“What did you say?” Mason asked.

  Garvin shouted, “I said, ‘I’ll kill you for this,’ and, by God, I will!”

  “That’s a threat?” Mason asked.

  “That’s a promise,” Garvin shouted. “I’ll …”

  “You will spend twenty-four hours in jail for contempt of Court,” Judge Decker snapped. “The courtroom is no place for threats such as you have just made. This witness has been repeatedly warned. I can realize that the witness is under an emotional strain, but the witness will spend twenty-four hours in jail for contempt of this Court. Mr. Bailiff, will you please take the witness into custody.”

  The bailiff stepped forward, touched Garvin on the arm.

  Garvin straightened, and for a moment it looked as though he would completely lose control of himself. Then with poor grace, he followed the bailiff from the courtroom.

  “Call Eva Elliott,” Hamilton Burger said.

  Eva Elliott was obviously prepared to take full advantage of the dramatic aspects of the occasion. She had the appearance of a woman who had spent hours at a beauty salon as she walked with slow, deliberate grace to the witness stand.

  “What is your occupation?” Hamilton Burger asked.

  “I am a model and an actress.”

  “What was your occupation on October seventh of this year?”

  “I was employed as a secretary by Homer Garvin, Sr.”

  “How long had you been so employed?”

  “Nearly a year.”

  “Referring to the seventh of October, I will ask you if anything unusual happened in your office on that day?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What?”

  “Now just a minute,” Judge Decker said. “There seems to be no objection by defense counsel, but it would seem that there should be some connection here. Anything which happened on the seventh of October outside of the presence of this defendant would have no bearing upon the case unless there is some evidence indicating that the defendant consented, acquiesced, or in some way profited therefrom or that it is part of the res gestae.”

  Hamilton Burger said, “We want to show exactly what Mr. Garvin did on that day. We want to show that he knew of certain things and was in a position to communicate them to the defendant.”

  Judge Decker looked at Perry Mason. “Is there any objection from the defense?”

  “No objection,” Mason said smiling.

  “Very well. Go ahead and answer the question,” Judge Decker said, but his eyes, sharply accusing, regarded Perry Mason’s bland countenance.

  “Well, what happened?” Hamilton Burger asked.

  “Mr. Garvin telephoned me from Las Vegas. He told me to wait at the office until he arrived.”

  “What time did he arrive at the office?”

  “Around eight-forty-five, almost an hour prior to the time he said he would arrive. He was highly nervous and he refused to talk with me until after he vanished into his bathroom and took a shower.”

  “Now just a moment,” Judge Decker said. “Mr. Garvin was called as a witness by the prosecution. Are you now attempting to impeach your own witness, Mr. Prosecutor?”

  “The witness was a hostile witness,” Hamilton Burger said. “He is quite definitely affiliated with the defendant, as was disclosed by his testimony.”

  “Nevertheless he was a witness called by the prosecution.”

  “There is no objection on the part of the defense,” Mason said.

  “Well, there should be,” Judge Decker snapped.

  Mason merely inclined his head out of deference to the Court, and continued to sit there saying nothing.

  “Very well,” Judge Decker said, controlling himself with a visible effort, “under the circumstances, there being no objection, the witness will be permitted to answer the question.”

  “You’re certain of the time element?” Hamilton Burger asked.

  “Absolutely certain,” she said. “I resented being treated as a chattel. I felt that anything Mr. Garvin wanted to say to me could have been said before he—”

  “Just a minute,” Judge Decker interrupted. “Your thoughts are not important as far as this case is concerned. You are simply asked if you were sure of the time.”

  “I am sure of the time.”

  “Now did Mr. Garvin say anything to you about Mr. Casselman?” Hamilton Burger asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Who was present?”

  “Just Mr. Garvin and myself.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said, ‘I have just talked with the man who I am certain killed Stephanie Falkner’s father. I have made an appointment to see him at eleven o’clock tonight.’ ”

  “Then what did he do, if anything?”

  “He took off his coat. I noticed the revolver which was in his shoulder holster. He took off this shoulder holster and placed it on his desk, and then went into the shower room to take a bath.”

  “Can you identify the gun which was in that shoulder holster at that time?” Hamilton Burger asked.

  “No, sir. I cannot. I am afraid of guns. I didn’t go near it. However, it looked exactly like the gun marked People’s Exhibit 30.”

  “You may inquire,” Hamilton Burger said, turning to Perry Mason.

  “Now what time was this?” Mason asked.

  “When he arrived at the office, it was about a quarter to nine.”

  “He told you he had already seen Casselman?”

  “His exact words were ‘I have just talked with the man who I am certain killed Stephanie Falkner’s father. I have made an appointment to see him at eleven o’clock tonight.’ ”

  “You remember his exact words?”

  “I do.”

  “But he didn’t mention Casselman by name?”

  “He meant Casselman all right. He said …”

  “I am not asking whom he meant. I am asking if he used Casselman’s name.”

  “He did not use Casselman’s name.”

