The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece (16 page)

"Perhaps I did."

"And make the bed?"

"Perhaps."

"That," Mason announced with a triumphant glance at the jury, "is all."

"Call John J. Duncan," Blaine announced as Hamilton Burger settled back in his chair, to let his deputy take the lead for a while. Duncan strutted pompously forward and was sworn. "Your name is John J. Duncan. You are an attorney from Illinois, and you know the defendant, Peter Kent?"

"Yes."

"You were, I believe, in his house on the thirteenth and the morning of the fourteenth of this month?"

"That's right. I engaged in a business conference with Mr. Kent and with Mr. Perry Mason, his attorney. There were also present at the conference Helen Warrington, Mr. Kent's secretary, and my client, Frank B. Maddox. I believe there was also present a Dr. Kelton."

"What time did you retire?"

"Around eleven o'clock. I had a talk with my client in his bedroom after the meeting with these other gentlemen split up."

"Did you see Mr. Kent later on during the evening?"

"I saw him early on the morning of the fourteenth."

"At what time?"

"At precisely three o'clock in the morning."

"Where did you see him?"

"In the patio of the house."

"Can you point out on the map, People's Exhibit Number One, the exact spot where you first saw the defendant at that time?" Duncan indicated a point on the diagram.

"And where on the diagram is your bedroom located?" Duncan indicated. "And from your bedroom you could plainly see the defendant?"

"Yes, sir."

"When did you first see him?"

"I was awakened by a shadow falling across my face. I woke up and saw someone moving across the porch. I jumped up, looked at the clock to see what time it was, and went to the window. I saw Peter Kent, the defendant, attired only in a nightgown, walking across the patio. He had a knife in his hand. He walked to a coffee table, paused for a few moments and then crossed the patio and vanished through the door on the other side."

"By the door on the other side, you mean the spot which I am now indicating on the map, People's Exhibit Number One, and marked for identification 'Door on North Side of Patio'?"

"I do."

"And approximately where was this coffee table located?" Duncan made a mark with a crayon on the map.

"Yes."

"You say you looked at the clock?"

"I did."

"And what time was it?"

"Three o'clock."

"Did you turn on a light to see the clock?"

"I did not. The clock had a luminous dial and I was able to see the position of the hands."

"Did you look at the clock before or after you observed the figure in the patio?"

"Both. I looked at it as soon as I sat up in bed, and I looked at it when I returned to bed after seeing the defendant cross the patio and vanish through that door."

"What did you do, if anything?"

"I was very much concerned, put on a bathrobe, opened the door from my bedroom into the corridor, looked up and down the corridor, saw no one and then decided that, since I was in a hostile house, I'd mind my own business. I went back to bed and eventually went to sleep."

"I think, if the court please," Mason said, "we are entitled to have stricken from the answer of the witness the fact that he was in a hostile house. That is a conclusion of the witness and the answer, insofar as it relates to his motives, is not responsive to the question, and is, in addition, objectionable."

"It may be stricken out," Judge Markham ruled.

Blaine turned to Perry Mason and said, "You may cross-examine, Mr. Mason. Perhaps you'll want to ask him why he went back to his sleep."

Judge Markham frowned at Blaine and said, "That will do, Mr. Blaine."

"Yes," Mason said easily, "I will ask him just that. Mr. Duncan, how did it happen that you were able to go back to bed and go to sleep after seeing so startling a sight?"

Duncan leaned forward impressively. "Because I was tired," he said. "I'd been listening to you talk all the evening."

The courtroom burst into a roar of laughter. The bailiff pounded with his gavel. Judge Markham waited until order had been restored, then said to the witness, "Mr. Duncan, you're an attorney. You need no instructions as to the duties of a witness. You will please refrain from attempting to provoke laughter or from adding to your answers comments which are uncalled for. You will also refrain from indulging in personalities with counsel."

Duncan hesitated a moment, then said, in a surly manner, "Yes, Your Honor."

Judge Markham stared steadily at the witness, seemed about to add something to his admonition, but slowly settled back in his chair, nodded to Mason and said, "Proceed, Counselor."

"If the Court please," Mason said, "I am perfectly willing to take the answer of the witness at its face value. I am not asking to have any part of it stricken out. I would like to cross-examine him upon that statement.

"Very well," Judge Markham said, "you may cross-examine him on that statement just as much as you want to, Counselor."

Mason rose to his feet, stared steadily at Duncan. "So you were so tired from hearing me talk all evening that you were able to go back to sleep, is that right?"

"That's what I said."

"You talked with your client for an hour or so after you both sought your rooms?"

"Yes."

"My talk hadn't made you so sleepy that you couldn't stay awake to discuss certain matters of strategy with your client?"

"I talked with him."

"And went to bed about eleven o'clock?"

"Yes."

"Yet, after four hours of sleep, the soothing effect of my conversation was still so great that the startling apparition of a man clad only in a nightdress, carrying a carving knife and prowling around in the moonlight didn't interfere with your slumbers, is that right?"

"I was awakened. I looked up and down the corridor," Duncan said.

Mason continued to bore in. "And went back to sleep, Mr. Duncan?"

"I went back to sleep."

"Within a very few minutes?"

"Within a very few minutes."

"And you have testified on oath that you were able to do this because of the wearying effect of my conversation?"

