“We can’t swear that, Paul.”
“I thought you said you could.”
“We can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to our client.”
“If you don’t, it won’t be fair to you.”
“If we do, it’ll just about clinch the case against her. We have to protect our client.”
“Not to the extent of taking blame yourself, Perry! Surely you don’t have to go that far."
“Hell,” Mason said, “I go all the way for a client, Paul, and now I’m going to try to start a family fight in the Caddo family. This should be good.”
Chapter 15
Some five minutes after Mason had rung the doorbell for the first time, Robert Caddo came shuffling down the corridor and opened the door.
A heavy woolen bathrobe was thrown around his shoulders. Beneath the robe, his legs showed in striped pajamas. His feet were encased in soft leather slippers. His hair, left long and trained to cover as much of the baldness of his head as possible, now hung down over one ear and gave him a ludicrous, lopsided appearance. There were sleep puffs under his eyes and a slightly dazed expression on his face.
“Hello,” Mason said. “I want to come in.”
Caddo said, “You... why, what’s happened?”
“Plenty,” Mason said, and pushed his way past Caddo.
The house was cold, with the chill of midnight. The windows had been opened for ventilation.
Caddo switched on lights, went around lowering windows and pulling shades. Mason found the button which controlled the gas furnace and turned it on.
“It’s cold in here,” Caddo said. “I’m shivering.”
“Perhaps you need a drink,” Mason told him.
Mrs. Caddo’s voice, from an upstairs bedroom, called, “Who is it, Bob?”
“Mr. Mason, the lawyer,” Caddo said. “You were at his office earlier today.”
Bare feet thudded on the upstairs floor. Then, after a moment, there was the sound of light, quick steps in house slippers, and Dolores Caddo, a robe wrapped rather tightly around her, glided into the room.
“Hello,” she said to Mason, and smiled, then embellished the smile with a quick wink. “I’m sorry for what I did today.”
Mason said, “Just what did you do today?”
“You know what I mean, calling at your office and making a scene.” And again she winked at him, then added hastily, “Bob says he saw you right afterwards and that he’s going to make things right with you. I told him not to squander his money — our money — because the hurt was mainly to your dignity. I hope you’ll be a good sport about it.”
“What other places did you go today?”
Caddo said, “After all, Mr. Mason, this is a very disagreeable subject. Can’t we?...”
“No,” Mason said. “I want to know where she went.”
She said gleefully, “I went to see Marilyn Marlow. I couldn’t find her. I had to put her on my list for tomorrow, but I saw Rose Keeling.”
“What time?”
“Right around eleven-thirty.”
“Throw any ink?”
She said grimly, “Believe me, that little drip will keep grub hooks off a married man in the future. I went places with her.”
“At what time?” Mason asked.
“Around eleven-thirty. It took me a little time to find her. I wasted some time trying to get Marilyn Marlow located, but Bob’s dear friend, Miss Marlow, was hiding out.”
“I tell you, my love, that it was only a business matter. Purely a business matter!” Caddo said desperately. “And if you had given Mr. Mason a chance to explain, he would have told you that. As a matter of fact, I never even saw Rose Keeling in my life.”
“Well, I saw her,” his wife said, “and, believe me, I put the fear of God into her.”
“What was she doing when you got there?” Mason asked.
“Dolling herself up for a tennis game. She had on one of those leg-showing suits, a nice, flimsy little thing. Well, I fixed that! I ripped it down the back and said, ‘Why not show ’em all of you, dearie? Why just tease them?’ And then I took my fountain pen and snapped ink all over her.”
“My love, you didn’t!” Caddo said, his voice filled with dismay.
“I certainly did!” his wife said. “And any time you think you’re going to cut corners, just remember one thing. I’ll find out about it sooner or later, and when I do, I’m going to make a scene that will teach people a married man isn’t fair game.”
“But, my love! This was a business matter. I could have made a lot of money out of it.”
“How?” Mason asked.
Caddo said, “Well, I...” He stopped abruptly, his sentence unfinished.
Dolores said, “Don’t think you can get your lawyer to front for you. Have I got to start getting rough all over again?”
Mason said, “I’m interested in what happened with Rose Keeling.”
“Well, suppose you go ask Rose Keeling. She should have a very vivid recollection of what happened.”
“Unfortunately, I can’t.”
“You mean she’s skipped out?”
“Rose Keeling,” Mason said, “is no longer with us. She was murdered at approximately eleven-forty this morning.”
In the silence that followed, the little noises made by the gas furnace as the metal of the heating system expanded in the growing heat sounded as clear as pistol shots.
Robert Caddo said sharply, “Damn it, Dolores, I told you that one of these days your temper would get the best of youl Now you’ve really done it.”
“Shut up,” she said.
Mason said, “Perhaps if you’d tell me more about your visit with Rose Keeling...”
“Phooey,” she said. “What are you trying to do, pin a murder charge on me?”
Mason said, “I have reason to believe that the murderer must have entered the place very shortly after you left.”
She said, “Wait a minute. Where do you fit into this picture?”
Mason said, “I’m trying to investigate...”
“You’re interested in finding out about the murder?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Mason said, “I’m an attorney. I’m trying to clear it up.”
She said, “You’re an attorney and you’re representing someone. When you started in on this case, you were representing my husband. Bob, you haven’t asked Mason to do anything about the murder, have you?”
Caddo shook his head, but said, “Really, my love, this is serious. Mr. Mason is one of the best lawyers and...”
“And Mason is representing someone right now,” Dolores said. “He’s trying to pin something on me so he can protect someone else.”
“But, my love, you admitted you were there,” Caddo said.
“Well, he’s juggling things around so that it makes it appear that the murder was committed right at the time I was there... What kind of monkey business is this, anyway?”
Mason said, “I’m simply trying to get the facts, that’s all. You didn’t kill her, did you?”
“Phooey,” she said. “I threw ink on her and tore off a few of her clothes and then I tried to give her a good spanking, but she got away from me and ran into the bathroom and locked herself in... I think, Bob, we won’t do any more talking.”
Mason said, “It would be of considerable assistance if you would tell me...”
“Well, I won’t!” Dolores Caddo said.
“If I could apprehend the real murderer, it would keep some innocent person from being falsely accused.”
“Yes, I know,” Dolores said. “But suppose you get big-hearted about this other person and try to pin things on me?”