The Case of the Fenced-In Woman (5 page)

Carson swung his broad shoulders out through the door and pounded his way down the corridor.

Paul Drake, apparently on his way to the men's room, barely glanced at the irate figure.

"A delightful personality," Della Street said as the door closed. "Imagine being married to that."

"He probably has his good points," Mason said thoughtfully, "but he likes to throw his weight around and when people aren't impressed he becomes rather objectionable. When the initial fascination of marriage fades, two people can get on each other's nerves mighty fast."

"He's so darned assertive and domineering," Della Street said. "He-"

She broke off as a buzzer sounded. "That probably means the typing department has the complaint ready in the case of Eden versus Carson."

Mason said, "When Morley Eden comes in to sign the verification, Della, see that it is notarized. I'm going to try and do one good turn."

"What?"

"I'm going to make whatever amends are possible to a woman who seems to have been caught in a cross fire."

"You mean Nadine Palmer?" she asked.

Mason nodded.

"She may not welcome you or any suggestions from you."

"She may not," Mason said, "but at least I'm going to tell her what the score is."

Mason looked at his watch. "As soon as this action is filed there'll be a furor of publicity. Tell Mr. Eden to answer all inquiries from reporters by stating that he will have open house for a press conference at one o'clock and photographers can take whatever pictures they want. Tell him I'll be at his place as near one as I can make it, and to wait for me. Tell him to be sure not to unlock the front door or to let anyone in until I arrive. Then he can give all the newspaper reporters a simultaneous story and I'll see that he doesn't give any wrong answers."

Della Street, her pencil flying over the page other notebook, looked up and nodded.

"All right," Mason said, "I'll sign the complaint as attorney for the plaintiff. Right after Eden signs it and it's notarized, send it down to the courthouse and file it."

Della Street said, "May I make one secretarial observation?"

"Shoot, Della."

"You need a haircut, Chief. If you're going to have your picture taken at a press conference, and if you're going calling on a good – looking divorcee, you should have-"

"Go no further," Mason said. "I'll go get my hair cut right now, and have a manicure to boot."

"I didn't mention the manicure," she said.

"I know," he told her. "That was my own idea."

Chapter Five

THE WOMAN who opened the door a scant half inch in response to the chimes was unusually tall, graceful and gave the appearance of being completely self – reliant. She was holding a robe tightly across her chest.

"Yes?" she asked inquiringly, looking at Mason with frankly appraising eyes.

"I'm Perry Mason, the attorney," Mason said. "I-"

"Oh," she interrupted, "I knew I'd either seen you or seen your picture. This is a real pleasure, Mr. Mason. I'm Nadine Palmer-although I suppose you know or you wouldn't be calling. However, I'm simply not presentable. I was just out of the shower when I heard the chimes."

She hesitated a moment, then gave him her hand, extending it with a certain deliberation which made the gesture seem that she was extending to the lawyer a part of her personality.

"May I come in for just a moment?" Mason asked.

"I'm not presentable.. oh, well, come on in. You'll have to wait for me to get some clothes on."

"Thank you," Mason said. "It's important or I wouldn't bother you."

Mason followed her into the small but tastefully furnished apartment, She indicated a seat by a reading table and said, "What is it, Mr. Mason, am I in trouble?"

"Were you expecting trouble?" Mason asked.

She said, "I've had troubles and I will probably have more. Now if you'll excuse me I'll change."

Mason said, "Go right ahead. I'll wait although I haven't much time. I have to go to a press conference. I'm attorney for Morley Eden. Morley Eden, in case you didn't know, purchased some property from Loring Carson and…"

At the mention of Carson's name her eyes flashed, her mouth tightened. Halfway to the bedroom she paused, whirled to face him. "Just what do you have to do with Loring Carson?" she asked ominously.

"At the moment," Mason said, "I am not violating any confidence in telling you that I am about to file suit against him for something over three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in damages on the ground of fraud, asking for triple compensatory damages, and for exemplary damages."

"I hope you collect every last red cent," she said.

Mason smiled. "Evidently he is no great friend of yours."

"That louse!" she said, spitting the words out contemptuously. "He's torn my reputation to shreds and hung the tatters up before every gossip columnist in the city."

