“That’s right,” she said, and then added sarcastically, “I’m glad you’ve got something right.”
“And as soon as she received that signal, Miss Witson drove around you. Is that right?”
“Drove around me, giving me a piece of her mind,” Bertha said.
“Now your window was down on the left-hand side, was it not?”
“Yes.”
“And how about the window on Miss Witson’s car? — Careful now, Mrs. Cool. I don’t want to trap you. I simply want to test your powers of observation, and see what you can remember. Was the right-hand window on Miss Witson’s car down or up?”
Bertha thought for a minute, then said, “It was up.”
“You’re positive?”
“Positive.”
“All of the windows on the right-hand side of Miss Witson’s car were up?”
“Yes.”
“All the way up?”
“That’s what I said.”
“And exactly what did Miss Witson say to you? What words did she use?”
A gleam of triumph came into Bertha’s eyes. “You’re not going to trap me that way,” she said.
Mysgart raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that if the windows on the right-hand side were up, I couldn’t hear what she was saying, and you know it as well as I do. I could see her talking.”
“But you couldn’t hear the words?”
“Naturally not. Not with the windows up.”
“Couldn’t hear any words?”
“No. Well, I heard... no, I won’t swear to it.”
“Then how do you know that Miss Witson was giving you what you have referred to as a piece of her mind?”
“I could tell it by the expression on her face.”
“You didn’t hear a word she said?”
“No.”
“Then when you say she was giving you a piece of her mind, you’re depending upon mental telepathy.”
“I could see the expression on her face.”
“Can you tell what people are thinking by the expressions on their faces?”
“Yes. When their lips are moving.”
Mysgart immediately moved his lips soundlessly for several seconds and then asked, “What did I say then, Mrs. Cool?”
“You didn’t say anything then.”
“But I was moving my lips. I was actually stating something. I made a very definite statement, Mrs. Cool. I was moving my lips, and you could see the expression on my face, couldn’t you?”
Bertha didn’t say anything.
“So you don’t know what I said?”
Bertha took refuge in a sullen, badgered silence.
Mysgart waited for several seconds, then said, “Let the record show that the witness either cannot or will not answer the question.”
Bertha was sweating now.
Mysgart went on, “So, Mrs. Cool, having suddenly shot from the left lane of traffic over to the right lane of traffic, directly in front of the car being operated by my client, Miss Witson, you suddenly gave a stop signal, slowed your car somewhat, you don’t know how much because you don’t know whether it was stopped or whether it was still moving. You abruptly gave a left-hand turn signal, then you suddenly gave this whole wild series of arm signals, and thereupon proceeded to block traffic completely and thoroughly so far as the right-hand lane of traffic was concerned. Can you give any logical explanation of why you did that?”
“I tell you I wanted to turn left, and I wanted this car to go around me.”
“You knew that you had no right to stop in the intersection when the signal was for open traffic along Garden Vista Boulevard?”
“Well, if you want to be technical about it, yes.”
“So you brought your car to an illegal stop.”
“All right.”
“You knew that you had no right to turn to the left from the right-hand lane of traffic?”
“Of course. That’s why I wanted this other car to go by me.”
“So you gave two signals for two illegal maneuvers, one right after the other?”
“Well, if you want to put it that way, yes.”
“Now this car that was being driven by Mr. Lidfield, when did you first see it?”
“Just before the crash.”
“Exactly how long before the crash?”
“I can’t tell you. I’d say it was a second.”
“And where was it when you first saw it?”
“It was just swinging into a left-hand turn.”
“And you know where the actual collision took place?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Right in front of my car. It blocked me so I couldn’t move one way or another.”
“Exactly. I don’t want to trap you, Mrs. Cool. I’ll say that an actual survey shows that the distance from the place where the cars were found to the center of the intersection was exactly thirty-one feet. That distance seems just about right to you, does it?”
“Just about.”
“It’s the exact distance, Mrs. Cool. I think Counsel on the other side will agree with me.”
Mysgart looked at Glimson and Glimson said nothing.
“Now then, Mrs. Cool, when you first saw this Lidfield car, it was some distance back of the intersection?”
“Well, it hadn’t reached the center of the intersection yet.”
“Exactly. So the car had to reach the center of the intersection, make a turn on the far side of the center of the intersection, and then go thirty-one feet before it hit the Witson car.”
“I guess so, yes.”
“A distance, in all, perhaps of fifty feet?”
“Well, somewhere around there, yes.”
“So that you would say the Lidfield car had to travel at least fifty feet from the time you first saw it before the time of the collision?”
“I’d say so, yes.”
“And you have stated positively, Mrs. Cool, that you saw the car just one second before the collision.”
“That’s right,” Bertha said.
Mysgart said, “Has it ever occurred to you, Mrs. Cool, that a car which travels fifty feet in a second is traveling at the rate of three thousand feet a minute. And three thousand feet a minute is faster than thirty-four miles per hour?”
Bertha blinked her eyes.
“So then,” Mysgart said, “by your own figures, Mrs. Cool — now I don’t want to trap you, but by your own figures, this Lidfield car was whirling around that intersection at a speed in excess of thirty-four miles per hour. Is that about right?”
Bertha said, “I don’t think it was going that fast.”
“Then your other testimony must have been wrong. Do you think that it was more than fifty feet from the intersection?”
“Well, not more.”
“But at least fifty feet from the scene of the accident?”
“Yes.”
“Then your time must have been wrong. You think it was more than a second?”
“Perhaps.”
“But you have already stated positively that it was just one second, Mrs. Cool. Do you want to change that testimony?”
Bertha was sweating all over her forehead now. She said, “I don’t know how fast the car was going. I just looked up and saw it and then there was a crash.”
“Oh, you looked up and saw it!”
“Yes.”
“Then you must have been looking down before the crash.”
“Well, I don’t know where I was looking.”
“I see. You don’t know whether your car was moving or whether it was stopped. You don’t know whether you were looking to one side or looking to the other?”
“I was looking down,” Bertha said.
“Then you weren’t looking to one side?”
“No.”
“Then you couldn’t have been looking at Esther Witson.”