The Case of the Blonde Bonanza (5 page)

"Then something came along and she quit, but she didn't tell them why she was quitting. She quit almost overnight, simply giving them two weeks" notice.

"She'd been supporting her mother, who had been helpless for some eighteen months prior to her death. It had taken every cent the girl could earn and scrape together to pay the expenses of nursing. She'd work in the office daytimes and then come home and take over the job of being night nurse. It was quite a physical strain and quite a financial drain."

"No one knew why she had quit?" Mason asked.

"No. She was rather mysterious about the whole thing, simply said she was going to take life a little easier, that she had been working very hard and had been under quite a strain. People who knew what she had been through sympathized with her and were glad to see her relaxing a bit.

"One of the girls in the office thought that Dianne was going to get married but didn't want anyone to know about it. She got that impression simply because of the manner in which Dianne parried questions about what she was going to do and whether she had another job lined up.

"Dianne's father was drowned when she was about ten years old. He and another fellow went off on a trip to Catalina and like all of these inexperienced guys who start off with outboard motors and open boats, they simply didn't realize the problems they were going to encounter. They ran into head winds apparently; ran out of gas, drifted around for a while and finally capsized. The Coast Guard found the overturned boat."

"Bodies?" Mason asked.

"The body of the other man was found, but George Alder's body was never found. That caused complications. At the time there was quite a bit of property, but his affairs were more or less involved and there was a delay due to the fact that the body wasn't found. However, after a while the court accepted circumstantial evidence that the man had died, and the property, which was community property, went to the wife. She tried to straighten it out so she could salvage something but there were too many complications. And I guess by the time she got through meeting obligations and working out equities, the estate didn't amount to much.

"The mother worked as a secretary for a while and got Dianne through school and then through business college. For a while they both worked and got along pretty well financially. Then the mother had to quit work and finally became ill and was a heavy drag on Dianne during the last years of her life.

"Now then, we start in on Harrison T. Boring and there's a different story. Just as it was easy to find out about Dianne, it's hard to find out anything about Boring. The guy has a small account in a Hollywood bank. You can't find out much about it, of course, from the bank, but I did find out that he had references from Riverside, California. I started investigating around Riverside and picked up Boring's back trail there. Boring was in business but no one knew what business. He didn't have an office. He had an apartment and a telephone. He had an account at one of the banks, but the bank either didn't know anything about what he did for a living or wouldn't tell.

"However, we finally ran the guy to earth but we haven't been on the job long enough yet to tell you very much about him. Right at the moment he's somewhere in Hollywood. The place where he has desk space can evidently reach him on the phone whenever it's necessary.

"There's a phone listing under the name of the Hollywood Talent Scout Modeling Agency. It's the same number that's shared by all the clients, and the place where desk space is rented and where mail is answered.

"You wanted to find out about any millionaires in his background. There may be one. Boring has had some business dealings with a George D. Winlock. It's just business, but I don't know the nature of the business.

"Winlock is one of the big shots in Riverside, but he's very shy and retiring, very hard to see; handles most of his business through secretaries and attorneys; has a few close friends and spends quite a bit of his time aboard his yacht which he keeps at Santa Barbara."

"Did you make any attempt to run down Winlock?"

"Not yet. I don't know very much about him. He drifted into Riverside, went to work as a real estate salesman, worked hard and was fairly successful. Then he took an option on some property out at Palm Springs, peddled the property, made a neat profit on the deal, picked up more property and within a few years was buying and selling property right and left. The guy apparently has an uncanny ability to know places that are going up in value.

"Of course, today the desert is booming. Air conditioning has made it possible to live comfortably the year around, and the pure air and dry climate have been responsible for attracting lots of people with a corresponding increase in real estate prices.

"Winlock got right in on the ground floor of the desert boom, and as fast as he could make a dollar he spread it out over just as much desert property as he could tie up. At one time he was spread out pretty thin and was pretty much in debt. Now he's cashing in. He's paid off his obligations and has become quite wealthy."

"Married?" Mason asked.

"Married to a woman who has been married before and who has a grown son, Marvin Harvey Palmer.

"That's just about all I can tell you on short notice."

"When did Winlock come to Riverside?" Mason asked.

"I didn't get the date. It was around fifteen years ago."

Mason drummed with his fingers on the edge of the desk, looked up and said, "See what you can find out about Winlock, Paul."

Drake said, "What do you want me to do, Perry? Shall I put a man on Winlock?"

"Not at the moment," Mason said. "Boring yes, but Winlock, no."

"I already have a man working on Boring," Drake said. "He's in Hollywood at the moment and I've got a man ready to tail him as soon as contact can be made. I can put a round-the-clock tail on him if that's what you want."

"Probably the one man is sufficient at the moment," Mason said. "The point is that he mustn't get suspicious. I don't want him to feel anyone is taking an interest in him.

"What about the Hollywood Talent Scout Modeling Agency, Paul? Did you get anything on it?"

