Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Long-Legged Models

“Oh, she wouldn’t go into court with all that crowd, Mr. Mason. She’s immense. It’s going to happen any minute now.”

“Marie will do anything that we tell her,” Mason said. “Her appearance will make it all the better. The minute she walks in that courtroom, every eye will be on her. Tell her just to walk up to the table and hand me the package.”

“But how are you going to stall things along until she can get there?” Della Street asked.

“Get started,” Mason said to Gertie. “I’ll stall along somehow. I’ll recall the last witness for additional cross-examination. I’ll think of something. Get started!”

Gertie hurried out of the restaurant.

Mason sat down to his lunch but was too excited to eat. “What a grandstand!” he said. “What a perfectly cock-eyed theory! And the nice part of it is that the District Attorney can’t disprove it. After all, in a case of circumstantial evidence, the evidence has to be strong enough to exclude every reasonable hypothesis other than that of guilt.”

“Is that hypothesis reasonable?” Drake asked skeptically.

“By the time Perry Mason gets done putting gilt paint on it,” Della Street said, “it will look like fourteen carat gold!”

“Well,” Drake said looking at his watch, “don’t get so enthusiastic you forget to get to court at two o’clock. They say Judge Decker lowers the boom on guys who don’t show up.”

Mason nodded, left a bill which more than covered the luncheon check, started walking down the stairs to the street. “I’ll recall Eva Elliott, Della. If I recall anyone else, it will look as though I’m stalling for time. Eva Elliott is the only witness I really have anything on. I’ll come down on her like a thousand tons of bricks about those bills she paid.”

“But,” Della Street asked, “is that proper cross-examination?”

“It isn’t,” Mason said, “but by the time I’ve asked a dozen questions, the jury will get the idea. Judge Decker will be mad as a wet hen. Burger will be yelling. Then with all the argument and all the objections and all of the hullabaloo, I can stall things along until Marie can get there with those towels. Then I’ll spring this theory of the substituted guns on the jury and claim that it’s a reasonable hypothesis other than that of guilt. We’ll stampede that jury, Della. I’ll put Marie on the stand. It’ll be a circus!”

“You know,” Della Street said, “you really do have something with that theory. Stephanie Falkner could have felt Homer Garvin killed him. She could have switched guns, concealed the gun they are calling the Junior Gun and substituted the one they are calling the Holster Gun, which was the murder weapon, putting it in exactly the same place on the table. She must have.”

“Atta girl!” Mason said. “I’m getting you convinced, and you’re skeptical, Della. If I can convince you, it’s a certainty I can get at least one or two of the jurors looking at it my way.”

“Remember,” she warned, “Hamilton Burger has the closing argument.”

“If he argues that point,” Mason said, “he’s simply floundering around in a legal quicksand. There were two guns. His own evidence shows there were two guns. He’s never found that second gun. And since he hasn’t found it, he can’t refute the claim that Stephanie Falkner, desperately in love with Homer Garvin and trying to protect him, switched the guns and is willing to take the chance of being convicted in order to protect the man she loves.”

“Well,” Della Street said, “it’s going to be quite some show and— Hang it, Chief! She must have done it!”

“Of course, she did,” Mason said. “And that’s why she won’t go on the stand.”

Judge Decker said, “It will be stipulated, I take it, gentlemen, that the jurors are all present, and the defendant in court.”

“So stipulated,” Mason said.

“The defense will proceed with its case.”

“If the Court please,” Mason said, “a certain matter has come to my attention which makes me wish to ask a few additional questions of one of the prosecution’s witnesses.”

“We object,” Hamilton Burger said. “The prosecution has rested its case, the evidence is closed as far as the prosecution is concerned.”

“Which witness?” Judge Decker asked Mason.

“Eva Elliott,” Mason said.

“The defense motion will be granted. The case is reopened. Eva Elliott will return to the stand for further cross-examination,” Judge Decker ruled.

Eva Elliott was called back to the stand. Mason, looking at his wristwatch, made a rapid calculation in regard to time.

Eva Elliott settled herself on the witness stand in the best tradition of the motion picture witnesses.

Mason said, “Just one or two more questions on cross-examination, Miss Elliott. Did you have any secretarial experience before you started working for Mr. Garvin?”

“Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial, and not proper cross-examination,” Hamilton Burger said.

“Sustained,” Judge Decker said.

“It was part of your secretarial duties to make out vouchers in payment of bills which were incurred by the Garvin enterprises?”

“Yes.”

“You habitually typed out checks covering those bills and Mr. Garvin would sign those checks?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What audit did you make of those bills?” Mason asked.

“Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, and not proper cross-examination,” Hamilton Burger said.

“Sustained,” Judge Decker snapped.

“Isn’t it a fact,” Mason asked, “that during the time you were with Mr. Garvin, you made out and got his signature on several checks amounting to several thousand dollars payable to the Acme Electric and Plumbing Repair Company of 1397 Chatham Street, and the Eureka Associated Renovators of 1397 Chatham Street, when, as a matter of fact, there were no such firms, and no orders had ever been given to those firms?”

“Just a moment! Just a moment!” Hamilton Burger shouted. “Your Honor, this is completely outside the issues of this case. It is not proper cross-examination. It is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”

Judge Decker stroked his chin. “It would seem at first blush to be completely outside of the issues,” he said, “unless counsel can assure the Court that he intends to connect it up in that it might show bias.”

“My next question,” Mason said, “will be to question the witness whether the person who was sending in these bills was not engaged in a conspiracy with her, and that this witness is therefore prejudiced and biased against Mr. Garvin, her former employer, because of fear that her defaultation will be discovered.”

Judge Decker frowned. “I think I am going to permit the questions,” he said. “It’s rather a technical, legal point by which evidence which otherwise might well be extraneous is introduced into a case, but it needs only a glance at the face of this witness to tell that there is something here which is—”

Eva Elliott interrupted. “Your Honor, I swear to you that I didn’t get a penny of it. Mr. Casselman promised to—” She stopped.

“Go on,” Judge Decker said.

“I don’t think she should be permitted to volunteer a statement,” Hamilton Burger said. “This is a very technical point. It is a matter which is being dragged in by the ears for the purpose of discrediting a witness whose actual testimony is not open to doubt and who has testified to a fact which is uncontradicted.”

“It is uncontradicted as yet,” Judge Decker said, “but the defense has not put on its case. The witness will kindly compose herself. You mentioned the name of Mr. Casselman, Miss Elliott.”