Halfway House (16 page)

Q. Thousands of cars stop at your station annually for gasoline and other automobile services?
A. Well, I suppose so.

Q. You suppose so. How many cars would you say? Just an estimate. How many cars would you say have stopped for gas at your place in the past month?
A. That’s hard to say. I don’t keep no records of that.

Q. Surely you must have some idea? A hundred? A thousand? Five thousand?
A. I can’t say, I tell you. I don’t know. A great many.

Q. You can
’
t tell us more exactly? A hundred cars a month would be how many per day?
A. About three. It’s more than that.

Q. More than three per day. Thirty per day?
A. Well, I don’t know exactly, but I suppose you could say so, yes.

Q. Thirty cars per day. That
’
s roughly a thousand cars per month?
A. Sure.

Q. You have serviced for gasoline, then, about a thousand cars since the evening of June first?
A. If you put it that way, yes.

Q. And still, after one month, after speaking to one thousand drivers, after pouring gasoline into the tanks of one thousand cars, you remember one particular car so clearly as to be able to describe it and its driver here and now?
A. I told how I came to remember. It was raining that day.

Q. It has rained exactly five days since June first, Mr. Collins. Do you remember the events of those five days just as clearly?
A. No, but I also fired my helper——

Q. Firing your helper made you remember a passing motorist one thousand cars ago?
A. And my call to the gas people——

Q. Is that the only time your storage tanks have run short of fuel, Mr. Collins, on May thirty-first and June first of this year?
A. No.

Q. I see. Mr. Collins, you testified that you noted down the license-plate number of the Ford coupé you have just identified. May I see that note, please?
A. I haven’t got it on me.

Q. Where is it?
A. In my other suit.

Q. Where is your other suit?
A. Home.

B
AILIFF
. Order in the court. Order in the court.

Mr. P
OLLINGER
. The witness will produce the note as soon as he can.

Mr. A
NGELL
. May I ask the prosecutor to be so kind as to leave the conduct of this cross-examination to defense counsel? A. I’ll bring the note tomorrow.

Q. The very same note, Mr. Collins?
A. Sure.

Q. Not a copy?

Mr. P
OLLINGER
. Your Honor, I strongly object to counsel’s insinuation. The State is in a position to authenticate the note this witness will produce. It is only by an unfortunate oversight that the note has not been produced this afternoon.

Mr. A
NGELL
. And I strongly object, Your Honor, to the prosecutor testifying.

T
HE
C
OURT
. I think you might leave off this line of examination temporarily, Counsel. It can be resumed when the exhibit is produced.

Q. Mr. Collins, from the time this veiled woman drove up to your gas station until she drove away, how many minutes elapsed?
A. About five.

Q. About five minutes. Now you testified that you poured five gallons of gasoline into the tank of her car. How long did that take you to do?
A. How long? Most of the time, I guess. Say about four minutes. I had a little trouble getting the cap off and putting it on. Threads were rusty and stuck.

Q. For four of the five minutes, then, you were busy at the tank of the car. Where was the tank on the car?
A. At the back, of course.

Q. At the back. And did this veiled woman get out of the car at any time during this five-minute period?
A. She just sat behind the wheel all the time.

Q. Then you didn
’
t see her at all for four of the five minutes?
A. Well, no.

Q. Then you would say you actually saw this woman for only one minute altogether?
A. Well, if it figures that way.

Q. If it figures that way. What do you think? Doesn
’
t it figure that way? Four from five leaves one?
A. Yes.

Q. All right, then. Now, how much of this veiled woman
’
s figure was visible to you during the one minute you saw her?
A. A whole lot.

Q. Can
’
t you be more specific?
A. Well—

Q. Did you see her waist?
A. Well, not that. She was sitting behind the wheel, I said. She didn’t open the door. I saw her from the chest up.

