The Case of the Mischievous Doll

Mason and Drake waited in the corridor until stretcher-bearers had taken the man from the room, until more police had arrived, and then finally Lt. Tragg of Homicide.

“Well, well, well!” Tragg said. “This is an unusual experience. Usually you’re on the other side of the fence, Perry. I understand now, you’ve asked for police co-operation.”

“I sure did,” Mason told him. “I could now use a little of that police efficiency which has proven so embarrassing in times past.”

“What can you tell us about the case?” Tragg asked.

“Nothing very much, I’m afraid,” Mason said. “The occupant of this apartment consulted me in connection with a matter that I’m not at liberty to disclose at the moment, but she had reason to believe her personal safety might be jeopardized when she called me this morning.”

“What time?”

“About twenty minutes past ten.”

“How do you fix the time?”

“By other matters and by recollection.”

“What other matters?”

“A court hearing in which I was interested, and which I was having covered.”

“Playing it just a little bit cozy, aren’t you, Perry?” Tragg asked.

“I’m trying to do what’s best for my client,” Mason said. “I’m aware of the fact that communications made to the police quite frequently result in newspaper publicity and I’m not at all certain that my client would care to have any publicity concerning those matters. However, she did telephone me this morning and told me that she would like to have me come here at once, that she felt her apartment was being placed under surveillance by people who might have plans for her which she didn’t like.”

“And you and Paul Drake here constituted yourselves a bodyguard and came storming out to the scene,” Tragg said. “Why didn’t you telephone the police?”

“I don’t think she wanted the police notified.”

“What makes you think so?”

“She could have called them very easily and very handily if she had.”

Tragg said, “There’s a garage which goes with this building and we’re going down and take a look in it. I think you and Drake had better come along with us. I don’t like to leave you out of my sight.”

“What about the stuff in there?” Mason asked, indicating the apartment.

“All that can wait,” Tragg said. “Things are being guarded and whatever clues are there will be preserved, but I want to take a look at the garage and see what we find.”

“You won’t find anything,” Mason said.

“What makes you think so?”

“Well, I feel that you probably won’t find anything.”

“You think the young woman was kidnapped in her car?”

“I don’t know.”

“But you do think she was kidnapped.”

“I certainly think she was abducted against her will.”

“Well, let’s take a look,” Tragg said. “I have some news for you, Perry.”

“What?”

“The apartments in this building have private garages that are rented with the apartments. Our boys looked in the private garage that goes with this apartment and guess what they found?”

“Not the body of Miss Ambler?” Mason said.

“No, no, no,” Tragg interposed hastily. “I didn’t want to alarm you, Perry. I was trying to break it to you gently, however. We found something we’ve been looking for for a few days now.”

“What?”

“We’ve been looking for a hit-and-run automobile, a light-colored Cadillac, licence number WHW 694 that had been stolen from San Francisco on the fifth of September and was involved in a hit-and-run accident here on the sixth of September.”

“You mean that car was in the garage?”

“That’s right. Stolen automobile, slight dent in the fender, broken left headlight lens — a perfect match for a jagged bit of broken headlight that was picked up at the scene of the accident. I’d like to have you take a look.”

“Then she was right,” Mason said.

“Who was right?”

“My client.”

“In what?”

“I don’t think I can give you all the details at the moment, Tragg, but I may say that the presence of this automobile ties in with the reason she came to see me in the first place.”

“Very, very nice,” Tragg said. “Now, if you want to help your client and help the police find her before something very serious happens to her, you can tell me a little bit more about just what it was she was worried about.”

“All right, I’ll tell you this much,” Mason said. “She had the distinct feeling that an attempt was going to be made to tie her in with that— Well, she felt it would be with something that happened on the sixth of September. She didn’t know for sure what it was.”

“And you took it on yourself to find out?”

“I did a little investigating.”

“And learned about the hit-and-run?”

“Yes.”

“And you knew the car that was involved in the hit-and-run was in this garage?”

“I certainly did not,” Mason said, “and for your information I haven’t been an accessory after the fact on any hit-and-run, I haven’t been covering up any crime, and that car was put in the garage a few minutes ago as a part of this thing we’re investigating.”

An officer came up in the elevator, handed Tragg a folded piece of paper.