The Case of the Shapely Shadow

Chapter Nine

At ten minutes past eleven a taxicab deposited Perry Mason and Della Street in front of the Union Pacific Depot at Las Vegas.

Mason tossed a twenty-dollar bill to the cabdriver, took Della’s arm and hurried into the depot.

Some two dozen people were in the waiting room, some sitting reading, some standing, some chatting.

Mason gave the room a swift once-over and then his face showed disappointment.

Della Street’s elbow nudged him sharply in the ribs.

Mason turned to follow the direction of her gaze.

“What?” he asked.

“Over there,” Della Street said.

“I don’t see...”

Then the devastating beauty who was standing a little to the right of the door gave herself away by a quick, gasping intake of breath as her eyes rested on Perry Mason and Della Street.

Della took the initiative and started moving forward. After a split second, Mason came striding along, catching up with her as they confronted Janice Wainwright.

“Well?” Mason said.

“I... You—”

“Come on,” Mason said, “out with it. You’ve played me for a sucker. Now let’s have the story.”

“I... I didn’t play you for anything. I... I think you’re grand. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you for worlds.”

“All right,” Mason said. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m waiting for the Domeliner, The City of Los Angeles.”

“I gathered as much,” Mason said. “And you expect Mr. Theilman in on the train?”

“Not Mr. Theilman,” she said, “Mrs. Theilman.”

“Mrs. Theilman!” Mason exclaimed.

“Yes. She’s coming to join me here and—”

She was interrupted by the blast of the air whistle and the rumble of the train.

“This,” Mason said, “is going to be good. Step right out and meet Mrs. Theilman. We’ll be a little behind you. Don’t say anything about us being here.”

Mason turned to Della Street and grinned. “I think,” he said, “that the next few minutes are going to be rather eventful and quite satisfying.”

Janice Wainwright started to say something, then checked herself and ran out to the side of the train to stand looking at the long line of pullmans that came to a gliding stop.

“Good heavens,” Mason said, as Janice ran forward, “how in the world did you ever recognize her?”

“I had a mental image of what she’d look like after she’d fluffed her hair out, fixed her mouth right, and done things to her eyelashes,” Della Street said.

“She’s a knockout!” Mason exclaimed.

“Remind me someday,” Della Street observed, “to glamourize my personality.”

“You don’t need it,” Mason said.

“Every woman needs it,” she said, somewhat wistfully. And then added, “Men being what they are.”

The train had come to a stop. Doors glided open. Porters stood helping passengers off the train. Janice Wainwright stood looking first to the left, then to the right.

As the seconds passed Mason said, “Now, if she’s putting on an act, she’s the best little actress in the world. But somehow I’m becoming increasingly skeptical. I...”

A woman got off the train, stood looking around as though expecting to meet someone, started to walk toward the depot, paused, turned and walked toward Janice Wainwright.

Janice watched her for a moment, turned away, then suddenly swung back to look at her a second time.

“Janice!” the woman said.

“Why, Mrs. Theilman!” Janice exclaimed. “Good heavens, I didn’t recognize you. What have you done to yourself?”

Mason and Della Street exchanged glances.

“Good Lord,” Mason said, “the Mrs. Theilman! The first Mrs. Theilman!”

“Oh-oh,” Della Street observed.

Janice Wainwright shook hands with the woman. Then she pressed her hand against the woman’s arm and led her toward where Mason and Della Street were standing.

“Mrs. Theilman,” Janice said, “I would like to present my friends, Miss Della Street and Mr. Perry Mason, the lawyer.”

“Perry Mason!” the woman exclaimed.

The lawyer bowed.

“Well, my goodness.”

Janice said nervously, “This is Mrs. Theilman. She is... that is, was...”

“The ex-wife of her boss,” Mrs. Theilman explained.

“I hardly knew you,” Janice said. “You’ve really taken off weight.”

“Thirty-five pounds.” Mrs. Theilman said. “I’m down to a hundred and twenty-one and I’m going to stay that way. I had to learn the hard way what happens to a woman when she lets her figure go.”

Mason said, “We don’t want to intrude, but I wanted to see Miss Wainwright about a matter of some importance. I just arrived in Las Vegas. We got in by plane and came directly to the depot. Now, if you folks have something to discuss, I don’t want to interfere, but since it’s quite late and we have to get back to Los Angeles, I would like to have a few minutes alone with Miss Wainwright.”

“Well, that’s quite all right with me,” Mrs. Theilman said. “I’m in no hurry to get back and I may be here for a couple of days. I always liked Las Vegas until— Well, I guess you know all the scandal, Mr. Mason. If you don’t, you’ll learn it anyhow... One of these Las Vegas cuties decided my husband would be a soft touch for her and started all the snaky-hipped tricks of professional seduction. He fell for it like a ton of bricks.”

