The Case of the Lonely Heiress

Chapter 5

Mason said, “Come in and sit down, Mr. Caddo.”

Caddo’s manner seemed nervous. “You have a report for me?” he asked.

“That’s right. I think I can set your mind at ease on the matter concerning which you consulted me.”

“So soon?”

Mason nodded.

Caddo seated himself and almost immediately began stroking his chin nervously with his long, powerful fingers.

“Your lonely heiress in Box 96,” Mason said, “is Miss Marilyn Marlow. She inherited approximately three hundred and fifty thousand dollars from her mother under rather peculiar circumstances. Her mother was a special nurse who attended a George P. Endicott during his last illness. Endicott made a will, leaving a large, old-fashioned, rambling mansion where he had been living to his two brothers and a sister. He also devised and bequeathed to each the sum of ten thousand dollars. All the rest, residue and remainder of his estate he left to Eleanore Marlow, Marilyn’s mother. The will also contained a proviso that if any of the heirs should question the validity of gifts he had made to Eleanore Marlow in his lifetime — some cash and a collection of gems that were family heirlooms-such heir would forfeit all right to take any property under the will.

“Eleanore Marlow was killed in an automobile accident shortly after Endicott died. Marilyn is her only daughter. She is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred thousand dollars — perhaps more. She certainly comes within the definition of an heiress. In fact, her mother’s estate has not as yet been closed and the Endicott Estate has not been closed. There are some properties in Oklahoma which are potentially oil-bearing.

“The will was admitted to probate, but the brothers and the sister plan to contest it. The witnesses to Endicott’s will were two nurses, a Rose Keeling, and Ethel Furlong. The contest may be pretty hot. At the time the will was executed, Endicott was partially paralyzed. He signed with his left hand.”

Caddo heaved an enormous sigh of relief. “Mr. Mason, I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am. I can’t even begin to tell you what a load you’ve taken off my mind.”

Mason nodded.

“But why in the world,” Caddo went on, “would a woman like that — young and attractive and wealthy — want to use my magazine for the purpose of making new friends?”

“I believe the ad says that she is weary of the type of people with whom she comes in contact,” Mason said dryly. “Fortune hunters ind people of that sort.”

“But if I understand you correctly,” Caddo said, “she must have old friends, friends whom she knew before she ever inherited the money. After all, this is rather a recent development, isn’t it, Mason, this wealth of hers?”

Mason nodded.

“Then she must have had friends whom she knew before... How long has she lived here, Mason?”

“Apparently about five years.”

“I don’t understand it,” Caddo said.

“Do you have to?”

“What do you mean?”

“As I understand your position, you are being accused of endeavoring to build the circulation of your magazine by a false advertisement."

“That’s right.”

“What’s false about the advertisement?”

Caddo rubbed his chin. “Nothing, I guess.”

“Exactly,” Mason said.

A slow grin suffused Caddo’s features. “I guess, Mr. Mason, thanks to you, I’m sitting pretty.”

Mason nodded.

“And the replies,” Caddo went on, “keep rolling in. Good heavens! The mail that girl is getting! I had enough of the magazines printed to last me two months, and stocks are getting low already.”

“Then you’ll have to put out a new issue of the magazine?” Mason asked.

“Don’t be silly,” Caddo said. “I’ll simply reprint. With that ad pulling the way it is, I’ll keep on selling those magazines until the cows come home. Boy-oh-boy, what a sweet spot to be in! She’s getting a hundred replies a day right now.”

Caddo got up out of his chair, then paused. “Are we all square, Mr. Mason?”

“All square,” Mason said. “I’ve had some expenses, but I’ll pay them out of the five hundred dollars and still have enough left to cover my fee.”

“That’s splendid! Would you mind telling me how you pulled this particular rabbit out of the hat, Mr. Mason?”

“It took a little head work and a little leg work, that’s all.”

“I presume, of course, you hired someone to do the leg work.”

Mason said, “I try to get results, Caddo. I believe I got them.”

“That’s right,” Caddo said, “you certainly did.”

