The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom

by Erle Stanley Gardner

  “Okay,” Drake said. “We should reach Bynum any minute now.”

  Mason chartered a plane, waited for Della Street at the airport. “Find out anything?” he asked as she joined him.

  “Yes. She wasn’t wearing a hat. There was no sign of a hat in her car. Drake’s man thinks she was wearing a hat when she started out. That may be very significant.”

  “Perhaps she took it off and then just forgot it,” Mason said.

  “Perhaps, but women aren’t likely to do things like that. Here’s something else. Someone in the crowd said a person living in the nearest house had noticed a car parked there, with the lights on. Now, when Drake’s man found the car the lights were off. The lights remained on for what this witness thinks was five or ten minutes. They shone right in his bedroom and bothered him. He didn’t hear any shot.”

  “It could have been another car the neighbor saw.”

  “That’s the point,” Della Street said. “It could have been a necking party.”

  “Necking with the lights on?” Mason asked.

  Della Street laughed, said, “Well, I’m giving it to you for what it’s worth.”

  The pilot approaching them said, “Okay, the plane’s all ready if you folks want to get in.”

  Mason and Della Street climbed into the small cabin job. The pilot taxied down the field and took off.

  Mason said, “Drake’s located the original purchaser of the gun, a Frank Bynum at Riverside. He’ll have something definite on that by the time we arrive. We’ll call him just as soon as we get to the airport in Los Angeles. I’d like to beat the police to the evidence on the gun if we can.”

  They were silent while the plane tossed in rough air over hills near San Juan Capistrano, then they watched the country slowly flow past them, the built-up districts becoming more and more numerous, until finally they were over the city and the plane was slanting down to a landing at the airport.

  “Get Paul Drake on the line while I settle up with the pilot,” Mason said, and Della Street, nodding, hurried away toward a telephone.

  Mason paid off the pilot, hurried toward a bank of telephone booths at the airport. He knew as soon as he saw Della Street’s face through the glass door of the telephone booth that she had received definite news on the gun.

  Della Street pulled the door back and said, “Frank Bynum has been contacted. He said he gave the gun to his sister for her protection. She lives in the Dixieland Apartment Hotel, apartment 206. Drake wants to know if you want him to call on her.”

  “Tell Paul Drake to keep that Bynum chap sewed up so he can’t telephone and that I’ll call on her myself,” Mason said. “You take a cab to the office, Della. Call Edward Garvin at the Vista de la Mesa Hotel in Tijuana. When you get him on the line, first get a fist of stockholders whom you can call to be at that meeting this afternoon. After you’ve done that, tell him what’s happened. Tell him to be sure to stay in Mexico. Don’t let the police bring him back to identify the body or anything else. That bigamy charge is still pending, and he can be arrested on it if he sets foot in the United States. And tell him not to open his mouth to any newspaper reporter. Don’t give him too many details about his wife’s death. Just tell him the bare facts. I’m on my way.”

  And Mason sprinted for a taxicab.

  The Dixieland Apartment Hotel was one which had no central switchboard, no clerk on duty, but a list of tenants on the outside was flanked by a row of buttons.

  Mason found the name, Miss V. C. Bynum, and held his thumb over the button on the right.

  A few moments later the little telephone receiver hanging from a hook by the door made a noise, and Mason picked it up and said, “Hello, yes, I’m looking for Miss Bynum.”

  “Who are you and what do you want?” the voice asked.

  Mason decided to resort to subterfuge.

  “A package with twenty-three cents postage due on it,” he said. “Want to come down and pick it up?”

  “Oh, just a moment. I’ll come down or … would it be too much to ask you to come up to apartment 206? I’m just dressing and I … if you could, please.”

  “Okay, I’ll bring it up,” Mason promised.

  The electric buzzer signaled that the door was being unlocked, and Mason pushed the door open and entered a long, dimly lit lobby.

  Apartment 206 was on the second floor. Mason ignored the elevator, climbed the stairs and went down the corridor counting doors.

  When he was still a few feet away from 206, the door opened and revealed the young woman whom he had seen on the fire escape and who had said her name was Virginia Colfax. She was wearing a robe thrown over her shoulders and held in the middle with her left hand. Extended, in her right hand, was twenty-three cents.

  “Where’s the package?” she asked, then, suddenly recognizing Perry Mason, she drew back with a sharp, involuntary exclamation of dismay.

  Mason said, “The package is one you threw away and then picked up later.”

  He took advantage of her utter confusion to push his way into the apartment.

  “You! … How did you find me?”

  Mason closed the door behind him, said, “We may not have long to talk, so let’s get to the point. When you were on the fire escape you threw away a gun when you saw that you were discovered.”

  “Why I …”

  “I went down into the alley, looking for that gun, afterwards,” Mason said, “and couldn’t find it. You must have either had an accomplice waiting there or tossed it somewhere where I couldn’t find it and then you came back and found it later.”

  She was rapidly regaining her composure now. She said, “I’m dressing, Mr. Mason. I …”

  “I want to know about that gun.”

  “If you’ll sit down,” she said, “until I finish dressing. After all, the apartment is rather cramped. I’ll take my clothes, go in the bathroom and …”

  “Tell me about that gun,” Mason said.