Janice Wainwright said hurriedly, “If you could wait just a few minutes, Mrs. Theilman, if it wouldn’t be asking too much, I—”

“Not at all,” she said, “but I’m not going to wait here in a stuffy old depot. I want action. I’ll go down to the Double Take Casino. I always was lucky there.”

“All right, we’ll be there in just a few minutes,” Janice said. “If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all... My, Mr. Mason, I’ve heard so much about you. I didn’t expect to be meeting you, particularly in Las Vegas. Can you tell me just what your interest is in—?”

“I think I’ll have to be the one who explains that,” Janice interposed hurriedly. “I’ll— If you’re sure you don’t mind, Mrs. Theilman...”

“No, no. Run along and have your talk,” Mrs. Theilman said. “You’ll find me at the Double Take Casino, and if I’ve got a good-looking man in tow by that time, don’t interrupt. I take it this can keep until morning.”

Janice Wainwright seemed undecided.

“It’s all right,” Mrs. Theilman said, and bowing to Della Street, smiling at Mason, turned and walked away.

Janice Wainwright stood looking after her. “Heavens,” she said, “I’d never have recognized the woman. Look at that figure.”

“Quite a figure,” Mason said. “I take it that it wasn’t always like that.”

“Lord, no I She says she’s taken off thirty-five pounds. I’ll bet she’s taken off forty-five. Why, the woman was positively matronly and now... well, just look at her.”

“I’m looking,” Mason said.

Once more Della Street’s elbow made contact with the lawyer’s ribs.

“All right,” Mason said, “now tell me what this is all about and talk fast. You’ve left me in a most embarrassing position. You knew that Mr. Theilman had disappeared.”

She laughed and said, “He had to disappear, but he’ll reappear tomorrow and then everything will be all right. I’m sorry that I— Well, I guess I sort of goofed, Mr. Mason. I fell for the build-up myself. I should have had more confidence in the man I was working for.”

Mason said, “You came to my office with a suitcase full of money. You —”

“Oh, Mr. Mason, I’m so sorry about that! There’s one thing that I can tell you, however. You’re going to be compensated for all the work you’ve done and all the trouble you’ve been to. That’s one thing that I insisted on.”

“Thank you,” Mason said. “Now suppose you tell me what it’s all about.”

She said, “Will you believe me, Mr. Mason, when I tell you that even when I telephoned you this morning I didn’t know a thing in the world of what it was all about?”

“Keep talking,” Mason said. “I’m getting rather skeptical these days. Go ahead. What’s your version?”

“It isn’t a version,” she said. “It’s the truth.”

“All right, what’s the truth?”

“Well, the explanation is simple when you come right down to it. There wasn’t any blackmailer and there wasn’t any blackmail.”

“All right, go on,” Mason said. “What’s the story?”

“Well,” she said, “when Mr. Theilman and his first wife were divorced, she got quite a large property settlement. Some of it was in cash and some of it was in the form of stock in a corporation that Mr. Theilman controls — that is, he always has controlled it.

“But recently Mr. Theilman found out that a move was being made by interests that are hostile to him to get control of the corporation. He never was able to find out exactly who was back of it because whoever it is, is working through dummies and through attorneys. But as soon as Mr. Theilman found out what was going on, he naturally wanted to keep them from getting control.

“Now then, Mrs. Theilman — that is, Carlotta Theilman, the first Mrs. Theilman — has so much stock that her holdings are very, very important. In fact, Mr. Theilman’s whole future may pivot on what she does with her stock.

“Now, naturally Mr. Theilman wasn’t in a position to approach her himself. He had quite a conference with Cole Troy over in Bakersfield about the whole situation and when he left Bakersfield Mr. Theilman was very, very much concerned about things. He had tried to approach Carlotta through dummies, but Carlotta said simply that she wouldn’t deal with anyone except with Mr. Theilman personally.

“Of course, now I realize why she adopted that position.”

“Why?” Mason asked.

“Because she’s changed her appearance so much she’s become really beautiful, the way she was when Mr. Theilman first married her. Heaven knows what sacrifices she’s made in the way of diet, exercise and how much she spent for beauty treatments, but she looks fifteen years younger and — well, you saw her figure. You’d never have believed that— Well, I think she must have weighed a good hundred and sixty pounds — and of course she’s done things to her hair and—”

“Never mind all that,” Mason said. “I want to know what happened after you telephoned me this morning.”

“Mr. Theilman telephoned me.”

“Telephoned you?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Right after I telephoned you, almost as soon as I had hung up the phone.”

“And what did he want?”

“He wanted me to go to a beauty parlor, get some money from the safe, go to Las Vegas, meet Carlotta Theilman and wait for him.”

“And where was he when he phoned?”

“At Palmdale subdivision — about twenty-seven miles out of Bakersfield.”

