“I will,” Mason said.
He hailed a cab, gave the driver the address he had copied down in his notebook, then settled back against the cushions, narrowed his eyes in thoughtful concentration, and lit a cigarette.
At length the cab driver slowed, turned down a side street, and pulled in at the curb.
“This is the number,” the cab driver said.
Mason asked him to wait and walked up to the house. Before he could ring the bell the door was flung open.
“Gosh! Mr. Mason, but I’m glad to see you!” Marie Barlow exclaimed.
“You’re looking fine,” Mason said.
She laughed. “Don’t kid me. The baby’s due in nine weeks. I’m an elephant. I’m letting all the housework go and the place is a mess. Forgive the appearances. Sit down in that chair. It’s the most comfortable. Can I buy you a drink?”
“No, thanks,” Mason said. “I’m trying to get some information about Homer Garvin.”
“About what?”
“To find out where I can reach him for one thing.”
“He’s away?”
“Yes.”
“Have you talked with Eva Elliott?”
“I’ve talked with her.”
“And you didn’t get what you wanted?”
“I got virtually nothing,” Mason said.
Marie Barlow laughed. “Well, then you’ll know the way I feel when I go up to the office. I tried it a couple of times and then decided to forget it”
“Did you see Homer?”
“Neither time. I know he was busy once. The other time, I don’t think he was busy but she just wouldn’t ring.”
“What’s the idea?”
“I don’t know. Of course I was with Homer for twelve years. You get pretty close to a business and pretty close to a boss in that time. After Homer’s wife died, he really went all to pieces for a while. He was beginning to get back on his feet when I decided to take the matrimonial plunge. Believe me, Mr. Mason, I put it off for over three months just because I was afraid the job of having to reorganize the office on top of everything else would have a bad effect on Homer Garvin.
“Actually he found out I was putting it off. Of course when I came out with that sparkler on my finger he wanted to know when the event was going to take place. One thing led to another and he began to suspect that I was holding off on his account. So he told me to go ahead and get married before he fired me. Gosh, Mr. Mason! He’s a wonderful guy!”
“Was Stephanie Falkner in the picture while you were there?”
She shook her head. “She came later. Eva Elliott was Junior’s light of love at the time but he was beginning to cool off. He goes overboard for long-legged models with poise and curves.
“I believe Stephanie was just coming into the picture. Junior got his dad to put Eva Elliott in the office at a whale of a salary. She’s ornamental, unscrupulous and conceited. I’m a cat and I don’t like her. Her sole secretarial training consists of a course in typing and in watching glamorous secretaries on the screen and on television.”
“Then how can she handle Garvin’s business?” Mason asked.
Marie said with feeling, “That’s what I’d like to know.”
Mason said, “I think Garvin may be in Las Vegas. Where would he be staying?”
She thought for a minute and said, “Nine chances out of ten it would be the Double-O Motel. That’s one of the newer places. But surely Eva Elliott must know where he is.”
“She said not.”
Marie shook her head. “That was one thing about Homer. He would never be out of touch with the office; even when he didn’t want anyone else to know where he was he’d be in touch with me all the time so that I could reach him in case anything of real importance broke at this end.”
“Well, Eva Elliott seemed completely in the dark,” Mason said. “Of course it may have been an act.”
“May have been an act is right,” Marie said laughing. “But don’t let me prejudice you, Mr. Mason. You know how it is after a girl gets married. She gets a whole new life of her own. If anybody had ever told me that I’d let myself get out of touch with Mr. Garvin this way I’d have said he was crazy. But... well, I offered to stay there for a while helping Eva Elliott take over, but she wanted to be on her own, so I left and thought she’d be telephoning for help within the first twenty-four hours. She didn’t. I’ve never heard a squawk out of her.
“So I went in a few days later, said I was uptown doing some shopping, and just dropped in to have a talk with Homer and see if I could help. The atmosphere was formal and icy. She said Mr. Garvin was in a conference.
“Then the next time I went in was about two months later. She was frigidly polite. I hung around there for ten or fifteen minutes chatting.
She didn’t ring Mr. Garvin’s phone to tell him I was there and naturally I didn’t want to make an issue of it. So I left. I felt that after all he could get in touch with me if he wanted me.”
“Did he?” Mason asked.
She blinked her eyes rapidly, shook her head.
There was silence for several seconds. Suddenly she said, “Gosh! Mr. Mason, there must have been a hundred problems that came up on which they needed my help. I can understand why Eva Elliott didn’t call me. She’s a theatrical, stage-struck show horse, but for the life of me I can’t understand why Homer didn’t call up and ask me for information that I had at my fingertips. Eva Elliott would have had to dig that stuff out of the files, and even if she could have found it, she wouldn’t have known what to do with it.”
“You never called Garvin on the phone?”
“No, I didn’t. I... Well, I think it was up to him to have called me. I’m not going to put myself in the position of having that new secretary of his turn me down more than twice.”
“Well,” Mason said, “give me a ring once in a while, and run in and say hello when you get in circulation again. Della and I will both be glad to see you.”
“I most certainly will, Mr. Mason. Gosh! It was good to see you. Just like old times!”
She stood in the doorway watching him wistfully as he walked down to the taxicab, and was still standing there as the cab made a U-turn and started back toward Mason’s office.
Chapter Three
“Find out anything?” Della Street asked, as Mason latch-keyed the door of his private office.
“Uh-huh. I don’t know just how definite it is, but there’s certainly something sticky in the atmosphere around Garvin’s office. Just how long has it been since we’ve heard from him, Della?”
“I can look up the charge books, and...”
“Do that, will you?”
Della Street went out to the outer office and was back within a matter of minutes. “It’s been something over a year.”
“In other words, he hasn’t been in touch with me since he employed his new secretary,” Mason said.
“He probably hasn’t had any reason to get in touch with you.”
Mason pursed his lips. “A lot of changes seem to have taken place in Garvin coincidental with hiring that new secretary.
“All right, Della, we’ll take a chance. It may be that he’s having someone else do his legal work. Ring the Double-O Motel at Las Vegas and ask if Homer H. Garvin is there. Tell him that it’s Perry Mason calling. Be sure they get the name of the person calling.”
“Right away,” Della promised. “I’ll start Gertie working on the call.”
Della Street walked out to the switchboard, gave her instructions to Gertie and came back to Mason’s office.
The phone rang. Mason nodded to Della Street. She picked up the receiver, said, “Hello... Yes, he is... Just a moment, Mr. Garvin.
“On the line,” she said.