Original subtitles

I feel like I'm playing What's My Line.

Miss Keene, astrology, numerology, and chirography are sciences.

Oh, I'm sure they are.

You didn't come here just for the laughs.

You came looking for answers.

You need a psychiatrist as much as an astrologer.

You're frustrated, Miss Keene.

Professionally and personally.

Is that why you've been asking me to come to see you ever since we saw your

at the country club?

You're a challenge.

Now that you're here, I'll give you a few of the answers you're seeking.

Perhaps we should come back another time.

No, I'm going to enjoy this.

Besides, I'm getting the services of a psychiatrist and a theater for the price

of one.

I said you were frustrated.

But relief is in sight.

You'll get a promotion soon.

That should be good news to an ambitious woman like you.

Now, about your love life.

You're 35.

And still deluding yourself that an apple -cheeked Prince Charming will come

galloping into your life any day now.

So you've turned down an older, wiser man.

A man you've known for some time.

A man in his waning years.

You've seen me someplace with Max.

If you're wise, you'll listen.

First to me, then to the man who wants you, then to wedding bells.

You're a mature woman.

In time, Prince Charming will claim you.

But first, you'll wear a bride's white, then a widow's black.

Let's get out of here, Beth. The usual fee is ten bucks.

And just drop it in the kitty, that bowl by the door.

It's been a rare pleasure, ladies.

And by the way, Miss Keene, watch your step.

Until you decide what to do with your life, danger will follow you.

I wish we hadn't come.

Oh, I'm glad we did.

Didn't he upset you?

Well, he's rude and a fraud, and he knows no more about the future than I

but he made me face up to one thing. I'm not a chicken anymore.

Besides, we just came for the last, remember?

There's the cake.

Crazy fool! He could have killed you!

Danger will follow you.

I'm not some old shoe you can just throw out. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't

be sitting pretty today. You owe me that. I owe you nothing, Buckley. We'll

about that.

Sounds as if Max is being Max again.

Oh, Mr.

Buckley. Well, congratulations, Miss Keene.

Thanks for what?

Nothing, that's what.

You tell me how I can run a department store from a sickbed?

You'd better relax and listen to your doctor.

Oh, Dr.

Fisher? I get indigestion, right away it's a heart attack.

He panics. You know, that's his trouble.

You've given him good reason. This is your third case of indigestion in two

years. Baloney.

Do I look like a sick man to you?

You never look better, Max.

You hear that? The truth from the lips of my head buyer.

Pat Keene, Della Street, and Perry Mason.

Hello. Hello. You're just in time, Miss Keene.

We finished our business, so we'll leave Max in your capable hands.

Now you said something. Without this beautiful young lady, Armstead's would

been ruined by now.

As usual, he's exaggerating.

The contracts will be taken care of immediately, Max.

I'll look in on you tomorrow.

Thanks, Perry. Goodbye, Mr. Armstead. Goodbye, Della. Goodbye.

I brought you something.

Again, every day she brings me something. Open it.

All right.

A whistle?

Use it when you need to blow off steam.

Saves wear and tear on my boss.

Is that all I am to you? Just a boss?

And a dear friend, of course.

All right, young lady.

Just for that, I've got something for you.

Starting tomorrow, you are the new merchandising manager of Armstead's.

What about Dan Buckley? He's out.

Oh, Max, you didn't just fire him. He tries to take over too much. Like I'm

already dead.

Just because he brought me out from New York and helped me swing the deal to buy

the store don't mean that he runs the show.

That's why I want you beside me.

What's the matter? Aren't you happy?

Oh, of course. Of course I am, Max. It's just that it's all so unexpected.

I slaved for him for eight years.

I let him bring me out here from New York.

No, he says he doesn't need a secretary anymore, so you've inherited me.

My name played on the door in a confidential secretary.

I feel like an executive at last.

Giddy with power.

I'm just numb.

I didn't sleep a wink last night.

It's all so spooky.

Spooky?

I mean Maria's predictions coming true like this.

Almost being run down last night and now this promotion.

Well, it's safe to predict a promotion for a career woman.

After all, don't forget I am ambitious.

At least you're frank about it, Miss Keene.

Oh, don't mind me. I just came back from my briefcase.

I'm glad you did, Mr. Buckley. I wanted to say goodbye and wish you luck. Thank

you. I'm sorry about all this.

