“No, sir. I haven’t.”
“But you did make a print of it?”
“Yes, sir. I did.”
“And what did it show?”
“It showed Burt Strague walking along the trail.”
“Did it show his face plainly?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Was it turned toward the camera, or away from it?”
“Toward the camera.”
“Was he walking rapidly?”
“He was walking right along, yes, sir.”
“Did the background show plainly?”
“No, sir. There is little or no background in any of my shots. I purposely select camera locations in places where a low-power flashbulb and a wide open lens will give me a picture of the animal against a black backdrop.”
“What lens is on the camera with which this picture was taken, Mr. Beaton?”
“You wish a technical description?”
“Yes.”
“On this particular camera it is a Taylor-Hobson-Cooke anastigmat of six-and-one-quarter-inch focal length, having a speed of F 3.5.”
Mason took from his wallet the carbon paper disk Drake had discovered. “Would you say it was about the diameter of this circle of carbon paper?”
Beaton became quite excited. “May I ask where you got that?”
Mason smiled. “Please answer my question first.”
“Yes. I would say it was about that—”
Hamilton Burger arose with ponderous dignity, said, “Your Honor, I have hesitated to object, because I felt that I wanted the defendants to have all the latitude possible. I realize that argument on an objection takes up more time than permitting irrelevant questions to be asked and answered. However, if this line of examination is going to continue, I shall certainly object—”
“Just a few more questions, and I am finished,” Mason said.
Judge Canfield started to say something, then checked himself, muttered curtly, “Very well, Mr. Mason, proceed.”
“Now then, as an expert tracker,” Mason said, “did you have occasion to examine Burt Strague’s tracks in the trail?”
“Yes, I noticed them.”
“And did they indicate anything concerning the speed at which he was walking?”
“Really, Your Honor, I must object to this,” Hamilton Burger said. “This is purely irrelevant. It is not proper cross-examination.”
“I can assure the Court it is very pertinent,” Mason said. “It tests the recollection of the witness, and it is proper cross-examination as to his qualifications. The Court will remember that the prosecution sought to qualify this witness as an expert on guns and tracks.”
“It’s rather far fetched,” McNair interposed.
Judge Canfield said, “The objection will be overruled. It’s proper cross-examination as to the qualifications of the witness as an expert tracker. The witness will answer the question.”
“The tracks were spaced rather far apart, and showed he was moving right along,” Beaton said.
“And the tracks were regularly spaced?”
“Yes.”
Mason smiled at the witness. “And did you notice anything unusual about that, Mr. Beaton?”
“What do you mean?”
“About the fact they were regularly spaced?”
“Why no.”
Mason said, “In other words, Mr. Beaton, as an expert tracker, when you see the tracks of a human being walking along a trail, going through a trap which trips a camera shutter, and at the same time suddenly explodes a brilliant flashbulb, you’d naturally expect these tracks to show the man had jumped back, or to one side, wouldn’t you? You’d hardly expect to find his tracks moving regularly along at evenly spaced intervals, would you?” Sheer incredulous surprise twisted the muscles of Rodney Beaton’s face.
“Can’t you answer that?” Mason asked.
“Good Heavens!” Beaton exclaimed. “I never thought of that!”
“As an expert tracker, you’ve noticed what happens with wild animals when they set off a flashbulb, haven’t you?”
“Yes, of course. It’s — I can’t understand it, Mr. Mason.”
“But you’re certain about the tracks?”
“Yes, sir. I’m certain. I noticed them particularly, although the significance of what I noticed didn’t occur to me until just now.”
“Exactly,” Mason said. “I’ll ask you one more question and I am finished. The nature of those photographic traps which you rig up is such that when any strain is put upon a black silk thread stretched across the trail, the picture is taken?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And one final question,” Mason said. “Wouldn’t it be possible for a man to set an alarm clock to the tripping mechanism of your shutter, take a picture at any predetermined time? In other words, at any time the alarm should go off?”
Both Hamilton Burger and McNair were on their feet, both objecting at once. Judge Canfield heard their objections with a frosty smile, said calmly, “Objection overruled. Answer the question.”
Beaton, seeming somewhat dazed, said, “Yes, sir. It could be done.”
Mason said, “I think that’s all, Mr. Beaton... Oh, by the way, I believe the time you noted for the taking of the picture of Burton Strague was at approximately the same time the house of Jack Hardisty in Roxbury was being burglarized, and the night watchman, George Crane, was slugged?”
“I... I believe it was. I hadn’t, of course, thought of it in that connection before.”
Mason bowed with exaggerated courtesy to the two prosecuting attorneys who sat staring, open-mouthed, at the witness. “Have you gentlemen any questions on redirect examination?” he asked.
Burger seemed as one in a daze. He turned his eyes from the witness to Mason, then leaned forward to indulge in a whispered conference with McNair.
“Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said, after a few moments, “this is a most remarkable development. It not only puts a completely new interpretation upon much of the evidence in this case, but it opens up possibilities that — if the Court please, we’d like an adjournment until tomorrow morning.”
“No objection,” Mason said.
“Granted,” Judge Canfield snapped.
Chapter 29
Back in his office, Mason opened a drawer in his desk, took out a bottle of rare old cognac, three large snifter glasses, said to Paul Drake and Della Street, “Well, now we can relax. At last I’ve got that damn clock off of my mind.”
“I don’t get it,” Drake said.
Mason laughed. “Suppose, Paul, we had found an alarm clock buried in the ground near a point where a man intended to plant a camera to take nocturnal pictures. Suppose we’d further found that one of the persons in the case relied upon a picture taken at night to establish an alibi. What would we have thought?”
Drake said, “Well, of course, if you put it that way.”
“That’s the only way to put it,” Mason said. “Those are the simple facts. Too many times we overlook the simple facts in order to consider a lot of extraneous complications which merely confuse the issue. I was responsible for it, Paul. It should be a lesson to me. I tried to work in a lot of stuff about sidereal time in order to get the district attorney of Kern County interested. Naturally, that stuff got into the newspapers, and naturally the murderer read all about it. Therefore, when he got ready to let me discover the clock, it was only natural he would set it on sidereal time.”
“But why would he want you to discover it?”
“Because I had started confusing the issues and he thought it would be a good thing to confuse them still more.”
“Just what do you think happened?” Della asked.
Mason said, “I can’t give you all the details, but I could make a pretty good guess. Vincent Blane had a magazine article lying around his house about how scopolamine would make witnesses talk, confessing crimes which they were really trying to conceal. Naturally, Vincent Blane read it; Martha Stevens, his housekeeper, read it; Adele Blane read it, and Milicent Hardisty read it. Probably all of them thought of that article when it became known that Jack Hardisty had embezzled another ninety thousand dollars and hidden it... Martha Stevens got her boy friend, went so far as to make a practical test. Martha got Milicent Hardisty to procure the drug for her, and then surreptitiously borrowed Milicent Hardisty’s gun. Remember, Martha learned of the second embezzlement from overhearing Blane’s telephone conversation.