The manager bowed and withdrew. Mason studied the banker, a man who had bushy white eyebrows, slate-gray eyes, a profuse mane of iron-gray hair, and a mouth which indicated he was accustomed to getting his own way.
“I take it,” Mason said, “you wish to consult me on a matter of some importance.”
“That’s right. My own time is exceedingly valuable, Mr. Mason. I can assure you that I wouldn’t waste it on a trivial matter even if I wanted to waste yours.”
“May I ask how you happened to locate me here?” Mason said curiously.
“I get information the same way you do, Mr. Mason.”
Mason raised his eyebrows.
“I feel that information is the most important ammunition a man can have to fire at an adversary in a business deal. Therefore I try to have accurate authentic information and I try to get it fast. There are specialists in the field of getting information just as there are specialists in the field of law and in the field of banking. I have the best detective agency I can get and when I put it to work I get results.”
Mason studied the other man thoughtfully. “Am I to assume that detectives have been shadowing me during the day so that you could put your finger on me at any time you wanted me?”
“Not during the day. However, when you entered my affairs, I entered yours. You can be assured that when I wanted you, I knew where to find you and that whenever I want to know where to find you in the future I will be able to do so with the briefest delay possible.”
“All right,” Mason told him. “What do you want? Why go to all that trouble?”
“Because you’re representing Norda Allison,” Selkirk said. “She’s going to be charged with the murder of my son. I can assure you, Mr. Mason, that I intend to see that my son’s murder is avenged. I don’t care what I have to do, to what lengths I have to go, or how much it costs. I am going to avenge my son’s death.”
“Surely,” Mason said, “you didn’t come here simply to tell me that.”
“I wanted to warn you. You are reputed to be a very resourceful and adroit attorney. You have the reputation of skating right along the thin edge of legal ethics in order to serve your clients. Frequently your ethics have been questioned but you have always managed to come up with the right answer and extricate yourself from the difficulty.”
Mason said nothing.
“In those cases in the past, however,” Selkirk went on, “you haven’t been up against a determined, resourceful antagonist who is perhaps equally intelligent, equally adroit, and if you come right down to it, equally unscrupulous.”
Mason said, “You’ll pardon me, Mr. Selkirk, but I’ve had a busy day. I want to relax and enjoy my dinner and I’m not interested in having you come to my table in order to make threats.”
“Whether you’re interested or not, I’m here.”
“All right,” Mason told him. “You’ve stated your position. Now I’ll state mine. I don’t propose to have you sit at my table and keep making threats.”
“I think I’m in control of the situation,” Selkirk said. “I have a mortgage on this restaurant. There’s no one here who’s going to throw me out.”
“Take another look,” Mason said.
“Where?”
“At me. I’ll throw you out.”
Selkirk looked him over. “Give me a year, Mr. Mason, and I can bring about your financial ruin in this city regardless of your ability.”
“Give me forty-five seconds,” Mason said, pushing back his chair, “and I’ll bring about your physical ruin if you don’t get the hell out of here.”
Selkirk held up a restraining hand. “Calm down, Mason,” he said. “You’re enough of a fighter to realize you can’t put up your best fight when you’re angry. A prize fighter never gets mad; if he does, he loses the fight. A good lawyer puts on quite a show about being mad but if he’s a topflight attorney, he is as cool as a cucumber all the time he’s registering indignation.
“Now then, I may have overemphasized my initial point. I wanted to have you understand that I have a considerable amount of power. I can be a powerful enemy but, on the other hand, I can be an equally powerful friend.”
“A bribe?” Mason asked coldly.
“Don’t be silly,” Selkirk said. “I know you wouldn’t take a bribe. I’m not offering to befriend you. You don’t want my friendship — now. I’m offering to befriend someone who needs it. You can’t turn down the friendship for your client — a friendship and assistance I am prepared to offer.”
“Under what conditions?”
“My son,” Horace Selkirk said, “was a Selkirk. Therefore he had the benefit of such protection as the family could give him. I have from time to time used my influence on behalf of that boy. I have had to extricate him from rather serious situations. I know that he was not perfect. He had a nasty habit of being unfailingly polite while engaged in sadistic skirmishes.
“I’m not that way. I never skirmish. I either get along on a peaceful basis of live-and-let-live or I go to war. When I go to war I make a major campaign out of it. I destroy my enemy absolutely, ruthlessly and completely. I don’t believe in halfway measures.
“I mention this, however, because I want you to know that the things my son did never met with my entire approval.
“My son was infatuated with Norda Allison. He quite probably would have ruined her mental health before he’d have let her marry someone else. I am not contending that my son was always in the right.
“However, we now come to the main reason for my visit. That is my grandson, Robert Selkirk.”
Mason’s face, which had been ominously unsmiling, suddenly showed interest. “Go on,” he said.
“The story the child’s mother, Lorraine Jennings, and her husband, Barton Jennings, told the police was that Robert was going on a three-day camping trip. They had to take him and his dog to a place where he could join the group. They said they left him at the appointed place early this morning.
“For your private information, Mr. Mason, that is a complete fabrication. Robert did not join any group early this morning. There was no occasion for him to do so. The group was not scheduled to depart until ten-thirty. Actually it got away at eleven-twenty-two. Robert was not with the group.”
“Where is he then?” Mason asked.
“Evidently he has been spirited away somewhere and is being held in concealment.”
“Why?” Mason asked.
“I thought you might be interested in finding out why,” Selkirk said.
“Go ahead,” Mason said.
“It might develop into a story which would be of some interest to you as the legal representative of Norda Allison. It might result in her acquittal. You see, since my son is dead, Robert’s mother, Lorraine Jennings, is now the person who would legally be entitled to his sole custody. I don’t intend to let Lorraine bring up my grandson. I never did think it was a good idea.
“I want the legal custody of Robert. Lorraine doesn’t like me. She doesn’t want me to have much to do with Robert. She says she doesn’t intend to have any child of hers brought up to be a financial robot. As it happens, Mr. Mason, while I have always tried to control my feelings, I am very, very fond of my grandson. There is where you can help me.”
“How?” Mason asked.
“By proving Lorraine Jennings guilty of my son’s murder,” Horace Selkirk said, pushing back his chair. “In that way you acquit your client and at the same time make it possible for me to achieve my own goal. And if you need help in order to do it, you may call on me for anything you need. In the meantime, I’ll be doing a few things on my own. Thank you, Mr. Mason, and good night.”
He bowed formally and withdrew without shaking hands.
“Whew!” Della Street said. “There’s a man who gives me the creeps.”