“I don’t think the law would let you do that.”
Mason lit a cigarette and said nonchalantly, “Lots of people disagree with me about points of law. Some of them are lawyers, too.”
“Just what do you want to know?”
“I want to know what the set-up is. I want to know why Helen Reedley arranged for a stand-in. I want to know why you’re so surreptitious about your affair with Helen.”
“Helen is a married woman, and there is no ‘affair.’ ”
“She’s left her husband.”
“Who is a particularly ruthless, determined man, unusually possessive and jealous.”
“And so you’re afraid of him?”
“Afraid of him?” Clovis exclaimed indignantly. “Hell, I’ve been wanting to go have it out with him for two months, but I refrained on account of Helen. She’s frightened to death of him. He has all but ruined her life. She’s becoming a nervous wreck.”
“Did you know about the woman who was impersonating Helen Reedley?”
“No.”
“You knew Helen wasn’t at her apartment.”
“She told me she’d let a friend have the apartment.”
“And gave you her new address at the hotel?”
“Yes.”
“You saw her there?”
“Yes.”
“Went out with her?”
“Yes.”
“Same old restaurants as usual?”
Clovis started to say “Yes,” then gave the question puzzled consideration, changed his mind, and said, “Well no, as a matter of fact, we were going to new restaurants.”
“I know,” Mason said, “but you didn’t have any idea of the purpose back of all this?”
“None whatever.”
“Until Hines came to see you,” Mason said.
Clovis jerked as though Mason had pushed a pin into him. “Hines,” he said, as though the repetition of the name would give him time to think.
“He came to see you?” Mason asked.
“What makes you think he did?”
“Did he?”
“Well, yes.”
“When?”
“The morning of the third.”
“What did he want?”
“I... Mr. Mason, you won’t think this is the truth, but it is. I simply don’t know what the man wanted.”
“Didn’t he say?”
“No.”
“Lay any foundation for meeting you at a later time under different circumstances?”
“No.”
“Any attempt at blackmail?”
“I don’t think there was.”
“Why don’t you know?”
“Because I wasn’t at the time aware of all the circumstances. And in such a situation, naturally, one is likely to overlook significant passages in the conversation, little hidden meanings that tie in with... ”
“Suppose you tell me exactly what happened.”
“I was on duty at the bank. Hines came to my window. It was during a slack period and there was no queue. When he gave me his name I told him he was at the wrong window, that I only handled only the R-to-Z deposits. He smiled and said, no, he thought he was at the right window.”
“Then what?”
“Then he started making enigmatic remarks. I couldn’t get what he was driving at.”
“Can you remember what he said?”
“Well, it was all rather mysterious. He said he might want to borrow some money, and that the person who would endorse his note would be a depositor whose name would be in the accounts that were handled at my window.”
“And what did you tell him?”
“I told him that notes were handled in an entirely different department in the bank. And then he asked, ‘I suppose you know Orville L. Reedley and Helen Reedley, his wife?’ I didn’t answer the question directly, though I was perfectly polite — I just told him that he would have to inquire at the Loan Department.”
“Then what happened?”
“He started to turn away from the window, then stopped and smiled pleasantly and said, ‘I’ve seen your face before,’ or something of that sort. I told him I didn’t remember him and he said that he had a girl friend who lived in the Siglet Manor Apartments and asked me if I knew the place.”
“What did you do?” Mason asked.
“I simply turned away. He smiled and walked out.”
“Do you know whether he went to the Loan Department?”
“No, he didn’t — he just walked out. I watched him.”
“He intimated to you that he would be asking to borrow money on a note signed by Helen Reedley?”
“Or Orville Reedley. That, of course, was just my guess. I don’t really know.”
“I understand.”
“There was no suggestion of blackmail?”
“Blackmail? Well — no. Only the smirking, insinuating way he approached me.”
“Was it threatening?”
“Not threat so much as unctuous assurance.”
“And what are you going to do, now that the cat’s out of the bag?”
“Going to do?” Clovis exclaimed. “I’m going to see Orville Reedley and tell him that he can’t ruin Helen’s life by arbitrarily refusing her a divorce. She doesn’t need his consent, really. It might not be pleasant — it might be... To hell with it! I’ll fight. I’m not going to be pushed around.”
“Are you absolutely certain that Hines didn’t cash a check?”
“When?”
“When he called at the bank.”
“Hines cash a check? Absolutely not! Not at my window. He couldn’t have cashed it there anyhow, because I don’t have any H clients. But from the way he talked I don’t think he had any money in the bank. I didn’t check to find out, but I don’t think he has a dime with us.”
“You’re sure you didn’t give him five hundred dollars, and then tell the police that the five hundred had been delivered to Orville Reedley on a check he had cashed?”
“Mr. Mason — please! What on earth gave you any such idea as that?”
“I don’t know,” Mason said, and added somewhat wryly, “And I wish I did. Does Mrs. Reedley know you plan to talk with her husband?”
“I told her I was going to.”
“What did she say?”
“She pleaded with me not to. She said that would spill the beans; that her husband would never consent to a divorce and that we would have played right into his hand.”
“Look here,” Mason said. “Did you ever, under any circumstances or for any length of time, have a key to Helen Reedley’s apartment?”
“Hang it, Mason, that’s a slanderous insinuation! You can’t—”
“Keep your shirt on. Answer my question. Did you at any time have a key to Helen Reedley’s apartment?”
“No.”
“Not for any period of time, no matter how brief? Not just to go and get something for her?”
“No!”
Mason said, “Hines had a key.”
“He was working for her. He had to go in and out.”
“And you never had a key, not even for a brief period? She never sent you up there to get something for her?”
“Absolutely not! If Helen had wanted anything in her apartment, she’d have got it herself. She would never have thought of sending me up there with a key.”
“I’m trying to get certain points cleared up. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern yet, and I’m trying to get the real facts. I was hoping you could help me.”
“I can tell you this much: Orville Reedley is intensely jealous and possessive — absolutely impossible! He refused to give his wife a divorce and swore that he’d contest any divorce she’d apply for. She had placed herself in his power by telling him that she cared for someone else.”
“Any witnesses to that conversation?”