The Case of the Daring Divorcee (6 page)

"You weren't there this morning?"

"No," she said. "I had other appointments."

Mason said, "You just arrived here a short time ago. It didn't take you all day to drive from Los Angeles here."

"I had something else to do."

"What?"

"I don't think I care to tell you any more, Mr. Mason."

"All right," Mason said. "We'll start putting two and two together. You were with your husband last night."

"Yes."

"You reached a property settlement with him."

"Yes."

"He was to telephone his lawyer, Huntley Banner, and tell him to draw up the necessary papers for you to sign. He was to do that early this morning."

"Yes."

"Banner hasn't heard from your husband," Mason said. "Your handbag was stolen yesterday. It was left in my office around noon today. There was a thirty-eight-caliber revolver in that handbag. A woman, wearing large dark glasses which would make it exceedingly difficult to recognize her, came to my office shortly after noon, told the receptionist her name was Hastings, that she had to see me upon a matter of the greatest importance, that she was in danger, that she needed protection and a private detective.

"Then after a few minutes she said she had to leave the office, that she'd be right back. She left and didn't come back. She left your handbag in my office. In that handbag was your gun. It had been fired twice.

"Your husband didn't do the things he was supposed to have done today. He isn't answering the telephone.

"Now then, Mrs. Hastings, just suppose that some woman had stolen your handbag, had gone to your husband's house shortly after you left this morning, had fired two shots and your husband is lying there very, very dead. Where do you suppose that's going to leave you?"

Her face blanched, then suddenly her eyes became suspicious. "Now, just a minute," she said. And then after a moment added, "So that's your game."

"What is?"

"You're representing some client who stole my handbag and now you're going to try to make me the goat."

"My mysterious client stole your handbag before you saw your husband?" Mason asked.

"Yes. That's when it was stolen."

"You told your husband about your handbag having been stolen?"

"Yes, of course."

"You were alone with him last night?"

"Yes."

"You had no money?"

"I had no money when I arrived," she said. "My husband gave me five hundred dollars as get-by money. I bought a new handbag and coin purse."

"And operated your automobile without a driving license?"

"Yes."

"You didn't make an affidavit your license had been lost?"

"No. I was going to do that this evening. I was going to report to the police that my handbag had been stolen."

"Were you going to tell them about the gun being listed in the contents?"

"Certainly not. I had no idea the gun was in the handbag."

Mason said, "I came here in a chartered plane. I'm going to fly back to Los Angeles. I wanted to get this thing straightened out. I was afraid you might be in danger. I suggest that you come back with me, that you go to your house and investigate for yourself… Does your husband have a secretary who comes in during the day?"

"Not unless he sends for one. He has his office and goes up there for most of his work."

"Did he have any appointments for today?"

"I don't know."

"You wouldn't be able to find out whether he had kept his appointments?"

She said, "I might call Simley Beason."

"Who's he?"

"The office manager and general business manager. He's very close to Garvin, my husband."

"Closer than Banner?"

"Oh, Banner," she said, spitting the name out with disgust, "is just a lawyer who tries to keep pushing his way in on things. I wish Garvin could see him in his true light, but he has Garvin completely hypnotized. Believe you me, Banner doesn't have Simley Beason hypnotized. Simley knows exactly the sort of man Banner is-an opportunist, a selfish, scheming, conniving lawyer who keeps trying to get my husband to rely on him more and more in matters of business as well as in matters of law. – . – I'm going to call Simley."

She picked up the telephone and placed a person-to-person long distance call to Simley Beason.

"You have his house number?" Mason asked.

"Yes, of course… Oh, don't be so damned suspicious, Mr. Mason. That's the trouble with you lawyers… I did some of my husband's secretarial work after I was married. I was his secretary before we were married. I've called Simley Beason a hundred times at- "Hello, hello, Simley? This is Adelle Hastings… I'm fine… Yes, in Las Vegas… That's right, I drove to Los Angeles yesterday. I came back just a short while ago… Well, that's fine… Simley, tell me, I'm trying to get hold of Garvin and he doesn't answer. The answering service is on and-What?… He didn't say anything?… Well, that's strange… No, no, I guess it's all right. Probably something happened that caused him to leave town… but that's not like him. – .. Well, thanks a lot. I'm sorry I bothered you. I wanted to get in touch with him. I'll call him again tomorrow. Look, Simley, let me know if you hear anything, will you? Tell him I want to see him.

"Well, it's not exactly confidential; that is, in a way it is and in a way it isn't. I reached an agreement with him on property matters and… well, thanks a lot. I knew you'd be pleased… I don't know. He was to call Huntley Banner first thing this morning. Apparently he didn't do so. Banner still thinks he's in the saddle and is still trying to negotiate a property settlement, as he calls it. Actually what he's trying to do is to make himself indispensable so that Garvin will put more and more reliance on him… I know you do, Simley… You know that I'm not greedy. I know it isn't community property, but I did give up a good job, a career and my business connections and I was a good wife to Garvin for at least eighteen months… Frankly, I think things would have been all right if it hadn't been for that Banner person… Well, I know you've got other things to do than sit and talk about Huntley Banner over the telephone. Tell Garvin when you see him that I've been trying to get in touch with him, will you?… He'll be sure to be in tomorrow morning if he has that appointment… All right, thanks. Bye now."

