“That’s all,” the coroner said.
“May I ask one question?” Perry Mason inquired.
The coroner nodded his permission, and Mason said, “Did you go out to lunch shortly after that telephone conversation, Mr. Wray?”
“Immediately afterwards,” Wray said.
“That’s all, thank you.”
Dr. Hubert, an autopsy surgeon, was called, identified three bullets, one of which had been taken from the body of the deceased, the remaining pair having been found in the room after having evidently passed entirely through the decedent’s body.
The physician described the course of the bullets. One of them had inflicted a wound which would not necessarily have been fatal. The other two inflicted wounds which were instantaneously fatal. Powder marks indicated the shots had been fired at close range. He described how the body had been found, and testified that death had been instantaneous. He fixed the time of death as between noon and two-thirty in the afternoon. The body had been discovered shortly before five o’clock in the evening.
E. Q. James, a criminologist attached to the district attorney’s office, identified a gun, together with micro-photographs of test bullets which had been fired from that gun which showed that they were identical with the three bullets which had been placed in evidence by the autopsy surgeon.
The coroner called Stella Anderson. She strode up to the witness stand, back rigid, chin up, eyes flashing, her flushed face showing her enjoyment at finding herself in the limelight. While she testified as to her name and residence, newspaper photographers snapped flashlight photographs of her on the witness stand.
Under questioning by the coroner, she repeated what she had seen in the Prescott house the previous day.