The Case of the Troubled Trustee (25 page)

"Well?" Mason asked.

Drake said, "Look, Perry, it's not up to me to tell you how to try a lawsuit, but you're going to get a terrific amount of publicity out of this."

"Well?" Mason asked.

"And it's going to backfire," Drake said. "If we had found a cartridge that had been taken from a revolver and thrown away, we'd have had something; but this is a shell that has been ejected from an automatic-a thirty-two-caliber automatic at that-and the murder gun is a thirty-eight-caliber snub-nosed Smith and Wesson revolver."

"And so?" Mason asked.

"So," Drake said, "no matter how you look at it, the thing can't be evidence."

"What do you mean it can't be evidence?" Mason said. "It was here. It's an expended cartridge."

"But there weren't twoguns."

"How do you know there weren't?" Mason asked.

"Well, of course, we don't know, but we can surmise."

"Leave the surmising for the district attorney," Mason said. "You and I have just discovered a most important piece of evidence."

"Well, of course, it could be made to fit into your theory," Drake said, "but it would take a lot of highpressure salesmanship to convince the jury that it meant anything."

"After all," Mason told him, "a lawyer is, or should be, an expert in the field of high-pressure salesmanship. Come on, let's get back to complete the search."

"What do you mean, complete the search?"

"Well," Mason said, "we wouldn't want to call it off when the search was incomplete."

"How much more do you intend to search?"

"Well, quite a bit," Mason said. "We want to be sure there's nothing else here."

"I get you,"Drake said, wearily. "You're going to stall along until the newspapers start covering what we're doing."

Mason's eyes became wide. "Why, Paul Drake, how you talk," he said. "We're doing nothing of the sort. We're simply completing the search."

Drake said suddenly, "Look here, Perry, did youdrop that cartridge case so my man could find it?"

"Of course not."

"Did Della?"

"You'll have to ask her."

"The district attorney will claim you planted it either in advance or while we were searching."

"Can he prove it?" Mason asked.

"Good Lord, I hope not!"

"So do I," Mason said. "Come on, Paul, let's get back to work."

The circle of interested spectators opened for the lawyer and the detective. Mason said to the operative, "All right, I think we've found what we were looking for, but let's just make sure there's nothing else here. Let's complete the search."

Slowly, a step at a time, they moved around the golf course until Drake nudged Mason's arm.

The lawyer looked up to see a newspaper reporter and a photographer with a camera and flashgun hurrying toward them.

"Keep right on with your search," Mason told the operative with the metal detector, "although I think we've just about covered the ground here. I think we have everything we need."

The reporter hurried up, pushed his way through the circle of spectators, said to Mason, "What's going on here, Mr. Mason?"

Mason frowned as though the interruption were unwelcome. "We're looking for evidence," he said shortly.

"What sort of evidence?"

Mason thought for a long moment, then grudgingly admitted, "Well, as you can see for yourself, it's metallic evidence."

Someone in the crowd said, "They've already found one empty cartridge case."

"An empty cartridge case?" the reporter asked.

Mason nodded.

"May we see it?"

Mason said, "We're trying to preserve it as intact as possible."

He took a handkerchief from his pocket, carefully unfolded it and showed the reporter the cartridge case nesting in the cloth. "Don't touch it," he warned. "I doubt if anyone can find any fingerprints on it, but we certainly don't want the evidence contaminated."

The reporter pulled out some folded newsprint from his pocket, took a soft, 6-B pencil and started scribbling.

The photographer fed flashbulbs into the gun on his camera. He shot two closeup pictures of the cartridge, then backed away and took two pictures of the group, carefully including Delia Street.

Mason very gently folded the handkerchief back over the cartridge case and put it in his pocket.

"Well," he said, "I think we have completed the search. r guess we found everything that was here."

He waited an appreciable moment, then added, "I may say that we've found everything that we thought was here."

"Just what caused you to think that cartridge was here, Mr. Mason?" the reporter asked.

Mason gave the question careful consideration. "There were," he said at length, "two shots. One at nine o'clock, one at approximately one hour later. Two shots mean two cartridges. There was only one empty cartridge in the gun which the police contend was the murder weapon."

"But that was a revolver," the reporter said. "This cartridge case that you have was ejected from an automatic."

"Exactly," Mason said, with an enigmatic smile, and then added, "I don't think I should be giving an interview at this time. Come on, folks, let's go."

