"The Case of the Singing Skirt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Erle Stanley)

CHAPTER SIX

When Della Street had returned from Paul Drake's office, after leaving the gun with him, Mason said, "Let's get Gowrie on the phone, Della. I want to see how he's feeling this morning."

Della Street put through the call, nodded to Perry Mason.

Mason picked up the telephone, said, "Hello, Gowrie. Perry Mason speaking."

"Oh, yes, Mr. Mason. How are you today?"

"Pretty good. My secretary and I want to sit in on your talk to the women's club at Rowena, Gowrie. We may have some trouble getting in, but if you would invite us as your guests we probably wouldn't have any trouble."

Gowrie hesitated a moment.

"You there?" Mason asked.

"I'm here," Gowrie said. "I was just trying to marshal my thoughts."

"What about your thoughts?" Mason said. "Why do they need marshaling?"

"I am not going to make the talk at Rowena."

"You're not?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Well, for one thing, Mrs. Ellis hasn't completed the arrangements that she had agreed on."

"What do you mean?"

"I was to receive a fee from the women's club for the talk, and there was to be a retainer in connection with her case."

"She hasn't paid anything?"

"Not a cent. And I can't reach her. I can't find her. Apparently she went yachting. Under the circumstances, I rang up the president of the Rowena Women's Club and told her that the talk would have to be postponed."

"Like that, eh?" Mason asked.

"Like that," Gowrie said. "You know how it is yourself, Counselor. A lawyer can't go around giving his services away."

"All right," Mason said. "Let me know when you hear from Mrs. Ellis, will you?"

Mason hung up the phone. "Did you listen in on that, Della?"

She nodded.

"Well," Mason said, "I guess there's nothing much to be done at the present time."

"Except that mail file," she said. "We still haven't got at those important letters."

Mason sighed, picked up the mail file and spent the rest of the day in dictation.

In the late afternoon Paul Drake's code knock sounded on the door.

Della Street got up to let him in.

Paul Drake stretched himself out on the big overstuffed chair in the lawyer's office and said, "What the hell have you been doing, Perry, juggling guns again?"

"Why the again?" Mason asked.

Drake said, "I don't know, but any time you get in a case and a gun figures in it, you certainly seem to play three-card monte with the prosecution and the police."

"Anything wrong with that?" Mason asked.

"Not if you get away with it," Drake said.

"And what brings up all those remarks?" Mason asked.

"That gun you wanted me to trace-a.38 Smith Sc Wesson number C 48809."

"What about it?"

"It's one of four guns that were purchased, all on the same date, by W. W. Marcus, full name Wilton Winslow Marcus. He's supposed to be some sort of a silent partner of George Anclitas in a restaurant deal in Rowena. The restaurant is mostly a front for gambling."

"Permit?" Mason asked.

"Apparently no permit. They own the chief of police at Rowena. He appointed them some sort of special officers. Apparently both Anclitas and Marcus are specials. That gives them an opportunity to carry firearms without any written permit other than their authorization as special officers."

"And this gun is one of the four that were purchased?"

Drake nodded.

"All right. What else?" Mason asked.

"I had a ballistics expert fire test bullets from it and then replace the cartridges that were in the gun just as they were when you handed them to me."

"And the test bullets have all been marked for identification?"

Drake nodded.

"Okay," Mason said. "Where's the gun?"

Drake took the gun from his pocket and handed it to Mason. "You be careful you don't get into trouble with that," Drake said.

"What sort of trouble, Paul?"

"Darned if I know, but… you evidently have the idea the gun has been used in committing some sort of a crime."

"What gives you that idea?"

"Otherwise, why would you want test bullets fired from it?"

"Perhaps," Mason said, "I merely wanted to date the gun."

"What do you mean by that, Perry?"

Mason opened the drawer of his desk, took out a piece of steel that was bent at the end into a small, sharp point, said, "This is a tool for etching steel, Paul."

Mason inserted the tool in the barrel of the gun, drew it along the length of the barrel, then inserted it once more and again drew the tool along the length of the gun barrel.

"What's the idea?" Drake asked.

Mason said, "If we fire a bullet through that gun now, there will be striations that are in addition to and different from those of the test bullets that have previously been fired through it. Is that right?"

"If you want to be sure, better make a couple of more marks," Drake said.

