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Setting: The Capwell Mansion
Characters: Mason and Peter
Peter: I'll make the effort. At least I'll try.
Mason: Nobody can do any more than that, Peter. But try hard.
Peter: Just I don't know how to go about it, Mason. I don't know how to look for private documents or find out where
they're hidden. It isn't something I have any experience with.
Mason: Oh, come now, Peter. You have an imagination. You've had liaisons, have been crafty about them, hidden
them, don't pretend you're not capable of duplicity.
Peter: I'm capable, just not comfortable with it.
Mason: (Laughs). Well, I'm not asking you to be comfortable with it, I don't care if you are or not. Ask Augusta, if it'll
make you feel better. Ask her where she keeps her jewelry, her money-her important papers.
Peter: Yeah, sure.
Mason: Look here, Peter. Aren't you the young man everyone thinks of as the most likely to succeed?
Peter: I doubt it, Mason.
Mason: Well, don't underestimate yourself. I mean, in school you must have been a crack student to have become a
teacher, and now you've caught the most eligible woman in all of Santa Barbara. I know you're good in sports. Are
you sure you were never judged to be most likely to succeed?
Peter: I don't remember.
Mason: Must have been an oversight. You'd won hands down if they had a contest. Now, Peter, I know you can do
this. You have a lot on the ball. I'm glad you'd decided to cooperate and join the Capwell family interests. Now, how
do we do it? My guess is that the papers are in the Lockridge home, so if we can't get your friend to give them to you,
I'll have to arrange for a search warrant.
Peter: Can you do that?
Mason: I can do that.
Peter: How?
Mason: Oh, there's many ways. All perfectly legal, perfectly simple, perfectly self-serving. First way that comes to
mind, and probably the most effective, involves Joe Perkins. See, he, um, he works there, so, uh, if there's any
chance at all, however faint, that he has committed some crime in the community, well, I ask you, could there not be
evidence of that crime in that household somewhere? And should we not, in the interest of the community's security,
search thoroughly for such evidence. And my men can be very thorough, especially when they are looking for
paperwork that I need. They're very, very good at that.
Peter: I wasn't aware that the law was so flexible, Mason.
Mason: (Laughs). Yeah, yeah, the law is very flexible, Peter. It can bend for you, or against you, even sideways at
times, depending on what you want accomplished. Stick around, Peter. You may lose your naivety. It's slower than
losing your virginity, but much more interesting.