Free The Case of the Baited Hook by Erle Stanley Gardner

flushed. "I prefer not to discuss that."
    "You'll have to, sooner or later," Sergeant Holcomb said. "I don't want to pry into your private affairs, just to be doing it, but you can't hold out on the police. You stick right around here. I'm going in."
    The others had already gone on into the house, and Sergeant Holcomb joined them. Mason dropped his cigarette to the cement, ground it out with the sole of his shoe.
    "Just as a matter of curiosity, Mrs. Tidings," he said, "had your husband been here before?"
    "Once."
    "On a friendly visit?"
    "A business visit."
    "Was there some question of alimony between you?"
    "No. Well, it wasn't serious. Alimony was a detail. I didn't care about that."
    "You wanted your freedom?"
    "Why do you ask these questions?"
    "Because it might help my client if I knew some of the answers, and the police are going to make you answer them anyway."
    "Who," she asked, "is your client?"
    Mason said, "I'm not ready to make any statements yet."
    "Is it that Gailord girl?"
    "Why?" Mason asked. "What makes you think it's she?"
    She watched him with narrowed eyes. "That," she said, "isn't answering my question."
    Mason said, "And you aren't answering mine."
    He strode out to the curb to stand gazing thoughtfully. The radio officer watched him narrowly. Paul Drake stood close by, his manner seemingly detached.
    Suddenly Mason turned to Mrs. Tidings. He said, "You look like a nice girl."
    "Thank you."
    "You wouldn't by any chance be trying to kid anyone, would you?" Mason asked.
    "Why, what do you mean, Mr. Mason?"
    Sergeant Holcomb opened the door of the house, motioned to Mrs. Tidings. "Come in here," he said.
    Mason took his cigarette case from his pocket and carefully selected another cigarette. "Watch your step." he said in a low voice, his eyes turned toward the distant horizon with its gleam of snow – capped mountains. "And if you have anything to say to me, you'd better say it now."
    Mrs. Tidings shook her head in a swiftly decisive gesture of negation and walked firmly toward the house.

5
    DELLA STREET WAS WAITING IN THE DOORWAY OF Mason's private office as he came down the corridor. She beckoned to him to come in without going through the reception room of his office.
    "Someone laying for me, Della?" he asked.
    "Mrs. Tump and Byrl Gailord."
    Mason said, "Her appointment wasn't until two o'clock."
    "I know it, but they're all worked up about something. They say that they have to see you right away."
    Mason said, "I thought I'd pick you up for a bite of lunch."
    "I've tried to stall them off," she said. "They won't stall… They're biting fingernails and whispering."
    "What's the girl look like?"
    "Not what you'd call beautiful, but she has a swell figure, and she can turn on plenty of personality. Her features aren't much, but she could get by in a bathing – girl parade anywhere. Her hair is darkish, her eyes black. She goes in for vivid coloring in clothes, throws lots of hand motions in with her talk, and seems full of life."
    Mason said, "I'll see them now and get it over with… We ran into something out there, Della."
    "What was it?"
    "Albert Tidings," he said, "nicely drilled with a revolver shot, probably a thirty – eight caliber, not suicide because there were no powder burns on the clothes or skin; and the officers can't find the fatal gun. There was a thirty – two caliber revolver in the right hip pocket. It hadn't been fired, and it wasn't the murder gun. What's more, the officers can't find Tidings' shoes. There's lipstick on his mouth."
    "When was the body discovered?"
    "When we got there."
    "You mean-you were the one who discovered it?'
    'That's right."
    "Think Paul Drake had a hunch what you'd find?" she asked.
    "No, not Paul. He'd have had a fit. The police think we find too many corpses. Paul's jittery about it."
    "Well, you do get around, Chief," she said.
    "I have to," he told her, grinning. "I met Mrs. Tidings out there. She'd been visiting friends in Reno and walked in on