Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Spurious Spinster

“What?”

“Be so ostentatious about looking for her and so apprehensive that you build up the background of apprehension on the part of all concerned.”

“ All concerned?”

“That’s right,” Mason said, “ all concerned.”

“This is going to turn into quite a job,” Drake said.

“It has turned into quite a job,” Mason told him. “Get busy on it.”

The lawyer hung up the telephone, noting as he did so that Della Street, with her wide and unmistakably beautiful eyes, had hypnotized the service station attendant so that he had hardly noticed Mason had had a telephone conversation, let alone trying to eavesdrop on it.

Mason telephoned for a taxicab to come out to the service station, then joined Della Street, after a moment was able to get her off to one side where he could talk without being overheard.

“Della,” he said, “I’m under orders from the police not to leave here. No one thought to give you any such orders. I’ve telephoned for a taxicab. It will wait here. You take my car and beat it.”

“Where do I go?”

Mason said, “Della, this is important. I don’t want the police to get on Sue Fisher’s trail any sooner than they have to. On the other hand, I don’t dare to have her resort to flight because that would be taken as an indication of guilt. Now, just suppose that you were told by me to go out and try and locate Miss Corning? Where would you go?”

“I don’t know.”

“It is quite a question,” Mason said, “but we must bear in mind that she had some very involved mining interests out in the vicinity of Mojave. We must bear in mind that the murder of Ken Lowry has some rather deep significance. Now, if you should stop by Sue Fisher’s apartment and take her with you so that she could brief you on the various things you wanted to know about, and if you should start to Mojave — well, of course you’re rather tired tonight. I shouldn’t ask you to work day and night. You’ve been going at a high rate of speed all day. You two girls could stop somewhere along the road at a motel. Of course you’d have to be careful to use your own names. And then you could go out and look around Mojave tomorrow. There’s just a chance... just a chance, that you could find something.”

“You want delay, is that it?” Della Street asked.

Mason said, “Tut-tut, Della. You mustn’t jump to conclusions. I am merely asking you to get evidence. I think you could get out there in Mojave, skirmish around and do a pretty good job.”

“Do you want me to report to you?”

“From time to time,” Mason said. “There’s no use reporting to me tonight. Do you have plenty of money?”

“Not too much.”

Mason reached for his billfold, took out two one-hundred-dollar bills.

“All right,” he said, “this should keep you going for a while.”

“How will you get along without your car?”

“Oh, I’ll get along,” Mason said. “I’ll rent a car. You just take this and don’t be in a hurry, Della. Telephone me from time to time.”

“And if the police should catch up with us?”

“If the police should catch up with you,” Mason said, “you might tell Sue Fisher that an attorney generally doesn’t want his client to make any statement unless he is present, and he likes to talk with his client and know the facts before she makes any statements to the police.”

“I think I understand,” Della said. “Wish me luck.”

“On your way,” Mason said.

Della Street went to Mason’s car, jumped in with a swirl of skirt and a generous flash of leg.

The service station attendant watched her as she drove away. “Isn’t that girl a picture actress?” he asked.

Mason shook his head.

“She should be,” the attendant said dreamily. “The most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my life. Gosh, what eyes! And what a figure!”

Mason’s smile was comprehensive. “And what competence,” he said.

“What does she do?” the attendant asked.

“She’s a very, very competent secretary,” Mason told him.

The attendant stood looking down the road for a moment, then with a sigh went back to the interior of the station.

The taxi meter had nine dollars and eighty cents on it when Tragg somewhat reluctantly gave Perry Mason permission to go on about his business.

“I’m not very happy about this thing, Mason,” Tragg said.

“One shouldn’t ever be happy about a murder,” Mason said.

“That isn’t what I meant,” Tragg said. “I’m not happy about any of them.”

“All right, that’s fine,” Mason said. “You’re not happy about any of them and you’re not happy about this. That figures.”

“Let’s say I’m not happy about your part in this one.”

“ I have no part in the murder,” Mason said.

Tragg jerked his thumb. “On your way,” he said. “Personally, I think you’ve worked this professional privilege to death. I’m going to tell you something, Perry Mason. Sooner or later the facts in this case are going to come out. We’re going to know how it happened that you went up there looking around for a body.”

“I tell you, I wasn’t looking around for a body,” Mason said.

“All right, we don’t need to go over it again. On your way.”

Mason climbed in the cab, nodded to the driver. “Back down to Hollywood,” he said.

After they reached Hollywood, Mason gave the driver the address of Susan Fisher’s apartment and said, “There’s a car-rental agency within three or four blocks of that apartment. Do you know where it is?”

The cab driver thought for a minute, then nodded. “There’s a branch of the “We Rent M Car Company” over on the boulevard that’s only about three and a half blocks from there.”

“Let’s try that place,” Mason said.

The driver drew up in front of the place. Mason went in and said, “How about renting a car?”

“It depends on how long you want it,” the man said. “We’re just closing up and business has been rushing today. This is a branch of the main office and we’ve been floored. I have one car which has just come in. It hasn’t been serviced. I’ll have time to fill the tank and that’s all. If you want to turn it in before nine o’clock tomorrow morning, you’ll have to turn it in at one of the other offices. I’ll give you their address on a card.”

“Okay by me,” Mason said. “I need a car.”

“You got your driver’s license?”

Mason brought it out and exhibited it, used an air travel card to establish credit, and went out to pay off the cab.

“I was just closing up,” the man explained. “We’ve had quite a day and I was fifteen or twenty minutes overtime getting books posted.”

“Did a lot of rental business?”

“Quite a lot.”

“You don’t have too many cars?”

“Not here, this is a branch. Actually, we try to keep one here all the time and then we telephone to one of the other offices to send out replacements. They can have a car here within ten minutes any time I phone, sometimes sooner.”

“Just keep the one car here in the place?”

“That’s right. Of course, it isn’t always the same car.”

“I see,” Mason said. “I was just wondering how you ran the business.”

“Actually,” the man told him, “this is kind of a business-getting gadget that the company is using. Some of our competitors are located at a garage somewhere in the city and then have a place at the airport. If you want to get a car, you have to go one place or the other, or arrange to have it delivered. And that makes it a little difficult when you want to return the car. We’re trying out something new. We have places spotted all over town. You can either pick up a car here or I can have one for you within ten minutes and then I give you a list of places where you can leave it. You can turn it in at any one of these places; they’re scattered all over town.”