“Never mind any of that evidence now,” Judge Romley interrupted. “What we are trying to do now is to prove the corpus delicti.”
“Well,” the captain remarked patiently, “I don’t know what that is all, I know is what I did.”
“Then you never did check all of the staterooms and all of the passengers against the passenger list?”
“Not then,” Captain Hanson admitted.
Scudder, desperately worried, said, “Your Honor, I have not concluded. I appreciate the position in which the Prosecution finds itself. It’s rather a unique position. I may say, of course, that as a Prosecutor, I have no sympathy with a criminal who seeks to hide behind a technicality...”
“That will do,” Judge Romley interrupted. “You will confine your remarks to the proper subjects, Counselor. You know such remarks are improper.”
“I beg the Court’s pardon,” Scudder said. “My feelings got the better of me. May I ask, if the Court please, that we have an adjournment until three o’clock this afternoon? There’s one more witness I hope to be able to produce at that time.”
Judge Romley nodded. “The request is rather unusual, but the circumstances are equally unusual. The Court will take a recess until three o’clock this afternoon,” he said.
Chapter 15
Drake pushed his way through the spectators, to reach Mason’s side. “Okay, Perry,” he said, “I think we have something.”