“That,” Mason said, “remains to be discovered.”
“Well,” Drake told him, “I thought you might be particularly interested in that four o’clock call because of what had happened.”
“I am,” Mason said. “Whom was it to?”
“To Randolph Bolding, the examiner of questioned documents.”
Mason frowned. “Why the devil did Sabin want to ring up a handwriting expert?” he asked.
“You don’t suppose he’d had a look at that certified decree of divorce and figured it was a forgery?” Drake asked.
“No,” Mason said. “The decree wasn’t dated until the sixth. If he’d seen it on the fifth, he’d have known it was a forgery.”
“That’s right,” Drake admitted.
“Have you talked with Bolding?” Mason asked.
“One of my operatives did,” Drake said, grinning, “and Bolding threw him out on his ear. Said that anything which had transpired between him and Sabin was a professional confidence. So I thought perhaps you’d better go down there, Perry, and talk him into being a good dog.”