The Case of the Troubled Trustee

'One would certainly say so,' Hamilton Burger said. 'In fact, that's the understatement of the week. You were in a most peculiar position.'

'Yes, sir.'

'So you wanted to stop and take a while to think it over?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Now, eventually you reached a decision and decided to leave the golf club without reporting the fact that you had found the body to the police?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Once you reached that decision, you hurried from the seventh tee, out through the club house, crossed to where your car was parked, jumped in and drove away?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Now then, we have that time fixed,' Hamilton Burger said. 'That was ten-twenty-two. Now, by ten-o-six you had found the body and found the gun; that left you with an interval of over fifteen minutes, Mr. Dutton.'

'Well, I didn't think it was that long.'

'The indisputable evidence shows that it was that long, Mr. Dutton. An interval of fifteen minutes, during which time you were sitting by the corpse, holding that gun.'

'It couldn't have been that long.'

'What else were you doing?' Burger asked.

'I- Nothing else.'

'Fifteen minutes,' Hamilton Burger said. 'A quarter of an hour. What were you trying to do, Mr. Dutton?'

'I was trying to clarify the situation.'

'Were you, perhaps, concealing any evidence?'

'Certainly not. I wouldn't do that.'

'But you knew the gun was evidence?'

'I assumed it was.'

'And you concealed that.'

'I took it with me.'

'And concealed it in a culvert?'

'Yes, sir.'

'So then you did conceal evidence?'

'Well, yes.'

'Then there's no need in assuming a self-righteous attitude in front of this jury,' Hamilton Burger said, 'that you wouldn't conceal evidence. So, I'm going to ask you again, what you were doing during those fifteen long minutes, during that quarter of an hour that you sat there in the dark by the corpse?'

'I don't know. I was trying to adjust myself.'

'Now, you could see the sky. That was rather well lighted?'

'Yes, the horizon was lighted.'

'But the ground was dark?'

'Well, not too dark.'

'But dark enough so that you didn't see the body immediately?'

'I saw something dark.'

'But you have just told us that it took from twenty to thirty seconds; in your own words, you were walking around for perhaps thirty seconds.'

'Well, it wasn't that long. It was- I'll go back to my original statement that it was eight or ten seconds.'

'Then you want to change your testimony that it was not thirty seconds?'

'I think the thirty seconds was an estimate of time that you placed on it. 1 said it was longer than ten seconds; that it might have been twenty seconds and you said you would give me thirty seconds to be sure and be fair.'

'Yes, yes,' Hamilton Burger said, 'then your own estimate was twenty seconds?'

'Yes, sir.'

'But now you say you think it was less than ten seconds'

'Well, after all, I didn't carry a stopwatch.'

'That's right,' Hamilton Burger said, 'you didn't carry a stopwatch but you did testify to this jury under oath that you thought it was longer than ten seconds; that it might have been twenty seconds.'

'Well, yes.'

'Now you insist that it was under ten seconds.'

'I think it could have been.'

'Which was right?' Hamilton Burger asked, his voice taking on an edge, 'ten seconds or twenty seconds?'

'I would say nearer ten seconds.'

'Now, you picked up this gun?'

'Yes.'

'And thought it was yours?'

'Yes.'

'What made you think so?'

'Well, I saw it was a Smith and Wesson revolver of exactly the same type I had purchased.'

'You saw it was a Smith and Wesson revolver?'

'Yes, sir.'

'How could you do that if it was so dark you couldn't see the corpse for a matter of ten or twenty seconds? How in the world could you tell the make of the gun?'

'I had a small pocket flashlight.'

'You what?' Hamilton Burger exclaimed, as though the defendant had just admitted to murder.

'I had a small pocket flashlight.'

'Well, why in the world didn't you tell us about that?'

'Nobody asked me.'

'Oh, you had a pocket flashlight with you and you didn't tell us about it because no one asked you.'

'That's right.'

'Do you have any other incriminating admissions to make that you have hitherto withheld because nobody has asked you?'

'I don't consider that an incriminating admission.'

'You don't!' Hamilton Burger said. 'You now admit you had a flashlight, why didn't you use that flashlight when you were looking around?'

'Well, it was in my pocket.'

'And you were too lazy to take it out of your pocket?'

'Not too lazy. I saw no need for it.'

'But you started searching the ground?'

'Yes.'

'For an interval of at least ten seconds?'

'Perhaps that.'

'And it never occurred to you to get out the flashlight?'

'Not then.'

'Did you subsequently illuminate the body with your flashlight?'

'No.'

'Why not?'

'I was only trying to ascertain whether he was dead.'

'Well, well, well,' Hamilton Burger said, 'you had a flashlight and you weren't sufficiently interested to look at the man's features to see if you knew him?'

'I had never met Rodger Palmer. I had talked with him over the telephone.'

'So you assumed the body was that of Rodger Palmer?'