  Mason said, “I have no further questions.”

  Burger said, “I’ll call Mrs. Garvin, Jr. to the witness stand.”

  Mrs. Garvin, a long-legged redhead, strode to the witness stand with every appearance of perfect composure. She smiled at the jurors, crossed her knees so as to display just the right amount of nylon, turned courteously and expectantly to the district attorney.

  Hamilton Burger said, “You are the wife of the witness Homer Garvin, Jr., who has just testified in this case. I show you a weapon marked People’s Exhibit Number 30, and ask you if you have ever seen that weapon before?”

  “I can’t say,” she said, smiling. “I have seen a gun which looked very much like that, but I am not an expert on firearms.”

  “Where did you see that gun?”

  “My husband left it on the dresser.”

  “When?”

  “On the night of the seventh of October.”

  “At what time?”

  “At approximately ten-thirty o’clock.”

  “Did you see that gun on the eighth of October?”

  “I did. Yes, sir.”

  “And what did you do with reference to it, if anything?”

  “I telephoned my husband at his office that he had left a gun on the dresser.”

  “When did you telephone him?”

  “When I got up and saw the gun there.”

  “That was after your husband had gone to his office?”

  She smiled and said, “I am a newlywed, Mr. Burger. I am trying to train my husband right. I let him get his own breakfast, and I slept until about nine-thirty.”

  The audience laughed. Judge Decker smiled, and the jurors grinned. The good nature of the witness and her complete poise were making a terrific impression.

  “What did you do with reference to that gun?”

  “Following my husband’s instructions, I took the gun to him at his office.”

  “When?”

  “At about ten-thirty on the morning of the eighth of October of this year.”

  “Do you know whether that was the weapon we are referring to as the Junior Gun, or whether it was People’s Exhibit Number 30?”

  “No, sir. I do not know. All I know is that I took the gun from the dresser to my husband. I can’t even swear that there was no discharged cartridge in the gun at that time. I do know that my husband took a gun from his pocket when he was undressing at about ten-thirty on the night of October seventh. I do know that a gun similar in every way to that gun was still on the dresser at ten o’clock in the morning. I am quite certain no one entered the bedroom after we retired. I do know I took the gun which was on the dresser to my husband at his office on the morning of October eighth at about ten-thirty o’clock. I know nothing more than that.”

  “Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said.

  Mason said, “Mrs. Garvin, were you home all during the evening of October seventh?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you know your husband rang twice on the phone and received no answer?”

  “He told me such was the case.”

  “You want the jury to believe you were there but didn’t answer the phone?”

  “I was sound asleep for about an hour, Mr. Mason.”

  “Did you tell your husband that?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “It was our honeymoon. My husband went chasing off on a business deal. He didn’t come home for dinner. I wanted him to realize I didn’t like such conduct. I let him know I was hurt and a little angry. If he had known I had gone to sleep while I was waiting for him to return he wouldn’t have been quite so concerned. I wanted him to be concerned. So I didn’t tell him I was asleep. I think I convinced him he must have dialed the wrong number.”

  “Twice?”

  “Twice.”

  “Didn’t he require a lot of convincing?”

  “Yes. A bride is in a position to convince her husband a little more easily than at any other time in her married life.”

  “Did you lie to him?”

  “Heavens no! I suggested he had dialed the wrong number. He didn’t ask me if I had been asleep, so I didn’t tell him.”

  Mason said, “Getting back to this gun, Mrs. Garvin. For all you know that gun may have had one discharged shell in it when you took it to your husband’s office.”

  She smiled sweetly and said, “Then, after you fired a shell into my husband’s desk, there would have been two discharged shells, Mr. Mason.”

  “Assuming,” Mason said, “that the gun which your husband gave me was the same gun which you had taken to his office.”

  “A bride must always assume that her husband is truthful, Mr. Mason.”

  “That’s all,” Mason said.

  Burger’s next witness was Lorraine Kettle, a spare-framed widow of fifty-six who testified that she lived in an apartment on the ground floor of the Ambrose Apartments. At about eight-forty-five on the evening of the seventh of October, she had seen a woman descending the service stairs leading from the back door of George Casselman’s apartment.

  She had, she said, felt the woman might have been a burglar, so she had left her own apartment by the back entrance and had followed this woman at what she referred to as “a discreet distance.”

  “Were you close enough to recognize her?” Burger asked.

  “I was.”

  “Who was she?”

  “That woman sitting right there, the defendant, Stephanie Falkner.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She walked across to the sidewalk and then a man stopped his automobile and called to her. She got in that car. They drove away.”

  “Who was that man, if you know?”

  “Mr. Perry Mason, the lawyer, sitting right there.”

  “Cross-examine,” Burger snapped.

  “How did you happen to be looking at the back stairs of the Casselman apartment?” Mason asked.

  “I had seen young women go in there before. This time I was determined to complain.”

  “You mean you had seen this defendant go in there before?”

  “I can’t swear it was her.”

  “You mean prior to October seventh?”

  “Yes.”

