“Very well,” Judge Decker said, controlling himself with a visible effort, “under the circumstances, there being no objection, the witness will be permitted to answer the question.”
“You’re certain of the time element?” Hamilton Burger asked.
“Absolutely certain,” she said. “I resented being treated as a chattel. I felt that anything Mr. Garvin wanted to say to me could have been said before he—”
“Just a minute,” Judge Decker interrupted. “Your thoughts are not important as far as this case is concerned. You are simply asked if you were sure of the time.”
“I am sure of the time.”
“Now did Mr. Garvin say anything to you about Mr. Casselman?” Hamilton Burger asked.
“Yes.”
“Who was present?”
“Just Mr. Garvin and myself.”
“What did he say?”
“He said, ‘I have just talked with the man who I am certain killed Stephanie Falkner’s father. I have made an appointment to see him at eleven o’clock tonight.’ ”
“Then what did he do, if anything?”
“He took off his coat. I noticed the revolver which was in his shoulder holster. He took off this shoulder holster and placed it on his desk, and then went into the shower room to take a bath.”
“Can you identify the gun which was in that shoulder holster at that time?” Hamilton Burger asked.
“No, sir. I cannot. I am afraid of guns. I didn’t go near it. However, it looked exactly like the gun marked People’s Exhibit 30.”
“You may inquire,” Hamilton Burger said, turning to Perry Mason.
“Now what time was this?” Mason asked.
“When he arrived at the office, it was about a quarter to nine.”
“He told you he had already seen Casselman?”
“His exact words were ‘I have just talked with the man who I am certain killed Stephanie Falkner’s father. I have made an appointment to see him at eleven o’clock tonight.’ ”
“You remember his exact words?”
“I do.”
“But he didn’t mention Casselman by name?”
“He meant Casselman all right. He said...”
“I am not asking whom he meant. I am asking if he used Casselman’s name.”
“He did not use Casselman’s name.”
Mason said, “I have no further questions.”
Burger said, “I’ll call Mrs. Garvin, Jr., to the witness stand.”
Mrs. Garvin, a long-legged redhead, strode to the witness stand with every appearance of perfect composure. She smiled at the jurors, crossed her knees so as to display just the right amount of nylon, turned courteously and expectantly to the District Attorney.
Hamilton Burger said, “You are the wife of the witness Homer Garvin, Jr., who has just testified in this case. I show you a weapon marked People’s Exhibit Number 30, and ask you if you have ever seen that weapon before?”
“I can’t say,” she said smiling. “I have seen a gun which looked very much like that, but I am not an expert on firearms.”
“Where did you see that gun?”
“My husband left it on the dresser.”
“When?”
“On the night of the seventh of October.”
“At what time?”
“At approximately ten-thirty o’clock.”
“Did you see that gun on the eighth of October?”
“I did. Yes, sir.”
“And what did you do with reference to it, if anything?”
“I telephoned my husband at his office that he had left a gun on the dresser.”
“When did you telephone him?”
“When I got up and saw the gun there.”
“That was after your husband had gone to his office?”
She smiled and said, “I am a newlywed, Mr. Burger. I am trying to train my husband right. I let him get his own breakfast, and I sleep until about nine-thirty.”
The audience laughed. Judge Decker smiled, and the jurors grinned. The good nature of the witness and her complete poise were making a terrific impression.
“What did you do with reference to that gun?”
“Following my husband’s instructions, I took the gun to him at his office.”
“When?”
“At about ten-thirty on the morning of the eighth of October of this year.”
“Do you know whether that was the weapon we are referring to as the Junior Gun, or whether it was People’s Exhibit Number 30?”
“No, sir. I do not know. All I know is that I took the gun from the dresser to my husband. I can’t even swear that there was no discharged cartridge in the gun at that time. I do know that my husband took a gun from his pocket when he was undressing at about ten-thirty on the night of October seventh. I do know that a gun similar in every way to that gun was still on the dresser at ten o’clock in the morning. I am quite certain no one entered the bedroom after we retired. I do know I took the gun which was on the dresser to my husband at his office on the morning of October eighth at about ten-thirty o’clock. I know nothing more than that.”
“Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said.
Mason said, “Mrs. Garvin, were you home all during the evening of October seventh?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know your husband rang twice on the phone and received no answer?”
“He told me such was the case.”
“You want the jury to believe you were there but didn’t answer the phone?”
“I was sound asleep for about an hour, Mr. Mason.”
“Did you tell your husband that?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“It was our honeymoon. My husband went chasing off on a business deal. He didn’t come home for dinner. I wanted him to realize I didn’t like such conduct. I let him know I was hurt and a little angry. If he had known I had gone to sleep while I was waiting for him to return he wouldn’t have been quite so concerned. I wanted him to be concerned. So I didn’t tell him I was asleep. I think I convinced him he must have dialed the wrong number.”
“Twice?”
“Twice.”
“Didn’t he require a lot of convincing?”
“Yes. A bride is in a position to convince her husband a little more easily than at any other time in her married life.”
“Did you lie to him?”
“Heavens, no! I suggested he had dialed the wrong number. H didn’t ask me if I had been asleep, so I didn’t tell him.”
Mason said, “Getting back to this gun, Mrs. Garvin. For all you know that gun may have had one discharged shell in it when you took it to your husband’s office.”
She smiled sweetly and said, “Then, after you fired a shell into my husband’s desk, there would have been two discharged shells, Mr. Mason.”
“Assuming,” Mason said, “that the gun which your husband gave me was the same gun which you had taken to his office.”
“A bride must always assume that her husband is truthful, Mr. Mason.”
“That’s all,” Mason said.
Burger’s next witness was Lorraine Kettle, a spare-framed widow of fifty-six who testified that she lived in an apartment on the ground floor of the Ambrose Apartments. At about eight forty-five on the evening of the seventh of October, she had seen a woman descending the service stairs leading from the back door of George Casselman’s apartment.
She had, she said, felt the woman might have been a burglar, so she had left her own apartment by the back entrance and had followed this woman at what she referred to as “a discreet distance.”
“Were you close enough to recognize her?” Burger asked.
“I was.”
“Who was she?”
“That woman sitting right there, the defendant, Stephanie Falkner.”
“What did she do?”
“She walked across to the sidewalk and then a man stopped his automobile and called to her. She got in that car. They drove away.”