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The crowd made its way out of the courtroom. When the room was all but deserted, Mason began to gather his files and shove them into his attaché' case. A small trio gathered around Mason.
"You saved me!" declared Helen Carmichael. "How did you do it?"
"Out with it, Chief," demanded Della Street. "Where did you get all of that?"
"When did you first begin to suspect Jack Anderson?" asked Paul Drake. "It was long before you had your little talk with Janet Redding, wasn't it?"
"It was," admitted Mason. "I suspected Jack Anderson almost from the beginning. I just wasn't sure."
"How did you suspect him?" asked Helen.
"I suspected everyone," said Mason. "Part of being a good lawyer is keeping an open-mind. I had to consider all possibilities. An obvious possibility was that Bill Anders had been killed by a woman. That was what everyone suspected. Anders had made enemies out of so many women that people had always suspected he would end up being killed by one."
"So you considered the possibility that Bill Anders had been killed by a man?" said Drake.
"Exactly," said Mason. "But not just any man. I had to ask myself if there was a man who had motive to kill Bill Anders. There was. Jack Anderson, the man who stood to inherit Anders' entire company."
"What was the clue that made you certain it was him?" asked Drake.
"Bill Anders' pajamas," stated Mason. His friends looked at him blankly. Mason sighed. "I'll explain. The anonymous letter Hamilton Burger read to the court specifically mentioned Bill Anders' royal blue pajamas. I knew then that whoever wrote that letter wasn't on the train with Helen, Natalie, Kay, and Susan."
"How?"
"I was there. I overheard the entire conversation. The girls never mentioned Bill Anders' pajamas. But both Helen and Anderson mentioned they had discussed the pajamas."
"And I thought I'd actually told Jack less than I had the girls," said Helen.
"Jack Anderson has a way of making people think that. He invited me to his office for a business meeting and I ended up telling him things about my personal life that I had never told anyone else before. Jack Anderson has a skill for making conversation seem so casual that certain details slip out. Details like, I assume, your shoe size, Ms. Carmichael."
Helen nodded.
"During your dinner at Slam Duncan's, you told Jack Anderson all about your plot to murder his partner. If you left any details out, they were details Anderson already knew from his own relationship with Anders. Sometime during dinner, you went to powder your nose, trusting Anderson to look after your purse. He helped himself to a tube of your lipstick, which he later planted in Anders' room.
"Anderson was certain that you had told all of your friends on the train the same details you had told him. His ownunique skill backfired.
"After he had murdered Anders and the trial began, Anderson realized no one was certain you had actually plotted the murder. The anonymous letter was not substantial evidence. Anderson realized that his only chance of framing you was to produce a witness, even if she was a false one. He started hanging around community theaters and met Janet Redding, whom he knew by her stage name, Trixie Powers. With some money and a dye job (from black to red), Janet agreed to claim she had overheard the plot on the train, just as I had."
"That's why you had me confess to plotting Bill!" gasped Helen.
"When I heard that Prosecution was going to call a surprise witness, I suspected that whoever had written that anonymous letter had hired someone to give false testimony."
"You wanted to beat whoever it was to the punch," said Drake.
"There was something else," said Mason. "I wanted to see everyone's reactions."
"They were all the same," said Drake. "Shock and confusion."
"No," said Mason. "There was something else in Anderson's face. He realized that I had taken his next step for him. That's when I knew Anderson was the real killer. I just needed to have other witnesses ready to prove it." He turned to Helen and quoted, "And the truth shall set you free."
"I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble," said Helen. "I should have just been honest in the first place."
"It generally is the best policy," said Mason. "But, in your defense, making you testify wasn't the best decision I've ever made in the courtroom."
"Nothing more in my defense," said Helen. "You've done that enough already. I could never find a way to thank you enough…"
She kissed him firmly on both cheeks, leaving bright red prints on his face before she turned and walked away.
Mason sat back in his chair and breathed heavily.
"Tough case," said Mason.
"You'll be bored again soon," said Della. "You're attending another legal convention next week."
"You know what?" said Mason with a smile. "I'm actually looking forward to it."
Della Street and Paul Drake began to move towards the exit as Mason crammed the last of his papers into his case. Mason then followed his friends out of the courthouse, whistling an upbeat tune.
A/N – So Perry Mason solves another case. The whistling is overshadowed by the theme music which starts in the background, and we go to the credits.
It's been quite a year-long ride, and I'd like to thank everyone who took it with me. If you enjoyed this, please check out my other stories on the site. I have a "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" fan novel in progress right now. I'd like to do another Perry Mason fanfic, but considering the work this one took, I'm not making any promises.
Thank you again, and please remember to R & R and let me know what you thought of the finished product.
The End