The Case of the Daring Divorcee (27 page)

The judge turned to Mason. "You have a theory you're working on?" he asked.

"I have a theory," Mason said.

"Well, sit down, both of you," Judge Fallon said. "Now, Mason, let's have your theory."

Mason said, "Garvin Hastings was killed in his sleep."

Judge Fallon nodded.

Mason said, "I will act on the assumption that my client is innocent."

"An assumption in which I no wise join," Hamilton Burger said.

"Go ahead," Judge Fallon said to Mason.

"If my client was innocent, Garvin Hastings couldn't have been killed at night or she would have heard the shots. He must have been killed after she left in the morning to keep her breakfast appointment with Simley Beason.

"That means that death took place probably between six and eight in the morning.

"The woman's handbag with the fatal gun in it was left in my office during the noon hour. The person who chartered an airplane to fly to Las Vegas chartered the plane by telephone and took off from the airport at five-thirty Monday afternoon.

"Banner closes his office at four-thirty. Many of the law offices close at that time.

"Therefore we have three periods of activity. Before an office opened in the morning, during the lunch hour, and after an office closed in the afternoon. That would indicate activity by a person who was employed in an office somewhere and didn't dare be absent.

"There were two guns. Garvin Hastings had one. Adelle Hastings had the other. Adelle Hastings had never looked at the number on her gun, but it is only natural to suppose that Garvin gave the new one to Adelle. The murder was committed with the older gun and that gun was in Adelle's purse. That means that someone had to get to her apartment and dispose of her gun before the authorities got there and searched the place.

"Adelle's purse was stolen after she got to Los Angeles, had driven to Ventura and then, on her way to keep her appointment with her husband, had gone in to buy cigarettes. It must have been stolen by someone who knew of her habit of wearing dark glasses, and who wanted to get the keys to her apartment."

"But why didn't that person fly to Las Vegas that Sunday night, use the keys to get into her apartment and take Adelle's gun then?" Judge Fallon asked.

"Because," Mason said, "that person wasn't sure the murder was going to be perpetrated as planned. That person couldn't be sure that Adelle Hastings was going to get up and go out to keep a breakfast appointment with Simley Beason. That person thought she was going to do it, but couldn't be absolutely certain.

"That person stole Adelle Hastings' bag, had duplicates made from the keys that were in that bag on Sunday evening, and waited until Adelle left the house early in the morning, leaving Garvin Hastings still asleep. Then the person slipped in quietly and carefully and deliberately made absolutely certain that Garvin Hastings was dead by pulling the trigger twice and sending two bullets crashing into the head of the sleeping man.

"Then that person put the fatal gun in Adelle Hastings' purse and planned to leave the purse in my office under such circumstances that the receptionist would swear Adelle Hastings was the one who had brought the purse to the office."

"Then why didn't that person do it before noon?" Judge Fallon asked.

"Because it was a physical impossibility for that person to do it before noon," Mason said. "That's one of the key clues in the entire case."

"Just why is that a key clue?" Judge Fallon asked.

Mason said, "Let's look at the murderer's requirements. It had to be someone who knew the business, it had to be someone who knew the habits of the household, and it had to be someone who had a job."

"You mean because of the three crucial time periods you've mentioned?" Judge Failon asked.

"That's right," Mason said.

"Oh, Your Honor," Hamilton Burger said. "That's just another one of these razzle-dazzle run-arounds."

Judge Fallon said, "Just a moment, Mr. Burger. I'll listen to your side of the case in a few moments, but I'm very much interested in this. I'd like to hear Mr. Mason's theory."

Mason said, "Because of the manner in which the bag was left in my office the accomplice had to be a woman, although the murderer could have been a man.

"That narrowed the accomplice down to one of three people: Elvina Mitchell, Banner's secretary; Minerva Hastings, or Rosalie Blackburn, Beason's secretary.

"Now, I will confess that I considered each one of these persons in turn and was leaning toward Rosalie Blackburn, but then Huntley Banner told me he would send some papers over to my office by his secretary. She refused to make the trip. I wondered why at the time, but am frank to confess I didn't attach the proper importance to it.

"Then when Banner himself got on the stand to prove the will instead of having his secretary there, I began to wonder. Was it because his secretary was afraid to have Gertie, my receptionist, see her?"

"So I had Gertie seated in the jury box and another young woman with her. Then when Elvina Mitchell was rather excited and off her guard, I asked her to hand the dark glasses to my receptionist, turned my back and walked away.

"Miss Mitchell handed the dark glasses to Gertie. The point is how did she know who my receptionist was if she hadn't been in my office?"

"All right," Judge Fallon said, "assuming that Elvina Mitchell is mixed up in this thing, how do you know Huntley Banner wasn't the mastermind directing it all?"

"Because if he had been," Mason said, "there would have been no reason for Elvina to have taken all those chances in order to be in the office on Monday. She could have flown to Las Vegas right after she planted the bag in my office."

"And what about motive?" Judge Fallon asked.

"The motive," Mason said, "isn't as apparent as the identity of the killer. I'm not going to hazard a guess at this time. But once we get Miss Mitchell, I think we'll find the motive-and the motive may be rather complicated.

"I would like to have the police conduct a searching inquiry. I think Elvina Mitchell would crack wide open under interrogation."

Judge Fallon looked at Hamilton Burger.

The district attorney shook his head. "I still say this is just a run-around in order to plant suspicion so that it will take the pressure off the defendant.

