TCOT Sunbather's Diary
This episode is from January 1958. It was directed by Ted Post with the teleplay by Gene Wang. The characters are not mine but belong to Erle Stanley Gardner.
Story synopsis: Perry gets a phone call from a beautiful woman with some "bare" facts. Arlene Dowling was sunbathing when her house trailer and all her belongings were stolen. She's calling, wrapped in nothing but a towel, from a golf course. Perry sends Della to the golf course with clothes for Arlene.
Later, in the office, Arlene tells Perry that her diary was in the trailer. It details the truthful account of a notorious bank heist, which took place nine months before. Her father, Frank Dowling, and his friend George Ballard, were accused and wrongly convicted. Frank is now in prison. Perry finds the trailer, George Ballard is murdered and Arlene is the prime suspect. Perry defends her, and in the middle of all this is himself indicted for perjury for his efforts. It seems that the messenger, Thomas Sackett, delivers a payment to Perry, supposedly from Arlene. Not only was it a fake payment, it was actually part of the stolen money. It also turns out that Sackett stole the trailer.
Perry, Paul and Della work together to find the real culprit. Arlene is exonerated and the real killer, Bill Emory, is charged not only with the murder but the theft as well.
The following dialogue is from the last scene of this episode.
Della hurries into the coffee shop where Perry is having lunch. She slides into the both next to him, smiles and says:
"Look what just came in the mail from Bushwick Indemnity."
Perry: (taking the check from Della) "pay to the order of Perry Mason, $25…$25,000… very nice" (He pauses and turns to Della) "endorse this over to Frank Dowling (Della looks at him with surprise and admiration) after all Della, the man's been in prison. To us, it's just another case."
Della leans over and gives him a kiss on the cheek
Perry: (smiling and turning towards Della) "My mother always told me to turn the other cheek."
Della looks at him lovingly as she wipes her lipstick of his face. "I'll take care of this when I get back to the office. I'm famished!"
Perry: (calls the waitress over) "Amy, (takes the menu from her) thank you Amy. Now Mademoiselle, the rarest of delicacies is yours for the asking. Would you care to order?"
Della: "coffee, bacon and eggs"
Perry: "Did you get all that Pierre?"
Hamilton Burger walks over. "Are you buying Mr. Moneybags?"
Perry: "Moneybags?"
Burger: "I heard about the $25,000 reward. Some people have all the luck."
Della: "Is that what you call it, Mr. Burger?"
Burger: "Yes, by the way, what made you decide on Emory?"
Perry: "You"
Burger: "Huh?"
Perry: "Obviously you were tipped off that I was meeting Arlene at Sunset and Maple Drive."
Burger: "Well, what if I was?"
Perry: "That information could have only come from Emory. He was in my office when Arlene telephoned."
Burger: "I see." (Hesitates) "The indictment against you for perjury has been quashed."
Perry: "Thank You. Under the circumstances the least I can do is buy your lunch."
Burger: "Alright, if you insist."
Perry: "I do insist… Amy…one order of crow for the gentleman…he'll eat it here."
End of episode. My story picks up from here.
Perry and Della said goodbye to Hamilton Burger, leisurely finished their lunch and made their way back to the office. Perry, ever studious, noticed that Della seemed a bit quieter than usual and made a mental note to talk to her about it later that day. Once inside the Brent Building they rode up to their office with an elevator, full from the lunch hour rush. When the elevator stopped at the 9th floor, Perry held Della's arm and escorted her to the door of his private entrance, ushering her inside. Della quickly turned into her ever efficient secretary mode, gathering the mail and other odds and ends before heading to her own office. As she did, she looked at Perry and gave him a demure smile. "I'll take care of this check right now Perry. If you need anything else", she said softly "you know where to find me."
Perry gently put his hand on Della's arm and asked softly, "Are you alright?"
Della looked up at Perry and said, "Of course I am. Why do you ask?"
"It's just that I noticed as we were walking back from lunch you were, shall we say, a little quieter then usual. Is there something bothering you, something you'd like to talk to me about? I can be a very good listener you know."