Why?

You put up a good fight.

After all, my field is merchandising, not sex appeal.

But then I guess it isn't all your fault.

Max Armstead doesn't know the meaning of friendship or gratitude.

Good luck, Miss Keene.

You'll need it.

I can't blame him.

He's really a good man. I just wish Max could have found another place for him.

Oh, my gosh. Look at the time.

And you've got appointments.

Now, there's Continental Toys at 11 o 'clock, Sharon Ann Fashions at 3.

The last place I wanted to spend a day was in a wholesale showroom.

Well, I hear there's a new man showing the line, and he's a tree.

And this is the last of the line, B -203.

Comes in beige, dark blue, and pale green.

Is the scarf included?

No, that's our accessory.

Pity, makes us shoot.

All right.

Four each in the beige and the blue. All sizes.

Fine. Thank you, dear.

For me?

We'll never miss it.

Thanks. It's lovely.

Lovely scarf for a lovely lady.

Is that part of the Sharon Ann line or your own?

Strictly my own.

Come on. I'll walk you to the elevator.

You're not the usual showroom salesman, are you?

No. How's that?

Most of the boys come on like they're giving boss a novel lesson.

How about having dinner with me tonight?

No, sorry, I can't.

How about tomorrow night?

No, really, but thanks.

Don't forget to wear the scarf.

Oh, yes, thank you. Thank you.

What time were you thinking of having dinner?

Why don't I pick you up about seven?

I'm in the book.

Everything's happening too fast.

It makes my head swim.

What's the line?

Somebody recently told me I was still looking for romance.

Maybe I am.

That's what scares me.

Do I scare you?

Being vulnerable scares me.

I don't even know you.

Not really.

I'm sure you do.

I'm Prince Charming.

Come to wake the sleeping princess.

Oh, Max.

Max.

And they're perfectly matched.

Like us.

You are completely mad.

But I love you for it.

Now, I didn't give you those because you're such a good employee. For that,

get a bonus.

These are from me, Max, to you, Pat.

But they're so extravagant.

Sit down. I've got something to say to you. And I don't want you to interrupt

like you usually do. You know,

all the time I was in the hospital, I kept thinking.

You're a lonely man, Max.

It's four years since your wife died.

Five years since you saw that bum of a no -good son of yours.

And what have you got?

A good business.

Few investments.

And a lousy heart.

You're a lonely man, I said. You're getting old.

That's why she keeps turning you down.

She's young.

She could do a lot better.

And she could also do a lot worse.

So why don't you ask her again, Max?

Maybe this time she'll say yes.

Now, I don't want an answer. Not yet.

You've been working very hard. You're tired.

Go someplace.

Rest, relax, enjoy.

And then when you come back, you can give me your answer.

Oh, Max, I...

So don't say anything.

But I don't want to find you in this office tomorrow.

Hello, Patty.

How did you know where to find me?

Your secretary.

What's her name?

Anyway, I've taken the day off. And you're not going to get rid of me. Not

I've got you completely persuaded.

That won't be easy.

Even for a super salesman.

Careful, careful.

I like a challenge.

It brings out the best in me.

Come on, let's take a swim.

You're making waves again.

More coffee?

No.

Now, Gordon, you've been very good all day. Now, don't spoil it.

Hello?

Yes?

Yes?

Oh, no. When?

How bad is it?

Yes.

Yes, of course. I'll be there as soon as possible.

It's Max. He's had another attack. He's asking for me.

I've got to get back to Los Angeles.

I'm sorry about the old man, but don't let this... Are you going to marry him?

He needs me. I need you.

He's a dear, lonely man, and he isn't well. He may not have long to live.

Oh, I understand.

I've got nothing, and he's a rich man.

It isn't that at all. You don't understand. If you feel you must, if

you want, go ahead, marry him. But remember, sweetheart, you're still

He's old. He's sick.

Gordon, please.

There's no reason that we still can't go on seeing one another, is there?

He wouldn't know. We could manage weekends.

What kind of a woman do you think I am?

Come on, Patty, be realistic.

Get out of here.

for Patricia Key.

She just checked out. You might still catch her in the parking lot.

Thank you.

It came as soon as I heard.

I guess it was too much for the old heart.

All that suspense.

