The Case of the Daring Divorcee (18 page)

"While you're all here some person who has significant information may not care to come forward and disclose it, but I want you to realize that you have a duty to disclose everything you know, and I feel sure that in an office this size evidence couldn't have been tampered with without someone knowing something, at least some suspicious circumstance.

"Now then, my office is going to be wide open for any incoming telephone calls and Lieutenant Tragg here, at Homicide at police headquarters, is going to be anxious to find out what happened.

"If any one of you people have any knowledge, I want you to get to a telephone sometime before the close of business this afternoon and give us that information.

"I want to impress upon you that this is a murder case and that we're not going to have any fooling around with-Who's this?"

The people near the door were thrust aside.

A thick-set individual with an aggressive manner pushed his way forward.

"I'm Huntley L. Banner, Mr. Burger," he said. "I haven't met you but I've seen you in court several times."

"And who are you?" Burger asked.

"I'm an attorney. I represented Garvin Hastings in his lifetime and I am representing his widow at the moment."

"I thought Mason was representing his widow," Burger said.

Banner said, "Mr. Mason is representing Adelle Hastings. I am representing the widow, Minerva Hastings."

"Wasn't there a divorce?"

"I think I'll let Mrs. Hastings answer that question," Banner said, and again turned toward the door.

The people nearest the door fell back, and a woman in her early thirties entered the room.

She was a striking brunette. Her chin was up, her eyes were flashing.

Banner took her arm and said, "This is Garvin Hastings' widow. This is Minerva Shelton Hastings. She owns all this business."

"Didn't you get a divorce in Nevada?" Burger asked her.

"I did not," she said. "I went to Nevada and established a residence. I filed a divorce suit. I did not carry it through to completion."

"What!" Simley Beason exclaimed.

She smiled at him triumphantly and said, "I did not carry it through to completion."

"But," Beason exclaimed, "you wrote Garvin Hastings that everything was taken care of, that-!"

"Certainly I did," she said. "That little strumpet in the office was trying to twist him around her finger, trying to feather her nest financially, and I decided that I would fight fire with fire."

Hamilton Burger said, "You knew that your husband was planning to marry his secretary?"

"Of course I did. That's why he virtually booted me out. I was to go to Nevada and get a divorce."

"And you filed suit for divorce?" Burger asked.

"Yes, I did," she said defiantly.

"Where?"

"In Carson City."

"Carson City?"

"That's right. I had some friends there and I felt I could accomplish what I wanted to accomplish better in Carson City than anywhere else."

"Then you wrote your husband that you had secured a divorce?"

"I did not. I wrote him that everything had been completed according to plan."

Simley Beason said, "It's all a lie. She sent him a copy of the divorce decree."

Minerva Hastings smiled at him. "I sent him what purported to be a copy of a decree," she said. "It wasn't a certified copy."

"It was a copy of a decree," Beason insisted.

"Go look up the records," she challenged, then whirled to Hamilton Burger. "Simley Beason here has always been sweet on Adelle and would love to give her a sympathetic shoulder, then marry her and step into control of the business.

"For your information, Mr. Simley Beason, I am going to be the one who controls the business. I am the widow. Adelle Hastings has no more status than any other mistress."

"I think it's only fair to advise everyone," Huntley Banner said, "that I am filing a petition for the probate of a will and having Minerva Hastings appointed executrix of the estate."

"A will!" Hamilton Burger said. "He left a will?"

"That's right. It's a will leaving everything to Minerva Hastings. Garvin Hastings had no relatives."

Mason said, "Wasn't there also a later will leaving the property to Adelle Hastings after he went through a marriage ceremony with her?"

"That ceremony wasn't worth that!" Minerva said, snapping her fingers.

Mason kept his eyes on Banner. "I'm talking about a will," he said.

Banner said, "If, of course, a later will should be found, that will be another question. However, I think that you will find any later will was torn up by Garvin Hastings when Adelle and he separated. I don't care to discuss the Legal points now. I am simply trying to clarify the situation so that the authorities will know exactly where we stand, and with whom to deal."

Mason said, "If your client perpetrated a fraud on Garvin Hastings, she won't be in a position to capitalize on that fraud. Having told him that she had a divorce, she will be estopped to take advantage of her chicanery."

"We'll argue the legal points in court, Mr. Mason," Banner said. "Right now I'm simply advising everyone that Minerva Hastings is going to be in control of the busi. ness and we will expect unconditional loyalty from all of the office employees."

"With the exception of Simley Beason," Minerva Hastings said acidly. "As far as you are concerned, Simley Beason, you can go and comfort Adelle as of now. Your services are discontinued. You are no longer employed here. You may clean out your desk and get your personal things out of here any time this afternoon. I will leave orders that you are not to be admitted to the premises tomorrow."

Mason said, "You can't fire him. You haven't been appointed executrix of the estate."

