“Well—” Judge Sedgwick raised his eyes, looked across the room at Paul Drake. “You there — with that truck!”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Paul Drake said.
“Wait there until counsel finishes the examination of this witness, and then the Court will take a brief recess.
“Now, go ahead, Mr. Mason. We cannot stand such interruptions... and it seems to me you could have secured a more silent truck.”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“Proceed with the examination of this witness.”
Mason turned to the witness. “I want you to check your remaining revolvers with the list of numbers, and I want you to produce that list of numbers.”
“Oh, Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said, “this is entirely beside the point.”
“If the Court please,” Mason said, “I intend to connect this up. I will assure the Court that this is a very vital part of my defence. I want this witness to get the list of numbers on those revolvers and to check the revolvers. I want a complete inventory.”
“I don’t see why, Mr. Mason,” Judge Sedgwick said. “According to the testimony which you yourself have now introduced, that weapon is now definitely brought home to the possession of this witness, the husband of the defendant. I fail to see what can be ascertained by finding out anything about the other remaining weapons.”
Mason said, “I might wish to prove, at least by inference, that someone else had access to that locked receptacle.”
Judge Sedgwick stroked his chin. “Well, of course, that is a different matter.”
He turned to the witness. “How long will it take you to go to your house, get the list of numbers, open that receptacle and check the weapons that are in it?”
“I would say probably forty-five minutes to an hour. It will take about that to get out there, open the place, find the list, check the numbers and get back to court.”
“I want the witness to do that,” Mason said.
“You have some other witness you can put on while that is being done?” Judge Sedgwick asked.
“Unfortunately, Your Honor, I do not. I am going to ask the Court to take an adjournment until one-thirty this afternoon. I feel that we are entitled to this because this case is running well ahead of schedule, and I think that in large part this has been due to my desire to co-operate with the Court and counsel in getting the facts before the Court.”
Judge Sedgwick shook his head. “I appreciate counsel’s co-operation. However, the Court cannot take such a long recess. The Court will adjourn until eleven-thirty. I feel that Mr. Harlan can get out there and back in that time. The Court will ask one of the officers to provide Mr. Harlan with police transportation. This may expedite matters somewhat. You will get out there, get that list, and get back just as soon as possible, Mr. Harlan. Court will take a recess until eleven-thirty.”
Spectators started filing from the courtroom. Mason stood up, signaled Paul Drake and received in return an affirmative signal. Then Drake and his assistant started pushing the heavily loaded four-wheeled truck down the aisle of the courtroom, while astonished spectators regarded the cloth-covered load with curiosity.
Mason turned to Sybil Harlan.
“All right,” he said. “We’ve made our gamble. We’ve put all of our chips on the turn of a card. By eleven-thirty you’ll either hit the jackpot or you’ll be headed for the gas chamber or for life imprisonment.”
Mason moved over to hold the swinging gate in the bar open for the passage of the squeaking truck. As the two men pushed the heavy truck through, the lawyer moved up alongside Drake.
“Everything’s covered?” he asked.
“Everything’s covered. If any one of those persons on that list you gave me leaves the courtroom, he’ll be followed by detectives who are too skillful to lose a trail — at least, when a man’s in a hurry.”
“He’ll be in a hurry,” Mason said.
“Can you tell me what you’re trying to do, Perry?”
Mason grinned. “I’m laying a trap for a nervous accomplice.”
Chapter 17
At eleven-ten Paul Drake pushed a memo into Mason’s hand. The note read, “Herbert Doxey drove like mad to his house, opened the garage door, unlocked the door of a closet in his garage, then emerged and is now driving back this way at a leisurely pace.”
Promptly at eleven-thirty Judge Sedgwick reconvened court.
“Is it stipulated that the defendant is in court and that the jurors are all present, gentlemen?” he asked.
“So stipulated,” Mason said.
“You were examining Enright Harlan, Mr. Mason.”
“Unfortunately, he has not returned as yet,” Mason said. “I—”
“Then proceed with some other witness,” Judge Sedgwick said. “You can put Mr. Harlan on the stand as soon as he comes in.”
“Very well,” Mason said. “I will call Herbert Doxey to the stand.”
Doxey came forward and was sworn.
“You are the son-in-law of the decedent?” Mason asked.
“That is right,” Doxey said in a low voice.
“You are acquainted with the property of the Sylvan Glade Development Company?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And with that of Mrs. Roxy Claffin which adjoins the Sylvan Glade property to the north.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How long have you known Mrs. Claffin, by the way?” Mason asked.
The witness hesitated.
Mason looked up, simulating surprise at the witness’s hesitance. “Can’t you answer that?”
“I... I’m trying to think.”
Hamilton Burger, suddenly observing the expression on the witness’s face, jumped to his feet. “I object to the question. It is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”
“It is preliminary, Your Honor,” Mason said.
Hamilton Burger became vociferous. “It doesn’t make any difference, Your Honor. It is completely incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. This has no bearing whatsoever on the issues in this case. This is—”
“The objection is sustained,” Judge Sedgwick snapped. “The Court considers that question highly improper, Mr. Mason.”
“I might assure the Court that it is—”
“The Court desires no argument whatever on that question.”
“Very well,” Mason said, turning to the witness. “You knew that Roxy Claffin had taken certain articles from her garage and put them on a dump heap yesterday morning?”
“Just a moment, just a moment,” Hamilton Burger shouted. “The same objection, Your Honor. An attempt to cross-examine his own witness. Incompetent, irrelevant—”
“Sustained,” Judge Sedgwick snapped.
Mason turned to look at the door of the courtroom. “It appears, Your Honor, that Enright Harlan has now returned to court. In accordance with the understanding of the Court, I would like to withdraw this witness from the stand and return Mr. Harlan to the stand.”
“Very well,” Judge Sedgwick snapped. “This witness will be temporarily excused. Mr. Harlan, you will come forward and take the stand.”
Harlan came forward, apparently rather reluctantly. He sat in the witness chair and glanced at Mason with a puzzled frown.
Mason said, “Now, you have been out to your house during the recess of the court, Mr. Harlan?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You unlocked the concealed compartment where you keep your revolvers?”
“Yes, sir.”
Mason glanced at the clock on the wall of the courtroom. “You found that lock in perfect working order?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Was there any evidence that the receptacle had been tampered with?”
“No external evidence, no.”
“That receptacle is concealed behind a sliding panel in the wall?”