“How long have you known her?”

  “Since she started work at the Lamont Company.”

  “How long ago was that?”

  “A period of a little more than two months.”

  “Now, directing your attention to the evening of the fifth, which was on Monday, did you have any conversation with the defendant on that day?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “When?”

  “In the evening, after the regular quitting time.”

  “And what was the conversation? What did she say?”

  “There were matters to be taken care of which called for overtime work—that is, it was not a necessity that she work overtime—I very seldom request that of any employee, particularly in view of what might be called a general trend of the times. Stenographers are not as interested now as …”

  “Never mind that,” Carson interrupted. “I am simply asking you if there was a conversation about her working overtime.”

  “Well, it came time for the office to be closed, that is, for the stenographers to leave and …”

  “What time is that?”

  “Five o’clock.”

  “And what happened?”

  “The defendant kept right on working.”

  “Did you have a conversation with her?"

  “I did later.”

  “When was that? That is, about what time?”

  “About five-thirty. I thanked her for staying to finish the work and she told me that she knew the specifications on which she was working should go in the night’s mail, that it was important that they go out and that she had decided to stay and finish them.”

  “What time did she leave?”

  “A little after five-thirty.”

  “Was anyone else in the office at that time?”

  “No, sir. Just the defendant and myself.”

  “Do you know what the weather was on that night?”

  “It was raining. It had been raining during the day.”

  “You may cross-examine,” Carson said.

  Mason studied the witness thoughtfully. “You say the defendant had been working for the company for about two months?”

  “Yes.”

  “Had you known her prior to the time she started work?”

  “I had not.”

  “There is a personnel placement department in the corporation?”

  “There is.”

  “And stenographic staff usually comes from this personnel placement?”

  “It does.”

  “Do you have anything to do with hiring the people?”

  “I do not.”

  “But you have authority to discharge them?”

  “I do.”

  “You remember when the defendant started working for you?”

  “Very well.”

  “Did she come to you through the regular placement channels?”

  “She did not.”

  “She was not hired in the ordinary course of employment?"

  “She was not. She was placed on the payroll because of specific instructions from Loring Lamont.”

  Mason straightened in his chair. “You mean that her employment did not go through the regular channels?”

  “That is exactly what I mean.”

  “When did the defendant cease working?"

  “I discharged her on the sixth because …”

  “Answer the question,” Mason interrupted. “I am only interested in the date she ceased working for the company.”

  “The sixth.”

  “Very well,” Mason said. “That concludes my cross-examination.”

  “No questions on redirect,” Carson said.

  “Call your next witness,” Judge Bayton said to Carson.

  “Jerome Henley,” Carson announced. Henley came forward, took the oath, and testified as to his name, residence and occupation.

  “Directing your attention to the late evening of the fifth of this month, a Monday evening,” Carson said, “I will ask you where you were on that evening.”

  “In my apartment.”

  “What is the address of your apartment?”

  “9612 Endicott Way.”

  “That is an apartment house?”

  “It is.”

  “You have an apartment there?”

  “I do.”

  “Are you married or single?”

  “Single.”

  “You live alone in this apartment?”

  “I do.”

  “Are you acquainted with Mr. Loring Lamont, or, rather, were you acquainted with him in his lifetime?”

  “I was … that is, I’d seen him often enough to know who he was,”

  “Were you acquainted with the automobile that he drove?”

  “I was."

  “And I believe he had an apartment in the same apartment house in which you reside?”

  “That is right.”

  “Now, on the evening of the fifth, sometime during the night, did you see someone in Loring Lamont’s automobile?”

  “I did.”

  “Do you know who that person was?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Miss Arlene Ferris, the defendant in this case.”

  “And what did she do at that date and at that time, that you noticed in particular?”

  “She had just driven Mr. Loring Lamont’s car up to the curb and parked it in front of a fireplug … now, just a moment, I will retract that. I assume that she drove it up. I walked along just as she was getting out of the car.”

  “Where was the car parked?”

  “Directly in front of a fireplug.”

  “Did you recognize the car?”

  “I did.”

  “And you recognized the defendant?”

  “I did.”

  “Is there any question in your mind as to the identification?”

  “There is none.”

  “You may inquire,” Carson said to Mason.

  “You remember the occasion when I entered your store on the seventh?” Mason asked.

  “I do, very well indeed, Mr. Mason.”

  “I was accompanied by a young woman on that occasion?”

  “You were.”

  ‘And Lieutenant Tragg of Homicide entered your place of business while I was there?”

  “He did.”

  “And he asked you if you had ever seen the young woman who accompanied me on that occasion?”

  “That is right.”

