“In the glove compartment of the defendant’s car.”
“The same gun?”
“Well, of course, I didn’t take down the number on the gun, but it was the same make, model and style.”
“Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger snapped triumphantly.
“No questions,” Mason said casually.
“Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said, “my next witness is a hostile witness. I have her under subpoena and am going to have to put her on the stand out of order because of various reasons, which I do not think are necessary to go into at this time. I may also state, if the Court please, that her testimony at this time will perhaps have no apparent connection with the case. However, I can assure the Court that it will be connected up, that it is important, and I ask permission of the Court to call this hostile witness out of order at this time.”
“Very well,” Judge Sedgwick ruled, “you may call the witness. If there are objections to the questions, the Court will rule on these objections as they come up.”
“Mrs. Ruth Marvel,” Hamilton Burger said.
“Oh, good Lord!” Sybil Harlan exclaimed in a despairing whisper.
“Take it easy,” Mason warned under his breath. “Remember now, a poker face! The jurors are watching you.”
Mason glanced at the clock, settled back in his chair as though all of these dramatic witnesses the district attorney was bringing forward were, after all, testifying to no more than routine preliminary matters.
Ruth Marvel had evidently been crying and was apparently angry. She permitted herself to be sworn, gave her name, address, took the witness stand, avoided Sybil Harlan’s eyes and glared angrily at the district attorney.
“You have been a friend of the defendant for some time?” Hamilton Burger asked suavely.
“Yes,” the witness snapped.
“You knew her on the third of June of this year?”
“Yes.”
“You saw her on that date?”
“Yes. Several times.”
“What was the last time you saw her?”
“I don’t know the exact time. In the evening.”
“The early evening?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do at that time?”
“I went with her to look at some property.”
“Where?”
“I don’t remember.”
“What kind of property?”
“Real estate.”
“More than one parcel?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Did she tell you she was interested in property?”
“She asked me to go with her.”
“Did she tell you she was interested in property?”
“She asked me to go with her.”
“Did she tell you she was interested in property?”
“She told me to tell the taxi driver we were to look at property.”
“Now then, Mrs. Marvel,” Hamilton Burger said, “you’re testifying in a murder case. You’re under oath. There are severe penalties for perjury. There are severe penalties for becoming an accessory after the fact. I am going to ask you if the defendant made a statement to you as to the reason, the real reason, she wanted to engage that taxi.”
“Now just a moment, Your Honor,” Mason said. “I don’t like to object to routine questions of these preliminary witnesses—”
“Preliminary witnesses!” Hamilton Burger shouted, his face livid with rage.
Mason glanced at him in some apparent surprise.
Hamilton Burger started to say something, then caught the judge’s eye and lapsed into silence.
“Proceed, Mr. Mason,” the judge said.
“In this case, however,” Mason said, “counsel is cross-examining his own witness. He is taking leading questions. He is threatening the witness. Moreover, the testimony seems to be incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”
“May I be heard?” Hamilton Burger asked.
Judge Sedgwick nodded.
“If the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said, “this witness will, I believe, if she is forced to, testify to a most damaging admission made by the defendant. She is friendly with the defendant; she is hostile to me; she has never told me what her testimony would be. I only know by inference and from what she has told other people. The Court has my assurance, professionally, that this is the case.”
“The objection will be overruled,” Judge Sedgwick announced. “However, I will entertain a motion to strike out this testimony should it not prove pertinent or be materially different from that outlined by the district attorney in his statement.”
“You will answer the question, Mrs. Marvel.”
“She said she wanted to engage a particular cab.”
“Did she say why?”
“She... she said—”
“Yes, yes, go on,” Hamilton Burger prompted.
“She said that it was a cab she had ridden in earlier in the day.”
“And did she tell you that she didn’t want the cab driver to recognize her?”
“Something like that.”
“Go on,” Hamilton Burger said. “What did she tell you?”
Ruth Marvel started to cry.
“I must insist on an answer,” Hamilton Burger said
“She said that her lawyer had told her to get this cab, to have me ride around with her, and pay him off when the meter got to two dollars and ninety-five-cents.”
“Would you know the cab driver if you saw him again?”
Ruth Marvel nodded mutely.
“Will Mr. Jerome C. Keddie stand up?” Hamilton Burger asked.
Keddie, the cab driver, stood up.
“Is that the man?” Hamilton Burger asked.
“Yes,” Ruth Marvel said, in an answer that was almost indistinguishable.
“Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger snapped triumphantly.
Mason smiled reassuringly at the witness. “Mrs. Marvel, there’s no reason for you to be upset about any of your testimony. Didn’t the defendant simply tell you that she was acting under my advice, that she thought a certain taxicab driver was going to identify her and that she wanted to test his memory to see whether he really knew who she was?”
“Now, I object to that,” Hamilton Burger said. “Counsel is leading a witness who is very friendly to his side of the case and—”
“How do you know she’s friendly?” Mason said. “She certainly testified for you readily enough and without reservation. This is cross-examination, and I have a right to cross-examine the witness.”
“Objection overruled,” Judge Sedgwick said.
“Isn’t that substantially what happened?” Mason asked sympathetically.
“Yes,” she said.
“Well, don’t feel bad,” Mason told her, “simply because the prosecution called you to testify as its witness when one of your friends is on trial. The defendant told you that under my instructions she was going to test the recollection of a possible witness, didn’t she?”
“That’s right,” Ruth Marvel said.
“And you got in the taxicab that was being driven by this gentleman, this Jerome C. Keddie who has just stood up?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Mr. Keddie didn’t recognize her, did he? In any event, he gave no sign of recognition that you could see?”
“No, sir.”
Mason smiled and said, “That’s all. That’s all the defendant was trying to accomplish. There’s no secret about it.”
“There isn’t now!” Hamilton Burger shouted. “Now that your scheme has backfired!”
“Backfired?” Mason asked, as though Burger had taken leave of his senses.
“That will do,” Judge Sedgwick ruled. “There will be no personal exchanges between counsel. Mr. Prosecutor, your remark was uncalled for. The witness is excused.”
“Now,” Hamilton Burger said, “I’ll call Jerome C. Keddie to the stand.”
Keddie came forward and was sworn.
“Did you see the defendant on or about the third day of June of this year?” Hamilton Burger asked.