“Well,” Judge Donahue said, “perhaps we’d better proceed in the regular way, but this certainly is a peculiar situation which has developed, and the Court felt that it might be better to have it explained.”
Mason said, “In view of the fact that this young woman is here, I now ask the privilege of recalling Samuel Meeker for cross-examination.”
“I have no objection in the world,” Burger said, with a sarcastic bow at Perry Mason. “Go right ahead.”
“That will do, Mr. Burger,” Judge Donahue said. “Can’t we try this case without this interchange of comments between counsel? Now, where were we? Oh yes, we want Sam Meeker on the stand. Mr. Samuel Meeker, come back to the stand. No, no, you’ve already been sworn. Just sit down there in that chair. You want to cross-examine him further, Mr. Mason?”
“I do. Miss Kilby, I would like to have you walk back and forth across the courtroom directly in front of the counsel table here, where the witness can see you.”
Irene Kilby dutifully walked back and forth.
“Not that way,” Mason said. “The way you customarily walk.”
She looked at him with wide eyes. “I’m afraid I don’t know how that is, Mr. Mason.”
“With a swing of the hips, a certain voluptuous enticement. Certainly you always walked that way before...”
“Your Honor, I object to that,” Hamilton Burger said. “Counsel has asked the witness to walk. She has walked. If Perry Mason wants to swear that he has seen this witness walk with a swaying of the hips or in a voluptuous manner, he himself can take the oath and get on the witness stand, and then I will cross-examine him.”
“Counsel has asked the witness to walk in a certain particular manner,” Judge Donahue said, “but I am not satisfied that counsel has the right to do that in connection with a test of this nature. He has asked Miss Kilby to walk, and she has walked. I think that that is as far as the Court should permit an experiment of this kind to be carried on until there is some evidence showing the young woman may at some other time have walked in some other manner.”
“Very well,” Mason said. “Now, Mr. Meeker, is there any possibility that this young woman whom you see now before you, referring to Irene Kilby, is the woman who came to the Richmell Hotel at approximately 2:20 in the morning and...”
“None whatever.”
“Let me finish my question. And was stopped by you at the elevators, or near the elevators, and taken by you over to the telephones where a call was put through to the room of John Callender?”
“There is no possibility whatever.”
“You’re positive?”
“Positive.”
“You recognize a certain resemblance to the defendant?”
“There’s a resemblance as far as clothes are concerned, and a resemblance as far as figures are concerned, but this is Irene Kilby, and I’d recognize her anywhere. The defendant is the woman whom I saw in the hotel, and I’d recognize her anywhere.”
“When did you last see Irene Kilby?” Mason asked.
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“And before that?”
“I don’t know. Yesterday morning, I guess.”
“And you have seen her on several occasions immediately before the trial of this action?”
“Yes.”
“What was the reason for so seeing her?”
“Well, Sergeant Dorset wanted to be certain that she was the woman I’d seen. He kept showing her to me and asking me if there was any possibility of my being mistaken.”
“Oh I see,” Mason said. “In other words, the police used every means to see that you would be fully familiar with the features of this Irene Kilby so that in the event you were suddenly confronted with her in court you wouldn’t be confused. Is that it?”
“Objected to,” Burger snapped. “Calling for a conclusion — argumentative.”
“Sustained.”
“And before Sergeant Dorset took you to Irene Kilby he took some pains to impress upon you that this was Irene Kilby and not the Lois Fenton whom you had already identified, is that right?” Mason asked.
“Well, he told me.”
“That’s all,” Mason said.
“No questions,” Burger said.
“Proceed with the case,” Judge Donahue said to Burger.
“Jasper Fenton was on the stand. Mr. Mason was about to start his cross-examination,” Burger said.
“If the Court please,” Mason interposed, “as I understand it the district attorney is going to put this young woman on the witness stand.”
Burger said, “You’ve already covered everything that I wanted to have covered.”
“But you were holding her as a material witness,” Mason said.
“Well, what of it?”
“In the event you were keeping her out of circulation where I couldn’t find her, and where my men couldn’t interview her, you were abusing the judicial processes of this Court.”
“You’ve said that before,” Burger said.
“And I’m going to say it again,” Mason said. “I just don’t want to have any misunderstanding on that point. You either call that witness to the stand, or you can explain to the grievance committee why you were holding her where I couldn’t find her, claiming she was a material witness.”
Burger thought that over, then suddenly surrendered. “Irene Kilby take the stand,” he said angrily, his face red.
“Your true name is Irene Kilby?” Burger asked, when the witness had been sworn.
“Yes, sir.”
“Have you ever gone under any other name?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What?”
“Two names. The name of Cherie Chi-Chi, which is a stage name, and the name of Lois Fenton.”
“How did it happen that you went under the name of Lois Fenton?”
“She told me I might.”
“You mean the young woman sitting there at the right of Mr. Mason, the woman who is the defendant in the case of The People vs. Lois Fenton, told you that you could use her name?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And what did she tell you? Describe that conversation.”
“She told me...”
“Just a moment,” Mason interrupted. “Was there a written agreement?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then the agreement, the writing itself, is the best evidence,” Mason said.
Burger frowned, “Where is that writing, Miss Kilby?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why don’t you know?”
“I surrendered it to John Callender and I have never seen it since.”
“When did you surrender it?”
“A few days before his death.”
“And you have searched for it and been unable to find it?”
“Yes.”
“Very well then, tell us what was in it.”
“Well, I was trying to get on as a fan-dancer, and I didn’t have many engagements. Lois Fenton had a full calendar. She didn’t want to go ahead with her fan-dancing when she got married, so I asked her if I couldn’t fill her dates, and she told me I could. I told her I’d have to use her name, and she said that would be all right.”
“Very well. Now, at any time on the morning of September seventeenth did you go to the Richmell Hotel?”
“Yes, sir. I went there shortly before two o’clock in the morning. That was the only time I ever went there.”
“You saw John Callender then?”
“I did.”
“And you talked with him?”
“Yes.”
“What about?”
“I asked him for the agreement. He said he had given it to Lois. I left the room about two o’clock. A maid saw me as I left the room. I never went back.”
“Did you see Samuel Meeker, the house detective, at that hotel and have any conversation with him?”
“No, sir.”
“Your witness,” Burger snapped.