Carnal Hours

partner?”

Melchen tasted his tongue for a while; then said, “Ah…it never came up.”

“Sir?”

“We did not discuss them.”

The courtroom’s surprise was evident in the wave of muttering that passed over it, and so was the Chief Justice’s, as he looked up from the longhand notes he was taking.

Callender closed in. “You and Captain Barker had been called in on this case, and worked as partners?”

“Yes.”

“You had traveled all the way from Nassau together?”

“Yes.”

“And the first time you heard of this vital evidence, Captain Melchen, was when Captain Barker informed Lady Oakes and Nancy de Marigny of it?”

“Uh…yes.”

“Yet Captain Barker claims to have known about this evidence since the ninth of July, the day the accused was arrested. And now you stand here, swearing under oath that you traveled with Captain Barker from Nassau to Bar Harbor, during which time you discussed the case but Barker never once mentioned this important fact to you?”

“That, uh, is correct. Yes.”

Callender walked over to the jury and smiled and shook his head; behind him on the bench, Chief Justice Daly was asking Melchen, “Do you not now consider it strange, sir, that Captain Barker did not tell you about the fingerprint on your journey to Bar Harbor?”

“Well,” Melchen said lamely, with the wide-eyed expression of a child reporting to his teacher that his dog ate his homework, “now that I think of it…I do remember Captain Barker goin’ with Major Pemberton to the RAF laboratory to process a print they said was of the accused. On the ninth of July?”

The Chief Justice rolled his eyes and threw down his pencil in annoyance.

Callender took advantage of the moment and moved in for the kill.

“Then let us move to July nine, Captain. That is the day you and Captain Barker recommended the arrest of the accused?”

“Yes.”

Callender thrust an accusatory finger. “I put it to you, Captain Melchen, that your preliminary testimony, fixing the time of the accused’s questioning on July nine as between three and four p.m., was a fabrication designed to prove that the accused was not upstairs before the fingerprint was lifted!”

Melchen loosened his sweat-soaked collar; his smile was pained, strained. “That wasn’t my intention at all- my…my memory was at fault on that point. It was just a mistake.”

“Ah, and what a mistake!” Callender sneered. “And what a remarkable coincidence that you and two local constables should make the same mistake.”

Melchen smiled feebly, and shrugged.

“Nothing further, my lord,” Callender said disgustedly.

Next up was Barker himself, but the rugged-looking, lanky detective-with his direct blue eyes and dark graying-at-the-temples hair-was (unlike his partner) no easily rattled boob. He presented a professional, almost distinguished demeanor, standing casually, confidently, in the witness box, hands in the pockets of the trousers of his gray, double-breasted suit.

The Attorney General himself took the witness, and both the questions and the answers seemed too pat, too precise to me. Over-rehearsed. But the jury-despite the sorry shambling act presented by his partner, Melchen- seemed to be hanging on Barker’s every expert word.

Much of the afternoon was spent establishing Barker’s impressive-sounding credentials, and going back over the investigation of the crime and the arrest of the Count. Shortly after Hallinan guided Barker into a discussion of the fingerprint evidence, however, Higgs made a major play, objecting to the admission as evidence of the de Marigny fingerprint.

“This print is not the best evidence,” Higgs told the Chief Justice. “The screen with the print on it is.”

The Chief Justice nodded, his white wig swaying. “There should be no objection to that. Let’s have the screen itself brought in, then.”

Higgs smiled. “Ah, but my lord-there is no print on the screen now.

Now the Chief Justice frowned, irritation edging in on his confusion. “What more do you want than the raised print itself, and the photograph of it?”

“The print was not ‘raised,’ my lord, but rather lifted by a piece of rubber. And we only have Captain Barker’s word that the print came from that screen at all-this needless destruction of the evidence in its best state has not been satisfactorily explained, and the print should not be admitted into evidence.”

The Chief Justice’s expression was grave. “Do you mean to imply that the prosecution’s print is a forgery?”

“I do, sir.”

The stirring in the gallery was broken by the Attorney General rising to protest. Hallinan asserted the reliability and propriety of lifted fingerprints, explaining that Captain Barker, called to Nassau at short notice, had not brought a fingerprint camera, incorrectly assuming one would be available at the scene.

“Could you not have sent a telegram to your office,” the Chief Justice asked the witness, “and had your special camera arrive by the next plane?”

“I suppose I could have done that, your honor,” Barker admitted. “But I did not.”

It looked like Higgs had them, but the Chief Justice ruled that the fingerprint-Exhibit J-would be allowed in as evidence.

“Mr. Higgs, your argument speaks to the weight of the evidence, rather than its admissibility,” the Chief Justice said, “and I will so instruct the jurors.”

Court was dismissed for the day: it was a tie game at the half.

The following morning, Barker was back in the witness box, and Higgs sat rather placidly while Hallinan finished up with his presentation of the fingerprint evidence; his expert witness was vague about where exactly the de Marigny print had been lifted from the screen, which had been brought into court and stood to the left of the bench.

I wondered if Higgs would sic his pit bull, Callender, on this key witness. But Higgs rose from his chair and tackled Barker himself.

“You’re not prepared,” Higgs said in an astounded tone, even as he moved aggressively toward the witness box, “to say that the fingerprint came off the area marked in the second panel? You yourself marked it!”

“I’m certain the print came from the top portion of the panel I marked. Not necessarily the specific place marked.”

“Captain Barker, step down, would you, and walk to the screen and point out the area marked in blue pencil at the top of the panel.

Barker stepped down and moved smoothly past the Chief Justice and went to the Chinese screen. He studied the top panel, looking closely at the blue line which he’d previously indicated had been made by him.

“Your honor,” Barker said numbly, “the blue line on this screen wasn’t made by me. There’s been an effort to trace a blue line over the black line that I made myself on August first in the presence of the Attorney General.”

As the courtroom murmured, the Chief Justice came down from the bench, joined by Higgs and Hallinan, who stood with Barker examining the blue line.

“I see no black pencil line,” I heard Higgs say conversationally.

And Hallinan, in a whisper, said to Barker, “Look there, man-those are your initials….”

Court was called back to order, the Chief Justice took the bench again, and Barker, back in the witness box, did something remarkable.

“I–I wish to withdraw what I just said,” Barker almost stammered. “On closer examination I located my initials by the blue line.”

Higgs, moving restlessly up and down before the jury, was smiling. No great point of evidence had been