Steve Blake was at the top of his game. He had ridden the last two series at the Anaheim Rodeo with scores of 85 and 87. He was now in first place, on the bull riding circuit.
Unfortunately, on his third ride he had only lasted 5.4 seconds on Cheyenne the bull and as he had hit the ground, he had dislocated his right the second time. He had been sent to the orthopedist and was told that he would be unable to ride for a minimum of two weeks. He had told the doctor to tape him up, he had another competition coming again next week.
Steve could not take a chance that his chief competition compete while he was out with a dislocated shoulder. He and Miles Perrera were just three points from each other on the circuit and just one competition could take the title from him. This was bull riding season and there was no way that Steve wasn't going to be in Austin Tx next week.
In the meantime Miles had been nursing a sore elbow himself. He had been diagnosed with spurs in his elbow. His right elbow was so sore that he was using a cream two to three times a day on it. Whenever he rode the bulls it would take hours before the pain would subside. He was determined to get ahead of Steve Blake. He knew that even though Steve had dislocated his shoulder at the last event he would be there for the rodeo in Austin.
Steve had recently married a girl named Mary. They had met while on the circuit as Mary's father owned many of the bulls that were used in the competitions. It had been love at first sight. They both shared the show interest, and Mary's knowledge of bulls and bull riding was complete and thorough. She had been his light at the end of a long tunnel.
Mary and Steve had just bought their first home in Anaheim and were looking forward to along life working the rodeo circuits. Even when Steve retired they would still have the business of running the teaching of the bulls.. Life was good to them.
When they arrived in Austin for the show and got to the hotel. The trip had been going wrong since they had left. The plane had left late and then when they had arrived at the airport the plane had circled the airport for nearly an hour waiting for landing permission. When they had arrived at the rent a car place, their car wasn't ready, and so another hour was spent waiting for their car. When they had arrived in their room they were both exhausted.
After a short nap, Mary and Steve went to the bull riding arena. It was their habit, and most of the riders habits, to go to the location for a few days to check out everything to do with the bull riding part of the rodeo. Each location had differences, although, the size and the way certain things were set up were regulated, there were always subtle differences. The lighting and the way that the announcer was set up, along with the personnel were different in every city that they would go to.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles Perry Mason was getting ready to go to a convention in Austin Tx. He was scheduled to speak in two days, and was looking for a change of view from his office. Seven days in Austin peace and quiet and a change of scenery. He did not enjoy doing long speeches, but the speech would only be for twenty minutes and then the rest of the time would be left for him and Della to spend some time together.
Della was at home getting packed for her trip. She knew that with Perry she never was sure what was going to happen. Of course, she would have the sensible clothes for the convention, but she would need evening wear for the nights that they would spend together. Then, Perry had thought that she might enjoy seeing a real rodeo. A rodeo? Oh my she was going to need to wear some clean sensible pants and shirt for that too. She had seen many photos of people at rodeos and knew that she would probably want a big Texan hat too.
The limo pulled up in front and the driver came right up to her house. He carried all her luggage. Perry was in the limo already and off to Austin they went. Della relaxed and took a seat with her best friend and boss Perry Mason. Of course, they went first class and were treated very well by all the stewardesses. They were frequent flyers and Perry was known to be a big tipper.
The hotel was very busy with the convention of all the lawyers in town and the rodeo also being just down the street. Della enjoyed going different places with Perry . They would spend some time together alone, something rare with the two of them. It seemed that no matter where they went there was a murder. At least here there would be plenty of lawyers to help anyone who got into trouble.
Perry was looking forward to seeing his friend Jeff Blake's son Steve.. Steve was doing very well on the circuit this year and was ranked number one. He had known Steve since he was born and had attended his and Mary's wedding just a short time ago.
Perry had hired a limo for he and Della to use while they were in Austin. He did not know the town well and wanted to spend some time enjoying the sites without worrying about being on the right road at the same time.
