Маргарет Миллар - Spider Webs

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you may recall that in my opening statement I said this is a simple case. I would like to say that again now, this is a simple case.

“In the defendant’s chair sits Cully Paul King. The charge against him is murder with special circumstances. There is no graver charge in the lawbooks.

“Mr. King is not the average poolroom black. He’s had many advantages denied them. He is trained to earn a comfortable living at an unusual job, that of professional skipper. So if there are any bleeding hearts on the jury, let common sense stanch the bleeding. Cully King has had it good.

“A simple case. Here it is in a nutshell: The racing yacht, Bewitched , left San Diego with four people on board. It arrived in Santa Felicia with three.

“The missing passenger, found later tangled in a kelp bed, was Madeline Ruth Pherson, a forty-year-old married woman from Bakersfield. A woman of high character, she devoted a great deal of her time doing volunteer work with various charities, including Hospice, where she counseled the terminally ill and their families. Why would such a woman walk into a hotel bar and pick up a stranger, a man younger than herself and not even a member of the same race? What deadly twist of fate brought them together, these two people from different parts of the world, different cultures, different races?

“Let us turn now to the scene of the crime, the Bewitched. When Mrs. Pherson came aboard, she was wearing a blue and white striped coat. A fishing boat later picked up the coat from the ocean. It was completely buttoned, hem to neck, the same way that Mrs. Pherson’s other clothing was hung up in the hotel closet, according to Miss Gomez’s testimony. We submit that this coat was taken off a hanger on board the boat and thrown into the water. Remember Harry Arnold’s testimony that he had seen Cully King on that fateful night throw some clothing overboard. It was too dark for Harry Arnold to identify the articles of clothing, but he could certainly identify the thrower, Cully Paul King, who was trying to get rid of all evidence that Mrs. Pherson had ever been on the boat. Obviously he did not expect Mrs. Pherson’s body to be found. The sea does not easily give up its dead, and Cully King figured on this. The sea would be not only his friend but his accomplice. It was a very limited partnership, and it didn’t work. If it had, none of us would be here in this courtroom today.

“What Cully King didn’t figure on was that forest of giant kelp, which is not found in his part of the world.

“Let us take a moment now to examine a bit of hocus-pocus presented by Mr. Donnelly. He would have you believe that Mrs. Pherson jumped from the deck of the Bewitched into the water to commit suicide. The water’s coldness slowed her metabolism, making her able to survive during the time that the tide and the wind waves pushed her into that forest of kelp, and the grooves on her throat were caused not by the thumbs of Cully King but by two of the floats which grow along the stems of the kelp.

“Bear in mind that Mr. Donnelly doesn’t have to prove that it happened like this. All he has to do is convince you that it could have happened like this. Did he convince you? I hope not. I hate to see a group of intelligent men and women taken in by Mr. Donnelly’s crude shenanigans.

“But forget Mr. Donnelly’s shenanigans for a moment. Forget the forest of kelp, forget the modeling clay caper, metabolisms and Lazarus syndromes. Remember only this important fact: The Bewitched left San Diego with four persons aboard and arrived in Santa Felicia with three. What happened to that fourth person?

“Mr. Donnelly would like you to believe that Mrs. Pherson was planning to commit suicide even before she left home. It would be very nice for Mr. Donnelly and his client if you believed this. But you can’t. Your common sense won’t let you. Mrs. Pherson does not fit the clinical picture of a woman depressed enough to kill herself. She did not sit around the house moping, unconcerned with others, even unaware they existed. Quite the opposite. She went on a vacation. When she called her husband on the phone to announce her arrival, he said she sounded very cheerful. She talked pleasantly to Mr. Elfinstone and was considerate of the hotel maid, Miss Gomez. She appeared at ease in the company of Cully King. Does this sound to you like the behavior of a woman bent on killing herself? Of course not.

“It might be deemed rather peculiar for her to be carrying around her mother’s ashes. But remember, they were very close, these two women, and they’d been planning a trip to Hawaii when the mother became ill.

“Peculiar? Perhaps a bit. Depressed? No.”

Owen talked until the judge declared a fifteen-minute recess at eleven o’clock. During recess Owen sprayed his throat, then sucked a cough drop while he went over his notes for the rest of the day. He was aware of the fact that the jurors were getting restive: Papers rattled, swivel chairs squeaked, and the night nurse who occupied the second chair had let out a couple of unmistakable snores. He decided to cut the rest of his speech down to its bare bones.

During recess Eva Foster remained at her table. Cully King rose and stretched, and Eva thought what a beautiful body he had and how gracefully he moved it. When she spoke, Cully had to bend down so he could make out what she was saying.

“I bet you’re tired of listening to all this talk, aren’t you?”

“I can think of worse things to be doing and worse places to do them.”

“You don’t sound friendly toward me anymore. Why?”

“You were beginning to get ideas.”

“Do you disapprove of women getting ideas?”

“Certain women, certain ideas.”

There was a brief silence while he sat down and rearranged himself in his chair.

“Do you like my dress?” Eva said.

“I hadn’t noticed.”

“Well, notice now.”

He turned and looked. “Yeah. It’s a nice dress.”

“When I wore it the other day, you said it was a great dress.”

“Great, nice, what’s the difference?”

“It makes a big difference to me whether you like what I’m wearing or not.”

“Stop talking like that. Someone might overhear you and think that you and I are — that we have—”

“—have a commitment. Well, let them think it. It’s true. I told my father about you last night, how I felt about you and our life plans.”

“I want no part of your life plan, Miss Foster.”

“You have no part. You’re the whole plan.”

“Did you tell your father this?”

“Yes.”

“What’d he say?”

“That he hopes you get the death penalty.”

“Tell him something for me, will you?”

“All right. What?”

“That I hope so, too.”

Owen returned to the lectern at eleven-twenty.

“At this point, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to go over some of the highlights of the testimony given by my witnesses. My first witness was Mr. Belasco. He described in detail his boat, the Bewitched , and set for us the scene of the crime.

“Was a crime actually committed here? Mr. Donnelly will ask you to suspend your common sense and believe there was no crime. You may recall the famous movie scene where Jimmy Durante is asked about the elephant he is leading. ‘Elephant,’ Durante said. ‘What elephant? ’ ‘Crime?’ Donnelly will say. ‘What crime?’ To that I can only answer, the crime as big as an elephant.

“The county’s chief pathologist, Dr. Woodbridge, described to you how Mrs. Pherson died of asphyxia caused by manual strangulation. He showed you pictures of the grooves left on her throat by the thumbs of Cully King.