"Oh yes, Mr. Mason," Della thought to herself, "you do notice everything and you are a very good listener."
Della placed a reassuring hand on Perry's check and said, "I'm fine Perry, really. I have to go and take care of this and I have a few other things to finish. You also have two appointments this afternoon and you need to look over their files. I left them on your desk. Now, don't you think it's time we got back to work…hmmm?"
Mason looked at his secretary and pulled her into him. He kissed the top of her head and breathed in the scent of her perfume. Pulling back to look at her, he said "My Della, how did I ever get so lucky?" He kissed her lightly on the forehead and then bent down and softly kissed her lips. As they broke away, he cleared his throat and his voice took on the more formal tone of their working relationship…
"Alright Miss Street, you are right once again. Let's get back to business." To himself, Perry thought, "something is clearly bothering you my darling and I intend to find out what it is.
Later Perry stood in the doorway between his office and Della's. He watched her typing the last of the contracts he had given her that day. She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn't see Perry standing there. When it looked as though she was finished, he quietly walked around to her desk and put his hand on top of hers. Glancing up at him, she gave him that brilliantly beautiful smile. "Can I do something for you counselor? Is there something you need?"
Perry bent down and kissed Della gently on the lips. "You can have dinner with me tonight, Miss Street," he said softly.
"Of course I will Perry. I would love to. Will I have time to go home and change?"
Perry put his hands on Della's waste and helped her up. He took her in his arms and said, "You look beautiful just the way you are, but if you want to go home and change I think that could be arranged." Actually, I have a surprise for you…"
"Oh and what would that be?" Della asked
"Now if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise would it?" Perry said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
Della started to say something but Perry put his finger on her lips to silence her. "Alright sweetheart, how soon will you be finished?" he asked her.
"I just have to finish this contract and put everything away.
"That's fine. While you're doing that I'll go call Donavan's and see if I can get a reservation."
Perry looked down at Della, kissed her softly on the forehead and went back into his office to make the dinner reservation, leaving Della to finish. Forty five minutes later they were in the car driving to dinner.
When they arrived at the restaurant Perry pulled into the lot and parked the car. He got out, and after helping Della from the car, conveniently slid his grasp around her waist. There were always mutual benefits to chivalry. As they walked through the door they were warmly greeted by the proprietor, Max.
"Mr. Mason, Miss Street, how it is wonderful to see you! It's been a while."
"Yes it has Max," said Perry as he smiled and shook the genial owner's hand. "We've been meaning to make it up here before now but we were busy with a case and just finished up a few days ago."
"Oh yes, I read about it in the paper. I have to tell you I thought all that trouble you had with Mr. Burger was a bunch of foolish nonsense. The idea that anyone would even think a thing like that is just malarkey."
As Max was giving Perry his opinion, Perry felt Della stiffen. He returned his arm to her waist and as soon as Max stopped talking, Perry tactfully did his best to end the subject and take the conversation in another direction.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence Max. Mr. Burger was just doing his job and it all got straightened out. Now, tell me, how's the family, everyone ok?"
"Everyone is great Mr. Mason, thanks for asking. Well you two must be starving. I have your table all ready…and I must say that you look especially lovely tonight, Miss Street."
Perry looked down at Della and then at Max. "You're definitely right about that Max. But then again Miss Street always looks lovely Perry said as he gave her a gentle squeeze.
As they followed Max to their table, Perry couldn't help but hide a smile as he watched a blush creep up Della's face.
Once they were seated and alone, Perry took Della's hand in his and began stroking her arm. As he did so, he looked into her eyes and in a soft gentle voice asked, "What's wrong honey?"
Della looked at Perry and said quietly, "I told you nothing is wrong. Why do you keep asking me that?"
Perry put his hand on Della's face and lightly brushed across her cheek.
"Let's see, as I said before, this afternoon you were a little too quiet and just now when Max was going on about everything that happened with Burger, I noticed a little change in you. Now do you want to tell me what's bothering you?"
