63- The Case of the Shapely Shadow by Erle Stanley Gardner

Author:Erle Stanley Gardner [Gardner, Erle Stanley]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-02-19T10:04:19+00:00

Chapter 13

BACK IN HIS OFFICE, Mason moodily paced the floor.

Della Street, accustomed to the lawyer’s moods, sat at her secretarial desk and watched him with anxious eyes.

“What will happen if you don’t put her on the stand?”

“Nine chances out of ten she’ll be convicted,” Mason said. “If I put her on the stand, the way things look now, I think it’s a moral certainty she’ll be convicted.

“Apparently, Della, she was in love with Theilman and prior to Theilman’s second marriage they had some week ends together. Janice is trying to cover up the extent of her feeling for Theilman and undoubtedly would like to keep the evidence of those week ends out of the picture. The prosecution’s cross-examination of Janice about those week ends could tear the girl to pieces and wave the remnants in front of the jury— and if they should find she had any of the money that was in that suitcase, even one lone twenty-dollar bill, she’ll be finished.”

“Well, naturally,” Della Street said.

Mason went on, “There’s just too darned much evidence of blackmail here. There was no need to send Theilman txvo letters. There was no need to send one to his house and one to his office. And if Theilman was going to tell his secretary not to open any letters from A. B. Vidal, then why would he toss the Vidal letter and envelope in the wastebasket where she would be almost certain to notice them?

“And consider the blackmail letter. It simply told Theilman to get the money. It didn’t tell him to get a suitcase and put it in locker F082.

“Those instructions must have been given over the

telephone. If a blackmailer was going to phone his victim, why first send him a letter?

“Janice now indicates this whole blackmail idea may have been an elaborate cover-up so Theilman could get a large sum of cash and put across a business deal.

“The trouble with that is Theilman is dead. He can’t speak for himself. So when Janice starts speaking for him, everyone is going to listen to what she says with downright suspicion. When she tries to make Theilman’s words give her a defense, the jury won’t believe her. … And someone got away with a couple of hundred thousand dollars—all in twenties—ready for spending.”

Della Street shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, we’ve got to make it make sense before we’re through with it,” Mason said. “I’ve got to stand up in front of that jury and have a theory of the case that will make sense. What’s more, it’s got to be such a waterproof, airtight theory that this deputy district attorney can’t rip it apart.

“The way it looks now, there wasn’t any blackmailer, Theilman was working some sort of a razzle-dazzle to make it seem he was being blackmailed, but I can’t prove it.

“The minute Janice Wainwright gets on the stand and tells her story as we know that story, she’s sunk, Della…. And if they ever find so much as one twenty-dollar bill from that blackmail money in her possession, she’s going to the gas chamber.

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