Trama

Perry takes a client with questionable jewelry to another client in the building to have the jewelry appraised. Shortly thereafter, Gerard Van Ness, a partner in the jewelry business, is found with a dead body in the trunk of his car.

Jeweler and gem expert Gerard Van Ness returns to Los Angeles from South America only to be pulled over by the police as the car he's driving was reported stolen. More ominously, they find the dead body of Nils Dorrow, an international jewel thief, in the trunk. Perry Mason, who has acted as Van Ness and his partner Joachim DeVry's lawyer, agrees to defend him. Interestingly, Perry had recently been to their store with another client, Sonya Galinova, where DeVry was astounded to see that she was in possession of a priceless Russian tiara that had been thought lost. She had been given the tiara in payment for boarding another Russian, Vyacheslav Gerznov, who works in a circus. He swears his mother brought the tiara with her when they left Russia. Galinova and Gerznov eventually agree to split the proceeds from the tiara between them for two thirds and one third respectively. The two cases are intertwined and there is a very good reason why someone has tried to frame Van Ness for murder.—garykmcd