There would be shopping and the flea markets, and then they would be attending the rodeo and one of the many music festivals that would be occurring in the city that week. Austin was known for its many festivals.
Perry had also hoped to find the time to take the two hour ride to San Antonio Tx. He had always wanted to take Della on the river walk, and she had expressed interest in seeing the site of the Alamo. It would be a long day for the two of them, but that is one of the reasons that he had hired the limo.
When Steve and Mary arrived that afternoon at the rodeo they began the long job of checking out everyone and everything that was to be happening during the next week. He would be assigned to ride on the next day. As he was in first place at this time, he would be the first to chose what bull he would ride. There were some good bulls available for riding, some would give him good opportunities for points.
His biggest competitor Mike had chosen his bull second. It too was a good bull and with the bull he could win the competition. Through a glitch with the counsel Steve had not been offered the bull that Mike had chosen. His name was Bulldozer and the bull had a reputation for being one of the best in the business.
At this point Steve put in a protest with the committee with hopes that Mike would not get the opportunity to ride that bull. If he protested he could still chose to keep Champagne the bull that he had originally chosen. It was not a fair move some thought, but that was one of the rules at the Austin TX arena.
This caused an argument between the two different men ensued and unfortunately for all they had to be split up by one of the working clowns. Both were warned that if such behavior was observed again they could find themselves in front of the committee and disqualified for the event. Both men shook hands and left.
Meanwhile Perry Mason was at the convention speaking about the rights of the accused and what a lawyer can do to ensure that the accused does receive a fair trial. He went over the way to chose a jury, the rights to bail, and the new tool that the prosecution had readily available dna. He spoke for about twenty minutes and then took questions for over a half hour. The students were very knowledgeable. One of the men who were at the convention had made an impression on Perry, his name was Gordon Atkins, Perry knew that he would be hearing from him soon.
Della and Perry had the rest of the day to themselves. The weather was beautiful a warm sunny day in the low eighties. They walked hand in hand through the local outdoor flea market, where Della bought a small knick knack for her sister. They later sat outside and listened to the local concert. It had been a wonderful day with the two of them enjoying the time together away from the office. As always their day ended with a nice meal in a well known restaurant. When they got back to the hotel they were both glad to get some rest.
The next morning would be the rodeo. Perry and Della arrived at the arena where they were treated to seats reserved for the workers and owners of the bulls. Perry's friend Jeff was more than happy to make sure that his famous friend and his secretary had a front row seat.
When they both had been seated they turned their heads when they saw a man come running into the booth area and whispered something into Jeff's ear. Jeff left with the man right away and signaled Perry to come with him please.
When Perry and Della had reached the back of the arena they saw what the trouble was there on the ground next to his outfit that he was getting ready to get dressed into. 911 was called and Perry and Della made sure that no one touched anything. Someone had killed Mike Perrera.
From the other side of the arena came Steve Blake. He looked very upset that his friend had been killed. Mike had been killed by a single shot right into the side of his head. The murder had been done very recently and both Della and Perry were surprised that no one heard the shot. There were hundreds there at the arena including them and everyone said that they had heard nothing.
Perry quickly learned that there was a good reason why no one heard the gun shot. Because once in a while an animal would be injured too badly to save one of the men would have to shoot the animal. They always had a silencer on the weapon so that the audience would not know what was happening. One of the guns was missing, and that was one with a silencer.
Like an y other show the show would have to go on. The animals had been all set and the arena was full of spectators. The men would have to compete as if nothing had happened, even thought many of them had just lost a good friend.
Perry and Della looked around the murder scene and noted that the weapon had most likely been the weapon that was missing and had indeed had a silencer on it. The shot had been at near point blank range right up against the right temple. He had been facing his assailant. It was a horrible crime, as murder always was.
Perry and Della watched the bull riding and once again Steve won the competition he rode the bull that he had originally chose as he felt that would be the best thing to do with the death of his friend. Each time one of the bull riders got on the bull they would try to stay on the bull for the minimum of eight seconds that they were required to do to obtain a score. Steve had gotten a very high score of ninety on that day.
