"Did Mr. Burger arrange to have both Janice Brownley and Philip Brownley come down to identify the body?" she asked at length.
Mason nodded.
"Why?" she wanted to know.
Mason said, "We'll know more about that when we get there. Incidentally, Paul, I'm getting a theory about this case. It's never going to be really solved until we've found out about that stuttering bishop. Is Harry Coulter going to be there?"
"Yes. He got the flash, and should be there before we arrive, or get there right afterwards."
"I want him to look over that car of Janice Brownley's," Mason said. "It's a yellow Cadillac. I want him to see if there's anything about it he can recognize."
Drake nodded, and Mason slowed as he approached the more congested district of the harbor.
"Her alibi's pretty air-tight," Drake pointed out, as Mason made a boulevard stop. "Paul Montrose has a pretty good reputation. He's a notary public working in a real estate office. He swears that Stockton got him out of bed to come in and join the party."
"Why did he do that?" Mason asked, throwing the car into second and stepping on the throttle.
"Because Stockton wanted some disinterested witness to back up his testimony."
"He had his wife," Della volunteered.
"Yes, but he wanted someone else," Drake said wearily.
"And," Mason said, frowning, "this was before Janice arrived, wasn't it?"
"Yes, about five minutes before, according to Montrose's statement."
"Well, we'll see what we'll see," Mason said, swinging the car to the right. "Hello, there are a lot of cars here."
"Mostly news photographers," Drake said. "Wait a minute, this cop is going to stop us."
A uniformed policeman stepped out, held up his hand and said, "You can't go out on the pier, boys."
While Mason hesitated, Drake, with the ready wit of a detective who has had to resort to extemporaneous prevarications on numerous occasions to crash police lines, pointed to Della Street and said, "We've got to go there. This is Janice Brownley. District Attorney Burger told her to get here just as fast as she could to identify the body of her grandfather."
"That's different," the officer admitted. "I had instructions about her, but I thought she was already there."
Drake shook his head and said, "Drive on, Perry. Be brave, Janice. It'll soon be over."
Della Street dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief, and the officer stood to one side.
"Suppose Harry Coulter could get through all right?" Mason asked.
"Sure," Drake said, "it's a cinch. He probably couldn't get his car through, but you can leave it to Harry to think up some excuse which will get him past a cop who's as dumb as that one."
Mason said, "There's a yellow Cad coupe over there, Perry. Let's park in close to it, give it a once-over and see if it's Janice's car."
Mason swung his car in close to the big yellow coupe. Drake jumped from the rear seat, walked boldly to the side of the coupe, flung open the door, looked at the registration certificate and said, "Okay, Perry, it's her car."
Mason said, "There may be some distinguishing mark on it that Coulter might have remembered, perhaps a dented fender or… Hello, what's this?" He paused to look at a dent in the left front fender. "This has been done recently," he said.
"It's just a fender dent which might have been done in a parking lot," Drake observed, coming to stare at the fender.
Della Street, looking over the leather upholstery in the car, called out excitedly, "Chief, look here!"
They hurried back to join her, and she pointed out several reddish-brown spots on the deep leather-covered shelf which was just back of the front seat. For a moment the three of them stood staring at the stains. Drake said, "You've got a good eye, Della. Those things are all but invisible against this russet leather."
She grinned and said, "Just the feminine ability to observe things, Paul. A man wouldn't see them."
"And that's why they were overlooked," Mason said.
"Do you suppose Janice could have been at the beach and loaded her grandfather's body into the car and…?"
"Not much chance," Mason said. "Let's get away from here. Those bloodstains are evidence. They've been overlooked. If anyone knows we've discovered them, the stains will be removed before we can prove their significance."
"But what are they evidence of?" Drake asked.
"We'll figure that out later," Mason said.
They walked down the pier some twenty yards to where an ambulance had been drawn up. A group of men with cameras and flash bulbs were taking close-ups of Philip Brownley and Janice Brownley. Hamilton Burger nodded to Perry Mason. "It's the body all right?" Mason asked.
"Yes, it's Renwold C. Brownley. The body evidently spilled out of the car, and the tide washed it back under the pier."
"Did he die by drowning or by gunshot wounds?" Mason asked.
Burger shook his head.
"Can't tell or won't?" Mason asked.
"I'm not making any statements right now," Burger announced.
Mason looked over toward the ambulance. "May I see the body?"
"I think not, Perry. Julia Branner's out of it. You're not going to defend Stella Kenwood, are you?"
"No, one client in a case is enough for me."
Drake muttered in Mason's ear, "There's Harry Coulter. I'll get him to take a look at that yellow Cad."
Burger turned away, and Mason said, "Have him do his looking from a distance, Paul. Let's not show that we're taking any interest in that car. I want to figure out those bloodstains before we do anything more."
As Drake moved away, Philip Brownley came up to Mason and said, "Horrible, isn't it?"
Mason stared at him steadily. "No more horrible than it has been all along, is it?"
Young Brownley gave a visible shudder. "Finding Grandfather's body this way brings the tragedy of it all home to me so forcibly."
"You saw the body?"
"Yes, of course I had to identify it."
"How was he dressed?"
"Just as he left the house."
"How about the pockets of the coat, any documents?"
"Yes, there were some papers. They were pretty badly water-soaked. The police took them."
"Did you get to see them?"
"No, the police were very secretive about it… Tell me, Mr. Mason, you intimated when you were cross-examining me that if Grandfather didn't leave a will, and Janice isn't the granddaughter, I'd inherit the entire estate. Is that the law?"
Mason, staring at him steadily, said, "You'd like to squeeze Janice out of it, wouldn't you?"
"I'm just asking you what the law is. You know how I feel about her. She's an adventuress."
"I think," Mason told him, "you'd better consult a lawyer yourself. I don't want you for a client."
"Why not?"
Mason shrugged his shoulders and said, "I might want to take an adverse position."
"You mean representing Janice?"
"Not necessarily," Mason said.
"What do you mean then?"
"Figure it out," Mason told him.
The clanging gong of the ambulance called for the right of way. The car purred into slow motion, then, as it cleared the crowd, moved into greater speed. Drake took a few steps toward Perry Mason and nodded his head significantly. Mason moved over to join him.
"Harry says it looks like the car," Drake said, "but there are no distinguishing marks on it that he could remember well enough to swear to in court. If it isn't the car he saw, it's almost a dead ringer for it."
"And it was parked down near the place where Renwold Brownley kept his yacht?"
"Yes."
Mason touched Drake's arm and pointed across to where some yachts were moored. "Take a look, Paul," he said, "isn't the name on that yacht the Atina?"