“I see,” Mason said.
“So,” she told him, “as I said before, I want to reverse the field on this woman. Whenever he comes home to me, I’m going to furnish the loving attention, the companionship, the laughter and the play. Whenever he turns to the other girl, he’s going to find himself talking about financial and legal complications. Whenever he thinks of me, the thought will be associated with soft lights and seduction. Whenever he thinks of her, the thought will be associated with liabilities and litigation.”
Mason smiled. “Now that should prove an interesting experiment.”
“Then you’ll help me?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll have to work fast.”
“How fast?”
“Terribly fast, even for you. You see, he’s getting ready to come to me and face the situation, and today is our fifth wedding anniversary, although the thought hasn’t as yet occurred to him.”
“And you don’t want him to confess his infidelities?” Mason asked.
“Of course not. A woman should never forgive a man for infidelities. She should remain in complete ignorance.”
“Exactly what am I supposed to do?” Mason asked.
She said, “Just pick up that phone. Call Mr. George C. Lutts at the office of the Sylvan Glade Development Company. Give Mr. Lutts your name. Ask him what he will take for the two thousand shares of stock he has in the Sylvan Glade Development Company.”
“And then?” Mason asked.
“Then,” she said, “you accept his offer, whatever it is. Tell him that you will come over immediately, give him a certified check, and pick up the stock. You tell him you want to be present at the directors’ meeting at one-thirty. You ask him to wait in his office until you can get there.”
“That’s hardly the way to buy stock,” Mason said. “His first price will probably be about fifty to seventy-five per cent higher than what he would actually take.”
She shook her head impatiently. “I’m not buying stock. I’m buying a husband.”
Chapter 2
George C. Lutts was apparently a badly flustered individual. Not only was he curious as to why Perry Mason should be interested in the Sylvan Glade Development Company, but he was anxious to make certain that he receive the excessive price which he had quoted over the telephone. His anxiety was tempered by a very evident fear that some secret development concerning which he knew nothing was making the stock worth far more than he had dared to ask.
Mason put the certified check on Lutts’ desk.
“There you are, Mr. Lutts. A check payable to George C. Lutts, dated today, duly certified, in an amount of thirty-two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. You note that I have written on the back of it that this check is payment in full for your two thousand shares of stock in the Sylvan Glade Development Company, that you agree to arrange for me to attend the directors’ meeting this afternoon. You will there announce that you have sold your stock to me, and give me an opportunity to address the meeting.”
George Lutts was a man in his fifties, with heavy, bushy eyebrows under which suspicious grey eyes peered with the intensity of a man trying to look through a thick fog. He pushed his head forward, as if by so doing he could see Perry Mason’s face to better advantage, and he studied the lawyer’s features. Blinking his eyes rapidly, he seemed almost to be sniffing the air.
“You have the stock?” Mason asked impatiently.
“Yes, yes.”
“All endorsed?”
“I’m prepared to endorse it.”
“There are five directors?”
“That’s right.”
“Will you,” Mason asked, “tell me something about the temperaments and personalities of the various directors?”
“The directors are very harmonious, very broadminded, and for the most part, our meetings are entirely without friction,” Lutts said. “I am quite sure, Mr. Mason, that you will find no serious objection on the part of any director to carrying out any legitimate business proposition which is for the best interest of the company.”
Mason looked at him steadily for a few moments, then grinned.
“Well, of course,” Lutts said, hastily averting his eyes, “we occasionally do have differences of opinion, but I think that’s only normal. I think there are always differences of opinion whenever people get together. After all, Mr. Mason, this is a democracy, and we progress through the consideration of different opinions.”
“And who will furnish the difference of opinion this afternoon?” Mason asked.
“Ezekiel Elkins sometimes requires a little more explanation than some of the others. He’s intensely practical.”
“You mean hardheaded?”
“You might call it that.”
“And who is opposed to Elkins?”
“No one. No one at all.”
“But Elkins does occasionally express himself as having what you have just referred to as a difference of opinion?”
“Well... yes.”
“And with whom does he usually differ?”
“Well, of course,” Lutts said, “wherever there are strong personalities there is an inescapable tendency for different viewpoints to clash.”
Mason nodded.
Lutts said, “Cleve Rector is, in many ways, temperamentally opposed to Ezekiel Elkins, and they are the two largest stockholders.”
“Who else is on the board?”
“Herbert Doxey.”
“Who’s he?”
“He’s my son-in-law. His holdings are very small.”
“Who’s the other director?” Mason asked.
“Regerson B. Neffs. Now understand, Mr. Mason, my stock doesn’t represent a controlling interest in the corporation, not by any manner of means. While I am the president, these other people have much larger holdings.”
“I understand,” Mason said. “But isn’t it a fact that if you vote with one of the other large blocks of stock, it does make a controlling interest?”
“Well,” Lutts said, hesitating, “yes and no.”
“What do you mean?” Mason asked.
“Well, it’s rather difficult to work out a combination of that sort because the situation varies from time to time and person to person. Of course, Mr. Mason, there are essentially no differences of opinion except on minor matters. We are engaged in a constructive real estate development, and, quite naturally, everyone is interested in promoting that development so that it will work out to the best interest of all concerned.”
“I just wanted to know,” Mason said cryptically.
“Mr. Mason, you aren’t buying this stock with the idea of making some sort of a combination and getting control, are you?”
“What makes you think that?”
“Well, the questions you are asking and... the fact that there were no bargaining negotiations.”
“What’s the matter?” Mason asked, making his voice sharp with suspicion. “Isn’t the stock worth the money?”
“Oh, yes, of course, Mr. Mason! Of course! It’s well worth the money. In fact, I may say you’re getting a bargain, Mr. Mason.”
“Then why should I have engaged in what you refer to as bargaining negotiations?”
Lutts frowned. “I hadn’t been aware that you were taking an interest in the property owned by the corporation.”
“I don’t usually precede my negotiations for property by a formal announcement that I’m interested,” Mason said.