Read Online Case of the Footloose Doll by Erle Stanley Gardner - Free Book Online

away.”
    “Where did this happen?”
    “At Fern Driscoll’s apartment.”
    “Did you report this to the police?”
    “Of course not.”
    “Why?”
    “That isn’t the way to handle something of this sort.”
    “What is the way to handle it?”
    “Come over here and I’ll tell you.”
    “Shouldn’t you have treatment?”
    “It isn’t that serious, medically. It’s damned serious legally.”
    “Stay there,” Mason told him. “I think it’s about time we had a talk.”
    “You bet it is!”
    “Where are you?” Mason asked.
    “I’m in my apartment at the Dixiecrat Apartments. Apartment 218.”
    “All right,” Mason said, “that’s not far from where I’m talking. You wait there. I’m coming over.”
    Mason hung up the telephone and said, “Now, this is a real run-around. Fern Driscoll found someone in her apartment and stabbed him with an ice pick. Apparently, she doesn’t know where she hit him, but it was a solid enough blow so he took the ice pick away with him. Carl Harrod says she stabbed him in the chest.
    “Hang it, Della, I suppose we’ve got to go take a look-see. Let’s run up and have a quick talk with Fern Driscoll first, and get the thing straightened out. Then we’ll try to put this blackmailer, Harrod, in his place.”
    “But shouldn’t Fern Driscoll notify the police if—?”
    “That’s the devil of it!” Mason said. “She’s keeping under cover and—
    The Rexmore Apartments is only five minutes from here by cab.” They left the restaurant, found a taxicab and went at once to the Rexmore Apartments.
    Mildred Crest was anxiously awaiting them. She unlocked her door, seemed almost hysterically relieved as she held onto Mason’s hand.
    “All right,” Mason said, “let’s find out exactly what happened.” Mildred, on the verge of panic, said, “I’m going to have to give you a little personal history.”
    “Go ahead,” Mason said.
    “I left Lansing, Michigan, because—Well, there was a man by the name of Baylor, Forrester Baylor. His family didn’t approve of me—Well, it’s a long story.”
    “Shorten it, then,” Mason said crisply. “Let’s have it.”
    “He had a sister, Katherine, a wonderful girl. I had never met her. She came here tonight and met me for the first time. She told me she sympathized with me and she thought the family had been perfectly horrid in the way they had treated me.”
    “What about the ice pick?” Mason asked.
    “She bought them for me.”
    “Who did?”
    “Kitty—Katherine Baylor.”
    “Bought them? Was there more than one?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “She said blackmailers were yellow and that if I pointed an ice pick at Harrod and threatened him, he’d leave me alone.”
    “And at the same time make you guilty of assault with a deadly weapon,” Mason said drily. “How many ice picks did she buy?”
    “Three.”
    “Where are they now?”
    “One of them is on the little table by the door.” Mason moved over to the table. “There’s only one ice pick here.” She nodded. Mason lifted the ice pick.
    “There’s a price tag on here underneath transparent Scotch tape,” he said. “The price tag says thirty—eight cents, three for a dollar. There’s some fine print—let me see—oh yes, the imprint of the Arcade Novelty.”
    “The Arcade Novelty,” Mildred explained, “is down the street a short distance. It’s an arcade with a lot of penny machines for amusement. They cater largely to sailors and people who are lonely and want cheap entertainment.
    “They have everything from electric machine guns for shooting at images of airplanes to girl shows on film machines. They call it a penny arcade, but most of the shows are a nickel or a dime.”
    “And they sell ice picks?” Mason asked.
    “Not there, but in connection with it. There’s a novelty shop where they have bottle openers, bottled goods, novelties of all sorts, a machine that vends ice cubes and things of that sort.”
    Mason nodded.