The Harry Bosch Novels Vol I Part 106

She glanced over at Bosch as she said this, flaunting the lie. He stared back at her and refused the impulse to look away.

"And I'd like to finish by reading something I found that Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about the same subject we are dealing with today. That chasm of darkness where it can be easy for a person to cross over to the wrong side. In his book The Marble Faun, The Marble Faun, Hawthorne wrote, 'The chasm was merely one of the orifices of that pit of blackness that lies beneath us ...everywhere.' Hawthorne wrote, 'The chasm was merely one of the orifices of that pit of blackness that lies beneath us ...everywhere.'

"Ladies and gentlemen, be careful in your deliberations and be true to yourselves. Thank you."

It was so quiet that Bosch could hear her heels on the rug as she walked back to her seat.

"Folks," Judge Keyes said, "we're gonna take a fifteen minute break and then Mr. Belk gets his turn."

As they were standing for the jury, Belk whispered, "I can't believe she used the word orifice in her closing argument."

Bosch looked at him. Belk seemed gleeful but Bosch recognized that he was just latching on to something, anything, so that he could pump himself up and get ready for his own turn behind the lectern. For Bosch knew that whatever words Chandler had used, she had been awfully good. Appraising the sweating fat man next to him, he felt not one bit of confidence.

Bosch went out to the justice statue and smoked two cigarettes during the break but Honey Chandler never came out. Tommy Faraway swung by, however, and clicked his tongue approvingly when he found the nearly whole cigarette she had put in the ash can before. He moved on without saying anything else. It occurred to Bosch that he had never seen Tommy Faraway smoke one of the stubs he culled from the sand.

Belk surprised Bosch with his closing. It wasn't half bad. It was just that he wasn't in the same league as Chandler. His closing was more a reaction to Chandler's than a stand-alone treatise on Bosch's innocence and the unfairness of the accusations against him. He said things like, "In all of Ms. Chandler's talk about the two possible findings you can come up with, she completely forgot about a third, that being that Detective Bosch acted properly and wisely. Correctly."

It scored points for the defense but it was also a backhanded confirmation by the defense that there were two possible findings for the plaintiff. Belk did not see this but Bosch did. The a.s.sistant city attorney was giving the jury three choices now, instead of two, and still only one choice absolved Bosch. At times he wanted to pull Belk back to the table and rewrite his script. But he couldn't. He had to hunker down as he had in the tunnels of Vietnam when the bombs would be hitting above ground, and hope that there were no cave-ins.

The middle of Belk's argument was largely centered on the evidence linking Church to the nine murders. He repeatedly hammered home that Church was the monster in this story, not Bosch, and the evidence clearly backed that up. He warned the jurors that the fact that similar murders apparently continued was unrelated to what Church had done and how Bosch reacted in the apartment on Hyperion.

He finally hit what Bosch figured to be his stride near the end. An inflection of true anger entered his voice when he criticized Chandler's description of Bosch as having acted recklessly and with wanton disregard for life.

"The truth is that life was all Detective Bosch had on his mind when he went through that door. His actions were predicated on the belief that another woman, another victim, was there. Detective Bosch had only one choice. That was to go through that door, secure the situation and deal with the consequences. Norman Church was killed when he refused repeated orders from a police officer and made the move to the pillow. It was a hand he dealt, not Bosch, and he paid the ultimate price.

"But think of Bosch in that situation. Can you imagine being there? Alone? Afraid? It is a unique individual who faces that kind of situation without flinching. It is what our society calls a hero. I think when you return to the jury room and carefully weigh the facts, not the accusations, of this case you will come to that same conclusion. Thank you very much."

Bosch couldn't believe Belk had used the word hero in a closing argument but decided not to bring that up with the portly lawyer as he returned to the defense table.

Instead, he whispered, "You did good. Thanks."

Chandler went to the lectern for her last shot and promised to be brief. She was.

"You can easily see the disparity of the beliefs the lawyers have in this case. The same disparity between the meanings of the words hero and monster. I suspect, as we all probably do, that the truth of this case and Detective Bosch is somewhere in between.

"Two last things before you begin deliberations. First, I want you to remember that both sides had the opportunity here to present full and complete cases. In Norman Church's behalf, we had a wife, a coworker, a friend, stand up and testify to his character, to what kind of man he was. Yet, the defense chose to have only one witness testify before you. Detective Bosch. No one else stood up for Detective -"

"Objection!" Belk yelled.

"- Bosch."

"Hold it right there, Ms. Chandler," Judge Keyes boomed.

The judge's face became very red as he thought about how to proceed.

