The Case of the Deadly Toy

Chapter Seventeen

Court reconvened promptly at two o’clock. Hamilton Burger now sat in the prosecutor’s chair alongside Manley Marshall.

“It the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said, “I am going to call a witness who will eliminate any doubt in this matter. Call Millicent Bailey.”

A woman in her late twenties came walking down the aisle. She was slender-waisted but well curved, and the rhythm of her walk showed that she was fully conscious of those curves. There was an almost defiant air about her as she entered the railed enclosure, held up her hand and took the oath.

She seated herself on the witness stand.

Hamilton Burger himself conducted the examination.

“Your name is Millicent Bailey?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Miss or Mrs.?”

“Mrs.”

“Are you living with your husband?”

“I am not. I’m divorced.”

“I am going to call your attention to the night of the seventeenth and eighteenth of this month. Do you remember the occasion?”

“You mean the night of the seventeenth and the early morning of the eighteenth?”

“That’s right.”

“Yes, I remember them.”

“May I ask what you were doing?”

“I was out with a boy friend.”

“Do you wish to give us the name of that boy friend?”

“I do not. He is a respectable married man, but his home life is not happy. He is contemplating leaving his wife and filing an action for divorce, but I don’t want anything that I may say to jeopardize his interests, and so I am not going to give his name.”

“I feel certain,” Hamilton Burger said, “that under the circumstances counsel will not press you for his name, and I know that I will not. I think as men of the world we’ll appreciate the situation.”

And Hamilton Burger bowed with elaborate courtesy to Perry Mason.

“I will not agree to restrict my cross-examination in the least,” Mason said. “I will ask any questions that I feel are necessary to protect the interests of my client.”

“Quite naturally,” Hamilton Burger said, “but I feel that since it will soon develop that the identity of this man has absolutely nothing to do with the testimony of this witness, you will realize the expediency of refraining from bringing out the man’s name.”

Hamilton Burger turned back to the witness. “Now, Mrs. Bailey, I am going to ask you to describe generally what happened on the night of the seventeenth.”

“I got off at eight o’clock. I went to my apartment and bathed and changed my clothes. My boy friend had said that he would call for me at ten o’clock.

“At ten o’clock he was there. We had a drink in my apartment and then we went to a night club where we danced until... well, it was somewhere around one o’clock.”

“Then what happened?”

“Then we left the night club and took a drive.”

“And where did you go on this drive?” Hamilton Burger asked.

“To the San Sebastian Country Club.”

“Just where at the country club?” Burger asked.

“To the wide parking place where cars are parked; that is, a place which is reserved for the cars of members.”

“What time was this?” Hamilton Burger asked.

“I can’t tell you the time. It was perhaps one-thirty.”

“That would be one-thirty in the morning of the eighteenth?”

“Yes.”

“Just why did you go there?”

“We wanted to... to talk.”

“Can you describe this parking place where you went?”

“Yes. There is a road which winds up the hill to the country club, then there is a very wide parking space where members can leave their cars. It is a big, flat space with lines ruled in it in white.”

“When you drove up were there any other cars there?”

“Yes.”

“I wish you would tell us exactly what happened after you arrived at the parking place,” Hamilton Burger said.

“Well, there was a car there.”

“Can you describe the car?”

“I didn’t pay too much attention to it. It was a big car, one of the expensive cars.”

“Were the lights on or off?”

“You mean on that car?”

“Yes.”

“The lights were off.”

“What was the car doing?”

“It was just sitting there.”

“Did you see anybody in it?”

“No. I assumed the car had been left—”

“Never mind what you assumed,” Hamilton Burger interrupted. “I am asking you only what you saw and what you heard.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What did you do?”

“My friend and I wanted to talk where we would be private. We... I mean, he, drove on past this car that was parked and went down to the car end of the parking lot. There are some trees there; some big live oaks, and there are perhaps half a dozen parking places that are right under these trees.”

“And what did you do?”

“My friend parked his car there.”

“Was the area lighted?”

“No, sir. There is a light, sort of a floodlight over the lawn in front of the entrance to the clubhouse that’s on all night. There’s a certain light from that which illuminates the parking place, but the parking place itself isn’t really lighted up. It’s fairly dark there.”

“And quite dark under the trees?”

“Yes.”

“Now, did your companion park the car so that it was facing into the trees?”

“No, sir, he did not. He turned the car around so that when we wanted to start out he only needed to step on the starter and pull right out.”

“So you could see through the windshield and see the parking space?”

“Yes.”

“And the road leading into the parking space?”

“Yes.”

“And the car which was already parked there in the space?”

“Yes.”

“Then what happened?”

“Well, we sat and talked.”

“For how long?”

“For some time. We were trying to get things settled. I wasn’t going to break up any home. I told him—”

“Now never mind what you talked about,” Hamilton Burger said. “I am not going to interrogate you as to that point. I am simply trying to get the time element.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you know how long you were there?”

“Some little time.”

“An hour?”

“I guess all of an hour.”

“And what happened?”

“Well, we talked, and—”

“I’m not interested in that,” Hamilton Burger said. “I want to find out... I’ll get at it another way. What time did you leave there?”

“It was about... I guess about, well, perhaps half-past three in the morning; perhaps three o’clock, I don’t know. I didn’t look at my watch.”

“Now, did anything happen just prior to the time you left?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Another car came up the roadway to the parking place.”

“That’s what I’m trying to get at,” Burger said. “Now, can you describe that car?”

“Yes, sir. It was an Oldsmobile and it had white side-wall tires.”

“Do you know the license number?”

“I do.”

“What was the license number?”

“JYJ 113.”

“What did that car do?”

“It parked just behind this car that had been there all the time.”

“Do you mean it went into a parking space alongside this parked car?”

