The Case of the Singing Skirt pm-63

by Erle Stanley Gardner

"What were the circumstances?"

  "Well, after we had this bet I was carrying the gun back to the bar. It was a gun we kept underneath the bar just below the cash register so that in case of a holdup we could protect ourselves.

  "Helman Ellis was standing there by the bar and saw me carrying the gun and wanted to know if I had been trying to make a collection from some customer who didn't want to pay or something of the sort-he made some joke about it, and one thing led to another and he started admiring the gun and finally I gave it to him. I felt it would be good business. Helman Ellis was becoming a regular customer and-well, I make no secret of it, I wanted to cultivate him."

  "Why?" Mason asked.

  "Because," Anclitas said angrily, "I'm running a place of business and I make my profit by having customers."

  "Then in your mind there is no question whatever but that the weapon you gave Helman Ellis was the one that had the file mark on the front sight?"

  "That's right."

  "Yet you don't find this mark on the front sight here now, and therefore I take it you wish to change your statement that this was the gun you gave Helman Ellis?"

  "I'm not changing anything," Anclitas said sullenly. "That's the gun that was found on the Ellis boat; it's the gun I gave Ellis."

  "But the distinguishing mark is no longer on the front sight."

  "It may have worn off."

  "You had no other means of identifying the gun?"

  "Just by its appearance."

  "When you testified, you gave as your sole reason for identifying the gun-"

  "Your Honor," Hamilton Burger interrupted, "this question has been asked and answered half a dozen times. The witness has given his best opinion. We now know the facts. We aren't going to gain anything by having counsel carry on an argument with this witness. I-"

  A deputy who had hurried into the courtroom moved up to Hamilton Burger and tugged at his coat sleeve.

  Burger turned in annoyance, saw the expression on the deputy's face, said to the judge, "Just a moment, please, Your Honor. May I be indulged for just a few minutes? Apparently a matter of some importance has arisen."

  Burger engaged in a whispered conference with the deputy. At first Burger's face showed complete incredulity, then surprise, then as the deputy continued to whisper forcefully, a slow grin began to appear on the district attorney's face.

  Abruptly he nodded to the deputy, turned to the Court.

  "If the Court please," he said, "a matter of transcendent importance has arisen in this case. I am going to call Perry Mason to the stand as my next witness."

  "You can't do that," Judge Keyser said, then at the expression on Hamilton Burger's face, said, "unless, of course, there is some factual matter which can be cleared up by defense counsel. But certainly defense counsel is hardly qualified as a witness to appear against his client."

  "As it happens, Your Honor," Hamilton Burger said, "and in order to explain the reason for my action, it seems that one Maurice Halstead, a very competent firearms expert engaged in ballistic examinations, was given a gun by Perry Mason's representative and was asked to fire several test bullets from that gun.

  "When it appeared that there was some question about the two bullets in this case having been fired from different guns, Mr. Halstead communicated with my office to state that, while he wished to protect his relations with his client, he did not wish to be put in the position of concealing evidence. He asked that Mr. Redfield, the ballistics expert who has already testified in this case, make a confidential examination of the test bullets. If they had not been fired from the murder weapon, he asked that Mr. Redfield say nothing about the matter. If, on the other hand, they had been so fired and therefore were evidence, Maurice Halstead did not care to be put in the position of suppressing evidence."

  Burger turned to Perry Mason and said significantly, "It is unfortunate that all persons are not actuated by such high standards of professional conduct."

  Judge Keyser, plainly interested, was leaning forward. "Go on, Mr. District Attorney. Kindly avoid personalities. Make any statement that you wish to the Court, since this is a case being tried without a jury."

  "The test bullets fired from the gun given Maurice Halstead by Perry Mason are an undoubted match with the bullet which we have referred to as bullet number two in this case, the one which previously we had been unable to identify.

  "We now have a situation, Your Honor, where it appears that one fatal bullet was fired from a weapon which was in the possession of Perry Mason, that the second bullet-which may have been fired some time after death-was fired from a gun which had been in the custody of Mr. Perry Mason.

  "The inference is obvious. The defendant in this case came to Perry Mason with a gun which had fired a fatal bullet into the body of Nadine Ellis. I won't at this time make any accusations, but it seems that that gun very mysteriously left the possession of the defendant and that the defendant was given a gun which could only have been given her by her counsel, Perry Mason. And it is at least an inference that she was instructed to return to the scene of the crime and fire a second bullet from that gun into the body of the victim.

  "This, coming at a time when counsel had recently been investigating the law concerning two persons firing fatal shots into a body, certainly tells its own story.

  "It is one thing for counsel to advise a person accused of crime and try to protect the rights of that person, but it is quite another thing for an attorney to become an accessory to murder.

  "Counsel has been under suspicion before. This time by a fortunate circumstance the evidence exists which has-"

  "That will do, Mr. District Attorney," Judge Keyser interrupted. "You will make no statements about counsel. If you have any matter to take before the Grievance Committee of the Bar Association, you may do so. If you wish to subpoena counsel to appear before the grand jury and have the grand jury investigate the question of whether counsel has become an accessory after the fact, you also have that privilege.

