The Case of the Calendar Girl

Chapter Twelve

Five minutes before court reconvened, Paul Drake came hurrying into the courtroom, accompanied by a trim-looking woman.

Mason beckoned them over to the defense counsel table where he was seated in conversation with George Ansley.

“This is Dr. Margaret Callison, the veterinary,” Paul Drake said, “and this is Perry Mason, the lawyer for Ansley.”

“How do you do, Mr. Mason,” she said, giving him her hand and a warm smile. “I’ve read about you for a long time. I hardly expected to meet you. I told Mr. Drake that I don’t believe I know a thing that has any bearing on what happened.”

“Perhaps if you’ll tell me exactly what happened,” Mason said, “we can correlate your story with other facts in the case, and perhaps find something which will be of value. I have subpoenaed you as a witness and I want you to stand by, but I may not have to put you on the stand. Tell me what happened.”

She said, “I had one of the Borden dogs for treatment. Mr. Borden liked to have the dogs there at night. They would be brought in early in the morning, as a rule. I would treat them during the day and he would come for them at night.”

“And on this particular Monday?” Mason asked.

“I had one of the dogs which had been delivered at eight o’clock in the morning. I treated the dog, and Mr. Ferney was to come for it at nine o’clock that night.

“When he didn’t come, I waited around for his call, feeling that he had probably been detained. Actually, that call didn’t come until right around ten-twenty-five, and then it wasn’t Mr. Ferney who called. It was a man who said he was calling for Mr. Ferney, that Mr. Ferney had been unavoidably detained. He asked me if I could have the dog ready, despite the lateness of the hour. The man said Mr. Ferney was on his way.”

“You agreed?”

“Yes, I told him I would have the dog in my station wagon; that it would take me about five minutes to get the dog and load it.”

“You did that?”

“That’s right.”

“And when did Frank Ferney arrive?”

“Just after I had the dog loaded in my station wagon. He parked his car in front of my place, and I drove the station wagon to Borden’s place.”

“How far are you from the Borden place?”

“Only a little over two miles.”

“Then what happened?” Mason asked.

“Well, we went up to the gate, Mr. Ferney opened the gate with a key, and took the dog from me.

“I told him that I wanted to talk with Mr. Borden about the dog’s condition. I thought an operation might be advisable. There are a couple of glands which have a tendency to become calcified, and the dog was no longer a young dog. I suggested to Mr. Ferney that it would be well to discuss the matter with Mr. Borden, and he said that I should come on in with him, and I probably would have a chance to talk to Mr. Borden.”

“Then what?”

“Well, we entered the house, and Ferney said Mr. Borden wasn’t in his study, he thought he was up in the studio; he’d go to look for him, and—”

The clerk pounded with his gavel. “Everybody stand up, please.”

Mason whispered hastily to Dr. Callison as Judge Erwood entered the court, “When you left, did Ferney go with you?”

“Yes.”

“Was he alone or out of your sight any time there in the building?”

“Not in the building. The burglar alarm came on, and he went out to call the dogs back and turn out the lights. That was when I answered the phone and said I didn’t think Mr. Borden wished to be disturbed. I felt someone had been tampering with the gates, some idle curiosity seeker. I knew I shouldn’t intrude on Mr. Borden wherever he was.”

“But was Ferney out of your sight while he was inside the house?”

“Only when he went up the short flight of stairs to knock on the door of the studio.”

“Did you hear him knock?”

“Yes.”

“Did you hear any voices?”

“No.”

“Could he have entered the room?”

“Heavens, no! There wasn’t time. I heard him knock and then he came right back down. I’ll tell you this, Mr. Mason, when he came down those stairs, he looked as if someone had jolted him back on his heels. He told me Borden was in the studio and didn’t want to be disturbed. He said—”

The bailiff shouted, “Silence in the court! You may be seated,” as Judge Erwood seated himself on the bench and glanced at the district attorney.

“The tape recording is ready, Mr. District Attorney?”

“Yes, Your Honor. I again desire to object to it on the ground that it is inadmissible, that it is not the best evidence, that it is not properly authenticated, that it is completely incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial at this time, and is no part of rebuttal or surrebuttal.”

“The tape recording is the actual recording that was found in the Borden residence?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“Then the objections are overruled. We will hear the recording.”

With poor grace, Hamilton Burger turned on the tape recording. For some ten minutes the recording played the voices of George Ansley and Meridith Borden.

Then the voice of Ansley coming through the loudspeaker, said, “Well, I guess I’ll be getting on.”

