The Case of the Grinning Gorilla

“That’s right,” Mason said. “Now you can assure your readers that on the strength of this entry in the diary, the Drake Detective Agency has dozens of operatives out combing this section of the country trying to establish my theory that the passage in the diary means something definite. And if you go back and reopen the Helen Cadmus case you’ll find that there wasn’t a single member of the crew that saw Helen Cadmus after the boat left port.

“Furthermore, and this is the important thing, no one knows the nature of the confidential work that she was supposed to be doing for Benjamin Addicks. Addicks said that he left her typing the pages in her stateroom. Later on he was asked if he had received the typewritten documents, and he said, of course not, that the last time he had seen her was when she was transcribing the notes — now, get that straight. If she had been committing suicide she wouldn’t have taken the typewritten notes with her when she jumped overboard. If she had been intending to commit suicide she wouldn’t have typed out her notes. She’d simply have jumped and left the notes without being transcribed in her shorthand book. From the minute I started investigating this case I became very much interested in finding out just what had happened to the dictation Addicks had given her on the night she disappeared.

“There were photographs of the stateroom which she was supposed to have occupied on that last night out of port. Now you fellows study the photographs of that stateroom and you’ll notice two or three peculiar things.

“A typewriter has been set up on a table all right, and some paper has been spread around, but I’ve yet to hear that anyone found a shorthand notebook with any notes in it that hand’t been transcribed, and I’ve yet to find anyone who would admit that there was any typewritten document found in the stateroom.

“But the thing that interests me is what you can see in this picture. It’s a photograph taken after the yacht arrived in Catalina, and shows the stateroom occupied by Helen Cadmus. The door of the connecting bathroom is open, and you can see a portion of the interior of the stateroom occupied by Josephine Kempton on the other side. Now do you fellows notice anything peculiar?”

The newspaper reporters studied the photograph carefully.

Mason said, “The towels on one rack have been used. Those are the towels nearest the door of the stateroom occupied by Josephine Kempton. The towels by the door of the stateroom occupied by Helen Cadmus haven’t been used. Do you think she’d have boarded the yacht, have taken dictation, have done a lot of typing, and never so much as washed her hands, never so much as unfolded a towel?”

One of the men gave a low whistle, then said to Perry Mason, “Say, you’re a pretty good detective yourself.”

Mason grinned. “All right, you fellows have a head start on the police. It would be nice if you boys could find Helen Cadmus yourselves. And if you find that what I think is true, well — you’ll have something that’s a damn sight more valuable than the empty accusation of an interested party.

“I don’t know just how badly your city editors would like to have an exclusive interview with Helen Cadmus, and the true story of her supposed suicide, but I presume the fellow who turned it in could write his own ticket for a while, particularly if he signed her up for an exclusive.

“That’s why I’m giving all of you an even break. Here are the names of two motels where they registered as Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Barnwell, and here are some photographs so you won’t waste time digging into your morgues.”

“Barnwell,” one of the men said meditatively. “Say, the fellow Hardwick had a cablegram from Herman Barnwell. He...”

The reporter abruptly ceased talking. For a moment the reporters stood there, then one of them lunged for the door.

That started a four-man stampede, everyone making a dash down the corridor.

Mason grinned at Della Street. “Tomorrow morning we can send Mr. Sidney Hardwick copies of the papers, and tell him we’re fast workers ourselves.”

Chapter number 14

“Well,” Della Street said when the last sounds of running feet had died down. “You certainly took a button and sewed a vest on it!”

Mason grinned.

“Chief, are you safe in doing that?”

“What do you mean, safe?”

“My gosh, you’ve got the girl having a baby and being the common-law wife of Benjamin Addicks. Good heavens, suppose she should be alive?”

“Well?”

“Couldn’t she take action against you?”

“In that event,” Mason said, “the heat would be off of Josephine Kempton. We’re never going to get anywhere by denials and evasions, and being on the defensive. This is a case where we’re going to have to carry the fight to the other man.”

“But you do have an obligation to be limited by the real facts in the case.”

“That’s right,” Mason said. “Now let’s look at the facts for a minute. Quite evidently they were living together. I think they were in love.