A Darkness More Than Night

seeking acting work. That she would knowingly engage in an activity, sexual or otherwise, that would leave visible bruises on her neck – I just didn’t buy it. That and other things led me to conclude the scene was a setup.”
    Bosch looked over at the defense table. Storey still had his head down and was working on the sketch pad as though he were sitting on a bench in a park somewhere. Bosch noticed Fowkkes was writing on a legal tablet. Harry wondered if he had said something in his last answer that could somehow be turned against him. He knew Fowkkes was an expert in taking phrases of testimony and giving them new meaning when taken out of context.
    “What other things added to this conclusion?” Langwiser asked him.
    Bosch looked at the OIR summary page again.
    “The biggest single thing was the indication from postmortem lividity that the body had been moved.”
    “In layman’s terms, Detective, what does postmortem lividity mean?”
    “When the heart ceases to pump blood through the body, the blood then settles in the lower half of the body, depending on the position of the body. Over time it creates a bruising effect on the skin. If the body is moved, the bruising remains in the original position because the blood has coagulated. Over time the bruising becomes more apparent.”
    “What happened in this case?”
    “In this case there was clear indication that the blood had settled in the left side of the body, meaning the victim’s body had been lying on the left side at or shortly after the time of death.”
    “However, that was not the way the body was found, correct?”
    “That is correct. The body was found in the supine position – lying on the back.”
    “What did you conclude from this?”
    “That the body had been moved after death. That the woman had been positioned on her back as part of the setup to make her death look like an autoerotic asphyxiation.”
    “What did you think was the cause of death?”
    “At that point I wasn’t sure. I just didn’t think it was as presented. The bruising on the neck beneath the ligature led me to believe we were looking at a strangulation – just not at her own hands.”
    “At what point did your partners arrive on the scene?”
    “While I was making the initial observations of the body and crime scene.”
    “Did they come to the same conclusions as you?”
    Fowkkes objected, saying the question called for an answer that would be hearsay. The judge sustained the objection. Bosch knew it was a minor point. If Langwiser wanted the conclusions of Edgar and Rider on the record, she could just call them to testify.
    “Did you attend the autopsy of Jody Krementz’s body?”
    “Yes, I did.” He flipped through the binder until he found the autopsy protocol. “On October seventeenth. It was conducted by Dr. Teresa Corazón, chief of the medical examiner’s office.”
    “Was a cause of death determined by Dr. Corazón during autopsy?”
    “Yes, the cause of death was asphyxiation. She was strangled.”
    “By ligature?”
    “Yes.”
    “Now doesn’t this contradict your theory that the death was not caused by autoerotic asphyxiation?”
    “No, it confirmed it. The pose of autoerotic asphyxiation was used to cover the strangulation murder of the victim. The interior damage to both carotid arteries, to the muscular tissue of the neck and the hyoid bone, which was crushed, led Dr. Corazón to confirm that death was at the hand of another. The damage was too great to be knowingly self-inflicted.”
    Bosch realized he was holding a hand to his neck as he described the injuries. He dropped it back down to his lap.
    “Did the medical examiner find any independent evidence of homicide?”
    He nodded.
    “Yes, examination of the victim’s mouth determined that there was a deep laceration caused by biting on the tongue. Such injury is common in cases of strangulation.”
    Langwiser flipped a page over on her tablet.
    “Okay, Detective Bosch, let’s go back to the crime scene. Did you or your partners interview Jane Gilley?”
    “Yes, I did. Along with Detective Rider.”
    “From that interview were you able to ascertain where the victim had been in the twenty-four hours prior to the discovery of her death?”
    “Yes, we first determined that she had met the defendant several days earlier at a coffee shop. He invited her to attend a premiere of a movie as his date on the night of October twelfth at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. He picked