The Case of the Troubled Trustee (13 page)

"I'd- Well, I talked with him over the telephone."

"Oh," Mason said, "you were going to use the flashlight then to identify his voice, is that right?"

"Well, I thought I'd take the flashlight along. It might come in handy."

"And it did come in very, very handy, didn't it?" Mason said sarcastically. "It enabled you to identify the body, to make sure he was very, very dead. It enabled you to search the body, to cut the labels off his clothes, to be certain you left nothing at all on the body so the corpse could readily be identified."

"I didn't say I had made sure he was dead."

"Well, then you didn't feel for a pulse?"

"No."

"In other words, the man might have been wounded and you simply took off for Ensenada on a vacation leaving a badly wounded man dying there on the golf course?"

"I could tell he was dead."

"How?"

"By- Well, he'd been shot."

"How did you know he'd been shot?"

"The gun was there."

"You found the gun with the aid of the flashlight?"

"Yes."

"And you knew it was your gun as soon as you saw it?"

"Yes."

"How? Did you check the numbers on the gun?"

"No, I… I recognized it."

"What was there about it that enabled you to recognize it?"

"The size, the shape."

"A thirty-eight-caliber Smith and Wesson short-barreled revolver?"

"Yes."

"Any distinguishing features about it?"

"Well… I just knew it was my gun, that's all."

"Certainly," Mason said, "you knew it was your gun because you had it in your pocket when you went out on the golf links. You knew it was your gun because you had loaded it and intended to murder the man who was trying to blackmail you. You knew it was your gun and you knew that you didn't dare to be caught with it in your possession. So you stopped your car in the middle of your flight and threw the gun under the culvert, hoping that it would remain there undiscovered."

Dutton cringed under Mason's sarcastic manner.

The lawyer got to his feet. "All right," he said. "That's a very weak sample of what you'll have to contend with. Hamilton Burger can be a demon when it comes to cross-examination.

"Think it over, Mr. Dutton.

"Whenever you're ready to change your story, send for me."

"What are you going to do?" Dutton asked. "Quit the case? Plead me guilty?"

"Are you guilty?" Mason asked.

"No."

"I never let a client plead guilty if he isn't guilty," Mason said. "I don't believe in it. I try to find the truth."

"You think I'm telling the truth?"

"No," Mason said, "but I still don't think you're a murderer. I think you're just a rotten liar. I hope you either improve by the time you get on the witness stand, or else have a different story to tell."

And with that, Mason signaled the officer who was waiting at the door of the conference room.

The lawyer walked out, and the barred door clanged shut.

Chapter Thirteen

Desere Ellis said, "Oh, Mr. Mason, I'm so glad to see you. Isn't this simply too terrible for anything?"

Mason said, "These things nearly always look blacker at the start; then after the facts begin to come to light the case looks better. Are you willing to talk with me?"

"Willing? Why, I'm anxious! I've been wondering how I could get in touch with you. Tell me, how is the case against Kerry? Does it look bad? All I know is that he's been arrested."

"That," Mason said, "is something I can't tell you. I'm Kerry's attorney. I want you to understand that. I'm here as Kerry Dutton's lawyer. I'm representing him and no one else.

"Now, Dutton may be representing you, in a way, but that doesn't mean that I'm representing you. My whole interest in this case is to protect Kerry Dutton against the charges that have been made against him and to get an acquittal, if possible. Do you understand that?"

"Yes."

"All right," Mason said, "let's talk."

"Won't you be seated?" she asked, indicating a comfortable chair.

Mason said, "Thank you," and dropped into the chair.

"May I get you a drink?"

"No," Mason said, smiling, "I'm on duty and when I'm on duty I prefer not to drink. Now then, tell me about Dutton's gun."

"About… Dutton's… gun!"

"That's right."

Her eyes were wide with panic. "What about it?"

"Did he loan it to you?"

"Why… why, yes."

"Where is it?" Mason asked.

"In the drawer, in my bedroom."

"Let's go get it," Mason said.

"All right. I'll bring it to you."

"If it's all the same with you, I'd like to go with you," Mason said.

"Why?"

"One might say, to see how good an actress you are."

"What do you mean?" she flared.

"If you're telling the truth," Mason said, "I think I can detect it. If you're not, I think I can also tell that. It may make a big difference."

"In what way?"

"Let's get the gun first and then I'll tell you."

"All right," she said, "come with me."

She led the way down a passageway, opened the door of a typically feminine room, walked over to a dresser by the bed, triumphantly opened the drawer and then recoiled with her hand on her breast.

"It's… it's not here!"

