“Of course he was responsible,” Ansley said. “That’s the way he worked.”
“You didn’t have a gun, did you?” Mason asked.
“No.”
“Where’s your car?” Mason asked.
“In the parking lot down here.”
“Okay,” Mason said, “let’s go take a look. Let’s look in your glove compartment.”
“For what?”
“Evidence.”
“Of what?”
“Anything,” Mason said. “I’m just checking.”
The lawyer opened the door and led the way down the corridor. They descended in the elevator, went to the parking lot, and Ansley pulled out a key container. He fitted the key in the lock of the glove compartment, turned the key, then frowned and said, “Wait a minute, that’s the wrong way.”
“You’re locking it now,” Mason said.
“It won’t turn the other way.”
“Then it probably was unlocked all the time.”
Ansley turned the key and said sheepishly, “I guess it was.”
Ansley opened the glove compartment. “I usually keep it locked. I must have unlocked it the other night and left it unlocked.”
“Let’s take a look,” Mason said.
“My God!” Ansley exclaimed. “There’s a gun in there!”
Ansley reached in to take out the weapon. Mason jerked his arm away.
“Close the glove compartment,” Mason said.
“But there’s... there’s a gun there, a blued-steel revolver.”
“Close the glove compartment,” Mason said.
A voice behind them said, “Mind if I look?”
Mason whirled to see Lt. Tragg standing behind him.
Tragg pushed Mason to one side, showed Ansley a leather container with a gold badge. “Lt. Tragg of Homicide,” he said.
Lt. Tragg reached inside the glove compartment and took out the gun.
“Yours?” he asked Ansley.
“Definitely not. I’ve never seen it before.”
Tragg said, “I guess we’d better sort of take this gun along and check it. You know, Borden was killed with a .38 Colt.”
“You don’t mean he was killed with this gun,” Ansley said.
“Oh, sure, sure, not with your gun. But just the same, we’d better take it along. The ballistics department will want to play around with it, and then they’ll give you a clean bill of health. You won’t have anything to worry about. You’ll come with me.”
“I tell you it isn’t my gun.”
“Oh sure, I know. It just parked itself in your car because it didn’t have any place to go. Let’s go take a ride and see what Ballistics has to say about the gun.”
“Mason coming with us?” Ansley asked.
“No,” Tragg said, grinning. “Mason has had a busy day and he’s been away from his office. He has a lot of stuff to take care of up there. We won’t need to bother Mr. Mason. There isn’t anything you have on your mind, no reason why you should have a lawyer with you, is there?”
“No, certainly not.”
“That’s what I thought,” Tragg said. “Now, if you don’t mind, we’ll just take this gun and go on up to Headquarters. Probably you’d better drive up in your car. The boys may want to check the car a little bit, find out when you last saw Meridith Borden, and so on. You know how those things are... Okay, Perry, we’ll see you later. I’m sorry to have to inconvenience your client, but you know how those things are.”
“I certainly do,” Mason said dryly, as Tragg took Ansley’s arm and virtually pushed him into the automobile.
Chapter Nine
The clerk of Judge Erwood’s court indicated the spectators could be seated. The judge called the case, “People versus Ansley.”
“Ready for the defendant,” Mason said.
“Ready for the prosecution,” Sam Drew, one of Hamilton Burger’s chief trial deputies, said.
“Proceed with the case,” Judge Erwood said.
Sam Drew got to his feet. “May the Court please, I think at the start it would be well to have the situation definitely understood. This is a preliminary hearing. The prosecution frankly admits that it doesn’t have any intention of putting on enough evidence at this time to convict the defendant of first-degree murder. But it certainly does intend to put on enough evidence to show that first-degree murder has been committed and that there are reasonable grounds to believe the defendant committed that murder.
“As we understand it, that’s the sole function of a preliminary hearing.”
“That is correct,” Judge Erwood said. “This is a preliminary hearing. The Court has noted that some attorneys seem to have an erroneous idea of the issues at a preliminary hearing. We’re not trying the defendant now, and, above all, we’re not trying to find out if the evidence introduced by the prosecution proves him guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.
“All the prosecution is trying to do here, and all the prosecution needs to try to do here, is to prove that a crime has been committed and that there is reasonable ground to believe the defendant is guilty thereof.
“The Court is going to restrict the issues in this case, and the Court is not going to permit any dramatics. Is that understood, gentlemen?”
“Quite, Your Honor,” Mason said, with great cheerfulness.
“Exactly,” Sam Drew said.
“Who’s your first witness?”
Drew called a surveyor who gave a sketch of the Borden estate and showed its location. He also introduced a map of the city and the suburbs and the location of the Golden Owl Night Club.
“The Court will take judicial cognizance of the location of the various cities in the county,” Judge Erwood said. “Let’s not take up the time of the Court with anything except the essential facts. Do you wish to cross-examine this witness, Mr. Mason?”
“No, Your Honor.”
“Very well, the witness is excused. Call your next witness,” Judge Erwood said.
Drew’s next witness was Marianna Fremont, who stated that she had been Meridith Borden’s housekeeper for some years. Monday was her day off because quite frequently Meridith Borden did entertaining on Sunday. On Tuesday morning, when she drove up in her car, she had found the gates locked, indicating that Meridith Borden was not up as yet. That was not particularly unusual. The housekeeper had a key, she inserted the key in the electric connection, pressed the button, and the motors rolled the gates back wide open. The housekeeper had driven in and parked her car in its accustomed place in the back yard.
“Then what did you do?” Drew asked.
“Then I went to the house and opened the door and went in.”
“Did you see anything unusual?”
“Not at that time, no, sir.”
“What did you do?”
“I cooked Mr. Borden’s breakfast and then went to his room to call him. Sometimes he would come out for breakfast in a robe, sometimes he had me bring breakfast to him.”
“And did you notice anything unusual then?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“There was no sign of him in his bedroom.”
“What did you do, if anything?”
“I looked to see if he had left me a note. Sometimes when he was called out overnight he’d leave a note telling me when to expect him.”
“Those notes were left in a regular place?”
“Yes.”
“Did you find any note that morning?”
“No, sir.”
“Very well,” Drew said. “Tell us what happened after that.”
“Well, I started looking the place over after I found that Mr. Borden hadn’t slept in his bed that night.”