Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Crooked Candle

“That’s right,” Drake said.

“What was it?”

“A little vest-pocket account book that Milfield kept in code. The Palermo deal wasn’t the only one. Milfield had been knocking down in a systematic way, and for his own information he was keeping a little account book which listed his transactions.”

“And they decided, I take it, they had to get this book in order to make their claims good against Burbank?”

“That was about the size of it. They knew the police would start trying to pin the murder on Burbank, and felt that once this book was discovered, it wouldn’t take police long to decipher the code, and have a complete record of Milfield’s chicanery. This didn’t suit Van Nuys or Mrs. Milfield because then Burbank would be able to set aside all of Milfield’s contracts on the ground of fraud.”

“So Mrs. Milfield volunteered to go and get it, is that right?”

“Right. Burwell had shown up by then, so it was decided Daphne could use her infatuated boy friend to get her out to the yacht. She was confident she could twist him around her finger. No one at the yacht club would know him, and he could rent a boat and row down to the little rickety pier and pick her up. She’d take the boat out to the yacht. Mrs. Milfield felt she was absolutely safe because she could prove she’d been at the airport when the crime was being committed. Well, those are the highlights of the situation. You can see that...”

The phone rang.

Mason nodded to Della. She picked up the receiver, then listened a moment, then placed her hand over the mouth piece.

“Chief, there’s a blond woman out there with a black eye who says she has to see you at once. Gertie says she’s terribly upset and she’s afraid she’ll have hysterics if...”

“Show her into the law library,” Mason said. “I’ll talk with her there. While I’m doing that, you can get a check from Mr. Burbank payable to Adelaide Kingman for one hundred thousand bucks. You’ll excuse me, I know. An hysterical blonde with a black eye would seem to be an emergency case, at least an interesting one — The Case of The Black Eyed Blonde.”