Judge Erwood frowned at the district attorney. “Is it your contention that Mr. Borden was showing him to the front door through the photographic studio?”
“Not necessarily, Your Honor.”
“Then how did it happen that his body was found in the photographic studio?”
“It could have been taken there, Your Honor.”
Judge Erwood turned to Perry Mason. “The Court will hear from you, Mr. Mason.”
Mason said urbanely, “What happened, Your Honor, was that when Meridith Borden escorted George Ansley to the door, he slammed the front door. And it was that muffled slamming of the front door which made the sound on the tape recorder. The proof that Meridith Borden was alive after George Ansley left the house is that he returned and immediately shut off the tape recorder. It is quite apparent on the tape itself that the tape recorder was shut off.”
“Do you question that, Mr. District Attorney?” Judge Erwood asked the prosecutor.
Burger said, “It’s quite apparent that the tape was shut off shortly after the sound of the shot, but it was the murderer, George Ansley, who shut off that tape recorder.”
Judge Erwood looked at Mason. Mason smiled and shook his head.
“George Ansley didn’t know where the tape recorder was,” he said. “He didn’t know the interview was being recorded. The testimony is that it was a concealed microphone. The tape recorder was in another room. It was necessary for the tape recorder to be shut off by someone who knew that it was on and who knew exactly where the tape recorder was located. Ansley didn’t have that knowledge and couldn’t have done it.
“There is, if the Court please, one other most persuasive circumstance. The Court will notice that the inspectors on the job the next day were more than courteous. Now, that means just one thing. It means that Meridith Borden had been in communication with the inspectors. Since we have now heard a complete tape recording of the interview with George Ansley, we know that at no time during that interview did Meridith Borden go to the telephone, ring up an inspector and say, in effect, ‘It’s all right. George Ansley has called on me and is going to kick through. You can take off the pressure.’
“Or, since Meridith Borden is dead and cannot refute any charge against him, perhaps I should express it this way: He didn’t go to the telephone and say to the inspector, ‘George Ansley has just called on me and has retained me as a public relations expert. I feel that your inspection on this construction job has been far more rigorous than is required by the contract, and represents some personal animosity on your part, or an attempt to get some kind of a bribe or kickback. Therefore, unless the situation is changed immediately, I am going to take steps to see that publicity is given the type of inspection to which Mr. Ansley has been subjected.”
For a moment Judge Erwood’s angry face relaxed into something of a smile. “A very tactful expression of a purely hypothetical conversation, Mr. Mason.”
“Out of deference to the fact that Borden is now deceased and is not in a position to defend himself,” Mason said.
Judge Erwood looked down at the prosecutor. “I think, Mr. Prosecutor,” he said, “that by the time you think over the entire evidence in this case, you will realize that you are proceeding against the wrong defendant, and that the very greatest favor the Court could do you at this time would be to dismiss the case against this defendant.
“You are here asking for an order that this defendant, George Ansley, be bound over for trial, and the Court feels that if such an order should be made, it would put you in a position where at a later date you would either have to dismiss the case against George Ansley, or, if you went to trial before a jury, you would have a verdict of acquittal at the hands of the jury.
“The Court realizes thoroughly that it is not incumbent upon the prosecution to put on all of its evidence in a preliminary examination, that in general the purpose of the examination is simply to show that a crime has been committed and that there is reasonable cause to believe the defendant has committed that crime. However, there is another duty which devolves upon the prosecutor, and that is to conduct his office in the interests of justice and to see that the innocent are released and not subjected to the annoyance and expense of trial, and that the guilty are prosecuted.
“The Court feels that, with the facts in this case brought into evidence as they now are, there is every indication that the defendant is being prosecuted for a crime that he did not commit, for a crime that he could not have committed.
“It is not incumbent on this Court to suggest to the prosecutor how the office of the district attorney should be conducted. But the Court does suggest that in this case further action should be taken and against an entirely different defendant.
“As far as this instant proceeding is concerned, the case against George Ansley is dismissed. The defendant is discharged from custody, and court is adjourned.”
Judge Erwood arose and strode from the courtroom.
There was a demonstration among the spectators. Newspaper reporters dashed for the nearest telephones, and Mason turned to shake hands with George Ansley.
Photographers exploded flashbulbs as Hamilton Burger, glowering at the group around Mason, pushed his angry way through the spectators, strode out of the courtroom and down the corridor.
Chapter Thirteen
It was well after nine-thirty in the morning when Mason unlocked the door of his private office, grinned at Della Street and said, “The newspapers didn’t do very well by our friend Hamilton Burger.”
Della Street laughed. “As a matter of good public relations, he should have at least hung around the courtroom and talked with some of the reporters. Pushing the reporters to one side and striding down the corridor didn’t do him any good.”
“So I see in the press,” Mason said. “Well, here we are, starting all over again. What’s new — anything?”
“You have another client,” Della Street said.
“What kind of a case?” Mason asked.
“Murder.”
“Indeed! Who’s been murdered now?”
“Meridith Borden.”
Mason raised his eyebrows.
“Dawn Manning telephoned,” Della Street said. “She is in durance vile. She said that she had been permitted to telephone for an attorney, and that she wanted you to represent her.”
“Where is she?”
“Up in the women’s section of Detention,” Della Street said.
Mason walked over and picked up his hat.
“You’re going?”
“Sure, I’m going.”
“Chief, can you take her case after—?”
“After what?” Mason asked.
“After virtually accusing her of murder in court yesterday.”
“Did I accuse her of murder?”
“You did — at least by innuendo. And so did Judge Erwood.”
Mason said, “All the time I was discussing the matter, I was thinking what an embarrassing situation Hamilton Burger was going to find himself in if he charged Dawn Manning with the crime.”
“What do you mean? There’s virtually a perfect case against her. You can see what she did. She was thrown out of that car, she retained the gun, she found herself in the Borden grounds, she went to keep an appointment with Meridith Borden. The evidence is all there. She can’t possibly deny her presence in view of the new testimony of the undeveloped photographs in the camera. She’s got to admit that she was there with him, and once she admits that, she has to admit she’s lied... Oh, Chief, don’t get mixed up in her case.”