Calamity Town

it.”

“What kind of plan?” demanded Judge Martin. ”I’ll listen to anyone, Patricia.”

“Will you?” jeered Pat. ”Well, I’m not talking. You’ll know when the time comes, Uncle Eli! You’ve got to do just one thing?”

“And that is?”

“To call me as the last witness for the defense/”

The Judge began in bewilderment: “But what??”

“Yes, what’s stewing?” asked Ellery quickly. ”You’d better talk it over with your elders first.”

“There’s been too much talk already, Grandpa.”

“But what do you think you’re going to accomplish?”

“I want three things.” Pat looked grim. ”Time, last crack at the witness stand, and some of your new Odalisque Parfum, Nora . . . Accomplish, Mr. Queen? I’m going to save Jim!”

Nora ran out of the room, using her knitting as a handkerchief.

“Well, I will!” said Pat, exasperated. And she added, in a gun-moll undertone: “I’ll show that Carter Bradford!”

Chapter 26

Juror Number 7

“We will take,” said old Eli Martin to Mr. Queen in the courtroom Monday morning, as they waited for Judge Newbold to enter from chambers, “what the Lord provides.”

“Meaning what?” asked Ellery.

“Meaning,” sighed the lawyer, “that unless Providence intercedes, my old friend’s son-in-law is a fried squab. If what I’ve got is a defense, may God help all petitioners for justice!”

“Legally speaking, I’m a blunderbuss. Surely you’ve got some sort of defense?”

“Some sort, yes.” The old gentleman squinted sourly at Jim Haight, sitting nearby with his head on his breast. ”I’ve never had such a case!” he exploded. ”Nobody tells me anything?the defendant, the Roberts woman, the family . . . Why, even that snippet Patricia won’t talk to me!”

“Patty . . . ” said Ellery thoughtfully.

“Pat wants me to put her on the stand, and I don’t even know what for! This isn’t law, it’s lunacy.”

“She went out mysteriously Saturday night,” murmured Ellery, “and again last night, and she came home very late both times.”

“While Rome burns!”

“She’d been drinking Martinis, too.”

“I forgot you’re something of a sleuth. How did you find that out, Queen?”

“I kissed her.”

Judge Martin was startled. ”Kissed her? You?”

“I have my methods,” said Mr. Queen, a whit stiffly. Then he grinned. ”But this time they didn’t work. She wouldn’t tell me what she’d been doing.”

“Odalisque Parfum,” sniffed the old gentleman. ”If Patricia Wright thinks a sweet odeur is going to divert young Bradford . . . He looks undiverted to me this morning. Doesn’t he to you?”

“An immovable young man,” agreed Mr. Queen uneasily.

Judge Martin sighed and glanced over at the row of chairs inside the railing, where Nora sat with her little chin raised high and a pallid face between her mother and father, her gaze fixed beggingly upon her husband’s motionless profile. But if Jim was conscious of her presence, he made no sign. Behind them the courtroom was jammed and whispery.

Mr. Queen was furtively scanning Miss Patricia Wright. Miss Patricia Wright had an Oppenheim air this morning?slitted eyes, and a certain enigmatic expression about the mouth Mr. Queen had kissed in the interests of science the night before . . . in vain. Perhaps not quite in vain . . .

He became aware that Judge Eli was poking his ribs. ”Get up, get up. You ought to know something about courtroom etiquette! Here comes Newbold.”

“Good luck,” said Ellery absently.

* * *

The first witness Judge Martin called to testify in defense of Jim Haight was Hermione Wright.

Hermy crossed the space before the Bench and mounted the step to the witness chair if not quite like royalty ascending the throne, then at least like royalty ascending the guillotine. On being sworn, she said “I do” in a firm, if tragic, voice.

Clever, thought Ellery. Putting Hermy on the stand. Hermy, mother of Nora. Hermy, who of all persons in the world except Nora should be Jim Haight’s harshest enemy?Hermy to testify for the man who had tried to kill her daughter!

The courtroom and jury were impressed by the dignity with which Hermy met all their stares. Oh, she was a fighter! And Ellery could detect the pride on the faces of her three daughters, a queer shame on Jim’s, and the faint admiration of Carter Bradford.

The old lawyer led Hermione skillfully through the night of the crime, dwelling chiefly on the “gaiety” of the occasion, how happy everyone had been, how Nora and Jim had danced together like children, and incidentally, how much Frank Lloyd, who had been Bradford’s chief witness to the events of the evening, had had to drink; and the Judge contrived, through Hermy’s helpless, “confused” answers, to leave the impression with the jury that no one there could possibly have said for certain what had happened so far as the cocktails were concerned, let alone Frank Lloyd?unless it was Mr. Ellery Queen, who’d had only one drink before the fatal toast to 1941.

And then Judge Martin led Hermione around to a conversation she had had with Jim shortly after Jim and Nora returned from their honeymoon?how Jim had confided in his mother-in-law that Nora and he suspected Nora was going to have a baby, and that Nora wanted it to be kept a secret until they were “sure,” except that Jim said he was so happy he couldn’t keep it in any longer, he had to tell someone, and Hermy wasn’t to let on to Nora that he’d blabbed. And how ecstatic Jim had been at the prospect of being father to Nora’s child?how it would change his whole life, he said, give him a fresh push toward making a success of himself for Nora and the baby?how much he loved Nora . . . more every day.

Carter Bradford waived cross-examination with almost a visible kindliness.

But there was a little whiff of applause as Hermy stepped off the witness stand.

Judge Martin called up a roll of character witnesses as long as Judge Newbold’s face. Lorrie Preston and Mr. Gonzales of the bank, Brick Miller the bus driver, Ma Upham, young Manager Louie Cahan of the Bijou, who had been one of Jim’s bachelor cronies, Miss Aikin of the Carnegie Library?that was a surprise, as Miss Aikin had never been known to say a kind word about anybody, but she managed to say several about Jim Haight despite the technical limitations of “character” testimony?chiefly, Ellery suspected, because Jim had patronized the Library in the old days and broken not a single one of Miss Aikin’s numerous rules . . . The character witnesses were so many, and so socially diversified, that people were surprised. They hadn’t known Jim Haight had so many friends in town.

But that was exactly the impression Judge Martin was trying to make. And when John F. clambered to the stand and said simply and directly that Jim was a good boy and the Wrights were behind him heart and soul, people remarked how old John F. looked?”aged a lot these past couple of months, John F. has”?and a tide of sympathy for the Wrights began to creep up in the courtroom until it was actually lapping Jim Haight’s shoes.

During the days of this character testimony, Carter Bradford maintained a decent respect for the Wrights?just the proper note of deference and consideration, but a little aloof, as if to say: “I’m not going to badger your people, but don’t expect my relationship with your family to influence my conduct in this courtroom one iota!”

* * *