Plot

Martin Ellis, a former employee of Jonathan Hyett, is serving time for embezzlement, a charge he strongly denies. New evidence curiously emerges that may cast doubt on Ellis' conviction, so his wife Caroline consults Perry about the case.

Charles Brewster, Vice President of of the business management firm Hyatt, Brewster and Hyatt, is an embezzler having spent $300,000 of clients funds. He put the expenditures through the company accounts but destroyed the evidence. Martin Ellis, comptroller for the firm, was convicted of the crime as he had no proof Brewster is the culprit. Jonathan Hyatt knows Brewster is guilty but he is married to the elder Hyatt's daughter Valerie, an alcoholic. Ellis' wife Carolyn Pulaski Ellis approaches Perry Mason after she receives a roll of microfilm with copies of the bills that disappeared. When Brewster is found dead, Martin Ellis is charged with murder and Perry defends him. The case is difficult because Brewster's ring has blood from where he hit Ellis in the face as Ellis visited Brewster before he was murdered and the Ellis marriage is found to be invalid.—garykmcd

Jonathan Hyett (Frank Silvera) and his son Richard (Ray Kellogg) are dismayed to have anonymously received photostats proving that the third partner in their financial management firm, Charles Brewster (Ralph Clanton) is guilty of the $308,000 embezzlement for which company comptroller Martin Ellis (William Phipps) has already been sent to prison. However, Charles himself is blasé about it, as his wife Valerie (Joan Banks) is Jonathan's daughter, and he's a very protective father. Charles goes home and accuses Valerie of sending the photostats. She denies it, so he gives her, an alcoholic, a drink.

Carolyn Ellis (Anne Barton) goes to Perry with microfilm evidence she says she received anonymously in the mail. It consists of copies of bills for fake purchases from fictional companies endorsed by Charles - the exact evidence that Martin had insisted existed at his trial, but couldn't produce. They take the evidence to Burger, who delivers quick action. Still, Perry wonders why the anonymous friend waited so long. In prison, Perry and Carolyn see Martin as he is being released, but he seems more bitter than happy. He says that Charles will pay, and Perry warns him against that kind of attitude.

Charles, awaiting his trial, is visited in jail by Lawrence Squires (Harvey Stephens), representative of the Great Southwest Bonding Company, which had to pay back the embezzled amounts to Charles' account holders. They want to recover the money, and Squires knows enough about Charles' financial dealings to be aware that he has the money, in cash, hidden somewhere. Charles offers to pay back $150,000 if GSWBC will post his bail, and Squires agrees. This is illegal, so he arranges to do it through Helller Detective Agency, acting as intermediary and also tailing Charles so they can turn him over the instant he tries to skip bail.

In Charles' apartment, Jonathan calls the police to report a suicide. Then he picks a gun up from the floor, wipes it, and places it in Charles' dead hand. After homicide has arrived, Lt. Tragg questions Jonathan, then lets him go home. He gets a call from the crime lab, and is unsurprised to hear that the gun was put in Charles' hand after he'd been shot. Tragg shows some photos to doorman Walter Vico (David McMahon), who recognizes Martin. He says that Martin pushed past him, saying he had an appointment with Charles. Tragg orders Sgt. Brice (Chuck Webster instead of the usual Lee Miller) to bring Martin in.

In jail, Martin tells Perry that the whereabouts of Charles' "secret hideaway" was well known at Hyett, Brewster, and Hyett. He assumes that after he pushed past Walter, the doorman called Charles to warn him, because Charles met him with a gun in his hand. Martin gave him a judo chop which sent the gun sailing across the gun, beginning a fight in which Martin suffers some cuts to the face caused by Charles' ring. Martin knocked him down, and when Charles offered him half the money, slugged him even harder. He insists he didn't kill him, because even a man as rotten as Charles is still a human being. He left by the basement service entrance and walked home.

At the office, Perry gets an envelope with 5 "Grovers" ($1000 bills) and a typed note to use the money for Martin's defense. Paul reports that the money for Charles' bail really came from GSWBC. Perry what wonders what happened to the missing money, as the police didn't find it in the hideaway apartment. He reminds Squires that his collusion with Charles leaves him open to being charged as an accessory. Suddenly cooperative, Squires says that he saw Charles at 7:30 and received the promised half, also in Grovers. A detective tailing Charles had reported that on his way to his apartment, he stopped by a travel agency and bought two plane tickets to Mexico City. Squires checks with his office on the phone, and is astonished to learn that another $150,000 has arrived, in a plain manilla envelope with no note.

