The case of the restless.., p.19
The Case of the Restless Redhead, page 19
part #45 of Perry Mason Series
“That will do, Mr. Prosecutor,” Judge Kippen said. “Mr. Mason was pointing out to the Court what he expected to prove.”
“I respectfully suggest that he was doing no such thing,” Hamilton Burger said. “I suggest that he was taking deliberate advantage of an opportunity to make a statement which is absurd on its face, but which, under the circumstances, the Court wouldn’t permit the witness to deny. I would now like to join with Mr. Mason in suggesting that that question be asked this witness here and now so that we can at least control this phase of the publicity.”
“Very well,” Judge Kippen said, growing increasingly angry. “The Court does not like this continued reference to matters of publicity. The Court doesn’t want this case tried in the newspapers. On the other hand, the Court recognizes the fact that we have a free press in this country and that this is a public hearing.”
Judge Kippen whirled in his chair, confronted Helene Chaney. “Why were you carrying that gun?” he asked.
“For personal protection.”
“Against whom?”
“Against anyone who might harm me or threaten to harm me.”
“Had you ever carried a gun before?”
“No.”
“Why did you start carrying the gun about—what was it, about twenty days ago?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“Why did you start carrying a gun at that time?”
“Because Mr. Aldrich bought one for me.”
Judge Kippen’s color heightened. “Miss Chaney,” he said, “you’re avoiding questions. Now the Court can pin you down if it becomes necessary, but I want you to quit beating around the bush and answer questions. Why were you carrying that gun?”
“Because I’d been threatened.”
“By whom?”
“Is that pertinent?” Hamilton Burger asked, suddenly scrambling to his feet. “Suppose it is entirely without the issues of this case. Suppose it was by some person who is a complete stranger to the issues here involved. Aren’t we prying into Miss Chaney’s private affairs and at the same time calling for evidence that is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial?”
“You opened the door on this,” Judge Kippen said. “I’m asking these questions because you wanted them asked. The objection is overruled. Answer the question, Miss Chaney.”
“I was threatened by Stephen Merrill.”
There was a long period of silence. Judge Kippen frowningly regarded the witness, apparently thinking over the various possibilities of an explosive situation.
“Can you tell us how you were threatened, Miss Chaney?”
She said, “Steve Merrill wanted money. At first his demands were preposterous. However, on the day of his death he telephoned me in the early afternoon. He said he had to meet a pressing obligation. He offered to dismiss the proceedings seeking to reopen our divorce suit if I would give him money.”
“That isn’t a threat,” Judge Kippen said.
“He had made the threat at an earlier date—when he made his first demands.”
“What sort of a threat?”
“It was a veiled threat. He said that I would never live long enough to marry Mervyn Aldrich if I didn’t settle with him.”
“Well,” Judge Kippen said, “this serves to confuse the issues rather than to clarify them. I think that perhaps it would have been better if we had not opened up this channel of investigation. However, it was done at the suggestion of the prosecution.”
Hamilton Burger seemed to want to say something but abruptly thought better of it.
Mason said, “I would like to have the Court ask the witness the exact sum that Stephen Merrill demanded on the day of his death.”
“Why?” Judge Kippen snapped.
“Because it might make some difference,” Mason said.
“I fail to see where it would.”
“Suppose,” Mason said, “the amount that he asked was seven thousand five hundred dollars.”
Judge Kippen said, “Now there again, Mr. Mason, you are intimating certain facts adroitly introduced by insinuation.”
“I’ll ask ber that question if I’m permitted to examine her,” Mason said. “If I’m not permitted to question a witness directly I certainly have the right to make suggestions to the Court.”
Judge Kippen said, “The Court will ask one more question and then Court is going to take a recess. At this time the Court does not want any more suggestions from counsel. I will ask you this one question, Miss Chaney. How much money did Stephen Merrill ask?”
“He didn’t ask. He demanded. He wanted seven thousand five hundred dollars.”
For several seconds it would have been possible to have heard a pin drop in the courtroom.
Then Judge Kippen banged the gavel so viciously he all but broke the handle.
“Very well,” he said, “Court’s adjourned until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. Mr. Clerk, I shall hold you personally responsible for the safeguarding of those exhibits. You will deliver them to Mr. Redfield. You will accept Mr. Redfield’s receipt, and you will not let anyone else have access to the exhibits. Mr. Redfield, I shall hold you responsible for the custody of those exhibits while they are in your possession. That’s all.”
The judge rose and strode angrily to his chambers.
The bailiff unlocked the doors of the courtroom. People who were on the outside trying to hear what was going on were swept back as the doors burst open under the pressure of spectators and reporters dashing for telephones.
Within a matter of seconds all the telephone booths on that floor, the floor above it and the floor below, were occupied with men frantically dialing numbers and telephoning to rewrite men in the newspaper offices.
Neely looked at Perry Mason with apprehensive eyes.
Mason grinned. “Well, Neely, I trust I’m not going to get you involved in a contempt of court on the first case in which you’re associated with me.”
“But, good heavens,” Neely said, “Judge Kippen is really angry. He’s going to make an example of somebody.”
