The Case of the Grinning Gorilla

“Because if the newspapers get hold of that story of hers that Mrs. Kempton killed Benjamin Addicks, it will set off a chain reaction of adverse public statement. I don’t dare take that chance.”

“But isn’t it a crime to conceal a witness?”

“What is she a witness to?”

“Well, all of the things that she’s told you.”

“She’s told me a lot about the disappearance of Helen Cadmus,” Mason said, “and she’s told me a lot of stuff that she heard from Benjamin Addicks about Addicks’ past life, but that doesn’t mean she’s a witness to those things. She could talk to a newspaper reporter but she couldn’t talk to a jury. She isn’t a witness unless she can testify to something. The thing we’re investigating at the present time is the murder of Benjamin Addicks. She can’t testify to a damn thing in that.”

“Just the same, if the police find out...”

Mason grinned. “Remember what the fortune cake said, Della — ‘courage is the only antidote for danger.’ ”

Chapter number 16

Perry Mason’s interview with the newspaper reporters brought instant response.

Sidney Hardwick, as the attorney who had represented Benjamin Addicks during his lifetime, and as attorney for the executor of the estate, promptly denounced Mason’s interview as “sheer wishful thinking, an attempt to cloud the issues, a fevered imagination desperately seeking some way of escape for a desperate client.”

District Attorney Hamilton Burger characterized it more sharply. “An attempt to squirm out from under by blackening the reputation of a dead girl who is no longer able to defend herself. A dastardly, despicable, last-minute attempt conceived in deceit, born in desperation, and ultimately destined to crucify his client.”

Mason, with the newspapers tucked under his arm, walked into court to attend the preliminary hearing in the case of People versus Josephine Kempton.

James Etna, moving up alongside, said in a low voice, “I think we won’t have any trouble getting a continuance, Mr. Mason.”

“Who wants a continuance?” Mason asked.

“Good heavens, we don’t want to go to trial the way things are now, do we?”

“We may not want to go to trial,” Mason said, “but I’m perfectly willing to hear what they have to say by way of evidence in a preliminary hearing.”

“Well, you’re the boss,” Etna told him. “I know that the district attorney really wants a continuance, but, of course, he wants the defendant to ask for it.”

Judge Mundy took his place on the bench. The court was called to order.

“People versus Kempton,” Judge Mundy called.

“The defense is ready,” Mason said.

District Attorney Burger’s face showed surprised irritation. “I had understood that the defendant wanted a continuance, and the prosecution was prepared to stipulate that a continuance would be granted.”

“I don’t know what gave you that understanding,” Mason said.

“I received that understanding from a conversation with someone who had been talking with James Etna, your associate counsel.”

“Did you indeed?” Mason told him. “Just who was this person and what did he say?”

“I prefer not to divulge the source of my information.”

Mason said, “I have made no request for a continuance and I’m quite certain Mr. Etna didn’t.”

“I didn’t say that he made a request for a continuance.”

“The defense is entitled to proceed if it wishes,” Judge Mundy ruled.

“We’re prepared to go ahead,” Hamilton Burger said sullenly.

“Very well, proceed.”

Burger called one of the radio officers who had answered the call to Stonehenge as his first witness. The officer described conditions as he had found them, told about the night watchman running around with a gun, the dogs having a gorilla up a tree, two more gorillas roaming loose in the house, about the cages, the discovery of the body in the upstairs room, the resulting trouble that ensued in trying to corral the huge gorillas.

Finally, with the aid of two experts from the zoo, some drugged fruit, and by utilizing the combined services of the police and fire departments, the apes were returned to their cages shortly before daylight.

“Cross-examine,” the district attorney said.

Mason smiled.

“No questions.”

Burger called one of the radio officers who had seen Mason and Mrs. Kempton, as he expressed it, “fleeing down Rose Street.” Later on they were joined by Della Street. He had, he stated, advised them that they would have to go to headquarters for questioning.

“Cross-examine,” Burger said.

Mason said, “I believe I understood you to state that the defendant and I were fleeing down Rose Street.”

“Yes, sir, that’s what I said.”

“And you put us in an automobile?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How did you know we were fleeing?”

“I could tell it by your manner, the high speed at which you were walking, the way you were looking back.”

“I see,” Mason said. “Now then, shortly after you placed us in the automobile you fled to police headquarters, didn’t you?”

“I did what?”

“You fled to police headquarters.”

“I took you to police headquarters.”