“No, sir. It came to a stop right behind it. It wasn’t in any parking place. It was right behind the car.”

“And what happened?”

“Well, a woman got out of the car.”

“You saw this woman?”

“Yes.”

“Were the lights on?”

“In what car?”

“In the car that had just driven up.”

“Yes, the lights were left on.”

“You say that a woman got out?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you know whether she was alone in the car?”

“There was no other person in the car.”

“How could you tell?”

“When she got out, she left the door open and a light came on in the inside of the car — you know, the way a light automatically comes on when the door is left standing open.”

“And what did this woman do?”

“She walked over to the parked car.”

“Now then,” Hamilton Burger said, “I’m going to show you a photograph of a car parked in the parking place at the San Sebastian Country Club and ask you if you recognize that car from the photograph.”

“I do.”

“What is it?”

“That is the car that was parked there that night.”

“You mean the evening of the seventeenth and the early morning hours of the eighteenth?”

“Yes.”

“The car which you have referred to as the car which was parked when you drove up?”

“Yes.”

“The car which was there all the time you were parked under the trees there?”

“Yes.”

“The car which was in front of the car that was driven by the woman?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. Now, referring to the car which came driving up there, what did you do? What did you see?”

“I saw this woman get out of the car.”

“And what, if anything, did she do?”

“She walked across to the parked car.”

“And then what?”

“She paused by the door of that car. She took something from her purse.”

“Could you tell what she took from her purse?”

“I think it was a gun.”

“Did you see a gun?”

“I saw the light reflect from something metallic.”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know what happened after that. We got out of there, fast.”

“Her car was still there when you drove out?”

“Yes.”

“She was standing there?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know whether she had seen your car; or that is, the car in which you were riding before you started the motor and turned on the lights?”

“I don’t think she had. If she did, she hadn’t paid any attention to it. It was when we drove out that she jerked back to look at us and I think she screamed; at least her mouth was wide open and I think she was screaming.”

“Did you see her face?”

“I saw her face.”

“Plainly?”

“Plainly.”

“Would you recognize that woman if you saw her again?”

“I would.”

“Do you see that woman here in court at this time?”

“I do.”

“Can you point her out?”

The witness arose from the stand, leveled a pointing finger at Norda Allison and said, “That’s the woman, the one sitting right there.”

“The one sitting over here next to Mr. Perry Mason?”

“That’s the one.”

“Would you please step down from the witness stand and put your hand on her shoulder.”

The witness marched down, placed her hand on Norda Allison’s shoulder, turned and walked back to the witness stand.

Hamilton Burger smiled. “You may cross-examine,” he said to Perry Mason.

Mason arose to face the witness. “When you entered the parking lot,” he said, “were you sitting on the side nearest the parked car?”

“Yes.”

“Then the car was parked on the right-hand side of the parking lot as you drove in?”

“Yes.”

“Then as you drove out, the car would have been to your left?”

“Yes.”

“Then you must have looked across the driver of the car; that is, the driver of the car in which you were riding, to see the two cars as you left?”

“What do you mean, the driver of the car?”

“Exactly what I said,” Mason replied. “The driver of the car in which you were riding.”

“I was driving the car.”

“When you went out?”

“Yes.”

“Where was your companion?” Mason asked.

“Crouched down on the floor in the back of the car,” she announced defiantly.

There was a slight ripple of mirth in the courtroom which Judge Kent frowned into silence.

“Perhaps you can explain exactly what happened a little more clearly,” Mason said.

“I’ve told you my boy friend was married. When we saw this car drive in there, the first thing we thought of was that it was one of those things — you know, a private-detective raiding party with a camera and flashbulbs. We thought his wife had framed him so as to get the kind of a settlement she wanted.”

“Do you mean that she had framed him or caught him?”

“Well, caught him.”

“That’s what you both thought?”

“Sure,” she said. “What else would you expect? This car comes driving up there around three o’clock in the morning, coming like sixty.”

“Now, when you say one of those things,” Mason asked, “do I gather that this is something usual in your life, that you have been previously photographed by some raiding party led by an irate wife?”

The witness was silent for a moment.

“We object, if the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said. “That’s not the proper cross-examination. The question is asked only for the purpose of degrading the witness. It is prejudicial misconduct on the part of counsel.”

Judge Kent said, “There was that in the answer of the witness which seemed to invite the question. However, under the circumstances, I think it makes little difference in this case. The situation speaks for itself. The Court will sustain the objection.”

“Were you sitting at the steering wheel when this other car came up the driveway?” Mason asked.

“No, I was not.”

“Did you get behind the steering wheel at your own suggestion?”

“My boy friend suggested I had better drive it out.”

“I take it then that he didn’t see the woman who got out of the car?”

“He didn’t see anything. He was down on the floor just as flat as he could get, and I took that car out of there just as fast as I could snake it out.”

“But you did notice the license number of the car which drove up?”

“Sure.”

“Why?”

“I thought... well, he said, ‘My God, that’s my wife,’ and... well, I looked the car over, looked at the license plate and it was an easy license plate to remember and I told him that it wasn’t his wife’s car.”

“You know his wife’s car?”

“Yes, I’ve seen it.”

“When you and your friend drove into the San Sebastian Country Club parking place you turned the car around so that it was headed out?”

“Yes.”

“And why was that?”

“So we could make a quick getaway if we had to without having anyone get the license number of the car. If the car had been left headed into the trees, then we’d have had to back and turn.”

“And the idea was that if you saw headlights coming you’d get out of there fast.”

“Yes.”

“But when you saw headlights coming you didn’t get out of there immediately. You waited until after the other car had come to a stop and a woman had got out.”

“Well... yes.”

“And you got in the driving seat and the man who was with you remained in the rear.”

