The Case of the Golddigger’s Purse

1

Perry Mason, seated at the restaurant table, looked up at the tense, nervous face of the man who had deserted his spectacular companion to accost him.

“You said you wanted to consult me about a goldfish?” Mason repeated blankly. His smile was almost incredulous.

“Yes.”

Mason shook his head. “I’m afraid you’d find my fees were a little too high...”

“I don’t care how high your fees are. I can afford to pay any amount within reason, and I will.”

Mason’s tone contained quiet finality. “I’m sorry, but I’ve just finished with a rather exacting case. I have neither the time nor the inclination to bother with goldfish. I...”

A tall, dignified gentleman gravely approached the table, said to the man who was regarding Mason with an expression of puzzled futility, “Harrington Faulkner?”

“Yes,” the man said with the close-clipped finality of one accustomed to authority. “I’m engaged now, however, as you can see. I...”

The newcomer’s hand made a quick motion to his breast pocket. There was a brief flash of paper as he pushed a folded oblong into Faulkner’s hand.

“Copy of summons, and complaint, case of Carson versus Faulkner. Defamation of character, a hundred thousand dollars. Here’s the original summons — directing your attention to the signature of the clerk and the seal of the court. No need to get sore about it. It’s all in the line of work. If I didn’t serve it somebody else would. See your lawyer. You have ten days to answer. If the other fellow isn’t entitled to anything he can’t get it. If he is, it’s your hard luck. I’m just the man who serves the papers. No good getting mad. Thank you. Good night.”

The words rattled along with such staccato rapidity that they sounded like a sudden, unexpected burst of hail on a metal roof.

The process server turned with quick, self-effacing grace, and merged himself into a group of diners who were just leaving the restaurant.

Faulkner, acting like a man who is in the middle of a bad dream and is being swept helplessly along by the events of his nightmare, pushed the papers down into a side pocket, turned without a word, walked back to his table and rejoined his companion.

Mason watched him thoughtfully.

The waiter hovered over the table. Mason smiled reassuringly at Della Street, his secretary, then turned to Paul Drake, the private detective who had entered a few minutes before.

“Joining us, Paul?”

“A big coffee and a slab of mince pie is all I want,” Drake said.

Mason gave the waiter their orders. “What do you make of the girl?” he asked Della Street as the waiter withdrew.

“You mean the one with Faulkner?”

“Yes.”

Della Street laughed. “If he keeps playing around with her he’ll have another summons served on him.”

Drake leaned forward so that he could look past the corner of the booth. “I’ll take a look at that myself,” he announced, and then after a moment said, “Oh, oh. That’s a dish!”

Mason’s eyes thoughtfully studied the pair. “Incongruous enough,” he said.

“Notice the get-up,” Drake went on. “The skin-fitting dress, the long, long eyelashes, the burgundy fingernails. Looking in those eyes, he’s already forgotten about the summons in his side pocket. Bet he doesn’t read it until... Looks as though he’s coming back, Perry.”

Abruptly the man pushed back his chair, arose with no word to his companion, marched determinedly back to Mason’s table. “Mr. Mason,” he said, speaking with the crisp, deliberate articulation of a man determined to make his point, “it has just occurred to me that you may have received an entirely erroneous impression of the nature of the case about which I was trying to consult you. I think perhaps when I mentioned that it concerned a goldfish, you naturally considered the case one of minor importance. It isn’t. The goldfish in question is a very fine specimen of the Veiltail Moor Telescope. The case also concerns a crooked partner, a secret formula for controlling gill disease, and a golddigger.”

Mason regarded the anxious face of the man who was standing beside the table and tried not to grin. “A goldfish and a golddigger,” he said. “After all, perhaps we’d better hear about it. Suppose you draw up a chair and tell me about it.”

The man’s face showed sudden satisfaction. “Then you’ll take my case and...”

“I mean I’m willing to listen and that’s all,” Mason said. “This is Della Street, my secretary, and Paul Drake, head of the Drake Detective Agency, who quite frequently assists me in gathering facts. Won’t you invite your companion to come over and join us, and we may as well...”

“Oh, she’s all right. Let her sit there.”

“She won’t mind?” Mason asked.

Faulkner shook his head.

“Who is she?” Mason asked.

Without changing his tone in the least, Faulkner said, “She’s the golddigger.”

Drake said warningly, “You leave that baby alone at that table and you won’t find her alone when you get back.”

Faulkner said fervently, “I’d give a thousand dollars to the man who would take her off my hands.”

Drake said laughingly, “Done for five hundred. It’s cheap at half the price.”

Faulkner regarded him with unhumorous appraisal, drew up a chair. The young woman he had left sitting at the table merely glanced over at him, then opened her purse, held up a mirror and started checking her make-up with the careful appraisal of a good merchant inspecting his stock-in-trade.