“Then Reedley must have confessed,” Drake said.
“That’s right,” Mason told him. “When he was confronted with the fingerprint evidence, and as soon as it became evident that they really had a perfect case against him, he switched completely around with that emotional instability of his and told the whole story. The interesting part of it was that Gulling had another trump up his sleeve for me, just as I was afraid he might have. He tried to show that, because Adelle Winters was my client and because she had taken the wallet, under the law in regard to lost property that has been found, she was guilty of larceny. And that gave me a chance to play my trump card!”
“About Gulling’s finding your wallet with the money and the ‘code’ letter in it?”
“Not exactly,” Mason said. “I pulled that on him, but of course it was obviously a trap. I had meant it to be a dramatic courtroom gesture, in case he started an argument about the other wallet. The law provides that found property must be turned in within a ‘reasonable’ time, and I wanted to show what Gulling’s idea of a ‘reasonable’ time was. Also, I knew he would waste a lot of energy trying to decipher the ‘code’ in the letter I had Della write by hand—really the only kind of code that can never in the world be deciphered.”
“What kind is that?” Drake asked.
“A coded message that has no meaning,” Mason replied with a grin. “But after they had Reedley’s confession, I was in a beautiful position to teach Gulling some law.”
“How do you mean?”
“Reedley admitted that he had put his own money in the wallet and tossed it on the floor. And because the money already there was in tens and twenties only, and Reedley wanted to have it all in bills of high denomination, he put that money in his pocket and replaced it with bills of his own before he tossed the wallet on the floor. Therefore, when Adelle Winters picked it up, she wasn’t ‘finding’ anything within the meaning of the law.”
“What was she doing?” Della Street asked.
“Taking possession of property that had been abandoned,” Mason said. “There’s quite a distinction in law between lost property and abandoned property. When Reedley tossed his own money on the floor, he had abandoned it.
“When property has been lost, the owner retains title but is deemed to have parted with the property accidentally. When property has been abandoned, it is deemed to have returned to the public domain, and the first person who takes it into his possession is entitled to retain not only the property itself but the title to it.
“Gulling is shrewd and keen, but he isn’t a fast thinker. He got his feet wet trying to nail me as an accomplice on the purse business before I sprang my point. After I had sprung it, he recognized its logic, and that put him in a rather sorry light.”
“And what was finally done with the money?” Drake asked.
“I told Adelle Winters I’d take fifteen hundred dollars as a fee, and she could keep the other sixteen hundred as a souvenir,” Mason said. “And when I left, the Grand Jury were having a lot of fun. They all crowded around me, patted me on the back, and shook hands, and Gulling’s blood pressure ran up to two hundred and fifty!
“But this case has been too darn close for comfort. Gosh, Paul, here we were with the solution of the whole case fairly dangling in front of our eyes, and we couldn’t see it simply because we let that damn prejudiced assistant district attorney pick the time when he thought the murder must have been committed, and let him sell us on the idea. If I hadn’t suddenly started questioning the basic fact of the time element, we’d have been in a sweet mess.
“At that, next time I run across anyone who is borrowing a brunette, I’m going to let him keep her!”
THE END
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• Were you able to predict any part of the solution to the case?
• Aside from the solution, did anything about the book surprise you? If so, what?
• Did any aspects of the plot date the story? If so, which ones?
• Would the story be different if it were set in the present day? If so, how?
• What role did the setting play in the narrative?
• What did you make of the relationship between Perry Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake?
• If you were in Perry Mason’s place, is there anything you would have done differently?
• Can you think of any contemporary mystery authors that seem to be influenced or inspired by Erle Stanley Gardner’s writing?
• For those familiar with adaptations of the Perry Mason series, how do the characters in the novels compare to what you’ve seen elsewhere?
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Published in 2021 by Penzler Publishers
58 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007
penzlerpublishers.com
Distributed by W. W. Norton
Copyright © 1946 by Erle Stanley Gardner, renewed.
Introduction copyright © 2021 by Otto Penzler
All rights reserved.
Cover image: Andy Ross
Cover design: Mauricio Diaz
Paperback ISBN 978-1-61316-248-4
Hardcover ISBN 978-1-61316-249-1
eBook ISBN 978-1-61316-250-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021911450
The Case of the Borrowed Brunette Page 22
