Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece

“Is it the truth?”

“I’m not going to answer the question just yet.”

“When you get on the witness stand,” Mason said, “you’ll answer the question.”

“And I’ll answer it any way I damn please,” she told him, coming over to the corner of the desk and pounding it with her fist. “Don’t think you’re going to bully me, Mr. Perry Mason.”

“You don’t mean you’d commit perjury, do you?”

“Certainly I’d commit perjury! Men make me sick. They lie to women up one side and down the other and, if a woman lies back, they think she’s deceitful… Give me fifty thousand!”

Mason shook his head. She clenched her fists. “I’d recommend twentyfive thousand to my client,” Mason said slowly.

“He’d pay it, if you recommended it.”

“I’d recommend it, if you’d tell the absolute truth.”

“A bargain?” she asked. He nodded. “Damn you,” she told him, “I hate you! If Pete hadn’t been in jail over this thing, I could have gone to him and got two hundred thousand as easy as not. Perhaps more.”

“Go ahead and hate me,” Mason said, smiling.

“I do,” she told him, “but, if I ever get into a jam, you’re going to be my lawyer.”

“Meaning you’re thinking of shooting a husband some day?” he asked.

Slowly the anger died in her eyes. She perched herself on the arm of the big overstuffed leather chair and said, “Don’t be silly, do I look like a fool? I should kill the geese that lay the golden eggs.”

“All right,” Mason said, “I’ll get you twentyfive thousand dollars.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow morning. The check to be delivered to you before you go on the witness stand so there won’t be any question about a pending settlement between you and your husband when you testify.”

“Make it thirty thousand.”

“Twentyfive,” he said with finality. She sighed. “What about your conversations with Maddox?” he asked.

“You want the whole story?”

“Yes.”

“ Duncan got in touch with me first. He said he was Maddox’s lawyer. He called me around eleven o’clock and said he wanted a conference and suggested they meet in my lawyer’s office. Then at three o’clock in the morning Maddox telephoned and I explained to him that I’d already discussed the matter with his lawyer.”

“Did you have the conference?”

“Yes.”

“What did they suggest?”

“They must have thought I was a fool. They wanted me to sign a written agreement that they’d help me have Pete declared incompetent and that then I was going to make a complete release of all of Pete’s rights in the Maddox Manufacturing Company and give them one hundred thousand dollars in cash as soon as I got control of Pete’s property.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them I’d have to think it over.”

“Did you say how long you were going to take thinking it over?

“No.”

“Did they try to rush you?”

“Of course.”

“Can you tell exactly when Duncan called you?”

“No, it was some time around eleven o’clock, between ten and eleven.”

“Exactly when Maddox called you?”

“That was three o’clock in the morning. I looked at my watch. It made me so damn mad to be wakened at that hour, because I couldn’t get back to sleep.”

Mason took some typewritten notes from his desk. “Did you,” he asked, “say over the telephone, in answer to Maddox’s call, words to this effect?” and Mason read slowly from his notes, “‘Hello… Yes, this is Mrs. Kent… Yes, Mrs. Doris Sully Kent of Santa Barbara… What’s that name again, please?… Maddox… I don’t understand your calling at this hour… Why, I thought that was all fixed… Your lawyer has arranged a conference, and I’ll meet you, as agreed… You can get in touch with Mr. Sam Hettley, of the firm of Hettley and Hettley, if you want any more information. Goodby.”

“Why, yes!” she exclaimed. “Those must have been my exact words! How did you know?”

Mason shook his head, went on with his questioning. “Then what did you do?”

“Tried to sleep for an hour or so and then got in my car and drove to Los Angeles.”

“Where was your car?”

“It happened that it was in a neighbor’s garage, about half a block down the street.”

“Did you make any attempt to sneak out of your house?”

She shook her head. “Not consciously. There’d been someone hanging around in front of the house. I thought perhaps Peter had decided to put a detective on me, which would have been foolish because I’d never have left a back trail he could have followed. I’ve had detectives on my trail before.”

“So you tried to sneak out?”

“Well, I didn’t go out with a brass band.”

“Went out the back door?”

“Yes.”

“And along the cement walk?”

“No, I kept to the grassy stretch on the side.”

“So your feet wouldn’t make any noise?”

“Yes.”

“And you weren’t followed when you came to Los Angeles?”

“No, but I met a man in the hallway of the office building where my lawyer has his office, who looked like a detective. I was a little bit frightened. I told my lawyer to be careful and fix things so Maddox and Duncan didn’t leave the office for an hour after I left.”

“One more question,” Mason said. “Where were you on the thirteenth?”

“The day before the murder?”

“Yes.”

“In Los Angeles.”

“Doing what?”

“Shopping and consulting with my lawyers.”

“Anything else?”

She thought a minute, then laughed and said, “I saw Pete on the street and followed him for a while.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know—just curiosity, I guess. I followed him here and knew he’d been consulting with you. I’d fired my Santa Barbara lawyers, and when I saw Pete come here I knew things were coming to a head, so then was when I went to see Hettley.”

“How far did you follow Mr. Kent?”

“Until he started for Hollywood. I thought some of stopping him and talking settlement. I wish I’d done it now.”

“That,” Mason said, “is better. Inasmuch as your appearance in court has been made through Hettley and Hettley, you’ll have to have them sign the releases. You get those releases and I’ll have a check for twentyfive thousand dollars all ready for you.”

“That’s okay,” she said, “I made Hettley and Hettley sign the request for dismissal and all of that a couple of days ago. I have all of the necessary papers with me.”

“How did you get them to do that?”

“Do we have to go into that?” she asked.

“I’d like to get a complete picture of the situation.”

“It was simple,” she told him, her lips curving in a smile, “I told them that I’d made some perjured allegations in my complaint and asked them if they wanted to go ahead with the case in view of that fact. I told them that I’d made some very damaging admissions to a very attractive young woman who, it turned out, was a detective, and the other side knew of my perjury. Naturally, they were so anxious to get out they told me never to darken their doors again. I paid them five hundred dollars for drawing up the papers and they washed their hands of the entire case.”

“Do you always play both ends against the middle?” he asked her.

“Sure. I’m attractive. Men never married me for love—not the kind I married. They were old buzzards with money… If I ever marry again, it’ll be for love. I’m tired of golddigging.”

“Thinking of getting married?” he asked her.

“No, of course not.”

“Very well,” he told her, “I’ll have your money in the morning.”