The Case of the Mischievous Doll

“As soon as necessary arrangements have been made, or perhaps I should say as soon as necessary precautions have been taken.”

“All right,” Mason said. “I just want to point out to you that traffic violations are one thing, firing blank cartridges is another thing. But kidnapping is a felony that carries very serious penalties, and murder is punishable by death.”

“Thank you, Mr. Mason,” Henrietta Hull said. “Of course you’re an attorney, but as a business woman I am familiar with certain phases of the law.”

She arose abruptly, signifying that the interview was terminated. She gave Mason her hand and the benefit of a long, steady appraisal. Then she turned to Paul Drake. “I’m very pleased to have met you, Mr. Drake. I may also advise you that your agency is at the top of the list which we maintain in cases where a highly ethical agency is required.”

Drake smiled. “Meaning that you have a list of unethical agencies?”

“We have very complete lists,” she said enigmatically. Then again turned to Mason. “And don’t forget, Mr. Mason, that your name is absolute tops in cases carrying a serious penalty.”

“Such as murder?” Mason asked.

“Such as murder,” Henrietta Hull said, and then after a moment added, “and such as kidnapping or abduction.”

Chapter Seven

Mason fitted his latchkey to the door of his private office, entered and was confronted by Della Street, who said, “Why secretaries get grey... Do you realize, Mr. Perry Mason, that you have two appointments I’ve had to stall off and if it hadn’t been for the noon hour intervening you’d have had more. I told them that you were out at a luncheon club making a speech.”

“You’re getting to be a pretty good extemporaneous prevaricator,” Mason said.

She smiled. “Freely translated that means I’m a graceful, gifted, talented offhand liar... You see what you’ve done to my morals, Mr. Perry Mason.”

“The constant dripping of water,” Mason said, “can wear away the toughest stone.”

“We were talking about morals, I believe. I suppose there was some major emergency.”

“There was a very great major emergency.”

“Have you had lunch?”

“No.”

“You have some appointments that I’ve been stalling off. I told them you’d see them right after lunch and then told them that you were delayed getting back from lunch.”

“They’re in the outer office?”

“Yes.”

“What else?” Mason asked.

“I believe you are acquainted with a very firm and dignified young woman named Henrietta Hull who is the secretary to Minerva Minden?”

“She isn’t young,” Mason said. “She has a sense of humour. She puts up a good front of being firm. What about her?”

“She called up, said that she was to leave a message for you, that she was sorry that there was no possibility of your seeing Miss Minden; that you might care to know, however, that Dorrie Ambler had been followed by a detective agency employed by Miss Minden ever since Miss Ambler had attempted to blackmail Miss Minden into making a property settlement on her.”

“What else?” Mason asked.

“That was all,” she said. “She told me that perhaps you should have that information.”

“I’ll be damned,” Mason said.

“And,” Della Street went on, “Jerry Nelson, Drake’s operative, said he missed you at the place he was told to report. He said Drake was out so he came down here to tell me that there’s a difference in coloring between Dorrie Ambler and Minerva Minden but aside from that the resemblance is startling. He said it might be very easy for an eyewitness to confuse one with the other.”

“But there was a discernible difference?”

“Oh, yes. He felt he could tell one from the other.”

“By what means? Just what is the difference?”

“Well, he couldn’t put his finger on it. He said that it’s something— He thinks the hair may be a little different and something about the complexion, but he says there’s a resemblance that— Well, the only way that he could describe it was to say it was startling.”

Mason’s unlisted phone rang.

“That’s Paul Drake,” Mason said, and picked up the receiver.

Paul Drake’s voice came over the line. “I’m sorry to bring you bad news, Perry.”

“What?”

“We were followed out to Minerva Minden’s.”

“How do you know?”

“I found out when I was parking the car.”

“How do you mean?”

“They have a plug they can slip on the end of the exhaust pipe. It releases drops of fluorescent liquid at regular intervals. By wearing a certain type of spectacles with lenses that are tinted so it can make these drops visible, they can follow a car even if they’re ten or fifteen minutes behind it.”

“And you know your car was fixed?”

“It was fixed all right.”

“But you don’t know that they followed us.”

“I don’t know they followed us,” Drake said, “but knowing Tragg as I do, I know he wasn’t wasting the taxpayers’ equipment just for the sake of the exercise.”

“Thanks, Paul,” Mason said. “I have an office full of irate clients and I’ve got to get down to a little routine work, but you get busy and see what you can find out.”