Plot

Inveterate gambler Sylvia Oxman meets casino manager Danny Barker to pay her IOUs. Her husband Frank requires the markers as evidence in a custody suit for their son. Barker is soon killed with Sylvia's gun and she's charged with murder.

Sylvia Oxman is desperate to retrieve the $7,500 in IOUs she signed over at the Clover Club poker room. She is convinced that her ex-husband Frank Oxman will try to get his hands on them and use them to have her labeled an unfit mother thereby getting custody of their son Peter. Poker room owner Danny Barker isn't going to make it easy for her, however, suggesting that he will sell the IOUs to the highest bidder asking $25,000. Sylvia's grandmother Matilda Benson and her son Robert call on Perry Mason to seek his assistance on Sylvia's behalf and Perry and Paul drake are soon investigating. Perry runs a bluff on Danny Barker to force him to turn over the IOUs at face value. Danny's partner Charles Duncan intervenes to make sure they get their money but nothing untoward takes place. Before long Danny Baker is found dead in his office, killed with Sylvia's gun. Despite the odds, Perry takes on her case and roots out the real killer.—garykmcd

Sylvia Oxman (Patricia Cutts) comes to the Clover Club, a legal poker room in Gardena, CA. She tells floor man Arthur Manning (Michael Dante) she has an appointment with co-owner Danny Barker (Robert Strauss). She wants to buy back $7500 in her IOUs, but Danny says he expects to get $25,000 for them, hinting that Sylvia's estranged husband Frank (Gene Blakely) is in the bidding. He could use the IOUs as evidence that Sylvia is a compulsive gambler in order to obtain custody of their son, Peter. Sylvia doesn't have that kind of money, but says she'll be back. Manning has been listening to this exchange through the door, and calls Sylvia's wealthy grandmother Matilda Benson (Kathryn Givney), who has bribed him to keep her informed. Matilda decides that the smart thing to do is to engage a lawyer.

Matilda goes to Perry's office, with her second son Robert (Barry Atwater) in tow. She tries the domineering stance she takes with her family, but this gets her nowhere with Perry. She explains that her other descendants have been too weak to live up to the Benson family naming, beginning with her elder son, Sylvia's father. Robert adds that his brother killed himself after his wife ran off with a Neapolitan fisherman. Matilda raised Sylvia, who married Frank right out of college, but it turned out that her only passion was for gambling. However, she has observed that Peter has broad shoulders and a square jaw. She's convinced that the boy is "the family's strength reborn." She also explains the situation about the IOUs, which Perry says is really blackmail and that he'll do his best to deal with in.

Perry has Paul open a bank account for himself under the name Frank Oxman. They go to the Clover Club to play poker, where Paul loses big to an old woman (Ellen Corby) on a bad bluff. He asks Manning if he can write a check for more cash, and Manning is soon showing a check for $200 signed "Frank Oxman" to Danny. Paul and Perry enter, being careful never to say whether Paul is or is not the real Frank. Danny assumes he is, but when he starts talking about the IOUs going to the highest bidder, Perry says he could get them as evidence for nothing but travel expense money via a subpoena. If Danny didn't produce them, he'd have to deny their existence in court, rendering them uncollectable, so he wouldn't even get the $7500 face value. Danny's partner Charles Duncan (Leo Gordon) enters, and insists that he expects the club to be run honestly, so their permit isn't endangered. The IOUs will be returned for their face value, but only to the rightful person, Sylvia. Perry agrees to have her at a meeting at 10 the next morning. After Perry and Paul leave, Duncan repeats his expectations to Danny, in rather more forceful language. Something about being pushed down a sewer, head first. Danny seems to take this nonchalantly.

At 1:50 in the morning, a moderately drunk Sylvia arrives at Frank's apartment, kisses him, and suggests that the two of them and Peter run away together. Frank reminds her that they're tried that more than once before, and every time Matilda managed to pull her back, with Frank coming along because he loved her. That won't happen this time, and he expects to have the IOUs by 9 AM. Sylvia cries "You hate me, and you'll teach my son to hate me too!" and runs out.

