The Case of the Mischievous Doll

“And what did she do, of your own knowledge? That is, what do you know?”

“Well, I was looking out of the window of the apartment, and she drove her car around to the designated place and blinked the lights so we knew the coast was clear, so then we took Dorrie Ambler down.”

“And what happened with Miss Ambler?”

“I don’t know of my own knowledge, only what Barlowe Dalton told me.”

“You didn’t stay with Barlowe Dalton?”

“No, it was understood that he’d take care of Dorrie and that I’d go over the apartment with an oil rag, covering every place where fingerprints might have been left... Incidentally, we’d done that in Dorrie Ambler’s apartment as we were searching it. We all wore gloves, and I was going over things with a rag, scrubbing out fingerprints.”

“Now then,” Hamilton Burger said, “I’m going to ask you a question which you can answer yes or no. Did Barlowe Dalton tell you what he had done with Dorrie Ambler?”

“Yes.”

“Did you subsequently communicate with the police to tell them what Barlowe Dalton had told you? Mind you now, I am not asking for hearsay. I am not asking what Barlowe Dalton told you. I am asking you simply what you did.”

“Yes. I communicated with the police.”

“With whom?”

“With Lieutenant Tragg.”

“And what did you tell him? Now, don’t say what you actually told him, simply describe what you told him with reference to what Barlowe Dalton had told you.”

“I told him what Barlowe Dalton had told me.”

“Where is Barlowe Dalton now?”

“He is dead.”

“When did he die and how did he die?”

“He died on the twentieth.”

“How did he die?”

“He was killed by a policeman in a holdup.”

Hamilton Burger turned to Perry Mason and bowed. “You may cross-examine,” he said.

Minerva Minden grabbed Mason’s coat sleeve, pulled herself close to his ear. “That’s a pack of lies,” she said, “absolute, vicious lies. I never saw this man in my life.”

Mason nodded, got to his feet and approached the witness.

“How do you know that Barlowe Dalton is dead?” he asked.

“I saw him killed.”

“Where were you?”

“I was standing near him.”

“And were you armed at the time?”

“Objected to as not proper cross-examination,” Hamilton Burger said. “Incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”

“Overruled,” Judge Flint snapped.

“Were you armed at the time?” Mason asked.

“Yes.”

“What did you do with the gun?”

“I dropped it to the floor.”

“And the police recovered it?”

“Yes.”

“Where was your partner when he was shot?”

“At the Acme Supermarket.”

“At what time?”

“About two o’clock in the morning.”

“And what were you doing there?”

“Objected to as not proper cross-examination, incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, calling for matters not covered under direct examination,” Hamilton Burger said.

“Overruled,” Judge Flint snapped.

“My partner and I were holding up the place.”

“Your partner was killed and you were arrested?”

“Yes.”

“And you were taken to jail?”

“Yes.”

“And how long after you were taken to jail was it that you told the police all you knew about the defendant and Dorrie Ambler?”

“Not very long. You see, my conscience had been bothering me about that murder and about what had happened to Dorrie Ambler. I couldn’t get that off my mind.”

“How long after the time that you were arrested did you finally tell the police the complete story?”

“It was... well, it was a couple of days.”

“You had been caught red-handed in connection with the perpetration of a burglary.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You knew that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Have you previously been convicted of a felony?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How many times?”

“Three times.”

“Of what felony?”

“Armed robbery, grand larceny, burglary.”

“You knew that you’d go up for life as an habitual criminal?”

“Just a minute,” Hamilton Burger interrupted. “That is objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, not proper cross-examination.”

“I am simply trying to show the bias and motivation of the witness,” Mason said. “I am going to connect it up with my next questions.”

“I think I see the line of your questioning,” Judge Flint said. “The objection is overruled.”

“Yes.”

“You knew kidnapping was punishable by death?”

“Under certain circumstances, yes.”

“You knew that you had conspired with the defendant to commit a murder?”

“Yes.”

“As well as a kidnapping?”

“Yes.”

“You knew that you were an accessory after the fact in the murder of Marvin Billings?”

“Well... all right, I suppose I was.”

“And you were in quite a predicament when the authorities were questioning you.”

“Yes, I was.”

“And didn’t you finally offer to give them a confession on a crime they were very anxious to solve, if they would give you immunity from prosecution on all of these other charges?”

“Well... not exactly.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that they told me that I had better come clean and throw myself on their mercy and— Well, they were the ones who said they had the deadwood on me and it would mean that I got life as an habitual criminal and they’d see that I served every minute of it, unless I co-operated and helped them clear up a bunch of unsolved crimes.”