Q. As far as you could see, what was she wearing?
A. A big floppy hat and a coat of some kind.

Q. A coat of what kind?
A. A loose sort of coat. Cloth coat.

Q. What color was it?
A. I can’t say for sure. Dark.

Q. Dark? Blue? Black? Brown?
A. I can’t say exactly.

Q. Mr. Collins, it was still daylight when this woman drove up, wasn
’
t it?
A. Yes, sir. According to Standard Time it would be only a little past seven.

Q. And still you can
’
t say what color her coat was, seen in daylight?
A. Not exactly. The coat was dark, I tell you.

Q. Do you mean that you can
’
t remember what color her coat was?
A. I remember it was dark.

Q. You saw her coat though, didn
’
t you?
A. I just said so.

Q. Then on the evening of June first you knew what color her coat was, but you don
’
t know today what color it was?
A. I didn’t know it, the way you say it. I didn’t especially notice the color. Only that it was a dark coat.

Q. But you noticed her appearance? A.
Well, sure.

Q. You noticed her appearance closely enough to sit in that witness chair and identify this defendant as the woman you saw in that Ford coupé a month ago?
A. Yes.

Q. But you don
’
t remember the color of her coat?
A. No.

Q. What color was her hat?
A. I don’t know. Floppy——

Q. Did she wear gloves?
A. I don’t remember.

Q. And you saw her only from the chest up?
A. Yes.

Q. And you saw her altogether for only one minute?
A. About.

Q. And she wore a heavy veil completely concealing her face?
A. Yes.

Q. And despite this you still identify the defendant as the woman you saw in that Ford car?
A. Well, they’re the same build.

Q. Oh, they
’
re the same build. You mean by that, of course, the same build from the chest up?
A. Well, I guess so.

Q. You guess so. Are you testifying by guess or from knowledge?

Mr. P
OLLINGER
. Your Honor, I respectfully object to Counsel’s heckling of my witness. This futile kind of cross-examination—

T
HE
C
OURT
. Counsel has the right, Mr. Prosecutor, to test the credibility of the witness’s memory in identification on cross-examination. Proceed, Counsel.

Q. Mr. Collins, you have said that this Ford coupé drove up to your gas station at five minutes after eight on the evening of June first. Was that a positive statement, or were you guessing about that, too?
A. No, sir. I was not. It was five after eight by my office clock. To the second.

Q. You looked at your clock when the car drove up? Is that a habit of yours, Mr. Collins?
A. I was looking at it just as it drove up. I told already how I was on the wire talking to the gas people when it drove up. I was kicking about why they hadn’t sent the truck all day after my morning ’phone call, and I said: “Look, it’s five after eight already.” You see, I was looking at the clock.

Q. And just then this Ford car drove up outside?
A. That’s it.

Q. And then you left your office and went outside and asked how many gallons of gas the woman wanted?
A. Yes, sir, and she held up five fingers. So I filled up the tank.

Q. She held up her hand, and you don
’
t remember whether she was wearing gloves or not? You remember one thing, but not the other?
A. She held up her hand. I don’t remember about the gloves.

Q. I see. You filled up the tank, you say? Filled it up? With five gallons of gas?
A. Right.

Q. Now, Mr. Collins, don
’
t you know what the capacity of a Ford gasoline tank is?
A. Sure I know. Around eleven gallons.

Q. Then you made a mistake when you said you filled the tank up with five?
A. No, sir, I did fill her up. Or pretty near.

Q. Oh, you mean the tank wasn
’
t empty? Or very low?
A. That’s right. It had around five gallons in it already, because when I put in my five the gas came almost up to the cap.

Q. I see, I see. In other words, when this woman drove up and signified by spreading five fingers that she wanted five gallons of gas, her tank wasn
’
t empty, or nearly empty? It still was about half full? She could have gone on for quite a way on what was in the tank?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. Didn
’
t it strike you as strange that a motorist should stop for gas with a half full tank?
A. I don’t know about that. Some folks are leery about being caught without gas on a trip. But still I remember I did think it was sort of queer.

