The Case of the Amorous Aunt

254 Pages·2012·0.72 MB·English

by  Gardner Erle Stanley

69-The Case of the Amorous Aunt
Perry Mason [69]
Erle Stanley Gardner
(2012)
Perry Mason Mysteries - 68
The Case of the Amorous Aunt
By
Erle Stanley Gardner
Chapter 1
Della Street, Perry Mason’s confidential secretary, said, “A couple of lovebirds
have strayed into the office without an appointment. They insist it’s a matter of
life and death.”
“Everything is,” Mason said. “If you start with the idea of perpetuating life, you
must accept the inevitable corollary of death-but I presume these people aren’t
interested in my philosophical ideas.”
“These people,” Della Street announced, “are interested in each other, in the
singing of the birds, the blue of the sky, the moonlight on water, the sound of the
night wind in the trees.”
Mason laughed. “It’s infectious. You are getting positively romantic, poetic, and
show evidence of having been exposed to a highly contagious disease… Now,
what the devil would two lovebirds want with the services of a lawyer who
specializes in murder cases?”
Della Street smiled enigmatically. “I told them that I thought you’d see them,
despite the fact they have no appointment.”
“In other words,” the lawyer said, “your own curiosity having been aroused, you
decided to arouse mine. Did they tell you what they wanted to see me about?”
“A widowed aunt,” Della Street said, “and a Bluebeard.”
Mason made an elaborate show of rubbing his hands together.
“Sold!” he exclaimed.
“Now?” Della Street asked.
“Immediately,” Mason said. “When’s the next appointment, Della?”
“Fifteen minutes, but you can keep him waiting for a few minutes. He’s the
witness in that Dowling affair, the one that Paul Drake located.”
Mason frowned. “I don’t want to take any chances on having him leave the
office. Let me know the minute he comes in, Della, and send in the lovebirds.
What are their names?”
Della Street consulted a memo.
8 / The Case of the Amorous Aunt
The Case of the Amorous Aunt I 9
“George Latty and Linda Calhoun. They’re from some little town in
Massachusetts. It’s their first trip to California.”
“Bring them in,” Mason said.
Della Street went to the reception room, to return in a matter of seconds with the
young couple.
Mason sized them up as he rose and smiled a greeting.
The man was twenty-three or twenty-four; tall, rather handsome, with two-inch
sideburns and wavy black hair that had been carefully groomed.
The young woman was certainly not more than twenty-two, with round blue
eyes which she held wide open in such a way as to give her face an expression of
almost cherubic innocence.
As they stood surveying Mason, the girl’s hand unconsciously groped for and
found the hand of her escort, and they stood there hand in hand, the girl smiling,
the man self-conscious.
“You’re George Latty,” Mason said to the man.
He nodded.
“And you’re Miss Linda Calhoun.”
The girl nodded.
“Sit down, please,” Mason said, “and tell me what seems to be the trouble.”
They seated themselves, and Linda Calhoun looked at George Latty as though
signaling him to break the ice. Latty, however, sat looking straight ahead.
“Well?” Mason asked.
“You tell him, George,” the girl said.
Latty leaned forward and put his hands on the lawyer’s desk. “It’s her aunt,” he
said.
“And what about the aunt?” Mason asked.
“She’s going to get murdered.”
“Have you any idea who is going to commit the murder?” Mason asked.
“Certainly,” Latty said. “His name is Montrose Dewitt.”
“And what,” Mason asked, “do you know about Montrose Dewitt, aside from the
fact that he’s a potential murderer?”
It was Linda Calhoun who answered the question.
“Nothing,” she said. “That’s why we’re here.”
“Now, you folks are from Massachusetts, I believe?”
“That’s right,” Latty said.
“You’ve known each other for some time?”
“Yes.”
“If it’s not a personal question, may I ask if you’re engaged?”
“Yes, we are.”
Mason said, “Forgive me if I seem to be impertinent, but if we’re going to get
into a case of this sort where there may be some name calling, I want to be sure
of my facts. Has the date been set for the wedding?”
“No,” she said. “George is studying law and I’m…” She flushed. “I’m helping
him through law school.”
“I see,” Mason said. “You’re employed?”
“Yes.”
Mason raised his eyebrows in silent interrogation.
“I’m a secretary in a law firm,” she said. “I applied for and received a month’s
leave of absence and came out here. Before I left, I asked the senior partner for
the name of the best attorney in this part of the country and he said that I should
consult you if it came to a knock-down, drag-out fight.”
