The Case of the Mischievous Doll

Chapter Ten

Della Street, entering from the outer office, paused in front of Perry Mason’s desk. When the lawyer looked up she said, “I hate to do this to you, Chief.”

“What?” Mason asked.

“It’s been ten days since Dorrie Ambler disappeared,” Della Street said, “and you’ve managed to forget about it and get yourself back to a working schedule.”

“Well?” Mason asked.

“Now,” she said, “Henrietta Hull is in the outer office, waiting — impatiently.”

“What does she want to see me about?”

“The police have picked up Minerva Minden. Henrietta Hull says she’s not certain of the charge against her but she was told they were going to question her in connection with that murder.”

Mason shook his head. “I’m representing Dorrie...”

Della Street raised inquiring eyebrows as Mason’s voice trailed off into silence.

For some ten or fifteen seconds the lawyer was silent, then abruptly he said, “Bring her in, Della. I want to talk with her.”

Della Street nodded, left the office and a few moments later returned with Henrietta Hull striding along in her wake.

“Mrs. Hull,” Della Street announced.

“We’ve met,” Henrietta Hull said, marching across to Mason’s desk, giving him a firm grip with a bony hand, then seating herself in the client’s chair.

“I told you, Mr. Mason, that you were at the top of our list on felony cases.”

“And?” Mason asked, prompting her as she hesitated.

“Minerva has been taken into custody.”

“Arrested?”

“I don’t think so. They picked her up at three o’clock this morning to take her in for questioning. She hasn’t returned and she hasn’t telephoned.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Accept a retainer of twenty thousand dollars, go ahead and represent her.”

“She is being questioned in connection with the murder of that man who was found in Apartment — Marvin Billings?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that they told her they wanted her to answer some questions in connection with a murder, that it was quite important.”

“She rebelled at going with them at that hour in the morning?”

Henrietta Hull said, “As a matter of fact, she didn’t. They evidently had been waiting for her. She was just getting in.”

“Unescorted?” Mason asked.

“Unescorted.”

“You were up at the time?”

“No. She left me a note explaining things. They let her do that. She said she would telephone. If I didn’t hear from her by nine o’clock this morning, I was to go to you and give you a check for twenty thousand dollars as a retainer.”

“You can write checks on her account?”

“Certainly. I’m her manager.”

Henrietta Hull calmly opened her purse, took out a tinted oblong of paper, glanced at Della Street and said, “I presume your secretary takes the fees.”

“That’s the check?” Mason asked.

“Twenty thousand dollars,” she said.

“I have tried to explain to you,” Mason said, “that I have represented Dorrie Ambler and I’m afraid there is going to be a conflict of interest.”

“You were only retained by Dorrie Ambler to keep her from being a Patsy, a fall guy, to use what is, I believe, the proper slang,” Henrietta Hull said. “You gave her the advice she wanted and she left your office.

“For your information, Mr. Mason, Dorrie Ambler is a fraud and a cheat. She lied to you all the way through. You don’t owe her anything. The young woman was an opportunist blackmailer. You definitely do not want to be tied up with her.”

Abruptly Paul Drake’s code knock sounded on the door of the private office.

Mason said, “Excuse me a moment,” crossed the office, opened the door a crack and said, “I’m busy, Paul. Can it wait?”

Drake said, “It can’t wait.”

Mason hesitated a moment.

“Come in,” he said. “You’ve met Mrs. Hull.”

Drake entered the office, said, “Oh... hello. I don’t want to interrupt, Mrs. Hull. However, it’s necessary that I give Mr. Mason some information — at once.”

Henrietta Hull said, “How do you do, Mr. Drake. I was going to drop in to see you as soon as I had finished with Mr. Mason, or perhaps I should say, as soon as he had finished with me. I explained to you that I keep a list of people to whom I should turn in the event of serious trouble.

“Mr. Mason heads the list of attorneys in connection with felony cases, and your agency heads the list as an investigating agency, particularly in cases where Mr. Mason acts as counsel.

“I have just given Mr. Mason a check as a retainer and I have here in my purse a check made out to you for twenty-five hundred dollars as retainer.”

“Now, just a minute,” Mason interrupted. “Miss Minden was picked up this morning for questioning. That’s about all you know about it. It was questioning in connection with a murder. She hasn’t communicated with you and apparently you haven’t communicated with the police or the prosecutor in order to find out what has happened, yet you have made out checks totaling twenty-two thousand, five hundred dollars and are seeking to retain counsel for her and a detective agency to investigate facts.”

“That’s right.”

“You say that you are following instructions given to you in a note by Miss Minden?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have that note with you?”

“Actually I have.”

“I think I’d like to see it,” Mason said.

She hesitated a moment, then said, “Can I be assured that the contents will be confidential if I show it to you, Mr. Mason?”

Mason shook his head.

Drake said, “I want to talk with you alone, Perry.”

“About this case?” Mason asked.

“Yes.”