Mason repeated the process of scratching the barrel. "How's that?"

"That should do it very nicely," Drake said.

Mason opened the drawer of his desk and dropped the gun down in the drawer.

Drake regarded him thoughtfully. "You know, there's a law about tampering with evidence."

"Evidence of what?" Mason asked.

"I don't know," Drake said.

Mason grinned. "We're not supposed to be clairvoyant, Paul. If you adopt that attitude, you could never change anything in connection with any object. You couldn't even tear up a piece of paper and throw it away. You couldn't wash a dirty dish. You'd be altering or destroying evidence. Any object doesn't become evidence until you know or have reason to believe that it has become identified with a crime in some manner."

"And you have no reason to believe that this gun is connected with a crime?"

"Very definitely not," Mason said. "I am simply protecting a client."

"And that will protect the client?" Drake asked.

"It may help," Mason said. "I'm sitting in a game where I don't know what cards have been played and moreover I don't know what are trumps. But we've been dealt a hand. It may not be a very good hand. It probably was dealt to us from a cold deck with the idea that it was the lowest hand in the deck. I've got to play that hand so it becomes a winning hand."

"Without knowing trumps and without knowing what cards have already been played?"

"That's right."

"That's a job you can have," Drake said. "I'm glad I'm not a lawyer. Anything else before I go home, Perry?"

"Not right now."

Drake got to his feet, moved lazily toward the door, paused at the entrance door to look back at Mason. "This deal in Rowena could be bad business," he said. "There's a lot of money involved."

"That's right," Mason said.

Drake hesitated a moment longer, then shrugged his shoulders, opened the door and walked out.

Della Street looked at Mason and raised her eyebrows in silent inquiry.

"Now then," Mason said, "we know this gun is the property of George Anclitas. I want to get it back to his place of business. We have to-"

The lawyer was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone.

"That's Gertie," Mason said. "See what it is, Della."

Della Street picked up the telephone, said, "Yes, Gertie," then said, "Just a minute." She looked at Mason. "Mr. Helman Ellis is in the outer office and says it is very important that he get in touch with you at the earliest possible moment. He realizes it's after office hours but he wants to know if you can see him immediately."

Mason hesitated a moment, appraising the situation, then said, "I'll see him immediately, Della. Go out and bring him in."

Della Street said, "I'll be right out, Gertie," and hung up the phone.

"Go through the usual routine," Mason instructed her. "Get his name, address, telephone number where he can be reached, and then bring him in."

Della nodded, then walked out through the doorway to the reception room.

A few minutes later she returned and said, "Mr. Mason, Mr. Ellis."

Mason got up to shake hands.

Ellis was a tall individual in his late twenties. He had high cheekbones, a somewhat Slavic cast of features, a long, thin mouth, steady blue eyes. He was big-boned and wrapped powerful fingers around Mason's hand as the two men shook hands.

"Sit down," Mason said. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"I don't know," Ellis said. "It depends on how you're tied up."

"I am representing Ellen Robb."

"That's why I'm here," Ellis said.

"What is your trouble?"

"My wife."

"I don't take divorce cases," Mason said. "I try to specialize pretty much in trial work. A good deal of my practice is criminal cases. Domestic relations, contracts and all that just don't appeal to me."

"My wife," Ellis said simply, "is going to kill your client."

Mason raised his eyebrows.

"There is no real cause for jealousy," Ellis said, "but my wife has in my opinion become temporarily insane."

Mason said, "Let's get certain facts straight. You have been playing a lot of poker at The Big Barn and you've lost rather heavily?"

"That's right."

"Your wife didn't take kindly to the idea?"

"Wives don't take kindly to the idea of husbands sitting in poker games and losing money."

"And Ellen Robb was rather conspicuous around The Big Barn?"

"They made her conspicuous," Ellis said.

"And you became interested in her?"

Ellis took a deep breath and said, "Mr. Mason, I love her."

"And yet you say your wife has no reason to be jealous?"

"I'll put it this way, Mr. Mason. I hadn't-I have been keeping it to myself."

"You mean you think you've been keeping it to yourself," Mason said.

"What do you mean by that?"

"A wife can smell a situation of that sort a mile away," Mason said. "If you're in love with Ellen Robb, you can rest assured that your wife knew there was something more to your excursions to The Big Barn than a desire to sit in a poker game."

