'You're certain?'
'Absolutely. I opened both the outer door and the apartment door. Where does that leave you, Perry?'
Mason said, 'I don't know, Paul. These dicks have hypnotized Burger. That key was evidence against Julia. It was pretty weak evidence before I took it, but my grabbing it made it loom like a ferry boat in a fog. It was a tough break. I'll be seeing you.' He hung up the telephone, stepped back to the district attorney's office and said to the girl at the information desk, 'Please tell Mr. Burger that Perry Mason will agree to hold the preliminary examination of Julia Branner at ten o'clock tomorrow morning. We can stipulate away all the red tape.'
Chapter 14
Judge Knox nodded to George Shoemaker, one of the most skillful of the trial deputies in the district attorney's office. 'You may proceed,' he said, 'with the testimony in the preliminary hearing in the case of People versus Julia Branner upon stipulation of the Defense that witnesses are now to be examined by mutual consent and that the Defense waives any question as to time.'
'So stipulated,' Mason said.
Shoemaker said, 'We will call Carl Smith.' A stockily built man in the uniform of a cab driver came forward, sheepishly held up his hand, was sworn and took the stand.
'Your name's Carl Smith, and you are now and were on the fifth day of this month a cab driver?'
'I was.'
'Do you know the defendant, Julia Branner?'
The cab driver looked down at Julia Branner who sat in tight-lipped rigidity slightly behind Perry Mason. 'Yes.'
'When did you see her for the first time?'
'On the night of the fifth, about one o'clock in the morning. She put in a call and I answered it. She gave me a letter addressed to Renwold C. Brownley and told me to take it out to the Brownley residence. I told her it was pretty late to do anything like that and she said it was all right, Mr. Brownley would be glad to get the letter.'
'Anything else?'
'That's all she told me. I took the letter out. A young man opened the door when I rang the bell at Brownley's house. I gave him the letter. He said he'd take it to Mr. Brownley. I asked him what his name was and he said…'
'Just a moment,' Mason snapped. 'I object to any conversation between these two people on the ground that it is merely hearsay and not part of the Res Gestae.'
'Sustained,' Judge Knox ruled.
Shoemaker, with a triumphant smile, turned toward the courtroom and said, 'If Philip Brownley is in the courtroom, will he please stand up?' Philip Brownley, looking very slender and pale in a blue serge suit, got to his feet. 'Have you ever seen that man before?' Shoemaker asked the cab driver.
'Yes. He's the man I gave the note to.'
'That's all,' Shoemaker said.
Mason waved his hand and said, 'No questions.'
'Philip Brownley, will you take the stand?' Shoemaker asked.
The young man came forward and was sworn.
'Are you acquainted with Carl Smith, the witness who has just testified?'
'Yes.'
'Did you see him on the morning of the fifth?'
'Yes.'
'Did he give you anything?'
'Yes.'
'What was it?'
'A letter addressed to my grandfather, Renwold C. Brownley.'
'What did you do with it?'
'I took it immediately to my grandfather.'
'Had he retired?'
'He was reading in bed. It was his custom to read until late in the evening.'
'Did he open the letter while you were there?'
'Yes.'
'Did you see the letter?'
'I didn't read it, but he told me what was in it.'
'What did he tell you was in it?'
Mason said, 'I object, your Honor, on the ground that it's not the best evidence; that it's hearsay and is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.'
Judge Knox said, 'I will sustain the objection.'
'What,' asked Shoemaker, frowning, 'did your grandfather do or say immediately after receiving the letter?'
'Same objection,' Mason said.
'I won't admit any statement as to what was in the letter nor whom it was from,' Judge Knox ruled, 'but I will admit, as part of the Res Gestae, any statements that might have been made by Mr. Brownley as to what he intended to do or where he intended to go.'
Philip Brownley said in a low voice, 'He said he had to go down to Los Angeles harbor at once to meet Julia Branner. I understood him to say he was going to meet her aboard his yacht.'
'Move to strike out the part about meeting Julia Branner,' Mason said, 'as not responsive to question, incompetent, irrelevant, immaterial and hearsay.'
'I will reserve a ruling,' Judge Knox said, 'but I'll leave it in if subsequent testimony shows it to be what I consider part of the Res Gestae.'
'It's too remote to be part of the Res Gestae,' Mason objected.
'I don't think so, Mr. Mason. However, that will depend somewhat on the evidence. You may renew your motion later on if, after the evidence is all in, it appears to be too remote.'
'Did he say anything else?' Shoemaker asked.
'Yes. He said the she-devil had kept his son's watch for years and now she was willing to let it go.'
'Move to strike that out,' Mason said, 'as not being part of the Res Gestae and as being an attempt to show the contents of a written document by parol; as hearsay, incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.'
'Motion is granted. It will be stricken,' Judge Knox ruled. 'It is not part of the Res Gestae.'
'What did your grandfather do?' Shoemaker asked.
'He dressed, went to his car and drove out of the garage about two o'clock.'
'You're acquainted with Perry Mason, the attorney who is representing the defendant?'
'Yes.'
'Did you see him on that same evening, or rather on the evening of the fourth?'
'Yes. It was around eleven o'clock, between eleven o'clock and midnight.'
'Did you talk with him?'
'Yes.'
'Did you discuss your grandfather's will with him?'
'Yes.'
'Did he discuss a conversation he had had with your grandfather?'
'In a way, yes.'
Mason said, 'Your Honor, I object to an attempt to prove that conversation until proof has been made of the corpus delicti.'
Shoemaker said, 'Your Honor, I'm not going any farther into the conversation at this time. Later on I expect to prove that Perry Mason learned on the evening of the fourth that Renwold Brownley intended to execute on the morning of the fifth documents which would transfer the bulk of his estate to his granddaughter, Janice Brownley; that Mason communicated that information to his client, and that this furnished the motive for murder. However, I am not going into it at the present time. You may cross-examine, Mr. Mason.'
Mason said, 'You were waiting for me when I left your grandfather's house?'
'Yes.'
'How long had you been waiting?'
'Only a few minutes.'
'You knew when I left the room where I had been talking with your grandfather and went to my car, didn't you?' Mason asked.
'Yes. I heard you leave the room.'
'And then you went out to stand in the driveway and wait for me. Is that right?'
'Yes.'
'But,' Mason said, 'your clothes were soaking wet. It was raining hard, but not hard enough to wet you to the skin in the few seconds which clasped between the time I left the room where I was with your grandfather and the time you met me in the driveway. How do you account for that?'
Young Brownley lowered his eyes and said nothing.
'Answer the question,' the Court ordered.
'I don't know,' Brownley said.
'Isn't it a fact,' Mason asked him, 'that you had been standing out in the rain before I left the house? Isn't it a fact that you could hear much, if not all, of what was said in my interview with your grandfather? Weren't you listening outside one of the windows?'
Brownley hesitated. 'You answer that question,' Mason thundered, getting to his feet, 'and tell the truth.'
'Yes,' young Brownley said after a moment, 'I stood outside of the window and tried to hear what was being said. I couldn't hear it all, but I heard some of it.'