I was so worried about you.

So what's the verdict?

Will she or won't she?

I... I'm terribly fond of you, Max.

You're my friend.

My dear friend.

I'm not in love with you.

Smart and sweet and kind.

I knew you were, but honest?

Imagine an unmarried woman who tells a man the truth so

I don't make you shiver.

And your heart don't skip a beat for me.

So who cares?

Don't look at me.

Uh, Paul, can you spare a moment? I see you still got it in this new will about

leaving my son a dollar. Why should I leave him so much?

In this state, it's possible for your son to contest a will that fails to

include him. The dollar you leave him will protect Pat from such a contest.

Incidentally, I should have his present address.

Last I heard, he was in South America someplace.

Rio, who knows? With the rest of the runaway crooks, that's where he belongs.

You'll never forgive him, will you, Max?

A boy who steals from his own father? An embezzler? A gambler?

A no -good louse who broke his poor mother's heart?

That was five years ago, Max, when you were still in New York.

Now, why don't you contact him? He might have changed.

Him change?

You don't know him like I know him. Listen, once a bum, always a bum. So who

needs him?

Tonight I'll be on my way to the Bahamas on my honeymoon, and I've got a whole

new life ahead of me. As far as I'm concerned, I haven't got a son.

Now, where do I sign this thing?

Hi. Welcome home, Mrs.

Armstead. Oh, Beth, it's so good to see you. Really?

Look at that tan. Did you love it? Every minute. Hated to leave.

How is Mac?

Oh, he's marvelous. Just marvelous. Dan Buckley's been trying to get you. He

left that note for you.

Oh?

He says he has something to talk to me about.

Something he'll take to Max if I don't see him.

Get him for me, will you, Beth? I don't want him upsetting Max.

Sure.

Oh, don't you want to open these first? They came this morning.

Who's he from?

Gordon Evans.

I can't wait much longer.

I'm not asking you, Gordon. I'm telling you.

I made my decision.

I married Max, and I'm going to be a good wife.

If he found out I was seeing you, even this once, he'd be hurt.

And that's the last thing I want. You're absolutely right.

And I won't be bothering you again.

I just wanted to apologize for what I said to you in La Jolla.

And to tell you that I love you.

Whenever you should need me, I'll always be there.

Thank you, Gordon.

I'd better get back to the office.

Every

time

I give love, I get betrayed. First my no -good son, and now my wife, Pat.

You know anyone who might send you a letter like this? If I did, would I be

here? It came in the morning mail.

Boy, I feel rotten. You got a little water?

And if everybody leave me alone, that Buckley keeps calling me, wants to see

and now this, this letter.

I want you to find out if it's true, Perry.

And then? And I'll get rid of her. I don't need a two -timing gold digger for

wife.

You showing that letter to Pat?

What good would it do? She'd only deny it. She should have that right.

Right schmite.

My wife is carrying on with some guy behind my back. What about my rights?

You go home and talk to Pat. I'm sure there's a simple explanation.

Look, will you do me a favor? Will you keep your sermons?

I don't need a preacher. I need a lawyer. That's what I'm paying you for.

You pay for advice.

It's time you learned to take some.

Why, if only I didn't feel so rotten.

Max, would you like me to call Dr. Fisher?

No, no.

He says I'm all right.

It's not my health that's bothering me.

So the suspect said to me, I'm not going to stand in any lineup till you get me

a haircut.

Call for you, Perry.

Thanks, Clay.

Hello, Judge.

Hello. Perry, it's about Max.

He told me about that letter.

We had a terrible row.

He started shouting like a madman.

Awful things about me, about his son.

Perry, it's like he's seeing things.

Have you called the doctor?

He wasn't in, but I left word.

Perry, I'm frightened.

I've never seen this side of Max before.

He's violent.

Can you come right over?

Where is he?

Upstairs. I tried to get him into bed, but he won't stay.

She... She poisoned me!

If I hadn't married him, all this might not have happened.

I know everybody thinks it was Max's money.

I can't deny I considered that.

But I honestly cared for him.

And he knew it.

The district attorney is convinced that he has a case. He's not basing it on

Max's accusation and your apparent motives.

He has stronger evidence.

Probably the capsules.

I don't understand.

No one could have forced Max to take an overdose.

The question is, who tampered with the capsules?