"She doesn't know how I really feel," Ellis said, "because it was only recently I faced the situation myself and realized I had fallen in love."

"She knew it before you did," Mason said, "otherwise, why should she have become so jealous?"

"She's always been jealous. She's jealous of any woman that I look at twice."

"Have you looked at many women twice?"

"Not much more than that."

"All right. Tell me what happened."

"Well, I knew that Nadine, my wife, was building up to terrific emotional tension. I'd lost some money playing poker but I could afford to lose money playing poker. Then she made a scene. You know all about that-that was one thing I couldn't afford, to be branded as a welsher.

"Mr. Mason, if Nadine had filed suit against George Anclitas on account of money that I lost playing poker, I would be branded from coast to coast as a piker, a welsher."

"Suppose the game was crooked?"

"That, of course, is different. If anyone could prove the game was crooked, the situation would be different."

"All right. What happened?" Mason asked. "Let's get down to brass tacks."

"I learned that my wife had made a scene down at The Big Barn. I learned that you had given her some legal authorities which would enable her to try to recover the money I had lost. I learned that she had gone to an attorney and retained him to file suit. So I told Nadine that we simply had to talk things out. We decided to go on a cruise on my yacht. We would be uninterrupted that way. We could sail out beyond the harbor and try to get the whole thing settled. We'd done that once or twice before during periods of crisis in our married life, and things had worked out all right."

"How long have you been married?" Mason asked.

"Seven years."

"All right, go on. What happened?"

"We left the house," Ellis said, "to go to the yacht. We told the neighbors that we would probably be out all night or perhaps two nights. We planned to sleep on the yacht. We planned to have dinner on the yacht. We stopped to buy some provisions.

"It seems that almost immediately after we left the house, Ellen showed up. She wanted to talk to my wife. The neighbor told her we were down on the yacht so Ellen went down there, rented a skiff and rowed out to where the yacht was moored. She rowed all around it and called out several times. Then she tied up the skiff and went aboard. When she didn't find anyone there, she took the skiff and rowed back to the place where she had rented the skiff.

"Now, that was the last straw that touched everything off. While Ellen was on the yacht, she apparently had dropped a handkerchief that had her name embroidered in the corner. We got aboard the yacht and went down to the cabin and… well, my wife found Ellen's handkerchief.

"That really started things going. My wife was frantic. She wouldn't listen to anything I had to say.

"Of course, at the time I had no way of knowing how Ellen's handkerchief got aboard the yacht. I thought somebody had planted it. I tried to tell my wife that it was simply a scheme by which someone was trying to discredit me, and perhaps it was something the gamblers had done to get her mind off the idea of recovering some of the money I had lost gambling."

"What happened?"

"Nadine was crazy. Mr. Mason, she just went temporarily insane. She took the gun-"

"What gun?" Mason asked.

"A revolver that we keep aboard the yacht for protection when we're at sea or when we're sleeping aboard the yacht while its moored in the harbor."

"You don't carry a gun?"

"No. We kept a gun there on the yacht. That was the only place I thought we ever might need one. I understand that sometimes there have been holdups on some of the yachts that were moored in the harbor-vicious young thugs who get aboard a yacht and commit all sorts of atrocities-tie up the men, submit the women to indignities, take money and all of that."

"What sort of a gun?" Mason asked.

"A revolver."

"Do you know the make?"

"Smith amp; Wesson."

"Where did you get it?"

"It was a present."

"Who gave it to you?"

"George."

"George Anclitas?"

"Yes."

"Do you know the number that was on the gun?"

"Heavens no!"

"How did George happen to give you the gun?"

"Well, George and I have been rather friendly over a period of several weeks. I like to play cards and well, we played with varying results. Sometimes I'd win, sometimes George would win, and we became friendly. I happened to see this gun when George and his partner were discussing firearms. They had made some sort of a bet about it. George explained that he kept several guns around the place so that in case of a holdup there would be more than one person who could get his hands on a gun. I told him I was thinking of getting a gun for the yacht because I'd read about a situation where a group of three thugs had boarded a yacht and tied the owner up and… well, he pressed the gun on me, told me to take it."

"Where is that gun now?"

"I told you. Nadine has it."

