The Case of the Fabulous Fake

10

Mason stood in the hallway on the sixth floor surveying the offices of the Escobar Import and Export Company.

There was a display showing Oriental art goods, carved ivories, and cloisonné.

On the other side of the entrance door the display showed figurines which had a Toltec or Aztec look about them.

Double plate-glass doors opened into a rather shallow showroom in which there were glass shelves containing further specimens of art. The entrance doors had the legend ESCOBAR IMPORT AND EXPORT COMPANY, Wholesale Only.

Mason pushed the doors open and entered the display room. A girl seated at a switchboard smiled mechanically. “May I help you?” she asked.

Mason said, “I’d like to see Mr. Gage, please.”

“Which one? Mr. Franklin Gage or Mr. Homer Gage?”

“Franklin Gage.”

“He isn’t in. He’s out on a business trip.”

“Then I’ll see Homer Gage.”

“What’s the name, please?”

“Perry Mason.”

“Did you wish to see him about a purchase, Mr. Mason, about some art goods, or...?”

“It’s a more personal matter than that,” Mason said.

“May I ask what firm you represent?”

“I don’t represent any firm,” Mason said. “My name is Perry Mason. I’m an attorney from Los Angeles. I happen to be here at the moment to discuss an employee by the name of Diana Douglas.”

“Oh, oh!” she said. “Oh, yes... yes, indeed. Just a moment!”

She plugged in a line and Mason saw her lips moving rapidly, but the connection of the telephone was so arranged that he couldn’t hear her words.

A moment later a door in the back part of the room opened and a heavy-set, chunky individual came striding out, a man in his late thirties, with dark hair which had receded well back from his temples, bushy black eyebrows, keen gray eyes, and tortoise-shell glasses. His mouth was a straight line of thin determination.

“Mr. Mason?” he said.

“Right.”

“I’m Homer Gage. What did you wish to see me about?”

“Diana Douglas.”

“What about her?”

“She’s an employee of yours?”

“Yes. She is, but she’s not here at the moment. Her brother was seriously injured in an automobile accident and I am afraid she is rather upset. If it’s a matter of credit rating or integrity, I can assure you that she has a fine reputation.”

“It’s neither,” Mason said. “I wanted to talk to you about her.”

“Well, I’m here.”

“All right,” Mason said, “if you want to talk here, we’ll talk here. I’m representing Miss Douglas. What was the idea of telling the Los Angeles police that she had embezzled twenty thousand dollars from this...”

Gage interrupted, throwing up his hands, palms outward. “Stop right there, Mr. Mason. We never said any such thing.”

“Then you intimated it.”

“Mr. Mason, this is hardly the time or the place to discuss a matter of this sort.”

“What’s wrong with the time?” Mason asked.

“Why... I hadn’t anticipated... you didn’t telephone... I had no warning.”

“Did you need warning?”

“Not necessarily.”

“Then what’s wrong with the place?”

“It’s public.”

“You picked it,” Mason reminded him.

Gage opened a gate in the counter. “Won’t you please step into my private office, Mr. Mason?”

Mason followed him down a thick carpet where there were further showcases on the sides, past two young women, who very frankly stopped the work they were doing to gawk at the lawyer as he walked past.

Gage held the door of his private office open, then, when Mason had entered, said, “Please be seated, Mr. Mason. I’m sorry you brought this up where the girls in the outer office could hear it.”

“You left me no choice,” Mason said.

“Well, perhaps I didn’t... I’m sorry. I didn’t appreciate the importance of your visit.”

“I hope you appreciate it now.”

“Well, Mr. Mason, the fact remains that an audit of the books shows that there is a very substantial shortage in our cash, and, of course, under the circumstances, we wanted to check on any of our employees who are absent.”

“Diana Douglas was one?”

“Yes.”

“Your uncle, Franklin Gage, is another?”

“Well, he’s hardly an employee. He virtually owns the business.”

“And Edgar Douglas is another?”

“Yes. He’s in the hospital with a fractured skull. He has never regained consciousness since the accident. I’m afraid the prognosis is not good.”

