The Case of the Counterfeit Eye (20 page)

"Did you ever go under the name of Hazel Fenwick?"

She hesitated.

Perry Mason's voice was suave and somewhat patronizing.

"Now, Miss Bevins," he said, "if you don't want to answer that question, you don't have to."

Burger whirled to him and said, "Are you now appearing as this young woman's attorney?"

"Since you ask it, yes."

"That," Burger said, "puts you in a very questionable position, particularly in view of the question which has arisen as to your connection with her absenting herself from the state."

Mason bowed and said, "Thank you, Counselor. I'm quite capable of estimating the consequences of my own acts. I repeat, Miss Bevins, you don't need to answer that question."

"But she does need to answer it," Burger said, facing back toward the witness and pointing his finger at her. "You have to answer that question. It's a pertinent question, and I demand an answer."

Judge Winters nodded and said, "It happens, Counselor Mason, that it rests with the Court to say what questions shall be answered and what shall not be answered. This is a pertinent question, and I order the young woman to answer it. In the event she does not, I will be forced to hold her in contempt of court."

Perry Mason smiled reassuringly at Thelma Bevins.

"You don't need to answer it." he said.

Judge Winters gave an exclamation. Burger whirled to face Perry Mason, with his exasperation showing on his countenance.

Perry Mason went on in the same tone of voice, as though he had merely paused in the middle of a sentence, "… if you feel that answering the question would tend to incriminate you. All you need to do, Miss Bevins, is to say, 'I refuse to answer upon the ground of my constitutional privilege that the answer might incriminate me.' When you have once said that, no power on earth can make you answer the question."

Thelma Bevins flashed him a smile and said, "I refuse to answer the question upon the ground of my constitutional privilege that the answer might incriminate me."

A deadlocked silence fell upon the group clustered about the witness chair. At length, Burger sighed. The sigh was an eloquent acknowledgment of defeat.

He turned once more toward Thelma Bevins.

"You," he said, "were in the Basset residence at the time when Hartley Basset was murdered, weren't you?"

She glanced at Perry Mason.

"Refuse to answer the question," Mason said.

"How can an answer to such a question incriminate her?" Burger asked of Judge Winters.

Mason shrugged his shoulders and said, "I think, if I understand my law correctly, that is for the witness to decide for herself. It may be that an explanation might be more incriminating than an answer."

Thelma Bevins, taking her cue from Perry Mason's remarks, smiled. "At any rate, I refuse to answer the question, which should settle the point."

Judge Winters cleared his throat, but said nothing. Burger frowned, then plunged savagely into another line of attack.

"You know Perry Mason?" he asked.

Judge Winters, leaning forward, said with judicial solemnity, "There certainly is nothing in an answer to that question, either one way or the other, which could be incriminating. The Court, therefore, directs you to directs you to answer the question."

"Yes," she said.

"Did you go to Nevada at the suggestion of Perry Mason?"

She glanced in a bewildered manner toward Perry Mason.

Mason said, "I am also going to instruct the witness not to answer that question upon the ground of her constitutional rights, but, for the benefit of Court and Counsel, I will state that I am the one who suggested this young lady go to Reno, and that I paid her fare to Reno."

Had the district attorney been struck across the face with a wet towel, he could not have shown greater surprise.

"You what?" he asked.

"Paid this young lady's fare to Reno, and suggested that she go there," Perry Mason said. "Also, I paid her expenses while she was there."

"And you're appearing as attorney for this young woman?" Burger asked.

"Yes."

"And you refuse to allow her to answer any questions?"

"I refuse to allow her to answer the questions which you have so far asked, and I do not think I will allow her to answer any questions you may ask."

Burger faced the witness again.

"How long have you known Richard Basset?" he asked.

"Refuse to answer that question," Mason said, "upon the ground that the answer may incriminate you."

Judge Winters leaned forward to stare down at Perry Mason.

"Counselor," he said, "the Court is beginning to believe that you are instructing this witness not to answer questions upon the ground that the answers may incriminate her, not because you feel the answers actually may incriminate her, but because you feel that the answers may incriminate you. The Court is going to give you an opportunity to be heard upon that subject and, if it appears that such is the case, the Court is going to take drastic steps."

"I am to be given an opportunity to be heard?" Perry Mason asked.

"Yes. Certainly," Judge Winters remarked with dignity.

"Very well," Perry Mason said; "under those circumstances, it becomes necessary for me to make a statement which I hoped I would not have to make.

"On the night Hartley Basset was murdered, a young woman was waiting in one of the outer offices. While she was waiting there, and at a time which was apparently immediately after the murder had been committed, a man appeared in the room. His face was covered with a mask made from carbon paper. Two eye holes had been torn in this mask. Through one of these eye holes was visible an empty eye socket."

Judge Winters said sharply, "Counselor, has this anything to do with this young woman, or her reason for not answering questions?"

Perry Mason said frankly, "Your Honor, that is not the question. The question is why I am advising this young woman not to answer questions. I am about to answer that point, and I can assure your Honor that when I have finished, I feel certain your Honor will see that everything I am now saying is pertinent, although some of it may perhaps be argumentative."

"Very well," Judge Winters remarked; "go ahead."

"The young woman screamed. The man struck at her. She tore at the mask and ripped it off. She was able to see his features. Because of a peculiar lighting arrangement, the man couldn't see her features. He struck at her again, knocked her unconscious, and probably thought he had killed her. Then he fled. Now, your Honor, that young woman is the only living person, so far as we know, who has seen the face of the man who left that room immediately after the murder had been committed."