"I should clear the jury out of here to do what I am going to do but I think if you're going to play with fire you have to accept the burns. Ms. Chandler, I'm holding you in contempt of this court for that grievous display of poor judgment. We'll talk about sanctions at a later date. But I guarantee that it won't be a pleasant date to look forward to."

The judge then swiveled in his chair toward the jury and leaned forward.

"Folks, this lady should never have said that. You see, the defense is not obligated to put anybody up as a witness and whether they do or don't, that cannot be seen as a reflection on their guilt or innocence on the matter before you. Ms. Chandler darn well knew this. She's an experienced trial lawyer and you better believe she knew this. The fact that she went and said it anyway, knowing Mr. Belk over there and myself would practically hit the ceiling, I think shows a cunning on her behalf that I find very distasteful and troubling in a court of law. I'm going to complain about that to the state law board but -"

"Your Honor," Chandler cut in. "I object to you tell -"

"Don't interrupt, Counselor. You stand there and keep quiet until I am through."

"Yes, Your Honor."

"I said keep quiet." He turned back to the jury. "As I was saying, what happens to Ms. Chandler is not for you to worry about. See, she's taking a gamble that no matter what I say to you now, you will still think about what she said about Detective Bosch not bringing any supporters to testify. I tell you now with the sternest admonition I can offer, do not think about that. What she said means nothing. In fact, I suspect that if he wanted to, Detective Bosch and Mr. Belk could muster a line of police officers ready to testify that would stretch out that door all the way to Parker Center if they thought they wanted it. But they don't. That's the strategy they chose and it is not your duty to question it in any way. Any way at all. Any questions?"

No one in the jury box even moved. The judge turned his chair back and looked at Belk.

"Anything you want to say, Mr. Belk?"

"One moment, Your Honor."

Belk turned to Bosch and whispered, "What do you think? He's primed to grant a mistrial. I've never seen him so mad. We'd get a new trial, maybe by then this copycat thing will be wrapped up."

Bosch thought a moment. He wanted this over and did not like the prospect of going through another trial with Chandler.

"Mr. Belk?" the judge said.

"I think we go with what we've got," Bosch whispered. "What do you think?"

Belk nodded and said, "I think he might have just given us the verdict."

Then he stood in his place and said, "Nothing at this time, Your Honor."

"You sure now?"

"Yes, Your Honor."

"Okay, Ms. Chandler, like I said, we'll deal with this at a later time but we will deal with it. You can proceed now, but be very careful."

"Your Honor, thank you. I want to say before going on that I apologize for my line of argument. I meant no disrespect to you. I, uh, was speaking extemporaneously and got carried away."

"You did. Apology accepted, but we will still deal with the contempt order later. Let's proceed. I want the jury to begin their work right after lunch."

Chandler adjusted her position at the lectern so that she was looking at the jury.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you heard Detective Bosch on the stand yourself. I ask you, lastly, to remember what he said. He said Norman Church got what he deserved. Think about that statement coming from a police officer and what it means. 'Norman Church got what he deserved.' We have seen in this courtroom how the justice system works. The checks and balances. The judge to referee, the jury to decide. By his own admission, Detective Bosch decided that was not necessary. He decided there was no need for a judge. No need for a jury. He robbed Norman Church of his chance for justice. And so, ultimately, he robbed you. Think about that."

She picked her yellow pad up off the lectern and sat down.

23

The jury began its deliberations at 11:15 and Judge Keyes ordered the federal marshals to arrange for lunch to be sent in. He said the twelve would not be interrupted until 4:30, unless they came up with a verdict first.

After the jury had filed out, the judge ordered that all parties be able to appear for a reading of the verdict within fifteen minutes of notification by the clerk. That meant Chandler and Belk could go back to their respective offices to wait. Norman Church's family was from Burbank so the wife and two daughters opted to go to Chandler's office. For Bosch, the Hollywood station would have been more than a fifteen-minute commute, but Parker Center was a five-minute walk. He gave the clerk his pager number and told her he'd be there.

The last piece of business the judge brought up was the contempt order against Chandler. He set a hearing for it to be discussed for two weeks later and then banged his gavel down.

Before leaving the courtroom, Belk took Bosch aside and said, "I think we're in pretty good shape but I'm nervous. You want to spin the dice?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I could try to low-ball Chandler one last time."

"Offer to settle?"

"Yeah. I have carte blanche from the office for anything up to fifty. After that, I'd have to get approval. But I could throw the fifty at her and see if they'd take it to walk away now."

"What about legal fees?"