"You know what I meant."

"The only means I have of knowing what you meant, Mr. Duncan, is what you said, and that, of course, is the only way that the jury has of knowing what you meant. Now, let's be frank with the jury. I didn't talk at our conference more than a very few minutes, did I?"

"I didn't time you."

"For the most part, my conversation consisted in saying 'No' to your demands, didn't it?"

"I don't think we need to go into that."

"But when you said my talk had made you so tired that you had no difficulty in going back to sleep, you were exaggerating the facts of the case, weren't you?"

"I went back to sleep."

"Yes, Mr. Duncan, and the real reason you went back to sleep is because you didn't see anything particularly alarming about the figure when you first noticed it, isn't that right?"

"A man walking around at night with a carving knife is alarming to me," Duncan snapped. "I don't know whether it would alarm you or not."

"Exactly," Mason said. "And if you had seen a carving knife in the hand of the person you saw walking about the patio at three o'clock in the morning of the fourteenth, you would have been sufficiently startled to have notified the police or aroused the household, wouldn't you?"

"I don't understand your question. I saw the figure, I saw the knife and I went back to sleep."

"I'll get at it another way," Mason said. "Isn't it a fact that you didn't see the carving knife clearly?"

"No, I saw it."

"This same carving knife?" Mason asked, gesturing toward the blood-stained knife which had been introduced in evidence.

"That same one," Duncan snapped. Mason said nothing but stood smiling at him. Duncan fidgeted uncomfortably and said, "At any rate, a knife which looked very much like that."

Mason stepped back to the counsel table, opened his brief case and pulled out a brown paper parcel, took off the paper and produced a horn-handled carving knife. "I will hand you this carving knife," he said to the witness, "and ask you if this isn't the carving knife which was in the hand of the figure which you saw walking across the patio."

Duncan said savagely, "No, it isn't."

"How do you know it isn't?" Mason asked.

"Well," Duncan said, "I don't think it's the same one."

"You want the Court and the jury to understand that you could see that carving knife plainly enough to identify it?"

"Not to identify it, but I could get a general description of it."

"And you're certain this wasn't the carving knife?"

"I don't think it was."

"Are you certain it wasn't?"

"Well, of course, I couldn't be certain at that distance."

"Then you can't be certain that this knife, which has been introduced by the People as Exhibit Number Two, was the same knife, can you?"

"Well, no," Duncan said, "I can't."

"I think," Mason remarked, "I'm going to ask the court to have this second knife marked for identification as defendant's Exhibit A."

"I object," Burger shouted. "That knife, Your Honor, doesn't enter into the case in any way. That is simply a trick by which the counsel for the Defense has sought to becloud the issue. I can prove that counsel for the Defense got that knife long after the murder through a hardware…"

Mason whirled savagely toward him, but before he could interrupt, Judge Markham had snapped forth a ruling. "That will do, Mr. District Attorney. Never mind what you can prove as to the source of the knife. This witness has testified that the figure he saw in the patio was carrying a knife which he thinks was People's Exhibit Number Two; that it was, at any rate, similar in appearance. It is legitimate cross-examination to produce another knife and ask him the questions which Counselor Mason has asked. No objection was made to those questions when they were put to the witness. Counselor is now asking only that the knife be marked for identification, in order that the identical knife concerning which the witness was interrogated can be identified. It is entirely proper. The Court will mark the knife for identification as defendant's Exhibit A."

Mason turned, suddenly whirled to face Duncan and said, "Mr. Duncan, isn't the real reason that you were able to go back to sleep due to the fact you didn't realize at the time the figure you saw was carrying a knife?"

"I saw that he was carrying something in his hand, something that glittered."

"But isn't it a fact that you didn't realize that it was a knife and it wasn't until after the murder had been discovered the next morning that it occurred to you that it must have been a knife. Didn't you see merely a white figure walking in the patio? Didn't you think it was someone walking in his sleep; and didn't you decide that you weren't going to interfere, but safeguarded yourself against intrusion by locking your door, and then went back to sleep?"

"I didn't say the man was walking in his sleep."

"But I'm asking you if it isn't a fact."

"Yes."

"And isn't it true that the only reason you were able to go back to sleep was because you didn't see a knife in his hand clearly enough to recognize what the object was?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Can you be more positive than that?"

"Yes. I saw the knife."

"Now, the figure went to the coffee table in the patio?"

"Yes."

"Did you see him raise the lid of the coffee table?"

"Yes."

"And you saw the figure then leave the coffee table, walk across the patio and leave the patio by the door which you have indicated?"

"Yes."

"After the figure left the table, did it continue to carry the knife?"

"Why, yes… I don't know… I can't say."

"Would you say that it was not carrying the knife?"

"I wouldn't say one way or another."

"Then it is possible that the figure left the knife in the oblong receptacle underneath the top of the coffee table?"

"I can't say."

"Are you certain that the figure had a knife before it reached the coffee table?"

"Objected to, as already asked and answered a dozen different times," Burger said.

"I'll let him answer this one question," Judge Markham ruled, leaning forward and staring steadily at Duncan.

"Yes," Duncan said, "he had a knife in his hand."

"You're certain of the identity of the figure you saw?" Mason asked.

"I am."

"It was the defendant?"

"It was."