Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Careless Kitten

“Did anyone accompany you?”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“Lieutenant Tragg.”

“At his suggestion, did you search through your room to see if anything was missing?”

“Yes.”

“Did you find anything missing?”

“No.”

Burger produced the watch and fountain pen which had been identified as having been found near Leech’s body. Mrs. Shore stated positively they were the property of her husband, that he had had both of these objects in his possession the night he had disappeared, and that she had never seen them again until the police had shown them to her.

“Cross-examine,” Burger said.

“You couldn’t find that anything was missing from your room when you searched it after your return from the hospital?”

“No.”

Mason said, “That’s all.”

Swiftly Hamilton Burger laid the foundations for a complete case. He called the autopsy surgeon, called Dr. Rosllyn, identified the bullets which had been taken from the wound inflicted on Jerry Templar and from the body of Henry Leech. He then recalled Lieutenant Tragg to get the bullet which had embedded itself in the woodwork of the Shore home; following which he called the expert from the criminal laboratories who introduced photographs showing the distinctive scratches made by the rifling and by pits in the barrel of the gun, showing that these bullets had all been fired from the same gun.

Judge Lankershim glanced at the clock. “You will understand,” he said to Burger, “that we are not trying the murder case at this time.”

“Yes, Your Honor, but we are showing the circumstances which surrounded the commission of the alleged crime in this case. We are showing the significance of what had happened and the importance of having the police unimpeded in their efforts to solve these crimes.”

Judge Lankershim nodded, glanced curiously at Mason, who seemed to be taking but very little interest in the entire procedure.

“I will now call Thomas Lunk,” Hamilton Burger announced with something of a flourish.

Lunk came shuffling forward. He seemed reluctant to testify, and Burger had to draw his story from him a bit at a time, frequently using leading questions, occasionally cross-examining his own witness, a procedure which Judge Lankershim allowed because of the apparent hostility of the witness.

Pieced together, Lunk’s story made a convincing and dramatic climax to the case the district attorney had been building up. He told of how he had gone home from work that night, of how Helen Kendal had brought the kitten to his house where it was left for safekeeping, told of how he had listened to the radio, read a magazine, and while he was in the midst of reading this magazine, he had heard steps on the porch, knocking at the door. He had opened the door, and then drawn back in surprise as he recognized the features of his former employer.

He mentioned but briefly that they had “talked for a while” and then he had given Shore the bed in his spare bedroom. He had waited until he felt certain his visitor was asleep, then had quietly slipped out of the front door, taken a late street car, got off at a point nearest the Shore residence, and started hurriedly for the house; that the defendant had intercepted him, asked him if he wanted to see Mrs. Shore, and, on being assured that he did, had taken him in an automobile, stating that she would take him to Mrs. Shore that thereafter she had, as he reluctantly admitted, “stalled around” until Perry Mason had appeared on the scene, whereupon they had gone to a hospital, and Mason had told him Mrs. Shore was virtually in the custody of the police that thereafter Mason had taken him to the Maple Leaf Hotel, had secured a room for him under the name of Thomas Trimmer that he had gone to his room. After he had started to undress, there had been a knock at the door. Police radio officers had taken him into custody. He had no idea how they had found out where he was.

“What was the condition of Mr. Shore so far as his clothing was concerned when you left the house?”

“He was in bed, if that’s what you mean.”

“And undressed?”

“Yes.”

“And you felt that he was asleep?”

“Never mind what the witness felt,” Mason said. “What did he see? What did he hear?”

“Very well,” Burger conceded with poor grace, “I will reframe the question. Was there anything in his appearance which you saw or heard which indicated whether he was asleep or awake?”

“Well, he was snoring,” Lunk reluctantly admitted.

“And you, at that time, were fully dressed? You hadn’t been to bed?”

“No, sir.”

“And you left the house?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did you try to leave quietly?”

“Well, yes, I did.”

“And you walked to the car line?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How far?”

“A block.”

“How long did you have to wait for a car?”

“There was a car coming when I got to the corner. I hopped aboard.”

“How long were you on this street car?”

“Not over ten minutes.”

“And how long from the time you left the street car until the defendant in this case accosted you and picked you up?”

“Oh, not very long.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know.”

“Was it a minute, two minutes, five minutes, or twenty minutes?”

“Oh, a minute,” Lunk said.

Hamilton Burger said, “I submit, Your Honor, that it’s unreasonable to suppose this man who was sleeping peacefully in this bed aroused, investigated to find that Mr. Lunk had left, dressed himself, and left the house within that short space of time. I think it is a reasonable inference for the jury to draw that Mr. Shore was in that bed in that house at the very time Miss Street picked up this witness.”

“That’s an argument counsel can make to the jury,” Mason said. “He has no right making it now. If he wants to argue the case now, I’ll say that...”

Judge Lankershim stopped him. “The jury will pay no attention to the arguments of counsel at the present time,” he admonished the jury. “They are directed exclusively to the Court. Proceed with your examination of the witness, Mr. Burger.”

“After the defendant in this case picked you up and took you in her automobile, Mr. Perry Mason joined you, did he not?”

“Yes.”

“And thereafter Mr. Mason took you to this hotel?”

“Yes.”

“Now was Miss Street, the defendant, with you all of that time?”

“No.”

“When did she leave you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you know about what time it was?”

“No.”

“Where did she leave you?”

“I don’t remember.”

“It was in front of a hotel, was it not?”

“I wouldn’t want to say.”

“But it was at some point where she took a taxicab, was it not?”

“I think there was a taxicab there.”

“And afterwards Mr. Mason remained with you for some time, getting some flowers, sending them to Mrs. Shore in the hospital, going out to your house to inspect it, and then driving you to this hotel?”

The witness hesitated for several seconds, then gave a sullen, monosyllabic answer. “Yes.”

Burger said, “You may cross-examine, Mr. Mason,” and there was a smirk of triumph in his voice as he said it.

Mason looked at the witness. “Mr. Lunk, I want you to answer my questions frankly. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“After Miss Street left us, we went to your house, did we not?”

“Yes.”

“We arrived there about four or four-thirty in the morning?”

“I guess so, yes.”

“It was cold?”

“Yes, sir.”

“There was no fire going in the house?”

“No, sir.”