The Case of the Daring Divorcee by Erle Stanley Gardner Read Free Book Online

tomorrow morning for that appointment-but he will."
    Mason said, "I made one suggestion to you, Mrs. Hastings. I am going back to Los Angeles in a chartered plane. I think you had better fly back with us and see if everything is all right at your house."
    "And suppose it isn't all right?" she said.
    "Then you can notify the police."
    "Yes," she said, "that would really knock the props out from under my story, wouldn't it? I'd go to the police and tell them that I had flown in from Las Vegas because it suddenly occurred to me something had happened to my husband."
    "I'd go in with you," Mason said. "We'd go to the house together. If there's anything wrong we'll notify the police and I'll take the responsibility."
    "And if there isn't anything wrong," she said, "my husband would just raise merry hell, Mr. Mason, both with you and with me. It probably wouldn't make any difference to you, but as far as I'm concerned it would ruin a perfectly good property settlement.
    "Thank you very much for returning my things to me, Mr. Mason, and I think after all I'll let you look over the property settlement after Huntley Banner draws it up, because I don't trust him for a minute."
    "And the gun?" Mason asked.
    "The gun," she said, and frowned. "You're sure two shells had been fired?"
    "Yes."
    "I always kept it fully loaded," she said.
    "And someone stole it?" Mason asked.
    "Certainly. I've told you that."
    "You're not going back with us?" Mason asked.
    "No, and I wish you'd stop interesting yourself in the case. You've found out that I'm all right now, and you've returned my handbag. I think that I'll be in touch with you again, but I don't want you to… well, I don't want you to rock the boat. Do you understand?"
    "I understand," Mason said.

Chapter Four
    The pilot of the chartered plane came to meet the taxicab as Mason and Della drove up at the airport.
    "Well, this is a surprise," he said. "I didn't expect you people for a couple of hours yet. What happened, did you lose all your money gambling?"
    "Every cent of it," Mason said, grinning.
    "Don't let him kid you," Della said. "He was thinking about your wife."
    "Well, this is really going to surprise her," the pilot said. "You're ready to go back?"
    "On our way," Mason said.
    They went over to the airplane, climbed in, fastened seat belts, the pilot warmed up the motors and took off to make a wide, sweeping turn over the brilliantly lighted business district of Las Vegas.
    Looking down at the lights, Della said, "I'll bet that takes a lot of money out of a lot of different states. When you stop to realize that gambling pays all the state taxes in Nevada, it certainly must exact a hиayy toll from the tourists."
    "You'd be surprised how much money it puts into California," the pilot said.
    "How come?" Mason asked.
    "I'd have a hard time keeping this charter service going if it weren't for flights to Las Vegas," the pilot said. "Las Vegas keeps our airlines prosperous, the hotels pay big sums to entertainers-a good many of whom reside in Southern California-and all in all it makes for a good deal of business.
    "You also want to remember that very few people lose more than they can afford to lose. It's not big-time gambling in terms of thousands of dollars. Most of the people go there for amusement and they're willing to pay fifty or a hundred dollars to enjoy the thrill of gambling.
    "When you come right down to it, I think the people there have a pretty good idea of the amount of business that comes in from Southern California. The Chamber of Commerce had a representative down there checking chartered planes tonight."
    "What do you mean, checking chartered planes?" Mason asked.
    "Oh, just a routine questionnaire," the pilot said. "They wanted to know how often we made trips to Las Vegas, what percentage of our total business was done on Las Vegas trips, and things of that sort."
    "Did they," Mason asked, "inquire as to the name of your passengers, the persons who had chartered the