The Case of the Dangerous Dowager: A Perry Mason Mystery #10 (Perry Mason Mysteries) by Erle Stanley Gardner

Author:Erle Stanley Gardner [Gardner, Erle Stanley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781634251853
Amazon: 1634251857
Publisher: Ankerwycke
Published: 2016-01-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

PAUL DRAKE tapped at the door of Della Street's apartment. She flung open the door and said, "Come in, Paul."

He regarded her with a droll smile and said, "You're as bad as your boss. I was hoping I might get a couple of hours of sleep."

"I'm worried about Perry," Della said, "awfully worried about him. The news flash came through that he was out on that gambling ship when…"

Drake interrupted her to say, "He was out there, Sylvia Oxman was out there, Frank Oxman was out there, and some woman in a silver evening gown who tossed a gun overboard after the murder, was out there. Perry had lots of company. They can't pin anything on him just because he was there – but they're sure going to try!"

"Well," she said, "I don't know too much about it, but the chief's gone into hiding."

"Gone into hiding," Drake echoed. "Well, that's food for thought. Where did he go? Where is he?"

"I don't know. He telephoned in some instructions from a pay station. He says he may be classed as a fugitive from justice, and he doesn't want to get me implicated. He's worked out a method of communicating with me though."

Della Street picked up a shorthand notebook and said, "Here are his instructions: You're to find out everything you can about the murder, and particularly, he wants you to get a photograph from the newspaper men of the fingerprints that were developed on the glass top of Grieb's desk. It seems the fingerprint men got a lot of latent prints from it. There was one print of a hand, and the chief thinks it's a woman's hand. He couldn't see it clearly. He wants to get a copy of that latent print, if he can."

"Okay, what else?"

"The chief wants to find out exactly what Duncan's doing. Now there's a man on the ship by the name of Arthur Manning, who works as guard and bouncer. He figures he's due to lose his job as soon as Duncan takes over, because he'd sided with Grieb. The chief made a play to get Manning lined up with us, and thinks it's going to work. Manning's coming in to see me sometime after nine this morning. I'll get in touch with you when he comes in.

"Now, the chief figures that by sticking up for his rights, Manning can demand two weeks' notice and perhaps make it stick. Duncan will probably fire him, and the chief wants you to promise him a two months' job at a fair salary, with a chance to stay on regularly if he makes good. He's not to let anyone know that he's working for you, and he's to keep on out at the gambling ship just as long as he can. He'll make secret reports to you. The chief figures he can find out things.

"As soon as you've hired him, so the man's sympathies will be with you, the chief wants you to turn him inside out about

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