The Case of the Reluctant Model
- Автор: Гарднер Эрл Стенли
- Серия: Perry Mason #69
- Год: 1962
- Язык: английский
- Год: William Morrow
- Жанр: Классические детективы
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“Do you now concede then, that the picture is a part of the defendant’s case?”
“No, I do not.”
“At this time, if the Court please,” Mason said, “I move that this picture, which has previously been marked for identification as a defense exhibit, be introduced in evidence as a part of the defendant’s case.”
“I object,” Hamilton Burger said. “No proper foundation has been laid.”
Judge Madison smiled and said, “Then I think I will sustain Mr. Mason’s objection to the question. I think this is a matter which calls for some investigation. It’s highly technical but, nevertheless, it relates to the introduction of extraneous matter and the cross-examination of a witness on points which even the cross-examiner contends are irrelevant to the case.”
“It’s not irrelevant on the voire dire,” Burger said.
“But the picture itself is irrelevant?”
“Yes.”
“Then,” Judge Madison said, “if it wasn’t ordered by the decedent, and it wasn’t ordered by the defendant, what possible reason could there be for finding out who ordered it?”
“I want to know,” Hamilton Burger said. “I’d like to satisfy my curiosity.”
“Your curiosity isn’t one of the things that’s in issue in this case,” Judge Madison said. “I’m trying to restrict the evidence to pertinent questions. If you’re going to object to the introduction of this picture, I presume you intend later on to move to strike out all evidence concerning the picture on the ground that it is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”
“That is true, Your Honor,” Burger said.
“Under those circumstances,” Judge Madison said, “until this picture is further identified, I am not going to force this witness to divulge the names of his clients, particularly when it appears that the name of that client has nothing to do with the issues in this case. Or, to put it in another way, until there is something to make it appear that the name of the client would have anything to do with the issues. I think I will sustain the objection.
“However, it is so close to the hour of afternoon adjournment that I am going to hold the matter over until tomorrow morning. Quite frankly, I want to look up some of the authorities in regard to the right of cross-examination on extraneous evidence.”
Again Hamilton Burger had a brief, whispered conference with his associate, then said, “If the Court please, I have no objection to a continuance. I, too, would like to look up some authorities. We will take the matter up in the morning.”
“Very well,” Judge Madison said. “Court is adjourned until nine-thirty tomorrow morning.”
Chapter Nineteen
Back in Mason’s office the lawyer settled back into the cushioned swivel chair, stretched his arms above his head, heaved a deep sigh and grinned.
“When you can take a gamble like that and come out, it’s really something,” he said.
“What do you mean you’ve come out?” Drake said. “You’ve just postponed the evil day of reckoning for a few hours. Tomorrow at nine-thirty you’ll have to go back and face the same old situation.”
“Oh, no, I won’t,” Mason said.
“What makes you think you won’t?”
“In the first place,” Mason said, “the word got around the courthouse that I was going to put the defendant on the stand in a preliminary hearing. That brought our old friend, Hamilton Burger, in for the kill.
“The fact that Hamilton Burger was coming in for the kill caused all the newspaper reporters to attend the trial in order to see the showdown.”
“Well,” Drake said, “since the showdown was postponed until tomorrow, the reporters will be there tomorrow and your client will be cross-examined and Hamilton Burger will want to know what it was Durant had on her that forced her to obey his wishes, and ask her if it is true that she would betray her friendships in order to save her own bacon; ask her if she didn’t know she was participating in a swindling game, ask her if she didn’t betray Rankin’s friendship — he’ll rip her to pieces.”
Mason said, “I have news for you, Paul. There isn’t going to be any tomorrow.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s look at it logically. The whole thing snapped into shape as soon as I knew that Collin Durant didn’t order that forged painting and that Goring Gilbert had never delivered it.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“Everything.”
“All right,” Drake said. “It was a skin game of some sort. Now, what was it?”
“It was an interesting skin game,” Mason said, “but the person who ordered the forged painting and paid for it is the one who holds the key to the whole situation.”
“Who paid for the forged painting?” Drake asked.
Mason smiled and shook his head. “We don’t know — yet.”
“He’s being mysterious, Paul,” Della Street said. “He’s going to play you like a trout. He’ll have your curiosity aroused to fever pitch before he’ll let you off the hook.”
“I’m at fever pitch now,” Drake said, “and I don’t get it.”
“All the factors are there,” Mason said. “The painting was forged. It cost two thousand dollars. It was never delivered. The money was paid in hundred-dollar bills. Collin Durant had ten thousand dollars in hundred-dollar bills and got murdered.
“And I have a legal bombshell I can explode any minute now. I was tempted to do it today but I held my fire so I could make a big play on it.”
“What’s the bombshell?” Drake asked. “At least you can tell me that.”
“Finding the gun in the locker,” Mason said.
“Why, that clinches the case against Maxine,” Drake said. “Those unidentified fingerprints aren’t going to help. They could have been made at any time, either before or after.”
Mason smiled. “Everyone has overlooked it,” he said.
“Overlooked what?”
“The lockers were serviced every twenty-four hours. Whenever they were inactive for any twenty-four-hour period they were opened. This locker had its twenty-four-hour inactive check on the evening of the fifteenth. Therefore, it was from the fourteenth to the fifteenth on which it was inactive. The gun had to be placed in it not on the thirteenth but on the fourteenth.
“That means the murderer planted the gun there after it became apparent Maxine had been seen there. The gun was planted after Maxine had left this part of the state, yet it was the murder weapon and, therefore, must have been left there by the real murderer.”
Drake’s eyes widened.
“Well, I’ll be a—”
The telephone rang sharply.
Della Street picked it up, said, “Yes, Gertie. What is it?... Oh-oh... Just a minute.”
Della Street turned to Perry Mason. “Mr. Otto Olney is in the outer office and Gertie says he’s mad. He’s waving that subpoena around and wants to know what the devil you mean by serving a subpoena on him, that he has to be in Honolulu tomorrow.”
“Well,” Mason said, “I guess we’ll have to talk with him, but tell Gertie I’ll see him within two to five minutes at the outside.”
Della Street relayed the message to Gertie.
“Can’t you get in trouble serving a subpoena on a big businessman like that when you don’t know exactly what you’re going to ask him?”
“I know what I’m going to ask him,” Mason said. “Get Lieutenant Tragg at Homicide for me, will you, Della?”
Della Street put through the call and a moment later said, “Here’s Lieutenant Tragg on the line.”
“Hello, Lieutenant,” Mason said. “How’s everything coming?”
“Coming very good indeed as far as we’re concerned,” Tragg said cheerfully. “I was sorry to see you put the defendant on the stand in a preliminary case like this, Mason.”