Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Fabulous Fake
Foreword
For many years, my Perry Mason books have been dedicated to leaders in the field of courtroom medicine. For the most part, these people have been forensic (courtroom) pathologists (experts in disease and injury), whose skill in determining the cause of death helps convict the guilty and protect the innocent.
Cause of death is always a medical question.
Manner of death, on the other hand, is never a medical question. If, for example, the cause of death is a bullet through the head, the manner of death is whether it was self-inflicted, accidental or fired by another person in the commission of a crime.
Jack Cadman, Director of the Orange County Sheriff’s Criminalistics Laboratory in Santa Ana, California, is an expert investigator in determining the manner of death.
One of his early cases dealt with a young woman who had been fatally shot in the back with a shotgun. There were two prime suspects, the husband and one of his friends. Cadman asked for the clothing that each was wearing the night of the shooting. He found microscopic droplets of flesh and blood embedded in the sweater of the boy friend, the man entered a plea of guilty, and the case was solved without even the necessity of a trial.
A short time later, a proverbial “hired” man was found dead in a barn. His crushed head looked much as if he had been kicked by a horse. Jack Cadman examined the man’s hair and scalp, and discovered tiny fragments of dust and a few wood splinters. This initiated a search through a huge wood pile for a two-by-four which, Jack suggested, “...may be three feet long.” It was found, and examination under the microscope disclosed fresh depressions caused by the head hairs being pressed into the compressed wood. Hairs and micro droplets of blood from the victim’s head confirmed that this was the weapon that had caused the death.
A suspect was found; robbery was the motive; and another guilty plea to murder resulted.
Jack Cadman is internationally known for developing the Cadman-Johns method for detecting alcohol in the blood stream through the use of the gas chromatograph. This method is perhaps the most accurate one developed to date. A test can be completed in fifteen minutes, whereas other methods require from one to four hours.
Cadman is in great demand as a lecturer at scientific meetings and at universities throughout the West.
He has just moved into a modern and well-equipped crime laboratory which is a real show place, illustrating what science can do in evidence that will tie a criminal to the scene of his crime.
“The solution of the crime problem has to be the field of science,” Cadman said, as he surveyed his stereoscopic and ultropak microscopes, his refractometer, search and sweep tables with their vacuum attachments, and a dozen other new crime-fighting tools. “This is the space age, but crime-fighting has not kept pace with other scientific developments since World War II. Any time the American people are ready to give the problem sufficient attention and priority, we can raise the present ‘solved’ and ‘conviction’ rates from maybe 10 percent to 90 percent. When it becomes unprofitable for a criminal to commit a crime, he’s going to think twice or three times about doing it. When he knows that the odds are nine to one that he’s going to get caught and going to jail, crime will lose a lot of its appeal. But until that happens, why shouldn’t people continue to commit crimes? It’s quite a profitable trade!”
Therefore, I dedicate this book to an outstanding leader in the field of forensic science:
JACK CADMAN
Director, Orange County Sheriff’s Criminalistics Laboratory
Santa Ana, California
ERLE STANLEY GARDNER
Cast of Characters
PERRY MASON — Usually tough with his clients in their own best interests, he lets a pretty girl talk him into acting more like a man than a crack lawyer
DELLA STREET — A confidential secretary with a sharp eye, she makes a very feminine observation about the new client
GERTIE — Mason’s incurably romantic switchboard operator, she manages some fast observations of her own
PAUL DRAKE — Mason’s favorite private detective, he agrees to track down the elusive client
DIANA DOUGLAS — Pretty, evasive, and in deep trouble, she swears that she’s neither embezzler nor murderer
STELLA GRIMES — One of Paul Drake’s operatives, she follows Mason’s lead brilliantly, backed up by some very defensive underwear
MORAY CASSEL — A blackmailer and a liver-off-women, he went one step too far and wound up dead
HOMER GAGE — Junior partner in a somewhat shady import business, he is a blusterer with something to hide
FRANKLIN GAGE — Homer’s uncle and senior officer of the import company, he wants his company protected and his employees left alone
BILL ARDLEY — A homicide detective, he meets his match in Stella Grimes and Perry Mason
JUDGE CHARLES JEROME ELLIOTT — He does his best to hold Mason to strict courtroom procedure
RALPH GURLOCK FLOYD — The trial deputy thinks he has a perfect case — Mason’s client had motive, opportunity — and the gun
JOYCE BAFFIN — A friend of Diana’s, she seems to be the only one who believes she’s not a fake
1
Perry Mason looked up from his desk as Della Street, his confidential secretary, stood in the door of the office which communicated with the reception room.
“Yes, Della?”
“We have a young woman in the outer office who won’t give her name.”
“Then I won’t see her,” Mason declared.
“I understand how you feel about these things,” Della replied, “but I think there’s some interesting reason why this young woman won’t give us the information.”
“What sort of reason?” Mason asked.
Della Street smiled. “I think it might be interesting to find out.”
“Blonde or brunette?”
“Blonde. She’s holding on to a flat black bag in addition to a purse.”
“How old?” Mason asked.
“Not over twenty-two or twenty-three.”
Mason frowned. “Are you sure she’s over twenty-one?”
Della shook her head. “You can’t tell by looking at her teeth,” she said, smiling.
“How about her hands?” Mason asked.
“And you can’t tell too much by a woman’s hands until after she passes thirty,” Della explained.
“All right,” Mason said, “bring her in, we’ll take a look.”
Della Street turned, went into the outer office and shortly returned with a young woman who was trembling with excitement as she approached the desk and said, “Mr. Mason?”
Mason smiled. “There is no need to be nervous,” he said. “After all, I’m an attorney and if you are in trouble perhaps I can help you.”
She seated herself across the desk from the lawyer and said, “Mr. Mason... I... I... I’m going to have to disappear and I don’t want my parents ever to be able to find me.”
Mason regarded her thoughtfully. “Why are you going to have to disappear?” he asked. “The usual reason?”
“What’s the usual reason?” she asked.
Mason smiled and shook his head. “Don’t cross-examine me,” he said. “Let me do the questioning. Why do you want to disappear?”
“I have my reasons,” she said. “I don’t think I need to go into all the details at the present time, but I do want to disappear.”
“And you want me to help you?”
“I want you to be in such a position that you can, if necessary, furnish the missing link which will connect me with my past life. But I don’t want you to do it unless I give you permission and tell you to, or unless certain circumstances develop which will make it imperative that you do communicate with my parents.”