"What did the cops do?"
"One of them," Drake said, "took a swing at my jaw. I got pretty much out of his way, but his fist was big as the business end of a pile driver and part of it took off a little skin. The others grabbed the girl and started strongarming her down the corridor."
"How about the papers?" Mason asked.
"Oh, it's a service all right," Drake told him, "as far as that's concerned. They rushed her down the corridor but she was still holding the papers in her right hand. I'd shoved them into her hand when I saw the place start to fill up and she'd taken them mechanically and was still hanging onto them. I think she was the most surprised woman in the world."
"Do you know what happened next?"
"Sure, I know what happened. I heard them start giving her a browbeating third degree all the way down the corridor. They were trying to find out who had paid her expenses to Reno, why she'd gone there, who had told her to come there, and all of that stuff."
"What did she say?"
"Nothing. She said she wasn't going to talk until she saw her lawyer."
"Then what?"
Drake said, "I knew the beans were spilled all over everything as far as Reno was concerned. I figured that they'd probably try to keep her covered up until after they'd got a confession. I knew you were in the middle of this trial and I didn't want them to hang a surprise on you out of a clear sky, so I went down to the airport, hunted up the bird who had the fastest plane in the country and paid him to burn a streak through the sky."
"Did he do it?"
"I'll say he did it," Drake said fervently.
Perry Mason frowned thoughtfully, slowly opened the newspaper, and read headlines:
Mystery witness found in Reno
Admissions Implicate Local Attorney
District Attorney's Office Says Entire Matter will Go Before Grand Jury
Mason slowly folded the paper.
"God, I'm sorry, Perry," Paul Drake said.
"Why, in particular?" Mason asked.
"Because it's put you in a sweet spot. You know as well as I do, that jane will crack under the strain, if she hasn't already. She'll tell them the whole story. From what I read in the newspaper, it looks as though she's coughed up everything."
"Tell me," Mason said. "Does she insist on staying in Nevada?"
"I don't know," Drake answered slowly, "just what she did at the time, but before that bunch of cops got done with her, she was ready to do anything or say anything, or I'm a cockeyed liar."
Mason said slowly, "Watch out. Here's the D.A. coming over this way."
Burger surveyed Perry Mason with a frosty smile, and said, with the manner of one who is playing with a victim as a cat plays with a mouse, "If you have no abjection, Counselor, I would like to have this hearing adjourned sometime today in order to go before the Grand Jury with a very important matter."
"Could you," asked Perry Mason, "have one of your deputies handle the matter before the Grand Jury so we could go on with this hearing?"
"Not very well." Burger told him. "And I can assure you, Counselor, it won't make the slightest difference to you."
"Why not?" Mason asked.
"Because," Burger told him, "you'll also be before the Grand Jury. It's in relation to the sudden trip to Reno of a certain Hazel Fenwick."
"Oh," Mason said, "am I to understand that Hazel Fenwick is here?"
"She will be."
"And she was in Reno?"
Burger said, with some show of feeling, "You know damn well she was in Reno. She's told the officers that you paid her expenses there. She's admitted that much. So far, that's as far as she will go. She claims her name is Thelma Bevins. That's the alias she was registered under in Reno. That's what she's told the boys in Reno. They didn't have the dope on her. She'll sing a different tune when I get her here and have her identified."
There was the bustle of activity. Judge Winters emerged from behind a blackcurtained doorway and stepped to the bench. A gavel pounded the spectators to attentive silence.
Judge Winters looked down at Perry Mason. His facial expression was stern. He didn't say in so many words that he had read the newspapers, but the tone of his voice spoke volumes as he looked directly at Perry Mason and said, "Do you wish to proceed, Counselor?"
Perry Mason returned his gaze steadily.
"Yes, your Honor," he said.
Chapter 16
Judge Winters nodded to the district attorney.
"Proceed," he said.
District Attorney Burger turned to one of the deputy sheriffs and nodded his head.
The man approached Perry Mason, a folded paper extended.
"Your Honor," the district attorney said, "there have been some rather startling, although not entirely unexpected, developments in connection with this case, and in connection with another matter which, while not directly involved, is nevertheless related to it. In view of this other matter, it will be necessary for me to ask for a brief adjournment of this hearing within approximately an hour."
Judge Winters frowned.
Burger went on, "I feel that I am violating no confidence, your Honor, in stating that this matter is one which is being investigated by the Grand Jury and it will be necessary for me to appear before the Grand Jury."
"Has the defense," asked Judge Winters, "any objections?"
Before Mason could say anything Burger, raising his voice, said, "The defense can have no objection, because one of the first witnesses who will be called by the Grand Jury is none other than Perry Mason, the attorney for the defendants."
Mason said in slow, level tones, "Your Honor, that remark was uncalled for and unnecessary. I hold in my hand a subpoena to appear before the Grand Jury, a subpoena which very apparently was held in the hands of a deputy sheriff and could have been served at any time prior to the convening of court. Yet that paper was served at a signal from the district attorney, and purely for the purpose of letting the Court and the spectators know publicly that I was being called as a witness before the Grand Jury. It was merely a grandstand play."
Judge Winters hesitated a moment, and Burger, turning belligerently to Perry Mason, said, "I see you can dish it out, but you can't take it."
Judge Winters banged his gavel.
"That will do, Mr. District Attorney," he said. "There will be no further personal remarks of that nature, and I can assure Counsel for the defense that the Court will not allow its decision to be influenced in the slightest by the comments of Counsel. Proceed with the case, gentlemen."
Perry Mason, holding the subpoena in his hand, turned to scan the faces of those in the courtroom. He caught the anxious, startled eyes of Della Street on the outskirts of the crowd. She raised a newspaper in her hand and gestured with it significantly.
Perry Mason nodded his head almost imperceptibly and then flashed her a swift wink.
"Your next witness," Judge Winters said to the district attorney.
"George Purley," Burger announced.
As Purley was taking the oath, Burger turned to Mason and said, "Purley's reputation as a handwriting expert should be too well known to require formal qualification. He has been with the police department for years and…"
"I'll stipulate Mr. Purley's qualifications, subject to the right to crossexamine," Mason said.
Burger nodded perfunctory thanks and turned to the witness.
"Your name is George Purley, and you are now and for some time past have been employed as a fingerprint and handwriting expert with the police department?"
"Yes, sir."
"On the fourteenth of this month did you have occasion to go to the house of Hartley Basset?"