“And what did Perry Mason advise you to do?” the district attorney asked.
Mason interposed with an urbane smile, “At this point, gentlemen, my client’s story ends, except for the fact that he found a paper containing a list of stockholders who had sent in their proxies in his car. This list which I now hand you contains Conway’s initials on each page, and also my initials are on each page.
“My client’s car is parked downstairs, and I reported that fact to the police before we came up and suggested they would want to search the car.
“My client has nothing to say about anything that happened after he consulted me. I am perfectly willing to answer questions from that point on. However, you must realize that the advice of an attorney to a client is not anything which can be produced in evidence, and questions about it should not be asked.”
Hamilton Burger’s face slowly purpled. “As a citizen, you’re bound by laws the same as anyone else. Whenever you try to conceal a weapon with which a murder has been committed—”
“A murder?” Mason asked.
“A murder!” Hamilton Burger shouted. “A murder was committed with that weapon!”
“But I didn’t know it! I didn’t know there had been a murder. Conway didn’t know there had been a murder. He only knew that he had taken possession of a weapon under circumstances which made the whole thing look suspiciously like a frame-up. He called on me to investigate. I investigated.”
“But as soon as you investigated,” Burger said, “you went to that room and encountered a corpse.”
“That’s right.”
“And then you knew that the gun was the murder weapon!”
“Indeed I did not!” Mason said. “I didn’t know it was the murder weapon. I don’t know it now.”
“The hell you don’t!” Burger shouted. “Anyone with the intelligence of a two-year-old kid would have known it, and you’re not that big a fool. Where’s the gun?”
Conway took the gun from his pocket and passed it across to Hamilton Burger. “It’s loaded,” he said.
Burger looked at the gun, handed it to Alexander Redfield.
The ballistics expert looked at the gun, swung open the cylinder, looked at the exploded shell, took a sharp, pointed engravers’ tool from his pocket and etched on the shells the relative position which they occupied in the cylinder of the gun. Then he snapped the cylinder shut, and dropped the gun in his pocket.
“Now then,” Hamilton Burger said, “I want to know what happened last night. I want to know where this man was all night.”
“What does that have to do with it?” Mason said.
“It has a lot to do with it,” Burger said. “He resorted to flight.”
“To flight!” Mason said.
“You’re damned right he did!” Burger said. “Don’t think the police are entirely dumb, Mason. We found out about Conway a short time ago, after we had identified the corpse. We found out that Conway had gone up in the elevator of your office building last night, that he had gone to Paul Drake’s office, that an hour or so later your estimable secretary, Della Street, came up in that elevator, that shortly afterward Conway went down and just a few moments later Della Street went down. I think the inference is fairly obvious. You had telephoned Della Street to get your client out of circulation.”
“But why should I want him out of circulation?” Mason asked.
“So he couldn’t be questioned.”
“Then why should I bring him here this morning?”
“Because now you’ve had time to concoct a story!”
“I’m sorry, Mr. District Attorney,” Perry Mason said, “but your suspicions are not justified by facts. There was no flight. Mr. Conway simply felt that it would be inconvenient for me to consult with him during the night at his apartment. I was doing some investigative work, trying to find out the extent of what I felt was a frame-up. Therefore, I had Mr. Conway wait at a place where he would be more available and where I could call on him at night without disturbing anyone or attracting undue attention.
“Mr. Conway, for your information, gentlemen, was at the Gladedell Motel. He occupied Unit 21, and I’m quite certain you will find that he registered under his own name. It is certainly not flight for a person to go to a motel and register under his own name, driving his own car, and registering the correct license number of that car.”
“All right!” Burger shouted. “Then why did you withhold this evidence until nine o’clock this morning?”
“What evidence?”
“This gun! The one that Redfield has. The murder weapon.”
“But I don’t know it’s a murder weapon,” Mason said. “I knew that you wouldn’t be at your office until nine o’clock in the morning. I made arrangements with Mr. Conway to come here at the earliest possible hour this morning. We arrived just as soon as your office opened. In fact, I think an investigation would disclose that you are here unusually early this morning because you wanted to question my client.”
“That’s just a run-around,” Hamilton Burger said. “You should have given this weapon to the police last night, and you know it.”
“Why?”
“Because a murder was committed with it.”
“Oh, I certainly hope not,” Mason said. “Oh, I certainly do hope not, Mr. District Attorney. That would complicate matters!”
“You mean you didn’t have the slightest idea that this was a murder weapon?” Burger asked sarcastically.
“How would I know it was a murder weapon?” Mason countered. “No one even told me how the young woman died. They told me to get out of the room and stay out of the room. The police didn’t reveal the result of their investigations to me. Was she killed with a revolver?”
“She was killed with a revolver, and this is the murder weapon, the one which you folks were concealing from the police all night.”
Alexander Redfield cleared his throat. “May I say something, Mr. Burger?”
“Not now!” Burger said. “I demand that Mr. Mason give us an explanation.”
Mason said, “There isn’t any explanation because I am not prepared to concede the premise on which you are acting. I don’t know that it’s the murder weapon. I did feel that an attempt was made to frame my client with a gun which had been discharged somehow. I wanted to try and find out something about that gun and where it came from.”
“And you did?” Hamilton Burger asked.
“I did,” Mason said. “For your information, that is a revolver which was purchased some three years ago by the Texas Global Company for the protection of its cashier.
“I can assure you, gentlemen, that I have been quite busy trying to get information in this case so that I could be of some assistance to you this morning.”
“You went to Elsinore last night!” Hamilton Burger charged.
“That’s right. I did indeed!”
“Why?”
“Because I felt there was a possibility Mr. Norton B. Calvert, who lives in Elsinore, could shed some light on the identity of the corpse.”
“All right,” Hamilton Burger said sarcastically. “Now tell us just what intuitive reasoning made you think he could shed light on the identity of the corpse?”
Mason said, “Mr. Burger, I will answer that question if you tell me that you are asking that question in your official capacity, and that as a citizen and as an officer of the court it is my duty to answer.”
“What are you trying to do?” Hamilton Burger asked.
“I’m trying to protect myself,” Mason said. “Do you tell me that such is the case?”
“I tell you such is the case. Answer the question.”