Sarah Breel laughed. “Promise me,” she said, “that you’ll be careful.”
Mason patted her hand. “Leave the worrying to me,” he told her. “I believe that was the bargain, wasn’t it?”
“No,” she said with a smile, “Virginia took over the worrying concession.”
“That’s right,” Mason admitted, “perhaps she’s worrying now. Who knows?”
Sarah Breel flashed him a swift glance of pointed interrogation. But Mason, apparently intending his last remark merely as a pleasantry, moved back to the counsel table and started arranging his papers.
Court reconvened at the end of five minutes, and Carl Ernest Hogan, the ballistics expert, stepped forward and said, “Let the ·record show that, purely for the purpose of evidence in this case, I submit for inspection a certain revolver numbered R, nine-three-six-two. And the record can also show that I’m not going to let that gun out of my possession.”
“That’s quite fair,” Mason said. “I understand that this weapon is being held as evidence in connection with the homicide of George Trent.”
“That’s right,” Carl Ernest Hogan said.
“Lieutenant Ogilby, I am going to ask you if you have ever seen this gun before?”
“I have.”