The Case of the Blonde Bonanza

or forced Boring into returning the blackmail money.'

'Then that leaves George D. Winlock the murderer,' Della Street said.

'And he's handled things so cleverly,' Mason agreed, 'that if I do try to expose him as a murderer, I look like a heel. If, on the other hand, I put Mrs. Winlock and her son on the stand and let them swear to the story they've offered to tell, I get Dianne off the hook but leave myself open to a charge of suborning perjury at any time Winlock wants to lower the boom on me.'

'Could this be a very shrewd, clever stunt that they jointly have carefully worked out and rehearsed?' Della Street asked.

'You're damn right it could,' Mason said.

'And,' she asked, 'what's going to be your countermove?'

'I don't know,' Mason told her. 'At first I thought it was simply an offer to furnish perjured testimony and I was going to throw the whole thing out in the alley. Now I'm not so certain that it isn't a carefully, cunningly contrived plot to hamstring my defense and put me in such a position that I don't know what actually did happen.'

The lawyer resumed his pacing of the floor.

After a few minutes he said, 'Of course, Della, it's not up to me to prove who did murder the guy-that's up to the prosecution. My job is to prove Dianne innocent.'

'Can you do it?' she asked.

'With this testimony I could do it hands down,' Mason said.

Again the telephone rang.

'Paul Drake,' Della Street said.

'Hello, Perry,' Paul Drake said. 'I'm finished down here at the Restawhile Motel.'

'What did you find out?'

'The distance to be covered is about a hundred feet each way. Moving at a fairly normal rate of speed it takes about thirty seconds each way. Moving at a rapid rate of speed, you cut that time down.

'Getting in, picking up the telephone and putting the call through accounts for seven seconds. So her testimony is approximately correct. Figure about a minute and ten seconds as the outside time limit if she did what she said she did.'

'All right,' Mason said, 'here's something else for you, Paul. Drive down to the telephone booth three blocks down the street. Time yourself from the entrance of the motel. Call me from that booth and let me know how long it takes until you hear my voice. I'll be waiting here at the phone.'

'Okay,' Drake said, 'and then I want some lunch. I'm ravenous. I suppose you folks are sitting up there smug and well fed.'

'We're neither smug nor well fed,' Mason said. 'I'm sitting on the end of a great big limb and I'm not too certain somebody between me and the tree doesn't have a very sharp saw.

'Get busy and see what you can find out, Paul.'

Four minutes later, Paul Drake telephoned.

'Hello, Perry,' he said when he had the lawyer on the line. 'It took me exactly two minutes from the time I left the entrance of the motel to get down here, park my car, get in the telephone booth, close the door, dial you and get your answer.'

'Hang it,' Mason said. 'Dianne couldn't have left the place and placed that call, or else the time element is all wrong.'

Drake said dryly, 'She was the last person to see Harrison Boring alive. You may be able to mix Dillard up on the time element but that's all it's going to amount to, just a technicality. The facts speak for themselves.'

'Of course,' Mason said into the telephone, almost musingly, 'the time Dianne left can be checked with physical facts. The time she entered is fixed only by Dillard's watch.

'Just suppose he made the mistake of setting his watch not by the radio but by the clock there in the motel office.'

'Would it help if you could show that?' Drake asked.

'Anything would help,' Mason said. 'That is, anything that clarifies the situation.'

'Or confuses it,' Drake said dryly. 'I'm going to get some lunch.'

Mason hung up the telephone, turned to Della Street. 'Two minutes,' he said.

'And that throws Dillard's time off about four minutes?'

'Something like that.'

Della Street said, 'He was looking at his watch in the dark and he could have misread the hands.'

'It's vital as far as Dianne is concerned,' Mason said.

'Of course,' she pointed out, 'it opens up some question of doubt, but after all she was in there at least ten minutes, even if Dillard did make a mistake.'

'She says she wasn't,' Mason said.

'But,' Della Street pointed out, 'she admits she remained long enough to search for and find the contract. She was only estimating the time.'

Mason said, 'The thing that annoys me is the smooth assurance of this district attorney who acts on the assumption that this is just a simple routine matter of another preliminary hearing in another murder case and there's no reason on earth why he shouldn't have it all buttoned up inside of half a day.'

'But,' Della Street said, 'the main problem is whether Winlock is lying, whether the whole family isn't protecting the stepson, or who struck the fatal blow and when. After all, Dillard's time discrepancies are minor matters.'

Mason said, 'I have in my hand an opportunity to introduce testimony that will throw the district attorney's case out of the window, get Dianne in the clear and at the same time get a property settlement for her running into a very substantial figure.

'If I do that, Winlock is either going to claim I was guilty of suborning perjury-or at least is in a position to do so any time he chooses to lower the boom.'

'What will happen if you don't do it?' Della Street asked.

'Then,' Mason said, 'Dianne is going to get bound over on a murder charge. She'll be in jail awaiting trial, she'll come up before a jury; by that time Mrs. Winlock will have withdrawn her offer and sworn she never made it. It will be the word of Dianne against a lot of circumstantial evidence and against the evidence of a man who has a great deal of influence in the community, George D. Winlock.

'Then I'll spring a dramatic surprise that Winlock is the girl's father and is testifying against her to protect himself. I'll make a high-pressure plea to the jury-and in all probability they'll convict Dianne of manslaughter rather than murder. That's about the best I can hope to accomplish. That's the price of trying to be ethical. To hell with it.'

Della Street, realizing the nature of the crisis which confronted the lawyer, watched him in worried silence.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Judge Talent said, 'This is the time heretofore fixed for resumption of the hearing in the case of the People of the State of California versus Dianne Alder. You were to let the Court know at this time whether you wish to put on a defense, Mr. Mason.'

Mason said, 'If the Court please, this is not a simple matter. There are complications which I am not in a position to disclose but which nevertheless cause the defense some concern as to the best course to pursue.'

District Attorney Leland was on his feet. 'If the Court please, the defense has had all the time they asked for and I object to granting any further time.'

'I am not asking for further time,' Mason said, 'but I would like to clarify one matter in regard to the time element. I would like to ask a few more questions on cross-examination of the witness, Steven Dillard.'

'Is there any objection?' Judge Talent asked Leland.

'There is lots of objection, Your Honor. This man, Dillard, is actually a hostile witness. He is in the employ of