“I didn’t say he remained in the rear.”

“Well, you did say he was on the floor in the rear.”

“Yes.”

“And that is right, is it?”

“Yes.”

“Now when you identified the defendant you pointed a finger and said that the woman you had seen was the defendant at whom you were pointing.”

“That’s right. That was the truth.”

“And then you got up and went down and put a hand on her shoulder.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, that identification had been carefully rehearsed, hadn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You had been talking with the deputy district attorney, Manley Marshall, about how you were to make that identification and he told you, ‘Now, when I ask you if you can see that woman in the courtroom you are to point at the defendant. Just point right straight at her and say, That’s the woman, sitting right there.’ Didn’t he say that?”

“Well, he told me to point at her.”

“And did he tell you to put some feeling in your voice?”

“No, sir. He did not.”

“Did he tell you that he was going to ask you to get up and walk down and put your hand on her shoulder?”

“No, sir.”

“Didn’t anyone tell you to put some feeling in your voice and be dramatic and say, ‘That’s the woman, sitting right there,’ or words to that effect?”

“Well... that wasn’t what you asked me.”

“What do you mean?”

“You asked me if Mr. Marshall had said that.”

“Oh, it was someone else that told you that?”

“Well, someone else told me to put some feeling in my voice when I said it, to make it dramatic, was the way he expressed it.”

“And who was that?”

“Mr. Hamilton Burger, the district attorney.”

“And when was that?”

“Just before I went on the witness stand.”

“And did you repeat the words after Mr. Burger, ‘That’s the woman, sitting right there?’”

“Well, I... he told me that’s what I was to say, and I said it.”

“And he told you to put more feeling in it, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“So then you tried it again, with more feeling.”

“Yes.”

“Once or twice?”

“Two or three times. I... well, it’s hard to be dramatic when you’re not accustomed to acting. I guess you’re inclined to say things in just an ordinary tone of voice, but Mr. Burger told me this was the dramatic high light of the trial and that I had to be dramatic about it.”

Mason smiled. “That,” he said, “is all.”

“No questions,” Hamilton Burger said, his face flushed an angry red.

The witness left the stand.

“I will now call Barton Jennings to the stand,” Hamilton Burger said.

Barton Jennings, still using his cane, came forward, took the oath, and settled back in the witness chair, his stiff leg out in front of him. His hands clasped the head of the cane.

Hamilton Burger examined the witness and brought out the story from the time he had met Norda Allison at the airport to the time they had gone home. He got the witness to tell about Norda Allison and Perry Mason coming to the house, of Norda Allison’s claim that she had seen the printing press in the storeroom. He had Barton Jennings identify the gun, and the witness testified that it was usually kept in the drawer of a dresser in the guest bedroom which was occupied that night by Norda Allison.

“Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said to Mason.

Mason arose to stand in front of the witness. “I’m going to ask a few questions, Mr. Jennings,” he said. “The answers to some of these questions may prove to be embarrassing, but I want to clear up certain matters. Now, your wife had been married before?”

“That is right.”

“She had been married to Mervin Selkirk, the decedent?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And there was a child, the issue of said marriage, Robert Selkirk?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Robert lived with you and your wife from time to time?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You are attached to him? That is, I mean, you are both attached to him?”

“Yes, sir. He is a very fine boy.”

“And do you know where he is now?”

“Objected to,” Hamilton Burger said. “Not proper examination and incompetent and irrelevant and immaterial. The whereabouts of this young man have no bearing on the present case. I see no reason for turning loose a lot of newspaper reporters to embarrass this young man.”

Judge Kent thought for a moment, then said, “At the present time I am going to sustain the objection.”

“Robert Selkirk was staying with you the night of the seventeenth and the morning of the eighteenth?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You drove him away early on the morning of the eighteenth?”

“I took him away. Yes, sir.”

“Why?”

“He was going to a gathering of young people.”

“But he didn’t go?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“The dramatic events of the day made it inadvisable for him to go.”

“But you didn’t know that Mervin Selkirk was dead until quite a bit later than that, did you?”

“Later than what?”

“Later than when you took Robert away from your house.”

“No, sir, I didn’t.”

“The young people were to rendezvous at about eleven o’clock?”

“I thought they were supposed to be there at seven o’clock. I now understand they didn’t leave until eleven. I misunderstood the time over the telephone. I asked the man who was arranging the party what time the boys were to leave and I understood him to say that they would leave at seven o’clock, but to be there an hour before that. Later on I realized he had said eleven o’clock but I had misunderstood him.”

“What time was it when you took Robert away?”

“It was... quite early. I don’t know. I didn’t look at my watch.”

“And where did you take him?”

“There again,” Hamilton Burger said, “I object. I have carefully refrained from asking this witness questions about Robert Selkirk, and counsel has no right to cross-examine him on that subject. The question is not proper cross-examination. It is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”

“I think I will permit this question,” Judge Kent said. “You may answer. Where did you take Robert?”

“To a friend.”

“A friend of his or a friend of yours?” Mason asked.

“Both.”

“Now why did you take him away that early in the morning?” Mason asked.

“Because I didn’t want him to be disturbed.”

“Why?”

“Because... well, frankly, Mr. Mason, an action was to be brought and the object of that action was to get the sole custody of Robert; that is, my wife wanted to have his sole custody. Miss Allison, the defendant in this case, was going to testify as a witness; at least we hoped she would. I didn’t want Robert to know anything about what was being planned until after the plans had been made. I didn’t want him to hear the discussion.”

“So you got up early in the morning and took him away?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And that’s your best explanation?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did you know when you took Robert away that he claimed he had discharged a gun during the night?”

“Objected to,” Hamilton Burger said, “as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, as calling for hearsay testimony, and as not proper cross-examination.”

