Chapter Seven

Mason parked his car at the curb in front of the Rosa Lee Apartments and slid from behind the steering wheel.

His two passengers jerked open the doors and got out. Della carried a briefcase filled with notebooks and ballpoint pens.

Stephen Garland looked swiftly around. “There’s Dayton,” he said. “Do you want him?”

“We want him,” Mason said.

Garland gave a signal.

The heavyset private detective opened the door on the side of the curb and stepped to the sidewalk.

Mason walked up to him. “We’re going up, Dayton. You want to go with us?”

Dayton hesitated a moment, then said, “Why not?” He looked inquisitively at Garland.

“Mason is hep,” Garland said. “I think we’re starting a brand-new deal. Let’s each one of us go his own way from here on in.”

“Suits me,” Dayton said.

The four of them entered the apartment house, climbed the stairs to the Drake apartment where Drake’s operative was living under the name of Ellen Smith.

Mason knocked on the door.

The door was opened a cautious two inches, then held in place by a chain.

Drake’s operative looked out at them, then, her face showing relief, threw the chain back and opened the door.

“Come in,” she invited.

Mason said, “I am Perry Mason. These men are Stephen Lockley Garland and Jarmen Dayton. The young woman is my secretary. Miss Della Street.”

A wiry, pinched-faced man in the fifties, with a sharp-pointed nose and beady black eyes which were quite close together, came rushing forward with extended hand.

“Mr. Mason,” he said, “this is really a pleasure and an honor. I am Duncan Z. Lovett of the firm of Lovett, Price and Maxwell. I am representing Brace Jasper and Norman Jasper, who are half brothers of Harmon Haslett, who has recently been lost at sea in a tragic shipwreck.

“I am investigating a fraud. I know of your reputation. I know of your outstanding ability, and I also know that you are too ethical to want to be mixed up in a fraud. I am glad indeed that this woman telephoned for you to come.

“I know the two gentlemen with you. I am glad to meet you. Miss Street. And may I introduce this lady with me? She is Maxine Edfield. She resides in Cloverville. She is — and has been for some time — a client of mine. I have represented her in several matters.

“You will note that I am giving you all of the facts.

“Now, then, if we can all sit down, I would like to have Miss Edfield tell you a story. I think when she finishes her recital we will have the atmosphere cleared and will perhaps be in a position to talk business and perhaps to become good friends.”

Maxine Edfield, a woman of about forty — with sharp gray eyes; an alert, aggressive manner; a spare frame; and a long, thin mouth which even copious lipstick couldn’t quite turn into a rosebud — said in a harsh, metallic voice, “Hello, everybody.”

“Tell them your story, Maxine,” Lovett said.

“All of it?” she asked.

“All of it.”

Maxine Edfield said somewhat defiantly, “I’m a working girl.”

Mason smiled encouragingly.

“So am I,” Della Street said with a friendly smile.

Maxine said, “I never had enough money to put me through a secretarial school or to get any kind of a decent education. I’ve waited tables. I’ve worked up to being a cashier at the Cloverville Café. It’s a pretty good job.”

“And how do you happen to be here?” Mason asked.

“I came on a plane with Mr. Lovett. Mr. Lovett is attorney for the people who operate the Cloverville Café, and he arranged for me to get away.”

“Never mind any more preliminaries,” Lovett said; “just go ahead and tell them your story, Maxine. When did you first meet this woman who now tells us that her name is Ellen Smith?”

“I met her way back — let’s see, it was twenty years ago, before the kid was even thinking of beauty contests.”

“How well did you know her?”

“I knew her quite well.”

“You are now talking about this woman sitting next to me, the one on whose shoulder I am placing my hand?” Mason asked.

“That’s right.”

“What’s her name?” Lovett asked.

“Ellen Calvert.”

“How well did you know her?”

