The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom
- Автор: Гарднер Эрл Стенли
- Серия: Perry Mason #35
- Год: 1949
- Язык: английский
- Год: William Morrow
- Жанр: Классические детективы
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“Now the lights were burning brightly in the lobby at that time?” Mason asked conversationally.
“No, sir, they were not.”
“They weren’t?” Mason asked, apparently surprised.
“No, sir, those lights were turned off sometime shortly before ten o’clock when the woman who runs the hotel rented the last room.”
Mason said with a smile, “Just what you know, please. Don’t testify to what she subsequently told you. You don’t know of your own knowledge why the lights were turned off.”
“Yes, sir, as it happens I do. I was in the lobby when the last room was rented. A young woman traveling by herself rented the room and I heard t he conversation at the time when the Mexican woman who runs the place told her that this was the last room in the house, and she was going to close up the place and turn off the lights. I actually saw her turn out the lights.”
“What time was that?”
“It was just — well, I don’t know. It was a few minutes before ten o’clock. Oh, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, something like that. I can’t be certain of the time. I was sort of killing time waiting for ten o’clock to come. I made up my mind that I’d try to put through my call again at ten o’clock.”
“Well,” Mason said, as though Scanlon’s testimony had ruined his last chance of cross-examination, “apparently you had every occasion to remember everything about the events of that evening.”
“I did, yes, sir.”
“So the lights were turned out sometime before ten?”
“That’s right.”
“No lights at all in the lobby?”
“Oh, yes, there was a night light. It was rather dim.”
“I see,” Mason said casually. “Then you saw this man who had put in the telephone call from the booth next to you as he left the booth. Is that right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You remained in the telephone booth?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Opened the door and looked out?”
“Yes, sir, that’s right.”
“Didn’t open it all the way?”
“No, sir, just a crack.”
“Now, do you mean just a crack or do you mean several inches?”
“Just a crack.”
Mason smiled and said, “You’re certain of that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now if the door was only opened a crack,” Mason said, “it would have been possible for you to have seen through that crack with only one eye, whereas if it had been opened several inches you could have seen with two eyes. Now think very carefully. Was it merely a crack, or was the door open several inches?”
“Just a crack.”
“Then you only saw this figure leaving the telephone booth with one eye. Is that right?”
“Well, I guess so, yes. I hadn’t stopped to consider it before, but I remember I had the door opened just a crack. I guess I only did see him with one eye.”
“And this man left the booth and then went down the corridor toward the rooms?”
“No, sir, he didn’t. He went out of the front door.”
“What door?”
“The exit door, out to where the cars were parked, and drove away.”
“How do you know he drove away?” Mason asked.
“Well, I... I guess I don’t actually know that he drove away but I saw him walk out, and just a few seconds after that I heard a car being started out there in the driveway. Then headlights came on and shone in the lobby for a second or two and furnished a bright illumination. Then the car swung around and the beam of light from the headlights swept across the lobby and disappeared.”
“And you didn’t see that man again until you entered this courtroom today to testify?”
“Yes, sir, I did.”
“Where did you see him?”
“The officers arranged to put him in a place where I could see him.”
“After he was arrested?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Anyone else with him?” Mason asked. “Did the officers use a line-up so that there were several men in your line of vision and then ask you to pick out the man you had seen?”
“No, sir, they didn’t. There was just this one man there, but they contrived to have him walk around so I could see the way he walked, his gait, and his general build, and things of that sort.”
“By the way,” Mason said casually, “do you know what color clothes the man had on when you saw him leaving the booth? Was it a brown suit?”
“Sort of a brown, I think, yes, sir.”
“What color shoes?”
“Dark, I think.”
“And his necktie?”
“His necktie was... let me see. No, I never saw his necktie.”
“You don’t know whether he had a necktie on or not?”
“No, sir.”
“Why not?”
“Because I never had a front view of this man.”
“You didn’t see his features then?”
“No, sir.”
“Was he wearing a hat?”
“I... I can’t remember.”
“You don’t remember whether this man was wearing a hat?” Mason asked.
“No, sir.”
“You know what color socks he had on?”
“No, sir,” Scanlon said, smiling.
“Or the color of his shirt?”
“It was... I think it was... No, sir, I don’t know.”
“So,” Mason said, “you are identifying a man whom you saw with one eye through a crack in the door in a dark lobby, a man whose face you had never seen in your life until the police pointed him out to you in the jail and...”
“No, sir, that’s not right. I pointed him out to the police.”
“In the jail?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You were with the police at the time?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How many other prisoners were in sight?”
“Just this one. There were no others in the place where I saw this man.”
“And yet you say the police didn’t point him out to you?” Mason asked sarcastically. “They did tell you they were going to show you a man they wanted you to identify, didn’t they?”
“Well, they said they’d like to have to look at this man and see if I could, identify him.”
“And then this one man was brought in to the yard or shadow box or whatever place it was where you were given an opportunity to look at him?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And do you mean to tell me that one of the police officers didn’t say to you at that time in effect, ‘There he is. Take a good look at him. Look at the way he walks. Look at him when his back’s turned’?”
“Well, yes, they did say something like that.”
“And you identified this man before the officer said that?”
“No, sir,” Scanlon said. “It was afterwards.”
“How long afterwards?”
“After he’d walked around for a little while.”
“I see. Just as soon as the officer told you that he wanted you to identify this man you pointed your finger and said, ‘That’s the man,’ didn’t you?”
“No, sir, I didn’t. I looked him over a good long while before I identified him.”
“A long while,” Mason said scornfully, “ten or fifteen or twenty seconds, I presume.”
“No, sir,” Scanlon insisted, “it was a minute or two.”
“As much as two minutes?” Mason asked.
“Yes, I’m certain it was.”
“Could it have been longer than that?”
“It could have been.”
“As much as three minutes?”
“I’ll say it could have been. I think perhaps it was. I wanted to be sure.”
“In other words,” Mason said, “it took you three minutes of careful study of this defendant under conditions of good visibility to make up your mind that he was the man.”
“Well, it could have been three minutes.”