"Then," Drake said, "you intend to let the district attorney discover Oscar Pender eventually."
"At the proper moment," Perry Mason said, "I may let the district attorney get hold of Oscar Pender, but I want to have it in my power to produce him, or not to produce him, just as I see fit."
Drake nodded his head, said slowly, "You say there will be two people who will claim to have been on the scene of the murder, ringing that doorbell. One of them will be the murderer. The other one will be the one who was actually ringing the doorbell. We now have found these two people. One of them is Oscar Pender; the other one is Rhoda Montaine. Therefore, one of these people must be guilty of the murder."
A slow smile twisted Perry Mason's countenance. "Excellent reasoning, Paul," he said, "only it happens that there are three people who claim to have rung that doorbell."
"Three?" the detective asked in surprise. "Who's the other one?"
"I can't tell you, Paul, I can only tell you that he's a person the district attorney knows about. So far, the district attorney hasn't been able to get any admissions from him because this man is trying to protect Rhoda. Sooner or later they'll drag his story from him. That's going to put Rhoda in an awful spot.
"The district attorney will bear down heavy on this doorbell business, and then is when I will produce Oscar Pender. Then is when I will show his guilty conduct. Then is when I will show his motive. Then is when I will mix the whole case up so badly the district attorney won't know what it's all about, and the jury will get so hopelessly confused they'll let the two men fight it out and acquit the woman."
Drake stared thoughtfully at the tip of his cigarette. He half turned and raised his eyes to the lawyer's countenance. "I've stumbled on to something else," he said.
"What?"
"Some one is looking for Pender."
"How do you know?"
"We've had men watching the place where Pender stayed and the apartment that his sister occupied, just in case some other accomplice should show up. Yesterday evening a bunch of detectives came down on the place like flies coming to a syrup jar. They swarmed all over the place and moved heaven and earth, trying to find where Pender and his sister were."
Mason's eyes showed interest. "Police detectives?" he asked.
"No, they were agency detectives, and, for some reason, they seemed anxious to keep their activities from coming to the attention of the police."
"There were lots of them, Paul?"
"I'll say. Some one certainly is spending money on the case."
Perry Mason's eyes narrowed. "C. Phillip Montaine," he said, "is a dangerous antagonist. I think he realizes something of what I have in mind. I don't know how he got on Pender's trail. Perhaps it was the same way you did, Paul."
Drake said slowly, "You think old man Montaine is working up this case independently of the district attorney's office?"
"I'm certain of it."
"Why?"
"Because he wants to keep Rhoda Montaine from being acquitted."
"Why?"
"Because, in the first place," Mason said slowly, "if she is acquitted, she'll be his son's legal wife, and I think we'll find C. Phillip Montaine has some very definite plans for his son's matrimonial future."
The detective stared incredulously at Perry Mason. "That doesn't seem a strong enough motive," he said, "to cause a man to try to get a woman convicted of murder."
Mason's lips twisted in a grin. "That, Paul, is what I thought at the time, when C. Phillip Montaine approached me with a proposition to pay me a handsome fee for representing Rhoda if I would consent to place her in a position where her defense would be materially weakened."
The detective gave a low whistle. After a moment of thoughtful silence, he said, "Perry, where do you suppose Oscar Pender really was at the time Gregory Moxley was being murdered?"
"There's just a chance," Mason said, "that he actually was standing in front of the street door, ringing the bell. That is one of the reasons why I would like to have enough ammunition in my hands when I crossexamine him to rip him wide open."
Drake's stare was steady. "You don't seem to have a great deal of faith in your client's innocence," he said.
Mason grinned, said nothing. Della Street opened the door, slipped into the room, glanced significantly at Paul Drake, and said to Perry Mason, "Mabel Strickland, Doctor Millsap's nurse, is in the outer office. She says she's got to see you at once. She's crying."
"Crying?" Mason asked.
Della Street nodded. "Her eyes are red and tears are streaming down her face. She can't stop them. She's crying so badly she can hardly see."
Mason frowned, jerked his head toward the corridor door.
Drake slid over the arm of the chair, got to his feet and said, "Be seeing you later, Perry."
When the door closed on the detective, Mason nodded to Della Street. "Show her in," he said.
Della Street opened the door, said, "Come in, Miss Strickland," then stood to one side so the lawyer could see the sobbing woman grope toward the doorway. Della Street piloted her into the office, guided her to a chair.
"What is it?" asked Perry Mason. The nurse tried to speak, but failed, holding a handkerchief to her nose. Perry Mason glanced at Della Street, who slipped unobtrusively from the office. "What's happened?" Mason inquired. "You can talk frankly to me. We're alone."
"You put Doctor Millsap on the spot," she sobbed.
"What happened to him?" Mason asked.
"He was kidnapped."
"Kidnapped?"
"Yes."
"Tell me about it," the lawyer said, his eyes wary and watchful.
"We had been working late at the office last night," she said, "almost until midnight. He was going to drive me home. We were driving along in the car when another car crowded us in to the curb. There were two men in it. I'd never seen either one of them before. They had guns. They told Doctor Millsap to get in the car with them and then they drove off."
"What kind of a car?" Mason asked.
"A Buick sedan."
"Did you get the license number?"
"No."
"What color was it?"
"Black."
"Did the men say anything to you?"
"No."
"Had they made any demands on you?"
"No."
"Did you report the affair to the police?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"The police came out and talked with me and went out to the place where our car had been stopped. They looked around but couldn't find anything. Then they made a report to headquarters, and then, apparently, the district attorney thought you had done it."
"Thought I had done what?" Mason asked.
"Grabbed Doctor Millsap so that he couldn't testify against your client at the trial."
"Was he going to testify against her?"
"I don't know anything about it. All I know is what the district attorney thought."
"How do you know what he thought?"
"Because of the questions he asked me."
"You were frightened?" asked Perry Mason.
"Yes, of course."
"What kind of a gun did the men have?"