My sequel to 'A Long Time Ago', and still borrowing the characters from Erle Stanley Gardner. My stories are based on the characters portrayed in the original Perry Mason TV series.

All comments are appreciated.

Chapter One

"Good morning, Della Street!" Her name rolling off of his tongue gave Perry Mason a warm feeling all over. He greeted her on the porch steps of her Aunt's Malibu home. This home was her temporary living situation upon returning to Los Angeles from a short trip to Chicago. Once again, as it had in the past, the heavenly fragrance of her perfume captured his attention and he inhaled the pleasing scent more deeply. Perry held out his hand to guide her into his grasp. The sun was shining on her short curly brown hair and her hazel eyes sparkled as she walked towards him off of the porch. Just the smile on her face caused his heart to skip a beat. She was so beautiful!

"Good morning to you, Mr. Mason!" Della Street shifted a coffee thermos from under her left arm to her right arm as Perry gently gripped her left elbow to escort her down the porch steps to his car. He was handsome as ever, a dark fedora hat on his head, dressed in a dark suit with striped light blue tie and a white handkerchief neatly tucked into his suit coat pocket. A gentleman in every way, Della once again felt goose bumps all over just from his soft touch on her arm. He stood six feet two inches tall and his broad shoulders cast a giant shadow blocking out the morning sun on the porch. She was looking forward to her first day working her new job in his law firm. She was looking forward to just being with him!

"You come prepared, I see. But I believe you'll see that my... uh... our office... has proper coffee-making equipment." Perry opened the passenger door of his new '49 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Convertible. Della gracefully seated her slender five foot five inch frame in the car then positioned the thermos and her purse on her lap. Perry somehow managed to calmly walk around to the drivers' door of the car and got in behind the wheel. That was Perry today – calm on the outside and all giddy on the inside. On a beautiful day like this with a gorgeous woman at his side, Perry was tempted to take her on a drive along the coast. But the temptation faded when he came back to his senses and decided that there will be other days to play hooky once he gets her settled into her new job.

"Well... a new secretary always tries to please her new boss on her first day of work. A cup of coffee for the boss to start the day works wonders! Besides, it's the least I could do to thank you for driving all the way to Malibu to drive me to the office." She opened the thermos and poured a shot into the thermos cover cup offering it to her boss. Della's low sultry voice gave Perry a better jump start to his heart than any amount of caffeine could.

"The pleasure of driving you to work is all mine, Miss Street. Besides, it's my way of keeping you captive as my new secretary. You might take one look around the office, see all of the disorder and run away screaming. It's my intention to keep you for a very long time!" Perry gratefully accepted the coffee. His smile was wide as he drove away from the curb with his beautiful confidential secretary at his side.

Arriving at the curb of the main entrance to the Brent building in downtown Los Angeles, a valet immediately approached Perry's car to assist Della from the passenger seat. "Morning, Mr. Mason! Do you think you'll be needing your car before noon today?"

Perry got out from behind the wheel of the car and walked around to the curb. "Thanks for asking, but I don't think I'll be leaving the office at all today, Charlie. And I want you to meet my new secretary, Miss Della Street."

Charlie tipped his cap to Della. "Miss Street!" He turned back towards Perry and surreptitiously accepted a rather large gratuity. "I hear that Mrs. Strauss had a baby girl over the weekend. You sure don't waste any time bringing in a replacement, Mr. Mason!"

Perry chuckled a bit and turned towards Della. "Charlie is one of several very efficient valets working here. However, if you need to know the latest gossip in the building, just ask for Charlie when you call down here." He turned back to Charlie who was now seated behind the wheel ready to drive away and park the car. "Thanks, Charlie!"

Once again Perry gently took hold of Della's left elbow to escort her into the building. Waiting for the elevator to the 9th floor, Perry commented on the sudden departure of his former secretary due to the birth of her first child. "Joan was a secretary in my old law firm and I convinced her to come along with me to my new office knowing that she'd only be here until she had her baby."

