The Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner Page A

walked to the edge of Perry Mason's desk, and waited for Della Street to close the door before he spoke. Then he spilled words with the rattling speed of a child reciting poetry. "My name is Carl W. Montaine. I'm the son of C. Phillip Montaine, the Chicago multi-millionaire. You've probably heard of him."
    The lawyer shook his head.
    "You've seen the morning papers?" Montaine asked.
    "I've looked at the headlines," Mason said. "I haven't had a chance to read the paper thoroughly. Sit down."
    Montaine crossed to the big leather chair, sat on the extreme end of it, leaning forward. A mop of hair hung over his forehead. He brushed it back with an impatient gesture of his palm. "Did you read about the murder?"
    Perry Mason wrinkled his brow, as though trying to focus some vague recollection in his memory. "Yes, I noticed it in the headlines. Why?"
    Montaine came even closer to the edge of the chair, until he seemed almost ready to slide to the floor. "My wife," he said, "is going to be accused of that murder."
    "Did she do it?"
    "No." Mason studied the young man in silent appraisal. "She couldn't have done it," Montaine said forcefully. "She isn't capable of it. She's mixed up in it some way, though. She knows who did do it. If she doesn't know, she suspects. I think she knows, and she's shielding him. She's been his tool all along. Unless we can save her, this man will get her in such a position that no one can save her. Right now she's trying to shield him. He's hiding behind her skirts. She'll lie to protect him, and then he will gradually get her in deeper and deeper. You've got to save her."
    "The murder," Mason reminded him, "was committed around two o'clock in the morning. Wasn't your wife home then?"
    "No."
    "How do you know?"
    "It's a long story. I'd have to begin at the beginning."
    Mason's tone was crisply definite. "Begin, then, at the beginning," he commanded. "Sit back in the chair and relax. Tell me the whole thing from the very beginning."
    Montaine slid back into the recesses of the leather chair, whipped his hand to his forehead with that quick, nervous gesture of brushing his hair back. His eyes were a reddish-brown. They were fastened on Perry Mason's face, as the eyes of a crippled dog might fasten themselves upon a veterinary.
    "Go ahead," Mason said.
    "My name is Carl Montaine. I'm the son of C. Phillip Montaine, the Chicago multi-millionaire."
    "You told me that before," the lawyer said.
    "I finished college," Montaine said. "My father wanted me to go into business. I wanted to see something of the world. I traveled for a year. Then I came here. I was very nervous. I had acute appendicitis. It was necessary for me to be operated on immediately. My father was tied up with a very involved financial matter. There were many thousands of dollars involved. He couldn't come here. I went to the Sunnyside Hospital and had the best medical attention that money could buy. My father saw to that. I had a special nurse night and day. The night nurse was named Lorton – Rhoda Lorton." Montaine stopped impressively, as though the words would convey some significance to Perry Mason.
    "Go ahead," the lawyer said.
    Montaine dug his elbows into the leather arms of the chair, hitched himself farther forward. "I married her," he blurted. His manner was that of a man who has confessed to some crime.
    "I see," Mason remarked, as though marrying nurses was the customary procedure of all convalescents.
    Montaine hitched forward to the edge of the chair once more and pushed back his hair. "You can imagine how that must have seemed to my father," he said. "I am an only child. The Montaine line must be carried on through me. I had married a nurse."
    "What's wrong with marrying a nurse?" the lawyer asked.
    "Nothing. You don't understand. I'm trying to explain this from my father's viewpoint."
    "Why bother about your father's viewpoint?"
    "Because it's important."
    "All right, then, go ahead."
    "Out of a clear sky, my father gets a