“Nix on it, nix on it,” Drake interrupted. “Cut the comedy, Perry. You know damn well why she killed that parrot. Now, I want to know why.”
“What makes you think I know?” Mason asked.
“Phooey!” Drake exclaimed, “don’t take me for such a simp. She wanted the parrot out of the way, and you wanted the parrot preserved as evidence of something or other. You knew she was going to kill that parrot if she had a chance, so you had Della keep Helen Monteith out of the way long enough for us to go down and substitute parrots. I suppose it was because of the cracks the parrot’s making about ‘Drop that gun, Helen’ and ‘My God, you’ve shot me,’ but I still don’t see why she didn’t kill the parrot before, instead of waiting until she had to climb down a fire escape to do the parrot-butchering... I admit that I thought last night you were trying to keep Helen Monteith concealed from the authorities, and I thought so this morning when Della Street rang up. I didn’t realize until just now that what you were really trying to do was to keep her away from that parrot.”
“Well,” Mason said, “now that the parrot’s dead, we might as well...”
“But the parrot isn’t dead,” Drake interrupted. “You have the parrot. I suppose that the parrot is a witness to something or other — probably the murder — but damned if I see how he could have been. Tell me, Perry, could a parrot be used as a witness in a court of justice?”
“I don’t know,” Mason said. “It’s an interesting point, Paul. I’m afraid the oath couldn’t be administered to a parrot. In other words, he might commit perjury.”
Drake glanced sidelong at Mason and said, “Go ahead and joke all you want to, brother. I suppose if you don’t want to tell me, there’s nothing I can do to make you.”
“What else do you know?” Mason asked, abruptly changing the subject.
“Oh, a few things,” Drake said. “I’ve had a bunch of men working all night. I’ve been trying to find out as much as I could about that wire-tapping up there at the cabin. You know, it occurred to me, Perry, that I might find out something about the calls which had been listened in on, by getting a copy of the telephone bill. You see, that cabin line is on a local exchange, but Sabin wouldn’t have been interested in maintaining a telephone to call any of his neighbors. All of his contacts were in the city, and, of course, they’d have to be handled as long distance calls.”
“A good idea,” Mason said. “You deserve credit for that, Paul.”