Chapter 7 Chapter VII

Near five o'clock, the phone rang, and Della picked up the receiver and said, "Yes, Gertie." In an instant, her face wrinkled into a ball. "You know I don't take personal calls in the office, Gertie—you wait." Della covered the microphone with her palm, turned to Mason and said, "There is a woman who refuses to give her name and wants to talk to me about Judson Wanney. What should I do?" Mason picked up his receiver and said, "Gerdy, connect my line to Della's, but don't mention that I'm online." "Okay, Gertie," Della said. "I'll take the call."

Mason heard a feminine but irascible voice. "Listen, Miss Della Streeter, I want to know what makes you think you'll get away. I'll tell you something. I checked the passenger list of the 'Queen of Jamaica' on which Judson Wanney was aboard, and you The name is not on it at all, the first time I heard your story, I knew the whole thing was fake. Now, I want to know what your intentions are. Don't think you are going to hook my man anytime soon. I am I'm not afraid to fight, and I'll fight any way I can. Now, can you tell me what this whole thing is all about?"

Mason motioned for Della to hang up, and he and Della hung up at the same time. "Okay," Della said. "Another tricky business, my God! Boss, she's obviously very angry." Mason said: "This is the disaster caused by letting a student write a script by hand and try to act according to the script. Who do you think that person might be? Della." "I think it might be Rosalie Harvey or Adele Chester. I don't recognize her voice." Mason said: "It's getting worse now, and someone went to the trouble of checking the list of Wannie's cruise ships. Amateur liars still can't escape the raw color. Della, we shouldn't let them write this script."

"We're in a situation where..." Gertie, the receptionist and switchboard, appeared at the door of the office and said, "Mr. Mason, there is a Mr. George Bellington who wants to see you. He said he has a very urgent business and must see you. I think he is for something. He came. He wanted me to tell you that you met at Mr. Warren's." Mason and Della exchanged a look. "I'll come in privately," Getty said. "Because he's been trying to trick me." "In what way?" Mason asked. "He asked about Miss Della, where she went on vacation, and asked me if I remembered her vacation in the Caribbean."

Mason told Della: "You go to the law library, go out the door there and go home. I'm going to talk to Bellington alone. He says he wants to see me, but he might actually want to talk to you. He wants to talk to you. It's just that fabricated Caribbean trip...why can't our clients be high-ranked liars?" "He's nice," Della said. "He might be good," Mason pointed out. "But the way he adores you, it's like a pile of bricks is about to fall on you, and the girl next to him looks bored and churns inside. Maybe it's her telling him you never had sex with Wannie on the same ferry."

Mason said to Gertie again, "Keep him a while, don't let him lure you into talking about anyone or anything. I'll call you when Della is out of the law library, and you let him in." " "Yes, Mr. Mason." Getty said.Her eyes were wide and round, looking at the two people in front of her.Then, reluctantly leave the office. "Look what you've done," Della said. "Gerdia is such a mysterious thing, she will try to dig out the conspiracy hidden in the dark..." Mason walked toward the law library. "Let's go," he said. "I'll tell Mr. Bellington you've gone home. When I make up a lie, I'll make it sound like it's true."

"I'm on my way." Della said, picked up her leather bag, stopped in front of the mirror for a while, and then disappeared behind the door leading to the library. After a while, Mason picked up the microphone and said, "Okay, Gertie." Presently George Bellington came in hastily. "Hello, Mr. Mason," he said. "Thank you for meeting with me without prior appointment. I am deeply concerned about an incident that occurred this afternoon." "Really?" Mason asked. "Is your secretary here?" "She's gone." "I got an anonymous call and it bothered me."

"Who called?" "I have no idea." "Male or female?" "I can't even be sure of that. But I think it's a woman, trying to lower her voice...to pretend..." "Can you pick out features of the man's speech, like the pauses between words, or any artifice of expression?" Mason asked. "I can't...why ask?" "I'm just guessing," Mason said. "What is the intention of the person making this call?" "The purpose of this call was to let me know that your attendance at the dinner last night was purely for work. Mr. Warren arranged for you to spy on me. Wannie did not travel with Della at all, he was only at the beginning of the dinner. Met Della not long ago."

