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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The dog, now much more obedient and less hostile, promptly settled down on his haunches, and looked to Hackley for instructions.
Mason led the way to the automobile, climbed in the driver’s seat. Drake held the door open for Della Street, and she jumped into the car. Drake followed her with an apprehensive glance over his shoulder in the direction of the dog. He slammed the door shut with a quick motion of his arm.
Della laughed, “Still thinking about the dog, Paul?” she asked.
“You’re damned right I am,” Drake said.
Mason started the car. Hackley, standing motionless in the doorway, watched the car glide into motion.
Della Street caught his eye, waved her hand almost surreptitiously.
Hackley’s grim mouth softened into a smile. The car swept along the graveled driveway.
“Well,” Drake said, “I told you he was tough.”
“He’s tough,” Mason said, “but we still have a few clues to run down which arc going to be very interesting.”
“Such as what?” Drake asked.
Mason said, “You can see that dog is very well trained. He certainly didn’t get the dog with the place, and he didn’t pick up the dog in California. The dog was one that he must have had on his Nevada ranch and of which he must be very fond, otherwise he wouldn’t have taken the animal with him while he was trying to make a getaway.”
“All right, what does that add up to?” Drake asked.
“Hackley is afraid of something. He leaves the dog outside guarding the place. The dog is trained so that no one can come to the place at night.”
“Well, what about that?”
Mason said, “We are now going to stop at the home of Rolando C. Lomax and find out if he heard the dog staging a particularly violent demonstration of barking at approximately one o’clock this morning.”
Drake chuckled, “I’ll hand it to you for that one, Perry. It’s an idea.”
Mason drove down the graveled driveway to the pavement, then turned the car to the right, stopped in front of the house of Rolando Lomax.
Lomax, answering their ring of the bell, seemed cordial enough.
He was a husky man nearing sixty, his heavy shoulders stooped from hard work, his skin tanned and wrinkled by exposure. His hair was turning gray, matted on his forehead and still bearing evidences of perspiration resulting from physical effort. The sleeves of his woolen shirt were rolled up disclosing hairy arms and huge powerful hands.
Mason said, “We’re investigators checking up on something that happened in the neighborhood. Perhaps you’ve heard about it.”
“You mean the woman who was killed down the highway?”
Mason nodded.
“What did you want to know?”
“You were here last night?”
“Yes.”
“Did you,” Mason asked, “hear anything unusual taking place up at the house back there?”
“You mean the one that’s been bought by that tall dude?”
“That’s the one.”
“I heard the dog bark like hell last night,” Lomax said. “I told my wife something must be wrong. The dog was really making a commotion.”
“Do you know what time it was?” Mason asked.
“I know exactly what time it was. That is, I don’t know exactly what time it started, but after the dog kept on barking for a while I thought there must be something wrong and got up and looked out of the window. My bedroom window looks right over towards the Hackley house.”
“Yes, yes,” Mason said eagerly, “and what happened?”
“Well, I looked at my watch. I thought something might be wrong over there. When I got up it was exactly twenty-four minutes past twelve.”
“And your clock is right?” Mason asked.
“Just about right. I set it by a radio program every day. It isn’t over a second or two off.”
“And it was just about twelve-twenty-five?”
“Exactly twelve-twenty-four,” Lomax said. “I made a note of the time.”
“And how long did the dog keep barking?”
“Just about as soon as I got to the window, I saw lights come on over there in that house this Hackley had bought — and then all of a sudden the dog quit barking as though someone had told him to shut up. I waited for a while. The lights stayed on and the dog quit barking so I figured everything was all right and went back to bed. The dog must have been barking three or four minutes before I got up.
“If you ask me, that dog’s a mean one, but I’m not saying anything — not yet, I’m trying to be neighborly. However, I’ve got chickens here and if he ever starts killing chickens I’m going to march right over there and tell Hackley that a dog like that is a city dog. He’s got no business being out here in the country. Never saw one of them yet that wasn’t a killer when you get ’em out in the country. Damned shame too. The people who had that house used to be nice people. They were rich but neighborly. They’d do anything. I guess they were city people all right but they sort of fitted into a country background.
“Now you take this here Hackley, he’s different. He’s city from the word ‘go’ and he’s one of these fellows that doesn’t want to have any neighbors. He treats me as though I wasn’t here. Just goes on by. Sometimes he’ll nod, sometimes he won’t. Never has stopped to pass the time of day.
“Out here in the country a man gets to depend on his neighbors and when you find a man who’s unsociable like that it bothers you.”
“It certainly would,” Mason said.
“So I’m not under any obligations to put up with any monkeyshines from that dog. Don’t like ’im. Had trouble with a dog like that once before.”
“And the dog only barked once that night?”
“Just that one time,” Lomax said.
“You didn’t happen to notice a car going in or out of the driveway?”
“I didn’t happen to notice any car,” Lomax said doggedly. “When I go to bed, I go to bed to sleep. I’ve got a thirty-acre ranch here and it’s a job working it. I’m pretty tired and ready for bed when it gets that time of day. I listen to the news broadcast at nine o’clock, and then I’m ready to roll in. I don’t usually wake up until daylight. I’m up just about daylight and starting work. What’s more, I’m not the sort that pries into the affairs of my neighbors and I don’t want my neighbors prying into my affairs. I want to live and let live. That’s the way we are down here.”
“And you didn’t see or hear any automobile?”
“I didn’t see or hear anything until I heard that dog barking and I got up then to see what it was all about. The way the dog sounded — well, it’s the way a dog sounds when he’s a little worked up over something. Pretty hysterical, if you ask me.”
“You think somebody was over there?”
“I think the dog was pretty much worked up over something.”
“You didn’t see anyone over there?”
“It’s just like I told you. I saw the lights were on in the house and after a while the dog quit barking. Then I went back to bed.”
“And how long before you went to sleep?” Mason asked.
“How long before what?”
“Before you went back to sleep.”
“I don’t know,” Lomax said. “I didn’t have any stop watch. It might have been — I don’t know. Hell, it might have been thirty seconds, maybe almost a minute.”
“Thank you,” Mason said, smiling. “Please don’t mention anything about our having been here. I don’t want Hackley to know we stopped in and I think that you and Hackley would get along better if he didn’t know you’d given us this information.”
“I don’t care what he knows,” Lomax said. “I hew to the line and the chips can fall where they want to.”
Mason wished him good night. The three trooped back to Mason’s car.
Della Street said, “I committed a little petit larceny out there at Hackley’s place.”