The Case of the Counterfeit Eye by Erle Stanley Gardner Read Free Book Online Page A

her. She tore off the mask. It was a one-eyed man she'd never seen before in her life. He cursed her and clubbed her with a blackjack. She lost consciousness."
    "Only had one eye?" Sylvia Basset cried. "Dick, there's some mistake!" Her voice rose as though with hysteria.
    "Only one eye," Dick Basset repeated. "Isn't that right, Hazel?"
    The young woman nodded slowly.
    "What happened to the mask?" Mason asked.
    "She tore it off. It was a paper mask – black paper."
    Mason, down on his hands and knees, pulled a sheet of carbon paper from the floor. Eye holes had been cut in it, one corner was torn off. The paper was ripped down the center.
    "That's it," she said. She struggled to a sitting position, then got to her feet.
    "I saw his face." She swayed. The red-headed woman stretched out a muscular arm just a second too late. The girl pitched forward, throwing her hands in front of her. The palms rested against the diamond-shaped plate glass panel of the outer door. The redheaded woman shifted her grip, picked the younger woman up as though she had been a doll, and laid her back on the couch.
    "Oh, my God," moaned the young woman.
    Mason bent over her, solicitously. "All right?" he asked.
    She smiled wanly. "I guess so. I got dizzy when I got up, but I'm all right now."
    "This man had one eye?" Mason asked.
    "Yes," she said, her voice growing stronger.
    "No, no!" Sylvia Basset said, her voice almost a moan.
    "Let her tell it," Dick Basset said savagely. "Everyone else keep out of it."
    "Did he hit you more than once?" Mason asked.
    "I think so. I don't remember."
    "Do you know whether he went out this front door?"
    "No."
    "Did you hear him drive away?"
    "I don't know, I tell you. He hit me and everything turned black."
    "Let her alone, can't you?" Dick Basset said to Perry Mason. "She isn't a witness on the witness stand."
    Perry Mason strode toward the door which led to the inner office. He reached his hand to the knob, then hesitated a moment, drew back his hand, and took a handkerchief from his pocket. He wrapped the handkerchief around his fingers before he turned the knob. The door swung slowly inward. The room was just as he had seen it the first time. A light in the ceiling gave a brilliant, but indirect, illumination.
    Mason crossed to the door of the inner office. It, too, was closed. Once more he fitted a handkerchief in his hand and turned the knob. The room was dark.
    "Anyone know where the light switch is here?" Mason asked.
    "I do," Mrs. Basset said. She entered the room, and, a moment later, the lights clicked on.
    Mrs. Basset gave a half scream of startled terror. Perry Mason, standing in the doorway, stiffened to immobility. Dick Basset exclaimed, "Good God! What's that?"
    Hartley Basset lay face down on the floor. A blanket and a quilt, folded together, partially covered his head. His arms were outstretched. The right hand was tightly closed. A pool of red had seeped out from his head, soaked up by the blanket and quilt on the one side and the carpet on the other. A portable typewriter was on the desk in front of him, and a sheet of paper was in the machine, approximately half of it being covered by typewritten lines.
    "Keep back, everyone," Perry Mason said. "Don't touch anything."
    He stepped cautiously forward, keeping his hands behind his back. He bent over the corpse and read the paper which was in the typewriter.
    "This," he said, "seems to be a suicide note. But it can't be suicide, because there's no gun here."
    "Read it aloud," Dick Basset said in an excited voice. "Let's hear what's in the note. What reason does he give for committing suicide?"
    Perry Mason read in a low monotone:

    "I am going to end it all. I am a failure. I have made money, but I have lost the respect of all of my associates. I have never been able to make friends or to hold friends. Now I find that I cannot even hold the respect and love or even the friendship of my own wife. The young man who is supposed to be my son and has taken