The Case of the Demure Defendant

Chapter Sixteen

Alexander Redfield was the ballistics expert who had featured so prominently in Perry Mason’s earlier case involving the redheaded waitress who had been accused of murder. Having completed the tests made in front of Judge Ashurst and the tensely, dramatically silent courtroom, he looked at Mason with a respect amounting to awe.

“Mr. Mason is absolutely correct, Your Honor. The shells which were found in the gun room and which I have previously examined at the request of the district attorney contain number five shot. These shot are twelve one-hundredths of an inch in diameter and average one hundred and seventy to the ounce. These particular shells are made by the Remington Company. Each shell contains approximately one and one-eighth ounces of shot. The shot that are in this bottle which contains the sugar substitute, Exhibit B, came from these shells. The shot in this bottle are the exact weight of the lead shot missing from the two shells.

“On the other hand, the shot in the bottle of cyanide, which is marked Exhibit A, are a smaller shot and, frankly, I don’t think they came from a shotgun shell. If the Court will notice, there is a peculiar coating on these shot. I have not had time as yet to make chemical analysis but I think it will be determined that the substance coating those shot is ink.”

“Ink!” Judge Ashurst exclaimed.

“Exactly, Your Honor. The Court may have noticed that in certain hotels where pens are used, there is frequently a glass container filled with small shot and in which pens are dipped. It is an old-fashioned custom which has largely become outmoded, but it still exists in certain places.

“A steel pen retains ink and in the course of time is corroded. An attempt is made to remove the ink from the pen by placing the pen in a container in which there’s a large number of small shot. The ink has a tendency to leave the pen and cling to the shot, and I believe there is also some sort of a chemical reaction which protects the steel pen from corrosion, although I am not in a position to make that as a definite statement.

“However, you will note that these smaller shot in the bottle containing the cyanide, Exhibit A, have a definite discoloration which I think is ink.”

“Now then,” Mason interposed, “I want the Court to order the police to check immediately on the clubs to which Jackson Newburn belongs — they might start with the Wildcat Exploration and Development Club on West Adams Street — and see if on the desks of one of those clubs, in the writing room, there are not glass containers holding shot similar to those found in this exhibit. I also want the Court to have those shot impounded and the ink on them analyzed and see if it is not the same ink as is found on these shot in the bottle, Exhibit A. I think it is going to be possible to prove that the shot in this bottle containing the cyanide came from the writing room of one of those clubs.”

Judge Ashurst glanced at Jackson Newburn.

“The Court will make that order,” he said. “The Court considers this matter of the greatest importance and—”

“It isn’t necessary,” Newburn blurted.

“What?” Judge Ashurst exclaimed. “Come up here. Take that witness chair. You may step aside, Mr. Redfield.”

“Mr. Mason is right,” Newburn said, his voice lowered so that it was with difficulty the Court could distinguish the words. He eased himself into the witness chair. “I got the shot in that bottle from the glass containers at the Wildcat Club. They have a writing room in which there are half a dozen writing desks. Those desks have glass inkwells and there is a container of shot on each one of those desks, shot in which the pens are kept. I... I took the shot from there.”

“Now just a minute,” Judge Ashurst said. “Let’s see if I understand you correctly. Then you are the one who put the shot from these containers which you got at that club in this bottle marked Exhibit A?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“The bottle containing the cyanide?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“And what did you do with that bottle?”

“I threw it out in the lake.”

“You are now referring to the bottle containing the cyanide, not the bottle containing the sugar substitute?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“And you did tell Perry Mason you threw a bottle of sugar substitute pills in the lake?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

Judge Ashurst said angrily, “I order this man into custody for deliberate perjury and suspicion of murder. I direct that the police go out to this club and impound this evidence immediately.”

Mason said, “Perhaps the Court would like to ask this witness where he got the cyanide.”

Judge Ashurst turned angrily to Newburn. “Now,” he said, “you are very plainly guilty of flagrant perjury in this court. You may well be accused of murder. Anything you say can be used against you. I want you to understand that. You have the right to consult an attorney if you desire. Now then, where did you get the cyanide that you put in that bottle?”

“From the laboratory.”

“What laboratory?”

“The laboratory where John Locke works.”

“And how did you get in there?”

“That laboratory is doing a job for an oil company in which I have an interest — in fact, I was instrumental in getting the job for Mr. Locke’s company.”

“Then,” Judge Ashurst said, “you administered the cyanide which may have been the cause of Mosher Higley’s death?”

Newburn looked at the judge with panic in his eyes and shook his head.

“You did not?”

“No, I didn’t,” Newburn said, “but God knows how I’ll ever prove it now.”

“Why did you do all this?” Mason asked, his voice kindly.

“I did it to protect my wife.”

“In what way?” Mason asked.

“At the time I did it I was convinced this so-called confession of Nadine was simply a pipe dream, the hallucination of a disordered mind which was produced by drugs, but I knew that my wife — I thought that my wife had killed him and I was trying to protect her.”

“And how were you trying to protect her?” Mason asked.

“As soon as I knew that Nadine had made that confession on the tape recording, I knew that the police would go out to search Twomby’s Lake. If they didn’t find any cyanide in a bottle filled with shot it would tend to make it appear that the confession was simply a... well, a pipe dream. But if they did, then they would have this confession authenticated.”

“So what did you do?” Mason asked.

“The cyanide tablets I had had in my house for some time,” Newburn said. “I got them some four weeks before Mosher Higley’s death. We had been troubled with dogs that were tearing up my wife’s flower beds. My wife determined to poison them. I pointed out to her that it was a crime to poison dogs but she was bitterly vindictive. I told her that if she tried to buy poison, that poison would be traced and... well, we discussed it and finally I agreed to get her the cyanide tablets from the jar that I knew was in the laboratory where John Locke worked.

