“She said she didn’t know where you were. I told her I’d try and find you, and that was every damn thing I would do. My gosh, here I was remonstrating with you last night about the chances you were taking in holding a fugitive from justice away from the sheriff and the district attorney, and then all of a sudden Della proposes that I stick my neck out on the same proposition. It was so hot that even you had to play it so you didn’t know where she was...”
“What did you finally do?” Mason interrupted.
“Do?” Drake groaned. “What the devil could I do? I did exactly what she wanted. My God, Perry, I’ve always been friendly with Della, and it’s been sort of a give-and-take, informal relationship. I always felt she was my friend, but when I told her I had to draw the line some place, she became a regular little hellcat over the wire. She told me that if I wanted your business, I was to take care of it the way you wanted; that I should know damn well you wouldn’t leave me out on the end of a limb, and that you’d never made a foolish move yet; that you wanted Helen Monteith kept away from the police, and...”
“Never mind what she told you,” Mason said, grinning, “what did you do?”
“Took my medicine like a little man, got my operatives in San Molinas on the telephone, and told them to get out to Helen Monteith’s house; to grab her as soon as she showed up, and rush her back to the city; to kidnap her, if they had to, or do anything else that was necessary. My operatives started arguing with me, and I had to read the riot act to them, and told them I’d take the responsibility.”
“Well,” Mason said, “where’s Helen Monteith now?”
“In jail,” Drake said gloomily.
“How come?”
“My operatives didn’t get the message in time. She’d got out to the house about half an hour before they did. Evidently, the police had left word with Mrs. Winters to let them know as soon as Helen Monteith showed up. The sheriff and the district attorney went out there on the run. They nabbed Helen. She’d been killing parrots, burning papers, and trying to find some place to hide a box of forty-one caliber cartridges... You can figure where that puts her.”
“How about the parrot-killing?” Mason asked with interest.