She hung up the phone and said to Mason, "My husband wasn't in his office all day, which is strange, although he didn't have any appointments; but he did have some important correspondence he wanted to dictate. However, he has a very important appointment tomorrow morning at ten o'clock and he'll be sure to be there for that."

"Provided he's keeping appointments," Mason said.

She said, "Mr. Mason, you have one of those damnable legal minds. You always think of the worst that can happen. You almost had me convinced that my husband was lying dead, shot with my gun."

"And," Mason said, "I've almost convinced myself of it now."

She said, "You're getting more and more like Huntley Banner-No, now I didn't mean that. That's uncalled for. I meant to say that you lawyers are all alike-No, that isn't what I wanted to say either, but my husband has a lot of irons in the fire. He has a lot of important business affairs and I don't think there's any question that something happened that called him out of town unexpectedly and since he didn't have any important appointments at the office he just didn't show up."

"And didn't telephone?" Mason asked.

Her eyes narrowed for a moment. She said, "You have a point there. If he doesn't show up by ten o'clock tomorrow morning for that appointment-but he will."

Mason said, "I made one suggestion to you, Mrs. Hastings. I am going back to Los Angeles in a chartered plane. I think you had better fly back with us and see if everything is all right at your house."

"And suppose it isn't all right?" she said.

"Then you can notify the police."

"Yes," she said, "that would really knock the props out from under my story, wouldn't it? I'd go to the police and tell them that I had flown in from Las Vegas because it suddenly occurred to me something had happened to my husband."

"I'd go in with you," Mason said. "We'd go to the house together. If there's anything wrong we'll notify the police and I'll take the responsibility."

"And if there isn't anything wrong," she said, "my husband would just raise merry hell, Mr. Mason, both with you and with me. It probably wouldn't make any difference to you, but as far as I'm concerned it would ruin a perfectly good property settlement.

"Thank you very much for returning my things to me, Mr. Mason, and I think after all I'll let you look over the property settlement after Huntley Banner draws it up, because I don't trust him for a minute."

"And the gun?" Mason asked.

"The gun," she said, and frowned. "You're sure two shells had been fired?"

"Yes."

"I always kept it fully loaded," she said.

"And someone stole it?" Mason asked.

"Certainly. I've told you that."

"You're not going back with us?" Mason asked.

"No, and I wish you'd stop interesting yourself in the case. You've found out that I'm all right now, and you've returned my handbag. I think that I'll be in touch with you again, but I don't want you to… well, I don't want you to rock the boat. Do you understand?"

"I understand," Mason said.

Chapter Four

The pilot of the chartered plane came to meet the taxicab as Mason and Della drove up at the airport.

"Well, this is a surprise," he said. "I didn't expect you people for a couple of hours yet. What happened, did you lose all your money gambling?"

"Every cent of it," Mason said, grinning.

"Don't let him kid you," Della said. "He was thinking about your wife."

"Well, this is really going to surprise her," the pilot said. "You're ready to go back?"

"On our way," Mason said.

They went over to the airplane, climbed in, fastened seat belts, the pilot warmed up the motors and took off to make a wide, sweeping turn over the brilliantly lighted business district of Las Vegas.

Looking down at the lights, Della said, "I'll bet that takes a lot of money out of a lot of different states. When you stop to realize that gambling pays all the state taxes in Nevada, it certainly must exact a hиayy toll from the tourists."

"You'd be surprised how much money it puts into California," the pilot said.

"How come?" Mason asked.

"I'd have a hard time keeping this charter service going if it weren't for flights to Las Vegas," the pilot said. "Las Vegas keeps our airlines prosperous, the hotels pay big sums to entertainers-a good many of whom reside in Southern California-and all in all it makes for a good deal of business.

"You also want to remember that very few people lose more than they can afford to lose. It's not big-time gambling in terms of thousands of dollars. Most of the people go there for amusement and they're willing to pay fifty or a hundred dollars to enjoy the thrill of gambling.

"When you come right down to it, I think the people there have a pretty good idea of the amount of business that comes in from Southern California. The Chamber of Commerce had a representative down there checking chartered planes tonight."

"What do you mean, checking chartered planes?" Mason asked.

"Oh, just a routine questionnaire," the pilot said. "They wanted to know how often we made trips to Las Vegas, what percentage of our total business was done on Las Vegas trips, and things of that sort."

"Did they," Mason asked, "inquire as to the name of your passengers, the persons who had chartered the plane?"

"That's right. Wanted to know whether it was a corporation or an individual, whether it was a regular customer or a casual customer."

"Did they ask names?"

"They asked names," the pilot said, "but I thought they were getting a little too personal at that, and told them that it was against my policy to divulge the names of my clients who chartered planes."