"I understood there was some mistake," Mason said, "and-"

"Mistake!" she snapped. "There wasn't any mistake. That man deliberately tried to blacken the name of his wife, and the fact that he dragged me down in the process made not one bit of difference to him."

"I believe your name was mentioned?" Mason asked.

"Mentioned?" she said. "He screamed it all over the city. He filed a cross – complaint stating that his wife was carrying on an affair with one Norbert Jennings, that they had made trips together over weekends, his wife registering under the fictitious name of Nadine Palmer.

"Then, after his wife stood by her guns and contested the suit, the heel had the audacity to state that it was all a mistake, that his private detective had shadowed the wrong person; that he had inadvertently pointed me out to the detective instead of his wife; that his wife was not the person who had registered in various weekend resorts, but that it was I, one Nadine Palmer, a person whom his private detective had been shadowing under the misapprehension that the woman was his wife. You can imagine where that has left me."

Mason nodded sympathetically.

Abruptly she seated herself. "You're a lawyer, Mr. Mason. You've seen women in bathrobes before. You don't have much time and neither do I. Okay, let's talk it over and get it settled right now.

"People make me sick! There's more hypocrisy about our civilization and our so – called code of morals than anyone wants to admit. When I married Harvey Palmer, I was what is referred to generally as a 'good girl.' That was the trouble with me. I didn't know enough about men. I didn't know enough about life and I knew virtually nothing about sex.

"I went through five years of all the degrading hell to which a woman could be subjected, and then I decided that since there weren't any children I certainly owed Harvey Palmer nothing more. I walked out. Just to show you how dumb I was, I waived all claim to alimony. I had been a working girl before I was married and I went back to being a working girl-only I was no longer a girl. I was a woman.

"That's one thing about divorce, Mr. Mason, that the books don't tell you about. You've changed from a girl to a woman. You're on your own. You have found out that matrimony isn't all a bed of roses, yet you're a human being with normal appetites and desires and you're marked. You're indelibly marked.

"Any man who takes an interest in you is keenly conscious of the fact that you aren't a girl any longer, that you're a woman; that you've been married. He treats you accordingly. If you don't respond the way he thinks you should respond, you're 'holding out on him'.

"Men go around bragging about their conquests. Married men have mistresses. It's all taken as a part of life by society. But a divorcee is neither fish, flesh, fowl nor herring. She's supposed to be a pushover.

"And now comes this.. this unspeakable cad, with his private eye. I can't tell whether the private eye was too dumb to know the difference or not, but this much I do know. Loring Carson was, is and always will be a heel.

"Norbert and I were very close friends. I think he was going to ask me to marry him and under those circumstances I probably would have said yes-but I wasn't going to walk into it with my eyes closed. I'd done that once. I wasn't going to do it again.

"Now Norbert feels he's been made ridiculous. He…"

"Has changed his mind about asking you to marry him?" Mason asked.

"Changed his mind?" she said. "Heavens, no! Now the man is insistent. He calls me up, proposing marriage two and three times a day. I hang up on him. And why is he doing all that, Mr. Mason? Simply because he feels that it was through him that what people refer to as a 'girl's good name' was besmirched.

"I'm over twenty – one, I'm divorced and I've got a right to live my own life. I just wish society would let me alone. And as far as Loring Carson is concerned I hope he drops dead…"

She threw back her head with a little toss, as though shaking unpleasantness from her mind, and said, "Now I've unburdened myself and spat out my venom, Mr. Mason, and perhaps after having been guilty of inflicting my personal spleen on you, I'll be polite enough to let you explain the purpose of your visit."

"It's quite all right," Mason said. "I came here to try and spare you some publicity."

"How?"

"This suit that I have filed against Loring Carson, or which is probably being filed at about this time, is rather spectacular. I don't know whether you're familiar with the real estate deal between Carson and Morley Eden."

She shook her head.

"Well," Mason said, "there were two adjoining lots. One of the lots was held to be the separate property of Mrs. Carson, one was community property which the court awarded to Loring Carson. It was purchased by Morley Eden for a fair consideration and to which Morley Eden therefore has a good title-and that includes title to the portion of the building resting on that lot.