When Perry and Della returned to the hotel that night there was a message from Jeff. He wanted to meet with his friends for dinner. He was sorry that they had missed each other at the arena that afternoon, but with everything going on he had been extremely busy.
Dinner again was at one of the best restaurants that Austin had to offer. The food was delicious and both Perry and Della had a large steak with all the fixings. While they were at dinner Jeff explained that he was afraid that his son was a suspect in the murder. Perry promised that he was going to be in town for at least a few more days and that he would be there for anything that he or his son would need and to just keep in touch.
The next day Della and Perry headed to San Antonio. It was about an hour and a half away but they had the luxury of riding in the limo, so the ride at the very least was very comfortable. Della had always wanted to see the Alamo and the River Walk. Perry and her had a very romantic ride in one of the gondolas. The lights and the music on the slow riding gondolas were something that was worth the ride.
The Alamo for the most part was like it had been when the famous battle had been fought. In the walls were still the bullet holes from the fight and Davy Crocketts gun Betsy was on display in one of the cases. Della and Perry had a wonderful day together and almost didn't want to return to their hotel room.
It was during breakfast the next day that Perry's phone rang. It was Jeff, as he had feared the police had brought his son to the station for questioning and it looked as though he was going to be arrested on suspicion of murder.
Perry immediately started the process of getting permission to work in the state of Texas. It was something that other states always honored however, it was a step necessary for him to take before he accepted the job of defending his friend Jeff's son Steve Blake.
It was then that he had thought of the young lawyer who he had met at the convention Gordon Atkins. He had been smart and was very interested in becoming a defense attorney. He could be the lawyer representing Steve until the paperwork went through.
Della had already gone into work mode, she had called Paul and had him book a flight out to Austin right away. Now she was going to call Mr. Atkins and ask him if he would be interested in helping with the murder case of Mike Perrera.
Perry and Della now wanted to go and question the workers who had been in the back when the murder had occurred, It had been very busy back there with many workers bringing things in and out. Unfortunately, no one had seen anyone that looked out of place. The police had the security camera tape, and Perry would need a court order to be able to view it.
Mike had many friends involved in the circuit, and although there was stiff competition, no one seemed to have a reason to want Mike dead. This was a sport like any other sport there was heavy competition, and there were many safety issues. For the most part though, people went home to their families when all was said and done.
Mike was not married and just twenty-one years old. He lived in a small apartment here in Austin by himself. Although, he made a decent living working the rodeo he was not a man of a lot of money. He appeared to live within his means, as he drove a modest car and even worked part time at a local pharmacy.
That afternoon Paal Drake arrived in Austin, where he met his friends once again. He had been looking into Mike and his other part time job. It was there that Mike worked two days a week . It was a small pharmacy and he was well liked. He was known for his bull riding and he had many fans that made it their business to come in when Mike was at work so that they could get to meet him.
It was there that the manager had told Paul about a man Bruce Walters who had been at the pharmacy just three days ago demanding to see Mike. He claimed that he had screwed him over and had been responsible for him losing a lot of money. Paul had been able to obtain the man's address and would be going over there that evening.
That evening Perry Paul and Della went to meet Mr. Walters. He lived in a nice section of town and had a beautiful home. He was a family man with three children. It seems that Mike had been involved in some real estate dealings and when the real estate market had gone a little sour in Austin he had lost his shirt. Because of Mike and his dealings Bruce Walters felt as though he had lost about one hundred thousand dollars. Yes the police knew about it and he was not there on that day.
As they left the house none of them felt very comfortable. His story was too rehearsed and they had all noticed the gun cabinet in the room behind the living room. Mr Walters was an angry man but, Mike could have been involved in many dealings. No one had seen the real estate market dropping to almost nothing like it had six months ago. Many people had lost their life savings, and many others now owed more money on their homes than their homes were now worth.
