Chapter Twenty-Nine
Los Angeles, CA Criminal Courts Building 5pm Saturday, 28 September 1985
After nearly five minutes of standing in the attorney/client interview room consoling Della in his arms, Perry walked her to a chair and seated her at a table in the room. He offered her his handkerchief from the pocket of his black overcoat to wipe away her tears. The jail matron cautiously watched their embrace and the handkerchief exchange, but eased up when Perry removed his overcoat as they sat across from each other at the table.
Della was still in disbelief that Perry had resigned from the appellate court to come back to Los Angeles and work on defending her for her arrest – accused of murdering her boss, Arthur Gordon.
"Are you sure that you're doing the right thing, Perry? I mean it's ridiculous that I'm even in this predicament but your abrupt resignation is pretty extreme, don't you think?"
Drooping his overcoat across a chair next to him, Perry raised his hand again to silence her objections to his action.
"What's done is done, Della. I'm not turning back. This is right where I belong and I'm not here to talk about my resignation – I'm here to take care of you." His tone changed as he got back to the business at hand. "Before I came into this room I was only given access to the probable cause statement of your arrest. With the evidence that the police have collected so far, there is already enough to charge you with the murder of Arthur Gordon..."
"But I didn't do it Perry," Della interrupted him with worry on her face.
He reached across the table and took a hold of her hands in his – subtly noticing that she was wearing the black star sapphire ring that he had given her many years ago.
"We know that, but now we have to prove your innocence," he continued. "Let's start by talking about the last time that you saw Arthur Gordon..."
From years of working side-by-side with Perry as he interviewed thousands of clients, Della began by recounting in detail every interaction that she had with Arthur Gordon on the last day that she saw him alive.
"I swear to you, Perry, when he left the office last night, that was the last time I saw him," she concluded. She sighed heavily – her thoughts drifting off knowing that Arthur Gordon was really dead and she would never see him again.
"And you're certain that when he left the office that he was going home?"
Della's thoughts came back to the present. "That was his intent as far as I know… It was his birthday..."
"So I'm guessing that you finished up your work after he left and headed home yourself?"
"That's correct..."
"And until you received the news of his murder this morning, you had no idea of anything unusual going on with him and anyone that would want him dead?"
"No," Della shook her head.
"So you got the call from the police this morning and rushed over to his estate. Now tell me exactly what you discussed with that police Lieutenant – uh, Lieutenant Cooper..."
With great detail, Della carefully recited the sequence of events and every bit of her conversation with Lieutenant Cooper as Perry clarified every word of her question and answer session.
After hearing the whole story, Perry sat back in his chair and brought his watch out of his pocket. He flipped open the cover to see what time it was as Della carefully looked on. Catching a glimpse of her lightly biting her lower lip with a look of endearment on her face, Perry gave her a return look of encouragement.
"It's almost six-thirty… That's way past your dinner time – at least I think it is… You probably know already that I can't get you out of jail tonight..."
"Yes I know that," Della sadly replied. "Even though they haven't even charged me with anything yet," she quickly added.
"I suspect that they're diligently working on that as we speak. We can expect to hear something tomorrow or by Monday at the latest… Are they treating you okay?"
Della smiled, sheepishly tilting her head towards her shoulder before answering.
"Except for the fact that I can't leave this building on my own, I think that I have practically all of the conveniences of home. I know now who might have arranged my dignitary-like treatment in here," she continued with a raised brow aimed at him.
Clearing his throat, Perry began to explain.
"It just so happens that the Chief Deputy in charge of all inmates is very closely related to our old friend, retired Sergeant Ben Landro – it's his son. He thought that this temporary place of incarceration is a better fit for you than the regular women's section of the jail."
"I might have known," Della winked at him.
"Right…" Perry reluctantly brushed aside her flirty wink. "Is there anything that I can do for you right now?"
"No… I'll be fine, Perry... Just fine..."
