I will say that, Endicott Campbell said, I tried to humor my son yesterday morning. He had a shoe box which contained some of his treasures. I had a shoe box containing some dress shoes. I made some joking remark about a trade. He evidently took the shoe box containing the patent-leather shoes. He told me that he gave that shoe box to Susan Fisher. He said she put it in the safe, that he didnt get it back. That is the complete story of the shoe box. I know what was in that shoe box. It was a pair of dress shoes. I can show you the sales slip where they were purchased. Now if Miss Fisher will kindly produce the shoe box she claims was filled with money well see whats in it.
Amelia Corning said, The situation is quite clear. Somebody is lying. Now if you folks will retire Ill sit down and talk things over with Mr. Campbell. I take it, Mr. Campbell, you feel that youre able to substantiate some of the charges youve made?
Unfortunately, Campbell said, Sue Fisher has disposed of much of the documentary evidence. She says she turned it over to a woman who arrived here yesterday and impersonated you. If Miss Fisher had simply refrained from doing all of these things until I could have been given an opportunity as manager of the business to okay what she was doing, I feel that we would
I tried and tried to get you, Sue interrupted.
Well, you didnt try hard enough or in the right place, Campbell said. For your information I canceled a golf game in order to make a hurried trip to Mojave to check up on what was being done at that mine. You took it on yourself to turn over confidential company records to a perfect stranger. This is all very, very convenient for you, Miss Fisher. For my part, I think this impersonator was someone you dug up in a last-minute effort to so confuse the issues that you couldnt be convicted of the embezzlement.
All right, Mason said, youve made that as an accusation. Now let me ask you this, Mr. Campbell. Is there any reason why any person who was responsible for the embezzlement, whether it was Susan Fisher, John Doe, or Endicott Campbell, couldnt have very cleverly arranged this entire impersonation so that the documentary evidence of the embezzlement would disappear and the money would also disappear?
Campbell smiled frostily. So thats going to be the angle you use in your defense; a counter-offensive, eh? Well, Ill meet you on those grounds, Mr. Perry Mason, at the proper time and in the proper place. And right now Im going to make a confidential report to my employer and believe me, its going to be confidential.
You call up Miss Corning in an hour and youll find out your client wasnt as smart as she thought she was. Ive managed to get enough evidence in my hands to establish her duplicity.
Miss Corning said, You folks have all had a chance to let off steam. Ive heard Susan Fishers side of the case. Now Ill hear yours, Mr. Campbell. The rest of you, clear out!
Miss Corning said, You folks have all had a chance to let off steam. Ive heard Susan Fishers side of the case. Now Ill hear yours, Mr. Campbell. The rest of you, clear out!
Chapter 5
Out in the corridor Mason, Della Street, and Susan Fisher walked slowly towards the elevator.
Midway to the elevator Sue Fisher said, Mr. Mason, cant we do something to find Carleton? Hes had that English governess of his take the boy and go somewhere.
Mason said nothing until they had reached the elevator and the lawyer had punched the button. The boy, he said, didnt know what was in the shoe box, did he?
No, he just knew it was Daddys treasure.
And his daddy, Mason said, insists the treasure was a pair of dress shoes. So that isnt going to help us very much... Even if we recover the shoe box full of money you cant prove anything, because Endicott Campbell will swear that there was a pair of dress shoes in it when he let his son take the box. He cant help it if you threw the dress shoes into the trash and filled the box full of hundred-dollar bills, the result of your embezzlement.
Sue Fisher looked at him in dismay as the full significance of the situation dawned upon her. Well, she asked, what can we do?
That, Mason said, will depend very largely upon certain developments in the situation and on what kind of woman Miss Corning is.
She looks to me like someone who would be hard to fool, Susan Fisher said.
In that case, Mason pointed out, Endicott Campbell is probably having a handful of problems right now.
So we wait for something to... to turn up?
Mason gave her one of his warm smiles. You do, Sue, he said, but we are going to take steps which will encourage things to turn up. Theres a saying in the newspaper business that a good reporter makes his own luck and I think we are going out to make some luck.
Where?
Oh, various places.
Mojave? she asked.
I wouldnt be too surprised, Mason said.
Oh, Mr. Mason, can I go with you, please? Can I...?
The lawyer shook his head. We dont want you to do anything which could even be remotely considered as flight or avoiding questioning. You go right to your apartment and stay there. Stay by the telephone. If anything out of the ordinary happens, telephone Paul Drake at once.