“I don’t see what that has to do with it.”
“You were so excited that you couldn’t make an inventory of what jewelry was missing. Isn’t that right?”
“Well, you might put it that way.”
“I’m not putting it that way,” Mason said, “you are. I’m simply trying to summarize your testimony. Now, isn’t it quite possible that when you said fifty thousand dollars, you had in mind the figure of the insurance policy, and…”
“I guess perhaps that’s right, perhaps I could have.”
“Right now, at the present moment, you wouldn’t swear that even ten thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry was taken, would you?”
“Look here,” Alder said angrily, “this young woman broke into my house she was at my desk my jewel case was open. Someone opened the door and surprised her. One of the guests started to ask her what she was doing there, and the woman grabbed this bottle, and dashed for the window, and…”
Alder stopped abruptly.
“What bottle?” Mason asked.
“The bottle with the jewelry in it,” Alder said angrily.
“You keep your jewelry in a bottle?”
“I don’t know. No, of course not, but it looked to some of the witnesses who saw her jump out of the window as though she had put the jewelry in a bottle or something. She had her escape all planned, and I suppose she didn’t want to lose the jewelry in swimming. I don’t know. All I know is some of the guests said a bottle.”
“You didn’t see her?”
“Not close. I saw her running after she’d jumped through the window. I turned the dog loose. If he’d caught her, we’d have found how much of my property she had. She and that contemptible accomplice of hers.”
“No need to get worked up about it,” Mason said. “We’re simply trying to get the matter straight. As far as you yourself are concerned, you don’t know that even as much as two thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry was taken, do you?”
“Well, I think…”
“You don’t even know that one thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry was taken.”
“I don’t know anything was taken,” Alder said angrily. “I took a look at that open jewel box and it looked to me as though a great deal of stuff was missing.”
“But when you said fifty thousand dollars, you were thinking of the fact that the jewelry was insured for fifty thousand dollars. You were excited, and so you said fifty thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry had been taken. Is that it?”
“Well, that might be an explanation.”
“You haven’t made any claim cm the insurance company?”
“No, sir.”
“And, as a matter of fact,” Mason said, pointing his finger at Alder, “you don’t intend to make any claim on the insurance company, do you?”
“I don’t see where that has anything to do with it, and I don’t think I have to sit here and be browbeaten about the matter,” Alder said.
Mason turned to Judge Lankershim. “There you are, Your Honor. I’m willing to be bound by the stipulation. If he had said fifty thousand dollars had been taken, I’d have had the Court make fifty thousand dollars’ bail. As it is, he can’t say that anything was taken. In which event, the district attorney agreed he would permit my client to be released on her own recognizance, and would dismiss the case, and…”
“Not so fast, not so fast,” Colton interposed. “It’s a far cry from browbeating and confusing this witness to . .
“I don’t like that word, browbeating,” Mason said. “This man’s a businessman. He knows his rights. I’m simply asking him to make a direct, positive, unequivocal statement to this Court. He’s afraid to do it. He’s afraid to list any one particular item of jewelry and swear that this woman stole that item of jewelry, because he knows he can’t prove it. It’s one thing to tell newspaper reporters and the police that he’s lost fifty thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry, and it’s another thing to prove it.”
“But why on earth would a man want to claim he’d lost fifty thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry if he hadn’t?” Judge Lankershim asked in perplexity. “We have here no question of a publicity-seeking individual who wants to see his name in the papers.”
“Because,” Mason said, “for reasons of his own, he wanted the defendant apprehended.”
“Are you aware, Mr. Mason, that that is a most serious charged
“I’m aware it’s a most serious charge,” Mason said, “and I’m so greatly aware of it that I can advise this Court and Mr. Alder that the defendant, Dorothy Fenner, is going to bring suit against him for defamation of character, and then I’m going to take his deposition and when I get him on the witness stand I’m going to defy him to produce any evidence of any single article of jewelry that was taken. Furthermore, I’m going to insist that representatives of the insurance company go to his house and make an inventory of the jewelry that’s left, and check it against the items mentioned in the insurance policy.”
Mason ceased speaking, and there was a tense, dramatic silence.
That silence was broken at length by Colton, who said, “It sounds to me as though Mr. Mason is trying to intimidate the witness.”
“Well, listen again,” Mason said, “and you’ll find that I’m simply trying to protect my client against imposition.”
“This whole business is absurd,” Alder said. “I was excited Saturday night, and I was confused yesterday morning. I didn’t realize any lawyer was going to browbeat me…”
“You’ve used that word several times,” Judge Lankershim interrupted “This Court isn’t going to let anyone browbeat you, Mr. Alder, but the Court will ask you a question. Would you be willing for a representative of the Court to go to your house with you and check the contents of your jewelry chest against the inventory’ of the jewelry used for insurance purposes?”
“When?”
“Now.”
“It wouldn’t be convenient now. I have other engagements.”
“All right then, you fix a time.”
There was an interval of silence, then Alder said, “I’ll go home and make that inventory myself. I’m a reputable citizen. There’s no need to have all this fanfare. You’d think I was the thief—I already seem to be the defendant”
Judge Lankershim pursed his lips.
Again there was a silence.
“Oh, well,” Judge Lankershim said, “I'll admit the defendant to twenty-five hundred dollars’ bail.”
Mason picked up his brief case, turned toward the door as Judge Lankershim left the bench.
“Say, what’s the idea?” Colton asked Mason, his manner curious. “Do you know anything about this burglary that I don’t know?”
“Ask Alder,” Mason said.
Colton laughed grimly. “Don’t think I’m not going to do that very thing,” he said.
Alder left the witness stand, seemingly trying to avoid both Mason and Colton.
Colton suddenly swung toward him. “Don’t leave, Mr. Alder,” he said. “I want you to go back to my office with me. I want to talk to you.”
“I have some other matters,” Alder said crisply, “some appointments.”
“I don’t think they are as important as this matter,” Colton told him. “You’d better get this straightened out while we have the chance.”
Mason said to the clerk of the court, “if you’ll make me a certified copy of the judge’s order, Mr. Clerk, I'll see about getting my client released on bail.”
Colton nodded to Alder. “This way, Mr. Alder,” he said.
Chapter 6
PERRY MASON SMILED AT THE MATRON, SAID TO DOROTHY Fenner, “Ail right, Dorothy, get your things ready. You’re going home.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, startled.
“You’re getting out of here,” Mason told her. “Judge Lankershim admitted you to twenty-five hundred dollars’ bail, and a surety company has put up the money.”