Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom

Garvin hesitated.

“Let’s put it this way,” Tragg said, his eyes cold as ice, “you wouldn’t want to put yourself in a position of seeming to protect a murderer, would you, Mr. Garvin?”

“Of course not,” Garvin said hastily.

“I thought not,” Tragg told him. “Now then, if you’ll just come back across the border we’ll...”

“What about this bigamy warrant, Tragg?”

“I tell you, that’s out of my jurisdiction. That’s between this man and the D. A. But whether he comes back with me or whether he doesn’t isn’t going to help matters any. He’s a defendant in a bigamy rap. I don’t know what the D. A. will do. He may dismiss the case now that the complainant is dead. He may just keep on continuing or he may let the guy plead guilty and apply for probation. I’m not interested in bigamy; I’m interested in a murder.”

“That’s the difference between us,” Mason said cheerfully. “I’m interested both in the murder and in the bigamy charge.”

“Well,” Tragg said irritably, Mason’s manner forcing him to lose his good nature, “don’t think that this man has any choice in the matter. He’s faced with a rap for bigamy. We can get him out of Mexico any time we want him out. There’s an easy way and a hard way. I’m asking him to come the easy way.”

“We prefer to go the hard way,” Mason told him cheerfully.

“Now, don’t be like that,” Tragg said to Mason. “You know we can bring this man back any time we want him. We can nail him on an absolutely dead-open-and-shut bigamy charge. He has no possible defense to that and we can get him extradited from Mexico to face it. I thought we could expedite this murder investigation by not having to go through all that red tape.”

Mason said, “You face an interesting situation on that bigamy charge.”

“Phooey!” Lieutenant Tragg said. “Don’t hand me that line of double-talk, Mason. You know as well as I do that the Mexican divorce this man had isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. You also know that the Mexican marriage is a bigamous marriage.”

Mason said, “There’s some interesting law involved, Lieutenant. Section 61 of our Civil Code provides that a second marriage made during the lifetime of an undivorced spouse is illegal and void from the beginning.”

“That’s what I was telling you,” Lieutenant Tragg said.

“On the other hand,” Mason said, “Section 63 of the Civil Code also contains some very interesting language.”

“Such as what?” Tragg asked.

Mason took a piece of paper from his pocket, on which he had copied Section 63 of the Civil Code.

“Listen to this, Lieutenant: ‘All marriages contracted without this state, which would be valid by the laws of the country in which the same were contracted, are valid in this state.’ ”

Tragg said, “What are you getting at? That marriage in Mexico wasn’t any better than the divorce.”

“Exactly,” Mason said, “but Mexico recognized the divorce.”

“Well, what if it does?”

“Notice that language again,” Mason said. “I’ll read it to you once more.” He again held up the paper and read, “All marriages contracted without this state, which would be valid by the laws of the country in which the same were contracted, are valid in this state.”

Tragg tilted his hat back and scratched his head. “I’ll be damned,” he said.

“There you are,” Mason said. “The marriage is legal in Mexico. Therefore, it’s legal in every other country, particularly in the state of California, because the California law specifically so provides.”

“But look here,” Tragg said. “It’ll be possible to prove that these two people left California in order to perpetrate a fraud on the marriage laws of California and...”

Mason smiled, and shook his head. “Read the case of McDonald versus McDonald, 6 California (Second) 457. It’s also reported and discussed in 106 A. L. R. 1290 and is reported in the Pacific Reporter in 58 Pacific (Second) Page 163. That case holds squarely and fairly that where people leave California for the sole purpose of contracting a marriage, in defiance of the laws of California, and go to another state, and, as a part of that general scheme, a marriage is contracted in that state, that marriage is valid. It is a legal and binding ceremony in California, regardless of the fact that such marriage is not only contrary to the laws of California but contrary to the under-lying policy of the laws of California.”

“Well, dammit,” Tragg said, “the divorce in Mexico is no good in California, you have to admit that.”

“I don’t admit it, but I’m willing to concede it for the purpose of the argument.”

“Then the marriage has to be bigamous.”

“The marriage is as good as gold,” Mason said.

“You mean that this man has two wives and...”

“He doesn’t now,” Mason said, “but until an early hour this morning he did have. He’s in the rather unique position of having committed legal bigamy and having had two perfectly legal wives.”

“You’re nuts, Mason. You’re pulling a lot of double-talk and a lot of fast legal stuff in order to get me mixed up. You may be able to put up a good razzle-dazzle for a jury, but that’s all it is.”

Mason said, “Tragg, I’m telling you, the minute this man sets foot in Mexico, he’s married to this woman standing here at his side. I’m willing to concede that when he goes back to the United States, he may be held to have committed bigamy. That’s why I don’t propose to have him go back to the United States. He’s living here with his lawfully wedded wife.

“Now, Mexico will grant extradition for a crime that is a crime against the laws of the United States, but it’s not going to grant extradition for an act performed under the laws of the Mexican government which is perfectly legal here but which could be held to be illegal in California.”

Tragg said irritably, “You make the thing sound so damn convincing that... That’s the trouble with you, you’ve built up a reputation because you are able to make things sound so convincing.”

“You don’t want to go back to the United States, do you, Garvin?” Mason asked his client.

Garvin shook his head.

“There you are, Tragg,” Mason said.

Tragg took a small fingerprint outfit from his pocket. “Well,” he said, “I take it you’ll at least be willing to do whatever you can to help us clear up that murder case.”

“What do you want?”

“I want your fingerprints.”

“Why?”

“I think I found one of your fingerprints on the weapon with which the crime was committed.”

“You don’t need to bother about that,” Mason said. “I can tell you very frankly, Tragg, that my client handled that gun — that is, if it’s the gun we think it is.”

“What gun?” Tragg asked suspiciously.

“A gun,” Mason said, “that was left on the fire escape outside of the window of the Garvin Mining, Exploration and Development Company. That gun was handled by Mr. Garvin and was, in fact, placed in the glove compartment of his automobile. Someone removed it from the glove compartment before he had left Los Angeles.”

Tragg threw back his head and laughed. “You do have the most naive, ingenious explanations! You admit your client put that gun in the glove compartment of his automobile?” Tragg asked.

“It was put there for him,” Mason said.

Tragg turned to Garvin. “You admit you put that gun in the glove compartment of your car?”

“He admits someone else put it there,” Mason said.

“I’m talking to Garvin,” Tragg said irritably.

“I’m talking for him.”