Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Counterfeit Eye

Burger controlled himself with a visible effort. His voice was strained and tense.

"I wish to withdraw Mr. Colemar from the stand in order to place this other witness on the stand. I would, however, like to have a few moments' recess."

"If," Mason said, "Counsel wants to put this witness on the stand, he should be willing to do it without interrogating her first and in private."

"Your Honor," Burger protested, "this is a hostile witness. She has absented herself from the jurisdiction of the court. I will have to handle her as a hostile witness. But her information is of the greatest value."

"You are referring to Hazel Fenwick?" asked Judge Winters.

"Yes, your Honor."

Judge Winters nodded his head.

"You, Mr. Colemar, may leave the stand. Let Miss Fenwick come forward."

"Those men will have to make way, your Honor. The aisles are crowded," Burger pointed out.

"Clear the aisles."

"If we might have a few moments' recess," Burger pleaded.

Judge Winters hesitated a moment, then said, "The court will take a five minute recess."

Two officers came pushing their way down the aisle, a woman held between them, her face white.

Judge Winters, rising from behind the bench, stared curiously at her for a moment, then strode through the blackcurtained doorway into his chambers.

Every eye in the courtroom turned toward the slender, wellformed, darkhaired young woman.

She flashed one pleading, anguished glance at Perry Mason, then swiftly averted her eyes. The officers pushed her forward. Someone held open the gate in the mahogany rail, and she entered the space reserved for the lawyers.

Burger approached her with an ingratiating smile. Spectators in the courtroom craned their necks eagerly forward, trying to see what took place. Those who could not see tried to listen. There was none of that buzzing hum of excited conversation which usually characterizes the recesses taken during an important murder trial. There was only the slight rustling motion which came from bodies leaning forward and the sound of people breathing.

Burger looked about him appraisingly, then took Thelma Bevins by the arm, piloted her to a corner of the courtroom near the court reporter's desk, and started whispering to her.

She shook her head doggedly. Burger glowered at her, shot forth a barrage of whispered comments, then apparently asked her some question, She half looked at Perry Mason, but caught herself before she had completely swung her head toward the attorney, looked back at Burger and clamped her lips shut.

Burger's hoarse threat was audible to those sitting in the front row of the courtroom chairs.

"By God," he said, "if you try that stunt, I'll put you on the witness stand under oath and make you talk. This is a preliminary examination. Whatever you have to say in connection with it will be material. I'll prosecute you for perjury if you lie, and the Judge will jail you for contempt of court if you don't talk."

Her lips remained closed.

Burger's face took a darker shade. He glared across the courtroom at Perry Mason, who, urbanely nonchalant, was lighting a cigarette.

Burger took a watch from his pocket and said, in that same hoarse voice, "I'm giving you one more chance. You have just sixty seconds to talk, and talk straight."

He stood staring at his watch. Thelma Bevins, standing very straight, stared past him, her eyes fixed disdainfully upon distance, her face very white, her lips clamped together.

An enterprising newspaper reporter, taking advantage of the fact that court was not in session, focused his camera, raised a flashlight bulb, and shot a picture—a picture which showed Thelma Bevins, grim and defiant, Burger holding his watch, belligerent and impatient, while, in the background, Perry Mason, watching them with an expression of sardonic humor on his face, was puffing a cigarette.

Burger whirled on the reporter and shouted, "You can't do that!"

"Court ain't in session," the reporter said, turning and pushing his way through the crowd with his prized picture.

Burger snapped his watch in his pocket.

"Very well," he told Thelma Bevins, "you've made your bed. Now you can lie in it."

She gave no sign that she had heard him, but stood staring, as rigid as though she had been carved from marble.

Judge Winters reentered the courtroom from his chambers, ascended to his seat on the raised dais, and said, "Court will reconvene. Are you gentlemen ready to resume the trial?"

Perry Mason drawled, "Quite ready, your Honor."

Burger's face showed rage. He said, "Hazel Fenwick, take the stand."

The woman did not move.

"You heard me!" Burger shouted. "You're to take the stand. Hold up your right hand and be sworn, and then sit on that chair."

"My name is not Hazel Fenwick."

"What is your name?"

"Thelma Bevins."

"All right, then, Thelma Bevins. Hold up your right hand to be sworn, and then take the witness stand."

She hesitated for a moment, then held up her right hand. The clerk administered the oath. She stepped to the witness chair and sat down.

"What's your name?" Burger said, in a loud tone of voice.

"Thelma Bevins."

"Did you ever go under the name of Hazel Fenwick?"

She hesitated.

Perry Mason's voice was suave and somewhat patronizing.

"Now, Miss Bevins," he said, "if you don't want to answer that question, you don't have to."

Burger whirled to him and said, "Are you now appearing as this young woman's attorney?"

"Since you ask it, yes."

"That," Burger said, "puts you in a very questionable position, particularly in view of the question which has arisen as to your connection with her absenting herself from the state."

Mason bowed and said, "Thank you, Counselor. I'm quite capable of estimating the consequences of my own acts. I repeat, Miss Bevins, you don't need to answer that question."

"But she does need to answer it," Burger said, facing back toward the witness and pointing his finger at her. "You have to answer that question. It's a pertinent question, and I demand an answer."

Judge Winters nodded and said, "It happens, Counselor Mason, that it rests with the Court to say what questions shall be answered and what shall not be answered. This is a pertinent question, and I order the young woman to answer it. In the event she does not, I will be forced to hold her in contempt of court."

Perry Mason smiled reassuringly at Thelma Bevins.

"You don't need to answer it." he said.

Judge Winters gave an exclamation. Burger whirled to face Perry Mason, with his exasperation showing on his countenance.

Perry Mason went on in the same tone of voice, as though he had merely paused in the middle of a sentence, "… if you feel that answering the question would tend to incriminate you. All you need to do, Miss Bevins, is to say, 'I refuse to answer upon the ground of my constitutional privilege that the answer might incriminate me. When you have once said that, no power on earth can make you answer the question."

Thelma Bevins flashed him a smile and said, "I refuse to answer the question upon the ground of my constitutional privilege that the answer might incriminate me."

A deadlocked silence fell upon the group clustered about the witness chair. At length, Burger sighed. The sigh was an eloquent acknowledgment of defeat.

He turned once more toward Thelma Bevins.

"You," he said, "were in the Basset residence at the time when Hartley Basset was murdered, weren't you?"

She glanced at Perry Mason.

"Refuse to answer the question," Mason said.

"How can an answer to such a question incriminate her?" Burger asked of Judge Winters.

Mason shrugged his shoulders and said, "I think, if I understand my law correctly, that is for the witness to decide for herself. It may be that an explanation might be more incriminating than an answer."