The Case of the Queenly Contestant

“Now, Miss Adair, it’s my unpleasant duty to tell you that I am arresting you on suspicion of murder — the murder of Agnes Burlington. I want to warn you that you don’t have to answer any questions, that you don’t have to make any statements, that if you do make any statements they may be used against you. I want you to know that you are entitled to counsel at all times, and, for your information, Mr. Perry Mason, who is your attorney, was picked up by us and was advised that we we’re going to put you under arrest. He will be with you whenever you are interrogated.

“Now, then, I’m going to have to ask you to come to Headquarters and to advise you that you are under arrest.”

Ellen said, “I told you...”

“Hold it,” Mason interrupted, “hold it, Ellen. We’re not saying anything.”

“But I told him...”

“If you’ve already told him, he’ll remember what you said,” Mason warned, “but right now he’d like to get you to say something else.”

“Is there any reason why I can’t assert my innocence?” she flared.

“Every reason in the world,” Mason said. “He’ll get you talking on the little things, and the next thing you know you’ll be talking on the big things.”

“What big things, Counselor?” Tragg asked.

Mason grinned and said, “Some of the big things you’ve been uncovering.”

“Well, now, of course I don’t know what you mean by a big thing,” Tragg said, “but, for instance, we can prove that Ellen Adair’s car was in the driveway there at the Burlington duplex after the ground had become soft: a detective’s delight, Mason — it really is. I was very much surprised. We don’t ordinarily find anything that perfect.”

“Congratulations,” Mason said.

“Thank you, thank you very much, Perry. You see, she drove the car in and found the ground was soft and decided to back out, and she’s a good driver. Many drivers would have warped the front wheels a little bit, and that would have made them shovel the mud. You know how it is when the front wheels get out of line with the car in soft soil or sand.”

Mason nodded.

“But this woman,” Tragg said, “went out without turning the steering wheel. She just went in, found the ground was soft, and backed out, slowly and easily, without spinning the rear wheels; and the front wheels were just enough on a slant so that we got perfect impressions of the front wheels as well as the tires on the hind wheels. Of course, after a while the front wheels got into the groove and obliterated the tracks of the hind Wheels, but we got enough to make a perfect moulage. And all four wheels left perfect tracks. The ground was just the right consistency.”

“Indeed,” Mason said; “I thought when I looked at the ground that it was a little too soft and mushy to leave good impressions.”

“Well, that, of course, was later,” Lieutenant Tragg said. “We figure that the Adair car was parked in the driveway — or perhaps I should say driven into the driveway — and then backed out at just about the time of death.”

“When do you place the time of death?” Mason asked.

“That’s very tricky,” Lieutenant Tragg said, “and you’ll probably ask a lot of questions on cross-examination of the autopsy surgeons. But the best they can do with it is about twenty-four to thirty-hours before the body was discovered — rigor mortis had already appeared and left and there was, of course, well-settled postmortem lividity. If we knew when she had ingested the last meal it would help a lot, but evidently it was stuff she had cooked up herself there in the duplex and then she had washed the dishes, and so all we can tell is she was killed within about two hours of the time she ingested the food, but we don’t know exactly when that was.”

“The nature of the food tell you anything?” Mason asked.

“Well, well, well,” Tragg said, “this is the complete reversal of the usual order. In place of asking questions of a suspect, the suspect and her attorney are now asking questions of the peace officers. In view of the Supreme Court decisions. Mason, you’d better warn me that anything I say may be used against me.”

“Well,” Mason said, “if you’re interested in apprehending the real murderer, you should be willing to discuss the facts that have been uncovered to date.”

“Exactly,” Tragg said; “and if you’re interested in the administration of justice and in uncovering what you are pleased to describe as the real murderer, perhaps you’d answer a few questions yourself.

“Now, for instance, there’s this question of the package at the post office: an envelope mailed to Ellen Adair at General Delivery.

“Ah-hah, I see that jolts you a little. Miss Adair, didn’t think the police were that thorough, did you?”

“A letter?” Mason asked.

“Well,” Tragg said, “we think it’s more in the nature of a notebook. In fact, it’s about the size of a diary, Mason.