Judge Mann watched Hunter's faint smile appear and fade.
"Thank you for remembering that now, Miss Welsh. Is it your custom to
look at your watch when anything captures your interest?"
"I explained why I did that when I heard the car."
"Yes, you were concerned about juvenile delinquency."
"I didn't say that!"
"Why, I thought I heard a reference to the menace of juvenile
delinquents in parked cars."
"Oh, that--dare say I was thinking out loud."
"I see. Thank you. Had you other reasons to check the time?"
"Well, I wondered if the family was expecting C'lista, so I--"
"Miss Welsh, in direct testimony you said you wondered if the family was
expecting _anyone_, no names mentioned. Then you admitted this deep
concern about juvenile delinquents in parked cars. Now we learn the
family might have been expecting Callista. All three statements true?"
"Oh, what's all the fuss? I knew it was her car."
"But preferred not to say so in direct testimony. All right--how did you
know it was her car?"
"I _explained_ that. Loose license plate, and that buzzy noise."
"You did testify to hearing something like a loose license plate. You
didn't say Miss Blake's car had one."
"Well, it did, and I heard it."
"Miss Welsh, a hypothetical question. If, when the defense opens, you
learn that Miss Blake's Volkswagen had a garage check-up on Friday,
August 14th, and that the license-plate holder was repaired at that
time, would you, if recalled under oath, still claim you heard that
plate rattling on Sunday evening, August 16th?"
The passion of resentment simmering behind the woman's blinking eyes was
a kind of sickness. Once or twice she opened her lips without sound;
then: "All I got to say, it wasn't natural how men went crazy for
her--not even pretty--any man, garage man, anything in pants--"
Mann thought sharply: _Okay, that's torn it._ He saw Warner turn slowly,
facing the bench. "Your Honor, I respectfully request that this witness
be held in contempt of court."
Mann flipped the doodle-pad face down. He said: "There will be a
ten-minute recess. Counsel in chambers, please. The jury will remain."
Entering the dingy retreat off the courtroom, he was aware of T. J.
Hunter standing aside to let Warner precede him. "You don't want to toil
up to the sixth floor, do you? I suppose I could locate a nip of
something."
Warner said: "No, Judge, I'm too fat to ride that thing you call an
elevator. It busts, I'm liable for have-his-carcass."
"All right--shouldn't anyway. We'll settle for a smoke."
Warner sat down, an old man and weary, impersonally accepting the
impersonal courtesy when Hunter snapped a lighter for his cigarette. His
fat hand waved aside the curling fantasy of smoke between him and his
enemy. "Okay, T. J., I think you asked for it. Why couldn't you
establish _corpus delecti_ with Herb Chalmers? Could've, no sweat."
"Grab off a natural defense witness when I don't have to?"
"What makes you think I want Herb?"