“And you didn’t press the inquiry?”
Lunk said, “I guess you don’t know Franklin Shore very well, do you?”
“I don’t know him at all.”
“Well,” Lunk said, “when Franklin Shore don’t want to tell you a thing, he don’t tell you. And that’s all there is to it. I don’t s’pose he’s got any dough at all now, but you’d think he was still a high-and-mighty millionaire, the way he acts when you try to get any information out of him.
“Now, I can’t stay away no longer. I’ve got him out there at the house and I’ve got to get back before he wakes up. If he wakes up and finds me gone, there’s goin’ to be hell to pay. Now you drive me back home and I’ll find some way of gettin’ in touch with Mrs. Shore. Ain’t she got a telephone in that hospital?”
Mason said, “I was in the room for a few minutes. I saw that she had a telephone by the bed, but I don’t think I’d try to telephone her except as a last resort. Even then, I wouldn’t dare to tell her anything important over the telephone.”
“Why?”
“Because Lieutenant Tragg will either have taken the telephone out, or have left instructions at the switchboard not to put through incoming calls.”
“But she could call out all right?” Lunk asked.
“She might be able to.”
Lunk creased his forehead in thought. “I got a phone,” he said, “and if we could think up some way of gettin’ her to call my number, I could give her the message.”
Mason said, “I’ll drive you home and after we get there, we may be able to think up some way of getting her to put through a call. You might send her some flowers with your card on them and your telephone number on the card. The flowers would be delivered. The officers wouldn’t stop them. When she saw your name and telephone number on the card, she’d know that you wanted her to call you on the phone. That might be a good way to work things.”
Lunk said, “Now you’re really talkin’ sense. That’d work all right. The first thing she’d think of when she saw my card on the flowers would be what the hell I was sending her flowers for. But you understand they’d have to be bought flowers. If I sent her flowers out of the garden, it would be a natural thing to do. But bought flowers would tip her off right away that there was some reason for sending ’em.”
Mason said, “I know a flower shop that’s open all night. We can get an immediate delivery to the hospital. Have you got any money?”
“Only about a dollar and a half.”
Mason said, “It should be a good big bouquet of expensive flowers. I’ll drive up to the florist’s with you, and then take you back home. I’ll pay for the flowers.”
“That’s mighty white of you.”
“Not at all. I’m glad to do it. Now there’s one question I want to ask you, and I want you to think carefully before you answer it.”
“What is it?”
“Henry Leech was interested in mines. Now, do you know whether he ever hired Gerald Shore as a lawyer to do anything in connection with his mining company?”
Lunk thought that question over for almost a minute, then said, “I can’t tell you for sure, but I think he did. I’ll let you in on something, Mr. Mason. I think Franklin Shore was double-crossed somehow — after he’d left.”
“How do you mean?”
Lunk fidgeted uneasily, said, “Last time the boss was down in Florida he ran on a guy who looked just like him. They had their pictures taken together, an’ this guy certainly was a ringer for the boss.
“Well, the boss kept kidding about it after he got back, said he was going to use this guy as a double when his wife had some of her social doings that he wanted to get out of. Mrs. Shore would get hopping mad every time he’d mention it.
“Now, I got an idea that the boss went down to Florida with this woman of his, and intended to educate this here double to go back and pretend he was Franklin Shore. This guy could live a swell life and send Franklin Shore money, and the boss could be happy with this woman he’d gone away with. Well, I think that after he’d sort of educated the guy, the bird got cold feet, or he may have died or somethin’.
“Get me? I think the boss was plannin’ to have this other bird show up, claimin’ it had been a loss of memory that was responsible for everything. People would have believed that, because the boss didn’t take any money with him when he left. Well, somehow or other, it didn’t pan out. Maybe he couldn’t get this other guy educated right, or something. That left the boss with his bridges burnt.”
Mason held his eyes steadily on those of the gardener. “Might it not have been the other way around?”
“What do you mean? What you gettin’ at?”
“This double might have got the idea and then made way with Franklin Shore, and returned to take his place.”
“Nope. This man who came to my place is Franklin B. Shore. An’ I knew from what he told me... say, wait a minute. I’m talkin’ too damn much. You an’ me will start gettin’ along a hell of a lot better, Mr. Mason, if you quit askin’ questions — beginnin’ right now. Come on, let’s go where we’re goin’... or you can let me out right here an’ I’ll handle things myself.”
Mason’s laugh was good natured. “Oh, come on, Lunk. I didn’t mean to be nosey.”
Chapter 15
Houses in the neighborhood were dark and silent as Mason stopped his car at 642½ South Bilvedere. The chill which comes an hour or so before dawn was in the air.
Mason switched off the headlights and ignition and eased the automobile door shut after he and Lunk had alighted at the curb.
“You live in back?” Mason asked.
“Uh huh. That little house around in back. You walk in along the driveway. My place is built onto the garage.”
“You have a car?” Mason asked.
Lunk said, grinning, “Well, it ain’t a car like yours, but it gets me there all right.”
“Keep it here in the garage?”
“Uh huh. I’d’ve taken it to go up to Shore’s place tonight, only I was afraid opening the garage door and starting the car would wake Franklin Shore up. So I sneaked out and took the street car.”
Mason nodded, started walking quietly up the driveway.
“Look here,” Lunk protested, “you ain’t comin’ in.”
“Just far enough to make sure Franklin Shore is still there.”
“You don’t want to wake him up.”
Mason said, “Certainly not. Those flowers will be delivered at almost any time now, and Mrs. Shore may call you up. When she does, you’ll have to talk with her in such a way she’ll know you have a message for her without telling her what it is.”
“Why can’t I tell her over the phone?”
“Because Franklin Shore will wake up when he hears the phone ring and listen to the conversation.”
“Maybe he won’t,” Lunk said. “The phone is right by my bed. I can sort of muffle what I’m saying with a pillow.”
“You might do that,” Mason conceded, all the time walking toward the little bungalow on the back of the lot. “Or, you could just tell her that you’d seen me and that she could get in touch with me, and give her my number.”
“Yes. That might work. What’s your number?”
“I’ll come in and write it out for you,” Mason said.
“You can’t make no noise,” Lunk warned.
“I won’t.”
“Can’t you write it down out here?”
“Not very well.”
“Well, come on in. But don’t make no noise.”
Lunk tiptoed up the two stairs which led to the wooden porch, inserted a key in the lock, and noiselessly opened the door. He switched on a light which illuminated a small room cheaply furnished and bearing unmistakable evidences of masculine occupancy. It seemed even colder inside than it had been out in the air. The house was a flimsy structure, and the chill had penetrated through the walls. The air was impregnated with the odor of stale cigar smoke, and a cigar butt, soggy and cold, was lying on an ash tray.