Tragg forced his way into the office. “Now, just a minute,” he said, “just a minute. Gertie, have you seen one of these women before?”
“I— Why, I thought... I don’t know.”
“Now, let’s be careful about this,” Tragg said. “One of these women came in here yesterday. Which one was it?”
Gertie said, “I thought it was this one,” pointing with her finger. “When she came in just now I started to ask her what happened yesterday after she left the office. I wanted to tell her she had left her purse here, but now... now I just don’t know.”
“All right,” Tragg said wearily, “line up, you folks. Get in a line there against the wall, all of you.”
Mason said, by way of explanation, “This is Lieutenant Tragg of the police. If you’ll just do as he says for a moment you won’t need to stay any longer than that.”
The women lined up.
“Which one?” Tragg asked Gertie.
Gertie said, “I don’t know. I thought it was the one who came in first but now I just don’t know.”
“All right,” Tragg said, “you can go, all of you.”
Mason glanced meaningly at Adelle Hastings, who was in the line. “All of you can go,” he said. “All of you.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Tragg said, “I want Mrs. Hastings to stay.”
“All right,” Mason said, “which one is Mrs. Hastings?”
“Don’t pull those tricks on me,” Tragg said.
“Pick her out if you want her,” Mason said.
Tragg said, “You’re talking to an officer, Perry. Don’t try those tricks.”
He moved forward and unerringly placed his hand on Mrs. Hastings’ elbow. “You stay here,” he said.
Mason said, “We’ll go back to my office, Mrs. Hastings,” and led the way down the corridor.
“What the hell were you trying to do,” Tragg said, “make a monkey out of me? Did you think I couldn’t pick Mrs. Hastings out of that group? Did you think I’d talk with her without noticing the clothes she was wearing? The color of her hair? The shape of her shoulders?”
“No,” Mason said, smiling, “you didn’t have any trouble picking her out. That’s all I needed to convince any jury that the test was a fair one.”
Tragg looked at him in exasperation. “Sometimes,” he said, “I’m tempted to forget the fact that J like you personally, and take official action against you. I should have known better than to have stuck my head into that trap.”
“That wasn’t a trap,” Mason said, “that was a line-up. Any person who is being identified is entitled to a line-up.”
“Then why didn’t you wait until we could have one down at police headquarters?”
“Because,” Mason said, “you weren’t going to wait for a line-up. You were going to trick Gertie into making an identification on the strength of mental suggestion and a pair of dark glasses.”
Mason unlocked and opened the corridor door to his inner office and held it open for Adelle Hastings, Tragg and Della Street to walk through.
“I’m not that naive,” Tragg said. “You had fixed it up with Gertie in advance so that she would identify the first person through that door. If I’d used my head I’d have stopped that bunch of women and seen that Adelle Hastings went through the door first.”
“I haven’t said a word to Gertie about it,” Mason said. “That would be unethical, unprofessional and illegal. I haven’t tampered with the witness, I haven’t tried to influence her testimony in any way. Gertie is truthful and she will swear to it and what’s more, Della will swear to it.”
Tragg said wearily, “All right, all right. There was a gun in that purse?”
“There was a gun in that handbag,” Mason said.
“Where is it?”
“In my upper right hand desk drawer.”
“Well, get it out and— No, you don’t, either. On second thought, just open the desk drawer. I’ll take charge of it myself.”
Mason opened a drawer in his desk, stiffened in amazed surprise, then pulled the drawer all the way out.
“I see,” Tragg said. “Another of your little surprises. This one won’t work, Perry. I want that gun. This is official.”
Mason glanced swiftly at Della Street.
She shook her head.
Mason picked up the office phone. “Gertie,” he said, “did you take a gun from a drawer in my office?”
“What? A gun? Heavens, no. I haven’t even been in your office all morning. Della was the first one at the office this morning. She knows I haven’t been in there.”
“Thanks,” Mason said, and hung up the phone. He turned to Tragg. “This is beginning to take on a very sinister aspect,” he said. “It is now apparent someone is tampering with evidence and trying to frame Mrs. Hastings.”
“I see,” Tragg said. “Was the missing gun the fatal gun?”
“I don’t know,” Mason said.
“If it was not the fatal gun,” Tragg pointed out, “the disappearance was not necessary.”
“Why not?” Mason demanded. “In that way Mrs. Has. tings is placed in a dangerous situation. Until we have that weapon we can’t establish her innocence.”
“I see,” Tragg said. “And doubtless you feel that until we have it we can’t establish her guilt.”
Mason shook his head. “Tragg, do you think I’d be foolish enough to tamper with evidence?”
Tragg smiled. “Let’s put it this way. I think you’d be daring enough to do anything you could get away with. Do you have the number of the gun you took from that purse?”
Mason shook his head. “As soon as I saw the gun had been fired I put it in that drawer. I was handling it with a handkerchief but even so I didn’t want to have it in my hands. It was a thirty-eight Smith and Wesson.”
Tragg turned to Adelle Hastings. “All right, Mrs. Hastings, now we’ll have your story. Start at the beginning. When did you see your husband last?”
“I spent the night there.”
“Last night?”
“No. The night before last.”
“And what were you doing there if you were establishing a residence in Nevada and planning to get a divorce?”
“It was a friendly divorce action. My husband was putting up the money for me to establish my residence and— He was a very warmhearted individual. I think our marriage would have been a success if it hadn’t been for other people who interfered.”
“Such as whom?” Tragg asked.
“Such as Huntley Banner, for one.”
“Who’s Banner?”
“An attorney who represented my husband.”
“In the divorce action?”
“In everything.”
“You hadn’t filed for a divorce yet?”
“No, I hadn’t established a residence as yet.”
“You remained friendly with your husband?”
“Yes.”
“How did you happen to come in to see him and spend the night there?”
“He wanted me to come in and talk with him about a property settlement. He said that Banner had some ideas about a property settlement agreement, that those ideas were quite cold-blooded. My husband said that he wanted to do the fair thing, that he wanted me to be satisfied and that he wanted us to part friends.”
“And you stayed the night there?”
“That’s right.”
“In the same bedroom...?”
“No, we had separated. I stayed in another bedroom. I was going to a hotel but Garvin said that was foolish, that he had a house with four empty bedrooms and I might just as well stay there.”
“Did you see him in the morning?”
“No.”
“The last you saw of him was when he said good night?”
“Yes.”
“You knew where his bedroom was, of course.”