Mason said, “Did you find out anything about where Juanita Wentworth was that night?”
“The people on the yacht said she went to a room at the hotel. As far as the people at the hotel are concerned, they know nothing. If they do know, they aren’t making any comments.”
“If it came to a pinch, think she could prove that she was in the hotel?”
“She might,” Drake said. “I doubt if anyone could prove that she wasn’t... Well, this looks like a good place, Perry. We’ll swing around the block and stop down on one of the side streets, turn the spotlight on a house number or two, then drive on for another block and stop.”
“Okay,” Mason said, “go to it.”
Drake turned the corner, ran two blocks, then turned another corner.
“Oh, oh,” Della Street said. “Headlights behind us.”
“Don’t look around,” Mason said. “Paul can watch them in his rear-view mirror.”
Drake turned the corner, stopped the car, played the beam of his flashlight over the house numbers, and then moved into slow motion.
The car behind them also turned to the right, came straight toward them, the occupants showing no sign of interest in the car that was parked at the kerb.
“Keep your head turned away from it,” Mason instructed in a low voice. “Roll your eyes for a quick glance.”
He had just finished talking when the other car, which had slowed its speed appreciably, speeded up and swept on past.
Drake looked at the tail light going straight on down the street and said, “I think that’s the last we’ll see of them, Perry.”
“Think they know we’re wise?”
“I wouldn’t doubt it. Anyhow, they gave me the idea they were signing off.”
“Same here,” Mason said. “When’s that operative down at Eversel’s place going to report again?”
“In an hour.”
Mason said, “Let’s go. I want to perform an experiment with guns, and then I want to be within reaching distance of Eversel’s place when your man telephones. He’ll telephone directly to the office, Paul?”
“Yes.”
Mason said, “Better telephone your office, Paul, and tell them to hold this man on the line when he comes on. We’ll want to talk with him.”
“Okay, Perry.”
Drake started the car once more. They ran down the side street for some fifteen blocks, turned and crossed the main boulevard intersection, then kept on going until they reached another parallel boulevard.
“Try this one,” Mason said.
They made the boulevard stop, swung left, and shot into quick speed. Della Street, looking behind through the rear window, said, “No one turned into the boulevard from our street, Paul.”
Drake said, “I tell you they’ve quit. Their instructions were to shadow you as long as you didn’t get suspicious. The minute you got suspicious, they were to quit.”
Mason said, “Okay, Paul. Show a little speed. Stop at the first store you see that will be selling flashlights. I want to get a couple of five cell lights.”
“I have one pretty good flashlight,” Drake said. “It’s only three cells, but...”
“We’ll use that,” Mason said, “and also get a couple of bigger ones.”
Five minutes later, Drake found a drugstore where he was able to get the flashlights and phone his office. Another fifteen minutes found them driving past the hot dog stand which Mae Farr had pointed out to Mason.
Mason said, “Take a run down the road half a mile, Paul, turn around and come back. Drive slowly as you go past the place. Let’s see if anyone’s on guard.”
Drake drove down the road, turned the car in a U turn, swung back, slowed down, and said, “Looks deserted, Perry.”
“All right, stop,” Mason said. “Pull well over to the side of the road. Shut off your motor. We’ll listen and see if we can see or hear anyone over there.”
Drake shut off the motor, pushed the lights down to dim, and the trio sat listening for several minutes.
At length Mason said, “Okay, Paul. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You get out and you, too, Della. We’ll wait for a moment when there are no cars passing. I’ll throw the gun with my right hand. I’ll try and keep the beam of this flashlight on it with my left hand. You folks can each hold a flashlight and try and follow the course taken by the gun.”
“What’s the idea?” Drake asked. “Trying to show that it would only have hit the high tension pole once out of a thousand times?”
Mason said, “No, that line isn’t worth a damn in front of a jury. There’s always someone among the twelve who likes to believe that the hand of an all wise providence betrayed the criminal to his own undoing. Let him get an idea like that through his head, and he becomes a fanatic, feels that if he brings in a not guilty verdict, he’s defying providence. No, Paul, I just want to see how far I can throw the gun.”
“Well,” Drake said, “here’s a good time as soon as that car passes.”
“Okay,” Mason said, looking up and down the road. “Let’s get ready.”
He took the gun which Drake gave him, hefted it by the barrel, flexed his arm like a baseball pitcher.
A car tore past them at high speed, vanished down the road, the sound of its tyres on the pavement a high pitched snarl.
Mason said, “Okay. Here we go. One... two... three.”
The gun sailed up in the air. Mason’s flashlight caught it, followed it, lost it, caught it again. Della Street’s flashlight caught it and held it. Drake’s light groped uncertainly for a moment, then focused on the moving object.
Together they watched it sail out across the fence over the pasture and down to the ground.
Drake said, “That was a darn good throw, Perry. I might be able to sign you up with the Coast champions — if you could keep away from murders long enough.”
Mason said, “Let’s go see just where it lit. Take a bearing for direction, Paul. Let’s go.”
Della said, “How does a lady climb over a barbed wire fence in the presence of two gentlemen?”
“She doesn’t,” Mason said. “Ladies are always lifted over.”
Della laughed, put her hand on Mason’s arm for support when her shoes slipped as they made their way down the steep side of the road, and they crossed the muddy ditch to the barbed wire fence on the other side. Mason and Drake lifted her clear, swung her over the fence. They held down the top wire, stepped over, and walked across the soft, moist earth.
Mason said, “Don’t use your flashlights any more than necessary. When you do, shield them the best you can.”
They trudged silently for several seconds, then Drake said, “There it is, Perry, right ahead.”
Mason stopped and looked the ground over. “That,” he said, “is farther than I’d figured.”
“It was a darn good throw,” Drake said. “I couldn’t do it.”
Mason said, “No, but you’re not an outdoor man. You don’t live on a cattle ranch, ride horses, and rope cattle. This must be a good ten feet beyond that concrete pipe-line.”
“It is,” Drake said. “What’s the idea, Perry?”
Mason said, “Do you know, Paul, it’s occurred to me that there are just two places that haven’t been searched.”
“Where?”
“One of them,” Mason said, “was the drainage ditch. That ditch had some water in it. The police neglected to search it right at the start. The newspaperman found the gun there later. The other place the police didn’t search is the overflow pipes on this concrete pipeline. There’s water in the bottom of those big pipes.”
Drake said, “It would have been expecting a lot to throw a gun and have it light ker-plunk right in the middle of a pipe. What’s more, the police have found the gun with which the murder was committed. So why look for any more guns?”