“Yes.”
“Wide open?”
“No. Not wide open. But enough that she could tell it was open. In other words, she didn’t have to try the key. According to her statement, the door was ajar, that was readily apparent, so she didn’t use her key, she just pushed her way in.”
“When did this happen? According to her?”
“She said she arrived at the office at approximately ten o’clock.”
“Ten o’clock?”
“That’s right.”
“Did she give you any explanation for why she would have come by the offices at that time?”
“Yes, she did.”
“Please tell us, Sergeant, what the defendant told you. With regard to her movements on the day in question.”
“Yes, sir,” Stams said. “As I say, she’d been in court. On the charge of petty theft. The jury brought back a verdict in the late afternoon. After that, the defendant left court and went uptown to her apartment on West 107th Street to change for dinner. She went out to a restaurant in the neighborhood with a man by the name of Larry Cunningham. According to her, they had intended to go to the movies, but it turned out he had to work. She went home around seven-thirty. According to her, she watched TV, puttered around the apartment for a while, then got the idea of cleaning out her desk. She went out to Broadway, hailed a taxi, took it the office, and went upstairs, arriving at approximately ten o’clock.”
“And what happened then? According to the defendant’s statement?”
“She found the door unlocked and the lights on. She pushed the door open and went inside.”
“What did she find?”
“The office was apparently empty. She looked around, then she went over to her desk and discovered the office had been robbed.”
“Robbed?” Dirkson said. “What did she mean by robbed?”
“According to her,” Stams said, “the petty cash drawer of her desk was open, the petty cash box was open, and the money was gone.”
“Let me be sure I understand this,” Dirkson said. “This was the defendant’s desk?”
“Yes.”
“The one she said she went to the office to clean out?”
“That’s right.”
“She went over to the desk to clean it out and found one of the drawers open?”
“That’s right.”
“The petty cash drawer?”
“Yes.”
“And what about the petty cash box?”
“According to her, the petty cash box was in the petty cash drawer, but it was open.”
“What do you mean, open?”
“I mean the top was up. The petty cash box was a simple metal cash box with a hinged top. That top was up. And the box was empty.”
“This box was sitting in the petty cash drawer, which was also open.”
“That’s right.”
“According to the defendant’s statement?”
“Yes. According to the defendant’s statement.”
“This was the statement that she made to you at the time on the night in question?”
“That’s right.”
“She claimed she discovered this when she came to the office?”
“That’s right.”
“She discovered this before or after she discovered the decedent’s body?”
“Before.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. She claimed that was the reason she found the body. She went to clean out her desk and discovered the office had been robbed. She looked around to see if anything else had been taken, and found the body.”
“According to her statement?”
“According to her statement.”
“And this statement was made in the office of Marvin Lowery?”
“That’s right.”
“Tell me, Sergeant. After the defendant made that statement to you-about finding the petty cash drawer open and the petty cash gone-what, if anything, did you do?”
“I left the defendant in Mr. Lowery’s office and went out to verify her statement.”
“Did you tell her you were doing this?”
“No. I just excused myself, told her to wait there. Then I went to see if her story was true.”
“And was it?”
“Objection.”
“Sustained. Rephrase the question.”
“You went to look at the defendant’s desk?”
“That’s right.”
“Had it been previously pointed out to you?”
“No. But it was the only desk in the outer office.”
“Did she subsequently identify it as her desk?”
“Yes, she did.”
“Anyway, you went to look at that desk?”
“Yes, I did.”
“What did you find?”
“All the drawers were shut.”
“All of them?”
“Yes. All of them.”
“Including the petty cash drawer?”
“Well, I didn’t know which was the petty cash drawer at the time. But the drawer I subsequently learned was the petty cash drawer was shut, yes.”
“What did you do after observing this?”
“Went back in and questioned the defendant some more.”
“Did you tell her you found the petty cash drawer shut?”
“No, I did not.”
“Why not?”
“I wanted to see what she would say about it.”
“What did she say?”
“She continued to lie. She-”
“Objection!”
“Sustained. Sergeant, please don’t testify to conclusions.”
“That’s no conclusion, Your Honor. I saw the drawer and it was shut.”
“Which is all you can testify to,” Judge Wylie said. “Don’t draw the conclusion that someone was lying. That statement will go out. Jurors will disregard. Proceed, Mr. Dirkson.”
“Yes, Your Honor. I believe the question was what did the defendant say? After you had observed that the drawer was shut.”
“She continued to maintain that she had found it open.”
“And when was this that she had found it open?”
“At ten o’clock, when she arrived.”
“You pinned that down?”
“I certainly did. According to her, she arrived at ten, found the drawer open, the cash box open, and the money gone. That was the first thing she found, and that was what led her to find the body.”
“After she found the body, what did she do?”
“She called the police.”
“From what phone?”
“The one on her desk.”
“The same desk where the petty cash drawer was?”
“That’s right.
“I see,” Dirkson said. “Tell me, sergeant, did you make any attempt to learn how she could have made a phone call from that desk without noticing that the drawer was shut?”
“Yes, I did. I questioned her about the phone call. According to her, she didn’t sit at her desk when she made the phone call. She didn’t even go behind it. She was too upset. According to her, she came out of the decedent’s office, went straight to her desk, picked up the phone, and dialed nine one one standing there in front of her desk.”
“In front of her desk?”
“That’s right.”
“Tell me, Sergeant. After she made that statement, did you subsequently make the experiment of standing where the defendant said she stood in front of her desk, to see if you could see the petty cash drawer from that angle?”
“Yes, I did.”
“With what result?”
“I couldn’t see it.”
“You couldn’t tell whether it was open or not?”
“No, I couldn’t.”
“Did you try the experiment with the drawer open?”
“I tried it with the drawer open and with the drawer closed.”
“With what result?”
“I couldn’t tell. Standing in that position, I couldn’t see the drawer at all.”
“Getting back to your conversation with the defendant, after you pinned down the fact that that was where she was standing when she made the phone call, what did you do?”
“I asked her to show me the desk that had been robbed.”
“What did she do?”
“She took me in the outer office and showed me her desk.”
“What happened then?”
“I asked her to point out the petty cash drawer.”
“Did she?”
“She started to. She walked around her desk. Started to point. Stopped. Stared at it.”
“Did she say anything?”
“No, she did not.”
“She made no comment on the fact the drawer was shut?”