“I knew her very well. We exchanged confidences from time to time. She used to eat in the café where I was slinging hash, and after I got to know her I saw that she got a little more on the plate than was customary. I kept her coffee cup filled with hot coffee, and sometimes when business was slack I’d sit down at the table and talk with her for a while.”

“Did you know her other than in the restaurant?” Lovett asked.

“I’ll say I did. After a while we got friendly and she invited me up to her room and I invited her to mine. She was a beautiful kid, only a little bit too tall, and I’m the one that told her how to handle herself. I said, ‘Dearie, hold your chin up. Try to be even taller than you are.’ Most tall girls try to wear flat heels and squeeze themselves down into their clothes so they can look an inch or so shorter, and all they do is manage to look stooped.

“A tall girl who is proud of being tall and stands perfectly straight gets a queenly carriage that helps a lot. Lots of people like tall girls.

“She told me she didn’t like to be tall because it embarrassed her to dance with a man who was shorter than she was, and I told her to get over it, and I kept counseling her on how to stand.”

“Go ahead,” Lovett said. “Tell us the rest of it. Get to the emotional part.”

“Well,” Maxine said, “we went out a couple of times on dates together. Ellen was a good scout. She was fun to be with on a foursome and she was — well, she wasn’t too prudish.”

“Never mind, never mind that,” Lovett interrupted hurriedly. “You can skip that. Tell us the part about her confiding in you about her love affair.”

“Which one?”

“You know the one.”

“You mean the Haslett affair?”

“Go ahead,” Lovett said.

“Well, she got a job in the Cloverville Spring and Suspension Company and young Haslett noticed her. That is, he was young at that time. He was about twenty-two, I guess, and I think Ellen was eighteen.

“Of course, Harmon Haslett was the catch of the town. He’d just returned from college, where he’d graduated, and he was settling down to follow in his father’s footsteps in the Spring and Suspension Company.

“Well, Ellen went out with Harmon Haslett a couple of times. They had to be awfully cautious about it, because old Ezekiel Haslett, Harmon’s father, would have raised merry hell if he’d had any inkling that Harmon was going out with one of the girls in the office.

“Old Ezekiel was one of those self-righteous individuals who seldom crack a smile. I doubt if he’d ever done any necking in his life before he got married, and he — well, he was a pill.”

“Go on,” Lovett said.

“Well, things got pretty torrid between Ellen here and Harmon Haslett, and then I guess Harmon realized what he was getting into and he began to pull back.

“That was when Ellen came to me for advice. She said that maybe she’d been a little too easy and gone a little too far a little too soon and that she was now certain Harmon Haslett was very definitely not contemplating matrimony but — well, he was still interested and crazy about her when he was with her, but when he wasn’t with her he was very definitely — well, you can get the picture. I don’t have to spell it out for you.”

“Go ahead,” Lovett said.

“So Ellen confided in me that she thought she’d try and force a marriage by telling him she was pregnant. I told her that that would probably shipwreck the whole affair. But she said it was not going the way she wanted it and—”

“All this is a dirty lie!” Drake’s operative exclaimed.

“Keep quiet,” Mason said. “Don’t say a word, Ellen. Let’s just hear this thing out.”

“Go on,” Lovett said. “You can express things as delicately as possible; but, after all, this is a legal matter and we can’t have any ambiguities.”

“Well,” Maxine said, “the long and short of it is she told him she was pregnant.”

“Was she?”

“Hell, no!”

“Do you know?”

“I know.”

“And what happened?”

“She wanted him to marry her. She pulled the sweet-young-thing line on him and pointed out that her life had been ruined and it was up to him to take care of her and do the right thing.”

“And then?”

“Harmon Haslett went into a tailspin. He was afraid of the responsibility. He was afraid his father would find out. He was in a spot. So he turned to the troubleshooter. I think that’s you, Mr. Garland.”

Garland sat perfectly impassive, saying nothing.