“What’s at Palmdale subdivision?”

“A subdivision that went broke. He and Troy picked it up for a song.”

“It’s property they are subdividing?”

“Well, it’s a long story. There had been a subdivision there and the subdivision had gone kaput. Mr. Theilman bought it for a song and he feels that it’s going to be immensely valuable in a few years. The only trouble is they started the subdivision too soon.”

“All right,” Mason said, “tell me some more about why you’re here.”

“Mr. Theilman told me that he wanted to keep entirely out of sight. He said that he must have Carlotta’s proxy — I call her Carlotta. I shouldn’t. It’s Mrs. Carlotta Theilman, the first—”

“Never mind the protocol,” Mason said. “She’s waiting and I’m waiting. Call her Carlotta or anything else, but tell me what happened.”

“Well, he told me to come here and meet Carlotta. He said he was going to have to see her personally and that his wife wouldn’t like that. He said I had to help him, keep the secret and be prepared to swear I was with Carlotta all the time if it ever leaked out.”

“What did you say?”

“I asked him where he’d been and told him his wife was frantic. That seemed to puzzle him. He said that she shouldn’t be, that he’d made arrangements to let her know he was going to be gone for a few days on a business trip. He said he’d phone her later on, but in the meantime I wasn’t to tell anyone I’d heard from him.

“He told me to go to the cash drawer in the safe and take enough money for expenses. He said I was to get myself dolled up and get up here to Las Vegas and meet Carlotta when she came in on the eleven-twenty train; that I was to tell her that he was going to come up here and join her, but I was to stay with her all the time.

“While he didn’t say so in so many words, I knew he wanted to fix things so if the present Mrs. Theilman learned about it, he could show that the whole thing was a business matter.

“On the other hand, I can see I’m going to have troubles because I see what that woman’s trying to do now. She’s made herself attractive and she’s preparing now to go into competition with the present Mrs. Theilman... Oh, Mr. Mason, it’s such a mixed-up business and I do so hope I can do the job right.”

“You got yourself all prettied up for the occasion,” Mason said.

“Yes, that was— Well, Mr. Theilman told me to and— Gosh, Mr. Mason, I get so tired of going around looking just plain efficient and, well, plain efficient. I—”

“I know what you mean,” Mason said. “How often do you break away and get yourself glamoured up?”

“This is the first time in two years that I’ve really gone all the way.”

“Has Mr. Theilman ever seen you like this?”

“Yes... of course... That’s why he told me to get myself prettied up and make myself as glamorous as possible.”

Mason looked at her with exasperation. “Why do you insist on making yourself look so drab?”

“I thought... I felt— That is, I think it’s expedient under the circumstances.”

Mason said, “All right. We’ll get the rest of the explanation afterwards. I’ve been put to more trouble over your intrigue and lack of frankness... Why didn’t you telephone me and tell me you’d heard from Mr. Theilman and everything was all right?”

“I was told not to tell a soul, Mr. Mason. I told Mr. Theilman about having been to see you. I confessed the whole thing and I told him that you were so nice to me, that you’d only taken a dollar and— Well, Mr. Theilman said to take two hundred and fifty dollars and told me to give that to you, and to tell you to send a bill to him for any expenses that you’d been to.

“Here.”

Janice Wainwright opened her purse, took out a roll of bills around which an elastic had been fastened, thrust it into Mason’s hands, said, “I hope you’ll forgive me, Mr. Mason.”

Mason turned to Della Street, grinned and said, “I guess the one I have to forgive is myself. My damned curiosity... All right, you go pick up Mrs. Theilman at the casino and have a good time... Now, you told Mr. Theilman that his wife was worried about him?”

“Yes.”

“And what did he say?”

“He said he couldn’t understand it because he’d arranged for her to have a message that he was going to be away for several days on a business deal. He seemed very much concerned about that. He promised me that he’d get in touch with her very shortly, and I assume that he did so.”

“Is there a phone up there in that subdivision, the place you refer to as the Palmdale subdivision?”

“No, not right there. The nearest one is at a service station about two miles down the road.”

Mason said, “Well, you go ahead and—”

A dry, husky voice from behind Mason’s shoulder said, “Of course I don’t like to interrupt, but if you’re entirely finished, Mr. Mason, I—”

Mason whirled. “Lieutenant Tragg!” he exclaimed.

Tragg smiled and raised his hat to Della Street. “How do you do, Della?”

Janice Wainwright looked from one to the other.

“Lieutenant Tragg, Los Angeles Homicide,” Mason said. “What are you doing here?”

Tragg smiled and said, “Permit me to introduce my companion, Lieutenant Sophia, of the Las Vegas police force.

“And now, answering your question, Mr. Mason, I am here to interrogate Janice Wainwright in connection with the murder of her employer, Morley L. Theilman.”