“That’s a scheming little package,” Della Street said when
Mason started the car again. “I hope Paul Drake doesn’t get tangled up with her.”
“I hope Paul Drake really turns her inside out,” Mason said.
“What do you mean? She’s turned inside out,” Della said.
Mason shook his head. “For all we know, Della, she could have been the one who committed the murder. Anyone around the hotel could.”
“Including Bob King?” Della Street asked.
“Including Bob King.”
“Well, I’d certainly like to see you wrap it around his neck,” she said. “But somehow, Chief, I’m inclined to agree with Paul. I think that Mrs. Farrell is mixed in this thing so deep—”
“That’s just the point,” Mason said. “But then we get back to that business of circumstantial evidence. If she had killed her, she wouldn’t have given Jerry Conway the wrong gun.”
“What about the gun that did the fatal shooting?” Della asked. “What have they found out about it?”
“So far they haven’t told us,” Mason said. “But the grapevine has it that they can’t tell a thing about the gun, because it was stolen from a hardware store a year and a half ago along with half a dozen other guns.
“Within thirty minutes of the time of the crime, police spotted a car loaded with a bunch of tough-looking kids speeding along. It was about three o’clock in the morning so they took after it. There was quite a chase before they caught the kids. The kids admitted that when they saw the police were taking after them, they threw everything they had taken out of the car windows as they were speeding along. There were half a dozen revolvers, three or four 22 rifles, a lot of ammunition, and some jackknives. Police recovered most of the stuff, but they didn’t find a couple of guns, and quite a few of the knives. Almost anyone could have picked up this murder weapon the next day.”
“They have the general locality?” Della Street asked.
“That’s right.”
“Was it near anyplace where Mrs. Farrell would have been?”
“It was at the other end of town,” Mason said.
“Well,” she told him, “you like circumstantial evidence so much. This is an opportunity to put a jigsaw puzzle together.”
“You can put it together two or three different ways,” Mason said, “but the pieces don’t all fit.
“The trouble with circumstantial evidence isn’t with the evidence, but with the reasoning that starts interpreting that evidence... I’m kicking myself over those peas in the dead girl’s stomach. There was the most significant clue in the whole case, and damned if I didn’t discount it and think it was simply a waiter’s mistake.
“I should have cross-examined that waiter up one side and down the other and made him show that he was absolutely positive those peas couldn’t have been on the tray taken to 729. I should have made that the big point in the case.
“However, I knew that the peas were in the dead girl’s stomach and therefore, like everybody else, thought it must have been a mistake on the part of the waiter, and didn’t pay too much attention to it.”
“Well,” Della Street told him, “you’ve got an assorted set of monkey wrenches now that you can drop into the district attorney’s machinery whenever you want to.”
“But this time,” Mason told her, “I have to be right.”
They rode up in the elevator to the courtroom and entered just in time to take their seats at the counsel table before court was reconvened.
Judge DeWitt said, “The police officer was on the witness stand.”
Elliott, on his feet, said, “If the Court please, I have a few more questions on direct examination to ask of this witness.”
“Very well,” Judge DeWitt said.
Elliott’s questions indicated that he was still sparring for time.
Within ten minutes after court had reconvened, however, the door opened and both Hamilton Burger and Alexander Redfield, the ballistics expert, came tiptoeing into the courtroom.
Redfield took his seat in court, and Hamilton Burger, ponderously tiptoeing forward, reached the counsel table, leaned over and whispered to Elliott.
An expression of beaming good nature was on the district attorney’s face.
Elliott listened to Burger’s whisper, nodded his head, then said, “That’s all. I have no further questions.”
“No cross-examination.”
Hamilton Burger arose ponderously. “Call Frederick Inskip to the stand.”
Inskip came forward and was sworn, and Hamilton Burger, walking around the end of the counsel table to examine him where he would appear to best advantage in front of the jurors, gave every indication of being completely satisfied with the turn of events.
“Mr. Inskip,” he said, “what is your occupation? And what was your occupation on the sixteenth and seventeenth of October?”
“A private detective.”
“Were you employed on the sixteenth and seventeenth of October by Paul Drake?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And on what case were you working?”
“The murder at the Redfern Hotel.”
“And did you know who had employed Mr. Drake?”
“Perry Mason.”
“How did you know that?”
“I was instructed that Mr. Mason, who was the man in charge of the case, would join me.”
“Join you? Where?”
“At the Redfern Hotel.”
“You mean you had checked into the Redfern Hotel?”
“I had, yes, sir.”
“At what time?”
“Well, it was sometime after the murder. I was instructed to go to the hotel and register in Room 728.”
“Why 728? Do you know?”
“I wasn’t told.”
“But 728 is right across the hall from 729?”
“Yes, sir. The door of 728 is exactly across the hall from the bedroom door of 729. 729 is a suite, and has two doors.”
“I see,” Hamilton Burger said. “Now, how did you arrange to get in Room 728?”
Judge DeWitt said, “Just a moment. Is this pertinent? This took place after the murder was committed. It was a conversation, as I take it, between Paul Drake and a man who was in his employ. It was without the presence of the defendant.”
“But,” Hamilton Burger said, “we propose to show you, Your Honor, in fact, I think we have shown that the conversation was the result of the instructions of Mr. Perry Mason, who was then acting as attorney for the defendant in this case.”
Judge DeWitt looked down at Mason and said, “I haven’t as yet heard an objection from the defense.”
“We have no objection to make, Your Honor,” Mason said. “We’re quite willing to have any fact in this case that will shed any light on what happened presented to this jury.”
“Very well,” Judge DeWitt said, “it seeming that there is no objection on the part of the defense, the Court will permit this line of testimony.”
“What happened?” Hamilton Burger asked Inskip.
“The phone rang. Paul Drake told me that Mr. Mason, the attorney for whom he was working, would be up, that I was to leave the door unlocked so he could come in without knocking.”
“Now, just how did you get Room 728?” Hamilton Burger asked.
“Oh, that was easy. I said I wanted something not too high up and not too low down. They offered me 519 which was vacant. I asked them to see a floor plan of the hotel and said, ‘No,’ and asked them if they had something perhaps a couple of floors higher up. They said they’d had a checkout in 728 and that was available if I wanted it, and I said I’d take it.”
“Now, after receiving that telephone call, what did you do?”
“I left the door unlocked.”
“And then what happened?”