The Case of the Glamourous Ghost by Erle Stanley Gardner

Author:Erle Stanley Gardner [Gardner, Erle Stanley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mytery, Crime, Detective, Suspense
ISBN: 9780345307811
Amazon: B002C1EHLS
Barnesnoble: B002C1EHLS
Publisher: Cardinal
Published: 1955-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

A somewhat bored attendant at the coroner’s office said, “I’ll have to call either the D.A. or the police.”

“You won’t catch the D.A. at this hour,” Mason said. “There was a stipulation made in court this afternoon that we could inspect the clothing of Douglas Hepner.”

“Oh, I guess it’s all right,” the attendant said. “There’s no reason why you shouldn’t Didn’t Raymond Orla testify up there today?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, I’ve got a night number. I can get him. He’ll be getting home just about this time. You wait here.”

The attendant entered another office, carefully closing the door behind him, then, after some five minutes, came back and nodded. “It’s okay,” he said. “Orla said the D.A. said you could look at them. Right this way.”

“There were some articles of personal property,” Mason said. “A fountain pen, notebook, things of that sort.”

“Those will be in this little lock box here.”

“Certainly,” Mason said, glancing significantly at Della Street.

“My, what a job you must have here,” Della Street said, moving over to inspect some of the other lockers. “You have to keep all of these straight.” She laughed. “As a secretary I can appreciate the problem you have.”

“Of course, you see, things keep changing here. We’ll have cases come in and . . . some of them aren’t here twenty- four hours. Some of them where there’s a court action on are here for weeks. Now over here is our temporary side. Things here run from twenty-four to seventy-two hours. And in this other room over here we keep the bodies. On this temporary side the numbers on the lockers and the numbers on the lockers containing the bodies are both the same so that we can give a body a key-number—take a tag and tie it on his big toe.

“I presume this is all pretty gruesome to you. Most women get the creeps. You can see that tier of files in there looks like oversized filing drawers. Each one of them has a body, kept under just the right amount of refrigeration.”

“No, it doesn’t frighten me,” Della Street said, her voice showing interest. “I’m a realist. I know that death is one logical end of the life stream, just as birth is at the other end. And I know that a certain percentage of deaths are sudden and unexplained. It’s up to you people to keep the records straight.”

“I doubt it,” Drake said. “You never can tell. It’s been cut out all right.”

“This is it,” Mason said excitedly. “Get this, Paul.”

“Quick,” Mason said. “Get that light away, Paul. I don’t want the attendant to report to the police what we’ve been doing and give the police any ideas.”

“What about the suit?” Drake asked.

“We won’t bother with it now,” Mason said. “While Della has him over there get the wax impression of those keys. “I’ll hold the coat up as though I’m looking through the lining and hold it between you and the attendant”

“What are you guys doing?” the attendant asked.

“Who’s cut it out?” the attendant demanded.

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