"Gardner, Erle Stanley - Perry Mason 075 - The Case of the Troubled Trustee" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Earle Stanley)

Dutton hesitated.
"Go on," Mason said.
"All right," Dutton told him, "her father wanted to- Well, he liked me. He thought I might have a steadying influence on Desere-- She was running with that crazy crowd. She went overboard for a lot of fads and fancies."
"And her father hoped that if she had to see a lot of you in connection with money matters she'd fall in love with you?"
"I guess that was partly his idea. He wanted to protect her from herself, and he may have had some idea of having her fall in love with me. He knew how I felt toward her.
"Actually, like so many schemes which fail to take human nature into consideration, the thing worked out just the opposite. She thinks of me as a moneygrubber. Our difference in ages has been accentuated."
"And you've been in love with her for four years?"
"Five."
"And never told her how you felt?"
"Of course I did. That was more than four years ago."
"What did she say?"
"She felt sorry for me. She said it was simply that I'd built up a synthetic feeling for her. She said she'd be a younger sister to me if I'd take her on that basis; that if I was going to persist in this crazy idea of being in love with her it would mean she couldn't see me any more. It would spoil the friendship."
"So you took it on that basis?" Mason asked.
"I've been waiting," Dutton said.
"Did her father have any idea he was dying?"
"Yes. He knew. The doctors gave him eight months. They were too optimistic. He lasted six."
"And now you feel that the will and the spendthrift trust didn't work out the way he had anticipated?"
Dutton said, "It had exactly the opposite effect. For a few months, Desere was so terribly hurt and angry that she would hardly speak to me.
"She felt that her father had repudiated her; that he had insulted her intelligence; that he was trying to dominate her life even after he had passed away and-- Well, she's like a wild colt. She doesn't want any restrictions. Show her a fence and she tries to jump it. Come toward her with a halter and she wants to run; and if she gets cornered, she wants to bite and kick.
"After the will was read, she felt her father had crowded her into a corner, so she started biting and kicking."
"And, I take it," Mason said, "you were the target?"
"That's right."
"And you felt that embezzling the trust assets would make everything all right?"
"I wasn't trying to make things all right. I was trying to keep them from going all wrong."
"How?"
"She'd be a target for dead-beat fortune hunters if they knew the truth. Even as it is, she has a beatnik nogood moving in on her. He wants to marry her and 'manage' the few thousand she's going to get on the termination of the trust."
Mason smiled. "You don't approve of him as a husband for Desere?"
Dutton said grimly, "If he marries her, I'll--I don't know _what_ I would do, but _someone_ should shoot the guy."
Mason regarded Dutton thoughtfully. "Perhaps," he suggested, "you should be a little more aggressive in your romantic affairs."
"I have to play the waiting game a little longer," Dutton said.
"You've been playing it without any results for four years now," Mason said.
"Five," Dutton corrected. "I felt that as Desere grew more mature the difference in our ages would become insignificant. I want her to stop thinking of me as an older brother--a much older brother."
Mason said, "All right, I'm glad you've come clean. Now, I want you to do three things. First, make me a check for a thousand dollars as a retainer. Second, sign an undated declaration of trust, listing all the securities that are in your name but which you are holding as trustee for Desere Ellis. You don't necessarily need to tell her about it, but get a record that these properties are being held only as a trustee under the will, then if you die she is protected."
"Third?" Dutton asked.
"Try to get Miss Ellis to come in to see me," Mason said. "I want to talk with her."
"Why?"
"Someone has to tell her that there is more money coming to her at the termination of the trust than she had anticipated, and someone has to tell her why. If you try to tell her, you have to sketch yourself its a heel. If I tell her, I _may_ be able to put you in the position of a hero."
"Look here," Dutton said, "you can't tell her how 1 feel toward her. You can't--"
"Don't be foolish," Mason interrupted. "I'm riot running a matrimonial agency; I'm running a law office. You're going to pay me to keep you out of trouble. I want to keep you out of trouble.
"Your love life is none of my business except as it affects the job I have to do."
Dutton took a checkbook from his pocket and started writing a check.


Chapter Two

Mason entered his private office the next morning to find Della Street opening the morning mail. He stood for a few moments watching her with appreciative eyes.
"Thanks," he said abruptly.
She looked up in surprise. "For what?"
"For just being," Mason said. "For being so much a part of things, so completely efficient and . . . and all the rest of it."
"Thank _you_," she said, her eyes suddenly soft.