Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Reluctant Model

“Did you ask her anything about having a child?” Dexter asked.

“Just a moment,” Mason said, “that question is objected to as leading and suggestive. It is completely incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.

“I think it is incompetent,” Judge Madison said, “at least in its present form.”

“Well, I’ll put it this way,” Dexter said bluntly. “Did you ask her anything about having a child by the dead man, Collin Durant?”

“Not at that time, no.”

“Did you, subsequently?”

“Yes.”

“What did she say?”

“I object to this whole line of questioning as being leading and suggestive.”

“It is leading,” Judge Madison said, “but the prosecution is trying to get some particular conversation here in evidence. I’m going to overrule the objection. I think the question is now pertinent because it would go to a question of motivation.”

“What did she say?” Dexter asked.

“She denied it.”

“Denied ever having a child, or denied that Collin Durant was the father of the child?”

“Now, just a minute,” Mason said. “Before you answer that question I want to object, if the Court please, and I assign the asking of this question in this manner as misconduct. The Court has already ruled that the question of whether this defendant had had a child has nothing to do with the issues in this case unless the child was the offspring of Collin Durant. By approaching the subject in this manner and asking the question in this way, the prosecution is trying to put the defendant in a position where public sympathy will be alienated, where the newspapers will have a story, and—”

Judge Madison said. “There’s no need to go on, Mr. Mason. The Court has already ruled on this. The Court admonishes the prosecution that the question is improper. The Court has opened the door only so far as it goes to a question whether the witness was questioned about whether she had a child by Collin Durant, and her answer to that question.”

“She denied it,” Tragg said.

“Cross-examine,” Dexter snapped.

Mason said, “Now then, Lieutenant Tragg, did you ask her if she had had a child and the father of that child was Thomas Albert Dexter, the district attorney?”

Dexter jumped to his feet. “Your Honor, this is... this is rank misconduct! This is a conduct which is contemptuous on its face!”

“Why is it?” Mason asked. “You asked the lieutenant a leading question, if he had had a conversation in which he had accused the defendant of having a child by Collin Durant. Apparently there was no foundation for any such assumption, any more than there is any foundation for the assumption that you are the father of a child by the defendant. I just wanted to drive home my point. And,” Mason added with a smile, “in case the daily press should regard your quote bombshell unquote as the highlight of the case, I wanted my question to illustrate my position and be a higher highlight.”

Judge Madison smiled and said, “Proceed with some other question, Mr. Mason. I think you have made your point.”

“You ascertained that the defendant did have a sister, Mrs. Homer Hardin Stigler, living at Eugene, Oregon?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And that she had received a telegram from the defendant and had forwarded her twenty-five dollars in response to that message?”

“Yes, sir.”

“No further questions,” Mason said.

“One matter I overlooked,” Dexter said. “Did the defendant tell you how she had got in touch with Mason on the evening of the thirteenth?”

“She said she had called him from a bus depot at about seven-fifteen. That she had called the office of Paul Drake and asked for Mr. Mason and asked if they could get in touch with Mr. Mason. She said that she waited there until about eight-fifteen and that Mr. Mason called in at that time and arranged to meet her in forty-five minutes in front of the apartment building where Miss Della Street lives, and that was the reason that she met Mason and Miss Street there and gave Miss Street her key at that time.”

“You asked her other questions?”

“Yes, we asked her other questions which she refused to answer. We told her that we were making no accusations as yet, that the case was in the stage of investigation and that our questions were asked simply so she could help clear up certain matters.”

“You wish to cross-examine further?” Dexter asked.

“No further questions,” Mason said.

“I will call Dr. Phillip C. Foley,” Dexter said.

Foley came forward, was sworn, and identified himself as an autopsy surgeon in the office of the county coroner.

“I will stipulate Dr. Foley’s professional qualifications, subject to the right of cross-examination,” Mason said. “I wish it understood, however, that I am not stipulating to his qualifications as such, only to a prima facie showing, and I have a right to cross-examine as to those qualifications.”

“Very well,” Judge Madison said. “Go ahead with your questions, Mr. Prosecutor.”

“I am referring to the body identified as that of Collin Max Durant, Number three, six, seven, four W in the records of the coroner’s office.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Who performed the autopsy on that body?”

“I did.”

“When was it performed?”

“At approximately two o’clock on the afternoon of the fourteenth.”

“When did you first see the body?”

“At ten o’clock in the morning. Actually it was just a few minutes past ten. I would say three or four minutes past ten. It wasn’t as much as five minutes past ten.”

“In your opinion, Doctor, how long had the body been dead at the time you examined it? Or, I’ll put it another way: When had death occurred?”

“I would say death took place between seven-forty and eight-twenty on the night of the thirteenth.”

“Did you determine the cause of death?”

“Yes, sir. There were three bullet wounds. One of them might eventually have proven fatal. The other two would have proven almost instantly fatal. The bullet wound which I believe was the first wound inflicted was one which penetrated the spine at the fourth cervical. The other bullet, which I believe would have proven almost instantly fatal, penetrated the ascending aorta. The other bullet entered the lung. All three shots were fired from the back.”

“Did you recover any of the bullets?”

“I recovered all three of the bullets.”

“And what was done with those bullets?”

“I turned them over to the ballistics department for possible identification, after first labeling them so I could identify them.”

“Cross-examine.”

“The phenomenon of rigor mortis is a variable, is it not?” Mason asked.

“It is.”

“There have been instances of troops slain in the heat of combat under circumstances of excitement and where the temperature has been high and rigor mortis has developed almost instantly?”

“I believe that is right. I have never seen that myself but I believe it is an accepted medical fact.”

“And there are circumstances under which rigor mortis is very slow in its onset?”

“Yes, sir.”

“It begins with the jaws and neck muscles and gradually works down through the body?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And when it leaves, does it leave in the same way?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, post-mortem lividity is also a variable, is it not?”

“Well, yes.”

“That is a phenomenon in which the forces of gravitation and those of blood deterioration or coagulation combine?”

“In a way, yes. I believe you might call it that.”

“Blood settles into the lower vessels, except where those vessels are shut off due to pressure?”