The Case of the Grinning Gorilla

Chapter number 3

Late Tuesday afternoon, after all of the rest of the office force had gone home, Perry Mason and Della Street sat in Mason’s private office correlating information that had been received from Helen Cadmus’ diary.

“Hang it,” Mason said, “I’m not excluding the possibility of murder.”

Della Street said, “Well, I’m almost at the point of excluding the possibility of accident and suicide.”

“We haven’t any evidence,” Mason told her, “that is, nothing tangible.”

“It’s tangible enough to suit me,” Della Street said with feeling. “You read through that diary, Chief, and you get the picture of a darned nice, normal, young girl with a beautiful body, who has ambitions to get into the movies — which I suppose nearly all girls with beautiful bodies have — and a keenly sympathetic, understanding mentality.

“She was fascinated by the force of Benjamin Addicks’ character. She resented his treatment of the gorillas and monkeys. She felt that there was some great mystery in connection with his life. The first volume shows a fierce curiosity to find out what that secret is, and then all of a sudden there’s no further reference to it.

“Now here’s something else, the girl was in love.”

“How do you know, Della?”

“Her attitude, the way she wrote in her diary. She had leisure time and she spent it thinking romantic thoughts.”

“But she didn’t confide those romantic thoughts to her diary,” Mason pointed out.

“Not in so many words,” Della Street agreed, “but it’s all there in between the lines. For some reason she avoided really confiding to her diary, but she unmistakably disclosed her moods. People who are in love talk about the beautiful things of nature, beauty in the spring of the year and in the spring of the heart.”

“Della, you’re getting poetic!”

“I’m being logical.”

“Do you keep a diary yourself?”

Her face flushed furiously. “And, another thing,” she went on quickly, “she hated Nathan Fallon.”

“Who doesn’t?” Mason asked.

“Nathan Fallon.”

Mason threw back his head and laughed.

Della smiled and said, “She loved animals and she was strongly attached to this one monkey named Pete. She resented the experiments Benjamin Addicks was conducting with animals.”

Mason’s eyes narrowed. “Addicks was experimenting along modem lines, trying to make animals neurotic. And he had some peculiar ideas about hypnotism. Apparently he felt that a man could not be put into such a deep hypnotic trance that he would do something that would outrage his higher moral sense, but he felt that gorillas were so closely related to man that they could be hypnotized, and taught to commit a homicide.

“I’m damned if I know what point Addicks was trying to prove. I have a feeling there’s something in his past. He may have been in serious trouble, may have committed a crime and felt that he did it under the hypnotic influence of some person.”

“It’s a nightmarish background for a secretarial job,” Della Street said. “Addicks is wealthy, but that doesn’t give him any excuse to torture animals.”

Mason nodded. “Apparently Helen Cadmus felt the same way at first. Then she seems to have changed. She certainly referred to Addicks with great respect and seemed to feel there was something important back of his experiments.”

“And then she was murdered,” Della Street said.

“Don’t say that, Della. There’s no proof.”

“Well, I have an intuitive feeling, a very definite feeling she didn’t commit suicide.”

Mason said, “There’s another interesting angle in the volume of the diary that I read. It interests me very much, Della.”

“What?”

“This monkey, Pete, that she was so fond of, developed a habit of making off with her little knickknacks, anything that he saw her admiring. Her compact, her lipstick, her earrings — he’d take them and hide them. Apparently his favorite hiding place was a Grecian urn in the reception hall— Della, I have a hunch. Who’s the attorney representing Mrs. Josephine Kempton in that suit against Addicks?”

“I’ll look it up,” Della Street said. “It’s in the outer office.”

She was gone for about three minutes. When she came back she handed a typed slip of paper to Mason on which had been written, “James Etna, of the firm of Etna, Etna and Douglas.”

As Mason consulted the memo, she said, “I’m afraid I led with my chin, Chief.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I went out in the outer office the board was clattering away at a great rate, so I plugged in to explain that it was after office hours, that there was no one here to answer the phone, and... well, I found myself talking with Mortimer Hershey, the business manager of Benjamin Addicks. He wanted very much to arrange a conference between you and Mr. Addicks.”

“What did you tell him?” Mason asked.

“I told him that I would have to get in touch with you and consult your appointment book. Then he explained to me that Mr. Addick’s couldn’t come to your office because he’d been injured.”

“Injured?”

“That’s what he said.”

“Any more details?”

“That was all. He said that Mr. Addicks was injured and couldn’t come to your office, but that he felt it would be very much to your advantage to see Mr. Addicks. I told him that I’d have to try to get in touch with you and call him back.”

Mason said, “Just a chance, Della, put through a call to Etna, Etna and Douglas.”

