“Absolutely not,” Dr. Wallace said positively, and somewhat belligerently. “When I discharge a patient as cured, he’s cured. If there had been any possibility of an immediate recurrence of this condition, I would not have discharged him. Of course, you’ll understand, however, if there’d been some independent shock, some other injury, perhaps, it is possible that another and separate traumatic amnesia might have developed, but it would have been entirely separate and distinct. Of course, there’s nothing except the law of averages which prevents a man who has been run over by an automobile and treated by me going out and immediately becoming involved in another automobile accident. Yet they are separate and distinct accidents.”
“We understand that,” Scanlon said. “Now, what can you tell us about the identification you have made?”
“Well, in view of the condition of the cadaver,” Dr. Wallace observed, “my identification must, of course, be predicated upon certain matters of circumstantial evidence. For instance, it has been definitely established that the man who gave me the name of Carl Packard at the hospital, and who apparently lived in Altaville, was, in reality, an investigator for the Board of Fire Underwriters, named Jason Braun. He had apparently taken the alias of Carl Packard for the purpose of facilitating some of his investigations, and, having recovered his memory as to his alias, he naturally remembered his reason for concealing his true identity. Which is why he never once mentioned the name of Jason Braun to me, but agreed with me in the assumption he was Carl Packard of Altaville.
“Now, the Board of Fire Underwriters has its investigators all fingerprinted and, despite the partial decomposition of the cadaver, the ridges and whorls of the fingers can be readily ascertained. While I am not a fingerprint expert, I am an anatomist and I have carefully compared the fingerprints of the cadaver with those of Jason Braun. Having first assured myself that the man whom I treated was in reality Jason Braun, I have no hesitancy in identifying that man as being one and the same person with the cadaver lying at present in the undertaking parlors adjoining this room.”
“I think that’s all, Dr. Wallace,” Scanlon said.
“Just a moment,” Perry Mason observed. “Might I have the indulgence of the coroner in asking one or two questions?”
The coroner nodded.
“At the time this man, Packard, or Braun, whichever you wish to call him, recovered consciousness at the hospital — that is, when he recovered his knowledge of his identity — did he discuss the accident with you, Doctor?”
“He did.”
“What did he say about it?”