  “And did you not, at that time and place in the presence of Lieutenant Tragg and myself and this other woman, state definitely and positively that this other woman was the woman you had seen getting out of the car that night in front of the apartment house?”

  “That is correct, I did. I was mistaken.”

  “The matter was more fresh in your recollection at that time than it is now?”

  “No. The contrary is the case—I have had an opportunity to think the entire situation over and I realize now that I was tricked.”

  “Tricked by whom?”

  “By you and by a private detective who showed me a photograph of the young woman who was with you, a woman named Madge Elwood. The circumstances were such that I was forced to associate the photograph with the person I had seen getting out of the car. The power of suggestion was such that when I saw the person who had posed for the picture I made a mistake.”

  “But you did identify Madge Elwood at that time as the person you had seen parking the car?”

  “I repeat, I was tricked into …”

  “The question is, Did you or did you not make such identification?”

  “I did, but it was the result of trickery.”

  “You did make such identification?”

  “Well… yes.”

  “A positive identification?”

  “I’m not certain I know what you mean by a positive identification.”

  “You said you were positive?”

  “I may have.”

  “Were you positive of the identification?”

  “I thought I was at the time.”

  “Positive?”

  “Mistakenly positive.”

  “But positive?”

  “Well, yes."

  “And what date was this that you saw someone parking Lamont’s car?”

  “It was on the evening of the fifth.”

  “At what time?”

  “I can’t tell the exact time.”

  “Can you tell the approximate time?”

  “No, sir, I can’t. It was prior to midnight. That’s all I know.”

  “How are you certain it was prior to midnight?”

  “Because the place where I got a cup of coffee closes at midnight. I can’t be certain as to the time. My watch was at the jeweler’s. I had been listening to records and reading. I went sound asleep on the couch. I don’t know how long I slept. I wakened and went down to get a cup of coffee. I came back and got into bed. I am not going to testify as to the exact time because I don’t know. All I can say is that it was some time during the evening of the fifth. I have an impression it was around ten o’clock, but I don’t know. I just had a sort of ten o’clock feeling, as though I had been sound asleep for three hours. That, of course, is not any evidence, any satisfactory criterion. I must have gone to sleep right after supper. I simply don’t know the time.”

  “What did the defendant do after she got out of the car?”

  “She stood at the curb for a minute, turned around and slammed the door shut on the right-hand side of the car. Then she walked down toward the corner.”

  “Which corner?”

  “The corner to the north.”

  “No further questions,” Mason said.

  “No redirect examination,” Carson said. “My next witness is Thomas Grimes.”

  Grimes came forward and was sworn, gave his name and address.

  “You are employed as a guard in the parking lot at the executive division of the Lamont Rolling, Casting and Engineering Company?”

  “I am.”

  “And is it your duty to check the cars that go in and out?"

  “Principally to check the cars that go in, but we keep an eye on things.”

  “You were so employed on the evening of the fifth of this month?”

  “I was.”

  “Were you acquainted with Loring Lamont during his lifetime?”

  “Yes, sir. I knew him by sight.”

  “You were acquainted with his automobile?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I will ask you if, on the evening of the fifth, you saw Mr. Loring Lamont leave the parking place in question.”

  “I did.”

  “At what time?”

  “At approximately five-forty-five.”

  “Was he alone?”

  “He was not.”

  “Who was with him?”

  “A young woman.”

  “Could you identify that young woman?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is she in court?”

  “She is.”

  “Where?”

  “She is the defendant, Arlene Ferris, sitting next to Mr. Perry Mason.”

  “You may inquire,” Carson said, with a slight bow at Mason.

  “You’re certain this woman was the defendant?” Mason asked.

  “I am.”

  “Do you remember being asked to look at another young woman on the seventh of this month?”

  “I do.”

  “And didn’t you identify her as being the woman you saw in Loring Lamont’s automobile?”

  “I did not,” the witness said vehemently. “I did absolutely no such thing. I told Lieutenant Tragg and I told you that I couldn’t be sure she was the same one—she wasn’t."

  “When did you find out she wasn’t?”

  “After I saw the right young woman.”

  “Meaning the defendant?”

  “Yes.”

  “And prior to that time you didn’t identify this other person as being the one you had seen?”

  “I definitely did not. I refused to make the identification. I refused to do so for you and I refused to do so for Lieutenant Tragg.”

  “Quite right,” Mason said. “Did you tell Lieutenant Tragg you weren’t certain?”

  “I told him I wasn’t certain.”

  “And you weren’t certain?”

  “Not when I saw Miss Elwood—not that time.”

  “For how long did you see this woman who was in the car with Loring Lamont?”

