Erle Gardner - The Case of the Horrified Heirs

Judge Albert said, «This is an interesting situation. Apparently, the defendant did not give anyone permission to 'search' the suitcase but did give her consent to opening the suitcase for the sole purpose of demonstrating the presence of certain articles. It's a peculiar situation.»

«I'll get at it in still another way, if the Court please,» Mason said. «I want to make the defendant's position plain. We would like to get this matter cleaned up in this preliminary hearing and not on some technicality.»

Mason turned to the witness. «You took fifty packages out of that suitcase?»

«Yes, sir.»

«You have them here in court?»

«Yes, sir.»

«Did you weigh them?»

«Weigh them? No, sir. We counted the packages and made our inventory that way rather than by weight.»

«Now, there was a second bag, an overnight bag?»

«Yes, sir.»

«Did you ask the defendant to identify that?»

«She said it was hers. She had a claim check for it.»

«And did you ask her about the contents?»

«No.»

«Did you ask her if it would be all right to open it?»

«No.»

«But you did open it and search it?»

«Yes. However, we found nothing significant in that overnight bag.»

«You didn't ask her permission to open that bag?»

«I don't believe I did.»

«You just went ahead and opened it anyway?»

«That was after I'd found this big shipment of-«

Mason held up his hand. «Never mind what it was, at this time,» he said. «We'll refer to it simply as 'fifty packages.' What did you do with the overnight bag?»

«We have it here.»

«Now then,» Mason said, «since you don't know how much the fifty packages weighed, do you know how much the suitcase weighed without the fifty packages?»

«I do not.»

«Did you know the defendant had paid excess baggage on the suitcases?»

«Yes.»

«Yet you never weighed them?»

«No.»

«I suggest, if the Court please, we weigh them now,» Mason said.

«What is the purpose of this offer?» Judge Albert inquired.

«If,» Mason said, «the scales show that these two bags, at the present time, and without the packages, weigh forty-six pounds, then it is conclusive evidence that someone planted whatever was in that suitcase after it had left the possession of the defendant .»

«I think the point is well taken,» Judge Albert said. «I'm going to take a recess for ten minutes. The bailiff will have some scales brought into court and we will weigh those two suitcases.»

«That doesn't necessarily mean anything,» Caswell protested. «We only have the defendant's word that they weighed forty-six pounds. She has been out on bail. We don't know what has been taken from those suitcases.»

«Haven't they been in the custody of the police?» Judge Albert asked.

«Yes, but there would have been no objection to her going to the suitcase to take clothes.»

«_Did_ she go to the suitcase and take anything?»

«I don't know, Your Honor.»

«If you don't know whether she took something out, you don't know whether someone else put something in,» Judge Albert snapped. «The Court will take a recess of ten minutes and we'll have scales brought in.»

Mason sauntered out to a telephone booth, called the pressroom at headquarters and said, «An interesting demonstration is taking place in court in ten minutes. Judge Cortland Albert is going to weigh the evidence.»

«Doesn't he always weigh the evidence?» one of the reporters asked facetiously.

«Not this way,» Mason said. «He's going to weigh it with a pair of scales.»

«What?»

«That's right. With a pair of scales in ten minutes. You'd better be up here. You might get something good.»

«What department?» the reporter asked.

Mason told him.

«We'll be up,» the man said. «Hold it off a little if you can.»

«I can't,» Mason told him. «As soon as the judge gets the scales in, he's going to reconvene court. He thinks he can do it within ten minutes and I think he can, too. The bailiff is getting the scales.»

Mason hung up.

Mason, standing beside Virginia Baxter, said, «I'm gambling everything on the fact that you're telling the truth. If you're lying, you're going to get hurt.»

«I'm not lying, Mr. Mason.»

Mason said, «Ordinarily, at the time of arrest, there would be a dramatic picture on the front page showing an ex-legal secretary smuggling dope. Dismissal of the charges at a preliminary hearing would rate about five or six lines buried somewhere in the inner pages of the paper.

«What I'm trying to do is to make this thing so dramatic that it will be a big story in itself. If you're telling the truth, we'll vindicate your name in such a way that everyone who read the original article and remembered it will read this one and remember that you were acquitted of the charge.

«But if you're lying, this test is going to crucify you.»

«Mr. Mason, I'm telling you the absolute truth. Why in the world would I want to peddle dope, or get mixed up in it in any way?»

Mason grinned and said, «I don't ask myself all those questions usually; I just say, 'This girl is my client and, as such, she has to be right. At least, I'm going to act on that assumption.'»

The bailiff and two deputies appeared trundling a platform scale, taken from the jail building and used to weigh prisoners at the time they were booked.

The bailiff vanished into Judge Albert's chambers to report.

The swinging doors of the courtroom were pushed open as half a dozen reporters accompanied by photographers entered the courtroom.

One of the reporters approached Mason. «Would you and your client pose by the scales?» he asked.

«I won't,» Mason said. «My client will, but I think you will have to wait until court is adjourned-and by that time, there's just a chance Judge Albert might pose with you.»

«Why won't you pose?» the reporter asked.

«It's not supposed to be ethical,» Mason said.

The reporter's face flushed with anger. «That's the bar association for you,» he said. «Appointing committees, trying to get better public relations, and then trying to hide behind a false front of legal ethics.

«When will you lawyers learn that public relations simply means taking the public into partnership and letting newspaper readers look over your shoulders and see what you're doing?

«Any time the lawyers are too stuffy or too afraid to let the public know what they're doing, they're going to have poor public relations.»

Mason grinned and said, «Calm down, buddy. I'm not stopping you from looking over my shoulder, I'm simply stopping you from looking at my face with a camera and flashlight. That's supposed to be unethical advertising-not that I give a damn, but I'm leaning over backwards. However, as far as the story is concerned, why the hell do you suppose I went to all the trouble of setting this up?»

The angry reporter looked at him, then his face softened in a grin. «I guess you're right at that,» he said. «Is the judge actually going to weigh the evidence?»

«Going to weigh the physical evidence,» Mason said.

«Cripes, what a story!» the reporter commented, just as the door from chambers opened and the bailiff said, «Everybody stand up.»

The audience arose, and Judge Albert entered the courtroom, noticing, with a touch of amusement and some surprise, the manner in which the courtroom, which had been almost empty, had now filled up nearly to capacity with spectators from the various county offices, newspaper reporters and photographers.

«People versus Virginia Baxter,» he said. «Are we ready to proceed?»

«Ready, Your Honor,» Caswell said.