The Case of the Horrified Heirs

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Mason found Alicia Drive without difficulty; drove slowly along until the street lights showed an imposing white mansion on high ground to the right with a curved driveway leading up to the front.

A car was parked at the curb just before the entrance to the driveway and the parking lights were on. A figure could be seen silhouetted in the driver's seat.

Mason said, «Unless I'm mistaken, that will be Dr. Alton.»

The lawyer eased his car into the curb behind the other machine, and Dr. Alton almost instantly opened the door of his car and came walking back to Mason's side of the car.

«Well,» Dr. Alton said, «you made good time. Let's go.»

«Take both cars in the driveway?» Mason asked.

«I think so. I'll lead the way; you follow me. There's a parking place in front. That is, it's wide enough for three cars and you just leave your car behind mine.»

«Let's go,» Mason told him.

Dr. Alton hesitated a moment, squared his shoulders, marched grimly over to his automobile, started the motor, switched on the headlights and led the way up the curving drive.

Mason followed behind him, parked his car, walked around to help Della out; then led her up the steps to the spacious stone landing.

Dr. Alton pressed the bell button.

Apparently Alton had expected a servant to open the door. He recoiled noticeably when a chunky, blue-eyed man in his middle fifties stood in the doorway.

«Why, hello, Doc,» the man said. And then added almost instantly, «What's the matter? Anything wrong?»

Dr. Alton said with dignity, «I happened to be driving by… I decided to drop in to see Mrs. Trent.»

The man turned speculative blue eyes on Perry Mason and Della Street.

«And these people?» he asked.

Dr. Alton, evidently upset by the meeting, apparently did not intend to perform introductions.

«They are with me,» he said shortly, and started through the door.

Mason took Della Street's arm, guided her into the reception hallway, smiled affably but impersonally and started to follow Dr. Alton up a sweeping staircase.

«Hey, wait a minute!» the man said. «Hey, what is this?»

Dr. Alton turned, frowned, reached a decision. «I have asked these people-«

«Why, this is Perry Mason, the lawyer!» the man interrupted. «I've seen his picture dozens of times.»

Dr. Alton, with close-clipped professional efficiency, said, «Quite right. That is Mr. Perry Mason and, in case you're interested, the young woman with him is Miss Della Street, his secretary. I want Mr. Mason to talk with Mrs. Trent.»

Then, after a barely perceptible hesitation, he said, «This is Mr. Boring Briggs, a brother-in-law of my patient.»

Briggs didn't even acknowledge the introduction.

«Say, what is this?» he asked. «You folks making out a will or something? What's happened? Lauretta hasn't had another one of her spells, has she?»

Dr. Alton said, «I would prefer to let Mrs. Trent give you the information, but if it will relieve your mind any, Mr. Mason is with me. Mrs. Trent didn't send for him.»

«Well, don't be so crusty about it,» Briggs said. «I naturally felt a little alarm. I've been out. Just got back a few minutes ago, and when I find a doctor and a lawyer coming out to the house at this hour of the night-well, I felt I was entitled to a little information, that's all.»

«We'll go on up,» Dr. Alton said with formal dignity. «Right this way, please.»

The physician indicated the stairway with a sweep of his arm and climbed the stairs.

Mason and Della Street followed a tread behind.

Briggs stood at the foot of the stairs and watched them go up, his expression one of frowning contemplation.

Dr. Alton reached the head of the stairs, started down the corridor with long strides. Then slowed perceptibly for a moment just before coming to a door where he knocked.

A woman opened the door.

This time Dr. Alton performed the introductions. «Miss Anna Fritch,» he said. «Trained nurse.

«Miss Fritch, this is Miss Della Street, Perry Mason's secretary and Mr. Perry Mason, the attorney.»

Her eyes widened. «Why, how do you do? How do you do?» she said.

Dr. Alton pushed his way into the room; held the door open for Della Street and Perry Mason. «How's the patient?» he asked.

The nurse's eyes met his. She lowered her voice and said, «She's gone.»

Dr. Alton's face was apprehensive. «You mean she's-«

«No, no,» the nurse hastened to explain, «she is out somewhere.»

Dr. Alton frowned. «I told you to take precautions about her diet and-«

«Why, certainly,» the nurse said, «I put it on the chart. She had dry toast which I fixed myself on an electric toaster and two soft-boiled eggs which I cracked myself. There was no seasoning at all. I'm afraid I may have gone to extremes. I insisted she eat the eggs without salt and I told her that you didn't want her to have any seasoning tonight.»

«But you didn't tell her to stay in?»

«You didn't tell me to tell her that.»

«Is she driving?»

«I think George Eagan, the chauffeur, is driving her.»

«How long has she been gone?»

