“There isn’t any,” Banner said.
“What!” Mason exclaimed. “I thought you were talking about ten thousand dollars a year and—”
“I was. I am,” Banner said. “You asked about the amount of property involved and I tell you there isn’t any. There’s lots of property but it isn’t involved in the case and it isn’t going to be involved in the case. It’s all my client’s separate property. Hastings can do what he likes with it. If he wants to make a settlement with Adelle so that she can get along for a while without having to go back to work, he can do so. If he doesn’t want to give her anything, I don’t know of anything anyone can do about it.”
“Then what was the reason you became concerned when you thought Adelle was going to consult with me?”
Banner laughed. “It’s just the idea of going up against a champ.”
“Well,” Mason said, grinning, “I’ll be on my way. I just wanted to get acquainted with you and get a fill-in on the background. I take it Adelle is applying for divorce or is going to apply for divorce.”
“She’s established a residence in Las Vegas. She’s filing for divorce the first of next week. Now of course, Mason, you and I both realize that we can’t have any collusion or that would destroy the validity of the divorce, but within reasonable limits we want to co-operate in every way we can so as to expedite matters.
“For instance, you can have a summons issued and arrange for service but I’ll appear on behalf of Garvin Hastings and file an answer, a sort of general denial. Then the case will be set down for trial and I won’t show up — provided, of course, we’ve reached a property settlement in the meantime.
“That will enable you to short-cut all the delay incident to publication of summons and it will give a valid action because the court will have jurisdiction over both parties and we can have jurisdiction of personam as well as an action in rem.”
“Why this desire to expedite things?” Mason asked. “Has Hastings some other woman in mind?”
Banner smiled and shook his head. “I can state now without fear of contradiction that Hastings has been cured. I think that’s the reason the marriage fell apart. Hastings is just a rugged individual who likes to live his own life in his own way. He’s completely absorbed in his business and I don’t think the guy really cares about a home life except on occasion when he gets a little lonely living in a big house all by himself.
“And you can tell your client this, Mason, that any time she wants to go back to work for the Hastings Enterprises as a secretary she can do it. Hastings is very fond of her — as a secretary. There isn’t going to be any mud-slinging, any name-calling or any friction. This whole matter is going to be handled amicably and on a friendly basis. Hastings is really going all out to see that his wife gets a decent settlement.”
“Thanks a lot,” Mason said, shaking hands. “I’ll doubtless be seeing you.”
As Mason left the office Elvina Mitchell flashed him a warm smile. “Good-by, Mr. Mason,” she said.
“Bye now,” Mason said. “I’ll be seeing you.”
Mason returned to his office, grinned at Della Street and said, “Guess I’m getting to be a little jumpy. It’s all right, Della. Just a divorce property settlement with some interesting background.”
“What about the gun and the two shells that have been fired?” Della asked.
“That,” Mason said, “is something else. But there’s certainly no reason for her to fire the two bullets into her husband and apparently she doesn’t have any rival, so we’ll assume she took a couple of pot shots at a jack rabbit on the way in from Las Vegas.
“Let’s get at that pile of mail and see how much of it we can get done before Adelle Hastings comes in.”
Mason started dictating but after a while his attention began to wander. He glanced from time to time at his wrist watch and there were long periods of silence.
At four o’clock Della Street said, “If you’re going to worry about it, why don’t we try telephoning?”
“Do that,” Mason said. “Telephone Las Vegas. See if there’s a telephone in the name of Adelle Hastings at the address given on that driving license.”
Della Street put through the call, then after a few moments said, “There’s a phone listed. They’re ringing and get no answer.”
Mason said, “Ring the residence of Garvin Hastings. Don’t give any name. Just ask if you can talk to Mrs. Hastings. It may be she went out there to negotiate a settlement on her own. In fact the more I think of it the more I feel that’s the explanation. She came in here to see me, then decided to call her husband to tell him what she was doing, and he suggested she come out and talk with him.” Mason snapped his fingers. “Why didn’t I think of that before? That’s the only really logical explanation.”
Della Street nodded, looked up the number of the Garvin Hastings residence, put through the call, listened a moment, then gently hung up the telephone.
“What?” Mason asked.
“A tape-recording answering service,” she said. “A well-modulated voice on a tape says that Mr. Hastings is not available at the moment, that following the notice on the tape there will be a period of thirty seconds during which the person calling can leave any message. This message will be recorded on tape and brought to the attention of Mr. Hastings on his return.”
“Okay,” Mason said, “forget it. It’s probably all right.”
“And what do we do with the purse, the money and the gun?” Della Street asked. “Do we hold them here in the office?”
Mason said, “Between now and five o’clock we’ll have a call from Adelle Hastings. She’ll suddenly realize where it was she left her bag.”
“Want to bet?” Della Street asked.
Mason grinned. “No,” he said.
Chapter Two
At five-fifteen Della Street said, “How about it, Chief, do we close up the office? It’s five-fifteen.”
Mason nodded, said, “I guess there’s nothing else to do, Della.”
“Are you going to worry about this all night?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Mason admitted. “I can’t get it out of my mind. I have a hunch we should charter a plane and fly to Las Vegas.”
“But she isn’t there,” Della Street said.
“Her apartment’s there,” Mason pointed out, “and we probably have a key to it.”
“What would be in her apartment?”
“Possibly a clue,” Mason said. “Possibly nothing.”
“Would you go into her apartment?”
“I don’t know,” Mason said. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, and I would like to know what time she gets home.”
“You think she’s headed back to Las Vegas?”
Mason said, “If she isn’t, she’s in bad trouble. She left my office. She probably had her car parked. She may have gone to get something out of the car and—”
“How do you deduce all that?” Della Street asked.
“From her purse.”
“You mean the things in her purse?”
“The things that are not in her purse,” Mason said.
Della Street raised inquiring eyebrows.
Mason said, “She was in Las Vegas. She has a Nevada driving license. She drives an automobile. She probably drove in from Las Vegas. That would mean she drove to my office building. She had to do something with her automobile. There’s a parking lot next door. She probably put the car in that parking lot. She was given a parking receipt. She put that in her purse. She came up to my office. She was terribly excited. Regardless of what had caused her excitement, we know that she had probably fired a thirty-eight-caliber revolver at something, firing two shots.
“Then she remembered that there was something in the car that she wanted. She must have taken the receipt out of her purse and gone down to the parking lot.