The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom
- Автор: Гарднер Эрл Стенли
- Серия: Perry Mason #35
- Год: 1949
- Язык: английский
- Год: William Morrow
- Жанр: Классические детективы
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“What did she do?”
“I didn’t have any opportunity to find out all she did. Your interference upset that. But she had a handful of papers which I now believe were proxies. She was opening the drawer of the proxy file when your activities took me off the job — and, unfortunately, kept me off the job.”
Mason thought that over.
“Why were you watching the office in the first placer Whom were you after?”
She knuckled her eyes, yawned prodigiously.
“I believe he’s the secretary and treasurer. His name is Denby.”
“Do you know him?”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“Not well. I just know him when I see him.”
“Why were you spying on him?”
“Because my mother has every cent of her money invested in that company and I was afraid something was going wrong.”
“Now we’re beginning to get somewhere,” Mason said. “What made you think something was going wrong?”
“I thought there was something — well, something shady going on.”
“What made you think that?”
She said, “Mother received a proxy in the mail. She always gave proxies to Mr. Garvin. I guess everyone did. The stockholders were satisfied with the company. It made money and — well, I guess that’s all they wanted, to have it make money.”
Mason said, “Come on, quit beating around the bush. You knew something was in the wind. You were out on the fire escape with a gun in your hand. You weren’t carrying that gun just as an ornament; you were carrying it for some particular specific purpose.”
She said, “I was simply carrying it for my own protection, Mr. Mason. As a matter of fact, I’ve been carrying that gun in my purse whenever I’ve been out late at night. I’m employed as a stenographer and sometimes I work late at night. The car line is three blocks from here. I have to walk from that car line to this apartment house. The way things have been going — well, you read in the papers about the way girls have been attacked and — well, I carried the gun. That’s what my brother gave it to me for. I suppose I shouldn’t have carried it without a permit, but anyway you want to know the facts, and those are the facts. It’s just that simple.”
“And why did you take the gun out of your purse and have it in your hand when you were out on the fire escape?”
“Because I was scared. I didn’t know what would happen if I were caught.”
“And what were you doing out on the fire escape?”
“As I’m telling you, Mr. Mason, my mother had received the usual proxy and had signed it, and then as we were casually discussing the company, she just happened to tell me that she’d received another proxy and signed it. I couldn’t understand why they would have sent out two proxies, but didn’t think much about it until she mentioned that the proxy had been just a little different in its wording from the way they usually came out; that the proxy listed the certificate number of Mr. Garvin’s share of stock. Well, I started wondering about that and I went down and asked the girl who had charge of the office about the date of the stockholders’ meeting and a few questions, and then told her who I was and asked her if I could see my mother’s proxy.”
“And what happened?”
“Well, she went over and asked this Mr. Denby about it, and Mr. Denby came over, all smiles and courtesy, and told me, certainly, he’d be only too glad to let me see the proxy my mother had signed. He went to the files and took out what must have been the first proxy. It was made out just that way, to E. C. Garvin. There was nothing on it about any certificate number.”
“So you went back out and climbed out on the fire escape and...”
She said, “You’re trying to make it sound absurd, aren’t you, Mr. Mason?”
“Well, it does sound a little fishy to me, to tell the truth.”
She struggled to fight back a yawn, then, putting her hand over her mouth, surrendered to the yawn. Her eyes seemed heavy from lack of sleep.
“Go ahead,” Mason said.
“You can call it a woman’s intuition if you want to. I don’t know what accounts for it, but in any event I’ve always followed my hunches. When I was up there, looking things over, I saw that the Drake Detective Agency was in the building and there was a sign on the directory board stating that it was open twenty-four hours a day and that persons who went to the Drake Detective Agency did not need to register with the elevator operator after hours.
“I kept thinking that over and finally decided I’d go up and talk with the Drake Detective Agency. Then I had a brilliant idea. I remembered a landing of the fire escape was outside the window of the office of the mining company. I got off at Drake’s floor, found the stairs, walked up two flights, located the landing to the fire escape, went out on it, crept down one flight and found I was on the landing just outside the window of the office I wanted.
“The window was open just a little bit. It wasn’t locked. I was wrest-ling with the temptation to go in when all of a sudden a shadow formed against the frosted glass on the outside of the door. I could see that someone was coming in... There was a night light in the corridor and it showed the shadow of some person fitting a key to the door of the office.
“I was in a panic. I was... well, Mr. Mason, I’d just made up my mind that I was going to go in and take a look at the proxy file from which Mr. Denby had removed Mother’s proxy when he showed it to me. I actually had one leg over the sill.”
“Go on,” Mason said.
“Well, I backed up fast and started down the fire escape. Then this person came in and switched on the lights and I realized that the lights were streaming out through the window and that I would be plainly visible. Well, I started down the fire escape and then you moved and I saw you, and my skirts blew up, and — well, frankly, Mr. Mason,” she said, smiling disarmingly, “I was in what I would consider one hell of a fix.”
Mason said, “You seem to me to be a very determined young woman.”
“I am and I’m... Mr. Mason, I’m sorry, I’m downright sorry about what I did — slapping your face.”
“You should be. I owe you one for that.”
She laughed. “You were so darned decent about — well, about everything. I didn’t feel that I could tell you all about what was happening and what I was doing there and — well, I felt you wouldn’t believe me even if I did try to explain and I was desperate.”
Mason said, “You’re telling me all about this quite readily now.”
“The circumstances are entirely different. You’ve found me. I suppose that means — oh, I’ll bet I know!”
“What?” Mason asked.
“You found that gun,” she charged. “I wondered what happened to it.”
“Suppose you tell me a little more about the gun?” Mason invited.
“I didn’t throw it down in the alley. I made a motion with my hand, as though I was going to throw it, but I didn’t. I made that motion and then whirled around and put the gun on the fire escape right next to the wall on the landing. I intended to go back and get it later — but when I had a chance to go back it was gone. I supposed you’d figured out what must have happened and had gone back and found it. You must have done that, traced the numbers, found my brother had bought it and — so that’s the way it was!”
Mason said, “How did you know the gun was gone, Virginia?”
She shifted her eyes for a moment, then turned back to face him squarely. “I led with my chin on that one, didn’t I?”
“I’m interested in knowing,” Mason said.
She said, “I was back there last night as well as the night before. All last night, in fact. That’s why I’m so damn sleepy this morning. This business of working all night — and I almost froze to death last night. I’m telling you, Mr. Mason, I looked longingly down in your office and thought I’d give almost anything to get warm.”