The Case of the Blonde Bonanza

defense counsel. He gave his testimony reluctantly and he gave it so that he shaded everything he could in favor of the defense. The cross-examination was completed, my case was closed, and I object to having counsel try these tactics of recalling a witness for further cross-examination. It's irregular.'

'The matter rests in the discretion of the Court,' Judge Talent said. 'Would you like to amplify your statement, Mr. Mason?'

'I would, if the Court please. Dillard stated that the defendant was in the unit from nine o'clock to nIne-twelve. Yet the records will show that the police were notified at nine-thirteen, which would indicate that the manager of the motel must have been in there at least by nine-twelve. The manager of the motel, in turn, was notified by some woman over the telephone that-'

'You don't need to go any further, Mr. Mason. The Court is interested in the proper administration of justice. Your request will be granted. Mr. Dillard, resume the stand, please.'

Dillard once more came to the stand.

Mason said, 'I would like to have you consult your notes in regard to the time element, Mr. Dillard. I would ask the district attorney for the notes which you state you kept at the time.'

The district attorney grudgingly passed over the notebook.

Mason stood beside Dillard. 'These figures are scrawls, rather than figures,' he said. 'How do you explain that?'

'I was sitting there at the window and I took notes in the dark. I didn't want to turn on the light.'

'Now, you were also looking at your wrist watch in the dark in order to determine the time, were you not?'

'My wrist watch has luminous hands.'

'Is there any chance you could have missed the time by five minutes?'

'Certainly not. I could see the dial very clearly.'

'Could you have missed it by two minutes?'

'No.'

'By one minute?'

'Well, I'll put it this way, Mr. Mason. I couldn't see the second hand, but I could see the hour hand and the minute hand and I might-I just might-have made a mistake of half or three-quarters of a minute; I don't think as much as a full minute.'

Mason said, 'If Dianne left that unit, got in her car, drove to a telephone, called the manager of the motel; if the manager of the motel had then gone down to the unit to look for herself and then returned and called the police, it is obvious that the police couldn't have received the call by nine-thirteen if Dianne had left the unit at nine-twelve.'

Dillard said nothing.

'Now, I notice that while the other figures are in the nature of scrawls,' Mason said, 'the words 'blonde enters cabin' with the license number of her automobile, TNM 148 and the hour 9:oo, are written very neatly. And the words, 'blonde leaves unit' with the figure 9: 12 P.M. are also written very neatly. Can you explain that?'

'Well, I… I guess perhaps I had moved over to where the light was better.'

'Then,' Mason said, 'you didn't write those figures down at the time the defendant left the cabin. Perhaps you wrote them down later.'

'No, I wrote them at about that time.'

'At about that time, or at that time?'

'At that time.'

'Your Honor,' Leland said, 'this is no longer legitimate cross-examination. The question has been asked and answered, and counsel is now attempting to argue with the witness and browbeat him.'

Judge Talent said, 'There is rather a peculiar situation here. May I ask counsel if it is the contention of the defense that the defendant actually was the person who put through the telephone call to the manager of the motel, suggesting that there was something wrong with the occupant of Unit io?'

Mason said, 'I feel that without jeopardizing the Interests of the defendant, I can answer that question by saying that it may appear the call was made by her or by someone else and the time element may be the determining factor.'

'She couldn't have made that call,' Leland said. 'It had to have been someone else, and counsel is trying to take advantage of this peculiar situation in the time element to give his client a chance to claim she made the call.'

Mason, studying the notebook which had been kept by Dillard, apparently paid no attention to the objection.

'Mr. Mason,' Judge Talent said, 'an objection has been made. Do you wish to argue it?'

'No, Your Honor.'

'I think the question has been asked and answered. I will sustain the objection.'

Mason turned to Dillard. 'All right, I'll ask you another question which has not been asked and answered, Mr. Dillard. Isn't it a fact that you made this entry about the defendant entering the cabin with the license number of her automobile, and putting down the time that she left the cabin, before the defendant left the cabin? And while you were sitting at a desk under a reading lamp where you could write these figures neatly and concisely?'

Dillard hesitated, then said, 'No.'

'And isn't it a further fact,' Mason said, 'that you are notoriously hot-tempered; that after the man with dark glasses left Unit io, the decedent, Harrison T. Boring, who had caught you peeking through the parted curtain, came over to your unit, threatened you, and you lost your temper and hit him; that the blow knocked him down; that he hit his head on a stone and lay still; that you, realizing that you had seriously injured the man, picked him up, took him over to his own unit, opened the door, dropped him on the floor, poured whiskey over him, returned to your unit and while you were debating what you were going to do next, saw the defendant enter the unit rented by Boring; that you thereupon quit watching the unit, debating what you were going to do to save your own skin, that while you were debating the matter you heard the defendant's car start and heard her drive off; that while you were still debating what to do, you heard the police arrive; that you at a time somewhat later wrote a synthetic record of the defendant's visit, approximating the time of her arrival and estimating the time of her departure, and then called your superior, Sid Nye, and asked that he come to your assistance?'

Leland got to his feet with a supercilious smile. 'Oh, Your Honor,' he said, 'this is altogether too absurd. This…'

The district attorney suddenly broke off at the expression on the judge's face. Judge Talent was leaning forward from the bench, looking down at Moose Dillard.

The big man on the stand was clenching and unclenching his huge hands. His facial muscles were twisting in the manner of a grown man who wants to cry and has forgotten how.

Dillard wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

'You'd better answer that question, Mr. Dillard,' the judge said somewhat sternly, 'and answer it truthfully.'

'All right,' Dillard said. 'That's the way it happened. I clobbered the guy. Only, I didn't knock him down, he was standin' in the door of my unit calling me names and he made a pass at me. I beat him to the punch and clobbered him.

'The blow knocked him back and his head struck against the corner post on the porch and he slumped to the ground.

'I didn't know he'd been hurt too bad, but I'd been in enough trouble. I picked the guy up and carried him back to Unit io and dumped some whiskey over him. Then I saw he was badly hurt. I went back and tried to figure what to do and I saw this girl come in.'

'The defendant?' Judge Talent asked.

'That's right. I didn't put down the time or anything. I went back over to the desk and sat there with my head in my hands. I heard her drive away and then after a while I heard the cops come and I knew I was in a spot.

'I called Sid Nye and told him 'Hey Rube.' He'd been in carnival life and I'd been in the circus. I knew that would get me reinforcements. I intended to tell him what had happened, but he brought Perry Mason down with him and then I knew I was in a real jam.