Mason shook his head. “Don’t ever leave me like that again, Della,” he said, his voice choking. “I need you.”
“But, Chief, I had to. I couldn’t... Oh, I simply can’t be the one to put you on the spot!”
Mason stared at her, comprehension showing in his eyes. “Della,” he said, “you couldn’t... you wouldn’t...”
She nodded. “I couldn’t go against you, Chief, and after all, it didn’t make any difference as far as the case was concerned. I knew that the law couldn’t make me testify, but I was afraid the newspapers could play up my refusal...”
“The law can make you testify,” Mason said.
“Why, I thought a lawyer’s secretary was in the same position as a lawyer in being a witness against a client.”
“She is,” Mason told her, “but that applies only to confidential communications. It doesn’t keep a lawyer’s secretary from testifying things she’s seen. And you know how I feel about suppressing evidence, Della. Any time I have to win my cases that way, I’ll quit practicing law. Now tell me just what it was that you saw.”
She clung to him. “Chief, I’m so darned sorry! I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t thought they couldn’t make me testify. But you know how it would look in the newspapers... I wasn’t hiding from the law, Chief, I was hiding from the newspaper men.”
Drake said, “The more I hear, the less I know. I wish you two would come down to earth and tell me what the devil you’re talking about.”
Mason said, “Don’t you see, Paul, she’s the...”