Plot

Nancy Banks comes to Perry wanting him to redeem bets at the horse track for her. When he does, he learns her brother is wanted for embezzlement by his boss Marvin Fremont. When Fremont is found dead in her room, she is charged.

Nancy Banks hires Perry Mason to hold five $50 tickets she has from the local racetrack. The race hasn't been run yet and, should she win, she wants Perry to collect her winnings for her. Her horse comes in a winner and, when Perry and Della go to the track to collect the winnings, Perry is immediately accosted by Marvin Fremont and policeman Sgt. McClanahan, who claim that Nancy's brother, Rodney, stole the money from his business to buy the tickets and therefore the winnings are his. Perry isn't buying any of it and remains calm while Fremont accuses him of being a crooked lawyer. Rodney is in jail for stealing the money and, at Nancy's request, Perry arranges for his bail. Perry, however, is frustrated by his client's refusal to be honest with him. When Fremont is found murdered in her hotel room, however, it's Nancy who is charged with murder and Perry defends her. His work is made harder by a trick she read in a mystery novel and mentioned to several people earlier.—garykmcd

Nancy Banks (Joyce Bulifant) flees the racetrack with tickets and takes them to Perry. Failing to fool Perry for a second by calling herself "Nancy Smith", she gives the tickets, all for long shot Doughboy to win in the 4th race, to him. She pays him $27 to cash in the tickets the next day (assuming Doughboy wins) and bring the money to her at a motel. She won't explain why she can't cash them herself, but she does reveal that she chose Doughboy "because he smiled at me." Later, Perry, Della, and Paul listen to a radio broadcast of the race. Paul, a bit of a horse-player, says Doughboy is a "dog", and he has his own $2 bet on Fisherman. Reminiscent of Feetlebaum in the Spike Jones "William Tell Overture", Doughboy comes from behind in the last second to win. Della calculates that Nancy's tickets are now worth $14,250! The next day at the track, Perry and Della go to cash the tickets but are stopped by antique dealer Marvin Fremont (Arch Johnson) and LAPD Sgt. Burdett (Paul Bryar). Fremont says the tickets rightfully belong to him and accuses Perry of being an accomplice of Rodney Banks (Richard Davalos), Fremont's employee. Burdett confirms that Rodney was caught making a small bet on Doughboy and arrested. As Fremont continues to use terms like "crooked lawyer" about Perry, Della takes notes. Perry notes that statements like this made in front of others are actionable. Over Fremont's objections, Burdett says Perry can leave with the money, but warns him there will be further investigation.

Acting on a lead, Paul goes to the Valley Trout Farm, looking for an employee probably named Nancy something. He meets Lorraine Lawton (Lisabeth Hush), another employee there, who explains that in addition to providing unsuccessful fishermen with a stocked pond, they also offer fish storage and shipping services. Larsen Halstead (Dabbs Greer), an accountant, arrives, wanting to talk to Nancy about Rodney's arrest. Paul finally learns that her real last name is Banks. At her rendezvous with Perry and Della, Nancy admits that she's Rodney's sister, but insists that the money she bet on Doughboy was her life savings. Perry delivers the money and gets a receipt, then Nancy gives him back $5000 of it, asking him to bail out Rodney. Perry does so, but Rodney learns that his own winning ticket, worth $1400, has been impounded. Rodney seems to be his own worst enemy, saying things like that Fremont deserves to be strangled. Perry makes it clear that he's Nancy's attorney, not Rodney's.

Late that night, Nancy calls Perry and says that a man in a white mask robbed her of her winnings in an alley near her apartment. She asks Perry to meet her at the same motel. Once there, Perry finds the door open and Fremont in the bathroom, dead. Nancy arrives, complaining of being delayed. Perry thanks her for leaving the door unlocked, which Nancy claims she must have done when she left that afternoon. Nancy soon realizes that Perry isn't buying her story and becomes distraught. Perry grabs her hands and remarks that they're cold as ice. He tells her to call the police and tell them anything she likes, because she's leaving. Frantic, she runs after him, shouting "I didn't kill him!" Later, the police are at the scene and Fremont's wife Inez (Phyllis Coates, the first Lois Lane on Adventures of Superman (1952)), who identifies the body as her husband, but isn't upset about it. They were in the process of divorcing, and the police found her at Fremont's house only because she was there to get her last two months' allowance. After talking to Sgt. McClanahan (John Goddard) on the phone, Lt. Anderson meets Perry and Nancy outside, and puts on a masked made from a pillowcase with eye holes cut in it. Nancy says that matches what she saw when she was robbed, and Anderson says the pillowcase was found in Fremont's coat pocket. Nancy admits she used to work for him, but quit because he kept making passes. Anderson also shows her part of a dry ice carton, found under the body. He concludes that other cartons were removed, this one overlooked because the body hid it. All that dry ice could have been used to cool the body and make it appear the murder happened earlier. The police now have a lead since they can check the carton for prints, so Nancy is free to go. Perry tells her to drive straight to Della's apartment, but instead she goes to the trout farm. She starts to remove cartons from a trash bin, but is stopped by McClanahan and other police. The sergeant shows her one more thing in the trash bin - the murder gun.

