“I was instructed to take the sketch made by my friend, Drummond Dixon, submit it to the witnesses and ask them if that didn’t look like the man they had seen.”

  “What was the name of the man whose photograph you were given?”

  “Collister Gideon.”

  “Do you know what has happened to Collister Gideon?”

  “Yes, I do now. He was killed earlier today.”

  “Did you know anything about the background of Gideon?”

  “I knew that he had been convicted of a crime. I knew that the photograph from which we made up our spurious, synthetic ‘composite’ sketch was a police photograph.”

  “All right, what did you do?”

  “I carried out my instructions.”

  “Were you present when Mr Dixon made the sketch?”

  “I was.”

  “Is this a copy of the sketch?”

  “It is.”

  “And you showed this to the witnesses?”

  “Yes.”

  “And, in accordance with your instructions, did everything you could to get the witnesses to state that that was a reasonable likeness of the man they had seen who held up the Pacific and Northern Supermarket shortly after midnight on the night Steven Hooks was wounded?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Are you familiar with the provisions of the Penal Code that any person who attempts fraudulently to induce any person to give false testimony is guilty of a felony?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And that every person who knowingly makes or exhibits any false writing or document to any witness with intent to affect the testimony of such witness is guilty of a crime?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Yet your instructions were to get these two witnesses to identify the sketch of Collister Gideon as that of the man the watchman had seen, and the one Kearny had seen running from the supermarket?”

  “If they would, yes, sir.”

  “I think that covers it,” Hamilton Burger said.

  “Just a moment,” Mason said. “I’d like to ask some questions of this witness.”

  “Proper questions will be permitted,” Hamilton Burger said.

  Mason turned to Fulton. “Fulton,” he asked, “were you instructed to bribe these witnesses?”

  “Certainly not.”

  “To intimidate them?”

  “No, sir.”

  “To make any false statements to them?”

  “No, sir.”

  “You were simply to show that sketch to the witnesses and ask them if that was the man?”

  “Well, it was a little more than that. I was told to do what I could to convince the witnesses that was the man they had seen.”

  “But not to bribe them?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Not to make false statements to them?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Not to intimidate them.”

  “No, sir.”

  “That’s all,” Mason said.

  Hamilton Burger said, “All right, Mr Kearny, I’m going to ask you about what happened. You had an interview with Mr Fulton, the detective who has just made a statement?”

  “Yes, sir. I also had an interview with Paul Drake and with Mr Mason, here.”

  “And you were asked to describe the man you had seen running from the supermarket?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Did you describe him?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Did you identify the sketch?”

  “Hell, no!”

  “Tell me what happened?”

  “Well, right away Fulton started saying to me, ‘Now, that’s the man, isn’t it? That picture answers your description.’”

  “He kept suggesting to you that was the man?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “I said it wasn’t the man.”

  “And you went to Paul Drake’s office?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What happened?”

  “He took me to Mason’s office. Mason wasn’t quite as bad as the others, but he tried to get me to say this fellow in the sketch was the one I had seen running out of the building.”

  “Did you do it?”

  “No, after a while they got me sort of confused and I said there was something familiar about the eyes, but the mouth was all wrong.

  “To tell the truth, they got me so confused I can’t remember where the face I saw leaves off and this face in the sketch begins.”

  “You feel your ability to be a truthful witness has been impaired?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s all,” Hamilton Burger said.

  “Just a minute,” Mason said. “I have some questions.”

  “I don’t think I will permit you to examine this witness, Mr Mason,” Burger said.

  Kearny said, “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to accuse anyone of any crime. I just can’t be certain to what extent my memory has been impaired by the suggestions that have been made to me, that’s all.”

  Hamilton Burger said, “There you are. That covers the situation. The testimony of this eyewitness has been ruined as far as any successful prosecution is concerned.

  “When we get the real culprit and this witness is confronted with the man who really committed the crime, he will have to admit on cross-examination that he has previously made statements that would detract from his identification due to improper inducements made by Perry Mason and by persons in the employ of Mr Perry Mason.”

  Mason said, “In just about every prosecution that you have, the witnesses first give contradictory descriptions to the police. Then they have to back up and when they finally make an identification it’s very likely to have been the second identification they have made. That’s why the police refer to identifications from line-ups so many times as ‘tentative’ identifications.”

  “That’s neither here nor there,” Hamilton Burger said. “The gist of the offence, as I see it, is that the testimony of this witness has been tampered with.”

  “The testimony hasn’t been tampered with,” Mason said. “What you’re trying to state is that the mind of the witness has been tampered with.”

  “It’s the same thing,” Hamilton Burger said.

  “Take it into court and see if it’s the same thing,” Mason said.

  Hamilton Burger said, “I don’t care to prolong this examination or add to the record.”

