"Couldn't follow him?"Mason asked.
"How the hell you going tofollow a helicopter out of a busy airport," Drake asked, "unless youhave another helicopter on the job?
"We did everything we could. Wegot the tower and told them to order the helicopter to come back. We gotanother helicopter warmed up, but of course Gideon expected all that. He hadthe helicopter go for about three minutes, then told the pilot to land him in avacant field by a boulevard where there was a good line of buses.
"The pilot did that and wasjust getting in the air coming back when he heard the tower calling him toreturn at once. Of course the tower felt that the helicopter pilot might havethe radio on the loudspeaker so that his passenger could hear everything thatwas being said, so the tower was very mysterious. They told him that because ofan emergency, and apparently because part of his gear was not in order, he wasto return at once and make a cautious landing.
"So the guy returned and -Well, that's all there is to it. The shadows are sitting on an empty car.Gideon's gone."
"What about the car?"Mason asked. "Don't they sign a contract that they have to keep uppayments and if they make false representations, don't they – "
"Oh, shucks," Drake said,"Gideon's too damned smart for that. Within twenty minutes after he'dgiven us the slip at the airport he called the used-car dealer, told him wherehe'd left the car, told him to get it and repossess it. He said that alterthinking things over he'd realized that he had no business buying the car inthe first place, that he wasn't going to have enough use for it, that somethingelse had come up and a friend had a car he could borrow. He told the startledused-car dealer that they'd just call the whole transaction off, that hewouldn't try to collect back any of his down payment because he realized it washis mistake, and all that stuff."
"And the car dealer fell forit?"
"Sure, he fell for it. Told himthat was very generous of him, said that if he sold the car within the nextcouple of days he'd be able to make some kind of refund on Gideon's downpayment, thanked him a lot and went out and got the car."
Mason's laugh died down to achuckle.
"I'm glad it amuses you,"Drake said stiffly.
"I remember," Mason said,"you told me not to let Gideon outsmart me, that those fellows got prettyslick after they'd been in prison and that I'd have to watch my step.Apparently you should have been taking some of your own advice."
"Oh, go to hell," Drakesaid irritably.
"Well," Mason said,"he's played right into our hands now."
"What do you mean?" Drakeasked.
Mason said, "As long as he hadshadows on his tail he had a perfect alibi."
"Alibi for what?" Drakeasked.
"For anything," Masonsaid. "He couldn't be accused of committing a crime because he'd simplycall the shadows to the stand, ask them where he was when the crime wascommitted and that would be that. I told you, once he'd lost his shadows he'dhave no alibi."
There was silence on the telephonewhile Drake was thinking that over. "So the five hundred dollars was goodbait."
Mason said, "I'm making nocomments, Paul, but from now on start keeping track of every unsolved crimecommitted in the city, that is, every major crime, particularly the murders andthe murder stick-ups where there are witnesses.
"Whenever you find one of thosecrimes, have one of your men take that police sketch, go to the eyewitnessesand ask them if that doesn't look like the man they saw at the scene of thecrime."
"And try to convince them thatit's the man they saw?"
"Oh, nothing like that,"Mason said. "Nothing crude, but just plant the idea in their minds thatsomeone, at least, thinks this man is suspect. Then if anything should happenwe could of course claim that we were acting in good faith, trying to solvecrimes of violence.
"You see, as far as I'mconcerned, Paul, here is a man with a criminal record who is at least short ofmoney. He might well turn to crime."
"Short of money, my eye,"Drake said. "The guy's smoking fifty-cent cigars and wearing atwo-hundred-and-fifty-dollar suit of clothes. That's what made the governmentmen so mad. The guy walked right into the best clothing store, big as life, andgot the best suit they had in the place."
"And the government men have noidea where he got the money?"
"Not the slightest. He musthave picked it out of thin air because they've been shadowing him from the timehe left prison."
Mason thought that over for a moment,then again chuckled. "Things are looking better every minute, Paul. Keepin touch with me."
Chapter 10
Late Friday morning Mason's phonerang and Paul Drake said, "Perry, I'm getting frightened."
"How come?" Mason asked.
"That confounded identificationbusiness. I'm afraid we're in a jam."
"Now look," Mason toldhim, "all we have to do is to act in good faith so that we're not lying toGideon. We simply tell him that this picture of him has been submitted to theeyewitnesses in a murder case. He, of course, has no idea that we ordered thepicture made. He thinks it's a composite picture made from the description ofeyewitnesses – not a picture that we had made and then submitted toeyewitnesses.
"The guy is smart. Knowing whatwould happen to him when he gets on the witness stand and his past record comesout, he's going to take it on the lam. We won't hear any more from him."
"You don't know the half ofit," Drake said.
"All right, what's the half ofit?"
"You know Parley Fulton, myoperative?"
"I've met him, yes. Seems likea pretty level-headed sort of a chap."
"All right," Drake said."The Pacific Northern Supermarket was robbed last night. They got awaywith about seven thousand dollars. There was a night watchman on duty, andevidently he surprised the burglar."
"More than one?" Masonasked.
"Apparently a lone wolf."
"All right, whathappened?"
"He gunned the watchman andthen escaped through the front door."
"How bad is it?" Masonasked. "The watchman, I mean."
"The watchman is going to live.Fellow by the name of Steven Hooks. The bullet was aimed right for the heart,but it was deflected by his shield. Gave him a nasty shoulder wound and knockedhim off his feet, but he's okay"
"All right," Mason said,"what are you getting at?"
"Well, I followed yourinstructions. Had Fulton take this sketch of Gideon to the watchman and the other eyewitness, afellow by the name of Drew Kearny
"Now, Kearny was a fellow who had been at a late motionpicture show and happened to be walking down the street just as this hold-upman burst out the front door. He drew a gun on Kearny, told him to stick up his hands. Kearny thought it was a holdup but the fellow justused the gun to terrorize Keamy, then sprinted across the street and into analley.
"Kearny started trying to find a phone where hecould call police, but as it happened someone had already heard the gunshot andtelephoned the police. A police cruiser came along so Kearny flagged them down and gave them his storyand a description of the guy It was a pretty good description. He claims he gota good look at him."
"Look anything likeGideon?" Mason asked.
"Two eyes, a nose and a mouth,and that's all the resemblance."
"But that doesn't keep us fromshowing him the sketch," Mason said, "and we can plant a story in thepaper that the police artist has made a composite sketch – "
"Wait a minute, you haven'theard anything," Drake said. "We showed Keamy the sketch and he justlaughed at us, said it had no resemblance whatever to the fellow, that thestick-up was an older man, more heavy-set, that the eyes were different, and soforth. So then Parley Fulton got into the hospital and showed the sketch toSteven Hooks.
"Now, Fulton claims that hedidn't use any suggestion, that he just told Hooks he'd like to have him lookover this sketch and see if there was any resemblance and all that."