“What did you do?”

  “Daphne had given me some sleeping pills to take in case I needed them. I stepped into the bathroom, ground up some of those sleeping pills in a glass, and came back into the room. I was going to try to slip them into a drink or something.

  “But the guy played right into my hands. When I came back he was looking around at that Chinese food. He asked me, “You got a plate and anything to eat this with?”

  “I told him we had some chopsticks that this food had been left over from stuff I’d been eating. He wanted the chopsticks. So I got them, and as I handed them to him, took the opportunity to dump the ground-up sleeping pills into the food.

  “He cleaned it up.

  “I told him that I’d have to try and figure things out a bit that I’d agree with him on principle, but getting a hundred and twenty-five thousand in cash would wipe out my cash reserves. I told him I’d have to do some figuring.

  “The sleeping pills began to take effect. It wasn’t long before he stretched out on the bed, yawned, and went to sleep.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “I washed the containers, took his car, went to the Hollander-Heath Hotel and managed to get the room next to Daphne’s.”

  “Why did you take his car?” Mason asked.

  “I had to,” Shelby said. “I’d tried calling a taxicab earlier in the day. I had to go out and stand on the street corner to wait for it. That was dangerous.”

  “What did you do with the taxicab?”

  “I went uptown and—Well, first I was going to the Union Station then I decided to go to the airport. I had money and I wanted to rent an automobile.

  “I got to the airport and tried to rent a car and neither one of the places there would let me have one unless I had my driver’s license.”

  “You didn’t have your driver’s license?”

  “I didn’t have anything. I had a toothbrush, some pajamas, a hairbrush and comb, only the few little things that Daphne had bought for me.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “I took a bus back to El Mirar and walked four blocks back to the motel.”

  “Go on,” Mason said. “What happened after you got to the Hollander-Heath Hotel?”

  “Daphne was in the room with me. She didn’t hear people pounding on the door. She had a Do Not Disturb sign on her room, but she’d made the mistake of bolting the door from the inside, and that way people knew she was in there. She had to do something quick. She gulped the rest of the sleeping pills I had, jumped out of her clothes, put on a nightie and climbed into bed. Then she got up to open the door. She was going to put on an act until the sleeping pills began to take effect. She said they’d pump her stomach out and that this would mix things up enough so I’d have a chance to escape.”

  “Then what did you do?”

  “She went through her end of it. I had to wait for a while to get just the right opportunity. I put the things she’d bought for me in that little plastic bag, went down to the desk, checked out went over and got Ralph Exeter’s car out of the garage, drove down to San Diego, parked the car, spent the night in a motel, went to a used car lot where they weren’t so darned particular about my driving license and got a used car.

  “I wanted to go farther down in Mexico, but this is as far as I could go without a tourist permit, and I couldn’t get a tourist permit without proving citizenship and showing a driving license and all that sort of stuff.”

  “Is it true,” Mason asked, “that Daphne is the daughter of your housekeeper?”

  Shelby looked him square in the eyes. “It’s true,” he said, “and it’s also true that I’m her father.”

  “What!” Mason exclaimed.

  “That’s the truth,” Shelby said. “I wanted to marry Daphne’s mother, but she hadn’t been divorced and she couldn’t get a divorce. Then my other brother and his wife got killed in an auto accident, and I fell we could bring Daphne up as my niece.

  “But of course Borden Finchley would know that wasn’t the truth, so I told Borden Finchley that Daphne was the daughter of my housekeeper and that the housekeeper had been pregnant when she came from the East to work for me.

  “Borden Finchley never cared anything about me. I never let him know that I’d put by a goodly bit of money. I guess Ralph Exeter was the one who found out that I was fairly well-heeled.

  “Borden was indebted to Ralph Exeter on a big gambling debt. Exeter was putting the screws on him. They came down to make a visit.

  “The first time Borden and his wife had visited me in twenty-odd years. Then they got this devilish idea of getting rid of Daphne and started irritating me until I went off my rocker.

  “You’ve no idea the things they did, the little things. And then they started giving me dope and the first thing I knew I was all mixed up. … Well, I’ve got over that-now, I’m my own man. I’m going back and face the music. If I gave Ralph Exeter too much drug and he died, why that’s a responsibility I’ve got to take. But all I was trying to do was to get him to go to sleep so I could get out of there, and that’s the truth.”

  Mason said, “The sleeping pills didn’t kill him. Somebody unscrewed the gas pipe and he was asphyxiated by gas.”

  “What!” Shelby exclaimed.

  Mason nodded.

  Shelby paused for a moment, then sighed, “Well, I guess I’ve got to take the rap,” he said. “No one”s ever going to believe it the other way.”

  “The police found out that you took a cab from the motel earlier. They knew that Daphne bought Chinese food for someone, and they thought that it must have been Ralph Exeter because they learned that you had left earlier.”

  “I left and then I came back,” Shelby explained. “And when I did that I broke my promise to Daphne. She wanted me to stay right there, but I just wanted to have the means of escape and I wanted to have a car so I could go places.”

  Mason looked at his watch. “I have planes waiting,” he said.

