Plot

In Cloverdale, Utah, Marjorie Cluny is chosen "Lucky Legs," but her boyfriend, Bob Doray, accuses the show's producer, Frank Patton, of running a bogus contest. Marjorie goes to Hollywood anyway and disappears, followed by Patton's murder.

J.R. Bradbury hires Perry Mason to represent his former secretary, Marjorie Cluny, who is somewhere in Los Angeles. As Bradbury leaves Bob Doray shows up. Marjorie had won the Lucky Legs contest in Cloverdale, Utah along with an acting contract. At that time, more than one person thought that the contest organizer, Frank Patton, was a scam artist, something that appears to be the case when Marjorie's contract was canceled two days after her arrival in LA. Perry and Della go to visit Patton but find him dead on the floor, stabbed to death with a wood carving knife. Worse, just as they arrived at Patton's building, a young woman went running out the front door, a woman Perry later realizes is Marjorie Cluny. They find Marjorie living with Thelma Hill who was another past "Lucky Legs" winner who has stayed in LA. Several people might have had it in for Patton but when Marjorie is charged, Perry defends her.—garykmcd

In Cloverdale, Utah, the telecast of the Lucky Legs contests has reached its climax. Organizer Frank Patton (Douglas Evans) of Stellar Studios awards Margorie Cluny (Lisabeth Hush) first prize: a contract to play the title role in an upcoming film. Once they're off the air, Bob Doray (Michael Miller) bursts in and says the contest is a scam perpetrated by Frank. Bob warns him to treat Margie right. "She's not expendable. You might be."

A month later, J.R. Bradbury (John Archer), Margie's former boss, tells Perry that her Hollywood career lasted just two days. She was told she didn't photograph well enough, which under the terms of the contract justified its cancellation. She has since disappeared. J.R. wants Perry to find her and put Frank behind bars. He's already talked to the D.A., who told him that it was a matter of proving criminal intent. Perry agrees that that's the difficulty, and J.R. gives him a folder full of items concerning Frank's Lucky Legs contests in other towns, figuring that would be helpful. Asked why he's involving himself, J.R. says that Margie was his secretary, but if the contents hadn't intervened, he thinks they might be married by now. Della learns from Gertie that Bob is in the front office and signals Perry, who lets J.R. exit through the private door. Bob also wants Margie protected and Frank arrested, but he says that J.R. just wants to obligate Margie in order to influence her to marry him. Perry notes that Bob didn't ask his help in finding Margy, so he must already know. Bob leaves without answering. That night, Perry and Della were joined by Paul, who had tracked down and contacted by phone a previous Lucky Legs winner, Thelma Bell (Jeanne Cooper). She was happy to help nail Frank and gave Paul his address at the Holliday Arms Apartments. Paul passes it on to Della and Perry, along with Thelma's address and phone number. Perry decides he and Della should visit Frank, taking along the incriminating material that J.R. compiled.

As they approach the apartment building, a frightened Margie runs out, bumps into Perry (who did not know who she was), then rushes on. Inside, the desk clerk is away, but Perry notices that there's no key in the box for Frank's apartment. He must be in, so they go up. There's no answer to their knock, so they go in and find a dead man with a woodcarving knife in his back. Perry finds a note from the front desk saying that Margie called at 5:05 PM with the message "I must see you tonight." with a phone number, which Perry recognizes as the one Paul gave them for Thelma. As they leave the apartment, they see the elevator door opening. Police officer Tompkins (Leo Needham) is listening to Laura Fields (Doreen Lang), who lives in the apartment directly below Frank's, repeat her story. She heard someone yelling about lucky legs, then heard something heavy falling. Perry has engaged the doorknob lock on the way out and is saying "Looks like no one is in" to Della as Tompkins and Laura approach. When the officer asks what they're doing there, Della says only that they came to see Frank but no one answered when they knocked. (So they both made true, albeit misleading, statements. This matters in an issue left unresolved in the episode as aired.) Perry gives Tompkins his card, and the officer lets them go. Perry sends Della home in a cab and calls J.R. from a pay phone in the lobby to tell him that Frank is dead. As they speak, Perry notices Lt. Tragg and Sgt. Brice (Lee Miller) enter. He makes sure he keeps his back to them.