“In the present form of the question I will sustain the objection,” Judge Kent said.

“Did you take him away,” Mason said, “because he had claimed during the night that he had fired a shot?”

“Same objection,” Hamilton Burger said.

Judge Kent shook his head. “The question in its present form is permissible.”

“All right,” Barton Jennings said defiantly. “That may have entered into it.”

“When did you first know that he claimed he had fired a shot during the night?”

“Objected to, not proper cross-examination, incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial,” Burger said.

Judge Kent stroked the angle of his jaw, ran his hand around the back of his neck, rubbed the palm back and forth a few times and looked at Mason. “Aside from the technical rules of evidence, Mr. Mason,” he said, “you must realize that the Court and counsel have certain responsibilities. Your questions and the answers of the witness will doubtless be given some prominence in the press, and the Court feels that the examination of the witness along these lines should be restricted to the legal issues, regardless of the technical rules of evidence.”

Mason, on his feet, waited deferentially for Judge Kent to finish speaking. Then he said, “I am fully aware of that, if the Court please. But I am representing a client who is charged with murder. I am going to protect her interests. I can assure the Court that I am not merely asking questions for the purpose of clouding the issues. I have a very definite objective which the Court will see within a short time.”

“Very well,” Judge Kent said. “I am going to overrule the objection. The witness may answer the question.”

Hamilton Burger said, “If we go into any part of this, Your Honor, I want to go into all of it.”

Judge Kent hesitated, then said, “I think the evidence is pertinent. Defense counsel has a duty to perform. I am going to let the witness answer the question.”

Barton Jennings said, “I guess it was about midnight, something like that, that Robert came crying into the house. I understand he told his mother that he had had a bad dream and he had fired a shot.”

“Did he say he had had a bad dream?”

“Well, from what he told her I know I felt it was a bad dream.”

“He thought someone had been in the tent?”

“He said he thought someone had been in the tent, groping along the bed. He had been awake at the time and it seems that this gun had been under his pillow.”

Judge Kent said to the witness, “Robert told this to his mother?”

“That’s right,” Jennings said. “I had had one of my spells with my knee and had taken codeine. I was asleep.”

Judge Kent looked over at Hamilton Burger. “This would seem to be hearsay, Mr. Prosecutor.”

Hamilton Burger said angrily, “I’m not going to object. That’s what counsel was hoping for. He hoped he could get headlines in the press and then have me shut him off. That’s what I meant when I said that if we went into this we were going into it all the way. Robert told his mother about shooting the gun that night. The next morning he told this witness the same story.”

Judge Kent said, “In the one instance it is part of the res gestae. In the other it is hearsay.”

“We have no objection,” Hamilton Burger said. “Having gone this far, it is only fair to the boy himself to go the rest of the way.”

Judge Kent frowned.

“What gun was under Robert’s pillow?” Mason asked.

“The gun that has been introduced in evidence, the Colt Woodsman, the .22 automatic.”

“And he had pulled the trigger?”

“He had a dream. He dreamt he was pretending to be asleep. He heard someone prowling around the outside of the tent, or thought he did, and then he dreamt that this person entered the tent and at the height of the nightmare he thought that he had discharged the weapon.”

“You say that was a nightmare?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How do you know it was a nightmare?”

“Because the weapon was unloaded. It was empty when it was given to Robert.”

“Who gave it to him?”

“I did, but I desire to explain that answer.”

“Go ahead,” Judge Kent said, “explain it.”

“I had found out very shortly before that date that one of the baby sitters who had been employed to sit with Robert had been letting him use or play with this empty gun. Robert had some imitation weapons, as most boys do. He liked to play cowboy, city marshal, and things of that sort. He had, however, discovered there was a genuine weapon in the house and had been determined to play with that. One time when the baby sitter was having a great deal of trouble with him, in order to quiet him and keep him from having a nervous tantrum, she let him play with this weapon.

“I hadn’t found that out until shortly before the seventeenth.”

“How did you find it out?”

“I usually left the gun loaded and in the bureau drawer of the front room. At intervals I would clean and oil it. On or shortly before the sixteenth I took the gun out to oil it. It was unloaded and there were no shells in the magazine clip. This bothered me. I asked my wife about it and then I asked Robert about it. It was then that I found out about Robert having had the gun.”

“And how did you happen to let Robert take the weapon on the night of the seventeenth and eighteenth?”

“We had to go to the airport to meet the defendant in the case. We didn’t expect to be gone but a very short time. My wife is too nervous to drive but she wanted to be the one to greet the defendant at the airport, so I drove her there. Robert was asleep in a tent out in the patio, or that is, he was going to sleep in a tent out in the patio. I had asked some neighbors to come in and stay with him for the hour and a half it would take us to make the round trip and pick up the defendant.”

“And what happened?”

“At the last minute it was impossible for the neighbors to come in. They had some unexpected company. I telephoned the agency which usually supplies us with baby sitters and it was impossible for either of our regular baby sitters to come that night. They were both engaged. Robert doesn’t like to be with a strange baby sitter. I explained the situation to him. I told him he would be perfectly safe out there in his tent in the patio, and he said that it would be quite all right to leave him, provided he could have this unloaded gun under his pillow. It gave him a sense of security.

“In view of the fact that I had found out that he had been playing with the weapon, I made certain the gun was unloaded and let him have it.”

“You yourself made certain that the gun was unloaded?”

“I did, yes, sir.”

“Now then,” Mason said, “when did you next see the gun?”

“Robert brought it in to his mother after the nightmare.”

“And did she try to quiet him?”

“She did.”

“Did he return to bed?”

“Yes. After he had become fully awakened, he realized that he had probably had a nightmare and he wanted to go back into the tent and go to sleep. As he expressed it, he wanted to be a ‘real scout.’”

