The Case of the Perjured Parrot (Perry Mason Series Book 14) by Gardner Erle Stanley

Author:Gardner, Erle Stanley [Gardner, Erle Stanley]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Della Street Press
Published: 2011-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

MASON unlocked the door of his private office, and then suddenly stood motionless, staring in surprise at Della Street.

“You!” he exclaimed.

“None other,” she told him, blinking back tears. “I guess you’ll have to get a new secretary, Chief.”

“What’s the matter, Della?” he asked, coming toward her solicitously.

She started to cry then, and he slid his arm around her shoulders, patting her reassuringly. “What happened?” he asked.

“That t-t-t-two-timing little d-d-d-devil,” she said.

“Who?” Mason asked.

“That librarian, Helen Monteith.”

“What about her, Della?”

“She slipped one over on me.”

“Come on over here; sit down and tell me about it,” Mason said.

“Oh, Chief, I’m so d-d-darned sorry I let you down!”

“How do you figure you let me down, Della? Perhaps you didn’t let me down as much as you think.”

“Yes, I did too. You told me to keep her where no one could find her, and …”

“What happened?” Mason asked. “Did they find her, or did she take a run-out powder?”

“She took a p-p-p-powder.”

“All right, how did it happen?”

Della Street dabbed at her eyes with a lace-bordered handkerchief. “Gosh, Chief, I hate to be a b-b-bawl-baby,” she said. “… Believe it or not, this is the first tear I’ve shed…. I could have wrung her neck with my bare hands…. She started in and told me a story that tore my heart inside out.”

“What was the story?” Mason asked, his face without expression.

“It was the story of her romance,” Della said. “She told it…. Oh, Chief, you’d have to be a woman to understand…. It was all about her life. She’d been romantically inclined when she was young. There’d been a high school, puppy-love affair, which had been pretty serious with her…. But it hadn’t been so serious with the boy … that is, it had at the time, Chief. I don’t know if you can get the sketch, I can’t tell it to you the way she told it to me.

“This boy was just an awfully nice boy. She made me see him just the way she saw him—a nice, clean, decent chap, with something of the mystic, or spiritual, in him … something that a woman really wants in every man she loves, and this was a real love affair.

“Then the boy went away to get a job, so he could make enough money to marry her, and she was all thrilled with pride. And then, after a few months, he came back, and …”

“… And he was in love with someone else?” Mason asked as she hesitated.

“No, it wasn’t that,” Della said. “He was still in love with her, but he’d become sort of smart-alecky. He looked on her as something of a conquest. He wasn’t in such a hurry to get married, and he’d been running around with a crowd of boys that thought it wasn’t smart to have ideals. They had a sophisticated attitude, and … well, I’ll never forget the way she described it. She said the acid of their pseudo-realism had eaten the gold off his character and left just the base metal beneath.

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