Perry next goes to Thelma's bungalow, believing that Margie is there with her. He tells them about Frank's murder, but Margie can't hide the fact that she already knew. She went to see Frank at 8, got no answer at the door and walked in. Bob indulges his habit of bursting in on people to get dressed because they have to leave. Margie tells him to stop giving orders, and that Perry is her attorney and she'll listen to him. Perry advises that both women go and get dressed. While they're out of the room, Bob admits that Margie called him after finding the body. Perry says it will be safer for Margie if Bob leaves and lets the lawyer handle things. Bob agrees and leaves. Perry snoops around a bit, but finds nothing more interesting than a pair of stockings in the closet. Thelma enters and is irked at what Perry is up to. He changes the subject, pointing out that as an earlier dupe of the Lucky Legs scam, she had the same motive against Frank as Margy. Thelma has an alibi, her boyfriend, prizefighter George Sanborne (Ray Kellogg). Perry calls him, pretending to be from a hospital that admitted Thelma at 8, but George says what he's hearing is nonsense, because they were together and he dropped her off at home at 8:45. When Margie returns, Perry tells her to check into a hotel and tell no one except Della her location. She gathers her things, including a woodcarving that Perry admires. Margie says she made it herself.

Perry continues his busy night with a call on George. The boxer tries to give a more detailed version of the alibi, but he says that he and Thelma had the same drinks and meals, which Perry doesn't believe. Perry calls it a lie that totally lacks imagination. Later, Perry is present as Tragg interviews a hotel desk clerk (Sid Tomack). He took down a message purporting to be from Della, telling Bob, who was staying there, to leave the country because "Suspicion mounting in M's direction." The message came in 40 minutes previously, and Bob had already left with all his belongings. Perry doesn't think the homicide lieutenant could believe the note is really from Della, but Tragg does. He cites Perry's interfering with the police, in this case including telling Margie to hide when he already knew of the murder. He got this information from the talkative Thelma.

Later, Paul reports that Laura, Frank's downstairs neighbor, worked at Stellar Studios, as Frank did at one time and still apparently had connections there. The police traced the murder knife to an art store, where it was purchased two days ago by a woman fitting Margie's description. J.R. made a number of calls the previous: several to various messenger services and one to Thelma's apartment. That morning he called a hotel in Mexico. Perry notes that, unlike California, Mexico has zero waiting time for a marriage license. Perry intends to fly to San Diego, but Paul gets a call from one of his men. The police have nabbed J.R. and Margie on the U.S. side of the border before they could get married.

In court, Dr. Latham (Pitt Herbert), the medical examiner, reveals that the knife was found in the second of two wounds, but it was the first wound that was fatal. Tragg states that Margie's prints were on the knife. He reads from a note found on the body: "Down to my last few dollars. No more empty promises. Marjorie C." On cross-examination, he reveals that the police lab found that the knife had been wiped clean of prints, then afterward handled by Margie. Laura testified that when she heard the thud, she looked at her watch and it was 8:20. She called the apartment and getting no answer, went up the fire escape and looked in the window. She saw a woman kneeling on the floor, her white shoes stained with something darker. When the woman got up, Laura got a clearer look at her and in court pointed her out as Margie. On cross-examination, she admits that she was married to Frank, but they divorced years ago. Despite this, she lived near him because she still felt married to him. Perry asks if there was enough time between when she heard the thud and when she looked through the window for the murderer to leave and Margie enter. Laura doesn't know, but she is able to testify that only Margie's shoes were stained, not her stockings. Mr. Clayton (Arthur Marshall), clerk at the art store, then testifies about Margie buying the knife. He remembers it clearly because she was very attractive, and knew virtually nothing about what she wanted to buy.