That afternoon Gordon Atkins had been successful in getting the court order for the security tapes of the area of the murder. They all knew that the tapes would take hours for them to check. They had just gotten back to the hotel when Jeff called once again. His son Steve had been now officially charged with the murder. He was to be arraigned in two hours, so they would have to hurry. Mr. Atkins handled the bail hearing very well, and Steve was out on bail within the hour.
Texas law allowed for execution in murder cases, and Perry still hadn't obtained permission to practice law in the state. It was taking longer than expected for the papers to come through, His young helper Gordon Walters had been a great help to him and Della.
It was then that Perry and Della headed to the registry of deeds. It was located in the courthouse. It was there that they found proof that Mike had been involved in the purchase and sale of over ten homes. He and Bruce Walters had bought run down homes fixed them up and had sold them for handsome profits. Some of the homes they had netted over fifty thousand dollars a piece on.
Along with the two men had been a woman involved named Joan Marshfield. She had been involved in all the sales and had received twenty-five percent of the profits on the turnover on the homes. She had received less as she had nothing to do with the renovation, she was just involved in the investment.
Between the three of them they had netted over three million dollars in the last three years in this job venture alone. It was not until the real estate market crashed that the business lost any money. It had lost money fast, but should have still been solvent. Even with the loss of the last two homes the business had still had a net profit of over two million dollars.
It was there that Perry needed to look into those investments. Certainly, Mike was not living the life of a man with a salary of over a million dollars a year. He didn't even own his own home, unlike Bruce Walters. He drove a honda civic, a car that any bull rider of his stature could afford. Where did all that money go?
It was then that Paul Drake went into fast motion. There seemed to be a lot of money missing and he needed to talk to their business partner Joan Marshfield. She seemed to be the missing link in this bunch of confusion.
That evening Paul Drake located Joan Mansfield and was welcome into her home. She too lived in a nice part of town and owned a large house. She was a widow and had started the business with Mike and Bruce just two years ago. Mrs. Marshfield had gotten a large insurance settlement because of the accident that her husband had been involved in and Mike and Bruce had made a good sale of their business to her. Like the accounts showed, she had still made a net profit of over seventy-five thousand dollars in the last two years. She seemed very upset at the death of Mike. Mike had been to her house many times and they had become friends.
Paul had hit a brick wall once again. He was missing something. There was a lot of money missing, and someone had probably killed Mike over that money. Anytime there is money missing of over one thousand dollars, someone was involved.
Meanwhile Perry Gordon and Della were going over all of the security cameras that were there at the arena that day. The problem was that there were about two thousand people there for the show that day, and many workers who were going in and out of the area.
They wanted to very carefully watch the tape one half hour before the murder and one half hour after. That would be the time that the murderer would have been within the cameras sights.
The film was of a good quality and they should have no problem identifying the different people that were in the general area of the murder.
Time and time again they watched the video, but could not pick up when the murder actually happened. They did see Mike coming into the room, but at the time of the murder there were so many people around that it was hard to differentiate each of the people on the tape. Perry slowed the tape down to one half speed and the images became too blurry.
The next day the paperwork came through allowing Perry Mason to defend his friend Steven Blake on the murder charge. As of that point Perry could now get court orders and warrants on his own. He needed Gordon Atkins, though, this was going to be a big case and he needed the help of a local man. He assured the young man that he would be needed throughout the whole proceedings.
Paul had been looking into the dealings of the business that Mike Bruce and Joan had been involved in. He went over each of the homes and spoke to the new owners. For the most part the owners were happy with what they had received. But, they were unhappy with the way that the prices had dropped in the real estate market.
In particular Mr. Bryant seemed the most upset of the group. He had paid almost double what the house was now worth and when he had contacted Mke he had gotten no sympathy from him or the others who had fixed his house.
