“Let’s take another look at these,” Barney Killigen said. “And in order to illustrate the point I have in mind, I’ll take a carpenter’s square. Now then, we’ll place this square on one of the imprints made by this two-by-four. Now, do you notice anything peculiar about the imprints of the ladder?”
“Well,” Lame said slowly, “the second imprint is an inch or two out of line with the square, but, of course, a man making a ladder doesn’t have to make it just the way a carpenter would.”
“I understand that,” Barney Killigen said, “and, as I gather it from your testimony, the man and the woman who had robbed the house carried the ladder away with them, did they not?”
“That’s right.”
“Notwithstanding the fact that you were standing in the window shooting at them?”
“That’s right. I didn’t shoot at first, of course. I yelled at them to stop. I was groggy, punch drunk, and it took me a little while to get out my gun and... well, a man just doesn’t start shooting at people without giving them every opportunity to submit to arrest.”
“I understand that, and I think the jury will agree with you that you used most commendable restraint. But let’s get back now to this ladder. You will note that when I put the carpenter’s square on the other imprint made by the two-by-four, it’s about the same distance out of true as this first imprint.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now then, in making a ladder,” Killigen said, “two stringers are placed in approximately parallel positions and crosspieces are nailed to them. Now, in the event those cross-pieces are nailed tightly to the two-by-fours, it’s absolutely necessary for the two-by-fours to be squared, isn’t it? In other words, for the two-by-fours to be on an angle, it would be necessary for the crosspieces to be nailed in such a way that they didn’t rest tightly against the stringers.”
“Yes, I guess that’s right,” Lame admitted.
“And that’s impossible to do unless you’ve cut a recess in the two-by-fours for the crosspieces to rest in, and, under those circumstances, you’d have to cut each one of those rests at an angle, isn’t that right?”
Lame seemed to be getting nervous.
“Yes, I suppose so.”
Carl Purdue said: “After all, your honor, this cross-examination about the ladder isn’t of any particular importance. A man doesn’t have to be a carpenter in order to be a robber.”
“Do you wish to object to it?” Killigen asked.
“No, no. Go ahead,” Carl Purdue said, with a magnanimous wave of his hand. “I guess I can stand it, if the court can.”
Judge Tammerlane said: “I think you had better confine your comments to the making of objections to testimony and arguments addressed to the court, Mr. Deputy District Attorney.”
Purdue managed to make his facial expression that of one who has been wrongfully rebuked.
“Let’s approach this problem of the ladder from another angle,” Killigen said, and by this time, it was obvious to everyone in the courtroom that Lame was worried about questions concerning the ladder. “Let us suppose,” Killigen went on, “that a man had stood in an upper window with a length of two-by-four scantling. Suppose that he had pushed that scantling down into the ground with all of his weight, then withdrawn it and moved it about eighteen inches to one side, but that he himself had not moved from his position in the window. Suppose he made a second imprint in the ground by the same method. Under those circumstances, his hands, holding one end of the scantling would have formed the center of a circle, and the two imprints in the ground would have been segments in the perimeter of such a circle, isn’t that right?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lame said sullenly.
“I’ll express it in another way,” Killigen said, peering steadily at Lame. “If there hadn’t been any ladder at all, Mr. Lame, but if you had decided that you were going to fake a holdup and had stood in the window and had pushed a length of two-by-four scantling into the ground in order to make it appear that a ladder had been placed at the window, those imprints would have been just at about the angle of these imprints shown in the plaster cast. Whereas, on the other hand, if the ladder had been placed against the side of the building; it would have been impossible for those two imprints to have been at that angle, isn’t that right?”
“I don’t think so,” Lame said, his eyes furtive, his face flushed. “There was a ladder there all right, and a man standing on it. And if you’re insinuating I faked this burglary, you’re lying.”
Barney Killigen calmly opened a box, took from it two of the curved fragments of silvered glass, and approached the private detective.
“I’ll show you two pieces of glass, Mr. Lame, and ask you if you know what they are.”
“No.”
“Suppose I told you these were found by the side of the driveway of the Chester-Smith residence, at a point near where some of the jewelry had been recovered. Would that mean anything to you?”
“No.”
“Suppose I further pointed out to you that these glass fragments constituted broken pieces from the glass container which goes on the inside of a Thermos bottle. Would you still say that you failed to appreciate their significance?”
Lame squirmed uneasily in the chair.
Carl Purdue said: “Your honor, I think this is improper cross-examination. It’s argumentative and—”
“Overruled,” Judge Tammerlane snapped. “I want to hear the witness answer that question.”
“I don’t know anything about them,” Lame said.
Killigen was smiling affably. “I suppose, Lame, that when you saw an envelope containing one hundred bills each of one hundred dollar denomination, you saw an excellent opportunity to get away with ten thousand dollars. You knew it would be dangerous to take jewelry because, sooner or later, jewelry could be traced to you. You tried to figure out some method by which you could make it appear there’d been a holdup. You looked across to where they were building a garage and saw a long scantling which had evidently been used in scaffolding. You got that scantling, leaned it up against the side of the building, and returned to the room where the gifts were located. You watched your opportunity, impressed the end of the scantling deeply into the soft earth near the flower bed, and then tossed the scantling back toward the garage.
“You calmly walked over to the table where the gifts were on display, selected some of the most valuable gems, and tossed them out of the window in the general direction of the driveway. You removed the container from your Thermos bottle, cracked out the bottom half, and threw that out of the window. In the interior of that Thermos bottle, you stuffed the envelope containing the ten thousand dollars in currency and the ring which you wished to use to frame the defendant in this case. You already knew of the defendant and knew of his criminal record. You smashed the window with your gun barrel, fired six shots, then cracked yourself over the head so that you could show a bruise, and started yelling for help. Subsequently, you gave the police a description of the defendant. You didn’t make it too good because you didn’t want them to pick him up until you’d had an opportunity to plant that ring where he d find it. You felt certain that if he found such a ring, not knowing anything about it, he’d accept it as a windfall. So you gave the police the first four numbers of the car you knew the defendant was driving and—”
“It’s a lie,” Lame screamed. “You can’t prove it.”
Barney Killigen looked him squarely in the eye. “Would you,” he said, “be willing to let the deputy sheriff go to your house, unscrew the lid of the Thermos bottle which you have there, and investigate the contents?”