Oh it’s been a hot minute since I did a Perry Mason. Here’s #29, dated 1947. Diligently reading in order here, at least 50 more to go. And this was a fun one!
OK, a little background here, a fan dancer (Sally Rand being the most famous) could often be considered a classy dancer. Ostrich plume fans always moving, and you might catch a peek here and there, but no more than that. They were a burlesque act, but some made it to the big time, much like Gypsy Rose (ya gotta have a gimmick!) Lee in strip tease. But many fan dancers never hit those heights, and played the circuit in men-centric communities such as in this case, mining towns. But even they were considered legit performers.
So Perry and Della are tootling along the open road in Imperial Valley, California, for whatever reason. If you are not familiar with California geography, that is one of the two southernmost counties, bordering Mexico. It’s the one on the right (the left-hand one is San Diego) and consists mostly of dry barren mountains, farm and ranch land, and some desert. A car passes them far too fast, careens off another, which rolls into the sand. An elderly Spanish-speaking woman was the driver, and is obviously injured. A third car stops and offers to help. He speaks to the injured woman in Spanish and offers to take her home. There is a certain amount of hand-waving from all parties, but as Perry and Della get ready to continue on, he thinks to check to see if there is anything in the car that the elderly driver might wish to have. And yes, in the trunk, there is a set of fan-dancer’s plumes, and dancing shoes.
Curious, Perry places an ad in the El Centro paper once he returns to Los Angeles, stating that if the owner of the vehicle who lost certain items in the crash would communicate with him, and describe them, he would be glad to return them. He gets responses alright, but they all seem to want to describe a certain horse. And off we go. There is a murder along the way, of course, and a pair of fan dancers, who are described as dead ringers for each other. As Della points out, facially, they are nothing alike, but then who looks at faces?
