The Case of the Troubled Trustee

'And the number?' Della Street asked.

Mason said, 'Go to a service station in Hollywood. Find a telephone booth; get the number.

'Now then, you're going to have to work fast. You're going to have to get co-operation from the papers. Tell them it's a red-hot tip and if they'll put the ad in and say nothing about it to anyone, they may get a red-hot story later on.

'Then, while you're pulling wires, I'll get Paul Drake and we'll get an operative we can trust who will be at this number at exactly nine o'clock with instructions to act as decoy in case somebody bites on our little scheme.'

'And in case no one bites?' Della Street asked.

'Then,' Mason said, 'Burger can show that Paul Drake got another fifty-dollar charge on his bill.'

Della Street typed out the want ad, said, 'I'm on my way.'

Mason called Paul Drake. 'Paul,' he said, 'I want an operative to be at a public pay station at nine o'clock sharp tonight, and if he is contacted there, to make an appointment to meet whoever calls at one of the most lonely, secluded spots your man will be able to pick Out during the afternoon.

'That spot has to be wooded. It has to be within a reasonable distance of the highway. It has to be unlighted.'

'Have a heart, Perry,' Drake said. 'About the only place I know of would be a golf course, and we've had enough of golf courses in this case.'

'Golf courses are out,' Mason said. 'Try a city dump.'

'Suppose no one calls the operative when he's in the service station?'

'Then,' Mason said, 'we'll give him a call and give him further instructions.

'Get busy, Paul. This is of real importance. It may be the payoff.'

'You have a live lead?' Drake asked.

'I'm playing a hunch,' Mason said. 'It's a wild hunch, but it may pay off.'

Mason hung up; then picked up the other telephone and said to Gertie at the switchboard, 'Get me Homicide at the police department, Gertie. I want to talk to Lieutenant Tragg.'

'No one else, if he's out?'

'If he's out,' Mason said, 'I don't even want anyone to know who's calling.'

Chapter Twenty-Four

Perry Mason, Lt. Tragg, Della Street, Paul Drake and one of Drake's operatives huddled in the dark shadows of a g'roup of stunted trees.

In their nostrils was the sour smell of a city dump.

'You certainly picked a sweet-smelling place,' Lt. Tragg said.

Drake, speaking in a hushed voice, said, 'It was the only one that we could find that gave us what we wanted.'

Tragg said, 'Now, let's have this definitely understood. There's to be no publicity.'

'No publicity unless you give it publicity,' Mason said.

'I don't publicize my wild goose chases,' Tragg said. 'I don't want the D.A.'s office to know anything about this, and I'm risking my official neck just trying to play ball with you.'

'I've put the cards on the table,' Mason said.

'You certainly did, and I never saw such a collection of jokers in my life,' Tragg grunted.

Paul Drake nervously reached for a cigarette, then checked himself as he remembered the admonition of no smoking.

Night insects shrilled in the distance. Somewhere a chorus of frogs started croaking, then lapsed into silence, then started croaking again.

'Suppose no one calls him?' Tragg asked.

'At five minutes past nine,' Mason said, 'one of Drake's operatives will call him. The phone will ring and the man in the booth will pick up the receiver just as though it were a bona fide call.'

'And then?' Tragg asked.

'Then he'll start for here.'

'And if anyone calls?'

'We'll know we're on the right track,' Mason said.

'Well,' Tragg told him, 'that's the trouble with amateurs. You get crazy ideas. I'll bet ten to one no one calls him.'

'We'll know pretty quick,' Mason said, consulting his wrist watch and then raising the antenna on a walkie- talkie.

'He isn't carrying a walkie-talkie with him, is he?' Tragg asked.

'No,' Mason said. 'But he does have a citizen's band transceiver on his car, but I wanted to use a walkietalkie for receiving because we don't want to have any loud noises.'

Suddenly the walkie-talkie in the hands of Perry Mason made squawking noises, then a little pinched voice said, 'Do you read me?'

'I read you. Come in,' Mason said. 'What's happened?'

'I'm on my way out.'

'Call?'

'Only the decoy one we'd arranged.'

'Okay,' Mason said, his voice showing disappointment, 'we'll follow plan number two. Over and off.'

The lawyer snapped down the antenna on the walkietalkie.

'Well,' he said dejectedly, 'it looks as if you win, Lieutenant.'

Tragg snorted. 'I would have bet you a hundred to one-a thousand to one.'

'Well,' Mason said, 'the only chance now is that someone was watching and will follow him in a car.'

'That's a good ten-thousand-to-one bet,' Tragg said. 'I'm holding you to your promise, Mason, that you'll never betray me on this.'

'You have my word,' Mason told him. 'Come on, let's deploy out into the shadows near the road. Drake's man is instructed to get out of the car and walk directly toward the dump for thirty-five paces, then stop, stand in the open for a few seconds, and then move into the shadows and drop to the ground.'

Tragg said, 'All right, we've stuck our necks out this far. Now we'll play along with your plan number two.'

They moved slowly according to prearranged plan into the dense shadows near the roadway.

'How long will it take him to get here?' Tragg asked.

'We figured twelve minutes on a trial run this afternoon,' Mason said.

'All right,' Tragg said, 'I've held the bag on your snipe hunting this far and I may as well throw twelve minutes down the rathole.'

They waited until headlights appeared on the dirt road-headlights which danced up and down over the bumpy road, at times sending a beam up into the trees, at times pointing down as the car negotiated the bumps.

'That road is full of nails and tire hazards,' Drake said. 'I'll bet we have tire trouble with one of these cars.'

'Don't be so pessimistic,' Mason said. 'Lieutenant Tragg has infected you with the gloom bug.'

The car came to a stop. The headlights were switched off. A dark figure jumped from the car, walked rapidly for thirty-five steps, then stood for approximately thirty seconds, then moved into the shadows and dropped to the ground.

'Well,' Tragg said, 'the show's over. We may as well call it a night and go home.'

'Wait a minute,' Mason said. 'We've got to give our quarry a chance.'

'Your quarry!' Lt. Tragg snorted sarcastically.

'Silence!' Mason warned. 'I think I heard the motor of a car.'

They remained silent.

Drake said in a harsh whisper, 'You're right. A car without headlights!'