Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Spurious Spinster

Drake called his office, said, “I’m in Mason’s office. Did you get the fingerprints of Ken Lowry from the coroner?... Good... Send them down, will you?”

Within thirty seconds Drake’s switchboard operator was at the door with the set of fingerprints and Drake sat down at the desk. Mason got the lifts from his briefcase and handed them to Drake.

Drake sat there with a magnifying glass, examining first one lift and then the other against the ten fingerprints which had been received from the coroner’s office.

Suddenly Drake looked up, an expression of dismay on his face. “Hold everything, Perry,” he said.

“What is it?” Mason asked.

“Let me make sure,” Drake said.

He held one of the lifts a few inches above the print which had been received from the coroner’s office, then slowly folded the magnifying glass, put it down on the desk, looked up at Perry and said, “This time you’ve done it. Ken Lowry’s fingerprint was one of those lifted from the automobile.

“If you notify Lieutenant Tragg that you have that print you’ve given your client a one-way ticket to the gas chamber and if you don’t notify him, you’ve put yourself in the position of concealing vital evidence in a murder case.”

Mason thought the matter over for a minute, then said, “We’ll do neither, Paul. Ring up your man who lifted the fingerprints. Tell him the car is figuring in a murder case and he should develop his photographs of the prints and take them to the police immediately.”

“Without letting anyone know that you suggested he do so?”

“That’s right.”

“That makes you vulnerable on both flanks,” Drake said. “The police have the information and you don’t have the credit of turning over the evidence to the police as a potential defense.”

Mason nodded. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Paul. If the police start working on me they won’t have so much time to work on Susan Fisher. I’ll be a distraction.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” Drake said lugubriously, “they’ll take time to work on everyone, including me.”

As Judge Burton Elmer entered the courtroom from chambers and stood for a moment while the bailiff proclaimed that court was in session, interested spectators noticed that Hamilton Burger, the district attorney, had seated himself at the right of his deputy, Harrison Flanders. Word had spread around through the county offices like wildfire that this was one case where Perry Mason’s client would be proven guilty so thoroughly that there could be no possibility the lawyer could win his case. Her ultimate conviction was considered a mathematical certainty, and there was not the slightest question that she would be bound over to the Superior Court after the hearing in Judge Elmer’s court.

Moreover, it was rumored that immediately following Judge Elmer’s order binding the defendant over to the Superior Court for trial, Perry Mason would be charged with having concealed material evidence and proceedings would be instituted against him.

One of the prominent columnists had gone so far as to predict in the morning paper that the case itself would be over in Judge Elmer’s court within two hours, and that before night the lawyer would find himself in almost as much trouble as his client.

Hamilton Burger’s demeanor indicated the solemnity of one who is officiating at a trial which can only result in the death sentence.

“People versus Susan Fisher,” Judge Elmer said.

“Ready for the People,” Harrison Flanders said.

“Ready for the defendant,” Mason announced.

Flanders proceeded with the deft skill of a veteran trial attorney to lay the foundation of the case. He introduced evidence of the crime; the discovery of the body of Ken Lowry within a very short time after he had met his death; the introduction of maps and diagrams showing the exact location of the discovery; the identification of the body by a member of the family; the background of his employment by the Mojave Monarch Gold Mining and Exploration Company; the fact that this company was a subsidiary of the Corning Mining, Smelting & Investment Company.

When Flanders had finished with the last of the preliminary witnesses he made a bold stroke.

“Call Endicott Campbell to the stand,” he said.

Endicott Campbell came forward, was sworn, gave his name, residence, and his occupation as the General Manager of the Corning Mining, Smelting & Investment Company.

“Did you know Kenneth Lowry, the decedent?” Flanders asked.

“I had met him briefly shortly before his death.”

“Were you familiar with the company, which to save time, we shall call the Mojave Monarch Mining Company?”

“In a general way.”

“What do you mean by that answer?”

“The company of which I am manager sent remittances to the Mojave Monarch Mining Company for the purpose of underwriting operations.”

“Do you know how much money had been sent this subsidiary during the last year?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How much?”

“Two hundred and seven thousand, five hundred and thirty-six dollars and eighty-five cents.”

“That is reflected on the books of the Corning Mining, Smelting & Investment Company?”

“It is.”

“Was there some unusual development in connection with this Corning Mining, Smelting & Investment Company, which to save time I will refer to as the Corning Company?”

“There was.”

“What?”

“Amelia Corning, the owner of some ninety per cent of the stock in the company, who has lived in South America for some years, was corning to this city for a personal inspection of the affairs of the company and the subsidiary companies.”

“You’re acquainted with the defendant?”

“Yes.”

“She was in your employ?”

“That’s right.”

“For how long?”

“For a period of something over eighteen months.”

“What was her capacity?”

“She was employed as my assistant. She was more than a secretary. She cooperated with me in running the affairs of the company”

“Calling your attention to Saturday, the third of this month, did you have a conversation with the defendant?”

“I most certainly did.”

“Where did that conversation take place?”

“Over the telephone.”

“Are you familiar with the voice of the defendant so that you can be sure it was the defendant who was talking?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What was the nature of the conversation? What did she say?”

“She told me that Miss Corning, who was not due until Monday, the fifth, had actually arrived unexpectedly on the third; that she had been trying to get hold of me and—”

“Now wait a minute. You say that ‘she’ had been trying to get hold of you. Do you mean Miss Corning or the defendant?”

“The defendant said that she, the defendant, had been trying to get hold of me but had been unable to reach me.”

“What else did she state?”

“She stated that my son, Carleton, aged seven, had been at the office with his governess, Elizabeth Dow, and had shown her a shoe box which he had claimed belonged to me; that she had inspected the contents of this shoe box and found that it was apparently filled with one-hundred-dollar bills, representing a large sum of money; that she had placed this shoe box in the safe without counting the money.”

“What else?”

“She further went on to tell me that Miss Corning had had her come to the airport and then she had taken Miss Corning to the hotel, following which Miss Corning had gone to the office and had spent some considerable time there going over the records and had actually removed some of the records from the office.”