Erle Gardner - The Case of the Phantom Fortune

Mason settled himself comfortably ina chair, pulled up another chair for his feet, and lit a cigarette. "Thetrouble with a man of that sort is that he overdoes it," he said. "Hebecomes too much of a ham. He gets to thinking how good he is and adds just alittle too much emotion, a little too much expression, a little too much in theway of gestures."

Drake's knuckles tapped his codeknock on the door of Mason's private office.

Della Street let him in.

"Hello, caterer," Masonsaid. "We didn't expect you so soon."

"I got away early. My share ofthe work was done," Drake said, then went on with a grin, "When youbecome an executive you can leave the dirty dishes for others."

"They aren't washing thosedishes are they?" Mason asked.

"Not in that outfit, no. Theytake them to the main plant to be processed. Every one of those dishes is driedby hand and then they are polished with a towel so that there isn't thefaintest sign of a fingerprint on them and every bit of the glass is smooth andclean."

"The fingerprint crew workedefficiently?"

"Very."

"All right, what did you findout, Paul?"

"We found out who made thefingerprint you wanted to know about but we didn't find out until right at thelast."

"How come?"

"The fingerprint was made bysomeone we weren't particularly interested in. We were lifting fingerprintsfrom the other glasses and dishes and only took this one as a lastresort."

"Whose fingerprint wasit?" Mason asked.

Drake said, "The fingerprint ofMrs Warren."

"Lorna Warren, eh?" Masonsaid thoughtfully. "I might have known."

"How could you possibly haveknown that?" Della asked.

"Remember Warren's peculiar attitude and his somewhatpeculiar instructions? He said I was to protect his wife from the person whomade that fingerprint no matter who the person was and no matter how much itcost. Then he took elaborate precautions to see that we weren't in a positionto advise him what we had discovered concerning the fingerprint."

"You mean," Della Street said, "that he's paying a price inorder to have you protect his wife from herself?"

Mason nodded, turned to Paul Drake."Paul, did you get enough fingerprints so you can get aclassification?"

"On nearly everyonethere," Drake said. "Some of them were smudged but for the most partwe managed to get ten reasonably clear fingerprints of everyone there."

"Including Mrs Warren?"

"I know we got hers."

"All right," Mason said."Have some police friend get in touch with the FBI. See if she's got acriminal record."

"A criminal record!" Drakesaid. "Are you nuts?"

"I don't think so, Paul. Youdon't blackmail a person unless you have a club."

"But she's big-timestuff," Drake objected.

"The bigger the quarry, thebigger the club," Mason told him.

"How much time have Igot?" Drake asked.

"If you get along with livehours' sleep tonight," Mason said, "you'll have until nine o'clock tomorrow morning our time. That will be noon Washington time."

"That's going to take someawfully fast action on the part of the police and FBI," Drake pointed out,"and I'm going to have to go without a lot of shut-eye tonight in order toget those ten fingerprints collected and classified."

Mason indicated the coffeepercolator. "Della Street will see that you have enough coffee to keep you awake, Paul – before Iescort her home."

Drake passed over his coffee cup,sighed, and said, "With plenty of cream and sugar, Della, please."

Paul Drake was in Perry Mason'soffice at eleven-thirty the following morning.

"Hi, Paul," Mason said."Any sleep?"

"A surprising amount,"Drake said. "I had the fingerprints collected and classified by one-thirtyin the morning, a friendly police chief wired the FBI and we have a reply"

"Criminal?" Mason asked.

"Yes and no," Drake said.

"Shoot."

"Mrs Warren's maiden name wasMargaret Lorna Neely. She worked as a secretary for a man named Collister DamonGideon."

"Where was all this?"Mason asked.

"New York."

"Go ahead."

"Gideon was a promoter aquick-thinking, fast-talking spellbinder. He had been in trouble with thepostal authorities on two previous occasions but they couldn't make any chargestick. The third time they nailed him."

"What charge?" Masonasked.

"Using the mails to defraud.Now, here's the strange thing. They indicted both Gideon and his secretary,Margaret Lorna Neely, and they went to trial in Federal Court.

"I haven't had time to find outtoo much about that trial but I know the highlights. Gideon was convicted onseveral counts. The jury acquitted Margaret Neely."

"You know why?" Masonasked.

"Why they convicted Gideon orwhy they acquitted Margaret Neely?"

"Either."

"They convicted Gideon becausehe didn't make a good impression. He was too suave and fast-talking, and he'dmade the mistake of getting mixed up in a deal where his suckers were farmers.The prosecuting witnesses were the good old homy-handed sons of soil, and thejurors contrasted those honest people with Gideon's smooth line of gab.

"As far as the acquittal isconcerned, it's the old story A fresh face, an innocent manner, a young girland nylon. Margaret Neely was just twenty-six at the time."

"It seems strange the prosecutorwould try them both together," Mason said.

"He did it because he wanted toconvict Margaret Neely the worst way."

"Why? Did he think she wascriminally responsible?"

"I don't think the evidencethat they could introduce was too clear against her. The main thing that theywanted was forty-seven thousand bucks."

Mason raised an inquiring eyebrow.

"When the postal inspectorscame down like a thousand bricks and the authorities moved in, they foundGideon with virtually empty pockets, an empty safe and an empty bank account.He had, however, in some mysterious manner arranged to pay attorney's fees inadvance and there had been a checking account with a balance of someforty-seven thousand dollars which mysteriously vanished."

"Doesn't the bank haverecords?" Mason asked.

"Oh, sure. Gideon drew themoney out. He said he put it in the office safe because he knew somedisgruntled customers were going to call on him the next day and he hadintended to make restitution in hard cash because he didn't want to have anypaper records of the transaction."

"And the safe, I take it, wasconveniently burglarized during the night."

"The safe was convenientlyburglarized during the night."

"And I also take it theauthorities never found the forty-seven thousand dollars."

"That's right. And there wasjust a whisper of suspicion that Margaret Neely knew where the money was andmay have been saving it for Collister Gideon, as salvage from the wreckingoperation the government did on the business.

"Incidentally, the police wouldlike very, very much indeed -and the FBI would like very, very much indeed – toknow where Margaret Neely is now and where I picked up her fingerprints. Agreat deal of pressure is being brought to bear on me."

"All right," Mason said."You can't say anything."

"Well, it's quite a bit ofpressure," Drake protested. "They're even intimating that I might beaiding and abetting a criminal."

"Criminal nothing," Masonsaid. "Margaret Neely was acquitted of any crime in connection with thefraud."

"Well, she did a good job ofvanishing," Drake said. "Police thought they were going to be able tokeep in touch with her through social security numbers or something of thatsort, but Margaret Neely just simply vanished. From what we know, we can puttwo and two together. She must have met Horace Warren soon after that. She wasthen going under the name of Lorna Neely and evidently had gone to Mexico City.

"In those days Warren was a struggling young businessman withlots of ambition and a reasonable amount of property. He hadn't hit the jackpotas yet. That came two years later when he struck oil on some of his propertyand from then on he made shrewd investments."