The Fifth Witness Part 4

Five.

Michael Haller and a.s.sociates had a full staff meeting that afternoon in the living room of Lorna Taylor's condo in West Hollywood. Attending were Lorna, of course, as well as my investigator, Cisco Wojciechowski-it was his living room, too-and the junior a.s.sociate of the firm, Jennifer Aronson. I noticed that Aronson looked uncomfortable in the surroundings and I had to admit it was unprofessional. I had rented a temporary office the year before when I was engaged in the Jason Jessup case and it had worked out well. I knew that it would be best to have a real office, instead of two staff members' living room, for the Trammel case. The only problem was it would add another expense I would have to eat until I manufactured fees out of the movie and book rights of the case-if I managed to make that happen. This had made me reluctant to pull the trigger, but seeing Aronson's disappointment made the decision for me.

"Okay, let's start," I said after Lorna had served everybody soda or iced tea. "I know this is not the most professional way to run a law firm and we'll be looking into getting some office s.p.a.ce as soon as we can. In the mean-"

"Really?" Lorna said, clearly surprised by this information.

"Yes, I just sort of decided that."

"Oh, well, I'm glad you like my place so much."

"It's not that, Lorna. I've just been thinking lately, you know, with taking on Bullocks here, it's like we've got a real firm now and maybe we should have a legit address. You know, so clients can come in instead of us always going to them."

"Fine with me. As long as I don't have to open shop till ten and I can wear my bedroom slippers to work. I'm kind of used to that."

I could tell I had insulted her. We had been married once for a short time and I knew the signs. But I would have to deal with it later. It was time to put the focus on the Lisa Trammel defense.

"So anyway, let's talk about Lisa Trammel. I had my first sit-down with the prosecutor after first appearance this morning and it didn't go so well. I've done the dance with Andrea Freeman before and she's a give-no-quarter kind of prosecutor. If it's something that can be argued then she's going to argue it. If it's discoverable material that she can sit on until the judge orders her to give it up, then she'll do that, too. In a way, I admire her but not when we're on the same case. The bottom line is that getting discovery out of her is going to be like pulling teeth."

"Well, is there even going to be a trial?" Lorna asked.

"We have to a.s.sume so," I answered. "In my brief discussions with our client she has expressed only a desire to fight this thing. She says she didn't do it. So for now that means no plea agreement. We plan on a trial but remain open to other possibilities."

"Wait a minute," Aronson said. "You e-mailed me last night saying you wanted me to look at the video you got of the interrogation. That's discovery. Didn't that come from the prosecution?"

Aronson was a pet.i.te twenty-five-year-old with short hair that was carefully made to look stylishly unkempt. She wore retro-style gla.s.ses that partially hid brilliant green eyes. She came from a law school that didn't turn any heads in the silk-stocking firms downtown but when I interviewed her I sensed that she had a drive that was fueled by negative motivation. She was out to prove those silk-stocking a.s.sholes wrong. I hired her on the spot.

"The video disc came from the lead detective, and the prosecutor wasn't happy about it at all. So don't be expecting anything else. We want something, we go to the judge or we go out and get it ourselves. Which brings us to Cisco. Tell us what you've got so far, Big Man."

All eyes turned to my investigator, who sat on a leather swivel chair next to a fireplace that was filled with potted plants. He was dressed up today, meaning he had sleeves on his T-s.h.i.+rt. Still, the s.h.i.+rt did little to hide the tats and the gun show. His bulging biceps made him look more like a strip club bouncer than a seasoned investigator with a lot of finesse in his kit.

It had taken me a long time to get over the idea of this giant beef dish being my replacement with Lorna. But I had worked through it and, besides, I knew of no better defense investigator. Early in his life, when he was cruising with the Road Saints, the cops had tried to set him up twice on drug raps. It built a lasting distrust of the police in him. Most people give the police the benefit of the doubt. Cisco didn't and that made him very good at what he did.

"Okay, I am going to break this into two reports," he said. "The crime scene and the client's house, which was searched by police for several hours yesterday. First the crime scene."

Without using any notes, he proceeded to detail all of his findings from WestLand National's headquarters. Mitch.e.l.l Bondurant had been surprised by his attacker while getting out of his car to report for work. He was struck at least twice on the head with an unknown object. Most likely attacked from behind. There were no defensive wounds on his hands or arms, indicating he was incapacitated almost immediately. A spilled cup of Joe's Joe coffee was found on the ground next to him along with his briefcase, which was open, beside the back tire of his car.

"So what about the gunshots somebody said they heard?" I asked.

Cisco shrugged.

"I think they're looking at that as car backfire."

"Two backfires?"

"Or one and an echo. Either way, there was no gunplay involved."