Q. You thought it was sort of queer. Didn
’
t it strike you why it was queer?

Mr. P
OLLINGER
. Object. What the witness thought.

T
HE
C
OURT
. Strike it out.

Q. Mr. Collins, you said a moment ago that the woman held up five fingers to indicate how much gasoline she wanted. Didn
’
t she speak at all?
A. Not a word.

Q. You mean she didn
’
t open her mouth to utter a syllable during the entire five minutes you were attending to her and her car?
A. She didn’t say a single word.

Q. Then you didn
’
t hear her voice at all, at any time?
A. No.

Q. If this defendant rose in this courtroom and said something you would not be able to identify her as the driver of that car by reason of her voice alone?
A. Sure not. How could I? I didn’t hear the driver speak.

Q. You have identified this defendant as the driver of that car solely because of a resemblance in physique, in build, from the chest up? Not by reason of her voice or face, which was covered?
A. Yes. But a big woman, husky like she is——

Q. Now, this veil you identified. You testified, I believe, that it is positively the same veil you saw the woman in the car wearing?
A. Positively.

Q. It couldn
’
t be a different veil that just looks the same?
A. Sure it could. But I ain’t seen a veil like that on a woman in twenty years. And then I took particular notice of the—the—I don’t know how you would say it—that word——

Mr. P
OLLINGER
. The mesh?

Mr. A
NGELL
. Will the prosecutor kindly refrain from putting the answer into the witness’s mouth? A. That’s it. The mesh, the weave, like. I took particular notice of it. Like waves set so close together you couldn’t see anything behind it. I’d know that veil anywhere.

Q. You
’
d know the veil, you remember the design of the mesh, but you don
’
t remember the color of her coat or hat, or whether she was wearing gloves?
A. I told you a hundred times already.

Q. You testified before that the Ford drove up from the direction of Camden?
A. Yes.

Q. But you were in your office when the car stopped outside for gas?
A. Yes, but—

Q. You didn
’
t actually see it coming down Lamberton Road from Camden?
A. It was stopped when I came out, but it was facing the Trenton way. So it must have come from the Camden way.

Q. But you didn
’
t actually see it coming?
A. No, but—

Q. It could have come from the direction of Trenton and driven into your station to park in such a manner that it would seem to have come from the direction of Camden?
A. I suppose so, but—

Q. You
’
re sure this car drove up on the night of June first, not May thirty-first or June second?
A. Oh, sure.

Q. You don
’
t remember the color of the driver
’
s coat, but you do remember the exact date?
A. I told you before—

Mr. A
NGELL
. That is—

Mr. P
OLLINGER
. May I suggest that counsel permit the witness to finish what he has to say? He’s been trying to explain to counsel for five minutes now without any success.

Mr. A
NGELL
. Do you think five more minutes would result in better success, Mr. Pollinger? If so, I’ll gladly extend my questions. Besides, the prosecutor didn’t permit counsel to finish himself. I was about to say: That’s all.

RE-DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. POLLINGER

Q. Mr. Collins, aside from the question of identification of the driver, you
’
re positive that she drove the identical car as shown in Exhibit 17?
A. Positive, sir.

Q. You
’
re also positive it drove up at 8.05 on the night of June the first for the good and sufficient reasons you gave?
A. Positive.

Q. There was no one else in the car with the woman?
A. No, sir.

Q. She was all alone?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. And she wore this very veil I hold in my hand?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. And, no matter from what direction she came, at least she did drive off toward Trenton?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. You stood there and watched her drive off toward Trenton?
A. Till she was out of sight.

Mr. P
OLLINGER
. That’s all, Mr. Collins.

RE-CROSS-EXAMINATION BY Mr. ANGELL

Q. You say the woman was all alone in the car, Collins?
A. That’s what I said, sure. It’s the truth.