"Of course, he quit paying the premiums on the policies just as soon as he left her?" Perry Mason said.

"Yes," Doctor Millsap said. "That fifteen hundred policy was just a blind. The probabilities are he's forgotten about it. He just paid one premium on it and then left. Rhoda went on paying for the fifteen hundred policy. The airplane accident took place within a few months of the time the first premium was paid. The death certificate was filed within a year. If Rhoda had gone about it right in the first place, I don't think she'd have had any trouble getting the payment made on the strength of the airplane disaster. As it was, she got up against some officious clerk in the insurance company who tried to make things difficult for her."

"Then what happened?"

"Then, there was that period of waiting, and Rhoda collected the policy from my death certificate."

"You've known Rhoda some little time?"

"Yes."

"Tried to get her to marry you?"

Doctor Millsap's face flushed. "Is all this necessary?" he asked.

"Yes," said Mason.

"Yes," Doctor Millsap admitted with defiance in his voice, "I've asked her to marry me."

"Why didn't she?"

"She swore that she'd never marry again. She had lost her faith in men. She'd been a simple, unspoiled girl when Gregory Lorton tricked her into going through a marriage ceremony, and his perfidy had numbed her emotional nature. She dedicated her life to nursing the sick. She had no room for love."

"Then out of a clear sky she married this millionaire's son?" asked Perry Mason.

"I don't like the way you say that."

"What don't you like and why?"

"The way you describe him as a millionaire's son."

"He is, isn't he?"

"Yes, but that isn't the reason Rhoda married him."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know her and I know her motives."

"Why did she marry him?"

"It was a starved maternal complex. She wanted something to mother. She found just what she was looking for in this weak son of rich parents, a young man whose character was commencing to disintegrate. He looked up to Rhoda as a pupil looks up to his teacher, as a child to his mother. He thought it was love. She didn't know what it was. She only knew that all of a sudden she wanted something she could hold tightly to her and care for."

"Naturally you objected to the match?"

Doctor Millsap's face was white. "Naturally," he said in a voice that was edged with suffering.

"Why?"

"Because I love her."

"You don't think she's going to be happy?"

Doctor Millsap shook his head.

"She can't be happy," he said. "She isn't fair with herself. She isn't recognizing the psychological significance of her feelings. What she really wants is a man she can love and respect. Having a child would give her the natural outlet for her maternal affections. What she's done is to suppress her natural sex feelings over a period of years, until, finally, the starved mother complex has given her the irresistible desire to pick up some man who is weak and unfit, and try to protect that man from the world, gradually nursing him back to a normal place in life."

"Did you tell her that?"

"I tried to."

"Get any place with that line of argument?"

"No."

"What did she say?"

"That I could never be more than a friend to her, and that I was jealous."

"What did you do?"

Doctor Millsap took a deep breath. "I don't like to discuss these matters with a stranger," he said.

"Never mind what you like," Perry Mason told him, without taking his eyes from the man's face, "go ahead and spill it, and make it snappy."

"I care more for Rhoda than I do for life itself," Doctor Millsap said slowly, with obvious reluctance. "Anything that will make her happy is the thing I want. I love her so much that it's an unselfish love. I'm not going to confuse her happiness with mine. If she could be more happy with me than with any one else that would be the most wonderful thing that could happen to me. If, on the other hand, she could be more happy with some one else, than with me, I want her to have that some one else, because her happiness comes first."

"So you stepped out of the picture?" Mason inquired.

"So I stepped out of the picture."

"Then what?"

"Then she married Carl Montaine."

"Did it interfere with your friendship with Rhoda?"

"Not in the least."

"And then Lorton showed up."

"Yes, Lorton, or Moxley, whichever you want to call him."

"What did he want?"

"Money."

"Why?"

"Because some one was threatening to send him to jail for a swindle he'd worked."

"Do you know what the swindle was?"

"No."

"Do you know who the person was who threatened to send him to jail?"

"No."

"Do you know how much money he wanted?"

"Two thousand dollars at once and ten thousand dollars later."

"He demanded it of Rhoda?"

"Yes."

"What did she do?"

"Poor child, she didn't know what to do."

"Why not?"

"She was a bride. The suppressed emotional nature of years was commencing to reassert itself. She thought that she was in love with her husband. She thought that her life was entirely wrapped up in his. Then, suddenly this detestable cad appeared on the scene. He demanded money. It was money that she didn't have to give him. He insisted that if she didn't get it for him he would have her arrested for working a fraud on the life insurance company; also for bigamy. She knew that before he did any of those things, he'd appeal directly to Carl Montaine and try and get money from him. Montaine had a horror of having his name dragged through the newspapers. Moxley was very clever. He knew something about Montaine's absurd complex about family and the snobbish attitude of Montaine's father."

"So what happened?" Mason demanded.

"So she faced Moxley, told him that if he didn't clear out she'd have him arrested for the embezzlement of her money."

"You suggested that she do that?"

"Yes."

"And you gave her a gun with which to kill Moxley if the opportunity presented itself?"

Doctor Millsap's shake of the head was vehement. "I gave her a gun," he said, "because I wanted her to have something to protect herself with if it became necessary. I knew that this man Lorton, or Moxley, was utterly without scruple. I knew that he would lie, steal, or kill in order to accomplish his purpose. I knew that he was in a jam and needed money. I was afraid to have Rhoda go and see him alone, yet Moxley stipulated that she couldn't have any one with her."

"So you gave her the gun?"

"Yes."

"You knew that she was going to see Moxley?"

"Of course."

"Did you know she was going to see him last night?" Doctor Millsap's eyes shifted uneasily. He fidgeted in his chair. "Yes or no?" asked Mason.

"No," said Millsap.

Mason snorted. "If," he said, without rancor, "you can't lie better than that on the witness stand, you're not going to make Rhoda a very good witness."

"The witness stand!" exclaimed Millsap in dismay. Mason nodded. "Good God, I can't go on the witness stand! You mean to testify for Rhoda?"

"No, the district attorney will call you to testify against Rhoda. He's going to try to build up just as much adverse sentiment against Rhoda Montaine as he can. He'll try to show a motive for the murder—that motive will be an attempt on the part of Rhoda to conceal the fraud she perpetrated on the insurance company. Therefore, he'll show the fictitious death certificate and the conspiracy to defraud the insurance company. You know where that's going to leave you."

Doctor Millsap's mouth sagged slowly open. Perry Mason stared steadily at him. "You knew that Rhoda was going to meet Gregory Moxley at two o'clock in the morning, Doctor?"

Doctor Millsap seemed to wilt. "Yes," he said.