“Did you check on him, too?” Mason asked.

“We were hardly in a position to check on him. You can’t question a man who is unconscious.”

“So Diana Douglas was the only one you asked the police to check on?”

“Now, Mr. Mason, you’re getting the cart before the horse. With a shortage of that sort showing up we quite naturally wanted to talk with Miss Douglas. That was our right. She’s an employee of this company. We had assumed that she was absent from work because of the condition of her brother and was spending all of her time in the hospital with him, but inquiry disclosed that she had left rather suddenly for Los Angeles.”

“And you asked the Los Angeles police to check on her?”

“The Los Angeles police were asked to try to get some information from her.”

“You intimated that she might be an embezzler?”

“Certainly not, Mr. Mason. Don’t try to put words in my mouth. We simply asked for a check-up.”

“And how did you find out where she was staying in Los Angeles?”

“I’m afraid that’s a confidential matter that I don’t care to go into at the present time, Mr. Mason.”

“All right,” Mason said, “I just wanted you to know that I’m representing Miss Douglas; that we feel that her reputation has been damaged because she was accused of embezzlement, at least by inference, and because you asked the Los Angeles police to look her up... Here is my card, Mr. Gage, and if you have any further matters to take up with Miss Douglas you can take them up with me.”

“You mean she is finished working here?” Gage asked.

“That is something I’m not prepared to discuss,” Mason said. “I am referring only to the case she has against you for defamation of character. I would suggest you get in touch with me if you have any further activities in mind.”

“Come, come, Mr. Mason. There’s no need to be belligerent. You don’t need to come up here with a chip on your shoulder. Did you come up all the way from Los Angeles to tell us this?”

“Why not?” Mason asked.

“It seems so futile, so— Good heavens, we don’t know where the money is. All we know is that there’s a shortage.”

“You’re sure of that?”

“Apparently so. An amount of something over twenty thousand dollars seems to be missing from the cash.”

“You keep an amount of that sort on hand in the form of ready cash?”

“Yes, indeed. We have a lot more than that.”

“May I ask why?” Mason asked.

“I don’t know why not,” Gage said. “A lot of our deals are for cash, and a great many of them are made on weekends when the banks are closed.”

“And on some of them you don’t want any question of having left a backtrack?”

“No, no, no, it isn’t that. It’s simply that we’ve followed a policy of buying many times for cash and then, when the deal is completed, getting... well... establishing—”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Mason interposed.

“It’s rather difficult to understand, Mr. Mason, but there are various embargoes in various countries which must be — well, taken into account. For instance, in Mexico it is illegal to export ancient artifacts, yet there is a very brisk demand for such artifacts in this country.”

“And these Mexican figurines have been smuggled out of Mexico?”

“I didn’t say that, Mr. Mason. I was very careful not to say that. I was telling you something about the reasons that we have to have large supplies of cash in our business. There are certain questions we do not ask. And when you do not ask questions, cash does the talking.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Mason said.

“Is it necessary that you should?”

“I think it is.”

Gage flushed. “After all, Mr. Mason, I have explained to you as much of our business activities as I think is required under the circumstances.”

“When you talk about using cash,” Mason said, “in order to get figurines across the border, I take it that you are referring to bribery.”

“Not at all,” Gage said. “You’re a lawyer. You should be able to put two and two together.”

“Perhaps I have,” Mason told him.

“Perhaps you put two and two together and came up with an entirely wrong answer,” Gage warned.

“In that event,” Mason told him, smiling affably, “you’ll have a chance to explain in greater detail in court.”

“Now, wait a minute, Mason, there’s nothing to go to court about, and there’s no reason for you and me to get at loggerheads.”

Mason said nothing.

Gage took a deep breath. “Let me explain it this way, Mr. Mason. Mexico has an embargo on shipping ancient artifacts out of the country. On the other hand, there is no embargo in the United States on importing ancient artifacts. Therefore, if someone shows up with a station wagon full of figurines from Mexico, we don’t have to determine at the time we complete the transaction whether the figurines are genuine or whether they are copies.

