“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“In the first place,” Mason said, “there are two of them, and there’s only one of you. In the second place, they can deny that they were in the house, and you can’t deny anything. In the third place, the district attorney will be giving them the sanction of his official blessing, which will indicate that he believes their story. In the fourth place, there’s no circumstantial evidence involving them, and there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence involving you. They found a gun in your bag. They found the diamonds in your bag.”
“As I understand it,” she said, “when I was picked up, I was lying on the pavement where I’d been knocked by the car. My bag was lying close to me, and I believe it was opened.”
“I believe it was,” Mason said.
“Have you asked the man who struck me whether he was absolutely certain the gun was in the bag or was lying so close to the bag that he thought it had been in the bag and had fallen out when the bag was knocked out of my hand?”
“I haven’t asked him that yet,” Mason said, “because I haven’t had an opportunity to cross-examine him.”
“But you will have an opportunity to cross-examine him?”
“Yes, of course.”
“And you will ask him that?”