"Yes. I remember you mentioning that on the plane flying back here from Chicago. I'll bet it was a lot of hard work for her in her condition. I hope I can live up to her hard-working reputation in trying to open a new law office. Shall I arrange for you to send her a gift to congratulate her on the birth of her daughter?"

She thinks of everything! With his hand still on her arm, Perry walked with his head held high and a wide smile on his face as he escorted Della onto the elevator. "That sounds like a good idea, Miss Street. I'm glad you thought of that!" With her at his side, he was on top of the world.

They paused briefly at the door to suite number 904 with "Perry Mason Attorney at Law" posted in big bold letters. Perry held the door open for Della and once inside they were immediately greeted by Perry's receptionist, a petite blonde with bright wide eyes. "Good morning, Mr. Mason. The kitchen area is a mess this morning. We must have had a leaky pipe over the weekend. I couldn't even attempt to make coffee."

"We'll worry about that later, Gertie. I want you to meet our secretary, Miss Della Street. Della, this is our friendly, efficient receptionist Miss Gertie Lade."

Della smiled brightly. "How do you do, Miss Lade? I've heard very nice things about you."

"Oh, please, Miss Street, call me Gertie! We've been anxiously awaiting your arrival. When Mr. Mason came across your application file and showed so much excitement..."

Perry smiled but cut her off right away. "Yes, Gertie, there was a lot of excitement in the office, but let's get Miss Street settled in so we can get this office in order. Miss Street brought along a thermos of coffee, so we'll be in my office going over a to-do list while I figure out what to do about leaky pipes."

Gertie took a good look at Della. Mr. Mason sure knows how to hire impeccably dressed beauties she thought to herself. She quickly looked over her own clothing. She wondered where Miss Street shopped for her office attire.

As she was being whisked out of the receptionist area, Della called back to Gertie, "We'll catch up later, Gertie. And please... call me Della!"

Entering the next office area, Perry paused. "This will be your space, Della. We'll have to arrange to get Mrs. Strauss' belongings back to her, so you can organize this area as you see fit."

Della looked around but Perry quickly led her through the door to his office area. He hung his hat up on a bust of Voltaire. "I've always wanted a Blackstone bust, but Voltaire will have to do for now. It was given to me as a joke from my college frat brothers."

Della followed him into his office, gazed at the beautiful statue and smiled. "That's nice. Voltaire was French I believe. I don't recall his real name, only his pen name."

Perry was impressed. "Yes! Not many people know that his father was a lawyer. They only know him as a writer and philosopher." Della nodded at his extra information.

Perry continued into the office. "So... here is the command center. As you can see, I've got quite a mess in here right now. I left in a little bit of a hurry last Friday." He smiled at Della. "I had to catch a plane to Chicago for an important business meeting."

Della blushed a bit knowing that the "business meeting" he was referring to was meeting her train in Chicago. It was there that he convinced her to return to Los Angeles and accept his job offer to be his Confidential Secretary. She looked around the room.

"I can see how rushed you were, Mr. Mason. You didn't have time to put away the bottle of scotch on your desk." Della grinned and lifted an eyebrow to her boss.

"Uhhh. Yessss. I was in a bit of a hurry." Perry quickly grabbed the scotch bottle and stashed it away in a desk drawer. "Why don't I show you the rest of our office space?" He shifted a stack of papers on his desk and found a cigarette case. After taking a cigarette from the case he shifted the paper stack again and uncovered a lighter to light the smoke.

Della walked over to the desk and uncovered an ash tray for Perry. Next, she removed the scotch bottle from the desk drawer and picked up the empty low-ball glass. "I'll find a better storage place for this, Mr. Mason. Maybe you can direct me to your bar. I'll find a more suitable place to keep your stress-reliever."

