“Then you intimated it.”
“Mr. Mason, this is hardly the time or the place to discuss a matter of this sort.”
“What’s wrong with the time?” Mason asked.
“Why... I hadn’t anticipated... you didn’t telephone... I had no warning.”
“Did you need warning?”
“Not necessarily.”
“Then what’s wrong with the place?”
“It’s public.”
“You picked it,” Mason reminded him.
Gage opened a gate in the counter. “Won’t you please step into my private office, Mr. Mason?”
Mason followed him down a thick carpet where there were further showcases on the sides, past two young women, who very frankly stopped the work they were doing to gawk at the lawyer as he walked past.
Gage held the door of his private office open, then, when Mason had entered, said, “Please be seated, Mr. Mason. I’m sorry you brought this up where the girls in the outer office could hear it.”
“You left me no choice,” Mason said.
“Well, perhaps I didn’t... I’m sorry. I didn’t appreciate the importance of your visit.”
“I hope you appreciate it now.”
“Well, Mr. Mason, the fact remains that an audit of the books shows that there is a very substantial shortage in our cash, and, of course, under the circumstances, we wanted to check on any of our employees who are absent.”
“Diana Douglas was one?”
“Yes.”
“Your uncle, Franklin Gage, is another?”
“Well, he’s hardly an employee. He virtually owns the business.”
“And Edgar Douglas is another?”
“Yes. He’s in the hospital with a fractured skull. He has never regained consciousness since the accident. I’m afraid the prognosis is not good.”
“Did you check on him, too?” Mason asked.
“We were hardly in a position to check on him. You can’t question a man who is unconscious.”
“So Diana Douglas was the only one you asked the police to check on?”
“Now, Mr. Mason, you’re getting the cart before the horse. With a shortage of that sort showing up we quite naturally wanted to talk with Miss Douglas. That was our right. She’s an employee of this company. We had assumed that she was absent from work because of the condition of her brother and was spending all of her time in the hospital with him, but inquiry disclosed that she had left rather suddenly for Los Angeles.”
“And you asked the Los Angeles police to check on her?”
“The Los Angeles police were asked to try to get some information from her.”
“You intimated that she might be an embezzler?”
“Certainly not, Mr. Mason. Don’t try to put words in my mouth. We simply asked for a check-up.”
“And how did you find out where she was staying in Los Angeles?”
“I’m afraid that’s a confidential matter that I don’t care to go into at the present time, Mr. Mason.”
“All right,” Mason said, “I just wanted you to know that I’m representing Miss Douglas; that we feel that her reputation has been damaged because she was accused of embezzlement, at least by inference, and because you asked the Los Angeles police to look her up... Here is my card, Mr. Gage, and if you have any further matters to take up with Miss Douglas you can take them up with me.”
“You mean she is finished working here?” Gage asked.
“That is something I’m not prepared to discuss,” Mason said. “I am referring only to the case she has against you for defamation of character. I would suggest you get in touch with me if you have any further activities in mind.”
“Come, come, Mr. Mason. There’s no need to be belligerent. You don’t need to come up here with a chip on your shoulder. Did you come up all the way from Los Angeles to tell us this?”
“Why not?” Mason asked.
“It seems so futile, so— Good heavens, we don’t know where the money is. All we know is that there’s a shortage.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“Apparently so. An amount of something over twenty thousand dollars seems to be missing from the cash.”
“You keep an amount of that sort on hand in the form of ready cash?”
“Yes, indeed. We have a lot more than that.”
“May I ask why?” Mason asked.
“I don’t know why not,” Gage said. “A lot of our deals are for cash, and a great many of them are made on weekends when the banks are closed.”
“And on some of them you don’t want any question of having left a backtrack?”
“No, no, no, it isn’t that. It’s simply that we’ve followed a policy of buying many times for cash and then, when the deal is completed, getting... well... establishing—”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Mason interposed.
“It’s rather difficult to understand, Mr. Mason, but there are various embargoes in various countries which must be — well, taken into account. For instance, in Mexico it is illegal to export ancient artifacts, yet there is a very brisk demand for such artifacts in this country.”
“And these Mexican figurines have been smuggled out of Mexico?”
“I didn’t say that, Mr. Mason. I was very careful not to say that. I was telling you something about the reasons that we have to have large supplies of cash in our business. There are certain questions we do not ask. And when you do not ask questions, cash does the talking.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Mason said.
“Is it necessary that you should?”
“I think it is.”
Gage flushed. “After all, Mr. Mason, I have explained to you as much of our business activities as I think is required under the circumstances.”
“When you talk about using cash,” Mason said, “in order to get figurines across the border, I take it that you are referring to bribery.”
“Not at all,” Gage said. “You’re a lawyer. You should be able to put two and two together.”
“Perhaps I have,” Mason told him.
“Perhaps you put two and two together and came up with an entirely wrong answer,” Gage warned.
“In that event,” Mason told him, smiling affably, “you’ll have a chance to explain in greater detail in court.”
“Now, wait a minute, Mason, there’s nothing to go to court about, and there’s no reason for you and me to get at loggerheads.”
Mason said nothing.
Gage took a deep breath. “Let me explain it this way, Mr. Mason. Mexico has an embargo on shipping ancient artifacts out of the country. On the other hand, there is no embargo in the United States on importing ancient artifacts. Therefore, if someone shows up with a station wagon full of figurines from Mexico, we don’t have to determine at the time we complete the transaction whether the figurines are genuine or whether they are copies.
“You must realize that there’s quite an industry in Mexico in copying ancient figurines and selling some of the copies to tourists, who quite frequently think they’re getting a genuine prehistoric artifact.”
“That still doesn’t explain the cash,” Mason said.
“Well,” Gage went on, “put yourself in the position of the man who is driving the station wagon. He wants to sell the artifacts. He wants to get what he considers a good price for them. He knows how much he had to pay for them. He wants to make a profit. But when a man has a station wagon filled with figurines of this sort, it’s only reasonable to suppose that he’s in business. It isn’t merely an isolated transaction.
“Under those circumstances he prefers to have no official record of the transaction. He prefers to deal on a cash-and-carry basis.
“Then there’s the other end of things, the export of goods from Hong Kong where it is necessary to have a Certificate of Origin. Here again there are situations which require cold, hard cash, which is transferred by wire.