“I haven’t,” Della Street promptly declared.
Tragg’s smile was supercilious, “Unfortunately, Miss Street, that story doesn’t check with the facts. Perry Mason instructed Miss Carol Burbank to take these shoes, wrap them in a brown paper parcel, take them to the parcel checking station at the Union Terminal, check them and get a receipt. She did that. She got a claim check. She passed the claim check on to you. You took the claim check, placed it in an envelope and wrote the name ‘Perry Mason’ on that envelope in your own handwriting.”
For a long four or five seconds, Della Street said nothing. Then she asked, “What’s wrong with those shoes?”
Lieutenant Tragg picked up a magnifying glass, examined a section of the shoe just above the leather sole. “There’s nothing wrong with them, Miss Street. The shoes are all right. It’s you who are in the wrong. Those shoes...”
The door abruptly jerked open, Perry Mason pushed his way into the room, “Okay, Lieutenant, that will be about all.”
An officer showed his head through the door, “Did you send for him?” he asked.
“I did not,” Lieutenant Tragg said.
The officer entered the room. “Out!” he said to Perry Mason.
Della Street said very rapidly, “Lieutenant Tragg, this is my attorney. If I am to be accused of any crime, he is my counsel. If I’m not to be accused of any crime I have absolutely nothing to say as a witness, and will have nothing to say unless I am subpoenaed and examined in the regular manner.”
Mason said, “As attorney for both of these young women, I demand that they be taken before the nearest and most accessible magistrate immediately.”
Tragg’s smile was dry. “Unfortunately, Mason, this is Sunday. I’m afraid you won’t find any magistrate available until Monday morning when...”
“Don’t kid yourself,” Mason interrupted. “Judge Roxmann has done me the favor of going to his court. He’s sitting there waiting.”
Tragg slowly pushed back his chair. He sighed wearily. “All right,” he surrendered, “that does it.”
Mason motioned to Della and Carol.
“You mean we can go now?” Carol asked.
Tragg didn’t answer. Mason moved over, held the door open. Della Street stalked out. Carol followed. Tragg said as Mason started to close the door, “She’ll be back before midnight, Mason, and the next time she’ll stay.”
Mason pulled the door closed behind him. So far as giving any sign, he might not have heard what Tragg said.
Chapter 15
Carol Burbank seated herself in Mason’s office, said, “I heard what Lieutenant Tragg told you as we were leaving the office. How long have I got?”
“I don’t know,” Mason said. “It depends upon whether your father has been arrested, and on what he’s said.”
She said, “I don’t think they can trap Father, only...”
“Only what?” Mason asked as her voice trailed off into silence.
She said, “He’s on a spot.”
“Tell me something I don’t know — start talking — try telling the truth for a change.”
“I’m afraid to.”
“Damn it,” Mason said, “I’m your lawyer. Whatever you say to me is confidential.”
“If I tell you you’ll quit representing us.”
“Don’t be silly,” Mason, snapped. “I can’t quit. We’ve dragged Della into it. I’ve got to see her through. Give me the whole business right from the beginning.”
Carol said, “Mr. Mason, this is going to sound terrible. Please don’t judge me until I’ve finished.”
Mason made an impatient gesture.
Carol said, “It goes back to something that happened years ago, something that has followed my father all through his life. Daphne Milfield knew about it and used that knowledge to make Father back her husband in this Skinner Hills project.”
“Blackmail?” Mason asked.
“Not that crude, but... Well, yes, if you want to call it that.”
“I think,” Mason told her, “I’m going to want to call it that.”
Carol said, “It was all done very nicely. Daphne Milfield rang Father up — just wanted to renew an old friendship. She would, of course, respect his secret. He could trust her discretion absolutely. A week or two later Fred Milfield called on Father. He had this Skinner Hills deal that he wanted financed. It meant so much to him and Daphne was so anxious to have it go through.”
“What happened?”
“Well, of course, on a deal of that kind, you can’t take any chances on having your plans get out before you have everything under control. Fred Milfield knew all about how to go about it, and he made his own arrangements with a man named Van Nuys whom I have never met. These two pretended they were interested in Karakul sheep and started buying up all the property. The field was even better than anyone had dared anticipate. Father pretended he was putting down a deep water well on one of the properties. They struck the oil bearing sand even before they were ready.”
“Then Milfield and Van Nuys are rich?”
“They would have become rich in time. That was the trouble. There is one thing Father simply won’t stand for and that is any double-crossing. He found out that Fred Milfield had been knocking down on him.”
“How?” Mason asked.
“The idea was to have all the papers made out for only a fair consideration,” Carol explained. “But there could be cash payments made on the side when the deals were difficult to close otherwise. Fred started lying about that. He’d make a payment of one thousand and then tell Dad it was five thousand. Since it was all handled off the record and in the form of cash, there was no way of checking on him.”
“How did your father find out?”
“He became suspicious. So Friday afternoon he went to call on Frank Palermo. He pretended to be another speculator. He picked Palermo because he knew that having signed one contract wouldn’t stop Palermo from signing another one.”
“What did be find out?”
“That Palermo had only been paid one thousand dollars.”
“How much did Milfield claim he’d paid Palermo?”
“Four thousand.”
“Then what?”
“Father was terribly angry. He tried to get in touch with Milfield, then left word for Milfield to telephone him at the yacht club. Father was angry about that accident, too. Milfield had been moving Karakul sheep in some trucks that were registered in Father’s name. There’d been an accident and the man that was in it had got the license number of the truck and Milfield hadn’t done anything about it. Father instructed his lawyers to make a settlement no matter what it cost. He was afraid that some shrewd lawyer would — well, do just what you did, investigate the license number, find out what was going on under cover, and start skyrocketing the price of some of the property on which deals hadn’t been closed.”
Mason said, “Let’s get back to Milfield and your father. What happened?”
“Milfield got Father on the phone late Friday morning. Father told him just what he’d discovered. You see, Father could have terminated Milfield’s connection with any future profit if he could prove fraud and embezzlement, and Milfield was in a panic.”
“What did he say?”
“He said that he would bring Palermo down to the yacht and make him admit he was lying. Of course that didn’t fool Father any. Father knew Palermo could be bribed to say anything.”
“And Milfield went down to the yacht?” Mason asked.
“Yes. He didn’t get there until late afternoon, however.”
“What happened?”
“Milfield tried to bluster and threaten and took a punch at Father and Father knocked him down, climbed up the companionway, turned Milfield’s rowboat loose, got into the dinghy, started the outboard and took the dinghy ashore. He was intending to have Milfield arrested.”