Страница 45 из 46
Judge Winters slowly nodded his head. "Obvious," he said, "from the begi
Perry Mason stretched and yawned, looked at his wristwatch and said, "I'd certainly like to hear from Sergeant Holcomb. I hope he gets Colemar without a shooting."
Burger said slowly, "Mason, you should have been a detective instead of a lawyer."
"Thank you," Mason told him. "I'm doing very well as it is."
"How did you know I was going to fall for the Bevins woman and bring her into court?" Burger asked.
"Because," Mason told him, "I'm too old a campaigner to underestimate an adversary. I knew that you'd get her here some way. I timed the whole play so that you would just about have time to bring her in as a surprise witness and confound me with her. I figured you'd do that."
"But you didn't tell her anything of your plans?"
"No, I figured the less she knew, the less she'd have to tell. I knew that if she told you folks the truth, you'd think she was lying."
"How did you know we'd be able to get her here?"
"That is where I didn't underestimate your ability, Burger." Burger sighed, got to his feet and started pacing the floor.
"It's plain enough, now that it's pointed out," he said, "but, by God, I'd have sworn Brunold committed that murder with the co
He dropped into a chair and fell silent.
"After all," Judge Winters said in an aggrieved voice, "you should have taken me in on the play, Counselor, so that I wouldn't have appeared so ridiculous there in the courtroom."
Mason smiled, and said, "You'll pardon me, your Honor, and understand that the remark contains nothing of disrespect, but if you hadn't appeared so ridiculous, as you term it, you wouldn't have appeared convincing."
For a moment Judge Winters' forehead came together in a frown, then the corners of his lips tilted.
"Oh, well," he said, "have it your own way."
Perry Mason pinched out his cigarette end, looked at his wristwatch, and lit another cigarette. Burger turned to Mason and said, "How the devil am I going to square myself with the newspapers?"
Mason waved his hand in a generous gesture.
"Take it all," he said.
"All of what?"
"All of the credit. Figure that it was an act you put on with me for the purpose of trapping the real murderer."
A gleam of quick interest showed in Burger's eyes.
Abruptly the door burst open. Three newspaper men came storming into the room. They descended upon Burger with a barrage of questions.
"Wait a minute," Burger said. "What's happened?"
"Out at the airport—a shooting. Sergeant Holcomb's wounded, and Colemar killed. How did Colemar get out there? What was he doing? Why did Sergeant Holcomb go after him?"
One of the news men detached himself from the others, grabbed Mason's arm.
"What about it, Mason?" he shouted. "Give us the lowdown. It's the biggest thing you've ever pulled.
Perry Mason sighed.
"Mr. Burger," he said, "will make the statement to the press in our joint behalf. In the meantime, gentlemen, if you'll pardon me, I've got to go to my office."
Chapter 18
Perry Mason leaned back in his office chair. The top of his desk was littered with newspapers.
"Good for Sergeant Holcomb," he said. "I always knew he had the stuff in him."
"I thought you hated him," Della Street remarked.
"His stupidity is irritating at times," Mason agreed, "but it's only because of his zeal that he gets himself into those situations. So Colemar pulled a gun and tried to smoke his way out when he saw he was cornered?"
She nodded slowly.
"In many ways," Mason said, "that last situation is typical of the pair of them. Sergeant Holcomb came roaring up to the airport with his sirens screaming."
"But he had to use his siren to make the time he did through traffic," Della Street pointed out.
"Certainly, through traffic. But not after he had gone through the traffic. He had the whole airport in front of him, and yet he had to come up with his sirens screaming. Of course Colemar knew what that meant. He hid in the Men's Room, put his eye to the keyhole and waited to see what happened. After a while, Holcomb started for the restroom. Colemar poked his gun through the glass panel in the door and opened fire. If he hadn't been nervous, he'd have killed Holcomb with that first shot.
"So far, Holcomb had run true to form. He blundered everything he did. He alarmed his quarry by going up to the station with the siren going. He should have known, after he had searched the waiting room, that Colemar was in the Men's Room. The fact that he suspected it strongly is indicated by the fact that he strode toward the door. A more intelligent man would have moved up on the place from the side jerked the door open, leveled his gun, and ordered his prisoner to come out. But not Holcomb. He pounded up toward the door, broadside on. Then comes the side of Sergeant Holcomb that gets my respect and admiration.
"That was a.45 slug that hit him in the shoulder. And, sister, I'm here to tell you that a.45 slug, catching a man in the shoulder, takes a lot of steam out of him. Holcomb didn't even have his gun in his hand."
She nodded.
"Tell me," he asked, "did he stop while he was getting his gun out, or what did he do?"
"He kept right on walking," she said. "The impact of that slug turned him halfway around. He straightened himself, set his jaw, and kept walking toward that door, pulling out his gun as he walked. Colemar took one more shot, and Holcomb started shooting through the door. You could see the places where his slugs went through the wood. He made as perfect a group as though he'd been shooting at a target on the police range."
Mason nodded slowly, and said, "A damn good man. It takes guts to do that."
Mason picked up one of the newspapers. District Attorney Burger's likeness was spread over three columns on the front page. Below it, in large print, appeared:
Fighting District Attorney Who Cleverly Trapped the Slayer of Hartley Basset into Betraying Himself
To the right, and slightly below, was a picture of Sergeant Holcomb. The space in between was filled with line drawings showing Sergeant Holcomb approaching the door of the Men's Room, firing from the hip, while Colemar was crouched back of the door, emptying a.45 revolver at the officer.
"They certainly hogged plenty of credit," Della Street said resentfully, her voice betraying her feelings. "You were the one who thought it all out. You put the cards in their hands. All they had to do was to lay them down and take the tricks."
Mason chuckled.
"You saw that Thelma Bevins got her money?" he asked.
"Yes. And she got a nice bonus from Pete Brunold."
"Good for Brunold. He's great stuff for the sobsisters, isn't he?… Thelma Bevins came through splendidly."
"What would you have done, Chief, if she'd fallen down? She could have become frightened, you know, and told the whole story before she got on the witness stand."
"The nice part of it was," Mason said, "that she couldn't. If she told Burger the story of what actually had happened, Burger would have become convinced she was a clever liar and was simply trying to protect me. Using the buildup that I did, Burger hypnotized himself on her identity. And the more she denied it, the more he'd have become certain she was lying."
"But suppose something had happened?"
"I could have blasted it out of Colemar," he said slowly, "on crossexamination. But I didn't want to do it."