The Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner Read Free Book Online Page A

the door. "To-morrow morning at nine o'clock?" he asked.
    "Make it nine thirty," she suggested.
    Mason nodded assent, smiled reassuringly at her. "To-morrow," he said, "you'll find that it isn't going to be hard to tell. You've told me enough now so that you can tell me the rest. I can almost figure it out for myself."
    Her eyes regarded him wistfully, then hardened. "At nine thirty," she said, and laughed, a quick, nervous laugh. Mason closed the door. She snapped back the gearshift and the car growled into speed.
    Mason nodded to the cab driver. "Well, buddy," he said, "you get to take me back after all."
    The cabby turned away to hide his grin. "Okay, chief," he said.

6.
    Perry Mason emerged from the garage where he kept his car, started to walk the half block to his office. A newsboy on the corner whipped a newspaper from under his arm, twisted it in a double fold. "Read all about it!" he screamed. "She hit him and he died! Read about it."
    Mason purchased the newspaper, unfolded it, glanced at the headlines which streamed across the top of the page.
    MIDNIGHT VISITOR KILLS CROOK
    Woman May Have Clubbed Confidence Man
    Mason folded the newspaper, pushed his way into the stream of pedestrians converging on the skyscraper entrance. As he entered a crowded elevator, a man touched his arm. "Good morning, Counselor," he said. "Have you read about it?"
    Perry Mason shook his head. "I seldom read crime news. I see enough of it at first hand."
    "Clever stunt you pulled in that last case of yours, Counselor."
    Mason smiled his thanks mechanically. The man, having broken the conversational ice, was showing symptoms of that type of loquacity which is so well known to those who are in the public eye, a loquacity which is caused not so much by a desire to convey any particular idea, as to lay a foundation for repeating the conversation to friends, beginning in a carefully casual manner, "The other day when I was talking things over with Perry Mason, I suggested to him…"
    "Nice of you," murmured Mason, as the elevator stopped at his floor.
    "I tell you what I'd do, Counselor, if I were handling this case. The first thing I'd do would be to…"
    Mason never knew when he might have that man sitting in a jury box as a juror, long after Mason himself had forgotten about the conversation, so his smile was cordial as the elevator door cut off the suggestion, but a look of relief flooded his features as he walked briskly down the corridor to his office and opened the door.
    Della Street's eyes were dark with concern. "Have you seen it, chief?" she asked.
    He raised his brows. She indicated the paper under his arm. "Just the headlines," he told her. "Some confidence man bumped off. Was it some one we know?"
    Della Street's face was more eloquent than words.
    Perry Mason pushed on to his private office, spread the newspaper out on the desk and read the account:
    "While occupants of the Bellaire Apartments at 308 Norwalk Avenue frantically telephoned for police at an early hour this morning, Gregory Moxley, thirty-six, residing at the Colemont Apartments, 316 Norwalk Avenue, lay dying from skull injuries inflicted by an unidentified assailant who may have been a woman.
    "The police received a telephone call at 2:27 A.M. The call was relayed over the radio, and car 62, operated by Officers Harry Exter and Bob Milton, made a fast run to the Colemont Apartments, where they forced the door of Apartment B on the upper floor and found Gregory Moxley alive but unconscious. The occupant of the apartment was fully clothed, although the bed had been slept in. He was lying face downward on the floor, hands clutching at the carpet. An iron poker lying nearby, with blood stains on it, had evidently been used to strike at least one terrific blow. It had crushed the man's skull.
    "The radio officers put in a hurried call for an ambulance, but Moxley died on the way to the hospital without regaining consciousness.
    "At headquarters, police identified the