They both stood up at the same time and Perry wasted no time moving towards Della to give her a hug.
"Try to get some rest, Della," he said as he nuzzled his cheek into her soft, light-brown hair. "I'll see you tomorrow..."
"Perry," Della started to say something as he released his embrace.
"Don't say anything, Della," he quietly hushed her by lightly placing a finger over her lips. He gathered his overcoat and walked out leaving her behind with the jail matron.
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Los Angeles, CA Criminal Courts Building 8am Monday, 30 September 1985
Perry was waiting in the office of Jack Welles – the District Attorney in charge of the Criminal Division. Welles made his way through the maze of office cubicles, saw Perry waiting, and walked into his office extending his hand to Perry for a handshake.
"I thought I'd come straight to the prosecutor before the hearing," Perry said as they shook hands.
"It's good to see you, Perry," Welles stated. "I'm really sorry about Della," he quickly added.
Perry slightly nodded to him before Welles continued.
"Now if you're here to talk about bail, I'll have to include the deputy DA that's going to prosecute..."
"Better call him," Perry stated.
"It's not a him, it's a her... Times have changed," Welles added as he got on his phone to call his prosecutor.
After politely sparring verbally with Welles and the deputy DA Barbara Scott about Della's bail hearing, Perry left the DA's office to go and meet with Della before the hearing.
Della was already waiting in the attorney/client interview room when Perry arrived at eight-thirty that morning. They embraced again under the watchful eye of a jail matron before Perry assisted Della into a chair at a table in the room.
"I was up late last night looking into things that we talked about yesterday morning – the part about you taking over that conservation Foundation for Mister Gordon. Sorry that I couldn't return last night. How was your day after I left yesterday?"
"It was nice – very nice," Della replied while reaching for Perry's hand across the table. "Thank you for arranging my visit with Doctor McRae Sunday afternoon," she added with a gentle squeeze of his hand.
"She managed to somehow get a hold of me at my hotel after I left you yesterday," Perry explained. "Word spreads quickly in this town when someone famous is arrested."
"Ha! Famous," Della questioned him with a raised brow before continuing with a concerned look on her face. "I think she read about my arrest in the Sunday paper and in a way, I'm glad that she did. She always has a way of getting me to calm down and make sense of what I'm experiencing. It was a very good visit."
"I'm glad that she was able to visit you – that's not normally allowed you know..."
"Of course I know that – but she is a therapist so I think that helped get her in the door. Oh – and Stefan Corro was able to get a phone call through to me. He thought that I would need all of the spiritual intervention he could give..."
"I hope you understand that he asked me to be able to speak to you – he saw the news of your arrest on the national news. It was a small story, but it caught his attention – even in Denver!"
"Well, I appreciate all that you've been doing for me. Oh – and I did get a message from Paul through one of his connections in the Sheriff's Office. He was out of town and will be back this afternoon..."
"Right," Perry politely added before changing the subject. "Well right now we need to get you ready for your arraignment since as you know, you're being charged with first degree murder. I met with Jack Welles, the DA and I was just introduced to the prosecutor – a deputy DA named Barbara Scott," he stated as he watched for Della's reaction to be prosecuted by a female prosecutor. Seeing no overt reaction from Della, he went on.
"What I know so far is that their case is based on a lot of circumstantial evidence. I'm confident that we'll get you out on bail because right now I think that I can convince the judge that you have no motive. In addition, Welles instructed Miss Scott to allow bail..."
By nine o'clock Perry and Della had moved on to a courtroom for her arraignment before a judge. Identifying himself as Della's attorney, Perry entered a plea of "Not Guilty" for her after the charges against her were formally announced.
When Della was officially released on bail within the hour, she and Perry exited the courts building and were immediately swarmed by a crowd of news reporters as they were trying to get into Perry's Buick Riviera convertible. Perry quickly made his way around to the driver's seat after getting Della seated in the passenger seat while reporters stuck microphones in Della's face shouting at her to comment.