«I don't know. I didn't even know she was going. She didn't come out through here. There's an exit door from her bedroom to the corridor. You can see for yourself.»

The nurse crossed the bedroom to an adjoining bedroom and opened the door.

It was a huge bedroom with rose tapestry, indirect lighting, a king-sized bed with a telephone beside it, half a dozen comfortable chairs, an open door to a bathroom and another door leading to the corridor.

«She didn't tell you she was going out?»

«I had no idea of it.»

«What time did you give her the toast and eggs?»

«About seven o'clock, and I impressed on her that you didn't want her to have anything else.»

«What did she say when you told her I suspected an allergy and wanted samples of her hair and her nails?»

«She was most co-operative. She said she certainly would like to find out what was causing the trouble, that somehow she didn't think her troubles were due to what she had eaten. She suspected some sort of an allergy.»

Dr. Alton said, «It's important, very important that I see her-You don't know when she'll be back?»

The nurse shook her head.

«Nor when she went out?»

«No, Doctor, it's just as I told you. I looked in on her after she had had her supper and she was gone.»

«She isn't in the house?»

«No, I asked and someone said she had taken the car and gone out.»

Dr. Alton walked over to the bedroom and closed the door. Then he closed the corridor door and turned to Anna Fritch.

«Did you have any clue as to why I wanted hair and nail scrapings?» he asked.

Her eyes avoided his.

«Did you?» Dr. Alton asked.

«I wondered.»

«Did you suspect?»

«The request, coupled with your instructions about diet-Well, I prepared the food myself and didn't let anyone else near it.»

«Then you did suspect?»

«Frankly, yes.»

The door from the corridor opened, and Boring Briggs, accompanied by another man, entered the room.

«I demand to know what's going on!» Briggs said.

Dr. Alton regarded the two men with cold disdain. «I am giving instructions to the nurse.»

«And you need a lawyer with you for that?» Briggs asked.

Dr. Alton said to Mason, «Mr. Mason, meet the other brother-in-law, Gordon Kelvin.»

Kelvin, a tall, distinguished-looking man in his late fifties, who gave the impression of being a frustrated actor, advanced a step, bowed slightly from the waist and extended a hand with great dignity. «Pleased to meet you, Mr. Mason,» he said, and then added after a moment, «and may I ask what you're doing here?»

Mason said, «I came to see Mrs. Trent.»

«This is rather an unusual hour for a call,» Kelvin said.

Mason's smile was disarming. He said, «I have been able to order my life along unconventional patterns and no longer refrain from doing what I want to do simply because it is odd, unusual, distinctive or unconventional.»

The lawyer beamed at the two irate brothers-in-law.

The men exchanged glances.

«This is no occasion for levity,» Kelvin said.

«I am not being facetious. I am being accurate,» Mason said.

Briggs faced Dr. Alton, «Will you,» he asked, «once and for all, tell us the reason for this?»

Dr. Alton hesitated for a fraction of a second, then said, «Yes, I'll tell you the reason for it. I made a wrong diagnosis on Lauretta Trent's illness.»

«You did!» Briggs exclaimed in surprise.

«That's right.»

«A mistaken diagnosis?» Kelvin asked.

«Exactly.»

«And you admit it?»

«Yes.»

Again, the men exchanged glances.

«Would you kindly tell us the real nature of the illness?» Briggs asked.

«We want to know if it's… serious,» Kelvin supplemented.

«I dare say you do,» Dr. Alton said dryly.

Briggs said, «Our wives have been out, but are expected back at any moment. They will perhaps be in a little more favorable position when it comes to… well… to getting information from you.»

«Demanding an explanation,» Kelvin supplemented.

«All right,» Dr. Alton said angrily, «I'll give it to you. I made a mistake in diagnosis. I thought your sister-in-law was suffering from a gastroenteric disturbance induced by eating food that was tainted.»

«And now you say that was not the correct diagnosis?» Briggs asked.

«No,» Dr. Alton said. «It was not.»

«What was the correct diagnosis?» Gordon Kelvin asked.

«Someone had deliberately given her arsenic trying to poison her,» Dr. Alton said.

In the shocked silence that followed, two women came bustling into the room, two women who looked very much alike, women who spent much time and money in beauty shops and had evidently just been at one that day.

They were girdled so heavily they had an awkward stiffness of motion, their chins were held high and their hair was beautiful.

Dr. Alton said, «Mrs. Briggs and Mrs. Kelvin, Mr. Mason; and Miss Street, Mr. Mason's secretary.»

Mrs. Kelvin, perhaps a few years older than her sister, but with keen inquisitive eyes, immediately took the initiative. «What's all this about?» she asked.