"All right, she took the gun," Mason said. "What happened after she took the gun?"

"She told me if I wanted to have a rendezvous aboard the yacht with my paramour, she wasn't going to stand for it. She told me that she was going to invoke the unwritten law and kill Ellen. It was a terrible scene. I have never seen her like that before. She was utterly insane."

"What did she do?"

"Got in the skiff and rowed away and left me marooned on the yacht."

"Didn't you object to that?"

"Of course I objected to it. If I could have got close enough, Mr. Mason, I'd have knocked her down and taken the gun away, but she was too smart for that. She made me keep my distance and she kept me covered. I believe she would have killed me. In fact, the idea in her mind at that time was to kill me aboard the yacht, then kill Ellen and then kill herself."

"But why leave you marooned aboard the yacht?"

"She was afraid I would try to warn Ellen."

"Go on," Mason said. "What happened?"

"That's about all I know. She rowed away in the skiff. I was marooned aboard the yacht until nearly ninethirty. Then I was able to attract the attention of a party of yachtsmen and got taken ashore."

"Couldn't you have started the engine on the yacht and gone into the pier?"

"No chance," Ellis said. "She took the keys to the starting switch with her. I had had a burglarproof lock put on there so that when the keys are out it's impossible to start the motor. I suppose an electrician could have shortcircuited the wires back of the locking mechanism but I didn't know how to do it and I'm not too certain it could have been done. I had the sort of lock installed that would keep people from stealing the yacht and taking it for a joy ride.

"It's not a particularly large yacht, Mr. Mason; only forty-two feet, but it's very expensive and perfectly appointed. I have spent a lot of money trying to make it very comfortable."

"All right," Mason said, "you got ashore about ninethirty. Then what?"

"So then I tried to find my wife and I couldn't find her. I went to talk with Ellen but I didn't want to alarm her. I just told her to be careful, that my wife was on the warpath. So then I went out looking for Nadine.

"Then this morning my wife showed up very briefly at the house. She made further threats. She said Ellen Robb had been meeting me secretly aboard the yacht, that she was going to prove that fact by having fingerprint experts develop her latent fingerprints.

"She also said she felt Ellen was waiting for me on the yacht right then and that if she was, she was going to kill her."

"What did you do then?"

"Nothing. Ellen had never met me aboard the yacht. I knew Nadine was barking up the wrong tree, so I let her go… But I want you to know that my wife is in a murderous rage so you can take steps to protect Ellen."

"Did you know that Ellen Robb and George Anclitas had had an altercation?"

"What about the altercation?"

"He fired her, and gave her a black eye to boot," Mason said.

"What!" Ellis exclaimed, half rising from the chair.

"Gave her a black eye," Mason said.

Ellis said, "I'll kill him for that. That… that boorish, arrogant, crooked..

Ellis quit talking, compressed his lips in a thin, straight line.

Mason said, "On behalf of Miss Robb I'm filing suit against George Anclitas and several John Does, who I think are partners in the business, for six thousand dollars exemplary damages and fifteen hundred dollars actual damages for pain and suffering."

Ellis said, "Mr. Mason, I am beginning to be satisfied that game was crooked. I think that… I think that Ellen could tell you something about that. I want to get even with George Anclitas. If he struck Ellen, I'm going to give him the beating of his life. I'll-"

"And how will that look when your wife files suit for divorce and names Ellen Robb as correspondent?" Mason asked.

Ellis' face showed dismay.

"There are some things you have to take into consideration," Mason said dryly.

"Look," Ellis said, "I'll do anything I can in this matter, Mason. I'll-I'd like to pay your fees for prosecuting that case against George."

"And how would that look in the divorce action?" Mason' asked.

Ellis hesitated, then said, "All right. I have lost around ten thousand dollars there in The Big Barn. I'm now satisfied the game was crooked. If you want to act as my attorney to recover that money, I'll pay you fifty per cent of the recovery and give you all the expense money you need to prosecute. You can hire detectives or do anything else you need to do."

"I may be disqualified on that action," Mason said. "I already advised your wife-gratuitously, of course-that she could probably recover the community funds that had been lost gambling, regardless of whether the game was straight or crooked."

"Mr. Mason, don't you understand what that would do to my reputation? I'd be the laughingstock of-"

"I don't think so," Mason interrupted. "I think if a few women would take action of this sort, it would give the big gamblers something to think about, particularly the ones where the games are crooked."

