Perry Mason and the case of the lost stamps

by susan cousineau

This is another great story of Perry Mason and how a set of stamps turns into a murder mystery

Louise was a woman who had made her own way in life. She had never married and had started her own business dealing in antiques over thirty years ago. It had been a good life, but now it was time for her to take it easy. It was time for her to enjoy the things she had missed because of her business.
It had been over two years since she had been to the safe deposit at the bank, and today she was headed over there. She had built up a small nest egg, but now she had an offer from a reputable businessman on the stamps that she had inherited over ten years ago. They had been sitting in the safe deposit at the bank all this time and now she was set to sell them.

The stamps had a value of over one hundred thousand dollars and she had received a very fair offer of fifty five thousand dollars cash. With the sale of her business and her small nest egg Louise knew that she could live very comfortably and had a huge smile on her face as she walked into the bank.
A teller let her into the safe area and she used the key that had been in her dresser drawer for years to open the deposit box. When she opened the box she almost choked, the stamps were gone. She checked the number of the box with her key and looked everywhere but the stamps were gone.
The teller went immediately over to her supervisor and the supervisor checked all the entries in and out of her safety deposit area and there had been no entries recorded for over three years. The bank had a strict policy that someone had to stay in the room with the clients at all times and the clients had to sign in and out. The safe deposit boxes were in a locked room, and no one would have access not even the president of the bank. You needed two keys and the bank always had one and she would have the other.
The stamps would not be easy to trace either. They had been a full sheet of zeppelins uncut and a much sought item in the area of stamp collecting. If someone received these stamps they would have them in their private collection and if they were hot, probably would not show anyone the sheet until many years had passed.
Louise went home in distress. The key to the safe deposit box had always been in her drawer. Who did she know that might have been able to take the key and use it to unlock the safety box. It would have to be a woman about her age and someone who would be able to trick the teller at the bank that they were really her. Who could that be?
Louise contacted the buyer and let him know of the problem, but promised that if at anytime she was able to find the stamps the offer would still be available. He was very disappointed but agreed to wait.
The policeman that came to her house to take the information didn't have much to say that sounded very promising. A sheet of stamps? They are worth what? the policeman had said. He had taken the information but Louise was pretty sure that was going to be it. If she didn't do her own sleuthing she would never find the stamps.
The best thing that she could figure was that she was going to need to hire a private detective. She had heard from a friend who had some problems a few years ago that the Drake Detective Agency was the best and that if there was a way for the stamps to be found, they would give her the best shot. So she gave them a call and the next morning Paul Drake came to her home.
Paul was a good looking man a little taller than six feet and about one hundred and ninety pounds. He had sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. Louise guessed that he was in his early forties about her age. "One more question before you leave? Why did you hit Joann over the head?" Perry asked him. "I didn't when I knocked and found the door open I walked in. She was lying on the floor moaning. I went to run outside and get away but you caught me first." Bruce told him.
As Paul Perry and Della drove back to the office, they were all very quiet, who would have benefited from the stamps so much that they would attack Mrs. Ruamn
Paul listened to her story intently, and promised if there was anything that he could do to find the stamps, he would do it. "Just sit tight Miss Pride and I will get back to you as soon as we find something out."
Louise smiled as Mr. Drake left and started to over the problem of the stamps over and over in her head and just didn't get anything. She sure hoped that Mr. Drake would be able to solve the case so that she could get on with her early retirement.
The next morning as Louise was sitting in her kitchen drinking a cup of coffee her maid Carol came in. "Is there anything special that you need to have done today? I know that you have been very busy down at the shop with the sale and all. Will you be leaving for the shop soon?"
Louise looked at her and slowly got up from the table. Carol had been helping her out with the house for the past four years and came twice a week. She had a rough life and Louise had felt sorry for her.
As Louise got into her car, she thought again about Carol. Although Carol was about an inch taller than her and probably weighed a good ten pounds more, they were about the same age and if someone didn't know her she might have passed into the bank. 'Oh I looked over the bank records and they are so old I am not sure whether or not it was me that signed in and out or not. The handwriting did look very similar, but Carol could have forged her signature. This is silly what would she have done with the stamps? Louise thought.
