“Exactly, Your Honor,” Mason said. “Which was why I didn’t object to the question which the prosecution asked, although I thought that it was rather irrelevant.”
“I still think it was irrelevant,” the judge said. “But I have permitted it, and in view of the fact that it was permitted on direct examination I see no alternative but to give you every latitude on cross-examination. However, it is approaching the hour of the evening adjournment, gentlemen.”
“If the Court will bear with me just another five or ten minutes,” Mason said, “I think perhaps we can conclude this phase of the examination.”
“Very well.”
“Can you answer that question?” Mason asked.
She said, “I don’t know what you told the officers.”
“But you do allege in your complaint that you know.”
“That allegation is on information and belief,” Hamilton Burger said.
“But the witness does know that there actually was a wet blanket, a soaking wet blanket, found in the garage.”
“She’d used it to carry ice in,” Burger said irritably.
“Would you mind holding up your right hand?” Mason asked the district attorney.
“What do you mean?”
Mason smiled. “If you’re going to testify in place of this witness, I’d like to have you sworn.”
There was a titter in the courtroom. Hamilton Burger’s face turned red.
“Proceed, gentlemen,” the Court said. “Counsel will refrain from personalities but on the other hand the witness will be permitted to answer questions without interpolation by counsel.”
“There was such a wet blanket in your garage?” Mason asked.
“Yes. I used it to wrap ice in,” the witness said angrily.
“And a pair of men’s shoes that were also soaking wet?”
“My husband’s shoes,” she said. “I guess a woman has the right to have her husband’s shoes in her garage if she wants.”
“He was your husband at that time?”
“No. We were married four days later.”
“Exactly. But you do admit that a soaking wet blanket and a pair of men’s shoes that were also soaking wet were found concealed in a corner of your garage the morning after the murder?”
The jurors were leaning forward now, their eyes sharp with interest and perhaps a faint trace of suspicion. Hamilton Burger, distinctly uncomfortable, shifted his position and the swivel chair squeaked a protest. As the witness hesitated, the district attorney half arose as though preparing to make an objection, but then subsided and settled back in his chair as he could think of no appropriate manner of coping with the situation which had developed.
The witness said angrily, “If you want to know the facts instead of making a lot of nasty insinuations, Mr. Mason, I’ll tell you the facts.”
“Go right ahead,” Mason invited.
“Your Honor,” Burger protested, “I think this is most improper.”
“I don’t,” Judge Maxwell said. “The witness testifies to bias on direct examination. Counsel now on cross-examination is questioning a witness who is admittedly and concededly hostile, not only from an academic, technical standpoint, but from a most real one. Inasmuch as the cause of that hostility and bias was deliberately brought out by the prosecution on its direct examination, I see no reason for curtailing the defense in its cross-examination on that point.”
“Thank you, Your Honor,” Mason said. “I feel personally that I am entitled to have these facts brought out.”
“I’m the one who is entitled to have them brought out,” the witness said angrily. “I went on a picnic with the man I was going to marry. I went out shortly after noon of the day of that yacht trip and I stayed out until four or five o’clock that afternoon, and I have pictures here to prove it.”
“Indeed?” Mason said, “I’d be interested in those pictures.”
“If the Court please!” Burger protested.
“Oh, let’s have the pictures. Let’s get it over with,” Judge Maxwell said impatiently. “You opened the door for all this, Mr. Burger, and I’m not going to slam it in the face of the witness on the one hand, or the counsel for the defense on the other; not after the manner in which you deliberately opened it. Go ahead. Let’s get the whole story.”
Mason gravely took the pictures which the witness handed him.
“You can see in those photographs,” the witness said, “that my husband — the man shown in this picture — is standing on a raft. He got his feet wet getting on and off that raft. It was something that he made himself out of a board and some sticks. And here’s the blanket with the ice on it. We carried the ice in a blanket and carried it over in the blanket to the place where we were having a picnic.”
“Why in a blanket?” Mason asked.
“Did you ever try to carry ice in your bare hands, Mr. Mason?” the witness asked acidly.
There were smiles in the courtroom.
“And after your picnic?” Mason asked.
“After the picnic I was with my husband.”
“For how long?”
“Until I had to go to the train to meet my mother. And my mother stayed with me the entire night.”
Mason glanced at the clock. “I take it that the Court now wishes to adjourn until tomorrow morning?”
Judge Maxwell nodded. He was plainly angry with the district attorney for the manner in which he had introduced the bias of the witness in an attempt to arouse the sympathies of the jury and equally irritated at Perry Mason for the manner in which he had exploited that blunder on the part of the district attorney. He said, “Court is about to take a recess. Tomorrow is Saturday, and there will be no session of the court until Monday morning at ten o’clock. The jury will remain in the custody of the sheriff and will not converse about this case, discuss it in any way among themselves, or permit others to discuss it in their presence. They will refrain from forming or expressing any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant until the case is finally submitted to them. Court is adjourned.”
The judge got up and stalked angrily away into chambers.
Burger glowered across at Mason. “Satisfied, I trust?” he said sarcastically.
Mason grinned at him. “Go ahead and open doors and I’ll stick my foot in them,” he promised.
“You’ve got your foot in it now,” Burger said angrily, started to say something else, then got up and stormed out of the courtroom.
Mason said to the deputy sheriff who had Marion Shelby in charge, “Just a minute before you take her back. I want to ask her a couple of questions.”
The deputy sheriff nodded, withdrew a few paces.
Mason leaned forward, said in a low tone to Marion Shelby, “The answer to this may be very, very important. Are you absolutely certain that the man you saw fall overboard was your husband?”
“Absolutely.”
“Did you see his features?”
“Not when he was falling, but after he was in the water.”
“You are certain it was your husband?”
“Absolutely positive.”
“There was enough light so that you could see plainly?”
“Yes.”
“You heard his voice?”
“Yes.”
“It was your husband’s voice?”
“Yes.”
“Now then, be very careful about this. Was your husband moving?”
“Yes. He was moving. He was struggling in the water in a peculiar way.”
“Lying on his back or on his stomach?”
“Lying on his back.”
“So you couldn’t see the back of his neck?”