“And he did that?”

“Yes.”

“And the weapon?”

“My wife put it on the hall stand. I wakened an hour or so after Robert had gone back to the tent. My wife told me what had happened.”

“Where was the gun?”

“On the hall table. My wife placed it there intending to take it to its regular place in the bedroom after Miss Allison had left the room. Miss Allison was sleeping there that night.”

“Was the gun unloaded at that time?”

“Of course it was unloaded.”

“Did you at any time tamper with the barrel? Did you run a rattail file or any other instrument through the barrel?”

“No, sir.”

“Or an emery cloth?”

“No, sir.”

“Did you tamper with the barrel in any way?”

“No, sir.”

“Did it occur to you that Robert might have loaded and fired the gun, that Robert’s shot must have hit something and that the bullet could have been shown to have been fired from that gun, and therefore you roughed up the barrel so as to protect Robert?”

The witness shifted his position, then said, “No, sir.”

“Because if you had,” Mason pointed out, “in view of the testimony of the ballistics expert that the barrel had been tampered with after the last bullet had gone through the barrel, it would prove that this defendant couldn’t have fired the fatal shot — at least with that gun. Do you understand that, Mr. Jennings?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And you are positive you yourself didn’t rough up the barrel to protect Robert?”

“I did not.”

“Did you load the weapon?”

“I didn’t load it. When I gave the gun to Robert I unloaded it.”

“How about the barrel? Do you know whether there was a shell in the barrel?”

“I told you, Mr. Mason, that I unloaded the gun. I was very careful to unload it.”

“You mean by that, that you worked the mechanism so as to be sure there was no shell in the gun?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then how did it happen Robert was able to fire the gun?”

“The answer is obvious. He only dreamt he fired it.”

“And where was the gun the next time you saw it?”

“Under the pillow of the bed which had been occupied by the defendant.”

“You were up rather early the morning of the eighteenth?”

“Yes, sir. I thought I had to take Robert away from the house earlier than was necessary. I have explained the reason for that.”

“Now about washing away the blood that was on the front lawn,” Mason said. “What can you tell us about that?”

“That is objected to,” Hamilton Burger said, “as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. It is not proper cross-examination. I didn’t ask this witness a thing about his activities in regard to a blood trail or anything that was on the lawn.”

“The Court will overrule the objection,” Judge Kent said. “This is a very interesting development in the case and the Court wants to go into it. The Court is trying to do substantial justice here and the Court doesn’t care about technicalities, particularly at this time and on a matter of this sort. Answer the question, Mr. Jennings.”

“There was no blood trail,” Jennings said.

“Didn’t you get up early and hose the lawn?”

“I got up early. I took Robert to a friend. I came back and no one seemed to be up in the house so I took a hose and watered the lawn.”

“Didn’t you actually hold the hose down on the lawn, washing it?”

“I may have directed a stream a short distance in front of me.”

“And weren’t you washing away a trail of blood?”

“Very definitely not.”

“You weren’t trying to do that?”

“No, sir.”

“Did you notice any reddish tinge to the water which floated across the sidewalk and under the gutter while you were watering the lawn?”

“No, sir.”

“Notice any red stains of blood in the gutter?”

“No, sir.”

“Or at the curb?”

“No, sir.”

“Are you prepared to state there were no such stains?”

“I am prepared to state that I didn’t notice them.”

“I notice that you are using a cane,” Mason said.

“Yes, sir. I have trouble with my right knee. At times it becomes very stiff.”

“I take it you have consulted a physician?”

“Certainly.”

“Can you give me the name of any physician you consulted recently?”

“I haven’t been to a physician recently — not about this.”

“If the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said, “I think this examination is getting far, far afield. I see no possible connection between this physical infirmity and the issues in this case.”

“I do,” Mason said. “I’d like to have the question answered.”

“What is the connection, Mr. Mason?” Judge Kent asked.

“The connection is simply this,” Mason said. “Barton Jennings went to the tent where Robert was sleeping. He listened in the doorway of the tent. Robert was feigning sleep. This witness thought Robert was fully asleep. He tiptoed into the tent, intending to get the weapon out from under Robert’s pillow. He didn’t speak as he entered the tent. Robert was frightened, and in his terror, pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. There was one shell in the barrel. That shell penetrated Barton Jennings’ leg. Barton Jennings hurried out of the tent and across the lawn to the curb. He left a trail of blood. Somewhere out on the curb, or perhaps in a car, he managed to bandage his leg and stop up the flow of blood. He has, I believe, been afraid to go to a doctor for fear that the doctor would be forced to report the gunshot wound. I have every reason to believe that the .22 bullet it still in his leg, embedded either in the knee or in the fleshy part of the leg. I believe that if that bullet is extracted and the ballistics experts check the striations, it will be readily apparent that that bullet was fired from the same weapon which killed Mervin Selkirk. That is the reason for my entire line of examination.”

“Your Honor! Your Honor!” Hamilton Burger shouted, jumping to his feet, gesticulating angrily. “This is the plainest kind of grandstand! This is the same old rigmarole, the same four-flushing tactics which counsel has employed in so many cases. This is a story which is made up out of whole cloth, something that has absolutely no support anywhere in the evidence.”

“If you’re so certain of that,” Mason said, “let the witness pull up his trouser leg and let’s look at that knee of his. Let’s let the Court see the nature of the injury.”

Barton Jennings, on the stand, said quietly, “Take a look if you want to.”

He pulled up his trouser leg.

Judge Kent leaned forward. “There’s no sign of a bullet wound or any other wound in that leg, Mr. Mason. The knee is swollen but there is no sign of a wound.”

Hamilton Burger threw back his head and laughed. Spectators echoed the district attorney’s laughter.

