Makayla had been at court all day. She knew that her best friend was in trouble. Harriet was in the kind of trouble, that if her best friend didn't tell her lawyer what she knew, she could go to jail for the rest of her life.
As Makayla paced back and forth across her living room floor her mother came in the room. Her mother knew that something was bothering her daughter. At first she had thought that it was because of all the trouble that Harriet was in. But now she wasn't so sure about it. She had seen Makayla upset before, but now she was acting as though she might have something to hide.
Laura had always been close to Makayla and she hoped that her daughter would open up to her. "Makayla, is there something that you need to tell me about what happened that night? I will not make you tell anyone, but please tell me what is bothering you. I love you and will support you no matter what happens." she told her daughter as she gave her a big hug.
It was time that she came through with the truth. If she didn't tell someone she was going to burst. Makayla was also very afraid that Perry Mason or that man Paul Drake were going to find out the truth anyways. Makayla cleared her throat and started to tell her mother what had happened. "That night that we went to the match, I was supposed to be the one driving. Harriet messed things up when she decided to drive instead of me. Dean knew me and I was going to give him a thousand dollars to hit my back end of the car and then I was going to get rid of the huge car payment that I just couldn't afford." She let out a small cry and then took a big gulp. She then continued.
"Dean saw me and followed us out. He knew that he was supposed to be hitting my car, but when he saw Harriet's new mustang convertible he saw money. He was sure that he could make more money off of Harriet than he could off me. So he decided to back end her instead. After the accident he called me that night laughing. He offered to still wreck my car. He also said that if I told the police what I had planned to do that I would go to jail, so I had to keep quiet. I didn't know what to do. Now my best friend is facing life in prison for something I know that she didn't do."
Laura looked at Makayla. What she had done was wrong, but her daughter had not killed anyone. Dean Brice was certainly a bad egg and she couldn't help but wonder how many other times he had done the same thing. There might be quite a few people out there that would want him dead. She looked at her daughter and said "You need to tell Mr. Drake what you told me. I am sure that he can use the information to help your friend. A good lawyer can help you with what you did. Since nothing was ever done I am sure that there is no crime. Don't worry."
Makayla nodded and picked up the phone. She placed a call to Mr. Drake's office and she was connected directly to Paul Drake's phone. Mr. Drake had said that he would be there in a few minutes so Makayla and Laura just sat on the couch shaking. When the handsome man walked in the door and sat down to hear their story, they both felt much better.
Paul Drake listened intently to Makayla and knew that Perry was right as usual. He had suspected that there were other victims to the man who had been murdered and he was sure that was probably the reason why he had been murdered. It was just going to be Perry and his job to find out who that was. When they had a victim they would find the murderer.
Perry Mason had been home in his office working on more briefs when he received the call from Paul. He had a funny feeling that something had happened involving Makayla and was glad that it had nothing to do with her covering the murderer or something. He had for a moment thought that she might be involved in the murder, but now was pretty sure that she was innocent of that crime anyways.
Della had been standing next to her husband when the call had come through. She was still working very hard on finding any other cases where Dean Brice had collected some insurance money due to an accident. But, so far he had come back clean.
Perry looked up at his wife and said "If we don't find something soon, Harriet is in trouble. We know that Dean was involved in insurance scams, what about other scams like the internet? I wonder if he used any aliases on the internet and has done something to anger someone enough to kill him? Della I want you to look into his profile and his internet connection. I want a court order that allows me to see everything that Dean Brice has been involved in for the last three months. I want it from the ip addresses of all three of his known girl friends." Perry told her.
That night the lights burned very late but just after midnight all of the papers were ready for the court the next morning. But Perry wasn't interested in waiting until morning. He picked up the phone and woke up a very groggy Craig. "Craig I want you to get hold of Judge Phelps and I want him to give me an order allowing me to view all internet connections. All the information is here at my house. Come over now and give him a call. He will sign the papers and our work will begin." Perry told him and then hung up the phone.
Della was never surprised at what her husband might do, where he would go with ideas and who he would expect to be at his bid and call. But Craig was a good lawyer in his own right and eager to please Perry Mason. Craig jumped into his clothes and drove right over to the Mason house. There he was greeted by Mr. Mason and he headed out to the judge's home to get his signature.
Paul Drake had a man that specialized in computers and could pull up anything that had been on a computer since the computer was purchased. He called his man into the office and with the court order in hand the man went to work. He was going to have to examine three computers and two laptops. "This could take me twenty-four hours or so." he told Paul.
"That is fine. Just let us have the information as you get it. Perry wants to start reviewing the material right away." Paul told him.
With that the man went to work.
