“Don’t do it,” Mason told her; “it isn’t worth it.”
“Isn’t worth what?”
“Going on living at that price.”
“You’re trying to tell me how I should live?” she flared.
He shook his head and said, “No, I’m trying to tell you what you can’t get.”
“What can’t I get?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
“I don’t see,” she told him, her finger now making rapid excursions over the dress material, “how I could get along on any less.”
“Oh, well,” Mason said, “you’re getting fifteen hundred a month. Suppose you go ahead and keep on taking that. That would be a lot better than a lump sum. You’ll have a fixed monthly income and, if anything should happen, you’d be taken care of.”
“How long would that continue?”
“Indefinitely,” he told her, “unless, of course, you got married.”
“No,” she said, “I don’t want to be a drain on Peter that way. I would prefer just taking some little settlement and getting out.”
“What do you mean by a little settlement?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
Mason shook his head gravely. “No, I wouldn’t suggest that my client pay you a lump sum. You’ve been so fair all the way through that I really think you’d better keep that fifteen hundred a month. I’d say that, in the long run, you’d be a lot better off than if you had a large sum of money.”
“Suppose I came down?”
“How much?”
“Suppose I told you exactly what my lowest price is, Mr. Mason? One hundred thousand dollars.” Mason yawned, covered the yawn with polite fingers, shook his head. “You’re very difficult to deal with.”
“Oh, well,” Mason told her, “go ahead and get an attorney, if you feel that way about it, and I’ll deal through him.”
“I don’t want to split with any lawyer.” Mason shrugged his shoulders. She suddenly dashed her cigarette to the floor, jumped to her feet and said, “Well, make me an offer! Don’t sit there like a bump on a log. I’ve got things to do.”
“What?” he asked her, raising his eyebrows.
“None of your damn business. Make me an offer.”
“For what?”
“For a complete cleanup all the way along the line.”
“You’ll get out?”
“I’ll say I’ll get out.”
“Without bothering Peter Kent or seeing him again?”
“If I never see him again, that’s six months too soon.”
Mason shook his head and said slowly, “No, I think my client has changed his mind about getting married. Only yesterday he mentioned how beautiful you were. Frankly, I think it might be possible to effect a reconciliation.”
“I don’t want a reconciliation.” Mason shrugged his shoulders. “Look here,” she said, still standing, her eyes glittering, cheeks flushed, “I read the newspaper accounts of the trial today.”
“Well?” he asked.
“Well, Maddox was asked about a telephone call.”
“Well?”
“Suppose you could prove he was lying?”
“That,” Mason said, “would be most advantageous.”
“Well, suppose I got on the witness stand and admitted receiving a telephone call from him. What would that be worth to you?”
“Not a damn cent,” Mason said. “We’re not going to buy perjured testimony from anyone.”
“But suppose it was the truth?”
“Is it the truth?”
“I’m not going to answer the question just yet.”
“When you get on the witness stand,” Mason said, “you’ll answer the question.”
“And I’ll answer it any way I damn please,” she told him, coming over to the corner of the desk and pounding it with her fist. “Don’t think you’re going to bully me, Mr. Perry Mason.”
“You don’t mean you’d commit perjury, do you?”
“Certainly I’d commit perjury! Men make me sick. They lie to women up one side and down the other and, if a woman lies back, they think she’s deceitful… Give me fifty thousand!”
Mason shook his head. She clenched her fists. “I’d recommend twentyfive thousand to my client,” Mason said slowly.
“He’d pay it, if you recommended it.”
“I’d recommend it, if you’d tell the absolute truth.”
“A bargain?” she asked. He nodded. “Damn you,” she told him, “I hate you! If Pete hadn’t been in jail over this thing, I could have gone to him and got two hundred thousand as easy as not. Perhaps more.”
“Go ahead and hate me,” Mason said, smiling.
“I do,” she told him, “but, if I ever get into a jam, you’re going to be my lawyer.”
“Meaning you’re thinking of shooting a husband some day?” he asked.
Slowly the anger died in her eyes. She perched herself on the arm of the big overstuffed leather chair and said, “Don’t be silly, do I look like a fool? I should kill the geese that lay the golden eggs.”
“All right,” Mason said, “I’ll get you twentyfive thousand dollars.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning. The check to be delivered to you before you go on the witness stand so there won’t be any question about a pending settlement between you and your husband when you testify.”
“Make it thirty thousand.”
“Twentyfive,” he said with finality. She sighed. “What about your conversations with Maddox?” he asked.
“You want the whole story?”
“Yes.”
“ Duncan got in touch with me first. He said he was Maddox’s lawyer. He called me around eleven o’clock and said he wanted a conference and suggested they meet in my lawyer’s office. Then at three o’clock in the morning Maddox telephoned and I explained to him that I’d already discussed the matter with his lawyer.”
“Did you have the conference?”
“Yes.”
“What did they suggest?”
“They must have thought I was a fool. They wanted me to sign a written agreement that they’d help me have Pete declared incompetent and that then I was going to make a complete release of all of Pete’s rights in the Maddox Manufacturing Company and give them one hundred thousand dollars in cash as soon as I got control of Pete’s property.”
“What did you tell them?”
“I told them I’d have to think it over.”
“Did you say how long you were going to take thinking it over?
“No.”
“Did they try to rush you?”
“Of course.”
“Can you tell exactly when Duncan called you?”
“No, it was some time around eleven o’clock, between ten and eleven.”
“Exactly when Maddox called you?”
“That was three o’clock in the morning. I looked at my watch. It made me so damn mad to be wakened at that hour, because I couldn’t get back to sleep.”
Mason took some typewritten notes from his desk. “Did you,” he asked, “say over the telephone, in answer to Maddox’s call, words to this effect?” and Mason read slowly from his notes, “‘Hello… Yes, this is Mrs. Kent… Yes, Mrs. Doris Sully Kent of Santa Barbara… What’s that name again, please?… Maddox… I don’t understand your calling at this hour… Why, I thought that was all fixed… Your lawyer has arranged a conference, and I’ll meet you, as agreed… You can get in touch with Mr. Sam Hettley, of the firm of Hettley and Hettley, if you want any more information. Goodby.”
“Why, yes!” she exclaimed. “Those must have been my exact words! How did you know?”
Mason shook his head, went on with his questioning. “Then what did you do?”
“Tried to sleep for an hour or so and then got in my car and drove to Los Angeles.”
“Where was your car?”
“It happened that it was in a neighbor’s garage, about half a block down the street.”
“Did you make any attempt to sneak out of your house?”
She shook her head. “Not consciously. There’d been someone hanging around in front of the house. I thought perhaps Peter had decided to put a detective on me, which would have been foolish because I’d never have left a back trail he could have followed. I’ve had detectives on my trail before.”
“So you tried to sneak out?”
“Well, I didn’t go out with a brass band.”