The Case of the Mischievous Doll

“Over an hour,” the operative said. “She was waiting for something and I guess I was maybe dumb that I didn’t pick up what it was, but because I thought she might be trying something shifty I kept my eye on her and didn’t try to look around too much at the scenery.”

“What are you getting at?” Mason said.

“Well, I’d better tell you just the way it happened. You see, when two operatives are working on a case that way, one of them has to be in charge, and because of seniority I was the one to call the shots on this deal. I probably should have had my colleague keeping a look around the place but, as I say, I thought this babe might be trying something shifty so we were keeping our eyes on her.”

“What happened?” Mason asked.

“All of a sudden she jumped up, ran over to the news stand, shouted, ‘This isn’t a stick-up,’ pulled a revolver out of her handbag and fired three shots.

“It was so darned sudden and so completely, utterly senseless that it caught me flat-footed.”

“Now, wait a minute,” Mason said. “You said that she said, ‘This isn’t a stick-up’?”

“That’s right. I was within ten feet of her and I heard her distinctly.”

“Go on,” Mason said. “What happened? Did you grab her?”

“Not me. I was like everyone else. People stood there just frozen in their tracks. It was one of the darnedest sights I ever saw, just as though you had been watching a motion picture and all of a sudden the thing stopped and the picture froze on the screen.

“One minute everybody was hurrying around, bustling here and there; people sitting waiting for planes, people buying tickets, people moving back and forth; and then wham! Everything stopped and people just stood in their tracks.”

“And what about the young woman?”

“The young woman didn’t stand in her tracks,” Nelson said. “She brandished the gun, whirled, and made for the ladies’ rest room.

“Now, as far as I’m concerned there’s a brand-new crime angle. You have a lot of guards around an airport, and police on duty, but there was no policewoman immediately available.

“So here’s a babe with a gun, barricaded in the women’s rest room, and who’s going after her?”

“You?” Mason asked, his eyes twinkling.

“Not me,” Nelson said. “Facing a crazy woman with a gun is one thing, and facing irate women who have been disturbed in a rest room is another, and when you add the two together you’ve got too many risks for any mere man. I just stood around where I could watch the door of the rest room.”

“And what happened?”

“Well, a couple of cops came running up and held a conference and seemed to be as perplexed about the situation as I was. Then they evidently decided to go through with it and started for the rest room. About that time the door opened and this babe came walking out, just as cool as you please.”

“With a gun?”

“I’m telling you,” Nelson said, “she came out just as cool as a cucumber — just like any normal woman who had been powdering her nose and was emerging to take a look at the bulletin board and see just when her plane was scheduled to depart.”

“What happened?” Mason asked.

“Well, the officers hadn’t seen her when she fired the gun so they didn’t recognize her when she came out. She walked right past them and it wasn’t until one of the bystanders yelled, ‘There she is!’ that one of the officers turned.

“By that time three or four of the bystanders were pointing their fingers and yelling, ‘That’s her! Grab her!’ and then everybody started to run.”

“Then what happened?”

“You’ve never seen anything like it,” Nelson said. “This woman stood there with the most utterly bewildered expression on her face, looking around to see what it was all about.

“One of the officers came up and grabbed her and for a moment she was startled, then she was indignant and demanded to know what it was all about. Then a crowd gathered and a lot of people started talking all at once.”

“What about the gun?” Mason asked.

“The gun had been left in the rest room. A woman came out and handed the officer the gun. It had slid across the floor and scared this woman to death. The officers asked our woman if she’d mind if they looked in her handbag and she told them to go ahead. Naturally they couldn’t search her but they did look in her handbag. Then one of the officers opened the gun and looked at it and seemed more puzzled than ever. He said something to his companion, and the other fellow looked at the gun.

“Now, I don’t think anyone there heard what the officers said except me. I was right up at the officer’s elbow and I heard him say, ‘They’re blanks’.”

“How many shots were fired?” Mason asked.

“Three.”

“Then what?” Mason asked.

“All of a sudden this woman smiled at the officer, said, ‘All right, let’s get it over with. I just wanted a little excitement. I wanted to see what would happen’.”

“And she admitted firing the shots?”