The Case of the Sulky Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

understand the necessity for taking legal steps."
    "All right," said Mason, grimly, "we'll take them."

CHAPTER FIVE
    PERRY MASON let himself into the office with his key, walked to his desk and picked up the blotter. There was an envelope under it, marked "Confidential." He ripped it open and saw a notation in Frank Everly's handwriting:
    ROBERT GLEASON AND FRANCES CELANE TOOK OUT A MARRIAGE LICENSE ON THE FOURTH OF LAST MONTH. THEY WERE MARRIED IN CLOVERDALE ON THE EIGHTH.

    The message was signed with the initials of the law clerk.
    Perry Mason stared at it for several minutes, then hooked his thumbs in his vest and started pacing the floor of the office.
    After a while he swung into the law library, took down a volume of "Cyc" dealing with wills, started reading.
    He interrupted his reading to go to the book case and get a volume of the Pacific Reporter. He read the reported cases for some little time, then started taking other case books from the shelves.
    He worked in cold, silent concentration, moving efficiently and tirelessly, his eyes hard and steady, his face without expression.
    Somewhere a clock struck midnight, but Perry Mason kept on working. The pile of law books on the table grew larger and larger. He prowled around through the library, pulling down various books, turning to cases, studying intently. Once in a while he made a brief note. Frequently he book-marked cases, and placed them to one side.
    About fifteen minutes past one o'clock in the morning the telephone rang.
    Mason frowned and paid no attention to it.
    The telephone continued to ring insistently, imperatively.
    Mason uttered an exclamation, turned to the telephone and picked up the receiver.
    "Hello," he said, "you've got the wrong number."
    A voice said: "I beg your pardon, sir, but is this Mr. Mason, the lawyer?"
    "Yes," said Perry Mason, irritably.
    "Just a minute," said the voice.
    Mason held the telephone, and heard a swift whisper, then the voice of Frances Celane: "Mr. Mason?"
    "Yes."
    "You must come at once," she said.
    "Come where, and why?" he asked. "What's the trouble?"
    "Come out to the house," she told him. "My uncle has just been murdered!"
    "Has just what?"
    "Has just been murdered!" she said.
    "Do they know who did it?" he asked.
    "They think they do," she said, in a low, almost surreptitious voice. "Come at once!" and the line went dead as the receiver slipped into place on the other end of the wire.
    Perry Mason left the office without pausing to switch out the lights. The night watchman brought up the elevator and Mason pushed his way into it as soon as the door was open.
    "Been working rather late, haven't you?" said the watchman.
    Mason smiled mechanically.
    "No rest for the wicked," he said.
    He left the elevator, crossed the lobby of the office building, ran diagonally across the street to a hotel where there was a taxicab stand. He called the address of Norton's residence to the taxi driver. "Keep the throttle down to the floorboards," he said.
    "Okay, buddy," said the drivel, and slammed the door.
    Mason was slammed back in the cushions, as the car lurched forward. His face was unchanging, though his eyes were squinted in thought. Never once did he glance at the scenery which whizzed past.
    Only when the taxi swung off to the driveway which sloped down the hill, did Mason lose his air of abstraction, and begin to take an interest in the surroundings.
    The big house was illuminated, every window was a blaze of light. The grounds in front were also illuminated, and more than a dozen automobiles were parked in front of the place.
    Mason discharged the taxicab, walked to the house, and saw the bulky form of Arthur Crinston silhouetted against the lights on the porch.
    Crinston ran down the three steps to the cement.
    "Mason," he said, "I'm glad you came. I want to see you before anybody else does."
    He took the lawyer's arm and led him across the cement driveway, over a strip of lawn, and into the shadows of a