Mason arose to conduct the cross-examination.
“In order to carry out the deception incident upon your attempt to capitalize on Lois Fenton’s good will as a fan-dancer, you copied her clothes, did you not?” he asked.
“Well, what’s wrong with that?”
“But you did, didn’t you?”
“Of course I did.”
“Exactly why did you do that?”
“Because bookings were made through her agent, a Mr. Barlow, and Mr. Barlow had photographs.”
“You mean Sidney Jackson Barlow?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you didn’t want Mr. Barlow to think there had been any substitution or any change in his clients?”
“Naturally not.”
“So you dressed just as much as you could like Lois Fenton and made yourself look just as much as you could like Lois Fenton, didn’t you?”
“What would you have done under the same circumstances?”
“I’m asking you what you did. You did do that, didn’t you?”
“Yes. It’s obvious. I am wearing these clothes now.”
“And Mr. Barlow never raised the point that perhaps you were not the real Lois Fenton?”
“Not until after you had been there, trying to make trouble.”
“Now, then,” Mason said, “directing your attention to the evening of September seventeenth, you went to the office of Sidney Jackson Barlow, the agent, did you not?”
“I did.”
“And what happened to you there?”
“Incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. Not proper cross-examination,” Hamilton Burger said. “Your Honor, this is wandering far afield. This is something that was not touched upon in direct examination and has nothing to do with the issues in this case.”
Judge Donahue glanced down at Perry Mason. “It would seem to be highly incompetent, Counselor.”
“If the Court please,” Mason argued, “I desire to show that at that time the officers arrested her as Lois Fenton; that she was at that time told she was arrested on suspicion of the murder of John Callender.”
“But what would that have to do with it?” Judge Donahue asked. “I am impressed with the most peculiar circumstances of this case. I am going to give you every latitude in your cross-examination in view of this evident masquerade, but I don’t see exactly what competent matter could be brought out by such a question as you now ask. Assuming that a description of Lois Fenton had been broadcast and that this young woman undoubtedly answered that description, assuming further that the officers took her into custody under the mistaken impression that she was Lois Fenton, I still can’t see any relevancy.”
“Simply this,” Mason said. “I propose to show that this witness was thereupon taken to the jail, that the next day she was placed in a device known as a shadow box by which witnesses are enabled to view prisoners without the prisoners seeing them, and I propose to show, Your Honor,” Mason went on, his voice rising dramatically, “that while she was in that shadow box she was identified absolutely by the witness Sam Meeker and the witness Frank Faulkner as the woman they had seen in the Richmell Hotel at the hour of approximately twenty minutes past two on the morning of September seventeenth!”
“That’s not so,” Hamilton Burger shouted. “You can’t prove it. You can’t...”
“Give me a chance and I will,” Mason said, grimly.
“But I don’t understand,” judge Donahue said, frowning.
“I didn’t for a moment, Your Honor, but I understand now,” Mason said. “The police arrested this woman as Lois Fenton. The next day the witnesses identified her as the woman they had seen in the hotel. Then, within a few minutes after that identification had been made, the police arrested the real Lois Fenton, so Sergeant Holcomb arranged for a second identification, telling the witnesses that they were going to see the girl again under more advantageous circumstances, and the witnesses both thought they were seeing the same girl. And in order to keep these witnesses from suspecting anything, these two police officers staged a fake quarrel so that when the witnesses entered that room containing the shadow box on that second occasion they were so fully convinced in advance that the woman they then saw was the same one they had already seen, they hardly gave her identity any real thought. And then, in order to keep me from finding out what had happened, the police later put the defendant, Lois Fenton, back in the shadow box for a second time. But at that time there was no one on the other side of the screen. That was a police trap, simply for the purpose of keeping me from finding out...”
“That’s not so!” Hamilton Burger shouted.
“You’d better find out whether it’s so or not before you start throwing denials around this courtroom,” Mason said. “Interview the sergeant who had charge of the shadow box. I don’t think Lieutenant Tragg had any part in this, but you interview Sergeant Holcomb and see what he says. And incidentally, Your Honor, noticing that Sergeant Holcomb is in court, I ask that he be required to remain as a witness for the defense until I can have an opportunity to have a subpoena issued and served upon him.”
Judge Donahue banged with his gavel, but all of his attempts to restore order were ineffectual. Sergeant Holcomb got to his feet, started to say something, turned, headed for the door, then paused.
Hamilton Burger shouted, “Holcomb, come here! I want to talk with you!”
Mason settled back in his chair and smiled reassuringly at the defendant.
“But how did you ever know?” Lois Fenton whispered.
Mason said, “What makes my face red is that I didn’t know it long ago. The thing is obvious. They did put you in the shadow box on two occasions. But you didn’t hang your head and sulk the first time. When the witnesses saw you for the first time, they thought they were seeing you for the second time.”
“Will that prove that Irene Kilby was the one who was in the hotel?”
“It will go a long ways toward proving it,” Mason said. “It’ll prove that the first person the witnesses identified as being the one they saw in that hotel was Irene Kilby, and unless I am greatly mistaken that’s going to raise merry hell.”
The Judge’s gavel finally pounded the court to order.
Hamilton Burger said, “Your Honor, this is a most astounding statement that counsel has made. I cannot believe that it has any foundation in fact. Even if it has, it tends only to cast some slight doubt upon the identification, but it cannot defeat the...”
“The Court would like to know,” Judge Donahue interrupted, “whether or not this witness Irene Kilby was put in the shadow box at a time when the witness Sam Meeker and the witness Frank Faulkner were there to make an identification.”
“Of course, Your Honor, she can’t tell. She doesn’t know who was on the other side of the screen.”
“Well, the police know!” Judge Donahue all but shouted, irritably.
“Yes, Your Honor, and if I may have a recess I will endeavor to find out the true facts.”
“How long a recess do you want?”
“An hour. Will that be convenient to the Court?”
“Make it until two o’clock this afternoon,” Judge Donahue said. “We’ll recess court until two o’clock this afternoon, and by that time I want to find out exactly what happened. After all, the police records are not available to the defendant in this case and this witness Irene Kilby certainly has been kept where she was inaccessible to the defense.”
“As a material witness,” Burger said. “And she was held at her own consent, Your Honor.”
Judge Donahue said, “I have no desire to criticize anyone until I have some basis for criticism, but I want to get at the bottom of this. Is there any objection to a recess until two o’clock this afternoon, Mr. Mason?”