Free The Case of the Blonde Bonanza by Erle Stanley Gardner

packed, Della?"
    She smiled. "Five minutes. I've been through this same thing so often that I'm now keeping an overnight bag in the coat closet."

CHAPTER SEVEN
    Sid Nye, Paul Drake's right-hand man, was waiting for Perry Mason when he and Della Street arrived at the colorful Mission Inn Hotel in Riverside.
    "Hello, Sid," Mason said, shaking hands. "You know Della Street. What's new?"
    "Something I want to talk over with you," Nye said. "I talked with Paul on the phone and he said you were on your way up here and should be here any minute."
    Della Street filled out the registration cards, and Mason, Nye and Della were shown up to the lawyer's suite. Mason ordered a round of drinks, and Nye, settling himself comfortably in the chair, said, "The fat seems to be in the fire."
    "Just what happened?" Mason asked.
    "I don't know all of the ramifications of the case," Nye said, "but it seems that you were having a Harrison T. Boring shadowed."
    "That's right. What happened?"
    "Apparently he got wise that he was being tailed, but it wasn't our fault. There was another man following him, and Boring first became suspicious because the other man was using contact shadowing."
    "Go ahead," Mason said.
    "You remember Moose Dillard?" Nye asked.
    Mason frowned, then said, "Oh, yes. I place him now. The big fellow that I represented when he was in a jam over losing his license."
    "That's right. That was when he lost his temper and flattened a politician who was calling him names. Personally I think the politician had it coming to him, but that's neither here nor there. The guy had political influence and Dillard has a hell of a temper. Anyway, Moose Dillard was tailing Boring. He put an electronic bug on Boring's car so the tailing could be done without giving Boring any cause for alarm, and there's no reason on earth Boring should have known he was being shadowed if it hadn't been for this other man using contact methods.
    "Well, Boring spotted the other shadow and started out to ditch him, and did a good job of it. That other shadow was left way back in Hollywood somewhere, but it made Boring shadow conscious.
    "Of course, with our electronic tailing devices, Moose Dillard had no trouble. Anyhow, when a guy once gets suspicious, Dillard is such a big guy it's hard to forget him. A tail should be an inconspicuous fellow who can mingle with the crowd, and Dillard has always had a little trouble fading out because of his build, but he's the best automobile tail in the business. He's a genius at handling a car. He wraps those big hands of his around the steering wheel and the car seems to be a part of him."
    Mason nodded. "What happened?"
    "Well, Boring decided to come back to Riverside. I don't know what it was, probably a telephone conversation he had with someone. Anyway, he was in Hollywood, then he threw a suitcase into his car and started out at high speed. He cut figure eights and lost the other shadow. Dillard kept on his tail. After they hit the freeway, Dillard kept pretty well in the background, relying on the electronic device to keep him posted."
    "And what happened?"
    "Boring went to Winlock's office, then to the Restawhile Motel here and registered in Unit io. Dillard waited awhile, then registered and got Unit Number 5, which is across the way from Unit io and would give a pretty good view of Boring's place.
    "Now, here's the peculiar thing: Dillard checked in and drew the curtains across the window but left just a little crack in the curtain so he could see out, and after a while he saw Boring come out, cross over directly to Dillard's automobile, open the door and start prowling around."
    "What did Dillard do?"
    "He sat tight. He said he was inclined to go out and grab the guy by the collar and give him a good shaking but he remembered the trouble he'd been in before, so he just sat in there and took it."
    "What was Boring looking for?"
    "Presumably he was suspicious of Dillard and wanted to find out something about the