“Under the pillow of the bed which had been occupied by the defendant.”
“You were up rather early the morning of the eighteenth?”
“Yes, sir. I thought I had to take Robert away from the house earlier than was necessary. I have explained the reason for that.”
“Now about washing away the blood that was on the front lawn,” Mason said. “What can you tell us about that?”
“That is objected to,” Hamilton Burger said, “as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. It is not proper cross-examination. I didn’t ask this witness a thing about his activities in regard to a blood trail or anything that was on the lawn.”
“The Court will overrule the objection,” Judge Kent said. “This is a very interesting development in the case and the Court wants to go into it. The Court is trying to do substantial justice here and the Court doesn’t care about technicalities, particularly at this time and on a matter of this sort. Answer the question, Mr. Jennings.”
“There was no blood trail,” Jennings said.
“Didn’t you get up early and hose the lawn?”
“I got up early. I took Robert to a friend. I came back and no one seemed to be up in the house so I took a hose and watered the lawn.”
“Didn’t you actually hold the hose down on the lawn, washing it?”
“I may have directed a stream a short distance in front of me.”
“And weren’t you washing away a trail of blood?”
“Very definitely not.”
“You weren’t trying to do that?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you notice any reddish tinge to the water which floated across the sidewalk and under the gutter while you were watering the lawn?”
“No, sir.”
“Notice any red stains of blood in the gutter?”
“No, sir.”
“Or at the curb?”
“No, sir.”
“Are you prepared to state there were no such stains?”
“I am prepared to state that I didn’t notice them.”
“I notice that you are using a cane,” Mason said.
“Yes, sir. I have trouble with my right knee. At times it becomes very stiff.”
“I take it you have consulted a physician?”
“Certainly.”
“Can you give me the name of any physician you consulted recently?”
“I haven’t been to a physician recently — not about this.”
“If the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said, “I think this examination is getting far, far afield. I see no possible connection between this physical infirmity and the issues in this case.”
“I do,” Mason said. “I’d like to have the question answered.”
“What is the connection, Mr. Mason?” Judge Kent asked.
“The connection is simply this,” Mason said. “Barton Jennings went to the tent where Robert was sleeping. He listened in the doorway of the tent. Robert was feigning sleep. This witness thought Robert was fully asleep. He tiptoed into the tent, intending to get the weapon out from under Robert’s pillow. He didn’t speak as he entered the tent. Robert was frightened, and in his terror, pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. There was one shell in the barrel. That shell penetrated Barton Jennings’ leg. Barton Jennings hurried out of the tent and across the lawn to the curb. He left a trail of blood. Somewhere out on the curb, or perhaps in a car, he managed to bandage his leg and stop up the flow of blood. He has, I believe, been afraid to go to a doctor for fear that the doctor would be forced to report the gunshot wound. I have every reason to believe that the .22 bullet it still in his leg, embedded either in the knee or in the fleshy part of the leg. I believe that if that bullet is extracted and the ballistics experts check the striations, it will be readily apparent that that bullet was fired from the same weapon which killed Mervin Selkirk. That is the reason for my entire line of examination.”
“Your Honor! Your Honor!” Hamilton Burger shouted, jumping to his feet, gesticulating angrily. “This is the plainest kind of grandstand! This is the same old rigmarole, the same four-flushing tactics which counsel has employed in so many cases. This is a story which is made up out of whole cloth, something that has absolutely no support anywhere in the evidence.”
“If you’re so certain of that,” Mason said, “let the witness pull up his trouser leg and let’s look at that knee of his. Let’s let the Court see the nature of the injury.”
Barton Jennings, on the stand, said quietly, “Take a look if you want to.”
He pulled up his trouser leg.
Judge Kent leaned forward. “There’s no sign of a bullet wound or any other wound in that leg, Mr. Mason. The knee is swollen but there is no sign of a wound.”
Hamilton Burger threw back his head and laughed. Spectators echoed the district attorney’s laughter.
Judge Kent, angered, shouted, “Order! Order or I’ll clear the courtroom.”
He turned to Perry Mason, who seemed as calmly serene as if nothing had happened. “Is that all, Mr. Mason?”
“No, Your Honor,” Mason said.
He turned to the witness. “I believe you own a very large dog,” Mason said. “A Great Dane.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That Dane was on the premises on the night of the seventeenth?”
“He was.”
“What is his name?”
“Rover.”
“Was he on the premises on the morning of the eighteenth?”
“No, sir, he was not.”
“What happened to him?”
Barton Jennings shifted his position on the witness stand. “I have rather inquisitive neighbors. I wanted it to appear that I had taken Robert to this expedition on which he was to depart, and that he had taken Rover with him. They knew the boys were supposed to take their dogs with them.
“Since, however, I was actually taking Robert to the apartment of this friend, I made other arrangements for the dog.”
“What other arrangements?” Mason asked.
“I don’t think I need to answer that question,” Jennings said.
“If the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said, “this is all going very far afield. I have asked this witness certain particular questions. Counsel has taken him down a long, weary, winding path on cross-examination; a path filled with detours and irrelevant excursions. Surely, what this witness did with his dog is not proper cross-examination and is not a part of the issues in this case. I have been very patient in letting everything about this mysterious shot which had been fired at night be introduced in evidence, because I thought defense counsel was going to claim the bullet had lodged in the knee of this witness. I wanted counsel to expose the folly of his own position.
“I was also aware, Your Honor, that it might be claimed the firing of that shot and evidence concerning it might be considered part of the res gestae.
“Evidence about this dog is, however, an entirely different matter. No one can claim that what a witness does with his dog is part of the res gestae.”
“I think I will sustain that objection,” Judge Kent said.
“Did you,” Mason asked Jennings, “notice a pool of blood by the curb on the morning of the eighteenth?”
“I have told you I did not.”
Mason said, “I show you a morning newspaper which indicates that it has been stained with a reddish liquid.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now then,” Mason said, “I will state to the Court and counsel that I expect to prove this liquid is a mixture of water and blood, and I now expect to be able to show by a precipitin test that this is dog blood. Now I am going to ask you if it isn’t a fact that Robert actually did fire that weapon on the night of the seventeenth or the early morning of the eighteenth, if the bullet didn’t hit your dog, Rover, and if Rover didn’t lose large quantities of blood. I am going to ask you if you hadn’t left your car parked at the curb and if you didn’t take the bleeding Rover to your car, wrap him in a blanket so the blood wouldn’t get on the car, and drive him hurriedly to a veterinarian.”