“Yes, sir.”
“Cross-examine,” Burger snapped.
Mason said, “I have here a pair of dark glasses. Would you kindly put them on?”
She stiffened. “Why should I?”
“Because,” Mason said, “as you will notice, the witnesses are wearing dark glasses and that is in accordance with a stipulation made with the prosecution that any witness could be called on to put on dark glasses.”
“Well, I’m certainly not a party to any stipulation. I’m not going to put on dark glasses.”
“Come, come,” Judge Fallon said, “I don’t see the reason for this — or that is, I didn’t see the reason for it at the time the stipulation was made, but this is an unusual situation. I can’t see where there would be any harm resulting to this witness from putting on dark glasses.”
Hamilton Burger said, “Oh, I’m quite satisfied the witness is perfectly willing to put on dark glasses. It is very apparent that Mason is trying to confuse the witness who has just left the stand, but—”
“I don’t think we need to have any comments, Mr. Prosecutor,” Judge Fallon said. “The witness will please put on the dark glasses.”
The witness defiantly put on the dark glasses, turned her head to glare at Judge Fallon.
“That’s fine,” Mason said, “now will you please face me?”
She turned and faced him.
“Are you sure this is the will you witnessed?” Mason asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you object to wearing those dark glasses while you are being interrogated?” Mason asked.
“I object to being ordered to wear them,” she flared. “I am not a dog to be ordered around.”
“Then you may take them off and hand them to my receptionist,” Mason said, turning his back on the witness and walking back to the counsel table.
Elvina Mitchell snatched off the glasses, unhesitatingly took the two steps necessary to reach the jury box, handed the glasses to Gertie then hurried toward the rear of the courtroom, where she stood for a few moments just inside the door.
“Mr. Caldwell will return to the stand,” Hamilton Burger said.
The aviator returned to the stand.
“Now, if the Court please, Mr. Mason has interposed an objection to my question and the objection had been overruled, so I now—”
“Oh, I’ll withdraw the objection,” Mason said. “It’s very obvious what the district attorney has in mind. I don’t think it’s a fair method of making an identification but let the witness answer.”
Caldwell said, as one who chooses his words with great care, “The person sitting at the bar beside Mr. Perry Mason, the defendant in the case, has a very striking resemblance to the person who chartered that airplane.”
“You may cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said.
“But is she the same one?” Mason asked. “Can you swear on your oath that this person is the one who chartered the plane, or was it the person whom you previously saw on the witness stand?”
The witness rubbed the angle of his jaw thoughtfully and said, “I can’t be absolutely positive.”
Mason said, “Oh, just a minute. There is one more question I would like to ask Miss Mitchell. Will the bailiff try and get her and bring her back, please? She can’t have gone very far.”
Judge Fallon looked at Mason thoughtfully, said, “Mr. Bailiff, will you try and return Miss Mitchell to the stand?”
The bailiff hurried from the courtroom.
Mason engaged in a whispered conference with Adelle Hastings, then turned to the witness.
“Your passenger wore dark glasses all the time?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Both going and coming?”
“Yes, sir, all the time.”
“You couldn’t see her eyes at all?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you see the young woman who is Mr. Banner’s secretary on the stand a few moments ago?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Saw her with dark glasses?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did she look like your passenger?”
The witness hesitated, then said, “Actually when I saw her I realized how hard it is to identify a woman who is wearing dark glasses. She did look a lot like my passenger. I now believe any young woman of similar build, wearing dark glasses, would be hard to identify.
“I also noticed Miss Mitchell’s voice was a great deal like... Could I hear the defendant speak? That might help me make up my mind.”
“So your own mind isn’t made up now?”
The witness hesitated, then said, “My mind was almost made up. I had previously been given an opportunity to identify the defendant when she was not wearing dark glasses. I had said that if I could see her with dark glasses I thought I could make a positive identification.
“When I saw her with dark glasses, I felt certain but then I saw this Miss Mitchell with dark glasses and, above all, when she spoke and I heard her voice... Well, she sounded exactly like the person whom I flew to Las Vegas... I am not completely certain.”
The bailiff pushed open the swinging door and said, “I can’t get her, Your Honor. She saw me coming, started to run and dashed down the stairs and mingled with a crowd in the assessor’s office. I lost her.”
“You lost her?” Judge Fallon asked. “Couldn’t you pick her out of a crowd?”
“I could recognize her all right but I couldn’t catch her. She was running as fast as she could go. She’s younger than I am,” the bailiff said. “I tried to get people to stop her but she went right on through.”
“I think,” Judge Fallon said, “we will adjourn court until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. In the meantime I would like very much to get at the bottom of all this.
“I would like to have opposing counsel meet with me in chambers, immediately after court adjourns.”
Chapter Sixteen
Judge Fallon took off his robe, hung it up on a hanger in the closet, turned to Hamilton Burger and said, “What’s your explanation of all this, Mr. Burger?”
Burger, coldly indignant, said, “It is simply another razzle-dazzle. The witness, Elvina Mitchell, was suffering from stage fright and didn’t want to appear in a crowded courtroom. Mr. Mason capitalized on that to terrify her into flight and now he’s going to use that to try and build up favorable publicity for his client.”
The judge turned to Mason. “You have a theory you’re working on?” he asked.
“I have a theory,” Mason said.
“Well, sit down, both of you,” Judge Fallon said. “Now, Mason, let’s have your theory.”
Mason said, “Garvin Hastings was killed in his sleep.”
Judge Fallon nodded.
Mason said, “I will act on the assumption that my client is innocent.”
“An assumption in which I no wise join,” Hamilton Burger said.
“Go ahead,” Judge Fallon said to Mason.
“If my client was innocent, Garvin Hastings couldn’t have been killed at night or she would have heard the shots. He must have been killed after she left in the morning to keep her breakfast appointment with Simley Beason.
“That means that death took place probably between six and eight in the morning.
“The woman’s handbag with the fatal gun in it was left in my office during the noon hour. The person who chartered an airplane to fly to Las Vegas chartered the plane by telephone and took off from the airport at five-thirty Monday afternoon.
“Banner closes his office at four-thirty. Many of the law offices close at that time.
“Therefore we have three periods of activity. Before an office opened in the morning, during the lunch hour, and after an office closed in the afternoon. That would indicate activity by a person who was employed in an office somewhere and didn’t dare be absent.