The Case of the Grinning Gorilla

James Etna shifted his position slightly, then said, “Yes, I guess so.”

“Now then,” Hardwick went on, “I represented Benjamin Addicks during his lifetime. I know more about him than any living man. I drew a will for him some months ago. That will was in accordance with Mr. Addicks’ wishes at that time.”

“You have reason to believe his wishes changed?”

Hardwick cleared his throat. “Both his wishes and his will.”

Mason said, “You have something to tell us and something you want to ask us. Why not put it on the line?”

Hardwick smiled. “I’m afraid that I’m not a very good poker player.”

“You’re not playing poker,” Mason told him. “You’re engaged in a consultation where we’re all of us putting certain cards on the table. Now suppose you start putting down as many cards as you want to disclose, and then we’ll see what we can do.”

“Very well. There is a situation here that is most unusual, a situation that is in some ways very much in favor of your client. I felt that you should know it, Mr. Mason, before you... well, perhaps before you decide you wouldn’t represent her.”

“Go ahead,” Mason said. “We’re listening.”

Hardwick said, “You called on Benjamin Addicks Tuesday night. Your call upset him. When you found the ring and the watch... well, it was a jolt to Addicks’ self-respect and to his self-assurance. He completely changed his mind about what he wanted to do in his will.

“That night, before he went to bed, somewhere around eleven-thirty, he called in Nathan Fallon and Mortimer Hershey for a conference. He said, ‘Gentlemen, I have been a fool. I have been self-righteous. I have been arbitrary in my judgments of my fellow men. I am sorry. I am going to try to make what atonement I can. I have here a will which I have drawn up entirely in my own handwriting. I am putting this will in an envelope. I am giving it to you. I want you gentlemen to seal the envelope and sign your names on the back of it, and place that envelope in a safe place. If anything should happen to me within the next few days I want you to see that Mr. Sidney Hardwick has this will.’ ”

“Within the next few days?” Mason asked. “Was he then anticipating something...?”

“No, no, nothing like that. It seems that what he had in mind was to make another appointment with me and have his will, this holographic will, reduced to a more conventional form and duly signed in the presence of witnesses. He was making this holographic will as something in the nature of a stopgap so that in case anything did happen to him he wouldn’t be bound by the old will that he had made.”

Mason nodded, said, “You went out there that night to have him make a new will?”

“That’s right. He was, however, too upset to see me. I couldn’t understand it at the time. In the light of subsequent developments I can put the whole picture together.

“You had jarred the man’s self-assurance, Mr. Mason. And I can assure you he was a hard man to jar, a very hard man.

“Now then,” Hardwick went on, “I probably have no right to do this, but I am going to read you a portion of the holographic will that Mr. Addicks made, a will that I am going to offer for probate. I think there are some things in here which are of the greatest importance to you gentlemen, and particularly to your client.”

“Go ahead,” Mason said, glancing significantly at Della Street so that she would be certain to include the quotation from the will in her shorthand notes.

Hardwick unfolded a paper and read: