Read Online The Case of the Lazy Lover by Erle Stanley Gardner - Free Book Online Page A

minutes."
    "Fleetwood's apartment is near your house?"
    "That's right. Within two or three blocks. You see, he works with Mr. Allred at all hours of the day and night, so he got an apartment near by"
    "Is he a special friend of yours?" Mason asked.
    "Definitely not."
    "Wants to be?"
    "I think so, yes. In a wolfish sort of way."
    "And doesn't get anywhere?"
    "No."
    "Then you haven't been crying your eyes out?"
    "Over what?"
    "Over what happened."
    "I've been terribly upset over-- well, over hitting him."
    "You did hit him when you clipped the corner of the hedge?"
    "Yes."
    "When did you find it out?"
    "Not until after dinner. We waited for Bob for nearly half an hour, then Mother decided to go ahead and have dinner. It was sometime during dimmer that we mentioned to Mr. Allred that the hedge would have to be cut back and told him what had happened. He was full of apologies. He said he'd parked his car at the curb, intending to leave it there only for a few minutes. He hadn't realized that the car was in the way. He said he'd move it right away.
    "It was still drizzling and dark. Mr. Allred went out to move his car away from the driveway, and then-- just as he backed it around to come down the driveway the headlights showed this-- this object."
    "Fleetwood?"
    "Yes."
    "You say he wasn't killed?"
    "No, he was unconscious. Mr. Allred thought he was dead, but I'd had some first aid experience and I was able to find a pulse."
    "So then what happened?"
    "We brought him into the house. I started to telephone for a doctor, but Mr. Allred said we could put him in his car and he could get him to a hospital a lot quicker than we could wait for a doctor or an ambulance.
    "Bob regained consciousness while we were talking. He opened his eyes and muttered something that was unintelligible, then closed his eyes again and then after a moment wanted to know where he was and wanted to know who he was.
    "Of course, at the time, we felt that it was merely the fact that he was dazed. Apparently he'd struck his head on a curb when… when my fender had hit him."
    "There's a walk on the inside of the hedge by the patio?" Mason asked.
    "That's right. There's the public sidewalk along the street on the outside of the hedge, and then there's a walk along the inside, flagstones set into the lawn, but there's a cement curb, a sort of retaining wall running along the edge of the flagstone walk, with the lawn about eighteen inches higher than the flag walk."
    "All right," Mason said. "Go on. What happened?"
    "Well, it was obvious that the injury to Bob's head had given him amnesia. He didn't know who he was or where he was, or what it was all about."
    "And then what happened?"
    She said, "I don't know all of the details. I know that Mr. Allred and Mother had a whispered consultation and then went in the other room and talked for a while. You see, Bob Fleetwood is Mr. Allred's right-hand man. He knows a lot about the business, and right at the present time there are some very important matters pending."
    "Such as what?" Mason asked.
    "Well, for one thing, Mr. Jerome and Mr. Allred are having some trouble. I think they're ready to dissolve the partnership. It's a question of who pays the money and how much is taken. I think Fleetwood knows something there.
    "Then there's the lawsuit with Dixon Keith. I think Fleetwood is the key witness there, and if people should know that Fleetwood had lost his memory-- well, even if he got it back, you know what a lawyer would do. He'd get Bob on the stand and ask him if such and such wasn't the case, and if Fleetwood said 'No,' he'd ask him if it wasn't true he'd lost his memory for a while and ask him how he knew he had made a complete recovery. He'd make things pretty tough for Bob."
    "So what?"
    "So Mr. Allred decided that my mother had better tell Fleetwood she was his married sister, that Bertrand Allred was his brother-in-law, and I was his niece.
    "And that's absolutely everything there was to it, Mr. Mason. My