“And,” Mason interrupted, “when the finger-print expert hangs an enlarged photograph of your finger-prints found on Walter’s wallet up in front of the jury, you’ll have plenty of time to think over how much better it would have been to have followed your lawyer’s advice.”
Her eyes were wide and frightened, as the full meaning of his remark penetrated her consciousness. Then her chin came up and she said, “All right, you don’t need to rub it in. It’s no skin off your nose.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Do you know who did?”
“I— No... unless Rossy did.”
“If you’re lying to me,” Mason said brutally, “they’re going to put a coarse hemp rope around that pretty neck of yours and drop you through a trap — and they may do it anyway.”
“I’m not lying. And, after all, Mr. Perry Mason, it’s my neck.”
Mason’s eyes showed approval. “Well,” he said, “you can take it, anyhow. That’s a lot better than having a woman on my hands who’ll get hysterical and go to pieces on the witness stand. Now, get this, and get it straight. The district attorney will start springing stuff on you. First, he’ll pretend that he hasn’t any case against you, is holding you more or less on suspicion, and that if you’d only deny the charges against you he’d probably turn you loose, but he can’t do it in the face of public opinion while you’re refusing to make any comments. Then, after he lures you into making a few more statements, denying this, that and the other, he’ll start springing evidence on you and ask you to explain that. He’ll do it all in a fatherly sort of manner and pretend that your release is just around the corner. Then, as you keep getting in deeper and deeper, he’ll start tightening the screws a little at a time, until you finally find yourself in a blind panic. Then, when you quit talking to him, he’ll turn the newspaper people loose on you and they’ll use all the wiles of the profession in order to get you talking. They’ll tell you what a powerful factor public opinion is. They’ll tell you how much good it’ll do your side of the case if their sob sisters dress up a swell story of how you tried to protect your sister and inadvertently got involved in a murder charge. They’ll tell you how nice it’ll be for you if your name is kept before the public, how they’ll give a prominent position to your interview, a sympathetic treatment to your story; how they’ll pay you to publish your memoirs or your diary. And they’ll use a hundred other different arguments to get you to talk. Do you understand?”
She nodded.