The case of the bigamous.., p.17
The Case of the Bigamous Spouse, page 17
part #65 of Perry Mason Series
“Did Frankline Gillett tell you that he intended to commit a murder?”
“Yes. He didn’t say who the victim was but he said he expected to be mixed up in a murder and that it was absolutely essential that he have an alibi the police would never question. He wanted me to furnish that alibi. He knew that I was supposed to have been in Bakersfield. He wanted me to swear that he had learned my location, that he had a business deal we were discussing, that he had driven to Bakersfield, and that we had been together in the motel ever since eleven o’clock in the evening.
“I am sorry this has come about. I am sorry the mask has been ripped from my brother’s masquerade. I would have done anything to have avoided it, but one cannot argue with fingerprints. I have previously pointed out to him that the mistakes he made must eventually be paid for.”
“I think,” Perry Mason said, “that is all. I have no further questions. Does the district attorney care to cross-examine?”
Hamilton Burger frowned, turned to Nelson for a brief whispered conference, looked helplessly at Judge Laporte and said, “No questions.”
“Now then,” Perry Mason said, “I desire to recall one of the prosecution’s witnesses for further cross-examination.”
“Who is the witness?” Judge Laporte asked.
“Nell Arlington,” Mason said.
“If the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said, “at this time we withdraw our objection. As we see it, the duty of our office is to vigorously prosecute persons accused of crime. But when it begins to appear that there are other matters involved, we are mindful of the fact that our primary duty is to see that justice is done.”
Judge Laporte nodded and said, “Thank you for that statement, Mr. District Attorney. I think it exemplifies the principles of your office. Miss Arlington will come forward.”
Nell Arlington arose reluctantly.
“You have already been sworn,” Judge Laporte said, “just take the stand.”
Nell Arlington walked to the witness stand.
Mason said, “You have testified that you acted sometimes as secretary for the defendant, that you opened the lists which she received giving the names of prospects so that you could telephone the names and addresses to her if she called in?”
“Yes,” the witness said crisply.
“And when those lists were telephoned in, you took them down and relayed the messages?”
“Yes.”
“I notice on this list which contains the name of Mrs. Frankline Gillett on 671 Tribly Way that there are eleven names on that list instead of ten, that the Tribly name is the last name on the list and that the typewriting is different from the typewriting in which the other ten names appear. I suggest to you, Miss Arlington, that you added that name to the list after the list had been received in the mail. Now, before you answer that question, remember that you’re under oath, remember that the names that were on that list can be verified from the central bureau that sent them out, and remember that typewriting is as distinctive as handwriting and an expert on questioned documents can tell whether that name was written on your typewriter.”
There was a long period of silence, then Nell Arlington said, “Very well, I wrote it.”
“And the reason you wrote it,” Mason said, “was because you had become suspicious. You wanted to know who was living at that address.”
She said, “Looking through the things of the man who I thought was my husband I had found a driving license made out in the name of Frankline Gillett at that address. The ages of the men, the physical descriptions, were exactly the same. I didn’t know what to make of it. I didn’t know whether he had an alias or what. I wanted to find out what was there, so I typed that name, knowing that my friend, Gwynn Elston, would make a call at that address and I could then pump her as to what was there without her realizing that I had any personal interest.”
“But,” Mason said, “something happened, something that caused you to change your plans?”
“Of course something happened,” she said. “You know what it was. The man I thought was my husband was actually committing bigamy. I was simply a bigamous wife.
“My husband, or the man I thought was my husband, found out that Gwynn was making a call at this other address, and, of course, assumed that Gwynn would find out about his bigamy and tell me. He determined to kill her in order to keep her from talking. He fixed up a drink of gin and tonic and added strychnine. I didn’t realize this until after Gwynn had left the house and after he had left the house and I found the bottle of strychnine tablets where he had left it after removing it from the medicine chest. I had thought Gwynn poured the drink down the washbowl. At the time, I thought merely that my husband had made it too strong.
“When Gwynn returned that evening and had a gun with her, I felt that the time had come for a show down. I tried to make her tell me, but she wouldn’t. I could see she was lying. I put barbiturates in Gwynn’s milk toast and, when she was safely asleep, I took the gun and went out to find my husband.”