Perry was more impressed with her sense of professionalism already. From his desk along the back wall of the office, he walked her past the conference table in front of the sliding glass balcony doors to a door leading to his kitchen area. Switching on a light before bringing Della into the kitchen he cautioned her. "Watch the water on the floor." He glanced down at her beige high-heeled peep-toe shoes and his gaze moved upwards to her beautiful slender legs. The shoes were a perfect match to her slim-fitting long beige skirt that highlighted the curves to her hips. He tore his eyes away from her and took in the scene of the kitchen. "This isn't as bad as I thought it would be."

Della stepped into the room and placed the scotch on a shelf next to a bottle of bourbon. "This space certainly has potential." She was referring to the kitchen area, but was looking at the liquor shelf.

Gertie walked into the office. "Mr. Mason, there's a long distance phone call for you from Mr. Hazelton in San Francisco."

"Thank you, Gertie. Give me just a moment and I'll take it at my desk."

Della took charge of the kitchen area right away. "The carpet over there is probably ruined. Why don't you let me get a hold of building maintenance and I'll start working on this while you take your call? I'll find a coffee cup in here and bring you some more coffee from my thermos."

Perry tiptoed back through the kitchen door and walked to his desk. He shouted to Gertie. "Okay, Gertie. Send the call through please."

Della walked back to the desk in her office and found a phone number list for the building. She dialed up building maintenance and arranged for a plumber and custodial staff member to come to the office. When she heard Perry end his phone conversation, she returned to his office.

"I couldn't help but notice that you had to shout for Gertie to put your call through. Have you considered an intercom system for the office?"

Perry smiled up at Della who was now standing in front of his desk with a hand on her hip. "I was wondering what we were missing around here. And that's why I have you, Miss Street. Why don't we continue our tour of the office here and maybe you'll show me what else we can do to improve our operation?"

Della smiled back. "I just thought that if Gertie or I have to walk back in here for every phone call, your carpet between here and the front door will be worn out in a week! I'll get my steno pad and be right back."

Perry followed Della to her office door instead. "Come with me this way, please. If you cut through this door, you'll be in our.. ahem.. law library."

Della walked through the side door. A large conference table with four chairs was angled awkwardly in the middle of the room. Two walls were covered with book shelves. Mismatched books were scattered about between the table and the book shelves. There were open boxes of more books on the floor. A second door was an exit into Perry's office. Perry tried to defend the looks of the room. "As you can see, I have work to do in here."

Della jotted down notes on her steno pad. "I think I can tackle this project. What's next?"

They walked back into Della's office. Perry pointed out another door behind Della's desk. "This leads back into a washroom and small storage area." They both looked into the room. "As you can see I've had to change clothes and clean myself up a bit in this room. If I had a cot in here, I could almost call it home! That far door leads back into the kitchen area."

Della glanced around the space some more. Suit coats and overcoats hung on a rack along a back wall. Several pairs of shoes were scattered on the floor. There was a small sink beneath a mirror and a toilet nearby. A door led to Perry's office and another door along the back wall led back to the kitchen space. "I don't know what sort of an office equipment budget you have, but if you can afford to add cabinets and closet doors..."

"The budget for the office is negotiable. The kitchen and this area need to be remodeled. Why don't you write down some recommendations and we'll decide on necessity and price?"

"Well right off hand I can see that you'll need a decent refrigerator in the kitchen. Amana makes a new side-by-side refrigerator freezer. You could add an electric stove if you think that you'll be..."

Perry put his hand up. "This place needs a woman's touch. I'll leave the entire remodel job to you. When you finish designing the new area, let me know and I'll write the check. Come to think of it, as my confidential secretary, I think I'll put your name on the office checkbook. You'll be paying the bills and submitting invoices for services, so it only makes sense that you'll have the role of bookkeeper."

"Maybe this is the best time to sit down and you can outline all of your expectations of me." Della flipped to a new page in her steno book and they walked to Perry's desk.