“There won’t be anyone there at this hour.”

“One of the partners might be working late. After all, Della, you know we work late.”

“Darned if we don’t,” she said. She picked up the telephone, dialed a number, then after a moment said, “May I ask who this is talking?... This is Mr. Mason’s office, Mr. Perry Mason... That’s right, the attorney... Oh, it is?... Well, I’m sorry to be bothering you at this hour but Mr. Mason was anxious to get in touch with Mr. James Etna. Just hang on please.”

Della Street motioned toward Mason and switched over the connection on her desk telephone. “Another night owl,” she said. “He’s working late on a case.”

Mason picked up the telephone, said, “Hello. This is Perry Mason speaking. Is this James Etna?”

“That’s right.”

“You’re attorney for Mrs. Josephine Kempton in a suit against Benjamin Addicks?”

“Yes, sir. That’s right.”

“I find myself taking an interest in that case,” Mason said.

“Whom are you representing?” Etna asked in a coldly cautious tone of voice.

“No one. I’m simply interested in it.”

“Well, I’m interested in it myself. Personally I think it’s a damned outrage. In fact, it’s keeping me from a dinner engagement tonight. The case is scheduled to go to trial day after tomorrow, and I’m trying to dig up a little law on it.”

“Would you mind telling me the background of the case?”

‘“I think it’s disclosed by the pleadings,” Etna said cautiously.

“I’d like a little more than that.”

“Why?”

“Just curiosity, we might say.”

“I’m afraid, Mr. Mason, that I can only refer you to the pleadings. Of course, when the case comes to court...”

“There’s just a chance,” Mason said, “that I might be able to give you a little help.”

“In what way?”

“I can’t tell at the moment, but if you want to tell me anything... I wouldn’t want you to disclose any confidential communications, but...”

“Oh, all right,” Etna said. “I can tell you generally what the case is all about. Mrs. Kempton was peremptorily dismissed. She had been in Mr. Addicks’ employ for about two and a half years. Addicks gave no reason for dismissing her. Mrs. Kempton was angry when she left. She didn’t ask for any letter of recommendation. She was discharged without notice.”

“Doesn’t she know what the trouble was about?” Mason asked.

“As far as she’s concerned there wasn’t any trouble.”

“Go ahead. What happened after that?”

“Well, she secured employment. Naturally the people wanted to know for whom she’d been working, and Mrs. Kempton told them. She worked for about two weeks. Apparently her services were entirely satisfactory, and then out of a clear sky she was discharged without notice. She couldn’t understand it. However, she’s a good cook and housekeeper and she got another position right away. Naturally there, too, people wanted to know where she had been working, so she told them and settled down on the job and everything was fine. The people expressed themselves as being very well pleased and then abruptly let her go without a word.”

“Go ahead,” Mason said.

Etna hesitated.

“Well?” Mason prompted.

“This thing,” he said, “is not generally known. I... oh, I guess it’s all right to tell you.”

“Don’t tell me if it isn’t all right,” Mason said. “I’m not asking for anything confidential.”

“Oh, it’s going to come out in court,” Etna said. “Mrs. Kempton had had some other dealings with our office over an insurance matter. She became suspicious. She came to me and told me what had happened, so I had one of my friends write to Benjamin Addicks stating that a Mrs. Josephine Kempton was in his employ, that he understood one of her last positions had been with Mr. Addicks for something over two years, and asked Mr. Addicks if he could give any information about Mrs. Kempton’s character.”

“And what happened?” Mason asked.

“Within a week a letter was received from Benjamin Addicks stating curtly that Mrs. Kempton had been discharged on account of dishonesty, that a very valuable diamond ring, to which Mr. Addicks was very much attached, and which was worth in the neighborhood of five thousand dollars, had disappeared; that a platinum watch, which was worth seventeen hundred and fifty dollars, had also disappeared; that the theft had not been brought home to Mrs. Kempton with sufficient evidence so that she could be prosecuted, but that there had been sufficient evidence so that Addicks had summarily discharged her.”

“That’s a devil of a letter to write,” Mason said.

“Isn’t it?”

“And what did you do?”

“Well, just to make assurance doubly sure, I had Mrs. Kempton get a job with friends of mine, people whom I could trust, and where the letter would possibly have more legal significance. The fact that the other letter had been written by someone who hadn’t actually employed Mrs. Kempton, you understand, might make a difference in the legal situation.”

“I understand.”

“So Mrs. Kempton secured a position at two hundred and fifty dollars a month with board and room, a very nice position. The people wrote to Mr. Addicks and received the same type of letter as the other, which, of course, they have retained in their possession, and which they’re ready to identify in court.”

“And the case comes up day after tomorrow?”

