The Case of the Fenced-In Woman (16 page)

"You can always begin again where you left off," Sergeant Camp told him. "Let's go."

Mason followed the officers down to his room.

"You came over here in a hurry, didn't you, Mason?" Tragg asked.

"I do many things in a hurry."

"You bring any baggage?"

Mason said, "All my baggage is here in my room."

Tragg said, "Well, we'll only detain you a moment, Mason. We have an anonymous tip that you have a briefcase full of securities that were the property of Loring Carson, a briefcase with the words 'P. MASON' stamped on it. You carried it here from Los Angeles."

Mason said nothing.

Sergeant Camp saw and pounced on the briefcase.

"Here it is," he said to Lieutenant Tragg.

Tragg's eyes narrowed. Then he looked at Mason, then back to Camp.

"Open it," he said.

Sergeant Camp opened it.

"So you say he's truthful!" he exclaimed.

"Well, I'll be damned," Tragg said. "This is the first time I've ever known him to tell a lie."

"What do you mean a lie?" Mason asked. "You didn't ask me if I had a briefcase filled with securities. You asked me if I had securities given me by either Vivian Carson or Morley Eden. Every one of your questions related to securities I had received from them."

"Okay, okay," Tragg said. "Let's agree that my questions may have been misleading. Now where did you get these securities?"

"I can't tell you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Simply that I can't tell you."

"Nuts to all that stuff," Camp said. "You can do whatever you want to, Tragg, but I wouldn't believe this guy on oath. We're taking this briefcase."

"Inventory the contents," Mason said.

"Nuts," Camp repeated. "We'll take the inventory at Headquarters. Come on, Tragg."

The two officers marched out of the room, taking the briefcase with them.

Mason walked over to pick up the phone. "When's the next plane to Los Angeles?" he asked.

Chapter Twelve

PERRY MASON sat with Morley Eden in the attorneys' visiting room at the jail.

"If I'm to be your attorney, Morley," he said, "you have to tell me what happened."

Morley Eden looked at him with anguished eyes. "I can't do it, Mason."

"Nonsense. You can always tell your attorney anything." Eden shook his head. "Why not?"

"It's too damned… In the first place, if you knew the true facts in the case you wouldn't believe them, and in the second place you wouldn't represent us."

"Did you kill him?"

"No."

"Do you know who did?"

"No."

"But you want me to represent you and Vivian Carson?"

"Yes. We're going to be indicted by the Grand Jury. We'll be jointly charged with first – degree murder, and they're going to make out one hell of a case, Mason, I'll tell you that. They're going to make out a case by circumstantial evidence that-I don't know if you can beat it."

Mason said, "That's all the more reason why you should tell me what actually happened. I have to know what I'm up against. The best defense to circumstantial evidence, provided, of course, that a man is innocent, is the truth."

"I tell you," Eden said, "the truth isn't going to help you. It would give you a hopeless case. As long as they're relying on circumstantial evidence you're going to have to go in there and try to beat it. I don't know how much they have. They may have a little or they may have a lot. If they have all of it we're lashed to the mast. We'll never get out of the mess. Your only hope, our only hope, is that they don't have all of it. We were trapped by circumstances. I can't even discuss it."

"Why do you want me to represent Vivian Carson?" Mason asked.

"Because we're going to be charged together in an indictment."

"That doesn't make any difference," Mason said. "If you didn't kill him, perhaps Vivian Carson did, and I don't want my hands tied in your defense by-"

"No, no, no, Vivian didn't kill him. I know that. I swear it."

"How do you know she didn't?"

"Because she was… Because I know."

Mason regarded the man with thoughtful eyes. "Look here, Morley," he said, "is there any chance that you think you're in love with Vivian Carson?"

Morley Eden met his eyes. "I know I'm in love with her, Mason. It's something that I never thought could happen to me. It's one of the most devastating emotional storms I ever experienced. I… I can't begin to tell you what she means to me or how it happened. It just hit me-well, from the first minute I saw her. And that's one of the things that you're going to have to take into consideration. After all, she and Loring Carson were still married. There had been a divorce decree but it was only an interlocutory judgment. The interlocutory would have to run for six months before there would be a final dissolution of the marriage. The prosecution will use my love for her as a motivation for the murder of her husband."

"When did all this happen?" Mason asked.

"What?"

"Your falling in love with her."

"Almost from the first time I saw her."

"That, as I remember it," Mason said, "was when she was in a very abbreviated bikini."

"All right, it was," Eden said. "And she seemed-well, there was something essentially feminine about her, a daintiness, a grace, a- She was a, vision of loveliness."

"You were lonely," Mason said. "You'd been a widower, you'd been living by yourself. You came to your house, found a fence running through it. You opened the door, went into the house trying to find what in the world had happened, and there you found this woman, this vision of loveliness, as you call it. Then a little later you saw her by the pool, taking a sunbath in a bikini.