Boring Briggs said, «Dr. Alton has just told us he made a mistake in diagnosing Lauretta's illness, that it wasn't food poisoning at all; it was arsenic poisoning.»

«Arsenic!» Mrs. Kelvin exclaimed.

«Bosh and nonsense!» Mrs. Briggs snapped.

«He seems certain,» Gordon Kelvin said, «apparently--«

«Bosh and nonsense! If the man's made one mistake, he could make two. Personally, I think Lauretta needs another doctor.»

Dr. Alton said dryly, «You might speak to Lauretta about it.»

Boring Briggs said. «Now, look here, is all this going to get into the newspapers?»

«Not unless you let it get into the papers,» Dr. Alton said.

«You're communicating with the police?»

«Not as yet,» Mason said.

There was a moment's silence.

Mason went on calmly, «To a large extent, it's up to you folks. I take it this is a situation you wouldn't want to have publicized. I can also well realize that you have received the information with feelings of mingled emotion, but we are now facing facts, and one doesn't argue with facts.»

«How do you know they are facts?» Briggs demanded.

Mason met his eyes and said coldly, «Laboratory facts. Positive evidence.»

«You can't get evidence of something that's past that way,» Briggs said.

Mason said, «Something that isn't generally known is that arsenic has an affinity for fingernails and hair. Once it gets in the system, it reaches the nails and the hair and lasts for a long, long time. Late this afternoon, Dr. Alton had samples taken of Lauretta Trent's hair and her fingernails. I, personally, had an analysis made by a laboratory that is highly competent.

«The answer was arsenic poisoning. In the hair, they were able to trace the intervals of arsenic poisoning.

«Now then, Dr. Alton is Lauretta Trent's personal physician. He's seen fit to disclose this information.»

«Because,» Dr. Alton said, «I'm trying to save the life of my patient. I think I have treated her long enough to understand something of her temperament. The minute I tell her that she has been a victim of arsenic poisoning, things are going to start happening around here.»

«I'll say they are,» Mrs. Briggs said. «Lauretta will hit the ceiling.»

«One dose of arsenic poisoning,» Dr. Alton went on, «may be more or less accidental; two doses indicate a deliberate attempt at homicide. Apparently, there have been three.»

His announcement was greeted with silence.

After a moment, Mrs. Kelvin said, «These tests, are they absolute-that is, could there be any mistake?»

«They're absolute,» Mason said. «There can be no mistake.»

Mrs. Briggs said, «That first time she got sick was after she ate all that Spanish food. George cooked up the food on the grill in the patio.»

«We all had it,» Mrs. Kelvin said. «That is, the first time.»

«And only Lauretta got sick,» her husband pointed out.

Dr. Alton said, «Spanish food would be an ideal means of concealing an attempt at arsenic poisoning.»

«That second time she got sick,» Mrs. Briggs went on, «George had been doing some more outdoor cooking.»

«Who is George?» Mason asked.

«George Eagan, the chauffeur,» Gordon Kelvin said.

«And he doubles as a cook?» Mason asked.

«He doubles in almost anything and everything. He's with Lauretta most of the time.»

«Too much of the time, if you ask me,» Mrs. Kelvin snapped. «The man is positively trying to dominate her thinking.»

Mason said, «Would you, by any chance, know whether he is remembered in her will?»

They exchanged shocked glances.

«Does anyone know the terms of her will?» Mason asked.

Again there were glances and a significant silence.

«Apparently,» Mason said, «Delano Bannock was Lauretta Trent's attorney during his lifetime. Does anyone know if she has a will which was drawn in his office, or whether she went to some other attorney after Bannock's death?»

Kelvin said, «Lauretta jealously guards her private affairs. Perhaps she feels there is too much of her family living with her. She has become very secretive about all of her personal affairs.»

«Financial affairs,» Mrs. Briggs said.

«Both personal and financial,» Mrs. Kelvin added.

Mason said, «I have reason to believe that the situation at the present time may be somewhat crucial.»

«How did you get a sample of her hair and fingernails?» Kelvin asked.

«I instructed the nurse,» Dr. Alton said.

Kelvin turned to Anna Fritch. «Did George Eagan know that you were taking samples of hair and nails?»

«She told him,» Anna Fritch said. «She was bubbling over with enthusiasm that her illnesses might have been the result of an allergy. She seemed in very high spirits.»

«An allergy?» Kelvin asked.

Dr. Alton said, «I explained to Nurse Fritch here that I wanted some tests made for an allergy, that there was a possibility the patient's symptoms might have been a violent and acute reaction to an allergy. I asked her to get samples of hair and nails and to explain to the patient that I was taking the nails because I was going to give her some medicine that would cause a skin irritation and I didn't want her to scratch. I also said that I thought the digestive upset she had had might have been due to an allergic reaction to a certain type of hairdressing-those things do happen, you know.»