“You must realize that there’s quite an industry in Mexico in copying ancient figurines and selling some of the copies to tourists, who quite frequently think they’re getting a genuine prehistoric artifact.”

“That still doesn’t explain the cash,” Mason said.

“Well,” Gage went on, “put yourself in the position of the man who is driving the station wagon. He wants to sell the artifacts. He wants to get what he considers a good price for them. He knows how much he had to pay for them. He wants to make a profit. But when a man has a station wagon filled with figurines of this sort, it’s only reasonable to suppose that he’s in business. It isn’t merely an isolated transaction.

“Under those circumstances he prefers to have no official record of the transaction. He prefers to deal on a cash-and-carry basis.

“Then there’s the other end of things, the export of goods from Hong Kong where it is necessary to have a Certificate of Origin. Here again there are situations which require cold, hard cash, which is transferred by wire.

“Now, it’s not necessary to make any more detailed explanation than that. We...”

Gage broke off as one of the secretaries entered the door.

“I beg your pardon,” she said, “but Mr. Franklin Gage has just returned.”

“Ask him to come in, please,” Homer Gage said. “Tell him that Mr. Perry Mason, an attorney of Los Angeles, is here and that it may be we will have to consult our own legal department.”

“Why don’t you do that?” Perry Mason said. “I’d much prefer talking with an attorney.”

“No, no, no, not yet. I simply wanted Mr. Franklin Gage to understand the situation. He... here he is now.”

Mason turned. The tall, distinguished-looking gentleman who stood in the doorway wore an affable smile on the lower part of his face, but his eyes were appraising and unsmiling. They were eyes which were wide and round and somehow seemed to dominate the face.

He was in his late forties, wore rimless spectacles which seemed somehow to emphasize the rather wide eyes. The mouth was large, the lips rather thick, and the smile was that of a man who is accustomed to using suave tactics in getting what he wants out of life.

“Mr. Mason, Mr. Franklin Gage,” Homer Gage said.

Mason stood up.

Franklin Gage gave him a hand which seemed cushioned with flesh, as though the man’s body had built up a layer of insulation in the right hand.

“Ah, yes, Mr. Mason,” Gage said, “I’ve heard a great deal about you. Your reputation is not confined to Los Angeles by any means. It’s a pleasure to meet you. What can we do for you, Mr. Mason?”

Homer Gage was quick to answer that question. “Mr. Mason is calling about Diana Douglas,” he said. “You’ll remember she’s been absent for the last three or four days.

“We weren’t particularly busy at the time and I gave her some time off. Her brother was seriously injured in an automobile accident and has been unconscious.”

“I understand he passed away early this morning,” Mason said.

The two Gages exchanged glances.

“Good heavens!” Homer said.

“The poor kid,” Franklin muttered sympathetically.

“I’m glad you told us,” Homer Gage said.

Franklin Gage turned to his nephew. “The firm must send flowers, Homer.”

“Certainly. I’ll attend to that.”

“And contact Diana and see if there’s anything we can do. We must express our sympathies.”

“I’m afraid Mr. Mason doesn’t want us to have any direct contact with Diana,” Homer Gage explained. “And even if he had no objections, I don’t think it would be wise — not until we consult our lawyers.”

“Nonsense!” Franklin Gage snapped. “We can certainly be guided by the humanities and plain decency.”

“I think you’d better listen to Mr. Mason,” Homer said.

“And why should that make any difference?” Franklin inquired, his voice now losing its tone of cordiality.

Homer rushed in with a hurried explanation. “Well, it seems that Diana Douglas made a quick trip to Los Angeles for some reason and somehow word got out that she had traveled under an assumed name.

“Then Stewart Garland, in checking the cash, said that there seemed to be quite a discrepancy — a rough estimate fixed this discrepancy at some twenty thousand dollars. Quite naturally, I wanted to find out about it and I wanted to interrogate Diana Douglas.”

“You mean you interrogated her about the cash shortage?” Franklin Gage asked.

