Erle Stanley Gardner - Perry Mason 02 - The Case Of The Sulky Girl by Erle Stanley Gardner

Author:Erle Stanley Gardner [Gardner, Erle Stanley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-02-19T10:03:56+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

HARRY NEVERS was tall and thin, with eyes that looked at the world with a bored expression. His hair was in need of trimming, and his face had that oily appearance which comes to one who has gone long without sleep. He looked as though he had been up all night, and had, as a matter of fact, been up for two.

He walked into Perry Mason’s office and perched himself on the arm of the big black leather chair.

“I’m going to give you a break,” said Perry Mason, “and I want a favor.”

Nevers spoke in a dull monotone of low-voiced comment.

“Sure,” he said. “I had that all figured out a long time ago. Where is she?”

“Where’s who?” asked Mason.

“Frances Celane.”

“Who wants to know?”

“I do.”

“What’s the big idea?”

Nevers yawned and slid back over the arm of the chair, so that he was seated cross-wise in the chair.

“Hell,” he said, “don’t try to surprise me. That’s been tried by experts. I doped out the play as soon as I got the call. There was nothing to it. Frances Celane had a nervous breakdown and was rushed to a sanitarium. Last night the District Attorney uncovered evidence which made him decide to put a first degree murder rap on her. She was secretly married to a chap named Gleason. They’ve picked up Gleason, and they’re getting ready to go after Frances Celane.

“You’re Frances Celane’s attorney. You’ve got her under cover somewhere. It’s a cover that’s deep enough to keep her from walking into a trap until you’re ready to have her surrender. But you can’t keep her under cover when the newspapers broadcast that she’s wanted for murder. You’ve got a doctor mixed up in it, and a hospital. They wouldn’t stand for it, even if you wanted them to. So it’s a cinch you’ve got to turn her up, and you just picked on me to get the news, because you wanted something. Now tell me what you want, and I’ll tell you whether we’ll make a trade.”

Perry Mason frowned thoughtfully, and made little drumming noises with his fingertips on the edge of the desk.

“I don’t know what I want, Harry,” he said.

Harry Nevers shook his head lugubriously.

“With the hard-boiled bunch I’m working for, brother, if you don’t know what you want, you’re never going to get it. If you’re going to make a trade you’ve got to make a trade right now.”

“Well,” said Perry Mason slowly, “I can tell you generally what I want. Somewhere along the line I’m going to try to get two or three people back at the Norton residence, under conditions that were similar to those which existed at the time of the murder. I don’t know just how I’m going to do it. Somewhere along the line I’m going to make a point about the fact that the Buick automobile, which was reported stolen, wasn’t taken out of the garage. All I want you to do is to see that I get a reasonable amount of publicity on those two points.

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