The Case of the Calendar Girl

Chapter Fourteen

Mason sat in the visitor’s room and looked across through the thick, glass panel at Dawn Manning.

The heavy sheet of plate glass kept them separated, but a microphone on each side enabled them to hear each other.

She surveyed him with cool, slate-gray eyes and said, “Well, you certainly sold me down the river!”

“I did?” Mason asked.

“You don’t need to apologize,” she said. “When you represent a client, you go all out for that client. You were representing George Ansley then, and you could get him off by tossing me to the wolves. The question is, how good a job you and that wonderful husband of mine have done in framing me.”

“Did you call me up here to berate me for what happened?” Mason asked.

“I did not. I want you to be my lawyer.”

“Well?” Mason asked.

“And I haven’t a lot to pay on a fee. But I do feel that you owe me some consideration.”

Mason said, “The fee won’t be the most important thing. The most important thing is whether you told me the truth when you talked with me.”

“I told you the truth. Well, anyway, most of it.”

“You knew that Frank hadn’t secured a divorce?”

“I had just found it out.”

“You knew that Loretta was his girl friend?”

“I knew that he was playing around with a Loretta Harper, but I didn’t know her from Eve. I didn’t know her when I saw her.”

“But you had modeled for Meridith Borden?”

“Of course. I told you about that. I had, however, never modeled for him in the nude, and I don’t know where those pictures came from. I wasn’t in the house that night. I didn’t like Meridith Borden. He... well, I told you he wanted to use me as bait for some sort of a badger game, or to get the goods on some official. I don’t go for that sort of thing. I walked out.”

“Was there a scene?”

“There was one hell of a scene. I slapped his dirty face.”

“Can the district attorney prove that?”

“Of course he can. Meridith Borden tried to— Well, there was a scene.”

“Others were present?”

“Yes.”

“Did you threaten to kill him?”

“I said I’d shoot him like a dog... Oh, I suppose I’m in one hell of a position!”

“Did you kill him?”

“No. I told you the truth. I walked out of the grounds as soon as I knew where I was.”

“Then how did it happen he took your pictures in the nude?”

“He didn’t.”

“The camera says he did, and cameras don’t lie.”

“I can’t explain those pictures, Mr. Mason, but I wasn’t there.”

“You do pose in the nude?”

“For photographers I know and for what are known as ‘art’ nudes, yes. I’ve posed thousands of times for calendar pictures, both in color and in black and white.”

“Did you have a gun?” Mason asked.

“I never had a gun.”

“Never carried one?”

“No, of course not.”

Mason said, “You get into situations at times where you probably need some protection.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’re out with photographers in the wilds, being photographed in skimpy bathing suits, and—”

“And you don’t try to conceal a .38-caliber revolver in the folds of a Bikini bathing suit, Mr. Mason,” she interrupted. “A model learns to take care of herself. You do it one way or another, but you don’t carry guns.”

Mason said, “Okay, Dawn, I’m your attorney.”