“I want to know where certain people were at exactly four-thirty on the afternoon of the third. Can do?”
“Sure. It’ll cost you money, but I can get the information if it’s at all possible. Of course, sometimes you have to take a guy’s unsupported word for where he was.”
“In that case, I want to know that he has no one to support his word,” Mason said.
Blanton said, “Okay. Give me the names, Mr. Mason. We’ll do our best.”
Mason took a list from his pocket. “Herbert Doxey, Lutts’ son-in-law; Roxy Claffin; Enright Harlan; Ezekiel Elkins, a director of the Sylvan Glade Development Company; Regerson B Neffs, also a director; Cleve Rector, another director.”
“Okay. Anybody else, Mr. Mason?”
“That’ll do for now. Get busy on them,” Mason said. “However, there’s one more thing. The murder gun had been fired three times. One of the bullets entered Lutts’ chest. Try to find out where the gun was fired when the other two shells were discharged.”
“Now, that may be where we fall down,” Blanton said. “We have contacts, but the answer to that question is probably bothering the police right now.”
“Well, do the best you can,” Mason said and hung up.
Chapter 10
Hamilton Burger, the massive District Attorney of the county, arose as Judge Hoyt called, “Case of the People of the State of California versus Sybil Harlan.”
“Your Honor,” Burger said, “this is a preliminary hearing. The object of a preliminary hearing is to determine whether a crime has been committed, and if so, whether there is probable cause to believe the defendant guilty of that crime.
“In ordinary cases, preliminary hearings proceed in an orderly manner to a speedy conclusion. But in cases where Mr. Perry Mason is the attorney on the other side, we seem destined to have legal pyrotechnics, spectacular cross-examinations, dramatic assertions, and a whole series of procedures which, in the opinion of the prosecutor’s office, have absolutely no place in a preliminary hearing. I have, therefore, decided that I will conduct this preliminary hearing in person for the purpose of eliminating all of these extraneous dramatics.”
Judge Hoyt glanced sternly at Perry Mason. “The Court has no desire to deprive the defendant of any of her rights. But the Court does recognize the fact that in some instances preliminary hearings have been skilfully and very adroitly manipulated so that they have been taken far beyond the scope which the Court feels the framers of the law had in mind. Do you wish to make any statement, Mr. Mason?”
“None whatever,” Mason said, his face a mask of cherubic innocence. “I take it the Court is not insinuating that counsel for the defence is to be deprived of the right of cross-examination.”
“Certainly not,” Judge Hoyt snapped. “But the cross-examination will be conducted decorously and within the strict technical limits of the law.”
“Thank you, Your Honor,” Mason said, as though the judge had conferred a great favor upon him.
“Proceed,” Judge Hoyt snapped at the district attorney, obviously irritated at Mason’s attitude, yet unable to find anything which would furnish a ground for rebuke.
“I will call Dr. Jules Oberon,” Hamilton Burger said.
Dr. Oberon took the stand and qualified himself as a physician, surgeon, a deputy coroner, and an expert in the field of pathology. He stated that he had performed the autopsy on the body of George C. Lutts.
“What did you find as the cause of death?”
“A thirty-eight calibre revolver bullet, which had penetrated the chest and partially severed the left common carotid artery.”
“That was the cause of death?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where was the bullet?”
“I found it in the body when I performed the autopsy.”
Dr. Oberon took a small phial from his pocket, said, “This is a sealed phial. I, personally, placed the bullet in it along with a slip of paper containing my signature, and then sealed the glass stopper in place. I removed the bullet only to let the ballistic expert examine it, then replaced it and resealed it.”
“Did the victim die instantly?”
“I think he may possibly have staggered a few steps.”
“Assuming, Doctor, that the body was found lying head downward on the stairs, would you state that from the nature of this wound, the victim could have started for the stairs before death overtook him?”
“Yes, he could have taken a few steps to the head of the stairs and then fallen down the stairs.”
“What was the course of the bullet?”
“Upward. The man was facing his murderer and the assailant must have been holding the gun at about the level of his hip.”
“Do you have an opinion as to the time of death?”
“Yes, sir. Mr. Lutts died between four-twenty and four-forty.”
“How do you determine the time of death?”
“By temperature of the body and by the state of the food in the stomach.”
“Do you know, of your own knowledge, when the food was ingested?”
“Only by hearsay.”
“Then I won’t ask you about that now,” Burger said. “You may cross-examine.”
Judge Hoyt said, “Now, Mr. Mason, I wish to give the defendant every possible right, but I would like to caution you at this time that the Court will brook no extraneous questions. Cross-examination must be confined to the questions asked on direct examination.”
“No questions,” Mason said.
Judge Hoyt frowned.
“Call Herbert Doxey,” Hamilton Burger said.
Doxey came forward, took the witness stand, testified to his relationship to George Lutts, to the fact that he had seen the decedent on the day of the murder, that his last contact with the decedent had been when they left the office of the corporation and had driven to a restaurant, where the decedent had eaten a bowl of vegetable soup, a hamburger with onions, a cup of coffee and a piece of pumpkin pie.
“What time was that?”
“That was at three-twenty.”
“And then what happened?”
“Mr. Lutts said he had some business to attend to, and I went home.”
“You’re certain as to the time?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What makes you certain?”
“I noticed the time.”
“Where?”
“In the restaurant.”
“In what way?”
“I looked at my wristwatch and compared the time with an electric clock on the wall.”
“Was your wristwatch accurate?”
“Within one minute, yes.”
“What was the time?”
“Three-eighteen, and the waitress was just bringing our orders.”
“Sometime after that you went with Mr. Perry Mason to the house where a certain real estate development is taking place, a house shown on the map I now hand you?”
“I did, yes, sir.”
“And what did you find?”
“I found Mr. Lutts’ automobile parked in front of the place.”
“And what did you do?”
“I tried the door of the house.”
“Was it locked or unlocked?”
“It was unlocked.”
“And what did you do then?”
“I walked up the first flight of stairs; then I crossed the landing and had started up the second flight of stairs when I saw the body of Mr. Lutts lying there.”
“How was the body lying?”
“On the stairs.”
“In what position?”
“Partially on his back, partially on the right side, the head was downward as though he had—”
“Never mind your conclusions. Just give us the facts.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Was the body that of George C. Lutts, your father-in-law?”