While Louise was at the shop that day she found herself unable to concentrate, who else could have gone in and out of her home and stolen the stamps from the bank? She lived in a neighborhood where there were many people her age, and they all worked. Someone could have slipped into her house and stolen the key at anytime during the last two years.
Louise made the decision to check the log again and perhaps she could once again check her signature. When she went to the bank and looked again, she saw nothing out of the ordinary, perhaps Paul Drake would have something for her shortly.
That night she had dinner at her parents house. Her parents were now both in their eighties and were starting to have some major health problems. Watching them go downhill was one of the reasons that she had decided to sell her business and go out and enjoy her life. She knew that she soon would be sixty years old and that her health could start to fail at anytime and she wanted to do the things that she had never been able to do.
When Louise approached the subject of the stamps her parents seemed to take it quite oddly and acted as though they wanted to change the subject. "Honey they were just a sheet of stamps. Don't fret about them." her mother had said.
"Do you know that I had a standing offer of fifty-five thousand dollars for that single sheet of stamps. With that money I was going to go on a trip and enjoy my life. I want to know what happened to them."
Louise's father took a deep breath, he had no idea that the stamps were worth that kind of money. When his brother had died the lawyer for the will put the value of the stamps at ten thousand dollars. 'Wow' he thought to himself.
When Louise got home she ran to the phone to check for messages, hoping that she would get some kind of word from Mr. Drake but there was nothing as of yet.
Paul Drake had just checked with the bank and had spoken to a man who owned a local furniture store in town. He was the president of the local stamp club. Paul had hoped that perhaps he had heard something from one of the members of his club. Mike had promised that he would check around. Most of the members of the club had been members for years and he promised Paul that the kind of money that this full sheet of stamps would cost would be way outside of the pocket expenses of most members.
Meanwhile Louise had been racking her brains for the last two days when she had a hunch. She remembered one day about a year and a half ago a lady named Linda complaining about her husband spending over six thousand dollars on a sheet of stamps. Linda was now divorced from him but her ex husband was still in town and owned the local furniture store.
Louise called the Drake Agency and left a message as it was after hours. She knew that Mike lived upstairs from his store so she decided to go right over and confront him. It was a silly idea but she had to know what was going on.
As she approached the store she was surprised to find the door unlocked and the lights still on. The sign on the door said that closing time had been over an hour ago. Against her better judgment she went towards the back of the store calling out Mike's name. She was getting ready to go back out the door when something caught her eye. There on the floor was Mike, he had been shot in the back.
At this point all Louise could think of was that sheet of stamps. She knew that they had to be around there someplace if Mike had been the one to steal them so she started looking. She was so intent on her search that she failed to notice the police cruiser pull up in front. By the time she had seen the police it was too late, there she was in a room with a dead man and the gun was right there beside him.
Louise placed her one call to Paul Drake she knew if anyone could help her, again she would need his help. She had heard that he worked with one of the best attorneys in the state sometimes and perhaps between the two of them she could get out of this jam. The police were getting ready to charge her with first degree murder and she would need a lawyer tomorrow morning in court.
Perry was just getting ready to go out to lunch with his private secretary when the familiar knock came on his door. It was his good friend Paul Drake, he always used the back door when he didn't want to be seen by anyone but Perry and Della.
"What's up Paul?" Perry asked.
"I have a client that has been the victim of a theft of some very valuable stamps. I was very close to finding out who and where the stamps were taken when I got a call from her. It seems that she had also figured out who was the thief and she had gone to confront him. Unfortunately when she arrived at his business someone had gotten to him first.
"Do you think that she is innocent? Does she want to use me for counsel? Perry Mason asked his friend.
"She is down at the jail now and they plan to hold a bail hearing in the morning. She doesn't appear to be the type of person to kill. Besides if she had planned on killing him why when the police arrived was she looking desperately for something?" Paul told him.
