“Very well,” Lorraine said, gathering up her skirt and wrapping it around her legs so it wouldn’t drag on the stairs. She descended to the basement storage room. “Now where, Norda?” she called over her shoulder.
“Right to the left of a big box. You can see the handle of the printing press,” Norda said.
“I don’t see any handle of any printing press,” Lorraine Jennings retorted.
Mason said, “Just a moment, please.”
He moved over around Lorraine Jennings and peered under the shelf. “Is it behind these boxes, Miss Allison?” he asked.
“It’s just back under a shelf and behind... Here, I’ll come down and show you.”
Norda ran quickly down the stairs, pushed Lorraine to one side, held her skirt, stooped, then paused open-mouthed. “But it’s no longer here!” she exclaimed.
“Let’s move these boxes,” Mason said. “You said that there was a box containing a package of envelopes?”
“Stamped envelopes that had been addressed and were all ready for mailing to me,” Norda said.
Lorraine whipped her skirt into her lap, bent down and started pulling out boxes. “Well,” she said, “here’s some old recipes. I’ve been intending to put them into a scrapbook. Here’s some letters from Mother. I suppose they might as well be thrown away. Here’s... for heaven’s sake, Barton, here’s a whole box of those reprint books. I thought you were going to give them to the hospital.”
“I was,” Barton said from the head of the stairs, “but I hadn’t finished reading them. Let’s not bother with that now, Lorraine. Get the boxes cleaned out and let’s see what’s under the shelf.”
“But,” Norda protested, “there’s no need to start moving everything out. It was there and now it’s gone.”
“Well!” Lorraine exclaimed, getting to her feet and shaking out her skirt. Her tone showed extreme skepticism.
“I suggest you look around, Lorraine,” Barton Jennings said, “and I’d like to have Mr. Mason look around. Let’s be absolutely certain that there’s no foundation for this charge before we have any further discussion.”
Mason prowled around through the basement storage room, moving boxes.
“Well,” he said, “it would certainly appear the press is no longer in the exact place where Miss Allison saw it, at any rate.”
“No longer,” Lorraine repeated after him furiously. “I never heard such a story in my life! I—”
“Just a moment, dear,” Barton Jennings cautioned from the top of the stairs. “Let’s all go back to the library and sit down.”
Lorraine said coldly, “I’m afraid, Norda, that you’ve probably been influenced by some bad dream, to put the most courteous interpretation on it Perhaps you took too many drugs. You said you’d been having to take pills to get to sleep.”
“Well, I like that!” Norda exclaimed. “You found out that I’d been down in that basement storeroom this morning and found that printing press. So you’ve been very clever in getting rid of it. I suppose you’ve been smart enough so it can never be traced.”
“I think,” Barton Jennings said, “that it’s going to be a lot better for all concerned if neither party makes any accusations. What do you think, Mr. Mason?”
“I think you’re right,” Mason said, noticing Della Street seated at a table in the rumpus room, her pen flying over the page of her shorthand notebook as she took down the conversation. “Let’s go into the living room and see if we can discuss this matter quietly and intelligently.”
“As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing to discuss,” Lorraine Jennings said. “We invited Norda Allison to be our house guest. We tried to help her. As nearly as I can see, she has abused our hospitality. She told me she was going to take sleeping pills last night. I presume she had some drug-induced nightmare, and now she’s trying to hold us responsible—”
“I didn’t dream up those two envelopes I took out of the box,” Norda Allison flared, “and which are now in Perry Mason’s office.” She started to mention the note she had received from Robert but then decided to leave Robert out of it. Regardless of what it might cost her, she had a feeling it might be better in the long run if neither Robert’s mother nor Barton Jennings knew that it had been Robert who had first made the discovery.
“Now just a minute,” Mason said. “Let’s keep our heads, please. We are faced with a peculiar situation. Let me ask you, Mr. and Mrs. Jennings, do you have any objection to calling in the authorities for an investigation?”
“I certainly do!” Lorraine said. “Not until we have some tangible evidence to go on, I’m not calling in anyone. If your client wants to proceed with this absurd charge against us, Mr. Mason — well, you’re a lawyer and you can tell her what the consequences will be.”
Mason smiled. “I can appreciate your position, Mrs. Jennings, but under the circumstances my client is not going to be frightened. She isn’t making any accusations against you. She is simply stating that she found an important piece of evidence in your house this morning, and, as it happens, she had the foresight to take two of the envelopes with her. I am going to have an expert examine those envelopes to see if they are the same as the envelopes she has been getting through the mail. If they are, we are going to report the entire matter to the postal authorities.”
Barton Jennings said, “I think that’s the wise thing to do, Mr. Mason. I can assure you that this is all news to us.”
“It isn’t news at all!” Lorraine flared. “She’s been sending herself those notices, Barton, and now, for some reason that happens to be her personal and selfish interests, she’s taken advantage of our hospitality. She brought two of those envelopes down here with her in her purse, got up this morning before anyone was up, sneaked out, went to a lawyer with those envelopes, and—”
“I repeat,” Barton Jennings interrupted, “that neither party should make any accusations at this time. If it’s all right with you, Mr. Mason, we’ll disregard any statements and accusations which have been made by your client on the ground that she is naturally somewhat nervous and upset. And it will be agreed that your client will disregard any statements made by my wife, who is also quite naturally nervous and upset.”
“I think that is probably the best way of disposing of the entire matter at this time,” Mason said. “We now offer to make such an agreement with you.”
“We accept that offer,” Barton Jennings said.
“And now,” Lorraine Jennings said to Norda, “if you’ll kindly leave my house, Miss Allison, we will chalk off our attempt to befriend you as another unfortunate experience in misjudging human nature.”
Mason turned to Norda Allison. “Come on, Miss Allison,” he said, “let’s go.”
Chapter Five
Inspector Hardley Chester listened carefully to Norda Allison’s recital of facts, then turned to Perry Mason.
“There’s nothing out there now?” he asked.
“No sign of the printing press, no sign of the envelopes,” Mason said.
Inspector Chester ran his hand up over the top of his head, down the back of his ears and stroked the back of his neck with his finger tips. “We can’t very well go out there and accuse anyone of anything on the strength of evidence like that, Mr. Mason.”
“I don’t expect you to,” Mason said.
“What do you expect me to do?”
“I expect you to do your duty,” Mason told him.
Inspector Chester raised his eyebrows. “It’s been a while since I’ve heard that one.”