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Mason settled back in his swivel chair. "Hurrying around, eh?" he said musingly.
"Here's the mail," Della Street said, sliding a stack of letters across Mason's desk.
Mason picked up the top letter, started to read it, put it down, then pushed the pile of mail to one side, sat for more than a minute in thoughtful silence.
"Something?" Della Street asked.
"I'm toying with an idea," Mason said, "and hang it, the more I think of it, the more plausible it seems."
"Want to talk it out or let it incubate?" she asked.
"I think I'd like to talk it out," Mason said, "and let's see if it isn't logical. Boring was working on lost heirs, obscure estates. Yet when Foster tried to backtrack his activities, he couldn't find anything. Nevertheless, Foster is a pretty thoroughgoing chap and he has the inside track. In the first place, he knows all the routine methods of investigation and in the second place he knew exactly where Boring had been and what activities he had engaged in. Yet nothing that he has been able to uncover gives any clue to what triggered Boring's break with him."
Della Street, knowing that Mason was simply thinking out loud, sat thoughtfully attentive, furnishing him with a silent audience.
"So suddenly Harrison T. Boring comes to Dia
Della Street merely nodded.
"Now then," Mason went on, "Montrose Foster. Regardless of the fact that he's a little terrier, but no one's dummy, he begins to think that perhaps he should start working on the case from the other end and is anxious to find out who Boring has been seeing."
Again Della Street nodded.
"He is having Boring shadowed. He undoubtedly knows that Boring is seeing Winlock. But Winlock doesn't seem to be the solution to the problem, at least as far as Foster is concerned.
"Now, that's where we're one step ahead of Montrose Foster. We know that whatever lead Harrison Boring may have uncovered, he followed it to Dia
Mason was silent for a few seconds, then he said, "Yet, having found Dia
"Now, why?"
Della Street merely sat looking at him, making no comment.
"The reason is, of course," Mason said, "that the advantage Boring intended to get from his contract with Dia
"Such as what?" Della Street asked.
"Blackmail."
"Blackmail!" she exclaimed.
"That's right," Mason said. "He started out on a missing heir's contract and he suddenly shifted to blackmail. That is about the only explanation that would account for his going to all that trouble to sign Dia
"But why would blackmail tie in with missing heirs?" she asked.
"Because," Mason said, "we've been looking at the whole picture backwards. There aren't any missing heirs."
"But I thought you just said Dia
"We may have started in with that idea," Mason said, "but it's a false premise and that's why we aren't getting anywhere, and that's why Montrose Foster isn't getting anywhere. Dia
"What do you mean?"
"Dia
"Then, you mean…?"
"I mean," Mason said, "that his body wasn't found because he wasn't dead. He was rescued in some way and decided to leave the impression that he was dead. He went out and began life all over and probably amassed something of a fortune.
"He probably was tired of his home life, wanted to disappear the way many men do, but never had the opportunity until that boating accident."
"So then?" Della Street asked, with sudden excitement.
"So then," Mason said, "we start looking for a wealthy man-someone who has no background beyond fourteen years ago, someone who couldn't divorce his wife because he was supposed to be dead, someone who has since remarried, someone who is exceedingly vulnerable, therefore, to blackmail.
"Dia
"But didn't Dia
"All that she knew about," Mason said. "All the estate that Dia
"Then," Della Street said, with sudden excitement, "the key to the whole thing is George D. Winlock."
"Exactly," Mason said. "Winlock, the wealthy man whom Harrison Boring is cultivating at the moment; Winlock, the real estate speculator who showed up in Riverside about fourteen years ago as a salesman, who started plunging in real estate, became wealthy, and is now one of the town's leading citizens; Winlock, who has a high social position, a wife who really isn't a wife… No wonder Boring was willing to let Dia
"I take it," Della Street said, "that we go to Riverside."
Mason gri
"And we see George D. Winlock?"
"We make some very careful investigations," Mason said, "and we are very, very careful indeed not to upset any apple carts, not to make any accusations, not to jump to any false conclusions, but very definitely we see George D. Winlock."
"And when we see him?"
"We see him as Dia
"How long will it take you to get some things packed, Della?"
She smiled. "Five minutes. I've been through this same thing so often that I'm now keeping an overnight bag in the coat closet."
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sid Nye, Paul Drake's right-hand man, was waiting for Perry Mason when he and Della Street arrived at the colorful Mission I
"Hello, Sid," Mason said, shaking hands. "You know Della Street. What's new?"
"Something I want to talk over with you," Nye said. "I talked with Paul on the phone and he said you were on your way up here and should be here any minute."
Della Street filled out the registration cards, and Mason, Nye and Della were shown up to the lawyer's suite. Mason ordered a round of drinks, and Nye, settling himself comfortably in the chair, said, "The fat seems to be in the fire."
"Just what happened?" Mason asked.
"I don't know all of the ramifications of the case," Nye said, "but it seems that you were having a Harrison T. Boring shadowed."
"That's right. What happened?"
"Apparently he got wise that he was being tailed, but it wasn't our fault. There was another man following him, and Boring first became suspicious because the other man was using contact shadowing."
"Go ahead," Mason said.
"You remember Moose Dillard?" Nye asked.
Mason frowned, then said, "Oh, yes. I place him now. The big fellow that I represented when he was in a jam over losing his license."