Original subtitles

Yeah.

Call the doctor again, Mr. Quilver?

He said he'd be here in half an hour. It's ten more minutes.

Less than a month ago, I laughed at her when she talked about wills and gifts.

She was so alive, so well.

Where's the nurse, Mrs. Randall? The doctor phoned in an order for

Heady went to the drugstore to pick it up. There must be something we can do.

Stop fussing, Reed.

Phoebe abhorred it in life, and I'm sure she'd resent it in death.

Oh, shut up, Eloise.

Be a happy stoic, like your father.

Well, Lawton looks like he's already figuring out where to spend the money

first.

Eddie.

What is it, Mrs. Brown?

Eddie.

Where's Eddie?

She went to the drugstore, darling. She'll be right back.

Justin.

In that drawer.

Give me the envelope.

Here it is, Mrs. Brent.

All of you.

Eloise. Chester.

Not me.

I want you to be witnesses.

Just in the words.

What are the words I ask you about?

The gift.

You mean gift causa mortis?

Gift.

In anticipation of death.

Irrevocable gift.

From my nurse.

Eddie Randall.

Eddie's not here, Aunt Phoebe.

You take it for her, Justin.

Age it for her.

Now we went over it and over it, baby.

I told you this wasn't necessary.

Justin, please.

It's not like you to disregard my advice.

For the first time and the last.

Humor me, Justin, please.

All right. You can give me the envelope.

I accept this envelope and its contents for Mrs. Baby Brent, the donor of the

gift, as agent for Mrs.

Hetty Randall, the donee of the gift.

Thank you, Justin.

I don't know. I don't need gifts.

Will somebody please explain to me what all this mumbo -jumbo is all about? I

tried to tell her that a simple codicil of the will would be sufficient, but she

wouldn't have it.

With Hetty, she insisted it had to be something special.

Well, I hope your baby wasn't too generous.

That depends on your meaning and generosity.

This is a certified check to Mrs.

Hetty Randall in the sum of one million dollars.

One... One million dollars? You must be out of your mind, Glover.

I thought she was talking about a few thousand dollars.

But this, I had no idea. One million dollars?

Just a nurse?

After more than 20 years in this house?

No, Dad, Hedy's always been more than just a nurse.

Justin, darling, this, um, this Kauser Mortis gift stuff, is that legal?

It is, when the gift is actually delivered and received.

But it's all right.

But I mean the check was never actually delivered to Hattie.

It doesn't have to be.

Delivery can be legally accomplished through a third person, as it was

me, acting for the person for whom the gift was intended.

It's all nonsense.

Completely out of the question.

When B .B. wakes up, we'll simply talk her out of it, that's all. We'll just

make her tear up that check.

Then what would happen, Justice?

Well, then the bank would release the money.

The million dollars would revert to the estate, to be.

Ultimately divided between Chester and Lawton.

Or the three of you, perhaps?

Eddie, you got back fast.

Well, I caught a cab outside the drugstore.

I took it a few blocks back here. I wanted to get this medicine to Mrs.

fast as I could. I'm afraid it won't help.

Baby's dead.

Ice cold lemonade.

From a secret formula handed down through upteen generations of friends.

And now the sole and exclusive property of one more friend.

Mmm. Delicious.

Check with the club, Dad? No problem. We can have it afternoon and evening both.

Wedding reception and dinner for my son.

and his lovely bride -to -be, Miss Madeline Randall.

Except by then, she'll be Mrs. Reed Brandt. How does that sound?

Not bad.

Lawton, seriously, the wedding date, do you think it's too soon after baby's

death?

Not at all.

I spoke to her. As a matter of fact, she was insistent.

She said that if she... If something happened to her, she didn't want the two

you postponing the wedding.

Anybody home?

Hello, Justin.

Good afternoon, Lawton.

How are you, Madeline?

Reed? Well, it's getting pretty close to D -Day, isn't it?

D -Day or D -Day?

Same difference.

Did you bring the company financial statement?

Right here.

Will you excuse us, young ones?