“And it has come to a knock-down, drag-out fight?” Mason asked.
“It’s going to.”
Mason looked at Latty. “Now,” he said, “as I take it, you young people came on
here together. May I ask if you drove, came by plane or - “
“I drove,” she said. “That is, I came with Aunt Lorraine, and George came out
by plane when I … when I telephoned him.”
“And when was that?”
“Last night. He just got in this morning and we had a council of war and decided
to come to you.”
“All right,” Mason said, “that gives us the preliminaries. Now tell me about Aunt
Lorraine. What’s her last name?”
10 / The Case of the Amorous Aunt
The Case of the Amorous Aunt I 11
“Elmore. E-1-m-o-r-e.”
“Miss or Mrs?”
“Mrs. She’s a widow. And she’s … well, she’s at the foolish age.”
“And exactly what age is considered the foolish age?”
“She’ll be forty-eight on her next birthday.”
“And what has she done that indicates her foolishness?”
“She’s gone overboard,” Latty said.
Mason raised his eyebrows.
“In love,” the young woman explained.
Mason smiled. “I take it that people around twenty-one and twenty-two who are
in love are perfectly normal, but they’re supposed to have a corner on the
emotion and anyone above that age who falls in love is indulging in
foolishness?”
Linda flushed.
“Well, at that age,” Latty said, “well … sure.”
Mason laughed. “You two have all the arrogance of youth. Perhaps the best
thing one can say for youth is that it’s not incurable. Your aunt’s husband died.
Miss Calhoun?”
“Yes.”
“How long ago?”
“About five years ago. And please don’t laugh at us, Mr. Mason. This is
serious.”
Mason said, “I would say your aunt had every right in the world to fall in love.”
“But it’s the way she did it,” Linda protested.
Latty said, “Some adventurer is going to strip her of all of her money.”
Mason’s eyes narrowed. “Are you the only relative?” he asked Linda.
“Yes.”
“And presumably you were the sole beneficiary under her will?”
The girl flushed again.
Mason waited for her answer.
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“Is she wealthy?”
“She has … well, rather a comfortable nest egg.”
“And within the last few weeks,” Latty said, “her entire attitude has changed.
She used to be very affectionate with Linda and now her affections have been
alienated by this cad. Yesterday there was a fight and Lorraine walked out on
Linda and told her to go back to Massachusetts and quit messing up her life.”
Mason said, “And just what is your interest in the matter, Mr. Latty?”
“Well, I … I’m - “
“You’re in love with Linda and expect to marry her?”
“Yes.”
“And perhaps you had been rather counting on Aunt
Lorraine’s nest egg coming in at some time in the future?”
“Absolutely not!” he said. “I resent that.”
“I was asking you,” Mason said, “because if we take any action other people will
ask you that question, and perhaps in a sneering tone of voice. I thought I’d
prepare you, that’s all.”
Latty said, “Let them make that accusation to my face and I’ll flatten them.”
Mason said, “You’ll do a lot better to keep your temper, young man. Now, Miss
Calhoun, I’d like to hear the facts of the case. Can you begin at the beginning
and tell me when this first came up?”
She said, “Aunt Lorraine has been lonely. I know that, and I sympathize with
her. I’m the only one she has and I’ve done what I could.”
“Doesn’t she have friends?” Mason asked.
“Well, yes, but not… well, not what you’d call intimate friends.”
“But you’ve been in touch with her?”
“I’ve given her every minute of my time that I could, Mr. Mason, but—Well,
I’m a working girl. I have to keep up my apartment and I have a job to do. I
know that Aunt Lorraine would like to have seen more of me and—”
““And you put in a good deal of your time seeing something of George Latty?”
Mason asked.
12 / The Case of the Amoious Aunt
“Yes.”
“And your aunt, perhaps, resented that?”
“I think she, resented him.”
“All right. Now, what happened with this Montrose Dewitt?”
“She met him by correspondence.”
“One of those lonely heart things?” Mason asked.
“Heavens, no! She isn’t that foolish. It was some kind of a deal where Aunt
Lorraine wrote to a magazine expressing an opinion on one of the articles that
the magazine had published, and the magazine published the letter with her
name and not her street address but the city where she lived.”
“Mr. Dewitt sent her a letter just addressed to her at that city, and the post office
located her address and delivered the letter, and that started a correspondence.”
“And then?” Mason asked.
“Then Aunt Lorraine became very much smitten. She wouldn’t admit it, of