"She had quite evidently planned the whole thing: the setting, the discovery, the bikini she was wearing-probably even the lighting effect. She knew about when you were due back. She wanted you to-"

"All right, suppose she did," Eden said. "You know what she wanted at the time. She wanted me to file suit against Loring Carson. She wanted to try and discover some of the hidden assets which she was satisfied he'd been concealing in preparation for the divorce action. She has told me all about it. She intended to get me to make a pass at her and then take me before the court on contempt proceedings-in case I didn't file suit against Loring Carson."

"All right," Mason said, "go on. Tell me about the development of this emotional storm."

"The next morning she was nice to me. She handed me coffee through the fence and…"

"And you started to get acquainted?" Mason asked.

"Yes. It was just a start."

"Then what?"

"Then you came out and she staged that lingerie show and hang it, Mason, the thing appealed to me. The gameness of the woman; her ingenuity; the way she was fighting back with the cards stacked against her. I was there in the house and after the party was over-well, she pulled back those silly curtains and I was in the living room and I looked at her and suddenly started laughing, and then she began to laugh and then we sat and visited for-well, it was a long time."

"How long?"

"Until the small hours of the morning, if you want to know."

"And you knew you were in love with her?"

"Yes."

"Did you tell her so?"

"Now look. Mason, that has nothing to do with the case; but as a matter of fact, I…"

"Did you or didn't you?" Mason asked, as Eden hesitated.

"I didn't," Eden said, "but she could tell that I was tremendously interested in her and I realized that I was drawing out a side of her that had lain dormant for a long time. She had been the victim of a terribly unhappy marriage. She had been married to a louse, a heel, a-"

Mason held up a warning hand. "The man is dead. You're going to be accused of murdering him. Don't cultivate that type of thinking."

"I don't care," Eden said. "That's what he was. He was a louse. Here he was, married to Vivian, and he was neglecting her, running around with another woman and, in place of going to her frankly and telling her what had happened and that he wanted his freedom and trying to give her an opportunity to salvage something of her life, making a fair division of the community property and doing what should have been done under the circumstances, he started trying to cheat her out of what was rightfully hers. He hired a detective under such circumstances that-well, it may have been an innocent mistake, but I'm inclined to think he deliberately framed the whole business so he would have some excuse for blackening her name in the press, ruining her reputation. Then he started concealing assets, juggling things around so that no one could tell anything about his net worth and-"

"All right," Mason said, "all right. It's plain to be seen that you're looking at the entire situation through her eyes."

"I am," Eden said, "because her eyes have the true perspective."

Mason said, "When the prosecution gets all that it will have a swell motive. Now I want to know what happened. I want to have it so you can go on the witness stand if you have to and-"

"Let me tell you this, Mason," Morley Eden said, "please believe me. I tried something and it didn't work. I thought I could outsmart the police. It was perhaps the most ghastly decision I ever made in my life. It's got us both in a situation where we'll be crucified by what we have done.

"Now then, so far it's only circumstantial evidence. I understand a good lawyer can beat a case of circumstantial evidence."

"It depends on the evidence," Mason said.

"Well, there's always a chance as long as the case is based on circumstantial evidence alone, but the minute we go on the stand and tell our story we're crucified. You'd never stand a chance of getting us off then. No lawyer would."

Mason said, "I'll do this much, Eden. I'll stay with the case until I find out what the evidence is against you. If at the close of the prosecution's case I decide that you're going to have to go on the stand, then you're going to have to tell me your story and then you're going to have to go on the witness stand."

"Will there be time for all that?"

"I'll be able to have a brief adjournment from the time the prosecution finishes with its case and the time we have to start putting on the defense," Mason said. "I'll take your case with the understanding that if, at that time, I think the case against you is too strong to be knocked out of court without your testimony, you'll then tell me exactly what happened."

"All right," Eden said, "it's a deal."

He reached out and gave the lawyer his hand. "The only thing is," he said, "you're to go up to that point simply looking for weak places in the prosecution's case and not feeling in the back of your mind that you're going to rely on what Vivian and I can tell you."

Mason shook hands. "It's your funeral," he said. "And I mean that literally."

Chapter Thirteen

JUDGE NEDLEY C. FISK, a benevolent – appearing gentleman with a mind as sharp as a razor, glanced at Morrison Ormsby, one of the more deadly competent members of the district attorney's trial staff.

"The peremptory is with the People," Judge Fisk said.

Ormsby, intently studying a series of cabalistic notes marked opposite the names of the prospective jurors, said without looking up, "The People pass their peremptory at this time."

Judge Fisk looked at Perry Mason. "The peremptory is with the defendant."