“That’s right. I’ve been trying my damnedest to rush the thing through to trial because it makes a considerable difference to my client. Addicks can clip coupons. My client has to work.”

“You’ve asked Addicks to retract?”

“I did everything I could to bring pressure to bear on Addicks. I don’t know whether you know him.”

“I don’t.”

“Well, he’s a very obstinate individual. He told me he had evidence that would convince anyone that Mrs. Kempton had made away with the diamond ring and the watch; that he hadn’t been sufficiently nasty about it to resort to criminal proceedings, but that if I dragged him into court he’d blast Mrs. Kempton’s name forever. He said that if she wanted to get a job without giving him as a reference, it would be all right with him. All she had to do was to lie about where she’d been working, but that when anyone wrote to him and asked him for his opinion about Mrs. Kempton, he was going to give it.”

“I suppose,” Mason said, “you’ve looked up the law in regard to privileged communications?”

“That’s what I’m digging around in now,” Etna said. “There’s a question of privileged communications. Also the question of malice, the question of reasonable grounds for writing such a letter, and all of that stuff. The law isn’t too clear.”

“Now I want to ask you one question,” Mason said. “Do you remember reading in the paper about the disappearance of Addicks’ secretary, a girl by the name of Helen Cadmus?”

“I don’t remember too much about the newspaper accounts, no,” Etna said.

“But you do know something of her disappearance?”

“I know a few things that Mrs. Kempton has told me,” Etna said cautiously.

“Now,” Mason said, “you’re getting close to what I want. What did Mrs. Kempton tell you?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I’m not at liberty at the moment to disclose that information.”

“Then I’m not at liberty at the moment to give you any.”

“All right, can you tell me about when Mrs. Kempton was discharged with reference to the disappearance of Helen Cadmus?”

Etna said, “Helen Cadmus is supposed to have committed suicide about two days before Mrs. Kempton was discharged. It is our considered opinion that if — now understand, Mr. Mason, I’m not making any charges — that if anything had been feloniously taken from the Addicks residence, there is much more reason to believe that Helen Cadmus was responsible than Mrs. Kempton. Now I’ll elaborate that to this extent. The ring and the watch were left in Mr. Addicks’ bedroom. That bedroom was kept locked. Two people had a key to it. One was Mrs. Kempton, and the other was Helen Cadmus. Mrs. Kempton had to go in connection with her duties as housekeeper, and Helen Cadmus had to go into the room in connection with her secretarial duties. It was actually a suite of rooms. A bedroom, office, bath, and den. Now that much I can tell you, Mr. Mason, and that’s all I can tell you at the moment.”

“Can you give me a number where I can reach you later on tonight?”

“I’ll be here for an hour or two. My home number is West 9-7211.”

Mason said, “Thanks a lot. You may hear from me later on.”

Mason hung up. Della Street raised inquiring eyebrows.

“I presume,” he said, “your unspoken question is a desire to know what Mr. James Etna told me.”

“My unspoken questions,” she said, “is a desire to know when we eat.”

Mason laughed. “We eat right now, Della, and after we have eaten we’re going to drive out and call on Mr. Benjamin Addicks, and see what he has to say, and if perchance — understand now, Della, this is just a shot in the dark, a one chance in a thousand — but if we should find a five thousand dollar ring and a seventeen hundred and fifty dollar platinum watch in the Grecian urn in the reception room, we’re going to make a very arrogant and perhaps a sadistic millionaire crawl in a hole and pull the hole in after him.”

“That’s fine,” Della Street said, “but I take it that is not to be done on an empty stomach.”

“Definitely not. Where would you like to eat?”

“Where I can get a thick steak with butter and chopped parsley, and if we’re going to call on a millionaire I think we should enjoy the luxury of eating some French bread, toasted to a delicious brown, and dusted with shredded garlic.”

“By all means,” Mason said gravely. “One owes it to one’s profession to enjoy the opportunities of the moment. Now if we were making a will for Mr. Addicks, or, if we had been called to consult with him on a business matter, we would naturally have to forego the garlic, Della.”

“Oh, naturally,” she agreed, her eyes twinkling, “but under the circumstances, and since I have now labored far into the night, you might also buy me a bottle of red Tipo Chianti to go with the steak and garlic bread.”

“Well, before you go,” Mason said, “you might call up Mr. Mortimer Hershey, and tell him that we will call on Mr. Addicks this evening at nine-thirty.”

“Shall I tell him that if he hasn’t dined yet, he’d better try a little garlic bread, because under those circumstances he might enjoy our company more?”

“No,” Mason told her, “we don’t know him that well yet.”

“But we will?” she asked.

“Oh, definitely,” Mason promised, smiling. “We will, but he wouldn’t enjoy our company anyway.”