The Case of the Blonde Bonanza

'That's what the detective's report said,' Mason observed.

Winlock said, 'I am very deeply disturbed about this thing, Mr. Mason. I cannot permit my wife to commit perjury simply in order to save our reputation. That's altogether too great a price.'

'And how do you know it's perjury?'

'Because Boring was in good health when I left him.'

'That's what you say,' Mason said, eying Winlock narrowly, 'but there's another explanation.'

'What?'

'That you killed him,' Mason said.

'I did!'

'That's right. That you went to Boring and threatened him with arrest, and Boring told you to go ahead and arrest and be damned; that you weren't going to push him around. You had an argument, hit him, inflicting fatal injuries, and removed the money you had given him as the result of his blackmail.

'In that event, your wife's, testimony wouldn't be directed primarily at saving Dianne, but at saving you.

'The man was lying there dying when Dianne entered the motel unit. You were the last one to see him prior to the time Dianne saw him. The minute you state that he was alive and well when you saw him, you make yourself a murderer.'

'I can't help it,' Wirilock said. 'I am going to tell the truth. I've steeped myself in deceit as much as I am going to.'

'Now then,' Mason went on, 'what would happen if your wife went on the stand and your stepson went on the stand and both of them swore positively that when they entered that unit in the motel they found Boring lying on his back, breathing heavily, with the odor of whiskey overpoweringly strong?'

'If I were put on the stand I would still tell the truth.'

'Suppose you weren't put on the stand?'

Winlock got up and started pacing the floor, clenching and unclenching his hands. 'God help me,' he said, 'I don't know what I'd do. I'd probably get out of the country where I couldn't be interviewed. I-'

'You'd get out of the country,' Mason said, 'because you'd be avoiding a charge of murder.'

'Don't be foolish, Mr. Mason. If I had killed him, I would be only too glad to ride along with the story my wife and stepson are thinking of concocting in order to purchase Dianne's silence. I would then perjure myself and swear that the man was unconscious and apparently drunk.'

Mason said, 'Unless this act you're now putting on is all a part of the over-all scheme to save your own neck and to confuse me… The minute you tell me that this man was alive and well when you left, you put me in a position of suborning perjury in the event I permit your wife and stepson to testify as witnesses for the defense that he was lying there in a stupor, apparently dead drunk.'

'I can't help it, Mr. Mason. I've gone just as far as I'm going to along the slimy path of deceit in this thing. I've got to a point now where I can't sleep, I can't live with myself.'

'And how does Mrs. Winlock feel about all this?' Mason asked.

'Unfortunately, or fortunately, as the case may be, she doesn't share my feelings. Apparently the only thing that is bothering her is the question of how to prevent this situation from being disclosed, how to prevent her social set from knowing that she has been living a life of deceit for the past fourteen years, that she hasn't been married to me at all. Her only concern is for the immediate effect on her social and financial life.'

'All right,' Mason said, 'go home and talk it over with her. Remember this, as an attorney at law I'm obligated to do what is for the best interests of my client.

'You tell me that he was alive and well when you left, but your wife and your stepson tell me that he was lying there fatally injured; only, because his clothes were saturated with whiskey, they thought he was drunk.

'I'm not in a position to take your word against theirs. I have to do what's for Dianne's best interests.'

Winlock said, 'You can't do it, Mason. You're a reputable attorney. You can't suborn perjury.'

'You think your wife is going to perjure herself?'

'I know it.'

'You don't think Boring might have been putting on an act for their benefit? That he had poured whiskey over his clothes and was lying there, apparently in a stupor? That he then got up when you entered the unit and talked with you?'

'There was no odor of whiskey on his garments when I talked with him.'

Mason said, 'If such is the case, you are Boring's murderer. You have to be.'

'Don't be a fool, Mason,' Winlock said.

'Under those circumstances,' Mason observed somewhat thoughtfully, 'the case would-under those circumstances-be mixed all to hell. Nobody would know what to do. It would shake this community to its foundations.'

'If my wife and my stepson get on the stand and commit perjury,' Winlock said, 'I suppose I have no alternative but to get on the stand and tell a similar story, but I'll tell you right now, Mason, it would be a lie.'

'Under those circumstances,' Mason said, 'I wouldn't call you as a witness. But that doesn't keep me from calling Mrs. Winlock and Marvin Harvey Palmer.'

Winlock looked at Mason, then hastily averted his eyes. 'I wish I knew the answer to this,' he said.

'And I wish I did,' Mason told him, eying him thoughtfully.

'I can, of course, get my wife out of the jurisdiction of the court,' Winlock said.

'Sure you can,' Mason said, 'but I'll warn you of one thing. If I decide to put on a defense and call your wife and stepson and they're not available, I'll tell the court the conversations I have had with them and the fact that they have offered to testify. I'll insist on having the case continued until they can be called as witnesses, and you can't stay out of the jurisdiction of the court indefinitely. You have too many property interests here.'

Winlock shook his head, said, 'I have no alternative. I'm gripped in a vise.' He walked to the door, groped for the knob and went out.

Della Street regarded Mason quizzically.

Five minutes later the telephone rang.

Della Street said, 'Mrs. Winlock for you, Mr. Mason.'

Mason took the receiver.

Again Mrs. Winlock's voice, almost mockingly cool, said, 'Have you reached a decision yet, Mr. Mason?'

'Not yet,' Mason said.

'I'll be available at my house, Mr. Mason. Give me a few minutes to get ready. My son will be with me.'

'And you'll testify as you have indicated?' Mason asked.

'I'll testify as we have indicated, provided you will give me your word as a gentleman and an attorney that you and Dianne will preserve the secret of Dianne's relationship, and will accept the financial settlement offered by Mr. Winlock.

'Good day, Mr. Mason.'

Again the phone was hung up at the other end of the line.

At that minute two waiters appeared, bringing in the luncheon.

'Well, Mr. Perry Mason,' Della Street said, when the waiters had left the room, 'you seem to have worked yourself into a major dilemma.'

Mason nodded, toyed with the food for a few minutes, then pushed his plate aside, got up and started pacing the room.

'Know what you're going to do?' Della Street asked.

'Damn it!' Mason exploded. 'The evidence points to the fact that George Winlock is the murderer.'

'He has to be,' Della Street said. 'That is, unless Dianne is lying.'

'I have to take my client's story as the truth,' Mason said. 'I am bound to accept her statement at face value. And yet she has to be lying about making that phone call to the manager of the motel. Mrs. Winlock must be the one who made that call. Dillard's testimony as to the time Dianne left clinches that. Dianne simply didn't have time to get to the phone and make that call.

'Now then, the significant thing is that Mrs. Winlock didn't make the call until after her husband had left the cabin and had a chance to report to her that he had frightened