The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom

“He put through a long-distance call.”

“How do you know?”

“I could hear him.”

“You could hear his voice coming through the partition from the other booth?”

“That’s right. I was sitting there right next to the partition and...”

“And what did he say?”

“I heard him say that he wanted to place a long-distance call. I remember he said he wanted to talk with Ethel Garvin at the Monolith Apartments in Los Angeles, and then a moment later I heard him put in money, and then start talking, and he said: ‘Ethel, this is Edward. There’s no use our throwing a lot of money away on lawyers. I’m down in Tijuana now and you can’t touch me here. I’m going to drive up to Oceanside. Suppose you jump in your car and drive down there and meet me. We’ll talk things over, and work out something that’ll be satisfactory.’ And then he was silent for a while and then he said: ‘Now don’t be like that. I’m not a fool. I wouldn’t be calling you unless I had plenty on you. Remember that man you were playing around with in Nevada? Well I know all about him. I know where he is right this minute.’ And then he went on to tell her where this man was and how to get to his ranch. I’ve forgotten just what the directions were, but it was some place out of Oceanside.”

“Did he mention the name of this man?”

“No, sir, I don’t think he did. If he did, I don’t remember that. Just the man she had been playing around with in Nevada.”

“And then what did he say, if anything?”

“He said: ‘You’d better come to Oceanside. I’ll meet you on the lot we used to own there, the place where we were going to build our house. I’ll drive up there and meet you. I’ll be there with my car, and I’ll leave the lights on so you’ll know it’s me.’ ”

“And then what else did he say?”

“Nothing. He just said he was glad she was being sensible and hung up.”

“And then what?” Covington asked.

“And then the man walked out of the booth.”

“Cross-examine,” Covington snapped at Perry Mason.

Mason looked at the clock. It was eleven-thirty-two, too early to ask the court to take a noon adjournment. Too late to suggest that the court might give him a few minutes by way of recess.

Mason managed a smile which masked his feelings, said casually, and in a voice which was so low as to be hardly audible, “Rather keen of hearing, Mr. Scanlon?”

“Yes, sir, I am,” Scanlon said, “I always have been. I could hear things pretty well.”

“Now when you repeated what this man said,” Mason said, “you quoted his exact words.”

“Well, I can’t say they’re his exact words, but that’s about what he said.”

“You’ve talked with Mr. Covington, the district attorney, before you came to court?”

“Yes, sir, I have.”

“And did you discuss your testimony with Mr. Covington?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Several times?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Was that the way you repeated the conversation when you first talked with him — the way you’re telling it now?”

“Well, he told me I had to say what the man said. He said I couldn’t just say the general effect of what he said, that I had to use the man’s exact words as nearly as I could remember what they were. So that’s what I tried to do.”

Mason said, “You were spending the night at the Hotel Vista de la Mesa?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How long had you been there?”

“Two days.”

“In other words this conversation took place on the second night that you stayed there?... Or was it the third?”

“It was the second.”

“Now you had been trying to get your wife earlier in the evening?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Was there any particular reason why you hadn’t called her earlier during the day?”

“Yes, sir, there was. I had work in San Ysidro but I couldn’t find a place to live. I simply couldn’t find a house either to buy or rent. Then I found out that I might be able to live across the border in Tijuana and commute back and forth.

“I went across the border and stayed at this hotel while I was looking around for a place that I could rent. I had to get permission from the Mexican authorities and I finally had things all fixed up, so I wanted to telephone my wife and tell her to bring our things down. Naturally I wanted her to get started just as soon as possible, because I couldn’t maintain two homes and I wanted to be reunited with my family.”

“I see,” Mason said. “So you went in there to the booth to telephone her?”

“That’s right.”

“Now, did you hear the clock chime?”

“Yes, sir, there was a clock that chimed.”

“Did you hear the clock chime at ten o’clock?”

“I did, yes, sir.”

“Where were you at that time?”

“I was just coming down the hall to the telephone booth. I’d called my wife earlier in the evening — oh, three or four times, and no one had answered. I felt certain she would be back by ten o’clock, so as it approached the hour of ten I decided to go telephone once more.”