“Never mind that, never mind that,” Gloster interrupted. “Just what you know of your own knowledge.”
“Yes, sir. Well, she came in about five-thirty, I guess it was, about an hour or so after I’d come on and started work, and I congratulated her on … “
“You had a conversation?” Gloster interrupted quickly.
“That’s right I talked with her and she … “
“Then what happened?” Gloster interrupted again. “What did she dor
“She asked if there was any mail and I told her there had been about a million telephone calls and she took all the notes out of her key box and then went on over to the elevator to go up to her apartment.”
“Then what?”
“Then about an horn later a gentleman came in and said he wanted to see her. He told me she was expecting him so there was no need to announce him. Well, that’s against the rules of the place, but he looked like the sort of man you could trust—reserved, a gentleman—not the sort that would be apt to make any racket, cause any trouble or report a man for violating a rule.”
“So what did you do?” Gloster asked.
“Well, I sort of hesitated, and then he handed me a five-dollar bill.”
“So then what did you do?”
Dixon grinned and said, “So I did nothing.”
“Meaning that you did not announce him?”
“That’s right. I let him go on up.”
“Now, did you get a good look at that man?”
“I had a very good look at him.”
“Would you know him if you saw him again?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you see him again?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where?”
“Lying on a slab at the undertaker’s.”
“In other words, this man was George S. Alder?”
“I was informed that was his name.”
“I show you a photograph, Mr. Dixon, and ask you if you recognize this photograph.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Who is it?”
“That’s a photograph of the man who came to see Dorothy Fenner that afternoon and gave me the five dollars.”
“And what time was this?”
“Oh, I’d say it was about probably around six-thirty.”
“How long was this man up there, do you know?”
Mason said, “He doesn’t know that the man ever went to the defendant’s apartment. All he knows is that the man gave him five dollars and said that he wanted to see the defendant. That conversation isn’t binding on the defendant Unless you connect it up in some way, IU move to strike it all out.”
“IU connect it up,” Gloster said grimly.
“Very well, proceed,” Judge Garey said.
“Well,” Dixon observed, grinning slightly, “if the man didn’t go to see Dorothy Fenner, he wasted a five-dollar investment.”
The courtroom broke into laughter.
Judge Garey, pounding with his gavel, said, “That will do. The witness will not volunteer any comments.”
“Go ahead,” Gloster said, with a wide smile on his face. “Tell us exactly what the man did that you saw.”
“Well, he gave me five dollars. He went over to the elevator. He punched the button. He got in the elevator. He closed the doors and the elevator went up, and about forty minutes later the man came down and said, Thank you’ to me and walked out.”
Mason laced his fingers back of his head, tilted back in the swivel chair and smiled good-naturedly. Now that his case had collapsed in a mass of legal wreckage, he was like a fighter in a corner, trying to measure the strength of his antagonist, to find some way of escape. However, his manner was that of one who is completely certain of himself, confident of the outcome.
And the fact that Gloster had considered this witness important enough to be put out of order, yet only to bring out a fact with which Mason was fully familiar, made the lawyer feel that perhaps the district attorney might not hold such high trumps after alL.
Mason kept his expression of smiling confidence, but permitted himself a sigh of relief.
Then suddenly his stomach tightened as he heard Gloster shoot in the next question.
“Now, then, did you see the defendant leaving the apartment house later on during the evening?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Under what circumstances, please?”
“Well, Td left the desk temporarily, just stepped out of the little office there for a moment, and as I returned I saw the figure of a woman walking rather quickly across the lobby and toward the street door. That woman was Dorothy Fenner.”
“And what time was this?”
“About seven-thirty in the evening.”
“That was the evening of the third?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, did you have occasion to see the defendant again on that evening?”
“Yes, sir.”
“When?”
“When she came back.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, there are some doors we keep locked. We lock the outside door to the lobby at night but any of the tenants can open that door. The key to any of the apartments opens it. The baggage room is the same way. It opens on the alley. It’s kept locked but any tenant can use his key to get in. But when that door gets opened an electric signal tells us at the desk. A buzzer and a little red flashlight come on at intervals. In that way we know when anyone’s come in from the outside through the trunk room.”
“Very well, what happened?”
“Well, this buzzer and the light I’m telling you about came on about eleven-thirty. I thought I’d better investigate. I left the desk and started toward the stairs to the trunk room. While I was doing that, I heard the elevator coming down the shaft. Someone had signaled for it I ran down the stairs, opened the door a crack, and saw the defendant standing there waiting for the elevator.”
“How close were you to the defendant?”
“Not over ten feet.”
“You recognized her?”
“Definitely.”
“Any chance you were mistaken?”
“No, sir.”
“How was she dressed?”
“She had on a white sweater, some sort of blue dungarees that she usually wears for yachting, and a pair of tennis shoes.”
“And what happened?”
“The elevator came to a stop, the defendant got in and closed the door. I ran back upstairs to the lobby and noticed the indicator hand on the elevator. It went to the fourth floor and stopped.”
“And the defendant’s apartment is on the fourth floor?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, had you any means of knowing whether or not the defendant was in her apartment between the hours of seven o’clock in the evening and ten o’clock in the evening of that day?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Explain, please.”
“Well, I have to make an inventory every three months of things in the apartments the tenants had to sign for. I’d been wanting to get up to the defendant’s apartment, so when I saw her go out I rang the night housekeeper and said now was the time to check on the apartment. I told her Miss Fenner was out. I’d already told Miss Fenner we’d check her apartment, sometime when she wasn’t there so it wouldn’t disturb her. She said that was okay, to go ahead.”
“So what happened?”
“So I told the housekeeper to go on up like I just told you. I said Miss Fenner was out.”
“Do you know whether the housekeeper did or not?”
“Sure. She told me…”
“Weil, never mind. Well prove that by the housekeeper,” Gloster said. “Now, there is one more question. How was the defendant dressed when she went out?”
“She wore a light plaid skirt with jacket to match. I noticed that much about the way she was dressed when she went out, but I didn’t see her until after she’d left the elevator and was walking toward the door, so I was looking at her back. I don’t know what color blouse she had on. But I do know she’d changed her clothes while she was out. She went out wearing a skirt and returned in a sweater and dungarees.”