Thelma testifies that she met Margie at Stellar Studios, and they bonded over being fellow Lucky Legs victims. Margie told her she bought the knife for a friend. Margie and the knife were in Thelma's bungalow when she left at 5 PM, but both were gone when she returned at 6:30. Margie got back around 9 and asked Thelma's help in cleaning her shoes. Afterwards, she put them in the closet, but later saw they were gone. On cross, she says that a pair of silk stockings also disappeared after being washed of bloodstains. Perry notices that one seldom encounters silk stockings nowadays, and that Thelma herself is the only woman currently in court who wears them. He asks if she told Margie that she was allergic to nylon, but she denies it. Perry challenges her to let him wrap a nylon around her wrist as he continues his questioning. She complies, but soon looks uncomfortable. As Perry asks if she called George and asked him to lie for her, she can't take it anymore and pulls off the nylon. Caught in a lie, she admits that she went to Frank's apartment and argued with him about the Lucky Legs scam. Eventually, she was sobbing, so she went in the bathroom to fix her face. While in there, she heard a thud, then the sound of the front door closing, so she came out and saw the body. She went to it and pulled the knife out, thinking that might help if Frank wasn't already dead. She heard the phone ring and panicked, sticking the knife back in the body and wiping it off. Perry claims that since the knife was wiped clean after the first, fatal, knife blow and Margie's fingerprints were made after the knife was wiped, she couldn't be the killer. Therefore, he moves for a dismissal. Burger needs time to prepare his argument on this motion, so the judge (S. John Launer) adjourns court for the day.

In jail, Perry accuses Margie of deciding to marry J.R. not out of love but gratitude, since he's not only funding her defense but has promised to do the same for Bob if the need arises. Margie says she broke up with Bob even before the Lucky Legs contest, mainly because he was a hothead. Perry asks if Bob came by during the period Thelma was out and whether Margie gave him the knife then. She doesn't deny it. Perry asks why Bob has gone into hiding, but she has no answer. She asks if the case against her will be dismissed now, but Perry says he can't predict how the judge will rule on his motion. After Perry leaves Margie, Paul finds him and says that he's tracked down Bob, and confirmed he's a woodcarver. Tragg happens by, and Perry tells him that Paul has information for him: Bob's whereabouts.

In court the next day, Burger is treating Bob as a hostile witness, asking him a series of yes/no questions. Yes, he visited Margie that evening. Yes, she showed him the knife. Yes, it was a gift for him. Yes, he left at 5:40. No, he didn't take the knife with him. This last answer surprises Margie, who tells Perry she thought he had taken the knife. Recalled to the stand, Thelma testifies that she and George had dinner, returned around 6:30, and he left about 45 minutes later. Perry calls this a short date and suggests that they had an argument about Thelma's continued involvement with Frank. Asked about phone calls, she says she got one from a deliveryman who needed her address. She gave it to him, but there was no delivery that day. Perry notes that a message service left an envelope containing a note from Frank to Margie under the door at 5:50, but Thelma insists that there was no such envelope when she returned.

Burger calls J.R., who testifies about when Perry called to tell him Frank was dead, and Burger says this was the exact time when Officer Tompkins called Homicide. (If so, Tragg and Brice must have been very nearby, since they entered the building before Perry finished this rather short call.) Burger wants to know how Perry knew of Frank's death at this time. The judge warns Perry that this suggests misbehavior that could seriously damage his career. Perry says he'll defend himself at the proper time and place, but now he intends to cross-examine J.R. He begins with a question, if J.R. didn't know Margy's whereabouts, how did he contact her to arrange an elopement? Perry confronts J.R. with a scenario: J.R. paid Frank to make sure Margie lost out in Hollywood, figuring marriage to him would be more attractive if she was broke. Frank did so, but then blackmailed J.R., whose plans would be ruined if Margie ever found out that J.R. had a role in her failure. (We seem to skip a step at this point, since no reason is given for what Frank does next.) He tells J.R. of the message he sent to Margie at Thelma's bungalow, revealing the scheme against her. J.R. got Thelma's phone number from the Holliday Arms desk clerk (and must have used it to pose as a deliveryman and get Thelma's address). J.R. denies entering Thelma's bungalow, but recants when Perry suggests that his fingerprints could be found there. Inside he found the envelope and also noticed the knife, which he took in order to frame Bob for Frank's murder. J.R. says that he realizes he never needed to have bribed Frank to ruin Margie's chance at stardom, since that's what Frank always did. However, having started the whole thing, he had to end it. Anyway, Frank needed killing, didn't he?

In Perry's office, Margie and Bob give Perry the woodcarving he liked. Discussion of the case is brief. J.R. bribed Laura to pose as Della and call in the message for Bob to skip the country. Perry says the key to the mystery was knowing that J.R. was contacting message services, and then to guess what message J.R. didn't want Margie to see. Margie says she'd call this not a guess but a logical deduction. Della says she has a great career ahead of her as a diplomat.