Mason arose and said gravely, "The defendants are completely satisfied with this jury, Your Honor."

Ormsby, caught by surprise, looked up incredulously. The defense in an important murder case had not exercised a single peremptory challenge.

"Swear the jury," Judge Fisk directed the clerk.

After the jury had been sworn, Judge Fisk said, "The remaining members of the panel are excused from this courtroom.

"The persons who now compose this jury are warned that they are not to form or express any opinion in regard to the merits of this controversy until it is finally submitted to them. They are not to discuss the evidence in this case, nor are they to permit it to be discussed in their presence. Court is going to take a fifteen – minute recess before starting evidence in the case. Court will reconvene at exactly ten o'clock."

Judge Fisk left the bench.

Mason turned to where Paul Drake and Della Street were seated beside him.

"Well," he said, "this is a lawyer's nightmare. I'm going to listen to the evidence without having the faintest idea of what the prosecution is holding up its sleeve until they start throwing punches."

"You can't get a word out of the defendants?" Drake asked, looking over to where Morley Eden and Vivian Carson were seated between two officers.

"Not a word," Mason said.

"Well, the prosecution has got something all right," Drake said. "They're keeping it buttoned up, but Ormsby is as snug as a bug in a rug."

"I know," Mason said, "but he doesn't want to be too sure. I'm going to use every psychological trick that I can. I'm going to keep within the letter of the law but I'm going to make him prove these defendants guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.

"This is a case that is going to depend almost entirely on circumstantial evidence. It is a rule of circumstantial evidence, a rule of law in this state, that if the circumstances can be explained by any reasonable hypothesis other than that of guilt, the jurors are bound on their oaths to accept that hypothesis, and acquit the defendants.

"That is of course merely another way of stating the rule of law that a defendant can't be convicted unless the evidence proves him guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. If there is a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors they must resolve that doubt in favor of the defendants, and acquit.

"However, the rule has a peculiar application in regard to circumstantial evidence and I propose to rely on it."

Della Street said, "The newspaper reporter who said you were going to rely on technicalities-was that what he meant?"

"He didn't know what he meant," Mason said. "He was trying to get some copy and he was mad because I wouldn't outline to him what my defense was going to be."

"Well, that's the spirit of the law," Drake said. "A defendant doesn't have to prove himself not guilty, the prosecution has to prove him guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. A defendant can simply sit quiet and rely on his presumption of innocence to see him through."

Judge Fisk returned to the bench. The jurors took their seats. The press, having played up the house divided by barbed wire and the two defendants who had supposedly been mortal enemies but now were jointly charged with murder, had made the story one of the big crime pieces of the year.

By this time it was well known that Mason was, to use the expression, "going it blind," that his clients were not making any statements to anyone, had made none to the press and didn't intend to make any.

Some of the reporters had intimated that this was simply masterly strategy on Mason's part and that the defendants were following their attorney's instructions. Others, however, were convinced that Mason was as much in the dark about the defendants' side of the case as anyone-a situation which brought sex, mystery, drama and an unusual setting into a murder case and resulted not only in a jam – packed courtroom but in a crowded corridor where people waited, hoping that by standing in line during the morning they might have some chance of getting into the courtroom in the afternoon.

"Does the prosecution wish to make an opening statement?" Judge Fisk asked.

Ormsby nodded, arose and said, "May it please the Court, and you ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this is going to be one of the briefest opening statements I have ever made.

"The decedent, Loring Carson, and the defendant, Vivian Carson, were husband and wife. They weren't getting along. Vivian Carson sued for divorce.

"In the meantime, Morley Eden, the other defendant, hired Loring Carson to build a house for him. That house was built upon two lots which the defendant, Eden, purchased from Loring Carson.

"I won't go into all of the legal difficulties, but it turned out that of the two lots on which the house was built the decedent, Loring Carson, owned one as his separate property and the defendant, Vivian Carson, owned the other as her separate property. When the title was adjudicated Vivian Carson placed a fence along her boundary, dividing the house into two parts. The defendant, Morley Eden, having a deed from Loring Carson, owned the other side of the house.

"Each defendant had a grievance against Loring Carson: Vivian Carson, because she felt her husband had been secreting money in such a manner that she couldn't get a fair accounting in the divorce action. As the evidence will show, this suspicion was justified.

"Morley Eden had purchased lots from the decedent, Loring Carson, and had paid him to build a house on those lots. He found out that Carson had lied to him as to the title and that as a result Morley Eden's house was partially built on property which did not belong to him.

"We are going to show that Loring Carson did have assets which he had been concealing and that he had arranged to conceal those assets in a place where he felt they would not be discovered-in a secret receptacle by the swimming pool of the house he was building for Morley Eden.

