“What was the condition of Mr. Shore so far as his clothing was concerned when you left the house?”
“He was in bed, if that’s what you mean.”
“And undressed?”
“Yes.”
“And you felt that he was asleep?”
“Never mind what the witness felt,” Mason said. “What did he see? What did he hear?”
“Very well,” Burger conceded with poor grace, “I will reframe the question. Was there anything in his appearance which you saw or heard which indicated whether he was asleep or awake?”
“Well, he was snoring,” Lunk reluctantly admitted.
“And you, at that time, were fully dressed? You hadn’t been to bed?”
“No, sir.”
“And you left the house?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you try to leave quietly?”
“Well, yes, I did.”
“And you walked to the car line?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How far?”
“A block.”
“How long did you have to wait for a car?”
“There was a car coming when I got to the corner. I hopped aboard.”
“How long were you on this street car?”
“Not over ten minutes.”
“And how long from the time you left the street car until the defendant in this case accosted you and picked you up?”
“Oh, not very long.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was it a minute, two minutes, five minutes, or twenty minutes?”
“Oh, a minute,” Lunk said.
Hamilton Burger said, “I submit, Your Honor, that it’s unreasonable to suppose this man who was sleeping peacefully in this bed aroused, investigated to find that Mr. Lunk had left, dressed himself, and left the house within that short space of time. I think it is a reasonable inference for the jury to draw that Mr. Shore was in that bed in that house at the very time Miss Street picked up this witness.”
“That’s an argument counsel can make to the jury,” Mason said. “He has no right making it now. If he wants to argue the case now, I’ll say that...”
Judge Lankershim stopped him. “The jury will pay no attention to the arguments of counsel at the present time,” he admonished the jury. “They are directed exclusively to the Court. Proceed with your examination of the witness, Mr. Burger.”
“After the defendant in this case picked you up and took you in her automobile, Mr. Perry Mason joined you, did he not?”
“Yes.”
“And thereafter Mr. Mason took you to this hotel?”
“Yes.”
“Now was Miss Street, the defendant, with you all of that time?”
“No.”
“When did she leave you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you know about what time it was?”
“No.”
“Where did she leave you?”
“I don’t remember.”
“It was in front of a hotel, was it not?”
“I wouldn’t want to say.”
“But it was at some point where she took a taxicab, was it not?”
“I think there was a taxicab there.”
“And afterwards Mr. Mason remained with you for some time, getting some flowers, sending them to Mrs. Shore in the hospital, going out to your house to inspect it, and then driving you to this hotel?”
The witness hesitated for several seconds, then gave a sullen, monosyllabic answer. “Yes.”
Burger said, “You may cross-examine, Mr. Mason,” and there was a smirk of triumph in his voice as he said it.
Mason looked at the witness. “Mr. Lunk, I want you to answer my questions frankly. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“After Miss Street left us, we went to your house, did we not?”
“Yes.”
“We arrived there about four or four-thirty in the morning?”
“I guess so, yes.”
“It was cold?”
“Yes, sir.”
“There was no fire going in the house?”
“No, sir.”
“You lit a gas heater after we arrived?”
“That’s right.”
“When you first left the house, you had left the door between the front bedroom and the bathroom closed?”
“Yes.”
“And when we arrived there, that door was open.”
“Yes.”
“And the contents of the dresser drawers had been dumped out and clothes taken from the closet?”
“That’s right.”
“Was anything missing?”
“Yes. Some money had been taken from where I’d been keeping it hid — in a pocket of my best suit.”
“That suit had been left hanging in the closet?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How much was missing?”
“Objected to,” Burger said, “as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial. It’s not proper cross-examination. It has nothing whatever to do with the facts of this case.”
“Overruled,” the Judge said. “The defendant is entitled to show the condition of the premises and anything which would reasonably make it appear the departure of Franklin Shore might have been prior to the time the prosecution claims that departure took place.”
“Around three hundred dollars was missing,” Lunk said.
“The door to the pantry was closed?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, when you had been cooking, you had taken flour from a can in the pantry?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And some of that flour had been spilled on the floor around the can?”
“Yes, sir.”
“When we arrived, there was a kitten in the house?”
“That’s right.”
“This was a kitten which had previously been left with you by Helen Kendal?”
“Yes.”
“And, I believe, I called your attention to the fact that the kitten had evidently run through this sprinkling of flour which surrounded the can, and then had run across the kitchen, through the door of the kitchen, and into the back bedroom?”
“That’s right.”
“There were tracks showing that this had happened?”
“Yes. It ain’t far from the pantry to the door of the back bedroom, only three or four feet, I guess.”
“And not more than four or five feet from the bedroom door to the back bed?”
“Yes.”
“And by the side of that bed I called your attention to a place where the tracks showed the kitten’s paws had been bunched together as though it had jumped up on the bed?”
“Yes.”
“The kitten was curled up in a little ball in the center of the bed in the front room when we got there? Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
“But you remember distinctly that the pantry door was closed?”
“Yes.”
“On a table in the sitting room was an ash tray, and a visiting card bearing the name George Alber, some writing on this card, and an ash tray which held the stub of a cold cigar?”
“Yes. The cigar was left by Franklin Shore. I found the card stuck in the door when I went out.”
“When you went out?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t hear any knocking at the door or ringing of the doorbell while you were there?”
“No. That’s why the card bothered me. Alber must have tried to ring the bell, and it didn’t work. Sometimes it gets out of order.”
The district attorney said to Mason, “May I withdraw this witness temporarily to put on two other witnesses who are anxious to get away? Then this witness can return to the stand.”