  "In this court you are confined to discussing the relevancy of evidence. However, I will state that the statement you have made is certainly ample foundation to enable you to call Mr. Mason to the stand.

  "Mr. Mason will take the stand and be sworn as a witness on behalf of the prosecution."

  "Just a moment, Your Honor," Mason said, his face granite hard. "Regardless of what the district attorney may wish to prove by me, the fact remains that I am representing the defendant in this case and am entitled to conduct this case in an orderly manner. The witness, George Anclitas, is being cross-examined by me. The witness was called out of order on the statement of the district attorney that it would work a great hardship on him to be forced to return tomorrow. I insist on concluding my cross-examination of the witness."

  "And I submit, if the Court please," Hamilton Biirger said angrily, "that this is simply an excuse to stall for time. Counsel has actually completed his cross-examination. Any questions he may ask from now on will be purely repetitious."

  "It would seem that the examination had reached a logical conclusion," Judge Keyser said. "The Court will state it does not intend to have this cross-examination unduly prolonged. However, counsel is certainly within his rights. The witness Anclitas was put on out of order on the representation of the district attorney that it would work a great hardship on him to have to return tomorrow. Counsel is entitled to complete his crossexamination before any other witness is called, particularly in view of the fact that this witness was put on out of order at the request of the district attorney."

  Hamilton Burger yielded the point with poor grace. "I serve notice here and now," he said, "that I am going to insist this cross-examination be conducted within the strict rules of evidence and not used as an excuse to prolong this case."

  "Very well," Judge Keyser said, "proceed with your questions, Mr. Mason."

  "You are positive that the gun you gave Helman Ellis was the one that you had personally marked with a manicurist's nail file?" Mason
asked.

  "Objected to as already asked and answered and not proper cross-examination," Hamilton Burger said.

  "Sustained," Judge Keyser snapped.

  "When this gun was handed to you by the district attorney," Mason said, "when was the last time prior to that occasion that you had seen the weapon?"

  "Objected to as already asked and answered and not proper cross-examination."

  "Overruled."

  "Answer the question," Mason said.

  "When I gave the gun to Helman Ellis."

  "You're satisfied it's the same gun?"

  "Objected to as repetitious, as already asked and answered."

  "Sustained."

  "You don't know the various numbers on the four guns which you purchased?"

  "Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial; not proper cross-examination, already asked and answered," Burger said.

  "The objection is sustained," Judge Keyser ruled.

  "Do you now, or did you at the time you gave the weapon to Helman Ellis, know the number of that weapon?"

  "Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial; not proper cross-examination."

  "The objection is overruled."

  "No, I didn't know the number of that particular gun," Anclitas said. "I didn't look at it. I told you all I know. I gave him the gun. That's all I know."

  "Have you had occasion to examine the other three guns remaining in your possession?" Mason asked.

  "Objected to. Not proper cross-examination," Hamilton Burger said.

  "Overruled."

  "No, I haven't examined them."

  "I would suggest," Mason said, "that during the evening adjournment you examine these guns carefully and see if any one of those three guns does have a mark on the front sight-a mark made by a nail file such as you have described."

  "That's counsel's suggestion," Hamilton Burger said, "but you don't have to act on it. I submit to the Court that this witness has given his evidence to the best of his ability."

  "There may, however, have been a confusion in the mind of the witness as to the sequence of events," Judge Keyser said. "I think it is established that he gave a gun to Helman Ellis. The gun found near the body of Nadine Ellis was a gun which had been sold to George Anclitas or his associate, Wilton Marcus. The Court is not very greatly impressed by any of these questions concerning the mark on the front sight. It is quite apparent that the witness made a perfectly natural mistake in regard to the sequence of events, and unless it can be shown that there is some significance which is not presently apparent, the Court is not impressed by the absence of a file mark on the front sight. If, however, it should appear that such a mark is on the front sight of one of the three guns remaining in the possession of this witness, it might clarify the situation simply by showing that there was a natural mistake.

  "However the Court fails to see where it affects the issues in this case other than, perhaps, to lay a foundation for cross-examining the witness when the matter reaches the Superior Court."

  "Now then," Mason said, "I want to account for each one of these weapons. You purchased four weapons. I want to know where you kept them."

  "Your Honor," Hamilton Burger said, "may I object, may I please object? This is not proper crossexamination. If counsel is permitted to go into the location of each of these four weapons and cross-examine the witness as to how he knows they're the same weapons, how he knows they were at a certain place at a certain time, this whole situation will become completely interminable. Counsel is very apparently stalling for time, and time is running out. It is now only a few minutes before the hour of the evening adjournment."

  "Nevertheless," Judge Keyser said, "while the Court intends to be very strict in enforcing the rules of evidence and of cross-examination, the Court is not going to deprive the defendant of her rights simply because a situation has arisen in which defense counsel may well wish for time in order to prepare himself.

  "The Court wishes to point out to the prosecutor that if the prosecutor had called Perry Mason to the stand without making this statement in open court, there would have been no opportunity for what the district attorney refers to as stalling."