"Two persons had their reputations affected by Loring Carson's cross – complaint-you and Vivian Carson, his wife."

"I have every sympathy for her," Nadine Palmer declared.

"So, apparently, does Judge Goodwin," Mason said.

"What has he done about it? I understood Carson had his financial affairs so badly tangled up the court couldn't even begin to get them straightened out."

Mason said, "It's always a mistake to underestimate a judge's intelligence."

"Meaning that Carson underestimated Judge Goodwin's intelligence?"

"I think so."

"Would it be fair for me to ask you what is happening?"

"That's why I'm here," Mason said. "I felt you should know. Judge Goodwin feels that once a woman's good name has been sullied it is very, very difficult to get it unsullied."

"He can say that again!" Nadine said fervently.

"When a newspaper publishes a story," Mason went on, "it is given prominence in accordance with its reader interest. For instance, the story of a woman who has been stepping out and has been caught in the act rates considerable publicity. Later on, the fact that it was all a mistake rates no publicity at all."

"Are you talking about my case now?" she asked.

"In reverse," Mason said. "Judge Goodwin is thinking about Vivian Carson. He would like to have Carson's mistake publicized. So he has placed my client in such a position that we have to take action. I think Judge Goodwin was very shrewd in his reasoning, but I think he overlooked one thing."

"What's that?"

"The effect on you."

"And what about the effect on me?"

"The step I am taking," Mason said, "is going to result in the newspapers giving great publicity to the comedy of errors, to the fact that you were pointed out to Carson's detective in place of Vivian Carson."

"I think that was all done deliberately," she said.

"That's not the point," Mason said. "The point is that the whole thing is going to be rehashed at great length in the press."

She started to say something, then suddenly the full impact of the lawyer's words dawned on her. Her eyes widened. "You mean they're going to bring it all up again about the weekend trips?"

"Exactly."

"Oh, Lord," she moaned.

Mason said, "Therefore, I felt that you might care to make some plans in advance. If you want to meet the press, you might care to hand out a written statement so that you wouldn't be misquoted. If, on the other hand, you don't want to meet the press, this might be a good time for you to be hard to find."

She hesitated only a moment, said, "I'm going to be hard to find. When is all this going to break?"

"Probably within the next hour."

She got to her feet, said, "Look here, Mr. Mason, do you have any objection to being quoted?"

"What do you mean?"

"That you advised me to make myself hard to find."

Mason thought for a moment, shook his head. "I'm not in a position to advise you. You're not my client. I already have one client in the case. I'm simply trying to give you a friendly tip."

"All right. Will you remember that you gave me a friendly tip and told me to make myself scarce?"

"That was one of the alternatives I suggested might be wise."

"It's the alternative I want to take," she said. "You wait there just a moment. I'm going to crawl in a hole and pull the hole in after me. What's more, I'm going out with you. You can drive me downtown."

She hurried across the apartment, opened a door, and just before she slammed it shut behind her called over her shoulder, "Wait there until I can get dressed and throw some things in a bag. I'm getting out of here."

The lawyer seated himself, consulted his wristwatch, frowned thoughtfully, reached for the cigarette case in his pocket and found that he was out of cigarettes. He waited another minute, then called out through the door, "Are there any cigarettes in here, Mrs. Palmer?"

Her voice sounded startlingly clear through the thin door. "In my purse there's a pack. The purse is on the table."

The lawyer moved over to the open purse, noticed a pack of cigarettes, took one out, snapped his lighter into flame and suddenly paused as he realized the cigarette was limp with moisture.

Abruptly the door from the bedroom flew open. Nadine Palmer, trailing an almost transparent negligee through which could be seen her figure in the scantiest of lingerie, came hurrying into the room.

"I hope you found it all right," she said.

She grabbed up her purse, fumbled inside of it for a moment, then produced a pack of cigarettes and extended it to the lawyer.

Mason shifted his position.

"Now wait a minute, that's not fair," she said, laughing. "You're jockeying me between you and the light. I'm not dressed to be silhouetted right at the moment. I'm just trying to be hospitable. Here."