He went back to his report. The autopsy results were not yet in but Cisco was betting on blunt-force trauma being the cause of death. At the moment, time of death was listed as between 8:30 and 8:50 A.M. A.M. There was a receipt in Bondurant's pocket from a Joe's Joe four blocks away. It was time-stamped 8:21 There was a receipt in Bondurant's pocket from a Joe's Joe four blocks away. It was time-stamped 8:21 A.M. A.M. and investigators figured the fastest he could have gotten from the coffee shop to his parking s.p.a.ce in the bank garage was nine minutes. The 911 call from the bank employee who found his body was logged at 8:52 and investigators figured the fastest he could have gotten from the coffee shop to his parking s.p.a.ce in the bank garage was nine minutes. The 911 call from the bank employee who found his body was logged at 8:52 A.M. A.M.

So estimated time of death had an approximate twenty-minute swing. It wasn't a lot of time but when it came to things like doc.u.menting a defendant's movements for the purpose of alibi, it was an eternity.

Police interviewed everyone who was parking on the same level as well as all of those who worked in Bondurant's department at the bank. Lisa Trammel's name came up early and often during these interviews. She was named as an individual Bondurant had reportedly felt threatened by. His department kept a threat-a.s.sessment file and she was number one on the list. As we all knew, she had been served with a restraining order keeping her away from the bank.

The police hit the jackpot when one bank employee reported seeing Lisa Trammel walking away from the bank on Ventura Boulevard within minutes of the murder.

"Who is this witness?" I asked, zeroing in on the most damaging part of his report.

"Her name is Margo Schafer. She's a bank teller. According to my sources she's never had contact with Trammel. She works in the bank, not the loan operation. But Trammel's photo was circulated to staff after they got the TRO against her. Everybody was told to be aware of her and to report it if she was seen. So she recognized her."

"And was this on bank property?"

"No, it was on the sidewalk a half block away. She was supposedly walking east on Ventura, away from the bank."

"Do we know anything about this Margo Schafer?"

"Not now, but we will. I'm on it."

I nodded. It usually wasn't necessary for me to tell Cisco what to investigate. He moved on to the second part of his report, the search of Lisa Trammel's house. This time he referred to a doc.u.ment he pulled from a file.

"Lisa Trammel volunteered-their word-to accompany detectives to Van Nuys Division about two hours after the murder. They're claiming she was not placed under arrest until the conclusion of an interview at the station. Using statements made during that interview as well as the eyewitness account of Margo Schafer, the detectives obtained a search warrant for Trammel's home. They spent about six hours there looking for evidence, including a possible murder weapon as well as digital and hard-copy doc.u.mentation of a plan to kill Bondurant."

Search warrants designate a specific window of time during which the search must take place. Afterward, police must in a timely manner file a doc.u.ment with the court called a search-warrant return that lists exactly what was seized. It is then the judge's responsibility to review the seizure to make sure that the police acted within the parameters of the warrant. Cisco said the detectives Kurlen and Longstreth had filed the return that morning and he had obtained a copy through the clerk's office. It was a key part of the case at this point because the police and prosecution weren't sharing information with the defense. Andrea Freeman had shut that down. But the search-warrant request and return were public records. Freeman could not stop their release. And they gave me the best look at how the state was building its case.

"Give us the highlights," I said. "But then I want a copy of the whole thing."

"This is your copy here," Cisco said. "As far as-"

"May I please get a copy, too?" Aronson asked.

Cisco looked at me for permission. It was awkward. He was silently asking if she was truly a member of the team and not just a client hand-holder I had brought in from the department-store law school.

"Absolutely," I said.

"You got it," Cisco said. "Now, the highlights. As far as the weapon goes, it looks like the detectives went into the garage and took every handheld tool they could find off the workbench."

"So they don't know what the murder weapon was," I said.

"No autopsy yet," Cisco said. "They'll have to make wound comparisons. That will take time but I've got the medical examiner's office wired. When they know it, I'll know it."

"Okay, what else?"

"They took her laptop, a three-year-old MacBook Pro, and various and sundry doc.u.ments relating to the foreclosure of the home on Melba. This is where they might p.i.s.s the judge off. They do not specifically list the doc.u.ments, probably because there were too many. They mention just three files. They are marked FLAG, FORECLOSURE ONE FLAG, FORECLOSURE ONE and and FORECLOSURE TWO. FORECLOSURE TWO."

I a.s.sumed that any foreclosure doc.u.ments Lisa had at home were doc.u.ments I had given her. The FLAG file as well as the computer could hold names of the members of Lisa's group, an indication that the police were possibly looking for co-conspirators.

"Okay, what else?"

"They took her cell phone, one pair of shoes from the garage and here's the kicker. They seized a personal journal. They don't describe it beyond that or say what was in it. But I'm thinking that if it's got her ranting against the bank or the victim in particular, then we'll have a problem."