Perry was amazed by her efficiency. Even if he had other plans for her orientation to the office, she was taking charge. "I should apologize for the mess here. I'm way behind on my filing." Perry moved a stack of folders and papers to clear a spot on his desk for Della. "Please... have a seat here." Perry moved a chair to the left side of his desk and Della gracefully seated herself. Perry plopped down in his desk chair. "This should be a suitable place for you. There's a drawer right here..." He tried to open the stuck drawer and had to jerk it before it opened and the contents popped out onto the floor. A file folder slipped off of the edge of the desk and papers drifted to the floor.

Perry and Della both tried to catch some of the pencils and papers as they fell to the floor. As they both bent down towards the floor their heads bumped softly.

They looked at each other and spoke the same words simultaneously. "Oh! I'm sorry!" They both sat up at the same time and again spoke the same words. "Let me take care of this." They laughed and together gathered everything off of the floor and put it back on top of the desk.

"Well there's another item to put on your list, Della. I need to fix the side desk drawer! What I wanted to show you is that this drawer has room for writing utensils and steno pads. Convenient spot for a secretary, that is, if you're comfortable sitting on this side of the desk." He hoped she would agree.

"Desk? There's a desk under all of this?" Della chuckled. "Why don't I review your filing system and start putting some of this in the right place? We can find time later to cover your expectations of me... if that's okay with you?" She started tucking files into her arms. When she loaded all she could carry, Della walked back to her office.

"If you find my desk calendar in this mess, Della, would you please let me know if I have anything scheduled for this afternoon?"

Perry smiled as the reply he heard from the next office was a low throaty chuckle.

PMXODSXOPMXODSXOPMXODSXOPMXODSXOPMXODSXOPMXODSXOPMXODSXO

Della stayed busy the rest of the morning. Perry's desk was cleaned off, papers filed away, and she arranged for a salesman to stop by in the afternoon so the intercom system could be ordered. While Gertie handled phone calls, Della worked in the law library.

Perry completed another of his many phone calls and joined Della in the law library. "You've done a remarkable job filing away my desk mess. Can I interest you in lunch? I have at least an hour before my next appointment is due."

Della quickly glanced at her watch. "Where has the morning gone? Hmmmm. Lunch? What did you have in mind?"

"Well there's a nice place on the first floor of the building here. Clay's Grill has very edible daily lunch specials. Would you like to give it a try?"

"I'm famished! I think that's a wonderful idea!"

"Great. Maybe we'll find time to talk about how much you enjoy working here!" Once again Della smiled and lifted an eyebrow.

Perry and Della were immediately seated in a corner booth and it wasn't long before the owner of Clay's Grill came to their table to greet them.

"Mr. Mason! Nice to see you today. Is this booth satisfactory?"

"It's perfect! Mr. Terrence Clay, I want you to meet my new secretary, Miss Della Street."

"I was wondering if you'd be introducing me to this lovely lady! It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Street. Everyone just calls me 'Clay'."

"It's very nice meeting you... Clay. Mr. Mason insisted that we have lunch here today – he was raving about the daily lunch specials!"

"For Mr. Mason and any of his guests, we have breakfast, lunch and dinner specials – and occasional late night snacks! Welcome! I hope we see you here often." He stepped away as a waitress tapped him on the shoulder and pointed back towards the bar as she whispered to him. The waitress left and he turned back to Perry and Della. "You'll have to excuse me – issues with the brandy supply. Nice seeing you, Perry. And nice to meet you Miss Street!"

While Perry dined on his roast beef special and Della enjoyed her soup and salad, they talked about Perry's schedule for the week and what Della wanted to accomplish. Perry praised her for her work in the law library. "I spend a lot of time in there. I might have you set up a book check out system, though. On occasion I have a bad habit of taking books home overnight."

Della opened her purse and brought out her steno pad. "By any chance do you have these books at home?"

"You carry a note pad in your purse?" She's so efficient! Perry began reading the notes. "Can you translate this gibberish?"

Della moved closer to him and pointed to the list of missing books below her shorthand notes. Perry leaned closer to her and caught another whiff of her sweet scent.

