"Case dismissed. The bailiff will release the defendant, and take Mr. Slone into custody," the judge said, banging his gravel.
The defendant let out a big sigh of relief. Turning to his right, he extended his hand to Perry Mason and thanked him profusely. He next expressed his gratitude to Paul Drake, who had just arrived in the courtroom, and then he hurried away into the arms of his waiting family.
"Well, Perry," Hamilton Burger said, stepping across the aisle which seperated the prosecutor's table from the defense's. "It looks like I have to congratulate you, yet again. But how did you know that the half-full glass of lemonade was evidence that Slone had committed the murder?"
Perry gave a short, triumphant laugh.
"It will take me a while to explain. Why don't you and Tragg join us for dinner, and we'll go over it then?"
"I think I will take you up on that offer," the district attorney said, with a smile.
For the first time since the hearing had ended, Perry turned towards Della.
"Come, Della, we are all going to that steakhouse you like -," he suddenly stopped, mid-sentence.
Della had risen from her chair and had started to collect the papers from the defense table, as was her wont at the end of a case. But instead of putting them in her employer's briefcase, she was simply clutching them, as if her hands had frozen. Perry noticed that she was as white as a sheet, and, in the next second, she began to sway. Her balance was lost, and she began to fall towards the floor.
"DELLA!" Perry's cry was so loud that everyone still in the courtroom instantly turned and stared at the developing scene.
The defense attorney sprang forward and caught his secretary in his arms just in time to prevent her from striking her head. Kneeling on the floor himself, he wildly gathered up her limp form to himself.
"Della," he said, shaking her, ever so slightly. "Della, wake up!"
She did not stir.
Out of long habit of dealing with unconscious bodies, Perry pressed his shaking fingers to the carotid artery in Della's neck. It seemed to take forever, but finally, there was a pulsation beneath his fingertips…and after two seconds, another one. This, and the rise and fall of her chest, comforted him somewhat, but did not make him any less eager to see her eyes open again.
"Della, please," he murmured, touching her cheek tenderly.
As through a fog, Perry heard Lieutenant Arthur Tragg bark,
"Call an ambulance!" and "Get some water!"
Paul Drake brought a wet handkerchief and pressed it into Perry's hand. The lawyer desperately patted Della's face and neck, hoping that the coolness would revive her, but it didn't.
Perry Mason, for once in his life, began to lose awareness of most of his surroundings. He was not even aware of the flashes of light in the courtroom as the news photographers started to take pictures of Della's predicament, nor of Burger's indignant voice ordering them to cease and desist at once. Nothing mattered but the pale, still woman in his arms.
Due to the fact that the courthouse was in the center of Los Angeles, it did not take long for the ambulance to arrive. Within a few minutes, paramedics were filing into the courtroom. They walked up to the duo on the floor.
"We'll take her now, sir," one of them said, rather brusquely, to Perry.
"Wake up, Della," the defense attorney murmured, still cradling Della, not having heard a syllable of the paramedic's sentence. "You have to wake up!"
"Sir, we'll take over!" snapped the impatient, annoyed medical professional.
The people in the room who knew Perry Mason far better than the paramedics instantly saw that the lawyer was not himself, and would need far more than a stranger's order to bring him to his senses and convince him to relinquish his hold on Della. Thus, Paul Drake stepped behind his friend, and putting a hand on his shoulder, gently said,
"The ambulance has arrived. Let them take her, pal."
For his part, Hamilton Burger knelt on the floor on Della's other side, facing Perry, and said in the kindest tone anyone had ever heard the district attorney use,
"You have to let her go, Perry. It's the only way they can care for her."
Coming somewhat to himself, the lawyer seemed to understand and nodded in agreement, but, despite his head comprehending his friends, his hands did not. Hamilton Burger was forced to pry and practically tear Della from his arms before Perry would let her go. Standing up and turning around, the district attorney carried the secretary to the gurney, and placed her on it.
Paul Drake helped his shaken friend up from the floor as the paramedics swarmed around Della. After a very brief examination, they declared that she would need to be transported to the hospital immediately, and began to hastily wheel the stretcher out of the courtroom. As they left, one of them said over their shoulder,
"You can follow us to the hospital in your own cars, if you want to."
Perry, in the meantime, had taken several deep breaths and regained some of his equanimity. Still, Paul took one look at the lawyer's face and decided that he was in no condition to maneuver a vehicle through Los Angeles traffic. Therefore, in a voice that brooked no opposition, he said,
"Come, Perry, I'll drive."
The defense attorney nodded. Grabbing the papers on the table, which Della had dropped as she fell, and cramming them carelessly into his briefcase, he followed Paul out the door.
"Let us know if there is anything we can do!" Hamilton Burger softly called after them.
Hope that you got a good dose of romance and excitement in this chapter...and there will be more in the coming chapters!
I just love those episodes where Hamilton Burger and Perry are on the same page and supportive of each other, so I decided to make them cooperate in this story.
Please, please review! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, I love reading your thoughts!