“I think he should,” Mason said.
“Mr. Mason, will you think it presumptuous if I were to ask you to do something for me?”
“What?” Mason asked.
“Please give me your personal assurance that you had nothing to do with those bullets that were found at the scene of the crime.”
“What bullets?”
“Well, any of them, but particularly Bullets Two and Three.”
“I can’t do that, Neely.”
“Why not?”
“Figure it out.”
“Good Lord, Mr. Mason! If you … if you fired those bullets, why—oh, my heavens!”
“Want to withdraw from the case?” Mason asked.
“Certainly not. I’m not a quitter. I wouldn’t pull out. I—”
‘Well then quit worrying about it,” Mason said.
“But Mr. Mason, that means that we’ll be in jail for contempt of court. It may mean that they’ll start disbarment proceedings.”
“On what ground?” Mason asked.
“Tampering with evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“Why, the gun.”
Mason said, “If that gun didn’t kill Stephen Merrill we can shoot it anywhere we damn please. It isn’t tampering with evidence. It’s just like any other gun.”
“But Mervyn Aldrich has sworn that that’s the same gun you gave him. And if that’s the same gun Evelyn Bagby gave you, then that must be the gun with which Steve Merrill was killed.”
“It couldn’t have been the gun that she fired,” Mason said, “because the two exploded cases which are in the cylinder weren’t fired in that gun.”
“Then the evidence must have been tampered with.”
“By whom?”
“Well, of course, once you admit firing those two bullets—”
Mason grinned. “I’m not going to admit anything for a while.”
“But the prosecutor knows you did and the judge seems to feel certain that you must have done so.”
Mason said, “Neely, I think I know the law. I think I know something about human nature. I know damn well that I’m not going to sit back and let a penniless defendant be convicted of murder simply because someone wants to frame a murder on her.
“I was morally certain that if Sergeant Holcomb found a bullet at the scene of the crime at any time, he would try to be a big shot and swear that he had seen the mark of that bullet when he was first called to the scene. He would claim he’d noticed something that all the other officers had overlooked.
“Now then, I could have cross-examined Sergeant Holcomb until I was black in the face and he’d simply become more and more positive. He’d be lying, but I couldn’t prove he was lying. But by shooting a bullet into a redwood post, which bullet obviously couldn’t have been there at the time Sergeant Holcomb arrived on the scene, and then letting Sergeant Holcomb swear that he had seen it as soon as he did arrive, I have laid the foundation for a cross-examination that will be effective.”
“Well, it’s a subtle, technical distinction,” Neely said. “Perhaps technically you can claim that you weren’t tampering with evidence, but—I admire your daring, but you’re moving too fast for me.”
Mason said, “When you’re skating on thin ice the only way you can keep from breaking through is to start going like hell.”
“I’m frightened,” Neely said simply. “And for the life of me I can’t understand what you’re trying to do.”
“I’m scrambling facts,” Mason said. “Why?”
“Did you ever cook eggs over a camp fire?” Mason asked.
“Yes, but what does that have to do with it?”
“And did you ever start out trying to fry eggs, break the yolks and then save your face by scrambling them and pretending you had intended to scramble them all along?”
Neely grinned. “Yes,” he admitted.
“That’s a damn good way to try a lawsuit when you’re up against a frame-up,” Mason said. “When you scramble eggs no one can tell which yolk was accidentally broken, and when you scramble facts you have at least upset the plans of the man who thought he had a perfect frame-up.”
Chapter 18
Judge Kippen surveyed the jammed courtroom with disapproving eyes.
“I wish to make a few remarks to counsel and to the spectators,” he said. “This Court deplores the sensationalism which has surrounded this case.”
He glanced briefly at Perry Mason, then at the spectators.
“Under our Constitution, trials must be open to the public. That is to prevent Star Chamber sessions. It does not mean that the trial of every case which offers room for speculation should be turned into a species of side show for sensation-hungry spectators.
“The persons in this courtroom will understand that this is an orderly investigative procedure. It is not a show. The spectators will refrain from comment or the courtroom will be cleared.
“The Court deplores the manner in which this case was exploited in the press. The morning papers are filled with sensational reporting, speculative comment by feature writers, and interviews with various parties. The Court cannot, of course, control the press, but the Court points out to counsel on both sides that this hearing should be rather simple, purely for the purpose of determining in a preliminary way whether there is any reason to bind the defendant over for trial. The Court will frown upon any attempt on the part of counsel on either side to be spectacular or to indulge in the dramatic. The Court wants to get at the facts.
“Now then, Mr. Alexander Redfield has made certain tests. I would like to have you return to the stand, Mr. Redfield.”
Redfield returned to the witness stand.
“Do you wish me to question the witness?” Hamilton Burger asked.
“I will question the witness,” Judge Kippen said. “Mr. Redfield, have you completed your ballistics examinations and your microscopic tests?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What do they show in regard to the weapons from which these bullets were fired?”
“The fatal bullet, which is Bullet Number One, and the bullet in the garret of the house, which is Bullet Number Four, were both fired from the revolver identified as People’s Exhibit E. Bullets Number Two and Three were fired from the revolver marked for identification People’s Exhibit A.”
