The Case of the Defenseless Prosecutor
Chapter 22
22.1
Ironside was pacing in Perry Mason's office in his wheelchair. "Well, what is it Perry? Are they coming or not?"
Perry Mason hung up the phone. "Relax Bob. They're coming. Tragg sent Lt. Anderson to pick them up at the airport. You do have Ed and Eve in place, I assume."
"Are you telling me how to do my job, Counselor?" Ironside growled.
"Of course not. Will you relax? Good grief, Bob, how do Ed and Eve put up with you?"
"They don't have a choice. They work for me. We should have had everything in place by now," Ironside complained.
Della walked into the room. He handed Ironside a cup of coffee. "Oh great. Just what he needs….more caffeine. Thanks a lot Della," Perry said with a smile.
She smiled back at him and set another cup in front of him. "You don't need it either. Remember gentlemen, you are on the same team," Della told them.
"It is imperative that they be there," Ironside roared.
"They will be there, Bob." Perry leaned back in his executive chair behind his desk. Watching his brother closely, he finally said, "Are you worried he will get away with it?"
"Perry, he has got to admit certain things. It will insure that will we be able to wrap this whole thing around his neck."
"Are you having second thoughts about our plan?"
Ironside turned his wheelchair in Mason's direction. "No, I am not. Everything is hanging by a thread and I don't want that thread to break."
"It won't. This will work. Look Bob, we made this plan together. If there is anything you think that should be changed now is the time to speak up."
"No, there is nothing I would change. The big unknown is Moorey. Will he play along like he said or will he betray us?" Ironside wondered out loud.
"He is going to jail for murder. He'd get the death penalty for the killing of Conner Wolff. Wayland is willing to only seek life in prison. Shouldn't that be enough for him to cooperate?" Della asked.
"Not necessarily Della," Perry said. "Most of these kinds of people will cling to life. Ocassionally you will get someone who can't stand the thought of spending their life behind bars. So they would rather get the death penalty."
"Well then, which one is Moorey? Della asked.
"He's the classic type," said Ironside. He will cling to life. He is to much of a coward to face death."
"If you are sure of that, than what are you worried about?" Della inquired.
"Because even when I am sure I can never be completely positive," Ironside answered. A cop that is absolutely positive will overlook other possibilities."
"We are as sure as we can possibly be, Bob." Perry assured his brother.
Ironside scratched his chin and then began drumming his fingers on the arm of his wheelchair.
Perry shook his head and went back to his paperwork. The phone rang. Della picked it up. "Mr. Mason's office...just one moment, he is right here." She handed the phone to her boss. "Lt. Tragg."
Perry took the phone from Della and barked into the speaker. "Yes Tragg...were both of them there?...good, Bob will be happy to hear it and it will save me from having to replace the rug in this office." He hung up the phone and turned his attention to Ironside. "Tragg pick him up a few minutes ago. And our suspect came in as well. As soon as we hear from Sgt. Brown, it's a go."
"We have to play this just right. If we do not trip him up and get him to confess his involvement, then there might be that doubt in the public minds," Ironside said. "If Hamilton is to win re-election, we have to remove any doubt.
"But why? Even if you could not prove his involvement in the murder, you can certainly prove Daniel Moorey murdered Conner Wolff," Della pointed out.
Perry said. "We have a pretty good case against him but there is no such thing as a sure thing."
"Besides, there are a lot more involved in this...maybe they were not directly involved in the murder but I want to nail them too. We are hoping to turn them against one another," Ironside said. "If we can get them at each others throat then we will get the truth."
"And that is where Moorey comes in," Perry added. "It will be up to him to provoke all of these men."
"Will he be able to do it?" Della asked?
"He will provoke them with Hamilton's help and I do not think it will take that much. Each of them is blaming the others" Ironside wheeled over to Perry's phone, picked it up and dialed. "Ed, what in the blazes is taking so long?...Tragg called and said both of them arrive? You man should be arriving any time now. Have Moorey stand by and make sure the audio equipment is working properly….He doesn't know we brought him in...Alright, good. Keep an eye on Moorey, we're on our way." Ironside slammed the phone down. "Let's go."
22.2
Ed Brown watched Daniel Moorey. The man was nervous. Ed seriously wondered whether he would be able to pull this off. "Relax Moorey. I would not suggest you let Chief Ironside down. Remember the district attorney agreed not to go for the death penalty if you cooperated. All it would take is one word from the chief and you will end up on death row."
