Ashton pounded on the floor with the tip of his crutch to emphasize his disgust.
"Who else?" Mason asked.
Ashton checked off the people he had named on his fingers, then said, "Nora Abbington."
"What's she like?" Mason asked, very evidently enjoying seeing these various characters through Ashton's cynical eyes.
"A big cow," Ashton said. "A docile, trusting, goodnatured, bigeyed clod. But she wasn't there when the house burned. She came in and worked by the day."
"After the house burned there was no more work for her?" Mason inquired.
"That's right. She didn't come any more after that."
"Then I presume we can eliminate her from the picture. She really doesn't figure in the case."
"Wouldn't," Ashton said significantly, "if it wasn't that she was in love with Jim Brandon. She thinks Jim's going to marry her when he gets money. Bah! I tried to tell her a thing or two about Jim Brandon, but she wouldn't listen to me."
"How does it happen you know these people so well if you were in the city house and they were out in the country?"
"Oh, I used to drive out once in a while."
"You drive a car?"
"Yes."
"Your car?"
"No, it's one the master kept at the house for me so I could drive out to see him when he wanted to give instructions. He hated to come to the city."
"What sort of a car?" Mason inquired.
"A Chevvy."
"Your bad leg doesn't keep you from driving?"
"No, not that car. It has a special emergency brake on it. When I pull up on that brake lever the car stops."
Mason flashed an amused glance at Della Street, turned back to the wizened, baldheaded man. "Why wasn't Winifred provided for in the will?" he asked.
"No one knows."
"You were in charge of the house here in the city?"
"That's right."
"What's the address?"
"3824 East Washington."
"You're still there?"
"Yesand so're Laxter, Oafley, and the servants."
"In other words, when the house burned at Carmencita, they came to live in the city house. Is that right?"
"Yes. They'd have moved in anyway as soon as the master died. They're not the sort who like country life. They want city stuff and lots of it."
"And they object to the cat?"
"Sam Laxter does. He's the executor."
"Specifically, what form has his objection taken?"
"He's told me to get rid of the cat or he'll poison it."
"Has he given any reason?"
"He doesn't like cats. He doesn't like Clinker especially. I sleep in the basement. I keep the basement window open. Clinker jumps in and jumps outyou know how a cat isyou can't keep him shut up all the time. With my leg the way it is, I don't walk around much. Clinker has to get out some. When it's raining, he gets his feet dirty. Then he jumps in through the window, and gets my bed muddy."
"The window is over your bed?" Mason inquired.
"That's right, and the cat sleeps on my bed. It has for years. It hasn't bothered anyone. Sam Laxter says it runs up the laundry bill, getting the bedspreads all mussed up Laundry bills! He throws away enough in one night at a night club to pay my laundry bills for ten years!"
"Rather a free spender?" Mason asked goodnaturedly.
"He washe isn't so much now."
"No?" Mason inquired.
"No, he can't get the money."
"What money?"
"The money the master left."
"I thought you said he left it share and share alike to the two grandchildren."
"He didwhat they've been able to find."
"They haven't been able to find it all?" Mason asked, interested.
"A bit before the fire," Ashton said, as though the recital gave him great satisfaction, "the master made a complete cleanup. He cashed in something over a million dollars. No one knows what he did with that money. Sam Laxter says he buried it somewhere, but I know the master better than that. I think he put it in a safety deposit box under an assumed name. He didn't trust the banks. He said that when times were good, the banks loaned his money and made a profit on it, and when times were bad, they told him they were sorry they couldn't get it back. He lost some money in a bank a couple of years ago. Once was enough for the master."
"They haven't been able to find it all?" Mason asked, interested.
"A bit before the fire," Ashton said, as though the recital gave him great satisfaction, "the master made a complete cleanup. He cashed in something over a million dollars. No one knows what he did with that money. Sam Laxter says he buried it somewhere, but I know the master better than that. I think he put it in a safety deposit box under an assumed name. He didn't trust the banks. He said that when times were good, the banks loaned his money and made a profit on it, and when times were bad, they told him they were sorry they couldn't get it back. He lost some money in a bank a couple of years ago. Once was enough for the master."
"A million dollars in cash?" Mason asked.
"Of course it was in cash," Ashton snapped. "What else would he take it in?"
Perry Mason glanced at Della Street.
"How about Winifredyou say she's disappeared?"
"Yes, she pulled out. I don't blame her. The others treated her shameful."
"How old are the grandchildren?"
"Sam's twentyeight; Frank Oafley's twentysix; Winifred's twentytwoand a beauty! She's worth all the rest put together. Six months ago the master made a will leaving her everything and cutting off the other two grandchildren with ten dollars each. Then two days before he died, he made this new will."