“Damn it!” Mason said. “Are you trying to force your way into the death cell?”
“We’re not trying anything of the sort,” Eden said impatiently, “but if we are convicted, that’s all there is to it. If we aren’t convicted we’ve got to hold our heads up in society and live normal lives as well as we can. I’ll tell you this much: We didn’t kill him, and that’s all we’re going to tell you.”
Mason said, “What time did you get to your house out there — that is, if you were in town together?”
Eden shook his head. “We’ve told you all we’re going to tell you.”
The deputies standing impatiently waiting for their prisoners moved in a little closer.
Mason shrugged his shoulders. “All right,” he said, “take them.”
Chapter 14
Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake had lunch near the Hall of Justice at a small Italian restaurant where the proprietor had reserved a private dining room for them.
“I thought you said it was all circumstantial evidence, Perry,” Drake said.
“I thought it was,” Mason told him. “There’s something about this case that simply doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, we’ve done all we can,” Drake said.
Della Street said reassuringly, “You’re doing a wonderful job, Chief. After all, if they expect you to go it blind you’ve got to just play it by ear. You’ve taken the sting out of a good deal of their evidence.”
“But how am I going to take the sting out of Nadine Palmer’s evidence?” Mason asked.
“Do you think she’s telling the truth?”
“I don’t know.”
“Suppose you knew your clients were guilty. What would you do?” Drake asked. “You’d try to discredit Nadine Palmer, wouldn’t you?”
“It’s my duty to try and discredit her anyway,” Mason said. “After all, she’s given damaging testimony and it’s up to me to use a searching cross-examination in probing for some weak point in her story.
“There’s one thing I wish you’d do, Paul.”
“What?”
“Get Della Street’s fingerprints.”
“Get what?” Della asked.
“Get Della Street’s fingerprints,” Mason said, his eyes on Paul.
“Well, that’s easy,” Drake said, grinning. “Provided Della doesn’t raise any objection.”
“What in the world do you want my fingerprints for?” Della asked.
Mason grinned. “I just thought I’d use them in cross-examination.”
“Why?”
“Well, it might have a dramatic effect on the jury.”
“When do you want them?”
“Right after lunch,” Mason said. “Drake had better take you up to his office where no one will see him. Get her fingerprints, Paul, and mark the sheet of paper on which the fingerprints are made — use one of the standard sheets of fingerprint paper — and come to think of it, Paul, don’t use all of Della’s fingerprints. Take your secretary’s and alternate fingerprints; one of Della’s, one of your secretary’s. Start with Della’s little finger, take your secretary’s ring finger. Get Della’s middle finger, then your secretary’s index finger; then Della Street’s thumb.”
“What in the world are you planning?” Drake asked.
“I don’t know,” Mason said, “but the way I look at law an attorney has a right to cross-examine a witness in order to find out if that witness is telling the truth. If the witness isn’t, he doesn’t need to lay a trap simply by asking questions. He has a reasonable amount of leeway.”
Drake said, “I don’t like this, Perry. You could get into trouble, particularly when you start mixing fingerprints.”
Mason looked at him somberly. “Hell, I’m in trouble already, Paul. My clients are mixed in this thing up to their eyebrows and I don’t know just where to strike. Anything I do may be the wrong thing.”
“Well, this certainly looks wrong,” Drake said. “It’s no crime to take anyone’s fingerprints but once you start mixing up the fingerprints of two people to deceive someone, you... Suppose they catch you, Perry?”
“That’s the point,” Mason said. “I don’t want them to catch me.”
“Quit worrying about it, Paul,” Della Street said. “Let’s hurry through lunch and get going.”
Drake sighed. “The things a private detective has to go through when he’s working for Perry Mason,” he said lugubriously. “All of a sudden I’ve lost my appetite.”
Chapter 15
At one-fifteen when court reconvened, Judge Fisk said, “Mrs. Nadine Palmer was on the stand. Will you return to the stand, please, Mrs. Palmer?
“Go ahead with your cross-examination, Mr. Mason.”
Mason waited until Nadine Palmer had seated herself and was glaring at him defiantly as though daring him to do his worst.
“This woman that you saw in the swimming pool,” Mason said, “you glimpsed very briefly?”
“I saw her for some period of time, but she was moving very rapidly.”
“The only time you saw her face was when she was running toward the swimming pool, is that right?”
“That’s the only time I would have had a good look at her face.”
“You say you would have had a good look at her face — meaning that you would have had a good look at her face if you could have kept your eyes focused on it?”
“Well, she was moving very rapidly and I had a little trouble getting the binoculars... Well, I saw her.”
“And then you saw her jump in the water, swim across to the other side of the pool, bend over the hidden receptacle, and all that time she had her back to you.”
“From the time she got out of the pool, yes.”
“And while she was in the pool her face was under water.”
“Yes.”
“Now,” Mason said, “when I called on you, your hair was wet.”
“I had been in a shower.”
“Do you usually wet your hair when you’re taking a shower?”
“Sometimes. I intended to have my hair done the next day so I was careless about it.”
“You remember that I asked you for a cigarette and you told me to help myself out of your purse or handbag?”
“Yes.”
“Then when I opened it to take out a cigarette you came dashing out of the bedroom with a negligee wide open and trailing behind you. You were careless of the amount of exposure because of your haste.”
“I wanted to help you. I was being hospitable and I thought you were a gentleman.”
“And you whipped out a package of cigarettes and handed them to me?” Mason asked.
“Yes.”
“Now, you’re under oath,” Mason said. “Did you get those cigarettes from your handbag or did you have them in your hand when you came running out of the bedroom?”
“I had them in my hand, actually.”
“And the reason you were so anxious to get a cigarette into my hands before I reached one out of the bag is because you realized that the cigarettes in your bag were soaking wet, due to the fact that you had been in the swimming pool in your panties and bra and had taken your underthings off while they were wet and put them in the bag?”
“I object,” Ormsby said. “This is not proper cross-examination. It assumes facts not in evidence and covers matters which were not covered on direct examination.”