Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Fenced-In Woman

“Directing your attention to the fifteenth of March of this year, I will ask you where you were on the morning of that day.”

“I drove to a place known as Vista Point.”

“Now, can you tell us where Vista Point is in relation to the house built by Loring Carson and sold to Morley Eden?”

“It’s about a quarter of a mile — well, perhaps not that far — from the house. The site is so situated that you can look down on the back of the house — the patio, the swimming pool and the property below the swimming pool.”

“It is considerably higher than the house in question?”

“Yes. I don’t know just how many feet, but you can look down on the house. You can see the roof.”

“Can you see the road leading up to the house?”

“No, you can’t see that. You can only see the patio, the swimming pool and the rooms on that side of the house. The house itself obscures the view of the driveway on the other side and it’s impossible to see the road leading to the house because that comes up a slight grade and the house shuts off the view.”

“I see,” Ormsby said. “Now, I have here a map showing Vista Point, and I will ask you if you will first orient yourself with this map and then point out to the jury just where you were on the fifteenth of March of this year.”

After a moment the witness placed a finger on the map. “I was here,” she said.

“What time was it?”

“It was about — well, I guess I got there about ten-fifteen or a little after.”

“And did you wait there?”

“I waited.”

“Did you have any visual aid with you?”

“I had a pair of binoculars.”

“And what were you doing with those binoculars?”

“I was watching the rear of the Carson house.”

“By the Carson house you mean the house that was built by Loring Carson and sold to Morley Eden?”

“Yes.”

“May I ask what was your reason for being there?”

“It was a personal reason. I... I understood that a gentleman who resented some of the things that Loring Carson had done to my reputation was going to insist upon Carson making some sort of a retraction and if Carson was recalcitrant he intended to — well, I believe he said he intended to teach him a lesson.”

“While you were there what did you see — did you see any signs of activity?”

“Yes.”

“Will you describe them to the jury, please?”

“Well, when I first started watching there seemed to be no one home... and...”

“That can be stricken out as a conclusion of the witness,” Ormsby said. “Just state what you saw. Don’t give your conclusions, Mrs. Palmer — just what you saw.”

“Well, I parked my car, got out and looked through the binoculars from time to time. I would look away to rest my eyes and then look back, and if I saw something I thought would interest me I raised the binoculars.”

“And what was the first thing that you saw, the first motion?”

“I saw Loring Carson.”

“Now, where did you see him?”

“He was on the kitchen side of the house.”

“Let’s get this straight as far as the record is concerned,” Ormsby said. “The house was divided by a barbed-wire fence. You saw that?”

“Oh, of course.”

“On one side of the barbed-wire fence was the portion of the house which contained the kitchen. On the other side of the fence was the part which contained a portion of the living room and the bedrooms.”

“That is, generally speaking, correct.”

“Let’s refer, then, to the kitchen side of the house and the bedroom side of the house, just to keep the record straight at this point,” Ormsby said. “Now, where was Mr. Loring Carson when you first saw him?”

“On the kitchen side of the house.”

“You’re positive?”

“I’m positive.”

“What did you do, with reference to watching him?”

“I focused the binoculars on him.”

“Do you know the magnification of those binoculars?”

“Eight-power.”

“Could you see him clearly?”

“Quite clearly.”

“You recognized him?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Could you see what he was doing?”

“He bent down over the swimming pool by the steps. I couldn’t see what he was doing. I kept trying to focus the glasses so as to get the best adjustment possible.”

“All right, what happened?”

“Mr. Carson got down on his knees by the portion of the swimming pool that was near the cement steps.”

“Was he carrying anything?”

“He was carrying a leather briefcase.”

“What did you see him do?”

“He got down on his knees and put his right forearm in the water of the swimming pool. I could see that he was pulling at something and then suddenly I saw a section of what apparently was solid tile open up, disclosing a receptacle underneath.”

“And what did Mr. Carson do?”

“Carson took some papers from his briefcase, put them in this receptacle and closed the tile.”

“Go on. What else did you see, if anything?”

She said, “Loring Carson went inside of the house and almost immediately, from the other side of the house—”

“Now, just a minute,” Ormsby interrupted. “Let’s keep this straight. What side of the house did Loring Carson go in, the kitchen side or the bedroom side?”

“The kitchen side.”

“All right, now when you say the other side of the house, what do you mean?”

“The bedroom side of the house.”

“And what happened on the bedroom side of the house?”

“A nude woman came running out of the house and went into the pool like a flash.”

“You were looking through your binoculars?”

“Yes.”

“Could you recognize this woman?”

“I am not able to say positively and beyond all question as to who it was, but I think—”

“Now, just a moment,” Mason interrupted. “If the Court please, the witness has answered the question. She said that she couldn’t identify the person. It makes no difference as to who she thinks the person might be if she can’t swear who that person was.”

“I submit that she was simply using a colloquialism,” Ormsby said. “She means that she can identify the person to a reasonable certainty but she is trying to be fair and recognizes that there is room for the possibility of an error.”

“I don’t think it needs the prosecutor to interpret what the witness has stated,” Mason said. “She is testifying in the English language and I think I understand the English language as well as the prosecutor.”

Judge Fisk frowned thoughtfully, then said, “Let me question the witness. I would like to have Counsel refrain from interrupting me. Mrs. Palmer, you saw a person in the nude?”

“A woman. She was in the nude.”

“She wasn’t wearing a bathing suit?”

The witness shook her head vigorously. “She was in the nude.”

“And what did she do?”

“She came streaking out of the bedroom side of the house and cut into that water so fast that it almost took my breath just watching her.”

“She was running?”

“She was running and then she jumped into the water so clean she hardly made a splash and swam like a seal.”

“You had the binoculars?”

“I had the binoculars but I couldn’t keep her in the field of the binoculars. She was moving too fast — that is, she was within the field of the binoculars but not within the field of the center of my eyes, if you know what I mean. She was just moving — just as fast as she could go.”

“Did you get a good look at this woman?”

“Only in a general way, just a blurred sort of a look.”

“Could you swear absolutely as to the identity of that woman?”