Free The Case of the Troubled Trustee by Erle Stanley Gardner

what you know about Dutton fits in with what we know about the murder."
    "I don't think it does," Mason said. "As a matter of fact, I was having Paul Drake shadow Dutton because I was worried about my own responsibility in the matter."
    "So I gathered," Tragg said. "You don't ordinarily have a detective agency shadow your own clients."
    "Sometimes I do."
    "Now then," Tragg said, "here's the important question, and I want an answer to it. Did any of this shadowing take Kerry Dutton to the vicinity of the Barclay Country Club?"
    There was a period of silence. Then Mason said cautiously, "I believe I should answer that question. I can state that it did."
    "The hell it did!" Tragg said, his face lighting up. "At what time?"
    "What time, Paul?" Mason asked.
    "Right around ten-ten to ten-twenty," Drake said.
    "Now then," Mason volunteered, "in order to keep you from feeling you're having to draw information out of us a bit at a time, I'm going to tell you that before Dutton went out to the country club he had a conversa tion with someone and apparently arranged to meet that person out at the country club."
    "How do you know?"
    "He went into a telephone booth and called someone. One of Drake's men was shadowing him. He put a wire recorder on the outside of the telephone booth and walked away. It's a very sensitive recorder, compact but highly efficient. After Dutton drove away, Drake's man came back and picked up the recorder, ran it back, found out what the conversation was about and went out to the Barclay Country Club."
    "He didn't follow Dutton out?"
    "No, Dutton went through red lights and generally drove like crazy. So, after trying to follow him, Drake's man went back and picked up the recorder, ran it back to the starting point, listened to the conversation, and was able to make out that an appointment had been made at the Barclay Country Club."
    "And he drove out there right away?"
    "Yes. He went right out there."
    "And Dutton's car was out there?"
    "That's right. Dutton's car and two or three other cars."
    "Was one of them this car that you gave me the license on?" Lt. Tragg asked Drake.
    "I don't know as yet, but we will know," Drake said.
    The telephone rang-a sharp strident sound in that room of eternal silence.
    Tragg strode over to the instrument, picked it up, said, "Yes… speaking."
    The officer listened for several seconds; then a slow grin spread over his face. "That does it," he said. "Okay."
    Tragg hung up and said, "All right, we've got our corpse identified. His name is Rodger Palmer all right. He was an employee of Templeton Ellis until Ellis died; then he went to work for the Steer Ridge Oil and Refining Company.
    "Now then, do any of those activities tie in with what you fellows know?"
    Mason chose his words carefully. "Templeton Ellis was the father of Desere Ellis. Kerry Dutton is the trustee of money which was payable to her under her father's will. Some of the stocks, I believe, which were included in the estate at one time were shares of the Steer Ridge Oil and Refining Company."
    Tragg turned to Drake. "What's the name of your detective, the one with the wire recorder?"
    "Tom Fulton."
    "Where is he now?"
    "On his way up from Ensenada."
    "Where's he going to report when he reaches the city here?"
    "To my office."
    "I want to see him as soon as he reports," Tragg said, "and I want to be very, very certain that nothing happens to that recording. That is evidence in the case and I want it."
    "You'll have it," Mason promised.
    "Getting facts out of you two," Tragg said, "is like pulling hen's teeth with a pair of fire tongs, but thank you very much for your co-operation."
    "We gave you what we had," Mason said.
    "You gave me what you hadto give me," Tragg amended, "but I appreciate it just the same. It's bad business when we can't get a corpse identified."
    "But even without the identification, you felt you had a case against Kerry Dutton?"
    Tragg grinned and said, "We brought him in for