A. Fair - Cats Prowl at Night

The door opened.

Elsie Brand, looking up quickly, said in a low voice, “Here’s the man now.”

Bertha put on her best receiving-a-client manner. She walked across the office, radiating calm competency.

“Good morning! Something I can do for you?”

“You’re Mrs. Cool?”

“That’s right.”

“Bertha Cool, one of the partners of the firm of Cool & Lam?”

“That right,” Bertha said, smiling. “Just tell me what I can do for you. Lots of agencies only handle certain types of cases. We take anything — that there’s money in.” She smiled reassuringly.

The man’s hand went to his inside pocket. “Very well, Mrs. Cool,” he said, “you can take these.”

He shoved some papers into Bertha’s hand. She reached for them, looked at the typewriting on the folded backs and said, “What’s this?”

The answer came with machine-gun rapidity. “Action filed in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Imogene Dearborne, plaintiff, versus Bertha Cool, defendant. You have there copies of summons and complaint as Bertha Cool an individual, and Bertha Cool a co-partner. Here’s your original summons calling your attention to the seal of court and—”

Bertha drew back the hand that held the papers, started to throw them at him.

“Don’t do it,” the man warned, rattling off the words in rapid-fire tempo without even a pause as he switched in his talk from a description of the papers to the recitation of a formula. “It won’t get you anywhere. If you’re sore, go tell your lawyer about it, don’t blame it on me. That’s all. Thank you. Good morning.”

He whirled around and darted out the door before Bertha could get her vocabulary into action.

Elsie was the first to recover. “What in the world,” she asked, “is all that about?”

Bertha Cool snapped an elastic off the bundle of papers, unfolding a crisp-looking legal document, started reading aloud:

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

Plaintiff complains of defendants, and for cause of action alleges:

That the defendants are now, and at all of the times hereinafter mentioned were, co-partners transacting business under the firm name and style of Cool and Lam, and having their offices in the City of Los Angeles aforesaid.

That on or about the 8th day of April, 1943, 19— within the City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, State of California, the defendants wilfully and maliciously uttered false and defamatory statements concerning the said plaintiff and reflecting upon her character, honesty, integrity, and which said statements were then and there well calculated to, and did, damage the reputation of the plaintiff.

That at said time and place, the defendants aforesaid stated to one Everett G. Belder, who was then and there the employer of the plaintiff, that said plaintiff was a twerp, that the plaintiff was in love with her employer, that in order to induce her said employer to become more susceptible to her affections and advances, the said plaintiff had previously written anonymous letters to the wife of said employer, accusing said employer of being unfaithful and untrue to his said wife, hoping thereby to bring about a severance of the said marital relationship so that said employer would be free to marry plaintiff; that as a result of said letters, one Sally Brentner, employed as a maid in the Belder household, had met her death, either by accident or suicide, all of which was intended and planned by the said plaintiff to be a result of writing said letters, and all of which was a natural and logical result therefrom, and reasonably, logically and naturally to be anticipated by a reasonable person.

That said statements, and each of them, were false and untrue, and were then and there uttered by the defendants with knowledge of their falsity, and/or with a recklessness which constituted a complete disregard of the truth.

That said statements, and each of them, were made in the presence of the plaintiff, her employer, and other witnesses, and that as a result thereof, the plaintiff sustained great nervous shock and suffered embarrassment, annoyance, and humiliation; that as a further result of said statements, and each of them, jointly and severally, and solely because of same, on or about the eighth day of April, 1943, plaintiff’s said employer discharged the said plaintiff from his employ.

That all of said statements were not only false, and were then and there known to be false to the said defendants at the time they were made, but each of said statements was then and there uttered with malice toward the plaintiff, and with a reckless disregard of the truth, and with the deliberate intent of defaming the character of the plaintiff.

WHEREFORE, plaintiff prays judgment against the said defendants in the sum of fifty thousand dollars actual damages, and in an additional sum of fifty thousand dollars as punitive or exemplary damages, making a total of one hundred thousand dollars, and plaintiff prays for her costs of suit incurred herein.

All of the sea-breeze vitality oozed out of Bertha Cool. She sat down in a chair across from Elsie Brand’s desk with knee-buckling finality. “Fry me for an oyster!” she exclaimed.

“But how can she sue you?” Elsie Brand demanded indignantly. “My heavens! You didn’t have her arrested or anything.”

Bertha said, “She’s crazy! It was all straightened up right there in Belder’s office before we left. Sally Brentner had been writing the letters. God only knows why. You can’t conceive of her writing poison-pen letters directing Mrs. Belder’s attention and suspicion to her, but that’s just what she did. No one will ever know why she did it. But Imogene has no beef coming. It was all straightened out before we left.”

“Did you apologize to her?” Elsie asked.

“Hell, no. I hadn’t done her any damage, except make her spill a few synthetic tears.”

“But she says in that complaint that Belder discharged her,” Elsie Brand said. “Why would he have fired her if it was all cleared up?”

“I don’t know,” Bertha said, “but he must have had it in for her over something else. They’d been having a fight before Sellers and I got to his office that morning.”

“How do you know?”

“I could tell she’d been crying. Damn it, you don’t suppose that fourflusher used what I said just as an excuse to get rid of the girl, do you?”

“He may have.”

“Well, I’m going to settle that right now,” Bertha Cool said.

“How can she sue the partnership on this?” Elsie asked. “Donald didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Bertha said, “The partnership’s still alive. They’ll claim that I was acting for myself and also for and on behalf of the partnership. I can stall the case off on account of Donald being in the service. No... Damned if I will. I’ll appear for myself and the partnership. Donald isn’t going to have this to worry about. It’ll all be over before he knows anything about it.”

Bertha glanced at her wrist-watch. “I’m going to see Everett Belder and give him something to think about. I’ll damn soon find out what’s behind this. He can’t use me as a stalking-horse and get away with it. That’s what comes of trying to lead the simple life. I pick up what I think is an easy case, try to let go of it when it gets tough, and get sued for a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of damages.”