I have to run along anyway.

Would you drop me at my mother's, Reed? Will do.

Oh, by the way, I received a rather annoying phone call this morning from a

who said he was Hetty Randall's brother.

Max? He must be down for Morgan again.

Yes, that was Max Randall.

If you'll excuse my saying so, he was a little offensive on the phone.

That doesn't sound like Max.

Apparently, he picked up a bit of misinformation about a so -called gift

the estate.

A gift? Now, these estate matters are complicated, time -consuming, and pretty

involved.

How does a gift concern Uncle Max?

Well, it doesn't.

The gift was for Heffy.

A gift for my mother?

Or about your uncle.

It's nothing personal, you understand.

I'll speak to Uncle Max, Mr. Grover.

I'll speak to him and to my mother.

Thank you, that'll be fine.

Well, Larkin, you want to look at the statement?

Yes, let's go in and study.

Yes, Phoebe did promise me a gift. A check, she said.

Maybe she just forgot about it, Mom.

No, she didn't.

She told me she asked a doctor to talk to some outside lawyer for her.

Doctor did.

Told her exactly what the lawyer said she had to do. She did it.

Herself. She talked to a man at the bank.

He took care of it for her.

Brought her papers to sign and a certified check.

She told me so herself.

But I don't understand.

Did you tell a Brent's attorney?

I called Justin Grover this morning.

Oh, you had no right to. Getting him all riled up like that.

Oh, wasn't that bad, Mom, really?

Oh, bad enough.

I don't see my brother sometimes for years on end.

Is he busy? No.

Just bumming around from one lumber camp to another.

Finally, he decides to see whether I'm dead or alive.

What happens?

He had five minutes, and he's poking his nose where it doesn't belong.

I've got a right to see you get what's yours.

Of course you do, Uncle Max.

And I'm sure whatever it was that Aunt Bebe wanted Mother to have, Mr. Grover

will see that she gets it.

Without anyone pushing him.

See? Madeline talks good sense.

There's no need for anybody to call, push, do anything.

Nobody here.

Yeah. I've got some shopping to do.

Call you later, Mom, from my apartment.

All right.

Uncle Max, you'll be staying for the wedding, won't you? Well, of course.

Don't be silly.

That's what I came down for, kitten.

Let's get together for lunch or dinner, okay?

I don't get to see very much of you, and you and Mom are the only family I have.

Not after you marry into the Brints.

Oh.

You take care now, Madeline.

All right, Mom.

And that last remark about the family. Why didn't you just come right out and

say she shouldn't marry a Brent? Maybe I should have. They're a bunch of gritty

crooks, all of them. That's not true. Reed's a fine boy.

Is he?

Wasn't he there in that room when B .B. died?

And you mean to say that he doesn't know what happened, everything that

happened? I suppose he told her, Madeline, the girl he's going to marry.

I bet he told her all about it.

Now you look here.

I know what I'm doing.

Oh, Max, I swear outside of knowing how to cut down a tree, you haven't got the

sense you were born with.

Now, you stay out of this.

Be depressive, Mr. Grover.

He's a smart lawyer.

Oh, right.

I'm no smart lawyer, maybe. But who needs brains?

This kind of phony fast shuffle, I can smell.

Oh, Max, you're always... Madeline left her glove.

Madeline!

What are you talking about, Madeline?

Some sort of gift from Aunt Phoebe to my mother.

I can't make it any plainer than that.

Phoebe was dying, you know. Everybody was excited, upset, waiting for the

doctor.

Things could have been said, I suppose.

I mean, things that nobody... At least not so that everybody could hear.

Oh, Reed, stop double -talking and make some sense.

Madeline, I'm only trying to explain.

Well, you're doing a miserable job of it.

Now, just answer one simple question.

Yes or no, did Aunt Bebe do or say anything about a gift, a check intended

my mother?

Madeline, I told you what it was like in that room. It's impossible to say

exactly what did happen.

Come on, let's talk about the wedding.

Reed. I told Dad that I'd like to have some of the old... What is it?