"On the contrary," Ellis said with some feeling. "It would have exactly the opposite effect, Mr. Mason. The ones who were running square games couldn't afford to stay in business. If they were faced with the prospect of having to give up their winnings when some woman filed suit claiming it was community property that the husband had lost, the ones who were running a straight game would find that the percentage was too much against them and they'd go out of business. On the other hand, the crooked gamblers would stay in business. Or I'll put it this way. The gamblers who stayed in business would be crooked."

"You have a point there," Mason said. "I don't know, of course, what's going to happen when the doctrine laid down in this decision is tested in the Supreme Court of this state or the Supreme Court of the United States. This, however, is at present a new angle on the law of community property. It's an interesting legal development, and I'm going to watch and see what happens."

"Well, I'll say one thing," Ellis said. "You certainly threw a monkey wrench into the City of Rowena. George would do almost anything to keep that information from being made public. I guess you know that my wife intended to have a meeting and retained an attorney by the name of Gowrie to address the meeting, and George promptly bought him off."

Mason raised his eyebrows. "Bought him off?"

"Sure he did. Oh, nothing crude. He didn't go to Gowrie and offer him money not to appear at the meeting, but Gowrie now has some new clients who brought him some rather important business and I think conveyed the idea to him that they would be very unhappy if he addressed a meeting of the Women's Club of Rowena on the subject of gambling."

"He told me," Mason said, "that he couldn't get hold of your wife."

"Sure, he was trying to reach her but he was trying to reach her to tell her that he'd have to postpone the meeting and that he didn't think he'd be available. I think he also was going to tell her that after thinking the matter over and looking up the law on the subject, he had decided that the point probably wasn't well taken."

"How do you know all this?"

"He talked with me on the telephone. He was feeling his way," Ellis said.

"All right," Mason told him. "I'll think over the information you've given me. If you get in touch with your wife, let me know at once."

"Tell me, Mason, is Ellen in a safe place? That's what I want to know. Can you guarantee protection?"

"I can't guarantee protection to anyone," Mason said.

"How about the police?"

"They can't either," Mason said. "If the police tried to put guards around every woman who is threatened with death at the hands of a jealous spouse, they wouldn't have enough officers left to direct traffic."

"But she's in actual danger."

"That may be," Mason said. "She is, however, fairly well concealed. I'm going to keep her under cover for the time being and I appreciate the information you've given me.

"However, these things happen. You pick up the paper almost any day and you'll find where some jealous ex-husband went to the apartment of his divorced wife, made a scene, killed her and killed himself. Or where a woman threatened to leave her husband, and he told her that if he couldn't have her, no one else was going to and pulled out a gun and killed her, then gave himself up to the authorities. These crimes of emotion account for the majority of our murders, but for every person who is actually killed under circumstances of that sort, there are a thousand who are threatened. The police simply can't cope with any situation of that sort."

"You sound cold-blooded about it," Ellis said heatedly. "Ellen Robb is a beautiful woman, a sweet, good young woman. Oh, I know she's been around, but essentially she's a mighty fine, sweet young woman and… well, you simply can't sit back and let my wife go all out on the warpath this way."

"Where do you think your wife is now?"

"I think she's in Arizona. The story was that Ellen was to get a job at one of the night clubs in Phoenix. She had some connections there, and I suppose that's where Nadine went. If Ellen is here, I certainly hope Nadine is in Arizona-I'm hoping she'll cool down by the time she gets back."

"Well, we'll see what we can do," Mason said. "I'll try and protect my client to the best of my ability, but you understand we can't furnish absolute protection in a situation of that sort; even the police can't."

Ellis said, "Look here, Mr. Mason, if the police can't protect her, we can hire a private bodyguard for her. I want to pay for it, no matter what it costs. Armed guards who can watch her day and night."

"And how will that look in the divorce suit?" Mason asked.

Ellis thought over the lawyer's remark. "I guess I'm licked," he said, getting to his feet. "However, Mr. Mason, I'm telling you there's a real danger to your client and to me."

Mason merely nodded.

Ellis seemed reluctant to leave the office, but Mason arose, signifying the interview was terminated.