  "I thought I was within my rights in calling him," Hamilton Burger admitted somewhat sheepishly. "I had forgotten that technically he hadn't concluded his cross-examination of George Anclitas."

  "That," Judge Keyser said coldly, "was your mistake, not the mistake of the Court. The Court wants to be fair in the matter. The Court will admit that in the face of statements made which apparently have been checked by the prosecutors, the circumstantial evidence indicates a situation of the utmost gravity. The Court will state further that the Court is going to get at the bottom of this and, while the Court intends to permit a reasonable cross-examination of this witness, the Court does not intend to have it unduly prolonged and the Court has now made up its mind that in the event it becomes necessary to take an evening adjournment, the Court is going to have a night session so that this matter can be disposed of without a delay which might tend to prejudice the rights of the parties.

  "Now then, Mr. Mason, proceed with your cross-examination. The witness will answer the question. The objection is overruled."

  "Will the court reporter read the question?" Mason asked.

  The court reporter consulted his records, read the question to the witness: "Now then, I want to account for each one of these weapons. You purchased four weapons. I want to know where you kept them."

  "We kept one gun by the cash register at the bar," Anclitas said. "We had one by the registration desk in the motel, and one was in the gaming room."

  "You mean the gambling room?" Mason asked.

  "I mean the gaming room."

  "Where was the other?"

  "The other was an extra. Sometimes I carried it when I was taking some money home with me. Sometimes I didn't. It was just sort of hanging around and- well, I guess you could call it an extra. That's why I gave it to Ellis."

  "Did you endeavor to keep these guns separate in any way?" Mason asked. "Did you have any designation, either on the gun or on the holster?"

  "There wasn't any holsterjust the gun lying there where a person could grab it quick if he had to."

  "And there was no attempt to designate them? That is, to differentiate one from the other?"

  "Only this time that I told you about when we thought we would put some marks on them and then changed our minds."

  "Within the last month," Mason said, "have you had any trouble over locating these guns? Has there been any element of confusion at any time within the last month?"

  "None whatever," Anclitas said.

  "Has one of the guns at any time been missing from its accustomed place?"

  "Not that I know of."

  "You state that you sometimes carried one of these weapons when you were carrying a large amount of money."

  "That's right."

  "Does any other person, or did any other person, carry one of those weapons under similar conditions?"

  "My partner, Slim, carried one."

  "Anyone else?"

  "No one else… Now, wait a minute. I think one of the hat-check girls who sometimes stayed at her mother's house and had to go home late at night, carried one for a couple of nights. I stopped her as soon as I found out what she was doing."

  "You mean she carried one with her while she was on the job?"

  "No, no. She had to take a bus and sometimes when she'd get off-around one or two o'clock in the morning-she was nervous about walking the six blocks to the place where she caught the bus and while she was waiting there. She tried to time her departure so she could leave and catch the bus right on the nose but she didn't dare miss the bus so she had to leave a little early to give herself a margin and sometimes the bus would be a little late. She had an embarrassing experience one night with an exhibitionist and… well, she just started borrowing one of the guns to take in her purse."

  "Without telling you anythi
ng about it?"

  "That's right."

  "How did you find out about it?"

  "She left her purse in the washroom. The attendant didn't know whose purse it was and took it to the office. I opened it to look for identification and found it was this girl's purse and a gun was in it. It looked like one of our guns, and I called her in the office and asked her about it, and then she admitted that she'd borrowed one from behind the counter."

  "And you put a stop to it?"

  "Sure I put a stop to it. She didn't have any permit to carry the gun in the first place, and in the second place suppose we'd been held up and the men behind the bar had reached down for the gun and there wouldn't have been any gun there?"

  "But she brought the gun back whenever she took it?"

  "Objected to as calling for a conclusion of the witness, as calling for hearsay evidence and not being proper cross-examination. It is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial," Burger said.

  "The objection is sustained," Judge Keyser ruled.

  "What is the name of this young woman who borrowed the gun on occasion?"

  "She's the hat-check girl."

  "What's her name?"

  "Sadie Bradford."

  "Were there any witnesses present when you gave this gun to Helman Ellis?"

  "Only my partner, Slim Marcus."

  "And you state that Slim Marcus on occasion carried one of the guns?"

  "Objected to as already asked and answered," Hamilton Burger said.

  "Sustained," Judge Keyser snapped.

  "And aside from this one file mark on the front sight of the gun which you think you gave Ellis, there were no identifying marks on any of the guns. Is that right?"

  "Objected to as already asked and answered. Incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. Not proper crossexamination," Burger said.

  "Sustained," Judge Keyser snapped.

  Mason glanced at the clock. "I have no further questions of this witness," he said.

  Hamilton Burger was instantly on his feet. "Call Perry Mason as a witness for the prosecution."

  "Take the stand, Mr. Mason," Judge Keyser said.

  "Just a moment, Your Honor," Mason said. "I think counsel is forgetting, and perhaps the Court has overlooked the fact, that when Anclitas was put on the witness stand at the request of the district attorney, who wanted to eliminate the necessity of further attendance by Mr. Anclitas, the witness Helman Ellis was on the stand."