Chapter 13 Thirteen

Mason stopped at the door of the bedroom and said: Can your body take the trip? OK, I'm ready.At this moment, I feel that I have endless energy in my body. Della, listen to what I want you to do.Cover me in that room, will you? What should I do? Stand at the door, and if you hear someone coming, act like you're about to walk into the hallway, talk to me, and But what if that person also wants to enter the room? I have to take this opportunity.This situation cannot be avoided, I just don't want others to see me in and out of Banning.Clark's room. All right.Whoever it is, you don't want him to know what you're doing, do you?

Yes. It would be trouble if Lieutenant Tragg came back.He will definitely ask where are you? It's possible, Mason said, and we're left to our fate.Say hello to everyone I see, so I know who I'm dealing with.do you understand? Give me a few minutes to get dressed. No, can't wait.I'm going to that room now, cover me.You can get dressed while staring down the hallway.Ready, I'm leaving. Mason went out and walked quietly along the corridor to the door of the bedroom. The door was closed.Mason opened the door suddenly, stepped into the room, closed the door, and listened to Della.Is there any movement from Streeter?

After confirming that there was no signal over there, Mason turned on the light, and the room lit up immediately.He went to the roll-top desk and found Mrs. Bradison's papers in the letter compartment. Mason unfolded it. This is a will made on July 12, 1942, and it is Banning.Clark's handwriting.The will left everything to his loving wife Elvira.The will also says: If she dies before I do, these things go to her legal heirs, but Jim.Bradisson is not entitled to the said property. It only took Mason a few seconds to read the will, and he quickly put it back in the letter slot, and then he began to search around to figure out how to make the thump, thud he heard just now.

Mason first examined the carpet carefully.Every corner and every corner was carefully inspected, but there was no sign that the carpet had been turned over. There were six framed photographs in the room. Mason took them down from the wall and examined the back of the frame. Have the nails been removed and replaced? In the end, he found no evidence that the photo had been tampered with. There were no traces of nails or thumbtacks on the walls.Mason turned the chair upside down and looked even at the bottom of the table.Then he lay on the ground, face up, and groped with his hands under the drawers of the roll-top desk, but couldn't find anything, and at last he simply pulled all the drawers out of the desk, and held it up at an angle so that he could see bottom of the drawer.

At the bottom of the left bottom drawer Mason found what he was looking for. This old-fashioned desk was made of the best wood, inside and out, and the bottom of the desk drawers was a hard wood, so Mrs. Bradison had to tap the thumbtacks to get them all the way in. Mason thought, this is the reason for the bang, bang just now. It took him a while to clear out the contents of the drawer, and then he turned the drawer over. There was an open document pinned to the back of the drawer. This is a will made just yesterday, all written by hand.Judging from the font, the hand that wrote this will is not very flexible, even a little convulsive.

Mason opened the pocket knife to pry the thumbtack off when he stopped to read the will. The content of the will is as follows: Due to my current poor health and the dangers surrounding me, I, Banning.Conscious that he may die suddenly and lose the opportunity to tell my dearest ones, Clark hereby makes his will: First, I annul all previous wills made. Second, I bequeathed to Perry.Twenty-five hundred dollars for Mason.I believe the money will be paid by Perry.Mason personally charged for the fulfillment of my wishes, and I trust he will use his shrewd judgment and understanding to determine what these wishes are.

Third, I bequeathed to my nurse Wilma.Staller $2,500. Fourth, I donate the remaining inheritance to my friend and long-time partner Yan Dinger.Bowers, there is another person to whom I wish to leave an estate, but if I add such a clause to the will, it will invalidate the will.I leave this matter to the thought of a wise executor.I can only venture to give one clue, and I warn the executors of the dangers to whom I intend to leave an inheritance: a lazy mosquito robbing me of my precious inheritance. I nominate Perry.Mason is the executor of this will and is my plenipotentiary.I want him to pay attention to the contents of the left-hand drawer on the top letter shelf of the desk.This is the only clue I've found so far, and it's very important.

The text, date and signature are all handwritten by the undersigned testator. Banning.clark Mason opened the little drawer mentioned in the will.It contained only a small glass bottle.There were a few pieces of gold at the bottom of the bottle, but it was something else, a mosquito, that caught Mason's attention. The mosquito could even move its legs slowly as Mason turned the bottle, twitching, and then remaining motionless. Mason uncapped the vial and poked the mosquito with the tip of a pencil. Mosquitoes are dead. Mason's contemplation was suddenly heard by Della.Streeter interrupted.

Oh hello, Lieutenant Trager!I was going out to find you.Can you tell me where Mr. Mason is? Mason heard Trager say: He's downstairs in his bedroom in the northwest corner, where you'll find him. Della.Streeter was momentarily at a loss for an answer. She hesitated, then raised her voice and said: Oh, are you looking for him? Gregory replied honestly: We want to see Banning.Clark's room to learn the motive for his murder. Mason was prying the thumbtack out with all his might.He heard Della doing her best to draw the two away, and she said: Oh, maybe he's not in that downstairs bedroom, I've been there.Nothing will happen to him, will it?

Gregory asked with concern: Are you sure he's not in the bedroom? Well, sure.I was there ten or fifteen minutes ago. Mason tossed the thumbtack into the drawer.He folded the will and stuffed it into the inside pocket of his coat.Then quickly put everything back into the drawer, trying to avoid making too much noise, and he put the small glass bottle into the vest pocket. The conversation outside was still going on, Gregory said: Anyway, I think we should oh, he's fine, maybe go out and find some evidence. Mason didn't come upstairs to see how I was doing? Oh, maybe he read it, or the nurse talked to him about it.