"The shorthand notes are kept secret by secretaries – for our eyes only. I want you to read the book volume numbers below the 'gibberish'."

Perry read the legible notes on the bottom of the page. "I plead the fifth. But don't be surprised if those books reappear tomorrow. And what kind of secrets can you have in just one morning?"

Della just smiled and sipped the rest of her iced tea.

DSXOPMXODSXOPMXODSXOPMXODSXOPMXODSXOPMXODSXOPMXODSXOPMXO

Perry and Della returned to the office and Gertie advised them that the maintenance crew had arrived to check out the kitchen area. She apologized for having to send them into the area through Della's office. "They've been in and out of the office bringing in tools and such. There might be one man back there yet." Gertie handed Perry his phone messages and handed Della the office mail.

Perry continued walking into his office, paging through his messages. Della was sorting the mail by her desk when she was startled by the presence of the maintenance man who walked through her door and grabbed onto her.

"Della Street! I don't believe it!" He lifted Della up off the floor in a bear hug and twirled her around. The stack of mail fell to the floor.

Della shrieked out a loud giggle which brought Perry and Gertie rushing into her office. With a big smile and blushing red cheeks Della continued laughing and playfully fought off the man. "Nicky Santorini! You put me down right this second!"

Nick Santorini, the building maintenance foreman, gently lowered Della to the floor, kissed her on the cheek and took a step back from her to look her over. "You're gorgeous as ever, sweetheart! How long have you..." He stopped mid-sentence and looked around at Perry and Gertie. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to disturb... please forgive me..." He looked back to Della and grinned. "Della just brings out the beast in me!"

Gertie stepped back to her desk to answer the phone and a somber Perry bent down to pick up the mail.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Mason, let me get that." Della bent down to gather the rest of the mail avoiding Perry's eyes. Still blushing, she stacked the mail on her desk and began to introduce the men. "Uhhh, Mr. Perry Mason, this is Nick Santorini. Apparently he's our building maintenance man."

Perry nodded to him, said nothing, but reached out to shake Nick's hand.

Nick had a firm grip on Perry's hand. "Mr. Mason, great to meet you. I'm really sorry about this! I didn't expect Della to scream so loud." He turned towards Della. "She usually only giggles that loud when I tickle her – like this!" He reached towards Della and tried to tickle her under her arms.

"Whoa! Nicky! Please!" Della screamed again but was still smiling at him. She managed to back away. She looked to Perry. "Nick and I go way back to my days at Pratt. He was our favorite fix-it man." Her smile faded when she saw the stern look on Perry's face.

Perry tilted his head to the side and forced a smile. "Well as long as Miss Street is okay, I'll get back to my phone messages. It's nice meeting you, Mr. Santorini. I hope you can help us with the leaking pipes in our kitchen." He avoided looking at Della, turned, and slowly walked away leaving them alone.

"When did you leave Pratt, Nicky? It's nice to know that you're here in the Brent building." Della walked back to the other side of her desk to sort the mail.

"I've been here nearly a year. Pratt wasn't an easy place to work for. I have higher pay here – and I'm the boss now. But enough about me. I shouldn't be keeping you from your work. We should catch up soon. Do you wanna see what we'll be doing to your kitchen?"

Della and Nick walked out Della's back door through the washroom to the kitchen. He began to explain what repairs were needed. Della thought that Perry should know about the work needed so she leaned out the door into Perry's office. "Mr. Mason, maybe you'll want to know about the repairs we'll need in here."

"One moment, please, Della. I'll be right there." He stood up from his desk and fumbled to light a cigarette.

Waiting for Perry, Nick turned Della to face him. With his hands on her shoulders pulling her close Nick proposed a dinner meet. "Why don't I take you out for a nice quiet dinner this weekend? I found a new Italian joint downtown here. We can catch up and maybe we can even go dancing. Solo tu!"

Perry stood at the door politely waiting to hear Della's reply.

TBC