Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Shapely Shadow

Mason permitted himself a grin. “She probably doesn’t feel passionately fond of me... Hang it, Della, I feel that I have that jury interested. I think that they would like to go along with my theory of the case — only I haven’t got any theory of the case. I don’t dare to get one until the prosecution has put on all its evidence.”

Paul Drake’s code knock sounded on the door.

Mason opened the door and let the detective in.

“Hi, Perry,” Drake said, and to Della Street, “How are you tonight, Beautiful?”

“We’re still in the saddle,” Mason said, “but we’ve been jolted a few times. I’m afraid... well, I don’t like to think of what’s ahead.”

“I hate to bring you bad news,” Drake said, “but I have a tip for you.”

“What is it?”

“They have a bombshell — a veritable bombshell, that they’re going to drop in your lap at the exact moment they rest the case.

“They feel that you’re planning to get along without putting Janice on the stand; that you’re going to trust to your oratory and to your logic to build up some kind of a theory of the case that will cause some of the jurors to have a reasonable doubt.

“Now they’ve got something that’s going to force you to put Janice on the stand, and when she gets on the stand they’re going to rip her wide open.”

“What is it?” Mason asked.

“I don’t know. It’s some bit of evidence they’re holding, and they’re going to throw it at you in the closing minutes and then rest their case. Hamilton Burger, the district attorney, is going to be in court personally when that happens.

“I can also tell you something else. They’re going to jockey around for position so they don’t throw this bomb at you until they have you trapped. They won’t let you jockey the case into a recess or adjournment. They’re going to hit you either in the middle of the morning or in the middle of an afternoon session. Then they’re going to rest their case and it will be up to you to start putting on your case while you’re still groggy from this knockout punch.”

“Is there any chance you can find out what this evidence is?” Mason asked.

Drake shook his head. “They’ve got it guarded as though it were the greatest military secret in the world. There isn’t a chance, Perry, not a chance.”

“But you do know they have this evidence?”

“I got a straight tip,” Drake said. “One of the newsmen is very close to Hamilton Burger. Burger would have a fit if he thought the man had tipped me off.”

“What happened?”

“Burger told him to be in court and to be ready for a most sensational development. He was told that the development would come only a few minutes before the prosecution closed its case; that you would be left out on the end of a limb and they would be standing there with a saw and Hamilton Burger was going to take great delight in sawing off the limb. They wouldn’t tell this newsman any more, so he got mad and came to me to see if I had any idea what this sensational development was going to be. I pretended I had some sort of an idea and as he tried to find out what I knew, I began to get an idea of what he knew.

“I told him that Burger thought he’d saw off the limb you were on, but you’d fool the prosecution at the last minute.”

Mason frowned, resumed pacing the floor.

Drake glanced at Della Street’s apprehensive eyes, then turned back to the lawyer. “Perry,” he said, “I have a hunch. It’s just a hunch, but I have it.”

“Shoot,” Mason said.

“Are you sure, are you absolutely sure that Janice Wainwright didn’t put those blackmail notes together herself?”

Mason turned to Drake. “No,” he said, “I’m not absolutely certain and I wish I could be. I’m not certain of anything in this case. I have a most peculiar feeling that I’m walking a tightrope across a chasm and that somebody has a knife that can cut that rope at any time.”

“That ties in with the confidential tip this reporter got,” Drake said. “How about forgetting it and getting some eats, Perry?”

Mason shook his head.

Della Street said, “This is one of his nights, Paul. He’s going to keep pacing back and forth, wearing out the carpet and drinking coffee.”

“How about you, Beautiful?” Drake asked. “Come on out and have a bite.”

Della Street shook her head. “Thanks, Paul. It’s my place to stay here with Perry.”

“You can’t help him worry,” Drake said.

“No,” she smiled, “but I can help pour the coffee.”

Mason might not have heard them. His eyes level-lidded with thought, he was pacing slowly and methodically back and forth across the office.

Thirty seconds before nine-thirty a.m. and after the courtroom was filled with restless, whispering spectators; after counsel were at their places at the table; after the jurors had all been seated and in that moment of tense expectation when they waited for Judge Seymour to take the bench, Hamilton Burger, the district attorney, came striding through the side door of the courtroom and seated himself at the prosecutor’s table.

The arrival of the district attorney caused a veritable buzz of comment and it was in the middle of this buzz that the bailiff pounded his gavel and said, “Everybody stand up, please.”

Judge Seymour entered the courtroom, nodded to the jurors and the spectators, said, “Be seated, please. The case of the People versus Janice Wainwright. The defendant is in court, the jurors are all present. Proceed with your case, Mr. Prosecutor.”

“I will call Lieutenant Sophia of the Las Vegas police force,” Ruskin said.

The officer came forward, was sworn and was asked by Ruskin whether or not the defendant had made any statement when she had been arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“She did.”

“Was that statement voluntary?”

“It was.”

“Were there any threats?”

“No.”

“Were any inducements held out?”

“There were no inducements and no promises. No threats were made. She was advised of her rights. In fact, she had previously been advised by her attorney not to make any statement — to say nothing.”

“But she did make a statement?”

“She made a statement to Lieutenant Tragg and to me.”

“And there were no inducements of any sort held out?”

“No inducements of any sort. I simply told her that if she was innocent she had nothing to fear, and that if she wanted to make a statement that would convince us of her innocence, the matter wouldn’t go any farther. We’d let her step out of the car and go back to keep her appointment.”

“Very well. Will you tell the Court and the jury what she said?”

“Do you wish to cross-examine on the voir dire?” Judge Seymour asked Mason.

“No, Your Honor. If the defendant said anything, let’s hear what she said.”

“Proceed,” Ruskin said to the witness.

“Well, she said that her employer, Mr. Theilman, had told her not to open any letters which came from A. B. Vidal; that an envelope came from Vidal; that she didn’t open it, but that later on she saw that Mr. Theilman had torn this letter up and put it in the wastebasket; that she had seen it there; that she was curious; that she had put the pieces together; that the letter contained a message telling Theilman to have the blackmail money on pain of death.

“She said that Theilman had then sent her out to buy a suitcase; that when she returned with the suitcase she retained one key and gave Theilman the suitcase with the other key. She said that Theilman apparently never thought about the missing key and didn’t ask her for it; that he took the suitcase, was in his private office for a few minutes, then brought out the suitcase; that at that time it was quite heavy; that it must have weighed twenty-five or thirty pounds; that the suitcase was locked. He told her to take the suitcase and go to the Union Depot and put the suitcase in locker number FO82. She was to take the key to the locker and mail it to A. B. Vidal at General Delivery, Los Angeles. In the event locker FO82 was already occupied, she was to take any one of the other four adjacent lockers in the same tier on the left.”