The Case of the Negligent Nymph

Chapter 4

JACKSON CLEARED HIS THROAT, DEPOSITED HIS BRIEF CASE ON the table, started methodically taking out papers.

“Did you get the bail fixed?” Mason asked.

Jackson said, “Perhaps I’d better take it up in chronological order and tell you exactly what happened. I … “

“Did you get the bail fixed?”

“Not yet. The matter has been taken under advisement by Judge Lankershim.”

“Taking a matter of bail under advisement?” Mason asked incredulously.

“Well, the Judge intimated that he would consider a bail of 25,000 in case he was called upon for an immediate decision. He wished to confer with the district attorney’s office and intimated that he would make a sharp reduction in the amount of bail in the event he felt that it would be safe to do so. He says he will take the matter up at four o’clock this afternoon, immediately at the close of a late calendar he’s calling.”

Mason glanced at his watch.

Jackson said, “I went to the Las Alisas jail and discussed the matter with this young woman. She knows you only by reputation and has never even seen you. She wants to get the best attorney available but, as is quite usually the case with persons who demand the best, her financial resources are limited.

“However, in view of the fact that I had been definitely advised we would take the case I did not discuss the matter of emolument with her at any length, but merely made an attempt to ascertain her financial background.

“Apparently she has a small amount of money. She is an expert typist,-stenographer, and secretary, and is employed at a fair salary. She has some eight or nine thousand dollars which is left from an insurance policy her mother took out in her favor. She is quite a yachting enthusiast and owns a small yacht which wouldn’t sell for very much. She has sailed on several yachts, knows the yachting crowd, and apparently is rather popular with them. Her own yacht is a relatively small affair which she picked up at…”

“Never mind that,” Mason said. “What about the case?”

“She insists that she did not steal any jewelry. She fails to account for the presence of the bath towel, bathing cap and a rubber sack at the scene of the crime. Apparently she is not. able to furnish an alibi. She was aboard her yacht at the time of the burglary. She tells a very peculiar story about someone getting aboard her yacht during her absence and stealing something which belonged to her. She intimates, without making a direct accusation, that Mr. Alder knows about this. She says further that when she can get in touch with some mysterious man, whose name she either can’t or won’t divulge, that she expects to be able to prove some rather serious charge against Mr. Alder, but I cannot ascertain the exact nature of that charge. Strangely enough she says this mysterious man is a lawyer. She feels certain he would help her out but she either doesn’t know his name or claims she doesn’t. She has, of course, heard a lot about you and insists she needs the best lawyer available. She is personally acquainted with George S. Alder and seems to be very much afraid of him.

“I wish to state frankly that I am not favorably impressed with this young woman. She acts guilty to me. However, following instructions I told her you would represent her. She wants to talk with you personally. I am afraid I did not create an especially favorable impression, and I must confess that any personal lack of confidence was mutual. Her story is far from being straightforward.”

“Is she to be in court at four o’clock this afternoon?”

“Judge Lankershim said nothing about her being there. He asked that a representative of this office and of the district attorney’s office gather with him to discuss the matter.”

“Who’s handling the case for the D. A.?”

“Vincent Colton.”

Mason glanced at Della Street. “What appearance does she make, Jackson? Good-looking?”

Jackson deliberated a moment, blinked reflectively, and said, “I believe she is, Mr. Mason,” as though the thought had just struck him.

“Think she’d make a good impression on a jury?”

Again Jackson digested that thought with slow, blinking appraisal.

“I believe she could.”

“And Vincent Colton wanted a continuance in the matter?”

“He intimated there might be some clarification of the position of the district attorney by late this afternoon.”

“But you don’t think this young woman had any direct lead to our office? It was simply a matter of…”

“Of wanting the best She’d heard a great deal about you and—well, at least she was willing to make a stab at it. Of course her idea of a fee is probably in nowise commensurate with the work involved. I didn’t discuss that phase of the matter.”

Mason glanced at his watch, said, “Okay, I’ll run along. I'll be seeing you folks later. Della, you might wait for a ring from me before you go home.”

She nodded.

“Thanks, Jackson,” Mason said.

“In such matters,” Jackson said, with stiff formality, “I have at times a feeling of utter inadequacy. It is particularly embarrassing, when one is thoroughly conversant with every phase of the law, to have a layman adopt a position of—well, frankly, Mr. Mason, of doubt”

“It certainly is,” Mason said. “Okay, I’ll take over now, Jackson. Just forget about it”

Jackson’s sigh of relief was plainly audible. “Come to think of it, Mr. Mason,” he said, “now that you’ve mentioned the matter, she really is what you might call attractive. Sort of a blonde, with a very good complexion and…”

“Good figure?” Della asked mischievously.

