Well, for that, youve got me. He walked right down the short hall. There was no one else visible. Chianti bottles with wicker bottoms were lined up behind the tiny bar, and some metal pizza platters were stacked on an old wooden credenza along with a mess of laminated menus. The mingled scents of garlic and basil and Parmesan and pasta sauce were readily apparent. The stained carpet was cheap and coming up in places. The walls were dotted with photos of long-dead celebrities, and the usual cheap prints of Napoli, Roma, and the Amalfi Coast. Bottles of olive oil and single droopy flowers in chipped porcelain vases were on every cloth-draped table. It looked like pretty much every standard Italian restaurant hed ever eaten at in New York City. I followed along until I got to a point where I realized they were going up to the Sylvan Glade Property and— Did you get her name? Thats right. I was shaking like a baby. Could barely hit the elevator button or swipe my card through. Gloster turned to Perry Mason with something of a smirk.Now, then, Mr. Mason, go ahead and cross-examine. Mason said,I am in a hurry. I have here a certified check for thirty-two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars as the purchase price of your stock. In precisely fifteen seconds Im going to walk out of this office. If I should renew my offer tomorrow morning, it will be for twenty thousand. If that isnot accepted I will offer you twelve thousand tomorrow afternoon. The day after tomorrow the price will be ten thousand. The following day I wont want it at any price. He had the rep of being iron hard but fair, a soldiers soldier. He cared more for his troops than he did for the next star on his shoulder. Then his career had seemed to stall. One article reported that Campbell had been brutally honest during some congressional testimony, and the Army brass hadnt liked that level of candor from one of its senior officers. Hed then been apparently forced into retirement and gone into the private sector. He’d resurfaced a few years later with some civilian position at the Pentagon. After that, he’d dropped off the radar. Lets go see how our steaks are doing, Stone said, and they crossed the street and went into Clarkes through the back door. The steaks were on their table, under lids, but they were still fairly hot. No, naturally the district attorney isnt going to tell me. How could he have been so blind? Valentine also knew about Devine and Sara Ewes dating, the only roommate of Devines who had before Ewes had been killed. Pissed off. Embittered. Dispirited. And perhaps a bit bemused by fate. He was just a few months away from his pension when they dumped him. Hows that? Mason asked. What idea? It was three weeks later, at precisely 6:20 in the morning. A few minutes later, another car. A newer Ford. Slowing down. Turning in. Drake said,Cab seven-sixty-one has picked up a fare in Hollywood and is going out to the end of North La Brea. Theres a movie actress has a swank place out there, and he has a call to her house. A woman named Jean Fellows had been a reporter before retiring. She was second in command here. She should have been first. All Id heard about the number one, someone named Mary Schmidt, was that Jean had to follow her around and fix her mistakes. Schmidts husband had contributed something like seventy thousand dollars to the coffers so his wife had her choice of positions. Dorley said,Has it ever occurred to you, Mr. Mason, that the authorities might try to implicate Dorothy Fenner in the murder?.