As soon as Ellis left the office, Mason nodded to Della Street. "Get Paul Drake, if he hasn't already gone home, Della. Have him come down here right away."

Less than a minute later, Drake was in Mason's office.

Mason said, "Ellen Robb is staying at the Surf and Sea Motel in Costa Mesa. She's registered under her real name. She may or may not be in some danger. Apparently an irate wife is on the warpath and is looking for her with a gun."

"Bodyguard?" Drake asked.

"Bodyguards," Mason said, "the 's' sound signifies the plural, two or more, and without her knowing anything about it. I want you to keep an eye on the place. Have men on duty down there where they can watch the door of Ellen Robb's motel apartment. If any woman asks for Ellen or if any woman shows up, have your men get on the job. If the woman is 'about twenty-seven, redhaired, streamlined, perhaps a little on the thinnish side, I want your man to stop her, no matter on what pretext, and if her name should be Nadine Ellis-Mrs. Helman Ellis-I want your men to take some action."

"How much action?"

"It depends on the circumstances," Mason said. "Divert her attention and… well, in any event, stick right with her. If this woman sees Ellen Robb, I want at least one of your men there. I want him to make certain there isn't any opportunity for Mrs. Ellis to pull a gun and go bang, bang."

"I get it," Drake said. "We do a lot of that stuff. I've got some pretty good men. However, it runs into money. How long do you want them kept on the job?"

"As long as there's any possibility of trouble," Mason said.

"How long will that be?"

"Until we locate Mrs. Ellis and find out more about the situation."

"Okay," Drake said. "Will do."

After Drake had left, Mason turned to Della Street. "Now," he said, "we have the question of the gun."

"How do you mean?"

"We start out with four guns that George Anclitas had," Mason said. "He gave one away. That leaves three. Now, one of them shows up in the personal effects of Ellen Robb. Presumably, George is going to claim that gun was stolen from him. That leaves George with two guns."

"What are you getting at?" Della Street asked.

"Simply trying to keep the guns straight," Mason said, grinning. "Usually when I get in a case the district attorney accuses me of introducing additional guns and juggling them around and-"

"And that's exactly what you've done in this case," Della Street said.

"I have, for a fact. Won't it be nice when George Anclitas 'discovers' that one of his guns has been stolen and accuses Ellen Robb of having committed the theft? He'll get a search warrant for her baggage. Then the officers will discover the gun, and then George will swear to a complaint. The matter will be brought into court and when they start introducing the gun in evidence, I'll ask that the number of the gun be read into evidence. Then we'll check the records to get the numbers of George's gun and then it will turn out that the gun that was found in Ellen's baggage wasn't the gun that was 'stolen' from George Anclitas."

"And then?" Della asked, smiling.

Mason grinned gleefully. "Then," he said, "We'll have another suit for damages against George Anclitas. Perhaps after a while, Della, we'll teach him not to pick on women and black their eyes."

"But," Della Street asked, "suppose someone finds you're holding George's gun up here?"

"Why, the very idea!" Mason exclaimed. "I wouldn't think of holding George's gun up here. I told you we were going to return it to the owner as soon as we knew who the owner was."

"You'll just hand it to him?" she asked, her eyes twinkling.

"I said we'd return it," Mason answered, grinning.

"Do you have a plan?" she asked.

Mason said, "Downstairs at the soda fountain they use ice in the drinks that is round, about an inch diameter with a hole in the center and-"

"Go ahead," Della Street said, as Mason broke off and started to chuckle.

"I think," Mason said, "they make that ice around the outside of a pipe. They have some process by which they fill a larger pipe with water, freeze it, then get the ice out in lengths and cut it into pieces to put in the drinks.

"Suppose you run down, Della, talk with whoever is in charge and find out if you can get a piece of ice about… oh, say twelve inches long."

Della Street regarded him quizzically for a moment, then smiled and said, "On my way, Counselor. I take it we're about to freeze the evidence."

"On the contrary," Mason said. "We're going to melt a hard heart. Also, Della, pick up a shoe box and fill it half full of dry ice."

Della Street nodded, left the office.

Mason was once more pacing the floor when Della Street returned with a shoe box under her arm.

"Get it?" Mason asked.

She nodded.

She reached in the shoe box which contained dry ice and pulled out a twelve-inch cylinder of ice.