There's something you're not telling me. Madeline, you've got to understand that

I can.

I thought I knew you.

Knew what kind of a man you were.

The kind of man I wanted to marry.

I hope I wasn't wrong.

Madeline, please.

She knows about the check. Did you think she wouldn't know? Did you?

Did I lie to protect you?

Read, boy, I need time. Time, you know that.

Mr. Mason, Aunt Phoebe's doctor told me he spoke to you and that Aunt Phoebe did

exactly as you advised.

Now, what could be wrong?

Evidently, Mrs. Brent felt that if she left a bequest to your mother in the

usual way, through her will, there might be some difficulty.

How? Well, I imagine she felt the remaining heirs might possibly contest

will. That just can't be, Mr. Mason.

We've lived in that house ever since Mother was widowed for over 20 years.

We've been like part of the family.

Probate courts are filled with families fighting over inheritances.

What you're saying, then, is that this gift couldn't be contested like a will

could. If the gift was given by Mrs. Brent to Justin Grover as agent for your

mother, it probably couldn't be contested. Only probably?

Della.

ALR second. I have it marked, Perry.

And the courts have said that a non -testamentary gift from patient to nurse

invalid on the grounds of undue influence.

The courts state the fact that the grantor was lacking in mental vigor as a

reason to protect the grantor. B .B. Brent wasn't out of her mind, never.

though the mental weakness was not such as to justify regarding the grantor as

totally incapacitated.

Mr. Mason, at this point, I honestly don't know whether you're encouraging me

discouraging me.

I'm giving you the situation as it is.

You said that almost as if you intended to take my mother's case.

Miss Rendell, did you for one moment imagine I wouldn't?

We'll get on it in the morning.

First a call on the bank, and then a call on Attorney Justin Grover.

Thank you, Mr. Mason.

Please, listen to me for just a moment.

I know it sounds trite, but whatever you have to say, I suggest you say it to

Perry Mason, my attorney.

Madeline, I will see your lawyer to tell him the truth.

I'm listening, Reed.

Apologizing doesn't mean anything.

And I can't explain why.

I can't for the same reason I thought I had to lie. The same reason why I'm not

living at home.

Yes, you were right. I heard it. I saw it.

Phoebe said unmistakably it was a gift to your mother.

An irrevocable gift, she said.

And she gave the million dollar check to Mr. Grover.

A million dollars?

Didn't you know?

It doesn't matter.

Madeline, I love you. Please believe that.

I love you and I want to marry you.

A million dollars.

Hello? Well, this is Justin Grover. I'd like to speak to Hattie Randall, please.

My mother isn't here, Mr. Grover. This is Madeline, and I'd like to talk to

Reed Brent was just here, and he told me that... I don't care what Reed or

anybody in the family told you. He told me about the check.

The million dollars.

Now I want to know why you kept that check.

Well, since your mother isn't there and you're determined to involve yourself in

this, I'll talk to you in an hour, Miss Randall. If you come here to my house

alone, I'll tell you why.

Justin! Justin Grover!

No, lady.

There wasn't.

I told you I would speak with him in the morning.

Why did you go to Justin Grover's house that night?

I spoke to him on the phone. He said that if I'd come over in an hour, he'd

me what I wanted to know.

You reached his house. He didn't answer the bell.

The door was open, so you just walked in.

Yes. No.

What? The front door was locked.

I closed it after I came in.

The back door was jimmied open.

Well, then the police must think that I... Roll connected.

Specifications one and two on a charge of burglary.

And burglary, Miss Randall, is a felony.

Mr. Mason?

We're here to help you, Miss Randall.

But we must know exactly what we're faced with.

Now, front door was open. You no sooner walked into the house than you heard a

noise. He went into the kitchen.

Tripped and fell against the table. And you saw a man in the kitchen?

Yes, in the shadows, in the rear of the kitchen.

His back was to me, but I suppose it was Justin Grover.

Justin Grover's body was found behind the desk on the study floor.