Borden’s voice said, “I’m glad you dropped in, Ansley, and I’ll take care of you to the best of my ability. I feel quite certain you won’t have any more trouble with the inspectors. They don’t like adverse publicity any better than anyone else, and, after all, I’m a public relations expert.”

Borden’s laugh was ironic.

“I can find my way out all right,” Ansley’s voice said.

“No, no, I’ll see you to the door. I’m all alone here tonight. Sorry.”

The tape recorder ran on for some ten seconds, then a peculiar thud-ding sound registered on the tape. After that, abruptly the noises ceased, although the spools of the tape recorder continued to revolve.

Hamilton Burger moved over and shut off the tape recorder, started rewinding the spools.

“That’s it, Your Honor,” he said.

Judge Erwood was frowning thoughtfully. “The series of crackling noises which come from the tape recorder after the voices had ceased are caused by what, Mr. District Attorney?”

“The fact that the tape recorder was continuing to run with a live microphone.”

“And that muffled sound?”

“That was the sound of the shot that killed Meridith Borden,” Hamilton Burger said. And then added with apparent heat, “We feel, if the Court please, that this is forcing us unnecessarily to show our hand. We had intended to produce this evidence in the superior court when the defendant was held for trial.”

“Well, the defense has a right to produce it,” Judge Erwood said. “I believe it is being produced on order of the Court in response to a demand by the defendant and as a part of the defendant’s case.”

“Well, the defendant has heard it now,” Hamilton Burger said with ill grace. “And, doubtless, when he finally gets on the witness stand to tell his story in front of a jury, he will have thought up the proper answers, or they will have been thought up for him.”

“There is no occasion for that comment, Mr. District Attorney,” Judge Erwood said. “The defense in any case is entitled to present evidence to a Court.”

“In this case,” Hamilton Burger said, still angry and still insistent, “they’re presenting the prosecution’s case.”

“We won’t argue the matter!” Judge Erwood snapped. “Are there any further witnesses, Mr. Mason?”

“Yes, Your Honor,” Mason said, “I desire to have Mr. Ferney recalled to the stand for further cross-examination.”

“We object,” Hamilton Burger said. “The defense in this case has done nothing but recall witnesses for cross-examination. The law does not contemplate that a defendant can cross-examine a witness piecemeal. The defendant is supposed to conduct his cross-examination and be finished with it.”

“Anything further, Mr. Prosecutor?” Judge Erwood asked.

“No, Your Honor, that covers my position.”

“Objection is overruled. The examination of witnesses is within the province of the Court. Mr. Ferney, you will return to the witness stand.”

Ferney, obviously ill at ease, returned to the witness stand.

“Directing your attention to the night of the eighth of this month, at a time when you were at the Borden residence with Dr. Callison present, the time being shortly after eleven o’clock in the evening, did you state to Dr. Callison that you had climbed the stairs to the studio where Mr. Borden carried on his photographic work, and that Mr. Borden had told you he didn’t want to be disturbed, or words to that effect?”

“That’s objected to as hearsay and not proper cross-examination,” Hamilton Burger said.

“Overruled!” Judge Erwood snapped. “It’s an impeaching question. The Court is going to hear the conversation.”

“But it certainly can’t be binding on the prosecution anything that this witness said, Your Honor.”

“It may not be binding on the prosecution, but it shows the attitude and the bias of this witness. The Court is going to permit the question. Go ahead and answer, Mr. Ferney.”

“Well,” Ferney said, “I went up the stairs to the studio. I knocked on the door—”

“That’s not the question,” Judge Erwood interrupted. “The question is what you told Dr. Callison.”

“Well, I told her that Mr. Borden was up in the studio taking pictures and that he didn’t want to be disturbed.”

“Did you say he told you he didn’t want to be disturbed?” Mason asked.

Ferney looked over to where Dr. Callison was seated in the courtroom. “I don’t remember exactly what words I used.”

“After you left the house with Dr. Callison in her station wagon, did you ask her if she had heard a shot?”

“I think what I said was a noise like a shot.”

“You asked her that?”

“I may have.”

“That’s all,” Mason said.

“I have no further questions,” Hamilton Burger said.

“That rests our case, Your Honor,” Mason said.

“I have no further evidence, Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said. “I now move the Court to bind the defendant over to the superior court. Regardless of what the record may show as to contradictions, the fact remains that the defendant had the fatal weapon in his possession, the defendant had threatened the decedent, and, furthermore, it is apparent that the defendant fired the shot which killed the decedent within a few seconds after the termination of the interview, and apparently while the decedent was showing the defendant to the door. The sound of that shot is quite apparent on the tape recorder.”

