The Case of the Lucky Legs by Erle Stanley Gardner Page B

sweetheart who came on from Cloverdale – a Mr. Robert Doray. He's staying at the Midwick Hotel; that's out on East Faulkner Street. He's a heck of a nice chap. I'm sure he wouldn't have any murder ideas in his system. But if he had run across Patton, he might have given him an awful beating."
    "Now," said Riker, "you're giving us a break."
    Mason's expression was wide-eyed in its baby-faced innocence.
    "Sure I am," he said. "I told you I was willing to give you all the breaks I could. Shucks, you fellows are working for a living, just the same as I am. As a matter of fact, I've got nothing against the police on any of my cases. The police build up the best case they can, and I come into court and try to knock it down. That's business. If you fellows didn't build up your cases so you could make arrests, there wouldn't be any possibility for me to make fees by defending a man. A guy doesn't pay a lawyer fee before he's in trouble."
    Riker nodded.
    "That's so," he said.
    "Can you tell us anything else about this Marjorie Clune?" asked Johnson.
    Perry Mason rang for Della Street.
    "Della," he said, "bring me that file in the Case of the Lucky Legs, will you?"
    The girl nodded, stepped to the files and a moment later returned with a legal jacket.
    Perry Mason nodded to her.
    "That's all," he said.
    She closed the door to the outer office with an indignant bang.
    Perry Mason pulled the photograph out of the jacket.
    "Well, boys," he said, holding up the photograph, "that photograph is of Marjorie Clune. Think you'd recognize her if you saw her again?"
    Riker whistled.
    Both men got from their chairs and came closer to look at the photograph.
    "A girl with legs like that," Johnson proclaimed, "was just born to cause trouble. I'll bet she's mixed in this murder case."
    Mason shrugged his shoulders.
    "Can't prove it by me, boys," he said cheerfully. "I got a fee to prosecute Patton. Now he's dead and I don't have to prosecute him. You can check up on all of my statements by getting in touch with Manchester. In the meantime, you'd better make a check on this Dr. Doray. By the time the news gets into the papers, Doray may decide there's nothing to keep him here, and go on back to Cloverdale."
    "I thought he came for the girl," Riker said.
    Mason raised his eyebrows.
    "Did he?" he asked.
    "Didn't you say so?"
    "I don't think so."
    "Somehow I got that impression."
    Mason sighed and made an expressive gesture with his hands.
    "Boys," he said, "you can't prove anything by me. I've told you all I know about the case that isn't a violation of a professional confidence, and you can talk from now until two o'clock in the morning without getting me to tell you any more."
    Riker laughed and got to his feet.
    Johnson hesitated a moment, then pushed back his own chair.
    "You can go out this way," Mason told them, and opened the exit door into the corridor.
    When he heard their steps diminish in volume as they turned the angle of the corridor toward the elevator, Mason slammed the door, made certain that the spring lock was in place, walked to the door which led to the outer office, opened it and smiled down at Della Street.
    "What's happened, chief?" she asked, with a throaty catch in her voice.
    "Patton was murdered," he told her.
    "Before you went out there, or afterwards?"
    "Before," he said, "if he had been murdered afterwards, I'd have been mixed up in it."
    "Are you mixed up in it now?"
    He shook his head, then sat down on the edge of her desk, sighed, and said, "That is, I don't know."
    She reached out and dropped her cool, capable fingers over his hand.
    "Can't you tell me?" she asked in a low voice.
    "Paul Drake telephoned just before you got here," he said. "He gave me Patton's address. It was out in the Holliday Apartments. I busted on out there. Drake was to follow me in five minutes. Just before I went into the place, I saw a good-looking Jane coming out. She had on a white coat and a white hat with a red button, also white shoes. She