Paul always carried his phone and took many pictures of all the people he interviewed along with their homes and sometimes their families. All of the homes that had been flipped were in and around the same neighborhood He had the pleasure of speaking to many of the neighbors, who were for the most part very willing to talk to this famous detective. They all had heard of the murder and wanted the right killer to be caught.
It was when he was speaking to one of the many people that he met a Mr. Hiram Black. He had been outside doing lawn work when he had seen Mike Perrera get out of his truck the day before he had murdered. He and Mr. Bryant had an argument on the front lawn/ He had seen Mr. Black push Mike and Mike had left in a huff.
With that Paul went back to talk to Mr. Bryant once again. Mr. Bryant answered the door, but this time he was not cordial. He had seen Paul talking to his neighbor and was in no mood to listen to Paul. "I did nothing wrong. Mike owed me money for the loss of property that my family and I had suffered. He had made nearly a million dollars off of clients like me and he wasn't even willing to give me a small loan of ten thousand dollars. I needed that money to help pay the mortgage." Mr. Bryant told him.
Still, there was no way to find out where all the money that Mike had made in the last two years had gone. Paul had checked and there was no hint of any gambling debts or anything of the sort. It would have been difficult for someone to have spent that kind of money without having anything to show for it. He had even financed his car. As a realtor he didn't even own his own house. It just didn't make any sense.
Paul was now looking into Mike's on line accounts. It was there that he found a girl that Mike had met on line. She had been from another country, and had told him all kinds of stories. There was the time that she had needed cancer treatments, and then her brother had gone to jail for something that was not worthy of prosecution in the United States. The woman had taken Mike for all of his money, it appeared that she had entered the United States.
With a lot of private detective work he found the woman. She was living it up in his country with of all people Joan Marshfield. Lots of things had happened to Paul when he had worked for Perry Mason, but this was one of the most surprising in Paul's memory.
So back to the Marshfield house Paul went. There was nothing illegal about her staying there, but it sure didn't make any sense unless the two were working together to make lots of money off of Mike. Perhaps he was aware of it and that is the reason why he had been murdered.
When he knocked on the door he was met by a gun. 'Oh oh this is not good' he thought to himself. The woman at the door was Marissa the woman who had been talking to Mike on line. She had come to america in hopes of him marrying her. She told Paul that she had pulled the gun on him because she was scared that he was someone from her old country, who was there to take her back.
After Marissa found out who Paul was she admitted to everything. She had been told that you could tell an american anything and that they would send you money. She had done that with Mike but had felt bad because she did like him. Mike had paid for her to come to the United States and had set her up with a place to live with his friend Mrs. Marshfield.
Gordon had been busy with his contacts in town, himself. He had found out that there had been an investigation within the city of some of the real estate dealings and there had been a man indicted on charges that the real estate market and some of the financial institutions in town had been involved in some criminal activity regarding the real estate market.
The man who had been charged was Mr. Maxwell Thurston. He had been on the building commission for the city at one time and had used his job title to make money off of many innocent victims of the real estate crash.
Paul had gone to the home of Mr. Thurston and found him to be at home watering his lawn, and fairly hostile. "I have been the scape goat for the whole real estate business. I am no more guilty of the charges than many other members of the community. Mike and his two partners were just three people who were being hurt by the crash of the market. I was at home on the day that Mike was murdered. I feel bad about it but I can't help you." Mr. Thurston told Paul and with that Paul was discharged.
That evening all of the members of the Mason team met at the hotel. Perry had now rented an entire suite so that he and Della could work together and invite guests up. He had rented a large computer and with the use of their phones and laptops everything was set up much like his office in LA.
Perry's friend Jeff's son Steve would be facing a murder trial in a few weeks and it was now getting to the point that he wasn't sure if he could give him a proper defense or not. There were many suspects but he needed to find out who the murderer was.
That evening Perry and Della were again out for dinner after a long day, when something that Della said explained the whole mystery to him. "We have gone over the videos time and time again and although there are many people in the videos I am yet to see someone in them who wasn't involved with the rodeo. That part of the arena was blocked off.
