“So, what did you do?”
“I followed a code signal from you, Mr. Mason. I pretended that I was simply a girl friend who was paying you a visit for purposes of affection. I gave you a casual kiss, departed, but, in accordance with your code signal, I rented a taxicab, watched the exit of the hotel so that I could follow Mr. Cassel when he left, and did so follow him to the Tallmeyer Apartments.
“I then reported to you, giving you the license number of the Cadillac owned by the decedent and the address to which he had driven.”
“And then?” Mason asked.
“Then I returned, and continued to occupy the room, waiting for someone to get in touch with me seeking a blackmail payment.”
“When the defendant was in the room did you see her purse?”
“I did.”
“The purse which has been introduced in evidence and which I now hand you?”
“It was either this purse or a similar one.”
Mason said, “I now put the gun which is supposed to have fired the fatal bullet into this purse and ask you if, in your opinion, that gun could have been in that purse at the time that the defendant left the room.”
“It definitely could not have been in the purse, not that gun. I would have noticed the manner in which the purse was bulged out of shape.”
“Cross-examine,” Mason said to Ralph Floyd.
Floyd said, “The defendant could have had the gun someplace else, in her suitcase or concealed somewhere on her person and put it in her purse at a later date.”
“Mr. Mason took her suitcase,” Stella Grimes said, “to smuggle it out of the hotel. She was to take with her nothing but her purse and a black sort of overnight bag.”
“And that gun could have been in the overnight bag?”
“It could not.”
“Why not?”
“Because that bag was full of money with which to pay a blackmailer.”
“How much money?”
“I didn’t count it,” she said, “but it was full of money. I saw that much.”
Floyd hesitated a moment, then said, “I guess that’s all.”
“If the Court please,” Mason said, “I notice that an officer has handed the bailiff an overcoat. I believe this is the overcoat that was taken from Mr. Cassel’s closet, the one which didn’t fit him?”
“I don’t know that it didn’t fit him,” Floyd snapped.
“We’ll very soon find that out,” Mason said. “Mr. Ballard, will you come forward and be sworn, please.”
Ballard, a very short, thick-set individual in his early forties, came to the witness stand, moving with surprising swiftness and agility for one of his build.
He gave his name, address, occupation, age, and then turned to face Mr. Mason.
“You knew Moray Cassel in his lifetime?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How long had you known him?”
“About seven years.”
“What is your occupation?”
“I am a custom tailor.”
“Did you make clothes for Mr. Cassel?”
“I did.”
“How many clothes did you make?”
“Heavens, I don’t know. He seldom kept a suit over six months, and I know that he had a very extensive wardrobe. I made literally dozens of suits for him.”
“And you kept his measurements on file?”
“Certainly. I didn’t want to have to measure him every time he came in. He would pick out the material, tell me what he wanted, and I would have the clothes ready for the first fitting within a few days.”
“I show you an overcoat which I will mark for purposes of identification as Defendant’s Exhibit Number One and ask you if you made that overcoat.”
The witness fingered the overcoat. “I certainly did not.”
“I ask you if that overcoat could have been worn by Moray Cassel.”
The witness pulled a tape measure from his pocket, made a few swift measurements, then shook his head. “Moray Cassel would have been lost in that overcoat,” he said.
“Cross-examine,” Mason said.
“I certainly have no questions about this overcoat of this witness,” Floyd said.
Mason said, “In view of the fact that this overcoat which has been marked for identification as Defendant’s Exhibit Number One is one that was produced by the prosecution as having been found in the closet in Moray Cassel’s apartment, I now ask that this be introduced in evidence as Defendant’s Exhibit Number One.”
“Objected to as wholly incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial,” Floyd said.
“I would be inclined to think so,” Judge Elliott said, “unless counsel believes it can be connected up. The Court would be glad to hear your theory of the case, Mr. Mason.”
Mason said, “Before I give my theory of the case, I would like to have this overcoat tried on by someone who will fill it out. I have two witnesses here in court whom I expect to use. I think they will be willing to volunteer. Mr. Franklin Gage, will you step forward, please, and try on this overcoat?”
Franklin Gage hesitated, then got to his feet, came forward, took the overcoat, looked at it, and put it on. It instantly became apparent that the sleeves were too short and the overcoat too full.
“That won’t do,” Mason said. “Mr. Homer Gage, will you step forward please and put on the coat?”
“I see no reason to do so,” Homer Gage said.
Mason looked at him in some surprise. “Is there any reason why you don’t want to?”
Homer Gage hesitated for a moment, then said, “All right. It looks like it’s about my size, but I’ve never seen it before.”
He stepped forward and put on the overcoat. It instantly became apparent that the coat was a perfect fit.
“Now, then, Your Honor,” Mason said, “I will give the Court my theory about the overcoat... Thank you very much, Mr. Gage. You may take the coat off.”
Homer Gage squirmed out of the overcoat as though he had been scalded.
Mason folded the overcoat and put it over his right arm.
“Now then, Your Honor,” he said, “if a person approaches a man who is armed and dangerous and wants to be absolutely certain that he gets the drop on him, he must necessarily have a gun in his hand, cocked and ready to fire.
“The best way to do this without being detected is to have a folded overcoat over the right hand, which can hold the gun under the folds of the overcoat... If you’ll hand me the gun which is the exhibit in the case, Mr. Bailiff... thank you. I will illustrate to the Court how it can be done.”
Mason folded the coat, placed it over his right arm, and held his hand with the gun in it just under the folded overcoat.
“Now then, if the Court please, I will make my opening statement. It is my belief that a young woman who was a friend of a girl who worked with Moray Cassel got into that condition which is generally known as being ‘in trouble.’ I believe that an executive for the Excobar Import and Export Company was responsible for that condition. I will refer to this man as Mr. X.
“Moray Cassel was a very shrewd, adroit blackmailer. He found out about what was happening and what company the man worked in. He wasn’t too certain of some of the facts, but he saw an opportunity to make a few easy dollars. I believe the young woman had no part in the blackmail scheme.
“She had gone to some other state to have her baby. But one of Cassel’s scouts learned of the facts in the case and probably knew that the young woman used a code in communicating with her lover. Mail was probably addressed simply to thirty-six-twenty-four-thirty-six, Excobar Import and Export Company, and signed the same way — and these may well have been the measurements of the young woman in the case.