At the office, Halstead explains to Della and Paul that he was brought in after Fremont got into tax trouble, to set up a proper bookkeeping system. He suspects the antique business was really a front for a fencing operation. He once noticed Fremont handling a large wad of bills in a strongbox he kept in his office, so later opened it and found over $30,000 - money not on the books. He wrote down the serial numbers of a few of the bills. Later, he shows the strongbox to the police, who force it open. Inez is there, expecting to see more money for her - but she squawks when the strongbox is empty. At the building where he and his sister both have apartments, Rodney tells Perry that Nancy is a mystery buff and that she liked to tell people about the body-cooling scheme she'd read about. Lorraine, who also lives in that building, comes over to tell Perry that there's a call for him on the public phone in the hall. It's Paul, telling Perry about the empty strongbox. He tells Rodney to get himself the sharpest lawyer in town (other than Perry, who'll be busy defending Nancy).

In his opening remarks, Burger tells the jury that Fremont was a crook, but that doesn't change the fact that Nancy, acting alone, murdered him. Lorraine testifies that a week earlier, Nancy had borrowed the key to the dry ice shed. On cross-examination, she says that at a party she heard Nancy telling about the dry ice gimmick to anyone who would listen. She admits that she went out with Fremont the day before he was killed, but only to ask him to go easier on Rodney. She's not specific about her feelings toward him, but admits to also having borrowed some money from Halstead to cover expenses while trying to help Rodney. In any case, her pleas to Fremont fell on deaf ears. Inez testifies that she spied on her husband to gain information that would help her get a better divorce settlement. Three weeks earlier, she saw him at a bar with Nancy, who slapped him and left. Halstead testifies that anyone in the office could have taken money from the strongbox. He reads out one the serial number of a $20 bill from the strongbox that he'd recorded. Sgt. McClanahan testifies that he found that bill in a wad of $550 in Rodney's apartment. Burger next calls Rodney, who is permitted to be accompanied to the stand by his lawyer, Jarvis Gilmore (Henry Norell). Burger announces that he is granting Rodney immunity for any crimes revealed by his testimony. The judge (Willis Bouchey) orders that Rodney must answer the questions put to him, and GIlmore advises his client to answer. Burger asks where Rodney got that twenty. Rodney says he took it from Fremont's body after murdering him. Burger, rattled, wants this stricken and exclaims that Rodney is lying. Perry immediately objects, calling Burger's statement prejudicial misconduct. The judge agrees, stating that this could be grounds for a mistrial. By this point, Burger is virtually apoplectic. The judge grants a recess.

While consulting with Perry, Nancy admits that she thought Rodney was the killer, as he certainly knew about the dry ice business and an earlier time of death would give him a perfect alibi - he was in jail. That's why she went to the trout farm and tried to dispose of the cartons. However, she knew nothing about the murder weapon. Burger, having calmed down, tells Perry that he intends to try Rodney for perjury. Perry has a better idea, which involves cross-examining Rodney and having the police help out Paul Drake. Burger looks unhappy, but he goes along.

On the stand, Rodney testifies that Nancy gave him some money, but he didn't note the exact amount. Although his immunity has been withdrawn, he admits that he embezzled about $1000, not the $4000 that Fremont had been claiming. He didn't know about the strongbox. He routinely left his door unlocked when he went out, and anyone could easily have added the recorded twenty to the money from Nancy that he left in his room. Since Rodney didn't know how much he had, he'd never know the difference. Lorraine, asked about who attended the party she mentioned earlier, comes up with one name - Halstead. With the accountant on the stand, Perry suggests that Fremont, after finding his $30,000 was missing, at first blamed Rodney once again. Later, however, he realized it was someone else. He fought with this thief and was shot. The killer then planted the murder gun in the trash at the trout farm and planted the $20 in Rodney's apartment. Paul enters and hands Perry another $20 that he and the police had found in Lorraine's apartment. It's also on the list Halstead recorded. Lorraine protests her innocence - and Perry agrees, but she had borrowed money from Halstead. The accountant was also the person best positioned to convince Fremont that Rodney's defalcations were quadruple the actual amount. Halstead says he must have said something, he doesn't know what, that made Fremont realize the truth and turn on him. "Yes, I did it," he confesses.

Later, Perry asks Nancy for the truth about why she bet so much on Doughboy. She says that while the long odds were part of it, the main reason was a feeling she got when the horse's eyes and hers met. Paul grabs her and heads for the track.