"What the hell do you think I'm doing right now? I said I would cooperate and I will. So get off my back Brown!" Moorey shouted.
"What time is the chief going to be here?" Eve asked, trying to change the subject to head off a confrontation between the two men.
"He was leaving Perry's office after I spoke to him. He wanted everyone here before he came in. He and Perry did not want to take a chance the van might be spotted," Ed answered.
Moorey looked at Ed with his dislike of Brown showing clearly on his face. "How do I know Burger will let Grant honor the deal Ironside and Grant made?"
"He'll honor it. What do you have to lose anyway? You have no choice but to cooperate. If you do not, Grant will ask for the death penalty."
"How do I know he won't do it anyway?" Moorey questioned.
"I would say you do not have much choice but to trust us. You will definitely get the death penalty if you do not cooperate so you do not have any choice. So settle down or you will never be convincing," Ed said.
22.3
"What the hell are we doing here anyway?" Complained William Morrison.
Charles Patrick paced back and forth. "Look we all know that Hamiton Burger is going to walk. Mason blew the prosecution's case to smithereens. Now I don't care which one of you murdered Wolff. As far as I am concerned, you did the world a favor. The important thing is we keep Mason and that damn San Francisco cop from digging any further. "
"Why? Are you worried that it will get out that the computer chip was nothing but a pipe dream?" William Morrison sneered. "Or maybe you are worried about Ironside being on your tail. Tell me Patrick, did you kill him?"
"Go to hell, Morrison. you had just as much reason to kill him as I did. He was blackmailing you too."
"Will you two knock it off!" Leo Baxter (Tennison Corporation) shouted. "The SOB was blackmailing all of us! The important thing is to keep Mason and Ironside from finding out why."
Bret Bradford (Fox Corporation) stood up. "I am with Morrison. I want to know what all of us are doing here. Whoever set up this meeting is, in the words of Robert Ironside, a flaming idiot!"
"Seems to me Bradford that you should have warned us about Ironside," Baxter said.
"Oh hell, Baxter. Have you been living on a deserted island for the past twenty years? Who among you is not familiar with Robert T. Ironside's reputation? You knew he would be a thorn in your side. You should have kept a closer eye on him. I could accuse you of the same thing regarding Perry Mason. You people have delt with him for years so why were you not keeping a closer eye on him?"
"What the hell are doing here?" Morrison asked again. "Is someone going to tell us just what the hell is going on?"
The door opened. Daniel Moorey walked in. "I see we are all gathered together."
All the men turned their attention to Moorey. "What are we doing here?"
"We need to talk, gentlemen." Moorey looked around the room. If these men had any idea that Ironside had this room wired they would realize they had all said enough to keep the Los Angeles police busy trying to decipher what they were all being blackmailed for and which one of them helped in the murder of Conner Wolff. That is, if Ironside did not already know who did it, which of course he did.
Moorey knew what Ironside was like. He had been hoping for a better deal from Ironside and Grant but even if he would have to spend the rest of his life behind bars, at least he would be alive. His partner in the crime would not fair as well. Grant would seek the death penalty for him. In any event, he was only concerned for his own hide. The rest of these guys could go to hell.
He had nothing but contempt for the whole bunch of them. He did not pretend to be something he was not. He knew he was no good but these guys were hypocrites. They pretended to be upstanding citizens parading around their perspective cities as honest businessmen trying to make an honest living. Yet, he knew the truth about each and everyone of them.
"Talking is one thing. Meeting here in Conner Wolff's office is the mother of all bad ideas," Morrison complained.
"What's the matter boys? Are all of you worried about Mason and Ironside?" He could not resist. An evil grin spread across his face.
"I suggest you tell us what this is all about, Moorey. If you don't, I am out of here," Bradford growled. "All of us have subpoenas to appear in court tomorrow.
"Oh none of you are going anywhere. Walk out that door and Ironside is going to receive a tip about what has been going on here. You see gentleman, Conner was a very good friend of mine. He was not smart enough to run an operation such as this by himself and I needed his expertise in computers to make our little venture successful."
"How do we know you are telling us the truth?" Brett Bradford asked.
"You of all people should know the answer to that, Bradford. Tell me why did you not have me prosecuted for stealing technology from your company?"
"I would like to hear the answer to that one myself," Morrison said.