"It's just a letterhead business," Drake said. "The address is at one of those answering-service places where they have a telephone, a secretary and a business address that serves a dozen or so companies. The whole thing is handled by one woman who rents an office and then subrents desk space and gives a telephone-answering, mail-forwarding service."

"Okay, Paul," Mason said. "Stay with it until you find out what it's all about. Remember that technically I don't have any client. I'm doing this on my own so don't get your neck stuck out."

"Will do," Drake said and went out in a rush, slamming the door behind him.

Drake had been out of the office less than ten minutes when the phone rang and Della Street relayed the message from the receptionist. "Dianne Alder is in the office," she reported.

Mason's frown suddenly lightened into a smile. "Well, how about that?" he said. "She's taken the bait and now someone has jerked the line and she's feeling the hook. Go bring her in, Della."

Della Street nodded, hurried through the door to the reception room and was back in a few moments with an apologetic Dianne Alder.

"Mr. Mason," she said, "I know I shouldn't intrude on you without an appointment and I feel just terrible about what happened yesterday; but… well, the bottom has dropped out of everything and I just had to find out what to do."

"What's happened?" Mason asked.

"A letter," she said, "sent registered mail, with a return receipt demanded."

"You signed the receipt?"

She nodded.

"And the letter is from Boring?" Mason asked.

Again she nodded.

"Telling you that your contract was at an end?"

She said, "Not exactly. You'd better read it."

She took a letter from an envelope, unfolded the paper and handed it to Mason.

Mason read the letter aloud for the benefit of Della Street.

"My dear Miss Alder: I know that as a very attractive young woman you realize the instability of styles and the vagaries of the style designers.

"A few weeks ago when we approached you with the idea of creating a new trend, we felt that there were very great possibilities in the idea; and, what is more to the point, we had a wealthy backer who agreed with us.

"Now, unfortunately, there has been a change in certain trends which ha.s caused our backer to become decidedly cool to the whole idea and we ourselves now recognize the first indications of a potentially adverse trend.

"Under the circumstances, realizing that you are making great sacrifices in order to put on weight which may be difficult to take off, knowing that you have given up a good job and feeling that you can very readily either return to that position or secure one equally advantageous, we are reluctantly compelled to notify you that we are unable to go ahead with further payments under the contract.

"If you wish to keep yourself available and there should be a change in the trend, we will keep you in mind as our first choice but we feel it would be unfair to you to fail to notify you of what is happening and the fact that we will be unable to continue the weekly payments in the nature of a guarantee.

"Sincerely yours, Hollywood Talent Scout Modeling Agency, per Harrison T. Boring, President."

Mason studied the letter thoughtfully for a moment, then said, "May I see the envelope, please, Dianne?"

She handed him the envelope and Mason studied the postmark.

"You received your money Saturday morning?" he asked.

She nodded.

"And this letter was postmarked Saturday morning. Would you mind telling me why you were so anxious to get your contract back yesterday, Dianne?"

"Because I realized that I was not supposed to give out any information about what I was doing and-"

"And someone telephoned you or reminded you of that clause in your contract?"

"No, it was just something that I remembered Mr. Boring had said."

"What?"

"Well, you know I had been working as secretary for a firm of attorneys and he told me that he not only didn't want any publicity in connection with the contract, and that I wasn't to talk to anyone about it, but he mentioned particularly that he didn't want me to have any attorney friend looking it over, and if I took it to an attorney it would be a very serious breach of confidence."

"I see," Mason said.

"So after I let Della take the contract I suddenly realized that if she should show it to you, I would have been violating his instructions and the provisions of the contract. Tell me, Mr. Mason, do you suppose there's any chance that he knew what I was doing? That is, that I'd seen you Saturday and that I'd let Della Street look at the contract and-"

Mason interrupted by shaking his head. "This letter is postmarked eleven-thirty Saturday morning," he said.

"Oh, yes, that's right. I… I guess I felt a little guilty about letting the contract out of my possession."

"Was there a letter with the check you received Saturday morning?"

"No. Just the check. They never write letters, just send me the check."

"Did you notice the postmark?"

"No, I didn't."

"Save the envelope?"

"No."

"It must have been mailed Friday night," Mason said, "if you received it Saturday morning. Now, that means that between Friday night and Saturday noon, something happened to cause Mr. Boring to change his mind."

"He probably learned of some trend in styles which-"

"Nonsense!" Mason interrupted. "He wasn't thinking about any trend in styles. That contract, Dianne, is a trap."

"What kind of a trap?"

"I don't know," Mason said, "but you will notice the way it's drawn. Boring pays you a hundred dollars a week and gets one-half of your gross income from all sources for a period of up to six years if he wants to hold the contract in force that long."

Dianne said somewhat tearfully, "Of course I didn't regard this as an option. I thought it was an absolute contract. I thought I was entitled to a hundred dollars a week for two years, at least."

"That's what the contract says," Mason said.