Mason sat down on the bed beside the woman and said, “Are you able to talk, Miss Corning?”
“Could I have coffee?” she asked. “Been doped...”
Della Street said, “I’ll get some coffee on. There should be some in the apartment. Come help me, Paul.”
The woman on the bed weaved around, then groped over towards Mason for support, put her head on his shoulder, and promptly dropped into a deep, drugged sleep.
Ten minutes later Lt. Tragg came back to the apartment.
He found Mason and Della Street supporting the woman, who was drinking coffee from a cup held by Paul Drake.
“Did she get away?” Mason asked.
Lt. Tragg’s mouth was grim. “She did not!”
“She beat you to the street, didn’t she?” Mason asked.
“She beat me to the street,” Tragg said, “but she didn’t beat modem police methods. I got in my car, got the dispatcher on the line and we sewed the district up. We had radio cars converging on it from every direction and I was able to describe her, the dress she was wearing, her age, height, weight, appearance...”
“You got all that,” Mason asked, “in the brief glimpse you had?”
“Sure, I got all that,” Tragg said. “What the hell do you take me for? I’m a cop but I’m not a dumb cop. That’s police training. Your woman was picked up within three minutes after she hit the street, and she’s on her way to Headquarters now, where she’ll be held for questioning. Now tell me what it’s all about and what I question her about.”
“That woman,” Mason said, “will turn out to be Cindy Hastings, a nurse. She posed as Miss Corning, wearing dark glasses and sitting in a wheelchair. She telephoned Susan Fisher and told her to put on a raincoat, slacks, a sweater, and wear a man’s hat pulled down low over her forehead, and go to a place on Mulholland Drive and get a gallon of gasoline from the service station.”
“And then Susan Fisher picked her up in the alley?” Tragg asked.
“Picked her up, nothing,” Mason said. “Cindy Hastings simply sat in the wheelchair at the alley. Elizabeth Dow, dressed exactly as they had told Susan Fisher to dress, came and picked her up. As it happened, a witness saw the pickup — and you know how fallible eyewitness testimony is, particularly when it comes to the identification of a stranger. The witness saw some woman in a raincoat with a man’s hat pulled down over her eyes and imagination and clever police suggestion did the rest.
“So then the two women went to meet Lowry. Within a short time after they picked him up they were ready to go ahead with their murder, having carefully planned the details so Susan Fisher could never convince anyone of her innocence.
“I must have missed the murder by only a few minutes.”
“Then the real Miss Corning,” Tragg said, “was the woman who...”
“The woman who came Saturday,” Mason said. “We should have known it if we’d done any great amount of thinking. That woman was very adept in the use of a wheelchair. She did everything that the real Miss Corning would have done and none of the things that the spurious Miss Corning would have done.
“The two women kidnapped her when she tried to get out to Mojave to look at the mine. They let her get as far as Mojave and then they dragged her, brought her back to Los Angeles and kept her concealed here. In the meantime, knowing that Ken Lowry was going to state that he could identify the voice of the woman who had told him to ship currency to the Corning Affiliated Enterprises, they decided they needed Lowry out of the way. And how could they do it any better than by framing the crime on Susan Fisher?”
The woman on the bed smiled drowsily. “Can’t see well,” she said, “but...” She yawned, nodded prodigiously, then straightened and said, “Have a good ear for voices... whoever you are, you’re smart.”
Mason said, “Everything is going to be all right now, Miss Corning. I’m Perry Mason, an attorney who is going to help you.”
Mason turned to Tragg and said, “They were planning to use the substitute Miss Corning and make it appear that the real Miss Corning was an impostor. But then Miss Corning’s sister and her business agent wired they were corning from South America to be with her, and that necessitated a hurried change in plans.”
The woman on the bed struggled to wakefulness. “So Sophia came, did she?... Pain in the neck... so damned afraid I’m going to meet some fortune hunter and get married.” Again the woman yawned.
“All right,” Tragg said. “Now tell me about the money and I’ll put the rest of it together by myself.”
“I can’t be sure about the money,” Mason said. “Probably Campbell had a pair of shoes in a shoe box somewhere. Also, Elizabeth Dow was keeping her money in a shoe box. Campbell told his son they could trade treasure boxes and the boy inadvertently got the box with all the money in it Elizabeth Dow had stolen from the mining deal. She didn’t know it until after she heard Campbell talking over the telephone with Susan Fisher. Then she knew Carleton had got her cache of money instead of his daddy’s treasure — a pair of shoes.”
“And what happened to the box of money?” Tragg asked.
Amelia Corning yawned, tried to say something, yawned again, smiled, said, “I’ve got it... put it where they’ll never find it... not until I get ready... more coffee?”
“That’s all there is to it,” Mason said. “Elizabeth Dow, because of what she had learned while working as a governess, saw a wonderful opportunity to feather her nest. She rang up Ken Lowry, told him she was Miss Corning calling from South America, told him to do a lot of things that any sane businessman wouldn’t have done. But Lowry, being a square-shooting miner, accustomed to the outdoors and to dealing with people whose words were as good as their bond, and knowing that there may well have been a tax angle involved, followed instructions to the letter.
“Elizabeth Dow rented a post office box under the name of Corning Affiliated Enterprises.
“Lowry was loyal enough so that he...” Mason looked at his wristwatch and said, “We’re going to have to give this woman some more coffee, Lieutenant. We’re going to have to get her to a doctor and we’re going to have to use your official car in order to get all of us to court before four o’clock.”
Chapter 14
Mason came hurrying into court exactly at four o’clock, just as Judge Elmer, impatient at the delay, was taking the bench.
“Do you wish to put on a defense, Mr. Mason?” Judge Elmer asked.
“I do,” Mason said. “I would like to recall Frank Golden, proprietor of the We Rent M Car Company, for a few questions on cross-examination.”
“We object!” Hamilton Burger shouted. “Here we go all over again. We—”
“The objection is sustained,” Judge Elmer interrupted. “If you have a case, Mr. Mason, put it on.”
“Very well,” Mason said. “I will call Frank Golden as my witness and then, if I may have the indulgence of the Court to make sure that my next witness has recovered from her drugged condition, I will call Amelia Corning as my second defense witness.”
“Call who?” Hamilton Burger shouted.
“Amelia Corning,” Mason said, smiling. “Frank Golden, will you take the stand, please? You’ve already been sworn.”
Golden took the witness stand.
“You rented this car to the defendant Sunday night,” Mason said. “She brought it back. After that, I rented the car. Did the car go out after the defendant brought it back and before I took it out?”
“I am afraid it did,” Golden said. “I was busy when the defendant brought it back. I made a note of the mileage, but I didn’t clear the records. I left the car parked out in front. Later on, when I went to look for it, it was gone. I assumed that my assistant had taken it and parked it. Later on, I found out he hadn’t done so.”