The Case of the Phantom Fortune

Chapter 18

Perry Mason sat in the living-roomat the residence at 2420 Bridamoore Avenue.

Mrs Horace Warren sat facing him.She was dry-eyed but crushed.

Mason said, "We may not havemuch time. I want you to tell me exactly what happened. I want you to tell meyour connection with Collister Gideon and tell me what happened when you wentto that abandoned storeroom. Don't leave out anything, don't spareyourself."

"This is going to killme," she said. "I can't face Horace after this comes out."

"Don't be silly," Masonsaid. "Horace has faith in you."

"He won't after this."

"He has," Mason said."He knew all about it before he married you."

Her eyes widened. "Knew aboutwhat?"

"About your trial andacquittal, about your connection with Collister Gideon."

"He knew about that?"

"Yes."

"For heaven's sake, how?"

"Judson Olney backtracked youand found out all about your past. When Horace knew that he was falling in lovewith you, he knew that you were concealing something in your past and he wantedto find out what it was."

"And he never told me?"

"He thought you would feelbetter if you felt the whole thing was a secret."

"You're not trying to makethings easier for me, Mr Mason?"

"I'm telling you thetruth," Mason said.

"Oh, that wonderful, wonderfulman," she said, and tears came to her eyes.

"Hold it," Mason said."You haven't time to cry, you haven't time to sympathize withyourself."

"I'm not sympathizing withmyself, I'm thinking of Horace, how wonderful he has been."

"All right," Mason said,"he's been wonderful. Now tell me the facts. That's the best way you cancooperate with him at present."

She said, "I always feltmorally obligated to Collister Gideon for forty-seven thousand dollars."

"Did you keep the money forhim?"

"Heavens, no."

"What did happen?"

"He had an inkling that theauthorities might be coming down on him in a surprise raid. There wasforty-seven thousand dollars in the bank. He drew it out and put it in thesafe. He wanted me to keep it for him. I was afraid to do so. I knew that therewere certain irregularities but I looked up to Mr Gideon. I thought he was themost wonderful, wide-awake businessman, with a dynamic personality and …well, it just never occurred to me he could be crooked.

"He put the forty-seventhousand dollars in the safe and told me to take it out and hide it. I didn'tdo it. That night the office was broken into, the thieves found the combinationof the safe, and took the forty-seven thousand dollars."

"If he'd had it," Masonsaid, "the authorities would have confiscated it as being obtained byfraudulent use of the mails."

"They might have had somedifficulty proving it, but anyway I didn't follow the instructions he gave me.I was afraid to, and as a result he lost all chance of holding onto any part ofthe forty-seven thousand dollars."

"So when you knew he wasgetting out," Mason said, "you thought you would makerestitution?"

She said, "My husband has beenvery, very successful in business, and I have been saving money here and therein securities and looking forward to the day when Collister Gideon would bereleased. I wanted to go to him and say, 'I violated your instructions andbecause of that you lost any opportunity to have operating capital when you gotout. I'm going to stake you to forty-seven thousand dollars. I know that withyour talents for making money you will run this up into quite a fortune withina short time. Then you can pay me back the forty-seven thousand dollars and myhusband will never know anything about it.'"

"Go on," Mason said,"what happened?"

"I put the money in a suitcasein my closet and the money was stolen. One of the servants, probably. But Iwasn't in a position to make a complaint because that would have brought outthe whole scandal and that would have – Well, I felt Horace simply couldn'tstand to be connected with a scandal of that sort. He likes his social positionand his social life."

"All right," Mason said,"the money you had in the suitcase was stolen. Then what did you do?"

"I got together what I couldraise hastily, which amounted to only five thousand dollars."

"You heard from Gideon?"

"Yes. He telephoned me and gaveme the address of the store and told me to drive down there.

"I told him that I had somemoney for him and he said the neighbourhood was pretty rough. He asked me if Ihad a revolver and I told him I did that is, I told him my husband kept one inthe house and he said if I was bringing any large sum of money I had betterbring the gun to protect myself."

"Go on," Mason said.

"I went down there and foundthe place without any trouble. I had the gun in my handbag. I went into theabandoned store and saw Collister Gideon, f was startled at the change in him.

"I took off my right glove,opened my purse to give him the money, put the gun on the table, and – Well, Idon't know, Mr Mason, whether he had changed or whether had begun to grow up.

"While I was working for him Isaw him as a dynamic, magnetic businessman with a chain-lighting mind. But as Italked with him there in the store I saw him as brazen, glib-tongued confidenceman. There wasn't an ounce of sincerity in him, and – well, he sought tocapitalize on the relationship."

"What do you mean?"

"He knew that I had looked upto him and idolized him when I was working for him and … well, he thoughtthat he could twist me around his finger and – Well, it was just one of thosethings."

"What did you do?"