  “I’ve told you there wasn’t any gun.”

  “The gun,” Mason went on, “was given to you by your brother, Frank L. Bynum, who lives in Riverside. Sometime this morning that gun was used to kill Mrs. Ethel Garvin. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to get on a witness stand and tell a jury all you know about that gun and what you were doing out on the fire escape, spying into the office of the Garvin Mining, Exploration and Development Company. Now might be a good time for a dress rehearsal—sort of a warm-up, so that you can get your story in shape.”

  “Mr. Mason, I … that gun … Ethel Garvin—Good God!”

  Mason said, “Yes. Go on, let’s hear the story.”

  She seated herself as though her knees lacked the strength to hold her up.

  There was a moment’s silence. Then Mason said, “If you killed her, you hadn’t better talk to me or anyone else until you’ve seen your lawyer. But if there’s any other explanation, I want to know it. I’m trying to protect Edward Garvin.”

  “He’s … he’s your client?”

  “Yes.”

  “How does he enter into it?”

  Mason shook his head impatiently and said, “Quit stalling. How do you enter into it?”

  “I … I don’t.”

  “What about that gun?”

  “The gun was stolen several weeks ago,” she said. “I used to keep it right here in this bureau drawer. Look, I’ll show you right where I had it.”

  She crossed over to a drawer and said, “See, it was right here in this corner.”

  Mason didn’t even move from his chair. He took out a cigarette case, snapped it open and offered her a cigarette.

  She shook her head in refusal and kept pointing at the drawer. “See, you can see the place right here in this corner where I kept it. The cardboard box still has traces of oil on it. I didn’t want it to get against my clothes. It was oily, and—my brother, you know, read so much about the recent crime wave and about girls being molested. He thought that it would be a fine thing for me to have something with which to
protect myself. He told me I should never answer the door at night and …”

  “When did you have the gun last?”

  “I tell you I don’t know. I used to notice it here in the drawer when I’d open the drawer to get my things. You see, I keep my stockings and some underthings here in this drawer. A short time ago … oh, I don’t know, perhaps three or four weeks …”

  Mason said, “The other night when I surprised you on the fire escape, you had a gun in your hand. You knew that I’d discovered you. You tossed the gun down into the alley. You pulled a fast one on me for a getaway. I went back and looked in the alley for the gun. It wasn’t there. If it was, I couldn’t find it. I remember there were some boxes and barrels of trash, and wastepaper. I gave those only a cursory glance. I thought the gun would be lying on the pavement. It wasn’t there. Now, what happened to that gun?”

  “I tell you it was stolen and …”

  “And I saw you with it in your possession two nights ago,” Mason said.

  “Can you swear it was the same gun?”

  Mason smiled and said, “No, Miss District Attorney, I can’t swear it was the same gun, but I can swear it was a gun, and then the police are going to want to know a lot more about it.”

  She hesitated a moment, then said, “Mr. Mason, I simply don’t know who has that gun, that’s all there is to it. You’re right about one thing. I did have it, and I threw it away.”

  “What were you doing out on the fire escape?”

  “I was spying on someone in the office of the Garvin Mining, Exploration and Development Company.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Frankly, I was staked out there so I could investigate certain nocturnal activities in the office. Imagine my surprise when the office door opened and the person who came in wasn’t the one I expected, but a woman—a woman who I have since learned is the first wife of Edward C. Garvin.”

  “What did she do?”

  “I didn’t have an opportunity to find out all she did. Your interference upset that. But she had a handful of papers which I now believe were proxies. She was opening the drawer of the proxy file when your activities took me off the job—and, unfortunately, kept me off the job.”

  Mason thought that over.

  “Why were you watching the office in the first place? Whom were you after?”

  She knuckled her eyes, yawned prodigiously.

  “I believe he’s the secretary and treasurer. His name is Denby.”

  “Do you know him?”

  “Yes.”

  “How well?”

  “Not well. I just know him when I see him.”

  “Why were you spying on him?”

  “Because my mother has every cent of her money invested in that company and I was afraid something was going wrong.”

  “Now we’re beginning to get somewhere,” Mason said. “What made you think something was going wrong?”

  “I thought there was something—well, something shady going on.”

  “What made you think that?”

  She said, “Mother received a proxy in the mail. She always gave proxies to Mr. Garvin. I guess everyone did. The stockholders were satisfied with the company. It made money and—well, I guess that’s all they wanted, to have it make money.”

  Mason said, “Come on, quit beating around the bush. You knew something was in the wind. You were out on the fire escape with a gun in your hand. You weren’t carrying that gun just as an ornament; you were carrying it for some particular specific purpose.”

  She said, “I was simply carrying it for my own protection, Mr. Mason. As a matter of fact, I’ve been carrying that gun in my purse whenever I’ve been out late at night. I’m employed as a stenographer and sometimes I work late at night. The car line is three blocks from here. I have to walk from that car line to this apartment house. The way things have been going—well, you read in the papers about the way girls have been attacked and—well, I carried the gun. That’s what my brother gave it to me for. I suppose I shouldn’t have carried it without a permit, but anyway you want to know the facts, and those are the facts. It’s just that simple.”

