- A wealthy woman hires Mason to buy stock in her husband's land company, hoping to force his mistress out. But her plan goes awry when she is charged with the murder of her husband's business partner Mason bought the stock from.
- Sybil Granger's husband is having an affair with Roxy Howard who lives in the lone model home in a future subdivision. The property was to be subdivided but with the belief that oil has been found there those plans have been canceled. Sybil hires Perry to buy shares in the project to stop the project with the hope of getting her husband back. Perry buys shares in the project from George Lutts. Perry uses the bylaws of the organization to stop the oil exploration. Lutts based on information he receives from his daughter and her husband Herbert Dean meets with Sybil to try to buy the shares back from Perry. As they meet at a site overlooking the subdivision, Lutts is shot. Sybil runs to her car. However, she runs it into a ditch trying to get away and is forced to take a cab to escape. After Meeting with Perry, he has her and a friend take the same cab to confuse the police. Her gun is missing and the police believe she used it to shoot Lutts from a short distance but she insists he was shot from a distance. Perry has to disprove the police version of the shooting with courtroom tricks.—Anonymous
- Sybil Granger hires Perry Mason to help her in a plan to get her straying husband back. Bruce Granger has taken up with Roxy Howard and they are investing in what was supposed to be a new suburban housing development. They now believe there is oil on the property and are looking to join forces with the development company and expect to make a substantial profit. Sybil wants Perry to buy some stock in the development company and find a way to stop the oil development from going forward. He's successful at doing that but when George Lutts, the head of the development company is shot and killed while Sybil is standing beside him, she's charged with his murder and Perry defends her.—garykmcd
- Sybil Granger (Margaret Hayes) takes Perry to a hilltop from which they can view the back of a house. They see Sybil's husband Bruce (William Roerick) kissing flashy blonde Roxy Howard (Greta Thyssen). Sybil explains that the house is a model home on land owned by Sylvan Glade, a housing development company. They've stopped work on building houses because they think they've found oil on the land. Roxy has a friend in the company who's letting her live in the model home while she tries to get Bruce to financially back drilling for oil. Sybil wants her husband back and thinks that if Perry can block the oil deal, Roxy will become a nag about it and she can win Bruce back by being understanding. Sybil will put up money so Perry can become a stockholder, and he agrees.
Attending a Sylvan Glade board meeting are company president George Lutts (Richard Hale), his son-in-law Herbert Dean (Robert Cornthwaite), Sam Elkins (Tyler McVey), Bruce, Roxy, ... and a new stockholder. Perry points out that the company charter prohibits going into a business other than home building without unanimous approval of stockholders. He says he's unalterably opposed and then leaves. Bruce tells Roxy that means the deal is off, but she insists he not give up so easily, threatening to tell Sybil about what they've been doing.
George Lutts now realizes he made a big mistake in selling stock to Perry. When he discusses it with Herbert and George's daughter Vinnie Dean (Jean Howell), she tells him what she's learned from Herbert about Bruce and Roxy at the model home, and Sybil spying on them. He realizes how this connects to Perry, and the next day he approaches Sybil while she's spying again. He threatens to tell Bruce, but a gunshot is heard (although not very loud). George grabs his throat and falls, dead. Sybil frantically runs to her car and speeds off, but she soon drives into a ditch and can't get the car to move.
Later, Sybil has been explaining events to Perry in his office, having taken a cab there. Perry asks to see the cab receipt for $2.95, then drives Sybil to her car. A gun that should be in her glove compartment is missing. Perry involves Paul, some of his operatives, and Sybil's good friend Ruth Marvel (Claudia Bryar) in a scheme to obtain another cab receipt from the same driver and for the same fare, but innocently driving around Beverly Hills. Sybil keeps that receipt in her purse.
At Sybil's preliminary hearing, Lt. Tragg testifies that powder burns prove that Lutts was shot from 18 to 24 inches away. Sybil insists to Perry that it was a distant shot. The cabby, Jerome Keddie (James Gavin), testifies about picking up Sybil at her car and identifies the receipt police found when they arrested her. On cross-examination, Perry makes Keddie identify his trip sheet, which shows a different trip number that the one on the receipt (due to Perry's earlier scheme). Perry asks if he can unequivocally identify Sybil as the fare on the first trip, and he admits he can't. The judge declares the Keddie's testimony is compromised. Burger is furious and moves for a dismissal of this hearing until he can obtain more evidence.
Paul has discovered that the one location with a clear shot at where George Lutts had been standing is a Sylvan Glade tool shack. It's locked, so Perry goes to Herbert Dean, but he says he doesn't have the key either. While Perry's there, Vinnie Dean admits that her father was hard to work for due to his stinginess, but Herbert kept the job for her sake.
Back in court, ballistics expert Alexander Redfield (Norman Leavitt) testifies that two shots, with different types of cartridge, were recently fired from Sybil's gun. The first shot matched the fatal bullet, but no bullet was found from the second. Perry questions how a that shot could have possibly missed from close range. He proposes that the first, fatal, shot could have been fired from a distance, and the second shot fired a bit later at close distance with a blank, to create the power burns. Redfield admits this would work, except that the paper wadding used to keep the blank's power in place would have penetrated the skin and been found by the coroner. Perry produces a gun (which Redfield silently pushes away when Perry inadvertently points it at him) and fires it at a piece of fabric. It produces a pattern of powder marks, but no hole from the wadding, to the amazement of Redfield. Burger calls Ruth Marvel as a hostile witness, and gets her to admit that Sybil had asked for her help in obtaining the second cab receipt. Perry uses his cross-examination to claim that this was all just a test of whether cabby Keddie could really recognize Sybil.
Paul reports that Roxy unlocked the shack, removed a bunch of junk (including small sandbags, iron pipes, clamps, two-by-fours, and a stool), and dumped it in a gully near the model home. The stuff isn't there now, so Perry asks Paul to obtain a similar collection of items.
Bruce takes the stand and testifies that he owns several guns. He had loaned one to Roxy, who later returned it. Perry is about to ask Bruce to check serial numbers of his guns when loud squeaking disrupts the court. It's Paul, bringing in the duplicate junk, covered up and on an old hand-pushed truck. The judge (Morris Ankrum) castigates Perry for not waiting for a recess to bring this in, or at least using a less squeaky truck, then calls the recess. Paul says he felt like an idiot, but Perry says he intended the noise to further upset a nervous witness.
When the hearing resumes, Bruce testifies that he checked his serial numbers, and one of the guns in his possession isn't his. It could have been the one he lent to Roxy. She's called to the stand, clearly unhappy about it, and denies having switched guns. Perry uncovers the junk, now revealed to be assembled into a makeshift shooting stand. He repeatedly presses her about why she threw out the stand (not the same one, but Roxy doesn't know that). Finally, she breaks down and says that Sybil was the intended target, to stop her from blocking the oil deal, which would have made Roxy rich. However, she wasn't the shooter. Perry says that the real murderer was someone who was followed back to his own garage and found the disassembled stand still there, but didn't get a chance to warn Roxy. She points to her accomplice and the real killer, Herbert!
Back in Perry's office, we learn that Sybil and Bruce have reunited and gone to Mexico for a second honeymoon. Tragg arrives with Perry's shooting stand and points out that it's his responsibility and he can't just put it in the trash. However, Tragg will handle the matter for a price. Perry guesses that the price is revealing how he shot that fabric without making a hole. He just used a little chalk instead of paper wadding. The power would have blasted it away, leaving no trace. Tragg stalks out, telling his officer, "Get me out of here before I use that thing (the stand) on myself." Perry, Della, and Paul get a good laugh.
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