Erle Gardner - The Case of the Horrified Heirs

«That meant they wanted not only to get Virginia Baxter discredited so she couldn't spill their apples if she remembered the terms of the real will, but they wanted her in the cooler.

«They also wanted to either get Bannock's carbon copy of the real will or else scramble things so no one could ever get to first base by going to the old files-but they didn't think up this angle until later when I raised the question.

«Anyhow, first thing was to get this Baxter woman in the clink and get her convicted of a dope charge.

«Well, I did what I was supposed to. I bribed a guy to let me out to the plane to get my baggage on the ground; that it was an important shipment. I spotted the broad's bag as soon as it came off the plane; then said I'd lost my tags. They told me I had to identify the contents, so I got the suitcases opened and then said I'd made a mistake and, in the confusion, managed to plant the stuff I was to put in the suitcase.

«I thought that was all I was going to have to do.

«But that's the way it is with a broad. You get tangled up with them and they're always on your neck. So I had to take this girl's automobile and wait until George came along and then ram the car. I hated to do it, but George had been high-hatting me of late and-Well, a guy has to live.»

«All right,» Tragg said, «what did you do?»

«I did what I was told to,» Fisk said, trembling. «I was to give it a good sideswipe. I didn't know it was going out of control and-I thought I was just framing a hit-andrun… Well, that's the truth and now I've got it off my chest.»

«That was Virginia Baxter's car you were using?» Mason asked.

«That's right. I was told she'd be up at the Saint's Rest and given the license number of her automobile. She hadn't much more than got into her room and got settled down than I left my car and took hers. Then, as soon as I'd done the job, I came back up and parked her car and took mine.

«The parking stall her car had been in had been taken by somebody else, so I had to park the Baxter car in a new stall. I was told to be awfully careful with that car, to give the Lauretta Trent car a shove with the front end of the car, but to hit it hard with the back end so the Baxter car would run all right.»

«And how much did you get for that?» Mason asked.

«Promises. I was hot. I've got enemies and I've got to get where they can't take me for a one-way ride. This broad promised me twenty-five hundred, and she gave me two hundred in cash. I don't know how you found out about me, but… by God, if you put me on a witness stand and the newspapers publish this stuff, my life won't be worth a snap of my fingers… Hell, they're gunning for me right now… You said there were two torpedoes that came up the stairs?»

Mason nodded.

Fisk held out his wrists. «Take me into custody, Lieutenant,» he said. «Give me all the protection you can. I stand a chance of beating a rap, but you can't beat the big boy's torpedoes.»

«Who's the big boy?» Tragg asked.

Fisk, shivering with apprehension, said, «I've never ratted on him. Always the little guys and always the outsiders; but if it comes to a showdown and I have to, I have to-Get me in a cell where I'm by myself; give me protection and a chance to take it on the lam and I'll tell.»

Tragg looked at Mason, said, «Well, it seems there's butter on both sides of your bread.»

Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake returned to the lawyer's office shortly before midnight.

The assistant janitor who operated the elevator after hours said, «There's been a woman trying to see you, Mr. Mason; says it's a matter of great importance. I told her that you said you'd be back, no matter how late it was, and she said she'd wait.»

«Where is she?»

«I don't know. Walking around somewhere. She's been back four or five times and asked if you'd returned yet. I told her 'no,' and she said she'd be back.»

«What does she look like?» Mason asked.

«Rather aristocratic-looking. Sixty-odd. Gray hair. Nice clothes. Quiet voice-not a crook, but something is sure worrying her.»

«All right,» Mason said. «I'll be up in the office. I'm going to be there long enough for Virginia Baxter to join me; then we're calling it a day.»

«And what a day!» Paul Drake said.

«Virginia Baxter!» the elevator operator said. «You mean the girl they're trying for murder?»

«She's being released,» Mason said. «Lieutenant Tragg's delivering her here in a police car.»

«Well, what do you know?» the operator said, appraising Mason wonderingly. «You got her out, eh?»

«_We_ got her out,» Mason said, grinning. «Let's go.»

The elevator shot up to Mason's floor.

Drake said, «Okay, I'll duck into my office and button things up, Perry. What are you going to do about that nurse?»

Mason grinned. «Our friend Lieutenant Tragg is taking the initiative there. You'll be reading in the papers about Tragg's brilliant deductive reasoning; probably that Tragg gave Perry Mason an opportunity to accompany him when he uncovered the key witness in the Trent murder case.»

«Yes, I suppose he'll grab all the credit,» Drake said.

«Tragg won't, but the department will. That's the way the game has to be played. See you in the morning, Paul.»

Mason took Della Street's arm and led her down to the office.

He fitted his key to the door of his private office, switched on the lights, yawned prodigiously and walked over to the electric coffee percolator.

«How long will it be?» Della Street asked.

«Shouldn't be over ten or fifteen minutes,» Mason said. «Tragg will have her out of there and leave it to me to keep her out of circulation. Tragg doesn't want anything interfering with his big story that'll hit the papers. He-«

A timid knock sounded on the corridor door.

Mason went to the door and opened it.

A tall white-haired woman said, «This is Mr. Mason?»

«Yes,» Mason said.

«I couldn't wait any longer,» she said. «I had to come to you.»

She turned toward Della Street inquiringly.

«My secretary, Della Street,» Mason explained, and then added, with only a moment's perceptible hesitancy, «and unless I'm very much mistaken, Della, this is Lauretta Trent.»

«Exactly,» she said. «I couldn't let things go to a point where that poor girl was convicted. I had to come to you.

«I'm hoping there's some way you can protect me until we can find out who is trying to murder me.»

«Sit down,» Mason said.

She said, «I am very naive, Mr. Mason; I wasn't at all suspicious until Dr. Alton asked the nurse to get samples of my hair and fingernails.

«At one time I had done some research work in poisoning symptoms. I decided to get out of there and get out fast.

«Then when that car deliberately rammed us off the road and George Eagan yelled, 'Jump'-well, I jumped. I got skinned up a bit but, fortunately, I had seen that car was going to hit us and I was all ready with my hand on the door latch.

«I didn't have fifty thousand dollars in my handbag, the way you said in court, but I had enough cash so I could take care of myself.

«I saw that George was hurt. I went to the highway and, almost immediately, a motorist stopped. He took me down the road to the cafe. I called the highway patrol and reported the accident. They promised to have a car there right away.

«I just decided it was a good time to lie low and let things start to unscramble. I wanted to find out who was back of all this.»

«And you found out?» Mason asked.

«When that will was read in court-I was never so shocked in my life.»

«That will, I take it, was spurious.»

«Absolutely!» she snapped. «One, or perhaps two, pages of it were genuine, the rest had been substituted. What I said in my will was that, since I had come to the conclusion that all of my relatives were barnacles simply waiting for me to die and without gumption enough to get out and do anything for themselves, I was going to give my two sisters a bequest that would be small enough so the men would have to go to work.