Everyone looked at Bradford. When he said nothing, Moorey continued. "You see gentleman, Mr Bradford had been working with Conner Wolff secretly to developed that computer chip while Conner was working for the Conway Corporation doing the same thing. Unfortunately for them, Conner was also working with the Harris Corporation, isn't that right, Mr. Morrison?"
"I don't know what you are talking about," Morrison said indignantly.
"Sure, you don't...that is why you hired him, paying him over a million dollars. You thought you would steal the technology right out from the other two companies but Mr. Bradford hired a private detective to fine out which one of you actually hired him first. Can you tell the others who that was Mr. Bradford?"
"That chip was mine. The rest of you had no right to it," Bradford snarled.
"Then Conner double crossed you and was hired by the Harris Corporation. That way they could lay clain to the chip. After all, you could not very well tell your board what happened since you made the deal with Conner under the table. You could not lay claim, could you?"
"So now we have the Harris Corporation claiming that the chip was developed in your company. Everyone with me so far? Now here is where you came in, Mr. Patrick. You found out about what had happened. I do not know how but you did. You approached Conner and threatned to expose him. To keep you quiet he agreed to come to work for you and bring the chip with him. He destroyed all the plans at Morrison's company or so he thought. But you kept another set of plans that he did not know about. He brought the chip with him to Johnson Tech and began working for you so that you could lay claim to having developed the chip. However as you can tell from my little narrative, Connor never put all of his eggs in one basket. That is where you came in, isn't it Mr. Baxter? You contacted Connor privately. For a rather large sum of money, Conner then turned over the plans for the chip to you, at the same time making sure that Johnson Tech had a copy of the plans.
Then you Mr. Patrick, filed in court claiming that your company developed the chip. Morrison counter sued you. After Connor was murdered well then Mr. Bradford quietly filed in court claiming his company developed it. Then of course the most recent suit filed in this circus was yours, Mr. Baxter."
"You bunch of greedy bastards!" screamed Bradford. "That computer chip belong to me. It was developed in my corporation."
"Relax Bradford. You should have left the whole thing alone. You had the least amount of money invested in that chip," Moorey said.
"I paid him money. That chip belonged to my company!" Bradford yelled.
Moorey laughed. "There is something you just simply do not know. What do you say gentleman, should we let him in on it?"
Bradford looked around at each of the men in the room. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"The computer chip did not work. It never did. you were all swindled by Conner Wolff."
Bradford took a step toward Moorey. "What do you mean it did not work?"
"I mean exactly that. It did not work. Furthermore, Conner knew it didn't work from the very beginning," Moorey laughed.
"Exactly what part did you have an all of this?" Baxter asked.
"Let me finish my little narrative and then I will tell you," Moorey said. "Now we get to the good part. Connor begin blackmailing each of you. He threatened to go to your board of directors. He was going to tip them off as to what all of you had been up to. And everyone of you began paying him that blackmail. Because if you didn't , you all would have been out of a job. As you see, all of you had a motive to kill Connor Wolff."
"So again I ask you Moorey, what was your part in all of this?" Baxter asked.
"l set all of you up. Conner did exactly as I told him to do. We split the money between us. Now all of you are really going to pay. But first I want to introduce you to my partner."
The door opened Hamilton Burger walked in. "Hello gentleman."
"What the hell is he doing here?" Morrison cried angrily.
"As you might know Perry Mason has pretty much destroyed the prosecution's case against me. No jury is going to convict me of Conner Wolff's murder now. I don't care about the blackmail. You all got what you deserved. I want the man who murdered Conner Wolff."
You could have heard a pin drop in that room. Not one of the men said a word. Hamilton look from face to face. "Alright if you won't tell me, then we will go about this another way." He set a folder down on the table. Opening the folder, he turned the pages one by one until he found the one he wanted. "Mr. Morrison, I am sure you are aware that Conner Wolff deposited thirty thousand dollars in his account one day after you paid out the same sum to an anonymous source?" Burger handed him a sheet of paper. "I am equally sure that you did not know that that ten thousand dollars came from Mr. Patrick's account."
Morrison ripped the paper out of Hamilton Burger's hand. He was looking at a copy of Patrick's bank statement. "You rotten bastard!"
"He paid Wolf to blackmail you." Burger pulled out more sheets of paper. He handed each of the other men a copy of the appropiate bank statement. Each man realized that one of the others was paying Conner Wolff to blackmail them.
Baxter look at Burger with cold dark eyes. "So what? We were being blackmailed. There's nothing you can do about it.