“Well, not directly,” Homer said. “I may have acted rather hastily, but when I found she was registered at a hotel under an assumed name, I asked a very close friend of mine on the police force what to do about it and he said he’d arrange to have her interrogated by some friends of his in the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Mr. Mason seems to feel that what we did amounted to an accusation of embezzlement against her and constituted a defamation of character.”

“Tut, tut,” Franklin Gage said to Homer, “you shouldn’t have jumped at conclusions. A lot of people have access to that cash drawer — the way we do business, you know. I, myself, had ten thousand dollars which I took from the cash drawer in order to complete a deal I was working on. Unfortunately, the deal fell through. I returned the cash a few minutes ago.”

“That would seem to leave us with a shortage of only ten thousand dollars then,” Homer Gage said, his manner greatly deflated.

“You can’t tell if there’s been any shortage until you check everything,” the older man replied. “You know how that cash vault is. We keep large sums there and whenever any of the executives need money they simply take out what they need and then leave a note stating what they have taken out. And sometimes those notes aren’t up-to-date. That is, if a man’s in a hurry he won’t bother to leave a note.

“In my case I was negotiating for a deal which, unfortunately, fell through. I took out ten thousand dollars and didn’t leave any note stating I had done so. I had no idea that there was going to be all this talk of embezzlement... The way we’re organized, Homer, you should have waited until you got all of us together before you even had any idea of embezzlement or let any talk of that sort get started.”

“I’m sorry, but Diana Douglas used an assumed name, went to Los Angeles, and registered in a hotel as Diana Deering. Under those circumstances I felt that we—”

“How did you find out about all this?” Franklin Gage asked.

“Well, frankly, I didn’t find out about it,” Homer Gage said, now quite apparently on the defensive and somewhat flustered. “I wanted to ask Diana about the cash and whether she had any slips that had been taken from the cash safe which she intended to post... Well, I found she wasn’t in her apartment. She wasn’t at the hospital with her brother, although she had been there faithfully for some two or three hours right after the accident. Then she seemed to have disappeared.

“Well, I had this friend on the police force and I asked him how a man would go about locating a young woman under those circumstances and he said he’d run down a couple of leads.

“Well, of course, he used common sense, something which I could have done if I’d only thought of it. He knew that Diana was concerned about her brother, so he went to the hospital, interrogated the telephone operator, and found that calls had been coming in regularly from Los Angeles to find out about Edgar Douglas’ condition. A number had been left to be notified if there was any change. The officer found that number was the number of the Willatson Hotel in Los Angeles and that a Diana Deering had put in the calls. By checking her description he soon had it pretty well established that Diana Deering was Diana Douglas, so then he suggested that it would be a good plan to question her because — well, you can see the position I was in.”

“I’m not going to make any comment at this time,” Franklin Gage said, “but Diana Douglas has been a very loyal employee and I have the utmost confidence in her integrity. I’m sorry that Mr. Mason has adopted the attitude there has been any defamation of character. I also feel that we had better check up rather carefully on that cash situation before we talk about any shortage... You will understand, Mr. Mason, that at times there is as much as a hundred thousand dollars in our cash safe.”

Mason raised his eyebrows.

“I know that seems large to you,” Franklin Gage went on, “but it seems small to us because this is a very unusual type of business.

“This isn’t like dealing in automobiles where there is a registration number and a pink slip. In this business the person who has possession of the articles is to all intents and purposes the owner — unless, of course, he has stolen the articles — and that is a chance we have to take.

“However, we have a regular clientele with whom we do business, and we have been very fortunate in dealing in property which was not stolen.”

“But smuggled?” Mason asked.

“I wouldn’t know,” Franklin Gage said, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t want to know. And, of course, smuggling is only a minor crime. There are embargoes against exportation. If a shrewd operator ships a dozen figurines out of Mexico without alarming the Mexican authorities, and then presents them at the United States border as copies which he has picked up for a nominal consideration in a Tijuana curio store, nobody is going to bother about it because there are curio stores selling copies of ancient figurines.

“Then when they get to this country, if it should turn out that the figurines are actually genuine, ancient figurines, we certainly aren’t going to ask how it happened that they were released from the embargo in Mexico. We simply say, ‘How much?’ And if the price is right and if we are satisfied as to the quality of the merchandise, we close the transaction.”

