Case of the Cautious Coquette by Erle Stanley Gardner

Author:Erle Stanley Gardner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 1949-08-16T12:16:47+00:00

Chapter 17

“Do you want me to run down and deposit those checks?” Della Street asked.

“No,” Mason said. “I’m going to do that job myself. It’ll give me a legitimate excuse to be out of the office for a while.”

“And after that?” she asked.

“And after that,” he said, “I’m going to have to think up another one. If I can’t think of a legitimate excuse, IH think of an illegitimate one and have to make it sound legitimate.”

“Bad as that?”

“It may be.”

“I remember,” Mason interrupted.

“Well, the police decided they’d talk with him. Apparently they had a hunch somewhere, so they brought him down here and went over his gun register with him, and they don’t like the looks of what they find.”

“What do they find, Paul?”

“Well, in the first place, while the signature purports to be that of Ross P. Hollister, and the address and everything matches, the name on the gun register apparently was written by someone else. The specimens don’t agree with Hollister’s handwriting.”

“What else?”

“And among other things, the police found that Lucille Barton was playing around a bit with a man by the name of Arthur Colson. Exactly what his relationship is isn’t clear, but in any event, when

“You there?” Drake asked abruptly.

“I’m here,” Mason said. “I’m doing a little thinking. Anything else, Paul?”

“That’s all at present.”

“What does Arthur Colson say?” Mason asked after a moment.

“Arthur Colson says it’s a case of mistaken identification. He’s squawking his head off. He said that if the police wanted to make any sort of an identification they should have put him in a line-up, and let this man Hansom identify him. Of course, the police realize that he has a point there. The police were simply exploring around when they stumbled on to this. However, they don’t like what they’re finding, and they’re going to keep digging.”

“Any chance it is a false identification, Paul?”

“Not a chance in the world. As I get the story, this fellow Hansom is a pretty shrewd old duck. He knows most of the customers who come in the store, that is, the regular customers. Along during the fishing season, there’s quite an influx of people buying fishing licenses and all that, but this was off season. He remembers the transaction and he’s absolutely positive of his identification. He certainly impressed the police.”

“That makes it look a little different,” Mason said.

“Moreover,” Drake went on, “they made a paraffin test on Pitkin’s hands. That, of course, isn’t as conclusive as it might be, but nevertheless it means a lot where they get an absolutely negative reaction within such a short time after a gun has been fired.”

“There was no reaction?”

“Not at all. Police did a good job on that one. They made the test even before the body was moved. Something about the case made them a little suspicious.”

“Do you know what it was, Paul?”

“I think I do, Perry.”

“What?”

“You’re not going to like this.”

“Hell, I don’t like any of it,” Mason said.

“Well, there was quite a little spot of blood on the garage floor directly underneath the gun.

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