Free The Case of the Counterfeit Eye by Erle Stanley Gardner Page B

chap, who does Basset's bookkeeping, typing and secretarial work, had been in the place and Mrs. Basset had kicked him out. I thought he might be sore, so I went up to talk with him."
    "Did you see him?"
    "Yes."
    "Was he sore?"
    "Plenty. Not so much because she kicked him out as because Basset and his wife didn't get along. He worked for Basset. Therefore, he sided with the boss. All he knew was Basset's side of it, and that's all he wanted to know.
    "But when I got in his room I found this piece of paper on his dresser. It's the paper I gave Bertha McLane, with my telephone number on it."
    Mason took the paper from his pocket, slowly unfolded it, and dropped it on his desk.
    "He said he'd found it in the corridor in front of Mrs. Basset's bedroom."
    "Then, Harry McLane must have been out there," Della Street said excitedly.
    "Either Harry or Bertha," he said. "Don't forget that it was Bertha to whom I gave it. She may have given it to her brother, or someone may have given it to Mrs. Basset, or Colemar may have been lying, or everyone may have been lying. It's one of those cases."
    "The blanket and quilt story sounds phoney," the girl told him.
    "Hell," Mason said, impatiently, "it all sounds phoney. I picked this Fenwick girl for a key witness. I knew the cops would sew her up so I'd never see her, once they got their hands on her, so I decided to beat them to it. I figured you'd get a complete interview before the cops had a chance to coach her."
    "That eye business," she said, "makes it seem like Brunold."
    "It does if the girl is telling the truth," Mason said. "But if she was on the square, why didn't she come here? And the mask business sounds fishy as hell."
    "Why?" she asked. "Wouldn't the murderer mask himself?"
    "How could a murderer," Mason countered, "enter Basset's office, wearing a mask and holding a gun under a quilt and a blanket? How could he approach Basset, stick the quilt and blanket against Basset's head to muffle the explosion, and pull the trigger, all without Basset putting up a fight?"
    "He might have tiptoed," Della Street said.
    Mason shook his head moodily.
    "Then he wouldn't have needed the mask. Mind you, the gun must have been concealed under the quilt and blanket. From the position of the body, it's almost certain that Basset was taken by surprise and never knew what happened, but was facing the man who fired the shot."
    Della Street said slowly, "But there were lots of people in that house who could have entered Basset's office and approached him, carrying a quilt and a blanket, without exciting Basset's suspicion."
    "Now," Mason said, "you're getting somewhere. Let's start naming those people."
    "Mrs. Basset, for one," she said.
    "Right," he told her.
    "Dick Basset, for another."
    "Check."
    "And," she said, "perhaps the girl who was lying on the couch."
    Mason nodded his head. "Anyone else?"
    "Not that I know of."
    "Yes," the lawyer said, "there were the servants. Remember that a servant was bending over the girl on the couch. A servant could very logically carry a quilt and blanket on her arm. She might be making up a bed, stopping, perhaps, to ask Basset a question…" Mason paused for a moment's meditation, then said suddenly, "But you're overlooking the significant point in what you've been telling me."
    "What is it?"
    "Those persons only," he said, "could have entered Basset's office carrying the quilt and the blanket without bringing Basset to his feet, because Basset was familiar with their faces. But the person who ran from that room had his face covered with a mask. That brings us to a consideration of the mask. It had been prepared in a hurry. The carbon paper was probably right on Basset's desk. The man picked it up…"
    "After the murder!" Della Street exclaimed triumphantly.
    "Now you're getting it," he told her. "The mask must have been an afterthought. But the quilt and blanket to muffle the gun weren't. They show premeditated deliberation. The mask shows haste."
    "Why should a