“Was anyone with her at that time?”
“A police officer.”
“Were there any other people in the showup box?”
“Not at that time, no.”
“The defendant was put in there by herself?”
“Yes.”
“And you had a good look at her?”
“Yes.”
“And then afterwards four other women were brought into the showup box?”
“Yes.”
“And then the officers asked you to pick out the one that you had seen out there at the San Sebastian Country Club?”
“Yes.”
“And you unerringly picked the defendant?”
“Yes.”
Mason said, “I am going to ask Mrs. Barton Jennings to please stand.”
There was silence in the courtroom.
“Please stand, Mrs. Jennings,” Mason said.
Lorraine Jennings made no move to get to her feet.
“Stand up, Mrs. Jennings,” Judge Kent ordered.
Reluctantly Lorraine Jennings stood.
“Will you come forward, please?” Mason asked.
“Come forward,” Judge Kent ruled.
“Now then,” Mason said to Mrs. Bailey, “is there any chance that this is the person whom you saw getting out of the car and approaching the car that was parked at the San Sebastian Country Club?”
The witness studied Mrs. Jennings for a long moment, then said, “I... I don’t think so.”
“But it could have been?”
“Well, she’s got very much the same build and complexion as the defendant, but I... no, I don’t think so.”
“That’s all, Mrs. Jennings,” Mason said.
Lorraine Jennings turned abruptly and walked so rapidly she was almost running.
“Wait! Wait!” the witness said.
“Wait, Mrs. Jennings,” Mason said.
Mrs. Jennings paid no attention.
“Now that she walks rapidly,” the witness said excitedly, “I know that it was this woman. There’s a peculiar way she has when she walks; that hurrying walk, that was just the way she walked when we saw her.”
Mason smiled and said to Hamilton Burger, “That, Mr. District Attorney, concludes my cross-examination. Do you have any redirect examination?”
Hamilton Burger slowly got to his feet. “If the Court please,” he said wearily, “I suggest that this matter should be adjourned until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. There are some things which I feel should be investigated.”
“I think so, too,” Judge Kent said dryly. “The case is adjourned until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock, and in the meantime this defendant is released on her own recognizance.”
Chapter Eighteen
Mason and Della Street were in the lawyer’s private office when Drake’s code knock sounded on the door.
“Let Paul in,” Mason said wearily.
Della Street opened the door.
Drake, grinning broadly, said, “Well you did it, Perry.”
“What happened?” Mason asked.
“Complete confessions,” Drake said. “Also, you have a suit against Horace Livermore Selkirk. He filed a complaint charging you with kidnaping, then it turned out you had sent the boy to the place where his mother told him to go, and Hamilton Burger’s face is red over that.”
“But what about the case itself? What about the murder?” Mason asked.
“Mervin Selkirk was a cold-blooded, highly efficient individual. I guess he took after his dad as far as his efficiency and ruthlessness were concerned,” Drake said. “When Lorraine left him and married Barton Jennings, Selkirk quietly proceeded to get all the information he could on Barton Jennings. It was plenty. He found that Jennings was treasurer and manager of the Savings and Loan Corporation. Selkirk deliberately schemed to get Jennings to invest in some so-called sure things, and before Jennings knew it, he was hopelessly involved. Then Mervin Selkirk began to put on the pressure. He owned Barton Jennings, body and soul.
“Lorraine had no idea there was any contact between the two men, but her husband was reporting regularly to her ex-husband.
“When Lorraine got together with Norda Allison and wanted to get sole custody of Robert, Selkirk cracked the whip. He had previously forced Barton Jennings to get a printing press and print the envelopes which had been used to mail the threatening letters to Norda Allison. That press had been at Jennings’ office, concealed in a closet, until the day before the murder. At that time Jennings’ secretary had announced she was planning to clean out the closet and get rid of a lot of junk that had been accumulating over the years.
“So, while Lorraine Jennings was away that afternoon, Barton Jennings had taken the printing press and the envelopes to a temporary place of concealment in his basement. He had previously reported to Selkirk that Norda was going to join his wife in Los Angeles and that a move was to be made to get sole custody of Robert for Lorraine.
“Mervin Selkirk ordered Barton to listen in on their plan and then sneak out of the house to meet him at the San Sebastian Country Club at one-thirty in the morning. He gave Barton an ultimatum. Either Barton Was to fix things so that Lorraine gave up all claim to Robert, or Selkirk was going to expose Barton Jennings, have him sent to prison, and use that to defeat the application for custody of the child.
“That evening, on the way back from the airport, was when Jennings made up his mind to kill Selkirk but the only gun that he could put his hands on was under Robert’s pillow. He went out to get the gun. Robert was panic-stricken and fired the gun. The bullet hit the dog.
“Jennings took the dog to the veterinarian, came back, found his wife had quieted Robert, and then confessed everything to his wife. He went out for a showdown with Mervin Selkirk. In the course of that showdown he shot Selkirk, probably just a few minutes before Millicent Bailey and her boy friend drove up. Then Jennings returned to the house. His wife was waiting up for him. He told her what had happened. Then he went down to his workshop to rough up the barrel of the gun.
“While he was doing that, Lorraine decided to frame the crime on Norda Allison. She still had Norda Allison’s airplane ticket. She got in the car, went out to the place where the death car was parked and dipped Norda Allison’s ticket into the pool of blood on the floor of the car, then put it in the side pocket of Selkirk’s coat. She didn’t realize that Millicent Bailey and her boy friend were doing a little necking and that they had seen her drive up. When Millicent drove out, Lorraine was in a panic. But she still went ahead with her plan to frame the crime on Norda Allison because that was the only thing left for her to do.
“When Barton Jennings had roughed up the barrel of the gun with a rattail file, Lorraine placed it under Norda’s pillow after Norda had left. In their anxiety to make the case look good they overdid it.
“However, the police played right into their hands. Having come to the conclusion that Norda Allison was guilty, they virtually forced Millicent Bailey’s identification.
“After they had planted the gun under the pillow, Barton Jennings suddenly remembered the printing press down in the spare room, the one he had used in printing the envelopes which he sent to Norda Allison in San Francisco.
“He had no way of knowing Norda had found this press. The only sleep Jennings and his wife got that night was after Jennings had moved Robert, washed the dog’s blood from the grass and while they were waiting for Norda to get up. They were so tired they slept soundly for a couple of hours and didn’t hear Norda in the basement.
“By that time Jennings felt it could be made to appear Mervin Selkirk had had the printing press in his car and that Selkirk had been printing the envelopes, just as Norda had suspected all along.
“So Jennings loaded the printing press in the trunk of his car and drove out to the country club to scout around. Selkirk’s body hadn’t been found as yet, but since it was broad daylight Jennings didn’t dare park in the parking place. He did, however, explore the service road and find a place where his car was out of sight, both from the country club headquarters, as well as from the parking lot.