- An impetuous niece who demands her trust fund be released comes to Perry Mason for help. But it's her boyfriend who needs defending when he is charged with murdering her controlling uncle as Perry learns their real situation.
- Twenty-three year old Fran Celane is furious with her uncle Edward Norton who controls her fortune until her twenty-fifth birthday due to an absolute trust her father created. After another stormy fight with her uncle Fran storms out of the house and drives to Perry's office where she barges in to see him. After explaining what she wants, Perry agrees to check out the situation. He has Paul Drake investigate everyone related to Norton. Perry and Paul soon determine she has a boyfriend named Rod Gleason. Perry visits Rod where he reveals he believes Rod and Fran are already married and expecting a baby. Later, that evening Norton has a meeting with his lawyer Arthur Crinston as Rod comes to the house to visit Fran. At about the same time the police receive a call from Norton saying he wishes to report a crime and then that he is being threatened by his niece. As Norton's secretary Donald Graves leaves with Crinston and the man driving him, he says he sees Rod kill Norton through a window. Perry now must help clear Rod for Fran.—Anonymous
- Fran Celane (Olive Sturgess) and her uncle Edward Norton (Brian G. Hutton) are arguing in the mansion where they both live. She storms out of the study just before Norton's attorney Arthur Crinston (Robert Griffin) arrives at the front door. Donald Graves (William Schallert), Norton's secretary, lets him in, but tells him that Norton is too upset to talk business. Crinston has an appointment with Judge Ryan Purley (Howard Wendell) at 10 PM, so it's agreed that he'll come back at 11. As he's about to leave, Fran storms out of the house, gets in her car, and speeds off.
Fran barges into Perry's office and says that she wants Perry to break the "spendthrift trust" of over $1,000,000 that her father set up, leaving Norton in complete control of Fran's money. He'll use his power to cut Fran off if she marries before age 25 (in about a year and a half), but Fran wants to marry now. Perry says he'll need a day or two to investigate. Later, Paul reports that 5 years earlier Fran's widowed father had to track her down when she ran off with a bellman. Convinced that his daughter was too impulsive, he set up the trust - and died not long afterward. Lately, Fran has been seen in the company of artist Rod Gleason (Brian G. Hutton). Perry visits Rod and surmises not only that he was that bellman, but that he and Fran have secretly married. Fran emerges from hiding and admits that Perry is right. He has also correctly guessed that they can't keep the marriage secret for another 18 months - Fran is pregant.
Perry visits Norton and says that a court might have something to say about Norton's arbitrary use of his power as trustee, but he gets nowhere. He reports the discouraging news to Fran and leaves. At 11:06, Rod is walking outside the mansion when a car pulls up. It's Judge Purley, who is giving Crinston a ride. Since Crinston doesn't expect to be very long, the judge decides to wait in the car so he can keep listening to a prize fight. Graves lets Crinston in, and a few minutes later the lawyer returns to Purley's car. Over the noise of the radio, a voice is heard, and Crinston asks Norton what he wants. The reply is that he wants some papers Crinston has at home, and will send Graves along in the judge's car to retrieve them. Graves squeezes into the front seat, and as they start to drive off he turns around to put a briefcase in the back. He suddenly shouts to stop the car, saying that through the study window he saw a man come up behind Norton. They return, and the police arrive.
Later, the police surgeon (Larry Thor) tells Lt. Tragg that Norton never knew what hit him, and "an ash tray got him over the left ear." Crinston, Purley, and Graves tell what they know. Graves doesn't know what to say when Tragg asks him if he could recognize the killer. Fran and Perry are also in the mansion, and she tells him that Rod was there to take her bags - she was moving in with him. She admits Rod was angry with Norton and insisted on talking to him - but insists that Rod would never have committed murder. At his apartment, Rod tells Perry that he headed to the study, but heard voices so went out to the garden to wait until Norton was alone. After the exchange of voices between the house and Judge Purley's car, he went back to the study and found Norton dead. He panicked and ran. Perry thinks Burger will have a field day with this case, but agrees to defend Rod.
Paul observes the police making a same-conditions test of Graves's ability to recognize people in the study from his location in the car, and he definitely passes. However, Lt. Tragg calls Paul into his office, reveals the he knows of Paul's unauthorized attendance at the test, and hands him a subpoena. If Perry tries to challenge Graves's account then Paul, obviously not biased toward the prosecution, will have to testify that he saw Graves proving his visual acuity.
At the trial, Burger parades his witnesses before the jury, all recounting the events we've seen. On cross-examination, Judge Purley says that he didn't know Norton and had never even spoken with him on the phone. Crinston testifies that his 11 PM meeting with Norton was to be about a tax matter, but Norton was too upset about Fran to discuss anything. Clara Mayfield (Lillian Bronson), the housekeeper who had helped care for Fran after her mother died, testifies that she saw Rod come in from the garden and go into the house. On cross, she admits that Norton threatened to fire her unless she stayed away from Fran.
Perry has Paul maneuver Judge Purley so he'll hear the upcoming testimony from just outside the courtroom. He calls Crinston, accusing him of embezzlement and then killing Norton, who had caught on. Crinston firmly denies everything that Perry said. Next, he calls Graves and asks him to read aloud some sentences - a few old adages ending with "Crinston, I want Graves to go with you." Perry then recalls the judge, who testifies that the voice he heard that night was the same one he just heard: not Norton, but Graves. The secretary admits it, but says that this was his only part in the crime - Crinston was the killer. The latter holds his head in despair.
Later, Perry agrees with Clara that Graves only abetted the murder for a share of the embezzlement profits. However, they differ on whether Fran's baby will be a boy or a girl.
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