Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Careless Kitten

The door of the room pushed open. A man, entering hastily, said, “What’s going on here? I’m the doctor in charge of this case. This patient isn’t to be disturbed. She’s had a severe shock. I’m going to ask you all to leave — immediately.”

Matilda Shore looked at him and said, “I guess you mean well, Doctor, but you got here just five minutes too late.”

Gerald Shore, strangely thoughtful and silent, drove his car up to the big, old-fashioned house which had remained virtually unchanged since the night the president of the Shore National Bank had vanished into thin air.

“Better get out here, Helen,” he said, “and keep an eye on the house. I’ll run Mr. Mason and his secretary out to Hollywood where he left his car.”

“I can go and keep you company on the way back,” Helen Kendal offered.

“I think you’d better be at the house. Someone should be here to take charge of things.”

“When will Aunt Matilda be home?” she asked.

Gerald Shore turned to Mason, silently passing the question on to him.

Mason grinned. “Not until she’s answered every question Lieutenant Tragg wants to ask.”

“But the doctor insisted that the questioning was to be limited to five minutes. He said that Aunt Matilda’s condition wouldn’t stand for more than that.”

“Exactly,” Mason said. “And the doctor is in charge while she’s in the hospital. But Tragg will put a couple of men on guard. He’ll see that she doesn’t leave the hospital until the doctor says she’s entirely cured. When the doctor says she’s completely recovered, Tragg will get the answer to his questions — either there at the hospital or down at headquarters.”

“Lieutenant Tragg seems to be a very clever and a very determined young man,” Gerald Shore said.

“He is,” Mason agreed, “and don’t ever underestimate him. He’s a dangerous antagonist.”

Gerald Shore was looking searchingly at Mason, but there was nothing in Mason’s face which indicated his remark about Tragg had held any hidden significance.

Helen slipped out of the automobile and said, “Well, I’ll stay here, then, and hold the fort.”

“We won’t be long,” her uncle promised.

She shuddered a little. “I wonder what’s going to happen next. I wish I knew where I could get hold of Jerry Templar.”

“Wouldn’t you like me to stay with you?” Della said impulsively.

“I’d love it,” Helen confessed.

“Sorry,” Mason said flatly. “I need Della.”

Helen’s face fell. “Never mind. I’ll be all right — I guess.”

Driving out toward Hollywood, Gerald Shore returned to something that seemed to be worrying him. “You’ve mentioned two or three times, Mason, that Lieutenant Tragg was a dangerous antagonist.”

“Yes.”

“Am I to assume that perhaps there was some particular significance which was attached to your remarks?”

Mason said, “That all depends.”

“Upon what does it depend?” Gerald Shore asked, his manner that of a courteous but insistent cross-examiner.

“Upon what you have to conceal.”

“But suppose I have nothing to conceal?”

“In that case, Lieutenant Tragg would not be a dangerous antagonist because he would not be an antagonist. But Lieutenant Tragg would always be dangerous.”

Shore studied Mason’s profile for a minute, then turned back to keep his eyes on the road.

Mason went on smoothly, “There are several things about this case which are rather significant. In the first place, if you and your brother had parted on the best of terms, there is no good reason why he wouldn’t have called you, rather than have subjected his niece to the shock of hearing his voice and learning that he was alive.

“That, however, is a minor matter. The point is, he particularly and specifically suggested that Helen should consult me and take me with her to call on Mr. Leech, that no other member of the family should be present.”

Gerald Shore said, “You’ve either said too much, Mason — or too little.”

“Yet,” Mason went on calmly, “ you insisted upon coming along.”

“I don’t see what you’re getting at, Mr. Mason. It was only natural that I should want to see my brother.”

“Quite right. But it seemed that you deemed it necessary to see him before anyone else talked with him.”

“Can you explain just what you mean by that?”

Mason smiled. “Of course I can. I’m looking at it now from the angle a person of Lieutenant Tragg’s mentality and temperament would take in approaching the problem.”

“Go right ahead.”

“Tragg will eventually find out that while you left the house with us, that while you were with us when we drove up to that reservoir to keep that appointment with Leech, you weren’t with us when we went into Leech’s hotel.”

“My interest was in my brother, not in Leech,” Shore said.

“Exactly. Even Lieutenant Tragg would be willing to concede that, although inasmuch as Leech was the only link with your brother, it would seem that your interest should have been transferred to him. However, Tragg would be quite willing to accept that — if there were no other complicating factors.”

“Such as?” Shore prompted.

“Oh,” Mason said, “let’s suppose that, just to be on the safe side, Tragg would get one of your photographs and take it to the clerk on duty in the Castle Gate Hotel, ask him if you’d been making inquiries about Henry Leech, ask if perhaps you’d ever called to see him — or if they remembered having seen you around the hotel at any time.”

Gerald Shore was silent for a matter of seconds; then he inquired, “What would be the object in that?”

Mason said, “I am hardly in a position to know all of the facts, but — still looking at it from Tragg’s viewpoint — there are things which are most significant. Your brother disappeared abruptly. His disappearance must have been brought about by some rather unusual factors. Immediately prior to his disappearance, he had had an interview with someone who had been either asking for or demanding money. There was some evidence indicating this person was you. There seems to have been some conflict in this evidence. I presume, however, that you were questioned about it, and I presume that the records will show you denied that you had seen your brother the night in question. Now Tragg might reason that it would be rather embarrassing to you if your brother should now appear on the scene and not only tell a story in direct conflict to that, but indicate that what you had been talking about had had something to do with his disappearance.

“Having reasoned that far, Lieutenant Tragg would then doubtless say to himself, Franklin Shore is in existence. For some reason, he doesn’t want to make himself known. He doesn’t care to go directly to his house. He wants to communicate with some of his relatives. He avoids his own brother and communicates instead with his niece, a very attractive young woman to be certain, but a young woman who must have been only thirteen or fourteen years of age when he disappeared. Gerald Shore, whom the brother has ignored upon his return, immediately steps into the picture and insists that he is going to go along with the niece. Henry Leech is the connecting link between Franklin, who is either unable or unwilling to come directly to the house and his relatives. Henry Leech goes to a lonely spot and is killed. There is a typewritten letter indicating that Leech has gone to this place of his own volition, but there is nothing to indicate that Leech himself wrote that letter. In fact, there is every reason to believe that he didn’t write it. Of course, a great deal will depend upon what Lieutenant Tragg finds as to the time of death from a post-mortem examination. However, from certain bits of evidence which I saw when I was at the scene of the crime, I’m inclined to believe the time of death will be fixed perhaps about four hours prior to the time we arrived on the scene.