Mr. Mason, I told you. When I came to, there was fire and smoke. I was

frightened. I ran to the house looking for a way out. I ran into the study or

whatever it was, and the briefcase was on the desk, and I just grabbed it. And

didn't see Grover's body, not ten feet away.

I told you the place was filled with smoke.

Mr. Mason, I didn't deliberately set fire to the house.

Why am I here?

When the policeman stopped you outside the house, you had Justin Grover's

briefcase. Of course, the papers were in there on my mother's check.

That briefcase was Grover's personal property.

Taking it from the house made you technically guilty of burglary.

Are they going to try me for that?

No, you'll be tried under the felony murder rule.

By definition, under the law, committing a felony is acting maliciously.

And that malicious, felonious act is the proximate cause of the death of a human

being, even an accidental death. The malice of the felony becomes the malice

forethought in the death.

And you end up with homicide.

I'm afraid, Mr. Randall, you're not only going to be charged with murder, but

murder in the first degree.

We sign here, and here, and here.

Just a legal form is for court to recover that check when the authorities

release it.

Hedy, why would a dying woman give one million

dollars to a nurse?

Why not?

We were good friends.

You're lying, Hedy.

You know, but you won't tell.

It doesn't make any difference.

It could make the difference between life and death for your daughter.

No, that's not true.

Hattie, are you afraid the truth might hurt your daughter?

I, uh, I think you'd better leave now.

Both of you.

Hattie, please, listen to me.

You're a famous man, Mr. Mason.

The best lawyer there is.

You'll get her off, I know.

All right, Dylan.

Let's go.

you private eyes are the same, just like the movies.

All you have to do is smile, and the girls are supposed to swoon.

Well, stop with the smile, Seamus. This one doesn't swoon.

I just thought you could tell me what the police found out about your boss in

the Brits.

Look, mister, I was private secretary to Mr. Defton Grover, Esquire, and private

gun flu means just that, private.

Well, save a gear.

No, thanks. I don't smoke.

Say it again. Say it again, what you just said.

No, thanks. I don't smoke.

I knew it. I knew it.

Carla Eden.

I thought I'd seen you before in Abe Schooler's private projection room. Best

friend I got, Abe. He's head talent scout for the network.

Sure, I should have remembered. The three screen tests for the running lead

the series.

You're one of the girls they tested.

The network?

No, that's a dumb mistake, wasn't you?

Well, look, mister. Poor Abe.

He thought he'd rounded up the three best -looking gals in town.

But he hasn't seen you, no sirree.

For this friend, Abe.

Abe what?

Schooler. Oh, no, please.

This Abe Schooler.

Did you say he was a talent scout?

Before you are notified in the usual manner, I think it's best to talk the

situation over.

We might possibly avoid unnecessary and expensive litigation.

That's just lawyer language to tell us that you're going to try to shoehorn us

out of a million dollars.

I thought you were representing a girl, not the nurse.

Both. Naturally.

Murder defenses are oh so expensive.

Never send call for her, Eloise.

My, my, the saintly one of the brothers with his noblesse oblige.

I take it you're prepared to keep your pinky properly elevated while you turn

over your half million.

Not his and not mine.

Hattie won't get one penny of that money, I promise you.

That isn't so, Chester. She will.

After my son and I... After we both testify.

All right.

We know now where we stand.

There were four of us in that room.

You and your son say yes, the check was delivered.

We say no, it wasn't.

Unfortunately for the no -brains, the score isn't two to two, but three to

Well, what do you know?

I take it the late Justin Grover will testify by a Ouija board.

Or will the court prefer table wrapping and ectoplasm? Neither.

In his office diary, Justin Grover executed a full statement acknowledging

he had, as agent for Hedy Randall, received that check.

B .B. Brent was sick, half out of her mind.

B .B. Brent's personal physician is prepared to testify that mentally she

completely competent.

But a million dollars to a nurse, that doesn't make sense.

Oh, yes, it does.

You all know Lieutenant Anderson.

I sure do, Perry.

We've been seeing a lot of each other.

