Mason said nothing.
Dixon nodded his head a few more times, then went on to say, “I will, of course, be called on eventually by the police. In fact, I have debated with myself whether I should telephone the police and tell them exactly what I know. You will, of course, be able to get all this information sooner or later, else I wouldn’t be talking to you. You still haven’t told me your exact interest in finding out the facts.”
Dixon suddenly looked up at Mason, his attitude that of a man who is courteously awaiting a reply to a routine question.
Mason sat absolutely silent.
Dixon drew his eyebrows together, looked down at his desk, then slowly shook his head in a gesture of negation, as though after giving the matter thoughtful consideration, Mason’s refusal to be more frank had caused him to reverse his former decision.
Still Mason said nothing.
Dixon looked up abruptly and failed to surprise any expression on the lawyer’s face.
Suddenly the business counselor put both hands flat on the desk, palms down, the gesture of a man who has definitely reached a decision. “Mr. Faulkner conferred with me several times yesterday, Mr. Mason.”
“In person?”
“Yes.”
“What did he want?”
“That goes beyond the scope of your original question, Mr. Mason.”
Mason said, “I am more concerned with the question than with the reason for asking it.”
Dixon raised and lowered his hands, the palms making little patting noises on the desk. “Well, Mr. Mason, it’s asking for a good deal, but, after all — Mr. Faulkner wanted to buy out Genevieve’s interest.”
“And you wanted to sell?”
“At a price, yes.”
“The price was in dispute?”
“Oh, very much.”
“Was there a wide difference?”
“Quite a wide range. You see, Mr. Faulkner had certain ideas as to the value of the stock. To be perfectly frank, Mr. Mason, he offered to sell his stock to us at a certain figure. Then he thought that in case we didn’t want to accept that offer, we should be willing to sell our stock at the same figure.”
“And you weren’t?”
“Oh, definitely not.”
“May I ask why?”
“It’s rather elemental, Mr. Mason. Mr. Faulkner was operating the company on a very profitable basis. He was receiving a salary that had not been raised during the past five years. Nor had Mr. Carson’s. If Genevieve had purchased Mr. Faulkner’s stock, Mr. Faulkner would then have been at liberty to step out into the commercial world and capitalize upon his own very remarkable business qualifications. He could even have built himself up another business which might well have been competitive to ours.
“On the other hand, when it came to fixing a price for which Genevieve Faulkner would be willing to sell her stock, I was forced to adopt the position that the value of the stock, so far as she was concerned, was predicated upon the income she was receiving from it, and if she were to sell out, she would want to get a sum of money which would draw an equal return. And, of course, investments are not nearly as profitable as they once were, nor do they have the element of safety. That made a wide difference, a very, very wide difference, Mr. Mason, between our selling price and our buying price.”
“I take it that made for some bad feeling?”
“Not bad feeling, Mr. Mason. Surely not bad feeling. It was merely a difference of opinion about a business transaction.”
“And you held the whip hand?”
“I’d hardly say that, Mr. Mason. We were perfectly willing to let matters go on in status quo.”
“But Faulkner found it very galling to be working for an inadequate salary...”
“Tut, tut, tut, Mr. Mason. The salary wasn’t inadequate, it was the same salary he had been drawing when he owned a two-thirds interest in the corporation.”
Mason’s eyes twinkled. “A salary which he had fixed so that Carson wouldn’t be in a position to ask for any salary increases.”
“I certainly don’t know what Mr. Faulkner had in mind. I only know that the arrangement which was made by all parties concerned when the divorce decree was granted by the court was that salaries could not be raised without Genevieve’s consent unless the court was called in to reopen the whole business.”
“I can imagine,” Mason said, “you had Harrington Faulkner in a position that was very, very disagreeable to him.”
“As I have stated several times before, Mr. Mason, I am not a mind reader, and I see no reason for speculating upon Mr. Faulkner’s ideas.”
“You saw him several times yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“In other words, the situation was approaching a crisis?”
“Well, Mr. Faulkner definitely wanted to do something.”
“Of course,” Mason said, “if Faulkner had bought Genevieve’s stock, he would then once more have been a two-thirds owner in the company. Faulkner would have been in a position to have got rid of Carson, and firing him would have been a perfect answer to Carson’s lawsuit.”
“As a lawyer,” Dixon purred, “you doubtless see possibilities which, as a layman, I would not see. My own interest in the matter was simply to get the best possible price for my client in the event a sale was to be made.”
“You weren’t interested in buying Faulkner’s interest?”
“Frankly, we were not.”
“Not at any price?”
“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that.”
“In other words, what with Faulkner’s quarrel with Carson, the various and sundry suits Carson had been filing, and the situation in which your client found herself, you were in a position to force Faulkner to buy at your price?”
Dixon said nothing.
“It was something in the nature of a legalized holdup,” Mason went on, as though thinking out loud.
Dixon straightened in the chair as though Mason had struck him. “My dear Mr. Mason! I was merely representing the interests of my client. There was no longer the slightest affection between her and Mr. Faulkner. I mention that merely to show that there was no reason for any sentiment to be mixed with the business matter.”
“All right. You saw Faulkner several times during the day. When was the last time you talked with him?”
“Over the telephone.”
“About what time?”
“At approximately... well, sometime between eight and eight-fifteen. I can’t fix the time any closer than that.”
“Between eight and eight-fifteen?” Mason said, his voice showing his interest.
“That’s right.”
“And what did you tell him?”
“Well, I told him that in the event any sale was going to be consummated, we wanted to have the matter disposed of at once; that if the matter wasn’t terminated before midnight, we would consider that there was no use taking up further time with discussions.”
“And what did Faulkner say?”
“Faulkner told me that he would be over to see me between ten and eleven; that he wanted to look in very briefly on a banquet of goldfish fanciers, after which he had an appointment. He said that when he saw me he would be in a position to make us a final offer. That if we didn’t accept the proposition he’d make us at that time, he would consider the matter closed.”
“Did he say anything about anyone else being there with him at the time you phoned?”
“No, sir. He did not.”
“That conversation might have been as late as eight-fifteen?”
“Yes.”
“Or as early as eight o’clock?”
“Yes.”
“Earlier than eight o’clock?”
“I’m quite sure it wasn’t, because I remember looking at my watch at eight and speculating whether I’d hear any more from Mr. Faulkner that evening.”
“And you don’t think it was later than eight-fifteen?”