The Case of the Fabulous Fake

9

The Escobar Import and Export Company had its offices in the United Financial Building.

Mason found from the registry list that the firm had offices on the sixth floor, then retreated to a point near the door where he could watch the people coming in.

The time was 10:20.

At 10:25 Diana Douglas walked through the door.

Mason stepped forward. “Where were you last night?”

She raised tear-swollen eyes; then clutched at his arm as though she needed his physical as well as his mental help.

“Oh, Mr. Mason,” she said, “Edgar passed away at three twenty-five this morning.”

“I’m so sorry,” Mason said, putting his arm around her shoulders. “He meant a lot to you, didn’t he?”

“A lot. I was very, very fond of him.”

She suddenly buried her head against Mason’s shoulder and started to cry.

Mason patted her back. “Now, don’t let yourself go, Diana. Remember we have a job to do. You’ll have to get your chin up and face the facts.”

“I know,” she sobbed, “but I... I just don’t feel that I can take it... If it hadn’t been that I’d promised you I’d meet you here I... I wanted to telephone Homer Gage and tell him not to expect me. I...”

“There, there,” Mason said, “we’re attracting a lot of attention, Diana. Move over here to the corner and try to get control of yourself. You’ve got a job to do. You’re going to have to go up and face the music.”

“How much music?”

“Lots of music.”

“What do you mean?”

Mason said, “I’m afraid you’re being sucked into a game which is as old as the hills. Someone embezzles a thousand dollars from a company and skips out. Somebody else, who knows what has been going on, calmly reaches in and takes another four thousand out of the till. The man who has absconded with the one thousand dollars gets credit for having embezzled five thousand.”

Her eyes, red with crying, widened as she looked at him. “You mean that...?”

“I mean,” Mason said, “that the Escobar Import and Export Company is now claiming there’s a shortage of twenty thousand dollars.”

“Twenty thousand dollars!” she repeated, aghast.

“Exactly,” Mason said. And then after a moment went on, “How do you come to work? Do you drive or...?”

“No, I take a bus.”

“What about arrangements for your brother? Were there any other relatives?”

“No, I got up early this morning and made arrangements.”

“Why didn’t you take that plane last night as you were instructed?”

“Because I thought someone was following me. Mr. Mason, I felt certain that a man in an automobile followed my taxicab all the way to the Union Depot and then tried to follow me. I tried to lose myself in the crowd, but I don’t think I was very successful. I kept having that horrible feeling that this man was spying on me and was where he could see me all the time, so I went into the women’s restroom, stayed for a long time, then came out and took a lot of what I suppose you would call evasive tactics. I started through the gate for a train, then doubled back and then, by the time I got to the airport, it was ten minutes too late. The plane had taken off. So then I decided to have dinner and come in on a later plane.”

“Why didn’t you telephone Paul Drake’s office or somebody?”

“I... I never thought of it. I knew you were coming up on that plane and I knew I’d meet you here this morning and — well, I never thought of anything else.

“Then when I got in I telephoned the hospital and found out that my brother was worse and I went up there and — I was with him — when—”

“There, there,” Mason said. “You’ve had a pretty hard row to hoe. Now, what I want you to do is to catch the next bus, go back to your apartment, and try to get some sleep. Do you have any sleeping medicine?”

“Yes, I have some sleeping pills.”

“Take them,” Mason said. “Go to sleep and forget about everything... Do you have that cashier’s check?”

“Yes.”

“Give it to me,” Mason said. “I probably won’t use it, but I’d like to have it. And here’s your suitcase.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked, giving him the cashier’s check.

“I’m going up to the Escobar Import and Export Company and throw a little weight around. At least, I’m going to try to.”

“Mr. Mason — twenty thousand dollars. Good Lord!”

“I know,” Mason said. “It’s a shock.”

“But what can we do?”

“That,” Mason said, “remains to be seen. The game is old but it’s almost infallible. Some poor guy gets to betting on the horses, gets in over his head, takes two or three thousand dollars and skips town, and the smart guy who remains behind cleans out all the cash available and the embezzler is stuck with the whole thing. If they never catch up with him, he’s supposed to have taken it all, and if they do catch up with him and he denies that he took anything above two or three thousand, no one believes him. He goes to prison for the whole thing.”

Mason put the check in his wallet, then guided her gently toward the street door. “Get on your bus,” he said. “Go back to your apartment and go to sleep. Leave the Escobar Import and Export Company to me... Do you have a private phone or does it go through the apartment switchboard?”

“It goes through the apartment switchboard.”

“Leave word that you’re not to be disturbed,” Mason said. “Get some sleep. I have your phone number. Tell the operator that only calls from me are to be put through. This is Friday. I’ll go back to my office this afternoon. You can reach me through the Drake Detective Agency if you need me... I’m sorry about your brother’s death. You poor kid, you’ve had a lot to put up with during the last few days. Take it easy and call on me if you need me... Where does your bus stop?”

“Right here,” she said, “at this bus stop. And I owe you for my plane ticket, Mr. Mason. I remembered you had ordered two tickets to be charged to you. When I got to the airport I made a rush for that plane, thinking it might have been a few minutes late taking off. I was going to pay for the ticket with my credit card, but I couldn’t find it. I must have lost it, and the girl at the ticket counter said that the ticket was all paid for, and—”

“That’s all right,” Mason said. “Forget it.”

He guided her to a wooden bench at the curb. “Take the first bus home. I’m going up to the office and see what can be done.”

She flung her arms around the lawyer and kissed him impulsively.

“Mr. Mason, you’re so wonderful!” she said.