He should come here, Della.Unless something happened to him, Streeter insisted. After Della finished speaking, the three fell into silence, obviously Della won another period of time.But in the end it was Trager who made up his mind: Sam, we still have to look at this room for a few minutes, and then we go to Mason. It wouldn't take long to see Mason. Tragg's voice was a little impatient: Sam, I've been trying to do a murder case with that guy, and we all get to work together, but he's always ahead of me.This time he was poisoned, I have to go first.Come on, Sam, let's go see it now. Mason put the drawer back, sat on the swivel chair, put his feet up on the desk, his chin drooped in front of his chest, he closed his eyes and remained motionless, only his low panting was heard. The doorknob was turned, Sam.Gregory said in surprise: "The lights are on."Then Trager said: Oh God, look who's here. Mason's head hung on his chest, his eyes were closed, and he was breathing slowly and evenly. Gregory to Della.Streeter said: Hey, Miss Streeter, here he is. Della screamed, and Mason thought to himself: Della is really acting like it. Trager said: Well, here we are again, as usual, and I think if there's any clue here, he must have got it already. Gregory said: within the scope of my jurisdiction, he cannot escape the crime. If he even dares to move the things in this room, he will find that it is impossible for him to play tricks and get away with it. Mason's face was sullen, his eyes were tightly closed, and he was panting in a low voice. Trager said: Mason, that's a good excuse, but it's not good enough.However, you can perform as much as you can, and the trick is over.Then he woke up in surprise, rubbed his eyes and asked: What's the matter?Then pretend that you don't know where you are, I've seen this trick a lot, and occasionally I use this trick myself. Mason's breathing was still so even. I think you forgot.Della.Streeter said solemnly that we both had shots and I was a little dizzy myself.He wasn't fully awake yet. Gregory said: By the way, did you get an injection?Feel better now? Just a little dizzy, Della said, and I dare not close my eyes or I'll fall asleep.I think we should go, the doctor didn't say how long we can stay here. Mrs. Bradisson's voice came from the door: What's the matter, please?What's the matter here? Let's look around.Gregory said respectfully to the powerful taxpayer. Isn't it outrageous to do things like this?into my house, and You see, we can't waste time, Lieutenant Tragg interjected, we're doing this to protect you and your son.We need to catch this murderer before he strikes again. Oh, I get it.Well, I see what you mean, all right. Mason heard Nell.Sims' voice comes from the corridor, what's up, another one? she asked. It's all right, Nell, you go back to sleep.said Mrs. Bradisson. Della.Streeter took a few steps forward, grabbed Mason's arm and shook him.Hey boss, she said, wake up, wake up. Mason muttered something under his breath. It's the shot, said Della, shaking him harder, hey boss, are you all right?Maybe we'll have to get that nurse, oh, don't let him relapse.He should have discharged the poison! Mason licked his gums with his tongue, muttered something, then rolled his eyes up, blinked a few times and closed them again, he almost slipped off the chair. Della.Streeter shook him and patted his face, Wake up, boss.She said, wake up.Tell me, are you all right?Please call the nurse, he is still ill. Mason couldn't help sighing in his heart, Della really performed lifelike, only he himself felt Della.There was a touch of hysteria in Streeter's anxious tone. This time Mason opened his eyes a little wider and looked at Della in a daze.Streeter smiled and said: No, it's all right, let me sleep for a while.Still standing beside him, she shook him and said: Boss, you have to wake up.You need to wake up.you Mason yawned, opened his eyes, and looked at her, the medicine was really powerful.He tried to make his words catch up with the afterword, are you okay? OK, OK, it's all right.what are you doing here Mason stretched his waist, looked around and said in surprise: What's the matter?What happened? No, no, everything is fine, but how did you get in?What are you doing here, boss? Della was quick to think, and gave Mason an opportunity to explain before answering questions. Mason naturally understood, and he said: I came up to see how you are, you are sleeping, I am telling you something but you can't hear, so I just want to wait You woke up and told you we'll drive back when you're well.I left your door open, sat in the hallway for a while, there was a draft, I saw the door was open, the room looked like an office, so I came in and sat on the swivel chair.No, I heard you as soon as you spoke.Maybe there is still poison in my body that hasn't been excreted.What's new?Tragg. Trager turned to his brother-in-law and said, Sam, you see, it's always like this.Like in baseball, you can't tell if he's throwing a fastball that dazzles you, or if he's just swinging his arms for practice. Gregory said humorously: "We don't like pitching fastballs. When this happens, we will disqualify pitchers." Mason yawned again and said: I don't blame you, sir, I think so myself.Oh well, Della, if you want to travel, let's go back.Is there anything exciting going on here?Someone thought I was dead? No, Gregory said, we are taking steps to prevent the murder from happening again. Nell.Sims said coldly from behind: The door is only closed when the thief has gone. Outside came the hoarse braying of a lonely little donkey. Mason grabbed Della.Streeter's arm.He and Mrs. Bradisson happened to meet face to face. Only she knew and could confirm that the stories Mason made up were all lies, but to confess Mason, she had to admit that she had broken into the dead man's room at night. Good morning, Mrs. Bradisson.Mason bowed and said. Good morning!she snapped.