The Case of the Singing Skirt (18 page)

"The guns were all identical in appearance?"

"That's right."

"Then how can you tell that this was the gun you gave Helman Ellis? How do you distinguish it from any of the other guns if you didn't look at the number?"

"Because I know the gun."

"How do you know it?" Mason asked. "What is distinctive about it? What differentiates it from any of the other guns?"

"Well, for one thing, this particular gun has a little nick on the front sight."

"Anything else?"

"I don't think so."

"Where are the other three guns?"

"I have them."

"Where?"

"At my place of business, naturally. I don't carry three guns with me, one in each hip pocket and one in the side coat pocket," Anclitas said sarcastically.

"If the Court please," Mason said, "I see it is approaching the hour of the afternoon adjournment. I would like to have the witness instructed to return to court tomorrow morning and bring those guns with him."

Hamilton Burger, his face flushed with indignation, was on his feet.

"Here we go again, Your Honor, a typical Perry Mason trick. It's a well-known fact that when Mason gets in a case he starts digging up guns out of anywhere and everywhere. He gets them in the case and juggles them all around and gets everybody confused. Those three guns that George Anclitas has have nothing more to do with this case than the stock of guns in the gun display counter in the Rowena Hunting and Fishing Store."

"I'm inclined to agree with the district attorney," Judge Keyser said. "I fail to see where they have any bearing in this case."

Mason said, "The witness has identified the gun that he gave Helman Ellis by stating that it had a slight nick in the front sight. There were no other marks of identification."

"Well, that one mark of identification is all he needs under the circumstances," Hamilton Burger blazed.

Mason abruptly pushed the gun into the district attorney's hands. "All right," he said, "if that's the way you feel about it, point out the nick in the front sight so the Court can see it."

Hamilton Burger shouted, "Point it out yourself! I'm not taking orders from you!"

"Then perhaps we'll let the witness point it out," Mason said. "I only suggested you do it because you were so positive that this mark of identification was sufficient. I will hand the gun to the witness and ask him to point out the identifying mark on the front sight."

Mason turned to Anclitas. "Perhaps, Mr. Anclitas, you'll be good enough to leave the witness stand, step up here and point out the notch or nick on the front sight to the Court and to the district attorney."

"He can point it out to the Court," Hamilton Burger said. "He doesn't need to point it out to the district attorney. The district attorney knows what gun this is. The district attorney does want to state to the Court, however, that the greatest care should be taken to see that these tags marking the guns as Exhibits are not switched. At the moment, defense counsel has two guns in this case, and if he's given the faintest opportunity-"

"That will do," Judge Keyser interrupted coldly. "There is no occasion for such statements. The witness will step forward and point out the nick on the front sight of the gun to the Court."

Anclitas came forward, said, "It isn't so much of a nick, really, just a place where the metal was scraped. We had an argument about whether a manicurist's nail file was hard enough to cut steel, and I drew the edge of the file along here. I-"

Abruptly Anclitas stopped, looked at the gun, then turned the gun over, held it to the light and said, "Well, I guess it wore off. It wasn't a deep cut in the metal, just a place where we'd sort of cut through the bluing on the steel."

Judge Keyser leaned forward. "But I don't see any place where the bluing has been cut through."

"Neither do I," Anclitas admitted.

"Yet," Perry Mason said, "this was the only mark of identification on which you said you relied in swearing under oath that this was the gun you had given Helman Ellis."

"Well, it was found in his boat, wasn't it?"

"The question is," Mason said, "how you can be sure."

Anclitas turned the gun over and over in his hand. "Well," he said, "I'm certain, that's all. I just know this is the gun but… well, I don't seem to see the place where the nail file left a mark on the front sight."

Mason, feeling his way cautiously, said, "Now, let me see if I understand you, Mr. Anclitas. You bought four guns at one time?"

"That's right."

"And one of those guns you gave to Helman Ellis?"

"I've already said so half a dozen times."

"And there was a dispute as to whether an ordinary manicurist's nail file was hard enough to leave a mark on a gun barrel?"

"Yes, sir."

"And was a bet made on that?"

"Yes, sir."

"With whom?"

"With my partner, Slim Marcus."

"How much was the bet?"

"Fifty dollars."

"Do you remember how the subject came up?"

"Oh, Your Honor," Hamilton Burger said, "this is completely incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. It's not proper cross-examination. Counsel is quite obviously simply trying to prolong proceedings past the hour of adjournment, hoping that during the evening he can think of some more questions to ask Mr. Anclitas.

"I have already pointed out that it would be inconvenient for Mr. Anclitas to return to-"

Judge Keyser interrupted. "We still have a few minutes, Mr. District Attorney. The question of the identification of this gun having been opened up, and the witness having stated that he identified it solely from the mark of a manicurist's nail file left in the front sight, I certainly think counsel is within his rights. The objection is overruled. Answer the question, Mr. Anclitas."

"Well," Anclitas said, "we were talking about the different guns and I suggested they should be marked, that we had four guns and there was no way of telling one from the other unless we looked at the numbers. So I suggested we file little marks on the barrel of the guns; one mark on one gun, two on the next, three on the next and four on the other.

"Slim Marcus, my partner, thought it was a good idea, but we couldn't find a file so I said we'd go over to the barbershop and borrow a nail file from the manicurist, and he said a nail file wasn't hard enough to cut the barrel of a gun. I got in an argument about it and bet him fifty dollars."

"So what happened?" Mason asked.

"So we took the gun, went over to the barbershop, borrowed the manicurist's file, made the mark on the front sight of the gun, and I collected fifty dollars."

"Thereafter was your idea carried out, of marking each of the guns?"

"No. Slim was mad over losing the bet and thought that I had framed the whole deal. He accused me of having experimented in advance of making the bet."

"Now, you state that this gun which had the mark on the front sight was the one that you gave Helman Ellis?"

"I certainly thought it was."

"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.