The Case of the Grinning Gorilla

“From the time I first began to check through the Helen Cadmus diaries I have been impressed by two things. One of them is that no member of the crew specifically mentioned seeing Helen Cadmus aboard the yacht after they got down to the outer harbor. The other one is that you can’t explain what became of the papers she had been typing. Either she took them to Benjamin Addicks, in which event Benjamin Addicks’ story to the police was false; or else they were left in the stateroom, in which event someone surreptitiously removed them.

“A professional stenographer doesn’t like to type well enough to type an important document, then clutch it in her hand and jump overboard.”

“Suppose she was accidentally washed overboard?”

“Waves weren’t coming over the ship that bad, Della. It was a rough, choppy night, and there was water being shipped now and then, and quite a bit of spray, but it wasn’t one of those all-out storms where solid water comes crashing over the desk every so often and might sweep a girl off her feet.”

“Well, you certainly started something.”

“I aimed to,” Mason said.

“Now what do we do?”

Mason said, “You go home and I settle down for another spell of good, hard work.”

“What kind of work?”

“I’m going to study those diaries particularly with reference to the two known dates when she was staying in the motels. I’m certain there must be between-the-line references that will enable me to get some sort of a clue, and when I get that clue I’m going to study the rest of the dates.”

Della Street said, “Move over. I’m with you all the way.”

“No, you go on home and get some rest.”

“Fiddlesticks! I’m going to see this thing through.”

“Well, if you insist, go get something to eat.”

“What are you going to do about food?”

“Oh, I’ll have some coffee and a cheeseburger sent up from the lunch counter downstairs.”

“Make it two,” she said. “Let’s start.”

Mason happily surrendered. “All right. Della, do you suppose a girl could write diaries the way Helen Cadmus did, be in love with her boss and not have something that would show that love creep into the diary?”

“A lot depends on the nature of the romance. I think a woman who was really in love would naturally be cautious about putting anything in writing that her lover didn’t want. On the other hand, there is always a tendency for a woman in love to confide in her diary.”

Mason said, “What I want to do is look for a code. She had some sort of a code word or expression that she would use to show that she had been with the man she loved.”

“Provided she really loved him,” Della Street said.

“I like Helen Cadmus from what I’ve learned to know about her from her diaries,” Mason said. “She was a frank, wholesome, square shooting sort of a girl, and a very loyal one, I believe. We have a couple of dates, Della. Let’s look up those and study the entries carefully.”

Della Street said, “If he really loved her why didn’t he marry her?”

“That, of course,” Mason said, “is part of the mystery in the case. You wouldn’t want a case that didn’t have a mystery, would you?”

She smiled and shook her head.

“Well,” Mason said, “let’s start exploring.”

Mason carefully read and reread the entry under the date of the first registration in the motel.

Della Street came to look over his shoulder and for a moment they read in silence.

Suddenly she laughed.

“What’s the matter?” Mason asked.

“You’re looking under the date at which they registered at the motel.”

“Well?” Mason asked.

“It’s the wrong date,” she said. “She wouldn’t have had anything to confide in her diary until she got back the next day. The diary shows that they had just returned from a yacht trip on that day. Now probably it was when they were driving home that Addicks suggested...”

“A good point well taken,” Mason said. “I guess my sense of romance is snowed under with business considerations. To the legal mind a date is a date. All right, let’s look at the next day.”

They read the next day’s entry and Della Street’s right forefinger immediately dropped down to a sentence on the page in the diary.

“There it is, Chief. Just as plain as can be.”

Mason read the sentence. “ ‘They say happiness is where you find it, which is okay by me. I’m willing to ride along and certainly won’t try to force the issue as long as there isn’t any.’

“Good Lord,” Mason said. “I read this myself. This was the volume that I checked over, Della, and at the time I didn’t appreciate the significance of it.”

“Well, there it is all right,” Della Street said. “It relates to what happened the night before. Evidently that wasn’t the first time. She was perfectly willing to ride along and be happy, as long as there wasn’t any issue.”

“All right,” Mason said, “let’s turn over to that other volume, Della. Let’s see if we can find something of importance before the entry announcing its great event to Addicks.”

Della Street brought the book over and placed it on the table.

“Draw up a chair and sit down,” Mason invited.