“So sometimes you work late?”
“Yes.”
“And Homer has had you work late?”
“Yes.”
“And taken you out to dinner?”
“Twice.”
“And propositioned you?”
“What do you mean by that, Mr. Mason?”
“You know what I mean.”
“If you mean has he ever come out cold turkey with a proposition, the answer is ‘no’, but all men proposition you. They size you up. They look you over. They make a remark occasionally with a double meaning. They tell a story that’s a little broad. They are quick to follow up any opening... Mr. Mason, I don’t need to tell you how men are. They’re always on the lookout in an aggressive way, and if they get an opening they follow up and just keep pushing.”
“And Homer Gage has been like that?”
“He’s been like that. He isn’t going to come right out in the open and make any proposition and get rebuffed and perhaps have his uncle know what is happening and—”
“The uncle likes you?” Mason said.
“Yes, he does.”
“Married or single?”
“He’s a widower.”
“And how about him? Does he have the aggressive, masculine mannerisms?”
“No, no, Mr. Mason. Mr. Franklin Gage is very much of a gentleman. He is courteous and considerate and — well, he’s an older, more mature man and his attitude is...”
“Fatherly?” Mason ventured, as she hesitated.
“Well, not exactly fatherly. More like an uncle or something of that sort.”
“But he likes you?”
“I think so.”
“Very much?”
“I think so. You see, I am pretty good at adjusting myself in a business way and I have tried to do a good job there at the export and import. And Mr. Gage, Mr. Franklin Gage, knows it.
“In a quiet way he’s very nice to — to all of the girls who work in the office.”
“How many other than you?”
“Three.”
“Names?”
“Helen Albert, a stenographer; Joyce Baffin, a secretary-stenographer, but her duties are mostly of a secretarial nature — for Homer Gage; and Ellen Candler, who has charge of the mail and the files.”
“Suppose a person wanted to embezzle money from the company?” Mason said. “Would it be easy?”
“Very easy — too easy for those who had the combination to the cash safe. The company keeps large sums of money on hand. Occasionally it’s necessary to make deals on a completely cash basis with no voucher of any kind.”
“Bribery?” Mason asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“Smuggling?”
“I don’t think it’s anything like that.”
“And how do you keep your books under those circumstances?” Mason asked.
“Well, there’s a certain amount of juggling with the cash so that the books are regular, but sometimes there are transactions which — well, it would be a little difficult to trace them.”
“So your brother could very easily have embezzled five thousand dollars to go to Los Angeles and pay off a blackmailer?”
“Mr. Mason, I tell you Edgar wouldn’t do that, and even if he had wanted to he couldn’t have done it. He doesn’t have the combination to the cash safe.”
“Who does have the combination?”
“Franklin Gage, Homer Gage, Stewart Garland, our income-tax man, and myself.”
“You found five thousand dollars in cash in Edgar’s apartment?”
“Yes. I’ve told you that two or three times. It’s the truth.”
“And you knew Edgar hadn’t had an opportunity to save that much out of his salary since he’d started work?”
“Well, yes.”
“Where did you think he got it?”
She said, “My brother is — well, he has friends. He’s very likable, very magnetic, and I think he has friends who would help him out in a situation of that sort... That’s what I thought.”
“All right,” Mason said, “let’s face it. You’re in a jam. You’ve come to Los Angeles under an assumed name. You’ve got five thousand dollars in cash. You’re mixed up with a blackmailer. Suppose the accounts at the Escobar Import and Export Company show a five-thousand-dollar deficit?”
Her hand went to her throat.
“Now, you’re getting the point,” Mason told her. “There’s only one thing for you to do. Get a plane back to San Francisco. Get into your office tomorrow morning.
“Now, do exactly as I say. If it turns out an auditor says there’s a five-thousand-dollar shortage, just laugh and say, ‘Oh, no, there isn’t.’ Tell the auditor that your brother was working on a company deal at the time of the accident; that you took out five thousand dollars to finance that deal; that Edgar asked you not to make an entry until he had had a chance to discuss the deal with Franklin Gage; that he thought it was going to be a good deal for the company but that you knew all about the five thousand dollars that he had and knew that it was company money.
“You go to a local bank this afternoon, deposit the five thousand, buy a cashier’s check payable to you as trustee. As soon as your brother recovers consciousness, you’ll see him before anyone else does... Make certain of that. As a member of the family you’ll have the right-of-way.
“Then you can use your own judgment.”
“But, Mr. Mason, this thing is coming to a head. It isn’t going to wait. This blackmailer — or whatever it is — this letter that my brother had was most urgent, imperative, demanding.”
“What did you do with that letter?”
“I burned it.”
Mason said, “There was an ad in the paper for you to make contact with a cab passenger at—”
“Heavens, how did you know about that?” she asked.
“We make it a point to read the personal ads,” Mason said. “Why didn’t you contact the man in the taxicab?”
“Because I didn’t like the looks of the thing. There were two passengers, a man and a woman. It was night, yet they both were wearing dark glasses. I thought it was a trap of some kind. I... well, I decided to pass it up. When I made contact I wanted it to be where there were no witnesses.”
“I see,” Mason said thoughtfully, then abruptly he walked over to the telephone, asked the switchboard operator for an outside line, and got Paul Drake’s office.
“Paul,” he said, “I want a female operative — blonde, twenty-two, twenty-three, or twenty-four, with a good figure — to come to the Willatson Hotel and go to Room Seven-sixty-seven.
“She can’t carry anything with her except a handbag. She can make purchases and have them sent in from the department stores where she buys. She’ll take the name of Diana Deering, which is the name of the present occupant of the room.”
“I know,” Drake said.
“She’ll masquerade as Diana Deering. She’ll make it a point to get acquainted with the bellboys, with the clerks as they come on duty. She can ask them questions. Inquire about a monthly rate on the room. Do anything which will attract attention to herself as Diana Deering. And quit tailing the real Diana.”
Drake said, “It happens that I have a girl who fits the description in the office right now, Perry. She’s Stella Grimes. She’s worked on one of your cases before, although I don’t know if you’ve seen her personally. The only thing is she’s a little older.”
“How much older?” Mason asked.
“Tut, tut,” Drake said, “you’re asking questions.”
“You think she can get by?”
“I think she can get by,” Drake said.
“Get her up here,” Mason told him.
“But what about me?” Diana asked when Mason hung up.
“You’re going to get that cashier’s check payable to you as trustee and then go back to San Francisco.”