“The jury are apt to attach undue significance to what the witness is saying. I claim it’s a deliberate frame-up. Remember this man holds his office at the pleasure of the defendant. By the time the smoke will blows away, it will probably appear that this whole thing has been carefully rehearsed; that the only crime Livesey could possibly have committed is that of speeding in an automobile, or some relatively minor crime which, while technically a crime, is one which has no relation to the case we are here investigating.
“This cheap trickery is entirely on a par with...”
“Just a moment,” Mason interrupted. “You keep on making those charges and I’m going to hold you personally responsible. You...”
“Gentlemen,” Judge Minden said, “we will have no more personalities, and we will have no more speculation as to the reason for the statement made by this witness. Mr. Livesey, do I understand that you’re going to refuse to answer any more questions concerning your relations with Virginia Bynum?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How about what happened on the night of September twenty-first and the morning of September twenty-second? Will you answer questions...”
“I refuse to answer any questions concerning what happened on the night of September twenty-first or the early morning of September twenty-second on the ground that such answers might incriminate me.”
“I want a four-day adjournment,” Covington said angrily, his face flushed. “I’ll have the grand jury in session and we’ll get to the bottom of this. We...”
“In the meantime,” Mason said, “I would like to recall George L. Denby to the witness stand for a brief question or two and then I will have no objection to the Court granting the request of the prosecution for continuance.”
“Very well, take the stand, Mr. Denby,” Judge Minden said.
Denby came walking to the witness stand, quietly efficient, gravely dignified. He took his position in the witness chair, placed the tips of his fingers together and looked inquiringly at Mason.
Mason said, “Mr. Denby, I would like to get the time element straight here. You have stated that you were working in the office of the Garvin Mining, Exploration and Development Company all during the night of September twenty-first and the morning of September twenty-second.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now then, are you acquainted with Virginia Bynum?”
“No, sir, I am not — that is, in the sense you probably mean. I met her in the offices of the corporation when she inquired about a stock certificate. That, I believe, is all.”
“Now you know that the gun which was found on the fire escape was the weapon that has been introduced in evidence here in this case.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And how do you know it was the same weapon?”
“By the number, sir.”
“What is the number?”
“S64805.”
“You remembered that number?”
“Yes, sir, I remembered the number on that murder weapon.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought it might be significant.”
“You didn’t make any notes?”
“No.”
“Do you want the jury to believe that you can remember a number which you have seen as casually as the number which you saw on that gun?”
“Yes, sir, I have a photographic memory for numbers. I very seldom forget a number once I have seen it.”
Mason approached the witness, took a wallet from his pocket and took from it a card. “What is this, Mr. Denby?”
“It seems to be a driving license made out to Mr. Perry Mason, an attorney at law.”
“And have you ever seen that before?”
“This driving license?” Denby asked puzzled.
“Yes.”
Denby shook his head. “No, I have not seen it.”
“When was it issued?”
“On June fourth, nineteen forty-seven.”
“When does it expire?”
“June fourth, nineteen fifty-one.”
Mason walked up, took the license from Denby’s hand, turned back toward the counsel table, then suddenly paused and said, “Very well, if you’re so efficient in remembering numbers and have such a photographic memory for retaining numbers in your mind, what’s the number of that driving license?”
Denby’s cold eyes held a mildly contemptuous smile. “The number of the driving license, Mr. Mason,” he said, “is 490553.”
Mason glanced at the driving license.
“Is that right?” Denby asked.
“That,” Mason told him, “is right.”
There was a ripple of surprised approval from the spectators.
“Now, then,” Mason said, whirling suddenly and pointing his finger at Denby, “if you have such a photographic memory for numbers how does it happen that when I first asked you, you were unable to remember who it was that owned Certificate Number 123 in the corporation?”
“I can’t carry in mind the figures on every bit of stock in the corporation.”
“I see,” Mason said. “That’s all.”
“We will adjourn, until Monday morning at ten o’clock,” Judge Minden said. “The jury will remember the admonition of the Court.”
Twenty-two
Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake sat in Mason’s suite at the U. S. Grant Hotel.
Across the table from Perry Mason a tear-stained Virginia Bynum tried to meet the lawyer’s eyes and failed.
Mason said, “Virginia, you’re mixed up in a nasty mess. Whether you can get out of it with a whole skin depends entirely on whether you tell the truth. We now know that you were lying about being out on the fire escape the night of the murder. You can be prosecuted for perjury. We know that you took my car from Tijuana. We know that you drove it to the scene of the crime. The way things are right now you can be arrested for murder. You’d be tried and probably convicted — but somehow I don’t think you’re guilty of that murder, so suppose you tell us the truth.”
She hesitated, looked from Mason’s steady eyes to Drake’s cold, accusing face, looked to Della Street for sympathy.
Della Street crossed over to pat her shoulder. “Why don’t you tell the truth, Virginia?” she said. “You know Mr. Mason will give you the breaks — if he can.”
Virginia suddenly threw back her head. “All right,” she said, “I’ll tell you. I see no reason for trying to protect people who aren’t protecting me.
“It all happened when I fell for Frank Livesey. I was a party girl. He was in a position to make me or break me. He sold mining stock and threw one party after another. I don’t know all the deal, but as nearly as I can find out Livesey and Denby had been looting the corporation. Denby would juggle papers around and take certain papers out of the files whenever an audit was expected.
“They had things going nicely when it suddenly began to appear that someone was tampering with the files in the corporation. They couldn’t, either one of them, imagine who it was. However, by leaving certain traps they became convinced that this person was getting into the office at night, so they delegated me to wait in the office and see who it was. I kept the window onto the fire escape open. They told me whenever anyone started to open the door of the office I was to step out of the window to the fire escape, wait until I saw who was in there and what was being done. They said I could work my way down the fire escape where I wouldn’t be seen.
“I liked Frank Livesey. He did a lot of entertaining and — well, I was living by my wits. I wasn’t selling anything I didn’t want to sell, but these stock buyers could make me a lot of money. Well, naturally I was under obligations to do just about as he wanted.