Waving the reporters away, Perry told them, "To answer all of your questions – no comment, no comment, and no comment. Just quote me on that!"
He drove the vehicle away from the curb as the reporters continued taking photographs and called out for more comments.
Thirty minutes later, Perry was parked in front of Della's home where they quickly walked up to her front door – checking behind them to make sure that they weren't being followed. Della nervously fumbled with the door key in her hand trying to unlock the door until Perry calmly took the key from her and opened the door.
"Come on in and make yourself comfortable," she looked up to him smiling as they walked in the door. "I'll make some coffee before I go and change clothes," she added. After a pause, she corrected herself. "On second thought, I'll also take a shower – I feel so grimy..."
Perry was politely listening to her as he looked around her home.
"Just point me in the direction of the coffee maker and I'll make the coffee. You just go and get cleaned up, young lady… And take your time – we have all day to talk..."
After taking a shower and changing her clothes, Della began preparing a tossed salad for their lunch while Perry looked around in the back yard.
"Lunch is ready," she called out to Perry who immediately made his way back into the house through the kitchen door carrying a gardening tool.
"This was probably the tool that was used to break into your house. I found marks on your window frame which indicate that the window was forced open to get in through this window," he stated while getting seated at the table to eat.
Della dished up their salads while commenting on the poor police investigation since they failed to find what Perry had come across.
"How did those detectives miss something as obvious as that? Will you make an issue of that at the preliminary hearing?"
"I can make an issue of it, but right now they're not concerned about whether or not someone broke into your house..."
Della was eating her salad and slightly shivered as she replied.
"It makes me nervous to think that someone was in here messing with my things. It's so eerie..."
"Well when the time comes, we can challenge the planted evidence in the hearing. In the meantime, let's talk about Arthur Gordon and his family..."
While they ate their lunch, Della brought Perry up-to-date on Arthur Gordon's family situation. He was on his second marriage after his first wife committed suicide. The first wife was the mother of his three now-adult children. He had been married to his second wife, Paula, for ten years but that marriage had turned sour within the past year. The Gordon's lived apart – Arthur stayed at his large estate in Pacific Palisades and Paula lived in a penthouse apartment in Century City.
Perry listened closely and occasionally stopped Della to ask questions. The more that Perry and Della talked about Arthur Gordon's family, the more that Perry absorbed hints about motives for others that might have killed Arthur Gordon. He learned that Paula Gordon did not like Della – that in Della's opinion, Paula Gordon felt threatened by Della.
"Do you think she was jealous of you because you were working so closely with him all the time?"
"Oh, I don't know that jealous is the right word to describe her forbidding attitude," Della replied while picking at her salad. "She just goes out of her way to snub me every time I see her."
"Were you ever intimidated by Arthur Gordon's business tactics or mannerisms? I mean how did you really get along with the man?"
"We certainly had our moments – but he usually respected my opinion on some of his business dealings. I worked for a man who was the best at what he did – very much like working for you," she added with a playful glance at him.
"Damn," Perry thought to himself. "She always has a way of weakening my resistance to her flirtatious ways. I've got to get her back to the task at hand."
Pointing to his salad, he deflected her glance.
"As always, this salad is terrible. Way too much dressing on it," he stated and waited for her reaction.
"Well, as always, you flatter me about my culinary talents – or lack thereof," she coyly shot back at him.
Turning more serious, Perry was able to change the subject.
"We have a lot of work ahead of us. We have several strikes against us right now. We'll need to bring in a good private investigator right away..."
"Paul Drake," Della was quick to ask.
"Do you really think he's up to this challenge? I haven't talked to him since he was in San Francisco over the Fourth of July..."
"Go see him, Perry," Della stated seriously. "He's going to be at a jazz club tonight with his band..."
Perry's thoughts drifted off to his memories of Paul Drake Senior and all of the cases they had worked over the years. Could Junior really match Senior's thoroughness and intensity? Could Junior really come through for them?
