Mason said slowly, “They probably wouldn’t turn loose with anything until after she’d actually been appointed.”
“Don’t be too sure,” Drake said. “That’s a nice, juicy account. They won’t want to be too technical and antagonize the person who’s going to inherit it, once they’re satisfied that she is going to inherit it.”
“Well,” Mason said, “it’s worth a try, anyway. I—”
The telephone on Della Street’s desk rang. She picked up the receiver, listened for a moment, then turned to Perry Mason and said, “Don’t let me interrupt, Chief, but Karl Helmold’s on the line. He’s so excited he can hardly talk. He wants to see you right away.”
Mason nodded, picked up his desk phone and said, “All right, Karl. What is it?”
“Ja! Ja! Quick!” Helmold said explosively, and hung up the receiver.
Mason dropped his phone back into position, grinned across at the detective, and said, “Most cases hit you an awful wallop right in between the eyes with a mess of complicated circumstances which gradually simplify themselves when you start unraveling them. This case starts out with a lame canary and goes on from there in a big way. Every time we find a new thread, it makes the snarl that much worse.”
Drake nodded. “One other thing, Perry: You could drop into the Doran Building and talk with George Wray, the surviving partner. Even if you can’t get anywhere with the bank, you can certainly get places with Wray, because he’ll have to account to the widow, and, as her attorney, you could make things rather disagreeable for him if you wanted to. You see, that’s a partnership, and, as I understand it, on the death of one partner the surviving partner has to wind up the business. Is that right?”
Mason nodded, picked up his hat, grinned at Della Street and said, “I’m on my way, Della. That’s what comes of hiring a high-class private detective to do the leg work. He drifts into the office with a lot of routine reports and sends me running errands around the city. I m going to get shaved, then if anything urgent comes up and you want me, I’ll either be at Prescott & Wray’s offices in the Doran Building, or down at the Second Fidelity Savings & Loan. Come on, Paul, and walk as far as the elevator with me. There are a couple of questions I want to ask you. How about the gun the police found? Was it the weapon with which the murder was committed?”
“I’ll say it was. Not only that, but they’ve tied it up to Driscoll by a manufacturer’s number and a sales record. All three of the fatal bullets were discharged from that gun, and at close range. There were powder bums on the clothing and skin.”