Well, Max had enemies, people that didn't like him, but why would anybody

to kill him?

Why would anyone want to send him that letter about you and Gordon Evans?

The answers to those questions could be the basis of your acquittal or your

conviction.

That would be the final irony if I'm convicted.

It's the one thing Marius didn't predict.

Marius Stowe, an astrologer I went to see about six months ago.

I'd seen him at the Mesa Country Club.

He called me several times after that and invited me to come in.

And Perry, he foretold everything that's happened since.

Including Max's death?

In a way.

Something about my wearing widow's weeds.

It was uncanny.

One thing after another, just the way he said.

When was the last you heard from Mr. Stowe?

Not a word in three weeks.

But he'll be back.

You seem pretty sure.

They always come back for their clothes.

Especially if they're expensive ones like these.

Paul, you're contacting Rio.

Just... How reliable is he?

You can count on him any time, except during carnival weeks.

Well, since carnival's a long way off, ask him to trace Max Armstead's son.

His real hotel cabled back. He'd moved over a year ago, leaving no forwarding

address.

I'll cable them to let us know if they hear from him.

As executor of Max's estate, I have to find him, see what you can do.

I've got men on it.

Perry, what do you make of this?

I found it on Marius Stowe's telephone pad.

8 -5 -2 -D.

Could be 8 -52 departure time.

And Mex -A -L, Mexican Airlines.

The 8 -5 -2 could be flight number.

Now, there's no such departure time and no such flight number. But I'm checking

the Mexican Airlines passenger list anyway.

Well, I have not any luck tracing the typewriter this poison pen letter was

written on, but I have tracked down the stationery. It comes from a very

expensive shop in Beverly Hills. And as this particular weight and color isn't

too popular, We only had 12 customers to screen.

Customer number 10 was the Mesa Country Club.

What's so interesting about that is that both Dan Buckley and Dr. Fisher are

members of that club.

I'm still sick about Max's death.

Seems incredible the way it happened.

When I saw him that last morning, he was terribly upset.

What did you prescribe for him?

I prescribed rest and a mild sedative.

And I reduced his dosage slightly to bring down his pulse rate.

But Max never did anything he didn't want to do.

That morning, Max received a letter vilifying his wife.

Could that have upset him enough to affect his condition?

I didn't know about any letter.

Max didn't confide in me.

I know that he was in a dangerous state for a man with his medical history.

And that's all I know.

Hi. Any luck?

Pat is a calculating adventurist who married Max for his five million dollars

and then killed him.

Everyone but you.

And the killer.

Well, cheer up.

One break came while you were out.

Marius Stowe's landlady called.

Mr. Stowe turned up with his back rent, moved into his old apartment, and opened

for business bright and early this afternoon.

Disappears for three weeks and suddenly materializes solvent.

Paul, any luck on the meeting of 852D?

No, not yet.

Sounds like a locker or a box number.

Locker, of course.

Bus stations.

Della, you're a genius.

Yes.

Yes, I am.

Perry.

I just got this cable from my contact in Rio.

Alan Armstead has been living here in Los Angeles for the past year.

Do you know where?

No, not yet. But Della was right about that locker. Locker 852D is in a bus

depot two blocks from Marius Stowe's apartment house.

Come in, Poe.

Della, see if you can locate Marius Stowe. I want to talk to him. Right.

And Barry, there's someone waiting to see you.

Gordon Evans.

Send him in.

Mr. Mason, the district attorney has subpoenaed me to testify.

I don't know what he expects me to say, but I love Pat.

I'll do anything I can to help her.

That's not what the district attorney has in mind.

Would it help any if I were to tell you that my legal name now is Gordon Evans,

but I'm Alan Armstead.

I'm Max's son.

The state will prove through testimony of her colleagues and her friends that

the defendant is an inordinately ambitious woman who first maneuvered

into a high executive position with Armstead department stores and then

the deceased Max Armstead in full knowledge of the precarious state of his

health.

hoping apparently that this would lead to his early death, thus leaving her a

wealthy and powerful widow.

We will show that the defendant's hopes in part were based on the predictions of

a fortune teller, as well as on her knowledge of the medical opinions and

predictions of Max Armstead's personal physician.

