Erle Gardner - The Case of the Blonde Bonanza

"About three weeks before this contract was signed she noticed that she was being stared at rather persistently and finally followed by a man whom she describes as being in his thirties, with keen eyes and a dignified, distinguished manner. He looked like an actor."

"And what happened?"

"Nothing at first. Dianne is accustomed to attracting attention. She's accustomed to having men try to make passes at her and she takes all of that in her stride.

"Then one day Boring approached her and said he had a business proposition he'd like to discuss with her and she told him to get lost. He said that this was purely legitimate; that it had to do with the possibility of her getting gainful employment in Hollywood and was sh interested.

"Naturally, Dianne was interested. So Boring gave her this story about a new trend in fashion, about the fact that women were becoming neurotic by paying too much attention to slim figures; that one of the most popular actresses, with women, was Mae West; that if Mae West had only started a new type of dress style it would have gone over like a house afire; that nature didn't intend women to have thin figures after they had reached maturity as women.

"Dianne said he was very convincing and of course the offer he made was quite attractive.

"All Dianne had to do was to put on weight and put in a lot of time training so that the flesh she put on was firm flesh and not fat. Boring was very insistent about that."

"All right," Mason said, "she signed the contract. Did she get any advice on it? She was working for lawyers and-"

"No, she didn't," Della Street interjected. "Boring was particularly insistent that she keep the entire matter completely confidential, that no one should know about it; that under no circumstances was she to mention the reason why she was resigning from her secretarial position.

"Boring explained that he wanted to have this new style of his so highly personalized that women would become aware of Dianne's beauty before they realized that they were being given a new style. Boring said that women were very resistant to new styles until they became a vogue and then they fell all over themselves falling in line.

"Boring has ideas for Dianne to attract a lot of public attention and then he is going to have her put on a series of health lectures. He's going to give her scripts that she is to follow, speeches she is to make, explaining that nature intended a woman to have curves and that men really like women with curves; that the slim, neurotic models are an artificial by-product of the dress designer's art.

"Boring told her that he could set the country afire with the right kind of approach to this thing and that all women would throw diets out of the window, start putting on weight and would only be anxious to have the weight firm flesh instead of bulging fat; that he intended to open up a series of Dianne Alder studios for healthful figures and charming curves."

Mason said, "Hang it! The guy could be right at that, Della."

"It would be a job," Della said. "Something you wouldn't want to gamble a hundred dollars a week on."

"It depends," Mason said. "The stakes are big enough… All right, now what happened after the contract was signed? Did Boring insist that she become cuddly with him?"

"That is the strange part," Della Street said. "Dianne rather felt that that would be a part of the contract and was rather hesitant about it until finally Boring, discovering the reason for her hesitancy, told her that once she signed the contract she would see very little of him; that he was going to be busy in Hollywood, New York and Paris, laying the foundations for this new type of promotion. So finally Dianne signed the contract.

"She hasn't seen Boring since but she hears from him on the telephone. Every once in a while he will call her and from the nature of the conversation Dianne knows that he is keeping a close watch on what she is doing."

"Now, that's interesting," Mason said.

"Dianne finds it rather disconcerting."

"How does she receive her hundred dollars, Della?" Mason asked.

"Every Saturday morning there is an envelope in the mail with a check. The checks are signed by the Hollywood Talent Scout Modeling Agency, per Harrison T. Boring, president."

"Well," Mason said, "I don't like to give up a good murder mystery before it's even got off the ground, Della, but there's just a chance this whole idea may be on the up-and-up. Boring's idea sounds pretty farfetched and fishy when it's written in the cold phraseology of a contract, but the more you think of his explanation, the more plausible it sounds.

"I was hoping that we were on the track of a potential murder before the potential corpse had really walked into the danger zone. I had visions of waiting until Harrison T. Boring had introduced Dianne to his millionaire pigeon and then stepping into the picture in a way that would cause Mr. Boring a maximum of embarrassment and perhaps feathering Dianne Alder's nest."

"As to the latter," Della Street said, "we have to remember that every time Dianne's nest gets two feathers, Boring gets one of them."

"That's what the contract says," Mason observed, "but sometimes things don't work out that way… Well, Della, I guess we'll have to give Mr. Harrison T. Boring the benefit of the doubt and you can return Dianne's contract to her. But we'll sort of keep an eye on her."

"Yes," Della Street said, "I thought you would want to do that."

Mason looked at her sharply but found nothing other than an expression of innocence on her face.

Abruptly the telephone rang. Della Street picked up the instrument.

"Hello," she said in a low voice. "This is Mr. Mason's suite."

Dianne Alder's voice came over the phone in a rush of words.

"Oh, Della, I'm glad I caught you!- Your Aunt told me where to find you.- Della, I have to have that contract back right away. I'm sorry I let you have it and I hope you didn't say anything about it to anybody."

"Why?" Della asked.

"Because… well, because I guess I shouldn't have let it out of my possession. There's a proviso in the contract that I'm to do everything I can to avoid premature publicity and- Gosh, Della, I guess I made a booboo even letting you have it or talking about the arrangement. You're the only one I've told anything at all about it. Mr. Boring impressed on me that if I started telling even my closest friends, the friends would tell their friends, the newspapers would get hold of it and make a feature story that would result in what he called premature publicity.

"He said that when they got ready to unveil the new models they'd give me a lot of publicity. That was when I was to go on television and they were going to arrange for a movie test, but nothing must be done until they were ready. They said they didn't want irresponsible reporters to skim the cream off their campaign."

"Do you want me to mail the contract?" Della Street asked.

"If it's all right with you, I'll run up and get it."

"Where are you now?"

"I'm at a drugstore only about three blocks from the hotel."

"Come on up," Della Street said.

She cradled the phone, turned to Perry Mason and caught the interest in his eye.

"Dianne?" Mason asked.

"That's right."

"Wants the contract back?"

"Yes."

Mason resumed his contemplative study of the ceiling. "Is she coming up to get the contract, Della?"

"Yes."

"What caused her sudden concern, Della?"

"She didn't say."

"When she comes," Mason said, "invite her in. I want to talk with her."

Mason lit a cigarette, watched the smoke curl upward.

At length he said, "I have become more than a little curious about Harrison T. Boring. He may be smarter than I thought."

The lawyer lapsed into silence, remained thoughtful until the chimes sounded and Della Street opened the door.