23- The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito by Erle Stanley Gardner

Author:Erle Stanley Gardner [Gardner, Erle Stanley]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-02-19T10:04:04+00:00

Chapter 13

Mason paused in the doorway of the bedroom. “You’re sure you’re feeling well enough to travel?”

“Yes. I’m all right now. I felt, for a while, like a dishrag that had been tied in knots.”

“Tell you what I want you to do, Della. Cover me while I go into this room down the hall, will you?”

“What do I do?”

“Stand here in the doorway. If you hear anyone coming, act as though you were just on the point of stepping out in the hall, start a conversation and—”

“But suppose that person goes into that room?”

“That’s a chance I’ll have to take. I can’t avoid that. What I want to prevent is having anyone see me entering Banning Clarke’s room or emerging from it.”

“Okay. It doesn’t make any difference who it is, you don’t want anyone to know you’re in there?”

“That’s right.”

“If Lieutenant Tragg should come back, I’ll have trouble. He’ll want to know just where you are.”

“Yes,” Mason said. “All we can do is pray. Raise your voice and greet whoever it is by name so I’ll have a chance to know just what I’m up against. All ready?”

“Give me a few minutes to get my clothes on.”

“No. I can’t wait. I’m going to pop in that door now. Cover me. You can dress while you’re keeping an eye on the corridor. All ready. Here I go.”

Mason left the doorway, moved quietly down the corridor until he came abreast of the bedroom in which he had seen Mrs. Bradisson sitting at the desk. The door of this room was closed now. Mason opened it abruptly, darted into the room.

103 closing the door behind him, and waiting for a moment, listening to see if Della Street gave any signal.

When he heard nothing, Mason clicked on the light switch near the door, flooding the room with briUiance, and went over to the roll-top desk. He had no difficulty finding the legal paper which Mrs. Bradisson had placed in the pigeonhole.

Mason unfolded it. It was a will dated the twelfth of July, 1941, apparently entirely in the handwriting of Banning Clarke. The will left everything to his beloved wife, Elvira, or “in the event she should predecease me, then to her lawful heirs at law-excluding, however, James Bradisson from any share in my said estate.”

Mason wasted only a few seconds on the will. He hastily glanced through it, returned it to the pigeonhole in the desk, and then set himself to the task of finding what had caused the pounding noises he had heard after he had left the room.

Mason first gave the carpet a careful scrutiny. There was nothing to indicate that it had been lifted and then replaced. He tried all the edges, carefully inspected the corners. There were half a dozen framed photographs in the room. Mason moved them out from the walls, scrutinized the backs of the picture frames to see if the brads which held the cardboard in place had been removed and then replaced.

At the end of his search he could find no indication that any of the pictures had been tampered with.

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