“What do you mean, that’s the only question in this case?” Gloster said. “Why, that’s the most absurd …”
“Just pay attention to what’s going to happen,” Mason said, “and you’ll see how it’s important. If the Court please, I think this question is very vital, and I want to show the bias of the witness.”
“Go ahead,” Judge Garey ruled, leaning forward so he could listen to better advantage.
“Did you see such an ad?” Mason asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“And you communicated with the person who had inserted the ad and found out it was George S. Alder, did you not?”
“Yes.”
“And,” Mason said, “George S. Alder told you that it would be very much to your advantage to come and see him, did he not?”
“Well… yes.”
“And you did go to see him, did you not?”
She avoided Mason’s eyes.
“Remember,” Mason said as she hesitated, “there are certain things which can be proven.”
“Yes, I went to see him.”
“When you went to see George S. Alder you asked him about a letter which had purportedly been written by Minerva Danby and thrown overboard from Alder’s yacht, did you not?”
She was silent for a long time, then finally said, “Yes.”
“And,” Mason said, pointing his finger at her, “you went to see George S. Alder on the evening of the third at about the hour of nine o’clock P.M., didn’t you? Now, just a minute before you answer, Carmen. Remember that your movements can be traced on that night.”
“Yes,” she said.
“And,” Mason said, “the dog was very glad to see you, wasn’t he?”
“Oh, Prince was overjoyed,” she announced, her eyes and voice softening affectionately.
“Exactly,” Mason said. “And there was no need for Prince to be shut up in the closet. In fact, it was when he heard your voice that he went crazy in the closet and started scratching the door so that Mr. Alder had to let him out. Isn’t that right?”
“That is right.”
“And the dog almost ate you up in his affection.”
“Yes, indeed.”
“So,” Mason said, “when you accused George S. Alder of having murdered Corrine Lansing, and an argument ensued during the course of which George S. Alder drew a gun, Prince protected you against Alder because he had much more affection for you than he had for Alder. He jumped at Alder’s gun arm and clamped his teeth around Alder’s wrist, didn’t he, Carmen?”
“Oh, Your Honor,” Gloster said, “I..
“You sit down and shut up,” Judge Garey said, without taking his eyes from Carmen Monterrey. “Look at the witness. You can see the answer to the question in her face.”
“And,” Mason went on, “that accounted for the triangular tear in George Alder’s left coat sleeve, didn’t it, Carmen? That’s where the dog’s teeth caught when he jerked Alder’s hand and that’s when Alder discharged the gun with the barrel pointed up in the air so that the bullet stuck in the ceiling. And then’s when you shot him with a .44 revolver which you were carrying in your handbag, isn’t it, Miss Monterrey?”
“I… I… yes,” she said. “I had to. He tried to kill me.”
Mason toned with a smile toward Gloster and said, “Perhaps the district attorney has some questions on redirect examination. I think the Court will now see the importance of that torn claw.”
“I’m frank to confess I don’t,” Judge Garey said, “but I want to find out what this is all about.”
“The answer is very simple,” Mason said. “The dog hadn’t torn a claw loose. The scratches on the inside of the door were not made when the murder was being committed. They were made when he heard the voice of the one person in the world whom he really loved, the voice of the woman who had been his real mistress for years, Carmen Monterrey.
“Alder let him out. The dog was there and the dog sprang to hold the wrist of George Alder when he tried to kill Carmen Monterrey. She shot him, and I’m satisfied that she shot him in self-defense. George Alder fell forward on his face and Carmen Monterrey was in a panic. She realized she had killed the man, and then she suddenly realized that the presence of the dog would be the most incriminating fact against her, so she put the dog back in the closet. She was the only person on earth who could have put that dog back in the closet after George Alder was dead. But the dog had stepped in the pool of Alder’s blood and enough blood adhered to the hairs on the inside of his feet so that when he heard her leaving and scratched again to get out, there were blood smears on the door. That’s how the blood got on the door.
“I think Carmen Monterrey will presently tell us that she took her gun and buried it, and then she searched the desk until she found the letter which was contained in the bottle, and then she left the premises.
“Some time later, the defendant came down to see George Alder, and walked in just as Alder had instructed her to do. I think there, Your Honor, you have your murder case.”
Judge Garey looked at the crestfallen district attorney. “I think so too, Mr. Mason,” he said. “Court is going to take a thirty-minute adjournment while we investigate this matter outside of the presence of the jury. Then they will return and the district attorney can take such action as he sees fit.”
Chapter 23
MASON, DELLA STREET, AND PATJL DRAKE SAT IN THE lawyer’s office. A container held a bottle of champagne and three champagne glasses were filled to the brim on Ma-son’s desk.
“Here’s to crime,” Mason said.
“And the greatest lawyer of them all,” Drake amended. “Boy, the way you managed to keep Gloster all tied up in knots, even when he had you on the run as far as the facts were concerned, is one of the greatest pieces of courtroom technique I’ve ever seen.”
Mason grinned and said, “I kept prodding him about telling me about the location of the dog and then I’d let him change the subject or I’d change the subject myself so he’d forget all about it, until Judge Garey really thought there was something sinister about the whole business.”
“How did you know that—well, how did you know what had happened?” Drake asked.
“Believe it or not,” Mason said, “and while I’m not going to ever tell anyone else, I’m actually kicking myself that I didn’t know a lot sooner. First let’s take the fundamental facts into consideration. George Alder had been carrying on a ruthless enterprise. .His half sister, Corrine, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, disagreed with him. He had some papers for her to sign and he Hew to South America.
“She didn’t sign the papers. He reported that she refused to sign them, refused to see him after that, and disappeared, presumably a suicide in a fit of despondency.
“But who knows? Her body was never recovered. She simply vanished.
“With the disappearance of Corrine Lansing, George’s hands were tied for seven years unless he could find some pretty good circumstantial evidence that Corrine Lansing had actually died, and prove the time and the place when she died and show that there had been a dead body which presumably was hers.
“At this point that mysterious letter from Minerva Danby enters the picture. It had been written by a woman. It accused George Alder of murder. It put Alder in a very embarrassing position. Obviously if he’d murdered Minerva Danby he must have done it to have kept Corrine Lansing from officially coming to life.
“He made the mistake of confiding in Dorley H. Alder. He may not have shown Dorley the letter, but he told him enough about what was in it so that Dorley realized the implications and the possibilities.