Perry arrives at the Clover Club for the 10 AM meeting, but finds the police are there. Lt. Tragg informs him that Danny has been murdered, and the bullet came from a gun registered to Sylvia. There's an All Points Bulleting out for her, and an arrest warrant in the works. Perry calls Matilda, who says that Frank gave her the gun for protection, and he knew that she kept it in her car's glove compartment. She adds that Frank had a meeting with Danny that night. Nothing gets past Perry, so Matilda has to admit that she bribed Manning for information. Before leaving the club, Perry talks to Duncan, who tells him their partnership agreement allowed for the club to remain in operation under the surviving partnership, with mutual life insurance in place to handle estate claims. Perry estimates that the club averages at least $10,000 a day - income that was endangered by Danny's shenanigans. Duncan is unimpressed by Perry's allusion to a murder motive, saying he already told all this to the police. After Perry leaves, Duncan goes to Danny's office, where he finds Manning sitting behind the desk. Manning says he's not just a floor man, but a brain, and that he could go to the D.A. with tales of Duncan taking an extra cut out of that $10,000 a day. Duncan roughs him up a bit, but lets him go, saying "Don't let me catch you in that chair again."

Perry visits Frank and asks him where he was between 6 and 9 AM, when the murder occurred. Sylvia and Robert enter from another room, and all three say they've been together since 5 AM. Tragg enters and replies to the supposed alibi by saying that they have half a dozen witnesses who'll swear that Sylvia was at the Clover Club - and none of them are related to Mr. Burger. He takes Sylvia in.

In court, Tragg testifies to finding the gun in a storm drain near the Clover Club. Manning testifies that he arrived at the club at 9, having just switched from night shift to day. He saw Sylvia's car in the club lot, and when he went inside he saw Sylvia running away from Danny's office. On cross-examination, Perry suggests that Manning could have taken the gun from Sylvia's unlocked car and shot Danny with it to take the IOUs. Duncan testifies that when he arrived he saw Sylvia run to her car and tear out of the lot. Going inside, he and Manning found Danny dead in his office. Sylvia plaintively asks Perry, "Why are they all lying about me?" Burger calls Dr. Ralph Caldwell (King Calder), a man in a clerical collar, who testifies that while at a gas station in Gardena around this time, he happened to notice a car because it was exactly like his, then observed that the woman driving it seemed very upset. He points to Sylvia as that woman, and says he is absolutely certain of his identification.

During a recess, Perry visits Sylvia at the jail so they can think things over. She doesn't want to think, but would rather complain about her life. It seems that Matilda brought her up to be unable to take any joy in anything beautiful, just to make sure that she'd never run off with a Neapolitan fisherman. It worked, leaving her with only ugly thinks like gambling and getting drunk. Finally, she admits that she returned to see Danny at 2:30 AM, taking the gun and waving it at him in an attempt to retrieve the IOUs. He simply took it away from her. She went home, gathered up all her jewels, and returned around 9 in another attempt to buy the IOUs, but she found him dead, with her own gun near the body. Panicking, she forgot about the IOUs but took the gun and threw it in the drain as she drove past. Then she went home and told Robert what happened, being unable to face Matilda. He went to her, then returned, saying she'd said to go to Frank and offer him whatever they could to get him to alibi her.

Perry visits Matilda and announces that Sylvia's alibi won't hold up. He says he's surprised she'd even suggest such a scheme, since Peter would certainly demand custody of Peter as the price of his cooperation. Matilda clearly doesn't know what he's talking about, making it obvious that this was really Robert's plan. He wanted Peter to be with his father, not his life-crushing great-grandmother. Also, the fake alibi included Robert himself, and he really needed it, as he's the murderer. He blames himself for not realizing that the gun he found in Danny's office was Sylvia's. However, he admits that he would have let Sylvia go to the gas chamber for his crime, since being brought up by Matilda left him weak. She seems shocked, but embraces him. It's just possible that she finally realizes the poisonous effect that she's had on her family.

Paul drops by Perry's office to find Della with a toy roulette wheel. She gets him to play for a dime, but she manages to pick the winning number. Perry enters and reads the card the accompanied the toy. It's a gag gift from Duncan, sent to show he has no hard feelings over Perry's suspicions of him. It's rigged, which of course Della already knew.