Perry Mason

You scared the devil out of me, Moose.

Nobody ever got the devil out of you. You're all devil.

Since when does our sheriff patrol in his own car and in civilian clothes?

You haven't changed, have you, Elaine?

You always did know the best way to win an argument:

never be on the defensive.

What do you want, Moose?

Are you gonna psychoanalyze me, talk about old times or put me in jail?

Arrest Dick Bayler's wife?

No.

No, I'm no brighter than I was when we were in high school, Elaine,

but I'm not stupid either.

Will you get out of the way?

Wait a minute.

You're too smart to be fooling around with this two-bit musician.

Why don't you just turn around?

There's nothing at the end of this road but trouble for you.

You don't know what trouble is.

Do you wanna keep that badge?

Then keep your dirty ideas in your dirty mind.

It's beautiful.

I'm gonna call it "Concerto for Cynthia."

Don, darling, I thought it was for Mrs. Bayler.

Oh. She's my patron.

You're my girl.

Do you know what?

What?

Maybe, just maybe, I'm in love with you.

Get your things and get out.

I don't take orders from you.

I'll leave when Don tells me to and not before.

Look, you've got no right to come ba--

No right?

This is my cottage, my wine, my candles, and you're on my time.

This place you own, not me.

Oh, you do have some pride.

That's a surprise. Good.

Your girlfriend can pack your things. You're getting out of here tonight.

But first, you're coming with me.

We have an appointment at Scarlet Point.

Wait a minute. What's got you screaming at high C?

What have I done?

What's changed all of a sudden?

Come on. Now!

Don't go, Don. You don't need her.

With your talent, you don't need anyone else.

Something's wrong. I better find out what it is.

Start packing my things.

Don, you don't know who you're to meet or why or what set her off.

- Don't go. - Darling, do as I tell you.

Please.

Get in.

- Tell me what this is about. - Why don't you tell me

about the lies you made up to regale your beatnik friends at Natasha's?

Elaine, I swear I've never said a word.

You swear. You liar.

Put this money in this envelope.

And read this.

"Your husband will learn of monkey business with Hobart

unless you leave 10,000 Wednesday night

in barricade pipe stanchion Scarlet Point.

Fink about this and you are dead.”

Have you gone to the sheriff?

Moose?

And give him something to show to my husband?

Nobody's gonna know about this but us.

I know who's pulled this extortion.

Nobody holds me up and gets away with it.

Elaine, that guy could be here.

Waiting.

Let's leave the money and beat it.

I thought people were awake at dawn up here in the backcountry.

Bayler's estate is the biggest one on the lake.

Why don't you admit it, Paul?

California's most brilliant private detective is lost.

California's most brilliant attorney isn't much help.

No wonder we can't find anyone. They're all here.

No parking here.

We're from out of town, officer. We're looking for the Bayler Estate.

You up here to see Mr. Bayler?

- Yes, I'm his attorney. - Well, he's up with the sheriff.

Come on, I'll take you in.

Oh, come on now, honey.

I don't wanna give you a hard time,

but I picked up Hobart right after I heard the shots.

- Is my son awake? - You saw them leave the cottage.

She made him go with her.

All right, if she made him go with her, then he didn't wanna go, right?

And they argued, right?

Well, she busted in on us.

- She was jealous. - No.

In fact, she told me to pack Don's things.

Well, then I thought she was throwing him out.

That made him mad.

I know what phonies like you are made of, Hobart.

No-talent bums

who trade on a pretty face and a good line to take the gullible,

who figure world owes them something

because they can daub a brush or sing a song or play a piano.

- Why did you kill her? - I didn't kill her!

And I don't have to answer your questions, Mr. Bayler.

You'll answer.

When I get through with you, you'll answer.

Don couldn't have fired that pistol.

I tried to teach him to shoot

and he can't hit a 6-foot target from 10 feet away.

- How did you know it was a pistol? - Well, it sounded like a pistol.

So from a quarter mile away, you heard the shots.

Somebody tried to blackmail her,

saying there was something between her and me. Well, there wasn't.

And she was gonna leave the money at the Point

and try to find out who did it.

Sol put the money in a pipe stanchion and that's when I heard the shots.

You liar. The sheriff didn't find any money there.

Now, listen, I'm warning you, honey, this guy is not worth protecting.

You're just getting yourself in deeper and deeper.

Now, suppose we make a deal.

You give me the straight dope

and you can go right back to Natasha's and be there in time for work.

I've told you what I know.

It's just not what you wanna hear.

- What's his girlfriend doing here? - You are gonna have to hold up

until Mr. Bayler comes out.

Now, keep it quiet or I'll make you wait outside the building.

I think you're...

Perry Mason? Bayler's attorney.

Did you fly up? DA know you're here?

Maybe Bayler called Mason

to assist the DA in prosecuting the killer.

He killed her.

Unless there's something we can do, the business can wait.

No, I want you to stay, Perry.

Life goes on.

I'll sign the contracts you brought up.

You're a hometown kid, Cynthia.

And you're not gonna let us down.

You're not gonna let a crumb bum like this

get away with killing a fine lady like Mrs. Bayler.

He didn't do it.

Okay. You can go.

Mr. Bayler, I'm terribly sorry about your wife.

But Don didn't kill her.

You speak when you're spoken to.

Don't talk to her like that, Bayler.

It burns you up, doesn't it?

Because there's at least one human being in town

that won't start singing when you give the downbeat.

You watch what you say.

All right, get him out of here.

Here they come now.

- Did you confess, Hobart? How about it, sheriff?

What's Mason doing in there?

Don't you see what's happening?

He's an outsider.

They're gonna make a scapegoat out of him.

He has rights.

He does have rights, doesn't he?

The girl is right, Dick.

Her friend was being physically abused.

He didn't have benefit of counsel.

Her friend?

That's put with Victorian quaintness.

Their relationship has nothing to do with it.

It has everything to do with it.

Elaine kept cash, I don't know how much, in her room.

There's not a dollar there now.

I figure she went down there to pay them off.

A variation of the badger game?

Exactly.

She probably used the money to bait them.

And when she threatened to put him in jail, that phony musician killed her.

My son.

I told you I wanted to see Howard as soon as he got up.

Yes, sir, but he was not in his room.

- Get him. - Yes, sir.

Your father wishes to see you, Mr. Bayler.

Mr. Bayler.

Mark, when you mister me, you're mad.

Now, what did I do?

Your father doesn't know it, but you weren't home at all last night,

and it's not the first time.

Well, as long as he doesn't know it.

That idiotic target shooting, I owe that to Cynthia Perkins too.

She probably can't write her own name legibly,

but she won a national pistol match

and became Scarlet Center's celebrity for a week.

Elaine told her to stay away from him.

I didn't know we had company.

Son, this is Perry Mason and Paul Drake.

- My son, Howard. - How do you do?

Let's go inside, son. I have to tell you something.

I, uh, think we better go.

Oh, wait.

We'll get down to business soon as Ed Kesko gets in from Sacramento.

We'd like to check in at the hotel anyway, Dick.

My secretary is due with the papers we'll need.

I'm sure you and your son could use the privacy right now.

What is it?

It's about your mother, son.

What did she do? Leave you?