“Very well,” Judge Ashurst remarked reluctantly. “Let the record show exactly what has taken place. Now then, the Court is going to ask the defendant to stand up. Miss Farr, will you stand up, please?”
Nadine Farr stood up.
“You have heard what was said by your counsel?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“Do you wish the Court to appoint other counsel to defend you?”
“No, Your Honor.”
“Are you satisfied with the position adopted by your attorney?”
“Whatever Mr. Mason says is all right with me,” she said.
Judge Ashurst shook his head dubiously. “The Court still doesn’t feel right about this matter. The Court is going to take an adjournment and give the matter further consideration. The Court is frank to state that the technical objections in regard to the corpus delicti appear to the Court to have a substantial foundation in fact; furthermore, the fact that this so-called confession was made under the influence of narcotics, and the further fact that this was a communication with a physician within the four walls of a doctor’s office for the purpose of getting treatment, all tend to make a very serious technical situation.”
“I have other authorities, if the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said. “When a patient confesses a crime to a doctor, the doctor cannot consider that as a confidential communication.”
“But this doctor is a psychiatrist,” Judge Ashurst pointed out. “I am familiar with the line of decisions indicating that a confession to a crime is not necessary to enable a doctor to make his diagnosis and that therefore it is not a privileged communication, but here we are dealing with a psychiatrist who, according to your own words, was trying to probe the underlying causes of the patient’s guilt.”
“I can short-cut all of that if you want,” Mason said. “I can prove right here and now that the defendant never threw that bottle of poison into Twomby’s Lake.”
“How are you going to prove it?” Hamilton Burger demanded truculently. “That’s another grandstand play, another attempt to influence the press. You—”
Judge Ashurst banged his gavel. “That will do, Mr. Prosecutor. Mr. Mason, you wish to point out something to the Court?”
“Simply this,” Mason said. “Look at the wadding on those shells. Those are sixteen-gauge shells filled with number five chilled shot. Look at the bottle marked Exhibit A containing the poison. Look at those shot. Those shot are number seven and a half or number eight bird shot. They’re very definitely not number five shot. And you can still see some of the five shot which are left in the shell which was only half-emptied.
“In other words, Your Honor, the bottle containing the harmless sugar substitute, Exhibit B, is the bottle that contains the number five chilled shot which came from the shotgun shells. The bottle, Exhibit A, containing the cyanide of potassium, contains number eight shot or number nine. That load is a much finer bird shot intended for trap shooting or upland game, whereas the load in the shells which were found in the place mentioned in the tape-recorded statement contains shot used for hunting ducks.
“Now then, Your Honor, I ask that we bring in a pair of scales right here and now before there’s any opportunity to tamper with that evidence and weigh the shot which are found in both bottles. I think you will find that the shot in the bottle containing the harmless sugar substitute represent the exact weight of the shot taken from the two shells found in the gun room; that the shot in the bottle containing cyanide of potassium definitely came from another source.”
Judge Ashurst picked up the two bottles, glanced at Hamilton Burger.
“Oh, Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said, “this is another grandstand play. This is— How do I know what happened? Counsel was in a position to switch those bottles. I definitely accuse him of having thrown one of those bottles—”
“Which one?” Mason asked.
“Exhibit B,” Hamilton Burger snapped.
“All right,” Mason said, “then you contend that the defendant threw the bottle Exhibit A?”
“That’s right.”
“Then her confession can’t be substantiated because the shot in Exhibit A didn’t come from those two shotgun shells. You’ve stated that you’re willing to submit your entire case on the theory that the confession, no matter how obtained, can be introduced if it is corroborated by independent physical evidence.”
Hamilton Burger looked at the two bottles, scratched his head, said, “I don’t know definitely — of course, there is always the possibility these labels have been substituted.”
“In that case,” Mason said, “the bottle that you accuse me of having thrown into the lake then contains cyanide of potassium and the bottle you now claim the defendant threw into the lake contains the sugar substitute.”
Hamilton Burger started to say something, then looked around at the newspaper reporters who were literally crowding forward.
“Let’s have an adjournment in this case,” he said, “until we can get some of these facts unscrambled.”
“Let’s not have any adjournment or any possibility of having any substitution made until we get this thing straight,” Mason said. “Let’s get the ballistics expert from the sheriff’s office into court, have him bring a pair of scales and find out about these shot.”
Judge Ashurst nodded to the bailiff. “Get the ballistics expert from the sheriff’s office, Mr. Bailiff.”
Chapter Sixteen
Alexander Redfield was the ballistics expert who had featured so prominently in Perry Mason’s earlier case involving the redheaded waitress who had been accused of murder. Having completed the tests made in front of Judge Ashurst and the tensely, dramatically silent courtroom, he looked at Mason with a respect amounting to awe.
“Mr. Mason is absolutely correct, Your Honor. The shells which were found in the gun room and which I have previously examined at the request of the district attorney contain number five shot. These shot are twelve one-hundredths of an inch in diameter and average one hundred and seventy to the ounce. These particular shells are made by the Remington Company. Each shell contains approximately one and one-eighth ounces of shot. The shot that are in this bottle which contains the sugar substitute, Exhibit B, came from these shells. The shot in this bottle are the exact weight of the lead shot missing from the two shells.
“On the other hand, the shot in the bottle of cyanide, which is marked Exhibit A, are a smaller shot and, frankly, I don’t think they came from a shotgun shell. If the Court will notice, there is a peculiar coating on these shot. I have not had time as yet to make chemical analysis but I think it will be determined that the substance coating those shot is ink.”
“Ink!” Judge Ashurst exclaimed.
“Exactly, Your Honor. The Court may have noticed that in certain hotels where pens are used, there is frequently a glass container filled with small shot and in which pens are dipped. It is an old-fashioned custom which has largely become outmoded, but it still exists in certain places.
“A steel pen retains ink and in the course of time is corroded. An attempt is made to remove the ink from the pen by placing the pen in a container in which there’s a large number of small shot. The ink has a tendency to leave the pen and cling to the shot, and I believe there is also some sort of a chemical reaction which protects the steel pen from corrosion, although I am not in a position to make that as a definite statement.
“However, you will note that these smaller shot in the bottle containing the cyanide, Exhibit A, have a definite discoloration which I think is ink.”
“Now then,” Mason interposed, “I want the Court to order the police to check immediately on the clubs to which Jackson Newburn belongs — they might start with the Wildcat Exploration and Development Club on West Adams Street — and see if on the desks of one of those clubs, in the writing room, there are not glass containers holding shot similar to those found in this exhibit. I also want the Court to have those shot impounded and the ink on them analyzed and see if it is not the same ink as is found on these shot in the bottle, Exhibit A. I think it is going to be possible to prove that the shot in this bottle containing the cyanide came from the writing room of one of those clubs.”