The Case of the Troubled Trustee (4 page)

Hedley got to his feet and was promptly joined by Desere. Mrs. Hedley hesitated for a moment and then slowly arose from her chair.

"Thank you for calling," Mason said.

Della Street held open the exit door and they marched out.

When the door had closed, Mason turned to his secretary with a worried look. "I am probably violating all sorts of professional ethics," he said. "I'm afraid I'm getting swept along on the same current which has caused Kerry Dutton to lose his footing."

"Meaning you're falling in love with the girl?" Della Street asked, smiling.

Mason said, "I guess there's always the temptation to play God… Here's a woman who has frittered away her life and, as far as she knows, all of the money that her father left her. She's tied up with some radicals who are writing intellectual poetry, espousing theoretical political views predicated upon limited experience and less knowledge; and she's now just at the point of corning to grips with herself."

"Well," Della Street asked, "what should you do? Tell her the truth?"

Mason said after a moment's thought, "I am not my client's conscience-only his lawyer."

Chapter Three

It was the next morning when Della Street handed Mason the folded newspaper as he entered the office.

"What's this?" Mason asked. "The financial page?"

"Right."

"What's the trouble?"

"Read it," she said. "Unless I'm mistaken, there's plenty of trouble."

Mason read the paragraph she indicated.

It was announced last night that Steer Ridge Oil & Refining Company had brought in a gusher proving up an entirely new territory in the Crystal Dome area. Market value of the company stock had been steadily declining and according to Jarvis Reader, president of the company, the news of this strike will reverse the downward trend. The new gusher is reported in an entirely new field which had previously been abandoned by one of the major oil companies as nonproductive.

Mason gave a low whistle. "Better get our client, Kerry Dutton, on the phone, Della."

She nodded. "I looked up his number. I felt perhaps you'd want to call him."

She picked up the instrument, said, "Give me an outside line, Gertie." And then her fingers flew over the dial.

She held the phone for several seconds, then her eyebrows raised. She made a little gesture to Mason but she continued holding on for another ten seconds.

At the end of that time, she dropped the telephone back into place.

"No answer?" Mason asked.

"No answer."

Mason said, "Ring up my broker, Della. Tell him I want fifty shares of Steer Ridge Oil and Refining."

Della Street put through the call, transmitted the order, then said, "He wants to talk with you personally, Chief."

Mason nodded. "Put him on."

The lawyer picked up the telephone on his desk and said, "Yes, Steve, what is it?"

"You know something in particular or are you just playing a hunch on that paragraph in the paper this morning?"

"Well, it's a little of both," Mason said. "Why?"

"I don't know about that Steer Ridge stock," the broker said. "It's skyrocketed. Somebody apparently has been snapping up stock for the last few days and the thing has climbed sky high. It had been down to almost nothing."

"What do you know about the company?" Mason asked.

"Nothing much. It got along pretty well for a while; then the stockholders were reported to •be fighting among themselves. There may be a proxy battle. A fellow by the name of Jarvis Reader is president. He's a queer sort of a duck, apparently a wild-eyed gambler who committed the company to taking up all sorts of leases on territory that had lots of acreage and not very much else. Under his management the stock has been steadily declining for some time. Recently someone started trying to get proxies.

"Now, whenever that happens in a low-priced stock the management tries to counter with news that will put the stock up in price. Hence a good reason for this paragraph in the paper; or they may really have a new field and the insiders have kept the news from the public so as to buy up stock; or it may be just a rumor.

"I was wondering if you have any inside information."

"Not me," Mason said. "I was hoping you had some."

"I've told you mine."

"Okay," Mason said, "buy me fifty shares at the market, regardless of what it costs. I want to be a stockholder in the company."

"Okay, if you say so," the broker said. "But I'd advise you not to go overboard simply on the strength of that newspaper report. That security has been a dog. A lot of people who had held it for years have sold out during the last year and some of them have taken quite a loss."

"Keep your eye on it," Mason said. "If there should be any really startling developments, let me know."

The lawyer hung up the telephone, glanced at Della Street, and said, "I wonder how our client is feeling about now?"

"That," Della Street said, "is a good question. Of course, he said he had the power to buy and sell, but the beneficiary thinks she has a block of that stock and that it's skyrocketing. On the strength of that feeling, she may be committing herself to all sorts of beatnik endowments."

The telephone on Della Street's desk rang.

Della Street picked it up, said, "Yes, Gertie?" Then after a few moments, said, "Just a minute. Have him wait on the line."

She turned to Perry Mason and said, "Fred Hedley is calling. He says that it's on a matter of the greatest importance and that he knows you will want to talk with him. He has some important information for you."

Mason hesitated a moment, then nodded and picked up his phone.

Della Street threw the switch which put both phones on the same line.

Mason said, "Hello. Perry Mason speaking."

Fred Hedley's voice was so excited that the words were all but telescoped together.

"Mr. Mason. Mr. Mason. I've got some wonderful news. This is really something! Have you seen the financial page of the morning paper?"