Mason said: "This woman thinks too much, doesn't she? Why is someone paying me to watch you?" "That's the part I want you to tell me," Bellington said. "I can't tell you anything I don't know, and I don't want to waste time answering your anonymous phone calls." "I want to hear from you that my information was wrong, that your presence was only social, and that Della and Wannie have known each other for some time." "Can this make you feel relaxed?..." Mason said. "Frankly, yes." "May I ask why?"

"I haven't said all the conversations yet," Bellington said. "Perhaps you'd better make it clear." "The person on the other end of the line suggested that Warren suspected that I was getting too close to his wife and that he was going to file for a divorce." "In this case," Mason said. "There's only one thing you can do." "What is it?" "Contact Horace Warren and ask him frankly." "The trouble with this is that I—I can't be completely out of it. I'm so haunted by it now that I want to lay it all out for you, Mr. Mason. Any account of this ridiculous story, or Anything Mr. Lun suspects me of being involved with his wife, I'd... well, it would be a disaster."

"But you seem to have something to tell me?" Mason asked. "Yes, although the purpose of my trip is to ask you for advice, but you are turning your back on the customer." "You have something to tell me?" Mason reminded him. "No, I have no intention of doing so, nor do I intend to do so." "But," Mason laughed. "You're about to tell me something, because you've gone too far to stop." Bellington cleared his throat, shifted his position, and said, "Warren and I have known each other for a while, and we have been to his house two or three times, but we have never discussed business—until recently." Mason nodded. "So I got to know his wife, Lorna, and of course Judson Wanney. About two months ago, Wanney came to me and asked me if I could value some unlisted stocks. He thought I was better than him. better terms to value, and I'm sure it is. The company is in an area I'm familiar with, and I own some stocks in that area. They have very high speculative value, so I reasonably estimate the present value of these shares at about seventeen thousand dollars." "Did you tell Wannie?" "yes." "What happened next?" "After Wannie thanked me, I didn't hear from him for a while. Until two weeks ago, Wanney came to me again and asked if I could cash out those shares for him. Immediately, I became suspicious. I asked him Did he own those shares? If so, how did he acquire them? He told me with a smile that they belonged to Mrs. Warren, who had bought some speculatively, although her husband did not like her But she still encourages her husband to invest in oil exploration business, hoping to make a fortune in oil one day. Even if the chance is only one in hundreds of thousands. He mentioned that Mrs. Warren needs some cash at present, but does not want to alarm Her husband, so she wants to sell some stocks in her hand, and her husband doesn't know about these stocks." "Then what did you do?" "I told Wani I'd try and see if I could help. I'd be happy to write a check for seventeen thousand, but if the shares could be transferred to my name, I might get higher prices." "So did you do it?" "I have transferred those shares to my name, which of course has aroused suspicion among other shareholders of the company. My private investment in this company has made shareholders think they can do more successfully than they originally thought." "Have you sold your stock yet?" Mason asked. "I sold it at a high price of 28,000 yuan." "What do you do with the proceeds of this transaction?" "That's what bothers me," Bellington said. "Wonnie asked me to pay him cash in twenty, fifty and one hundred dollar denominations." "Have you ever further verified that the cash was actually delivered to Mrs. Warren?" "Oh, of course, I'm not that stupid, Mason. I met her at a luncheon and asked her." "Did you specifically ask 'Did you get the exact amount I forwarded?' or..." "Oh no, I didn't ask that much. I just told her that I sold her for a good price; she replied that the deal was much higher than she expected and she made a good profit from the deal .She thanked me sweetly for my help." "Did she ever ask you not to give any wind of it?" "She did ask, but the wording was different. She said she couldn't ask her husband to handle the deal on her behalf because it was a private speculation that she did and her husband probably wouldn't agree to it because He doesn't like her engaging in highly speculative investing activities." "So, what happened to make you suspicious?" Mason asked. "It was the phone call, and the fact that Wannie said he was an old friend of your secretary, and that you were there because of Miss Streeter—well, Mason, I just wanted to make sure Is your relationship with Warren a business one? If so, is there any possibility of a... divorce, and would I be involved?" Mason said: "Bellington, you are a businessman. You only need to think about it a little bit, and you will find that if you want to find the answer, you are asking the wrong place." "What do you mean by that?" "As a lawyer, you can't share anything about your