The Case of the Velvet Claws   ::   Гарднер Эрл Стенли

My husband kept all the money, and only gave me a little at a time. I knew about the will that was made out in favor of Carl Griffin, and I was afraid that I couldn’t get any money out of the estate while it was being tied up in probate. I knew that Harrison Burke would be afraid of getting his name mixed into the thing, and that he’d leave me flat. I had to have money; I had to have somebody to stand back of me. So I rang up Harrison Burke and deliberately mixed him into it. I told him that something had happened, and that his gun had figured in it. That I didn’t know who the man was that had killed him, but I did know that his gun was on the floor.

“It was a stall that wouldn’t have gone over with you, but it went over with Burke all right. Burke was frantic.

“I told him there was only one thing to do, and that was for him to get under cover, and fix it so they couldn’t trace the gun to him, if he could. And in the meantime, to see that you had plenty of money to go ahead and do anything that you could. Then I telephoned you and got you to come over.

“While you were driving down there, I got to thinking how much better it would be if I could have you in a position where you were forced to get me out of it in order to save yourself and also, have some kind of an explanation that I could make to the police if the police should start suspecting me.

“You were right about that.” She went on, “I knew that they could never convict you, because you were too smart and skillful. You could get out of it, and I figured that if they got to crowding me too close, I’d give them the information that I did, so that they’d go after you and that would clear me. If they ever tried to come back on me after you had drawn their fire, I knew that it would be an easy case to beat.”

Mason looked up at Paul Drake and shook his head.

“Nice little playmate, isn’t she?” he said.

There was a knock at the door.

Mason looked at the occupants of the room. Then tiptoed to the door, and opened it.

Sidney Drumm stood on the threshold. There was another man back of him.

“Hello, Perry,” he said. “We had a devil of a time finding you. We trailed Della Street to this hotel, but it took us quite a little while to find out what alias you were registered under. I’m sorry to bother you, but you’ve got to take a little ride with me. The District Attorney wants to ask you a few questions.”

Mason nodded. “Walk right in,” he said.

Eva Belter gave a little cry. “Perry, you’ve got to protect me! I came clean. You’ve got to stand back of me.