"Is Shuster going to be associated with you in this case?" Truslow asked.
"He'll probably try to expectorate his way into it before we get done," Mason remarked. "The other day I saw him talking in the bright sunlight and there was a rainbow in front of his lips."
Truslow laughed, then lowered his voice confidentially. "You should see Hamilton Burger," he said. "He's having a fit."
"What's the matter?"
"Of course," Truslow said, closing one eye, "I wouldn't want to be quoted, but the Chief has been shooting off his face that it's all bosh and poppycock, this contention of yours that anyone could send a telegram in another person's name if he had a reasonable amount of assurance and a knowledge of the address and telephone number of the person he was impersonating."
Mason managed to look innocent.
"So someone," Truslow said, chuckling, "sent the widowed housekeeper out at Laxter's place a telegram, and signed the Chief's name to it."
"What was in it?" Mason asked, with a perfectly straight face.
Truslow said, "Don't look around—she's looking this way—wait a minute… There, now take a look—over your left shoulder. See her standing there with the telegram? Look at the simpering look on her face. She thinks it's nothing less than a proposal of marriage."
"What does the district attorney think?" Mason inquired.
"I can't tell you," Truslow said, "not unless you put cotton in your ears."
Mason smiled. "Has it changed your contention in regard to the source of that Winifred Laxter telegram?"
"Well, my instructions were not to bear down too hard on it… but I'm afraid I've got you this time, Perry. We've got a pretty damn good case of circumstantial evidence. You're not going to resist having the defendant bound over, are you?"
"Oh, I think so," Mason said.
"Ten to one you can't get anywhere. You might kid a jury into giving you a break, but you're never going to be able to get past the preliminary."
Mason lit a cigarette, then almost immediately dropped it into a cuspidor, as Judge Pennymaker pushed open the door of his Chambers and took his place on the Bench. The court was formally called to order. Dick Truslow arose to address the Bench. "Your Honor, the preliminary hearing in this case is for the purpose of determining whether there are reasonable grounds to hold over Douglas Keene on a charge of first degree murder—to wit, the murder of one Edith DeVoe, but, in order to show the motive for that murder, it will be necessary for us to introduce evidence relating to the murder of one Charles Ashton. However, may it be understood that any evidence looking to the death of Ashton is limited solely for the purpose of fixing a motive so far as the murder of Edith DeVoe is concerned, and we will not introduce that evidence or seek to have it considered for any other purpose."
"Any objection on the part of the Defense?" Judge Pennymaker asked.
"We'll make our objections at the proper time," Mason said, "as the questions themselves come up."
"I'm not trying to limit Counsel," Truslow said, "I merely wanted to explain our position to the Court. I thought perhaps I might eliminate some objections by the Defense in stating my position."
"Proceed with the case," Pennymaker said. "The defendant is in court?"
"He is coming in now, your Honor," Truslow said.
A deputy led Douglas Keene into the courtroom. He looked somewhat pale, but his head was back and his chin held high. Mason crossed to him, squeezed his arm reassuringly. "Sit down, lad," he said, "and keep your head. It won't be long now until the whole thing is cleared up."
"The first witness on behalf of the prosecution," Truslow said, "is Tom Glassman."
Glassman came forward, was sworn, testified that he was an attache of the district attorney's office; that on the evening of the twentythird instant he had gone to the apartment of Edith DeVoe; that in the apartment a woman lay sprawled on the floor, there were wounds on her head, and nearby lay a club; that the club was smeared with blood.
"I show you a photograph," Truslow said, "merely for the purpose of identification, and ask you if that is a photograph showing the features of the young woman you saw lying on the floor at that time."
"It is."
"We'll connect up the photograph and introduce it later," Truslow said. "We would now like to have it marked for identification."
He asked several more perfunctory questions and said to Perry Mason, "You may crossexamine."
"On that bit of club which you found by the body of the unconscious woman," Mason said, "there was a fingerprint, was there not?"
"There was."
"You photographed that fingerprint?"
"I did."
"Was that a fingerprint made by the defendant?"
"It was not."
"Was it a fingerprint of Sam Laxter, Frank Oafley, or any of the servants in the Laxter household?"
"It was not."
"Naturally, you made an attempt to identify that fingerprint?"
"Naturally."
"You were unable to do so?"
"That's right."
"You had been to the Laxter residence earlier in the evening, had you not?"
"I had."
"And you there found the body of Charles Ashton, the caretaker?"
"I did."
"That body was lying on the bed of Ashton's room?"
"It was."
"Ashton was dead, was he not? And death was due to strangulation inflicted by a cord which had been thrown around his neck and drawn taut?"
"That is correct."
"And there were cat tracks up and down the bed?"
"Yes, sir."
"Did you make any attempt to ascertain whether those cat tracks had been made before or after the death of Charles Ashton?"
"I did."
"When were they made—before or afterwards?"
Truslow's face showed surprise at this line of interrogation.
"Afterwards."
"I thought," Truslow said, with a slightly nervous laugh, "that we were going to have quite a fight to get this evidence in, but I see you are bringing it out. While it probably isn't proper crossexamination, strictly speaking, I certainly am making no objection."
"I want to get all the facts in," Perry Mason said. And, turning to the witness, went on, "When you arrived at the Laxter house, Samuel Laxter was not there?"
"He was not."
"He showed up later on?"
"That is right."
"His automobile was damaged and his right arm was injured?"
"That is correct."
"But Frank Oafley was there?"
"Yes, sir."
"Where was he when you drove up?"
"I don't know where he was when we drove up, because we stopped in the garage to make a search of the automobiles, but when we reached the main terrace on which the house is situated, we noticed a man digging in the ground near a corner of the house. We turned our flashlights on him, and it was Mr. Oafley."
"That's all the crossexamination I have," Mason said.
Truslow, looking rather puzzled, remarked, "I think we'll get the corpus delicti definitely established, your Honor."
Mason slumped back into his chair with the manner of a man who has no further interest in the proceedings. Nor did he ask so much as a question while Truslow called the autopsy surgeon, then put on witnesses who identified the dead woman; who identified the club as having been sawed from a crutch; witnesses who testified to the type of crutch used by Charles Ashton and who stated that, to the best of their belief, the bloodstained club which was offered in evidence by Truslow, was part of Ashton's crutch, or, at least, a crutch similar in appearance.
Truslow brought Babson the cabinetmaker to the stand, who positively identified the section of the crutch, due to certain scratches which appeared on it, and testified how Ashton had employed him to hollow a receptacle into the crutch, and line that receptacle with chamois skin. Then, by other witnesses, Truslow brought out the value of the Koltsdorf diamonds, the fact that Peter Laxter was very much attached to them and never let them out of his possession.