Mason grinned. “Very, very noble and self-righteous, Mr. Argyle. But despite the fact you now consider me beneath contempt, you did go to the doorman of your club and bribe him to swear you hadn’t left the club that afternoon so you wouldn’t be mixed up in anything your chauffeur might have done.”
“That’s not so!”
“You did give the doorman some money?”
“A tip is all.”
“How much?”
“That’s neither here nor there.”
“How much?”
“Objected to, Your Honor,” Burger said, jumping up. “This man was deliberately victimized by...”
“Overruled,” Judge Osborn snapped.
“How much?” Mason asked.
“Well, I thought I was giving him five dollars, but I had had a couple of drinks and it was dark. And later on I was short in my cash, so I may have made a mistake and given him more.”
“A hundred dollars?”
“I am afraid so.”
“By mistake?”
“By mistake.”
“You knew you hadn’t been driving the car on the afternoon of the third.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then you knew then that the only other person who could have done so was your chauffeur.”
“Well, the car could have been stolen.”
“In which event you wouldn’t have been liable for an accident,” Mason said. “Come, Mr. Argyle, you’re a businessman.”
“Well,” Argyle said, “I see what you’re getting at. As a matter of fact, after you left, I put the thing up to my chauffeur and he broke down and virtually admitted that he had been driving the car and had been involved in that hit-and-run case. Then he admitted he had tried to avoid liability by telling me the car had been stolen.”
“Exactly,” Mason said. “Now you have come to the conclusion that statement was false?”
“You mean your statement to me that my car was involved in the hit-and-run accident?”
“Put it that way if you want to.”
“That statement was absolutely and utterly false. A man by the name of Caffee was driving the car that hit that young boy.”
Mason said, “By the way, you and the representative of the insurance company went to Mr. Finchley and threatened to prosecute him for obtaining money under false pretenses unless he returned the money you’d paid him, didn’t you?”
“Well, we explained to him that he certainly wasn’t entitled to the money either by law or equity.”
“What did he say?”
“He said that you’d advised him to keep the money. That it was a voluntary payment and that we couldn’t get it back. That you were going to teach these insurance adjusters not to suck eggs.”
Judge Osborn smiled broadly.
“Exactly,” Mason said. “Now why do you suppose Mr. Pitkin admitted to you he had been engaged in this hit-and-run accident if he actually hadn’t?”
“I don’t know,” Argyle said, “and I wish I did. I’ve been thinking that over, trying to find the answer to it, and I simply can’t figure it out. It now would seem the man was a blackmailer. He doubtless had some reason in that warped mind of his.”
Mason said, “You were anxious to see that your chauffeur had his night off, despite the fact that he had just confessed to you he had been engaged in a hit-and-run driving accident?”
“I can explain that.”
“Go ahead and do so.”
“I knew that my chauffeur made money on his days and nights off. He had explained to me that he was a member of this chauffeurs’ association and that they worked on their days off, and I knew that it was important that he get up to that association because they make definite bookings. I’m a businessman myself. I knew how I’d feel if I should be waiting for a chauffeur who didn’t show up on time. Letting Pitkin go wasn’t out of consideration for him, but to his associates in the chauffeurs’ association.”
“Now then,” Mason said, “has it ever occurred to you that that’s exactly what did happen, Mr. Argyle?”
“What do you mean?”
“That Pitkin had some definite obligation. Someone for whom he was to work on the evening of the fifth. That in place of taking your car home himself, he made arrangements with some other individual to take it home, and that he went out at once to work on this assignment to which he had obligated himself.”
Argyle paused to think that over, then said, “It could be that such is the case.”
Mason said, “Did you ever have occasion to hire any of those chauffeurs on Pitkin’s day off?”
“Certainly not. If I had wanted to do that, I’d have simply made arrangements with Pitkin to have charged me the regular rate for working overtime, and kept him.”
Mason said, “I’m going to hand you a list of fifteen names and ask you if you know any one of those people, Mr. Argyle.”
“Oh, what’s the use of this?” Hamilton Burger expostulated.
Mason said, “It may explain the reason the chauffeur, Pitkin, confessed he had been in a hit-and-run accident when he actually hadn’t.”
“Oh, very well,” Burger said. “I don’t see the point. It seems to me, Your Honor, we’re not only not getting anywhere with this cross-examination, but that it’s just a general fishing expedition.”
“Fishing in promising waters, however,” the Court said, smiling. “I think perhaps Mr. Mason is even getting an occasional nibble.”
Argyle adjusted his glasses, looked at the typewritten list, scratched his head, said, “It’s going to take me a few minutes to check this list over, Mr. Mason.”
“Very well,” Judge Osborn said. “The Court will take a fifteen-minute recess. You can look at the list during that time, Mr. Burger, and discuss it with the witness. Court will recess for fifteen minutes.”
Judge Osborn returned to chambers.
Mason got up, stretched, yawned with elaborate carelessness, walked over to where Lieutenant Tragg was sitting, and said, “How about stepping over here in the corner for a few minutes, Lieutenant?”
Tragg nodded, and the two men moved over to a corner of the courtroom.
Tragg grinned surreptitiously, and said, “Thanks for your cross-examination of Holcomb. He’s been boasting all over about how he trailed you to a place where Goshen could identify you after I’d fallen down on the job. I guess this will cause him to change his time a little. Not that I am talking to you officially, you understand, Mason, this is just personal.”
“Sure,” Mason said. “And still talking personally, how’d you like to take a ride, Tragg?”
“Where?”
“Out to the residential district”
“Do you think we have time?”
“I think we have lots of time,” Mason said.
“We can’t get out there and back inside of fifteen minutes, can we?”
“I think,” Mason said, “that when Argyle sees that list he’s going to want a little more time. He... here comes Burger now.”
Hamilton Burger, moving with the ponderous dignity of a man who is forced by business exigencies to consult with someone for whom he has a contemptuous hatred, said, “How important is that list of witnesses, Mason?”
“Quite important.”
“Argyle can’t possibly check them until he checks a list of some of his stockholders. He says he has a poor memory for names, but he thinks nearly all these men are stockholders in one of his companies. If you want an answer to that question, the case will have to go over until tomorrow morning.”
“Suits me,” Mason said.
“Well, it doesn’t suit me,” Burger said.
“I want an answer to the question,” Mason insisted.
“Well,” Burger announced after some hesitancy, “very well. On your stipulation, we’ll let it go over until tomorrow morning.”