Free The Case of the Baited Hook by Erle Stanley Gardner Page A

us."
    "What sort?" Della Street asked.
    "Class," Mason said. "Took it like a little soldier. Stood up and told the officers frankly that she didn't love him, that he'd been doing everything he could to make things difficult for her, that she wanted a divorce and he wouldn't give her one. She was a little indefinite about his methods, but he evidently had something on her."
    "Doesn't that make her look like a logical suspect, Chief?" Della Street asked.
    "That's what the officers seem to think. They're going to check her alibi. Holcomb put through a long distance call to Reno while I was there. Apparently, there's no question but what she was with friends just as she said… However, I got my usual complex."
    "What do you mean?"
    Mason grinned. "Made a stab in the dark," he said, "figuring that she might hold the other part of that ten – thousand – dollar bill."
    "Any results?"
    "No. She couldn't have been the one, anyway. She left town Monday afternoon. Her friends say she arrived in Reno before daylight. The Reno police are checking up, but it sounded pretty good over the telephone. Even Holcomb accepted it… Well, let's get Mrs. Tump and the Gailord girl in here and see how they react to the news."
    "There won't be any need for you to represent them if Tidings is dead, will there, Chief?"
    "Probably not," he said. "I can keep an eye on things; but there's nothing much to be done. The court will appoint another trustee."
    "Mrs. Tump?" Della Street asked.
    Mason said, "Probably not. It's more apt to be some trust company. The accounts will take a lot of going over."
    "Want them in now?" Della Street asked.
    "Uh huh," Mason said, and crossed over to the wash – stand. He ran water into the bowl and was drying his hands on the towel when Della Street ushered in Mrs. Tump and an attractive, willowy girl whose eyes flashed about the room in a swift glance, and then registered approval as they appraised Perry Mason.
    'This is Mr. Mason, Byrl," Mrs. Tump said, and to Mason, "Byrl Gailord."
    Mason caught a glimpse of red lips parted to disclose flashing teeth, of intense black eyes, and then Byrl Gailord's hand was in his as she smiled up in his face. "I'm afraid I'm a nuisance, Mr. Mason," she said, "but when I told Mrs. Tump about what you'd said over the telephone-you know, about investigating a hot tip-well, we just couldn't wait."
    "That's quite all right," Mason said. "The tip panned out. Won't you sit down?"
    "What was it?" Mrs. Tump asked. "What have you found out?"
    Mason waited until they were seated. "Albert Tidings is dead," he said. "We found his body stretched out on a bed in a bungalow owned by his wife. We notified the police. He'd been shot in the left side. Police can't find the gun. There was one in his pocket, but it hadn't been fired, and it's the wrong caliber anyway. There was a faint smudge of lipstick on his lips."
    Byrl Gailord stifled a faint exclamation. Mrs. Tump stared at Mason with startled eyes. "You're sure it was he?" she asked.
    "Yes," Mason said. "Mrs. Tidings identified him."
    "The body was found in her house?"
    "Yes."
    "Where was she?"
    "She'd been in Reno," Mason said. "She happened to return at about the time we discovered the body."
    Byrl Gailord said, simply, "I'm glad it wasn't suicide. I'd always have felt that we-well, hounded him into it."
    "Nonsense," Mrs. Tump said.
    "I couldn't have helped feeling that way," Byrl Gailord insisted. "I liked him a lot, although t distrusted him in some ways. I think he was the kind who would have taken a lot of financial liberties, figuring that things were going to turn out all right."
    "He was a crook," Mrs. Tump said. "His whole record shows it."
    "He was very kind to me personally," Byrl observed, biting her lip and fighting back tears.
    "Of course he was kind to you," Mrs. Tump said. "He was embezzling your money. Why shouldn't he have kidded you along? You were Santa Claus."
    Byrl said, "The accounts may be out of balance, but his intentions