He shook hands with Mason, beamed at Della Street, and then, halfway to the door, said, “By the way, I’d better get all the dope on this Marilyn Marlow. What’s her address?”

Mason consulted a card and said, “The address is 798 Nestler Avenue, at the Rapahoe Apartments. Any details you need about the rest of the layout, in case you do need them, you can secure from the office of the Probate Clerk, Matter of the Estate of George P. Endicott, deceased.”

Caddo pulled a fountain pen from his pocket, scribbled a note on the back of an envelope, smiled beamingly once more, and went out.

Mason said to Della Street, “Well, let’s forget the heiresses, Della, and get to work on this brief. It seems terribly prosaic now. Hang it, why did Marilyn Marlow put that ad in? Oh, well, we have work to do.”

Mason went to lunch, returned at two o’clock, worked until three, and then Paul Drake telephoned.

“Perry,” the detective said, “do you want to talk with Kenneth Barstow?”

“Who’s Barstow, Paul?”

“The operative who was on that Marilyn Marlow case.”

“Shucks, no, that case is closed.”

“I had an idea you might like to get the low-down from Barstow. Something’s a little strange there. He thought she might be looking for something.”

“So what?” Mason asked.

“I mean she may be wanting him to do something specific, something that was a little bit shady.”

“Where is he?”

“In the office here. He’s been talking to me and I thought you might like to ask him a question or two, just to complete your files in case anything else turns up.”

Mason glanced at his watch and said, “Oh, bring him in, Paul. Let’s hear the story.”

Drake said, “We’ll be in right away.”

Mason nodded to Della Street. “Open the door for Paul, Della. He’s bringing in the operative who made the pickup with Marilyn Marlow.”

“Some sheik,” Della observed. “And you were going to put him out of my life, just like that?”

Mason laughed. “I don’t know why I should waste any more time on it. The client has been satisfied; we’ve got a fee. But let’s hear his story. I’m curious.”

Della Street opened the door and a moment later Drake and his operative entered the office. “This is Kenneth Barstow,” Drake said by way of introduction. “Sit down, Kenneth. You’ve seen Perry Mason, I guess, and this is Miss Street, his secretary. Tell them your story.”

Barstow was no longer the awkward-appearing young man from the country. He wore a double-breasted suit which fitted his slim-waisted figure to advantage. His thick, wavy black hair was combed back from his forehead, and his blue eyes dwelt appreciatively for a moment on Della Street, then shifted back to Perry Mason.

“I made contact with the subject at seven minutes past six,” he said. “We went in a taxicab to a restaurant. She bought the dinner and did most of the talking. I put on an act of being bashful and tongue-tied. She cross examined me some about the country and life on the farm. She didn’t know too much about life in the country and I did, so it was duck soup. We walked from the restaurant over to a parking station. She had her car there. I got the license number and knew then that I was getting to first base. She drove around the city, got up in the park and stopped to show me the lights, and we did a little necking.”

“How much?” Drake asked.

Barstow glanced apologetically at Della Street and said, “All of the preliminaries.”

“Then what?”

“Then Hi drove home with her and saw her to her apartment. She bought me a drink, and that was the end of the evening.”

“No more necking?” Drake asked.

“Not after we got to her apartment. She was businesslike then. She said she might have a job for me. She wanted to see me again right after lunch this afternoon. I told her I wasn’t working at present, because I thought it would be a lot easier to stand by that than to tell her I had a job and have her check on it and find I was wrong. You see,” Barstow went on, “I didn’t know whether this was going to be just a one-time contact job or whether it was going to run along for several days.”

Mason nodded.

“I went back about one-thirty, as she had suggested. We were going to play some tennis. I told her I wasn’t too good at it, but she wanted to play a couple of sets. She said she had to watch her figure.”

“Did you play?”

“No.”

“What happened?”

“I got in bad.”

“How?”

“That’s the thing I don’t understand. I went up to her apartment and she bought me a drink and chatted along awhile, then she went in the bedroom to change her clothes. The phone rang a couple of times and she talked on the calls.”

“Any necking?” Drake asked.

