Beware the Curves

it!” I said. “I know what I’m doing. Do what I tell you to and make the argument I tell you, and with that jury you’re going to be all right.”
    “They’ll convict him of something” he said.
    “All right,” I said, “it’s an unfair question to ask you in front of your client, but what tactics do you have planned? Do you dare to put Mrs. Endicott on the stand?”
    “No.”
    “Do you dare to put the defendant on the stand?“
    “No.”
    “What’s going to happen if you submit your case without putting either one of them on the stand?”
    He made a grimace. “Ansel’s going to be convicted of first-degree murder.”
    “All right,” I told him. “You’ve got to do what I tell you to whether you want to or not. Forget about your case. Concentrate on that gun, and when you make your argument, challenge the district attorney to tell the jury exactly what the prosecution claims took place. Dare him to reconstruct the crime for the jury.”
    Quinn was dubious. “He has the closing argument. He’s smart. If I challenge him, he’ll reconstruct that „ crime until the jurors will feel that they were in the room watching Ansel shoot Endicott in the back of the head.”
    “With the Helen Manning gun?” I said.
    He thought that over.

CHAPTER 23 …

    Court reconvened in the afternoon. The prosecutor recalled Steven Beardsley to the stand.
    Beardsley testified that the expert employed by the defense and he had examined the weapon in question, that they had both come to the conclusion the weapon he referred to as the second weapon was in all probability the one with which the murder had been committed. Beardsley testified also, however, that, while our expert had removed some samples of soil from that second weapon, enough soil remained embedded so that it was possible to obtain a soil classification.
    This soil was entirely different in character from the soil found at the hedge and the soil which adhered to the gun which had first been introduced in evidence, the gun which he referred to as the Ansel gun. The second gun he referred to as the Manning gun.
    There could, therefore, be no question but that the Manning gun had been buried for some period of time at a place other than in the hedge, that it had then been dug up relatively recently and placed in the hedge, that he could not of course state who had done this, but it had been done by someone.
    The witness looked at Mrs. Endicott. She met his gaze with steady eyes and an expressionless poker face.
    “You are satisfied that this weapon which you now refer to as the Manning weapon was the weapon from which the fatal bullet was: fired?”
    “Yes, sir. That is my opinion.”
    At the risk of being rebuked by the Court, I scribbled a note and had the bailiff deliver it to Barney Quinn.
    The note said simply, “No cross-examination and rest your case at once!”
    Quinn read the note, turned around and looked at me, frowned, thought for a moment, glanced at Irvine.
    Irvine bowed sardonically. “Your witness, Counselor,” he said.
    “No questions,” Quinn said.
    “That’s our case. The prosecution rests,” Irvine said.
    “The defense rests,” Quinn snapped.
    Irvine was taken manifestly by surprise. “Your Honor,” he said, “I... I am completely taken by surprise at this turn of events.”
    “There’s no reason why you should be,” Judge Lawton said. “I feel that a veteran prosecutor should have been able to have anticipated such a move. Do you wish to proceed with your argument?”
    “Very well, Your Honor,” Irvine said.
    Irvine made a great opening argument.
    Quinn followed and talked about the peculiar circumstances in the case, the fact that the murder weapon had been brought home to the witness Manning, that while there had been an attempt by innuendo to show that Mrs. Endicott had buried something in the hedge, the prosecution had not shown what that was.
    It was, Quinn pointed out, incumbent on the prosecution to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. It couldn’t prove that Mrs. Endicott had buried something, and that at a spot nearby other people had dug something up. It was incumbent on the prosecution to dig up every bit of earth in that hedge and show beyond all reasonable doubt that there was no other article buried there.
    Moreover, he asked how could Mrs. Endicott have had possession of the murder weapon? She had not been in. the house. If Ansel had wanted to kill Endicott, he would have killed him with the