They went to a little restaurant around the corner where the service was prompt. As Della Street had jokingly surmised, there was meat loaf and gravy ready for immediate service.
Within thirty minutes they were back and Mason had parked his car in front of Sue Fishers apartment house.
Mason was escorting Della Street to the door when a slender figure in a long raincoat with a hat pulled low, started to push open the door, then suddenly stopped with a gasp.
Mr. Mason! Susan Fisher exclaimed.
Mason looked at the garb the mans hat, the sweater, the slacks, the raincoat, the flat shoes and said, Now, what are you doing masquerading as a man?
I... I dont know, Susan Fisher said. Oh, am I glad to see you! Oh, I... I was hoping that I could get in touch with you.
Mason said, You could have been in touch with me if youd only followed my instructions and remained in your apartment.
I know, I know, but I couldnt.
Why not?·
Because she telephoned me.
Who?
Amelia Corning.
What did she want?
She wanted me to do something without anybody knowing about it.
Masons eyes narrowed. What happened? he asked.
I... is it all right to talk here?
Probably not, Mason said. Lets go up to your apartment... look, child, youre shaking.
I know Im shaking. Im so nervous I feel like I could wilt on the doorstep.
The lawyer escorted her to the elevator, then down the hallway. Della Street said, Let me have your key, dear, and Ill unlock the door.
After they had entered the apartment Mason said, All right, Susan, lets have it.
Susan seated herself, started twisting her gloves nervously as though wringing water from them.
Go on, Mason said encouragingly. And then added, We may not have much time, you know.
Susan said, She telephoned and told me exactly what to do. She told me to take a pencil and write down her instructions in shorthand.
What were they?
I have them in my notebook but theyre etched in my mind. She told me to go to the office of the drive-yourself car company that is only four blocks away, to rent an automobile, then to go up Mulholland Drive to an intersection she described, then on one and three-tenths miles to a service station. At the service station I was to go on down the road for another two-tenths of a mile. There was a wide place there and I was to park the car. Then I was to walk back to the service station and ask for a one-gallon can of gasoline. She said I was to take the can of gasoline, pay for it, take it down and put it in the car that anyone driving at night should be equipped for any emergency.
And why was all this? Mason asked.
She said that she wanted to get me to drive her to Mojave and she didnt want anyone to know what she was doing. She said she absolutely had to interview a man in Mojave before the banks opened tomorrow.
Did she say why?
No.
Or what name?
No.
And what about the clothes youre wearing?
She said I was to get a mans hat that had a good broad brim, that I was to wear slacks, a sweater, and a raincoat, that I must wear flat shoes so I could do quite a bit of walking, if necessary.
And she told me the nicest things, Mr. Mason. She told me that she had checked very carefully on me, that she appreciated my candor and my straightforward sincerity as well as my loyalty to the company. She told me that she was going to throw Endicott Campbell out and that I was going to be placed in an executive position. She said
Never mind all that, Mason said. Tell me exactly what happened. What else did she say about instructions, and what did you do?
I did exactly as she told me. I knew that there was a broom closet here where the janitor kept some old clothes and I knew he had this broad-brimmed hat there, so I borrowed it. I had a heavy opaque raincoat. I left so that I got to the designated place on Mulholland Drive a good twenty minutes before the appointed time. I parked the car, went to the gasoline station, got the one-gallon can of gasoline and went back to the place and waited and waited and waited and waited.
The man gave you the one-gallon can of gasoline, Mason asked, the man at the service station? He didnt offer to drive you down to where your car was standing?
The man gave you the one-gallon can of gasoline, Mason asked, the man at the service station? He didnt offer to drive you down to where your car was standing?
No. Miss Corning told me that if he did that, I wasnt to encourage him. She said she didnt think hed do it, however, because only one man would be on duty.
He didnt offer to drive you?
He wanted to, all right, but he said he was there alone. If there had been two of them, he would have driven me down. He even contemplated closing up the station long enough to drive me down there, but I didnt encourage him and... I guess he was afraid someone would come along and find the station closed and report it.
What about the rented car? Mason asked.
I waited and waited, and when she didnt show up I took the rented car back and paid the rental. She had told me to do that if she didnt meet me there by seven-fifty. She said if she wasnt there by that time I was to leave at once and return to the apartment, turning in the rented car. I asked what I should do with the can of gas and she specifically told me not to return it to the gas station, but to throw it in the bushes by the side of the road.