CHAPTER SIX

It had been a restless night for Della Street Mason. She had slept a couple hours and was awake a couple hours. Her husband, his arm around her waist was sleeping peacefully. Trying to not disturb him she got up and went into the kitchen.

Just as she was sitting down at the table with a cup of tea, he came out of the bedroom. Walking up behind her and massaging her shoulders he inquired, "what's wrong sweetheart?"

Leaning her head back she explained, "My head is whirling. Who is doing this and why? I have gone over everything I can think of and can't figure it out."

"Losing sleep over it isn't going to help," he commented.

She turned to look at him. "If I couldn't turn my mind off.

He pulled her to her feet, "perhaps I can get your mind on other things?"

Della wrapped her arms around his waist and tilted back her head. "Maybe you could," she suggested. "Just what did you have in mind, counselor?"

Kissing her forehead, he murmured, "I believe I can think of something."

She opened her mouth to speak when the phone rang. "What now?" the lawyer inquired.

"It must be important it's still the middle of the night." She reminded him.

Picking up the receiver he heard Paul Drake's voice. "Perry, you better get down to your office there has been a break-in. It's a mess."

Looking at Della's frightened face he informed his best friend, "we'll be right down."

Grabbing his arm as he hung up his wife questioned, "what now?"

"That was Paul," he informed her. "Get dressed, there has been a break-in at the office."

Half an hour later they were standing in the rubble that was now their office. Ink had been spilled all over the carpets, the chairs and sofas had been cut with a knife, papers and files were strewn all over, desks were tipped over, and even the phones had been pulled out of the walls.

His arm around his wife Perry asked, "what the hell happened here?"

"I don't know Perry. I stopped in here after I took Gillian home. I wanted to see if there was any additional information. My night receptionist went down to the bathroom, and as she walked past your office she noticed the door was slightly open. She said she knocked but there was no answer. So, she opened the door, saw this mess, and came looking for me.

With tears in her eyes Della choked out, "I don't even know where to start."

Perry informed her, hoping to soothe her, "we will be getting a clean-up crew in here tomorrow, then we can try to get papers in order, call the phone company, and get new locks on the doors."

Leaning down and picking up a broken lamp she said, "I'll never sleep now."

He remarked as he looked at the detective, "Paul put some guards on the office. I will call Gertie and tell her what happened, not to come in Monday, and to call the staff. Then I am taking this young lady home and she is taking some medicine to help her sleep. Then we will come back here later today, and start the re-organization."

As he led her to the elevator Della said, "This is so unfair, so unfair."

"It will be okay Baby. I'll call Tragg and ask him to have a burglary detail come down to the office. It's almost daybreak. Let's go home and things will look better after we get some rest."

Unfortunately, that was not to be. After a long hot bath, Mrs. Mason wrapped in a pink silk robe, was just sitting down on the side of the bed when the phone rang. She looked at the clock it read 6:30. Perry was in the shower and she didn't want to disturb him since he also had little rest that night.

"Hello." She said tentatively. When she heard Drake's voice she immediately wondered what disaster had occurred now. "Hi Paul, please don't give us any more unwelcome news."

"Nothing yet, Della. I wanted you to know the police are at the office now. I tried to put them off, but they have questions I can't answer. Do you want to come down here or should I send them out there?"

At that moment Perry Mason came through the doorway rubbing his head with a towel. He raised his eyebrows at her. "It's Paul. the police want to question us. Do we want to go to the office or have them come here?"

"What do you want to do?" he inquired.

She thought for a minute. "If they ask for anything that is at the office I guess we would have to try and find it, and they probably want to ask if anything is missing."

Taking the phone from her hand Mason told his friend. "Tell them we will get there as soon as we can. Have you gotten any rest at all Paul?"

"A little," the private eye admitted. "I have given them my statement, but I am waiting for some reports."

Della was laying out his clothes as he instructed his investigator to go home. "I don't think we can do much more for a while. Get some sleep and we'll meet later today. I'll give you a call, and thanks for everything."

As they were exiting the elevator on the ninth floor of the Brent Building Della took his arm and said in a choked voice, "I'm not sure I can stand to see this again, Perry."

He looked down at her and patted her hand, "I'm here with you darling, as long as we are together it will be alright."

His private office still looked like a disaster area. Sergeant Dorset, from burglary, met them at the doorway to Della's office. "This is some mess, Mason. Someone is pretty angry with you."

"Why do you say that Sergeant?" He wanted to know.

Looking around at the stained carpet, the slashes in the furniture he observed, "This was not a simple burglary, this was deliberate destruction. I hope you have good insurance."

They heard a noise and looked up. "That is a woman, named Gertie, she says she works here." The policeman informed them.

Moving into her office the head of firm said, "she does, but we told her to stay home."

Gertie hearing her name opened the reception room door. "They were through in the law library and reception area, so I began to clean up, Miss Street."

"You have a lot of people in and out of here so it is going to be difficult to separate fingerprints," the law officer told them.

"We understand that, and I doubt you will have found anything that will help unless they had left a weapon behind, or tried to open the safe." The lawyer acknowledged.

The sergeant told him they had checked the safe as well as the desk, but their fingerprint man had said there were a lot of smudges. "We'll do the best we can."

"When can we start picking up papers?" Della wanted to know.

Looking around at the files and documents lying everywhere he said, "I think it is safe to pick them up. Again, there are probably too many fingerprints on these papers. By the way was there any damage to your apartments?" The officer asked.

They looked at each other knowing the police would be unaware of their marital status. Finally, Perry answered, "we are not listed in the phonebook. Everything looked fine."

"Well we are about finished here. If you find out what is missing let us know, and if we discover anything new we will contact you."

The attorney shook hands and let them out the door in his private office. Gertie and Della were picking up papers and trying to put them in some sort of order. Watching them work so smoothly together the boss commented, "you know Gertie, I think we should make you Della's assistant with a nice raise."

Della smiled at him gratefully and Gertie, her big blue eyes sparkling with tears breathed, "Really Mr. Mason?"

"Gertrude Lade, today you have gone above and beyond the call of duty and you will be rewarded."

In her breathy voice she said, "you know I love working here, I would do anything for you and Della."

"Della," he instructed, "Beginning at the start of this month Gertie's salary is raised 50 dollars a month, and later we will take her to Clay's for lunch."

There was a catch in her voice as she said, "Mr. Mason, you have made my day."

Smiling, his captivating dimples in evidence he said, "No you have made both of us happy. It was our lucky day when you walked into our office. Now I will leave you ladies to your straightening and go and see if Paul Drake is still here."

Before he got to the door Della stopped him. "Perry, you'll let me know right away if he has found out anything new."

Patting her shoulder, he said quietly, "Yes I will sweetheart. You stay here until I get back."

Assuring him there was plenty to go through she went back into her office where her new assistant was diligently working.