  “And had seen women leave by the back door?”

  “I can’t swear I’d seen more than one woman.”

  “You followed this woman who left on October seventh?”

  “I followed the defendant, yes.”

  “Why did you follow her?”

  “I wanted to see who she was.”

  “That was the only reason?”

  “Yes.”

  “You intended to follow her only far enough to get a good look at her?”

  “Yes.”

  “And then you were going to turn back?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were still following her when she got into this automobile?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then by your own testimony you hadn’t got a good look at her by that time. Is that right?”

  “I saw her all right.”

  “But you said you were going to turn back as soon as you had a good look at her, and you hadn’t turned back at that time.”

  “Well.… I’d like to have had a closer look but I’m pretty certain in my own mind.”

  “Pretty certain?”

  “Yes.”

  “And if it hadn’t been for her getting in the automobile, you’d have followed her farther?”

  “Yes, I guess so.”

  “That’s all,” Mason said, smiling.

  “That’s our case, Your Honor,” Hamilton Burger said.

  Judge Decker frowned.

  “The defense moves that the Court instruct the jury to return a verdict of not guilty,” Mason said. “The evidence at this time shows merely an inference, a suspicion.”

  Judge Decker said, “The Court does not wish to comment on the evidence other than to say that at this time the motion is denied. After the defense has put on its case, the question of proof will be in the hands of the jury. At the present time and for the purpose of this motion, the Court must accept all of the evidence in its strongest possible light as far as the prosecution is concerned. The Court makes no comment on that evidence other than to state that the motion is denied.

  “The Court notices that it is approaching the hour of noon adjournment. The Court will take a recess until two o’clock, at which time the defense can put on its case.

  “During that time, the jurors will remember the admonition of the Court not to converse about the case nor permit any one to converse about it in your presence, and not to form or express any opinion until the case is finally submitted to you.

  “Court is adjourned.”

  Mason turned to Stephanie Falkner. “Stephanie,” he said, “you’ve got to go on the stand. You’ve got to deny that you killed George Casselman.”

  She shook her head. “I am not going on the witness stand.”

  “You have to,” Mason said. “They’ll convict you of murder if you don’t. In view of the testimony we have managed to bring in about your father’s death, the jurors won’t bring in a death penalty, but they will find you guilty. The fact that your shoe had blood on it, the fact that there was an imprint made by a heel plate similar to yours—”

  “I am sorry, Mr. Mason, I am not going on the witness stand.”

  “Why?” Mason asked. “Is there something in your past you’re afraid they’ll bring out? Have you been convicted of a felony?”

  She shook her head. “Have you?” Mason asked.

  “I am not going to make any statement to you, Mr. Mason, other than the fact that I am not going on the witness stand. They can do whatever they want, but they are not going to put me on that witness stand.”

  Mason said, “Stephanie, you can’t do this. I’m going to call you to the stand as a witness.”

  “If you do,” she said, “I will simply refuse to budge from my chair.”

  “All right,” Mason told her, “that’s better than nothing. It will at least give me something to argue about.”

  “Time for you to go now, Miss Falkner,” the bailiff said.

  Chapter 19

  Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake were eating a gloomy luncheon in the private dining room of a little restaurant near the courthouse.

  They were half through when knuckles beat on the door in a rapid staccato, and a moment later Gertie, Perry Mason’s receptionist, was in the room, all excited.

  “Mr. Mason, Mr. Mason!” she said. “Marie Barlow came to the office. My heavens! Is that woman immense! I think she’s going to have triplets at least. She shouldn’t be out. I’ve told her.… I warned her.…”

  “Now wait a minute, Gertie,” Mason said. “Calm down. What’s this all about?”

  “Marie was at Mr. Garvin’s office. She has been trying to get the files cleaned out, you know, and she looked in back of one of the file drawers of an old transfer case. Things in there are ten years old and older.”

  “All right,” Mason said. “What did she find?”

  Gertie lowered her voice. “Bloody towels that Mr. Garvin had left there the night of the murder.”

  “What?”

  “That’s right. Towels with dried, crusted blood on them. And they’re stamped with the name of the Ambrose Apartments. They had been hidden there, and Marie was afraid—well, she didn’t want anybody to know. She wanted me to find you and tell you and ask you what to do. She’s loyal to Mr. Garvin but she simply can’t sit still with anything like this on her mind and let Stephanie Falkner go to prison.

  “She felt that perhaps she could wait and see how the case came out and then she could apparently find them for the first time and then you could move for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence. But that wouldn’t be right. She’s all at sea, poor kid. She …”

  Mason said, “All right, Gertie. Calm yourself. Now sit down and have some coffee.”

  “Heavens! I’m so terribly upset, Mr. Mason. You can see it all now. Homer Garvin really did kill George Casselman, and Stephanie Falkner knows it. Because she loves him she won’t go on the witness stand and …”

  “Hey! Wait a minute! Wait a minute!” Mason said. “That crazy, mixed-up, romantic mind of yours has given me an idea.”