Erle Gardner - The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito

Bradisson rose, held up his right hand, listened to the oath, said, “I do,” and then grinned at Perry Mason. “Go right ahead, Mr. Mason. Although I don’t think I have anything to add to what Pete Sims has said.”

“You’re an officer of the Come-Back Mining Syndicate?”

“President.”

“And have been such for how long?”

“Oh, about a year or so.”

“You inherited a substantial block of stock from your sister, Mrs. Banning Clarke?”

“Yes.”

“And as president of the corporation, you determine its policies?”

“Isn’t that what a president is for?”

“I’m merely trying to get the facts in the record,” Mason said.

“Well, I’m no stuffed ornament. I was elected by the directors to run the company, and I’m trying to do so — to the best of my ability,” he added virtuously.

“Exactly. You’re acquainted with Nell Sims, the wife of Pete Sims, the witness who just testified?”

“That’s right.”

“How long have you known her?”

“Oh, I don’t know. A year or so, perhaps a few months longer than that. I met her originally in Mojave.”

“Where she was running a restaurant?”

“Yes.”

“And you also met Pete Sims up there?”

“I think so. I may have.”

“And for the last year you have been more or less intimately associated with them. They’ve been living in the same house. She has been acting in the capacity of general cook and housekeeper?”

“That’s right.”

Moffgat said, “I object to all this waste of time. You can’t change the fact of fraud if you question this man until Doomsday.”

Mason paid no attention to the interruption, went on in a conversational, intimate tone with his examination.

“And during that time you’ve had occasion to see Pete Sims rather frequently?”

“Quite frequently. That is — what I might say was in between intervals.”

“What intervals?”

“When he isn’t on a spree. I suppose he would express it as ‘when Bob isn’t in the saddle.’”

“So you’ve known about Bob for some time?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Now about six months ago, Mr. Sims returned from the desert and told you about a strike he had made?”

“Yes. He said he’d been doing some assessment work on his wife’s claims and had made this strike. He thought the ore was very rich indeed. He showed me the ore. I thought it was very good ore. I told him that the syndicate might be willing to take the claims over at a fair price.”

“And you subsequently agreed on a price?”

“We bought the claims, yes.”

“And how much of the price has been paid?”

“We paid the original cash payment and then filed this suit to rescind the contract on the ground of fraud and be relieved of any further liability on payment of purchase price.”

“When did you first learn that you had been defrauded?”

“Well, the report of the assayer came in and then, weeks later, it came to my attention that the peculiar combination of minerals in the ore was exactly the same and in exactly the same amounts as appeared in another claim that was a part of the corporation properties — claims we had optioned from Banning Clarke.”

Mason said, “Had you had much mining experience when you became president of the corporation?”

“I hadn’t had much experience on the ground, but I knew a great deal about mining, and I had a natural aptitude for it. I picked up the practical points rather quickly — unusually fast, to be more truthful than modest.”

“So that you consider yourself thoroughly competent to be the president of a mining corporation having rather extensive interests?”

“If I hadn’t, I never would have accepted the presidency. I have made a detailed study of all forms of mining, Mr. Mason, and particularly of the properties of the Come-Back Mining Syndicate and of the problems pertaining to those properties.”

“And you’re a fair judge of character, Mr. Bradisson?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that after you had an opportunity to see and study Mr. Sims, you had a pretty good idea of his general character?”

“Well, yes — if you want to go into that.”

“You yourself went out and looked over his mining properties before the deal was closed?”

“Naturally. I would hardly obligate my stockholders to pay out a large sum of cash for something I hadn’t looked at personally.”

“You went down in the little shaft?”

“It isn’t so little. It’s down some fifty feet, and then it runs on a drift back about one hundred and thirty-five or forty feet.”

“You inspected the ore in that shaft?”

“Certainly.”

“Before you signed up the agreement to buy?”

“Of course. The rich samples I found were planted.”

“You’ve heard about Mr. Sims’ mischievous second personality, the inscrutable Bob, who forces Pete’s unwilling body to depart from the narrow path of rectitude and into the ways of inebriation?” Mason asked.

Bradisson laughed. “I certainly have, Mr. Mason. You’ll pardon me if I laugh, but I thought you expressed that rather neatly.”

“Thank you. And you’ve had an opportunity to hear many of these stories of what Bob has done when he’s taken over the control of Mr. Sims’ body?”

“Oh, yes.”

“And I take it you’ve formed something of an opinion of Bob?”

Bradisson said, “Let’s not misunderstand each other, Mr. Mason. This so-called Bob has absolutely no existence whatever. Pete Sims simply uses him as a scapegoat. He’s an alibi. Whenever Pete gets a little out of line or does something he shouldn’t, he claims that he has no memory of what occurred, and that this secondary personality has taken over. This so-called Bob is merely his way of making excuses to his wife. She may or may not believe him. At any rate, she does nothing to discourage his prevarications. Because of that, Pete Sims has developed a rather childish, immature attitude. His wife swallows his falsehoods with such ease and apparent gullibility that the man doesn’t even bother his brain to think up good lies. — Just by way of illustration, you can see how easily Mr. Moffgat trapped him today — although I don’t want to take any of the credit from Mr. Moffgat for a brilliant piece of cross-examination. However, the fact remains that Sims has a childish faith in the efficacy of his own falsehoods that keeps him from using ordinary care in thinking them up. This business of a secondary personality has been too easy for him.”

Mason’s face and voice both showed surprise. “You mean that he has deliberately built up the fiction of this secondary personality?”

“Of course,” Bradisson said, his voice and manner showing some disdain for Mason’s attempt at acting. “Surely, Mr. Mason, you didn’t expect to establish that there actually was any such secondary personality.”

“Of course I haven’t had the benefit of such an intimate acquaintance as you. I have merely met the man, but he seemed sincere enough when he told me about his secondary personality. I was hoping you could confirm his statements.”

“Don’t insult my intelligence, Mr. Mason.”

“And you mean that Mr. Sims deliberately lies about this?”

“Of course.”

“How long have you known this?” Mason asked.

“Almost ever since I first met him. It should be apparent to anyone of discernment. He is a thoroughly disreputable old reprobate, and an awful liar. Remember that you asked for this, Mr. Mason. There’s a certain likable streak in him, but he’s just a periodic drunkard and a congenital liar as well as being basically dishonest. He tries to account for his shortcomings by telling falsehoods even a child wouldn’t believe.