About the gift to Hattie Randall?

Yes, the check.

Well, it wasn't actually meant for the nurse.

From what we could tell, Hattie Randall was just a go -between.

The million dollars was meant for somebody else.

Somebody else.

Madeline Randall?

I'm afraid that's right.

Madeline Randall.

You see, actually, Madeline Randall is B .B. Brent's daughter.

B .B.'s husband, my late brother Philip,

went on a business trip to Europe.

That was over 20 years ago.

That was the trip on which B .B.'s husband was caught in an avalanche while

skiing and officially reported dead?

That's right.

It wasn't until about 14 months later that I got word that a man was found in

small hospital.

A man who might be my brother.

B .B. was away on a trip.

She had been for some time.

So I went to Europe to investigate.

And was it your brother?

What was left of him.

He didn't even recognize me.

Really? Did he recognize anyone in the family?

Oh, B .B. once I got him home.

Tell me, Mr. Grant, how long did your brother Philip live after you brought

home? Until a few months ago.

All those years of slow death for B .B.

Taking care of him just about killed her, I guess.

Well, when Chester called from Switzerland that he had found Phil

immediately wired B .B. She was in Oregon at the time, I believe.

You mean she was living in Oregon?

I'm pretty sure it was Oregon.

You see, 14 months after Phil's death, she was running so hard and so fast that

it was simply impossible to keep up with her.

What do you mean running, Mrs. Bent?

Well, I suppose she really did love her husband.

And when the report of his death came to her, well, the poor girl simply went to

pieces. I mean, she never was very stable, you know, mentally. Well, I

take the matter of that check.

Not right now, Mrs. Brent, please. That's a matter for another

Now, would you tell this court in what way during those 14 months B .B. Brent

went to pieces?

Well, there was this cowboy, or whatever the man did for a living.

Cowboy? That must have been in Nevada.

So, of course, Chester went to investigate.

Well, by the time he got there, she had gone and he never did locate this cowboy

creature. I see.

Now, when you learned that her husband was still alive and you wired her in

Oregon, did she return at once?

Well, actually, no.

You see, she wired back that she was driving down, but it was some time

she arrived in Los Angeles.

We got a message.

B .B. had been injured in an automobile accident in a little town north of San

Francisco. And she arrived about a week later. You see, it was nothing serious.

I mean, she was just sort of shaken up.

Or so I thought at the time.

I have here authenticated birth records and hospital admittance records, plus

the sworn statements of two doctors and a nurse, all of whom have identified

photographs of you and B .B. Brent.

And who are prepared to swear that not you, but B .B. Brent, was the mother of

the defendant.

Do you wish at this time to deny this?

No.

There wouldn't be much sense to that.

I was B .B.'s nurse.

B .B. was Madeline's mother.

There she was, poor girl, hurting that auto smash -up.

Her baby coming sooner than she expected.

Her own true legal husband, whom she thought was dead.

was on his way home to her.

He was sick.

A man you couldn't talk to, explain things to.

She didn't know what to do.

I lied on the records.

Said I was married.

Listed the child as my own.

Bebe needed help with Mr. Brent.

And it gave her a chance to see her own child whenever she wanted to.

Bebe loved her.

Truly loved her.

We both did.

She had two mothers, my little Madeline.

Then you knew all about the check Bebe planned to give you.

Not for me.

It was for Madeline.

Bebe had it planned.

She would give me the check as a gift. And I would set up a trust fund for

Madeline.

Mr. Branch, you've already been declared a hostile witness.

And I warn you, I shall move to have you cited for contempt unless you are more

responsive.

Now, when you saw Madeline Randall early that evening, was she aware that that

check was meant for her?

How should I know? I'm not a mind reader.

Mr. Brandt.

Did she say or do anything to indicate her knowledge that it was her money

Justin Grover was withholding and not her mother? No, nothing.

You're sure of that? Of course I'm sure.

She didn't even know how much the check was for.

But you told her, didn't you?

Yes, I told her.