"I don't think your board of directors is going to look kindly on embezzlement," Burger said. "Each of you had motive for his murder. "Do you really think that Perry Mason and Robert Ironside are going to stop until they know which one of you did it?"
"Let them investigate all they want," said Morrison. I am not guilty of murder. No one is going to hang that on me. you may have me on embezzlement but not murder, Burger."
"Mason and Ironside will find that I have an iron clad alibi," Baxter bragged. "They cannot hang a murder rap on me."
"I may not have an alibi," said Patrick. "but they do not have a shred of evidence that I had anything to do with his murder."
"Have all of you lost your minds? yelled Bradford. "This will ruin all of us."
"What else can we do? asked Morrison.
"He doesn't have to leave this room alive. We can pay Moorey to take care of him."
"You are the one who's lost your mind," Baxter said. "If he dug up this information so can Mason and Ironside."
"We can hire someone to hack into the banks computers and remove the information," Bradford insisted. "I know people who can do it. I have had it done before. I am NOT going to allow this man to ruin everything I have work for all my life"
"So you're the one who had Rustoff hack into the Bar Association's computers and plant that phony information in my file," Burger exclaimed.
"You can't prove that Burger. I am NOT a computer expert. I couldn't do it," Bradford taunted.
The door swung open and Robert Ironside wheeled into the room. "That was the bit of information that I could not get out of Rustoff. Aparently he did not know it was you who paid to have that done."
Bradford watched as Sgt. Ed Brown, Officer Eve Whitfield, Lt. Arthur Tragg, Lt. Andy Anderson all enter to the room with guns drawn." Perry Mason and Wayland Grant followed them in.
"Everyone in this room was faced with the same ruin Mr. Bradford. "You are the only one who suggested murder. But then, this would not have been the first time, would it?"
"I am not saying anything more. I want a lawyer. You can't prove murder, Ironside."
The door opened again and Commissioner Randall entered the room. No one noticed Otto as he made his way behind Bradford.
"I am afraid he can," Randall said. He set a recording on the table. Turns out what Bob and Perry had planned was not necessary." He pressed the button. It was a recording of him ordering Moorey to kill Ironside. He pressed to stop button and backed up the recording. Randall then pressed the play button. Again Bradford's voice was heard only this time he was telling Moorey he would be in Los Angeles the next day to help him take care of Wolff.
"He took money from me. I took that large sum out of the company. Sooner or later it would have been discovered. It would have ruined me. He promised that computer chip. I paid dearly to get it. "
"So you resorted to embezzlement and murder?" Randall said.
"You do not understand. Everything I have worked for all my life is in that company. He cheated me. He put me in a position where I would never have been able to return that money."
"Murder and embezzlement and for what?" Ironside asked.
"For a computer chip that didn't even work," said Perry Mason.
"Mr. Bradford, you are under arrest," Ironside told him.
Lt. Tragg steps forward, put the cuffs on Brett Bradford cited his rights. The rest of the officers holstered their guns.
Perry Mason looked at all of the men standing there. "I have no doubt that we will see you again once your companies have had you arrested for embezzlement of funds. Do not try to leave town. You will be followed and watched until we have the warrants to arrest all of you."
As Tragg led Bradford toward the door, his prisoner suddenly darted toward the desk, grab a letter opener with both hands and attempted to stab Ironside. Before any officer in the room could assist him, Otto leaped into the air and clamp his jaws down on Bradford wrist.
"Otto, flack!" Ironside shouted. The German Shepherd imediately released his hold on Bradfords wrist. Lt. Anderson helped Tragg subdue Bradford. The two of them took him out of the room.
Ironside took one last look at the rest of the men. "Like you were told. Don't try to leave town. You will be stopped. He turned his chair to wheel out of the room. "Ed, attend to Mr. Moorey please."
"Bob, you don't suppose, you can now get back to your real job do you?" Commissioner Randall said. "Crime seems to double when you are out of town."
"We have to have the case dropped against Hamilton and there are some loose ends to tie up. I would like to spend a little time with Della and Perry, see my father, and find out when I can take Mark home. Give me a few days, Dennis."
"Alright Bob. There is something that puzzles me about this case. For instance….."
"Not now Dennis. I am hungry. Why don't you join us for dinner? We have to stop by the office and pick up Della and Barbara. "We can discuss the case over dinner."
So what will it be tonight, chili?' Perry asked.
Ironside grinned. Excellent idea. "Come on Otto, you have earned a steak dinner.
Epilogue to follow…..