The Reversal

“We didn’t have no cell phones back then, you see. So I ran back inside and I called nine-one-one on the stage phone.”

“And the police came quickly?”

“They came real quick, like they were already looking for her.”

“One final question, Mr. Johnson. Could you see that trash bin from Wilshire Boulevard?”

Johnson shook his head emphatically.

“No, it was behind the theater and you could only see it if you drove back there and down the little alley.”

I hesitated here. I had more to bring out from this witness. Information not presented in the first trial but gathered by Bosch during his reinvestigation. It was information that Royce might not be aware of. I could just ask the question that would draw it out or I could roll the dice and see if the defense opened a door on cross-examination. The information would be the same either way, but it would have greater weight if the jury believed the defense had tried to hide it.

“Thank you, Mr. Johnson,” I finally said. “I have no further questions.”

The witness was turned over to Royce, who went to the lectern as I sat down.

“Just a few questions,” he said. “Did you see who put the victim’s body in the bin?”

“No, I did not,” Johnson said.

“So when you called nine-one-one you had no idea who did it, is that correct?”

“Correct.”

“Before that day, had you ever seen the defendant before?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Thank you.”

And that was it. Royce had performed a typical cross of a witness who had little value to the defense. Johnson couldn’t identify the murderer, so Royce got that on the record. But he should have just let Johnson pass. By asking if Johnson had ever seen Jessup before the murder, he opened a door. I stood back up so I could go through it.

“Redirect, Mr. Haller?” the judge asked.

“Briefly, Your Honor. Mr. Johnson, back during this period that we’re talking about, did you often work on Sundays?”

“No, it was my day off usually. But if we had some special projects I would be told to come in.”

Royce objected on the grounds that I was opening up a line of questioning that was outside the scope of his cross-examination. I promised the judge that it was within the scope and that it would become apparent soon. She indulged me and overruled the objection. I went back to Mr. Johnson. I had hoped Royce would object because in a few moments it would look like he had been trying to stop me from getting to information damaging to Jessup.

“You mentioned that the trash bin where you found the body was at the end of an alley. Is there no parking lot behind the El Rey Theatre?”

“There is a parking lot but it does not belong to the El Rey Theatre. We have the alley that gives us access to the back doors and the bins.”

“Who does the parking lot belong to?”

“A company that has lots all over the city. It’s called City Park.”

“Is there a wall or a fence separating this parking lot from the alley?”

Royce stood again.

“Your Honor, this is going on and on and it has nothing to do with what I asked Mr. Johnson.”

“Your Honor,” I said. “I will get there in two more questions.”

“You may answer, Mr. Johnson,” Breitman said.

“There is a fence,” Johnson said.

“So,” I said, “from the El Rey’s alley and the location of its trash bin, you can see into the adjoining parking lot, and anyone in the adjoining parking lot could see the trash bin, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And prior to the day you discovered the body, did you have occasion to be at work on a Sunday and to notice that the parking lot behind the theater was being used?”

“Yes, like a month previously, I came to work and in the back there were many cars and I saw tow trucks towing them in.”

I couldn’t help myself. I had to glance over at Royce and Jessup to see if they were squirming yet. I was about to draw the first blood of the trial. They thought Johnson was going to be a noncritical witness, meaning he would establish the murder and its location and nothing else.

They were wrong.

“Did you inquire as to what was going on?” I asked.

“Yes,” Johnson said. “I asked what they were doing and one of the drivers said that they were towing cars from the neighborhood down the street and holding them there so people could come and pay and get their cars.”

“So it was being used like a temporary holding lot, is that what you mean?”

“Yes.”

“And did you know what the name of the towing company was?”

“It was on the trucks. It was called Aardvark Towing.”

“You said trucks. You saw more than one truck there?”

“Yeah, there were two or three trucks when I saw them.”

“What did you tell them after you were informed what they were doing there?”

“I told my boss and he called City Park to see if they knew about it. He thought there could be an insurance concern, especially with people being mad about being towed and all. And it turned out Aardvark wasn’t supposed to be there. It wasn’t authorized.”

“What happened?”

“They had to stop using the lot and my boss told me to keep an eye out if I worked on weekends to see if they kept using it.”

“So they stopped using the lot behind the theater?”

“That’s right.”