Erle Gardner - The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife

“And then?” Mason asked.

Benton laughed and said, “And then I told him to go to hell. I hate being blackmailed.”

Mason nodded.

“Now then, what can you tell me about the legal angles?”

“I don’t think he has a leg to stand on legally. His contract lapsed five months ago. I think there’s been an abandonment of the premises. I think there’s been a termination of the lease by a mutual implied consent. I don’t think the particular lease in question permits him to cure his default in the payment of rent, even if there hasn’t been any abandonment or mutual termination by implied consent.”

“And suppose we take the thing into court?”

“We can lick him.”

“How long?”

Mason ran his hand over his wavy hair.

“Go ahead,” Benton said. “I’m a businessman, Mr. Mason. I have my own lawyers. I can find out about these things. I’m simply trying to save time.”

“Well, of course,” Mason said, “it depends somewhat on the amount of opposition we meet, whether Shelby is simply running a naked bluff or whether he’s willing to spend some money to try and hold us up.”

“He’ll spend some money to try and hold us up.”

“You know him?”

“I didn’t, but I do.”

Mason raised his eyebrows.

Benton said, “I keep a firm of confidential investigators under retainer. Whenever a thing of this sort crops up, I try to find out something of the nature of the man I’m dealing with.”

Mason’s silence was an invitation to proceed.

After a moment Parker Benton said, “I don’t know why not. After all, we’re jointly interested in this thing. I don’t mind telling you, Mr. Mason, that I’m rather anxious to get that property if it can be worked out. But I certainly don’t want to have someone punching oil wells in my front yard or turning my swimming pool into an oil sump.”

Mason nodded.

“Scott Shelby,” Benton said, “is a promoter. He’s shrewd and he’s probably crooked. He’s something of a playboy, been married twice before. He now has a third wife considerably younger than he is. No one knows anything about his financial status because he keeps juggling his bank accounts around and is reputed to carry most of his money in the form of cash in a money belt. His credit is nil.”

“Beating the income tax?” Mason asked.

Benton made a little gesture with his hands. “You draw your conclusions, I draw mine. In that way we don’t run any risk of being sued for defamation of character.”

Mason looked across at the other man. “Why did you come here?”

“I wanted to find out about the legal aspects of the situation.”

“You have your own lawyers.”

“I thought you might be more familiar with the situation.”

“Why did you come here?”

Abruptly Parker Benton laughed and said, “All right, Mason, you win.”

“Go ahead,” Mason invited.

“All right,” Benton said. “I’ll put my cards on the table. That property is worth probably from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. I’m paying thirty thousand dollars for it. And I’m anxious to get it.”

“How anxious?” Mason asked.

“ Very anxious.”

“You mean you’d pay Shelby some blackmail in order to buy him out?”

Benton said, “As far as the money is concerned, it doesn’t make much difference. The principle of the thing does. I don’t like to be held up. I definitely don’t want to get the reputation of being an easy mark. I do want that property. If it costs money to get rid of Shelby, you’ll pay the money. Get me?”

Mason nodded.

“Now then,” Benton went on, “Shelby is running a bluff. He’ll back it up if we start to call him. He’ll have to. But he doesn’t want a lawsuit any more than anyone else.”

“You have something in mind?” Mason asked.

Benton looked at Mason, studying the lawyer, “You didn’t have someone call me up early this morning?”

Mason silently shook his head.

“Very early this morning,” Benton went on, “my telephone rang. A woman who seemed to know a great deal about the matter said that she was going to give me a friendly tip, that if I’d get Scott Shelby and his wife to accompany me sometime tonight on a cruise to the island aboard my yacht, I could get a settlement of the case. This person, a woman whose voice sounded very attractive, by the way, said Shelby really wanted to settle, but that Shelby was hotheaded. His wife, Marion, was the real balance wheel, a very sensible, charming woman.”

Benton stopped talking, waiting for Mason to say something, but the lawyer merely kept quiet.

“What do you think of it?” Benton asked at length.

“You don’t know who called you?”

“No.”

“She was particular to suggest the conference be aboard your yacht?”

“Yes.”

“The destination the island?”

“Yes.”

“For all you know then,” Mason said, smiling, “the voice was that of Mrs. Shelby, herself. She was quite probably coached by her husband to say what she did.”

Benton nodded. “I think that’s the real explanation.”

“Well?” Mason asked.

Benton said smiling, “I’m going to ring up Shelby. I’m going to invite him and his wife to come out to my yacht for a little cruise. I want you to come also. I’ll have Mrs. Keller there, all the interested parties. We’ll have a get-together. If Shelby makes a reasonable price, we’ll arrange a pool, pay him off and take a quitclaim.”

Mason said, “If you’d like a suggestion, I’ll give you one.”

“What?”

“The thing that will bother Shelby the most is that you might tell the title company to issue a certificate subject to that oil lease. Then the title company takes no responsibility for the oil lease and you go ahead and take the property. Then you tell Shelby to start suing you .”

“I’d still have a lawsuit on my hands,” Benton said.

Mason said, “I’m telling you that that would bother Shelby the most.”

Benton nodded. “I get your point, thanks.”

Mason said, “Engaging in litigation with you would be rather an expensive pastime.”

“Quite expensive,” Benton said.

Mason said, “In one way we’d be suing Shelby to quiet title so we could close the deal. He’d spar for time and run us crazy. This way I’ve suggested, you’d have the property and he’d have to sue you. It isn’t a position he’d like to be in.”

Benton pursed his lips, then asked abruptly, “You’re not married, Mr. Mason?”

“No.”

“I’m very anxious to have you come along on that yachting trip this afternoon. We leave here about four o’clock. There’s lots of room. Is there someone you’d like to bring along?”

Mason glanced at Della Street. Almost imperceptibly she nodded. Mason said, “I’ll bring my secretary.”

“That will be fine. And if there’s anyone else you want to bring, just bring them along. Anyone that would contribute to the life of the party. I want to make it something of a social success and then after we’ve all got acquainted we can sit down and talk business. And thank you very much, Mr. Mason, for giving me that lead about the angle to take in talking with Shelby.”

“Where do I meet you?” Mason asked.

“I’ll send a car about three-thirty. Now how about this Mr. Jackson? Do you think he’d like to go?”

Mason laughed, “I’m afraid that Jackson can’t find anything in the law books which establishes a legal precedent for settling a lawsuit aboard a yacht.”

“You mean he doesn’t do anything without a precedent?”

“Nothing,” Mason said.

Benton said definitely, “We don’t want him then.”