Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Velvet Claws

“He was taking a bath when I came in. He heard me, I guess. He climbed out of the bathtub, and threw the bathrobe around him, and started bellowing for me. I went up there and he had the receipts. He accused me of being the woman who was with Harrison Burke, and then he accused me of a lot of things, and said that he was going to throw me out without a penny. I became hysterical, and grabbed the gun and shot him. After I got down to the drug store, and was ready to telephone you, I realized that I was going to need somebody to stand back of me. I didn’t have any money of my own. I told you that. My husband kept all the money, and only gave me a little at a time. I knew about the will that was made out in favor of Carl Griffin, and I was afraid that I couldn’t get any money out of the estate while it was being tied up in probate. I knew that Harrison Burke would be afraid of getting his name mixed into the thing, and that he’d leave me flat. I had to have money; I had to have somebody to stand back of me. So I rang up Harrison Burke and deliberately mixed him into it. I told him that something had happened, and that his gun had figured in it. That I didn’t know who the man was that had killed him, but I did know that his gun was on the floor.

“It was a stall that wouldn’t have gone over with you, but it went over with Burke all right. Burke was frantic.

“I told him there was only one thing to do, and that was for him to get under cover, and fix it so they couldn’t trace the gun to him, if he could. And in the meantime, to see that you had plenty of money to go ahead and do anything that you could. Then I telephoned you and got you to come over.

“While you were driving down there, I got to thinking how much better it would be if I could have you in a position where you were forced to get me out of it in order to save yourself and also, have some kind of an explanation that I could make to the police if the police should start suspecting me.

“You were right about that.” She went on, “I knew that they could never convict you, because you were too smart and skillful. You could get out of it, and I figured that if they got to crowding me too close, I’d give them the information that I did, so that they’d go after you and that would clear me. If they ever tried to come back on me after you had drawn their fire, I knew that it would be an easy case to beat.”

Mason looked up at Paul Drake and shook his head.

“Nice little playmate, isn’t she?” he said.

There was a knock at the door.

Mason looked at the occupants of the room. Then tiptoed to the door, and opened it.

Sidney Drumm stood on the threshold. There was another man back of him.

“Hello, Perry,” he said. “We had a devil of a time finding you. We trailed Della Street to this hotel, but it took us quite a little while to find out what alias you were registered under. I’m sorry to bother you, but you’ve got to take a little ride with me. The District Attorney wants to ask you a few questions.”

Mason nodded. “Walk right in,” he said.

Eva Belter gave a little cry. “Perry, you’ve got to protect me! I came clean. You’ve got to stand back of me.”

Perry looked at her, then turned abruptly to Sidney Drumm.

“This is a break for you, Sidney,” he said. “You’re going to be able to make the arrest. This is Eva Belter, who has just confessed to the murder of her husband.”

Eva Belter screamed, got to her feet and swayed uncertainly.

Drumm looked from one to the other.

“It’s a fact,” Paul Drake said.

Mason motioned toward Della Street.

“It’s all down there,” he said, “in black and white. We’ve got witnesses, and we’ve got her statement taken verbatim.”

Sidney Drumm whistled under his breath.

“By God, Perry,” he said, “that’s a lucky break for you! They were going to charge you with the murder.”

Mason’s voice was savage, “There wasn’t any luck about it. I was willing to give her a break as long as she shot square. But when I read in the paper about her dragging me into it, I made up my mind that I was going to call for a showdown.”

Paul Drake said, “Do you really know where Harrison Burke is?”

“Hell, no!” said Perry Mason. “I didn’t even get out of this room last night. I simply sat here and thought. I did get hold of Mrs. Veitch, and told her that Eva Belter was going to be in here this morning and wanted her to be here in order to corroborate a statement she was going to make to the reporters. I sent a taxi out for Mrs. Veitch and had her come in.”

“She wouldn’t have backed you up in the statement?” asked Drake.

“I don’t know,” said Mason. “I don’t think so. I didn’t talk with her at all. She wouldn’t talk with me. I think she’s holding something back, though. I’m satisfied she knows something. I simply wanted to have you open the door and let Eva Belter see her here for the purpose of exerting a little pressure.”

Eva Belter stared whitefaced at Perry Mason.

“Damn you,” she said, “for a doublecrossing backstabber!”

It was Sidney Drumm who gave the situation its last touch of irony. “Hell,” he said, “Eva Belter was the woman who told us where you were, Perry. She said she was going to see you this morning and that we could wait until someone else came here and claim we’d followed that other person. She wanted to have you think we’d followedDella Street or someone, instead of her.”

Mason made no comment. His face was suddenly very weary.

Perry Mason sat in his office looking very tired.

Della Street sat across the desk from him and avoided his eyes.

“I thought you didn’t like her,” Mason remarked.

She kept her eyes averted.

“I didn’t,” she admitted, “but I’m sorry that you had to be the one that made the disclosure. She relied on you to get her out of trouble. You turned her over to the officers.”

“I didn’t do anything of the sort,” he denied. “I simply refused to be the goat.”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“I’ve known you for five years,” she said, slowly. “During that time your clients have always come first. You didn’t make the cases, and you didn’t make the clients. You took them as they came. Some of your clients got hung. Others got free. But, while you represented them, you never went back on any of them.”

“What is this,” he asked, “a sermon?”

“Yes,” she said, shortly.

“Go on, then.”

She shook her head.

“It’s finished.”

He got up and walked over to her, and put his hand on her shoulder.

“Della,” he said, “I’ve got one thing to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“Please have confidence in me,” he said, humbly.

She looked up and met his eyes then.

“You mean…?”

He nodded his head.

“She isn’t convicted,” he said, “of a damned thing until a jury brings in a verdict finding her guilty of something.”

“But,” saidDella Street, “she won’t have anything more to do with you. She’ll get another lawyer now, and she’s confessed. How are you going to get away from that confession? She repeated the confession to the police and signed it.”

“I don’t have to get away from it. You’ve got to convict them beyond a reasonable doubt. If a jury has a reasonable doubt, it can’t convict. I can get her free yet.”

She scowled at him.

“Why couldn’t you have let Paul Drake tip off the police to ask her certain questions?” she said. “Why did you have to tell them?”

“Because she’d have lied her way out of any questions the police could have asked. She’s clever, that woman. She wanted me to help her, but she figured that she’d throw me to the wolves any time the pack got too close.”