Phil, Phoebe's husband, founded the business.

and owned it.

Chester and I worked for him.

When Phil Brandt finally returned from his skiing accident, did he continue to

run the business?

His condition made that impossible.

Beebe ran the business through Justin Grover, the company attorney.

Nominally, I was president of the company.

And your resistance, shall we say, to Beebe Brandt's gift to her nurse was

because you thought that might adversely affect the company?

Yes.

Phoebe respected Phil's love of the business, his desire that it remain with

brothers. She didn't know even then, any more than I did, that the company was

in urgent need of all the capital in Phil's estate.

And that urgent need of the company was why you all fought against payment of

the check.

The business was in delicate condition financially.

I wanted to strengthen the company's position financially before the gift was

publicized. Did you ever hear the defendant admit that she knew, knew as a

that Justin Grover was withholding a $1 million check that belonged to her.

She... She said she knew about the check, how much it was for, after

she spoke to my son.

And you spoke to her after your son spoke to her, isn't that correct?

So you then went to see her to explain, is that it?

And to apologize.

And beg her forgiveness.

And she told you then that she knew the check was hers?

Mr. Berger, for what happened, we must all share responsibility.

You're not answering what I asked you, Mr. Brent.

I said, did she say anything to indicate that she knew that check was hers?

She told me that she knew Bebe, not Hetty, was her mother.

She was upset, Mr. Berger. What else did she say about the check?

She said she would get that check back from Justin Grover, even if... I'm

Madeline. I'm desperately sorry.

She would get her own check back from Justin Grover, even if she had to light

fire under him to get it.

Thank you, sir.

Mr. Mason,

you haven't questioned one of the witnesses thus far in the preliminary

Do you wish to cross -examine this witness?

No questions, Your Honor.

Not a word in the courtroom all day, and nothing since we've been in the office.

Here's your coffee.

Perry, do you feel all right?

I'm fine.

Now, how'd you do?

That crystal ball you have hidden somewhere is batting a cool thousand

There was a shortage. Yep. The Brent brothers' little business came up 150

short in preliminary probate. Embezzlement.

Get anything from Carl Eden?

Justin Grover's secretary is a real cute one.

Insurance shammas, says she. A girl's got to look out for number one.

Well, she did.

Caught you the price of a privately shot screen test, directed by one Abe

schooler whom I've never laid eyes on before in my life.

I've known him for years. He called and I okayed it.

Well, what did you find out?

Well, I told her I'd heard a whisper here and there, and she might just as

confirm it for me. Finally, she did.

Justin Grover's been running around with some woman strictly on the QT.

Identity of said woman? Unknown.

Harry, you knew there would be a shortage.

Do you know who's responsible for it?

Who the embezzler was?

Yes, Paul told me.

I did?

Did I also tell you who Grover's girlfriend was?

Of course.

Well, would you mind telling me what I told you so I'll know, too?

Paul, as soon as you've checked in some things for me, you'll know who killed

Justin Grover, too. But if Madeline Radnall was responsible for his death, I

mean, she did start the fire.

Did she?

Well, when that signal sounded, I just grabbed up a pad and went scooting into

the office.

Let me tell you, Mr. Grover didn't care to be kept waiting when he sounded that

signal. Miss Eden. Only a couple of days before that when he sounded that

signal, I was given a piece of his mind. Miss Eden, please. Let me tell you.

Oh, did you say something?

Yes. Yes, I did.

I asked you, Miss Eden, whether the defendant, Madeline Randall, was aware

Justin Grover had deliberately signaled you to interrupt her conversation with

him. Oh, sure she was.

She pointed that out to me herself.

And she was real mad, too. And what did she say at that time?

I'll be seeing him, she said, whether he likes it or not.

Thank you.

All right, Mrs. Taylor, you testified that you lived next door to the decedent

Justin Grover.

And that on the night in question, you heard voices raised in argument next

door. Is that correct?

That's right. His voice, Mr. Grover's poor man, and another voice.

Could you tell if this other voice was a woman's voice?