While Della stood up to clear the lunch dishes, they were interrupted by a loud knock at her front door.
"Maybe that's Paul now," Della said after putting the dishes aside. "I'll go let him in," she added as she walked to the front door.
Upon opening her front door, Della was confronted by a large group of news reporters who began shouting questions at her.
"Miss Street – did you really kill Arthur Gordon?"
"Will you comment on Paula Gordon's accusations that you were having an affair with her husband and that's why you killed him?"
"Did you kill him to take over as President of Arthur Gordon Industries?"
"I'd like an exclusive interview with you! Is it true that Perry Mason is your attorney?"
Perry heard the commotion at the door and immediately pulled Della back away from the door so he could get rid of the reporters. He stood in the doorway to put them on notice to stop harassing Della.
"Miss Street has no comment! This is private property and right now you are all trespassing," he angrily shouted. "Leave the property right now or I'll call the police!"
As he closed the door, some of the reporters heeded his advice and reluctantly walked back towards the curb. At least one of the reporters remained on her doorstep and pounded on the door again. Della moved over to the bay window overlooking her front yard and pulled a curtain back to peek out.
"There's still a group standing by your car out front," she advised.
"I'll take care of this. Where's your phone?"
"Right there by the recliner chair – or there's one in the kitchen..."
Perry made a call to Lieutenant Cooper's office right away. It took a few minutes before the Lieutenant got on the line.
"This is Perry Mason calling, Lieutenant. I'm with Miss Street at her home where we were examining evidence that you overlooked when Miss Street was arrested in her home. Right now there are about a dozen or more news reporters trespassing – walking all over the property impeding our investigation and harassing us. You might want to get a patrol car over here right away – I'll certainly have a case for trespassers contaminating the scene of your primary source of evidence in this case..."
Lieutenant Cooper informed Perry that a police car would be sent to the house immediately to seal off the area.
After finishing the call with the Lieutenant, Perry walked back to stand behind Della who was still keeping an eye on the reporters from the window.
"The Police are on the way. Now I want you to go into your bedroom and pack a bag or two. You're getting out of here..."
"Would you mind telling me where I'm going?"
"I'm getting you a suite in the hotel where I'm staying. Those vultures out there are going to keep your house staked out and you don't need the added stress of having to deal with them. Now go and pack – you'll need enough clothes for a couple of days. We can come back here later this week to pick up anything else that you need."
While Della packed her bags, Perry cleaned up the lunch dishes and decided to take out the trash so he could scout out the back yard for any nosy reporters lingering in the yard. When he got back inside, Della was waiting by the front door with her bags.
"I'll take the bags," Perry directed her. "You're going to go out the back door and walk through back yards to the end of the block. I'll lock up here and drive down to pick you up."
"Is that really necessary," Della inquired as she watched Perry take a look out the front window again.
"Yes. Give me your door key," he requested as he closed the window curtain. "The cops are here now. I'll talk with them for a minute and meet you at the end of the block."
Della walked out the back door and Perry locked up after she made it to the neighbor's yard. After he exited the front door, a Police Officer met him on the doorstep.
"I'm Perry Mason. These reporters have been advised that they are trespassing on this property. Miss Street does not want to be disturbed. Do you have instructions from Lieutenant Cooper?"
"Yes we do, Mister Mason. Apparently we'll be posting officers here around the clock until further notice..."
"Thank you. Lieutenant Cooper knows where to reach me if there's a problem. Good day..."
Perry got Della checked into her suite at the hotel and by three o'clock that afternoon, he left her there so she could take a nap. He returned to his room in the hotel to return calls and look at paperwork on the case.
By six o'clock he returned to Della's suite to arrange for her to eat dinner.
"How was your nap," he asked as a sleepy Della came to her door – a hotel bathrobe covering her pajamas.
"It was wonderful, thank you. Anything new going on that I should know about?"
