Case of the Beautiful Beggar

Chapter 3

Judge Ballinger came bustling into his chambers at twelve minutes of two.

“Hello, Perry,” he said. “Come in. I’m sorry I’m cutting things so fine as far as time is concerned, but I had a rather important luncheon appointment.”

Mason followed the judge to his chambers and watched while the judge put on his robe.

“Got to go on the bench at two o’clock,” the judge explained. “I can hold it off maybe a minute or two. What’s the problem?”

Mason said, “I think perhaps I’m going to appear before you in your court on a contested matter and I don’t want to jeopardize your position or mine by discussing it, but I do want to get some history and, if possible, find out the reasoning back of an order you made in the case.”

“What’s the case?”

“The matter of the Horace Shelby conservator.”

“Why, I handled that just a couple of days ago,” Judge Ballinger said.

“I know you did.”

Judge Ballinger looked at him shrewdly. “You think there’s anything wrong with the case?”

Mason said, “Let’s not either of us discuss anything except the history, but I would appreciate your thinking.”

“I’ll discuss any guardianship matter any time,” Judge Ballinger said. “In those cases the Court wants all the information it can get.

“Mind you, I don’t want you to tell me anything you feel should come before me by way of evidence in a contested matter, but I’m certainly willing to tell you how I felt.

“Horace Shelby is an old man, and he’s confused, there’s no question about that, and he was incoherent. He was excited, emotional and apparently he’d made a check for a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars to some young woman who had been living in the house with him.

“Now, when you get a combination like that, you figure that something needs to be done. I appointed the conservator on a temporary basis with the statement that the Court would review it at any time any additional facts came up.”

The judge stopped talking and looked at Mason. “You feel that you have some other facts?”

“I think it’s possible,” Mason said.

“All right,” Judge Ballinger said. “The order is subject to review with additional facts. Tomorrow morning at ten o’clock too early for you to present your facts?”

“I think not,” Mason said.

“Tomorrow morning at ten o’clock— No, wait a minute, I’ve got a another case on at ten. We’ll convene court early. Make it nine thirty. Tomorrow morning at nine thirty we’ll have another hearing.

“I’m not going to ask to have Horace Shelby brought into court, because I think the court hearing upset him. I’ll take a look at any additional facts that are presented and then if I want to amend, suspend, modify the order I made, I’ll do it. That suit you?”

“Fine,” Mason said.

“Prepare notice to the other side with an order shortening time and all the rest of it,” Judge Ballinger said. “I’m two minutes late now.”

He shook hands with Mason and walked from chambers into the courtroom.

Mason left Judge Ballinger’s chambers, hurried back to his office and entered through the reception room.

He nodded to Gertie, the receptionist, and asked, “Is Della back?”

“Back about twenty minutes ago,” she said.

Mason went in to the inner office.

“How did you do, Della?” he asked.

“Everything’s okay,” she said. “The poor child could hardly eat a bite... Isn’t that the darnedest thing you ever heard of?”

“It happens more frequently than we like to contemplate,” Mason said.

“How you do with Judge Ballinger?”

Mason grinned and said, “Make an order shortening time and an order for an additional hearing tomorrow morning at nine-thirty. See that it gets served on opposing counsel. By the way, who is the attorney in the case?”

“Denton, Middlesex and Melrose,” she said. “The junior partner, Darwin Melrose, was the one who appeared in court.”

“That’s a good firm,” Mason said. “They wouldn’t any of them be mixed up with anything that was off-color — not if they knew it, and they’d be pretty apt to look into it before they went into a case.

“Have you heard anything from Paul Drake?”

“Not yet. He’s trying to get something from the bank.”

“Well, get those orders out,” Mason said, “and arrange to get them served. Also, ring up Daphne and tell her that we’re going to court tomorrow morning at nine-thirty that I want her here at the office at nine o’clock that she can go to court with me... You’d better look in on her this evening, Della, and keep her from getting too upset.”

Della nodded and asked, “How was Judge Ballinger?”

“Well,” Mason said, grinning, “the judge doesn’t want to discuss anything which may come before him where there’s a contest, but the judge wasn’t born yesterday and he knows as well as anyone the manner in which relatives can act like the proverbial camel in the tent — first put in a head and then gradually get the whole body in and squeeze the occupant of the tent out into the cold.”

“He didn’t say so, did he?” Della asked, smiling.

“No, he didn’t say so,” Mason said, “but the judicial mind was working rather rapidly, I thought.”

“This should be quite a hearing tomorrow morning,” she said.

“Could be.”

Drake’s code knock sounded on the door.

“There’s Paul Drake now,” she said. “I’ll go out and get those orders ready and get them served.”

