From Omaha, Nebraska, to Wolfe is sent someone who asks him to find his son. Eleven years ago the boy was kicked out of the house because, supposedly, he had taken $25,000 from his father’s firm’s till—but it later turned out the dollars were stolen by someone else, and the son is believed to have settled in New York. Wolfe takes the case. He suspects the son changed his name but kept the initials—P.H. A notice is published calling on P.H. to respond, and almost immediately it turns out that a person with exactly those initials is being tried for willful murder. The accused’s lawyer appears, wanting to find out whether Wolfe is actually looking for his client. After Goodwin visits the court and establishes that the person being sought and the defendant are one and the same, the lawyer comes again and declares that he is almost sure of his client’s innocence. Wolfe understands that a message saying the missing son has been convicted of murder will not please the father, and that charging a substantial fee for this would be neither decent nor moral—so he decides to look into the matter…