The Case Of The Howling Dog pm-4

by Erle Stanley Gardner

"We're looking it up. We know he's been in minor troubles."

  "All right, look him up from the time he was a kid down to date. Get something on him if you can. If you can't, get something that won't sound good to a jury."

  "I'm already working on that," Drake said.

  "And the deputies are looking for Wheeler and Doake?"

  "Yes."

  "By the way," said Perry Mason casually, "where are those two birds?"

  Paul Drake looked at Perry Mason, and his face held the innocence of a child.

  "I had a very important matter to investigate in Florida," he said, "and I put those two fellows on a plane and sent them there on the job."

  "Anybody know they went?" asked Perry Mason.

  "No. It's a confidential matter, and they didn't get tickets in their own names."

  Perry Mason nodded appreciatively.

  "Good work, Paul," he said.

  He made little drumming gestures with his fingertips on the desk, abruptly said, "Where can I reach Thelma Benton?"

  "She's staying at the Riverview Apartments."

  "Under her own name?"

  "Yes."

  "You keeping her shadowed?"

  "Yes."

  "What's she doing?"

  "Talking with cops, mostly. She's made three trips to headquarters and two to the district attorney's offices."

  "For questioning?"

  "I don't know whether they're in response to telephone communications or not. But there was only once she was sent for. The rest of the time she went by herself."

  "How's her hand?" asked Mason.

  "I don't know that. It's pretty well bandaged. I chased down the doctor who treated it. His name's Phil Morton and his offices are in the Medical Building. He was called out to the house on Milpas Drive, and said the hand was pretty badly mangled."

  "Mangled?" asked Perry Mason.

  "Yes, that's what he said."

  "She still has it bandaged?" asked the lawyer.

  "Yes."

  Abruptly, Perry Mason took down the telephone.

  "Della," he said, "ring up the Riverview Apartments. Get Thelma Benton on the line. Tell her that this is The Chronicle speaking, and the city editor wants to talk with her. After that has soaked in, put her on my line."

  He hung up the telephone.

  Drake looked at him without expression on his face and said slowly, "You're skating on pretty thin ice, Perry."

  Perry Mason nodded gloomily.

  "I've got to," he said.

  "How about that line?" asked Drake. "Are you still on the right side of it?"

  The lawyer gave his shoulders a nervous shake, as though trying to rid himself of a disagreeable sensation.

  "I hope so," he said.

  The telephone rang.

  Perry Mason picked up the receiver, raised his voice, and snapped: "City Editor."

  The receiver made metallic noises, and then Perry Mason still speaking in the same high-pitched rapid tone of voice said, "Miss Benton, it looks as though this Forbes murder case is going to have a lot of dramatic interest. You've been with the parties from the start. Did you keep a diary?"

  Once more the receiver made metallic noises, and a slow smile spread over the face of Perry Mason.

  "Would you be interested in ten thousand dollars for the exclusive right to publish that diary... you would?... Have you kept your diary up to date?... will you keep it right up to date?... Don't say anything about this offer. I'll have one of our reporters get in touch with you when we want it. I can't tell about the price until I take it up with the managing editor. Then he'll want to inspect the diary, but I'm willing to make a recommendation for its purchase at that figure, provided we have the exclusive on it. That's all. G'by."

  Mason slammed the receiver up on the line.

  "Think she'll try to trace that call?" asked the detective.

  "She can't," Mason said. "What's more, she hasn't got sense enough. She fell for it, hook, line and sinker."

  "She keeps a diary?" asked the detective.

  "I don't know," Perry Mason said.

  "Didn't she say she did?"

  Perry Mason laughed.

  "Sure," he said, "she said she did but that doesn't mean anything. The way I made the offer, she is going to have time to fake one. A girl can do a lot of writing for ten thousand dollars."

  "What's the idea?" asked Drake.

  "Just a hunch," Mason said. "Now let's check over those samples of handwriting. Have you got samples of handwriting?"

  "I haven't got a sample of Mrs. Forbes' handwriting, but I have got a sample of Paula Cartright's handwriting. I've got some stuff that Thelma Benton has written, and a letter that Elizabeth Walker, Cartright's housekeeper, wrote."

  "Have you checked them," Perry Mason said slowly, "with the note that was left by Paula Cartright when she left Forbes?"

  "No, the district attorney's office has got that note, but I have a photostatic copy of the telegram that was sent from Midwick, and the handwriting doesn't check."

  "What handwriting doesn't check?"

  "None of them."

  "That telegram's in a woman's handwriting?"

  Drake nodded, fished through the folder, and took out a photostatic copy of a telegram.

  Mason took the paper and studied it carefully.

