The Case of the Dangerous Dowager Read Online Free PDF Page B

Charlie."
    "Take it easy, Sammy," Duncan said, still looking at Mason. "Take your weight off your feet and shut up. I'm handling this."
    "I guess I have something to say about it," Grieb protested. "I don't know who the hell you think you are. You're gumming the works. These notes are worth ten thousand dollars above their face, and I won't let them go until I get my share."
    Duncan, still tilted back in his chair, said, "You see how my partner feels, Mason. Suppose we compromise on five grand."
    "I don't give a damn how your partner feels," Mason said. "I've offered you a thousand dollars and that's my limit. If you suckers keep on holding those notes, you'll find yourselves holding the sack. By the time the smoke blows away, Sylvia isn't going to be able to pay even the face of those notes."
    "That's a bluff," Grieb said.
    "Now, Sammy, keep your shirt on," Duncan told him.
    Grieb started toward Duncan. "Listen, Charlie," he shouted. "I'm running the office end of this business. You haven't invested anything here except a lot of conversation. I know what those IOU's are worth, and you ain't going to make a cheapskate out of me."
    Duncan turned to look at him then, and his gold teeth vanished. "Sit down, you damn fool," he said, "and shut up. If Frank Oxman doesn't buy these notes, who's going to?"
    "Sylvia will take them up."
    "When?"
    "Pretty soon."
    "For how much?"
    "Well, if she knew we had a chance to sell them…"
    Duncan's coldly contemptuous gaze silenced his partner. He turned to Mason, "Suppose you boys go out in the other room for a little while," he said, "and let me talk to my partner. I want to be reasonable, but I agree with him a thousand dollars is altogether too small a sum to…"
    "Then," Mason interrupted, "there's no need of our waiting. I've offered you a thousand dollars, and that's final. Take it or leave it. Don't ever forget I can put you two birds on the witness stand and find out everything I want to know without its costing me a damn cent. Anytime a…"
    "Now, take it easy," Duncan interrupted soothingly. "This isn't going to get us anywhere, Mason. It's a business proposition. You two boys go out in the other room and wait a few minutes." He walked over to the heavy door, jerked the lever which pulled the bolts back, twisted the knurled knob of the spring lock and held the door open. "Make yourselves at home, boys. There's some magazines right over there. We won't be over five minutes."
    "If you're as long as five minutes," Mason said, "you won't find us here when you come out."
    Grieb yelled, "Go ahead and go, you damn piker, and see who cares!"
    Duncan, still smiling, closed the door on Mason and the detective. The spring lock clicked into position. A half second later the iron bars shot home.
    Drake turned to Mason and said, "Why not boost it to fifteen hundred, Perry? They'd take that. It would give Grieb a chance to save his face."
    Mason said, "To hell with Grieb, and his face too. I don't like his damned blackmailing hide."
    Drake shrugged his shoulders. "It's your funeral, Perry."
    Mason slowly grinned and said, "No, it isn't. Duncan's nobody's fool. That talk I gave him about taking their depositions scared hell out of him. It's just a question of how long it'll take him to whip Grieb into line… Evidently there's friction between them."
    "That's going to make it all the harder for us," Drake said.
    Mason shook his head. "No, it isn't, Paul, it's going to make it easier."
    "Why?"
    "Because this partnership isn't going to last very much longer. They're fighting. Duncan is a shrewd thinker. Grieb flies off the handle. Now then, figure it out. If this partnership is going to bust up, it's a lot better to have eighty-five hundred dollars in cash to divide than seventy-five hundred in IOU's to try and collect."
    Drake said, "That's so, Perry. I hadn't figured on that."
    "Duncan's figuring on it," Mason said.
    They were silent for a moment. Quick, nervous steps sounded in the passageway