We shall further prove...

that the defendant surely did not marry the deceased for love since she already

loved another man, and that when her husband learned of this guilty

relationship, his knowledge forced her to put an end to herself, to her own

impatient hoping and waiting, and an end to his life as well. For having access,

as we shall prove she did to the means of killing him, his threat to divorce

her... drove the defendant finally to the premeditated act of murder.

He pointed a finger at the defendant and said, she poisoned me.

Now, Lieutenant, you testified that the vial found in the pocket of the deceased

and the brown leather case found in the defendant's medicine cabinet both

contained capsules which were apparently identical.

Were you yourself present when the police lab ran tests on these capsules?

I was.

And what were the findings?

Both the file and the case contained a number of 8 milligram digitalis

No, I did not prescribe 8 milligram capsules.

That would have been a toxic dosage far too strong.

Strong enough to prove fatal, Doctor?

Considering Mr. Armstead's condition, his body weight, I'd say that although a

single capsule might not cause death, repeated dosage certainly would.

And of course, I concur with the autopsy report.

Thank you, Doctor.

Doctor, will you describe the effects of digitalis poisoning?

The heart would become quicker, more irregular, and would produce

by toxic dosage.

Breathing becomes difficult. Even convulsive death follows.

What are the obvious symptoms, the kind that would be recognized by the layman?

Well, nausea, headaches, thirst.

What else, Doctor?

Digitalis poisoning is a fairly rare occurrence. I don't carry a book on

toxicology around with me.

Doctor, isn't it true that hallucination is a symptom?

Every case doesn't conform to the same pattern.

Would you agree delusions may accompany such a condition?

Yes.

Delusions and hallucinations, then, are possible symptoms. Is that right?

Yeah. So when Max Armstead appeared at the top of the stairs, pointed a finger

at his wife and said, She poisoned me.

Could he have been hallucinating?

I can't testify to that, but I ask you for your expert medical opinion.

Now, is it possible that the decedent was hallucinating, was suffering from a

delusion? It is possible.

Thank you. That's all.

Is this the moment, Dr. Fisher?

Until Mr.

Mason put the words hallucination and delusion into your mouth.

Objection. Sustained.

Isn't it a fact, doctor, that those symptoms are so rare that you never even

considered mentioning them?

Your Honor, the district attorney is attempting to lead the witness to a

conclusion.

Dr. Fisher, why didn't you mention these symptoms before?

Why?

Well, I suppose because nobody ever asked me.

She was ambitious and deceitful.

Sure, I knew she was playing around, but that was Max Armstead's problem, not

mine. What exactly do you mean, sir, by playing around?

I was in La Jolla one night just before she married Max.

And as the room clerk testified, she was there with a man.

Mr. Mason?

Mr. Buckley, you didn't answer the district attorney's question on what you

by playing around.

I mean seeing other men.

Well, can you name several of these men with whom you suggest the defendant was

playing around?

I couldn't raffle off a list. All right, give me three names.

Two names.

Just one name. Look, I'm not very good at names.

But you've told the court the defendant was seeing other men.

Your Honor, it seems to me there's no purpose being served by having Mr. Mason

continue to harp on the subject.

Mr. Berger, you opened up this line of questioning.

Objection overruled. Mr. Buckley, what were you doing in La Jolla?

Oh, I went to see Mrs. Armstead. I'd been trying to see her for some time.

For what reason?

I hope she talked to Max, get me back on the job.

You called this woman ambitious and deceitful, and yet you felt she'd be

to help you. Why?

Did you intend to threaten her? To tell Mr. Armstead about her?

No.

I wrote her a note, but she didn't answer.

Every time I tried to see her, she avoided me.

I thought if I saw her face to face, I... Was it your usual practice as

entertainment chairman of the Mesa Country Club to write personal notes on

stationery? It just happened I wrote it at the club.

Did you also just happen to write at the club a letter to the decedent vilifying

his wife?

No. Are you certain? I'm certain.

Your memory's improving.

Now, would you care to try and name some of these men with whom the defendant

was allegedly running around?

Perhaps I can help you, Mr. Buckley.

The fact is she saw only one man in La Jolla before her marriage, and she saw

him only once more in a public place after her marriage.

As the desk clerk testified, that man was Gordon Evans.

Now, do you understand exactly why you have been designated an unfriendly

witness?

Yes, sir.

All right, Mr. Evans, or should I call you Mr. Armstead?