Perry visits Jonathan and tells him that the manilla envelope and the envelope and note to Perry were all typed on one of his company's typewriters. Jonathan says he could sue him for libel. Perry calmly informs him that he's thinking of slander, not libel. In an action for slander, truth is always a valid defense. Perry notes that 15 minutes past from when Jonathan arrived at Charles' apartment and the police arrived. Thus, he had time to find the $150,000 Charles still had, and to put the gun in his hand. Perry also speculates that Jonathan could have been the one who sent the microfilm to Carolyn. After Perry leaves, Jonathan calls Burger.

In court, Tragg testifies about the lack of tatooing around the entry wound and the lab's negative paraffin test that confirmed the gun was not fired in Charles' hand, but from over a foot away. He identifies contents taken from Charles' pockets: a wallet, the plane tickets, a wedding ring. A signet ring taken from his right hand had traces of blood and skin. On the stand, Jonathan admits to finding the $150,000, concealing it under his clothes, and mailing it to GSWBC. He also make it look like suicide, because Charles had already caused enough trouble. On cross-examination, Perry asks why he went to see Charles. Jonathan answers that he knew Charles was likely to flee and wanted to make sure he didn't take Valerie with him, making her a fugitive too. He admits that he learned of Charles' guilt earlier than he'd previously admitted, but says he didn't mail any microfilm to Carolyn. Burger next reveals that when Martin and Carolyn married, her divorce decree from her first husband was not yet final. Therefore, they're not legally married, and she has been subpoenaed to testify against him.

Since Martin's stocks and bonds are no longer community property, Perry and Paul act with his authorization to search for them in Carolyn's apartment. Paul finds a checkbook stub for a stationer's in San Francisco, plus other stubs indicating Carolyn had made a one-day trip there. Perry thinks this might explain why Carolyn hadn't mentioned Burger's subpoena. In court, Carolyn testifies that when Martin left her, he was angry that Charles had made bail, and that he returned at 1 AM. On cross, Perry produces her order to the stationer's to make microfilm copies of 42 photostats of bills. He says that she had these because she helped Charles with the embezzlement. She tries to deny the connection, but Perry says they can call Walter to testify that she was a frequent visitor to Charles' hideaway. He adds that she loved him but didn't trust him, so she held on o evidence so she could pressure him to divorce Valerie and marry her. When Charles rebuffed her, she sent photostatic copies of the bills to Jonathan, and when that accomplished nothing, brought microfilms to Perry. All this was not the help Marin, but to put Charles in jail. She denies seeing Charles that night, saying she went to the building, but didn't go in. She waited in Frankie's bar across the street for Martin to leave, and finally gave up and went home when the police arrived. Perry asks if anyone can prove she was there at the time of the murder.

Valerie rises and says "I can." The judge (S. John Launer) is irate at this breach of court protocol, but leaves her unpunished when Burger says that she's his next witness. She testifies to seeing Carolyn there from around 10 PM until the arrival of the police. By then, she'd taken sufficient advantage of the bar's services to phone her brother for a ride home. On cross, Perry accuses her of alibiing Carolyn to give the impression that she was at the bar. He suggests that Charles, who could no longer benefit from being Jonathan's son-in-law, was going to leave her behind. She rejects this, pointing out that there were two tickets to Mexico City. Perry mentions that his wedding ring was in his pocket. Carolyn said this was a spare for her, because she was always losing hers. Perry asks to see hers and Carolyn tries to comply, but can't get it off her finger despite frantic pulling. Jonathan jumps up and says Valerie is lying to support his claim that there was ever any danger that Charles would go off with her. Saying that Perry's genius is attacking at the weakest link, he confesses to the murder, and apologizes to Martin.

Later, Paul admits that he didn't think of Jonathan as the murdered because he was too obvious a suspect. He was known to be at the murder scene and admitted to moving the gun, making off with the money, and hating Charles. Paul was confused because he kept looking for things that weren't there. Della calls someone who does that a cynic. Perry says someone who looks for things that aren't there and finds them is called a detective.