The Case of the Shapely Shadow
- Автор: Гарднер Эрл Стенли
- Серия: Perry Mason #66
- Год: 1960
- Язык: английский
- Год: William Morrow
- Жанр: Классические детективы
Электронная книга - «The Case of the Shapely Shadow». Краткое содержание книги:
“We appreciate the situation,” Mason said, “and thank counsel for his courtesy. If the prosecutor will assure me that to his knowledge these represent an accurate transcription of the records which we turned over to the grand jury, we will so stipulate.”
“I make such representation and statement,” Ruskin said.
“Very well,” Mason said. “We will stipulate these lists may be received in evidence.”
Judge Seymour said, “It is so ordered. They will be received in evidence as People’s Exhibit, appropriate number. Call your next witness, Mr. Prosecutor.”
With an air of evident triumph, Ruskin said, “Call Dudley Roberts.”
Roberts came forward and was sworn.
“Where do you reside?” Ruskin asked.
“Las Vegas, Nevada.”
“Are you familiar with Perry Mason?”
“I am.”
“And his secretary, Della Street? I will ask Della Street to stand up, please.”
Della Street stood up.
“Yes, I know them both,” Roberts said.
“When did you first see them?”
“On the evening of Wednesday, the fourth.”
“Where?”
“In Las Vegas. They rented my cab.”
“Now then,” Ruskin said triumphantly, “I will show you a twenty-dollar bill, number G78342831A, and ask you if you have ever seen that currency before?”
“I have. It has my initials in the corner.”
“And where did you get that bill?”
“It was given me by Perry Mason in payment of cab fare,” Roberts said.
“Cross-examine,” Ruskin snapped.
Mason got up and walked over to stand in front of the witness. For a long moment he studied the witness carefully.
“Mr. Roberts,” he said, “how many times did I ride with you on the evening of the fourth after Miss Street and I started for the airport?”
“You and Miss Street rode with me from the Double Take Casino down to the police station. First you started to the airport; then you changed your mind and decided to go to the police station.”
“Exactly,” Mason said, “and when did you next have me as a passenger?”
“We waited at the police station and then you picked up a woman there at the police station and took off down the street. The police tried to stop you, but you told me to step on it.”
“And where did we go?”
“You told me to go to the first motel which had a vacancy sign and you stopped there.”
“And told you to wait?”
“Yes.”
“And you waited?”
“Well, I telephoned.”
“To whom did you telephone?”
“I telephoned the police station and told them that the man they had tried to stop had had me drive him to this motel and that you were inside. I have to live in Las Vegas and I’m not going to quarrel with the Las Vegas police.”
“So you deemed it necessary to tell them where I was.”
“I thought it advisable.”
“And then what happened?”
“Well, a police car came and the police car took you and the young woman with you down to the airport.”
“What did you do?”
“I took this woman who had been with you, the older woman, back to the Double Take Casino.”
“Now then, I paid you for the trip, did I not?”
“That’s right.”
“Don’t you remember that I paid you in silver dollars? Don’t you remember that we had a conversation in which I asked you if you objected to being paid in silver dollars and you said the only thing you objected to being paid in was in I.O.U.’s or promissory notes?”
“That’s right. That, however, was the time you rode with me to the police station. You paid me this twenty-dollar bill when I took you from the airport to the railroad depot at Las Vegas.”
“And when did you first know that I had paid you this twenty-dollar bill?”
“Well, the police asked me the next day to look through my take of the night before and sure enough, I had this twenty-dollar bill — the one they wanted.”
“It was identified by the number?”
“That’s right.”
“But you didn’t look at the number when I gave you the bill, did you?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know that was the same twenty-dollar bill that I gave you?”
“It had to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it was that twenty-dollar bill.”
“What is there distinctive about it that you remember?”
“I remember I got it from you.”
“But how do you differentiate that twenty-dollar bill from any other twenty dollars?”
“It was the only one I had the next morning.”
“You mean I am the only one who gave you a twenty-dollar bill that night?”
“That’s right.”
“Think carefully,” Mason said, “didn’t anyone else give you a twenty-dollar bill?”
“No. This was the only one.”
“Now, let’s get this straight,” Mason said. “When I paid you that twenty-dollar bill, you didn’t pay any particular attention to it.”
“The deuce I didn’t,” the witness said. “It was a twenty-dollar bill and you told me to keep the change. Whenever a fare tells me to keep the change from a twenty-dollar bill, I remember it.”
“No, no,” Mason said, “what I am getting at is you didn’t look at the number when I gave you the bill.”
“No, I didn’t look at the number. I put it in my pocket.”
“Then how do you know this is the same twenty-dollar bill that I gave you?”
“Because it’s the only twenty-dollar bill I had in my pocket the next morning when the police asked me to check.”
“Now the second time,” Mason said, “I paid you in silver dollars.”
“That’s right. There’s no question about that. You went down to the police station. You started for the airport, then changed your mind and had me go to the police station. You gave me some silver dollars. You had me wait there.
“Then this woman came out of the police station, this older woman. You hustled her into the cab. She thought the cab was empty when she saw me coming.
“You got her in the cab and told me to step on it. The police ran to the door and tried to stop you when they saw that it wasn’t a vacant cab, but you told me to just keep right on going down the street.”
“So what did you do?” Mason asked.
“So I went on down the street until you told me to stop at a motel that had a sign of a vacancy on it. You folks went in there and started talking, and I went to a phone and called the police station and told them where you were.”
“And that phone call resulted in a police car coming out there to the motel?”
“I presume it did. The police came out and picked you up and told you they were going to take you down to the airport personally and see that you got out of town.”
“So this twenty dollars that I gave you had to be the first twenty dollars; that is, it had to be in payment of the first trip.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you all along.”
“That was the only twenty dollars you had in your pocket the next morning?”
“That’s right.”
“Now think carefully,” Mason said. “Didn’t you spend something during the evening of the fourth?”
The witness shook his head.
“Think,” Mason said.
“No, I... well, now wait a minute...”
“Yes, go on,” Mason said, as the witness hesitated.
“I... I bought myself a good dinner. I’d had a good evening and I thought I was entitled to a steak. I bought a steak. I think I paid for that with a ten-dollar bill.”
“It could have been a twenty?”
“No, I think it was a ten.”
“Now, after I went to the airport, what did you do?”
“I was there at this motel and the little lady that you’d picked up at the police station was there at the motel.”