"What about it?" Mason asked.

"They've struck it rich. Steer Ridge Oil and Refining has proved up a new territory and brought in a big gusher."

Mason said, "This is Fred Hedley talking?"

"That's right, Mr. Mason. You remember me. I was in your office with my mother and Desere Ellis. I'm the one that's establishing the foundation."

"Oh, yes," Mason said. "What does the Steer Ridge Oil and Refining Company have to do with your foundation, Mr. Hedley?"

"Everything in the world," Hedley said. "Some of the stock that's held in the trust for Desere Ellis is a big block of the Steer Ridge Oil and Refining. It's going up in value like a skyrocket."

"Well, that's interesting," Mason said. "How do you know it's still in the trust?"

"It has to be. That was the stock that Desere's father wanted Dutton to hang on to and sell only as a last resort."

"Was it a condition of the trust?"

"I don't know," Hedley said with a trace of irritation in his voice. "You should know. You're representing the guy."

"I am not familiar with the terms of the trust as far as all of the securities are concerned," Mason said. "I gathered from what you have told me that you were, and I was just asking the question. You folks told me he had distributed all but about fifteen thousand dollars. That means he must have had to sell some of the securities."

"Not the Steer Ridge," Hedley said confidently. "There's some sort of a proxy fight on, and a man called on Desere just a couple of weeks ago to get her proxies. She sent him to Dutton.

"That stock is going up like a rocket. It'll be worth thousands, hundreds of thousands!"

Mason said, "I fail to see just what difference all this makes-to you."

"This simply means there will now be adequate funds for us to carry out the work we want. Desere can give me the financial backing and I'll go to work on that endowment. It's going to be one of the biggest things in the whole world of creative art, Mr. Mason.

"Don't you understand what it's going to mean? My Lord, here are potential geniuses starving to death and being forced into some kind of a commercial treadmill occupation simply because they can't hang on until an unappreciative society recognizes their talent.

"We're going to create future Rembrandts. That is, they won't be stuffy like Rembrandt-they'll be truly creative in every sense of the word. We're going to develop writing geniuses. We're going to develop poets. We're going to emancipate American art and talent."

"Have you told Desere about this new development?" Mason asked.

"I haven't been able to get her thus far, but I certainly hope I can be the first to tell her. This was the day she started school, you know-business school."

"I see," Mason said. "Well, thank you very much for calling."

"Can you tell me where I can get in touch with Kerry Dutton?" Hedley asked.

"No," Mason said.

"I should talk with him right away in case he doesn't know about developments."

"You don't have his address?"

"I wasn't interested enough to ever ask for his address. Frankly, Mason, I think your client is a square, and I think he handled that trust like a fool."

"How should he have handled it?" Mason asked.

"He should have conserved the assets so there'd be enough money for Desere to do something that would really make a mark. Why, if he'd been careful and held her down to earth on expenses, she could have lived on just the income from the securities, and the principal could have been intact for something of this sort."

"All right," Mason said. "Thank you for calling but I'm not permitted to give out my client's address. I think the proper procedure would be for you to call Miss Ellis, have Miss Ellis call Dutton, and Dutton call me."

"All right," Hedley said, "if that's the way you want it. I was just trying to do you a favor."

"I appreciate your interest," Mason said. "Good-by." And the lawyer hung up.

Della Street, who had been monitoring the conversation and taking shorthand notes, looked up from her book and said, "Well, that's that. The fat seems to be in the fire."

Mason said, "Hang it, you have to sympathize with Dutton's viewpoint despite the fact it's irregular. However, if it comes to a showdown on a strict legal basis, we can probably keep him in the clear.

"He had every right on earth to sell any securities that he wanted to and invest the money in other securities. He didn't have any right to mislead his beneficiary and he should have made accountings. He had no right to mingle his own funds with those of the trust. Somehow I have an idea that when Mrs. Hedley finds out about all this and finds out that the stock in the Steer Ridge Oil and Refining Company was sold a year ago, there's going to be a fine, large mix-up and I am going to be right in the middle of it."

"That," Della Street said, "seems to me to be the understatement of the week. What are we going to tell Desere?"

"The same thing we tell everybody," Mason said. "We are representing Dutton. We are not representing anyone else. We can give out no information. Let them get in touch with Dutton, and Dutton, in turn, will get in touch with me."

"When this news gets to him," Della Street said, "he'll- Well, he may take to the tall timber."

"How do you know he isn't there now?" Mason asked.

She looked at the lawyer for a long, thoughtful moment and then said, "That's right. We don't."

Chapter Four

Shortly after lunch Mason said, "Della, write out Kerry Dutton's name, address and telephone number on a card, will you please? And call Paul Drake at the Drake Detective Agency. Ask him if he can come in for a minute.

"Also, ring up my broker and make certain I am now a stockholder in the Steer Ridge Oil and Refining Company."

"If there's anything going on behind the scenes with inside information," Della Street said, "the insiders certainly had a wonderful opportunity for stock manipulation.''