I couldn't say for sure. It might have been, it might not have been.

I see. The defendant, in her statement to the police, claimed that she entered

the house and within a minute or less was unconscious in the kitchen.

Would what you heard bear that out?

I'm afraid not, sir.

They'd been at it for 15 minutes, the two of them.

I phoned the police and the police didn't get there for another 10 minutes.

When my partner and I arrived, the place was starting to burn real bad.

He went around to the front and I took the back.

And what happened?

I saw her, the defendant, running out the back door. She was heading for the

back gate.

I stopped her. She was carrying that briefcase. I took it from her.

There was a severe laceration and contusions on the head caused by a blow

some blunt object.

But the immediate cause of Justin Grover's death was carbon monoxide

Brought on by what, Doctor?

Smoke.

Legally, the proximate cause of Justin Grover's death was that fire.

Your Honor.

When the defendant is charged with a murder committed during the perpetration

a burglary, the only criminal intent the prosecution has to show is the specific

intent to burglarize the victim.

The state is not required to prove a deliberate, premeditated killing, or

to approve the intent to kill.

Burglary of an inhabited dwelling place in the nighttime is a felony.

In this case, we had entry without consent.

We had a clear intent to burglarize and we had possession of stolen property.

Therefore, Your Honor, under Penal Code Section 189 concerning homicide

perpetrated during the commission of a burglary, I move under the felony murder

rule that the defendant Madeline Randall be bound over to Superior Court on a

charge of murder in the first degree.

Mr. Mason, before ruling on the motion, May I ask if you plan to present a

defense at this hearing?

I do, Your Honor.

Please proceed.

May I call the attention of the court to the fact that under the felony murder

rule, the doing of the act does not establish the existence of the intent.

And the prosecution must present independent evidence of the intent to

May I further respectfully point out to the court that motive and intent are not

synonymous. The court will take note of your comments, Mr. Mason.

Defense calls as its first witness, Max Randall.

When Madeline met Reed, she found out there'd been a check and the amount of

that check.

She went into the house, answered Grover's call, went home to her own

met Lawton Brent.

At that time, she not only knew about the check, but she knew that she was B

Brent's daughter.

She found that out from you, Mr. Randall, did she not?

Oh, yes, I thought she should know.

Not out of any concern for your own possible enrichment, but purely out of

concern for your sister and for Madeline Randall. That's right.

You were fond of the girl?

Yes, fond.

Fond enough when Madeline went home to go yourself to Justin Grover's house.

Yes, I went there.

Went in through the back gate, Jimmy'd open the back door and went into the

kitchen. Yes.

Why, Mr. Randall?

Well... When Madeline left me, I got to thinking.

I knew that check was certified, that it was good, that the bank would honor it.

I, well, I decided to get it for the girl.

What happened, Mr. Randall? Oh, nothing. I never got beyond the kitchen.

The place was dark. I heard the front doorbell ring, somebody coming in.

I turned to leave and I bumped into a table or something and knocked it into

middle of the room. It was Madeline just entering the house who...

Heard you in the kitchen and came in.

Came in, tripped, hit her head, and fell unconscious to the floor.

I was panicky. I just ran. I got out and ran.

I didn't know it was Madeline laying on the floor.

I didn't know she was going there.

Max, all those years, why was Madeline's identity kept secret?

Madeline?

A pretty helpless little thing.

And he didn't want her to know her real mother had no legal right to marry while

her husband was alive, even though she didn't know he was.

And that Madeline was... was therefore illegitimate.

When B .B. thought her husband had been killed, she remarried.

Oh, it was kind of a wild, crazy sort of thing.

You know, a woman brokenhearted because the man she loved, really loved, had

just been killed.

She was that one at the end of a rope.

One night she...

Well, she wasn't drunk or anything like that, but she was really down, sick

inside.

Anyway, she and, well, this other guy, they ran off and got married.

Then B .B. heard that her first husband was still alive.

Max, when you told Madeline that B .B. Brent was her mother, did you tell her

that you were her father?

Did you, Max?

