The Case of the Queenly Contestant

“Of course, if she had wanted to make a squawk, I’d have denied all knowledge of sending her the money and she couldn’t have proven a thing.

“That’s almost always a winning combination. They may start out being indignant, but before they are through they get practical. They sit down and count those ten hundred-dollar bills. They can get fixed up for a couple of hundred if they know where to go. They seldom have to pay more than four hundred. That leaves them with at least six hundred dollars. It gives them carfare to any place within reason they want to go. It gives them money while they’re getting a new job, and they stay for a few months, then come back home with a story about a loss of memory or an irresistible desire to see the world, a set of fictitious adventures, and they pick up the threads of life where they left off.

“Sometimes they meet a new man and return to introduce their friends and parents to a stalwart, beaming husband who probably knows absolutely nothing about the past.”

“It didn’t work in this case?” Mason asked.

“It didn’t work. I don’t know just what happened, but I Know where the girl is and I want to talk with her. You’ve got her stashed away. It’s only a question of time until I get her and get to talk to her.”

“You’re certain of that?” Mason asked.

“I’ll tell you how certain I am,” Garland said. “Haslett has been lost at sea. If there’s an heir, the heir inherits. If there isn’t an heir, the half brothers inherit. The half brothers are out on the trail, trying to find out what happened. I’m an employee of the company. I’m going to be working for the half brothers or I’m going to be working for an heir. It doesn’t make too much difference which: I’ll try to do my job.

“However, I do want to know where I stand, and I want to bring this case to a satisfactory conclusion by being the one that cracks it and not having some private detective employed by the half brothers beat my time.”

“What,” Mason asked, “specifically, do they want me to do?”

Garland said, “There are lots of people involved, and they have different wants. The half brothers, represented by Duncan Lovett, want to prove there never was any illegitimate child. Then the half brothers inherit the plant and I find myself with three years to go, working for the half brothers, before I can retire on a pension.

“Put yourself in my position, Mason. I’m not going to do anything which will antagonize the half brothers.

“On the other hand, let us suppose that there was an illegitimate child and that rumor is correct and Harmon Haslett has made a will leaving everything to that illegitimate child if the parentage can be established.

“That child would be about nineteen years old now. That child would inherit the company. I’d find myself in an entirely different position.”

“And so you come to me?” Mason asked.

“So I come to you,” Garland said.

“You know that I’m bound by professional ethics, that I can’t give you any information?”

“I know you’re bound by professional ethics. I know you can’t give me any information. But I also know that you weren’t born yesterday. You’re probably the only one who knows the facts and...”

There was a sharp, insistent ringing on Mason’s unlisted telephone, the phone to which only Della Street and Paul Drake possessed the number.

Della Street raised her eyebrows at Mason.

The lawyer nodded, said, “I’ll take it myself, Della,” picked up the telephone and said, “What is it, Paul?”

“This decoy of yours is in trouble,” Drake said.

“How come?”

“A lawyer by the name of Lovett and some woman who is with him have got into the apartment.”

“Dammit,” Mason said. “I left instructions that she wasn’t to let anyone in.”

“They engineered this too cleverly,” Drake said. “The woman knocked at the door. My operative opened it just to the limit of the safety chain. The woman was standing outside; a man was in the background carrying a big box which appeared to be filled with tools. The woman said, ‘My apartment is right below yours, and there’s a bad leak which we think is coming from a faulty connection in your bathtub. In any event, my ceiling is soaked with water. We’ve got to shut off your water for a few minutes.’

“My operative should have had her head examined, but she fell for it, took the chain off the door, and said, ‘Come in.’ The man brought the box in and put it down. It was filled with old newspapers and a briefcase. He took out the briefcase and said, ‘Now, my dear, I want to ask you a few questions. If you answer them truthfully, everything will be all right. If you lie, you are going to be in serious trouble.’ ”

“So what happened?”

“My operative refused to talk, ordered the people out of the apartment. They are still sitting there. She wants to know whether to call the police or what to do.”