Erle Gardner: The Case of the Lame Canary

Drake said, “And you want all of this in a hurry?”

“Yes. I’d like to have the information in an hour.”

“And that’s all you want?”

“No. Here’s another one. Walter Prescott, 1396 Alsace Avenue, suing his wife for divorce. Find out who his girl-friend is.”

“What makes you think he has one?”

“He short-changed his wife out of twelve thousand bucks. He didn’t put it in his business.”

“Any leads?” Drake asked.

“Nothing in particular. He’s an insurance adjuster. The firm name is Prescott & Wray, and they have offices in the Doran Building. Find out where he buys his flowers. Get a look at the delivery addresses at the florist’s. Have an operative bust into Prescott’s office and claim that a young woman driving Prescott’s automobile smashed into him and ripped off a fender and hasn’t settled. Watch what number he calls up when he refutes the story. Put a couple of shadows on him and find where he goes when he isn’t at the office.”

“Suppose he’s wise and doesn’t go?”

“Write him an anonymous letter that his sweetie has another boy-friend who calls on her every afternoon. Start him moving around, then see where he moves to.” Drake pulled a leather-covered notebook from his pocket and wrote names and addresses.

“Here’s something else,” Mason said. “A Stella Anderson has the house next door to the Prescott place. Apparently she’s the neighborhood gossip. Drop in and kid her along. See if she can’t give you a line on Prescott. Find out whether he spends his evenings home or is out a good part of the time and see if she dishes out any dirt on Prescott’s wife.”

“In other words,” Drake said mournfully, “you want everything.”

“That’s it,” Mason told him. “Put some operatives out doing the leg work. You’d better talk with Mrs. Snoops first, and then pull the rough stuff to make Prescott contact his girl-friend. You can write him an anonymous letter and send it special delivery. Put a couple of shadows on him—”

“Who’s the Snoops dame?” Drake asked.

Mason grinned. “I forgot about that. That’s a pet name for the Anderson woman.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes. While you’re getting the low-down on the neighborhood gossip from Mrs. Anderson, find out about a necking party which she looked in on next door some time this morning.”

“What do you want me to find out about it?”

“Just get her description of it,” Mason said. “It sounds just a little fishy to me.”

“Don’t people neck in the mornings in that neighborhood?” Drake asked.

“It isn’t that. It’s just the way the thing was described to me. Okay, Paul, on your way.”

“How many men shall I turn loose on this thing?”

“All you need to get results in a hurry.”

“Any limit on expenses?”

“No limit,” Mason said. “This is my party.”

“What’s the idea? Getting benevolent?”

“No. I fell for a lame canary and what I thought was a mystery. This is what comes of it.”

“Sounds like a goofy case,” Drake said, pivoting around in the chair and getting to his feet.

“It is.”

“Okay. You want me to report by telephone?”

“Uh huh. Keep feeding stuff in to me as soon as you get it. If I’m not here, you can talk with Della. I’m going out and see a man.”

“About a dog?” Drake asked, grinning.

“About a canary.”

The detective frowned, “What’s the gag about the canary, Perry?”

“I don’t know. Tell me, Paul, why should a canary have a sore foot?”

“I’ll bite,” Drake countered. “Why should it?”

Mason motioned toward the door. “On your way,” he said. “You’re no help at all.”

The detective heaved an exaggerated sigh. “This,” he announced, “is a relief.”

“What is?” the lawyer asked.

“Because you didn’t want me to shadow the canary,” Drake said. “I was afraid you were going to turn him loose, ask me to get an airplane, a pair of binoculars, and submit a complete report on him from egg to cage.”

He opened the door a few inches and eased himself almost furtively into the corridor, his grin fading through the narrow opening as he silently pulled the door to.

Mason reached for his hat, said, “I’m going down to the pet store, Della.”

“Still worrying about the canary, Chief?”

He nodded. “Why should a canary have a sore foot? Why should a girl carry a canary through the streets and up to a law office?”

“Because her sister wants the canary put in a safe place.”

Mason said slowly, “Looks like her sister intends to be away for a while. And, when you come right down to it, Della, no one has told us where the sister is right now.”

“She said she didn’t know,” Della Street explained.

“That,” Mason told her, “is exactly my point. Damn it, don’t you take all the romance out of life. If I can squeeze a mystery out of this canary, I’m going to do it — even if I have to put him through a clothes wringer.”

The pet store on the corner was a bedlam of noise when Mason opened the door, nodded to a clerk, and walked back toward the office in the rear. A parrot screeched greeting. A chained monkey thrust forth an inquisitive paw, clutching at the lawyer’s coat. A fat individual, with pale, patient eyes, and a black skullcap protecting the shiny dome of an onion bald head, looked up from a ledger, then came waddling from the glass-enclosed office.

“Ja, Ja,” he said, “it is the Herr Counselor, himself! It is an honor you come to my place of business.”

Mason shook hands, perched himself on the edge of a counter and said, “I haven’t much time, Karl. I want to find out something.”

“Ja, ja! About the Fräulein who came in with the canary, eh? She said that you had sent her. You perhaps want to know something about that canary?”

Mason nodded.

“It is a good canary,” Helmold said. “It is worth a good price. He has a fine voice.”

“He seems to have a sore foot,” the lawyer said.

“Ja. It is nothing. The claws on the right foot have been cut too short. Today he is lame. Tomorrow he is lame. The next day, nothing. And the day after that, you could never tell.”

“How about the left foot?” Mason asked.

“On the left foot the claws are cut nicely, all except one claw, and that claw, it is not cut at all. I do not understand.”

“The claws were cut today?” Mason asked.

“Ja, ja. There are little fine threads of blood on the perch which come from the sore toes of the right foot. It was done today, ja.”

“And the young woman wants to keep him here?”

“Ja.”

“For how long?”

The fat proprietor of the pet store shrugged his shoulders and said, “I do not know. She does not tell me that.”

“For a day?” Mason asked.

The eyes grew wide with surprise. “You joke, nicht wahr? A day! What sort of a storage business is that?”

“No,” Mason said, “I want to know. Did she say anything about leaving him here for a day?”

“Ach, no. By the month I quoted her prices, and by the month she paid. Understand, Counselor, not even by the week; by the month.”

Mason slid from the counter. “Okay, Karl,” he said. “I just wanted to check up on it.”

“I thank you for sending her to me,” Helmold said. “Some day perhaps I can do something for you, nicht wahr?”

“Possibly,” Mason said. “What name did she give you?”

“Her name?”

“Yes.”

Helmold stepped into the office, thumbed over some records, came out with a card in his hand and said, “The name is Mildred Owens, and the address is General Delivery, Reno. She moves to Reno, and after a while she sends and gets the bird. But not for more than a month, anyway.”