Della put her head down for a minute. When she looked back up at Perry, she had tears in her eyes. "Oh Perry," she said her voice trembling, "it's just that it upsets me so to think that Mr. Burger wanted to throw an indictment at you. Let alone even think that you would have been involved in something underhanded like that. I mean he knows you, the kind of man you are…even though you are on opposite sides. What was he thinking? Honestly, even though he apologized today and dropped the whole thing…I…I felt like…like punching him. It was just more than I could swallow. Then after it's was all through, we had to hear Max dredge it all up again. I know he was just letting you know how he felt but…" Della stopped and let out a deep breath.
Perry looked at the beautiful woman sitting across from him. As always, he was filled with wonder and amazement at the depths of love and loyalty she had for him. Not only was she a perfect match for him professionally, she was a perfect match personally as well. There was not a day that went by, that he didn't realize how lucky he was and how thankful he was that she was in his life. He only hoped she knew how much he loved and cherished her and how precious she was to him. Perry moved his chair around the table so that he was closer to Della. He put his finger on her lips and said lovingly "Sweetheart, I love you for defending me and for wanting to protect me. You don't know how that makes me feel…what it means to me… but the case is over and everything turned out fine right? So now my beauty, what do you say to having a nice quiet dinner maybe a dance or two, then going home and just spending the weekend doing nothing but being together with no interruptions?" Perry wiped the tears that had fallen from Della's eyes. He then leaned forward and left a soft kiss on her lips
Della gave Perry a dazzling smile. "I think that's a wonderful idea counselor."
At that moment, Jack, the head waiter came over to their table with a bottle of wine as he greeted them warmly. "Mr. Mason, Miss Street it's a pleasure to see you again." He shook Perry's hand and smiled at Della. "Max sent this over with his compliments." He then opened the bottle of Shiraz and poured some into Perry's glass. Perry took a sip and nodded his approval. Jack then poured more into Perry's glass and filled Della's as well. Jack said to Perry "I'll leave you with this and be back to take your order in a few minutes. Do you need to see a menu or do you want your usual?"
Perry looked at Della and asked, "Do you know what you would like?"
Della looked at Jack and said sweetly "Jack I think I'll just have the salad and the petite steak with the sweet potato. Is that still on the menu"?
It is and for you Mr. Mason?" I'll have my usual Jack and we'll also have the grilled asparagus. Oh and let's start off with the stuffed mushrooms."
"Very good sir. I'll put that order right in and be out with those mushrooms and some bread in a minute. We have a new baker and he is just great. Wait till you taste the bread and his desserts…well all I can tell you is that they are amazing."
"Thank you Jack," Perry said with a smile. As soon as Jack walked away, Perry raised his glass, looked at Della lovingly and said "a toast… to the most important person in my life." Della also raised her glass and said softly "and to mine." Their glasses touched gently and they each took a sip. Perry then put his glass down and took Della's hand in his. "Sweetheart," he asked gently "Is what you ordered enough for you?"
Della looked at Perry and laughed. "Of course it is counselor, but thank you for worrying about me. Unlike you and Paul, I don't have a bottomless pit. Although I think Paul has you beat in that area. Sometimes when the three of us are out to lunch or dinner, it's like being in the middle of an eating marathon. I just ordered a regular meal." Perry threw his head back and laughed. "You know as Paul always says, we are growing boys." Della looked at him and laughed. "Well, I want to make sure that I don't grow in the wrong direction." Della then brought Perry's hand to her lips and kissed it. She looked at him and said softly, "Really, Perry, I love that you worry about me but honestly I am just fine."
"Alright Darling," Perry said tenderly. He smiled that special smile he held only for her. He didn't say anything to Della but he knew something was still bothering her. He was sure of it. He didn't know what it was, but he hoped that Della would tell him in her own time. He never had any trouble getting the answers from his clients or the witnesses in the courtroom but Della was another matter altogether. He loved her so. He would never want to do or say anything to hurt or upset her. "Maybe I'm just imagining it," Perry thought. "Maybe she's just upset from this last case and the whole ordeal with Burger. Hopefully the weekend would be just what she needed…what they both needed.