Read The Case of the Horrified Heirs for Free Online Page B

that way," she said, slowly, but then added quickly, "Then why did he plant the dope in my suitcase?"
    "If he did, it was probably because he wanted to have you thoroughly discredited," Mason said. "Yours was one of those marriages that has been dissolved in hatred. You'd better quit looking back over your shoulder, turn around and face the future."
    "Well, I-I'll sleep on it and let you know in the morning."
    "Do that," Mason said.
    "I'm sorry I disturbed you at this hour."
    "Not at all. We were working on some briefs here in the office, and after I read that statement in the paper, I thought you might be calling, so I told Della to plug in an outside line.
    "You're in the clear now, stop worrying."
    "Thank you," she said, and hung up.
    The phone had hardly been cradled when there was a buzz at the door of her apartment.
    Virginia crossed over and opened the door a few inches.
    The man who stood in the doorway was somewhere around forty-five years of age, with dark wavy hair, a closeclipped mustache and intense obsidian black eyes.
    "You're Mrs. Baxter?" he asked.
    "Yes."
    "I'm very sorry to bother you at this time, Mrs. Baxter. I know how you must be feeling, but I come to you on a matter of some importance."
    "What is it?" she asked, still keeping the chain on the door.
    "My name," he told her, "is George Menard-I read about you in the paper. I don't like to bring up a disagreeable subject, but of course you know that the news of your trial has been in all the papers."
    "Well?" she asked.
    "I noticed in the paper that you had been the secretary of Delano Bannock, an attorney, during his lifetime."
    "That's right."
    "Mr. Bannock died several years ago, I believe."
    "That also is correct."
    "I am trying to find out what was done with his files," the man said.
    "Why?"
    "Frankly, I want to locate a paper."
    "What sort of a paper?"
    "A carbon copy of an agreement which Mr. Bannock drew up for me. I've lost the original and I don't want the other party to the agreement to know it. There are certain things that I have to do under that agreement and while I think I can remember what they are, it would be an enormous help if I could locate a carbon copy."
    She shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't help you."
    "You were employed by him at the time of his death?"
    "Yes."
    "What happened to the office furniture and all that?"
    "Why, the office was closed up. There was no reason for the estate to go on paying rent."
    "But what happened to the office furniture?"
    "I believe it was sold."
    The man frowned. "To whom was it sold? You know who bought the desks, filing cases, chairs?"
    "No, they were sold to some second-hand office furniture outfit. I kept the typewriter I had been using. Everything else was sold."
    "Filing cases and everything?"
    "Everything."
    "What happened to the old papers?"
    "They were destroyed-No, wait a minute, wait a minute. I remember talking with his brother and telling him that the papers should be kept. I remember now, I wanted him to keep the filing cases intact."
    "The brother?"
    "That's right. Julian Bannock. He was the sole heir. There weren't any other relatives. The estate was a small one.
    "You see, Delano Bannock was one of those devoted attorneys who was more interested in doing a job than in getting a fee. He worked literally day and night. He had no wife or family and he spent four or five evenings a week in his office, working until ten or eleven o'clock. But the modern idea of keeping track of time by the hour just never occurred to him. He would put in hours and hours on some little agreement that had a point that interested him and then he'd make only a moderate charge. The result was that he didn't leave much of an estate."
    "What about the fees that were due him at the time of his death?"
    "I wouldn't know about that, but it's very well known that the estates of professional men have a lot of trouble with outstanding accounts."
    "And where could I find Julian Bannock?"
    "I don't know," she