Perry Mason and his wife had now worked together for over 25 years and had been married for 20 of them. Their life had been a wonderful life together and neither one of them would have changed that for anything.

They had 2 wonderful children Sally who they had adopted when she was just eight years old . Sally was now working on getting her law degree and hoped that someday she would be able to work with her parents. She was just 23 years old and already knew her way around the courtroom better than many attorneys twice her age.

Perry Junior was getting ready to attend high school and wanted to get into private investigation. His friend was now working for his father's old agency with his mom the Paul Drake investigaters. . His name was Paul Drake Jr and he hoped to one day be as famous as his dad had been.

Life was good for the small family and they had now lived in the same home for their entire marriage. Even with all the friends and many get togethers the family had through the years the home had kept it's warm friendly comfortable feeling.

Perry Mason was due to have another busy day at court. He was working to keep another client from the future of a long prison sentence. Once again, his client was innocent, he knew it and it was up to him to find out who the real murderer was.

Della was busy that morning too. After all, she did have two young people to get ready for their day and she would have to be in the courtroom along with her husband in just 2 hours herself. She took on the task with the same amount of patience and dignity that she always did and breathed a sigh of relief as she waved good-bye to Perry Jr as he got onto the school bus. She would now have time to take a small break before she herself headed to work. As she looked around the kitchen she smiled. She had a very happy live.

Fred was now in his office and looking into a past that he didn't want to think about. However, he had seen both Marcus and Tom many times over the years and they had never had such serious looks on their faces as they did on this morning. He welcomed them in and as they pulled up their chairs to his desk he took a deep breath.

Fred, as you know i have been working on your coworker Ralph's murder case from the beginning Tom started. It has come to our attention that perhaps you knew something about what had occured the evening before at your office that you have not been forthcoming with us on.

At this point Fred suspected what had happened. Jane had always been trying to get him to go to the police and be forthright with what had happened the night before but to tell the truth he had been frightened. Even he wasn't sure if Ralph had hit his head during their argument. Yes he had struck the young man. Yes, he was much younger and stronger at the time. But, they had made up as hot heads do and when Ralph had left the bar that night he had not mentioned having a headache.

He decided it was time that the truth be told and so he told his friends (the police) what had happened that night. It was just an argument between 2 men who were friends. We did get physical but Brian Barnes stopped the fight. We went onto having a good time at the bar afterward. Ralph and i never discussed the argument again.

Once the company was sold we see that you made quite a profit. Was there anyone else that stood to lose if the company was sold? Marcus asked him.

Fred thought about it for a minute and said. No this was a small company that was honestly losing money at the time. We could barely keep ourselves afloat. If the buyout hadn't been offered to us we would have gone out of business in a year or so anyways. The sale was our only hope of making ends meet. The company needed to be modernized to compete with foreign countries and we had been turned down at the bank for a loan. Fred told them.

This was all information that Tom had found out during his initial investigation. The company was behind in it's bills and yes it had been turned down by the bank. At the time Mr. Meyers was the loan officer and there was talk about why he turned down a loan to a local company that had been of good standing for many years. Meyers was still alive but had moved out of town shortly after Ralph's body had been discovered. Perhaps it was time to look once again into the bank records and have a talk with Mr. Meyer, who was now in his late 70s.

Finally after all these years there were some new aspects on the case. Tom and Marcus both thought of Sheri and contemplated calling her to let her know what was going on. But, they both decided that they would wait until they got more information.

Fred sat back at his desk visibly shaken. He had held onto the information for so long and now the police were going to be looking into things even a little tighter. He thought that he should get a lawyer and a good one. He thought of Perry Mason. Mason had helped him out a few years ago on a case invollving a copyright and picked up the phone.

Della was just entering the office when the phone rang. She picked it up and was surprised to hear the familiar voice. She made the appointment. Fred did indeed need the advice of a lawyer.