The Case of the Velvet Claws   ::   Гарднер Эрл Стенли

What is it you want?”

Her eyes softened, and she moved toward him.

“I wanted to tell you,” she said, “how much I misunderstood you, how much it meant to me…”

Perry Mason turned to Della Street.

“Della,” he said, “open the drawers in those filing cases.”

His secretary looked at him with uncomprehending eyes.

Perry Mason pointed to the steel filing cabinets. “Pull open a couple of drawers,” he said.

The girl opened the drawers, which were packed with pasteboard jackets that, in turn, were filled with papers.

“Do you see those?” he asked Eva Belter.

Eva Belter looked at him, frowned, and nodded her head.

“All right,” said Mason. “Those are cases. Every one of them is a case, and all the other drawers are filled with cases just the same way. They represent cases that I’ve handled. Most of them are murder cases.

“When I get all done with your case you’re going to have a jacket in there, just about the same size as all of the other jackets, and it’s going to be of just about the same importance. Miss Street is going to give you a number. Then if anything comes up, and I want to look back at the case to find out what was done I’ll give her that number, and she’ll get me the jacket with the papers in it.”

Eva Belter frowned.

“What’s the matter,” she asked, “don’t you feel well? What are you trying to do? What do you want to say?”

Della Street stepped from the filing case to the door which led to the outer office. She moved out and softly closed the door. Perry Mason stared steadily at Eva Belter, and said, “I’m just telling you where you stand in this office. You’re a case and nothing but a case. There are hundreds of cases in that file, and there are going to be hundreds of other cases. You’ve paid me some money already, and you’re going to pay me five thousand dollars more. If you take my advice you’re going to get twentyfive hundred of it from Harrison Burke.”

Eva Belter’s lip quivered.

“I wanted to thank you,” she said. “Believe me, this is sincere. This comes from the heart. I’ve done play acting with you before, but this time it’s real. I feel so deeply grateful to you that I’d do anything on earth for you. You’re simply wonderful. I come up here to tell you so, and you start talking to me as though I was just a specimen that had strayed into a laboratory.”

This time there were real tears in her eyes, and she looked at him wistfully.

“There’s lots to be done yet,” he told her. “You’ve got to see that Griffin is convicted of first degree murder, in order to set that will aside. You’ve got to keep in the background in this thing, but you’ve got to keep in the battle. The only money that’s available to Griffin is money that’s in George Belter’s safe. We’ve got to see that he doesn’t get any of it. Those are some of the things that have got to be done. I’m just telling you so you won’t think you can get along without me.”

“That isn’t what I said! That isn’t what I meant. That isn’t what I thought,” she said rapidly.

“All right,” he said, “I’m just telling you.”

There was a knock at the door, which opened from the outer office.

“Yes?” called Perry Mason.

The door opened and Della Street slipped into the room.

“Can you take another case today?” she asked solicitously, looking at his bloodshot eyes.

He shook his head, as though to shake away some mental fog.

“What kind of case?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s a girl expensively dressed, good looking. Seems well bred. She’s in trouble, but she won’t open up.”

“Sulky, eh?”

“Sulky? — Well, perhaps I’d call her sort of trapped.”

“That’s because you like her looks,” Mason grinned. “If you didn’t you’d call her sulky. What’s your hunch, Della? You usually have pretty good hunches on how the cases are going to turn out. Look at the last client.”

Della Street looked at Eva Belter, then looked hurriedly away.

“This girl,” she said slowly, “is angry inside, all torn up. She’s a lady, though, almost too much of a lady. She’s like… well, maybe she is just sulky.”

Perry Mason heaved a great sigh. The savage glint slowly faded from his eyes, and in its place came a look of thoughtful interest. He raised the back of his hand to his mouth, wiped off the lipstick, and smiled at Della Street.

“I’ll see her,” he said, “just as soon as Mrs. Belter goes out. And,” he added, “that will be in a very few minutes.”

The End