“So young Haslett suggested that it might be possible for the troubleshooter to arrange for Ellen to see a doctor who would fix her up; and the troubleshooter told Harmon that that would be the last thing he’d want to see happen, that the minute Harmon mixed into anything like that he was laying himself wide open for trouble, that if things didn’t go just right he’d be in hot water and if things did turn out all right he’d be in a spot where he could be blackmailed.

“So this troubleshooter told Harmon Haslett to let him handle the whole thing.

“The troubleshooter went to Ezekiel and told the old man that he thought it would be a good plan if Harmon went to Europe for an indefinite stay to look over some of the European markets and broaden out his perspective a little bit.

“I don’t know just how much he told Ezekiel, but Ezekiel got the idea, and the next thing anybody knew Harmon Haslett was off for Europe.

“At that time Ellen here got an envelope in the mail which contained ten one-hundred-dollar bills. There was nothing else in it — just ten one-hundred-dollar bills.”

“Did she tell you about it? Did you see the money?”

“She told me about it and I saw the money,” Maxine said. “And she told me that she’d made a play and lost out on the jackpot but that she had still won the consolation prize, that she had a thousand bucks and she was going to ditch the whole business, go to a new place where she wasn’t known and start all over again.”

“She told you that?”

“She told me that.”

“This woman?” Lovett asked.

“This woman,” Maxine said.

Lovett looked around and said, “For your information, Maxine Edfield has made an affidavit containing these statements. I have that affidavit in my possession. I don’t think anyone wants to get mixed up in a fraudulent claim, except perhaps Ellen Calvert here may have tried — or may have had some vague idea... But I’m satisfied you’ll drop it now, won’t you, my dear?”

Drake’s operative looked to Mason for instructions.

Mason said, “Say nothing.”

“Can’t I even deny...”

“Not yet,” Mason said. “You are keeping silent at the request of counsel.”

Duncan Lovett smiled. “I can readily understand that counsel would be embarrassed by any statement from you at this time. In view of the statement by Maxine Edfield, I feel that the case is closed.”

“I’d like to ask Miss Edfield some questions,” Mason said.

“Go right ahead,” Lovett said.

Jarmen Dayton warned, “You let this lawyer start cross-examining this witness and pretty quick you won’t have any witness.”

“Nonsense,” Lovett said; “the witness has told her story. She’s going to tell it on the witness stand if she has to. When she tells it on the witness stand, she’ll be cross-examined. If she can’t stand a little cross-examination now, she can’t stand it then. I have repeatedly told her to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, and then there is nothing to be afraid of. Isn’t that right, Maxine?”

“That’s right, Mr. Lovett.”

Lovett smiled at Mason. “Go ahead and ask your questions,” he said.

Stephen Garland took a package of cigarettes from his pocket. “Anyone mind if I smoke?”

No one made any objection.

Garland lit the cigarette, said, “How many questions do you want to ask, Mr. Mason?”

“Just a few,” Mason said.

“I’m neutral,” Garland said. “Sitting in a corner, so to speak.”

Jarmen Dayton said, “Don’t kid yourself. Garland. We’re the innocent bystanders who are going to get hit by the stray bullets.”

Garland grinned, said, “That’s a chance we have to take. There’s no place to duck now.”

“What questions did you want to ask, Mr. Mason?” Maxine Edfield said. “I’m perfectly willing to answer any and all questions at any time. I’ve been a working girl all of my life. I’m a human being. I’ve had a few purple passages myself, but I’ve always made an honest living and I never made any money except from working.”

“Very commendable,” Mason said. “I wasn’t going to inquire into your background, Miss Edfield. I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions about things that seemed to require explanation.”

“Such as what?”

“Well, you said that Ellen Calvert had taken the thousand dollars and gone to a new place where she wasn’t known.”

“That’s right.”

“How do you know that?”

“From what she told me.”

“What I am getting at,” Mason said, “is why she would do a thing like that.”