“Then these ancient figurines in your display windows are copies?” Mason asked.

Franklin Gage shook his head. “We don’t deal in copies, Mr. Mason. We deal in genuine, authentic articles.”

“But they come across the border as copies?” Mason asked.

“We have no idea how they come across the border, Mr. Mason...

“Now, may I say that we are genuinely concerned about Diana’s misfortune, the loss of her brother. I know that they were very close. I take it that this is a poor time to communicate with her, but, after the funeral, Mr. Mason... I think you will agree with us that this whole discussion should be postponed until after the funeral?

“Personally, I don’t see how any good can come of trying to intensify the feeling of grief, on the one hand, or of injured feelings on the other. Mr. Mason, I ask you please, as a favor to the company, as a personal favor, to hold this matter in abeyance for a few days. This is the end of the week and, as you say, Diana’s brother has passed away. That will mean funeral arrangements, and the poor girl has — Homer, see if you can get her on the phone and ask her if she wants any money. Ask her if she needs an advance.”

“Don’t try it today,” Mason said. “I have advised her to take sedation and shut off the telephone.”

“Yes, yes, yes, I see,” Franklin Gage said, “and, of course, tomorrow is Saturday but— I think it might be a little better, Homer, if you had one of the other girls in the office — surely someone must know her intimately and have a friendship with her, someone who could ring up in a few hours and express our sympathy in a perfectly natural way.”

Homer Gage shook his head. “Not Diana. She’s something of a loner as far as the others are concerned, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Franklin Gage arose and again held out his flesh-cushioned hand to the lawyer. “So nice to have met you, Mr. Mason, and thank you so much for dropping in to tell us what you had in mind. I am quite certain that it won’t be necessary for us to adopt any adversary position — not that I agree with you in any way, but — well, we’ll work out something somewhere along the line.

“And please don’t get the idea that we are engaged in an unusual type of business. I can assure you that every importing and exporting business these days has problems, Mr. Mason, and I think everyone has contacts.”

“What do you mean, contacts?” Mason asked.

“Well, brokers,” Franklin Gage said with a wave of his hand. “You know, Mr. Mason, we don’t give money to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who shows up with a load of curios. But we have certain people with whom we deal, and those people, in turn, deal with other people and... well, it’s not at all unusual for me to walk out of here, picking up five, ten, or perhaps fifteen thousand dollars in cash and contacting one of our brokers who will have a shipment of curios that we feel we can dispose of at a profit — Mexican figurines, carved ivories, or good jade.

“We know that the broker is only a middleman, and, of course, he is making a profit on the deal. We try to see that his profit is not exorbitant, but, on the other hand, we want him to make a fair profit because in this business everyone has to make a fair profit... Well, you can understand how it is.”

“I see,” Mason said.

Homer Gage did not offer to shake hands. He stood somewhat aloof and dignified.

Franklin Gage held the door open for Mason. “Thank you again for coming in, Mr. Mason. It’s nice that you felt free to come and explain the situation to us. I feel that it can be worked out. Good day, Mr. Mason.”

“Good day,” Mason said.

The lawyer walked across the office and, on his way out, paused momentarily at the counter to look at a piece of the carved ivory which claimed his attention. A small slip of folded paper had been placed by the carved ivory figure. The slip of paper had Mason’s name typed on it.

Mason leaned forward to study the figure more closely. As he did so his right hand unostentatiously closed over the paper. When he straightened he placed the folded paper in the right-hand side pocket of his coat.

Mason went through the gate to the outer display room and paused again to look at some of the figurines in the outer cases.

“They’re really very beautiful,” the girl at the switchboard said, smiling at him.

“Indeed they are,” Mason said. “They grow on you.”

The lawyer left the office, walked out to the corridor, and halfway to the elevator removed the small piece of paper from his pocket. A typewritten message was in his hand when he unfolded the paper.

The message read:

The message was unsigned.

Mason folded the typewritten slip of paper, put it back into his pocket, went to his hotel, and checked out.