«What did she say?»

«She denied using the car except to make that one loop in the motel grounds. She said that she had been in her room in the motel for some two hours. She emphatically denied having been in any other collision.»

«Then what happened?»

«I checked the license number of her car; I found two significant figures; I checked the make of the car; I found enough evidence to take her into custody.

«Later on, I returned to the scene of the accident. I picked up pieces of broken headlight which had come from her car; that is, they matched the broken lens on the righthand headlight.

«I then went to the scene of the accident on the coast road and picked up a bit of glass there which had come from a broken headlight; then I removed the headlight from her car and patched all of the pieces of the glass together.»

«Do you have that headlight with you?»

«Yes.»

«Will you produce it, please?»

Auburn left the stand, picked up a cardboard carton, opened it and took out an automobile headlight. The lens had been patched together.

«Will you explain these different patchings, please?»

«Yes, sir. This small piece around the rim was the part that was in the headlight of the defendant's automobile at the time I found it. I have marked those two pieces number one and number two with pieces of adhesive tape which have been placed on them.

«The pieces of glass I found at the scene of the accident at the Saint's Rest Motel, I numbered number three and number four; and these three pieces, numbers five, six and seven, were picked up at the scene of the hit-and-run on the coast road.»

«You may inquire,» Caswell said.

«No questions,» Mason said cheerfully.

Judge Grayson looked at him. «No questions, Mr. Mason?»

«No questions, Your Honor.»

«Now then,» Caswell said, «I would like to recall George Eagan to question him on another phase of the case.»

«Very well,» Judge Grayson said.

Eagan approached the stand. «You're already under oath,» Caswell said.

Eagan nodcjed and seated himself.

«Did you ever at any time approach the defendant and ask her to tell you about a will?»

«I never saw the defendant in my life until I was taken to see her in the jail.»

«You never gave her five hundred dollars or any other sum to make spurious copies of any wills?»

«No, sir.»

«In short, you had no dealings with her whatever?»

«That is right.»

«Never saw her in your life?»

«No, sir.»

«You may cross-examine,» Caswell said.

Mason regarded the witness thoughtfully. «Did you,» he asked, «know that you were a beneficiary under Lauretta Trent's will?»

The witness hesitated.

«Answer the question,» Mason said. «Did you or did you not know?»

«I knew that she had remembered me in her will. I didn't know for how much.»

«You knew, then, that when she died you would be comparatively wealthy.»

«No, sir. I tell you I didn't know how much.»

«How did you know that she had remembered you in her will?»

«She told me.»

«When?»

«About three months ago, four months ago-well, maybe five months ago.»

«You did a great deal of cooking, preparing foods that Lauretta Trent ate?»

«Yes, sir.»

«Outdoor cooking?»

«Yes, sir.»

«You used quite a bit of garlic?»

«She liked garlic. Yes.»

«Did you know that garlic was a good method of disguising the taste of powdered arsenic?»

«No, sir.»

«Did you, at any time, put arsenic in the food you prepared?»

«Oh, Your Honor, if the Court please,» Caswell interposed. «This is completely incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. It's insulting the witness and it's calling for matters which have not been mentioned on direct examination. It is improper cross-examination.»

«I think it is,» Judge Grayson ruled, «unless counsel can connect it up. It is quite all right for him to show that the witness knew he was a beneficiary under the will, but this is an entirely different matter.»

Mason said, «I expect to show that a deliberate attempt was made to poison Lauretta Trent by the use of arsenic on three distinct occasions. And on at least one of these occasions, the symptoms followed the ingestion of food prepared by this witness.»

Judge Grayson's eyes widened. He sat forward on the bench. «You can prove that?» he asked.

«I can prove it,» Mason said, «by pertinent evidence.»

Judge Grayson settled back. «The objection is overruled,» he snapped. «Answer the question.»

Eagan said indignantly, «I never put any poison in Mrs. Trent's food. I don't know anything about any poison; I didn't know she had been poisoned. I knew she had had a couple of spells of severe stomach trouble and I had been told that they would be aggravated by eating highly seasoned foods. I had, therefore, talked her out of having another outdoor feed which she wanted. And for your information, Mr. Mason, I don't know one single, solitary thing about arsenic.»

«You knew that you were going to profit from Lauretta Trent's death?» Mason asked.

«Oh, now, just a minute,» Caswell said. «This is not a proper interpretation of what the witness said.»

«I'm asking him,» Mason said, «if he didn't know in his own mind he was going to profit from Lauretta Trent's death.»

«No.»

«You didn't know that you would be better off than your monthly salary?»

«Well… well, yes. She as good as told me that.»

«Then you knew you would profit from her death.»

«Not necessarily. I would lose the job.»

«But she had assured you that she was going to make it up to you so that there wouldn't be any loss?»

«Yes.»

«Then you knew you were going to profit from her death.»

«Well, if you want to put it that way, I knew I wouldn't lose anything. Yes.»

«Now then,» Mason said, «how was Lauretta Trent dressed on this last ride?»

«How was she dressed?»

«Yes.»

«Why, she had a hat, coat and shoes.»

«What else was she wearing?»

«Well, let's see. She had a topcoat with some kind of a fur, neckpiece rather, that fastened on to the coat in some way.»

«And she was wearing that?»

«Yes, I remember she asked me to cut down the car heater because she wanted to keep her coat on.»

«She had been where?»

«To Ventura.»

«Do you know what she had been doing in Ventura?»

«No.»

«Don't you know that she had been looking at some property up there?»

«Well, yes. I know that we drove to a piece of property she had contemplated purchasing and we looked it over.»

«And she had a handbag?»

«Yes, of course, she had a handbag.»

«Do you know what was in it?»

«No, sir. The ordinary things, I suppose.»

«I'm not asking what you suppose. I'm asking what you know.»

«How would I know what was in her handbag?»

«I am asking you if you know.»

«No.»

«You don't know a single thing that was in her handbag?»

«Well, I knew there was a purse in there… No, 1 don't know what was in there.»

«As a matter of fact,» Mason said, «don't you know of your own knowledge that there was the sum of fifty thousand dollars in cash in that handbag?»

The witness sat bolt upright in surprise. «What?»

«Fifty thousand dollars,» Mason repeated.

«Heavens, no! She wasn't carrying any such sum in cash.»

«You are positive?»

«Positive.»

«Then you know what wasn't in her purse.»

«I know that she would never have carried any such sum of money with her without telling me.»

«How do you know?»

«Just by knowing her.»

«Then the only way you know she didn't have that money with her is by reaching a conclusion based upon an assumption. Is that right?»

«Well, when you come right down to it, I don't know she didn't have that money with her,» the witness admitted.