Erle Gardner - The Case of the Postponed Murder

Mason said, “I think we have enough facts to go on, Paul. What we need right now is a chance to do a little thinking. I’m going to a Turkish bath, get a shave, some breakfast, and I’ll meet you at the preliminary hearing.”

“What’ll happen there?” Drake asked.

Mason said, “One thing about the justice of the peace, Paul. Emil Scanlon is fair. He doesn’t like to have cases tried in the newspapers. In view of these accusations, he’ll give me every chance to examine witnesses.”

“What’ll he do with the district attorney?” Drake asked.

“Give him the same chance,” Mason said.

Drake ran his fingers through his hair. “And I,” he announced mournfully, “am a witness. I’ll have you both on my neck.”

Emil Scanlon was a unique justice of the peace with an appreciation of the dramatic, a keen sense of humor, and a desire to see justice done at all costs. His basic philosophy of life made him as bigheartedly sympathetic with the living as he was scientifically detached with the dead. Taking his role of office conscientiously, he felt himself the representative of both the living and the dead.

Scanlon’s first career was that of a professional baseball player of no mean ability who retired to Southern California after an injury shortened his playing days in the early twenties. Elected justice of the peace the first time he ran, he was “grandfathered” into office when California substituted municipal judges for justices of the peace in the larger cities; and even though he had no former legal background or even a high school education, the new law permitted him to be re-elected to the office of justice of the peace year after year to the consternation of a succession of district attorneys and impatient young law school graduates whetting their teeth as defence attorneys.

Scanlon watched Mae Farr as she sat in whispered consultation with Perry Mason and decided that she was far from the cold blooded killer the district attorney’s office claimed. His knowledge of Perry Mason was founded upon various personal contacts, dramatic preliminary hearings when Mason, using a quick wit, keen logic, and unconventional methods, had sprinted first across the tape as a spectacular winner from a position hopelessly behind the field.

There was nothing in Emil Scanlon’s voice or face to reflect the determination which crystallized in his mind that, even if the hearing took all night, he was going to see that the various parties had a square shake.

Mae Farr whispered her confession to Perry Mason. “I gave you a raw deal,” she said. “I lied to you when I first came to your office and I’ve been lying to you ever since. When you didn’t find Hal’s gun there where he’d thrown it over the fence, I became convinced that he’d doubled back, picked up the gun, and gone down to take the Pennwent out to sea and sink it, taking the chance of rowing back in the little skiff Wentworth kept aboard.

“I doubled back and took Marley’s cruiser and went out to pick him up.”

“Find him?” Mason asked.

“No,” she said, “I didn’t search very long because I became convinced the Coast Guard had been notified of the killing and was looking for me.”

“What made you think that?”

“A Coast Guard airplane flew over me, circled three or four times, and then went on out to sea.”

“How do you know it was a Coast Guard plane?”

She thought for a moment, and said, “I don’t know. I presumed it was. What other flyer would have taken such an unusual interest in a yacht? And that Tooms woman saw me when I came back with Marley’s boat, and I understand Marley had a fingerprint expert go over the steering wheel and throttle and develop my fingerprints. I suppose I’m in for it now.”

Hal Anders, tall, sunburned, and ill at ease, came over to Mae Farr. “I’m sorry, Mae,” he said simply.

She looked at him with troubled eyes.

“The D.A. has dismissed the case against me,” Anders went on. “I don’t know what that means.”

“It means they’re going to concentrate on me,” she said.

“It was my gun they found there in the pipe,” Anders said. “They thought Mason had planted it, but by checking up on the numbers, they found where the sale had been made directly to me, and they uncovered some other evidence. I don’t know exactly what it is, but they’ve dropped the charge against me.”

“That,” she said, “is very nice. Congratulations. You seem to have saved yourself a disagreeable experience. Thanks to the advice of your very competent and very ethical family lawyer.”

“Please, Mae, don’t be like that.”

She turned her face away from him.

Anders, conscious that the eyes of spectators were on him, knowing that reporters with high speed lenses were surreptitiously clicking candid camera shots, leaned forward until his lips were close to the ears of Mae Farr and, Perry Mason. “Please don’t, Mae,” he said, “and listen, Mae. I did one thing for you. I did this on my own without anyone’s advice. I managed to get in touch with Hazel Tooms this morning. She won’t be here. She’s on a plane to Mexico where a friend has a yacht. They’re going to leave at once on a cruise for — and I quote — destination unknown. ”

Mae Fair’s expression showed utter incredulity. “You did that? ” she asked.

Mason’s eyes hardened. They surveyed Anders with cold hostility. “I presume you realize,” he said, “that I’ll get the blame for that.”

“No, you won’t,” Anders said quietly. “If it comes to a showdown, I’ll take the blame.”

Scanlon said, “I’ve already viewed the body of the deceased. The autopsy surgeon has pointed out the course of the bullet and the cause of death. It was a gunshot wound in the head. That much of the case is so clear that we don’t have to waste the doctor’s time in having him come down here.”

He cleared his throat, glanced from Perry Mason to Oscar Overmeyer, a deputy district attorney, and Carl Runcifer, who represented the district attorney’s office. He said, “Proceedings are going to be short and informal. We’re going to get at the facts. I don’t want any delaying, technical objections from anyone to any of the testimony. I don’t want any fancy legal arguments raised. If I think it will speed things along and help us get at the truth, I’ll ask some of the questions myself.

There isn’t going to be any rambling cross-examination of witnesses just so the lawyers can make a showing of doing something; but if the attorneys for any of the interested parties want to ask questions purely for the purpose of clearing matters up, explaining or bringing out facts which the witnesses have neglected to state, I’m going to permit those questions.”

Carl Runcifer started to make some objection to Scanlon’s unorthodox procedures, but Overmeyer, who was familiar with Scanlon’s temperament, pulled him back into his seat.

Judge Scanlon’s clerk walked up to his informal podium and handed him a note. This gave Sidney Eversel time to march militantly over to Perry Mason. “I suppose,” he said ominously, “you think you’ve been very, very clever.”

“Now what?” Mason asked.

“I discovered the real object of your trip to my house early this morning,” Eversel said. “I suppose you thought I’d keep my mouth shut and that you could blackmail me into doing almost anything you wanted in order to keep my connection with it a secret. For your information, I went at once to the police and notified the district attorney’s office. I am advised that you were guilty of burglary in taking that negative. The only thing we lack is absolute proof. Produce that negative, Mr. Perry Mason, and you’ll go to jail. That is where I stand.” He turned on his heel and walked off.