“Injured?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Any more details?”
“That was all. He said that Mr. Addicks was injured and couldn’t come to your office, but that he felt it would be very much to your advantage to see Mr. Addicks. I told him that I’d have to try to get in touch with you and call him back.”
Mason said, “Just a chance, Della, put through a call to Etna, Etna and Douglas.”
“There won’t be anyone there at this hour.”
“One of the partners might be working late. After all, Della, you know we work late.”
“Darned if we don’t,” she said. She picked up the telephone, dialed a number, then after a moment said, “May I ask who this is talking?... This is Mr. Mason’s office, Mr. Perry Mason... That’s right, the attorney... Oh, it is?... Well, I’m sorry to be bothering you at this hour but Mr. Mason was anxious to get in touch with Mr. James Etna. Just hang on please.”
Della Street motioned toward Mason and switched over the connection on her desk telephone. “Another night owl,” she said. “He’s working late on a case.”
Mason picked up the telephone, said, “Hello. This is Perry Mason speaking. Is this James Etna?”
“That’s right.”
“You’re attorney for Mrs. Josephine Kempton in a suit against Benjamin Addicks?”
“Yes, sir. That’s right.”
“I find myself taking an interest in that case,” Mason said.
“Whom are you representing?” Etna asked in a coldly cautious tone of voice.
“No one. I’m simply interested in it.”
“Well, I’m interested in it myself. Personally I think it’s a damned outrage. In fact, it’s keeping me from a dinner engagement tonight. The case is scheduled to go to trial day after tomorrow, and I’m trying to dig up a little law on it.”
“Would you mind telling me the background of the case?”
‘“I think it’s disclosed by the pleadings,” Etna said cautiously.
“I’d like a little more than that.”
“Why?”
“Just curiosity, we might say.”
“I’m afraid, Mr. Mason, that I can only refer you to the pleadings. Of course, when the case comes to court...”
“There’s just a chance,” Mason said, “that I might be able to give you a little help.”
“In what way?”
“I can’t tell at the moment, but if you want to tell me anything... I wouldn’t want you to disclose any confidential communications, but...”
“Oh, all right,” Etna said. “I can tell you generally what the case is all about. Mrs. Kempton was peremptorily dismissed. She had been in Mr. Addicks’ employ for about two and a half years. Addicks gave no reason for dismissing her. Mrs. Kempton was angry when she left. She didn’t ask for any letter of recommendation. She was discharged without notice.”
“Doesn’t she know what the trouble was about?” Mason asked.
“As far as she’s concerned there wasn’t any trouble.”
“Go ahead. What happened after that?”
“Well, she secured employment. Naturally the people wanted to know for whom she’d been working, and Mrs. Kempton told them. She worked for about two weeks. Apparently her services were entirely satisfactory, and then out of a clear sky she was discharged without notice. She couldn’t understand it. However, she’s a good cook and housekeeper and she got another position right away. Naturally there, too, people wanted to know where she had been working, so she told them and settled down on the job and everything was fine. The people expressed themselves as being very well pleased and then abruptly let her go without a word.”
“Go ahead,” Mason said.
Etna hesitated.
“Well?” Mason prompted.
“This thing,” he said, “is not generally known. I... oh, I guess it’s all right to tell you.”
“Don’t tell me if it isn’t all right,” Mason said. “I’m not asking for anything confidential.”
“Oh, it’s going to come out in court,” Etna said. “Mrs. Kempton had had some other dealings with our office over an insurance matter. She became suspicious. She came to me and told me what had happened, so I had one of my friends write to Benjamin Addicks stating that a Mrs. Josephine Kempton was in his employ, that he understood one of her last positions had been with Mr. Addicks for something over two years, and asked Mr. Addicks if he could give any information about Mrs. Kempton’s character.”
“And what happened?” Mason asked.
“Within a week a letter was received from Benjamin Addicks stating curtly that Mrs. Kempton had been discharged on account of dishonesty, that a very valuable diamond ring, to which Mr. Addicks was very much attached, and which was worth in the neighborhood of five thousand dollars, had disappeared; that a platinum watch, which was worth seventeen hundred and fifty dollars, had also disappeared; that the theft had not been brought home to Mrs. Kempton with sufficient evidence so that she could be prosecuted, but that there had been sufficient evidence so that Addicks had summarily discharged her.”
“That’s a devil of a letter to write,” Mason said.
“Isn’t it?”
“And what did you do?”
“Well, just to make assurance doubly sure, I had Mrs. Kempton get a job with friends of mine, people whom I could trust, and where the letter would possibly have more legal significance. The fact that the other letter had been written by someone who hadn’t actually employed Mrs. Kempton, you understand, might make a difference in the legal situation.”
“I understand.”
“So Mrs. Kempton secured a position at two hundred and fifty dollars a month with board and room, a very nice position. The people wrote to Mr. Addicks and received the same type of letter as the other, which, of course, they have retained in their possession, and which they’re ready to identify in court.”
“And the case comes up day after tomorrow?”
“That’s right. I’ve been trying my damnedest to rush the thing through to trial because it makes a considerable difference to my client. Addicks can clip coupons. My client has to work.”
“You’ve asked Addicks to retract?”
“I did everything I could to bring pressure to bear on Addicks. I don’t know whether you know him.”
“I don’t.”
“Well, he’s a very obstinate individual. He told me he had evidence that would convince anyone that Mrs. Kempton had made away with the diamond ring and the watch; that he hadn’t been sufficiently nasty about it to resort to criminal proceedings, but that if I dragged him into court he’d blast Mrs. Kempton’s name forever. He said that if she wanted to get a job without giving him as a reference, it would be all right with him. All she had to do was to lie about where she’d been working, but that when anyone wrote to him and asked him for his opinion about Mrs. Kempton, he was going to give it.”
“I suppose,” Mason said, “you’ve looked up the law in regard to privileged communications?”
“That’s what I’m digging around in now,” Etna said. “There’s a question of privileged communications. Also the question of malice, the question of reasonable grounds for writing such a letter, and all of that stuff. The law isn’t too clear.”
“Now I want to ask you one question,” Mason said. “Do you remember reading in the paper about the disappearance of Addicks’ secretary, a girl by the name of Helen Cadmus?”
“I don’t remember too much about the newspaper accounts, no,” Etna said.
“But you do know something of her disappearance?”
“I know a few things that Mrs. Kempton has told me,” Etna said cautiously.
“Now,” Mason said, “you’re getting close to what I want. What did Mrs. Kempton tell you?”