Case of the Footloose Doll (13 page)

“He came home, grinning from ear to ear. He telephoned Baylor and they had some mysterious conversation. Then he called you.

“Now, here’s the funny thing. When Harrod first came home, he told his wife Katherine Baylor had stabbed him. After he had this conversation over the phone with Baylor, he told his wife it was Mildred Crest who had stabbed him. He told her to get you on the line and that he was going to make you jump through hoops.

“After he talked with you, he told his wife he had to set the stage and pretend the injury was very serious. So he covered up with blankets.

“He was in great spirits until just before you came. Then he began to complain of feeling cold. He said he was having a chill when you were there and his wife thought that was all part of the act. After you left she knew he really was feeling bad. She suggested he get up and get into a hot bath. He started to do that, then gave an exclamation of pain, fell back in the chair, and died within five minutes.

“Now then, Perry, here’s something that’s going to bother you: the police searched the apartment of your client and found four thousand bucks in nice, new hundred-dollar bills. According to police reasoning, that’s the money that Fern Driscoll was given by either Harriman Baylor or by Forrester Baylor to go away and have her baby.

“In any event, it isn’t money that Mildred Crest could have had legitimately. It’s money that must have come from the purse of Fern Driscoll, the hitchhiker. Taking it from the purse constitutes larceny.

“Police are going to build up a case on the theory that Mildred Crest either murdered Fern Driscoll in order to take over her identity, or that she stole her identity along with all the money that was in Fern Driscoll’s purse, that when Carl Harrod got on the trail and found out what was happening, she decided to silence Carl Harrod by sticking an ice pick in his chest.

“That makes a nice, neat, first-degree murder case.”

“They’ve taken my client into custody?” Mason asked.

“She’s in custody. I think they already have her identified from the thumbprint on her driving license as Mildred Crest. It’s going to make one hell of a story, and you’re right in the middle of it.”

“All right,” Mason said, “they’ve hit us with everything in the bag now. There’s nothing we can do at the moment except go home and go to bed.“Keep your men working, Paul, trying to stay abreast of the situation. I’ll talk with my client in the morning and see how much she’s told them. The fat’s in the fire by this time.”

“Will they let you talk with her?” Drake asked.

“They’ll have to,” Mason said. “Once they’ve booked her for murder, she’s entitled to counsel. They won’t even try to stop me. If she’s booked, they’ll have a red carpet spread out for me. They’ll be very, very careful to see that she has all of her rights.”

“And if she isn’t booked by morning?” Drake asked.

“Then it means the district attorney’s office doesn’t feel it has a case, and that it will be trying to tie up loose ends.” Drake said drily, “With Baylor’s millions trying to keep his daughter’s name out of it, I think you’ll find they have a case.”

“We’ll know by ten o’clock in the morning,” Mason said. “Go home and get some sleep, Paul.”

Chapter 11

FOLEY CALVERT, one of Hamilton Burger’s more skilful trial deputies, arose to address Judge Marvin C. Bolton.

“Your Honor,” he said, “this is the case of People vs. Mildred Crest, alias Fern Driscoll. She is charged with first-degree murder and this is the preliminary hearing. I wish to make a brief statement in order to explain the position of the prosecution and the reason for certain steps which will be taken by the prosecution. This statement is addressed to the Court solely for the purpose of showing the manner in which proof is to be submitted.”

“Very well,” Judge Bolton said. “You may make a statement and the defense may have an opportunity to reply to that statement if it desires.”

“Thank you. Your Honor,” Calvert said. “It is the theory of the prosecution that Mildred Crest, faced with social disgrace in Oceanside, decided to disappear; that, as a part of her scheme for disappearance, she intended to find some young woman of about her age and general appearance and substitute identities with that woman, killing the victim and leaving the body to be found under such circumstances that it would appear that Mildred Crest had died in an automobile accident.”

