Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom

“Where’s the car?”

“In the garage here at the hotel.”

“Hadn’t they looked it over before?”

“Well, they looked it over when they took us in, but now it seems they want to take it and have it searched for fingerprints or something. They said they’d have to have it for about three hours.”

Mason said, “Where are the keys to the car?”

“In the car, I guess.”

“When did the police telephone you?”

“Just now.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them that I’d have to go across the border to get my bags and check out of that little hotel there in Tijuana. They told me that they’d give me a police car and...”

Mason interrupted to say hurriedly, “Now, do exactly what I tell you to. Get tough with them. Tell them that you certainly aren’t going to be seen riding around in any police car; that you’re going back to get those bags; that they can send an officer with you if they want, but you’re going back in your own car and get those bags and check out of the Hotel Vista de la Mesa. Do you understand that?”

“Yes.”

“And see that you do that,” Mason said. “Don’t let them get their hands on that automobile for at least an hour and a half or two hours. Delay the thing just as much as you can. Don’t act as though you’re trying to conceal anything, but simply be mad and hurt and annoyed and independent. Be sure that you don’t tell the officers that they can’t have the car. Tell them they can have it as soon as you get back from across the border. Do you understand?”

“Yes, but I don’t see why...”

“You don’t have to,” Mason said. “Do exactly as I tell you and don’t tell anyone you’ve been talking with me. Now you understand what you’re to do?”

“Yes, but I...”

“Do it, then,” Mason said. “Delay things so it’s two hours if possible before the police get hold of your automobile. I’ve got to get busy. Have confidence in me. Do exactly what I tell you. Good-by.” Mason hung up the telephone.

“What is it?” Drake asked.

Mason, on his feet, his eyes sharp with excitement, said, “Just as you said, Paul. You know what’s going to happen? The police are trying to get hold of Garvin’s car. They tricked him into going across the border, and then nabbed him. Now they want to get his automobile. You know what they’re going to do with it? They’re going to take that automobile up to Oceanside, show it to Irving, have Irving say that that’s the car he saw, then let Irving look it all over carefully, and point out any little individual things he can find on the car — fender dents or dented hub caps or anything of that sort.”

“Well,” Drake said, wearily, “there’s nothing you can do about it. After all, if Irving is the kind who falls for a deal like that...”

“They all fall for it,” Mason said. “Don’t be silly. You know what happens with witnesses.”

“What happens?” Drake asked, lighting his cigarette.

Mason said, with feeling, “It’s been demonstrated dozens of times that if you have a crime committed in front of a whole roomful of witnesses and then call on those witnesses to make a written statement of what took place, the statements will contain all sorts of variations and contradictions. People simply can’t see things and then tell what they’ve seen with any degree of accuracy.”

“I suppose so,” Drake said.

“Hell, it’s been demonstrated time and again,” Mason said. “It’s a favorite stunt in classes in psychology in college. But what happens when you have witnesses in the trial of a case? They get on the stand one after another and tell a story that might have been written on a mimeograph. A witness sees something. He tells it to the police. The police point out little discrepancies between his story and that of the other witnesses. They point out what must have happened. Then they let the fellow think it over. Then they talk with him again. Then they let him talk it over with other witnesses. Then they take him to the scene of the crime. Then they get the witnesses to re-enact what happened. By the time a witness gets on the stand he’s testifying to a composite of what he saw, what he thinks he saw, what the other fellow tells him he saw, and what he concludes he must have seen, judging from the physical evidence. Look at what’s happening in this case right under our noses. They’ve found this witness. They’re going to take Garvin’s automobile and...”

“I know,” Drake said, “but there’s nothing we can do.”

“The hell there isn’t,” Mason said. “You take Della in your car. Follow me just as fast as you can.”

“What are you going to do, Perry?”

Mason said, “I’m going to take my convertible, drive it down to Oceanside, park it in just about the position the witness says that other car was parked. You and Della are going to get Mr. Mortimer C. Irving, tell him you want him to take a look at a car, and drive him down the highway. My convertible will be parked there and I’ll bet you ten to one the guy identifies my convertible as the one he saw — if he sees it before he sees Garvin’s car.”

“And then what?” Drake asked, dubiously.

“And then,” Mason said, “we’re going to come back home and Mrs. Lorraine Garvin is going to tell the police they can ‘borrow’ her car to look it over. The police will rush the car up to Oceanside and ask Irving to identify it. Irving will then tell them that isn’t the car, that he’s already identified the car, that it’s a car with a certain license number.”

“He won’t identify it if he thinks it belongs to you and knows who you are,” Drake said.

“He won’t know who I am,” Mason told him, “and he won’t know whom the car belongs to.”

Drake shook his head and said, “In the words of a man who has a lot more sense than I have in such matters ‘include me out.’ ”

“Why?”

“It’s too damned dangerous. You can get into trouble over that.”

“What sort of trouble?” Mason asked. “All we’re doing is asking a man to identify a car.”

“And pulling a razzle-dazzle on him. You’re making him think it was the same car he saw there shortly after midnight and...”

“And that’s exactly what the police arc going to be doing,” Mason said. “The police adopt the position that it’s all right when they do it, but illegal when someone else does it. The hell with that stuff! Arc you coming or not?”

“Not,” Drake said positively. “I have a license to consider. That’s getting too close to...”

Mason glanced over at Della Street.

She pushed her chair back, started for the hat closet and said, “My car’s in the parking lot, chief. It’s all filled. I can’t make quite as good time with it as you can with that big convertible of yours, but I’ll be right on your heels if you keep anywhere near the speed limit.”

Mason grabbed his hat, “Let’s go,” he said.

Drake said, “There’ll be a hell of a squawk over that, Perry. They’ll...”

“Let them squawk,” Mason said. “I’m not going to sit tight and let them put ideas in the mind of that witness. I’m not going to let them hypnotize my client into a murder rap. If I have a right to cross-examine a man and ask him how he knows that’s the car, after he’s given his testimony in court, I have a right to cross-examine him before he testifies and demonstrate to him that he can’t really tell one convertible from another. Come on, Della.”

Perry Mason and Della Street stopped in front of the unpretentious little house on a side street in Oceanside.

Mason, leaving Della Street at the wheel, left her car, climbed the steps and knocked on the door.