“I think you’d better talk right here,” Mason said. “I think we’d better have this out in a joint session, so to speak.”

“All right,” Drake said. “Dorrie Ambler is dead. She was murdered. Her body has been uncovered, and police have what they consider an airtight case against Minerva Minden.”

Mason pushed back his chair, got to his feet, stood in frowning concentration for a moment, then walked around the corner of his desk over to the window, turned his back to the interior of the office, looked down at the street for a few minutes, turned around, said to Henrietta Hull, “If what Paul Drake says is true, Mrs. Hull, your employer is in a most serious predicament; exceedingly serious.”

“I understand that.”

“Did you know Miss Ambler was dead?”

“I knew the police said... that they had discovered her body — yes.”

“Let me ask you this: Is Minerva guilty?”

“She is not guilty,” Henrietta Hull said with firm conviction.

“How do you know she isn’t guilty? Simply because of what you know of her?”

“No. Because of what I know of the case. Dorrie teamed up with a couple of crooks. They killed her. Now they want to blame that murder on Minerva. Miss Ambler tried to pull a fast one. Her scheme boomeranged. Minerva is not guilty of anything. Does all this make a difference about your taking Minerva’s case?”

“It makes a difference,” Mason said. “Technically no matter how guilty a person may be he is not convicted until final judgment has been passed. He is entitled to have an attorney at every stage of the proceedings; not necessarily in order to prove him innocent but to see that all his legal rights are protected.”

“And Minerva would have that right as a citizen?”

“She would have that right as a citizen.”

“She wants you as her attorney.”

Drake cleared his throat, caught Mason’s eye, imperceptibly shook his head.

“Why not, Paul? Come out with it,” Mason said. “Let’s not be beating around the bush or equivocating.”

“All right,” Drake said. “Police have got an airtight case against her.”

“You said that before.”

“Her accomplice has confessed,” Drake said.

“Who was it?” Mason asked.

“The man she hired to accompany her to Dorrie Ambler’s apartment and abduct her.”

“He says Minerva was with him at that time?” Mason asked.

“I understand that he does.”

“Do you know the details, Paul?”

“Only generalities. This fellow’s name is Jasper. He says that Minerva told him that she had inherited a fortune, that Dorrie Ambler stood in the way of her keeping exclusive control of the estate, that she wanted Dorrie Ambler out of the way, that she would arrange a background which would give them absolute protection but she wanted Jasper to help her at the proper time.

“Jasper, incidentally, has a long criminal record. Billings tried to blackmail Minerva, not Dorrie Ambler. He wound up with a fatal bullet in his chest.”

“And they’ve arrested Minerva Minden for the murder of Dorrie Ambler?”

Drake shook his head. “They’re going to prosecute her for the murder of Marvin Billings. Then, in case she should get an acquittal or a verdict that didn’t carry the death penalty, they’re going to prosecute her for the murder of Dorrie Ambler. The Ambler murder depends on circumstantial evidence. They’ve got the deadwood evidence, several admissions and an eyewitness in the Marvin Billings murder. Minerva can never beat that rap.”

Mason reached a sudden decision. He said, “I’ll represent her on the murder of Marvin Billings. If that’s the murder she’s being charged with, I’ll be her attorney in that case. I won’t promise to represent her if she is being charged with the murder of Dorrie Ambler. I’d have to think that one over.”

“Fair enough,” Henrietta Hull said. “Consider yourself retained, Mr. Mason.”

“Just a minute,” Mason said. “If you haven’t communicated with her, how do you know that the case on which she’s being prosecuted is the Billings murder and not the Dorrie Ambler murder?”

Henrietta Hull hesitated for just the bat of an eyelash, then said, “Frankly, I don’t, Mr. Mason. But if it should turn out to be the other way around, you could always give back the retainer and withdraw from the case. It would be all right with us.”

Mason said, “Let me take a look at that note that Minerva left for you.”

Henrietta Hull opened her purse, took out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Mason.

The note read: “Henny— Going to Headquarters. If I’m not in by nine do the necessary.”

“There are no specific instructions in this letter,” Mason said. “Certainly none to retain me or to call on the Drake Detective Agency.”

“I think you’re mistaken, Mr. Mason. She said, and I quote, ‘Do the necessary.’ ”

“Does that mean that you and Minerva had discussed this matter in advance?”

“It means,” she said, “that Minerva trusted my discretion to do the necessary and I am doing it.”

“Now look,” Drake said, “I’m not going to hang any crepe, but there have been two deliberate cold-blooded murders here. One of them was carefully planned in advance. The other may have been done in the heat of passion. But they’ve now got an open-and-shut case against Minerva Minden. You know it and I know it. They have eyewitnesses. They wouldn’t have dared touch her with a ten-foot pole if they didn’t have the deadwood.”

Mason, who had been frowning thoughtfully, said, “Give Mrs. Hull a receipt for twenty thousand dollars as a retainer fee, Della.”