Judge Kent, angered, shouted, “Order! Order or I’ll clear the courtroom.”

He turned to Perry Mason, who seemed as calmly serene as if nothing had happened. “Is that all, Mr. Mason?”

“No, Your Honor,” Mason said.

He turned to the witness. “I believe you own a very large dog,” Mason said. “A Great Dane.”

“Yes, sir.”

“That Dane was on the premises on the night of the seventeenth?”

“He was.”

“What is his name?”

“Rover.”

“Was he on the premises on the morning of the eighteenth?”

“No, sir, he was not.”

“What happened to him?”

Barton Jennings shifted his position on the witness stand. “I have rather inquisitive neighbors. I wanted it to appear that I had taken Robert to this expedition on which he was to depart, and that he had taken Rover with him. They knew the boys were supposed to take their dogs with them.

“Since, however, I was actually taking Robert to the apartment of this friend, I made other arrangements for the dog.”

“What other arrangements?” Mason asked.

“I don’t think I need to answer that question,” Jennings said.

“If the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said, “this is all going very far afield. I have asked this witness certain particular questions. Counsel has taken him down a long, weary, winding path on cross-examination; a path filled with detours and irrelevant excursions. Surely, what this witness did with his dog is not proper cross-examination and is not a part of the issues in this case. I have been very patient in letting everything about this mysterious shot which had been fired at night be introduced in evidence, because I thought defense counsel was going to claim the bullet had lodged in the knee of this witness. I wanted counsel to expose the folly of his own position.

“I was also aware, Your Honor, that it might be claimed the firing of that shot and evidence concerning it might be considered part of the res gestae.

“Evidence about this dog is, however, an entirely different matter. No one can claim that what a witness does with his dog is part of the res gestae.”

“I think I will sustain that objection,” Judge Kent said.

“Did you,” Mason asked Jennings, “notice a pool of blood by the curb on the morning of the eighteenth?”

“I have told you I did not.”

Mason said, “I show you a morning newspaper which indicates that it has been stained with a reddish liquid.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now then,” Mason said, “I will state to the Court and counsel that I expect to prove this liquid is a mixture of water and blood, and I now expect to be able to show by a precipitin test that this is dog blood. Now I am going to ask you if it isn’t a fact that Robert actually did fire that weapon on the night of the seventeenth or the early morning of the eighteenth, if the bullet didn’t hit your dog, Rover, and if Rover didn’t lose large quantities of blood. I am going to ask you if you hadn’t left your car parked at the curb and if you didn’t take the bleeding Rover to your car, wrap him in a blanket so the blood wouldn’t get on the car, and drive him hurriedly to a veterinarian.”

“The same objection,” Hamilton Burger hastily interposed. “This is getting at the same matter in a slightly different form of questioning. The Court has already ruled on it.”

“Well, the Court is going to reverse its ruling,” Judge Kent said. “The question as it is now framed by counsel certainly indicates a situation which should be inquired into and which may well be pertinent to the issues in this case. The witness will answer the question.”

Jennings gave every evidence of uneasiness. “I found my dog had been hurt,” he said. “I took him to a veterinarian.”

“What veterinarian?”

“I don’t think I have to tell that.”

“What veterinarian?” Mason asked.

“Dr. Canfield,” Jennings said sullenly.

“At what time did you take him there?”

“About one o’clock in the morning, I guess.”

“Now,” Mason said, “let us assume for the sake of this question that young Robert woke up from a sound sleep, that he was startled, that he thought someone was about to attack him, that he had this weapon under his pillow and that the weapon, in some manner, had become loaded. He raised the weapon and pulled the trigger. He could very well have shot this dog, Rover, couldn’t he?”

“I suppose he could have. I don’t know. I found Rover bleeding. He evidently had been injured. I didn’t know whether he’d been struck by an automobile or what had happened, so I took him to a veterinarian.”

“And did the veterinarian work on the dog?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did the veterinarian tell you what was wrong with the dog?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t wait to find out. I left the dog, told the veterinarian to do whatever was required and then returned home.”

“Have you seen the dog since?”

Again Jennings hesitated, then said, “Yes, the dog is recovering.”

“From a bullet wound?”

“I have not asked.”

“Have you been informed?”

“I told the veterinarian I didn’t care about the details, all I wanted was for the dog to get well.”

“If the Court please,” Mason said, “an X ray can determine if a bullet is somewhere in the dog’s body. If the bullet was fired from the same gun which killed Mervin Selkirk, the bullets will have the same characteristics. It can, therefore, be determined that the bullet which killed Mervin Selkirk was fired from the Jennings gun, despite the fact that the barrel has been mutilated so that it is impossible to get the characteristics of that barrel with a test bullet.”

Jennings moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue. Hamilton Burger started to say something, then changed his mind.

“Now then,” Mason went on, “Robert subsequently told you that a man had been entering the tent where he was sleeping?”

“Yes.”

“That was supposed to have happened before you had taken the dog to the veterinarian?”

“Yes.”

“And that dog was a trained watchdog?”

“Yes.”

“He would have guarded Robert with his life?”

“Yes.”

“But the dog made no noise?”

“No. That’s how I knew it was just a dream that Robert had,” Barton Jennings said triumphantly.

“Yes,” Mason said, “it could have been a dream, or it could have been that the man who was entering the tent was one that the dog trusted. Suppose Mervin Selkirk had gone to the tent to kidnap Robert, or suppose you yourself had decided you wanted that gun, Mr. Jennings. Suppose you went to the tent and listened. You heard Robert apparently sleeping peacefully so you tiptoed your way into the tent without speaking, hoping to reach under his pillow and get the gun, and then suddenly there was the roar of an explosion. You heard the bullet hit the body of the dog, the dog ran from the tent and you ran after him. You saw that the dog was bleeding quite badly. You had left your car with the license number JYJ 113 parked at the curb. You hurriedly wrapped a blanket around the dog and rushed him to the veterinarian. Then you returned to the house, parked your car in front of the house and entered to have your wife tell you about the story Robert had told of firing the gun.”

