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"How soon?"
"Within a matter of weeks-perhaps of days."
"You mean you hope the backer will change his mind?"
"Yes."
"Do you have any assurance that he will?"
"I think I can- Well, I'll be perfectly frank, Mr. Mason. I think I can guarantee that he'll come around."
"If you're so certain of it, then keep up your payments to Dia
"I can't do it."
"Why?"
"I haven't the money."
Mason said, "We're not interested in your hard luck. You made a definite contract. For your information, upon a breach of that contract my client could elect to take any one of certain remedies.
"She has elected to consider your repudiation of the contract as a breach of the contractual relationship and a termination of all future liability on her part under the contract. She will hold you for whatever damages she has sustained."
"Well, I sympathize with her," Boring said. "If I were in a position to do so, I'd write her a check for her damages right now, Mr. Mason. I don't try to disclaim my responsibility in the least. I am simply pointing out to you that I am a promoter, I am an idea man. I had this idea and I had it sold. Something happened to unsell my backer. I think I can get him sold again. If I can't, I can get another backer. But every dollar that I have goes into keeping up the type of background that goes with the line of work I'm in. My entire stock-in-trade is kept in my showcases. I don't have any shelves. I don't have any reserve supplies."
"And you're trying to tell me you don't have any money?" Mason asked.
"Exactly."
Mason regarded the man thoughtfully. "You're a salesman."
"That's right."
"A promoter."
"That's right."
"You sell ideas on the strength of your personality."
"Right."
"So," Mason said, "instead of talking with me over the telephone, instead of referring me to your attorney, you came here personally to put on your most convincing ma
"Correct again, Mr. Mason."
"Do you have an attorney?"
"No."
"You'd better get one."
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to make you pay for what you've done to Dia
"You can't get blood out of a turnip, Mr. Mason."
"No," Mason said, "but you can get sugar out of a beet-if you know how-and in the process you raise hell with the beet."
Boring regarded him speculatively.
"Therefore," Mason said, "I would suggest that you get an attorney and I'll discuss the situation with him rather than with you."
"I don't have an attorney, I don't have any money to hire an attorney, and I'm not going to get one. With all due respect to you, Mr. Mason, you're not going to get a thin dime out of me; at least, as long as you act this way."
"Was there some other way you had in mind?" Mason asked.
"Frankly, there was."
"Let's hear it."
"My idea is just as good as it ever was. Sooner or later I'm going to get another backer. When I do, Dia
"You let some well-nourished, firm-fleshed, clear-eyed model come along that has lots of figure, and we'll start a style change overnight."
"I'm not an expert on women's styles," Mason said. "I try to be an expert on law. I'm protecting my client's legal interests."
"Go ahead and protect them."
"All right," Mason said. "My client has a claim of damages against you for whatever that may be worth. We won't argue about that now. My client also has the right to consider your repudiation of the contract as a termination of all future liability on her part."
"I am not a lawyer, Mr. Mason, but that would seem to be fair."
"Therefore," Mason said, "regardless of what else may be done, you have no further claims on Dia
"I'd like to see the situation left in status quo," Boring said.
"Status quo calls for the payment of a hundred dollars a week."
"I can't do it."
"Then there isn't any status quo."
Boring held out his hand to Mason with a gesture of complete friendship. "Thank you, Mr. Mason, for giving me your time. I'm glad we had this talk. Dia
Boring kept talking while he was shaking hands. "If I ever get any money of my own, Mason, you won't need to sue me for it because I'd back this idea of mine with every cent I had. It's a red-hot idea and I know it's going to pay off. I realize that the situation is a little discouraging at the moment as far as Dia
"Let's be very careful," Mason said, moving Boring toward the exit door, "that the toast doesn't get burnt."
"I can assure you, Mr. Mason, with every ounce of sincerity I possess, that I have her best interests at heart."
"That's fine," Mason said, "and you can be assured that I have them at heart."
Mason held the exit door open for Boring, who smiled affably then turned and walked down the corridor.
Mason turned to Della Street as the door closed. "You got Paul Drake?" he asked.
"That's right. He'll be under surveillance from the time he leaves the building. One of Drake's operatives will probably be in the elevator with him as he goes down."
Mason gri
"Quite a promoter," Della Street said.
Mason nodded. "That damned contract," he said.
"What about it?"
"I wish I knew what Boring was after. I wish I knew the reason he drew up that contract in the first place."
"You don't believe his story about a new type of model and-"
Mason interrupted to say, "Della, I don't believe one single damn thing about that guy. As far as I'm concerned, even his mustache could be false- Get me that contract, will you, Della? I want to study it once more."
Della Street brought him the file jacket. Mason took out the contract and read it carefully.
"Any clues?" Della Street asked.
Mason shook his head. "I can't figure it out. It's…"
Suddenly he stopped talking.
"Yes?" Della Street prompted.
"Well, I'll be damned!" Mason said.
"What?" Della Street asked.
"The red herring is what fooled me," Mason said.
"And what's the red herring?"
"The avoirdupois, the diet, the twelve pounds in ten weeks, the curves."
"That wasn't the real object of the contract?" Della Street asked.
"Hell, no," Mason said. "That was the window dressing. That was the red herring."
"All right, go ahead," she said. "I'm still in the dark."
"Take that out of the contract," Mason said, "and what do you have left? We've seen these contracts before, Della."
"I don't get it."
"The missing-heir racket," Mason said.
Della Street 's eyes widened.
Mason said, "Somebody dies and leaves a substantial estate, but no relatives. No one takes any great interest in the estate at the moment except the public administrator.
"Then these sharpshooters swoop down on the situation. They start feverishly ru
"So these sharpshooters contact the individual potential heirs and say, "Look here. If we can uncover some property for you which you didn't know anything at all about, will you give us half of it? We'll pay all the expenses, furnish all the attorneys" fees out of our share. All you have to do is to accept your half free and clear of all expenses of collection."