  Mason said, “The police usually show a witness composite sketches and mug shots, and after they’ve given him an opportunity to look at a photograph of a suspect under all kinds of circumstances they then let him look at a line-up containing the suspect.”

  “That will do,” Hamilton Burger said. “We’re not here to discuss police methods.”

  “I am,” Mason said.

  “I am not,” Hamilton Burger said, “and the hearing is terminated. As far as this office is concerned, I think I will lodge a complaint with the authorities concerning the improper activities of a private detective and lodge a complaint with the disciplinary section of the Bar Association about your activities.”

  Mason said, “You’ve been brandishing a couple of sections of the Penal Code around, Mr District Attorney. Now, if you think you’ve got any violation of the Penal Code you just go ahead and issue a warrant for my arrest and bring me to trial before a jury. Then I’ll cross-examine these witnesses, and you can’t ask them all these leading questions. Then we’ll see how much of a case you’ve got.”

  Hamilton Burger said, “I am going to do that very thing.”

  “Go right ahead,” Mason invited.

  Mason got up and stalked out of the room.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Perry Mason sat in the living-room at the residence at 2420 Bridamoore Avenue. Mrs Horace Warren sat facing him. She was dry-eyed but crushed. Mason said, “We may not have much time. I want you to tell me exactly what happened. I want you to tell me your connection with Collister Gideon and tell me what happened when you went to that abandoned storeroom. Don’t leave out anything, don’t spare yourself.”

  “This is going to kill me,” she said. “I can’t face Horace after this comes out.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Mason said. “Horace has faith in you.”

  “He won’t after this.”

  “He has,” Mason said. “He knew all about it before he married you.”

  Her eyes widened. “Knew about what?”

  “About your trial and acquittal, about your connection with Collister Gideon.”

  “He knew about that?”

  “Yes.”

  “For heaven’s sake, how?”

  “Judson Olney backtracked you and found out all about your past. When Horace knew that he was falling in love with you, he knew that you were concealing something in your past and he wanted to find out what it was.”

  “And he never told me?”

  “He thought you would feel better if you felt the whole thing was a secret.”

  “You’re not trying to make things easier for me, Mr Mason?”

  “I’m telling you the truth,” Mason said.

  “Oh, that wonderful, wonderful man,” she said, and tears came to her eyes.

  “Hold it,” Mason said. “You haven’t time to cry, you haven’t time to sympathize with yourself.”

  “I’m not sympathizing with myself, I’m thinking of Horace, how wonderful he has been.”

  “All right,” Mason said, “he’s been wonderful. Now tell me the facts. That’s the best way you can co-operate with him at present.”

  She said, “I always felt morally obligated to Collister Gideon for forty-seven thousand dollars.”

  “Did you keep the money for him?”

  “Heavens, no.”

  “What did happen?”

  “He had an inkling that the authorities might be coming down on him in a surprise raid. There was forty-seven thousand dollars in the bank. He drew it out and put it in the safe. He wanted me to keep it for him. I was afraid to do so. I knew that there were certain irregularities but I looked up to Mr Gideon. I thought he was the most wonderful, wide-awake businessman, with a dynamic personality and … well, it just never occurred to me he could be crooked.

  “He put the forty-seven thousand dollars in the safe and told me to take it out and hide it. I didn’t do it. That night the office was broken into, the thieves found the combination of the safe, and took the forty-seven thousand dollars.”

  “If he’d had it,” Mason said, “the authorities would have confiscated it as being obtained by fraudulent use of the mails.”

  “They might have had some difficulty proving it, but anyway I didn’t follow the instructions he gave me. I was afraid to, and as a result he lost all chance of holding onto any part of the forty-seven thousand dollars.”

  “So when you knew he was getting out,” Mason said, “you thought you would make restitution?”

  She said, “My husband has been very, very successful in business, and I have been saving money here and there in securities and looking forward to the day when Collister Gideon would be released. I wanted to go to him and say, ‘I violated your instructions and because of that you lost any opportunity to have operating capital when you got out. I’m going to stake you to forty-seven thousand dollars. I know that with your talents for making money you will run this up into quite a fortune within a short time. Then you can pay me back the forty-seven thousand dollars and my husband will never know anything about it.’”

  “Go on,” Mason said, “what happened?”

  “I put the money in a suitcase in my closet and the money was stolen. One of the servants, probably. But I wasn’t in a position to make a complaint because that would have brought out the whole scandal and that would have – Well, I felt Horace simply couldn’t stand to be connected with a scandal of that sort. He likes his social position and his social life.”

  “All right,” Mason said, “the money you had in the suitcase was stolen. Then what did you do?”

  “I got together what I could raise hastily, which amounted to only five thousand dollars.”

  “You heard from Gideon?”

  “Yes. He telephoned me and gave me the address of the store and told me to drive down there.