“I was making frequent trips to that laboratory at that time because the company which employed Locke was making a chemical analysis of certain alloys which were being used in some of my oil drilling operations.”

“And you naturally assumed that your wife had used some of this cyanide to poison Mosher Higley?” Mason asked.

Newburn nodded.

“And so you felt that if the police did search the lake and did find the bottle just as described by Nadine, it would remove suspicion from your wife?”

“Everything would have been all right if it hadn’t been for that crazy idea of Nadine’s,” Newburn said, “but once she got that idea I knew that they would exhume Mosher Higley’s body. I didn’t know enough about the effect of the embalming fluid to know that it would destroy the evidences of the cyanide, so I thought that they would trace the cyanide through me to my wife and... well, she had poisoned two of the dogs and the neighbors were already suspicious and— You can see my situation.”

“So then when I talked with you,” Mason said, “being afraid that it might appear that you had thrown one of the bottles into Twomby’s Lake, you tried to clear yourself by stating you had thrown the bottle that contained the sugar substitute?”

“That’s right.”

“Now then, what made you think that your wife had poisoned Mosher Higley?”

“I thought she had at the time. Now I know that she did not.”

“You know what?” Judge Ashurst demanded.

“I know that she did not.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because she told me so.”

Hamilton Burger said wearily, “Your Honor, here we go again. This is another ring-around-a-rosy, another dramatic jiggling and juggling of evidence and witnesses—”

“Sit down and keep quiet,” Judge Ashurst said. “I’m doing this. I don’t mean to be discourteous, but we’re rapidly approaching a solution here. It may not be the solution you want, but it’s the solution the Court wants. Now, don’t interrupt.”

Judge Ashurst turned to Newburn.

“Now, you say that you know your wife didn’t poison Higley because she told you so?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“But what first made you think she had poisoned Mosher Higley?”

“Because she was there just before his death. I know that she went downstairs to the dining room while the chocolate was being mixed. She looked around for Nadine and couldn’t find her. She called for Cap’n Hugo and he wasn’t around. She could easily have gone on to the kitchen and seen the double boiler in which the chocolate was being melted, and I... I naturally assumed she had done that and had put in the poison.”

“Why?”

“Because we had discovered something that was most disturbing.”

“What?”

“We had discovered that Mosher Higley had murdered his partner some years ago, and that partner was Nadine Farr’s father.

“Nadine had uncovered the situation and had demanded certain things from Mosher Higley. He had acquiesced because... because he was actually guilty, and he confessed to Sue.”

“Sue is your wife?”

“Yes.”

“When was that confession made?”

“The day before his death.”

“So,” Judge Ashurst said, “you and your wife felt that as a result of this confession your inheritance was in jeopardy, that because of this murder Nadine Farr had a claim upon him?”

“It was more than that,” Newburn said. “After his partner’s death, Higley manipulated the affairs of the partnership so that he cheated his partner’s estate. You see, Rose Farr, Nadine’s mother, was the real brains of the partnership. She was the secretary-manager-accountant-bookkeeper and general live wire. She had all of the facts at her finger tips. After the partner’s death, Rose Farr was pregnant and—”

“Now you’re getting into rather an involved situation here,” Judge Ashurst said. “Let’s just boil it down to something simple.”

“Well, Mosher Higley had murdered his partner and had taken the money. The partner left a will leaving all of his share in the partnership to Rose Farr, Nadine’s mother. Under the circumstances, if Nadine should employ a lawyer claiming that the money was held by Higley in involuntary trust for her... well, it was a terrible situation.

“Nadine as yet didn’t know all the facts, that is, she surmised them but she didn’t have any proof. Mosher Higley was facing death. He knew he didn’t have long to live and... he was frightened. Well, he confessed to us.”

“To your wife or to you?”

“To both of us.”

“And what did you do?”

“We told him not to do anything until we had seen a lawyer.”

“And did you see a lawyer?”

“No. His death... well, you can understand, if he died of cyanide poisoning and — His death was exceedingly opportune. Some of that land is potentially valuable as oil land. In fact, I may say it is very, very valuable.”

“And because of that fact you thought that your wife had killed him?”

“That... that and what she said.”

“What did she say?”

“Sue hates Nadine. She said that this thing couldn’t go on, that she wasn’t going to permit Nadine to step in and jerk the rug out from under us. We talked about things that could happen and she said how nice it would be if Mosher Higley would conveniently die before— Then we discussed — that is, she discussed the cyanide. She asked me what would happen if some cyanide pills were placed in his chocolate instead of — Oh, Your Honor, it’s just one of those messes. I... I’m trapped by events, but... but Sue tells me she didn’t do it.”

“I see,” Judge Ashurst said sarcastically. “You and your wife, knowing that Mosher Higley was a murderer and an embezzler, knowing that he had defrauded Nadine Farr out of her inheritance, were not only interested in keeping the truth from coming out, but you discussed how much poison would be necessary to give him to see that he conveniently died before any action could be taken.”

“I... we talked about it... not that cold-bloodedly, just sort of — it was just a possibility we explored.”

“And you assumed your wife had killed him. Now, notwithstanding the depths of depravity disclosed by your testimony, simply because your wife tells you that she didn’t kill him, you accept her word and feel that she is innocent?”

“If Sue had done it she would have told me,” Newburn said.

“And on that note of complete and utter moral degradation,” Judge Ashurst snapped, “this court is going to adjourn. The Court orders this witness into custody and suggests that the police should immediately arrest Sue Newburn, the wife of this witness, and charge her and her husband with murder.

“The court will recess until four o’clock. The jury is going to be instructed to return a directed verdict of not guilty when court reconvenes. In the meantime court is adjourned.”

Judge Ashurst banged his gavel vindictively.