The Case of the Troubled Trustee pm-78 Read online

  Drake, down on his hands and knees, felt with exploring fingertips in the grass. "I've got it," he said, and came up with an empty brass cartridge case.

  Mason said jubilantly, "Drive a peg of some sort in the ground at the exact place where that was found, Paul. Let's mark it."

  Drake took a small metal surveyor's stake from the place where he had been carrying it in his belt and pushed it into the ground, then tied a bright red ribbon in the loop.

  "Camera?" Mason asked.

  Della Street handed Mason a camera.

  The lawyer circled the place, taking a dozen pictures from all different angles, showing the location with reference to all the fixed landmarks.

  Then the lawyer carefully dropped the cartridge case into a pocket formed in a pocket handkerchief. Drake scratched the case. Mason examined it with a pocket magnifier.

  The crowd of golfers, pushing closer, were almost breathing down the necks of the triumphant searchers.

  "Just what does this mean?" one of the golfers asked.

  Mason said, "It means that we now have corroboration- Well, I hadn't better discuss it here."

  The lawyer looked up with a smile that was all but cherubic in its innocence. "I wouldn't want to be accused of trying to influence public thinking," he said. "You can look in the papers tomorrow and find much more than I am in a position to tell you now."

  Drake touched Mason's arm. "Let's go where we can talk," he said.

  Mason nodded, took Paul Drake's arm and smiled affably at the circle of golfers.

  "If you'll pardon us just for a minute," he said, "we have a matter to discuss."

  Mason led Drake through the circle which opened for them and over toward the rough.

  "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 two guns."

  "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 you drop 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 could have 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 think so. 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 find the 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."

  "That concludes your voir dire?" Judge Alvarado asked Burger.

  "Yes, sir."

  "The defense has offered this in evidence. Do you have any objection?"

  "I certainly do, Your Honor. I object on the ground it is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. It is a physical impossibility that this could have been fired from the 'murder weapon. Therefore, it has no significance standing by itself. The only possible significance could be in the place where it was found, or the time when it was found; and it has just been shown by the evidence of this witness who so fortuitously participated in finding this cartridge case, that it is impossible to vouch for the time when it was placed there."

  "Nevertheless," Judge Alvarado said, "I think that, while your objection goes to the weight rather than to the admissibility of the evidence, the Court is going to allow this to be received in evidence. Counsel will have ample opportunity to argue to the jury as to what this means."

  "In that case," Hamilton Burger said, "while I realize that this matter should be handled expeditiously, I would like to have a recess until tomorrow morning to try to find out more about this most fortuitous discovery."

  judge Alvarado frowned, started to shake his head.

  Mason said, "We have no objections; if the prosecution wants this continuance, the defendant is willing to join in the motion, and since the jurors are not being confined, it should not work too great a hardship upon them."

  "Very well," Judge Alvarado said, "on that understanding I will grant the motion, rather reluctantly, however."

  Judge Alvarado turned to the jurors. "The jurors will understand that the Court is empowered to keep the jurors together during the trial of a case. This sometimes works an unnecessary hardship; and, if in the judgment of the Court it is not necessary, the Court is permitted to let the jurors return to their homes. The Court will admonish you, however, that the jurors will be violating their oath if they listen to any television discussion of this case, any comment about it on radio, or read anything in the newspapers. The jurors are again admonished not to form or express any opinion in regard to the merits of the case, not to discuss it among yourselves, and not to permit any person to discuss it in your presence.

  "Under those circumstances, and in view of the fact that there has been a joint request for a continuance, the Court is somewhat reluctantly taking a recess until tomorrow morning at ten o'clock."

  Judge Alvarado left the bench.

  Paul Drake, his expression ominous, came over to stand by Mason while he glared across at the prosecution's table.

  Hamilton Burger managed to avoid meeting the detective's eyes.

  "Take it easy, Paul," Mason warned.

  "Someday," Drake said, "I'm going to plant a punch right in the middle of his snout."

  "He's only doing his duty," Mason said.

  "Well, I don't like the way he does it."

  "Neither do I," Mason agreed, "but there are some things about the way I conduct a case which he doesn't like."
>
  "If he'll only look up here," Drake said, "I'll wish him a very good evening in a tone of voice which will be as sarcastic as his voice was when he said, 'That's all.'"

  Mason got up, took Drake's arm and gently turned him around. "You'll do nothing of the sort," he said. "That isn't the sort of publicity we want at this particular stage of the game."

  "You think the jurors are going to refrain from reading the newspapers?" Drake asked.

  Mason smiled. "Come on, Paul, let's both quit being naive."

  Mason picked up his brief case and smiled at Della Street.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Back in his office, Della handed Mason the newspapers. "You take a good picture," she said.

  "You're the one who takes a good picture," he told her. "Getting that outfit was a stroke of genius on which I pride myself.

  "I think," he continued, "that the picture might not have been published if it hadn't been for the feminine angle."

  "Angle?" she asked archly.

  "Curve," Mason corrected.

  She smiled.

  Mason read the account in the paper.

  "No wonder Hamilton Burger felt peeved," he said. 'This makes quite a story."

  Mason finished with the paper, started to put it aside; then a headline on an inside page caught his eye.

  "Well," he said, "the decedent, Rodger Palmer, seems to have had his name cleared posthumously."

  "How come?"

  "Another one of those mysterious stocking murders in a cheap hotel.

  "You remember that the report made by Drake's detective stated that at one time the police considered Palmer a suspect. He'd lived in two of the hotels where these stocking murders had been committed. He was in the hotel at the time of the crime… That was just a little too much of a coincidence for the police.

  "They, of course, took the names of every person residing in the hotel at the time of the crime and then checked those names with the guest lists of other hotels. When they found Palmer's name on two lists, they de. scended on him like a ton of bricks."

  "That certainly was a coincidence," Della Street said.

  Mason nodded. "Those things happen in real life, and yet- Hang it, it is quite a coincidence. We'd have given it a lot of thought if it hadn't been that Palmer was very dead by the time we started investigating him.