Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Daring Divorcee

“You may cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said.

“But is she the same one?” Mason asked. “Can you swear on your oath that this person is the one who chartered the plane, or was it the person whom you previously saw on the witness stand?”

The witness rubbed the angle of his jaw thoughtfully and said, “I can’t be absolutely positive.”

Mason said, “Oh, just a minute. There is one more question I would like to ask Miss Mitchell. Will the bailiff try and get her and bring her back, please? She can’t have gone very far.”

Judge Fallon looked at Mason thoughtfully, said, “Mr. Bailiff, will you try and return Miss Mitchell to the stand?”

The bailiff hurried from the courtroom.

Mason engaged in a whispered conference with Adelle Hastings, then turned to the witness.

“Your passenger wore dark glasses all the time?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Both going and coming?”

“Yes, sir, all the time.”

“You couldn’t see her eyes at all?”

“No, sir.”

“Did you see the young woman who is Mr. Banner’s secretary on the stand a few moments ago?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Saw her with dark glasses?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did she look like your passenger?”

The witness hesitated, then said, “Actually when I saw her I realized how hard it is to identify a woman who is wearing dark glasses. She did look a lot like my passenger. I now believe any young woman of similar build, wearing dark glasses, would be hard to identify.

“I also noticed Miss Mitchell’s voice was a great deal like... Could I hear the defendant speak? That might help me make up my mind.”

“So your own mind isn’t made up now?”

The witness hesitated, then said, “My mind was almost made up. I had previously been given an opportunity to identify the defendant when she was not wearing dark glasses. I had said that if I could see her with dark glasses I thought I could make a positive identification.

“When I saw her with dark glasses, I felt certain but then I saw this Miss Mitchell with dark glasses and, above all, when she spoke and I heard her voice... Well, she sounded exactly like the person whom I flew to Las Vegas... I am not completely certain.”

The bailiff pushed open the swinging door and said, “I can’t get her, Your Honor. She saw me coming, started to run and dashed down the stairs and mingled with a crowd in the assessor’s office. I lost her.”

“You lost her?” Judge Fallon asked. “Couldn’t you pick her out of a crowd?”

“I could recognize her all right but I couldn’t catch her. She was running as fast as she could go. She’s younger than I am,” the bailiff said. “I tried to get people to stop her but she went right on through.”

“I think,” Judge Fallon said, “we will adjourn court until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. In the meantime I would like very much to get at the bottom of all this.

“I would like to have opposing counsel meet with me in chambers, immediately after court adjourns.”

Judge Fallon took off his robe, hung it up on a hanger in the closet, turned to Hamilton Burger and said, “What’s your explanation of all this, Mr. Burger?”

Burger, coldly indignant, said, “It is simply another razzle-dazzle. The witness, Elvina Mitchell, was suffering from stage fright and didn’t want to appear in a crowded courtroom. Mr. Mason capitalized on that to terrify her into flight and now he’s going to use that to try and build up favorable publicity for his client.”

The judge turned to Mason. “You have a theory you’re working on?” he asked.

“I have a theory,” Mason said.

“Well, sit down, both of you,” Judge Fallon said. “Now, Mason, let’s have your theory.”

Mason said, “Garvin Hastings was killed in his sleep.”

Judge Fallon nodded.

Mason said, “I will act on the assumption that my client is innocent.”

“An assumption in which I no wise join,” Hamilton Burger said.

“Go ahead,” Judge Fallon said to Mason.

“If my client was innocent, Garvin Hastings couldn’t have been killed at night or she would have heard the shots. He must have been killed after she left in the morning to keep her breakfast appointment with Simley Beason.

“That means that death took place probably between six and eight in the morning.

“The woman’s handbag with the fatal gun in it was left in my office during the noon hour. The person who chartered an airplane to fly to Las Vegas chartered the plane by telephone and took off from the airport at five-thirty Monday afternoon.

“Banner closes his office at four-thirty. Many of the law offices close at that time.

“Therefore we have three periods of activity. Before an office opened in the morning, during the lunch hour, and after an office closed in the afternoon. That would indicate activity by a person who was employed in an office somewhere and didn’t dare be absent.

“There were two guns. Garvin Hastings had one. Adelle Hastings had the other. Adelle Hastings had never looked at the number on her gun, but it is only natural to suppose that Garvin gave the new one to Adelle. The murder was committed with the older gun and that gun was in Adelle’s purse. That means that someone had to get to her apartment and dispose of her gun before the authorities got there and searched the place.

“Adelle’s purse was stolen after she got to Los Angeles, had driven to Ventura and then, on her way to keep her appointment with her husband, had gone in to buy cigarettes. It must have been stolen by someone who knew of her habit of wearing dark glasses, and who wanted to get the keys to her apartment.”

“But why didn’t that person fly to Las Vegas that Sunday night, use the keys to get into her apartment and take Adelle’s gun then?” Judge Fallon asked.

“Because,” Mason said, “that person wasn’t sure the murder was going to be perpetrated as planned. That person couldn’t be sure that Adelle Hastings was going to get up and go out to keep a breakfast appointment with Simley Beason. That person thought she was going to do it, but couldn’t be absolutely certain.

“That person stole Adelle Hastings’ bag, had duplicates made from the keys that were in that bag on Sunday evening, and waited until Adelle left the house early in the morning, leaving Garvin Hastings still asleep. Then the person slipped in quietly and carefully and deliberately made absolutely certain that Garvin Hastings was dead by pulling the trigger twice and sending two bullets crashing into the head of the sleeping man.

“Then that person put the fatal gun in Adelle Hastings’ purse and planned to leave the purse in my office under such circumstances that the receptionist would swear Adelle Hastings was the one who had brought the purse to the office.”

“Then why didn’t that person do it before noon?” Judge Fallon asked.

“Because it was a physical impossibility for that person to do it before noon,” Mason said. “That’s one of the key clues in the entire case.”

“Just why is that a key clue?” Judge Fallon asked.

Mason said, “Let’s look at the murderer’s requirements. It had to be someone who knew the business, it had to be someone who knew the habits of the household, and it had to be someone who had a job.”

“You mean because of the three crucial time periods you’ve mentioned?” Judge Fallon asked.

“That’s right,” Mason said.

“Oh, Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said. “That’s just another one of these razzle-dazzle run-arounds.”

Judge Fallon said, “Just a moment, Mr. Burger. I’ll listen to your side of the case in a few moments, but I’m very much interested in this. I’d like to hear Mr. Mason’s theory.”