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"You've told your Aunt Mae about this?" Mason asked.
"I discussed it with her two or three times, and Mae came down with me yesterday to see it for herself."
"Mae doesn't know her?" Mason asked.
Della Street said thoughtfully, "I think she does, Perry. She had a smug smile on her face. She kept her dark glasses on while we were in the booth and sat back under my umbrella. I think she was trying to keep the blonde from seeing and recognizing her."
"But Mae didn't admit anything?"
"Nothing. She's been busy pla
Mason signed the chit for their meal, said, "There must be a gag tied in with it somewhere, some sort of a publicity stunt."
"I know," Della Street said, "but what in the world could it be?"
"She is always alone?"
"She keeps away from all of the beach wolves. And that," Della Street a
"I take it," Mason said, "that you haven't been entirely successful."
"Perhaps," she said, "I haven't tried quite so determinedly. However, I let everyone know I was keeping Saturday and Sunday wide open for you."
"Evidently you felt sure you could persuade me to stay over," Mason said.
She smiled. "Let's put it this way, Mr. Perry Mason. I felt certain that if you didn't stay over I wouldn't have a completely disastrous afternoon or a danceless evening."
Mason said musingly, "Apple pie alamode… chocolate malted milk… there simply has to be a catch in it somewhere, Della-and there's an irresistible body meeting an immovable bathing suit. Something is bound to happen."
"We could, of course, open a branch office here at the beach."
"I'm afraid our clients wouldn't come that far, Della."
"Well," Della Street predicted, "a bathing suit can only stretch so far."
CHAPTER TWO
Mae Kirby greeted Perry Mason affectionately. "It seems that I almost never see you," she said, "and you're keeping Della on the go all the time."
Mason said, "I know, Mae. Time passes faster than we realize. I keep going from one case to another."
"At breakneck speed," she said. "You'd better slow down. Flesh and blood can't stand that pace. Come on in. Here's someone who wants to meet you."
Della Street stood in the doorway, smiling at Mason and then giving him a quick wink as Mae led him into the room. She said, "Dia
The young woman who was standing by the window was the same blonde whom Mason and Della Street had been watching earlier in the day.
She gave Mason her hand and a dazzling smile. "I'm absolutely thrilled," she said. "This is a wonderful privilege. I've heard about you so much and read about you, and to think of actually meeting you! It was so thoughtful of Mrs. Kirby to invite me over."
Mason glanced swiftly at Della Street, received a slight shake of the head from Della and then said, "You flatter me, Miss Alder. The pleasure is mine."
Dia
"Come, come," Della Street interrupted. "You're making us all too vain, Dia
Mae Kirby said, "Now we're going to have one nice dry Martini and then we're going to have di
Dia
"You're looking forward to them?" Della Street asked.
"Am I looking forward to them? I'm simply ravenous!"
Mason and Della Street exchanged glances.
It wasn't until after the cocktails and just before sitting down to di
"What is this?" he asked. "Some sort of a trap or frame-up?"
"I don't think so," she said. "It was just a surprise Aunt Mae was pla
"Usually Aunt Mae is very considerate. She knows there are lots of people here who are dying to meet you, and when you're here for di
"Found out anything?" Mason asked.
Della shook her head and was on the point of saying something when Mae said, "Come on now, you two. You're either talking business or making love, and you shouldn't do either on an empty stomach. Come on in here and sit down. You sit there, Perry, and Della, you sit over here. Dia
Thirty minutes later when they had finished with their hot mince pie and coffee, Della Street said, "Well, it was wonderful, Aunt Mae, but I'm afraid I've put on a pound and a half."
"So have I-at least I hope I have," Dia
Mason raised his eyebrows.
There was silence for a moment and then Della Street said, "You hope you have?"
"Yes, I'm trying to gain weight."
Della Street glanced at the front of the girl's dress and Dia
"What are you going to do," Della Street asked, "take up wrestling?- No, no, I didn't mean it that way, Dia
"But I am."
Mason raised his brows in a silent question.
She flushed slightly and said, "I don't know how the subject came up. I- Oh, skip it."
"Of course," Della Street said, "we don't want to pry, but now you certainly have aroused our curiosity, and I know my boss well enough to know that when his curiosity is once aroused it gnaws at his consciousness like termites in a building. You'd better tell us-that is, if it isn't too confidential."
"Well," Dia
"Go ahead," Della Street invited.
"Well," Dia
"A new style?" Della Street asked, as Dia
"It sounds absolutely absurd," she said, "but I'm getting paid to put on weight and… well, that's all there is to it."
"Now, wait a minute," Della Street said. "Let's see if I get this straight. You're being paid money to put on more weight?"
"Twelve pounds from the time I started."
"Within a time limit?"
"Yes."
"And someone is paying you for it?"
"Yes. Some designers. The- Oh, I know it sounds silly and… I don't know how I got started on this. It- Well, anyway, some style designers feel that there has been too great a tendency to take off weight, that everyone is fighting weight and it isn't natural and that people would be a lot happier and feel a lot better if they didn't keep so diet conscious, if they were free to eat what they wanted.
"Of course there are people who are simply fat, and my sponsors don't want that. They have been looking for some time for a young woman who is-well, as they expressed it, firmly fleshed, who could put on enough weight to wear certain styles they wanted to bring out. They're going to photograph me and put me on television. Well, that's it. I'm to be a new sort of model, start a trend.
"You know how it is in the fashion shows. Some slender model who concentrates on being willowy and svelte comes out modeling a dress. But the women who are sitting there looking at that dress are nearly all of them twenty to thirty pounds heavier than the model.