The Case of the Daring Divorcee

Chapter Sixteen

Judge Fallon took off his robe, hung it up on a hanger in the closet, turned to Hamilton Burger and said, “What’s your explanation of all this, Mr. Burger?”

Burger, coldly indignant, said, “It is simply another razzle-dazzle. The witness, Elvina Mitchell, was suffering from stage fright and didn’t want to appear in a crowded courtroom. Mr. Mason capitalized on that to terrify her into flight and now he’s going to use that to try and build up favorable publicity for his client.”

The judge turned to Mason. “You have a theory you’re working on?” he asked.

“I have a theory,” Mason said.

“Well, sit down, both of you,” Judge Fallon said. “Now, Mason, let’s have your theory.”

Mason said, “Garvin Hastings was killed in his sleep.”

Judge Fallon nodded.

Mason said, “I will act on the assumption that my client is innocent.”

“An assumption in which I no wise join,” Hamilton Burger said.

“Go ahead,” Judge Fallon said to Mason.

“If my client was innocent, Garvin Hastings couldn’t have been killed at night or she would have heard the shots. He must have been killed after she left in the morning to keep her breakfast appointment with Simley Beason.

“That means that death took place probably between six and eight in the morning.

“The woman’s handbag with the fatal gun in it was left in my office during the noon hour. The person who chartered an airplane to fly to Las Vegas chartered the plane by telephone and took off from the airport at five-thirty Monday afternoon.

“Banner closes his office at four-thirty. Many of the law offices close at that time.

“Therefore we have three periods of activity. Before an office opened in the morning, during the lunch hour, and after an office closed in the afternoon. That would indicate activity by a person who was employed in an office somewhere and didn’t dare be absent.

“There were two guns. Garvin Hastings had one. Adelle Hastings had the other. Adelle Hastings had never looked at the number on her gun, but it is only natural to suppose that Garvin gave the new one to Adelle. The murder was committed with the older gun and that gun was in Adelle’s purse. That means that someone had to get to her apartment and dispose of her gun before the authorities got there and searched the place.

“Adelle’s purse was stolen after she got to Los Angeles, had driven to Ventura and then, on her way to keep her appointment with her husband, had gone in to buy cigarettes. It must have been stolen by someone who knew of her habit of wearing dark glasses, and who wanted to get the keys to her apartment.”

“But why didn’t that person fly to Las Vegas that Sunday night, use the keys to get into her apartment and take Adelle’s gun then?” Judge Fallon asked.

“Because,” Mason said, “that person wasn’t sure the murder was going to be perpetrated as planned. That person couldn’t be sure that Adelle Hastings was going to get up and go out to keep a breakfast appointment with Simley Beason. That person thought she was going to do it, but couldn’t be absolutely certain.

“That person stole Adelle Hastings’ bag, had duplicates made from the keys that were in that bag on Sunday evening, and waited until Adelle left the house early in the morning, leaving Garvin Hastings still asleep. Then the person slipped in quietly and carefully and deliberately made absolutely certain that Garvin Hastings was dead by pulling the trigger twice and sending two bullets crashing into the head of the sleeping man.

“Then that person put the fatal gun in Adelle Hastings’ purse and planned to leave the purse in my office under such circumstances that the receptionist would swear Adelle Hastings was the one who had brought the purse to the office.”

“Then why didn’t that person do it before noon?” Judge Fallon asked.

“Because it was a physical impossibility for that person to do it before noon,” Mason said. “That’s one of the key clues in the entire case.”

“Just why is that a key clue?” Judge Fallon asked.

Mason said, “Let’s look at the murderer’s requirements. It had to be someone who knew the business, it had to be someone who knew the habits of the household, and it had to be someone who had a job.”

“You mean because of the three crucial time periods you’ve mentioned?” Judge Fallon asked.

“That’s right,” Mason said.

“Oh, Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said. “That’s just another one of these razzle-dazzle run-arounds.”

Judge Fallon said, “Just a moment, Mr. Burger. I’ll listen to your side of the case in a few moments, but I’m very much interested in this. I’d like to hear Mr. Mason’s theory.”

Mason said, “Because of the manner in which the bag was left in my office the accomplice had to be a woman, although the murderer could have been a man.

“That narrowed the accomplice down to one of three people: Elvina Mitchell, Banner’s secretary; Minerva Hastings, or Rosalie Blackburn, Beason’s secretary.

“Now, I will confess that I considered each one of these persons in turn and was leaning toward Rosalie Blackburn, but then Huntley Banner told me he would send some papers over to my office by his secretary. She refused to make the trip. I wondered why at the time, but am frank to confess I didn’t attach the proper importance to it.

“Then when Banner himself got on the stand to prove the will instead of having his secretary there, I began to wonder. Was it because his secretary was afraid to have Gertie, my receptionist, see her?”

“So I had Gertie seated in the jury box and another young woman with her. Then when Elvina Mitchell was rather excited and off her guard, I asked her to hand the dark glasses to my receptionist, turned my back and walked away.

“Miss Mitchell handed the dark glasses to Gertie. The point is how did she know who my receptionist was if she hadn’t been in my office?”

“All right,” Judge Fallon said, “assuming that Elvina Mitchell is mixed up in this thing, how do you know Huntley Banner wasn’t the mastermind directing it all?”

“Because if he had been,” Mason said, “there would have been no reason for Elvina to have taken all those chances in order to be in the office on Monday. She could have flown to Las Vegas right after she planted the bag in my office.”

“And what about motive?” Judge Fallon asked.

“The motive,” Mason said, “isn’t as apparent as the identity of the killer. I’m not going to hazard a guess at this time. But once we get Miss Mitchell, I think we’ll find the motive — and the motive may be rather complicated.

“I would like to have the police conduct a searching inquiry. I think Elvina Mitchell would crack wide open under interrogation.”

Judge Fallon looked at Hamilton Burger.

The district attorney shook his head. “I still say this is just a run-around in order to plant suspicion so that it will take the pressure off the defendant.

“I don’t try cases for the defendants,” Hamilton Burger went on. “Perry Mason is fully capable of pointing out all those factors favoring the defendant — in fact he has done it very dramatically in this case. His reasoning is as fallacious as it is dramatic.

“He managed things so the bailiff would come running after Elvina Mitchell in a way that frightened the poor girl half to death. Even if she hadn’t done a thing, the way Mason handled things she’d have started running.”

Judge Fallon said, “I don’t agree. I want Elvina Mitchell picked up. It shouldn’t be difficult to apprehend her. The police can watch her apartment, they can watch the office, they can find where she parks her car, they can pick her up. When she is picked up I want her brought to me, and unless the district attorney is going to interrogate Minerva Hastings I want to talk with Lieutenant Tragg and instruct him to do it.”

“Oh, very well’,” Hamilton Burger said wearily. “It’s just another one of those run-arounds, but if Mason has convinced you he can convince the newspaper reporters, so I’ll have to investigate that theory of the case.”

“Please do so,” Judge Fallon said, with cold formality, “and don’t think this court is as credulous and naive as your voice and manner seem to intimate.”