Mason jerked his watch out of his pocket. “What the devil are you talking about?” he said. “It’s still three minutes till noon.”
“Well?” Gulling asked.
“And my client has surrendered herself at the county jail.”
“Not surrendered herself,” Gulling corrected acidly. “She has been apprehended.”
“What are you talking about?”
“There is, of course, rather an ingenious story,” Gulling said, “which quite apparently was carefully worked out to cover the situation in case she couldn’t get away. However, Mr. Mason, if you are going to gamble, you have to face the fact that gamblers often lose.”
“I’m still in the dark.”
“The chance you took.”
“I didn’t take any chance.”
“Perhaps you think you didn’t, but you’ve lost. And when a man stakes his future on a chance and loses, I’d say he was gambling. However, have it your own way.”
Mason said, “I think if you’ll investigate you’ll find that well before twelve o’clock Eva Martell appeared at police headquarters in a taxi she herself had paid for, and surrendered herself into custody.”
“She appeared at police headquarters all right, but she wasn’t in a taxi. She was in the custody of a radio officer who picked her up as she was riding along the street near the apartment she shared with Cora Felton, and she was headed in the direction of the airport.”
“All right — the taxicab was on its way to police headquarters.”
“Sure,” Gulling said. “That’s what she told the officer, but the taxi driver doesn’t say so. The cab was headed in the opposite direction.”
“What does the driver say?”
“He picked her up and was instructed to drive down certain streets. She didn’t tell him what her destination would be. Of course, that’s an old dodge, telling a taxi where to turn and then — in case you’re picked up — be very wide-eyed and innocent and say that you’re headed for police headquarters. As far as this office is concerned, Mason, it was up to you to deliver your client before twelve o’clock. There have been too many legal flimflams in cases where you’ve been the attorney on the other side. We are not disposed to give you any breaks now. You had until twelve o’clock to get that girl down here. From our point of view, you didn’t do it. For all we know, she may have been going to the airport.”
“But that is utterly unfair!”
“It’s keeping within the letter of our agreement, Mr. Mason.”
“All right,” Mason said angrily, “now I’ll tell you something. Go ahead and do whatever you damn please. I’m going to represent Eva Martell and I’m going to represent Adelle Winters, and I’ll give you folks the biggest surprise you ever had.”
“You mean you’re going to represent Adelle Winters?” Gulling asked, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice.
“Of course I am,” Mason said. “The only way I can get Eva Martell off is to be certain that the defense of Adelle Winters isn’t bungled.”
“She hasn’t any defense.”
“That’s what you think.”
“Well, Mr. Mason,” Gulling said, and now his voice was purring with satisfaction, “you have an interesting record so far in murder acquittals. I don’t think anything would suit this office better than to have you represent Adelle Winters. I’ll be very glad to arrange things so that you can see your client any time. And as far as your case is concerned, I’ll explain to the Grand Jury that you had an understanding with this office which you failed to keep. Incidentally, there’s a woman named Mae Bagley to whom you’d better give some legal advice.”
“Why?”
“She’s running a rooming house at the address where the taxi driver says he picked Eva Martell up. She says she never saw Eva Martell before in her life, and never rented her a room. We’re going to subpoena her before the Grand Jury. You might tell her something about the law in regard to perjury.”
“That’s fine,” Mason said. “Get her to come to my office to ask for legal advice. If I decide I want her as a client, I’ll advise her what the law really is.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“My conception may differ from yours.”
“Before you get done with this case,” Gulling promised him grimly, “you’ll have revised your ideas of the law as it relates to harboring a fugitive from justice.”
“Prove that I harbored one,” Mason challenged. “Prove it beyond all reasonable doubt in front of a jury. And the next time, try to be a little more cooperative.” And he terminated the conversation by slamming up the receiver.
He found Della Street watching him apprehensively.
“What happened, Chief?”
“Probably a stroke of luck,” Mason said. “Evidently one of the radio officers who questioned Eva Martell yesterday was cruising around and happened to spot her in a taxicab. She’d made the mistake of not wanting to tell the driver to go directly to police headquarters — probably because she was a little sensitive. She told him what streets to take, evidently intending to pay him off a block or so from headquarters and walk the rest of the way. A matter of silly pride.”
“But surely Gulling will understand that?”
“Gulling understands nothing except the letter of die law,” Mason said. “And he’s particularly anxious to put me in the position of being an accessory after the fact. His position will doubtless be that I take all technical advantage of the law and that there is no reason why the district attorney’s office shouldn’t do the same.”
“You mean they’ll actually charge you with something?”
“They may. Anyhow, they’ll hold it over my head. They can’t charge me with anything unless they can get some evidence to connect me with harboring Eva Martell.”
“What’s Eva doing?”
“Apparently she is following my instructions and saying nothing to anyone, beyond stating to the officer who arrested her that she was on her way to police headquarters to surrender.”
“Won’t they be able to make Mae Bagley talk?”
“She is talking,” Mason said with a grin. “She’s telling them that she never saw Eva Martell in her life, much less rented her a room!”
“But that’s perjury, isn’t it?”
“Not unless she makes the statement under oath,” Mason replied. “They’ll have to establish that it’s perjury beyond all reasonable doubt, in front of a jury. And there’s a rather technical point about perjury that Mr. Gulling seems to have overlooked.”
“What’s that?”
“Perjury must be established by the testimony of two witnesses.”
“Do you suppose Mae Bagley knows that, Chief?”
There was a twinkle in Mason’s eye. “She may know something about the law of perjury... ”
“What was she charged with when you defended her and got her off, Chief?”
Mason lit a cigarette and closed one eye in a slow wink.
“Perjury,” he said.
Chapter 15
Monday morning’s paper was interesting Perry Mason a good deal. Sitting in his office, he had it spread on the desk before him, and he was carefully reading the long and startlingly headlined story on the front page. It ran: