“Younger than Diana,” Mason said thoughtfully.
“A couple of years.”
“She could try to mother him a little,” Mason said.
“It has been done,” Drake conceded... “How about you giving a helping hand?”
“To whom?”
“To me, and, incidentally, to yourself,” Drake said. “If you can tell me about Diana’s case and why you’re interested I may be able to help both of you. At least I can save you a little money.”
Mason shook his head. “I can’t, Paul. I’m bound by professional ethics.”
“Do you want me to keep on the job?” Drake asked.
“For a while,” Mason said.
“Want me to put a tail on her?”
Mason said, “I’d like to know where she goes and who she sees, but that’s a pretty ticklish job because I don’t want her to feel that she’s being shadowed. If that happened it might alarm her and cause her to take steps which would be against her own best interests.”
Drake said, “Then you’d better let me make a very casual shadow job of it, because on a tight shadow job the subject is quite frequently aware of the tail. It’s a pretty difficult job to put on a real shadow and guarantee that the subject is completely unaware of it.”
“Then make it a loose shadow job,” Mason said.
“Of course,” Drake went on, “where money is no object, we can use enough operatives to—”
“We haven’t an unlimited expense account here, Paul, and I don’t know that it’s absolutely imperative that we know where this young woman goes and what she does, but I would like to keep in touch with her and I would dislike very, very much to have her become alarmed and take a powder.”
“Okay,” Drake said, “I’ll see what can be done. We’ll make a loose tail job of it. When do you want a report?”
“Whenever you have anything worthwhile,” Mason said, put his hand briefly on Paul Drake’s shoulder, and walked down to his own office.
5
The Willatson Hotel was a commercial hotel which operated on a basis of live-and-let-live. Very little attention was paid to people who came through the doors, crossed the lobby, and walked directly to the elevator.
Perry Mason, however, felt it better to follow the procedure of being a total stranger.
He went to the desk, caught the eye of the clerk, and said, “Do you have a Miss Diana Deering registered here?”
“Just a moment.”
The clerk looked through a file and said, “Seven-sixty-seven.”
“Will you announce me, please?”
The clerk seemed bored. “What name?”
“She won’t know the name,” Mason said. “It’s in connection with a social-security inquiry. Tell her it has to do with thirty-six, dash, twenty-four, dash, thirty-six.”
The clerk said, “Very well,” picked up the phone, rang Room 767 and said, “A gentleman is here to see you in connection with an inquiry about a number. I believe it’s a social-security number... What’s that?... Very well, I’ll tell him if that’s your message.”
He turned to Mason, said, “She is having no social-security problems. You’ll have to give me a name or—”
Mason raised his voice and said, “You didn’t give her the number: thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty-six.”
The receiver suddenly made squawking sounds.
The clerk said, “It’s quite all right. She wants to see you. She heard you give the number over the telephone. You may go on up.”
The clerk hung up the telephone and returned to the task of bookkeeping with a manner of bored indifference.
Mason took the elevator to the seventh floor and knocked on the door of Room 767.
The young woman who had been in his office earlier in the week opened the door quickly, then fell back in amazement. “Good heavens!” she exclaimed. “You!”
“Why not?” Mason asked.
“How... how did you know where I was?... How did you know who I—”
Mason pushed his way into the room as she fell back, closed the door, walked over to a chair, and seated himself.
“Now, let’s talk a little sense for a change,” he said. “Your real name is Diana?”
“Yes.”
“Diana what?”
“Diana Deering.”
“Let’s try doing better than that,” Mason said.
“That’s my name, Mr. Mason. You ask down at the desk if you don’t believe it. That’s—”
“That’s the name you’re registered under,” Mason interrupted. “But that’s not your name. How about Diana Douglas of San Francisco? Would that do any better?”
For a moment her eyes showed dismay, then her face flushed. “I retained you as my attorney,” she said. “You’re supposed to help me, not to go chasing around trying to uncover things about my past, trying to cooperate with...”
Her voice trailed into silence.
“With the police?” Mason asked.
“No, not with the police,” she said. “Thank heavens, I haven’t done anything that violates the law.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure.”
“Look here,” Mason said, “I’m an attorney. People come to me when they’re in trouble. I’m supposed to help them. You came to me and sneaked up on my blind side. I didn’t do a very good job of helping you. I’m sorry about that. That’s why I decided I’d better find you before it was too late.”
“You’re mistaken, Mr. Mason. I’m not in any trouble. I’m trying to... to protect a friend.”
“You’re in trouble,” Mason said. “Does the Escobar Import and Export Company know where you are?”
“I don’t know... They know that I’m away on personal business.”
Mason reached across her lap, picked up the black handbag.
“You leave that alone!” she screamed, grabbing his arm with both hands.
Mason kept his grip on the bag.
“Full of money?” he asked.
“That’s none of your business. I want to fire you right now. I wanted an attorney to protect me. You’re worse than the police. Let go of that bag. You’re fired!”
“Where did you get the money that’s in this bag?” Mason asked.
“That’s none of your business!”
“Did you, perhaps, embezzle it from the company where you worked?” the lawyer asked.
“Good heavens, no!”
“You’re sure?”
“Of course I’m sure!”
Mason shook his head. “Would it surprise you to know that the Escobar Import and Export Company called in an auditor to go over its books?”
Her face showed surprise, then consternation. Her grip on his arm weakened. “Why, why in the world — good heavens... they couldn’t.”
“That’s the information I have,” Mason said. “Now, suppose you do a little talking and try telling the truth for a change. What’s your capacity with the Escobar Import and Export Company? What do you do?”
“I’m a cashier and bookkeeper. I have charge of foreign exchange and foreign payments. I... Mr. Mason, there must be some mistake.”
Mason said, “Let’s look at basic facts. You come to my office. You have a bag that’s loaded with money. You—”
“How did you know about what’s in this bag?”
“My receptionist had a chance to see the inside of it,” Mason said. “It was loaded with bills.”
“Oh,” she said, and then was silent.
Mason said, “You put an ad in the paper indicating that you were here to pay off a blackmail demand. So, let’s put two and two together. You take an assumed name. You come to Los Angeles. You put an ad in the paper. You are dealing with a blackmailer. You have a large sum of money with you in the form of cash. The company where you work evidently feels some money is missing. It calls in an auditor.”
Diana sat silent. From the open window came noises of traffic from the street.