The Diamond Bullet Murder Case Part 8

"Yes," Gillian answered.

"What are you going to do?"

"That's what I'm working on now," he said. "You're right. She must not take the stand. She must not even testify at the grand jury inquiry. Truman must lie. He must say he did not leave his farm the night or morning of Grundle's murder. At his trial, I will not let him take the stand."

"But how about the girl? If you don't let her testify, and if you plant the idea that Truman was on his farma"isn't the conclusion obvious that the girl is guilty?"

Gillian nodded. "You have summed up the problem perfectly," he said.

"Is there a solution?" Miss Walsh asked.

He turned from her and looked down the river. He took several puffs at his cigar. He blew several smoke rings at the ceiling.

"You've heard a great deal lately, haven't you," he asked, "about my trickery?"

"Yes, Mr. Hazeltine."

"It comes down to this," he said. "Give a dog a bad name often enough and long enough and, pretty soon, the dog gets it into his head that he's a pretty wicked pupa"I'm that dog."

Miss Walsh gave him a radiant smile.

"That's a relief," she said. "You can't be tricky enough to please me. I want you to make them change it from courtroom 'Barnum' to courtroom 'Houdini.' Smash 'em!" Her eyes sparkled. "I meant what I said about quitting. You know very well that, if it weren't for me snapping the whip over you, you'd never get a stroke of work done. You lose this case and I start that sour crabapple farm!"

"I'll do my best," Gillian promised.

Governor Judson Withrow, calling from the State capitol, telephoned Gillian at his house that night. He wanted to know what was going on in Clinton.

"What's behind the curtain, Gill?"

Gillian told him bluntly. "It's a rats' nest. All I'm trying to do is put a bell on the leading rat."

"If you can bell that rat," the Governor said, "you'll earn my everlasting grat.i.tude. If you need helpa"holler."

"Thanks, Judson."

In the following days, Elton Dawbridge did his best, his worst, and his utmost to plug whatever guns Gillian might be preparing to wheel into the fray. A clever man, this Dawbridge. He worked on public sympathy until public sympathy wavered and fell his way. Gillian felt his steel more than once in those exciting weeks.

The mystery, meanwhile, remained a mystery. The picturesqueness of the missile used to kill Amos Grundle tantalized the public. There were newspaper rumors that the diamond was losing its popularity as an engagement stone.

The newspapers were very much interested in knowing why Jim Truman maintained such a grim silence. And why did the Hearthstone girl stubbornly refuse to answer all questions?

The logical answer was summed up succinctly in the single word: Guilty.

A quickly summoned grand jury tried to question them. Jim Truman was indicted after a hearing lasting no more than an hour. The testimony of the coroner and John Beckwith, Clinton's leading jeweler, established a circ.u.mstantial chain which was d.a.m.ning.

Jim Truman was remanded to the superior court, Clinton County, Judge Lindley presiding, for trial.

CHAPTER 13. LIFE ON TRIAL.

THE jury box was slow to fill. Gillian Hazeltine suspected that the panels were handpicked. His only effort was to fill the box with men who resided in remote parts of the countya"men who might not be directly under Dawbridge's dominance. Gillian used up his last peremptory challenge on juror Number 10. Twenty minutes later, the trial was under way.

Gillian looked pale and haggard, as he always did at the outset of a trial. But Elton Dawbridge looked triumphant. His face was flushed. His eyes glowed and sparkled. He had the air of a man fighting his way to a triumphant victory.

At Gillian's table sat Seth Peters, Nellie Hearthstone and Jim Truman. Nellie was all in black, which contrasted sharply with her pallor, and gave her spiritual beauty.

The State's first witness was Dr. Adam Vollmer, the coroner. He was a horse-faced man of forty-five, with ink-black hair and very blue eyes under thick black brows.

He testified that he had been called to the flooded quarry on the afternoon of September fourth to examine a body which had come to the surface.

"Did you identify the body as the remains of Amos Grundle, of Blue Hill Road?" Dawbridge asked.

"I did," the coroner answered.

"How long would you say, in your expert opinion, the body had been in the water?"

"About a week."

"What did you do with the body?"

"I had it removed to my establishment on Main Street for a thorough examination."

"Did you perform an autopsy?"

"I examined the body superficially. Later, I performed an autopsy."

"What did you find, doctor"

"I found that Amos Grundle had met his death as the result of a diamond that had been fired into his body, presumably from the rifle found lying under a bush near the quarry."

"Do you identify this as the rifle?" The county prosecutor picked up a rusty Army rifle from his table. It was a late model Springfield, with bolt action and telescopic sightsa"a sniper's arm. The coroner examined the rifle and stated that it was the one found under the bush. It was admitted as material evidence, Exhibit A, for the State.

"Now, doctor, will you kindly tell the jury in what part of Amos Grundle's body you found the diamond?"

