“Perry Mason, the lawyer,” Mason said. “I’m calling in regard to an appointment a Mrs. Tump made with you. She said I’d call on you at eleven… Is this Albert Tidings?”
There was a moment of silence, then the voice said cautiously, “Yes, this is Tidings. I know all about what you want, and…”
“Mrs. Tump has just left my office,” Mason interposed as the man at the other end of the line paused uncertainly. “She said she’d made an appointment for me to meet you at eleven o’clock this morning. That appointment was, of course, made without consulting my own convenience and…”
“I understand perfectly, Mr. Mason,” the booming voice interrupted. “I was going to call you myself… Hadn’t got around to it yet. It’s all damn poppycock. You don’t want to waste your time on it, and I don’t want to waste mine. She said eleven o’clock… I knew you wouldn’t drop your business and come running around to peddle a lot of old woman’s gossip, but I didn’t say anything to Mrs. Tump. I just figured I wouldn’t hear any more about it, but I told my secretary to call you up just to make sure.”
“It’s quite possible,” Mason said, “that I’ll want to talk with your attorney — if you can tell me who he is.”
“I have several attorneys,” Tidings said, evasively.
“Can you tell me which lawyer will be handling this particular case?”
“None of them,” Tidings said. “It’s all bosh. I tell you there’s nothing to it, but one thing I will tell you, Mason. If that woman doesn’t quit her whispering campaign of poison propaganda, I’m going after her. Byrl’s a swell girl. We get along fine, but that old buzzard is poison and she’s laying up trouble for herself. She’s a chiseler and is just trying to make Byrl dissatisfied so as to feather her own nest. I’m going after her if she doesn’t quit. You can tell her that straight from me.”
“Tell her straight from yourself,” Mason said. “I only called up to cancel an appointment.”
Tidings laughed. “All right. All right. I didn’t mean it that way, Mason, but I’m getting irritated… All right. Call up whenever you want to see me. Your secretary and mine can doubtless get together. Good-by.”