clients, and if you sense that Warren is considering legal action against his wife and that you might be implicated, the thing you should do is go straight to the Go to Warren and ask about legal proceedings." "It's just giving away my cards." "Indeed." Mason replied. "I... well, honestly, Mason, I'm worried, I can't go to Warren, you can understand." "Then you should understand, I can't tell you what you want to know." "Well, I just wish you would reveal it." "If I was employed by Warren in a business relationship and he wanted me to cover up the fact of the business relationship, it would be very difficult for me to leak information to Warren's first friend who came to find out." "I didn't ask you to do that, I just wanted you to tell me if...well, if I'm going to get in trouble for what I did." "I don't think so," Mason said. "From my point of view, your actions are frank and justified. If the facts are as you describe, I don't see anyone taking legal action against you." Bellington's face lit up and he said, "Thank you very much, Mason. I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart, and I know you're in a position where you don't want to reveal anything." "I can't tell you that I'm here for social or work reasons," Mason said. "I can only admit to you that Wannie did come here to see Della and told me stories about the cruise and stuff, just like he's told everyone else." "So, then there should be no business connection, nothing to do with it..." "Wait a minute," Mason said. "Don't twist the meaning. Like I said, Wannie came to my office and met Della, and then told me the same story." "Okay, okay. I thought maybe someone was trying to make trouble." "Who could it be?" Mason asked. "Well," Bellington said. "I thought it was a woman, but she was too clumsy in her falsetto trying to pretend." "Do you have an idea, who is this woman?" "Oh, everyone's going to have an idea," Bellington gestured with his hand. "But those ideas don't necessarily make sense. It's like the golden advice of your lawyers 'show evidence!' So I don't intend to make any accusations or insinuations without evidence." "In other words," Mason said. "Now it's your turn to be cautious." Bellington stood up and said, "Thank you very much for meeting me, and I'm sorry to trouble you because of these things." "It doesn't matter." Mason said. "You will keep my visit a secret?" Mason said: "From a social point of view, I'm going to keep what you say a secret. But from a professional point of view, I represent my clients, and I often have to give them information that I discover." "Wait a minute," Bellington said. "I've come to you to talk about this, and I don't expect you to pass those words on to clients." "Then you shouldn't have told me those words," Mason said. "A lawyer is the client's agent, and he must be honest with the client." "Oh—well," said Bellington. "I've come here and laid my cards on the table, so be it, I trust your prudence and... well, I don't think you'll betray my secrets unless necessary. Good afternoon, Mr. Mason." "Good afternoon." Mason said solemnly. Mason looked out into the reception room and found that Gertie had already left.He closed his office and stopped by Paul Derek on his way to the elevator. "Is Paul there?" Mason asked the receptionist who was on the phone. She nodded, pointed toward a wooden door leading to a hallway, and continued on her phone. Mason opened the wooden door and walked into an aisle lined with cubicle offices, where staff used to negotiate with clients or witnesses, and finally Mason came to Derek's office at the end of the aisle. The office is cramped enough to accommodate Derek's desk chair, two visitor chairs, and a trash can.There are four phones on the table, and Derek is on the line on one of them. He nodded to Mason, motioned him to sit down, and continued on the phone. "Well, see what you can find out, but don't meddle too much. Handle this matter carefully, see if you can find out who is involved in this matter, etc... I know this is not easy, but try your best Do it with all your strength." Derek hung up the phone and said to Mason: "I guess, you need to know the result of our investigation of the person who appeared in your office." "Not bad." Mason said. Derek grinned and said, "That guy is like Halley's Comet, with a long tail." "What does that mean?" Mason asked. Derek said: "First, he was blatantly followed by one person, and then probably because of the urgency of the matter, there were two to five people who were secretly followed." "Have your men spotted the stalker?" "I sent two guys on duty," Derek said. "And instruct them to take turns working with each other, and keep me informed on the phone at any time... I can tell you, Mason, that he knows he's being targeted, and I'm guessing he's aware that my men are joining the ranks, though I'm not entirely sure. Can only speculate for sure. But he must have known that the Stalker was on duty." "Yes, I'm sure he knows." Mason said. "He was staying in a small hotel called the Elkmen Hotel. The hotel was so small that it hadn't been demolished and rebuilt. It was sandwiched between two old buildings and the whole area looked like it was