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The Case of the Caretakers Cat :: Гарднер Эрл Стенли
Страница: 44 из 146Here's an opportunity for you to clean up something, and prove that what appeared to be an accidental death was infact a murder. I'm not asking favors. I'm giving you an opportunity. You can take it or leave it. I'm interested in this thing because of a cat; and if you want to know, I'm making exactly ten dollars as a fee."
Burger pulled a cigar from his waistcoat pocket, tore at the end of it with his teeth, scraped a match along the bricks of the fireplace, and puffed the cigar into smoke. He sighed and said, "All right, Dr. Jason happens to be visiting me this evening. I'm going to call him in. If the thing sounds reasonable to him, we're going to make a whirlwind investigation. I'll know whether I want to go ahead or run for cover by the time the publicity breaks."
Perry Mason lit a cigarette.
"Excuse me just a moment," Burger said. "I'll call Dr. Jason, and I'll telephone Tom Glassman, my chief investigator, and have him come up right away."
As the door closed behind the district attorney, Paul Drake rolled his expressionless eyes toward Perry Mason. The detective's face was wearing its habitual expression of droll humor. "I notice you didn't tell him anything about the peculiar and sudden rise to affluence of your client, Charles Ashton."
"I'm only concerned with reporting such facts as may point to a murder," Mason remarked.
Drake turned his eyes back to stare at his toes.
"If I were a district attorney, I'm not so certain that I'd play along with you, Perry," he remarked.
"Whenever a man plays ball with me, he gets a square deal," Mason insisted.
"Yeah, but God help him if he ever tries to steal second," Drake said lugubriously.
The door of the room opened and Dr. Jason, a tall, rather thin man with brown eyes which were unusually piercing, surveyed the two men.
"Good evening, Mason," he said. "I don't think I know Mr. Drake."
Drake slowly doubled up his knees, arose from the chair, extended a languid hand.
"Glad to know you, Doctor," he said. "I've heard a lot about you from Perry Mason. I always remembered what he said about you when you'd been examining one of his clients on a sanity test."
"Indeed?" Dr. Jason inquired.
"Mason said that when you started worming your way into a man's consciousness, you were as persistent as the head of a wild oat working up a man's sleeve."
Dr. Jason laughed. "I only wish he'd say that publicly. It would be the best advertisement I could have. It doesn't exactly coincide with what he said about me to the jury in his last case."
District Attorney Burger, indicating chairs, puffed nervously on his cigar.
Burger pulled a cigar from his waistcoat pocket, tore at the end of it with his teeth, scraped a match along the bricks of the fireplace, and puffed the cigar into smoke. He sighed and said, "All right, Dr. Jason happens to be visiting me this evening. I'm going to call him in. If the thing sounds reasonable to him, we're going to make a whirlwind investigation. I'll know whether I want to go ahead or run for cover by the time the publicity breaks."
Perry Mason lit a cigarette.
"Excuse me just a moment," Burger said. "I'll call Dr. Jason, and I'll telephone Tom Glassman, my chief investigator, and have him come up right away."
As the door closed behind the district attorney, Paul Drake rolled his expressionless eyes toward Perry Mason. The detective's face was wearing its habitual expression of droll humor. "I notice you didn't tell him anything about the peculiar and sudden rise to affluence of your client, Charles Ashton."
"I'm only concerned with reporting such facts as may point to a murder," Mason remarked.
Drake turned his eyes back to stare at his toes.
"If I were a district attorney, I'm not so certain that I'd play along with you, Perry," he remarked.
"Whenever a man plays ball with me, he gets a square deal," Mason insisted.
"Yeah, but God help him if he ever tries to steal second," Drake said lugubriously.
The door of the room opened and Dr. Jason, a tall, rather thin man with brown eyes which were unusually piercing, surveyed the two men.
"Good evening, Mason," he said. "I don't think I know Mr. Drake."
Drake slowly doubled up his knees, arose from the chair, extended a languid hand.
"Glad to know you, Doctor," he said. "I've heard a lot about you from Perry Mason. I always remembered what he said about you when you'd been examining one of his clients on a sanity test."
"Indeed?" Dr. Jason inquired.
"Mason said that when you started worming your way into a man's consciousness, you were as persistent as the head of a wild oat working up a man's sleeve."
Dr. Jason laughed. "I only wish he'd say that publicly. It would be the best advertisement I could have. It doesn't exactly coincide with what he said about me to the jury in his last case."
District Attorney Burger, indicating chairs, puffed nervously on his cigar.