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The Case of the Velvet Claws :: Гарднер Эрл Стенли
Страница: 114 из 149But you forgot that my name was signed to them, and that as soon as your husbandknew the case that I was working on and found the receipts in your purse, he knew that you were the woman in the case.”
Her face was twisting now. “You’re my lawyer. You can’t use all of the things that I’ve told you to build up a case against me. You’ve got to be loyal to my interests.”
He laughed bitterly.
“I suppose I should sit tight and let you drag me into the murder, so that you can walk out, eh?”
“I didn’t say that. I just want you to be loyal to me.”
“You’re a hell of a person to talk of loyalty.”
She tried another defense. “All that is a mess of lies,” she charged, “and you can’t prove it.”
Perry Mason reached for his hat.
“Maybe I can’t prove it,” he said, “but you put in the night making wild statements to the District Attorney. I’m going down and make a statement now. When I get done they’ll have a pretty good idea of the real facts of the case. What with telephoning to Harrison Burke about the gun, and telling him to get out, and the motive that you had in order to keep your husband from discovering your affair with Burke, the police will have a pretty good case.”
“But I didn’t gain anything by his death.”
“That’s another slick thing,” he said coldly, “that is just like everything else you did. It’s just slick enough to look good on the face, but not clever enough to really get by. The forgery of that will was a good job.”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said,” he snapped. “Your husband told you that you were disinherited, or else you found the will in his safe. At any rate, you knew the terms of the will, and you knew where it was kept. You tried to figure some way of getting around that will. You knew that if you destroyed it, it wouldn’t do you any good because Carl Griffin and Arthur Atwood, his lawyer, had seen the will, and that your husband had told them about it. If it was missing they’d suspect you.
“But you figured that if you could trap Griffin into claiming under the will and then prove that the will was a forgery, you’d have Griffin in a questionable position. So you went ahead and forged the will that your husband had drawn, making the forgery crude enough to be easily detected, but copying the will word for word. Then you planted your forged will where you could get it whenever you wanted to.
“When you had me at the house, examining the body, you pretended to be overcome with emotion. You wouldn’t come near the body.
Her face was twisting now. “You’re my lawyer. You can’t use all of the things that I’ve told you to build up a case against me. You’ve got to be loyal to my interests.”
He laughed bitterly.
“I suppose I should sit tight and let you drag me into the murder, so that you can walk out, eh?”
“I didn’t say that. I just want you to be loyal to me.”
“You’re a hell of a person to talk of loyalty.”
She tried another defense. “All that is a mess of lies,” she charged, “and you can’t prove it.”
Perry Mason reached for his hat.
“Maybe I can’t prove it,” he said, “but you put in the night making wild statements to the District Attorney. I’m going down and make a statement now. When I get done they’ll have a pretty good idea of the real facts of the case. What with telephoning to Harrison Burke about the gun, and telling him to get out, and the motive that you had in order to keep your husband from discovering your affair with Burke, the police will have a pretty good case.”
“But I didn’t gain anything by his death.”
“That’s another slick thing,” he said coldly, “that is just like everything else you did. It’s just slick enough to look good on the face, but not clever enough to really get by. The forgery of that will was a good job.”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said,” he snapped. “Your husband told you that you were disinherited, or else you found the will in his safe. At any rate, you knew the terms of the will, and you knew where it was kept. You tried to figure some way of getting around that will. You knew that if you destroyed it, it wouldn’t do you any good because Carl Griffin and Arthur Atwood, his lawyer, had seen the will, and that your husband had told them about it. If it was missing they’d suspect you.
“But you figured that if you could trap Griffin into claiming under the will and then prove that the will was a forgery, you’d have Griffin in a questionable position. So you went ahead and forged the will that your husband had drawn, making the forgery crude enough to be easily detected, but copying the will word for word. Then you planted your forged will where you could get it whenever you wanted to.
“When you had me at the house, examining the body, you pretended to be overcome with emotion. You wouldn’t come near the body.