Erle Gardner - Case of the Beautiful Beggar

Mason shook his head.

“Why not?” Drake asked. “I’ll stick my neck out. I’ll put my license on the line to give your client a break.”

“It isn’t that,” Mason said. “In the first place, as an officer of the court, I can’t tamper with evidence. As a licensed detective, you can’t. In the second place, I’ve always found that truth is the strongest weapon in the arsenal of any attorney. The trouble is lawyers quite frequently don’t know what the truth is. They get half-truths from the evidence or from their clients and try to get by on those half-truths.

“As far as we are concerned, we are—”

Mason stopped talking abruptly as heavy steps sounded on the wooden porch of the motel, knuckles pounded on the door.

Mason said, “Permit me, Daphne.” He walked across the room and opened the door.

Lieutenant Tragg, accompanied by a uniformed officer standing on the threshold, had a hard time hiding his surprise.

“What the devil are you doing here? ” Tragg asked.

“Talking with my client,” Mason said.

“Well, if your client is the owner of the new Ford automobile out in front, she’s going to need an attorney in the worst way,” Lieutenant Tragg said.

“Come in,” Mason invited. “Daphne, this is Lieutenant Tragg of the Homicide Department. Lieutenant Tragg, Daphne Shelby.”

“Oh-ho,” Tragg said, “I’m beginning to see a great light. Headquarters tell me they’ve been looking for Horace Shelby, who was spirited out of the Goodwill Sanitarium despite an order of Court.”

Tragg turned to the uniformed officer and said, “Bring in the woman. Let’s see if we make an identification.”

“Let me point out that that’s hardly the best way to make an identification,” Mason said.

“Well, it is in this case,” Tragg said. “We’re working against time.”

The officer left the porch, a car door slammed, then there were steps on the porch, and the officer escorted a woman into the motel unit.

“Look around,” Tragg invited, “and see if there’s anyone here you know.”

The woman instantly pointed to Daphne Shelby.

“Why, that’s the woman who rented Unit 21,” she said. “She told me that her uncle was going to be occupying it.”

Tragg turned to Mason with a grin. “This,” he said, “is your exit line, Counselor. We can get along without you from here on.”

Mason smiled. “I think you’re forgetting about the recent Supreme Court decisions, Lieutenant,” he said. “Miss Shelby is entitled to have an attorney representing her at all stages of the investigation.”

Mason turned to Daphne and said, “Before you answer any questions, Daphne, look at me. If I shake my head, don’t answer if I nod my head, answer it and tell the truth .”

“That’s going to be one hell of a way to interrogate a witness,” Lieutenant Tragg said.

“It may be a poor way to interrogate a witness , but it’s the only way you can interrogate a prospective defendant,” Mason said. “Perhaps I can make some stipulations which will make things easier for you, Lieutenant.”

“Such as what?” Tragg asked.

“This is Daphne Shelby,” Mason said. “Until a short time ago, she believed in good faith that she was the niece of Horace Shelby.

“However, whether there is any blood relationship or not, Daphne is very fond of the man she has always regarded as her uncle. She lived in the house and took charge of his rather restricted diet. She was on the verge of a nervous breakdown from trying to nurse him, do the cooking, and supervise the housekeeping problems.

“When Horace Shelby was sent to the Goodwill Sanitarium by a conservator and a doctor who was employed by the other relatives, Daphne obtained employment at the sanitarium. She found Horace Shelby strapped to a bed, she took a knife, cut the straps, took Horace Shelby to the Northern Lights Motel and established him in Unit 21.

“Now then, Lieutenant, that’s as far as we are going to go at the present time.”

Tragg whirled to Daphne. “Did you bring him some food tonight?”

Mason shook his head.

Daphne remained quiet.

“Chinese food in particular,” Lieutenant Tragg said. “We know you did so you might just as well make it easy on yourself. After all, Miss Shelby, we’re trying to get at the truth in the case and, if you’re innocent, you have nothing to fear from the truth.”

Again Mason shook his head.

“Shucks,” Tragg muttered, then turned to Mason. “Any objections to letting her identify the body?”

“None whatever,” Mason said.

Tragg turned to Daphne Shelby and held out his hand. “Would you mind giving me those sleeping pills you have, Miss Shelby?” he asked. “The ones you’ve got left.”

She started to reach for her purse, then caught Mason’s eye.

“No dice, Lieutenant,” Mason said. “We don’t want to have you resort to subterfuge because, under those circumstances, we might quit cooperating.”

Lieutenant Tragg said bitterly, “It’s one hell of a note when the Court takes the handcuffs off the defendant and puts them on the wrists of honest officers who are trying to enforce the law.”

“I don’t see any handcuffs,” Mason said.

“Well, I can feel them,” Tragg snapped.

“We were going to identify a body,” Mason reminded him.

“All right, come on,” Tragg said and then added, “We’re going to have to deprive you of that Ford automobile for a while, Miss Shelby. It’s evidence, and we’ve got to have it identified.”

“That’s all right,” Mason said. “We’re cooperating in every way we can in the investigation.”

“Yes,” Tragg said, drawing his extended fore-finger across his throat. “I can feel the cordiality of your cooperation.”

Tragg turned to the officer, said, “Call in on the radio. Have a fingerprint expert come out and check that Ford car for fingerprints.”

He turned to Daphne and said, “You come with me.”

“I’ll ride in the car with you,” Mason said.

Tragg shook his head.

“Then Daphne rides with me,” Mason announced.

Tragg thought things over, then said, “All right, Daphne rides with you. You follow me.”

“I’ll tag along behind to make the procession complete,” Drake added.

“Come on, Della, you and Daphne sit in the back seat of my car,” Mason instructed.

“Daphne, you’re not to answer any questions by anyone unless I am present and advise you to answer. Do you understand?”

She nodded.

“Now, you’re in for a shock,” Mason said in a low voice. “They’re going to take you to identify your uncle’s body. You can make the identification, that’s all. I don’t want you to volunteer any information or answer any questions, do you understand?”

She nodded in a tight-lipped silence.

“This is going to be a very harrowing experience,” Mason said, “and you’ve had plenty of them within the last twenty-four hours. But you’re going to have to brace yourself and bear up.

“All right, Lieutenant, let’s go.”

The cars made a procession down the road until they came to the Northern Lights Motel.

A stretcher wagon was waiting to take the remains to the morgue for autopsy.

Lieutenant Tragg walked over to the stretcher, took hold of a corner of the blanket and said, “This way, please, Miss Shelby.”

She came to stand by the officer. Mason stood at her side, holding her arm.

Tragg jerked back the blanket.

Suddenly, Mason felt Daphne stiffen. She clutched at the lawyer, then gave a half scream.

Mason patted her shoulder.

“That isn’t Uncle Horace,” she said. “That’s Ralph Exeter!”