The Case of the Velvet Claws   ::   Гарднер Эрл Стенли

“Good heavens, no! But you don’t need me! It’s selfevident.”

Perry Mason stared at him. “All right,” he said. “That’s all.”

Dagett walked to the door, flung it open and hurried out of the room.

Mason fastened his eyes on Eva Belter.

“Listen,” he said, “I told you you could meet me here to talk things over, but I didn’t want you to stick around the room. Don’t you realize what a position we’d be in if they discovered us here in one room at this hour of the morning?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“We’ve got to take some risks,” she said, “and I wanted you to talk with Mr. Dagett.”

“How did you get him?” he asked.

“Called him on the telephone and told him to come over, it was important. And it wasn’t nice of you to say the things you did to him. It was naughty!”

She giggled with alcoholic mirth.

“You know him pretty well?” asked Mason.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

He stood staring at her. “You know damned well what I mean. You called him Charlie.”

“Certainly,” she said. “That’s his first name. He’s a friend of mine, as well as George’s.”

“I see,” said Mason.

He went to the telephone and called his office.

“Mr. Johnson,” he said. “Has Mr. Mason come in yet?”

“No,” said Della Street, “he hasn’t. I’m afraid he’s going to be awfully busy when he does come in, Mr. Johnson. Something happened last night. I don’t know exactly what it was, but it was a murder case of some kind, and Mr. Mason is representing one of the main witnesses. There have been some newspaper reporters trying to see him, and there’s some one who insists on staying in the outer office. I think he’s a police detective. So I’m very much afraid that if you were counting on seeing Mr. Mason at the office this morning, you’re going to be disappointed.”

“Gee, that’s too bad,” Mason said. “I have some papers to dictate that I know Mr. Mason would want to see, and probably he’d have to sign them. I wonder if you could tell me some one who could take them down in shorthand?”

“I think I could,” said Della Street.

“I was just wondering,” said Mason, “whether you could get away with all of the people that are around there.”

“Leave it to me,” she said.

“I’m at the Hotel Ripley,” he told her.

“Okay,” she said, and hung up.

Mason stared at Eva Belter moodily.