“It didn’t happen that way. I was asleep. I didn’t hear about Robert’s dream until much later.”

“Tut-tut,” Mason said. “A neighbor remembers hearing the sound of a shot. You admit that you took the dog to Dr. Canfield, the veterinarian. We will check Dr. Canfield’s records and I think we will find that those records show you arrived at his place with the wounded dog prior to one o’clock in the morning.”

“Well, what if I did?”

“Then you couldn’t have been asleep while Robert was relating his dream,” Mason said.

“All right,” Barton Jennings said, “I wasn’t asleep. I had taken the dog to the veterinarian just as you suggest.”

“You were wakened by the shot?”

Jennings hesitated, then said, “Yes, I was wakened by the shot.”

“And dressed?”

“Yes.”

“And then went out to the tent to see what had caused the shot?”

“No, I went to the wounded dog.”

“And where was the wounded dog?”

“Lying by the car.”

Mason smiled and shook his head. “You’re wrong, Jennings. The wounded dog wouldn’t have gone to the car unless you had taken him to the car. The wounded dog would have gone to the house, looking for help. The fact that the dog went directly to the car and that there was a trail of blood on the lawn leading to the car indicates that you were with the dog at the time he was shot.”

“That question is argumentative, if the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said.

“It may be argumentative, but its logic is so forceful that the Court will take judicial cognizance of it,” Judge Kent said.

He leaned forward. “Mr. Jennings.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“Look at me.”

The witness turned to look at the Court.

“You have already contradicted yourself upon two or three vital points. Those contradictions when a person is under oath constitute perjury, and perjury is punishable by imprisonment. Now I want to know what happened. Did you take the dog to the car after the dog was shot?”

Jennings hesitated, looked down at his feet, looked at Hamilton Burger, then hastily avoided his eyes, turned to Perry Mason, found no comfort there, and remained silent with his eyes downcast.

“Did you?” Judge Kent asked.

“Yes,” Barton Jennings said after a moment.

“In other words,” Mason said, “you went out to the tent to get that gun from under Robert’s pillow, didn’t you?”

“Well... all right, I did.”

“You listened at the tent and heard Robert breathing regularly and thought he was sleeping?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t realize until afterward that Robert, not recognizing you and utterly terrified, was feigning sleep, but had the gun in his hand.”

“I guess so, yes.”

“So you entered the tent with the dog either at your heels or just in front of you. You reached out toward the pillow and it was then that Robert shot.”

“All right.”

“As you heard the bullet hit the dog, you turned and raced out of the tent and saw that the dog was injured. You remembered that your automobile was parked there at the curb and you raced toward the automobile with the dog following you.

“While you were getting the door of the automobile open, the dog stood there, and there was a pool of blood at the curb where he stood. Then you wrapped the dog in a blanket, got him in the automobile and hurried to the veterinarian. You left the dog and then returned as fast as you could to your home. You found your wife had comforted Robert and had put him back to bed. Your wife had told Robert that you were sleeping in the bedroom, but actually she knew better.”

Jennings was silent.

“Is that what happened?” Mason asked.

“Yes,” Jennings said, “that’s what happened.”

“So then,” Mason said, “you took the gun which your wife had taken from Robert. What did you do with it?”

“My wife had put it on the hall stand. I picked it up and looked at it, then left it on the hall stand and went back to bed.”

“And when you put it back on the hall stand, you must have loaded the magazine and put the clip of ammunition back in the gun.”

“I guess I must have. I guess that’s right.”

“And then you went to bed?”

“Yes.”

“And you believe that sometime during the night the defendant got up, left her bedroom, went down to the hall stand, got the gun, went out to your car with license plate bearing the number JYJ 113 which you had left parked at the curb, drove out to the San Sebastian Country Club and killed Mervin Selkirk.”

“She must have. There’s no other explanation. The evidence shows she did.”

“How did she know that Mervin Selkirk was to be at the San Sebastian Country Club?”

“I don’t know.”

“How did she know that your car was left at the curb with the key in it?”

“She saw me park the car there.”

“And leave the key in it?”

“I don’t know, I may have— No, wait a minute, I left the key in it when I returned from the veterinarian’s office. I was excited.”

“And who used a rattail file to roughen up the barrel of the gun so that the ballistics experts could not tell what gun had fired the fatal bullet?”

“I presume she did.”

“Why?”

“So that the gun couldn’t be traced to her.”

“Then having done that, she deliberately left the gun under the pillow of the bed where she had been sleeping?”

“She probably did that inadvertently.”

Mason smiled and shook his head. “The gun was registered in your name, Mr. Jennings. You were the one who would be more interested than anyone in making it impossible for the fatal bullet to be traced.”

Jennings said nothing.

“And you now think that you must have loaded the gun after your wife put it on the hall stand?”

“Yes. I must have.”

“Then where did you get the shells? You surely didn’t go to the defendant’s room?”

Jennings rubbed his cheek with a nervous hand. “I guess I was mistaken. I couldn’t have loaded the gun.”

“Then if the defendant fired the gun, she must have descended the stairs, found the gun, inspected it, found it was unloaded, then climbed the stairs to her room, found the box of shells, loaded the gun and then gone to the country club to kill Mervin Selkirk?”

“I... I guess that’s right.”

“How would she have known there was ammunition in the room?”

“She must have found it.”

“How would she have known the gun was on the hall table?”

“She must have seen it when she started out.”

“How would she have known it was unloaded?”

“She must have inspected it.”

