Erle Gardner - The Case of the Runaway

“Do you have any further questions or cross- examination?” Vandling asked Mason.

“Do you think the poison was ingested in a piece of candy?” Mason asked.

“I do not.”

“Would you say it was not?”

“I would say that I don’t think the poison was taken in candy. I think death was very rapid and I found no evidence of candy although I tried very carefully to find candy in the stomach content.”

“How do you think the poison was taken?”

“I don’t think it was taken in food. It may have been administered in whisky. There was whisky in the stomach and alcohol in the blood. I have one other theory which is a possibility which I don’t care to state.”

Mason thought that over, then said, “Is that theory that the dead man could have been given a straight dose of poison—let us say as a medicine?”

“Yes.”

“That’s all, Doctor,” Mason said, smiling.

“Just one question on redirect, Doctor,” Vandling said triumphantly. “Then, in your opinion, it is possible the defendant could have given Edward Davenport this poison under the guise of medicine?”

“No.”

“What? I thought you just said the cyanide could have been given as medicine.”

“I did, but not by Mrs. Davenport, because she wasn’t in the room within the necessary time limit. My opinion is that Edward Davenport lived less than two minutes after ingesting that poison.”

“Any more questions on cross-examination?” Vandling asked Mason.

“None whatsoever,” Mason said. “You’re doing fine. Go right ahead. It’s your omelette. Try to unscramble it.”

“I’d like to ask for a continuance,” Vandling said. “It is past the noon hour now, Your Honor. Court usually adjourns until two o’clock. I am going to ask the Court to adjourn until four o’clock this afternoon.”

“Does the defense have any objections?” Judge Siler asked.

“I think not, under the circumstances,” Mason said. “In fact we’ll grant a continuance until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock if the prosecution wishes.”

“I should like to have such a continuance provided it is stipulated that … I would prefer to have the motion come from the defendant,” Vandling said.

“I’ll make such a motion,” Mason said promptly.

“Very well,” Judge Siler ruled. “On the motion of the defendant case is continued until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. The defendant will remain in custody. Court’s adjourned.”

Vandling looked across at Mason. “Well,” he said, “I had been warned to expect the unexpected in dealing with you, but this is the damnedest thing I’ve ever encountered in all my career.”

Mason smiled. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Vandling said. “I can get her bound over, but in view of the testimony of Dr. Renault I’d have a hell of a time getting her convicted in front of a jury.”

“Well, at least you’re frank,” Mason told him.

“There’s no use trying to cover things up with you,” Vandling said. “You know as well as I do what would happen if a situation like this developed in front of a jury.”

“Are you going to dismiss the case?”

“I don’t think so. I walked into this thing with my eyes shut. I think probably I can put on a case before a jury without calling Dr. Renault, and force you to call him as your witness.”

“And then what?” Mason asked.

“Then,” Vandling said, lowering his voice, “I’d attack his professional competency. I don’t think he’s too highly regarded in medical circles here. He’s drifted around. He’s a mature man, yet he’s only practiced in Crampton for three years. I believe he was in trouble over narcotics at one time. That’s why Dr. Hoxie became so indignant at the idea of his findings being questioned by a man who had no more professional standing than Dr. Renault.”

“Dr. Renault seemed positive enough,” Mason said.

“He sure was positive enough.”

“And then, of course,” Mason went on, “you have the spectacle of the corpse climbing out of the window.”

Vandling frowned. “It’s a strange case. Someone might have pushed the corpse through the window, then impersonated the dead man. I asked for a continuance because I have a plan in mind. You might be surprised if you knew what I was thinking right now.”

“I may not know what you’re thinking,” Mason said, “but I’ll bet five dollars I know what you’re going to do.”

“What?”

“You’re going to call the district attorney of Los Angeles County and suggest that there are a few technical matters that are bothering you in this case up here, and that under the circumstances you think it would be better to have the Los Angeles grand jury indict Myrna Davenport for the murder of Hortense Paxton and try her down there on that charge first.”

Vandling threw back his head and laughed. “Well,” he said, “I’d been warned that you’d anticipate my every move. Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go telephone.”

As Vandling walked away, Mason turned to the officer. “Just a moment, I want to confer with my client before you take her back to jail.”

He took Mrs. Davenport’s arm, took her over to a deserted corner of the courtroom and said, “What was this you were telling me, that you had never opened that box of candy?”

“Mr. Mason, I’m telling you the truth. I never opened that box of candy.”

“Your fingerprints got on the candy,” Mason said.

“There’s something wrong. Those can’t be my fingerprints. They have been forged in some way.”

Mason said, “The question of forged fingerprints comes up every once in a while, but so far as I know there’s never been a case on record where a jury has held that a defendant’s fingerprints were successfully forged. Not when the fingerprints were left in place. When they have been lifted there’s another angle to the case. These prints are in place.”

Myrna Davis lowered her eyes. “Well,” she said in her low voice, “those aren’t my fingerprints. They can’t be.”

“Because you didn’t open the box of candy?”

“Because I didn’t open the box of candy.”

Sara Ansel came bustling forward from the back of the courtroom where she had been seated as a spectator.

“Mr. Mason,” she said, “may I talk with you?”

Mason nodded.

She pushed her way through the swinging gate and entered the railed enclosure reserved for officers of the court.

“Mr. Mason. I know, I absolutely know that Myrna didn’t do any of those things they claim she did. She didn’t feed Ed Davenport any bacon and eggs. He didn’t eat a thing while we were there. He was barely conscious and could hardly talk and she didn’t enter that room after Dr. Renault had left. She—”

Myrna looked coldly at Sara Ansel. “Go away,” she said.

Sara Ansel said, “Myrna, my dear, I’m trying to help you.”

“You’ve done everything you could to betray me,” she said.

“Myrna, do you realize what you’re saying?”

“Of course I do.”

Sara Ansel said, “You can’t. You’re upset and excited. Now, Myrna, dear, I know how your prints got on the candy. You gave Ed a full box, all right. You put it in his suitcase. But there was another partially filled box in the living room. You and I had been eating candy. There were two boxes in the living room, both partially empty. You consolidated those two partially empty boxes. So your fingerprints were on some of those candies you handled. Ed must have taken that box you consolidated as well as the one you packed in his suitcase.

“Then while he was in Paradise he must have eaten that fresh box you had put in his suitcase. That left the other box in his suitcase—the one you had consolidated from the two partially empty boxes.