Free The Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner Page B

Mrs. Montaine when she left?"
    "What's it to you if I did?"
    "I'm very anxious to get in touch with her."
    "You're a friend of hers?"
    "Yes."
    "Ain't her husband home?"
    Perry Mason shook his head.
    "Hmm," said the woman. "Must have gone out this morning a lot earlier than usual. I didn't see him, so I thought he was still in bed. They've got money, so he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to."
    "Mrs. Montaine?" asked Perry Mason. "How about her?"
    "She was his nurse. She married him for his money. She went away in a taxicab about half an hour ago, maybe a little less."
    "How much baggage?" Perry Mason asked.
    "Just a light bag," she said, "but there was an expressman came about an hour ago and got a trunk."
    "You mean a transfer man?" asked Perry Mason.
    "No, it was the express company."
    "You don't know when she'll be back?"
    "No. They don't confide their plans to me. The way they look at me, I'm just poor folks. You see, my son bought this house and didn't have it all paid for. That was when times were good. He had some kind of a life insurance loan that paid off the house when he died. That was the way Charles was, always kind and thoughtful. Most boys wouldn't have thought of their pa and ma and taken out insurance…"
    Perry Mason bowed. "Thank you," he said, "very much. I think you've given me just the information that I want."
    "If she comes back, who should I say called?" asked the woman.
    "She won't be back," Perry Mason said.
    The woman followed him to the edge of the porch. "You mean won't ever be back?" she asked. Perry Mason said nothing but strode rapidly to the sidewalk. "They say his folks don't approve of the match. What's her husband going to do if his father cuts him off without a cent?" the woman called after him.
    Mason lengthened his strides, turned, smiled, raised his hat and rounded the corner. He caught a cab at the boulevard. "Municipal Airport," he said. The driver snapped the car into motion. "If," said the lawyer, "there are any fines, I'll pay them." The cab driver grinned, nursed his car into speed, slipped in and out of traffic along the boulevard with deft skill.
    "This is as fast as the bus goes?" asked Perry Mason.
    "When I'm driving it, it is."
    "There's a good tip if you get me there in a rush, buddy."
    "I'll get you there just as fast as it's safe to drive," the cab driver rejoined. "I've got a wife and kids and a job…"
    He broke off as he slammed his foot on the brake pedal, twisted the steering wheel sharply, as a light sedan whizzed around a corner. "There you are," he called back over his shoulder, "that's what happens when you try to make time, and they don't give us any breaks in the home office. The cab driver is always wrong. We've got to drive our car, and we've got to drive the other fellow's car for him, too. When we get in a smash, we're laid off, and… Say, buddy, do you know you've got a tail?"
    Perry Mason straightened to rigid attention. "Don't look around," warned the cab driver. "He's commencing to crowd up on us. It's a Ford coupe. I noticed it a ways back, just after you got in, and I didn't think anything of it, but he's been sticking pretty close to us all through the traffic."
    Perry Mason raised his eyes and tried to see the road behind him in the rear-view mirror. "Wait a minute," the cab driver said, "and I'll give you a break."
    He took advantage of a clear stretch in the traffic to raise his hand and adjust his mirror so that Perry Mason could watch the stream of traffic in the road behind him.
    "You watch the rear. I'll keep an eye on the front," the driver told him.
    Perry Mason's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Boy," he said, "you need a quick eye to spot that fellow."
    "Oh, shucks," the cab driver protested, "that's nothing. I have to see what's going on in this racket, or the wife and kids would starve to death. You've got to have eyes in the back of your head. That's all I'm good for, driving a cab, but that's one thing I am good for."
    Perry