He turned to the bench. “Pass for cause, Your Honor. And I have no preemptories either. The jury may be sworn.”
Judge Dalrymple nodded and grimaced. It just wasn’t his day. He swore the jury in, rubbed his aching head and broke for lunch.
4
For his first witness, A.D.A. Pearson called Frank Fletcher, who testified that he and Marvin Lowery had been partners in F.L. Jewelry for the past seven years.
“And are you acquainted with the defendant, Amy Dearborn?”
“Yes, I am.”
“In what capacity do you know her?”
“She was my employee.”
“When did you hire her?”
“Approximately six months ago.”
“Is she still in your employ?”
“She is not.”
“When did she leave your employ?”
“On May 3rd.”
“What day of the week was that?”
“It was a Monday.”
“And how did she come to leave your employ?”
“I fired her.”
“I see,” Pearson said. “And can you tell us the circumstances surrounding that firing?”
“Certainly,” Fletcher said. He shifted position on the witness stand. “For some time I’d been noticing shortages in the petty cash drawer.”
“One moment,” Pearson said. “For the jurors benefit, could you please tell us briefly about your business and how you operate?”
“Yes, of course. F.L. Jewelry is a wholesale and retail jewelry outlet. We don’t manufacture, we buy and sell. In that regard we’re a very small operation. Just myself and my partner, Marvin Lowery. And one secretary.”
“Miss Dearborn?”
“That’s right.”
“Go on. You mentioned a shortage in the petty cash drawer.”
“Yes. For some time I’d been aware of a discrepancy between what there should have been there and what there was.”
“In what amounts?”
“Anywhere from twenty to a hundred dollars.”
“And just how was petty cash handled?”
“As I say, it’s a small concern. Just the two of us and Miss Dearborn. The petty cash was kept in a cash box in Miss Dearborn’s desk. That’s what I’m referring to when I say the petty cash drawer.”
“How much money was kept in this box?”
“It varied, of course. But in the neighborhood of five hundred dollars.”
“I see. And what did you do when you discovered sums were missing?”
“I told my partner.”
“Mr. Lowery?”
“That’s right.”
“And what did you do.”
“We talked it over-”
Pearson held up his hand. “Fine. Don’t tell us what was said. But after your conversation, what did you do?”
“We hired a private detective.”
“Who actually hired him?”
“I did.”
“And who did you hire?”
“Samuel Macklin. Of the Macklin Detective Agency.”
“How did you hire him? Call him on the phone? Go to his office?”
“I called him on the phone, made an appointment and went to his office.”
“What did you tell him on that occasion?”
“I explained the situation. I told him there’d been shortages in our petty cash drawer and I wanted to get to the bottom of it.”
Pearson held up his hand. “Fine. Now, never mind what Mr. Macklin told you. What did he do?”
“He came to our office.”
“When was that?”
“Friday, April 30th.”
“At what time?”
“Twelve-thirty in the afternoon.”
“Who was in the office at the time?”
“Myself and Mr. Lowery.”
“Where was the defendant, Miss Dearborn?”
“She had gone out to lunch.”
“Was that a coincidence?”
“No, it was not. I asked Mr. Macklin to come while Miss Dearborn was out to lunch.”
“And why was that?”
“So she wouldn’t know what we were doing.”
“I see. And what were you doing? What did Mr. Macklin do when he came to your office?”
“According to his instructions, I’d been to the bank that morning and taken out five hundred dollars in twenty dollar bills. When Mr. Macklin came to the office, he took out a notebook and wrote down the serial numbers of those bills. Then he gave them back to me and I put them in the petty cash drawer.”
“What happened then?”
“Mr. Macklin left the office. Miss Dearborn came back from lunch. We conducted business as usual for the rest of the afternoon.”
“What happened a closing time?”
“Mr. Lowery and I left the office at five o’clock.”
“Was that normal?”
“Yes, it was. We always go home then.”
“What about Miss Dearborn?”
“She stays on the phones till five-thirty.”
“Every night?”
“That’s right.”
“She stays there alone?”
“Yes, she does.”
“What happens at five-thirty?”
“She closes up the office and goes home.”
“And that’s what she did on the night in question, April 30th?”
Frank Fletcher smiled. “I can’t speak for what she did. All I know is Mr. Lowery and I left the office at five o’clock.”
“Leaving her alone in the office?”
“That’s right.”
“And this was Friday night?”
“Yes.”
“Is your office open over the weekend?”
“No, it is not.”
“When did it open again?”
“Monday morning.”
“At what time?”
“We normally open at nine. This Monday we were there at eight-thirty.”
“Eight-thirty in the morning.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And why was that?”
“We got there early to meet Mr. Macklin.”
“He came to your office?”
“Yes, he did.”
“And what happened on that occasion?”
“We met him at eight-thirty in the morning outside our office building.”
“And where is that, by the way?”
“West 47th Street. Between Sixth and Seventh Avenue.”
“All right. You met him outside the building. And what did you do then?”
“We went up and unlocked the office?”
“You had not been in before?”
“That morning? No.”
“When was the last time you’d been in the office?”
“When we’d left Friday night.”
“You all went up together and unlocked the door?”
“That’s right.”
“And what did you do then?”
“I took the cash box out of the petty cash drawer.”
“In Miss Dearborn’s desk?”
“That’s right.”
“What did you do then?”
“I examined the contents.”
“And what did you find?”
“There was a hundred dollars missing.”
“A hundred dollars?”
“That’s right. Five of the twenty dollar bills were gone.”
“I see. And what did you do then?”
“We waited for Miss Dearborn to come in to work.”
“What time did she come in?”
“Nine o’clock.”
“What happened then?”
“Mr. Macklin identified himself, showed Miss Dearborn his I.D., and asked her to empty her purse.”
“What did Miss Dearborn do?”
“She seemed somewhat flustered. She-”
“One moment,” Judge Dalrymple said. He looked down at the defense table where Steve Winslow sat, looking unconcerned and somewhat bored, almost as if he weren’t paying attention. Judge Dalrymple cleared his throat. “So far there has been no objection from the defense. Still, if the witness would avoid giving his opinion as to what the defendant thought or felt.”
“Yes. Sorry, Your Honor,” Frank Fletcher said. “Ah…Could you repeat the question?”
“What did the defendant do when Mr. Macklin asked her to empty her purse? Never mind what you thought or felt-just confine yourself to what she said and did.”
“Right. Well, as I recall, she asked me what was going on. Am I allowed to say that? And I told her there’d been a robbery and Mr. Macklin was investigating it, and I asked her if she’d cooperate with him in clearing the matter up.”
“What happened then?”
“She withdrew her objection and allowed him to look in her purse.”