“Yes, there was a little necking,” Barstow said, “and to tell you the truth I wondered just what she had in mind. And then after the second call I made a halfway pass at her and got my face slapped so hard my ears are ringing. The first thing I knew, I found myself out on the street, and boy, did I get a bawling out! She said I was just like everyone else, all I thought of was making passes; that she thought I’d been a sweet, unspoiled country boy, and I turned out to be an amateur wolf, and she wanted me to understand that the wolf act was strictly amateurish.”

“Perhaps you went too fast too soon,” Mason said.

“Or too slow too late,” Della Street supplemented.

Barstow smiled at Della, then frowned. “After the way the thing started out last night I know I wasn’t exceeding the speed limits. I was getting along swell. Then something happened. I’d swear she egged me on to the face-slapping point just so she could throw me out. It’s some place where I didn’t put my act across the way I should. I think she found out I was phony, and it worries me. My technique shouldn’t be that bad.”

Drake said, “Well, as soon as you phoned in and gave me the license number and her address we double-checked on her, so we have everything we want. Does she know where she can get in touch with you?”

“Yeah, I gave her a phone number. It’s a friend. She could reach me there.”

“Think she’ll call up?” Drake asked.

“I’d bet a hundred to one she doesn’t. She sure was mad when she put me out.”

Drake said, “Sounds to me as though she gave you a pass to first and you tried to steal second.”

Mason said somewhat impatiently, “Oh, well, it’s all right. It’s all over now. Forget it.”

“I hate to think I’ve muffed a play,” Barstow said.

“We all do once in a while,” Drake reassured him and then said apologetically to Perry Mason, “I thought you’d like to know all the details, Perry.”

Mason said, “Okay, thanks, Paul. That’s fine, Barstow. You did a good job. We got the information we wanted.”

Barstow arose somewhat reluctantly, glanced again at Della Street and said, “I don’t ordinarily fall all over myself that way. I still would like to know what I did wrong.”

They left the office, and Della Street said to Perry Mason, “What do you make of it, Chief?”

Mason glanced up from the brief which had once more claimed his attention. “Make of what?”

“That Barstow incident.”

“I don’t know,” Mason said. “The guy probably misunderstood the signals and made the wrong play.”

“I don’t think so.”

“He must have done something,” Mason said. “She turned against him all at once, and it wasn’t for nothing.”

“I don’t think it was anything he did,” Della Street said. “I’m just checking my impressions on Marilyn Marlow and giving it to you from a woman’s angle. Remember, this Marlow person used an ad in a lonely-hearts magazine. She met this chap and started giving him a rush act. She sized him up at a restaurant and then certainly encouraged him to throw a forward pass.”

Mason pushed the brief to one side. “All right, Della, what are you getting at?”

She said, “I think it was the telephone call.”

Mason frowned, then whistled and said, “Perhaps you’ve got something there.”

“A telephone call,” Della went on positively, “that tipped Marilyn Marlow off to the fact she was playing with dynamite. Now, who could have placed that call?”

Mason let his eyes narrow in thoughtful speculation. “Wait a minute,” he said, “let’s get the time element on this thing.” He motioned to the telephone and said, “Get Drake’s office. See if Barstow has left. Ask him what time he got the gate.”

Della Street put through the call, turned to Mason and said, “About one-fifty.”

The lawyer started drumming with his fingers on the edge of the desk. He was frowning and thoughtful.

“Do you,” Della Street asked, “know more than I do?”

“I’m simply putting two and two together,” Mason said.

“The answer?” Della Street asked.

Mason said, “I guess I’ve been a little too easy-going, Della.”

“How come?”

Mason said, “If I’d thought it was that sort of a play I’d have charged him another thousand.”

“You mean Robert Caddo?”

“Robert Caddo,” Mason said.

“Good grief! Do you think it was Caddo? What would have been the idea?”

“I think it was Caddo,” Mason said. “And the idea is that our friend, Robert Caddo, intends to cut himself a piece of cake, and he evidently wants to be certain he gets the right piece — the one with all the frosting.”