The Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner Page B

and stick one of my men on as a passenger. The operative could contact Carl and pump him dry en route."
    Perry Mason paused in his restless pacing to frown thoughtfully. The door from the outer office opened, and Della Street returned to her seat at the desk. Slowly, the lawyer shook his head. "No," he said, "that won't do. It's too risky. We'd have to forge a signature to a telegram. They'd raise hell. It won't work."
    "Why won't it work?" Drake demanded. "It's a good scheme. He'll…"
    "The father," Mason said, "is the type that will come out here to have a hand in things. In fact, I'm sort of planning on bringing him here if he doesn't come of his own accord."
    "Why?"
    "Because I want to get some money out of him."
    "You mean you want him to pay for defending Rhoda?"
    "Yes."
    "He won't do it."
    "He will when I get done with him," Mason said, resuming once more the savage pounding of his heels as he strode up and down the office. Abruptly he whirled. "Here's one more thing. They've got to use the testimony of Carl Montaine to build up the case against Rhoda. Now, Carl Montaine is her husband. As such, he can't be called as a witness in a criminal case, to testify against his wife, unless the wife consents."
    "That's the law in this state?" asked Paul Drake.
    "That's the law."
    "Well," asked Drake, "isn't that a break for you?"
    "No," Perry Mason said, "because that means they'll start an action to annul the marriage between Rhoda and Carl Montaine."
    "Not a divorce?" Drake asked.
    "No, a divorce wouldn't do any good. They'd still have been husband and wife when the murder took place. What they'll do is start an action for annulment, on the ground that the marriage was void from the beginning."
    "Can they do that?"
    "Sure. If they can prove Rhoda Montaine had another husband living at the time she married Carl that second marriage would be void from its inception."
    "Then the husband can testify?" Drake asked.
    "Yes. Now, I want you to start digging out a lot of stuff about Gregory Moxley. I want to know all about his past life. It's a cinch the district attorney will have some of this. I want to get a lot more. I want to get everything about him, from soup to nuts. Dig into his past and find out, if you can, every one that he's victimized."
    "You mean women?"
    "Yes, particularly those that he went through a marriage ceremony with. This wasn't a first time with him. It was his mode of operation. Crooks don't usually change their modes of operation." Paul Drake scribbled in his notebook. "Now, there was a telephone call," Mason went on. "That's the telephone call that woke Moxley up. It must have come in some time before two o'clock. He had an appointment with Rhoda at two o'clock, and he mentioned over the telephone that he was going to meet Rhoda at two o'clock and that she was going to give him money. See if you can find out anything about that telephone call. It may be you can trace it."
    "You think it came before two o'clock?" Drake asked.
    "Yes, I think so. I think you'll find it was the telephone call that woke Moxley up. He was waiting for this two o'clock appointment. He lay down to get a few hours' sleep. Then the telephone rang and woke him up. He got up out of bed and answered it."
    Drake's pencil traveled over the page of his notebook. "All right," he said, "what else?"
    "There's the business of that shadow – the one who was tailing Rhoda Montaine when she came to this office. We haven't found out about him yet. He may have been a professional detective. If he was, some one hired him. You've got to find out who was willing to pay out good money to find out what Rhoda was doing."
    Drake nodded. Mason swung to Della Street. "Della," he said, "I want to set the stage for some publicity. We've got a delicate job on our hands. If the first newspaper accounts sketch this woman as a nurse who drugged her husband, it's going to be bad for us. We've got to center the attention on the wrong that was done her by her