The Case of the Mischievous Doll

Drake, sitting some ten feet from the microphone, said, “Hello, Jerry. Can you hear me?”

“Sure I can hear you,” Nelson said, his voice, amplified through a loudspeaker, filling Mason’s office.

“You seen this gal yet?” Drake asked.

“Have I seen her?” Jerry said. “I’m still gasping for breath.”

“That much of a knockout?”

“Not only that much of a knockout, but that much of a resemblance.”

“She’s really a dead ringer?”

“Well, not exactly a dead ringer but it would easily be possible to get them mixed. Now look, Paul, is there any chance those girls are related? I mean closely related. Does anybody know whether Minerva Minden had a sister?”

“She wasn’t supposed to have,” Drake said.

“Well, as I remember it,” Nelson said, “the thing was mixed up in some kind of litigation. Minerva Minden was able to prove her relationship so she got several million dollars, but the family tree has never been completely uncovered. There was some talk about Minerva’s mother having a sister who might have had a child before she died.”

“You feel pretty certain the two women are related?” Drake asked.

“I’d bet my last cent they’re relatives,” Nelson said. “I’ve never seen anything so completely confusing in my life. The two women look alike, they’re built the same way, they have the same mannerisms. Their voices are different and the hair and general coloring is a little different but there’s one hell of a resemblance. I don’t know what you fellows are working on. I suppose it ties in with that inheritance. There’s still twenty or thirty million dollars to be distributed. All I want to say is that you’ve struck pay dirt.”

“Okay,” Drake said, glancing at Mason, “keep that angle under your hat. Where are you now?”

“Up at court.”

“And what’s happening?”

“Oh, the usual thing. The judge is looking over his glasses at Minerva and giving her a lecture. He’s imposed a five-hundred-dollar fine on each of the two charges, making a total of a thousand dollars, and he’s busy now explaining to her that it was touch and go with him whether to give her a jail sentence as well; that he finally decided against it because he feels that in her case it wouldn’t do any good. He’s read the report of the probation officer, he’s heard the application for probation, and despite the vehement requests of the defence attorney, he is going to deny probation and let the fines stand. He feels that it would be unfair to give this defendant probation.”

“Okay,” Drake said, “keep on the job and study her as much as possible.”

“Boy, I’ve studied her!” Nelson said.

“Okay,” Drake told him, “come on up then. Has she noticed you staring?”

“Hell, it’s a crowded courtroom,” Nelson said. “Everybody’s staring.”

“Well, come on up,” Drake said.

“Okay. Bye now.”

“Goodbye.”

Della Street pressed the button that turned off the telephone. “What do you know,” Drake said, looking at Mason.

“Apparently not half enough,” Mason said thoughtfully.

“What’s the story behind all this, Perry?” Paul asked.

“Apparently,” Mason said, “Minerva Minden wanted a ringer to take a rap for her.”

“The hit-and-run?” Drake asked.

Mason nodded thoughtfully.

“So what happened?”

“So,” Mason said, “you may have noticed an ad in the paper a while ago offering a salary of a thousand dollars a month to a woman who had certain physical qualifications as to age, height, complexion and weight, and could qualify for the job.”

“I didn’t notice it,” Drake said.

“Apparently a lot of people did,” Mason told him, “and the women were given an intensive screening. They wanted someone who could wear Minerva Minden’s clothes, or clothes that would duplicate hers, and spend some time walking back and forth past the scene of the accident where at least one of the witnesses lived and where an identification would be made.”

“Of the wrong woman?”

“Of the wrong woman,” Mason said. “That would let Minerva off the hook. If they subsequently found out it was the wrong woman, the witnesses would have all made at least one demonstrable mistaken identification. That would weaken the prosecution’s case tremendously.

“If, on the other hand, the charge stood up against the ringer, then Minerva was in the clear.”

“And they got that good a ringer?” Drake asked incredulously.

Mason nodded. “One of those coincidences, Paul. Apparently some detective agency was looking for a girl of just the right size, build and complexion who could wear Minerva’s clothes and could walk back and forth in front of at least one of the witnesses until there was an identification. Then presumably the other witnesses would be called in and they’d all identify the wrong person.”

Drake grinned. “Now, wouldn’t it be poetic justice, Perry, if this babe put an ad in the paper in order to get herself out of a jam and in so doing had to split up an inheritance of fifty-odd million dollars — and where does that leave us?”

“Sitting right out on the end of some kind of a golden limb,” Mason said. “We—”

The telephone rang.