"All right," Mason said. "We'll try it for strength."

The lawyer took the gun which Ellen Robb had brought with her, ran the tube of ice through the trigger guard, then moved up two chairs and suspended the revolver between the two chairs, the cylinder of ice resting on the back of each one.

"Perfect!" he said, quickly removed the tube of ice and put it back in the box containing the dry ice.

"Now what?" Della Street asked.

"Now," Mason said, "we go down to Rowena. I stop on the block back of The Big Barn, where there's an entrance to the motel. You get out, walk through the motel, around the swimming pooi and into The Big Barn by the back entrance. You go to the women's powder room-"

"Carrying this shoe box?" Della Street asked.

Mason shook his head. "You'll be carrying a purse by that time. The purse will be filled with dry ice, this tube of ice and the gun. We'll also stuff the hollow of ice with dry ice. You go into the women's powder room and look for a place to plant the gun, either high up by suspending the gun from two corners of a partition, or preferably, if you can find a washbowl that has open plumbing underneath it, and I think you can, you can suspend the two ends of the ice tube from the two shut-off valves which you'll find underneath; one on the hot water, one on the cold water pipes."

"And then?" she asked.

"Then after a period of time, depending on temperature, the ice tube melts enough so the gun drops down to the floor. The ice will melt into a pooi of water, and someone will find the gun on the floor."

"And they'll connect it with us?" Della Street asked.

"If you do it right," Mason said, "and go in from the back entrance this early in the evening, no one is going to see you. I don't like to ask it of you, Della, but I am an attorney of record now with interests adverse to George Anclitas, and it's not ethical for me to talk with him except in the presence of his attorney. If I should go there, he'll want to talk with me. And I want the gun found in the women's powder room."

"Why there?" she asked.

"Because there's an attendant there," Mason said, "and because it's right near the back door which leads to the motel. You can pop in there, wait until some other woman comes in, plant the ice tube, give the attendant a quarter and leave the place. You can rejoin me in the car. We'll have stuffed the hole in this ice with dry ice, which will keep it from melting for some little time. When the gun falls to the floor, either the attendant will see it, or some woman who is in the place will see it within a few minutes after it has fallen. If we're lucky, the attendant will swear the gun couldn't possibly have been there over four or five minutes."

"And we'll be long gone?" Della Street asked.

"We'll be long gone," Mason said.

"How much of a crime am I committing?"

"I've told you," Mason said, "we're returning lost property. That's highly commendable."

"How about suppressing evidence?"

"Evidence of what?"

"Of theft."

"I didn't steal anything," Mason said.

"How about Ellen Robb?"

"She's a client."

"She's a client," Della Street said thoughtfully, "but don't go overboard on that girl. She knows which side of the bread has the butter and she doesn't intend to have anyone give her bread that isn't buttered."

Mason grinned. "Meaning, perhaps, that she might butter up people?"

"Particularly her lawyer," Della Street said. "I wish you'd play this one close to your chest, Chief."

Mason nodded. "That's why I want to get that gun back where it belongs."

"What will George Anclitas think when the gun is reported as having been found in the women's powder room?"

"That, of course, depends," Mason said, "on what he's planning to do."

"You think George Anclitas intends to file charges of theft against Ellen?"

Mason's forehead puckered into a frown. "I wish I knew the answer to that, Della," he said. "I certainly thought that was what he had in mind when he planted the gun in Ellen's suitcase, but why is he holding his fire? He's waiting for something. What is it?"

"Perhaps waiting to find out where she is," Della Street said.

"I doubt it-and there's one thing that bothers me."

"What?"

"Suppose he's playing a much deeper game than that?"

"What could it be?"

"I don't know," Mason said, "but I want to get that gun back into his possession. I want it planted in the women's powder room. The attendant there will find it. In all probability she's frightened to death of a gun. She'll cause something of a commotion and… well, George will know he's got his gun back."

"Of course he'll suspect you," Mason said. "And he'll also conclude that he waited too long before lowering the boom on Ellen Robb, that she found the gun in her suitcase and managed to return it. George will naturally be furious."

"When do we go?" Della Street asked,

Mason said, "You go down to the shop that sells handbags, on the corner, and get a leather handbag in which you can stuff the dry ice, the gun and the tube of ice. Then we're on our way."