Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Shapely Shadow

She started to cry. “You don’t trust me.”

Mason looked at her thoughtfully and said, “You puzzle me, Janice, but I’m going to present your case to this jury for everything that’s in it.”

“I wish you’d have more confidence in me,” she said.

“I wish I did too, but the physical evidence contradicts your story. You must have gone out there to that subdivision. You must have been there before that thunderstorm started, and you must have driven away after the thunderstorm.”

“I didn’t! I didn’t! I didn’t!” she said.

Mason shrugged his shoulders. “All right, Janice, it’s up to you. But I can’t put you on the stand and let you tell that story. It would be better for you never to take the stand, simply to sit tight and adopt the position that the prosecution has to prove you guilty beyond all reasonable doubt and that they haven’t done it.”

“Please, can’t I do that?” she asked eagerly. “Can’t I keep from going on that witness stand?”

“You’re afraid of the witness stand, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I don’t want them to ask me about — how I felt toward Mr. Theilman — what happened before his marriage. You said I didn’t have to.”

“You don’t have to,” Mason said. “The law gives you that right to remain silent, to force the prosecution to prove you guilty beyond all reasonable doubt without any necessity on your part to prove yourself innocent. But I’m going to tell you something as a matter of practical psychology, Janice. If they make out a case and you don’t go on the witness stand, you’re going to be convicted of first-degree murder.

“Because you’re young and attractive, and because of your loyalty to your employer in the years of association, they’ll probably give you the benefit of the doubt when it comes to fixing the penalty. They’ll give you life imprisonment instead of the gas chamber, but they’ll convict you of first-degree murder.”

“I can’t help it,” she sobbed.

“Dammit!” Mason said. “I’m afraid I can’t either,” and motioned to the officer that the interview was over.

Back in his office, Mason moodily paced the floor.

Della Street, accustomed to the lawyer’s moods, sat at her secretarial desk and watched him with anxious eyes.

“What will happen if you don’t put her on the stand?”

“Nine chances out of ten she’ll be convicted,” Mason said. “If I put her on the stand, the way things look now, I think it’s a moral certainty she’ll be convicted.

“Apparently, Della, she was in love with Theilman and prior to Theilman’s second marriage they had some week ends together. Janice is trying to cover up the extent of her feeling for Theilman and undoubtedly would like to keep the evidence of those week ends out of the picture. The prosecution’s cross-examination of Janice about those week ends could tear the girl to pieces and wave the remnants in front of the jury — and if they should find she had any of the money that was in that suitcase, even one lone twenty-dollar bill, she’ll be finished.”

“Well, naturally,” Della Street said.

Mason went on, “There’s just too darned much evidence of blackmail here. There was no need to send Theilman two letters. There was no need to send one to his house and one to his office. And if Theilman was going to tell his secretary not to open any letters from A. B. Vidal, then why would he toss the Vidal letter and envelope in the wastebasket where she would be almost certain to notice them?

“And consider the blackmail letter. It simply told Theilman to get the money. It didn’t tell him to get a suitcase and put it in locker FO82.

“Those instructions must have been given over the telephone. If a blackmailer was going to phone his victim, why first send him a letter?

“Janice now indicates this whole blackmail idea may have been an elaborate cover-up so Theilman could get a large sum of cash and put across a business deal.

“The trouble with that is Theilman is dead. He can’t speak for himself. So when Janice starts speaking for him, everyone is going to listen to what she says with downright suspicion. When she tries to make Theilman’s words give her a defense, the jury won’t believe her... And someone got away with a couple of hundred thousand dollars — all in twenties — ready for spending.”

Della Street shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, we’ve got to make it make sense before we’re through with it,” Mason said. “I’ve got to stand up in front of that jury and have a theory of the case that will make sense. What’s more, it’s got to be such a water-proof, airtight theory that this deputy district attorney can’t rip it apart.

“The way it looks now, there wasn’t any blackmailer. Theilman was working some sort of a razzle-dazzle to make it seem he was being blackmailed, but I can’t prove it.

“The minute Janice Wainwright gets on the stand and tells her story as we know that story, she’s sunk, Della... And if they ever find so much as one twenty-dollar bill from that blackmail money in her possession, she’s going to the gas chamber.”

“You keep saying that, Chief. Do you think she could have?”

“I’m afraid she could have,” Mason said. “You see, she took five hundred dollars out of the cash drawer. Now, let’s suppose this whole thing was an elaborate build-up by Theilman in order to get some money out of the bank and get it in the form of cash so that it would appear he was being blackmailed. He’s very apt to have filled up the five hundred dollars in that petty cash drawer with some of the bills that had been in that suitcase. Hang it, Della, there just isn’t any logical explanation for some of the things in this case, yet I’ve got to have a logical explanation when I stand up in front of that jury.”

“And you’re sure you can’t put Janice on the stand?”

“Not as long as she’s concealing something. I don’t think she realizes the terrific ordeal she would face in a cross-examination by a hostile attorney.

“That’s one of the reasons I treated the second Mrs. Theilman as I did. I wanted Janice to realize that an attorney with a sneering, cynical cross-examination can rip a woman to pieces on the witness stand.”

“Well,” Della Street said indignantly, “Mrs. Theilman had it coming. Here’s a girl that has been around and knows the ropes, who married Theilman because she saw a chance to get her hands on a soft touch. She stole him, Chief — just deliberately stole him from his wife.

“And now she has the audacity to get on the witness stand as the crushed, bereaved little widow. Why, butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. Her voice was so low and her manner was so demure and her eyes were so downcast! Why, you know just as well as I do that she’s sitting back and thinking in her own mind just what she’s going to do with all the money she’s inherited from her dead husband.

“She was a shill in a gambling house — a come-on, as she expressed it.

She went over to the table in order to encourage Theilman to do more gambling. He liked what he saw, and she took a physical inventory. She decided that she could move in and... well, that’s it. She just moved in.”

Mason nodded. “How did my cross-examination seem, Della?”

“Believe me,” Della Street said, “to a person sitting back in the courtroom you certainly ripped the mask off that woman. She was making a wonderful impression on the jurors, sitting there so demure and so sweet and so brave. Then you started making her mad, and finally her true character came out. She looked at you as though she could kill you with her bare hands. I’ll bet right now she’s home sticking pins in your image.”