waiting to be demolished. It can be remodeled into a modern building. However, the Akmen Hotel also provides cheap rooms for rent.” "How did he check in?" Mason asked. "He was registered under Newton's name, which I suspect may not be his real name." "Did he go straight from my office to the hotel?" "He took the whole team of stalkers to the hotel," Derek said. "He at least knew there was a stalker on duty, but he wasn't going to get rid of him." Mason said: "Paul, when I deal with blackmailers, I am merciless." "Who isn't!" Derek said. Mason said: "If you look at it from the perspective of business ethics, the way I handled it would be considered unethical." "Dealing with blackmailers doesn't have to be ethical," Derek said. Mason said: "I'll give you a piece of reference information. This person's name is Christ Damon Giton. He is a very clever blackmailer. Because he has just been released from a federal prison, he is in a multi-faceted environment. If it weren't for this, he would have tortured me to death. I must bluff him as if I had all the trump cards in my hand." "Who is he blackmailing?" "it's me." "It's you!" Derek exclaimed in astonishment. "good." "What does he have about you, Paley." "He didn't have anything to do with me," Mason said. "But he can embarrass me by continuing to visit my office." "Oh," Derek said. "That says it all. The government operatives will think that someone among your clients can lead them to where the money is." "Good," Mason said. "The authorities will maintain a high level of interest in whoever Gidon contacts." "So he visited you and put you in the spotlight of the authorities." "Probably not yet," Mason said. "But if he keeps coming and harassing me, that's definitely the case. The authorities most likely think I'm acting as a go-between." Derek frowned and said, "He obviously intends to put you in a disadvantageous situation, Paley." Mason nodded in agreement. "And," Derek continued. "There's almost nothing you can do, if he keeps coming to your office, there's nothing you can do to stop him other than calling the police and saying he's being blackmailed to stop him, but you're not going to call the police to protect your clients of." "And that gets to what I just said, Paul, that when a man is confronted with a blackmailer, he will use any weapon available to him to any extreme." "Is there anything on your mind?" Mason nodded and said, "Can you find a close-up photo of Gidon's face for me?" "Of course, it's in the police file." "Can you find a painter?" Mason asked. "A painter?" Derek asked. "A police portraitist," Mason said. "Then get some police sketch sheets for suspects, and I want some sketches that look like Gitton, but that look like they were drawn from eyewitness descriptions. You know How the police put together the photos. You have to get a police portrait artist to draw a sketch that looks like Giton based on a close-up of Giton's face." "What's next?" Derek asked. "Next," Mason said. "I want to create an opportunity for him to break free from the shadow of stalkers - including stalkers with eyes and shadows, so that he can survive on his own." "How are you going to do it?" "I'll use money," Mason said. "Pay him off." "Once you start paying out, it's like pouring money down a mouse hole, forever," says Derek. Mason shook his head and smiled: "When Gidon got rid of the tracking, naturally, he got rid of any alibi." "What next?" "Next," Mason said. "I showed him the portrait of the police and told him that it was a portrait drawn by the police based on eyewitnesses' description of a suspect in a certain crime, and it would be published in the newspaper soon." "He will know that you are planning to frame him." Derek said. "He might know, but there's nothing he can do," Mason said. "The greatest weakness of a convicted villain is that when he denies any crime, his past convictions can still be invoked as a basis for questioning the credibility of his testimony." "But," Derek argued. "Should he inquire with the police, he will find that the portrait is nothing more than a patchwork of fragmentary portraits, and that there is no such portrait in the police files..." "Would a blackmailer, a thug trying to escape the authorities, go to the police and check their files?" Mason asked. Derek thought for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Okay," he said. "You win." "It's too early to say we won," Mason said. "But I intend to fight back against the cunning Gidon. I warned him that I have no mercy for blackmailers." "Even so, you still can't frame a person with a false charge." Derek said. "I don't mean that," Mason said. "I want him to know that I framed him for a crime I wanted to do with nothing more than to send him to the gas chamber or send him back to spend the rest of his life in a cage. Paul, when you're dealing with blackmailers, there's nothing you can do The only thing is to fight back." "Okay," Derek said. "How tough do you want me to be with those stalkers?" "Let those stalkers still stare at him," Mason said. "Go find a close-up of Gidon's face, find a painter, and make some police-style portraits of Gidon for me in the meantime." "Okay," Derek said. "I'll do it."