"Nothing major," he replied as he made his way across the room to look for a room service menu. He located one on a table and handed it to her. "Here – find something to eat. I don't think it's a good idea to show our faces out in public at a restaurant right now until those reporters find a better story to cover..."
"I'm not very hungry," she revealed after putting the menu down at her side. "Will you stay with me for dinner if I do order something?"
"Sure… Let me take a look at this," he said taking the room service menu from her hand. With a quick glance at the menu, he got on the telephone and called room service with their order.
"Dinner will be up in about thirty minutes," Perry advised.
"I better go and get dressed. I forgot a few things at the house so I wrote a list of things that I need," Della added as she went to her bedroom.
"Bring me the list when you come back out here," Perry called after her from the living room area. "I'll pick up your things either tonight or first thing in the morning if you can do without them until then..."
Perry gave a generous tip to the room service attendant after their dinner was wheeled into the suite on a table. Della walked over to the table to begin arranging the dishes to eat, but Perry stopped her.
"You just sit down, young lady. I can take care of this," Perry directed her. "I've never known you to not be hungry, so eat as much as you can. I have a feeling that you ate very little in jail all weekend and the terrible salad you put together at lunch today wasn't enough to fill you up."
"What would I do without you? You're always spoiling me," she smiled up at him as she sat down and placed a napkin on her lap – completely deflecting his endearing sarcasm about her lunch salad.
"She's still flirting with me," Perry thought to himself. "It's getting harder and harder to not act on her playful body language."
"I always spoil my clients – well most of them anyway." Perry changed the subject to keep her from teasing him anymore. "I hope you like the wine that I chose for dinner." He uncovered their dinner plates and opened the wine without further conversation.
While dining on their ribeye steaks, baked potatoes, and salads, Della asked what Perry was up to while she napped.
"My first task was getting your car released from the Police impound lot. I successfully argued that because they had already searched your car and didn't recover any evidence, that it should be released immediately. I took a taxi to the impound lot to retrieve it and it's now parked in the hotel parking ramp." He reached into his suit coat pocket and handed her a slip of paper. "This is the ticket for the hotel valet. Do you need any cash for a tip?"
Accepting the valet ticket while tilting her head to the side and smiling up at him, she thanked him. "I'll manage a nice tip for the valet, thank you..."
After they dined Perry decided to go and meet with Paul Drake at the jazz club where he was playing with a band.
"Do you need anything else before I go?"
"No… I'm fine… Say 'Hi' to Paul for me..."
"I will," he assured her as he gently cupped her face in his hands and lightly kissed her forehead. "Get some rest. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."
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Los Angeles, CA Paul Drake's Office 10:45am Tuesday, 1 October 1985
Della had already been in Paul's office for ten minutes before Paul arrived. She was straightening up his desk as he walked into the office.
"What are you doing, Della?"
"Isn't it obvious," she asked. "This place should be declared a disaster area! Perry will be here any minute and if he sees this mess..."
Paul put his leather portfolio on the desk as Della handed him a dead plant and continued sorting stacks of papers on Paul's desk.
"If your father could see this place," Della began to mildly scold him as Paul cut her off.
"Okay, that's enough. I get it. I had to lay off my only office worker two months ago and things just got a little out of hand here," he said in defense of his disorganized office. "And if you found the shutoff notice from the phone company, I've already taken care of that. It's just one more thing I need to remember to do now that I don't have support staff..."
"Don't worry, Paul. I'll have this place presentable before you know it… So how was your meeting with Perry last night?"
"He's got me on a short leash, you know. What he doesn't understand is that I do my job a little different than my father did. He's not very fond of my writing hobby or my blowing off a little steam in a band, but I know I can help on this case. I know how important this is..."
"Don't let him get you down. I've been trying to get him to lighten up a little, but he's in his dire work mode right now."
"Which begs the question – how are you holding up?"
"I'm fine. I have the best men working on my behalf," she replied with a smile.
Their conversation was interrupted as Perry entered the office precisely at eleven o'clock with a very earnest "Good morning" greeting.
