Note: This is just a quick sketch. I'm just trying to outline the basic plot before putting flesh to the bones. The characters aren't developed yet and it doesn't read well but I'd like to first make sure the mystery works. It's not easy to create a mystery that doesn't have blatantly obvious holes in it. Let me know what is difficult to understand or just simply doesn't make sense.
Scene 1 - Late one night at a crowded bar Charles Foley is seen drunk and flirting with Johnny Tortelli's girlfriend. A brawl ensues and he is thrown out. Later that night police find Charles Foley's body in an alley. He has been stabbed. Tortelli is arrested on murder charges.
Scene 2 - Perry Mason is asked by Johnny Tortelli's wealthy father to represent his son. Perry agrees and after speaking with the boy at the jail is convinced of his innocence and decides to look into Mr. Foley's possible enemy list.
Scene 3 - It doesn't take long for suspicions to arise. Upon examining Charles' bank records, Della Street (Perry's secretary) finds that two large deposits have been made into his account twice a month over the past 8 months. They trace the money to two highly competitive commercial and residential landowners downtown -- Chuck Rivers and Miles Pearson. Paul (Mason's private investigator) searches for a connection that Charles Foley could possibly have had with these men and eventually finds a certificate while searching Charles Foley's home that suggests he is a building inspector.
Scene 4 - Paul conducts the first interviews of Mr. Rivers and Mr. Pearson, and while they are initially reluctant to share information, he finds out that both had been blackmailed by Foley for 8 months with information that their adjoining properties were sources of major radon gas contamination. Paul reports this to Perry, who replies, "Well, both men have a motive. If Johnny Tortelli didn't murder Charles Foley, than which one of these real estate tycoons has links to the crime?"
Scene 5 - Courtroom Perry puts Chuck Rivers on the stand and quickly points out that he had discovered that Chuck had been offered a purchase of his property and had refused. Perry asks Rivers why, to which Rivers says he was afraid that a resulting property inspection would reveal the radon contamination, and thus, not only encumber the sale of his property but publicize the problem, causing panic among his tenants. Perry concludes his questioning, "Thank you Mr. Rivers."
He then puts Pearson on the stand and asks, "Now, you sir have also received an offer to buy your downtown property, which adjoins that of Mr. Rivers and also has a radon gas problem, have you not?"
-Yes, replies Pearson.
- And have you accepted this offer?
-Yes sir, we are closing the deal in 3 days. The buyer wanted to close immediately but I needed a few days to get some papers ready.
-Do you know who your buyer is?
-No sir, I have been working with an agent. The buyer wishes to remain anonymous.
-What about the radon? Aren't you afraid of public exposure like Chuck Rivers? Have you disclosed this information to the buyer?
- I have sir and he doesn't seem to care. That's probably because he is getting the real estate at a third of the cost that I paid for it. But Mr. Mason, I tell you, I've had it. I want out of this whole mess.
Perry asks if there aren't ways of fixing the radon problem and Pearson replies, "Well sure there are, but they are expensive, and then you have to convince all the tenants that every little sniffle and head ache they've ever had, or ever will have, isn't your fault. I can just see people lining up to sue me. Well, I don't want to deal with it, and if this mystery buyer wants the problem, well he sure can have it. But no sir, not me. I want out." Mason concludes his questioning of the witness, "Thank you Mr. Pearson."
Mr. Mason calls his next witness. The prosecutor questions the relevance of all this buying and selling hearsay and how it is related to the dead Charles Foley. Mr. Mason begs for the court to indulge him just a little longer, which of course it does.
The next witness called is a previously unseen character sitting in the back of the court room. He is identified as Dan Jones a real estate broker. Mr. Mason asks if he ever does anonymous work, and if so whether he has done any lately, and with whom. Through this questioning it is revealed that he has done work for Mr. Chuck Rivers. Mr. Rivers is called back to the stand and the questioning resumes.
-Mr. Rivers is it true that you made an offer on a property adjacent to yours through Mr. Jones. And is it true that it has a known radon gas problem, although previously known only to you?
-Well so what. Sure it's true, there's nothing illegal about that!
-What about all of your previously stated concerns about inspections that would accompany any sale and the possible litigation that would follow?
-Well sir, I guess I'm a gambler and was hoping it would never come out?
-You mean, you would make sure that it never came out. You would murder Charles Foley and keep that information quiet.
-Now Mr. Mason, I am an intelligent man, and that would be a silly thing for me to do because the information would just resurface at the next inspection.
-Yes, you're right. That's why we found it interesting, on close examination of your offer to buy that you made the sale contingent on using the same property inspector that had done the original inspection. Now why would you do that?
- I don't know what you are talking about.
Mason interjects, "Oh I think you do. Because I think you found out like we did, that Charles Foley wasn't really a city inspector. I think you discovered like we did that he was a fraud. That he had been pulling the wool over your eyes; that he had deceived you for the last 8 months. You then did what we did, had a radon test done and discovered that the property had no such problem. You were furious with Foley but still cool enough to use the situation to you're advantage. You decided to anonymously purchase your competitor's land while he still thought there was a problem, thus obtaining it at a fraction of its real value. However, there wasn't enough room for two crooks to make out big on the deal and you weren't about to go on being blackmailed, so you wanted to knock off Foley. Anyway you still needed him to conduct another fraudulent inspection to keep up the appearance of contamination, which he of course obliged.
"An examination of his phone records shows that you called his apartment on the afternoon of his murder. Mr. Rivers, you asked him to meet you at that downtown bar late that night didn't you, perhaps as a professional courtesy to him for having helped you complete the sale? When you arrived you saw the fight between he and Tortelli ensue, and how he was kicked out. You followed him and stabbed him in that dark alley. Not Johnny Tortelli. How convenient! You knew that this innocent young boy would get the blame, and that you'd be home free. Free. Isn't this true? You killed Charles Foley!"
He tries to run, is caught. The charges are dropped against Johnny Tortelli and all are relieved.