Judge Kent frowned. “Does that have any bearing on the present case, Mr. Selkirk?” he asked. “I sympathize, of course, with your position. I know that you have lost a son under very tragic circumstances. I know that you must have undergone great emotional strain. But it would seem to me that the facts you have mentioned are somewhat extraneous.”
“They are not extraneous,” Horace Selkirk said coldly. “My grandson, Robert, killed his father, Mervin Selkirk.”
“What?” Hamilton Burger all but shouted, half getting up from his chair.
Judge Kent leaned forward attentively frowning at Horace Selkirk.
“I know what I am talking about,” Horace Selkirk said, “and Perry Mason also understands the situation. And Mr. Perry Mason intends to make a last-minute grandstand to save his client by showing what actually happened. I feel that in the interests of justice Mr. Mason should not be permitted to drag my grandson into the case and thereby place an irreparable stigma upon the boy’s name.”
“You say that Robert killed his father?” Judge Kent asked.
“Robert Selkirk was the instrumentality chosen by Lorraine Jennings to get rid of my son,” Horace Selkirk said coldly. “Under a property settlement which had been made with my son at the time of the divorce, she received certain properties, and in the event of Mervin’s death she not only received additional properties in her own name but Robert would inherit certain very valuable properties and she would naturally be the guardian of his person and estate, and as such entitled to compensation.”
“I think,” Hamilton Burger said, glancing suspiciously at Perry Mason, “we had better hear a little more about what you have in mind, Mr. Selkirk. And may I caution you not to be deceived by any elaborate scheme which may have been thought up by Perry Mason in order to extricate his client from a charge of first-degree murder. We have evidence in this case that points the finger directly at Norda Allison.”
“Doubtless you do,” Horace Selkirk said, “but that evidence has been carefully fabricated and you are the one who has been deceived, not me.”
“You have some proof of your statements?” Judge Kent asked Selkirk.
“I have ample proof,” Selkirk said.
“Perhaps you had better tell us what it is.”
“I dislike to keep harping on this,” Selkirk said, “but my son’s ex-wife, Lorraine Jennings, is a very scheming, clever woman. She is, in my opinion, a fiend incarnate. She deliberately framed the seven-year-old Robert to be the innocent instrumentality of her hatred. I am not a demonstrative man, but I love my grandson very deeply.
“The child has been allowed to take an undue interest in firearms. He has been trained to watch television programs of the kind that are known as ‘pistol pictures.’ Then Lorraine permitted him to take the Colt Woodsman which has been introduced in evidence in this case and play with it, assuring him always that it was unloaded, but letting him point it and shoot it at people.”
“You’re certain of that?” Judge Kent interrupted incredulously.
“Evidence is available to that effect,” Horace Selkirk said. “Neighbors who have watched proceedings at the Jennings house have seen the child pointing the pistol at people and pulling the trigger.”
Judge Kent frowned.
“Then,” Horace Selkirk went on, “after the boy had been properly conditioned to shoot this gun, believing it was always empty and unloaded, Lorraine Jennings let him have the weapon when it actually was loaded. Then she decoyed the child’s father into going to the tent where the boy was sleeping, telling the father that he should surprise the boy. The thing happened which she hoped would happen. The boy heard the noise of the father entering the tent. He was wakened from a sound sleep. It was night. He had the gun with him, he raised it and pulled the trigger. The bullet entered my son’s chest.
“My son staggered to his automobile in front of the house, leaving a bloody trail along the grass. He got in the car and drove away, trying to find help. He knew that a doctor, whom he felt could be trusted to treat his wound and say nothing, quite frequently played poker on Friday nights at the San Sebastian Country Club. He drove up there, not realizing the seriousness of his wound. He parked the car but before he was able to leave the car he became unconscious. Death ensued sometime after he became unconscious.
“I can produce proof of what I am talking about and I have reason to believe that Mr. Mason also has that proof. I am here to prevent the exploitation of my grandson.”
“In what way?” Judge Kent asked.
“Perry Mason has been interrogating the neighbors,” Selkirk said. “He has talked with some of them personally. He has talked with others by means of the private detective agency which handles his work in cases of this sort. He knows that a shot was fired from inside the tent where Robert was sleeping. He knows that shot inflicted a serious injury upon someone, that the person left a blood trail along the grass and that Barton Jennings arose early in the morning to eliminate this blood trail with a hose.
“Mr. Mason knows that my grandson was given the .22 Woodsman to play with, that the boy knew how to work the mechanism of the gun so as to pull back the barrel in a way that would cock it; then he would point the gun and pull the trigger. Mr. Mason has made careful inquiry and has all of this data at his finger tips.
“At the proper time, probably after court convenes this afternoon, he plans to ask Barton Jennings on cross-examination if it isn’t a fact that the boy was permitted to play with this gun. He then intends to show that the boy had the gun on this fateful Friday night; that there was a trail of blood leading along the grass to the curb. Then Mr. Mason intends to ask the Court for an order bringing my grandson into court so that he can be interrogated.
“I wish to spare my grandson this frightful ordeal. It is true he is a bright little chap. It is true that he senses that something awful may have happened. He is not certain that he actually shot anyone, but he knows that he pulled the trigger of the gun and that the gun was loaded. He knows that it was pointed at some person who was about to enter his tent.
“Barton Jennings tried to convince my grandson that all this was a horrible dream, a nightmare. I don’t think he was able to convince the boy, but the boy certainly has no inkling at the present time that he actually killed his father. Nor does he have any idea that the killing of his father was part of a cold-blooded, deliberate plan hatched in the mind of the boy’s mother.
“Mr. Mason is representing Norda Allison. As an attorney it is, I presume, his duty to do everything in his power to see that she is acquitted. However, Mr. Mason is well-known for his flair for the dramatic. He is looking for an opportunity to cross-examine Barton Jennings on the stand in such a way that the facts will be brought out in the most dramatic manner possible.
“When Mason has finished cross-examining Barton Jennings, Barton Jennings will be reduced to a hopeless wreck. The case will be so dramatized that Perry Mason will once more emerge as the invincible champion of the courtroom, and my grandson will have been stigmatized for life.”