"I'll ask her about it when I visit her tomorrow," I said. "Back up for a second. The cell phone. Was it specifically stated in the warrant application that they wanted her phone? Are they suggesting a conspiracy, that she had help killing Bondurant?"

"No, nothing about co-conspirators in the application. They're probably just making sure they cover all possibilities."

I nodded. Seeing the moves the investigators were making against my client was very helpful.

"They've probably filed a separate search warrant seeking call records from her service provider," I said.

"I'll check into it," Cisco said.

"Okay, anything else on the warrant?"

"The shoes. The return lists one pair of shoes taken from the garage. Doesn't say why, just says that they were gardening shoes. They were a woman's shoes."

"No other shoes taken?"

"Not that they're taking credit for. Just these."

"You've got nothing about shoe prints at the crime scene, right?"

"I've got nothing on that."

"Okay."

I was sure the reason for the seizure of the shoes would become apparent soon enough. On a search warrant police throw as wide a net as the court allows. It's better to seize as much as possible than leave anything behind. Sometimes that means seizing items that ultimately have nothing to do with the case.

"By the way," Cisco said, "if you get the chance, the application makes interesting reading if you can get past the misspellings and grammar issues. They used her interview extensively but we already saw all of that on the disc Kurlen gave you."

"Yes, her so-called admissions and his exaggerations."

I stood up and started pacing in the middle of the room. Lorna also got up and took the search warrant from Cisco so she could make a copy. She disappeared into a nearby den where she had her office and where there was a copier.

I waited for her to come back and hand a copy of the doc.u.ments to Aronson before I began.

"Okay, this is how we are going to do this. First thing is we need to get moving on getting a real office. Some place close to the Van Nuys courthouse where we can set up our command post."

"You want me on that, Mick?" Lorna asked.

"Yes, I do."

"I'll make sure there's parking and good food nearby."

"It would be nice to be able to just walk to court."

"You got it. Short-term lease?"

I paused. I liked working out of the backseat of the Lincoln. It had a freedom to it that was conducive to my thought processes.

"We'll take it for a year. See what happens."

I looked at Aronson next. She had her head down and was writing notes on a legal pad.

"Bullocks, I need you to hand-hold our current clients and respond with the basics to new callers. The radio ads run through the month so we can expect no downturn in business. I also need you to help out on Trammel."

She looked up at me and her eyes brightened at the prospect of being on a murder case less than a year after being admitted to the bar.

"Don't get too excited," I said. "I'm not giving you second chair just yet. You'll be doing a lot of the grunt work. How were you on probable cause back at the department-store school?"

"I was the best in my cla.s.s."

"Of course you were. Well, you see that doc.u.ment in your hand? I want you to take that search warrant and break it down and tear it apart. We're looking for omissions and misrepresentations, anything that can be used in a motion to suppress. I want all evidence taken from Lisa Trammel's house thrown out."

Aronson visibly gulped. This was because I was issuing a tall order. And it was more than grunt work because the task would probably mean a lot of effort for little return. It was rare that evidence was kicked wholesale from a case. I was simply covering all the bases and using Aronson on one of them. She was smart enough to see that and it was one reason I had hired her.

"Remember, you're working on a murder case," I said. "How many of your cla.s.smates can say they've done that yet?"

"Probably none."

"d.a.m.n right. So next I want you to take the disc of Lisa's police interview and do the same thing. Look for any false move by the cops, anything we can use to get that knocked out as well. I think there might be something here in light of the Supreme Court's ruling last year. Are you familiar with it?"

"Uh... this is my first criminal case."

"Then get familiar with it. Kurlen went out of his way to make it look like she came in for a voluntary interview. But if we can show he had her in his control, cuffs or not, we can make a case for her being under arrest from the start. We do that and everything she said before Miranda goes bye-bye."

"Okay."

Aronson didn't look up from her writing.

"Do you understand your a.s.signments?"

"Yes."

"Good, then go to it, but don't forget about the rest of the clients. They're paying the bills around here. For now."

I turned back to Lorna.

"Which reminds me, Lorna, I need you to make contact with Joel Gotler and get something rolling on this story. This whole thing might go away if there's a plea agreement, so let's try to get a deal now. Tell him we're willing to go low on the back end for some decent up-front cash. We need to fund the defense."

Gotler was the Hollywood agent who represented me. I used him whenever Hollywood came calling. This time we were going to go calling on Hollywood and proactively try to get a deal.

"Sell him on it," I told Lorna. "I've got a business card in the car from a producer at Sixty Minutes. Sixty Minutes. That's how big this is getting." That's how big this is getting."

"I'll call Joel," she said. "I know what to say."