  “While he was driving through the gate.”

  “At what speed was he driving?”

  “Oh, perhaps ten or twelve miles an hour.”

  “It was raining?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were under shelter?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were looking through a window in that shelter?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you only saw this young woman while Loring Lamont was driving past that window. That window is how wide?”

  “Oh, perhaps thirty inches.”

  “So you got a glimpse of this young woman while she was moving past a window thirty inches wide at a speed of ten miles an hour?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was this young woman sitting on the left-hand side of the car?”

  “Certainly not. Mr. Lamont was driving the car. She was seated on his right.”

  “You saw Mr. Lamont?"

  “Yes.”

  “You are positive he was driving the car?”

  “Positive.”

  “You didn’t look at his face?”

  “Of course I looked at his face.”

  “For how long?”

  “Long enough to recognize him.”

  “While he was driving by?”

  “Yes.”

  “And did you look at the woman before you recognized Loring Lamont or afterwards?”

  “Afterwards.”

  “Then you looked at Loring Lamont first?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Now, let’s see,” Mason said. “If Lamont was driving past a thirty-inch window at ten miles an hour he was going approximately fourteen feet a second, so he drove past the window in approximately one-fifth of a second.”

  “I haven’t figured it out.”

  “Well, take a pencil and paper and figure it out for yourself,” Mason said. “We’ll wait.”

  The witness took a notebook from his pocket, started multiplying, dividing, then nodded his head.

  “So you saw the people in the car for approximately one-fifth of a second.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And in that time you first looked at Loring Lamont long enough to recognize him?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Then after that you looked at the person who was with him?”

  “Well, I guess so.”

  “So you looked at this person for less than one-fifth of a second.”

  “All right.”

  “And when you saw this other woman on the seventh you said you weren’t certain. Isn’t that right?"

  “That’s right.”

  “You weren’t certain that she was the woman?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And you weren’t certain that she wasn’t the woman?”

  “I didn’t say that she wasn’t. However, I didn’t think …”

  “What did you say?”

  “I said I wasn’t certain.”

  “That she wasn’t the woman?”

  “I said I wasn’t certain that she was the woman.”

  “You weren’t certain that she was not the woman?”

  “No.”

  “You simply said you weren’t certain?”

  “Yes. That’s the general effect of it.”

  “Then after you saw a photograph of the defendant, and after Lieutenant Tragg or some other person on the police force had told you that that picture was one of the woman you saw on the seventh, you became certain?”

  “I am now absolutely certain in my own mind that this defendant was the young woman I saw in the car,” the witness said.

  “Then,” Mason said, smiling, “you are certain now but you weren’t certain on the seventh?”

  “I didn’t see the defendant on the seventh.”

  “But you saw another young woman and said you weren’t certain that she was not the woman?”

  “I wasn’t certain.”

  “Thank you,” Mason said. “That’s all.”

  “No questions on redirect,” Carson said. “My next witness is Otto Keswick.”

  Keswick, in his early forties, alert, broad-shouldered, powerful in build, took the stand, was sworn and testified that he lived in a rented room in a house about two miles from the lodge where the murder had been committed, that he was employed as gardener and general handy man, that he had what he described as a somewhat ancient and battered automobile with which he went back and forth to work, that he had no particular hours of employment but was, rather, obligated simply to keep the premises in shape; that sometimes he worked as much as ten or twelve hours a day and other times he worked only a few hours a day.

  He further testified that at a little after one o’clock on the afternoon of the sixth he had driven to the lodge, that he had found the outer gate locked with a padlock to which he had the key, that he had inserted the key, unlocked the padlock, driven his car into the grounds, locking the gate behind him in accordance with his instructions, and had started doing some watering and trimming some trees; that he had noticed the side door of the house was slightly ajar, that he had gone to the door to close it, had looked inside and had seen a man’s feet lying on the floor, that he had therefore stepped inside to see what was the trouble and had found the body of Loring Lamont.

  The witness testified that he had been careful to touch nothing, that he had carefully backed out of the room— had, however, taken the precaution of closing the door; that he had then gone directly to his car, had driven to the gate, unlocked the padlock, gone out, locked the gate behind him and had driven to the home of Sadie Richmond; that he had reported what he had found there and that Mrs. Richmond had telephoned the authorities.

  “Your witness,” Carson said to Mason.

  “How long had you been employed as caretaker and general handy man prior to the murder?” Mason asked.

  “For about two years.”

  “You knew the various persons who used the lodge and they were acquainted with you—I am referring now to the executives of the company?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You knew J. P Lamont?”

  “Yes, sir.”

 

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