"Gardner, Erle Stanley - Perry Mason 072 - The Case of the Daring Divorcee" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Earle Stanley)

"Around two o'clock or so this afternoon, perhaps a little after two. I didn't make a note of the time."
"Why, Garvin was going to call him first thing in the morning."
"That was this morning?"
"Yes."
"Evidently," Mason said, "he didn't do it. Is there any reason why he wouldn't have done it?"
"No. He told me he was going to and I knew he would keep his word"
"Evidently," Mason said, "he _didn't_ keep his word."
"I just can't understand that. It's not like him. He--"
Mason indicated the telephone. "Suppose you call him right now," he said, "and ask him what the score is."
"That's a good idea," she said.
She went to the telephone, called long distance and said, "I want to put through a collect call to Garvin S. Hastings in Los Angeles. That's a person-to-person call and I want the charges reversed. This is Mrs. Hastings calling."
She gave the operator her number and the number of the Los Angeles telephone and settled down to wait.
"Do you always call him collect?" Mason asked.
"Yes," she said. "He likes it that way. It gives him an opportunity to know I'm calling and where I'm calling from. He doesn't like to have someone just call him on the telephone and not know who it is."
"Doesn't he have a secretary to handle the telephone?" Mason asked.
"Not at the house at night. He . . ."
She broke off and said into the telephone, "Are you sure? . . . No, I guess that's all right. Just cancel, please."
She dropped the telephone into place, looked up at Mason and said, "I can't understand it. The long distance operator says a tape recording connection is on. That's an answering service Garvin has when you call and a voice answers stating it's a tape recording, that you will have thirty seconds after the voice ceases talking to transmit any message you may wish, that the message will be recorded on the tape so it can be played back when the subscriber returns to answer the telephone personally."
"I tried calling that number," Mason said, "and got the same message."
"You did?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"This afternoon after we had inventoried the contents of your purse."
"But I can't understand it," she said. "I just can't understand why Garvin didn't call up Huntley Banner and tell him."
"He was to do that this morning?"
"Yes."
"You weren't there this morning?"
"No," she said. "I had other appointments."
Mason said, "You just arrived here a short time ago. It didn't take you all day to drive from Los Angeles here."
"I had something else to do."
"What?"
"I don't think I care to tell you any more, Mr. Mason."
"All right," Mason said. "We'll start putting two and two together. You were with your husband last night."
"Yes."
"You reached a property settlement with him."
"Yes."
"He was to telephone his lawyer, Huntley Banner, and tell him to draw up the necessary papers for you to sign. He was to do that early this morning."
"Yes."
"Banner hasn't heard from your husband," Mason said. "Your handbag was stolen yesterday. It was left in my office around noon today. There was a thirty-eight-caliber revolver in that handbag. A woman, wearing large dark glasses which would make it exceedingly difficult to recognize her, came to my office shortly after noon, told the receptionist her name was Hastings, that she had to see me upon a matter of the greatest importance, that she was in danger, that she needed protection and a private detective.
"Then after a few minutes she said she had to leave the office, that she'd be right back. She left and didn't come back. She left your handbag in my office. In that handbag was your gun. It had been fired twice.
"Your husband didn't do the things he was supposed to have done today. He isn't answering the telephone.
"Now then, Mrs. Hastings, just suppose that some woman had stolen your handbag, had gone to your husband's house shortly after you left this morning, had fired two shots and your husband is lying there very, very dead. Where do you suppose that's going to leave you?"
Her face blanched, then suddenly her eyes became suspicious. "Now, just a minute," she said. And then after a moment added, "So _that's_ your game."
"What is?"
"You're representing some client who stole my handbag and now you're going to try to make me the goat."
"My mysterious client stole your handbag before you saw your husband?" Mason asked.
"Yes. That's when it was stolen."
"You told your husband about your handbag having been stolen?"
"Yes, of course."
"You were alone with him last night?"