Mason lighted a cigarette. “I have some bad news for you, Eva. I’m not going to beat around the bush because there isn’t time. I’m going to hand it to you straight from the shoulder.”
Her face showed tension, but her eyes were unflinching. “Go ahead,” she said.
“Police have what seems to be a dead-open-and-shut case against Adelle Winters.”
“For... you mean... ”
“For murder and theft.”
“Theft?”
“Or perhaps robbery. You remember the well-filled wallet that Hines had, from which he took the bills with which he paid you?”
She nodded.
“Police found that wallet in Adelle’s possession when the matron searched her at the jail. There was something over three thousand dollars in currency left in it.”
“Why, Mr. Mason, that’s incredible! She couldn’t have taken it. Why, she’d have told me something about it if—”
“She took it all right,” Mason said. “She told me so.”
“When?”
“Just a short time ago. When she told me she went back upstairs to get the gun, she found the wallet lying on the floor there in the living room. Presumably Hines must have been dead in the bedroom right then, with his murderer crouching beside the body.”
“Without a gun?”
“Without the murder weapon, anyway.”
“Mr. Mason, I can’t believe it!”
“You can’t believe it! What do you think a jury’s going to do?”
“I... I don’t know.”
“Well,” Mason said, “that leaves you right in the middle of a mess. I tried to patch things up with the district attorney’s office and ran up against a brick wall. They’re laying for you.”
“As an accomplice?”
“As being mixed up in the whole business, along with Adelle Winters.”
“But I didn’t know a thing about it!”
“You signed an affidavit that contained a false statement.”
“Well, I... I didn’t see any reason for them to... You know how it was, Mr. Mason!”
“You remember that, when you discovered the body, you telephoned to me at my office and asked me to come out there?”
“Yes.”
“At that time, where was your Aunt Adelle?”
“Right there.”
“In the room with you — the living room of the apartment?”
“Yes.”
“And where was the body?”
“In the bedroom.”
“Now what was your Aunt Adelle doing while you were telephoning to me?”
“She — let’s see — she went over and examined the body to make certain the man was dead.”
“And while she was doing that, she could very well have lifted the wallet from the inside breast pocket of the coat, where she knew he carried it.”
“Mr. Mason, Aunt Adelle wouldn’t do anything like that!”
“But she could have done it.”
“She wouldn’t have.”
“She could have done it?”
“Yes. She could. She had the opportunity, but she simply wouldn’t do that.”
“Well, Hines was killed with her gun. His wallet with something over three thousand dollars in it was found in her possession. The D.A. could even make out a case of deliberate robbery, during which the victim had resisted and been shot. It’s a mess, and you’re mixed in it. The D.A. has given me until twelve o’clock to turn you in. I’m sorry, Eva, but I’m going to have to do it.”
“Anything you say, Mr. Mason.”
“I tried to do a little bargaining with the D.A.’s office. Ordinarily there would have been nothing to it, but this time Gulling, with this new evidence making him feel he’s sitting on top of the world, slapped my proposition right back in my face and gave me until noon to have you at police headquarters. I’m sorry, but he holds the trumps right now. You take a cab — no later than eleven-thirty — and drive to police headquarters and give yourself up. Say I told you to do it. Don’t answer any questions. Particularly, don’t tell them where you were last night. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Be sure not to talk. Don’t answer any questions about the crime — no matter how simple they sound. Understand?”
“Yes,” she repeated.
“A lot of people will tell you I’ve given you the wrong advice, that I’ve put your head into a noose. But you’ve got to have enough confidence in me so that — even if you get the idea I’m playing the thing the wrong way — you’ll abide by what I’ve told you. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Eva said a third time.
“Good girl! Now I’m on my way. Is there a phone here?”
“There’s a booth at the back of the hall downstairs.”
“Thanks — I’ll call from there. Be sure you have a cab here by eleven-thirty, and get to police headquarters before twelve. I’ll see you shortly after you’re booked. Keep a stiff upper lip!”
On reaching the telephone booth Mason dialed the number of Paul Drake’s office.
“Okay, Paul,” he said when he had the detective on the line. “What do you know?”
“I guess you’re clairvoyant,” Drake said. “That number’s in the Siglet Manor apartments — Apartment 412 on the fourth floor right by the staircase, and the tenant is a woman by the name of Carlotta Tipton. As nearly as we can find out, she’s something of a glamour girl who rarely leaves the apartment before eleven o’clock in the morning, pays her rent regularly, and doesn’t seem to have any steady occupation, though she wears good clothes. What does that do for you, Perry? Anything?”
Mason grinned. “That,” he said, “is going to do a lot for me, Paul. Pick up Della Street, have her bring her shorthand notebook and plenty of pencils, drive like hell to the Siglet Manor Apartment House, and wait for me. I’ll be there just as fast as I can make it!”
Chapter 12
Paul Drake pulled up at the Siglet Manor apartments just as Perry Mason swung his car around the corner. Mason parked just behind Drake’s automobile.
“Well we made it,” Della Street said as the three of them formed a group on the sidewalk. “A couple of times I was a little doubtful.”
Drake said, “Evidently we’re ahead of the police on the thing, Perry. Carlotta Tipton doesn’t seem to have had any official visitors, as far as my men can find out. There’s one of the boys over there now. I’ll give him the high sign. You want us to go up with you, Perry?”
“I not only want you to go up, but if that’s one of your men bring him along. I want witnesses.”
Drake beckoned, and a man slid from behind the steering wheel of a parked car and came over to join them.
“You folks know Frank Holt?” Drake asked. “One of my operatives. Miss Street and Perry Mason, Frank.” They nodded greetings, and Drake went on, “We’re going up to interview Carlotta Tipton, Frank. We want you along as a witness. Keep your eyes and ears open so you can remember afterward what takes place. Let’s go—”
They paused at the outer door.
“What do we do?” Drake asked. “Buzz her apartment and get her to open the door, or buzz some other apartment?”
Mason said, “If you’ve got a key that will work this thing... It doesn’t take much of a master key to open the outer door of a place like this.”
“Have a heart, Perry!”
“Go on, Paul, open it.”
Drake looked questioningly at Frank Holt. “Got a key, Frank?”
“Sure,” Holt said, and promptly opened the door.
Mason told them, “I’ll do the talking, and we’ll all keep our hats on. That’s the best way I know to impersonate an officer, and they can’t pinch you for it. Let’s go—”
They rode up to the fourth floor, and when they had located Carlotta Tipton’s apartment Mason knocked.