“Thank you very much,” Mason said, letting his eyes take in the bulging forehead, the well-rounded cheeks, the steady blue eyes, and the fit of the well-pressed flannels.
“I’ve had quite a trip,” Steve Watkins said by way of explanation. “I flew from New York down to Central America to pick up mother, and came back with her. Haven’t even tubbed yet.”
“Did you fly your own plane?” Mason asked.
“No, I didn’t, although I do quite a bit of flying. But my job wasn’t exactly tuned up for a long flight. I went on a passenger plane to Mexico City, and then chartered a private plane down and back. We had another plane fly down to wait for us in Mexico City.”
“You have had quite a trip,” Mason agreed.
Mrs. Sabin said, “Never mind the personal amenities, Steve. I see no occasion to waste time trying to meet Mr. Mason on friendly terms. You know perfectly well he’s going to try to knife us. We may just as well start our fight and get it over with.”
“Fight?” Mason asked.
She pushed forward her chin aggressively and said, “I said ‘fight.’ You should know what the word means.”
“And what,” Mason asked, “are we going to fight about?”
“Don’t beat around the bush,” she said, “it isn’t like you — not from all I’ve heard, and I don’t want to be disappointed in you. Charles has employed you to see that I’m jockeyed out of my rights as Fremont’s wife. I don’t intend to be jockeyed.”
Mason said, “Perhaps in the circumstances, Mrs. Sabin, if you retained your attorney, and let me discuss matters with him...”
“I’ll do that when I get good and ready,” she said. “I don’t need any lawyer — not right now. When I need one I’ll get one.”
Steve Watkins said, “Just a minute, Moms, Uncle Charles only said that...”
“Shut up,” Mrs. Sabin snapped, “I’m running this. I heard what Charles said. All right, Mr. Mason, what have you to say for yourself?”
Mason dropped into a chair, crossed his long legs, grinned across at Charles Sabin, and said nothing.
“All right, then, I’ll say something. I’ve told Charles Sabin, and now I’m telling you. I know only too well that Charles has resented me ever since I married into this family. If I had told Fremont one half of the things that I’ve had to put up with, Fremont would have had Charles on the carpet. He wouldn’t have stood for it for a minute. Regardless of what Charles may think, Fremont loved me. Charles was so afraid that some of the property was going to get away from him, that he was completely blinded by prejudice. As a matter of fact, if he’d been disposed to be fair with me, I might have been fair with him now. As it is, I’m in the saddle, and I’m going to do the driving. Do you understand, Mr. Mason?”
“Perhaps,” Mason said, lighting a cigarette, “you could explain a little more clearly, Mrs. Sabin.”
“Very well, I will explain clearly. I’m Fremont’s widow. I think there’s a will leaving the bulk of his property to me. He told me he was making such a will. If there is a will I’m the executrix of it; if there isn’t, I’m entitled to letters of administration. In any event, I am going to be in charge of the estate, and I don’t want any interference from any of the relatives.”
“You haven’t the will with you?” Mason asked.
“Certainly not. I’m not in the habit of carrying my husband’s wills around with me. I presume it’s in his papers somewhere, unless Charles has destroyed it. And in case you don’t know it, Mr. Mason, Charles Sabin is perfectly capable of doing just that.”
Mason said, “Can’t we leave the personalities out of it, Mrs. Sabin?”
She stared defiantly at him, and said simply, “No.”
Richard Waid started to say something, then checked himself.
Mason said, “Look here, Mrs. Sabin, I want to ask you a personal question. Hadn’t you and Mr. Sabin separated?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Just what I say. Hadn’t you separated, hadn’t you decided that you were not going to live together any longer as man and wife? Wasn’t your trip around the world in accordance with such an understanding?”
“Absolutely not, that’s ridiculous.”
“Didn’t you have an agreement with Mr. Sabin by which you were to get a divorce?”
“Absolutely not.”
Waid said, “Really, Mr. Mason, I...”
He broke off as Mrs. Sabin glowered at him.
The telephone rang, and Waid said, “I’ll answer it.”
Mason turned to Charles Sabin and said significantly, “I have recently come into the possession of certain information, Mr. Sabin, which leads me to believe that your father had every reason to believe that by Monday, the fifth of this month, Mrs. Sabin would have obtained a divorce. I can’t interpret the information I have received in any other light.”
“That’s a defamation of character,” Mrs. Sabin said belligerently.
Mason kept his eyes on Charles Sabin. “Do you,” he asked, “know anything about that?”
Sabin shook his head.
Mason turned back to Mrs. Sabin. “When were you in Paris, Mrs. Sabin?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Did you get a divorce while you were in Paris?”
“Most certainly not!”
“Because,” Mason went on, “if you did, I’ll find out about it sooner or later, and I’m warning you now that I’m going to look for evidence that will...”
“Bosh,” she said.
Richard Waid, who had been standing in the door near the hallway in which the telephone was located, came striding into the room and said, “Well, it isn’t bosh, it’s absolute fact.”
“What do you know about it?” Mason asked.
Waid came into the room, met Mrs. Sabin’s eyes, and turned to Charles Sabin. “I know everything about it. Look here, Mr. Sabin, I realize there’s going to be a family fight. I know enough of Mrs. Sabin’s character to know that it’s going to be a free-for-all. As she pointed out to me, within a few minutes after she arrived, I can best safeguard my interests by keeping my mouth shut and keeping out of it. But my conscience won’t let me do that.”
“You and your conscience,” Mrs. Sabin said, her voice rising shrilly. “You’re nothing but a paid ‘yesman.’ My husband had completely lost confidence in you. You may not know it, but he was getting ready to discharge you. He...”
“Mrs. Sabin,” Waid interrupted, “didn’t go around the world, at all.”
“She didn’t?” Mason asked.
“No,” Waid said, “that was just a stall to fool the newspaper reporters so she could get a divorce without any publicity. She boarded a round-the-world boat. She only went as far as Honolulu. Then she took the Clipper back, and established a residence at Reno. She obtained a divorce there. All this was done under Mr. Sabin’s direction. She was to receive one hundred thousand dollars in cash when she furnished Mr. Sabin with evidence that she had received her divorce. Then she was to fly to New York, pick up a round-the-world boat, come back through the Panama Canal, and then let Mr. Sabin, at such time as he thought best, announce the divorce. That was the agreement between them.”
Mrs. Sabin said with cold finality, “Richard, I warned you to keep your mouth shut about that.”
Waid said, “I didn’t tell the sheriff because I felt it wasn’t up to me to discuss Mr. Sabin’s business. I didn’t tell Mr. Charles Sabin because Mrs. Sabin told me that it would be to my own good to keep my mouth shut. She said that if I co-operated with her, she’d co-operate with me once she got in the saddle.”
“The question,” Mason said, “is whether this divorce was actually obtained.”