Drake made a note.
“Anything else?”
“Guess that’s all. I’ll get on back and see what Hardwick wants. He should be about due.”
“One other thing,” Drake said. “Blevins tells me he taught Addicks how to hypnotize.”
“Why?”
“Addicks wanted him to.”
Mason said, “Paul, I want all this stuff verified. I’m going to put on a defense in this case that will make history, but first I have to know what really happened out there.”
“Can’t Josephine Kempton tell you?” Drake asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Confidentially, I don’t think she knows.”
Drake said disgustedly, “Oh, for Pete’s sake, Perry! Don’t put on one of those defenses where the dame says, ‘We were sitting there with the carving knife, and then, all of a sudden, everything went black to me, and when I regained my senses he was lying there on the bed, perfectly still, and I cried, “Speak to me, Benny! Speak to me!” ’ ”
Mason grinned. “It’s not like that at all, Paul, and yet it is. Get all the dope on Blevins — find his ex-wife. I’m going over to talk with Hardwick — see you later, Paul.”
Mason walked back to his office. Della Street said, “James Etna is on his way over. He seems terribly worked up.”
The telephone rang. Della Street picked up the receiver, said, “Hello,” and then to Mason, “That’s Mr. Etna now.”
“Tell him to come on in,” Mason said, “and tell Gertie to bring Mr. Hardwick in just as soon as Hardwick arrives at the office.”
Della Street hung up the telephone, went out and escorted Etna into the office.
Etna, showing considerable emotion, said, “Mr. Mason, can you tell me what in the world has got into the police?”
Mason shook his head. “They certainly seem to feel they’ve slipped over a fast one.”
Etna said, “It was almost as though they had some means of knowing what had been said...”
Mason grinned. “You’re not telling me anything,” he said. “Della Street and I took this office to pieces, trying to find a microphone. We thought perhaps they’d managed to listen in on our client’s story. How about the writ? Did you get it?”
“No. I found it wouldn’t do any good.”
“You mean she’s charged?”
“That’s right. First-degree murder. They’d already filed and that was a regular warrant of arrest.”
“Something happened to make them feel mighty confident all of a sudden,” Mason said.
“Of course, it’s an unusual story,” Etna ventured.
“You can say that all over again.”
“What do you make of it?” Etna asked.
“Her story?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not thinking yet.”
“What will happen when she tells that to a jury?”
“You mean if she tells it to a jury.”
“She’ll have to get on the stand sooner or later.”
Mason grinned. “Let’s make it later then, Etna.”
“You don’t think a jury will believe the story?”
“Do you?”
“Well,” Etna said, “hang it, Mason, I do and I don’t.”
Mason continued to smile.
“Of course, when you take into consideration the entire background out there, the thing sounds reasonable. Here was a millionaire who had been experimenting with hypnotism. He’d been trying to hypnotize gorillas, and apparently trying to instill them with homicidal impulses. It was only natural that sooner or later he should have some measure of success, and then it’s only logical to suppose that he might be the first victim.”
Mason said, “Go ahead, Jim. You’re trying to sell yourself on her story. You’re making an argument to yourself as though you were a jury.”
“Well, why not?”
Mason said, “When a lawyer has to argue with himself to try to talk himself into believing a client’s story, it’s a damn sight better to keep anyone else from ever hearing that story.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Etna said with a weak smile. “I hadn’t realized exactly what was happening in my own mind, but now that you mention it I guess I have been trying very hard, and not too successfully, to make myself believe a story that... well, hang it, I still don’t know just where I stand on it. The story sounds crazy until I consider all the background, and then it’s almost logical.”
Mason said, “We’ll know a lot more in a few days, Jim.”
Etna said, “I can’t help but think that I’ve let you in for something.”
Mason shook his head. “It’s okay. I’ve been in worse spots than this.”
“That brings us back to a question of why the police acted as they did. Wasn’t it rather unusual?”
“Unusual!” Mason exclaimed. “It was unique.”
The phone rang. Della Street picked up the receiver, nodded to Mason and said, “It’s Hardwick.”
“We’ll postpone this discussion a while,” Mason said to Etna. “Let’s put up a bold front as far as Hardwick is concerned. We’ll be all smiles and optimism — all right, Della, show him in.”
Della Street held the door open and said, “Mr. Hardwick.”
Sidney Hardwick, apparently very much concerned about something, said, “Good morning, gentlemen, good morning. I hope I haven’t disrupted your entire day, Mr. Mason — and you too, Mr. Etna.”
“Not at all,” Mason said. “Sit down. What can we do for you?”
Hardwick sat down, adjusted the glasses on his nose, pulled the black ribbon back over his ear, adjusted his hearing aid, and said, “Let’s please understand each other at the outset. I know that you two people are in many ways in an adverse position to me. You are, I believe, representing Josephine Kempton?”
“I believe so,” Mason said. “That is, I think we will be representing her.”
“Both of you?” Hardwick asked.
James Etna shifted his position slightly, then said, “Yes, I guess so.”
“Now then,” Hardwick went on, “I represented Benjamin Addicks during his lifetime. I know more about him than any living man. I drew a will for him some months ago. That will was in accordance with Mr. Addicks’ wishes at that time.”
“You have reason to believe his wishes changed?”
Hardwick cleared his throat. “Both his wishes and his will.”
Mason said, “You have something to tell us and something you want to ask us. Why not put it on the line?”
Hardwick smiled. “I’m afraid that I’m not a very good poker player.”
“You’re not playing poker,” Mason told him. “You’re engaged in a consultation where we’re all of us putting certain cards on the table. Now suppose you start putting down as many cards as you want to disclose, and then we’ll see what we can do.”
“Very well. There is a situation here that is most unusual, a situation that is in some ways very much in favor of your client. I felt that you should know it, Mr. Mason, before you... well, perhaps before you decide you wouldn’t represent her.”
“Go ahead,” Mason said. “We’re listening.”
Hardwick said, “You called on Benjamin Addicks Tuesday night. Your call upset him. When you found the ring and the watch... well, it was a jolt to Addicks’ self-respect and to his self-assurance. He completely changed his mind about what he wanted to do in his will.
“That night, before he went to bed, somewhere around eleven-thirty, he called in Nathan Fallon and Mortimer Hershey for a conference. He said, ‘Gentlemen, I have been a fool. I have been self-righteous. I have been arbitrary in my judgments of my fellow men. I am sorry. I am going to try to make what atonement I can. I have here a will which I have drawn up entirely in my own handwriting. I am putting this will in an envelope. I am giving it to you. I want you gentlemen to seal the envelope and sign your names on the back of it, and place that envelope in a safe place. If anything should happen to me within the next few days I want you to see that Mr. Sidney Hardwick has this will.’ ”