“Went out the back door?”
“Yes.”
“And along the cement walk?”
“No, I kept to the grassy stretch on the side.”
“So your feet wouldn’t make any noise?”
“Yes.”
“And you weren’t followed when you came to Los Angeles?”
“No, but I met a man in the hallway of the office building where my lawyer has his office, who looked like a detective. I was a little bit frightened. I told my lawyer to be careful and fix things so Maddox and Duncan didn’t leave the office for an hour after I left.”
“One more question,” Mason said. “Where were you on the thirteenth?”
“The day before the murder?”
“Yes.”
“In Los Angeles.”
“Doing what?”
“Shopping and consulting with my lawyers.”
“Anything else?”
She thought a minute, then laughed and said, “I saw Pete on the street and followed him for a while.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know—just curiosity, I guess. I followed him here and knew he’d been consulting with you. I’d fired my Santa Barbara lawyers, and when I saw Pete come here I knew things were coming to a head, so then was when I went to see Hettley.”
“How far did you follow Mr. Kent?”
“Until he started for Hollywood. I thought some of stopping him and talking settlement. I wish I’d done it now.”
“That,” Mason said, “is better. Inasmuch as your appearance in court has been made through Hettley and Hettley, you’ll have to have them sign the releases. You get those releases and I’ll have a check for twentyfive thousand dollars all ready for you.”
“That’s okay,” she said, “I made Hettley and Hettley sign the request for dismissal and all of that a couple of days ago. I have all of the necessary papers with me.”
“How did you get them to do that?”
“Do we have to go into that?” she asked.
“I’d like to get a complete picture of the situation.”
“It was simple,” she told him, her lips curving in a smile, “I told them that I’d made some perjured allegations in my complaint and asked them if they wanted to go ahead with the case in view of that fact. I told them that I’d made some very damaging admissions to a very attractive young woman who, it turned out, was a detective, and the other side knew of my perjury. Naturally, they were so anxious to get out they told me never to darken their doors again. I paid them five hundred dollars for drawing up the papers and they washed their hands of the entire case.”
“Do you always play both ends against the middle?” he asked her.
“Sure. I’m attractive. Men never married me for love—not the kind I married. They were old buzzards with money… If I ever marry again, it’ll be for love. I’m tired of golddigging.”
“Thinking of getting married?” he asked her.
“No, of course not.”
“Very well,” he told her, “I’ll have your money in the morning.”
He escorted her to the door. She turned in the corridor and said, “You won’t tell Hettley and Hettley about the trick I’ve pulled on them, will you?”
“Not me,” Mason told her. “All I want is to have the releases and dismissals in proper form and you’ll get your twentyfive thousand dollars. You’ll also be subpoenaed as a witness for the defense.”
“Swell,” she told him.
“And don’t make the mistake of trying to change your story after I get you on the stand,” he told her.
“Don’t worry,” she said, “I know enough about men to know when I’m monkeying with a buzz saw. I’ll play ball with you, Mr. Mason.”
He bowed, smiled and closed the door. Della Street emerged from the law library, carrying a notebook and pencils. “The damn little doublecrosser,” she said. “I could snatch her hair out. What a little tramp she is!”
Mason chuckled and said, “Anyone who can slip one over on Hettley and Hettley is entitled to it. It was a case of diamond cut diamond. They thought they were going to stick her plenty. She just beat them to it.”
“I hated to see you give her twentyfive thousand dollars,” Della Street said. “I’ll bet she’d have dismissed her case anyway. She’s crazy over Pritchard.”
“Don’t worry,” Mason told her; “your friend, George Pritchard will get most of it. And he needs the money to pay off Myrna Duchene. You might get Myrna on the telephone and suggest that now would be a good time to drop into Pritchard’s hotel and threaten to have him arrested unless he kicks through with the money by tomorrow morning.”
Della Street reached for the telephone. “And will that give me pleasure,” she exclaimed.
Chapter 21
Judge Markham, settling himself in the massive swivel chair behind the bench, glanced at the jury box and said, “May it be stipulated, gentlemen, that the jurors are all present and the defendant is in court?”
“So stipulated,” Mason said.
“And so stipulated for the Prosecution,” Hamilton Burger announced.
“I believe Mr. Duncan was on the stand for further crossexamination,” Judge Markham said. “Come forward, Mr. Duncan.”
Duncan strutted to the witness stand, his manner radiating importance. “I think I have just one more question,” Mason said, when the witness had taken his seat. “I believe you stated, Mr. Duncan, that you talked with your client, Mr. Maddox, until approximately eleven o’clock and then went to bed?”
“Yes, around eleven.”
“Then you were in your client’s bedroom until approximately eleven o’clock?”
“Yes.”
“You went in there following the termination of the conference to which you testified yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“And remained there all during that time?”
“Yes.”
“Are you certain you didn’t leave the premises?”
“No, I…” his voice trailed away into silence.
“Go on,” Mason said.
“I don’t see that it makes any difference,” Duncan snapped, flashing a swift glance at the district attorney.
Blaine jumped to his feet. “Your Honor,” he said, “it’s objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, and not proper crossexamination.”
“Overruled,” Judge Markham snapped.
“Come to think of it,” Duncan said, “I did go out for a few moments.”
“Did Mr. Maddox accompany you?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you go?”
“We went to a drug store a couple of blocks from the house.”
“How long were you there?”
“About ten minutes.”
“And during that tenminute period, what did you do?”
“That’s objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial and not proper crossexamination. The direct examination of this witness related to the fixing of time and to the time when he went to bed. The witness fixed that by testifying what he did during the evening. When the defense shows that the witness went out, it makes no difference where he went or what he did. It is only a question of determining how long he was gone.”
“I think I’ll sustain the objection,” Judge Markham announced.
“Did you put in a telephone call?” Mason asked.
“Same objection.”
“Same ruling,” Judge Markham snapped.
“Isn’t it true that at exactly eleven o’clock in the evening you were putting in a telephone call to Mrs. Doris Sully Kent in Santa Barbara, and therefore couldn’t have been in the residence of Peter Kent?”
“Same objection,” Burger snapped.
“If Counsel will amend that question so that witness is asked whether he wasn’t putting in a long distance telephone call at some other place at the time when the witness has previously stated he had returned to the house, I will permit the question,” Judge Markham ruled. “But I do not think it is necessarily relevant, pertinent or proper crossexamination to include in that question the name of the person to whom the telephone call was being made.”
“Very well,” Mason said, “didn’t you put in a telephone call at exactly eleven o’clock from the drug store, Mr. Duncan?”
“It was before eleven. Five minutes to eleven. We were back in the house by eleven o’clock.”