She turned to Connely Maynard. "You understand me, Connely?" she said. "I want Simley Beason out of here and I want him kept out. I want to see that he gets all his things out of his desk this afternoon and that he is out of the office and surrenders his key. Do you understand?"

Connely Maynard swallowed once. Then he said, "Yes, Mrs. Hastings."

"Very well," she said. "See that my orders are carried out, regardless of what any attorney tries to tell you."

With that she turned and swept imperiously out of the office, followed by Huntley Banner.

Mason said, "As far as I'm concerned, and as far as my client is concerned, orders given by Minerva Hastings are absolutely worthless. You people can do what you want to. You can take whatever action you see fit as far as your relationships are concerned, but as far as my client is concerned and as far as I am concerned, Minerva Hastings has no status. Having resorted to fraud to lead Garvin Hastings to think she had secured a divorce, she is now estopped to falsify her own utterances."

And Mason smiled at a dumbfounded Hamilton Burger, then stalked out of the office without once looking back.

Chapter Eleven

Back in his office Mason paced the floor, his head thrust slightly forward in frowning concentration.

After a few moments he started talking to Della Street, throwing the words over his shoulder as he paced and turned, paced and turned.

"Garvin Hastings bought two guns, Della," he said. "One of them was purchased before he married Adelle, one while he was married to her.

"Now," Mason went on, "would he have given a gun to Minerva? Remember that she had some friends in Carson City. She was driving back and forth-that is, we can assume she was. Hastings could have let her have his gun."

"But he gave one to Adelle," Della Street said.

"That's right," Mason said. "He gave one to Adelle. She doesn't know the number. There was no reason for her to look at the number. The way she looked at it, a gun was a gun and that was all there was to it.

"But if Garvin gave her a gun he could well have given Minerva a gun."

"That would have been the first gun he purchased," Della Street said.

"Exactly," Mason agreed.

"And it was that first gun which killed him?"

"We don't know yet. It was the first gun that Tragg took from the desk drawer.

"It would have been rather easy for Minerva to have killed him after stealing Adelle's purse, then she could have put the murder weapon in the purse, put on dark glasses, planted the purse here in this office, rushed over to Las Vegas, used a duplicate key which she had had made to Adelle's apartment, gotten in there and stolen her gun. That would leave her with Adelle's gun still in her possession."

"Unless she was smart enough to get rid of it," Della said.

"No," Mason said, "she'd be a lot smarter if she kept it. Then when someone asked her if it wasn't true that Garyin had given her a gun for her protection, she'd say, 'Why, certainly,' and produce the gun that he'd given Adelle."

"And there'd be no way of proving she was lying?" Della Street asked.

"No way on earth," Mason said. "We can surmise that the first gun was the one he intended to keep for himself, that the gun he bought after his marriage to Minerva was for her-a present to her for her protection.

"Give Paul Drake a ring, Della. Tell him that I want some more information on that Carson City car that was parked in the lot. It belonged to Harley C. Drexel, a contractor."

"What about him?"

"See if there isn't some connection between Minerva and Drexel. Remember that Drexel's car was parked in the parking lot down here all Monday afternoon. There were two cars with Nevada licenses. One of them was a young woman from Las Vegas and I naturally felt that she would be the one to check. But in view of later developments I'm beginning to think this Carson City car may have some significance we don't want to overlook."

Della Street put through the call to Paul Drake and gave him the instructions.

The phone rang. Della answered it, said, "Huntley Banner calling for you, Chief."

Mason picked up his telephone, said, "Hello, Mason speaking."

"This is Banner, Mr. Mason. I want to impress upon you that I had no intention whatever of representing Minerva until after the developments following Garvin Hastings' death."

"And why did you want to impress that on me?" Mason asked.

"It's a question of ethics."

"The ethics in the matter," Mason said, "are between you and your own conscience on the one hand, between you and the bar association on the other."

"I understand, but I value your good opinion."

"Don't ever try to value something you don't have," Mason said.

"Now, don't be like that, Mason. I feel that it would be a great mistake for us to get involved in litigation which would eat up the assets of the estate. After all, there are always two sides to every question, there's always a middle ground and there are enough assets here for both parties.

"I think our clients might be able to work out a settlement if we can keep personalities out of it."

"Go ahead," Mason said. "You're doing the talking."

"Well, in the first place," Banner said, "you must realize that my client has the inside track legally. Once you accept that as a fact, then we can discuss matters."

"I don't accept that as a fact," Mason said.

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do," Banner said. "I'm going to have my secretary take a copy of Garvin Hastings' will to your office."

"His last will?" Mason asked.

"As far as we know, it's his last will. It was made shortly after he married Minerva Hastings. He left everything to her and named her executrix of the estate."

"Then that will was invalidated by his subsequent mar riage to Adelle Sterling," Mason said.

"Now wait a minute, wait a minute. That wasn't legal marriage," Banner pointed out. "Therefore the provisions of the law regarding automatic revocation of wills in whole or in part has no application here."

"And," Mason went on, "I am inclined to think he made another will which revoked the will you're referring to."