“Just a moment,” Judge Bolton interposed, “aren’t you going rather far afield, Counselor? I am, of course, aware that this statement is addressed solely to the Court. However, if you rely upon that theory in this proceeding, then when you come to present your case before a jury, aren’t you going to be faced with the fact that you are trying to introduce evidence of another crime, and that such evidence is based on surmise?”

“No, Your Honor,” Culvert said. “We are prepared to argue the point. If the Court will bear with me a moment. It isn’t the murder of Fern Driscoll, who was the young woman the defendant picked up as a victim, that furnishes the dominant motivation here. It is the fact that Carl Harrod, the decedent, was an investigator for an automobile insurance company and that his investigation disclosed the facts in the case which the defendant was trying to conceal. Therefore, it became necessary for the defendant to murder Carl Harrod, in order to carry out her scheme and keep from having the whole house of cards collapse.

“That, if the Court please, furnishes the motivation. The prosecution will show that motivation by competent evidence, of course.”

“The defendant has not been charged with the murder of Fern Driscoll?” Judge Bolton asked.

“No, Your Honor.”

“I take it that, if you had an airtight case—Well, the Court will make no comment on that. However, it is significant that she is not being prosecuted for that murder.”

“She may well be prosecuted for that murder at a later date, Your Honor. I will state that she is already being charged with robbery in that she took four thousand dollars from the purse of Fern Driscoll.”

“Four thousand dollars?” Judge Bolton asked.

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“You didn’t make that point in your original statement.”

“Perhaps I overlooked that point. Your Honor. However, there is no question—that is, in the minds of the prosecution—there is no question but that this defendant took four thousand dollars from the purse of Fern Driscoll after the death of that young woman.”

Judge Bolton looked at Mildred Crest with a complete lack of sympathy. “Evidence as to these matters will be introduced at this hearing?” he asked.

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“Does the defense wish to make any statement?” Judge Bolton asked.

“No statement at this time, Your Honor,” Perry Mason said.

“Very well, call your witnesses,” Judge Bolton told the prosecutor. His voice had a note of cold finality.

Calvert put on a procession of minor witnesses: persons who had worked with Mildred Crest in Oceanside, who identified the defendant as being Mildred Crest; the chief of police of Oceanside who testified that Robert Joiner had been a fugitive from justice since the twenty-second day of the month, the day on which Mildred Crest had disappeared.

The manager of the bank testified as to the amount of money Mildred had drawn out of her account on the day of her disappearance.

Mildred’s former employer testified as to the amount of salary she was receiving, the amount of the last pay check she had been given, the fact that she had announced her engagement to Robert Joiner, and that on the day of Robert Joiner’s disappearance she had appeared in his office around two-thirty in the afternoon, white to the lips, and obviously ill, that he had commented on her personal appearance, and she had stated she was very sick, and he had sent her home.

Calvert’s next witness was a member of the highway patrol, who testified as to the automobile accident. This witness identified photographs showing the position of the body. He testified as to all of the details concerning the accident, including tracks down the canyon showing that one person had left the overturned automobile.

“Cross-examine,” Calvert said.

Mason said, “The automobile caught fire?”

“Someone set fire to the automobile,” the officer said.

“How do you know the fire was set?” Mason asked.

“Because of the position and character of the fire.”

“Just what do you mean by that?”

“When the car went off the road, it happened that a large, jagged rock caught the gasoline tank and wrenched it partially off. A big hole was torn in the tank and a large part of the gasoline was spilled at that point. When the car came to rest at the bottom of the steep incline, some of the gasoline from the tank had soaked the extreme rear of the car. It did not reach the front of the car. The ignition had been switched off. The lights had been switched off. Someone was alive and in the car at the time. The switches didn’t turn themselves off. Since they were off, there was no way for the fire to have started other than through the agency of a match.”

“Couldn’t the impact of steel grinding against the rocks have caused a series of sparks?” Mason asked.

“Well . . . yes, I suppose so.”

“And couldn’t one of those sparks have touched off the gasoline?”