Della immediately defended the messy office.
"I'll be ordering a few supplies, bringing in a cleaning crew, and I'll have this place in good shape in no time at all."
"You might want to start by covering the photo of Paul's father on the desk," Perry stated. "If he could see this place right now..."
Perry dropped his mockery of the office condition and turned serious again, taking a seat at a small table in the room.
"I just came from the DA's office. The preliminary hearing is set for next week. We have a lot of work to do in a short period of time."
Paul immediately reached for his portfolio to bring out some of the information that he had gathered already. He handed several documents to Perry right away and summarized what he had found.
"Here's your copy of the entire police report including Arthur Gordon's autopsy report. In addition, through a connection that I have that's working the investigation, there's also a copy of everything that they inventoried as evidence..."
Perry looked over the papers and quietly gave his approval before his tone changed.
"That's fine, Paul. I've also been checking on a few things and found out a lot about what happened to Arthur Gordon. Apparently the housekeeper witnessed a person rushing out of Mister Gordon's home after she received a call for help from him. The housekeeper described a woman looking a lot like Della that ran out the front door. She described her hairstyle, build, and the patterned dress that she was wearing. The housekeeper then found Mister Gordon stabbed to death in his home office."
Della was shocked to hear those details but remained silent listening to Perry as he continued.
"It's obvious to us that this whole scene was set up to make it look like Della was involved in the murder. Now the first we need to find out is who bought a dress like Della's that was used in the crime..."
Della immediately grabbed her purse and produced a receipt for the purchase of her dress.
"When you told me yesterday about the dress, I looked for my receipt for buying it. I even have the receipt for picking it up at the cleaners the other day..."
Paul took the store receipt out of her hand.
"Do you also have a receipt for the shoes?"
Della dug further into her purse and handed Paul the receipt for the shoes also.
"I'm on it. I'll check in with you two later," Paul said as he gathered his portfolio and headed out the door.
"I hope I'm doing the right thing by getting Paul involved in this case," Perry confided to Della.
"Well I'm not worried," she replied as Perry stood up and walked towards her.
"I want you to take it easy, Della. Have you already forgotten that you're the client?"
"I need to stay busy, Perry. You and Paul will have your hands full and if I can take care of things from the office, I'll feel a lot better..."
Perry walked back to the table and sat down.
"In that case, here's a list of things that I'll need from you," he shot back as he handed the list to her.
Della perused the list before replying. He wanted detailed information on every family member and the housekeeper. In bold writing he noted that he wanted as much financial information as possible on all of them.
"This will keep me occupied for a while..."
It was suddenly really quiet in the office while Perry went back to the papers in his portfolio and Della looked on – admiring his dedication to her defense. She couldn't resist letting him know what she was feeling at that moment – to perhaps change his aloof attitude.
"It's nice being with you again, Perry – and working with you again. I've really missed that," she added before watching for his reaction.
"Oh no! Here she goes teasing me again," Perry thought to himself. "Give her a smile to acknowledge that you heard her, but don't let her break your concentration. She's in serious trouble and this is not a good time to let your guard down..."
Della saw his return smile and felt better that at least he knows that she's happy to be near him again.
Before she could make him any weaker with his desire to run over to her and take her in his arms again, Perry decided that it was a good time to head out to work on his part of the investigation.
"I have an appointment with Paula Gordon and her attorney Ken Braddock. Hope fully I'll gain some insight as to why Arthur Gordon was removing her as head of that conservation Foundation and replacing her with you. I'll check in with you later..."
As Perry left, Della was having a hard time determining if he was really still sore with her for leaving San Francisco abruptly last July, or if he was just overwhelmed by the case already. She sighed and began working on her list of things to do.
TBC
As you can see, the story is now following the plot of the television movie, "Perry Mason Returns", written by Dean Hargrove. I'm grateful for all of your comments and encouragement. Thanks for reading. There's more to come.
