Free The Case of the Daring Divorcee by Erle Stanley Gardner Page B

said.
    Della Street gave a signal and one of the young women opened the door of the reception office and started in.
    Tragg hurried down to the gToup, forgetful at the moment of Mrs. Hastings.
    "Here, here," he said, "I want to find out who you folks are and what you're doing here."
    Mason said to Adelle Hastings in a low voice, "Hurry along and mingle with the group."
    Tragg reached the entrance door just in time to hear Gertie's voice saying, "Oh, hello! What happened to you yesterday? You left your purse and…"
    Gertie's voice trailed away into amazed silence as she saw that the woman she was addressing was followed by another woman wearing dark glasses, then another and another.
    Mason pushed Adelle Hastings along into the group and she entered with another woman.
    Tragg forced his way into the office. "Now, just a minute," he said, "just a minute. Gertie, have you seen one of these women before?"
    "I-Why, I thought… I don't know."
    "Now, let's be careful about this," Tragg said. "One of these women came in here yesterday. Which one was it?"
    Gertie said, "I thought it was this one," pointing with her finger. "When she came in just now I started to ask her what happened yesterday after she left the office. I wanted to tell her she had left her purse here, but now… now I just don't know."
    "All right," Tragg said wearily, "line up, you folks. Get in a line there against the wall, all of you."
    Mason said, by way of explanation, "This is Lieutenant Tragg of the police. If you'll just do as he says for a moment you won't need to stay any longer than that."
    The women lined up.
    "Which one?" Tragg asked Gertie.
    Gertie said, "I don't know. I thought it was the one who came in first but now I just don't know."
    "All right," Tragg said, "you can go, all of you."
    Mason glanced meaningly at Adelle Hastings, who was in the line. "All of you can go," he said. "All of you."
    "Hey, wait a minute," Tragg said, "I want Mrs. Hastings to stay."
    "All right," Mason said, "which one is Mrs. Hastings?"
    "Don't pull those tricks on me," Tragg said.
    "Pick her out if you want her," Mason said.
    Tragg said, "You're talking to an officer, Perry. Don't try those tricks."
    He moved forward and unerringly placed his hand on Mrs. Hastings' elbow. "You stay here," he said.
    Mason said, "We'll go back to my office, Mrs. Hastings," and led the way down the corridor.
    "What the hell were you trying to do," Tragg said, "make a monkey out of me? Did you think I couldn't pick Mrs. Hastings out of that group? Did you think I'd talk with her without noticing the clothes she was wearing? The color of her hair? The shape of her shoulders?"
    "No," Mason said, smiling, "you didn't have any trouble picking her out. That's all I needed to convince any jury that the test was a fair one."
    Tragg looked at him in exasperation. "Sometimes," he said, "I'm tempted to forget the fact that J like you personally, and take official action against you. I should have known better than to have stuck my head into that trap."
    "That wasn't a trap," Mason said, "that was a line-up. Any person who is being identified is entitled to a line-up."
    "Then why didn't you wait until we could have one down at police headquarters?"
    "Because," Mason said, "you weren't going to wait for a line-up. You were going to trick Gertie into making an identification on the strength of mental suggestion and a pair of dark glasses."
    Mason unlocked and opened the corridor door to his inner office and held it open for Adelle Hastings, Tragg and Della Street to walk through.
    "I'm not that naпve," Tragg said. "You had fixed it up with Gertie in advance so that she would identify the first person through that door. If I'd used my head I'd have stopped that bunch of women and seen that Adelle Hastings went through the door first."
    "I haven't said a word to Gertie about it," Mason said. "That would be unethical, unprofessional and illegal. I haven't tampered with the witness, I haven't tried to