Plot Summary:After a two year absence, Hartley Bassett returns to Los Angeles just as his wife is about to use his proxy to dissolve the company he founded and create a new firm with Peter Dawson, who has taken over the presidency of the firm in his absence. Bassett is told that the others assume he stole $6,000 from the firm when he left which is a surprise to him. Bassett fires Dawson and when Perry Mason contacts him on Dawson's behalf, he suggests that his client has stolen funds from the firm. He asks to meet with Mason that night after he has finished going over the books. When Hartley Bassett is found dead that very evening by Mason - with what proves to be a piece of Dawson's toupee in his hand - Perry's client is charged with his murder. In Perry's eyes however, there are several suspects including the dead man's wife Sybil, his son Dick and Dick's new wife Teddi who has now vanished who says she can identify the man came out of Bassett's office and can identify him. Perry risks censure ...
