“What was Wenston doing before that?”
“He’s been around off and on all day.”
“Could he possibly have gone to San Francisco and back before he made that trip in the evening?” Mason asked.
Drake consulted his memo and said, “Not unless he went real early in the morning. Of course, we weren’t keeping him shadowed. We’ve made a general check-up. He started for town about noon. That is, the caretaker at his place said that’s when he left, and the man at the service station at the fork of the road, where he usually buys his gas, said he went past about one o’clock; but didn’t stop to buy any gas.”
“Driving his car?”
“Uh huh. Then he was in your office around three o’clock, I guess, wasn’t it?”
Mason nodded. “Somewhere around there.”
“Two-fifty-five he came in,” Della Street said.
Drake looked at her. “You keep a memo of the time everyone comes in?”
“And when they leave. How do you suppose I can see that Perry charges for his time?”