She opened the door and said, “Come on in, Paul, I’ve got a rush job to do. The boss just came in. He has a rehearing for tomorrow morning at nine thirty.”

“Not a rehearing,” Mason said, “a hearing to take additional evidence.”

“Well, I’ve got some evidence for you,” Drake said.

“What is it?”

“Stanley Paxton, vice-president of the bank,” Drake said, “is pretty much worked up about this. He wants to do anything he can.”

“Will he testify?”

“Sure, he will. If he knows there’s a hearing tomorrow morning, he’ll be there.”

“Go on,” Mason said, “tell me about Paxton.”

“Paxton is the vice-president of the bank who keeps an eye on all the active accounts, particularly the large ones.”

“How well does he know Horace Shelby?”

“He knows him mostly through his business transactions. Most of the personal contact that he had was with Daphne.”

“What does he think of Daphne?”

“Thinks she’s one of the nicest young women he’s seen in a long time. He thinks she has a good business head on her shoulders, and he thinks Horace Shelby is being railroaded into a position where he can’t make a will that will stand up in court, and these relatives, the Finchleys, are moving in on the estate just for the purpose of seeing what they can get out of it.”

“And just what will Paxton testify to?”

“That every time he saw Horace Shelby, the old man seemed to know exactly what he was doing that he has talked with him about investments on the telephone several times the conversations have been just what one would expect in dealing with a normally sharp businessman and that Horace Shelby has the greatest love and affection for Daphne that he relies on her for virtually everything and that she has been loyal to his interests all the way through.

“He’ll also testify that he never heard of Borden Finchley or Elinor Finchley or their friend, Ralph Exeter, until Daphne went on her trip that while Daphne was on her trip, Borden Finchley was offensively curious. He was trying to pump Paxton to find out the extent of Shelby’s holdings, his net worth and all the rest of it. He tells me that Bordon Finchley gives him the impression of being a chiseler, a sharpshooter and that if anyone has selfish and ulterior motives, it’s this same Borden Finchley.”

“Well, of course, he can’t testify to that,” Mason said.

“Not in so many words,” Drake said, “but Paxton is a pretty shrewd individual. You get him on the stand and start asking him questions about Horace Shelby and he’ll find some way of letting the judge know how he feels about Borden Finchley.”

“What about Ralph Exeter?” Mason asked.

“Exeter seems to be a kind of a barnacle on the ship,” Drake said. “No one knows his exact connection with Finchley. Of course, he doesn’t have any with Shelby.”

“You’re sure of that?”

“Reasonably. Remember that I’ve been working at pretty high speed and haven’t had a chance to check everything I want, but apparently Finchley is indebted to Exeter for a rather large sum of money and Exeter was pressing for collection, so Finchley brought him along to visit his rich brother so Exeter could see for himself that Finchley was going to run into a big sum of money one of these days.”

Mason’s eyebrows lowered slightly as he became thoughtful. “That,” he said, “would make quite a picture. And, of course, Exeter would have found that Horace Shelby intended to leave everything to Daphne and... A slow grin spread over Mason’s face.

“Paul,” he said, “Exeter is the weak link in the chain. I want to find out everything you can about the indebtedness of Borden Finchley to Ralph Exeter. Get everything you can about Exeter’s background. When Finchley gets on the stand, I won’t cross-examine him about Shelby, I’ll cross-examine him about Exeter... How did you get this information, Paul?”

“There’s a housekeeper who comes in six hours a day.”

“Who does the cooking?”

“Elinor Finchley is doing the cooking now. Before the Finchley’s came Daphne did the cooking. Shelby’s wants are rather simple, and Daphne knew exactly what he wanted and how to prepare it. She was doing a whale of a job, but she was working herself to death.

“Then after the Finchley’s and Exeter moved in, why Daphne was simply floored. They had this housekeeper in and had a catering service send in many of the meals. That’s how they were able to get Daphne to take this long ocean voyage. She was doing the best she could to be a hostess as well as taking care of her uncle’s personal needs and cooking his food for him the way he wanted it.”

Mason grinned and said, “Paul, I’m not making any promises but I think tomorrow morning at nine-thirty we’re going to have a court hearing that will be very, very, very interesting.

“However, in the meantime, you’ll have to get a line on Ralph Exeter. I want his background. I want the basis of his relationship to Borden Finchley and, if Borden Finchley owes him money, I want to find out about it.”

“He owes him money all right,” Drake said. “The housekeeper heard Exeter telling Finchley that he didn’t intend to wait forever and that he wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines and wait for somebody to die that he wasn’t built that way that he wanted to get his money and get a turnover on it.

“Then they saw the housekeeper was standing by the doorway and they changed the subject abruptly.”

Mason nodded. “Get Exeter’s background,” he said, “and I don’t care how many men you have to put on the job.”