Kelvin said with dignity, «I think instead of standing here and becoming angry at Dr. Alton, we should give him our thanks and start doing something.»

«Doing what?» Mrs. Briggs asked.

«Trying to locate Lauretta for one thing.»

Mrs. Kelvin said, «She's out with that chauffeur of hers. Heaven knows where they've gone or when they'll be back. What are we going to do about trying to locate her? Call the police?»

Gordon Kelvin said, «Of course not. However, we know certain places where she might be. There are several restaurants that she frequents. There are a few friends on whom she might be calling. I would suggest that we get on the telephone and start calling, being very, very careful not to do anything which would indicate there might be any urgency in what we are trying to do.»

«You two girls are probably the ones to do it. Start ringing her friends on the phone, say casually it's a little late to be calling, but that you want to speak with Lauretta.

«If it turns out Lauretta is there, take it in stride. Tell her that she's wanted home at once, that… that her sister isn't feeling at all well.

«Whichever sister happens to locate her can say it's the other sister who has been taken ill, and ask Lauretta to come home at once.

«In that way the chauffeur won't feel that we're suspicious of him and won't try to-well, won't try anything.»

«Such as what?» Briggs asked.

«There are lots of things he could try,» Mrs. Kelvin snapped.

«Well, we don't want him to get suspicious; we want him to walk right into our trap,» Kelvin said.

«What trap?» Mason asked.

They looked at him for a moment, then Kelvin said, «He's the only one who could have poisoned her, don't you see?»

«No, I don't see,» Mason said. «I can see grounds for suspicion but it's a long way from suspicion to actual proof. I would suggest that you be rather careful before you start talking about traps.»

«I see your point,» Kelvin said. «However, let's start trying to locate her and get her home. At least she'll be safe here.»

«She hasn't been,» Mason said.

«Well, she's going to be now!» Kelvin snapped.

«I agree with you,» Dr. Alton said. «I am going to explain to her exactly what has happened; I am going to put my cards on the table, and I am going to see that she has private nurses around the clock, and that all food which she ingests is taken under the supervision of those nurses.»

«Fair enough,» Kelvin agreed. «I don't think anyone will object to that.»

He turned to the others.

«Will they?» he asked.

Mrs. Briggs said, «Oh, stuff and nonsense! You can't put her in a virtual prison that way, or an isolation ward or something; once Dr. Alton tells her, she can be on her guard. After all, she's old enough to live her own life. She doesn't need to be isolated from all her pleasures simply because Dr. Alton said someone has tried to poison her.»

Dr. Alton said angrily, «You can shorten that sentence by leaving out the words 'because Dr. Alton said' and have the sentence stand '_simply because someone tried to poison her_.'»

Mrs. Briggs said, «I am not accustomed to shortening my sentences.»

Mason caught Dr. Alton's angry expression. «I think we'll be going, Doctor,» he said.

«Well, I'm going to wait and see if they can get in touch with my patient,» Dr. Alton said.

The telephone rang sharply.

«That's Lauretta calling now,» Mrs. Kelvin said. «Answer it, Nurse, and then let me talk with her.»

The nurse answered the phone.

«It's for Mr. Perry Mason,» she said.

«Excuse me,» Mason said to the others and took the phone. «Yes, hello,» he said.

Virginia Baxter's voice came over the wire. «Mr. Mason, is it all right for me to see Lauretta Trent?» she asked.

Mason's eyes made a quick survey of the curious faces in the room.

«Where?» he asked.

«Up at a motel above Malibu.»

«When?»

«She's overdue now. At first I thought it would be the thing to do, but after I got here I wasn't so certain.»

«Where's here?»

«The motel.»

«Where?»

«Here-Oh, I see what you mean. It's the Saint's Rest, and I'm in Unit Fourteen.»

«Telephone there?»

«Yes. In each of the units.»

«Thanks,» Mason said, «I'll call back. Wait.»

The lawyer hung up.

Mason nodded to Della Street, bowed to the gathering, said, «If you'll excuse us, please, we'll be going.»

Dr. Alton said, «I may want to reach you later, Mr. Mason.»

«Call the Drake Detective Agency,» Mason said. «They're open twenty-four hours a day. They'll relay messages.»

Mason started for the door.

Mrs. Briggs said, «Before you leave, Mr. Mason, I want you to know that we are absolutely horrified by what Dr. Alton has told us-and we are very much inclined to think there is more to it than appears on the surface.»

Mason bowed. «You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. My only answer is to wish you a very good night.»

The lawyer stood aside for Della to precede him through the door.