"How do you know?" JudgeSaxton interrupted.
"I know because I know what thehuman probabilities are."
"This Court is not dealing withhuman probabilities," Judge Saxton said. "This Court is dealing withthe constitutional rights of a defendant charged with crime.
"There is, of course, atendency when one is searching for something which he expects to find, todiscontinue the search when he finds what he has expected. Apparently, that wasdone in this case. I am not censuring the police. I am simply stating that ifthe defendant wants the place searched at this time, the Court is not onlywilling to cooperate in that, but the Court would like to have such a searchmade.
"The Court instructs the prosecutionto cooperate in every way with the defence attorney in getting electricityturned on there. As I understand it, there will be ample illumination if theelectricity is turned on."
Hamilton Burger glanced at Tragg.
"Oh, yes, Your Honour,"Tragg said. "There were long fluorescent light tubes in the warehouse andalso in the storeroom."
"Very well," Judge Saxtonsaid, "Court will recess until two-thirty this afternoon, and if thatisn't sufficient time for the light to have been turned on and a search to bemade, the Court will take a further adjournment until tomorrow morning. Thepresent order is that Court is recessed until two-thirty"
Mason moved over to Paul Drake.
"Paul, you're going withoutlunch."
"I guess everybody's goingwithout lunch," Drake said. "Our next meal may be in jail."
"Forget it," Mason toldhim. "I want you, during the noon recess, to cover every main bank intown, not the branch banks, but the main banks, and see if ten years ago adeposit of forty-seven thousand dollars in cash was made by mail."
"They aren't going to give thatinformation," Drake said, "even if they know. They -"
"They'll know," Masonsaid. "You don't get a forty-seven-thousand-dollar cash deposit by mailevery day in the week. They may not want to give out the information as todetails. Tell them simply we want to know whether such a deposit was received.Put enough men on it to cover the city in the shortest time possible. Get onthe telephone, tell them who you are, tell them it's in the interest ofjustice."
Drake said moodily, "I waswatching Judge Saxton's face when that stuff came out about tampering with thewitnesses. That old boy is dead against you, Perry. He's going to throw thebook at you."
Mason grinned and said, "Thatdoesn't mean I can't dodge."
"Well, you'd better do somepretty fast dodging because I think that old boy is a pretty goodpitcher."
"We aren't licked yet,"Mason said.
"Well, I don't know what you'retrying to prove. My own idea is we're so far behind the eight ball that wearen't ever going to get out."
Mason said, "Look, Paul, a mangets out of federal prison, he has government agents shadowing him, he hasrough shadows and smooth shadows. The guy buys good clothes, he buys goodcigars. Where does he get the money?"
"Where indeed?" Drakeasked. "He bought an automobile and he got that money from you."
"That's right," Masonsaid. "He did that for the moral effect, but when he got the automobile hewas all prepared to disappear. He didn't charter a taxi, he didn't have anotherautomobile staked out. The next time we find him he's in a storeroom which hasbeen vacant for some time, which is tied up in litigation, and the storeroom isprovisioned with food, a sleeping bag, a suitcase with clothes. Now, where didCollister Gideon get all those things?"
"In stores, probably, he hadmoney."
"He was keeping out ofsight," Mason said. "There's more to the Gideon case than werealized."
"Okay, okay," Drake said,"I'll get busy with the banks. Do you want me to try and join you at thestoreroom?"
"No," Mason said,"I'm going to goad the police into making the right kind of asearch."
Chapter 20
The man from the power company said,"Okay, the power's on."
Tragg threw a switch which turned ona battery of lights in the storeroom and office part of the building.
Mason looked around, then moved overto the far side of the room and started a minute search.
Tragg, Hamilton Burger and twoplain-clothes men, obviously bored by the entire procedure, looked at theirwatches, casually looked around and waited for Mason to finish.
"All right, Tragg," Masonsaid, "here's the first thing I want to look at."
"What's that?"
Mason pointed to a traverse beamover the doorway. "There's something in there. A hole, there's a freshsplinter by the side of the hole."
Tragg started to say something, thenchanged his mind and said to one of the men, "See if there's a stepladderaround here."
Hamilton Burger said, "This isanother good old-fashioned razzle-dazzle. This building hasn't been sealed up.Anyone could have gone in here and planted all sorts of evidence."
Tragg said nothing.
Mason started up on the stepladder.Tragg gently pulled him back and said, "I'll do this, if you don't mind,Perry."
Tragg got up, looked at the hole inthe beam, pursed his lips, looked down at Hamilton Burger and said, "Ithink it's a bullet."
Burger's face flushed. "Allright," he said, "we're having Mason up for contempt of court attwo-thirty this afternoon on one charge. We may as well have him on twocharges. Let's get the bullet out. The same old gag of planting evidence."
"If you folks had made thecareful search you should have, it would have been impossible for anyone tohave planted evidence," Mason said. "Now we can't tell when thatbullet was fired in there."
"Well, I can tell,"Hamilton Burger said, "and I can tell who held the gun."
"Want to make a statement inthe presence of witnesses so I can hold you liable?" Mason asked.
Hamilton Burger turned his back andwalked off.
"In getting that bulletout," Mason said, "please be very careful not to disturb thestriations or mark the lead -"
"You don't need to tell me howto take out a bullet," Tragg said.
Tragg enlarged the hole slightlywith a pocket knife and said to one of the plain-clothes men, "That's asdeep as I can go with a knife. Go out to the car and get that kit that has thedrill in it for taking out a section of wood."
The plain-clothes officer returnedfrom the car with an auger designed to cut a circular core from a section ofwood.
Tragg said, "Get up there andbe very, very careful to be sure you're on the course of that bullet. Cut out asection of the wood that has the bullet in it."
The man climbed the stepladder and,after a few minutes, brought down a section of the wooden beam.
Tragg carefully split the sectionand shook out the .38 calibre bullet into his hand.
"All right," he said,"we've found the bullet, what do we do next?"
"We have it appraised byRedfield," Mason said.
"All right," Tragg said,"let's get going. I presume you want to have the report beforetwo-thirty?"
"Send a man with thebullet," Mason said. "Let's not make the same mistake twice. Let'snot quit searching just because we find something. Let's look this thing overcarefully."
"All right," Tragg said,"we'll go into the warehouse now."
They went back in the warehouse.Tragg threw a switch, and the gloomy, dank interior of the place instantlybecame flooded with light.
"Now, let's take a look aroundhere," Mason said. "Have your men turn over every one of those bigcartons and let's see what we can find."
"There are fifty of themhere," Tragg said.
"All right," Mason said,"if you can't turn over fifty cartons by two-thirty, we'll telephone thejudge and get an order."
"Oh, go ahead," Traggsaid.
Tragg and one of the officers shookthe corrugated board packing cases one at a time, moved them, looked inside.
Suddenly one of the men started tosay something to Tragg, caught himself, looked significantly at the policelieutenant and turned his back.
"What is it?" Mason askedsharply. "We're making this search under an order of court. We're entitledto know."