  Horace Shelby sighed, took a new suitcase from under the bed, started packing clothes.

  “Okay,” he said, “it”ll take me ten minutes to be ready.”

  Chapter 19

  Court reconvened at nine thirty. Judge Kyle said, “People versus Daphne Shelby.”

  Marvin Mosher was on his feet. “If the Court please,” he said, “I wish to recall Lieutenant Tragg for further direct examination.”

  “Very well,” Judge Kyle said, “Mr. Mason will forego any further cross-examination until you have finished your questions on direct examination.”

  Lieutenant Tragg returned to the stand.

  Mosher said, “There was some question yesterday about the evidence of tool marks on the pipe in the motel. You stated that you had not taken that pipe as evidence. I will ask you, Lieutenant, if there has been any change in the situation since yesterday.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What is the present situation?”

  “I went to that unit in the motel this morning and removed the section of the connecting pipe. I have it here.”

  Lieutenant Tragg handed the deputy prosecutor a section of pipe.

  “We object, if the Court please,” Mason said, “on the ground that no proper foundation has been laid.”

  “Just what do you mean by that, Mr. Mason?” the judge asked. “It was, I believe, your suggestion that because the police had not removed this pipe, they had not preserved the evidence.”

  “That is true.” Mason said, “but the police can’t prove that this is now the same pipe that was in the unit at the time they discovered the body.”

  “Oh, I think that’s a technicality,” Judge Kyle said. He turned to Lieutenant Tragg. “Was there any evidence that the pipe had been tampered with from the time you first saw it until you secured this section of pipe, Lieutenant?”

  “None whatever.”

  “Were the tool marks which appear on this pipe the same as the ones which were on the pipe when you first saw it?”

  “They seem to be entirely similar.”

  “Very well, I’ll admit the pipe in evidence,” Judge Kyle said.

  “Cross-examine,” Mosher snapped to Mason.

  Mason arose and approached Lieutenant Tragg. “Have you,” he asked, “examined these tool marks on the pipe through a magnifying glass?”

  “No, sir, I haven’t. I just secured the evidence before coming to court. I thought if you wanted it, we’d have it.”

  Lieutenant Tragg’s smile was almost a smirk.

  Mason produced a magnifying glass from his pocket, studied the tool marks on the pipe, handed the glass and the pipe back to Lieutenant Tragg.

  “I invite you to study the tool marks now,” he said. “Study them carefully.”

  Lieutenant Tragg adjusted the magnifying glass, rotated the pipe in his hand. Suddenly he seemed to stiffen.

  “See anything?” Mason asked.

  “I believe,” Lieutenant Tragg said cautiously, “that there is evidence here that one of the tool marks is distinctive. One of the sharp edges on the jaws of the pipe wrench seems to have a flaw in it, a break.”

  “So that the tool with which this pipe was disconnected can be identified?”

  “Possibly so,” Lieutenant Tragg said.

  “Then you admit that you overlooked a material piece of evidence?”

  Tragg fidgeted uneasily, said, “Well, the evidence is now before the Court.”

  “Thank you,” Mason said. “That’s all.”

  “That concludes our case.” Mosher said.

  “Is there any defense?” Judge Kyle asked. “It would certainly seem that there is at least a prima facie case against this defendant.”

  “There will be a defense,” Mason said. “And I call as my first witness, Horace Shelby.”

  “What!” Mosher exclaimed.

  “My first witness will be Horace Shelby,” Mason repeated.

  “If the Court please, this comes as a very great surprise to the prosecution,” Mosher said. “May I ask a fifteen-minute recess? I would like to report to the district attorney, personally.”

  “I will give you fifteen minutes,” Judge Kyle said. “The case seems to be taking an unexpected turn.”

  When the judge had left the bench, Mason turned to Daphne.

  “Daphne,” he said, “you’re going to have to prepare yourself for a shock. I don’t want to tell you anything that’s coming. I want it to be a surprise to you. They’re going to be watching your reactions. I want them to see your surprise.”

  “You actually have Uncle Horace where you can call him as a witness?” she asked.

  Mason nodded.

  “Oh, don’t do that!”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they’ll take him and put him back in the sanitarium. They’ll—”

  “You must think I’m an amateur, Daphne,” Mason interrupted. “I’ve had three expert psychiatrists examine your uncle—one of them late last night, two of them this morning. Your uncle has had a good night’s sleep. He feels fine. He’s been pronounced absolutely sane and bright as a new silver dollar. You’ve no idea how that makes him feel.

  “These doctors are experts. They’re the tops in their profession. The most that Borden Finchley could use to support his contentions was the testimony of general practitioners and this man who runs the rest home or so called sanitarium. The men who say your uncle is normal are experts.”

  “Oh, I’m so glad, so terribly glad!”

  “You like him, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know why, Mr. Mason, but I just respect and admire that man so much.”

  “Well,” the lawyer said, “we’ll wait a few minutes and I think things will start working out for the better.

  “You sit here, Daphne, and don’t talk with anybody. I’ll be back in a moment.”

