“How big a cove?” Mason asked.
“Just a tiny little place nestled down in some hills. Not many people know about it Well, I was prowling along the edge of the tide line, looking pretty sharp because I’d just about combed the place clean, and then I happened to see this bottle. I took a look at it and saw it had been corked up and turned adrift, and there was a letter of some sort in it and I could look through the glass and see that it was on the stationery of the Thayerhelle.
“Well, I get around where the yachtsmen are quite a bit. They get a kick out of me. Some of them feel sorry for me. Poor devils, if they knew how sorry I felt for them, holding their noses on the grindstone and running like hell in the economic treadmill to keep the grindstone turning faster and faster.
“Well, anyway, I know most of the yachtsmen. I sell them stuff bait, and lobsters, and sometimes an interesting bit of driftage, and abalone-shell soap dishes, and things of that sort. I guess I know as many yachtsmen as anyone on the coast, and they know me and like me.
“Well, I had about combed this little beach out, so I got in my yacht and sailed up to San Diego and went to a telephone and put through a call collect to George Alder. I told him I had a bottle with some sort of a letter in it that evidently had been kicked overboard from his jj yacht He didn’t seem much interested at first and then he began to get curious and he suggested that I bring the I bottle in to him and he’d pay me for my time and trouble."
"Well … well, I did it.”
“And what happened?” Mason asked.
“Well, he took the letter out of the bottle and read it, if, and then he gave me fifty bucks. Then he asked me if I’d ” i read the letter and I told him it wasn’t my business to read letters but only to pick up bottles, and then he gave me a hundred bucks.”
Cadiz turned away, and once more looked down at the ocean.
Mason waited for several seconds, but the man didn’t turn back to face him. The silence became embarrassing.
“How was that bottle buried?” Mason asked.
“Sort of on a slant, half in the sand and half out, and the part that was out had all roughened up from sand blowing on the wind—you know, the way glass will when it’s exposed to sand blown by wind, sort of a ground-glass , effect”
“So Alder gave you fifty dollars?”
“That’s right”
“And then after a while made it a hundred?”
“Uh-huh … a hundred more.”
Mason said, “Alder’s dead now. You could be released I of your obligations to him, Pete.”
“What do you mean?”
Mason said, “I mean this, Pete, that if you had just picked up the bottle the way you said, you’d have put it in your boat someplace and the next time you happened to be over around the yachts and saw the ThayerbeUe anchored there you’d have got in your skiff, rowed over to pass the time of day with Alder, and casually mentioned this bottle you’d found. A man who has shaken the shackles of civilization the way you have doesn’t go around telephoning collect because he finds a bottle and … “
Cadiz whirled around to face him. “You mean I’m lying?” he demanded belligerently.
Mason measured the man with his eyes, brushed the belligerancy aside with a disarming smile, and said good-naturedly, “Pete, you’re not only lying but you’re making an awful job of it. It doesn’t come natural to you.”
Cadiz took a swift step toward the lawyer, then suddenly the anger left him and his pugnaciousness evaporated. A slow grin twisted his face. “Okay,” he said, “you’re doing the talking.”
Mason said, “My best guess is, Pete, that you read that letter in order to see what it was, and after you’d read it you knew that Alder would be interested in it so you took it in to him and it was after Alder found out that you had read the letter that he gave you the extra hundred dollars and made you promise that you’d forget all about it.”
“You’re doing the talking” Cadiz said.
“What would you do if you got on the witness stand?” Mason asked.
Cadiz thought that over for a while, then said, “Well, you’re a pretty smart lawyer. I ain’t saying anything right now. If Td made any sort of a deal with George Alder, I’d try to live up to it, but nothing was said about getting on the witness stand If I got on the witness stand and … Hell, I’d tell the truth-Mason pulled a folded paper from his pocket “Cadiz,” he said, “this is a subpoena which I am serving on you, a subpoena ordering you to appear in court tomorrow morning at ten o’clock to testify on behalf of the defendant in the case of The People of the State of California versus Dorothy Fenner. Now, we won’t be able to use you tomorrow morning, but you’ll have to be in court in accordance with the terms of this subpoena. You’re a witness for the defense, and there isn’t any reason for you to tell anyone about this talk or what you’re supposed to testify to. Now, while I can’t give you any more money than is allowed by law without it appearing that I’m trying to influence you, I can give you mileage which will bring you to court and youH be paid an amount which will compensate you for your loss of time.”
Cadiz took the subpoena, folded it, pushed it down into his pants pocket and said, That’s the hell of getting mixed up with civilization. I thought that hundred and fifty dollars was a little too easy.”
TouH be there?” Mason asked.
“IU be there,” Cadiz said. “I’m going to hate the thing all to hell, but I’ll be there.”
Chapter 17
THE CROWDED COURTROOM WAS CHARGED WITH AN ATMOSPHERE OF EXCITEMENT.
Claud Gloster, appreciating to the full the dramatic possibilities of the moment, arose as soon as court had convened and said, “Your Honor, we have a witness under subpoena, a Ronald Dixon, whose duties are such that it becomes necessary for him to be excused at as early an hour as possible. I would, therefore, ask permission of Court and counsel to temporarily withdraw the sheriff from the stand and put on Mr. Ronald Dixon out of order.”
“Any objections?” Judge Garey asked Mason.
Mason was smiling, confident, as one who is magnanimous in victory.
“No objection whatever, Your Honor.”
“Very well, on the strength of the district attorneys statement that it is necessary for this witness to be called out of order and, since no objection is made by the defense, it will be so ordered.”
Ronald Dixon, tall, studious, slightly stooped, came toward the witness stand and Mason, catching a quick glimpse of the man’s profile as he walked by, whispered to Della Street, “I’ve seen that man before.”
He turned to his left and said to Dorothy Fenner, “Do you know this man?”
“Night clerk at the apartment,” she said.
Mason grinned. “Here’s where they prove Alder s visit”
Ronald Dixon was sworn, gave his name, age, residence and occupation, settled himself in the witness chair as though he expected to be there for a long time and was making himself as comfortable as possible.
“You’re acquainted with the defendant, Dorothy Fenner?” Gloster asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“You have stated that you are one of the night clerks at the Monadnock Hotel Apartments?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What are your hours?”
“From four in the afternoon until twelve o’clock midnight.”
“On the third ot August of this year were you so employed and working those hours?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And did at that time?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, Mr. Dixon, directing your attention to the late afternoon of the third, will you tell us what happened of your own knowledge with reference to Miss Fenner’s apartment?”
“Well, I had read in the paper that she’d been…”