“How do you mean?”
“Well, a deaf person couldn’t use a telephone.”
“Oh, I see.”
“And,” Mason said slowly, “a crippled person might not be able to get to a telephone.”
Della Street said, “Wouldn’t a crippled person have a telephone by the side of his bed? After all, a person who could put a can on a shelf, could certainly get to a telephone.”
Mason said, “There’s one person who doesn’t have a phone by his bed, yet is crippled. Remember Karr said he got so nervous at the sound of a bell he wouldn’t have a phone by his bed?”
Della said, “You’ve put your finger on something there.”
Mason stroked the angle of his jaw. “This begins to look like something,” he admitted. “But why should Karr communicate in code with anyone in the Gentrie house?”
“He’s the only one in the case who really couldn’t get to a telephone when he wanted one,” Della said.
Mason pursed his lips. “He is, for a fact. We’ll have to keep our eye on Mr. Elston A. Karr. It’s beginning to look very much as though he engineered the burglary of Hocksley’s flat. Of course, that doesn’t mean he suggested the murder of Hocksley.”