  Mason sauntered over to the place where Paul Drake was waiting. “Got your men shadowing all the subjects, Paul?”

  Drake nodded.

  Mason stretched, yawned.

  “You must know what you’re doing,” Drake said.

  Mason laughed. “Do I look confident, Paul?”

  “You look as though you were holding four aces.”

  “That’s fine,” Mason said. “Actually, all I have is a pair of deuces, and I’m shoving a stack of blues into the middle of the table.”

  Drake said, “Somehow I have an idea you’re going to get away with it, too!”

  “Let’s hope,” Mason said.

  Suddenly Hamilton Burger, the district attorney, came striding into the courtroom, and Mosher promptly collared him for a conference.

  “See what I mean?” Mason said. “They’ve telephoned the big boy himself to come down and see what this is all about.”

  Judge Kyle returned from chambers, took the bench, called court to order and said, “I see the district attorney himself is here in court. You are interested in this case, Mr. Burger?”

  “Very much so, Your Honor. I’m going to watch the developments with the greatest interest.”

  “May I ask why?”

  “Because,” Hamilton Burger said, “in the event the defendant did not murder Ralph Exeter, Horace Shelby did and I want to see that every bit of legal procedure is handled in such a manner that we can’t be jockeyed into a position of not being able to prosecute Horace Shelby.”

  “Very well,” Judge Kyle said. “Proceed, Mr. Mason.”

  “Call Horace Shelby to the stand,” Mason said.

  Shelby took the oath and took his position on the witness stand, after smiling reassuringly at Daphne.

  “Now, just a moment,” Hamilton Burger said. “First, Your Honor, I want this witness warned that he is suspect in a murder case, either acting alone or as an accessory with the defendant, Daphne Shelby. I want him warned that anything he may say may be used against him at a later date.”

  Mason, on his feet, said, “Your Honor, I object to this as a flagrant contempt of Court as an attempt to browbeat a defense witness and frighten him so that he cannot give testimony.”

  “Furthermore,” Hamilton Burger interjected, “I object to this witness giving testimony, on the ground that he is incompetent to testify that he is suffering from a disease known as senile dementia.”

  Mason smiled and said, “I would like to have the district attorney make up his mind if he is certain the witness is incompetent to understand what he is doing. If that is the case, it would appear that having the Court instruct him that anything he might say could be used against him at a later date would be an empty act.”

  Judge Kyle smiled, then turned to the witness.

  “The Court wants to ask you a few questions, Mr. Shelby.”

  “Yes, sir,” Horace Shelby said.

  “You understand that this is a courtroom?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “I’m called as a witness by the defense.”

  “You have been declared an incompetent by a Court in this county?”

  “I don’t know as to that. I was beset by greedy relatives who gave me drugs that I knew nothing about, who railroaded me into a so called sanitarium where I was restrained against my will and strapped to a bed. I understand the Court that committed me has designated a doctor to examine me.”

  Mason was on his feet. “If the Court please,” he said, “Dr. Grantland Alma, who was appointed by the Court to examine this man, has examined him and pronounced him absolutely competent, completely sane. Two other well-known psychiatrists have also examined him and pronounced him sane, as well as completely competent to conduct his own affairs. I can call these doctors if the Court wishes.”

  Judge Kyle smiled. “Does the district attorney continue to urge his point?”

  Hamilton Burger held a whispered conference with Marvin Mosher, then said, “I understand, if the Court please, there are two doctors who will testify that he is suffering from senile dementia.”

  “Two general practitioners who could never qualify as specialists,” Mason said. “The Court-appointed doctor pronounces him sane, and two outstanding psychiatrists so pronounce him sane and competent. If you wish to take up the Court’s time having two general practitioners testify against three specialists, we can do so.”

  Hamilton Burger had another whispered conference, then said, “We will temporarily withdraw our objection, Your Honor, but we wish this witness warned.”

  Judge Kyle turned to the witness. “Mr. Shelby, the Court does not wish you to be intimidated in any way. The Court does, however, warn you that in accordance with a statement made by the district attorney of this county, you may be considered an accomplice, an accessory or a principal in connection with the crime with which this defendant is being charged. The Court, therefore, warns you that anything you may say may be used against you at a later date that you are entitled to your own individual counsel at any stage of the proceedings.

  “Now then, does Mr. Mason represent you as attorney?”

  “Only to the extent of proving that I am sane and competent.”

  “He does not represent you in connection with possible charges which may be filed against you in connection with the death of Ralph Exeter?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Do you wish to have an independent counsel advise you at this time as to your rights, duties and privileges in connection with that crime?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Do you wish to go ahead and testify of your own free will?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You understand the nature of the proceedings?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You will keep in mind the admonition of the Court that anything you say may be used against you at a later date?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Do you understand you do not have to answer any question where the answer may tend to incriminate you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Very well,” Judge Kyle said, “proceed with your examination, Mr. Mason.”

  “Is the defendant related to you in any way, Mr. Shelby?” Mason asked.

  Shelby looked straight ahead, said, “Yes, sir. She is my daughter.”