  “And why did you take the gun out of your purse and have it in your hand when you were out on the fire escape?”

  “Because I was scared. I didn’t know what would happen if I were caught.”

  “And what were you doing out on the fire escape?”

  “As I’m telling you, Mr. Mason, my mother had received the usual proxy and had signed it, and then as we were casually discussing the company, she just happened to tell me that she’d received another proxy and signed it. I couldn’t understand why they would have sent out two proxies, but didn’t think much about it until she mentioned that the proxy had been just a little different in its wording from the way they usually came out; that the proxy listed the certificate number of Mr. Garvin’s share of stock. Well, I started wondering about that and I went down and asked the girl who had charge of the office about the date of the stockholders’ meeting and a few questions, and then told her who I was and asked her if I could see my mother’s proxy.”

  “And what happened?”

  “Well, she went over and asked this Mr. Denby about it, and Mr. Denby came over, all smiles and courtesy, and told me, certainly, he’d be only too glad to let me see the proxy my mother had signed. He went to the files and took out what must have been the first proxy. It was made out just that way, to E. C. Garvin. There was nothing on it about any certificate number.”

  “So you went back out and climbed out on the fire escape and …”

  She said, “You’re trying to make it sound absurd, aren’t you, Mr. Mason?”

  “Well, it does sound a little fishy to me, to tell the truth.”

  She struggled to fight back a yawn, then, putting her hand over her mouth, surrendered to the yawn. Her eyes seemed heavy from lack of sleep.

  “Go ahead,” Mason said.

  “You can call it a woman’s intuition if you want to. I don’t know what accounts for it, but in any event I’ve always followed my hunches. When I was up there, looking things over, I saw that the Drake Detective Agency was in the building and there was a sign on the directory board stating that it was open twenty-four hours a day and that persons who went to the Drake Detective Agency did not need to register with the elevator operator after hours.

  “I kept thinking that over and finally decided I’d go up and talk with the Drake Detective Agency. Then I had a brilliant idea. I remembered a landing of the fire escape was outside the window of the office of the mining company. I got off at Drake’s floor, found the stairs, walked up two flights, located the landing to the fire escape, went out on it, crept down one flight and found I was on the landing just outside the window of the office I wanted.

  “The window was open just a little bit. It wasn’t locked. I was wrestling with the temptation to go in when all of a sudden a shadow formed against the frosted glass on the outside of the door. I could see that someone was coming in … There was a night light in the corridor and it showed the shadow of some person fitting a key to the door of the office.

  “I was in a panic. I was—well, Mr. Mason, I’d just made up my mind that I was going to go in and take a look at the proxy file from which Mr. Denby had removed Mother’s proxy when he showed it to me. I actually had one leg over the sill.”

  “Go on,” Mason said.

  “Well, I backed up fast and started down the fire escape. Then this person came in and switched on the lights and I realized that the lights were streaming out through the window and that I would be plainly visible. Well, I started down the fire escape and then you moved and I saw you, and my skirts blew up, and—well, frankly, Mr. Mason,” she said, smiling disarmingly, “I was in what I would consider one hell of a fix.”

  Mason said, “You seem to me to be a very determined young woman.”

  “I am and I’m—Mr. Mason, I’m sorry, I’m downright sorry about what I did—slapping your face.”r />
  “You should be. I owe you one for that.”

  She laughed. “You were so darned decent about—well, about everything. I didn’t feel that I could tell you all about what was happening and what I was doing there and—well, I felt you wouldn’t believe me even if I did try to explain and I was desperate.”

  Mason said, “You’re telling me all about this quite readily now.”

  “The circumstances are entirely different. You’ve found me. I suppose that means—oh, I’ll bet I know!”

  “What?” Mason asked.

  “You found that gun,” she charged. “I wondered what happened to it.”

  “Suppose you tell me a little more about the gun?” Mason invited.

  “I didn’t throw it down in the alley. I made a motion with my hand, as though I was going to throw it, but I didn’t. I made that motion and then whirled around and put the gun on the fire escape right next to the wall on the landing. I intended to go back and get it later—but when I had a chance to go back it was gone. I supposed you’d figured out what must have happened and had gone back and found it. You must have done that, traced the numbers, found my brother had bought it and—so that’s the way it was!”

  Mason said, “How did you know the gun was gone, Virginia?”

  She shifted her eyes for a moment, then turned back to face him squarely. “I led with my chin on that one, didn’t I?”

  “I’m interested in knowing,” Mason said.

  She said, “I was back there last night as well as the night before. All last night, in fact. That’s why I’m so damn sleepy this morning. This business of working all night—and I almost froze to death last night. I’m telling you, Mr. Mason, I looked longingly down in your office and thought I’d give almost anything to get warm.”

  “You stayed out there all night last night?” Mason asked.

  “All night.”

  “Suppose you tell me a little more about that?”

  “Well,” she said, “I waited until the scrubwomen had left. Then I did just as I’d done before. I went up to the floor where Mr. Drake’s office is. The janitor who operates the night elevator knows me by this time and we’re palsy.”