Mason said, “You have testified that I substituted this murder gun, Exhibit 30, for the Junior Gun which you had given me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you see me do that?”
“Certainly not. You did it when you had created so much excitement through the discharge of the Junior Gun that you were able to do it without anyone seeing you.”
“Then how do you know I did it if you didn’t see me do it?”
“It is a matter of simply putting two and two together.”
“In other words, you have reached a conclusion in your own mind as to what must have happened?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then you are testifying not as to any fact concerning which you know, but only as to a conclusion which you have drawn from certain facts?”
“From certain inescapable facts,” Garvin said.
“But nevertheless your testimony concerning the substitution of the gun is a conclusion?”
“A conclusion based on inescapable facts.”
Mason smiled at the frowning Judge and said, “Your Honor, I move to strike out the evidence of this witness in regard to the substitution of the guns on the ground that it is a conclusion.”
“The motion is granted,” Judge Decker snapped. “It should be quite apparent that the District Attorney must have been familiar with the testimony of this witness and must have known that the witness’s testimony was based on a conclusion.”
“Just a moment, if the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said. “I think the Court is being unduly harsh with the prosecution on this matter. If the Court will permit me, I will again examine this witness and establish facts which, as the witness has stated, are irrefutable. They lead to an inescapable conclusion.”
“Let the jurors draw that conclusion then,” Judge Decker said. “Don’t put on witnesses who will testify as an absolute fact to conclusions which they have drawn.”
Hamilton Burger, his face flushed, turned to the witness. “You have stated that you gave Mr. Mason a gun?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You have stated that it was not this gun, the murder weapon, Exhibit Number 30, but the gun we are referring to as the Junior Gun, is that right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How do you know the Junior Gun which you gave him was not the murder weapon, Exhibit 30?”
“I know it was not because the evidence shows that this gun which I am holding in my hand was used to kill George Casselman on the evening of October seventh of this year. It was absolutely impossible for the Junior Gun which I gave Mr. Mason to have been so used.”
“Why was it impossible?”
“Objected to,” Mason said, “as being an attempt to cross-examine the prosecution’s own witness. I move to strike out the statement that it was impossible that the gun he handed me could have been the murder weapon on the ground that that is a conclusion of the witness and is not responsive to the question.”
“The motion is granted,” Judge Decker snapped.
“But Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger protested, “I certainly am entitled to show...”
“You are entitled to show facts, and nothing but facts.”
“Very well,” Hamilton Burger said. “You gave Mr. Mason a gun?”
“Yes, sir. I gave him the weapon we are designating as the Junior Gun.”
“Where did you get that gun?”
“From a drawer in my desk.”
“Where did you get the gun before that?”
“From my father. He gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Sometime around last Christmas. I think it was a Christmas present.”
“Where was that gun on October seventh?”
“In my possession.”
“During all of the time on October seventh?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What did you do with that gun?”
“I gave it to Perry Mason.”
“And what did Perry Mason do with it?”
“He discharged it.”
“And then what happened?”
“Then Mr. Mason handed me a gun and suggested I take that to Stephanie Falkner.”
“Was that the same gun you handed Mr. Mason?”
“No.”
“Now just a moment,” Judge Decker said. “You have drawn the conclusion that it could not have been the gun? Isn’t that correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“The answer will be stricken. The prosecution will kindly refrain from leading this witness into a position where an opinion or a conclusion is offered as evidence. Now just state the facts.”
“Very well, I had this gun in my possession. I gave it to Mr. Mason. Mr. Mason fired the gun. Then he handed me back a gun, and asked me to deliver that gun to Stephanie Falkner. I did.”
“What did she do with the gun?”
“She placed it on a table in the living room in her apartment.”
“Then what did you do?”
“Then Mr. Mason and I left the apartment.”
“Then what happened?”
“As we started across the lobby, we saw two officers entering the apartment house.”
“Do you know those officers?”
“I do now. I didn’t then.”
“What were their names?”
“Sgt. Holcomb and Lt. Tragg.”
“Now the gun that you gave Mr. Mason had been in your possession, you say, all during the 7th of October of this year?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said triumphantly to Perry Mason.
Mason arose to his feet, faced the witness. “You say that the gun you gave me had been in your possession all of the seventh of October?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You had been out to lunch?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you take the gun with you?”
“No, sir.”
“Where was it?”
“In my desk drawer.”
“Was the desk locked?”
“No, sir.”
“You consider that that was being in your possession?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where were you on the evening of October seventh?”
“I was calling on a customer about a car deal.”
“Did you have the gun with you?”
“The gun was in my desk.”
“When did you take it out of your desk?”
“After the conference was over. I returned to my office, took some cash out of the safe, and slipped the gun into my pocket.”
“And then took it home?”
“Yes.”
“What time was it that you took it home?”
“About nine-thirty or ten o’clock, as nearly as I can judge.”
“You had recently been married?”
“Yes.”
“Did you keep the gun in your pocket after you got home?”
“No, sir. I took it upstairs and put it on the dresser.”
“What time did you go to bed that night?”
“About half an hour after I got home.”
“What did you do with the gun?”
“I left it on the dresser.”
“Was your office locked on the evening of the 7th of October?”
“Yes.”
“Who has a key to that office?”
“I have a key. My father has a key, my secretary has a key, and the janitor has a key.”
“Did your wife have a key?”
The witness hesitated, then said in a surly voice, “Yes, my wife had a key.”
“And what did you do when you got up the next morning?”
“I dressed and had breakfast, I shaved, I cleaned my teeth,” the witness all but shouted in his anger.
“And then what?”
“Then I went to my office.”
“And did you take the gun with you?”
The witness started to say something, then suddenly stopped, checked himself, thought for a moment, said, “I— As a matter of fact, I did not.”
“What did you do with that gun, the one we have been referring to as the Junior Gun?”