“And one of the officers said that that might be fixed up, didn’t he?”
“Well, he said that if the prosecuting witness didn’t show up, it was no skin off their shins.”
“All right,” Mason said, “now getting back to what you did after you left Hogarty’s apartment. You telephoned a friend of yours. Isn’t it a fact that that telephone call was to the Home Kitchen Cafe, and that you talked with Hazel Stickland?”
Serle’s face showed alarmed dismay. “Why... I...”
“Remember,” Mason said, leveling a rigid forefinger at him, “you’re under oath.”
“Well, yes. I did call her, but not at the café.”
“And what did you tell her?”
“Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial, and not proper cross-examination,” Kittering said.
“Sustained,” Judge Knox ruled. “You may fix the time of the conversation, counselor. The subject matter would seem beyond the scope of proper cross-examination.”
“Your Honor, I think this conversation is pertinent,” Mason said.