"I will go to the jail right after lunch and I will talk to her personally." Perry gave Della a nod and Della knew right what to do. She would make all of the necessary phone calls and arrangements so that Louise could be released on bail.
The court proceeding was short and it was clear that even with her small savings and her business as collateral it was going to take nearly everything Louise had in the world to get out of jail and out on bail. The bail had been set at one hundred thousand dollars, the worth of the stamps.
Paul went over and spoke to Lt Tragg who had a smug look on his face. "Hello Perry how are you today? This one is a no brainer she is as guilty as they come. She was right the stamps were sold to Mr. Henry we found them in his apartment upstairs in a locked safe. Have a good day Paul, counselor" and he bowed as he walked out of the courtroom.
Perry was sitting at his desk with his trusted private secretary Della Street going over the evidence that the police had sent over to his office. Perry was a large man about six feet tall and at least two hundred and fifty pounds. He had dark hair and a nice smile. Della was about five foot five and one hundred and twenty pounds. She had a very business like appearance and was always found near her partner Perry Mason.
Before them were the gruesome photos of Mike Henry and all of the things that they found around him. The gun had been a small gun, one that could have easily been shot by a woman and the shot had been at a very close range, so one would not have had to been an expert to carry out the killing. It was hard to tell what had been on the floor prior to Louise rummaging through the contents of the small office where Mr. Henry had been discovered.
Perry looked each photo over very carefully and did not see anything that caught his eye, he knew that he must be missing something. He went on to look at the photos of the apartment where Mike had lived. It was a very tidy apartment and everything appeared to be in place. Nothing seemed to have been moved and the only thing that had been opened was the safe.
The list of suspects was getting longer and longer as Paul checked each and every of his contacts. It could have been Carol, as she did have access to her home on a daily basis and then there was Cora the lady that had been Louise's partner for many years, and a sister who Louise had little contact with since the falling out they had when their Uncle Jack had left Louise the stamps and not hers. There was also the neighbor, his name was Eli Bradshaw, he had a criminal record and could easily enter Louise's house from the rear with little chance that anyone would have seen him. Also, if he had been seen he could have easily covered his tracks by saying he was getting something that had accidently landed in her yard. Then there were Louise's parents. They acted as though they had something to hide and had been unwilling to talk to Paul or the police.
The date of the trial was coming up quickly, too quickly, they had to find out what had happened so that Louise could go on to receive her stamp sheet and freedom. Because of all the problems and the accusations, the buyer of the antique shop had backed out. Louise was without her stamps, her business or her reputation.
Paul had made himself busy by following a few of the suspects around. He had followed Louise's parents around for two days when finally he thought he had caught something. They had gone over to Carol's house and spent almost two hours there. When they left both of Louise's parents looked very upset and Carol had been yelling at them from her front door.
'Did Louise's parents go over to Carol's house and accuse her of murdering Mr. Henry? Perhaps they thought that they could convince Carol to admit the crime.'
The day of the trial came and the prosecutor brought out a large amount of witnesses, all from other business owners who had seen Louise enter the store, and members of the stamp club, who all insisted that Mike had been a reputable man.
When the prosecutor called Louise's sister Mary to the stand, Perry knew that this was going to be one of the few chances that he had where he would find out the truth. "Miss Stone, did you know about the worth of those stamps?"
"I had no idea how much they were worth until you told me. I thought that at most they were worth maybe ten thousand and then with the market being the way it is, I felt as though five thousand dollars would have been a fair selling price." Mary told the courtroom.
"Can you tell the courtroom your whereabouts on the night of the murder?" Perry Mason asked her.
"Yes, I was at a lodge meeting with my husband. We go there every Wednesday evening." Mary told the court.
"That is all with this witness, however, I do reserve the right to recall her back to the stand if it is necessary." Perry told the courtroom.
The next witness to be called was Linda the ex wife of Mike. She seemed to be very upset at his death. She had taken the murder badly. Perry knew that he needed to ask her questions but if he didn't want to get on the jury's bad side he would have to approach Linda with kindness and understanding. "Mrs. Henry do you remember the day that your husband bought the stamps?" as he pointed to the stamps that had been placed in evidence.
