- Perry is awakened in the middle of the night by the phone. A strange man says someone has been murdered and he has two $1,000 bills as a retainer, as well as half of a $10,000 bill that will serve to introduce Perry's mysterious client.
- Albert Tydings has been stealing money from the a trust account belonging to Carol Stanley. His partner, Robert Dawson, demands it be repaid but Tydings has something on him that prevents Dawson from going to the police. Tydings took $60,000 out of the account and knows that the company clerk, Richard Ellis, has taken $20,000. He gives Ellis a day to return it. Tydings is found dead by Carol Stanley who had arranged a meeting with him to ensure her investments were safe but she and Dawson foolishly move the body. Late that night Dawson calls Perry and stops by with Stanley hid under a dark veil. He gives Perry two $1000 bills as a retainer. In addition he gives Perry half of a $10,000. Perry will receive the other half if his help is needed later. Abigail Leeds, who has known Carol since she was a baby, is a forthright woman who hires Perry Mason to sort this all out and make sure that Carol isn't convicted of a crime she did not commit.—garykmcd
- "The Case of the Baited Hook" (which could have been called "Bob and Carol and Tragg and Abigail")
Bob Dawson (Willard Sage) confronts his partner, Albert Tydings (George N. Neise), about an $80,000 shortfall in a trust account belonging to Carol Stanley (Judith Braun). Tydings amits he embezzled it, but he has a file that prevents Dawson from doing anything. After he leaves, Tydings tells the company clerk, Richard Ellis (Al Hopson), that he himself took only $60,000 and gives Ellis a day to return the extra $20,000. He takes a call for Bob from Carol and arranges for her to come to the office at 10 PM to discuss her account. He seems pleased, but his secretary, Enid Shaw (Mary Castle) looks resentful.
Carol arrives at the office and finds no one there except Tydings, who is slumped over his desk. She calls Bob and tells him that his partner has been murdered. Outside, a policeman tickets Carol's car, which is parked to close to a fire hydrant. Bob (not revealing his identity) and Carol (going him one better with a thick veil) go to Perry's apartment. Bob gives him two "Grovers" ($1000 bills) as a retainer. Then he takes out a $10,000 bill, which Perry says he hasn't seen before. (They were very rare even in 1957, and bore the image of Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's Treasury Secretary.) Bob tears it in half, giving one half to Perry and the other to the disguised Carol. Perry will get Carol's half if the need arises for him to represent her, or return the retainer if he declines the case.
The next morning the no-nonsense Miss Abigail Leeds (Geraldine Wall) barges into Perry's office. She says that in 1939 she was asked to take Carol (then known as Katrina) out of Poland and look after her until her parents could follow. They never made it out. Being single, she put Carol in what she thought was a respectable welfare home, but turned out to be a baby farm, i.e., an adoption-for-pay racket. Luckily, Carol was acquired by the Stanleys, who turned out to be kind. They adopted her legally and left her a six-figure trust fund when they were killed in a car crash. Unluckily, Tydings was named trustee. Abigail knows about his thievery, but only Carol has legal standing to start an investigation, so Abigail will bring Carol to the office that afternoon.
Paul reports that he traced the serial number on the $10,000 bill, and it had been issued to Tydings. Perry wonders if he's been retained by both sides of the same dispute. The pair go to Tydings' house and find blood both inside and out. The trail leads them to a closet, and when they open it, Tydings himself falls out, face forward. Paul calls the police. Back at the office, Perry tells Abigail and Carol that Tydings is dead. Abigail volunteers to be the new trustee, serving at no fee. Lt. Tragg arrives to question Abigail about an unpleasant meeting she'd had with Tydings. She says "Whoever murdered him did a civic service." Tragg admires her frankness.
Perry goes to the Tydings and Dawson office. With Tydings dead and Bob having left town last night, Ellis is in charge. He claims professional ethics prevent him from helping Perry. Perry wants to talk to Enid, but is told that she usually comes in late. Paul reports that Bob's car has been found, wrecked, by a lake. While the police are dragging for a body, Paul and Perry join them and don't correct the conclusion to which Officer Duggan (Lyle Latell) has jumped, that they are from the press. Perry points out that no one was driving when the car crashed, as the gas pedal has been wired down. So there's probably no body to find.
That evening, as soon as all the investment office staff have left, Perry and Della sneak in, with Paul as lookout. Perry examines the ledger of Carol's account, which he has a court order to do, and finds evidence of Tydings' defalcations. On the floor he finds the empty shell of a small-caliber bullet, perhaps from a Beretta. If Tydings was shot in his office, why was the body moved miles away to his house? Perry speculates that if a woman shot Tydings and Bob was involved with her, he might move the body to protect her. Perry notes that on his daily calendar for 10 PM the night he was murdered, Tydings made a sketch of a female torso. If Tydings was expecting something to happen, perhaps the woman involved is Enid, as there must be some reason she can come into the office late. Perry gets a frantic phone call from Paul, who had trouble getting through. Tragg is on his way up! They duck out a window onto the fire escape, and evade capture.
Back at the office, they learn that Bob is wanted for murder. Blood found in his car matched Tydings' blood found in his office. Paul's man tailing Carol calls in. She's led him to a motel where Bob is hiding. Paul and Perry go there to question him. However, Tragg has been following Perry (perhaps the fire escape ploy was less effective than Perry thought?) and arrests Bob and Carol. She hands Perry her half of the "Salmon". Eventually, the D.A. charges Carol with murder and Bob as an accessory, because the record of the parking ticket shows she was at the office building at that time.
Perry and Della go to Abigail and Carol's house. They find cancelled checks for $150 payments from Abigail to Ellis, going back five years. Perry goes to the T&D office and uses one of the checks, plus a court order, to put an end to Ellis' stalling. The clerk reluctantly hands over Tydings' blackmail file. Perry tells Ellis that he'll no longer have money problems, because by the time he gets out of prison for extortion and grand larceny, he'll be getting his old age pension. Perry tells Abigail that Burger is charging Carol with 1st degree murder, which means the gas chamber if she's convicted. He mentions that he knows who killed Tydings, but can't prove it to a jury. She realizes that he means her, but wonders if he's just a good guesser. He produces Carol's birth certificate, which shows that Abigail is the mother. Unwilling to risk her daughter's fate any more, she confesses. Tragg is waiting in the next office to arrest her, and Perry says he'll defend her. Tragg and Abigail leave, arm in arm. (If you'll forgive an editorial comment that doesn't really belong in a plot synopsis, this is perhaps the lieutenant's finest moment in the entire run of the series.)
Later at Perry's apartment, he has a bad cold and Della is mothering him. Della brings up the case, and Perry mentions that Carol had found out about her parentage while in high school and didn't care. She only avoided mentioning it to her mother to avoid embarrassing her. Della concludes that the murder to protect that secret turned out to be futile and senseless. "All murders are," replies Perry.
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