“Did you see how they entered the apartment—I mean, how did they get the door open?”

“They must have used a key. Mr. Mason was just pushing the door open and I—”

“No surmises, please,” Linn broke in. “Did you actually see Mr. Mason using a key?”

“Well, I heard him.”

“What do you mean?”

“As I was opening my door I heard metal rasping against metal, the way a key does when it scrapes against a lock. And then, when I had my door all the way open, I saw Mr. Mason pushing his way into 702.”

“But you only know he must have had a key because you heard the sound of metal rubbing against metal?”

“Yes, and the click of the lock.”

“Did you say anything to Mr. Mason and Miss Street?”

“I most certainly did, and then I slammed the door and went back and tried to sleep. But I was so mad by that time I couldn’t keep my eyes closed.”

“What happened after that?”

“After that, when I was trying to sleep—I would say just a few seconds after that—I heard that buzzer again. This time I was good and mad.”

“And what did you do?”

“I swung open the door and started to give these people a piece of my mind.”

“People?” Linn asked promptingly.

“There were four people standing there. The Mr. Ralston, who has just testified, two other men, and a woman. They were standing there at the doorway, jabbing away at the button, and I told them this was a sweet time to be calling on someone and making a racket, and that anyway the gentleman already had company, so if he didn’t answer his door, it was because he didn’t want to.”

“Did you at that time see Mr. Mason and Miss Street walking down the corridor?”

“No. I did not. I had my door open only far enough to show me the door of Apartment 702 across the way.”

“Thank you,” Linn said. “Now, you distinctly saw Mr. Mason and Miss Street enter that apartment?”

“Yes.”

“And close the door behind them?”

“Yes.”

“Cross-examine!” Linn said triumphantly.

Mason, taking a notebook from his pocket, walked up to stand beside Shirley Tanner. “Miss Tanner,” he said, “are you certain that you heard me rub metal against the keyhole of that door?”

“Certain,” she said.

“My back was toward you?”

“It was when I first opened my door, yes. I saw your face, however, just after you went in the door. You turned around and looked at me over your shoulder.”

“Oh, we’ll stipulate,” Linn said, with an exaggerated note of weariness in his voice, “that the witness couldn’t see through Mr. Mason’s back. Perhaps learned counsel was carrying the key in his teeth.”

“Thank you,” Mason said, turning toward Linn. Then, suddenly stepping forward, he clapped his notebook against Shirley Tanner’s face.

The witness screamed and jumped back.