“And how did you start looking for him?” Mason asked.
She said, “I had known for some time that he was making his living by getting contributions from George Belding Baxter. I didn’t know the reason for those contributions, but I decided to find out. I drove to the Baxter estate. I took the gun that I had taken from under Gwynn’s pillow after she went to sleep. I felt certain that somehow Mr. Baxter held the key to the mystery, and … well, I had an idea I would find my husband there.”
“You found him there?”
“I drove up,” she said, “just as my husband emerged from the house. I caught him, so to speak, red-handed.”
“And?” Mason asked.
“He saw me. He wanted to know what I was doing there, and when I accused him … well, I knew then that he had planned to murder me. He tried to strangle me. I pulled the trigger of the gun. He fell back on the lawn. I simply drove my car around the circle, went out through the gates and returned home. I put the gun under Gwynn’s pillow again.”
Mason turned to Hamilton Burger with something of a bow. “I think,” he said, “that concludes the defendant’s case.”
Chapter Sixteen
Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake sat in the lawyer’s office conducting a post-mortem on the case.
Mason said, “Well, it shows the importance of fighting every step of the way. It also shows what a peculiar twist fate can sometimes give to a case.
“The housekeeper was telling the truth about having lost the gun. Frankline Gillett, returning to his residence on Tribly Way, after having completed a visit with his second wife on Mandala Drive, found the gun on the side of the road. It was a new gun and a nice gun, and no doubt he stopped his car, picked it up and took it home with him.
“By that simple act he involved George Belding Baxter in the case. Of course, at the time he had absolutely no idea where that gun had come from. To him it was simply manna from heaven, a gun lying by the side of the road. He picked it up and took it with him.
“Gillett had an absolutely foolproof method of blackmail. He needed only to tap the till any time he wanted anything. George Belding Baxter had been a real estate salesman when his brother got in trouble and escaped while he was en route to the penitentiary. An officer was murdered, but probably the brother is innocent of that and can clear himself. George changed his last name, took his brother with him as Corley L. Ketchum and they started in business together.
“Then Baxter became prosperous. They wanted to put his picture in the paper. Naturally, if his brother had been a partner, they would have wanted to put the brother’s picture in the paper, and that would have led to complications. So the brother was forced into a position of insignificance. He had to live his entire life masquerading as a gardener and caretaker. There’s a touch of poetic justice here. Gorman Gillett went to prison, paid his debt to society and was able to live his own life, even if it was rather a frugal life. But it was, nevertheless, an independent life.
“Collington Halsey had to live a life of deceit. He had to live in perpetual fear and the man’s native abilities were forced to lie dormant under the masquerade he had to assume.
“And then both brothers had to pay blackmail.
“Eighteen months earlier Gillett had become infatuated with Nell Arlington. He was a little tired of his routine home life with his legitimate wife. So he committed bigamy and felt that as long as he didn’t have to make a living at any particular business the chances of his being discovered were very negligible.
“Then, because he was away from home so much, Nell wanted her friend, Gwynn Elston, to come and live with her, and Gillett had to consent to that.
“Slowly, inexorably, the man became trapped within the web of his own chicanery. The fact that he was desperate is shown by the fact that he was willing to give Gwynn Elston strychnine in her drink, hoping that she would go into convulsions and die, and he and Nell could testify to enough facts to avoid an inquest.
“In other words, Gillett was one of a type; a man who doesn’t think very far ahead but plots to escape from one predicament as fast as it develops without carefully planning the whole situation.”
“All of which shows,” Paul Drake said, “that a lawyer should always be loyal to his clients. But I don’t think I’d ever have had the sheer guts to have stood up to a man of George Belding Baxter’s influence, Perry.”
“It’s more than being loyal to your clients,” Mason said thoughtfully.
“It’s being loyal to the basic principles of justice. And when you’re trying to do that, you have to take it on the chin once in a while—or at least be ready to.”
“Ready, able and willing, is the legal expression,” Della Street said, and her eyes as she looked at Perry Mason showed the depth of her feeling.
The End
Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Bigamous Spouse
