The Case of the Counterfeit Eye by Erle Stanley Gardner Page B

her. She worked there for years. The boy kept getting to be more and more of an expense. He needed an education. She met Hartley Basset. He was a client in the law office. His intentions were honorable. She didn't love him – at least I don't figure it that way. She'd never loved anyone except Brunold. She figured Brunold had taken a walk-out powder, so she was off of men."
    "And she made Basset adopt the boy?"
    "That's right she didn't marry him until he'd legally adopted the boy. The boy took Basset's name and apparently proceeded to hate his step-father with a bitter hatred, probably because of the way Basset treated Sylvia."
    "What was wrong with it?" Mason asked.
    "All I know is servants' gossip," Drake said, "but servants' gossip can be pretty reliable at times. Basset was a bachelor. He hadn't been an easy man to work for. His idea of marriage was that a wife was a species of ornament in public and a servant in private."
    "And," Mason said slowly, "by reason of the adoption, Dick Basset would have inherited a share of Hartley Basset's property."
    Drake nodded his head slowly and said, "That's the way Edith Brite figures it. She's a housekeeper. Only she doesn't figure there was any idea of gain in connection with it. She feels the boy was doing his mother a good turn."
    "She thinks Dick killed him?" the lawyer asked.
    "That's right. I had to get her crocked, but when she got in vino veritas she babbled a lot. Sylvia had been through hell. The boy knew it. Hartley Basset was just one of those things. She thinks the boy bumped him off."
    Della Street said, "Wait a minute, Paul, you haven't finished with the romance. How about Brunold? Did he find her or did she find him?"
    "He found her. He'd been searching ever since he left the hospital. He didn't know how to go about such things and for a while Sylvia had kept herself pretty much under cover."
    Perry Mason hooked his thumbs through the arm holes of his vest and started pacing the floor.
    "Did Dick know Brunold had found his mother and know who Brunold was?" he asked.
    Drake shrugged his shoulders. "I'm a detective," he said, "not a mind reader. Your guess is as good as mine. Apparently Sylvia Basset figured she'd made her bed and was going to lie in it. Brunold wanted her to leave, that's a cinch. The fact that she didn't walk out right then and there shows that something was holding her. From the slant I can get on Hartley Basset's character, it may have been his threat to set aside the adoption proceedings on the ground of fraud, brand Dick as illegitimate, make a big stink generally. Or it may have been that he wouldn't give her a divorce and she wouldn't join Brunold unless she could marry him, on account of the kid."
    Mason, still pacing the floor, said, "Where's Mrs. Basset now?"
    "She ducked out and went to a hotel somewhere."
    "See if you can find her," Mason said. "You shouldn't have any great difficulty. She's the type who would go to one of the better class hotels. There weren't a great number of unescorted women who registered at the better class hotels after midnight last night. You've got pictures of her, I presume."
    "Oh, sure."
    "All right, run her down."
    "This other stuff going to help you?" Drake asked.
    "Very much, I think," Mason told him.
    A buzzer gave the signal that Della Street was wanted in the outer office. She glanced at Mason, who nodded.
    "Were the eyes okay?" Paul Drake asked.
    "I think they'll do the work all right, although I'm afraid we got them a little late."
    "I was wondering about that when I heard about the bloodshot eye that was clutched in Hartley Basset's right hand."
    Mason said cheerfully, "Oh, well, it'll all come out in the wash."
    Drake uncoiled himself from the chair and moved toward the exit door.
    "You don't want anything else except putting a finger on Sylvia Basset, is that right?"
    "That's all for the present. And that was good work, Paul, tracing that stuff down with the limited time you had."
    "There wasn't so