Judge Erwood frowned at the district attorney. “Is it your contention that Mr. Borden was showing him to the front door through the photographic studio?”

“Not necessarily, Your Honor.”

“Then how did it happen that his body was found in the photographic studio?”

“It could have been taken there, Your Honor.”

Judge Erwood turned to Perry Mason. “The Court will hear from you, Mr. Mason.”

Mason said urbanely, “What happened, Your Honor, was that when Meridith Borden escorted George Ansley to the door, he slammed the front door. And it was that muffled slamming of the front door which made the sound on the tape recorder. The proof that Meridith Borden was alive after George Ansley left the house is that he returned and immediately shut off the tape recorder. It is quite apparent on the tape itself that the tape recorder was shut off.”

“Do you question that, Mr. District Attorney?” Judge Erwood asked the prosecutor.

Burger said, “It’s quite apparent that the tape was shut off shortly after the sound of the shot, but it was the murderer, George Ansley, who shut off that tape recorder.”

Judge Erwood looked at Mason. Mason smiled and shook his head.

“George Ansley didn’t know where the tape recorder was,” he said. “He didn’t know the interview was being recorded. The testimony is that it was a concealed microphone. The tape recorder was in another room. It was necessary for the tape recorder to be shut off by someone who knew that it was on and who knew exactly where the tape recorder was located. Ansley didn’t have that knowledge and couldn’t have done it.

“There is, if the Court please, one other most persuasive circumstance. The Court will notice that the inspectors on the job the next day were more than courteous. Now, that means just one thing. It means that Meridith Borden had been in communication with the inspectors. Since we have now heard a complete tape recording of the interview with George Ansley, we know that at no time during that interview did Meridith Borden go to the telephone, ring up an inspector and say, in effect, ‘It’s all right. George Ansley has called on me and is going to kick through. You can take off the pressure.’

“Or, since Meridith Borden is dead and cannot refute any charge against him, perhaps I should express it this way: He didn’t go to the telephone and say to the inspector, ‘George Ansley has just called on me and has retained me as a public relations expert. I feel that your inspection on this construction job has been far more rigorous than is required by the contract, and represents some personal animosity on your part, or an attempt to get some kind of a bribe or kickback. Therefore, unless the situation is changed immediately, I am going to take steps to see that publicity is given the type of inspection to which Mr. Ansley has been subjected.”

For a moment Judge Erwood’s angry face relaxed into something of a smile. “A very tactful expression of a purely hypothetical conversation, Mr. Mason.”

“Out of deference to the fact that Borden is now deceased and is not in a position to defend himself,” Mason said.

Judge Erwood looked down at the prosecutor. “I think, Mr. Prosecutor,” he said, “that by the time you think over the entire evidence in this case, you will realize that you are proceeding against the wrong defendant, and that the very greatest favor the Court could do you at this time would be to dismiss the case against this defendant.

“You are here asking for an order that this defendant, George Ansley, be bound over for trial, and the Court feels that if such an order should be made, it would put you in a position where at a later date you would either have to dismiss the case against George Ansley, or, if you went to trial before a jury, you would have a verdict of acquittal at the hands of the jury.

“The Court realizes thoroughly that it is not incumbent upon the prosecution to put on all of its evidence in a preliminary examination, that in general the purpose of the examination is simply to show that a crime has been committed and that there is reasonable cause to believe the defendant has committed that crime. However, there is another duty which devolves upon the prosecutor, and that is to conduct his office in the interests of justice and to see that the innocent are released and not subjected to the annoyance and expense of trial, and that the guilty are prosecuted.

“The Court feels that, with the facts in this case brought into evidence as they now are, there is every indication that the defendant is being prosecuted for a crime that he did not commit, for a crime that he could not have committed.

“It is not incumbent on this Court to suggest to the prosecutor how the office of the district attorney should be conducted. But the Court does suggest that in this case further action should be taken and against an entirely different defendant.

“As far as this instant proceeding is concerned, the case against George Ansley is dismissed. The defendant is discharged from custody, and court is adjourned.”

Judge Erwood arose and strode from the courtroom.

There was a demonstration among the spectators. Newspaper reporters dashed for the nearest telephones, and Mason turned to shake hands with George Ansley.

Photographers exploded flashbulbs as Hamilton Burger, glowering at the group around Mason, pushed his angry way through the spectators, strode out of the courtroom and down the corridor.