“That’s right.”
“Yes, I remember them.”
“May I ask what you were doing?”
“I was out with a boy friend.”
“Do you wish to give us the name of that boy friend?”
“I do not. He is a respectable married man, but his home life is not happy. He is contemplating leaving his wife and filing an action for divorce, but I don’t want anything that I may say to jeopardize his interests, and so I am not going to give his name.”
“I feel certain,” Hamilton Burger said, “that under the circumstances counsel will not press you for his name, and I know that I will not. I think as men of the world we’ll appreciate the situation.”
And Hamilton Burger bowed with elaborate courtesy to Perry Mason.
“I will not agree to restrict my cross-examination in the least,” Mason said. “I will ask any questions that I feel are necessary to protect the interests of my client.”
“Quite naturally,” Hamilton Burger said, “but I feel that since it will soon develop that the identity of this man has absolutely nothing to do with the testimony of this witness, you will realize the expediency of refraining from bringing out the man’s name.”
Hamilton Burger turned back to the witness. “Now, Mrs. Bailey, I am going to ask you to describe generally what happened on the night of the seventeenth.”
“I got off at eight o’clock. I went to my apartment and bathed and changed my clothes. My boy friend had said that he would call for me at ten o’clock.
“At ten o’clock he was there. We had a drink in my apartment and then we went to a night club where we danced until... well, it was somewhere around one o’clock.”
“Then what happened?”
“Then we left the night club and took a drive.”
“And where did you go on this drive?” Hamilton Burger asked.
“To the San Sebastian Country Club.”
“Just where at the country club?” Burger asked.
“To the wide parking place where cars are parked; that is, a place which is reserved for the cars of members.”
“What time was this?” Hamilton Burger asked.
“I can’t tell you the time. It was perhaps one-thirty.”
“That would be one-thirty in the morning of the eighteenth?”
“Yes.”
“Just why did you go there?”
“We wanted to... to talk.”
“Can you describe this parking place where you went?”
“Yes. There is a road which winds up the hill to the country club, then there is a very wide parking space where members can leave their cars. It is a big, flat space with lines ruled in it in white.”
“When you drove up were there any other cars there?”
“Yes.”
“I wish you would tell us exactly what happened after you arrived at the parking place,” Hamilton Burger said.
“Well, there was a car there.”
“Can you describe the car?”
“I didn’t pay too much attention to it. It was a big car, one of the expensive cars.”
“Were the lights on or off?”
“You mean on that car?”
“Yes.”
“The lights were off.”
“What was the car doing?”
“It was just sitting there.”
“Did you see anybody in it?”
“No. I assumed the car had been left—”
“Never mind what you assumed,” Hamilton Burger interrupted. “I am asking you only what you saw and what you heard.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What did you do?”
“My friend and I wanted to talk where we would be private. We... I mean, he, drove on past this car that was parked and went down to the car end of the parking lot. There are some trees there; some big live oaks, and there are perhaps half a dozen parking places that are right under these trees.”
“And what did you do?”
“My friend parked his car there.”
“Was the area lighted?”
“No, sir. There is a light, sort of a floodlight over the lawn in front of the entrance to the clubhouse that’s on all night. There’s a certain light from that which illuminates the parking place, but the parking place itself isn’t really lighted up. It’s fairly dark there.”
“And quite dark under the trees?”
“Yes.”
“Now, did your companion park the car so that it was facing into the trees?”
“No, sir, he did not. He turned the car around so that when we wanted to start out he only needed to step on the starter and pull right out.”
“So you could see through the windshield and see the parking space?”
“Yes.”
“And the road leading into the parking space?”
“Yes.”
“And the car which was already parked there in the space?”
“Yes.”
“Then what happened?”
“Well, we sat and talked.”
“For how long?”
“For some time. We were trying to get things settled. I wasn’t going to break up any home. I told him—”
“Now never mind what you talked about,” Hamilton Burger said. “I am not going to interrogate you as to that point. I am simply trying to get the time element.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you know how long you were there?”
“Some little time.”
“An hour?”
“I guess all of an hour.”
“And what happened?”
“Well, we talked, and—”
“I’m not interested in that,” Hamilton Burger said. “I want to find out... I’ll get at it another way. What time did you leave there?”
“It was about... I guess about, well, perhaps half-past three in the morning; perhaps three o’clock, I don’t know. I didn’t look at my watch.”
“Now, did anything happen just prior to the time you left?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Another car came up the roadway to the parking place.”
“That’s what I’m trying to get at,” Burger said. “Now, can you describe that car?”
“Yes, sir. It was an Oldsmobile and it had white side-wall tires.”
“Do you know the license number?”
“I do.”
“What was the license number?”
“JYJ 113.”
“What did that car do?”
“It parked just behind this car that had been there all the time.”
“Do you mean it went into a parking space alongside this parked car?”
“No, sir. It came to a stop right behind it. It wasn’t in any parking place. It was right behind the car.”
“And what happened?”
“Well, a woman got out of the car.”
“You saw this woman?”
“Yes.”
“Were the lights on?”
“In what car?”
“In the car that had just driven up.”
“Yes, the lights were left on.”
“You say that a woman got out?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you know whether she was alone in the car?”
“There was no other person in the car.”
“How could you tell?”
“When she got out, she left the door open and a light came on in the inside of the car — you know, the way a light automatically comes on when the door is left standing open.”
“And what did this woman do?”
“She walked over to the parked car.”
“Now then,” Hamilton Burger said, “I’m going to show you a photograph of a car parked in the parking place at the San Sebastian Country Club and ask you if you recognize that car from the photograph.”
“I do.”
“What is it?”
“That is the car that was parked there that night.”
“You mean the evening of the seventeenth and the early morning hours of the eighteenth?”
“Yes.”
“The car which you have referred to as the car which was parked when you drove up?”