The Case of the Negligent Nymph

Chapter 6

PERRY MASON SMILED AT THE MATRON, SAID TO DOROTHY Fenner, “Ail right, Dorothy, get your things ready. You’re going home.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, startled.

“You’re getting out of here,” Mason told her. “Judge Lankershim admitted you to twenty-five hundred dollars’ bail, and a surety company has put up the money.”

“But… but doesn’t the surety company demand money from me as collateral security, or something?”

“Oh, I have an arrangement with them,” Mason said airily. “You can get your things together and go on home. Where do you live, incidentally? I may be able to drive you home.”

“At the Monadnock Hotel Apartments.”

Mason said, “I’m going to be busy. We stole a march on the newspapers. No one expected any fireworks. We walked into court, and gave Alder a very bad ten minutes.”

“Did he say anything about the … “

Mason glanced significantly in the direction of die matron, and said, “He started to let the cat out of the bag, and then tried to catch himself in time.”

The matron said with a laugh, “Don’t mind me, Mr. Mason. I have one-way ears… Perhaps I’d better withdraw for a while. You have the bail bond and the order for release?”

Mason handed her die papers.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll be back here when you’re ready to go. Now, if you’ll excuse me a moment, I have another matter to attend to.”

She stepped out of the office.

Dorothy Fenner said in a quick, anxious voice, “Wasn’t anything said about the paper?”

“Certainly not,” Mason said. “He got excited and said something about a bottle, then he hastily tried to claim that you had a bottle to carry the jewels in.”

“All fifty thousand dollars’ worth of them, I suppose,” she said bitterly.

“Well,” Mason grinned, “that amount got whittled materially. It hadn’t occurred to him that the insurance company might be interested in this. And then I dropped a bombshell by stating that we were going to sue him for defamation of character. I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard from Mr. Alder and found that he wanted to patch things us.”

“And what do I tell him?”

Mason said, “You tell him precisely this ‘See my lawyer.’ That’s all. Can you remember to tell him that?”

“Yes.”

“And newspapermen may be calling on you,” Mason went on. “I want you to tell them that you are not in a position to make any statement. Can you remember to do that? Can I trust you?”

“But, Mr. Mason, what are we going to do now? How are we ever going to get that paper that was in the bottle brought into evidence? It seems to me now that we’re— well, we’re doing all this fighting just to get back to where we started.”

“That,” Mason told her, “is what comes of not doing what I told you to do at the start. However, don’t worry too much about the evidence now. Alder is on the defensive, and I don’t think he likes being on the defensive. Now let’s get started.”

“Where are you going to be?” she asked. “Can I get in touch with you—later on tonight if anything should develop?”

Mason said, “If anything really important should turn up, ring up the Drake Detective Agency that’s a detective agency that has offices in the same building as mine and on the same floor. They’re just to the right of the elevator as you leave the elevator. You ask for Paul Drake, and he’ll know how to get a message to me, but don’t call unless it’s something very important, and don’t let anyone stampede you into talking. They may try all sorts of tricks, but don’t let them get away with it.”

She took his hand in both of hers. “Mr. Mason,” she said, “you … I can’t…” Her voice choked up and tears were in her eyes.

“That’s all right,” Mason told her. “You just sit tight and carry on as though nothing had happened.”

She blinked back the tears. “But, Mr. Mason… somehow … that paper…”

“You leave all that to me,” Mason said.

“But I don’t see how you can … unless I make a statement now …”

“You keep absolutely quiet,” Mason warned. “Say nothing to anyone. Now we’ll get the matron, have you released, and I’ll drop you at your apartment house after we get to the city.”