Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Spurious Spinster

“Well, I don’t know about thousands and thousands, but... well, anyway, I’m satisfied now it was the same car.”

“ You’re satisfied?” Mason said.

“Yes.”

“How many conversations have you had with the police?”

“Oh, several.”

“And with the district attorney’s office?”

“Several.”

“As many as ten with the police?”

“I guess so, first and last.”

“As many as ten with the district attorney’s?”

“No, only about five with the district attorney’s.”

“Now let’s see,” Mason said. “As I understand it, you weren’t quite so positive at the time the police first interrogated you but with the passing of time you became more positive. Is that right?”

“Yes.”

“You weren’t positive the first time you were interrogated?”

“Well... No, I don’t suppose I was. I told them I wasn’t entirely sure. I had to keep thinking of it and a little more would come back to me each time I’d think of it.”

“So with each conversation you had with the officers you became more positive?”

“Yes.”

“That was the object of their conversation with you?”

“I don’t know what the object was.”

“But they had about ten conversations with you.”

“Yes.”

“And with each conversation you became more positive.”

“Yes.”

“So you weren’t quite as positive at the time of the ninth as you were at the time of the tenth, or as you are now.”

Hamilton Burger arose. “Your Honor,” he said, “that is browbeating the witness. That’s pettifogging. That’s not legitimate cross-examination. That’s not what she said at all.”

“That is exactly what she said,” Mason retorted. “She said she was more positive with each conversation and she had at least ten conversations. Therefore it follows that she wasn’t as positive at the time of the ninth conversation as she was at the time of the tenth.”

“I think I will overrule the objection,” Judge Elmer said, smiling.

Hamilton Burger slowly seated himself.

“Now that the district attorney’s objection has warned you of the trap, can you answer the question?” Mason asked. “ Were you less positive at the time of the ninth conversation than you are now?”

“Well, that isn’t the way I meant it.”

“Never mind what you meant,” Mason said, “I’m asking you a question. Answer it yes or no.”

“No. I was positive at the time of the ninth conversation.”

“Then why did you have the tenth?”

“I don’t know.”

“And why did you say you were more positive at the time of each succeeding conversation?”

“Well, I wasn’t referring particularly to the time between the ninth and the tenth.”

“All right, we’ll go back to the eighth time,” Mason said. “Were you more positive at the time of the tenth conversation than you were at the time of the eighth conversation?”

“Yes,” the witness snapped angrily.

“And more positive at the time of the seventh than you were at the time of the sixth?”

“Yes.”

“And more positive at the time of the fifth than you were at the time of the fourth?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you,” Mason said. “That’s all.”

Judge Elmer looked at the clock. “It is a few minutes after the hour of the noon adjournment,” he said. “Does the prosecution anticipate there will be much more evidence?”

“No, Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said.

“Court will adjourn until two o’clock this afternoon,” Judge Elmer said. “I have a brief matter which I am taking up at one-thirty but I expect it will be concluded by two o’clock so that we can continue with this case. Court is adjourned and the defendant is remanded to custody.”

Perry Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake gathered in the private dining room of the little French restaurant near the Hall of Justice where they so frequently had lunch during Mason’s court cases.

Mason looked around and said, “Well, we’ve had some very great near defeats here, but usually during the lunch hour we’ve managed to get our heads together and squeeze out of the trap some way.”

“This is one you’re not going to squeeze out of,” Drake said lugubriously. “Your client is guilty, Perry, and what’s more, she probably lured Amelia Corning out someplace and disposed of her. I’m betting that within another twenty-four hours Amelia Corning’s body is discovered somewhere, and when that body is discovered you’ll find your client is charged with another murder.”

“She may be charged with a murder,” Mason said, “but that doesn’t mean she’s guilty.”

“Perry, how can you say that? The evidence points so unerringly and so damningly that there isn’t a ghost of a chance she’s innocent.”

Mason said, “That’s because you’re looking at the evidence from the standpoint of the prosecution. Now let’s start doing a little detective work... What have you been able to find about Ken Lowry’s telephone calls?”

“No outgoing calls,” Drake said, “and we haven’t been able to trace any incoming calls.”

“He had an incoming call,” Mason said. “We know that he had one incoming call. That was from Endicott Campbell. Campbell has testified to that. Now then, Campbell either said something which started Lowry rushing to Los Angeles, or else there was another call right after Campbell’s call. When Della Street and I left him, he had no intention of corning to Los Angeles. He must have received another call immediately after we were there and that call started him for Los Angeles. Now, we stopped to telephone you and to have a cup of coffee. We just made it to the Arthenium Hotel by seven twenty-five. Lowry simply couldn’t have reached the city much before that time. Even if he’d received an immediate telephone summons, he couldn’t have got here much before seven forty-five.”

“All right,” Drake said. “Your client met him as soon as he arrived, took him out and murdered him and was back with the car by eight fifteen.”

“It doesn’t leave her enough time,” Mason said. “She would have had to have Lowry meet her at the scene of the murder.”

“Well, is anything wrong with that?” Drake asked. “Lowry returned to his cabin at the mine. There was a call waiting for him. The voice of Susan Fisher, a voice he had come to know, instructed him that he’d pulled a boner talking with you and told him to drive to Hollywood at once, then go to this designated spot. Your client had written out the directions in shorthand.

“You and Della went to Los Angeles, to the hotel, then out to Hollywood. Lowry could have taken a short cut through Burbank and saved at least half an hour.”

Mason said, “We’re going to have to find out about that call. Let’s see if we can trace it down.”

“If we do,” Drake said, “we’ll find it was a call from your client and... well, then what are you going to do, Perry? Are you going to try to suppress the evidence or are you going to put it in the hands of the officers?”

“That,” Mason told him, “brings up a difficult question of ethics. An attorney shouldn’t suppress evidence. On the other hand he shouldn’t go around digging up evidence against his client. However, the evidence may not be against my client. How about giving your office a ring and see if they’ve uncovered something?”

Drake called for a telephone which was plugged in, gave the number of his office to the operator, said, “Hello. Paul Drake talking. What have you found out?... Okay, let me have it.”

Drake’s eyes narrowed. He made notes, said, “Okay. I’m here at the usual restaurant, in the private dining room. Call me if anything turns up.”