The Case of the Lazy Lover Read Free

wife, in the husband's home?"
    Allred peered through the blue haze of his cigar smoke to study the lawyer's features. "Damned if you aren't a deep one," he admitted grudgingly, "unless--"
    "Unless what?" Mason asked as the other lapsed into silence.
    "Unless for some reason you don't know-- but if you're representing Lola you must know."
    Mason merely smiled "Oh, what's the use of sparring around like this, Mason? Let's get down to brass tacks."
    "Go right ahead."
    "My wife," Allred said bitterly, "has run away with my best friend."
    "That's too bad," Mason said noncommittally. "When did she leave?"
    "As though you didn't know all about it!"
    "After all, Mr. Allred, you're the one who sought this interview."
    "Saturday night," Allred said. "Damn it, you could have knocked me over with a feather."
    "The man's name?"
    "Robert Gregg Fleetwood. One of my business associates, an employees, accountant, assistant, handy man."
    "Do you intend to apply for a divorce?"
    "I don't know."
    "I take it the newspapers know nothing of this?"
    "Of course not. I've kept it out of the newspapers, so far. I can't sit on the lid much longer. We're too well known, socially and otherwise."
    Mason's contribution to the conversation was a mere nod.
    "What I can't figure," Allred said explosively, "is how a woman her age could do a thing like that!"
    "How old is she?"
    "Forty-two."
    "I believe," Mason said, "that psychologists agree that that is one of the most dangerous ages for a woman."
    "You're talking in generalities," Allred said.
    "Why not?"
    "All right, if you want to-- but look here, Mason. Lola had plenty of property; she could do anything she wished. She was a mature woman. If she got tired of me, why didn't she simply go to Reno, discreetly announce that there had been a separation, get her divorce and marry Bob Fleetwood? But no, she had to do something spectacular, something that is almost adolescent, something that will give us a lot of unfavorable publicity."
    "Can you tell me anything about Fleetwood?"
    "I can tell you everything about him."
    "Well?"
    "Bob Fleetwood is fifteen years younger than my wife. I picked him up as a young man, and tried to make something of him. I pushed him ahead just as fast as he could go. I trusted him. He was at my home much of the time. Hang it, I had no idea he and Lola could see anything in each other. Bob Fleetwood was apparently paying court to Patricia."
    "And who's Patricia?"
    "Patricia Faxon, Lola's daughter by a prior marriage."
    "I see."
    "And then, all of a sudden, he runs off with my wife."
    "What does Pat say about it?"
    "She's crying her eyes out, but she pretends she isn't. She comes to meals, eats just enough to keep her alive, puts on a bold front, pretends to be smiling and happy, and is eating her heart out."
    "She loves him?"
    "I think she's humiliated, more than anything. Puts a girl in a helluva position when her mother runs off with her sweetheart."
    "And Fleetwood was Patricia's sweetheart?"
    "Well, let's look at it this way. He was… He… Well, he was around Patricia quite a lot, and during that time he certainly never seemed to take any interest in Lola. They must have been damn clever, or else it was something that just came up all at once.
    "of course, Patricia's a modern girl. She's had swains by the dozen. Lots of them have been crazy about her. Lately the field narrowed down to two, Bob Fleetwood and a chap named John Bagley. I felt Bob had the inside track, but John Bagley was still in the running-- make no mistake about that, Mason."
    The lawyer nodded.
    "I suppose," Allred went on, "that Pat got to playing one against the other, the way a woman will, and went too far. Perhaps she really picked Bagley and gave Bob the mitten. You can't tell."
    "Can't you ask her?" Mason inquired.
    "Not Pat. She has a mind of her own. She thinks I tried to dominate her and resented it. All a misunderstanding, I can assure you, Mason, but that's the way she feels. Well, anyway, if she did