“Oh, heavens, I wouldn’t know about that,” Jackson said. “In fact, it is with some effort I am recalling the color of her eyes and hair, but the general impression, the overall impression which would be made on a jury would, I should say, be favorable, distinctly so.”

Mason said, “Well, I’ll take over. Here’s something you can start working on, Jackson. As I understand the law, any increase to property due to accretion and caused by the elements belongs to the landowner.”

“Yes, sir. There are dozens of decisions…”

“But when it’s an accretion caused by a governmental activity such as building a breakwater or dredging a channel, the accretion becomes government property. In which event it might be subject to location by a citizen.”

Jackson made furrows in his forehead. “Well now, let’s see. That’s rather a fine distinction. I’m afraid, Mr. Mason… No, by Georgel Wait a minute … You’re right! The leading case is City of Los Angeles versus Anderson, in the 206th California. That case I believe dealt with land formed adjacent to a government breakwater. I can’t be certain it would apply to some other governmental activity such as dredging. Yet the principle would seem to be the same.”

“Look it up,” Mason said. “I want a leg to stand on. Make it as strong as you can.”

“Yes, sir, and am I to understand that you’ll take over on this bail matter? It would be extremely annoying if …”

“I’m taking over,” Mason said. “You just concentrate on the problem of accretion due to governmental activity.”

Mason grabbed his hat, drove to the Las Alisas sheriffs office, secured a pass and telephoned the matron. “I want to see Dorothy Fenner,” he said. “This is Perry Mason.”

“Oh, Mr. Jackson from your office was here this morning. He talked with her.”

“He did, did he?” Mason said. “Well, I’ll talk with her myself.”

“All right. I’ll bring her down to the visitors’ room. She … she’s been crying.”

“That’s fine,” Mason said. “Ill try and cheer hfer up a bit.”

“I think she’s feeling rather depressed.”

“Okay,” Mason said, “I'll meet you in the visitors’ room.”

The lawyer went up in the elevator, presented his pass and waited until the matron brought a swollen-eyed Dorothy Fenner into the room, a room with a long table, through the middle of which ran a heavy screen dividing the room into two separate rooms.

The matron said, “Come on over here, dearie. Here’s Mr. Mason. He wants to talk with you.”

Dorothy Fenner walked over to the screen as one in a daze, then suddenly jerked to starded attention. “Why, you’re…”

“Perry Mason,” Mason interrupted. “And very pleased to meet you, Miss Fenner.”

“Why, what I mean is that you’re..

“Perry Mason,” the lawyer interrupted, significantly, “Oh,” she said, and sat down as though her legs were buckling.

The matron smiled, patted her back reassuringly, said, “How’s everything, Mr. Mason?”

“Fine,” Mason told her.

“Let me know when you’re ready,” the matron said, and withdrew out of earshot.

Dorothy Fenner raised her head and surveyed Mason through the screen with incredulous eyes.

She looked back over her shoulder to make certain no one was within earshot and then said in a low voice, “Why … why didn’t you tell me?”

Mason said, “Can’t you appreciate my position? You were committing an illegal act”

“What are you going to do now?”

“The first thing I’m going to do,” Mason said, “is get you out on bail, but I want to know exactly what happened.”

She said, “I guess I was a little fool, Mr. Mason. I didn’t do what you told me to. I had a bear by the tail, but I wasn’t ready to go to George Alder. I thought I’d talk with Pete Cadiz about finding the bottle. I wanted time to think things over.”

“So what did you do?”

She said, “I concealed that bottle where I thought it would never be found.”

“Where?”

“In the fresh-water tank on my yacht. I unscrewed the cleaning plug on the drinking water tank and put the bottle inside.”

“Then what?”

“Then I went ashore to take the interurban for town, feeling very satisfied with myself.”

“You have an automobile?”

“No. My one extravagance is the yacht. I love yachting. On the whole it costs me a lot less to keep this yacht than it would a car, and …”

“Okay,” Mason interrupted, “what happened?”

She said, “I stopped in at a little restaurant for breakfast yesterday morning, read the papers, and learned about what Alder was saying. That someone had broken into his house and taken fifty thousand dollars in gems and—well, suddenly I realized that he had me. He’d been smart enough not to say anything at all about losing the bottle with the letter in it, but simply claimed that I’d broken in in order to steal jewels. And, of course, like a little simp, not intending to get caught in any such mess, I had left myself wide open. And then I realized that you were my only hope because you—of course I didn’t know who you were at the time—could swear I hadn’t taken any jewels from the house.”

“So what did you do?” Mason asked.

“Well,” she said, “at that late date I decided to follow your advice. I went back to the yacht, deciding that I’d get this bottle with the letter and …”

“You’d put the letter back into the bottle?”

“Yes. Just the way I found it. Corked and alL”

“All right, what happened?”

