Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Spurious Spinster

“Good morning, Perry,” he said, and turning to Della Street, bowed, said, “I’ve already seen you this morning, Della.”

“You have for a fact,” she said.

Tragg said, “You’ll pardon me for walking right in without waiting to be announced, Perry, but as I’ve explained to you on several occasions, the taxpayers don’t like to have us cooling our heels in the outer office and sometimes after a man knows we’re waiting he takes steps which tend to defeat the purpose of our visit.”

“And the purpose of your visit this morning?” Mason asked.

“Well now,” Tragg said, “I was instructed to ask you to look at certain sections of the Penal Code.”

“Indeed,” Mason said.

“Sections having to do with concealing evidence, being an accessory after the fact, and things of that sort. But I’m not going to say anything about those sections.”

“And why not?” Mason asked.

“Because,” Tragg said, still smiling, “I’m satisfied you’re familiar with them already, Counselor, and quite probably have taken steps to see that they don’t apply.”

“Then what is the purpose of your visit?” Mason asked.

“Right at the moment,” Tragg said, “the purpose of my visit is to advise you that we’re taking into custody a rented car which you picked up late last night from the We Rent M Car Company... and I’m instructed to ask you just why you deemed it necessary to rent that particular car.”

“What particular car?” Mason asked.

“The one you rented.”

Mason smiled. “The reason I rented a car was because Della Street had work to do and you had ordered me to remain at a service station. It therefore became necessary for me to call a taxi to take me back to town from the service station after you finished questioning me. Quite naturally one doesn’t care to keep a taxi and pay taxi rates for ordinary driving. Even a fairly prosperous lawyer could run up too much of an expense account that way.”

“I dare say,” Lt. Tragg said. “I suppose you knew that the car you rented was the same one that your client, Susan Fisher, had rented earlier in the day and driven out to the place where the body of Ken Lowry was discovered?”

“No!” Mason exclaimed in surprise.

“You didn’t know that?”

“How was I to know that?”

“You rented a car from the same agency.”

“Certainly,” Mason said. “I believe it was the nearest car-rental depot to the service station where you ordered me to remain.”

“I see,” Tragg said. “In other words, it was just one of those coincidences.”

“You might call it that,” Mason said.

“And again, I might not,” Tragg said. “I’m quite certain the district attorney won’t.”

“All right,” Mason said. “You want to pick up the car. I take it you’ll give me a receipt, we’ll check the mileage on the speedometer at the present time and I’ll ring up the We Rent M Car Company and you can tell them that the police department is taking over and give them the mileage reading. I’d certainly hate to pay ten cents a mile for a lot of running around being done by the police department.”

“Oh, certainly,” Tragg said. “We’re always glad to cooperate with you, Perry.”

“Thank you.”

“Now then,” Tragg went on, “if we process this car for latent fingerprints and find that all of the fingerprints have been wiped from the car, it will be a very suspicious circumstance, Counselor. I think you can realize just how significant it will be and how suspicious.”

“I wouldn’t say that was a suspicious circumstance,” Mason said, “but I am quite certain that by the time the prosecution gets done with it it will be made to appear highly significant.”

“And it might leave you in a very embarrassing position,” Tragg pointed out.

“It might,” Mason agreed.

“You don’t seem to think it will?”

“I’m hoping it won’t, because I’m hoping that you won’t find that the car has been wiped free of fingerprints.”

“Well,” Tragg said, “we’ve located it down in the parking lot and we have a couple of fingerprint experts going over it. If you don’t mind corning down to the parking lot and checking the speedometer we’ll give you a receipt for the car and then take over.”

Mason sighed. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to. How long have you been working on the car?”

“Ever since you drove it in,” Tragg said, grinning. “You know, Mason, I’m willing to make you a bet.”

“What?”

“That the men report there isn’t a single fingerprint on that car except perhaps one or two of yours by the door... and do you know what’s going to happen if that is the case? I’m going to take you down to Headquarters for questioning, to find out whether you know anything about the fingerprints having been obliterated. I just thought I’d let you know so you could ask your highly competent secretary here to take care of canceling appointments in the event you don’t return to the office.”

Mason sighed and reached for his hat. “I always deplore these high-handed methods on the part of the police,” he said.

“I know, I know,” Tragg told him, “but the district attorney takes a very dim view of lawyers who go around obliterating evidence.”

“Evidence of what?” Mason asked.

“Evidence of murder.”

“What sort of evidence?”

“Well, for instance,” Tragg said, “I wouldn’t be too surprised if at one time Ken Lowry hadn’t been in that car and that his fingerprints might have been found in the car if they hadn’t been tampered with. For your information, Counselor, these fingerprint men are rather expert and if a car has been wiped free of fingerprints they can determine that fact — and, of course, since the car is in your possession, and since you would be the one who would have a strong motive to protect your client, the answer is more or less obvious.”

“I would say rather less than more,” Mason said. “Let’s go down and take a look at the car, by all means. Perhaps you’d better come along as a witness, Della, so you can check the mileage.”

“The more the merrier,” Tragg said. “Let’s go.”

Tragg led the way out of the office and escorted Mason and Della Street down the elevator, out through the side entrance of the building and into the parking lot.

Two men were working feverishly over the automobile Mason had parked. Another man with a fingerprint camera was busily engaged in taking photographs.

“Well?” Tragg asked, as they approached the car. “You found that it had been wiped clean?”

One of the men turned to Tragg. His face contained an expression of complete exasperation. “In all of my experience, Lieutenant,” he said, “I’ve never found a car with more fingerprints on it than this. The thing is fairly plastered. They’re just all over the car — front, back, windshield, windows, steering wheel, rearview mirror — the thing is plastered with prints.”

For a moment the smile faded from Lt. Tragg’s face. Then he drew a deep breath and bowed to Perry Mason. “One has no respect for an adversary who is unworthy,” he said. “It’s going to give me a great deal of pleasure to return to the prosecutor and tell him that there was no reason to bring you in for questioning.”

“You expected to find fingerprints on the car?” Mason asked.

“Well,” Tragg said, “I didn’t think that they’d find the car had been wiped free of all fingerprints. I was instructed to tell you that I was certain such would be the case, but somehow I had an idea it wouldn’t be quite that easy. However, I hardly expected to find the car fairly crawling with fingerprints. Would you mind explaining how that happened?”