  “I told him that I had some money for him and he said the neighbourhood was pretty rough. He asked me if I had a revolver and I told him I did; that is, I told him my husband kept one in the house and he said if I was bringing any large sum of money I had better bring the gun to protect myself.”

  “Go on,” Mason said.

  “I went down there and found the place without any trouble. I had the gun in my handbag. I went into the abandoned store and saw Collister Gideon. I was startled at the change in him.

  “I took off my right glove, opened my purse to give him the money, put the gun on the table, and – Well, I don’t know, Mr Mason, whether he had changed or whether I had begun to grow up.

  “While I was working for him I saw him as a dynamic, magnetic businessman with a chain-lighting mind. But as I talked with him there in the store I saw him as brazen, glib-tongued confidence man. There wasn’t an ounce of sincerity in him, and … well, he sought to capitalize on the relationship.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He knew that I had looked up to him and idolized him when I was working for him and … well, he thought that he could twist me around his finger and – Well, it was just one of those things.”

  “What did you do?”

  She said, “Suddenly I saw the whole thing in its real perspective. It was a disgusting situation. I simply grabbed my handbag and dashed out of the place.”

  “What about the gun?”

  “I left it on the table. My right glove was on the floor, I guess. I didn’t see it. To tell the truth, I wasn’t thinking. I was simply reacting. I was getting out of there as fast as I could.”

  “He was alive when you left?”

  “Of course. He was very much alive.”

  “Do you know what time it was?”

  “I know that he told me to be there at quarter past two and I was there right on the dot. We talked for only a minute or two. The situation became unbearable with considerable rapidity – unbearable as far as I was concerned.

  “It’s difficult to keep track of time in a situation of that sort, Mr Mason … They say he was killed with my gun.”

  “Apparently so,” Mason said, “but they haven’t introduced proof of it yet, and when they do I’m going to have the right of cross-examination.”

  “But that was the only gun in the place.”

  “If your husband shot him,” Mason said, “he might well have been shot with your gun, but your husband tells me he didn’t shoot him.”

  “My husband wouldn’t lie about such things.”

  “In a murder case many times things are entirely different from what they are in other cases,” Mason said. “When a man’s life is at stake he will do almost anything.”

  Mrs Warren blinked back the tears. “Do you really mean his life is at stake?”

  “Yes,” Mason said.

  “And it’s … it’s my fault,” she said, “I–”

  Mason said, “Make up your mind to one thing, Mrs Warren. After water has run downstream and over the dam you can’t find any way on earth of getting it back upstream and over the dam the second time. Take things as they come. Concentrate on the present, forget the past … You didn’t give Gideon any money?”

  “Not a cent.”

  “Did you tell him you had some money for him?”

  “Yes. That was over the phone. I told him I had some money for him, not as much as I’d hoped to have, but all I could raise without attracting attention. I started talking and telling him how sorry I was that I hadn’t followed his instructions to get that money out of the safe and conceal it, but I pointed out that if they had found the money in my possession that would have been bad and – And then when I met him, Mr Mason I suddenly saw a look in his eye that made me think that perhaps he had hoped he could get me so completely involved in the case with him that the jury would have become sympathetic and acquitted both of us.

  “As it was, the cases against us were so sharply different that the jury was able to acquit me and still convict him, but if the cases had been mixed up a little closer – I don’t know. I just suddenly lost my feeling of awed admiration for the man and saw him as a tawdry performer.”

  Mason said, “You don’t know how long you talked.”

  “Just a minute or two.”

  “And he didn’t tell you anything about what he had been doing since he got out?”

  “No.”

  “You had only the one telephone call from Gideon?” Mason asked.

  “That’s right. I hadn’t heard from him directly from the time he was convicted and went to prison until after he got out and made that one phone call to me. I’ll say that, he was considerate of me. He didn’t want any publicity to involve me.”

  “Sure he didn’t,” Mason said, “because he wanted to blackmail your husband.”

  “He wanted … what?”

  “He wanted to blackmail your husband,” Mason said. “That was one of the things he had in mind. He–”

  “Oh, but he wouldn’t have done anything like that. He wouldn’t have been that low.”

  “Don’t kid yourself,” Mason said. “He came to my office and tried to get me to finance him by getting your husband to put in money to avoid the publicity.”

  Her mouth sagged open. “Why … why – Well, of all things!”

  “You had no idea of that?”

  “No.”

  “All right,” Mason said. “You’ve told me about your background and about what happened when you got into that storeroom. Now, don’t tell anyone else. Make absolutely no comment to anybody about anything.”

  “But it will all have to come out now,” she said. “My association with Gideon and–”

  “No, it won’t,” Mason said. “Not necessarily. I’m going to put up a fight. I’m forcing the state to an immediate preliminary examination and we’ll see just how much of a case they’ve got against your husband.”