Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Lonely Heiress

“Let the police in, darling,” Dolores said to her husband.

"Yes, my love,” he said meekly, and went down the corridor and opened the front door.

Lieutenant Tragg and a plainclothes man came pushing into the room.

“Hello, Mason,” Tragg said. “What’s this all about?”

Mason said, “This is Dolores Caddo, Lieutenant Tragg, and her husband, Robert Caddo.”

Tragg pushed his hat over on the back of his head, said, “What’s this about Dolores Caddo going to see Rose Keeling?”

Dolores sipped her drink and said, “Damned if I know. It’s an idea Mason had. He thought he could make it stick.”

Mason said, “Dolores Caddo is inclined to have fits of temper whenever her husband has been philandering. She thought he had been seeing Rose Keeling. Mrs. Caddo called at my office earlier in the day and said she was on her way out to see Marilyn Marlow and Rose Keeling and that she intended to make something of a scene. Naturally, I called to ask her what had happened.”

“Go on,” Tragg said.

Mason said, “She has just admitted to both of us that she had been in Rose Keeling’s flat about eleven-thirty, that she had distributed a little ink around, torn Rose Keeling’s clothes, and tried to administer a spanking. Miss Keeling broke away from her, got into the bathroom and locked herself in. So Mrs. Caddo went out.”

“And the time?” Tragg asked, eyes glinting.

“Eleven-thirty,” Mason said.

Tragg turned to Mrs. Caddo. “What about it?”

Dolores Caddo looked at her husband with wide-eyed astonishment. “I’ll be a dirty name,” she said.

“What about it?” Tragg repeated.

“That’s the wildest fairy tale I ever heard,” Dolores Caddo said.

“Didn’t you see Rose Keeling?”

She shook her head. “I’ve never seen her in my life.”

Tragg looked at Mason.

Dolores Caddo turned to her husband. “What about Rose Keeling, honey? Do you know her?”

“I have never seen her,” Caddo said, running his tongue along the line of his lips.

“Mrs. Caddo,” Mason said dryly, “is given to throwing ink in her fits of temper. Is that right, Mrs. Caddo?”

She said to Lieutenant Tragg, “I don’t know what’s going on here, but you’re the law. You’d ought to see that we get a square deal.”

“Tell me exactly what happened,” Tragg said. “Then I’ll see what can be done.”

She said, “I went to call on Mr. Mason this morning. I had a talk with him. Shortly after I left, my husband went there. He said at that time Mason told him I’d thrown ink all over his office. Mason had smeared some ink on his face to make it look natural and apparently had put some scratches on his face with lipstick. I’d never touched him; I was a perfect lady.

“Then tonight Mason came down here and accused me of having gone to see Rose Keeling. I told him I’d never seen her in my life. He walked over to the telephone and called police headquarters and told you that fairy story. I can’t figure it out.”

“You hadn’t told him you had seen Rose Keeling?”

She shook her head.

“You’re certain?”

She nodded.

Robert Caddo cleared his throat. “I was here all the time, Lieutenant. She certainly never said anything like that!”

“You were both together here?”

“That’s right. Mason rang the bell and got us up out of bed. He said he wanted to talk with us. We mixed a drink and Mason accused my wife of having gone to see Rose Keeling. She said she didn’t even know Rose Keeling. Then Mason went over and called you up.”

Tragg looked over to Mason.

The lawyer put down his drink, said, “I’m sorry, Lieutenant.”

“You got anything more to say than that?”

Mason shook his head.

“By God!” Tragg said. “One of these days, Mason, you’re going to step all over your tonsils. What the hell’s the idea rushing me down here on a bum steer like this? You’re mixed up in this thing up to your necktie, and you’re trying every way you can to get out. What’s this about her calling at your office and you smearing ink on your face?”

Mason said, “I’ve been guilty of underestimating Mrs. Caddo’s intelligence, Tragg.”

“And, by God, you’re underestimating mine!” Tragg said. “And for your personal information, we’ve now found some evidence that really connects your client with the murder. By ten o’clock in the morning I’ll have a warrant for her. If you hide her after that I’ll nail you as an accessory.”

“Who’s his client?” Mrs. Caddo asked.

“Marilyn Marlow,” Tragg said.

“That woman!” Mrs. Caddo exclaimed, and then added, “Did she kill this girl — what’s her name?”

“Rose Keeling. Yes, she killed her.”

“How do you know?” Mrs. Caddo asked.

Tragg grinned. “Among other things, we’ve found the murder weapon in her possession.”

“Well,” Dolores Caddo said, “you certainly shouldn’t want anything more than that!”

Mason said, “Before you go overboard on this thing, Lieutenant, I want to tell you what happened. Caddo wanted to get a lead on Marilyn Marlow, who was advertising in his magazine as a lonely heiress. At that time I think he was telling me the truth. He wanted to protect himself against a charge of false advertising. But once he found out who she was and had a look at her, he had an idea he might trade his wife in on a new model.”

“That’s a lie!” Caddo said.

“Naturally,” Mason went on, “he didn’t map out a plan of campaign all at once. He became convinced Marilyn was playing a game of some sort. He thought that he might be able to edge into the picture so that he could get a little money — and if he had to do it by some form of blackmail, he wasn’t going to be too squeamish. However, in the back of his mind was an idea that Dolores had given him about everything she had to offer, and it might be a good plan to shine up to Marilyn Marlow, feeling that he just might be able to hit the jackpot.”

“What was the jackpot?” Tragg asked.

“Reno,” Mason said. “Trading Dolores in on a more streamlined model with more money.”

“That’s a lie, my love,” Caddo said. “Don’t listen to him. He’s simply trying to make trouble.”

Dolores threw back her head and laughed. “How well I know it! He thinks I’m jealous. Well, Robert, darling, I know you wouldn’t do anything like that. You love me, and I know you love me.”

“Thank you, darling.”

“In the first place,” Dolores went on, “you couldn’t have got to first base with this heiress, and in the second place if you had, I’d have beaten your damn brains out before you could have stolen second base.”

“Yes, my love.”

“You know better than to try to two-time me. You might let your foot slip once in a while, but you wouldn’t really try to walk out on me.”

“No, my love.”

“You know what would happen if you did.”

“Yes, my love.”

Dolores smiled at Lieutenant Tragg and said, “Can’t you do some thing to keep this lawyer from trying to break up a perfectly happy marriage?”

Mason picked up his hat. “My congratulations, Mrs. Caddo. I hope you haven’t played all your trumps.”

“I haven’t,” she said sweetly. “Do stick around and have a drink with us, Lieutenant. My husband has some excellent Scotch in the kitchen. This prune juice is just some imitation stuff we dug out for this lawyer.”

“I’ll let you out,” Caddo said to Mason.

“Don’t bother,” Mason told him. “I’ve found my way out of worse places than this, Caddo. Good night!”

Mason stopped at an all-night restaurant, dialed Della Street’s apartment.