“I didn’t see a figure I thought I could recognize as that of the defendant. I saw the defendant. She was walking out of that apartment carrying her bird cage, and I just said to myself, I said to myself—”
“Never mind what you said to yourself,” Mason interrupted with a smile, “that would be hearsay. Let me ask you, Mrs. Newton, can you see the headline on this newspaper I’m holding up?”
“Certainly I can see it. And I can read it. And I can read the smaller headlines. I can read those headlines over in the right-hand corner: president contemplates: balanced budget for next fiscal year.”
Mason frowned thoughtfully, said abruptly, “Are you wearing contact lenses, Mrs. Newton?”
“Yes!”
“When did you first wear contact lenses?”
“I got them on the afternoon of the twelfth.”
“And discarded your other glasses?”
“Not all at once. I alternated — I still do.”
“So on the thirteenth you hadn’t as yet become fully accustomed to your contact lenses?”
“Well, I could see with them all right.”
“But you were wearing them only a short time each day?”
“Yes.”
“Did you have them on when you emerged from your apartment and saw the figure you take to be that of the defendant in the corridor?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Well, let’s see if we can refresh your memory,” Mason said. “When did you put them in on the thirteenth, in the morning?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You recognized the figure you now say was that of the defendant, by the clothes?”
“I’d know that tweed coat of hers anywhere.”
“It wasn’t form-fitting?”
“I’ve told you it wasn’t. It was a baggy, tweed coat.”
Mason said, “Then you couldn’t see the face, you couldn’t see the figure. All you could see was the coat and the caged canary.”
“What more do you want?”
“I don’t want anything,” Mason said smiling, “except to have you tell the truth. Now, you couldn’t recognize the defendant by her form, could you, because you couldn’t see her form.”
“That question is argumentative, if the Court please,” Dexter said.
“I’m going to allow it anyway,” Judge Madison said. “I think the situation is quite obvious here and if counsel wants to develop it for the record I’m going to permit him to do so.”
“I couldn’t see her figure; she had her clothes on.”
“By clothes you mean this baggy, tweed coat?”
“She had other clothes on.”
“But you couldn’t see them.”
“I can’t see through a coat. I don’t have X-ray eyes.”
“So all you could see was a figure wearing a tweed coat”
“Well, I guess I know the coat when I see it.”
“And carrying a bird in a cage.”
“A caged canary.”
“Could you see the bird?”
“I saw the bird well enough to know it was a canary.”
“And in view of the fact that you didn’t intend to drive your car,” Mason said, “the probabilities are that you didn’t have your glasses on. Is that correct?”
“All right,” the witness snapped. “I didn’t have my glasses on, but I’m not blind, Mr. Mason.”
“Thank you,” Mason said. “That’s all!”
“No redirect,” Dexter said.
“Call your next witness,” Judge Madison directed.
“That’s our case, Your Honor,” Dexter said. “The People rest.”
“Well,” Judge Madison said, “of course the testimony has some gaps, as Mr. Mason has so dramatically pointed out. The defendant was seen near this locker. However, she was not seen opening the locker, or putting anything in it.
“Of course, however, it is her gun and, while Mr. Mason’s dramatic cross-examination of the last witness indicates that there may be weak links in the evidence, there seems to be no alternative for this Court but to bind the defendant over and...”
Mason rose.
“And since it is a murder case,” Judge Madison went on, “the defendant will not be admitted to bail.”
“May I make a statement, if the Court please?” Mason asked.
“Certainly,” Judge Madison said.
“The defendant wishes to put on a case.”
Judge Madison frowned, hesitated a moment, then spoke cautiously, weighing his words. “The Court had no intention of precluding the defendant from putting on a case. The Court had naturally assumed that there would be no defense, since this is merely a preliminary hearing.
“The Court apologizes to counsel for starting to make its order binding the defendant over without asking the defendant’s counsel if he wished to put on any case.
“Having said that, however, may the Court point out that in a matter of this sort where the only question before the Court is whether a crime has been committed and there is reasonable ground to believe the defendant committed that crime, it does no good to raise a conflict in the evidence. The Court’s duty is apparent.
“I take it the defense understands this somewhat elemental situation?”
“The defense understands it,” Mason said.
“Very well,” Judge Madison said, if you wish to put on a defense, go ahead.”
Mason said, “I’ll call Goring Gilbert to the stand.”
Gilbert, his shirt now buttoned and tucked in his slacks, and wearing shoes and a sport coat, came forward, raised his right hand and seated himself on the witness stand.
After the witness had given his name and address to the clerk of the court, Mason said abruptly, “Did you know Collin Max Durant in his lifetime?”
“I did.”
“Did you have any business transactions with him?”
“Several.”
“Within the last several weeks did you have any business transactions?”
“Yes.”
“As a result of that business, did he give you a sum of money?”
“Yes. He paid me for some of the work I did.”
“How was that money paid to you, in cash or by check?”
“In cash.”
“And how was it paid in cash? Were there bills of any particular denomination?”
“The last money I received from him was all in one-hundred-dollar bills.”
Judge Madison frowned thoughtfully and leaned forward on the bench to look down at the witness.
“And what were you hired to do?” Mason asked.
“I was hired to do various paintings.”
“You completed those paintings?”
“I did.”
“And what did you do with them?”
“They were delivered to Collin Durant.”
“Do you know where those paintings are now?”
“No.”
“What?” Mason exclaimed.
“I said I didn’t know where they were.”
“I will call your attention to a painting I examined at your studio, one that was in the style of a painter named—”
“I am familiar with that painting.”
“Where is it now?”
“I have it.”
“You were served with a subpoena duces tecum to bring a painting with you?”
“I was.”
“That was the same painting I looked at in your studio?”
“Yes.”
“And you have that painting here?”
“Yes. It is wrapped up and in the witness room.”
“Will you get it, please?”
“Now, just a moment,” Dexter said. “I haven’t objected to this line of examination, if the Court please, because I felt certain counsel intended to connect it up.
“As far as the one-hundred-dollar bills are concerned, it is possible — barely possible — that the testimony is pertinent. But as far as this painting is concerned, it is very plainly incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, and I object to it on that ground.”