“Why not? She was young. She had life before her. She had a thousand bucks in her stocking. The world was her oyster. Believe me, if someone had given me a thousand dollars when I was that old I’d have shaken the dust of Cloverville from my feet and taken the first train out of town.”

“I’m afraid you don’t get what I’m driving at,” Mason said. “Here was Ellen Calvert, winner of a beauty contest, holder of some papers entitling her to a screen test, and—”

“Oh, I get you now,” Maxine interrupted. “Sure, she had the world by the tail on a downhill pull. Your idea is there was no reason for her to duck out.”

“That’s right.”

“Well,” Maxine said, “you’re looking at it one way. Now try looking at it the other Way. Here was Ellen, who had been within an ace of landing the most eligible bachelor in Cloverville. She probably counted on it pretty strong.

“When the affair began to cool off, she decided to stake everything on the turn of a card. She pulled this pregnancy gag and wanted to see if it would work.

“It didn’t work.

“She woke up with the realization that she had irrevocably lost the man she wanted. Personally, I think she was really in love with him. I mean really and truly. But a girl has to look out for herself, and Ellen had been around enough to know that.

“Anyway, she had been to Hollywood. She’d taken her screen tests. She thought she was going to hear from them for a while, but she was beginning to wake up to the fact that this was one of these situations where they say, ‘Don’t call me; we’ll call you.’

“In other words, provision had been made for a couple of screen tests. The people who were obligated to furnish those screen tests had carried out their share of the contract, which consisted of doing nothing more than putting Ellen up in front of a camera, letting her recite lines from a script, portray certain emotions to the best of her ability, and then step down.

“It was fun while it lasted, and, of course, she had high hopes. She thought she did a swell job of registering rage, hatred, love, astonishment, terror, and all that stuff. Actually, from the standpoint of Hollywood studios, which are accustomed to judging professional actresses, all Ellen was doing was standing up in front of a camera and making faces.

“As soon as they saw the tests they knew the answer, but they didn’t dash Ellen’s hopes all at once. They told her, ‘Go on back to Cloverville and we’ll evaluate the tests. Don’t call us; we’ll call you.’

“That was when Ellen began to see her little house of cards falling apart; and right at that time she thought that her boyfriend was beginning to cool off, that he was still ardent and impetuous but he was beginning more and more to think about what was going to happen when his father, old Ezekiel Haslett, found out that his son had been playing around with one of the girls in the organization, that the affair had gone a lot further than the father would approve of, and that Ellen had her hopes set on marriage.

“When Harmon Haslett was with Ellen he was all enthused, but as soon as he’d leave Ellen he lost his enthusiasm mighty fast.”

“You think Ellen knew this?” Mason asked.

Maxine laughed. “She’s sitting right there beside you. Why don’t you ask her? Of course she knew it. That’s the trouble with you smart lawyers; you know all about law but you don’t know enough about human nature. You underestimate women.

“When a man is with a woman he portrays his inner thoughts by a thousand and one little things — emotions, glances of the eye, the tone of voice in which he says things, the spacing of his words... Of course Ellen knew it.”

“How do you know she knew it?”

“Because she told me all about it. All about how Harmon was having spells of moody silence, how he wasn’t calling her quite as frequently as he used to, how — when he would be with her — he would try to keep things under control so he could gradually break away. But, of course, he couldn’t, and then he’d be affectionate and pleading and loving and all that. But the handwriting was there on the wall.

“So when Ellen found she’d lost him — and by that time realized that she was going to be humiliated by not having any of the Hollywood contracts materialize — Ellen was a pretty disillusioned young woman.

“Then she suddenly had a thousand dollars in hundred-dollar bills handed to her with no strings attached, and Ellen just up and took off. It’s what I’d have done under similar circumstances. It’s what anyone would have done.”

“You knew Ellen quite well?”

“Of course I knew her well. One girl doesn’t confide about tier love affairs and her idea of working the pregnancy racket to a complete stranger.”

“I didn’t suggest you were a complete stranger,” Mason said. “I wanted to know how well you knew her.”

