The Case of the Mischievous Doll

Chapter Fifteen

As court was reconvened amidst the breathless hush of excitement, Mason got to his feet. “If the Court please,” he said, “it appearing that there never was any such person as Dorrie Ambler, and in view of the fact that the prosecutor now knows a confession of perjury has been obtained from Dunleavey Jasper, I move the Court to instruct the jury to return a verdict of not guilty and discharge the defendant from custody.”

“Does the prosecutor have any statement?” Judge Flint asked.

Hamilton Burger dejectedly got to his feet.

“I don’t understand it, Your Honor,” he said, “and I think that the patience of the Court has been imposed upon by reason of the fact that the defence did not disclose this matter to the Court at an earlier date but chose to present it in this dramatic manner. However, that is a matter for the Court to take up with counsel for the defence. As far as the present motion is concerned, I will verify the fact that Dunleavey Jasper has made a confession.”

“I think,” Judge Flint said, “that it would clarify matters if the general substance of that confession were a part of the record. Would you care to make a statement, Mr. Prosecutor?”

“It seems,” Burger said, “that Dunleavey Jasper, Barlowe Dalton, and a young woman named Flossie Hendon, stole this Cadillac car and started south.

“These people had committed various crimes before they stole the Cadillac. Afterwards they committed other crimes, among them the holdup of the branch bank at Santa Maria where they secured some eighteen thousand dollars. They divided eight thousand dollars of this money into three equal lots, and the balance of ten thousand dollars was wrapped in paper, held in place with rubber bands, and placed in the glove compartment of the stolen automobile.

“They went to the Montrose Country Club intending to steal valuable furs from the cloakroom, to hold up the cashier for the large sum of money which they thought would be in the safe that evening. They left their getaway car with Flossie Hendon at the wheel, and she was supposed to be there with the motor running, ready to help them escape as soon as they had completed their crime.

“However, Flossie Hendon succumbed to the feminine urge to look in at the gowns of the dancers who were in the country club. She left the wheel of the car for only a few moments but that was long enough.

“Minerva Minden had apparently forfeited her driving licence for drunk driving some months earlier. So that she wouldn’t be deprived of the privilege of driving a car, she had established a dual identity, taking the name of Dorrie Ambler and renting the apartment in the Parkhurst Apartments, staying there on occasion and building up a bona fide identity so in case the validity of this second driving licence should ever be questioned she could have proof of her identity.

“Since the attendant at the parking lot saw she was under the influence of liquor and asked to see her driving licence, she showed him the only one she had — the one made out to Dorrie Ambler.

“Later on, she had an argument with her escort, ran blindly out of the club seeking a taxicab. She saw the stolen Cadillac with the motor running, jumped in and took off, driving to her apartment.

“We can only surmise what happened. Presumably she became involved in a hit-and-run accident, put the car in the garage at the Parkhurst Apartments and from there on the situation seems to have been deliberately obscured in order to keep the police from involving her in another accident involving drunken driving, which would have resulted in the revocation of her probation and the imposition of a long jail sentence.

“Quite naturally the three criminals wished to recover the stolen automobile since there was ten thousand dollars in the glove compartment. They traced the automobile to Dorrie Ambler, through the parking lot attendant, eventually traced Dorrie Ambler to the Parkhurst Apartments, and went there to search the apartment after having rented Apartment 805 as a base. While they were there in Apartment 907, Marvin Billings caught them red-handed. Barlowe Dalton shot him with the twenty-two-calibre revolver they had found in the apartment where they had also found the thirty-eight revolver.

“It was at that time that Perry Mason and Paul Drake came to the door of the apartment.

“Subsequently, after having made their escape by barricading the door to the kitchen and going down the service stairs to Apartment 805, which they had rented for the purpose of giving them a base of operations, the two men read in the paper about Perry Mason’s connection with the case and the similarity of identities, and came to the conclusion that either Dorrie Ambler or Minerva Minden had found their stolen ten thousand dollars.

“At about that time Flossie Hendon, a young delinquent who had gone with the two hoodlums on their career of crime for kicks, as she expressed it, was quite concerned about the murder of Marvin Billings. Murder was more than she had bargained for.

“So Jasper says his partner, Barlowe Dalton, was the one who took her for a ride, killed her with the thirty-eight they had stolen from the apartment in the Parkhurst Apartments. Of course now that Dalton is dead, Jasper glibly puts all the murders on his shoulders.

“Later on, when Jasper was apprehended in a burglary where Barlowe Dalton had been killed, Jasper conceived the idea of getting immunity for himself by means of confessing to the kidnapping of Dorrie Ambler and involving Minerva Minden.

“Flossie Hendon had been murdered to keep her from talking. Apparently the body which was discovered, the badly decomposed body was that of Flossie Hendon, and Jasper shrewdly counted on advanced putrefaction to make positive identification impossible.

“In the meantime the defendant, going to the apartment she had rented under the name of Dorrie Ambler, learned of the murder and left the building in a state of some excitement. It was at that time she was seen by the witness.”

Hamilton Burger paused, then said, “If the Court please, I dislike to make this confession, but there are times when we who are prosecutors have to rely upon the evidence as it comes to us and have to use our judgment.

“We felt that Dunleavey Jasper was telling the truth. We were willing to give him immunity on a relatively minor crime in order to convict a murderess. The fact that things didn’t work out that way, the fact that we were victimized, is one of the hazards of law enforcement.

“I have made this statement so that the record may be cleared. We are going to proceed against Dunleavey Jasper for the crimes he has admitted, and I think we will proceed against him for murder, both the murder of Marvin Billings and the murder of Flossie Hendon.”

Hamilton Burger, with what dignity he could muster, turned and stalked from the courtroom, leaving to his associates the unpleasant task of remaining through the final stages of the case.

Judge Flint said, “The jurors will be instructed to return a verdict of not guilty in this case of the People of the State of California versus Minerva Minden.”