I've had my name legally changed. It's Gordon Evans.

Would you mind telling us why you had it legally changed?

I was trying to make a new start on my own.

Nobody in Los Angeles knew me. I just came here from Rio. I didn't want

from my father. Not even his name. Didn't you want his wife?

I was in love with a defendant before she married my father.

How about after she married him?

Your Honor, do I have to answer that? Yes, Mr. Evans.

Answer the question.

Yes.

I loved her.

Before and after.

I love her now.

She's not capable of murder. She couldn't hurt anyone. Just answer my

please.

Now, Miss Evans, were you in La Jolla with the defendant?

Yes, sir. Did you take your meals together?

Yes, sir. Did you swim together?

Yes, sir. Did you visit her in her room?

No.

Yes.

But just for a few minutes.

And this was less than a week before her marriage to your father?

Yes, sir.

You were quite a son to your father, weren't you, Mr. Evans?

No, Mr. Berger.

I was a rotten son to my father.

Oh, I know how that sounds, but as heaven is my witness, we were never

together after she married my father.

But can you say as much for the time when she was planning to marry an old

wealthy man, and at the same time trifling with a young and disinherited

Were you so circumspect when she was growing impatient that the old man might

live too long?

Your Honor. I apologize, Your Honor. I got carried away.

Cross -examiner, Mr. Mason.

No question.

I mean the same birds that knock my predictions read their weight cards with

great interest.

And if some gypsy saw death in their tea leaves, they'd be scared sick for a

long time.

Everybody believes a little.

Everybody. All right, tell us then what you predicted for the defendant.

Well, let's see.

Like I said, marriage, promotion, and danger in her future.

Well, now, those seem like very routine sort of predictions.

And didn't you predict anything specific, anything unusual for her?

her to marry an older man, that she'd be a widow before her Prince Charming

married her.

Fast exam, Mr. Mason.

Marry us the great.

Apparently, by using your supernatural powers, you've been able to take a woman

whom the district attorney has characterized as efficient, ambitious,

capable, brilliant.

You've compelled her to believe that you can foretell the future.

I am used to being persecuted and pushed around because I can offer a path to

the future.

Oh, now it's Mary as the martyr.

Well, I'm not interested in your vision of the future. I want to know something

about the past.

For instance, did the defendant laugh at your predictions?

I don't remember.

You don't remember?

Come now, put that sensitive instrument, that delicate, all -seeing brain of

yours to work.

Your Honor, this sarcastic brow -beating of the witness.

Mr. Mason, you've made your point. Let's get on with it.

What's your average weekly income, Mr. Stowe?

It depends on how things go.

Things must have gone well lately.

You just returned from three weeks in Acapulco. You paid your back rent.

Now, how do you account for this sudden return to prosperity?

Just lucky.

I guess.

Did your good luck begin after Dan Buckley hired you to appear at the Mesa

Country Club?

I don't know what you mean.

I think you do.

That's when the defendant and her friends first saw you.

Soon after that, you called, inviting her to a private reading.

Now, exactly why did you call her?

Well, she seemed interested that night.

Are you going to tell the court where the money came from?

Or do you want to add perjury to your other bunco convictions?

I get the message, Counselor. But who left that money in the locker for you,

Stowe? Who bribed you to give a specific forecast of the defendant's future?

Objection! Mr. Berger, you're within your rights, but at last we appear to be

getting someplace.

I'm going to let the witness answer. Go ahead, Mr. Stowe.

I don't know.

You don't know who bribed you? That's right.

Then you were bribed.

I thought it was just a gag.

I never saw whoever made the deal.

I got a note.

It laid out what I was supposed to say and gave me a locker at the bus station

where I could pick up the thousands.

That's all I know.

Didn't a thousand dollars seem like a lot of money to spend on a gag?

I guess so. I never thought about it.

I don't. No.

Miss Fuller, did the defendant confide in you that she was interested in Gordon

Evans? Yes, sir.

But that was before she married.

And did she happen to tell you why she was interested in one man but was

marrying his father?

No. To the best of your knowledge, did the defendant receive any messages from

Gordon Evans after the marriage?

He sent her flowers and a note.

Do you happen to recall what the note said?

It said, I can't wait much longer.

Really? And what do you suppose that meant?