No.

You were there in that house before either Max or Madeline.

Yes, I was there considerably earlier.

To tell Justin Grover that you knew who had embezzled $150 ,000 from the

company. Yes. When Phoebe became seriously ill, I had the company books

I discovered the shortage then.

And suspected your brother Chester?

Yes. That's why you pleaded with your son for time.

To find out the truth.

To help Chester make restitution to keep your brother out of jail.

Chester was greedy, but not that greedy.

He was not the embezzler.

Then you discovered the truth.

That the embezzler was Justin Grover himself.

You went to his house, confronted him.

What did he say?

He insisted that from the moment B .B. made the gift of the check, he'd been

desperately trying to return to the company the money that he had taken.

Had he returned the money? Some of it.

I left because he was expecting a visitor.

Someone who was involved in the embezzlement with him.

Someone who might return the rest of the money. This visitor.

Did Justin Grover tell you his visitor was a woman?

A woman he'd been seeing for years, secretly?

No.

No, it isn't true.

Sure, I saw him every now and then, but it wasn't me. It couldn't have been me.

Oh, Jesse, you've got to believe me. I didn't.

I swear I didn't. Why don't you just shut up?

Well, maybe I did know.

But that was no reason for my blabbing so much to that detective of yours.

Justin Grover had been seeing Eloise Brent.

Well, I certainly don't blame him. The way she was... Well, you know what I

mean. The way she was always throwing herself at him.

Justin Grover and Eloise Brent.

Breaking not one, but two commandments.

He coveted another man's wife, and together they robbed a Brent company of

a quarter of a million dollars.

Oh, no, it was only $150 ,000.

Oh, well, as I told your detective, they were

just very close, and that's all I know.

Of course.

By the way, the screen test Mr. Drake arranged for you with Abe Schooler, did

come out all right?

Oh, uh... Oh, yeah, sure.

Great. As great as your first screen test?

My first?

Abe Schooler has an amazing memory, not for names, but for faces.

He remembered yours from a screen test you took three years ago at Major

I... I don't understand.

Don't you remember the contract you were offered? The contract that was to start

at $500 a week?

Five... Then suddenly you didn't take that contract.

Instead, you went to work for Grover.

That $100 a week.

Why, Carla?

You don't know what you're talking about.

The shamans.

Mr. Paul Drake.

The detective you thought you'd stalled and lied to and made fun of.

He did some checking, Carla.

He found a little suburban bank where you keep your safe deposit box.

You tell us what's in that box, Carla?

Or must we get a court order from the judge?

Oh, that fool.

That stupid fool.

Ethics, he said.

All of a sudden, legal ethics were keeping him awake nights.

His conscience was bothering him.

I worked with him for three years building the company of that money.

Three years!

I had over $100 ,000 in that box.

He insisted you return him?

Yes. He was going to call the police to turn us both in.

I tried to stop him.

We struggled.

I picked something up from the desk and I hid it. You were there hidden in the

house when Max came in when Madeline struck her head and fell unconscious.

Tell me, Colin.

Max was gone.

Justin and the girl were unconscious.

That defective heater by itself wasn't enough to start the fire.

You helped start that fire, didn't you?

All I could think of was how to stop him from talking.

The heater was leaking gas.

Burning.

So I grabbed the window curtains and I tossed them near the heater.

The fire really started to burn then.

I went back to the study and Justin was lying there.

I left him there.

And I went outside, and I drove away in my car.

Well, I couldn't give him back that money.

It was mine.

Mine.

I had to have it.

What are you going to use the money for now, Carla?

Here you are, Perry.

That's what you ordered.

Hey, Max, this is for you.

California codes.

It's marked. Read section 85.

You said something on the stand about Madeline.

A misconception a lot of people have.

The issue of a marriage which is void or annulled or dissolved by divorce is

legitimate.

There you are.

Madeline Randall has always been legitimate.

Madeline Brand, if you please. And don't tell me there's anything wrong with

that. Hey, how about that?

That's right, Dad.

How about that?