"On a settlement, she'd have to take the cut from the fifty. Someone like her, she's probably going forty percent. That'd be twenty grand for a week in trial and a week picking a jury. Not bad."

"You think we're going to lose?"

"I don't know. I'm just thinking of all the angles. You never know what a jury will do. Fifty grand would be a cheap way out. She might take it, the way the judge came down on her there at the end. She's the one who's probably scared of losing now."

Belk didn't get it, Bosch knew. Maybe it had been too subtle for him. The whole contempt thing had been Chandler's last scam. She had purposely committed the infraction so the jury would see her being slapped down by the judge. She was showing them the justice system at work: a bad deed met with stern enforcement and punishment. She was saying to them, do you see? This is what Bosch escaped. This is what Norman Church faced, but Bosch decided to take the judge and jury's role instead.

It was clever, maybe too clever. The more Bosch thought about it, the more he wondered how much the judge had been a willing and knowing player in it. He looked at Belk and saw the young a.s.sistant city attorney apparently suspected none of this. Instead, he thought of it as a stroke on his side of the page. Probably in two weeks, when Keyes lets her go with a hundred-dollar fine and a lecture during the contempt hearing, he'll get it.

"You can do whatever you want," he told Belk. "But she isn't going to take it. She's in on this one until the end."

At Parker Center Bosch went into Irving's conference room through the door that opened directly off the hallway. Irving had decided the day before that the now-called Follower Task Force would work out of the conference room so the a.s.sistant chief could be kept up on developments to the minute. What wasn't said about the move but was known was that keeping the group out of one of the squad rooms improved the chance that word of what was happening would remain secure - for at least a few days.

When Bosch walked in only Rollenberger and Edgar were in the room. Bosch noticed that four phones had been installed and were on the round meeting table. There were also six rovers - Motorola two-way radios - and a main communications console on the table, ready to be used as needed. When Edgar looked up and saw Bosch he immediately looked away and picked up a phone to make a call.

"Bosch," Rollenberger said. "Welcome to our operations center. Are you free from the trial? No smoking in here, by the way."

"I'm free until a verdict but I've got a fifteen-minute leash on me. Anything going on? What's Mora doing?"

"Not much is happening. Been quiet. Mora spent the morning in the Valley. Went to an attorney's office in Sherman Oaks and then to a couple of casting agencies, also in Sherman Oaks."

Rollenberger was looking at a logbook in front of him on the table.

"After that he went to a couple houses in Studio City. There were vans outside of these houses and Sheehan and Opelt said they thought they might be making movies at these locations. He didn't stay long at either place. Anyway, he's back over at Ad-Vice now. Sheehan called in a couple minutes ago."

"Did we get the extra people?"

"Yeah, Mayfield and Yde will take the watch at four from the first team. Then we've got two other teams after that."

"Two?"

"Chief Irving changed his mind and wants an around-the-clock watch. So we'll be on him through the night, even if he just stays at home and sleeps. Personally, I think it's a good idea that we go 'round the clock."

Yeah, especially since Irving decided to do it, Bosch thought but didn't say. He looked at the radios on the table.

"What's our freek?"

"Uh, we're on ... frequency, frequency - oh, yeah, we're on five. Symplex five. It's a DWP communications freek that they only use during a public emergency. Earthquake, flooding, stuff like that. Chief thought it be best to keep off our own freeks. If Mora is our man, then he might be keeping an ear to the radio."

Bosch thought Rollenberger probably thought it was a good idea, but didn't ask him.

"I think it's a good idea to play it safe this way," the lieutenant said.

"Right. Anything else I should know?" He looked at Edgar, who was still on the phone. "What's Edgar got?"

"Still trying to locate the survivor from four years ago. He already pulled a copy of Mora's divorce file. It was uncontested."

Edgar hung up, finished writing something in a notebook and then stood up without looking at Bosch. He said, "I'm going down to get a cup."

"Okay," Rollenberger said. "We should have our own coffeemaker in here by this afternoon. I talked it over with the chief and he was going to requisition one."

Bosch said, "Good idea. I think I'm going down with Edgar."

Edgar walked quickly down the hallway so that he could stay ahead of Bosch. At the elevator he pushed the b.u.t.ton but then without breaking stride walked past the elevator and into the stairwell to go down. Bosch followed and after they had gone down one floor, Edgar stopped and whipped around.

"What are you following me for?"

"Coffee."

"Oh, bulls.h.i.t."

"Did -"

"No, I didn't talk to Pounds yet. I've been busy, remember?"

"Good, then don't."

"What are you talking about?"

"If you haven't talked to Pounds about it, then don't. Forget about it."

"Serious?"

"Yeah."