The Case of the Horrified Heirs

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake returned to the lawyer's office shortly before midnight.

The assistant janitor who operated the elevator after hours said, «There's been a woman trying to see you, Mr. Mason; says it's a matter of great importance. I told her that you said you'd be back, no matter how late it was, and she said she'd wait.»

«Where is she?»

«I don't know. Walking around somewhere. She's been back four or five times and asked if you'd returned yet. I told her 'no,' and she said she'd be back.»

«What does she look like?» Mason asked.

«Rather aristocratic-looking. Sixty-odd. Gray hair. Nice clothes. Quiet voice-not a crook, but something is sure worrying her.»

«All right,» Mason said. «I'll be up in the office. I'm going to be there long enough for Virginia Baxter to join me; then we're calling it a day.»

«And what a day!» Paul Drake said.

«Virginia Baxter!» the elevator operator said. «You mean the girl they're trying for murder?»

«She's being released,» Mason said. «Lieutenant Tragg's delivering her here in a police car.»

«Well, what do you know?» the operator said, appraising Mason wonderingly. «You got her out, eh?»

«_We_ got her out,» Mason said, grinning. «Let's go.»

The elevator shot up to Mason's floor.

Drake said, «Okay, I'll duck into my office and button things up, Perry. What are you going to do about that nurse?»

Mason grinned. «Our friend Lieutenant Tragg is taking the initiative there. You'll be reading in the papers about Tragg's brilliant deductive reasoning; probably that Tragg gave Perry Mason an opportunity to accompany him when he uncovered the key witness in the Trent murder case.»

«Yes, I suppose he'll grab all the credit,» Drake said.

«Tragg won't, but the department will. That's the way the game has to be played. See you in the morning, Paul.»

Mason took Della Street's arm and led her down to the office.

He fitted his key to the door of his private office, switched on the lights, yawned prodigiously and walked over to the electric coffee percolator.

«How long will it be?» Della Street asked.

«Shouldn't be over ten or fifteen minutes,» Mason said. «Tragg will have her out of there and leave it to me to keep her out of circulation. Tragg doesn't want anything interfering with his big story that'll hit the papers. He-«

A timid knock sounded on the corridor door.

Mason went to the door and opened it.

A tall white-haired woman said, «This is Mr. Mason?»

«Yes,» Mason said.

«I couldn't wait any longer,» she said. «I had to come to you.»

She turned toward Della Street inquiringly.

«My secretary, Della Street,» Mason explained, and then added, with only a moment's perceptible hesitancy, «and unless I'm very much mistaken, Della, this is Lauretta Trent.»

«Exactly,» she said. «I couldn't let things go to a point where that poor girl was convicted. I had to come to you.

«I'm hoping there's some way you can protect me until we can find out who is trying to murder me.»

«Sit down,» Mason said.

She said, «I am very naive, Mr. Mason; I wasn't at all suspicious until Dr. Alton asked the nurse to get samples of my hair and fingernails.

«At one time I had done some research work in poisoning symptoms. I decided to get out of there and get out fast.

«Then when that car deliberately rammed us off the road and George Eagan yelled, 'Jump'-well, I jumped. I got skinned up a bit but, fortunately, I had seen that car was going to hit us and I was all ready with my hand on the door latch.

«I didn't have fifty thousand dollars in my handbag, the way you said in court, but I had enough cash so I could take care of myself.

«I saw that George was hurt. I went to the highway and, almost immediately, a motorist stopped. He took me down the road to the cafe. I called the highway patrol and reported the accident. They promised to have a car there right away.

«I just decided it was a good time to lie low and let things start to unscramble. I wanted to find out who was back of all this.»

«And you found out?» Mason asked.

«When that will was read in court-I was never so shocked in my life.»

«That will, I take it, was spurious.»

«Absolutely!» she snapped. «One, or perhaps two, pages of it were genuine, the rest had been substituted. What I said in my will was that, since I had come to the conclusion that all of my relatives were barnacles simply waiting for me to die and without gumption enough to get out and do anything for themselves, I was going to give my two sisters a bequest that would be small enough so the men would have to go to work.

«I had that will in what I thought was a safe place. They must have found it, got the staples out of the pages, substituted those forged pages and decided to get rid of me.»

«Apparently,» Mason said, «you're due for a shock. Your relatives weren't the ones who were trying to hurry up your death, but the nurse, who was a good typist, evidently arranged with Kelvin to plant a spurious will-probably on a percentage basis with possibilities for unlimited blackmail after that.

«And in case Virginia Baxter remembered the terms of the real will, they planned to have her in such a position her testimony would be worthless.

«I'm glad you're all right. When they failed to find your handbag in the car, I had an idea you were alive.

«You've given Virginia Baxter a bad time, but it's nothing that can't be cured.

«We're waiting for Virginia Baxter to join us now.»

Lauretta Trent opened her handbag. «Fortunately,» she said, «I have my checkbook with me. If I made a check for twenty-five thousand dollars to you, Mr. Mason, would that take care of your fee? And, of course, a check for fifty thousand to your client to compensate her for all she's been through.»

Mason grinned at Della Street. «I think if you make out the checks, Mrs. Trent, Virginia Baxter will be here by the time you've got them signed, and she can give you her answer personally.»