“I’m sorry, Your Honor,” Mason said. “I’ll ask no more questions of the witness.”
“Anything about the matter on which he was examined on direct examination is perfectly permissible,” Judge Lindale said.
“No, Your Honor, I feel I have covered the ground and I have no desire to appear to be taking advantage of the Court’s request that we expedite the examination.”
“Any redirect?”
“I certainly have, Your Honor,” Gulling said. “Now then, Mr. Folsom, you have been asked whether or not you saw the defendant drop anything in that garbage can. I want to ask you just one question. If she had dropped anything, could you have seen what it was?”
“No, sir, I tried to explain that. From the position in which I stood, I could not see what her right hand was doing; her body screened the motion. In fact, I didn’t see her left hand at all. But I did see her bend over the garbage can, and I saw her left arm come up and the top of the can come up with it. I then saw her replace the cover on the can.”
“That is all,” Gulling said.
“Just a moment. In view of this last redirect,” Mason said, “I have a few more questions Of the witness. Mr. Folsom, you couldn’t see either one of the defendant’s hands?”
“I’ve said so several times.”
“I just wanted to have it clear in the record. But you did see her left arm come up, raising the lid of the garbage can?”
“Yes, sir.”
“From which you assumed that her left hand was holding the handle of the lid?”
“Naturally.”
“Now then, did you see her right arm move?”
“I’ve tried to explain that her body screened whatever her right hand was doing.”
“I’m not talking about her hand — I’m talking about her arm. Did you see her arm move?”
“No, sir.”
“Her right shoulder move?”
“Well, now, wait a minute, Mr. Mason. I am not entirely sure, but — thinking back to it — I believe there was some slight motion of the elbow and shoulder, the sort one would make in gently tossing some object into a receptacle.”
“You were transmitting reports to the Interstate Investigators?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And were under instructions to telephone a report in every half-hour?”
“If we were where we could conveniently get to a phone, yes.”
“How many men were on the job?”
“Two.”
“You were shadowing Adelle Winters, and another person was shadowing Eva Martell?”
“Right.”
“Now at the time you saw the defendant Winters do this,” Mason said, “or within a very few minutes afterward, you telephoned a report to the Interstate Investigators, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And in that report you stated that she had raised the lid of the garbage pail and looked into the garbage can.”
“I believe so. That’s right, yes.”
“Now, as a part of looking into it, wouldn’t she have had to move her right elbow or right shoulder?”
“Certainly not.”
“And at the time you made that report, you had no idea she had dropped something into the garbage can?”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. I ‘had no idea’ of it.”
“But all your report stated was that she had looked into the can?”
“Yes.”
“Which was all you thought she was doing, at the time.”
“Well, it was one interpretation of what she had done.”
“And you so reported to your agency?”
“Yes.”
“Your recollection then of what she had done was fresher than it is now, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t think so — I think I recollect it just as well now as I did when I made the report.”
“But your original impression was that she was only looking into the garbage can?”
“Well, if you want to put it that way — yes.”
“At the time you made your report, the recollection was quite fresh in your mind. Now, about how long was it, after she went to the garbage can, that you telephoned your report?”
“I telephoned two or three minutes afterward. When I returned to the lobby, my associate took over and kept both parties under observation while I telephoned.”
“And within two or three minutes after the garbage-can episode, the two defendants were together in the lobby?”
“That’s right.”
“And in your report to the agency you said that she had looked into the garbage can.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You hadn’t had that garbage can under observation earlier?”
“No, sir.”
“And didn’t have any occasion to have it under observation afterward?”
“No, sir.”
“Therefore you don’t know but that this defendant merely did look into the garbage can and didn’t put anything into it?”
“Well, I guess so, if you want to get technical,” Folsom replied.
“I don’t want to get unduly technical, but the point may prove to be rather important in this case.”
“Well, if you want my frank opinion,” Folsom said, “at that time I may have said she only looked inside, but the way I feel about it now is that I’m absolutely certain she lifted the lid of the garbage can and dropped something inside.”
“Why didn’t that interpretation occur to you at the time you telephoned your report?”
“I can’t say,” Folsom answered. “Probably I didn’t consider the distinction particularly significant then.”
“That’s exactly the point I am trying to establish,” said Mason. “What has colored your recollection now is the realization that the point is significant.”
“I don’t agree that it has ‘colored my recollection’ at all! It has just made me think back a little more carefully. I’m absolutely positive now that she dropped something into that garbage can.”
“Just as positive as you were at twenty-three minutes past two on the third day of this month that she had merely looked into it?”
“That’s a rather harsh way of putting it, Mr. Mason.”
“And that’s a rather poor way of answering the question.”
“I... she dropped something into that can.”
“You’re sure she did — now?”
“Yes.”
“You weren’t sure on the third?”
“Well — no — if you’re going to split hairs!”
“That’s all,” Mason said.
“No redirect,” Gulling said.
“Your next witness, Counselor.”
“At this point I wish to recall Sam Dixon for a question,” Gulling said.
“Very well.”
The judge said to Dixon, “You have already been sworn. Go ahead and answer questions.”
“Mr. Dixon,” Gulling asked, “did you have occasion on the afternoon of the third to visit the Lorenzo Hotel and inspect a garbage can there?”
“I did.”
“What did you do?”
“I raised the cover of the garbage can, being careful not to leave any fingerprints on it. I found the can about two-thirds full of garbage. I emptied the garbage out on a piece of canvas, and in that garbage I found a Colt .32-caliber revolver, number 14581.”
“And what did you do with the revolver?”
“Taking great care not to leave any fingerprints on it, and not to smudge any fingerprints that might already be on it — in spite of the fact that it had been right in the middle of wet garbage... ”