Erle Gardner - The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife

“I’ve already seen it. It does.”

Mason said, “Just to save time I’d like to have this introduced in evidence.”

“Very well,” Attica said.

“It might be attached to the deposition,” Mason said, and handed it to the court reporter, who was taking down the answers in shorthand. “Now then, Mrs. Lacey, you told me, I believe, about the fact that the man who is at present your husband proposed to you on this day that Scott Shelby was murdered?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Proposed to you at about what time?”

“Around eleven-thirty in the morning.”

“And what did you do?”

“I’ve already gone into that with you.”

“Would you mind going into it again?”

“We decided to go on a picnic. We went out in the country where there was a lake. In case you have to know the exact location, it was a place that I had listed for sale, an estate of some four hundred acres, with a beautiful lake and some timber on it, an ideal place for a picnic. I had fallen in love with it the minute I had seen it. I didn’t have money enough to buy it myself, but I was rather romantic about it. I had sat down on the shores of that lake and visualized that Arthur might propose to me there. And so I wanted my dream to come true.”

“So you went down and picked up a lunch at the delicatessen store?”

“I put up some myself. Arthur went to the delicatessen store.”

“Now this was on the day that Scott Shelby was murdered, Thursday the twelfth, I believe.”

“That’s right.”

“And you didn’t see Mr. Shelby from the time you left on that picnic?”

“No, sir. From eleven o’clock in the morning I didn’t see him. I never saw him again alive. The next time I saw him, he was dead in the morgue and they called on me to identify the body.”

“Exactly,” Mason said. “You put up some sandwiches for the picnic?”

“I did.”

“And Mr. Lacey went down to the delicatessen store to pick up some food?”

“He did.”

“And you had some beer, and I believe halfway out it occurred to you that you didn’t have any ice for the beer; so you got some ice and put it in a blanket so you could have the beer cold?”

“That’s right. My heavens, do I have to keep going over and over all this?”

“And in the press today there is a picture showing you on that picnic. Who furnished them with that picture?”

“I did.”

“It was one you took?”

“Yes. I had a shutter attachment that gave me time to get in the picture.”

“That was taken on Thursday, the twelfth?”

“That’s right. Thursday, the twelfth. That was the day Mr. Shelby was murdered by... Well, by someone.”

“At what time was that picture taken?”

“Along in the afternoon, three or four o’clock, I guess.”

“After you’d eaten lunch or before?”

“After we’d eaten lunch, of course.”

“And what time did you get out there?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I think we arrived about half past one or two o’clock.”

“And had lunch when?”

“Almost immediately after we arrived.”

“And the way the blanket in the garage got wet was because this ice was carried in it?”

“Yes. Again and again and again. YES!!!”

“And Mr. Lacey’s shoes got wet because he was playing around on that raft?”

“Yes!”

“And what time did you come home from the picnic?”

“We stayed out there until after five o’clock. I had to hurry to meet my mother.”

“And as I understand it, Mr. Lacey went to the train with you to meet your mother?”

“He did and the train was late, so he couldn’t wait.”

“But he came early the next morning to cook breakfast so he could meet her then?”

“He did.”

“He is, then, a good cook?”

“At one time he was a highly paid chef.”

“Now when he found the train was late, he couldn’t wait for your mother to arrive because he had an important appointment?”

“Mr. Mason, I’ve told you that over and over and over.”

“But there was a friend at the station who drove you and your mother home?”

“Yes.”

“Then Mr. Lacey must have taken your car?”

“He borrowed it, yes. We were good friends. He took it once in a while.”

“Mrs. Lacey, why are you wearing those dark glasses? Are your eyes bothering you?”

“I like them.”

“Are your eyes weak?”

“No.”

“You have perfect vision?”

“Yes.”

“There must be some reason for the dark glasses.”

“The glare of light bothers me.”

“But there’s no glare in here.”

“I like the style. I like the white rims.”

“After all,” Attica said sarcastically, “after having slandered this young woman you certainly aren’t going to criticize her wearing apparel, are you? Those dark glasses are really an article of dress. They are the stylish things to wear. Sort of a Hollywood touch to them.”

Mason said, “I was just wondering why she was wearing them.”

“Well, now you know,” Ellen Cushing snapped.

Mason said, “I want you to take a good look at this picture, Mrs. Lacey, and I don’t want you to say afterwards that the dark glasses prevented you from seeing anything. Would you mind taking them off?”

“I can see the picture very clearly. I know it by heart.”

“This picture shows the status of your picnic about four o’clock in the afternoon, some two or three hours after you had eaten lunch?”

“Yes. Not over an hour and a half later.”

“And it also shows the ice on the blanket?”

“It does.”

“Why did you buy that ice?”

“Because we had some beer and we wanted to chill the beer.”

“You didn’t chip pieces off the ice and put it in glasses?”

“No. We chilled the beer.”

“How?”

“Why, we... we... we dug a little hole and put the ice in there and then put the beer in and... and...”

“And had the beer for lunch?”

She said hastily, “That’s right.”

“But this photograph shows the chunk of ice as about a twenty-five pound square of ice, reposing on the blanket! ”

She suddenly bit her lip.

“Come, come,” Mason said. “What happened to the ice?”

“Well, that was what was left after we cooled the beer.”

“Then Mr. Lacey must have got fifty pounds of ice in order to chill the beer?”

“He wanted to have it good and cold.”

“And what was the object of saving the rest of this ice?”

“Well, I don’t know. We thought we might... thought we might need it. The beer had been chilled...”

“Then you must have lifted this ice back out of the hole you had dug for it, and put it back on the blanket.”

“Well, what if we did?”

“Did you?”

“Yes. I guess that’s what Art did.”

“This lake is about two hundred yards from the remains of the old house?”

“Yes.”

“You couldn’t drive in to this lake? You had to walk in?”

“Yes. We walked for about two hundred yards, I guess. We’re able to walk.”

“And Mr. Lacey carried fifty pounds of ice?”

“It was in the blanket. He threw it over his shoulder.”

“In the wet blanket. And he threw the fifty pounds of ice over his shoulder and carried the entire fifty pounds in there?”

“That’s right. Yes.”

“This looks like about a twenty-five pound piece of ice, that’s left, Mrs. Lacey.”

“Yes. It is.”

“But you had purchased that ice along about eleven thirty or twelve o’clock. This was at four o’clock in the afternoon. It had been rather a hot day, hadn’t it?”

“Yes. It was very hot.”