Erie Gardner: The Case of the Lazy Lover

Perry Mason — A criminal lawyer with a steel-trap mind and a stubborn desire to get at the truth

Della Street — Perry Mason’s confidential secretary

Lola Faxon Allred — The attractive, middle-aged wife of Bertrand C. Allred. She is — more than she suspects — at a dangerous age

Bertrand C. Allred — A powerful mine operator with a ruthless resolve to get what he wants

Gertie — Perry Mason’s plump, good-natured receptionist, who displays an unsuspected talent for drama

Robert Grego Fleetwood — Bertrand C. Allred’s right-hand man, who disappears with Mrs. Allred under mysterious circumstances

Patricia Faxon — Mrs. Allred’s daughter by a prior marriage, a beautiful damsel in distress

John Bagley — A leading contender for Patricia Faxon’s affections

George Jerome — Allred’s partner in mining deals. A clever man — perhaps as clever as Allred

Dixon Keith — He swapped mining properties with Allred and Jerome — and learned a bitter lesson

Mervin Canby — President of the Farmers. Merchants & Mechanics Bank, who is busy with checks and double checks

Paul Drake — Head of the Drake Detective Agency. Thanks to Perry Mason, he does much sleuthing and little sleeping

C. E. Pawling — President of the First National Bank at Las Olitas, who is distressed at the financial antics of an important depositor

Maurine Milford — An extremely attractive young woman who leaves an extremely puzzling trail

Jane Smith — The description matched, but the name didn’t

Frank Inman — A treat-’em-rough investigator from the sheriffs office

Lieutenant Tragg — A homicide-squad officer who, he thinks, has outsmarted Perry Mason

P. E. Overbrook — An expert on back-tracking — in more ways than one

Bernice Archer — Fleetwood’s girl friend. Her figure is remarkable — and so is her I.Q.

Leighton — A service station operator. The phone call wasn’t finished, but the alibi was

Bert Humphreys — His diagram was carefully plotted — and so was the witness’s story

D. T. Danvers — The Assistant District Attorney, who has a passion for details but overlooks a crucial point

Judge Colton — He disapproved of fishing expeditions — and then Perry Mason pulled in a whopper

There was usually a big pile of mail on Monday morning. Della Street, Perry Mason’s confidential secretary, having arrived a full half hour before the office was scheduled to open, deftly inserted the paper knife under the flaps of the envelopes, cut them open with one swift wrist motion, read the letters and sorted them into three piles.

First, there was the pile that Perry Mason must read and answer. The second pile didn’t require an immediate answer, but called for Mason’s attention. The third pile was mail which she would discuss with Mason, but which she, herself, could handle.

The last envelope she opened was the one which presented the puzzle. It was a thin envelope and might have contained merely a routine statement of accounts covering some purchases Mason had made. Actually, it held a folded oblong of tinted paper with serrated edges. The body was typewritten, the signature in heavy ink.

Della Street saw that it was a check drawn on the Farmers, Merchants & Mechanics Bank for two thousand five hundred dollars, payable to Perry Mason and signed Lola Faxon Allred.

Della shook the envelope to make certain nothing else was in it; then, to make certain that her memory was not at fault, consulted the card index of Mason’s clients.

There was no one named Allred.

It might, of course, be conscience money, so Della Street went to the big master file.

In this file, there was a record of every person with whom Perry Mason had had a business contact, witnesses in cases, persons who had served on juries in cases that Mason had tried, persons who had been in an adverse business position, defendants in civil actions, parties to contracts, hostile witnesses.

There was no Allred.

Della Street was just closing the drawer when Mason came breezing into the office.

“Hi, Della. What’s new? The usual assortment of mail, I see. Gosh, how I like to get letters! And how I hate to answer them!”

Della Street said, “Who’s Lola Faxon Allred?”

“You’ve got me,” Mason said, after thinking a moment. “Were you looking for her in the file?”

“Uh huh.”

“Find anything?”

“Not a thing.”

“Why the interest?”

Della Street said, “She sent you a check for twenty-five hundred bucks.”

“For what?”

“She didn’t say.”

“No letter?”

“No letter.”

“And we have nothing in the files?”

“No.”

Mason said, “Let’s take a look at the check.”

He studied it for a moment, turned it so that the light from the office window struck the check diagonally, said, “You’re sure there wasn’t any letter in the envelope, Della?”

“Absolutely. This is the envelope, Chief. This is just the way it came.”

Mason said, “Originally, there was a letter attached to this check.”

“How do you know?”

Mason said, “The way it’s folded, for one thing. For another thing, the fact that there is the mark of a paper clip on the top of the check. Hold it at just this angle, Della. No, a little more that way. That’s it. Now see how the faint indentation in the paper shows the outline of a paper clip?”

“That’s right,” Della said. “A clip was there, all right. What makes you think it was clipped to a letter?”

“The way the check is folded. If you were putting a check in an envelope, you’d fold it once. When a check is attached to a letter, you clip it to the top of the letter, then you fold the letter once from the bottom, then you fold it twice from the sides. That is, you fold it once from each side. Now notice the way this check is folded. Once from the left, once from the right.”

“Then what do you suppose became of the letter?”

Mason said, “That’s the question, Della. Look in the phone book.”

Della Street ran her finger down the “A’s” in the phone book, said, “I don’t find any Lola Faxon Allred. There’s a Bertrand C. Allred.”

“Bertrand C.!” Mason exclaimed.

“Yes. Why? Do you know him?”

“Well, I know of him.”

“What about him, Chief?”

“He’s a big shot in mining circles. He’s both a promoter and operator. He has the reputation of being clever and tricky. A year or so ago he promoted a mine. After he’d sold the stock there was a discovery of very rich ore. Allred used a slick legal trick to get the stock back. He made a million.”

“Slick legal tricks interest me,” Della said. “How did he do it?”

“He had a friendly stockholder, who was really a dummy, sue him for fraud, claim the stock was valueless and ask for his money back. Then this dummy sent out letters to all of the other stockholders, stating that the suit had been filed, that Allred had promoted the mine by fraudulent means, that if the other stockholders wanted to take concerted action, the writer felt it would be possible to salvage all of their money; but that Allred would undoubtedly try to spar for time, so that he could dissipate the company assets. Two days later, Allred wrote each and every one of the stockholders telling them that, in his opinion, the mine was fabulously rich; that every share of stock that had been sold was not treasury stock but Allred’s private stock; that he wanted the investors to make a lot of money out of it and his advice was to sit tight and not try to make him give them their money back; that, in his opinion, the mine was even more valuable than when he had sold them the stock.