“Then why did she do it, Chief — I mean the aunt?”
Mason said, “Now you’ve got me, Della. She’s hardly the criminal type. Back of her somewhere is an interesting background of philosophy... We’ll chalk it up as one of life’s adventures, an isolated chapter which we can’t understand without knowing what has gone before, yet interesting, nevertheless. It’s like picking up a magazine, getting interested in a serial installment, and reading about characters doing things which don’t make sense because we don’t know what’s gone before, yet getting interested in the people we’re reading about. That’s the way it is in this case. We don’t know what’s gone before and we don’t know what’s to follow.”
“A while ago you asked me if learning to know people didn’t make me cynical and I told you it didn’t. The real handicap about knowing people too well is that it takes all the thrill out of life. People become hopelessly drab and monotonous as they become more obvious. Nothing is new. The people one meets become a procession of mediocrities hurrying down life’s pathway on petty errands. But every so often life makes amends by tossing out an experience which can’t be classified. So let’s chalk this up as one of life’s interesting interludes and let it go at that.”
Chapter 2
But Perry Mason was wrong in supposing that he was not to know of that which followed. He had disposed of his appointment and was studying a recent case dealing with the admissibility of evidence obtained through wire tapping, when Della Street opened the door from her secretarial office and said, “Miss Trent is in the outer office, asking if she can see you without an appointment.”
“Virginia?” Mason asked. She nodded. “Didn’t say what she wanted, Della?”
“No.”
“And she’s alone?”
“Yes.”
“All right,” Mason said, “bring her in and let’s get it over with.”