Garvin hesitated.
“Well,” Mason asked, “does she or doesn’t she?”
“The unfortunate part of it was she did have a key. But she didn’t use it. I... hang it, Mason! I tell you she was home.”
“All right, she was home,” Mason said.
“But the point is, she can’t prove it. She was home alone because I was out on this damned used car deal. She’s got no way of proving that she was home.”
“She doesn’t have to,” Mason said. “If anybody wants to prove anything on her, let them prove that she wasn’t home.”
“Well, there’s one unfortunate thing,” Garvin said.
“What?”
“I tried to call her on the telephone and apparently I dialed the wrong number. She didn’t answer, and...”
“You don’t need to tell anybody about that,” Mason said.
“It was in connection with this business deal. I talked with this fellow and I wanted to get some data about some of my accounts receivable. It was in a little notebook that I thought I had with me, but I’d left it on the dresser.”
“And you telephoned your wife?”
“That’s right.”
“And got no answer?”
Garvin nodded, then added, “I apparently dialed the wrong number.”
“You gave up after the one call?” Mason asked.
“No, I called her twice.”
“No answer either time?”
“No answer.”
“How far apart were the calls?”
“Five or ten minutes. But I tell you, Mason, I’d only moved in to this new apartment about two weeks ago, and I had evidently transposed a couple of the figures in my mind. I dialed the wrong number. I must have, because she was there. And I mean she really was there. She isn’t the sort of girl who would lie to you. That’s one thing about Dawn, she’ll hand it to you straight from the shoulder.”
“The man with whom you were transacting the business knew you’d put through the calls?” Mason asked.
“Yes, that’s the devil of it. He has no way of knowing that I dialed the wrong number. Even I wasn’t aware of it at the time.”
“But you did put through the calls and received no answer?”
“Yes.”
“And as far as the man who was on the other side of the desk was concerned, you were dialing the right number and got no answer?”
“Yes.”
“And because you were expecting your wife would be home, you probably made some remark to him about it being strange there was no answer?”
“I guess I did.”
“What time did you put these calls through?”
“Around nine o’clock, I guess.”
“What time did you leave your home?”
“I never got a chance to get around there during the evening, Mason. I was demonstrating a car and then we had a sales meeting, and then this deal came up on the block of used cars, and I dashed down to get to this used car dealer before someone else beat me to it. I stopped for a hamburger on the way, and that’s all I had to eat.
“I really didn’t have any dinner, just that sandwich. I was intending to get back earlier than I did and take Dawn out for a good dinner some place.”
“You got back along in the latter part of the evening?”
“That’s right.”
“And had only had this sandwich?”
“Yes.”
“Did you ask your wife to go out?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She was angry because I hadn’t been home for dinner, because I’d gone out to make a business deal so soon after we’d been married. We had a little argument.”
“That’s all you have to tell me?” Mason asked.
“That’s all, except this boneheaded stunt of yours of shooting a bullet hole in my desk and... And now the officers claim that gun was the murder gun. It’s absolutely impossible! It’s utterly ridiculous! But if they keep messing around with it, they’re going to drag Dawn’s name into the newspapers.”
“Not unless you do something that drags it in,” Mason said. “The officers think that I had the murder gun in my possession, that I went out to see you, got you to produce your gun and fired your gun into the desk. Then I supposedly switched weapons on you in the confusion, so that the gun I gave you was the murder weapon, and I slipped the gun that was in your desk drawer in my pocket.”
Garvin’s face showed his surprise. “You say the officers think that?”
Mason nodded.
“But why?” Garvin said. “They’re trying to sell me on the idea that my wife went down to the office, got the gun... They’ve insinuated that Casselman was trying to blackmail her, and— How do you know what the officers are thinking?”
“Because,” Mason said, “they’ve just been here and virtually threatened me with arrest for concealing evidence and a few other things.”
Garvin slowly straightened away from the desk. “By George!” he said, “I never thought of that, but you could have done it. I thought I smelled a rat. You’re not so dumb as to let a gun go off accidentally.”
“Therefore,” Mason said, “if I had the murder weapon in my possession, if I went out there and got you to produce your gun from your desk drawer and then if I fired your gun into the desk, I certainly made a sufficient commotion so that in the confusion I could have substituted the murder gun in place of your gun.”
“You sure could at that,” Garvin said.
“Now then,” Mason said, “which gun was it that I fired? The gun that you took out of the desk, or the murder gun that I had with me?”
“You discharged my gun, the one that I took out of the desk,” Garvin said unhesitatingly.
“You’re certain of that?”
“Absolutely certain. I remember every move you made. I remember producing the gun and handing it to you. You took it in your right hand and swung it up and down two or three times getting the balance of it, and about the third time you tried it you fired it right into the desk.”
“The gun that you handed me?”
“The gun that I handed you,” Garvin said. “But you certainly could have switched guns afterwards, because everyone was dashing in to the office. I remember you holding the gun in your hand, and then you— Good heavens, Mason! That’s what you did!”
“The police seem to think so.”
A grin spread over Garvin’s features. “Now that puts a different aspect on the whole business. How are they going to make any trouble for Dawn if you had an opportunity to switch weapons? All right, Mason, they say all’s fair in love and war. As far as I’m concerned, I’m going to play along with the police on the theory they have.”
“Well,” Mason said, “why the deuce do you think I gave you the tip in the first place?”
Garvin thought things over. Suddenly he moved over toward the lawyer, and shot out his hand. “Shake hands, Mason,” he said. “You’re... You’re a gentleman! Wait till I get hold of Dawn and tell her about this!”
Garvin started for the door, closed his hand around the knob, then suddenly turned back to face the lawyer.
“Any time you want a good deal on a sports car, Mason, I’ll make you a very extra special price on that X-60 job you were interested in.”
“Thanks,” Mason said, “but I wasn’t interested in it.”
“Well, I’ll make you a mighty good price on it anyway.”
“Just a moment,” Mason said. “Can you tell me everyone who has keys to your office?”
Garvin seemed surprised. “The janitor of course, my wife, my secretary.”
“Your dad?”
“Oh sure. I have a key to his office, and he has a key to mine. We don’t ever use them but we have them.”