The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner Read Free Book Online Page A

ruined his career politically, because George would have sued me and named him as correspondent right away. I simply had to hush it up."
    "Maybe your husband would never have found out," suggested Mason. "The District Attorney is a gentleman. Burke could have disclosed the facts to the District Attorney, and the District Attorney wouldn't have called you unless you had seen something that made your testimony absolutely necessary."
    "You don't understand how they work," she told him. "I don't know all of it myself. But they've got spies everywhere. They buy pieces of information and run down odds and ends of gossip. Whenever a man gets prominent enough to attract attention, they go to a lot of trouble to get all the information they can about him. Harrison Burke is prominent politically, and he's coming up for re-election. They don't like him, and Burke knows it. I heard my husband telephoning to Frank Locke, and I knew that they were on the trail of the information. That was why I came to you. I wanted to buy them off before they had any idea of who it was that was with him."
    "If your friendship with Burke was innocent," said Mason, "why don't you go to your husband and tell him what the situation is? After all, he'd be dragging his own name through the dust."
    She shook her head, vehemently.
    "You don't know anything at all about it," she warned. "You simply don't understand my husband's character. You showed that in the way you handled him last night. He's savage and heartless. He's a fighter. What's more, he is money-mad. He knows that if I bring suit for divorce, I will probably get some alimony and a lot of money for attorneys' fees, and suit money. All that he wants is to get something on me. If he could get something on me, and at the same time drag Harrison Burke's name through the courts, it would be a wonderful break for him."
    Perry Mason frowned thoughtfully. "There's something funny about that high price they fixed," he remarked. "It seems to me that it's too high for political blackmail. Do you suppose that your husband or Frank Locke suspects who it is they're after?"
    "No," she said firmly.
    There was a moment of silence.
    "Well," said Mason, "what do we do? Do we pay their price?"
    "There won't be any price any more. George will call off all negotiations. He'll go ahead and fight. He figures that he can't afford to give in to you. If he does, he thinks that you'll hound him to death. That's the way he is, and that's the way he thinks everybody else is. He simply can't give in to anybody It isn't in his nature, that's all."
    Mason nodded, grimly. "All right, if he wants to fight, I'm perfectly willing to go to the mat with him. One of the first things I'll do will be to file suit against Spicy Bits the first time they mention my name, and I'll take the deposition of Frank Locke and force him to disclose who actually owns that paper. Or else I'll have him prosecuted for perjury. There are a lot of people who would like to see that sheet put where it belongs."
    "Oh, you don't understand," she told him, speaking rapidly. "You don't understand the way they fight. You don't understand George. It would take a long while for you to get a libel suit to trial. He'll work fast. And then, you've got to remember that I'm your client. I'm the one you're supposed to protect. Long before any of that happens, I'll be ruined. They'll go after that Harrison Burke business hammer and tongs now."
    Mason drummed on his desk again, and then said, "Look here. You've hinted at some information your husband has that holds Frank Locke in line. Now I have an idea that you know what that information is. Suppose you give it to me, and I'll see if I can't crack a whip over Frank Locke."
    Her face was white as she looked at him.
    "Do you know what you're saying?" she said. "Do you know what you are doing? Do you know what you're getting into? They'll kill you! It wouldn't be the first time. They've got affiliations in the underworld with