- Jeff Bronson's aircraft company is betting on the success of a new plane but after it crashes in a test flight, attention becomes focused on the test pilot, who is seeing Jeff's ex-wife. When he is murdered, Jeff is charged.
- Jeff and Lola Bronson go through a bitter divorce, with Jeff giving her an equity position in his aviation firm which he has an option to buy from her. They are about to test a new aircraft design with test pilot Bill Ryder, having only one more series of tests left to undertake. It doesn't go well and Bill has to parachute to safety while the plane crashes. On the side, Leander Walker wants to buy into the company but Jeff wants nothing to do with him due to his reputation for taking over companies. Violet Ryder thinks her husband may have been having an affair with Lola. She and Lola both believe Bill caused the test failure for money and confront him about it. It's no surprise, therefore, when the test pilot is found dead and Jeff is charged with murder. Perry defends him but, when the case starts to look bed for him, Lola stands up in court and says she did it, to which Jeff replies that he's the one who did it. Perry thinks they're both innocent.—garykmcd
- In a divorce court, aircraft designer Jeff Bronson (Charles Bateman) and his Argentine wife Lola (Lisa Gaye) receive their interlocutory decree. Their agreement, which Perry drew up, grants Jeff a 90-day option on her shares in Bronson aircraft.
Jeff and company president Courtney Patton (Alan Bunce) go to the company airfield, where chief mechanic Clarence Keller (Ben Wright) is readying their new plane for a pre-certification test tomorrow. The company's entire future depends on the success of this plane, so Courtney has invited businessman Leander Walker (William Mims) over to make one more attempt to spread the risk by buying half of Jeff's and Courtney's stock. Jeff is angry, knowing that once he gets his foot in the door, Walker won't stop until he gets control of the company. If that happens, he'll let competing companies buy him off to not produce the new plane. Courtney is more amenable to Walker's offer, but he reassures Jeff that he hasn't sold his stock. Bill's wife Violet (Barbara Stuart) comes to the company office, angry that Bill has flown off with Lola. Jeff hadn't noticed his interest in Lola until Violet told him, so they both drown their frustrations in alcohol. Later, a somewhat drunk Jeff drops by the apartment Lola shares with her cousin Conception (Faith Domergue) and warns her to stay away from Bill. He gets a hostile reception and leaves.
The next day, Bill takes the new plane to 20,000 feet, then goes into a dive as part of the test. Soon, the others hear Bill on the radio, shouting over the noise of the diving plane. He says the wings are coming apart and he can't pull out of the dive. The plane crashes, but they soon spot a parachute. Bill survives, but it's a disaster for the company.
Around 11 PM at Bill's place, Violet is visiting and he tells her he wants to end their marriage. However, she has overheard him making a deal with Walker to sabotage the test flight, and she wants half of what Bill was paid. Lola is at the door, and Violet leaves the back way. Lola, acting as if she intends to go along with the deal, gets Bill to admit to her that he faked the problems with the plane. She pulls a gun and demands that Bill call Jeff and confess to him. Bill turns out the light then grabs for the gun, which goes off in the struggle. When Lola turns the light back on, she sees Bill's body on the floor. The doorbell rings, so Lola runs out the back way, dropping the gun in her haste. It's Clarence the mechanic at the door, but he leaves when no one answers. At 11:50 PM, Jeff is now in Bill's place. He fires the gun and doctors the crime scene - moving the body, removing evidence that Bill and Lola had drinks during their talk, knocking over furniture, breaking glass panes in the back door, and taking the gun and Bill's wallet.
The next day at Perry's office, Conception explains to Perry and Paul that she got worried when Lola left to see Bill, so she called Jeff, who said he'd take care of Bill. When Lola finally returned, she looked frightened but wouldn't talk about what happened. Paul and Perry go to Bill's and find the body. Perry calls the police, but Lt. Tragg appears at the door in person, having been already called by Violet. As Perry and Paul leave, they note that the broken glass is outside the back door, so the break-in was obviously faked. Perry visits Lola, who claims that when she arrived at Bill's, she heard voices inside and left. Perry gets a call from Paul - Jeff has been arrested for murder.
In court, the pathologist (Pitt Herbert) testifies that Bill was killed by a single bullet, and the condition of the body is inconsistent with a violent struggle. He can't rule out a lesser confrontation with a significantly weaker opponent. Finney (Tom Vize), an "astronomer", testifies to seeing Clarence and Jeff around Bill's place through his telescope. He got Jeff's license plate number and called the police, which is how they arrested him so quickly. Tragg testifies about the faked break-in. The police found a slug in Bill, another in a wall, and a third in a log in the fireplace. All three came from a gun registered to Jeff, which was found hidden in his car, along with Bill's wallet. From the gallery, Lola shouts that she's the one who killed Bill. Jeff immediately claims that he's the murderer.
In Burger's office, Lola gives an honest account of what happened when she went to Bill's. Jeff lies, claiming he never gave Lola the gun and that in her confession she got some details wrong. (These "discrepancies" are all things that Jeff had altered, like the location of the body.) He slips when he says he fired the gun once more after killing Bill, as part of faking a burglary. Perry reminds him that three slugs were found, so he says he meant that he fired twice more. He says he went to Bill's after getting Conception's call, and had to shoot Bill, who came at him with a poker. Burger asks Perry which of the two he'd rather defend, and Perry replies, "Which one are you going to prosecute?"
Paul has learned that on the night of the murder, Violet registered at a motel within 3 blocks of Bill's place. So he and Perry confront her about her earlier lie that she'd been nowhere near the area. Trapped, she admits that she knew about Bill's sabotage and that she expected a share of the money. She doesn't know more, and refers them to Courtney, whom she assumes must have been in on the deal. They next visit Courtney, who is visibly drunk. He admits to having sold half his shares to Walker despite what he told Jeff. However, he knew nothing about the sabotage, through which he lost a fortune when the value of his remaining stock plummeted after the crash. Paul reports that the records for Bill's phone indicate calls that night to Courtney, Walker, and Jeff. Jeff denies it, saying the only call he got was the one from Conception. Perry says that they've found the murderer.
At the airport, Lola and Conception meet Walker. Perry and Paul arrive with Sgt. Brice (Lee Miller), who has an arrest warrant for Walker, charging him with fraud and sabotage. He denies that he's fleeing the country, claiming he's only going to South America because Conception told him that's where Lola will sell him her stock. This is news to Lola, and Perry surprises her further by saying that Conception followed her to Bill's and saw that Bill had been knocked out in the struggle for the gun. After Lola left, she entered, shot Bill, and called Jeff from there, claiming to be home to establish her alibi. (This backfired when Paul checked the phone records.) Conception adds that when she entered, Bill got up, and just laughed when Conception threatened him with the gun - so she shot him. Back in court, the case is formally dismissed. Della has a couple questions: Why was Walker still so interested in buying stock after he'd ruined the company's value? Perry's answer: He wanted total control to enable his scheme of forcing competitors to buy him off not to produce the new plane. Why would Conception expect that Jeff would act the way he did - even incriminating himself? Perry's answer: "Take a look" - he indicates the back of the courtroom, where Jeff and Lola are having an amorous moment.
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