“Why didn’t he provide for you?” Mason asked.
“I don’t know. He would have had some good reason. I didn’t want money, anyway. I wanted him.”
Mason said, “That’s the angle to this case I can’t understand. Fremont Sabin made his will at the time he was negotiating that property settlement with his wife.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Sheriff Barnes asked.
Mason said, “It just doesn’t fit into the picture. He makes provision for every one of the objects of his affection, but he doesn’t make any provision whatever for Helen Monteith.”
“That was because he didn’t have any reason to,” the sheriff said. “He’d married her in Mexico, and he was going to marry her again, later on. We know now that the reason for all this was that he was waiting for Helen Watkins Sabin to get her divorce. Naturally, he didn’t expect to die in the meantime.”
Mason said, “No, that doesn’t cover it. The businessman doesn’t make his will because he expects to die, but to take effect when he does die. He covers every possible eventuality. Notice that the will specifically provided for the payment of money to Helen Watkins Sabin in the event he died before the divorce decree had been granted and the money paid. In other words, she, having made a good faith attempt to carry out the agreement, was to be protected, regardless of what might happen to Sabin. That shows his essential fairness. Yet, he made no provision for Helen Monteith.”
Helen Monteith said, “I didn’t want him to. I’m not dependent on him for anything. I’m making my own living. I...”
Suddenly Mason got to his feet and started pacing the floor. Once or twice he made little gestures with his fingers as though checking off points against some mental inventory he was taking. Abruptly he turned to Della Street. “Della,” he said, “go get the car. Fill it up with oil and gas, and bring it down to the front door. We’re going to take a ride.”
He turned to Sheriff Barnes and said, “Sheriff, I’d consider it as a personal favor if you’d expedite all the formalities as much as possible. Cut all the red tape you can. I want to get Helen Monteith out of here at once.”