- D.A. Brander Harris is investigating graft in a hospital project. He meets with Leora Mathews to obtain proof. Leora disrobes and kisses Harris as a photographer takes a picture. It goes to political fixer Marshall Scott who is murdered.
- The District Attorney in Waring City, Brander Harris, hires Perry Mason to help him out after a crude attempt at blackmailing him begins to interfere with his investigation into corruption around a hospital construction. Harris was called to a meeting by Leora Matthews who offered him information. Once there however, she puts him in a comprising position and a photographer snaps a photo. Matthews was working for Marshall Scott and when he's found dead, Brander Harris is the prime suspect. Perry tells him he must surrender to the police and he soon finds himself the acting DA running the grand jury on his client's behalf. The grand jury room serves as the ideal setting for Perry to get information on those who took kickbacks on the hospital deal. Information that comes in handy at Brander Harris' preliminary hearing. At the Harris trial the people involved in the graft make it appear that Harris himself was involved by overseeing the graft.—garykmcd
- At a hotel in Waring City, local District Attorney Brander Harris (Hugh Marlowe) comes to the room of Leora Mathews (Carole Mathews), secretary to Country Auditor Eugene Milton (Herbert Anderson). She claims to have documents that will prove the graft Harris has been investigating in the construction of Northport Hospital. He begins to examine the papers she offers him, and meanwhile she "slips into something more comfortable", grabs a drink, and sits down beside him. Just as he realizes the papers are worthless to him, she kisses him while a photographer snaps a picture. Before Harris can do anything, the photographer knocks him out. Later, Leora is on the phone, being congratulated for the photos by her co-conspirator Marshall Scott (Bartlett Robinson). She calls him "honey", but he's a bit more circumspect, as his wife Eva (June Clayworth) is in the room with him.
At Marchand's, a tony French restaurant, political deal-maker Cleveland Blake (Wilton Graff) shows Harris a copy of the photo, saying he has no idea who sent it to him. Harris thinks the frame was arranged because he's getting too close to uncovering the role in the hospital graft of newspaper editor James Castleton (Mark Roberts), whom Blake is grooming to fill his shoes one day. Harris and Blake can't agree on Castleton's involvement, so Blake says it's only fair that he send the photo to Castleton and let him decide what to do with it.
Harris next goes to Perry and asks him to deal with the photo so he can concentrate on the looming grand jury investigation. Perry visits Leora and asks whether she did it for money, love, or both. After he leaves, she tries to get the switchboard on her room's phone, but Paul has bribed the operator (Nancy Millard) to pretend there's a problem with the phone. Leora comes to the lobby to make her call from the phone booth, and Paul stands nearby, copying down the number she dials. However, he only sees "DA6-70" when a man gets in the way. Next, Perry visits Castleton, who seems surprised to learn he's a subject of the graft investigation. After Perry leaves, he calls DA6-7054. Perry briefs Harris, mentioning the incomplete number, but it's not until he's left that Harris finds DA6-7054 in his address book. Soon, Paul has also tracked down the number - it's Scott's home number.
Perry goes to the Scott home and finds Eva, Lt. Tragg, and a dead Marshall. Perry won't say why he's there, and Tragg returns the taciturnity by refusing to say whether a broken glass bookend on the floor is the murder weapon. Later, Eva's daughter Helen Preston (Carol Nugent) is back from visiting a friend and thus is in a position to encourage her mother to tell Perry some interesting things about Marshall, the step-father Helen obviously resents: Eva has turned over to Burger $50,000 in cash that she found in a hatbox. She once overheard her husband talking to building inspector Theophile Duclerc (Peter Brocco). Marshall was clearly involved in the frame against Harris, as Tragg discovered a number of copies of the photo in their home.
At the end of a long day of work, Perry and Della get into his car, and Harris pops up from the back seat. He admits going to Scott's home and accused him of involvement in the frame and in graft. Scott became physically threatening, so Harris grabbed the bookend to defend himself, but it slipped from his grasp and broke. The interruption cooled tempers just enough for Harris to leave. Perry takes him to the police station, convincing him that if appointed Deputy D.A. for Waring County, Perry can conduct the grand jury proceeding. The next day, Perry shows inspector Duclerc pictures of collapsed sub-standard buildings and asks for the truth. Duclerc says wasn't bribed, but he can't make waves or he'll lose his job, and he has a wife and children to care for. Perry asks him what if he had to leave them at Northport Hospital.
At the grand jury session, Duclerc testifies to following instructions to only inspect the building materials at designated spots, and that some materials were delivered in quantities far less than the expense records indicated. He says he received instructions from contractor George Fairbanks (Francis De Sales). Next, Auditor Milton, stunned to hear of Duclerc's admissions, also admits collusion and that his contact was Fairbanks. Fairbanks is the next domino to fall, confessing that he paid $150,000 in bribes for Scott to distribute, making up for the loss with padded construction costs. Less helpfully to Perry, he swears that Scott told him that Harris was getting a $25,000 share.
At the murder trial, Tragg testifies that the police found Scott's blood and Harris' fingerprints on the broken bookend. Leora spins a tale of spending an evening with Harris, during which he complained of the grand jury getting out of his control, and that he intended to put the blame for the graft on Scott. On cross-examination, Perry forces her to admit her call to Scott from the lobby. She tries to deny participation in the plot to frame Harris, but Perry points out that the photos went straight to Scott. Eva testifies about finding the body, and mentions that her husband called Castleton at 4:25. She knows the time because at 4:30 she left to pick up Helen at college, take her to a friend's house, stay there for a while, and return home. Her timeline doesn't add up, so she tries to add a story of a flat tire, but has trouble with the details. Finally, she admits she was lying out of panic, but insists she did sideswipe a white convertible when returning home, still after Marshall's death. She says there's still traces of the other car's paint on hers to prove her story, but Perry says this won't confirm the time it happened. Perry asks what happened to the $100,000 that she didn't turn over to the D.A.
At this point, Burger intervenes and calls Castleton to clear this up. Basically, he just testifies to finger-pointing between Scott and Harris concerning the bribe money. On cross-examination, he first says that he received the photo from Blake, but soon contradicts himself and admits he got it from Scott, and gave it to Blake. At this point, Perry briefly interrupts the cross-examination to have Tragg explain that while they didn't check the other, unbroken, bookend yet, since it was clean, they could still do so, and traces of blood would still be found no matter how much it had been wiped. Returning to the stand, Castleton admits to owning a white convertible, and Perry says the paint of that car can be checked against the traces on Eva's, the implication being that Castleton was fleeing the Scott home at the time of the murder. Castleton admits to his central role in the hospital graft, and says that for years he was being taught how to engage in corruption. However, he won't take the blame for a murder he didn't commit. His car had been borrowed - by Blake. The wheeler-dealer says that no one can fill his shoes this time.
Back at Marchand's restaurant, Perry tells Harris that Blake only went to Scott to confront him about holding onto more than his share of the bribe money. If the murder had been premeditated, he would have brought a weapon rather than rely on finding a bookend. Harris says "I don't know how I can ever repay you," so Perry hands him the check.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content