“And then climbed the stairs to her room to get shells?”

“Of course. Why don’t you ask her?”

“I’m asking you.”

“I don’t know what she did.”

“Now, when your dog was shot at perhaps twelve-thirty to one o’clock on the morning of the eighteenth, the barrel of the gun hadn’t been tampered with, had it?”

“No.”

“Then if the bullet is still in the dog, that bullet can be recovered by a surgical operation and the individual characteristics of the barrel of your gun can be determined just the same as though a test bullet had been fired from it. In other words, the bullet which was fired into the dog would then become a test bullet.”

“I guess so.”

“And how do you know that the barrel of the gun hadn’t been tampered with at the time the dog was shot?”

“I... I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do,” Mason said. “You know because you were the one who tampered with the barrel. You were the one who used the rattail file. You were the one who knew that Mervin Selkirk was to be at the San Sebastian Country Club and you went out there to kill him.”

“I didn’t do any such thing,” Barton Jennings said, “and you can’t prove it.”

“Then,” Mason asked smilingly, “why did you go out to Robert’s tent at twelve-thirty-five on the morning of the eighteenth to get the gun which was under Robert’s pillow?”

“Because I didn’t think it was a good thing for the boy to sleep there with a gun.”

“Then why didn’t you get the gun before you had gone to bed?”

“I didn’t think of it.”

“You knew he had the gun?”

“Well, yes.”

“But you didn’t think of it until after you went to bed?”

“Well, it wasn’t until after I went to bed that I... well, that’s right, I got up and dressed and went out to get the gun.”

“Did you waken your wife when you dressed?”

“No, she was sound asleep.”

“But she wakened when she heard the shot?”

“I don’t think so. She wakened when Robert came running into the house, telling the story of his nightmare.”

“Of what you have characterized as his nightmare,” Mason said. “Actually, Robert told exactly what had happened; that he had wakened to find a man groping his way toward his bed, that he had instinctively thrown up the gun and pulled the trigger.”

Barton Jennings was silent.

“I think,” Mason said, “I have no further questions of this witness.”

“I have no questions on redirect examination,” Hamilton Burger said. “I may state to the Court that while this cross-examination has revealed many unexpected developments, the fact remains that the positive identification of the defendant speaks for itself.”

“I’m not certain it does,” Judge Kent said.

“I would like to ask a few more questions of Millicent Bailey on cross-examination,” Mason said.

“Very well. Mrs. Bailey, you may return to the witness stand,” Judge Kent ruled.

“Your Honor, I object,” Hamilton Burger said. “This is a piecemeal cross-examination and—”

“And it is entirely within the control of the Court,” Judge Kent ruled. “Recent developments have made the testimony of this witness appear in an entirely different light. Return to the stand, Mrs. Bailey. Mr. Mason, you may proceed with your cross-examination.”

Mason said, “Mrs. Bailey, you state that you saw the defendant at around three or three-thirty on the morning of the eighteenth?”

“Yes, sir.”

“When did you next see her?”

“On the morning of the nineteenth, at about ten o’clock.”

“Where did you see her?”

“I picked her out of a line-up at police headquarters.”

“How many other people were in that line-up?”

“There were five women in all.”

“And you picked the defendant as being the one you had seen?”

“Yes.”

“Now that was the next time you had seen the defendant?”

“Yes.”

“You hadn’t seen her after that time when you saw her in the morning at about three or three-thirty, or somewhere in there?”

“Well, I... I had had a glimpse of her.”

“Oh, you had had a glimpse of her. Where was that?”

“At police headquarters.”

“And where did you see her at police headquarters?”

“I saw her when she was being escorted into the show-up box.”

“Was anyone with her at that time?”

“A police officer.”

“Were there any other people in the showup box?”

“Not at that time, no.”

“The defendant was put in there by herself?”

“Yes.”

“And you had a good look at her?”

“Yes.”

“And then afterwards four other women were brought into the showup box?”

“Yes.”

“And then the officers asked you to pick out the one that you had seen out there at the San Sebastian Country Club?”

“Yes.”

“And you unerringly picked the defendant?”

“Yes.”

Mason said, “I am going to ask Mrs. Barton Jennings to please stand.”

There was silence in the courtroom.

“Please stand, Mrs. Jennings,” Mason said.

Lorraine Jennings made no move to get to her feet.

“Stand up, Mrs. Jennings,” Judge Kent ordered.

Reluctantly Lorraine Jennings stood.

“Will you come forward, please?” Mason asked.

“Come forward,” Judge Kent ruled.

“Now then,” Mason said to Mrs. Bailey, “is there any chance that this is the person whom you saw getting out of the car and approaching the car that was parked at the San Sebastian Country Club?”

The witness studied Mrs. Jennings for a long moment, then said, “I... I don’t think so.”

“But it could have been?”

“Well, she’s got very much the same build and complexion as the defendant, but I... no, I don’t think so.”

“That’s all, Mrs. Jennings,” Mason said.

Lorraine Jennings turned abruptly and walked so rapidly she was almost running.

“Wait! Wait!” the witness said.

“Wait, Mrs. Jennings,” Mason said.

Mrs. Jennings paid no attention.

“Now that she walks rapidly,” the witness said excitedly, “I know that it was this woman. There’s a peculiar way she has when she walks; that hurrying walk, that was just the way she walked when we saw her.”

Mason smiled and said to Hamilton Burger, “That, Mr. District Attorney, concludes my cross-examination. Do you have any redirect examination?”

Hamilton Burger slowly got to his feet. “If the Court please,” he said wearily, “I suggest that this matter should be adjourned until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. There are some things which I feel should be investigated.”

“I think so, too,” Judge Kent said dryly. “The case is adjourned until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock, and in the meantime this defendant is released on her own recognizance.”