- While on a fishing trip, Perry Mason and Paul Drake pull a beautiful woman out of the ocean. In her possession is a note she retrieved from her employer, accusing him of killing his rich aunt during a storm on their yacht.
- A beachcomber finds a bottle with a note on the beach. The note accuses the nephew George Alder of Agatha Alder of killing her on the yacht Sea Witch. He takes a copy of the note to George Alder hoping for a small payoff. While he and Alder discuss the issue, Alder's drunk wife Karen enters the room looking for more alcohol. George calls in his secretary Sally Fenner to remove his drunk wife. After the incident Sally quits fed up with George's treatment of people. That night Sally enters the closely guarded house to recover the note but knocks over a lamp drawing the attention of the guard and his dog. She runs down the beach into the ocean to escape as the guard fires his gun and releases the dog. Perry and Paul in Perry's boat seeing her race to rescue her. She shows Perry the note but claims she took nothing else not realizing George's dead body was in the room. The next day the police are after her for murder as Perry has Della hide her while he investigates the evidence including Agatha's Mexican companion who recently bought a restaurant.—Anonymous
- At Paradise Cove, beachcomber Arthur Dorian (James Griffith) finds a bottle with a note inside it. In his office at his estate, George Alder (David Lewis) has his secretary Sally Fenner (Peggie Castle) show in Dorian, who enters, note in hand. It states it's from Agatha Alder, George's aunt, and dated the night she disappeared off her yacht, the Sea Witch, in a violent storm. It says that she believes George is about to murder her. He knows she's going to disinherit him over his mistreatment of his wife, Karen (Joan Banks). The final sentence begins "If he pushes me through the porthole..." and no more. Dorian asks for $50, and while George is getting out the money, Karen walks in. She's clearly drunk, and has come in to get more liquor. George orders Sally to take Karen back to her room, and when Karen complains, he slaps her. Later, Sally expresses her disgust at George's behavior and says she's quitting. George mentions that $10,000 the Agatha withdrew from the bank is missing, and that Sally could easily have taken it.
That night, Sally sneaks back into the house to fetch the note. She gets it, but fails to see George's body lying on floor. Moreover, she knocks over a lamp, alerting Hess the guard (John Cliff) and his dog. She flees the house, running to the beach and then swimming for it, with the dog in hot pursuit. Perry and Paul are in a boat, finishing up a long day of bass fishing, and rescue her. She shows Perry the note, and they take her to a jetty near where her car is parked. They return the boat to where they're parked and are about to leave when the police arrive and ask if they've seen an attractive blonde - she's wanted for George's murder.
Sally comes to see Perry at his office the next day. He thinks she may be in danger from the murderer, who may have killed George to cover up the murder of Agatha. The note incriminating George is obviously a fake. It was supposedly typed during a raging storm, but doesn't have a single error. Perry has Della take Sally to his apartment. Perry goes to the Alder estate, where Karen admits she's glad to be free of her abusive husband. She believes George murdered Agatha, and mentions that on board the Sea Witch that night with Agatha were George, Sally, the ship's captain, and Agatha's maid Nina Santos. Karen was left ashore because the others were ashamed of her - except for Sally, who was always sympathetic.
Later, Paul says he's discovered that Nina is now a hostess at a local cantina, so he and Perry interview her there. Nina says the note confirms her own suspicions, as Agatha was too good a sailor to let herself be accidentally swept overboard. Paul misjudges his tolerance for hot chili, and needs to down an entire pitcher of water. Meanwhile, Lt. Tragg arrives at Perry's apartment and arrests Sally for murder and Della for aiding a fugitive from justice. At Burger's office, Perry gets Della off by saying she was acting on his instructions and he avoids charges against himself, at least for the time being, by reminding the D.A. that he's sworn to service the cause of justice, not get as many convictions as possible. After they leave, Tragg brings in Dorian with the original note. The one he gave George was a copy that he'd made. Tragg also has the typewriter on which this note was made - it was at Sally's apartment.
In court, Tragg identifies a poker as the murder weapon. He found the french doors to George's office had been jimmied, and there were footprints outside that matched a pair of Sally's shoes. Sally's fingerprints were on the poker and George's cash box. On cross-examination, Perry gets Tragg to admit that her fingerprints were to be expected since she worked there, and that the lieutenant had found a key to the place on her key ring. If she had the key, why would she jimmy the french doors? Nina voices suspicions of Sally regarding the $10,000, but Perry produces evidence that she and her husband had bought the cantina for exactly that amount. Nina only pretented to be nothing more than a hostess there. She says the money was a gift from Agatha, who was always kind to her. She was afraid no one would believe her after Agatha's death, so she lied about it.
Coroner's physician Dr. Murray (Forrest Lewis) testifies that Agatha died from drowning, and there were no marks on her body to suggest violent treatment. Perry specifically asks about her being pushed through a porthole, as mentioned in the note. He replies that although the portholes were wider than usual on the Sea Witch, Agatha's hips were even wider. Burger next calls Karen, but gets a surprise when she testifies that from her bedroom she saw a man run out of the office and onto the beach that night. (Her description sounds like Dorian.) Burger accuses her of perjury and asks why she didn't mention that earlier. She says that, with George as her husband, she had to drink to forget - and sometimes it worked.
After a recess, Burger puts Karen back on the stand and confronts her with a photo of the view from her bedroom. You can see trees, but no beach. On cross, she discusses entering the office as George was paying off Dorian, and mentions the incriminating note and bottle. After proving she has excellent eyesight, she identifies the bottle on the prosecutor's table as the one she saw. However, Perry points out that Dorian had only brought a copy of the note, not the original or the bottle. The only reason she could identify the bottle is because she drank it contents, then put the note she had faked into it and threw it in the cove so it would wash up and be found. Karen admits it, and also confesses to killing George. It had made her feel free for a little while, but now she really needs a drink.
At the cantina, Perry explains that he suspected Karen because the fact that Agatha's death had to be accidental tended to eliminate the suspects who'd been on the Sea Witch that night. Paul is paying attention to an attractive dancer and doesn't notice the waitress putting sauce on the ham and eggs he ordered. Soon he is downing another pitcher of water.
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