That he couldn't wait much longer for her to get rid of the old man?

Objection. Sustained.

Cross -examined.

Miss Fuller, as the defendant's good friend, you probably knew more about her

than anyone else. Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

You knew, for instance, about the jewelry Mr. Armstead gave her.

Also, that he intended to propose.

Mr. Mason, are you saying that I told the fortune teller?

I'm not saying that at all, Beth.

But I want you to remember who might have elicited this information from you

when you were unaware that you were giving it.

I never told anyone.

Really, I didn't.

However, you did tell Gordon Evans that...

The defendant was in La Jolla, did you not?

Well, yes, he asked, and Pat hadn't told me not to.

Did you tell anyone else?

Oh, Mr. Buckley, he called for her. And I didn't think... I see what you mean.

And when you and Pat were at the Mesa Country Club and saw Maria Stowe, saw

perform, did you tell him anything about Pat?

Well, yes, he...

Asked me some questions, like where she worked and... Did anyone else ask you

questions about Pat?

Dr. Fisher.

He asked me if Pat was going to marry Mr. Armstead.

Well, Mr. Mason, I didn't realize. I've blabbed and blabbed.

Perhaps that explains how someone obtained the information used in

this vicious scheme.

Your Honor, to reconstruct what actually happened in this case, I wish to recall

a witness.

Mr. Evans, do you believe the future can be predicted?

No, sir.

And what's your theory on Marius Stowe's predictions?

I don't know.

Coincidence, maybe.

No.

No, not coincidence.

The note Marius Stowe received makes that clear.

Some of the incidents were known in advance. The promotion, repetition of

proposal. Some were arranged, such as the car waiting for the defendant when

left Maria Stowe's apartment.

And it appears that some of the incidents were fortuitous.

Your arrival on the scene, for instance.

But that's one thing no one could have arranged, Mr. Mason. It was an

intricately planned operation.

Whoever is responsible had to know the defendant well.

Had to be present when the defendant went to the Mesa Country Club, had to

borrow stationery there.

Had to know when the defendant was leaving Maria Stowe's apartment.

Had to have access to the decedent's medicine.

All that worked perfectly.

That sounds awfully complex to me.

But the danger in complexity is the chance that some small detail will

And that's exactly what happened here.

Your father's death was to appear to be a heart attack.

But instead, the defendant was accused of murder.

And whoever it was who thought up this awful plan didn't count on that.

Right.

You didn't count on that.

You didn't want your father to die and leave the entire estate, yours by

birthright, to Dr. Fisher's clinic, did you? No.

I wasn't interested in the money. I wouldn't do anything to hurt my father.

plan was to convince the defendant she should marry your father.

When she hesitated, you decided to dramatize the situation.

You had a stranger suggest certain ideas to her.

Then you increased the pressure by having his contrived predictions

come true.

Your Honor, I haven't.

He's accusing me.

No, not you alone. There was too much to be done for one person. It took two to

play your fantastic game.

You and the person who knew all the answers.

You and Beth Fuller.

What happened? Did she become impatient when her letter didn't kill for her? Was

that when you decided to murder your own father?

No!

No!

I never meant to harm him.

The whole thing was her plan.

She wrote to me in Rio, asked me to come. She told me about Pat.

She came up with the idea of using Mary. She put up the thousand dollars.

She arranged for me to meet Pat. She ducked to the capsules. It wasn't my

She did it all.

You made me sound like some kind of a monster, as if it were all my doing.

it wasn't. When it looked as if his father might die at any moment, he was

one who decided we had to help Pat make up her mind to marry Max. And then after

they married, Max kept on thriving, kept on living.

Had to do. He didn't say don't do it. She did it all.

I never lifted a finger to hurt my father.

But you never lifted a finger to help him, did you?

Beth Fuller led you step by step, but you chose to follow all the way.

There was so much to lose.

No, you two had nothing to lose.

In any case, you would both be winners.

Well.

You feel like winners now?

I was such a fool.

No, Pat.

After all, you chose Mack, not Gordon Evans.

And if I may be forgiven justifiable pride, you also chose Perry to defend

I call that good judgment.

Good evening.

Are you enjoying yourselves?

Yes, thank you very much. Good, good.

Now, who would like to have his fortune told?

from the tea leaves.

Boy, did you pick the wrong table.