"Mike was so excited. He had bought them at such a good price from someone who didn't know their real worth and were in need of money. " Linda Henry told the court.
"Did you ever hear a name or a voice when Mike was in the process of purchasing these stamps?" Perry Mason asked her.
"No. I was busy with our two children at the time and was very upset that he had spent so much money on a bunch of, what I thought were, worthless stamps." Linda testified to the courtroom.
"Do you remember the date that your husband acquired the stamps?" Mr. Mason again asked Mrs. Henry.
"It was sometime last February. I don't know the exact date because he didn't tell me about the purchase until a few days after the purchase had occured." Linda again testified to the court.
"That is all, but again I reserve the right to recall this witness in the future if I find it again necessary." Mr. Mason stated.
The court was to be in recess until two pm, so Perry needed to work fast. He went back to the bank and spoke to the manager. I now have a date and time for you to look at your tapes. I need you to look at the tapes of the safety deposit box room from the twenty-eighth of February this year until you spot something. My man Paul Drake will be more than willing to help you. It is of extreme importance that this be done right away. Our client Louise is going to end up wrongly in jail unless we can find out who went to the safe deposit box that day." Mr. Mason told the bank manager.
"All of our tapes are here in our security room. You are most fortunate, we keep the tapes for only two years and these tapes were to be destroyed in six weeks." the manager told Mr. Mason and with that Paul and the manager went off to look at the videos.
Perry had known that Uncle Jack and his brother had not been close. They were actually half brothers as they shared the same mother but the same father. Uncle Jack had two children a boy and a girl, both adults in their early forties now. The two children of Jack were to be testifying this afternoon.
Court came to session right on time and there had been no word from Paul. He was sure that the answer to the murder was there on the tapes. However, whoever had been smart enough to get access to the bank security should have easily been able to tamper with the video. After all for some reason the store security camera had not been working at the time of the murder also.
The next witness to be called was Uncle Jack's daughter Jennifer. She was a lady of simular height and weight as Louise and to Perry's surprise she sounded just like Louise. They could pass for twins. With that noted in his mind Mr. Mason walked to the witness stand and gave Jennifer a gaze. This was a gaze that he saved for someone who he felt could be guilty of doing a violent crime. It was as though he was peering into her soul.
"Miss Pride, do you remember the day that your father told you that he was going to leave the full sheet of stamps to your sister Louise?" Mr. Mason asked.
"Of course I do, I was his full daughter and the stamps should have been mine, however, my father had always a special place in his heart for Louise. It was a long time ago." Jennifer testified.
"Are you aware of the fact that if Louise is found guilty of the murder of Michael Henry, you will become the owner of those stamps? Do you realize that there is a buyer out there right now willing to give you fifty-five thousand dollars? Mr. Mason nearly bellowed.
"Yes I am aware of the worth of those stamps, but I thought if Louise was found guilty of murder that her sister Mary would receive the stamps." Jennifer stated.
Perry looked over to the courtroom and directly at Mary. That was probably what Mary had thought also. He needed to see that tape.
The rest of the afternoon was busy with a police officer and the medical examiner both giving testimony. Each had nothing of significance to add to the case that would be beneficial to Louise. Perry needed to know about the relationship between Bruce and his step sister Mary. He was surprised to find out that although, Jack had raised Bruce he was not related to Bruce or Mary at all.
As Perry and Della started out of the courtroom they were met by Paul. He had bad news the video recorder had been tampered with on the twenty-eighth of January and there were no tapes of the person who had signed in on that day. The signature had been a good forgery, but somehow someone had gotten in and taken the stamps.
Paul's thoughts kept on going back to the fact that even if you had the key and even if you forged the signature, dressed up to look like Louise and gone to the bank there should have been a record of you coming into the bank somewhere. Unless? Yes he now knew who the thief was, it had been right in front of him the whole time.
Paul stopped at the ever burning lights of Perry's office when there was a murder trial in session and told his friend what he had figured out. They needed to do some real checking around town now, but Paul was sure that he knew who the murderer was.