  "Does the telegraph operator remember anything about it?" he asked.

  "He just remembers that a woman handed it in, across the counter, together with the exact amount necessary to send it. She seemed in very much of a hurry. The telegraph operator remembers that he was counting the words when she started out. He told her he'd have to check the amount, and she called over her shoulder that she was quite sure it was right, and went out."

  "Would he remember her again if he saw her?"

  "I doubt it. He's not too intelligent, and apparently didn't pay any particular attention to her. She came in wearing a wide-brimmed hat. The operator remembers that much. She had her head tilted down so that the brim kept him from seeing her face when she was handing the telegram across the counter. After that, he started to count the words, and she walked out."

  Mason continued to stare at the photostatic copy of the telegram, then glanced up at Drake.

  "Drake," he said, "how did the newspapers get onto the inside of all this business?"

  "What inside?"

  "All about the man who lived under the name of Foley being, in reality, Clinton Forbes, and having run away with Paula Cartright, and the Santa Barbara scandal end of the thing?"

  "Shucks," said Drake, "that was a cinch. We found it out, and it's a cinch the newspapers were as well organized as we were. They have correspondents in Santa Barbara, and they dug up the files of old newspapers and made a great human interest story out of it. Then, you know the district attorney - he likes to try his cases in the newspapers. He's been feeding them everything he could find out."

  Perry Mason nodded his head thoughtfully.

  "Drake," he said, "I think I'm getting about ready to go to trial."

  The detective looked at him with some show of surprise.

  "The case won't be tried for some time yet, even if you try to get an immediate hearing," he said.

  Perry Mason smiled patiently.

  "That," he said, "is the way to prepare a criminal case. You've got to make all of your preparations and block out your defense before the district attorney really finds out what it's all about. After that, it's too late."

  CHAPTER XVII

  THE courtroom atmosphere was stale with that psychic stench which comes from packed humans whose emotions are roused to a high pitch of excitement.

  Judge Markham, veteran judge of the criminal department, who had presided over so many famous murder trials, sat behind the massive mahogany rostrum with an air of complete detachment. Only a skilled observer would have noticed the wary watchfulness with which he filtered the proceedings through his mind.

  Claude Drumm, chief trial deputy of the district attorney'
s office, tall, well-tailored, suave, was very much at his ease. Perry Mason had inflicted stinging defeat before but in this case the prosecution was certain of a verdict.

  Perry Mason sat at the counsel table, with an air of indolent listlessness about him which marked a complete indifference to the entire case. His attitude was in contrast to the accepted attitude of defense attorneys, who make a practice of vigorously contesting every step of the case.

  Claude Drumm exercised his second peremptory challenge. A juror left the box. The clerk drew another man, and a tall, gaunt individual, with high cheekbones and lackluster eyes, came forward, held up his right hand, was sworn, and took his seat in the jury box.

  "You may inquire," said Judge Markham to Perry Mason.

  Perry Mason glanced over at the juror casually.

  "Your name?" he said.

  "George Smith," said the juror.

  "You've read about this case?"

  "Yes."

  "Formed or expressed any opinion from what you have read?"

  "No."

  "You don't know anything about the facts of the case?"

  "Nothing except what I've read in the papers."

  "If you are selected as a juror to try this case could you fairly and truly try the defendant and render a true verdict?"

  "I could."

  "Will you?"

  "I will."

  Perry Mason slowly got to his feet. His examination of the jurors had been startlingly brief. Now he turned to this newest addition to the jury box and regarded the man frowningly.

  "You understand," he said, "that you are to act as a judge of the facts, if you are selected as a juror in this case, but that, so far as the law is concerned, you will accept the law in the instructions given you by the Court?"

  "I do," said the juror.

  "In the event the Court should instruct you," said Perry Mason slowly and solemnly, "that under the law of this state it is incumbent upon the prosecution to prove the defendant guilty beyond all reasonable doubt, before a juror can conscientiously return a verdict of guilty, and that, therefore, it is not necessary for the defendant to take the witness stand and testify in her own behalf, but she may remain mute and rely upon the fact that the prosecution has failed to prove her guilty beyond all reasonable doubt, could you and would you follow such instruction of the Court and accept it as law?"

  The juror nodded his head.

  "Yes," he said, "I think I could, if that's the law."

  "In the event the Court should further instruct you that such a failure on the part of the defendant to take the witness stand and deny the charges made against her was not to be considered in any way by the jury in arriving at its verdict and was not to be commented upon in connection with the discussions of the case, could you and would you follow such an instruction?"

  "Yes, I guess so."

  Perry Mason dropped back in his chair and nodded his head casually.

  "Pass for cause," he said.

