Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Reluctant Model

“He seemed particularly afraid someone would see me leaving carrying a suitcase. He felt detectives might be keeping an eye on me.”

Mason shook his head. “It won’t work, Maxine. That story won’t stand up. Go to a lawyer here. Then you ring up your sister and see if she and your brother-in-law will stand back of you and...”

Mason broke off at the expression on Maxine’s face.

“You mean they wouldn’t?” Mason asked.

“Oh, my God,” she said, “I can’t. I simply can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

“Can’t let them get dragged into it.”

“Dragged into it?” Mason said. “To the extent that they are relatives of yours and that you were on your way to join them, they’re already in it.”

“I wasn’t... I wasn’t going to join them. I was just going to explain things to them and get money enough to keep on going up to Canada or someplace where no one could find me — only I intended to tell them I’d keep in touch with them and if Collin Durant wanted to know where I was I’d tell him where he could get in touch with me... I wouldn’t bring trouble to their house. I wouldn’t—”

“Don’t try to lie to me,” Mason said, “at least in such a bungling manner. You were streaking your way up the coast in order to be with them. You sent your sister a wire to send you money. It was just the amount of money you needed to get food for yourself and gas for the car in order to get up there.”

Maxine slid over into the corner, put her head up against the wall of the booth, and closed her eyes wearily.

“I give up,” she said at length. “I can’t convince you and I’m telling you the truth... I’m so darned tired!”

“Want to make a confession?” Mason asked. “And remember, Maxine, I’m not your lawyer. Anything you tell me won’t be confidential.”

“Mr. Mason, you’ve got to help me.”

“I can’t help you.”

“Why not?”

“I have other interests.”

“In the— You mean with Mr. Rankin?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head and said, “Rankin has nothing to do with this.”

“I can’t help you,” Mason said, “at least not without his permission.”

She kept her eyes closed, kept herself propped in the corner of the booth. “I give in, Mr. Mason,” she said. “I’ll tell you what Durant had on me.

“My sister married Homer Stigler. That was years ago. He went overseas in the army. While he was away she met someone who had a glib line of chatter and it all happened at a time when her marriage was just about ready to break up.

“Homer had been gallivanting around a little bit overseas and Phoebe had heard about it. She decided the marriage was on the rocks, but she didn’t write him one of the ‘Dear John’ letters because she had heard so much about those and how they disrupted morale in the armed services. She thought she would just carry on until he came back and then she’d tell him. Or she’d let him make the first move.

“So the next thing Phoebe knew she was pregnant and then things dragged along for a while and then just before the baby was born she got a letter from Homer stating that he’d made a fool of himself, that he’d been tangled up with this girl overseas but that it was simply one of those physical affairs that happen when a man is kept away from home and is hungry for feminine companionship and he begged forgiveness and told her that he would be home in six months and wanted to begin all over again and that she was the only woman he had ever really loved.

“By that time Phoebe had found out that this man she had been interested in was just a playboy and a heel. As soon as he found out about her condition, he had dropped her like a hot potato.

“Phoebe realized she wanted to save her marriage if she could — and well, I became the fall guy.”

“What do you mean?” Mason asked.

“She wrote him that I had had an affair, that I was going to have a baby and that she had invited me to come and live with her. And that when the baby was to be born we were going down to California and I could have the baby and then we’d put it out for adoption.”

“And what happened?” Mason asked.

“We went to California. Phoebe had the baby but she used my name and we got the child in one of the homes, and then Phoebe returned to Oregon, and Homer came home and they were very happy. And then Homer suggested that they adopt my baby, a little boy.

“Well, that’s the situation. Homer and Phoebe adopted the baby, I signed the necessary papers, and Homer thinks I am the erring sister who had an illegitimate child... And they’re very, very happy.”

“What would have happened if Phoebe had told him the truth at the time?” Mason asked.

“I don’t know. Homer is peculiar. He’s intense, he’s very possessive and he’s — well, he’s like all men.”

“What would happen if she told him now?”

“He’d kill her and kill himself. He’d hit the ceiling. He’s temperamental and— Oh, my Lord, if he ever found out now!”

“How did Durant find out?” Mason asked.

“Now, there’s something,” she said. “I don’t know how he found out but he certainly made it a point to find out and he did find out. He had that secret and he held it over me. There were times when I could have killed him. He—”

“Now, wait a minute,” Mason interrupted. “Watch your— Oh-oh!”

Maxine looked up quickly. “What’s the matter?” she asked.

“Permit me to introduce the two gentlemen who are standing behind you,” Mason said. “One of them is Lieutenant Arthur Tragg of Homicide from Los Angeles, and I presume the other one is a member of the Redding police force.”

“Sergeant Cole Arlington of the Shasta County Sheriffs office,” Tragg said cheerfully. “Now, what was it that you were telling Mr. Mason, Miss Lindsay? Something about someone whom you could kill? Were you by any chance referring to Mr. Collin Max Durant?”

“Just a minute, Maxine,” Mason said. “I’m going to telephone Lattimer Rankin and get his permission to represent you. For some reason I believe your story.”

“I’m glad you do,” Tragg said. “I think the young woman probably needs an attorney. We’d like to ask her some questions.”

“Moreover,” Mason said, “I am going to ask you not to answer any questions, not to tell the police anything, until after I have had a chance to do some checking. Then I will make a statement to the police as to your story.” Mason turned to Tragg and said, “And I may tell you, Lieutenant, that Miss Lindsay was on the point of going to an attorney here in Redding and having him call the Los Angeles police and tell them that she had just learned the body of a man had been found in her apartment, and that she would be available for questioning.”

“How very, very nice of her,” Tragg said. “And since she is available for questioning, perhaps she wouldn’t mind coming to Headquarters and making a statement right now.”

“She was on the point of stating that she was available for questioning,” Mason said, “but in view of what she has just told me, she is not going to make any statement to the police. I am going to investigate and make that statement for her.”

“You think she’s that guilty?” Tragg asked.

“I don’t think she’s guilty at all,” Mason said. “I wouldn’t be representing her if I thought she was guilty. I just have the feeling that she’s innocent and that there are other persons involved whose happiness requires that the information she gives to the police be restricted entirely to the matter of what happened with Collin Durant.”

“Well, of course if you adopt that attitude,” Tragg said, “there’s only one thing to do and that’s to charge her with first-degree murder.”