Perry knew that she was right, it had to be a member of the crew. Only they would have been allowed in the back. Security would have stopped them. So we need to look at those videos again.
After looking over the videos time and time again, finally they had made one discovery, Steve was on tape at the other end of the arena working with one of the clowns. He was no where in the area and Perry could now prove it. But, who was the murderer? The answer had to be on the tape.
Perry Mason called the district attorney's office and told him that he had the important piece of information that he needed to see. Tin Bradley agreed to come to the hotel room in an hour.
It was then that Della called in all of the suspects, there were five men who were in the area at the time of the murder and one woman. The men were all workers for the rodeo and the woman had been an investor. Her name was Janice Blackman.
Perry called Paul and asked him to look immediately into the lady on the tape named Janice Blackman. It was to be done quickly as he needed the information for the meeting that he had planned with the district attorney.
All of the people involved in the murder came to Perry's hotel room on the promise that they would be told who the murderer was once they had gotten together. In the room was Jeff and Steven Blake David Wahlstrom, one of the rodeo workers, Mark Gloss, a friend of Mike's and Janice Blackman.
When Mr. Bradley entered the room Perry told him about the tape and showed him that his client had been way over at the other end of the arena working when the murder had taken place. He knew that it meant that he couldn't have done the murder as the arena was over one thousand feet away from where the body was found. It turned out that the district attorney's office was aware of that fact, but because no one was positive of the time that Mike had been murdered Mr. Bradley didn't feel that he was incapable of doing the murder.
Perry spoke up at that time "This case has had me wondering as to who the real murderer was until today. I had been looking at all of the people involved and it wasn't until this morning that the answer had always been here right in front of me I just wasn't seeing it. Mike had been involved in some shady dealings through the real estate market and some people got hurt very badly. Unfortunately, he had already spent the money to get a woman from another country to live with him in this world and all of his money was now gone." he told them.
"I know that Mr. Mason, but what has that got to do with his murder?" Mr. Bradley asked.
'There are five people around Mike when he was murdered, on the video you can see him standing at the three hour fifteen minute and thirty second mark and at the three hour sixteen minute and fifteen second mark he is no longer in the view of the camera. I have now marked the four men and one lady that can be seen on the camera. It appears that all five of you are all around Mike at the time. It is my accusation that you encircled Mike. I have proof that Mike owed each of you over ten thousand dollars a piece and that he did not have the money to pay him. I think that you encircled him to scare him, but someone took it a step further and the five of you know who used the gun." Perry looked at them menacingly.
The five of them stood there like statues staring at Mr. Mason. "You can't prove a thing" Janice Blackman told him.
"You are wrong , you can plainly see Mike standing just before your group of men encircled him. In the next shot he is dead." Mr. Mason accused.
Mark Gloss was the first to speak "We were supposed to just scare him. He was my friend, I didn't want him murdered. It was Mrs. Blackman she pulled out the gun and before any one of us could stop her she shot him. I didn't know what to do and she told us that if any one of us spoke up she would kill our families before the police could get there . Everyone in this group has paid her back her money that she had lost. She made us pay her and to top it off she now wants even more money from us. She is blackmailing us now." he told them.
"You fool, he stole all of our money, he had spent it to send some foreign girl to our country and take our jobs. If we had just stuck together nothing would have happened. Mr. Mason would have gotten Steve off on the murder charges and the rodeo would have gone as before." Mrs. Blackman cried.
With that Mr. Thurston called the police who placed her under arrest. He gave his word that all charges against Mr. Mason's client Steve Jefferson were to be dropped and the thanked every one in the room.
Mr. Mason thanked his new friend Gordon Atkins and promised that if he ever needed a good attorney in the state of Texas he would be calling on him. With that the three friends Della Perry and Paul left in the limo and got on the plane to go home to LA.