The Case of the Fenced-In Woman Read Online Free PDF Page B

laughed. "One question, Mason."
    "What?"
    "If that curtain hadn't been there and the lingerie show had continued, would you have billed me for your time while you sat watching the show?"
    "Sure I would," Mason said. "That comes under the heading of 'conference with a client.'"
    "I can see I've taken up the wrong profession." Eden grinned. "What the hell do you suppose that woman will think of next?"
    "That," Mason said, "is something I'm not even going to try to predict. I'll have a complaint ready for you to verify in a fraud action day after tomorrow. Come to the office around ten to sign the papers. Then we'll try to serve them on Carson."

Chapter Four
    PERRY MASON, pacing the floor of his office, paused to look out of the window at the morning sunlight, consulted his wrist – watch, turned impatiently to Della Street; "How's the fraud complaint coming, Della?"
    "The typist will have it ready in fifteen minutes."
    "I want to file it as soon after ten o'clock as possible," Mason said. "How about Paul Drake? Hasn't he come in yet?"
    "Apparently not. He was working on a case until all hours this morning and I left word for him to get in touch with you just as soon as he came in."
    "Well, that's the worst of running a detective agency," Mason said. "You can't plan your time, but just the same I-"
    He broke off as knuckles sounded in code sequence on the corridor door of the private office.
    "That's Paul now. Let him in, will you please, Della?"
    Della Street opened the door.
    Paul Drake, head of the Drake Detective Agency, looking worn and haggard, said, "Hi, folks. It's a beautiful morning for this time of year, isn't it? That is, if you care for beautiful mornings and this time of year."
    "We care," Mason said.
    "I was afraid you would. Personally, I'm past caring. What gives?"
    Mason said, "A little after ten o'clock this morning, Paul, I'm going to be filing a complaint in a case entitled Morley Eden versus Loring Carson. It's going to be quite a complaint."
    "A civil action?" Drake asked.
    "That's right. It's an action on the ground of fraud. Loring Carson claimed that he could guarantee title to certain property, that he had evidence which would defeat his wife's divorce action, that he could prove her guilty of infidelity and that two lots of real estate were community property, that she had no separate property rights in any of the real estate."
    "And that was all false?" Drake asked.
    "Was it false!" Mason said. "You don't know the half of it. Apparently Carson was lying about the whole setup. In addition to that, he either deliberately or accidentally steered his private detective onto another woman in place of his wife. The indiscretions of this other woman were duly chronicled in Carson's cross – complaint in the divorce action as being those of Mrs. Carson. Moreover, there seems to be a pretty general feeling that he has money stashed away somewhere in the form of cash. Evidently he has seen this coming for some time and he was getting ready to clean up and skip out if he had to.
    "Judge Hewitt L. Goodwin, before whom the divorce case was tried, feels pretty much worked up about this and would like to get at the bottom of it. He'd dearly love to find where Carson has money hidden."
    "So you're filing a complaint on the ground of fraud?"
    "That's right," Mason said. "And I'm going to follow that up with a request to take Carson's deposition. I'm going to examine him about certain matters under oath. I'm particularly interested in any hidden assets in the form of concealed cash."
    "And what do you want me to do?"
    "For one thing," Mason said, "I want you to locate Carson. Later on I'll want you to put a shadow on him. In case he has any tendency to skip out after the papers are served on him I'd like to know where he's going in case he should take to the tall timber.
    "I particularly want to find out all I can about his background so that I will have questions to ask on the deposition that will make it difficult