"Well," Judge Winters said, "your own argument convinces me, Counselor, that it is a most serious offense to try and suppress that evidence, and a doubly serious offense to spirit such a witness from the jurisdiction of the court."

"I am not discussing that point at the present time," Mason said. "I am merely explaining why I have instructed this young woman not to answer questions upon the ground that they will incriminate her."

"This," Judge Winters said, "is a most amazing situation, Counselor."

"I do not claim that it isn't," Mason remarked. "I am merely seeking to make the explanation that you said you would give me an opportunity to make."

"Very well. Go ahead and make it."

"It will be obvious," Perry Mason said, "that the mask was rather an extemporaneous affair. The man who entered Basset's room came prepared to do murder. He came prepared to shoot, and yet had taken precautions so that the gun wouldn't make a noise which would be heard. In other words, he had the gun concealed under a blanket and a quilt, which served the double purpose of concealing the weapon from his victim, and also muffling the noise of the shot. That shows premeditation. He must also have prepared, in advance, a typewritten suicide note to leave in Basset's typewriter."

"You are now." Judge Winters said, frowning, "arguing against your client in the murder case."

Perry Mason's voice remained urbane.

"I am now, your Honor, patiently trying to make the explanation which you requested of me, the explanation of my position in refusing to allow this young woman to answer questions."

"But you are violating legal ethics in turning against the client whom you are representing in the murder case."

"I don't need this Court," Perry Mason said, "to instruct me as to the ethics of my profession or my duties to my client."

"Very well," Judge Winters remarked, his face turning several shades darker, "go ahead with your explanation, and be brief. Unless it is satisfactory, you will be held in contempt."

"Unfortunately," Mason said, "the explanation must be complete in order to be any explanation at all. I am calling the Court's attention to several significant details. One of these is that, had the man planned to leave by the outer office after the murder had been committed, he would have prepared his mask in advance. The crime shows premeditation. The escape does not. The mask was hastily constructed. It was constructed from materials which lay at his hand after the murder had been committed.

"Now then, your Honor, it is my contention that this whole plan of escape, this plan of exhibiting a masked face with one eye socket, was hatched in the brain of the murderer after the murder had been committed, for the simple reason that after the murder had been committed he recognized the potential significance of the glass eye which the victim was holding in his hand.

"It is obviously impossible that this glass eye should have dropped accidentally from the murderer's eye socket, or that it could have been grabbed by Basset during a struggle. A glass eye must be deliberately removed if it is a well-fitted glass eye. This was a well-fitted glass eye. Therefore, why should the murderer have deliberately removed his glass eye and deliberately exhibited the empty eye socket to a witness? There is only one reason, your Honor, and that is that the murderer felt certain no one knew about his artificial eye, but that he knew one of the suspects who would be questioned by the police did have an artificial eye, and probably suspected that the glass eye which the dead man held in his hand was the property of this suspect."

"All of this," Judge Winters said impatiently, "is merely argumentative. It is the type of argument you would make to the Court to keep your clients from being bound over. Although, I may say, Counselor, that your comments about deliberation and premeditation on the part of the murderer go far toward influencing this Court in favor of the prosecution, you are not confining yourself to the explanation which you were called upon to make. You are merely arguing."

Perry Mason bowed slightly and said, "I was about to state that when this young woman, who was the only one who could identify this man, arose from her couch, she staggered against a door and flung up her hands to brace herself. Her hands pressed against a piece of plate glass in the doorway. It occurred to me that this young woman had, therefore, left a set of finger-prints. Acting under my instructions, detectives developed those latent finger-prints, and they were classified.

"A classification of those finger-prints showed that the young woman in question is very much wanted by the police as a female Bluebeard. She's been in the habit of marrying husbands, and the husbands have developed a habit of dying within a few weeks or a few months after the marriage. In every such instance the woman has inherited property and has gone on to another marriage."

Judge Winters stared at Perry Mason in shocked, incredulous silence. Burger, the district attorney, slowly sat down, took a few deep breaths, then as slowly got to his feet. His eyes were wide with astonishment.

"We find," Perry Mason went on urbanely, "that the police have developed several cases to a point where they can virtually prove murder. This young woman secretly married Richard Basset. That marriage was bigamous. She had one husband living – that is, she had at least one husband living, probably others. The reason this particular husband was left alive was that he had lied to her about his property when he married her, and had refused to take out any insurance in her favor. Therefore, he wasn't worth killing.

"I have the proof of all of these matters. I have in this envelope a complete set of documents giving the criminal record of the young lady in question. It gives me great pleasure to hand these documents, together with photographic copies of the finger-prints left on the plate glass of the doorway, to the Prosecutor in this action.

"Now, then, your Honor, I defy even the Prosecutor in this case to intimate that in advising this woman not to answer questions upon the ground that the answers will tend to incriminate her, I have not exercised my rights as an attorney."

Burger took the envelope which Perry Mason handed him. His fingers were awkward, so great was his surprise.

Judge Winters stroked his chin for a moment, then said slowly, "Counselor, this Court has never heard such an astounding statement coming from the lips of an attorney, betraying the interest of a client whom he is supposed to represent. The Court simply cannot understand such a statement. The Court appreciates of course, that some of your remarks consist of facts which you have learned and which probably it is your duty to communicate to the officers, but the manner in which this statement has been made, the phraseology in which it has been couched, and the time at which it was made, all tend to militate against this young woman's interests. And yet you are appearing as her attorney."