Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Sulky Girl

Harry Nevers laughed. "That sounds a little more like it," he said. "Will the court order the test?"

"No," Mason said. "I don't think the court will want to have anything to do with it. It's something that will have to be handled by stipulation. We'll make the test and then let the witnesses testify Monday morning."

"When are you going to figure out the details of the test?" asked the reporter.

"Probably right after the court adjourns," Mason told him. "Drumm will get in touch with me. I thought I'd give you a ring and let you know that I can't control the publicity that comes out of the D.A.'s office, but as far as I'm concerned you're going to have an exclusive on the details just as soon as I reach an agreement with the District Attorney's office."

Harry Nevers gave a dry chuckle:

"I guess," he said, "it's a good thing that I had the photographer get a couple of pictures of you when he was over in the office. Something seems to tell me we will be running them about Tuesday morning, or in the evening editions Monday night."

"There's one other thing I want you to do for me," Mason said.

"Gee, you're full of those suggestions," the reporter told him.

"That's all right. This is a simple thing."

"All right, shoot."

"When that test is arranged, I'm going to have things fixed so that Drumm and I will be downstairs in the automobile, and Graves will be upstairs. We'll summon him by some kind of a signal. When we give that signal, I want you to detain Graves up there in that room."

"For how long?" asked Nevers.

"As long as you can."

"What's the idea of that?"

"I want to get him rattled."

"You can't rattle that bird. He's a foxy guy, if I ever saw one."

"He may think he's foxy, but he can be rattled just the same. I want you to put up some proposition to him that will hold him behind until he has to appeal to the District Attorney."

"Now," said the reporter, "you're asking something that's making me suspicious."

"It doesn't need to," Mason told him. "If you'll do that, I'll give you a break afterwards so that you can claim you participated in the final result."

"Maybe I don't want to participate in the final result," said Nevers. "Those final results sometimes ain't so hot."

"You won't have to unless you want to," Mason pointed out. "I'll take all the responsibility. You can share in the credit."

"I think," Nevers told him, "I'd better come over and talk this thing over with you a little bit."

Mason chuckled.

"I knew you wouldn't forget it," he said.

"Forget what?" asked the reporter suspiciously.

"That bottle of whisky in my desk," said the attorney, and slipped the receiver back on the hook.

The Norton mansion blazed with light, every window in the place was illuminated. More than a dozen automobiles were parked along the curb, or crowded into the driveway. Men came and went through the open door, and four or five police officers strutted importantly about the premises.

Up in the study where Edward Norton had been murdered, Claude Drumm stared speculatively at Perry Mason.

"I don't know what you could ask for that is more fair than this," he said.

"Well," Perry Mason told him, "it doesn't seem particularly complete to me as a test. Don Graves has only a fifty percent chance of guessing wrong even if he were blindfolded."

"I don't see what you're getting at," said Claude Drumm with purposeful stupidity.

"You've got two women here," said Perry Mason, "one in a black dress and one in a pink dress. You've got three men, all of whom are known to Graves. Now the idea is, as I understand it, that Judge Purley will drive his car up the roadway at exactly the same rate of speed, as nearly as he can remember, that he drove it on the night of the murder. When the car reaches a certain position in the roadway, Judge Purley is to shout: 'Look! And at that time Graves is to turn and look.

"After we have started up the roadway, the figures will arrange a pantomime. One of the three will stand with a club in his hand, and one of the women will stand so that her head, shoulder and arm are visible to a person going up the roadway."

"That is, correct," said Drumm.

"Very well," said Perry Mason. "Now the point that I am making is this: As far as the men are concerned, if Graves simply guessed, he would stand one chance in three of being right. As far as the women are concerned, if he simply guessed, he would stand an even chance of being right."

"Well," said Drumm, "you can't ask to have conditions any more favorable to your side of the case than they were at the time of the murder. Now there were only two women in the house at that time. There was Mrs. Mayfield, the housekeeper, and Frances Celane, your client. Now, it's conceded that there was a woman in the room at the time of the murder…"

"No it isn't," snapped Perry Mason.

"Well, according to my theory of the case, and according to the testimony of Don Graves, a disinterested witness, there was," said Drumm, "and, if the test is going through, that has got to stand. Now that woman who was in the room either had to be Mrs. Mayfield or Miss Celane. Similarly, there were three men who might have committed the murder. There was Pete Devoe, the chauffeur, who was drunk when we found him, but who, nevertheless, was under suspicion; there was Rob Gleason, the defendant in the action, and Purkett, the butler. One of those three men must have been the one to swing the club."

"That," said Mason, "is taking for granted that the evidence of the footprints under the window, and the window that had been jimmied open, is evidence that was planted."

"Of course it is," said Drumm. "You wouldn't want us to have the whole city standing here in the room because there might have been someone in the city who had broken into the house. You can't have this thing all your way."

"I should have it enough my way so that we can tell whether Graves uses his eyes, or whether it's just a lucky guess."

Claude Drumm showed a glint of triumph in his eyes.

"I have arranged this test," he said, "under circumstances which are identical to those which surrounded the commission of the crime. This test is made as the result of a challenge by you. Now, if you are afraid to have Graves go ahead with it, all you have got to do is to say so, and we'll call the test off, because you didn't dare to let the witness go through with it."

Mason shrugged his shoulders.

"Very well," he said, "if you're going to put it on that ground, go ahead."

The glint of triumph which had been in Drumm's eyes became a light of victory, and he grinned with blatant assurance.

"All right," he said to the compact group that had gathered about the two men, "I think you two gentlemen understand the situation perfectly. We are to go up the hill in the car. I will be seated in the back seat with Mr. Graves. Mr. Mason, the attorney for the defendants, will be seated in the front seat beside Judge Purley.

"After the car has started up the hill, you gentlemen of the press will select one of these women, who will stand so that her head, neck, shoulder and arm will be visible through the window, to anyone standing on the curve in the road at the point where Graves looks back. You will also select one of the three men, each of whom is attired in a distinctly different suit of clothes, to stand with a club in his hand, leaning over the chair in which Edward Norton was sitting when he was killed.

"I think that covers the situation. The reputation and integrity of Judge Purley will be sufficient to guarantee that whatever may happen in the automobile will not subsequently be distorted by either party."

Perry Mason said: "Just a minute. Before Don Graves leaves this room I want to have a confidential word with Judge Purley."