“Well, I knew her just as well as one girl can know another.”

“And this is the woman sitting next to me?”

“That’s the woman sitting next to you, and don’t try to deny it,” Maxine said. “She’s changed a lot, but she’s the same Ellen Calvert.”

“And this is the girl that told you all these things about trying to trap Harmon Haslett by pretending to be pregnant?”

“That’s the one,” Maxine said, “and don’t let her try to lie out of it or pull the wool over your eyes.”

“Now just a minute, just a minute,” Duncan Lovett said. “The identity of this woman doesn’t enter into the situation at the present time. She hasn’t denied her identity.”

Mason said, “In a situation of this kind questions looking to the accuracy of the recollection of the witness are never out of order.”

“I understand, I understand,” Lovett said. Then he added with a grin, “It is just that I had expected a more skillful type of cross-examination, Not that I’m making any criticism, Counselor. It is simply the fact that your reputation for brilliance in cross-examination is such that I expected — well, I don’t know — a lot of razzle-dazzle, I guess.”

“Razzle-dazzle is not good cross-examination,” Mason said. “The purpose of cross-examination is to find out whether a witness is telling the truth.”

Lovett laughed sarcastically. “That’s the line they try to teach you in the law-books and in the colleges. Actually, when you come right down to it, you know and I know, Mason, that the object of cross-examination is first to find out to your own satisfaction if a witness is telling the truth. If you find out the witness is telling the truth, then you go on to the next step — which is to try and confuse the witness so that any testimony the witness has given is open to doubt.”

“And you thought I would do something like that?” Mason asked.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Lovett said, “your reputation has been such that I thought you would perform a Hindu rope trick.”

Mason said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

“Well, go right ahead with your cross-examination or whatever it is you call it,” Lovett said.

“I am at the moment concentrating on the recollection of the witness,” Mason said. “It seems to me that there might be some case for a confusion of identity after a lapse of some twenty years.”

“Oh, bosh and nonsense,” Lovett said. “She recognized Ellen Calvert the minute she saw her, the minute the woman came to the door. She said, ‘Hello, Ellen.’ Isn’t that true, Ellen?”

“Don’t answer any questions at the moment,” Mason cautioned Drake’s operative.

“Well,” Lovett said, “as far as I’m concerned, you’re wasting a lot of time on a question of identity.”

“Well, let me ask you this question, Miss Edfield,” Mason said. “I’ll put it in the conventional way. Are you as certain of the identity of Ellen Calvert as you are of any of the other statements you have made?”

“Absolutely.”

“If you are mistaken in the identity of Ellen Calvert, then you could be mistaken in your recollection as to any or all of the other statements?”

“Now wait a minute, wait a minute,” Lovett said suddenly, getting to his feet. “What is this? What’s cooking?”

“Do you object to Miss Edfield’s answering that question?” Mason asked.

“Well, I don’t like the way you’re putting the question. I don’t like... Maxine, this is Ellen Calvert all right?”

“Of course it is.”

“You’re sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. This man isn’t going to bamboozle me by pretending this isn’t Ellen Calvert. I guess I know her and I guess I know what he’s trying to do. Just all that business of asking me if I could be mistaken about the other things I’ve testified to, if I’m mistaken about this being Ellen Calvert. It’s all part of that hocus-pocus you warned me about before we left Cloverville.”

Lovett glanced at Mason’s operative, then back at Maxine Edfield, then slowly took his seat.

“Let’s have it clearly understood,” Mason said, “that if you’re mistaken in the identity of this person as being Ellen Calvert, you could be mistaken in the other parts of your statement.”

“Baloney!” she said. “That’s Ellen Calvert, and I’ve told you the story just the way it happened.”

Mason turned to Drake’s operative. “Will the real Ellen Calvert please stand up?” he said.

There was sudden tense silence.

Mason said to Drake’s operative, “Now, will you please tell us your real name and occupation?”