As the trio, Paul Perry and Della pulled up to the house, they were not surprised to find Bruce Pride's car parked out in front. As Bruce started to exit the home he noticed the group and attempted to run. "You can't run anymore Bruce. We know what you have done."
"That is silly, I have done nothing wrong, you can't hold me." Bruce shouted at Perry and Paul. Perry walked up to the front door and knocked. He got no answer but walked in anyways, there on the floor laid Joan Ryan. She had been hit over the head and was unconscious but alive. Perry reached over and called the police and ambulance.
It was then that Bruce Pride admitted what had happened. He had felt as if he had been robbed of the stamps. Because he was his father's oldest son, he ought to have been given the stamps, but no he gave them to his favorite Louise. At the time he had been going out with Joan and they had come up with the idea of how to steal the stamps. She was a teller at the bank and had access to the safe, so she could easily get in with the key that he had stolen from his sister's house . They returned the key before she even missed it. It had been easy he had come over to her house on the pretense that he was checking her furnace and taken the key. Joan had gone to the safe deposit room and removed the stamps. He had shown her how to stop the video for a short minute. He had met her for lunch that day and while he waited at their table she went in and took the stamps. He had sold the stamps for just five thousand dollars ' what a dummy' he thought.
"I had nothing to do with the murder, I swear." Bruce promised the police. "It was Joan and her new boyfriend. Louise had made the mistake of talking about the stamps and the conversation had been overheard. Joan decided that she wanted to steal the stamps back so she contacted Louise's neighbor Eli Bradshaw and they set up the theft of the stamps." Bruce practically cried as he told them his side of the story.
"That is a good story. You are going to jail." the police officer told him as he put on the handcuffs.
Perry's mind was going a mile a minute and something in him told him that Bruce Pride was telling the truth. But, what had happened to Joan? Who would benefit the most from her death and the death of Mike?
The next morning when court was called to session Mr. Mason requested that Jennifer Pride be called back to the stand.
Again Perry gave Jennifer the glare that he was famous for. "Miss Stone could you please tell me where you were around six thirty pm last night?"
"I was at bingo. I never left and arrived around five thirty. By six thirty the games had already started." Jennifer told the courtroom.
"Thank you . You may stand down. I would now like to call Mike Brothers to the stand." Perry announced.
" , could you please tell me where you were last night at around six thirty?" Mr. Mason asked.
"I was at home watching television." Mr. Brothers answered.
"I do not believe that to be true, Mr. Brothers. I have your neighbor Mrs. Weis who is here in the courtroom and ready to testify that you came home around six forty-five and nearly hit her because you were in such a hurry. You had been gone for about one half an hour." Mr. Mason told him in authoritative voice.
"Ok, so I went out to get something at the store. I didn't almost hit anyone she just likes to cause trouble for everyone in the neighborhood." Mr. Brothers tried to sound cool and calm, but
he was very nervous acting.
"Oh I think you did more than that I think that you went to the furniture store and tried to get Mike Henry to give you back the stamps." Perry told him.
"You can't prove a thing. I was nowhere near there. " he replied back.
"Oh I think I can there was a handprint on the counter that could not be accounted for and I am willing to bet that the print will match your hand. What about it Mr. Brothers? What happened?"
With that Mr. Brothers thought for a moment and then replied. "All right I went to Mr. Henry's store to confront him. He had stolen over fifty thousand dollars from my girl friend. The money could have been used for us to purchase a home and start our lives together. But he laughed and said that I was never going to get the stamps, that they were his and that if anyone was to get them it would be Louise. I pulled the gun on him and he laughed sometime between his laughter and him falling on the floor I shot him. I don't even remember doing it.
"Your honor I move to have the charges against my client be dismissed. Perry asked and his request was granted.
Back in the office the trio of the best legal health in the world relaxed. Della was the first to speak "What I don't understand is why Louise's parents were so distant."
They were afraid that their other daughter Mary had been involved and they didn't want to lose both of their children.
Then there came a knock on the door and Gert announced that there was a new case that they were needed on.