The Case of the Runaway

Cast of Characters

Perry Mason—The famous lawyer-detective. His mousy looking client was wanted for murder in two counties

Della Street—Mason’s sharp-witted, well-built secretary. She wanted him to take the case to satisfy her own curiosity

Myrna Davenport—She said her passion was gardening, but her husband, Ed, claimed her real love was her poisonous plant sprays

Sara Ansel—Myrna’s aunt. She was fiercely devoted to her niece’s security and her niece’s money—but she stood to gain it all if Myrna was convicted

Mabel Norge—Ed Davenport’s willowy secretary. She had charge of his incriminating envelope—and also had access to his bank account

Paul Drake—In this case. Perry’s trusted private eye got an offbeat assignment: trailing another private eye

Jonathan Halder—The huffing and bluffing Butte County D.A. He thought Mason a remarkably cooperative witness until he found himself doing all the answering

Pete Ingram—A light-fingered reporter with a hot tip. He wanted to swap it for a hot scoop

Talbert Vandling—The D.A. of Fresno County. He was so wary and dangerous a prosecutor that Perry feared he’d met his match

George Medford—A freckle-faced nine-year-old. He found a hole big enough to hold a body—and three days later it did

Judge Siler—He was supposed to preside at a preliminary hearing, but the battle looked full-scale from his vantage point

Dr. Milton Hoxie—The toxicologist. He stated without a shadow of doubt that the victim had died of cyanide poisoning, and certainly not from arsenic

Dr. Herkimer C. Renault—The doctor who saw Ed Davenport die. He swore Davenport had symptoms of arsenic poisoning—of which he didn’t die—but ruled out cyanide absolutely