Case of the Runaway Corpse by Erle Stanley Gardner

Author:Erle Stanley Gardner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 1954-08-17T17:33:09+00:00

Chapter 8

The police car pulled in to the curb and as Mason was escorted into the building, a tall man with a good-natured grin came forward and extended his hand.

“Perry Mason?”

“That’s right.” Mason said, taking the proffered hand.

“I’m Talbert Vandling,” the man said. “I’m the district attorney here in Fresno. Looks as though I’m going to be trying a murder case with you on the other side.”

Mason sized the man up. The cool, steady eyes, the easy, relaxed affability which emanated from him.

“I think,” he said, “you might be rather a dangerous antagonist.”

“I’d try to be,” Vandling told him. “Now what’s all this about you opening a letter up in Butte County?”

“Am I supposed to have opened a letter?” Mason asked.

“The D.A. up there thinks you did.”

“Was it a crime?”

“Well,” Vandling said, “that depends on how you look at it.”

Mason smiled at him. “I take it you have troubles of your own down here in your county.”

“You can say that again.”

“Then I take it it won’t be necessary for you to borrow any problems from Butte County in order to keep yourself comfortably busy.”

Vandling threw back his head and laughed.

Mason said, “I understand you’re holding Mrs. Edward Davenport here. She’s my client. I want to talk with her and advise her as to her rights.”

The smile left Vandling’s face. “There are some things about that case I can’t understand, Mason. Now I don’t want to prosecute anyone who isn’t guilty. According to her story she knows nothing about the murder. In other words, she’s innocent.”

Mason nodded.

“Unfortunately,” Vandling said, “there are some circumstances which make it impossible for me to accept her story at face value.”

“How about the corpse climbing out of the window?” Mason asked.

“That’s one of the things I was coming to,” Vandling said. “I’m going to put my cards on the table and I’d like to have you put your cards on the table.”

“Well,” Mason said, “let’s not do it all at once. You put down one of your cards and I’ll see if I can match it.”

“All right,” Vandling said. “The police made an investigative blunder. I’ll be perfectly frank in telling you that.”

“How come?”

“The man who saw the figure, apparently clad in pajamas, climb out of the window and drive away has slipped through our fingers.”

“How did that happen?”

“He gave a fictitious address and presumably a false name to the officers.”

“And the officers let it go at that?”

Vandling said, “Figure it out for yourself. He was registered there at this motel. He wasn’t alone. The couple was registered as husband and wife. He told the officers about having seen the figure in pajamas getting out of the window and driving away in the automobile. The officers asked for his name and address. He gave them the name and the address under which he was registered. The officers checked that. They found that he’d registered the night before under that name and they let it go at that. They didn’t ask to see his driving license. They didn’t check the number of his car.

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