Chapter Twenty-Two

Judge Alvarado surveyed the crowded courtroom with something of a frown. "The jurors seem to be all present, and the defendant is in court," he said. "I trust that the jurors have heeded the admonition of the Court and have neither listened to radio or television nor read papers concerning the case. I know that this imposes a hardship upon jurors, but the only alternative is to have jurors locked up for the duration of the trial and that is even more of a hardship.

"The jury will remember and heed the admonition of the Court. Gentlemen, you may proceed if you are ready."

"We are ready," Hamilton Burger said.

"We are ready, Your Honor," Mason rejoined.

"Then call your next witness."

Mason said, "Mr. Paul Drake, will you take the stand, please?"

Drake held up his hand, was sworn and took his position on the witness stand.

"What is your occupation?" Mason asked.

"I am a private detective."

"Are you familiar with the Barclay Country Club in this city?"

"I am."

"Are you familiar with the particular portion of the club which is in the vicinity of the seventh tee?"

"Yes, sir."

"When were you last there?"

"Yesterday afternoon at about three to four o'clock."

"What were you doing on the golf course at that hour?"

"I was participating in a search of the territory immediately adjacent to the seventh tee."

"Were you using your eyes or did you have some mechanical assistance?"

"We had a metal detector."

"And did you, at that time, discover anything?"

"Yes, sir."

"What?"

"We discovered a thirty-two-caliber empty, brass cartridge case."

"What did you do with that?"

"You took it into your possession."

Mason approached the witness and said, "I ask you if you made any identifying mark upon that cartridge case?"

"Yes, sir, a small scratch with the point of my knife."

"I show you an empty cartridge case and ask you if that is the cartridge case."

"Yes, sir, that is the one we found."

"If the Court please, we ask this be introduced in evidence as Defendant's Exhibit Number One," Mason said.

Hamilton Burger, on his feet, smiled at the court. "I believe, if the Court please, I have the right to examine the witness on voir dire."

"You certainly do," Judge Alvarado said. "Proceed."

"You state that you are a private detective, Mr. Drake?" Hamilton Burger asked, facing the witness.

"Yes, sir."

"You do a great deal of work for Mr. Perry Mason?"

"Yes, sir."

"Does his work account for all of your income?"

"No, sir, not all of it."

"A substantial part of it?"

"Yes, sir."

"As much as ninety per cent?"

"No, I would say perhaps as much as seventy-five per Cent."

"I see," Hamilton Burger said. "Now, what are your regular rates of payment?"

"Fifty dollars a day and expenses."

"That is figured on an eight-hour day?"

"Theoretically, yes."

"That is something over six dollars an hour," Hamilton Burger said, "over ten cents a minute. Now, I take it that you are a good businessman and as such you strive to give Mr. Mason value received?"

"We try to keep our clients satisfied. Yes, sir."

"And you try to find what they want?"

"If we can do so, yes."

"You knew when you went out to the golf links that you were going to be searching for an empty cartridge case?"

"I so understood."

"And this cartridge case which you say that you found, there is nothing about it to show when it was fired?"

"No, sir."

"Nor is there anything about it to show when it was dropped on the ground."

"No, sir."

"It could have been dropped on the ground as much as a year ago?"

"I presume so."

"Or it could have been dropped to the ground within a matter of seconds before you so fortuitously found it."

Drake said, "There is nothing about the cartridge case, nor was there anything on the ground telling how long it had been on the ground."

"It could have been a matter of seconds?"

"I presume it couldhave been dropped at any time before we started searching."

"Or it might have been dropped during the search?" Burger asked with a sneer.

"I don't think so."

"You don't thinkso. Can you swear that it hadn't been?"

"I was watching."

"Were you watching every one of the people in your group all the time? Were you watching all of the assembled curiosity seekers who ceased playing golf to cluster around you?"

"It was physically impossible to watch everyone."

"So anyone in that group could have taken advantage of a time when your back was turned and tossed that empty cartridge case out into the grass?"

"I presume so, yes."

"That empty cartridge case has no commercial value?" ''No.' "But the value of your relationship with Mr. Mason is very great. In other words, his business represents an income of many thousands of dollars a year to you, does it not?"

"It has in the past."

"And you hope it will in the future?"

"Yes, sir."

"As long as you continue to serve him diligently."

"Yes, sir."

"And manage to findthe articles that he wants you to find."

"I simply work to the best of my ability," Drake said.

"That is all," Hamilton Burger said, as he walked back to the counsel table with a manner that indicated that he was deliberately and contemptuously turning his back on the witness.

Mason, observing the gesture, whispered to Della Street, "The old so-and-so is certainly a past master of courtroom strategy."