“What have you got?” Mason asked.
Drake said, “Tidings told an intimate friend three days ago that he was going to spring a trap on his wife. He said he was going to move in on her and let her forcibly eject him. Seemed to think there was some legal point in that which would give him an advantage. He said his wife had been waiting to get a cause of action on desertion. He was going to move in on her just before the year was up.
“I looked her up through the records of the Bureau of Light and Power. It’s a place up on one of those steep hillside subdivisions where there’s a swell view and privacy. I have a hunch Tidings went there Tuesday after he left his office. Want to go find out?”
Mason said, “I guess so… Della, get Byrl Gailord on the phone for me. If I’m going to mix into this now, I’d better know exactly where I stand.”
“Where does she fit into the picture?” Drake asked, as Della Street noiselessly glided from the office.
“It’s a long story,” Mason said. “Apparently, she’s the daughter of Tidings’ first wife. In reality she isn’t. There’s a question of adoption mixed into it… What else is new, Paul?”
“Oh, a lot of routine stuff,” Drake said. “I can’t find out anything about Peltham’s girl friend.”
“Is he married?”
“No. He’s a bachelor, pretty much of a businessman, rather austere, something of an ascetic, and referred to by his friends as a cold, calm, reasoning machine… Are you sure he has a heart-throb, Perry?”
Mason laughed. “You,” he said, “are giving me the information. I’m a lawyer protecting the confidence of a client… You give, and I take.”