The Case of the Fenced-In Woman by Erle Stanley Gardner

nearest downtown bus stop."
    She whirled and, making a feeble and somewhat futile attempt to grab the negligee around her, hurried back to the bedroom.
    The lawyer again snapped his lighter into flame. The new cigarette which she had handed him caught instantly and burned slowly. Mason looked in the open purse. The package of cigarettes in the purse seemed to be exactly the same as the package from which he had extracted the damp cigarette. Examining the pack, however, he found each cigarette was perfectly dry.
    Puzzled, Mason withdrew the other cigarette from his side pocket, felt it with an exploring thumb and forefinger. That cigarette was definitely water – soaked.
    Mason sat in thoughtful silence smoking the cigarette, from time to time watching the smoke eddying up from the smoldering tip.
    Before the cigarette was entirely finished, Nadine Palmer, attired in a neat, well – tailored suit, was in the room carrying an overnight bag, her purse and a small suitcase.
    "I'll let you do the honors with the suitcase," she said. "Do you have a car here?"
    "I have a car."
    "Then may I ride with you until I can get a bus?"
    "Certainly," Mason said.
    "Which way are you going?"
    "I'm on my way to see my client, Morley Eden. He's the one who purchased the Loring Carson property and had Carson build the house."
    "You're on your way out there now?" she asked, almost, it seemed, in dismay.
    "Yes."
    "I'll ride part way with you," she said. "I'll get off at the first through bus line we encounter."
    "You don't want a cab to come here?"
    "I want to leave here with you because I don't want to be traced," she said, "and when the reporters get on the track of a spicy story of this sort they are veritable demons. They can ask the most embarrassing questions."
    "I take it," Mason said, "that the registration was not in the name of Mr and Mrs. Norbert Jennings, but was in your own name, at least as far as you're concerned."
    "The registrations were okay," she said, "but they were very definitely weekend trips, and just as I told you, Mr. Mason, I'm not a girl, I'm a woman. People have a tendency to draw their own conclusions when they're dealing with a divorcee- and I'm a divorcee. Shall we go?"
    Mason picked up the suitcase, led the way to the elevator, then out to his car. He saw Nadine Palmer give a hasty, apprehensive look over her shoulder as he held the car door open. She jumped in with a flash of graceful legs and a dazzling smile.
    "Thank you very much, Mr. Mason," she said. "You're a help, a big help-perhaps more of a help than you realize at the moment."
    "Well," Mason said somewhat awkwardly, "it occurred to me that Judge Goodwin was thinking entirely of Vivian Carson and I thought that someone should think of you because, after all, you're just as much of an innocent victim as Vivian Carson."
    "Not in the judicial mind," she said. "After all, I did permit myself to become interested in Norbert Jennings. I did go on various weekend trips with him."
    "Where?" Mason asked.
    "All sorts of places. You'll be reading about it in the papers. I'm afraid I was-oh, damn it, 'indiscreet' sounds like such a prissy word. I will put it this way: I was uncareful. I naturally didn't expect that a detective would be following along behind, keeping notes on everything I did."
    "Was it so terrible?" Mason asked.
    "It could be made to appear that way. After a floor show in Las Vegas Norbert escorted me to my room. We had some drinks there and talked. I guess it was two – thirty in the morning when he left. And, of course, there was this sneaky detective parked around the corner with a notebook and a stopwatch, keeping track of the time-and, of course, drawing his own conclusions."
    Mason started the car, drove slowly down the street. "Did you," he asked, "ever know a woman in Las Vegas, a hostess by the name of Genevieve Hyde?"
    "Why?" she asked.
    "She seems to have been the girl friend of Loring Carson," Mason said. "As such she might be of some