“I may have mentioned it.”
“And in that connection, didn’t you discuss your friendship with the district attorney?”
“I may have.”
“Didn’t you suggest that you would be willing to co-operate?”
“Co-operate is a very loose word, Mr. Quinn.”
“I understand the meaning of the English language,” Quinn said. “Didn’t you offer to co-operate?”
“I may have used the word. But what I meant by it may have been entirely different from what the other parties thought I meant by it.”
“But you did go to their office?”
“Yes.”
“After the case was pending?”
“Yes.”
“And you did mention your friendship for the district attorney?”
“Yes. Either I did or my companion did.”
“And you did offer to use your good offices in case they would co-operate?”
“Well, I may have, or I may have offered something in the nature of co-operation. I don’t know.”
“All right. Wasn’t that offer refused?”
“There wasn’t any definite offer which could have been refused.”
“You left the office after making some threats?”
“I— No.”
“Would you say you left the office with the same friendly, good feeling with which you had entered it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you shake hands with Donald Lam when you left?”
“I can’t remember.”
“Did you shake hands with Mrs. Cool?”
“I can’t remember.”
“Isn’t it a fact that you did not shake hands?”
“I have no recollection in the matter.”
“Why did you go to their office?” Quinn asked.
“Well... it’s... it’s—”
“Oh, Your Honor, I object!” Irvine said. “This matter has already gone far enough.”
“The objection is overruled,” Judge Lawton snapped.
“Why did you go to their office?”
“I wanted certain information.”
“About what?”
“About rumors that were going around about a manufacturing establishment which was planning to locate in Citrus Grove.”
“And didn’t you mention at that time that you had real estate holdings in Citrus Grove?”
“I may have.”
“And didn’t you at that time offer to use your friendship with the district attorney and your influence if Cool and Lam would co-operate with you?”
“Not in those words.”
“But that was the idea back of your visit?”
“No, sir.”
“What was the idea of your visit?”
“I wanted to get what information I could.”
“And at that time and as a part of getting what information you could, you brought up the fact that you were friendly with the district attorney, and you did offer to co-operate in the case of the defendant John Dittmar Ansel, in case you in turn received co-operation from Cool and Lam?
“Yes or no?” Quinn thundered.
“Not exactly.”
Quinn turned away with an expression of disgust. “That,” he said, “is all.”
Irvine announced the tests which were being made by the experts would require some time and suggested that Court adjourn until two o’clock.
Judge Lawton complied with the request.
“Meet me in your offices,” I said to Quinn as he left the courtroom. “I don’t want to talk with you here.” I left the courtroom.
Newspaper reporters were exploding flashbulbs in my face, also getting pictures of Bertha Cool.
One of the newspaper reporters asked Bertha Cool if she had any comments on Hale’s testimony.
“You’re damn right I have,” Bertha said.
“What are those comments?” the newspaperman asked.
“You may say for me,” Bertha said, “that Hale offered to use his good offices in getting the murder charge reduced to manslaughter if we’d give him certain information.
“You can also state that I’m willing to testify to that, and if that district attorney tries to cross-examine me, I’ll tear his goddam can off.”
I went to Quinn’s office. Mrs. Endicott was with him.
“Well?” Quinn asked.
I said, “I want you to do one thing, Quinn. If you’ll do exactly as I say we’re going to come out all right.”
“What is it?” Quinn asked.
I said, “Get the experts on the stand. Show that Endicott was killed with the Manning gun and not with the Ansel gun. Let everything else go by the boards. Concentrate on that.”
I turned to Mrs. Endicott. “Did you bury that gun?”
She shook her head. “That testimony is absolutely unqualifiedly false.”
“But,” Quinn said, “how the devil am I going to prove it, Lam? If I put her on the witness stand, they’re going to examine her concerning her movements on the night of the murder. Then they’re going to smash her alibi.”
“They’re trying Ansel for the crime,” I said.
“I know, but if they can discredit Mrs. Endicott it will reflect on Ansel. It will look as though the two of them planned the whole thing.”
I said, “If you do what I tell you to, you won’t need to put anybody on the stand.”
“What?”
“Show the crime was committed with that gun that we turned over to the expert last night.”
He seemed dubious.
“Damn it!” I said. “I know what I’m doing. Do what I tell you to and make the argument I tell you, and with that jury you’re going to be all right.”
“They’ll convict him of something,” he said.
“All right,” I said, “it’s an unfair question to ask you in front of your client, but what tactics do you have planned? Do you dare to put Mrs. Endicott on the stand?”
“No.”
“Do you dare to put the defendant on the stand?”
“No.”
“What’s going to happen if you submit your case without putting either one of them on the stand?”
He made a grimace. “Ansel’s going to be convicted of first-degree murder.”
“All right,” I told him. “You’ve got to do what I tell you to whether you want to or not. Forget about your case. Concentrate on that gun, and when you make your argument, challenge the district attorney to tell the jury exactly what the prosecution claims took place. Dare him to reconstruct the crime for the jury.”
Quinn was dubious. “He has the closing argument. He’s smart. If I challenge him, he’ll reconstruct that crime until the jurors will feel that they were in the room watching Ansel shoot Endicott in the back of the head.”
“With the Helen Manning gun?” I said.
He thought that over.
Chapter 23
Court reconvened in the afternoon. The prosecutor recalled Steven Beardsley to the stand.
Beardsley testified that the expert employed by the defense and he had examined the weapon in question, that they had both come to the conclusion the weapon he referred to as the second weapon was in all probability the one with which the murder had been committed. Beardsley testified also, however, that, while our expert had removed some samples of soil from that second weapon, enough soil remained embedded so that it was possible to obtain a soil classification.
This soil was entirely different in character from the soil found at the hedge and the soil which adhered to the gun which had first been introduced in evidence, the gun which he referred to as the Ansel gun. The second gun he referred to as the Manning gun.
There could, therefore, be no question but that the Manning gun had been buried for some period of time at a place other than in the hedge, that it had then been dug up relatively recently and placed in the hedge, that he could not of course state who had done this, but it had been done by someone.
The witness looked at Mrs. Endicott. She met his gaze with steady eyes and an expressionless poker face.