Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Reluctant Model

“And I have a legal bombshell I can explode any minute now. I was tempted to do it today but I held my fire so I could make a big play on it.”

“What’s the bombshell?” Drake asked. “At least you can tell me that.”

“Finding the gun in the locker,” Mason said.

“Why, that clinches the case against Maxine,” Drake said. “Those unidentified fingerprints aren’t going to help. They could have been made at any time, either before or after.”

Mason smiled. “Everyone has overlooked it,” he said.

“Overlooked what?”

“The lockers were serviced every twenty-four hours. Whenever they were inactive for any twenty-four-hour period they were opened. This locker had its twenty-four-hour inactive check on the evening of the fifteenth. Therefore, it was from the fourteenth to the fifteenth on which it was inactive. The gun had to be placed in it not on the thirteenth but on the fourteenth.

“That means the murderer planted the gun there after it became apparent Maxine had been seen there. The gun was planted after Maxine had left this part of the state, yet it was the murder weapon and, therefore, must have been left there by the real murderer.”

Drake’s eyes widened.

“Well, I’ll be a—”

The telephone rang sharply.

Della Street picked it up, said, “Yes, Gertie. What is it?... Oh-oh... Just a minute.”

Della Street turned to Perry Mason. “Mr. Otto Olney is in the outer office and Gertie says he’s mad. He’s waving that subpoena around and wants to know what the devil you mean by serving a subpoena on him, that he has to be in Honolulu tomorrow.”

“Well,” Mason said, “I guess we’ll have to talk with him, but tell Gertie I’ll see him within two to five minutes at the outside.”

Della Street relayed the message to Gertie.

“Can’t you get in trouble serving a subpoena on a big businessman like that when you don’t know exactly what you’re going to ask him?”

“I know what I’m going to ask him,” Mason said. “Get Lieutenant Tragg at Homicide for me, will you, Della?”

Della Street put through the call and a moment later said, “Here’s Lieutenant Tragg on the line.”

“Hello, Lieutenant,” Mason said. “How’s everything coming?”

“Coming very good indeed as far as we’re concerned,” Tragg said cheerfully. “I was sorry to see you put the defendant on the stand in a preliminary case like this, Mason.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s causing a lot of comment and I guess you probably realize that virtually none of it is favorable.”

“That’s all right,” Mason said. “I know you don’t like to see me get in bad.”

“Actually I don’t, Perry. You and I are pretty good friends, despite the fact we keep on the opposite side of the fence a good deal of the time.”

“Well,” Mason said, “just in order to cement our friendship still further, I’d like to tell you who killed Collin Durant.”

“I think I already know,” Tragg said. “I’m quite sure Hamilton Burger knows, and I think it’s quite probable that Judge Madison knows.”

“Do you want to get a confession?”

“A confession would help things very much indeed,” Tragg said. “What are you going to do, plead her guilty?”

“I don’t know,” Mason said, “but if you’ll get up to my office right away, I’ll give the matter some consideration. I have one client I’ve got to dispose of and then I’ll be willing to give you all the help I can.”

“That’s mighty nice of you,” Tragg said. “I’ll be up.”

“Now, don’t misunderstand me,” Mason said. “I said right away.”

“What do you mean by right away?”

“I mean right away.”

“Is it that important?”

“It’s that important,” Mason said. “Get up here!”

The lawyer hung up the phone, grinned at the perturbed detective, said, “Go to your office, Paul. I’ll call you when I need you.”

He waited until Drake had left by the exit door, then said to Della, “Ask Otto Olney to come in, if you will, please.”

Della Street went to the outer office and a moment later stepped to one side as the angry Olney strode past her.

“Look here, Mason, what the devil’s the idea of serving a subpoena on me in that murder case?” Olney asked.

“Frankly, I don’t think Maxine did it. I’d like to see her beat the rap. When the case comes to trial in the Superior Court I’m going to check everything carefully and see if I know anything or if there’s anything I can do, but I certainly am not going to perjure myself and I’m not going to go traipsing down to some little inferior court that doesn’t have any discretion in the matter and make a spectacle out of myself trying to stick up for an artist’s model.

“And remember, if you put any witnesses on the stand to testify on her behalf, the district attorney is just going to ask them if they ever saw her with her clothes off — and because she was an artist’s model—”

“Did you ever see her with her clothes off?” Mason asked.

Olney said, “As a matter of fact, I think I did, and damn it, Mason, that’s not fair! My wife is very much— Well, this is a critical time for her and she’s inclined to be... well, insanely jealous.”

“Of course,” Mason said, “I wouldn’t want to cause any domestic discord.”

“I’m satisfied you wouldn’t and I— Well, my lawyer, young Hollister at Warton, Warton, Cosgrove and Hollister, was pretty much worked up about this. He wanted me to go to court and claim that you’d been abusing the process of the court and a lot of things like that.

“Well, I just told him, nonsense. I said Mason’s a reasonable man, he’s got some grounds for what he wants to do, and I’m going up and see him and have a talk with him. I’ll find out what it is he wants and I’ll find out if there isn’t some way we can help him.”

“Well,” Mason said, “suppose you tell me just what you want.”

“I want to know what I can do to help you,” Olney said, “and then I want you to give me a letter to the effect that you’re releasing me from attendance on the court. For your information, I’m leaving for Honolulu on the ten o’clock plane tonight and then I may have to go on to the Orient.”

Mason looked at his watch, said, “I’m expecting a visitor momentarily, Mr. Olney. I’ll hurry right along with this.

“Della, will you take this in shorthand, please?”

Della Street picked up her shorthand notebook.

“A letter to Otto Olney, Esquire, with a copy to Judge Madison and a copy to Hollister of Warton, Warton, Cosgrove and Hollister. ‘Dear Mr. Olney: Upon receipt of your assurance this afternoon that you knew nothing about the case, nothing about the false Phellipe Feteet painting, that you didn’t know Goring Gilbert, who was painting the copy, knew nothing about the copy being painted, and had no business contacts with Collin Durant, I have agreed to release you from attendance in court tomorrow in the case of People versus Maxine Lindsay, and agree to recall the subpoena which has been served on you and permit you to leave the jurisdiction of the court.’ ”

Mason hesitated a minute, said, “I think that covers it, doesn’t it, Olney? I’d like to have you ask Hollister over to check it.”

“I think it covers the situation,” Olney said. “There’s no need for Hollister, and I want to apologize to you, Mr. Mason, for flying off the handle a little. I guess I... well, I got a little worked up about it.”

“That’s all right,” Mason said, “and Della, you probably had better put a little note at the bottom of that to be signed by Mr. Olney, stating quote, I assure you that the facts mentioned by you in the letter are correct and that I have given you my assurance I have no knowledge of any of the matters mentioned.”