"I didn't think it would be," Mason said dryly. "The gun was used in killing Rodger Palmer. Now, perhaps you'll tell me how thathappened?"

"I don't know," she said. "I-I- Why, I just can't imagine. I would have sworn the gun was here."

Mason eyed her narrowly. "That," he said, "is exactly what I want you to do."

"What?"

"Swear that the gun was there."

"But… but what could have happened to it?"

"Someone took it," Mason said. "Unless you took it and used it."

"What do you mean?"

Mason said, "Did you, by any chance, go out to the Barclay Country Club the night of the murder?"

"No, why?"

"You are a member of the Barclay Club?"

"Yes."

"And, as such, have a key?"

"Heavens, I suppose so. There's one around here somewhere. Wait a minute, I had that in the drawer with the gun."

"You say you hadit?" Mason said. "That's past tense."

"All right, if you want to be technical about it, I haveit."

"Let's take a look."

She rummaged through the back of the drawer and then triumphantly produced a key.

"Now then," Mason said, "is there any chance that last night you took this key and that gun, went out to the Barclay Country Club, met Rodger Palmer on the seventh tee, had an argument with him over blackmail and shot him?"

"Good heavens, what are you talking about? Are you crazy?"

"I don't think so," Mason said. "I'm just asking you if that happened."

"No!"

Mason said, "There's a pretty good chance that the Palmer murder was committed with Dutton's gun. Now then, as far as you know, that gun was here in this drawer until the day of the murder?"

She regarded him with white-faced emotion. "Of course it was here. Only… only someone must have taken it, because it's gone."

"And you don't know when it was taken?"

Her forehead puckered into a contemplative frown. "I saw it here two days ago, or was it three days ago. I was cleaning out one of the other drawers and wanted a place to put some things. I debated whether to put them in the drawer with the gun. I remember I opened the drawer and saw that the gun was there."

"And you haven't opened the drawer since then?"

"Heavens, Mr. Mason, I just don't know. I'm trying to think. I come in here a dozen times a day. This is my bedroom. I keep things in the drawers. I open them and close them. I-I'm only telling you what I can remember."

"All right," Mason said, "remember that the gun was there two days ago; remember that you thoughtit was there when I asked you about it. You're going to have to swear to it."

"And this man, Palmer, was shot with Kerry's gun?"

"Apparently so. He was killed sometime during the night of the twenty-first."

"Can they… fix the time any more definitely than that it was just sometime during the night?"

"I think perhaps a little more definitely," Mason said, "but they wantto fix it as being around sometime between nine-thirty and two-thirty, because that's when Kerry Dutton was out there at the golf club."

"He wasout there?"

"Yes."

She was thoughtfully silent.

"Now then," Mason said, "is there any chance that Kerry Dutton could have been here in the house; could have gone into your bedroom and repossessed that gun from your bedroom drawer?"

She shook her head emphatically.

"Think it over," Mason said. "You see Kerry Dutton from time to time?"

"Mostly I talk with him over the telephone. He -.. he seems to avoid me."

"Has he been here within the last two days at any time that you can remember, prior to the time he had the fight?"

"No."

"You're sure?"

"Of course, I'm sure. He… he just wouldn't come near me. He was terribly hurt."

"Now, the night of the fight was the night of the murder… Was he in your bedroom at any time prior to the start of the fight?"

"Not before the fight started, but afterwards they were all over the place."

"What happened?"

"Fred had been here to see me. He was elated. He wanted me to marry him and to use all the Steer Ridge Oil stock to give him some money with which to carry out that pet project of his."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him I'd have to think it over."

"Then what happened?"

"Then he went home and, shortly afterwards, Kerry was at the door."

"And what did Kerry want?"

"He said he wanted to talk with me privately."

"You invited him in?"

"Yes, of course."

"What was the situation between you? Were relations strained or cordial?"

"I tried to be cordial, but he was terribly standoffish. Finally I asked him what was the matter with him and why he had been so distant during the past few weeks, why he had been avoiding me.

"He said he had something to tell me, that it was going to be difficult. I thought he was going to tell me again how much he loved me and ask me to marry him."

"And you had told him prior to that time that the subject was distasteful to you, that you would be his young sister, but that if he wouldn't be content with that, you couldn't continue being friends?"

Her eyes shifted from Mason's, then she said suddenly, "I wish I'd bitten my tongue off before I'd told him that."

"Why? Had you changed your mind?"

"Frankly, Mr. Mason, I don't know. But it made such a difference in Kerry. It was just as if all the lights had gone off."

"All right, getting back to the night of the twentyfirst," Mason said, "what happened? You asked him why he had been so distant?"