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“Then you telephoned to me and got me to come out there. You told me that you recognized my voice as the voice of the man who was in the room with your husband because you wanted my help, and also because you wanted to fix it so that I couldn’t prove an alibi if you wanted to spring this business about recognizing my voice in the apartment.
“You figured that if you could drag me and Harrison Burke both into the mess, we’d get you out while we were getting ourselves out. You figured that I’d get busy and square the thing some way, with Burke’s money back of me, and the fact that I was in a jam to spur me on.
“You figured that you could pretend you didn’t realize just how much you had me in your power by saying that you recognized my voice as that of the man in the room with your husband.
“Also, you figured that if you got in a position where they commenced to put the screws on you, you’d switch the whole thing to me, and let Burke and me fight it out between us.”
She was staring at him now her face chalk-white,her eyes dark withpanic.
“You’ve got no right to talk that way,” she charged.
“The hell I haven’t!” he said. “I’ve got proof.”
“What kind of proof?”
He laughed harshly. “What do you think I was doing all the time you were being questioned last night?” he said. “I got in touch with Harrison Burke, and we got in touch with the housekeeper. The housekeeper was trying to protect you, but she knows that you came in with Burke and that your husband called to you as you went upstairs. She knows that he was looking for you earlier in the evening, and that he had your purse, and had found the two receipts with my signature on them.
“When you had the receipts made out without any name on them, you thought it would be all right. But you forgot that my name was signed to them, and that as soon as your husband knew the case that I was working on and found the receipts in your purse, he knew that you were the woman in the case.”
Her face was twisting now. “You’re my lawyer. You can’t use all of the things that I’ve told you to build up a case against me. You’ve got to be loyal to my interests.”
He laughed bitterly.
“I suppose I should sit tight and let you drag me into the murder, so that you can walk out, eh?”
“I didn’t say that. I just want you to be loyal to me.”
“You’re a hell of a person to talk of loyalty.”
She tried another defense. “All that is a mess of lies,” she charged, “and you can’t prove it.”
Perry Mason reached for his hat.
“Maybe I can’t prove it,” he said, “but you put in the night making wild statements to the District Attorney. I’m going down and make a statement now. When I get done they’ll have a pretty good idea of the real facts of the case. What with telephoning to Harrison Burke about the gun, and telling him to get out, and the motive that you had in order to keep your husband from discovering your affair with Burke, the police will have a pretty good case.”
“But I didn’t gain anything by his death.”
“That’s another slick thing,” he said coldly, “that is just like everything else you did. It’s just slick enough to look good on the face, but not clever enough to really get by. The forgery of that will was a good job.”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said,” he snapped. “Your husband told you that you were disinherited, or else you found the will in his safe. At any rate, you knew the terms of the will, and you knew where it was kept. You tried to figure some way of getting around that will. You knew that if you destroyed it, it wouldn’t do you any good because Carl Griffin and Arthur Atwood, his lawyer, had seen the will, and that your husband had told them about it. If it was missing they’d suspect you.
“But you figured that if you could trap Griffin into claiming under the will and then prove that the will was a forgery, you’d have Griffin in a questionable position. So you went ahead and forged the will that your husband had drawn, making the forgery crude enough to be easily detected, but copying the will word for word. Then you planted your forged will where you could get it whenever you wanted to.
“When you had me at the house, examining the body, you pretended to be overcome with emotion. You wouldn’t come near the body. But while I was busy looking things over, you got the original will and destroyed it. You planted your forged copy. Naturally Griffin and his lawyer walked into the trap and claimed that the will was the original holographic will of George Belter, because they knew the terms of the genuine will.
“As a matter of fact, it’s such a clumsy forgery, that they can’t even get a handwriting expert to testify that it’s genuine. They realize now the position that they’re in, but they’ve already filed the will and made affidavits to the effect that it’s genuine. They don’t dare to back up. It’s pretty slick.”
She got slowly to her feet.
“You’ve got to have some proof of this,” she said, but her tone was thin and trembling.
Mason nodded his head to Drake.
“Go in the next room, Drake,” he said. “You’ll find Mrs. Veitch in there. Bring her out and let her corroborate what I’ve said.”
Drake’s face was like a mask. He got up and walked to the co
“Mrs. Veitch,” he called.
There was a rustle of motion.
Mrs. Veitch, tall, bony, dressed in black, walked into the room with her lack-luster eyes staring straight ahead.
“Good morning,” she said to Eva Belter.
Perry Mason suddenly said, “Just one moment, Mrs. Veitch. There’s one other matter I want to clear up before I have you make your statement to Mrs. Belter. If you’ll just step back in the other room for a moment, please.”
Mrs. Veitch turned and walked back to the room.
Paul Drake flashed Perry Mason a quizzical glance, and shut the door.
Eva Belter took two steps toward the outer door, then suddenly toppled forward.
Perry Mason caught her as she pitched forward.
Drake came up and took her legs. Together, they carried her to the bed, and laid her down.
Della Street laid down her pencil, gave a little exclamation, and pushed back her chair.
Mason turned on her almost savagely.
“Stay there!” he said. “Take down everything that’s said! Don’t miss a word!”
He went to the washstand, sopped a towel in cold water, and slapped it down on Eva Belter’s face. They loosened the front of her dress, and slapped her chest with the towel.
She gasped and recovered consciousness.
She looked up at Mason, and said, “Please, Perry, help me.”
He shook his head. “I can’t help you,” he said, “as long as you’re trying to give me the double-cross.”
“I’ll come clean,” she wailed.
“All right. What happened?”
“Just what you said, only I didn’t know Mrs. Veitch knew about it. I didn’t know any one heard George call me or heard the shot.”
“How close to him were you when you shot him?”
“I was way across the room,” she answered tonelessly. “Honestly, I didn’t intend to do it. I just shot him on impulse. I had the gun to use for defense in the event he should attack me. I was afraid he’d try to kill me. He had a violent temper, and I knew that if he ever found out about Harrison Burke, he’d do something awful. As soon as I knew he’d found out, I slipped the gun into my hand. When he started for me, I screamed and shot. I guess I dropped the gun right there on the floor. I wasn’t certain about it at the time. Honestly, the idea of getting Burke into it never occurred to me then. I was too rattled to think of anything. I simply ran out into the night.