The Case of the Mischievous Doll

“What does she want to see me about?”

“The police have picked up Minerva Minden. Henrietta Hull says she’s not certain of the charge against her but she was told they were going to question her in connection with that murder.”

Mason shook his head. “I’m representing Dorrie...”

Della Street raised inquiring eyebrows as Mason’s voice trailed off into silence.

For some ten or fifteen seconds the lawyer was silent, then abruptly he said, “Bring her in, Della. I want to talk with her.”

Della Street nodded, left the office and a few moments later returned with Henrietta Hull striding along in her wake.

“Mrs. Hull,” Della Street announced.

“We’ve met,” Henrietta Hull said, marching across to Mason’s desk, giving him a firm grip with a bony hand, then seating herself in the client’s chair.

“I told you, Mr. Mason, that you were at the top of our list on felony cases.”

“And?” Mason asked, prompting her as she hesitated.

“Minerva has been taken into custody.”

“Arrested?”

“I don’t think so. They picked her up at three o’clock this morning to take her in for questioning. She hasn’t returned and she hasn’t telephoned.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Accept a retainer of twenty thousand dollars, go ahead and represent her.”

“She is being questioned in connection with the murder of that man who was found in Apartment — Marvin Billings?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that they told her they wanted her to answer some questions in connection with a murder, that it was quite important.”

“She rebelled at going with them at that hour in the morning?”

Henrietta Hull said, “As a matter of fact, she didn’t. They evidently had been waiting for her. She was just getting in.”

“Unescorted?” Mason asked.

“Unescorted.”

“You were up at the time?”

“No. She left me a note explaining things. They let her do that. She said she would telephone. If I didn’t hear from her by nine o’clock this morning, I was to go to you and give you a check for twenty thousand dollars as a retainer.”

“You can write checks on her account?”

“Certainly. I’m her manager.”

Henrietta Hull calmly opened her purse, took out a tinted oblong of paper, glanced at Della Street and said, “I presume your secretary takes the fees.”

“That’s the check?” Mason asked.

“Twenty thousand dollars,” she said.

“I have tried to explain to you,” Mason said, “that I have represented Dorrie Ambler and I’m afraid there is going to be a conflict of interest.”

“You were only retained by Dorrie Ambler to keep her from being a Patsy, a fall guy, to use what is, I believe, the proper slang,” Henrietta Hull said. “You gave her the advice she wanted and she left your office.

“For your information, Mr. Mason, Dorrie Ambler is a fraud and a cheat. She lied to you all the way through. You don’t owe her anything. The young woman was an opportunist blackmailer. You definitely do not want to be tied up with her.”

Abruptly Paul Drake’s code knock sounded on the door of the private office.

Mason said, “Excuse me a moment,” crossed the office, opened the door a crack and said, “I’m busy, Paul. Can it wait?”

Drake said, “It can’t wait.”

Mason hesitated a moment.

“Come in,” he said. “You’ve met Mrs. Hull.”

Drake entered the office, said, “Oh... hello. I don’t want to interrupt, Mrs. Hull. However, it’s necessary that I give Mr. Mason some information — at once.”

Henrietta Hull said, “How do you do, Mr. Drake. I was going to drop in to see you as soon as I had finished with Mr. Mason, or perhaps I should say, as soon as he had finished with me. I explained to you that I keep a list of people to whom I should turn in the event of serious trouble.

“Mr. Mason heads the list of attorneys in connection with felony cases, and your agency heads the list as an investigating agency, particularly in cases where Mr. Mason acts as counsel.

“I have just given Mr. Mason a check as a retainer and I have here in my purse a check made out to you for twenty-five hundred dollars as retainer.”

“Now, just a minute,” Mason interrupted. “Miss Minden was picked up this morning for questioning. That’s about all you know about it. It was questioning in connection with a murder. She hasn’t communicated with you and apparently you haven’t communicated with the police or the prosecutor in order to find out what has happened, yet you have made out checks totaling twenty-two thousand, five hundred dollars and are seeking to retain counsel for her and a detective agency to investigate facts.”

“That’s right.”

“You say that you are following instructions given to you in a note by Miss Minden?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have that note with you?”

“Actually I have.”

“I think I’d like to see it,” Mason said.

She hesitated a moment, then said, “Can I be assured that the contents will be confidential if I show it to you, Mr. Mason?”

Mason shook his head.

Drake said, “I want to talk with you alone, Perry.”

“About this case?” Mason asked.

“Yes.”

“I think you’d better talk right here,” Mason said. “I think we’d better have this out in a joint session, so to speak.”