  Claude Drumm asked that grim question which had disqualified many of the jurors:

  "Have you," he said, "any conscientious scruples against the return of a verdict which would result in the penalty of death for the defendant?"

  "None," said the man.

  "If you are on the jury which tries this case," said the deputy district attorney, "there would be no conscientious scruples which would prevent you returning a verdict of guilty in the event you thought the defendant had been proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt?"

  "No."

  "Pass for cause," said Claude Drumm.

  "The peremptory," said Judge Markham, "is with the defendant."

  "Pass the peremptory," said Perry Mason.

  Judge Markham nodded his head toward Claude Drumm.

  "Let the jury be sworn," said the deputy district attorney.

  Judge Markham addressed the jury.

  "Gentlemen," he said, "arise and be sworn to try this case. And may I congratulate counsel upon the very expeditious manner in which this jury has been selected."

  The jury were sworn. Claude Drumm made an opening argument - brief, forceful and to the point. It seemed that he had stolen a leaf from the book of Perry Mason, and was determined to skip over all preliminaries, directing his attention upon one smashing blow.

  "Gentlemen of the jury," he said, "I propose to show that on the night of the seventeenth of October of this year, Clinton Forbes was shot to death by the defendant in this case. I shall make no secret of the fact that the defendant had a grievance against the deceased. I shall not try to minimize that grievance. I shall put the facts entirely before you, freely, openly and frankly. I propose to show that the decedent was the husband of this defendant; that the parties had lived together in Santa Barbara until approximately a year before the date of the decedent's death; that the decedent had then surreptitiously departed without advising the defendant where he intended to go, and that the decedent took with him one Paula Cartright, the wife of a mutual friend; that the parties came to this city, where Forbes established a residence at 4889 Milpas Drive, under the name of Clinton Foley, and that Paula Cartright posed as Evelyn Foley, the wife of the deceased. I propose to show that the defendant in this case purchased a Colt automatic of thirty-eight caliber; that she devoted more than one year of her life to a careful and painstaking search, trying to locate the decedent; that shortly before the date of the murder, she located the decedent, and that she then came to this city and engaged a room in a downtown hotel, under the name of Mrs. C. M. Dangerfield.

  "I expect to show that on the night of October 17th, at the hour of approximately twenty-five minutes past seven, the defendant arrived at the house occupied by her husband; that she used a skeleton key to pick the lock of that house, and entered the corridor; that she encountered her husband and shot him down cold-bloodedly; that she then departed by taxicab and discharged the cab in the vicinity of the Breedmont Hotel, the hotel where she was registered under the name of Dangerfield.

  "I propose to show that when she left the taxicab, she inadvertently left behind her a handkerchief. I propose to show that this handkerchief is undoubtedly the property of the defendant; that the defendant, recognizing the danger of leaving behind so deadly a clew, sought out the driver of the taxicab and had the handkerchief returned to her.

  "I propose to show that the weapon which was purchased by the defendant, and for which she signed her name on the register of firearms, as kept by a sporting goods dealer in Santa Barbara, California, was the same weapon with which the deadly shots were fired. Upon this evidence I shall ask the jury to return a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree."

  During the speech, Claude Drumm did not raise his voice, but spoke with a vibrant earnestness that compelled the attention of the jurors.

  When he had finished, he walked to the counsel table and sat down.

  "Do you wish to make your opening address at this time, or to reserve the right?" asked Judge Markham of Perry Mason.

  "We will make it later," said Perry Mason.

  "Your Honor," said Drumm, getting to his feet, "it is usually a task of several days, or a day at least, to impanel a jury in a murder case. This jury has been impaneled within a very short time. I am taken somewhat by surprise. May I ask for an adjournment until tomorrow?"

  Judge Markham shook his head and smiled.

  "No, Counselor," he said. "The Court will proceed to hear the case. The Court happens to know that the present counsel for the defense makes a habit of expediting matters very materially. The Court feels that there is no use wasting the balance of the day."

  "Very well," said Claude Drumm with calm dignity, "I shall establish the corpus delicti, by calling Thelma Benton. May it please be understood that I am calling her at this time only for the purpose of establishing the corpus delicti. I shall examine her in greater detail later on."

  "Very well," said Judge Markham, "that will be the understanding."

  Thelma Benton came forward, held up her han
d and was sworn. She took the witness stand and testified that her name was Thelma Benton; that her age was twenty-eight; that she resided in the Riverview Apartments; that she had been acquainted with Clinton Forbes for more than three years; that she had been in his employ as a secretary in Santa Barbara, and that she was with him when he left Santa Barbara, and came with him to the residence at 4889 Milpas Drive, where she became his housekeeper.