Read Online The Case of the Lucky Legs by Erle Stanley Gardner - Free Book Online

Apartments," Perry Mason told her.
    Thelma Bell's voice was quick and positive.
    "You didn't see her coming out of the Holliday Apartments," she said. "She's been with me all the evening, haven't you, Margy?"
    Marjorie Clune continued to stare at Perry Mason, her big blue eyes showing a hint of panic. She said nothing.
    "The idea," Thelma Bell went on in a louder voice, "of you making such a statement as that! What would she be doing in Frank Patton's apartment? Anyway, she was with me all evening."
    Perry Mason stared steadily at Marjorie Clune.
    "Listen, Marjorie," he said in a kindly tone, "I'm here to represent you. You're in a jam. If you don't know it now, you will know it pretty soon. I'm a lawyer. I'm retained to represent your interests. I want to do what's best for you. I want to talk with you. Do I talk now, or do you want to wait until you can talk with me alone?"
    "No," she said, "I want to talk now."
    "Go ahead," Perry Mason told her, "and get some clothes on."
    He turned to Thelma Bell.
    "You, too," he said.
    There was a small dressing-room which opened on one side of a swinging mirror, on the back of which was a wall bed. The girls exchanged glances, then moved swiftly toward the dressing-room.
    "Don't take too much time comparing notes," Perry Mason said. "It won't do you any good. We've got to get down to brass tacks. The police may be here any minute. Make it snappy."
    The door of the little dressing room slammed.
    Perry Mason got up from the chair in which he had been seated. He looked around the apartment. He went to the bathroom and opened the door. Water was draining from the tub. There was a bath mat on the floor with wet stains on it. A wet towel lay in a heap near the bath mat. Perry Mason looked around. There were no clothes in the bathroom. He walked back to the apartment, saw a closet door, walked to the closet and opened the door. There was a long white coat with a fox fur collar hanging close to the door. Perry Mason picked up the bottom of the coat and ran it carefully through his fingers.
    There was a puzzled frown on his face as he finished with his examination and let the coat drop back into position on the hanger. He noticed a shelf of shoes, and took down the shoes one at a time. There were no white shoes on the shelf.
    He stood for a moment with his legs spread apart, standing with his weight slightly forward, his eyes squinted in thought, staring meditatively at the white coat with the fox fur collar. He was still standing in that position when the door of the dressing-room opened and Marjorie Clune entered the room, tugging her dress into position. A moment later, and Thelma Bell followed.
    "Do you want to talk in front of her?" asked Perry Mason, jerking his head toward Thelma Bell.
    "Yes," she said. "I haven't any secrets from Thelma Bell."
    "Do you want to talk frankly and tell me everything?"
    "Yes."
    "I'll tell you first about me," Perry Mason told her. "I'm a lawyer. I've handled some pretty big cases here and I've been fairly successful. J.R. Bradbury is in this city. He's looking for you. He wanted to build up a case against Patton. He wanted to put Patton in jail if he could. He went up to see the district attorney; they told him nothing doing, that they didn't have enough evidence. Then he came to me. I think he wanted me to try and get a confession of some sort out of Patton. I think the district attorney had told him that he'd have to have something like that before we could do anything.
    "Anyhow, I got a detective and we started locating Patton. We finally located Thelma Bell. She gave us a lead on Patton."
    Perry Mason turned to Thelma Bell.
    "You talked with some one from the detective agency tonight," he said.
    She nodded.
    "I didn't know he was a detective," she said. "I didn't know what he wanted. He wanted some information. I gave it to him. I didn't know what he wanted to use it for."
    "Well," Perry Mason said, "that's the story. I was retained to represent you. I was