"It was lodged in the third rib down on the left side, just above the heart."

"Not in the heart?"

"No, sir."

"Didn't you make the statement that you had found the diamond lodged in the heart?"

"I did. That was before I made a thorough examination."

Dawbridge flashed a gleam at Gillian. He was making sure that Gillian could not make a point of this in his cross-examination.

"Will you tell the jury, doctor, just why you made that statement? To be explicit, why did you first say that the diamond was in the heart, and later change your statement?"

"I hardly need to say that it is extremely unpleasant to handle bodies which are in the advanced state of decomposition in which Amos Grundle's body was when I took charge of it. My superficial impression was that the diamond had gone into Grundle's heart, causing instantaneous death. I packed the body in ice for several days, to arrest further decomposition processes. When it was possiblea"a couple of days latera"I made the thorough autopsy."

"Would you recognize the diamond if you saw it?"

"I believe so."

Elton Dawbridge opened a small black box and removed from it a white pebble that glittered and sparkled. "Is this the diamond?"

The coroner examined it. "Yes, sir."

"How do you identify it?"

"By its old-fas.h.i.+oned cut and the scorched appearance at the edges."

The county prosecutor introduced the diamond as Exhibit B for the State. It was admitted as such, and the diamond was handed to the jury.

Dawbridge walked slowly toward the witness stand with his hands in his pockets.

"Dr. Vollmer," he asked in a clear, strong voice, "would you say that the shock of that diamond striking Amos Grundle in the rib was responsible for Amos Grundle's death?"

"I would indeed."

"Kindly elaborate on this point to the jury."

The coroner complied: "The shock of the diamond striking a man so close to the heart might readily result in such a shock to the vasomotor system that death would almost instantly follow."

Gillian objected. "Your honor," he said, "it has not been established that that diamond was fired at Amos Grundle at close range."

Dawbridge said: "Your honor, let me put a question to the witness which will, I believe, clear up this point. Why, Dr. Vollmer, do you state that the rifle from which the diamond was discharged was fired at close range?"

"Because the dead man's s.h.i.+rt was considerably scorched about the hole where the diamond entered."

"In that case," Gillian said, "the s.h.i.+rt in question should be submitted to this court as material evidence. I want to see that s.h.i.+rt."

The coroner was looking at him with hard, narrowed eyes.

"The s.h.i.+rt was lying on a chair with the dead man's outer clothing the evening of the inquest. That night, a grind of men forcibly entered my establishment and made off with that clothing. They were identified as Silky Davis's gang. Perhaps you know something about it."

"Your honor," Gillian said indignantly, "I humbly request that the witness's last sentence be stricken from the record. It is self-evidently an a.s.sumption, impossible to prove."

Judge Lindley looked at him coldly. "I will reserve decision until this discussion is settled," he ruled.

"I want to see that s.h.i.+rt," Gillian insisted. "It either proves or disproves a vital point. Was that hole scorched or wasn't it?"

"I submit, your honor," said Dawbridge dramatically, "that the witness is credible, a man of established reputation, and under oath. He says he saw the scorched hole. Will you give us a ruling?"

"Objection is overruled," said his honor.

"But where's the s.h.i.+rt?" Gillian asked plaintively. Several people laughed.

The judge glared. "There will be no horseplay in this court," he snapped.

"The State will continue."

"I will repeat a previous question," the prosecutor obliged. "You say, do you, doctor, that the diamond struck Amos Grundle in the rib with sufficient force to result in instant death?"

"I do."

"That will be all," Dawbridge said.

Gillian began his cross-examination. He walked toward the witness and did not stop until he was six feet away. His eyes went to grips with the coroner's.

"You said a moment ago, doctor, that your official duty in examining the corpse was extremely distasteful?"

"I did!" the doctor snapped.

"It was so distasteful, in fact, that you postponed a thorough autopsy for several days."

"It was very distasteful."

"How did you find that diamond in the first place "By probing!"

"Was the diamond embedded in the rib?"

"It may have been when it killed Mr. Grundle. It came out easily enough."

"Kindly explain yourself."

"I mean that, after death, decomposition set in. The shattered section of the bone became practically jellylike."

Gillian frowned. "I can't understand, if the diamond was in a rib, why you stated it was in the heart."

"My first a.s.sumption happened to be incorrect. It took considerable probing to bring out the diamond. I merely a.s.sumed that it had got into the heart. I later ascertained it had not entered the heart."

"Did you examine the heart?"

"Yes."

"Did you examine the lungs?"

"I did not consider it necessary."

"You did not consider it necessary," Gillian said, with angry surprise, "to ascertain whether Amos Grundle had perhaps not met his death by drowning?"

"No," the coroner answered. "If Mr. Grundle had died by drowning the legal status of the case would have been the same as if he had died instantly when the diamond struck him. He would have drowned as a direct result of a murderous a.s.sault. Am I right?"