“You mean it?” the operative asked.

“I mean it,” Mason said.

“My real name is Jessie Alva,” she said. “I am a licensed private detective and I am employed by the Drake Detective Agency. I was employed a short time ago to come to Mr. Mason’s office, stay for a few minutes, then leave and come to this apartment.

“This apartment is leased by the Drake Detective Agency. Is there anything else, Mr. Mason?”

“I think that covers it,” Mason said.

Lovett jumped to his feet. “You have deliberately tricked us.”

“Wasn’t that what you expected?” Mason asked. “You seemed disappointed at the conventional nature of my cross-examination. I am sorry I didn’t live up to expectations.”

Maxine Edfield said, “He’s lying. They’re all lying. Don’t let them kid you. That’s Ellen Calvert!”

“You have your ID card with you, Miss Alva?” Mason asked.

The operative nodded, produced a billfold with credit cards, driver’s license, and an ID card as a private detective.

Duncan Lovett went through those cards carefully, studying each one, looking at the photographs on the cards, comparing them with the face of the operative.

Slowly, reluctantly, he closed the folder and returned it to the woman.

Jarmen Dayton said, “I told you so. You turn that guy loose and he’s going to have things all tied up in knots.”

Lovett said, “This still doesn’t affect the validity of our claim. This isn’t producing any heir.”

Maxine Edfield said, “It’s a trap. He’s given this witness a phony identification. How do you know Ellen Calvert didn’t come out here and take the name of Jessie Alva and go to work as a private detective? Just the fact that she’s now got a driver’s license under the name of Jessie Alva doesn’t mean she isn’t really Ellen Calvert.”

Duncan Lovett became apprehensive. “A great deal depends, Maxine, on your recognition, your...”

“Of course I recognize her. She hasn’t changed that much. She’s still got the same stuck-up method of holding her chin up and trying to act like a queen. She’s older now than when I used to double-date with her, but she hasn’t changed a damn bit. You let this Perry Mason start twisting you around his finger and he’ll have you jumping through hoops.”

Lovett became thoughtfully silent.

Jarmen Dayton said, “How about you. Garland?”

Garland grinned. “As far as I am concerned, I am sitting on the sidelines. But I’m the one that is responsible for this debacle. I made the fatal mistake of underestimating my adversary.

“Of course, the only identification I had was an old photograph taken twenty years ago and a description that she was unusually tall and had a rather dignified, regal air about her. When I baited Perry Mason into sending for his client and this woman came to his office and left and I tailed her here — well, I admit that, now I think back on it, it was just too darned easy. You don’t tangle with Perry Mason and come off that easy.”

Dayton said, “You don’t think she’s Ellen Calvert?”

Garland laughed and said, “If she’s Ellen Calvert, I’m Napoleon Bonaparte.”

Maxine Edfield screamed, “You can’t gyp me out of my money that easy! Of course she’s Ellen Calvert!”

Mason glanced significantly at Della Street, who had been taking notes.

“What do you mean ‘gyp you out of your money,’ Maxine?”

“That guy Lovett was going to pay me—”

“Shut up!” Lovett shouted. “You damn fool, keep your trap shut!”

Maxine Edfield suddenly became silent.

“You got that down, Della?” Mason asked.

“Every word of it,” Della said.

Mason grinned. “I think we can all go home now.”

“Now just a minute, just a minute,” Lovett said. “I don’t want those last statements misinterpreted. I agreed to pay Maxine Edfield her expenses out here and a hundred dollars a day for the time she was here. I did not agree to pay her for any testimony.”

Mason smiled politely. “I think,” he said, “my prior remarks still stand and we can adjourn the meeting.

“As far as you’re concerned, Miss Alva, you can report to Paul Drake that you’ve done everything you were hired to do, that you’re vacating the apartment. And thank you very much for your cooperation.”

Mason arose, walked to the corridor door, held it open, smiled and said, “This way out.”