There was silence.
“Call Mr. Doxey. Herbert Doxey,” Judge Sedgwick said.
The voice of the bailiff boomed through the courtroom. A loud-speaker in the corridor blared out, “Herbert Doxey.”
“Apparently, he hasn’t returned from lunch yet,” Mason said casually. “Oh well, we’ll call Mrs. Roxy Claffin.”
“Mrs. Claffin, come forward,” the bailiff intoned.
Roxy Claffin jumped to her feet. “Why... why... I don’t know anything. I—”
“Come forward and be sworn,” Mason said.
She came forward reluctantly, a beautiful woman with a peaches-and-cream complexion which was now suddenly dead white with panic.
“Hold up your right hand and be sworn,” the judge said.
Her hand was shaking visibly as she held it up.
“Now, sit down in that witness chair,” Mason said, “and tell us about the load of junk you took out to the dump yesterday morning, Mrs. Claffin.”
“I object. That’s incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial,” Hamilton Burger said.
Mason said, “I’ll connect it up, Your Honor.”
“I think you’d better lay your foundation then, Mr. Mason. The Court believes the objection should be sustained at this time.”
“Very well,” Mason said.
Mason turned to the witness. “You knew, did you not, that Herbert Doxey had been using the unpainted contractor’s shack on your property for the purpose of doing some work?”
“Why... he had a right to. He was the secretary of the company that was co-operating with me in—”
“Please answer the question,” Mason said. “You knew he was doing some work out in that shack?”
“Yes. He said he wanted to put in some tables for drafting and doing some confidential work there. He asked me to say nothing about it to anyone.”
“Now then, Enright Harlan loaned you a revolver?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to that revolver?”
“I returned it to him, just as he said, on the thirtieth day of May.”
“Why did you return it?”
“I was afraid to have the gun around. I’m a very poor shot and... well, guns terrify me.”
“Had you ever shown that gun to Herbert Doxey?”
“Why, yes. Mr. Doxey knew that I was shooting with Mr. Harlan. He had been a crack shot, and he wanted to give me some instruction.”
“Did he ever handle that weapon?”
“You mean the one that Mr. Harlan gave me?”
“Yes.”
“Why, yes, I believe he did.”
“Under such circumstances that he could have substituted weapons, so that the weapon you returned to Mr. Harlan on May thirtieth could have been a weapon substituted by Mr. Doxey?”
“Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said, “that question is objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, no proper foundation laid, argumentative, and assuming a fact not in evidence. There is no evidence whatever that anyone substituted weapons.”
Judge Sedgwick was watching the witness’s face with steady concentration. “The Court wants to hear this evidence, Mr. District Attorney,” he said.
“But, Your Honor, if the Court please, the jury is present and—”
“The objection is overruled. Sit down.”
“Answer the question,” Mason said.
“Yes,” Roxy Claffin said in a low voice. “I... I guess there could have been a substitution. It was possible.”
“You knew there had been a substitution, didn’t you?” Mason asked.
“Oh, Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said, “counsel is now seeking to cross-examine his own witness and... well, if the Court please, this whole inquiry is now going far, far afield.”
“It may be the field we want to be in,” Judge Sedgwick said sternly. “Let’s follow up this line of questioning a little more.”
“Mrs. Claffin.”
“Yes, Judge.”
“Call me ‘Your Honor.’”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“Did you know that the revolver which you returned to Mr. Harlan on May thirtieth had been substituted?”
“I... I don’t think I have to answer that question.”
“I think you do,” Judge Sedgwick said. “You will be in contempt of Court unless you answer, or unless you adopt the position that the answer would tend to incriminate you. Was that revolver which you returned on May thirtieth substituted or not?”
The witness suddenly began to cry.
“Answer the question,” Judge Sedgwick said.
“Yes,” she said, “it was a substituted gun that I returned.”
“You knew it was substituted?” Judge Sedgwick asked.
“Yes.”
“Who told you?”
“Herbert Doxey knew that I... that I... well, that I wouldn’t be too upset if anything should happen to Mrs. Harlan, and he told me that all I had to do was follow his instructions and that I could have Enright Harlan all to myself.”
For a long moment there was silence in the courtroom and then suddenly there was a ripple of voices from the spectators.
Judge Sedgwick banged angrily with his gavel. “Silence in the courtroom!” he shouted. “Mr. Mason, proceed with your examination.”
Mason said, “Did you know Doxey was planning to kill his father-in-law?”
With tears streaming down her cheeks, Roxy Claffin shook her head. “Not then.”
“But you knew afterwards?”
“I... no, I didn’t know.”
“You knew that Herbert Doxey was in that contractor’s shack when you and Enright Harlan left to see your lawyer?”
“Yes.” The voice was almost a whisper.
“Afterwards, you realized what must have happened and you were afraid you would be implicated, so you went to the contractor’s shack and cleared it out.”
“Not that,” she said. “Mr. Doxey cleared it out and put the things in my garage, and then when I thought the coast was clear, I took them down to deposit them on the dump.”
“And told Mr. Doxey what you had done?”
“Yes.”
Mason smiled affably at Hamilton Burger. “Go ahead and cross-examine, Mr. Burger. This is your witness.”
Hamilton Burger was looking at the witness with an expression of dazed surprise on his face. “I... I think I should... Your Honor, I’d like to have a recess.”
Judge Sedgwick nodded. “The Court would, too. The Court is going to take a thirty-minute recess. During that time the jury will remember the admonition of the Court. You will not form or express any opinion concerning this case, nor permit yourself to be addressed by anyone concerning the case, nor will you discuss it among yourselves. Court will reconvene in thirty minutes.”
Judge Sedgwick got up and stalked into his chambers.
Behind him the courtroom was bedlam.
“Come on,” Mason said to Della Street. “Let’s get away from this and into the witness room. We’re on the homestretch now, and it’s all downhill,” and Mason grinned reassuringly at the bewildered Sybil Harlan.
Chapter 19
Mason, Della Street, Sybil Harlan, Paul Drake and a policewoman sat in the witness room to one side of the courtroom.
“Will you kindly tell me what this is all about?” Drake asked. “How could the powder pattern have shown that the gun was held within eighteen or twenty inches of Lutts’ chest if he had been shot by Doxey down there in that contractor’s shack?”
Mason grinned. “That’s the third cartridge, Paul.”
“What do you mean ‘the third cartridge?’”
“The U.M.C. That cartridge was a blank. The bullet had been extracted and the powder held in place with a chalk paste, which would disintegrate when the gun was fired. Doxey wanted it to appear that Lutts had been killed by someone standing at close range, so he went back after the murder and fired the blank cartridge at the body from a distance of twenty inches.