“Now then,” Irvine said, “let me ask you a few questions about more recent events, Mr. Hale. Where do you live at the present time?”
Hale gave him his address.
“And where is that with reference to the estate known as the Whippoorwill, the estate of Karl Carver Endicott, deceased?”
“It is next door.”
“In the adjoining house?”
“Yes.”
“Directing your attention to the night before the commencement of this trial, did you notice anything unusual taking place at that time in the Endicott residence?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What?”
“Two persons were digging something up in a hedge of the Endicott home.”
“Did you have an opportunity to see those persons or recognize them?”
“Yes. I recognized them by their voices.”
“Will you tell us what happened?”
“My house was dark. I had retired. It was well after midnight. I saw the two individuals vaguely out in the hedge. I was curious, so I put on a dark robe and slipped out a side door. I learned from their low-voiced conversation that they were digging something up.”
“And then what happened?”
“I heard one of them say, ‘I found it!’ “
“Do you know who that person was?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Who?”
“Donald Lam, a detective employed by the defense.”
“Had you heard his voice before?”
“Yes.”
“You recognized that voice?”
“I did.”
“Now then, prior to that time had you seen anyone burying anything near the location of the hedge?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Who?”
“Mrs. Endicott.”
“You mean Elizabeth Endicott, the widow of Karl Carver Endicott?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What had you seen her burying?”
“I don’t know what it was. It was something she took from a package. She dug a little hole in the ground, and placed this thing, whatever it was, in that hole, and covered it loosely with earth.”
“When was that?”
“It was that same night.”
“What time?”
“About an hour before Mr. Lam and Mrs. Cool dug up the gun.”
“Did you hear them refer to it as a gun?”
“Yes.”
“Now with reference to the place you saw this thing being buried, where was that? At what particular spot in the hedge? Can you point it out on the map?”
The witness pointed to a spot on the map.
“Now mark that with an ‘X’ and put your initials near it.”
The witness did so.
“With reference to the place where you saw this gun being dug up, or rather where you heard the persons at work digging up the weapon, can you identify that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where was it?”
“At exactly the same place, as nearly as I can tell,” the witness said.
Irvine turned to Quinn with a smile. “Cross-examine,” he said.
Fortunately at that point Quinn had sense enough to direct the Court’s attention to the fact that it was time for the midmorning recess.
The Court took its recess and Quinn came over to me.
“It’s all right,” I told him. “We’re going to outsmart them yet.”
“But what the hell happened?”
“What happened,” I said, “is perfectly obvious. That damn district attorney, with his romantic bearing, his expressive eyes, has completely hypnotized Helen Manning. She’s eating out of his hand. He’s convinced her that he’s her dish. She must have telephoned him as soon as we left her apartment and told him what had happened.
“There wasn’t, of course, any way that we could have prevented that. If we’d been the prosecution, we could have taken her into custody so she couldn’t have communicated with the other side.
“So the district attorney gets hold of Hale and tells him the sad news and Hale laughs, says he was just waiting for us to walk into that trap and tells the prosecutor for the first time about having seen Mrs. Endicott burying something in the hedge and about seeing us digging something up.”
“Do you think Irvine would let him do that without asking him why he hadn’t told his story before?”
“He asked all right, and Hale undoubtedly explained that he thought the authorities had the murder weapon, that he didn’t know exactly what we had found and that he was waiting to see what sort of a frame-up we were cooking up before showing his hand.”
“Irvine isn’t that dumb,” Quinn said. “Hale is lying.”
“We can’t prove it, and Irvine is so damned sold on his side of the case that it colors his judgment in every titling he does. He wants to win this case.”
“But what are we going to do now?” Quinn asked.
I said, “This is where you tear into that witness Hale. You ask him if it isn’t a fact that he came to my office and offered to shade his testimony so the defendant would be acquitted if we’d give him the breaks on leasing some of his property to an eastern manufacturer.”
“What?” Quinn exclaimed, startled. “You mean he made a proposition like that?”
“Ask him.”
“But I couldn’t ask him unless I had your assurance that such was the case.”
“Ask him,” I said. “You’re going to have to fight the devil with fire.”
“Will you assure me that you’ll get on the stand and testify that he said that?”
“No,” I said, “I won’t get on the stand and testify he said that in so many words. However, that was what he had in mind and he won’t be able to remember exactly what he said. Go ahead and ask him that.”
“Not unless you tell me that you’ll testify to that effect.”
I said, “Ask him why he went to our office. Ask him if he didn’t go there and suggest that he was a personal friend of the district attorney and that he would try to intercede on behalf of the defendant if I would co-operate with him.”
“Will you testify to that?”
“I’ll go this far, such an offer was made in his presence and with his approval.”
Court reconvened. Hale, smilingly self-confident, waited for the cross-examination.
Quinn said, “Isn’t it a fact that you have been acquainted with Donald Lam and Bertha Cool, the two detectives, for some time?”
“Not for a long time. For a relatively short time.”
“Isn’t it a fact that you told Mr. Lam and his partner Mrs. Cool that you were a friend of the district attorney?”
“I may have. I consider the district attorney my friend. I know many of the officials of this county and consider them my friends.”
“Didn’t you offer to intercede on behalf of the defendant with the district attorney if Mr. Lam would cooperate with you in a private business matter?”
“I did not.”
“Didn’t you offer to use your good offices with the district attorney in trying to make things easier for the defendant in this case, if Cool and Lam would work with you in a certain property matter? And didn’t they refuse to do so and thereby cause you to make threats?”
“Definitely not!”
“Didn’t that conversation take place in their office?”
“No, sir.”
“Were you ever in their office?”
The witness hesitated.
“Were you?” thundered Quinn.
“Well, yes.”
“Before the trial of this case?”
“Yes.”
“After the defendant had been arrested?”
“I believe it was. I can’t remember the exact date.”
“Didn’t you discuss this case with Mr. Lam and Mrs. Cool at that time?”
“We discussed a number of things.”
“Answer that question! Didn’t you discuss this case with them?”