"By an ironic twist of fate, it turned out that of the two lots, the one awarded to the defendant, Vivian Carson, as her sole and separate property, contained the place of concealment for Loring Carson's undisclosed assets.

"Loring Carson went to the premises and opened this secret place of concealment on the fifteenth day of March of this year. He evidently intended to leave his concealed assets right where they were, feeling that no one would ever suspect that his hiding place was actually right under the very eyes of his estranged wife.

"However, he was too confident. The defendants found his hiding place, and killed Loring Carson, either in cold blood or in an altercation which followed the finding of his hiding place.

"The defendant, Vivian Carson, waited until her ex – husband had betrayed the place of concealment, then, entirely nude, she emerged from the Morley Eden side of the house, while Eden stood guard. She swam under the barbed – wire fence and withdrew an unknown amount of cash and securities valued at more than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars from this hiding place. The securities were found in the possession of Perry Mason on the day of the murder.

"Loring Carson discovered what was happening and was killed by the defendants."

"The Court will instruct you that once it has been established that a defendant, any defendant, has killed another human being, the burden of proof shifts to that defendant to prove any circumstances by way of extenuation or justification.

"It is true that we expect to establish our case in part by circumstantial evidence. Circumstantial evidence, however, is good evidence. We will show you beyond any question of doubt, by circumstantial evidence alone, that the defendants, acting together, killed Loring Carson and then attempted to conceal the evidence of their crime.

"The People of this State ask only justice at your hands.

"Thank you."

Ormsby walked back to his chair and sat down with the air of a man who is doing a disagreeable duty but intends to do it most competently.

Mason waived any opening argument at that time.

Then Ormsby, working with calm, dispassionate efficiency, his manner as thoroughly professional as that of a surgeon performing a difficult operation, started a procession of witnesses to the stand.

First he called an autopsy surgeon who testified that in his opinion Loring Carson had been dead anywhere from three to five hours when he made his examination. He placed the time of death as being between 10:30 A.M and 12:30 P.M on the fifteenth day of March.

Death, in the opinion of the autopsy surgeon, had been almost instantaneous, produced by a stabbing wound from a knife with an eight – inch blade. The wound had penetrated the heart muscle, but there had been a relatively small external hemorrhage, most of the bleeding being internal.

In the opinion of the autopsy surgeon the decedent had not moved from the time he was stabbed until death resulted, other than to collapse in his tracks and sprawl out on the floor.

Ormsby next introduced certified copies of the interlocutory judgment disposing of the property and awarding one of the lots on which the house had been built to Vivian Carson, the other lot to Loring Carson. He introduced a certified copy of the restraining order, restraining Loring Carson, his representatives, agents or assigns, from trespassing in any way on the property set aside to Vivian Carson.

Ormsby next called the surveyor, who testified briefly that he had been called by Vivian Carson; that he had been asked to have everything in readiness so that he could leave at a moment's notice on a Saturday morning; that Vivian had called him, had had a locksmith who had opened the doors and made keys for the locks on her side of the house; that she had then instructed him to survey a line which was two inches inside her property line; that a construction crew had been waiting and that as soon as he had run a line through the house which was two inches inside of the line of property awarded to Vivian Carson, she had instructed the contractors to start stringing the fence.

The witness stated that he had remained on the job until the fence was completed, checking it with his transit; that he had gone to the opposite side of the house and had surveyed a line just two inches inside of the property line and had seen that when the fence was carried through the house the wire remained a uniform distance of two inches inside the property line.

"Did this defendant, Vivian Carson," Ormsby asked the witness, "make any statement to you at that time as to why she desired the fence line to be kept two inches inside of her property line?"

"She did."

"What did she say?"

"She said that if Morley Eden so much as put a finger on that fence it would constitute a trespass and a violation of the restraining order and she intended to have him cited for contempt."

"Did she make any statement indicating how she felt toward the decedent, her former husband?"

"She said she hated the ground he walked on."

"Did she make any other statement?"

"She said that he was a heel and a louse and nothing would give her greater satisfaction than to stick a knife in his ribs."

Ormsby glanced significantly at the jury. "Would the witness mind repeating that last statement?" he asked. "What was it she said?"

"That nothing would give her greater satisfaction than to stick a knife in his ribs."

"You may cross – examine," Ormsby said.

Mason smiled at the witness. "Have you had any experience with divorce?" he asked.

"Not personally."

"Among your friends?"

"Yes."

"You've known other women who have obtained divorces from their husbands?"

"Yes."

"And talked with some of them shortly after the divorce was granted, and while they were still in a bitter frame of mind?"

"Yes, sir."

"Offhand," Mason said, smiling affably, "about how many of those people have made statements to the effect that they'd like to stick a knife in their ex – husband or that he was a heel and a louse, or that they'd like to scratch his eyes out, or words to that effect?"