"I don't try cases for the defendants," Hamilton Burger went on. "Perry Mason is fully capable of pointing out all those factors favoring the defendant-in fact he has done it very dramatically in this case. His reasoning is as fallacious as it is dramatic.

"He managed things so the bailiff would come running after Elvina Mitchell in a way that frightened the poor girl half to death. Even if she hadn't done a thing, the way Mason handled things she'd have started running."

Judge Fallon said, "I don't agree. I want Elvina Mitchell picked up. It shouldn't be difficult to apprehend her. The police can watch her apartment, they can watch the office, they can find where she parks her car, they can pick her up. When she is picked up I want her brought to me, and unless the district attorney is going to interrogate Minerva Hastings I want to talk with Lieutenant Tragg and instruct him to do it."

"Oh, very well'," Hamilton Burger said wearily. "It's just another one of those run-arounds, but if Mason has convinced you he can convince the newspaper reporters, so I'll have to investigate that theory of the case."

"Please do so," Judge Fallon said, with cold formality, "and don't think this court is as credulous and naпve as your voice and manner seem to intimate."

Chapter Seventeen

It was ten o'clock the next morning when Perry Mason, Hamilton Burger, Lt. Tragg and Adelle Hastings met in Judge Fallon's chambers in response to a judicial summons.

"I have asked you to be here," Judge Fallon said, "because I want to make certain that this case is so handled in open court that it protects the defendant without prejudicing the rights of other persons.

"As you people are, of course, aware, there is an estate involved here running to several million dollars. While I have become convinced in my own mind as to what happened, and I am assured that confessions have been obtained from some of the people, there will, nevertheless, have to be trials since the case is one involving first-degree murder.

"I have therefore asked Lieutenant Tragg to make a confidential statement, and I am asking that the defense refrain from turning over all the details of that statement to the press."

"As far as we're concerned," Mason said, "once the case against Adelle Hastings is dismissed, we have no further interest in the matter; except, of course, from a standpoint of property rights."

Judge Fallon said, "Huntley Banner is representing Minerva Hastings. I don't know what his attitude will be in regard to the civil litigation. However, Lieutenant Tragg can tell you of developments which took place early this morning, and which in justice to the district attorney, I should state, were communicated to me at his request, as soon as I answered the telephone this morning."

Judge Fallon nodded to Lt. Tragg. Tragg said tersely, without expression and very apparently measuring his words, "Helen Drexel is the daughter of Harley C. Drexel, a contractor in Carson City. Helen Drexel handled the business end of her father's operation during the summer vacation. Huntley Banner is Drexel's attorney.

"Drexel built a small house on the back of his lot, intending to rent it at what we would consider a rather exorbitant rental, to persons who were anxious to establish a six weeks' residence in Nevada for jurisdictional purposes.

"Because Helen Drexel had for a long time been a close friend of Elvina Mitchell, Banner's secretary, Miss Mitchell proceeded to supply clients who would occupy the house for the necessary period of time. One of those persons was Minerva Hastings, one of them was Rosalie Blackburn. They both became friendly with Helen Drexel, and both of them were friendly with Elvina Mitchell.

"Elvina Mitchell, in turn, is hopelessly head-overheels in love with Connely Maynard, and for a long time felt that Maynard was not getting the business breaks he deserved from Garvin Hastings, that Simley Beason was gradually inspiring more confidence and being given more responsibilities.

"Minerva sympathized with Elvina Mitchell and one day put it up to her out of a clear sky that whenever Garvin Hastings died, Minerva would be the head of the business, that Connely Maynard would be given the position of chief executive and a share of the profits.

"What Minerva didn't know, and what Elvina hadn't known until a short time before, was that Connely Maynard had become involved financially and had embezzled money from the business. Simley Beason apparently either suspected this or was conducting some investigations which would soon give him the knowledge, and that, of course, would be fatal as far as Maynard was concerned.

"Apparently Minerva was not a party to the murder, but she did let Elvina know that she had a trump card in case anything should happen to Hastings before Hastings found out that she actually never had secured a divorce from him, and that his marriage to Adelle was legally bigamous.

"Elvina Mitchell shadowed Adelle Hastings that Sunday when she went to Ventura, found an apportunity to grab her bag off the seat of the automobile, had duplicate keys made to Adelle's apartment. She didn't need keys to the Hastings house because Connely Maynard knew where the key was kept in the office.

"After Adelle left the house Monday morning, Connely Maynard entered, killed Hastings in cold blood so that his defalcations would not be discovered, then ran to Elvina Mitchell to take the thing from there.

"Elvina put the fatal gun in Adelle's handbag, put on dark glasses and went to Mason's office during the noon hour. She gave the name of Adelle Hastings, planted the bag and then left.

"The next thing that bothered the conspirators was that Adelle might claim, with reason, the gun had been planted in her bag and her gun, being found in her apartment, would bear out the story. So Elvina chartered a plane to be in readiness just as soon as she could possibly get to the airport after leaving the office on Monday evening. She made a dash for Las Vegas, got there, as it happened, less than half an hour before Adelle arrived. She got into Adelle's house, stole Adelle's gun, and concealed it.

"The plot was all ready then to close the net on Adelle Hastings and frame her for murder."

"Just where does Banner fit into all this?" Mason asked.

"Banner's skirts are clean. At least we think they are," Tragg said.