Judge Kippen frowned as he digested the import of the testimony.
“The empty cartridges, that is, the discharged cartridge cases which were in the weapon marked People’s Exhibit A, what about those?”
“Those cartridge cases were fired from the weapon marked People’s Exhibit E, and were not fired from the weapon in which they were found—that is, the weapon in which they were presented to the court, Exhibit A.”
“It is then your considered opinion, Mr. Redfield, that those two empty cartridge cases were taken from the weapon in which they had been fired, the one which is marked Exhibit E, and placed in the other weapon, People’s Exhibit A?”
“That is the only possible solution.”
“Do you know when this was done, that is, with reference to when the shells were discharged?”
“Only that it was done after the shells were discharged.”
“And as to the undischarged or loaded shells you have no way of telling whether they were or were not substituted?”
“That’s right, Your Honor. I can’t tell.”
Judge Kippen digested that testimony for a moment, then, with his mouth straightened into a thin line of angry determination, said, “I am going to ask counsel to withhold any questions they may have for the moment until the Court can get at the bottom of this. I am now going to ask Helene Chaney to take the witness stand.”
A rather corpulent individual arose from one of the chairs within the rail. “Your Honor,” he said, “I wish the record to show that I, Harmon B. Passing, am appearing as attorney for Helene Chaney.”
“Very well,” Judge Kippen said. “She is entitled to be represented by counsel. Now will Miss Chaney please take the witness stand.”
Passing said, “Miss Chaney is not here.”
“What?” Judge Kippen snapped.
“I’m sorry, Your Honor, she’s not here.”
“Why isn’t she here?”
Passing made a little gesture with his arms and shoulders. “For one thing,” he said, “she wasn’t subpoenaed.”
“She was here yesterday.”
“Yes, Your Honor. She was here and testified.”
“She certainly knew that she was wanted today.”
“With all due respect to the Court,” Passing said, “I don’t think the Court made any formal order advising her that her presence was required.”
“I think I did,” Judge Kippen said.
“I’m sorry, Your Honor. I had the proceedings transcribed and studied the official report very carefully.”
Judge Kippen lost his temper. He leaned forward from the bench, his face colored. “You did that so that you could advise her that she could skip out and wouldn’t be liable for contempt of court.”
Passing said suavely, “As an attorney I was called upon to render service to a client. I studied all of the facts in the case and advised her as to her legal rights to the best of my ability.”
Judge Kippen debated the matter for a moment, then glowered at the prosecutor’s table. “Miss Chaney should have been subpoenaed,” he said, then turning to Passing said angrily, “I suppose it is a safe assumption that she has left the jurisdiction of the Court.”
“I understand she is in Las Vegas, Nevada,” Passing said. “She was called there on a matter of business.”
“Very well,” Judge Kippen said. “Let’s see what Mr. Mervyn Aldrich has to say. Mr. Aldrich, take the stand.”
Passing said, “I wish the record to show that I am also attorney for Mr. Aldrich. The same situation exists in regard to Mr. Aldrich as in the case of Miss Chaney. Mr. Aldrich is not present. And I understand he, too, is in Las Vegas. I may state to the Court that I studied the transcript carefully, and as an attorney advised Mr. Aldrich that he was not under subpoena, nor had he been specifically directed to attend court. I explained to him that I felt quite certain from studying the transcript that Your Honor rather expected that he would be present today and apparently had assumed he was under subpoena. However, the Court made no direct, specific order and no subpoena had actually been served.”
“How did it happen these people weren’t under subpoena?” Judge Kippen exploded, shifting his eyes to the prosecution’s table.
Hamilton Burger said, “Your Honor, this news is as much of a surprise to me as it is to the Court. I certainly assumed these people would be here.”
“I’m not asking what you assumed. I’m asking how it happened they weren’t under subpoena.”
“As to that, I don’t know,” Hamilton Burger said. “I have a large staff and we have numerous responsibilities. It is, perhaps, one of those cases where everyone assumed that something had been done which was not done. If I may have the indulgence of the Court for the moment.”
Burger bent over and whispered to Strawn. Strawn shrugged his shoulders, spread out his hands in a gesture of complete dismissal. Burger whispered angrily. Strawn shook his head, whispered something in return.
Hamilton Burger straightened. “Your Honor, I had assumed these witnesses were under subpoena. It turns out that one of my deputies, not the trial deputy who is asso-dated with me in the case at the moment, but one of the deputies whose duty it is to prepare cases for trial, asked Miss Chaney and Mr. Aldrich if they intended to be present and had been assured that they expected to be in court. He did not wish to annoy persons so prominent by making a formal service of subpoena. We had thought that Mr. Aldrich’s testimony might be needed, and that he would only testify briefly to the purchase of the weapon and its subsequent disappearance. Frankly, we didn’t consider this testimony at all important because we felt there would be no question but that the possession of the gun which fired the fatal bullet would be inescapably brought home to the defendant. Yesterday’s developments came as a distinct surprise to us.”
