Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Crooked Candle

“I don’t think Mr. Van Nuys ever met Burbank.”

“Your husband handled all the business of getting the financing?”

“Yes.”

“Therefore Van Nuys had no reason to meet Mr. Burbank?”

“Well — no.”

“Therefore, the only reason your husband went to see Burbank was to get money?”

“Backing.”

“Financial backing?”

“Yes.”

“In the form of cash?”

“Yes.”

“Now then,” Mason said, pointing his finger at the witness, “did you remonstrate with your husband for taking advantage of a situation which you had disclosed to him, for blackmailing Roger Burbank into advancing him money, and...”

“Your Honor,” Burger objected, jumping to his feet, “this is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. Moreover, it calls for a privileged communication between husband and wife, it is far afield from any questions covered in the direct examination and I object to it specifically on the ground that it is not proper cross-examination.”

“The objection is sustained on the privileged communication point,” the judge ruled.

Mason said, “Now then, Mrs. Milfield, I’ll direct your attention to the Saturday when the body was discovered. You were in your apartment at that time, and I called on you there, did I not?”

“Yes.”

“You’d been crying?”

“Objected to as improper cross-examination,” the district attorney said.

“It may show bias,” Mason pointed out to the court.

“Overruled.”

“I called on you there?” Mason asked.

“Yes.”

“And you had been crying?”

“Yes.”

“And while I was there, Lieutenant Tragg of the Homicide Squad arrived, did he not?”

“Yes.”

“And I told you that Lieutenant Tragg was connected with the Homicide Squad and asked you if you knew anyone who had been murdered and you said, ‘It may have been my...’ and then stopped. Did you not so state?”

“Yes”

“And you had in mind that it was your husband?”

“Yes.”

“What made you think it was your husband, Mrs. Milfield?”

“Because... because he hadn’t been home all night, and because I knew he’d had trouble with Roger Burbank; and that Mr. Burbank had claimed my husband had been guilty of falsifying his accounts.”

“That’s all,” Mason said.

Burger’s re-direct examination was triumphant. “And,” he announced to the witness, “Mr. Mason, championing your cause just because Lieutenant Tragg happened to be downstairs, advised you to start peeling onions so that it would account for the tear-swollen appearance of your eyes, didn’t he?”

Mason said, “Certainly, I did.”

“Answer the question,” Burger told the witness.

“Yes.”

“Now why did Mr. Mason do that?”

The judge looked down at Mason and said, “I think this is objectionable, Mr. Mason, as not being proper redirect examination and calling for a conclusion of the witness — in case you care to object to it.”

“I don’t care to object to it,” Mason said. “I am quite willing to have it appear that I gave this young woman some gratuitous advice which would enable her to...”

“To save her face,” Burger sneered.

Mason smiled and said, “Not to save her face, Counselor, merely to account for its appearance.”

The courtroom burst into laughter.

The judge, smiling himself, pounded the courtroom into silence with his gavel. “Any further re-direct?” he asked.

“None, Your Honor.”

“Re-cross?”

“None,” Mason said.

“The witness is excused. Call your next witness, Mr. Burger.”

Burger said grimly, “Your Honor, I am going to call my next witness slightly out of order, but I think I can show a pattern which I can presently connect up with other evidence, if the Court will bear with me.”

“Very well.”

“J. C. Lassing,” Burger called.

Mr. Lassing, a stoop-shouldered man in the late fifties, with a dejected appearance, took the witness stand and painfully avoided meeting the eyes of either of the defendants.

“Your name is J. C. Lassing. You are an oil-drilling contractor, and you reside at sixty-eight forty-two La Brea Avenue, Colton, California?” Burger asked.

“Yes.”

“Now then, on the Saturday in question, when the body of Fred Milfield was discovered, you were in or near Santa Barbara, were you not?”

“Yes.”

“On the Friday night previous, you had occupied cottages Thirteen and Fourteen at the Surf and Sun Motel on the coast highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco?”

“Yes.”

“That is a short distance below Santa Barbara — between Ventura and Santa Barbara?”

“Yes.”

“And did you have any communication with anyone while you were there?”

“Yes.”

“A telephone communication?”

“Yes.”

“With whom?”

“Objected to,” Mason said, “incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”

“Sustained.”

“Was it with one of these defendants?”

“Yes.”

“Then I will ask you what this conversation was.”

“Same objection,” Mason said.

The judge frowned. “If it appears this conversation was with one of the defendants, Mr. Mason...”

Mason said, “If the Court please, it’s perfectly proper for Counsel to ask this witness if he recognized the voices of either of the defendants, and if either of the defendants made any admissions to him over the telephone. But as to anything this witness may have said to the defendants, it’s entirely incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”

“I think that’s right,” the judge ruled.

“But Your Honor,” Burger protested, “I want to connect this up. I want to show that because of the conversation, the defendants knew where this witness was staying, knew that he was at the Surf and Sun Motel.”

“What’s that got to do with it?” the judge asked.

“I’ll connect that up with my next witness.”

“Well,” the judge said somewhat hesitantly, “I’m going to admit it if you change your question so that it covers only that specific point.”

“Very well, Your Honor,” Mr. Burger said. “Mr. Lassing, I will ask you if you communicated with the defendant, or with his office and told him where you were staying?”

“Well, I communicated with his office.”

“With whom did you talk?”

“With Mr. Judson Beltin.”

“And who is Mr. Beltin?”

“He is the secretary of Roger Burbank — sort of a manager.”

“You know that, do you?”

“Yes.”

“Of your own knowledge?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve had business dealings with Mr. Burbank through Mr. Beltin?”

“Yes.”

“And what did you tell Mr. Beltin?”

“I asked Mr. Beltin if I could get those drilling contracts on the Skinner Hills property. I told him I was there at the Surf and Sun Motel and I was going to be there until noon and asked him to get in touch with me, if he had any definite answer to give me. He told me that...”

“I really see nothing to be gained by introducing the conversation of Mr. Beltin,” the judge ruled. “I presume Mr. District Attorney, it is your contention that Mr. Beltin subsequently communicated this information to one or both of the defendants, and that has some bearing upon the case?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“I will let the answer stand up to that point, but I don’t think that any conversation between Beltin and this witness is at all pertinent.”

“Very well, Your Honor. I will now ask you, Mr. Lassing, what time you checked out of the Surf and Sun Motel?”

“Right around ten o’clock in the morning.”

“When was this conversation you had with Mr. Judson Beltin?”