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“The nature of the food tell you anything?” Mason asked.

“Well, well, well,” Tragg said, “this is the complete reversal of the usual order. In place of asking questions of a suspect, the suspect and her attorney are now asking questions of the peace officers. In view of the Supreme Court decisions. Mason, you’d better warn me that anything I say may be used against me.”

“Well,” Mason said, “if you’re interested in apprehending the real murderer, you should be willing to discuss the facts that have been uncovered to date.”

“Exactly,” Tragg said; “and if you’re interested in the administration of justice and in uncovering what you are pleased to describe as the real murderer, perhaps you’d answer a few questions yourself.

“Now, for instance, there’s this question of the package at the post office: an envelope mailed to Ellen Adair at General Delivery.

“Ah-hah, I see that jolts you a little. Miss Adair, didn’t think the police were that thorough, did you?”

“A letter?” Mason asked.

“Well,” Tragg said, “we think it’s more in the nature of a notebook. In fact, it’s about the size of a diary, Mason.

“Now, of course, we haven’t opened it yet, because, while we have a search warrant and all of that, there are formalities to be gone through with first when an article has been consigned to the United States mails. You know, the government is a little touchy about the mail service, but we’ve seen the exterior of the package and it was dropped in a mailbox, addressed to Ellen Adair at General Delivery, and the handwriting of the address on the envelope is that of Miss Adair.

“Now we’ll have that envelope opened within an hour or so, and that could bring about quite a change in the situation, particularly if the contents should be a diary kept by Agnes Burlington.

“Intimate acquaintances of Agnes Burlington insist that there was a diary which was kept in a top right-hand drawer of a dresser. We weren’t able to uncover a single sign of a diary when we went through the place after the murder, and if it should appear that the package at the post office, addressed by Miss Adair to herself, contains this missing diary — well, you can see what the situation would be, Mason.

“Would you care to make any statement about that package at the post office, Miss Adair?”

“She would not,” Mason interposed firmly.

“She can at least say whether it’s something she mailed to herself and when she put it in the post office,” Tragg said, “because we have the envelope with the handwritten address and all we’d like to know is why she mailed it to herself at General Delivery. Within an hour we’ll know the contents of the envelope.”

Ellen Adair gave Mason a look which was sick with apprehension.

Mason said, “Miss Adair is making no statement whatever.”

“That looks a little bad from die standpoint of public relations, doesn’t it?” Lieutenant Tragg asked.

“We’re not trying this case in a court of public relations,” Mason said. “We’re trying it in a court of justice, and I’m not going to let it be tried in the newspapers.”

“Well, we seem to be getting nowhere fast,” Lieutenant Tragg said.

Mason said, “Let’s put the cards on the table, Lieutenant. There are certain reasons why Miss Adair cannot answer questions. There are certain things in connection with her background which have to be kept undisclosed. If she once starts answering questions, she has to disclose matters which are personal and private. Therefore, she is not answering any questions, and that means she is not going to say one word.”

“Well, I can appreciate your position,” Tragg said. “It’s putting the job right on our shoulders of developing the whole case, but I guess that’s the way you want it. But these private matters you are talking about certainly can’t relate to a potential will contest which is going to come up in the little town of Cloverville, Perry.”

“Why not?” Mason asked.

“Why,” Tragg said, “that information is in the hands of the police and, I’m afraid, Perry, in the hands of the press. Of course, I don’t want to say anything which would reflect in any way upon your client’s character, but, after all, evidence is evidence and there’s a witness, a Maxine Edfield, whom I think you know, who has given the police some very valuable information relating to motivation and the possibility that Miss Adair here is going to claim that she had a son by Harmon Haslett, who recently left a two-million-dollar estate. Those are all things that enter into the case by way of motivation, and I am wondering if perhaps, since those matters are now going to be public property. Miss Adair would care to comment on them.”

“Miss Adair would not care to comment on anything,” Mason said.

“Perhaps as her attorney you would care to make some comment?”

“As her attorney I would not care to make any comment.”

Tragg shrugged his shoulders. “Well, we seem to have run up against a wall of silence. Of course, you both understand that we are interested in doing justice. We don’t want to subject any person to a lot of publicity and a lot of annoyance unless there’s some reason for it.

“Now, if Miss Adair could clear up these matters which are bothering the police by simply telling the truth, we’d be only too glad to listen to her explanation, carefully investigate any facts she may give, and wipe the slate clean in the event our investigation warrants.”

“You know and I know,” Mason said, “that you wouldn’t have gone this far unless you had decided to prosecute her for the murder of Agnes Burlington. You know that all this high-sounding malarkey about the administration of justice is simply bait to get the defendant to talk, and it’s because of that kind of bait and that kind of malarkey that the courts have established rules that the police have to follow in connection with interrogating a suspect.”

Tragg grinned. “Well, Mason,” he said, “there’s no harm in trying, and, as far as you’re concerned, Miss Adair, I’m afraid you’re going to have to come along with us.

“I may say one thing to you, Mr. Mason, and that is that this dodge of putting incriminating evidence in a letter and sending it by post to a party at General Delivery is an ingenious device which smacks a little bit of legal counsel.

“Of course, I’m not making any accusation, but it has been done before, and it may interest you to know that as a part of police procedure now whenever a person is represented by counsel in a matter of this sort we make it a rule just as a part of general procedure to go to the post office and see if there’s any package addressed to that person at General Delivery. If there is, we take steps to get a search warrant from the state courts and an order from the United States postal authorities, in order to open the package and see what’s in it.

“I hope for your sake and the sake of your client that when we open that package addressed to Ellen Adair at General Delivery we don’t find a diary kept by Agnes Burlington — but I’m just a little afraid, judging from the evidence that we have at hand, that that’s what we’re going to find.

“And now. Miss Adair, if you will kindly accompany me to Headquarters, we’ll try to make the formalities of booking as painless as possible — that is, of course, unless you want to change your mind and explain your actions to me. If there’s any logical explanation, we’re willing to listen.”