The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece Read Online Free PDF

a little time for this Los Angeles lawyer to get started. An interlocutory decree was entered in the Santa Barbara divorce case a year ago today. Tomorrow morning I can walk into court – if I walk in ahead of her lawyers – and get a final decree of divorce. As soon as I get it, you can legally marry."
    "But doesn't that take three days' notice?"
    "In this state, but not in Arizona. I'm going to have you sign the necessary affidavit to get a final decree. The court will grant it as a matter of course. You and Miss Mays fly to Yuma and wait until I telephone you that the final divorce has been granted. Then go ahead and remarry. That marriage will be legal."
    "Does it have to be done that quickly? Couldn't we wait to give Miss Mays a chance to get packed, and…"
    "Can't you see," Mason exclaimed, "the minute the former Mrs. Kent files those papers, you can't get married until the litigation's disposed of. But if you can beat her to it, get a final decree and remarry, you'll be in an impregnable position."
    Kent jumped to his feet, started for the door. "Come on, Helen," he said. "You'll have to get the plane reservations." Together, they left the room.
    Mason turned to Dr. Kelton. "Well, Jim, what do you think of him?"
    Dr. Kelton puffed meditatively on his cigar, took it from his mouth, and said, "Perry, I'll be damned if I know. That act he put on was a fake."
    "You mean that shaking business?"
    "Yes."
    "Then that isn't a symptom of some nervous disorder?"
    "No. Certain involuntary repeated contractions of associated muscles constitute a malady generally known as Tic. Excluding a form of trigeminal neuralgia due to degenerative changes in the nerve, tics aren't painful. But this isn't a tic. Watching him closely, I'd be willing to swear he's faking."
    "But why," the lawyer asked, "should Kent want to fake a nervous disorder? He's fighting his wife's claim that he is deranged. He's trying to show that he's perfectly sane. That's why he had me bring you out here."
    Dr. Kelton shook his head. "He's the one that suggested you bring a doctor to observe him?"
    "Yes. I think that his niece had something to do with the suggestion, but it came from him."
    "He had you bring me out here," Dr. Kelton said slowly, "so that he could put on that act in front of me. Like most laymen, he exaggerated his ability to fool a doctor. He might have been able to fool a family physician into making a wrong diagnosis, but that shaking business wouldn't fool a psychiatrist."
    "Then what's he building up to?" Mason asked. Kelton shrugged his shoulders. "How about the sleepwalking? Does that indicate anything?"
    "You mean as a symptom of mental derangement?"
    "Yes."
    "No, sleepwalking is usually due to some emotional inhibition, an arbitrary association of ideas with the individual. It isn't a sign of mental derangement. It comes nearer being a species of individual hypnosis, an autosuggestion of the subconscious."
    "Do sleepwalkers become more active at the full of the moon?"
    "Yes."
    "Why?"
    "Frankly, Perry, we don't know."
    "Well," Mason said, grinning, "this is a new one – a client retains me to prove he's sane and then tries to act goofy."
    Dr. Kelton took the cigar from his mouth and said dryly, "Not to mention his amiable habit of prowling around the house at night carrying a carving knife."

CHAPTER V
    LUCILLE MAYS, long-limbed, lean-waisted, tall, met Perry Mason's appraising eyes with frank candor. "I'm a nurse," she said. "Mr. Kent is twenty years older than I am. Naturally, people think I'm marrying him for his money. I'm not. I just wanted to give you my personal assurance I'd sign anything which would protect Mr. Kent."
    Mason nodded. "Thanks," he said. "I'm glad to have had the chance for this talk. By the way, have you ever talked this over with Mr. Rease?"
    She laughed and said, "No. Mr. Rease doesn't like me. He's a hypochondriac and he doesn't like people who won't humor him. Harris, that's Edna's wealthy fiance, humors him all