She said, “You’re not keeping me up. I wouldn’t miss this for worlds. I...”
“You need some sleep, my dear,” Mason interrupted solicitously. “Remember, you have to be at the office promptly at nine, and it will take you a long time to get home.”
“Oh! I see — I guess so.”
Mason switched on the ignition, drove rapidly to a nearby hotel where a taxi was parked at the curb. Della Street jumped out with a quick “Good night. See you in the morning, Chief,” and walked across to the taxicab.
Mason drove down the street for a couple of blocks, then parked the car again.
“We’d better get this thing straight, Lunk,” he said. “You say Franklin Shore knocked at your door?”
The gardener was sullen and suspicious. “I’ve got it all straight. Sure he knocked. The doorbell wasn’t working.”
Mason shook his head. “I’m not certain that you did right. It might make trouble for you with Mrs. Shore — trying to intercede on behalf of her husband.”
Lunk said, “I know what I’m doin’.”
“You owe Franklin Shore a debt of gratitude,” Mason went on. “You want to do everything you can to help him, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And you know Mrs. Shore hates him, don’t you?”
“No.”
Mason said, “You must have talked with Franklin Shore for a couple of hours before you started out to see Mrs. Shore.”
“Not that long.”
“An hour, perhaps?”
“Perhaps.”
“How did he seem mentally?” Mason asked abruptly.
“How do you mean?”
“Was his mind keen?”
“Oh, sure. He’s smart as a steel trap — remembers things I’ve even forgotten. Asked about some poinsettia plants I’d put out just before he left. Damned if I hadn’t clean forgotten about ’em until he asked. They didn’t do so good and the old lady had ’em pulled up. We got some rose bushes in there now.”
“Then he doesn’t seem to have aged much?”
“No. He’s older; but he’s pretty much the same.”
Mason said, “Why don’t you tell me the truth, Lunk?”
“What are you getting at?”
Mason said, “Franklin B. Shore was a banker, a keen-minded businessman. From all I can learn, he was clearheaded and quick thinking. A man of that type wouldn’t have come to you to ask you to intercede with Mrs. Shore on his behalf.”
Lunk remained sullenly silent.
Mason said, “It’s a lot more likely that he’d have gone to your place knowing that you were under a debt of gratitude to him, looking for a place to spend the night where no one would be apt to look for him. You pretended you were going to give him a place to hide out, and then, after he’d gone to bed and to sleep, sneaked quietly out in an attempt to go and tell Mrs. Shore where he was.”
Lunk clamped his lips together in stolid, defiant silence.
“You may as well tell the truth,” Mason said.
Lunk shook his head doggedly.
“The Homicide Squad wants to question Franklin Shore. They want to examine him about what happened after he communicated with a man named Henry Leech.”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
“Leech was murdered.”
“When?”
“Some time early last night.”
“Well?”
“Don’t you see,” Mason said, “if you conceal a witness, knowing he’s a witness and wanted as such, you’re guilty of a crime.”
“How do I know he’s a witness?”
“I’m telling you so. Now then, you’d better tell me everything that happened.”
Lunk thought things over for a few minutes, then said, “Well, I guess I might’s well. Franklin Shore came to my place. He was excited and scared. He said somebody was trying to kill him. That he had to have a place to hide. He told me about what he’d done for me in giving me a home for my brother and all that and said it was up to me to help him out.”
“And you asked him why he didn’t go home?”
Lunk said, “I asked him some questions, but he wouldn’t talk much. He acted like he was still the boss and I was just a hired man. He said he didn’t want Mrs. Shore to know anything about his bein’ here until after he’d found out what had been done with certain property. He said his wife was going to try to strip him of every penny and he didn’t propose to stand for it.”
“Then what?”
“So then I told him he could stay with me. It was just the way you doped it out. I got a spare bedroom in the back, and I put him to bed. After he got to sleep I sneaked out and went to tell Mrs. Shore.”
“You hadn’t gone to bed at all?”
“No.”
“And you didn’t go to bed?”
“Nope. Told him I had some letters to write.”
“And Franklin Shore didn’t know you had sneaked out?”
“Nope. He was lyin’ on his back with his mouth open, snoring, when I left.”
“To betray the man who had once been so kind to you,” Perry added.
Lunk’s eyes shifted uneasily. “I wasn’t going to tell her where Mr. Shore was — just that I’d heard from him.”
“Did you know Henry Leech?” Mason asked suddenly.
“Yes, I knew him — a long time ago.”
“Who was he? What did he do?”
“He was a plumber — used to come to the house and do some work once in a while. Franklin Shore liked him. Mrs. Shore never did go much for him. He and my brother Phil used to get along pretty well, but I never cared too much for him. Thought he was full of hot air — always tellin’ about how he was goin’ to get rich in some mining deal. Told Phil a while before Phil died that Franklin Shore was goin’ to finance him on a mining proposition — said he was goin’ to be living on Easy Street in a couple of months. I’ve been wondering if maybe Franklin hadn’t gone in partners with him, and when Franklin left he went out to work on that mine.”
“Where was it?”
“In Nevada somewhere.”
“Did Leech continue working after Franklin Shore disappeared?”
“No, he didn’t. Mrs. Shore never liked him. Soon as she got in the saddle she canned him. He was puttin’ in a lot of new plumbing up in the north end of the house, and every time he’d get a chance, he’d talk over this mining deal with Mr. Shore and with my brother. For some reason or other, Shore liked him, and would take time out to kid with him about his mine, an’ when he was goin’ to strike it rich.”
Mason said, “When Franklin Shore showed up at your house, you asked him some questions about where he’d been, and whether he’d put any money in this mining deal. Now go ahead and tell me the truth.”
Lunk blurted out, “The boss ran away with this woman. He went to Florida, but he had an interest in some mine out in Nevada. I don’t know whether it was Leech’s mine or not. They struck it kinda rich, and Shore’s partner froze him out for a few thousand, when he could have made a lot more money if he’d held on.”
“And that partner was Leech?” Mason asked.
Lunk faced Mason then with steady-eyed candor. “I’m goin’ to tell you the truth, Mr. Mason. I don’t know who that partner was. Shore wouldn’t say. He dried up when I tried to pump him. It might have been Leech, and it might not.”
“Didn’t you ask him?”
“Well, I didn’t come right out and ask him in so many words. When I was talkin’ with him, I’d forgotten what Leech’s name was. I did ask the boss what’d ever become of that plumber that was trying to interest him in a mining proposition, and the boss dried up like a clam.”