JК
The Case of the Velvet Claws :: Гарднер Эрл Стенли
Страница: 30 из 149He’s got something terrible on him. I don’t know just what it is. Maybe it’s a murder.
“Anyway, none of our friends have ever suspected. They all think that George makes his money out of playing the stock market. I married George Belter seven months ago. I am his second wife. I guess I was fascinated by him and his money, but we’ve never got along well together. The last two months our relations have been strained. I was going to sue him for divorce. I think he knew it.”
She paused to stare at Perry Mason, and saw no sympathy in his eyes.
“I was friendly with Harrison Burke,” she went on. “I met him about two months ago. It was just a friendship. Nothing more. We were out together, and that murder took place. Of course, if Harrison Burke had to divulge my name, it would have ruined his career politically, because George would have sued me and named him as correspondent right away. I simply had to hush it up.”
“Maybe your husband would never have found out,” suggested Mason. “The District Attorney is a gentleman. Burke could have disclosed the facts to the District Attorney, and the District Attorney wouldn’t have called you unless you had seen something that made your testimony absolutely necessary.”
“You don’t understand how they work,” she told him. “I don’t know all of it myself. But they’ve got spies everywhere. They buy pieces of information and run down odds and ends of gossip. Whenever a man gets prominent enough to attract attention, they go to a lot of trouble to get all the information they can about him. Harrison Burke is prominent politically, and he’s coming up for reelection. They don’t like him, and Burke knows it. I heard my husband telephoning to Frank Locke, and I knew that they were on the trail of the information. That was why I came to you. I wanted to buy them off before they had any idea of who it was that was with him.”
“If your friendship with Burke was innocent,” said Mason, “why don’t you go to your husband and tell him what the situation is? After all, he’d be dragging his own name through the dust.”
She shook her head, vehemently.
“You don’t know anything at all about it,” she warned. “You simply don’t understand my husband’s character. You showed that in the way you handled him last night. He’s savage and heartless. He’s a fighter. What’s more, he is moneymad. He knows that if I bring suit for divorce, I will probably get some alimony and a lot of money for attorneys’ fees, and suit money. All that he wants is to get something on me.
“Anyway, none of our friends have ever suspected. They all think that George makes his money out of playing the stock market. I married George Belter seven months ago. I am his second wife. I guess I was fascinated by him and his money, but we’ve never got along well together. The last two months our relations have been strained. I was going to sue him for divorce. I think he knew it.”
She paused to stare at Perry Mason, and saw no sympathy in his eyes.
“I was friendly with Harrison Burke,” she went on. “I met him about two months ago. It was just a friendship. Nothing more. We were out together, and that murder took place. Of course, if Harrison Burke had to divulge my name, it would have ruined his career politically, because George would have sued me and named him as correspondent right away. I simply had to hush it up.”
“Maybe your husband would never have found out,” suggested Mason. “The District Attorney is a gentleman. Burke could have disclosed the facts to the District Attorney, and the District Attorney wouldn’t have called you unless you had seen something that made your testimony absolutely necessary.”
“You don’t understand how they work,” she told him. “I don’t know all of it myself. But they’ve got spies everywhere. They buy pieces of information and run down odds and ends of gossip. Whenever a man gets prominent enough to attract attention, they go to a lot of trouble to get all the information they can about him. Harrison Burke is prominent politically, and he’s coming up for reelection. They don’t like him, and Burke knows it. I heard my husband telephoning to Frank Locke, and I knew that they were on the trail of the information. That was why I came to you. I wanted to buy them off before they had any idea of who it was that was with him.”
“If your friendship with Burke was innocent,” said Mason, “why don’t you go to your husband and tell him what the situation is? After all, he’d be dragging his own name through the dust.”
She shook her head, vehemently.
“You don’t know anything at all about it,” she warned. “You simply don’t understand my husband’s character. You showed that in the way you handled him last night. He’s savage and heartless. He’s a fighter. What’s more, he is moneymad. He knows that if I bring suit for divorce, I will probably get some alimony and a lot of money for attorneys’ fees, and suit money. All that he wants is to get something on me.