“Brought what?” Mason asked.
“Now, let’s not be cagey about this,” Cassel said irritably. “I don’t think that you’d be guilty of a breach of faith by trying to blow the whistle but... to hell with this stuff, let’s take a look.”
Cassel strode to the bathroom, jerked the door open, looked around inside, surveyed the walls of the room, moved a couple of pictures looking for a concealed microphone.
“Don’t be simple,” Mason said when he had finished.
Cassel’s eyes were suspicious. “I don’t like the way you’re going about this,” he said.
“What’s wrong with the way I’m going about it?”
“You want me to make statements,” Cassel said. “I’m not making statements. I’m here. You’re here. It’s your move.”
Mason said, “I’m the one that should be suspicious. What made you so long showing up?”
“I had other matters which took me out of town for a while,” Cassel said. “I called as soon as I came back and got free... By the way, there was an ad in one of the evening papers. Do you know anything about that?”
Mason said, “I know enough about it to know that I wasted a lot of time giving the occupants of a taxicab an opportunity to give me the double take.”
“And you received no signal?”
“No.”
Cassel shook his head. “I don’t like that. I don’t like that at all. It means some third party is trying to chisel in on the deal.”
“You don’t like it,” Mason said. “How do you suppose I feel about it? What the hell are you trying to do?”
Cassel thought for a moment, glanced at Mason, looked away, looked back at Mason again, frowned, said, “There’s something familiar about your face. Have I ever met you before?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, every once in a while you— Wait a minute, wait a minute... I’ve seen your picture somewhere!”
“That’s not at all impossible,” Mason conceded.
“Hell’s bells,” Cassel said, “I’ve got it. Why dammit, you’re a lawyer. Your name is Mason.”
Mason didn’t let his face change expression by so much as the flicker of an eyelash.
“That’s right,” he said, “Perry Mason.”
“What are you trying to pull?” Cassel asked. “That wasn’t part of the deal. I don’t want to have any business dealings with any damn lawyer.”
Mason smiled affably. “I’m not any damn lawyer,” he said. “I’m a particularly special, high-priced lawyer.”
“I’ll say you are,” Cassel said, edging toward the door. “What the hell’s the matter with you, Mason? Are you crazy? You act as though you’ve got the room bugged. You know as well as I do that if you’re trying to blow any whistles you’re cutting your client’s throat. You’re acting just as if this was some kind of a shakedown.”
Mason said nothing.
“You know the proposition.” Cassel said. “It’s a business proposition. Your client doesn’t have any choice in the matter but, under the circumstances, he can’t have any protection. Any agreement that’s made isn’t worth the powder and shot to blow it up.”
Mason said, “That doesn’t prevent me from representing my client.”
Cassel sneered. “It means that we’ve had our sights too low,” he said. “If your client has got money enough to pay a high-priced lawyer a fat fee in a deal of this kind we’ve been too naïve. I don’t blame you, I blame us. We aren’t asking enough.”
“Keep talking,” Mason said. “I’m listening.”
Cassel, annoyed now, said, “This isn’t a payoff. This is something your client owes... I’m not going to argue with you, Mason, have you got it or haven’t you?”
“If you’re referring to the money,” Mason said, “I don’t have it, and if I did have it I wouldn’t pay it over on the strength of any proposition you’ve made so far.”
“What’s wrong with my proposition?” Cassel asked.
“You said it yourself. Any agreement is worthless. You could come back tomorrow and begin all over again.”
“I wouldn’t be foolish enough to do that,” Cassel said.
“Why not?”
“Well, it wouldn’t be... ethical.”
Mason laughed.
Cassel’s face darkened. “Look, Mason, you’re supposed to be high-powered. You’re supposed to be the last word. But all you’re doing so far is making it tough for your client. He had a chance to get off the hook at a bargain price. Now, things are going up.”
“Don’t say that,” Mason said, “or prices may go down.”
“You think you can pull a rabbit out of a hat?” Cassel asked sneeringly.
Mason said, “That’s what I’m noted for, pulling rabbits out of hats and coming up with another ace when it’s least expected.”
Cassel started angrily for the door, turned, said, “Look, Mason, let’s be businesslike. Your client pays five grand and that’s all there is to it.”
“And what does he get in return for the five grand?”
“Immunity.”
“What about the proofs?”
Cassel’s face showed surprise. “What are you talking about, the proofs?”
Mason recovered easily. “The proofs of your integrity, of the fact that my client has immunity.”
“Draw up an agreement,” Cassel said.
“You said yourself it wouldn’t be worth anything.”
“Not in court,” Cassel said, “and not if the right party brings the action. But it closes a lot of doors — all the doors your client needs to worry about.”
“I’ll think it over,” Mason conceded.
“Think it over, hell! You haven’t got a lot of time to think things over. This is a hot deal. If you’re going to go for it, you’ve got to move and move fast.”
“Where can I reach you?” Mason asked.
Cassel surveyed him thoughtfully. “You’re asking a lot of questions.”
“All right,” Mason said, “where can I leave the money — if I decide to leave the money?”
Cassel said, “Look, your phone number is listed. You have an office. I don’t know what you’re doing here in the hotel. I’ll give you a call from a pay station at your office.”
“When?”
“When I get damned good and ready,” Cassel said. He opened the door and walked out, slamming the door behind him.
Mason went to the telephone, put a call through the switchboard to Paul Drake’s office.
“Perry Mason talking, Paul. Did Stella Grimes phone in for an operative to do a tailing job?”
“Haven’t heard from her,” Drake said. “The last I knew she was in the Willatson Hotel. Weren’t you with her?”
“I was,” Mason said. “I had a man I wanted followed. I tried to give her a signal.”
“If you gave her a signal, she got it all right,” Drake said. “She’s a bright babe. Was there any reason why she couldn’t do the tailing job herself?”
“The only trouble is, the subject knows her,” Mason said. “A stranger would have been better.”
“Well, she probably didn’t have time to phone in. What was it, a rush job?”
“It was one hell of a rush job.”
“You’ll be hearing from her,” Drake predicted.
Mason hung up the phone, walked casually around the room, again picked up the telephone, said to the hotel operator, “Ring Room Seven-eighty-nine, please.”
It was some time before Diana Douglas answered the phone.
“Yes?” she asked.
Mason said, “It took you a while to answer, Diana.”
“I didn’t know whether I should answer or not. How’s everything down your way? I thought you were coming to—”
“We were interrupted,” Mason said. “The other party to the transaction showed up.”
“You mean... you mean the blackmailer?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”