The Case of the Shapely Shadow

Chapter Eleven

Paul Drake, his skin oily with fatigue, a stubble showing along the angle of his jaw, was still at work in his office when Mason and Della Street came in at three-thirty in the morning.

“What do you know, Paul?” Mason asked.

“Not too much,” Drake said. “The body was found up at a subdivision in the mountains back of Palmdale. It’s a place Theilman had purchased after a subdivider went broke on it. There’s one of those real estate office buildings on it — a sharp-roofed little office affair. The body was found in there, face down on the floor.”

“How was he killed?”

“Gun shot, right through the heart. Thirty-eight caliber.”

“Any weapon found?”

“No weapon.”

“Clues?”

“I wouldn’t know all of them,” Drake said, “but there are plenty. There was a thundershower up there during the night and so it’s possible to put certain things together. Two cars had been driven in there before the thundershower, Theilman’s Cadillac and Janice Wain-Wright’s Ford. The thundershower dampened the ground. There was just one set of tracks going through the damp ground. Those were the tracks of Janice Wainwright’s automobile when she left the place.

“So you can figure what happened. Theilman intended to drive home and reach there about eleven o’clock. When he left Troy’s office in Bakersfield, Janice Wainwright, all dolled up like a million dollars, followed him to where he had the car parked. After he had telephoned his wife—”

“Now, wait a minute,” Mason interrupted. “I’m a suspicious guy. Do we know that he telephoned his wife?”

“Sure we do. He went to a phone booth and used his telephone credit card. He put through a person-to-person call to his wife. They have a record of it there on the call sheet.”

“He called his wife and talked to her?”

“That’s right, at least the call was completed.”

“Scratch one form,” Mason said.

“What do you mean, scratch one form?”

“Troy saw a shapely shadow,” Mason said. “Anyone who has seen the second Mrs. Theilman is impressed by her shape. I was hoping that she had perhaps followed her husband to Bakersfield and was following him back.”

“In that case somebody must have accepted the telephone call in her name,” Drake said.

“All right, go on. What else, Paul?”

“Well, there’s nothing to it, Perry. You can put the whole thing together. That thundershower traps your client. There was a bed up in that little real estate house and evidently it wasn’t the first time Theilman had stayed up there, and probably wasn’t the first time your client stayed up there. Theilman told his wife only that he was going over to Bakersfield to have a business conference with Cole Troy. Actually he shaved in the middle of the afternoon and put on a fresh suit of clothes. Now you tell me: Does a man about to take a hundred-mile drive to meet another man on a business conference do those things? Not on your life. He had a date with Janice Wainwright. They quarreled. She killed him and skipped out with the dough. That thunder-shower and the tracks of her car have trapped her.”

“All right,” Mason said resignedly. “What is the D.A.’s office doing, Paul? Going to have a preliminary?”

“No one knows yet,” Drake said, “but I don’t think so because they’re issuing subpoenas to appear before the grand jury and—”

There was a short, sharp ring on Drake’s telephone. Drake picked it up, said, “Yes,” then before he had time to say anything else the door opened and Lt. Tragg stood smiling in the doorway.

“Well, gentlemen,” Tragg said, “we all seem to be working late.”

Mason grinned. “This isn’t late, Tragg, it’s early. We’re starting a new day.”

“That’s fine,” Tragg said. “Start it right, then. I have a little present for you and Della Street, Perry.”

“What is it?” Mason asked.

Tragg handed out two folded papers. “Subpoenas duces tecum to appear before the grand jury,” he said, “in its investigation of the murder of Morley L. Theilman.”

“You can’t make an attorney a witness against his client,” Mason said, “and that same protection applies to the secretary.”

“I know, I know,” Tragg said. “We don’t want your testimony, Mason, we just want the things that are in your possession — the tape recording and the disc showing the numbers on the twenty-dollar bills that were in the suitcase your client took to your office.”

Mason’s face was without expression. “You assume, then, that such articles are in existence?”

“I know they’re in existence,” Tragg said.

“It will be a pleasure to co-operate with you in any way as far as factual evidence is concerned, Lieutenant.”

“I was sure it would be,” Tragg said ironically. “Please be very careful not to let any of the evidence get destroyed, Mr. Mason, and be sure to bring it with you when you appear before the grand jury.

“Well, I know you folks are tired. You’ve certainly had a hard day and quite a night. I don’t want to interfere with your sleep so I’ll be leaving.”

Tragg smiled, bowed and left the office.

“Well, there you are,” Drake said.

“That,” Mason announced, “means that Janice Wainwright has talked. She’s told the police everything she knows, including her story of the visit to my office and the fact that we took down the numbers of those twenty-dollar bills. The police couldn’t have learned about that any other way.”

Drake studied Mason thoughtfully. “You seemed awfully damned willing to give Tragg that evidence. Aren’t you going to try to hold it out?”

“No. Why should we hold it out? We’ll go before the grand jury and give them anything we have.”

“Say,” Drake said suddenly, “your client didn’t pay you any fees or anything in twenty-dollar bills, did she, Perry?”

Mason looked at him in surprise. “What makes you think that?” he asked.

“I was just wondering,” Drake said.

Mason said suavely, “If you’ll read the subpoena duces tecum quite carefully, Paul, you’ll find that while we’re ordered to produce any records which we made in the office of the numbers of those bills, there’s nothing said about producing any money which might have been given to me by my client.”

Drake said, “Now look, Perry, don’t try to cut any corners on this thing. These boys mean business this time, and they’re not fooling around with any preliminary hearing. They’re going to get the testimony in front of a grand jury, get an indictment, and take your client into court in front of a jury.”

“Fine,” Mason said. “I’m always willing to take my chances in front of a jury. Well, we’ll be shoving off, Paul.”

Mason and Della Street left the office. Mason gave Della Street some bills. “Take these down and put them in the safe before you go home, will you, Della?”

“What is this?” Della Street asked.

“I believe we received two hundred and fifty dollars from our client,” Mason said.

“Is this the same two hundred and fifty dollars?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t know,” Mason said. “I’ve mixed the money all up with my own money, I’m afraid, and I know I’ve spent some money, including the cash tip we gave the pilot of the plane. After all, there isn’t any restraining order telling me not to spend money, and so far there’s been no subpoena to produce money we’ve received from our client.”