The Case of the Blonde Bonanza

course, make an identification if they confront him with the persons but there's nothing that would lead them to the Winlocks from his description; in fact, the Win. locks would be the last persons they'd suspect in a case of this sort.'

Mason fastened his belt. 'And remember, in case you're questioned, you don't know who Boring's callers were. You've only surmised-and the same is true of me.

Mason hurried down to Della Street's room and a policewoman answered his knock.

'Good morning,' Mason said. 'I'm Perry Mason. I'm Dianne Alder's attorney. Do I understand you're taking her into custody?'

'Yes.'

'I want to talk with her.'

'She isn't dressed. I'm taking her into custody. You'll have to talk with her at headquarters.'

Mason raised his voice. 'I'll talk to her through the door. Say absolutely nothing, Dianne. Don't tell the police about your name, your past, your parents or-'

The door slammed in the lawyer's face.

Mason waited some ten minutes in the corridor until the policewoman, accompanied by Della Street and Dianne Alder, emerged into the corridor.

'Can you take it, Dianne?' Mason asked. 'Can you keep quiet?'

Dianne nodded.

The policewoman turned on him. 'I don't want lawyers addressing my prisoner,' she said. 'If you want to consult with your client, you can come to the jail and do it in a regular manner.'

'What's wrong with this?' Mason asked.

'It's against my orders. If you persist I'll have to charge you with interfering with an arrest.'

'Is it a crime,' Mason asked, 'to advise a client in the presence of an arresting officer, that if she once starts answering any questions the point at which she stops will be considered significant, but if she doesn't answer any questions at all on the advice of her counsel, and demands an immediate hearing, she is-'

'That will do,' the policewoman said angrily. 'You're talking to her.'

'I'm talking to you.'

'Well, your words are aimed at her. I'm going to ask you and Miss Street to leave now. That's an order.'

Mason smiled. 'My, but you're hard to get along with.'

'I can be,' she said angrily.

Dianne Alder dropped a pace behind so that she was looking over the officer's shoulder at Perry Mason. She raised her forefinger to her lips in a gesture of silence.

Mason bowed to the officer. 'I accede to your wishes, Madam. Come on, Della.'

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Carter Leland, the district attorney of Riverside County, said to the magistrate, 'If the Court please, this is a simple matter of a preliminary hearing. We propose to show that the defendant in this case had a business arrangement with the decedent, Harrison T. Boring; that she became convinced Boring had swindled her, that she was exceedingly indignant, that she went to the Restawhile Motel in order to see him and did see him; that she was the last person to see Boring alive and that when she left the room Boring was in a dying condition.

'That is all we need to show, in fact more than we need to show, in order to get an order binding the defendant over for trial.'

'Put on your case,' Judge Warren Talent said.

'My first witness is Montrose Foster,' Leland announced.

Montrose Foster came forward, held up his right hand, was sworn, seated himself nervously on the witness stand.

'Your name is Montrose Foster, you reside in Riverside and have for some two years last past? You are the president of Missing Heirs and Lost Estates?'

'That is true.'

'On last Tuesday, the day of the murder as charged in the complaint, did you have occasion to talk with the defendant?'

'I did.'

'Where did this conversation take place?'

'At Bolero Beach.'

'Did the defendant make any statement to you about her feeling toward Harrison T. Boring?'

'She did.'

'What did she say?'

'She said she could kill him.'

Leland turned abruptly and unexpectedly to Perry Mason. 'Cross-examine,' he said.

'Is that all you're going to try to bring out on direct examination?' Mason asked.

'It's enough,' Leland snapped. 'I don't intend to let this preliminary hearing become a three-ring circus.'

Mason turned to the witness. 'Did you,' he asked, 'say something to the defendant that was well calcuculated to cause her to make that statement?'

'Objected to,' Leland said, 'as calling for a conclusion of the witness. He can't testify as to what was in the defendant's mind or what was calculated to arouse certain emotions, but only to facts.'

'Sustained,' Judge Talent said. 'I think you can reframe the question, Mr. Mason.'

'I'll be glad to, Your Honor,' Mason said, and turned to the witness. 'Did you try to say something that would be calculated to arouse her rage toward the defendant?'

'Why, Your Honor,' Leland said, 'that's exactly the same question. That's a repetition of the same question calling for a conclusion of the witness and in defiance of the ruling of the Court.'

'No, it isn't,' Mason said. 'This question now relates to, the state of mind of the witness.'

'And that's completely immaterial,' Leland said.

Mason grinned. 'You mean I can't show his bias?'

Leland started to say something, caught himself.

Judge Talent smiled and said, 'The question has been skillfully reframed. The objection is overruled.'

'I told her certain things about Boring,' Foster said.

'The question, Mr. Foster, was whether you tried to arouse her anger against Boring by what you told her.'

'Very well. The answer is yes.'

'You deliberately tried to arouse the defendant's anger?'

'I told you, yes.'

'Did you tell her that Boring had been attempting to sell her into white slavery?'

'Well-that was her idea.'

'You agreed with it?'

'I didn't disagree with it.'

'At no time during the conversation did you mention that Boring's purpose in his dealings with her was one of immorality?'

'Well, she brought that subject up herself.'

'And you, in your conversation, encouraged her in that belief?'

'Yes.'

'And told her that Boring had deceived her in order to get her to sign an agreement which was intended to enable him to sell her into white slavery?'

'I didn't tell her that. She told me that.'

'You agreed with her?'

'Yes.'

'And then, after that, you told her that was Boring's objective?'