She said, "Suddenly I saw thewhole thing in its real perspective. It was a disgusting situation. I simplygrabbed my handbag and dashed out of the place."

"What about the gun?"

"I left it on the table. Myright glove was on the floor, I guess. I didn't see it. To tell the truth, Iwasn't thinking. I was simply reacting. I was getting out of there as fast as Icould."

"He was alive when youleft?"

"Of course. He was very muchalive."

"Do you know what time itwas?"

"I know that he told me to bethere at quarter past two and I was there right on the dot. We talked for only a minute or two.The situation became unbearable with considerable rapidity -unbearable as faras I was concerned.

"It's difficult to keep trackof time in a situation of that sort, Mr Mason … They say he was killed withmy gun."

"Apparently so," Masonsaid, "but they haven't introduced proof of it yet, and when they do I'mgoing to have the right of cross-examination."

"But that was the only gun inthe place."

"If your husband shothim," Mason said, "he might well have been shot with your gun, butyour husband tells me he didn't shoot him."

"My husband wouldn't lie aboutsuch things."

"In a murder case many timesthings are entirely different from what they are in other cases," Masonsaid. "When a man's life is at stake he will do almost anything."

Mrs Warren blinked back the tears."Do you really mean his life is at stake?"

"Yes," Mason said.

"And its … it's myfault," she said, "I -"

Mason said, "Make up your mindto one thing, Mrs Warren. After water has run downstream and over the dam youcan't find any way on earth of getting it back upstream and over the dam thesecond time. Take things as they come. Concentrate on the present, forget thepast… You didn't give Gideon any money?"

"Not a cent."

"Did you tell him you had somemoney for him?"

"Yes. That was over the phone.I told him I had some money for him, not as much as I'd hoped to have, but allI could raise without attracting attention. I started talking and telling himhow sorry I was that I hadn't followed his instructions to get that money outof the safe and conceal it, but I pointed out that if they had found the moneyin my possession that would have been bad and – And then when I met him, MrMason I suddenly saw a look in his eye that made me think that perhaps he hadhoped he could get me so completely involved in the case with him that the jurywould have become sympathetic and acquitted both of us.

"As it was, the cases againstus were so sharply different that the jury was able to acquit me and stillconvict him, but if the cases had been mixed up a little closer – I don't know.I just suddenly lost my feeling of awed admiration for the man and saw him as atawdry performer."

Mason said, "You don't know howlong you talked."

"Just a minute or two."

"And he didn't tell youanything about what he had been doing since he got out?"

"No."

"You had only the one telephonecall from Gideon?" Mason asked.

"That's right. I hadn't heardfrom him directly from the time he was convicted and went to prison until afterhe got out and made that one phone call to me. I'll say that, he wasconsiderate of me. He didn't want any publicity to involve me."

"Sure he didn't," Masonsaid, "because he wanted to blackmail your husband."

"He wanted … what?"

"He wanted to blackmail yourhusband," Mason said. "That was one of the things he had in mind. He -"

"Oh, but he wouldn't have doneanything like that. He wouldn't have been that low."

"Don't kid yourself,"Mason said. "He came to my office and tried to get me to finance him bygetting your husband to put in money to avoid the publicity."

Her mouth sagged open. "Why …why – Well, of all things!"

"You had no idea of that?"

"No."

"All right," Mason said."You've told me about your background and about what happened when you gotinto that storeroom. Now, don't tell anyone else. Make absolutely no comment toanybody about anything."

"But it will all have to comeout now," she said. "My association with Gideon and -"

"No, it won't," Masonsaid. "Not necessarily. I'm going to put up a fight. I'm forcing the stateto an immediate preliminary examination and we'll see just how much of a casethey've got against your husband."

"I'm afraid it's a perfectlydevastating case," she said, "even if they don't know everythingabout the background."

"They won't necessarily try toprove motivation at a preliminary hearing," Mason said. "Where didyou get the gun?"

"My husband got it."

"Where? When?"

"He bought it several yearsago."

"From a friend or from afirearms dealer?"

"I believe from a firearmsdealer. He wanted a gun to keep in the house."

"All right," Mason said,"we'll do the best we can. You sit tight and make absolutely no commentabout anything. As far as possible adopt the position that you are tooprostrated to submit to interviews. Don't let any newspapermen in the house,don't answer the telephone yourself, and if you should be cornered by anyperson who wants an interview, don't let that person trap you into making anystatement of any sort other than the two words 'no comment'. Use those wordswhenever you open your mouth. Think you can do that?"

"Yes, of course."

"It's not going to be as easyas you think," Mason said. "They'll suddenly throw questions at youor make definite assertions of things that aren't true and try to catch you bysurprise. Simply remember and say 'no comment' and keep saying 'no comment'. Inthat way you can help your husband. Otherwise you may inadvertently hurthim."

"I'll try," she said.