“So it would seem,” Judge Madison ruled. “The payment in one-hundred-dollar bills is an interesting development, but unless those one-hundred-dollar bills can be identified in some manner — I take it counsel intends to connect them up?”
Judge Madison looked at Perry Mason. Mason said, “If the Court please, I intend to connect up this painting.”
Judge Madison shook his head. “I don’t see that the painting can be at all relevant. The money that was paid for the painting might have some bearing.”
Mason said, “I intend to connect up the painting, Your Honor.”
“No,” Judge Madison said, “I think you should go at it the other way, Counselor. I think you should first show the fact that the painting is pertinent according to some phase of the case before you try to introduce it.”
“I intend to do that,” Mason said.
“I think you had better do it, then.”
“However” Mason said, “while this witness is here, if the Court rules that I can’t have this painting introduced in evidence, I certainly would like to have it marked for identification and retained in the custody of the clerk until I have connected it up.”
“I take it there is no objection to that procedure?” Judge Madison asked Dexter.
Dexter seemed somewhat uncertain. After a moment he got to his feet. “If the Court please, this witness is here in response to a subpoena duces tecum, he has brought the painting, the painting isn’t going to run away.”
“Paintings don’t run away,” Mason said, “but it might be taken away.”
“Well, it’s here now. It can be brought back at a later date.”
“If it is marked for identification and left in the custody of the court, it will—”
“Very well,” Judge Madison interrupted. “The Court is going to so rule. Produce the painting, Counselor.”
Mason said to Gilbert, “Will you produce the painting, please?”
Gilbert, sullen, plainly hostile, hesitated. “It’s my painting. I don’t think that anyone has any right to take it away from me.”
“Produce it, please, and we’ll take a look at it,” Judge Madison said. “That is the Court’s ruling.”
Gilbert left the witness stand, went to the anteroom, shortly returned with a painting covered with wrapping paper. He angrily ripped off the wrapping paper and held up the painting.
Judge Madison looked at the painting, blinked his eyes, and looked again at Gilbert. “Did you do that, young man?” he asked.
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“That’s a very good painting,” Judge Madison said.
“Thank you.”
“You may resume your position on the witness stand.”
Gilbert walked back to the witness stand.
“This painting that you have produced,” Mason asked, “is one that you did at the request of Collin M. Durant, the decedent?”
“Now, just a moment, before you answer that question,” Dexter said, “I’m going to object to this on the ground that it is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial; that this painting has absolutely no bearing on the issues in the case.”
“At the present time I think that is correct. The objection will be sustained.”
“I ask, if the Court please, that this painting be marked for identification,” Mason said.
“So ordered,” Judge Madison said.
“And left with the clerk in the custody of the court.”
“For how long?” Judge Madison asked. “How long will it take you to get to the matter in hand, Counselor?”
“I would like to have until tomorrow to do so.”
“You mean you have a case which is going to take all afternoon?” the judge inquired.
“If the Court please,” Mason said, “I intend to put the defendant on the stand.”
“Put the defendant on the stand!” Judge Madison echoed incredulously.
“Yes, Your Honor.”
Dexter jumped up, paused openmouthed, looked at Mason, looked at the judge, and then slowly sat down.
“And,” Mason said, “in order to prepare for this rather unexpected development in the case, I would like to have a recess until three-thirty this afternoon. I may state to the Court that my determination to put on a defense was not reached until a few minutes before the prosecution concluded its case.”
“You have a right to put on a defense and you have a right to have a reasonable continuance in order to get your witnesses here,” Judge Madison said. “Do I understand, Mr. Mason, that you now state you are going to put the defendant on the witness stand?”
“I am going to put the defendant on the witness stand,” Mason said.
“Very well, that’s your privilege,” Judge Madison said. “I may point out that it is very seldom, if ever, done in a preliminary hearing in a murder case.”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
Judge Madison said, “I suppose you know what you’re doing... Very well. Court will take a recess until three thirty... I would like to see counsel for the defendant in chambers, please.”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Mason said.
Judge Madison left the bench and went into his chambers. Dexter said to Mason, “What kind of a stunt are you trying to pull now?”
“No stunt at all,” Mason said. “The defendant certainly has a right to let the Court know her story.”
“You mean to let the newspapers know it.”
“Any way you want it,” Mason said.
“It’s your party,” Dexter said, “and it’s your funeral.” He picked up his brief case and walked out.
Mason went into chambers, and Judge Madison, hanging up his robe in the closet, turned to the lawyer and said, “Now, look here, Mason. I’ve known you for a long time. You’re a shrewd, clever lawyer. You have a good-looking client who is very probably going to appeal to the sympathies of a jury, but you know this Court well enough to know that tears and nylon are not going to have any effect on my judgment.”
“Yes, Judge,” Mason said.
“All right. Don’t do it.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Don’t put your defendant on the stand. You know better than that. You get her on the witness stand and there’ll be a record made of her testimony, they’ll try to tear her to pieces with cross-examination, and then when she gets in the Superior Court she has two strikes against her. Everything she says, every answer she gives, has got to be exactly like the story she told at the preliminary hearing. Now, I’d feel different about it if it could do any good, but I just want to tell you off the record what I told you on the record in court. I’m going to bind this defendant over for trial and no amount of explaining or denial on her part is going to stop me.
“It was her gun that killed Durant. He was killed in her apartment. She resorted to flight immediately after the murder. She left the apartment without even pausing long enough to pack up her things. All she took with her was her canary. She lied to the officers about the time she left the apartment and she went down to the bus station and stayed down there until she could get you on the phone. She concealed the gun in one of the lockers there and left it. Then she gave your secretary the key to her apartment and skipped out.
“Now, you may be able to beat that case in front of a jury. You’re clever and you have a good-looking client. But you can’t figure out any possible combination of facts which would keep a committing magistrate from binding the defendant over under circumstances such as that, so why lead with your chin?”
Mason said, “I’m taking a calculated risk.”
Judge Madison said, “The minute I make an order binding that defendant over for trial, every lawyer in the country is going to be grinning and stopping his brother lawyers and saying ‘Did you hear about Perry Mason’s goof?’ ”