- Bishop Arthur Mallory searches for a young woman who may be the heiress to $1,000,000 from the Charles Burroughs estate. Carol Delaney fits the bill. Mallory is beaten by Wallace Lang and his henchman to persuade him to drop the case.
- Perry Mason becomes involved in the case of a Australian Bishop who is searching for a young woman who was abandoned as a baby. Bishop Mallory has been putting vague ads in local newspapers to try to find the woman, the granddaughter of the rich Charles Burroughs, who disinherited his son when he married and the son died before the missing granddaughter was born; the baby was then given up for adoption. He thinks he's found the right woman in Carol Delaney although she doesn't believe him, but it's clear that others have interest in the Burroughs estate, especially Wallace Lang, who has the Bishop beaten up to get him to leave town. Burroughs himself thinks he's already found his granddaughter and is prepared to change his will in her favor regardless of the relationship. When Burroughs is found stabbed to death in his study, Carol is charged with murder and Perry defends her. Plus, the Bishop is missing.—garykmcd
- Wallace Lang (Ken Lynch), who works as a private detective and troubleshooter for millionaire Charles Burroughs (Carl Benton Reid), and his thug Leo (Karl 'Killer' Davis) pay a call on Bishop Arthur Mallory (Vaughn Taylor). Mallory, who has a slight stutter, has lefth is diocese in Australia for L.A. in order to track down a girl from the Midwest who plays the piano and speaks French. Lang wants to know of Mallory's progress, and when the bishop isn't forthcoming, he has Leo rough him up. Later, Mallory awakens to find his wounds being tended by Carol Delaney (Rebecca Welles), who has come in response to Mallory's inquiries. He asks her a few questions, then says that she's actually Janice Burroughs, the millionaire's granddaughter. Her biological father died before Carol was born, and her biological mother arranged with Mallory, then a pastor in Albany, NY, for her adoption. Carol thinks it's a scam and leaves.
Later, Carol tells her friend Larry Kenyon (Peter Garey) about this, and he thinks there's a chance it's genuine. Then Lang arrives and threatens that there will be trouble for Carol if she pursues the claim - which makes up Carol's mind. Later, she and Mallory visit Perry and explain the matter. Perry suggests swearing out a warrant against Lang, but Mallory doesn't want the resulting publicity - his superiors would be upset. When Perry asks about the bishop's interest in this matter, he replies that "there are rewards other than financial." After they leave, Della voices her suspicions. A stuttering bishop must be "quite a sensation in the pulpit."
However, Perry goes to see Charles Burroughs who has two companions. One is his nephew Philip Burroughs (Jonathan Kidd), who acts as his uncle's secretary and target for random bullying. The other is a young woman whom everyone calls Janice Burroughs (Joan Vohs), although she grew up in an orphanage under the name Mildred White, and was tracked down and identified as Janice by Lang. (This summary will call her Janice from now on.) She has been fully accepted by Burroughs as his granddaughter. He tells Perry that the Mallory he met is a fake - the real bishop went on a sabbatical, telling no one his destination. Also, Burroughs is changing his will so that Janice will inherit, whether or not she's really any relation to him.
Later, Philip comes to Mason's office and offers him an envelope, which he says contains a fat fee that Mason can have if he drops this matter. Mason refuses, and Philip returns to the Burroughs estate. Inside, he meets Janice, who says she also just got home. They spot blood oozing from under the study door. It's locked, so Philip breaks it down and enters. The room is dark and the light switch does nothing, so Philip makes his way to the desk so he can turn on the lamp there. This reveals Burroughs' body on the floor. Janice enters, sees it, and screams. She wants to go call the police, but Philip says they need to talk first. He threatens to reveal to the police what he knows about a marriage that took place four years ago in Allentown, PA. Janice says that until she just got home, she'd been out horse riding as usual, but had been seen by no one. Philip points out that this is not much of an alibi, compared to his own of having been with Mason. In exchange for half of the estate, he offers to help her "set the scene" in a way that avoids incriminating her. He hints that they can point the police toward Carol, who had an appointment to see Burroughs that evening.
Sure enough, Lt. Tragg is soon questioning Carol. She says she went to the Burroughs house but no one let her in, so after 20 minutes she left. Sgt. Brice enters with the fork of a carving set, but the matching knife isn't there. Tragg knows where it is - plunged into Burroughs' body. In jail, Carol tells Perry that she wasn't planning on keeping her appointment with Burroughs, but she got a call from Mallory saying he'd be there ahead of her. Perry tells her that the stuttering bishop has disappeared. Later, Paul is getting nowhere, so Perry has him hire operative Blanche Atkins (Claire Carleton) to see Janice, posing as her birth mother. This works just long enough for Janice to reveal the name Mildred White when Lang enters and identifies Blanche, whom he has also used. After she and Paul leave, Lang decides to deal with Philip's blackmailing ways. Later, a wounded Philip goes to Perry, reveals that Lang and Janice are married, and produces a letter that incriminates them both in fraud.
In court, Deputy DA Weston (Herbert Ellis) is subbing for Burger. The Medical Examiner (Jon Lormer) testifies that Burroughs received multiple stab wounds, any one of which would have been fatal. Based on medical evidence, death could have occurred any time between 6 and 7:30 PM (although we know the body was discovered at 7.) He also reveals that Burroughs had the barbiturate Nembutal in his system. Lang testifies that Mallory had admitted to him that he was an impostor, but Perry points out implausibilities in his testimony, capping it off by introducing the certificate of his marriage to Janice. The judge (Morris Ankrum) orders Weston to examine Lang's testimony with a view toward perjury charges. Meanwhile, a car is pulled out of the bay, containing Mallory's body. Weston reveals this in court - along with the fact that Mallory has been proved to be the genuine Bishop Mallory. Perry believes his death was murder, and he asks to recall Philip to the stand.
Perry accuses Philip of having given Burroughs the Nembutal before he left for Perry's office, knowing that his uncle would be unconscious well before his own return home. The visit to Perry wasn't ordered by Burroughs but was just to establish an alibi. The bribe envelope was empty, as Philip knew Perry would never accept it. Back home, immediately after breaking down the door to the study, he stabbed Burroughs before turning on the desk lamp and letting Janice see the body. He also insisted on talking to Janice immediately, thus delaying calling the police and therefore confusing the exact time of death. Philip protests that there was blood oozing under the study door before he broke it open, but Perry says that was just part of Philip's "setting the scene", and a test will reveal it wasn't Burroughs' blood. Philip is stunned. Later, Perry explains that Philip needed both to disprove Janice as a granddaughter and frame Carol, so neither could inherit. Murdering Mallory was part of the plan, since he could have given Carol an alibi. Philip simply broke into Carol's not-well-secured residence to steal the incriminating knife. Perry also reveals that Carol is definitely the real Janice Burroughs. He reads from a letter that her birth mother wrote to the bishop, begging to be forgiven for having given up her daughter. Carol asks for her mother's address, and Della hands it to her.
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