But by the time the court reconvened that afternoon Paul had his answers. He had to get to the courthouse and tell Perry. As he was approaching an intersection a car pulled out in front of him abruptly. From the intersection on that car did it's best to knock Paul off the road. But Paul was the better driver and as the car tried to crash into his side once again Paul slammed on the brakes.
The combination of the car abruptly stopping and the other cars attempts to slam into the side and cause Paul to go off the side of the road and into a deep ravine, proved too much for the other car. Paul watched in horror as the other car lost control and went over the guard rails. Paul stopped his car and ran to the side of the road but the car was very deep in the ravine.
On the side of the road was a young man who had managed to jump from the vehicle moments before it had gone down the hill. He was scraped up pretty bad and Paul got on his car phone to call in the accident.
As Paul went to confront the young man who had just tried to kill him, the man made a feeble attempt to escape him. Paul just smiled at the man. It was a mean smile, one that told the young man that he was caught and was now going to talk. Paul wanted to know who had hired him to murder him and he wanted an answer now.
Back at the courthouse Perry Mason was busy asking many people some hard questions. But, he was worried about Paul. Paul was supposed to have met him at the courthouse before court convened in the afternoon and it was now three thirty and he had heard nothing.
The prosecution had brought forth different people from town who testified about the old gold mine. Monroe Patch's father had worked in the mine many years ago. "Everyone in town has gone to the property at one time hoping to find gold. As far as I have ever heard though, no one has ever been successful. Jared had always been sort of a laughing stock."
Perry got up from his seat and walked over to the elderly man. "Do you know anyone in town that might know something about mining and the gold that was still in that mine? Is there anyone else alive that knew someone who worked in the mine?" he asked the man.
"Oh of course there are. The mine did not close until, let me see, oh I believe the last of the workers were laid off in 1909. Most of the people in town that are over thirty knew someone that had a relative that worked there at one time. It was the town's largest employer. As kids everyone went up there. As adults some of us went up there every once in a while. Like I said we found nothing, though as far as I know." With that the man stood down from the witness stand.
Perry was starting to get nervous. Without Paul and any information that he could find out, al Perry was doing was stalling. He had nothing that could tie anyone to the murder and he was getting desperate.
But Paul was about to find out the truth from the frightened young man. The man's name was Mike Baronas and he had been paid well to scare Paul Drake hopefully out of town. Paul convinced him that the man who had hired him was obviously dangerous and that if he testified at the murder trial Perry Mason would help him to get his charges reduced. "I will not press charges against you myself if you will come and testify." Paul promised the man.
As Perry was busy in the courtroom listening to more testimony he heard the door open. There stood Paul and a man who looked as though he had been in some kind of accident. Perry asked the court for a moment and spoke to Paul. He shook his head and looked up as Bruce Stevens and Allen were beginning to make a move toward the door. Perry motioned for the bailiff to keep them in the courtroom.
It was there on the witness stand that the young man told the court his story. "I was paid by Mr. Stevens ten thousand dollars to frighten Paul Drake into leaving the investigation alone. He and the man that runs the bed and breakfast wanted you and Mr. Drake out of town."
"Do you know why?" Perry asked him.
"No. I am not sure, but I heard it was because they wanted to buy the mine cheap from those women." he told him. With that the young man was asked to stand down but not to leave the courtroom.
Perry Mason got up and asked to have Bruce Stevens brought up to the witness stand. "Why did you hire someone to kill Paul Drake?" Perry demanded.
With that Bruce Stevens did his best to deny it. "You can't prove a thing. That kid hasn't got two pennies to rub together. I have never talked to him except to nod my head in years." he told the court.
"Oh I think that you are lying Mr. Stevens. I think that you knew that the gold that Jared was bringing to the bank was not from that mine. But you got curious and went down to see if there was gold there for real. I say that you found the gold vein and wanted to purchase the land for yourself.
"That is a lie and you can't prove a thing." he countered.
"Ob but I can. I have a bill of sale that was typed up at your office . It is an offer of one hundred thousand dollars for the land." With that Mr. Mason showed the paper to the court and asked it to be marked as evidence.
With that Bruce Stevens admitted to what had happened. "I just meant to knock him out, but I hit him too hard. We were going to be rich. Allen and I were going to go into business together and open the mine again. For one hundred thousand dollars we were going to be multi millionaires. If it wasn't for those two women things would have been all right."
With that Lisa was released and now a free woman. Everyone shook hands and congratulated each other. Allen was going to face probably no charges because Paul had promised that he would not press charges. Everyone was happy and ready to go back to the office in LA once again.
