“All right,” Hamilton Burger said disgustedly, “if that’s the way you want it.”
The district attorney walked back and dropped himself into his chair at the counsel table.
“In other words,” Mason said suavely, his voice friendly and informal, “when you say you don’t know just when you saw her, you mean you don’t know what time on the third you saw her.”
“That’s right, yes.”
“You just know that you saw her some time on the third, and therefore when you saw her face in the lineup on the fourth, it was familiar to you and so you picked her out.”
“I guess that’s what must have happened.”
“That’s your best recollection at the present time?” Mason asked.
“Now just a moment,” Hamilton Burger said. “That question is argumentative. A very apparent flimflam has been worked on this witness to get him confused and—”
“Are you making an objection to the Court?” Mason asked, his voice cracking like a whiplash.
“I am.”
“Make it to the Court then,” Mason said.
“I object, Your Honor. This is not proper cross-examination. It’s incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”
“Overruled,” Judge Hoyt snapped.
“To tell you the truth, Judge,” the witness said, “the more I get to thinking of it, the more I feel that maybe she was one of those two women I picked up out there on La Brea. I’ve been sitting here watching her, the way she holds her head and... well, it could have been.”
“But,” Mason said, “You are positive that you only saw her once on the third?”
“Well, yes.”
“But you think the time you saw her was on the third trip you made after starting out, don’t you?” Hamilton Burger said.
“Objected to as leading and suggestive,” Mason said.
“Oh, Your Honor, this is on redirect examination,” Hamilton Burger protested.
“That doesn’t give you the right to put words into the mouth of your own witness. I don’t care what stage of the examination it is.”
“Nevertheless,” Judge Hoyt said, “this is a peculiar situation. I’m going to overrule the objection. I want the witness to answer, and I think he’s entitled to answer.”
“Well,” Keddie said, “to tell you the truth, I thought that she was this woman I picked up then. Now, I’m just not sure, and that’s all there is to it, but I do know that if she is the same woman I picked up out there by the country club, I’d have known her if I saw her a second time.”
“Then she couldn’t have been one of the women you picked up on North La Brea?”
“Not if she was the one I picked up by the country club.”
“That’s all,” Hamilton Burger said.
Mason, smiling affably, said, “Then as I understand it, if it turns out she was one of the women you picked up on La Brea, she couldn’t have been the woman you picked up out near the country club?”
“That’s right. If I ever saw that woman again, I’d have known her... like I did when I saw her in that lineup... only maybe the time I saw her on La Brea— Now wait a minute. I just don’t know.”
“You do know you saw this woman on the afternoon or evening of June third?” Mason asked.
“Yes.”
“And you only saw her once on that day?”
“That woman I picked up by the country club I only saw once on that day, that’s for sure.”
“That’s all,” Mason said.
“No questions,” Hamilton Burger said disgustedly.
“Is there any more evidence, Mr. Burger?” Judge Hoyt asked.
Hamilton Burger said, “Well, Your Honor, I feel absolutely positive that the gun which has been introduced in evidence was purchased by the husband of this defendant, Mr. Enright A. Harlan. But, at the moment, I am not in a position to prove it.”
“May I ask why?” Judge Hoyt asked.
“Well, somebody signed the name Enright A. Harlan to the purchase slip and the firearms register, but apparently that is not the handwriting of Mr. Harlan. It would seem to be the handwriting of a woman.”
“The defendant?” Judge Hoyt asked.
“No, Your Honor, I am sorry to say that it is not the handwriting of the defendant. Apparently, some other woman signed the name of Enright A. Harlan. The dealer, at the present time, has no independent recollection of the circumstances surrounding the purchase.”
“Can you show possession of the gun?”
“The only way I could show possession of the gun is by the testimony of the husband, and, of course, I would be met with the prompt objection that in an action of this sort a husband can’t testify against his wife without the wife’s consent.”
“I see,” Judge Hoyt said, frowning thoughtfully.
“I think it’s quite apparent what happened here,” Hamilton Burger said. “A scheme was cooked up for the purpose of confusing this witness. I feel that this is a matter which the Court should look into. I think it is a contempt of Court.”
“I don’t see how you make a contempt of Court out of it,” Judge Hoyt said. “But it’s quite possible the Bar Association might be interested.”
Judge Hoyt glowered at Perry Mason.
“Why?” Perry Mason asked.
Judge Hoyt’s face deepened into a frown. “You should know why,” he said. “If your knowledge of legal ethics is so sketchy that you can’t see why without my explanation, you had better study legal ethics.”
“I’ve studied them,” Mason said. “I am entitled to cross-examine a witness. I am entitled to do anything that is legitimate for the purpose of testing the recollection of the witness. If this witness had been absolutely positive that the woman he picked up out there was the defendant, and if the defendant had again engaged this cab on the evening of the third, he would then have recognized her instantly and said, ‘Good evening, ma’am. I had you as a passenger earlier in the day.’”
“But she didn’t engage the cab again,” Hamilton Burger said. “Counsel was afraid to take that chance. That’s the unfair part of it. He had some other women engage the cab and then give the receipt to this defendant.”
“You’re making that as an accusation?” Mason asked.
“Yes, I’m making it as an accusation.”
“And you’re willing to state to this Court that the defendant was not in the cab on the evening of the third — we’re talking about legal ethics now, Mr. District Attorney; you’re making a representation of fact to the Court.”
“Well, now wait a minute,” Hamilton Burger sputtered, “I only know what the witness said.”
“And the witness said that he wasn’t sure. Now are you are going to tell the Court you are sure?”
“You’re not going to cross-examine me!” Hamilton Burger shouted.
“If you make statements of fact to the Court, I’m most certainly going to cross-examine you,” Mason said.
“Come, come, gentlemen,” Judge Hoyt said. “This is rapidly developing into a situation the Court doesn’t like.”
“Well,” Mason said, “I’m not going to let myself be accused of unprofessional conduct. If I had been preparing this case for the prosecution, if I had been confronted with a taxicab receipt numbered trip nine-eighty-four, I certainly would have checked to see what trip nine-eighty-four was.”
“Yes,” Judge Hoyt said. “I think the district attorney must admit that this entire situation has been predicated upon lax investigative work somewhere in the case. It is a peculiar situation that this receipt should have been introduced in evidence as the receipt for a particular trip.”
“Well, it was the same amount and the same date and the same cab, and in possession of the defendant,” Hamilton Burger blurted.