Страница 30 из 47
"Yes, you've told us all that before," Drake interrupted.
"Well, the logical thing for Charlie to do was to make a build-up so he could accuse Perry Mason of murder and order Perkins to take Mason and lock him up somewhere. Now, Charlie knew just as well as I do-in fact a damned sight better-that it wasn't murder, that it was a case of suicide, but he wanted to get Mason and Perkins out of there, so he accused Mr. Mason of the murder and got Perkins and Mason to go out.
"Now, I was watching that runway which led to the offices, and I saw Perkins and Mason go out. I went in just a second after they went out. I told the officers that Charlie was looking around in the chair in the entrance room when I went in there, and that's the truth, but before I went in that room, Duncan had been in the room where Sammy's body was slumped over the desk. I know that because when I opened the door to the outer office I could hear the sound of someone moving fast on the other side of the door, just as though Charlie had come ru
"Now, I'd gone in there on an emergency signal. I didn't know what was up and when I heard all the noise of ru
"My gun didn't come out easy, and maybe I was a little yellow. I hated like hell to push that door open the rest of the way, but I did it-and there was Charlie fumbling around in the chair, just like I told the officers.
"Now, I think that Sammy killed himself, that the gun had slipped down from his hand and was lying on the floor by the desk, that Charlie saw it there. He got rid of Mason and Perkins long enough to run in and pick up that gun. At first he intended to frame the killing on Mr. Mason. So he figured he'd slip the gun down in the cushions of the chair in which Mason had been sitting. But I came in there and found him fussing around that chair, and he didn't dare to do it then, because he was afraid I'd squeal. So he kept the gun in his pocket and ditched it later."
"How do you know what gun Grieb was killed with?" Mason asked.
Drake nodded and said, "That's the part that's important, Arthur. Just how do you know that?"
"Well," Ma
"Yes, we know all about that," Drake said. "Go on."
"Something else that isn't so generally known," Ma
"Well, one day Charlie Duncan and Sammy Grieb got in an argument about who was the best shot. They were both army men. Charlie bet Grieb fifty bucks he could come closer to a mark than Sammy could. Sammy got sore and put up the fifty. I was in the room at the time and they used me as stake holder. We went below the casino into a long storeroom where there were some heavy timbers and put up a target."
"Who won?" Mason asked.
"Grieb did. That was where he outsmarted Charlie. Charlie's a crack shot, but Grieb was familiar with the gun and Grieb stipulated that they were only to shoot one shot apiece.
"Now, after I got to thinking about what might have happened, I went down there below decks and started prowling around. Sure enough, I found one of the exploded shells that had been ejected by the gun and dug one of the bullets out of this heavy beam. Now I can swear those bullets came from Sam's gun and that's the same gun that Sam was killed with."
Mason raised his head and said to Paul Drake, "Have you checked up on this, Paul?"
Drake nodded. "I've got a photograph of the exploded shell which they found on the floor in the room where Grieb was killed and checked the mark made by the firing pin with that on the shell Ma
"And how about the bullet he dug out of the beam?" Mason asked.
Drake took a little glass tube from his pocket. The tube had been sealed up with a strip of gummed paper, on which appeared words written in pen and ink and a scrawled signature.
"I put the bullet Arthur gave me in this tube and sealed it up in his presence," Drake said. "That tube can't be opened without breaking the seal. You see, I've put the wax over the paper at the top."
"Good work," Mason said. "They'd probably accuse us of switching bullets if they could. Have you made a microscopic examination, Paul?"
"No, because I'll have to pull a few wires to get enlarged microscopic photographs of the fatal bullet, but it's a cinch the indentations made by the firing pin on both shells are the same."
Mason said slowly, "You know, Paul, this is important as hell."
"Of course it is," Drake said. "That's why I wanted you to hear Ma
"It's important to a lot of people," Mason went on slowly. "It means the insurance company can save forty thousand bucks in hard cash. It means Charlie Duncan will be out forty thousand bucks, hard cash. It means that, no matter what else happened aboard that ship, a murder charge can't be pi
Drake nodded.
Ma
"It'll help us, all right," Mason said, "but I don't know yet just how I'm going to spring it, or when I'm going to spring it. I want you to forget all about this for the time being, Arthur, and don't tell anyone anything about it."
Ma
"Well," Mason pointed out, "they may subpoena you before the grand jury that's making the investigation. If they do, you answer questions, don't tell any lies; but, answer the questions in such a way you don't volunteer any information-that is, unless Paul instructs you to play it differently."
"Yes, sir," Ma
"Who else knows about this shooting match?" Mason asked.
"No one except Charlie Duncan, and of course he isn't going to talk."
"Where did you say it took place?"
"Right under the casino; there's a long passageway ru
"Which way did they shoot, toward the bow or toward the stern?"
"Toward the bow."
"What was the distance?"
"Oh, I'd say about thirty or forty feet."
"And Grieb beat Duncan shooting?"
"Yes."
"But Duncan's a good shot?"
"Yes, but you see, it was Grieb's gun and Grieb knew just how to handle it."
"Is Duncan left-handed?"
"No, he's right-handed. Sam was left-handed. That's why he kept the gun in the upper left-hand drawer of his desk."
"They shot into a beam at the end of the passageway?"
"That's right."
"What was the target they were shooting at?"
"A round piece of tin they'd cut from a can with a can opener."
"How did they hold it in place?"
"Drove a nail through it and stuck it into the beam."
"That piece of tin would have been about two or three inches in diameter?" Mason asked.
"Yes, you know, just the top of a tin can, an average-sized tin can."
"But neither one of them hit it, did they?"
"Sure they did. Grieb hit it almost dead center. Duncan missed the center by about half an inch."
Mason regarded Paul Drake with speculative eyes and said, "How about Duncan, Paul? Is he telling the truth about having been ashore filing papers and all that stuff?"