“Perhaps,” the officer conceded. “But in this case we know that the fire was set by a match and that it was set by a second match, because we found a first match at the scene of the wreck; a paper match had been torn from a book of matches and had been used presumably for illumination.”

“You found a paper match?” Mason asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“You don’t know when that paper match was placed there, of your own knowledge, do you?”

“Well, no. We assumed that it was—”

“Never mind your assumption,” Mason said. “What do you know? Do you know that the match was struck at the time of the accident or immediately thereafter?”

“No, I don’t know it of my own knowledge.”

“It could have been left there from the day before, couldn’t it?”

“Why would any person have struck a match at that particular place down at the bottom of that rocky canyon?”

“Don’t question me,” Mason said. “Answer my questions. For all you know, of your own knowledge, that match could have been left there from the day before the accident, couldn’t it?”

The officer thought for a moment then admitted reluctantly, “Yes, I suppose so.”

“Now then,” Mason said, “you have stated in your direct examination that the fire was put under control by the action, of a passing motorist?”

“The fire in the car was controlled, yes, sir.”

“Will you please tell me again just how that happened?”

“A motorist, coming along the road, saw the flames. He had a fire extinguisher in his car. As I have mentioned, the bulk of the gasoline had been spilled at a distance shortly after the car left the road where a big rock had partially wrenched the gasoline tank from the car and had torn a big hole in the tank. The motorist with his fire extinguisher, seeing a car at the bottom of the canyon, scrambled down to a point below the main part of the fire, directed his fire extinguisher on the fire in the automobile, and was able to bring that fire under control before the automobile had been completely consumed.”

“Now, you mentioned in your direct examination that a suitcase was found which was the property of Fern Driscoll?”

“I didn’t say it was the property of Fern Driscoll. I said that the initials ‘F. D.’ were on the suitcase and that subsequently we were able to trace it to the store which had sold it to Fern Driscoll, a store in Lansing, Michigan.”

“If the Court please,” Foley Calvert said, “I will stipulate that, as to the suitcase, the witness is testifying on hearsay evidence and it may go out.”

“I’m making no objection,” Mason said. “That, I take it, is a matter about which I the authorities have satisfied themselves, and I see no reason for putting the state to the expense of proving this by showing the purchase itself. The witness, who is apparently somewhat biased but thoroughly competent, has stated what his investigation disclosed, and I have made no objection.”

“We have the clerk who made the sale to Fern Driscoll here in court,” Calvert said. “We have brought him from Lansing, Michigan.”

“Very well, you may put him on later,” Judge Bolton said. “There seems to be no objection on the part of the defense to the statement of this witness concerning the results of the police investigation. The Court will accept that statement for what it is worth. Proceed with your questioning.”

“We have no further questions of this witness if the defense has finished its cross-examination,” Calvert said.

“The defense is finished.”

Calvert next put on the doctor who had performed the autopsy on the body, which he had at first assumed was that of Mildred Crest. He described the nature of the injuries, particularly an injury to the back of the head, a depressed skull fracture which, he said, could possibly have been made with a blunt instrument.

“Prior to the time of the automobile accident?” Calvert asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Immediately prior to the time of the automobile accident?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Have you reached any conclusion as to the sequence of events leading to the death of the person whom you examined under the mistaken assumption that the body was that of Mildred Crest?”

“Yes, I have.”

“What is that event sequence?”

“I believe that the injury to the back of the head was sustained before the wounds which were received on the front of the face and which made the face virtually unrecognizable. I believe that death ensued before the burns which were on the body of the deceased.”

“Cross-examine,” Calvert said.

Mason studied the witness for a moment, then asked, “You subsequently learned that the body was that of Fern Driscoll, and was not the body of Mildred Crest?”

“I did. Yes, sir.”

“Now then, the depressed fracture in the back of the head, which you have mentioned and which you feel could have been an injury which was incurred before the automobile accident: do I understand you to mean that this injury could have been inflicted with a weapon?”