“Well, when I went back to the yacht the bottle was gone. I was absolutely thunderstruck. I couldn’t believe it possible. I searched and searched, and then I pumped every blessed bit of water out of that water tank and looked in it with the flashlight. That bottle simply had disappeared.”

Mason said, “You’re dealing with a shrewd individual, Dorothy. He knew who had the bottle. He simply waited until you had gone ashore, and then he went aboard and started searching the yacht. Evidently he’s a pretty good yachtsman and as such figured out the places where something like that could be hidden. So now he has the bottle and the letter and has enough evidence against you so he can convict you of breaking into his house. Is that right?”

“I guess so, yes … I… I suppose I must have left fingerprints. Like a ninny I didn’t wear gloves … Oh, what a mess it is.”

Mason nodded.

“Well,” she said, “there’s one thing. You-can back up my story and now we can tell the truth. Oh, I’m so relieved, so glad to see you, Mr. Mason. I wondered how I was ever going to get in touch with the only man in the world who could show that I hadn’t taken those jewels …”

“Take it easy,” Mason said. “You can’t handle it that way.”

“Why not?”

“Because if we tell that story now, it’s going to look like an attempt to fabricate evidence so we can try and build up a case against Alder. Everyone will laugh at us for not thinking up a better lie than that.

“Furthermore, when I put myself in the position of being interested in the letter that was in that bottle, and then letting you take it and put it in the water tank where someone could come and steal it, and all we can show is a typewritten copy of what we claim the letter was … No, my dear, I’m afraid we can’t do that.”

“Then what can we do?”

Mason grinned, and said, “Ever hear the story about the American who went to the foreign country and got into trouble with one of the slick businessmen there?”

“No, what about it?”

Mason said, “It’s a legal classic. The businessman sued the American for a large sum of money which he claimed he had loaned the American with which to start a business venture. The American went to a lawyer, complained bitterly, and wanted to go on the stand and swear that it was a complete falsehood.

“The attorney carefully listened to the American’s story, smiled benignly, and said he would fix things all up.

“Imagine the American’s surprise when the case came up in the foreign court. The businessman got on the stand and swore that he had loaned the American this sum of money and then called five witnesses two of them swore that they had seen the money loaned to the American, and three of them testified that the American had told them about having borrowed the money from this foreign businessman and hoped to be able to pay it back out of profits.”

“What happened?” she asked, interested.

“The American’s lawyer didn’t even cross-examine the witness, and the American almost had a fit,” Mason said. “His lawyer explained to him that in this country it was rather easy to get witnesses to commit perjury for a reasonable consideration. The American saw ruination staring him in the face. Then it came his turn to put on his defense and his lawyer urbanely called seven witnesses, each of whom stated that he knew that the American had borrowed money from this businessman, but that he had been present in the room when the American had paid it back, every cent of it”

A wan smile twisted her lips. “And what’s the moral of that story, Mr. Mason?”

“It isn’t a moral, it’s an ‘immoral,’” Mason told her. “It means that there are times when you have to fight the devil with fire.”

“So what do we do?”

“At the moment it’s what we don’t do. We don’t go rushing into court and say anything about the bottle. We don’t show the copy of the letter that we made. I do wish we’d had a camera so that we could have photographed that document. Then we’d have been in an entirely different position. But we didn’t have, so there you are, or rather, here you are.”

“But, Mr. Mason, don’t you see what he’s done? He’s— why, if we let him get away with that, if he can put us in that position, I’ve lost my evidence, I can’t ever say anything about it later on, and—and, good Lord, I did break into his house and he could have me convicted of a felony and..,”

“You leave it to me,” Mason said. “I’m not too certain but what your friend, George S. Alder, may get something of a shock when he learns that I’m going to represent you. Keep a stiff upper lip, Dorothy, and you may be out of here by dinnertime.”

“By dinnertime, Mr. Mason? Why, even if a judge made an order admitting me to bail, my financial resources are…”

Mason said, “I have quite a bit at stake myself. If it hadn’t been for … Oh, well, you see now how it was. I couldn’t possibly have done anything there Saturday night without making it appear that we’d been engaged in some sort of a scheme, either to concoct or steal evidence, and either would have been bad for me.”

“Oh, if I’d only gone to Alder, the way you told me to. But I thought I knew more. If I’d only known who you were, I’d have taken your advice unquestionably.”

‘Well,” Mason said, “we’re in it now, and we’ll see it through.”

“What are you going to do?”

Mason said, “I’m going to use a little ingenuity for one thing, and perhaps a little bluff. The first thing you’re going to do is to get out on bail. The next thing we’re going to do is to sue George S. Alder, and serve notice that we want to take his deposition. And then we’re going to have him worried.”

“But can you do all that?” she asked.

“We can try,” Mason said. “Keep your chin up, Dorothy. I’ll be seeing you later.”

Mason motioned to the matron that the interview was over.