokes about the insurance she'd collect. / At the airport, Howard phones Janice, confirms their plans. Listening, at Janice's, is her accomplice (we will learn that this is Roger Porter), who intends to meet and murder Howard. / Howard, in his plane, calls May Day to the Merced airport, says he's on fire, about to crash, then bails out. The plane crashes, explodes. Howard injures himself on landing. / Porter waits at the cabin for Howard's arrival, takes a gun out of a car's glove compartment. / It is snowing. Zack Davis enters the cabin, finds Howard asleep, whispering "Janice." He's been there two days with a busted leg. Zack informs Howard there are no roads, they are isolated. They'll be there until Spring. / (Seven weeks later) Carol is telling Perry Mason and Della Street that Andy is missing. $130,000 was stolen from the office safe. Twice before Andy went away, but came back. / Perry Mason goes to Wade Taylor for Carol. No one has heard from Andy, and Wade is certain he took $130,000 from the safe, to which only he, Andy and Howard have the combination. Roger Porter (Carol's cousin) reports that the plane has been found with charred body remains. Apparently Howard never bailed out. / Back at his office, Mason instructs Paul Drake to check everything over the past seven weeks, and have Lieutenant Tragg require an autopsy. / Outside her apartment, Janice is being told by Roger that he cannot understand why