The Case of the Queenly Contestant

“If Mr. Mason is correct in his theory, the fatal shot was fired while the decedent was half turning, trying to keep someone covered with the gun she was holding and, at the same time, to lower the window. The murderer, whoever he or she was, took advantage of that moment to whip out a gun and fire the fatal shot.

“Agnes Burlington, in all probability, had no idea that the person she was holding at the point of her revolver was armed.

“After Agnes Burlington fell to the floor, her murderer stepped over the body, finished closing the window and locked it.”

“There is no evidence that this little hole in the screen was caused by a bullet,” Dillon objected.

“Then what did cause it?” Judge Elwell asked.

“It could have been caused by anything. It could have been caused by someone” — and here Dillon looked accusingly at Perry Mason — “taking a small piece of pipe, holding it against the screen, and hitting the end of the pipe a sharp blow with a hammer.”

“Possibly,” Judge Elwell said, “but in view of the fact that the police have had this place sealed and the seals have not been tampered with, it would seem that the prosecution is now the side that is indulging in fanciful theories.

“I suggest to the police that a search be made of the ground outside of this window, and for a distance of some feet, to see if this bullet can be recovered.

“I am going to continue the case until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock to give the police an opportunity to make this search. I may say that if a fatal bullet is recovered, it should be determinative. If it came from the gun found in the glove compartment of the defendant’s car, it will be a most significant piece of evidence. If, on the other hand, it did not come from that weapon, this Court is going to take another good long look at the evidence.

“I think that’s all we need to do here. The police have searched every nook and cranny. There was only the one place that wasn’t searched, and that place seems to have been the one which held the significant clue.

“Court will stand adjourned until tomorrow morning at ten o’clock.”

Chapter Eighteen

Perry Mason moved over to Lieutenant Tragg’s side as they filed from the duplex house.

“Want to listen?” he asked.

“I’m a listener,” Tragg said.

Mason said, “When I am taken back to my office, why not come up with me?”

“It’s a deal,” Tragg told him.

“And,” Mason said, “I would suggest you say nothing to Dillon.”

Tragg said, “I would just as soon avoid Mr. Dillon for a while. As a matter of fact. Perry, my face is red. I overlooked a bet.

“We wanted to leave that murder room just exactly the way it was. We found the windows closed, and that window on the west was locked. Therefore, I made a note that it was a locked window and we sealed the place with strips of paper so the evidence couldn’t be disturbed without breaking the seal. That probably was good practice, but when I couldn’t find the fatal bullet I should have done a little more thinking, I guess.”

The little group of lawyers, courtroom attachés and police officers entered the transportation furnished by the sheriff’s office, to be delivered to their respective destinations. Lieutenant Tragg left to join Perry Mason in the lawyer’s office.

“All right, Mason,” Tragg said, “go ahead and shoot.”

“There are entries in Agnes Burlington’s diary that are rather cryptic but furnish corroborating evidence that she was blackmailing the defendant.”

“Go ahead,” Tragg said.

“We’ve gone at this case backwards,” Mason said. “We’ve been looking at it from the standpoint of the defendant.”

“How should we have looked at it?”

“From the standpoint of the decedent.”

“And what would that give us?”

“Suppose,” Mason said, “You were a blackmailer. You’ve been blackmailing a woman over the birth of an illegitimate child. You’ve been getting chicken feed. All of a sudden you find yourself in a position where your testimony is the key testimony in an estate involving two million dollars. What are you going to do? Are you going to sit idle?”

Lieutenant Tragg looked at Mason thoughtfully, blinking his eyes as he digested Mason’s remarks. Suddenly he said, “Hell, no! If I’m a blackmailer, I’m going to try to cash in.”

“Exactly,” Mason said. “Agnes Burlington was a blackmailer. She decided to cash in”.

“Now let’s suppose she had some bits of documentary evidence that she had been holding in reserve, also some old .35 mm shots. Let us suppose she tried to cash in with someone who was as hard-boiled as she was. They came to a showdown. The price Agnes wanted was too much for this individual to pay. But, in trying to get her price, Agnes had disclosed the devastating nature of the evidence she held.

“Now you know and I know that a really good ‘cat’ burglar tries to do his stuff when his victim is in the bathtub or in the bathroom getting ready for a bath. The sound of running water while the tub is being filled, the splashing after a person gets in the tub, and the fact that a person bathes in the nude are determining factors.