Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Sulky Girl

"What I don't see," said Everly, "is how you're going to stop him."

"I'm not going to try to stop him," smiled Perry Mason, "I'm going to head him off."

Della Street walked into the room.

"Mr. Drake is out there," she said, "and says it's important."

Perry Mason smiled at her.

"He'll have to wait just a minute," he said, "I'm explaining something to Frank Everly."

Della Street looked at Perry Mason with eyes that were warm with tenderness.

"I can remember," she said softly, "when I made you explain something to me. After that, I've had enough faith in you so I don't need any explanations."

Perry Mason watched her with speculative eyes.

"You've read the papers?" he asked.

"The afternoon papers, yes."

"And you know how the trial is going?"

"Yes."

"You gathered that I was putting up a pretty weak defense?"

She stiffened slightly, and looked accusingly at Frank Everly.

"Who said that?" she asked.

"It's intimated in the newspapers," said Perry Mason.

"Well," said Della Street, "I just made a bet of half of my month's salary, with Paul Drake, that you were going to get both defendants acquitted. That shows how much faith I've got in you."

"Then," said Perry Mason, "Drake must have some bad news. You two get out of here and let me talk with him. You know he's doing some work for me on this case. He's probably got some inside information. It wasn't very sporting of him to bet on his inside information."

"That's all right," Della Street said. "He was square about it. He told me he had some inside information."

"Did he tell you what it was?"

"No, he just said he had it, and I told him I had some too."

"What did you have?" asked Perry Mason, staring speculatively at her.

"Faith in you," she said.

Mason waved his hand.

"All right," he said, "you folks get out and let me talk with Drake. We'll see what he's got to say."

Drake came into the inner office, sat down, grinned, and rolled a cigarette.

"Well," he said, "I've got the lowdown for you."

"All right," Perry Mason said, "what is it?"

"The rough shadow did it," said Drake.

"Never mind the methods," said Mason. "I want the facts."

"Well," said Drake, "the story goes like this. This Mrs. Mayfield is a hardboiled baby."

"I knew she was," said Mason. "She tried to hold me up a couple of times."

"Yes, I got all the lowdown on that, too," said Drake. "The only trouble is, Perry, that it looks like hell for your clients."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, in the first place, Mrs. Mayfield doesn't know quite as much as she tried to pretend she did. She made the mistake of going to bed at the wrong time. She went to bed just about fifteen or twenty minutes before the murder was committed. But she'd spent the evening snooping around.

"It all starts in with the fact that she found out Gleason and Frances Celane were married. She started in trying to capitalize on that knowledge. She took quite a bit of money from Frances Celane; I don't know how much, around ten thousand dollars, I think. And then, in some way, Edward Norton got wise that Frances Celane was paying blackmail. He got her in and tried to make her tell him whom she was paying money to and why. Naturally, she didn't dare to let him know. But Norton was a pretty obstinate individual, and, in order to find out, he shut off the girl's allowance. That put her in the position of having no money with which to pay any blackmail.

"On the other hand, Mrs. Mayfield said that she could capitalize on the information elsewhere, and if Frances Celane wouldn't give her money, she was going to sell the information to some of the charitable institutions who would benefit by the knowledge.

"Of course, this was all bluff, but Frances Celane didn't know it. The whole situation came to a head on the night of the murder. Frances Celane had a stormy interview with Norton, and they quarreled bitterly. Norton said that before he went to bed that night he was going to execute a written document terminating the trust and giving to Frances Celane the annuity provided by the terms of the trust and letting the balance go to charity.

"Whether that was a bluff on his part or not I don't know. Anyhow, that's what he said. Then Mrs. Mayfield went to bed. Next morning Frances Celane had money, lots of it. She gave Mrs. Mayfield twentyeight thousand dollars to keep quiet. Mrs. Mayfield promised she would.

"Rob Gleason was there in the house that night, and participated in at least a part of the interview with Norton. Norton was furious, and accused the girl of all sorts of things. She got mad and used language that must have raised a blister on his ears.

"Afterwards, Gleason went down to the girl's room. That was after Crinston came, and before the murder. Along about that time Mrs. Mayfield went to bed. She doesn't know exactly what happened, except that she's certain Frances Celane didn't go out in the Buick automobile. Therefore, she knows that the alibi Frances Celane was trying to make was false.

"She went to you and tried to shake you down for money to keep Frances Celane out of it. You turned her down hard, so she started concentrating on the girl, and actually collected from her. Then she found out that the money she'd taken from Frances Celane was in thousand dollar bills that were numbered consecutively, and knew that these bills would be traced in the event that she tried to change them for smaller bills. So she has these bills hidden and has tried to create the impression that Frances Celane gave you twentyeight thousand dollars to apply on a fee. She has told the District Attorney's office that that is what happened, and the District Attorney's office has been trying to locate the twentyeight thousand dollars. They've made examinations at your banks, and have even gone so far as to search the office. They have now come to the conclusion that you must be carrying the twentyeight thousand dollars on your person.

"The District Attorney is intending to use her as a surprise witness. She's going to testify as to the falsity of the girl's claim that she was out in the Buick automobile, and also to the quarrel that took place.

"It's the theory of the prosecution that a bitter quarrel was interrupted by Arthur Crinston; that the two people hatched out this murder plot and waited until Crinston had left to carry it into execution; that, as soon as Crinston drove away, they dashed up to the office and killed Mr. Norton, then planted the evidence in Pete Devoe's room in order to make it appear Devoe was the guilty party, in the event the officers didn't fall for the jimmied window and the footprints in the soft soil."

"How about Graves?" asked Perry Mason. "Have you done anything with him?"

"I've done lots with him. That girl has turned him inside out. He's going to be a bad man for you to handle, but he tells the girl that he's trying to protect Frances Celane, or that he was trying to protect her until the District Attorney brought pressure to bear on him."

"Look here," Mason said, "my theory of this case is that Norton gave Fran Celane that money before Crinston called. Now, Graves must have some information that'll support that theory."

"That," said Drake, "is the worst part of his testimony. He says he could hear every word of the conversation; that Norton took out his wallet and showed the girl forty thousand dollars, telling her he had originally gotten the money to give her, but that he wasn't going to give her anything except a small amount for current expenses. Then he took out two one thousand dollar bills and handed them to her.

"Don Graves has the idea the girl took the one thousand dollar bills, and that she and Gleason planted those one thousand dollar bills in the pocket of Devoe, the chauffeur, while Crinston was talking with Norton; that the girl and Gleason came back afterwards and killed Norton, taking the balance of the money from his wallet to use for the purpose of bribing the housekeeper to silence and paying you a sufficient cash retainer so you would interest yourself in the case. That's the theory Graves has.